Trojan Horse

 This book was not really in a genre I would probably have picked up.. it is a thriller with some descriptions of torture..and maybe I am a bit squeamish... but after reading it I will definitely recommend it as a great entertaining read.  

The Trojan Horse by S. Lee Manning, a novel dealing with espionage and political spying, it makes you think about keeping secrets, loyalty, and risk.  It also looks at the idea of sending someone off to a dangerous experience and if you don't watch , does that absolve you of guilt, even if you know what the results of that action will be.  

Margaret Bradford is at the helm of the ECA, a top secret government agency. She is working directly for the United States President and alongside the CIA and other top level government agencies. On her team; Jonathan Egan, the son of a former Senator, who grew up mixing with the Washington elite and Kolya Petrov, the Russian emigre who loves working against Russia and for America.  Sometimes the people you think you can trust are not really acting in your best interest.  Somewhere in these top government officials there seems to be a mole.  Three agents have already been killed by the notorious Mihai Cuza, a descendant of Vlad the Impaler, a Romanian national who has the ear of the next leader of Romania. 

Entertaining but also can be a deeper read..  On the surface this is an action story of secret agents fighting to see who will maintain power and control. As you read the novel, questions of fairness, value of human life and loyalty rise to the surface.  When information that is supposedly top secret seems to be getting into the wrong hands, there is suspicion of a mole somewhere in the operation. Who can be trusted with information? Then as agents are being killed Margaret and the President need to decide how far can you take a risk with a person’s life.  When does your conscience start to bother you?

There is plenty of suspense and fast paced action for an entertaining read, but also some ideas that leave the reader thinking long after the novel is put back on the shelf. This is a thriller that will keep you reading until late into the night, but be prepared for some descriptive violence.

Looking forward to reading more by this author.

Lady Clementine

 Why did I  wait so long to read this book?  It is another fabulous accounting of a woman who has been over looked by history.  Winston Churchill has been famous through history for his role in England's successes and failures through the two world wars.  He has been written about and played in film roles by famous actors.  But his wife Clementine has never really been seen or spoken of.

This book by Marie Benedict changes that.  This book looks at Clementine Churchill through a realistic lens.  We see her successes and triumphs.  We also see her faults and missteps.  She was a strong determined partner to Winston,  She was a successful leader throughout the Second World War, with many incredible positive initiatives started to help the English citizens and especially the women.  She was Winston's right hand man.  She whispered in his ear and helped him with his speeches.

But as a mother to her four children, she was not as strong.  She did not seem to have the mothering instinct and left her children to the care of many nannies.  This book does not end up giving us a very positive perspective on many of their lives. 

All in all it is a fascinating and intriguing account of the historical times and of Clementine's life during that time in history.  She was an incredible woman.

Figs and Alligators

Traveling to Israel we read the book written by Aaron Leibel, about his family’s years spent living in Israel.  Figs and Alligators is the recollections of the years Aaron and his wife, Bonnie, took their family and moved from America to Israel.  They lived there through the 1970s and 80s.  Leibel worked a variety of jobs in Israel, finally as a reporter and editor for Israel newspapers.  He also served as a soldier, called up in 1974.  The family experienced living in Jerusalem, on a kibbutz.  They experienced living there through the Yom Kippur and the first Lebanon War and they were there when Egyptian President Anwar Sadat made his historic visit, which led to the  first peace treaty.  This is a personal story of a family living day to day in a turbulent , beautiful

Nation.

 

Three Ordinary Girls

 Three Ordinary Girls, written by Tim Brady, really makes you think about how you would react in the face of adversity.  This book shows you how people reacted to the invasion of their country and the threat to their citizens. This book details how three Dutch teenagers became spies, saboteurs and though at first felt shooting someone in cold blood was unthinkable, in the end they became Nazi assassins. What would you do if faced with similar circumstances? This book shows the bravery and fearlessness of these girls and others, could we be as courageous?

This is a recounting of three Dutch teenagers who stepped up and joined the resistance movement in Holland, as the Germans invaded their country.  Two sisters, Truus and Freddie Oversteegen grew up in a socialist home with a mother whose passion was politics and progressive thought.  Hannie Schaft, was at college studying when she decided to take action to help her Jewish friends avoid capture. 

By the end of WWII, these three girls would be notorious for having taken direct action against the Nazis from their homes in the city of Haarlem. This is a fascinating look at the how these ordinary Dutch girls performed extraordinary acts of selfless courage to slow the Nazi’s Final Solution.

It is again interesting to see what was happening in another country during the war.  How the Dutch people in the Netherlands responded to the invasion from Germany.  This country did not have an issue with their Jewish neighbors and so were more than willing to assist and hide them.  

This story of Truus, Freddie and Hannie is taking place as Anne Frank and her family are first in hiding and then discovered in Amsterdam.  I think if they had known Anne and her family they would have tried to help them.  These young women risked their lives to protect people in their country from the Nazis.

In Another Place; With and Without My Father Norman Mailer

 Reading is one of my favorite pastimes and I am in awe of the authors who are able to

capture your imagination and write one winning masterpiece after another.  One talented, though controversial, author is Norman Mailer.  His books were celebrated and he was a best selling author, with books like, The Naked and The Dead and In the Belly of the Beast, among others.

His daughter Susan Mailer has chronicled her life with her father in a memoir titled, In Another Place WIth and Without My Father Norman Mailer.  Susan takes the reader on an intimate journey of the life she lived with her father.  It was intense, fractured and complex.  Norman Mailer was married six times and fathered nine children.  Susan details her relationship with Norman, all his wives and her siblings.  It is like getting to be the proverbial fly on the wall

In the Mailer household.

Interesting memoir by the daughter of Norman Mailer, Susan. She is the oldest child of Mailer, a controversial and bestselling author. She details her life with her father as he became a famous writer, and married six women and fathered her eight brothers and sisters. Years of traumatic encounters with her father, she finally comes to terms with his faults and can accept him to be the person he is. She works with therapists and becomes a therapist herself and she works through the situations her parents put her in throughout her life. An interesting story of an famous writer and his demons.

Her Last Flight

This is a fantastic novel, written by Beatriz Williams.  She is the author of A Certain Age and The Golden Hour, both excellent novels, that I have read and there are others that I look forward to reading.

 This novel takes off with a whoosh of wind into the sky and brings you in for a perfect landing .  Inspired, I would say, by the continued mystery of the disappearance of Amelia Earhart, this novel imagines what could have happened.  It is a love story, an adventure and a look into the social mores of a time in US history.  Womens' rights, marriage  and relationships, the choices people make and how they affect others.. all these themes are pulled together in this plot by Janey Everett, a photo journalist works to uncover the hidden truth of forgotten aviation pioneer, Sam Mallory and Irene Lindquist, the owner of a small island -hopping airline.  A heart felt story that makes you feel attached to the characters and cheer for their successes and worry about their failures.

The Vanishing Half

 Once again I am reminded how incredible a book can be.  I realize that I read in a few limited genres and many of my books are written by a Jewish author and also are of jewish content, either historical or modern day.  There is a comfort in reading a book that feels like home.  The characters are recognizable, the language and inflection flow through you like you are listening to family.  You understand a little of where the characters came from or why they think they way they do.  

This time I read a book that is so out of my usual comfort zone, The Vanishing Half, that at first it was very jarring.  I almost put it down and then I realized that it was just another family and their style of speech, their food choices and clothing ideas.  This was my chance to sneak in and see how other people live and think.  What a fascinating concept.

This book has been getting fabulous reviews.  I heard the author, Brit Bennett, speak about writing this book.  So I really wanted to keep reading.  In the end it is definitely a good read.  It is interesting to see other people view themselves and people of their social, economic and racial and ethnic groups.

This book looks at the prejudices of people who identify differently than other people around them.  It looks not only at black and, so called, white, but also at sexual differences.  People who are comfortable in their own skin and people who are not.  Who you are on the inside vs how you look on the outside.

In the end, this is a wonderful heartfelt story of people caught in a world that is hard to negotiate. It is the younger generation that seems to be learning to trust themselves and their feelings.  It gives you hope that our young people will help bring us all to a better place of getting along with all people and moving our world closer to acceptance of all different kinds of human beings.

Moonflower Murders

 Of course I must review Anthony Horowtiz's newest mystery, Moonflower Murders without delay!!

Horowtiz is an amazing writer.  His newest mystery novels I think may be the beginning of a new genre completely.  Each of these quirky, witty, entertaining mysteries are really a novel within a novel.  

We again meet the now retired book editor, Susan Ryeland.  She was the editor for the late Alan Conway who wrote the Atticus Pund mystery series.  Ryeland has retired with her boyfriend, Andreas to help him run his small hotel on a Greek island.  This is a wonderful relaxing lifestyle with sun, beaches, delicious food and island time.  But is becoming all too much for Susan who was used to the busy schedule and noise of London traffic and congestion. So when a couple shows up on the Greek island inviting her back to England to their hotel to help solve the mystery of their daughter's disappearance, Susan is off for the adventure.

Cecily, disappearance is linked to a murder that happened at the hotel eight years prior, where possibly now the wrong man is serving time for a crime he did not commit.  Cecily may have figured out the real answer to the mystery by reading a Atticus Pund novel written by Alan Conway.  This is where Anthony Horowtiz uses all his creative abilities and writes a full Atticus Pund mystery within the main storyline, which links to the answer to the current mystery.  

As a reader you are trying to figure out the answers to two mysteries at once, because one discovery leads to the second.  Of course they are both impossible to figure out but when you see each detective bring the culprits into the room for the big reveal you are amazed at how the facts pull together.

And this time even after the crimes are all wrapped up neatly with a bow, Horowitz has Ryeland revealing more and more little touches that were placed in the mystery that he wants to make sure the reader notices.  Because what author does not want the reader to see how much creative hard work goes into building an incredible mystery novel.