What Once Was Lost: A Novel

What Once Was Lost: A Novel by Kim Vogel Sawyer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Christina was raised in a loving home, with parents that stressed being responsible for those in need. In fact, her parents ran the poor farm, as people called it, with Christina's help. Before they passed, Christina didn't have the day to day stress of running it alone as she does now and with the recent fire in the kitchen - all the residents are displaced and awaiting the repair of the home. When the board fails to approve money for the much needed repairs and even closes the poor farm down, Christina feels that not only her faith is failing, but she's failing her residents, especially eleven year old Tommy, blinded from an accident.

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We Band of Angels

We Band of Angels: The Untold Story of American Nurses Trapped on Bataan by the Japanese by Elizabeth M. Norman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Once I found out that one of the women captured during World War II by the Japanese in the Philippines was from my own small town of Lonaconing, it was a given that I would read this book. Ninety-nine Navy and Army nurses who were never before exposed to the brutal conditions of war did not realize what was in their future when they signed up for the almost exotic life of hospital nursing, tennis matches, and cocktails. How these women survived is an amazing feat of heroics. The book contains excerpts of diaries, snippets of interviews, and many American and Japanese photos of the nurses on duty before the war, open jungle hospitals, internment camps and starvation, and later ceremonies honoring the women. The author continued the story long after their release from the POW camp. A must read for anyone going into nursing or interested in World War II facts and information.

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A Christmas Hope: A Novel

A Christmas Hope: A Novel by Anne Perry
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Number 11 in Anne Perry's Christmas novellas, A Christmas Hope finds us back in 1868, not so merry, old Victorian England, during the Christmas season. Claudine Burroughs is tired of the empty round of social engagements and tepid conversations and tired of the emptiness found in her own marriage of convenience. When a popular poet is accused of murder at the latest party attended, Claudine does not go with the consensus of his guilt and attempts to discover the true culprit. Knowing her husband would be horrified with her inquiries and stop her attempts, courageous Claudine must do so in secret and therefore pulls in an unwilling helper.

Perry's Christmas novellas are tiny gems - I look forward to reading them at every Yuletide season.

For a list of books in the series:
https://www.goodreads.com/series/4063...

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