Auschwitz Lullaby- Mario Escobar

My Rating: 3 Stars

Description: On an otherwise ordinary morning in 1943, Helene Hannemann is preparing her five children for the day when the German police arrive at her home. Helene’s worst fears come true when the police, under strict orders from the SS, demand that her children and husband, all of Romani heritage, be taken into custody. Though Helene is German and safe from the forces invading her home, she refuses to leave her family—sealing her fate in a way she never could have imagined.

After a terrifying trek across the continent, Helene and her family arrive at Auschwitz and are thrown into the chaos of the camp. Her husband, Johann, is separated from them, but Helene remains fiercely protective of her children and those around her. When the powers-that-be discover that Helene is not only a German but also a trained nurse, she is forced into service at the camp hospital, which is overseen by the notorious Dr. Mengele himself.

Helene is under no illusions in terms of Dr. Mengele’s intentions, but she agrees to cooperate when he asks her to organize a day care and school for the Romani children in the camp. Though physically and emotionally brutalized by the conditions at Auschwitz, Helene musters the strength to protect the children in her care at any cost. Through sheer force of will, Helene provides a haven for the children of Auschwitz—an act of kindness and selflessness so great that it illuminates the darkest night of human history.

Based on a true story, Mario Escobar’s Auschwitz Lullaby demonstrates the power of sacrifice and the strength of human dignity—even when all hope seems lost.

My Thoughts: Dr. Mengele's horrifying experiments on children in Auschwitz are well known. Yet the lives of those who suffered under his oversight are largely forgotten. Helene's life is one of these which is overshadowed by Dr. Mengele's story, that of a woman who chose to live and die with her family when she was repeatedly offered the chance to escape their fate.

The history of what happened within the gypsy portion of Auschwitz is both fascinating and horrendously upsetting. Those who lived there showed both great courage as well as extreme cruelty to their fellow prisoners in the hopes of survival. As someone with a background in anthropology, it interests me to learn about the ways people behave when society is broken. And so that made this story one that I devoured fairly quickly.

However, I do not feel that the writing or the translation held up as well as I would have liked. The book is written some what as though it were a diary, with the narrative told to the reader rather than shown. Unlike most diary style books, the narrative mentioned past events as they become important instead of following an absolute chronological order. Yet this is easily adapted to as a reader.

For the writing, there is a level of repetition to conversations where certain details are re-mentioned, which I am sure is the same throughout any language this book has been printed it. As for the English version, there are a few grammar mistakes as well as what I felt were poor word choices. These choices seemed to have been made as the most literal translation, but perhaps not the most effective. At times they were synonyms to words that would have fit well, but the word used was not exactly right.

This issue with the translation did bother me more toward the start of the novel, whether because it occurred fewer time later or because I had grown used to it, I am unsure. I still believe that this book is a good read for those who are interested in Auschwitz and what transpired there. Yet I would not recommend it to those who do not normally read from this time period. For such readers, I would say that there are many other books with just as interesting story lines but perhaps better writing or translation.

I have provided an honest review after having received a copy of the book through the Fiction Guild.

With This Pledge- Tamera Alexander

My Rating: 4 Stars

Description: Elizabeth "Lizzie" Clouston's quietly held principles oppose those of the Southern Cause--but when forty thousand soldiers converge on the fields of Franklin, Tennessee, the war demands an answer. The Carnton home, where she is governess, is converted into a Confederate hospital, and Lizzie is called upon to assist the military doctor with surgeries that determine life or death. Faced with the unimaginable, she must summon fortitude, even as she fears for the life of Towny, her fiancé and lifelong friend.

  

As a young soldier lies dying in Lizzie's arms, she vows to relay his final words to his mother, but knows little more than the boy's first name. That same night, decorated Mississippi sharpshooter Captain Roland Ward Jones extracts a different promise from Lizzie: that she intervene should the surgeon decide to amputate his leg.

  

Lizzie is nothing if not a woman of her word, earning the soldiers' respect as she tends to the wounded within Carnton's walls. None is more admiring than Captain Jones, who doesn't realize she is pledged to another. But as Lizzie's heart softens toward the Confederate captain, she discovers his moral ground is at odds with her own. Now torn between love, principles, and pledges made, she struggles to be true to her own heart while standing for what she knows is right--no matter the cost.

My Thoughts: I'll start by saying that I believe this to be one of Tamera Alexander's best written books. The events which transpire are vividly described and well handled. The realities of war are described in detail, without being graphic, and most of the side characters are given strong backgrounds which set them off the page.

I struggled with the first part of the book, not because I wasn't enjoying it, but because when it comes to bones, I'm a lot more squeamish than Lizzie is. But it was also in those chapters that I found myself the most invested. I believe it is due to Tamera's dedication to research. Though I cannot say for sure, I imagine that the reason those scenes came to life so well was because those people where real. There was someone at Carnton praying the psalms, there teenage boys waiting for surgery right alone side grown men. Dying beside grown men.

But despite my love of the story, and Tamera's writing, there was one detail that somewhat soured it for me. As with most Southerner's of the time, Captain Jones is a supporter of slavery, and though by the end of the story he has admitted this as a fault, that admission felt to me a little too easy. While Lizzie struggles to find the courage to speak her opinion, and finds that courage through watching the courage of others and hearing the stories of slaves who are abused, Captain Jones fairly easily accepts that all people should be free. But even then it felt as though that admission came only because the war left him no choice, his slaves were going to be taken from him either way.

I would have liked for Captain Jones to have apologized to George. For him to have heard the same story that Lizzie did about what happened to George's sister who had tried to escape... the same sister who had also been one of Captain Jones' slaves. It's never really clear whether or not Captain Jones knew what happened. Maybe she ran away while he was at war. But I still felt that he should have had to confront the pain he had caused others, not just admit that he shouldn't do it anymore.

I am glad that Tamera did address one issue with Captain Jones which I believe people often forget, that being that people will struggle to admit when they have done something wrong not just because it will place them at fault but because it will also cast blame on the role models who taught it to them. And most often people choose their beloved heroes over the hurting people right in front of them. It is something that we all do, even with small things like lying or making inappropriate comments.

So while I cannot say that this story hit all the notes I had hoped for, I can say that it is a good book. I'm glad that I was able to read it and hope that Tamera comes out with another one soon.

I have provided an honest review after having received a copy of the book through the publisher.

Becoming Mrs. Lewis Blog Tour and Giveaway

When I signed up for this tour, I had not yet read Becoming Mrs. Lewis. But I am still participating, to give you all a chance to read this book for yourself and see what you think of it. (Maybe we can have a discussion!)

Welcome to the Blog Tour for Becoming Mrs. Lewis by Patti Callahan with JustRead Publicity Tours! We continue the Becoming Mrs. Lewis celebration on social media starting March 14.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Title: Becoming Mrs. Lewis 

Author: Patti Callahan  

Publ isher: Thomas Nelson 

Genre: Historical Fiction  

Release Date: October 2, 2018

From New York Times bestselling author Patti Call ahan comes an exquisite novel of Joy Davidman, the woman C. S. Lewis called “my whole world.”

When poet and writer Joy Davidman began writing letters to C. S. Lewis — known as Jack — she was looking for spiritual answers, not love. Love, after all, wasn’t holding together her crumbling marriage. Everything about New Yorker Joy seemed ill - matched for an Oxford don and the beloved writer of Narnia, yet their minds bonded over their letters. Embarking on the adventure of her life, Joy traveled fro m America to England and back again, facing heartbreak and poverty, discovering friendship and faith, and against all odds, finding a love that even the threat of death couldn’t destroy.

In this masterful exploration of one of the greatest lov e stories of modern times, we meet a brilliant writer, a fiercely independent mother, and a passionate woman who changed the life of this respected author and inspired books that still enchant us and change us. Joy lived at a time when women weren’t meant to have a voice — and yet her love for Jack gave them both voices they didn’t know they had.

At once a fascinating historical novel and a glimpse into a writer’s life, Becoming Mrs. Lewis is above all a love story — a love of literature and ideas and a love between a husband and wife that, in the end, was not impossible at all.


 BECOMING MRS. LEWIS EXCERPT ---Click to read the first two chapters

PURCHASE LINKS*: Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository | Christian Boo k | iTunes

---

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

 
 Patti Callahan (who also writes as Patti Callahan Henry) is a New York Times bestselling author. Patti was a finalist in the Townsend Prize for Fiction, h as been an Indie Next Pick, twice an OKRA pick, and a multiple nominee for the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA) Novel of the Year. Her work has also been included in short story collections, anthologies, magazines, and blogs. Patti attended Auburn University for her undergraduate work and Georgia State University for her graduate degree. Once a Pediatric Clinical Nurse Specialist, she now writes full time. The mother of three children, she lives in both Mountain Brook, Alabama, and Bluffton, South Carolina, with her husband.  



CONNECT WITH THE AUTHOR: website | facebook | twitter | instag ram

---

TOUR GIVEAWAY

(2) winners will each win a hardcover release copy of Becoming Mrs. Lewis.

Be sure to check out each stop on the Blog and Takeover tours for more chances to win. Full tour schedule on this tour shown below. Giveaway began at midnight March 12, 2019 and will last through 1 1:59 PM EST on March 19, 2019. Winners will be notified within 2 weeks of close of the giveaway and given 48 hours to respond or risk forfeiture of prize. Due to shipping cost, only US mailing addresses valid. For our giveaway rules and policy, click HERE.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

---

Follow along at JustRead Tours for a full list of stops!

AND

Be sure to stop at the following tours for more chances to win!

Becoming Mrs. Lewis- Pattie Callahan

My Rating: 1 Stars

Description: In a most improbable friendship, she found love. In a world where women were silenced, she found her voice.

From New York Times bestselling author Patti Callahan comes an exquisite novel of Joy Davidman, the woman C. S. Lewis called “my whole world.” When poet and writer Joy Davidman began writing letters to C. S. Lewis—known as Jack—she was looking for spiritual answers, not love. Love, after all, wasn’t holding together her crumbling marriage. Everything about New Yorker Joy seemed ill-matched for an Oxford don and the beloved writer of Narnia, yet their minds bonded over their letters. Embarking on the adventure of her life, Joy traveled from America to England and back again, facing heartbreak and poverty, discovering friendship and faith, and against all odds, finding a love that even the threat of death couldn’t destroy.

In this masterful exploration of one of the greatest love stories of modern times, we meet a brilliant writer, a fiercely independent mother, and a passionate woman who changed the life of this respected author and inspired books that still enchant us and change us. Joy lived at a time when women weren’t meant to have a voice—and yet her love for Jack gave them both voices they didn’t know they had.

At once a fascinating historical novel and a glimpse into a writer’s life, Becoming Mrs. Lewis is above all a love story—a love of literature and ideas and a love between a husband and wife that, in the end, was not impossible at all.

My Thoughts: As with any work written about a historical figure, the lines can be blurred as to whether critique should be given to the individuals actions or else to the author's writing and portrayal of those events. Having been a fan of C.S. Lewis, I of course want to offer the benefit of the doubt to him and the woman he loved, but then run the risk of being unfair to Callahan and my opinion of her work.

There were numerous reasons I chose to rate this book as I did, none the least of which was the means of story telling and writing itself. The text seemed to often jump around, as though following Joy's thought progression within a scene rather than more comprehensible format. Instead, the thoughts would tend to scatter, starting in one moment, traveling to earlier in that day, then memories from her past, all interspersed with snippets of letters which addressed the theme of the scenes far too well for me to believe that they were actual correspondence traded between Joy and Jack (C.S. Lewis). This, I know is a preference on my part, as there are those who enjoy this exploratory means of story telling. However, I found that it more often than not it pulled me from the story.

Then there were the actual events of the story, which did give me pause. While by no means an expert on the Lewis', there were things which I already knew (such as Mrs. Lewis having been married before, divorced, and the mother of children through that marriage). Knowing these things, I was not totally surprised to learn that the Lewis' met before Joy's divorce, nor that he encouraged her through those events. And his support of her is something which I applaud, knowing that she would have needed a lot of courage and wisdom to make the decision that she did. However, it is the portrayal of this support, and the nature of their correspondence, which I took issue with.

In the author's note, Callahan says that she took Joy's internal musings from Joy's writings. Having never read anything Joy Lewis wrote, I cannot say how much of Callahan's story does indeed come from Joy's work, how much is made up, and how much may have been misinterpreted. I do know, that with this book, Joy Lewis engages in an emotional affair while still claiming to want her marriage to work. Rather than devote her time and thoughts to her husband, she instead describes herself as spending every moment filtering her day through the question of how she would write about it to Jack. And while I in no way believe that Bill was deserving of her time and her attention, I do believe that her devotion to her marriage and to God was.

After Joy's divorce, there are also numerous instances where Joy behaved in a manner which lead me to agree with Tolken on his assessment of her character. No matter how much Jack wished to live a life which he believed was upright (never mind whether or not his perception of upright was indeed correct), Joy insists to him that he give up his ideals and instead act on his feelings. There is no discussion of God nor of what the Bible says of their circumstances. Even later on, once they are getting married and Joy asks the bishop why he was willing to preform the ceremony, his response is that he asked himself what Christ would do... not that he asked scripture what Christ would do or even prayed on the decision.

As for the book's treatment of scripture, there is very little of it within the story. To my memory, there was only one verse quoted, though the language of scripture was used throughout. However, this language used grace to describe their having fallen in love with each other rather than God's love for them. And the one verse quoted "Death, where is your sting?", which is about no longer fearing death because the grace of God redeems us and rescues us from the uncertainty of life after death, was used instead to describe how strong the love between Joy and Jack is. Within this story, there is the sense that Jack is Joy's god, her savior, and that the real God is only an afterthought meant to confirm whatever Jack has already spoken over her.

With detailing the Lewis' growing relationship, there are chapter after chapter of information that I believe could have been cut. At least two chapters in a row are only of Jack giving Joy a tour of Oxford and the surrounding area, with the majority of conversations in these chapters being about their thoughts on the majesty of Oxford. There are chapters where Joy discussed her feelings for Jack with friends who never reappear in the narrative, and a single chapter where the story shows Joy's relationship with her parents, a relationship which the reader already knows is a strained and toxic one and which is not mentioned again.

I know that the majority of readers found this book to be a wonderful story of a love despite the odds. Yet I was left mainly with disappointment, either in the author or the Lewis' themselves. I will say that this book has left me with the determination to read more of Lewis' work than I already have, as well as to pick up some of Joy's. And should I meet someone in person who has already read the book, I would love to discuss it. Joy and Jack Lewis have been a highly influential couple, their popularity only growing in the past year with an increasing interest in their beliefs on equality. And these are perhaps the first authors whom I have felt any real desire to dissect their work in such manner.

I have provided an honest review after having received a copy of the book through The Fiction Guild.

Between Two Shores- Jocelyn Green

My Rating: 4 Stars

Description: The daughter of a Mohawk mother and French father in 1759 Montreal, Catherine Duval finds it is easier to remain neutral in a world that is tearing itself apart. Content to trade with both the French and the British, Catherine is pulled into the fray against her wishes when her British ex-fiance, Samuel Crane, is taken prisoner by her father. Samuel asks her to help him escape, claiming he has information that could help end the war.

Peace appeals to Catherine, but helping the man who broke her heart does not. She delays . . . until attempts on Samuel's life convince her he's in mortal danger. Against her better judgment she helps him flee by river, using knowledge of the landscape to creep ever closer to freedom. Their time together rekindles feelings she thought long buried, and danger seems to hound their every mile. She's risked becoming a traitor by choosing a side, but will the decision cost her even more than she anticipated?

My Thoughts: Something I learned while reading this is that, as the author has stated before, she is not a romance writer, but a historical author whose works may include romance. And for people reading this book, I believe that is an important distinction, unlike with her last two novels.

Jocelyn Green is a fantastic historical author. Her works are well written, well researched and always from a perspective which I had yet to see from these time periods. Growing up in Michigan, I had of course learned about this war in school, though never from a French/Mohawk stand point. It was interesting to learn more about what happened during this conflict than what I had in school.

My one dislike from the book was Samuel's character. Though I understood that the decisions he made were what he believed to be the right choice, I still felt strongly that they hadn't been. Particularly his actions which occurred in the actual story. And since his actions had a direct impact on Catherine's life and well being, I couldn't help but feel angry whenever the narrative drifted back to discussing his motivations.

In that regard, I found that I sympathized quite a bit with Catherine's siblings. I felt they behaved toward Samuel in the exact manner as I would have given the situation. And I loved the entire sibling plot line and how it delved into how they are all united as a family despite having values and identities separate from each other. I enjoyed this read and look forward to Green's next book.

I have provided an honest review after having received a copy of the book from the publisher.