Reading While Showering - City of Thieves

In school, I've always read WWII books, but I don't think I've ever read a WWI one before.  That being said, I was still apprehensive about reading this one, because my first thought was "ughhhh, not another war book!".  However, the premise of a charming war deserter and a introverted looter tasked with securing a dozen eggs caught my attention.  Why risk your lives over a dozen eggs?  What was in it for them?  The answer: their very lives, since failure was punishable by death (if they don't freeze or starve to death, or are mugged by fellow Russians, or worse, captured and killed by Germans).  This mission would have been a surefire death sentence, but seeing that the novel establishes early on that Lev is the author's grandfather, they clearly succeed.  

My favorite part of this novel is the dialogue between such two different characters.  Kolya confidently tries to mentor Lev on charming people, relationships with women, and being a man, while Lev indignantly rebuffs Kolya's "wisdom"... and then hesitantly asks him more questions.  When young Vika, the cool-eyed, red-headed female joins the crew, Lev's 'crush' is evident, to Kolya's amusement and Lev's embarrassment.  However, though Lev is younger and purer than Kolya, Kolya still acknowledges Lev as an equal when discussing literature, even respecting Lev's background, memory of his father, and expertise in chess.  In fact, at the culminating point of their capture by the German authorities, Kolya is so confident in Lev that he wagers his life in Lev's hands by setting up a high-stakes chess game.

Lev's story ends in a pyrrhic victory: I wanted to cheer but cry at the same time.  I grieved for their losses, burned in anger when I found out the exact details of the wedding, and cheered when Lev received an unexpected visitor at the door.  The timing of the ending is so perfect - I usually don't like epilogues because they usually seem like such a cop-out or the loose ends are tied off with sugary sweet endings, but the last chapter was just perfect in terms of tying together Lev's future and the eggs.  I don't ever remember feeling so happy and satisfied with the last sentence of the book, but this one allows you to connect the dots with a happy "huh? ...oh yeah, that's right! Awesome!" moment.  Benioff spun such an enthralling story that I found myself blowdrying the wet pages of my copy because I ended up reading while showering!  Completely worth it.