31 Thursday May 2018
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My friend Hugh invited me to his latest blog post, taking us back to 1988 with his diary excerpts and myself taking him another 8 years back to 1980 and one of my all time favourite songs… and a small book plug while I’m there
30 Wednesday May 2018
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This is a rather thoughtful and entertaining travel diary with the common thread of football in the stories. The author, a fellow Welsh man, is a clear fanatic of the sport (soccer) and finds a football player, a football conversation or a game (either as viewer or player) almost everywhere in the world.
From North Korea to Brazil and Europe you’ll find him in a wide range of situations, from scary to funny, and you’ll read amazing reflections on sport, his family and the countries he has visited. From border patrol in Azerbijan, rigid tour guides in North Korea and encounters in Palestine – there is a lot non-football topics covered.
I listened to the author at a literature festival in Wales and was impressed with his ideas and views and had to get the book.
Time passed very fast while reading this book. I feel I learned about the countries and cultures visited and I hugely enjoyed the humorous parts, too. Beautiful writing and a narrative voice you’ll love following.
https://www.ylolfa.com/products/9781784612443/kicking-off-in-north-korea
Tim Hartley thinks his next best experience is around the corner, so he just keeps on travelling. He was a journalist with the BBC and a civil servant. He has also worked as a consultant in Europe, Central Asia and Africa. Hartley has an unhealthy interest in post-communist regimes and football. He has written about his obsession for the BBC’s From our Own Correspondent programme and for a number of newspapers and magazines. Hartley lives in Cardiff with his son Chester, who shares his interests, and his wife Helen, who humours the both. His mother-in-law in Port Talbot once said to him, “How many trips of a lifetime can you have, boy?”
26 Saturday May 2018
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My favourite surprise when going through my wordpress reader: a review of one of my books. Thank you so much Robbie for the five stars. So glad you enjoyed this book, which is very close to my heart.
It’s World War II and Ludwika Gierz, a young Polish woman, is forced to leave her family and go to Nazi Germany to work for an SS officer. There, she must walk a tightrope, learning to live as a second-class citizen in a world where one wrong word could spell disaster and every day could be her last. Based on real events, this is a story of hope amid despair, of love amid loss . . . ultimately, it’s one woman’s story of survival.
Editorial Review:
“This is the best kind of fiction—it’s based on the real life. Ludwika’s story highlights the magnitude of human suffering caused by WWII, transcending multiple generations and many nations.
WWII left no one unscarred, and Ludwika’s life illustrates this tragic fact. But she also reminds us how bright the human spirit can shine when darkness falls in that unrelenting way it…
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26 Saturday May 2018
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Some of you may be aware that I review also for Discovering Diamons.
We try our best to promote good historical fiction (and all its sub-genres) and not discriminate between how a book is produced, be it indie or traditionally published. Our aim is to be a trusted and reliable site for authors and readers alike. We highly value our visitors and thank you for your support and interest.
AMAZON UK £3.59
AMAZON US $5.02
AMAZON CA $4.81
Family drama / mystery
WWII
US
‘When Adelia, beautiful GI Bride, crosses an Ocean to be with a USAF pilot she takes with her a dark secret. Locked in her head is the identity of the father of her daughter, a US Major. When she reaches America, her fiancé, Bobby, isn’t there to meet her. He sent another man, the local undertaker, Gabriel Templar, in his place. Home in Virginia is not as promised. It’s a dirty place. It has a gated tower where a man hides from the light. It is crammed with secrets of its own. Adelia cannot remember her first love. Like the man in the tower, the memory of his face, how he used to look, is locked away. Amnesia holds the key to many doors. Adelia and her little daughter, Sophie, live in constant danger. Until one door is unlocked, and Lazarus returns from the dead, a lonely man with the name of an Archangel is all that stands between Adelia and fear.’
A Second Chance is a good story: A British war bride coming to live with an American soldier in 1942, despite hardly knowing him. She has her own secrets, an illegitimate child and on her arrival she finds a few surprises and mysteries, an absent husband and a hostile mother-in-law. The plot and the intrigue around the mystery kept me going throughout.
I felt that the overall presentation of the era and the characters was authentic and gives a great impression of war-time Virginia.
This is an enjoyable and compelling read that got me invested in the characters and, although being only one isolated such story, it gave me some fascinating insights into the psychology and reality of war brides.
© Christoph Fischer
25 Friday May 2018
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https://discoveringdiamonds.blogspot.co.uk/p/guest-spot6.html?m=1
I wrote the following Guest Spot: A Thank You to Richard Zimler in
May 2017
Last week I had the great pleasure of meeting the man himself and walk away from Lisbon with signed copies of his work.
Richard Zimler
I came across Richard Zimler’s The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon during an almost unrelated internet search. Fascinated by the subject of the Kabbala and the era of Lisbon of 1506 I devoured the book and soon started to read all of his other novels.
I had developed a keen interest in historical and Jewish fiction and was delighted to have found a writer whose work covered such a wide range of it, not just the holocaust years. What impressed me most was that Zimler never forgets others. While some writers only focus on the fate that befell the Jews, he calls out discrimination and hardships suffered by other minorities, such as Native Indians, gays, misfits and the disabled, to name but a few.
Zimler is a writer with a big heart and a lot of compassion for others, whose often poetic prose and empathetic depiction of characters carved him deep into my list of favourite authors. Traditionally published and fairly successful Zimler, for now, still remains somewhat under the radar, but his books have had a deep impact on my own writing.
The Seventh Gate is one of my favourite books by Zimler. Set during Hitler’s rise to power in Berlin and the Nazi war against the disabled, The Seventh Gate brings together Sophie Riedesel, a witty, artistic and sexually adventurous fourteen-year-old, with an underground group of Jewish activists and ex-circus misfits led by Isaac Zarco. When a series of forced sterilisations, perplexing murders and deportations to concentration camps decimates the group, Sophie, now reaching adulthood, must fight with all her ingenuity to save all that she loves about Germany – at any cost.
Given his successful handling of several individual fates at the hand of the Nazis I found the courage to publish my own The Luck of the Weissensteiners, which also tells more than one story about the holocaust, in my case about characters in Slovakia. Zimler had done it so well, maybe people would bear with me and be ready to read about Jewish and non-Jewish victims of Hitler at the same time.
I still follow Richard’s novels and regard him as one of writers that influenced me the most.
Biography
Richard Zimler was born in 1956. After earning a bachelor’s degree in comparative religion from Duke University (1977) and a master’s degree in journalism from Stanford University (1982), he worked for eight years as a journalist, mainly in the San Francisco Bay area. In 1990, he moved to Porto, Portugal, where he taught journalism for sixteen years, first at the College of Journalism and later at the University of Porto.
Richard has published ten novels over the last eighteen years. In chronological order, they are: The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon,Unholy Ghosts, The Angelic Darkness, Hunting Midnight, Guardian of the Dawn, The Search for Sana, The Seventh Gate. The Warsaw Anagrams, Strawberry Fields Forever (in Portugal and Brazil only) and The Night Watchman. His novels have appeared on bestseller lists in twelve different countries, including the USA, Great Britain, Portugal, Italy, Brazil and Australia.
Richard has won numerous prizes for his work, including the Marquis de Ouro prize in 2010 – as Book of the Year in Portugal – for The Warsaw Anagrams. This prize is voted on by high school teachers and students. He also won the 2009 Alberto Benveniste prize in fiction for Guardian of the Dawn (for best Jewish-themed novel published in France), and the 1998 Herodotus Award, for The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon (Best First Historical Novel). Additionally, The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon was picked as 1998 Book of the Year by three British critics. Five of his novels, including his most recent – The Night Watchman – have been nominated for the International IMPAC Literary Award, the richest prize in the English-speaking world. The other novels nominated are: Hunting Midnight, The Search for Sana, The Warsaw Anagrams and The Seventh Gate. Richard was also granted a 1994 U.S. National Endowment of the Arts Fellowship in Fiction.
The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon, Hunting Midnight, Guardian of the Dawn and The Seventh Gate form the “Sephardic Cycle,” a group of inter-connected – but fully independent – novels about different branches and generations of a Portuguese Jewish family.
A short film he wrote and acted in – The Slow Mirror – was awarded the Best Drama award at the 2010 New York Downtown Short Film Festival.
When he isn’t writing or publicizing his books, Richard enjoys gardening at his weekend house in the north of Portugal. He is married to Alexandre Quintanilha.
https://www.zimler.com/conteudo.php
for Richard Zimler
25 Friday May 2018
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Martin is eighty-four years old, a Korean War veteran, living quietly in a retirement home in upstate New York. His days are ruled by the routine of the staff, but in his thoughts and dreams, Martin often returns to the Seoul of his youth, and the lost true love of his life. Two close friends urge him to travel back to search for his love. What awaits Martin in Korea, more than six decades after he left the country on a troop transport back to the U.S.?
Returning to the Land of the Morning Calm is a story of friendship, love, and family, in all its many shapes, across time, generations and cultures.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Returning-Land-Morning-Calm-Hirschi-ebook/dp/B07C8FFR4D/
https://www.amazon.com/Returning-Land-Morning-Calm-Hirschi-ebook/dp/B07C8FFR4D/
About the author:
Hans M Hirschi has been writing stories ever since he was a child. Adulthood and the demands of corporate life put an end to his fictional writing for over twenty years. A global executive in training and channel development, Hans has traveled the world extensively and published a couple of non-fictional titles on learning and management.
The birth of his son and the subsequent parental leave provided him with the opportunity to once again unleash his creative writing, writing feel-good stories you’ll remember.
Having little influence over his brain’s creative workings, he simply indulges it and goes with the flow. However, the deep passion for a better world, for love and tolerance are a read thread throughout both his creative and non-fictional work.
Hans lives with his husband, son, and pets on a small island off the west coast of Sweden. English isn’t his first or even second language. It’s his seventh!
Contact Hans through his website at http://www.hirschi.se
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hans-M.-Hirschi/e/B00E0DP0EE/
My review:
Thanks to the publishing company and to the author for providing me an ARC copy of this book prior to its publication that I freely chose to review.
I met the Hans Hirschi through Twitter and his blog, and after having read a number of his fiction books (I have a few still pending, but I hope I’ll catch up on them at some point), I’ve reviewed them (you can check my most recent review of one of his books here), and I’ve become a fan. One of the things that I particularly enjoy about the author’s blog is the way he talks about the process of writing his books. As they are about a variety of topics (they fall within the LGBT fiction general remit, but they do touch on many other subjects, from dementia to architecture, from music to looking after somebody with a serious illness, and they are also set in a variety of places, from India to Sweden), the process of his research and the choices he has to make are fascinating, especially for a writer or anybody interested in the sweat, blood, and tears behind a book’s creation. In this case, I had read about the language difficulties (as part of the book is set in Korea, in the early 1950s, and in the present), a visit to Korea to get a sense of the place, the historical part of it… and I was very intrigued, as it is not a country I am familiar with, other than through the snippets I get from the news. So I was very happy when I was given the opportunity to read this book ahead of its publication. And I can reassure those who know Mr. Hirschi as the Queen of Unconventional Happy Endings. He’s done it again.
This book, perhaps the most romantic of the books I’ve read so far by this author, in my opinion, is about a love story that has survived incredible odds and lasted almost a whole lifetime. Despite being separated by different continents, being from different backgrounds, and hardly knowing each other’s languages and customs, two young men meet in Korea shortly after the war (in 1953) and feel attracted to each other. One, Martin, is an African-American soldier with a penchant for languages, helping the UN with the pacification tasks. The other, Ji-Hoon, is a young man working at the family restaurant, whose future path has been decided for him. He will get married and inherit the family business. They are both young, beautiful, and inexperienced. In such strange circumstances, they meet and get to know each other. Martin helps Ji-Hoon’s family providing supplies as often as he can, and he ends up becoming a friend of the whole family. But, they are not meant to be together. Martin goes back to the US and never meets anybody he feels the same about as he did for Ji-Hoon. He knows he was going to get married, but after a brief epistolary contact, they lose touch. Now in his eighties, thanks to a new nurse at the nursing home where he is staying, Kevin, and to the brother of one of the other residents, Eugene, he is encouraged to find out what happened to the true love of his life.
The story, although written in the third person, is told from Martin’s point of view. There are chapters set in the present, interspersed with chapters that took place in Korea after the war, providing the readers the background to understand both, the love story, and also how time has passed and changed things. There is a fair amount of telling in the book, as Martin, who is, in many ways, old-fashioned, not used to talking about his feelings, and of a generation where being openly gay was not the done thing (and in his case, being compounded by the race issue it would have made his life even harder), lives pretty much a quiet life, full of memories of the one event and emotion that really shook his world. Martin is confronted by some openly gay men (very different in outlook: Kevin, a Goth nurse who has trouble fitting in, but not with his sexuality; Eugene, who found a refuge for his more flamboyant mannerisms in an acting career; and Eugene’s nephew, who is married to another man and has children and a blissful family life, other than the conflict with his mother) and their questions and different outlooks make him, in a way, come of age and wonder, not only how things could have been, but also, why things could be. The fact that men still find him attractive, and there is still plenty of life left in him, together with the encouragement he receives, makes him go back to Korea pursuing the love of his youth.
The beautifully detailed writing manages to bring Korea to life, both in the post-war era and now. We share in Martin’s point of view and that makes us see the beauty of it, the wonder, but also the confusion and how much it has changed when we get to the present. The descriptions of places, food, and moments are emotional and beautiful. Korea and the way it has changed over time parallels what has happened to Martin. There are traces of the past, love for respect and tradition, but some of the old things had to be removed to make way for the new, and some could not be saved. It is not all for the better, but there is still beauty there, and its people are still the people Martin felt so fond of.
In some ways, we know little about Martin, who is not somebody who talks about him easily, and who only makes passing comments about his previous life and shares some brief snippets about his parents, his work, and his lovers over the years, but does not dwell on them. He is a modest and humble man who seems unaware of how much people like him or how fond they are of him. He is a credible character, and his doubts and hesitations fit in well with his age, his outlook on life, and also the effect he has on others. At the same time, his exploration of life and his perfect role as an observer when he first goes to Korea and on his return help readers explore and feel at one with him, sharing in his wonder and confusion.
Apart from Korea and the love story at the heart of the book, there are many other themes that come into play and create a complex background. The three men who end up going to Korea face some challenges and prejudice. While Martin could hide his sexual orientation, his skin colour was there for everybody to see, and being in the military he was fully aware of how different a treatment he was likely to receive from his colleagues. Eugene could not hide his gayness and pass for straight, and his lifestyle put him at risk. We know the #MeToo does not only apply to women, and in Eugene’s case, it had serious consequences for him. He was shunned by his sister all of his life, for being who he was. And his nephew suffered the same fate. Kevin, whose looks and style-choices have made him a bit of an outsider, is a loner and feels more comfortable with Martin than with people his age. There are parallels and similarities between the —at least at first sight— very different characters, and later on, we see these parallels are also in evidence across the world, with religious beliefs and conservative traditions coming in the way of love and understanding. We see Ji-Hoon only through Martin’s eyes at first, and he is not always insightful about people around him or about how he is perceived by others, but we have an opportunity to see what impact he truly had on his friends later on in the book.
Although the story of elderly men or women trying to find a lost love is not new, I enjoyed Martin’s process of discovery and his coming into his own. I love the comradery and the way the three men helped each other, with Eugene playing the fairy godmother and facilitating the trip, Kevin providing the technical and hands-on know-how, and Martin confronting his fears to become the hero he was meant to be. This is a novel about friendship, about history, about love, and about hope. We should never lose our hope and dreams. Nothing is impossible if we don’t give up. (Ah, there is no erotica, in case that you, like me, don’t particularly enjoy it).
The author includes a recipe at the end (the dish is central to the story, so I won’t go into detail), and he also explains some of the process and the language difficulties he faced and adds a glossary of terms at the end.
A gorgeous cover, for a truly romantic book that goes beyond the standard love story and includes an ensemble of characters you’ll feel sorry to say goodbye to. I’ll be eagerly waiting for Mr. Hirschi’s next book.
Thanks to the author and the publishers, thanks to all of you for reading and remember to like, share, comment, click, REVIEW and keep on smiling!
24 Thursday May 2018
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Another great story on David’s excellent blog. Still so many stories to tell about WW2 and the Holocaust. Thanks David!
The great events of our past – the wars and the genocides – are just a series of small steps strung together… steps that when looked back upon appear to be a seamless, momentous journey.
And because of that, we tend to overlook many of those very people who created the events that make history so extraordinary.
The name Mary Elmes is not one that conjures up any special memory to most people, and that’s probably just the way the Corkwoman would have wanted it.
Look at her photo and words like ‘refined’, delicate’ and ladylike’ spring to mind. Mary Elmes was all those things and more besides. She was also fearless, iron-willed and relentless in her cause – to bring help and succour to frightened, dispossessed people in fear for their lives. Were it not for Mary, hundreds of children would have died at the hands of the Nazis…
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23 Wednesday May 2018
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Review by Claire Fullerton, originally posted on her blog here Whiskey and Ribbons by Leesa Cross-Smith
Claire is an accomplished author with outstanding taste. I like reading her reviews and this book really looks amazing, so I’ve ‘stolen’/ re-blogged this review:
Claire’s review:
The title Whiskey and Ribbons is derived from a toast delivered by Eamon, one of three narrators in this psychological treatment of love spun unexpectedly and repercussively awry. “Women, you are sleek and gorgeous. You hold us together, you’re the ribbons,” Eamon says, yet we hear this speech as his brother, Dalton’s, memory, for the reader learns at the start that the toast maker is dead. Eamon and Dalton have grown up together as brothers, yet the ties that bind are unusual and not honestly revealed for what they are until well into the story. Author Leesa Cross-Smith holds the reader captive in language so creative and au currant that we identify with both well-drawn characters and readily understand why Eamon’s wife, Evangeline, weighs issues of loyalty between the two charismatic young men, though one is alive and the other is dead. That Evangeline is a new mother, having given birth to Eamon’s son after his death as an officer in the line of duty is the dilemma, for who is she to turn to in her prostrate grief but a brother-in-law who equally grieves? Three vantage points are entwined to tell this one story of familial connections, in a seamlessly crafted, roiling momentum that will have you thinking they each have a justifiable point. All praise this spell-binding debut author. Leesa Cross-Smith has penned an uncommon novel in a voice you won’t easily forget.
23 Wednesday May 2018
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22 Tuesday May 2018
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I’m delighted to present my review for this hugely entertaining and simply brilliant book. Lucy and her books have been on my blog several times, which means this may be old news to you anyway…
So we’re back in Cambridge and its old College. Narrator Deputy Head Porter leads us drily and with breakfast sausages gallore through the investigation of dead bodies found on campus grounds. This is complicated by college rivalry, hierarchy, excentric behaviour and procedural mayhem.
While the mysterious nature of their deaths inspires the Dean in most bizarre ways – and what would you expect from him other than bizarre I ask – there are different theories and strands of the investigation.
All of this is interspersed with excellent observational humour, hilarious situational comedy and brilliant characters, making this hugely enjoyable and entertaining. My partner worked in Academia and absolutely adores this series. I get a great kick out of it just having been a benefactor of Academia as it were, enjoying the many truths about campus life that ring true to me.
The writing and language used are inventive, original and witty to a point that Brazier might as well write about the local telephone directory and I’d enjoy it. In this case, the mystery kept me on my toes as well as the many shenanigans and tribulations that go on in the background. Many grins and smirks and lols.
The book found me at a very busy time but I managed to find the time to read it, which should tell you something: Highly recommended.
BLURB:
Sometimes the opposite of right isn’t wrong. It’s left.
Tragedy strikes once more at Old College… The Porters’ Lodge is down to its last tea bag and no one has seen a biscuit for over a week. Almost as troubling are the two dead bodies at the bottom of the College gardens and a woman has gone missing. The Dean is convinced that occult machinations are to blame, Deputy Head Porter suspects something closer to home.
The formidable DCI Thompson refuses to be sidelined and a rather unpleasant Professor gets his comeuppance.
As the body count rises, Head Porter tries to live a secret double life and The Dean believes his job is under threat from the Russian Secret Service.
Deputy Head Porter finds herself with her hands full keeping Old College running smoothly as well as defending herself against the sinister intentions of the new Bursar.
Spies, poisoning, murder – and none of this would be any problem at all, if only someone would get the biscuits out and put the kettle on… 
This is the third instalment of the world-renowned PorterGirl series set in the ancient and esoteric Old College. Author Lucy Brazier opens the lid on a world which has sinister overtones in this cozy, BritLit mystery.
The Amazon links…
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