Book Review: "The Secret of Raven Point" by Jennifer Vanderbes

I found this book on someone's (Huffington Post Books?)" must read of 2014 so far" list. I don't usually find anything that tickles my fancy on those kind of lists but this sounded good and so I  gave it a shot. So glad I did!

The book centers around Juliet and her older brother Tuck, who live in Charleston. The book starts right before the attack on Pearl Harbor. Juliet is about 16, a bit of an introvert, but a science prodigy. Tuck is a few years older and is a popular football player with a string of girlfriends a mile long. Despite their differences they are quite close and spend a lot of time together. After Pearl Harbor, Tuck enlists and ships out. Juliet starts thinking about college, but then a fateful telegram arrives. Tuck is missing.

Juliet abandons her plans for science fairs and college, and goes to nursing school. She asks to be sent to the front lines in Italy, the last place that she had heard from Tuck. The days and nights are hard, bloody, exhausting and frustrating. She goes for a long time without hearing anything about his platoon, but when she does she discovers they have moved on to France.

One night a man is brought in with a gunshot wound to the face, she finds out that it's self inflicted. She is assigned to him exclusively, though they don't think he will make it long. (One of his eyeballs was dangling on his cheek when he came in). However, Christopher Barnaby does begin to slowly recover, though he mostly in a semicoma with only brief moments of clarity. In his small moments of clarity he basically just looks panicked. Dr Willard is a psychologist whose job it is to evaluate soldiers to see if they are capable of going back to battle. Dr Willard knows that even if Christopher was to recover he wouldn't be going back to the front, he might be going to the gallows (figuratively, not literally).

Juliet and Dr Willard start to do experiments where they give him a certain injection and he comes out of his coma long enough to talk lucidly. In one of these experiments it comes out that Tuck and Christopher were in the same platoon. Juliet is surprised, but excited that she is one small step closer to finding her brother. But progress is slow and Dr Willard reprimands Juliet for using Christopher just to find out information about her brother.

Juliet finds herself growing closer and closer to Willard, but the war rages around them. She loses several patients and a few friends. There's a harrowing incident with one of the other doctors and her roommate. (Here's Wesley's helpful hint of the day: if you're going to sneak out to have sex in the middle of the night, make sure that you don't sneak out to a minefield and have to be rescued...because that is embarrassing AND dangerous.)

Don't have sex here.

 Barnaby gets better and Juliet finds out that the last time that Barnaby saw him, Tuck was alive. This gives her hope but then Barnaby disappears and Dr Willard and Juliet have 72 hours to find him before the military police do....

This book pleasantly surprised me. I was scared it was going to be: girl goes to europe, falls in love with a dashing soldier, and then they come back to the US and live happily ever after. (I'm skeptical about these happily ever afters. Which is another great name for my all girl metal band "Skeptical About Happily Ever Afters".) This book is deeper than that, nothing gets glossed over: there's buckets of amputated limbs, good people die, bad things happen, not everyone gets a happy ending, it's realistic like that. Now I've made it sounds like a real Debbie Downer of a book, which it isn't. There are definitely some sad parts but it's an exciting, thoughtful read overall and I give it 3.5 out of 4 stars.

Favorite Book Review: "The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History" by Robert M Edsel

Out of all of the books that are written in the world, one of the most popular topics has to be World War II. Whether you're looking for biographies of famous generals, stories from just a particular country, exploits of one branch of the military,Nazi atrocities, Pacific POW camps, the amount of books and the details they go into are staggering. I have read several books on the topic. Though I have to be careful to space them out between other books or else my already vivid nightmares taken a very scary turn. There is only one book that I have found,so far, that has so wonderfully told a true (!) story about 2 topics that interest me so much: World War II and art.

I can not emphasize enough that "Monuments Men" is a true story. Keep that in mind while I weave the magical summary for you:

World War II is in it's last year ; death, destruction, bombs and terror are still spreading across Europe. A small group of men and women (only about 345) from around the world are recruited to the newly minted Monument,Fine Arts, and Archives division. The intimidating task given to these men and women is twofold: recover art that the Nazis have stolen (usually from museums or private collections) and try to prevent the destruction of cultural monuments (historical buildings, churches, etc). What makes this group of people even more impressive is that they were not soldiers. They were historians, museum curators, archivists, artists,sculptures and art restorers.They found themselves in an overwhelming position usually with little manpower or resources. They even faced ridicule from their own people at time (Why risk your life for a few smudges of paint or an old building? Especially if they were German, the people who are trying to kill you as you are trying to protect their cultural heritage.) They recovered huge caches of art: sometimes hidden away, sometimes proudly displayed in huge Nazi estates. Herman Goering, that fat bastard, was particularly proud of the art collection that he had looted and pillaged from across the continent. The book follows a small group of these men as they travel around the continent in a desperate bid to save it's heritage and cultural important places.

The MFAA were amazingly successful.However there are some monuments, artworks, and pieces of cultural history that have been lost, seemingly forever. The book details the frustrations and triumphs that the group experienced.

If you are a keen observer (or spend time on the internet) this story might already sound familiar to you. It's because it's going to be a movie. Some small, little known indie actors will be some of the stars: George Clooney,Matt Damon, John Goodman, Jean Dujardin (good looking Frenchmen). The release date is right before Christmas, December 18th. Which means you have a little more than a month to get thee to a library or bookstore so you can get this one read BEFORE you see the movie. (Or after, but the important thing is that you read it.) Also, I need a date to see this with me when it comes out because the husband is not interested...

When I think about all of the wars and battles that have been fought in Europe I'm amazed at the beautiful structures that still remain. I mean, Notre Dame has seen a lot of action. Likewise St. Peter's Square in Vatican City, St Basil's in Moscow and so many other historical buildings.

REAL WORLD APPLICATION! In a case of fortuitous timing check out the news story that broke this morning about 1,500 looted pieces that were found in a mansion in Munich.