Tuesday Reviews Day - Books

I'm trying out something new on my blog — for the time being Tuesdays will be my 'reviews' days when I will be sharing my thoughts/reviews on books and art supplies mostly but other things might creep into the mix. Hope you enjoy...

Today, it's all about books!

I've still been on a reading frenzy since getting my Kindle.

So far this year I have read 49 books, 48 of which have been Kindle books, of my Goodreads Reading goal of 55 books. I had to keep extending it from the initial 25 books.

First up for this post - Courage in a White Coat by Mary Schwaner.

This book was beautifully written in a way where you felt like you were there sharing the experience right along with Dorothy. I loved it!

Dorothy is an American doctor working for a medical mission — first in India for ten years and then at a hospital in the Philippines for a couple of years before she and her small family end up in a Japanese POW camp when the Japanese took over control.

Early on in the book you share in Dorothy's many joys, triumphs, and obstacles as she becomes accustomed to life in India. Quite a challenge at times for a foreign female doctor because her gender and modern medical practises aren't easily accepted among the locals.

Dorothy uses her ingenuity many times in overcoming obstacles that present themselves. For example, there were no medical information books available to help train her Indian nurses, so Dorothy created her own medical sketchbooks in her own handwriting — including her own ink and wash sketches outlining medical maladies and procedures. She would write and draw with a dip pen and ink — then she would wash some colour on with her tea, or was it coffee? — I can't remember offhand but it gave a lovely watercolour effect. Those sketchbooks proved to be invaluable to her staff. She was also a very talented seamstress which came in very handy in their remote location.

After ten years in India, Dorothy had a short stay back in the States before heading off to the Philippines to continue her practise at a hospital. However, two years later, war would have a profound effect when the Japanese took over the area where they were stationed. Dorothy's ordeal with her young family in the POW camp was horrific and you constantly fear for their lives and for the other prisoners. People, including children, died from malnutrition and other ailments. They were literally starving to death under the constant threat of beatings or execution. Heartbreaking stuff.

I initially gave this book a four star rating but changed to five stars because, apart from being so well written, it left a big impression on me. Well deserved.

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Next up we have The Girl with Seven Names by Hyeonseo Lee.

Another amazing book about one woman's ordeal as she recounts her escape from North Korea. You'd think getting out of North Korea and safely across to China would mean her ordeal was over but, in fact, it was only just beginning. Hyeonseo's courage and determination is to be commended. It was touching to see strangers reach out to help her at great risk to their own safety but there were those she shouldn't have trusted at all and that led to some scary predicaments.

Hyeonseo later attempts to help her mother and brother escape North Korea too and that is yet another harrowing and hair-raising ordeal. There are times you lose hope that they will make it at all. At other times, you feel so grateful for the kindness of strangers — even an Aussie guy played a huge role in helping Hyeonseo and she was in awe that he wanted nothing in return.

I have read a few books by people sharing their accounts of escaping North Korea and each perspective is just as interesting and as horrifying as the last. The scary part is that these experiences happened not that long ago and it is believed that the North Korean regime still starves and kills its own citizens to this very day — prisons, labour camps, and executions for what we would deem as minor infractions by starving citizens are the norm there.

I gave this book 5 stars! I was on the edge of my seat a lot of the time worried sick that Hyeonseo, and later, her family would be caught and sent back to North Korea which would mean certain death for them.  This book was a harrowing read but it was also a beautiful and touching story about the endurance and courage of the human spirit.

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I have more book reviews coming next Tuesday so stay tuned...

My New Love

A few months ago I treated myself to a Kindle Paperwhite and I am now an eBook convert! 

I LOVE my Kindle! 

Without a doubt, I will always love traditional books but there is a lot to be said for eBooks too.

I can basically carry a library around in my bag. The Kindle Paperwhite is lightweight, comfortable to hold, better for the environment, eBooks are cheaper, and I don't have to worry about glare that can occur with my Galaxy Note 8 or iPad. That said, the Kindle app for Smartphones, computers or tablets is wonderful in that you can see pictures and book covers in colour. The Kindle app also gives you the option to change background colours. Another thing I love which is offered in the Kindle and the Kindle app is that I can choose a font style as well as enlarge it — a definite bonus for these old eyes. hehe 

Amazon offers tons of great Kindle eBook specials so my library is fast expanding. Like my taste in music, I have a broad range of likes in book genres. I enjoy reading memoirs, true stories, thrillers, horrors, crime series, information books, etc.

Since buying my Kindle Paperwhite I have read 24 books in just three months! That would be a record for me. I've detailed a couple of recent books below.

One of the first books read on my Kindle — Even Silence has an End by Ingrid Betancourt.
A real life account told by Ingrid Betancourt, a Columbian politician, who was kidnapped in 2002 by FARC — a terrorist guerrilla organisation. Ingrid was held hostage for SIX years! The conditions that she and fellow hostages lived under in the Columbian jungle were deplorable. How they survived at all is a miracle. I gave this book 5 stars on Goodreads.

I recently completed — Never Stop Walking by Christina Rickarddson (see below).
Parts of this book still stay in my mind — heart-wrenching in areas. It follows the real life account of young Christina who lived on the streets with her mother and younger brother until she was eight years old when she and her brother were adopted by a couple in Sweden. Christina shares her memories of what life was like as a child living in extreme poverty in Sao Paulo, Brazil, as well as sharing parts of her life in Sweden. She recounts her experience when, as an adult, she returns to Brazil in search of her biological mother. Some parts of Christina's story are very hard to read but I find it hard to condemn a starving child for making a spur of moment decision that led to bloodshed and the loss of life all over a scrap of food.

I also wasn't aware that, even in recent years, police death squads in areas of Brazil search the streets at night looking for 'rats' — rats being a term used for street kids. They actually catch and kill these poor, defenceless kids! Some of these kids are under the age of five. They call it social cleansing — I call it a crime against humanity! I am horrified that humans can commit such atrocities against their own kind, especially innocent children. It's bad enough what humans do to animals.

Christina does a lot of soul-searching in her book trying to meld her childhood in Brazil with the privileged one she came to know in Sweden. I gave this one 5 stars on Goodreads.

A Kindle page from Christina's book

I have also been reading a couple of detective series. One written by Patricia Gibney following Detective Lottie Parker set in Ireland and the other by Robert Bryndza following Detective Erika Foster set in the UK.

Expect to see more reviews in the future...

Feel free to share any of your own book recommendations in the comments.