Resistance Women audiobook

This is my first experience with Chiaverini and I am impressed. From 1929 through 1946, three women look on in horror as the Nazi Party rises and comes into power. Mildred Harnack is an American intellectual married to a German and Greta Kuckhoff is a hopeful German writer formerly enrolled at the University of Wisconsin where she met the Harnacks. Their stories are factual and both are members of the Red Orchestra, a resistance cell operating in Berlin. Sara Weitz is a Jewish-German literature student and enrolled in Harnack’s lectures. She is a composite of Jewish members of the Red Orchestra. Having read a number of WWII nonfiction books, the historical accuracy is probably the best I’ve read within the subgenre of historical fiction. Don’t expect a rip roaring WWII adventure full of blowing up bridges and railroad tracks, carefully planned assassinations or harrowing escapes from the Nazis. Rather, this is a story of brave women committing espionage and acts of protest against an evil fascist regime.

Just started this book and feel an eerie similarity to our current situation in the United States as the unthinkable builds in 1930's Germany. Well written if not fast paced. The slow pace of the book provides a sense of the unthinkable unfolding and reminds the reader of how glacial change can be destructive, perhaps more so than a catastrophic sudden shift. A lengthy book reflective of the topic and the period.

Resistance Women takes you to a whole brilliant journey and it follows the WWI from the beginning of Hitler's rise, and the story is elaborated very intriguing with mixed emotions, a huge applause for Chiaverini for writing such a wonderful story! She really is a powerful Author to share an amazing story with all of us, and we're so happy to have her book in our May choice for our Monthly Picks so make sure to grab a copy!.The reality of the time is so accurate and it is very professional in that level, surviving each day was so intriguing for the family and the acts that followed were so different and interesting, I really liked the way how the Author portrayed the National Socialist movement, it felt like I saw a movie within the movie! The book is really unputdownable and it has 600 pages which will feel to you like 6 because the story is so unique and interesting you wouldn't want to finish!.The true story of the brave women were so incredibly powerful, they tried to fight the injustice being done to the oppressed during the war! All the character's actions are focused on taking down the Nazis! You'll enjoy every detail of the book that has taken part in one of the worst moment of Human's history!.The novel follows with four different main characters, we meet Midred an American girl who is a teacher in Berlin, she's married to Arvid Harnack! The second character is Greta who is a Writer, her love romance hasn't still been free from different reasons so she's back to Germany from Wisconsin! Then we meet Sara Weits a Jewish girl, and a student of Mildred's ! And the end we will meet martha Dodd the daughter of the American Ambassador who is able to help in ways no one else can! The mixed company will make this historical fiction a mind-blowing story which you'll fall in love!.I enjoyed the experience of the brave women so much, the feelings were so strong and the background was set in such a vivid old amazing details! The restrictive laws, food cuts and the fear of Berlin's citizens were fascinating, the Author's research must've been so deep as the book is more than a five stars for us! The ending of the book is powerful and really emotional, we highly recommend you to read this wonderful book!!

Favorite Quotes:Darling, you must never become accustomed to the extraordinary and the outrageous. If you do, little by little you’ll learn to accept anything.Scapegoating Jews – or Communists, Poles, women, immigrants – was the refuge of the lazy, envious, and unimaginative. It made the world an ugly hostile place to live in and did nothing to solve any actual problems. She would rather be solitary than count bigots as her friends. I used to think the rise of the Nazis was about politics. I don’t anymore… It’s something deeper, more sinister, going well beyond mere racial prejudice. The German people are desperately ill with some dread malady of the soul… Think of it. An entire nation has become infected with an ever-present hatred and fear, twisting and blighting all human relations.She knew before the doctors confirmed it that she had lost the child. She imagined that she had felt the tiny soul leaving her, letting go with a gentle, wistful sigh as if to say it had already learned enough of the world to know it dared not linger.My Review:This six hundred page book was arduous reading but well worth the effort. It was an epic saga involving four vastly different women’s intersecting stories while living, struggling, and risking their lives to exist in Berlin during the 1930s and ’40s. The tale spanned almost two horrific decades of sadistic and insidious Nazi brutality and ingenious cruelty during Hitler’s unfettered rise and ruthless abuse of power leading up to and during WWII. Based on fact and embellished with fiction it was poignant, disheartening, heartbreaking, artfully written, intensely emotive, and effusively detailed with vibrant descriptions of each scene. It ruined me. The massive research and attention to detail was profoundly evident and deftly woven into the complex storylines in a remarkably cohesive and thoughtful manner. This was my first experience of the devastating and evocative skill set of Jennifer Chiaverini, I - am – in – awe.

Going into this book I thought I knew what to expect, but not in this detail, and not when I felt that I needed to get out of there and leave. When I think about those that stay and then what happened, I thought about staying in my own home, it’s mine why should I leave, and that mentality could get them killed.Through the author we get to walk on the streets of Berlin during this horrific time, and we put faces to those who can see what is happening and do what they can to help thwart this evil.This is a very long book, but I was mesmerized and hoping for a change in history, of course that didn’t happen, but the research that was put into this read is awesome! I loved the fact that the author’s notes update on what happened to these real people, or mostly, making you wonder how so many could turn a blind eye.A timely book, history should not be forgotten.I received this book through Net Galley and the Publisher William Morrow, and was not required to give a positive review.

I just finished reading this captivating and engrossing read by the one and only Jennifer Chiaverini and I am enthralled! I loved this book and read it slowly over the last few days enjoying Chiaverini’s writing and her attention to detail of 1930’s Berlin. The development of these amazing characters I loved reading about, as well as, the building of the political tension of the Nazi regime. Newlywed and recent Wisconsin graduate Mildred Fish married Arvid Harnack a German economist and lived with him in Berlin. The sudden rise of the Nazi regime was changing the country she had grown to love. Cruelty among the Jews and even Americans were rampant and Mildred and her friends will not stand for this and resolve themselves to do something about this. Doing what they can, Mildred alongside her friends Martha, the US Ambassador’s daughter and her German friends Greta and Sara all risk their lives to collect information and do whatever they can to resist Hitler and the Nazi Party. This fictional story was inspired by actual events and the story as told, gave me hope and inspiration for the selflessness and bravery of these women and men who fought against the evil Nazi regime. This was truly an insightful and inspirational read for me that highlighted the bravery of ordinary people to fight and win against cruelty, injustice and pure evil. I highly recommend this amazing book!

Resistance Womenby Jennifer Chiaverini“Hitler lied with impunity, …. when his fanatical admirers disregarded all evidence that contradicted him? [Mildred] wondered sometimes if the Fuhrer believed his own lies, but she suspected the answer was much simpler, that he was ruthlessly calculating——“ (Page 280)The story involves 4 women who are part of a cell trying to hasten the end of Hitler’s reign by passing information to the Allies and helping victims of Hitler’s Horror. The 4 women, Mildred Fish Harnack, an American married to a German professor, Greta Kuckhoff, a German woman, Martha Dodd Stern, the daughter of the American Ambassador to Germany, and Sara Weitz, a Jewish German. The story gives almost a month-by-month accounting of these women during the 1930s and Hitler’s rise to power. The first 3 women are actually historical people, although Martha is not that interesting and has only a brief involvement. Sara is a composite of people the author interviewed for this book.The reader knows things will not end well from the first chapter, but the story builds tension as we follow the events. I enjoyed reading the first three quarters of this book about the heroic efforts of these women. I thought the story was well structured, the writing good, and the characters interesting and well developed.However, in the last part of the book the story descends into the sadistic hell of Nazi Germany. At that point I considered putting the book down. It is not that I don’t think people should know about these horrors but I have read about them too many times. These stories are not fiction. They really happened and too many of the Nazi criminals were allowed to go free, as is one in this story.It may be the temperature of the times, but I find the parallels between this history and our current political environment too eerie to be ignored. In addition to the quote at the beginning of this review, there is the following observation:“Perhaps Germany will serve as a warning. May they learn from us to snuff out fascism in America when the first sparks arise and not delay until democracy goes up in flames around them.” (Page 153)The line between History and Historical Fiction gets a little blurred sometimes. This book works on both sides. Anyone that would like to know what living in Berlin during the 1930s would do well to read this book. As a dramatization of the ideas and feelings of these women as they resisted Hitler and the Nazis this book is an excellent choice.

Resistance Women is about the true badass woman named Mildred Fish Harnack and her circle of women friends who waged a clandestine battle against Hitler in Nazi Berlin.My first book by Jennifer Chiaverini and I’m hooked! I love historical fiction and I was blown away by the true story of the brave women- A professor, an aspiring author, and a student- who helped commit espionage against Hitler during WWII.While this book is a chunker, I loved the true historic events taking place, and fell in love with the characters. Mildred, an American who befriends the women who will play such an important role in fighting injustice, Martha Dodd, the daughter of US ambassador, and German friends, author Greta Kuckoff and Sara Weitz. I was amazed at the research that went into this novel to accurately depict these events. I have a soft spot when it comes to WWII historical fiction, and I truly enjoyed this book!

This was a long book and took awhile to get through! 😅 Amazing history and heart gripping events! The author bases all her main characters on real people (except one who is a combination of people) which makes for excellent authenticity. Because this is so historically accurate the story gets choppy in places. The middle gets a little slow, but the last 100 pages are worth the whole book. There’s a brief affair at the beginning that I assume is historically accurate.This story begins in 1929 and tells the less known years of the 1930s how Germany slowly changed in government and how the people responded-good and bad. I’m challenged by these brave women who did what they could to fight evil forces through this horrendous time in history.