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Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Review: The Lost Book of Bonn

 The Lost Book of Bonn by Brianna Labuskes (William Morrow, 19 March 2024).

The story begins in 1946, when we meet Emmy Clarke, a librarian who is sent overseas by her employer, The Library of Congress, to catalogue and "rehome" works of literature that had been confiscated by the Nazis.*  She is sternly instructed that all materials  must remain in the building, and that staff are frisked as they leave to ensure this.

On her first day, she comes across a small volume of poetry by Rainer Maria Rilke, with a handwritten inscription: “To Annelise, my brave Edelweiss Pirate...Forever yours, Eitan.”

Intrigued, she successfully smuggles the book home, deciding that she must find out more about Annelise and Eitan. 

In succeeding chapters, we meet Annelise Fischer and her younger sister Christina, on opposing political sides in Nazi Germany, and follow their lives through the Reich's rise to power and the resulting war.  

One of the pivotal events in the story of the sisters is the protest by the German wives of Jewish men who'd been detained by the Gestapo.  The Rosenstrasse Protest was the only mass public demonstration by Germans against the deportation of Jews.  

With skill and sensitivity, Brianna Labuskes tells this fascinating, hard-to-put-down story of women living through horrific times.  

The book concludes with a detailed Author's Note, explaining Labuskes' motivations for writing the book, as well as some of her sources and research methods.  

Highly recommended!!



*The Offenbach Archival Depot, located in a small town just outside of Frankfurt, operated in conjunction (or perhaps in competition) with the more well-known group called The Monuments Men.


Friday, March 15, 2024

Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Review: The Underground Library

 The Underground Library by Jennifer Ryan (Ballantine Books, 12 March 2024).


August 1940.

Three young women, living in the Bethnal Green area of north London, connect through the library and become friends.  

Juliet, 26, has come from the countryside to be deputy librarian at the Bethnal Green Library. Eighteen-year-old Katie, a local, is working at the library for the summer.  Sofie, 10, is a Jewish refugee from Berlin, having secured a visa as a domestic worker.

That month was when the German air raids on London began.  Residents soon discovered that the safest place to shelter was in the underground railway stations.  Eventually, the underground shelters turned into makeshift communities, complete with entertainment and food vendors.

At first, Juliet begins reading aloud to the sheltering crowds, but when the library is bombed, she salvages books and shelving from the rubble and creates an underground lending library.  A retired teacher proposes a school to keep the younger children occupied and out of trouble.  

However, when library administrators learn of this, they are not at all supportive (how could a woman possibly run a library?)  but the locals rally en masse and convince them that the endeavour is worthwhile.

As she did with previous historical novels like The Chilbury Ladies' Choir and The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle, Jennifer Ryan makes readers feel as though they are living the story.

Highly recommended!



Wednesday, March 6, 2024

Women's History Month

 On my reading list for this month are some fictional accounts about real people or events.  Stay tuned for reviews later this month!



The Lost Book of Bonn by Brianna Labuskes (William Morrow, 19 March 2024).

The Paris Bookseller by Kerri Maher (Penguin Publishing Group, 11 January 2022).



The Underground Library by Jennifer Ryan (Ballantine Books, 12 March 2024).

No Better Time by Sheila Williams (HarperCollins, 27 February 2024).