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Helga’s Diary

May 3, 2013

    Helga Weiss is an eleven-year-old girl living in Prague in 1939. The words above are hers as are all the words in the book, Helga’s Diary: A Young Girl’s Account of Life in a Concentration Camp. Czechoslovakia has been invaded by the Nazis and in a few short months Helga has seen her carefree life change to one of rules and regulations. By 1941 she and her family ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Non-fiction Tagged: history, Holocaust, memoir, WWII

Ignorance

February 27, 2013

Ignorance

In a small Catholic village in Occupied France, Jeanne and Marie-Angèle attend the local convent school.  From the beginning they are distinctly different girls from their backgrounds to their current family life. Marie- Angèle is the blonde-haired, blue-eyed daughter of the local grocer while Jeanne is a small, dark and intense girl whose mother has been reduced to cleaning ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: Bloomsbury, France, historical fiction, WWII

No One is Here Except All of Us

February 22, 2013

no one is here

That one world is at war does nothing to interrupt the patient churning of peaceful years someplace far away. There are so many kinds of fiction and so many ways an author can draw a reader in. Some appeal to the masses and write a quick easy read and some require more from their readers. No One is Here Except All of Us is a unique book and so, not easy to review. It’s the ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, debut, Europe, historical fiction, magical realism, Riverhead Books, WWII

City of Women

August 7, 2012

city

The grandpa just stares backward at a world that no longer exists, or forward to a world beyond his comprehension. For Sigrid Schröder her life in 1943 Berlin is one of grinding tedium, working days as a stenographer and spending nights in a small apartment with her mother-in-law and withdrawn husband. Her only escape is a movie theater where she can sit quietly in the ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, debut, Germany, historical fiction, mystery, Penguin, WWII

Suite Française

July 27, 2012

suite francaise

There are novels that come with a backstory so complex and heartrending the book itself can be overwhelmed. Irène Némirovsky, was a Ukrainian Jew living in Paris with her husband and two young daughters. She was a successful author and had written the first two parts of Suite Française in Paris during the German occupation. In 1942 at age 39 she would be sent to her death ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, France, literary, Vintage, WWII

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