Review: The Only Woman in the Room by Marie Benedict

Release Date: January 15, 2019

A great novel on an incredible woman. Honestly, if it wasn’t true, I’d hardly believe it. A Hollywood actress who escaped an abusive marriage and the Holocaust just before it came to her Austrian homeland, and became a self taught scientist and inventor, partnering with a musician to develop an unappreciated radio guidance system for torpedoes, which wasn't adopted by the US Navy until the 1960s, and later became the basis for Bluetooth and wi-fi. I know it almost sounds like I just strung a random selection of words together, but it's true and it rightfully makes a great story. My only criticism is that I felt like the ending was a bit of a let down, being somewhat anticlimactic, which I thought might be inevitable given Hedy's life story.

Hedy is a flawed but enormously strong and highly intelligent woman. She uses her beauty to the best of her advantage without compromising her integrity, yet she's not vain, and in some ways, her beauty is what holds her back, as so many people can't see beyond it. She is driven by her empathy and survivors guilt to aid the US military against Hilter. Fulfilling her acting obligations at the same time, she invents a radio guidance system that solves the problem of signal jamming, something no expert with formal education in the industry could do. Sadly, the government rejected her invention until the 1960s for a number reasons, none of them justified.

I feel a little bit like Hedy must have been something of an inspiration for Legally Blonde's Elle Woods: "Did she just wake up one morning and decide 'I think I'll go to law school'?" Did Hedy just wake up one morning and decide, 'I think I'll solve radio signal jamming today'? Of course, it wasn't that simple in reality, but it parallels the movie of an underestimated beautiful woman proving the world wrong and showing everyone just how smart and capable she really is, even if it took some time before they realized it.

Advanced review copy from publisher via NetGalley. My opinions are my own.

Review: A King's Ransom by Sharon Kay Penman

I wondered how a book about Richard the Lionheart's life in between his crusading and his death could fill a novel the length of this one without being boring. I was aware Richard spent some time in captivity and there is only so much of interest that can go on while your main character in trapped in confinement. But I should have known better than to doubt Penman.

The first half of the book is entirely about Richard attempting to evade capture while making his way home from the crusades, and his imprisonment by the Duke of Austria and the Holy Roman Emperor. While that does make a significant portion of it a little bit lacking in action and adventure such as we saw in the prequel Lionheart, it does make for a highly political novel as Richard and his allies maneuver for his release. It's also a personal journey of self discovery for Richard as he copes with his imprisonment and gets to know his captors. It heavily involved Holy Roman Emperor, Henry VI.

The second half of the book is about Richard attempting to politically and militarily regain what he lost during his time in the Holy Lands and captivity, so there's more action again in the second half.

As ever with Penman, the story is told from multiple points of view with characters that are well fleshed out with complex relationships among each other, making it a multidimensional and highly enjoyable novel, even if it does take a while to get through, being somewhat long.

Review: The Assassination of the Archduke: Sarajevo 1914 and the Romance That Changed the World by Sue Woolmans

Received ebook ARC from publisher via NetGalley.
Release date: September 3, 2013

I have to admit, I did not know much about World War I or it’s causes. For starters, I don’t have much interest in military history and the First World War is often eclipsed by the infamous Second. To me, WWI was just an event that took place between the Victorian area and the Depression. I did not have any living relatives who fought in WWI like I do with WWII. While I had some vague knowledge of it involving the three ruling cousins of Britain, Germany, and Russia, as well as the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, I didn’t know much more beyond that. I knew more about the Scottish band named after him than I did of Franz Ferdinand himself.

This book appealed to me because its goal was to examine Franz Ferdinand’s personal life rather than focusing entirely on the politics; without the human side of history, a book will struggle to hold my attention. Beautifully written and easy to follow even if you’re somewhat new to the subject matter, this book accomplished its goal effortlessly. From what I could gather, the author’s sympathetic approach is new and unique and earned it the exclusive approval of many descendants of Franz Ferdinand. Although it paints Sophie as something of a saint, never putting a foot wrong and retaining her tact and dignity in the face of harsh and unfair disrespect and elitism, it is honest about Franz’s shortcomings, mainly that he lacked charm and had a temper only Sophie could calm. Both were attentive and loving parents, raising children who, just like Sophie, had better manners and more class than those of higher rank who constantly sought to remind them of their place.

The politics leading up to the war certainly weren’t left out and strongly addressed in the latter half of the book but the human touch of this really brought this tragic family’s story to life.