Kerry (avatiakh) travels the world by book

Welcome to my category challenge. I've been doing this since 2009 and some years i've been more successful than others. Last year I travelled for some weeks and so I thought I'd revisit my trip by reading globally.
Books will mostly be categorised by location

1) Local - Australia & New Zealand
2) UK & Ireland
3) Europe
4) Israel & Holocaust Literature
5) The Americas
6) Africa
7) Asia
8) Scifi & Fantasy
9) Juvenile - children's & YA
10) Illustrated - manga, GNs & picturebooks
11) Nonfiction
12) Dropbox - anything that slips through the gaps

Local - Australia & New Zealand

1) The Attack by Catherine Jinks (2021) - Aus
2) Wild Pork and Watercress by Barry Crump (1986) - NZ
3) Paper Cage by Tom Baragwanath (2022)
4) Iris and Me by Philippa Werry (2023) -NZ/China - YA
5) Bookshop Dogs by Ruth Shaw (2023) - NZ Nonfiction
6) The Impossible Story of Hannah Kemp by Leonie Agnew (2023) - NZ - YA
7) Home before night by J.P. Pomare (2023) - Aus
8) Wake by Shelly Burr (2022) - Aus
9) Ripper by Shelley Burr (2024) - Aus
10) 17 Years Later by J.P. Pomare (2024) - NZ
11) The Wonderful Thing about Phoenix Rose by Josephine Moon (2023) - Aus
12) Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson (2022) - Aus
13) Sanctuary by Garry Disher (2024) - Aus
14) The Ledge by Christian White (2024) -Aus
15) The Valley by Chris Hammer (2024) - Aus

UK & Ireland

1) The Five Minute Marriage by Joan Aiken
2) The smile of the stranger by Joan Aiken
3) The Weeping Ash by Joan Aiken (1980)
4) The Girl from Paris by Joan Aiken (1982)
5) How to kill your family by Bella Mackie (2021)
6) The Black Arrow by Robert Louis Stevenson (1888)
7) A Lady's Guide to Fortune Hunting by Sophie Irwin (2022)
8) A Lady's Guide to Scandal by Sophie Irwin (2023)
9) The Secret Purposes by David Baddiel (2004)
10) The Running Grave by Robert Galbraith (2023)
11) Strange Sally Diamond by Liz Nugent (2023)
12) So late in the day by Claire Keegan (2023)
13) The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods (2023)
14) Midnight and Blue by Ian Rankin (2024)
15) For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy On My Little Pain by Victoria MacKenzie (2023)
16) Mother Ireland by Edna O'Brien (1976)

Europe with focus on Greece

1) The Donkey Rustlers by Gerald Durrell (1968) - Greece
2) The Dog of Pompeii by Louis Untermeyer (1932) - Italy
3) The Invisible by Peter Papathanasiou (2022) - Greece
4) The Return by Dulce Maria Cardoso - Portugal
5) V2 by Robert Harris (2019) - Belgium
6) Butterfly's Tongue by Manuel Rivas (1998) - Spain
7) Memory by Philippe Grimbert (2004) - France
8) The Battle: a novel by Patrick Rambaud (1997) - Austria
9) Sex and Vanity by Kevin Kwan (2020) - Italy
10) Under Occupation by Alan Furst (2019) - France
11) The Iliad by Homer - Greece
12) Red Crosses by Sasha Filipenko (2017) - Belarus
13) Resistance by Mara Timon (2021) - France
15) The life Impossible by Matt Haig (2024) - Ibiza
16) Monumenta by Lara Haworth (2024) - Serbia
17) The Good Soldier Schweik by Jaroslav Hasek (1921) - Czech
18) Murder at the Castle by David Safier (2024) - Germany
19) Hotel Florida: Truth, Love, and Death in the Spanish Civil War by Amanda Vaill (2014) -Spain

Israel & Holocaust Literature

1) The Postcard by Anne Berest (2023) - France
2) The Teacher by Michal Ben-Naftali (2016)
3) October 16, 1943 / Eight Jews by Giacomo Debenetti (1945) -Italy
4) Cold Crematorium: Reporting from the Land of Auschwitz by József Debreczeni (1950 Hungarian) (2024 English)
5) The Hebrew Teacher by Maya Arad (2018 Hebrew) (2024 English) - Israel
6) Auschwitz Report by Primo Levi and Leonardo De Benedetti (2006) - Italy
7) The Burned Letter: A New Zealander's Holocaust Mystery: A Memoir by Helene Ritchie (2023) - NZ
8) 28 Days by David Safier (2014 German) (2023 English) - Germany
9) The Thinking Heart: on Israel and Palestine by David Grossman (2024)
10) Israel Alone by Bernard-Henri Lévy (2024)
11) Lovely Green Eyes by Arnošt Lustig (2000) - Poland
12) Maror by Lavie Tidhar (2022)

The Americas

1) Susanna's Midnight Ride by Libby Varty McNamee (2018)
2) Don't forget to write by Sara Goodman Confino (2023)
3) Happy Place by Emily Henry (2023)
4) Act of Oblivion by Robert Harris (2022) & England
5) Moonraker by F. Tenneyson Jesse (1927) - Haiti
6) Funny Story by Emily Henry (2024)
7) The Wolf Hunt by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen (2021 Hebrew) (2023 English) - USA
8) The Takedown by Lily Chu (2023) - USA
9) A Provincial Newspaper and Other Stories by Miriam Karpilove (2023) USA

Africa

1) The Honey Guide by Richard Crompton (2013) - Kenya
2)
3)

Middle East & Asia

1) Shogun by James Clavell (1975) - Japan
2) How Do You Live? by Genzaburō Yoshino (1937) - Japan
3) The Consultant by Seong-Sun Im (2023 English) (2010 Korea)
4) The Goodbye Cat: Seven Cat Stories by Hiro Arikawa (2021 Japanese) (2023 English) - Japan
5) Strange Haven: A Jewish Childhood in Wartime Shanghai by Sigmund Tobias (1999) - China
6) The Siege of Krishnapur by J. G. Farrell (1973) - India
7) The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff (2023) - India
8) With Fearful Bravery by Lynne Kositsky (2014) - China
9) The Maker of Heavenly Trousers by Daniele Vare (1935) - China
10) Red Haze: Australians and New Zealanders in Vietnam by Leon Davidson (2006) - Vietnam
11) We'll Prescribe You a Cat by Syou Ishida (2023 English) - Japan
12) Beirut Station by Paul Vidich (2023) - Lebanon
13 The Kamogawa Food Detectives by Hisashi Kashiwai - Japan

Scifi & Fantasy

1) System Collapse by Martha Wells (2023)
2) Doing Time by Jodi Taylor (2019)
3) Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros (2023)
4) Sea of Tranquility by Emily St John Mandel (2022)
5) Buried Deep and Other Stories by Naomi Novik (2024)
6) Defiant by Brandon Sanderson (2023)

Juvenile - YA & Children's books

YA
1) Seventeen Seconds by Ivan Southall (1973) - UK
2) Code Name Kingfisher by Liz Kessler (2023) - Holland
3) Chase Me, Catch Nobody! by Erik C. Haugaard (1980) - Germany
4) The Blue Book of Nebo by Manon Steffan Ros (2021) - Wales
5) The Sparrow by Tessa Duder (2023) - NZ
6) The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera (2021)
7) Two can play that game by Leanne Yong (2023) - Australia
8) Knight Crusader by Ronald Welch (1954) - Israel
9) Stone Cold by Robert Swindells (1993) - UK
10) Demonosity by Amanda Ashby (2013) - NZ
11) Heroes by Robert Cormier (1998) - USA
12) Andromeda Bond in Trouble Deep by Brian Falkner (2023) - NZ
13) The Scarecrows by Robert Westall (1981) - UK
14) Children of the New Forest by Captain F. Marryat (1847) - England
15) Royal blood by Aimée Carter (2023) UK
16) Zoe Rosenthal Is Not Lawful Good by Nancy Werlin (2021) US
17) Zevi Takes the Spotlight by Carol Matas (2024) Canada
18) EchoStar by Melinda Salisbury (2024) UK
19) Belzhar by Meg Wolitzer (2014) US
20) The Seas of Morning by Geoffrey Trease (1974) UK
21) Yours from the Tower by Sally Nicholls (2024) UK
22) Calypso Dreaming by Charles (Catherine) Butler (2002) UK
23) Thunder City by Philip Reeve (2024) UK

Children's
1) The Edinburgh Reel by Iona McGregor - Scotland
2) Flower by Irene N. Watts (2005) - USA
3) The Painted Garden by Noel Streatfield (1949) - USA
4) Millions by Frank Cottrell Boyce (2004) -UK
5) Fire, Bed & Bone by Henrietta Branford (1997) UK
6) Storm by Kevin Crossley-Holland (1985) -UK
7) The Mouse and his Child by Russell Hoban (1967) - UK
8) Ravencave by Marcus Sedgwick (2023) - UK
9) Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang by Mordecai Richler (1975) - Canada
10) A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park (2001) - Korea
11) Tamburlaine's Elephants by Geraldine McCaughrean (2007) - India
12) River Boy by Tim Bowler (1997) - UK
13) Koro's Star by Claire Aramakutu (2024) - NZ
14) Lopini the Legend by Feana Tu'akoi (2023) - NZ
15) Among the imposters by Margaret Peterson Haddix (2001) - USA
16) Bullseye Bella by James T. Guthrie (2019) - NZ
17) Nordy Bank by Sheena Porter (1964) - UK
18) Handles by Jan Mark (1983) - UK
19) When Marnie Was There by Joan G. Robinson (1967) - UK
20) Tulku by Peter Dickinson (1979) - UK/China
21) The Refugee Summer by Edward Fenton (1982) - Greece
22) The Girl of Ink & Stars by Kiran Millwood Hargrave (2016) - UK fantasy
23) A Boy of Old Prague by Sulamith Ish-Kishor (1963) - Prague
24) How to Become King by Jan Terlouw (1971) - Dutch
25) The Goldsmith and the Master Thief by Tonke Dragt (1961) - Dutch
26) I am Rebel by Ross Montgomery (2024) - UK
27) Grannie Was a Buffer Girl by Berlie Doherty (1986) - UK
28) The Ghost Drum by Susan Price (1987) - UK
29) In my enemy's house by Carol Matas (1999)
30) October October by Katya Balen (2021) UK
31) The Best Witch in Paris by Lauren Crozier (2024) -Australia
32) Chronicles of a Lizard Nobody by Patrick Ness (2024)
33) An Eagle in the Snow by Michael Morpurgo (2015)
34) We do not welcome our ten year old Overlord by Garth Nix (2024) - Australia
35) The Red Towers of Granada by Geoffrey Trease (1966) UK

Illustrated - manga, GNs & picturebooks

1) Go home cat (2022) by Sonya Hartnett
2) Blue Flower (2021) by Sonya Hartnett
3) Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth by Apostolos Doxiadis & Christos H. Papadimitriou (2009) - Greece
4) Heartsong by Kevin Crossley-Holland, illustrated by Jane Ray (2015)
5) My elephant is blue by Melinda Szymanik (2021)
6) The Apothecary Diaries vol.7 by Natsu Hyuuga (2022)
7) The Dragon King's Daughter by Yen Samejima (2020)
8) Small in the City by Sydney Smith (2019)
9) Spy x Family, Vol. 3 by Tatsuya Endo
10) Spy x Family, Vol. 4 by Tatsuya Endo
11) The Apothecary Diaries Manga, Vol. 8 by Natsu Hyuuga (2023)
12) The Apothecary Diaries Manga, Vol. 9 by Natsu Hyuuga (2023)
13) The Apothecary Diaries Manga, Vol. 10 by Natsu Hyuuga (2023)
14) The Apothecary Diaries Manga, Vol. 11 by Natsu Hyuuga (2024)
15) A Chinese Fantasy Law of the Fox book 2 by Yen Samejima
16) Hour of Need: The Daring Escape of the Danish Jews during World War II by Ralph Shayne (2023)
17) Too many golems by Jane Yolen (2024)
18) Shuna's Journey by Hayao Miyazaki (1983 Japanese) (2022 English)
19) Layers: a memoir by Pénélope Bagieu (2023 English)
20) A visit to Moscow adapted by Anna Olswanger (2022)
21) The Yark by Bertrand Santini (2011) -
22) Houses with a story by Seiji Yoshida (2020 Japan) (2023 English)
23) Woman, Life, Freedom created by Marjane Satrapi (2024)
24) Under the Bodhi Tree: A Story of the Buddha by Deborah Hopkinson (2018)
25) Midnight the story of a light horse by Mark Greenwood (2014)
26) Paku Manu Ariki Whakatakapōkai by Michaela Keeble (2023)
27) The Happiest Hanukkah by Ivor Baddiel (2024)
28) Beanie the Bansheenie by Eoin Colfer (2024)
29) One and a half million buttons: A Tribute to the Lost Children of the Holocaust compiled by Joy Cowley (2019)
30) The Many Problems of Rochel-Leah by Jane Yolen (2024)

Nonfiction

1) The Gardener's Year by Karel Čapek (1929)
2) Living with our dead: On Loss and Consolation by Delphine Horvilleur (2021 French) (2024 English)
3) Chosen for Children edited by Marcus Crouch (1977 3rd edition)

Dropbox - books that don't fit
1)
2)
3)

The five minute marriage by Joan Aiken (1977)
romance / UK & Ireland
Read for the 75 Books group British Author Challenge January 2024. I didn't know that Joan Aiken wrote some romance novels for adults and I'll definitely be seeking out others.
This is set in Regency times and involves a hasty marriage of convenience to secure a provision in a will.

The Smile of the Stranger by Joan Aiken (1978)
romance / UK & Ireland
Paget Family Saga #1. Read for the British Author Challenge January 2024. Another of these Aiken Regency romances. Not as good as Georgette Heyer but nontheless a diverting quick read. A young Englishwoman who grew up in Italy with her father has some adventures on her way to reconciling with her grandfather and also finds her true love.
Seems that it is first in a trilogy. I have the third book out from the library and can e-borrow the second from there as well.

An Edinburgh Reel by Iona McGregor (1968)
children's fiction
It's 1751, six years after the Battle of Culloden. Christine's father is finally returning from six years of exile in France. He lost his land and she hopes he is over his Jacobite ways. A great historical read, quite exciting at times.

Flower by Irene N. Watts (2005)
children's fiction
This is about Home Children sent from England to Canada. There's a dual timeline where a girl in present day Canada learns her great grandmother's story. Not as harsh as some Home Children stories I've read in the past. Katie spends a few weeks with her grandparents in the Victorian house they've just moved into in Halifax.
I've read several fiction books about Home Children in Australia and New Zealand as well and also nonfiction on the subject. All very bleak stories. The children were meant to be fostered into families but this rarely happened.

Currently reading several books for lots of challenges and will have to see what fits in to the challenges in this group.

Welcome back, Kerry! I like the sound of >16 avatiakh:.

I have been introduced to so many great books by your threads. I am looking forward to once again following along.

What beautiful pictures, especially >8 avatiakh: !
It looks like you are off to a great start with your challenge! Happy reading!

Great to see you're back. I'm looking forward to follow your reading!

Good luck with your reading in 2024.

>19 rabbitprincess: Welcome to my thread. I really enjoyed that read and feels good to read off my own shelves.
>20 DeltaQueen50: Happy New Year and I also enjoy being hit by BBs from your threads.
>21 MissBrangwen: Thanks and welcome. We had to give up on visiting Israel as our flights there were cancelled due to the conflict and so ended up with an extra week in Bangkok. I really enjoyed the Thai culture, the food and sightseeing. I had never wanted to go and last year I read a ghastly thriller set in Bangkok so I went expecting the worse and was so pleasantly surprised.
The temples were just beautiful and the jaunts along the river in the various river taxis were fun.
>22 MissWatson: Waves to Birgit. Thanks for visiting. I didn't star my own thread so haven't been seeing the posts!
>23 lowelibrary: Hi April. I wish you a great reading year too.

I've finished 3 more books so need to update.

_
Go home cat (2022) & Blue Flower (2021) by Sonya Hartnett
picturebook

I was looking to see what Hartnett had published recently as previously she's written some great YA novels, only to see that she's currently writing picturebooks.
Go Home Cat is about a small boy going to buy licorice from the shop and his cat follows him.
Blue Flower is about finding out that being a different unique person is what makes the world a more interesting place. Seen through the eyes of a young girl who doesn't enjoy the same things as her school friends.

The Donkey Rustlers by Gerald Durrell (1968)
children's fiction
Set on a fictional Greek Island, an English brother and sister team up with their local orphan friend to save his inheritance, a farm, being taken from him by the greedy mayor. Fun read.

The Weeping Ash by Joan Aiken (1980)
fiction
Paget Family #2. I enjoyed this one, it was a much longer read mainly due to the split storyline which came together in the last part of the book. One part is set in England and is about a particularly abusive marriage and the young bride's optimism to find happiness amidst the despair. The other part is about half English twins making their way out of India overland as they are pursued by an angry Rajah's men. They travel with their guardian, an older American missionary woman, and an English adventurer who knows the region well.

The Painted Garden by Noel Streatfield (1949)
children's fiction
An English family relocates to California for the winter for the sake of their father's health. The oldest daughter is a promising ballerina, the son is a musical prodigy and the middle child, Jane, has no special talent. Surprisingly it's Jane who gets chosen to play the lead role in a film adaption of 'The Secret Garden' when the original child actress falls ill.
Fairly dated story that has its moments.

The Girl from Paris by Joan Aiken (1982)
fiction
Paget Family #3. Miss Ellen Paget takes the position of governess with a French aristocratic familyin Paris. The marriage seems to be unhappy, her charge, the young daughter has learning disabilities similar to autism. After a tragic event Ellen must leave Paris for her childhood home in the English countryside.
Not my favourite of the trilogy and the ending was quite weird.

The Gardener's Year by Karel Čapek (1929)
nonfiction
Delightful. Čapek describes a gardener's obsession with plants, soil and whether there is room in the garden for even more plants. I enjoyed this.

How to kill your family by Bella Mackie (2021)
crime
My daughter recommended this one, mostly because of the title. I could easily have put this down at anytime though glad I finished it because there is a great twist at the end. Grace is the unrecognised illegitimate daughter of a millionaire. After her mother dies she decides to go for revenge by killing off the family members one by one. The book reads as a confession written in jail.

The Dog of Pompeii by Louis Untermeyer (1932)
short story
I found this when looking for fiction set in Pompeii and Naples. I visited Pompeii in November so this story was a welcome read. Suitable for children too. A stray dog leads a blind homeless boy through the streets of Pompeii during the eruption.

Seventeen Seconds by Ivan Southall (1973)
YA nonfiction
This is an abridged edition for younger readers of his adult book, Softly tread the brave about the bravery of the Royal Australian Volunteer Naval Reserve bomb disposal officers, Hugh Syme (GC, GM and Bar) and John Mould (GC, GM) who served in England during WW2.
The title come from the seventeen seconds an officer has to get to safety if the mine he is working on goes live. These were very brave men.
I've had this paperback for a few years and Paul's War Room challenge inspired me to read it now. This was quite a technical read as each mine disposal had issues due to its location. Also the Germans kept updating the technology with the mines so disarming became more and more difficult. Both Syme and Mould along with other Australians volunteered to serve in the Royal Navy's RMS Rendering Mines Safe section. This unit was for disarming land mines that had been dropped onto British cities near the start of the war.
https://www.navy.gov.au/biography/lieutenant-commander-john-stuart-mould
https://www.navy.gov.au/biography/lieutenant-hugh-randall-syme

System Collapse by Martha Wells (2023)
scifi
Murderbot #7. Took me a while to get back into the Murderbot world but once I did I really enjoyed this one. I love the interactions between the various AI and Murderbot's relationships with the various humans on the team. Was interesting to read the discussion on Lisa's Club Read thread about the gender issue relating to Murderbot. I always assumed female but was amazed that there are other perspectives.

13) Millions by Frank Cottrell Boyce (2004)
children's fiction
This book won the Carnegie Medal (UK) in 2004. I don't know why but I have avoided reading this for the past 20 years. Picked it up finally and found quite a captivating read for all that it is a bit juvenile. It's set around the time of the changeover to euro and involves a boy, Damien, who has become obsessed with saints since dealing with the death of his mother, who everyone says has gone to the best place. When a bag full of old pound banknotes falls into his hands, he considers it a gift from the Gods. Then there's the problem of unobtrusively spending thousands of pound in two weeks.
The story has lots of twists and turns and a great cast of characters.

The Invisible by Peter Papathanasiou (2022)
crime
George Manolis #2. I haven't read the first book in the series I don't think that mattered. This one is set in a remote region of Greece, Prespa, in the north on the border with Albania and Macedonia. Manios is on leave from his police work in Melbourne, Australia and decided to visit the area that his parents came from. He ends up going undercover in an effort to find a missing acquaintance. Lefty is an invisible, someone who has managed to avoid having an official presence, no bank account, no ID, no birth registration, which makes it much harder to find out what he was up to.
Sounds interesting though much of the book is fairly plodding with great descriptions of the location, the locals and the sense of desolation from the long ago civil war. The last thirty or so pages ramps up and almost makes the slog worthwhile.

Fire, Bed & Bone by Henrietta Branford (1997)
children's fiction
This one I picked off my shelves at random and was a pleasure to read. Set during the 1381 Peasants' Revolt. The story is told from the perspective of a hunting dog who lives with Rufus and his young family. Quite outstanding as the sad events that happen to the family are countered with the dog's life in the woods once she is free of her captors.

The Return by Dulce Maria Cardoso (Portuguese 2011) (English 2016)
fiction
My last book for January. Rui and his family have lived in Angola but now due to the 1975 war they must return to Portugal. On their last day Rui's father is taken by soldiers and his fate is unknown. Life in Portugal as a returnee is quite miserable.
I had not given much thought to this period of Portugal's history and this book does much to raise my interest in these times.

Storm by Kevin Crossley-Holland (1985)
children's fiction
Carnegie (UK) Medal 1985. This junior novella is full of beautiful imagery and poetic language. It's not a usual winner of the Carnegie Medal which seems to have been mostly awarded to books for older readers, this book is for a much younger emerging reader.
This ghostly story is set on a stormy night when young Annie must walk across the marsh to the local doctor as her older married sister has gone into labour and the telephone line is down.

The Attack by Catherine Jinks (2021)
crime
Not as engaging as I hoped, I really like her work for teens and have now read three of her adult works which are mostly thrillers.
The book is in alternating chapters featuring the present and ten years earlier. Now Robin manages a remote island retreat where ex military bring teenagers for boot camp. This time it brings a troubled 16 year old she first met ten years earlier whose extended family ruined her life.

Shogun by James Clavell (1975)
fiction
My ongoing audiobook for the last several months. I hardly listen to audiobooks so this 36 hour monster took me some time but what a wonderful story. My son listened alongside me for the first half of the book while we were driving in the USA last September. He was familiar with that period of Japan's history so we had some good discussions about the book, and now he's looking forward to the miniseries which should appear this month on one of the streaming networks.

English sailor, John Blackthorne, is shipwrecked on the coast of Japan in the early 1600s. At first he just wants to salvage his ship and return to the West but that becomes an unattainable dream.

Code Name Kingfisher by Liz Kessler (2023)
children's fiction

This was a great story set during WW2 Amsterdam and the present day UK. Liv needs to do a family history research project for school and she has problems with her former best friend joining a group of bullies. Her project focuses on her grandmother who has never said much about her childhood.
The WW2 part is her grandmother's story when she and her sister are sent to live with a new family as life for Jews in Holland becomes more and more desperate. Her sister who is 16 starts doing jobs for the resistance under the code name Kingfisher.

Chase Me, Catch Nobody! by Erik C. Haugaard (1980)
children's fiction

I found this in a rummage through some books in my garage and decided to read it due to The Horn Book blurb that it was 'told with exactly the right overtones of schoolboy humour.' I've read Haugaard before so expected a reasonable story and wasn't disappointed either with the humor or the story.
1937. Erik is on a school visit to Hamburg, Germany from Denmark. There's over fifity boys from two schools and he finds a new friend in Nikolai from the first moments of the trip. On the ferry he is approached by an older man who thrusts a package in his hands telling him where to deliver it along with a password. German police or SS arrest the man as the school group is leaving the ferry. So begins an adventure that ends with Erik and Nikolai fleeing Germany with a Jewish girl who calls herself Nobody.
The differences between the various teachers and students as they are either swept up or repelled by the Nazi propaganda and Hitler Youth groups etc made this a worthwhile read.

Susanna's Midnight Ride by Libby Varty McNamee (2018)
children's historical fiction
Read for Paul's War Room challenge. A children's novel based on Susanna Bolling's historic night ride from her home in Hopewell to Half-Way House where General Lafayette was staying. The sudden arrival of General Cornwallis to her plantation home with a large contingent of troops and hearing the officers' talk at the dinner table of capturing Lafayette in an early dawn raid means there is no time to lose and the news must get to Lafayette.
The early part of the book focuses on the plight of the womenfolk who must keep their farms running and spin flax to make uniforms. How the tobacco warehouses are burnt and crops ruined by the British. The melting of all the lead and pewter in the homes to make into bullets. The agony of the casualty lists and seeing the injured young men around the town who have had their lives ruined by war. The spy, James Armisted Lafayette plays an early part in the story too.
In the book is says that Bolling's ancestor was Pocahontas and a quick look at wikipedia does confirm that the Bollings of Hopewell were descendants.
I saw this book in the giftshop of one of the museums in Yorktown, VA. We walked around all the sites of significance last September on a visit to the town.
https://www.princegeorgecountyva.gov/news_detail_T6_R2332.php
https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+ful+HJ649ER+pdf

There's another famous ride, 'Betsy Dowdy's Ride', I saw the sign when driving from Kittyhawk, NC back to Williamsburg, VA. There's a picturebook about this ride, Ride: The Legend of Betsy Dowdy.

https://www.wgpfoundation.org/historic-markers/betsys-ride/

The Postcard by Anne Berest (2023)
autofiction
This has been a popular read on LT and I also enjoyed it. Based on the author's own family it slowly peels away what happened to her family during WW2. Not as confronting as some Hpolocaust novels it does give one an idea of how it was to be in France during the war years.

Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth by Apostolos Doxiadis & Christos H. Papadimitriou (2009)
graphic novel
Quite the fascinating read on the subject of Bertrand Russell's life and the theory of mathematics. We meet a number of famous mathematicians, philosophers and logicians along the way including an intense Wittgenstein. The GN is built around a lecture Russell gave during his 1939 US tour, where he discussed his evolving views from being a committed pacifist to the threat of Germany's facism. The GN also jumps back into real world Athens where the writers, artist and researcher all opine on the direction of the book.

Both authors are mathematicians though Doxiadis is now a writer.
Columbia University website: Christos Papadimitriou works on the theory of algorithms and complexity, aiming to expand the field's methodology and reach. His research often explores areas beyond computer science through what he calls the algorithmic lens: biology and the theory of evolution, economics and game theory (where he helped found the field of algorithmic game theory), artificial intelligence and robotics, networks and the Internet and, since 2013, the study of the brain and language.

Apostolos Doxiadis seems to have been a child prodigy, he was born in Australia and grew up in Athens, when 15 he entered Columbia University to study mathematics. His father was a famous international architect, Constantinos Apostolou Doxiadis, though a victim of politics.
I have his third novel, Uncle Petros and Goldbach's Conjecture, on my reading pile for this year.

The Mouse and his Child by Russell Hoban (1967)
children's fiction
Delightful story about a windup clockwork toy, a father mouse holding his son and dancing in circles. From a toyshop they are taken to a grand home and brought out each Christmas time until they are abandoned which is where their adventure starts. Illustrations are by Hoban's wife, Lilian Hoban.
I first came across the film version many years ago, it was one of our family favourites on VHS though we lost the viewing platform after DVDs took over. I found the book in a used bookshop and it's sat on my tbr pile for a long while.
I've read several of Hoban's books, he's quite the impressive writer.

Heartsong by Kevin Crossley-Holland, illustrated by Jane Ray (2015)
illustrated story

Quite a interesting story behind this one. Illustrator Jane Ray visited the Vivaldi Museum in Venice and was very taken with the list of orphan names in the ledger at the Ospedale della Pieta. She was swept up in a story and illustrations involving one of the names, but couldn't seem to bring her idea to fruition. Crossley-Holland came to the rescue and the result is an enchanting story involving a mute girl with musical ability and the work of Vivaldi with the church's choir and orchestra.

I wish I'd known about the museum as I was in Venice last year, the guidebook didn't help there.

The Blue Book of Nebo by Manon Steffan Ros (2021)
YA
Carnegie Medal UK (2023) winner. First published in Welsh, this is told in a sporadic diary form by both mother and teenager, Dylan. It's a story of surviving a nuclear fallout and also shows the love of the Welsh language of the writer.
One of those books you can read in one sitting, my library has classified it as adult scifi.

V2 by Robert Harris (2019)
fiction
Enjoyable read about the V2 rockets that were fired onto London in 1944. Told in alternating chapters from both sides. A rocket scientist who supervises the V2 launches from the coast of Holland and a WAAF officer who works in a special unit that tries to identify the launch sites of the missiles.

Wild Pork and Watercress by Barry Crump (1986)
fiction

This was a highly enjoyable read though the ending is bittersweet. The book was adapted to the film, 'Hunt for the Wilderpeople' by Taika Waiti. Crump was a wellknown personality in New Zealand, he was a bushman and this novel is all about going bush and surviving in the Urewera National Park.
Ricky does a runner with his Uncle Hec into the bush to avoid being taken to a children's home by Social Welfare workers when his Aunt Bella dies.

The Black Arrow by Robert Louis Stevenson (1888)
fiction

A great adventure story set during the War of the Roses. I was hooked right from the start and the old fashioned language felt right for the type of story. Lots of escapades and a young hero who is courageous though impetuous. Stevenson does an interesting portrayal of Richard, Duke of Gloucester.
I'd like to watch the film version of this.

Don't forget to write by Sara Goodman Confino (2023)
fiction
This is set in 1960, a time when a young woman was expected to marry and become a homemaker rather than have a career. So when 20 year old Marilyn is caught in a compromising act with the rabbi's son and then refuses the parents' attempts to marry them off, she is sent to Philadelphia to spend the summer with her great aunt who is a renown matchmaker. A summer she'll never forget as her great aunt is not at all what she expects.
I almost DNF this one but kept going, I felt the writer was trying too hard and I didn't much enjoy the woman's role in life continually being thrust to center stage. Overall a light entertaining read with a side dish of matchmaking.
I DNF Lessons in Chemistry so I'm obviously not keen on reading fiction around this topic.

What was fun was that Marilyn wants to be a writer and is a voracious reader, recently published books mentioned that she and others are reading include To kill a mocking bird (1960), Hawaii (1958), Exodus (1959).

The Sparrow by Tessa Duder (2023)
historical YA
Previously Duder had written a biography of Sarah Matthews, Sarah Mathew : explorer, journalist and Auckland's 'First lady', and this novel makes much use of the research she would have done on Matthews.
Our heroine is 15 year old Harriet, who arrives along with the very first group of settlers and officials to the site of what will become the city of Auckland. Harriet is dressed as a boy and goes by the name Harry, she's an escaped convict from Tasmania where she has served 3 or 4 years before escaping. The story is of the surveying of Auckland's first streets by Mr Matthews, leading up to a land auction and also the settlers' interactions with local Maori.
The narrative inserts a back story at intervals which tells of Harriet's older brother's betrayal and her conviction for stealing an apple that he's given her when she's only eleven. Her time in Newgate Prison, the voyage to Tasmania and life in the Cascades Female Factory before escaping.

I enjoyed this look at the first weeks of the city I live in and will probably do the Auckland heritage historic shoreline walk at some stage.

Ravencave by Marcus Sedgwick (2023)
YA
A Barrington Stoke publication for reluctant teen readers, set in a font suitable for dyslexic readers. That does not detract from this excellent little ghost story by the late but great Sedgwick.
James is with his family on a holiday to Yorkshire but there's something not quite right with them. His mother has had writer's block for some years, his father has just been made redundant and brother, Robbie just ignores him.

The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera (2021)
YA scifi
Newbery Medal winner, 2022. Most likely I saw this one on Amber's thread last year. I've had it out from the library for a long while and finally started reading it last week.
A cuentista is a storyteller and Petra wants to be the storyteller for her people when they arrive to a new planet. They are on the last of three spaceships leaving Earth which will be destroyed by a stray comet. The passengers are to be put into a stasis until their arrival but when Petra's pod is finally opened it's to a situation she never thought possible.
This was a good not great read. I liked that the Spanish phrases scattered throughout were not translated, added somewhat to the charm.

A Lady's Guide to Fortune Hunting by Sophie Irwin (2022)
romance
A fun Regency romp with a delightful heroine who must marry in order to pay off her parents' debt and support her four younger sisters.I enjoyed this and dived into Irwin's next book.


A Lady's Guide to Scandal by Sophie Irwin (2023)
romance
I was really not taken with this second book. Irwin introduces too many characters with a difference and a messy plot which has the heroine falling for two men.
I still read the book but it wasn't as good as other Regency romances, the writer injected too many unusual aspects to the story.

Two can play that game by Leanne Yong (2023)
YA
I came across the Children's Book Council of Australia (CBCA) awards 2024 shortlists on twitter and this was one of the books in the YA section. Liked the idea of it and really enjoyed this.
The main character is an Australian Malaysian Chinese navigating their family and career issues. Sam wants to be a game developer, she's been on the path since primary school but has won a scholarship to university that is for a mundane degree that she's not interested in. She meets Jay, who has the same Chinese Malaysian background, when they both vie for the last copy of a new game that includes a ticket to an indie games workshop. In the end they decide to compete against each other for the ticket and along the way they become good friends.
There's an element of romance but it's mostly about Sam finding her way. The competitive element is really fun especially with how their friendship develops.
There's lots of cultural references that don't feel intrusive, lots of Cantonese slang.

>57 avatiakh: I agree with you on Irwin's books -- I really liked A Lady's Guide to Fortune Hunting but was less enamored with A Lady's Guide to Scandal. If she comes out with another book, I may give it a try, but I'll keep my expectations moderate!

>59 christina_reads: Thanks for visiting. I'm also willing to give Irwin another chance depending on reviews.

Hi, you have read lots of interesting books since I last visited here! I took note of >54 avatiakh: The Sparrow.

>57 avatiakh:, >59 christina_reads: Same here. I enjoyed A Lady's Guide to Fortune Hunting, but was bored by the sequel and didn't finish it.

>14 avatiakh:, >15 avatiakh: Thank you for recommending Joan Aitken. I borrowed A Five-Minute Marriage from the OpenLibrary and liked it so much that I've just bought Deception (such a common title that it's a big job to find the touchstone). The Smile of the Stranger could be next because it's available in a local library.

>61 MissBrangwen: I hope you can find that one, i might be exclusive to New Zealand.

>62 pamelad: I was pleasantly surprised by Aiken and looked out Deception as well.

Paper Cage by Tom Baragwanath (2022)
crime
This won the 2021 Michael Gifkins Award for an unpublished manuscript which is administered by the NZ Society of Authors and the prize comes with a publishing deal from Text Publishing.
A fairly good crime novel set in Masterton, in the Wairarapa, hometown of the author though he's now living in Paris.
Three children go missing and one is Lorraine's niece's son. The local police, where Lorraine works in admin, are convinced it has something to do with the local gangs and a drug turf war. Lorraine isn't so convinced and neither is the detective who comes in from Wellington to help.

I've made note of the other winners of this award and will be reading a few at some stage. The award was established in 2018.

My elephant is blue by Melinda Szymanik (2021)
picturebook
A delightful picturebook. A blue elephant appears when a child is feeling down. Szymanik usually writes YA fiction. The illustrations are spot on.

The Secret Purposes by David Baddiel (2004)
fiction

This novel is about the internment of Germans on the Isle of Man during World War Two. Most were Jewish refugees, but the British Govt just saw them as enemy aliens. A communist, Jewish Isaac is from Konigsburg and married to a non-Jewish German. He's considered a threat and along with many others is an internee.
The other storyline is with June Murray who works as a translator of German documents in Special Operations. She's upset by a Ministry of Information memo that news of the atrocities against Jews by Hitler should be suppressed and is not in the public interest.
Baddiel's own grandfather was interned on the Isle of Man and he wanted to draw awareness to this historical event.
This was a slow read but definitely a worthwhile one. I didn't think there was much story in it but the plot picked up in the last 150 pages.

The Apothecary Diaries vol.7 by Natsu Hyuuga (2022)
manga
My favourite manga. Maomao was brought up in a courtesan house and then adopted by her apothecary father. She is now working in the Inner Court at the palace and solves numerous mysteries using her knowledge of herbs and medicines. Her patron is Jinchi, who she has assumed is a eunuch but perhaps he isn't.

Iris and Me by Philippa Werry (2023)
YA
An interesting prose novel about writer/poet/journalist Robin Hyde (1906-1939). She's highly considered in New Zealand but honestly her life seems to have been disaster after disaster. After a struggle to make a career as a journalist in New Zealand alongside much personal strife, Hyde whose real name is Iris Wilkinson decides to travel in 1938 to England to try establish herself there as a writer. She has almost no funds to support herself and yet still leaves her plans behind on arrival in Hong Kong to travel and report on the Japanese invasion of China. Amid much hardship she makes it to the warfront and does report from there but goes missing as the Japanese take over the territory she's in.
Some months later she finally arrives in England but it isn't the uptopia she hoped it would be.
I'm quite inspired now to read her work, I already have two books Passport to Hell & The Godwits Fly on my shelves and have picked up a kindle copy of Dragon Rampant about her time in China. I also want to read some of her poetry.
The mysterious 'me' in the tiitle refers to Iris's walking stick as she had a knee operation as a teenager and was left lame for life and somewhat dependant on opiates for pain.

Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang by Mordecai Richler (1975)
children's fiction

This slim paperback has spent many years in my house without being read until today. I kept it because it's by a well known writer. A hilarious read, the star of the story is six year old Jacob who is the youngest of five children and has to say everything twice as noone listens the first time. Jacob's adventure starts when his father sends him to buy two pounds of firm, red tomatoes from the local grocer.

How Do You Live? by Genzaburō Yoshino (1937)
YA fiction

This started off reminding me of Sophie's World in some ways though it is quite different. What is fascinating is that this was written in 1937 so is a snapshot of the values at play in those times in Japanese culture.
The book recounts episodes in Copper's life as a schoolboy and the chapters are interspered with his uncle's reflections on various subjects that relate back to Copper and what sort of person he will grow into. A quiet book that is quite beautiful.
This is shelved in adult fiction in bookshops and libraries though it's intended audience was mature children.

A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park (2001)
children's
Newbery Medal (2002). This came on my radar when seeking out Korean historical fiction. Set in the 12 century the story is based on the Thousand Crane Vase, a Korean treasure found in the Kansong Museum of Art, Seoul.
In a small village of potters, a homeless boy is drawn to the work of a master potter who makes the most wondrous pieces of Celadon pottery. Captivating.

The Dragon King's Daughter by Yen Samejima (2020)
manga
A Chinese Fantasy #1. Cute story about a human lad helping rescue the daughter of the Dragon King from an unhappy marriage prospect. There are a couple of shorter tales included after the main one. There's a second volume dealing with a fox maiden tthat I've requested from the library.

Doing Time by Jodi Taylor (2019)
scifi
Time Police #1. Highly entertaining read. The Time Police take in 3 oddball trainees who are put into their own team as no others want them.

Tamburlaine's Elephants by Geraldine McCaughrean (2007)
children's fiction

I liked this one. Tells the story of two boys and the elephants of Delhi, who come up against the great 14th century Mongol conqueror, Tamerlane. One boy is a warrior in the warlord's army, the other is his prisoner, together they look after the captured elephants.

Butterfly's Tongue by Manuel Rivas (1998)
novella / short stories

Three short stories set in rural Galicia, Spain. The first one, Butterfly's Tongue was the one I liked most about a small boy and his teacher as the civil war breaks out. The last story was only a few pages and quite forgettable. The middle one was a sort of 'wolf girl' story and had its moments.

The Consultant by Seong-Sun Im (2023 English) (2010 Korea)
crime
I enjoyed this one. It's written as a sort of confession and while there was for the most part a lack of emotion in the book, once things got personal the protagonist had to acknowledge his need to make a decision.
The consultant describes his behind the scenes work, how he was recruited, his success stories, and then things get tricky fast.

River Boy by Tim Bowler (1997)
children's fiction
Carnegie Medal (UK) 1997. Not a compelling read for me though quite a well thought out story. It's more for a thoughtful young reader as there's not much action.

The Teacher by Michal Ben-Naftali (2016)
fiction
Quite a difficult read as the narrator is so distanced from 'the teacher'. The narrative is told in the present day by one of her ex-students, many years after the teacher died by suicide and that was many years after her traumatic war experiences and guilt not just at being a Holocaust survivor but also from being one of those saved by Kastner and having to endure the 1954 Kastner trial.

Small in the City by Sydney Smith (2019)
picturebook
I requested this from the library as I noticed that Smith just won the 2024 Hans Christian Andersen Medal (Illustration). I really liked his illustration work in Sidewalk Flowers so wanted to see what else he'd done. Quite a sweet story once you realise that a missing cat is involved. The artwork conveys the story as there is minimal text.

Knight Crusader by Ronald Welch (1954)
children's fiction
Carnegie Medal (UK) 1954. Carey Family #1. Read for the War of Religions April challenge.
I really enjoyed this one. The fighting scenes are well described as is the use of armour and weapons. Outremer born and bred, Philip's first battle is the Battle of Hattin where he sees not only his father killed but also his uncle and young cousin.
The book includes encounters with real life personages such as Usamah Ibn-Menquidh whose memoirs, Memoirs of an Arab-Syrian Gentleman Or an Arab Knight in the Crusades Memoirs of Usamah Ibn-Munqidh are probably an excellent primary source for those interested in how Muslims perceived the Crusaders. Also Rashid al-Din Sinan known as the Old Man of the mountains, leader of the Order of Assassins...and the leaders of the Third Crusade.

October 16, 1943 / Eight Jews by Giacomo Debenetti (1945)
essays
There are two essays by Debenetti, a preface by Alberto Moravia and a short essay by Estelle Gilson on the fate of the Roman Jewish Community Library.
In a few pages Debenetti describes the fateful morning of October 16, 1943 when the SS round up most of the Jewish community living in and around the Ghetto in Rome. The second essay, Eight Jews is a response to a police officer's testimony on the Ardeatine Cave Massacres (March 24, 1944).
There is a translator's introduction as well which offers background on Debenetti and the incidents.
From wikipedia: 'Debenetti was an Italian writer, essayist and literary critic. He was one of the greatest interpreters of literary criticism in Italy in the 20th century, one of the first to embrace the lessons of psychoanalysis and the human sciences in general, and among the first to grasp the full extent of Marcel Proust's genius.'

The essay on the fate of the Roman Jewish Community Library is also interesting as unlike most libraries of Hebrew manuscripts which were mostly recovered after the war only very few books or manuscripts have ever been found. The contents were transported to Germany but what happened then remains a mystery. As the oldest Jewish community in Europe the documents in the library were known to be rare and antique but had never been properly catalogued.

_
Spy x Family, Vol. 3 by Tatsuya Endo
Spy x Family, Vol. 4 by Tatsuya Endo
manga
I'd requested these months ago after finishing the first two volumes. This is a wildly popular series about a fake family - the husband/father is a masterspy and needs a wife and daughter so he can infiltrate an enemy via an elite school. He's unaware that his fake wife is a deadly assassin and the daughter can read minds. Together they bumble along.
Vol. 3 wasn't great, but vol. 4 was fun as the story had a lot of action and the family adopts a dog.
Leaving this series here.

___
The Apothecary Diaries Manga, Vol. 8 by Natsu Hyuuga (2023)
The Apothecary Diaries Manga, Vol. 9 by Natsu Hyuuga (2023)
The Apothecary Diaries Manga, Vol. 10 by Natsu Hyuuga (2023)
The Apothecary Diaries Manga, Vol. 11 by Natsu Hyuuga (2024)
manga
Continuing my read of my favorite manga series. Still enjoying finding out palace secrets and Maomao's unique skills in solving all sorts of mysterious incidents. The next one comes out in September.

A Chinese Fantasy Law of the Fox book 2 by Yen Samejima (2017 Japan) (2023 English)
manga
A collection of short tales relating to foxes, wolves, tigers and a bear which morph into human form. Most stories end sadly for the human whose fallen in love and not so well for the animal either. Enjoyable manga, I was attracted by the cover art but won't continue with any future volumes.

Koro's Star by Claire Aramakutu (2024)
children's fiction
Tom Fitzgibbon Award 2023. This New Zealand award is for a manuscript by a new writer for children. This was a worthy winner. Set in the 1960s it's about a family newly arrived to a home on an army base just as their father ships out to the Vietnam War. His father leaves Atama his own father's WW1 medal to help him be brave when making friends and fitting in to his new home.

Lopini the Legend by Feana Tu'akoi (2023)
children's fiction
Tom Fitzgibbon Award 2022. I really enjoyed this one. The story was very fun and quite believable. Lopini is a high achiever at school and his only problem is that he gets so stressed out at the possibility of failure that he no longer does anything where he might not come first.
With his best friend Fi to help him he sets out to be a failure at least once a week....but events tend to have a life of their own.

Stone Cold by Robert Swindells (1993)
YA
Carnegie Medal UK, 1993. Fairly good story about a homeless boy trying to survive on the streets of London. He left home rather than put up with his mother's boyfriend and now while living on the streets it's impossible to get a job or even help. Swindells says in the author notes that he felt compelled to write about the issue of child homelessness after a visit to London.

Cold Crematorium: Reporting from the Land of Auschwitz by József Debreczeni (1950 Hungarian) (2024 English)
memoir
One of the few new books I've purchased this year. I ordered it as soon as I heard about it on 'X'. This is a memoir of journalist Debreczeni's time surviving first in work camps and then in a hospital camp. While it was first published in 1950, the book was never translated due to Cold War politics and then became forgotten until recently. Incredible that he survived, the brutality and cruelty, much by fellow Jews in positions of authority, is heartbreaking.
His time in Dörnhau, a 'hospital' camp in the last months before liberation is described in bitter detail...so much death. .

Demonosity by Amanda Ashby (2013)
YA
Had this ex-library paperback on my tbr pile for a long while and started reading a chapter here and there a few weeks back. Ashby lives in New Zealand and has had a few romance novels publised in the US. I read her You had me at Halo many years ago and really enjoyed it.
This one is a YA book and an easy read. Cassidy is plunged into an adventure when she becomes the guardian of the Black Rose, an ancient force that's arrived through time from the 14th century.

Among the imposters by Margaret Peterson Haddix (2001)
children's
Shadow Children #2. I read the first book in this series many years ago and had the second book lying around probably since then. Luke, an illegal third child, is given a new identity and begins life at a boarding school that seems to be full of secrets.
Quite a good read though I won't continue with the series as too juvenile for me. I've also read the first in her The Missing series and enjoyed that too. These would be popular reads for middle graders.

Hour of Need: The Daring Escape of the Danish Jews during World War II by Ralph Shayne (2023)
children's graphic novel
The enveloping story is that of a Jewish grandmother visiting Copenhagen with her two grandchildren and as they visit the sights she tells them about when she was a young girl and her family's life in Denmark during the war and then their dramatic escape to Sweden. The GN covers background stories about the King of Denmark & various political leaders as well as one of the underground resistance movements. The art style grows on you.
Loosely based on Shayne's own family story.

Memory by Philippe Grimbert (2004)
fiction
Prix Goncourt 2004. This can be considered a Holocaust story though it's not focused on that aspect especially, it is Grimbert's own family story. First published as 'Un Secret' it's about Grimbert only finding out when he turns 15 from a family friend that his father had a son and wife who perished in the Holocaust. Before, his mother was actually his father's sister-in-law who he met and fell in love with on his wedding day before the war. The attraction was mutual though the couple persevered with their marriages but the war years resolved their relationship with the deaths of their spouses in camps. They lived all those post war years with guilt and disapproval from family, the lives of the lost two spouses and child were not remembered which Grimbert became obsessed with. He has re-imagined his parent's story.

As I was reading this I went to a Guardian review to find out how true the story was and was shocked by the opening sentence: 'Twenty years after his parents jumped from the window of their Parisian apartment to their deaths, Philippe Grimbert decided to write about the secret that had overwhelmed their lives.'
Quite a fascinating read.

Bullseye Bella by James T. Guthrie (2019)
children's fiction
Tom Fitzgibbon (Manuscript) Award 2018. I really loved this hardcase story. Bella is a 12 year old dart playing prodigy and ends up being eligible to enter the National Darts Competition. The 5 times winner is not happy and tries everything to sabotage her entry. Along for the ride is her little brother who has decided to live every day as a pirate. A total delight.
When I googled the writer to find out more about him, I came across a news item that the book's production rights had been sold and the film company had a list of actors they wanted for the various roles. This would make a delightful film though I think that the lockdowns killed it off before it was even begun.
I loved a lot about this book though special mention goes to Blackbeard, Bella's little brother and his fabulous pirate focused vocabulary. Laugh out loud moments.

The Running Grave by Robert Galbraith (2023)
crime
Cormoran Strike #7. I love a good absorbing read and J.K. Rowling certainly obliges again in another Cormoran Strike story, this time in the world of cults. Robin goes in undercover to try and find any proof of crimes and also to convince the son of their client to leave the cult. Lots of tense moments and I ended up reading this in record time - the last 500 pages in one day.

Bookshop Dogs by Ruth Shaw (2023)
nonfiction
Ruth Shaw wrote the wildly popular local memoir, The Bookseller at the End of the World, and has followed with little stories about the various dogs who arrive with customers to visit her bookshop. Each story is accompanied by a photo taken by a photographer friend whose dogs also feature. Interspersed throughout are stories of Shaw's own dog, Hunza, from earlier times. Hunza was a German Shepherd who worked alongside her when she was a Youth Aid Officer. Many of the youths or children found the confidence to confide because of Hunza.
I found most of this only mildly interesting, but some of the stories especially Hunza's ones were heartbreaking.

Strange Sally Diamond by Liz Nugent (2023)
crime
A few years ago I became a big Liz Nugent fan and read all her books in a rush but then bailed on Little Cruelties. I came across this one when it was mentioned in an X conversation, I liked the sound of the title and requested it from the library. I really enjoyed this, the story is set in both Ireland and New Zealand so some local flavour for me.
Now in her 40s, strange Sally Diamond has had an unusual childhood and that is before we find out about her life before she was adopted. After the death of her father everything changes.

Nordy Bank by Sheena Porter (1964)
children's fiction

Carnegie Medal (UK) 1964. This is set in rural Shropshire where a group of young teenagers decide to go camping for a few days. They camp on a windy hill on the site of what was once a iron or bronze age settlement, Nordy Bank. One of the girls seems to channel a connection through to those past times. There is also an escaped German Shepherd who has just been retired from the army and still needs to undergo new training for his retirement.
This was quite a lovely read set in an English world that I doubt exists anymore, though dated it's still a pleasure for those wanting 1960s nostalgia. There are puppies too.

The Hebrew Teacher by Maya Arad (2018 Hebrew) (2024 English)
three novellas
I really liked these stories featuring ex-pat Israelis though they covered topics that were uncomfortable.
The Hebrew Teacher - a long established teacher of Hebrew at a college is forced to face a changing world when the new Professor of Hebrew Literature is not that keen on things Israeli or Judaism.
A Visit (Scenes) - An older grandmother comes to the US to see her first grandchild who is two or three years old. She's made to feel unwelcome by her busy son and standoffish wife, the grandson spends long hours in a daycare so she hardly sees him. There seems to be no love or family life in the home.
Make New Friends - A mother is distraught that her 13 year old daughter has no friends and goes about fixing this in the worse possible way - logging in to her daughter's social media.
This story really made me squirm.

Heroes by Robert Cormier (1998)
YA
Came across this on the Five Books website, it was one of five suggested by Melvin Burgess for children and YA readers. Francis fakes his birth certificate to sign up for the US Army at age 15. He returns home a hero but with a ruined face. He has fallen on a grenade and saved the lives of his platoon. He has only one thought and that is to end the life of the town's other war hero. Quite a lot of story in only 90 odd pages.

Andromeda Bond in Trouble Deep by Brian Falkner (2023)
YA
Brainjack #2. This is a sequel to Brainjack (2009) and is published by Brian's own Red Button Press. Not really necessary to remember every detail from the first book as this one is about the daughter who is now 12 years old. Andromeda has been brought up in an offline environment so her identity is well hidden but now a little ahead of schedule she must face the adversary that cost her father's life.
An exciting read as expected. I visited Brian's website to see if he had any new books out and came across this one.

Handles by Jan Mark (1983)
children's fiction

Carnegie Medal (1983) UK. Quite dated in someways yet interesting in that a young girl is quite obsessed with motorbikes and has the making of being a good mechanic. Erica is shunted off to her aunts in a dreary part of Norfolk where the daily tasks revolve round the vegetable garden and keeping a pesky peacock at bay. Eventually she discovers the local motorbike workshop and spends time there in the company of the owner Elsie and his sidekick Bunny. The title comes from the handles (nicknames) that Elsie gives to all and sundry, even to the cracks in the alleyway.
I enjoyed all the characters in this book even the unlikeable ones.

Auschwitz Report by Primo Levi and Leonardo De Benedetti (2006)
nonfiction

Back in 1945 when Levi and De Benedetti were recovering from their time in Auschwitz, the Soviets asked them to write a report on the medical and general living conditions of the camp. Later when back in Italy they published another version and this more recent one includese an introduction and two obituaries Levi wrote when De Benedetti died in 1983.
This is brief and covers most of what we already now know about Auschwitz but still worth reading if your library has a copy.

When Marnie Was There by Joan G. Robinson (1967)
children's fiction
This was another used bookshop find from a few years ago. I think I got it because there was a windmill on the cover. When I pulled it off the shelves and looked it up online I discovered that Studio Ghibli had adapted it to an animated film in 2014. My daughter had seen the film so I decided to add it to the TIOLI challenge to read a book with a girl's name in the title.
A lovely read about a lonely fostered girl who is sent to recuperate her health on the Norfolk seaside. I loved how it all came together at the end.
I watched the first part of the film yesterday on Netflix but didn't feel the need to see it through to the end.

The Burned Letter: A New Zealander's Holocaust Mystery: A Memoir by Helene Ritchie (2023)
memoir
This is Ritchie's story of finding who her family was and what happened to them all during the Holocaust. Her mother and grandmother were lucky to depart Prague in 1939 due to receiving a visa to New Zealand thanks to a complete stranger sponsoring them and persevering with the hostile bureaucrats in New Zealand to ensure that the visas would be issued. Ritchie's uncle and a few other relatives made it to the UK on the kindertransport. The uncle and then a great aunt and uncle arrived to New Zealand.
Her mother burned the letter she received after the war, she said they all died, I just don't want to know. Ritchie grew up knowing that her father had no family, just a photo of a woman who was his mother. He also managed to get an entry visa to New Zealand leaving in 1938 or 1939.
This was a fascinating read, Ritchie has managed to unearth so much information about her family. There's a lot of material in the book, some is general information on the camps, other parts are raw descriptions of the transports, how the Nazis and their helpers emptied the ghettos and holding camps. These were her relatives being transported. The documentation Ritchie has done is thorough and helpful to others seeking similar information.

Too many golems by Jane Yolen (2024)
picturebook

Cute story about a boy who unwittingly summons ten golems who want to help him. He decides to get help with his Hebrew and so they arrive each week to give him a lesson. Maya Shleifer's crayon art style is fun and Yolen's text is vibrant.

The Impossible Story of Hannah Kemp by Leonie Agnew (2023)
YA
The manuscript won the Tessa Duder Award 2022. 15 year old Hannah is having a hard time and the hard time is making her angry and rebellious. This affects her relationship with her adoptive parents, her fellow students and even with the guy who works at the local bookstore. There is a magical element to the story as well, with a mysterious mobile library that stocks books on events that have happened to people she knows, there's even one about her.
The magical element was a bit strange but overall this was a story of Hannah overcoming her past and her present. Enjoyable, another one that fitted the TIOLI challenge to read a book with a girl's name in the title.

The Goodbye Cat: Seven Cat Stories by Hiro Arikawa (2021 Japanese) (2023 English)
stories
Seven mostly adorable tales about cats. Just adorable. The last two stories have significance for those who've read The Travelling Cat Chronicles. Especially delightful is how the cats get their names.

>107 avatiakh: Taking a BB for the cat book.

Tulku by Peter Dickinson (1979)
children's
Carnegie Medal (UK) 1979. I enjoyed this adventure set in China & Tibet. In the first chapter Theodore escapes from Boxer rebels who massacre everyone in a remote mission that was led by his father. He falls in with a travelling botanist and her guide. Fleeing bandits, they make their way into Tibet where they spend time in a Buddhist monastery.

The Battle: a novel by Patrick Rambaud (1997)
fiction
Winner Prix Goncourt 1997. Paul's War Room Challenge - May: Napoleonic Wars
The Battle of Essling 1809. It was Napoleon's first major battle defeat as head of state and the major obstacle seems to have been the River Danube which was a raging torrent, almost breaking its banks. The bridges had all been destroyed by the Austrians when leaving Vienna and Napoleon's army had to cross using makeshift pontoons over to the island of Lobau and then again to the villages of Essling & Aspern.
The main story is seen through two friends, Colonel Louis-Francois LeJeune, aide-de-camp to Marshal Berthier & Henri Beyle (the writer, Stendhal), an officer on sick leave in Vienna. The book also follows a few fictional characters in different parts of the army and from their fortunes and misfortunes the reader sees the heroism and courage of Napoleon's generals and officers as well the tragedy of the dying and wounded. Saddest death had to be that of General Lannes.
Rambaud drew his story from the many memoirs of the various commanders and officers etc. Impressive detail on the makeshift hospital on the island, every second wounded seemed to have limbs amputated to avoid infection of wounds. Lannes lost both legs and didn't recover dying a few days after the battle.
Even the bibliography was an interesting read.

Last year I visited Vienna and went to the Belvedere Art Museum, mainly to see Klimt's The Kiss. Also viewed the magnificent massive portrait of Napoleon by Jacques Louis David in the Images of War Room.

The Refugee Summer by Edward Fenton (1982)
children's

Read for my ongoing book set in Greece focus. I came across Fenton when I saw that he had translated several books from Greek to English. He was American but lived in Greece. This was an enjoyable read for me.
It's about a group of children spending the summer in a small village just outside Athens. It's 1922 and the Burning of Smyrna is about to happen and change the face of modern Greece.
As the two Americans children, two Hungarian girls and Nikolas, the son of the housekeeper frolic around the village, they overhear the political talk in cafes and in their homes. Greeks are either on the side of the King who felt it was time to take back what was once Greek from the Turks, or were more inclined to back Venizelos. Interesting introduction to Greek politics of those times.
Many years ago I read Ashes of Smyrna : a novel of the Greco-Turkish War by Richard Reinhardt and I must take a look at it again.

From Wikipedia: 'Venizelos' liberal party ruled Greece from 1910 until 1916. That year, determined to enter World War I on the entente side, Venizelos rebelled against the king and formed a Provisional Government of National Defence in Thessaloniki. Venizelos regained full control of the country in 1917 and ruled until losing the 1920 elections. The strongest support for Venizelism came in the "New Greece" gained after the Balkan Wars of 1912–1913 consisting of Crete, Thrace, Epirus, the North Aegean islands, and Macedonia. By contrast, people in "Old Greece" tended to be more much royalist. The fact that in 1916 King Constantine I had allowed the Bulgarians to occupy parts of Macedonia and had been willing to contemplate giving up all of recently gained "New Greece" in the north to the Bulgarians to weaken the Venizelist movement cemented the identification of people in northern Greece with Venizelism.'

The Scarecrows by Robert Westall (1981)
YA
Carnegie (UK) Medal 1981. When Westall saw three scarecrows in a field when out driving in the countryside, their positioning intrigued him and inspired him to write a scarecrow story.
What a story, I was quite done in by this one. Simon is 13 yrs old and lost his father eight years earlier. He has him up on a pedestal, an army officer who died in a skirmish in Aden. So when Simon's mother remarries quite suddenly he is unprepared for this jolly, plump man to take his late father's place in the family. When he arrives from boarding school for the summer break to the new family home, a nearby abandoned watermill has brooding secrets to unleash as well.

Westall creates an evil enthralling atmostphere, Simon is so angry, angry at his mum, angry at her new husband, angry angry angry, till he can't hold it in. His rage is unbearable and you can see how his mother sees all the bad traits of her late husband's military family in Simon's behaviour, which makes her temper rise quickly in retaliation. At first he finds solace at the old watermill, abandoned and isolated, but it has an unpleasant history and the ghosts from the past seemingly turn up as scarecrows in the neighbouring turnip field.

86) Children of the New Forest by Captain F. Marryat (1847)
children's fiction
Read for Paul's War Room Challenge: June - English Civil War.
There was a lot more of the Civil War in this book than I thought there would be. The two brothers and two sisters escape from their home just before it's burned to the ground as their late father was a high ranking Cavalier in service to King Charles I. They begin living in the New Forest in a secluded cottage with an old family retainer under the guise of being his grandchildren. They learn to survive using the resources the forest provides and their own wits after their protector dies of illness. Eventually the oldest brother goes to join the army being raised by Charles II.
I loved this adventure packed story.
I read one of many kindle editions, hence the odd cover art.

28 Days by David Safier (2014 German) (2023 English)
YA
Buxtehuder Bulle (2014). This is an interesting award and I've read many winners from past years, some you have to wait for translations as it is a German Award and not all European YA is translated to English.
This is about the Warsaw Ghetto uprising in April 1943 and the lead up to the event. The book features historical figures but the main characters are fictional. This was an exciting read but balanced with the emotional trauma of always having to make choices, choices that impact the lives of others, one between sacrifice and the will to survive. Mira's boyfriend at the start of the book is one of the older orphans of Janusz Korczak and his beliefs are quite different to her own.

Safier's latest book to be translated to English is Murder at the Castle (Miss Merkel #1) featuring Angela Merkel in retirement as an amateur sleuth along with her new pug, Putin. I've asked my library to buy it once it's published next month.
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/europe/miss-merkel-goes-from-chancellory-t...

Shuna's Journey by Hayao Miyazaki (1983 Japanese) (2022 English)
illustrated story/manga
This is more of an illustrated story but still reads from right to left. Miyazaki's story is based on an old Tibetan folktale about a prince going on a journey to bring back a cereal grain to his people. Very imaginative with great illustration.

Layers: a memoir by Pénélope Bagieu (2023 English)
graphic memoir
Delightful episodic GN featuring events from Bagieu's life. The first chapter starts in childhood when Bagieu and her sister are each given a kitten one Christmas after much pestering of their parents. Lots of awkward teenage moments and of first love. The illustration style is fun.

9Sex and Vanity by Kevin Kwan (2020)
fiction
Not sure what induced me to pick this one up but I did also request his latest book from the library so maybe there is some character crossover. Anyway right from the first pages the reader becomes aware that this is a retelling of 'A Room with a View' but with super rich Asian and part Asian characters. Descending on the island of Capri to attend her cousin's indulgent wedding week, the young Lucy runs across the weird George Zao and his even weirder mother, when Rosemary Zao offers their rooms with a sea view to Lucy and her older cousin Charlotte who have been shafted to the worse rooms in the hotel. The book unfolds as per the original plot, and yes, there is a Cecil in there. Freddy, Lucy's brother, is quite refreshing.
What holds some interest despite the distasteful displays of super wealth is Lucy's feelings of inadequacy among her father's relations as she feels like they judge her half-Asian heritage as not good enough. Most of the book is set on Long Island and New York.
Light entertainment.

Royal blood by Aimée Carter (2023)
YA
Royal Blood #1. A touch of weekend escapism. In a made up family tree, Evan is the illegitimate daughter of the current King of England and an American mother and is also the survivor of nine boarding schools in the past six years. She's got attitude, no friends and a hidden identity. Despite all the 'this would never happens' it is quite a fun read.
I came across this as book #2 was featured somewhere recently and caught my eye. I'll probably read the next book as I requested it when requesting this one from the library.

A visit to Moscow adapted by Anna Olswanger (2022)
graphic story
Olswanger adapted this from a story told by Rabbi Rafael Grossman about his 1965 visit to Moscow to meet Soviet Jews. He came across a couple, Holocaust survivors, whose young son had never left their apartment. Eventually he was able to obtain exit visas for the family who made aliyah to Israel.
What is stunning here is the impressive artwork by Ukranian Yevgenia Nayberg. Wow.

Happy Place by Emily Henry (2023)
romance
Fairly bland outing but what I needed as another comfort read as most of my current reads aren't hitting the spot and this one was a library pickup yesterday.

Home before night by J.P. Pomare (2023)
crime
I try to read Pomare as his crime books get released but am playing catch up at present. I'm in the library queue for his latest. This was an ok read set in Melbourne during the second Covid lockdown. Victoria state had one of the most draconian lockdowns with police working hard to keep ordinary citizens off the streets.
Lou starts worrying when her son, Sam, doesn't come home before the first night's curfew. He's probably just staying with his girlfriend who comes across as a bit strange. Her ex-husband doesn't want to know about it. The story unravels in a satisfying way.
I had about 80 odd pages to go when I got to the epilogue, finding that the book has a 70+ page preview of his next book.

Wake by Shelly Burr (2022)
crime
Lane Holland #1. Really enjoyed this one. Holland is a PI who dropped out of the police academy some years earlier to pursue cold cases of abducted young girls. He turns up in a remote rural NSW town thats seen far better days to investigate one of Australia's better known unsolved child abduction cases.
Have requested the next one in the series.

Act of Oblivion by Robert Harris (2022)
fiction
Read for Paul's War Room challenge: English Civil War.
Another good read. Follows the aftermath of the Civil War, two of Cromwell's men who were signatories of the regicide warrant of Charles I have run away to American shores where they spend years hidden by sympathisers and hunted from afar by a determined Royalist who has a personal history with them. Covers an interesting aspect of the war.

The Girl of Ink & Stars by Kiran Millwood Hargrave (2016)
children's
Read for the British Author June Challenge. This didn't capitivate me as much as it should have, I just felt it followed a familiar pattern for this type of story so didn't wow me with anything new or startling. Happy to have cleared this one from my tbr pile.
A young girl has an adventure on the island that she has lived in all her life. The population has been restricted to just one small part of the island till now.

A Boy of Old Prague by Sulamith Ish-Kishor (1963)
children
An interesting story set around 1550. The young Tomas is sent as punishment by the lord of the castle to be a servant for a Jewish merchant in the quarter where the Jews live. He wonders if he'll survive as the townsfolk have spread terrible stories about the Jews and what they get up to. However as he settles to his new position he finds the Jewish people to be tolerant and respectful even though they live under the strict laws imposed by the ruler of Prague. Not a happy story but a necessary one.

Zoe Rosenthal Is Not Lawful Good by Nancy Werlin (2021)
YA
Found this one on a list of Jewish YA writers and have enjoyed Werlin's work before. This was a lightweight but enjoyable read about Zoe, who is doing everything right so she gets to the best college and has the perfect boyfriend, but she has a guilty pleasure that she hasn't confessed to. She's addicted to a tv show and travels to a fantasy convention in Atlanta without telling anyone so she can indulge herself in the fandom. She meets and befriends fellow fans and has a marvellous time over the summer sneaking around her perfect boyfriend and going to other fan events.
I was in Atlanta last year when the fantasy convention was underway so had added pleasure reading about all the cosplay that I had seen on the streets.

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros (2023)
YA
Empyrean #1. This fantasy has a huge following and I dived in expecting something really outstanding. The story is pretty good, there's dragons and a sort of Hunger Games type of survival race in a school for training teens into a fighting force. What I didn't like at all were the extremely explicit bedroom scenes, I don't think I've ever read such bedroom trite ever, borders on pornographic tbh. Luckily there were only a couple of these to jump through but wonder why it's needed when there are dragons in the storyline.
If you haven't read any Pern novels then go there first if you want a great dragon-human bonding storyline.
I have the next book and did read a couple of chapters to resolve the cliffhanger ending. I'll eventually read book #2, but this series is no Scholomance.

Strange Haven: A Jewish Childhood in Wartime Shanghai by Sigmund Tobias (1999)
memoir

I have had this out from the library all year and finally managed to finish it. An interesting read about Tobias's experience as an older child living in Shanghai during WW2. His father travelled out first and then Tobias came out with his mother. He ended up studying in the Lithuanian Yeshiva that managed to exit Europe thanks to the Japanese diplomat, Chiune (Sempo) Sugihara. Living conditions were really poor and many died from disease.
Once the war was over the yeshivas were able to enter the USA thanks to their contacts there. For other refugees it was much harder. Tobias decided not to apply through the yeshiva's contacts but eventually went there through family connections in 1948.
He says that some refugees left for Israel in chartered small vessels sent from the newly established Israel. Others were taken to Italy. Life in the ghetto became more and more desparate as Mao Tse Tung's army advanced on Shanghai. The USA eventually took the remaining Shanghai refugees to San Francisco where they were loaded on trains with locked carriages, travelling to New York where they had to board ships back to Europe to their countries of origin.

How to Become King by Jan Terlouw (1971)
children
One of the books I chose to read as a tribute to Anita. Terlouw was one of her favourite Dutch writers for children and this was a reread for me, almost 10 years after I first read it.
Stark was born on the night the old king died. Since then, for 18 years the country has been ruled by a group of unelected advisors. Stark asks them how do I become king? and they set him a series of seemingly impossible tasks. Just a delightful read that I enjoyed all over again. It was made into a film a few years ago and that is well worth watching too.

The Goldsmith and the Master Thief by Tonke Dragt (1961)
children
Another tribute read for Anita. Tonke Dragt is another of her favourite Dutch children's writers and her work is slowly being translated and published into English at Pushkin Press. I've already read her other books so chose this one - a series of linked stories about the adventures of twin brothers - one is a goldsmith, the other a former master thief. Highly enjoyable.

I am Rebel by Ross Montgomery (2024)
children
Read for the British Author's July challenge to read a book featuring an animal.
Loved this one about a determined young dog who goes after his 12 year old master who has run from home to join a rebellion against an unjust king. Rebel has many adventures on his own before being reunited with his master and friend on the battlefield.
I had intended to read Pratchett's The Amazing Maurice and his educated rodents but this one came in from the library.

Ripper by Shelley Burr (2024)
crime
PI Lane Holland #2. This was a gripping crime read. Holland is serving time and manages to become involved in an old serial murder case which becomes prominent again when a tour leader is found murdered in the town where everything happened, just as the local residents have been invited to consider allowing murder tours to their town.

The Yark by Bertrand Santini (2011)
children's
A silly story about a Yark, a monster who eats good children but gets a stomach ache when he eats a bad child and how he changes when he meets the perfect child.
Not really great though the illustrations are extremely well done. I got this in a library sale some years ago and finally have read it.

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St John Mandel (2022)
scifi
Pleased I took the book bullet for this from an LTer's thread. A quite brilliant scifi that quietly takes one on a journey through points and places in time subject to an unknown phenomena that makes no sense.

Houses with a story by Seiji Yoshida (2020 Japan) (2023 English)
Illustrated nonfiction

A Dragon’s Den, a Ghostly Mansion, a Library of Lost Books, and 30 More Amazing Places to Explore is the subtitle to this. Yoshida takes us inside some imaginative homes, showing how the inside is used as a living space and other utilitarian spaces.
He includes his orignal sketches and how they were inspired by architecture through time and across the world and also takes us through the steps of creating a couple of the homes in more detail.
While I didn't read every word I found this book to be a delight.
Yoshida is a renown background illustrator for graphic art.

The Siege of Krishnapur by J. G. Farrell (1973)
fiction
Empire Trilogy #2. I read Troubles some years ago and finally move on to the next book. I read this for Paul's War Room challenge, July: Colonial Wars. While this is a fictional take it is based on the actual sieges that happened in Lucknow and Cawnapore during the Indian Rebellion of 1857. The book follows the actions of the British - from the newly arrived visitors, soldiers, womenfolk, the doctors, magistrate and ministers of faith as their situation becomes more and more desperate.
This was one of my better reads for the year and I'll be moving The Singapore Grip up my tbr list.

Moonraker by F. Tenneyson Jesse (1927)
fiction
Fryniwyd Tennyson Jesse Harwood was a great-niece of Alfred Tennyson, the poet. Happy to have read this one finally, my copy was a Virago Modern Classic.
Moonraker is a pirate story that morphs into a story of the Haitian fight against their colonial overlords, when the pirate ship takes on a personable young Frenchman after taking down a French merchantman in the Caribbean. He is desperate to get to Saint-Domingue (Haiti) to give Toussaint Louverture an advance warning that the French are sending their military under Napoleon's brother-in-law, Charles Leclerc.
The story is told from the pov of young Jacky who was taken on board after a previous raid of a British brig. The ending takes place back on the Moonraker and brings a twist that you know has to come.
Read for the TIOLI challenge to read a book with a title that could be the name of a pub, this also qualifies for the War Room Challenge: Colonial Wars.

Wikipedia: 'Leclerc, accompanied by 23,000 French troops, landed in Haiti in 1802 and soon took possession of most of the island and made peace with the rebel leaders Henry Christophe, Toussaint Louverture, and Jean-Jacques Dessalines. By treachery, Leclerc captured Toussaint and sent him to France.'

Under Occupation by Alan Furst (2019)
fiction
Night Soldiers #15. Fairly bland WW2 novel about working against the Nazi occuptation of France. I've read and enjoyed a couple of other of Furst's novels in previou yers.

The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff (2023)
fiction
This was a great read, set in rural India and showcasing the life of Phoolan Devi, the Bandit Queen, in the background to a story about the women in a small village and how they band together to rid themselves of some of the more troublesome husbands.

Funny Story by Emily Henry (2024)
Romance
I've read two others by her and now this one which will be my last. I probably wouldn't have bothered finishing this one but I started reading it at a cafe after picking it up from the library.
Daphne has shifted to her fiancee's hometown and only knows his friends, when two weeks before their wedding Peter breaks up with her dramatically. He's started a relationship with his childhood friend, Petra, so Daphne has to move out of their house and the only place she can go at short notice is to share an apartment with Mike, Petra's newly ex-ed. Eventually they fall for each other while Peter & Petra fall out.
Silly, predictable but an easy read

With Fearful Bravery by Lynne Kositsky (2014)
YA
About a Jewish girl surviving in Shanghai during WW2. Quite a good read except for the sudden appearance of Freda's childhood friend and now a Nazi in Shanghai. They lost contact with each other around the time he joined the Hitler Youth. Abandoned by their mother in Shanghai, Freda works in a bar where men pay to dance with the waitresses. It's good money and Freda supports her sister and helps her friends as well as a homeless Chinese boy.

I read Kositsky's The Thought of High Windows some years ago and always wanted to read more by her.

Grannie Was a Buffer Girl by Berlie Doherty (1986)
children
Carnegie (UK) Medal 1986. Another solid read from the Carnegie Medal winners list. This was set in Sheffield and a 'buffer girl' was the name for the women who polished the steel products such as cutlery in the factories. Jess is leaving home for a year abroad in France, so on her last night the family sit around and tell the stories about how the parents and grandparents met, lived and got on in their working class lives. Delightful.

The Wolf Hunt by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen (2021 Hebrew) (2023 English)
fiction
A quite uncomfortable read. Ex-pat Israelis living in San Francisco, the husband works in hi-tech. Everything is from the wife's POV and she seems to spiral out of control while being over-protective of her son, when his classmate dies suspiciously at a party he attends. Very well done.

17 Years Later by J.P. Pomare (2024)
crime
A popular podcaster decides to relook into an old case where a family was killed and the killer is behind bars but has always claimed his innocence. The book is mostly set in Cambridge, New Zealand which is a town that I'm quite familiar with.
I didn't enjoy the depiction of racism in one part of the book, though it came from upperclass English people rather than regular New Zealanders, just felt quite off.
The last 50 odd pages had a few good twists.
I've read all Pomare's books except for The Last Guests. I find his work enjoyable especially as most are set in New Zealand. He lives in Melbourne so some are set in Victoria, Australia.

The Ghost Drum by Susan Price (1987)
children

Carnegie Medal (UK) 1987. Just found that this is the first in a series of 4 books - Ghost World #1, so have requested the next two from the library. The fourth book came out in 2017 so a long long time after this first one.
A Baba Yaga story told by a cat about the son of a Czar trapped in a tower room for all his life and a young girl taken at birth by a witch to be her apprentice. Their stories overlap as do stories of others. Atmospheric, quite chilling at times. The Czar and his princess sister are both ruthless.

I also noted that Price has written 3 Sterkarm books and I've only read one or two of them, so have noted this trilogy for a reread.

So late in the day by Claire Keegan (2023)
short stories
Just three stories in this slim edition, each one quite outstanding. I've read her Foster some years ago and loved her writing style.

120) The Wonderful Thing about Phoenix Rose by Josephine Moon (2023)
fiction
A delightful road trip novel featuring a menagerie of animals. Newly diagnosed as autistic, Phoenix Rose is part of an online support group and volunteers to help a terminally ill member deal with her pets. This means flying from Brisbane to Tasmania where she expects to spend a week with Olga finding homes for the old pony, the old dog and two adult cats, the four chickens. Unfortunately Olga passes on the first night and so Phoenix decides to drive the animals back to Brisbane and find them homes there. With the help of her online friends, her supportive boyfriend back in Brisbane with his own problems, Phoenix sets off.

I pulled Good Dogs don't make it to the South Pole off the library shelves last week but did not take to it.

In my enemy's house by Carol Matas (1999)
children's fiction
A Jewish girl has to pose as a Polish worker in Germany in order to survive after the German invasion of Poland and the loss of most members of her family. Matas always manages to write a compelling story with interesting characters that informs on different aspects of the Holocaust experience. She interviewed several Polish women on their experiences working as servants in Germany during the war years.

Woman, Life, Freedom created by Marjane Satrapi (2024)
graphic collaboration
An interesting look at the past few years of Iranian society and the brave women and young men who protested the repressive Iranian regime. There are a variety of collaborators and the editors are careful to note the freedom of voices from diaspora compared to those in Iran.

The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods (2023)
fiction
A delightful read about a mysterious bookshop located in Dublin and the story of fated romance. There is a story from the past and how it impacts two people in the present. I slowly fell for the charm of this book.

The Iliad by Homer
classic
Penguin Classics, translator E. V. Rieu & narrated by Steve John Shepherd. I spent most of the year with this as my audiobook but I mostly listen to music at present so audiobooks have taken a back seat. I really loved listening to this story when I did switch it on. I read chapter summaries to refresh and also remember the many names of fighters.

Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson (2022)
crime
Ernest Cunningham #1. An Aussie crime novel that I got out from the library as I have #2 Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect on my shelves. I was getting a little tired with the writing style but the wrap up at the end did make it almost worthwhile. The setting was a family reunion at a small ski lodge during a storm which did not conjure up Australia for me.

Sanctuary by Garry Disher (2024)
crime
Soo good. Another Aussie crime novel but this time by a masterwriter. Highly entertaining, I really like how Disher takes his petty criminals and makes them sympathetic to the reader as you hope everything works out for them. Two women meet in a rural town and both have a lot to hide.

Red Crosses by Sasha Filipenko (2017)
fiction
A Europa Edition which I picked from the library shelves. A good read. Alexander has moved to Minsk from Russia and is moving in to his apartment when he meets his new neighbour, an old woman who tells him she suffers from Alzheimer’s and wants to tell him her story before she forgets it all. Tatiana Alexeyevna's story spans the 20th century, she is also from Russia where she once worked for the NKVD and then spent 15 years in the Gulag.
Will look out for more by Filipenko though I don't think he's had any more of his work translated to English.

Resistance by Mara Timon (2021)
fiction
City of Spies #2. I read the first book a couple of years ago and then found the sequel in a charity shop so have had it rattling around home for a while. I added it to TIOLI for a shared read and found it an entertaining read. Elisabeth is dropped into Occupied France near Caen in the lead up to the Normandy Landings to work with the French Resistance and try to find the traitor who betrayed the last radio operator. Quite exciting and I learnt a bit more about Rommel and London's Inns of Court's Devils Own regiment.

The Takedown by Lily Chu (2023)
romance
Quite an interesting read though not really my thing. Not sure how I came across it but I was first in line for the book when it was on order. The main character is a diversity consultant and it was a revelation to read about her work which was one of the main components of the story. The romance was smouldering in the background throughout but the story was more about family dynamics and Dee, herself.
Possibly will try another of her books when I need something light.

October October by Katya Balen (2021)
children's fiction
Carnegie (UK) Medal 2022. A really good read. October has just turned eleven, she lives a wild life in the woods with her Dad and is thriving. She doesn't want to have anything to do with 'the woman who is my mother' but when her father is hospitalised after an accident she must move in with her for the forseeable future. Her pet baby owl must go to an owl refuge, October must learn about buses, school, making friends and other ordinary aspects of citylife. It's overwhelming and difficult to cope and everywhere is 'the woman who is my mother'. I loved this and how mudlarking on the banks of the River Thames becomes the salvation of October is especially well done.

The Maker of Heavenly Trousers by Daniele Vare (1935)
fiction
I got this book for my 2017 LTthingaversary from betterworldbooks and came across it when tidying up a few weeks ago. The title is part of the attraction to the book, it's a sign for a tailor's shop in Beijing that the narrator is given and hangs in his home.
The book is set in the 1900s to about 1919 in Beijing and is the story of a young correspondant, writer and collector of silks who lives outside of the European district in a traditional dwelling made up of pavilions. His household is run by the Five Virtues, servants from one family with names that translate as Exalted Virtue, Virtuous Moon, Mountain of Virtue, Ocean of Virtue and Pure Virtue. The book just magics up a lost time of China before revolutions and modernisation. The book is full of the most intriguing people.
He takes in a young girl of Italian parentage who becomes homeless, her father is away working for a railway company and she also spends time with a nearby Russian family.
Recommended.

Red Haze: Australians and New Zealanders in Vietnam by Leon Davidson (2006)
children/YA nonfiction
Davidson has written 3 nonfiction books on war, two on WW1 and this one on the ANZACs in Vietnam. His books have won a few awards and this is the first one I've read though I've intended to read them for some years.
An informative read that covered both sides of the war, explained New Zealand and Australia's reasons for following the US into Vietnam and also explained the growing peace process back in the home countries.

Read for Paul's War Room Challenge: American follies

The Honey Guide by Richard Crompton (2013)
crime / audio

Detective Mollel #1. The story is set in Nairobi during the riotous run-up to the 2007 elections. Mollel, a Maasai, is investigating the death of a young Maasai woman, a street prostitute with ties to corrupt officials. Quite good, I listened to the audio. There are two other books featuring Mollel and I'll look out for them.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007%E2%80%932008_Kenyan_crisis

We'll Prescribe You a Cat by Syou Ishida (2023 English)
fiction
A delightful read. There's a clinic for people needing treatment for anxieties, the entrance is in a hidden alleyway that only those who really want to find it can see. Each patient is prescribed a cat to look after for 10 days. Is the doctor a cat posing as a human? There's a sequel but not yet translated..

Buried Deep and Other Stories by Naomi Novik (2024)
short stories
Most of these stories are set in the worlds of her novels, so it's quite fun to revisit. Most have already been published in various anthologies over the years, so might not be new to avid fantasy readers. Some I really enjoyed and others less so.

The life Impossible by Matt Haig (2024)
fiction
I always pick up Haig's latest work, though now I use the library rather than buying. This one is set on Ibiza, a place that Haig knows well having lived there. An older woman inherits a small house on the island from a long ago friend.
Story was just ok and has scifi elements.

Midnight and Blue by Ian Rankin (2024)
crime
Inspector Rebus #25. One of my favourite crime series. Rebus is retired and in jail waiting for his lawyers to do their job and get him out. In the meantime his colleague, Clarke, is investigating a missing person, and then there is also a murder in the cell opposite to Rebus.
Rebus, being ex-police, needs protection as there are several hardened crims in his block that he's put inside. Really well done once again.

Zevi Takes the Spotlight by Carol Matas (2024)
YA
This is an Orca Currents book for older children with low reading age. I've enjoyed other Matas books, she writes about the experiences of Jewish children during World War 2. This one is more contemporary, about a film crew coming to town and Zevi, who has pyschic abilities, helps save the life of the star actor.


EchoStar by Melinda Salisbury (2024)
YA
A Barrington Stoke book for reluctant and dyslexic readers. About a school girl who uses an experimental AI app to help her do well in class, but the app also starts to interfere in her personal life.
There's a sequel where the mother brings home an Alexis-like AI helper.

The Ledge by Christian White (2024)
crime
The twist towards the end saved this one. Four school boys take an oath to secret away a deadly crime but a couple of decades later a body is found. The book alternates between the present and the past as written in a diary from the time. My third book by Christian White and worth looking out for the ones I missed.

The Best Witch in Paris by Lauren Crozier (2024)
children's
This won the Text Prize 2023. I learnt that the Text Prize for Young Adult and Children's writing is being discontinued and this year's winner will be published in 2025 and that will be it. I've enjoyed reading the winners, only have a couple I've not read as yet.
This is a quite delightful story about witches, their familiars and magic.

Belzhar by Meg Wolitzer (2014)
YA
One from my stacks, I've owned it since forever and one of those books that catch my eye and make me feel guilty for passing it by so often.
Set in a boarding school for emotionally fragile teenagers, a small group are chosen for a special topic study of Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar. While writing in their journals each one is magically transported back to their life just immediately before their trauma and get to relive a few hours of a happier time. Eventually they deal with their problems and start participating in the real world just as they complete their journals.
Quite different from much I've read, teens would probably enjoy this one

Under the Bodhi Tree: A Story of the Buddha by Deborah Hopkinson (2018)
picturebook
In simple text Hopkinson tells the story of Siddhartha and how he grew to be Buddha. The artwork uses a lovely palette of subtle greens, the illustrator is Kailey Whitmoor.

Writer info: Deborah Hopkinson has a master's degree in Asian Studies from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, where she studied the role of women in 13th-century Japanese Buddhism. She lived in Honolulu for 20 years and practiced Zen Buddhism with the late Roshi Robert Aitken, founder of the Diamond Sangha and Buddhist Peace Fellowship.

Looks like she's written a number of interesting nonfiction books for children.

Midnight the story of a light horse by Mark Greenwood (2014)
illustrated story
A True Story of Loyalty in World War I. Based on a true story of the Hunter Valley, NSW, Haydon family and one of their horses, Midnight. The family was known for breeding magnificant horses and Midnight was from superb stock. He accompanied Guy Haydon to the Middle East during WW1 and was killed during the Charge of Beersheba on 31 October 1917. Guy was badly wounded but recovered.
An interesting story though I was a bit thrown by the death of Midnight and not sure how children would appreciate this one. It is a true story and there is a section at the end showing photographs of Guy and Midnight.
I enjoy reading these stories of the light horse from Australia and New Zealand that served in Egypt & the Levant. The Charge of Beersheba is considered to be the last great cavalry charge in history. The horses had to be left behind when the ANZAC soldiers returned home, some were taken by the British Army but many were sold to Egyptians and ended their days sadly as carthorses etc. Some soldiers shot their horses rather than leave them to this fate.
The Lost War Horses of Cairo: The Passion of Dorothy Brooke is about an Englishwoman who established a charity, Brooke. 'Dorothy Brooke's compassion for war horses abandoned in 1930s Egypt has made Brooke the world's leading equine charity.'

I have another book out from the library, The Last Light Horse by Dianne Wollfer. The blurb says 136,000 Australian horses were sent to fight during WW1, only one came home.
A couple of years ago I read a YA story about a young soldier whose horse bolts as they are boarding the ship for Egypt. The story follows the horse's journey returning to the family farm and the soldier's experience of war. I'll have to look up the title but I very much enjoyed it.

Paku Manu Ariki Whakatakapōkai by Michaela Keeble (2023)
picturebook
This won the New Zealand Picture Book of th Year Award (2024). I'm not a fan of this one. The title is the boy's name and the text is actually in English though most people seeing it in the bookshops will assume it is a Maori language book as did I.
What I don't like (at all) is that the child says he's Maori like his father, the mother being Pakeha (white) doesn't count. The boy also wants to take back all the land from the English and will help his father do this. I don't know how such a political book that belittles one parent of a child could be considered of the quality to win the award. Books like this will continue to divide us into us and them instead of embracing the boy's heritage. Btw there is no official definition for being Maori, if you have a few drops of Maori blood then you can identify as Maori and join your iwi (tribe) then claim all the privileges - educational scholarships, priority for healthcare etc.
Judge & reviewer comments: "wildly different and original", "just straight-up heartwarming", 'book is relevant because it's for kids who may not find their experiences in other books.'

NB: The Waitangi Tribunal (Māori: Te Rōpū Whakamana i te Tiriti o Waitangi) is a New Zealand permanent commission of inquiry established under the Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975. It is charged with investigating and making recommendations on claims brought by Māori relating to actions or omissions of the Crown, in the period largely since 1840, that breach the promises made in the Treaty of Waitangi. $2.2 billion has been paid out in settlements so far.
Some claims are controversial such as the claim for the entire foreshore & seabed of New Zealand, our air, our water etc etc.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/rotorua-daily-post/news/maori-claim-airspace-and-wate...
https://newsroom.co.nz/2024/05/03/maori-win-customary-title-over-tokomaru-bay-on...
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/government-moves-to-overturn-court-of-app...

Once a tribe wins a settlement for coastal sites, they mostly close off access to non-Maori. I remember an English friend who was married to a Maori guy. She could not go to some places with her husband and children as she wasn't Maori. At the time it was a passing comment but as we've become more divided and political, I'm more and more reminded of this sort of situation for families here.

The Seas of Morning by Geoffrey Trease (1974)
children's fiction
A good read set around the time of the 1522 Siege of Rhodes. Young Richard wants to join the Knights Hospitallers but he's too young and it involves years of training. His merchant father suggests that he travels to Rhodes to decide if he really wants to devote his life to the order. He'll also gain valuable experience for the family business if he joins his father in the merchant trade when he returns. Richard ends up in Constantinople hoping to rescue his new friend, a kidnapped pilgrim girl from becoming a slave.

Beirut Station by Paul Vidich (2023)
thriller
Set in Beirut in 2006, this follows a young Lebanese-American woman who is CIA. Her mission is to participate in the assassination of a Hezbollah commander. Quite the compelling read with some on the mission with other ideas of revenge so who can you truly trust.

The Valley by Chris Hammer (2024)
crime
Ivan Lucic and Nell Buchanan #4. I didn't get on with The Seven and only after starting this one do I realise that it was part of the series so I'll go back and try again.
Ivan and Nell are sent in to a rural settlement to investigate a murder. There are flashbacks to events and people, loosely linked to the place, and this again proves personal to Nell. I was hohum on this one too, mainly due to the flashbacks but once the story started to come together I raced through the last 150pages real fast. Enjoyable Aussie crime.

The Happiest Hanukkah by Ivor Baddiel (2024)
picturebook
Yes, this is the brother of David Baddiel. A simple story about a happy family celebration of Hanukkah. The children are very young and hear the story about the Maccabees for the first time, the girl aches to be able to light the first candle.


Beanie the Bansheenie by Eoin Colfer (2024)
illustrated story
Sweet story about a young banshee or as the young are called bansheenie. Beanie falls into the water as she is birthing so misses the chance to bond with her human, this means she has a different type of bond with Rose.

Yours from the Tower by Sally Nicholls (2024)
YA
A delightful epistolary novel that is mostly the correspondence between three girls who've just graduated from their Victorian boarding school. One goes home to her family and begins work as a junior teacher at an orphanage, one heads to London as the poor cousin for the Season, looking for a rich titled husband so to help her four younger sisters into marriage when they reach marriageble age. The third friend is now a companion to her strict grandmother in a rural Scottish viillage with no young people in the vicinity.

A Provincial Newspaper and Other Stories by Miriam Karpilove (2023 English))
novella & stories

What a surprise to pick up this book which I bought earlier this year and find on the first page of her recollection, 'My Three Years in Eretz Israel', mention of my father-in-law arriving as a young child to Tel Aviv, with his parents on their return to their home country. Karpilove travelled with her brother & his wife (who was also their cousin) to make aliyah but their attempt was not successful and they returned to the US after about three years. My husband's grandparents were returning to Israel with their son, and maternal grandfather (Karpilove's uncle) who had left Minsk in the early 1920s for the US to visit his children and now vowed to live out his remaining days in Jerusalem.
The story is only of their first few days in Tel Aviv but is great for all that with vivd descriptions of their hotel, the various vendors selling their wares and services, those looking for newly arrived Americans as investors for real estate schemes. Karpilove tells the story of Becky, her cousin now sister-in-law, growing up in Minsk and how Becky came to marry her cousin, a grieving widower. Precious family details for my husband.

The story, A Provincial Newspaper, is novella length and is based on Karpilove's own experience working away from New York in a smaller city, possibly Boston, on a new Yiddish newspaper. She's enticed in with promises and goes despite the low wage offered, but ends up overworked, doing far more than she expected. Being a woman, she's not even given her own office or even a desk. The owner is a Mr Rat and aptly named as almost everyone at the office despises him after a few short weeks.

The rest of the book is a series of very short stories she wrote for The Forward in the 1930s, all very entertaining.

For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy On My Little Pain by Victoria MacKenzie (2023)
historical fiction

Not sure how I came across this book but it was a great read. Margery Kempe and Julian of Norwich were the first women to write about themselves and their visions of Christ. Kempe's autobiography is the first known to be written by either man or woman. Their manuscripts have not been lost to time.
The book tracks back and forward between the two women and their visions, culminating in their meeting in 1413. Julian was an anchoress, a term I had not come across before. She chose to be isolated into a room on the side of the church and lived out her life without ever leaving the room or touching anyone. She gave counsel through a covered window to those who came seeking help. Although Kempe birthed many children, her life seems to have been taken up mostly with her visions and she traveled across England seeking help, she fights off several attempts to accuse her of heresy.
This book brings their stories to life and that makes it well worth looking out for.

The Thinking Heart: on Israel and Palestine by David Grossman (2024)
nonfiction
A slim volume of short essays, speeches and articles by Grossman from the past few years finishing with an essay on Israel after October 07 and then a touching poem.
Grossman is on the political left and has always hoped for a peaceful solution for Israel and her neighbours. He is sorely tested first by Netanyahu's government and then by the events of October 07 and the aftermath.

Calypso Dreaming by Charles (Catherine) Butler (2002)
YA
This one held up my other November reads as I tried to decide if I should finish it or not. I thought I would be getting a magical type read, but no this one had dystopian horror elements that did nothing for me. I've had the book on my shelves for a long while and picked it out for the TIOLI challenge for a title with a musical term. Anyway I stuck with it today, it is finished and already on the pile of books that are leaving the house.
Butler is a Professor of Children's Literature in the UK and she was a helpful poster on a childlit listserv I was on, so reading one of her books was always going to happen. Her academic book Four British fantasists : place and culture in the children's fantasies of Penelope Lively, Alan Garner, Diana Wynne Jones, and Susan Cooper is also on my shelves.

Monumenta by Lara Haworth (2024)
novella
Strange read. A Serbian widow receives notification that her home is being requistioned by the government and will be replaced by a monument to the massacre. What massacre, seems to have been a few, and why her home. She calls her two adult children home for a final meal amidst visits by shady government officials and three architects who each have different ideas on how a memorial should look. I liked the idea of this though the characters all seemed a little weird.

Living with our dead: On Loss and Consolation by Delphine Horvilleur (2021 French) (2024 English)
nonfiction
Horvilleur is a French rabbi and this quietly observant book is filled with reflections and stories on dealing with death and celebrating life. Well worth seeking out a copy.

Israel Alone by Bernard-Henri Lévy (2024)
nonfiction
Published by 'Wicked Son' a PostHillPress imprint for challenging Jewish books. Lévy addresses the aftermath of October 7 and how the global response changed from a few days of initial sympathy on the bloodbath to an 'Israel is attempting a genocide on Gaza' stance. How college students in Western countries take the side of the terrorist group, Hamas, rather than sympathise with the young people slaughtered at a music festival.
Lévy reflects on past times and his own work to try and fathom how the world's response is still so hostile to Israel and Jews in general. How antisemitism has exploded since October 7 and why Western governments have allowed it all to happen.
A really thoughtful read.
I have bookmarked Claude Lanzmann's 1973 documentary, Pourquoi Israël (Israel, Why) to watch on youtube as well as taken note of several French writers.

One and a half million buttons: A Tribute to the Lost Children of the Holocaust compiled by Joy Cowley (2019)
picturebook
Back in 2008 Moriah School in Wellington, New Zealand started a project to collect one and a half million buttons to represent all the lost children of the Holocaust. It took until 2010 to collect the buttons, many came from important people such as politicians, writers and those with ties to the Holocaust. While there were moves on how to display in an appropriate way for children to understand the significance of the collection, the school had to close in 2012 due to the small number of pupils. The button collection was moved to the Holocaust Centre and again decisions had to be made on the display which it was decided needed to be a travelling memorial.
Children's writer and a patron of the project, Joy Cowley, has written about the project and the importance of what needs to be remembered.

The Good Soldier Schweik by Jaroslav Hasek (1921)
fiction
My 1937 Penguin edition is for the first three books. I enjoyed this quite a lot. Schweik causes a lot of disruption within the ranks as he travels from place to place and in his simple way keeps getting into trouble with those he meets both in and out of uniform.

Chronicles of a Lizard Nobody by Patrick Ness (2024)
children's
I only read this children's book as it's by Patrick Ness whose books I enjoy. This one is firmly juvenile and is set in a classroom filled with a variety of animal pupils. The three lizards are made hall monitors and come across the school bully, Pelicarnassus, a pelican with a supervillain mother. First in a series and quite fun for children.

The Many Problems of Rochel-Leah by Jane Yolen (2024)
picturebook
Set on a Jewish shetl somewhere in 19C Russia, Rochel-Leah is determined to learn to read. Unfortunately it is not part of a girl's role in life to do this. Eventually she does learn thanks to the sympathetic rabbi and she goes on to become a teacher as times start to change.
A family story for Yolen, retold for a younger audience. Engaging and with sympathetic illustrations.

Murder at the Castle by David Safier (2024)
crime
Miss Merkel Mystery #1. What does Angela Merkel do once retired to a small village in the German countryside. While settling in to her new life out of politics, Angela ends up being in the middle of an unusual murder or suicide, followed by a second one the next day. Angela, her obliging husband and cake-eating bodyguard Mike must solve the mystery so they can go back to enjoying a quiet countryside retirement.
This is full of mild humour and Angela uses all the skills she's learnt over the years tackling politicians and dealng with heads of state. There's also her newly acquired pug, Putin. Overall this was mildly entertaining and not a series I'd rush to complete. I think there are a couple more entries yet to be translated from German.

Chosen for Children edited by Marcus Crouch (1977 3rd edition)
nonfiction
An account of the books which have been awarded the Library Association Carnegie Medal, 1936-1975. I saw this on the library catalogue and immediately requested it and have slowly been making my way through the book for the past couple of weeks. Each entry includes a short discussion on why the book was awarded the Carnegie Medal that particular year and the book's merits, followed by a short extract from the book and then the author writes about their inspiration for the book and how it came to be.
This was extremely interesting and reminded me of how good books i'd already read were and how much I'd enjoyed them. Also has me fired up to continue reading these earlier Carnegie (UK) Medal winners. I've requested two from the library to read in the New Year and have pulled The Little Grey Men out from my own stacks.

Lovely Green Eyes by Arnošt Lustig (2000)
Holocaust fiction

This one's been on my tbr list for a couple of years at the top of my thread, so I'm very happy to have read it. Hanka has lost her family in Auschwitz and she is able to survive due to her Aryan looks, lying about her age and by serving in an SS Brothel near the eastern front. The story does not focus on the lurid details of prostitution, rather about the conditions of that Hanka and the other women must survive in. The book jumps a little to include short post war clips where Hanka is confessing to a young rabbi and again when meeting the writer, who has fallen for her but needs to wait for Hanka to recover.

Hotel Florida: Truth, Love, and Death in the Spanish Civil War by Amanda Vaill (2014)
nonfiction

I bought this when it first came out but shelved it at the time as I'd read too much on the war and couldn't bring myself to read another book on the subject.
I found this quite interesting, VAill focuses on those who came to report or photograph the war and we see it mostly through the perspectives of Capa, his partner Gerda Taro, Hemingway & Gellhorn, Arturo Barea & Ilsa Kulscar. There are so many players in this war, and the book gives a good overview of Russian politiking and the censorship of stories so the world outside Spain does not really get to know the truth, it's embroidered to show that the beleagured government is holding its own right up until Barcelona and Madrid fall.

Defiant by Brandon Sanderson (2023)
YA, scifi
Skyward #4. The concluding book in the Skyward series. I've really enjoyed this series and yet, I stalled reading the last book for over a year after purchasing it with a pre-order several months before it came out. Anyway once I got back into the story I couldn't stop reading till I reached the satisfying end.
From Spensa's journey to become a spacefighter in book 1 to the overthrow of the Superiority in book 4 was great entry level scifi.

Maror by Lavie Tidhar (2022)
crime
I really enjoyed this novel and have lined up a couple more of his books at the library. The book jumps through many decades of crime, drugs and gang murder in Israel while in the background are pivotal events in the nation's history such as the Lebanon War. Characters pop in and out of the novel but always in the background is Cohen, a policeman who works with the criminals and also welds justice when necessary.
I've requested Adama & Six Lives, both look to be good and another, A Man Lies Dreaming, also appeals.

An Eagle in the Snow by Michael Morpurgo (2015)
children's
Another children's book from my shelves and another marvel from Morpurgo. The sympathetic illustrations of Michael Foreman are also quite wonderful. WW2 and Coventry has been bombed heavily. A young boy and his mother leave on a train to Cornwall as their home has been destroyed. Along the way the train is being straffed by an enemy aircraft, the train pauses in a tunnel to wait out the plane. A fellow passenger tells a story from WW1 to pass the time in the dark. It's an amazing story about a boy who loved to draw who went to war. The story is based on fact, Henry Tandey was a highly decorated soldier who could have shot Corporal Hitler in the last days of the war, but didn't because he couldn't bring himself to shoot a wounded soldier.
The story does not finish there.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-28593256

From wikipedia: Lance Corporal Henry James Tandey VC, DCM, MM (born Tandy, 30 August 1891 – 20 December 1977) was a British recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. He was the second most highly decorated British private of the First World War and is most commonly remembered as the soldier who allegedly spared Adolf Hitler's life during the first world war.

>176 avatiakh: I also really liked Yours from the Tower! Have been meaning to read more by Nicholls ever since.

Taking BBs for >175 avatiakh: Beanie the Bansheenie and >188 avatiakh: