5 comments about The Red Door: An Inspector Ian Rutledge Mystery (An Ian Rutledge Mystery).

1. When I first started reading mysteries, I read Agatha Christie, and this book reminded me of her style, kind of slow in revealing key points. Layers upon layers. I liked the protagonist, Ian Rutledge, who is a veteran and is still haunted by what he did in the war.
   The year is 1920 and we're talking about the Great War, the one that was supposed to end all wars. We know how that turned out! Anyway, Ian is a detective with Scotland Yard, and he's having some trouble returning to work after his experiences in the war. In fact, he carries with him the 'ghost' so to speak of a man he had to shoot, Hamish, a Scotsman. Hamish is obviously the personification of the guilt Rutledge can't rid himself of. I'm eager to know more of the background of the two. In this tale, Rutledge is assigned a missing persons case. A man of means has disappeared and his family, the Tellers, are worried about him. Rutledge feels that a missing persons case should not involve the Yard, but because of the missing man's standing in society, he is assigned nonetheless. Teller turns up on his own a few days later, but now there is a case of a murder in a village some miles from London that Rutledge must turn his attention to. A woman who lives alone in a house whose door has been painted red. No one had any reason to kill her, or so the local constable thinks. Rutledge soon finds out that appearances are often not what they seem. And there may be a connection between his missing persons case and this murder. This is an atmospheric tale that will take you back to the England of the twenties. You will also find yourself wishing that Ian Rutledge will find a way to come to terms with what he did in the past. He's a very likable character. I look forward to further Ian Rutledge mysteries.



2. Charles Todd's THE RED DOOR is one of the best in the 12 book series. Walter Teller, a missionary in China and Africa and a chaplain in WWI, is suddenly stricken with a paralysis. He is taken to an exclusive clinic in London where his wife, his brothers, Edwin and Peter, and their wives wait for some sign of improvement. The doctors are stymied and the family fears that Walter is dying. Then, as suddenly as the paralysis came on, it disappears and so does Walter. Ian Rutledge is assigned another impossible task: find Walter Teller before the press learns of his disappearance. The Tellers are not a family to be discussed in the press.
   
   As Rutledge begins what he believes will be a fruitless search, Walter reappears with no memory of where he has been.
   
   In Lancashire, a woman has been waiting two years for the return of her husband from the war. Rutledge is sent to the village of Hobson because the dead woman is Florence Teller whose husband was named Peter. Somehow, in some way, Florence is tied to one of the brothers who has been living a lie with a wife in London.
   
   The book is the story of the visible and invisible wounds left by the war. It is the story of money, class, privilege, inheritance, and secrets. And it is the story of the destruction of a powerful family who are the victims of the control exerted by their father from beyond the grave.
   
   I liked THE RED DOOR for all the reasons that many other reviewers didn't. Rutledge is changing. Hamish is ever present but his voice is more hushed. The 12 books in the series represent a year in Rutledge's life and he is moving slowly back to the people who love him and whom he loves. He is becoming less a victim of the war and more a survivor of the carnage.
   
   I eagerly await book 13.



3. IN SPITE OF THE FACT THAT THIS MOTHER AND SON TEAM HAVE HAD SUCCESS WITH ALL THE RUTLEDGE MYSTERIES, (AND I HAVE READ THEM ALL, ) IT IS DISAPPOINTING TO SEE THAT RUTLEDGE IS A SCARED, RIGID,PURITAN. HIS FEAR OF CONFESSING HIS WAR TRAUMAS ONLY MAKE ME EXASPERATED, NOT COMPASSIONATE, BECAUSE AS A CHARACTER HE LACKS REAL DEPTH, AND COMFORTABLY LIVES WITH HIS NIGHTMARES. THERE IS A SAYING THAT GOES: SOME PEOPLE WOULD RATHER BE MISERABLE IN THE STATE THEY LIVE IN, THAN DARE TO CHANCE A CHANGE, FOR THAT IS REALLY TERRIFYING. SO IN ALL, THE NOVEL TAKES A VERY SLOW ROAD, AND NOTHING HAPPENS FOR THE LONGEST PERIODS...OR DISTRACTING OUR ATTENTION LIKE THE PART IN WHICH XXX IS SUSPECTED FOR MURDER, WHEN FROM THE BEGINNING IT IS OBVIOUS THAT THE WIFE HAD A BIGGER MOTIVE THAN HE. SO, I AM SORRY FOR I REALLY LOOK FORWARD TO CHARLES TODD'S BOOKS, AND I'M AFRAID THAT I HAVE BEEN DISAPPOINTED SLOWLY BUT SURELY BY THE STILLPOINT IN WHICH OUR HERO LIVES. OH, ANOTHER THING. WHY DO ALL THESE NOVELS ,YOURS' AND QUITE A FEW MORE AUTHORS ,,HAVE THIS PROBLEM WITH AUTHORITY? IS IT BECAUSE ALL POLICE CHIEFS EVERYWHERE ARE EMBITTERED BEAUREAUCRATS? OR, BECAUSE DETECTIVES ARE WOOZES WHO CAN'T STAND UP FOR THEIR RIGHTS..) ANYWAY, I AM DIGRESSING. I DO CONGRATULATE YOU ANYWAY, BECAUSE IT IS TOUGH ENOUGH TO GET ONE'S HEAD IN ORDER, MUCH MORE TWO! KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK AND PLEASE INJECT SOME RED BLOOD IN RUTLEDGE'S VEINS,AND MAKE HIM SMART, HE WAS SO PROMISING IN THE FIRST SIX OR SEVEN BOOKS..IT REALLY STARTED COMING APART IN "PALE HORSE". HE IS TOO SIMILAR TO DAGLEISH, LYNLEY, ETC. FOR MY TASTE.The Red Door: An Inspector Ian Rutledge Mystery (An Ian Rutledge Mystery)



4. An interesting introduction to the Inspector Ian Rutledge mystery series. A local talk by the authors attracted my attention so I bought the book. Now I am looking forward to reading more in the series.



5. Walter Teller is taken suddenly hill driving home one day in the spring of 1920. His miraculous recovery is only evidenced by the fact that he's walked away from the clinic where he'd been a patient. Inspector Ian Rutledge of Scotland Yard is called in to search for the missing patient who returns of his own volition with as little reason for walking away as he appears to have for his return.
   
   Of course, it's difficult to say much more without giving away plot elements and, in a mystery, that's a very bad thing. There are a lot of twists and turns to the plot here, some of which I found over the top. However, I don't think that fans of the author's Ian Rutledge series will be disappointed by this latest offering. There's not as much of Hamish as some might like but there's plenty of the atmosphere of immediate-post-war England that Todd does so well.
   
   For those who've never read any of this series I wouldn't recommend this as a first venture. Start with the very first book and get an understanding of the Inspector's unique background and then jump about as much as you like. ( )

5 comments about The Steel Wave: A Novel of World War II.

1. Usually a war novel of this sort is very dull but in this book, the author did an excellent job of developing the main characters. I am only about 100 pages into the book but I can't wait to pick it up and read. The fears and the inner thoughts of the characters make the story one with a lot of human interst. True it is a novel but one that is true to the events of the war and historically accurate.



2. I have enjoyed every book I have read by Jeff Shaara and this was no exception. I just started the next book in the WW II series. Easy, fun and informative to read.



3. the book arrived in good condition for a christmas gift. the recipiant was pleased with the gift.



4. As usual Jeff Sharra has written a wonderful book. His history is good and his writing style fits my taste. I can recommend this book to readers whether they like history or not.



5. Another excellent novel. I've enjoyed all of Jeff's books, including his father's. They never fail to inspire continued study and reading.

5 comments about Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl.

1. I have been half wanting to read this book since I, myself was a teenaged girl. It is, of course, a much-lauded book and yet I wasn't certain I could handle another personal account of the holocaust, especially given that this isn't even a survivor's tale.
   
   I was surprised to find the book to be a bitter-sweet read. Anne is a 14 year old girl and despite all that is happening to her, she maintains the sensibilites of a 14 year old girl. In some sense it was like reading any young girl's diary. She questions herself and her place in the world, she admonishes those around her, she develops a crush and wonders what love is, etc, etc. Anne seems like she was a very sensible, smart and creative young girl. I was impressed with her constant efforts for study and self-improvement. It's interesting to see the ways in which every generation is the same and the ways each generation is different.
   
   This book also gave a good sense about what it might be like to live under such duress and in such close quarters with a large group of other people. It didn't take long for everyone to stop getting along. Even despite all their stresses, they did try to make holidays and birthdays as special as they could. There were even some humorous moments.
   
   Overall this really is a sweet book which I would recommend, especially to teenagers. It's like being a fly on the wall during a moment in history. Though I wouldn't recommend this to those seeking to learn a great deal about WWII or the holocaust. Being in captivity, as they were, and also being the diary of a young girl, there isn't too much discussion of politics (though there is some and some of the things were news to me).
   
   Good book, I feel now like Anne is friend of mine. She seems like a charming girl who would have gone far with her life. It's a sick, sad shame she didn't get the chance.



2. My mistake ordering this. It is a teacher's packet regarding Anne Frank. Although not what I thought I was ordering it arrived in good shape - shipped quickly.



3. I was shocked at how insightful this young girl was in her entries. I tended to forget that Anne was a girl who was only 13-15 years old. The way she discussed such issues as love, religion, politics, a life of anonymity, her relationship with her parents, the war, etc. were a joy to read.
   
   The progression of the diary entries truly showed how Anne matured into a young women. Although Anne was in a situation very few have been in, I believe her diary entries reflect the general mind of teenage girls. Her longing to be loved by Peter (her housemate), her sarcasm and quick wit, and the relationship with her parents are not unique only to Anne. Her feelings can be shared by millions of women and men.
   
   I recommend the book highly. It gives the reader a perspective to the war that is rarely seen.



4. An overwrought bit of propaganda that has been worth well over $300 billion in aid to Israel over the last several decades.



5. While any edition of Anne Frank's diary is worth reading, I prefer the definitive edition. Most of you know that it includes previously removed material about her strained, complicated relationship with her mom, her more saucy comments that convey her frustration with many of the adults in the secret annex, and her developing sexuality. All these things make her more well rounded than in the regular version. Her progression from a silly school girl to a more mature, introspective young woman is even more striking and heartbreaking. Heartbreaking because her life was cut short not too long after her last entry, the most deep one she'd written. Of course it includes the constantly misconstrued "In spite of everything, I still believe people are really good at heart" line, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. Sometimes sassy, bratty, and sharp tongued, but always caring, kind, and reflective, it's a crime that her talents were never given a chance to shine in adulthood. Anne dreamed of being a writer and a journalist, but never knew her wish to "go on living even after [her] death" would come true in a literal sense. We must never forget this girl and the many other innocent victims who perished in the Holocaust. Never.

5 comments about Maus II: A Survivor's Tale: And Here My Troubles Began.

1. This is a very good comic book regarding the Holocaust.
   
   It sounds like it would be weird but it is a very good series.
   
   Easy to read and well worth the short time.



2. The sequel to Maus I by Art Spiegelman definitely sustains the originality and ingeniousness present in the first portion of the series. Everything within Maus, from the images to the dialogue is profound. The anthropomorphic figures are present in the sequel as well and give the reader the opportunity to absorb the incomprehensible and gruesome events. The novel picks up with both Anja and Vladek Spiegelman standing at the gates of Auschwitz, unsure of the significance of their location. The struggle to avoid the crematorium, death by starvation, the bitter Nazi guards, and other horrific factors of concentration camps begins. Art chooses to emphasize the vitality of luck, resourcefulness, and will power in the survival of his father. The presence of these attributes in Vladek brings a hopeful light to the account, amidst the depressing reality of the situation. However, the present day account of Vladek that is given is much less flattering. He has become a racist, pragmatic, and bitter man, and people who can stand to be in the same vicinity as him come few and far between. Vladek may have physically survived the war, but the notable man he once was died in Auschwitz, according to Art. The bickering and disagreements between Art and Vladek persist throughout Maus II. Likewise, Vladek and Mala, the woman who he married after the death of his first wife, are constantly at odds and certainly go through their fair share of problems in the novel. It becomes clear that the coalition of Vladek's experiences and his demeanor in the last years of his life are directly related. For instance, Vladek's rule for Art to complete every part of his meal is a result of his experience with starvation and lack of food. Vladek remembers what it is to be starving and he does not believe in wasting food, at the expense of his son's emotions or not. Art begins to see this relation as he spends more time with his father. Just as Art would begin to sympathize with Vladek because of his experiences, Vladek would typically demolish Art's sympathy by his racist actions or combative moods. However, Art still retains feelings of pressure to properly convey his father's story. Both Art and Vladek struggle through coming to terms with the past in Maus II. Art realizes the extreme significance in retelling his father's account of survival, and he tries to make sense of the events. Yet, Art Spiegelman realizes that making sense of the Holocaust is impossible because it made no sense at all, there was no justification in it. Therefore, Art does not attempt to tell a moral in the end, he simply tells the story. Wisely, Spiegelman let history speak for itself once he had presented the facts.



3. Maus II is a great depiction of the Holocaust. It tells the second half of the story of Vladek Spiegelman and his journeys from Auschwitz to liberation through the Holocaust. The sequel gives more of an insight into the mind of Art Spiegelman as he records his father's stories. But part of what makes the Maus series so different from the rest of the books on the Holocaust is that these are not only the story but a comic book. In the graphic novel it's easy to pick up on the differences between father and son. It tells how the Holocaust and events surrounding the concentration camp shaped those that had to suffer through it all. Art realized the importance of his father, and learned to look through his father's seemingly selfish actions to understand that he was just trying to teach Art all he had to learn through his experiences. Vladek loves Art because through the Holocaust he came to realize that family is really the only thing a person has. He lost his money, he lost his job, and all he had that got him through the days was the thought of seeing Anja again. The thoughts of survival and perseverance were his only thoughts because of the truly horrific experiences he had to go through. In this tale of Art Spiegelman's survival, it gives readers an inside look at the Auschwitz death camp, the death marches, and life after liberation. Through this novel it is also shown the lasting effects the Holocaust had on the men and women who survived, the continual trouble it caused them. It was something they would never recover from, it affected their future children even. It is a tale of triumph, self discovery, and family.



4. It doesn't get any better than this.}
   It's almost beyond giving it a "review"....Both I and II are so important and so good. An honor to the six million and more.



5. This was an excellent book. I received the first one for Christmas, and completed it within a day.

5 comments about Everything Is Illuminated: A Novel.

1. There was so much that was wonderful about this book that I hate to criticize it. Foer is without doubt a brilliant young writer who puts his whole heart and soul into print. The sheer energy with which this book was written could power the entire East Coast. (A for effort!) But more than that, Foer is passionate about his characters. They speak with voices that are touching, outlandishly funny, gently humorous (in a way that is distinctly Old World Jewish), and immensely tragic. I could not help but feel deeply moved, once again, by the experience of the Holocaust and by the history of Eastern Europe's lost shtetls.
   
   My reservations come not from the content of the book, but from Foer's (at times) preciousness. I believe that every word a writer puts on paper should be readable. A page and a half of "We are writing..." is not something that anybody can (or should) read. One simply glances at the first two lines, sees that they were repeated ad nauseam, and then moves on. (The same holds true for two pages that consisted mostly of ellipses.) Forcing readers into skipping pages of a novel is on a par with inserting five minutes of silence into a symphony. Continuity is sacrificed for the questionable effects of a gimmick. Foer also draws too heavily on Garcia Marquez. The character of Brod bore such an uncanny resemblance to Remedios the Beauty (in One Hundred Years of Solitude) that I couldn't take Foer's Brod seriously. It's one thing to be inspired by a great author's style, but it is quite another to crib one of his characters. There were other writing problems as well: logic errors that should have been caught by the editor (zippers did not exist in the 18th century, for example), and serious flaws in tone (far too many "potty jokes" thrown in at inappropriate times). In short, the book needed a few more revisions before publication.
   
   While I would give Foer an A for effort, I think that if he hadn't tried so hard, this book might have been better. (Sometimes a little understatement works wonders.) But, despite all the novel's shortcomings, I couldn't help but cheer him on, because, in the end, Foer had a profound point to make. (No, this book is not about love, in spite of Foer's youthful preoccupation with sex.) Foer's real point, made through Lista, is that we must all keep alive that sixth sense of the Jews: Memory. For without it, we are not only doomed to repeat history, we are deluded into thinking that we are not.



2. Dedicated to Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009)
   
   Though I have no idea what he looks like, on paper, Jonathan Safran Foer is a dumpy magician garbed in a tattered black cape with a red velvet underside, waving his hands wildly, brandishing a cane purchased at Woolworth's, a shabby magician's hat propped on his balloon-shaped head, forever mugging and attention-grubbing, radiating spittle and a desperate need to be liked, nasalizing the same stale jokes ad infinitum, while the audience laughs wanly and with painful politesse. His overeager face comes too close to yours, his tongue impending over his lower lip, which is bespattered with saliva.
   
   Consider Foer's massively popular EVERYTHING ILLUMINATED (2002). While it is not the worst book that I have ever read, it is easily the smarmiest. Nearly every page is dripping with dollops of cynically contrived pap, mawkish kitsch that appeals to the child in all of us. You know, that child who is beguiled easily and who doesn't know the difference between art and tripe.
   
   The novel is structured according to two temporal continua. The first continuum is narrated from the perspective of Alexander Perchov, The Loveable Ukrainian Tour Guide of one "Jonathan Safran Foer" (also known in the text as "the hero" and "the ingenious Jew"). "Foer" is searching for the woman who saved his grandfather from death at the hands of the Nazis. To create Alex's language, the writer takes ordinary sentences in English and substitutes certain words for other, less felicitous ones. This gimmick grows tedious after the first three pages, and nothing, of course, is more uncouth than an American writer who mocks the speech patterns of those who speak English as a foreign tongue. Alex's malapropisms, however, are more pleasant to read than "Foer's" prose in the second continuum, a turgidly narrated history of Trachimbrod, a Ukrainian shtetl, from its foundation in the late eighteenth century until its destruction during the Second World War.
   
   Both continua are interlaced--as the first continuum culminates in the discovery of Trachimbrod by "Foer" and his tour guide, the second culminates in an account of the mass-murder of its inhabitants; the fatality of Alexander's grandfather is superimposed on the fatality of "Foer's" grandfather, and so forth. The point, plangently, is that "everything" in the present is "illuminated" by the past. The alleged "cleverness" of this narrative device escapes this reviewer.
   
   Every one hundred pages or so, a striking passage or sentence emerges from the thick, grey, monotonous mass that surrounds it, a passage or sentence that seems, at first glance, almost profound. And, on further examination, these profundities are only specious banalities.
   
   Let me allude to two examples of Profound Truths in EVERYTHING IS ILLUMINATED:
   
   "God loves the plagiarist... God is the original plagiarizer... the creation of man was an act of reflexive plagiarizing; God looted the mirror" [Olive Edition, 185].
   
   In other words, if you paint a portrait of yourself, you are "plagiarizing" yourself. If you photograph yourself in a mirror, you are "plagiarizing" yourself. To say that the creation of man was an act of plagiarism is to void the word "plagiarism" of all meaning. There is, nonetheless, genuine theft in EVERYTHING IS ILLUMINATED: Foer does "God's work" by pilfering the entire final section of David Grossman's SEE UNDER: LOVE, "The Complete Encyclopedia of Kazik's Life." Foer isn't so much influenced by Grossman as he is dominated by him.
   
   Another "profound" moment:
   
   "The only thing more painful than being an active forgetter is to be an inert rememberer" [360].
   
   Foer here forgets that active forgetting (a term taken from
   Nietzsche, "aktive Vergesslichkeit") is the same thing as inert remembrance.
   
   Friedrich Schlegel once said of Denis Diderot: Whenever he does something truly brilliant, he congratulates himself on his brilliance. In my essay on EVEN COWGIRLS GET THE BLUES, I wrote the same thing about Tom Robbins. The terms must be substituted in the case of Jonathan Safran Foer, however: Whenever he does something truly sentimentalistic, Foer congratulates himself on his easy sentimentalism. It is difficult to write a crowd-pleasing novel about the Shoah unless everything is sentimentalized.
   
   Dr. Joseph Suglia



3. Jonathan Safran Foer has written an amazing debut novel in Everything Is Illuminated. It explores the Jewish culture and history in the Ukraine. A young American writer, also named Jonathan Safran Foer, has come to this country to find his family's history. In particular, he wants to find the woman who saved his grandfather from the Nazi's. In order to accomplish this, he engages the services of Alex Perchov, a young Ukrainian translator. The men take off an a journey of exploration and discovery, accompanied by Alex's grandfather and the family dog, Sammy Davis Junior, Junior.
   
   Jonathan knows the name of the village his family came from, Trachimbrod. Unfortunately, that name is not on any maps, nor can they find anyone who knows anything about such a place. Finally, they find an old woman who says she has been waiting for years for someone to come and ask about this place and all that occurred there.
   
   The book is told through several devices. Some of the narrative is Alex writing to Jonathan after Jonathan's return to America. These portions are where we find out Alex's story and his hopes and desires. Another part is the recounting of the journey they take. Finally, stories of the Jewish people in this region are interwoven with the current narratives.
   
   Foer has written an amazing debut novel. It is, by turns, ribald, humorous, breathtakingly depressing, passionate and trivial. The stories of the families that made up Trachimbrod over centuries are told. It explores love, betrayal, kindness, violence, hopes for the future and actions grounded and caught in the past. There were scenes that made me laugh out loud, and scenes that brought me close to tears. This book is recommended for those readers looking for a unique reading experience that validates the human experience.



4. This is an engrossing novel, motivating hundreds of reader reviews. A pattern of polarized reactions is quite apparent: Foer has given us either a work of genius or a gimmicky hack job. Little can be added to that debate.
   But another issue warrants examination: What do we make of Foer's fantasy world of shtetl Ukraine? At the climax of the book, on the cusp of the genocide in 1941, we are presented with a strikingly bourgeois wedding ceremony, even with gypsy waitresses. It is as if the village were frozen in the time when Chagall left Russia. What happened to the Bolshevik Revolution, the Russian Civil War, Lenin's New Economic Policy, Stalin's slaughter of he kulaks, collectivation, and the famine of the 30s? Why are they missing?



5. When I read, I tend to jump in headfirst. I accept what I'm told, and I become emotionally involved from the start. I'm along for the ride. Everything is Illuminated is an amazing ride.
   
   I don't think I've been so thoroughly entertained and so completely crushed in the space of just a few hundred pages. I was enchanted by the narration, the characters and the story. I was haunted by them weeks after I'd finished the book.
   
   I will read it again eventually, I'm sure, but I need to gather my strength first.

5 comments about The Road (Oprah's Book Club).

1. When you look at it just the right way, "The road" starts to resemble several of Stephen King's books at once. Whether "The stand" or "Dark Tower" (heptalogy is it?) or any other post-apocalyptic book that has ever been writen since the invention of the genre. And in a way, Ursula Le Guin has every right to be pissed about double standards of literary circles who wilfully chose to ignore entire body of speculative fiction which, during one time or the other, concerned itself with these themes. But, soon as Cormac McCarty choose to write something that resembles the forementioned genre, everybody was suddenly up on their feet shouting how great and brilliant the book was and how it is going the change the concept of American literature in upcoming years. You may, of course, listen to those voices with sceptical doubt, or you may dive into this book and judge for yourself. I did precisely that (both actually) and was surprised - book was actually good.
   
   First of all, this isn't the action packed post-apocalyptic story, and the upcoming movie will probably be total disaster. Why? Because Hollywood in it's entire history couldn't make good meditational movie about human condition. And "The road" is precisely that - meditation about humanity which can (and does) work in medeium of language but is utterly untranslatable into anything else. Only person that could have done it in a way this books deserves is Michelangelo Antonioni and he's been dead for couple of years. So, that being said, you should know that narrationwise and plotwise this book is as simple as it gets. We have father and son which travel through destroyed country in search for someting. Hope, new way of existence, meaning of life or whatever you call it. Actuall process of getting there, travelling on the road, avoding band of savages, starving etc. is just the backside story, something which can easily be disposed off. All of it is a conventional, genre stuff, seen and experienced in many a novel out there. But, what makes "The road" different from great percentage of post-apocalyptic body of work is it's language, it's structure and tone which is deeply personal and evocative. One of those languages that pull you in, from which you have trouble letting go, constant staying into back of your head, nagging and being present. And that's one of the ingredients of great literature.
   
   McCarthy goes on introspective journey here. There is no moralty present, there is no hero or group whose ideology must always be shining beacon on the end of the dark passage. Every ideology is destroyed, every bond is shatterd and only thing that remains is mere instinct of survival. Question that concerns McCarthy here is this one - how can we, when confronted with total dehumanisation (and you may write anything inside this statement, from free market ideology to totalitarism), remain humane. Do we want to, why do we want it, and can we actually do that? If civilisation is destroyed, upon which grounds whe can build our identity. And final answer to this question is inconclusive, because lanuage in it's totality cannot represent the New World. And upon notion of New World this book ends, remaining silent on what comes next. Reader takes on alone.
   
   It's a pleasure to read this one, it's evocative and deeply disturbing, and questions posed here wait for us just behind the corner. "The road" sets direciton, but travelling we have to do for ourselves.



2. It is a rare feeling in a 'classic' book to find that the two hundredth page is almost identical to the first.
   
   Perhaps the author's intention was to show the bleak repetition of a world shed of almost all delight. If so, then he succeeded.
   
   'By day the banished sun circles the Earth like a grieving mother with a lamp.'
   
   Beautiful, poetic, and yet... for me at least... so often uninteresting.



3. The story is captivating and powerful. It's about father/son, survival, fate/god, and struggle to keep your morals. However, I have to say the final result of reading this book is to make me buy extra ammo.



4. A gritty and heartbreaking view of a father and son in post-apocalyptic America. The prose is stunningly beautiful, especially given the dark subject matter. Even with the bleakest of backdrops this story is really about unconditional love between a father and son.
   
   Recommendation: There's a reason this novel won the Pulitzer prize, and it only takes a few days to read. The Road tells us that even when there is no hope, we've still got our humanity and love. I watched the movie immediately after I finished the book, and it's good too.



5. I was dreading reading this book. My husband read it a couple of years ago and enjoyed it but, for some reason I had it in my head that it wasn't for me. He encouraged me to read it but I just put it off, I had no intention of reading this book. But, this April it is my book club's read so, I felt like I had to read it. Well, I loved it.
   
   For me this book came down to the strength of love between father and son. I found the journey they went on rewarding to read and I found hope in the end. It truly is a beautiful, poetic, and moving book. I'm so happy I threw away my misconceptions and read this book.

5 comments about No Less Than Victory: A Novel of World War II.

1. I enjoyed Jeff's first two books in this series, however I was appalled and put off by the gross errors in the first 77 pages. A little research into WW2 B17 books could have eliminated many of the errors. Let's start with the B-17 scenario with Buckley. One of the most glaring errors was the "flight engineer" as a Lieutenant. Never happened. The crew chief was ALWAYS an enlisted man usually a Tech Sargent or sometimes, rarely, a master Sargent, but never an officer. Then we have the B-17 with engines running and the crew walking past the nose to pat the nose art. That was a dangerous practice. Most crews entered via the rear door. While maintenance would have earlier run the engines to warm them up, Engines were never started until all the crew was aboard. it was dangerous as heck to walk from the nose to the rear door with the engines running. You can see this in "Twelve O'clock High" when Gregory Peck can't make it in to the nose hatch. The gunners and the crew chief normally entered by way of the door on the right rear side aft of the starboard waist gun.
   Then in combat we have the bombardier and navigator shooting with the cheek guns. By November 1945 nearly all B-17Gs had chin turrets operated by the bombardier. The bombardiers didn't use cheek guns then. No such thing as a thermite bullet. The USAF lost nearly 4800 B-17s in the course of the war - the Germans probably had a warehouse full of Norden sights. What could they possibly do with them? They had no strategic bomber force. The secrecy was a farce.
   There was radio silence during the approach to the target - no plane to plane comm. After the target yes.
   The Bombardier could never see the Bombay from his nose position - let alone see a fire in the bomb bay.
   Oh by the way no one wore parachutes in the airplane. You wore a harness and in an emergency, you clipped the parachute, stowed near you position with bungee cords, on to the chest of your harness. A few ball turret gunners wore back pack chutes - if they were small enough.
   If the airplane was over-running the airplane ahead, it was the pilots problem not the bombardier. The Norden only had pitch and roll, control, but no throttle control.
   Then on page76 Benson . . . glanced at the clip, the gun loaded."
   Really? Unless Bensen could see through the solid steel of the bolt of the M1, he couldn't see the clip. Makes me wonder if Jeff has ever looked at an M1 Garand.
   Picky stuff - but things like that spoils a story for me. Makes me doubt the accuracy of the rest of the book.
   I really did like his first two book and was looking forward to this third novel - but now i don't know if I'll bother to finish it.
   --------------------------------------------------
   24 Feburary, 2010
   After a few days I decided to give the book another try.
   Beyond the nutty error on page 76, the book became what I had expected from page one. The rest of the book was up to Jeff Shaara's usual great read, and I enjoyed it as much as the first two books.
   I'm puzzled by the poorly written/researched chapter (Bombardier)since it seems to have no connection with the rest of the story - we never see him again in the book, except for a brief mention in the Afterword. That chapter almost ruined the book for me.



2. With "No Less Than Victory", Jeff Shaara has completed his WWII trilogy. Covering from the Battle of the Bulge to the end of the war, Shaara has given a good feel for this period.
   
   As before, Shaara has covered a major battle, Battle of the Bulge, from several perspectives. Using the personal, tactical, and strategic view points, he has woven an interesting tale.
   
   New to this novel, is the perspective from the enemy's point of view through the eyes of von Rundstedt and Speer. It added to the story and brought to life the conflicts of personalities on the German side.
   
   I found this a good read. It was refreshing to look at the Battle of the Bulge from of the perspective of the retreating units at the beginning of the battle and not from the overworked perspective of the 101st.
   
   The book is a fitting capstone to his trilogy and would recommend it to anyone.



3. Having read Jeff Shaara's tomes of the Civil War, A Rising Tide and A Steel Wave, I was expecting something more. This volume was too thin, indicating not much of a story, and of that I conclude. Going from the battle in the Ardennes to the final surrender in Germany, granted took six months, but I was less than satisfied. I know Jeff can write great stories, but maybe this was less than desirable in presentation. Better story telling has been done by "Band of Brothers" about these important events. It just seemed rushed. Maybe the publisher didn't give him enough time to flesh out the story.



4. Jeff Shaara ("To the Last Man," "Gods and Generals") has made a stellar career for himself building on the foundation his late father Michael laid with "The Killer Angels." Both Shaaras have written extensively researched "novels" that read more like living history or journalism than high-flown literature. These novels, which range from the Revolutionary War to (now) the final days of WWII in Europe, attempt to put the reader inside the minds of everyone - from the generals to the grunts to the occasional civilian.
   
   Shaara will never be accused of being a poet. His writing is straightforward, almost bland at times. You will never confuse his battlefields for the poetic carnage of Bernard Cornwell's European battlefields or Steven Pressfield's ancient Greek scenes of carnage - he is as far from Cormac McCarthy as you can imagine.
   
   But that doesn't mean this is boring stuff. Shaara writes about men at war - the events themselves provide the drama. In "No Less Than Victory," Shaara throws us into the American front lines as the Germans unleash their last desperate attack at the Battle of the Bulge. You do not need florid prose to be terrified at the prospect of facing a German artillery bombardment or a crack alpine squad. You just need to have a sense of the fear, of the bitter cold, and the complete surprise of the American GI to be scared stiff, and Shaara takes you there.
   
   Shaara also places the reader in the minds of some of the most famous and notorious figures of the war. Many chapters are devoted to Eisenhower's magnificent labors as head of the Allied army. Struggling with Monty's insufferable sniping and foot-dragging alongside Patton's enraged loose-cannonry as well as French belligerance and, oh yeah, the Germans, Eisenhower capably shoulders burdens that would crush most souls. Shaara also places the reader inside the mind of Patton, and to his credit we see a man highly similar to and yet distinct from George C. Scott. And most horribly, we get some chapters from the perspective of Albert Speer, Nazi architect and witness to some of the last horrible hours in Hitler's bunker.
   
   Yes, straightforward prose works just fine.
   
   The novel's finest moments involve the American GIs encountering the stresses of the battlefield. From fighting the Germans to confronting a hostile popolation to uncovering the first concentration camps, we see the horrors of war first-hand.
   
   This is an excellent capstone to a darn good trilogy focusing on America's war in Europe. If I don't give it 5 stars, it's because we have gone over this terrain more than a few times, so there is little here that is new. But that doesn't mean that it isn't interesting. Check it out.



5. I've read all Shaara's books, and until now the writing was always crisp and tense, and the history accurate. I found the story really dragging at several points in the book, but worst of all there are glaring historical errors. US armored divisions were organized into three brigade size units called combat commands (CCA, CCB, CCR), where CC stands for Combat Command. Mr. Shaara consistently called them Combat Companies in the book. Another peeve of mine, and possibly this was out of Shaara's control, is cover art. The cover of a book should be tightly connected to some part of the story. This book is entirely focused on the European western front, yet the cover has a Russian T-34 and Russian infantry attacking the Germans.
   
   Of the three books in this series, this was my least favorite, and I was frankly disappointed. I hope his next offering is better, and that he isn't falling into the trap other authors have of cranking out more books of less quality.

5 comments about The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story.

1. I really wanted to like this book, maybe that's why the disappointment was great. I devour WWII books whether they are history, historical fiction, or just plain fiction but this one I just couldn't finish.
   
   I bought this book after hearing rave reviews and seeing the high marks readers gave it. I've been reading most of my life so I know not to take stock in what critics are saying but I cannot understand how the public -"my public" - liked this book (unless they didn't read it).
   
   The story, by itself is fascinating and well worth telling. Jan & Antonina Zabinski, who run the Warsaw Zoo, hide 300 Jews during WWII right under the nose of the Nazis.
   But instead of a story of triumph we get ...lists.
   Many mundane lists of bugs, classical composers, beetles and more - that go on for pages and pages.
   
   So, you say, skip the lists.
   I did, believe me, but what I got was a disjointed story, that doesn't read like a history book or a novel, but like a long arduous rambling of someone with ADHD. The author jumps in time from paragraph to paragraph and sometimes even within the same paragraph which makes it difficult to follow this remarkable story.
   
   What makes a good history book, for me, are the daily struggles of the subjects, the small stories and anecdotes which only them, and us, will be privy to - not a collection of bugs.
   
   This book simply wasn't enjoyable, but the story is important as well as fascinating and needs to be retold.



2. This is one of the more fascinating books on World War Two and how it affected people. I never thought of the zoos during WWII and in Europe. It just never crossed my mind until I picked up this book (that I found in a rummage sale). Mixed in with personal observations (gleamed from diaries written by Antonia and interviews with Jan, the zookeeper), are biological facts about zoology and animal behavior. Not only that, Ackerman wrote about the horrors that the couple witnessed first-hand during the Nazis' attacks on Warsaw.
   
   I finished this book with new revelations about human behavior and about animal science ... both fascinating and sometimes, horrorifying. Jan was not only the Zookeeper of the Warsaw Zoo, he was also a member of the Underground Resistance. He not only helped hide the Jews in the zoo, he also helped fight against the Nazis in other ways, which eventually resulted in his capture. Antonia is the central character of this book and Ackerman gleamed countless of tidbits from Antonia's diaries about what went on during the war and how she helped hide the Jews passing through. Not only was Antonia a zookeeper's wife, she was also a fierce and protective mother for her son and infant daughter (who was born towards the end of the war). She was also a fierce protector of the Guests that glided through quietly on their way to other places where their lives may be spared.
   
   I found this book fascinating. It is filled with information on animal behavior and stories about Nazis' attempt to breed superior types of animals and more. It also has history and supersitious lore mixed in with Antonia's stories of the war ... it was just simply interesting and revealing. The things one learns from reading!
   
   Would I recommend this book? Yes, I would. Unlike a lot of reviewers, I never found this book to be dry or boring. I thought the writing style was informative and it had a certain flow to it. I personally didn't have any trouble following it along. The courage of Jan and Antonia are just breath-taking ... it makes one wonder if she would have the same if faced with the same situations as they faced.
   
   1/19/10



3. Ackerman pulls from Antonina Zabinski's extensive memoirs of her experiences in World War II Poland and from her own research on the topic to tell the story of the hundreds of Jews that passed through this particular stop on the Polish Underground. Although this book is highly informative and at times extremely touching, I found it hard to feel fully engaged. I don't really know why this is; I'm extremely interested in the Holocaust and I'd read some great reviews on the book. Initially, I thought maybe I had hit some sort of wall and have read too many books on the subject, but then remembered that I had just recently read and loved a new book on one of the most famous figures in Holocaust history, Anne Frank. I felt that the book was slightly rambling and didn't really stay on topic as I expected it to. Ackerman's research certainly shines through, although at times her attention to detail is perhaps too great. I struggled to finish this one.



4. This is a gripping story of the Warsaw ghetto during World War II. Gives a real sense of the inhuman treatment of the Jews in Poland.



5. The Zoo Keeper's Wife is a very interesting story from Poland during WWII, not well know. Contains many war stories of survivors of Jews and Poles during that time. The back ground is well researched.

5 comments about Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History.

1. When I was eight years old, this book was included in a Scholastic book order through my school. I was fascinated by WWII at the time, and had every kids book on it, so of course I wanted this one. I had no idea I was ordering a comic book, and when I finally held it in my hands I was mad that it was - up until that point, to me comic books were all shoot 'em ups and superheroes. This book proved me wrong, and started a lifelong love of comics. I'm now in college studying sequential art and plan on going to the field, so you can appreciate how much of a difference this book made to me.
   
   The overall Maus story is a back and forth between the present events of a young Jewish man and his difficult elderly father, and the father's life in WWII as a Jew. This first book - My Father Bleeds History - focuses on the family's relatively normal upscale life diminishing into their eventual going into hiding at the end of the book. It's a side that isn't as commonly told: the diminishing rights, the daily strain, the rumours of the horrible things that were going on, and even his life as a prisoner of war. These stories aren't as well-told in the media, and I really liked seeing them. As someone who was already well-versed in WWII history reading this, it helped me understand better how people could not realise what was actually going on, and that daily life still must continue in horrible situations.
   
   The art is stark, with thick black lines and a very sketchy feeling to it - this is very fitting for the dark story being told. Visually it's a little busy, and during my first reads I remember being occasionally confused and having to reread pages. Nothing too unforgivable or difficult, however!
   
   Like most graphic novels - it's a fairly quick read, it took me about two days to read it as a child, but now I can zip through them back to back in an hour or two. Yet they reread very well; I pick it up several times a year and my copy is quite well-worn.
   
   I would also recommend this to anyone with an appreciation for historical fiction, biographies, memoirs, or those interested in WWII. History is my favourite genre, and I fully believe this book stands strong right against some of the other classics illustrating the picture of that period. This is not only a great graphic novel, this is a great book.



2. I really thought that in this point in my life I had learned all there was to know about the Holocaust. I've been to the museums, seen the movies, seen survivors speak, and studied the awful events in school. I didn't expect to gain a new sense of understanding from this survivors tale.
   
   Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History was a shocking, at times truly disturbing account of a family trying to survive day to day during the Holocaust. This is not a cut and dry tale, it is artfully told through a graphic novel.
   
   I went into this novel wondering "why mice?". As you can see from the cover, the center of the swastika is a cat face. Art Spiegelman has used symbolism to portray a cat and mouse game. The jews are all mice, forever foraging for food and shelter, trying to outsmart the cats that want noting more than to destroy them. The use of this idea in his artwork makes the novel that much more interesting.
   
   I imagine that I could learn something new each time I read this book. There is so much depth, and raw descriptions of what occurred to the authors father and his family. It goes one step deeper in showing how it has affected their lives beyond their time struggling to survive the Holocaust.
   
   A powerful and deeply affecting graphic novel that is an absolute must read.



3. Art Spiegelman's critically-acclaimed graphic novel chronicles both his father Vladek's misadventures in Hitler's Europe and a rocky relationship between father and son. Depicting the Nazis as cats and the Jews as mice (and the Polish as pigs, a hot-button topic in an already controversial piece), Spiegelman's illustrations actually gives "Maus" the type of appeal that couldn't be achieved in any other medium except this one, as well as lure readers who wouldn't have picked up the comic otherwise. The story itself reels you in but "Prisoner on the Hell Planet," Spiegelman's comic-within-a-comic about his late mother, offers even more insight on Spiegelman and his family history despite its contrast with the main story. This is truly the stuff survival stories are made of.
   
   This comic is unrated: Violence, Adult Language, Adult Situations.



4. Maus is one of the captivating page turners I've every laid eyes upon. The story is Art Spiegelman the author writing his fathers tale and what exactly was involved in surviving the holocaust.



5. The book was in very good condition and it came in very fast, within one week.

5 comments about Catch-22.

1. Overall, this book wasn't horrible but I don't believe it deserves the raving reviews it got from others.
   
   As a female reading this book, I found it a bit difficult to connect with the male mind. There are many references to prostitutes, one night stands, and "love" that is actually lust. So, if you're a bit skiddish of vulgar language and references you'll be sorely disapointed in this book.
   
   The whole book is full of catch-22s. For instance, a character named Hungry Joe likes to take pictures of naked women that never develop correctly but when he was a citizen, he had been a professional photographer.
   
   This book jumps around a lot. It gives tidbits of information that at the time might not seem important but tie into the main story later. Because of this, the book gets more interesting towards the end but seems drawn out and boring at the beginning.
   
   All in all, I've read better books but I've also read a whole lot worse.



2. I know people will downvote me like crazy for this review, so shame on me for being honest, I guess.
   
   I was disappointed with this book. I had borrowed it from the library recently and tried sitting through it. I mainly borrowed it because of all the praise it got and the amount of hype surrounding it. I do enjoy a little "brain popcorn" now and then, so I'd enjoy it.
   
   I didn't.
   
   First off, the writing here is garbage. Actually, it's every bit as bad as Twilight. The worst crime with the writing is that, like the aforementioned Twilight saga, Heller does more telling than showing. Yeah, the gun is across the room. you don't need to tell us that. How about "Clevinger was surprised to discover the inexorable hatred of the Action board, which was the strangest of many things happening". That is way better than, paraphrasing here, "There were many strange things happening. The strangest of all was the inexorable hatred of the Action Board. Clevinger was surprised to discover it." There are more examples of that throughout the book, and they are WAY longer than the one I provided. There are several run-on sentences and examples of bad grammar, which are annoying. And the dialogue is just "shoot me in the head" awful. Further, he abuses such tags as "He lied" or "He questioned", which gets repetitive.
   
   The plot? Was there even any plot? I could hardly distinguish one. Just random events happening. Also, the book tries to make itself like a movie by jumping around from character to character when it comes to certain things, something I hate. The names are stupid too- Major Major Major Major? Colonel Korn? I get that this book is meant to be a satire, but those names are just childish. Hell, even Family Guy is more creative with the names.
   
   Was the book funny? In some parts it was. I'll admit, the first three chapters are so absurdly funny, it's beautiful. And the ending was funny as well- I felt like someone had spiked my coffee with LSD by the time I got to the end.
   
   Lastly, the book's worst crime is that it's downright BORING. There's hardly any plot here, the characters, particularly Yossarian, are unlikeable and shallow, and the book is too long for its own good, yet simultaneously not long enough for the amount of stuff crammed in it.
   
   Overall, this book was incredibly frustrating to read. If you want a good satire, read Slaughterhouse Five. It's better than this.
   
   OK guys, I am now ready to be crucified for my negative review. Hammer away at the nails.



3. Catch-22 is one of the greatest American novels of the 20th century. The language is literate, but the style is modern - it's chaotic, which reflects the circumstances of war and the emotional trauma inflicted on Yossarian, the main character. From the first page where Yossarian is in the infirmary avoiding duty with a vague liver complaint, the absurdity of his circumstances is apparent. Yossarian is a bombardier in a B-25 fighter stationed on an island off Italy in World War II. His brown-nosing commander, demonstrating the dedication of his squadron, keeps increasing the number of bombing missions required before (noun), despite the availability of fresh crewmembers. With the high fatality rate for these missions, it's not a surprise that by the end of the book, everyone Yossarian has served with has been killed except the administrators and commanders, who find they serve their country best in a non-combat role. Yossarian's view of war is confirmed paranoia - he believes people are trying to kill him, and they are.
   
   Now that I've read Catch-22, I see that it was hugely influential. MASH could not have existed without it, though MASH is upbeat compared with Catch -22. Published in 1955, before On the Road, it is avant-garde in some of the same ways, but has a different value system. Because of the non-linear timeline and the barrage of characters, Catch-22 was a slow, but not boring, read for me. I can't remember another book that I liked so much that took so long to read.
   
   Catch-22 is a landmark book that everyone should read at some time in his or her life. The sex and violence is understated (perhaps that's how it ended up in the Young Adult section?). The language is rich and complex, and the ideas are fresh 50+ years later.



4. The title has entered our language as a description of certain situations into which we might fall. The humor in this work is wicked.
   
   The focal character of this book is John Yossarian, a bombardier in the Air Force who wants to get out of combat duty. He runs into Catch-22: to get out of duty, you must be unfit to fly. But to want out is to show that one is sane--hence, not unfit!
   
   The book, by Joseph Heller, is an interesting take on behavior and decision-making within organizations. Bureaucracy is one target of Heller's writing.
   
   The style is exasperating! The work goes back and forth in time; different characters' perspectives are involved. Multiple iterations are used to explain the ongoing storyline. This can be challenging for readers but it also creates an interesting ethos in the work.
   
   But, in the end, this is still well worth reading, even many years after its original publication.



5. This book is a classic. Catch-22 is on all of those Top 100 books of the century lists. Just start reading the damn thing already! Jesus!