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Theresa Smith's Blog, page 152
November 4, 2017
New Release Book Review: Codename Suzette by Anne Nelson
About:
Codename Suzette is one of the untold stories of the Holocaust, an account of extraordinary courage in the face of evil.
‘During the German occupation of France, Suzanne Spaak displayed almost super-human courage… Anne Nelson has written an extraordinary book that finally does justice to Spaak’s story of heroism and sacrifice.’
–Andrew Nagorski, author of The Nazi Hunters
Suzanne Spaak was born into an affluent Belgian Catholic family, and married into the country’s leading political dynasty. Her brother-in-law was the Foreign Minister and her husband Claude was a playwright and patron of the painter Rene Magritte. In occupied Paris she moved among the cultural elite. Her neighbour was Colette, France’s most famous living writer, and Jean Cocteau was part of her circle of intimates. But Suzanne was living a double life. Her friendship with a Polish Jewish refugee led her to her life’s purpose. When France fell and the Nazis occupied Paris, she joined the Resistance. She used her fortune and social status to enlist allies among wealthy Parisians and church groups.
Under the eyes of the Gestapo, Suzanne and women from the Jewish and Christian resistance groups ‘kidnapped’ hundreds of Jewish children to save them from the gas chambers.
Codename Suzette is a masterpiece of research and narrative, bringing to life a truly remarkable woman, and painting a vivid and unforgettable picture of wartime Paris.
‘A riveting book about a truly heroic woman in a Paris of resignation and shame. A must read!’
–Diane von Furstenberg, New York Times bestselling author of The Woman I Wanted to Be
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My Thoughts:
“I witnessed so many deaths, and not just firing squads – humans can be so horrible.” Abbe Franz Stock, German prison chaplain at Fresnes, Resistance sympathiser.
Codename Suzette is an incredible account of resistance and salvation. It’s narrative style merged with clear facts marks this as an accessible and precise resource for those wishing to know more about the Holocaust from the perspective of those operating within France. However, the style also renders this as a particularly difficult read, in the way that horrific truths so often are. On several occasions I had to put this aside, overcome by the weight of all that happened within Europe during WWII and the burden compassionate citizens bore when betrayed by their neighbours and acquaintances. I am not a new reader to this subject having read extensively over the last 20 years on many aspects of WWII, but this book was striking in its power to move me.
I am grateful to Anne Nelson for producing this book and giving Suzanne Spaak the attention she deserves. The research undertaken to write this book was phenomenal and by all appearances, an adherence to accuracy has taken precedence within the narrative. It’s a testimony to Anne Nelson’s skill as a writer that you can pick Codename Suzette up and read it in the same manner as you would a novel, although its contents will shred you all the more as you continually remind yourself that everything you are reading is fact, not fiction.
“Suzanne Spaak was capable of seeing and serving the ‘alien other’ because, in her clear gaze, no fellow human was alien, or other. ‘Something must be done’.”
Suzanne Spaak was murdered on August 12, 1944, in the prison courtyard of Fresnes. It is unclear by whom and under what order as she had been pardoned and was due for release at the end of the war. Available evidence suggests that all of the children rescued by Suzanne’s network survived the occupation. In 1985, Suzanne was designated Righteous Among the Nations by the Yad Vashem memorial in Israel, conferred to non-Jews who risked their safety or their freedom to save Jewish lives from the Holocaust, with no expectation of personal gain.
Thanks is extended to for providing me with a copy of Codename Suzette for review.
Author bio:
Anne Nelson is an award-winning author and playwright. She is the author of Codename Suzette; Red Orchestra: The Story of the Berlin Underground and the Circle of Friends Who Resisted Hitler; Murder Under Two Flags: The US, Puerto Rico, and the Cerro Maravilla Cover-up; and The Guys: A Play. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Harper’s, BBC, CBC, NPR, and PBS. Nelson is a graduate of Yale University and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She teaches at the Columbia School of International and Public Affairs in New York City.
November 3, 2017
Quick Shots Book Review: Mothers and Daughters by Kylie Ladd
About:
Four mothers. Four teenage daughters.
An isolated tropical paradise with no internet or mobile phone reception.
What could possibly go wrong?
There’s tension, bitchiness, bullying, sex, drunken confessions, bad behaviour and breakdowns – and wait till you see what the teenagers get up to…
How can we let our daughters go to forge lives of their own when what we most want to do is hold them close and never let them go? How do we let them grow and keep them protected from the dark things in the world at the same time? And how can mothers and daughters navigate the troubled, stormy waters of adolescence without hurting themselves and each other?
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My Thoughts:
I thoroughly enjoyed Mothers and Daughters from start to finish. With the perfect blend of intelligence and entertainment, Kylie Ladd has crafted a story about friendship and family that is refreshingly honest and entirely insightful.
The characters are not always perfect. Often, their thoughts made me wince, but they were at all times utterly real, and that’s what made this novel work so well. They are you, and me, and the person we work with, all moving along in life as best we can, questioning ourselves and wondering if there’s any chance we’ll get it all right in the end.
In amongst this domestic drama is another story, a story that is brave in its undertaking, because race is a sensitive topic that many are quick to take offence at. This novel asks the reader to consider not only issues of racial inequity within our society, but also educational inequity. Kylie does not preach nor make bold statements, she merely presents an representation of the harsh reality of life that exists in many parts of remote Australia. Living in the outback of Queensland myself – and working in the education sector – I found this aspect of the novel to be entirely relevant and I applaud Kylie for tackling this tricky and not so pretty subject.
Mothers and Daughters is a fantastic read and I highly recommend it if you enjoy good quality Australian fiction.
Mothers and Daughters was published by Allen and Unwin.
The Author:
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Kylie Ladd is a novelist and freelance writer. She has published five novels: After the Fall, Last Summer, which was highly commended in the FAW Christina Stead Award for fiction, Into My Arms, chosen as one of Get Reading’s ’50 books you can’t put down’ for 2013, Mothers and Daughters and The Way Back. Kylie holds a PhD in neuropsychology and lives in Melbourne with her husband and two children.
November 2, 2017
My Reading Life: Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
As much as I like an uplifting story that makes you feel all warm inside, my greatest love is literature that moves me. Novels filled with beautiful prose and vivid imagery that lean towards the tragic more than the happy. In other words, novels that make me cry.
Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy (1891) is a weep throughout and sob at the end kind of novel. It’s one of my favourites.
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But why? I hear you all lamenting. Why would you willingly put yourself through such a thing?
If you’ve never read it, here’s a little sum up of the story:
When Tess Durbeyfield is driven by family poverty to claim kinship with the wealthy D’Urbervilles and seek a portion of their family fortune, meeting her ‘cousin’ Alec proves to be her downfall. A very different man, Angel Clare, seems to offer her love and salvation, but Tess must choose whether to reveal her past or remain silent in the hope of a peaceful future.
Loss in Thomas Hardy’s own life leant him a disposition towards writing about tragedy and suffering. Combining this with a tremendous love of his home county, Dorset, Hardy’s works exhibit a strong connection to nature and landscape and come across as moody and deeply atmospheric. Technically speaking, he utilised a writing device called pathetic fallacy, a term coined in 1856 by an art critic, and it refers to the attribution of human behaviour and emotions to nature. Use of this writing device was not uncommon in 19th century novels, Wuthering Heights being a prominent example. In its most basic form, pathetic fallacy can be demonstrated as follows:
Sunshine = Happiness
Rain = Misery
Storm = Inner Turmoil
This technique was utilised throughout Tess of the D’Urbervilles with such precise skill and a whole lot more sophistication than the basic explanation above implies:
“The atmosphere turned pale, the birds shook themselves in the hedges, arose and twittered; the lane showed all its white features and Tess showed hers, still whiter.”
Hardy uses pathetic fallacy with perfection in some of the more depraved and difficult scenes within the novel. Tess’s life is a series of misfortunes that seem to just go from bad to worse, moments of happiness fleetingly rare. When Tess is assaulted, the environmental setting around her creates an explicit atmosphere that conveys all that is happening without Hardy ever having to spell it out. He truly is a master of this writing device. Tess of the D’Urbervilles contains some of the most magnificent writing of the 19th century, in my opinion. It’s an excellent example of what we now call ‘deep point of view’, the engagement of all five senses when writing.
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Image from the BBC Adaptation of Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Tess is a woman wronged by every single person she encounters. Her beauty is as much her persecution as it is an attraction. While it would be easy to dismiss Tess as naive, I rather think of her as a woman trapped by the era and circumstances beyond her control. Her one path to redemption, through her marriage to Angel, is smashed apart by his ridiculously pious attitude leading him to turn away from a woman who loved him more than anything, whose only crime was having been taken grossly advantage of. I was so incredibly frustrated by Angel; I lost count of the amount of times I wished I could shake him. What an idiot he was! Of course, he realises the error he has made far too late. At least Alec d’Urberville got what he deserved in the end, but of course, Hardy is above all a realist, so sadly, Tess meets her inevitable end as well.
“When they saw where she lay, which they had not done till then, they showed no objection, and stood watching her, as still as the pillars around. He went to the stone and bent over her, holding one poor little hand; her breathing now was quick and small, like that of a lesser creature than a woman. All waited in the growing light, their faces and hands as if they were silvered, the remainder of their figures dark, the stones glistening green-gray, the Plain still a mass of shade. Soon the light was strong, and a ray shone upon her unconscious form, peering under her eyelids and waking her.
‘What is it, Angel?’ she said, starting up. ‘Have they come for me?’
‘Yes, dearest,’ he said. ‘They have come.’
‘It is as it should be,’ she murmured. ‘Angel, I am almost glad – yes, glad! This happiness could not have lasted. It was too much. I have had enough; and now I shall not live for you to despise me!’
She stood up, shook herself, and went forward, neither of the men having moved.
‘I am ready,’ she said quietly.”
The intent of Tess of the D’Urbervilles remains to me an examination of the inevitability of fate, never more obvious than in the passage above. Tess was never, for a single moment, in charge of her own destiny; until the very end, when she gave herself up. This was only in terms of the timing of her deliverance though, and what came after this one defining moment was again entirely out her control. The tragedy of that is stunning and such an insightful perspective for Hardy to have offered, given it was 1891 and he was a man. I believe this is a testimony to his own personal character. After his first wife died, Hardy wrote his finest love poetry, yet the two had been estranged prior to her death. Perhaps Angel had shades of Hardy himself in him, seeking redemption at the point of fate’s intersection.
I’ll be upfront and say that this is not a hopeful novel. Nor is it happy. It’s desperately sad and filled with unfairness and frustration all tinged with despair. But it’s beautifully written, entirely transporting; I have goose bumps just reminiscing about it for this article. It’s a novel I return to every few years and one that I think is highly under-rated. If you’ve never read Tess of the D’Urbervilles, I highly encourage you to do so, and if you have, I’d love to hear your thoughts on whether or not you love it as much as I do.
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Sources:
The Literature Book (2016) Dorling Kindersley Ltd
Tess of the D’Urbervilles (1891) Thomas Hardy – (2008) Penguin Classics Edition
October 31, 2017
Behind the Pen with Renee Dahlia
Today on Behind the Pen I have great pleasure in welcoming historical romance fiction author, Renee Dahlia.
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In Pursuit of a Bluestocking, the second book in Renee Dahlia’s Bluestocking series released on 12 October 2017. The Bluestocking series follows three women who attend medical school together in Amsterdam in the 1880s, a decade after the first female graduate Dr Aletta Jacobs (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aletta_Jacobs).
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How would you best describe this novel to a new reader?
In Pursuit of a Bluestocking: When he goes hunting a thief, he never expects to catch a bluestocking…
This book is essentially a madcap train chase across Europe. It starts in Amsterdam when Marie’s fiancé is shot, and she meets the hero who helps her escape from the murderer. There are conmen, thieves, unusual historical objects, food, and of course, plenty of romance.
What other genre would you like to try your hand at writing and why?
Romance is my favourite genre to read, so my heart will always be there. Currently, I’m writing a contemporary novel set in Sydney, as well as doing edits on the third Bluestocking book. I write a lot of non-fiction in my day job, writing for two horse racing magazines, and there is a bookmaker from the 1890s who I’d love to write a fictionalised ‘based on a true story’ book about. He spent the early part of his career in Australia, creating a method of bookmaking that still is in use today. I’m also planning a romance based on his real life scandalous proposal and marriage.
Where do you normally write? Is it in the same place every day or are you an all over the place writer?
My oldest sons are keen cricketers, and I wrote In Pursuit of a Bluestocking while watching them play over last summer. As long as I have my laptop, I can write anywhere, but there is something special about sitting under a gum tree in a warm Australian park with a light breeze and plenty of coffee.
When did you start writing and what was the catalyst?
Unlike many writers who say they were born wanting to write, I was in denial for a long time. I grew up in a family of readers and story-tellers; my father has three published non-fiction books, my sister writes sci-fi/fantasy, and that’s not counting the extended family. Rather than write, I did a degree in science, chosen in part because I had to write only one essay during my entire time of study! A decade after graduating, I had an opportunity to write for a horse racing magazine doing statistically based articles, and realised that I liked writing. Magazine writing is great for writing craft, as you must write to deadline and word counts. A couple of years ago, I decided, on a whim, to try my hand at writing fiction, mostly for the intellectual challenge. At the time, I didn’t expect to publish that book, but once it was done, publication was a natural step in the process. I pitched it at the RWA conference in 2016, where it was picked up by Escape Publishing and published as To Charm a Bluestocking in March 2017.
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Are you balancing a different career with your writing? How do go about making time for your writing within limited hours?
Yes, and with less sleep and no tv. I work three days a week for the Australian Stud Book, doing data analysis, and the other two working days are a balance of magazine writing, racing consulting work, and novel writing. At this stage in my fiction career, writing tends to be last on the to-do list, so I often write on weekends while watching kid’s sport, or in the evenings after everything else is done. I hardly ever watch tv, although I do have a soft spot for Michael Portillo’s Great Railway Journeys with his colourful wardrobe and his Bradshaw’s guide.
Can you share with us a vivid childhood memory?
When I was ten, we moved to a small country town. That summer, our family descended on the local library to borrow some books for our four week holiday in the timeshare beach house my parents had. Between the six of us, we borrowed 65 books. The look on the librarian’s face as she said, “No one can read that many books,” and my mother replying, “Just watch us,” will stay with me forever. And yes, between us, we read all the books, and most of us read nearly all of them!
What authors and types of books do you love the most?
Romance. For historical romance, I’ll always recommend Courtney Milan, Lisa Kleypas (especially her Hathaways series), and Tessa Dare. The best historical romance I’ve read this year is An Extraordinary Union by Alyssa Cole. A few contemporary romances I’ve enjoyed recently are Trust Me by Farrah Rochon, How to Bang a Billionaire by Alexis Hall, and the wonderful new release Hate to Want You by Alisha Rai.
What inspired your most recent novel?
In the first book in this series, To Charm a Bluestocking, the heroine of In Pursuit of a Bluestocking is happily engaged. Unfortunately, her fiancé is dull, and it takes his murder and betrayal for her to realise that she only said yes to him because she wanted to be wanted. I needed a reason for him to be murdered, and a family legend inspired the reason for his demise. My great (times a few) uncle was shot in the Battle of Shipka pass in 1877, the bullet removed, and made into a keepsake. I wrote about it for the Escape Publishing blog.
What book is currently on your bedside table?
Harry Potter. My children love this series and have re-read it many times. They’ve cajoled me into reading it, and I’m really enjoying it. JK Rowling’s world building is outstanding, and from the craft point of view, the way she weaves backstory into each new book in the series is a great lesson for new writers.
What is your favourite scene from one of your novels and why?
Most of my books feature food, a hangover from my food blog (Work Eat Laugh Repeat) and this scene from In Pursuit of a Bluestocking has Marie and Gordon eating breakfast in a little bakery on the morning they arrive in Paris by train.
‘I’m afraid I know only a little about the peerage. We only ever visited my uncle’s estate. I certainly never had a season or anything like that.’
‘That’s probably a good thing,’ he said with another slight shift of his shoulders.
‘Surely the peerage is just like everyone else. A range of people who are clever, kind, practical or intelligent. A few who have tendencies towards selfishness,’ she said.
‘Are you this positive about everyone?’ he said. She shook her head once, a tiny, almost involuntary movement.
‘I’ve found it’s easier to deal with people if you can find some good in them. Often when people come into the university hospital, they are in pain and fractious. Being positive helps calm them down so we can treat them.’
‘I bet it’s not as simple as that,’ he said. She was saved from having to answer as their breakfast arrived. Her croissant smelled divine with perfect brown flaky pastry and melted butter. The rich bitter aroma of coffee made her mouth water, and she lifted the cup up for a tiny sip of the boiling hot liquid. The steaming coffee burnt the tip of her tongue and she almost dropped the cup. She pressed her tongue to the back of her teeth.
‘Hot?’ asked Gordon. She nodded. She looked over at his meal to see a large plate of poached eggs on flat cakes with bacon and a creamy sauce. A few leaves of parsley garnished the top. She picked up her croissant and bit into it. Pastry crumbs broke off and fluttered down to the table. A few landed on the front of her dress and one fell inconveniently down into her cleavage. She placed the croissant back on its plate and brushed down her dress. Little crumbs of sharp pastry points jabbed into her skin. Ah, croissants—so delicious, but so impractical to eat. She flicked a glance up at Gordon and her eyes stayed there. Transfixed by the hunger in his face. All her earlier nervousness rushed away, replaced by a growing awareness on her skin. His masculine lips parted and the tip of his tongue rested between them. As if he wanted to lick that crumb out of her cleavage. Her skin burned with the thought of it; fire breathed across her as if his tongue already licked at her skin. She dropped her gaze down to that tiny crumb nestled at the neckline of her dress and plucked it out with trembling fingers. Shots of sensation raced along her skin where her own finger touched her. If he could cause this much heat with just his eyes, imagine. No. She shook her head and swallowed.
Buy links:
Escape Publishing
Amazon AUS
Ibooks
Googleplay
Booktopia
October 30, 2017
New Release Book Review: The Inaugural Meeting of the Fairvale Ladies Book Club by Sophie Green
About:
Books bring them together – but friendship will transform all of their lives.
In 1978 the Northern Territory has begun to self-govern. Cyclone Tracy is a recent memory and telephones not yet a fixture on the cattle stations dominating the rugged outback. Life is hard and people are isolated. But they find ways to connect.
Sybil is the matriarch of Fairvale Station, run by her husband, Joe. Their eldest son, Lachlan, was Joe’s designated successor but he has left the Territory – for good. It is up to their second son, Ben, to take his brother’s place. But that doesn’t stop Sybil grieving the absence of her child. With her oldest friend, Rita, now living in Alice Springs and working for the Royal Flying Doctor Service, and Ben’s English wife, Kate, finding it difficult to adjust to life at Fairvale, Sybil comes up with a way to give them all companionship and purpose: they all love to read, and she forms a book club.
Mother-of-three Sallyanne is invited to join them. Sallyanne dreams of a life far removed from the dusty town of Katherine where she lives with her difficult husband, Mick. Completing the group is Della, who left Texas for Australia looking for adventure and work on the land.
This is a story of five different women united by one need: to overcome the vast distances of Australia’s Top End with friendship, tears, laughter, books and love.
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My Thoughts:
I have absolutely adored reading The Inaugural Meeting of the Fairvale Ladies Book Club. True to the era and the location in which it is set, this novel is a real slice of rural social history, the spirit of Australian outback station life converging with the reality of living so remotely. With a cast of likable characters, your time at Fairvale Station will pass all too quickly, despite the hefty page count of the novel.
While I would have loved more of the book club to take centre stage throughout – particularly since this was the whole premise of the novel – this is the only thing I can fault. The story, the characters, the seasonal atmosphere, the remote location, the history; it was all so wonderfully threaded together, with not a single dull moment at all. The addition of the timeline of notable world events at the beginning of each new year/section added a lovely touch of nostalgia. I also appreciated the additional author notes at the end about each of the novels read by the ladies of Fairvale. It’s all of these little extras that often make a novel go from being a great read to a standout pick of the year.
There were key moments in every life when decisions had to be made in a second even though they had the potential to irrevocably alter everything that came after them. Sybil had experienced them before. She remembered how they felt: how the world became quiet and narrow. How each breath seemed momentous. Time changed form and sometimes it never changed back.
I love the way this story showcases the bonds of friendship, reinforcing the importance of having and maintaining relationships despite distance and time between visits. There is one terrific scene where the ladies have their book club meeting via two-way radio – just marvellous! While it would be easy to romanticise station life, Sophie Green approaches it with more authenticity. The highs and the lows, the burdens as well as the freedoms, with the end result being a story that has all the hallmarks of a future Australian classic.
Fairvale was a home and a workplace; it was also, for her, a living thing. It changed shape as people came and went, and the seasons turned. If she’d been asked to say where its heart was, where its brain resided, she could give answers but they would change too.
I really enjoyed this novel, reading it voraciously over the weekend and I’m keen to discuss it with my own book club, which fortunately, can meet face to face and far more often than the Fairvale Ladies Book Club!
The Inaugural Meeting of the Fairvale Ladies Book Club is book 66 in my 2017 Australian Women Writers Challenge.
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The Author:
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Sophie Green is an author and publisher who lives in Sydney. She has written several fiction and non-fiction books, some under other names. In her spare time she writes about country music on her blog, Jolene. She fell in love with the Northern Territory the first time she visited and subsequent visits inspired the story in THE INAUGURAL MEETING OF THE FAIRVALE LADIES BOOK CLUB.
October 29, 2017
Origin of the Writer: Barbara Strickland
Origin of the Writer is a series of essays giving emerging writers the opportunity to share their writing journey so far.
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One of the lovely things about writing is connecting with like-minded groups. RWA Emerging Writers Support Group is one such example. I think it is the use of the word emerging that really cements something in the new and nervous writer. We are caterpillars hoping to be butterflies but butterflies are pretty fragile creatures.
I have been playing in the writing playground most of my life. I have scribbled away, attended workshops, found writers groups and kept working, and reworking until one day I knew something had to change. In fact I feel like I have been cocooning forever on that safe green leaf. There are so many challenges to complete the metamorphous. Money is a challenge (edits and more edits), the process itself is a challenge, being original and fresh is a challenge, re-writing is both a challenge and hard on the soul and feeds the already rampant guilt taking time from the family creates.
I had submitted often with positive feedback yet remained stagnant although my fears certainly managed to flow and grow until the writing dream appeared completely of reach. Then three years ago in a workshop run by the Queensland Writer’s Centre the subject of Joanna Penn and self-publishing came up. Joanna’s achievements couldn’t be denied and yet she made it look simple, simple not easy. I found an enormous difference in these words and felt inspired. I also detected a certain stigma attached despite the growing popularity. Belief persists you go this path because you’re not good enough to go the other, more established and formal route.
I decided I would I would try it anyway. Blogging and building a platform are encouraged. So I did just that. I started a blog which is now just over two years old. Amorina Rose’s Blog run from my website www.brstrickland.com doesn’t have a huge following but it is growing, and it has plunged me straight into the reality of deadlines and social media. I struggle with these but I truly understand now writing is much more than time at the computer writing and dreaming of best-sellers. Writing is patience and dedication, and things some of us struggle with, media being at the top of the list.
Reality can kick any goal right out of existence. The truth is there are thousands and thousands of writers out there wanting to do exactly the same thing we want to do, create that same perfect reader offering, the one that is fresh and unique. I have always wanted to incorporate my Italian heritage and love of travel in what I created. My father always said Etna, Sicily’s volcano, spoke a few rumbles the day he was born. I wanted that in my story. I wanted to share the warmth of Italy, the beauty of Australia and throw in some hot romance.
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Etna with snow
I didn’t know whether I had the goods to last the distance as a writer but for me, self-publishing seemed to be a perfect way to find out without letting too many more years pass me by. The immediate process gives me control. It also allows me time to devote to learning from others and to read and I need that. One of the things I am most proud of is finding a YouTube clip that suits my hero’s mood perfectly when his obnoxious behaviour forces my girl to run. Knowing how to link it is amazing for someone with a technology deficit. (Melanconia Il Divo Wicked Game) I love the mood this song creates.
The truth is I am an ordinary person, a mother, a grandmother, a friend, a lover of coffee and travel but I have had a dream all my life and to follow it I have had to take a risk. The safeguards a publisher would provide are missing. It’s like a love affair with a bad boy. On the one hand we have attraction but on the other it comes with a series of pitfalls. To emerge I have had to undergo a gigantic learning curve. I now refer to it as a tidal wave, wave being a keyword. My character Lia in Unexpected Obsession, says the following about her relationship:
“Don’t think because I can’t stop this, I’m weak. I’m on a surfboard the size of my thumbnail riding a wave so high it has its own flight path. I can’t afford to fall off.”
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I might have been writing about my writing career because that is how it feels. I have my novel Unexpected Obsession out there. It is the first book in a series titled The Unexpected Series. Bad boy–like, it had some rough edges. I shaved it carefully and the rough edges are smoother but the danger of falling off the surfboard still exists and is exacerbated by the now real possibility of reader reaction. Notwithstanding I have opted to go ahead and work on a print copy and to further expand my writing horizons with a poetry anthology entitled Emotions in Eruption. Once again I have opted for self-publishing an ebook with a view to taking it to print. I figured I might as well voice the fears in verse, and share them. We all have them and sharing eases the feeling (well, sometimes).
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Emerging is hard. I feel insecure, a vulnerable fledgling but I am in good company. So I’ll battle those fears or better still I will let Lexi do it for me in Unexpected Passion, the second book in the series. She is older, wiser and hopefully plenty sexy.
Thank you to the lovely Theresa for this wonderful opportunity to connect,
Barb.
October 28, 2017
New Release Book Review: Ache by Eliza Henry-Jones
About:
A year ago, a devastating bushfire ripped Annie’s world apart – killing her grandmother, traumatising her young daughter and leaving her mother’s home in the mountains half destroyed. Annie fled back to the city, but the mountain continues to haunt her. Now, drawn by a call for help from her uncle, she’s going back to the place she loves most in the world, to try to heal herself, her marriage, her daughter and her mother.
A heart-wrenching, tender and lovely novel about loss, grief and regeneration, Ache is not only a story of how we can be broken, but how we can put ourselves back together.
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My Thoughts:
There’s a lot to love about this new release by Eliza Henry-Jones and nothing at all to dislike. Once again, we reap the benefit of Eliza’s experience and expertise in the areas of grief, loss and trauma. In Ache, we bear witness to a community in crisis, struggling one year on in the aftermath of a devastating bushfire. Lives were lost, animals and humans, and many were left with nothing. Recovery is being hampered by interest from a television crew intent on mining the trauma for ratings. People are angry, hurting, and resentful of interlopers.
One of the things Eliza has done best with Ache is way she’s peeled back the layers of human facade to expose all that lies beneath. Guilt and grief are firmly interlocked for most of the characters within Ache. For some, this results in self-destruction; for others, this spurs on revenge. Humans can be really shitty towards each other when driven by guilt and fear; there are times within Ache that I shuddered at the way people were treating each other, yet instinctively recognised it as actions fuelled by brokenness.
Above all, Ache is about healing. About gathering time and space enough to breathe out your guilt and fear as a way of moving forward through your grief. Little Pip is a special character, almost like a wild animal at the beginning of the story, her transformation through healing apparent as the novel progresses. Luna was my other love; I can’t go past a story that has a healing horse and Luna was a very intuitive and special horse who played an integral role in Annie’s recovery. Alongside grief and loss, motherhood is examined through the generations of Annie’s family, highlighting how sometimes a traumatic event results in a resurfacing of other feelings long repressed and left undone.
Deeply insightful and astoundingly honest, Ache will take you on a journey into the dark rivers of the human heart, and leave you feeling somewhat shattered and hopeful at the same time.
Ache is book 65 in my 2017 Australian Women Writers Challenge.
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October 27, 2017
Quick Shots Book Review: In The Quiet by Eliza Henry-Jones
About:
A moving, sweet and uplifting novel of love, grief and the heartache of letting go, from a wonderful new Australian author.
Cate Carlton has recently died, yet she is able to linger on, watching her three young children and her husband as they come to terms with their life without her on their rural horse property. As the months pass and her children grow, they cope in different ways, drawn closer and pulled apart by their shared loss. And all Cate can do is watch on helplessly, seeing their grief, how much they miss her and how – heartbreakingly – they begin to heal. Gradually unfolding to reveal Cate’s life, her marriage, and the unhappy secret she shared with one of her children, In the Quiet is compelling, simple, tender, true – heartbreaking and uplifting in equal measure.
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My Thoughts:
Grief and guilt intermingle in this quietly beautiful debut novel by Eliza Henry-Jones. The story gently unfolds in pieces that take the reader from the present through to the past and back again in a seamless arrangement.
Uniquely narrated, with heartfelt prose, this is a novel to linger with, to savour, and ultimately, to weep over.
A true keeper.
I am genuinely stunned at the writing talent Eliza exhibits for someone so young. Her deft prose ensures that her future novels will be an auto-buy for me.
Highly recommended but best served with a side of tissues.
The Author:
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Eliza Henry-Jones is an author based on a little farm in the Yarra Valley of Victoria.
Her debut novel In the Quiet was published in 2015 as part of a three book deal with HarperCollins Australia and is now out in the US through Harper360. It was shortlisted for the Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction, the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards and was longlisted in the Indie Awards and ABIA Awards. Her second novel Ache was released in June.
Eliza has recently signed an additional two book deal with HarperCollins Australia for two works for younger readers. Her first Young Adult novel P is for Pearl will be published in March, 2018.
Eliza has qualifications in English, Psychology and grief, loss and trauma counselling. She has also completed an honours thesis exploring representations of bushfire trauma in fiction. Her work has been published widely, appearing in places such as The Guardian, The Age, Southerly, Island, The Big Issue and Daily Life.
In 2012, Eliza was a young Writer-in-Residence at the Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers’ Centre in WA and in 2015 undertook a residential fellowship at Varuna in NSW.
October 26, 2017
My Reading Life: The Wilderness Series by Sara Donati
Today on My Reading Life, I’m going to highlight a series that captured me from the very first book, each instalment joining the others in their permanent home on my shelves. The Wilderness Series by Sara Donati. Epic in scope, each book weighing in at around 900 pages, this series weaves a tapestry of fact and fiction, sweeping us into another time and place, all of it beginning with a forbidden affair between an unconventional Englishwoman and an American frontiersman.
I received the first book in The Wilderness Series, Into the Wilderness, as a thank you gift from a friend. I’d never heard of Sara Donati before, nor had I heard of Diana Gabaldon, whose high praise on the cover conveyed much about this mystery book’s contents. But even back then I loved historical fiction, as my friend well knew, and thick books had never put me off either. To my utter delight, Into the Wilderness proved itself a most enjoyable read, containing all of the necessary ingredients required for a good historical fiction with romantic elements. I was over-joyed to see the promo for the second instalment advertised in the back cover, less so when I realised I would have to wait two years for it, and for each one thereafter. They were, of course, definitely worth the wait! There are six books in total and the series is now finished with all titles available in gorgeous matching covers. While I loved all six books in the series, book 5, Queen of Swords, is my ultimate favourite. This is not a series that you can follow without having read each book. The stories are rich in detail and inter-connecting back stories with a heavy cast of characters. They’re also multi-generational, spanning decades. I’m going to attempt to summarise each of the blurbs for the rest of this article so that you can get a feel for what the series is about.
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Into The Wilderness #1:
December of 1792. Elizabeth Middleton leaves her comfortable English estate to join her family in a remote New York mountain village. It is a place unlike any she has ever experienced. And she meets a man unlike any she has ever encountered – a white man dressed like a Native American, Nathanial Bonner, known to the Mohawk people as Between-Two-Lives. Determined to provide schooling for all the children of the village, she soon finds herself locked in conflict with the local slave owners as well as her own family. Interweaving the fate of the Mohawk Nation with the destiny of two lovers, Sara Donati’s compelling novel creates a complex, profound, passionate portrait of an emerging America.
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Dawn on a Distant Shore #2:
Elizabeth and Nathaniel Bonner have settled into their life together at the edge of the New-York wilderness in the winter of 1794 when Elizabeth gives birth to healthy twins. But soon the events in Canada draw Nathaniel far away from his new family. Word has reached them that Nathaniel’s father has been arrested by crown officials in British Canada. Nathaniel reluctantly leaves Hidden Wolf Mountain to set out for the distant city, determined to see his father freed. Instead Nathaniel is imprisoned and finds himself in imminent danger of being hanged as an American spy. In a desperate bid to save her husband, Elizabeth bundles her infants and sets out on the long trek to Montreal. Accompanied by her stepdaughter, Hannah, their wise friend Curiosity Freeman, and Runs-from-Bears, a Mohawk warrior and lifelong friend of Nathaniel’s, Elizabeth journeys through the snowy wilderness and across treacherous waterways. But she soon discovers that freeing Nathaniel will take every ounce of her courage and inventiveness. It is a struggle that threatens her with the loss of what she loves most: her children.
Torn apart, the Bonners must embark on yet another perilous voyage…this time all the way across the ocean to the heart of Scotland, where a wealthy earl claims kinship with Nathaniel’s father, Hawkeye. In his heart, the Mahican tribe of Hawkeye’s youth is the truest kin he will ever know, just as Nathaniel will always remain loyal to the Mohawk nation. But with this journey a whole new world opens up to Nathaniel and Elizabeth–and a destiny they could never have imagined awaits them.
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Lake in the Clouds #3:
It is the spring of 1802 and the village of Paradise is still reeling from the typhoid epidemic of the previous summer. But despite a devastating personal loss, the Bonners persevere, with Hannah, Nathaniel’s half-Indian daughter, working as a doctor in training. A gifted healer, this striking young woman of two worlds finds herself in peril when a dangerously ill runaway slave is discovered near the family home and Hannah insists on nursing the outlaw. Her determination places both her family and her heart in jeopardy, for a bounty hunter is afoot–and he is none other than Hannah’s childhood friend and first love. So begins a journey that will test the strength of the Bonners’ love for one another–and bring Hannah to face the decision she has always dreaded: will she make a life for herself in a white world, or among her mother’s people?
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Fire Along the Sky #4:
The year is 1812 and Hannah Bonner has returned to her family’s mountain cabin in Paradise. But Nathaniel and Elizabeth Bonner can see that Hannah is not the same woman as when she left. For their daughter has come home without her husband and without her son…and with a story of loss and tragedy that she can’t bear to tell. Yet as Hannah resumes her duties as a gifted healer among the sick and needy, she finds that she is also slowly healing herself. Little does she realize that she is about to be called away to face her greatest challenge ever.
As autumn approaches, news of the latest conflict with Britain finds the young men of Paradise—including eighteen-year-old Daniel Bonner—eager to take up arms. Against their better judgment, Nathaniel and Elizabeth must let him go, just as they must let his twin sister Lily, a stubborn beauty, pursue her independence in Montreal. But on the eve of the War of 1812, an unexpected guest arrives from Scotland: It is the Bonners’ distant cousin, the newly widowed Jennet Scott of Carryckcastle. Far from home, Lily and Jennet will each learn the price of pursuing their dreams and the possibility of true love.
But it’s Hannah herself who must risk everything once more—this time to save Daniel, who’s been taken prisoner by the British. As the distant thunder of war threatens Paradise, Hannah may learn to live—and maybe love—again in one final act of courage, duty, and sacrifice.
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Queen of Swords #5:
It is the late summer of 1814, and Hannah Bonner and her half brother Luke have spent more than a year searching the islands of the Caribbean for Luke’s wife and the man who abducted her. But Jennet’s rescue, so long in coming, is not the resolution they’d hoped for. In the spring she had given birth to Luke’s son, and in the summer Jennet had found herself compelled to surrender the infant to a stranger in the hope of keeping him safe.
To claim the child, Hannah, Luke, and Jennet must journey first to Pensacola. There they learn a great deal about the family that has the baby. The Poiterins are a very rich, very powerful Creole family, totally without scruple. The matriarch of the family has left Pensacola for New Orleans and taken the child she now claims as her great-grandson with her.
New Orleans is a city on the brink of war, a city where prejudice thrives and where Hannah, half Mohawk, must tread softly. Careful plans are made as the Bonners set out to find and reclaim young Nathaniel Bonner. Plans that go terribly awry, isolating them from each other in a dangerous city at the worst of times.
Sure that all is lost, and sick unto death, Hannah finds herself in the care of a family and a friend from her past, Dr. Paul de Guise Savard Saint-dâ-Uzet. It is Dr. Savard and his wife who save Hannah’s life, but Dr. Savard’s half brother who offers her real hope. Jean-Benoit Savard, the great-grandson of French settlers, slaves, and Choctaw and Seminole Indians, is the one man who knows the city well enough to engineer the miracle that will reunite the Bonners and send them home to Lake in the Clouds. With Ben Savard’s guidance, allies are drawn from every segment of New Orleans’s population and from Andrew Jackson’s army, now pouring into the city in preparation for what will be the last major battle of the War of 1812.
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The Endless Forest #6:
The spring of 1824 is a challenging one for the inhabitants of Paradise N.Y. when a flood devastates the village. But for Nathaniel and Elizabeth Bonner, it’s also a time of reunion as their children return from far-off places: Lily and her husband from Italy, and Martha Kirby, the Bonners’ ward, from Manhattan. Although Lily is nursing her own grief, it is Martha, fleeing a crushing humiliation, who brings with her trouble that will reverberate in all their lives.
In the sudden peace that follows the storm, as families struggle to rebuild, childhood friends Martha and Daniel, Lily’s twin brother, suddenly begin to see each other in a new light. But their growing bond is threatened when Martha’s mother arrives back in Paradise a decade after abandoning her daughter. Jemima Southern is a dangerous schemer who has destroyed more than one family, and her anger touches everyone, as do her secrets. Has Jemima come to claim her daughter–or does she have something else in mind? Whatever happens, Martha and Daniel and all the Bonners must stand united against the threats to both heart and home.
The Wilderness Series by Sara Donati is available in both print and ebook.
October 25, 2017
New Release Book Review: The Berlin Airlift: The Relief Operation that Defined the Cold War by Barry Turner
About:
Acclaimed historian Barry Turner presents a new history of the Cold War’s defining episode.
Berlin, 1948 – a divided city in a divided country in a divided Europe. The ruined German capital lay 120 miles inside Soviet-controlled eastern Germany. Stalin wanted the Allies out; the Allies were determined to stay, but had only three narrow air corridors linking the city to the West. Stalin was confident he could crush Berlin’s resolve by cutting off food and fuel.
In the USA, despite some voices still urging ‘America first’, it was believed that a rebuilt Germany was the best insurance against the spread of communism across Europe.
And so over eleven months from June 1948 to May 1949, British and American aircraft carried out the most ambitious airborne relief operation ever mounted, flying over 2 million tons of supplies on almost 300,000 flights to save a beleaguered Berlin.
With new material from American, British and German archives and original interviews with veterans, Turner paints a fresh, vivid picture the airlift, whose repercussions – the role of the USA as global leader, German ascendancy, Russian threat – we are still living with today.
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My Thoughts:
What happened to Germany and its citizens post WWII is not a topic I have ever explored or even given much thought to – other than having a basic knowledge of the rise and fall of the Berlin Wall – prior to reading this book. But I recently read a novel that followed the lives of two Germans post WWII and I found it both fascinating and heartbreaking to contemplate. After finishing this novel I was compelled to read further on the topic and I was lucky enough to already have this book, The Berlin Airlift, on hand.
Grounded in politics, yet still told in an accessible manner, The Berlin Airlift is quite a fascinating account of post WWII/pre Cold War tensions within Europe as a whole, not just Germany. It is stunning to contemplate just how close we came to having a third world war right on the back of WWII ending, if not for US diplomacy in the face of Russian obstinancy. Reading this book has elevated my sympathies for Germany’s people, not only in the past but also towards the current generations who have all of that division and dissent present in their histories. WWII may have ended in 1945, but for Germany, it was never really over until 1990:
‘The end of the Berlin Wall was also the end of the Cold War. In 1990 the two Germanys and the two Berlins were reunited. The following year, Berlin was reconstituted as a capital city. The story had come full circle.’
The passages detailing the decision to bring the wall down and the subsequent destruction of it are so filled with meaning they really lift your spirits to read. Likewise, descriptions and details of the Airlift itself are such a testimony to the endurance of the human spirit, the anecdotal accounts in particular presenting an overall feeling of hope in what people can achieve when they all work together towards a common purpose.
‘Early in the morning, when we woke up, the first thing we did was to listen to see whether the noise of the aircraft engines could be heard. That gave us a certainty that we were not alone, that the whole civilised world took part in the fight for Berlin’s freedom.’
Aviation enthusiasts will revel in the detail of this book. It really is so well researched and written with the reader in mind. Loaded with facts and figures, yet even the most amateur historian can enjoy it and not get bogged down in the details or lost in the politics. Perhaps the best way to sum up the book and the spirit it contains is with this quote:
‘Having lost two brothers to fighting in the Aegean in 1943, John Huggins, a dispatch rider in Berlin, was not easily given to charitable impulses. Yet the sheer determination of Berliners to survive and to recreate their city caused him to change his outlook. “I saw women clearing bombsites with their bare hands. At the back of a restaurant I saw a mother with two young children waiting for scrapings to come out. These people didn’t ask for a war any more than my family who lived through the London blitz.”’
I highly recommend The Berlin Airlift to aviation enthusiasts along with those who are interested in WWII and Cold War history. It’s detail and high level of engagement will not disappoint.
Thanks is extended to Icon Books via Allen and Unwin for providing me with a copy of The Berlin Airlift for review.
Barry Turner is a celebrated historian, the author most recently of Karl Doenitz and the Last Days of the Third Reich (Icon, 2015), described as ‘page-turning’ by the Daily Mail, and of Suez 1956 (Hodder, 2006) and, with Tony Rennell, of When Daddy Came Home(Arrow, 2014). He lives in London and south-west France.
