Leaving Berlin: Joseph Kanon

This was an excellent story, it seemed to take a while to build to the climax, but there were so many pieces being created that would eventually fall together, like a true murder mystery novel. It was suspenseful since the reader didn't know what Alex, the protagonist, had already figured out or what he was thinking. There were a lot of pieces of his life past and present that were still a mystery to the reader. Alex, a Jewish man returns to his childhood home in Germany after the war. His town is now in the Russian sector and we learn he was deported from the United States for being a communist. The reader learns he is actually there as a spy in order to clear his name and return to his family in the United States. On his first day he is set up and nearly killed, his only contact is shot to death. He gets a new contact that he is to report the doings of an old love interest, Irene, and her Russian commander boyfriend. Things get complicated when Irene's little brother escapes from a POW camp where he is mining Uranium for the Russians. Alex seems to get tangled up with Irene again, but the story hints that she can't be trusted. Alex arranged for Irene and her brother to be flown to the American controlled sector of Germany so the brother can get medical treatment. At the last minute Irene backs out. In the end Alex exposes the American general who was his primary contact as the double agent and leaves Irene behind realizing she was also spying on him. The novel did a wonderful job of exposing a war torn town and how no one can trust each other anymore, not even mother and son. People see what they want to see, not the hardships of others. This was an excellent book.

The Cookbook Collector: Allegra Goodman

I ended up listening to this book as an audio and thought it was rather long and drawn out, but that may be because I was multi-tasking. The story follows two sisters who live very different lives and the people who they encounter. The younger sister, Jess, is in college and works at a book store where she goes with her boss to buy a man's collection of cookbooks. She helps her boss make the sale and we find out her boss is in love with her. The Elder sister, Emily, works at a firm and is certain everyone who buys stocks in the company will become rich, she has her sister buy stocks in an effort to look out for her, but it puts her sister into a Rabbi's debt when she can't pay back the money she borrowed from him. Unlike Jess, she has a steady boyfriend who she is supposed to marry, but keeps delaying the date. Her Fiance dies in 9/11 after he stole her company's idea which becomes a success. In the end Jess marries the Book collector, her boss, and the story finally ends.

The Persian Boy: Mary Renault

An interesting historical fiction about Alexander the Great through the eyes of his eunuch lover. The story was not what I was expecting and the beginning of the book was surprising to me, I was picturing a dry history of the time. The story starts with the enslavement of a young Persian boy who watches his father get murdered. He is then castrated and sold into slavery as a eunuch watching over the Harem and soon finds himself prostituted out. Through some interesting sales he become property of the king and then at his death becomes a gift to Alexander the Great. The book does a great job of discribing the time and the customs of many different people and the story was interesting as it progressed through different battles and the life of a King, never being safe.

The House of Velvet and Glass: Katherine Howe

Interestingly enough I have read all three of Katherine Howe's books and they all had something to do with witchcraft. In this one the father can trace lineage to a New England witch and he can see the future. The little sister and mom were on the Titanic trying to find a husband for the sister when the ship went down. The eldest sister had been spurned by her beau and the story follows her as she realizes she too has her father's gift. The war starts right when her little brother starts getting into trouble and is kicked out of college. She knows he will die in the war, but if he doesn't he will live miserably and eventually commit suicide. The story ends with her brother being remembered as a hero and the main character getting married.

The Janissaries: David Nicole

This was about the Janissaries and their history in the Middle East. The pictures were very well done and the book was interesting while being educating.

The Golem and the Jinni: Helene Wecker

An original story about a lonely man who buys a "wife" by having a man make him a golem. The man then dies on a boat coming to America right after bringing Chava, the golem, to life. The story that runs parallel to this one is about a tin smith who accidently releases a Jinni when repairing a flask. The story flashes back to the Jinni's life before a wizard trapped him in the flask and also the past of all the other characters in the story. A rabbi meets the golem and takes her under his wing, finds her a place to live and a job, just when he decided he would need to bind her to someone he dies of a heart attack. That night leaving the rabbi's home after fetching the doctor, who pronounced him dead, she meets the Jinni. The story seems to be about the Golem and the Jinni, but it is actually about the wizard and the Jinni through the centuries. The wizard had originally met the jinni in the desert and entrapped him in the flask, once the jinni is released from the flask the wizard finds him again. In the end with the help of the golem and some human friends the jinni is able to trap the wizard in the flask and seeks out a way to destroy it without destroying himself. The book ends with the jinni coming back to New York to be with the golem.

All the Light We Cannot See: Anthony Doer

This was a wonderful book, reminiscent of "The Book Thief" where it follows the lives of a boy and girl through World War II. The French girl, Marie Laure becomes blind as a young girl and lives with her father who works at a Museum where he is responsible for a rare diamond. The boy, Werner, is an orphan whose father died in the mines. He is great with electronics and is noticed for his ability to fix radios and is taken into the army when the army adds 2 years to his age. Marie Laure and her father flee Paris with the diamond when the German's arrive. Werner and Marie Laure seem destined to meet when Marie's father is put in prison and her uncle starts working with the resistance sending radio messages. Once Werner arrives in Saint-Malo, Where Marie is with her uncle, he finds the uncle's radio transmissions, but refuses to attack them having fallen in love with Marie. There is no happy ending for romance, Werner saves Marie from a German officer trying to find the diamond and sends her to the Americans so she will be safe. He ends up stepping on a land mind and dies. The readers are unsure if he has the diamond or if it has been put back into the ocean. 30 years later Werner's sister is found and given her brother's knapsack which holds a house replica Marie's Father had made for her. Through odd coincidences she finds Marie and we learn the diamond was left in a grotto, inside the house was a key Marie gave Werner for the grotto.