This book is one of those that needs to be read because the suffering of the people needs to be remembered. And although it ends sadly, there’s too much triumph of the soul for it to be sad.
Category: Book Reviews
The Bear and the Nightingale | Russia
This is one of those snow-tipped fairytales that feature in my winter dreams, effortlessly combining magic, history, and the northern reaches of Russia where the winters are long, the forests are primeval, and life is enchanted.
Leningrad | WWII
During the three-year siege, about 800,000 people died. That’s nearly the entire population of the Salt Lake Valley or San Francisco.
The Zookeeper’s Wife | WWII
Human compassion and love overcomes the worst sort of circumstances, bridging the divide of religion, race, and country.
Poland: A History | Poland
The Poles are a surprisingly resilient people, weathering adversity and powering through the storms of history.
The Doll | Poland
I didn’t see this book as a failure of the class system, I saw it as a triumph over it.
Poland: A Novel | Poland
The enmity between Germany and Poland and Russia and Poland isn’t a 20th century thing. It’s been going on for centuries.
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas | WWII
This book was horrifying in some ways and beautiful in others. In the end, it described war as something that engulfs all, not just adults, not just Jews, not just Nazis. It destroys everything.
Auschwitz | WWII
Every person should read this book because darkness needs to have a light shined on it; it should be acknowledged and discussed and known.
Escape from Warsaw | WWII
This book was about what love and forgiveness can accomplish, about how it can rebuild. There’s good out there even within the depths of evil.
Natural Born Heroes | WWII
This book isn’t really about World War II or Greeks or fitness or even heroism. It’s about compassion, about love.
Gates of Fire | Greece
There’s something beautiful in the self-sacrifice of those Spartans laboring at the Hot Gates, knowing that they would die in the blood and horror of war. Doing it anyway for their families and their freedom.
Tyger Tyger 