Only the Brave

 

I can not seem to get away from the WWII books.  As soon as I finished the Words We Whisper, I downloaded Only the Brave.  This time the setting is Berlin itself.  Here is the synopsis on Amazon:

Sophia Alexander, the beautiful daughter of a famous surgeon in Berlin, has had to grow up faster than most young women. When her mother falls ill, Sophia must take charge of her younger sister, Theresa, and look after her father and the household, while also volunteering at his hospital after school. Meanwhile, Hitler’s rise to power and the violence in her very own town have Sophia concerned, but only her mother is willing to share her fears openly.

After tragedy strikes and her mother dies, Sophia becomes increasingly involved in the resistance, attending meetings of dissidents and helping however she can. Circumstances become increasingly dangerous and personal when Sophia assists her sister’s daring escape from Germany, as Theresa flees with her young husband and his family. Her father also begins to resist the regime, secretly healing those hiding from persecution, only to have his hospital burned to the ground. When he is arrested and sent to a concentration camp, Sophia is truly on her own, but more determined than ever to help.

While working as a nurse with the convent nuns, the Sisters of Mercy, Sophia continues her harrowing efforts to transport Jewish children to safety and finds herself under surveillance. As the political tensions rise and the brutal oppression continues, Sophia is undeterred, risking it all, even her own freedom, as she rises to the challenge of helping those in need—no matter the cost.

The Words We Whisper

 Continuing the theme of WWII books, I began this book tonight.  It is about WWII in Rome.  I have not explored that location yet.  Here is the publisher's summary:

As a hospice nurse, Zara Mitchell has already seen more death than most people will experience in a lifetime. So when her older sister asks her to help care for their ailing grandmother, Zara agrees - despite strained family relationships.

Though pale and tired, Nonna has lost none of her sharp mind. She’s fixated on finding something long forgotten, and she immediately puts Zara to work cleaning out the attic. Unexpectedly, amid the tedium of sifting through knickknacks and heirlooms, Zara also reconnects with a man she’s attracted to but whose complicated past makes romance seem impossible.

But then Zara finds what Nonna was looking for: a wooden chest, an emerald broach, a leather-bound journal. As she immerses herself in stories of heroism and loss set against the backdrop of war-torn Italy in 1943, Zara finds answers to questions she didn’t know she had. And they change everything she thinks she knows about love, regret, and seizing the day.

I finished the book at the end of Crazy August.  Very entertaining....and a complicated finale.  But I did like the book and found it to be a good read.

Silver

 Kind of crazy, random book.  Dee Dee has had an exceptionally terrible life yet seems to be an exceptionally positive human being.  And the friendship between her and her employer that leads to the drive from Key West with destination of Disney World is crazy serendipity.  

The Women

 This has been a book that has stuck with me after I listened to the last word.  The first half of the book about the Vietnam War and Frankie McGrath's experience as an Army Nurse in Vietnam was the kind of listen/read that one just can not put down nor quit thinking about.  The second half of the book about her problems after returning to the shores of the USA was not as fascinating.  However, it was of interest to know the stories of those who returned and suffered from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and the suffering of the returning veterans.  And the end of the book offered hope that Frankie would have a happy life and a complete recovery.  I liked the fact that Kristin Hannah left the ending to each reader's imagination with just a suggestion of what might happen next. 

Winter Solstice

Oscar's grandmother's grand estate is now a hotel, but the former estate manager's house is vacant and still belongs to the family. It is in this house, on the shortest day of the year, that the lives of five people will come together and be forever changed. Rosamunde Pilcher's long-awaited return to the page will warm the hearts of readers both old and new. Winter Solstice is a novel of love, loyalty and rebirth.

A nice book....not very exciting....but a good book when one's life is very busy....and I was not tempted to stop reading.  No surprises.

Hello Beautiful

I am having trouble explaining all of the ins and outs of this book.  So I am going to copy and paste an excerpt from the description on Amazon:  

William Waters grew up in a house silenced by tragedy, where his parents could hardly bear to look at him, much less love him—so when he meets the spirited and ambitious Julia Padavano in his freshman year of college, it’s as if the world has lit up around him. With Julia comes her family, as she and her three sisters are inseparable: Sylvie, the family’s dreamer, is happiest with her nose in a book; Cecelia is a free-spirited artist; and Emeline patiently takes care of them all. With the Padavanos, William experiences a newfound contentment; every moment in their house is filled with loving chaos.

William's love of the sport of basketball is a highlight of the book.  

Oh, wow, I was not expecting to like this book so much.  I have barely started, but already I am drawn into the story of a young girl who has lost her mother.....and a relationship that has begun between this child and her grandmother.  

Here is a published review:

According to Confucius, "an educated woman is a worthless woman," but Tan Yunxian—born into an elite family, yet haunted by death, separations, and loneliness—is being raised by her grandparents to be of use. Her grandmother is one of only a handful of female doctors in China, and she teaches Yunxian the pillars of Chinese medicine, the Four Examinations—looking, listening, touching, and asking—something a man can never do with a female patient. 

From a young age, Yunxian learns about women's illnesses, many of which relate to childbearing, alongside a young midwife-in-training, Meiling. The two girls find fast friendship and a mutual purpose—despite the prohibition that a doctor should never touch blood while a midwife comes in frequent contact with it—and they vow to be forever friends, sharing in each other's joys and struggles. No mud, no lotus, they tell themselves: from adversity beauty can bloom. 

But when Yunxian is sent into an arranged marriage, her mother-in-law forbids her from seeing Meiling and from helping the women and girls in the household. Yunxian is to act like a proper wife—embroider bound-foot slippers, pluck instruments, recite poetry, give birth to sons, and stay forever within the walls of the family compound, the Garden of Fragrant Delights. 

How might a woman like Yunxian break free of these traditions, go on to treat women and girls from every level of society, and lead a life of such importance that many of her remedies are still used five centuries later? How might the power of friendship support or complicate these efforts? Lady Tan's Circle of Women is a captivating story of women helping other women. It is also a triumphant reimagining of the life of a woman who was remarkable in the Ming dynasty and would be considered remarkable today.

I finished the book the first week of February, 2024.  I liked it as much at the end as I did in the beginning. Quite a bit of gore and "bad stuff", but done in a way that I didn't have to put the book down and leave it alone for a while as I have so many of the WWII books.  I find myself wishing for more pages and haven't yet started a new book.