Book Review: Ashley's War, The Untold Story of a Team of Women Soldiers on the Special Ops Battlefield by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon

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Ashley's War:  The Untold Story of a Team of Women Soldiers on the Special Ops Battlefield by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon is a non-fiction book published in April 2015.  The story follows several women and their quest to become the first women to be in combat along the Green Berets and Army Rangers. This is a book that was selected in my workplace for discussion between women and/or veterans.  The book discussion was broken into three parts much like how the story was broken up.  It garnered great conversations. Some of the things that happened in the book didn't surprise me, such as how physically demanding the tryouts were to be part of the special operations.  It's a demanding job that requires people to be not only physically strong but mentally strong.     What did shock me was that it took the military so long to allow women to fight along men on the battlefield.  Another thing that astonished me were how accepting most of the men in the Army Rangers were of the women fight
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Book Review: The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

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new york times bestsellerBarcelona, Spain:  In the summer of 1945, an antiquarian book dealer takes his son, Daniel, to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, a library that houses books that are long forgotten. When you visit this library for the first time, you must choose a book and make sure that it lives on, that it is never forgotten. Daniel chooses The Shadow of the Wind by Julian Carax. He becomes obsessed with the book and author, so much so, he spends his life trying to track down the author and find out what happened to him.

When I picked up the New York Times Bestseller, The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón, I was intrigued by the premise of the book and had to read it. However, I was a bit uneasy about reading a book that had been translated . . . would it translate well? Those worries were soon squashed as I became absorbed in the book. There really aren't any words that can aptly describe how much I enjoyed The Shadow of the Wind, and it stayed with me long after I closed the book. With that being said, I will be the first to admit that this book isn't for everyone.

I can say that I'm glad that I hadn't heard any hype about The Shadow of the Wind, or for that matter, heard of the author, before reading this book. This allowed me to read the book without any preconceived ideas. Where it is a mystery, it doesn't read like your typical mystery. It doesn't have a crime that has been committed or a detective (or policeman, sleuth, reporter, etc.) that is searching for clues to solve the crime. It has a Gothic tone to it as well. Where as it doesn't feel like a translated work, it does feel otherworldly, so I have to give huge props to Lucia Graves, who is the translator, as she did a fabulous job of translating The Shadow of the Wind. 

As I mentioned before, there really aren't any words to describe this book and how much I enjoyed it. It's one of those you have to read and experience for yourself. I gave it five out five stars.


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