I was listening to podcasts for the longest time, and I got tired of the same old story. Self help, current events, murder mysteries, and they were just too much. I was ready for fiction and narratives. Below are books I have been reading over the past three months. There are some good ones, enjoy and be sure to share your favorites too!

I choose Audible to read. You can get one free month of Audible today!

What comes with your Audible trial?

• 30 days of membership free
• 2 audio books
• 2 Audible Originals

Past Audible Reads

• May 2019
• July 2016
• March 2016
• February 2016
• August 2015

Sorry I don’t share this often, but recommended books never expire – right? Can you tell I had a baby in 2016 and two more in 2017 – a little bit too busy to read! – Haha. Honestly,I have been reading but I have mixed in a lot of podcasts because they are short and easier to interrupt than a book.

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My Current Audible Reads January 2020

The Orphan Keeper

I really enjoyed this book because of my India Trip. An inspiring, true story about a boy adopted into the United States but unable to share (via his language barrier), he isn’t an orphan but rather kidnapped off the streets.

Seven-year-old Chellamuthu’s life – and his destiny – is forever changed when he is kidnapped from his village in Southern India and sold to the Lincoln Home for Homeless Children. His family is desperate to find him, and Chellamuthu anxiously tells the Indian orphanage that he is not an orphan, he has a mother who loves him. But he is told not to worry, he will soon be adopted by a loving family in America.

The Tattooist of Auschwitz

I am not going to lie. I think I know a fair amount about the Holocaust but this book was particularly hard. It really brought forth a deep empathy and sadness of what the survivors experienced. Also based on a true story.

…A vivid, harrowing, and ultimately hopeful recreation of Lale Sokolov’s experiences as the man who tattooed the arms of thousands of prisoners with what would become one of the most potent symbols of the Holocaust, The Tattooist of Auschwitz is also a testament to the endurance of love and humanity under the darkest possible conditions.

Cilka’s Journey

Because I wanted to know more about one of the characters in The Tattooist of Auschwitz, I followed up my read with this novel. By the end, I was really broken and sad about what I was reading. I recommend both but maybe a short light-hearted break in between.

Cilka is just 16-years-old when she is taken to Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp in 1942, where the commandant immediately notices how beautiful she is. Forcibly separated from the other women prisoners, Cilka learns quickly that power, even unwillingly taken, equals survival. When the war is over and the camp is liberated, freedom is not granted to Cilka: She is charged as a collaborator for sleeping with the enemy and sent to a Siberian prison camp. But did she really have a choice? And where do the lines of morality lie for Cilka, who was sent to Auschwitz when she was still a child?…

The Lost Girls of Paris

About females in France during WWII who were spies for the British. Their journey then and into present day and how it affected generations ahead.

…Vividly rendered and inspired by true events, New York Times best-selling author Pam Jenoff shines a light on the incredible heroics of the brave women of the war and weaves a mesmerizing tale of courage, sisterhood, and the great strength of women to survive in the hardest of circumstances.

Pachinko

I really enjoyed this book. It really made me learn more about both Korean and Japanese culture through the eyes of three generations. The story continued to evolve so you never bore of just one character or story.

Profoundly moving and gracefully told, Pachinko follows one Korean family through the generations, beginning in early 1900s Korea with Sunja, the prized daughter of a poor yet proud family, whose unplanned pregnancy threatens to shame them. Betrayed by her wealthy lover, Sunja finds unexpected salvation when a young tubercular minister offers to marry her and bring her to Japan to start a new life.

The Other Daughter

Interesting read. No regret for reading this but I struggle to recall the story and the ending. Because of that, I admit it didn’t leave an impression on me but I never felt a need to not finish the book and it was the book that I read before the others listed above – so many reads in between!

Raised in a poor yet genteel household, Rachel Woodley is working in France as a governess when she receives news that her mother has died suddenly. Grief stricken, she returns to the small town in England where she was raised to clear out the cottage…and finds a cutting from a London society magazine, with a photograph of her supposedly deceased father dated all of three month before. He’s an earl, respected and influential, and he is standing with another daughter – his legitimate daughter. Which makes Rachel…not legitimate. Everything she thought she knew about herself and her past – even her very name – is a lie…

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