Review: Operation Mincemeat

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Operation MincemeatBen Macintyre, Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory

This book about a World War II intelligence operation proves once again that truth is stranger than fiction. In the spring of 1943, the Allies hoped to invade a Europe that was firmly in control of the Nazis. The obvious target for an invasion was Sicily, but unfortunately, the Germans knew this all too well. So a few creative members of British intelligence came up with a daring plan, codenamed “Operation Mincemeat”: They would float a dead body wearing a British uniform onto a Spanish beach. This corpse would be carrying top-secret — and totally false — documents stating that the Allies were planning to launch a two-pronged attack against Greece and Sardinia; Sicily would only be a “decoy” target. Since neutral Spain had pro-German sympathies, it was hoped that the Spaniards would turn over these documents to the Germans and thus convince the Axis to rearrange their defensive forces. This book tells the story of this extraordinary plan and its even more extraordinary success.

I’m not normally a big reader of nonfiction, but the premise of this book caught my attention right away, and I’m really glad it did! This is an extremely readable and entertaining account of a plan so farfetched, it couldn’t possibly be true — except it is. The book covers every aspect of Operation Mincemeat with meticulous attention to detail, describing everything from the difficulties of acquiring an appropriate body to the creation of a fictitious identity for the corpse to the various personalities who contributed to the formation of the plan. To me, one of the most astonishing things about the operation was how easily everything could have gone wrong. What if the Spanish authorities had returned the documents to the British immediately (as, indeed, some of them tried to do)? What if the Germans had been skeptical of this intelligence instead of eagerly grasping at a welcome piece of news? In short, this is a well-written account of an absolutely fascinating subject. I definitely plan to read more by Ben Macintrye — Double Cross: The True Story of the D-Day Spies is already on my wishlist!

A Year with the Beatles: “Help!”

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Beatles_HelpTime to talk about the Beatles’ fifth U.K. studio album, “Help!” Apparently this is also the soundtrack to a Beatles movie wherein the Fab Four battle an evil cult. This sounds totally insane to me, but apparently it is a real thing, according to Wikipedia! I have not seen the movie, so perhaps my impressions of the songs lack the appropriate context. But I really enjoyed this album overall; I feel like I’m really getting into the meat of the Beatles’ oeuvre at last! Here are my thoughts on the songs:

“Help” — Great song, even if it is a bit repetitive.

“The Night Before” — I like the bridge of this song; it’s got some cool, unexpected harmonies.

“You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away” — When I first listened to this album, I recognized this song immediately; I just never knew what it was called or who sang it (if you can believe that!). Good song…I especially like the “Hey!” parts. 🙂

“I Need You” — I really like the verses of this song. Once again, the Beatles seem to be branching out in their harmonies.

“Another Girl” — I have to say, I love the way the Beatles pronounce the word “girl”! They sort of say “gel” (with a hard G) instead, and it’s great! This song does have a very similar beat to the last one, though…makes them sound quite similar.

“You’re Going to Lose That Girl” — Love the jump to the high notes when they sing the word “lose.” The verses are pretty boring by comparison.

“Ticket to Ride” — This song makes me nostalgic for summer afternoons spent at my neighborhood pool…and I’m not sure why! It’s not like I heard this song that often as a kid. One of those mysteries of the human brain, I guess. At any rate, good song!

“Act Naturally” — I have to say, I hated this one! Definitely a huge clunker in an otherwise really good album.

“It’s Only Love” — Meh. I find this song very musically boring, but I like the lyrics.

“You Like Me Too Much” — Just what every girl wants to hear. 🙂 At least he says he likes her too! Also, I dig the honky-tonk piano vibe at the beginning of this one.

“Tell Me What You See” — I like the call-and-response feel of the verses. But overall, I find this song very forgettable.

“I’ve Just Seen a Face” — Love, love, love this song! It’s so sweet and happy and romantic. It just makes me smile! 🙂 Also, I like the sort of fake-out at the beginning…it sounds like a totally different kind of song at first.

“Yesterday” — What can I possibly say about this song? It’s iconic and quite lovely. I feel like it’s a bit of a cliché now, but that’s not really the Beatles’ fault!

“Dizzy Miss Lizzy” — Great song title, less great song…but it was still a fun listen.

Next album is “Rubber Soul,” which should be really interesting, so stay tuned!

Review: Dark Triumph

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Dark TriumphRobin LaFevers, Dark Triumph

This installment of the His Fair Assassin trilogy features Sybella, a novice of the convent of St. Mortain whose troubled past has driven her to the edge of madness. Chafing under the convent’s restrictions, Sybella is eager to receive her first assignment…until she learns that she’ll be staying in the household of the traitor D’Albret, who is waging war against the rightful duchess of Brittany. Not only is D’Albret faithless and cruel, but he also happens to be Sybella’s own father, the man who has made her entire life miserable. Sybella’s only hope is that the convent will allow her to kill him, but her actual orders are very different: She must rescue the Beast of Waroch, a skilled knight who is vital to the duchess’ cause, from D’Albret’s dungeons. As Sybella and the Beast engineer their escape, they begin to develop a strong bond. But will they reach the duchess in time to inform her of D’Albret’s latest treachery?

This book is very hard to summarize, mostly because it’s the second book in a series, and it definitely does not stand alone. The action essentially begins where the first book left off, and most of the major players have already been introduced. So if the premise of this book sounds interesting to you, I would definitely go back and read Grave Mercy first! If you’ve already read and enjoyed it, you’ll like this one too. As with the first book, there’s a nice mix of action, political maneuvering, and romance. I liked Sybella’s character but wished that the Beast had been fleshed out more; for this reason, I wasn’t totally captivated by the love story. The overarching plot of the duchess vs. D’Albret continues to be interesting, and I look forward to seeing what happens in the third book. I also want to learn more about the convent and its role in the political turmoil; there is definitely more going on there than meets the eye! As you can tell, I’m invested in the world of this series, and I highly recommend it to fans of YA and historical fantasy.

Review: Niccolò Rising

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Niccolo RisingDorothy Dunnett, Niccolò Rising

In 15th-century Bruges, commerce is intimately linked to power: the more astute and skillful the merchant, the greater his position in society. So while nobility and ancient bloodlines are still important, ordinary men and women have unprecedented opportunities to raise their social standing. This novel follows the fortunes of Claes, a dyer’s apprentice whose easygoing demeanor disguises an extremely shrewd mind. Among his friends and employers, Claes is regarded as little more than the village idiot, which makes it all the easier for him to obtain useful knowledge simply by keeping his ears open and his mouth shut. When he learns about a risky business opportunity that could result in a huge payoff, Claes doesn’t hesitate to act on the information. But his quest for riches causes him to offend some powerful people, including a Scottish nobleman who has both financial and personal reasons to hate Claes.

Dorothy Dunnett is one of those authors I really want to like. I’ve heard great things about her books, and I love well-written historical fiction, so I thought she would be right up my alley. But when I tried the first book in her Lymond Chronicles a few years ago, I couldn’t get past the first chapter. I was hoping that this book from a different series would work better for me, but unfortunately it didn’t. My first problem was the number of characters; there are too many people to keep track of, and there’s a lot of hopping between different points of view. Secondly, I couldn’t figure out what was happening for a large portion of the novel. Dunnett likes to allude mysteriously to things instead of describing them directly, which I found incredibly frustrating. I didn’t understand even the main plot until the book was almost over! I think Dunnett’s intention was to build suspense and then have a big reveal at the end, but in my opinion, the resolution didn’t make up for the hundreds of pages of confusion I had to endure first. I did enjoy the setting of late medieval/early Renaissance Bruges, but I wouldn’t recommend this slog of a book to anyone!

Bookish Update: May 2013

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bookish updates-may 2013

My May update is a little pathetic, I feel, since I didn’t actually manage to read that many books! But I’m excusing myself because one of them was really long. 🙂 Here are my stats for this month:

Currently reading: Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory by Ben Macintyre

Books read in May:

  1. Lauren Willig, The Ashford Affair
  2. Michael Innes, Hamlet, Revenge!
  3. Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo
  4. Jennifer Echols, Star Crossed
  5. Dorothy Dunnett, Niccolò Rising

Favorite book of the month: I have to say The Count of Monte Cristo. It was very long and sometimes difficult, but it was definitely worth it!

Least favorite book of the month: Definitely Niccolò Rising. It was such a slog, in my opinion…I just don’t think Dorothy Dunnett is an author for me. (When I review this book, hopefully I can explain why!)

Books acquired in May:

  1. Sharon Kay Penman, Devil’s Brood
  2. Deanna Raybourn, A Spear of Summer Grass
  3. April Lindner, Catherine
  4. Sarah Mylnowski, Ten Things We Did (and Probably Shouldn’t Have)
  5. Rona Jaffe, The Best of Everything
  6. Patricia Wynn, The Spider’s Touch
  7. A.A. Aguirre, Bronze Gods

Once again I’ve acquired more books than I’ve read, which does not bode well for my already stuffed bookshelves! I’m justifying these to myself on the grounds that I only actually paid for four of them; the other three were giveaway wins. That makes it OK, right? 🙂

Tune in Tuesday with Katelyn: Hip hip

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tune in tuesday_summertime

Time for another theme month over at Tune in Tuesday! June’s topic is songs that have something to do with summer. Honestly, summer is my least favorite season because I absolutely HATE the heat. And now that I’m not a student anymore, there’s no promise of a nice long vacation to look forward to. But there are still some good things about it, I guess…and that certainly includes the tons of great summery songs out there! My pick for this week is “Island in the Sun” by Weezer. Yes, it’s an obvious choice, but Weezer is great, so I don’t care!

Review: Star Crossed

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Star CrossedJennifer Echols, Star Crossed

Wendy Mann is a PR expert whose job is to keep rebellious celebrities in line. She’s great at getting PR nightmares to clean up their acts, but not so great at getting them to thank her for it. As a result, her firm is losing business, and her job is on the line. Wendy has one last chance to prove she’s an asset to the firm: she’ll fly to Las Vegas to rehabilitate the image of a young starlet who’s in the middle of a very messy — and public — fight with her ex-boyfriend. Wendy is confident that she’s up to the challenge…until she discovers that her old college nemesis, Daniel Blackstone, is representing the ex-boyfriend. Daniel is just as good at his job as Wendy is at hers, and he’s just as determined to make sure his client comes out on top. When Wendy and Daniel meet again in Vegas, they are surprised to discover a strong mutual attraction. But can they make a relationship work when they’re on opposite sides of someone else’s breakup?

I’m a big fan of Jennifer Echols’ books and have eagerly devoured each one as it comes out. Sadly, however, I think I should have skipped this one. It’s not a bad book, by any means…the writing is fine, and the story is certainly a fun, easy way to spend an afternoon. My problem is that it’s no different from hundreds of other contemporary romance novels; there was nothing unique or compelling to make it stand out in my mind. I also wasn’t terribly interested in the setup of this book. I don’t particularly care about lifestyles of the rich and famous in Vegas, and I would never have picked up this book if Echols hadn’t written it. I was hoping she would be able to interest me in a book that’s not my usual taste, but unfortunately, I wasn’t convinced. I’m still really looking forward to Echols’ next YA novel, Dirty Little Secret, but I won’t continue with this adult series.

Review: The Count of Monte Cristo

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The Count of Monte CristoAlexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo (trans. Robin Buss)

This classic novel tells the story of Edmond Dantès, a naïve young sailor who seems to be on the verge of getting everything he’s ever wanted: The owner of his ship wants to promote him to captain, and he’s about to marry his true love. But Edmond has jealous rivals, both professionally and romantically, who would like nothing more than to get rid of him and take his place. These men concoct a plan to accuse Edmond of being a Bonapartist — a deadly serious crime in a time when Napoleon has just been exiled to Elba and the French monarchy is still unstable. Although Edmond is innocent, he possesses a highly incriminating letter that seals his doom, and he is sent to France’s most notorious prison. With nothing to do but brood over the cruelty of his fate, Edmond becomes consumed by thoughts of vengeance. When he finally escapes from prison, he creates a new identity as the Count of Monte Cristo and sets out to destroy the men who ruined his life.

First of all, this novel is HUGE — the edition I read was over 1200 pages long — so I was surprised to discover how much of a page-turner it was! Although the plot is very slow-moving, Dumas cleverly builds suspense throughout the novel as Edmond’s plan of vengeance slowly reveals itself. The main thing that surprised me about this novel was how little time (comparatively speaking) it spends inside Edmond’s head. About the first quarter of the book is from his point of view, describing his feelings when he is arrested and imprisoned. But when he escapes and returns as the Count of Monte Cristo, the book barely ever relates his thoughts or feelings. Rather, the most developed characters turn out to be Edmond’s enemies (and a few friends), which makes Edmond’s actions more morally ambiguous. All in all, I’m very glad I finally took time to read this novel, whose status as a classic is well-deserved. I’ve been planning to read The Three Musketeers this year as well, and now I’m really looking forward to it!

Review: Hamlet, Revenge!

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Hamlet, Revenge!Michael Innes, Hamlet, Revenge!

Something is rotten at Scamnum Court. The noble English estate is hosting a large house party in order to produce an amateur performance of Hamlet, but things go wrong almost immediately when cryptic threats — some of them taken from the text of Hamlet itself — are delivered to various houseguests. Then Lord Auldearn, a guest who also happens to be the Lord Chancellor of England, is murdered onstage during opening night. The sheer audacity of the murder makes it particularly hard to solve; although the scene of the crime was packed with actors and spectators, it appears that no one saw a thing. Also, there is no shortage of suspects or possible reasons for the crime. Was Lord Auldearn murdered for the confidential state papers in his possession, or was the motive more personal? Inspector Appleby of Scotland Yard must unravel this complex case and discover a diabolically clever murderer.

I have to confess that I spent most of this book being completely bewildered. There were so many characters to keep track of, and I wasn’t sure who would turn out to be important to the plot, so I exhausted myself trying to keep tabs on everyone! This is also a very cerebral mystery; most of the “action” is conversations between Inspector Appleby and his friend Giles Gott. However, I definitely enjoyed the book more as I got further into it, and the ultimate solution was both ingenious and unexpected. I would definitely recommend having read Hamlet, or at least being familiar with the plot, before reading this book; otherwise many of the allusions and plot twists will be very obscure. Overall, I’m not sure this is quite “my kind” of book, but I did enjoy it and would consider reading more by Innes. There’s a whole series featuring Inspector Appleby, and this book is #2, but I was able to follow everything without having read the first book.