A Storm Unleached

 

Carol Matas has given a wonderful gift to middle grade readers and anyone else who is interested in the history of Germany leading up to the Holocaust.  Her book, A Storm Unleashed, shows how one man with a small group of followers can gather momentum and create a community of hate toward another group of the society.

Mia and her father live in an apartment building in Berlin with their Jewish neighbors.  Her friend Frieda also lives with her family in the building.  They have grown up here with the freedom to walk to the park and to school. Her father is a veterinarian and Mia has a beautiful German shepherd named Max. Freida attends a Jewish school, Mia goes to the local public school.

Now as Hitler comes to power, Mia is aware of her life changing as the country moves from a democracy to fascist regime, antisemitism is rising as the Jews become the enemy. In school friends start to ignore her, other students bully her.  The teacher is teaching fascist doctrine and uses Mia as an example of negative lessons about Jewish people. 

Mia is unique because her mother, who died years earlier, was not Jewish and her father is Jewish.  She has an aunt and grandparents who are Aryian and live in the country.  Mia wrestles with her feelings of the unfairness of the world she is caught up in.  Why must she be treated cruelly when she is only half Jewish.  Her father has found a way for them to stay safe for a while by helping to train the Nazis army of dogs. Her grandparents offer some safety in the country.

As the pressure builds and it becomes too dangerous,  Jews begin to leave Germany. As some of the neighbors are leaving the country,  Mia and Freida make a plan for their families to also stay safe.  The plan is risky and Mia struggles with the choices she has to make.  

This book shows the unexpected realities that faced the citizens of Germany, making them choose between being friends with their neighbors or following the propaganda and turning against their neighbors.  It gives a realistic view of how even non-religious Jewish citizens were in danger. There were also people who assisted Jews in hiding and escaping the Nazi evil.

The reader will be on the edge of their seat,  concerned about Mia and her family and their safety. This is an enthralling and all consuming novel that exposes how a dictator can come to power.  

The Frozen River

 The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon was a powerful book.  The plot follows the life of Martha Ballard, a midwife, wife and mother in Hallowell, Maine during the 18th century.

Though the town is a small rural town in upstate Maine, the houses of the wealthy are incredibly built.  The government is in its early stages and the court sits in Massachusetts.  Historically this is a fascinating story.  A difficult time to be a woman.  Very few rights and very little protection.  Martha fights to solve a murder and save the reputation of a woman who has been raped. 

Martha is also fighting a new doctor who has arrived with schooling from Harvard, but all of the births he has attended have been still born.  Martha is trying to push him out before more births are in danger.  

She is a change maker and her journals are invaluable for historical memory of life in America

The Black Wolf

 Ok the long awaited second novel installment of Louise Penny,  The Black Wolf finishes the storyline started in The Gray Wolf.  

In true Penny fashion this is a beautifully written novel with a mystery to solve, tension building and some incredible prose. She writes these mystery novels so incredibly you want to underline or copy out so many of the quotes about life and relationships.  

Amazingly in this novel she has come up with an unusual premise that I do not think could really happen but it mirrors so closely some of the outrageous things that are happening now in the United States.  The plot of this book is that there are people at the top of both the United States and Canada who are corrupt and are plotting to take control of the governments and companies for personal gain.

Using social media to pit the US andCanada against each other, to create chaos and throw both countries into war with each other. Killing people who are trying to stop them or sound the alarm.  It is a little scary to read as it is so close to reality and yet it is so well written that you cannot put it down.

In the best way possible the reader will enjoy the suspense and the closure when all the pieces fall into place and the guilty parties are stopped and good guys win.  It is always nice to know that even if real life is unsettled and we do not know the outcome yet, a book will have a satisfying ending.

The Lost Story of Eva Fuentes

 I love books written in multiple voices from different time periods, where the stories all connect in the end.  The Lost Story of Eva Fuentes, written by Chanel Cleeton is that style of novel.  

Taking the reader back to 1900 Cuba we meet Eva Fuentes, a young school teacher living through the revolution in Cuba as the country frees itself from Spain's rule.  As Cuba becomes involved with the United States a group a school teachers are sent to Harvard for a summer of learning and community building. A showing of goodwill between the two countries.  Eva is among the group spending her first summer away from Havana.  She meets a young man and the reader follows her experiences that summer.  When she returns to Cuba she writes and publishes a book.

Next we are introduced to Pilar Castillo, a librarian living in Havana in the 1960s as Fidel Castro is coming to power. She is a newly married woman whose husband has recently been imprisoned for subversive activity by the regime.  She finds a way to fill her days and make a difference by reading and saving books.  Pilar is asked by her neighbor ,who is fleeing the country, to hold onto and return a book to her friend.

Finally in 2024, in London, the reader meets Margo Reynolds, a young woman who has started her own company finding lost and rare items for people.  Mostly art and artifacts, it gives her a good feeling to see people reunited with their possessions or family heirlooms.  Her most current client has asked her to find a very rare and long lost book. Reconnecting with her ex husband to work on this case of finding the book, Margo and Luke also can reexamine their relationship.

A quick entertaining interesting plot and some interesting history of Cuba and the rise of Fidel Castro.