by Jonathan Freedland

A Nonfiction, 2025 by Harper, 480 Pages 

What I Didn’t Like:

• The tone of this one is a little dry. Not overly dry like a textbook but drier than a historical fiction. It can make it hard to focus sometimes. 
• Some parallels to modern society make your skin crawl. Not a fault of the book as it absolutely does not point it out but worth mentioning.
• Pacing is weird. There’s a lot of spots where it drags with extraneous details and then other spots where it rushes past things you have further questions about. 

What I Did Like:

• The bravery shown by these people is to be applauded and I’m glad their stories are being told. I found myself asking if I would have the guts to do these things, which is at least part of the point.
• The research is well done. The amount of interviews and paperwork that must have gone into this is wild. It all comes together in a way that highlights all the stories.
• The focus here is on Germans who dared to stand against the Nazi regime during WWII. This is an underrepresented part of the history and I love that the story highlights that and never loses focus.

Who Should Read This One:

• Nonfiction fans who want the story of the German Nazi resistors. 

My Rating: 3 Stars

• The dry nature of the story and the odd pacing, this one loses some of the larger appeal it could’ve had, making it more niche.