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The Book Thief
The Book Thief
Markus Zusak | 2016 | Fiction & Poetry
8
8.8 (129 Ratings)
Book Rating
4.5 stars

Liesel Meminger is 9 years old and it is 1939. Her mother is taking her and her brother to live with another family where they will be safe. Unfortunately, the brother doesn't make it. Liesel takes only two things with her to her new home; the memory of her brother and her first stolen book, <u>The Gravediggers Handbook</u>.

When Liesel arrives on Himmel street in Molching, Germany, she is greeted by Rosa and Hans Hubermann. They welcome her into their home and she immediately is to call them Mama and Papa. Even though Liesel is illiterate, Hans works with her every night when she is awakened with nightmares of her brothers death. They retreat to the basement to do their reading.

For 5 years, Liesel lives on Himmel street during one of the most treacherous times in Germany. She makes friends and enemies along the way and steals 5 more books.

First I would like to thank [a:Victoria Dougherty|8054971|Victoria Dougherty|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1394817245p2/8054971.jpg]for recommending this book to me. I have always been a fan of historical fiction and this book did not disappoint in any way, shape or form. I thoroughly enjoyed this story. I could see myself on Himmel Street with Liesel. I could see what she could see and I could feel the torment she went through. I thank God every time I finish a book like this because I live in a place and a time where these things aren't a constant worry for me. I don't have to have my possessions packed and ready to go when I raid sirens going off. I don't even hear raid sirens. This is a book everyone needs to read if they haven't.

Another thing I found very interesting in this book was that it was narrated by death. If that's not enough to make you want to read this...One of my favorite passages in the book is this "Here is a small fact...You are going to die." Simple but true. One day we all will die. I hope and pray it is not in the way that the multitudes of people died in this book, but I know that one day it will happen.
  
Kat transformed in front of him. Her chin came up, her fingers stopped twitching with the fabric of her gown, and a real sparkle bubbled in her eyes. It was like watching Snow White come to life when the prince kissed her. A heartwarming WWII historical from award-winning author Cara Putman: Kat Miller has dreamed of playing baseball her entire life. When she earns a spot on a team in the All-American Girls Professional Softball League, she finds that things aren’t as glamorous as she imagined. She struggles with long road trips, grueling practices, and older teammates who are jealous of her success. And to top it all off, an irritating reporter is constantly getting under Kat’s skin. Events in Jack Raymond’s career have left him cynical and distanced from God. He never wanted to write at a small paper, and he certainly didn’t want to be assigned to something as inconsequential as a women’s softball team. Then Kat walks into his life. The fiery, young softball player somehow climbs the walls around his heart and makes him want to hope again. When lies fly and the league appears to fail, will Kat and Jack’s new love survive?





My Thoughts: Every girl has a dream, and this time it's Kat's turn to have hers come true! A chance to play professional baseball. Cara Putman has weaved history and fiction in an entertaining storyline; s based the all women's league that was formed during the second world war.


Kat is the youngest member on the team and as I read the book, I wanted to take her under my wing and protect her from her jealous teammates. Kat had to suffer being away from her family, the jealousy of some of her teammates, traveling, grueling schedules and falling in love for the first time.


This was a very entertaining novel. I truly enjoyed it and it was a pleasure to read. One of the things I enjoyed about the book, was that Kat wanted to make a difference. She wanted to be a light for the Lord where ever she went. Her actions actually made Jack turn back to the Lord.


Even though I hadn't read the first two books, this was easy to follow on its own. I would love to read more from Cara Putman.
  
A good addition to the series
The House of Secret by Terry Lynn Thomas
Published by HQ Digital on 11th April 2019
252 pages
Following on from Sarah Bennett’s father’s murder trial, Sarah gets given a job working with psychiatrist Dr Matthew Geisler. With his fascination into the supernatural, Sarah sees it as a chance to escape the public eye.
Whilst I have read The Spirit of Grace, you don’t have to, to enjoy this story. Anything that was relevant from book 1 was explained in detail, without spoiling the flow. I liked that Sarah was still inquisitive and even having suffered a life-threatening accident, it didn’t stop her trying to help Minna, who was having a really bad time at the Geisler’s Institute. Although there were times that Sarah was put under a lot of pressure from Zeke, Dr Geisler and even Alysse, she was still determined to find out who was behind the threats.
Whilst Zeke being housed in the hospital for his injuries pleased Sarah, as he was so close to her, there were moments that she doubted the real reason he was there. At times it did get annoying as Sarah knew what Zeke did for a living and should have understood that there were occasions that she could not be his No1 priority. However, this did not detract from the mystery and they did work well together.
Whilst the story centred around the characters already mentioned, there were some other characters, that had their own story to tell. Mr Collins, an accomplished pianist, Cynthia Forrester whilst being Sarah’s friend was also a reporter from the San Francisco Chronicle and Aunt Lillian, an eccentric older lady who was Cynthia’s aunt.
The supernatural element was stronger in this story as Sarah was adjusting to her gift and it helped that she had a fan in Dr Geisler. The mystery was well plotted and whilst I had my suspicions who was behind the threats, I could not work the reasons behind them. The story built up to a dramatic ending, with everything explained in detail.
This series can keep going and I hope there will be more to come. If you like historical fiction with an element of supernatural then this is a series for you.
  
The Paris Library
The Paris Library
9
9.5 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
The Paris Library tells the story of the occupation of Paris from a different point of view - that of the librarians. Historical fiction is one of my favourite genres, books are my favourite things, so it was a pretty safe bet that I’d enjoy this book!
In 1930’s - 1940’s Paris, we follow Odile, a young woman who wants to be a librarian in the American Library. She gets her dream job - much to her parents dismay. She meets and falls in love with a young police officer, but life begins to get much more difficult when the Germans invade France, occupying Paris. Odile’s twin brother is imprisoned in a camp after he is captured on the front, and her Jewish subscribers at the library are forbidden from going there. Odile’s wartime experiences are fascinating to read about, and I really enjoyed these flashbacks.
We also meet Lily in the 1980’s - Odile’s neighbour in the small Montana town that they both live in. They become good friends when Lily decides that she wants to write a school report about France during the Occupation. Odile teaches Lily to speak French, and they share a love of books. Odile becomes a grandmotherly figure in Lily’s life, and I loved the relationship between the two of them.
I found this book so interesting: when I was reading about Lily, I was desperate to know what would happen in the next Paris flashback, and when I was reading about Odile’s Paris, I wanted to know what would happen to Lily in her next section. I would say that this is the sign of a good book!
The Parisian sections weren’t gratuitously violent - in fact the Nazi heading the library department of the invading forces seemed to be a reasonable man. It’s made clear that the characters don’t like the Germans, and we’re told that Jews go missing, but the German’s themselves are very low key. This is about Odile’s experience, and Lily’s life in the 80’s. And the power of books.
The bravery of the Parisian librarians was admirable, especially as they could have been imprisoned or killed if their acts of resistance had ever been revealed.
I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this book - it was a pleasure to read.
  
She Who Became The Sun
She Who Became The Sun
8
8.5 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
Beware those who journey further – a fairytale this ain’t!

After a fortune teller destines her brother for greatness and her own life to be worthless, a peasant girl may be expected to resign herself to her fate. However, upon her brother’s premature death, the girl seizes an opportunity to adopt both his name and his destiny.

She Who Became the Sun is a brutal, hard hitting debut to The Radiant Emperor series. Comparisons tend to quote Mulan due to the setting and the nature of Zhu disguising her female birth, but this is honestly where the comparison ends. For me, this novel is as if Mulan was in the Game of Thrones novels: warring factions, political backstabbing and the quest for power, Parker-Chan really doesn’t hold back.

As the debut novel, She Who Became the Sun has a lot of work to do in world-building and revealing the history behind the main characters. As a result, the pace of writing can feel a little slow at times but the final few chapters are well worth any previous perseverance.

Despite the pace in the middle of the novel, Parker-Chan’s writing is lyrical and intense simultaneously. Zhu’s desire to live gives a desperate, raw undertone to every one of the chapters under her POV. This is in direct juxtaposition from our other main character, Ouyang, who exudes cold detachment.

Zhu and Ouyang are both orphans, both queer and, as a girl and a eunuch, are both shunned by society. However, they consistently find themselves facing each other on opposite sides of a war: they may be ‘like and like’ but they are both characters who believe that their path is already decided for them, and neither will let anyone stand in their way!

Zhu and Ouyang are complex, well-developed characters, but they are nothing without their stunning supporting cast! I particularly loved Xu Da, Esen and Ma who never showed any prejudice against our main protagonists and purely accepted them for who they were.

She Who Became the Sun intertwines historical fiction with fantasy, war strategies with spirits and death with fate. This novel manages to be gritty and violent whilst also exploring gender identity in an open and refreshing manner. Morality is blurred and ghosts are rife: I can’t wait to see what happens next.

Thank you to Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for gifting me an e-ARC of She Who Became the Sun.
  
The White Queen (The Plantagenet and Tudor Novels, #2)
The White Queen (The Plantagenet and Tudor Novels, #2)
Philippa Gregory | 2009 | Fiction & Poetry
4
6.5 (11 Ratings)
Book Rating
Not quite sure why I decided to read this as the only other book I've read by Gregory was The Other Boleyn Girl, which I thought was pretty dreadful. I suppose I find it difficult to keep away from anything connected with The Wars of the Roses; I certainly found that I'd read almost every book listed in the bibliography and could have recommended a few more that might have been beneficial for the author to have perused.....

While not the worst book I've ever read I know I won't be reading this again and as to The Red Queen - well, I'd probably want to strangle Margaret Beaufort before the first chapter was out, so let's leave it at that shall we.

I do read a lot of historical novels and in general I find that it is much harder for a novel to work well when it is written in the first person, as this is. With a single viewpoint you are restricting yourself and that shows here at several points where the author has to break out of the Elizabeth Woodville narrative to give us a chunk of what is going on elsewhere. I've never found EW a particularly sympathetic historical character and I'm not sure she comes across that well here, either. Certainly in the latter half of the book it's difficult to see what motivation Gregory is ascribing to her.

The family of EW's mother did believe themselves descended from a water goddess and it was not unusual for powerful women to be accused of witchcraft, to discredit either them or their husbands (see Eleanor Cobham). I daresay that mixing of love potions and use of figures and all that sort of thing would have gone on, but the whistling up of storms was going just a bit too far for me. I also thought that the Foreshadowing element of the story was a bit overdone - although that may be because I know too much about the period!

There were also a number of glaring errors and oddities which should have been picked up somewhere down the line. Looks like the favourite one is the anachronistic use of the word 'numpty'! In other places George of Clarence is described as a duke one moment and his wife, Isabel as a countess the next (she would have had that as a subsidiary title, but she was the duchess of Clarence!), an execution was said to have taken place by the axe when the person in question is known to have been hanged, the Parhelion (three suns)are said to have been at Towton when it was in fact at Mortimer's Cross (Towton took place in a snowstorm - I doubt they could see one sun, let alone three!) and Gregory needed to study her history of Barnet a bit more closely as she had her battle lines completely mixed up!

Obviously there are some big gaps in our knowledge, which is grist to the fiction writers mill! I thought her Princes in the Tower solution was interesting and glad to see that she acknowledged that Richard III would have had little to gain from their deaths at this point. Not sure if Lambert Simnel is 'explained' in one of the other books in this series, as EW's part is certainly interesting. Also interesting that although the name of Eleanor Butler is mentioned early on and the anullment of the marriage on grounds of Edward's previous marriage come into play later, the two are never linked by the author and she chooses to offer no comment on this piece of the puzzle.
  
Vikings  - Season 1
Vikings - Season 1
2013 | Action, Drama, History
Historically Accurate in terms of culture (2 more)
Doesn't hold back on the gore and grim nature of Vikings
Great Character development
Doesn't hold back on the gore and grim nature of Vikings (not for the light hearted) (0 more)
A Historically accurate fantasy series
Vikings was a show that I didn't begin watching until it was already 3 seasons in. However it is a show that I instantly fell in love with because it was very different from any show like it.

Many shows these days such as Game Of Thrones and Vikings, etc. are becoming more daring with reaching a specific audience rather than the wider audience gained through less graphically violent shows. These shows are not afraid to show us a blade slicing through someones flesh or the blood pouring out of the wounds.

Vikings, as known throughout history, have been recorded as violent and brutish warriors who slaughtered hundreds of men and women during their travels to England and other European lands. The show does not hold back when it comes to portraying their brutality in battle. It is not all brutality and war though, as the drama aspect of this show, is shown through the main cast in their homeland of Scandinavia.

Ragnar is definitely a great character to follow as we watch him rise to become Jarl of his home town. Portrayed by Travis Fimmel (Warcraft: The Beginning / The Baytown Outlaws), the character of Ragnar Lothbrok is one we see develop in many different ways. Based upon the legend of a man of the same name, who, though recorded throughout history, is a character that some historians are unsure existed, thought his sons are definitely recorded to have existed. The only way I can explain this is that his legend is so incredible that there are some who chose to believe it and others who chose to believe it is simply stories made up by travelers and poets.

Either way, this show is a brilliant fantasy drama that combines fiction with historical accuracy. This first season follows Ragnar as he begins his journey to defy the Jarl of Kattegat and sail towards England to raid, pillage and bring back treasure unlike anything the north had ever seen.

The soundtrack to the series is also brilliant and really brings the scenes of the films to life, and give them a beautiful atmosphere that sucks you into the moment, and leaves you on the edge of your seat.

With a great cast, excellent writers and great directing and cinematography, Vikings is beautiful, thrilling and horrifying and certainly, in my opinion, one of the greatest shows I have ever watched.