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No One is Here Except All of Us
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Wow! I've been on a bit of a WWII kick lately with my books. This one was not at all what I expected.
This book tells the story of Lena, a your Romanian Jewish girl living in an all but forgotten village in rural Romania as WWII rages around them. The town decides to reinvent the world in hopes of keeping the war at bay. It works for a time, until a newly forbidden radio is discovered under the floor boards of a barn turned temple. Once the radio is again brought to life, the war crashes in around them. Lena's husband is kidnapped & the people who are left behind struggle to make sense of what is going on.
Lena take matters into her own hands & decides to set out with her 2 young sons to escape the war. They walk & walk losing more than they gain along the way. The help they find turns out to be unexpected. They take from Lena, but also in the end give her much in return.
It is amazing that they were in the middle of the war yet were able to avoid much of what other Jews were not so lucky to miss. Lena's life is not without great loss however, its just not the kind I expected to experience when I picked up this book.
The thing that sticks out most to me is that despite the horrors & loss Lena went through, she was able to come out on the other side better. This is not to say that you will get a fairy tale ending with this story though. Lena is not exactly happy as the book closes, but she is hopeful. And to her that is all she can ask.
  
The Locksmith's Daughter
The Locksmith's Daughter
Karen Brooks | 2018 | Fiction & Poetry
9
9.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
An Elizabethan novel without royals as the main characters.
Recently, I haven't wanted to read any historical fiction novels. I feel like recently, a lot of them are either focused on royals, or on WWII. Harper Collins sent one of their promo emails at the beginning of this month, and after reading the description, I had to have it.
I really liked the main character, Mallory, made some dumb decisions, like everyone, but it was nice to see that she legitimately learned from her mistakes.
After Mallory ruined her reputation, her father seeks out the Spymaster of Elizabethan England, Sir Francis Walsingham, to give her a job. She becomes a spy, seeking out Catholics. Again, I was thankful that the Queen only appeared in person once.

Harper Collins totally got me on this one, and I was glad to read it.
  
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Allison Knapp (118 KP) Jan 21, 2019

Sounds interesting. I will have to read it.

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Cassie (47 KP) rated Dunkirk (2017) in Movies

Jul 31, 2017  
Dunkirk (2017)
Dunkirk (2017)
2017 | Action, History, War
Direction, duh (3 more)
Cinematography
Score, bless you, Hans Zimmer
Cast/Acting
Nothing?? (0 more)
The Stuff of Nolan Dreams
If you're a fan of Christopher Nolan, this is the stuff of your dreams. The film may be about WWII, but it is a departure from war films as we've come to know them, and this is a good thing! The film keeps you on the edge of your seat with it's amazing score and sound design and without any gratuitous shots of death. Nolan's decision to *purposely* omit backstories for the characters works because it has nothing to do with their lives before we meet them. This is a film about humanity and survival and I didn't feel any less connected to the characters because I "didn't know" them. If anything, it's a testament to Nolan's writing and intuition that you can feel so connected to characters without prior backstory.