No Journey Too Far by Carrie Turansky-351 pages

This is the sequel to No Ocean Too Wide.  We follow the four McAlister children from their adoptions into families in Canada after being sent there as part of the British Home Children Indentured program in the early 1900's.  In this sequel they are all grown except Grace who is seventeen.  She knows nothing of her family back in England until she finds her trunk in the attic that she brought with her when she was seven. So begins her quest to find her real family.

Through lots of twists and turns we finally have a happy ending.  You are pulling for this family all the way through.  I enjoyed seeing how they all endured their hardships and the way those same hardships molded them into the adults they became.  

Pershing by Jim Lacey

 

Pershing by Jim Lacey -206 pages

General John Pershing was a Missouri native who led the U.S. Expeditionary Forces in France in World War I. He faced tremendous obstacles in building and transporting an effective army while fending off British and French attempts to take away his separate command. His resolve led to U.S. forces delivering a massive blow to the last German offensive in 1918. The book also covers Pershing's counter-insurgency tactics in the Philippines, combat at San Juan Hill, his pursuit of Pancho Villa in Mexico, and tragic personal loss. Although mostly forgotten now, Pershing deserves credit for developing the best commanders who would lead in World War II.

A Question of Honor by Charles Todd

A Question of Honor by Charles Todd
(Bess Crawford #5)
320 pages / 10 hrs, 5 mins

"In 1908, when a young Bess Crawford lived in India, an unforgettable incident darkened the otherwise happy time. Her father's regiment discovered it had a murderer in its ranks, an officer who killed five people yet was never brought to trial.

"A decade later, tending to the wounded on the battlefields of France during World War I, Bess learns from a dying man that the alleged murderer, Lieutenant Wade, is alive and serving at the Front. According to reliable reports, he'd died years before, so how did Wade escape India? What drove a good man to murder in cold blood? Bess uses her leave to investigate. But when she stumbles on the horrific truth, she is shaken to her very core. The facts reveal a reality that could have been her own fate."  --from the publisher

This is one of my favorites in the series so far. The story and characters are engaging, and the mystery is believable. I give it four out of five stars.

The Alice Network by Kate Quinn

The Alice Network by Kate Quinn - 503 pages


In an enthralling new historical novel from national bestselling author Kate Quinn, two women—a female spy recruited to the real-life Alice Network in France during World War I and an unconventional American socialite searching for her cousin in 1947—are brought together in a mesmerizing story of courage and redemption.

1947. In the chaotic aftermath of World War II, American college girl Charlie St. Clair is pregnant, unmarried, and on the verge of being thrown out of her very proper family. She's also nursing a desperate hope that her beloved cousin Rose, who disappeared in Nazi-occupied France during the war, might still be alive. So when Charlie's parents banish her to Europe to have her "little problem" taken care of, Charlie breaks free and heads to London, determined to find out what happened to the cousin she loves like a sister.

1915. A year into the Great War, Eve Gardiner burns to join the fight against the Germans and unexpectedly gets her chance when she's recruited to work as a spy. Sent into enemy-occupied France, she's trained by the mesmerizing Lili, the "Queen of Spies", who manages a vast network of secret agents right under the enemy's nose.

Thirty years later, haunted by the betrayal that ultimately tore apart the Alice Network, Eve spends her days drunk and secluded in her crumbling London house. Until a young American barges in uttering a name Eve hasn't heard in decades, and launches them both on a mission to find the truth...no matter where it leads.

The Woman Who Smashed Codes by Jason Fagone

The Woman Who Smashed Codes by Jason Fagone
464 pages

"In 1916, at the height of World War I, brilliant Shakespeare expert Elizebeth Smith went to work for an eccentric tycoon on his estate outside Chicago. The tycoon had close ties to the U.S. Government, and he soon asked Elizebeth to apply her language skills to an exciting new venture: code-breaking. There she met the man who would become her husband, groundbreaking cryptologist William Friedman. Though she and Friedman are in many ways the "Adam and Eve" of the NSA, Elizebeth's story, incredibly, has never been told.

"...After World War I, Smith used her talents to catch gangsters and smugglers during Prohibition, then accepted a covert mission to discover and expose Nazi spy rings that were spreading like wildfire across South America, advancing ever closer to the United States. As World War II raged, Elizebeth fought a highly classified battle of wits against Hitler's Reich, cracking multiple versions of the Enigma machine used by German spies."      --from the publisher

Fascinating book!  Fagone did a great job with the research and the writing.  You don't have to be a scholarly historian to enjoy this amazing story.  I highly recommend it to anyone interested in the history of this time period.

Above the Dreamless Dead by Chris Duffy

Above the Dreamless Dead: World War I in Poetry and Comics edited by Chris Duffy - 144 pages

This is a collection of poems by the "Trench Poets" - soldiers who fought in World War I and wrote poetry about their experiences.  The poems have been interpreted by various graphic artists into comics.

I picked up this book after seeing it on the Best Graphic Novels list for Teens from YALSA.  It was a very interesting book.  Out of the collection, I had only heard one of the poems before although I had heard of several of the poets.  The interpretations were interesting.  Some were literal interpretations while others were more symbolic.  My two favorites were "All the Hills and Vales" by Charles Sorley and interpreted by Kevin Huizenga and "The Immortals" by Isaac Rosenberg and interpreted by Peter Kuper.

A Star for Mrs. Blake by April Smith

A Star for Mrs. Blake by April Smith - 352 pages

A Star for Mrs. Blake is a novel set in the middle of the Depression years, but focuses on a lesser known piece of its history.  Cora Blake is her town's librarian who also sidelines as a fish cannery worker.  What makes Cora significant is the fact she is a Gold Star Mother, one of the many who lost her son in the Great War.  When she receives an invitation to join the Gold Star Mother's Pilgrimage to the graveyards in France, she does not hesitate to say yes.  Soon she finds herself en route with four other mothers, their soldier escort, and a nurse.  Cora finds instant companionship with Bobbie Olsen, an upper class woman, who also a widow and lost her only son.  Two of the other mothers, Kate and Minnie, grouped together and do not get along with the elderly socialite.  The final mother in the group, Wilhelmina, is the eccentric one who bonds with all.  Adding to the relationships, the solider escort, Lt. Thomas Hammond, and nurse, Lily Barnett, begin to grow close.  Once in Paris, Cora accompanies Bobbie to visit an old friend and meets journalist Griffin Reed, a man who becomes loyal to Cora and provides a gift that made the trip more than worth it, especially after a tragedy strikes their party.

While the book begins to an iffy start, once the journey begins the novel becomes much better and we understand this is a book about relationships and the power of love.  The historical aspects align to drive that home.  The mothers still hold close the memories of their lost sons and sharing those memories and the pilgrimage experience with the other mothers bonds them together.  We also see a unique bond formed between Cora and Griffin, but I cannot explain that one here without exposing one of the story's main conclusions.

Somewhere in France by Jennifer Robson

Somewhere in France: A Novel of the Great War by Jennifer Robson - 400 pages

This gem of a novel claims to satisfy lovers of Downton Abbey and fulfills that goal.  The story opens to Edward's engagement ball where his sister Lilly Ashford once again meets his friend, Robbie.  Before her mother finds an excuse to drive Robbie from the party, he gave Lilly one piece of advice she took to heart:  you can be anything you want to be.  When the war begins, Edward fights on the front lines, Robbie serves as a surgeon at an aid station near the front, and Lilly becomes an ambulance driver.  She soon finagles her way into serving at Robbie's station and their relationship grows beyond the letters they had been sharing.

I loved this book!  Not only was it very Downton-like in style and theme, but it was elegantly written.  The wording and descriptions were true to the era.  MUST PURCHASE OWN COPY!  It was that good.

The Dodger: The Extraordinary Story of Churchill's Cousin and the Great Escape by Tim Caroll

The Dodger:  The Extraordinary Story of Churchill's Cousin and the Great Escape by Tim Caroll - 336 pages

The Dodger recounts the life of John "Johnny" Bigelow Dodge, a distant cousin of Sir Winston Churchill.  American-born but British-bred, Dodge became a British citizen when his mother married an English aristocrat.  During World War I, he served in naval infantry unit until he was wounded at Gallipoli.  After his recovery, he transferred to the army and led a machine gun group.  During the interwar years, Dodge traveled extensively as a business men (though he may have used that as a cover for spying) and was twice arrested in the Soviet Union.  When World War II began he reactivated his commission and served on active duty until his capture at Dunkirk.  Once in German hands, Dodge spent the next five years being moved from camp to camp and attempting multiple escapes, most notably the one from Stalag III featured in the movie The Great Escape.  During this time, the biography also tells the story of the men he lived and traveled camp to camp with.  The most significant of these seems to have been Wing Commander Harry "Wings" Melville Arbuthnot Day (I am inspired to look for his biography at a later point; he masterminded the great escape).

The book was highly variable in its appeal.  The first half covering pre-World War II was bare bones information and dry reading.  Once the point of Dodge's life in World War II was reached, it become more interesting but the focus was equally split between Dodge and his four main companions.  Worth reading?  Yes.  Is there something better?  Probably.

Stella Bain by Anita Shreve

Stella Bain by Anita Shreve - 272 pages

Stella Bain is the persona adopted by the lead character after she is mysteriously found injured near the front in World War I.  All that is known about her is that she was serving as a nurse.  After more time spent working in a French medical camp, Stella finds her way to London to seek someone at the Admiralty--the building sparking the only memory she has of her previous life.  Once in London, she becomes a guest of Dr. August Bridge and his wife and he helps her regain her memory, a process finished when she finds an old friend at the Admiralty.

With her memory regained, Etna Bliss Van Tassel returns to her native United States in an effort to regain custody of her children.  In this part of the book, Shreve wrote a flashback to help readers understand hardships that led Etna leave America for Europe.  The combination of these two events define the rest of the book as a custody trial occurs.

The novel was a quick and interesting read.  As Etna was diagnosed with shell shock, we can gain a bit of an understanding to that state of mind in the first part of the book.  In the latter, Etna's drive to regain her children shows the fierce dedication of a mother.

West Virginia Glass: Between the World Wars

West Virginia Glass: Between the World Wars

By Dean Six

160 pages

West Virginia has been long known for its glass industry. Although glass has been produced in the state before the Civil War, the industry took off around the turn of the century in the early 1900s. The number of factories increased and peaked in the mid-1920s.

This publication provides a short summary of each glass company between World War I and World War II. The histories of twenty three companies are given. Plus wonderful photographs of collectible glassware and price guide for each company. 

The author also mentions that there is a West Virginia Museum of American Glass located in Weston, West Virginia.