Today I am SUPER excited to introduce a new feature that I came up with! I have searched the internet and haven't found anything like this so if I'm accidentally stealing yours or someone else's idea, let me know and I'll knock it off and just do yours instead.

I was at work and thinking about Salt to the Sea (something I frequently do) and how interesting I think the history that the book is based on is. And that got me to thinking about other books that I think are based on really interesting history.

So that's how this feature was born. And that was the easy part. I could not for the life of me think of a name. So I reached out on twitter for help naming something and I got this name from @uptilmidnight and now here we are!

So basically the point of this feature is to pick a novel with a historical basis that you find totally interesting and talk about the history of it!

So, without further ado, let the fun begin!

I'm obviously going to feature the book Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys first because I can't stop thinking about it or talking about it!

Publisher: Philomel Books

Publication Date: February 2nd, 2016

Pages: 391

Add it on Goodreads!

Review

So, if you didn't know, this book is about the worst maritime disaster in history, worse than the Titanic and Lusitania combined.

Originally, the Wilhelm Gustloff was meant to be named after Adolf Hitler, but ended up being named after Wilhelm Gustloff, the leader of the Swiss Nazi party, after his assassination. Hitler wound up sitting next to Gustloff's mourning wife at his funeral and used the opportunity to change the name and create a Nazi martyr. He was actually assassinated by a Jew.

The ship was built to be a pleasure cruiser, but was repurposed to carry refugees across the Baltic Sea from western Prussia to Kiel in mainland Germany. They were trying to escape from the approaching Russian army.

The maximum capacity of the ship was meant to be 1,880 passengers, but on January 30, 1945, it was carrying over 10,000 passengers, most of them being refugee children and youth.

Within an hour of setting off from Gydnia, it was being tracked by a Soviet submarine. The submarine tracked the ship for about two hours before launching three torpedoes at it. They meant to launch all four that they had, but one of them was a dud.

All three of the torpedoes hit the ship. The second of the torpedoes hit the area of the ship's drained swimming pool, which was being used to house 373 members of the female Naval Auxiliary, only three of them survived. The third was a direct hit to the engine room.

It's estimated that about 9,400 of 10,600 people died. Some from the torpedo hits, some from drowning, some being trampled in stairways. The temperature that night was 0 - 14 degrees F. A lot of people also died of exposure in the water. Children who were wearing life jackets that were too big for them drowned because they wouldn't stay upright in the water.

Lifeboats had been frozen to the deck and very few of them were able to be lowered.

Despite this being the worst shipwreck in history, it is not widely known about. One main reason for that is that no one at the time was feeling particularly sympathetic toward Germany due to their involvement in the war and the ship being named after a leader of a Nazi party didn't help the matter.

The operator of the Russian submarine that sunk the Wilhelm Gustloff was Alexander Marinesko, who might be the most lethal submarine commander in history. With the death toll of the Wilhelm Gustloff being over 9,000 and then 11 days later he sunk another German ship, killing 3,000. He was deemed as not fit to be a hero because of his drinking problem.

There were also rumors that the Amber Room was packed away onto the Wilhelm Gustloff. The Amber Room was said to be the Eighth Wonder of the World before it disappeared at the end of WWII. It was a large room completely lined with Amber panels and is believed to be worth 150 million pounds in today's money.

This website features the stories of a victim and several survivors.

Source

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There's so much interesting information out there about this historic disaster, but it is so little known. After finishing this book, I spent hours reading stories and facts on the internet. Even now, writing this post, I've spent far longer than necessary reading things about this tragedy.

GIVEAWAY:

This giveaway will end in two weeks and is for one hardcover copy of Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys! Open international as long as Book Depository ships to you!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

So what do you think about this book? This disaster? This feature?

Get Up Offa That Slump: Pitch a Book

Today for the blogging extravaganza, I will be pitching a book! I'm going to be pitching my favorite 2016 book so far: Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys!

Goodreads

BUUUUYYY MEEEE:

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Kobo

Oh. My. Word. This book is so amazing! I can't even get over how much I love love loved this book!!!

Do you like historical fiction?

This book is set in WWII Prussia. The Russian Army is advancing and refugees from all over are fleeing to a group of ships, hoping for passage to unoccupied Germany. Ten thousand people pile onto the doomed Wilhelm Gustloff hoping to head to safety.

I had never heard of the events of this book before. Which is SO surprising because it's about the worst maritime disaster in ALL OF HISTORY! More people died in this tragedy than the Titanic and the Lusitania combined! I have spent HOURS looking up information on this since I finished reading the book.

There is another WWII event mentioned in this book that I had never heard of before, a massacre. I looked that up too and that is just AWFUL!

Do you like feels?

This book obviously ends in some tragedy. A book about the world's deadliest shipwreck is definitely going to end in death, tragedy, and tears. I can attest that you will get the feels if you read this book. I would have tissues handy.

Do you like short chapters?

I don't know if I would normally find this to be a thing worth mentioning, but I think it's nice for this book! If you are someone who tends to read til you can barely keep your eyes open, but also don't like to quit in the middle of a chapter, this will work nicely for you.

Do you like multiple POVs?

This book has 4 points of view. This isn't something I really care for, combined with the short chapters, I thought that I was going to have trouble connecting with this book. But oh boy was I wrong.

The characters are great. The story follows a Lithuanian girl, a German boy, a Polish girl, and a Nazi soldier. I looooved the Polish girl! She was, by far, my favorite character. The events of this book are not good to her, but she is so strong and she pulls through everything.

I didn't care for the Nazi guy. Besides the fact that he's just icky, he's weird. His point of view had me going from ew, he's weird, to maybe he's misunderstood (NOT about the fact that he's a Nazi, the things going on in his flashbacks to his life before the war). But I definitely settled on weird and icky for him. He was almost cringe-worthy to read about because his POV is like 75% letters he's writing in his head to his 'sweetheart' back home that are so far from the truth that it is almost painful to read.

There are several other important characters in the book, who are all just wonderful. They're all so interesting and I want to hug them all.

This book is a captivating historical story full of hopefulness and heartache and is so so so worth the read! And look at that lovely cover!! I don't know what more I can tell you. If I was someone else reading this post, I would have been hooked at the history lesson.

So, tell me, have I talked you into reading this one???

Review: Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys

Publisher: Philomel Books 

Publication Date: February 2nd, 2016

Rating: 5 Stars

Source: ARC Trade

Pages: 400

Add it on Goodreads!!

Summary (from Goodreads):

The author of Between Shades of Gray returns to WWII in this epic novel that shines a light on one of the war's most devastating—yet unknown—tragedies.

In 1945, World War II is drawing to a close in East Prussia, and thousands of refugees are on a desperate trek toward freedom, almost all of them with something to hide. Among them are  Joana, Emilia, and Florian, whose paths converge en route to the ship that promises salvation, the Wilhelm Gustloff. Forced by circumstance to unite, the three find their strength, courage, and trust in each other tested with each step closer toward safety.

Just when it seems freedom is within their grasp, tragedy strikes. Not country, nor culture, nor status matter as all ten thousand people aboard must fight for the same thing: survival.

Wow. This book was so good. It seriously punched me in the feels. I am ruined. This book was nearly impossible to put down. The chapters are very short, which makes it really easy to tell yourself "JUST ONE MORE!" But one more was just NEVER ENOUGH! I couldn't flip the pages of this book fast enough!

This book is about the unknown tragedy of the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff. I can't believe I really had never heard of this before picking up this book. How is this so little known?? Like, 4 times as many people died as in the Titanic! Unreal! 

This book follows the stories of four very different people who were all affected by this tragedy.

Joana is a native of Lituania, but was allowed to repatriate to Prussia thanks to her heritage. She worked as a surgeon's assistant and has valuable medical training. She is plagued by guilt for leaving her family, but she keeps going, hoping she might be reunited with her family someday.

Florian is a native of Prussia. When we meet him, he is suffering from a shrapnel wound and has a bit of a fever. He is lucky to meet up with Joana and her crew because he needs her medical training. He is very secretive about himself and what he is up to. He doesn't want to get close to anyone. He is kind of hard to trust, but he keeps letting little pieces of himself out and doing kind things for people and showing that he really might not be such a bad dude.

Emilia is amazeballs. She is so so so strong and brave and has been through HELL and still she keeps going. She is saved from a Russian soldier with bad intentions by Florian and she latches onto him. Despite how desperately he tries to get rid of her, she won't be left behind. I could go on and on about how awesome Emilia is, but I fear that I will reach spoiler territory if I go on.

Alfred is... I don't even know what to say. His point of view just made me ill. He is a Nazi working as a crew member on the Wilhelm Gustloff. Most of his point of view is told through imaginary letters he is writing in his head to some girl back home that he is infatuated with, but probably doesn't even know he exists. He thinks VERY highly of himself. He makes himself out to be this big hero doing SO much for the war effort when in reality, he is just a coward with the lowest ranking who spends hours sitting in the bathroom, not contributing to anything. He is WORTHLESS and thinking about him makes me SO ANGRY! Sometimes something will pop up in his narrative that makes you feel kinda bad for him because maybe he's just kinda weird, but then something right after that makes you wanna go F*CK YOU ALFRED!

There were several other important characters in this book who were all so great as well, but I will be here all day if I keep going on about them. Just know that the only character that you really are going to want to hit is Alfred, everyone else is so strong and brave and motivated to survive. I want to hug everyone in this book.

There is a little bit of a developing romance in this book. It's sweet and develops slowly. It's not a main thing in this book as each character is more focused on survival rather than finding love.

The writing in this book is fantastic. When I started this one, I was really afraid that I wasn't going to like the multiple points of view in this one. I had a feeling in the beginning that I was going to have trouble telling the characters apart, especially with each chapter being so short, but I was worried for nothing. I thought the characters were so well written and the story was well researched. I just loved everything about this.

I don't think I could come up with anything bad about this. I seriously loved it. If I had to say one thing, I could have done without Alfred, if only because he made me want to kick a puppy.

Overall, this book was fantastic. I will definitely be picking up the rest of this author's books. If you like WWII historical fiction, tragedies similar to the Titanic, and books that will make you cry for days, you ought to pick this one up because it is all of those things and SO MUCH MORE!

Waiting on Wednesday (#22)

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

This week I'm waiting on...

Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys

Publisher: Philomel Books

Publication Date: February 2nd, 2016

Pages: 400

Add it on Goodreads!

Summary (from Goodreads):

In 1945, World War II is drawing to a close in East Prussia, and thousands of refugees are on a desperate trek toward freedom, almost all of them with something to hide. Among them are Joana, Emilia, and Florian, whose paths converge en route to the ship that promises salvation, the Wilhelm Gustloff. Forced by circumstance to unite, the three find their strength, courage, and trust in each other tested with each step closer toward safety.

Just when it seems freedom is within their grasp, tragedy strikes. Not country, nor culture, nor status matter as all ten thousand people aboard must fight for the same thing: survival.

This book sounds so good! I find World War II books to be so interesting. Also, this is one of the first physical books that I actually attempted to request (so brave) so we'll see how that goes.

What books are you lovely people waiting for this week?