Enjoy variety of titles with Shelf Indulgence book club

One of the best things about hosting Shelf Indulgence, our adult book club, is the wide variety of titles I get to read and discuss each year. One of my favorites from last year was Kate Quinn’s “The Diamond Eye.” Based on a Ukrainian woman sniper from World War II, this historical fiction novel follows librarian-turned-sniper, Mila Pavlichenko as she fights against the Nazis, earning herself the nickname Lady Death.

This book has it all: a tough yet lovable main character, plenty of action and intrigue, and even in the midst of so much suffering, humor. Mila is a smart and capable young mother whose husband left her and their young son years before we meet her. It’s because she doesn’t want her boy to grow up in a world ruled by Nazis that Mila enlists to fight for the Red Army where she must not only survive, which is hard enough, but earn the respect of her all-male unit. Readers get to spend time with Mila as she prepares and waits in snipers’ nests, learns how to effectively train the young men in her charge, commiserates with the few other female members of the Army she can find, and outwits enemy plots against her. We even get to meet historical figures like Frank and Eleanor Roosevelt on Mila’s American tour. Throughout the story, Mila and her colorful Army companions kept me laughing, even if it was preceded or followed by heartbreak.

If you haven’t yet read one of Kate Quinn’s historical fiction novels, I highly recommend them, especially “The Diamond Eye.”

This weekly article is written by staff at the East Morgan County Library in Brush.