April Book Reviews

April was a good month for reading..... I managed 3!!

Ok so I'm a long way off my target of 50 but hey ho!

Even her closest friend agreed that Shark Grayson wasn't fit to keep her baby. A heroin addict, living in a sordid London squat, she was already close to death when her American lover took charge of the situation by force, and carried off the baby Alexander to give him a loving home in the Mid-West and an affluent future. But now Alex is twenty-seven, orphaned again and afflicted by a sense of lost roots and a romantic vision of England. A business trip provides the chance to go and trace his unknown relatives. He finds friendship; encounters some startlingly predatory girls; and confronts mystery in the eccentric alternative health centre run by the austere Julia. He discovers that while some British people are very hard indeed to get along with, some turn out to be, after all, more closely akin to him than he could ever have imagined.

First up Mother Country 

A lady I work with lent me this book & I must confess I wasn't sure at the beginning. She kept saying how good it was so I felt I should stick with it & I'm glad I did.

Once over the 'hump' of the book I found I couldn't put it down & read it in under a week which is very fast for me.

It's not the sort of book I normally read & I doubt I'll read it again but I did really enjoy it. 

8/10

World War Two is finally over. Millions all over the country are starting to wonder if peacetime really is much of an improvement on the War. Food shortages, endless queues, power cuts, rationing and freezing winters make it extremely difficult to make ends meet as husbands return from battlefields to families they hardly know. Yet some East Enders are living large...in a bombed out damp and squalid Hackney slum, one family are leading a life of luxury, a loadsamoney world funded by illegal betting, where virtually everything is available, thanks to a thriving black market. The Hyams family has a retinue of unofficial servants: a chauffeur, a cleaner and an army of delivery men. They take seaside holidays in posh hotels and dine on the finest foods and delicacies money can buy...but at the core of their daily life, an ever-growing nightmare lurks, threatening to wreck their luxurious existence. In this honest and sincere memoir, Jacky Hyams revisits the 'live for today' world of her childhood, a world where money was no object, growing up in a household underpinned by betting, booze and bribes. From stories of her parents partying with the Krays in the East End of old, to the optimistic swinging sixties of London's West End, this is the intimate story of a unique childhood, set against the backdrop of squalid, post-War Hackney.

Now you all know how much I love social history books & I really enjoyed this one. A nice quick easy read.

There was nothing in here I didn't already know about the East End of London but it was still very interesting. I'm please to see there is a follow up book which takes as through the 60's.

The best bit about this book is the price.... 69p on Kindle!!!

It's a real bargain!!

8/10

Karl Engel is a rising star among Nazi guards at a concentration camp. Making a name for himself through his brutality and impassioned hatred of all things Jewish, the arrival of new prisoners forces him to begin to question everything he’s ever known. In a place known for despair, death, and hate, is it possible to find hope, life, and love? In Poland, 1943, the most profound discovery that Karl will make in The Camp—is himself.

I book this book back in February for only 75p on Kindle, I hadn't heard of the author so left it until I had nothing else to read.

It was excellent!!

So many twist that I found myself saying 'Nooooo!!!' out loud several times.

The way it was written was very clever & I would really recommend reading it if like me you enjoy books about the Holocaust. It's now gone up in price but still a bargain.

I'm so pleased to see there's part 2 & have added that to my wish list..... which I might add is growing daily!

10/10

So that's it for April. Unfortunately I'm struggling at the moment with a book I thought was really good  but with 200 pages left I'm finding it hard going. I won't give in but it's slowing me down!

I can't wait to finish it so I can buy more from my wish list!