Song of a Blackbird

Finished August 26

Song of a Blackbird by Maria van Lieshout

This graphic novel is based on real historical events, but has fictional people inspired by real ones. There are two timelines in the book. In the present day, Annick is researching her grandmother's past to try to find biological family members after her grandmother's health situation led to discovery that her grandmother was adopted by the family she grew up in. There are five prints on the wall of her home that are clues to the past. Each of the prints takes us to a building that played a role in the Nazi deportations of Jewish people in the Netherlands and the resistance that worked to save lives. We quickly learn that Annick's grandmother had an older brother that was also spirited away from his Nazi captors, but the two were separated, and never reunited. He thought she was dead, and she was young enough at the time not to realize that she had lost him. 

Using the prints as clues is an interesting plot device that also takes us to printers that created false documents for the resistance, and even to an historic bank robbery that I hadn't known about before reading this.

The limited palette works well here, and the blackbird in the title serves as both a narrator and a symbol of hope that helped people survive. 

The Paper Birds

Finished July 13

The Paper Birds by Jeannette Lynes

This historical novel follows Toronto high school graduate Gemma Sullivan from June 1943 through the end of World War II. Gemma was orphaned when her parents drowned in a swimming accident and she's had a fear of water ever since. She was raised by her Aunt Wren, a former milliner and now a seamstress. One of her teachers has recommended her for a job doing code breaking and with her signature on the Official Secrets Act, she can't tell her aunt, or anyone else what she actually does, so she just says office work.

Aunt Wren is still grieving the loss of her fiancé in World War I and her declining eyesight has led her to stop working in millinery and put them into precarious financial circumstances, so Gemma's income is very important for them. They also decide to take in a lodger, Rooney Delacroix, a young woman from Gravenhurst who has a job working at a tannery in the city. Rooney is a pleasant girl, but has her own secrets. 

Beatrice Fearing, Gemma's supervisor, worked as a math professor before working on code breaking and there are three other young women that work in the same small cottage near the lake. Cora-Lynn Ponder, a university math student had taken classes from Miss Fearing. Hester Hobbs is good with logical problems, and Ada Swift also works at another site where she secrets a variety of devices in objects. She's a good analyst. 

Wren is glad to use some of Gemma's pay to go to an eye doctor and get new glasses, and along with improved eyesight, she begins to look forward in her life with more optimism. 

One lunch hour, when Gemma takes a walk, she encounters a hungry cat and a young man behind a fence of a POW camp. She develops feelings for both, and must decide whether to trust her instincts. 

The war work is interesting and I enjoyed the personalities of the different women in the novel. Some of the coincidences in connections were a stretch, but it was still an enjoyable read. 

Every Time We Say Goodbye

Finished June 18

Every Time We Say Goodbye by Natalie Jenner

This is the third book in the series The Jane Austen Society. It is set mostly in 1954-1955 with flashbacks to a related storyline in 1943. The main character is Vivien Lowry, a British playwrights. She's recently premiered her second play on the London stage, but it wasn't well received by critics. Her contacts, which include several well-known women including Peggy Guggenheim, Daphne du Maurier, and Ava Gardner, arrange a job in Italy for her, working on the script of an American director. Many of those working on the film have left the United States due to the McCarthy investigations, including her fellow writer American Jew Levi Bassano, a young man who served with a Field Photo unit in the U.S. armed forces during World War II. The lead actress in the film is American Claudia Jones, a beautiful biracial woman who passes for white. As she engages with the film community in Rome, we see other real people enter the story, including a young Sophia Loren, Gina Lollobrigida, and Gina's husband Milko Skofic. Vivien becomes friends with Claudia, who recently starred in a film as a nun and who is making some life decisions of her own. We also see the strong influence the Vatican had on the film industry at the time. 

Vivien is still coming to terms with the disappearance of her fiancé David, who had been captured by Italian forces during the war and then gone missing. She hopes to be able to gather more information while she is still in Italy. 

An Italian director is looking to do a film about a young woman known only as La Scholaretta, who was a partisan during the war and who was executed for the assassin of a Nazi SS Commander. He also has a personal connection to her story. In the 1943 portion of the plot, we see this young woman in the hours surrounding the assassination and her motivations and actions during this time.

I found it interesting to see how these two plots came together and how the repercussions of the war were still being felt during this time. As part of the series, this book centres women who make their own careers and decisions and who support each other doing so. 

I also enjoyed learning that the author is Canadian. 

The Woman with Two Shadows

Finished June 6

The Woman with Two Shadows by Sarah James

This historical novel is set over a few months from 1944 to 1945. Twin sisters Lillian and Eleanor live in New York City with their mother. Their father killed himself when they were very young and their mother has struggled mentally since then. Lillian has taken on the role of head of the family and is a physics student at Columbia University. She has plans to take the test for the Allerton Prize which gives the winner a scholarship to Harvard University where she wants to do her masters degree. This plan depends on Eleanor staying home to live with their mother and care for her. 

Eleanor is an actress, getting roles on Broadway, but she is applying for a part in a new Rodgers and Hammerstein play which will open in Chicago and tour. Eleanor is good at what she does, but this role worries Lillian and she makes some choices that impact both their lives. 

The military has come to the university recently and recruited physics students for a project at a site near Knoxville, Tennessee. The place is called Oak Ridges and since the students find that their deferral is no longer valid, some choose to go rather than enlist. One of them is Max Medelson, and he is not only a fellow student of Lillian's but also the boyfriend of her sister Eleanor. He also claims to be able to tell them apart, when most people cannot. Eleanor changes her plans and decides to go with Max. She gets a job there as well. 

All of these we learn as backstory. Eleanor hasn't written home since she left, and now Max has contacted Lillian with the news that Eleanor is missing and he wants her help. When Lillian gets to Knoxville, she finds things aren't what she expected and she takes on Eleanor's identity to see what she can learn. With tales of others going missing, secret projects that Lillian finds herself getting involved in, and a complicated romance, there is a lot going on.

This novel raises issues of sibling rivalry, what one is willing to do to get what one wants, and the costs that are found to be beyond enduring. An interesting read. 

When We Were Young and Brave

Finished February 11

When We Were Young and Brave by Hazel Gaynor

This historical fiction novel was inspired by real events. The story is framed by one of the narrators, Nancy, looking back at this time from 1975. Near the end of the book, the framing is completed with a more full explanation of what happened to the various characters after their time in China ended. 

The main story begins in December 1941, with Elspeth Kent, one of the teachers at the Chefoo Mission School considering resigning and returning to her home in England. She came to China after her fiancé was killed in a mining accident and she couldn't see how to move on there without him. But her plans are thwarted with Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor and their declaration of war against the United States, the United Kingdom, and other Allied countries. 

Among the students at the school is Nancy Plummer, along with her older brother, and Nancy's friends who include an American girl named Dorothy (nicknamed Sprout as she is tall and thin) and Joan (nicknamed Mouse because she is small and quiet). The girls are part of a Brownie troop and studying to move up to Girl Guides. Elspeth and another teacher, Minnie, lead the girls in this endeavour. 

When the Japanese arrive to occupy the school, the headmaster is taken away, the Chinese servants are sent away, and the soldiers label everything the property of the Japanese emperor. When Minnie tries to make a stand, she is beaten with a pole by one of the soldiers, and Elspeth tries to intervene drawing attention to herself. We watch as the situation evolves over the years. 

Without the servants, the teachers and students must cook and clean and the teachers try to manage morale. Elspeth and Minnie use the Girl Guide teachings and badge earning to get the girls to work and treat the situation optimistically. After a year, the group is moved across town to another school, which has been abandoned for some time. There, they have to make the spaces they are billeted in liveable, and consider safety and continue teaching. The headmaster is back by now and is a great leader in this and the future situations. 

When they are moved again, it is farther away, to an internment camp near Weihsien, where they are the most recent additions. They find support from some of the other prisoners, who have organized a library, and a system of work responsibilities. 

With two narrators, Elspeth and Nancy, we get different viewpoints from different levels of understanding the situation. The author did a lot of research, trying to talk to survivors from Japanese prisoners and using real examples, such as the presence of the Olympic runner Eric Liddell in the camp. 

I found the story interesting and believable and liked the nuances of the people, with both bad and good people among their Japanese captors. I also enjoyed the use of the Girl Guide training and expectations to motivate the young girls and keep up their morale.  

Another Time and Place

Finished November 22

Another Time and Place by Samantha Grosser

This novel is set in 1944 and 1945 and has two voices. One of them is Anna Pilgrim, a young Englishwoman, brought up by a disgruntled divorced mother in a poor household. She is now working in the office of a munitions factory, overseen by a man whose family used to live near hers. The second is Tom Blake, a young American bomber pilot from the western United States. 

They meet in a café on Anna's day off and during Tom's leave. They connect in a way that neither of them expects and spend the next week together mostly in a hotel near Tom's base. When he goes on a mission and doesn't return, Anna returns home to her mother's anger, and goes back to work. 

Her mother is pressuring her to marriage, to a man they know, but in whom Anna has no interest. Besides, she is waiting for Tom as they had already made plans to marry. 

Tom, meanwhile, was injured when his plane went down and doesn't know what happened to the rest of his crew. As we see him worry about Anna and try to get messages to her but receives no response, he vacillates between hope and despair. 

This is a romance story of immediate attraction, followed by unplanned separation, that tugs at the emotions. As we see each character and know that the other longs for them, we are drawn in to the worry that they may not reconnect despite their feelings. I found myself caught up in the story. Anna is a strong woman with an independent attitude, and who luckily has a close supportive friend. Her relationship with her mother is antagonistic and has never been a good one. The characters have depth and motivations that make sense. A good read. 

Akin

Finished September 7

Akin by Emma Donoghue

This heartwarming story is narrated by Noah, a retired chemistry professor. He has just retired in anticipation of his eightieth birthday. He has survived the loss of his parents, his wife, and most recently, his little sister Fernande. It was Fernande who helped him through his previous losses, sorting through the belongings and organizing things, so her loss is even more deeply felt. 

He has some money set aside and decided to use it to travel back to Nice, France, where he was born. His mother Margot had stayed there with her father, a well-known photographer, while her husband travelled ahead to New York. Then the war started, and when things were getting more difficult in 1942 she sent Noah (then Noe) to America. He has some memories of the city, their apartment, and his grandfather, and wants to visit the city and his grandfather's grave. 

Just days before he is due to leave, he is contacted by a social worker looking to place his grand-nephew, Michael, Fernande's grandson, with him on a temporary basis. Noah had known of the child, but his nephew Victor, Michael's father had been troubled and the family had only had sporadic contact with him. When he finds out that Victor has died, Michael's mother Amber is incarcerated, and his maternal grandmother who he had been living with has also just died, he realizes that he can't turn his back on the boy. That means that he will also take the boy with him on his trip. 

Michael is eleven, streetwise, and good at putting up a tough front, but he misses his parents and grandmother, and is worried about his situation. As the two get used to each other, Noah shows empathy and understanding and tries to respect Michael as a person, while Michael gets exposed to many new experiences. 

As they collaborate to figure out why Noah's mother kept several photographs from her years in Nice during the war, they find themselves learning together as well as from each other. 

This is a story that really draws you in, caring about both these characters as well as the minor characters that are in their lives. I really enjoyed how Noah had conversations with his late wife Joan in his head that felt very real, and added depth. 

The House in the Water

Finished August 9

The House in the Water by Victoria Scott

This novel has two timelines. One is in 2013, where Meredith has fallen in love with a dilapidated estate on an island in the Thames river. The house hasn't been lived in for years and needs a lot of work. She convinces her husband Philip to agree to them buying it. Most of the money will come from Meredith, an inheritance after the recent death of her parents. She and Philip have been through a lot and she has left her job in finance to recover and sees the house as an opportunity to go in a different direction, hosting events and offering rooms to guests. 

The second timeline is in 1942 when Ellen, a skilled nurse, has been transferred from a hospital in Egypt to this house turned hospital for those undergoing what we now refer to as PTSD. The atmosphere is very different from the psychiatrist she worked with in Egypt, and she doesn't always agree with the brutal methods she witnesses and assists with. Arriving just after Ellen is a pilot who has been sent there for help so that he can return to duties. Pilots are badly needed. The two connect and find themselves drawn to each other. 

Philip is also a pilot, and thus is away a lot. Meredith finds herself seeing people in and near the house and hearing them as well. She doesn't know if she is seeing ghosts or if there is really someone there. She also finds that some in town aren't supportive of the changes that she and Philip have put forward for the house and thus finds herself often lonely. 

As the two women adjust to their new home and the work they face, they both undergo changes, learning new skills and becoming more adept and courageous when facing challenges. 

I really enjoyed this read.  There are themes of mental health and isolation, as well as growth. 

Three Hours in Paris

Finished June 14

Three Hours in Paris by Cara Black

This novel is set during World War II, and begins in June 1940 with Kate Rees, a ranch woman from Oregon who is also a prize-winning marksman, is in Paris in an unoccupied apartment across from Montmartre, waiting to shoot Hitler. After a couple of chapters, we go back to the fall of 1939, where we learn that Kate is married to a Welsh man. They and their young daughter are living where he is stationed in the Orkney Islands. She works at a munitions factory as a tester, shooting rifles to ensure they work as they should. Her marksman skills get noticed and the government offers her a job, but she isn't interested. When an enemy bombing mission kills her husband and daughter, she initially gets lost in her grief, but by early June, she finds herself wanting to do what she can to defeat the man who took her family from her. So she calls the number of the man who made the previous offer to her. and finds herself offered a different job, this one top secret, and she must sign the Official Secrets Act before being told anything about it. 

Because of the timeliness of her mission, she is given a very sped up version of the usual training. One of her lessons emphasizes the acronym RADA, which stands for Read the Situation, Assess possible outcomes, Decide on options; Act on your decision. This is something she returns to repeatedly while on mission. 

When Kate misses and kills another man she finds herself on the run, and unknown to her, one of the reasons she is on this mission is because someone is compromised and the team she is associated with in France has had several members discovered and killed. As she follows what clues she has and makes the way around the city looking for help to get back to England, she must rely on her intuition and quick thinking. She also begins to suspect that she was never meant to succeed, and think about what that means. 

I found this book almost impossible to put down, as I had to know what happened to Kate. There is a man of Paris on the endpapers that shows all the key places that Kate either thinks of going to or actually visits. The pace is fast and the minor characters intriguing in their own ways. One of the characters that we see a lot of is a German police officer that is assigned with finding the would-be assassin and capturing her. Part of the novel is from his viewpoint, and we see that he has his own struggles as well. Excellent plot, with a character that I really cared about. 

The Lost Book of Bonn

Finished May 28

The Lost Book of Bonn by Brianna Labuskes

This historical novel has two timelines. The one the story starts with is that of Emmy Clarke, an acquisitions librarian with the Library of Congress. It is 1946, and she has been sent to Offenbach tasked with going through books at the Archival Depot looking for anything that could be deemed 'enemy literature' in an effort to learn more about why and how all this had happened. As a precaution she would be going as a US Army soldier in uniform.

Emmy was raised in Montana by a single mother who ran a travelling library through logging camps. She later moved east and worked in public libraries before taking her current job. Her husband Joseph died in the Normandy invasion and she holds anger towards the German people for it. Emmy is met by Major Wesley Arnold, of the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives unit who has been part of the group searching for cultural works taken by the Nazis. 

As they travel from the train station to the Depot, they drive through rubble and see the hunger in the people along the way. She finds her feelings towards the Germans becoming more complex, and doesn't feel good about the suffering she is observing. In conversation with the Major, Emmy says that she doesn't think this is what justice looks like. Her first visit to the depot she finds overwhelming with the volume of material there. When she randomly opens a box and finds a book of poetry with an inscription written with love, she feels that she must return it to the owner. Despite her desire to put books back into the hands of the owners, that is not her mission. She is only allowed to work on books, documents, and films that originated in Germany or were created or owned by Nazi Party leaders. This is to guard against any accusations of looting. The book that she picked up does not fit in this category, but her emotional reaction to it leads her to take it and try to find the Annelise the book is inscribed to. 

The second timeline begins in 1937 in Bonn, and follows Annelise Fischer, a young woman who is part of a group of teens who enjoy outdoor pursuits like hiking and camping, but who have also started acting against the groups of Hitlerjugend (HJ) increasingly present in their town. They call themselves the Edelweiss Pirates. We see the friendships, the teamwork, and the worries of these young people. Annelise in particular worries about her younger sister Christina who has recently joined the HJ to try to fit in, but who is naive and doesn't understand the full ramifications of what she is part of. As the war begins and the teens move into adulthood, their actions become more serious and the risks become more dangerous. As Annelise falls in love with a young Jewish man, she tries to protect him, and avoid the eye of a German soldier who desires her. Christina ends up in the middle, and we see her growing into understanding and her own way of dealing with her situation. 

As we follow the three women: Emmy, Annelise, and Christina, and learn their stories, this novel takes us into their lives and the decisions they make. Each will find their heart pulled by someone, and each will have to make choices that are sometimes uncomfortable. This book draws these characters with depth and empathy, and the plotlines both fit real history and the lives of these women. A great read. 

Paris Undercover

Finished May 4

Paris Undercover: A Wartime Story of Courage, Friendship, and Betrayal by Matthew Goodman

This was an enlightening and informative read. It tells the story of two women, along with others who they interacted with, during World War II. 

Etta Shiber, an American, and Kate Bonnefous, an Englishwoman, who married a French man, were friends. After Etta's husband died, she moved to Paris and the two women lived together. Etta was a person who seems to be carried along by whatever is happening around her. Kate was a woman driven by her sense of justice. 

As World War II came to Paris, Kate became aware of British soldiers held in military hospitals and devised a plan to smuggle them out. Etta was involved solely as someone who was along with her friend. At first, the two smuggled men in the trunk of Kate's car as they drove around on Red Cross missions. But then some were smuggled to them by others, showing up at their Paris apartment. 

It wasn't too long before both women were arrested by the Gestapo. After their trials, where Kate and two of her French contacts received death sentences, Etta was exchanges for a German woman in a prisoner exchange with the United States. Kate's sentence was commuted to life

But things get darker after this. Etta was hailed as a hero on her return, and convinced to write about her activities. But she wasn't a natural writer and the publishing agent she worked with hired a fiction writer to integrate her story into a book they were writing. But unbeknownst to the writer, the subsequent book was published as a memoir written by Etta. The book was a bestseller, and because the story in the book differed from that of reality, the real people in the book were endangered further. 

Kate was questioned and tortured again, asked to reveal the details she hadn't before, details that she wasn't aware of, because they were from the book. This betrayal touched others as well. 

The author did significant research for the book, using military records, court records, and personal testimonies to uncover the consequences of Etta's book's publication. 

A striking story that unveils another piece of history. 

The Fervor

Finished March 10

The Fervor by Alma Katsu

This novel combines historical fiction with horror. 

The story begin in 1944, and Meiko Briggs and her daughter Aiko are in Minidoka, a Japanese internment camp in Idaho. Meiko's husband Jamie is a pilot, currently serving in the Pacific. Through the novel we learn how they came to be where they are now after his deployment. 

We also see Archie, one of Jamie's friends, as he and his wife Elsie take a group of children to a fishing area in the mountains near them. When an explosion happens and people are hurt, Archie begins questioning why. 

We also see Fran, a journalist in Nebraska, as she witnesses an explosion and discovers something interesting in the aftermath when she is in a remote area on a tryst with her lover. 

Along with these three stories, that gradually converge, are excerpts from a Japanese diary from seventeen years earlier, when a scientist studying winds comes across another discovery. 

This historical narrative becomes horror when people at the camp, in Nebraska, and in other places start to die from a strange disease. With a group of men in suits and expensive cars recently arrived at the camp, Meiko catches one of them in the kitchen at night and begins to suspect that they are using the Japanese there to conduct some kind of experiment. 

This novel is gripping and scary as you follow the clues to figure out who is doing what and whether anyone can be trusted. 

The Girl They Left Behind

Finished September 1

The Girl They Left Behind by Roxanne Veletzos

This book begins in Romania in 1941. When police come to his house, Iosef knows that it is time to flee. He and his wife Zora go out the back with their toddler daughter Natalia and what ready money Iosef has, hoping to bargain for their freedom. As they run, they realize that they must leave Natalia behind. 

Anton and Despina long for a child, but haven't been able to have one. When a relative lets them know of a young girl in need of a home, they readily adopt Natalia and raise her as their own. Anton runs a chain of stationery stores that he joined as an employee, and has been welcomed into Despina's wealthy family. As the years go by, they encourage Natalia's skills as a pianist and give her every opportunity they can. Anton also befriends a young man he meets near his store, and lets him live above the store as he struggles to survive. The young man, Victor is an avid communist, and once the war is over rises rapidly in the Soviet-controlled Romania. However, Anton and his family have their business, home, and possessions taken from them, and are forced into menial jobs to survive. 

When Victor and Natalia meet again years later, they find themselves attracted to each other, even as they know their relationship has little hope of surviving.

Over the years, there have been moments when a contact with Natalia's birth parents has been key in her life, and when faced with a sudden opportunity, she struggles with the decision to take it or not. 

The novel was inspired by the real family history of the author. 

A moving and engrossing read. 

The Woman on the Train

Finished July 23

The Woman on the Train by Rupert Colley

This short historical novel covers three time periods. The earliest is in World War II where the main character, a young man doing an errand for the resistance is saved from interrogation by a woman in the same train car. She speaks in German to the authorities both on the train and in the station, and the man is left alone. 

Two decades later, the man is now a famous French conductor, and the woman comes to him and says that she may ask something from him in return for her actions back during the war. When the time comes and she asks for his help, we see his struggles as he decides whether to tell of his experience with her back then, or not, and the effect it might have on his career if he does.

The last time period is another two decades later, when a journalist doing a story about famous people who have fallen out of the public gaze, asks for an interview. This interview is the frame for the story, as he tells the reporter about what happened earlier and why he is where he is now. 

I found this an interesting tale from an ethical point of view. What the woman was asking him was to tell the truth about his experience during the war, but because of other things the woman had done, she was not looked on favourably, and this stigma would have possible effects on how people viewed him, although again, he would be merely telling the truth about his own experience. It brings to light the way that public perception, emotions around trauma, and how the past influences the present all have ripples beyond the immediate situation. 

The Whalebone Theatre

Finished June 30

The Whalebone Theatre by Joanna Quinn

This story start in World War I and continues past World War II. The central character is Cristabel Seagrave, a child as the book begins. Cristabel's mother died giving birth to her, and her father pushed her away in his grief. He is now remarried and hoping his new young wife can give him the son and heir he wants. Cristabel is a child that is curious and imaginative. She exists on the edges of her world, a daughter of the Chilcombe estate, but one often ignored. She is befriended by one of the younger members of staff, Maudie, who answers her questions if she can. She also waits eagerly for the letters from her uncle who is an officer in the army and tells tales of faraway places and interesting events. 

She eventually does get the long-awaited brother, Digby, after first a sister Flossie, and longs for the formal education that Digby gets, as opposed to the French governess that she and Flossie are educated by. In 1928, before Digby gets sent away to school, a whale washes up on the beach bordering the estate. Cristabel is one of the first on the scene and she claims the beast for the family. Around the same time, an interesting group of artistic people are visiting the area, and Cristabel manages, through her unorthodox manner to befriend the artist at the center of the group, and convince him to help her stage a play. This event leads to regular events and new connections, and gradually the three children grow up. 

As World War II begins, Digby is determined to sign-up, but not as an officer as his father wishes, and he sneaks away to enlist. Cristabel is also keen to help the war effort in some way and ventures off to London to offer her services. Flossie stays at the estate, but soon finds herself contributing in her own way. As the three begin their adult lives, the point of view takes turns between them, giving us insight into each experience. 

The main actions of the book take place in 1928 and during World War II, but pre-1928 also gives us a lot of background to the characters and the situation of Cristabel. 

I enjoyed the personalities of these three characters, and how each had their own strengths that carried them through the troubles they encountered. The story took a while to grab me, but once it did I was hooked. This book has mystery, romance, and suspense, and the Chilcombe estate is brought to life through the descriptions and events around it. 

Polly Fulton

Finished April 17

Polly Fulton by John P. Marquand

I heard of this book when I was reading The Trouble with You by Ellen Feldman. The main character in that book mentioned some of her favourite reads and I decide to track a few down. This is one of them. The book is really interesting. It is a character study of a woman in her thirties, set during World War II. Polly Brett, nee Fulton is a woman who was born wealthy to parents who were born middle class. Her father had good instincts, and an eye for machines and created a small empire. He was friendly and talkative and took people at face value. He also was a good judge of character in some ways, and wanted his daughter and son to be happy. 

Polly was sent to a private girls' boarding school where she blossomed after a short time going to a school nearer to home where she struggled to fit in. She went on to Bryn Mawr College, and after some time at home married. 

Her marriage is a big part in the novel as is her relationship with her father, B.F. She is close to both of her parents in different ways. She is comfortable in the world that her father operates in, and intelligent and informed enough to hold her own in conversation. 

As the book opens, Polly has made a sudden decision to go to her country home in the Berkshires. It is winter and snowing, yet she is both testing her staff at the house to see if they are keeping the house ready at all times, and able to pay the high rates she must pay to get there when she wants to. The house evokes both memories of different times earlier in her marriage, as well as times before then as she looks through old scrapbooks. 

A crisis with her father's health helps these thoughts along as he speaks to her of her husband, the life he wanted her to have, and the man he thought she should marry, Bob Tasmin. 

While the major part of the novel is written from Polly's viewpoint, there is some written from Bob's as well, and this is critical to what unfolds later. 

Polly has come to understand that her husband is cheating on her, and rather than turn her head the other way as many women of her time and station do, she decides to face it head on, with a real effort to understand the situation. This also forces her to understand herself better and that is the revelation of the novel and its core. 

I really enjoyed the dry humour here, as well as the character of Polly herself. I'm so glad I was led to this novel. 

A Meal in Winter

Finished March 18

A Meal in Winter by Hubert Mingarelli, translated by Sam Taylor

I came to this book through a new book subscription service I decided to try out. It's from a shop in Wales called Mr. B's and they have a long form to fill out to get a sense of what books you like, and since I teach Readers' Advisory, I found it really related to the interview aspect that's a part of RA work. So this was the first book I got in the subscription, and I'd never heard of the author before, which was great. I love discovering new authors.

Because this book was somewhat dark in subject, I took my time with it, dipping in now and then over a couple of months to read it. It is beautifully written and translated, and really spoke to me emotionally. There are extremely touching passages, and elements of humour in their thoughts and conversations, and all the time there is the shadow of their task and its outcome hanging over them. 

The story is about three German soldiers in World War II in Poland. The camp that they live it looks for Jews and then the soldiers that are based there shoot them in a formal event every morning. These soldiers absolutely hate having to do this, and so they ask to go wander about the countryside and search for the Jews, a task they would rather do than shoot them. 

When they unexpectedly find a Jewish man, they go through a process where they are torn between their natural bent to let him go, and the expectations of their superiors. They know that if they prove successful in bringing someone in, they will be allowed to go out again and skip the actual execution task. 

As the title indicates, it is winter and very cold and even in the camp food supplies are low, so the men are constantly hungry. When they find an abandoned house and break in, they find a single room with a stove and decide to light it and make a meal with the food they have. 

Another interesting part of this book is that one of them, Emmerlich, is a father who worries about his son. The first time he does so here is when the men have stopped to smoke a cigarette and he worries that his son will start smoking. The worries about his son are ongoing, and the other two men talk him through them, and give their input on the situation. This is one way the author humanizes the men. This discussion also includes a foreshadowing of a future event that provides an eerie echo to what the men are doing now. 

A moving story, beautifully told. 

The Women with Silver Wings

Finished December 27

The Women with Silver Wings: The Inspiring True Story of the Women Airforce Service Pilots of World War II by Katherine Sharp Landdeck

This book drew my interest after reading about these women in both history books and fiction. (For fiction, The All Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion by Fannie Flagg, for nonfiction Our Mothers' War by Emily Yellin.)

There were many women looking to do their part during the war, and pilots were a small but vocal group. This book outlines how two women pilots led the charge, but didn't always agree about how to go about it, or about what the end result should be. Those two women were Nancy Love and Jacqueline Cochran, and at first they led to different endeavours for the female pilots. Nancy Love started with a handful of women who served as ferry pilots, moving planes around the country as needed, to free up male pilots for frontline work. Her pilots had significant experience and were based with Air Transport Command in Wilmington, Delaware. 

Jacqueline Cochran was already flying in a similar capacity in Britain, leading a group of American women pilots flying for the ATA there. (A great fiction book about the female Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) pilots is The Beauty Chorus by Kate Lord Brown). When she heard about the women led by Nancy Love, she returned to the U.S. as fast as she could and argued that she was promised a lead role in women pilots flying for the war effort. She was then put in charge of recruiting other women pilots with less experience and getting them trained. She started on this immediately, and started at a Houston, Texas base, later moving to Sweetwater, Texas. 

This book looks at a number of women that were pilots, as well as the two leaders, and we see their different stories, and follow them through training and some of their more memorable flights. 

We also see the decades long fight for them to get the same recognition and status as the men that did the same jobs. 

A well-researched book that highlights a notable group of women pioneers in their field. 

The Forgotten Bookshop in Paris

Finished December 18

The Forgotten Bookshop in Paris by Daisy Wood

This is a novel about a woman rediscovering herself, a woman making choices about her life that suit herself, and a woman making a connection to her own family history. 

The book has dual timelines, one in the present day as Juliette discovers that her marriage is not a place she wants to be anymore, and one in the past as Jacques watches the German occupation of his city take things from him. 

Jacques isn't an obvious hero. He is bookish and shy, and wary of taking risks. But as the Paris that he loves comes under their control and the people and things he loves get taken away, he finds that he must take some actions, and he chooses to help those that need it, and keep a discreet record of his actions. 

Juliette has let life happen, and when a sudden discovery makes her really look at where she is, she decides to let herself explore the city of Paris, a place she wants to learn more about to connect to the grandmother who lived there. She has a painting of a square in Paris and wants to find it. When she does, she wants to learn more. 

This is a story of taking chances, or making conscious choices that have risks associated, and of listening to one's inner voice. 

I enjoyed both timelines, and seeing the primary character in each grow as their stories unfolded. 

The Armada Boy

Finished November 27

The Armada Boy by Kate Ellis

This novel is the second in the series featuring Devonshire police officer Wesley Peterson. In the small coastal town of Bereton, a group of American veterans has gathered, partly to visit where they were stationed for a while during World War II, just before D-Day, and partly as a memorial to those fellow soldiers who never returned. When one of the men, Norman Openheim is killed in the ruins of an old chantry chapel, the police find themselves both looking at current young criminals as well as delving into the activities that took place 50 years earlier. 

Before Wesley became a police officer he got a degree in archaeology, and it happens one of his friends archaeologist Neil Watson is doing work both in the chapel where the murder took place and in the coastal waters of the village. This work is around a ship and the Spanish men who were on it, as they were wrecked while trying to limp home after the defeat of the Armada. The bodies of the men are buried in the chapel, rather than in the churchyard with the locals. 

As the case moves on, Wesley and his fellow officers uncover information from both the more recent and the more distant historical events. Ties to the present and those connected wtih related local crimes also come to light. 

This read got me interested enough to order more books in the series.