Blog Tour: Radar Girls, A Novel of Women in the Air Raid Defense Team During WWII

  I received an advance review copy of Radar Girls by Sara Ackerman from the publisher via Net Galley when I was selected for the blog tour.  I prioritized the book and practically inhaled Radar Girls more than a week ahead of my post date.  I found it suspenseful, and the inner strength of Daisy, the female protagonist, was very inspiring.

                                     

 Many readers might wonder how a novel about WWII could provide any suspense because we all know the results, but we don't know what happens to Daisy and the other characters in Radar Girls.  The characters put the drama in historical fiction by involving us with their lives.

According to the Author's Note, the main source for Radar Girls was a non-fiction book called Shuffleboard Pilots: The History of the Women's Air Raid Defense in Hawai'i 1941-1945 by Candace A. Chenoweth and A. Kam Napier.  There were numerous incidents from Shuffleboard Pilots included in the novel. 

Before Daisy became a member of the Women's Air Raid Defense team, she was a horse trainer following in the footsteps of her deceased father. There was a sub-plot about a valuable missing horse. Moon was a high spirited thoroughbred whose sire had been a race horse.  Daisy felt responsible because Moon went missing when she took him riding without permission.  

There is also a romance which was a will they/won't they subplot involving Daisy and a man who sets the standard for bravery and integrity very high. This American hero would stand out in any novel.  My respect for him only increased over the course of the narrative.

 

I consider Radar Girls an engaging novel that taught me about an aspect of women's participation in WWII that I knew nothing about.

 

                                   

                                     SARA ACKERMAN

                                               

 

 

Photo by Tracey Wright-Corvo

                      

 

 

 

The Paris Library: A Woman Librarian at the American Library of Paris During WWII

 When a publisher sends me a book in paperback in addition to a digital copy from Net Galley, it's very clear to me that they really want my opinion.   Atria Books, which is a division of Simon & Schuster, did that to bring my attention to their book, The Paris Library.  I love libraries. There's also tremendous interest in this title, and it's set to release next month.  I decided that I needed to read and review it after I finished with the book I was currently reading at the time.

I mainly read the paperback because I prefer print.  I only read the Net Galley when I was  on public transit.  My Kindle is smaller and lighter than a trade paperback.  Yet I am traveling less during the pandemic than I once did.  So that was a small percentage read in digital format. I finished the book in four days.

 

                            

As the book opens Odile Suchet was preparing for an interview at the American Library of Paris (ALP).  Odile was qualified because she was a library student who knew English.  Though 1/4 of ALP's users were French at the time.  

My feeling is that Odile made serious errors of judgement that hurt people during WWII.  She betrayed the trust of several people who were important to her.  I considered her an unlikable protagonist, but she tried to make amends by behaving graciously to the 1980's teen protagonist, Lily.

I was interested in ALP, but my negative feelings toward Odile lowered my estimation of The Paris Library as a whole.  Perhaps I would have liked a book from the perspective of the American director of ALP, Miss Reeder, much better.

                        

 

The Light Over London: A WWII Novel of Romance, Secrets and Women's Autonomy

When a publicist pitches a book to me, the content of that pitch matters very much.   I want it to pique my interest, but I also want it to accurately reflect the book.  I should be made aware of what kind of book I'll be reading.  I try to do that in my blog review titles, so that the book will find its audience.

It seems to me that advance publicity for The Light Over London by Julia Kelly is trying to appeal to the sort of reader who is interested in the combat aspect of WWII.  There is an emphasis on the female historical protagonist joining an anti-aircraft unit and becoming a Gunner Girl.  The sort of reader who is interested in reading about Gunner Girls will expect that a high percentage of the book will contain action scenes or will at least take place in a military context. I requested this book for review on the strength of that publicity and received a copy from the publisher via Net Galley.

                           

 

As I read Light Over London, I realized that I had to adjust my expectations.  It was a good book, just not the one that I thought it would be.   There was a combat sequence. There were also descriptions of training.  Julia Kelly captured the bonding between the women in the anti-aircraft unit very well. Yet I'd estimate that the Gunner Girl experience represented about 10% of the book.

I think that the other 90% was what the novel really focused on.   It was about the struggle of women to define themselves as individuals and live out their dreams.   It was also about how family, or the men in their lives supported or hindered them.   There were a number of  female characters in The Light Over London who were strong women.  They all went on to live the lives they chose for themselves.   There were no  relationships that involved a conventional romance genre HEA, but I think all these truly autonomous women found their own form of happiness.

There were a couple of major secrets.  One was a devastating scandal that infested the heart of a romantic relationship.   The other was a character building mistake that a family member made when she was young.   Both women moved on, and didn't allow themselves to be crushed by circumstances. I have to say that I was able to predict the nature of these secrets before they were revealed based on what I knew about the people involved.  So there were no surprises for me, but it was satisfying that I understood the characters so well.

I was glad to learn about the existence of Gunner Girls, and was delighted to find a novel like The Light Over London where all the major female characters were an inspiration. 

    
                        

A Savage Kultur: The Fictional Story of a Painting Seized by the Nazis

A Savage Kultur by Monique Roy is the second book that I am reviewing by this author.  I participated in the blog tour for her novel Across Great Divides on this blog here back in 2015.  I  received a free review copy of A Savage Kultur from Monique Roy and this is my honest review.

                               

The last time a review on this blog dealt with a book on the theme of the Nazi looting of art it was Stolen Beauty by Laura Lico Albanese which I reviewed here.  That novel involved an actual famous legal suit brought by a descendant of the original owner to recover an iconic Gustav Klimt painting. 

The  painting at the center of A Savage Kultur, "The Lovers: The Poet's Garden IV" by Vincent Van Gogh isn't well-known and has an unknown fate. An image of Van Gogh's sketch of the painting is reproduced on the bottom section of the cover shown above. Yet all the characters in A Savage Kultur are fictional creations.  So Monique Roy has given us a speculative narrative about this missing work.

Contemporary protagonist Ava Goldberg experiences what might have been a favorite fantasy come true for an art history student like her when she inherits an art gallery from her grandfather.  Her love of art and her devotion to her family are the most believable aspects of her character.   Her determination to reclaim the Van Gogh that had been owned by her grandmother's family is admirable.  On the other hand,  I didn't find the romantic aspect of her life very credible, and thought that the book could have dispensed with it entirely.

My favorite character in this book was Ava's grandfather, Karl Engel, who was the protagonist of the historical chapters in this dual period novel.  I consider him the most fully realized character and I think that the entire plot really does revolve around him.  His courage in Nazi Germany preserves the life of the woman he loves.  His decisions in the 21st century motivate Ava and give her life a focus.

The issue of art forgery arises in this book through the perspective of a character who engages in forgery.  Mention is made of the sophisticated techniques he uses to fool the experts.

What most sets apart this novel about Nazis and art is that this one doesn't portray Nazism as a defunct ideology.  There are unnerving survivals of Nazi beliefs and attitudes alive among their 21st century descendants in A Savage Kultur.  I was reminded of a William Faulkner quote.  "The past is never dead.  It's not even past."  So the resolution wasn't nearly as triumphant as other books in this sub-genre.  Instead there is a dark undertone that could cause readers to wonder when other manifestations of the Third Reich might surface.  One might also wonder whether the entirely too sheltered descendants of Holocaust survivors like Ava will be capable of stopping them. 
                          

Footprints in the Forest-- A Novel of A Female WWII Partisan Based On Fact

I wrote in my review of Karolina's Twins on this blog that I was just about burned out on the Holocaust.  Now I can say the same about WWII in general.  I've read way too much about WWII this year.  I admit that I was reluctant to accept author Jeannette Katzir's review request for Footprints in the Forest.  I accepted a free copy because I've never read about a real woman who was a WWII partisan.  This is a novel, but it's based on the life of the author's mother.  I wanted to see if there were significant differences between the fictional WWII Resistance heroines I'd read about, and one that actually existed.

                                 

Like a number of popular books, Footprints in the Forest is a dual time frame novel.  It alternates WWII Poland with New York in the late 1940's.   I found the WWII chapters more interesting and compelling.  The American portions of the book were lighter in tone which some readers may consider a relief from reading about characters who are continually running for their lives.

In some ways, Chana the protagonist, reminded me of Jacqueline, the female French Resistance fighter in Marge Piercy's  Gone To Soldiers which I reviewed here.  They were both changed by their experiences, but I thought that Jacqueline became stronger and Chana emerged from WWII more fragile.   I understood why Chana  was so traumatized, but I preferred her fellow female partisan, Leeza who was more of a survivor type.   It was fortunate that Chana had Leeza's friendship because she certainly depended on Leeza for emotional support.  Chana also couldn't have survived without the steadiness of her brother, Isaac, who was always there for her.

Chana's developing art career in the U.S. was the aspect of the American narrative that I found most appealing.    I enjoyed reading about her creative process, how she learned to paint in oils and how her relationship with the gallery owner eventually evolved into a friendship.  On the other hand, I found Chana's stereotypical fantasy of the perfect wedding rather annoying.   It was also a very American idea of weddings, and it didn't seem likely to me that a Polish Jew from a religious background would have become so Americanized in her expectations that quickly.

 There were a few names that I thought were inappropriate like the Russian partisan whose first name was Barry and the Polish Jew who had a brother named Thomas.  There was also a Hebrew error.  Alov ha'shalom  (may he rest in peace) is correct if the dead individual is male.  If the dead individual is female, it should be aleha  ha'shalom.  Yet these are minor problems.

The background otherwise seemed authentic and well-developed.   I felt that I was there in the forest with Chana trying to survive Nazis, severe weather and other dangers.  This was a gripping portrayal of the life story of Katzir's mother.



                                   

Marlene by C.W. Gortner--Strong Was Never Sexier

Marlene Dietrich wasn't an icon for me until I saw her in Destry Rides Again, and then I wanted to see all her movies.  I knew that she first had success in Weimar Germany. My concept of Weimar Germany is based on Berlin Stories, a short story collection by Christopher Isherwood which is best known for its musical adaptation, Cabaret.  I imagined Marlene Dietrich within that environment which was so unconventional and so free.  This was the Marlene Dietrich that I expected to see in Marlene by C. W. Gortner, and he met my expectations in spades.  I received my copy of Marlene from Edelweiss in return for this honest review.

                                     

As I read C.W. Gortner's vision of Marlene Dietrich, I felt that she represented Weimar Germany's zeitgeist ( a German word that means the spirit of the time), and she never really became part of Hollywood.  Hollywood studios tried to dictate what sort of life she led, but she carved out an existence for herself that was independent of Hollywood expectations.  She always looked for ways to get around rules in order to do as she pleased. 

I feel that Marlene was also emblematic of an important meme of this blog, Strong is Sexy.  Marlene was all about Strong is Sexy.  She made dressing like a man sexy by being both bold and elegant.  She flaunted her male attire in Paris where transvestism was illegal.  She flouted that law and seemed to be daring the police to arrest her.  She is even better known for her principled refusal of the Nazis when they asked her to perform in Germany.

Gortner revealed aspects of Marlene's life that I'd never heard about in detail. For example, I knew that she entertained U.S. troops during WWII, but I never knew that she risked her life on her second USO tour, or that General Patton taught her how to shoot.

Readers who are uncomfortable with a protagonist who has a great deal of sex with both genders should not read this book.   Neither should readers who are upset by adultery.   Marlene was bisexual, and had unconventional views about relationships.

I found this novel very entertaining and I would definitely read another book by C.W. Gortner.
                                           

Karolina's Twins-- The Secret of a Holocaust Survivor

Novels dealing with WWII have been extremely popular.  I think they have replaced Tudor themed books as the most published type of historical fiction.  When they focus on Holocaust themes, they are very emotionally intense.  Unfortunately, because of their intensity readers tend to burn out on them eventually.  So I predict that there will be another shift in the historical fiction market in the near future.

As someone whose family was severely impacted by the  WWII Holocaust, I actually avoided Holocaust themed novels for a long time.   I felt that they would be too painful for me to read.   I'm not sure what changed for me, but I started to read Holocaust fiction a few years ago.   At this point, I have begun to burn out.  I don't think that it's a good thing for anyone to read too much about genocide because it blunts the feelings of horror and outrage that should be the normal response to these events.  Yet I am still open to reading Holocaust novels that are unusual in their focus, or which educate me about an aspect of the WWII Holocaust that was previously unknown to me.

Karolina's Twins by Ronald Balson is a different sort of Holocaust novel. It is a contemporary/historical legal thriller.  It is also the third in a series dealing with the cases of private investigator Liam Taggart and lawyer Catherine Lockhart.  It centers on locating a pair of twins who have been missing since WWII.  I received a request to review this book through the publisher and downloaded it from Net Galley in return for this honest review.

                                 

I knew that the Jewish community in pre-WWII Poland located in the cities and larger towns was very different from that of my own shtetl ancestors.  A shtetl is a small insular village composed entirely of Jews.  They were isolated from the outside world, and had very little knowledge of Polish society.  Their way of life was eradicated by the Nazis.  The contemporary Haredi, who are more commonly known as Hasidim, have done their best to preserve it. Yet it's difficult to duplicate the culture of a rural village in an urban environment.

Lena Woodward, the fictional client in Karolina's Twins, came from a Polish town that still exists.  Her father was a tailor who was also a WWI hero. Due to his military background, he was highly regarded by local Poles.  The family was Polish speaking rather than Yiddish speaking, and was very much integrated into Polish society.  I had actually never read about Polish Jews who were so identified with Poland.  They reminded me of what I've read about German Jews.  So it didn't surprise me to learn that Lena's father had business and family ties in Berlin.  Through research I discovered a Jewish memorial website which stated that Jewish tailors who emigrated to Germany from Lena's town of  Chrzanow were an important factor in the establishment of the German clothing industry in the early 20th century.

Lena's story was told to Catherine Lockhart as part of the investigation in the present.  Normally, I would be very critical of a novel whose structure was so expository because it usually lacks immediacy.   Yet Lena's narrative contained dialogue and other characteristics of flashbacks that made it more engaging, and lent it dramatic power.  It allowed me to visualize events.  This is a key difference that made expository storytelling more successful in Karolina's Twins.
Ronald Balson also handled suspense very well.   The plot was organized so that both the investigation and Lena's account reached a climax at the same time.

Lena was a courageous woman who was willing to take risks that most people would consider unthinkable, but her circumstances called for bold action.   In the present, this Holocaust survivor retained her mental acuity and vitality.  Yet she had regrets which caused her to conceal a crucial aspect of her past.  It's  this secret that brings her into a painfully distressing legal conflict with her son.  It lies at the heart of the narrative. Catherine's empathy and consistent supportive attitude toward Lena eventually allows the truth to surface.

Catherine impressed me with her willingness to place her career in jeopardy out of loyalty to her client.  Although the danger to Catherine in the contemporary storyline wasn't equivalent to Lena's traumatic experiences, there were suspenseful elements.  Catherine had the mental toughness to rise to the occasion.   So this book had two strong female protagonists.  This makes Karolina's Twins a novel that I can recommend to the audience for this blog.





                                  

A Chance Kill: Darkly Ironic WWII Thriller by @LettersPaul, Review & #Giveaway

Please join author Paul Letters as he tours the blogosphere for A Chance Kill, from April 6-10.

Publication Date: February 26, 2015

Silverwood Books

Formats: eBook, Paperback

Pages: 300

Genre: Historical Fiction

 A Chance Kill is a wartime thriller where an old-fashioned love story forges through a conspiracy of authentic, action-filled adventures.

Based upon the author’s grandmother’s experience, seventeen-year-old Polish catholic Dyta Zając finds herself forced away from wartime Warsaw due to her family’s shadowy connections. Dyta’s time on the run sets her on a path towards confronting the ultimate Nazi.

Half a continent away, an RAF bomber crew embarks upon Britain’s little-known first offensive of the war. Courtship edges Dyta’s destiny closer to that of members of the RAF crew – and toward the Allies’ most brazen covert operation to strike at the Nazi elite.

But more dangerous than the enemy, however, is the assumption that your enemy’s enemy is your friend…

*****REVIEW*****

It was Dyta, the female protagonist, who attracted me to this novel.  I hadn't read a book dealing centrally with a non-Jewish Polish woman who is involved in the struggle against the Nazis.  All the books I'd previously encountered that took place in Poland during WWII were focused on Jews trying to survive the Holocaust.  So this is an unusual perspective for me.  Dyta also has some formidable skills that would make her stand out in any context.

Paul Letters likes to employ dark irony.  I enjoy the cleverness of irony in the context of satire. In a serious novel dark irony intensifies tragic events and gives them more impact.  I appreciate that this is the author's goal. Dark irony shocks readers.  It makes a dark book feel even darker.  Those who are familiar with my reviews know that I don't prefer dark fiction.  Yet whether Dyta is in Warsaw, Paris, London or Prague she  is always an inspiring element in this book.  She burns brightly in the darkness that surrounds her. I always hoped as I was reading A Chance Kill that she would ultimately prevail regardless of the tribulations that she experienced.

I did notice that this author has a tendency to utilize expository lumps for the purpose of characterization as if he wanted to get characterization out of the way so he could focus on action.  For me, action scenes that contain little in the way of characterization seem very dry.  If  I'm not reviewing a book, my normal habit is to skim the details.  I had to fight that proclivity while Tom, the RAF pilot male protagonist, was battling Messerschmitts.

Both the protagonists are well-intentioned people with blind spots based on assumptions.  They grow beyond their assumptions to become stronger individuals.   The crucible of war also shapes their lives in ways that they never expected.  Tom is not as unusual as Dyta, but he is courageous and tries to be principled.

Let me point out that although this book contains romance, it definitely isn't part of the romance genre.  Letters is under no obligation to provide his readers with a HEA ending.  From a relationship perspective, this book ends on a cliffhanger note.  There will be a sequel, and we will presumably find out whether the romance survives.  

Since I am interested in aviation, I wanted to find out more about the planes that play a part in A Chance Kill.  I was particularly intrigued by the  RAF's Mosquitos which were known as Mossies. They were faster and more maneuverable than anything that the Germans had, and they were made of wood.  Here's an article about them on Wikipedia.  I was so impressed with them that I'm giving this book an extra bike.

                                                  

Buy A Chance Kill

Amazon UK

Barnes & Noble

Book Depository

Kobo

About the Author

Author Paul Letters deals with a physical disability (which is twisted and transposed to a character in A Chance Kill). It prompted Paul to change his life and give up full-time teaching to write. He studied history, education, international affairs and literary journalism at the Universities of Cardiff, Oxford and Hong Kong.

Paul is from England and now lives in the jungled fringes of Hong Kong. He writes freelance journalism, most often for the South China Morning Post, and is currently working on a World War Two novel set in Hong Kong.

For more information please visit Paul Letters’ website. You can also find him on Facebook, Goodreads, and Twitter. Follow the WWII 75 Years On Twitter page for daily tweets on what happened in history 75 years ago.

A Chance Kill Blog Tour Schedule

Monday, April 6
Review at Flashlight Commentary

Tuesday, April 7
Review at Books and Benches
Spotlight at Beth’s Book Nook Blog

Wednesday, April 8
Review at Quirky Book Reviews
Review at Back Porchervations
Spotlight at A Literary Vacation
Spotlight at With Her Nose Stuck In A Book

Thursday, April 9
Review at History From A Woman’s Perspective
Spotlight at Boom Baby Reviews

Friday, April 10
Review at The Great Reads!
Interview at Back Porchervations
Guest Post at History From A Woman’s Perspective
Spotlight at CelticLady’s Reviews

GIVEAWAY

A Chance Kill Giveaway