"Assault In Norway" and Chicago and the Atom

This past month I read one of the BEST books ever! "Assault In Norway: Sabotaging the Nazi Nuclear Program" by Thomas Gallagher. Every night as I am sitting on the sofa I see this book on the shelf next to us. It really sticks out. It is one of those that I am always saying "Oh, I need to read that one day", and then never do. Well, I have been watching "Edge of Darkness" (a 1943 film starring Errol Flynn and Ann Sheridan about Nazi occupied Norway. A must see film, by the way!) and really wanted a book about WWII Norway. One glance at the shelf and there was "Assault in Norway", just waiting. I decided I would read it and, Boy! What a book! No piece of fiction could ever be half as exciting as this. It 's the story about a group of Norwegian commandos who have to blow up the Nazi's heavy water factory in the mountains of Norway. I can't say enough about it. The author wrote fiction as well as nonfiction and it really makes for enjoyable reading. Every character comes off the page for you as you are reading and you can't put it down! At least, I didn't. I finished it in three evenings. Who cares about watching movies? This was much more exciting! (I know I am using a lot of exclamation points, but this book is worth it!) It really is an amazing story and you can really see God's hand in the entire mission which shouldn't have turned out like it did! But, I won't spill it, you just have to read the story.

When I had finished it, I just couldn't get my mind off of it. Very gripping really! So, I am sitting at my computer a few days later (probably still thinking about it) and Mom and Sarah are looking up old sterling silver charms on eBay. All of a sudden I hear Mom saying what an odd charm she found with atoms flying around a Chicago university building. My ears pricked up. It turns out that there was some sort of Chicago bracelet that had charms commemorating different historical things in Illinois and one of them is commemorating the first self-reacting atomic pile that was built on a squash court in the University of Chicago right at the same time as the commandos were in Norway. There was an entire section in my book about this pile and the scientist who built it. Boy, was I thrilled! So, we tried bidding on it, but lost. So, another came up and another and we finally won one last Thursday. It arrived in the mail today and I couldn't be happier about it! Imagine finding a charm to match my new favorite book all about heavy water and atomic research and Norwegian commandos! Not exactly the most popular subject to commemorate with a sterling silver charm.