2012 eBooks

Home Front, Kristin Hannah’s newest novel, affected me on so many levels. It tells the story of how a family deals with life when one of the parents is deployed to Iraq. It paints a very real picture of how people’s lives are affected by war. Not only does the war greatly change the life of the service person, it also really has a huge impact on those left on the home front trying to deal with the absence of their family member.

Jolene is in the military as a Black Hawk helicopter pilot for the National Guard. She’s been training since she was eighteen years old which is when she met her best friend Tami and they’ve been flying together since. She met Michael, her now husband, first as a young woman when her parents had both died. He told her to come back when she was older and that’s just what she did. They were meant to be. Years later they have two daughters Betsy and Lucy. As life goes, the marriage seems to be on some pretty rough ground and when one night Michael tells Jolene he no longer loves her, she is stunned.

One thing to understand about Jolene is she had a bad childhood and was the product of two parents who showed her no love at all. Her life is all about the love she has for her husband and children but her positivity and always looking on the bright side is beginning to get to her husband. Jolene has no idea what to do – will they get a divorce. Well she doesn’t have long to wonder because within days she is deployed. Michael is livid as he has never supported her service in the army. He doesn’t agree with the war and therefore doesn’t agree with her putting so much time into it and now to leave her daughters who need her so much – well he doesn’t get it. He doesn’t stop to think about how hard it is for Jolene to leave her girls.

Jolene and Tami leave and life in Iraq is even worse than they had imagined. They are constantly in danger. Home is what keeps them going but for Jolene her thoughts always venture to the night her husband told her he didn’t love her anymore. Michael, back at home, is getting a quick lesson in how to be a parent and pretty much sucking at it at first. However as time goes on Michael begins to realize how important family is and the value of spending time with them. At the same time he begins to question his feelings for Jolene again, wondering if not part of the problem laid with him and his issues.

That’s all I’m going to say because to say more would ruin the story for others. I loved this book. I loved the story and the sentimentality that went along with it. I suggest a box of tissues when you sit down with this novel. What I really took away from this novel was a new-found respect for our military. I have always had nothing but respect and awe for all that they do for us but what I found with this book is I put myself in the shoes of those going; those having to walk away from their children into such an unknown future. When you think about the horrors they experience at war and then come home, often wounded in ways we can’t imagine, they really need our support and understanding. They’ve fought for us – now we need to step up and fight for them.

Home Front will stay with me for a long while. It’s one of those stories that I enjoyed and read quickly but more than that it really made me think and those types of stories I do not forget. An excellent read!

Source:  Review copy provided by the publicist.  No compensation was received for this review and all opinions are solely my own.

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I want to start this review off by saying I was deeply moved by The Night Sky: A Journey from Dachau to Denver and Back by Maria Sutton. At thirteen years old Maria overhears a conversation between her mother and a friend that impacts her in so many ways. Maria learns that the man who has cared for her for all her years is not actually her father; a man named Jozef Kurek is. This knowledge sets Maria on a journey to find out who this man was and why he would abandon his family. It takes her forty-three years but eventually she uncovers things about her family that she never could have imagined and met an extended family who will forever have a place in her life. She finally has her history – a history that she can pass down to her children and generations to come.

It all begins with World War II and three people: Jozef Kurek, Maria’s biological father, Julia, her mother, and Wasyl, her uncle and mother’s brother. In trying to find her father, she re-traces the lives of her parents as they tried to survive the war. For many years her mother wouldn’t talk of that time in her life but as she got older she began speaking of it. Maria gleaned information from things her mother would say and hours upon hours of research. She learns that her mother was an amazing and strong woman who survived horrible conditions; a woman who refused to give up on life or her children even when it seemed all was lost and a woman who married a man she didn’t love (but grew to care about) in order to give her children a better life in America. Her father Jozef was a man who she held high in her mind but as she learns more about him she finds he isn’t the man she had hoped he’d be. Her Uncle Wasyl she had to find for her mother as they were separated when they were young and her mother had always missed him.

Maria was consumed although I guess some would call it obsessed with finding out everything she could. At one point she even hired a KGB agent to help her find her Uncle Wasyl. Her mother was already eighty-eight and Wasyl eighty-five when they finally got to see each other again after sixty-five years. She knew how important it was for them to meet before it was too late and when they did I sobbed it was so beautiful. I greatly admired her dedication and desire to find out as much as she could about her family’s past. To be able to go back in history like that and visit the places you knew your parents had been is an experience in itself. It made me remember going to the farms where my parents grew up. They were just little shacks really – a kitchen, two rooms. To let your mind go back and think of your parents sitting in those kitchens or playing in the woods was something I’ll never forget so I could relate to Maria’s experience in that way. For her to sit down and write a memoir such as this was a labor of love. Even though not everything turned out how Maria would have liked it, this was still a journey well taken.

I would not hesitate to recommend this memoir to those who love to read them or those who have an interest in WWII because there is a wealth of information regarding it in this book. For me, I loved how Maria weaved history in with the personal side of her parent’s lives. To me that’s what made this memoir different from others. I have always been interested in books regarding WWII and the people who lived through it so that was a huge reason I was interested in this book to begin with but it turned out to be so much more for me. As much as the way people were treated by the people working for Hitler horrifies me I feel the need to read the books. I think for me it’s to give respect to those who lost their lives and those who survived by sheer force of will. It’s important that none of us forget what happened so that it never happens again.  It’s also interesting to note that many people know that millions of Jewish people lost their lives but so did many Ukrainian/Polish people. It made me grateful that my Ukrainian grandparents had all immigrated to Canada long before this war.

Well I could certainly go on but this is a book you need to experience for yourself. This memoir really did touch my heart. It’s a heart wrenching story and yet hopeful as well. It’s a story of survival, courage, determination, and a lot of love. My one regret reading this is that I had an e-copy from the author and apparently the book has photos as well. I would have loved to see those as I think they would have added so much to the story itself. The Night Sky is a very powerful memoir and one that is well worth reading!

GIVEAWAY DETAILS

I have one copy of The Night Sky:  A Journey from Dachau to Denver and Back by Maria Sutton to share with my readers.  To enter…

• For 1 entry simply leave me a comment entering the giveaway.
• For 2 entries, follow my blog.  If you already do, thank you, and please let me know in your comment so I can pass the extra entry on to you as well.
• For 3 entries, blog or tweet this giveaway to spread the word.

This giveaway is open to Open to US, Canada, UK, Australia, Germany, Poland, Russia, and Ukraine (no PO boxes) and I will draw for the winner on Saturday, February 11/12. Good luck!

Source: Review copy provided by the author. No compensation was received for this review and all opinions are solely my own.

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It is 1930’s Shanghai and Feng is just a young woman of seventeen. She has grown up in the shadow of her sister as the second born and realizes she holds no importance in the family. Her sister has been groomed to marry into a family that will ultimately further her own family along. The wedding is set but Feng’s sister falls ill and passes away. Feng’s family must save face and therefore offer up their other daughter in marriage instead. Innocent in every way Feng is quickly thrown into a world that terrifies her and steals her innocence away.

Feng is married into the powerful and rich family of the Sangs. Feng has no idea of the ways between men and women but her husband seems to be kind when he isn’t around the rest of his family. Much of the trouble starts when he visits her bedroom. At first he is patient and doesn’t push her too hard but after being humiliated by his mother he forces himself on Feng. The most important thing to the family is for Feng to produce an heir – a son. As naive as Feng is she does understand that her role is to produce an heir and eventually she does become pregnant. Her first pregnancy doesn’t go according to plan and she loses the child but what she gains from it is some power over others in the house including her husband. After Feng’s son is born she devotes herself to him and while she and her husband don’t live together as man and wife anymore they are civil and enjoy each others company.

As time goes on Feng’s son grows into a young man that both of his parents are proud of. Yet something lurks in Feng’s past and it is about to rear it’s ugly head. When confronted with the awful truth of something she had done in the past she runs from everything she has ever known. She heads straight into a China that is in a political turmoil leaving behind the security and privileged life she has led as part of the Sang family. Life is not so easy for Feng in the outside world but as she has made mistakes in her past, she feels that it is nothing she doesn’t deserve.

The journey through Feng’s life was many times difficult to read because of the way women were treated. It’s hard to imagine in our world that baby girls are considered useless and nothing but a disappointment. It’s hard to imagine that women would have baby girls taken away at birth instead of suffering the humiliation of having born one. A world where a woman’s only goal in life is to please her husband and have no say in anything at all is certainly one I’m glad to not have been born into. I have long been interested in reading novels about Chinese culture because it does fascinate me. I love the way they hold tradition and customs in high esteem but when saving face means really hurting people it’s something that is upsetting. Yet will I stop reading these books – no because I still love learning about their traditions, ways, and their food. These books will always fascinate me even while the treatment of women upsets me.

All the Flowers in Shanghai is the debut novel of Duncan Jepson and it was a good one for me. I look forward to reading more from this author. I read All the Flowers in Shanghai for Duncan’s book tour with TLC Book Tours. Be sure to check out what others have thought of the novel here and pop into Duncan’s website as well!  You can pick up your own copy of All the Flowers in Shanghai by Duncan Jepson here in the US and here in Canada.

Source: Review copy provided by TLC Book Tours and the publisher. No compensation was received for this review and all opinions expressed are my own.

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