The Jewel of St Petersburg

I read The Jewel of St Petersburg by Kate Furnivall which is set in the years before the Russian revolution and the start of that revolution.  Valentina Ivanova is from an aristocratic family and her father is a government minister in charge of finances.  Valentina is promised to a wealthy young army officer but she falls in love with a Danish engineer.  She also defies her family by training to be a nurse, an inappropriate occupation for someone of her class.  In fact any employment would be frowned on.  The background of the revolution is interesting but that does not save this book.  It is nauseating reading, particularly the love scenes.  There should be a warning for the reader "Warning - Love Scene coming up".  Only that I am a compulsive finisher did I plough through this book.  I should have given up after the first 100 pages.  Life is too short to read an awful book. 2/5

The Blind Man's Garden

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this very fine book The Blind Man's Garden by Nadeem Aslam.  The story is set in Pakistan and Afghanistan shortly after the Americans invaded Afghanistan because of 9/11.  Jeo and Mikal travel to Afghanistan with the intention of helping civilians wounded in the war with the Americans.  However, things do not turn out as planned.  Mikal is captured by warlords and eventually sold to the Americans as a "terrorist".  The story follows his "adventures" as he returns to his village and sees again his love, Naheed.  Mikal's foster father Rohan had established a school in the village and that has been taken over by other parties.  Rohan is a proud man with great integrity who has to overcome some terrible difficulties.  This story is written by a Pakistani man now living in England.  He has written his story from the Pakistani perspective and this demonstrates the enormous gulf of understanding between "the West" and these Islamic countries.  How can this ever be reconciled?  This is a beautifully written story which is also suspenseful as the events are played out.  Highly recommended reading. 5/5

The Girl Under the Olive Tree

I very much enjoyed The Girl Under the Olive Tree by Leah Fleming.  The story is set mainly in Crete during the Second World War and in 2001.  Penelope George is persuaded to travel with her niece to Crete for commemorations to mark the 60th anniversary of the War.  The story is then told in flashback as Penny "relives" her memories of her time during the War when she was a Red Cross nurse helping wounded soldiers on all sides.  She befriended Yolande, a Jewish woman, also working with the Red Cross.  Penny's work becomes more dangerous as she helps the partisans in the hills fighting against the Germans.  Parts of the story are based on actual events, which are quite horrific.  At the 2001 commemoration there are also German veterans mourning the loss of their comrades.  One has a particular interest in Penny.  This a good story of remembering and commemoration. 41/2/5

The Colour of Tea

I enjoyed The Colour of Tea by Hannah Tunnicliffe which is set in Macau.  A couple, Grace and Pete Miller, are desperate to have a baby but it isn't happening.  Pete has a good job building casinos and Grace is at home wallowing in despair and depression.  She has a love of cooking and she finds a vacant shop and decides to turn it in to a tea house.  This decision gives her the drive to help overcome her depression and get on with making her tea house a success.  She learns how to make French macarons, a delicious and dainty accompaniment to a cuppa and she hires staff who become more like family.  There are problems along the way while her tea house becomes very popular.  A delightful read. 4/5

The Kashmir Shawl

I really liked The Kashmir Shawl by Rosie Thomas which is mainly set in Kashmir during World War II and also in the present.  Mair Ellis and her two siblings are cleaning out their family home ready for sale following their father's death and Mair discovers a Kashmir shawl, with a photograph and an envelope with a lock of hair.  Mair is single and she is captivated by the shawl which probably belonged to her missionary grandmother, Nerys Watkins, and she goes to Kashmir intent on finding the story behind the shawl.  In the WWII time period the reader meets Nerys Watkins and learns about her life in Kashmir.  There is a lot of history in this place with competing religions and races.  We learn about the making of these beautiful shawls before mass production caused those skills to decline.  The story is well-researched showing the reader the beauty and ruggedness of this region. It is a story of passion and love which Mair begins to uncover when she travels to Kashmir. 4/5

Anzac Memories

I very much enjoyed reading Anzac Memories by Alistair Thomson.  This is a new edition published in 2013.  The first edition was published in 1994.  It has been updated in this new edition with material the author could not access for the earlier publication.  In the 1980s, the author interviewed many World War I veterans living in the working class suburbs of Melbourne and the book has excerpts from many of these interviews.  However, the book concentrates mainly on the lives of three of those veterans.  Their stories are examined in detail as we learn about their background, their service in World War I, their lives in the post-War era and their reflections as older men when they are interviewed.  This book is very well researched as the author has provided an excellent background to the history of the War and particularly the life and views of significant historians of the time, the most prominent being Charles Bean.  Rather than being an homogenous group of "heroes", the author demonstrates that of course, they were men, and therefore each one was different, with different backgrounds, attitudes and reasons for going to war.  They did not all conform to the stereotype as much as that might have suited the historians of the time and now.  The author has explored how the "veterans remembered their war, and how their remembering was shaped by wartime and post war experience."  Their memories may also have been influenced by the notion of the Anzac legend.  In this edition the author was able to access the Veterans' Affairs files for his three veterans to clarify and augment the oral histories.  On a personal level, the author learned more about his grandfather who was also a WWI veteran.  This book is highly recommended to anyone with a strong interest in Australia's role in World War I. 5/5

February Book Club

We have started the New Year with our first Book Club meeting.  There was a lot to catch up on as we hadn't seen each other for a couple of months and we had each read a lot of books during that time.  Our thanks to our hostess for a delicious supper which we all enjoyed.  A lot has been happening in our lives and 2014 promises to be a good year.  Two of our members are going overseas for some weeks each and they're very much looking forward to that.  One of them will be in South America and in England.  We hope they both have a wonderful time.  Our hostess bought a swag of great new books for our reading.  I have a number of books I'm looking forward to getting in to.  As I've said before "too many books, not enough time."