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G1203 Book Review of Between These Walls by Michael Newman

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Name of Book: Between These Walls

Author: Michael Newman

ISBN: 9781525548840

Publisher: Friesen Press

Type of book: Adolf Hitler, WWII, Israel, 1930s to 1980s, lawyer, Germany, powerlessness, victims, power, greed, inner circle, adoption, Judaism, friendship, paternal relationships, Egypt, hiding, secrets 

Year it was published: 2020

Summary:
In the dying days of WW II on the American occupied side of Germany’s Elbe River, US Army Medical Corps Colonel Samuel Singer comes upon the strafed wreck of a smouldering SS Staff car, with a badly injured driver, nearby a dead German Army officer carrying the ID of a Nazi war criminal, and a young blonde woman, also dead in the back seat.
Forty-three years later, art curator Daniel Singer, the adopted son of Colonel Singer receives a mysterious package—a large brown envelope, sealed with security tape—from West Berlin. He can’t help but think that there’s something important within the envelope. But what?
Daniel’s quest to learn about the package…
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G1168 Book Review of A bond undone by Jin Yong

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Name of Book: A Bond Undone

Author: Jin Yong (trans by Gigi Chang)

ISBN: 978-1-250-22068-4

Publisher: St Martin's Press

Part of a Series: Legend of Condor Heroes

Type of book: Fantasy, martial arts, history, manipulation, love, 1200s, China, love, patriot, wuxia, greats, battles, 

Year it was published: 1959 (in USA 2020)

Summary:
In the Jin capital of Zhongdu, Guo Jing learns the truth of his father’s death and finds he is now betrothed, against his will, to two women. Neither of them is his sweetheart Lotus Huang.
Torn between following his heart and fulfilling his filial duty, Guo Jing journeys through the country of his parents with Lotus, encountering mysterious martial heroes and becoming drawn into the struggle for the supreme martial text, the Nine Yin Manual. But his past is catching up with him. The widow of an evil man he accidentally killed as a child has tracked him down, intent on revenge.
Meanwhile, his true parentage at last revealed, Yang Kang, the young prince Guo J…
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Blog Challenge Day 08: Star

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So I decided to use The Comet Seekers by Helen Sedgwick for this last prompt. Relation to that is the theme of 'Star' which I took to mean outer space, and I even thought that comets are types of stars, but not the case. Yet, comets exist in the same space as the stars. 
Pretty much like my previous reads, The Comet Seekers plays with time but this time the focus is a lot more on the comets and outer space rather than straight history. This is also a literary tale that I found to be confusing yet heartbreaking and frustrating. Like my previous reads, I definitely think this requires a re-read to fully immerse and understand the story of Roisin and Francois. The tale plays a lot with history and future, with living life and freezing it as well as an inability to move on and to fully enjoy it There is a lot I don't understand, but I would like to think that a day will arrive when I finally will. 
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Blog Challenge Day 07: Time

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So for this prompt, I decided to go with These Ghosts Are Family by Maisy Card, which plays a lot with time; making it go forward or back, giving the reader a sense of disorientation but at the same time teaching the reader the history of Jamaica. I definitely think that this is one of the novels that should be re-read because first time its confusing and I have trouble understanding how it all relates to one another. 
What I think more than anything the tale speaks of is the lost facts, the lost stories that aren't there. It's akin to having a puzzle but then realizing you are missing almost half the puzzle pieces, so you are trying your best to tell the story with the puzzle pieces you have. Because I am used to having complete tales in one way or another, reading These Ghosts Are Family by Maisy Card was a jarring experience because a lot of questions go unanswered, and, most likely, will continue to be unanswered.
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Blog Challenge Day 06: Any Book with 400+ Pages

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For non-readers, I imagine that the idea of a 400+ page book is, well, overwhelming. Yet, reading A Bond Undone by Jin Yong, second volume in Legend of Condor Heroes is anything but overwhelming. It's a long adventure tale of right versus wrong, of love, martial arts, loyalty and so forth. A wonderful introduction to Chinese culture. 
One does need to read A Hero Born, the first volume in the series, but again, its a masterful and suspenseful tale that will have one racing through to finish up reading, and its a journey that will be highly worth it. Also, in personal opinion, highly surpasses Lord of the Rings because it has a lot of women who are heroines  and there is a lot of comedy, although I do understand that tragedy isn't too far away. I look forward to volumes 3 and 4 as well as the future series such as Return of Condor Heroes and The Heavenly Sword and Dragon Saber. 
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Blog Challenge Day 05: Rebel

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In America, not a lot of non-Asians are familiar with Asian side of the story during WWII. Sure a lot of non-Asians are familiar with internment camps that USA constructed for Japanese and German citizens, but not many know that China and Japan were enemies during that time, which is a reason I chose Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford for the topic of rebel. Why? The main character in the book, a Chinese-American by the name of Henry Lee, befriends and develops feelings for a Japanese-American girl, Keiko Okabe. He has also done the unthinkable in refusing to think the same way his old world parents think about the Japanese. 
While Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet seems to be the darling of anyone who tries out Jamie Ford, I feel bad in admitting it that I didn't like it all that much. I'm not sure why, but perhaps because his other book, Songs of Willow Frost, will always hold a magical place in my heart. It is a good story, both tender and sweet as w…
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Blog Challenge Day 04: Family

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For the topic of family, I decided to go with Truths I Never Told You by Kelly Rimmer. Two of the most important things that a person can have is family and/or friends. A lot of books have been written about friendships, sisterhoods, parental/child relationships, and for good reason: a family is an incredibly complex organism that human experience cannot capture. All I knew when I began reading Truths I Never Told You is that its a Kelly Rimmer story: its one of my favorite authors, it came out in April, and it dealt with Post-partum depression. Much to mine surprise, the main characters, the four siblings of Beth, Timothy, Ruth and Jeremy are very close to one another and to their widowed father Patrick, even going as far as having meals together once a week. 
While such closeness is to be commended, especially during the trying times that are ahead for the siblings, it can become even more difficult for people like spouses or girlfriends/boyfriends become part of the family. Kelly Ri…
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