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What Members Thought
I know Erik Larson's work. I've read Isaac's Storm and Devil in the White City and I loved both of those nonfiction books.
And so I had expectations for this book. They were met. And exceeded.
Garden of the Beasts, like the other Larson books I've read, is a powerful story that was unfamiliar to me prior to reading the books. A naive American family in the middle of Nazi Germany as the country moves closer and closer to insanity...it's a story that begs to be told.
Larson was the perfect person to ...more
And so I had expectations for this book. They were met. And exceeded.
Garden of the Beasts, like the other Larson books I've read, is a powerful story that was unfamiliar to me prior to reading the books. A naive American family in the middle of Nazi Germany as the country moves closer and closer to insanity...it's a story that begs to be told.
Larson was the perfect person to ...more
I know Erik Larson's work. I've read Isaac's Storm and Devil in the White City and I loved both of those nonfiction books.
And so I had expectations for this book. They were met. And exceeded.
Garden of the Beasts, like the other Larson books I've read, is a powerful story that was unfamiliar to me prior to reading the books. A naive American family in the middle of Nazi Germany as the country moves closer and closer to insanity...it's a story that begs to be told.
Larson was the perfect person ...more
And so I had expectations for this book. They were met. And exceeded.
Garden of the Beasts, like the other Larson books I've read, is a powerful story that was unfamiliar to me prior to reading the books. A naive American family in the middle of Nazi Germany as the country moves closer and closer to insanity...it's a story that begs to be told.
Larson was the perfect person ...more
I might end up changing this review to five stars. What made this book truly amazing is that the author was able to draw such a complete and accurate depiction of a time period based SOLELY on primary documents - letters, journals, recording of conversations and speeches. You read this book like a novel - it's truly a story, and a suspenseful, page-turning one at that - and yet there's not a single line of dialogue or text that is not coming straight from the history record. It's truly a masterf
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While I love Erik Larson books and appreciate his copious research and talented storytelling, this book was ultimately unsatisfying. I thought that ambassador Dodd was rather uninteresting and tragic. His daughter Martha shallow and annoying. Mrs Dodd and the son were not developed characters at all within the saga of thus family. Descriptions of the socio political climate in which hitler was able to assume power were compelling, including how and why the rest of the world looked away. Too ofte
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Really enjoyed this read. Very insightful and full of information I was not fully aware of. I enjoyed looking at a time in history that is well studied, but from an entirely different view point.
Nov 30, 2011
Jennifer
marked it as to-read
Jan 07, 2012
MichelleCH
marked it as to-read
Jul 06, 2012
Kathleen Valentine
marked it as to-read
Oct 20, 2012
Jessica
marked it as to-read
Nov 04, 2012
Jamie
marked it as need-to-get
Mar 26, 2014
Lisa
marked it as to-read
Oct 09, 2015
David
marked it as to-read
Aug 10, 2017
Curlysue
marked it as to-read
Dec 06, 2017
Mary Paul
marked it as to-read
Feb 19, 2020
Traci
marked it as check-these-out-further
Mar 09, 2020
Keeley
marked it as to-read
Nov 15, 2023
Deborah
marked it as to-read
