67 Tales from Poland - various authors

This book is a collection of folk tales and short stories. They are unique to anything I've ever read in the past.

Out of the 780 pages listed on Amazon, only about 230 are dedicated to what I would call folk tales. The rest are short stories. Once the folk tales ended, I started to slog through the book. I skipped the final 6 stories. I just couldn't do it anymore. 

Overall, I liked the strange folk tales. Some of them were so weird, and I loved it. Others seemed to teach the wrong lesson or no lesson at all. If I had stopped when those tales stopped, I would have enjoyed the book a lot more and "finished" it a lot sooner. Of the short stories I read, the only one I can remember being somewhat interested in was The Returning Wave. For me, the book was a bit disappointing as a whole.

The Forgotten 500 - Gregory A. Freeman

Merry Christmas to me! This book was given to me as a gift, and I was super excited to read it. Operation Halyard ranks up there as one of the most heroic and brave things I've ever heard of. When it comes to a thoughtful gift, giving me a book that's going to teach me about a little known WWII event is the best you can do.

During WWII, Yugoslavia was fighting two wars. One was against the Germans, and the other was an internal conflict between two warring groups led by two men with completely different viewpoints. Tito and Mihailovich stood on opposite sides, but when American airmen (and also some from other countries) start to fall into the countryside, Mihailovich's followers protect them. It's extremely dangerous, not only for the men, but the villagers as well.

The soldiers are gathering in the mountains, but no one is acknowledging them or offering assistance. That's because forces are at work keeping the information from the people that can help. Communists are poisoning the government's opinion of Mihailovich and support is going to Tito's Partisans. Now that the Allies have chosen a side, they can't be seen to have anything to do with Tito's enemy. The operation also is getting sabotaged from the inside, but eventually it gets going.

I really enjoyed this book. I was disappointed to learn that even now efforts to recognize Mihailovich are buried and swept aside. The 500+ men whose lives were affected by the wrongly accused Mihailovich wanted to see his name cleared. Unfortunately, this book seems to be the only public thing I've seen/heard. Even the presentation of the hidden Legion of Merit was done without any fanfare or publicity. So sad. One of the things that expressed what I was thinking was quoted in the book: "No Western nation, including the United States, can hope to win its own battle for freedom and survival by sacrificing brave comrades to the politics of international expediency." Ronald Reagan

The book is well-researched, and I appreciated the bibliography and the pictures included. When I come across something as interesting as this, I want to dive deeper, and I'll be able to do that thanks to the bibliography. The writing style was engaging, and I was never bored. I see that the author has written some other books about events that don't sound familiar to me, so I hope to be able to read more from him in the future. Good Book!

Thy Soul Shall Bear Witness! - Selma Lagerlöf

I picked this up after watching The Phantom Carriage. It's the novel the movie is based on. The book was actually written to teach people about tuberculosis. What a way to do it!

A man is attacked on New Year's Eve. And since he was the last one to die, he is now doomed to drive Death's cart for the next year. David has not been a great human being, so no one is going to mourn him. Except Sister Edith. Even though David has treated her horribly and is responsible for her illness, she fights for him endlessly. The previous driver is an old friend of David's, and he takes him around to "show him the ropes." In doing so, he sees a few different ways his life has impacted other people. People he should care about. But he's a stubborn man, even when faced with the unavoidable. Will he accept his fate?

I found it terrifying to think time would slow down to a rate that the driver of the cart would get to the next person. A year could feel like a century. I liked George, the driver, and the way he dealt with not only David, but the people he interacted with.

I really liked this book. The copy I had on my Kindle was pretty messed up, but I was able to read it okay. It's not a super long book, and I really liked the progression of the character. It reminds me of A Christmas Carol, but this one is different. The Dickens tale has been used and redone so many times, and I feel like it's lost a lot of its meaning. This tale was new to me, and I enjoyed it. The end was really good as well, and I like how it had its own "God bless us everyone." In my opinion, this one is a bit better. "O God! Vouchsafe that my soul may come to maturity ere it be reaped!" Good Book!

Three Came Home - Agnes Newton Keith

One of my Christmas gifts this year was an old hardback copy of this book. I was told it was about a woman who was a prisoner of war in Borneo during WWII. I was also told there was a movie. When I first heard the premise of it, I was worried I'd watched the movie already. It sounded very familiar, but after a bit of research, I discovered I was thinking about Paradise Road (1997).

Agnes was already an author when she was taken prisoner with her son. Her husband was separated from her, and their interactions were few and far between. She endured a lot of hardship, disease and pain (physical and emotional).

The writing was good and easy to read. I wasn't fond of the pictures she drew, but that's personal preference. She didn't gloss over her feelings or explain them away. She also didn't shy away from adding the horrors she experienced.

Overall, this was a great book. I was trying to treat the book gently as it reminded me of some of the books I was able to salvage from my grandmother's house. Mrs. Keith was an interesting individual, and I was glad to learn about her life in the camp. I may look into reading more of her works in the future. Good Book!

(I also watched the movie - you can read my review of it here.