As a child with older sisters, I read their books beyond my age level under the blankets with a flashlight in bed at night. I became a reading addict. Raised in The Netherlands with the Second World War casting its large shadow on our lives, I only became interested, after my parents were gone, in how people survived and had to find their courage under impossible circumstances. They would never talk about those occupation years. My search into history led me to find the answers.
This historical novel, based on true events, starts in central Germany. Johanna’s father was an itinerant shoemaker from the eastern backwoods of Pomerania in the German Empire of 1880. Aching for a life of accomplishment and respect, Johanna resolves to escape her dad's fate of early death, the stigma of his mixed Slavic-German heritage, and the poverty that followed him.
A headstrong girl, she refuses to be exploited as a housemaid for a wealthy family. When the master of the house tries to rape her, and his wife walks in, just in time, Johanna is fired. With nothing to lose, she accepts a job operating the concession shop for the railroad to travel with the construction crew across northern Germany.
Doris Lessing said, "There is no doubt fiction makes a better job of the truth." Despite the American author not taking the language barriers into account between his French and German characters, I found it a fascinating and convincing novel, nevertheless.
His imagination, creating the characters within their history, and his skill in developing the scenes, which slowly rose to a climax, made me read on without taking a break.
Doerr’s novel showed that humans are so varied in character that no prediction can be made about their actions; it gave me the confidence to create my novel about World War 2.
WINNER OF THE 2015 PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER WINNER OF THE CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR FICTION
A beautiful, stunningly ambitious novel about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II
Open your eyes and see what you can with them before they close forever.'
For Marie-Laure, blind since the age of six, the world is full of mazes. The miniature of a Paris neighbourhood, made by her father to teach her the way home. The microscopic…
I loved this book because it soberly and accurately told us about the real people who are caught up in war events and whom we do not normally see in books about war heroes.
I found the story of how the relationship between the young recruit and his love develops as heartbreaking as it was satisfying. It also taught me much about the world of flying war planes and actual war at the level of human suffering.
I loved this non-fiction book, and reading it, I often broke down in tears, realizing this personal and innocent true teenage story was all leading up to the tremendous death of millions of innocent people.
This is the only Anne Frank book that I recommend to everybody from a young age. It is THE introduction to the real events of World War 2.
With 30 per cent more material than previous editions, this new contemporary and fully anglicized translation gives the reader a deeper insight into Anne's world. Publication of the unabridged Definitive Edition on Penguin Audiobook, read by Helena Bonham-Carter, coincides.
I loved this novel, based on the author’s mother’s life!
It made me aware of American women called Donut Dollies and their roles in WW2
following the troops as they liberated Europe. I imagined being there and how
it would be for the protagonist.
An unusual and heartbreaking story. The events
experienced affected the author’s mother afterward all through her life, and
she died isolated and alone. I recognized how a mother was affected by war, as
my mother also was traumatized.
This "powerful, uplifting, and deeply personal novel" (Kristin Hannah, #1 NYT bestselling author of The Four Winds), at once "a heart-wrenching wartime drama" (Christina Baker Kline, #1 NYT bestselling author of Orphan Train) and "a moving and graceful tribute to heroic women" (Publishers Weekly, starred review), asks the question: What if a friendship forged on the front lines of war defines a life forever?
"Urrea's touch is sure, his exuberance carries you through . . . He is a generous writer, not just in his approach to his craft but in the broader sense…
This book fascinated me with its title, a contradiction in my Dutch mind. It proved to be a rewarding and intriguing read.
I loved to be on the other side and be in the mind of the child, affected by the cruel history of WW2, and feel how to make a life afterward. It made me grateful for my own life in Canada.
In November 1939, a German anti-fascist named Georg Elser came as close to assassinating Adolf Hitler as anyone ever had. In this gripping novel of alternate history, he doesn’t just come close—he succeeds. But he could never have imagined the terrible consequences that would follow from this act of heroism.
Hermann Göring, masterful political strategist, assumes the Chancellery and quickly signs a non-aggression treaty with the isolationist president Joseph Kennedy that will keep America out of the war that is about to engulf Europe. Göring rushes the German scientific community into developing the atomic bomb, and in August 1944, this…
I have been writing all my life, but was never able to find my voice until I had my daughters. It was for them I wrote “Wrightsville Beach”. I wanted to show them what a good relationship should look like and how their decisions make a difference in where they will go. I want my readers to relive that feeling of falling in love and to be sent in unexpected directions, as life so often does to us. I want you to enjoy it so much, you don’t want to put the book down until it’s finished and once you do, to sit and reflect on it, savoring the feeling it has left behind.
Two years ago, devastated by the sudden death of his older brother, Hank Atwater went on a drinking rampage that ended in his being arrested. Since then, he has been working to rebuild his reputation in his hometown of Wilmington, North Carolina, with little luck. But everything changes after a chance meeting with Jess Wade, a UNCW student studying to be a marine biologist. Hank and Jess feel connected to each other in a way neither has ever felt before.
But when Hank’s past leads to a frightful incident, it ends their relationship. Jess leaves to work on the beach…
Two years ago, Hank Atwater made a terrible mistake. Devastated by the sudden death of his older brother, Rob, he went on a drinking rampage that ended in his being arrested for aggravated assault. Sober since then, he has been working to rebuild his reputation in his hometown of Wilmington, North Carolina, with little luck.
Working a dead-end delivery job, Hank uses surfing and running to deal with being ostracized as he waits for his probation to end. But everything changes after a chance meeting with Jess Wade, a UNCW student studying to be a marine biologist. Hank and Jess…