Books I read in 2020 - Part 2 (April - June)

 If you are looking for book recommendations, I hope you will enjoy reading today's post about the books I read in the second quarter of this year. Between April and June, I  managed to read 12 books in total. That's a very good number and I think staying  in so much due to COVID-19 had a lot to do with it. I tried to fill up every moment when there was nothing else to do with books and I ended up reading these:

1. The Things We Cannot Say by Kelly Rimmer 4/5 stars

2. Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy 3.5/5 stars

3. Sword and Scimitar by Simon Scarrow 3.5/5 stars

4. The Wicked Wit of Winston Churchill by Dominique Enright 4/5 stars

5. A Thousand Days in Venice by Marlena de Blasi 4/5 stars

6. A Conspiracy of Friends by Alexander McCall Smith 3.5/5 stars

7. Siena Summer by Teresa Crane 3.5/5 stars

8. After Auschwitz by Eva Schloss 4/5 stars

9. The Weight of Water by Anita Shreve 3/5 stars

10. The House by the Sea by Santa Montefiore 3.5/5 stars

11. The Italian Wife by Kate Furnivall 4/5 stars

12. Flight Patterns by Karen White 3.5/5 stars

The Things We Cannot Say by Kelly Rimmer

It begins with the discovery of a tattered photo, a letter and a tiny leather shoe...

World War Two, Poland. Alina and Tomasz are childhood sweethearts. The night before he leaves for college, Tomasz proposes marriage. But when their village falls to the Nazis, Alina doesn't know if Tomasz is alive or dead.

2019. Life changed beyond recognition for Alice when her son, Eddie, was born with autism spectrum disorder. She must do everything to support him, but at what cost to her family? When her cherished grandmother is hospitalised, a hidden box of mementoes reveals a tattered photo of a young man, a tiny leather shoe and a letter. Her grandmother begs Alice to return to Poland to see what became of those she held dearest. In Poland, separated from her family, Alice begins to uncover the story her grandmother is so desperate to tell, and discovers a love that bloomed in the winter of 1942. As a painful family history comes to light, will the struggles of the past and present finally reach a heartbreaking resolution?

This is a beautifully-written book about one of the most horrific events of the 20th century. The Things We Cannot Say is the story of a great love torn apart by war, of courage in the face of insurmountable odds and a promise that is kept at the cost of everything. Once I started this book, I just could not put it down. Be warned that you may need to keep a box of tissues close by as some parts are very  moving. It also kept me guessing until almost the very end, which is why I couldn't put it down and read it in less than a week. This novel is even more poignant because it is loosely based on true events that happened in the author's family. My mum and my aunt also read it and loved it. If you don't mind sad stories, it comes highly recommended.

The Wicked Wit of Winston Churchill by Dominique Enright

He took his seat in Parliament in the reign of Queen Victoria, and died when Lyndon Johnson was in his second year as US President. He fought as a soldier in four campaigns and as a war correspondent made an epic escape from Boer captivity. He wrote histories, biographies, memoirs, and even a novel, while his journalism, speeches and broadcasts run to millions of words. From 1940 he inspired and united the British people on the brink of defeat and guided their war effort first to resist and ultimately to crush the Axis powers. Sir Winston Churchill was also a man of vast humanity and enormous wit. His most famous speeches and sayings have passed into history but many of his aphorisms, puns and jokes are less well known. This enchanting collection brings together hundreds of his wittiest and wickedest quips as a record of all that was best about this lovable, infuriatingly conceited, wildly funny, and brilliantly talented Englishman.

This was one of the books on my son's Christmas list last year and, once he was finished with it, I decided to read it too, because both he and I are huge fans of the grand old man of British politics. While Churchill has as many faults as the rest of us, I believe he was the leader that  Britain needed during the last World War: a man of courage, wicked wit (truly) and a formidable rhetoric that was capable of moving a nation to go on and do heroic things. This short book is a compilation of some of his lesser known puns, jokes (often at the expense of others) and wicked outlook on life.

A Thousand Days in Venice by Marlena de Blasi

When Fernando spots her in a Venice cafe and knows immediately that she is The One, Marlena de Blasi is caught off guard. A divorced American woman travelling through Italy, she thought she was satisfied with her life. Yet within a few months, she quits her job as a chef, sells her house, kisses her two grown-up kids goodbye, and moves to Venice. Once there, she finds herself sitting in sugar-scented pasticcerie, strolling through sixteenth-century palazzi, renovating an apartment overlooking the seductive Adriatic Sea, and preparing to wed a virtual stranger in an ancient stone church.

As this transplanted American learns the hard way about the peculiarities of Venetian culture, we are treated to an honest, often comic view of how two middle-aged people, both set in their ways but also set on being together, build a life. A THOUSAND DAYS IN VENICE is filled with the foods and flavours of Italy and peppered with recipes and culinary observations. But the main course here is about a woman who falls in love with both a man and a city, and finally finds the home she didn't know she was missing.

I don't even know what to say. This is a book about Venice. If this city has seduced you like it has me, then you will love this book. It you've never visited  Venice, this book will make you want to take the first plane to her shores. Marlena de Blasi really captures the essence of La Serenissima and this book reads a little bit like a love-letter to Venice. I found the prose to be exquisite, poetic even, and it brought to life the sights, sounds and smells of this very unique city, transporting me to its maze of alleys, canals and squares without the trouble of leaving my couch. Of course, it also desperately made me want to go back as soon as I am able to.

After Auschwitz by Eva Schloss

Eva was arrested by the Nazis on her fifteenth birthday and sent to Auschwitz. Her survival depended on endless strokes of luck, her own determination and the love and protection of her mother Fritzi, who was deported with her.

When Auschwitz was liberated, Eva and Fritzi began the long journey home. They searched desperately for Eva's father and brother, from whom they had been separated. The news came some months later. Tragically, both men had been killed.

Before the war, in Amsterdam, Eva had become friendly with a young girl called Anne Frank. Though their fates were very different, Eva's life was set to be entwined with her friend's for ever more, after her mother Fritzi married Anne's father Otto Frank in 1953.

This is a searingly honest account of how an ordinary person survived the Holocaust. Eva's memories and descriptions are heart-breakingly clear, her account brings the horror as close as it can possibly be.

But this is also an exploration of what happened next, of Eva's struggle to live with herself after the war and to continue the work of her step-father Otto, ensuring that the legacy of Anne Frank is never forgotten.

 This is a book about heartbreak and hope. It is a memoir about a Europe that few people remember and events that we should never forget. Perhaps we tend to associate anti-Semitism with Germany and with the Nazis but this book makes it apparent that it was rampant all over Europe and that, what started in Germany, could have started almost anywhere if there were people who were willing to fan the flames. 

Eva survived Auschwitz but she carried the deep emotional scars from her experience there with her for many, many years. It was only after she started to talk about the horrors that she had kept bottled inside her that she was able to let go of some of the pain and start to heal.

Naturally, this is not the sort of book that will bring a smile to your face, but Eva's courage and determination shine through this very matter-of-fact memoir. Despite the  heavy subject matter, After Auschwitz is very readable because Eva chooses to move forward rather then dwell on what is already past.

The Italian Wife by Kate Furnivall

Italy, 1932 -- Mussolini's Italy is growing from strength to strength, but at what cost?

One bright autumn morning, architect Isabella Berotti sits at a café in the vibrant centre of Bellina, when a woman she's never met asks her to watch her ten-year-old daughter, just for a moment. Reluctantly, Isabella agrees -- and then watches in horror as the woman climbs to the top of the town's clock tower and steps over the edge.

This tragic encounter draws vivid memories to the surface, forcing Isabella to probe deeper into the secrets of her own past as she tries to protect the young girl from the authorities. Together with charismatic photographer Roberto Falco, Isabella is about to discover that secrets run deeper, and are more dangerous, than either of them could have possibly imagined . . .

This book has a tight plot with many twists and turns but the author manages to give nothing away until the very end. The characters felt real, flawed and with many secrets - a little bit like most of us. I never lost interest in the story or found any parts of it heavy-going. The pace was pretty fast and, yes, the protagonists had quite a few close brushes with extreme danger that they managed to get out of by pure luck, but this didn't detract from my enjoyment of the narrative. The Italian Wife made me feel on edge several times but I consider that to be something positive as it kept me reading to find out how it was all going to end. I think that this book has enough drama to make a great movie that will appeal to both sexes.

I don't want to make this longer than necessary, so I will not review any more books, but I do want to mention that many of my lady readers will probably enjoy Siena Summer, The House By The Sea and Flight Patterns. All of them are great summer reads and, for the most part, have a happy ending.

You may find a short review of Siena Summer on my Instagram here.

If would like to take a look at the books I read during the first three months of this year, you may do so here.

Happy reading!