Rainy Day Reads

One of my favorite settings is wartime. It doesn’t specifically have to be World War II, there is just a lot of great fiction set during this time period. I feel kind of bad saying that World War II is a favorite setting of mine, because this was very much a real time and place with real people living through atrocities, and large numbers of people not surviving. If feels wrong to exploit that for my pleasure, but at the same time I do think these books are important. They tell the personal stories of the people of the time, and if not based directly on true events they can share snippets of the history that may have drowned in the larger telling of the historical events. If it is done well, that is. Below are 5 books that I think are not only great fiction, but that gave me new insight into the history of a period I thought I was pretty well versed in.   City of Thieves by David Benioff This is the story about Lev, a young boy in Leningrad during the Nazi siege...

This book takes place during the siege of Leningrad in World War II. Lev, a 17 year old boy is caught looting from a German soldier. He is taken into custody and expects to be shot, but instead he is sent on a crazy journey to find a dozen eggs for an NKVD general’s daughter’s wedding cake. He is joined on this quest by Kolja, a young soldier in the Red Army, who was caught allegedly deserting his unit. Their quest seems impossible, as the people of Leningrad are starving and some have even turned to cannibalism. Finding a dozen eggs in these conditions seems like an impossible feat. But if they don’t return with the eggs, they will be shot, so there is nothing for it but to set off and try and find some eggs.   During their hunt they encounter many people and end up in a number of dangerous situations. The quest seems impossible but you can’t help rooting for them anyway. I thought the action was well written and it was well paced too. There are a few quieter moments in...