Some of you will know that I do a summary each year of the books I’ve read. It’s a quick look at with brief comments and a rating scheme to give readers my perspective. So, here we go with 2022 – just a few for this post in the interests of your time and mine!
The rating scheme is: LR = light, enjoyable read; GR = good, some caveats; ER = excellent, minor caveats; OR = outstanding; DNF = did not finish; NMT = not my type.
I’ll be back with more – and would love to hear about books that stood out for you in 2022.
FOR MORE ON READING & WRITING HISTORICAL FICTION FOLLOW A WRITER OF HISTORY
M.K. Tod writes historical fiction. Her latest novel is THE ADMIRAL’S WIFE, a dual timeline set in Hong Kong. Mary’s other novels, PARIS IN RUINS, TIME AND REGRET, LIES TOLD IN SILENCE and UNRAVELLED are available from Amazon, Nook, Kobo, Google Play and iTunes. She can be contacted on Facebook, Twitter and Goodreads or on her website www.mktod.com.
8 Responses
Excellent reading list, Mary! Happy New Year!
Many thanks, Pat. Just gearing up again after a crazy end to the 2022!!
Interesting! I really loved The Paris Bookseller 🙂
We should talk about that at some point!! I was so looking forward to this novel.
Thanks for sharing about the books. You are an amazing writer. Blessings,
Very kind of you, Curt. I hope your own writing is going well.
Just so you know, most Holocaust scholars have said that the premise put forth in the book about who betrayed the Frank family is probably wrong, and most accounts collected from her father and other Jews who tried to hide from the Nazis in the Netherlands agree that they probably weren’t betrayed by fellow Jews. Furthermore, some historians are saying that this book was written to put blame on Jews for the mass murder of their own race, which, itself is pretty messed up! It may be touted as non-fiction, but I’m not sure it is actually true – just a theory that is pretty unlikely, and possibly antisemitic.
Thank you, Davida. I was aware of the controversy and should have mentioned it in my brief comments. From the investigation I did, as well as that of others in the book club I belong to, there are mixed opinions on the reaction. The cold case team did incredible work to chase down as many paths as they could – did you read Rosemary Sullivan’s book? – the detail is excruciating. Rosemary Sullivan herself is a highly respected author. She has been interviewed on the matter on a number of occasions. She is not the kind of author who would have been coerced into taking a position nor would she have hesitated to step away if she felt the team’s research was seriously flawed.
One thought that occurs to me is that the cold case team could have ended their investigation simply by saying that there was insufficient hard data to draw a firm conclusion. What has unfortunately gotten lost, is the picture presented by the team’s research of the evil perpetrated by the Nazis, their obsession with records and process, the difficult and compromising positions of anyone who feared for their lives, and the horror of what unfolded in the Netherlands during WWII.
I welcome your thoughts and reaction ~~ all best, Mary