From my TBR shelf...

Title & Author:  The Bachelor by Stella Gibbons

Why I bought it:  I loved Cold Comfort Farm so much I wanted to read more of Gibbons' novels. So I bought this one.

The plot in brief:  Constance Fielding and her bachelor brother, Kenneth, share a house outside of London. An elderly cousin lives with them. Their life is ordered and quiet...and a little dull. But with World War II still going on, they end up having to take in some boarders. First comes a former sweetheart of Ken's with her 26-year-old son, Richard. Then comes a young refugee named Vartouhi Annamatta. And it's Vartouhi who really livens up all their lives.

My thoughts:  This novel got off to a slow start. So slow, in fact, I almost quit reading it. But I persisted, and I'm glad I did because the novel got better, and the ending was humorous and fun. I never liked Connie; she's one of those sanctimonious and controlling characters who take all the joy out of life. Her brother, Ken, on the other hand, and the other members of the household were quite likable. But it's Vartouhi who's really one of a kind. I liked her a lot. While I didn't enjoy this one as much as I did Cold Comfort Farm, it's still a decent read.

My rating:  3/5 stars.

Happy Reading!

Another Stella Gibbons' book that I enjoyed:  Nightingale Wood

From the E Shelf...

Author:  Aaron Elkins

Title:  A Long Time Coming

First line:  "My name is Val Caruso and I'm a curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I have been having one hell of a day, and I don't mean in a good way."

It was the cover of this one that first caught my eye. Then, when I saw that the story involved a Holocaust survivor, two Renoir paintings, looted art, a trip to Italy, mystery and murder, I knew I had to check it out. And I'm glad I did. I enjoyed the way this story unfolded from Caruso agreeing to do a favor for a friend, to Sol Bezzecca's story of his great grandfather's two Renoir paintings and how they were stolen during World War II, to the quirky characters Caruso meets in Milan as he tries to get one of the paintings back for Sol. Throw a little art theft and murder into the mix and the story gets even more interesting. This book is a well-plotted and entertaining mystery. I especially liked all the art history bits. And Caruso, or Tino as he's called in Italy, is a very likeable character. This was another serendipitous library find. I'm so glad I found it. Aaron Elkins is an author I'd definitely read again.

Happy Reading!

A classic from my TBR shelf...

I can't remember where I first heard about Angela Thirkell, but it was on someone's blog several years ago. And not just one person's blog. For awhile, it seemed like every other blog I followed was posting a review of one of Thirkell's novels. So, when I saw a copy of Growing Up in a used bookstore, I couldn't resist; I snapped it up, brought it home, promptly put it on a shelf .... and never got around to reading it. Until now.

Title:  Growing Up
Year:  1942
Place:  Barsetshire (Anthony Trollope's fictional English county)

Plot:  Sir Harry and Lady Waring's home is being used as a convalescent hospital for soldiers while they themselves live downstairs in the servant's quarters. A young military couple, Noel and Lydia Merton, come to lodge with them for a few months as does their niece, Leslie. And soon life at the Priory gets a little more complicated...and a little more fun. With wit and humor, Thirkell captures the struggle and uncertainty of the war years and deftly mixes it with the resilience and British good cheer of her main characters. There's even a little romance thrown in for good measure.

My thoughts:  This novel started off a little slow for me, but then I relaxed into the rhythm of Thirkell's writing and really started to enjoy her characters and their day-to-day happenings at Winter Overcotes. Lydia is delightfully charming; I loved the interaction between Sir Harry and his wife; and the uncertain romance between Leslie and Colonel Winter added another layer of fun. There were a few other characters I didn't love, but they only added to the eccentricities of life in a small English town. Growing Up reminded me a lot of a Barbara Pym novel with a hint of Elizabeth Gaskell added in.

Happy Reading!

P.S.  Since it was published in 1943, Growing Up fulfills the 20th Century Classic category in Karen's Back to the Classics Challenge. And since it came from my own TBR shelf, it also counts as a read for Lark's Backlist Reader Challenge. One book; two challenges. Gotta love that!

In My Hands by Irene Gut Opdyke

"I was only a girl, alone among the enemy.

What could I do?"

Irene Gut was only seventeen when Poland was invaded by Germany on the West and Russia on the East. Separated from her family, raped by Russian soldiers, and then forced to work for the German army, she found a way not only to survive, but to fight back. She snuck food into the Jewish ghetto, passed on information she overheard from the German officers she served, and managed to hide twelve Jews from the SS in the basement of the house where she worked. She even fought with the Polish Resistance. Her memoir is an amazing story of survival, courage, and sheer grit, and shows what World War II was like through the eyes and heart of a young Polish girl caught between countless enemies who refused to give up. It's honest and moving and several parts made me cry; I read it all in just one day and loved every single word. Irene Gut is such an inspiring person and her story is a truly memorable one. This is one book that's definitely going on my list of favorite reads in 2018!

"The war was a series of choices made by many people. Some of those choices were as wicked and shameful to humanity as anything in history. But some of us made other choices. I made mine. ... I did not ask myself, Should I do this? But, How will I do this? Every step of my childhood had brought me to this crossroad; I must take the right path, or I would no longer be myself. You must understand that I did not become a resistance fighter, a smuggler of Jews, a defier of the SS and the Nazis, all at once. One's first steps are always small:  I had begun by hiding food under a fence."

 Happy Reading!

 

A bookish journey to Budapest...

Title: Katalin Street
Author:  Magda Szabo
Summary:  In prewar Budapest, the Elekes, Held and Biro families live side by side on gracious Katalin Street, their lives closely intertwined, their four children inseparable. Then, in 1944, during the German occupation, all their hopes and dreams for the future are shattered. Lives are lost. And those who survive are forever changed. They are haunted, not only by their own guilt and sorrow, but by their longing to return to their former lives on Katalin Street.

Adjectives that describe this novel:  introspective, poignant, and bleak

Favorite quotes from Katalin Street:

There were several ornaments and objects from her former home too, but none of them conjured up the magic he had been hoping for. Iren's new abode had turned out to be nothing like the one in Katalin Street, and even here he was haunted by the sense of being somewhere else. The marriage to Iren had showed him that she yearned and pined for Katalin Street just as much as he did, that she had not found it, and neither had her parents, who were locked in the same hopeless quest to recover it ... This tyranny of somewhere else was a cruel one. It stopped Balint from seeing both the reality that existed and what he would have liked that reality to be.

The people who were with me on that day were imprinted on my memory--some of them permanently, some for many years afterward--exactly as they were at the time...

It was the first time in my life that I had an inkling that the dead are not dead but continue living in this world, in one form or another, indestructibly...

It is not only facts that are irreversible, our past reactions and feelings are too. One can neither relive them not alter them.

This isn't exactly a happy read, but it is an interesting and thoughtful one. (It's also not very long.) I  like reading about Europe, and World War II, and the time period following it during the Soviet occupation; I think it's important for all of us to know and remember what those times were like for the people who had to endure them. So even though this novel is a little depressing and sad...

Happy Reading!

The Cherry Harvest by Lucy Sanna

The Main Ingredients:
        * Summertime, 1944, in Door County, Wisconsin
        * a cherry orchard in need of laborers
        * German prisoners of war
        * the Christiansen family:  parents Thomas and Charlotte, their teen-age daughter, Kate, who wants to be a writer, and Ben, their son, who's fighting overseas in Italy
        * a lighthouse
        * a murder
        * lies and secrets
        * love and romance

My thoughts:

I have mixed feelings about this book. It was the historical setting that first drew me to this novel, and spunky Kate--with her love of books and her desire to go to college--that kept me reading. (I liked her dad, too.) I had a much harder time sympathizing with, or even liking, her mother, Charlotte. What I enjoyed most was reading about Kate's adventures and newfound romance, but the book focused more on Charlotte and the family's struggles to keep their cherry orchard going and somehow survive the hard times at home caused by the War. Then, towards the end, the story takes a much darker turn than I was expecting. So I didn't end up loving this one, though I do think it's a pretty good historical fiction read, and certainly a memorable one.

Happy Reading!

Ghostly suspense...

"Somebody's living in this house. I heard them earlier. Whispering. When I turned round there was no one there. But there was still whispering."

Lieutenant Dominic Lancaster and his younger sister, Octavia, are sent to their family's summer home near Ullswater to escape the London blitz. Dominic is still recovering from losing his left leg in the war; Octavia is almost completely deaf. They're supposed to be safe in the England countryside, but Hallinhag House is not the sanctuary they hoped it would be.

"The house seems more than quiet. Downcast ... It's full of forgettings ... When I have been here before, the house has seemed filled with light; but that was always the summer, and it is winter now. Perhaps the house has picked up my mood, sensed my new vulnerability, and knows how useless I am. Can houses sense what we feel? Do they feed off all the emotions that have been experienced between their walls? Octavia says there are ghosts here. I admonish her, and I watch her when she comes to this room. She might be serious, but I doubt it. She has no names for these ghosts. Maybe they are silent, like her. 

Told in diary form, Jonathan Aycliffe's The Silence of Ghosts is a quiet tale of Gothic suspense. The house affects Octavia first, but Dominic is not immune. Neither is his nurse, Rose. They all see the children, but it's Octavia that the ghosts want.

I love a good ghost story, especially one set in a house with a mysterious past like Hallinhag House. And while this particular novel isn't the best ghostly tale I've read, it's pretty good. I liked the World War II setting, and the romance between Dominic and Rose. Octavia is a spunky and fun character. And the history of Hallinhag House is unexpected ... and a bit unsettling. All of which makes The Silence of Ghosts a nicely eerie, not too scary, read.  (Though I'm still not sure how I feel about the ending.)

Happy Reading!

Similar Reads:

     The Silence by Sarah Rayne

     The Woman in Black by Susan Hill

     The Fate of Mercy Alban by Wendy Webb

     The Poisoned House by Michael Ford

Istanbul Intrigues

During World War II, Turkey 'teemed with spies
defectors, diplomats, assassins, journalists,
and a future pope.'

Here are a few snippets from this very interesting non-fiction read by Barry Rubin (that I bought at least ten years ago but never read until now):

• Istanbul was Germany's backdoor to the Middle East and the Allies' secret passageway into occupied Europe. It became a center of espionage and intrigue for both sides.
• No less than seventeen foreign intelligence services operated in Turkey during the war. The stakes were high, and the measures taken were desperate.
• Istanbul was no place for the innocent or unwary. Over 200 people made a living by wholesaling information to both sides and retailing it to journalists.
• Diplomats of opposing sides who had been poker-playing friends until war broke out now looked through each other without a flicker of recognition.
• Angelo Guiseppe Roncalli, a poor Italian priest who would later become Pope John XXIII, was assigned as the Vatican's legate and apostolic vicar to Istanbul's few Catholics during this time period.
• The only way the Allies could profit from Turkey's neutrality was to use the country as a secret base for gathering intelligence and supporting European resistance movements. These missions had to be accomplished in a way that would avoid any provocation which might make the Germans attack or the Turks expel the Allies
• "Few people realize how very difficult Turkey's position is and how dangerous a game she has been playing. ... Turkey has rendered her greatest service to the Allied cause by retaining her precious neutrality."

Happy Reading!

From the Y Shelf...

Author: Young, Sara

Title: My Enemy's Cradle

I knew about the Lebensborn and the Nazis' plan to create a 'Master Race' before I read this book, but I didn't know that actual Lebensborn maternity homes were set up throughout Germany. Apparently hundreds of young women came to these homes to live and give birth to their perfect babies during the war. And not just German girls. Girls from almost every western European country participated in this Lebensborn program.

Cyrla is one of those girls, but she has a secret; she's half-Jewish. In My Enemy's Cradle, Cyrla uses her Dutch cousin's, Anneke's, papers to hide in one of these Lebensborn maternity homes in order to protect herself and her unborn child from the Germans. She plans to leave the home before it's time to give birth, but during war time things rarely go as planned.

I liked Cyrla, but found her stubborn refusal to acknowledge the ugly truths of the war a bit frustrating. She continually refuses to admit the precariousness of her own situation just as she refuses to accept the probable fate of her family back in Poland. It takes her quite awhile to grow up. But overall, I found the story of the Lebensborn fascinating, and I also enjoyed the way Young writes. If you like books set during World War II, this is a good one. And another serendipitous find from the Y shelf.

Happy Reading!

P.S. While I did borrow this book from the library, I finished reading it the last week of December, so it's not cheating. The rest of my January posts will all be about books from my own shelves.

Got Mail?

"I've made a friend through paper and pens and envelopes and postage. 

A true friend!"

I love epistolary fiction. There's something about handwritten letters and the conversations you can have when you put pen to paper, seal it in an envelope, and send it off with a stamp. I'll Be Seeing You by Suzanne Hayes and Loretta Nyhan is a lovely and heartwarming epistolary novel set during World War II.

Glory and Rita, the two correspondents, couldn't be more different: Glory is a young bride with two small children living in Rockport, Massachusetts; her husband, Robert, is serving somewhere in Europe. When she gets lonely, she turns to her childhood friend, Levi, and to Rita.

Rita is in her forties and lives in Iowa City, Iowa. Her worries and fears are on two fronts because both her husband, Sal, and her son, Toby, are overseas; Sal is a medic in North Africa and Toby is somewhere in the Pacific. How can they both survive?

Through their letters, Glory and Rita become more than friends. They support and encourage one another, share stories and recipes, and help each other to hold on to hope when all seems hopeless.

"Loneliness is built into the fabric of this war, isn't it? When it gets bad I say a little prayer before I stick my hand in the mailbox, hoping against hope for something glorious. The 'Rockport, Massachusetts' stamp on the front of an envelope means the clouds will part, revealing a brilliant sun. The funny thing is, I don't really need the letters anymore to talk to you--we have whole conversations in my head. Do you hear me there by the sea? Someday after this crazy war is over, we will meet. I look forward to that day..."

Such beautiful writing! Such beautiful letters! The friendship between these two women made me laugh, and cry. It also made me want to open my mailbox and find a letter from Rita or Glory inside addressed to me. The most amazing thing of all about this book? The two authors have never met. They wrote this enitre book through email, one writing Rita's letters, one Glory's. Which makes this a true epistolary novel! I hope they write many more.

Happy Reading!

Another Favorite Read...

The Girl in the Green Sweater by Krystyna Chiger

Krystyna Chiger is just a child when Poland is overrun, first by the Russians, then by the Germans. The Russians take away her father's business; the Germans take away their home and all their possessions. Before the Nazis can take away their lives, Krystyna and her family escape to the safety of Lvov's sewer tunnels, along with several other Jews.

None of these Jews would have survived the war without the help of Leopold Socha and two other Polish sewer workers. These men find them safe places in the sewers to hide, and they bring them food and other necessary supplies. At first, the Polish men charge the group 500 zlotys a day (about $100), but when their money runs out, Socha finds he cannot simply abandon them. In fact, saving Krystyna and her family becomes Socha's own quest for redemption. And when the war is over and they finally emerge from the sewers, Socha proudly announces to all the amazed Poles watching these thin and ragged survivors rising from the darkness, "These are my Jews. This is my work!"

This book made me cry. It's such an amazing story of friendship, miracles, hope, and survival. I'm glad so many survivors of World War II and the Holocaust have written down their stories so that we can read them. This is one of my favorite books from that time period. For me, this book is a definite must-read! I hope you read it, and think so, too.

Happy Reading!

Similar reads:

     The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom

     Prisoner B-3087 by Alan Gratz

Prisoner B-3087

The Jewish ghetto, the Wieliczka salt mine, concentration camps, death camps, the gas chamber, a death march ... Birkenau, Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen, Buchenwald, Dachau ... No one could survive them all.  Yet somehow Yanek Gruener did.

Sound unrealistic and unbelievable?  It's not.  Although Prisoner B-3087 by Alan Gratz is a fictionalized YA novel, it is based on the true life story of Jack Gruener, who at the age of 13 decided that he was not going to die at the hand of the Nazis.

"In the place of my pain, I felt the stirring of determination.

I would not give up.  I would not turn myself in.  No matter

what the Nazis did to me, no matter what they took from me,

I would survive."

And he did.

I loved this book.  Like The Hiding Place and The Diary of Anne Frank, this is a book everyone should read.  It's that good.

Other, similar books you might want to check out:  Destined to Live by Ruth Gruener and The Girl in the Green Sweater by Krystyna Chiger.  Both are amazing stories of hope and survival.