Tag Archives: Book Clubs

Book Review The Happiest Man on Earth

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The Happiest Man on Earth by Eddie Jaku

Summary

WINNER OF THE ABIA BIOGRAPHY OF THE YEAR 2021

Life can be beautiful if you make it beautiful. It is up to you.

Eddie Jaku always considered himself a German first, a Jew second. He was proud of his country. But all of that changed in November 1938, when he was beaten, arrested and taken to a concentration camp.

Over the next seven years, Eddie faced unimaginable horrors every day, first in Buchenwald, then in Auschwitz, then on a Nazi death march. He lost family, friends, his country.

Because he survived, Eddie made the vow to smile every day. He pays tribute to those who were lost by telling his story, sharing his wisdom and living his best possible life. He now believes he is the ‘happiest man on earth’.

Published as Eddie turns 100, this is a powerful, heartbreaking and ultimately hopeful memoir of how happiness can be found even in the darkest of times.

Published by Pan Macmillan Australia

Comments

This book was liked very much by most of our readers. Described, surprisingly, as a happy read.

Most readers described this book to be a very uplifting story from a man who experienced such harrowing personal experiences and such great loss as a young man.

Eddy tells his story as one of the many unsettling personal  recollections of a holocaust survivor.

In the beginning of the book he describes his families perception of themselves as being good and loyal Germans who greatly loved their country. The thought that their fellow countrymen would turn on them so violently was initially beyond their belief. 

His story is short and simply written, giving detail to his personal experience with his education and skill learning that would stand him in good stead in dire life threatening moments throughout his incarceration and then later on in his life. He details many personal moments where his life was saved at the last moment by a quirk of fate and moments of being let down by people he considered to be friends.

His story also emphasises his love for his family and friends, his great will to survive his horror experience and his hopes for building a new future away from that place of cruelty and enslavement.

A few readers were wary of reading another “holocaust story” but Eddy moves on to rebuild his life in Australia with his own personal philosophy of resilience and compassion making a vow to bring happiness each day and to build a good life with his family.

In this Eddy is successful, and by sharing his story he uplifts his readers with the life choice that he makes and shares.

Read by MJ Readers August 2025

Book Review All the Light We Cannot See

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All the light we cannot see by Anthony Doerr

About the book

Marie-Laure has been blind since the age of six. Her father builds a perfect miniature of their Paris neighbourhood so she can memorize it by touch and navigate her way home. But when the Nazis invade, father and daughter flee with a dangerous secret.

Werner is a German orphan, destined to labour in the same mine that claimed his father’s life, until he discovers a knack for engineering. His talent wins him a place at a brutal military academy, but his way out of obscurity is built on suffering.

At the same time, far away in a walled city by the sea, an old man discovers new worlds without ever setting foot outside his home. But all around him, impending danger closes in.

Comments

All The Light We Cannot See tells the stories of Marie-Laure, a blind girl growing up in Paris and Werner, a young boy growing up in a German orphanage set during the Nazi occupation of France.  This novel was beautifully written, with very well thought out sentences. The pace was a little slow to start, setting the scene and introducing us to the all the characters.  However, the short, sharp chapters kept the story moving along.  While we enjoyed the story being told from different points of view, we did struggle a little when the timeline jumped around.

While we enjoyed Marie-Laure’s story; her bravery and courage during the war & her connection with her uncle, Etienne,  we really connected with Werner and his sister Jutta, and the characters Werner encounters when he starts training with the German army.  We felt Werner internal struggle throughout the story was particularly poignant.    While the ending felt a little long, we loved hearing what happened to Jutta, and where she ended up, however, some of it could have been a little more condensed or even wrapped up one chapter earlier. 

Overall we would recommend this book and think it would make a great holiday read. While it’s a heavy subject, the author seems to find the beauty in these tragic events.

Read by the Cultcha Club Book Club – 8/10

Book Review Take My Hand

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Take My Hand

Dolen Perkins-Valdez

Summary

Montgomery, Alabama. 1973. Fresh out of nursing school, Civil Townsend has big plans to make a difference in her community. She wants to help women make their own choices for their lives and bodies.

But when her first week on the job takes her down a dusty country road to a tumbledown cabin and into the heart of the Williams family, Civil learns there is more to her new role than she bargained for. Neither of the two young sisters has even kissed a boy, but they are poor and Black, and for those handling their welfare benefits, that’s reason enough to have them on birth control. When Civil discovers a terrible injustice, she must choose between carrying out instructions or following her heart and decides to risk everything to stand up for what is right.

Inspired by true events and a shocking chapter of recent history, Take My Hand is a novel that will open your eyes and break your heart. An unforgettable story about love and courage, it is also a timely and uplifting reminder that one person can change the world.

Comments

This book was well recieved and enjoyed by our readers.

The story is fictional but the core subject matter is factual and based on actual events of that time. This was a dark and shocking period of very recent history.

Our group found this book educationally informative and at times emotionaly shocking.

The focus of the story is around a black american nurse in Montgomery Alabama in the early 1970’s.

Working in a federally funded family planning clinic, Civil Townsend, a newly registered nurse, is confronted by the harsh realities of birth control practices for poor black people. Civil develops a very close relationship with two young sisters under her care along with their father and grandmother. She is very conflicted about their treatment and the blind violation of these girls basic human rights. With the help of other key characters, that she activily conscripts to help, Civil decides to take legal action for these girls.

There was some critisism from our readers about the relationship development between some of the key characters, described as clumbsy and baffling at times. The individual character development however was respected with some characters moving readers to tears with their powerless vulnerability or with their conviction to help Civil to do right for poor, vulnerable people.

This book is a recommended read. The story is well written and flows very well. There is some jumping from 1973 to present day and back that some readers do find confusing but overall a good read. The disturbing thing about this story was our groups realisation that this treatment did not  happen just in Alabama but to the poor, the disabled and the mentally ill worlwide.

Read by MJ Readers

Book Review French Braid

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French Braid by Anne Tyler

When Mercy Garrett moves herself out of the family home, everyone determines not to notice.

All she wants is space and silence. No clutter. Not even their cat, Desmond.

But it turns out family life is impossible to escape – particularly when it’s in your past. For Mercy it all begins in 1959, with a holiday to a cabin by a lake. It’s the only one the Garretts will ever take, but its effects will ripple through the generations

Comments

This book was described by a number of readers as a very “ordinary” and slow moving story.

A polarising book, it was either enjoyed or disliked by our readers.

Many readers felt there were very few “stand out” likable characters in this novel, a novel that is all about family relationships and family secrets.

The story line seemed to go nowhere and was very frustrating for many readers who described a narration that just went on and on building to nowhere.

A few readers did enjoy this low key story of an average family making their way through life although they did also state they were half through the book and were asking “is this story going anywhere?” It is only at this lengthy point in the story that the enjoyment kicked in.

The story is a narration of various family member viewpoints about their lives and their relationships within their family. 

Robin and Mercy are the parents of three children. The early years are told as a family unit but moves on as the children mature to each of their lives being told individually. 

Some are likable and relateable, some are found wanting in character by our readers. 

Unfortunately the mother, Mercy, was found to be very unlikable by most readers. This was quite off putting to some readers who found her character to be self absorbed and selfish. This aspect strongly affected how they felt about the book.

Anne Tyler does write in a unique style and some of our readers have read her books and enjoyed them.

This one was felt to be not one of her best.

Read by MJ Readers Book Club

Book Review Darling Girls

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Darling Girls by Sally Hepworth

About the book

For as long as they can remember, Jessica, Norah and Alicia have been told how lucky they are. Rescued from family tragedies and raised by a loving foster mother on an idyllic farming estate, they were given an elusive second chance of a happy family life.

But their childhood wasn’t the fairy tale everyone thinks it was. And when a body is discovered under the home they grew up in, the foster sisters find themselves thrust into the spotlight as key witnesses. Or are they prime suspects?

Comments

This book was read and finished by our readers but most described the book as compelling,  

not great. This was not a “read again” book for us.

Each reader did want to find out how the story developed and ended but no one  found it to be a “great read.”  

One reader described it as only three stars, most agreed with this although some readers suggested lower.

Many found the main characters quite unlikable at times and there were way too many cliches. 

The story, to many, felt like a minority “tick chart” that concentrated hard to include diversity in characters that was unnecessary and this substituted for deeper personal character development.

 The child abuse theme in this story did make this stort difficult to read for some. The lifelong bond, however, developed between foster sisters in this shared abuse foster “family” situation was one of the more warming aspects of the story. The three main characters did believably care for each other and protect each other through their life after they had left their dysfunctional ” wicked foster mother” family situation.

For most of our readers this was the redeemable aspect of the story.

Read by MJ Readers Book Club