Tag: Reading Challenges

My Week in Books – 21st January ’18

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MyWeekinBooks

New arrivals  

Jane Semour The Haunted QueenJane Seymour: The Haunted Queen (Six Tudor Queens #3) by Alison Weir (eARC, NetGalley)

Eleven days after the death of Anne Boleyn, Jane is dressing for her wedding to the King. She has witnessed at firsthand how courtly play can quickly turn to danger and knows she must bear a son . . . or face ruin.  This new Queen must therefore step out from the shadows cast by Katherine and Anne – in doing so, can she expose a gentler side to the brutal King?

Acclaimed, bestselling historian Alison Weir draws on new research for her captivating novel, which paints a compelling portrait of Jane and casts fresh light on both traditional and modern perceptions of her. Jane was driven by the strength of her faith and a belief that she might do some good in a wicked world.  History tells us how she died. This spellbinding novel explores the life she lived.

Darkest HourDarkest Hour: How Churchill Brought Us Back From The Brink by Anthony McCarten (paperback, giveaway prize)

May, 1940. Britain is at war, European democracies are falling rapidly and the public are unaware of this dangerous new world. Just days after his unlikely succession to Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, faces this horror – and a sceptical King and a party plotting against him. He wonders how he can capture the public mood and does so, magnificently, before leading the country to victory.

It is this fascinating period that Anthony McCarten captures in this deeply researched, gripping day-by-day (and often hour-by-hour) narrative. In doing so he revises the familiar view of Churchill – he made himself into the iconic figure we remember and changed the course of history, but through those turbulent and dangerous weeks he was plagued by doubt, and even explored a peace treaty with Nazi Germany. It’s a scarier, and more human story, than has ever been told.

Magpie MurdersMagpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz (paperback, gift)

When editor Susan Ryeland is given the manuscript of Alan Conway’s latest novel, she has no reason to think it will be much different from any of his others. After working with the bestselling crime writer for years, she’s intimately familiar with his detective, Atticus Pünd, who solves mysteries disturbing sleepy English villages. An homage to queens of classic British crime such as Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers, Alan’s traditional formula has proved hugely successful. So successful that Susan must continue to put up with his troubling behavior if she wants to keep her job.

Conway’s latest tale has Atticus Pünd investigating a murder at Pye Hall, a local manor house. Yes, there are dead bodies and a host of intriguing suspects, but the more Susan reads, the more she’s convinced that there is another story hidden in the pages of the manuscript: one of real-life jealousy, greed, ruthless ambition, and murder.

Santa_The Music ShopThe Music Shop by Rachel Joyce (hardcover, gift)

It’s 1988.  Frank owns a music shop. It is jam-packed with records of every speed, size and genre. Classical, jazz, punk – as long as it’s vinyl he sells it. Day after day Frank finds his customers the music they need. Then into his life walks Ilse Brauchmann.  Ilse asks Frank to teach her about music. His instinct is to turn and run. And yet he is drawn to this strangely still, mysterious woman with her pea-green coat and her eyes as black as vinyl. But Ilse is not what she seems. And Frank has old wounds that threaten to re-open and a past he will never leave behind…

MunichMunich by Robert Harris (hardcover, gift)

September 1938. Hitler is determined to start a war.  Chamberlain is desperate to preserve the peace.  The issue is to be decided in a city that will forever afterwards be notorious for what takes place there.  Munich.

As Chamberlain’s plane judders over the Channel and the Fürher’s train steams relentlessly south from Berlin, two young men travel with secrets of their own.  Hugh Legat is one of Chamberlain’s private secretaries, Paul Hartmann a German diplomat and member of the anti-Hitler resistance. Great friends at Oxford before Hitler came to power, they haven’t seen one another since they were last in Munich six years earlier. Now their paths are destined to cross again as the future of Europe hangs in the balance.

When the stakes are this high, who are you willing to betray? Your friends, your family, your country or your conscience?

A Mother's SacrificeA Mother’s Sacrifice by Gemma Metcalfe (eARC, NetGalley & Neverland Book Tours)

It was fate that she crossed my path. And that is why I chose her.

The day Louisa and James bring their newborn son home from the hospital marks a new beginning for all of them. To hold their child in their arms makes all the stress and trauma of fertility treatment worth it. Little Cory is theirs and theirs alone. Or so they think…

After her mother’s suicide when she was a child, Louisa’s life took an even darker turn. But meeting James changed everything. She can trust him to protect her, and to never leave her. Even if deep down, she worries that she has never told him the full truth about her past, or the truth about their baby. But someone knows all her secrets – and that person is watching and waiting, with a twisted game that will try to take everything Louisa holds dear.

EcstasyEcstasy by Mary Sharratt (eARC, NetGalley & Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours)

In the glittering hotbed of turn-of-the-twentieth-century Vienna, one woman’s life would define and defy an era.

Gustav Klimt gave Alma her first kiss. Gustav Mahler fell in love with her at first sight and proposed only a few weeks later. Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius abandoned all reason to pursue her. Poet and novelist Franz Werfel described her as “one of the very few magical women that exist.” But who was this woman who brought these most eminent of men to their knees? In Ecstasy, Mary Sharratt finally gives one of the most controversial and complex women of her time the centre stage.

Coming of age in the midst of a creative and cultural whirlwind, young, beautiful Alma Schindler yearns to make her mark as a composer. A brand-new era of possibility for women is dawning and she is determined to make the most of it. But Alma loses her heart to the great composer Gustav Mahler, nearly twenty years her senior. He demands that she give up her music as a condition for their marriage. Torn by her love and in awe of his genius, how will she remain true to herself and her artistic passion?

Part cautionary tale, part triumph of the feminist spirit, Ecstasy reveals the true Alma Mahler: composer, author, daughter, sister, mother, wife, lover, and muse.

On What Cathy Read Next last week

Blog posts

Monday – I took part in the blog tour for Beautiful Star & Other Stories by Andrew Swanston, publishing both my review and a fascinating Q&A with Andrew.

Tuesday – I shared my Top Ten Bookish Goals for 2018, including some of the reading challenges I’ve signed up for.

Wednesday – WWW Wednesday is the opportunity to share what I’ve just finished reading, what I’m reading now and what I’ll be reading next.   I also published a round-up of the most popular bookish goals posted by some of the other bloggers taking part in the previous day’s Top Ten Tuesday meme.

Thursday – I shared my review of the wonderful Oliver Loving by Stefan Merrill Block and revisited my review of Miss Treadway and the Field of Stars by Miranda Emmerson for Throwback Thursday.

Friday – I shared my review of The Good Doctor of Warsaw by Elisabeth Gifford, a powerful story based on true accounts of the struggle for survival in the Warsaw ghetto in World War II.  Highly recommended, although not easy reading.

Sunday – I took part in the blog tour for The Start of Something Wonderful by Jane Lambert, publishing an excerpt from the book.  I also published my review of Nucleus by Rory Clements, the second in his Tom Wilde series of historical thrillers, set in 1939.

Challenge updates

  • Goodreads 2018 Reading Challenge – 9 out of 156 books read, 2 more than last week
  • Classics Club Challenge – 8 out of 50 books read, same as last week
  • NetGalley/Edelweiss Reading Challenge 2018 (Silver) – 3 ARCs read and reviewed out of 25, 2 more than last week
  • From Page to Screen– 9 book/film comparisons out of 15 completed, same as last week
  • 2018 TBR Pile Challenge – 2 out of 12 books read, same as last week
  • Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 2018 – 6 books out of 50 read, 2 more than last week
  • When Are You Reading? Challenge 2018 – 2 out of 12 books read, same as last week
  • What’s In A Name Reading Challenge – 0 out of 6 books read
  • Buchan of the Month – 0 out of 12 books read

On What Cathy Read Next this week

Currently reading

Olive KitteridgeThe Moral CompassThe Mermaid & Mrs Hancock

Planned posts

  • Blog Tour/Q&A: Hattie’s Home by Mary Gibson
  • Blog Tour/Review: The Moral Compass by K A Servian
  • Blog Tour/Review: Traitor by David Hingley
  • Review: The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock by Imogen Hermes Gowar
  • Review: Oliver Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
  • From Page to Screen: Carol

Book Review: The Good Doctor of Warsaw by Elisabeth Gifford

whatcathyreadnext7 Comments

The Good Doctor of WarsawAbout the Book

‘You do not leave a sick child alone to face the dark and you do not leave a child at a time like this.’

Deeply in love and about to marry, students Misha and Sophia flee a Warsaw under Nazi occupation for a chance at freedom. Forced to return to the Warsaw ghetto, they help Misha’s mentor, Dr Korczak, care for the two hundred children in his orphanage. As Korczak struggles to uphold the rights of even the smallest child in the face of unimaginable conditions, he becomes a beacon of hope for the thousands who live behind the walls.  As the noose tightens around the ghetto Misha and Sophia are torn from one another, forcing them to face their worst fears alone. They can only hope to find each other again one day…  Meanwhile, refusing to leave the children unprotected, Korczak must confront a terrible darkness.

This novel is based on the true accounts of Misha and Sophia, and on the life of one of Poland’s greatest men, Dr Janusz Korczak.

Format: ebook, paperback (368 pp.)      Publisher: Corvus
Published in UK : 1st February 2018     Genre: Historical Fiction

Pre-order/Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk ǀ  Amazon.com
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

Find The Good Doctor of Warsaw on Goodreads

My Review

I’ll be honest and say that when I read Elisabeth Gifford’s previous book, Secrets of the Sea House, I found the story line set in the past much more compelling than that set in the present.  So, I was delighted to learn about this book set entirely in the period of the Second World War.  The subject matter, well, that’s very far from delightful but the author delivers a powerful, compelling account of the fate of those who struggled for survival in the Warsaw ghetto.  Sadly, most of them failed in that struggle.  Of the half a million people who lived in the Warsaw ghetto, less than one percent survived to tell their story.

With the benefit of hindsight, one reads about the unfolding events in the ghetto with a mounting sense of horror.    I’ll give you an example that sums this up and which sent shivers down my spine.  News comes that some of the men imprisoned by the Nazis are to be released to carry out construction work at a site close to Warsaw. ‘It’s a new work camp called Treblinka.’

The inhabitants of the ghetto greet each new atrocity with shock; they simply cannot believe that human beings could do such things to other human beings (and who can blame them).  ‘So this is the ghetto, a square mile of hell containing half a million people slowly dying of hunger.’ Gradually the Jewish community begin to realise the objective of the Nazis is their total elimination and their focus switches to trying to ensure the survival of their children at the very least, those who represent their future.   ‘Our highest and holiest duty is to ensure that our children survive these tragic times.’

Each day becomes a daily struggle to find food with only goods smuggled in from outside the ghetto keeping people alive – and barely, at that.  Diseases, such as typhus, are rife in such squalid conditions.   Grotesquely, the presence of disease is welcomed by the Nazi regime because it will do the work of eliminating the Jews more quickly than starvation and deter any contact from the areas of Warsaw outside the ghetto.  It also feeds into their appalling belief in the Jewish people as tainted.

However, behind the harrowing depiction of the grotesque treatment meted out to the Jewish community of Warsaw, there is the wonderful love story of Misha and Sophia. ‘If he has Sophia, then he has everything.’  Despite personal tragedies and enforced separation lasting years, they never give up their belief that they will one day build a home together.

The Good Doctor of Warsaw is also a story of courage and dedication.  Those qualities are personified in Dr Janusz Korczak.  “All I can tell you is that a beautiful life is always a difficult life.”  Just when you think nothing can be worse than what you’ve already read, the children of the ghetto are rounded up and taken to the railway station.  ‘The march of the children pulls a dark cloud across the sky behind it.  Finally, the ghetto understands what the Germans intend.  If they can take the children, they will take everybody.’  Dr Korczak remains committed to the welfare of the children under his care to the very end, passing up opportunities to escape himself.  As he says, “You do not leave a child alone to face the dark.”

At times, the events in the book are almost unbearably distressing to read but then the book should be uncomfortable reading because it bears witness to one of the greatest atrocities of the Second World War.  I praise the author for shining a light on this story of, yes, cruelty and barbarism, but also of courage, resilience and hope.   As well as the history of a persecuted community, it’s also the story of real individuals.  The author’s website has fascinating photographs of Misha, Sophia, Dr Korczak and the children.

I received an advance reader copy courtesy of NetGalley and publishers, Atlantic Books/Corvus, in return for an honest review.

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In three words: Emotional, powerful, compelling

Try something similar…When It’s Over by Barbara Ridley (click here to read my review)

Elisabeth GiffordAbout the Author

Elisabeth Gifford studied French literature and world religions at Leeds University. She worked as a dyslexia specialist for several years while raising a family. After studying for a Diploma in Creative Writing from Oxford OUDCE and a Masters degree in Creative Writing at Royal Holloway College she was asked to write The House of Hope, a biography of Dr Joyce Hill who opened a rescue centre for abandoned babies in China, published by Monarch Press. She was taken on by literary agent Jenny Hewson and three historical novels followed, published by Corvus.  Secrets of the Sea House is set in the Hebrides and is a dark mystery that explores at the very real events behind the frequent mermaid sightings reported in Scotland a century ago. Return to Fourwinds is a sweeping family saga set between England and Spain between the wars. The Good Doctor of Warsaw is the shocking and ultimately inspiring true story of some of the rare survivors of the Warsaw ghetto during WW2, and features the inspiring story of Dr Janusz Korczak who defied the Nazi brutality by creating an oasis of kindness and happiness for children. A sort of Polish-Jewish Dr Barnardo, Dr Korczak helped draft the first international children’s bill of rights and his teaching on how to raise children with love and respect is still widely followed today, and where it is, it makes children’s lives happier.

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