Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly

 Poignant exposure of some of the atrocities perpetrated during WW2 through the stories of both a perpetrator and her victims. The myriad horrors of WW2 need to be described and hopefully absorbed by readers, only then will future generations perhaps not repeat such abominations. 

Horse by Geraldine Brooks

 Incredible book. Informative and poignant. I could not put this book down. I read until my eyes drooped, and then read some more until I finished around 2:30 am.

Lucy By The Sea by Elizabeth Strout

 

Thoughtful musings from the main character, Lucy Barton as she isolates from the Pandemic in Maine. Living with her former husband who now past his third divorce declares he wants to save her from Covid, she discovers a new pace of life and new acquaintances. Covid is not something I ever imagined reading about as a "main character" in a novel, yet this book captivates with its descriptions about a world retreating from normal into a new "normal". Lucy reflects on her entitled retreat from Covid ravaged New York City, and considers issues previously lost amid a sometimes frenetic urban existence. Small scale life on the Maine coast is isolated but so evidently not safe from the increasingly chaotic world that surrounds it yet it affords the slowed pace of life that opens her mind to the wonders of Nature, a couple of trees growing on a tiny island off the coast, and crashing waves hitting rocks. This novel resonated with me so much because I had retreated a couple of years before the Pandemic to the California coast, and have enjoyed a rhythm of life cushioned by the beauties and solace of Nature. This is a wonderful book.

The Last Bookshop in London by Madeline Martin

 This novel describes the horrors of war descending upon the civilian population of London but the core of the story is the main character, a compassionate individual who offers a transitory sanctuary for her neighbors at the bookstore where she works and through her passion for reading aloud wonderful stories. The importance and delights of reading manifests as an essential ingredient in life, allowing frightened, despairing people to experience vicariously other times and places. The recurrent image of people spending nights in underground shelters and reading even as the sounds of bombs falling terrify them is powerful. Definitely a feel good story.

The Mountains Sing by Nguyen Phan Que Mai

 A beautiful title for a powerful story. This historical fiction reveals much about the horrific life of the Vietnamese people during the Vietnam War and the subsequent reunification of the North and South. Three generations of one family are held together by love and memories and a grandmother of incredible fortitude and determination despite separation and loss, and their story viscerally impacts the reader.

Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Septys

 Human history is full of tragedies perpetrated by one group of humans on another. The justifications are many and all are brutal. This historical fiction is filled with fictional characters who represent the millions of people killed by Stalinist Russians during forty-seven years of "Annexation and Sovietization". The main character from the Baltic State of Lithuania is a young girl whose family because her father is an "educated elite" is rounded up and sent to work camps in Siberia. The descriptions are powerful and filled with details about being transported in cattle cars for weeks, starved and fed bread rations only when they work, and housed in flimsy shelters they have to build for themselves out of discarded materials. However, the human drive to survive despite horrendous suffering also shines through this poignant narrative. Today, our world is still full of inhumanity so this story seems timely, and important to read. Winston Churchill famously remarked, "Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it".

Switchboard Soldiers by Jennifer Chiaverini

 I enjoyed this historical fiction about women who served as essential telephone switchboard operators in France during World War 1. These women endured harsh and dangerous living conditions so they could ensure that vital communications between all the military units and their leadership enabled successful military operations. Fiction and fact weave in a balanced narrative that provides yet another perspective on a historic World War

The Librarian Spy by Madeline Martin

 "Words have power". In this historical fiction, the main characters operate within the World War 2 Resistance movement taking place in France and Portugal. One character is part of a group in Lyon printing and distributing facts about the horrific German War Machine. Another character represents the efforts of a group of librarians recruited to obtain "intel" on the enemy. These individuals traveled to Lisbon to gather and copy information from a variety of foreign publications. Connections to other characters within the Resistance Movement reveals the horrible consequences to these brave individuals who endured constant fear, discovery and capture by the Nazis, and if rounded up, horrific torture and often execution. While many novels about wars focus on the horrendous experiences of soldiers or in the instance of World War 2 the tragic victims of the Holocaust, it is essential to also understand how civilians away from the battlefields confront the pervasive consequences of wars. This novel provides an affecting perspective.

The Pearl That Broke Its Shell by Nadia Hashimi

 An eye-opening fictionalized glimpse at the largely secretive society of Afghanistan. This story takes place during the first years of the 20th century when girls and women faced extreme limitations and ends with the advent of a era under King Amanullah when women's rights appeared set to expand. The main characters are two women, related but from different time periods whose lives describe the horrific reality of a country that relegates women to a life that places them in the category of slaves. Each woman struggles to rise above her seemingly doomed status. Compelling and poignant.

How the Penguins Saved Veronica by Hazel Prior

 A wonderful story about an 85 year old woman who awakens to a new world of possibility as she meets a grandson she did not know existed, travels to the Antarctic to delve into the world of penguins, and opens up to a young female scientist to reveal the horrible sorrows she faced as a young person during WW2.

Her Hidden Genius by Marie Benedict

 I was shocked and disturbed as I read this historical fiction about Rosalind Franklin, a female scientist who works over many years in the fifties to unravel the mystery of DNA. According to the author who carefully researched her work, the three men who later won the Nobel prize "stole" some of Dr. Franklin's significant work. I can believe this although, reading a few accounts on Google about the discovery of the double helix structure of DNA, Rosalind is not generally even credited for her work. The author is a lawyer so I imagine she knows what she can suggest in her books. I will be interested to see if this denouement is taken up by others in the know.