Goodreads Choice Awards–The Best of the Winners and Losers

Goodreads Choice Awards--The Best of the Winners and Losers

Most of my readers know I love keeping up with Goodreads stats. I’ve been known to join the Spring and Summer Challenges, set a new bar every year for the yearly Goodreads Challenge, keeping a tally in the widgets. Also, I like to check what I read against nominees and winners, as I did in 2020. (While we can vote our choice of the nominees, the nominees are all theirs.)

Okay—later this year. (Much later—I’ve been busy.) But the good news is that I was pleasantly surprised at the number of, if not winners in the category, at least nominees. Have you taken a look back?

I read from a sample of categories, including humor, memoir, and biography but of these had only one nominated in both 2019 and 2020 in Memoir (Maid ) and Greenlights). My favorites, of course, are Mystery & Thriller, Historical Fiction, Fiction, and Debut novels.

There are a number of Hot Debuts you may be interested in—I already checked out Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus (audiobook). My review on Thursday, July 14.

Among The Most Read Books of the 2022 Reading Challenge (So Far) are a number of books that I read years ago, some of which are included below in my listing of 2020 and 2021 (nine in my categories). I am not surprised, however, to see the number three spot: Where the Crawdads Sing. The movie is premiering this July 15 and I’ve been waiting for it since the announcement. Directed by Olivia Newman, the lead, Daisy Jessica-Jones (24), is an English actress playing Kya Clark.

The links below are to the Goodreads listings. Those with a thumbnail of the cover also have a link to my review.

2021 Goodreads Choice Awards

Nominees on my shelves:

Best Historical Fiction and Best Debut Novel

The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner

Also read:

The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah

Best Historical Fiction

The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles (Also Amazon editors’ #1 book of 2021) Totally recommended!

Goodreads winner: Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Best Mystery & Thriller

Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty

Rock Paper Scissors by Alice Feeney

The Good Sister by Sally Hepworth

Goodreads winner: The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave

2020 Goodreads Choice Awards

Nominees on my shelves:

Best Mystery & Thriller

The Searcher

Best Fiction

American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins

Goodreads winner: The Guest List by Lucy Foley (read but didn’t vote it)

Best Historical Fiction

The Henna Artist by Alka Joshi

Goodreads winner: The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

While I failed to choose any that were ultimately chosen #1, I did have my fair share of winners listed in the top twenty. Six in 2020 in three categories; six in 2021 in three categories.

How many of the above did you read? Do you look for ideas from the Goodreads winners? Will you be choosing one of the 2022 trending books? And, lastly—will you be going to the movie? You know I’ll be comparing it to the book.

#TuesdayBookBlog

The Peaceful Village by Paulette Mahurin – #BookReview – #historicalfiction

The Peaceful Village by Paulette Mahurin

Book Blurb:

During the German occupation of France, nestled in the lush, verdant countryside in the Haute-Vienne department of central France was the peaceful village of Oradour-sur-Glane. It was a community where villagers woke to the medley of nature’s songs, roosters crowing, birds chirping, cats purring, and cows plodding on their way out to pasture. The people who lived there loved the tranquil nature of their beautiful home, a tranquility that existed year-round. Even with the German occupation, Oradour-sur-Glane – the village with cafés, shops, and a commuter tram to Limoges – remained relatively untouched by the stress of the occupation.

While Oradour-sur-Glane enjoyed the lack of German presence, twenty-two kilometers to the northwest in Limoges, the Germans were reacting with increasing cruelty to organized attacks on their soldiers by the armed resistance organization Francs-Tireurs et Partisans (FTP). Headed by Amédé Fauré, the Limoges FTP was considered the most effective of the French Resistance groups. Fauré’s missions prompted the German military to kill and incarcerate in concentration camps anyone perceived as supporters or sympathizers of the Resistance.

Up until the middle of 1944, the German anti-partisan actions in France never rose to the level of brutality or number of civilian casualties that had occurred in eastern Europe. A little before the Allies landed in Normandy, all that changed, when German troops, and in particular the Waffen-SS, stationed on the Eastern Front were transferred to France. It was then that FTP’s increasing efforts to disrupt German communications and supply lines were met with disproportionate counter attacks, involving civilians. Fauré’s response was to target German officers. When he set his sights on two particular German officers, all hell broke loose.

Based on actual events as told by survivors, The Peaceful Village is the fictionalized story of the unfolding of the events that led up to one of the biggest World War II massacres on French soil. Much more than an account of Nazi brutality and the futility of war, this is a story of love.The love of family. The love of neighbor. The love of country. Compassion and courage burn from the pages as the villagers’ stories come alive. Written by the international bestselling author of The Seven Year Dress, Paulette Mahurin, this book pays homage to the villagers who lived and loved in Oradour-sur-Glane.

His Review:

The village is far away from the concentrations of Nazi’s in the metropolitan areas of France. Oradour has not been occupied and the village enjoys the ambiance of pre-war France. There is no occupation force and the area is a haven for Jews being sheltered by the local populace. The primarily Catholic area spreads the families out through the countryside and all is well.

Everything is quiet until the French Resistance decides to kill ranking German officers. Someone within the area has been tortured and reveals the large number of Jewish refugees hidden within the surrounding homes. Retaliation is swift as the entire village is wiped out in a swift slaughter.

Men, women, children and all of the animals including dogs are executed. The retaliation is retribution by a small group of the Resistance who decided to eliminate two offending German officers. Why did these people have to die that close to the end of the war?

I enjoyed the book and the efforts the local people took to remain neutral during WW II. Living a quiet life while the war raged all around them was the best of circumstances. I thought the Resistance leaders did not adequately think through the consequences of executing two German officers and the resultant carnage. Why was it necessary to kill them?

The author presented a very good description of a quiet area in war-torn France. The actions of a few resulted in the death of many. Rated at 4.5 sad stars – CE Williams

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with the opportunity to read and review this book.

Rosepoint Publishing: Four point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Historical French Fiction, Historical European Fiction, Historical Fiction
ASIN: B0B2MBB4HT
Print Length: 245 pages
Publication Date: May 27, 2022
Source: Publisher and NetGalley
Title Link: The Peaceful Village [Amazon]

Paulette Mahurin is an international best selling literary fiction and historical fiction novelist. She lives with her husband Terry and two dogs, Max and Bella, in Ventura County, California. She grew up in West Los Angeles and attended UCLA, where she received a Master’s Degree in Science.

Her first novel, The Persecution of Mildred Dunlap, made it to Amazon bestseller lists and won awards, including best historical fiction 2012 in Turning the Pages Magazine. Her second novel, His Name Was Ben, originally written as an award winning short story while she was in college and later expanded into a novel, rose to bestseller lists its second week out. Her third novel, To Live Out Loud, won international critical acclaim and made it to multiple sites as favorite read book of 2015. Her fourth book, The Seven Year Dress, made it to the bestseller lists for literary fiction and historical fiction on Amazon U.S., Amazon U.K. and Amazon Australia. Her fifth book, The Day I Saw The Hummingbird, was released in 2017 to rave reviews. Her sixth book, A Different Kind of Angel, was released in the summer of 2018 also to rave reviews.

Semi-retired, she continues to work part-time as a Nurse Practitioner in Ventura County. When she’s not writing, she does pro-bono consultation work with women with cancer, works in the Westminster Free Clinic as a volunteer provider, volunteers as a mediator in the Ventura County Courthouse for small claims cases, and involves herself, along with her husband, in dog rescue. Profits from her books go to help rescue dogs from kill shelters.

Enjoy Your Sunday

Before We Were Yours: A Novel by Lisa Wingate – #Audiobook Review – #TBT

Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate

Award Winner

Rosepoint Publishing: Five Stars

Book Blurb:

Memphis, 1939. Twelve-year-old Rill Foss and her four younger siblings live a magical life aboard their family’s Mississippi River shantyboat. But when their father must rush their mother to the hospital one stormy night, Rill is left in charge – until strangers arrive in force. Wrenched from all that is familiar and thrown into a Tennessee Children’s Home Society orphanage, the Foss children are assured that they will soon be returned to their parents – but they quickly realize the dark truth. At the mercy of the facility’s cruel director, Rill fights to keep her sisters and brother together in a world of danger and uncertainty.

Aiken, South Carolina, present day. Born into wealth and privilege, Avery Stafford seems to have it all: a successful career as a federal prosecutor, a handsome fiancé, and a lavish wedding on the horizon. But when Avery returns home to help her father weather a health crisis, a chance encounter leaves her with uncomfortable questions and compels her to take a journey through her family’s long-hidden history, on a path that will ultimately lead either to devastation or to redemption.

Based on one of America’s most notorious real-life scandals – in which Georgia Tann, director of a Memphis-based adoption organization, kidnapped and sold poor children to wealthy families all over the country – Lisa Wingate’s riveting, wrenching, and ultimately uplifting tale reminds us how, even though the paths we take can lead to many places, the heart never forgets where we belong.

My Review:

Taken from headlines back in Memphis, Tennessee 1939, this audiobook gripped me quickly and never let go. Yes, I’m probably the last to see this title, but so glad I did. My mother ended up in an orphanage in the late 20s when my grandmother and grandfather split; the Depression, the crushing poverty, and no way to care for two young daughters. So, while my mother didn’t have this horrendous experience, her’s was not pleasant either.

The storyline narration splits between 1939 and present-day Aiken, South Carolina.

It is essentially the true account of the Tennessee Children’s Home Society orphanage and Georgia Tann, who in today’s dollars, made a ton of money selling children from the facility. Not just orphans, however, as some were literally stolen from their parents for the bounty they would bring.

Babies were a hot commodity and Tann found a market with well-to-do couples unable to have their own. Then she found further avenues of income by squeezing them further for various trumped-up charges and fees.

The cruel life the children lead in the orphanage is heart-stopping. Tann apparently had cultivated major connections, including judges, politicians, and police who literally turned a blind eye to what was happening.

Historical POV is told through twelve-year-old Rill Foss, the oldest of five children from a family living on the Mississippi River in a shanty, a river houseboat. They are taken from the boat following a nighttime emergency trip to the hospital by their mother and father. Rill’s story is poignant, riveting, heartbreaking, and suspenseful.

In present day Aiken, Avery Stafford is caught up in the family drama of an elderly woman and makes a shocking discovery.

I definitely preferred the voice of Rill—her story captivating—her strength, resolve admiral. She had loving parents and had been well taught but was far too trusting. Avery is more difficult to warm up to—rich, her narrow scope of view rested on the well-to-do, educated, classed gentry. Once she got into the investigation; would not let it go.

There were a few things I didn’t quite understand (the adult sisters hanging onto their secret) and the conclusion that managed a touch of romance (obvious which way it was going), and really—he’s a nice guy and all but wondered how long the nice guy part would last over her kind of privileged background.

Yes, I got the audiobook from my lovely library and thought the narrators did an outstanding job. My heart rose and sank throughout, hanging on every word, until I was emotionally exhausted. I kept thinking of my mother—and understood again—why she was so paranoid about losing my brother and I when our dad left. Thank you, mom.

Book Details:

Genre: Fiction Sagas, Literary Fiction, Historical Fiction
Publisher: Random House Audio
ASIN: B06Y1MGNL9
Listening Length: 14 hrs 29 mins
Narrator: Emily Rankin, Catherine Taber
Publication Date: June 6, 2017
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Link: Before We Were Yours [Amazon]

The Author: Lisa Wingate is a former journalist, an inspirational speaker, and the bestselling author of more than twenty novels. Her work has won or been nominated for many awards, including the Pat Conroy Southern Book Prize, the Oklahoma Book Award, the Carol Award, the Christy Award, and the RT Reviewers’ Choice Award. Wingate lives in the Ouachita Mountains of southwest Arkansas.

The Physicists’ Daughter by Mary Anna Evans #BlogTour #BookReview #Giveaway

The Physicists’ Daughter by Mary Anna Evans

I am delighted today to provide a review for you at my blog stop for The Physicists’ Daughter by Mary Anna Evans on the Great Escapes Virtual Book Tour.

Scroll down to enter your chance to win the Giveaway!

Book Details

The Physicists’ Daughter: A Novel
Historical Fiction
Poisoned Pen Press (June 7, 2022)
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 352 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1464215553
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1464215551
Digital ASIN ‏ : ‎ B09TGB4BVK

Book Blurb

The Nazis are no match for the physicists’ daughter.

New Orleans, 1944

Sabotage. That’s the word on factory worker Justine Byrne’s mind as she is repeatedly called to weld machine parts that keep failing with no clear cause. Could someone inside the secretive Carbon Division be deliberately undermining the factory’s war efforts? Raised by her late parents to think logically, she also can’t help wondering just what the oddly shaped carbon gadgets she assembles day after day have to do with the boats the factory builds…

When a crane inexplicably crashes to the factory floor, leaving a woman dead, Justine can no longer ignore her nagging fear that German spies are at work within the building, trying to put the factory and its workers out of commission. Unable to trust anyone—not the charming men vying for her attention, not her unpleasant boss, and not even the women who work beside her—Justine draws on the legacy of her unconventional upbringing to keep her division running and protect her coworkers, her country, and herself from a war that is suddenly very close to home.

His Thoughts

Justine Byrne was taught welding, trained by her parents. She knew things that most Americans could only dream of. She was given a job at Higgins Industries Carbon Division. She and the people in the division were making parts designed by others that they never saw assembled into anything. Justine’s parents had been killed because of the technology they helped develop.

Justine is young and lovely and two suitors are attempting to win her heart. One is a spy placed by Germany prior to WW II. The Higgins Plant was hidden in the bayous of southern Louisiana. There was an airfield next to the plant where the top-secret parts were made.

Supervisors at the plant were men with infirmities that kept them from being enlisted in the military. They were usually self-important oofs who lorded over everyone, particularly the women. They made life miserable for the better-looking girls.

Saboteurs were sent in by the Nazi’s to find out what was being made at the plant and also to slow or stop production. This was extremely unusual for a young lady during the war. Parts that were broken in the fabrication were quickly welded by her and production continued.

This tale of the valiant efforts by women hired in all war industries, showed the ability of women to do jobs formerly only held by men. The women were being paid more than they had ever been paid before, the same wage as a man doing the same work. Six, ten to twelve-hour days, left them only Sundays to rest and prepare for the following week. The book is very well written and I could not put it down! 4.5 stars – CE Williams

Giveaway

Sign up for your chance to win (3) Winner’s Choice Print or Kindle Copy plus a Starbucks Gift Card – U.S. only in this Rafflecopter giveaway.

About The Author: Mary Anna Evans is the author of The Physicists’ Daughter, the first in her series of WWII-era historical suspense novels featuring Rosie-the-Riveter-turned-codebreaker Justine Byrne. Her thirteen Faye Longchamp archaeological mysteries have received recognition including the Benjamin Franklin Award, a Will Rogers Medallion Award Gold Medal, the Oklahoma Book Award, and three Florida Book Awards bronze medals. She is an associate professor at the University of Oklahoma, where she teaches fiction and nonfiction writing, including mystery and suspense writing. Her work has appeared in publications including Plots with Guns, The Atlantic, Florida Heat Wave, Dallas Morning News, and The Louisville Review. Her scholarship on crime fiction, which centers on Agatha Christie’s evolving approach over her long career to the ways women experienced justice in the twentieth century, has appeared in the Bloomsbury Handbook to Agatha Christie (coming September 22, 2022), which she co-edited, and in Clues: A Journal of Detection. She holds an MFA in creative writing from Rutgers-Camden, and she is a licensed Professional Engineer. She is at work on the second Justine Byrne novel, The Physicists’ Enigma.

Author Links

Website: https://maryannaevans.com/

Twitter: @maryannaevans

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MaryAnnaEvansAuthor

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maryannaevans/

BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/mary-anna-evans

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/12395.Mary_Anna_Evans

Purchase Links:

Bookshop IndieBound Barnes and Noble Amazon Booksamillion Nook Kindle Kobo

Thank you for visiting my stop on the tour!

Thanks to Great Escapes Virtual Book Tours for the opportunity to read and review this cozy mystery!

The Last Saxon King: A Jump in Time Novel (Book 1) by Andrew Varga – #BookReview – #historicalfiction

The Last Saxon King by Andrew Varga

Book Blurb:

Life is progressing normally for sixteen-year-old Dan Renfrew when he accidentally transports himself to England in the year 1066. He soon realizes that he’s trapped there, and that’s not his only astonishing discovery. Dan learns that he’s descended from a long line of time jumpers—secret heroes who travel to the past and resolve glitches in the time stream that threaten to alter subsequent history. The only way Dan can return home is to set history back on its proper course in the Anglo-Saxon age. This is no easy task. A Viking horde is ravaging England in the north while a Norman army threatens to invade from the south. In between and desperately struggling to hold on to his throne is Harold Godwinson, the newly-crowned English king. Dan is fighting to ensure that events play out correctly when he finds himself plunged into an even more lethal conflict. To save history, Dan must battle a band of malevolent time jumpers whose lust for wealth and power threatens the entire future of the world.

His Review:

Daniel’s father is being attacked by an assassin in their living room. A six-inch rod with a forgotten set of symbols is thrown to him by his father. He is given a phrase to say and is thrust back into the time of the Battle of Hastings. His adventure begins with Sunngifu who first meets him, telling him how inept and uneducated he is. His day goes down from there!

The rod seems to be a translation device and having it placed next to his skin allows him to talk to the people in the village. At 16 years of age, Dan is expected to join the local authority and fight for the kingdom. He has fallen into a time of great conflict. There is no choice; when the king or lord commands you, you must join and fight.

The class system is well described in this narrative as are the problems Daniel faces. The leaders in this part of the world are either royalty or the most-wealthy individuals. Peasants are required to fight for the royal and will be killed gruesomely if they do not comply but Daniel manages to become a companion to Edward and the future king of England.

The description of society as well as the interactions with the various characters describe a very colorful existence. Conscripted into the service of the overlord being mandatory, the conscripts must supply their own weapons. A farmer is not given a weapon but rather brings a pitchfork or hoe or some other farm implement.

Additional weapons are prizes of battle such as swords, lances, and poleaxes. A running count of the casualties inflicted on the other side is bragged about by the victors.

This author has developed a very fine example of life in the middle-ages and the dangers faced. Modern man is not equipped for these dangers. Can Daniel save himself long enough to return to his own time? Or, does he want to? 4 stars – CE Williams

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a review copy and the opportunity to read this book.

Rosepoint Publishing: Four Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Historical Fiction, #timetravel, YA Fiction
Publisher: Imbrifex Books
ISBN-10: ‎ 1945501820
ISBN-13: ‎ 978-1945501821
ASIN: B0B1CBGDRV
Print Length: 316 pages
Publication Date: March 7, 2023
Source: Publisher and NetGalley
Title Link: The Last Saxon King [Amazon]
Barnes & Noble

Andrew Varga - author — Andrew Varga – author

The Author: I am a YA historical fiction author who takes great pains to ensure historical accuracy in my books, while still ensuring that I tell a great story. Although I enjoy reading and writing about all history, I have a particular fondness for European history from Greco-Roman times until the crusades.

I hope you enjoy my stories.

Have a great Sunday!

Last Night with Tokyo Rose: (Nisei War Series Book 1) by Alexa Kang – #BookReview – #historicalfiction

Last Night with Tokyo Rose by Alexa Kang — Last Night with Tokyo Rose – Lakewood Press – publisher’s banner

Book Blurb:

The land of the rising sun . . .
. . . Or the land of the free
Their survival hinges on his choice

Like any other American man, all Tom Sakai wants is a good life and a decent job. But in 1941, a Nisei son of Japanese immigrants could never be American enough. Frustrated, he leaves Seattle, his hometown. He sets out to sea, searching for his place in the world.

In Manila, he meets his soulmate, Fumiko, a Nisei from Los Angeles with a heartbreaking past. Together, they begin a new life, leaving behind the path of prejudice they walked at home.

Until the Pearl Harbor attack shatters their dreams.

Their dual identity now forces them to take a side. The wrong choice could cost them their lives.

Stranded in occupied territory, Tom must now decide where his loyalty lies. Should he swear his allegiance to Imperial Japan, the instigator of war and violence?

Or America, the country that deserted him when the world’s darkest hour begins?

His Review:

As a boy, I remember our war games were always against the Japanese or Germans. I harbored a definite dislike for the people who had initially bombed us. I felt self-righteous indignation towards both nationalities but particularly the Japanese. Then I was stationed in Japan on my first tour of duty in the navy and discovered quite a revelation.

Tomio Sakai is a second-generation American of Japanese descent who is marooned in the Philippines after the attack on Pearl Harbor. His parents were sent to an internment camp for the duration of the war. The Japanese had been denied citizenship during the 30s and although Tomio was born in America he had received real prejudice from the people in Seattle because of his heritage.

In the Philippines, he is commandeered by the Japanese to help interrogate and spy upon the U.S. military. General MacArthur had promised to return. But when? Nisei or second-generation U.S. Japanese were considered viable spy conscripts. Therefore, they were segregated and treated poorly. Japan considered them Japanese citizens no matter where they lived. Tomio and his lady friend Fumiko work for the Japanese as disaffected American citizens.

This well-written story points out the prejudice encountered by second-generation Japanese-Americans. Stranded in foreign occupied countries, they were disillusioned by their treatment and the encampment segregation of their families. As with many of them who discover they have no choice, Tomio and Fumiko become embroiled in a class struggle. They do not see America as supportive of them or their families as citizens.

I felt sympathy for these characters recalling my time in Japan and my initial prejudice and animosity towards that country. An engrossing and entertaining read, atmospheric, with strong characterization. 4.5 stars – CE Williams

We received a complimentary review copy of this book from the author and publisher through NetGalley that in no way influenced this review. These are his honest opinions.

Rosepoint Publishing: Four point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Historical Japanese Fiction, Historical Asian Fiction, Historical World War II Fiction
Publisher: Lakewood Press
ASIN: B08S36L6FL
Print Length: 438 pages
Publication Date: January 22, 2021
Source: Publisher and NetGalley
Title Links: Last Night with Tokyo Rose [Amazon]
Barnes & Noble

The Author: Alexa Kang is an author of WWII and 20th century historical fiction. Her works include the novel series “Rose of Anzio”, an epic love story that begins in 1940 Chicago and continues on to the historic Battle of Anzio in Italy; and the “Shanghai Story” trilogy, a saga chronicling the events in Shanghai leading up to WWII and the history of Jews and Jewish refugees in China. Her current work, the “Nisei War Series”, is a collection of stories about second-generation Japanese-Americans in war situations around the world during WWII. Alexa’s other works include the WWII/1980s time-travel love story “Eternal Flame” (a tribute to John Hughes), as well as various short stories, including those in the fiction anthologies “The Darkest Hour” (a USA Today Bestseller”), “Pearl Harbor and More: Stories of December 1942”, “Christmas in Love”, and “Wartime Christmas Tales”.

You can sign up for Alexa’s newsletter for new release announcements, sales, and special content at her website: http://alexakang.com/newsletter

You can also contact Alexa and her team at info@alexakang.com

Alexa grew up in New York City and has traveled to more than 150 cities, and she loves to explore new places and different cultures. She loves writing larger-than-life love stories and 20th century historical fiction, and hopes to bring you many more.

Have a Happy Mother's Day!

The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah – #Audiobook Review – #TBT

The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah

Best Literature & Fiction

Rosepoint Publishing: Five stars

Book Blurb:

Texas, 1921. A time of abundance. The Great War is over, the bounty of the land is plentiful, and America is on the brink of a new and optimistic era. But for Elsa Wolcott, deemed too old to marry in a time when marriage is a woman’s only option, the future seems bleak. Until the night she meets Rafe Martinelli and decides to change the direction of her life. With her reputation in ruin, there is only one respectable choice: marriage to a man she barely knows.

By 1934, the world has changed; millions are out of work and drought has devastated the Great Plains. Farmers are fighting to keep their land and their livelihoods as crops fail and water dries up and the earth cracks open. Dust storms roll relentlessly across the plains. Everything on the Martinelli farm is dying, including Elsa’s tenuous marriage; each day is a desperate battle against nature and a fight to keep her children alive.

In this uncertain and perilous time, Elsa—like so many of her neighbors—must make an agonizing choice: fight for the land she loves or leave it behind and go west, to California, in search of a better life for her family.

The Four Winds is a rich, sweeping novel that stunningly brings to life the Great Depression and the people who lived through it—the harsh realities that divided us as a nation and the enduring battle between the haves and the have-nots. A testament to hope, resilience, and the strength of the human spirit to survive adversity, The Four Winds is an indelible portrait of America and the American dream, as seen through the eyes of one indomitable woman whose courage and sacrifice will come to define a generation.

“My land tells its story if you listen. The story of our family.”

My Review:

Elsa Martinelli got sick when she was a teenager and though she survived, the family kept her at arm’s length and isolated until too late for marriage, she is overwhelmed and succumbs to the attention of the first man to notice her, the son of landowners, a Texas farmer.

Her urban family, wealthy and more worried about appearances than the love of their daughter, dumps her at the porch of the boy’s family. Rafe’s family has no alternative other than to take her in and teach her about the farm where she must learn to (gasp!) work. But they are good people, as we used to say “the salt of the earth.” Rafe does what he must with a shot-gun marriage and gives up his dreams of college.

There is much to learn on the farm and the years pass, now with two children, and a tenuous marriage, but his parents come to embrace Elsa as the daughter they never had and love their grandchildren. When the drought hits and hits hard several years after the Great Depression started, the struggle to make severe changes in an effort to survive wears on all of them.

Rafe’s parents are determined to stay on their land, but Rafe is ready to head west. When their son confronts a devastating lung disease born of the Dust Bowl situation, Rafe has enough and he leaves them all in the dead of night. Elsa makes the difficult decision to head west, alone, with her two children hopefully to save her son.

But the harrowing drive alone to California is just the beginning of more years of extreme poverty, struggle, and the overwhelming competition for manual labor work with the many thousands who’ve also left their own Dust Bowl states to find a better life. It’s not.

My father’s family were among those who left for California (from Missouri) in 1938 and lumped in with the cruel denigration of “Okies” (Oklahoma). The staggering numbers of the destitute overwhelm the state and the farmers quickly take advantage of the infinite labor pool setting outrageously low levels of pay for back-breaking work sun-up to sun-down.

Emigrant camps blossom the length of every fertile valley with crops to tend including cotton, which when ready to pick is cruelly heavy with thorns as well as cotton bolls. The author paints a grim picture of the unsanitary conditions of tent and cardboard camps, lacking any potable water and tied to the “company store” where more money is deducted from paltry wages.

There are themes of love—the love given to each other in extreme situations—family, the love of a mother for her children, hopeless conditions, and those who overcome and who don’t. It’s not that hard to imagine the same can happen to anyone. The haves and have-nots and those who take advantage of the victims.

“Doom and gloom and agony on me” says the little ditty riddled throughout the old “HeeHaw” variety show. But can there be any light at the end of the tunnel?

The author does an amazing job of describing the devastation wreaked by the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl, the thousands of migrants that choked California’s economy, services, and infrastructure. The characters are so well fleshed you can smell them, see the cardboard in their shoes, and wonder how much longer they can live on stone soup, their ribs prominent.

In the end, this is not a totally depressive narrative but one of triumph over all the odds and ultimately the indomitable spirit of human nature.

Book Details:

Genre: Literary Fiction, Women’s Fiction, Historical Fiction
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
ASIN: B0882VNQKS
Listening Length: 15 hrs 2 mins
Narrator: Julia Whelan
Publication Date: February 2, 2021
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Link: The Four Winds [Amazon]

The Author: Kristin Hannah is the award-winning and bestselling author of more than 20 novels including the international blockbuster, The Nightingale, which was named Goodreads Best Historical fiction novel for 2015 and won the coveted People’s Choice award for best fiction in the same year. It was also named a Best Book of the Year by Amazon, iTunes, Buzzfeed, the Wall Street Journal, Paste, and The Week. In 2018, The Great Alone became an instant New York Times #1 bestseller and was named the Best Historical Novel of the Year by Goodreads.

The Four Winds was published in February of 2021 and immediately hit #1 on the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Indie bookstore’s bestseller lists. Additionally, it was selected as a book club pick by the both Today Show and The Book Of the Month club.

The Nightingale is currently in production at Tri Star, with Dakota and Elle Fanning set to star. Tri Star has also optioned The Great Alone and it is in development. Firefly Lane, her novel about two best friends, was the #1 Netflix show around the world, in the week it came out. The popular tv show stars Katherine Heigl and Sarah Chalke and Season Two is currently being filmed.

www.kristinhannah.com

Book hangover

Dark Seas by Jerry Borrowman – #BookReview – Historical World War II Fiction

Dark Seas by Jerry Borrowman

Rosepoint Publishing: Five Stars

Book Blurb:

As captain of a destroyer in the US Navy, Merrill Kendrick plays a crucial and dangerous role in protecting the convoys that are essential to Britain’s survival in the Second World War. Despite pressure from his father to join the family company, a supplier of military radios, Kendrick chose to fight on the front lines of the war, a decision he’s never regretted. But when technical issues with his family’s Gatekeeper radios lead to devastating consequences in combat in the Atlantic, Kendrick needs answers.

Joe Horiuchi, a second-generation Japanese American, gave up a prestigious future to fight in the merchant marine on behalf of the United States. Though he is faced with harsh discrimination, his brilliance with electronics proves invaluable. When his expertise is most needed, Horiuchi does not flinch in the face of danger—and he suffers the devastating consequences.

Kendrick is a seasoned veteran when it comes to battle—but facing off with U-boats is nothing like facing off with his own father, who may be guilty of treachery. With the help of Horiuchi and his radio communications expertise, Kendrick must uncover the truth of his family business before more lives are lost.

His Review:

Germany’s U-boats and E-boats were a constant harassment in the North Atlantic Ocean. The German submarines were everywhere in the waters off the eastern coast of the United States all the way to England and France. If a ship is not sunk immediately, an SOS and ship’s position is sent along with the coordinates where the torpedo struck the ship. This would give the rest of the convoy the chance to avoid the area.

Joe Horiuchi is the radioman. His orders are to send the final message in hopes that rescue would come for the stranded sailors. Being a Japanese serving in the merchant marines was extremely difficult at that time. Although a Nissei or second-generation Japanese American, Joe had gone to Tufts University and then Rensselaer Polytechnic in New York getting a degree in electronics.

A major defense contractor was cutting corners on preparing vital radio equipment for the military and many of the communications equipment was poorly manufactured. Joe was busy trying to prepare a satisfactory radio from three “junk radios” purchased prior to the voyage. Captain Birdsall had also attended Rensselaer and had a fondness for his Seaman Radioman. They were able to get the distress signal out before abandoning ship.

Running defense and interference for the merchant marine ships delivering defense weapons to England and the North African coast was always a very dangerous endeavor. Throughout the war, many tons of shipping were sunk in transit in both the Atlantic and Pacific theatres of operation. In June of 1944 Captain Birdsall and his ship and crew were an integral part of the landing of troops and supplies to the Normandy Coast.

This book is an excellent memorial to the many men who fought and died freeing Europe from the Third Reich. The description of weapons used and tactics employed were quite illuminating. Catching companies who were cutting corners and seeking profits while endangering our troops was fascinating. I recommend the book to anyone who enjoys history and the saga of WWII. 5 stars – C. E. Williams

Much appreciation to the publisher and NetGalley for the complimentary review copy of this book that in no way influenced this review. These are his honest opinions.

Book Details:

Genre: Historical World War II Fiction, World War II Historical Fiction, Literature & Fiction
Publisher: Covenant Communications
ASIN: B09K38GLWN
Print Length: 170 pages
Publication Date: April 4, 2022
Source: Publisher and NetGalley
Title Links: Dark Seas [Amazon]
Barnes & Noble

The Author: Jerry Borrowman is a best-selling and award-winning author of historical fiction, historical non-fiction, and co-authored biographies.

Compassionate Soldier won the 2018 Indies Gold (First Place) Award from Foreword Reviews in War and Military. Compassionate Soldier and Three Against Hitler (with Rudi Wobbe) are George Washington National Award Winners from the Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge.

Jerry has given voice to true heroes — Rudi Wobbe, a German boy who stood up against the Third Reich, Joe Banks in A Distant Prayer who served on 49 combat missions deep into German territory in a B-17 bomber, only to be shot down and taken prisoner of war, and Colonel Bernard Fisher, USAF, a career Air Force pilot who was awarded the Medal of Honor for Valor Above and Beyond the Call of Duty in Vietnam, (also known as the Congressional Medal of Honor).

But for those who enjoy historical fiction, his World War I and World War II series provides insight into the great European wars of the 20th Century in a unique and exciting way.

Here’s what Jennie Hansen, reviewer for Meridian magazine has to say: “Borrowman does a superb job of portraying life, including the values and prejudices of the early twentieth century. He brings a realism to that period that is slower and more innocent than teens experience today, yet the reader is led to an awareness of and learns to care about the hopes and dreams of these soon-to-be-men, who live in a time when automobiles are still new and airplanes are little more than toys…”

Jerry’s books are for readers of all ages, men and women. They will inspire you by the great sacrifices made by those who have fought for American freedom.