Valkyrie is, in part, the story of the plot by German military officers to kill Hitler and von Boeselager's part in it. This story was also recently told in the Tom Cruise movie "Valkyrie." Von Boeselager, who died in 2008, was one of the last surviving conspirators.

 Valkyrie is also the story of von Boeselager and his older brother Georg, who were both Wehrmacht officers during WW2, and participated in the plot. Because they were stationed on the Russian Front, they were not directly able to be involved in the events of July 20, 1944, this book is also the story of their lives together. For this reason, details on events happening in Berlin is sometimes sketchy.

 It's a short book, the main text being less than 200 pages, but it's also a very fascinating book. It reads very much like a transcript from an interview or a handwritten memoir. While I didn't learn much about the details of the conspiracy, I did learn quite a lot about life in the German army during the war. It's a perspective you don't often get in this country, focusing as we do on our involvement in the war and its consequences.

 While von Boeselager doesn't dwell on the issues, it's clear from his writing that many in the army were at least peripherally aware, and disapproved, of the atrocities being committed by the government. This was one of the factors that led him and his brother to participate in the plot.

 This is a very readable book on an interesting topic. If you have any interest in WW2 or Germany's part in it, I can recommend this book as a good starting point. While it is written for an adult audience, young adults and older children with an interest would likely find it enjoyable, also.

On Tuesday, June 8 at 7:00 P.M., Nancy Jensen will be reading selections from her works Window (2009) and The Sisters (to be released in the Spring of 2011).

Nancy Jensen is a graduate of the MFA in Writing Program at Vermont College. Her short stories and essays have appeared in numerous literary journals, including Northwest Review, Other Voices, Under the Sun, ACM: Another Chicago Magazine, and The Louisville Review. Since 1994, she has taught writing and literature at University of the Cumberlands, where she has developed and implemented a highly successful mentoring model for courses in the undergraduate creative writing program.

Nancy Jensen lives in south central Kentucky with her ten rescued cats and one dog. She and her black Lab-mix, Gordy, work as a pet-therapy team with Pawsibilities Unleashed of Kentucky, visiting hospitals, nursing homes, assisted-living facilities, and daycare centers.

Dianne Aprile, author of Making a Heart for God: A Week Inside a Catholic Monastery, has said of Window:

In much the way Alice Munro's The View from Castle Rock mixed memoir with fiction in short takes, Nancy Jensen's brave and beautiful book blends the self-examining voice of the personal essay with the scalpel-like precision of the modern short story. In this collection, she writes with courage and honesty about the complexities of contemporary life: the inevitable betrayals and unanticipated redemptions, but also the painful, persistent process of coming to terms with our own shortcomings. Reading this collection illuminates the common tradition of storytelling that informs fiction and nonfiction alike; yet, it also underscores the very different expectations readers bring to the two genres. With artistry and humor, Nancy Jensen offers readers her unique spin on what I would call the Truth—as it is, and as she has imagined it.

Be sure to join Nancy Jensen on Tuesday, June 8th, at 7:00 P.M. in the Strassweg Auditorium for this very special event.