WW 2 book recommendations – part 6
I thought I had a draft saved of this blog on my laptop somewhere but it seems I didn’t or can’t find it at this time. While I should probably breathe new life into this blog with what I have been up to since January let’s stay slightly with the date this is published, namely Remembrance Day/Veterans Day.
However, with everything going on in the world today it seems humankind didn’t really learn from history and we are only repeating it over and over again, while a lot of innocent people lose their lives.
On my Kindle, I started some World War I novels, but at the moment I haven’t finished any. Hence, I’m sticking to the World War II novels you are used to on this blog. These books were read between January and June. So, forgive me if I don’t remember all the details. Like I said I thought I had jotted down some previous notes, but if my memory serves me correctly this was also a couple of months after the fact.
Today’s lineup will be from “worst” to “best” even though this needs to be taken with a grain of salt because if the book was bad I wouldn’t recommend it. I just seem not trained or able enough to explain why I think a book is good or bad, and I noticed that if I give a book stars, it usually ends up being 3 stars anyway.
The first book on the list is also the one I read the first: The Last Restaurant in Paris by Lily Graham.
In this book, we meet Gilbert a senior gentleman who worked in said restaurant and will help Sabine, who inherited the restaurant in 1987, help figure out why she inherited the restaurant. We will also learn why Marianne Blanchet opened it and why it was abandoned since the war.
Overall I liked the book, but there is a very large portion in the book describing Mariane’s youth and personal life. Some of it is necessary to explain why she opened the restaurant, did what she did, and what happened on the last night the restaurant was open and the consecutive days. However, I feel some of it was simply to fill out pages in the book. This is the only reason why it scores the lowest of the 3.
The next book is “Secrets of the Italian Island” by Barbara Josselsohn.
In this book, we meet Mia who is staying in her grandmother’s home one last time before the house is sold after her grandmother Annalisa has passed away. On this last visit, she discovers an old wedding dress that was not worn by Annalisa on her wedding day to Mia’s grandfather. She also finds a strange artefact that an Italian lawyer wants back.
The question of course is how Annalisa came into possession of this artifact and what was her connection to the Isola di Parissi, in Italy.
Instead of going camping with her best friend, they book tickets to go to Italy instead and see if they can find out what happened. It turns out that the friend doesn’t have a valid passport, so Mia travels alone. What follows could be the content of a “Hallmark” movie.
Even though the past is set during the Second World War and the Germans eventually do invade the Isola di Parissi this part of the book is not that action or suspense-heavy.
A good romance read that could have a bit more war in it. However, there is a second book coming out next month featuring Annalisa’s sister. Maybe that one will contain more of what I was missing in this book.
The last one is “Night Angels” by Weina Dai Randel.
This story is inspired by the true story of Dr. Ho Fengshan, the consul general of China in Vienna during the early years of Austria’s annexation to Germany and the beginning of World War II. In this story, Dr. Ho Fengshan is married to an American named Grace. Grace doesn’t speak German and does not like all the formal duties she needs to perform as a consul’s wife. Her husband finds Lola Schnitzler as a tutor for Grace to learn German. However, as Lola is Jewish this proves a less wise idea. Despite this, they form an unlikely friendship. While the rules for Jews in Austria get more strict and they are put in gethos Fengshan is trying to find a way to save as many Jews as possible.
Each chapter is told from the perspective of one of these 3 characters and while this structure is not uncommon it made me take a while to get really into it. But once I was in I was hooked and I had to finish it quickly.
If you are interested in this one because of the inspired-by-true-events claim, be forewarned that very little of it is based on real facts. Both Grace and Lola are figments of the author’s imagination and the embassy was never bombed.
However, despite it being fiction, and like I mentioned earlier it took a while but once I was hooked I felt the fear of the Jewish during Kristallnacht and what life could be when you tried to resist the Germans. That is why this one is the favourite of the 3.
The synopsis of these three books may be lacking for some, this is part because I read these books so long ago and part because you can read these synopsizes on Amazon or Goodreads before you purchase the books. As per usual, the links above are regular links and not affiliate ones, so if I decide to purchase I won’t get any commission. I’m still looking for balance on what to tell you so I can tease a bit and make the book appeal to you and tell too much so you believe you don’t need to read the book as I have already told you everything.
With the current political situation, I seem to not only avoid the news but also less violent books. Hence, I don’t know when there will be a part 7 of World War II reads. However, I will try to be more consistent here so you don’t need to wait another 10 months until the next blog is published.
If you do have book recommendations, historical fiction or otherwise, or just overall blog suggestions don’t hesitate to share.
