Book Review: The Light Between Oceans by M. L. Stedman

A library book that I read after recommendations by several bloggers: The Light Between Oceans was published 2013 by Scribner. It 's about a lighthouse couple in Australia who find a baby girl ship wrecked or boat wrecked on their beach and who decide to keep her as their own. 

Big mistake. But the man, Tom, gives in to his wife's importuning as she manipulates him into keeping the baby. She has lost three children, one just recently stillborn, and he cannot find it easy to deny her this child washed up on their shore with no identifying clues except for an expensive silver rattle. 

Even after Tom suspects who the real mother might be, another grieving woman who has lost both husband and child, he is loath to reveal the truth about the little girl that people think is his own. 

Recommendation: I found this novel very thought-provoking, a look at the dynamics of childlessness and some reasons behind child abductions, a not too infrequent occurrence. Conscience, empathy, honor and loyalty all come into play in this story. Well written and developed, it's a novel I heartily recommend.

Sunday Salon: War Movie and War Novels

Welcome to the Sunday Salon where bloggers share their reading each week. Visit The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer.
Also visit Mailbox Monday, and It's Monday, What Are You Reading? hosted by Book Date. 

We saw the Tina Fey movie, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, last night, about an American journalist who signs up to become a photo journalist in Afghanistan. The Urban Dictionary says Whiskey Tango Foxtrot stands for WTF in military language!
The movie gave me a good look at some of the risks, temptations, rivalries, and on-the-edge lives war journalists face on site. It's also a comedy so the facts came with some laughs. The original title of the book by Kim Barker was The Taliban Shuffle: Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan. 

The movie also gave me some visual prep to tackle Cambodia Noir head on, a thriller about a photographer who has seen action during the war in Cambodia and who lives on in the war-shattered country trying to score new news on the political or social scene.

 I finished yesterday a library book that I read after recommendations by several bloggers: The Light Between Oceans, published 2013 by Scribner. It 's about a lighthouse couple in Australia who find a baby girl ship wrecked or boat wrecked on their beach and who decide to keep her as their own. I will post a brief review next week.

Two new books came in last week for review/feature, thanks to Harper Collins:

It has been a while since I've read a biography, so this galley came as a pleasant surprise. The Last Goodnight: a World War II Story of Espionage, Adventure & Betrayal by Howard Blum, described as "biography of Betty Pack, the dazzling American debutante who became an Allied spy during WWII and was hailed by OSS chief General “Wild Bill" Donovan as “the greatest unsung heroine of the war.” 



A romantic comedy, advance readers edition,  also arrived for lighter reading:


The Decent Proposal by Kemper Donovan is described as a "debut romantic comedy, drama, and mystery rolled into one, about two very different strangers whose lives become intertwined when they receive an unusual proposition." 

The proposition is: meet for at least two hours every week for an entire year and then share a million dollars reward from an anonymous benefactor. I am thinking the ending is probably predictable, but the journey might be fun to read about.

Books in my Library Bag include:
The Strangler Vine by M. J. Carter, an historical thriller set in India
Thin Air by Ann Cleeves, a police procedural set in the Shetland islands.

What goodies do you have on the book shelves this week?