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: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Harry Potter, #2) by J.K. Rowling

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In the second installment of the Harry Potter book series, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Harry Potter, #2) by J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter is home for the summer from Hogwarts and is being treated terribly by the Dursleys. Then, receives an unexpected visitor in the way of Dobby, a house elf, who warns Harry to stay away from school or else disaster will strike. When Harry goes back to Hogwarts, everything goes wrong . . . mishap after mishap, and then, students start being turned to stone.

Although Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Harry Potter, #2) came out in 1998 just after my nineteenth birthday. I don't remember hearing too much about this book or the first book in the series, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Harry Potter, #1) . . . just some murmurings of children and teens saying how good it was. I don't recall the exact year when I started hearing other people (i.e. adults) talk about the series, but they too were gushing about it. I resisted reading the Harry Potter books for several years because I couldn't believe grown adults were so enchanted with a children's book series. It wasn't until after I joined a book club that I actually picked up the books in the series and binge read them all. By the time I read them all, I was burnt out on them, which probably wouldn't have happened had I read them as they came out.

This edition wasn't one of my favorites in the series. One of the biggest reasons was that I despised the character of Gilderoy Lockhart. I found this particular character completely self absorbed and idiotic. He was so very unlikable. However, I'm not sure if J.K. Rowling meant for him to be unlikable or not. Another reason I disliked the book was because of all the speculating of the students of who the "heir of Slytherin" was and gossiped about it. With that being said, Rowling did a great job of capturing how kids really act in a school setting with their gossiping, which gave the book a feel of realness. Lastly, it was still a little young for me, but Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Harry Potter, #2) still was engaging enough for me to finish the book.

What I most loved about the book was learning more about the backstory of Hagrid and Voldemort. Although I didn't care about Dobby throughout the majority of the book, I knew his intentions were well meant, and I love that Harry Potter helped him at the end of the story and didn't have any ill will towards Dobby. I think that was one of my favorites parts of the book.

All in all, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was an enjoyable read that allowed me to escape reality for a bit of time. I gave it three out of five stars


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