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3.8 AVERAGE
3.8 AVERAGE
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Sisters Under the Rising Sun by Heather Morris
Narrated by Laura Carmichael
I'm so glad I was able to hear the audiobook of this story. Music plays a part in the telling of this story since an English musician, Norah Chambers, uses her extensive musical talents to help the women prisoners of the Japanese army endure their terrible situation by creating a voice orchestra, making use of the talents of the captive women who could sing or act as instruments, using the sounds of their voices. Missionary Margaret Dryburgh was her partner in creating this choir/orchestra along with the many other creative groups that Margaret started while the women were in captivity. Both women remember music from memory and also wrote music and songs for the women to perform. It is amazing the life that these creative and inspiring women live while they were suffering great deprivation during their long captivity. During the story and after the story is over, we get to hear the songs and music performed and I could not help getting teary eyed, knowing these women could do so much when they had so little. What they did have was each other and they made the most of their talents, whether it was nursing, writing, cleaning sewerage, growing what little they could with what little they had, squeezing meals out of meager food supplies, or picking weevils out of their rice while joking that at least the weevils supplied protein to their diet.
At the beginning of the story we meet Norah, her sister, and her husband as they are evacuating Singapore on the Vyner Brooke, a ship that is bombed and sunk by the Japanese. Also on the ill fated ship was Nesta James, one of 64 Australian evacuating nurses. Those that survive the shipwreck and attacks by the Japanese, once on land, are captured and taken to the first of many POW camps where they well try to stay alive despite starvation and brutality. This group of women lived over three and half years under these severe conditions with hundreds of women dying before being released. We meet many heroic nurses, missionaries, and other women with so many giving everything they had to help each other make it from one day to the next. These camps also contained children and great sacrifices were made when it came to food, in the hopes that the children could live through the internment.
I appreciate the dedication, two afterwards, and author's note at the end of the book. I always want to know more when I read historical fiction and Heather Morris supplied me with so much that I wanted to know and gave me an idea of where to look for more about these amazing women. Laura Carmichael narrated the story beautifully. Despite the extreme sadness I felt at times, there were also happy moments, which just goes to show the resiliency of humans during great suffering.
Pub Oct 24 2023
Thank you to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for this ARC.
Narrated by Laura Carmichael
I'm so glad I was able to hear the audiobook of this story. Music plays a part in the telling of this story since an English musician, Norah Chambers, uses her extensive musical talents to help the women prisoners of the Japanese army endure their terrible situation by creating a voice orchestra, making use of the talents of the captive women who could sing or act as instruments, using the sounds of their voices. Missionary Margaret Dryburgh was her partner in creating this choir/orchestra along with the many other creative groups that Margaret started while the women were in captivity. Both women remember music from memory and also wrote music and songs for the women to perform. It is amazing the life that these creative and inspiring women live while they were suffering great deprivation during their long captivity. During the story and after the story is over, we get to hear the songs and music performed and I could not help getting teary eyed, knowing these women could do so much when they had so little. What they did have was each other and they made the most of their talents, whether it was nursing, writing, cleaning sewerage, growing what little they could with what little they had, squeezing meals out of meager food supplies, or picking weevils out of their rice while joking that at least the weevils supplied protein to their diet.
At the beginning of the story we meet Norah, her sister, and her husband as they are evacuating Singapore on the Vyner Brooke, a ship that is bombed and sunk by the Japanese. Also on the ill fated ship was Nesta James, one of 64 Australian evacuating nurses. Those that survive the shipwreck and attacks by the Japanese, once on land, are captured and taken to the first of many POW camps where they well try to stay alive despite starvation and brutality. This group of women lived over three and half years under these severe conditions with hundreds of women dying before being released. We meet many heroic nurses, missionaries, and other women with so many giving everything they had to help each other make it from one day to the next. These camps also contained children and great sacrifices were made when it came to food, in the hopes that the children could live through the internment.
I appreciate the dedication, two afterwards, and author's note at the end of the book. I always want to know more when I read historical fiction and Heather Morris supplied me with so much that I wanted to know and gave me an idea of where to look for more about these amazing women. Laura Carmichael narrated the story beautifully. Despite the extreme sadness I felt at times, there were also happy moments, which just goes to show the resiliency of humans during great suffering.
Pub Oct 24 2023
Thank you to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for this ARC.
This book felt like a let down. It was okay, but the synopsis played it up much better than it really was. You never really got a feeling for how they were living or the struggles they were truly having. They’d have a feast and food and then be starving in the same chapter with no explanation that the food had been cut off. Were the Japanese actually guarding them? Because they never seem to be in the story unless Ah Fat or the Captain are speaking. It felt like I was reading the outline for a book and not the actual finished copy. I had high hopes but this just kind of missed the mark for me.
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, War
This goes on my list of great books! Well told, offering a peek into history and promoting perseverance in humans.
I loved this book!
I loved this book!
emotional
inspiring
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, War
Minor: Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Murder
fast-paced
Thank you to Netgalley and publisher for an arc in exchange for my honest opinions.
Publication: October 24, 2023
Rating: 2.5 stars (rounded up)
Insert a sigh here. First off, I loved Morris's previous books (all five star reads from me) so when I was perusing the Netgalley catalog and saw her next book, I immediately requested it.
The synopsis showed a piece of WW2 information that I haven't heard of so I was intrigued. I had read a lot of WW2 books in my late teens and early twenties so lately I've tried to find different time periods to learn about.
Unfortunately, I learned quickly that this book wasn't going to sit well with me. I gave her the 2.5 stars for all the research and time it took to write these stories into a book. However, we are immediately thrown into the story and introduced to character after character without much fleshing out.
The main theme that I gathered with her writing was chaotic. I had such a hard time figuring out what was going on. For someone new to Morris's books, I wouldn't recommend starting with this one but picking one of her previous three.
It's a bummer that I didn't click with this book at all because I'm sure it had the makings of being an amazing book but the execution killed it for me.
Publication: October 24, 2023
Rating: 2.5 stars (rounded up)
Insert a sigh here. First off, I loved Morris's previous books (all five star reads from me) so when I was perusing the Netgalley catalog and saw her next book, I immediately requested it.
The synopsis showed a piece of WW2 information that I haven't heard of so I was intrigued. I had read a lot of WW2 books in my late teens and early twenties so lately I've tried to find different time periods to learn about.
Unfortunately, I learned quickly that this book wasn't going to sit well with me. I gave her the 2.5 stars for all the research and time it took to write these stories into a book. However, we are immediately thrown into the story and introduced to character after character without much fleshing out.
The main theme that I gathered with her writing was chaotic. I had such a hard time figuring out what was going on. For someone new to Morris's books, I wouldn't recommend starting with this one but picking one of her previous three.
It's a bummer that I didn't click with this book at all because I'm sure it had the makings of being an amazing book but the execution killed it for me.