Well, I did a few quick calculations and realised that at one post a day, I would not get these Awards completed by the time I leave for my much needed and well-earned, Christmas break in Mindoro. Hey, I said I was an accountant, in a previous life - but I never said I was a very good one!
Anyway, to compensate we will be speeding up the frequency of our awards to at least two posts a day, for the next few days.
Anyway, to compensate we will be speeding up the frequency of our awards to at least two posts a day, for the next few days.
Oh My God! Historical Fiction. This is the category I have been dreading doing for one simple reason - there are so many wonderful contenders for the best Historical Fiction book I've read this 2016. I just don't know where to start or how to choose just three? So, I've bent the rules a little for this category and we have four nominees (Hey, they're my awards, so I can cheat if I want to - right?)
I'm so excited to bring you these four nominees today, so let's get right to it.
I'm so excited to bring you these four nominees today, so let's get right to it.
The first nominee in the HISTORICAL FICTION category for 2016 is a harrowing tale of a young woman and her struggle to survive in World War 2: LUDWIKA by CHRISTOPH FISCHER.
I had been wanting to read a Christoph Fischer for quite some time, as I was aware of the positive buzz his books had received in Social Media. I was thrilled to have the chance to read his latest offering; Ludwika.
Based on the true life of a Polish woman struggling to survive in Nazi Germany, Ludwika is touching and at times heart-rending. Although there is little doubt that Ludwika had a much easier war than many other refugees or internees of the Nazi war machine, it was certainly not a walk in the park surviving the detention camps and the betrayals by Germans she considered to be her friends or allies.
Ludwika's motivation, it seemed, was always about what was best for her family, left behind in Poland and especially her young daughter. What kept her going was that burning desire to be reunited with them once this madness was over. During the course of her journey, it seemed Ludwika's choices would always be dogged by "bad luck". Very beautiful and headstrong, she was prone to rush in; "where Angels fear to tread".
I absolutely adore Fischer's style and was totally invested in the outcome of Ludwika's painful journey; always the sign of a good writer. Fischer also did an excellent job at the end of the story, relating his fictionalised tale to the true Ludwika and her family today. The bonus at the end of the book - a good, solid, extract from another of his books The Luck of the Weissentheiners, ensured that I have no doubt which Fischer book will be next on my to read list. I am already invested in this fascinating tale.
It was early in 2016 when I read Ludwika, but this book was already at the top of my "awards" list consideration for December. This is a superb piece of fiction/fact. I loved it.
I had been wanting to read a Christoph Fischer for quite some time, as I was aware of the positive buzz his books had received in Social Media. I was thrilled to have the chance to read his latest offering; Ludwika.
Based on the true life of a Polish woman struggling to survive in Nazi Germany, Ludwika is touching and at times heart-rending. Although there is little doubt that Ludwika had a much easier war than many other refugees or internees of the Nazi war machine, it was certainly not a walk in the park surviving the detention camps and the betrayals by Germans she considered to be her friends or allies.
Ludwika's motivation, it seemed, was always about what was best for her family, left behind in Poland and especially her young daughter. What kept her going was that burning desire to be reunited with them once this madness was over. During the course of her journey, it seemed Ludwika's choices would always be dogged by "bad luck". Very beautiful and headstrong, she was prone to rush in; "where Angels fear to tread".
I absolutely adore Fischer's style and was totally invested in the outcome of Ludwika's painful journey; always the sign of a good writer. Fischer also did an excellent job at the end of the story, relating his fictionalised tale to the true Ludwika and her family today. The bonus at the end of the book - a good, solid, extract from another of his books The Luck of the Weissentheiners, ensured that I have no doubt which Fischer book will be next on my to read list. I am already invested in this fascinating tale.
It was early in 2016 when I read Ludwika, but this book was already at the top of my "awards" list consideration for December. This is a superb piece of fiction/fact. I loved it.
My second nominee in the HISTORICAL FICTION category is a towering story of love, loss and betrayal before, during and after the Spanish Civil War. It is GUARDIAN OF SECRETS by JANA PETKEN
Firstly, I want to say what a sheer pleasure it was to read a full-length, weighty novel again. It seems sometimes that the pleasure of reading a good story has been subverted, these days, by the publishing industry that has arbitrarily decided that us dumb readers can only concentrate for a few hours and any novel over 80,000 words is too big. What a load of poppycock! I love a good long read that allows the characters to develop and the author to describes events over a long period of time. The Guardian of Secrets is such a novel and its author Jana Petken has done her usual superb job in presenting this monumental tale of love, loss, war and drama to us.
At almost 700 pages The Guardian of Secrets is a weighty book, but it is never difficult to read or in any way slow or boring. I took my time over it, picking up in between other books. I was always happy to return to the Spanish Civil War and the trials and tribulations of the Martinez family. It was an absolute joy to read.
The story actually covers almost a Century, but most of the focus in the book is of the time leading up to and during the bloody Spanish Civil War. The Martinez family is Spanish aristocracy and landowners and quite naturally expected to support and fight for the "old guard" led by the fascists and General Franco. Ernesto, the Patriarch is less inclined to see the rightest views and believes Spain must change to embrace the changes sweeping Europe.
Petken's wonderful story takes us from Merill Farm in England to La Glorietta in Valencia, Spain as we watch Cecilia and Ernesto bring up their children and suffer the anguish of loss and pain that the war brought to Spain during the late 1930's and for many years following the Fascist victory.
As a treatise against the folly of war, especially Civil War, one comes away from this book with a much greater understanding of how entrenched political ideals can lead to everyday citizens becoming just cannon fodder for the Generals. This book is ultimately about love, but it allows us to explore the most basest of human emotions and desires.
Petken is a true master of the historical romance and is now at the top of my favorite author list. She has combined careful research and deep personal knowledge of the setting of the book to create a wonderful tale that can sweep us away from our everyday, humdrum lives. Jan Petken is one of the true stars of the Indie writing scene. I have no doubt I will be devouring many more of her offerings in the future.
Firstly, I want to say what a sheer pleasure it was to read a full-length, weighty novel again. It seems sometimes that the pleasure of reading a good story has been subverted, these days, by the publishing industry that has arbitrarily decided that us dumb readers can only concentrate for a few hours and any novel over 80,000 words is too big. What a load of poppycock! I love a good long read that allows the characters to develop and the author to describes events over a long period of time. The Guardian of Secrets is such a novel and its author Jana Petken has done her usual superb job in presenting this monumental tale of love, loss, war and drama to us.
At almost 700 pages The Guardian of Secrets is a weighty book, but it is never difficult to read or in any way slow or boring. I took my time over it, picking up in between other books. I was always happy to return to the Spanish Civil War and the trials and tribulations of the Martinez family. It was an absolute joy to read.
The story actually covers almost a Century, but most of the focus in the book is of the time leading up to and during the bloody Spanish Civil War. The Martinez family is Spanish aristocracy and landowners and quite naturally expected to support and fight for the "old guard" led by the fascists and General Franco. Ernesto, the Patriarch is less inclined to see the rightest views and believes Spain must change to embrace the changes sweeping Europe.
Petken's wonderful story takes us from Merill Farm in England to La Glorietta in Valencia, Spain as we watch Cecilia and Ernesto bring up their children and suffer the anguish of loss and pain that the war brought to Spain during the late 1930's and for many years following the Fascist victory.
As a treatise against the folly of war, especially Civil War, one comes away from this book with a much greater understanding of how entrenched political ideals can lead to everyday citizens becoming just cannon fodder for the Generals. This book is ultimately about love, but it allows us to explore the most basest of human emotions and desires.
Petken is a true master of the historical romance and is now at the top of my favorite author list. She has combined careful research and deep personal knowledge of the setting of the book to create a wonderful tale that can sweep us away from our everyday, humdrum lives. Jan Petken is one of the true stars of the Indie writing scene. I have no doubt I will be devouring many more of her offerings in the future.
The third nominee in the HISTORICAL FICTION category is the beautiful story of a young woman, Helen, caught up in the maelstrom that was the rise of the Nazi's in Germany and her time in the most notorious of the death camps, Auschwitz. It is THE SEVEN YEAR DRESS by PAULETTE MAHURIN.
I like to think that I have been greatly blessed recently.
As a history buff and someone who adores historical fiction, I have read some of the most amazing, diverse and exciting historical fiction in recent times. In the last few months alone, I have read three books set during the Nazi reign of terror, each one of them very different and each one of them equally superb. From Christoph Fischer's Ludwika to Ellie Midwood's Standartenfuhrer's Wife and Gruppenfuhrer's Mistress, I have been a happy little camper. Well, add now to that impressive list, The Seven Year Dress by Paulette Mahurin.
Each of these three authors has produced books on the same time period, but each from their own unique perspective and viewpoint. In Ludwika, we saw a young Slavic girl trying to survive amongst the Nazi invaders. In Ellie Midwood's two stories, we followed young Jewess Annalise as she not only married a man high up in the Nazi Intelligence Service but then used that position to spy on the Nazis for the Americans. Fantastic books all of them.
In the Seven Year Dress, we confront the very worst of the Nazi atrocities and Mahurin confronts it head on, through the eyes of Helen, a survivor of the infamous death camp that was Auschwitz.
We first meet Helen, as an old lady, who needs to tell her story to her new boarder. Traveling back in time to Berlin in the mid-1930's we see a young Jewish girl, about to flourish into womanhood, as the Nazi's come to power in Germany and the atrocities against the Jewish people and other "undesirables" begin.
After four years of hiding in an abandoned farmhouse basement, with only her brother Ben for company, the pair is finally arrested, by the dreaded Gestapo and transported to Auschwitz, where somehow Helen manages to stay alive through the hell that was the "Death Camp".
This book will make you cry, it will make you scream at the sheer brutality and inhumanity of the German soldiers but it will also fill you with wonder and hope and faith in the indomitability of the human spirit. Reading this book you will traverse the entire gamut of human emotions - it is that good.
It isn't necessarily an easy read. The violence and hatred are brutal and Mahurin pulls no punches in describing it, but the strength, the humanity and the sheer determination to survive shown by Helen and some of the other inmates will shine through like a beacon.
I can say easily, few books have touched me emotionally as much as this one has. Paulette Mahurin, in my book you are a superstar author who deserves mass publication.
As an aside and not taking away from the book in any way, it is fascinating to draw parallels between the behavior of the Nazis in the 1930's and by association, most average German citizens, and the events we see currently happening in parts of the world today. We should learn from history, not repeat it. (No need to elucidate on that!)
Thank you for a book that will live long in my memory.
I like to think that I have been greatly blessed recently.
As a history buff and someone who adores historical fiction, I have read some of the most amazing, diverse and exciting historical fiction in recent times. In the last few months alone, I have read three books set during the Nazi reign of terror, each one of them very different and each one of them equally superb. From Christoph Fischer's Ludwika to Ellie Midwood's Standartenfuhrer's Wife and Gruppenfuhrer's Mistress, I have been a happy little camper. Well, add now to that impressive list, The Seven Year Dress by Paulette Mahurin.
Each of these three authors has produced books on the same time period, but each from their own unique perspective and viewpoint. In Ludwika, we saw a young Slavic girl trying to survive amongst the Nazi invaders. In Ellie Midwood's two stories, we followed young Jewess Annalise as she not only married a man high up in the Nazi Intelligence Service but then used that position to spy on the Nazis for the Americans. Fantastic books all of them.
In the Seven Year Dress, we confront the very worst of the Nazi atrocities and Mahurin confronts it head on, through the eyes of Helen, a survivor of the infamous death camp that was Auschwitz.
We first meet Helen, as an old lady, who needs to tell her story to her new boarder. Traveling back in time to Berlin in the mid-1930's we see a young Jewish girl, about to flourish into womanhood, as the Nazi's come to power in Germany and the atrocities against the Jewish people and other "undesirables" begin.
After four years of hiding in an abandoned farmhouse basement, with only her brother Ben for company, the pair is finally arrested, by the dreaded Gestapo and transported to Auschwitz, where somehow Helen manages to stay alive through the hell that was the "Death Camp".
This book will make you cry, it will make you scream at the sheer brutality and inhumanity of the German soldiers but it will also fill you with wonder and hope and faith in the indomitability of the human spirit. Reading this book you will traverse the entire gamut of human emotions - it is that good.
It isn't necessarily an easy read. The violence and hatred are brutal and Mahurin pulls no punches in describing it, but the strength, the humanity and the sheer determination to survive shown by Helen and some of the other inmates will shine through like a beacon.
I can say easily, few books have touched me emotionally as much as this one has. Paulette Mahurin, in my book you are a superstar author who deserves mass publication.
As an aside and not taking away from the book in any way, it is fascinating to draw parallels between the behavior of the Nazis in the 1930's and by association, most average German citizens, and the events we see currently happening in parts of the world today. We should learn from history, not repeat it. (No need to elucidate on that!)
Thank you for a book that will live long in my memory.
Our fourth and final nominee in the HISTORICAL FICTION category of this year's awards is not actually a novel at all - it's three novels (a series). Well, I did tell you they were my awards, so I can make it up as I go. These three stories are collectively known as THE GIRL FROM BERLIN and were authored by the wonderful ELLIE MIDWOOD. The three books that make up this amazing trilogy are: STANDARTENFUHRER'S WIFE, GRUPPENFUHRER'S MISTRESS AND WAR CRIMINAL'S WIDOW.
Well, I've sadly come to the end of The Girl from Berlin Series, with War Criminal's Widow. Did the third book live up to the excellent standard set by the first two? Absolutely it did. As the culmination of a series, it led us on to the best and most logical conclusion for Annalise, Heinrich and of course, Ernst. The fact that I had picked the ending by about half-way through the book, actually didn't matter one iota to my enjoyment of it and the suspense leading up to it.
As this is the third book in the series and I am confident that few people could read book one and not go on and read the second and third, I will concentrate, in this review, more on the series as a whole, than specifically on War Criminal's Widow. Simply put, War Criminal's Widow, was a wonderful story and I loved it, as I did Standartenfuhrer's Wife and Gruppenfuhrer's Mistress.
Firstly, the style of Midwood in taking on the principal character of Annalise, and telling the story in the first-person, almost like a diary, was an inspired choice. We, as readers, may not always have agreed with Annalise's decisions and I certainly questioned her thought processes, from time to time, but because it was so intimately told, from her perspective, it was easy to forgive her, her sins, as indeed Heinrich seemed always willing to do.
There were times, perhaps, when suspension of belief was necessary when we considered her actions and ability to get away with them, but we know, from history, that counter-espionage was rife on all sides of World War Two and that double-agents and even triple agents were very common within the intelligence communities of all the powers. I didn't have too much difficulty coming to terms with such goings-on right at the top of the Nazi party. I can easily imagine the scramble Midwood described amongst senior Nazi officials to pass off blame and to paint themselves as being just "following orders". It was fascinating to look at the Nuremberg Trial from the perspective of the loved one of an accused, desperately trying to mitigate their actions during the war.
So, all in all, a fabulous conclusion to a fabulous Series from Ellie Midwood. Where to now? Well, for me, as a reader, I'm excited to look at the next series on WWII, The Austrian, where I assume Midwood looks at this story from the perspective of the main anti-hero, Ernst Kaltenbrunner. I was fascinated by this character in The Girl from Berlin and I have no doubt I will enjoy a closer examination of OberGruppenfuhrer Kaltenbrunner's rise to power.
I have found an historical fiction novelist worth following in Ellie Midwood and will continue to read her books, with interest and enjoyment.
As this is the third book in the series and I am confident that few people could read book one and not go on and read the second and third, I will concentrate, in this review, more on the series as a whole, than specifically on War Criminal's Widow. Simply put, War Criminal's Widow, was a wonderful story and I loved it, as I did Standartenfuhrer's Wife and Gruppenfuhrer's Mistress.
Firstly, the style of Midwood in taking on the principal character of Annalise, and telling the story in the first-person, almost like a diary, was an inspired choice. We, as readers, may not always have agreed with Annalise's decisions and I certainly questioned her thought processes, from time to time, but because it was so intimately told, from her perspective, it was easy to forgive her, her sins, as indeed Heinrich seemed always willing to do.
There were times, perhaps, when suspension of belief was necessary when we considered her actions and ability to get away with them, but we know, from history, that counter-espionage was rife on all sides of World War Two and that double-agents and even triple agents were very common within the intelligence communities of all the powers. I didn't have too much difficulty coming to terms with such goings-on right at the top of the Nazi party. I can easily imagine the scramble Midwood described amongst senior Nazi officials to pass off blame and to paint themselves as being just "following orders". It was fascinating to look at the Nuremberg Trial from the perspective of the loved one of an accused, desperately trying to mitigate their actions during the war.
So, all in all, a fabulous conclusion to a fabulous Series from Ellie Midwood. Where to now? Well, for me, as a reader, I'm excited to look at the next series on WWII, The Austrian, where I assume Midwood looks at this story from the perspective of the main anti-hero, Ernst Kaltenbrunner. I was fascinated by this character in The Girl from Berlin and I have no doubt I will enjoy a closer examination of OberGruppenfuhrer Kaltenbrunner's rise to power.
I have found an historical fiction novelist worth following in Ellie Midwood and will continue to read her books, with interest and enjoyment.
So there we have it, four uber talented authors, all of whom are the match of ANY legacy published author out there and six incredible books - Who's the winner of this year's Award for Indie Author Excellence? God, this was such a tough category, but in the end, I've got to go with my heart and give the award to the book that made the biggest overall emotional impact on me and that was (Drum Roll Please...)
THE SEVEN YEAR DRESS by PAULETTE MAHURIN
Congratulations Paulette!
After the often gut-wrenching pain and angst of Historical Fiction, our next award to be handed out, should lighten things up a bit. Next up in the Grunter's is the HUMOUR category.
Till then, have a wonderful, peace-filled day!
CHOOSE TO BE HAPPY!
EMBRACE THE OPPORTUNITIES LIFE PRESENTS TO YOU AND ALWAYS, ALWAYS FOLLOW YOUR DREAMS!
HAVE A GREAT LIFE AND SPREAD THE LOVE!
CHANGING THE WORLD – ONE READER AT A TIME
EMBRACE THE OPPORTUNITIES LIFE PRESENTS TO YOU AND ALWAYS, ALWAYS FOLLOW YOUR DREAMS!
HAVE A GREAT LIFE AND SPREAD THE LOVE!
CHANGING THE WORLD – ONE READER AT A TIME
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