THE PASSENGER (2021 / first published in 1939)

The Passenger by Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Do you think you could imagine what it was like to live in 1938 Germany? Well unless you lived it, you probably can't. Reading "The Passenger" is like living the nightmare of the Kristallnacht pograms that took place in Germany and Austria between November 7 and 13, 1938. Apprehension slowly turns to absolute fear as German Jew Otto Silbermann, a wealthy Berlin businessman, twists and turns trying to escape the web created by the Nazis by riding trains, but there is nowhere to go and no one is safe. Realizing this happened to real people and not that long ago, it seems unbelievable, but as the reader goes on Otto's journey, it becomes clear it was also unbelievable to him.

It has been written that "this is likely the first literary account of these atrocities". Originally published in English in the United States in 1939 the book didn't attract much attention and then went out of print. It didn't help that the young author died in 1942. Recently re-discovered and edited by Philip Boehm, the book is getting the exposure it demands. The history of the book and the tragic life of the author is included. Translation from the German is by Philip Boehm.

Thanks to Metropolitan Books/Henry Holt and Co. and NetGalley for the ARC; opinions are mine.

 

#ThePassenger #NetGalley

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THE HOUSE ON VESPER SANDS (2021)

The House on Vesper Sands by Paraic O'Donnell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A clever ghost story set in Victorian London.

FIRST LINE: "In Half Moon Street, just as she came near to the house, Esther Tull felt the first gentleness of the snow."

THE STORY: On a snowy London evening during the dreary winter of 1893, mysterious and unpleasant events are taking place. A young woman makes a dreadful decision. A wealthy gentleman disappears. An impoverished divinity scholar seeks shelter in a church and discovers an incapacitated young woman. In the morning she is gone.

The scholar, Gideon, vows to find and rescue the girl. Happening upon Inspector Cutter, he passes himself off as police officer and he and the Inspector head off to investigate a string of missing young women.

Meanwhile Octavia Hillingdon, a reporter, is trying to convince her editor to let her stray from the women's page and follow up on the story of the missing young women.

WHAT I THOUGHT: The story unfolds slowly alternately introducing characters. Connections are not immediately obvious but make sense as the plot moves forward. A complicated tale but easy enough to follow.

Sherlockian in tone, the clever writing is amusing especially between 'Sergeant' Gideon and Inspector Cutter, but somewhere in the second half, the story seemed less of a piece and more of a mosaic of incidents. Still the mood created and the descriptive writing is definitely worth reading.

BOTTOM LINE: RECOMMENDED for those who love historical fiction, ghost stories, literate mysteries.

DISCLAIMER: A copy of The House on Vesper Sands was provided to me by Tin House Books/Net Galley for an honest review.

Hardcover: 408 pages
Publisher: Tin House Books (January 12, 2021)

ISBN-10: 1951142241

ISBN-13: 978-1951142247

THE AUTHOR: Paraic O'Donnell

 

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THE CHILDREN'S BLIZZARD (2021)

The Children's Blizzard by Melanie Benjamin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

One hundred thirty three years ago on January 12, 1888, a terrifying blizzard hit the Northwest Plains. They say the temperature dropped almost 100 degrees in 24 hours. Referred to as the children's blizzard, at least 232 people perished, many of them children just dismissed from school.

Author Melanie Benjamin has taken a true event and shaped it into a compelling story. The first half, "A Disturbance in the West," sets the background for her story of two young sisters, both school teachers, and the impossible choices they are forced to make to protect their students when the unexpected storm hits. The description of the blizzard is overwhelming. The narrative switches among Gerta, her sister Raina, and Gavin Woodson, a jaded newspaper man banished from New York to Omaha.

Part two, "The Maiden of the Prairie," deals with the aftermath of the storm and consequences of the life or death decisions that were made. Holding all the stories together is the reporter who, guilty of having written false copy luring many immigrants to this desolate area, commits to write about the aftermath of the blizzard.

To make sure today's reader understands the conditions in 1888, the author describes the realities of life during that time period that allowed this tragedy to happen.

The narration of events during the unrelenting blizzard are knuckle-biters. This is a story where the reader will have no trouble remembering the characters or their ultimate fate. This is not an 'everyone lives happily ever' story but rather one of survival.

BOTTOM LINE:  This is a book you will read and recommend to all your friends! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. 

 

DISCLAIMER: A copy of The Children's Blizzard was provided to me by Delacorte Press /Net Galley for an honest review.

 

Hardcover: 368 pages
Publisher: Delacorte Press (January 12, 2021)
ISBN-10: 0399182284
ISBN-13: 978-0399182280

THE AUTHOR: Melanie Benjamin is the New York Times bestselling author of Mistress of the Ritz, The Girls in the Picture, The Swans of Fifth Avenue, The Aviator's Wife, The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb, and Alice I Have Been. Benjamin lives in Chicago, where she is at work on her next historical novel.

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THE STOLEN MARRIAGE: A NOVEL 2017

The Stolen Marriage by Diane Chamberlain
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The first book I have been able to finish in quite a while. Definitely a beach read but it was hard to put down. Something happens in every chapter that makes you want to turn just one more page.

THE FIRST LINE: "It's a terrible feeling, being despised."

THE STORY: Tess and Vincent have loved each other all their lives and plan to marry, but one fateful weekend changes everything. Tess ends up marrying another man and moving to Hickory, North Carolina where she endures a loveless marriage. How she finds herself during the polio epidemic of 1944 is historically fascinating.

WHAT I THOUGHT: This is my second Diane Chamberlain and it appears that her formula is similar. Her chic-lit stories feature young women allowing secrets to complicate their lives. This plot has everything but the kitchen sink, but you'll keep reading until all the secrets are revealed. My lack of enthusiasm is a minority. Other readers adore everything Dian Chamberlain has written.

Historical fiction is not my first choice but this book incorporates an event that actually happened.

"In June 1944, the citizens of Hickory built a hospital in 54 hours to save their children from the worst polio outbreak that had ever hit the United States. Looking back now, even knowing the results – 13 wards erected, doctors and nurses flocking in by the dozens, hundreds of patients treated and released, with only 12 deaths, one of the country’s lowest-ever rates for polio – the enormity of the undertaking still bewilders." (Charles D. Dixon, Hickory NC)

As a matter of fact, I found myself talking about this to my book group mostly because of the historical aspects. I have called Diane Chamberlain's work 'Nancy Drew stories for adults' but that isn't fair. I was drawn into the story because so many of the outrageous things mirrored parts of my own life and many other women. Besides when I was growing up, I read every Nancy Drew I could find. It's good to know that there are tons of other titles waiting for me to pick up!

Title: The Stolen Marriage

Author: Diane Chamberlain

Genre: Women's Fiction

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

No. of Pages: 384

Copyright: October 3, 2017

ISBN-10: 1250087279

ISBN-13: 978-1250087270

Disclaimer: An advanced reading copy (ARC) of this book was provided to me by St. Martin's Press and Net Galley for an honest review.

DIANE CHAMBERLAIN is the international bestselling author of more than 25 novels published in more than twenty languages, including The Broken String and The Silent Sister. She lives in North Carolina with her partner, photographer John Pagliuca, and her shelties, Keeper and Cole.

AT THE WATER'S EDGE (2015)

At the Water's Edge by Sara Gruen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

After reading and loving Water for Elephants a few years back, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to request Sara Gruen's new title and I guess I wasn't alone. "At the Water’s Edge debut[ed] at #6 on the New York Times bestseller list, #5 on the Indie bestseller list, and #12 on the USA Today bestseller list!"

THE STORY: Madeline Hyde and her husband Ellis never go anywhere without his best friend Hank. Drinking, dancing, spending money, and amusing themselves consumes their days; but they throw away their privileged lives when they disgrace themselves at a fashionable Philadelphia New Year's Eve party. To escape, Ellis and Hank decide to make good on the many times they have talked about hunting down the Loch Ness monster. Maddie has always thought of their discussions as a game. After all, it is 1944 and World War II is raging; but Hank finds a ship that will take them across the Atlantic and thus begins a journey that will change them all.

The remote Scottish Highland and its inhabitants aren't particularly welcoming to this frivolous trio who expect to be waited on in the middle of difficult times. While the men go off to search for monsters, Maddie, left behind, learns more about the people and how they survive. She makes friends and begins to understand what life can really be.

WHAT I THOUGHT: A mixture of historical fiction (the Scottish during WWII), romance, coming of age, mysticism (Loch Ness monster hunting), and more, the book seems over the top sometimes but is always compelling. It is impossible not to think of Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series (without the time travel) when you read this story.

FIRST SENTENCE: "The headstone was modest and hewn of black granite, granite being one of the few things never in short supply in Glenurquhart, even during the present difficulties."

BOTTOM LINE: Women everywhere will be reading this book - a great beach read!

Disclaimer: An advanced reading copy (ARC) of this book was provided to me by NetGalley for an honest review.

Title: At the Water's Edge

Author: Sara Gruen

Genre: Historical Fiction

Publisher: Spiegel & Grau (an imprint of Random House)

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

No. of Pages: 368

Copyright: 1st edition (March 31, 2015)

ISBN-10: 0385523238

ISBN-13: 978-0385523233

Sara Gruen is the #1 New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of Water for Elephants, Ape House, Riding Lessons, and Flying Changes. Her works have been translated into forty-three languages and have sold more than ten million copies worldwide. She lives in western North Carolina with her husband and three sons, along with their dogs, cats, horses, birds, and the world’s fussiest goat. (From Amazon)

THE HOUSE GIRL (2013)

The House Girl by Tara Conklin
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was intrigued from the first sentence and read the book quickly in just several days. This was a Kindle purchase and the title was chosen for our book group so I didn't know what to expect.

Ordinarily I wouldn't pick up an historical novel, but author Tara Conklin has created two compelling contrasting worlds (one in the past and one in the present) to tell her story. Alternating between the life of 'house girl' slave Josephine Bell and that of fast track lawyer Lina Sparrow makes for a compelling story.

Being a 'house girl' of a childless family, Josephine has been taught to read and has a naturally brilliant talent for creating artwork although most of it is attributed to her mistress.

Lina is handed the opportunity of a lifetime when she is assigned to find the perfect plaintiff for a court case involving reparations for slaves.

How the two stories weave together and eventually become one will keep the reader engaged although the writing is a bit flowery at times.
 
My book group doesn't meet until next Thursday so I may update these comments after I hear what everyone thinks.

Recommended for a solid summer read.

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MY ANTONIA (1918)

My Antonia by Willa Cather
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What is amazing is that it took me so long to discover Willa Cather's My Antonia, a complex and elegant remembrance that appears as a deceptively simple story.

I read this for my book group, In Good Company. We talk over dinner and can often veer off subject. There was more discussion about My Antonia than any of the other titles we have read over the year we have been meeting. And it was universally loved no matter how individual perceptions varied. We gossiped about the characters just as if they were friends and neighbors we cared about.

Discover this book for yourself. Forget the description that it's the tale of an immigrant girl named Antonia growing up in Nebraska. It's so much more.

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THE SECRET RIVER (2006)

The Secret River by Kate Grenville
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was the choice of our new book group aptly named IN GOOD COMPANY. It is the first in a trilogy I don't plan to read, not because it isn't an excellent book. It is. It won the Orange Prize and was a bestseller in Australia. But historical fiction has never been my choice.

On the other hand, I learned a lot from Kate Grenville's beautifully written story of the settling of Australia by criminals transported to New South Wales. She follows William Thornhill and his family as they struggle to exist first in London through petty crime and later in the wilds of a strange, new country. William is caught and sentenced to death, but he is pardoned. Being banished to an untamed country affords William and these other resourceful men a second chance. They land can be theirs.

Unfortunately that opportunity comes at the expense of the native population. (Does this sound familiar?)

Whether by choice or chance the author tells the husband's tale and the reader is left to guess at the internal turmoil of the wife with the hardships of isolation and terrible burdens placed upon her.

Poetic language and an eye for detail brings this book alive.

I particularly loved this quote, "It was as if he had thought his way along a considerable conversation, but only this end-point had surfaced as words."

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Next Up

I have finished Gone Girl, the ultimate beach read of 2012, and need to write my review. In the meantime, I was once again enjoying the phase where I get to choose my next book.

Then I read this review on Carrie K.s blog BOOKS AND MOVIES and a new title - and a Young Adult one at that -  hopped to the top of the list. Check out what Carrie wrote HERE. The book is Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein and it sounds like a gem.

Why I am not going to read SERENA (2008)

Recently, in a talk to a group of book lovers, I shared Nancy Pearl's approach to enjoying reading. She espouses her Rule of 50 which states "If you still don't like a book after slogging through the first 50 pages, set it aside. If you're more than 50 years old, subtract your age from 100 and only grant it that many pages." Being well over 50 these days, allows me to read even fewer pages before calling it quits.

Ron Rash's new book The Cove is on reserve for me at my local library. While waiting, I thought I would read his earlier Serena. There seems to be much division of opinion on Serena. Love it or hate it. I just don't want to read it.

"The year is 1929, and newlyweds George and Serena Pemberton travel from Boston to the North Carolina mountains where they plan to create a timber empire."

Right there things begin to fall outside my areas of interest. Rash's first novel was called 'a masterful balance of violence and beauty' and 'riveting' so don't let my lack of enthusiasm turn you away from this book. And who knows what my reaction to The Cove will be?

Long Drive Home: A Novel by Will Allison

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This will sound odd but I was reminded of Scott Smith's A Simple Plan while reading this slim volume. In that book stolen money is found but there is no safe way to take it without being caught. Both are cautionary tales.

In Long Drive Home there was the same sense of dread from "a small unworthy" act that turned into a web that was ultimately inescapable.

The conceit in this story is that the narrator is writing to his daughter to explain his actions and finally tell the truth after a young man is killed in a car accident they witnessed. Our lives are governed by choices we make and choices made based upon untruths can unravel our world.

Will Allison writes a compelling story. This is his second book following What You Have Left (2007). What I was surprised by is that the beginning of that book is included with this one. Considering that it won several awards, I am guessing that the publishers think it could have a further life and I agree. I remember being impressed when I read it.

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The Swan Thieves versus 13 Reasons Why

And the winner is 13 Reasons Why. It might not seem like a fair match-up since The Swan Thieves is a very long, obsessive love story that weaves the past and the present together. 13 Reasons Why is a clever format for exploring teenage suicide readable in a day or two.

Neither book was outstanding.

I preferred Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian, which gathered together castle ruins, old letters, and vampire lore to create a wonderful, if uneven, read. She used the old letter technique with less success in The Swan Thieves. Often the flashbacks seemed an interruption of the story rather than moving it along. After pages and pages the ending seemed rushed and less than hoped for. I was fascinated by the inclusion of information on how painters work and the historical information about the Impressionists. The author's website is extensive with information and lists of additional resources.

13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher is a young adult title that has been around since 2007. The author uses the device of intertwining dialogue: a voice on tape in italics and the reactions in the mind of the listener. The story is accessible (even to reluctant readers) and probably more accurate in its portrayal of teen angst that can lead to suicide than many other attempts to deal with this difficult subject. Another helpful and interesting website is provided as well as a presence on Facebook.

It took me forever to plod through The Swan Thieves. I devoured 13 Reasons Why in two days filled with other activities.

A Discovery of Witches (2011)

Another title has caught my reluctant attention. A Discovery of Witches: A Novel by Deborah E. Harkness, a debut and the first in a planned trilogy, has received attention from Entertainment Weekly, who gave it a B+. That grade alone would have informed me to give it a pass, which was reinforced by the fact the series is about witches and vampires. But the EW reviewer also ended the review referring to a 'satisfying ending' and pages that turned 'as if on their own'.

From the author's website:

When historian Diana Bishop opens a bewitched alchemical manuscript in Oxford’s Bodleian Library it represents an unwelcome intrusion of magic into her carefully ordinary life. Though descended from a long line of witches, she is determined to remain untouched by her family’s legacy. She banishes the manuscript to the stacks, but Diana finds it impossible to hold the world of magic at bay any longer.

If this book sounds fascinating, reading an interview with the author will only enhance your interest. I love the fact that Deborah is an historian, which reminds me of the other book I devoured a few years ago by Elizabeth Kostova called (unexpectedly) The Historian. I didn't expect to like that book either but was swept away by the author's beautiful descriptions of  foreign locales and the mysterious plot. From what I've read, Witches becomes a love story as well. We shall see. (I just checked my library and only one copy is on order. That probably isn't sufficient. I placed a 'hold'.)

Magic City (1997)

Magic City: A Novel by Jewell Parker Rhodes


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Jewell Parker Rhodes is the speaker this week at the Jackson District Library Word Wise Celebration. In preparation for her visit, I decided to read one of her books and chose "Magic City". Historical fiction isn't a genre I usually select but this book moved me.

The author took a terrible episode out of African American experience in this country and turned it into a story about people you came to care about. You'll wonder why you never heard about the Tulsa Race Riots of 1921 before but you'll never forget them after reading this book.

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