What I'm reading ...

I have started Wish You Were Here by Jodi Picoult. Time for fiction again and I have enjoyed this author’s work before. Initially, I had another of her books in mind, but then I realized that this one was particularly topical. Here’s the blurb:

Diana O'Toole's life is going perfectly to plan. At twenty-nine, she's up for promotion to her dream job as an art specialist at Sotheby's and she's about to fly to the Galápagos where she's convinced her surgeon boyfriend, Finn, is going to propose.

But then the virus hits New York City and Finn breaks the news: the hospital needs him, he has to stay. But you should still go, he insists. And reluctantly, she agrees. Once she's in the Galápagos, the world shuts down around her, leaving Diana stranded - albeit in paradise. Completely isolated, with only intermittent news from the outside world, Diana finds herself examining everything that has brought her to this point and wondering if there's a better way to live.

But not everything is as it seems . . .

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings - by Maya Angelou

As I always hope for when I read a biography, this book took me to a world that was completely unfamiliar to me - a different time, different place and from the viewpoint of someone of different gender and race. Aspects off the story are shocking; others are heartwarming. The quality of writing is excellent and her voice as a poet is clear. I look forward to reading further volumes.

What I'm reading ...

I have started I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, a book that I have been meaning to get around to for many years. Here’s the blurb:

In this, the celebrated, bestselling first volume of her autobiography, Maya Angelou beautifully evokes her childhood with her grandmother in the American South of the 1930s. She learns the power of the white folks at the other end of town and suffers the terrible trauma of rape by her mother's lover. As a black woman, Maya Angelou has known discrimination and extreme poverty, but also hope and joy, celebration and achievement; loving the world, she also knows its cruelty.

The Tattooist of Auschwitz - by Heather Morris

No book about events during the holocaust can be anything less than shocking and this is no exception. The story is well structured and paced and written in very straightforward prose. I enjoy having read it and feel that I have learned more about this appalling time in history. I was surprised to read that the story is based on a true memoir. 

What I'm reading ...

I have started The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris. Time for fiction again and I’d heard good things about this book. Here’s the blurb:

In 1942, Lale Sokolov arrived in Auschwitz-Birkenau. He was given the job of tattooing the prisoners marked for survival - scratching numbers into his fellow victims' arms in indelible ink to create what would become one of the most potent symbols of the Holocaust.

Waiting in line to be tattooed, terrified and shaking, was a young girl. For Lale - a dandy, a jack-the-lad, a bit of a chancer - it was love at first sight. And he was determined not only to survive himself, but to ensure this woman, Gita, did, too.

So begins one of the most life-affirming, courageous, unforgettable and human stories of the Holocaust: the love story of the tattooist of Auschwitz.

Life Lessons from a Brain Surgeon - by Rahul Jandial

I completed this book surprisingly quickly. This was partly as a result of having some time on my hands, but mainly because it is well written: clear, concise and well paced. I enjoyed the read and felt that I had learnt a lot and, being a new-ish [2019]  book, that the information was quite currently. The author makes it very personal, talking about his own experiences with patients and also including anecdotes about the rest of his life and his family. He comes over as someone I’d like to meet.

Overall a very good read and I look forward to reading the author’s latest book in due course.