Hislop, Victoria "One August Night"

Hislop, Victoria "One August Night" - 2020

I absolutely love Victoria Hislop. My first book by her was "The Island" and I have read all her subsequent novels (see here). All of them were fantastic, great stories with a lot of information mainly about Greece but also some other Southern European countries (Cyprus, Spain, Turkey).

Fourteen years after her first novel, the sequel to it was published. It is the end of the leper colony in Greece since they found a cure. That is great news for some since their loved ones return, not so good news for others who fear their lives will change. And they do.

A drama that occurs on the return changes the life of everyone whom we got to know in the first book. It would have been nice to learn more about other inhabitants of Spinalonga but we learn more about Maria who spent a long time of her life there.

As in all her novels, Victoria Hislop tells us a lot about her beloved country Greece. She has been made an honorary citizen in the meantime, a well-deserved recognition. I always love her describing the Greek whom I got to know as a warm and loving people. And her stories always have a feeling of truth, you can believe the people really existed, they led this life. She always brings me back to Crete which I really love.

I am already looking forward to her next book which she will hopefully write soon.

From the back cover:

"25th August 1957. The island of Spinalonga closes its leper colony. And a moment of violence has devastating consequences.

When time stops dead for Maria Petrakis and her sister, Anna, two families splinter apart and, for the people of Plaka, the closure of Spinalonga is forever coloured with tragedy.

In the aftermath, the question of how to resume life looms large. Stigma and scandal need to be confronted and somehow, for those impacted, a future built from the ruins of the past.

Number one bestselling author Victoria Hislop returns to the world and characters she created in The Island - the award-winning novel that remains one of the biggest selling reading group novels of the century. It is finally time to be reunited with Anna, Maria, Manolis and Andreas in the weeks leading up to the evacuation of the island... and beyond."

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2022.

Waltari, Mika "The Secret of the Kingdom"

Waltari, Mika "The Secret of the Kingdom" (Finnish: Valtakunnan salaisuus) (The Malinianus Duology) - 1959

This is my third book by Finnish author Mika Waltari, I read all of them in a book club, always suggested by a Finnish member as one of their most important authors.

And it's true, Mika Waltari has some important thoughts to convey, whether it's about religion, philosophy or life itself. You notice this guy knows what he is talking about.

In this book, he describes the life of a Roman citizen who witnesses Jesus' crucifixion and then gets drawn into his circle, meets the apostles and other friends whose lives have been affected by Jesus of Nazareth. He has a great way of describing the story, makes you believe you've been there yourself. Definitely makes you believe that this could be how it was.

Certainly, a great book if you want to explore your faith but also if you just want to delve into the history of Christianity from the outside. This is a very detailed and descriptive story about the passion and its aftermath, starting at Easter, finishing on Pentecost.

I'm not surprised I liked this book because I also liked the other ones I read (The Egyptian, The Dark Angel). A great author.

From the back cover:

"Against a background of the strife-torn land of Judea two thousand years ago, Mika Waltari has written what is certainly his most important novel.

Seeking the meaning to his life in the study of philosophy, the young Roman. Marcus Manilianus, discovers in an Alexandrian library a vast number of predictions, all tending to confirm his own feeling that the world is about to enter upon a new era. Two chance encounters with Jews who proclaim the coming of a world leader whom they call the Messiah or King, cause Marcus to resolve to make a visit to the Holy City of the Jews. He arrives outside Jerusalem in time to see crowds - some curious, some shocked - staring up at three crosses on a nearby mound. Above the center cross, an inscription had been fixed: JESUS OF NAZARETH, KING OF THE JEWS.

The quest that ensues leads Marcus through all parts of Jerusalem and into contact with men and women of all stations of life who had known this remarkable man. And by degrees, wonderful if strange things are revealed to him of Jesus’ teaching, and he experiences the odd sensation of almost believing in the destiny of this crucified Roman among the alien Jews, Stands alone on the borderline of two worlds, feelings he belongs to neither, and it becomes vital to him to find 'the way, the Kingdom,' to again knowledge and certainty, not merely belief.

What follows, as Marcus pursues his search for the promised secret of the Kingdom, bring to a climax as exciting and deeply moving a novel as Mika Waltari, certainly one of the world’s outstanding historical novelists, has ever written. It is a story of a time long past, yet it deals with a theme as modern as today: the dilemma of modern man and his culture in gaining and retaining a faith. And always present throughout the novel is the splendor, the irony and humor which have so delighted millions of readers of other Waltari novels from The Egyptian to The Etruscan."

We discussed this book in our international online book club in March 2020.

Zweig, Stefanie "Somewhere in Germany"

Zweig, Stefanie "Somewhere in Germany" (German: Irgendwo in Deutschland) - 1996

Since I reread "Nowhere in Africa" last year, I wanted to carry on and read the sequel again. I would like to add a little more than a general description, so there might be spoilers. If you have not read the book before, I refer you to my review here.

The Redlich family has returned to Germany since Walter can only work in his country. Regina finds it very hard to adjust and it's not easy to return to a country that is torn by the war and where there are still a lot of people who would rather not have them there. This is something I really don't understand. How could people, after all this time, still dislike the Jews? Shouldn't they all have felt shame, at least those that supported the Nazis? Regina meets a lot of people and they all swear they didn't know about the Holocaust and/or told her how they helped the Jews. Awful.

Regina (well, this is an almost-biography by the author, so Regina really is Stephanie Zweig herself) grows up and becomes a journalist. It is really interesting to see the story unfold, see how Regina and Max grow up and their parents grow older. I will read this book again in a couple of years, of that I am sure.

Stephanie Zweig has written many other good books, none of them translated into English, unfortunately.

From the back cover:

"Somewhere in Germany is the sequel to the acclaimed Nowhere in Africa, which was turned into the Oscar-winning film of the same name. This novel traces the return of the Redlich family to Germany after their nine-year exile in Kenya during World War II. In Africa, Walter had longed for his homeland and dreamed of rebuilding his life as a lawyer, yet ultimately he and his family - wife Jettel, daughter Regina, and baby Max - realize that Germany seems as exotic and unwelcoming to them in 1947 as Kenya had seemed in 1938. Hunger and desperation are omnipresent in bombed-out Frankfurt, and this Jewish family - especially Regina, who misses Africa the most - has a hard time adjusting to their new circumstances. Yet slowly the family adapts to their new home amidst the ruins.

In Frankfurt, Regina matures into a woman and, though her parents want her to marry an upstanding Jewish man, her love life progresses in its own idiosyncratic fashion. She develops a passion for art and journalism and begins her professional career at a Frankfurt newspaper. Walter at last finds professional success as a lawyer, but never quite adjusts to life in Frankfurt, recalling with nostalgia his childhood in Upper Silesia and his years in Africa. Only his son Max truly finds what Walter had hoped for: a new homeland in Germany.

Although the Redlichs receive kindness from strangers, they also learn anti-Semitism still prevails in post-Nazi Germany. They partake in the West German “economic miracle” with their own home, a second-hand car, and the discovery of television, but young Max’s discovery of the Holocaust revives long-buried memories. Rich in memorable moments and characters, this novel portrays the reality of postwar German society in vivid and candid detail."

Levithan, David "Every Day"

Levithan, David "Every Day" - 2012

An interesting book. Not especially my genre. I wouldn't even call it fantasy because to me that's trolls and dwarfs and giants and all those characters that are like humans only a little different and that don't really exist. I wouldn't call it science fiction, either, because that means to me future technology and aliens. Maybe it's dystopian but it's not a different world, at least not for most of the characters.

This is about someone who we know can't exist, either, but the idea is just too captivating not to follow it. What if there were "beings" without a body who would go from one person to the next and live their life for one day? One such "being" is A who has lived 5994 days at the beginning of the book and 6034 at the end. Which means we accompany him/her on forty days of a very complicated life. As a boy he falls in love with this girl Rhiannon and tries to see her again. This changes quite some lives, the lives of the teenagers he or she is inhabiting on those days. We meet a lot of different people together with A and see how he gets to understand them, how  he can live in them for only a short time but really jump in as if he'd been there all the time.

As I said, interesting concept, well written, certainly deserves to be a best-seller, especially for the "young adults" it has been written for because it pauses so many questions that ever teenager goes through. Who am I? Who am I really? How come I am not somebody else? What if I were a boy or a girl? What if I were adopted? What if I could live in someone else's body for one day?

This book was recommended to me by someone who is a lot younger than me. She claimed it was her favourite book ever. I would not go that far but, let me say, I understand her.

From the back cover:

"I wake up.

Immediately, I have to figure out who I am. It's not just the body - opening my eyes and discovering whether the skin on my arm is light or dark, whether my hair is long or short, whether I'm fat or thin, boy or girl, scarred or smooth. The body is the easiest thing to adjust to, if you're used to waking up in a new one each morning. It's the life, the context of the body, that can be hard to grasp.

Every day I am someone else. I am myself - I know I am myself - but I am also someone else.
It has always been like this."

Apparently, there is a "sequel" to this both "Another Day" which could also be called "The Story of Rhiannon" and a "prequel" called "Six Earlier Days" which talks about, well, six earlier days of the protagonist A.

Zweig, Stefanie "Nowhere in Africa"

Zweig, Stefanie "Nowhere in Africa" (German: Nirgendwo in Afrika) - 1995

I reread "Nowhere in Africa" by Stephanie Zweig with an online book group, created by a friend for some of her friends on Facebook. Everybody suggested a book and then would "lead" through the discussion with some questions.

If you have not read the book before, I refer you to my review here.

If you have read it, you might want to go through my questions and maybe add a thought or two to it. Here they are:

1.    What do you think of Jettel, the mother? Do you think there were many people in Germany who didn't see what was coming?

2.    What about Regina? How do you think she will be feeling when she is being transplanted to Germany after the war?

3.    Walter, the father, is mostly described as a caring father who just wants to bring his family through the war. In retrospect, this was the right decision. What do you think he would have thought if the war hadn't been like it was, if he'd transplanted his family for nothing?

4.    Did you know that "Nowhere in Africa" is almost a memoir of the author Stefanie Zweig, that all this happened to her family, that she does have a younger brother called Max who was born in Africa, for example? If you did, how did that make you feel during the read. If not, do you think differently about the novel now?

5.    Do you have the feeling that growing up in Africa has influenced the author's style? Did you feel her storytelling had a specific flow?

6.    What do you think about the other characters, mainly Walter Süßkind and Lilly and Oskar Hahn but, even more important, Owuor? How do you think Walter and Owuor influence each other and change the other's life?

7.    This book was made into a film and received the prize at the 75th Academy Awards in 2003 for Best Foreign Language Film. If you saw the film, how do you think it compared to the book? What would you have done differently if you'd been the director?

8.    I like to learn something with every book I read. Whether you belong to those readers or not, what did you learn from the book?

9.    Any other subjects I haven't touched that you would like to discuss?

King-Smith, Dick "The Hodgeheg" and "King Max the Last"

King-Smith, Dick "The Hodgeheg" - 1987
King-Smith, Dick "King Max the Last" - 1995

Another favourite of my boys, the adventures of Max the hedgehog who tries to save his family and wants to find a safe place to cross the road. He gets hit and from now on jumbles all the letters, so he is a hodgeheg instead of a hedgehog.

A very cute story, especially for beginner readers. The book has 9 chapters on 87 pages and can be read in instalments. It is also a nice story to be read to little kids beginning to understand the meaning of words and letters. The story is both funny as well as educational.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2025.

From the back cover of "The Hodgeheg":

"The hedgehog family of Number 5A are a happy bunch but they dream of reaching the Park. Unfortunately, a very busy road lies between them and their goal and no one has found a way to cross it in safety. No one, that is, until the determined young Max decides to solve the problem once and for all ..."

From the back cover of "King Max the Last":

"Victor Maximilian St George, Max for short, is already a special hedgehog, having worked out how to safely cross the busy road to get to the park. But when two scientists glue a radio transmitter, complete with flashing blue light, to his head he becomes King Max, ruler of all hedgehogs."

O'Dell, Scott "Zia"

O'Dell, Scott "Zia" - 1976

A sequel to "Island of the Blue Dolphins". Zia is Karana's niece who wants to find her aunt who ended up on a deserted island. This is not the same as the first novel, mainly because Zia's life is described in the mission and not on the island. However, a good read, a must if you read the first novel.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2024.

From the back cover:

"A young Indian girl, caught between the traditional world of her mother and the present world of the mission, is helped by her Aunt Karana, whose story was told in Island of the Blue Dolphins."

O'Dell, Scott "Island of the Blue Dolphins"

O'Dell, Scott "Island of the Blue Dolphins" - 1960

"Scott O'Dell won the Newbery Medal for Island of the Blue Dolphins in 1961, and in 1976 the Children's Literature Association named this riveting story one of the 10 best American children's books of the past 200 years."

The Native American girl Karana ends up on a deserted island where she spends eighteen years alone. The story tells about her life, her struggles to survive.

While I probably wouldn't call this one of the best children's books ever, I really liked this story when I read it as a girl. I read it later on with my boys and still thought it was a wonderful book. I later on read the sequel "Zia" which is interesting to read as a follow-up.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2024.

From the back cover:

"Twelve-year-old Karana escapes death at the hands of treacherous hunters, only to find herself totally alone on a harsh desolate island. How she survives in the face of all sorts of dangers makes gripping and inspiring reading. Based on a true story."

Falcones, Ildefonso "Cathedral of the Sea"

Falcones, Ildefonso "Cathedral of the Sea" (Spanish: La catedral del mar) - 2008

One of the best historical novels ever. Barcelona in the 14th century, in the middle of the time of the Inquisition. A church is being built. The story of the people involved with the building, especially the story of Arnau, the son of a runaway serf.

As to our discussion, we all really liked the book, the writing style was captivating, there was a lot to learn about that time, the historical background was great,  the author did a profound research. It was a sad book but that was the life back then. We talked about the middle ages, religion, inquisition, the plague, the Virgin Mary, women's rights, Spain and Catalonia, what has and hasn't changed.

We loved the description of their dedication of building the cathedral, it would be nice to see it.

One question that cannot be answered even today: How is it possible that people can be so cruel in the name of Christianity? And the Jews were closed up in ghettoes back then already. Yes, history hasn't changed much.

We discussed this in our book club in August 2010.

From the back cover:

"Cathedral of the Sea follows the fortunes of the Estanyol family, from their peasant roots to a son, Arnau, who flees the land only to realize spectacular wealth and devastating problems.

During Arnau's lifetime Barcelona becomes a city of light and darkness, dominated by the construction of the city's great pride -- the cathedral of Santa Maria del Mar -- and by its shame, the deadly Inquisition.

As a young man, Arnau joins the powerful guild of stone-workers and helps to build the church with his own hands, while his best friend and adopted brother Joan studies to become a priest.

When Arnau, who secretly loves a forbidden Jewish woman named Mar, is betrayed and hauled before the Inquisitor, he finds himself face-to-face with his own brother. Will he lose his life just as his beloved Cathedral of the Sea is finally completed?"

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2024.

If you liked this, you will also love "The Hand of Fatima", Ildefonso Falcones' second book.

Waltari, Mika "The Dark Angel"

Waltari, Mika "The Dark Angel" (Finnish: Johannes Angelos) - 1952

After having read "The Egyptian" by the same author, our book club decided to read this one a year later as long as our Finnish member was still here, especially since this was the one book she has read more often than any other book. A lot of Mika Waltari's novels have a religious background, there is always an issue of faith in his books. His language is great and he teaches a lot about churches and the background of their history. His books are very detailed and accurate, especially this one is so well drawn together. Most of his books cover different cultures, different religions, powerful, greedy people, but they also show that love conquers all. All the different human qualities were represented in the different characters.

"The Dark Angel" is situated in Constantinople during its fall in 1453. The whole dilemma is explaiend through the eyes of a guy with Greek and Latin ancestors who has lived among the Turkish. A very interesting history book, interwoven with a love story.

We were amazed to learn that the character Anna existed and lived, she emigrated to Venice, and some of the other characters lived, as well. If you visited Istanbul, you might have visited Aya Sofia, it reminds a lot of the Christian and Muslim differences and similarities.

There were so many layers in the book, as usual in historical novels. We thought we learned a lot about the history and the difference between both the Christian and the Islamic faith but also about the Orthodox and the Roman Catholic denominations. One of the causes for the big split between the two Christian churches was the "Filioque clause", the Orthodox don't believe the Holy Spirit derives from the son, so they don't have the sentence "and the son" in their creed.

We discussed this in our  international book club in May 2007.

From the back cover:

"'Today I am called a spy and the lover of the empires most desirable woman. But no one knows my true identity and no one ever shall.

For it is the year 1453; and here in Constantinople a mighty Christian empire is dying brutally as the Moslem hordes storm its massive wall.'"

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2024.

Waltari, Mika "The Egyptian"

Waltari, Mika "The Egyptian" (Finnish: Sinuhe Egyptiläinen) - 1945

A book suggested by one of our Finnish members. She told us that the author studied ancient cultures and theology and the facts in this book are accurate. He couldn't print war books at the time, so instead he wrote this one. We all thought it was wonderful even though none of us was really that much into that kind of history. A very detailed and informative account.

The book covers not only Egyptian history but also everything about the human nature, its goodness and its cruelty. The author writes about love and war, intrigue, victory and defeat, about the role of religion that was very important at the time. It was interesting to compare the ancient way of looking at the world. It's amazing how the pharaoh Akhenaton at the time tried to create a Christian-like religion.

This novel gave a lot of discussion material. The life of Sinuhe, an Egyptian doctor, is wrapped around the history of quite a few famous and impressive pharaohs. I have actually enjoyed it so much that I started reading more about Egyptian history.

We discussed this in our international book club in May 2006.

From the back cover:

"This epic tale encompasses the whole of the then-known world, from Babylon to Crete, from Thebes to Jerusalem, while centering around one unforgettable figure: Sinuhe, a man of mysterious origins who rises from the depths of degradation to become personal physician to Pharaoh Akhnaton."

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2024.

We read "The Dark Angel" by the same author a year later.

Mortenson, Greg & Bryan, Mike "Stones into Schools"

Mortenson, Greg & Bryan, Mike "Stones into Schools: Promoting Peace with Books, Not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan" - 2009

After having read Greg Mortenson's "Three Cups of Tea.: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time" in our book club in 2005, I was delighted that his follow-up was chosen as one of our reads for this year.

Quite a few of us had read "Three Cups of Tea" but you can easily read this just on its own because he gives a good introduction and also revisits stations of his projects throughout the book.

We all loved it, thought this was even better than the first one, maybe it was because he had a different co-writer or he was getting further with his project, whatever, it was a very pleasurable read.

We could not help thinking about him and his wife. They raised lovely kids. He has a great strength of character and patience. If he is a hero, his wife is a saint.

He describes his local co-workers as "The Dirty Dozen", they reminded us more of the United Nations, and being the head of such a diverse group is a great achievement.

Even though someone said she had more questions after than before, and we all agreed to that, we did find the book has a great message. Education is important, especially for women. Being able to read is so essential. If you cannot read, you cannot achieve anything.

Someone quoted "Teach a man and you teach an individual, teach a woman and you teach a generation". This is true, today more than ever.

We also learned that it is very important that help is coordinated, we have to know what people need. And: Listen more, speak less.

My favourite quote from the book: "When you take the time to actually listen, with humility, to what people have to say, it's amazing what you can learn. Especially if people who are doing the talking also happen to be children."

We discussed this in our international book club in April 2011.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2023.

From the back cover:

"From the author of the #1 bestseller Three Cups of Tea, the continuing story of this determined humanitarian's efforts to promote peace through education.

In this dramatic first-person narrative, Greg Mortenson picks up where Three Cups of Tea left off in 2003, recounting his relentless, ongoing efforts to establish schools for girls in Afghanistan; his extensive work in Azad Kashmir and Pakistan after a massive earthquake hit the region in 2005; and the unique ways he has built relationships with Islamic clerics, militia commanders, and tribal leaders. He shares for the first time his broader vision to promote peace through education and literacy, as well as touching on military matters, Islam, and women-all woven together with the many rich personal stories of the people who have been involved in this remarkable two-decade humanitarian effort.

Since the 2006 publication of Three Cups of Tea, Mortenson has traveled across the U.S. and the world to share his vision with hundreds of thousands of people. He has met with heads of state, top military officials, and leading politicians who all seek his advice and insight. The continued phenomenal success of Three Cups of Tea proves that there is an eager and committed audience for Mortenson's work and message."

Wells, Rebecca "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood" and "Little Altars Everywhere"

Wells, Rebecca "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood" - 1996
Wells, Rebecca "Little Altars Everywhere" - 1998

A story about a childhood of abuse and the approach to come to terms with its tragedies. A daughter trying to understand her mother, a beautiful account of friendship. Strained relationships, alcoholism. An interesting novel that brings up a lot of topics, even though I would probably classify it as "chick lit".

If you would like to read this, you should definitely read "Little Altars Everywhere" first.

Some quotes I liked:
"It's life. You don't figure it out. You just climb up on the beast and ride."
"I have been to the edge and lived to tell the tale.."
"I live in an ocean of smell…"
 (from "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood")

"Sidda can't help herself. She just loves books. Loves the way they feel, the way they smell, loves the black letters marching across the white pages..."
"See, she goes places when she reads. I know all about that. When I'm reading, wherever I am, I'm always somewhere else."
(from "Little Altars Everywhere")

From the back cover: (Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood)
"When Siddalee Walker, oldest daughter of Vivi Abbott Walker, Ya-Ya extraordinaire, is interviewed in the New York Times about a hit play she's directed, her mother gets described as a 'tap-dancing child abuser.' Enraged, Vivi disowns Sidda. Devastated, Sidda begs forgiveness, and postpones her upcoming wedding. All looks bleak until the Ya-Yas step in and convince Vivi to send Sidda a scrapbook of their girlhood mementos, called 'Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood.' As Sidda struggles to analyze her mother, she comes face to face with the tangled beauty of imperfect love, and the fact that forgiveness, more than understanding, is often what the heart longs for."

(Little Altars Everywhere)
"Little Altars Everywhere is a national bestseller, a companion to Rebecca Wells's celebrated novel Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. Originally published in 1992, Little Altars introduces Sidda, Vivi, the rest of the spirited Walker Clan, and the indomitable Ya-Yas. It is now available for the first time in hardcover.

Told in alternating voices of Vivi and her husband, Big Shep, along with Sidda, her siblings Little Shep, Lulu, Baylor, and Cheney and Willetta -- the black couple who impact the Walkers' lives in ways they may never fully comprehend -- Little Altars embraces nearly thirty years of life on their plantation in Thorton, Louisiana, where the cloying air of the bayou and a web of family secrets of once shelter, trap, and define an utterly original community of souls.

Who can resist the rich cadences of Sidda Walker and her flamboyant, secretive mother, Vivi? Here, the young Sidda -- a precocious reader and an eloquent observer of the fault lines that divide her family -- leads us her mischievous adventures at Our Lady of Divine Compassion parochial school and beyond. A Catholic girl of pristine manners, devotion, and provocative ideas, Sidda is the very essence of childhood joy and sorrow.

In a series of luminous reminiscences, we also hear Little Shep's stories of his eccentric grandmother, Lulu's matter-of-fact account of her shoplifting skills, and Baylor's memories of Vivi and her friends, the Ya-Yas.

Beneath the humor and tight-knit bonds of family and friendship lie the undercurrents of alcoholism, abuse, and violence. The overlapping recollections of how the Walker's charming life uncoils to convey their heartbreaking confusion are at once unsettling and familiar. Wells creates an unforgettable portrait and funny attempts to keep reality at arm's length. Through our laughter, we feel their inevitable pain, with a glimmer of hope for forgiveness and healing.

An arresting combination of colloquialism, poetry, and grace, Little Altars Everywhere is an insightful, piercing, and unflinching evocation of childhood, a loving tribute to the transformative power of faith, and a thoroughly fresh chronicle of a family that is as haunted as it is blessed."

We discussed this in our international book club in February 2002.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2022.

Mortenson, Greg & Relin, David Oliver "Three Cups of Tea"

Mortenson, Greg & Relin, David Oliver "Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time" - 2006 

A Pakistani proverb says "when you share the first cup of tea you're a stranger, with the second cup you are a friend, and with the third cup you become family."

Greg Mortenson gets lost on his way back from K2. He reaches a tiny little village in Pakistan and meets the most helpful people in the world. He see the conditions they live in and promises to come back and build them a school. He keeps his promise and carries on to build more than 50 schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

This book is about his way from being a carefree single mountaineer to a family father who spends a lot of time helping people in remote corners of the world who get help from nobody.

What a guy. My admiration for Greg Mortenson climbed with every page I read. I would love to meet him - and his wife. The achievements just one guy can reach, it's unbelievable. This story shows how people can change the world, can contribute to make the living conditions of others better. Not all of us will be able to climb K2 (or any other large mountain) but the author shows us that there is always a goal that you can try to achieve, a mountain to conquer.

The description of all the pitfalls are heart rendering but him overcoming them makes you hope for a better future. If the world were full of Greg Mortensons - what a world that would be.

I also loved his admiration of the local people, his ability to tune into their culture and language. Okay, he does have an ear for languages but he is willing to understand his "neighbour", no matter how far away he lives.

I also admire his wife. She deserves some kind of medal.

Needless to say, I love this book. It was chosen as the favourite of our book club reads that year.

We discussed this in our international book club in May 2009.

From the back cover:

"Anyone who despairs of the individual’s power to change lives has to read the story of Greg Mortenson, a homeless mountaineer who, following a 1993 climb of Pakistan’s treacherous K2, was inspired by a chance encounter with impoverished mountain villagers and promised to build them a school. Over the next decade he built fifty-five schools - especially for girls - that offer a balanced education in one of the most isolated and dangerous regions on earth. As it chronicles Mortenson’s quest, which has brought him into conflict with both enraged Islamists and uncomprehending Americans, Three Cups of Tea combines adventure with a celebration of the humanitarian spirit."

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2022.

We discussed Greg Mortenson's second book "Stones into Schools: Promoting Peace with Books, Not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan" in international book club in April 2011.

Hislop, Victoria "The Island"

Hislop, Victoria "The Island" - 2005

An interesting book about a wonderful part of this world with a harrowing past. When I visited Crete, we also took a boat to the unoccupied island of Spinalonga. We were able to walk across it while listening to the story of this beautiful little piece of land. The most exciting part: it was used as a leper colony from 1903 to 1957. People who were banned there wouldn't return into normal life until a cure was found.

This book reflects on the lives of the people on this island, how they got there, how their everyday life was, how life was for those left behind, how the people in the little village just opposite the island were. The author managed to illustrate all this through a family who was involved in the whole history. There are some strong characters in this devastating family saga.

Book Description:

"The Petrakis family lives in the small Greek seaside village of Plaka. Just off the coast is the tiny island of Spinalonga, where the nation's leper colony once was located - a place that has haunted four generations of Petrakis women. There's Eleni, ripped from her husband and two young daughters and sent to Spinalonga in 1939, and her daughters Maria, finding joy in the everyday as she dutifully cares for her father, and Anna, a wild child hungry for passion and a life anywhere but Plaka. And finally there's Alexis, Eleni's great-granddaughter, visiting modern-day Greece to unlock her family's past.

A richly enchanting novel of lives and loves unfolding against the backdrop of the Mediterranean during World War II, The Island is an enthralling story of dreams and desires, of secrets desperately hidden, and of leprosy's touch on an unforgettable family."

I also read "The Return", "The Thread" and "The Last Dance and Other Stories" in the meantime and they were just as great.

Victoria Hislop has written a sequel in the meantime, "One August Night", if you enjoyed this one, I highly recommend you read that, as well.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2022.

Find the other Victoria Hislop books I read here. 

Zweig, Stefanie "Nowhere in Africa" and "Somewhere in Germany"

Zweig, Stefanie "Nowhere in Africa" (German: Nirgendwo in Afrika) - 1995

Another one of my favourite books ever.

We are writing the year 1938 and attorney Walter Redlich manages to flee Nazi Germany in the last minute. They move to Kenya where he is hired as the manager of a farm. They are all experiencing this new country differently, Walter struggles with the different kind of work that is expected of him, Jettel misses the luxuries of her former life, both have more than a few difficulties with the culture and the language, let alone with the bad news they receive from Germany. Only Regina, 9 years old, embraces the life on the new continent, learns the languages, finds friends and cannot imagine another life. When her little brother Max is born in 1946, the family is complete.

This is an almost-autobiography of author Stefanie Zweig. She is a wonderful author who has written a lot about the continent where she left her heart: Africa. There is a sequel to this book which is called "Somewhere in Germany".

It has taken long enough to translate this book into English, twelve years to be precise. In 2001, it was made into a movie and that movie received an Oscar for best foreign movie. The film is very good but, as usual, doesn't give the book any credit.

Anyway, Stefanie Zweig is one of my favourite authors. She writes equally well about Jewish issues as well as about Africa since she spent an important time of her childhood there. She still lives in Frankfurt, though.

We discussed this in our book club in April 2008.

From the back cover:

"Nowhere in Africa is the extraordinary tale of a Jewish family who flees the Nazi regime in 1938 for a remote farm in Kenya. Abandoning their once-comfortable existence in Germany, Walter Redlich, his wife Jettel, and their five-year-old daughter, Regina, each deal with the harsh realities of their new life in different ways. Attorney Walter is resigned to working the farm as a caretaker; pampered Jettel resists adjustment at every turn; while the shy yet curious Regina immediately embraces the country - learning the local language and customs, and finding a friend in Owuor, the farm's cook. As the war rages on the other side of the world, the family’s relationships with their strange environment become increasingly complicated as Jettel grows more self-assured and Walter more haunted by the life they left behind. In 1946, with the war over, Regina's fondest dream comes true when her brother Max is born. Walter's decision, however, to return to his homeland to help rebuild a new Germany puts his family into turmoil again."

I have read the book again in the meantime and discussed it with another book club. Find my discussion questions here.

* * * * *

Zweig, Stefanie "Somewhere in Germany" (German: Irgendwo in Deutschland) - 1996

As we all know, the war ends at some point and so the Redlich family returns back to Germany into bombed-out Frankfurt. This seems as hard as the move to Kenya. The post-war country is struggling, and so are the Redlichs. There is still anti-Semitism and hunger is ever present, they lost their whole family, they have to adjust to life in Europe again, for the children a completely unknown world. Regina grows up and starts working as a journalist. Life circumstances get better.

Another great description of life in different circumstances. This is the sequel to "Nowhere in Africa". Read the other one first and then come and discuss this with me.

From the back cover:

"Somewhere in Germany is the sequel to the acclaimed Nowhere in Africa, which was turned into the Oscar-winning film of the same name. This novel traces the return of the Redlich family to Germany after their nine-year exile in Kenya during World War II. In Africa, Walter had longed for his homeland and dreamed of rebuilding his life as a lawyer, yet ultimately he and his family - wife Jettel, daughter Regina, and baby Max - realize that Germany seems as exotic and unwelcoming to them in 1947 as Kenya had seemed in 1938. Hunger and desperation are omnipresent in bombed-out Frankfurt, and this Jewish family - especially Regina, who misses Africa the most - has a hard time adjusting to their new circumstances. Yet slowly the family adapts to their new home amidst the ruins.

In Frankfurt, Regina matures into a woman and, though her parents want her to marry an upstanding Jewish man, her love life progresses in its own idiosyncratic fashion. She develops a passion for art and journalism and begins her professional career at a Frankfurt newspaper. Walter at last finds professional success as a lawyer, but never quite adjusts to life in Frankfurt, recalling with nostalgia his childhood in Upper Silesia and his years in Africa. Only his son Max truly finds what Walter had hoped for: a new homeland in Germany.

Although the Redlichs receive kindness from strangers, they also learn anti-Semitism still prevails in post-Nazi Germany. They partake in the West German 'economic miracle' with their own home, a second-hand car, and the discovery of television, but young Max’s discovery of the Holocaust revives long-buried memories. Rich in memorable moments and characters, this novel portrays the reality of postwar German society in vivid and candid detail."

We discussed this in our book club in January 2016.

I have reread the book a couple of times. Find my new reviews here and here.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2021.