Review: Spare

Spare by Prince Harry
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

2.5 stars. Very long, very boring. How can a guy who's lived this life be so boring!?

I listened to the author read the nearly 16 hour audiobook, and let's just say he's not a dynamic reader. Nor does he appear to have much sense of humor. Mostly, he just comes across as a really messed up kid. And, yes, there are very concrete reasons why this kid is messed up.

But in the end, it's a little hard to feel sorry for him. There's just too much airing of dirty laundry, too much "woe is me" as he throws every member of his family under the bus. It's undignified. Time after time he exhibits extraordinarily poor judgement. Nazi costumes? Strip pool? Years of substance abuse (about which he's very candid, if that's what you want to read about). And he's so out of touch with reality.

But, mostly, he just seems pretty dull. Highlight: His years of military service, which reflect well on him. Lowlight: Excessive discussion of his frost-bitten penis. 

Review: The Great Alone

The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Kristin Hannah is the award-winning and bestselling author of more than 20 novels including the international blockbuster, The Nightingale, which was named Goodreads Best Historical fiction novel for 2015 and won the coveted People's Choice award for best fiction in the same year. It was named a Best Book of the Year by Amazon, iTunes, Buzzfeed, the Wall Street Journal, Paste, and The Week. In 2018,

The Great Alone became an instant New York Times #1 bestseller and was named the Best Historical Novel of the Year by Goodreads.

The Four Winds was published in February of 2021 and immediately hit #1 on the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Indie bookstore's bestseller lists. Additionally, it was selected as a book club pick by the both Today Show and The Book Of the Month club, which named it the best book of 2021.

Firefly Lane, her beloved novel about two best friends, was the #1 Netflix series around the world, in the week it came out. The popular tv show stars Katherine Heigl and Sarah Chalke and Season Two is currently set to conclude the series on April 27, 2023.

Her new novel, The Women, about a young woman coming of age during the turbulent 1960's in America, who joins the Army Nurse Corps and serves in Vietnam will be published February 6th, 2024.

Review: A Light in the Window

A Light in the Window by Marion Kummerow
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Berlin, 1941: Margarete Rosenbaum is working as a housemaid for a senior Nazi officer when his house is bombed, leaving her the only survivor. But when she’s mistaken for his daughter in the aftermath of the blast, Margarete knows she can make a bid for freedom…

Issued with temporary papers—and with the freedom of not being seen as Jewish—a few hours are all she needs to escape to relative safety. That is, until her former employer’s son, SS officer Wilhelm Huber, tracks her down.

But strangely he doesn’t reveal her true identity right away. Instead he insists she comes and lives with him in Paris, and seems determined to keep her hidden. His only proviso: she must continue to pretend to be his sister. Because whoever would suspect a Nazi girl of secretly being a Jew?

His plan seems impossible, and Margarete is terrified they might be found out, not to mention worried about what Wilhelm might want in return. But as the Nazis start rounding up Jews in Paris and the Résistance steps up its activities, putting everyone who opposes the regime in peril, she realizes staying hidden in plain sight may be her only chance of survival…

Can Margarete trust a Nazi officer with the only things she has left though… her safety, her life, even her heart?