The Sisters

Author: Nancy Jensen
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: St. Martin's Press, 2012
Pages: 352
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: Growing up without a mother in hardscrabble Kentucky in the 1920s, Bertie Fischer and her older sister, Mabel, have only each other—with perhaps a sweetheart for Bertie waiting in the wings. But on the day that Bertie graduates from eighth grade, good intentions go terribly wrong, setting off a chain of misunderstandings that will change the lives of the next three generations.

What happens when nothing turns out as you planned? From the Depression through the second world war and Vietnam, and smaller events both tragic and joyful, Bertie and Mabel forge unexpected identities that are shaped by a past that no one ever talks about. Gorgeously written, with extraordinary insight and emotional truth, Nancy Jensen’s brilliant first novel, The Sisters, illuminates the far-reaching power of family and family secrets.

Review: I sent my daughters to the second floor of the library to the children's room, and I hit the audio books section. Knowing I had only a few minutes to spare before all hell would potentially break loose upstairs I grabbed the first interesting cover (I know, I know) on the shelf and hoped for the best. The story line seemed cliche, but I hoped the author could infuse come creative twists and make it interesting.

The story is not a neatly-wrapped package, but is life? This story was believable because it was not all sunshine and roses. I enjoyed this cast of characters and the mix of personalities, although I would have liked the author to have spent more time with Mabel's side of the family.

The years jump ahead throughout this story, but the author does manage to catch the reader up and tie events together.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Sisters.

Vanished

Author: Wil S. Hylton
Genre: Historical
Publisher: Penguin Group, 2013
Pages: 288
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: In the fall of 1944, a massive American bomber carrying eleven men vanished over the Pacific islands of Palau, leaving a trail of mysteries. According to mission reports from the Army Air Forces, the plane crashed in shallow water—but when investigators went to find it, the wreckage wasn't there. Witnesses saw the crew parachute to safety, yet the airmen were never seen again. Some of their relatives whispered that they had returned to the United States in secret and lived in hiding. But they never explained why.

For sixty years, the U.S. government, the children of the missing airmen, and a maverick team of scientists and scuba divers searched the islands for clues. They trolled the water with side-scan sonar, conducted grid searches on the seafloor, crawled through thickets of mangrove and poison trees, and flew over the islands in small planes to shoot infrared photography. With every clue they found, the mystery only deepened.

Now, in a spellbinding narrative, Wil S. Hylton weaves together the true story of the missing men, their final mission, the families they left behind, and the real reason their disappearance remained shrouded in secrecy for so long. This is a story of love, loss, sacrifice, and faith— of the undying hope among the families of the missing, and the relentless determination of scientists, explorers, archaeologists, and deep-sea divers to solve one of the enduring mysteries of World War II.

Review: History's mysteries certainly make for interesting reading. I loved this book, cover the cover. The content was compelling and the author clearly did his research. This is hands-down the best book I've ever read pertaining to World War II. "Spell-binding" is an appropriate adjective.

The True German

Editor: Benjamin Carter Hett
Genre: Historical Biography
Publisher: Palgrave MacMillan, 2013
Pages: 240
Rating: Do Not Recommend

Synopsis: Werner Otto Müller-Hill served as a military judge in the Werhmacht during World War II. From March 1944 to the summer of 1945, he kept a diary, recording his impressions of what transpired around him as Germany hurtled into destruction—what he thought about the fate of the Jewish people, the danger from the Bolshevik East once an Allied victory was imminent, his longing for his home and family and, throughout it, a relentless disdain and hatred for the man who dragged his beloved Germany into this cataclysm, Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party. Müller-Hill calls himself a German nationalist, the true Prussian idealist who was there before Hitler and would be there after. Published in Germany and France, Müller-Hill's diary has been hailed as a unique document, praised for its singular candor and uncommon insight into what the German army was like on the inside. It is an extraordinary testament to a part of Germany's people that historians are only now starting to acknowledge and fills a gap in our knowledge of WWII.

Review: It's tough to assign a rating to this. Without a lot of prior knowledge about World War II, a reader would be lost. Obviously, it's in diary format and not written as a narrative. If you don't know what was going on in World War II at any given time, you won't find an explanation here.

What I did like about The True German was Muller-Hill's insights into the end of the war and his opinions of Hitler and other high-ranking Nazi officials. 

When I think of World War II, I think of concentrations camps, and specific battles. Muller-Hill attacks the war as a whole, not as individual atrocities. In fact, concentration camps and the attempted extermination of Jews is barely mentioned. The German people themselves were just trying to survive. That was the most striking point that I noticed.

If you want to read and gain a sense of the flavor of the times, this book isn't it. If you want to read one man's thoughts and musings from day to day, week to week, this might be just the thing.

Chicago Death Trap

Author: Nat Brandt
Genre: Non-fiction
Publisher: Southern Illinois University Press, 2006
Pages: 240
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: On the afternoon of December 30, 1903, during a sold-out matinee performance, a fire broke out in Chicago’s Iroquois Theatre. In the short span of twenty minutes, more than six hundred people were asphyxiated, burned, or trampled to death in a panicked mob’s failed attempt to escape. In Chicago Death Trap: The Iroquois Theatre Fire of 1903, Nat Brandt provides a detailed chronicle of this horrific event to assess not only the titanic tragedy of the fire itself but also the municipal corruption and greed that kindled the flames beforehand and the political cover-ups hidden in the smoke and ash afterwards.

Advertised as “absolutely fireproof,” the Iroquois was Chicago’s most modern playhouse when it opened in the fall of 1903. With the approval of the city’s building department, theater developers Harry J. Powers and William J. Davis opened the theater prematurely to take full advantage of the holiday crowds, ignoring flagrant safety violations in the process.

The aftermath of the fire proved to be a study in the miscarriage of justice. Despite overwhelming evidence that the building had not been completed, that fire safety laws were ignored, and that management had deliberately sealed off exits during the performance, no one was ever convicted or otherwise held accountable for the enormous loss of life.

Lavishly illustrated and featuring an introduction by Chicago historians Perry R. Duis and Cathlyn Schallhorn, ChicagoDeath Trap: The Iroquois Theatre Fire of 1903 is rich with vivid details about this horrific disaster, captivatingly presented in human terms without losing sight of the broader historical context.

Review: This is the second book I've read this year on the Iroquois Theatre fire. My post about Tinder Box is here. Having read Tinder Box and also visiting the actual site of the Iroquois fire, I know the story. However, I couldn't help wishing for a different outcome.

Triangle: The Fire That Changed America

Author: David Von Drehele
Genre: Non-fiction
Publisher: Grove/Atlantic Inc., 2004
Pages: 340
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: Triangle is a poignantly detailed account of the 1911 disaster that horrified the country and changed the course of twentieth-century politics and labor relations. On March 25, 1911, as workers were getting ready to leave for the day, a fire broke out in the Triangle Shirtwaist factory in New York’s Greenwich Village. Within minutes it spread to consume the building’s upper three stories. Firemen who arrived at the scene were unable to rescue those trapped inside: their ladders simply weren’t tall enough. People on the street watched in horror as desperate workers jumped to their deaths. The final toll was 146 people—123 of them women. It was the worst disaster in New York City history. Triangle is a vibrant and immensely moving account that Bob Woodward calls, “A riveting history written with flare and precision.”

Review: As a teenager in the 1990s, I loved reading historical fiction. Sunfire books were my favorite (now out of print). They contained two themes: history and romance. Each book featured a teenage girl who experienced a particular period or event in American history. At the same time, with very few exceptions, the girl was torn between two potential lovers. The girl was typically ahead of her time in ideas and actions and the suitor she almost always chose was the one who approved or or accepted her actions. 

When the book titled Rachel begins it is 1910 and 16 year old Rachel Roth and her family are immigrants from Poland to America. When Rachel sees the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor, she catches her breath. The magnificent status seems to promise a better life. While life in bustling New York City turns out to be hard, Rachel is happy with her new country and her job at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory.

Rachel stayed with me all these years, as did many others in the series. Triangle, the Fire that Changed America was a must-read when I found it. Not only was the subject matter something I was already interested in, but I also seem drawn to non-fiction about disasters. You only have to browse this reading log to see that.

The book started out slow, but finally the chapter about the fire itself drew me in, and I flew through its pages. Finally, I realized that in order to understand the climate under which this fire occurred  the author had to set the stage with the political and economic tensions and unrest, not only in immigrant-flooded New York, but around the world.

Most interesting to me is the strong possibility that the tragic fire was intentionally set. That was a shocking revelation, but one that makes a good deal of sense, IF you're the owner of a shirtwaist factory in 1910.

I highly recommend this book. Not only is the reader given a comprehensive look at the world in 1910, a time none of us ever knew, but it becomes obvious why certain laws and regulations are in place now. As the author states in the epilogue, "Their individual lives are mostly lost to us, but their monument and legacy are stitched into our world." The Triangle fire was a pivotal event in American history.

The Richest Woman in America

Author: Janet Wallach
Genre: Biography
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2013
Pages: 384
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: No woman in the Gilded Age made as much money as Hetty Green, America’s first female tycoon. A strong woman who forged her own path, she was worth at least $100 million by the end of her life in 1916—equal to about $2.5 billion today.

Green was mocked for her simple Quaker ways and her unfashionable frugality in an era of opulence and excess; the press even nicknamed her “The Witch of Wall Street.” But those who knew her admired her wit and wisdom, and while financiers around her rose and fell as financial bubbles burst, she steadily amassed a fortune that supported businesses, churches, municipalities, and even the city of New York. Janet Wallach’s engrossing biography reveals striking parallels between past financial crises and current recession woes, and speaks not only to history buffs but to today’s investors, who just might learn a thing or two from Hetty Green.

Review: Every once in a while I enjoy listening to books on CD in my car. I spend a lot of time in my car traveling between home, school, and work so it's good use of my time. Plus, books are far more entertaining then hearing the same ten songs played over and over again on the radio.

In the past I've always listened to mystery's or crime novels. It took me a bit to get into the rhythm of listening to a biography.

I'm not good at math and don't pay much attention to Wall Street, but I still found this story fascinating. I believe that speaks to Janet Wallach as a writer, and to Hetty Green for being Hetty Green. People are complex and reading about them is rarely dull.

It is also interesting to see how history remembers people, or if it does at all. As in the case of both Hetty Green and W.A. Clark, their names have faded into obscurity. Such key players in their time, but hardly household names a little of a century later.