WEARING PAPER DRESSES by Anne Brinsden

On GoodReads I gave this 2 out of 5 stars - 'it was OK' is what 2 stars mean. I feel ungrateful giving anything less than 3 which means 'I liked it'. But really that is all it was for me - 2stars. So why?  The blurb, as another GoodReads reviewer says, has so much going for it. 1950s Australia - glamorous, cultural and urbane opera singer Elise from Melbourne falls wildly in love with Bill, whose family owns a farm out in the middle of nowhere. Bill is a reluctant farmer and is very happy to live in the big smoke away from the dry hot climate, the impossible soil, the demands and expectations of his family, the small-mindedness of the locals. They marry, have two children - Ruby and Marjorie - the latter is the narrator. Life is great until Bill is required back at the farm. You can see this is not going to end well for Elise and Bill - the urban and rural existences just completely incompatible. Elise is a complete and total misfit, unable in any way at all to adjust to her new life and the expectations made of her as a farmer's wife. The two girls are left to fend for themselves as their mother's mental health deteriorates, and she falls apart. A tragedy occurs which rips the family apart, resulting in Marjorie running away to Melbourne where she lives with an aunt and attempts to start her life over. Her one escape while growing up on the farm is a school mate whose own home life is pretty awful too. Together these two find refuge, solace and comfort in each other, but even this is not enough to help Marjorie deal with disaster when it strikes. 

So great plot as you can see, plenty of scope. But it took a very long time for much of this to happen. The tragedy, when it finally occurs, is two thirds of the way through the book, when my eyes are beginning to glaze over because nothing continues to happen. With Marjorie and Ruby increasingly out of their depth dealing with their obviously seriously ill mother, and her husband and other family seemingly incapable of getting help for her, the constant judging and gossip from the locals - it is all just hopeless and went on for far too long. Fortunately our minds and eyes are bigger and open wider now, and I would like to think that a woman so out of place and her children would get the help and support so desperately needed. And that people would stop being so judgemental.

By the ending, things have resolved themselves to some extent, although plenty of internal agonising to get there. Time has softened the edges of tragedy and trauma. But I did wonder, as things were on the up, if this was likely to be a permanent thing. My heart tells me Marjorie may end up going down the same path as her mother...

WHEN TIME STOPPED: A MEMOIR OF MY FATHER'S WAR AND WHAT REMAINS by Ariana Neumann

Such a beautifully written story about a family and the secrets contained by WWII. Although a Holocaust story, it is so much more than that - the story of a young Jewish man, Hans, who managed to hide in plain sight in Berlin, perform essential war duties, and survived, but was haunted for the rest of his life over the fate of the rest of his family.

But this isn't just a story about Hans, the father of the author and his war time experiences - it is also about a father and daughter, about her growing up in a family where there was always something that didn't feel quite right, about resolving and coming to terms with the fall out from living and surviving in Europe during those terrible years.

Growing up in a Catholic household in Venezuela and being a curious child, there was never an explanation for her father's nightmares, or for the time she discovered an ID card with her father's face on it, but not his name. Visits back to Czechoslovakia with her father unearthed other secrets and surprises, but at no stage did her father want to go down the 'record it all for posterity' path. It wasn't until he died that amongst his papers there was the beginnings of a memoir. From this she finally began the long investigative and frustrating process of writing the story of her father and his family during the 1930s and 1940s. This becomes her story too, as she uncovers horror, amazing courage of not just Hans and his family, but also of non-Jewish people who helped them, despair everywhere, plus her own emotional processing of everything she learns, and then puts into writing.

Another extraordinary WWII story, written with love, sensitivity, sadness but above all hope, because her father survived and went onto live a joyful and positive life.

DEEP STATE by Chris Hauty

A political thriller that really will keep you on the edge of your seat, and as the pages are turned and devoured, increasingly difficult to put down. The author is a successful LA based playwright and screenwriter, and it is very clear that this story has been written to be adapted into a movie or a series at some stage. He even probably has in mind who he would have play the main parts, but don't let that eye for a commercial opportunity detract you from this excellent story.

Hayley Chill is 25 years old, the product of a tough southern upbringing, who found a place to belong when she joined the army. She is one tough, strong, kick-ass young woman. In the first chapter we see that she is not to be trifled with - enigmatic, street smart, instinctive, and possessed with a photographic memory. Chapter two opens with her leaving the army,  an excellent army record that leads her to becoming an intern at the White House. A new man is the POTUS, Richard Monroe - a divisive figure, charismatic, hugely popular with the electorate and yet for a certain section of the great and powerful in Washington too dangerous to have around. The elusive Deep State - 'a body people, typically influential members of government agencies of the military, believed to be involved in the secret manipulation or control of government policy'

Hayley is not your typical intern, putting her colleagues and others around her on guard from day one, but her unintentional closeness to the sudden and mysterious heart attack death of the Chief of Staff instantly sets her on a path of self preservation. She stays true to her reason for being instilled in her by years in the military - loyalty to the death of the office of the POTUS, with the words of the now dead Chief of Staff 'trust no one' ringing in her head. When her own life comes under threat, her instinct for survival and army training keep her alive and one step ahead of the bad guys.

Hayley reminds every much of Lisbeth Salander from The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo series. Hayley is not as much of a social misfit as Lisbeth, and does not have her extraordinary hacking and computer skills, but similar in that she is scarred by her child hood, she has been alone for a long time, and she is very very smart. The characters in this novel are very well drawn which one would expect from such a writer - Hayley's immediate supervisor is a seriously unhappy woman, frustrated in her career going nowhere and now having to deal with this unusual intern; Hayley's co-worker Asher Dennis who has aspirations of becoming the first gay POTUS; the deputy director of the CIA who by the end you even feel a little sympathy for.

The White House has also been made a character in its own right, the place where all this intrigue, danger, lobbying, back stabbing, rivalry and fear takes place. Made me think it is much like what the court of Henry VIII would have been. Not a nice place to be. Politics has always been a hideous place to immerse oneself in, I have no idea why people are drawn to it other than the narcissitic power kick and opportunity to feed from the public trough. In this novel the possible destruction of democracy is at the heart of the story, and highly topical with the current state of many governments and countries  around the world. Putting the whole political doctrine thing aside, this is an absolutely cracking read, perfect escapism for the times we currently living in.