Page Turners: Book Reviews and Obsessions

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer is the haunting true account of Chris McCandless, a young man who went off the grid and disappeared into the wilds of Alaska. His body would be found some months later by local hunters. Krakauer, completely fascinated by this guy's extraordinary and confusing journey, does his best to understand McCandless through this work. I thought this was a pretty fast-paced and engrossing read. The author obviously put a lot of time and effort into researching McCandless's entire life and activities, but it didn't read like a cheesy biography. Instead, he included just enough details to give a glimpse into this unique man's psyche as events unfolded. Even so, I still found myself largely unable to relate to or understand McCandless, except for his seeming desire to live a simpler life. Just like Thoreau and his famous quote about getting away to Walden Pond because he wished to live deliberately, I understood how the frontier land of Alaska could be...

The Girl From Berlin is a 3 book series by Ellie Midwood; Standartenfuher's Wife, Gruppenfuhrer's Mistress, and War Criminal's Widow. It follows Annalise Friedmann, a young Jewish woman living in Germany as the second world war begins. Her family has well hidden their Jewish heritage, and Annalise marries a family friend who just so happens to be an SS Officer. However, it's soon revealed that he's more friend than foe, as Annalise's husband Heinrich is actually a counterintelligence agent for the American Secret Service. Annalise soon begins helping with her husband's work, and to condense the synopsis, ends up having an affair with the very powerful, very intense head of the RHSA, Ernst Kaltenbrunner. Yes, that's right - the actual Kaltenbrunner, whose 6'7 frame and scarred face certainly contributed to his intimidating appearance. I'll start off by saying that this series is a total guilty pleasure for me. I believe it's a self-published...

Finding Rebecca by Eoin Dempsey tells the complicated love story of Christopher and Rebecca. Neighbors on the island of Jersey, their lives are irrevocably changed by the onset of WWII. Rebecca, a Jew, is shipped away after the Nazis take over the island, and Christopher, a native German, decides to join the SS in an attempt to save the woman he loves. This is such a powerful story. Christopher is the protagonist and it follows him as he serves at Auschwitz, desperately trying to rescue Rebecca while pretending to be a loyal servant of the Fuhrer. Even though it's fictional, the horrors he witnesses and experiences read like a true account - mainly because such evils did happen at concentration camps. It's hard to even fathom that such cruelty and evil could occur, but it did, and it was definitely difficult to read about - fiction or not. I felt so bad for Christopher, who detested what was happening around him but who kept up the charade in order to save Rebecca. The inten...

Army Wives by Tanya Biank is the nonfiction account of four women who married into the military and whose stories all give a unique glimpse into what it's like. It's best known as the book that inspired the popular Lifetime TV series of the same name. It's also the first non-WWII book I've reviewed for a while, so see, I do read more than one genre... Okay, so back to the work. The women it follows are as diverse as their husband's ranks, from newly enlisted to senior officer, and so are their struggles. While one young woman deals with adjusting to military life, another grieves over the suicide of her soldier son. This book definitely tackles some very heavy issues while addressing the often complicated role the Army plays in those issues. I liked that the Army was essentially another character in the story, as was the town. It takes place at Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, NC, and having lived there, I can see why both the Army and good ol' ...