The Paris Architect - Charles Belfoure

Lucien Bernard is trying to survive during the war, in German occupied Paris.  Approached to by a wealthy industrialist to make a hiding room for a hidden Jew, he is asked to do this in order to get a commission to design a large factory.  Not sure if he should help at the beginning, we watch him change and enjoy the challenge of outwitting the Germans.

I did  enjoy this book, although I must say the torture scenes were a bit gruesome for my sensitive stomach, the story kept me going for some time..  I am sure that somebody will be picking this one up to make a movie.  4/5

Spelling It Like It Is - Tori Spelling

So I don't have any cable tv, and haven't seen any of Tori Spellings reality tv shows, but still managed to enjoy her book.  As well as behind the scenes info about how many of the reality  show they make it planned out, it is more the story about the past year of her life.  We join her pregnant with her third child Hattie, and her surprise at falling pregnant within a month of giving birth and having a difficult pregnancy.  With continued bleeding Tori had to go on bed rest for the last few months of her pregnancy, while still trying to keep her show, and  manage motherhood.

I do admire her honesty, and she seems to really love her husband and kids.  She doesn't seem to have a clue about money, but after her upbringing you can see why she is buying pricey clothes and shoes and struggling to pay rent or a mortgage.  A quick fun read 3/5.

My Story - Elizabeth Smart

Wow - it is quite the story, and I bow down to the bravery of this remarkable young woman who has sat down and told us the whole story about what happened to her when she was fourteen.  How as a young, niave Mormon girl, she went off to bed with her sister.  Woken in the middle of the night by a strange man with a knife at her throat, she was forced out of her house and to climb hills behind her home.  There she found herself at a campsite where she found out that she was snatched to join him and his wife as the new younger wife.

Tied up, starved and raped, and threatened daily with being killed and the threat of her family being killed, you wonder how this poor wee girl got through.  But, survive she did, nine months of abduction before being recognised and returned to her family.  She writes well, and I did enjoyed hearing her voice, even though the subject matter is disturbing.  I hope she has a long and wonderful life.  4/5

Sane New World - Ruby Wax

I've always had a soft spot for Ruby Wax, she seems in her television career to have put herself right out there in the public eye playing herself, with her witty charm.  As her last show crumbled around her, she found herself with a mental breakdown, was diagnosed as bipolar  and  with a big old bout of depression.  Coming out of the other end of her down period, she decided that she would have to find a way to help herself, and went to Oxford to study neuroscience and counselling.

So this latest book is part memoir and part neuroscience reader, explaining what happens in the brain and how we can tame it with mindfulness, silencing the negative voices.  You have to admire her bravery at putting herself out there and sharing her story.  3/5

My Life - David Jason

I like a biography, I seem to read enough of them lately, so this one seemed like it would provide a little amusement.  I did enjoy reading about his normal growing up, and training as an electrician.  While at school him and a mate joined a dramatic club as a way to meet girls, and without any formal training he was able to start making his living as an actor in his twenties.

For me the middle part of the book was a bit dry and I guess not knowing all the old actors and actresses of the 60's and 70's it was not my favorite book.  All started to improve when he wrote more about Porridge, Open All Hours , Fools and Horses, The Darling Buds of May and all his other television roles.  Even though there were lots of amusing stories about what him and his fellow actors got up too, it is the stories about friends and family that touch you the most, and allow you to see the man.  He certainly would seem to be a good man to share a meal and a chat with.  3/5

Never Go Back - Lee Child

Ohhhh boyfriend, I am glad you took my previous advice and finally got off that country road.  It has seemed to take you years to get from there to here, and at least get to a city with more than a thousand people.  I am so glad that you went to a city, maybe grabbed a grande latte and got to have a shower or two.  I'm at least glad that the ladies you pick seem to have brains and understand your sarcastic wisecracks even if they seem pretty quick at dropping their pants, we understand your irresistible charms and are picturing a more Channing Tatum physique, rather than little Mr Risky Business.

Alas, my attention wasn't really grabbed by this latest adventure - I didn't find the clever in it and was a little bored.  There was a bit much driving around for me, even though I was glad you found a car or two it just seemed a little too convenient to find a hillbilly ATM burning at the time you needed cash.

So honey, take care, stay away from those country roads, quit the hitchiking, maybe use your pension money to buy a few more shirts, take a vacation, and head off somewhere new.  3/5

Margot - Jillian Cantor

Margie Franklin has a secret.  It is 1959 and she is working as a secretary for a Jewish Law Firm in Philadelphia, living her life quietly.  There is a new movie at the cinema "The Diary of Anne Frank", and Margie is finding it harder to hide who she really is.  She is really Margot Frank, the older sister of Anne, who escaped while being moved between camps.

I felt very emotional reading this novel, as I think she captured Margot, a character we all think we know well.  In Annes shadow while in the Annexe Margot feels slighted by her father, who has chosen to publish Annes diary, and make a new life for himself in Switzerland.

A 4/5 for me.

Knocking on Heaven's Door - Katy Butler

The front cover of this book makes it seem like it will be grim reading, and after reading it I guess you can say it is not an easy read - especially if you have ageing parents.  Katy Butler lives a fair distance away from her parents, and her expectation is that they will have a gentle retirement and then some vague illness and die.  When her father suffers a stroke though, she finds that she is needed to help her mother with him as he returns home.  When his heart fails, a pacemaker is inserted to stabilise his heartbeats prior to a surgery.  As the years go by, her father also begins to suffer from dementia, sliding into becoming more frail and dependant on his wife and caregivers for daily help.

Less than a year after her fathers death, her mother then becomes ill and after the experience with her husband and his medical issues, Katys mother makes some different medical choices, with the end of her life not extended by surgical intervention.

In this memoir, Katy talks not only about her own family experience, but about the moral issues surrounding doing everything possible vs gentle waiting and a slow medicine approach to caring for our elderly relatives.  Working in a hospital I find myself asking the same questions, when I see elderly people who are subjected to vigorous surgery and treatments, ones which seem to only be prolonging the suffering and their dying.  For myself, I think I would much prefer a quality of my life rather than the quantity.

5/5 - As I will be thinking about this book for some time to come and think that it will certainly be worth a reread in a few decades, when I am sure not much would have changed in the care of elderly patients.

Unbreakable - Sharon Osbourne

I smiled all through reading Sharon Osbournes new autobiography - Unbreakable.  You think you know the stories, as so much about her family appears in todays popular press.  I try to avoid the tabloids and trashy magazines, only picking them up to read in waiting rooms and the work tearoom,  but maybe the websites are just as bad or worse at reporting on any bit of gossip from celebrity land, making us all familiar with tales of Sharon, Ozzy, Jack and Kelly.  Those stories though come to you in bits and pieces, so it was nice to hear from Sharon herself about many of the stories reported in the press in the past year or so, Jacks diagnosis with MS, the birth of grand daughter Pearl, Sharons recent surgeries and of course the almost breakup of Sharon and Ozzys marriage.

For all the drama in her life, I can't help but admire the strong love that she has for her family and that even with all the issues of years ago, her kids seem to be quite normal now and settled now their wild years are behind them.  Living with Ozzy sounds like a daily challenge, and not something I could handle, so good on her for sticking it out all these years.  4/5

Longbourn - Jo Baker

This is one of those books that has me mesmerized at the bookstore, as I picked it up several times and thought about taking it home with me, but alas my budget can't stretch to books at the moment.  So I had to return it to the stacks and reserve it from the local library.  We are all familiar with Pride + Prejudice, but this is the Downton Abbey version, told from the servants who bustled about the house taking care of the Bennetts, doing their washing, cooking the food, doing their hair and cleaning up after them.

I did find it a bit dry at the beginning, I struggled with the story and was a bit bored, but once it got into telling the story of Sarah the housemaid who begins to notice James, well a touch of romance was what the story needed for me, and I loved the second half.  I wasn't surprised to see on the back page that the story has already been sold to be made into a movie, as I can see it in my head already.  4/5