turn the page
Book and Author Reviews
As I write this, spring is on the way. One can only hope . . . . I recently returned from a month in Florida, and my reading has been distracted by my participation in the great outdoors! I have had the pleasure of hearing from several fellow readers, however, so I’ll share some of their reads.
By Nancy Ryan Simply Hers Magazine
Diane enjoys author William Kent Krueger’s books. He has written eighteen Cork O’Connor mystery novels. His newest is a stand-alone story Ordinary Grace, and it is the winner of the Edgar Award for best novel of 2018. Now, that is quite a recommendation! In it, the narrator Frank Drum writes as a middle-aged man looking back on the summer of 1961 in Minnesota when he was 13. One reviewer wrote, “Though the tone is quiet, Krueger artfully layered the story with suspenseful examinations of family life, death, fury, spiritual fiber and redemption.” I plan to read this author soon, as I love a good mystery and he has written 18! Sandi is in a book club that read Martha Hall Kelly’s The Lilac Girls. It takes place during WWII and revolves around three women. Caroline is rich and lives in Manhattan doing her patriotic duty organizing charities dedicated to supporting French orphanages. Kasia lives in Poland and is daily surviving the horrors of Hitler’s invasion. Herta lives in Germany and believes in the Third Reich. She applies for work at a woman’s reeducation camp and quickly discovers the monstrosities it holds through her medical experiments on prisoners. Personally, this novel was out of my comfort zone, and I was not entertained or uplifted when I read it.
44
Jeannie recommends The Yada Yada Prayer Book series by Neta Jackson. A mismatched group of women (realtor, student, mother, ex-con, and former drug addict) are thrown together at a Chicago Women’s Conference, and, as diverse as they all were, they clicked. Something happened that weekend to make them realize they needed to hang together (sometimes that happens) and
their prayer group was founded. As one reviewer stated, “It made me laugh and cry, but most important it has caused me to examine my prayer life and relationship with God.” I’m in! Gary is quite a fan of Stuart Woods’s books, particularly the Stone Barrington Series. He has written 75 novels, 49 of which are devoted to detective Stone Barrington. The most recent is entitled Wild Card and in it, Stone and his lady friend are taking some R&R when an enemy is sent to silence Stone. One review said, “With a thirst for vengeance this foe will not be deterred, and the latest plot is more subtle than they’ve tried before and the consequences could remake the nation.” Gary has read this entire series, so that is quite a testimonial! Husband Marty wrote this review on a book he found fascinating. Recently-maligned Fox News personality and author Bill O’Reilly and his co-author Martin Dugard have written another in their riveting series of the “killing books.” This one, “Killing the SS,” follows Israeli Nazi hunters from the final days of World War II to their most recent (incredibly) chapter in 2016. Like their novel “Killing the Rising Sun,” O’Reilly and Dugard capture the brutality, chaos, and heroism of the greatest generation. From Heinrich Himmler and his cyanide capsule through the kidnapping of the infamous Adolph Eichmann in Argentina, and up to the heroism of contemporary Mossad agents—well, it’s a page turner. It seems that WWII ended in Europe with the fall of the Third Reich. All of the Germans just hung up their weapons and resumed their lives. Right? Killing the SS details the fact that nothing could be further from the truth. A world-wide underground network of pro-Nazi groups continues to protect and support the perpetrators of fascist war crimes to this day! What are you reading? Email me at nancyryan47@gmail. com. See you at the library!