Laura

I've been putting off reading Victoria Hislop's novel the Thread for some time now, it's been a number of years since I read and loved her first novel The Island but her second book The Return had been a little heavy on history for my liking and had jaded my view of her writing which has taken me some time to recover from. However at the urging of my mum that The Thread was a triumphant return to form for Hislop I decided I'd give it a try.

Beginning in modern day Thessaloniki, Greece we meet a young Anglo-Greek man who is spending the summer with his grandparents Katerina and Dimitri as he has many years before, on this occasion though he questions why they remain in Thessaloniki when they could move abroad and live closer to family. In response his grandparents sit him down in their home and begin to tell their stories and the history of the people of Thessaloniki.

Spanning from the years of the first world war including a huge fire in 1917 which nearly wiped out the city of Thessaloniki we move through years of political unrest and uncertainty into the occupation of Greece during the second world war and the destruction of the Jewish population of the city as they were deported by the Nazi's to concentration camps in Poland. Through the post war years and the battle for political supremacy as the Communists battled to try and enter government and bitter civil wars to the massive earthquake which again devastated the city in 1978.

This novel contains a great deal of Greek history however the way in which it is told in The Thread is beautiful, it's the story of the residents of Thessaloniki. Katerina the young refugee who lands in the city by boat with her adoptive mother Eugenia after having to flee her home in Smyrna. Torn apart from her birth mother she is in a strange county and with no home or belongings she forms a strong bond with the woman who has taken her in and their growing love is a wonderful backdrop to the events in this part of the book.

In contrast we also are told the story through the eyes of Olga, Dimitri's mother and as he grows through the eyes of Dimitri also. His wealthy father runs a textiles business providing cloth to the tailors and dressmakers of Greece and his ongoing obsession with his business tears this family in two. Olga is a gentle and loving mother who in the years following the fire in Thessaloniki moves with her baby son and housekeeper into the same street as Katerina and her adoptive mother and it is here that friendship and love grow for the two.

Whilst these central characters hold the book together there are so many more that are left etched on my mind after reading this book, the Moreno family are haunting representations of the persecution of Greek Jews during the time of the second world war. Wealthy tailors who ran their own business employing gifted tailors and seamstresses they throw their wealth into providing comfort and security for their employees and building a stalwart reputation for quality. That is until the occupation of Greece by the Nazi's and their business and home are torn from them and they are transported by train for a ‘new life' in Poland.

Hislop has crafted a story of community in The Thread, a tale of people struggling to overcome the adversity the outside world is having on their small, close knit friendships and relationships. People are torn from Irini Street and cast out due to events outwith their control. People arrive in the street, again because of political strift but the one thing that remains is the warmth of the occupants within the houses.

And that is why across all of the voices in this book the main character remains the city itself, the way it seems to pick itself up from whatever destructive force is thrown at it and carries on. The ending of the book, where Katerina and Dimitri's grandchild decides that he too may make his future in Thessaloniki, forever preserving and caring for the important religious treasures they have acquired over the years is a sign of hope for the city's future, a sign that the city will continue to change and grow as the years go by but what will not be forgotten is the important sacrifices and strength of people that has held it together through the years.

I loved this book, it is worth every single one of the 5 stars I have given it in this review and I now feel it will not be nearly so long till I read another Victoria Hislop book again.

We all remember those days back in high school when all we used to dream about was our first love and how wonderful it would be, the crushes we'd have on that special boy and how perfect life would be if he just noticed us. An innocent time before the reality of serious relationships moved in and we began worrying about if we'll ever get married or if we will wind up an old cat lady forever. This book is the essence of all those feelings wrapped up in one wonderful narrative.

To All The Boys I've Loved Before is Lara Jean's story. Lara Jean is a high school junior and the middle daughter of the Song sisters. She, her elder sister Margot and younger sister Kitty are all being raised by their dad after the death of their mother some years before. A strong and close family they all look out for one another but change is coming as Margot prepares to leave home to study abroad in Scotland. Lara Jean is a quiet, quirky teen who knows she will need to step up more when her sister leaves and take on more responsibilities and be there even more for her little sister Kitty. With her sisters (ex)-boyfriend living across the street, she is nervous about how their relationship will change and whether he will still come round after Margot leaves.

Lara Jean is a dreamer, she wants to be loved and over the years as she's developed crushes on different boys she pens them a love letter with all the feelings she has about them and then instead of posting it she hides it in a hatbox in her bedroom. This is fine until the day that the letters are posted out by mistake and suddenly all the boys Lara Jean has loved before start getting their love letters and suddenly Lara Jean has to face them knowing they've read all her deepest, most truthful feelings about them.

This book is the first in a trilogy dedicated to following the life of Lara Jean. The final book was only just published earlier this month. A huge success it has garnered lots of fans around the world because of it's lighthearted moments, strong family values and emotional writing style. I read a few people who said that they found Lara Jean to be an annoying character, overly naive and too young for her years but their criticisms have been far outweighed by those who've said they find it to be endearing and great contemporary young adult fiction. I personally loved Lara Jean's voice in this novel, she did have an innocence about her which whilst some people could perceive as immaturity I found to be refreshing that she wasn't an attention seeking, limelight loving teen with overconfidence and mean girl tendencies. Instead, the focus is on her family, she puts them first. She is sweet and thoughtful and favours a few close friendships over being the popular kid in school and rather than find this awkward she is okay with that.

In fact, I found Lara Jean to be a delight and I fell in love with her family as well. Many teen books can tend to portray the parental figures as party poopers or people who lay the rules. In this book, Lara Jean has a close relationship with her father and he is an integral part of her life whose opinion is valued. I think this is a positive role model family to provide young teens reading this book with.

This book ends with a great cliffhanger ending which means that you are desperate to find out how things are going to progress into book 2 in the series, P.S. I Still Love You. It is full of characters who I would like to spend more time with. In this hot balmy summer days I know that I will find these great contemporary reads to pick up and fly my way through. The chapters are short and snappy and you sit down to read a chapter and before you know where you are you've read 5 or 6 and the book flew past so quickly which makes it just perfect summer reading. I know that at 40 years old I am way way beyond the intended target audience for this book but I really enjoyed being taken back to those innocent days where the most important thing you had to worry about was whether your first kiss was going to be that fireworks moment you had dreamed in your head and who that special boy was going to be.

I've not read the debut novel by Anna Hope but had seen The Ballroom, her second novel, was to be included in the Richard & Judy Autumn Book Club and thought that the story sounded fascinating. Always happy to find exciting new authors and stories that are engaging I thought I'd give this one a try.

This is a story that from the reading on the back of the book sounds like it could be quite bleak. It is set in 1911 in a remote asylum on the Yorkshire moors where those who are not of “sound mind” are sent to be treated. Segregated into men and women's quarters they meet only once a week in the grand ballroom of the asylum where they are allowed to dance and socialise.

The book opens initially with the arrival of a new female patient at the asylum, mill girl Ella has been sent there for breaking a window in her room at the mill in order to try and be able to glimpse the sky and breathe fresh air. She is suffering from conjunctivitis as a result of her working conditions and is determined not to be confined in an asylum. Whilst she is railing against her captivity it becomes clear that what Ella has suffered is kin to a panic attack and she is not suffering mental health issues that would see her confined to an establishment like the asylum.

As we meet many of the patients within the novel we begin to realise that whilst there are some genuine cases within the wards there are equal numbers of patients who captivity is not required. One of these is Irishman John who we realise that whilst very quiet and introverted he is certainly not mentally unsound. He has suffered grief in his life but nothing more. He is set to work doing menial work around the asylum including grave digging for those patients who die within the walls.

At one Friday night dance Ella and John meet and a tentative friendship and courtship begins. John feeling upset that the women in the asylum are never allowed outdoors begins writing of the things he sees when he is out working and puts them in letters to Ella. Their love blossoms slowly and it's a lovely story how they have little physical contact with each other but manage to overcome almost impossible odds to keep getting letters to one another.

There are some really interesting relationships and characters in this book. The one I found most fascinating was that of Charles Fuller, a young doctor at the asylum. At the outset of this book we find him to be engaged in the provision of small things that will make the patients of the asylum more comfortable. He plays piano in the day-rooms for an hour each week to help provide musical therapy for patients and he is the organiser of the Friday night dances in the ballroom. We can tell he is of a progressive mind and disagrees with government plans to introduce compulsory sterilisation for those suffering from mental illness among the lower classes. He is keen to write about the work he is doing with music therapy and to use this a way of increasing his standing within the medical community.

What I found intriguing about his character is that potentially of all the characters in the book he himself is the one who suffers the biggest mental breakdown of all. It is clear he has a difficult relationship with his parents, who disagree with his progressive thoughts and tastes. We also become aware through guarded slips from the author that he is struggling with this own sexuality and he finds himself drawn to various male characters within the book in ways he struggles to understand and instead of accepting this is begins to poison his mind and make him ashamed and to question everything he believes. By the end of the book he has suffered a mental break and is almost entirely changed.

I loved this book, I liked that it explored the progress that we have made in understanding mental illness in the last 100 years. The asylum in the book is based on a real place and therefore we are left with no illusions that whilst the characters are fictional the realities of the stories being told are a real reflection of how things were in Great Britain in 1911.

It's a wonderful blend of so many stories, there are some really strong friendships built within the book including that of Ella and Clem, a fellow private patient whose family have placed her there as she is suffering from a habit of self harming and refusal to eat. With Clem's help to read John's letters and to write replies on her behalf Ella begins to find herself recovering well but meanwhile Clem, who lives in a fantasy world of books and romance begins to feel jealous of her friend and when her attentions towards Dr Fuller aren't returned begins to turn on Ella.

It's setting would suggest a beak story and while there are dark moments within the book it's also a story of great hope and romance and of futures yet to be experienced. The ending was really lovely and I am glad to say not cliched in any way. The book opens with a flash forward and I thought I had figured out where the ending was going but instead I was pleasantly surprised that it had a lovely twist that led to the forming of a wonderful new relationship within the closing pages, one that would endure outwith the asylum.

There are quite a few Young Adult novels based on the stories of people during the years of the Second World War. Several of these have become huge bestsellers are they are often sought out as books to be studied within the classroom such as The Book Thief and The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas. I'd heard really good things about Code Name Verity and as it's been a little while since I read a Second World War book in this genre I decided it might be nice to see whether it could be a valuable read for my 11-year-old who is going to be studying this time period at school.

This is an interesting book told through the eyes of a Gestapo prisoner in Nazi occupied France. Initially, we know very little about our narrator other than she is a British prisoner, although as she reminds us frequently she is, in fact, Scottish which I found quite amusing as being Scottish myself I know the pains we will go to in order to not be regarded as English. It is clear she has given in under pressures of interrogation and is now writing down what she knows about the allied war effort, the kinds of planes we use, where our air bases are and radio codes that we use for transmitting messages. As she tells us she is a coward, she has bought herself an extra two weeks of life in order to share all the knows with the Germans but ultimately she knows she will die at the hands of her captors.

As the story progresses we find that her way of telling what she knows about the war is both humorous, insightful and written through her experiences during the war. She is often scathing about the Germans who hold her, she is telling her story her way and sometimes this leads to her being punished for the things she says. There is lots of information about flying and the aircraft used during the war but if you can cut through this fundamentally this is the story of a young pilot Maddie who is as capable as any man at flying but during the war she is used for ground duties and eventually for ferrying planes around the UK for repair and to collect aircraft personnel. The story is Maddie's and that of her best friend Queenie who she meets during her training. They are two people who outwith the confines of the war would never be friends. Maddie is the granddaughter of a Jewish bike seller whilst Queenie is a Scottish aristocrat from a large family with a title and immense wealth.

This story is really touching and we are given more information slowly throughout the first two thirds of the book where our prisoner tells us about how she comes to be in Occupied France and how this links to the stories of Queenie and Maddie. We know it won't have a happy ending but the story is heartbreaking and engaging and the further into the book you go the more entrancing the story becomes.

The last third of the book is told by a different narrator, Maddie. In this part of the book we fill in the blanks that our Gestapo prisoner was unable to tell us and it is in this section that we learn the whole truth about the novel and as it ended I was left breathless by how cleverly crafted the story had been and how people will find the strengh to rise to challenges they never could have faced if not forced to do so through wartime.

A wonderful novel it is a great read, I wouldn't recommend it for very young pre-teen readers but I'd say that the content would be fine for ages 13 and above. I also imagine that the often long descriptions of flights and aircraft may put some readers off who find themselves bogged down in this and unable to cut through it to the heart and soul of the story. I can understand perhaps why it's not used as a school text as often as others of a similar genre.

I really enjoyed this book but I'd still say Prisoner of Night & Fog remains my favourite Young Adult WWII novel.

I have to be honest in saying I was a little cautious before reading this debut novel by television celebrity Richard Madeley. Most recently known for his Book Clubs which he hosts with his wife Judy Finnegan, they have helped launch several hugely popular novels into the fiction charts and reinvigorating reading lists the UK over. This connection with all thing literary did not mean that Richard too could become a successful author and like many people I found it a concern that this book would sell mainly because of who had written it as opposed to any literary merit it may contain.

I loved the cover art for the book immediately and the blurb promised an intriguing tale of Diana, who during the Second World War meets and falls in love with an RAF pilot James Blackwell. He is shot down and killed on their wedding day and Diana is left to pick up the pieces. Then ten years later she is in Nice and hears a voice which leads her to question whether her husband may still be alive.

This is such an easy book to become immersed in, Madeley is actually very good at creating the time period of WWII and I very quickly became carried away with the build up to the war through the eyes of Diana and her family. I'd start reading and before I knew it, and much to the protests of my four children, I'd be several chapters further in and absolutely captivated by the story.

I've read lots of criticism of the book, people claiming character names kept changing and proof reading wasn't sufficient, if that was the case I truly didn't notice. Either that or did they just miss the bit at the start of the book about the family using different names as a tradition? If any errors were made they were minimal and it did not detract from the story andy enjoyment of the story. I'd also read criticism that it was too predictable with characters succumbing to the curse of falling pregnant first time they slept with someone. Again I didn't find this an issue, frankly it just wasn't the case and where it was relevant it happened once and was central to the story so I didn't have an issue with it.

Instead I found this an enjoyable read, all the settings were beautifully described and atmospheric descriptions of the Mediterranean Nice in the 50's made me long to be there. The story was really clever, it wasn't a soppy love story and nor was it a crime story but a wonderful blend of war time tragedy and dark scheming by a warped mind.

I'm thrilled to see Richard has revisited the characters of this book in the sequel released last week ‘The Way You Look Tonight' and I'm really looking forward to reading this also. I'm impressed to say that Richard Madeley has proven his right to comment on the writing of others by production of a good solid first novel of his own and I'm happy to say I respect that he has done so and will be reading future releases by him.