July has ended and August has begun, which means it's time for me to post my thoughts about the books I read in the second half of July. My post about my reading during the first half of July can be found here.
I read a good variety of books in the last couple weeks, which I'm pleased about. I also discovered a new-to-me author I love and I hope to find more of her books. On to the books!
The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen, 83 1/4 Years Old translated from Dutch by Hester Velmans (borrowed from a friend)
This isn't a book I would have picked up. I'm always slightly suspicious about covers like this since I slogged my way through he 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window. I hated that book but read it because it was a book group read. I was new to Ireland and to the group and I later learned that people DNFed books all the time. If I'd only known! There have been more books like that in the years since, always with a similar font for the title and cutesy names. I pass them by and I would not have been drawn to this one. But a friend came over and handed it to me. It was a gift to him for his recent birthday. He read the first few pages, thought it was very funny, but wasn't sure that could be sustained through the entire book and he wanted to know what I thought of it. I read the first few pages and laughed out loud, reading passages to Bill. Since the book is written in the form of a diary, it's an easy one to pick up, read a few entries, and put down. I figured that's how I'd read it. I didn't expect to like it, so short bursts of reading seemed wise. That's how I started. Then I started reading an entire month of entries at a sitting, then two months. Before I knew it, the year was over and I was done with the book. I was surprised to find that I quite enjoyed it. As you can tell from the title, it's about an 83-year-old guy. He lives in a care home in the Netherlands. He makes friends and with them forms a group, the Old But Not Dead group. They organize outings for themselves, which leads to resentment on the part of those outside the group. They also get up to mischief within the care home on a regular basis. My friend thought maybe diary entries about the hijinks of elderly people in a care home would get kind of boring after a while, but there is more to the book than that and the humor held up through the book. In addition to being funny, there are also poignant moments as people look back on their lives. Readers do get glimpses of Hendrik's past and that of a few others in the course of the book, although none of these are dwelt on. Hendrik's observations of the behavior of his fellow residents are presented with a dry with which I quite enjoyed. I was reading various passages to Bill throughout the book. When I gave the book back to my friend, I told him what I thought of it and he was surprised, saying he feels more inclined to read it now.
Biological War: A Scenario by Annie Jacobsen
I posted my review of this book here.
I read a few books that will be published soon. I thank NetGalley, the publishers, and the authors or their estates for digital review copies.
Hiroshima, 8:15:The Lost Memoir by Kiyoshi Tanimoto
ISBN 9781529992731
to be published on August 6, 2026 by Ebury Publishing/Penguin Random House
This powerful book is an account of the author's experience of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and its aftermath. He was one of 6 people featured in John Hersey's book, Hiroshima and as a result of that, Kiyoshi Tanimoto was inspired to write his own manuscript in English, based on diaries he kept at the time these events unfolded. The manuscript was sent to Hersey who thought highly of it, by all accounts. It remained with Hersey's papers in the rare book collection at Yale until his grandson found it and knew it was important.
Tanimoto is an important voice and has a fairly unique perspective. He was a Methodist minister, having converted as a young man upon the death of his mother. His father disowned him. He studied in Japan and then went to the US where, after ordination, served a congregation in Los Angeles before going back to Japan. His experiences in the US and ability to communicate in English, allowed him to interact with both sides in the months and years after the bombing. His observations are important, but they are necessarily limited. This would be true of everyone, of course, but readers should be aware that Tanimoto was interested in converting people to Christianity and some of his ideas about how and why the bombs were dropped and how the military on both sides behaved are colored by this. That doesn't make them wrong necessarily, but some of the statements he makes seemed a bit jarring to me. Others seemed like they illustrated his awareness of the reality of the situation. The power of this book doesn't come from his desire to convert people, however. It comes from his account of what he experienced and observed in the immediate aftermath of the detonation and in the longer term. The US military was keen to downplay the civilian casualties, which one official going so far as to say that radiation sickness provided an easy and pleasant way to die. Of course now we know what really happened but when this book was written, just a couple of years later, it was not widely known. The book contains an excellent foreword by Koko Tanimoto Kondo, his daughter, and an afterword by David Corn, which sums up basic biographical details already presented in the main text, but also provides new information. This is an important book. It's well worth a read.
Illusions (Faber Editions) by Ruth Rehmann; Megan Nolan with Rob Madole (Translator)
ISBN 9780571396580
to be published on August 27, 2026 by Faber and Faber, Ltd
In this quietly devastating book, first published in German in 1959, we follow four employees at a German corporation. They're all at different stages of life and have different backgrounds. They're not particularly friendly with one another, don't really know one another, often misunderstand each other, and are, in some cases, envious of the others. They all work in one small area, which can sometimes create tension. The window cleaner observes them from outside and takes an interest in a couple of them. Frau Schramm has devoted her life to the corporation and it's pretty much what she lives for, but she's aging and although she pushes the reality from her awareness, her working life won't continue on forever. What then? Fraulein Viol is also no longer young, but trying desperately to hide every sign of aging. She's still looking for love, which has been elusive. Therese, the young trainee, makes Fraulein Viol uncomfortable because she's young, attractive, and seemingly with her whole life ahead of her. But Therese is searching too--for what, she has no idea. She is reckless and looking for both excitement and a place/group to belong. Paul, the lone male of the group, is a failed academic who has been hired to translate documents into French. He's not very good at this in a business context and he resents having to do this work, being more comfortable in what he sees as the higher realm of literature. His job performance makes his position precarious. One Saturday at midday, their weekends begin and they leave the building to spend a day and a half without the demands of work. This time they have to fill, with no work distractions, quickly becomes difficult for all of them, each in their own way. The book takes place over this day and a half as we alternate between their stories and their lives change.
This is an excellent book. It is set at a particular time and place, but in some ways, it is timeless. The quiet desperation with which these people face the weekend is so beautifully communicated--I could feel it with each of these characters. The inability to relax and enjoy the time they have, the overthinking, the attempts to manipulate, all illustrate the pain and lack of self awareness these characters are living with. The window cleaner, observing from the other side of the glass, is often not even noticed by these people, but he seems to understand more about them than they do themselves. There would be some sort of dissonance in that time and place, I suppose, so soon after Germany's defeat in the war and the attempts to either bury or come to grips with what the country was in the not-so-distant past. It's not stated what specific year the book is set in, and the war is mentioned in passing a few times, but since it was published in 1959, it would have had an impact on the author and, by extension, the characters. However, I've known people with the same sorts of issues and I wasn't even born when the book was written, so I would say the book goes beyond a particular time and place and describes very human struggles. I had never read anything by this author before, but after having read this, I'd love to read more. Her writing is gorgeous. This is a book I highly recommend. It was a 5-star read for me.
Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel (The New Miss Marple Novel) by Lucy Foley
ISBN 9780008694821
to be published on September 8, 2026 by HarperCollins UK, Harper Fiction
The Swiss Alps, 1950, and the Grand Alpine Hotel is welcoming visitors. Among others, there are Miss Jane Marple, Dolly Bantry, and Mrs. Bantry's paid companion, Diana. Miss Marple's presence is fortuitous because one morning, a guest is found dead in the gondola. With the heavy snow falling and access to the hotel blocked, the police can't get there for a while, so an informal investigation ensues.
The story unfolds from different perspectives. Each chapter is told from the point of view of either The Help (Diana), The Wife, The Friend, or The Star. This is very effective because we are inside the heads of multiple characters. The mystery is well plotted and paced. The characters are an interesting mix of people. I enjoyed the setting. I will say that I had to keep reminding myself that it was supposed to be 1950 because it really didn't feel that way as I was reading. For example, in one scene, one of the characters is called 'Ms' which just felt off in terms of the time and the character using the term. It was out of place.
I'll be honest--I wanted to read this because it features Miss Marple. I love Miss Marple. At the same time, I knew that it wasn't going to read like a Christie novel and Miss Marple would probably seem different, in the same way all of the screen adaptations seem different, depending on who is playing Miss Marple. I decided to set any expectations aside and just read the book, judging it on its own merits as a mystery novel. And I wasn't disappointed. It was a fun read and I was immersed in the story from the start. I kept turning pages because I wanted to see what was going to happen. The twists and turns kept the story moving and the ending was satisfying. The writing was excellent and even though this isn't Christie's Miss Marple, it was fun to see which aspects of her this author chose to feature in her characterization. If there are more Miss Marple mysteries in future, I will definitely read them.
And that wraps up July! I hope you all had an excellent reading month and that August provides us with many excellent books 😀📘📚
