The Italian Wedding

 

The Italian Wedding by Nicky Pellegrino was part of the 3-novel volume that I needed to purchase in order to read The Food of Love Cookery School. I loved The Food of Love Cookery School (still trying to convince my husband we need to take a cooking class in Sicily - now that he watched a Hallmark movie about a cooking school in Venice, he's more intrigued by the idea of a cooking school). I simply liked The Italian Wedding. 

It was the perfect book to read on the plane on the first leg of my Italy trip. (And no, I'm not in Italy yet.) I was initially disappointed that so much of the novel took place in England, but gradually, there was more and more of the story set in Italy. At this point it's very obvious that I love reading books based in Italy, especially when they deal with food!

What was also cool is that in this novel, the main character, Pieta, is a wedding dress designer making her sister's wedding dress and helping her plan a dream wedding. The first leg of this trip I'm on is to attend my daughter's wedding. Lots of connections there!

Pieta's mother, Catherine, helps with the construction of the wedding dress. And as they sew and bead, Catherine tells Pieta about how she and Pieta's father met and fell in love. Until that point, Pieta had a very  hard time imagining her mother before she was her mother. 

This was a very enjoyable novel to read, had my mouth watering in parts, got me really excited to visit Italy (counting the days), and it would make a great Hallmark-type movie.

I look forward to reading The Villa Girls, the third novel in this volume.

The Scenic Route

The Scenic Route by Christina Baker Kline was an Amazon Prime First Reads selection. I've enjoyed Kline's historical fiction and the premise of this short story sounded good.

I'm not sure if I was disappointed because it was short and so a little less well fleshed out or because a book about "van life" was more about the aftermath of divorce than about being a nomad.

It was a quick, enjoyable read, but not particularly satisfying. But for a free quick read before bedtime when I was between books, I'm not complaining.

 

The Woman Beyond the Sea

The synagogue book club read The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem by Sarit Yishai-Levi three years ago. We all loved it. When we saw Yishai-Levi had written another novel, we wanted to read it. I'm going to miss our next book club meeting, but I try to read along anyway. I liked The Woman Beyond the Sea but I didn't love it. I think it's because the story started a little too slowly for me. Once I got to the second half of the novel, I thought it was a page turner. But it took awhile to get there.

Lily and her daughter, Eliya, have a difficult relationship. They've always had a difficult relationship. Shaul, Lily's husband and Eliya's father, keep the family together at an emotional cost to him, too. 

Jewish baby Lily was abandoned by the woman who gave birth to her when she was a few days old. At a convent. As Lily grew up, she took comfort in sitting with a picture of Mary and Jesus, but on some level, she felt like she never fit in there. That not fitting in and something missing from her life follows her through until Eliya is a young woman.

Eliya, likewise, feels like something is missing from her life. Like her mother, she feels that she's missed out on the love of a mother. It's evident in many of the choices she makes during her university days.

Both women need to come to moments of self-acceptance and perhaps forgiveness.

Lily's story is told third person while Eliya's story is told first person. But it's definitely both of their stories. The timing jumps around a little bit, going as far back Palestine during the early days under the British Mandate up through the time just following the Yom Kippur War in 1973. The history of Palestine and then Israel is essential to the plot. (Oh, how I'd love to get back to Tel Aviv and stroll along the beach.

I gave this novel 3 stars on goodreads.com, rounded down from 3.5 and it was only that low because of the slow start. However, I would still highly recommend this novel for book clubs. I think it will lead to a great discussion.
 

Anne Frank's Diary: The Graphic Adaptation

Possibly by now you've heard that Anne Frank's Diary: The Graphic Adaptation has been banned in many places. A substitute teacher was fired when she presented part of the book to her class. After that, I figured I had to read this book to figure out what is so controversial about Anne Frank's Diary adapted into a cartoon form which is more accessible to many young people.

I just don't get it. The author, Ari Folman, had to figure out how he was going to adapt and basically abridge Anne Frank's diary without losing the most important parts of Anne's story. Lots of the tougher parts are the diary are told in just a few pages. One of the objections to the book is that it minimizes the gravity of the Holocaust. I don't think so! Yes, the author conveys that Anne, at the time the family went into hiding, was a normally young teen girl. She felt like she was walking in the shadow of her older "perfect" sister, Margot. She was a little boy crazy. And she was curious about her changing body. It seems like the bits of the book focused on these normal teen things and not the gravity of the Holocaust are what these crazy banners object to. What? When Anne walks through a park or museum with nude statues, they consider that pornography. Huh? When she wonders about what it would feel like to kiss a classmate, that's considered sexually explicit.

For the first years after the books publication, there were no objections. Now they seem to come one right after the other. It's ridiculous. If our children don't know our history, how are they going to be able to make any sense of the world? How will they go on to be productive citizens? My heart aches thinking of this graphic adaptation being banned. If parents are concerned about a book, then make it clear that they don't want their own child to read it. Don't prevent hundreds or thousands of other children from reading it.

I struggle to read books in graphic form but I'm glad that I took the time to read this. I needed to see what the fuss was. And I still don't understand it.

 

Thirteen Reasons Why

If it's September,  Books and Beer Club is reading a banned book. This year's selection was Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher, a book I read for the first time in early 2010. It is a very banned book.

Hannah, a girl in Clay's class, has committed suicide. Weeks later, a box of 6 7 cassette tapes arrives at Clay's house. He's curious enough to find a cassette player, not an easy task, because who was listening to audiotapes back then. He's shocked when he hears Hannah's voice. 

He's compelled to keep listening. He wants to hear Hannah's reasons for why she took her own life. And he believes that he might be responsible in part. I'm not going to go into too many details of the story. It's told in an interesting manner. We hear a little Hannah on the audiotapes interspersed with Clay's reactions and thoughts about what he's just heard.

Let's go back to my first reading. Each year while I was teaching, I had each student select a book that we'd read at the same time and discuss, one-on-one. I got lots of the popular fifth grade books, sometimes I'd even get duplicates so I had less reading to do and more time for discussing. I hadn't heard of this young adult novel in 2009 when a fifth grade student of mine suggested that we read Thirteen Reasons Why. I looked it up and immediately contacted the student's mom to make sure that she was okay with us reading this novel that had pretty mature content. After all, it had been banned all over the place. The mom was fine with us reading the book and was glad that her daughter would have the opportunity to discuss this mature content with me, an adult. I barely remember the girl's name, but I do remember some of the really deep conversations that we were able to have. Even thinking about it now, wow. Just wow.

It also gave me an interesting context in which to approach my Books and Beer Club discussion. I really loved this month's meeting. Maybe because everything around this very difficult book brought back good memories of one of the favorite things I did with students while teaching.
 

Kissing Kosher

 

When I saw that Jean Meltzer, author of The Matzah Ball and Mr. Perfect on Paper wrote a new novel, Kissing Kosher, I immediately put it on request at the library. I requested the audiobook which meant that I didn't read the acknowledgement of Renee's Reading Club, the group on Facebook. I still might try to get a print or ebook copy to check that out.

Like her first two novels, this one would make a great Hallmark movie. By now you should know how much I love me a Hallmark movie! It's also a bit of a Romeo and Juliet story.

Avital and Ethan are the grandchildren of men in a longstanding feud regarding a recipe for babka. Yes, babka. Pumpkin spice babka at that. Really? People eat pumpkin spice babka all year? And these men developed a pumpkin spice recipe for babka years ago? I i had to suspend belief in order to get past that little detail. But besides that...

The grandparents developed a delicious babka years ago. After a fight, Avital's grandparents went on to build up their small local Brooklyn bakery, Best Babka, which was famous for its pumpkin spice babka. Ethan's grandparents went into commercial production of kosher baked goods. Their most popular item was a pumpkin spice donut. Ethan's grandfather has had enough. He wants the babka recipe. He forces Ethan to commit corporate espionage by getting hired at Best Babka to steal the recipe. His grandfather has been forcing him into doing things most of his life so this is no different. He doesn't have much control over his own life.

Avital had gone to art school and left Brooklyn to become a professional photographer in California when she gets diagnosed with a chronic illness and is forced to come home where she has family that can help her manage her life. She feels like she doesn't have much control over her life either.

The novel delves into the family feud, Avital's chronic illness, and how Ethan helps her come to terms with living with a chronic illness. It also takes place in Brooklyn. It's got some yiddish words thrown in. I can see myself in some of the Jewish parts of the story. And who doesn't love babka?

Kissing Kosher was a sweet, pleasant, tasty, romantic read.

Beyond That, The Sea

Beyond That, The Sea by Laura Spence-Ash was a different take on the World War II experience. It's based on something that I wasn't at all aware of. I knew all about the kindertransport where Jewish families sent their children out of Eastern Europe to safety in England. In this novel, a working class family sends their daughter, Beatrix, from London to the United States to keep her safe. Who knew?

Beatrix was sent to a family in Maine where she "grew up" with the two very different brothers of the host family, The Gregorys. At first, she is scared, missing home and overwhelmed by being part of this lively family. Eventually, though, she adapts to life on this side of the Atlantic and to live in an American family. Life in London and with her quiet parents fade away. So it comes as a shock when at the conclusion of the war, Beatrix is brought home to London. How does she come to terms with the two very different aspects of her life? And what's next?

This is a lovely novel about what it means to be part of a family, to love and be loved, and what war time was like in New England during World War II.

This is another one that I highly recommend.

 

The Perfumist of Paris

I needed an audiobook and I didn't want to wait. The Perfumist of Paris, the third novel in The Jaipur Trilogy by Alka Joshi was available so I grabbed it. What's ironic, though, is that I ended up only getting halfway thru the audiobook when an audiobook with a lot of library patrons waiting came available so it was quicker to finish up by reading the ebook. 

The first in the series is The Henna Artist. The second installment was The Secret Keeper of Jaipur. Of the three, The Perfumist was my least favorite. Don't get me wrong. I still enjoyed it. A lot. I guess that says more about how much I enjoyed the first two books.

In this one, we meet up again with Radha, younger sister of Lakshmi, who had followed a young man that she thought as her future to Paris. Like many other books that I have read lately, it was about women's roles and women figuring out their places in the world. 

In Radha's early Paris days, a relative of a classmate from India hires her to work in his perfume shop. She realizes that she's grown up with scents and that this is something she could be really good at. It's something she can make a career of. Radha's husband, though, Pierre, considers it a job that keeps her busy. Radha and Pierre struggle over how to balance Radha's work with the care and upbringing of their two daughters. 

Because I'm not going to include any spoilers here, the secret of the previous two books comes into focus in this novel as well.

I highly recommend the series.

 

The Food of Love Cookery School

I guess I lied the other day. Here is another book I purchased as a result of a Facebook ad, but not until I'd communicated with the author and read an excerpt.

The Food of Love Cookery School by Nicky Pellegrino takes place in Sicily, one of the destinations for my upcoming trip. And it's all about food. Well, not all about food. It's sort of a romance, sort of a story of women rediscovering a part of themselves that had been missing.

Luca Amore (what a name!) grew up in a small baroque town in Sicily (modeled after Modica), left to live and work in London for a little while, and returned to Sicily where he opened a small cooking school using his nonna's recipes. (Pellegrino based his cooking school on a cooking school she attended. Sounds like so much fun!) The four participants live in Luca's nonna's house and go on all sorts of excursions in addition to the one cooking class they have per day.

There's romance, food, self-discovery, friendship, and did I mention food? The descriptions are drool worthy! In fact, as I was reading, I realized that I really need a pair of pants with an elastic waist for my trip. What if I eat all this delicious sounding food and then can't fit into the pants I was planning on packing? I stopped reading with about an hour left to order myself a stretchy pair of pants. 

I could make connections to two of the characters - Valerie, the 65-year old New Yorker and Moll, the British divorcee. One of my favorite highlights was from Moll's story. On weekends I'm always off on little adventures. I love finding spice shops or Italian delis and just breathing in the air. I lust after new recipes and the flavors I might find in them. That was me prior to moving to Florida.

In the author's notes, Pellegrino wrote: Some places I mention are real - the Caffe Sicilia in Noto is famed for its extraordinary ice cream, the Dolceria Bonajuto in Modica (which became Vincenzo Mazzara's dolceria) for its chocolate. I already had Caffè Sicilia on my list of places to try to get to. Now I'll need to add Dolceria Bonajuto.

Because The Food of Love Cookery School didn't come as a stand alone kindle book, I had to buy it as part of a 3-novel edition. So I have 2 more of Nicky Pellegrino's novels to read once I reach a lull in my book club and library reading. They might be good to save for a long plane ride I've got in my future.

Don't Forget to Write

 Don't Forget to Write by Sara Goodman Confino was a recent Amazon Prime First Read free selection. I'd gotten her novel She's Up to No Good  last summer, really enjoyed it so figured I'd give this one a try, too. 

It's rare to find books with truly Jewish characters when the plot isn't focused on the religion so I'm always delighted when I find such a book. This one takes place in 1960. Twenty-year-old Marilyn is caught kissing the rabbi's son in front of the entire congregation in a most embarrassing way. All four parents think the only way to make this right is for the young couple to get married. Marilyn with have nothing to do with that. So Plan B is to ship her off to her great-aunt Ada's for the summer. Ada is a matchmaker in Philadelphia but she moves her life - and her business - to the Jersey shore for the summer.

Ada is nothing like what Marilyn expects. She's quite a character. For one, she's always been single at a time when very few women remain single, have their own businesses, own their own property. In Ada, Marilyn has met her match.

Marilyn has some choices to make over the summer as well as at the end of the summer. You never know what she'll decide. Another novel about women's roles and the choices they have to make.

Honestly, I liked the book as I read it. It's simply an enjoyable read. But the last few chapters, wow! I loved them and turned the last page thinking just that. Wow!

The Rome Apartment

I don't know if I'd ever bought a book from a sponsored post on Facebook before. But since I'm really in a "books about Italy" mood, The Rome Apartment by Kerry Fisher really caught my attention. Surprisingly or not, I really enjoyed it!

Beth is a brand new empty nester when her husband informs her that he's bored with her and that since he's got a job assignment to Paris, maybe it's time for them to take a break. Beth's friend/co-worker spots an ad in a women's magazine for a really inexpensive rental in Rome that is available to only certain women who meet certain conditions - by application only - and who will be required to do some challenges to add a little more "life" to their lives. Beth applies, is accepted, and heads off to Rome. As soon as she gets there, she has second thoughts.

Veronica (Ronnie) is the owner of the apartment. She and her friend, Marina, come up with all sorts of challenges for Beth. They are in their 70s to Beth's 50. Marina is a really tough nut! Beth puts up a fight. She's not sure she's really ready for something like this. She's ready to go home after the first few days.

But she sticks it out and changes take place to her whole outlook on life as she finds her way around Rome, looking for the beauty in the small things. I loved the descriptions of Rome. Some is the Rome all the tourists see. Some would be more considered "hidden Rome." Counting down the weeks until I'm there and can look for the beauty in small things. (And really pray that I don't get pickpocketed and lose my iPhone in some crowded tourist spot.)

This is a novel about a woman rediscovering herself apart from her roles of wife and mother.

 

The Wind Knows My Name

After hearing Isabel Allende interviewed on TV about The Wind Knows My Name, I knew this was a novel that I wanted to read.

In this novel, Allende connects the plight of Jewish youth on the Kindertransport for England during WWII with the current family separation crisis at our southern border.

The story starts out pretty disjointed and as a result, I had a very hard time getting absorbed in the novel. We first meet Samuel in Vienna. After his father disappears on Kristalnacht, her mother is convinced that the best bet for Samuel is to put him on a Kindertransport with a small suitcase, some large clothes (for him to grow into), his violin, a photo of his parents, and a bravery medal from his neighbor.

Next we meet Leticia who comes to the United States in the 1980s with her father after the town they lived in in El Salvador was massacred and they had nothing else left.

Finally, we meet Anita who also flees from El Salvador after her mother feels like their lives are in danger. The trip to the north is a difficult one and they arrive in Nogales at the time when the family separation policy was being enforced. Anita and her mother are separated.

We get a glimpse of each of these characters' stories, but it wasn't until the stories got connected that I found the book absorbing to the point that I couldn't put it down. This is a novel that I will be thinking about long after reading the last page.

Going Bicoastal

I read about Going Bicoastal by Dahlia Adler on a Jewish book website. It was a young adult romance with the main character being queer. I guess that's exactly what it is. But to me, it was a quirky little speculative fiction which two different "what ifs" played out in alternating chapters. It even had a "choose your own ending" option.

Natalya is a queer girl living in New York City with her father while maintaining a really distant relationship with her mother who lives clear across the country in Los Angeles. After not seeing her mom much since her move several years earlier, the mom wants Natalya to spend the summer with her, working as an intern at the company where she works. Her dad seems fine with it. But Natalya doesn't want to leave her dad behind. She doesn't like change. She likes playing it safe.

What if Natalya stays in New York City? Will she form a relationship with the red-headed girl she's been crushing on all year? Will she be able to improve the long-distance relationship with her mother?

But what if she goes to Los Angeles? Will her dad be okay without her? Will she be able to improve her relationship with her mother? Will she be able to deal with being out of her routine and out of her comfortable place?

I loved the Judaism of the novel and that's what kept me going. I enjoyed reading this but not sure I could recommend it to most of my reader friends.
 

Becoming Nicole: The Transformation of an American Family

After reading and discussing  Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult, my community book club decided to read a real life story about a transgender girl and what it has meant to her family. I'm not sure how our book club member had heard about Becoming Nicole: The Transformation of an American Family.

I guess I wasn't paying attention so I was expecting a memoir. It was a biography so not quite as intimate but still quite satisfactorily. I was especially interested in the different ways the mom and the dad reacted to identical twin to Jonas transition to Nicole and what it meant to Jonas to have his identical twin become Nicole.

If more people would be reading books like this, perhaps there would be more tolerance for people that are misunderstood by so many. I'm glad that I read this biography and look forward to discussing it with my book club next month.
 

The Postcard

The Postcard by Anne Berest came highly recommended by a friend who knows a lot about me. She didn't steer me wrong. What a book. It's a fictionalized version of the author's family history.

In 2003, Anne's mother receives an anonymous postcard, an old postcard, with the names of her relatives that had been killed during the Holocaust. This set Anne's mother, Lelia, on a quest to learn more about the history of her family. Years later, in 2018, Anne, herself becomes obsessed with the postcard. Who were these people? Who might have sent the postcard and why?

The autobiographical novel is told as Anne's mother shares some of the stories with her daughter and then some of the research that Anne is doing on her own. There's a bit of antisemitism in Anne's daughter's classroom which Lelia believes Anne needs to take care of immediately.

The Rabinovitch family went from Moscow to Latvia to Palestine and eventually thought they'd found the perfect home in Paris when the world gears up for World War II. Anne - and her mother - feel very disconnected from their family history.

I'm disappointed with myself that I didn't highlight the passage that brought the most meaning of the book to me.I hope this won't be considered a spoiler. Anne never really feels quite Jewish and eventually she realizes that day in and day out, she's a descendant of survivors. I think I've mentioned that I was married to the child of Holocaust survivors so reading about Anne's lightbulb moment and questions I often wondered about my former husband's connection to Judaism, things clicked for me, too, in a very impactful way.

I've recommended this to others and so far, those who have read it were glad they had.

Remarkably Bright Creatures

I loved Remarkably Bright Creatures. Some consider the main character to be Marcellus, the giant Pacific octopus in an aquarium in Washington state. He was an important character, but not the main character. And while I did learn a good amount about giant Pacific octopuses, this was not a book about them.

Tova has been working as a cleaner at the aquarium for years. Keeping busy after the mysterious death of her son has always been important. She has her Knit Wit friends but otherwise keeps to herself. Somehow, she develops a relationship with Marcellus. And perhaps he holds the key to figuring out what happened to Tova's son.

Cameron is a young man dealing with one crappy thing after another and he's going to use his time of unemployment to find out a little more about his past. He believes that he might be able to learn more about his mother and find his father if he travels to Washington where her mother went to high school and where he believes he was conceived. 

The audiobook is narrated alternatively by Tova, Marcellus and Cameron. The voices of each were just perfect. The pace of the novel was wonderful. I enjoyed every minute. 

And then... I was mesmerized when I went to the Florida Aquarium a week or so after finishing the novel and spent a good amount of my time staring at their giant Pacific octopus. If only I could have gotten a better photograph of her. The reflections, the light (or lack of light), the water, the glass all contributed to making this a very hard photograph to capture. Watching her gave me such pleasure and made me think of Marcellus. How did she wind up in the aquarium? Did she long to be out of the aquarium and in the wild?

La Vie, According to Rose

When I started reading La Vie, According to Rose, an Amazon Prime First Read selection by Lauren Parvizi, I thought, hey, didn't I just read this book? The plot of this one was remarkably similar to Italian for Beginners which I'd just finished. Both stories were about older sisters watching their younger sisters getting married. Both were raised by single parents. Both had jobs that had disappointed them. They had been disappointed by relationships with men. They needed a break. Biggest difference was in Italian for Beginners, Cat runs to Rome. And in La Vie, According to Rose, Rose heads to Paris. Both women end up staying in apartments with women who help them discover themselves.

And, as I mentioned in my review of Italian for Beginners, "Holiday in Rome" is an important part of each story. Partway thru La Vie, According to Rose, I watched the movie for the first time. Definitely gave me a better appreciation of both books.

Romance isn't my thing, and you'd think after reading a book so similar to this one - that was set in Rome, which this one was not, that I wouldn't have been able to finish this one. But it was a sweet book, had a nice message, and was a pleasurable read.

The Bird Hotel

Joyce Maynard's The Bird Hotel for me was a feel good story. Main character, Irene, had a rough start at life, a rough spell of love and had just about given up. The Bird Hotel is her story about healing and rediscovery.

This story spans many decades and while Irene is the main character, there's a whole ensemble that we get to know and watch grow.

After suffering one more unimaginable tragedy, Irene gets on a bus, not really caring where it's going. She just knows she needs to leave where she's been. She ends up in Central America. She's "selected" by a little boy for him to bring her to a place to stay. It's a run down hotel that rarely seems to have any guests. But it s a place for healing for Irene.

This novel made me wish that during times when I was feeling broken, I wish I could have discovered a hotel similar to the hotel where Irene ends up.

This novel has gotten mixed reviews but I really enjoyed it and would highly recommend. Maybe you had to have felt broken at some point to fully appreciate this one.

Italian for Beginners

 Until now, I'd only read historical fiction from Kristin Harmel. Italian for Beginners was quite a bit different as it was a romance novel. But it was set in Rome. And well, you know, I'm getting excited about my trip. Harmel did an excellent job of evoking Rome. I can't wait to get there!

Funny thing... after finishing Italian for Beginners, I started a book I'd downloaded from Amazon Prime First Reads for free called La Vie, According to Rose by Lauren Parvizi. And the stories are so similar. And both books reference the classic movie "Roman Holiday" so that's what I watched last night. Great movie.

How are the two novels similar? In both novels, the protagonist gets overlooked for an anticipated promotion at a job that doesn't seem to make her happy. In Italian for Beginners, Cat's younger sister has just gotten married. In La Vie, According to Rose, Rose's younger sister is in final countdown to get married. Both Rose and Cat lost one of her parents at a young age and was raised by a single parent who was overbearing and in some ways not up to the task of single parenthood. Both Rose and Cat take on the responsibility for making everyone happy. And both love watching the movie "Roman Holiday." Although not originally. Cat hadn't watched the Audrey Hepburn movie for her own personal reasons until she's already in Rome. Rose has always loved the movie. I'll add in more of a comparison once I finish La Vie, According to Rose.

Cat's life isn't going the way she'd ever envisioned. Her grandmother embarrasses her at her younger sister's wedding. The promotion that she expected to get at work goes to her boyfriend, the brother of her roommate/best friend. After taking a break from said boyfriend, she goes on a date with the owner of the restaurant where her sister got married. A perfect date. Until she learns something about the guy. She realizes that even though she thinks that her father and her sister can't get along with out her, she needs to get away. A co-worker helped her come to this realization. In totally non-Cat behavior, she's doing something spontaneous. The co-worker reaches out as Cat to a guy that Cat had a relationship with when she was an exchange student in Rome 12 years earlier. He turns out to not be the guy she thought he was.

Things go from bad to worse. But from the bad, many wonderful things start to happen. Cat makes some great new friends and begins to come to terms with things that happened to her earlier in her life. Cat learns to take care of herself, not just everyone else. It was really a lovely story.

Romance is not really my thing. But in this novel, Cat was a hobbyist photographer. Her photo outings have gotten me so excited for my upcoming trip. And hey, it takes place in Rome.

Child of God

 

Child of God by Cormac McCarthy is not a book for everyone. And it wasn't a book for me. I was just glad it was very short, otherwise there is no way I would have finished it. It's a book club book (Books & Beer) so I wanted to finish it. It's also good that I listened to it and that I had the time in 2 short days to finish the book while listening in the car.

This is the story of Lester Ballard who is a voyeur and a pervert and has a violent streak. Some of the descriptions of acts he'd performed was a bit much for me.

Big Library Read - A Very Typical Family

 

Before I tell you anything about the book, let me just say that I love the idea of the Big Library Read. Libraries all over the country, all over the world, make the same book available to any library card holders (although from the website, it looks like you might not even need a library card to borrow). There are no waitlists. There are all sorts of discussions online. There are resources for in-person book club discussions. I love anything that makes books accessible to more people. This summer's Big Library Read was A Very Typical Family by Sierra Godfrey.

This is a story about second chances within your family. Fifteen years earlier, Natalie called the police after her sister knocked her head while falling down the stairs. Natalie had arrived home to her sister, brother, and their friend stoned out of their minds. Natalie got into an argument with her sister that lead to the fall. (The comment I'd like to insert here would be a spoiler so I'll keep it to myself.) The brother and sister end up in prison and Natalie leaves home and never looks back. She has no contact with her sister or brother and minimal contact with her mother. Even that contact dries up after awhile. 

Natalie, in a job she doesn't really like, with a boyfriend she doesn't really love, gets a letter from a lawyer in California that her mother has died. Her mother owned a large Victorian house that she's leaving to her three kids but the only way they can inherit the house is if they are all at the house together. Considering the fact that they don't speak, at all, that might be difficult.

Natalie drives across the country from Boston to Santa Cruz, California with her cat and some insect or other creature that she keeps in a jar and feeds crickets. Shortly after she arrives, her sister, Lynn, and Lynn's son, Kit, arrive at the house. Somehow they manage to stay there together. Natalie then starts the search for their brother, Jake. He's some respected orthinotologist at some big institute in Santa Cruz. Only he's been missing for weeks and no one knows where he is. Will they be able to find Jake so they can inherit the house?

The book was pleasant enough to read. Something nagged at me the entire time (same spoiler I referred to earlier) but otherwise, I looked forward to seeing how the author would resolve things.

I loved the relationship that Natalie develops with her newly discovered nephew, Kit. I loved how Natalie realized the importance of her female friendships. And I loved the sense of place that Sierra Godfrey creates. (Santa Cruz is her hometown and you can tell.) Now I'd love to visit Santa Cruz! But yes, there was that one little issue that bugged me. And from some of the online discussions that I read, it bothered other readers as well.

Childhood's End

Let me say it again. Science fiction is really not my genre. At all! When Books & Beer was deciding what book to read for our science fiction month, I had nothing to contribute and said I'd just go with whatever the majority wanted. At the meeting, only the person who suggested this title liked the book. At all. (One other member, who missed the meeting, said she liked it, too.)

I guess Arthur C. Clarke is a big name in science fiction. He wrote 2001: A Space Odyssey which I never read, but I did see the movie. And probably didn't enjoy. Childhood's End was a novel he wrote in the 1950s so I suppose this might also be considered a classic?

Alien invaders bring peace to the Earth. Not everyone is happy with that. But even bigger remains the question of what is the agenda of these aliens. 

By the time of our book club meeting, I still had another 34 pages left to read in the book. I still hadn't gotten up to the point of the novel where the title makes sense. Because I had to purchase the novel, it wasn't available at my libraries, I came home from the meeting and finished the book. Still didn't like it.

My guess is if you're a science fiction fan is that you've already read this. And if you're not a science fiction fan, just skip it.

Happy Place

Emily Henry's latest, Happy Place, is another book that could be considered a beach read. (The meat of the novel doesn't crop up until nearly the end of the novel.) As such, I started to listen to this one at the beach. It was a great novel to listen to as I was at my happy place.

Harriet's story is told from "real life" and her "happy place," with her happy place being mostly an over-the-top beach "cabin" on the coast in Maine where Harriet and her two college roommates have spent a week every summer. for over 10 years  Over the years, romantic partners are included. The "cabin" is owned by Sabrina's father. His wife #3 (or was it wife #4) thinks it's time that he sells the "cabin" so this is the last summer trip the college roommates will be able to enjoy.

Harriet's happy place becomes a bit less happy (understatement) when she spots her former fiancé, Wyn, at the cabin. What is he doing there? Harriet hasn't told anyone that she and Wyn have broken up. Because this will be the final week at the cabin, the couple decides to pretend that they are still together, as to not ruin the weekend.

The first 90% of the novel is pure fluff, some of it a bit repetitive. And you start to wonder how someone who was able to make it through medical school (Harriet is in a residency in her quest to become a brain surgeon) is so flighty and wishy-washy. For me, the end of the novel, when we really figure out what's going on with Harriet and Wyn, that's where there's some real substance with an important message. A message that gave me satisfaction to hear.

If you like Emily Henry, you should enjoy her latest.

 

The Italian Ballerina

I'm still trying to read all the books I can that are set in places in Italy that I might be visiting. A good part of The Italian Ballerina by Kristy Cambron is set in Rome. What was especially nice is that some of the history that was covered in this novel was something I'd first learned about in Eternal by Lisa Scottoline.

Before I tell you a little bit about the story, I must say what I didn't like about this novel. It's told from the point-of-view of several of the characters. The timelines jump around, even within chapters! Once I figured out that this time jumping was similar from chapter to chapter, it became a lot confusing. But I'm really not sure why they author decided to write the book this exact way.

Shortly after the death of Dr. Court Coleman, as his family is trying to pick up the pieces, the family is contacted by an Italian woman who claims to have a precious heirloom of Dr. Coleman. His family knew that he had been in Italy during WWII, but what was his connection to this mysterious woman.

Eventually, granddaughter, Del, decides to travel to Italy to unravel this mystery. She (and the reader) learn about what her grandfather experienced during WWII during the time when Jews were being most persecuted in Italy. Court is part of a scheme set in motion by a doctor and a prima ballerina from London to do what they can to protect as many Jews as they can. (The connection to Eternal: Syndrome K, a made up highly contagious disease that a doctor in a Roman hospital creates in order to keep the Nazis out of his hospital wards, the wards where he attempts to protect the Jews.)

In Italy, Del stays with the mystery woman, Italian ballerina, Calla, and her grandson, Matt. Slowly, Del learns Calla's story and how her grandfather's story intersected with hers.

I believe the only factual information in this novel was about Syndrome K. But the story does prove that even during a horrific time in history, there were good people going above and beyond to do good deeds.

In fact, the real life doctor, Dr. Borromeo was recognized posthumously by Yad Vashem as a Righteous Among the Nations, an honor used to describe non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust. In addition, the hospital, the Fatebenefratelli Hospital, received an honor in 2016 from the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation, an American organization dedicated to remembering and honoring acts of heroism during the Holocaust. 

Off to google if the hospital is something I might want to see while in Rome. (It's not too far from where we are staying. Perhaps it will be somehow included in our walking tour of the Jewish ghetto.)

Love in the Library

 

Until I went to grab a copy of the cover of the book online, I'd forgotten why I'd requested Love in the Library by Maggie Tokuda-Hall from the library. Love in the Library is based on the true story of the author's grandparents meeting and falling in love while in a Japanese internment camp where her grandmother was the librarian. This is a very short picture book and there's not much meat to it. I will always view picture books within the context of a fifth grade classroom. I taught about Japanese internment when I taught fifth grade and this is not a book that I would have shared with my class. There was nothing to it. The only substance was in the author's note at the end. I also wondered why the illustrations didn't have the characters, Tama and George, looking Japanese. (And hey, would I even be allowed to teach about Japanese internment these days? And how disturbing is that!)

Here's the author's blog that will fill you in on the situation much better than I can. But in a nutshell, Tokuda-Hall wrote the author's note that I read in my library copy. Remember, thta's the only bit of the book that I felt had any substance. Scholastic had offered to license her book. BUT... they wanted the author's note edited - to remove all the substanitative writing from it - to ... to what? Make it less offensive? Offensive to whom? Make it less likely to be banned? Are publishers thinking that way? This is why I read this simple picture book and why I think you should, too.

Why shouldn't young children learn about Japanese internment camps? Why shouldn't young children learn about the crisis at our southern border? We're not talking kindergartners here. We're talking about older elementary school children who have a right to learn the true history of our country. A good teacher knows how to frame such a book. A racist parent does not. Which is why the racist parent takes offense. 

The more I think about this, the angrier I become. I guess I'm glad that I read this book, if only to be more familiar with the conflict with Scholastic. Book banning terrifies me. It should bother you, too.

The Book That Matters Most

I really expected to love Ann Hood's The Book That Matters Most. I simply liked it. It's the story of Ava. Her husband has left her, her kids have flown the coop, so she joins her best friend librarian at the library book club. Ava used to love to read and she needs the companionship so figures a book club will be perfect for her. I love reading. I love the companionship of a book club. That wasn't enough.

The book club picks a theme for each year. The year that Ava joins, the theme is "the book that matters most." Each member picks a book that matters most to them. Ava picks an obscure book, one from her childhood. One she considered her salvation after the death of her sister.

This novel was too neat and tidy for me. Too many connections that didn't really make sense. I also felt the character development was weaker than it should have been for a storyline such as this. Yes, we did see Ava grow a little bit, but I wanted more to the story of why she changed. I also had a difficult time with the story of Ava's daughter, Maggie. Her storyline was also wrapped up too neat and tidy.

The Book That Matters Most was a pleasant enough read, but not one that I'd  recommend.

 

The Secret Keeper of Jaipur

 I'm getting the hang of alternating reading and listening to a book which was perfect for Alka Joshi's The Secret Keeper of Jaipur. I loved listening to her earlier novel, The Henna Artist, so wanted that pleasure. But knew I didn't have the time to finish listening to this one within the library loan time. It's an old enough book that I was able to get both the e-book and the audiobook out of the library at the same time. I'm glad I did it this way, too. The Henna Artist was one of the best audiobooks I listened to and I would have been disappointed if I couldn't listen to The Secret Keeper of Jaipur. I didn't love the readers of this second in the series so was happy to be have heard enough to know I was okay with "just" reading the e-book.

Both those books are part of a trilogy. The third book is The Perfumist of Paris which has been added to be "to be read" list. I'll probably try to listen to that one, too. We are introduced to all the characters in The Henna Artist. Lakshmi and Malik from the first novel are the main characters of this second installment. It's 12 years later. Lakshmi is more established in Shimla, married to Dr. Jay. At 20-years old, Malik has finished private school and is ready to find his place in the world. He's started a relationship with a young widow, a tribal woman from the Himalayan mountains, and her 2 very young children, but Lakshmi, his guardian, thinks it's time for him to return to Jaipur and to learn the construction business. Off he goes. We learn about the multiple secrets that are being closely guarded.

The project that Malik works on, a big huge fancy movie theater, suffers a partial collapse on opening day. What could have caused this? And how is the tragedy related to what is going on back in Shimla? What's the connection?

Joshi does an excellent job of reminding you of the relationships between the characters in The Henna Artist in a way that's weaved into the storytelling. The only characters you need to have a better sense of - which would have come from reading the first book - were the maharanis. Knowing those characters from before made their actions in this novel make perfect sense.

I've heard The Perfumist of Paris, which tells the story of Radha, Lakshmi's younger sister, is the perfect wrap up to the series and I look forward to reading that one.

Golden Hills

Golden Hills by Jennifer Weiner is a short story that I picked up through Amazon's Prime First Reads program a month or two ago. I'm not a big fan of short stories as they always make me wanting more. Golden Hills was handy to have around the other night when I'd finished one book and messed up my next library loan.

I'm not sure what I was expecting from this short story, but it didn't deliver. Ida Berkowitz is running for Senate in New York. In October, she gets a heads up that a nemesis, Marissa,  from her youth is participating in a press conference related to Ida's past. Could this be trouble? What's up with this October surprise? Marissa is married to a wealthy conservative donor and is being hosted by a conservative commentator. 

Ida and Marissa met at "fat camp" when they were 16-years old. Ida was the daughter of a hardworking single mom who didn't have much to spare and Marissa was the girl who had everything. Yet somehow the two become friends. Weiner makes you wonder what could have possible happened to tear them apart. What's the scandal?

There was too much thrown into this short little story. Politics was unnecessary. Why were the girls at "fat camp"? And why was Ida gay? This was a short story about friendship, worry, and forgiveness. It was pleasant enough to read and it fit the purpose I needed it for.

 

The Lioness

Right off the bat, I'm  going to say that I would not recommend The Lioness by Chris Bohjalian to any of my reader friends. I've really enjoyed every Chris Bohjalian novel that I've read in the past and really suffered through this one that I read for my community book club. My guess is that we all selected this one based on having read other Bohjalian novels before.

The story is set in Tanzania in 1964. A famous actress invites 7 loved ones to join her and her new husband on their Serengeti safari honeymoon. They expect what everyone expects from a luxury safari - then and now- to be catered to in the wilds while being awed by the wildlife surrounding them. What happens is a kidnapping that we get to hear about from the perspective of each of the participants.

There is a famous "white" hunter, African guides and Russian mercenaries. The kidnapping goes terribly wrong and Bohjalian describes tragedy after tragedy after tragedy.

I'm still trying to figure out what  the point of the novel is. At one point I thought it was going to lead me to a thoughtful reflection upon race in Africa in the 1960s. He barely scratched the surface of that. There were political implications but not enough background information for me to feel as though I've learned a lot while reading the story.

The writing was good... but...

I'm hoping that our book club discussion will focus on what the author's purpose was as I continue to try to figure that out.

 

A Hope More Powerful Than the Sea

Books & Beer Club will meet tomorrow night and I'm really surprised that this particular book club selected this particular non-fiction to read for our non-fiction choice this year. I have a feeling that many of us feel differently from each other regarding migrants and I hope that this discussion can be civil. Fingers crossed.

A Hope More Powerful Than the Sea is the story of Doaa, a Syrian young woman, and her fiance, Bassem. We learn about Doaa's early happy life in Dara,Syria and her family's fleeing for safety and a better life in Egypt after the start of the war in Syria. Life in Egypt was fine until there was regime change. And that's when the life of Syrian refugees became increasingly hard.

Doaa met Bassam during their time in Egypt. He had been a former Free Syrian Army fighter. It takes time for Bassam to win Doaa's love. And the more time for him to convince her that their happiness lies outside of Egypt. That they need to start a new life in Europe.

This story, written at a pretty basic reading level, is heartbreaking and it really brings to light the thought process of how migrants make the decision to leave home - or leave where they are - to search for a new life somewhere with more hope. In Doaa and Bassem's case, it was Sweden. But I would imagine that the migrants that are coming to our Southern border on a daily basis have gone through much of the same decision making. In a nutshell, no one will take the risks of becoming a migrant if they weren't running away from something pretty terrible. (I think I made a similar observation when I read the novel American Dirt in 2021.)

I didn't realize until I went to add this book to my reading log that it was published in 2017. I read an article the other day about the sinking of a migrant ship off the coast of Greece that took place last week that was rarely in the news. I wish I had bookmarked the article that I read. It compared that tragedy to the tragedy of the imploding Titan submarine that ended the lives of 5 billionaires. That story got nonstop coverage for days over the weekend. Nonstop! The particular article that I read gave little bios of some of the migrants who were lost on this sinking ship. Their stories are so similar to Doaa's. In all these years, nothing has changed. The immigrant situation around the world needs to change. Or the inequalities and horrible situations that so many people find themselves in need to change. Our global society is a mess. This biographical book put  those issues into the front of my mind.

 P.S. Part of the book club discussion got a little  heated as it veered from the plight of Syrian migrants to immigration in general. But as a group we remained civil and walked away from the book club still speaking and looking forward to next month.

Spare

I started listening to Prince Henry reading his memoir Spare back in April. It's a long audiobook, nearly 16 hours, and a popular one, and I wasn't able to finish listening within the 3-week loan period from the library. As luck would have it, the day after I finished listening to Eternal, this one popped back up as being available and I nabbed it. I was about halfway in and I wasn't sure if this one would grab my husband as much as Eternal did. But I figured it would be perfect to save for the return drive of our road trip.

Both of us found Prince Harry's story compelling and pretty tragic although it wasn't like Eternal where we couldn't wait to listen to after each break.
 

I can't say that I'm one of those people who is intrigued by everything and anything related to the British royals. I'm not that person. Obviously Queen Elizabeth was the queen of England when I was a child, but she was just there, not anything I ever paid attention to. I do recall, though, when I was in college in the 1970s that Prince Charles came to the United States, the tour having something to do with the fact that he was getting on in years and it was time for him to marry. That's probably the first time I ever paid attention to anything royal. And who wasn't taken by Diana Spencer. I remember watching that royal wedding and definitely paid a little more attention to the royal family once she joined it. 

Ironically, Lady Di and Prince Charles got married months before I got married and their divorce was final just a few months before my divorce from my first husband was finalized. Wow, we had so much in common!

Fast forward to May 2018. I was in New York visiting family. Diana's younger son, Prince Harry, was marrying American TV star Meghan Markle at Windsor Castle. The family we were with wanted to watch the wedding so we watched the wedding and hours of additional coverage about the royal family, about Meghan Markle. You name it, we watched it.

A person would have to be living in a cave to not hear at least some of the dirt about Prince Harry and Meghan. And when I say dirt, I mean dirt! Yes, they're public figures so what should they expect? But really, doesn't anyone need to be dragged through the mud the way that they have? They had to have some pretty good reasons for "quitting" as royals and moving to the United States.

Spare is Prince Harry's opportunity to tell their story. We get Harry's recollections of happy times with his mother. We get insight into the relationship that Harry has with his father, King Charles, and how that has evolved over time. We get to hear about the deterioration of Harry's relationship with his brother, William. And we get to hear about him falling in love with Meghan and the start of their life together.

Harry's story is tragic. When I said that to my daughter, she said she could have no sympathy for them. They're rich and as much as they do for society in the way of charities, they should be doing more. No one should have that much money and why does England even need royals? Okay, I get that. But that doesn't diminish in my eyes that no one should have to live the life that Prince Harry had lived. I bet he would have traded anything, any material object, to have his mother around, to not having the feeling like he was the "unnecessary" son, the "spare," and to have the freedom that my children had to make the choices they have made, whether good or bad.

I can give this a conditional recommendation. If you're at all interested in Harry and Meghan's story, I would suggest you listen to Spare read by the author.

 

Our Missing Hearts

After a friend of mine finished Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng, she strongly recommended that I should read it. "You live in Florida, those crazy book bans. You will really appreciate this." I respect this friend as a reader and we tend to enjoy similar books. Her comments lead me to go into reading Our Missing Hearts thinking that it was going to be about book bans.

Our Missing Hearts is about so much more than book bans, although most books were banned and libraries were not the same as what we think of when we think of libraries. I really can't decide if the story of Our Missing Hearts was any more or any less frightening than what we're living thru right now.

Bird, the child of a Chinese American poet and an American father who works  as a linguist, had a happy early childhood. At some point, his mother disappears. He is now living with his father who now has a job shelving books at a university (Harvard?) library. The goal of the society they are living in is to preserve "American culture." Children of those who are against these policies, especially those of Asian origin whom are targeted directly by most of the laws, are removed from their parents and re-placed.

The novel starts with 12-year  old bird receiving a drawing from his missing mother. He doesn't really know why his mother disappeared or where she might be. But the drawing that he receives he believes is a clue for him to be able to find her. Such begins his quest.

I can't say that I enjoyed the book, because it really is a horrifying story. But it will make a wonderful book club novel and I'm sure at some point my community book club will select this one.
 

Eternal

After struggling with Loyalty by Lisa Scottoline, I wasn't sure how much I'd enjoy Eternal. I loved Eternal. Reading Loyalty, I probably learned more about Sicily and the Mafia than I learned about Rome during WWII, which is mostly what Eternal is about. 

My first inclination would be that it helped that I was listening to Eternal and I could really enjoy the dialog (the actors that read the novel were wonderful). But the dialogue in Eternal was so much richer than the dialogue in Loyalty. The characters were better developed. I really can't say enough good things about it. 

It most definitely did help that my husband was on board to listen to this 19 hour audiobook while on a recent 1,300-mile road trip. He might have enjoyed this one as much as I did, which isn't often the case. Listening to this story was the perfect preparation for our upcoming trip to Italy.

The first stop on our trip will be to Rome. When we were last in Rome, in 2010, we were at the Trevi Fountain. Sort of. We couldn't get near the Trevi Fountain. I said, "That's okay. I don't care if I'm not close enough to toss a coin in. I don't plan to come back to Rome anyway." Here it is, 13 years later, and we're heading back to Rome. The focus of the Rome stay is on Jewish Rome. We're staying just across the river from Trastevere where much of the action takes place. We're going on a walking tour of the Jewish ghetto where a lot of Eternal took place. We're also going on a Jewish tour of the Vatican (assuming I can actually get tickets to the Vatican - who knew that would be so difficult!) and a small but important part of Eternal took place at the Vatican. Now I can't wait to see all that we listened about.

I'm just going to copy the synopsis of the novel directly from Goodreads.

Elisabetta, Marco, and Sandro grow up as the best of friends despite their differences. Elisabetta is a feisty beauty who dreams of becoming a novelist; Marco the brash and athletic son in a family of professional cyclists; and Sandro a Jewish mathematics prodigy, kind-hearted and thoughtful, the son of a lawyer and a doctor. Their friendship blossoms to love, with both Sandro and Marco hoping to win Elisabetta's heart. But in the autumn of 1937, all of that begins to change as Mussolini asserts his power, aligning Italy's Fascists with Hitler's Nazis and altering the very laws that govern Rome. In time, everything that the three hold dear--their families, their homes, and their connection to one another--is tested in ways they never could have imagined.

As anti-Semitism takes legal root and World War II erupts, the threesome realizes that Mussolini was only the beginning. The Nazis invade Rome, and with their occupation come new atrocities against the city's Jews, culminating in a final, horrific betrayal. Against this backdrop, the intertwined fates of Elisabetta, Marco, Sandro, and their families will be decided, in a heartbreaking story of both the best and the worst that the world has to offer.

Unfolding over decades, Eternal is a tale of loyalty and loss, family and food, love and war--all set in one of the world's most beautiful cities at its darkest moment.

I really can't say enough good things about this novel. If you're interested about Rome during WWII and the life of Jews in Rome in the years leading up to and during WWII, I strongly recommend this.

The Lost Shtetl

The Lost Shtetl by Max Gross is the book my Jewish book selected as our July book. As we were discussing options, the question was repeated, "Are. we sure this isn't a Holocaust novel?" We don't want to be a Holocaust book club, limiting a Holocaust novel to just once per year, in April, in conjunction with our observance of Yom Ha'Shoah. "No," we were told, "this mentions the Holocaust but it's not a Holocaust novel at all." And it isn't.

I guess you'd call this speculative fiction. What if. What if Hitler missed a small village in Poland as he was plundering all the Jewish villages and eliminating all the Jews? And then what if, 70 years later, through an odd set of circumstances, Poland discovers this village still exists? And then what if, 70 years later, through an odd set of circumstances, these villagers learn that the there was a second World War, that life went on without them, and there's a whole big modern world that they can't even imagine out there. What if? What could this mean for the shtetl of Kreskol?

Max Gross writes in a style that is both humorous and biting. He tells the tale of Yankel who is thrust out into the modern world after Pesha, and the husband she just asked for a divorce, go missing. The village elders suspect foul play and want this potential crime reported to the Polish authorities. Yankel is someone that no one will miss if he goes missing. But rather than going missing, he brings the 21st century back to Kreskol.

The plot reminds me of the 1999 movie, "Blast From the Past" where a kid goes into a nuclear fallout shelter and emerges decades later into modern Los Angeles. But with a totally Jewish bend.

I recommend it if you're looking for some really different Judaic fiction. There's lots of Yiddish sprinkled in, some which I know from my many months of studying on Duolingo, some which are common knowledge, and several that I had to check the very extensive glossary to see exactly what they meant.

The book was probably a little bit longer than I would have preferred. But the story did keep me going.

Maus I and II

I'd decided that this was going to be the year of banned books for the book gifts that I normally give to our granddaughters for their birthdays. The 15-year old got Fahrenheit 451 for her birthday. I mean, what better than a banned book about book bans! I was really undecided about what to purchase for the 13-year old. Talking with a friend and her adult daughter last week, they mentioned Maus by Art Spiegelman and what an important book they both thought it was. I recalled that I'd looked into getting it from the library when Maus was big in the news a year or two ago, when it was first widely banned, and the waitlist was months long. Not only that, the book had been sold out from several sources online. I decided I'd buy the book and would read it for myself and then decide if it was appropriate for this instance.

When I went to order, I saw that there was Maus I and Maus II. I opted to purchase both. As of today, June 8, 2023, I have only read the first book but will definitely finish reading the second book prior to the birthday which isn't until the 16th.

First impression was why is this book being banned? It's such an important story to be shared. Having a book like this in graphic format makes the story accessible to a wide swath of readers who wouldn't read it any other way. (I'm not much of a fan of graphic novels and it took me several tries, starting over from the beginning each time, to get into the format and style of the writing, to be able to follow the story.) Why is it being banned? Because people in power don't want our youth to be informed. They don't want them to learn from history so they can learn from our (collective) past mistakes. THAT is the real tragedy today.

Was it banned because it used the word "shit" a few times? Really? I still struggle to figure out why it's banned, even when reading articles about why it is banned. The modified swastika on the cover? The story is about the rise of the Nazis and Nazism. It's not like a swastika is being proudly displayed. Is that a reason to ban a book?

In Maus I, Spiegelman relays his father's story of what it was like to live in Poland in the 1930s as the Nazis are invading the country.  Spiegelman's mother father and mother have just met and married. Life for them changes drastically. The book includes Spiegelman asking his father about his experiences during that time, starting with questions about his mother who had killed herself several years before. It includes interactions Spiegelman has with his father's new wife which would be funny if they weren't so sad.

June 9, 2023 update

I finished  Maus II yesterday. Spiegelman's descriptions of life with in the concentration camps and in the days as the war ended and just after it was over gave small details that I've never read about in any other Holocaust book. I really appreciated that Spiegelman repeatedly had his character, Artie, struggle with understanding the realities of the Holocaust. He'd heard about it all his life, but acknowledged that unless you were there, you cannot ever put yourself in the place of someone who experienced it.

Another thing that I really valued in this second was volume was Artie's story, the personal story of the relationship with his father and what it was like for him to be a child of survivors. If you read my review of A Life Inherited that I read a few weeks ago, you know I was looking to better understand the psyche of a child of survivors. Spiegelman gave me more of what I was looking for in that regard than Rena Lipiner Katz did in her memoir. Much of what Artie expressed reminded me of words I'd heard my ex-husband, child of survivors, utter or behaviors I saw him exhibit. I never met my former husband's parents but I imagine that the relationship he had with his parents was so similar to the one in Maus II. In my former husband's case, his father passed away several years before his mother which made my former husband's story different. But had his mother gone first, the struggles between the father and son would have been almost identical. I wonder what Spiegelman's life is like now. Is he happily married? Are his kids well-adjusted?

I'm still confounded as to why anyone would think it was a good idea to ban these books. If you've got young people in your life who enjoy graphic novels, I suggest making sure they have these books to read.