Librarians' Choice 2023
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Written by: | Heather Morris |
Review by: | Anneke Elsing |
Genre: | Historical Fiction |
In the midst of WWII, an English musician, Norah Chambers, places her eight-year-old daughter Sally on a ship leaving Singapore, desperate to keep her safe as the island falls to the Japanese Army.
Australian nurse Nesta James has enlisted to tend to Allied troops. But as Japanese troops overrun the island she joins the terrified cargo of people, including the heartbroken Norah, crammed aboard the Vyner Brooke merchant ship.
Written by: | Nguyễn Phan Quế Ma |
Review by: | Anneke Elsing |
Genre: | Historical Fiction |
A suspenseful and moving saga about family secrets, hidden trauma, and the overriding power of forgiveness, set during the war and in present-day Việtnam.
In 1969, sisters Trang and Quỳnh, desperate to help their parents pay off debts, leave their rural village and become “bar girls” in Sài Gòn, drinking, flirting (and more) with American GIs in return for money.
Written by: | Sung-Yoon Lee |
Review by: | Anneke Elsing |
Genre: | Non-fiction |
The Sister is written by Dr Sung-Yoon Lee, a scholar and specialist on North Korea who has advised the US government.
This book is a jaw-dropping portrayal of North Korea’s "princess", Kim Yo Jong. It uncovers the close bond with her brother, Kim Jong Un, and the lessons in manipulation they learned from their father.
Written by: | Henry Oster |
Review by: | Anneke Elsing |
Genre: | Historical Fiction |
This heartbreaking memoir from a Holocaust survivor reveals the terrible realities of life in Auschwitz and other concentration camps. 15-year-old Henry was assigned to back-breaking labour in the Auschwitz horse-breeding stables.
Written by: | JoJo Moyes |
Review by: | Anneke Elsing |
Genre: | General Fiction |
A story of mix-ups, mess-ups and making the most of second chances.
Nisha, 45, lives the globetrotting life of the seriously wealthy, until her husband inexplicably cuts her off entirely. She doesn’t even have the shoes she was, until a moment ago, standing in.
That’s because Sam has accidentally taken Nisha’s gym bag. She is struggling to keep her family afloat. Walking in the six-inch high Christian Louboutin red crocodile shoes gives Sam’s career an unexpected boost.
Written by: | Pieter van Os |
Review by: | Anneke Elsing |
Genre: | Non-fiction |
An extraordinary Holocaust survival story about an Orthodox Jewish woman who managed to survive in wartime Poland by pretending to be a Catholic. Polish Catholics believed she was one of them.
A devoted Nazi family took her in as if she was their own daughter. She fell in love with a German engineer who built aeroplanes for the Luftwaffe.
Written by: | Tova Friedman |
Review by: | Anneke Elsing |
Genre: | Non-fiction |
A powerful memoir by one of the youngest ever survivors of Auschwitz, Tova Friedman, following her childhood growing up in Poland during the Holocaust and surviving a string of near-death experiences in a Jewish ghetto, a Nazi labour camp, and Auschwitz.
Tova Friedman was only four years old when she was sent to a Nazi labour camp at the start of World War II.
Written by: | Barbara Delinsky |
Review by: | Anneke Elsing |
Genre: | General Fiction |
Charlotte and Nicole were once the best of friends, spending summers together in Nicole's island house off of Maine. But many years, and many secrets, have kept the women apart.
A successful travel writer, single Charlotte lives on the road, while Nicole, a food blogger, keeps house in Philadelphia with her surgeon-husband, Julian.
Written by: | Heather Morris |
Review by: | Anneke Elsing |
Genre: | Historical Fiction |
Three Sisters is a remarkable novel based on the true story of three Slovakian Jewish sisters, who endured the worst of humanity to forge new and hopeful lives on the other side. It will break your heart, but leave you amazed and uplifted by the courage and fierce love of three sisters, whose promise to each other kept them alive in a place without hope. Two of the sisters are alive in Israel today, surrounded by friends and family.
Written by: | Lesley Pearse |
Review by: | Anneke Elsing |
Genre: | Suspense |
A murder mystery set in a contemporary UK setting. It’s not a gruesome or violent novel, it’s about the back stories of the characters, the neighbours of Willow Close.
When Nina and Conrad move into their new home in Willow Close, they thought they'd found their dream neighbourhood, but when a body is discovered it's possible they have moved into a nightmare.
Written by: | Rachael Chadwick |
Review by: | Anneke Elsing |
Genre: | Non-fiction |
The heartfelt and uplifting story of how a project to scatter 60 Postcards in memory of her mother helped a young girl come to terms with her loss.
On 11 February 2012 Rachael Chadwick lost her Mother to cancer, just sixteen days after first being diagnosed, and her world shattered right in front of her. She decided to base a project around her Mum's approaching 60th Birthday. Desperate to spread the word about the wonderful person she had lost, Rachael wanted to leave notes around a city in her memory. She hand-wrote sixty postcards, each with her email address at the bottom asking the finder to get in touch.
Written by: | Gail Honeyman |
Review by: | Anneke Elsing |
Genre: | General Fiction |
Eleanor leads a simple life. Wears the same clothes to work, eats the same meal deal for lunch, buys two bottles of vodka for the weekend. She's happy. But what's missing?
Gradually little pieces of her past are revealed.
Written by: | Charlie Lovett |
Review by: | Anneke Elsing |
Genre: | General Fiction |
Set in the Victorian era, Shakespeare's time, and the 90's.
This book focuses on Bookseller Peter and his wife Amanda. Peter struggles with even the easiest of human interactions. Amanda draws him out and into the world. But when his wife dies, his life is shattered.