My Top 5… World War Two novels

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This was an impossible list to write. My childhood was filled with World War Two novels and films, plus lots of cowboy and westerns too, thanks to my father. So this list combines childhood favourites with literature discovered in later years.

‘Sophie’s Choice’ by William Styron World War TwoWho can forget the book, or that scene in the 1982 film. Sophie’s Choice: the phrase now commonly known to mean ‘an impossible choice’. Buy now

‘Where Eagles Dare’ by Alistair MacLean World War TwoThe 1968 film: Clint Eastwood, Richard Burton, need I say more? I gobbled Alistair MacLean’s books as a child; cheap paperbacks bought by my father and read by us all. Old-fashioned now, but still great page-turners. Buy now

‘Schindler’s Ark’ by Thomas Keneally World War TwoI bought this one in July 1983 after it won the 1982 Booker Prize. In 1993 it was made into the film Schindler’s List starring Liam Neeson as Oskar Schindler, Ben Kingsley as Itzhak Stern and a young Ralph Fiennes as the terrifying Amon Goeth. Buy now

‘Fortunes of War 1-3’ [The Balkan Trilogy] by Olivia Manning World War TwoGuy and Harriet Pringle [aka a very young Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thomspon, then married in real life, in the 1987 BBC television production]. I read the trilogy with hunger, back-to-back. They are still on my bookshelf, in fact all of these top five books are still on my bookshelf as are the others listed below. Buy now

‘Empire of the Sun’ by JG Ballard World War TwoAnother book turned into a great film. Features the Batman actor as a child, Christian Bale. This was the edition I bought, and my introduction to Ballard. After this, I bought many more of his books. Buy now

I have many more favourites:-
Fatherland and Enigma by Robert Harris
The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
The End of the Affair by Graham Greene
The Reader by Bernhard Schlink
The Eagle has Landed by Jack Higgins
Captain Corelli’s Mandolin by Louis de Bernières
Restless by William Boyd
Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky
A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute

Others on my to-read pile?
Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum
Every Man Dies Alone by Hans Fallada
Night by Elie Wiesel

Do you agree with my other ‘Top 5’ choices?:-
My Top 5… music to write to
My top 5… novels about paintings
My Top 5… the Booker winners I re-read, and why

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#BookReview ‘Confusion’ by Elizabeth Jane Howard #historical #WW2

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Confusion, the third in the five-book series by Elizabeth Jane Howard which is ‘The Cazalet Chronicles,’ covers March 1942 to July 1945, again we see the family’s experiences through the teenage eyes of Polly, Louise and Clary. Much has changed now as the war progresses, particularly affecting the role of women, the breakdown of class barriers, the empowerment of working women and educated poor. Elizabeth Jane HowardThese books are quite a social history of a period which more often is the reserve of thrillers and spy novels. Elizabeth Jane Howard has a subtle hand when it comes to observing relationship, such as Polly’s observation after her mother’s death: “It was possible to believe that she was gone; it was their not ever coming back that was so difficult.” Confusion is in part a study of the grief of Polly and her father Hugh; and that of Clary and Neville, whose father Rupert has disappeared in action in France. Clary continues to believe her father is still alive, though the rest of the family quietly accepts his death. Then word from France brings a sliver of hope. Clary grieves for the father she remembers as a child, writing a daily diary for him, and not as the soldier he died as.
The other theme in Confusion is love, or the lack of it. Louise’s story is not about death but about young love, expectations and marriage and the realization that her husband Michael is more strongly wedded to his mother Zee than to her. There are war-time affairs, some lust, some love, and with all of them comes the confusion of uncertain times, stress and the pressure of living life ‘now’.
War seems ordinary in the everyday sense, but the Cazalets are living through extra-ordinary times. The familiar characters continue from the first two books, their story arcs going through radical change now as the war progresses and everyone’s life is changed forever.

Read my reviews of the other books in ‘The Cazalet Chronicles’:-
THE LIGHT YEARS #1CAZALET
MARKING TIME #2CAZALET
CASTING OFF  #4CAZALET
ALL CHANGE #5CAZALET

If you like this, try:-
‘At Mrs Lippincote’s’ by Elizabeth Taylor
‘Freya’ by Anthony Quinn
‘The Aftermath’ by Rhidian Brook

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#BookReview ‘Butterfly Barn’ by @kpowerauthor #romance #Ireland

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Reading this book was like sitting down with a crowd of girlfriends for a long-delayed get-together. In Butterfly Barn by Karen Power, Ireland leaps off the page, present in the speech of the characters, the scenery and the ‘feel’ of the book. Karen PowerThis is an easy book to read in that the pages turned quickly, but it deals with difficult topics: infant mortality, grief, betrayal, guilt. Like many Irish authors, Karen Power writes with a connection to the Catholic faith and – though I am not in the least bit religious – this did not interfere with my enjoyment of the tale. It is a women’s novel, about women, their strength, their suffering, their mutual support and above all the way they deal with what life throws at them.
On a transatlantic flight, Grace gets talking to the lady in the next seat. A friendship is forged which sees them re-united in Bayrush, Ireland, where Grace’s best friend Jessie is expecting twins. Grace is engaged to Dirk and all looks happy, until Jack – a teenage crush – returns home from Dubai.
This is the first of a series of this wide cast of characters, at times a little too wide for me. I admit to losing track of some of the more distant relations of Grace, Jessie and Kate, but I look forward to the next instalment.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT THIS BOOK

If you like this, try:-
‘The Last Days of Rabbit Hayes’ by Anna McPartlin
‘The House at the Edge of the World’ by Julia Rochester
‘Somewhere Inside of Happy’ by Anna McPartlin

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#BookReview ‘Snow White Must Die’ by @NeleNeuhaus #crime

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A tight-knit community where everyone looks out for each other, bound together by past tragedy. Into this walks Tobias, released from prison after serving his sentence for murdering two teenage girls. In the village where he grew up, where the two girls died. Snow White Must Die by Nele Neuhaus starts with this potent mixture of past and present, lies and threats. The truth never went away but there will be more deaths before the full story is known. Nele NeuhausThis is the first German thriller I have read, and Nele Neuhaus is a new author for me. This was no more difficult to adjust to than reading a Swedish thriller, yes the names are different but the story pulled me along and I cared about what happened to Tobias, Amelie and Thies. Nothing is what it seems.
Detectives Pia Kirchoff and Oliver von Bodenstein bring their own personal hang-ups to the investigation, as is always the case with modern detectives. For me, it was the line-up of characters in the village which was fascinating. Lie is layered on lie: the doctor, the actress, the businessman, the politician, and twenty-somethings who were all teenagers when the murders happened.
The village closes ranks so Kirchoff and van Bodenstein must figure out a way to break down the barriers.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT THIS BOOK

If you like this, try:-
‘Eeny Meeny’ by MJ Arlidge
‘Cover Her Face’ by PD James
‘The Killing of Polly Carter’ by Robert Thorogood

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Great opening paragraph 74… ‘The Last Juror’ #amreading #FirstPara

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“After decades of patient mismanagement and loving neglect, The Ford County Times went bankrupt in 1970. The owner and publisher, Miss Emma Caudle, was ninety-three years old and strapped to a bed in a nursing home in Tupelo. The editor, her son Wilson Caudle, was in his seventies and had a plate in his head from the First War. A perfect circle of dark grafted skin covered the plate at the top of his long, sloping forehead, and throughout his adult life he had endured the nickname of Spot. Spot did this. Spot did that. Here, Spot. There, Spot.”
John GrishamFrom ‘The Last Juror’ by John Grisham

Read these #FirstParas also by John Grisham:-
THE PELICAN BRIEF
THE RAINMAKER

Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘Death in Summer’ by William Trevor
‘The Impressionist’ by Hari Kunzru
‘Lord Jim’ by Joseph Conrad

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#Books #FirstPara THE LAST JUROR by @JohnGrisham via @SandraDanby http://wp.me/p5gEM4-1Fv

#BookReview ‘Something to Hide’ by Deborah Moggach #contemporary

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The beginning of Something to Hide by Deborah Moggach introduces three characters who seem ordinary people, living everyday lives, facing challenges which we or our family/friends/neighbours are facing every day. What is there about them that could possibly be of interest to me? But Moggach draws me into their stories until I read late into the night. Deborah Moggach

The Prologue is set in Africa, the plot revolves around Africa though not always in an obvious way. Don’t read the ‘Dear Reader’ letter from Moggach at the front of the book, save it until you’ve finished reading. That way, you will turn the page, drawn into the story of each woman – Lorrie in the USA, Jing and her husband in China, Petra in London – wondering how they can possibly be connected. Their situations are universal and Moggach demonstrates how globally connected we are these days, globally similar despite our assumptions and generalizations about things we know nothing about. But at the end of the day, it is a book about those universal things: love and lies.

This is a thoughtful book, with dramatic settings. I can certainly see it as a film.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT THIS BOOK AT AMAZON

Read my review of these other novels by Deborah Moggach:-
THE BLACK DRESS
THE CARER
TULIP FEVER

Read the first paragraph of THESE FOOLISH THINGS [now THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL] here.

If you like this, try:-
‘All My Puny Sorrows’ by Miriam Toews
‘Angel’ by Elizabeth Taylor
‘The Lie’ by CL Taylor

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
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#BookReview ‘All My Puny Sorrows’ by Miriam Toews #contemporary

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This is a novel about depression, suicide, death, broken families, love and music. Yes, it is sad, but it is also laugh-out-loud in places. Canadian writer Miriam Toews drew heavily on her own experiences in the writing of All My Puny Sorrows and that depth of empathy shines from every page. Do not ignore this book because you think it will be depressing: it is uplifting, and you will feel sad to finish it. Miriam Toews The story centres on sisters Yolandi and Elfrieda von Riesen. Elf, the elder, is a concert pianist. Yoli writes the Rodeo Rhonda teen novels. Elf’s story – and that of the family of women surrounding the two sisters, their mother, their aunt, Yoli’s daughter, their friends – is told by Yoli. “When we were kids she would occasionally let me be her page-turner for the fast pieces that she hadn’t memorized. Page turning is a particular art. I had to be just ahead of her in the music and move like a snake when I turned the page so there was no crinkling and no sticking and no thwapping. Her words.”
We do not hear Elf’s inner voice except in excerpts from letters and poems. What we do have is Yoli’s contemplation of Elf’s request to be taken to Switzerland to end her own life. No judgements are made although Yoli runs through every gamut of emotion from sorrow to guilt to anger to exasperation to despair. She loves her sister and does not want to lose her, but if her sister is so unhappy then how can she not help her? Is Elf’s wish not hugely selfish, does she not care for the feelings of those she will leave behind? Anyone who has been close to someone with a long-term illness will recognise many of the healthcare situations and Yoli’s many meltdowns with medical authority.
It is a sad, poignant book which made me laugh out loud.

If you like this, try:-
‘The Bear’ by Claire Cameron
‘Etta and Otto and Russell and James’ by Emma Hooper
‘A View of the Harbour’ by Elizabeth Taylor

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#BookReview ‘Shroud for a Nightingale’ by PD James #crime

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Shroud for a Nightingale is the fourth Adam Dalgliesh book, published in 1971, and the first I read. It was the beginning of a love affair with PD James and following her death in 2014, I decided to re-read them all. PD JamesThe Nightingale in question is not Florence but Nightingale House, a nursing school at John Carpendar Hospital, Heatheringfield. At a student demonstration of patient feeding by intra-gastric tube, the nurse who substitutes as the patient dies a ghastly death. It is assumed to be an accident. When a second student nurse is found dead in her bed, her whisky nightcap the assumed culprit, Adam Dalgliesh is called in from Scotland Yard.
Like all James detective books, this is a complex mixture of observation of human behaviour, intricate plotting, detailed description, and totally believable characters. This is how Alderman Kealey is introduced, he, “looked as perky as a terrier. He was a ginger-haired, foxy little man, bandy as a jockey and wearing a plaid suit, the awfulness of its pattern emphasized by the excellence of its cut. It gave him an anthropomorphic appearance, like an animal in a children’s comic; and Dalgliesh almost expected to find himself shaking a paw.”
The brooding Victorian pile which is Nightingale House, set amongst woods which are rumoured to be haunted, is an atmospheric setting for a murder story involving young emotional women. So when there are more attacks and a fire, it somehow seems inevitable given the setting.
Did I work out the identity of the murderer? I had an early suspicion which I then forgot as I became involved in the various possibilities which Dalgliesh explores. PD James’s books are not formula whodunits, this story incorporates medical procedure, World War Two, ballroom dancing, blackmail. The story twists and turns as we see events unfold through different points of view though whether the truth is being withheld we do not know until the end.

Read my reviews of the other Adam Dalgliesh mysteries:-
COVER HER FACE #1ADAMDALGLIESH
A MIND TO MURDER #2ADAMDALGLIESH
UNNATURAL CAUSES #3ADAMDALGLIESH
THE BLACK TOWER #5ADAMDALGLIESH
DEATH OF AN EXPERT WITNESS #6ADAMDALGLIESH
A TASTE FOR DEATH #7ADAMDALGLIESH
DEVICES AND DESIRES #8ADAMDALGLIESH
ORIGINAL SIN #9ADAMDALGLIESH … read the first paragraph HERE
A CERTAIN JUSTICE #10ADAMDALGLIESH
DEATH IN HOLY ORDERS #11ADAMDALGLIESH
THE MURDER ROOM #12ADAMDALGLIESH … read the first paragraph HERE
THE LIGHTHOUSE #13ADAMDALGLIESH
THE PRIVATE PATIENT #14ADAMDALGLIESH

Here are my reviews of the two Cordelia Gray mysteries:-
AN UNSUITABLE JOB FOR A WOMAN #CGRAY1
THE SKULL BENEATH THE SKIN #CGRAY2

And two other books by PD James:-
INNOCENT BLOOD
TIME TO BE IN EARNEST

If you like this, try:-
‘Curtain Call’ by Anthony Quinn
‘Business as Usual’ by EL Lindley #1GEORGIECONNELLY
‘Nightfall’ by Stephen Leather #1JACKNIGHTINGALE

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#BookReview ‘We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves’ by Karen Joy Fowler #contemporary

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If you can, read We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler without reading any reviews or comments beforehand. There is a mammoth twist, which is best avoided. I am one of the lucky few who didn’t read a spoiler before I started reading, I knew only that it was about sibling love. But even so, I did spot the surprise way before it happened, and consequently then read on waiting for the ‘twist’ promised on the cover. Which left me a little deflated. I don’t know why, I expected the twist to be near the end. Karen Joy FowlerThis is a very clever story, packed with philosophy, contemporary references such as Star Wars to Korean vocabulary. Rose is a student, looking back at her childhood and the disappearances, at different times, of her sister Fern and her brother Lowell. The story darts around the timeline and Rose tells different versions of her life story as she comes to terms with her life so far. Mostly this method of storytelling worked for me, but on a few occasions I admit to losing patience with Rose who I found an irritating unreliable narrator. I kept reading because the story is unusual, but my incredulity was stretched at times.
The best bit? The very last paragraph makes it worthwhile reading on, but I can’t say it’s a book I enjoyed.

If you like this, try:-
‘Frog Music’ by Emma Donoghue
‘Vinegar Girl’ by Anne Tyler
‘A Little Life’ by Hanya Yanagihara

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#BookReview ‘The Girls’ by Lisa Jewell @lisajewelluk #thriller

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It’s a long time since I read a Lisa Jewell novel. I loved her first, Ralph’s Party, which still sits on my bookshelf along with four of her other books. I gave up reading somewhere about Vince and Joy, turned off by the pink chick lit branding and feeling that I had grown-up beyond the subject matter. Lisa JewellThen I heard that The Girls was ‘something different,’ and it is. Satisfying dark, mysterious, unspoken danger lurks above the heads of the girls – Grace and Pip. The setting is outwardly comforting: a communal garden surrounded by houses and apartments, where residents mingle and have barbecues together, where children roam safe from roads and strangers. But are they safe? And what is the threat?
The two girls and their mother move to an empty apartment after the family home is burnt down by their father. He is now in psychiatric care, they lost all their belongings and walk cautiously into this cliquey community where everyone seems to know everyone else. Grace and Pip unknowingly trample onto secrets and the dynamics of teenage relationships, their mother Clare stumbles around the edge of tangled adult relationships, struggling to be there for her daughters while dealing with the betrayal of her husband. And at the centre of daily life is the garden, the hub of the wheel around which this community turns.
Then one hot summer’s day, Grace’s 13th birthday, it all comes to a head.
I finished this in two sittings, reading late into the night. A satisfying family thriller with hints of the truth and plenty of dodgy things to be suspicious about.

And here are my review of two other thrillers by Lisa Jewell:-
I FOUND YOU
THEN SHE WAS GONE

If you like this, try:-
‘The Museum of Broken Promises’ by Elizabeth Buchan
‘Wolf Winter’’ by Cecilia Ekback
‘Five Days of Fog’ by Anna Freeman

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