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40th out of 50 books
—
18 voters
Breaking the Code: A Daughter's Journey into Her Father's Secret War
by
Karen Fisher-Alaniz (Goodreads Author)
On his 81st birthday, without explanation, Karen Alaniz's father placed two weathered notebooks on her lap. Inside were more than 400 pages of letters he'd written to his parents during WWII. She began reading them, and the more she read, the more she discovered about the man she never knew and the secret role he played in WWII.
They began to meet for lunch every week, for...more
They began to meet for lunch every week, for...more
Paperback, 316 pages
Published
November 1st 2011
by Sourcebooks
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Karen Fisher-Alaniz told the story of her father's WWII experience with such honesty and sincerity, it took my breath away. It speaks of a generation quickly disappearing often leaving their stories untold and, worse, unasked for. Men (and women) returned home from "the war" with the simple desire to get their lives back, to resume where they were before going off to Europe, the Pacific or wherever they were sent. Many didn't speak of their experiences. Many were never asked. I'm sure there were...more
This is probably more like one and a half stars, but as always, that's just my personal opinion of the book. I feel bad about writing too negative of a review; there's nothing terribly wrong with it per se, and I feel like maybe it's not my place to judge how this woman interacts with her father and writes about it, so I'll just say that it's just not for me. This book/author is like the nice neighbor down the street; you're friendly and say hi and send a Christmas card but you have nothing in c...more
The premise of this book, a daughter discovering the extent of her elderly father's service in WWII through conversations prompted by his wartime letters home, seemed promising. The thesis, that even decades later, veterans can have serious issues and still be seeking closure, and that we ought to listen to and honor them, is admirable and heartfelt. Unfortunately, however lovely of a daughter she is, our author is not that great a writer. This could have been written by an average college fresh...more
Oh how badly I feel rating this so low, as it's an important memoir for the author. But that's exactly the problem I felt....it was too self-indulgent. I recognize this was about her journey with her father, not JUST about her father. But what could have been a nice longer article in a magazine was somehow expanded into being the longer book that it is, with a lot of repetitiveness....so many many pages about "what are his secrets? will I ever know? what next?" when I just wanted to scream, "Wri...more
As the subtitle says, this book is a memoir about a daughter learning of her father's WWII service. He worked at a base in Hawaii as a code-breaker and also ventured out to Japan for some code-breaking missions.
There were some disjointed moments in the story, but she did sum up some of my unanswered questions in the afterword. It was saddening to see that PTSD still affects soldiers decades after their service. But there was a somewhat uplifting, promising ending.
Ms. Fisher-Alaniz is not a gif...more
There were some disjointed moments in the story, but she did sum up some of my unanswered questions in the afterword. It was saddening to see that PTSD still affects soldiers decades after their service. But there was a somewhat uplifting, promising ending.
Ms. Fisher-Alaniz is not a gif...more
A story of a daughter forging a relationship with her WWII dad, this promised to be a tear jerker by its description. Unfortunately, I found the book quite an uneven read. While the father's story was an interesting one, the author seemed to want to focus more on her own issues. While the relationship with her father is integral to the plot, it is nothing new for children of veterans and the author seems to feel she alone has overcome the "communication" obstacle. I think had the author chosen t...more
The cover of the book calls it a memoir, but it is much more than that.
It is a story about relationships—the relationship of a father and daughter, the relationships of a man at war and his far-away family, the relationship of two sailors who knew little about each other but who were tied by a bond stronger than time.
The book is also a revealing picture of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a relentless and unpredictable enemy of warriors in conflicts past and present. The disorder may show i...more
It is a story about relationships—the relationship of a father and daughter, the relationships of a man at war and his far-away family, the relationship of two sailors who knew little about each other but who were tied by a bond stronger than time.
The book is also a revealing picture of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a relentless and unpredictable enemy of warriors in conflicts past and present. The disorder may show i...more
Breaking the Code is a heart wrenching story of a daughter trying to understand her father who had been in WWII. The author, Karen, grew up hearing the same few stories of her dad's time in the service, and paying little attention to those stories. Now he is 81 years old and has placed in her care four notebooks filled with the letters that he sent home to his parents during those years. Karen knows what a treasure this is and sets out to simply transcribe her fathers tiny and sometimes hard to...more
This book is part memoir, part family story, part family secret story. When Karen receives a packet of the letters that her father wrote his parents during his time in the military. Karen grew up very rarely hearing stories about what her father did during the war so much of his life in that time period. Karen starts doing some of her own research as well as transcribing her father's letters. She also begins meeting her father every week to ask her some of the questions that come up while she's...more
Breaking the Code takes readers on a journey as the author makes her way through her father's letters and discovers the secret he has kept from her for so many years. In the latter part of WWII, Mr. Fisher received training to copy a code called Katakana based on the Japanese language. The Japanese used this code during the war to transmit secret messages, and the United States military managed to intercept the code and use trained code-breaking teams to copy, analyze, and forward the code to th...more
Breaking the Code: A Father's Secret, A Daughter's Journey and the Question That Changed Everything by Karen Fisher-Alaniz is a non-fiction book which tells about the author's research into her father's service in World War II.
On his 81st birthday Murray Fisher gave his daughter the letters he wrote his parents while serving in the US Navy in World War II. When sorting through the letters his daughter, Karen Fisher-Alaniz the author, uncovered her father's past while learning abou...more
On his 81st birthday Murray Fisher gave his daughter the letters he wrote his parents while serving in the US Navy in World War II. When sorting through the letters his daughter, Karen Fisher-Alaniz the author, uncovered her father's past while learning abou...more
I'm not sure what kind of review to give this book. While it wasn't bad, I did find myself struggling to get through it. I think I expected more from it. Not from the standpoint of the letters the father had written, as I can imagine one would run out of things to write about when most of what you do is censored, but I feel the author could have done a better job with the in between. I do think it's wonderful how she took the time to transcribe her father's letters and in the meantime got to kno...more
I hate to admit this because it will make me seem hard-hearted but I have never really been all that patriotic. I don't attend Veteran's Day activities; I don't lay wreaths at Memorial Day; I've never attended a Veteran's Day parade; no American flags fly in my yard. I suppose it is because no war has ever touched my life. None of my family members ever served in the service and I know no one who has ever been in a war or battle. While I have often read war stories and shuddered at the brutality...more
About the book: This is a memoir of a daughter who, through old WW2 letters and returning memories of her father, slowly discovers the important role he played during the war. While transcribing the letters her father gave to her on his 81st birthday, Karen begins to research the time period. Father and daughter also start meeting weekly for breakfast. Slowly, over the next few years, information about his life during the war is revealed and the quest for peace begins.
What I liked: The details...more
What I liked: The details...more
If you have a combat veteran in your family, I strongly recommend this book.
If you don't have a combat veteran in your family, I strongly recommend this book.
If you care about family dynamics and relationships, I strongly recommend this book.
Breaking the Code is a wonderful story of a daughter's love for her father and how, together, they break the silence he was forced to keep for many years. This book is a memoir that reads like a fast paced novel.
Ms Fisher-Alaniz spent a great deal of time re...more
If you don't have a combat veteran in your family, I strongly recommend this book.
If you care about family dynamics and relationships, I strongly recommend this book.
Breaking the Code is a wonderful story of a daughter's love for her father and how, together, they break the silence he was forced to keep for many years. This book is a memoir that reads like a fast paced novel.
Ms Fisher-Alaniz spent a great deal of time re...more
This book is called a memoir by the author but it's really a story of how she built her relationship with her father. On his 81st birthday he presents her with the collection of letters he wrote to his parents while deployed in WWII. While the letters themselves don't yield much information, he talks with his daughter in response to her questions provides her with a whole new view of her father. It's the unfolding of that information and his life which has been bottled up for years. The book its...more
Karen and her family all knew that her father was in WWII. He always told stories to the children and they didn't think anything of it at the time. On her father's 81st birthday however that all changed when he gave her two notebooks. The notebooks were her father's letters that he had sent home to his parents when he was serving in WWII. Karen didn't know the secrets that he had to keep from everyone that he knew, including his parents, wife, and family. Secrets that have haunted him for over f...more
Dec 26, 2011
Deana
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Those interested in untold stories from WWII
I saw this book on the GR First Reads giveways and was instantly intrigued and signed up for it. And then the next day, I was at the library, and it was sitting there prominently displayed. So I got it, and I'm glad I did. I would still love to own a copy of this book!
It's a much easier read than I was expecting, and still really interesting as the story progresses. And it's a TRUE story, which makes it all that more interesting!
The author, Karen, tells the story of how she learned about her fat...more
It's a much easier read than I was expecting, and still really interesting as the story progresses. And it's a TRUE story, which makes it all that more interesting!
The author, Karen, tells the story of how she learned about her fat...more
This is a story of a daughter's attempt to learn more about her father's WWII experiences so that she can help him over the nightmares and flashbacks that have started to occur.
My cousin Archie held a role very similar to her father's, at the same time, in the same place. (In fact, he well could have been the cryptanalysis expert in her father's group.) He passed away a few years ago without telling us more than very basic information about his experiences.
I've seen a couple of reviews mentionin...more
My cousin Archie held a role very similar to her father's, at the same time, in the same place. (In fact, he well could have been the cryptanalysis expert in her father's group.) He passed away a few years ago without telling us more than very basic information about his experiences.
I've seen a couple of reviews mentionin...more
This book took me a while to read. I liked the idea of this book but it never really grabbed me the way I would have liked. This was 2 stories in one. First this was a story about a daughter getting to know her father. There was the father she thought she grew up knowing. But, she soon would discover a completely different version of her father as a young serviceman in WW2. The secondary story in this novel was to bring out the history of some of our unknown heroes of WW2. There were enlisted me...more
Unfortunately, the author keeps coming back to herself. The story of her dad is interesting, and if she had only stuck to that, the book would have been a good read! As it is, she can't stop making it about her, turning what could have been a good book about a part of the war few know about, into a story of a middle class housewife communicating with her father in a totally boring way. Even the letters she chose to include are repetitive and don't really say anything new after the 3rd one. Wish...more
This was a very special story about a daughter learning about her father and the time he spent during World War II in the Pacific Theater. Karen's father gave her the letters that he had sent his own mother during the war. She had saved the letters in a binder. As Karen went through these letters she asked her father about them and studied up on his time spent during the war breaking the katakuna code. Up until this time her father who was in his 80's had spoken only a very little about the war....more
So far Chapter 6 I find this book fascinating. Plus this book is on my ipad and is my night book to read. I am also at the same time reading Alva Myrdal. breaking the code is written by a daughter about her dad while in WWII from his letters home. She keeps it a mystery what the code is and it keeps you reading and she relates it to who he is today at 80. Alva written about her mother based on her journals and talking to other and looking at the books her mother read.
I read most of the day yest...more
I read most of the day yest...more
I'm sorry to say I did not find this book very compelling. My father is also a WWII vet so I identify with the author learning more about her father through his letters and therefore his WWII experience. The problem I had was I found her writing simplistic and often boring. His actual letters helped create more interest in the book, however knowing they were often a misrepresentation of his war experience made them seem less important. My heart goes out to all those who suffer from Post Traumati...more
This book impacted me in a very strong and personal way. PTSD is something that I have become very familar with as I am the wife of a disabled veteran. I found this to be a very real, touching and highly emotional read. It was comforting to turn the pages and learn there are so many other people in the world that also are affected by war and tragedy, and sometimes suffer in silence. I love how real this story is, I love how honest the author is, and I think this book will help so many other peop...more
After reading some of the poor reviews of this book, I think the reviewers do not have a connection to a WW2 veteran. I was fascinated but this book and read it in one afternoon. Probably, because, I have just gone through my father's WW2 letters and put them in plastic protectors and got a glimpse into my father's personality before he was worn down by life. I thought of my sister who sat with my father over several summers getting his story. I highly recommend this book. I just wish my father...more
The couple low ratings are somewhat surprising to me. I know that's to be expected with any book but I liked this to the point that I'm not sure I can get rid of it. (I swap my books when I'm finished 99% of the time.)
I think maybe people expected this to be mostly about the authors fathers past and while that plays a big part the dynamics of how this book came to be also plays a big part. Personally I found all of it interesting. The authors father, as a person, is obviously an interesting pers...more
I think maybe people expected this to be mostly about the authors fathers past and while that plays a big part the dynamics of how this book came to be also plays a big part. Personally I found all of it interesting. The authors father, as a person, is obviously an interesting pers...more
The story in this book is an interesting one, that makes you think about WWII and the men who served our country. The one thing that the book did well was to make you think about the people in your life, who may have stories to tell, not just about the war, but about their lives. As for the writing in this book, I don't think the author is an accomplished writer, she told her father's story, but in a simple, elementary way. I think she may have even said in the forward that she wasn't an author,...more
At his 80th birthday party, Fisher-Alainz's father handed her two notebooks of letters he wrote to his family during WW2. She's surprised at what she learns about his war - which he'd always told them had been spent behind a desk. Over several months, she transcribed the letters and began meeting him for weekly breakfasts to find out more about his history. Halfway through I lost interest. It's a nice snapshot of one soldier's life and the father-daughter relationships, but it's not riveting to...more
This is a
Reading Good Books
review.
I’ve always loved reading stories about war, may they be from history books or more personal memoirs. Two of my favorite books ever are from the military non-fiction genre. We often see it on the news; we see the boots on the ground as one “force”. But each member of that team has his own story to tell. Stories of survival, brotherhood, strength, and bravery…
Breaking the Code is a journey. A journey of a father and a daughter through memories. On his 81st bir...more
I’ve always loved reading stories about war, may they be from history books or more personal memoirs. Two of my favorite books ever are from the military non-fiction genre. We often see it on the news; we see the boots on the ground as one “force”. But each member of that team has his own story to tell. Stories of survival, brotherhood, strength, and bravery…
Breaking the Code is a journey. A journey of a father and a daughter through memories. On his 81st bir...more
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