Library Loot

This week's loot!

Daughters of India, by Jill McGivering:   "Isabel, born into the British Raj, and Asha, a young Hindu girl, both consider India their home. Through mischance and accident their stories intersect and circumstances will bring them from the bustling city of Delhi to the shores of the Andaman Islands, from glittering colonial parties to the squalor and desperation of a notorious prison; and into the lives of men on opposing sides of the fight for self-government"

I'm always on the lookout for historical fiction set in places I've never been.  

At Least We Lived: the Unlikely Adventures of an English Couple in WWII China, by  Emma Oxford.  Pretty much what the subtitle says.  A young Englishwoman goes to China in 1943, meets and marries an Englishman who had escaped from Japanese-controlled Hong Kong. Written by their daughter.   






Library Loot is courtesy of The Captive Reader

Briefly Reviewed

Title: A Secret Gift: How One Man's Kindness and a Trove of Letters Revealed the Hidden History of the Great Depression
Author: Ted Gup
Edition: Penguin Press, 2010
Setting: USA, Great Depression
Genre:  Nonfiction

Just before Christmas in 1933, an pseudonymous benefactor placed an ad in a Canton, Ohio newspaper offering a small amount of money to families suffering because of the Great Depression.  The author is the grandson of that benefactor, Sam Stone, and this is both a family history and a history of life during hard times.  The hard times are indeed hard: breadwinners have been out of work for years, families are hungry, children go barefoot all year because shoes are a luxury their parents can't afford, people die for lack of medical care because they can't pay bills, businesses go bankrupt, renters are evicted and homeowners lose their homes, depositors lose their life savings in bank failures, parents surrender their children to orphanages because they can't feed them. The author uses the letters his grandfather received to illustrate just what ordinary people went through trying to survive the Great Depression.  These letters are sad, inspiring, moving, tear-jerking - sometimes all in the same letter.  They remind us of the difference a social safety net makes. 

The family history, oddly enough is somewhat less interesting, partly because it is spread throughout the book and loses the impact when told that way.  It is an interesting history, but the connection between Sam's generous act and his life history seems rather tenuous to me.  Still, a worthwhile book, and an important history lesson.


 
Title: Nurse in Blue
Author: Gladys Taber
Edition:  Triangle Books, 1944
Setting:  USA during WWII
Genre:   Women's Fiction

Gladys Taber was a prolific American mid-century writer who wrote a number of interesting books about her country home, Stillmeadow. She's best known for those books, but she also wrote novels, of which Nurse in Blue is one.  Written during World War II, its heroine, Janet, leaves her midwestern home, nursing job, and fiance, Philip, to become a Navy nurse in New York City.  Will Janet give up her dream of helping win the war with her nursing skills to go back to the midwest as Philip's (bored) wife?  Will she end up with the strong and silent type she meets in New York, Chris (oh, please - NO)?  Will she marry someone else?  The question of will she follow her skills, education, and abilities and have a career doesn't really arise - this was written in 1942-43, and that option is apparently well, not an option.  The writing is fresh and lively, the character of Janet and her friend Francesca, believable, the men less so.  The ending is unbelievably hurried.  But if you want to catch the flavor of what women were reading in the war years, this is probably a good example. 

Library Loot

Back from a break & some Thanksgiving travel and it's time for Library Loot!

Leaving Berlin, by Joseph Kanon.  I'm new to Kanon's writing, but so far, I'm enjoying this story of Berlin during the airlift of the late 1940s.   















Gunner Girls and Fighter Boys, by Mary Gibson.  Don't be deceived by the title or cover, either of which would lead you to believe this is a breezy historical romance.  This is the tale of two British sisters during WWII who live in a poor section of London.  Much grittier than I had assumed and the writing moves right along.  









Library Loot is courtesy of The Silly Little Mischief blog

Book Beginning

From Miss Boston and Miss Hargreaves, by Rachel Malik:  

"She stood at the window, looking out at the fields beyond, her fields.  The calves were up by the gate, nosing each other, waiting for her - still unsure of their new routine.  The great horse chestnut tree was swaying, she could hear it from here, feel the cool of its shade.  In Fair Field, the oats were just starting to pale - her oats.  The rest of the view was blocked by the tallboy.  She had dragged it in last night.  It was badly splintered at the back, but at least it was empty.  She carried on standing at the window, looking out, waiting."

This is the wonderful opening sentence to an excellent novel.  The lovely descriptive writing is found throughout the book.  And we know that "she", whoever she is, has a strong sense of ownership over everything she's looking at, new though it may be to the cows (and to her?).  And then there's that tallboy.  Why is she dragging it in?  That phrase, "badly splintered" is going to be a theme of this novel, in the material poverty both characters endure.  "She" is Miss Boston, and she is waiting for Miss Hargreaves to join her on her English farm during WWII.   Read on for a beautifully written character study.  



Book Beginning is courtesy of Rose City Reader

Briefly Reviewed

Title:The Way to London

Author: Alix Rickloff
Edition: William Morrow Paperbacks, 2017
Setting: WWII Britain and Singapore
Genre: Historical Fiction

 I enjoyed reading this interesting if a bit predictable book. This work of historical fiction is set in WWII; it begins Singapore and ends in London with a road trip along the way (as the title alludes to). Lucy is an unhappy, rebellious, spoiled young woman - unhappy and rebellious for good reasons, but still. She is sent away from Singapore to relatives in Cornwall by her truly awful mother (the relatives and the country house in Cornwall will be familiar to readers of Alix Rickloff's "Secrets of Nanreath Hall"). In Singapore she meets a young man who is also headed to Britain. Once Lucy gets to Cornwall the story really begins, as Lucy gets involved with a young evacuee, Bill who is miserable in his foster parents' home. The two of them end up on a journey to London to find Bill's mother (and a symbolic journey to find love). Bill provides amusement in the novel; I enjoyed that character more than any other. The young man joins Lucy and Bill and there is a satisfying end for all. As I say, a bit predictable, but still quite enjoyable. I would recommend it to anyone who is looking for a well-written and researched WWII novel that is somewhat lighter in tone than most in that category. I received a copy through the Early Reviewers Giveaway at Library Thing.

Latvian Elegy

Title: Among the Living and the Dead: A Tale of Exile and Homecoming on the War Roads of Europe

Author: Inara Verzemnieks
Edition: W.W. Norton Company, 2017
Setting: Latvia and the US
Genre: Memoir, Family History

My husband asked me what I was reading, and I told him, "one of the saddest stories ever told."  Don't let that dissuade you, however, from reading this elegy to the author's Latvian family.  Verzemnieks is from a Latvian peasant family; this book recounts the family's history from the late 1880s to today.  And it's quite a history, from the superstitions and myths that ruled and gave meaning to her great-grandparent's lives to the ambition that led them to own their farm to the misery the family lived through during WWII and during Soviet control of their country.  

The writing is vivid:  just as her grandmother described her lost farm in Latvia so that young Inara would be able to feel, see, smell, and touch it, so grown Inara describes it just as vividly to the reader.  A voice is compared to "a match drawn across phosphorus", and the family farm is described as "the roof rises above the grass line to meet us, though its edges sag, brushing the ground in places, like the hem of a skirt coming loose.”  The stories her grandmother tells her about the myths and legends of Latvia seem almost like preparation for the stories of the war and aftermath which are like particularly terrible Grimm's fairy tales.  But this is also a hopeful tale, one of survival, one of resilience, one of peace found after grim struggle.

The narrative skips around through time, but the author's skill is such that I had no trouble following it.  The beauty of the writing and the story make this moving book highly recommended.

Briefly Reviewed

Title: The Last Lost Girl

Author:  Maria Hoey
Edition: Poolbeg Crimson;  July, 2017
Setting:  Ireland, 1960s
Genre:  Mystery

 
This is the story of an Irish family (mother, father, and three sisters) whose lives change forever in the summer of 1976.   A dual timeline story, it follows the three girls in 1976 as the summer progresses toward the social event the eldest (Lilly) looks forward to.  Lilly is 15 and pushing boundaries.  Gayle, the middle daughter desperately seeks approval from everyone.  Jacqueline, the youngest, spies on her sisters.  Dad drinks more than he should, and the mother has aspirations to a better life.  All of this leads toward a family tragedy that Jacqueline tries to unravel as an adult.  This was a very well-written book - the sisters' characters are sharply defined as early as the first chapter - with lovely prose.  The story kept my attention; I burned through it over a weekend.  I didn't find the characters unlikeable; I found them to be deeply human with the strengths and faults so many people have.  I received a copy from the publisher.

Title: The Marriage Bureau

Author:  Penrose Halson
Edition: HarperCollins Publisher, May 2017
Setting: Britain
Genre:  Non-Fiction

This non-fiction book was a very enjoyable read. It's the story of two friends who started a marriage bureau in London just before the outbreak of WWII. Using material from a company archive (and how fortunate that these materials had been saved!), the author presents matchmaking stories that are funny, sad, touching, and occasionally outrageous or heartrending. The ins and outs of how the matchmakers dealt with their clients - and what a variety of clients they were - is fascinating. And the matchmakers themselves were quite unusual characters too. If you enjoyed Call the Midwife or Home Fires, this is the book for you. I received a copy from the publisher.

 

A Coming of Age Classic

Title: Rumors of Peace

Author: Ella Leffland

Edition: Perennial Library, 1985 (first published in 1979 by Harper & Row)

Setting: WWII era small, industrial town east of San Francisco, CA

Genre: Coming of age story

Suse Hansen is a 10 year old tomboy, living a life of school, home, and family in her small, working class town east of San Francisco when WWII suddenly intrudes into her life in the form of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. This powerful, beautifully written novel describes her moral growth from the 10 year old whose first prayer is that the sherrif shoot the Nisei citizens of her town to 14 year old who understands so much more about the nature of war and the nature of human beings by the time the US drops two atomic bombs on Japan. The bloodthirstiness (and fear) of her youth has grown into a deeper understanding of what drives people to fear and revenge, hate, war, and love.

Lest this all sound depressing or boring, be assured it is neither. Like many adolescents, Suse's view of her world: her friends, her teachers, her parents is extremely funny at times. And the instinctual goodness of her nature makes her question and question again how she feels about the war. She is helped in that questioning by Helen Maria, the genius older sister of her friend Peggy, and the example set by her loving, hard-working parents.

The book is filled with wonderful, vivid characters: Helena Maria and Peggy, Suse's sort-of friend Valerie, classmate Dumb Donny (who's not so dumb at all), good-time girl Eudene, and assorted teachers and parents.

Don't miss this neglected classic.