A Woman of No Importance

A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II by Sonia Purnell, 352 pages

In the years before World War II, American Virginia Hall rejected the traditional housewife role her parents wanted for her and decided that she wanted to work abroad for U.S. intelligence community. She applied for, and was subsequently rejected for, every job that wasn't secretarial, eventually taking one of those secretary positions just so she could make it to Europe. Despite the boring work that was given to her, Hall never gave up on her ambitions, and ended up becoming a spy for England's Special Operations Executive in France. During her years in France (which took her through the end of WWII) the misogyny surrounding her was astounding, even as she built networks of informants, evaded the Gestapo, broke several of her colleagues out of prison, planned sabotage missions of German forces, and provided intelligence that helped Allied forces liberate France. Oh, and she did all that with a prosthetic foot that most of her colleagues didn't know about.

If she was alive today, Hall would probably be a bit miffed that Purnell had written this book about her — she wasn't one for glory or accolades, going so far as to never discuss her role in the war with relatives or even colleagues. But thank goodness this book was written! It's wonderful that this amazing woman's story has come to light. She's inspiring, her story is jaw-dropping, and her impact on the intelligence community continues on to this day. This is a fantastic story told in a fantastic book.

Bury me deep

Bury me deep/Megan Abbott 240 pgs.

This book starts our being something typical.  The sweet young wife of a doctor is left alone while he takes a job in Mexico and falls in with a bad crowd of "fast" women who introduce her to the town "player" and they start an affair...blah, blah, blah. I enjoyed the writing so I continued and I'm so glad that I did!  Of course there is an event, a turning point, that is pretty horrible and our sweet young thing (Marion) finds her backbone.  She is tough as nails and not going to let anyone get the best of her. She knows she has made mistakes but is going to fight her way back.  Wow, it turns into a much more interesting story.  Interestingly, at the end, there is a note from the author about a similar true story that she adapted into this fictional account where the main character does a better job fighting back.  The very noir feel about this book kept me reading but the second half made me a believer in Megan Abbott.

check our catalog

Badass: A Relentless Onslaught of the Toughest Warlords, Vikings, Samurai, Pirates, Gunfighters and Military Commanders to Ever Live/ Ben Thompson

Badass:A Relentless Onslaught of the Toughest Warlords, Vikings, Samurai, Pirates, Gunfighters and Military Commanders to Ever Live historical accounts, humor, nonfiction, violence 336 pages

This book had its ups and its downs, and while I wouldn't recommend that someone read all the way through it like I did, it may be a good one to pick up and read a few random chapters or perhaps an excellent bathroom book if you are into graphic violence while you relieve yourself (which I will neither admit or deny is true for me). This book is a listing of 40 of the toughest men (and yes, i'll admit, a few women too) who ever lived. Every single one of these bloodthirsty maniacs, from the well-known such as Alexander the Great, Ghengis Khan, and Bruce Lee, to the lesser known such as famous Gunslinger Bass Reeves or El Cid Campeador is interesting to read about, but their accomplishments all seem to eventually boil down to impressive body counts (whether from gun, grenade, sword, bow and arrow, or massive club depends on the badass in question).

I will admit that hearing the exploits of some of history's greatest badasses had its high points. I was especially interested by Chandragupta Maurya, who commanded an army of drunken war elephants and emploted an elite detachment of highly trained female bodyguards or Vlad the Impaler-- the REAL Count Dracula. I must also applaud Thompson by not limiting the list to brutal, drooling, mercenaries by including Nikola Tesla (the most badass mad scientist to ever live) although Tesla is the only one who is not noticed purely for a body count.

I have to criticize that although most of the information in the book is historically accurate, Thompson hurts his case by throwing in a joke which is obviously fake in order to get a cheap laugh. One such example comes from a description of the hard-partying escapades of Peter the Great of Russia when Thompson writes "Vodka was scattered from holy water sprinklers, topless babes carried drinks around on silver platters, and everybody would have wild parties and hurl in the dumpster behind the local 7-Eleven." Hilarious, right? Yeah, I'll agree, and while I certainly didn't think anyone's stupid enough to believe that there were 7-Elevens in 17th century Russia, I found that humor like this and slight exagerations made one question whether some of the more ridiculous stuff that SEEMED to be true really was. This could get annoying, because there was stuff I certainly wanted to share with my friends, but I wouldn't run the risk of preaching about one of these "landmine lies" and look like an idiot. These historical figures are unbelievable enough. There is no need for excessive storytelling.

Otherwise, though, this book made for an entertaining read. If someone else were to pick it up, I would recommend not reading it in order, because after a while a particular genre of badass, whether pirate, military commando, or samurai, gets old after a while. Enjoy a tale of random badassery every once in a while.