Max's War: The Story of a Ritchie Boy by Libby Fischer Hellman

 New historical novel of WWII

Max's War: The Story of a Ritchie Boy by Libby Fischer Hellmann

Publication: April 9, 2024; Red Herrings Press

Genre: historical fiction, WWII

Description: As the Nazis sweep across Europe, Jewish teen Max and his parents flee persecution in Germany for Holland, where Max finds friends and romance. But when Hitler invades in 1940, Max must escape to Chicago, leaving his parents and friends behind. When he learns of his parents' murder in Sobibor, Max immediately enlists in the US Army. After basic training he is sent to Camp Ritchie, Maryland, where he is trained in interrogation and counterintelligence.

Deployed to the OSS, Max carries out dangerous missions in Occupied countries. He also interrogates scores of German POWs, especially after D-Day and the Battle of the Bulge, where, despite life-threatening conditions, he elicits critical information about German troop movements.

Post-war, he works for the Americans in the German denazification program, bringing him back to his Bavarian childhood home of Regensburg. Though the city avoided large-scale destruction, the Jewish community was decimated. Max roams familiar yet strange streets, replaying memories of lives lost to unspeakable tragedy. While there, however, he reunites with someone from his past, who, like him, sought refuge abroad. Can they rebuild their lives… together?

This epic story about a Ritchie Boy is Libby Hellmann’s tribute to her late father-in-law who was active with the OSS and interrogated dozens of German POWs. (publisher)

Thanks to Wiley Saichek of Saichek Publicity for an ARC of this book for feature/review. 

Sunday Salon: Fractured Soul by Akira Mizubayashi, historical fiction

 An historical novel set in Japan and France, with music and restoration as its themes. 

Fractured Soul

by 

Akira Mizubayashi,

 

Alison Anderson (Translator)

Expected publication: April 4th, 2023 by HarperVia

My review:

An anti-war/anti-imperialism novel set in Japan before and during WWII and in France post war. I was overwhelmed by the sorrow of the 11-year-old Rei as he witnessed/heard his father Yu being arrested at a private concert recital and his father's treasured violin smashed by the boots of a Japanese corporal.

The story is moving and yet sentimental; it links classical music, its performance on stringed instruments, and the loss Rei feels when his father disappeared after the arrest. I thought it fitting that Rei becomes a maker/restorer of quality violins in his own shop in France, where he was raised by a French couple who were friends with his missing father Yu.

Rei spends his life trying to overcome the fractured soul he had become from memories of the violence to his father and to Yu's beloved violin. How Rei heals is a story that is eventually soothing, as he connects with others from his past, piecing together what had happened,  in an effort to heal all those who shared his distress.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this amazing historical novel of music, love, loss and restoration.

Currently reading:

Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers

by 

Jesse Q. Sutanto

Genre: mystery comedy, multicultural interest

About: Vera Wong is a lonely little old lady, a widow who lives above her forgotten tea shop in San Francisco's Chinatown. Then one morning, Vera trudges downstairs to find a dead man in the middle of her tea shop. (publisher)

My review: I really enjoyed the personality of the quirky yet forceful main character, Vera, the teashop owner. I loved how she decides to solve the murder mystery herself and how she goes about drawing possible suspects to her teashop.

That the people she helps will later help her in turn is an excellent plot feature. There were a few personality inconsistencies with Vera, however, in how she takes care of her own shop versus how she takes care of other people and their homes.

Overall, an enjoyable read.

Finished reading:

The Love Wager

by 

Lynn Painter

Genre: romantic comedy

About:

 Jack and Hallie make a wager to see who can find true love first, but when they agree to be fake dates for a weekend wedding, all bets are off. (publisher)

My review: There is a lot of back and forth in this lover-to-friend- to-lover relationship between Jack and Hallie. I just couldn't understand why they insisted on remaining "just friends," when the chemistry between them is so intense.

The trope of being a fake couple and sleeping in the same hotel room to fool friends and family works in this novel for some reason, and I didn't mind the slow build up of the attraction between the two friends/lovers. The book was well written and the plot is a rom com to the nth degree

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for access to these ARCs.

What are you reading/listening to this week? 

Memes: The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer. Also,  It's Monday: What Are You Reading, and Sunday Salon, Stacking the Shelves, Mailbox Monday

Sunday Salon: A New Book and an Old

 A new book and an old: 

Words to Make a Friend: A Story in Japanese and English, November 9, 2021, Random House Studio

This delightful bilingual picture book for children shows a Japanese girl and an American girl communicating in both languages while playing outdoors in the snow. Simple words and phrases by one girl in English are repeated in Japanese by the other girl. Lovely illustrations. 

Lovers at the Chameleon Club by Francine Prose was published in 2014 by Harper. I found the book again while paring down my home library, and because of the stunning cover and the topic, Paris in 1932, I now mean to read it!

The lives of selected athletes, socialites, writers, photographers in Paris from 1920 to the beginning of the war, 1932, have been researched and reimagined for fiction, their names changed in the book.

"Paris in the 1920s shimmers with excitement, dissipation, and freedom. It is a place of intoxicating ambition, passion, art, and discontent, where louche jazz venues like the Chameleon Club draw expats, artists, libertines, and parvenus looking to indulge their true selves." (book description)

What are you reading this week? 

Memes: The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer. Also,  It's Monday: What Are You Reading, Mailbox Monday, and Sunday Salon  

A Hundred Suns by Karin Tanabe: Book Beginning

 

A Hundred Suns by Karin Tanabe, April 7, 2020, St. Martin's Press

Genre: historical fiction

Setting: 1930s Indochine (Vietnam)

An American woman accompanies her French husband, a Michelin heir, to his vast rubber plantations in Indochina. Vietnam is a French colony during this period, and the novel focuses on the lavish lifestyles of the French in Indochina of the 1930s. 

Book beginning:

Jessie   November 20, 1933

The house of a hundred suns. That's what my tai xe called it. The first time he ferried me to the train station, in a black Delahaye as polished as a gem stone, he slowly circled the building, avoiding the rawboned rickshaw drivers. I craned my neck, watching as the car's exhaust left a trail behind us like a mollusk's track, and tried my best to concentrate on his words, not the quick tempo of my heart. 

 

Page 56:

"Did you arrive today? You must have. And then you are dragged out to the jungle on your first night in Hanoi."

"I don't mind," I lied.

 

 Would you read on?

The Friday 56. Grab a book, turn to page 56 or 56% of your eReader. Find any sentence that grabs you. Post it, and add your URL post in Linky at Freda's Voice.
Also visit Book Beginning at Rose City Reader.

Sunday Salon: International Fiction, Thrillers

 A few books have begun to arrive this year! I was pleased to receive two new books for feature/review.

The Foreign Girls by Sergio Olguin, translated from the Spanish, ARC copy

Setting: Argentina

Genre: thriller, crime fiction

Expected publication: March 23rd, 2021 by Bitter Lemon Press (first published April 1st 2014)

 A young journalist from Buenos Aires, Veronica Rosenthal, takes a vacation in the north of Argentina, traveling to smaller towns through more scenic areas. She meets two tourists, girls from Scandinavia and the other from Italy. Veronica befriends them, they stay for a few days at Veronica's cousin's house in the hills and they decide to travel together in the area. But the foreign girls, innocent of the locals and the region, become targets in a game in which they come out for the worst. 

The journalist is determined to stay in northern Argentina to find the truth about what happened to the girls, even if it might involve people she and her family know. 

Veronica is a complex character, but a determined one who isn't afraid of danger or taking risks to achieve her goals. The relationship between herself, the locals, and the foreign girls take the novel to a level that explain the lengths she will go to resolve the issue of her newfound friends. 

The plot, the setting, and character development made this an intriguing mystery novel. 

My rating: 4/5 stars

Days of Distraction by Alexandra Chang, review copy

Setting: Silicon Valley, New York

Genre: contemporary fiction, Asian American fiction, multicultural

Published March 31, 2020 by HarperCollins

When the narrator's longtime boyfriend, J, decides to move to upstate New York for grad school, she leaves her job as staff writer at a publication in Silicon Valley to follow him.

But in the process, she finds herself facing misgivings about her role in an interracial relationship. Captivated by the stories of her ancestors and other Asian Americans in history, she must confront a question at the core of her identity: What does it mean to exist in a society that does not notice or understand you? (publisher)

Two other books recently finished:

Three O'Clock in the Morning by Gianrico Carofiglio, ARC copy

Setting: Marseilles

Genre: family drama, coming-of-age novel, international fiction

Publication March 16, 2021 by HarperVia 

A coming-of-age, literary novel about a young Italian teen, an epilectic, who discovers more about himself and his estranged father while both are on a trip to a clinic in Marseilles. They explore the city together and get to know each other while waiting for his treatment at the clinic. Heartfelt story told in the teen's words. Very moving at times. Excellent writing.

My rating: 5/5

The Quiet Girl by S.F. Kosa, personal copy

Setting: Provincetown, Boston

Genre: mystery, psychological thriller

Publication: August 11, 2020, Sourcebooks

Alex is happily married to his new wife, Mina, a romance writer. At least until they have an argument and she disappears, leaving her engagement and wedding rings on her desk. 

Alex reaches out to Mina's parents and to her best friend, but they have no clue as to what happened to her.  Only when he is given a copy of Mina's newest manuscript, as yet unpublished, does he begin to put the pieces together and try to find his wife. The manuscript is not a romance but a novel based on her horrific life story. 

Secrets, family dynamics, psychological disorders, amnesia, are all important themes in this thriller. There are surprises and suspense at the ending, as the writer skillfully leads the reader toward the final revelations.

My rating: 4/5 stars

Reading for Book Club:

The First Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill George Washington by Brad Meltzer

Setting: 1776, Washington

Genre: historical fiction based on true events

In 1776, an elite group of soldiers were handpicked to serve as George Washington’s bodyguards. Washington trusted them; relied on them. But unbeknownst to Washington, some of them were part of a treasonous plan.

 

What are you reading this week? 

Memes: The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer. Also,  It's Monday: What Are You Reading, and Sunday Salon

Sunday Salon: The Woman in the Moonlight by Patricia Morrisroe

Fall is here and temps went down to the high 30s last night. It'll be warmer the rest of the week but not by very much, 40s at nights. I don't mind the pleasant weather and hope it stays this way till December!

I'm still listening to All the Devils Are Here by Louise Penney, and am in the middle of the ebook version of  

The Woman in the Moonlight by Patricia Morrisroe, published September 1, 2020,  Little A; Kindle Unlimited

Genre: historical fiction featuring the composing life of Beethoven and the Moonlight Sonata

Setting: Vienna, Naples, early 1800s

This is a novel about Beethoven and one of his first loves, Countess Julie Guicciardi, to whom he dedicated his Midnight Sonata. The two did not marry, but she continued to watch his progress as a famed composer over the years while she was married with several children of her own. 

Beethoven was a driven, compulsive, but gifted artist, rough looking. Maybe because of his temperament, he never married. He had many lovers and women fell in love with him. Though the character of the composer may be based on fact and research, The Woman in the Moonlight is described as a "fantasia" by the author, a fleshed out story, her imagination filling in the bare facts known regarding the composer and the woman for whom he wrote the Midnight Sonata. 

In any case, I am a bit scandalized by the goings on of  men and women in the early 19th century in Europe, in particular the nobility and the artists and musicians they sponsored and supported.  Mistresses were commonplace, and in the novel, Countess Julie is even propositioned by the wife of a count to have Julie bear her husband a child. There is more, but I won't go into it. 

What are you reading this week?

Memes: The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer. Also,  It's Monday: What Are You Reading, and Sunday Salon

Sunday Salon: Guidebook for Couples; Historical Fiction; Reviews

Trouble the Water, a novel by Rebecca Dwight Bruff, July 4, 2019, Koehler Books

Trouble the Water

Inspired by a true story, Trouble the Water is about risking everything for freedom. Born a slave, Robert Smalls commandeered a Confederate arms ship from the Charleston harbor, and with the woman he loved and a small crew of other slaves, delivered it to the Union Navy. After the war ended Smalls was able to purchase the house in which he and his mother had been enslaved, and he became one of America’s first black legislators. (publisher)

Let's Do Us by Charly Ligety and Les Starck, June 11, 2019, Harper Design

Let's Do Us
A pair of playful and romantic twin guidebooks created specially for couples to help them talk about the difficult yet important issues that will affect their relationship and their future. (publisher)

Finished reading:

Where the Crawdads Sing

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens, August 14, 2018, G.P. Putnam's Sons. Source: personal copy

This coming-of-age novel had me in tears. Wonderfully developed characters and an unusual, to me, setting in the North Carolina swamps. A book for lovers of nature and stories of adolescents enduring extremely trying circumstances. Some parts of the plot are hard to see as completely realistic, but it makes for an excellent story of strife, survival, and accomplishment. Five stars.  

I've recommended this novel to our library book club which meets the first Thursday each month. 

 The Last Time I Saw You by Liv Constantine, May 7, 2019, Harper

The Last Time I Saw You (review ARC from the publisher) is a thriller set around the unexplained murder of a wealthy woman, Lily, the mother of Kate, a heart surgeon. Kate is reunited at Lily's funeral with a childhood playmate, Blaire, who also knew and loved the charming and generous Lily.
   

There are many suspects for the crime, and Blaire, a successful detective author, sticks around, supposedly to help her friend Kate solve Lily's murder. There are unexpected twists to the story that I found improbable and unbelievable, though it did help to prolong the suspense in the plot. I gave the book three stars.  

Currently reading:

The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna by Juliet Grames,  May 7, 2019,  Ecco Press

In this stunning debut novel, a young woman tells the story behind two elderly sisters’ estrangement, unraveling family secrets stretching back a century and across the Atlantic to early 20th century Italy (publisher)

What books have you been reading lately?
Memes: The Sunday Post  hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer. Also,  It's Monday: What Are You Reading, and Stacking the Shelves. 

Sunday Salon: Domestic Drama, Suspense

Domestic drama and books of suspense

The First Mistake by Sandie Jones, June 11, 2019, Minotaur Books

Genre: domestic suspense

(A) wife, her husband, and the woman who is supposedly her best friend.

Murder She Wrote: Murder in Red by Jessica Fletcher and Jon Land

Publication: May 28, 2019, Berkley Books

In what appears to be medical malpractice, Jessica learns her friend was actually a victim of something far more sinister.

Searching for Sylvie Lee by Jean Kwok, June 4, 2019, William Morrow
Genre: suspense, family drama
In one Chinese immigrant family, the book explores what happens when the eldest daughter disappears, and a series of family secrets emerge.

The Last Train to London

The Last Train to London by Meg Waite Clayton, September 10, 2019, Harper
This historical novel centers on the Kindertransports that carried thousands of children out of Nazi-occupied Europe in WWII—and one brave woman who helped them escape to safety.

The Chestnut Man

The Chestnut Man by Soren Sveistrup, Sepember 3, 2019, Harper
Genre: police procedural, thriller
A madman is terrorizing Copenhagen. His calling card is a matchstick doll and two chestnuts. 

Gravity Is the Thing: A Novel

Gravity Is the Thing: A Novel by Jaclyn Moriarty, July 23, 2019, Harper
Genre: contemporary fiction
A single mother's search for happiness. 

What are you reading this week?

Memes:

The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer,  Stacking the Shelves. Also visit The Sunday Salon hosted by ReaderBuzz, and It's Monday, What Are You Reading by Book Date. and Mailbox Monday 

Book Tour/Review: Mrs. Rossi's Dream by Khanh Ha

Mrs. Rossi’s Dream by Khanh Ha

Publisher:  The Permanent Press (March 1, 2019)
Category: Historical Fiction, Vietnam, Literary Fiction, Multicultural
Print and ebook, 312 pages

About: Mrs. Rossi, a retired high school principal from Maryland, travels to Vietnam with her adopted Vietnamese daughter Chi Lan, and is taken around the countryside by the narrator of the book, Giang, who works at their roadside inn as a driver.

During the Vietnam War, Giang defected from the north  and was sent to a reform camp for ten years, after which he served in the South Vietnamese army. In the book, he gives tours of the area to Mrs. Rossi and helps her to search for the remains of her son, an American who died in 1966-1967 during the war.

The exact place where Mrs. Rossi's son died is unknown, so Giang takes her to Military Zone 9, an approximate and possible location. It is now a vast wet woodland where families from the north and south have come to search for the bones of their dead. 

Giang tries to subtly tell Mrs. Rossi that soldiers' remains, after 20 years, are now scattered bones, and not identifiable one from the other in the jungle environment. Still, she persists.

Recommendation: In the book, we learn about the history of Vietnam and the consequences of colonization and occupation by the Chinese and the  French, and then by the Americans during the war. We learn also about the beauty of the land, the river, white water lilies floating on the water, the dramatic contrast with death and destruction of the war. 

We learn about the Vietnamese point of view of the war, their experiences, their language, history, the ghosts and the bones scattered throughout the country.  

In the end, Giang makes a confession to Mrs. Rossi, and they both weep for their losses, for their sadness, and both come to find sorrow, forgiveness, and common ground. 

Summary: A moving story, both sad and exhilarating in parts,  that is also a history and a description of a country torn by war and occupation over centuries, and an emotional journey of a mother's search for and memories of her son.

Rating: 5/5

Thanks to Teddy Rose and Virtual Author Book Tours for an ebook for this book tour. 

About Khanh Ha

Award winning author, Khanh Ha is the author of Flesh (Black Heron Press) and The Demon Who Peddled Longing (Underground Voices).

 He is a seven-time Pushcart nominee, a Best Indie Lit New England nominee, twice a finalist of The William Faulkner-Wisdom Creative Writing Award, and the recipient of Sand Hills Prize for Best Fiction, and Greensboro Review’s Robert Watson Literary Prize in fiction. The Demon Who Peddled Longing was honored by Shelf Unbound as a Notable Indie Book. 

Ha graduated from Ohio University with a bachelor’s degree in journalism.
Website: http://www.authorkhanhha.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/authorkhanhha
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/authorkhanhha
Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/khanhha

Mrs. Rossi’s Dream available at Amazon, BarnesandNoble

Enter to win a print copy or an ebook: https://www.virtualauthorbooktours.com/mrs-rossis-dream-by-khanh-ha-on-tour/

Linked to War Through the Generations Book Challenge

Sunday Salon: Novel Inspired by Jackie K. Onassis

Novel inspired by Jackie Kennedy Onassis:

The Editor

The Editor by Steven Rowley, publication April 2, 2019, Putnam
Genre: fiction
Jackie Kennedy, book editor, encourages budding author James Smale to write an authentic ending to his telling autobiography.

Historical fiction set in Georgian England:

The Confessions of Frannie Langton

The Confessions of Frannie Langton by Sara Collins, publication May 21, 2019, Harper
Genre: historical drama
A former Caribbean slave is accused of murdering her former employer and his wife in Georgian England, but she believes she is innocent.

Psychological suspense:

The Last Time I Saw You

The Last Time I Saw You by Liv Constantine. publication May 7, 2019, Harper
Genre: psychological suspense, mystery 
A murderer taunts the daughter of a woman killed, while her best friend, a bestselling mystery author, tries to help her. 

Historical mystery:

Who Slays the Wicked

Who Slays the Wicked by C.S. Harris, publication April 2, 2019, Berkley Books
Genre: #14 in the Sebastian St. Cyr mystery series, stand-alone novel
St. Cyr is called in to solve the death of a fiendish nobleman in Regency-era England

What books are you reading this week?

The Sunday Post  hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer,  Stacking the Shelves, and It's Monday, What Are You Reading? by Book Date., and Mailbox Monday.

Recent Books: The Book of Night Women by Marlon James; and others

The Book of Night Women by Marlon James

Published February 19th 2009 by Riverhead (first published January 17th 2009)
Genre: historical fiction set in 18th century Jamaica
About: women coping with slavery on a plantation

Horrendous reading so far. The novel uses Jamaican colonial history as a background 

Death in Provence

Death in Provence by Serena Kent

Publication: February 19, 2019, Harper
Genre: new mystery set in France

American Duchess by Karen Harper

Publication: February 26th 2019 by William Morrow Paperbacks
Genre: historical fiction
Consuelo Vanderbilt and her “The Wedding of the Century” to the Duke of Marlborough

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? by Book Date.
What books are you reading this week?

Book Tour: Tiffany Blues by M.J. Rose

TIFFANY BLUES by M.J. Rose 

Published August 7, 2018, Atria Books

"New York, 1924. Twenty‑four‑year‑old Jenny Bell is one of a dozen burgeoning artists invited to Louis Comfort Tiffany’s prestigious artists’ colony. Gifted and determined, Jenny vows to avoid distractions and romantic entanglements and take full advantage of the many wonders to be found at Laurelton Hall.

But Jenny’s past has followed her to Long Island. As the summer shimmers on, and the competition between the artists grows fierce as they vie for a spot at Tiffany’s New York gallery, a series of suspicious and disturbing occurrences suggest someone knows enough about Jenny’s childhood trauma to expose her.

Supported by her closest friend Minx Deering, a seemingly carefree socialite yet dedicated sculptor, and Oliver, Jenny pushes her demons aside. Between stolen kisses and stolen jewels, the champagne flows and the jazz plays on until one moonless night when Jenny’s past and present are thrown together in a desperate moment, that will threaten her promising future, her love, her friendships, and her very life. "(publisher)

The novel weaves a story of mystery, suspense and romance into the background of the famous Tiffany building, Laurenton Hall, Long Island. The building housed a variety of art including the famous stained glass windows and mosaics known as Tiffany glass. A mysterious fire in 1957 destroyed the building and much of the art. The author has tried to account for the fire in a fictional way, with her book, Tiffany Blues. 

Lovers of art, and especially those who know Tiffany stained glass, will enjoy this historical novel, and others will also enjoy a good romantic plot set in this fascinating environment.

Here's the  link to the complete schedule of reviews:

Connect with M. J. Rose: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

Thanks to Lisa Munley of TLC Book Tours, and the publisher, for a review copy of this book.