Nonfiction

#BlogTour #BookReview Playing for Freedom: The Journey of a Young Afghan Girl by Zarifa Adiba & Anne Chaon (translated by Susanna Lea Associates) @AmazonPub @OverTheRiverPR #PlayingForFreedom #ZarifaAdiba #AmazonCrossing #OTRPR

categories: 8.5/10, Book Review, Nonfiction
#BlogTour #BookReview Playing for Freedom: The Journey of a Young Afghan Girl by Zarifa Adiba & Anne Chaon (translated by Susanna Lea Associates) @AmazonPub @OverTheRiverPR #PlayingForFreedom #ZarifaAdiba #AmazonCrossing #OTRPR Title: Playing for Freedom: The Journey of a Young Afghan Girl

Author: Zarifa Adiba, Anne Chaon

Published by: Amazon Crossing on Apr. 16, 2024

Genres: Nonfiction

Pages: 205

Format: Paperback

Source: Amazon Publishing, OTRPR

Book Rating: 8.5/10

A passionate musician growing up in the war-torn streets of Kabul takes her forbidden talents abroad in this triumphant memoir from debut author Zarifa Adiba.

As an Afghan girl, Zarifa Adiba has big, unfathomable dreams. Her family is poor, her country mired in conflict. Walking to school in Kabul, Zarifa has to navigate suicide bombers.

But Zarifa perseveres, nurturing her passion for music despite its “sinful” nature under Taliban law. At sixteen she gains admission to the Afghanistan National Institute of Music, and at eighteen she becomes the lead violist, co-conductor, and spokesperson for Zohra, the first all-female orchestra in the Muslim world.

Despite Zarifa’s accomplishments—which include a stunning performance at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland—her future in music demands a reckoning with her life back home. Many of the girls in Zohra are forced to marry, but Zarifa yearns to study, travel, and explore her independence. Her so-called “bad girl” identity puts her at odds with her culture and her family.

Playing for Freedom is the deeply compelling story of a woman who dares to compose a masterpiece even with all odds stacked against her.

Review:

Honest, informative, and inspiring!

Playing for Freedom is the insightful, intriguing story of Zarifa Adiba’s personal hardships, struggles, successes and accomplishments as a woman and musician born and raised in a country that is riddled with oppression, war and strict religious rule.

The writing is genuine and perceptive. And the novel is an introspective, compelling tale of one woman’s life from being a child raised in a blended family to believing in herself, taking chances, and following her dreams.

Overall, Playing for Freedom is a forthright, passionate, absorbing tale by Adiba that covers such an abundance of themes that, as a fellow woman, it was easy to root for her, appreciate, and be thoroughly captivated by her story.

 

This book is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.

     

 

 

Thank you to OTRPR and Amazon Publishing for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Anne Chaon

Anne Chaon is a journalist and former correspondent for the Agence France-Presse. She was based in Kabul, Afghanistan, from June 2016 to September 2018 and again in June 2021.

About Zarifa Adiba

Zarifa Adiba is the lead violist and co-conductor of Zohra, Afghanistan’s first (and only) all-female orchestra. She studied at the Afghanistan National Institute of Music, the only music education entity in Afghanistan in 2017. She is currently studying International Politics at both Bard College and American University of Central Asia. She is an activist for girls and education and has participated in several panels, including at the World Economic Forum in 2017. Playing for Freedom is her first book.

 

#BookReview The Postcard by Anne Berest (translated by Tina Kover) @EuropaEditions @PGCBooks #ThePostcard #AnneBerest #PGCBooks #EuropaEditions

categories: 10/10, Book Review, Historical Fiction, Nonfiction
#BookReview The Postcard by Anne Berest (translated by Tina Kover) @EuropaEditions @PGCBooks #ThePostcard #AnneBerest #PGCBooks #EuropaEditions Title: The Postcard

Author: Anne Berest

Published by: Europa Editions on May 16, 2023

Genres: Historical Fiction, Nonfiction

Pages: 464

Format: Hardcover

Source: Publishers Group Canada

Book Rating: 10/10

Anne Berest’s luminous, moving, and unforgettable new novel The Postcard is the most acclaimed and beloved French book in recent years.

At once a gripping investigation into family secrets, a poignant tale of mothers and daughters, and an enthralling portrait of 20th-century Parisian intellectual and artistic life, The Postcard tells the story of a family devastated by the Holocaust and yet somehow restored by love and the power of storytelling. Heartbreaking, funny, atmospheric, and a sheer joy to read, The Postcard is certain to find fans among readers of Irène Némirovsky’s Suite Française, Kate Atkinson’s Life After Life, and Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See.

January 2003. Together with the usual holiday cards, an anonymous postcard is delivered to the Berest family home. On the front, a photo of the Opéra Garnier in Paris; on the back, the four names of Anne Berest’s maternal great-grandparents, Ephraïm and Emma, and their children, Noémie and Jacques—all of whom died at Auschwitz in 1942.

Almost twenty years after the postcard is delivered, Anne is moved to discover who sent it, and why. Aided by her chain-smoking mother, countless family, friends, and associates, a private detective, a graphologist, and many others, she embarks on a journey to uncover the fate of the Rabinovitch family: their flight from Russia following the revolution, their journey to Latvia, Palestine, and Paris, the war and its aftermath. What emerges is a thrilling and sweeping tale that shatters her certainties about her family, her country, and herself.

Review:

Memorable, candid, and touching!

The Postcard is a poignant, absorbing, fictional autobiography that takes you into the life of Anne, a young woman who, after her daughter is the victim of antisemitism in the schoolyard, decides with the help of her mother to delve into her family’s past to finally discover what truly happened to her grandmother’s parents and siblings who were all arrested, imprisoned, and slaughtered in Auschwitz in 1942, and to once and for all uncover the identity of the person who in 2003 mailed a postcard to the family home that only contained a list of their names.

The prose is insightful and authentic. The characters are strong, intelligent, and determined. And the plot is an illuminating tale of life, loss, love, family, sacrifice, courage, survival, selflessness, determination, history, culture, the inconceivable horrors of war, and the special bonds that exist between mothers and daughters.

Overall, The Postcard is ultimately a heart-wrenching, affecting, personal family tale by Berest that highlights the importance and empowerment of self-identity and is a sobering reminder of all the millions of lives that were senselessly violated and lost in this heinous time in history.

 

This book is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.

          

 

 

Thank you to PGC Books for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Anne Berest

Anne Berest is the bestselling co-author of How to Be Parisian Wherever You Are (Doubleday, 2014) and the author of a novel based on the life of French writer Françoise Sagan. With her sister Claire, she is also the author of Gabriële, a critically acclaimed biography of her great-grandmother, Gabriële Buffet-Picabia, Marcel Duchamp’s lover and muse. She is the great-granddaughter of the painter Francis Picabia. For her work as a writer and prize-winning showrunner, she has been profiled in publications such as French Vogue and Haaretz newspaper. The recipient of numerous literary awards, The Postcard was a finalist for the Goncourt Prize and has been a long-selling bestseller in France.

Photograph © DR

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#BookReview A Delicate Game by Hana Walker-Brown @HWalker_Brown @Mobius_Books #ADelicateGame #HanaWalkerBrown #MobiusBooksUS

categories: 9/10, Book Review, Nonfiction
#BookReview A Delicate Game by Hana Walker-Brown @HWalker_Brown @Mobius_Books #ADelicateGame #HanaWalkerBrown #MobiusBooksUS Title: A Delicate Game

Author: Hana Walker-Brown

Published by: Hodder And Stoughton Ltd. on Jul. 5, 2022

Genres: Nonfiction

Pages: 288

Format: Hardcover

Source: Mobius Books US

Book Rating: 9/10

A footballer dies of dementia, younger than he should
A 14-year old-rugby player is told to play on through multiple blows. He never wakes up from the last one
A scientist reveals endemic brain disease in NFL players and is discredited
A survivor of domestic abuse can’t remember details when standing up in court

This is the story of the degenerative brain disease, Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE). This is a story of power, of science and sport, and of the bodies that society deems worth sacrificing.

Review:

Comprehensive, eye-opening, and impactful!

A Delicate Game is the insightful, informative, candid examination into the preventable disease, Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, that has tragically caused the premature deaths of both famous, beloved athletes and up-and-coming stars.

The writing is frank and descriptive. And the novel is an extremely well-researched tale of the apprehension and irresponsible resistance of professional sports to acknowledge the real and growing evidence that head trauma, whether one big catastrophic hit or multiple smaller hits over time, suffered by players during games or practices throughout their careers can lead to severe neurodegenerative disorders or CTE.

Overall, A Delicate Game is, ultimately, a clear, concise, exhaustive analysis and investigation into the dangerous, long-lasting, often fatal consequences of those gruesomely entertaining, enthralling hits, tackles, and headers we’ve come to know and expect in contact sports to the most important, fragile organ we often take for granted, the human brain.

 

This novel is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.

            

 

 

 

Thank you to Mobius Books US for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Hana Walker-Brown

Hana Walker-Brown is a multi-award-winning audio documentary maker, writer and the Creative Director for Broccoli Productions, a London based podcast production company founded in direct response to the lack of opportunities for minority talent both in front of and behind the mic. In 2019, Hana Walker-Brown created the Audible original, The Beautiful Brain, a multi-award-winning podcast docuseries about West Bromwich Albion hero Jeff Astle and CTE. Hana is a fearless and passionate advocate of multi-media storytelling and has covered an exceptional range of stories, taking the big world stuff and making it human. She is a guest lecturer at Goldsmiths College, University of London and has given talks and masterclasses around the world about her work and creative processes. Hana has created work for Audible, the BBC, the Guardian, National Geographic, Spotify and Warner Brothers among many others.

Photo courtesy of Hachette UK Website.

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#BookReview The Queen: Her Life by Andrew Morton @andrewmortonuk @GrandCentralPub #TheQueenHerLife #AndrewMorton #GrandCentralPub

categories: 8.5/10, Book Review, Nonfiction
#BookReview The Queen: Her Life by Andrew Morton @andrewmortonuk @GrandCentralPub #TheQueenHerLife #AndrewMorton #GrandCentralPub Title: The Queen: Her Life

Author: Andrew Morton

Published by: Grand Central Publishing on Nov. 15, 2022

Genres: Nonfiction

Pages: 448

Format: Hardcover

Source: Grand Central Publishing

Book Rating: 8.5/10

#1 New York Times bestselling biographer Andrew Morton provides the definitive, most comprehensive account of Queen Elizabeth II’s legendary reign. 

Painfully shy, Elizabeth Windsor’s personality was well suited to her youthful ambition of living quietly in the country, raising a family, and caring for her dogs and horses. But when her uncle, King Edward VIII, abdicated, she became heir to the throne—embarking on a journey that would test her as a woman and queen.

Ascending to the throne at only 25, this self-effacing monarch navigated endless setbacks, family conflict, and occasional triumphs throughout her 70 years as the Queen of England. As her mettle was tested, she endeavored to keep the monarchy relevant culturally, socially, and politically, often in the face of resistance from inside the institution itself. And yet the greatest challenges she faced were often inside her own family, forever under intense scrutiny; from rumors about her husband’s infidelity, her sister’s marital breakdown, Princess Diana’s tragic death, to the recent departure of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.

Now in The Queen, renowned biographer Andrew Morton takes an in-depth look at Britain’s longest reigning monarch, exploring the influence Queen Elizabeth had on both Britain and the rest of the world for much of the last century. From leading a nation struggling to restore itself after the devastation of the second World War to navigating the divisive political landscape of the present day, Queen Elizabeth was a reluctant but resolute queen. This is the story of a woman of unflagging self-discipline who will long be remembered as mother and grandmother to Great Britain, and one of the greatest sovereigns of the modern era.

Review:

Detailed, informative, and compelling!

The Queen: Her Life is the honest, fascinating biography of Elizabeth Windsor, from her carefree childhood, blissful marriage, unexpected ascension to the throne in her mid-twenties, to her stoic, dependable seventy-year rule through wars, scandals, and challenges.

The writing is comprehensive and rich. The characters are loyal, dedicated, and hardworking. And the novel is an intriguing look into the life of an amazing woman who ultimately stood by her promise to dedicate her whole life to the service of her people.

Overall, The Queen: Her Life is a well-researched, insightful, nostalgic read by Morton that is ultimately a lovely, candid look into the life of a remarkable human being, the late Queen Elizabeth II, the longest reigning monarch in British history, that you don’t need to be a royal admirer to truly appreciate or revere.

 

This book is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or one of the following links.

                

 

 

Thank you to Grand Central Publishing for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Andrew Morton

Andrew Morton studied history at the University of Sussex, England, with a focus on aristocracy and the 1930s. Morton has written biographies featuring the British Royal Family as well as celebrities, including Tom Cruise, Angelina Jolie, and Madonna. His bestselling biography of Princess Diana, Diana: Her True Story, met with international acclaim as “the closest we will ever come to her autobiography.”

Photograph courtesy of GCP Website.

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#BookReview The Red Widow by Sarah Horowitz @sarahehorowitz @Sourcebooks #SarahHorowitz #Sourcebooks #TheRedWidow

categories: 8.5/10, Book Review, Nonfiction
#BookReview The Red Widow by Sarah Horowitz @sarahehorowitz @Sourcebooks #SarahHorowitz #Sourcebooks #TheRedWidow Title: The Red Widow

Author: Sarah Horowitz

Published by: Sourcebooks on Sep. 6, 2022

Genres: Nonfiction

Pages: 336

Format: ARC, Paperback

Source: Sourcebooks

Book Rating: 8.5/10

Sex, corruption, and power: the rise and fall of the Red Widow of Paris

Paris, 1889: Margeurite Steinheil is a woman with ambition. But having been born into a middle-class family and trapped in a marriage to a failed artist twenty years her senior, she knows her options are limited.

Determined to fashion herself into a new woman, Meg orchestrates a scandalous plan with her most powerful resource: her body. Amid the dazzling glamor, art, and romance of bourgeois Paris, she takes elite men as her lovers, charming her way into the good graces of the rich and powerful. Her ambitions, though, go far beyond becoming the most desirable woman in Paris; at her core, she is a woman determined to conquer French high society. But the game she plays is a perilous one: navigating misogynistic double-standards, public scrutiny, and political intrigue, she is soon vaulted into infamy in the most dangerous way possible.

A real-life femme fatale, Meg influences government positions and resorts to blackmail-and maybe even poisoning-to get her way. Leaving a trail of death and disaster in her wake, she earns the name the “Red Widow” for mysteriously surviving a home invasion that leaves both her husband and mother dead. With the police baffled and the public enraged, Meg breaks every rule in the bourgeois handbook and becomes the most notorious woman in Paris.

An unforgettable true account of sex, scandal, and murder, The Red Widow is the story of a woman determined to rise-at any cost.

Review:

Interesting, informative, and memorable!

The Red Widow is the compelling story detailing the life, actions, and scandals of Margeurite Steinheil, a woman whose desire, determination, and sexual prowess had her carousing with and engaging in some intimate relationships with some of the most influential people in Paris at the turn of the twentieth century but whose ultimate inability to tell the truth also led to her becoming the prime suspect in the unsolved double murder of her husband and mother.

The writing is crisp and precise. And the novel is a fascinating, well-researched tale of a crime with no quick, straightforward conclusion and a woman whose incredible ability to effortlessly lie and manipulate men, the system, and society may have even allowed her to get away with murder.

Overall, The Red Widow is a true crime novel that includes valuable, insightful data into a time and place plagued by elitist mentalities, inequality, prejudices, overindulgence, and a murder investigation riddled with inconsistent behaviours, retracted statements, and little to no concrete evidence.

 

This book is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or one of the following links.

                

 

 

Thank you to Sourcebooks for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Sarah Horowitz

Sarah Horowitz is Professor of History at W&L University in Virginia, where she is also head of the Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies program. She has a PhD in history from the University of California, Berkeley and has published in scholarly journals as well as the Washington Post. This is her second book.

Photo by Jen Fox.

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#BookReview All the Lies They Did Not Tell by Pablo Trincia (translated by Elettra Pauletto) @pablotrincia @AmazonPub @OverTheRiverPR #AlltheLiesTheyDidNotTell #PabloTrincia #AmazonCrossing #OTRPR

categories: 8/10, Book Review, Mystery/Thriller, Nonfiction
#BookReview All the Lies They Did Not Tell by Pablo Trincia (translated by Elettra Pauletto) @pablotrincia @AmazonPub @OverTheRiverPR #AlltheLiesTheyDidNotTell #PabloTrincia #AmazonCrossing #OTRPR Title: All the Lies They Did Not Tell

Author: Pablo Trincia, Elettra Pauletto

Published by: Lake Union Publishing on Aug. 1, 2022

Genres: Mystery/Thriller, Nonfiction

Pages: 236

Format: ARC, Paperback

Source: Amazon Publishing, OTRPR

Book Rating: 8/10

In 1997 a six-year-old boy questioned by authorities relayed disturbing stories of abuse. The more he talked, the more people were implicated in his shocking revelations. And he was only the first child to come forward. 

Within a year, in two towns of the Bassa region of Italy, fifteen more children with similar tales were taken from their families and transferred to protected locations. Their parents were accused of belonging to a sect of satanic pedophiles who performed nighttime rituals in cemeteries under the guidance of a well-known local priest, Don Giorgio Govoni. With each child’s confession, the network of monsters they described grew and involved fathers, mothers, brothers, uncles, and acquaintances.  

Except there were no adult witnesses and only circumstantial evidence. No one ever saw or heard anything. What was really happening in the Bassa Modenese? Italian investigative journalist Pablo Trincia returned to the scene of the crimes to find the answer. Together with his colleague Alessia Rafanelli, Trincia spent three years examining court records, interviewing experts and people involved, and visiting the places where the events took place. And the truth he uncovered is as terrifying as the lies. 

“I quickly realized that this was not a story about pedophilia or Satanism,” Trincia explains. “It was much bigger than that. It had to do with mass hysteria, false memories, the justice system, the foster care system and much more.”

Review:

Complex, disturbing, and dark!

All the Lies They Did Not Tell is the inconceivable, eye-opening investigation of one of the most horrifying miscarriages of justice to ever rock the country of Italy that started with the poorly substantiated testimony of torture, sexual abuse, and satanic violence from one young boy, Dario, and which quickly escalated into the removal of a multitude children from their homes, shattered families, imprisonments, suicides, acquittals, and a community forever shattered by fear and scandal.

The writing is detailed and precise. And the novel is an absorbing, compelling tale of one man’s dogged determination to uncover and expose the true story of the satanic panic of the late 1990s, known as “the Devils of the Bassa Modenese.”

Overall, All the Lies They Did Not Tell is a tragic, frightening, exceptionally well-researched novel by Trincia that is a scary reminder that things are not always as they seem and those in authority often coerce, act unprofessionally, make mistakes, see what they want to see, and intentionally or unintentionally, especially when it comes to children, fall prey to confirmation bias.

 

This book is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.

      

 

 

Thank you to OTRPR and Amazon Publishing for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Elettra Pauletto

Elettra Pauletto translates from Italian and French into English. Her writing and translations have appeared in Harper’s, Guernica, and Quartz, while her book translations have spanned a range of subjects, including music, art, and narrative nonfiction. She earned her MFA in creative writing and translation from Columbia University and now divides her time between Italy and western Massachusetts.

Website

About Pablo Trincia

Pablo Trincia has worked as an award-winning correspondent and writer for print media, TV, and the web. In 2017, he and his colleague Alessia Rafanelli wrote the podcast Veleno, a highly acclaimed investigative audio series released in eight episodes on repubblica.it. The investigation reopened the case of the Devils of the Bassa Modenese, one of the darkest and most controversial cases the Italian legal system has tackled in recent years.

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#BookReview Diana, William, and Harry by James Patterson & Chris Mooney @JP_Books @cmooneybooks @HBGCanada @littlebrown #DianaWilliamHarry #JamesPatterson #ChrisMooney #HBGCanada #LittleBrown

categories: 8.5/10, Book Review, Nonfiction
#BookReview Diana, William, and Harry by James Patterson & Chris Mooney @JP_Books @cmooneybooks @HBGCanada @littlebrown #DianaWilliamHarry #JamesPatterson #ChrisMooney #HBGCanada #LittleBrown Title: Diana, William, and Harry

Author: James Patterson, Chris Mooney

Published by: Little Brown and Company on Aug. 15, 2022

Genres: Nonfiction

Pages: 448

Format: Hardcover

Source: HBG Canada

Book Rating: 8.5/10

From the moments William and Harry are born into the House of Windsor, they become their young mother’s whole world. 
 
I’ve got two very healthy, strong boys. I realize how incredibly lucky I am, Diana reminds herself every morning. But even the Princess of Wales questions, Am I a good mother?  
 
Diana’s faced with a seemingly impossible challenge: one son destined to be King of England and another determined to find his own way.  She teaches them to honor royal tradition, even while daring to break it. 
 
“Sometimes I’d like a time machine…” Diana says as William and Harry grow up, never imagining they’d have less than a lifetime together. Even after she’s gone, her sons follow their mother’s lead—and her heart. As the years pass and William and Harry grow into adulthood and form families of their own, they carry on Diana’s name, her likeness, and her incomparable spirit.

Review:

Eye-opening, interesting, and informative!

Diana, William, and Harry is the detailed, perceptive biography of Princess Diana and her two sons, William and Harry, from the time of her introduction to Prince Charles, her fairytale wedding, her delight in being a mother, a divorce that rocked the monarchy, an early tragic death, and the pressures, responsibilities, and sadness for two motherless boys growing up to date, wed, take on careers, and become parents themselves under a bright and never-fading spotlight.

The writing is crisp and clear. The characters are inspiring, hardworking, and driven. And the novel is a compelling tale of the highs and lows involved in being a member of the most popular monarchy in the world.

Overall, Diana, William, and Harry was a nostalgic read for me as I remember both getting up early to see the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana and being consumed by the horrific breaking news of her fatal car accident on the streets of Paris. It is also, ultimately, a well-researched, insightful read about a strong, independent woman and her two sons, beloved by all, and their constant struggles and challenges with the paparazzi, lack of freedom, and life within an institution where image, tradition, and responsibility are valued above all else.

 

This book is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or one of the following links.

                

 

 

Thank you to HBG Canada for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Chris Mooney

Hailed as “one of the best thriller writers working today” by Lee Child and “a wonderful writer” by Michael Connelly, Chris Mooney is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Walk in My Combat Boots, written with James Patterson. His recent books include ER Nurses and Blood World.

His fourth book, The Missing, the first in the Darby McCormick series, was a main selection of the International Book of the Month Club and an instant bestseller in over thirteen countries. The Mystery Writer’s Association nominated Chris’s third book, Remembering Sarah, for an Edgar Award for Best Novel. Foreign rights to his novels have been sold to twenty-eight territories. He has sold nearly two million copies of his books.

Chris teaches writing courses at Harvard and the Harvard Extension School.

Photo courtesy of Author's Website.

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About James Patterson

JAMES PATTERSON is one of the best-known and biggest-selling writers of all time. His books have sold in excess of 385 million copies worldwide. He is the author of some of the most popular series of the past two decades - the Alex Cross, Women's Murder Club, Detective Michael Bennett and Private novels - and he has written many other number one bestsellers including romance novels and stand- alone thrillers.

Photo courtesy of Author's Goodreads Page.

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#BookReview The Double Life of Katharine Clark by Katharine Gregorio @ktu48 @Sourcebooks #KatharineGregorio #Sourcebooks #TheDoubleLifeofKatharineClark

categories: 8.5/10, Book Review, Nonfiction
#BookReview The Double Life of Katharine Clark by Katharine Gregorio @ktu48 @Sourcebooks #KatharineGregorio #Sourcebooks #TheDoubleLifeofKatharineClark Title: The Double Life of Katharine Clark

Author: Katharine Gregorio

Published by: Sourcebooks on Apr. 15, 2022

Genres: Nonfiction

Pages: 384

Format: ARC, Paperback

Source: Sourcebooks

Book Rating: 8.5/10

In 1955, Katharine Clark, the first American woman wire reporter behind the Iron Curtain, saw something none of her male colleagues did. What followed became one of the most unusual adventure stories of the Cold War.

While on assignment in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, Clark befriended a man who, by many definitions, was her enemy. But she saw something in Milovan Djilas, a high-ranking Communist leader who dared to question the ideology he helped establish, that made her want to work with him. It became the assignment of her life.

Against the backdrop of protests in Poland and a revolution in Hungary, she risked her life to ensure Djilas’s work made it past the watchful eye of the Yugoslavian secret police to the West. She single-handedly was responsible for smuggling his scathing anti-Communism manifesto, The New Class, out of Yugoslavia and into the hands of American publishers. The New Class would go on to sell three million copies worldwide, become a New York Times bestseller, be translated into over 60 languages, and be used by the CIA in its covert book program.

Meticulously researched and written by Clark’s great-niece, Katharine Gregorio, The Double Life of Katharine Clark illuminates a largely untold chapter of the twentieth century. It shows how a strong-willed, fiercely independent woman with an ardent commitment to truth, justice and freedom put her life on the line to share ideas with the world, ultimately transforming both herself―and history―in the process.

Review:

Intriguing, informative, and descriptive!

The Double Life of Katharine Clark is the insightful, meticulous story of Katharine Clark’s personal and professional successes, frustrations, experiences, sacrifices, and accomplishments as an International News Service journalist stationed in Eastern Europe during the early stages of the Cold War.

The writing is clear and precise. And the novel is a compelling, absorbing tale of one woman’s dedication and passion, under extremely dangerous circumstances, to help record and have published a manuscript and a series of articles dictated and written by a high-ranking communist officer, Milovan Djilas, who was subsequently arrested and jailed for his criticism of the Yugoslavia government.

The Double Life of Katharine Clark is, ultimately, a valuable, suspenseful, insightful biography by Gregorio inspired by real-life events that does an exceptional job of highlighting her impressive research into her great aunt’s plight as a female journalist during the 1950s and her extraordinary courage and determination to do whatever it took to have an important story told and heard.

This novel is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.

            

 

 

Thank you to Sourcebooks for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Katharine Gregorio

Katharine Gregorio was inspired to write The Double Life of Katharine Clark when she uncovered a family secret about her great-aunt who worked as a foreign correspondent in Europe during the height of the Cold War. Years in the making, Katharine leveraged her degrees in history from Dartmouth College and international relations from The London School of Economics & Political Science in her quest to unravel the story. She also holds a masters in business administration from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Katharine resides with her family in San Francisco.

Photo by Lacey Khiev.

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#BookReview Bad City: Peril and Power in the City of Angels by Paul Pringle @CeladonBooks #BadCity #PaulPringle #CeladonBooks #CeladonReads

categories: 9/10, Book Review, Nonfiction
#BookReview Bad City: Peril and Power in the City of Angels by Paul Pringle @CeladonBooks #BadCity #PaulPringle #CeladonBooks #CeladonReads Title: Bad City: Peril and Power in the City of Angels

Author: Paul Pringle

Published by: Celadon Books on Jul. 19, 2022

Genres: Nonfiction

Pages: 304

Format: ARC, Paperback

Source: Celadon Books

Book Rating: 9/10

For fans of Spotlight and Catch and Kill comes a nonfiction thriller about corruption and betrayal radiating across Los Angeles from one of the region’s most powerful institutions, a riveting tale from a Pulitzer-prize winning journalist who investigated the shocking events and helped bring justice in the face of formidable odds.

On a cool, overcast afternoon in April 2016, a salacious tip arrived at the L.A. Times that reporter Paul Pringle thought should have taken, at most, a few weeks to check out: a drug overdose at a fancy hotel involving one of the University of Southern California’s shiniest stars—Dr. Carmen Puliafito, the head of the prestigious medical school. Pringle, who’d long done battle with USC and its almost impenetrable culture of silence, knew reporting the story wouldn’t be a walk in the park. USC is one of the biggest employers in L.A., and it casts a long shadow.

But what he couldn’t have foreseen was that this tip would lead to the unveiling of not one major scandal at USC but two, wrapped in a web of crimes and cover-ups. The rot rooted out by Pringle and his colleagues at The Times would creep closer to home than they could have imagined—spilling into their own newsroom.

Packed with details never before disclosed, Pringle goes behind the scenes to reveal how he and his fellow reporters triumphed over the city’s debased institutions, in a narrative that reads like L.A. noir. This is L.A. at its darkest and investigative journalism at its brightest.

Review:

Fast-paced, insightful, and comprehensive!

Bad City is the explosive, eye-opening investigation of one of the biggest scandals to rock the University of Southern California that started as a tip involving an unconscious woman, a hotel room littered with drug paraphernalia, and the Dean of its distinguished Keck School of Medicine, Carmen A. Puliafito and ended with the unearthing of an unimaginable amount of corruption, abuse of power, and exploitation that eventually led to the removal of several key figures in both the top echelons of the university’s administration as well as The L.A. Times.

The writing is detailed and precise. And the novel is an absorbing, compelling tale of one man’s dogged determination to uncover and expose the dark, dangerous, depraved secret life of one of the esteemed members of the USC faculty.

Overall, Bad City is a fascinating, disturbing, exceptionally descriptive novel by Pringle that is a scary reminder that often a rotten core can easily be masked by a shiny facade, and is without a doubt a prime example of investigative journalism at its best.

 

This novel is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.

                

 

 

Thank you to Celadon Books for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Paul Pringle

Paul Pringle is a Los Angeles Times reporter who specializes in investigating corruption. In 2019, he and two colleagues won the Pulitzer Prize in Investigative Reporting for their work uncovering the widespread sexual abuse by Dr. George Tyndall at the University of Southern California, an inquiry that grew out of their reporting the year before on Dr. Carmen Puliafito, dean of USC’s medical school. Pringle was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2009 and a member of reporting teams that won Pulitzer Prizes in 2004 and 2011. Pringle won the George Polk Award in 2008, the same year the Society of Professional Journalists of Greater Los Angeles honored him as a distinguished journalist. Along with several colleagues, he shared in Harvard University’s 2011 Worth Bingham Prize for Investigative Reporting. Pringle and a Times colleague won the California Newspaper Publishers Association’s Freedom of Information Award in 2014 and the University of Florida’s Joseph L. Brechner Freedom of Information Award in 2015. Pringle lives in Glendale, California.

Photo by Joanna Pringle.

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#BookReview Truly, Madly by Stephen Galloway @GrandCentralPub #TrulyMadly #StephenGalloway #GrandCentralPub

categories: 8.5/10, Book Review, Nonfiction
#BookReview Truly, Madly by Stephen Galloway @GrandCentralPub #TrulyMadly #StephenGalloway #GrandCentralPub Title: Truly, Madly

Author: Stephen Galloway

Published by: Grand Central Publishing on Mar. 22, 2022

Genres: Nonfiction

Pages: 416

Format: Hardcover

Source: Grand Central Publishing

Book Rating: 8.5/10

In 1934, a friend brought fledgling actress Vivien Leigh to see Theatre Royal, where she would first lay eyes on Laurence Olivier in his brilliant performance as Anthony Cavendish. That night, she confided to a friend, he was the man she was going to marry. There was just one problem: she was already married—and so was he.

TRULY, MADLY is the biography of a marriage, a love affair that still captivates millions, even decades after both actors’ deaths. Vivien and Larry were two of the first truly global celebrities – their fame fueled by the explosive growth of tabloids and television, which helped and hurt them in equal measure. They seemed to have it all and yet, in their own minds, they were doomed, blighted by her long-undiagnosed mental-illness, which transformed their relationship from the stuff of dreams into a living nightmare.

Through new research, including exclusive access to previously unpublished correspondence and interviews with their friends and family, author Stephen Galloway takes readers on a bewitching journey. He brilliantly studies their tempestuous liaison, one that took place against the backdrop of two world wars, the Golden Age of Hollywood and the upheavals of the 1960s — as they struggled with love, loss and the ultimate agony of their parting.  

Review:

Scandalous, informative, and dramatic!

Truly, Madly is the intriguing, candid biography of two of the most famous actors of the 20th century, Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier, and their volatile relationship that started in 1937 with a whirlwind love affair and ended all too suddenly in tragic heartbreak.

The writing is expressive and smooth. The characters are talented, tormented, and driven. And the novel is a poignant tale of one couple’s personal and professional successes and heartaches both on and off the screen, including a marriage grounded in love yet littered with insecurity, jealousy, depression, miscarriages, mental illness, and infidelity.

Overall, Truly, Madly is a captivating, descriptive, sobering tale by Galloway that highlights that loving someone means loving them in the good, the bad, and the ugly, and is an important reminder of just how unfortunate and detrimental our lack of knowledge and treatment of mental illness in the last century truly was.

 

This book is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or one of the following links.

                

 

 

Thank you to Grand Central Publishing for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Stephen Galloway

Stephen Galloway is the dean of Chapman University's Dodge College of Film and Media Arts. Prior to joining Chapman in 2020, he was for many years the executive editor of The Hollywood Reporter.

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