Book Quotes of the Week

"One must be careful of books, and what is inside them, for words have the power to change us." Cassandra Clare, The Infernal Devices

"On rare occasions there comes along a profound original, an odd little book that appears out of nowhere, from the pen of some obscure storyteller, and once you have read it, you will never go completely back to where you were before. The kind of book you may hesitate to lend for fear you might miss its company. The kind of book that echoes from the heart of some ancient knowing, and whispers from time's forgotten cave that life may be more than it seems, and less." A.B. Curtiss

"That's the thing about books. They let you travel without moving your feet." Jhumpa Lahiri

"And now that you don’t have to be perfect, you can be good." John Steinbeck, East of Eden

"Books are the gateway to the world and the escape from it." N.N.

[If anyone can tell me the originator of this quote, I'd be very thankful and would happily include the name.]

Find more book quotes here.

Photo ABC

I am a member of a photo group where we get a prompt for every day and have to take an appropriate picture. Because we had the alphabet one month, I decided to do a book theme.

I always added either the link to my blog or to the books. I have decided to post a picture every week so my booky friends can enjoy them, as well.

H is for ... History. 

My history atlas from school but my geography atlas is also history already. It shows countries that no longer exist, the USSR, Yugoslavia, Dahomey, ...

All the books I read that belong only remotely to the "history" or "historical fiction" category can be found here or here.

Scott, Mary "Freddie"

Scott, Mary "Freddie" - 1965

The last book in the Freddie trilogy by Mary Scott. After seeing her sister getting married and completing her nurse's training, Freddie and Jonathan are next in line to tie the knot. But, knowing Mary Scott, this is not as easy as they think. Freddie's father Max suffers a heart attack and somebody has to look after him. Who better than a daughter who has just qualified as a nurse. Freddie spends some time at his farm and meets many nice people. And the readers can see how life in the sixties was in New Zealand.

Funny as all her novels, lovely entertainment.

From the back cover: "Freddie is now a fully qualified nurse, she has the medal she insisted she must earn before she would marry Dr. Jonathan Blake, and she is free to make plans for her wedding. Unforeseen circumstances arise and she must deal with these first.'"

Freddie trilogy:
Scott, Mary "Families are Fun" - 1957
Scott, Mary "No Sad Songs" - 1960
Scott, Mary "Freddie" - 1965

Unfortunately, the books are out of print and only available second hand. I have heard in the meantime, that you can buy some of them as ebooks.

Dugain, Marc "The Officer's Ward"

Dugain, Marc "The Officer's Ward" (French: La Chambre des officiers) - 1999

Another book club read, suggested by our French member. Not a big book like the one we read before, fewer than 160 pages, almost a short story.

A different kind of war story, one that has only one battle at the beginning of the story, at the beginning of the war. Here, our protagonist Adrien is wounded, heavily wounded. Half of his face is gone and he has to spend the rest of the war in a hospital near Paris where he meets other wounded, some that make it through many surgeries, others that don't.

Adrien meets other wounded men and even one woman and they form a bond only those who have a similar fate can form. A friendship starts that will last beyond the war, for the rest of their lives.

This is a simple story, told in simple words and simple sentences (that's why I had no trouble reading it in French). It is an interesting story but I would have liked it to be a little more elaborate, a little deeper.

However, we had a wonderful talk about this. Most of us found the story sad but also showing a lot of hope, showing how the human side comes through when nothing else is left. How in the end we are all the same.

We discussed this in our international book club in January 2015.

From the back cover:

"In autumn 1914, on one of the first days of shooting, Adrien Fournier, a lieutenant in the French Army, leads a reconnaissance mission to the Meuse River. From the opposite bank, German mortar fire blasts the team, killing all but Adrien who is hit in the face by shrapnel. He sustains terrible injuries. In the ensuing years, Adrien is left to wonder whether it would have been better had he, too, died that day on the river. 

* Adrien is sent to the hospital at Val-de-Grace on the outskirts of Paris - to a closed ward without mirrors, reserved for those who have been disfigured. He will never know the incredible hardships his comrades will suffer in the trenches, nor the agony of a long war that most expected to last only a few months. 

* Instead, Adrien's war is an endless round of pain and reconstruction and this one room, which he shares with a Jewish aviator and a Breton aristocrat. Between bouts of surgery, a special bond of friendship forms among these faceless men. And when a once-beautiful woman joins their group, Adrien discovers that hope, humanity, and humor can endure even there, in the officers' ward."

Follett, Ken "Edge of Eternity"

Follett, Ken "Edge of Eternity" - 2014

When I first learnt there was a trilogy about the past century, each part concentrating on a different war: First, Second and Cold, I thought the last one might be the one that least interests me. After all, I've been there, I lived during the Cold War, I keep telling my kids how it was - and probably bore them to death.

However, I only was there during part of the Cold War, I only lived the West German one, not the East German, the Russian or the American one. I think my part was closest to that of the English and Welsh families in the story, after all, we had free elections and could do as we pleased.

As in the previous parts, the author introduces the characters from the different families one by one and most of them are very close to some important people. They either work for Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy, Khrushchev or there is a fictional character who resembles Solchenitsyn ... lots of true life connections that explain what happened in that time. Of course I knew about the civil rights movement but this book has taught me more about it, and I am sure it teaches others more about the parts they don't know.

I was surprised that some people had given this book a bad rating, I think that is mainly because they didn't agree with the way history was portrayed, their view were a little (or a lot) different from Ken Follett. Compared to American Republicans, most Europeans seem to be communists and that is the most evil of them all.

Well, I enjoyed all three books. A lot. I grew to love the characters, I felt like I was part of their families or at least a close friend of them. All together, I read about 3,000 pages of wonderful storytelling. And I am still in awe of the amount of research Ken Follett must have done for this.

From the back cover:

"Ken Follett’s Century Trilogy follows the fortunes of five intertwined families - American, German, Russian, English, and Welsh - as they make their way through the twentieth century. It has been called 'potent, engrossing' (Publishers Weekly) and 'truly epic' (Huffington Post). USA Today said, 'You actually feel like you’re there.'

Edge of Eternity, the finale, covers one of the most tumultuous eras of all: the 1960s through the 1980s, encompassing civil rights, assassinations, Vietnam, the Berlin Wall, the Cuban Missile Crisis, presidential impeachment, revolution - and rock and roll.

East German teacher Rebecca Hoffman discovers she’s been spied on by the Stasi for years and commits an impulsive act that will affect her family for generations… George Jakes, himself bi-racial, bypasses corporate law to join Robert F. Kennedy’s Justice Department and finds himself in the middle of not only the seminal events of the civil rights battle, but also a much more personal battle… Cameron Dewar, the grandson of a senator, jumps at the chance to do some espionage for a cause he believes in, only to discover that the world is much more dangerous than he’d imagined… Dimka Dvorkin, a young aide to Khrushchev, becomes an agent for good and for ill as the Soviet Union and the United States race to the brink of nuclear war, while his twin sister, Tania, carves out a role that will take her from Moscow to Cuba to Prague to Warsaw - and into history.

These characters and many others find their lives inextricably entangled as they add their personal stories and insight to the most defining events of the 20th century. From the opulent offices of the most powerful world leaders to the shabby apartments of those trying to begin a new empire, from the elite clubs of the wealthy and highborn to the passionate protests of a country’s most marginalized citizens, this is truly a drama for the ages.

With the Century Trilogy, Follett has guided readers through an entire era of history with a master’s touch. His unique ability to tell fascinating, brilliantly researched stories that captivate readers and keep them turning the pages is unparalleled. In this climactic and concluding saga, Follett brings us into a world we thought we knew, but now will never seem the same again."

And these are the first two books of the trilogy:
Follett, Ken "Fall of Giants" - 2010 - World War I
Follett, Ken "Winter of the World" - 2012 - World War II

Book Quotes of the Week

"Books, I found had the power to make time stand still, retreat or fly into the future". Jim Bishop

"Writers open our hearts and minds, and give us maps to our own selves." Alain de Botton

"Having books standing on a shelf in a room is like having completely different worlds at the reading watiing to be explored." J.F. Hermans

"Every time a newspaper dies, even a bad one, the country moves a little closer to authoritarianism; when a great one goes, like the New York Herald Tribune, history itself is denied a devoted witness." Richard Kluger

"Knowledge is free at your library. Just bring your own container." N.N.

[If anyone can tell me the originator of this quote, I'd be very thankful and would happily include the name.]

Find more book quotes here.

Photo ABC

I am a member of a photo group where we get a prompt for every day and have to take an appropriate picture. Because we had the alphabet one month, I decided to do a book theme.
I always added either the link to my blog or to the books. I have decided to post a picture every week so my booky friends can enjoy them, as well.

G is for ... German books.

My favourite German book ever:
Mann, Thomas "Buddenbrooks" (Buddenbrooks)

All the German books I read and reviewed can be found here.