Review: Magda Goebbels

Magda Goebbels by Anja Klabunde

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



This biography of Magda Goebbels follows her from the age of about five to her death in the last days of the European Theatre of WWII, although the bulk of the book focuses on her life until the beginning of the War. It traces Frau Goebbels' life through her relationships with men - her stepfather, father, first boyfriend, first husband, and then Goebbels, her second husband - and to a lesser extent her eldest stepson, eldest son, and her probable lover.

This was a fascinating book. I'd previously had no idea about Magda Goebbels' Jewish connections - in fact, when I picked up the book I thought it sounded utterly ludicrous.

I don't agree with all Klabunde's conclusions about Frau Goebbels, and the framing of pretty much her whole life through men irked me. The other thing I found frustrating was the rapidity with which the narrative passed through the war years. I'm sure there was more that could have been said, even given the lack of sources due to the deaths of most of the main players. I also would have loved some information about her eldest son Harald's life post-war, and further proof that women like Emmy Goering (of whom I'd never heard) lived "unmolested" in West Germany post war despite her equally direct association with the Reich. In fact, my main point of difference with Klabunde is that she seems so certain that no harm would have come to the children of Magda and Joseph Goebbels had they not been killed by their parents in the bunker at the end of the war. I'm not nearly so confident.





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Review: Beyond the Ladies' Lounge: Australian Women Publicans

Beyond the Ladies' Lounge: Australian Women Publicans by Clare Wright

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Some books, you can just tell they're a thesis turned into publishable form. That's not a criticism (especially not coming from me), it's just that published theses read differently to popular history. And it just makes me wonder (a little) how this got into our library collection. Because it's on an odd topic and it's not by a big publisher.

But anyway: I'm really glad I stumbled across this book. It's a history (thematic rather than narrative) of women publicans, particularly in Victoria. Wright traces the history of Australia and women publicans through legislation, social acceptance, literary portrayal, and political influence. I've got some literary theory issues with that particular chapter, and it's fairly clear that Clare Wright's feminism is not my feminism, but all the same, it's an interesting and thoroughly readable book that challenges some of the suppositions around the history of pubs in Australia.

That said, I'd now love to read a history of the Ladies Lounge and the place of women in Australia's drinking culture. Anyone know a good one?



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Wednesday Reads

...it's still Wednesday in the USA, so it counts, right?

What I'm reading now:

Still on The Glory Garage.  It's really not the book I expected and yet it's kind of totally the book I expected.  I know, right?

Also Master Race: The Lebensborn experiment in Nazi Germany which arrived in Stock Rotation at work the other day, and I've almost finished A Rogue's Proposal properly, instead of just by skimming.

What I've just finished reading:

War of Honor, number 10 in the Honor Harrington series.  I've got to get David Weber credit for a book with "War" in the title where the actual war only starts in the last 100 pages.  Of 700-odd.  It was good, although I hope Giancola comes to a messy end.

I finished The Bastard King by Jean Plaidy less than an hour ago.  My GF asked me last night what book I was reading, and when I told her the title she asked "which one?"  (As in, which bastard King was it about.)  My response - "The actual one.  William the Conquerer."  "Oh," she said.  "You meant an actual bastard."  In Plaidy's usual style it's not particularly dramatic, simply a fairly straightforward narrative with flesh and bones given to the hsitory books.  I still find William and Matilda's purported style of relationship (specifically, the beatings) horrifying and I really hope that it's all a nasty anti-Norman rumour.  But I suspect there's a grain of truth in there somewhere.

Not sure when I'll get on to the next in the trilogy, The Lion of Justice, but I'll buy it from Kobo at some stage.

What I'm reading next:

Walking the Camino.  What?  I've said that twice already and still haven't started it?

Also, it's book club next week and I need to read for that.  Only I can't remember the title of the book.  I'll add it to this post when I get home.

Wednesday Reads (6/2/13)

WednesdayReads is a regular meme that seems to be taking over Dreamwidth.  As I've been rather remiss with Top Ten Tuesdays of late (you'll notice that I'm even posting a Wednesday meme on a Friday), you'll have to put up with WednesdayReads again this week.

What I'm reading now
The Glory Garage: Growing Up Lebanese Muslim in Australia - this is one of my AWW reads for the year.  It's proving frustrating in some ways, because a lot of it feels like teaching your grandmother to suck eggs.

Also: A Rogues Proposal by Stephanie Laurens and War of Honor by David Weber. (I totally just wrote David Warner.  How's that for Sci-Fi slips?)  I've picked both of these back up, needing fluff and nonsense right now.

What I've just finished reading:
Beyond the Ladies' Lounge: Australian Women Publicans by Clare Wright.  I really need to review this one for AWW, even though it's not on my lists, because it's interesting.

Also The Blockade Breakers, about the Berlin Airlift.  Completely fabulous.

What I'm reading next:
Still planning on it being Walking the Camino.

Wednesday Reading Meme

So it's Thursday, so I've completely missed Top Ten Tuesday for this week.  So, instead, the Wednesday Reading Meme, which seems to have taken over certain other parts of the webs in which I spend my time.

What I'm reading

- "Take this Bread" by Sara Miles.  This month's book for our church book club, I need to have it read by Tuesday, while also working on two assignments, one of which is due by midnight Monday.  I'm through the first 100 pages, and finding it fascinating, challenging, difficult and wonderful.

I've just finished reading
Somehow I've ended up back in a Stephanie Laurens mood.  In the last week I've read Scandal's Bride and In Pursuit of Eliza Cynster, and to be perfectly honest this morning I basically skimmed through A Rogue's Proposal. Not that it counts as "reading".  Anyway.  I'm in a Laurens mood and as much as these books are shelved in my Goodreads account as "trashy trashy romance" I still love them.  To the point that  I was really REALLY annoyed to find that although a bunch of Laurens books are currently on sale in e-form, all the titles on sale are those I've read.

What I'm reading next
Next cab off the rank is definitely Tony Kevin's Walking the Camino: A modern pilgrimage to Santiago.  Kevin isn't religious, and I think it's going to be an interesting read.  I'm hoping to follow it up with seeing Emilio Estevez' film The Way.

Review: Skating School (Series) by Linda Chapman

White Skate Wishes by Linda Chapman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Sometimes you come across a book and as silly as it seems, you just need to read it. And a magical skating fairy boarding school book? Is totally that sort of book for me.

Emily loves to ice skate, but her parents are not well off, and if she's lucky, she can skate once during each school holidays. During the current school holidays, there simply won't be either the time or the money. But while out in the yard, pretending to skate, Emily is carried off to the Magic Land of Ice and Winter, and Madame Letsworth's Magic Ice-Skating Academy. No time will pass in the real world while Emily and a number of other human girls are at the Academy, and no one will miss them. But they will have time to practice their skating, learn how to cross-country ski, and take on various challenges, the winner of each challenge being given a beautiful new pair of skates.

I love ice skating, but most of my chances to try it were when I was in the US over winter, which was not entirely as much as I would have liked. And so I found so very much to enjoy in these books. (Also, it's a boarding school story. With elves and fairies and ice dragons.)

I came across these books by mistake, when they were returned my my library instead of the one to which they belong. Now I'm determined to read the rest of the series, just to find out what happens to Emily and her friends - and of course, to discover who is named the Ice Princess at the end of their six-week stay in the Magic Land, and what the special task is that the Ice Princess will be required to carry out.

These are series books, aimed squarely at girls, but there's nothing objectionable here. Girls are encouraged to be active, to be intelligent and to love the out of doors. (And I love the description of just how "difficult" cross-country skiing is - as someone who loves x-c skiing and used to compete in it.

It's not White Boots, but then, nothing is. It's not even The Ice Mountain (another favourite). But it's a gorgeous series about skating, and I'm looking forward to reading more.

Scarlet Skate Magic

Top Ten Tuesday - 15 January 2013

This week's "official" topic is "Top Ten Debuts I'm looking forward to".  I don't pay nearly the amount of attention to new books that having such a top ten would require, and so I'm going to pick up an earlier topic:

Top Ten Books I Read in 2012
(In alphabetical order by author)

• Bulletproof Faith: A Spiritual Survival Guide for Gay and Lesbian Christians, by Candace Chellew-Hodge
• Wisdom Distilled from the Daily: Living the Rule of St Benedict Today, by Joan Chittester
• Bitin' Back, by Vivianne Cleven
• The FitzOsbournes at War, by Michelle Cooper
• A Few Right-Thinking Men, by Sulari Gentill
• All Through the Year, by Jane Godwin, illustrated by Anna Walker
• Again! by Emily Gravatt
• Butterfly Song, by Terri Janke
• One Small Island, by Alison Lester
• Every Secret Thing, by Marie Munkara