The Alice Network - Kate Quinn

This intriguing novel is based on an actual spy ring that operated in World War I. The real-life Louise de Bettignies, alias Alice, was the brilliant leader of The Alice Network, a very effective group of espionage agents in France who spied on the Germans. Although Louise is an important character in the novel the central characters are the fictional Eve and Charlotte, aka Charlie. In 1947, Eve is a bitter, foul-mouthed alcoholic who had been a spy in both the WWI Alice Network and in WWII. Charlie is a 19-year-old American who is desperately trying to find her cousin Rose who went missing in 1944, presumably while working for the French Resistance. Charlie enlists Eve’s help in finding Rose. Eve’s ulterior motive is to find Rene, a French profiteer Eve spied on during the first World War. Will Charlie find Rose and fulfill their dream of owning a café together? Will Eve find Rene and seek revenge? While the readers follow the 1947 search, we are also told the story of how young, innocent Eve becomes such a wretched character while serving in The Alice Network in 1915. The story kept my interest throughout with exciting plot turns and compelling characters. I have to say that the fictional Rene is one of the creepiest, sleaziest villains I’ve read in a novel in a long time! Author Kate Quinn’s depiction of wartime deprivation and resistance reminded me of Kristin Hannah’s The Nightingale and Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See although Quinn’s novel is not as lyrical as Doerr’s. I appreciated Quinn’s notes at the end of the book about the real Alice Network. I recommend this very readable novel to fans of historical fiction.

The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane - Lisa See

I’ve been a fan of Lisa See’s cultural and historical novels since reading her bestseller Snow Flower and the Secret Fan several years ago. See’s books have good story telling, compelling characters and fascinating depictions of ancient or contemporary China. See’s latest work, The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane, has all these qualities. The story begins in 1988 with Li-yan, a young woman of the Akha Hill Tribe of China. Her family ekes out an existence growing and processing tea in a remote village. Li-yan has an unhappy love affair that results in the birth of a baby girl. Evading a tribal taboo of the time that forbids the love child to live, Li-yan secretly leaves the baby at an orphanage. The reader then follows the separate life journeys of Li-yan and her daughter. Through education, Li-yan leaves the village and makes a successful life in modern day China as an entrepreneur of the rare, highly prized tea called Pu’er. Her daughter is adopted by an affluent American family who name her Haley and provide a privileged life in Pasadena, California. Li-Yan agonizes over the loss of her child. Haley struggles with feelings of gratitude for her adopted parents and anger at her biological parents for abandoning her. Li-yan and Haley’s search for each other is what makes the novel a page turner. My favorite parts of the novel are when See deftly interweaves Akha traditions into the storyline. My only criticisms of the book are that Li-yan’s journeys to the “outside world” seem a bit far-fetched at times and See’s lengthy descriptions of cultivating Pu’er tea is perhaps more information than the reader needs to know. But if you enjoy well-written cultural and historical novels, I enthusiastically recommend this book and all of See’s works. 

Also, I was very interested to learn the “back story” for this book. On her Web site at LisaSee.com, the author provides wonderful videos about the Akha culture and her own experiences in China researching this book. And I was fascinated by a YouTube talk given by See in which she discusses her in-depth interviews with Chinese women adopted by American parents. Lisa See is passionate about her research into culture and history and that passion is present in all her well-crafted, highly readable novels.

Childhood's End - Arthur C. Clarke

In Childhood's End, futuristic alien spaceships suddenly appear over major cities all over the world. Although the alien "Overlords" do not exit the ships, they issue a few dictates to humanity (such as the prohibition on harming animals), and allow a single human representative, UN Secretary Stormgren, to board the ship every few weeks and talk to their Alien "Supervisor," Karellen, through a voice apparatus. Mostly through gentle guidance, the aliens reshape earth's civilization entirely - there is no more crime or violence, everyone's basic needs are met, and the populace is free to live a life of idle pleasures. However, this has deleterious effects on human culture - the arts stagnate, and intellectual pursuits are cramped. Some members of human society want to rebel against the overlords, and especially, to at least SEE one of them.

This book is written in a charmingly writerly style evoking the time in which it was written (1953), but the ideas are entirely original, and some of the technology and concepts still feel futuristic today.

Would recommend!