Book Review: Girl at war - S. Novic

I was about the same age as Ana, the main character in the novel, when the Bosnian-Croatian war started. Shocking thinking that she was living a "normal" life, like I was not that far from her in Italy, until the horror started.
We always think about that conflict as all about Bosnia, but I never really thought about how much Croatia, Yugoslavia were impacted by it too.
Ana sees the unimaginable and yet she survives, she moves to America to join her sister but she never forgets and only by going back to Zagreb she can find a sort of closure.
A novel that will leave you with a lot of thinking to do and the curiosity to learn more about that atrocious war.

Overall rating:  7    Plot: 7,5   Writing style: 7   Cover:  6

Title: Girl at war

Author: Sara Novic
Publisher: Abacus
Pages: 336
Publication year: 2015

The Plot:

Growing up in Zagreb in the summer of 1991, 10-year-old Ana Juric is a carefree tomboy; she runs the streets with her best friend, Luka, helps take care of her baby sister, Rahela, and idolizes her father. But when civil war breaks out across Yugoslavia, football games and school lessons are supplanted by sniper fire and air raid drills.

The brutal ethnic cleansing of Croats and Bosnians tragically changes Ana's life, and she is lost to a world of genocide and child soldiers; a daring escape plan to America becomes her only chance for survival. Ten years later she returns to Croatia, a young woman struggling to belong to either country, forced to confront the trauma of her past and rediscover the place that was once her home.

The Author:

Sara is the author of the novel Girl at War, out now from Random House and Little, Brown UK. It won an American Library Association Alex Award, was an LA Times Book Prize finalist, and is available or forthcoming in thirteen more languages.
She is Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Stockton University, and holds an MFA from Columbia University, where she studied fiction and literary translation.
Her new nonfiction project, short illustrated biographies of Americans hailing from all 195 countries, is coming from Random House in 2019. More soon!

Book Review: Middle England - J. Coe

With one exception, I loved all Jonathan Coe's novels. I think he ia extremely good in describing society, politics with a very British sense of humor. I have been reading his books since I was in my teens and had the pleasure to attend an event where he presented a novel in Cambridge some eight years ago.
Middle England is THE picture of what society, politics and economy is in England now and has been in the last ten years. The middle class not being able to afford the previous life style, people feeling unsure about the future, the increased confusion about Brexit, politics diving families.
It is not easy to write a novel about the current political status without becoming boring or giving away preferences. But Coe has really managed to give an overview of the status quo with the different opinions, how the different generations feel about it, with his usual sense of humor and great ability of creating, on this case bringing back, complicated yet very realistic characters.
As a "foreigner" that has been living in the UK for almost twelve years and so have been part of the all saga described in the book, I think it was so refreshing and engaging reading about it in a novel.
Highly recommend it. There are parts that I would have made shorter but overall a really interesting read.

Overall rating:  7    Plot: 7,5   Writing style: 7   Cover:  6

Title: Middle England

Author: Jonathan Coe
Publisher: Viking
Pages: 432
Publication year: 2018

The Plot:

Beginning eight years ago on the outskirts of Birmingham, where car factories have been replaced by Poundland, and London, where frenzied riots give way to Olympic fever, Middle England follows a brilliantly vivid cast of characters through a time of immense change. There are newlyweds Ian and Sophie, who disagree about the future of the country and, possibly, the future of their relationship; Doug, the political commentator who writes impassioned columns about austerity from his Chelsea townhouse, and his radical teenage daughter who will stop at nothing in her quest for social justice; Benjamin Trotter, who embarks on an apparently doomed new career in middle age, and his father Colin, whose last wish is to vote in the European referendum. And within all these lives is the story of modern England: a story of nostalgia and delusion; of bewilderment and barely-suppressed rage.

The Author:

Jonathan Coe was born in Birmingham in 1961. His novels include What a Carve Up!, The House of Sleep, The Rotters' Club, The Rain Before It Falls and Number 11. 
He has won many literary prizes at home and abroad, and his biography of the writer BS Johnson, Like A Fiery Elephant, won the Samuel Johnson Prize. Feature films have been made of his novels The Dwarves of Death (as Five Seconds To Spare) and The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim (as La vie très privée de Monsieur Sim). The Rotters' Club was adapted for BBC television in 2005, starring Sarah Lancashire, Alice Eve and Kevin Doyle.

Book review: The First Lady - J. Patterson & B. DuBois

I must say that I was very intrigued by the blurb of this book. I read some Patterson's novels before and, although enjoyable, they are nothing that special in my view, I do forget their plots after closing the book. I read The President is missing and I was curios to see how the "female" version of it would plan out.
The novel starts well, gripping and building up curiosity, but the second half and the end is quite disappointing, too unrealistic and "fictional".

Overall rating:  6    Plot: 6   Writing style: 6,5   Cover:  6

Title: The First Lady

Author: James Patterson & Brendan DuBois
Publisher: Century
Pages: 368
Publication year: 2018

The Plot:

President Tucker is caught up in a media firestorm. The scandal of his affair has sent shockwaves through his re-election campaign, and threatens to derail everything he has worked for. To win the vote, he needs the First Lady to stand by his side.
But Grace Tucker has a mind of her own.
After years of compromise, unfulfilled promises, deception and betrayal, Grace refuses to give in to her husband's deamnds. Escaping the city and her Secret Service agents, she is officially off the radar. 
But did the First Lady run away? Or is she in far greater danger than anyone could have imagined?

The Authors:
James Brendan Patterson (born March 22, 1947) is an American author and philanthropist. Among his works are the Alex Cross, Michael Bennett, Women's Murder Club, Maximum Ride, Daniel X, NYPD Red, Witch and Wizard, and Private series, as well as many stand-alone thrillers, non-fiction and romance novels. His books have sold more than 300 million copies.

Brendan DuBois is an American mystery fiction and suspense writer. In this field he has twice won a Shamus Award for Best Short Story of the Year.

Book Review: The Mystery of the blue train - A. Christie

Hercule Poirot serie - book 6
Poirot investigates a murder on the Blue train travelling from england to the Cote d'Azur.
I love Agatha Christie and starting the year with Poirot in south of France was brilliant.
Despite how much I love Christie's crime novels and her characters, from a plot point of view, I thought it was quite easy to guess the culprit in this case so it was not one of my Christie's favourites.

Overall rating:  6,5    Plot: 6   Writing style: 8   Cover:  7

Title: The Mystery of the blue train

Author: Agatha Christie
Publisher: The Agatha Christie collection (Planet Tree)
Pages: 317
Publication year: 2005 (first published in 1928)

The Plot:

The daughter of an American millionaire dies on a train en route for Nice…

When the luxurious Blue Train arrives at Nice, a guard attempts to wake serene Ruth Kettering from her slumbers. But she will never wake again – for a heavy blow has killed her, disfiguring her features almost beyond recognition. What is more, her precious rubies are missing.

The prime suspect is Ruth’s estranged husband, Derek. Yet Poirot is not convinced, so he stages an eerie re-enactment of the journey, complete with the murderer on board

The Author:

Agatha Christie was born in Torquay in 1890 and became, quite simply, the best-selling novelist in history. Her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, written towards the end of the First World War, introduced us to Hercule Poirot, who was to become the most popular detective in crime fiction since Sherlock Holmes. She is known throughout the world as the Queen of Crime. Her books have sold over a billion copies in the English language and another billion in over 100 foreign languages. She is the author of 80 crime novels and short story collections, 19 plays, and six novels under the name of Mary Westmacott.

December 2018 Wrap up

Agatha Raisin and the Busy body - M.C. Beaton
Always entertaining our Agatha, never misses to engross me.
Rating:  6,5 out of 10

The Angel Tree - L. Riley
An engrossing family saga, I was glued to it!
Rating:  8 out of 10

Bright young dead - J. Fellowes
Slow pace and repetitive, a thumbs down for me.
Rating:  5 out of 10

One day in December - J. Silver
Slow start, but from the second half a very pleasant romantic novel.
Rating:  6,5 out of 10

A country Christmas - V. Henry
Abandoned: found it dull and uninteresting.
Rating:  Abandoned

The cosy Christmas chocolate shop - C. Roberts
Abandoned, another dull, unoriginal chick lit.
Rating:  Abandoned

The doctor's wife - E. Bournage
Dark and twisty, intriguing but not very original. Mediocre
Rating:  6 out of 10

Figlie di una nuova era -  C. Korn
Saga con protagoniste centrali tre donne che spazia tra le due guerre ad Amburgo. Piacevole ma non mi ha entusiasmata troppo.
Rating:  6,5 out of 10

USA 50 States Book Challenge 2019

Inspired by other readers, I have decided to start two long term reading challenges in 2019. One is to read one book for every World country (link here).

This one instead is a USA one: over the next couple of years I'd like to read a book set in each of the United States of America.

I will add the title to the State every time I read a novel set there. 

Here they go!

1 Alabama
2 Alaska
3 Arizona
4 Arkansas
5 California
6 Colorado
7 Connecticut
8 Delaware
9 Florida
          The innocent wife - A. Lloyd
10 Georgia
11 Hawaii
12 Idaho
13 Illinois
        Becoming - M. Obama
14 Indiana
15 Iowa
16 Kansas
17 Kentucky
18 Lousiana
19 Maine
20 Maryland
21 Massachusetts
22 Michigan
23 Minnesota
24 Mississippi
25 Missouri
26 Montana
27 Nebraska
         Landline - R. Rowell
28 Nevada
29 New Hampshire
30 New Jersey
31 New Mexico
32 New York
         The Doctor's wife - E. Brundage
33 North Carolina
34 North Dakota
35 Ohio
36 Oklahoma
37 Oregon
38 Pennsylvania
          After Anna - L. Scottoline
39 Rhode Island
40 South Carolina
41 South Dakota
42 Tennessee
43 Texas
            Bluebird, Bluebird - A. Locke
44 Utah
             The never open desert diner - J. Anderson
45 Vermont
46 Virginia
47 Washington
          The first lady - J Patterson
48 West Virginia
49 Wisconsin
50 Wyoming