The Secret of the Old Mill (Hardy Boys #3)

After reading the short story, It Had to Be Murder, I decided to pair it with another short book before switching over to a nonfiction book. I picked this one, since it's the last public domain Hardy Boys I have left to read at present.

In this book, counterfeit bills are appearing in town. The boys are affected, along with one of their friends, and even their mother! An outing with their chums raises suspicions of an abandoned mill that's recently been reopened. There's a lot of danger and risk, but the boys are on the case! I always read these and wonder why Joe and Frank seem more hardcore than Nancy Drew...

I got a chuckle at the end when the book asked if I enjoyed the adventures of the Hardy Boys. Then it answered with this sentence. "It's probably because the Hardy Boys, Joe and Frank, are fellows like yourself." Well, I'm not a fellow, but I enjoy them. They're a nice break from serious books, and I always like them. Good Book!

It Had to Be Murder - Cornell Woolrich

This short story was the basis for the famous movie "Rear Window." I watched the movie last month, so I was interested to read the inspiration.

Jeff is trapped in his home due to an injury. He spends his day peering out the window, and one day he starts to witness a pattern. After a few days of this, he's convinced a man has murdered his wife.

I won't say much beyond that, because it didn't take me long to read this. The writing was smooth and held up well for being written in 1942. I could see why this story would inspire someone to make a movie. It was really engaging and easily earns a Good Story! review.

The Search for Major Plagge - Michael Good

Major (Karl) Plagge was responsible for saving Jewish and Polish people during WWII, including the author's mother. In this book, he relates his journey to find recognition for Plagge and the result.

I had some issues with the book itself. The author was repetitive and could have used a good editor. I'm also someone who looks at sources. This makes it so I have way too many books to read, but I was looking at the footnotes. For the "book" (the part I'd consider the first edition), the sources were listed as documents on a dead website or to memoirs that didn't seem to exist. After the epilogue, I saw mention of a website searchformajorplagge.com. As of writing this review, that website is current and has all the articles and memoirs on it.

The other strange thing was the way the book was structured. The first third of it was more of a history of the author's family. The "search" didn't start until around 28% and then stopped around 55% (I use a Kindle and measure my progress through percent). After that, he spent 7 or 8% on a man who worked with Plagge (and that was the "epilogue" at 60%). There were also two sections of pictures in there randomly. I also didn't understand why he felt the need to include every detail of every letter/email like From: To: Re: - not sure that was necessary.

I found the most interesting parts of the book were the denazification trial (Appendix A) and whenever the author was quoting a direct source (memoir, letter, etc.). Karl Plagge was an interesting man, and I was glad for the glimpse into who he was. I would recommend for anyone wanting to learn about him to check out the website. I appreciate the author's journey and the good work he did bringing light to Plagge. He also brought together survivors and people that needed to heal. While I can appreciate that, I wish the book had been better structured.

The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins

I watched a version (1997) of this with my mom a while back, and she made a comment that stuck with me. She was expecting to watch a different version (that I didn't know existed), and she wondered which one was closer to the book.

This book is a mystery that revolves around the lives of three women. Their lives are intertwined in ways that come to light through the testimonies given by various witnesses to events. The main voices are Walter, the drawing master, and Marian, one of the women.

I was in danger of straining my eyes on this one. I didn't want to put it down. It was just too good. Collins took the time to make the various testimonies have different voices. I could imagine the different characters depending on how they were speaking.

A brief word about the movie. It was barely based on the book. I have no idea how you can take a story this amazing and change it to the extent they did. Don't get me wrong, I still have a special place in my heart for the movie. Since it's so different, I can actually think of it as a separate story. But now I'm anxious to get my hands on a copy of the other one and see what they did with the story.

Putting the movie aside, I loved this book. I loved the way it was put together, and I enjoyed the story itself. I can't think of many times when I was bored. That was one of the reasons that I was in danger of eye strain. There just weren't many good places to put it down. Great Book!

First They Killed My Father - Loung Ung

I picked up this book because I wanted to learn more about different world events. The author of this book was a child when the Khmer Rouge took control of Cambodia (1975-1979). During this time, she endured the loss of her home, family members, her way of life and basically everything she ever knew.

I honestly don't know how anyone comes out of something like this unbroken. The amount of tragedy and cruelty she had to endure was ridiculous. While I think she was a bit hard on herself, she was only a child after all, I felt that her reactions were relatable. As in I understood her rage and desire to destroy.

I wish the pictures had been at the end. They were from the reunion, which happened in the epilogue, so I wasn't sure why they were in the middle of the book (maybe that makes more sense in the paperback/hardback version but not the kindle). Also, I wish she had spent just a little more time on what happened when they got to America. She rushed through why the whole family didn't get relocated to America, but again, this was in the epilogue.

People react to circumstances differently. With the horrors the author went through at such an early age, I'm impressed with the amount of detail and willingness to share a lot of what happened to her. This book is a scary and sobering glimpse into genocide. It sounds weird to give it a Good Book! review, because it wasn't enjoyable in the sense that I found joy reading it. I learned a great deal, and it made me feel something. I feel like those books are the best. They stick with you long after you put them down. Good Book!

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes - Anita Loos

Ok, so when I watched this movie, I was utterly confused at what was going on. I picked up the book. It was short, and I figured I'd see if there was anything to make it rise in my opinion. Spoiler: not really.

In general, the characters are the same. Lorelei is a gold digger (but she doesn't solely gravitate toward diamonds), and Dorothy is described as unrefined. Lorelei is trying to improve her mind by becoming educated, so she meets various men. She uses them for their knowledge and shopping. It's supposed to be satirical, and I guess the humor just didn't hit with me. Also, her typos drove me insane.

When I looked back over my movie review, I noticed they did include Henry Spofford, but he was the child. Odd. Taking that into consideration, I still wasn't a fan. But for different reasons, because the stories were different. I mean, there was a tiara "fiasco" in there, but it didn't follow the same beats as the movie, and the whole courtroom scene was pulled out of nowhere. This just ends up being a strange experience overall, and I'm not sure why it's a classic. It just went over my head, I guess.

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich - William L. Shirer

I've been really interested in WWII for quite a while now, and lately, I've been trying to get some insight into the Axis side. I saw this book was included in my prime membership (I could borrow it), but I was wary. The thing is massive at 1700+ pages, but I decided to give it a shot. It took me over a month to get through it, but I did it! Keep in mind, I'm probably not reading as much this summer since my kids are home from college, and my main priority is spending time with them. With that being said, it still would have taken me quite a while to get through this book.

The book is extremely thorough, which is amazing for when it was originally written (1960). I found it interesting to read the perspective of a man who had actually seen these people or had contact with them. Now, don't get me wrong, this book is not full of opinions and first-hand accounts by the author. It is full of what happened and a look behind the scenes. Most of the first-hand accounts and opinions are coming from diaries and documents that were found after the fall of Germany. The author's opinion comes through at times (calling the bunker a lunatic asylum for instance), but I rather enjoyed those glimpses of his personality. It broke up the more academic information.

I can actually narrow this review down to one word: fascinating. I couldn't believe that so many people could be so disconnected from a sense of humanity. I knew the Nazis didn't value life, but reading some of their memos, plans and testimony from Nuremberg disturbed me. It was also fascinating to see how a lot of it could have been prevented. The number of chances to stop Hitler was more than I even knew about, and it was frustrating. No one was listening at the time, and then it was too late.

Normally, with a book like this, I would feel every page. Longer books tend to put me off, but this one didn't. This is probably the longest book I've ever read straight through, and I turned off the % counter at the bottom of my Kindle since it moved so slowly. I didn't want to be distracted by that while I was reading. I think the author did a great job with this book, and if you're interested in what went on behind the scenes in Germany, with evidence to back it up, this could be the book for you. Good Book!