Historical Fiction Reading Challenge: January statistics

 Every month I share some of the statistics related to the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge. I try very hard to visit every post which has been linked (time permitting) and I find it interesting to see what are the books that people are reading and reviewing! I often end up adding a couple of books to my never ending TBR list.

In terms of the books read in January, there were 49 reviews linked up for the challenge, shared by 17 participants. There were 47 individual titles reviewed, written by 44 different authors. There were 5 reviewers who reviewed more than 4 books each. There were also a couple of people who contributed their first reviews for the challenge! Welcome to you all. Thank you to everyone who shared their links whether it be 6 or just 1.

So which books were reviewed more than once in January?

Cape Fever by Nadia Davids was reviewed by both Tracey from Carpe Librum and Bree from All the Books I Can Read. Nadia Davids is a South African author so it is interesting that both of these are Australian. I think the book was released here in Australia in late December which probably explains it!

It is probably not really a coincidence that Bree from All the Books I Can Read and I both reviewed Flashlight by Susan Choi. We bought it on the same day, although we didn't buy it together.  It was kind of a buddy read although I finished it much later than she did. You can read her review here and mine can be found here.

In terms of other authors who were reviewed more than once in January, we had quite a few classic authors featured this month. 

Agatha Christie is reviewed quite regularly for the challenge. This month Laura from Laura's Reviews read both A Caribbean Mystery and Cat Among the Pigeons. 

Deb from Readerbuzz (reviewing on Goodreads) shared two reviews of books by Laura Ingalls Wilder - Little House on the Prairie and On the Banks of Plum Creek. 

Interestingly Rosemary Sutcliff was reviewed twice this month. Hers is not a name we see very often despite having written some pretty famous historical fiction books. This month Helen from She Reviews Novels reviewed The Silver Branch and Deb reviewed Warrior Scarlet over at Goodreads. 

What else did I find interesting? Jinjer shared both a German and a Japanese book. In terms of setting we had a book set in New Amsterdam (which eventually became New York) plus a book set in Switzerland. I was pleased to see Jean Plaidy get a mention. I also read a Jean Plaidy book in January but haven't written the review yet.

You can find the list of all the books shared in January here

I am sharing this with Sunday Salon hosted at Readerbuzz and A Good Book and a Cup of Tea hosted at Hopewell's Library.

Six Degrees of Separation: Flashlight to The Stowaway

Welcome to this month's edition of Six Degrees of Separation, which is a monthly meme hosted by Kate from Books Are My Favourite and Best. The idea is to start with a specific book and make a series of links from one book to the next using whatever link you can find and see where you end up after six links. I am also linking this post up with The Sunday Salon, hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz and A Good Book and a Cup of Tea hosted at Boondock Ramblings.

This month, the starting point is Flashlight by Helen Choi. I started to read this before Christmas and was on the verge of giving it up when I saw that it had been announced as the starting point for this month's Six Degrees of Separation. I finally finished it earlier this month. You can read my thoughts here.

Flashlight partially talks about the treatment of Korean people living in Japan up to the end of WWII. White Mulberry by Rosa Kwon Easton also tells what it was like to be Korean and living in Japan. (my review)

My next couple of choices are all about fruit and flower. Using the idea that mulberry is a fruit, as is cherry, I have chosen my next book as The Vanishing Cherry Blossom Bookshop by Japanese author Takuya Asakura. I haven't read this yet but I have had it on my TBR for a few months now.

Sticking with cherry blossoms, my next selection is Barbed Wire and Cherry Blossoms by Anita Heiss. 

This time my blossoms are apples as I have chosen Last of the Apple Blossom by Mary-Lou Stephens, a book set in Tasmania. 

I have two reasons for my next selection. The first is using the hyphenated name of Mary-something. The last author was Mary-Lou. Mary-Anne O'Connor is the author of In a Great Southern Land. My second reason for choosing this book? Well, when you think about the Great Southern Land that is Australia you can't get much further south than Tasmania.

Which brings me to my final choice which is The Stowaway which is once again by Mary-Anne O'Connor. That should be enough of a connection, but actually there is a clue as to why I wanted to end up on this book. The day I went to buy my copy of Flashlight, I needed to buy a second book by the publisher so I could get the little Penguin you can see in the picture. This book was the other book I bought that day!

Next month, the starting point is Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

Will you be joining us?

Flashlight by Susan Choi

Last year I was tempted into buying two new books all because I wanted a little penguin figurine. One of the two books I chose was Flashlight by Susan Choi which was nominated for the Booker Prize. Fast forward a couple of months and I decided to read the book as part of a buddy read, but my buddy ended up finishing a good couple of weeks before I did. And that's where it started to go a little wrong. This book was a bit of a struggle for me and I almost gave up completely. In the end, it was announced as the starting point for February's Six Degrees of Separation and that was what got me over the line to actually finish it

When 10 year old Louisa is found washed up on a beach in rural Japan, it is assumed that her college professor father, Serk, has drowned. Traumatised, Louisa and her mother return to America and try to start over and forget about their life in Japan.

Serk was a man who was born and grew up in Japan but he had Korean parents. Whilst his parents were tempted to return to what we now know as North Korea by promises of a good life, Serk heads to America, finding work in a small town college. He meets Anne and together they begin a life together. Soon, they have their daughter, Louisa, and together they try to build their lives. He is offered the opportunity to return to teach in Japan and the small family travel together for what is supposed to be just one year.

For Louisa, moving to Japan gives her the chance to go to school in a country where she is still obviously mixed race but she doesn't stand out quite so much. She quickly begins to learn the language and the culture. Anne finds living in a foreign country is very difficult, not least because her body is failing her.

As the years pass in America, the relationship between Louisa and Anne disintegrates. They don't know how to communicate with each other at all, and never really have done. Louisa constantly feels frustrated with Anne and does everything she can to get as far away, both physically and mentally, from her mother

It is only in the second part of the book that it becomes clear what actually happened on that night long ago.

The story itself should be fascinating, especially seeing as it based on true stories of people who just disappeared from the coastal areas of Japan and ended up in North Korean re-education programmes. As Serk undergoes the reeducation program which could end up killing him, he wonders what happened to the little girl that he did everything that he could to protect, and yet he still ended up losing her.

Notice I used the word should in that last paragraph. The thing is, I didn't find any of the characters particularly relatable. In fact, I would go so far as to say that Serk, Anna and Louisa were all quite unlikable. They are often really horrible to each other. I am sure that we were supposed to feel sorry for Anne as it became clear that her illness was not just in her head, and for Louisa after the trauma that she had experienced but I just couldn't.

It didn't help that there were big jumps in time without any explanation. The story was told through alternating chapters from each characters point of view, plus at least one other voice. All of a sudden the character's story would jump forward with little to no warning. For example, there was a whole section set in Europe where Louisa met a man we really only knew a bit of a drifter and that he smelt. Suddenly in another chapter, she has two kids and is married to someone else. 

The second half of the book was better than the first so I am glad I persisted, but it is fair to say this won't make my list of favourites for the year. What I can say is that I learned something I didn't know about before. I did know about the treatment of Korean nationals in Japan particularly in before and during WWII after reading White Mulberry last year, but I hadn't ever heard about the abductions. And I do think that I will remember the book, so it will have left it's mark on me, whether I like it or not.

So was it worth it for the penguin? Absolutely. Would I do it again for another penguin? Probably!

I am sharing this review with the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge which I host here. It also counts for my personal January in Japan event.

Rating 3/5