Audibook Review : The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
Written By: amodini
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Jul•
28•21
Author : Kristin Hannah
Genre : Historical
Publisher : Macmillan Audio
Narrator : Polly Stone
Listening Length : 17 hours 19 minutes
Rating : ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Narrator: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Kristin Hannah’s Nightingale is about 2 French sisters in World War II. When Hitler invades France, Vianne Mauriac the elder sister is living happily with husband Antoine and daughter Sophy in the small village of Carriveau. The younger and more impetuous sister, 18 year old Isabelle, is in a finishing school having been rusticated from several different educational institutions. She does not last long at the Finishing school either and makes her way back to her widower father in Paris. When the Nazi soldiers march into Paris, Isabelle’s father sends Isabelle to Vienne for safety, but once there Isabelle chafes to join the active fight against the Germans.
As the occupation grows and German atrocities rise along with the targeting of Jews – first foreign-born and then all – many of whom are friends and neighbors, both sisters’ lives take very different paths. Vianne, meeker and responsible for Sophy with Antoine gone off to fight, asks no questions and tries to keep her head down, and deal with the situation a day at a time, even when that entails having a German officer “billet” in her home. Isabelle meets up with the underground protestors and becomes initially the secret distributor of resistance literature, and later comes to be known as The Nightingale, responsible for getting downed British and American Allied pilots back to safety.
I haven’t read/heard Kristin Hannah’s work before but The Nightingale is a great introduction. Although World War tales are not my cup of tea, The Nightingale is compelling reading. Hannah details out her storylines – the events in the book are major world events – and fleshes out her characters with great care, so that we know them intimately and are with them on their rocky roads. Her words show us the progression of evil in visceral detail – poverty, hunger, oppression, families being separated and taken to “work” camps in Germany, being hunted and targeted for one’s religion – and the changes it brings in the two sisters.
Narrator Polly Stone is fantastic. She gives each of the sisters their distinct personalities and even does the male voices well. This is a big book – lots of detail, most of it minutiae and personal – and while I may not have been able to maintain the momentum had I read it, it was a compelling listen because of Stone.
Book Review : Force of Nature by Jane Harper
Written By: amodini
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Jun•
30•21
Author : Jane Harper
Genre : Mystery
Publisher : Little Brown
Pages : 347
Rating : ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 1/2
Five women, Jill Bailey, Alice Russell, Lauren Shaw, twins Breanna and Bethany, go out on an office-sponsored survivalist-style corporate retreat, a moderately challenging exercise where they will have to make their way from one point to another in the Australian outback, trekking with essential supplies. 5 women go into the wilderness and only 4 come out on the other end. Alice Russell is missing – either of her own volition or worse. The police is called in and Federal Agents Aaron Falk and Carmen Cooper are roped in because they were already secretly investigating the family-run BaileyTennants for possible financial wrongdoing.
The present-day narrative (when Alice has already gone missing) is interspersed with events from the womens’ journey. Personal accounts from each of the women differ in their view of events Also, it comes to light that Alice had wanted to turn back from the trek at the very outset (Team Leader and BaileyTennants CFO Jill disallows it) and was privately accosted by CEO Dan Bailey during the trek, himself a part of the men’s team in a similar office-sponsored trek. Falk is worried that BaileyTennants had found out about Alice secretly smuggling financial documents to the police.
Jane Harper’s plots are interesting conundrums and this one is no different. On the face of it the retreat is supposed to be a pleasant, bonding experience, but Harper manages to imbue it with dread and creepiness. The outback is harsh and unyielding, easy to get lost in for one stepping off the beaten track. The women in the group aren’t the best of friends. Alice particularly is portrayed as a sharp-tongued, inconsiderate woman with little empathy.
Force of Nature is a suspenseful murder mystery. While I do love me a juicy Agatha Christie, mustachioed Belgian detective and all, Jane Harper’s version of the modern thriller is growing on me. I loved the slow burn of The Lost Man and the small-town intrigue of The Dry. Harper’s tales feel real and visceral and like Christie’s stem from ordinary folks, just like us, reaching the end of their tether. She draws her characters beautifully giving them believable back-stories and strews abundant red herrings to keep things interesting.
If you’re looking for a great murder mystery, look no further.
Book Review : Redhead by the Side of the Road by Anne Tyler
Written By: amodini
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Jun•
02•21
Author : Anne Tyler
Genre : Contemporary
Publisher : Knopf
Pages : 192
Rating : ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 1/2
I recently read Ladder of Years and liked it very much. So I picked up “Redhead by the side of the Road” and like it even better!
This is a story of people – most are – but Tyler tells them so much better than everyone else. Micah Mortimer is a creature of habit. He’s got a side-gig as the Tech Hermit where he helps various technologically challenged folks with their issues. His main gig is being the superintendent of a Baltimore apartment building. He is living a content, low-key life when trouble strikes in the form of Brink, a teenager who says he’s Micah’s son. Also Micah’s “woman-friend”, the gentle undemanding Cass is facing eviction from her own apartment, but Micah’s humorous retort on hearing of it rubs her the wrong way.
Micah finds his life suddenly upended and he isn’t quite sure why. He is a good guy, he thinks, trying to do the right thing. He has built his life around people he loves, and at this juncture to restart, rebuild! He is not sure he can.
When I think of a word to describe the effect of Tyler’s writing, one word always pops up : heartfelt. Heartachingly heartfelt. Tyler’s writing is perceptive and empathetic. Her characters have life-changing quandaries before them, quandaries such as you and I might face, and she describes her protagonists, their situations and the people around them so beautifully – and often with humor-laced descriptions – that one is moved.
Micah of course is an easy character to root for – a good kind man who cannot see where he’s failed the ones he loves. And it’s not because he doesn’t love them enough.
Sometimes when he was dealing with people, he felt like he was operating one of those claw machines on a boardwalk, those shovel things where you tried to scoop up a prize but the controls were too unwieldy and you worked at too great a remove.
Still all is well that ends well. Highly recommend this heartwarming novel.
Book Review : The Art of Racing in The Rain by Garth Stein
Written By: amodini
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May•
08•21
Author : Garth Stein
Genre : Contemporary
Publisher : Harper
Pages : 321
Rating : 4.2/5
The protagonist of this tale is a dog. Literally a dog. His name is Enzo and he is the faithful pet of racecar driver Dennis. He tells us Dennis’s story from his doggy point of view – Dennis’s fluctuating career, the love of his life Eve and their daughter Zoe. Of course, he’s a dog so he can’t go everywhere but he presumes and he surmises and he ties stuff together to make a cohesive story complete with philosophical musings and natterings about his favorite films, and racecars and television programs.
People are always worried about what’s happening next. They often find it difficult to stand still, to occupy the now without worrying about the future. People are generally not satisfied with what they have; they are very concerned with what they are going to have.
Enzo believes that he will be reborn as a human and he prepares by gleaning knowledge and learning from watching people, events and the television. He talks but no-one can hear him, which he knows and accepts. He can also sense emotion – happiness, sadness, anger and grief from the faces and voices of his people and he responds to their needs by being the best dog he can be. I don’t own a dog but if I ever did, I’d want one like Enzo. Enzo is lovely.
When I return to the world, I will be a man. I will walk among you. I will lick my lips with my small, dexterous tongue. I will shake hands with other men, grasping firmly with my opposable thumbs. And I will teach all people that I know. And when I see a man or a woman or a child in trouble, I will extend my hand, both metaphorically and physically. I will offer my hand. To him. To her. To you. To the world. I will be a good citizen, a good partner in the endeavour of life that we all share.
Through Enzo’s telling, we get to know Dennis, his family and friends, and it is an interesting story with lots of emotional push and pull – left me weepy-eyed. Dennis is a good guy but he has some very hard times to go through and we are rooting for him because Enzo is. The story goes backwards and forwards in time to give us the whole picture, but it is coherent and well-paced.
A heartwarming read – recommended.
Book Review : The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey
Written By: amodini
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Apr•
07•21
Author : Sujata Massey
Genre : Mystery
Publisher : Soho Crime
Pages : 432
Rating : 4/5
Young Perveen Mistry has just joined her father’s law firm. Although she has her law degree Perveen cannot practice in the courtroom because of the current laws preventing women from being admitted to the bar. Perveen handles wills, contracts and other office work, and while doing so reads the documents for Mr. Farid’s will. Farid was a wealthy client and on his death his assets are to be split among his three wives, all of whom live in strict purdah. In the paperwork though, the three wives have signed over their inheritance to a wakf (charitable trust). Perveen is perturbed for the widows, because this signing away of their wealth could potentially mire them in penury.
Because the women are purdahnasheen, they will not speak to men outside of family. So while it is difficult for Perveen’s father to approach them, Perveen, the only female lawyer in all Bombay, can. As Perveen digs into the matter, she finds misinformation and deceit. She is threatened and attacked but persists; women’s rights are important to her as is plain justice.
This was such an entertaining book because of the description of the times – the culture, the people, society during the British occupation. I also read “Circling the Sun” around about the same time and it was fascinating to compare the lives of two women (McClain and Mistry) striving to make independent lives for themselves in very different societies during the 1920s, a time which curtailed women’s professional growth in favor of domesticity. Perveen, with her painful past, is a very interesting character. She is bright and bold, and supported by her forward thinking parents.
This is an engrossing mystery, although Massey’s writing can be clunky and the transitions abrupt. Still she keeps up the pace, peppering us with surprising discoveries, and mashing together past and present events coherently.Post-read I’m pleased to find that The Widows of Malabar Hill is the first of a series. I look forward to reading them all!
