Rachel´s Random Resources: Operation Berlin by Michael Ridpath

Deeply anchored in the 1930s, post WWI-Berlin, the well documented and atmospheric Operation Berlin by bestselling author Michael Ridpath has complex characters and a smart crime plot. As I am both interested in books set in my home city and in historical fiction during the 20th century, this book suited perfectly my rainy April weekend. 

Historian Archie Laverick is searching in Berlin for information about a famed Prussian general, crossing pathways with Esme Carmichael, an ambitious young lady who wants to be a foreign correspondent. As usual, Berlin is the best place in the world for meetings of opposites. Archie´s quest for historical truth and Esme´s ambitions will be both needed when they team together to finding the real murderer of a crime attributed to a young Jewish lady.

The pace is relatively moderate, allowing a generous space for reflection about the complex Berlin ambiance in the 1930s. We may know what followed but as for now, the signals are still there to be seen and noticed without any further historical premonition skills.

The book is the first stand alone from The Foreign Correspondent Series and I am very much interesting to follow up with the next installments. 

The black-and-white cover is convening very well the ambiance of the book, therefore it needs a special mention of itself.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the book tour but the opinions are, as usual, my own

Random Things Tours: Them Girls by Eva Verde

Now in their 40s, Goldie and Vee are two sisters at the peek of their personal and professional success. The years of hard work seems to show its results, until, as usual in life and books, something happens that may upside down the comfort of happiness. With two marriages at the brink of disaster, watching their beautiful dream turn into pieces, Goldie and Vee decide to take a well deserved reserved break, an opportunity for bonding. However, plans are again made to fail, as their time together will bring back unresolved past episodes challenging the even perception of their identity.

Them Girls by Eva Verde is a deeply emotional and realistic portrayal of sisterhood. The two main characters are very relatable and strong including through their own ways of facing and confronting their own past. Their story also reveals deep cleavages of class and identity clashes in ways shaping the identity of the characters.

I loved Verde´s prose and I am definitely interested in reading more of her books as well. But as for now, this powerful story of sisterhood stays with me for my own reflection on how usual family topics can reflect so differently based on the angle it is looked at. Literature always can teach us a lot about life.

Rating: 4 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the book tour but the opinions are, as usual, my own

Ruhrgemüse, polnisch by Birgitta M. Schulte

Novels inspired by historical realities and social history set in Germany are interesting for me because they fictionally expand the limits of my knowledge about the country and its history. 

Ruhrgemüse, polnisch by Birgitta M. Schulte is a relatively short novel, inspired by the Polish immigration to the craddle of German industry, the Ruhr area, at the end of the 19th century. At the time, over 500,00 Polish immigrants, mostly from the Mazurian region, arrived to Germany looking for job opportunities in the expanding fields of the metal and mining industry. Until today, this part of the country remains an attractive pole of investments and opportunities, with a clear appeal for the working force.

The characters of Schulte´s debut novel are young couples, caught in the struggle for a better future while actively taking part to the equally important social struggle for equality and safe working conditions promoted by the nascent trade unions.

Adam and Zusanna and the other Polnish immigrants are part of this new realities, while building up their own identities - changing their Slavic-sounding names with ones with a more German resonance, among others. 

The story concentrates personal and socio-historical events covering end of the 19th century until close to the 1930s. I´ve found the interaction between characters less intense than the positioning of the characters towards the social movements, which limits in my opinion the plot development. 

It was a short, intense, informative and well written story that help me to understand a historical episode I never knew about before. Exceptionally, the book also includes abstract illustrations for some chapter openings that, at least, from the colours point of view are matching the general mood of the book.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Random Things Tours: Everyone is Perfect Here by Jane Haseldine

Carly Bennett is a successful English teacher, with a steady career and influence. But his spotless facade is about to crumble as someone working in the same building with her is find dead, with her name written near the corpse. A crime sharing details with Bennett´s own mother murder, apparently occurred during a robbery. What next happens is not only a suspenseful line of events, but also a bizarre and terrifying memory game bringing Carly at the brinks of self doubt and desperation.

Everyone is perfect here by Jane Haseldine is a well planned domestic suspense that kept me engaged and twisted. The story is very tense and one need to pay careful attention to the characters featured in the dual timelines, as well as to her own identity details. 

It was hard to make my mind and once the case solved, any other possible interpretations looked futile. This is exactly the reason why I was fully tuned to this book. The memory games were very interesting for me, and added more suspense to the already very well intense planned plot.

This was my first encounter with Haseldine but would definitely want to read more of her books.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the book tour but the opinions are, as usual, my own

Good People by Patmeena Sabit

´Everything that happened there he allowed to happen´.

 

When a successful business man from Kabul and his family disappeared without a trace, details of their ´American dream´ story reveal the cracks in their picture perfect life. The tragical car accident when the teenage daughter died led to an ambiance of suspicion and inner drama that for some was just waiting to happen. But as more and more people may raise suspicions regarding a possible 'honour crime' , a whodunnit-like is put into motion where we are invited to follow through various testimonies and legal and article investigations.

Empathically built debut novel by Kabul-born Patmeena Sabit, Good People is a story in stories, told from with multiple POVs where the main people concerned aren´t heard. The story of the rebelious daughter is introduced from the second part of the book onwards, in a very unexpected and suspenseful twists.

Until the end of the novel it´s hard to see the truth in sight. The shreds of the perfect mirror may confuse us alongside the splits alongside the race and class prejudice, and the clash between tradition and modernity, under the dramatic question: ´How much is too much?´

Although a very whodunnit kind of story, many of the issues raised to resonate with immigration stories from all over the world related to children education, accepting new values and assimilation. 

For me, it was an addictive and insightful read, I didn´t want to put down, although the takes were non-surprising and predictable.

Rating: 4.5 stars 

Graphic Novel about Rimbaud, Verlaine and many more...

As promised and planned last year, my reading plan for 2026 - and maybe a bit longer - is to focus on classic books and authors. And when I am not reading works from the carefully curated list, I may do extra documentation work, discovering new titles and writers of interest. So far, I am enjoying the experience, and I have a lot of reviews ready for the next weeks.

My source of inspiration for new discoveries are as diverse as my interests. A graphic novel about the friendships and inimities among the group of symbolist writers led me to Germain Nouveau, that I was not familiar with until now (but instantly added on my list).

Les Illuminés by Jean Dytar and Laurent-Frédéric Bollée is built around the quest for a lost manuscript by Nouveau but touches upon topics dear to rebelious writers like Rimbaud and Verlaine and the relationship between art and life. The text is minimal, but the graphic part is generous, each page following three different timelines, in warm tones. 

The topics raised my interest, while the graphic kept me interested. Additionally, I have some extra reading that may lead me to discovering new works and authors. 

The quest continues...

Rating: 3.5 stars

Steglitz by Inès Bayard translated into German by Theresa Benkert

Steglitz is a part of Berlin I always enjoy spending time exploring. Caught between the equally middle-class Charlottenburg and the much fancier Zehlendorf, it breathes bourgeoisie: modernist architecture, shopping avenue, large busy streets, better dressed people compared to other parts of the city.

In Steglitz Kafka spent his last months, between 1923 and 1924, together with Dora Diamant, before being hospitalized in a sanatorium. 

Steglitz, where the action of the homonymous novel by French-born, Berlin based Inès Bayard takes place, is a place of routine, night secrets and delusion. Leni Müller, the wife of a successful architect, Ivan, recently assigned a project in Prora, the former Nazi summer resort in the island of Rügen, is a person of many habits. Not talking too much, walking her routines every day, a dedicated quiet housewife.

But, in a Kafkian vein, things start happening and the quiet Leni is violently pushed out of her mental comfort zone. She will end up almost homeless, working in pub in exchange of accommodation, leaving her husband and returning in her marital home as a complete alienated stranger. 

I may confess the book took a turn I didn´t expect it, as I was expecting a very bourgeois novel. The challenge of surprise accepted, I felt however that the actual timeline the action is taking part is too long, compared to the intensity of the facts and episodes accounted for. 

I had access to the book in the German version, translated from French by Theresa Benkert. 

The cover, as many books published in Germany, is an excellent visual interpretation of the book.

Rating: 3.5 stars