Girt: The Unauthorised History of Australia by David Hunt (3.5 stars)

Really refreshing to read a version of Australian history different to the whitewashed version taught in schools. In Hunt's history, no-one is safe from sarcasm, irony, and a darker view on white settlement of Australia.

Some favourite quotes:

No other nation can rival Australia for sheer maritime girtitude.

Each sailor was given a pint of 94 per cent proof rum a day, except for the ship’s boys, who had to make do with half a pint.

So Nepean offered the job to Arthur Phillip, a doggedly unexceptional performer most noted in Royal Navy circles for having two first names. Phillip was the man you would want in your corner if you’d run out of paperclips or your workmates had left unwashed cutlery in the office sink – a man who could boldly requisition new stationery or prepare a dishwasher roster without fear or favour.

Richards insisted that the weevils in the cheap flour he proposed to feed the convicts were a protein supplement and that the government should pay extra for them. The convicts found an unlikely champion in Phillip, who threatened not to leave port unless they were given better rations and luxuries such as clothes.

When the Dutch got adventurous, they’d name their discoveries after bits of the Netherlands and, when they were really on fire, insert the word Nieuw (New) first. The Netherlands is small, which meant Dutch explorers gave the same names to lots of different places. They had christened their Brazilian territories New Holland in the 1630s but Tasman, stuck for ideas, happily recycled the name a decade later. Tasman went on to discover New Zealand, which was named after the Dutch province of Zeeland, or the bit of New Guinea the Dutch had previously named New Zealand, or perhaps Zeelandia, which is what the Dutch called their settlement in Taiwan.

3.5 stars

The Nightingale: A Novel by Kristin Hannah (5 stars)

An incredibly powerful story of a family living through the Nazi occupation of France. It follows two sisters, one joins the resistance and the other fights to keep her family alive through the many hardships of Nazi occupation, including starvation rations and no heat in winter.

This book made my cry. A lot. I had trouble reading the final chapters because I was bawling my eyes out.

Unlike much historical fiction it doesn't fall into the trap of beating you over the head with boring details just because the author spent time researching them. I'm certainly no history buff, so I'm not qualified to judge accuracy, but it felt plausible. It struck what I thought was a good balance of accuracy and poetic license to allow the author to create an emotional connection to the characters.

There's a number of memorable lines, some of my favourites are:

In love we find out who we want to be; in war we find out who we are.

I always thought it was what I wanted: to be loved and admired. Now I think perhaps I’d like to be known.

“I’m not fragile,” she said. The smile he gave her was barely one at all. “We are all fragile, Isabelle. It’s the thing we learn in war.” 

However, the writing is fairly simple and approachable on the whole. Hannah says she wanted to tell the forgotten story of women's resistance and struggle through WWII, and she did so, spectacularly:

“Men tell stories,” I say. It is the truest, simplest answer to his question. “Women get on with it. For us it was a shadow war. There were no parades for us when it was over, no medals or mentions in history books. We did what we had to during the war, and when it was over, we picked up the pieces and started our lives over. 

I was angry at Vianne for handing over the names of the Jews and others in her town with no protest. Of course I have the benefit of hindsight, I know the horror of the traincars and the camps are what's coming, and she didn't. And she was in a very vulnerable position. But I felt she should of at least made Beck threaten her explicitly before giving up her best friend and her family, she just assumed the threat was there and implied.

Minor quibble: Nightingale could not have been a worse code name. It's literally her last name. I mean come on.

I wished there was more detail on how the safe houses were established and worked, and how they had to innovate to cross the border. The first crossing we experience with Isabelle is very precarious, I can't imagine they could continue like that for long. Since this part was based on a true story I would think the details could be found with enough research.

Overall a very powerful and harrowing book.

5 stars.