The Keys of the Kingdom - A. J. Cronin

I put this on my watch list because it was someone's favorite book. I've read quite a few memoirs now, so unfortunately, I can't remember who exactly it was. When it went on sale, I snatched it up.

Francis isn't the usual Catholic priest. His childhood isn't happy, and he doesn't conform to training the way the other men do. This makes him stand out in a good way to one man in particular, who sends him to China. Through years of hard work and following his own conscious, Francis makes a life for himself that he should be proud of.

This book wasn't something I should have enjoyed. I can't really put my finger on why I did enjoy it. There was a lot of sorrow in Francis's life, and he was misunderstood by his superiors. His thoughts on God, while controversial for his faith, were inspiring to others and, frankly, to me at times. I normally don't enjoy a book with this much sorrow, but I came away from it with a strange sense of peace. Great writing and a truly lovable character. I gladly give this a Good Book! review.

The Note Through the Wire - Doug Gold

I was given the paperback of this book and finally got around to reading it. It interested me as a true story written by the son-in-law of the people involved, so I thought there would be a lot of first-hand knowledge.

Josefine does what she can for the partisans in Slovenia during WWII. When her brother is captured, she does what she can to try and figure out what happened to him. It leads her to a local prisoner of war camp, where she briefly meets Bruce. A lot of time passes before they meet up again.

Bruce comes from New Zealand to fight but is eventually captured due to an infected arm wound. He was on the run, but the wound forces him to make a decision he isn't happy with. After being captured, he's hardly a model prisoner, and it takes quite a long time before he finds himself in a position to talk to Josefine again.

This is definitely a fictional representation of the relationship by these two. I thought the author had more interaction with the subjects of the book, but in the appendix, it sounds like Josefine and Bruce didn't like talking about their wartime experiences. After Bruce died, Josefine agreed to talk, but tragically died in a car accident a few days before she was scheduled to talk to the author. He does have information taken from the children and letters between Bruce and Josefine.

This was a good book, if you look at it as a fictionalized memoir or one of those "based on true events" stories. The writing was pretty good, and I commend the author for telling the story of these two. Even if you remove the fictionalized aspects, the story is amazing and worth telling. Good Book!

The Last Wish (The Witcher Saga #1) - Andrzej Sapkowski

Way back when, I put what I believed to be the first book in this series on my watch list, Blood of Elves. More recently, with the Netflix series out, I looked and noticed that this book was showing as book 1. I picked this up when it was on sale, not having any idea what kind of ground it was going to cover.

In this book, Geralt of Rivia is a witcher, a monster hunter who travels around earning his living by taking care of problems that plague the people. For the right price, of course. Surprisingly, he has more of a code than many people imagine, and most don't understand him. But in the end, he gets the job done.

If you've watched the first two seasons of the Netflix series, you'll recgonize all the main stories included in this book. The tales of the striga, boar-man, Renfri, Calanthe's daughter, the sylvan and the elves, and the djinn and Yennefer are covered here. With the exception of the djinn and Yen, the stories are the "side quests." On the other hand, they are somewhat different, and Ciri isn't present in the book at all.

The writing style was good, and I didn't get bored reading this, even though I already knew what was going to happen. It's not the author's fault that I already knew things, so it's a bit difficult to rank this book. I think if you start reading this knowing what you're getting into, you won't be disappointed by the repetition if you've seen the show. It's a good book, and I'd like to read more of the series. Good Book!

Surgeon at Arms - Lipmann Kessel

This is the story of a surgeon who found himself on the wrong side of the lines. After helping others escape, he himself escaped the Germans. After that, he spent time in different locations and made a few attempts to cross back to the Allied side of the lines.

I was struck by the mention of a review that said, "One is becoming as bored of these escape stories as of their tellers, beamish boys galumphing their way home through a tangle of generous peasants, Fascist spies and boastful partisans." I'm not sure why anyone would say something like that. Maybe they were forced to read it and didn't appreciate that? I'm a firm believer that every life has a story. Maybe it isn't interesting to everyone, but that doesn't mean it shouldn't be told.

I enjoyed this book. It dealt with the frustration and mental strain of being cooped up and wanting to get back to your own side of the war. It doesn't glorify war, in fact, in the postscript, the author calls war beastly and praises peaceful construction. The author doesn't gloss over his weaknesses or make himself out to be a hero. As he himself said, it was just ordinary people doing extraordinary things to combat evil. Good Book!

The Last Express - Baynard Kendrick

I was interested in reading this after seeing a movie called Eyes in the Night. It's also based on the character that was the subject of this book. I really enjoyed that movie, and I wanted to see what it would be like to read one of the stories.

Duncan Maclain is a blind detective who uses a seeing eye dog and his best friend to solve mysteries. In this case, one of Duncan's friends is accused of murder, and the evidence to put away a criminal goes missing after a grenade is thrown into the backseat of a man's car.

The thing I loved the most about the movie was the dog. Of course, I was impressed with the way Duncan and his companions worked together, but watching the dog performing the work added so much. In the book, Duncan had two working dogs, Schnucke and Dreist. One did the normal seeing eye duties while the other one was more of a protective animal.

In this case, while the book was very clever and unique, it wasn't quite better than the movie. It's not the same story, but even though Eyes in the Night was made in 1942, I loved it. Special shout out to the working dog in that movie, Friday, who did some amazing things. I'm a dog person, so maybe that swayed me. The book didn't seem to rely on the dogs as much as the movie did, and I missed that. Maybe some of the other books with Maclain have more dog involvement, but this one didn't quite hit the mark for me. I may try another one in the future, because I'd like to give this character another chance.

In the Thick of the Fight - The Testimony of Paul Reynaud

I've been working on this book for quite a while now. It was a physical book, so I couldn't read it on the treadmill. Add in that it was 656 pages long, and maybe it's a bit more understandable why it took me so long. I specifically wanted to read this book mainly because I discovered that Reynaud was one of the prisoners at Castle Itter when it was liberated. In case you aren't aware, it's a great story where the Germans and Americans team up to protect the political prisoners being held in the Castle while the SS attacks.

Anyway, this book is basically Reynaud getting very detailed about what happened to his country leading up to and during WWII. He had a position high in the government, and he tried to warn everyone that France was not ready for Hitler. He made speeches and tried to get others to realize that the country needed an armored division, but others were more inclined to lean toward a defensive position for France. After the war started, Reynaud wanted to honor the country's obligations to the Allies while others were pushing for an armistice. He ends up getting pushed out of office and eventually imprisoned. For what? Not even he is given a real answer. 

I didn't know anything about Reynaud before picking up this book, but I learned a great deal about his feelings on the events leading up to and during the second world war. Reynaud backs up everything he says with evidence from other people, whether they were supporters of his ideals or the opposition. He even read Hitler's book to get an idea of what the man was planning for France. He was just unfortunate in that no one would listen to him. Something he said that really stuck with me was, "And the evil gained ground because disease is more contagious than good health."

I may have taken a long time to get through this book, but I don't want to give the impression that I didn't find it interesting. I really did. It was just of a size of the book that was difficult to maneuver when I was in a relaxing mood. I also wouldn't recommend this for everyone. If you're interested in the inner workings of the French governement leading up to the second world war and what happened during the Battle of France, I think you'd really enjoy this book. I just want to point out that with the depth of detail that Reynaud includes, it may be too much for someone who just wants an overview of what was happening at the time. For me, it gets a Good Book! review.

A Distance Too Grand (American Wonders Collection #1) - Regina Scott

So, if you've been following along lately, you might be thinking that this looks a bit like the books I used to read. And you'd be right. Here's what happened. I had a fiction book all set up on my Kindle in pdf form, but when I opened it, there was an error. I hopped off the treadmill and sent the book to my Kindle again. Got back on the treadmill and had the same thing happen. At that point, I was already walking, and I had no idea how to fix the issue. This book had (barely) been started, so I decided maybe it was time for me to actually finish it.

This is the first book in the series. The other two are called Nothing Short of Wondrous and A View Most Glorious.

Meg has taken her father's place as photographer on a scouting mission for the Army trying to find a way across the Grand Canyon. Unfortunately for her, the man in charge is the same one she rejected five years ago. Ben isn't just looking for a way across the canyon, he's also trying to find out what happened to his father.

I had a soft spot for Ben. Meg was a something of a sweetie most of the time, but she treated Ben pretty badly. She didn't explain to him why she rejected him, so he feels that he did something wrong. Even now, as he's seeing how well they work together, she doesn't just tell him what holds her back. It's an irritating thing to witness. How many women wouldn't be married today if they'd let the prospect of a disapproving mother-in-law stop them?

It's been a while since I've read a book like this, but I would place this in the okay section. Nothing super exciting happened to the main characters (minus one thing, but more dire things were happening to the rest of the team), and the "mystery" didn't feel like it had any urgency to it. Add in the weird way the villain was handled, and it was just okay to me.