Shrabani Basu ~Spy Princess~

Read: On Kindle

Paid: 99p

Reason I choose it: When I worked with the 7-8 year olds I started just after they learnt about Noor Inyat Khan so I was curious to know who she was. I kind of forgot until just before Christmas and decided to look up a book for her and this author came up.

 

Summary

This book is a true story about a British Secret Agent for SOE during WW2. It begins with Noors dad and his introducing the Islamic belief of Sufism in to the Europeans and Americans lives through his music.Noor is born in Russia, lives a little in England and eventually ends up in France. You learn about Noors Childhood surrounded by people dedicating their lives to Sufism and then in her teenage years they flee France for England where she gets a job in a Morse code center. Due to her speed and her multi lingual skills she is watched carefully and then eventually offered a job as a secret agent in France which she takes and travels over despite a few obstacles along the way.....

 

My Opinion

My only problem with the book is the fact that the author was infatuated with Noors dad and Noors supposed great great great great..... grand-dad Tippu Sultan. By the way its actually how the author writes the great which after a while really irritates me. I really hated the dad and would rather have not read about him but then again it gave a little more insight as to what Noor faced on a daily basis. The author was not all that infatuated with Noor as she went on to call her childish etc... which I found a bit odd as she didn't actually know her personally despite having spoken to her family.

 

People like Noor's dad still exist today and are known as a Pir. They make out they have special abilities to cure illnesses, re-arrange lives etc... and people believe every word they say. People as well as giving their whole selves they  also offer expensive gifts and other things which they take willingly... In Noors dad case people were raising his family by giving them money and even buying a house which Noor and her brother at one point thought it was ok to go to a lady to ask for money for a ticket to India for Noor. Noors dad one day decided he had to go to India and never once thought twice about how his wife would cope with 4 children etc... he went and died a couple of days later. Noors mum an already pathetic women turned out to be completely useless to her children after that by taking to the bed leaving 13 year old Noor to take care of things.

 

Once the dad died I enjoyed the story of Noor a lot more even though at times it was quite long winded but with not knowing about a lot of the things mentioned I did appreciate the detailed explanations too. I found it all really interesting and quite shocking at times but justice was done in Noors and a few other ladies deaths at the end.

 

I think that this book didn't do Noors life justice for what she went though and I am surprised that it hasn't been made in to a film.

 

Oh! I wrote it begins with Noors dad, it actually begins with the last chapter that Noor was in which was her death. I hadn't realised Noor had died so it really upset me when reading how much potential she had in her life and made me so curious to know what she would have done after the war... the fact she could have lived also made it all that much harder to digest the circumstances.

 

My Rating

Despite me not liking this version 100% I will still be giving it all my strawberries as Noors war time experiences and life is worth reading.

I hope that you will read it and let me know what you think. The other WW2 story I'd really recommend is The Blue Suitcase By Marianne Wheelaghan. Both of these books have lived with me long after I've read them and I hope I will never ever have to experience a war as I would not be able to do what both of these ladies did.  

Liz Trenow ~The last Telegram~

Read: On Kindle
Paid: 99p
Reason I choose it: I was attracted to the cover even though they say don't judge a book by its cover.

 

Summary
The book begins with Lily Verner as an old lady sorting through the memories in her house with her grand-daughter as she is considering her son moving in with her. She ends up in the cupboard under the stairs where she comes across an old tennis racket and is suddenly transported to the 1940s just before World War 2 begins. You follow Lily as an 18 year old girl with so many hopes and dreams which are suddenly dashed with the start of the war and she is thrown in to the life of the family silk mill. There she is faced with challenges and decisions she never imagined she would do and even ends up in a mans world attending meetings... still life isn't full of roses with many life shattering events which result in her living until her death bed with the guilt of it all.

My Opinion
I bought this book last Friday, Saturday afternoon I decided to make a start on it instead of sitting around doing nothing. Sunday morning at 2am I completed it as I just wanted to keep on reading what would or would not happen. Do I need to say more about how good it was? I hadn't actually realised that this was another World War 2 story on purchasing it but I think the 3 that I have read this year have been great but this one is completely non-fiction compared to the other 2 so I will definately keep reading some war stories even though they are so sad.


Rating


Marianne Wheelaghan~The Blue Suitcase~

Read: On Kindle

Paid: £1.98

Reason I choose it: This was recommended to me by amazon after I'd finished reading Rosie's War which I enjoyed so I was curious to know what life was actually like in Germany in WW2.

Summary

The Story starts with Marianne sitting in an almost empty house waiting for the estate agents to come when she starts dusting and loses the duster on top of the wardrobe. She gets a chair to get the duster only to discovers a blue suitcase on top of the wardrobe. She then reads and translates everything for us to read as well as adding a little something of her own in order to make it into the story that it is.

Antonio is 12 year old and wants to enter a writing competition the following year so she decides to keep a diary in order to practise her creative writing which actually began at the right time as you see from day one how families and opinions were so divided. Toni's eldest brother Hansi backed the Communist party so was quite worse off for it and Hubert at 13 years old idolised Hitler so went against his parents wishes to walk miles to meet him as well as collect a badge that was handed out to all those that turned up. He eventually joined the Hitler Youth Party in order to wear a Brownshirt. His parents believed in neither party to begin with but eventually the father decided it was just best to go with the flow and follow Hitlers party but they still did not benefit for their beliefs.

Hansi ends up in a concentration camp in Germany, eventually he's released to end up having to fight in the war and is captured by the Russains only to end up in a Concentration Camp there. Hubert fights in the war but you never really get to know more about him once there except that he ends up hating Hitler. You also get the effects of how the Polish and Russains were almost as nasty as Hitler.

Her mum is a doctor in a hospital and its devasting to read how her life turns out, the dad has a good job which he is forced to leave....

Toni being the youngest child ends up being lost in all that is going on so she isn't experienced or well informed about life so eventually believes Hitlers way is the right way without really understanding why....

My opinion

Its hard to say that this is an amazing book due to the contents of it being so sad and at times quite difficult to read as I felt sick but couldn't put the book down for wanting to know what happens and how things turn out. I've never really known anything about World War 2 except the odd mention of the Holocaust and the devastion and the torture people went through in the camps. In reality it was no better for the people that actually lived in Germany and probably ended up in similar situation as the Jews as they targerted innocent people constantly, whether sick, old, gossips, gay etc... I have of course taught a little about WW2 at work but thats quite sugar coated as you only learn about the rationed food, children being sent away and the blitz.

The only thing I would have liked a little more of is the ending to find out exactly what happened to the surviving members of the family but I guess Marianne won't know since she discovered the suitcase after her mother had passed away.

I would really recommend this book as I would say its better then Anne Franks Diary and Rosie's War as I couldn't take to either person. You may want to read an extract here

Rating