Current listen: The Plantagenets by Dan Jones
Hello again. I'm a little embarrassed that it's been so long, but I guess this blog is mostly for me, so I'm not going to make excuses. I'll write here when I feel like it.
The book that inspired me to continue this blog was The Rose and the Dagger, by Renee Ahdieh. Ahdieh made her debut last summer with the magical The Wrath and the Dawn, a retelling of Scheherazade. I read it soon after it came out and might have even blogged about it, and I have been ANXIOUSLY awaiting the sequel. Props to the Indianapolis Public Library who got it to me without even fully processing the book. I don't want to give too much away with a full review, since there would be some spoilers from the first book, but it was a GREAT sequel. Everything I want in a sequel was there. More character development for Shahrzad and Khalid as well as the supporting characters from the first book, with some new really compelling characters thrown in. Ahdieh continued the theme of women fending for themselves rather than relying on being saved, which I really appreciate in a fairy tale retelling. There was some death and sacrificing, of course, but I REALLY appreciate that Ahdieh didn't feel the need to, for example, kill her heroine (I'm looking at you, Veronica Ross. I'm not over that yet). I bought The Wrath and the Dawn when it came out in paperback, and I will probably buy the sequel and reread them. The first book was just as compelling the second time.
Now I thought I'd give you a BRIEF little rundown of some of the things that I've read in the past few months. Please let me know if you want more in depth reviews of anything.
My World War II kick: During February and March I read three well regarded books covering various parts of the world during WWII. It is amazing to me that so many authors continue to write such compelling literature about a topic that has been HEAVILY covered, but all three books were exceptional. The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah follows two French sisters during the German occupation. One lives in rural France and must contend with German soldiers billeted in her home, and the other lives in Paris and ends up playing a role in the French Resistance. I was skeptical that this could be as good as All the Light We Cannot See, but I think I liked it even more.
The second book, Anna and the Swallow Man, was a much more magical take on the war. A debut from author Gavriel Savit, the book followed Anna, a young girl whose father is taken during a purge of intellectuals in Poland at the beginning of the war. She is taken in by a mysterious figure she refers to as the swallow man, and the two of them wander the Polish and Russian countryside for the duration of the war. Though at points the story was difficult to understand, this author shows a LOT of promise, and some of his prose was just GORGEOUS. A favorite quote: "Men who try to understand the world without the help of children are like men who try to break bread without the help of yeast."
Finally, I read Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys, an author who very much enthralled me with her first two books, Between Shades of Grey and Out of the Easy. This book was no different. It shed light on one of the most unknown tragedies of the war, the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff, a cruise ship filled far over capacity with refugees fleeing Germany at the end of the war. Told in short chapters from the perspectives of four teens from different countries, it is simply great storytelling. My only real criticism is just that it wasn't long enough.
The more I think about it, the more it seems very unlikely that I can write about EVERYTHING ELSE I've been reading without writing a novel myself. I'll write a little bit more in my following entries on things of note. Thanks for reading, and that's all she read!
