The Tattooist of Auschwitz

Morris, H. (2018). The Tattooist of Auschwitz. London: Zaffre Publishing.

Dr Anne should be heading for Chicago to meet up with her friend Lois Denham to celebrate nearly 60 years of friendship.

Lois and Dr Anne's  last trip included an emotional visit to Auschwitz and Birkenau in 2014.  Today, Dr Anne was having her fourth general anaesthetic in a matter of months - annus horribilis - so she picked up the recommended - The Tattooist of Auschwitz.  Dr Anne's memories of the visit are vivid.  The story of Lale, a Slovakian Jew determined to survive three years in Auschwitz was insightful.  How does one survive - giving.  The more you give the greater the reward.

Lale fell in love with Gita who worked in 'Canada' sorting the clothes and jewels of those who went to the gas chambers.  The smuggled money and jewels bought food from the outside to be shared with those on starvation rations.

Being caught brought support from those whom he had helped - the big Jew who beat him 'lightly' , the girl who slept with the SS Officer who plucked him from death.

One needs motivation, positivity, and a measure of luck to survive.

Come on Dr Anne, you can do it too.......

This is going to hurt.

Kay, A. (2017). This is going to hurt.  London:Picator.

Dr Anne was at Junior Summer School in St Andrews.  She had to take the train to Aberdeen on consecutive days to undergo a procedure.  She picked this book up at W H Smith.  She learned so much about babies, mothers, fathers, vaginas, caesarians, sexual practices and the outcomes.  Did it shock the 'old maid'? Nah, it had her giggling all the way to and fro to Aberdeen twice.

Munich

Harris, R. (2017). Munich. London: Penguin.

Dr Anne was heading for Junior Summer School in St Andrews.  Many of her friends are from Germany - Bonn, Munich.  She picked up the Munich by Robert Harris as she had read one of his previous books.  It was about the meetings of Chamberlain, Hitler, Mussolini, and Dadaldier in 1938.

Of course there are two friends - Hartman and Legat who had met at Oxford.  One was in the British Diplomatic Service and one in the Reich Foreign Ministry.  Their paths cross when a group in Germany don't want the appeasement to go ahead.  Papers are passed between the two men at great risk to both.  The appeasement goes ahead.

This was a gripping story where friends are under pressure...

The Guernsey Literary, and Potato Peel Pie Society

Shaffer, M.A. and Barrows, A. (2008). The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. London: Bloomsbury Publishing

Dr Anne was in hospital again.  Two weeks after face surgery it was time have her gallbladder removed.  The gallbladder was quite diseased and had multiple large gall stones.  Ouch...  She recuperated reading this gentle book about a group of residents in Guernsey who had 'survived' the German occupation and Juliet,  a column writer in London who looking for inspiration to write a new book.  A letter from Dawsey in Guernsey to her about the diarist Charles Lamb sparked off a communication that would change Juliet's life forever.

Into the Water

Hawkins, P. (2018). Into the Water.  London: ???

Who would have known what was to be the path for Dr Anne in the four months since her last post.  She has visited four hospitals in the last 12 months and has now built up nearly fifty visits.  It started of with the hand, the shingles, the acid reflux, the broken patella, the gallbladder and gallstones, the melanoma.

This book is the next novel by the author Paula Hawkins who wrote The Girl on the Train.  Dr Anne went to the hospital for facial surgery on the 29th June.  She was last on the schedule for the day and had to sit from 0730 to 1530 with nothing to eat or drink.  It was definitely a day to read.  Into the Water certainly held her attention on what was a very difficult day for her.  Did people jump into the pool of water or were they pushed?  Was it a way of getting rid of difficult women. The book held Dr Anne's attention until she was discharged from hospital the following day.

Dr Anne actually preferred this book to the Girl on the Train.