The Women of the Castle by Jessica Shattuck

I've read many books set in WWII. But, this one is different.
It isn't about the war as much as what happens before and after. What lengths would you go to for survival? What would you do to uphold the 'truth'?  What is our moral responsibility and what if that understanding is different for those around you?

Marianne made a promise to her husband and her best friend to look out for the wives and children of the resistance in Germany.  With that off the cuff statement her life took on a purpose - and a set of blinders dictated by her 'rightness.'

Marianne's first task after the war is to find the wife of her dear friend Connie Felderman - Benita, a farm girl more focused on pretty things than politics.  But as the wife of a dead soldier who was hung for his attempt to murder of Hitler - she is expected to also be politically driven. Martin, Benita's son joins Marianne's son and two daughters at the castle.

The second family that Marianne saves is Ania Grabarek and her two sons. They were discovered in a displacement camp and were not known directly by Marianne - she knew of Ania's husband that is all.

These three fatherless families figure out how to live in a castle with no running water or electricity.  And do so successfully, until they don't.  Until Marianne's clear understanding of black and white clangs against both Benita and Ania's history and reality.

But, the book doesn't end there. Rather it jumps ahead to the 1990s when the castle becomes a museum honoring the resistance.  Marianne is invited to return for a speech and friendships are reconnected in a different light.

This is a thought-provoking book of what happens after.  What are we left with as we look backwards at the war - and how does that impact our world today.

I would highly recommend this one too!!!

#summer2018book3

We Are Called To Rise by Laura McBride

image from LibraryThing

This is not the easiest story to read. It's full of heartache and hope and reality.  Reality means it's not all rainbows and unicorns. Instead, it's a hard and then it's harder and then it's wonderful!

Las Vegas is the backdrop for this story of Bashkin, 8 year old Albanian son of an ice cream truck driver.  And Bashkin's exuberant Aussie teacher decides it would be a good idea to write a letter to a soldier deployed from the nearby base.  That simple act sets in motion unexpected actions that impact all!

Bashkin's letter is filled with innocent questions of a curious and scared boy.  The letter he receives from Specialist Luis is not innocent - instead he describes how he shot a boy in Afghanistan. And Bashkin, poor Bashkin, gets terribly sick with anxiety when he reads it.

This book is not only Bashkin's story though.  It also follows Specialist Luis, recovering from a head injury that seemed to occur right after he sent off that fateful letter.  And we hear from the mother of a newly instated police officer, with her fears for her recently  returned soldier son.  And another woman who seems to be connected with the court system someway.

Each of these characters brings a piece of the story to a final culmination when their separate stories coalesce.  This is a hard story to read if you are connected to the military.  There are scars from war that affect each soldier in a different way.  The families sometimes bear those scars in hidden ways. This is not only the story of American war families - but also those scattered across the world wherever there is violence.

And at the heart of it all is a boy who only wants to fit in and do what is right for his family and himself.

This was a little deep for a beach read - hard to cry with the sun shining down on me!!
Costa Rica book #1

People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks

This is one of those books I thought I should read.  I wasn't especially enamored with the cover or the concept of the book - people who are part of an ancient text.  But, the story caught me and has held me.  I have found myself talking about this book to several different people.

So - what was it that changed my attitude?

The story is about Hanna, a book restorer (my title, not hers).  She is a rather non-descript woman who has grown up in the very tall and dark shadow of her brain surgeon mother who sort of sucks all the air out of any room she enters.  Hanna has made quite a name for herself in the world of book conservators, but will never measure up to her mom's ideal.  That is the back story.

The real story is of the Haggadah - an ancient Hebrew text used at holy Seder meals.  This book is rediscovered in Sarajevo following the Bosnian war and Hanna has been invited to check it out and rebind it for the next millennia.

Hanna discovers three minute artifacts in the binding - an insect wing, a hair and a blood stain.  This is where the book really launches, because it tells the story of each of those artifacts in real time. So it is really a story inside a story.

What I found the most intriguing was the story of the book itself.  I am not a historian - so the generations of anti-Judiasm woven into this story really took me by surprise.  I know about WWII and how the Jews were treated - I just didn't really understand that this hatred had been part of their lives forever.  So as the Jews are admired for their wisdom and their abilities they are also scorned for their wisdom and their abilities.  AND woven throughout this entire book are stories of Muslims and Christians who have been able to look at the person and not the religion to help save this ancient text.  It really struck me!  We live in a world where we think we have evolved yet we are muddling through the very same problems that existed thousands of years ago!  That doesn't say very much for progress.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone interested in history and in the secret life of a book!

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

image from LibraryThing

I have certain holes in my reading background. That may seem a bit odd - since I have been a pretty active reader for most of my life, and a teacher librarian in a past life.  But - I grew up in an elementary without a library.  I visited the public library often - but I didn't have anyone suggesting books for me - so I fell into a pretty shallow rut.  By the time I got to Jr. High I was more interested in romances.  My high school reading career consisted of all basal readers. I never read a novel in a class until college.

All of that is a sort of excuse for the fact that I have never read Ender's Game  - until now.  I have heard about this book for years and I knew I would get around to reading it sometime. I have always enjoyed science fiction - so that wasn't the reason I haven't read it.

Then about a month ago I walked out of the HS library talking to a student. I asked about his favorite book and he said that Ender's Game was the best book ever written. Pretty high praise!  I went home and ordered it from Amazon immediately.  When I heard it would become a movie that spurred me to read it before allowing myself to see it!

And what did I think?

I liked Ender.  I used to teach elementary kids and I could see them in Ender.  I felt sorry for his isolation and his destiny and his understanding of his fate.  I felt sorry for the way he was manipulated and cheered as he attempted to break the rules to fit his desire.  But, even in that he was a pawn.

That was what I didn't like. Maybe it is because I've read too many YA books - but I am a bit tired of the 'stupid adult' syndrome.  This syndrome takes a twist in this book because the adults are more than just stupid - their seeming omnipotent knowledge just proved them even more impotent.  I got tired of that. They were always the bad guys - from Ender's parents to all the 'teachers'.  I am not a fan of that philosophy.

And then there was the game.  But which game is really Ender's?  He is involved in numerous games. And Card drew those out in minute details.  Until near the end and suddenly time sped up and the final scenes of the game were over in a flash of description though they took many years to actually play out.  I am not a fan of that technique either.

So - I am glad I read this.  But, I would not be able to agree with that high school student's praise.  It was enjoyable and thought provoking and an important book to have in your reading knowledge bin.  But, not one of my favorites.

I Am Number Four Series by Pittacus Lore

image from LibraryThing

This is another "teenagers out to save the world" series, except they are aliens and they are trying to fight off a race of aliens (Mogadorians) who have destroyed their planet and are not set to take over earth.  Sound a bit odd?  It is  - but it is also an interesting read.

Number Four is the first Lorian to tell the story.  He has been on the run his entire life with his Cepan (guide) moving him from town to town across the US. Four (John is his human name) hides in plain sight in small towns until life there becomes compromised in some way and then they move on. They end up in Paradise for longer than usual and it is there that Henri (the Cepan) begins to tell John what his life is really all about - how he was sent from Loric as the planet was consumed with 9 other children and the legacies of Lorian.  These legacies are special talents that grow as the children mature and will be used to defend themselves and remake Loric in the future.

image from LibraryThing

Following a fiery explosion and the heart-breaking death of Henri, Four meets the next of his group, Six.  She is completely different from Four - confident and in control of her legacies in a way he only wishes.  Four, Six and Sam, a friend from Paradise, escape Paradise and hit the road.  They find an abandoned house and heal and train and grow their abilities.

But, the unknown Mogadorians and Sam's missing father haunt them.  As do the scars burned in their legs. Each time one of the original Garde is caught and killed by the Mogadorians, a scar is seared into their legs.

The story shifts a bit in the next book and more of the Garde are introduced - the story telling moves between the characters until they all end up in the penthouse apartment of Six at the top of the John Hancock building in Chicago.  As the Garde gather and train and learn from one another more and more of the story comes out.  It is their responsibility to carry on their legacy.  But, at what cost?  They are after all only children.  All of them have lost their Cepan's and some have lost the chests of their Loric tools. But the end of this book the group is:  Four, Six, Eight, Nine and Ten plus Sarah (Four's girlfriend) and Sam his friend.

image from LibraryThing

The story shifts as Five joins the Garde.  He adds a layer of darkness and tension.  Sam also is able to reunite with his Father who disappeared long ago - he was one of the Greeters who welcomed the Lorian spaceship to earth.  I found this book harder to understand. The storytelling switches between characters - each using the first person. I was sometimes a bit confused by who was talking.  The font is different for each - but not drastically.  I found it distracting from the storyline.

I like parts of these - but get so tired of the teenage angst that is layered in these stories.  They remind me of the Series of Unfortunate Events in that Pittacus Lore is also a character in the story.  He is the one that Sam's father met on earth - but how can that be since only the children made it to the planet.  Each book leaves unanswered questions.  I am not sure how dedicated I am to stick with these though. It would be much easier to just wait and read them all at once...

The House of Special Purpose by John Boyne

image from LibraryThing

I seem to be on a history kick with my reading.  This is another book following two story lines. One in 1981 and one in 1917 - both following Georgy Jachmenev, a Russian peasant whose life changes with one moment of bravery.

As a young man, Georgy saves the life of the Tsar's cousin and finds himself Alexi, the Tsar's son's, bodyguard and confidante.  The second line of the story follows Georgy's memories as he deals with his beloved Zoya's diagnosis with cancer.

As a reader I guessed the connections early on. But, I am not a history buff and admit to being very shady on Russian history.  So, the story was able to take me on a historical ride of Russian history.  And because of that I had never heard of "The House of Special Purpose." 

Although the historical part of the novel is key - it was the love story that drew me in.  Catching glimpses of Zoya and Georgy as they move through the years was sweet and endearing.  This is a story of a couple facing the problems of post WWI Paris and WWII London as well as the death of their only daughter first and foremost. That they were also key historical figures seemed secondary.

It took me a little to get into this book.  The story of Georgy's early life did not hook me.  I didn't really care very much about his father or his sister. But as Georgy moved into life in St. Petersburg, I began to really care about his naive outlook on life.  And I am a sucker for royalty  - so the Romanovs were great!!

This was another great read!

The Eleventh Plague by Jeff Hirsch

cover image by LibraryThing

The world of the Eleventh Plague is a long way from my comfortable office and this blog.  Life has become something completely different.  China and the United States went to war over some hikers in the wrong place at the wrong time. We bombed China and they retaliated with a virus that wiped out the population of the US and maybe Canada and Mexico.  As the cover shows, the United States is now a rusting hulk of what we were.

But, families still exist.  There is still a need for warmth, food, shelter and...

This is the world that Steve lives in - has always lived in.  He was born after P11 (the Eleventh Plague) hit. His life is that of a salvager roaming the Eastern part of US with his grandfather and father.  As the book begins, they are burying Grandpa.  Although Grandpa is dead, his voice and his presence looms large over Steve and his dad.  Grandpa believed that the only way to survive was to stay away from everyone, believe no one and keep moving.  Steve has only known this philosophy. There is no warm fuzzy connection with others - the only way someone would help you is for a price.

Then Steve and his dad have a run in with a pair of slavers and everything that Steve has ever known is turned on it's head. When his dad is injured in a fall and is befriended by Marcus and Jackson and taken to Settler's Landing - the voice of grandpa is challenged by real friendship.  Steve sees the inside of a house for the first time, learns what a school is and what others are willing to give up for a friend.

Although this book is another in the long line of "the world is a horrible place and only teenagers get it" genre. I really liked this one. It felt a bit different. The problems were all personal - there was not a secret agenda or a mysterious technical problem to solve. Instead - it was all about a young boy and the baggage created by a past image of the world and the issues of facing new experiences.  There is a little love interest - a bully - some explosions and death.  I liked it!

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

What a title - right...it's more than a mouthful. But, it is the heart and soul of this story. A story of friendship, betrayal, World War II, love and simple things.

As much as I loved it I have to confess that I can't remember the details very well. I read it all in one sitting - in my bathtub. So, needless to say there was quite a bit of skimming going on!

Basically the book follows an author who has finished a successful series and is sort of poking along for another idea. She receives a letter from a man from Guernsey (a small island off the English coast) who has a book that used to be hers. This is the start of a friendship which slowly grows as Juliet, the author, and Dawsey, the Guernsey native.

Through this friendship she learns of the five year Nazi occupation of the island, the decision to send away the island's children prior to the Nazi arrival, the prisoners who were worked to death on the island and the ways that the natives sustained themselves right under the Nazi's noses.

This is one of those books that grabs your imagination and pulls at your heart. As you find out about the austerity measures and starvation, the rules and limitations.
As Juliet travels to the island to really find out about these people. As she becomes friends and discovers who they really are and what has motivated them.

This is a great WWII book, but it's so much more than just that.

Enjoy it!!!

Poison Study, Magic Study, Fire Study by Maria V. Snyder

I was a bit hesitant to read this series after the Storm Glass books. I liked them - but they got very predictable. These were different! I really liked the characters and the story line was much more intriguing. it may have also helped that this series actually happened before the story glass books - I read them out of order.

1 - Poison Study
2 - Magic Study
3 - Fire Study

The books follow Yelena. Her story begins as she is taken from the dungeons of Ixia to be executed for murdering her deranged orphanage master. In Ixia murder is never justified. As that moment she is given a choice to become the Commander's food taster - the one who detects if poison exists. She herself will injest a specific poison each day and recieve the antidote the next...this keeps her alive and from escaping.

This begins the saga to find out who Yelana really is...in the first book she helps to defeat a magician who has bewitched the Commander, falls in love with her Ixian keeper, Valek, and discovers that she had actually been kidnapped all those years ago. Yelana is also almost killed by a magician who is sent from the souther land of Sitia to investigate spikes of magic. As Yelana slowly understands that she has unique magic abilities she seeks out the same magician, Irys to help her.

Magic Study begins with the homecoming to her long lost parents and the reuniting with her older brother, Leif. The guilt of watching his younger sister kidnapped has warped his life almost to the point of no return. And her return did not help that. Together they travel to the Magician's Keep in Sitia for Yelena to be trained in magic. Yelana has needed to exist on her own all those years in Ixia and has a terrible time trying to follow the protocol and rules of the Master Magicians - especially Roze Featherstone the First Magician. Of course there are problems. But the biggest problem is a nasty magician named Ferde, who has been kidnapping and killing young girls to gain their magical abilities. Yelana must depend on those around her to help her defeat Ferde.

The final book, Fire Study, picks up the tale as Ferde is freed from the dungeons and takes off for the unknown Daviian Plains to rendevous with a group of disgruntled, power hungry young magicians who seek the dark power of Blood Magic to boost their ablitites. This magic requires innocent blood to be sacrificed. Yelena, Leif and a group of their friends seek to defeat this powerful band. In the quest Yelana discovers her true magical gift of Soulseeker. And faces a horrible Fire Warper - the soul who controls the underworld.

So that is the very bare bones of these books. But, that doesn't give you much of an impression of what is really in these tales.

The focus on friendship and the unexpected bonds that develop between unlikely people -even enemies. Through friendship souls are healed and destroyed. And through friendship characters discover what their potential really is - potential for good and evil.

The books also focus on magic. Magic is not the hocus pocus - say a spell and it works kind. Rather the kind that exists deep inside a person. Each person must connect with the magic source - the power blanket that wraps around the entire world. To make magic work you grab a thin strand of this power and then apply your own special gifts to it...sort of like electricity being used by different appliances. I like that idea!

And of course there is love
...family love that shapes who a person is - across miles and time.
...romantic love that takes you by surprise and reshapes you into something new and unexpected
...clan love - the loyalty that forces you to make decisions for a group, not for your self.

These are really great books - fast reads with interesting and unexpected turns!

The Mortal Instruments Series By Casandra Clare

FINALLY!!!

This is the series I've been looking for. It was exciting. It was enticing. It was hard to put down. There was love, friendship, family issues, werewolves, vampires, mundanes (regular old humnas), demons and Shadowhunters (those who protect the world from the demons).

I LOVED IT!!!

It is a three book series following Clary Fray from her life as a nondescript New Yorker to a new life as daughter of the most powerful and corrupt Shawdowhunter with abilities to tap unprecedented powers against her evil father.

Clary meets Jace in a bar and is drawn to his power and his presence. Through Jace and his adopted siblings Alex and Isabel she is introduced to a world that exists just under the radar of mundanes understandings. A world filled with all the creatures of nightmares and ancient stories. A world her mother escaped from and hid her from. A world that is poised to be overthrown by an incredibly twisted man who just happens to be Clary's father.

These books were sort of Twilight meets Star Wars with a bit of Lord of the Rings thrown in...
Clary is a much stronger heroine than Bella who just seems to stand and scream and brood. There is some of that - but Clary gets it and taps into her own abilities. I liked Clary much more than Bella. And thankfully Jace is NOT Edward - although he is a bit moody. But his personality doesn't dictate Clary's world. Together they forge a friendship that strengthens each of them and prepares them for the final battle in City of Glass.

AND...unlike Twilight...these are not as predictable.

I read the final book - all 541 pages in an evening...and a morning...
I finished about 2AM!! They were recommended to me from an 8th grade math teacher!
I would whole heartedly pass on the recommendation!!!

Chanda's Secrets and Chanda's Wars by Allan Stratton

Chanda is a spirited teenager growing up poor in a small city in a fictional African country. She is very smart and loyal to her mother and her family.

The story opens with Chanda buying the coffin for her 1½ year old sister. Chanda’s good friend Esther no longer attends school, but earns a living doing odd jobs for tourists (hooking). It is only after a horrible attack and rape that Esther admits that this is the only way to earn money to buy back her siblings following her parents’ deaths. Then mama becomes sick. She leaves the family to go to her ancestral home. Chanda goes seeking her and finds her almost dead in an old cattle shed. As Chanda brings her mama home the neighborhood is faced with a dilemma. They all know it’s AIDS, but no one can voice that. Chanda is tired of the secrets, calls it what it is and celebrates her mother’s life.

There are more secrets for Chanda to keep or share, but through this she grows from a young girl to a young woman.



Chanda's Wars picks up right where the first book stopped.

Chanda again attempts to save her family – this time from an evil rebel leader who steals children, brands and brainwashes them to fight in his army while he kills families and loots villages. When Soly and Iris are stolen Chanda tracks the group cross country with Nelson’s (the boy her family wanted her to marry) reluctant help. Using a bees’ nest, a slingshot and the cover of darkness, they create enough confusion to rescue Soly, Iris and Nelson’s brother Paka, maim General Mandiki, and escape into the bush.

This story deals with the awful realities the children in Africa must face as they are thrown into the midst of civil wars. When Soly and Iris are taken, General Mandiki tells them that to return to their family would be certain death for them and their loved ones. He brands them with a hot iron on their chests and tells them that noone will trust them if they see his brand.

Parts of this story reminded me so much of A long Way Gone. It is a reality that I hope we never have to experience!!

The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad

This was an interesting and disturbing book.

It follows a 'typical' Afghanistan family for several months in the Spring after the Taliban fled from the country. The author is a female Swedish journalist who moved in with the family. She observed, traveled with the men, worked with the women, wore a burka, and according to her, "I have rarely been as angry as I was with the Khan family, and I have rarely quarreled as much as I did there. Nor have I had the urge to hit anyone as much as I did there."

One of my favorite aspects of the book is the way you see into the family life. Women are trully possessions and slaves. Their value is measured by the way they make their men happy - not only husbands, but fathers and sons as well. A man ALWAYS had more power than the women regardless of the age of the man or the woman. My guess is that was one of the reasons that Asne (the author) was so angry so often.

Although this was a fairly wealthy family - 11 lived in a 2 room apartment with inconsistent water or electricity. Sultan ( the bookseller, father and strongest family member) decided everything including who or if his youngest sister would marry or continue to be a virtual house slave is Sultan's home.

This was a great book to read after A Thousand Splendid Suns. This was the nonfiction version of life at the end of the book.

It is hard for my American sensibilities to understand how the power structure has evolved. It is almost impossible to imagine how it would feel to always accept that my sex makes me second rate. It was not only the Taliban who promoted this - Burkas and female subordination existed before their rule.

This book brought up more questions for me -as we try to understand a different culture there is so much to know.

I would recommend this one too!