Books can transport you to another world, into another time and into someones life - and while I love being in my life and world I just love to experience life and our universe through the words of another. As I turn the pages, I allow my imagination to take me into the lives of the characters and not only has that broadened my horizons, its also given me a deep insight into understanding others, which for me is essential to a well lived life.Books this quarter have taken me to Poland, Germany, London, Australia and across various war zones!
So who have I met? Bookclub girls suggested I would love Karolina's Twins (Ronald H Balson) this month. I suspected it was a war story and there would be sadness. "Take it - you will love it," they said. So I took it not expecting to - but I loved it! I was invited to enter into the life of Lena Woodward, an elderly Holocaust survivor, who is on a quest to fulfill a promise to find two infant sisters who she last saw being thrown from a train as it journeyed to a Nazi death camp in Poland. She employs a lawyer and a private detective to assist her as her only son threatens to get her declared delusional and suffering from dementia. It is a story of survival, love and resilience and the importance of family and of forgiveness and it is beautifully written.
I was travelling though Namibia late last year and short of something to read so I scoured my Kindle and came across a book I had downloaded some time ago. The title is deceiving, The Secret Ministry of Ag. & Fish: My Life in Churchill's School for Spies, written by Noreen Riols." My mother thought that I was working for the Ministry of Agriculture.' so being's Noreen's memoir. She was in fact involved in work so secret that it is only in the past ten years that she has been able to declare what she did for the war effort and just how important her unit's work was. Receiving her call-up papers on her 18th birthday, she chose to joining the WRENS because she liked the uniform, she was almost immediately recruited into a secret unit who supported the French Resistance fighting the allied cause and their important work particularly in getting British airmen who were shot down to get back home. She acted as a decoy and master of disguise in Churchill's spy school and her job was to test the spies who were trained to support this cause. One of her female colleagues used to sleep with them before they went 'over' so they could be assured that they didn't talk in their sleep and worse speak in English in their sleep which would have seen them tortured and killed. A fascinating and yes - sometimes harrowing read about the atrocities of war and the treatment of spies who were caught by the Nazis. I did at times weep at the cruelty of war, but I also rejoiced at their triumphs, laughed at some of the witty and unbelievable stories and was in awe of their bravery. A roller coaster of emotions as I sped through the flat landscape of Namibia - and not the best book to read in a German speaking country! What a woman - I was so glad to be able to make her acquaintance and learn of her secret war and of the sterling work that she has done since.
There is another book out in the Seven Sisters Series, Lucinda Riley, that I enjoyed while I was on holiday in the US over Christmas. I am enjoying reading the stories of these adopted sisters as they trace their birth families. The Pearl Sister, is the fourth book of the series and transported me back to the 19th century into Australia and the equivalent of the gold rush but in the lucrative trade of pearls. CeCe travels from the coast into the Australian outback to trace her roots to the Aboriginal people and discovers where her artistic talents come from. These books are well researched and just so easy to get lost in and I am enjoying the continuity as each sister steps out to find her own history and yet the family bonds to one another remain strong. Again I am loving the characters, the history that I am learning and of course the descriptions of places I am yet to visit. They each long for a sense of belonging and an identity that I am sure resounds with an adopted child. I cant wait for the next one!
Then I met Eleanor Oliphant in "Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine" by Gail Honeyman.
Eleanor, by contrast, leads a simple life, wears the same clothes to work each day and eats the same meal each evening and drinks two bottles of vodka each weekend. She is a lonely young woman living an old persons lonely life - an odd ball, laughed at at work - she is surviving barely. Her past holds a dark secret and you soon lose your heart to this fragile woman wearing a brave mask. I have known one or two, "Eleanors" I like people who live life in their own unique way. This Eleanor's life is changed by an act of kindness which gets her involved with an old man - very much loved by his family - a situation she has never found herself in! A lovely tale, beautifully told - you will want to rescue Eleanor and save her from herself. It is a No.1 best selling Sunday Times book and a stunning debut novel.
I have also enjoyed John Simpson's collection of short stories "Twenty Tales from the War Zone". Simpson has fifty years experience as a journalist reporting from the front line and I enjoy his anecdotes and his clever style of reporting. He always features in the British Airways in flight magazine and I have usually read his article before take off! This is the perfect book to read in airports, waiting rooms and while ubering! Well written and quick reads.
I indulged in a kindle 99p book too called Dangerous Crossing by Rachel Rhys. Light 'chic-lit' reading and worth a pound of any one's money!
The novel that I have just started in set in the US, The Balitmore Boys by Joel Dicker - a good start! The journey continues.
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