The House on the Cliff (Hardy Boys #2) - Franklin W. Dixon

I needed something a little on the lighter side, so I picked up the next book in the Hardy Boys series. I read The Tower Treasure in April, and I liked it.

Again, we have a serious mystery to solve. I mean, it doesn't start out that way. At first, it's just a haunted house and some missing tools. But then, suspicions of smuggling lead the boys back to the house. I don't want to say too much about the plot. These aren't long books, and I don't want to sap the fun out of it for a future reader.

I got the impression the stakes were higher than when I would read Nancy Drew, but I may just be remembering things a bit differently. Overall, this book is quick to read, in the public domain and the writing (minus a few bits where the language is outdated) holds up. I've got one more that went public this year, The Secret of the Old Mill. I'm sure I'll be getting to it some time in the near future! Giving this one a Good Book! review.

From Vienna to Tel Aviv, a long journey: Memoirs of Berthe Moritz - Francis Moritz

I picked this book up a while back when it was free.

Berthe was living in Austria when the Germans became a problem for the Jewish people. She ended up going through a lot and spending much of the war in Switzerland. Afterward, she lived in Israel.

This book is written in a conversational tone. It wouldn't win any literary awards, and it shouldn't have to. As someone who has spent a good chunk of their life dabbling with their genealogy, stories like this need to be written down. Berthe wasn't a famous person, but that doesn't mean her life isn't interesting.

I may be a bit biased. I believe everyone has something that makes them special. Berthe's memoirs skim over the worst of the pain in her life, but I'm not bringing that up as a criticism. It's just the way it's written.

There is a lot of documentation and pictures included in this book, and I enjoyed those. The book itself is only a little over 100 pages, so it won't take up a lot of your time, but I thought it was well worth the read. If I had one issue, it was that since I'm not Jewish I wasn't familiar with some of the customs and holidays mentioned. Also, Hebrew is used a few times, and I'm not sure what those entries said. Overall, I enjoyed this book and appreciate the members of Berthe's family making it available for people outside their circle to read. Good Book!

Bella Donna - Robert Hichens

I watched the movie Temptation (1946) and wanted to see if I liked the book any better than the movie. Spoiler: No.

I didn't make it very far, so I'm not going to say much about the plot. A man who sees the best in people falls in love with a woman who has quite the reputation. His friend, a doctor, has been visited by this woman where she revealed things about herself, but he can't say anything due to doctor/patient privilege.

I put this one down after about 10%. It seemed like the author was getting paid by the word. For example, the woman goes to the doctor, and they have this confusing conversation where she repeats herself over and over. The doctor keeps giving her medical answers, and she isn't satisfied with that. I know she had an ulterior motive for being there, but it got tedious after a bit. I just have too many other books to read to waste my time on things like this. And yes, the woman was just as smug and irritating in the 10% I read as she was in the movie. It's a pass for me.

 

The Tin Star - John M. Cunningham

A while back, I watched High Noon and noticed this short story was mentioned as the inspiration for the film. I decided to see how the story turned into a movie.

Doane is an old man, and one of his old cases has been released from prison. The criminal is on his way to town on a train, and Doane knows the man and his gang will be coming for his life. His deputy, Toby, is planning on staying by his side during the fight, but after that, he's out.

I'm not going to say much more about the story. It was only 14 pages. I thought it was a pretty decent little Western story, but the movie varied in many ways. It almost seems like two different stories.

This story wasn't really long enough for any type of character development or anything, so I don't really feel comfortable giving it a proper ranking. If you like old-fashioned Westerns, you might want to give this one a shot.

*You can see my review of High Noon HERE. Be warned that it has SPOILERS. The review is on my newer blog where I keep track of the older movies/shows (and some not as old) I've been watching lately.

Teddy Suhren, Ace of Aces - Teddy Suhren

When I hear the term 'ace.' I immediately think of aircraft. But in this case, a German man is telling his story of what happened in the U-boats during WWII. He worked his way up through the ranks, even having to wait to become commander simply because he was too young. He was an intelligent man and knew what he was doing. He cared about his men and always did what he could to bring them back alive.

The writing style of this memoir was very conversational, and it made for an easy read. I was never reluctant to pick it up. The postscript and a speech given by Suhren take up a lot of the end. The actual memoirs ended around page 254. After that was a brief summary of the rest of his life and a speech he gave at the First Post-War reunion of U-boat men in 1954.

The translator starts off the memoir by clearing up a few things. I appreciated how many people he contacted and worked with to get this book into the shape that it is. There are also many pictures, which were included throughout the book instead of all shoved in at the end. I liked that as well.

Overall, this was just a man doing his duty to his country. He was not a member of the Nazi party, and he didn't really seem to care for politics at all. His outspokenness got him in trouble on numerous occasions, but it never stopped him from saying what he felt. He was put in prison after the war, and it didn't seem to be something he understood. He was just doing his duty just as the men on the other side did, so why was he being punished? Eventually, he was let out and built his life back together, but it's an interesting question. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to find out what life was like on a U-boat. Good Book!

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre - B. Traven

I'd seen the movie a few months ago and wanted to read the book. I wanted to make sure nothing happened to my main man, Howard, in the book.

If you haven't seen the movie, a couple of down-on-their-luck men, Dobbs and Curtin, team up with an experienced prospector (Howard) to try their luck mining for gold. They gather some burros and head out into the mountainous region of the Sierra Madre.

This is a pretty good book. It doesn't focus on the high points of prospecting or the riches you gain in the end. It shows what can happen when all you work for is something that won't last. It's a cautionary tale, but it isn't wrapped up in obvious preaching. 

A quick mention of the movie. It stayed pretty true to the book with some minor variations. I felt kind of bad for the "Cody/Lacaud" character. 

I enjoyed this book and recommend it for anyone looking for a good adventure. The writing holds up well for being written in 1927 by a mysterious German whose real identity has never been discovered. Good Book!

(I'm adding the poster from the movie since the cover of my Kindle book just had a strange man sitting in a chair.)

Code Talker - Chester Nez and Judith Schiess Avila

I'd heard of code talkers before, but I'd never really dived into their history. I found this book, written by one of the original 29 (or 32 if you go by Chester's numbers). Code talkers were a group of brave Native Americans who used the Navajo language to make sure the Japanese didn't know what the Americans were doing in the Pacific during WWII. The code was never broken and was much quicker and more efficient than what was being used previously.

I like how the memoir went through almost his entire life. It covers his childhood up until 2011. Chester passed away in 2014 and was the last surviving member of the original code talkers. He lived quite a life and went through so much.

I have the Kindle version and wanted to mention a few things. The text for the book ends at page 276. Acknowledgements, Navajo dictionary for the code, Bibliography, an index, maps of the islands Chester helped conquer, and pictures fill the rest of the book. The pictures start on page 347. The code was small and hard to read on my Paperwhite, but that's something I could fix.

This is one of the better memoirs I've read. The writing was easy to read, there were enough breaks if you wanted to stop for a while, and the subject matter was super interesting to me. I believe this is an important part of WWII history that shouldn't be forgotten. The impact these men had was so important to the Pacific theater, and it was a secret for so long. If you're at all interested in a life lived the Right Way, I recommend this book. Good Book!

Doctor Zhivago - Boris Pasternak

I went into this book with optimism. I did a small bit of research and saw a few people recommending to read the Pantheon translation. It's not available in Kindle format, so I ordered a physical copy. It cost a bit more, but I was heading on a road trip, and it was my treat to myself.

I'm going to add spoilers in this review, because I want to rant. I wasted good money for a particular translation, and for what? A "classic" that I don't quite understand. In what way did I not understand it? I honestly am not sure why this is considered a classic. I considered quitting, but I also felt compelled to read the whole thing since I spent more on it than I normally would.

Zhivago is one of the most irritating characters I've read. At one point, I wanted him to get eaten by wolves. I have no idea what people see in him and wish someone else had been the main character. Gordon or Dudorov or anyone else. I'm not even sure how to describe Zhivago in a way that will explain why I dislike him so much. I hate the way he just floats along, sometimes fainting, sometimes hiding, other times giving up on something.

And then there's the women in his life. Tonia has my sympathies. ALL my sympathy. She never did anything wrong, and Zhivago just forgets about her. Multiple times. And he never does meet back up with her, and we never find out what happens to her. She's just pushed aside. Later, Zhivago leaves his new love Lara to "find his family." But he gives up and forms another family with Marina. What. The. Heck.

Aside from the dramatic Zhivago, the book wasn't bad. When it was dealing with the social and political incidents of the time, I enjoyed it. The end was the reprint of Zhivago's poems, but I skipped them. I am not a fan of poetry, and I was just kind of over the book at that point. But weighing the amount of time spent of the main character with the interesting parts, this one was a pass.