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 gem...

Kristen at We Be Reading blogged about this book a few weeks ago and I'm so glad she did because this book is awesome. The way John Atkinson can take a classic and capture its essence with a witty and pithy one or two-panel cartoon is amazing. I loved each and every one. It's a book you can read in under an hour, and savor for days. Here are a few of my favorites:

Isn't this a perfect summary of Proust? I know it made me laugh.

I also thought this one was pretty funny.

And then there are these:

Aren't they great?

  

So, if you get a chance to check out this delightfully funny book of abridged classics don't pass it up! It's one of my favorite books of 2018!

Happy Reading!

Recipe for a fun read:

Combine one streetwise pick-pocket, two curators from the British Museum, and the fiesty daughter of an English clergyman.

Mix in the secretive Department of Unclassified Artifacts, some graverobbers, a walking dead man, a lost diary, murder at the museum, and some mechanical monsters.

Add a dash of humor and a teaspoon of suspense.
Set in all in Victorian London and stir.


What do you get?


An entertaining mystery that reminded me of a Holmes and Watson adventure. I liked the characters, especially Eddie the pick-pocket and Liz. And George Archer, one of the museum curators, had some mad mechanical skills. And I thought those mechanical monsters were both creepy and cool. There were a few chapters in the middle that read a little slow, but overall I liked this one. And even though it's labeled as a YA, it didn't feel like a YA to me. The Death Collector by Justin Richards is a fun mystery that readers of all ages can enjoy.

Happy Reading!

The Grand Sophy

Meet Sophia Stanton-Lacy.  Headstrong. Outrageous. And above all else, unforgettable. I wasn't sure I liked her at first, but she grew on me. And while I'd never want her "organizing" my own life, I thoroughly enjoyed watching her meddle in her cousins' lives. Especially the Honorable Charles Rivenhall's. Here are a few of my favorite quotes from this fun Georgette Heyer Regency romance, all about the redoubtable Sophy:

"Sophy would never be a beauty. She was by far too tall; nose and mouth were both too large, and a pair of excessive gray eyes could scarcely be held to atone entirely for these defects. Only you could not forget Sophy."

"We are all very fond of my dear niece...but she is too fatiguing. One does not know what next she will do, or, which is worse by far, what she will make one do that one does not wish at all."

"Sir Horace himself couldn't stop her, not when she's got the bit between her teeth."

"I have a great many faults, but I am not lazy, and I am not timorous--though that, I know, is not a virtue, for I was born without any nerves at all, my father tells me, and almost no sensibility.... I have not yet made up my mind just what I should do, but I may need your assistance in breaking this foolish engagement."

"...her determination once taken, no consideration of propriety would deter her from embarking on schemes which might well prove to be as outrageous as they were original."

Happy Reading!

P. S.  If you want to know more about Georgette Heyer and her many entertaining Regency romances, Helen over at She Reads Novels recently wrote an excellent post about her with links to all of her own Georgette Heyer novel reviews, so be sure to check it out!

Bookish Trivia...

A Celebration of Reading!
March 7th in the UK;
April 23 everywhere else.

Lesesuct:  n. (German) An addiction to reading.



Richest authors in the world (according to 2017 Forbes List):

               ◉ J. K. Rowling   ($95 million)
 
               ◉ James Patterson   ($87 million)

Librocubicularist: n. A person who reads in bed.

(A term coined by Christopher Morley in his novel The Haunted Bookshop)

◉ Bibliolatry:  an excessive devotion to books.

◉ Bibliobibuli:  people who read to much. (Is there such a thing as reading too much?!) 

◉ Bibliomania:  excessive book collecting.

◉  Bibliophobia:  a fear of books

Most prolific author:  Barbara Cartland who wrote and published 720 novels in her lifetime. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, she is also the author who's written the most novels in one year:  23.

Runners up:

      R.L. Stine -- 400+ books 

      Danielle Steel -- 167 books

      James Patterson -- 147 books

Of note:

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins is considered to be one of the earliest mystery/detective novels and the first "sensation" novel. Since it was first published in 1859, it has never been out of print.

Longest book ever written (according to Guinness):  Remembrance of Things Past by Marcel Proust 

Lipogrammatic novel:  The Void by Georges Perec (A novel written entirely without ever using the letter E. So how did he sign his name on it?)

Book-bosomed: adj. someone who carries a book with them at all times.

 (This term was coined by Sir Walter Scott.)

A haunting tale...

Title & Author:  The House Next Door by Darcy Coates
Genre:  Paranormal
First line:  I live next to a haunted house.

Summary:  Jo has never been inside Marwick House; her cats won't even enter its yard. And she's never met any of its occupants either, mostly because none of them stay for very long. Until Anna moves in. She seems nice, and a little fragile, and Jo tries to warn her that sometimes strange things happen in Marwick House, but Anna doesn't seem to mind. Not even when she sees the ghost of Helen Marwick who died a very unhappy death there years ago. But things change when Helen starts to make her presence known.

My thoughts:  I love novels about haunted houses and Darcy Coates writes some good ones. At first, Marwick House seems fairly benign. There's a little ghostly activity here and there--flickering lights, doors that open and close, haunting piano music in the hall--but it's not until the second half of the book that things ramp up and start to get really suspenseful and scary. I was intrigued by Marwick House itself, and I liked the quiet build up at the first, and how I almost felt sorry for Helen. Jo and Anna were a little too passive at times for me to really like them, but Jo made up for it at the end. And what an ending! Although I thought the The Carrow Haunt was better, I liked this ghostly tale enough to give it 3.5/5 stars.

Happy Reading!

August's Bookish Art...

Alexander Averin -- Saying Good-bye to the Day

"Books are a uniquely portable magic."

--Stephen King


Happy Reading!