Bogormen

Title: The Strangers (Greystone #1)
Author: Margaret Peterson Haddix
Genre: Sci-fi, Childrens/YA
Rating: 4/5
# pages: 358
Date read: April, 2021

What makes you you?

The Greystone kids thought they knew. Chess has always been the protector over his younger siblings, Emma loves math, and Finn does what Finn does best—acting silly and being adored. They’ve been a happy family, just the three of them and their mom.

But everything changes when reports of three kidnapped children — who share the same first and middle names, ages, and exact birth dates as the Greystone kids — reach the Greystone family. This bizarre coincidence makes them wonder: Who exactly are these strangers? Before Chess, Emma, and Finn can question their mom about it, she takes off on a mysterious work trip. But puzzling clues left behind lead to complex codes, hidden rooms, and a dangerous secret that will turn their world upside down.


Very thrilling story. Recommended for ages 10 and up (although I'd probably focus on the 'up' - might be a bit scary for most 10-year-olds), but definitely worthwhile reading as an adult as well. I found it very difficult to put it down - both literally and figuratively, as I've found myself thinking about it ever since.

The first few chapters had question upon question upon question piled upon the reader, and I was somewhat skeptical that Margaret Peterson Haddix would be able to provide a suitably satisfying answer to them. Fortunately she mostly did - and the 'mostly' is 100% my own fault, as I hadn't read the huge "parallel universe" tag in the back blurb, and therefore hadn't realized that it would have a sci-fi element. Once I got my head wrapped around that, I loved the story and will definitely be keeping my eye out for the next in the series.

Title: The Little Brooklyn Bakery
Author: Julie Caplin
Genre: Chick-lit
Rating: 4/5
# pages: 448
Date read: April, 2021

When Sophie Bennings arrives in New York, love is the last thing on her mind. Still reeling from a painful break up, she throws herself into her work as a food editor on a top-notch magazine.

Columnist Todd McLennan is everything that Sophie wishes she didn’t want. Like the gorgeous bakery below her Brooklyn apartment, he’s as tempting as the sugary cupcakes on daily display. Surely a little of something you fancy can do you good?

As Sophie and Todd get to know one another, a love of food isn’t the only passion they share. In the city that never sleeps, has Sophie finally met the man of her dreams...?


Really sweet and charming read that made me long to go back to NYC - bad timing reading it in the middle of a pandemic when I can't go anywhere at all!!! :-P

Very predictable, but I knew that going into it, as the first book was much the same, but so charming that I didn't mind at all. I loved reading about Sophie's experiences exploring Manhattan and Brooklyn (and got some new ideas for my next visit!) and about her baking adventures with Betty. Would have loved to read more about her experiences at the magazine though!

There were some really odd errors from time to time (e.g. she got the title of "How I Met Your Mother" wrong! :-O ) and the end was a tad trite and wrapped up everything much more quickly than I would have liked, but all in all I loved it. Right book at the right time, I guess :-)

Title: Rose Under Fire
Author: Elizabeth Wein
Genre: World War II
Rating: 4.5/5
# pages: 368, Audiobook ~12hrs
Date read: June 2013, April 2021

While flying an Allied fighter plane from Paris to England, American ATA pilot and amateur poet, Rose Justice, is captured by the Nazis and sent to Ravensbrück, the notorious women's concentration camp. Trapped in horrific circumstances, Rose finds hope in the impossible through the loyalty, bravery and friendship of her fellow prisoners. But will that be enough to endure the fate that’s in store for her?


... And here I thought "Code Name Verity" packed a punch...

Rose Under Fire is an extremely poignant and important book. I literally sat stunned for a couple of minutes after finishing it (be sure to read the author's afterword!). The horror of RUF is that this is all REAL! Oh sure, there never was a person like Rose Justice - the American who got mistaken for a French political prisoner and thus sent to Ravensbrück... but Ravensbrück itself is real... the war crimes committed against the "rabbits" were real. And that's what makes this book such a devastating read. Rose made the horrors of the concentration camps become real in a way few other books have managed to, because she is such a relate-able heroine, and the shock of going from discounting the rumours of medical experiments in concentration camps as "anti-German propaganda" to seeing for herself the results of those experiments is only all too believable.

The novel is interspersed with Rose's poetry - some of which is too heartbreaking for words.