About the Book:

“Understated but powerful and particularly resonant today, When the Emperor Was Divine is a heartbreaking first novel, the story of a Japanese-American family all but destroyed by American prejudice and policies during World War II.

The story unfolds in the third person as four family members move through the different phases of their internment. Otsuka’s language is spare, and her images are intense. The mother dispenses with the remnants of the family’s life in California when they are forced out of their home. The boy recalls his father’s arrest — how he was led out of the house in a bathrobe and slippers. On a train headed for the Nevada desert, the children reflect on how their lives have changed, with their comfortable home giving way to whitewashed horse stalls, and finally to a dusty wasteland in the middle of nowhere.

Their father imprisoned in far away New Mexico, the children and their mother eke out a new existence in the “blinding white glare” of the treeless desert internment camp. Assigned to a single room in a tar-paper barracks with three iron cots, they live through brutally hot summers and bitterly cold winters as their once happy and promising lives waste away, and as they wait, patiently, for the war to end.”

Book Review:  ★★★★★★

There are some books that I find from the moment I open them, they simply resonate with me.  The characters, the plot, the setting, or a combination of all of the above come together to strike a familiar tone within me, and it makes it a joy to get into the book and see where it will go.  There are other books that no matter how hard I try — I simply cannot make that connection.  This one frustrated me on two of the three. 

The actual premise of the book is what initially drew me in.  I have some friends that actually spent some time in these Japanese Internment camps during World War II.  They have shared some of their stories, and insights into what it was like to be thrust out of their adopted country for an event that was beyond their control.  And the impact it had on their lives ever since.  So, this is a subject that having had some third party connection to — I was interested to learn more about.  So in that aspect this story provided a solid foundation.  Since one of these internment camps was located here, in Utah, it is also another reason that I found the subject fascinating.  But since I have read a couple of books about this topic — I had some comparison material — and it didn’t work for the best for that reason.

This book just didn’t seem to have much of a comparison to one of my favorite books that dealt with this same topic — for more than one reason.  For those that have read Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet — you will know what I mean.  This storyline just didn’t have quite the magic, or tone that I found in Ford’s book.  That is not to say that this is not well written — it is just that it didn’t seem to make the internal impact that the other one carried.  There was something about the storyline that was disconnected in Otsuka’s presentation.  Probably the third person voice — which had the effect of depersonalizing a very personal event.  It never really seemed to give you a sense of place or substance.  And in the end that weakness left the book lacking. 

It was also very difficult to form a connection with the characters in this book.  There was little emotional substance in their interactions, and they didn’t seem to have much depth for connecting to.  Over all I came away from the book feeling like the characters were simply going through the motions –  but no more involved in the story than I was myself.  The story was a disconnected setting that just seemed to be passing behind the characters with no real interaction between them, and the circumstances they found themselves in.  And in the end, when the characters don’t share any real bonds or ties between each other, it is hard for me, as a reader to form that bond as well.

For more information about this book, and its author be sure to visit the following websites:

Interview with the Author

Author Biography

A Book A Week Book Review

When you buy a product (not just books – any product), via one of my links, The Book Worm’s Library earns income from the sale and as always, it’s much appreciated as all affiliate income is used to support the blog by contributing to giveaways, postage, travel, and attending book industry related events. We appreciate all those that help to support our blog, and have provided links below for the direct links to this book.

AbeBooks.com

Originally posted 2011-09-12 07:34:18. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

About the Book:

“We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life-daily and hourly. Our answer must consist not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual.

When Man’s Search for Meaning was first published in 1959, it was hailed by Carl Rogers as “one of the outstanding contributions to psychological thought in the last fifty years.” Now, more than forty years and 4 million copies later, this tribute to hope in the face of unimaginable loss has emerged as a true classic. Man’s Search for Meaning—at once a memoir, a self-help book, and a psychology manual-is the story of psychiatrist Viktor Frankl’s struggle for survival during his three years in Auschwitz and other Nazi concentration camps. Yet rather than “a tale concerned with the great horrors,” Frankl focuses in on the “hard fight for existence” waged by “the great army of unknown and unrecorded.”

Viktor Frankl’s training as a psychiatrist allowed him a remarkable perspective on the psychology of survival. In these inspired pages, he asserts that the “the will to meaning” is the basic motivation for human life. This simple and yet profound statement became the basis of his psychological theory, logotherapy, and forever changed the way we understand our humanity in the face of suffering. As Nietzsche put it, “He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.” Frankl’s seminal work offers us all an avenue to greater meaning and purpose in our own lives-a way to transcend suffering and find significance in the act of living.”

Book Review:  ★★★★★★

This is another book from the World War II/Holocaust theme literature.  Written by a survivor of more than one of the concentration camps of Nazi, Germany, overall Frankl has a very good insight on the survival instinct of humans.  This authority is due to the three years he spent surviving camps that were known to kill most people within 6 months.  At least for those that weren’t sent immediately to the gas chambers.  Frankl’s insights into the mind set of surviving is a powerful statement on not only what goes into surviving harrowing experiences — but gives us a look into how those that survived nightmares even beyond the imagining of men, and how they have the ability to overcome.  

This is a book that isn’t the typical harrowing trip through the brutality of the concentration camps.  In fact, the thing that sets this book apart from others is that it focuses on the ability to survive in the midst of unmitigated brutality.  Frankl gives the reader more than an eyewitness account of life in a concentration camp.  The primary focus of this book is more of the psychological effects of the concentration camp environment, and how it played into destroying its victims.  And, as a Psychiatrist, Frankl also looks into how survivors managed to beat the Nazi’s in the quest to destroy.  Frankl submits that the act of survival was not in the physical body — but rather in the psyche of the victims. 

The last half of the book focuses on the psychological theory that he developed as a result of his experiences, and what he went on to teach as one of the modern approaches to the ability to survive.  Frankl lost me a little bit through that point.  However — the story behind how he developed this theory is not only powerful, but compelling.  The concept that those who survived did so through their own psychological determination to do so.  He then goes on to demonstrate how those who succumbed to the brutality of the world around them did so at such a time when they sacrificed their personal identity, and with it the personal desire, and commitment to live.  The point at which a person abdicates in identity of self to the group or whole, and identifies with an image thrust upon them by their captors is the moment that death becomes a certainty.  Frankl’s description of how he came came to understand the psychological impact for brutality is not only engrossing, but insightful.

This is a powerful book about the struggle of life and death.  Frankl’s perspective is not only powerful, but unique in all the books that exist in this genre.  He gives us a significant insight into the power of the identity of self, and how much it plays into not only who we are, but how we survive times of great stress, abuse, challenge, and trauma.  This is a book that I consider one of the must read classifications, because of the insight it has to offer on people, and how truly complex they can be.

For more information about this book, and its author be sure to visit the following websites:

Viktor Frankl Society

Man’s Search For Meaning

Author’s Obituary

Study Guide

When you buy a product (not just books – any product), via one of my links, The Book Worm’s Library earns income from the sale and as always, it’s much appreciated as all affiliate income is used to support the blog by contributing to giveaways, postage, travel, and attending book industry related events. We appreciate all those that help to support our blog, and have provided links below for the direct links to this book.

Abe Books

Originally posted 2011-08-15 06:00:14. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

About the Book:

Captain Corelli’s Mandolin is set in the early days of the second world war, before Benito Mussolini invaded Greece. Dr Iannis practices medicine on the island of Cephalonia, accompanied by his daughter, Pelagia, to whom he imparts much of his healing art. Even when the Italians do invade, life isn’t so bad–at first anyway. The officer in command of the Italian garrison is the cultured Captain Antonio Corelli, who responds to a Nazi greeting of “Heil Hitler” with his own “Heil Puccini”, and whose most precious possession is his mandolin. It isn’t long before Corelli and Pelagia are involved in a heated affair–despite her engagement to a young fisherman, Mandras, who has gone off to join Greek partisans. Love is complicated enough in wartime, even when the lovers are on the same side. And for Corelli and Pelagia, it becomes increasingly difficult to negotiate the minefield of allegiances, both personal and political, as all around them atrocities mount, former friends become enemies and the ugliness of war infects everyone it touches.

British author Louis de Bernières is well known for his forays into magical realism in such novels as The War of Don Emmanuel’s Nether Parts, Señor Vivo and the Coca Lord and The Troublesome Offspring of Cardinal Guzman. Here he keeps it to a minimum, though certainly the secondary characters with whom he populates his island–the drunken priest, the strongman, the fisherman who swims with dolphins–would be at home in any of his wildly imaginative Latin American fictions. Instead, de Bernières seems interested in dissecting the nature of history as he tells his ever-darkening tale from many different perspectives. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin works on many levels, as a love story, a war story and a deconstruction of just what determines the facts that make it into the history books.

Book Review:  ★★★★★★

This is an amazing story, with so much going on that it is fun to read — more than once.  I was originally introduced to this story through the movie, which was based on the book.  I enjoyed the movie — and it wasn’t until a couple years later that I realized that it started in book form.  Boy, am I glad I found that out.  There is so much more depth added to this story by reading the book, than I ever got out of the movie.

The characters in the book are so much more developed, and it makes the story much more interesting in book format — but it was still OK if you only saw the movie.  The beauty of understanding the narrator’s background, and the love he harbored for his commanding officer just added so much more depth to this story.  I never got that part of the story in the movie — but it makes this book, and the sacrifices that are made throughout the story so much more meaningful.

The writing is somewhat challenging, as I found the writing style to be a little difficult to follow at points.  But that didn’t detract from the story at all.  Also, the beauty of the dual loves that are demonstrated, and expressed in this book are amazing.  What an incredible story, not only about war — and the sacrifices made in the World War II ear; but it also explored the beauty of the relationships that this type of experience  creates.  All of the characters are so well developed that I found myself being able to not only identify with them, but really experiencing the lives that the author portrayed.

This book also has a wonderful story of love, devotion, and sacrifice — and the costs that sacrifice can come at.  I found this to be one of the better historical fiction novels that I have read about the World War II time period.  I loved it, and would strongly recommend the book — for more reasons that one.  Beautifully written, and eloquently presented — a must read, particularly for love story enthusiasts — as well as World War II historians.

For more information about this book, and its author be sure to visit the following websites:

Louis de Berniers Website

Author Biography

Reading Group Guide

When you buy a product (not just books – any product), via one of my links, The Book Worm’s Library earns income from the sale and as always, it’s much appreciated as all affiliate income is used to support the blog by contributing to giveaways, postage, travel, and attending book industry related events. We appreciate all those that help to support our blog, and have provided links below for the direct links to this book.

AbeBooks.com

Barnes and Noble

Originally posted 2011-03-09 07:28:55. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

About the Book:

This long-awaited novel by the author of The House at Riverton begins with a long lost letter. Its contents compel young Edie Burchill to journey to the eerie realm of Millderhurst Castle, where her mother, then just 13 years old, waited out the London Blitz. What Edie learns about those distant hours in that faraway place will forever change her view of her mother and herself. A subtle, artfully constructed story about place, the past, and time’s reverberations.

Book Review:  ★★★★★★

I have to admit that after reading The Forgotten Garden I had a lot of expectations for this book.  After all, I fell in love with that one — so I was expecting another opportunity to get lost in a book — and want the world to go away.  And to a certain extent this book fulfilled expectations.  But somehow I came away from this one feeling like some of the magic was missing that made the other book so fun to read.  Consequently I felt like this book was more of an effort to get through.

For some reason it was the characters that just didn’t quite work for me in this book.  I just felt like there wasn’t as much depth as I have come to expect from Ms. Morton’s characters — which left me feeling like something was missing from the whole story.  Edie just didn’t seem to be all that engaged with the world around her.  She didn’t have much in the way of curiosity, in the face of the building mystery throughout the story.  So for that reason, the main person looking for the answers never really seemed to get all that involved in the story, from the beginning.  Combine that with the sisters, who are obviously not what they appear to be, even from the very beginning of the book — and I just came away feeling like there was quite a bit of a let down where this story was concerned.

On the positive side, however.  The story is very well conceived — and it really was intriguing.  Revolving around the mysterious book written by an illusive author, The Mud Man is rumored to be surrounded with myriad questions, and intense debate on how much, if any of the book is grounded in reality.  Add to that the compelling historical setting of the back story — in World War II, during the bombing of London, not to mention the creepy castle setting that is just this side of collapse, and is perfectly adapted to the stuff of nightmares — and you really have the makings for a great story.  And I think this one would have delivered much more if the characters had been a little stronger in the development.  But I can’t fault the story line, and I love the creativity demonstrated by Ms. Morton in pulling together various story lines, and building them into one cohesive whole.

The over all thing that I think drove me crazy about this book was simply the unasked questions that continue to skulk in between the lines of each page.  The mysterious letter, that Edie fails to ask her mother about, the questions about the past, and failure to engage the sisters on a more personal, and even intimate level — it all made for a frustrating read.  There just seemed to be something about the whole thing that was off.  And I know this was a mystery.  But for some reason, it just didn’t flow smoothly for me, and I felt like every page was more of an effort that an adventure.

For more information about this book, and its author be sure to visit the following websites:

Kate Morton Website

An Interview with the Author

Publisher’s Website

When you buy a product (not just books – any product), via one of my links, The Book Worm’s Library earns income from the sale and as always, it’s much appreciated as all affiliate income is used to support the blog by contributing to giveaways, postage, travel, and attending book industry related events. We appreciate all those that help to support our blog, and have provided links below for the direct links to this book.

Abe Books

Barnes and Noble

Originally posted 2011-01-20 07:00:28. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

About the Book:

Haunting and harrowing, as beautiful as it is disturbing, The English Patient tells the story of the entanglement of four damaged lives in an Italian monastery as World War II ends. The exhausted nurse, Hana; the maimed thief, Caravaggio; the wary sapper, Kip: each is haunted by the riddle of the English patient, the nameless, burn victim who lies in an upstairs room and whose memories of passion, betrayal, and rescue illuminate this book like flashes of heat lightning. In lyrical prose informed by a poetic consciousness, Michael Ondaatje weaves these characters together, pulls them tight, then unravels the threads with unsettling acumen.

A book that binds readers of great literature, The English Patient garnered the Booker Prize for author Ondaatje. The poet and novelist has also written In the Skin of a Lion, Coming Through Slaughter and The Collected Works of Billy the Kid; two collections of poems, The Cinnamon Peeler and There’s a Trick with a Knife I’m Learning to Do; and a memoir, Running in the Family.

Book Review:  ★★★★★★

This is a book that just didn’t quite do it for me.  I know that there was a lot of hype surrounding the st0ry — particularly when the movie came out.  And, in all honesty, I never saw the movie.  But the book just didn’t seem to work for me some how.  I generally don’t mind unreliable characters, if they are done well — and I have always loved historical fiction.  But this was just a bad combination of several things that just drove me nuts from beginning to end. 

The characters were the first thing that stood out as something that just didn’t quite mesh.  As I’ve already stated — I generally don’t mind unreliable characters.  In fact, I find that when they are done right they can add a certain mystery, depth and dimension to a story that you wouldn’t have otherwise.  After all — as a reader you are never really sure about what they are saying, remembering, or know.  But when you end up with an entire novel with ALL unreliable characters — and a limited character line up to begin with — the element of mystery turns into a down right quagmire of uncertainty — and even confusion.  In the end — Kip was the only character that gave the story any cohesion and for the story to end the way it did, especially in relation to him just frustrated me.

Another thing that really kept me wondering was the disconnected feeling of the story, itself.  There was no real flow throughout the story.  It kept shifting in time, place, and storyline, to the point where I was really uncertain of what was going on at times.  And while in the end they all came back together, more or less — it made for a particularly hard read.  For this reason, this is not a story that I would recommend that you could sit down and do a fast read through over a weekend. 

I did love the setting in this one.  The isolation of this nearly destroyed church in the way back hills of Italy really came to life, and it gave the feel of being in the wake of a war — as they country-side is left in devastated ruin.  But even this, due to the way the story was developed, has a certain disconnect from the raging events that are going on outside the peripheral of the story line.  The constant references to events that happened during the war remind the reader that this is a novel set during World War II — but you still come away not really sure that there was really a war raging in the midst of this almost idyllic setting.  It is this quality of the book that gives it a feeling of almost isolated removal from reality as a whole.  And in the end, I just found that this book left me wanting more, and less — in more ways than one.

For more information about this book and its author — be sure to visit the following websites:

Reading Group Guide

Michael Ondaatje Biography

Author Interview

When you buy a product (not just books – any product), via one of my links, The Book Worm’s Library earns income from the sale and as always, it’s much appreciated as all affiliate income is used to support the blog by contributing to giveaways, postage, travel, and attending book industry related events. We appreciate all those that help to support our blog, and have provided links below for the direct links to this book.

Originally posted 2011-10-03 06:44:33. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

About the Book:

The Visible World is an evocative, powerfully romantic novel about a son’s attempt to understand his mother’s past, a search that leads him to a tragic love affair and the heroic story of the assassination of a high-ranking Nazi by the Czech resistance.
The narrator of The Visible World, the American-born son of Czech immigrants living in New York, grows up in an atmosphere haunted by fragments of a past he cannot understand. At the heart of that past is his mother, Ivana, a spontaneous, passionate woman drifting ever closer to despair. As an adult, the narrator travels to Prague, hoping to learn about a love affair between his then young mother and a member of the resistance named Tomas, an affair whose untimely end, he senses, lay behind Ivana’s unhappiness. Ultimately unable to complete his knowledge of the past, he imagines the two lovers as participants in one of the more dramatic (and true) moments of the war, and through the deeply romantic story he tells, creates not only the ending of their story but the beginning of his own.

The Visible World is a literary page-turner and an immensely moving novel about the vagaries of love and our need to make sense of life through the telling of stories.

Book Review:  ★★★★★★

This is one of those books that I’m not quite sure what to make of.  The ending was very interesting, the beginning was bizarre, and the middle didn’t quite bridge the disparity between the two.  Coming away from it I felt that it gave a pretty impressive demonstration of the difficulties that the generation following World War II had, in coming of age amidst secrets, and broken parents.  However, I am not sure the story developed far enough to adequately explain how this state of being came to be. 

On one level it is a love story — and a pretty typical one at that.  Man and woman fall in love, but the woman meets another man and finds they are destined to become star crossed lovers.  It seems to be pretty straight forward.  Very little in the way of twists — even with it set in the middle of World War II torn Czechoslovakia.  I just felt like the predictability of this book was very high.

I also struggled with the character development.  Ironically, it is Tomas — her lover that ends up being the most fully developed through all of this.  And as the story winds down, his death doesn’t play out the way you are expecting from the introduction.  Also, he is the one that seems to attach himself to the reader.  While Ivana, and her eventual husband hang almost as ghosts, haunting the perimeter of this story, Thomas becomes a powerful entity in the book, who faces extreme moral dilemmas. 

I also struggled with the flow of this story.  I found that at times it would start a chapter in a place, and while reading I suddenly realized I wasn’t sure how I came to be at this particular place in the novel.  It just had a confusing, and even disorienting rhythm to the general construction of the story. 

But on another level,  it is the combination of these two traits, which separate appear to be pretty significant weaknesses of the story, but in tandem make a very strong foundation for the overall development.  The haunting nature of the narrator’s parents adds to the mystery of the book in a much stronger way than the outright telling of the story.  The shade like quality of the characters gives the book depth and dimension in a way that a full, in-depth story telling approach wouldn’t. 

For more information about this book, and its author be sure to visit the following websites:

The New York Times Book Review

Reader’s Guide

Liberreview Book Review

Bianca’s Book Blog Book Review

When you buy a product (not just books – any product), via one of my links, The Book Worm’s Library earns income from the sale and as always, it’s much appreciated as all affiliate income is used to support the blog by contributing to giveaways, postage, travel, and attending book industry related events. We appreciate all those that help to support our blog, and have provided links below for the direct links to this book.

Originally posted 2012-04-12 06:51:04. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

About the Book:

To most people, Folly Beach, South Carolina, is simply the last barrier island before the Atlantic. To some, it’s a sanctuary, which is why Janie Hamilton’s mother encourages her to buy the local book store, Folly’s Finds, hoping it will distract Janie from the loss of her husband in Afghanistan.

Janie is at first resistant, but intrigued after finding love letters and an image of a beautiful bottle tree in a box of used books from Folly’s Finds, and decides to take the plunge. The store’s seller insists on one condition: Janie must allow Lulu, the late owner’s elderly sister, to continue selling her bottle trees from its back yard. Historically, bottle trees were brought by African slaves to the American South, and Janie had grown up with one in her backyard, and it has always been a symbol of refuge to her.

Janie generally ignores Lulu as she sifts through the love letters, wanting to learn more. But the more she discovers of the letters’ authors, the closer she feels to Lulu. As details of a possible murder and a mysterious disappearance during World War II are revealed, the two women discover that circumstances beyond their control, sixty years apart, have brought them together, here on Folly Beach. And it is here that their war-ravaged hearts can find hope for a second chance…

Book Review:  ★★★★★★

This is another fantastic read.  It is a book that rocketed to my favorites list in the first couple of chapters, and remained their long after I had finished reading.  White has proven herself an adept author when it comes to handling multiple story lines, and a broad variety of characters — and being able to pull them all together in an amazingly fascinating whole.  This story spans two wars, and a wide expanse of mysteries that have arisen out of those wars.  Combined with that is an unusual cast of characters with very unusual interests, a small town, a small town bookstore, and even a reference to an unexplained historical mystery of a sunken World War II, German U-Boat, and the an intriguing look at the potential espionage activities during that infamous war.

The characters and setting of this book come together to create a story with a distinct personality, and resonance.  This is not a book that is simply read as a passing, light read.  The setting, a small, Southern town, isolated on an island is a distinct character presence all its own.  And White does a great job of creating not only the unique feel of a small, Southern town, but also the mystical, almost other world feel that exists in these towns with history.  This story incorporates the feel of the Southern setting with the eccentricities of the small town people to build a readable story that covers three generations, and fifty years worth of canvas.  This setting gives a great depth, and even a distinct dimension to this story that draws the reader in and holds their attention.

Another interesting twist that was incorporated into this story was a little known history of a German U-boat sunk less than thirty miles of the American East Coast.  When I first came across this history I was reading Shadow Divers — the diver’s account of their finding and identifying of this missing submarine.  This crazy story is one that has proved to be one of the last mysteries of the World War II era — as it is not commonly known that there was an enemy submarine that ever got close to the American continent, following the attack on Pearl Harbor.  White has done a wonderful story in pulling this little known historical mystery into her own work, and building a story that proves to be both fascinating for the questions it raises, as well as giving readers a wonderful book to get engrossed in.

White has demonstrated a great gift for not only writing a great story about the Southern states — but she also manages to build multiple mystery story lines within an all encompassing, cohesive whole.  Her characters are unique, with fun quirks and idiosyncrasies that give the reader a great amount depth to get engrossed in.  The mysteries are all great stories in and of themselves — however, they all make an overall story that is well thought out, and crafted with the reader’s enjoyment in mind.

For more information on this book, and about this author be sure to visit the following websites:

Karen White Website

Linus’ s Blanket Book Review

Book Addiction Book Review

When you buy a product (not just books – any product), via one of my links, The Book Worm’s Library earns income from the sale and as always, it’s much appreciated as all affiliate income is used to support the blog by contributing to giveaways, postage, travel, and attending book industry related events. We appreciate all those that help to support our blog, and have provided links below for the direct links to this book.

Abe Books

Barnes and Noble

Originally posted 2011-05-17 06:00:37. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

About the Book:

You have never met a main character quite like Dr. Max Aue. This brilliant middle-class entrepreneur is deeply cultured, well read in philosophy and literature, a connoisseur of fine music. He is also a merciless assassin, a cold-blooded merchant of death, and a secret survivor of the Nazi genocide machine. Jonathan Littell’s epic, 992-page The Kindly Ones places Dr. Aue in front of us as a fictional but completely plausible creation of modern culture. This novel, written in French by an American author, won the Prix Goncourt, France’s most prestigious literary award.

Book Review:  ★★★★★★

I love to read about World War II, and particularly about the Nazi’s and the Holocaust.  So when I picked this book up, I was really looking forward to a great new story, in this area.  Boy, what a disappointment.  I can’t say if this was a result of just a poor story all the way around, or if it was a really bad translation, because I know this book had really good reviews in its native language of French.

For starters the simple construction of the writing really gave me a hard time.  There were paragraphs in this book that literally went on for three and four pages.  I found myself having to read, and re-read just to figure out if something pertained to the paragraph it was in, or if the author was talking about something else entirely.  It made the book really confusing, and hard to follow.

Another thing that I found that was very weird was the obsession of the main character in the area of his gastro-intestinal difficulties — on a very graphic nature.  The main character would spend literally paragraphs describing his bowel movements, and the digestive problems that he had.  Talk about a huge turn off.

He also seemed to be obsessed with his descriptions of his sexual exploits with men.  Now, not that I am being prudish — but what I found strange about this is the time frame and era.  I mean, homosexuals in Nazi, Germany fared only slightly better than those of Jewish descent.  And yet to read this book, you would think that this was a regular pastime of the military personnel of the entire Nazi military.  I really had a hard time getting that to compute.  How did all of these men spend so much time in their sexual encounters — without ending up in a labor camp, Nazi jail, a torture chamber, or worse yet — in a gas chamber?  It just didn’t ring very true to me.  I’m sure it went on, it is human nature.  But to the extent that this book implies — I find a little hard to believe.

I guess I just had a really hard time reconciling this story with my understanding of Nazi Germany during this era.  This of course really detracted from the story, in a very significant way.

For more information about this book, and its author be sure to visit the following websites:

The Washington Post Book Review

Salon.com The Kindly Ones Review

The New York Times Book Review

When you buy a product (not just books – any product), via one of my links, The Book Worm’s Library earns income from the sale and as always, it’s much appreciated as all affiliate income is used to support the blog by contributing to giveaways, postage, travel, and attending book industry related events. We appreciate all those that help to support our blog, and have provided links below for the direct links to this book.

Abe Books

Barnes and Noble

Originally posted 2011-03-10 07:00:33. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

About the Book:

Includes a section of b&w photos and one section of color plates. In the fall of 1991, two deep wreck divers discovered a World War II German U-boat sixty miles off the coast of New Jersey. No identifying marks were visible on the submarine or the few artifacts that John Chatterton and Richie Kohler brought to the surface. No historian, expert, or government had a clue as to which U-boat the men had found. In fact, the official records all agreed that there simply could be a sunken U-boat and crew at that location. Over the next six years, an elite team of divers embarked a quest to solve the mystery.

Book Review:  ★★★★★★

This was an absolute, could not put down story that was fun to read!  I picked it up because the premise of the book sounded so unreal that it qualified as absurd.  A German U-boat located 60 miles off the New Jersey coastline.  And I am still asking the question what an enemy, German U-boat was doing there, particularly during a time of war.

This story covers many topics of interest. Originally it was the story about World War II that drew me in. But the story itself has a lot to offer about World War II research, World War II U-boat history, and the development of diving.  I have never been a diver, and I never realized how technical a sport it is — especially when it comes to extreme depths.  So not only did it provide an interesting insight into the rise of extreme depth wreck diving — it also presents one of the greatest mysteries that came out of World War II.

The story itself, though now shown to have a conclusion that is somewhat different than the original conclusion the divers first thought, is engrossing in its entirety. And while I am not sure there was ever a truly satisfactory conclusion of what this U-boat was doing where it was located, the book does offer at least a preliminary look into the history of when it went missing, and a premise for why it would have been so close to the American shore.  I would hope that one day someone would do a little more research into this submarine, its history, and see if records didn’t survive that may have explained more conclusively the entire history.  But for now — this was an interesting combination of a modern day mystery, adventure story, and history all rolled into one.  It would have been nice to see some of the pictures from the diving explorations, with the book. However, those are available online, and this does not detract from the book at all.

This is a great book for wreck lovers, and those that have a passion for diving.  However, if you are a lover of World War II history, you may come away from this book a little disappointed with the lack of concrete answers.

For more information about this book, and its author be sure to visit the following websites:

Robert Kurson Website

Reading Group Guides

When you buy a product (not just books – any product), via one of my links, The Book Worm’s Library earns income from the sale and as always, it’s much appreciated as all affiliate income is used to support the blog by contributing to giveaways, postage, travel, and attending book industry related events. We appreciate all those that help to support our blog, and have provided links below for the direct links to this book.

AbeBooks.com

Barnes and Noble

Originally posted 2010-12-17 07:00:18. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

About the Book:

Spy, businessman, bon vivant, Nazi Party member, Righteous Gentile. This was Oskar Schindler, the controversial man who saved eleven hundred Jews during the Holocaust but struggled afterwards to rebuild his life and gain international recognition for his wartime deeds. David Crowe examines every phase of Schindler’s life in this landmark biography, presenting a savior of mythic proportions who was also an opportunist and spy who helped Nazi Germany conquer Poland.
Schindler is best known for saving over a thousand Jews by putting them on the famed “Schindler’s List” and then transferring them to his factory in today’s Czech Republic. In reality, Schindler played only a minor role in the creation of the list through no fault of his own. Plagued by local efforts to stop the movement of Jewish workers from his factory in Krak-w to his new one in Brnnlitz, and his arrest by the SS who were investigating corruption charges against the infamous Amon Gth, Schindler had little say or control over his famous “List.” The tale of how the “List” was really prepared is one of the most intriguing parts of the Schindler story that Crowe tells here for the first time.

Forced into exile after the war, success continually eluded Schindler and he died in very poor health in 1974. He remained a controversial figure, even in death, particularly after Emilie Schindler, his wife of forty-six years, began to criticize her husband after the appearance of Steven Spielberg’s film in 1993.

In Oskar Schindler, Crowe steps beyond the mythology that has grown up around the story of Oskar Schindler and looks at the life and work of this man whom one prominent Schindler Jew described as “an extraordinary man in extraordinary times.

Book Review:  ★★★★★★

This book is a fascinating look into one of the more well known civilian names of World War II. The background on the actual origins of Schindler’s celebrated list, and particularly the difference between the historical fiction account, and the true events. There are also some very unexpected elements of the story that have never been told, which should have, found in this book.

But this book has so much more to offer than just the story of The List, and the lives that Oskar Schindler saved. This is an in depth look into the saga of Poland during the World War II conflict — a story that, in its own right, should be understood in depth. Many of the Polish people were in as much danger as the Jewish people living in the country, at that time. In the Nazi perception, the Polish people were only considered one step above those of the Jewish people. And much of the price that their country paid, during this conflict, reflected this prejudice. It also presents the great extent that many of the Polish people went, to save their country, and support those, like Schindler, who were trying to assist in the saving of lives.

This is also an in depth look into a man. One who reflected many of the foibles of humanity. His self interest, his drinking, and womanizing, as well as his greed, and desire to satisfy all of his wants. And then it explores his transition from who he was — to who he became. Ultimately named, by the Yad Vashem, as one of the Righteous among Nations, or Righteous among Gentiles, Schindler is a man that is an inspirational story. He is a great example of what men have the capacity to become, no matter what their origins, or the weaknesses that beset them. He is also an amazing example of how men have the ability to overcome their weakness — and become inspirational, moral characters, in spite of their history, and the degradation of the world that surrounds them.

After reading this book, I have come to realize that the story told in Schindler’s List is only a scratching of the surface of the man, as seen within the context of the time that he lived, and the task that he undertook. Standing between bigotry and hate, and hope and salvation, Oskar Schindler is a name that should never be forgotten, as an example of what one individual is truly capable of, no matter the situation. I can’t recommend this book enough — as an account that should never be forgotten, and never be overlooked.

For more information about this book, and its author be sure to visit the following websites:

The Righteous Among Nations

New York Times Book Review

Schindler’s Grave

Representing Schindler Article

When you buy a product (not just books – any product), via one of my links, The Book Worm’s Library earns income from the sale and as always, it’s much appreciated as all affiliate income is used to support the blog by contributing to giveaways, postage, travel, and attending book industry related events. We appreciate all those that help to support our blog, and have provided links below for the direct links to this book.

Abe Books

Barnes and Noble

Originally posted 2011-04-21 06:00:43. Republished by Blog Post Promoter