Ashes in the Snow by Ruta Sepetys is a work of historical fiction about when the Russians under orders from Stalin took people from Lithuania to Siberia and put them in a work-concentration camp. The main characters are Lina--16-yr.-old girl, her brother Jonas and their mother. Their father was taken separately! The writing in this book is really good. I got a real sense of what these people went through by reading this. It was a good book to finish the year.
(Gerard's review, 5++ stars)
Teaser from page 43: Siberia? That couldn't be right. Siberia was half a world away. There was nothing in Siberia.
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In I Was Anastasia by Ariel Lawhon, on July 17, 1918 Valimir Lenin orders the entire Romanov family to be killed! Germany, February 17, 1920, a young woman is pulled out of the water. She looks like one of the daughters of the Romanov family. Could this be?
Historical fiction is one of my favorite genres so naturally, I thought this book was really well done. It goes back and forth in time, but that only builds up the suspense. There is good action that kept me turning pages. I enjoyed the two dogs in the story very much!
(Gerard's review, 5++ stars)
Teaser from page 37: "What do we do now?" I ask, my voice temulous with exhaustion and growing fear. Jimmy, ever sensitive to my moods, presses his cold, wet nose against the back of my hand.
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The Wolf Wilder by Katherine Rundell is about a young girl named Feo. She and her mom train wolves to fend for themselves. When her mom is taken away by a general who wants to rule the land, Feo has to count on all the things her mom taught her and wolves to save her mom. I thought this was pretty good. I really enjoyed Feo and the story moved along well.
(Gerard's review, 4 stars)
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Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys takes place in 1941. Lina is preparing for art school and all that summer has to offer. Then the Soviet Secret Police break into her home and taker her, her mother and her younger brother away. Her father was taken captive too, but kept apart from them. Will they get back together? Will they ever survive? What do the Soviets want from them? I thought this book was outstanding! I was into it all the way. The writing was so good too that I could really picture it in my mind. A Must Read!
(Gerard's review, 5++ stars)
Karen's review, 5 stars: Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys is a very good historical fiction book about Lithuanians who were deported during WW II by the Russians. This book is about a 15-yr.-old girl, Lena, who is very brave and loves to draw. She is the cousin of Joana, one of the main characters in Salt to the Sea, that is taken by the NKVD during at night along with her mother and younger brother, Jonas. First, they are crammed into a train with a bunch of others who were "on the list" going to who knows where. Lena becomes friends with Andrius, a boy her age who is also on the train. The second part of the book is about her time at the farm where the Russians try to force them to sign a paper admitting they are criminals and willing to work on the farm for 25 years. Those who sign get treated slightly better than those who don't. Andrius signs but Lena does not so Andrius tries his best to help her and her family. Living in unsanitary conditions with barely anything to eat, she is forced to dig with a trowel all day or carry 50 lb. sacks of grain. Can things get any worse? Oh yes. The third part of the book takes Lena, her mother and brother to Siberia but not Andrius, way up into the Arctic Circle where they must use the bricks and wood that the Russians brought along to build barracks and a bakery for the soldiers. They have to make huts for themselves out of driftwood, moss and whatever else they can scrounge up from the trash the soldiers throw away during temperatures below zero! All through this book, you wonder along with them if they will survive and if they will ever be reunited with their father and Andrius.
The author does a fantastic job of introducing the reader to other characters as Lena meets them so it is pretty easy to keep them straight. I really liked this book better than Salt to the Sea because it had better continuity with just telling the story from Lena's viewpoint. I couldn't help but thinking how I would react if I was in that situation. I'm pretty sure I would have given up. These people went through awful things but the book did have some high points with the romance thread, the birthday and Christmas celebrations. This book stayed with me after I was done and needed time to process it before jumping into my next read. I must say, I liked this as much as I liked The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah.
Also liked Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys but not as much as this one.
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Dark Eyes by William Richter is about a Russian girl who is adopted by an American couple and moves to New York. Years later, she goes by Wally and lives on the street. She knows her way around and nobody messes with her. She still wants to find her birth mom and her dad, who was in a Russian prison, breaks out and wants to find his wife too. But what he has in mind is not very nice! Wally needs all her street smarts to find her first. It took a while for the action to start, but when it does, this book heats up! It is well worth reading.
(Gerard's review, 5 stars)
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Watch this video to see Gerard and I discuss this book:
The Winter Horses by Philip Kerr is based on a true story, or I would like to believe that it really happened. Read the book, then you decide. It is about an old man and a young girl who save two horses that might be the last of their kind. It takes place during World War II. I liked both the main characters, the old man and the young girl. I also liked the animals in the story--both horses and especially the dog!
This is a real page turner that I loved! Give it a chance. If you liked War Horse, you will like this one too because it's similar.
(Gerard's review, 5++ stars)
Karen's review: The Winter Horses by Philip Kerr is a moving historical novel about Kalinka, an Ukrainian Jewish orphan girl who saves a couple very special Przewalski’s (pronounced “shuh-VAHL-skeez”) horses during World War II with the help of an old man named Max, a loyal wolfhound named Taras, a kind German army Captain and a kind Russian Major. The wild horses did their part in the struggle to survive as well.
This is an amazing story that made me cry three times! It addresses the wide range of how low and how kind people can be. Part of the book I especially enjoyed were the words of wisdom Kalinka remembered her grandfather saying. It is a wonderful story about a girl’s special connection with a couple wild horses and a great dog too! Although it had several very sad and disturbing parts, I loved it! It is a page turner that I didn’t want to put down.
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To Sing Frogs by John M. Simmons is an interesting read on so many levels. First of all, it is a true story of a Mormon couple who had three boys of their own, but who adopt a special needs boy (Jack) and later three girls and one boy from Russia. It was amazing at how many hoops they had to jump through and all the delays. In spite of the author being a cynic who really doesn't believe God cares or is involved in our lives, the answered prayers of the three little orphans from Russia seems to at least make him wonder.
I'm glad I took the time to read To Sing Frogs in spite of the dumb title. This book is so well written that I felt the father's frustrations and the joy of the girls who were adopted. I loved the author's sarcasm throughout the book and how the orphans' prayers were answered in spite of the odds. I think anyone considering an international adoption or interested in orphanages or Russia would enjoy this book. It's different from any other book I've read.
(Karen's review)
To Sing Frogs by John M. Simmons is a memoir about family, friends, life, and other things that don't make sense. It is about a couple who adopt four children from Russia. The best parts of the book were:
(1) all the red tape and the various hurdles the couple had to go through to get the children to be part of their family;
(2) the kids, the joy they felt that somebody wanted them and then the trials of coming to America and not knowing the language and the customs; and
(3) how the couple wished that they were able to take a lot more kids in.
This is a feel good book that I think you would enjoy reading! There is no big "wow" factor, but a happy, heartwarming ending. I liked the pictures in the book too!
(Gerard's review, rating 5 stars)
Note: We received an advance review copy of this book but that did not affect our reviews. All proceeds from the sale of To Sing Frogs will benefit the Ele Lembra Foundation
charity and with your assistance, we'll be raising awareness on the benefits of adoption.
Lara's Gift by Annemarie O'Brien is a children's short story about a young girl who loves dogs and with her papa, takes care of them to give to the Tsar. She also has a special gift. I'm not telling you what that is; you will have to read the book to find out! For such a short book, there is enough action that keeps the main plot moving along. I loved it and will be looking for more from this first-time author.
(Gerard's review, 5 stars)
Have you read this one? What did you think of it? If you reviewed this too, feel free to share your link to your review in the comments. Happy Reading!
It’s all here in this story: love, decency and old, bone-crunching evil. Neff weaves them all together brilliantly in a memorable page-turner.” –Roger Wilkins (Pulitzer Prize Winner) (quote from the back cover)
Hard Cache by Charles B. Neff is a short romantic thriller involving a murder, the Russian mob, the Black Market and four men who fought together in the Russian-Afghan war but whose lives are still intertwined years later. One of the things that makes this book stand out from other suspense mysteries is the cross cultural facet of the book.
Mangus Torval, a former Swedish detective, discovers a dead body while fishing alone while visiting Washington. The investigation leads to an exciting confrontation in the mountains at a cabin where Greg Takarchuk and Mangus realize their love for the women in their lives, Olga and Mariela and secrets all come to light.
There are a lot of different characters that I had a bit of trouble keeping straight so found myself often referring to the list of characters at the beginning of the book. This was very helpful. The story itself was a bit complicated to me but I liked the suspense during the confrontation at the cabin. The killer of Dmitri, the antique store owner and Greg’s father, was revealed fairly early on but I never did understand exactly why the murder was committed.
I didn’t think the ending was very believable—can you really expect seven people (two of which were women, one Pastor, one ex-journalist, one a police officer, an FBI agent and a former detective) to all agree to a fabricated story to cover up what really happened at the cabin? With short chapters and an interesting story line, Hard Cache is a quick read.
(We received a free copy of Hard Cache by Charles B. Neff to review so will gave it away in a drawing on Sat., November 20 limited to the U.S. The winner was Carol in Texas who said "You had me at the Russian mob! I love suspense mysteries. If there are a lot of characters, I make a list that includes some note about the character to help me remember.")
Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah is such a good book! It is complex, mysterious, fully of secrets, informative, touching, multifaceted, and full of meaning. I enjoy books about family relationships and this one is one of the best I ever read. The older sister, Meredith, always tried to please everyone else, and Nina, an adventuresome photojournalist, are sisters with very different personalities but both feel unloved by their mother, Anya, until they learn her background after their father dies.
The father loved his family very much and his dying wish was that his wife and daughters would become close and love each other too. The author skillfully conveys much about Russian culture and what it is like to live in a war-torn country through Anya’s account of her life in the form of a fairy tale which is a puzzle her daughters eventually piece together.
I enjoyed reading how the mother and daughters were reconciled and liked the bitter sweet ending. All the main characters were well developed and the author also gives insight into love and marriage issues through the various characters. This book shows how strong women can be when it comes to protecting their family. I found the way the peasants in Russia lived through the war very interesting. It also shows how the past affects our present life and how relationships improve when we make an effort to really get to know others. This is a family saga definitely worth reading. I look forward to reading more of Kristin Hannah’s books, this was my first and I highly recommend it.
Here's what the author says about it:
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