Germany

“Richard knows he’s one of very few people in this world who are in a position to take their pick of realities.”

Go, Went, Gone by Jenny Erpenbeck (translated by Susan Bernofsky)

February 4, 2019 by allisonata Leave a Comment

Time does something to a person, because a human being isn’t a machine that can be switched on and off. The time during which a person doesn’t know how his life can become a life fills a person condemned to idleness from his head down to his toes. Go, Went, Gone is a carefully crafted, meticulously researched novel that feels as natural as walking down the street. Protagonist Richard is a newly retired professor of Classics and a childless widower. As a former East Berliner and citizen of the DDR, he has seen his share of upheaval in his life. […]

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Go, Went, Gone by Jenny Erpenbeck (translated by Susan Bernofsky)

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2/4/2019 | allisonata's CBR11 Review No:9 |

If you wonder what the Irish were doing in World War II this might answer it….

Projekt 1065: A Novel of World War II by Alan Gratz

October 9, 2018 by BlackRaven Leave a Comment

This is the Award Winner. The Dorothy Canfield Fisher award is a Vermont state award that the books are picked by adults (though I am not always sure why they were the pickers as one was a professor at my college who had no English or child background that I knew of) and then voted on by the kids. Of course, the year I did this award the “cool kids” pick won. But that is the perfect lead in to this book. It is 1943. Germany is winning the war. Mostly. Or at least that is what they say. Actions […]

10/9/2018 BlackRaven's CBR10 Review No:375 |

My hands itched to knit as my feet itched to travel

This Thing of Paper: Eleven Knitting Patterns Inspired by Books by Karie Westermann

January 1, 2018 by NoNeinNyet 2 Comments

In May 2016, a friend I met through Ravelry brought my attention to a Kickstarter for a book her friend Karie Westermann was writing called This Thing of Paper, with knitting designs inspired by Johannes Gutenberg and the printing press. Even with a planned publication date of April 2017, I knew I wanted this book. It’s a good thing I was patient because I didn’t receive it until December. Westermann divided the book into three sections, as she had layed out in her Kickstarter proposal. Story 1: Manuscript. The story of handmade manuscripts and the people who worked on making them. […]

1/1/2018 NoNeinNyet's CBR10 Review No:1 |

The Book Thief: Just as good the second time around

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

September 14, 2017 by ardaigle 2 Comments

This was a reread, so I’m going to share both my initial thoughts, and my input after another, and more recent, look. My first review (2011): I wish I could give this book 10 stars. I had actually started this book once before and couldn’t get into it for some reason. I am SO glad to have given it another chance because this definitely is now on my list of favorite books of all time. I’ve learned about the Holocaust and read literature by survivors but I’ve never read anything from the perspective of someone non-Jewish as they went through […]

9/14/2017 ardaigle's CBR9 Review No:25 |

Sid is a Jerk

Half-Blook Blues by Esi Edugyan

February 24, 2017 by Gracey the Giant 2 Comments

As a person of mixed race (White mother, Black father) who loves the blues, I thought that a book like Half-Blood Blues (featuring several mixed race characters and blues) would be right up my alley. It was not. In fact, it took me nearly a week to read the first 50 pages and I was bored to death almost the whole time. On page 54 things finally (finally!) got interesting from a story standpoint, but I still had to contend with the writing, which never took off for me. This is in part because I struggle with reading dialogue written […]

2/24/2017 Gracey the Giant's CBR9 Review No:6 |

Never get involved in a land war in Asia

Black Powder War (Temeraire, Book 3) by Naomi Novik

May 22, 2016 by borisanne Leave a Comment

I will admit, I thought I might be out-smarting these books, with the formula all figured out, but this one, the third in the “Temeraire” series, totally took me on a ride. Delightful, surprising, and exciting. Well played, Novik. Black Powder War bothers with barely any passage of time after Throne of Jade. The company is still in China, preparing for travel back to England, when natural disaster and politics coincide and intervene, causing Laurence and Temeraire to take their scrappy crew of aviators overland towards Istanbul to pick up some dragon eggs that the British government has arranged to […]

5/22/2016 borisanne's CBR8 Review No:18 |

Please don’t make me defend a Nazi sympathizer

Dietrich & Riefenstahl: Hollywood, Berlin, and a Century in Two Lives by Karin Wieland

March 17, 2016 by expandingbookshelf 3 Comments

In Dietrich & Riefenstahl, Karin Wieland compares the lives of two famous German movie personalities. On the surface, Marlin Dietrich and Leni Riefenstahl seem very similar. Born a year apart, both harbored big dreams. Both defied their parents, studied dance and worked as actors. Both took lovers and refused to live their lives the way others demanded. But when Hitler ascended to power, the two women reacted very differently. Dietrich became an American citizen and entertained Allied troops during the war, and Riefenstahl supported Hitler, directing some Nazi propaganda films. The major problem in this book is the author’s complete […]

3/17/2016 expandingbookshelf's CBR8 Review No:40 |

A really good read, but I don’t get all the fuss.

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

September 1, 2015 by narfna 13 Comments

This was a really good book on a lot of levels: 1. Good as historical fiction. Excellent particularly because we get POV characters on both sides of the conflict. 2. Good as literary fiction (at least, according to my standards). I prefer my lit-fic to be on the accessible side, and not to focus exclusively on middle-aged white man problems. But it’s also got extra levels if you want to go digging. 3. Good as writing, in the sense that the sentences strung one after another make sense and their stylistic construction adds to the story. 4. Good as character […]

9/1/2015 narfna's CBR7 Review No:126 |

narfna on There isn’t really peace when you are doneI HAVE TO WRITE A REVIEW OF THIS D: I didn't mean to all caps that but it feels appropriate so I'm keeping it.
teresaelectro on Not sure if it’s me, the genre, or the book… #SummerReadOh wow, I used to work for a Danish company from London. I was hoping this book would be good. Darn.
narfna on Also this has the funniest use of PowerPoint I have ever seen. #CBRBingo – Rainbow FlagAlso, it is my firm opinion that anything with a distinct style is going to have more people dislike it. Bland, neutral, unexpected things get...
narfna on Also this has the funniest use of PowerPoint I have ever seen. #CBRBingo – Rainbow FlagI feel like it's a key thing to be able to look at a book lots of people love and understand maybe it just isn't...
narfna on Also this has the funniest use of PowerPoint I have ever seen. #CBRBingo – Rainbow FlagI once told an acquaintance that I loved Farscape, and she responded, "Oh, you're one of those." YES I AM ONE OF THOSE. The show...

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