Nonfiction November: Fiction/Nonfiction Book Pairing

This week's topic is hosted by Katie at Doing Dewey, and it is a topic near and dear to my heart: books that go together. 

One of my favorite nonfiction books this year was A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II, by Sonia Purnell, and one of my favorite novels of 2020 was Code Name Hélène, by Ariel Lawhon. Both books were about female spies during WWII who helped the French Resistance. Both were absolutely riveting. While Code Name Hélène was a novel, it was based on the life of a real person.

Here's what I wrote about A Woman of No Importance back in August: 

This is one of the best books of 2021. Could not put it down. Virginia Hall was incredible--brave, passionate, capable. She persisted. Despite a prosthetic leg. Despite the old boys network. Despite the Gestapo, betrayals, and red tape, she really, truly helped liberate France and end WWII. This is non-fiction at its finest. I started out listening to an audio version but switched to print because there are a lot of names and locations and organizations to keep track of, but a truly marvelous read. 

And here's my blurb about Code Name Helene:

I read a few reviews from other bloggers and felt this would be good. WWII, set in Marseille and the Dordogne region of France, French resistance - premise great! To be honest, during the first half I was not sure I would love it--the main character, Nancy, was a bit too perfect (beautiful, brilliant, brave, etc) but I was totally engrossed in the second half and couldn't put it down. Then, I read the afterword and learned that it was based on a real person who did all these extraordinary things.

Another nice matchup is the nonfiction book, Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers Who Helped Win World War II, by Liza Mundy and The Rose Code, by Kate Quinn. The nonfiction is about Americans and The Rose Code is about their English counterparts working at Bletchley Park, but these two books go very nicely together and help to put the role women played in winning the war into much sharper focus. 

Side note - I loved The Rose Code so much that I listened to it a second time on a road trip. And there's a TV series under development based on the book!

Here's what I wrote about The Rose Code last spring: 

I loved the characters of The Rose Code, from socialite Osla who dated the future Duke of Edinburgh and who was based on the real-life Osla Benning to working girl Mab from London's East End to mousey Beth, and how they grew and developed and matured. The Bletchley Park setting was fascinating (now on my must-visit list) as was the process of code breaking. I loved reading about how the various departments contributed to the whole, mostly without the cogs in the machinery having an understanding of what role their cog played. Final note--the best part of the book is the last third. Reads like a thriller!

I do tend to read about a subject, whether that be code breaking and spies during WWII, or War of the Roses and Tudor history, or Italy, or Northumberland, or whatever else strikes a chord, so the matchups are usually not hard for me to make!

Hope you are all enjoying Nonfiction November.

 

Playing Catchup - December Books

It's that time again, when I provide a quickie overview of the books I read recently but didn't find time to post about. They were all great and deserve to be remembered, recommended, and maybe even reread.

Code Name Helene, by Ariel Lawhon - I read a few reviews from other bloggers and felt this would be good. WWII, set in Marseille and the Dordogne region of France, French resistance - premise great! To be honest, during the first half I was not sure I would love it--the main character, Nancy, was a bit too perfect (beautiful, brilliant, brave, etc) but I was totally engrossed in the second half and couldn't put it down. Then, I read the afterword and learned that it was based on a real person who did all these extraordinary things.

The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, by Kim Michele Richardson - this was a audio book for me, and given the amount of dialect, I was glad to listen instead of read. It was another fascinating story--learned about two major things--the WPA's Pack Horse Library Project of Kentucky and the rare blue-skinned people of which the main character, Cussy Carter, is one of the last. At times, I wished that the story was about one of these fascinating things instead of both as they seemed to compete with each for theme, but still a good book.

The Secret Adversary, by Agatha Christie - last year was the 100th anniversary of the publication of the first Agatha Christie mystery, so I decided to read them all in order. This was the second book and the first featuring Tommy and Tuppence. I hadn't met Tommy Beresford and Prudence (aka Tuppence) Cowley before, but I fell in love with them and look forward to spending more time with them. It was a great mystery with a bit of WWI thrown in, some wonderful red herrings, and a great deal of fun.

All the Devils Are Here, by Louise Penny - the latest in the Armand Gamache series. Mostly set in Paris, which I completely loved, and a first rate story. Actually I think this is one of the best in the series. Much as I like visiting Three Pines, Quebec, visiting Paris with the Gamache family was wonderful. I especially liked the opening scene at the Rodin Museum garden, which was one of my absolutely favorite spots when we visited Paris in 2018.