June 23, 2022
by Rose Scott
Comments Off on The Orphan Collector, by Ellen Marie Wiseman
As I read the Orphan Collector, I couldn’t help but notice parallels between 1918 and 2020. Mask mandates, closures of theatres and churches. Overcrowded hospitals and fear of a deadly, unseen enemy. The so-called “Spanish” influenza spread quickly and violently. … Continue reading
May 13, 2022
by Rose Scott
Comments Off on The Boys in the Boat, by Daniel James Brown
Book review: The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and their epic quest for Gold in the 1936 Olympics by Daniel James Brown Like narrative non-fiction such as Unbroken by Lauren Hillenbrand, or biographical World War Two fiction? If so, … Continue reading
May 23, 2020
by Rose Scott
Comments Off on Book Review: When the War is over
Imagine you are just fifteen years old. But fifteen, in 1944 Germany approaches adulthood. Like it or not, conscription awaits for you and your friends. Anton apprentices in his late father’s trade as a watchmaker, even though he dreams of … Continue reading
January 9, 2020
by Rose Scott
Comments Off on Book review: Forty Autumns
Forty Autumns chronicles the experiences of one family during the iron-fisted regime of the German Democratic Republic (1949-1990). For Willner’s family as for millions of others behind the Iron Curtain, a new normal, almost a mirror image of the Third Reich, intrudes upon their lives. Continue reading
October 20, 2017
by Rose Scott
Comments Off on Book Review: We don’t talk about that
We don’t talk about that is a fitting title for the memoir of a woman who lost her childhood, home and innocence to a war that extended into what should have been peacetime. A colourful cast of relatives inhabit life … Continue reading
June 1, 2017
by Rose Scott
Comments Off on Book Review: Under the Silk Hibiscus
Heart Mountain sounds like a lovely place, but it is a Japanese internment camp. Quarters are cramped, bare and cold. Food and employment are in short supply. Along with other Japanese Americans from San Jose, Nathan Mori and his family … Continue reading
February 7, 2017
by Rose Scott
Comments Off on Book Review: Prisoner of Tehran
In late 1970’s Iran, the Shah’s government was on shaky ground and the relative peace of Marina Nemat’s childhood erupted into unrest and restrictions on freedom, culminating in the death of her friend. As a young woman and … Continue reading
September 3, 2016
by Rose Scott
Comments Off on Ellen Marie Wiseman: What She Left Behind
Izzy is a teenage foster child struggling with loss, abandonment and unwanted change. When her new foster mother offers a challenge involving an old asylum, Izzy joins in with the task of documenting all that was left behind by the … Continue reading
April 25, 2016
by Rose Scott
Comments Off on Book Review: In Search of Sticks
Hope and her family in Africa are born to a life of suffering. James A. Terrance, with a talent for mimicking accents from Australia to Ireland, lives a life of comparative luxury and simple routine in North America. In … Continue reading
January 21, 2016
by Rose Scott
Comments Off on Book Review: In Moonlight’s Shadow by David E. Burnell
Forrester is a brash young pilot, a Canadian, in the Royal Airforce during World War Two. After an error in judgment he is assigned to a short leave, when he meets the Lady Armitage and her attractive but aloof niece … Continue reading