Patron Review: The Journal of Helene Berr, by Helene Berr

I just read this new book at EWML library and was deeply moved by it.

The diary of a holocaust victim in WWII Paris, this rich, unforgettable account reveals a twenty-three year old Sorbonne graduate's struggle with the Nazi persecution of Jews in the "occupied" section of France. Southern France was the hated Vichy regime's domain. Her very personal reflections of daily life begin in 1942, and end early 1944. Her growing awareness of just who she is and her deepening love for the man to become her fiance is is oppressed by the darkening outside world. The Journal was never intended to be published, but miraculously survived.

We find in the Journal an immensely appealing, intelligent, musically-gifted woman enjoying her circle of friends, and her wealthy, adoring family. She was fluent in English and loved English literature. Her family were all born in France and had long a part of cultivated life in Paris. Her fatherwas the managing director of a large chemical company, with connections to many influential people.

When she learns of Jewish children in desperate straits because of parents who were "deported" she actively serves in an organization to help them. Near the end of the story, all forty-three persons who worked in this endeavor were seized and sent to Aushwitz.

We see in the Jounal an enormously charming, serious person who would be an ornament to any time, era, or place. Concern for her own safety, when she is urged to "go south" is submerged in the care of others, children, whom she sees as more needy, knowing full well that it will lead to her ultimate destruction. It does in March, 1944 when the Gestapo comes to their house at 7:30 am and arrests her and her family. Her fiancé escaped to the south of France and was still living when this Journal was translated and published. Helene's father and mother never lived to see the end of 1944.

What can one take away from yet another devastating account of senseless Nazi murder? The gratuitous and uselsss elimination of a beautiful person; a life cut short far too soon. What is left to say? To me it expresses the painful fragility of the very existence of a fellow human whose generosity and sympathy probably exceed our own, and whose rarity is still, to me, disheartening. I recently clipped a "letter to the editor" in which the writer reflected on exiting the National Holocaust Museum in Washington DC. It recalled that it was impossible to "know what it was like." But continued that "as human beings, we have a duty to realize how little we know about what it was like."

Lou Wallis

Review: Life After Genius, by M. Ann Jacoby

I loved this book and thought it would become the next big book club sensation all the way up to the last two pages. Then I felt terribly let down.

The story begins with eighteen year old Mead Fegley returning home one week before graduating from university with his bachelor's degree. He is a math genius and has spent his life pursuing academic excellence, but something has gone terribly wrong. Whatever it is is so awful that he has decided to quit school and return to work at his father's business. The story skips around in time, between Mead's childhood as a genius/social outcast and the events that led to his leaving college.

I found myself caught up in this story, wondering what had caused him to quit school when it was so important to him. It was actually suspenseful, but in an interesting rather than heart-pounding way. His relationship with his family was another involving aspect of the story. In the end, the author does not handle the final scene well, so I was very disappointed.

Was it worth the time spent reading? I guess, but be ready for a very open ending.

Lorna Rhyins

Review: Terminal Freeze, by Lincoln Child

A fan of Lincoln Child’s books in collaboration with Douglas Preston I decided to give this book a try. An interesting combination of Native American legend, science, and pure fear; don’t read it alone in the dark. I think you will enjoy it. The characterizations are weak, but the plot moves right along and I found myself racing along to see who makes it out alive!

Margaret Borchers

The School of Essential Ingredients - Reviewed by Margaret Borchers

The School of Essential Ingredients
by Erica Bauermeister

This is a story that makes you feel warm and comfy, like being wrapped up in a nice soft blanket. It’s the kind of story that doesn’t come around very often, but when it does I stop and sigh; “Isn’t life wonderful”.
Lillian runs a cooking school and the students that start her new class each have a story; one chapter for each person. The writing is simple and direct, but so soulful it made me stop often to savor the pleasure of the words.

Library Staff Favorites

I did a survey of the Library staff and here are some of our all time favorite books:

Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart: thirty true things you need to know now, by Gordon Livingston - calls for more responsibility in our lives.

Lonesome Dove, by Larry McMurtry - the classic western

Water for Elephants, by Sarah Gruen - a young veterinary student travels in the brutal and enchanting world of the circus during the Great Depression

True Notebooks, by Mark Salzman - the author teaches writing classes to talented inmates in a juvenile detention center

Every book by Tom Tryon

Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver - a family of missionaries in the Belgian Congo in 1959 is ruled by a domineering father.

Year of Wonders: a novel of the plague, by Geraldine Brooks - a closeknit community is ravaged by the plague in 1600s England.

Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd

Pillars of the Earth and World Without End by Ken Follett

A Town Like Alice, by Neville Shute

Broken for You, by Stephanie Kallos

Middlesex, by Jeffrey Eugenides - a warm and humorous story of a hermaphrodite.

Savage Garden, by Mark Mills

Me Talk Pretty One Day and When You Are Engulfed in Flames , by David Sedaris - David Sedaris' books are wonderful to listen to in audio format. He reads his own work and his renditions are laugh-out-loud funny and deeply touching.

Angela's Ashes, by Frank McCourt - a memoir of growing up desperately poor in Ireland during the Great Depression.

Broken for You, by Stephanie Kallos

American Gods, by Neil Gaiman

In the Company of the Courtesan, by Sarah Dunant

The Tender Bar, by J.R. Moehringer

Lorna Rhyins

Adult Services Librarian

Review of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
Book on CD read by Paul Biehmer, Susan Duerden, Rosalyn Landor, John Lee, and Juliety Mills

This book was recommended to me; I would never have picked it myself because of the title, it is just too strange. Then when I found out it is written in the form of letters, that too was a turn off for me. But I was willing to give the audiobook a try and am I glad I did. This recording is done in multiple voices, which make it even more of a treat!

The story takes place right after WW2 and follows a new author’s efforts to promote her book. When she receives a letter from a man she never met who lives on the British island of Guernsey, she begins to correspond with him, and the other island residents. That’s how she finds out about the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, which was started by accident one night to protect the islanders from a German curfew order. As Juliet reads letters from them about the story of the German occupation, she feels she must visit the island to meet these people, and when she does their stories will pull you in and make you wish you could be part of their family. The characters are finely drawn and so real I could almost reach out and touch them. The war story they tell makes history come alive, brutal and horrific, but filled with acts of courage and love. I highly recommend this book. Listen to it if you can, but read it if not.

Margaret Borchers