Back when I was a school librarian, I usually tried to promote historical fiction or even historical nonfiction during the month of November. Something about fall harvest, thankfulness, pilgrims, Native Americans, turkeys, all of it gets me to thinking about where we all came from, our past and what we need to learn from it. I do not understand why we seem doomed to repeat our history of poor mistakes, but we as a nation do. When I was a teenager and asked "Why do we need to study history about a bunch of dead guys?" the answer was always so that we would learn from our prior mistakes. Well, one just needs to watch the news once today to see that we have NOT learned from our past mistakes. I do have faith that some of today's youth will learn and work hard to not repeat our mistakes as I am sure some youth in the past attempted. We just have to keep trying to educate ourselves. Okay, as I slowly ease down off of my soap box, let's get into the good stuff. Let's talk about the latest historical fiction books I read during the month of November. I tried to choose books from different time periods in history, but I tend to lean towards books about World War II. That is why I was excited to read a book about World War I or The Great War. The War Nurse by Tracey Enerson Wood is about a young woman, Julia Stimson who is the superintendent of a group of nurses sent overseas to assist Britain during World War I. She recruits 65 nurses to go to Rouen, France to set up a tent medical facility to assist with the wounded. This book has some historical facts on how they started the vaccination process during the last pandemic, which happened while we were at war by the way. It also addresses the safety of the new "x-ray" machine that is being used during this time. Julia is a very strong female character, which I enjoy in a book. She has no problems addressing issues she has with medical procedures. Many times nurses had to wait for a "male doctor" to approve of a remedy or procedure. During war time, there isn't always time to wait for a doctor's approval or recommendation. I like that this author shows the main character as strong and willing to fight for common sense. Anyone in the nursing profession would find this story intriguing as far as how things have changed in the medical profession over the years, or then again maybe not changed as much as we would like to think.
The London House by Katherine Reay was an interesting story about a young woman in modern day that wishes to look back into her family history. An old friend from college is writing an article about a woman who was a German spy and he calls Caroline to get a quote from her since the woman he is writing about is her great aunt. Caroline does not believe her aunt was a spy and decides to delve into her family's history to find the truth. She knows there is something hiding there because her father does not like to talk about his aunt, who is his mother's twin. Caroline goes to London where her mother still lives and finds some letters that help to shed some light on the secret that her grandmother and great aunt shared. The time period was Wold War II, surprisingly in the city of Paris again. The story goes back and forth between current day and the past through letters.
Another World War II story I read was Sisters in Arms by Kaia Alderson. This is her first novel and I thought she did a great job of bringing awareness of the WAAC, Women's Army Auxiliary Corps. It is based on a true story about the only all-Black battalion of the WAAC. They traveled to Europe during the war and made sure that American servicemen received their mail from family back home. The idea of the WAAC was to train women to become officers so that they could take over office and managerial duties so that all of the men could go to the front to fight. It is appalling that these women dealt with racism, and sexism, even while they are volunteering during a war. This debut novel is well done and I feel like I learned something after reading it. The two main characters are as different as night and day, but end up being good friends. This is one I would recommend for your TBR list.
Auschwitz Lullaby by Mario Escobar was a heart wrenching story about a mother and her love for her family. Helene is a German woman married to a gypsy. The Germans send all gypsies to concentration camps and Helene's family was being sent to a camp. She was told that since she was German, she didn't have to go. She would not leave her children and told the soldiers, if her children had to go to the camp, she was going as well. She and her husband were separated once they got to the camp, but she worked on trying to protect her children. Helene was a nurse, so she was able to work in the concentration camp with Dr. Mengele. She worked really hard to protect her children from Dr. Mengele's monstrous acts of medical experimentation. This is a wonderful, yet heart wrenching story of a mother's love. I have read many stories about Auschwitz, but this one, especially if you are a mother, will stick with you.
The last book I wish to share about is not my typical genre. I was browsing the new book section at the public library and this title just jumped out at me, Librarians of the West. This is a short story collection of four different western authors. I typically do not read westerns, but I had to see what this book was about. An excerpt in the front tells about Carnegie and how he gave grants to towns in the West to build public libraries. I would have loved to be a part of a new library in the west back then. So many people had a thirst for reading materials. They did not have easy access to much, except for the Bible. These stories were enlightening and made me think about what we take for granted today. We have multiple access to many different reading materials. I can't imagine not being able to just grab a new book, magazine, or newspaper to read whenever I wanted to. Give this book a read and then make a point to visit your local public library. Support it as much as you can. It is a wonderful resource of all kinds of materials and artifacts to help you gain more knowledge, as well as entertain yourself.
The month of November was a busy one, so I did not read as many books this month. Also, as it gets cooler and darker I tend to crochet and watch some streaming shows and not read as much. My reading challenge on Goodreads was to read 100 books this year. I am just at 86. Not sure I am going to reach my goal but I will keep reading. I have started about 3 books lately and couldn't get into them. That tends to put me a little behind as well. I guess everyone has times where they have a reading slump, but that never keeps me from reading. I just think there are too many good books to choose from to settle for one that just doesn't appeal to me.
So, I hosted my family for Thanksgiving for the first time this year. I was so excited to get to plan a menu and have everyone come and enjoy a meal together. It has been a while since we were able to all get together because my father has been very ill this year. He is on the mend and doing well now. It made our Thanksgiving to get to see him join us at the dinner table. Since desserts are my forte I will share some great sweets I made this November.
Even though summer is my favorite season, I do love me some autumn goodies. I found some caramel apple slice and bake cookies at the store and tried them out. They were quite delicious and you see them here along with my batch of pumpkin bran muffins that I shared with you last month. I have become addicted to the pumpkin seeds you see here in the photo. I keep them out on the counter and grab a few every time I pass the bar. They are healthy and I love the crunch.
One morning we were wanting something sweet and doughnut like, but we didn't want to leave the house. I had a can of honey butter crescent rolls in the fridge. I looked on pinterest and found an air fryer recipe for homemade churros. Just take the can of crescent rolls, and roll them out on a lightly floured counter. Using a rolling pin, roll them where the seams are to make a piece of rectangle dough. Then, cut the rectangle in half horizontally. Next, cut it into strips, kind of like breadsticks. I used a pizza cutter. Next, brush on some melted butter and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. I then air fried them at 380 degrees for about 5 minutes. Just brown them as you like. Quick and easy.
I decided to do three desserts for Thanksgiving. Mom brought a pumpkin pie, so I was trying to accommodate those who do not eat pumpkin. I wanted to make apple pie because I know my dad likes apple pie, and so does my husband. I was disappointed then I realized that I didn't have enough pie dough to make a traditional lattice topped apple pie. So, I made a rustic apple tart. You only need one pie crust for this. I didn't make the filling real sweet, so you were able to really enjoy the sweetness of the apples. I sliced the apples thin and mixed them with butter, cinnamon sugar and some vanilla. You stack the apples in the middle of the pie crust after you roll it out really thin. Then you just wrap up the apples and overlap the crust to make a big pocket of apple deliciousness. Brush the crust with egg and sprinkle with sugar crystals. Bake and enjoy the wonderful cinnamony deliciousness that will fill up your kitchen. You can do this with any kind of fruit. I have made one with pears before and it turned our real well.
It wouldn't be Thanksgiving without a pecan pie. I have a reliable recipe I use from my Southern Living Cookbook called Southern Sideboards. It was a Christmas gift from a colleague many years ago and I use it quite often. I have always had success with Southern Living recipes. Then, I decided I had to make something chocolate so I made a chocolate zucchini loaf. It is one of my mom's favorites. It is a very moist chocolate cake with a little spice to it. It has cinnamon and cloves in it and I added some chocolate chips. I left the drizzle off, but you can add a dark chocolate drizzle to just give it a finally chocolate buzz. The zucchini keeps the cake moist and delicious.
The final recipe I will share is a bread I made with some Thanksgiving leftovers. We had a lot of the sweet potato casserole left over and I didn't want it to go to waste. I searched on Pinterest and found a sweet potato bread you can make with leftover casserole.
https://www.chewoutloud.com/sweet-potato-bread-3/ This recipe uses two cups of left over sweet potato casserole and you use the topping and all. I had enough to make one recipe and a half. One recipe makes two loaves, so I shared two with our neighbors. You top it with a spice drizzle and it turned out delicious. This recipe will be a keeper for me.
Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and were able to meet with either family or friends to share some good food and fellowship. Thanks for stopping by my blog. I would love to hear from you if you have some historical fiction titles to share. Keep reading!
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