Winter reading, 2015

After leaving a great job in January, 2015, I am having trouble finding the time to read. My new job leaves me exhausted. Midnight to 8 am schedule leaves me asleep all day just to go back and do it again. I have re-read Murder at Hazelmoor by Agatha Christie, 1931. I like to read this when the winter turns nasty and cold, especially if we are in the middle of a snow storm here in southwestern Ohio. The winter is hanging on with this sub zero temperatures and my cozy read comforts me. Another book I read this winter was "Berlin Underground" by Ruth Andreas-Friedrich about the resistance by the Germans from 1938-1945, especially her small group of saboteurs. From the book jacket, "Mrs. Friedrich's group was the only non-Communist resistance group in Berlin to be recognized by the Russians. They had already been 'screened,' and given a clean bill of health by the American." This book really gives a clear picture of war on the city's citizens and the chaos that ensues at the end of the war. I am  in the middle of the sequel, "Battleground Berlin: Diaries 1945-1948." There seemed to be little hope that things would ever improve, but most problems stemmed from the precarious alignment between the Allies and what they were trying to accomplish. The Russians and the Americans were busy shooting at each other at various skirmishes many nights and made life very difficult to continue with good faith. Many efforts were an example of one step forward and two steps backward. There isn't a good track record of life to return for the innocents after a war. A sad story, but a record of many brave attempts to build a new political order out of rubble, and still this continues. I heard today that there is a effort to re-take Mosul, I can only imagine the misery that continues. All three of these books have been good to read, and for that I am grateful.