A Book Recommendation

I'm going to finish this week with a book recommendation. My book club is reading Melanie Benjamin's historical fiction The Aviator's Wife. I told the friend who is hosting that I would be out of town for the meeting so I wouldn't take the book that she was handing out. She said she had enough and suggested that I read it and return it to her before I left town. I'm so glad she gave me the opportunity to read this book but also sorry that I won't be here for the discussion that my book club will have.

The book is a fictionalized account of the marriage of Charles Lindbergh and Anne Morrow Lindbergh written as if Anne is telling the story. Melanie Benjamin does extensive research for a book of this type, then uses fiction technique to tell the story, aiming for as close to truth as possible. So, the reader must read knowing that it's a mixture of fact mixed with the author's thoughts as to what happened.

Older generations are familiar with the Lindbergh story--his solo flight across the Atlantic in 1927 giving him instant hero status and the kidnapping of their first child. Both stories captivated our nation. This book gives us those stories and more, concentrating on the marriage and relationship of these two American celebrities.

We see Anne both loving and disliking her husband. We see her strike out to become a person in her own right, not just the wife of Charles Lindbergh or the mother of a child who was kidnapped. Anne lived first as an Ambassador's daughter and then as the Aviator's wife. Dubbing her that way was partly a sign of the times--the 20's, 30's and 40's but it also showed her submissive personality in her younger years.

The Lindberghs had five more children, continued to fly toghether in the early years of the marriage, and traveled the world extensively.They were hounded by the press wherever they were. The book covers the years prior to WWII when Charles became an admirer of Adolf Hitler, causing the American people to remove the aviator from the pedestal they had placed him upon years earlier. Anne was similarly chastised by her fellow Americans, as well. They were somewhat redeemed by Charles' work for our country during WWII.but the shine was never quite the same.

When Anne Morrow Lindbergh wrote her acclaimed Gift From The Sea in the mid-fifties, I was one of the avid readers. It's a small book of essays that speaks to women. I so enjoyed the book that I've read it more than once. It's still available in many libraries and at Amazon.

I found The Aviator's Wife a fascinating read, a fine study of a marriage and the differing personalities of people who are attracted to one another. I sympathized with Anne many times and wanted to shake her and tell her to stand on her own two feet and defy her controlling husband at times, too. I cheered when she finally becomes her own person.

Give this book a try to learn some history and to have a satisfying read.

You Might Like This Book

                           

                                                                          Henry Mazel

I read the short stories of Henry Mazel a number of years ago at Our Echo, a website where writers can post their work. No worries about submitting and waiting for acceptance. Anyone who has a desire to post a story, essay, poem or musing can participate. It stands to reason that there will be many different levels of writing ability in this kind of venue. For me, Henry stood out as one of the more professional writers who always wrote stories that held my interest. He writes well with doses of humor scattered throughout, along with interesting facts of earlier eras. You can find a list of links to the stories he shared at Our Echo here.

A few months ago, I saw on facebook that Henry had published a novel called Red Chrysanthemum. The title and book cover both intrigued me. When I learned that the story was set in Occupied Japan immediately after the Japanese surrender at the end of WWII, I knew I wanted to read it. For several reasons. I like stories set in that era, I like novels that give a good historical picture of the WWII period, and I had gotten to know Henry through some story comments we left for one another and a few emails so I wanted to read his book. I purchased it on Amazon. And then it sat in a stack of books I had acquired but not had time to read.

I took Red Chrysanthemum with me when we drove to Dallas late last week. I read in the car both directions and finished the book just in time to devote my full attention to the fantastic fall scenery in the Flint Hills as we neared home.

The book is historical fiction, a detective story, and a love story woven into the mystery that Lieutenant Alex Rada falls into through his job in post-war Tokyo working as a translator for the Army. Rada is a wise-cracking disgraced ex-cop partenered with a Japanese man who works for the Occupation forces. It's a fast paced, easy read if you like detective stories. We get glimpses of what Occupied Japan was like immediately following the surrender, we see the softer side of Rada when he falls in love with a half-Japanese woman who is part of the mystery. A novel like this is a painless way to learn a history lesson. Anyone who lived through the 1940's will enjoy the celebrity names tossed in here and there. Many brought a smile as I remembered seeing or hearing them (movies and radio) in my growing-up years. There are political and military figures that will be familiar to readers, as well.

The author included a glossary of people and terms as well as a bibliography of books with information of that same period in time. A nice surprise in the middle of the book is a group of  photos taken in Occupied Japan.

If you like history and detective stories with a love interest, then you'll probably enjoy reading Red Chrysanthemum. The cover itself is a draw. My husband noticed it sitting on an end table at our son's this weekend, picked it up, read the back cover blurb and said, "I think I'd like to read this when you're finished." Kudos to Henry for a book cover that draws interest to his story within the covers.

Another Good Read

A friend told me she and her hsuband had been listening to the audio version of a book that they were both enjoying. She told me enough about 1222 by Anne Holt to inspire me to get it from my library. I had to put a request in and wait a few weeks for it. Always a good sign. 

Anne Holt is a Norwegian author who is well known and popular in her own country. She writes mysteries, and if the others are like this one, I would say that they capture your interest immediately and hold you fast. One review I read stated that this is Ms. Holt's first book to be translated into English. I am guessing it will not be the last. 

The title alone draws interest. The number refers to the number of meters above sea level where a train derails during a blizzard of epic proportions. Hanne  Wilhelmsen and 268 other passengers are stranded in a nearby hotel while the blizzard rages. Hanne is an ex-police officer who had been shot a few years earlier. She is a paraplegic, confined to a wheelchair, accepting of her situation but withdrawn. The only death in the accident was the engineer. But deaths begin to happen at the hotel and Hanne is reluctantly drawn into an investigation. To add to the mix, there was an extra car on the train bearing unknown people who are whisked away to a top floor apartment where an armed guard keeps watch. 

We meet many of the stranded travelers, many of whom are not the most savory characters. Some are troubled souls while others are belligerent, angry people. We move through the days the passengers are trapped in the hotel with plummeting temps and huge amounts of snow allowing no one to leave or for rescuers to reach the stranded people. 

Even though a mystery, the novel is character driven--even the snowstorm is a character in this well written novel. What I especially liked was that the characters were not pretty pictures drawn up by an author, they were often flawed, often hard to like. The reader gains a new perspective for people who spend their days bound to a wheelchair. The story moves along with new turns often enough to keep a reader turning the pages eagerly. 

If you like mysteries and suspense stories, I'd recommend that you give this one a try. 

A Good Read

A friend loaned me a copy of Laura Hillenbrand's latest book, Unbroken  She made a good case for the book. "It's a wonderful story of a man in a Japanese POW camp during WWII. You'll like it." I wasn't so sure after I'd read the summary on the inside cover, but the blurbs on the back cover promised a terrific read. I sat down one evening to begin this non-fiction  story, promising myself I would quit if it was too much blood and gore. 

I'd read and enjoyed Ms. Hillenbrand's earlier book Seabiscuit, so I already knew she was an excellent writer. She has the ability to create non-fiction that reads like a novel. It took very little time before I found myself hooked. I created more reading time than normal so that I could continue the story Yes, it was hard to lay it down when the clock had long passed my normal bedtime. 

The book tells the story of Louis Zamperini, born in 1917 in California. He found himself constantly in trouble until he starts running races in his teen years. He ran so hard and so fast that he ran right into being an Olympic star, competing in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. WWII interrupted his plan to run even faster in the 1940 Olympics. 

Instead, he became a bombardier airman in the Pacific theater. His plane was shot down, and he and two other airmen drifted in the Pacific Ocean for 47 days fighting extreme hunger and thirst, constant shark attacks and more. Their rescue comes with a bitter pill for it is Japanese soldier who find them. Louie is taken to a POW camp in Japan where he meets trial upon trial in three POW camps, one of which is run by a sadistic commander who delights in putting Louie through more than most men could endure.

It is almost beyond belief that a human being survived the degradation and harsh living conditions but survive he did. While reading, I feared for him and I cheered for him. I hurt inside at some of the things he endured. And I ended up being amazed at what he did with his life after the war ended and he went home. 

The subtitle of the book is A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption which is a perfect description of this deeply researched, well-told story. The book is quite simply unforgettable. That is partly due to Louie's story but also to the outstanding story-telling ability of Ms. Hillenbrand.