Book Concierge’s Comments (group member since Feb 12, 2016)

Book Concierge’s comments from the Who Doesn't Love a Classic? group.

Okay ... you have a buddy reads folder. And I started a War and Peace topic for you.

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This is the place to organize a Buddy Read of a classic that is NOT already designated as our group read.

Start a new topic with your book title in the topic line

This topic is about: type in the title .... or better yet the ISBN of the specific edition you want to highlight at the top of your thread.

Folder: Buddy Reads

In the comment box start your buddy read entry and click POST

Do NOT reply to this post to start a buddy read. Start a fresh topic for your buddy read.

So ... would you be interested in a "buddy reads" folder ... where you could post a book that is NOT our group read (like War and Peace ... and invite other members to read it with you?

If so ... I'd be happy to set up the folder for you ... and even set up the topic if you don't feel comfortable doing it on your own.

Just let me know.

Those Who Save Us – Jenna Blum
4****

Dr Trudy Swenson is a professor of history at the Univ of Minnesota. After she goes home for her father’s funeral she begins to question her history, and her mother’s silence. She has always know that Jack wasn’t her real father – that he had married Anna and brought her and her daughter from Weimar Germany to the USA after WW2. But the questions about her past will not be silenced, and a research project to record interviews with German survivors of the war forces Trudy to confront her past.

The novel is told in dual timelines: the adult Trudy in 1990s Minnesota, and her mother, Anna, as a young woman in war-torn Germany (1941-1944). The reader is all too aware of Trudy’s past, while watching Trudy struggle to make sense of her dreams, her vague recollections, and the one clue she has found among her mother’s belongings.

I was not expecting much from this “book-club favorite;” I’ve been disappointed by so many books that were popular with book clubs. But I’m certainly glad I put my pre-conceived notions aside and read it. I found complex issues, well-developed characters, and a compelling narrative.

Are we doomed to love “Those who save us,” despite their otherwise reprehensible behavior? I was nearly as frustrated by Anna’s obstinate silence as Trudy was. Learning her story, what she felt forced to do to save her child (and herself) gave me some understanding into her character, her motives, her fears, and her reluctance to examine the past. However, my sympathies lie more with Trudy, whose life and potential for happiness is so damaged by the secret Anna refuses to reveal. And I am left wondering whether Jack ever made peace with Anna’s past … and if so, how?

Hi, Megan .... glad you found us!

Megan wrote: "I like adding a book with a cover image... how do you include both the image and the link (i.e. with words)? Do you essentially add the book to the post twice, once with cover and once with words?
..."

Exactly


Megan wrote: "And how do you do the quote thing at the beginning of a comment to note which comment you're responding to?..."

You click the reply link at the bottom of the post you are answering. It will automatically populate the comment box with the BEGINNING of the quoted post. If you want to respond to something that is a bit farther down in the post, just copy paste the relevant comment (like I did for THIS response) inside the italics html codes.

Hello, Monette - it's nice to see you here!

All the Light We Cannot See – Anthony Doerr
Book on CD narrated by Zach Appelman
4****

A blind French girl and a young German orphan find their lives intersect in the walled Brittany town of Saint-Malo in August 1944. Marie-Laure is 16, and has been blind since age six. Her father works at the Natural History Museum in Paris and she has learned much by exploring with her other senses – touch, smell, sound, taste. As the Germans occupy France, Marie-Laure and her father flee to Saint-Malo and the home of her great uncle Etienne (an agoraphobic since his return from fighting in WW I). Meanwhile Werner and his younger sister Jutta grow up in an orphanage in a mining town, where his genius for electronics comes to the attention of the Nazis and gains him entrance to an elite boys’ school.

The story is told in alternating chapters, and with alternating time frames. Each section begins with what is happening in Saint-Malo in August 1944, as the allies bomb the city, and the residents and occupying German forces seek shelter from the onslaught. But the story then separates as we follow these two different characters from 1934 onward, discovering how they come to both be in the town at that fateful time.

Doerr gives us wonderful descriptions, letting the reader experience the world as Marie-Laure or Werner does. The sections narrated by Marie-Laure are full of the use of her other senses as she tries to compensate for her lack of vision. We can smell the warm yeasty aroma of freshly baked bread, taste the salty air of a beach, feel the smooth yet textured shell of a whelk, or hear the soft strains of Clair de Lune or the screech and roar of incoming aircraft. Werner’s sections are much more internal, as he struggles with what is morally right in the face of his training (indoctrination) and obligation as a soldier of the Reich. He bears witness to horrors that Marie-Laure cannot see, or even imagine.

By the time their stories intersect I am as anxious as they are for relief from the war.

Doerr peoples the novel with a wide assortment of characters … from the competent housekeeper, to the single-minded sergeant major, they are all fully fleshed out, providing support on the one hand, or bringing cruel danger on the other.

The audio version is performed by Zach Appelman, who does a marvelous job. His gift as a voice artist makes it easy to believe he is speaking for a blind teenaged girl, a confused German boy, an elderly uncle, or a gruff soldier. As an added bonus the audio book begins and ends with the strains of Clair de Lune …. A haunting melody that is a perfect metaphor for this beautifully told story, and is still playing in my head.

Hi, Bianca (which happens to be the name of my youngest niece). So glad to see you here.

I am in mourning.....

Hi, NuclearBlonde (Janelle), Amester (Amy) and Bookaddict (Diane) ... great to see you here!

Welcome, Tracy (tstan) and ilikeboox ....

SO ... tonight I'm going to meet someone F2F who has been in a group with me here on Goodreads. She commented in a thread a while back that she planned to move to Milwaukee in the near future. I sent her a brief note and said I live in Milwaukee, and if she'd like to get together for coffee or wine, just let me know.

So she sends me a private message - she's applying for a job at MY place of employment (it's a huge employer and we'd be no where near each other). I told her I have my F2F book club tonight, but would gladly miss it to meet her for wine. SHE asked if she could come to book club with me (where there WILL be wine).

This is the fifth Shelfari/Goodreads friend I've met in person ... including with Llevinso (a/k/a Mother Panda).

Have you met any of your cyber book friends in person?

As I started reading your review I immediately thought of DuMaurier! So it was interesting to see that last paragraph where you comment on their relative success over the long haul.

I'm going to go check if my library has this ....

Karin - I deleted your comments about Mariana because you've moved that review to the CLASSICS folder.

Feb 15 - currently reading

TEXT – A Brief History of Montmaray
AUDIO in the car - All the Light We Cannot See / Anthony Doerr
Portable AUDIO - Dream When You're Feeling Blue

Lara wrote: "How do I make stars?"

I just use the asterisk *
But try this code - NO SPACES
☆ open star = & # 9 7 3 4
or
★ black star = & # 9 7 3 3

I'm not sure how to string them together to have, for example, 3 stars ... ★ ★ ★
Okay ... just put a space between each of the html codes

Jerry-Book & Terri S - so glad you found us!

I"m currently listening to All the Light We Cannot See and the lead character is reading Jules Verne novels. I love finding references to the classic like this!

We love the classics, but we read other things, too.

Are you an author? Here's the place where you can promote your own works.

Please NOTE: Authors who do nothing but self-promote and never participate in the group in any other manner will be considered spammers, and may be blocked from the group.