Under the Same Stars

Bray, Libba. Under the Same Stars. 2025. 480p. ISBN 9780374388942.

Under the Same Stars weaves together three interconnected stories across generations, all centered around a mysterious oak tree in a forest in Germany believed to possess magical powers.

In the late 1930s Nazi Germany, Sophie, a young woman yearning for love, discovers a cryptic message hidden within the oak, sparking a romantic intrigue. Her best friend, Hanna and her have always looked to the oak tree to provide guidance on their lives, to the point of being insulted by the local boys who mocked them. As Germany provokes a war, however, the girls start using the tree for a more urgent purpose: to communicate with the resistance movement against the Nazi regime. But Sophie is still hopeful that one day she will find love.

In the 1980s, American teenager Jenny has just moved to West Germany and is struggling to adapt to her new life away from her friends. Jenny finds herself drawn to Lena, a rebellious punk rocker determined to break down the Berlin Wall. Their lives intertwine with Frau Hermann, an elderly woman harboring secrets connected to the oak tree's past.

Finally, in the midst of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, two friends, Miles and Chloe, stumble upon a forgotten mystery while investigating the disappearance of two teenagers linked to the Bridegroom's Oak eighty years prior. As Miles and Chloe suffer through lockdowns and a loss of social contacts, they come across information that shed a light on what happened in the forest back in 1942, and that connect their lives to that of Sophie, Hanna, and Jenny.

This book explores themes of love, loss, resistance, and the enduring power of history. It weaves together the past and present, connecting the lives of these diverse characters through the enigmatic oak tree, revealing its secrets and the profound impact it has had on their lives and the world around them. Fans of coming of age story, or who want to learn more about living in Nazi Germany or another totalitarian society will enjoy Under the Same Stars.

A First Time for Everything

Santat, Dan. A First Time for Everything. 2023. 320p. ISBN 9781626724150. Available in the graphic novels section of the library.

As an only child, Dan loved spending time with his parents and with his friends. He loves drawing, but he discovers in Middle School that standing out makes you a target for bullies. So it's better to be invisible, even if this means denying part of who you are and what you want. Halfway through his last year in middle school, Dan discovers that his English teacher is organizing a field trip to Europe during the summer. With his mother being sick, his parents' idea of a vacation is to go some place, then take a picture of Dan there. They're not all that fun. 

Dan is surprised when his mother agrees he can go on the trip, but as the day nears, Dan is regretting his decision. He'd rather stay home. But it's too late, and Dan finds himself on a plane with girls from his school, who have been making fun of him for three years, as well as other American kids from Missouri. Though there are still people who claim to know him, Dan suddenly finds himself in Paris with kids who don't know anything about him. This is an opportunity to rediscover who he truly is underneath that layer of invisibility.

Falling in love with Fanta and the local food, Dan also meets Amy on the tour, and she's as interested in him as he is in her. The trip he dreaded becomes more interesting with every passing day, and slowly but surely Dan's life changes for the better, as he builds confidence and realizes that his past is not important in the grand scheme of things.

Inspired from the author's own trip to Europe when he was 14, A First Time for Everything relates the anxieties of growing up and leaving home, and then discovering that who you are is not tied to where you come from or what people think they know about you. The illustrations are amazing, and the story is engaging. If you've ever thought about traveling but were concerned, this is the book for you!

All Quiet on the Western Front

Remarque, Erich Maria. All Quiet on the Western Front. 1987, first published 1928. 296p. ISBN 9780449213940.

When the First World War erupted in August 1914, soldiers on both sides rushed to the front to deal a devastating blow against their enemies in the name of the motherland. This quickly turned into a quagmire, before evolving in trench warfare where thousands of soldiers would be mowed down by machine guns as they crossed what became known as the no man's land.

Those at home did not know of the murderous nature of this conflict, thanks to effective censorship of letters and newspapers. With no means of discovering what was really taking place, people behind the lines celebrated their soldiers and enthusiastically joined the army. Paul and his friends are encouraged to join the German army by the principal of their school, who extolls the virtues of patriotism and manly honor. After limited training, their new regiment is thrown on the front line, and Paul immediately discovers that what he's been told diverges from reality. The horrors of living and fighting in a trench are too much, and Paul wonders how he will survive.

Yet he does. Assault after assault, bombardment after bombardment, Paul witnesses his friends being killed off one at a time, until he's the last one left of his group. Through visits home during furloughs, where no one understands the reality of what he faces every day, and through the all too short respites between attacks, Paul lives one day to the next, witnessing horrors no one should ever see. But then, in November 1918, it becomes all quiet on the Western Front as the war ends in Germany agreeing to an armistice. For the first time in four years, Paul cannot hear the cannons, and he feels at peace, having survived the greatest conflict the world had known up to that point.

The violence and stupidity of men as they strike at people they don't know for the idea of a State or Country is pervasive throughout, creating a surreal atmosphere where Paul doesn't even know why he is fighting. Fans of World War I and of war stories will feel they are in the trenches as Paul describes his daily activities and his survival of one shattering event after the other.

Valkyrie: The Story of the Plot to Kill Hitler, by Its Last Member

von Boeselager, Philipp Freiherr. Valkyrie: The Story of the Plot to Kill Hitler, by Its Last Member. 2009. 211p. ISBN 9780307270757.

Many Germans were opposed to Hitler's rise to power in Germany, even in the military. As Europe descended in the flames of the Second World War, German military officers began plotting to kill their leader. Loyal to Germany, if not Hitler, they sought each other out, until a critical number of them were ready for action. Though they attempted to end Hitler's life many times, only the July 1944 bombing that partially injured the German dictator came close.

Philipp Freiherr von Boeselager was a member of a cavalry regiment with his older brother when Germany invaded Poland in 1939. An enthusiastic hunter and excellent horse trainer, Philipp loved his family and his country, and his deep Catholic faith informed all of his actions. Apolitical, Philipp at first cheered the war effort, determined to erase the humiliation Germany had suffered at the end of the First World War when the Treaty of Versailles was concluded. 

But when his regiment was transferred East to attack Russia in 1941, Philipp saw a darker side of Germany. SS divisions rolled through the plains, killing indiscriminately and hunting Jews and Communists. Appalled by what he saw, he was even more shocked to discover that these actions were not only supported and encouraged by the German leadership, but they were in fact state policy. Disgusted by these actions, Philipp sought others who, like him, had had enough. Working with his brother and the full knowledge of his commanding officers, a small group soon assembled to plot the assassination of Hitler and Himmler and plan a future for Germany.

Several attempts were planned, from shooting both men during an inspection to an army camp, to blowing Hitler's plane. When these attempts failed, the plotters determined to destroy Hitler's headquarters with him inside. In July 1944, von Stauffenberg placed the bomb and raced to Berlin, so that he could take control of the city. Philipp led his cavalry regiment away from the Russian front and rushed to Berlin as well, to support the overthrow. 

Unfortunately, this attempt too failed, and Hitler survived. SS units tracked down the conspirators, who were executed. Philipp managed to return to the front with his regiment, and thus avoided being discovered, and eventually the war ended with Hitler's suicide and Germany's unconditional surrender. 

Philipp, who survived the war, provides one of the most vivid account of German resistance and the steps they took to try to end the war sooner. Fans of history and of the Second World War will appreciate Philipp's devotion to his country and to his men, and will realize how close they came to fulfilling their goal of killing Hitler!

The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein

White, Kiersten. The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein. 2018. 304p. ISBN 9780525577942. Available as an audiobook from Overdrive.

Orphaned, Elizabeth Lavenza was entrusted to a group home where she was abused by the woman who was supposed to care for her. Rescued by Mrs. Frankenstein, who wishes her to be her young son's friend, Elizabeth meets Victor, and immediately realizes that the boy is very odd. He seems incapable to actually caring for other people. However, even at six years old Elizabeth realizes that Victor is her way out of the gutter, and she agrees to care and play with Victor.

Adopted by the Frankenstein, Elizabeth is not allowed to go to school across the lake from their manor residence, so she reads every book in the house, and listens to Victor retell his day and what he learned. They both are fascinated by how bodies work, and Victor is morbidly fascinated by death and how to prevent it. In their teens, they meet Henry, the child of one of the Frankensteins' creditors, and they soon form a trio of adventurers. Along the way Elizabeth rescues Justine, a child that was just like her, and Justine becomes the governess to Victor's two young children.

When Victor finally goes to University in Ingolstadt, Elizabeth is left behind with Henry. When he asks for her hand in marriage, and not having heard from Victor in months, she dispatches Henry to find Victor and secure his agreement, knowing that Victor will not give it. Henry does not return home, however, and Elizabeth despairs at not hearing from Victor. Along with Justine, they travel to Ingolstadt to track Victor. Elizabeth soon realizes that Victor has been experimenting on creating the perfect human being, but that instead he created a monster that is now causing havoc on the town.

As the monster gets closer to the Frankenstein, the family suffers one death after another. With her life in danger, will Elizabeth manage to escape the clutches of the Frankenstein monster?

Fans of Frankenstein will love this retelling, which, like the original story, explores what it means to be a monster, and what it means to be human. 

In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin

 Larson, Erik. In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin. 2011. 448p. ISBN 9780307408846. 

Following the ascension of Hitler to power in Germany in 1933, a new US ambassador was named to represent the American government in Berlin. William E. Dodd, a professor from Chicago, becomes President Roosevelt's man in Berlin at a time where Nazi Germany is rearming and threatening its neighbors, along with its Jewish population. Dodd moves to Berlin in the middle of an economic Depression, with limited funds and almost no support from the State Department back in Washington. 

Accompanied by his wife, his son, and Martha, his adult daughter, Dodd soon grasps that the portrait Germany is broadcasting of a society reordering itself and crushing the Depression hides an uglier truth, with opponents imprisoned, disappeared, or shot, and all forms of oppositions eliminated. The new Germany is a violent Germany that doesn't respect the rights and the customary laws of foreign affairs.

For Martha, however, the Third Reich is filled with young vigorous men who are zealous Nazis but who are attracted to her. Enjoying their presence, she has several affairs, including with the head of the Gestaop, Rudolf Diels. She also meets a Soviet agent whom she falls in love with, and eventually travels through the Soviet Union with him.

Dodd and his family have a front-row seat at the establishment of a Nazi dictatorship, and his warnings to the State Department and to his fellow Americans about the dangers that this new Germany pose remain ignored until it was too late.

This scholarly yet riveting account of the decade between 1933 and 1940 showcases the blindness that affected many leaders at this time, who sought not to understand what Hitler was really up to. Fans of history will appreciate this descent into madness and the cruelty that will eventually lead to the Second World War.

All the Light We Cannot See

Doerr, Anthony. All the Light We Cannot See. 2014. 531p. ISBN 9781476746586.

Marie-Laure lost her sight at age 7. Living in Paris with her father, she spends her days wondering the Museum of Natural History, where he works as a locksmith, learning about the past and the present of animals and man's relationship with nature. Marie-Laure is especially attracted to seashells and the ocean, even though she's never been. Grumbles of war threaten their existence, however, as Germany rearms and seizes territories in Eastern Europe. Following France's declaration of war in September 1939 and a swift German invasion in 1940, Marie-Laure and her father flee to Saint-Malo, where he has family. Her father has been entrusted with a cursed jewel from the museum's collection, and he has been tasked with protecting it.

Werner is a German orphan. Growing up, he is destined to work in the coal mines. Using scraps, he fixes a radio, and suddenly the orphanage catches music and words from around the world. Especially fascinating is a regular broadcast in French aimed at children, which the woman in charge of the orphanage translates for the children. His affinity for electronics and radio allows him to escape his future. He instead finds himself training in the German army to locate radio signals. Having left his little sister behind at the orphanage, Werner knows he is not suited for war, but fears the mines more. In 1944, following D-Day, his unit is sent to Saint-Malo to track down the signals of a resistance cell that is broadcasting German secrets to the allies.

Sergeant Major Reinhold von Rumpel is a gem appraiser who has been tasked by the Nazis to identify jewels and turn them in to the government to finance the war. von Rumpel searches for the gem that was hiding at the Museum of Natural History. Even though it is rumored to be cursed, causing no end of suffering for the person who owns it, it also possesses curative powers, and as he is dying from cancer, he would gladly trade suffering for healing.

As the allies intensify their bombing of Saint-Malo, the story of these three characters become intertwined in a deadly confrontation ...

They Went Left

 Hesse, Monica. They Went Left. 2020. 364p. ISBN 9780316490573.

The Second World War has concluded, and Germany was defeated. During the drive of armies to Berlin, soldiers encountered concentration camps, and freed the prisoners. These were often too sick or ill to be able to leave, so troops remained behind to guard them as they healed. Zofia Lederman and her family lived in a Polish town until it was conquered by the Germans in 1939. As Jews, their lives immediately changed for the worse. In 1942, they were required to come to the sports stadium for new identity papers. Instead, Zofia and her entire family were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, the worst of the concentration camps. Her father, mother, and aunt were sent to the left side when they arrived, while Zofia and her 9 year old brother, Abek, who was tall for his age, were sent to the right. Only later did she learn that the left side was directly to the gas chamber.

Zofia was soon separated from her brother, and was transferred to a different concentration camp as the Russians got closer. Now 18 in the summer of 1945, Zofia's body has healed enough, and she leaves the camp hospital where she was staying to accomplish the impossible task of finding Abek. Zofia is convinced he survived the war, but with millions of refugees spread over the continent, the task proves daunting. Nothing will deter Zofia, however, as she made a promise to her mother to always take care of her younger brother. Traveling first back to her home, then inside Germany proper, Zofia searches for clues as to what happened to her brother in the last chaotic years of the war. Despite the heartbreaks that come from looking, Zofia retains the hope that she will find him. But in a world where there was so much tragedy, can her story ends like the fairy tales she used to love?

Providing the often forgotten perspective of those who survived concentration camps and had to rebuild their lives, They Went Left explore issues of survival, mental illness, healing, and forgiveness. Zofia went through a traumatic experience that nothing will ever heal, yet she must begin rebuilding a world for herself amid the ruins of her previous life. The extreme violence she experienced make her an unreliable witness to her own story, yet her hope remains present. Readers who appreciate Holocaust survival stories will easily find Zofia relatable and will support her quest for reunification with the only family member she has left.

Orphan, Monster, Spy

Killeen, Matt. Orphan, Monster, Spy. 2018. 423p. ISBN 978-0-451-47874-0. Available as an ebook from Overdrive.

Being Jewish in Germany in 1939 is dangerous. Until 1933, Sarah had a normal life in Vienna, with an adoring mother. She participated in gymnastics, and loved sports. Then the Nazis came to power, and life became a struggle. For six years Sarah and her mother managed to avoid most of the violence, but as Hitler relentlessly drive Germany towards war, it is not possible for them to stay here.

Orphan, Monster, Spy begins when Sarah's mother is shot and crashes their car as they forced a German road block on their way to Switzerland. Barely escaping, Sarah hides in an abandoned warehouse. On the roof, she spots a strange man observing zeppelins landing and departing for a nearby airbase. The stranger corners her but soon departs, leaving Sarah alone.

The following morning, she successfully sneaks aboard a ferry heading across the lake to Switzerland, but when she spots the stranger from the night before being harassed by German soldiers, she realizes that he's the man they wanted to arrest when her mother crashed her car. Without thinking, she saves him from  arrest, and she soon learns he is a British Captain who has been living in Germany since the end of the First World War.

Taking her back to Berlin, she convinces him to train her for spy work, and soon he informs her he has a very sensitive mission. She must infiltrate a Nazi school for elite students, so she can become friends with the daughter of a highly regarded atomic scientist. Ultimately, her target is the blueprints of a devastating bomb Germany is rumored to be building.

The Nazi school turns out to be a microcosm of German society, where the strong prey on the weak, no one can trust anyone, and any mistake or meekness can be deadly. As a Jew who has missed six years of school, Sarah must device ways to survive mortal dangers long enough to accomplish her mission...

Tear Down This Wall

Ratnesar, Romesh. Tear Down This Wall. 2009. 440 mins. ISBN 9781608146048. Available as an audiobook from Overdrive.

When the Second World War ended with the defeat of Germany, the country was separated into four zones of control. On the Western side, the zones quickly coalesced together to form the Federal Republic of Germany, whereas the Eastern side, controlled by the Soviet Union, a puppet Communist government was enshrined as the Democratic Republic of Germany (GDR). Dividing the two was an iron curtain stretching from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea. The city of Berlin was similarly separated, even though it was deep in the center of the GDR. In 1961, hoping the stem the flow of people from East to West Berlin and thence to Western Europe, the East German security apparatus erected a wall, cutting the city in half. The Berlin Wall became the deadly and ugly symbol of division between East and West.

In 1987, U.S. President Ronald Reagan visited Berlin for the second time of his Presidency, and he pronounced a speech in front of the Berlin Wall that stood just before the Branderburg Gate in which he bemoaned the separation of people and dared Secretary General of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, to tear down the wall and allow people to freely travel. This speech, which was little noted at the time, proved prophetic as the Berlin Wall fell two and a half years later. 

Tear Down This Wall is a historical account of the division of Germany, the life and times of Reagan and Gorbachev, the Cold War confrontation between Americans and Russians, and the origins, pronouncement, and impact that the speech had on world history. The audiobook contains the actual speech given by Reagan, as well as extensive interviews with government officials in the Reagan administration as well as American, Russian, and German eyewitnesses to this event.

Fans of history will appreciate the impact the speech had in retrospect on the events that occurred leading to and during the fall of the Berlin Wall, and will develop a newfound respect for collaboration and trust that the two adversaries developed. It is this, more than anything else, that helped both of them "win" the Cold War and avoid the world's destruction, which had seem so plausible a year or two earlier.   

The Pact

Lewis, Amanda West. The Pact. 2016. 352p. ISBN 978-0-88995-544-8. Available at FIC LEW on the library shelves

The Armistice of 1918 ended the First World War and held Germany responsible. Over the following decade the country managed to get back on its feet, but the Great Depression wiped out the economy and led to the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party. Crushing poverty plagued the country and allowed Hitler to first become Chancellor, then assume the post of President. Now the Nazis are the only game in town, and war is brewing on the horizon.

Peter Gruber lives in Hamburg, a large port city. Very resourceful, Peter has created a black market trading network where he acquires objects from sailors and trades them to locals, earning enough money to allow his mother and him a very modest living in a rundown apartment building. When Germany invades Poland on September 1st, 1939, the country is at first elated. Progress is happening, and the war is quickly settled in Germany’s favor. Other adventures on the Western Front in 1940 lead to the defeat of France, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, and Norway. Germany is flush with victories, but the lives of ordinary citizens does not improve. Peter continues to go to school, and is enrolled in the Hitler Youths, but his trade has dried up as no more ships come into the harbor.

Then the British begin fighting back. Bombers attack Hamburg and bathe the city in flames. Suddenly Germany feels more vulnerable than it did. Children are evacuated, and his entire class is taken to Southern Germany. Over the course of the next three years, Peter and his friends will move around the country, sometimes returning to Hamburg but then leaving again as bombing campaigns continue to attack the city. Not allowed to voice their opinions of the regime, the teens are caught in a downward spiral. Forced to join the S.S., they are shipped to Denmark in late 1944 to complete their training. As the Second World War careens towards its bloody end, Peter finds himself caught between his supposed allegiance to a system that caused Germany’s destruction, and his desire to be free. With armies closing on both side, how can Peter survive this apocalypse?

Based on a true story, The Pact provides an intriguing look at what it was like to be a German child at the beginning of the war and how one’s formative years are spent living under a dictatorial regime. Any reader interested in finding out how the German population felt during the war or how teens’ daily lives were affected will appreciate the insights this book provides.