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Bleeding Edge

Thomas Pynchon

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It is 2001 in New York City, in the lull between the collapse of the dotcom boom and the terrible...

ClareR (5911 KP) rated The Paris Library in Books

Mar 2, 2021

The Paris Library tells the story of the occupation of Paris from a different point of view - that of the librarians. Historical fiction is one of my favourite genres, books are my favourite things, so it was a pretty safe bet that I’d enjoy this book!
In 1930’s - 1940’s Paris, we follow Odile, a young woman who wants to be a librarian in the American Library. She gets her dream job - much to her parents dismay. She meets and falls in love with a young police officer, but life begins to get much more difficult when the Germans invade France, occupying Paris. Odile’s twin brother is imprisoned in a camp after he is captured on the front, and her Jewish subscribers at the library are forbidden from going there. Odile’s wartime experiences are fascinating to read about, and I really enjoyed these flashbacks.
We also meet Lily in the 1980’s - Odile’s neighbour in the small Montana town that they both live in. They become good friends when Lily decides that she wants to write a school report about France during the Occupation. Odile teaches Lily to speak French, and they share a love of books. Odile becomes a grandmotherly figure in Lily’s life, and I loved the relationship between the two of them.
I found this book so interesting: when I was reading about Lily, I was desperate to know what would happen in the next Paris flashback, and when I was reading about Odile’s Paris, I wanted to know what would happen to Lily in her next section. I would say that this is the sign of a good book!
The Parisian sections weren’t gratuitously violent - in fact the Nazi heading the library department of the invading forces seemed to be a reasonable man. It’s made clear that the characters don’t like the Germans, and we’re told that Jews go missing, but the German’s themselves are very low key. This is about Odile’s experience, and Lily’s life in the 80’s. And the power of books.
The bravery of the Parisian librarians was admirable, especially as they could have been imprisoned or killed if their acts of resistance had ever been revealed.
I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this book - it was a pleasure to read.

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BookInspector (124 KP) rated Outcry: Holocaust Memoirs in Books

Sep 24, 2020

Outcry: Holocaust Memoirs

Manny Steinberg | 2007 | Biography, History & Politics, Young Adult (YA)

10.0

(1 Ratings)

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The blurb describes the book very accurately, this book starts when Manny was a little boy, he tells about his family and his daily encounters. Slowly the situation changes, and Manny and his family end up in a Jewish ghetto, surrounded by a fence, and ruthless Germans. This was the first time I had the ability to read about life in the ghetto as well as someone who was in the same camps as their brother or father. In the previous books I read, people normally used to be on their own snatched from their houses in the middle of the night. So, it was kind of refreshing to see this different side of the events.

I really admired Manny’s and his brother’s creativity to survive in the concentration camps. Both of them are incredibly smart and, to be honest, lucky men. This book is heartbreaking, filled with violence, torture, disgusting human actions which my brain can’t comprehend. So, if you are sensitive, this book is not for you. I really liked the writing style of this book, it is truly beautiful. It is not like a history textbook, crammed with facts, but more like cruel but an amazing evening story, told to you by your grandpa, where it catches your attention and you won’t go away until you will hear it all.

I really liked the way this book was divided into parts, describing each stage in Manny’s life. The chapters were pretty long, but the book was so engrossing to me, that the pages just flew by. Even though Germans are very ashamed of this period in history, it should not be forgotten! The generation who suffered in these events are dying, but I hope the memoirs will survive from not only those who suffered from Germans but as well of those, who suffered from Russians in the same concentration camps in Siberia, during WWII. I truly hope that these books will be read not only in Europe, which was affected but in other countries as well, especially in the US. As Manny mentioned in this book, they were all neighbours, they used to visit each other and were happy until racism, jealousy and violence were encouraged by the government, and that is what I see happening with Trump and his followers.