Miss Graham’s Cold War Cookbook by Celia Rees, TP $22.49

I'm coming up a little short in my goal of reading sixty books this year. In my defense, as I am getting ready to submit my thesis I did’nt get as much time for clearing my to-read list. Of those I have read, my favourite has to be Miss Graham's Cold War Cookbook by Celia Rees. It takes place in Germany directly after WWII, featuring a British teacher named Edith Graham who has volunteered with the Control Commission to help re-establish primary schools. Before she is to depart, she is intercepted by friends in the Office of Strategic Services and tasked with collecting information on Nazi members still in Germany. What I appreciated most about this book is the way Rees has written Edith - she's a relatable heroine, a woman thrown into circumstances outside what she might have expected, trying to help her friends, the people she meets, and her nation. The plot has many lines to trace and host of characters with varying interests - a Hungarian spy, a Jewish resistance fighter, displaced children, and the wife of a senior Nazi member - which shows many facets of life in the war-torn country.