January Reads

Winter is the perfect time to read!  I love to read - not surprising for a retired librarian.  In my years as Middle School librarian I was spending most of my reading time reading titles geared to that grade level and young adult titles to use with reading classes and help with recommendations to students.  I loved it - and I read many great books - and still continue to read YA titles, but I love being able to read "adult" books at my leisure.  

I like to set a reading goal for myself each year on Goodreads.  Last year my goal was 52 - a book a week - and I almost did not make it due to my broken wrist, surgery, and travels.  I just got to reach my goal on the last day of the year.  This year is a BIG year for me - I turn 70!  Still having a hard time wrapping my head around that number...but decided that 70 would be my reading goal for the year.  So far, so good....I am 8 books in so far and on track to meet my goal.  

Here are the books I read in January

World War II comes to Farleigh Place, the ancestral home of Lord Westerham and his five daughters, when a soldier with a failed parachute falls to his death on the estate. After his uniform and possessions raise suspicions, MI5 operative and family friend Ben Cresswell is covertly tasked with determining if the man is a German spy. The assignment also offers Ben the chance to be near Lord Westerham’s middle daughter, Pamela, whom he furtively loves. But Pamela has her own secret: she has taken a job at Bletchley Park, the British code-breaking facility.

Historical Fiction is my favorite genre, and this title did not disappoint.  Great story involving history and mystery! I gave this 5 stars.

One day, five lives, but whose hearts will be broken by nightfall?
It started like any other day in the picturesque village of Weirbridge.

This was an easy read and a good story - I gave it 4 stars.

A historical thriller by the Pulitzer and National Book Award-winning author that tells the riveting story of the Klan's rise to power in the 1920s, the cunning con man who drove that rise, and the woman who stopped them.

This was my Book Club book for January...I read this book in 24 hours.  It was amazing....I don't usually read nonfiction, but this was fascinating, scarily like events happening in our world today, and easy to read.  I gave it 5 stars!

1938. Dr. Ho Fengshan, consul general of China, is posted in Vienna with his American wife, Grace. Shy and ill at ease with the societal obligations of diplomats’ wives, Grace is an outsider in a city beginning to feel the sweep of the Nazi dragnet. When Grace forms a friendship with her Jewish tutor, Lola Schnitzler, Dr. Ho requests that Grace keep her distance. His instructions are to maintain amicable relations with the Third Reich, and he and Grace are already under their vigilant eye.
But when Lola’s family is subjugated to a brutal pogrom, Dr. Ho decides to issue them visas to Shanghai. As violence against the Jews escalates after Kristallnacht, and threats mount, Dr. Ho must issue thousands more to help Jews escape Vienna before World War II explodes.
Based on a remarkable true story, Night Angels explores the risks brave souls took and the love and friendship they built and lost while fighting against incalculable evil.

Another historical fiction - and my favorite WWII era.  This was a great book about the wife of the Chinese diplomat to Vienna in 1939.  I had heard the the Chinese Consulate there gave visas to Jews trying to escape the terror in Vienna - and this was a great fictionalized story about that terrible time.  I love that these authors of historical fiction add the history and research facts in their author's notes.

I gave this 4 stars.

Oona Kelly Webster has much to be grateful for… A striking woman with red hair and green eyes, she has a loving family and a job she adores, editing a prestigious line of books.  To celebrate their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary, she and her husband Charles have planned a visit to France.
But then Charles drops a bombshell.  He has been living a lie--hiding an affair for a year—and he is leaving Oona for a younger male lover.
Although devastated, Oona decides to travel to France without Charles. She arrives in a charming village an hour outside of Paris, and settles into the house she has rented, called La Belle Florence—named after the king’s mistress for whom it was built. But just as she’s catching her breath, she’s dealt another   her company’s merger will eliminate her job. 
In the space of a few months, everything she nurtured for decades has slipped through her fingers. 

I like to read something light in between historical fiction - and this fit the bill.  I can read a Danielle Steel book quickly, I like the descriptions of Paris...and I laughingly call these my "tub books" because they are perfect reading while taking a bubble bath!

I gave this one 4 stars.

The Goddess Of Warsaw is an enthralling story of a legendary Hollywood screen goddess with a dark secret. When the famous actress Lena Browning is threatened by someone from her war-time past, she must put her skills into play to protect herself, her illustrious career, and those she loves, then and now.
Before she was a “Living Legend”, Lena Browning was Bina Blonski, a wealthy Polish Jew whose life and prominent family were destroyed by the Nazis and imprisoned with the rest of Warsaw's Jews in a ghastly ghetto. Determined to fight back, the beautiful, blonde Aryan-looking Bina becomes a spy and an assassin, gaining information and stealing weapons outside the Warsaw ghetto to protect her family and fellow Jews. While Bina accomplishes amazing feats of bravery, she sacrifices much in the process – including a forbidden love.

Another historical fiction book - and since we will be visiting Warsaw next month I found this book very interesting.  The details about the ghetto and the war and it's aftermath made for a great read.  A little bit bloody and violent, but I was okay with that.

I gave this one 4 stars.

It is 1985 in a small Irish town. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal merchant and family man faces into his busiest season. Early one morning, while delivering an order to the local convent, Bill makes a discovery which forces him to confront both his past and the complicit silences of a town controlled by the church.

I had heard great things about this book and it did not disappoint.  I especially enjoyed it as my father was a coal miner and delivered coal in the small town where I grew up...so much of it reminded me of him.  And, the story was so moving - a great read.  I gave this 5 stars!  I listened to this while on the treadmill and it made the time go by quickly and the Irish narrator made the story even more enjoyable!

A sumptuous novel based on the fascinating true story of Belle Epoque icon Lucy, Lady Duff Gordon, a woman determined to shatter the boundaries of the fashion world and support herself and her young daughter with her magnificent designs.
Lucy Duff Gordon knows she is talented. She sees color, light, fabric, and texture in ways few other people do. But is the world ready for her? A world dominated by men who would try to control her and use her art for their own gain?
After being deserted by her wealthy husband, Lucy is desperate to survive. She turns to her one true talent to make a living. As a little girl, the dresses she made for her dolls were the envy of her group of playmates. Now, she uses her courageous innovations in Belle Époque fashion to support her own little girl. Lucile knows it is an uphill battle, and a single woman is not supposed to succeed on her own, but she refuses to give up. She will claim her place in the fashion world; failure simply is not an option.
Then, on a frigid night in 1912, Lucy’s life changes once more, when she becomes one of 706 people to survive the sinking of the Titanic. She could never have imagined the effects the disaster would have on her career, her marriage to her second husband, and her legacy. But no matter what life throws at her, Lucile will live on as a trailblazing and fearless fashion icon, never letting go of what she worked so hard to earn. This is her story.

I had heard of Lady Duff Gordon being on the Titanic...but I never knew the back story of her life.  It was a great look into how women were treated in Victorian times. The descriptions of the dresses she created were wonderful, and I loved that she found love with Cosmo Duff Gordon - but in reading this you will find that the Titanic disaster did more than take so many lives...it destroyed the lives of those who survived.  Once again, I was thankful for the author's notes that explained what was fiction and what had actually happened.

I gave this book 4 stars.

OK...that was my start on the path to 70 books for this year.  Can I do it ?  Stay tuned!  I am starting a new book today and listening to a good one on the treadmill, too.  

What are you reading ?  Do you use anything like Goodreads to keep track of what you read?  What is your favorite genre ?  Do you prefer paper books, reading a digital book, or listening to an audiobook?

I would love to hear from you and hear your suggestions for some good books - please leave a comment below.  I love hearing from you!  

Wishing everyone a great February - that groundhog saw his shadow so we are supposed to be in for 6 more weeks of winter.  Gloomy skies, snow, cold, rain - perfect weather for reading !