Monday

Monday Recommendation List

Random list of 10 books Monday! I have read and enjoyed each of these enough to flag for a potential personal library purchase.

Be bold and just choose randomly, stick to your normal genre...or step outside of your normal reading zone and try something you usually wouldn’t. You can look up the descriptions at Amazon.com, or search my blog for old posts by entering the title in the little search box in the top left-hand corner and clicking the magnifying glass.

This week-- 10 recommendations (in no particular order):

1. A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
2. Superfreakanomics by Steven Levitt
3. Say You Love Me  by Johanna Lindsey
4. Kiss an Angel by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
5. Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum
6. The Collector by John Fowles
7. Dreams From My Father by Barack Obama
8. A Time to Kill by John Grisham
9. Are You There Vodka, It’s Me Chelsea by Chelsea Handler
10. Black Ops Series (starts with Show No Mercy) by Cindy Gerard

Monday Recommendations!

Monday Recommendation List

 

Random list of 10 books Monday! I have read and enjoyed each of these enough to flag for a potential personal library purchase.

Be bold and just choose randomly, stick to your normal genre...or step outside of your normal reading zone and try something you usually wouldn’t. You can look up the descriptions at Amazon.com, or search my blog for old posts by entering the title in the little search box in the top left-hand corner and clicking the magnifying glass.

This week-- 10 recommendations (in no particular order):

 

1. Then Came You by Lisa Kleypas
2. Escape by Carolyn Jessop
3. Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum
4. The Giver  by Lois Lowry
5. A Kingdom of Dreams  by Judith McNaught
6. Hiroshima by John Hersey
7. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
8. The Great Influenza by John Barry
9. Reclaiming History by Vincent Bugliosi
10. Of Mice and Men  by John Steinbeck

Monday Recommendations

Monday Recommendation List

Random list of 10 books Monday! I have read and enjoyed each of these enough to flag for a potential personal library purchase.

Be bold and just choose randomly, stick to your normal genre...or step outside of your normal reading zone and try something you usually wouldn’t. You can look up the descriptions at Amazon.com, or search my blog for old posts by entering the title in the little search box in the top left-hand corner and clicking the magnifying glass.

This weeks 10 recommendations (in no particular order):

1. Autobiography: The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X and Alex Haley
2. Spirituality from a Medium’s Perspective: Talking to Heaven by James Van Praagh
3. Simply Amazing: A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
4. Subprime Meltdown Knowledge: The Big Short by Michael Lewis
5. Powerful Women:  Day After Night by Anita Diamant
6. Sweet Romance: Kiss An Angel by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
7. Holocaust Drama: Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum
8. Simple Living: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver
9. Humorous Romance: Bet Me by Jennifer Crusie
10. Police Series with Female Leads: Rizzoli and Isles series (starts with The Surgeon) by Tess Gerritsen

Those Who Save Us

Another novel set in Nazi Germany is “Those Who Save Us” by Jenna Blum. I enjoyed this moving story.

The narration takes two views. First, Anna, a young German woman that falls in love with and hides a Jewish man. When he is discovered and sent to Buchenwald, a pregnant Anna hides in a bakery basement. She is forced to do many things over the next few years to survive.

Fast forward to the future, where Anna’s daughter Trudy, tells her current day story. She struggles to understand her mother, not knowing what she has gone through and she has her own difficult love story.

The focus of this book is on secrets and survival. How far would you go to save your life and the life of your child?

On the positive side, I was really moved by a speech given by a Jewish survivor in the middle of the book. I relished Anna's story and how she was able to find strength to survive a difficult time in her life.  

I thought the ending could have been stronger, or that some of Trudy's story could have been truncated, as Anna's was more interesting. In fact, having the entire book about Anna's struggles may have been better.

Overall, I do reccommend this story if you enjoy touching historical fiction.