Books and more books

I am getting through books at quite a rate although I have slowed down now the weather has changed. When it was sunny reading outside was an ideal occupation. Inside i'm more jigsaw-focused.

The Lost Letters of William Woolf
by Helen Cullen

I can't decide what star rating to apply. It was going to be three but then improved and went up to four but then the ending brought it down again so I suppose it has to be 3*.
William Woolf works in the Lost Letters department where they try to reunite those letters that have missing details or no address with recipient/sender. It's a love story with a lot of will they/won't they? about it. A bit slow in places but also intriguing, until, as I say, a very disappointing end.

The Truth about Melody Browne
by Lisa Jewell
4*
After a house fire in which all her possessions are destroyed, Melody has no memory of the time before her ninth birthday. After a hypnotist chooses her from the audience for his trick she finds fragments of memory begin to return and gradually she is able to put together her chequered past, which involves hippy squats, and lost and stolen babies.

Among the Mad
by Jacqueline Winspear
4*
I've read a number of books in this series about a private detective in the 1920s and 30s. Maisie Dobbs is the daughter of a stableman, and thanks to her intelligence and a generous benefactor she is able to go to university and set up her own business.

Many of the characters in her stories are still living with the effects of war in the trenches. What we know call PTSD was shell shock then and men who were suffering were often called malingerers and sent back to the front - in spite of doctors' advice.

This particular book is one of the best of hers I think. Maisie - and the police - are searching for a man with the ability to create chemical weapons and who is threatening to use them on the public if his demands are not met.

When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit
by Judith Kerr
4*
I found this when I was looking through Daughter's old books for any that might be suitable for GrandDaughter1 as libraries are currently closed and she is an avid reader.

Judith Kerr is better known as the creator of Mog the Cat, although this story is for slightly older readers - over 10, the publishers recommend. It's written in an old style and I believe was based on the author's own experiences fleeing Germany as a Jewish child with her family when Hitler came to power. 

It's a lovely story about a family sticking together but still shocking to think of the way people were manipulated and were complicit in the ethnic cleansing. The style may be a bit old-fashioned to be popular with the young today though. Suits old codgers like me.

Interestingly the cover on my book first published in 1971, as shown above left, is much more adult than later covers used, which all avoid the swastika. Removes the horror I think.