100 Books Like Transcription

This book could almost be a study on psychology.

The writing itself is so stunning that I could get lost in the words themselves. But at its heart, the novel captures something about mistakes and ego and lifelong consequences that makes me want to cry. The progression over the course of the protagonist Briony’s life is painfully beautiful.

It’s one of those books that are so great that it’s hard for me to even describe how it makes me feel.

I loved this book because Grace, the young woman in the story, was able to find meaning even in the face of war. She discovered the power of storytelling and used it to raise morale when bombs were falling on London. I found the book easy to read, and I felt sympathy for Grace and other ordinary people whose lives were upended by the war.  

This well-written book taught me a great deal about WW2. I especially appreciated learning more about Mary Churchill, Winston’s youngest daughter, who was seventeen at the start of the war. The author obtained access to her diaries, and he quotes from them often, so I got a feel for the life of a young woman in society during wartime. Mary had a conscience and good insights and became a main character in this historical book.

It’s not a novel, but at times it reads like one.  

I liked this story with two women protagonists because of its drama. The book had me mesmerized from beginning to end. One reason may be that I listened to the audiobook with the actress Rosamund Pike as narrator. She knew how to portray all the accents, from the (male) aristocrat Lucas Romer to the young woman spy Eva Delectorskaya.

I liked the dual timeline, with Eva’s adult daughter learning about her mother’s shocking hidden past as it is slowly revealed. I like books about mother/daughter relationships, and this is one of the better ones in that regard. But what kept me interested above all was the slow unfolding of the information and Eva’s haunted life. 

I was so moved by this fascinating and engaging story of Pippa Latour’s wartime SOE operations.

The number of female undercover operatives who were parachuted into occupied France (and survived) was modest. Pippa somehow had the wit and presence of mind to know how to deceive the Germans. She was not spared terrible suffering.

I also made contact with Pippa when she was aged 100 at a time when much of the interviewing for this book took place, and I am so pleased that a gripping sense of her bravery and determination shines through. 

I loved this book. It’s an absolute classic coming-of-age story, beginning when Emma is a schoolgirl on the brink of teens, and ending with her as a newly-married novelist. I particularly identified with the author as the bookish youngest of three, growing up in Devon – there were lots of parallels with my own teenage self – and I wonder how I would have coped with emerging into adulthood just as war broke out, as Emma did  – highly recommended!

I first read and loved this book six years ago while researching the work of undercover agents working in Europe during WW2. Back then, I wanted to know what such an agent did, how she trained, what her work consisted of, and what this book delivered. 

Plucked from obscurity, Pearl Witherington rose to be the leader of a 6000-man-strong group of Resisters in France. I was completely inspired by her confidence and courage and her ability to win the trust and respect of the men she led–men who initially doubted they could be led by a woman.

At the time of first reading, I was somewhat confused and even overwhelmed as the book goes into some detail concerning the betrayal and breakdown of the SOE networks in France. 

However, on a second reading recently, it was exactly these more informative chapters that most interested me, as they show the intrigue… show more.

The official history of MI5 similarly provides the first authorised account of another secret organisation. The book provides a far-reaching account of clandestine activities since its nascent beginnings as part of the Secret Service Bureau in 1909, and across a period of 100 years. It offers a rare insight into some of the eyebrow-raising operations in counter-espionage, as well as an administrative overview, for an intelligence agency that is responsible for Britain’s security at home. It gives the first inside account from it archives, from Bolshevik threats and Communist subversive activities in the 1920s in Britain to Hitler’s spies in the 1930s, to the Double-Cross deception and agents of World War Two. It goes beyond the Second World War to name some of the traitors and spies of the Cold War. There is a clear understanding publicly for the first time of the sheer scale of surveillance of enemies or… show more.

Most of the action is set in the Aegean, where the author served with the Special Boat Service, an off-shoot of the Special Air Service. Their aim was to raid airfields on the German-held islands.

He tells not only of the daring adventures but his admiration of the Greek resistance fighters who risked not only their own loves, but that of whole villages, to offer their support to the British.

I’m blown away by the efforts put forth by women to crack enemy code during WWII at Bletchley Park, England, while in a stealth mode. I was stunned by the decades these women and men kept the secret about their jobs there. The high stakes and the challenges faced made this a page-turner, which isn’t always the case for a nonfiction title. I’m impressed by the recruitment of women via word puzzle and crossword puzzle contests in the newspaper. 

The brilliant code-cracking skills revealed in these stories highlight intelligence and the fierce country loyalty towards ending the war. Sinclair is really good at interviewing his subjects and putting the stories into context. I’ll sneak in The Rose Code as a novel on the same topic.