![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vweisfeld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/The-Interpreter.jpg?resize=275%2C375&ssl=1\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nThe Interpreter<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n AJ Sidransky\u2019s political thriller has a fresh and appealing story line. The war in Europe is winding down when US Army Intelligence recruits Vienna-born GI Kurt Berlin to help in its interrogations of captured Germans\u2014Nazis, Wehrmacht officers, and members of the SS and Gestapo. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When he reluctantly agrees, he finds himself face-to-face with the Nazi who had a terrible impact on his own family. He\u2019s in the excruciating position of keeping his own emotions in check, but can he sustain it? Read my full review here.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Night of Shooting Stars<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Latest in author Ben Pastor\u2019s award-winning World War II-era political thrillers about colonel Baron Martin von Bora, late of German military intelligence. Because his former unit was believed to harbor anti-Nazi army officers, Bora must keep looking over his shoulder when he\u2019s asked to investigate a strange murder. Is it a trap? What he keeps uncovering are dangerous hints about a plot threatening Adolf Hitler himself. Read my full review here.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Winds of War<\/a><\/strong> The audiobook of Herman Wouk\u2019s 1971 saga, The Winds of War<\/em>, is long (45 hours, 46 minutes) and engaging\u2014perfect for my daily 40-minute walk. There are an awful lot of characters in this story of events leading up to World War II\u2014American, English, German, Polish\u2014many of them real-life politicians and military leaders. At the core of the story is a single family, fictional US Navy officer Victor \u201cPug\u201d Henry, his wife, his three adult children, and their significant others. Pug is desperate to command a battleship, but naval intelligence duties in the capitals of Europe keep delaying that assignment. You get a well-rounded picture of the multinational political forces and military maneuvering in the late 1930s, packaged in a rich skein of interesting plot lines. The book ends shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In its sequel, War and Remembrance<\/em> (56 hours), Pug is still in the Navy, son Warren is a Navy flyer stationed on an aircraft carrier in Pearl Harbor, and son Byron is a submariner. Byron\u2019s situation is complicated by his marriage to Natalie Jastrow, a Jew stuck in fascist Italy. With these three men in different branches of the Navy, Wouk thrillingly (for me) recreates many of the important battles and strategies of the war in the Pacific.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You may recall ABC\u2019s 1980s miniseries of these books with Robert Mitchum as Pug Henry (Interestingly, all three children were played by different actors in the two productions.) Reportedly, a new adaptation, to be co-written by Seth MacFarlane<\/a> is in the works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Winds of War<\/em> was a best-seller, but the critics didn\u2019t love either book. Too much emphasis on historical accuracy over character development, they thought. Exactly what made me enjoy it! It\u2019s like an education about the war in an easy-to-digest package, with Wouk\u2019s main point, the key word \u201cremembrance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The audiobooks are narrated brilliantly by Kevin Pariseau, who kept me company all summer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Can focusing on another low point in Western civilization sidetrack you from obsessing over the current news cycle? Does seeing how another generation coped with agonizing stress help? These engrossing World War II stories are like biting your lip as … Continue reading ![\"Night](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vweisfeld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Night-of-Shooting-Stars-2.jpg?resize=300%2C300&ssl=1\")
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War and Remembrance<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"War](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vweisfeld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/War-and-Remembrance.jpg?resize=275%2C275&ssl=1\")
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