5 comments about The Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939-1945.

1. this book was excellent for anyone that wants to learn about the holocaust and the atrocities that happened. this is a must read to keep the history alive so that nothing like this will ever happen again it takes you on a journey from before the holocaust to the prejudices and violence that lead up to the holocaust.



2. I have nothing negative to state in a review of Friedlander's latest book; its organization, research, and presentation all seem to me faultless. And there is fresh perspective, too--which is a rare find in a Holocaust text. Friedlander is completely in control of his wrenching subject matter. Bravo.



3. "The Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939-1945" is the most thorough, complete and scholarly book on the Holocaust that I have read. In an effort to try to understand why and how the Holocaust occured, I have read extensively about the conduct and activities of the Europeans as well as non Europeans (governments, organizations and people)during this awful period. Friedlander puts it all together for me, and as a result I have a much better understanding of these terrible events. I highly recomend this book to those who want to read an in depth study of the Holocaust.
   
   William R. Cohen
   Herzlia Pituach, Israel



4. 
   A beautiful book about monstrous beings. I have read many works on that terrible period of our earth; Friedlander's is one of the best. This is another list of warning signs for us. It contains data on what to guard against to retain sanity amongst us; but, there are reasons to suspect the signs are again surfacing, this time in our country.



5. well this book willbe along the work of maybe raul hillberg book published along time agoone of the great reference work on this turning point in twentieth century history

5 comments about The Book of Dahlia: A Novel.

1. Dark. Weird. Profane. Ultimately pointless. This is the modern woman? Vain, annoying, drug addicted pothead, stupid, pointless life and ultimately dying for no reason and leaving no legacy? Gag me with a spoon honey.



2. I am sorry to see that the first reviewer completely missed the raw beauty and genius of this novel.
   
   The New Yorker (a much more reputable source for book reviews), however, did not. In their March 24, 2008 "Briefly Noted" section the reviewer notes that "Dahlia Finger, the heroine of this début novel, is a sarcastic, self-absorbed Jewish American Princess, twenty-nine years old and living in a desirable bungalow in Venice, California, bought for her by her lawyer father. She's also, thanks to Albert's control of tone and timing, one of the most likable characters in recent fiction, as self-aware about her bad habits (smoking pot, wallowing in hopelessness, refusing to engage with her broken family) as she is incapable of changing them, even when diagnosed with a "level four" tumor in the left temporal lobe of her brain.... Albert writes with the black humor of Lorrie Moore and a pathos that is uniquely her own, all the more blistering for being slyly invoked.
   
   The San Francisco Chronicle has also called THE BOOK OF DAHLIA a "darkly brilliant first novel... a book so original in its voice and vision that it's truly thrilling."
   I feel that the conclusion of the Chronicle's review is perfectly addressed to readers who may not initially "get" this book. Here it is:
   "The Book of Dahlia will probably find detractors just as passionate as its champions. As Albert writes, "A vile, self-absorbed, depressing, lazy, messy, spoiled, f-up, probably mentally ill loser dies. So what?" Albert answers her own "So what?" with a deeply sympathetic portrait, devoid of sentimentality. Readers looking for a depiction of illness as a crucible for the triumph of the human spirit will be disappointed. But this book keeps its steadfast focus on a more complicated truth, and that is its triumph."
   
   It's one of the best books I've read in years.



3. this is a novel that grabs hold and will not let go. i found myself deeply affected for days after putting it down. Dahlia is such an affecting, honest, original voice, and the book pulls no punches. kind of reminded me of the catcher in the rye that way -- this very real, very open voice. written with wit and soul, two things that can't be faked.



4. Near Perfect!!. The book I have been looking for for a long time. Masterfully poetic pacing and use of language. "Portnoy's Complaint", "Love Story" (an anti-matter universe version); Breakfast at Tiffanys" and "Notes from Underground" all come to mind. Yet Elisa Albert has written a completely original work which updates and enriches the traditions she works in. Dahlia's glibness in the end adds to the complexity and depth to this sad but engaging character. I love dark comedy but am usually disappointed because there is so much rehashing of overused ironic strategies and hence staleness and predictability. There is no such problem here. I loved this book



5. I bought this book after reading a glowing review in the New Yorker. I highly recommend it. I loved the jaded and all too familiar Dahlia. The writing is simply terrific. Clean and bold, unsentimental and piercingly honest. It's such a challenge to make an old story so new, unpredictable and alive. And Albert does it.

5 comments about The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay.

1. Simply put: this is the best book I have ever read. When I was about half way through the book it dawned on me that this was my favorite book, to know that half way through, made reading the rest that much more enjoyable. To my amazement this feeling never dissipated nor did the story let up at any moment, it just kept getting better. The story of Joe Kavalier and his cousin Sammy Clay is one of hope, trust, misfortune, unfairness, love, life, disappointment, comedy, tragedy and of course comic books. From Joe's amazing escape from Nazi occupied Prague to his dumbfoundedness on the fact that he can make money at drawing comics to the rage burning inside him for revenge against the Nazi's is so clearly defined by Chabon that you empathize with him immediately. To counter Joe's leading man status, is his "sidekick" and cousin American born Sammy Clay, who always seems to come in second place in life, whether it be with his circus strongman father, his job at the whoopee cushion creating novelty house or love and happiness, he always seems to be playing second fiddle. That is until Joe Kavalier enters his life and together, and to their out and out amazement they create the wildly successful comic book character of "The Escapist" (based on Joe's being trained as one as a young boy), which gives Superman a run for his kryptonite. The ups and downs and ins and outs of their lives through comic book creating, the love of Rosa (a girl that Joe literally stumbles upon) and the state of the human psyche through sheer pleasure and terrible atrocity is all right with in the 637 pages of this book. Michael Chabon is clearly one of the most talented writers to come along in a long time. His descriptions are beyond reproach, with his twist of a word or a flick of an adjective you are literally smelling the coffee, hearing the wind, and envisioning each character to a tee. Kavalier and Clay is a fantastic journey through the World War II era through the lives of two cousins that accent each other and are just opposite enough to create a wonderful taste of literature. I absolutely recommend this book and hope you enjoy as much as I know I did.



2. I found this book through a Twitter contact and mainly by accident... but what a find ! This is one of the best books I have read in the last 15 years. Is it because it features topics I like a lot; New York, the 30ies, 40ies, 50ies, comic books and superheroes or the very humane story of a boy during WWII... I don't know... but the great writing skills of the author certainly help to make this a page turner. Simply a wonderful read.
   
   The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay



3. "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay" is quite simply remarkable. Chabon an immensely talented writer, who may have the most ridiculous vocabulary I have ever come across, has created a work that is first and foremost ridiculously entertaining.
   While I am not a comic book fan Chabon's depiction of the early days of the industry were quite fascinating; as is the New York of the Late 30's/early 40's that Chabon creates.
   The books real strength though are its characters, with the main trio of Joe, Sammy, and Rosa being particularly memorable.
   While the book takes several outlandish turns Chabon never lets his story jump the track so to speak. The conclusion he reaches is also rather perfect and low key for a novel that features quite a few fantastical interludes.



4. I thought the first portion about the comic books was exciting and well written and above all enjoyable. However there were a few scenes that seemed to be a bit too progressive for 1930-40's America. A father walks into a room where his daughter is naked with a man in bed and just seems to chat? A mother accepts her son's homosexuality? I was not alive at the time, however, I found those scenes to be a bit hard to believe.
   After Joe goes off to war, I found the book a bit too easy to put down and a bit harder to pick up. It seemed to have lost a bit of its momentum.



5. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay was an instant popular and critical success when it came out in 2000 being nominated for a raft of awards. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2001 and Hollywood has been sniffing around it ever since. Michael Chabon the author wrote the only known screenplay, which struggled to reduce a 635-page book to a 2-hour film. At one point, the cast was Toby Maguire (Peter in Spiderman) to play Sam Clay, Natalie Portman (V for Vendetta) to play Rosa Saks and Jude Law to play Joe Kavalier.
   
   The difficulties for the film is what makes the book a joy as it starts in 1938 as Superman bursts on the scene and ends in 1954 as the Kefauver Senate hearings delivers the death blow to a declining comic book industry. A central theme is the roles of the Jews in the comic book industry: it explored the mythology of comic hero and its impact Joe and Sam own struggles and personal journeys form the stories of the Escapist which in turn shape their lives. Sam struggling to come to terms with being Gay and Joe trying to rescue his family stuck in an increasingly bleak Nazi run Prague. It also explores the historical rip off the artists and writers of the period. Superman's creators did not come into the real money until the blockbuster Superman movies and a court case prised the money out of Hollywood's coffers. Historical characters from the period from the comic industry and the movie, art and political world some in and out of the story. The Escapist also draws on Joe Kavalier's training and experience of magic and Houdini type tricks and the impact this has on his life.
   
   The writing is a tour deforce so that you hear, touch and smell the period. Each character has their own voice and even minor characters when they enter the story in a few paragraphs you have their back-story and motives seamlessly woven in so they become real characters. The point of view moves from character to character and no easy option or resolution is allowed as the story builds to the magic trick ending. Scenes are comic one minute and bitterly tragic the next as you join in the roller coaster of their lives. Yes I am going say it...if you only have the chance to read one book this year make it this one, you wont be disappointed.

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

1. The Truth: I'm a Girl, I'm Smart and I Know EverythingThe last time I really read the diary of Anne Frank, I was nine, in Sunday school in Connecticut and pretty miserable. I had my own issues-some of the girls made fun of me, I couldn't learn to read Hebrew (no one had recognized that I had a learning disability) and I wanted nothing more than to really belong. Anne's diary made me cry and feel even more miserable.
   
   This time, I'm a grown-up. In fact my kids are grown. I'm a psychologist in private practice, with an emphasis on positive psychology. That means I encourage hope and optimism in my clients. I help them look for their talents and even lost potential. And I just wrote a book in diary form, written by a 10-11 year old girl, to help girls and their moms get in touch with the best of themselves. Sooo, things are very different.
   
   My reaction to reading Anne Frank this time was as if I had blinders taken away from my eyes. Instead of just seeing a girl in hiding and feeling oppressed with the sadness of her unfulfilled life, I saw a profoundly real teen-age girl with unbelievable wisdom and hosesty. She seems to be the compliation of all the inner knowledge, wisdom, sexual and emotional development of all girls. She is almost like the western world's Shakespeare for girls. For example, as a psychologist and a woman who was once a teenager, I was enthralled with her intimate feelings and thoughts around her crush on Peter. Lots of girls fall in love or have a crush, but few know how to process their feelings. In fact that is why 'the girl' in my new book, The Truth, falls in love, to help kids learn how to share these sorts of feeling. Anne understood so much about the ego development of a person in transition from child to woman. What she is able to put into words about her crush should help any girl experiencing deep and complex feelings.
   
   I think every woman should take some time and re-read Anne Frank. You will certainly fall in love with her in a different way than the first time around. You may find yourself sobbing later, as I found myself, when her love of life and feelings and insights about growing-up, welled up inside of me with the realization that Anne never got a chance to do all the things that most of us women take for granted: the husband, the kids, the first apartment, friends over, pets, just getting out in the fresh air!
   
   Anne held on to her ideals and dreams and she hoped that there would be a time that she could carry them out. She didn't make it, but we have. And so if every woman who reads this book can just be a little more insightful, a little more caring, a little more loving, listen a little harder to kids and teens-then in a way, we have carried out, as best we can, her ideals. As a positive psychologist and woman, this is my opinion as to how to maintain hope, and fulfill not only her potential, but our own.



2. Anne Frank's tale is a snapshot frozen in time.
   
   Neither faded recollections nor hindsight feature here. This was written with the clarity of the present tense through the eyes of a young girl living through a terrible chapter of world history. This immediacy serves to empower the story further and move the reader in ways that so few books can.
   
   Highly recommended.
   
   Owen Zupp
   Author: "Down to Earth"
   DOWN TO EARTH: A Fighter Pilot's Experiences of Surviving Dunkirk, The Battle of Britain, Dieppe and D-Day



3. A classic that we all should read when we are young, and again when we are older. It emphasizes the fact that evil does exist in our world, and that evil often comes from a government. It belongs in all of our libraries.



4. Great read, highly recommend for all jr. high and Sr. high kids. I read this book in high school (many many years ago) and wanted to read it again because of the movie "Freedom Writers" and it's integral part in the movie. I highly recommend it



5. ACH, DU LIEBER!!!!
   
   That's the biting phrase that can best epitomize my personal feelings at the disconnect between the expectation of Anne Frank's diary and the actual reality of reading it. The Diary of Anne Frank is very, very, very disappointing and a humongous letdown!!!! To wit, I must implacably question and hold in contempt the judgment processes of the many, previous, sycophant reviewers who've been exaggerating the "beauty" or "grace" or whatever politically correct term of flattery they can invent for this diary. The Diary of Anne Frank is one of the most caustic examples of herd mentality-syndrome and mass hysteria among the many positive-rating, Amazon reviewers. In truth, this diary of Anne's is just plain, bloody awful and doesn't deserve its classic status to say the least!!!! I suppose the hordes of five-star reviewers simply turned off their brains, refused to analyze Anne's diary critically, and just subserviently jumped on the bandwagon of conventional wisdom, where her diary is hailed a "classic." BS!!!!
   
   After having thoroughly read this, I can assure you that it's no classic and D-E-F-I-N-I-T-E-L-Y not worth your time or money...unless, of course, you get your kicks and jollies from plumbing the trivial and superficial mind of a fourteen-year-old. This stellar, brutally-but-intellectually-honest review of mine will analytically break down precisely what the hell's wrong with Anne's diary (plenty!) and warn you against reading it. If you're not narrow-minded and can take an analysis which intrepidly contravenes the discreditable conventional wisdom of the masses, then you'll be grateful for this review. If you're a hypersensitive sheeple, then I expect you to be appalled and shocked at the alleged "audacity" of this review, but that's YOUR problem, not mine. All I concern myself with is an intellectually honest review of this diary.
   
   I went into The Diary of Anne Frank because it came to my attention that I hadn't read it in high school, whereas many of my peers had indeed had it mandated for reading in school. I attended a Catholic high school, and it's not like Catholics have something even remotely to be shameful about concerning their treatment of Jews in WWII. Why, in fact, educated people know that even N*zi Adolf Eichmann confessed in his diaries that the Catholic Church in occupied Italy was the only organization that loudly protested and opposed the mass deportation of Jews from their "ghetto" in Rome. So, I wanted to catch up on this apparent "classic" because it was missed reading at my old, Catholic high school.
   
   However, I absolutely regret and curse this misjudgment of mine due to the appalling quality and shortcoming of the content of the diary. See, as a new reader, I perceptively went into the Diary of Anne Frank with the reasonable expectation that it would, you know, perhaps talk about her feelings relating to--I don't know!--the genocidal, N*zi occupation, which had forced her family and some acquaintances into an attic, where they lived like imprisoned animals under extreme duress. That would make for an interesting read obviously because one would delve into the psychology of a person in such duress and try to relate. Conventional wisdom has it that that's what her diary mainly relates to, but in actuality...her diary's actually filled to the nauseating brim with her infatuation (nah, kids these days would call it her "crushing) on her attic-mate Peter; endlessly boring stories about preparing and storing vegetables in their attic; girl talk about her prior crush before she went into hiding; lurid tales about her discovering her budding sexuality; typical teen-girl angst about how she's never really had close girlfriends; grumbling about the adults in the attic always rebuking her due to her forthrightness; and how she hates her mother like a typical EMO teenager, just to name a few!!!!
   
   Anne disappointingly spends precious few entries (the vast minority) on the more interesting and valuable ruminations, such as those on human nature, persecution of Jews, and the terror felt inside the attic that came primarily from being discovered, or from the sounds and sights of war breaking loose outside her attic (on a couple of entries, she even recounts stories of downed fighter planes and their pilots' fate). That's the unpardonable fault of her diary because only these kinds of idiosyncratic entries actually material to WW2 are what would elevate her diary above that of any other, mundane, teen girl's. That so much of her diary is precisely so ordinary according to what one stereotypically expects from ANY teen girl's entries is the real pity in this exaggeratedly hyped work.
   
   I found the purpose of Anne's diary much more useful in detailing how more wonderfully conservative society was in the 40s--rather than getting the reader to empathize with WW2-era, persecuted Jews--compared to today's liberal nightmare. In example, Anne's many entries where she's "crushing" on her attic-mate, Peter, involve feelings of sincere, simplistic affection and puppy love, maybe quaint but still adorable in hindsight. For instance, in many entries, Anne swoons over attic-mate Peter's confiding in her or the way he merely looks at her; to her as a girl in the 40s back then, that already qualified as a "fantasy." Contrast this to the inarguable fact that in today's world, many 14-year-olds in Anne's shoes would probably have infectious thoughts of desiring to sexually please their crushes (and then do so!) just so they could feel like "true women!" Another unmistakable motif in Anne's experiences that comes through as a confirmation of how more wonderfully conservative things were back then is the constant reference to schoolwork, and, by golly, actually doing well at it! In some entries, Anne actually *gulp* takes pride in getting good grades in school and measuring herself as a person based on her work ethic in class, again, wonderfully "old-fashioned." Again, contrast this with many 14-year-olds today who--especially if they're in the NEA's public schools--can't read, write or do any `rithmetic, yet can tell you all kinds of things about the b*tches and h*es in rap music!!!!
   
   This latest edition of her diary, The so-called Definitive Edition, includes inexcusably AWKWARD entries involving Anne's sexual awakening, which is also a discomforting sign of the incrementing liberalism that's occurring societally, whereas her dad, Otto, wisely omitted these lewd entries from the original publication. For instance, on page 162, she writes, "Once when I was spending the night at Jacque's, I could no longer restrain my curiosity about her body, which she'd always hidden from me and which I'd never seen. I asked her whether, as proof of our friendship, we could touch each other's br*asts. Jacque refused. I also had a terrible desire to kiss her, which I did. Every time I see a female nude...I go into ecstasy." Gross!!!! This egregiously has nothing to do with WW2, or a person's feelings of being imprisoned in an attic while hoping the N*zis don't discover her. The inclusion of this lewdness was utterly ill-advised.
   
   Surprisingly, though, some of Anne's entries include reflections which prove she possessed moral clarity and, unlike today's liberals (the arbiters of moral relativism), had the ability to judge between good and evil with regards to WW2. For instance, on page 334 (from July 21, 1944), she writes, "Now, at last, things are going well!...An *ss*ssination attempt has been made on H*tler's life, and for once not by Jewish Communists or English capitalists, but by a German general...This is the best proof we've had so far that many officers and generals are fed up with the war and would like to see H*tler sink into a bottomless pit..." Here, Anne clearly demonstrates that she confidently feels it's perfectly all right to be happy at the prospect of your enemy being killed in a war. Further, she also interprets the *ss*ssination attempt in a pro-Allies, anti-German way, suspecting that H*tler's generals are turning on him. Contrast that to today's dreadful, modern liberals who would have a hell of a hard time rejoicing about the prospect of Bin Laden's death or any terrorist's, for that matter, because they're too obsessed with getting them "legal rights" through habeas corpus and moving them onto the US mainland for detention purposes!!!!
   
   Still, Anne's diary is soooo disappointingly off-the-mark that I want anyone even flirting with the idea of reading a fourteen-year-old's musings to just boycott it. It's so dreadful because it mostly evades reflecting on WW2 and the hardships of attic life. Mainly, it reads like every other fourteen-year-old girl's diary from the beginning of time to infinity, and, so, is an absolutely superficial read!!!! To get an idea of how WW2 affected people, you can get a better read almost ANYWHERE ELSE. If you want to get inside a fourteen-year-old girl's trivial head--which Anne's diary is really mostly about: crushes, boys, resentment of parents, etc.--you should just steal your kid sister's. What's that? Don't have a kid sister?! Well, then steal the diary of your friend's or neighbor's kid sister because you'll get the same trivialities there as in Anne Frank's diary.

5 comments about Those Who Save Us.

1. I bawled like a baby at the end. Every single page held my attention and touched my heart.



2. I am surprised by the wave of gushing adulation for this shallow and exploitive novel. Thank goodness for the one reviewer who described it as "manipulative", and by the time I had read as far as the saccharine ending I was ready to throw it across the room! Come on folks - go read Inga Clendinnen's "Reading the Holocaust".



3. My name is Wendy Abell Grodnitzky. My late mother's family, The Potash's were from Poland. She had 3 brothers and 1 sister born there. Many years ago we had my aunt record her daily memories of life growing up, with fear instilled in her all the time. I could not appreciate her feelings at that time, but I have started reading many many books and what I have learned has made me understand why my late aunts and uncles had the personalities that they had. What I had learned was that the past memories can never be erased, just put aside. Your book was fabulous!!!! I could not put it down, and I am passing it around for all of my love ones to read. You are a wonderful author and I look forward to reading many more books that you have contributed to. I always like to give a little something to my family after the Passover Seder, this year it will be your book. Thank you , Thank you , Thank you , for the enlightment.
   Sincerely,
   Wendy Abell Grodnitzky



4. Creatively written, I enjoyed the way she took us from past to present and then merged the two. I agree with the other reviewers, it's not often you see a book that makes your realize what some Germans might have gone through to save themselves as well as save Jewish neighbors and friends. recommended !



5. I just finished this wonderful book, and can't add much to what other favorable reviews have said. I loved it. I was touched by the characters. The mother-daughter relationship is beautifully and realistically rendered. The horrors of life in Nazi Germany were so painful that I had to stop reading at times. The ending offered some hope for healing while at the same time recognizing the near imposibility of changing what the past has wrought. Definitely in my top 20 of all time.

5 comments about Night (Oprah's Book Club).

1. Regardless of how many times I return to this book, it never fails to shock and inspire. An indispensable recollection of the horror of the Holocaust and one survivors struggle to reconcile his experience and his faith.



2. There are no words worthy to describe this epic and true tale of the Holocaust.
   
   Buy the book, but prepare yourself for this tragedy that is our world history.
   
   Never again.
   
   Wolfe



3. I have been to Germany, toured Dachau and have been interested in reading about the holocaust ever since. Reading "Night", was nothing short of amazing. There wasn't one page where I lost interest and by the end, I felt conflicted. I was happy that such a sad story was over, but sad that such an amazing book was done. Elie Wiesel is hero, a survivor, an excellent son and a gifted author. It's so sad that all this greatness came at such a personal cost. Would I ever love to sit and talk with this man... amazing from cover to cover.



4. Elie Wiesel's story will stay with you forever. Stark, powerful and written in simple prose, it will haunt you. How does one go on after surviving the Holocaust? 'Night' should be read in schools the world over.



5. I loved this book! It made me feel so grateful for the freedoms we enjoy. But, it is sad to think that mankind can be capable of such horrors.

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

1. The story in this book is fascinating. It provides the reader with how a real family reacted in WWII.
   
   The issue with the book is there are just too many words. The author seems so interested in writing interestingly that she goes on to describe things in a paragraph that could have taken a sentence or less. I found the beginning of the book particularly difficult to get through. I would have preferred this story told in approximately half the pages.



2. Oh my goodness, what a wonderful story. Set in the period leading up to and during WWII in Warsaw, Poland, this historical novel brings out the true meaning of human kindness and cruelty, human hope and despair. It is beautifully written and moves with incredible swiftness towards an inevitable conclusion. Enjoy!



3. I haven't finished the book yet but it's hard to put down. sometimes it gets a bit long in detail. It's the only book on the holocaust that includes animals - making it so special



4. The story itself is amazing but the way it was written is so exceptional. You can see, you can feel, you can smell when you read descriptions of even the simplest things. The author did lots of research before writing this book and therefore you can learn lot's of interesting facts and details.



5. As an amateur scholar of Yiddishkeit, my readings have included several novels and biographies set in the Warsaw Ghetto, so I was familiar with the horrific overcrowding and dehumanizing conditions that Warsaw's Jews were subjected to before the Ghetto was razed in 1943 and the remaining survivors were sent to concentration camps. Many of my maternal relatives immigrated from Poland in the early 1900s, and were fortunate to have escaped living through the wars. For the millions trapped in Poland, life turned into a living hell for Jews and Gentiles alike under the Nazi occupation of Warsaw.
   
   In Diane Ackerman's The Zookeeper's Wife, she chronicles the real-life heroism of Antonina and Jan Zabinsk, the zookeepers in charge of the once-prestigious Warsaw Zoo that was heavily damaged in the initial bombing in 1939, who turned to rescuing hundreds of Jews and Polish Underground families attempting to flee for safety.
   
   Antonina has a rare gift, a deep empathy with humans and animals alike that allows her to sense deeply what they are thinking and instinctively understand how to calm them (which saves her life more than once when facing Nazis). Jan was also an active member in the Underground, using his official documents as a pass to smuggle Jews out of the Ghetto, as well as perform acts of sabotage against the Nazis. They face the unknown in their different ways, Antonina attempting to fill the villa with activity, music, and the few animals that she brings indoors (many of the larger zoo animals were killed in bombings, slaughtered by Nazis for sport, or transported to German zoos).
   
   Ackerman's prose hauntingly captures the destruction inflicted by the Nazi bombings, the daily humiliations and indignities that war inflicts on civilian populations, particularly on those trapped in the Warsaw Ghetto. At times, the novel is nearly bogged down by the overenthusiastic descriptions, such as a segment on beetles that goes on for several pages, but these scenic detours serve to illuminate the thinking behind several pivotal characters.
   
   There are certainly important concepts glossed over, such as the Hasidic viewpoint of the Shoah, and at times the quotes taken from Antonina's diary and other documents blur between fiction and recounting based on the sparse endnotes, but the Zookeeper's Wife is a glowing testament to the courage of two unconventional Poles whose bravery saved over 300 lives during one of the darkest periods in modern history.

5 comments about 1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War.

1. Less famous than the 1967 or 1973 wars between Israel and the Arab world, the 1948 War of Independence has faded from memory. Best remembered from the book "Exodus" by Leon Uris (or the Paul Newman movie of the same name), the 1948 War has been exhaustively researched by Mr. Morris now. The seeds of the current Israeli-Arab conflict were sown in 1948 where Israel was fighting for its life, three years removed from the Holocaust. Ironically, Israel would had an Arab majority soon, had not more than a half million Arabs fled during the fighting. The Arab nations were poorly organized and armed in comparsion to the Israelis. Mr. Morris notes the atrocities on both sides and spares neither. For the reader wishing a follow-up, they are referred to Michael Oren's "Six Days Of War: June, 1967."



2. In the past, Efraim Karsh presented evidence that forced Benny Morris to admit to distortions. Wikipedia has links to primary documents in the Morris/Karsh conflict.
   
   Karsh presents a different view of the Arab-Israeli War in the May, 2008 issue of Commentary: "1948, Israel, and the Palestinians--The True Story."
   For instance, in Gaza in 1949, Sir John Troutbeck, head of the British Middle East office in Cairo found that while the Palestinian refugees "express no bitterness against the Jews (or for that matter against the Americans or ourselves) they speak with the utmost bitterness of the Egyptians and other Arab states. `We know who our enemies are,' they will say, and they are referring to their Arab brothers who, they declare, persuaded them unnecessarily to leave their homes....I even heard it said that many of the refugees would give a welcome to the Israelis if they were to come in and take the district over."



3. In 1948 Benny Morris shows himself to be a first-rate historian with an accurate and detailed command of the events leading up to the first Arab Israeli War and the war itself. The book is primarily the military history of the conflict, and Morris is a well informed chronicler of military engagements. Morris, also considered one of the grandfathers of the "revisionist" school of Israeli historiography, here shows that he is not afraid to document both Jewish/Israel and Palestinian/Arab excesses and missteps in the war, opportunities missed or failed to be exploited. By and large Morris is very sympathetic to the Zionist enterprise in the Holy Land in this book. He views war in 1948 as inevitable given the demographic/strategic situation in Palestine since the arrival of the first Zionist settlers in the 1880s. This is in keeping with some of his more recent utterances about the Israeli Arab/Palestinian conflict. Given the pressure the Yishuv and early state of Israel were under, he states, conflict was unavoidable. In 1948 Morris seeks to show that calls for jihad against the Jews in Palestine was no mere bluster; that it was just as powerful (if not more so) source of Arab ire against Israel as the rising sense of Arab nationalism following WWII. It is here, I suppose, where Morris makes his most original contribution to the study of the 1948 war.



4. I approached this book with caution. I had not read any of Morris' prior books, fearful of his reputation (earned or not) for bashing the Israeli side without providing context for their actions. Though when I read history I already know how the story ends, I want something fresh, with context, and an attempt to give the losing side a chance to explain what it was thinking. To my delight, and to the benefit of those who like me devour serious histories written for scholars and non-scholars, Morris accomplishes this.
   
   "1948" skillfully weaves together the political and military history of Israel's war of independence. The atrocities of war being what they are, he places those committed by Israelis, whose command was not always unified, against the Arabs' threats to destroy them Those threats remained largely (though far from completely) unfulfilled due to incompetence, and not a lack of desire. The Arab countries surrounding Israel had no interest in allowing the Arabs who lived in Mandate Palestine to form their own country, and the the Arabs who lived within the Mandate territory (whom we now call Palestinians) lacked the will to better their situation militarily, economically, educationally and politically. If they had succeeded in driving out the Jews, they would not have been Palestinians, but Egyptians, Syrians, and Jordanians. Their land would probably still be impoverished, disease ridden, and lacking any serious institutions of higher learning. They did not want a nation-- they just wanted the Jews to leave.
   
   The men and women who formed modern Israel determined that they would be victims no more. Few gentiles complained when, wherever they lived, Jews' land, chattel and lives were stolen or destroyed. The Israelis' story, as told by Morris, is not always a comfortable one for Western sensibilities, but it holds up well compared to the birth of most other nations in the last one hundred years. That Morris could write a book that seems to contradict many of the theories he has put forward in the past is a credit to his intellectual honesty. That he can relate the tale in such an accessible package is to the history book reading public's benefit.



5. This mostly military chronicling of the first Arab-Israeli war, is a difficult read, because the prose is so dense and full of almost arcane military details. It is hard to get ones hands or head around the larger picture. I, for one was hoping for a much more coherent and self-contained piece, with larger explanatory themes to grab onto. I pretty much knew the outlines of the history here, but was hoping that this book would put the creation of the state of Israel into context, but sadly that is not what I got.
   
   That said, it is difficult to argue with the profusion of details if one is willing to get knee deep and wade into military arcania. The story Morris tells as best I can decipher it is this:
   
   Three years after the European Holocaust, and after the Jews had for 75 years been trickling into Palestine, a UN Mandate based on the arrangements of the Balfour Conference and a United Nations Resolution, brought the state of Israel into being.
   
   Although the Arabs had anticipated that this would happen, they were still shocked and remained disorganized. Fighting broke out immediately, but since the Jews were more highly motivated and better organized, they set a pattern that would be repeated in all of the subsequent wars, of quickly routing the Arabs and immediately began taking over Palestinian lands as spoils of war.
   
   At first the Jews were not bent on "ethnically cleansing" their new territory of all its Arabs. However, as Arabs who elected to stay under Israeli suzerainty were seen as traitors to the pan-Arabic cause, their voluntary exodus amounted to de facto and self-fulfilling ethnic cleansing, after which the new Jewish arrivals did not discourage.
   
   As far as atrocities were concerned, there were enough to go around, but Morris in the kind of balanced and fair-mindedness reflected throughout the book, takes the Israelis to task as being the more brutal of the two. According to him they had less reasons to trust the Arabs and usually shot first and asked questions later.
   
   Not enough non-military historical meat for me. Three Stars

5 comments about People of the Book: A Novel.

1. People of the Book is a great story and wonderfully written. Each chapter alternates between the present and the past. The chapters of "the past" go further and further back in history and discusses the trial and tribulations of the book that the protaganist has restored. During the restoration, she finds artifacts that have been inadvertantly left in the book. Each chapter reads as its own short story discussing how the item got in the book and who owned the book at the time. I worried that it would be tough to follow, but it wasn't.
   
   I highly recomend it.



2. The most profound effect that this book had on me was to make me realize just how much is tied to inanimate objects. I dearly love going to museums and though I occasionally do wonder what life was like for the person who fashioned that ancient goblet or who wore that suit of armor, I have never found myself reflecting on it as profoundly as I did after reading this book. Brooks did a wonderful job of instilling in me, as a reader, a sense of how a seemingly innocuous object as an ancient, illuminated book can bear witness to centuries of human drama. The book masterfully recreated the sense of urgency that exists in everyday life while showing that everyday life is so fleeting and that one's time on the planet is so short as to be merely a thread in the tapestry that history has woven.
   
   The book opens in 1996, with Hanna, a book restorer and expert on ancient manuscripts who has been asked to examine and make repairs to the Sarajevo haggadah, an ancient book that is something akin to a Jewish book of hours. While restoring the book, Hanna finds an insect wing, a dark stain, some salt crystals, and a white hair. She uses these objects in an attempt to trace the history of the book.
   
   It is at this point that People of the Book really becomes a wonder. Brooks does a masterful job of creating a contemporary drama--that of Hanna's quest and events in her own personal life--that is interwoven with a series of historical dramas. This book is a story within a story within a story and it serves as a reminder of how history tends to loop back on itself. Tied to each of the four pieces of evidence that Hanna has found in the book is a story that tells one small part of the tale of the haggadah's creation and journey and each of these stories takes us further back in time.
   
   This is a book so vivid and rich that I find it difficult to describe. Brooks has a mastery of words and though the locations and the eras she describes are all vastly different, what stands out is her depictions of humanity in all its greatness and flaws. Hanna's own journey could have made for a good novel in and of itself but Brooks gives it more impact by casting it against the tales of all those who have been touched by the book long before Hanna.
   
   What is really remarkable about the novel is how it highlights the sameness of the struggles of its Jewish protagonists. As the saying goes, the more things change, the more they stay the same and this is certainly the argument that this novel makes. Brooks charts a course of history that shows how, time and again, people of the Jewish faith have been made victims because of that faith, how one day Jews live peacefully alongside Christians and Muslims and how they next they are being persecuted by those very neighbors. Though the novel suggests that the survival of the book itself is extraordinary, what is truly extraordinary is the actions of those who ensure the survival of the book. While the chance to behold such an ancient text is certainly a marvel, what is even more marvelous is to try to imagine the lives of those who saw to it that we could, one day, view that ancient text in a museum or in a library. This novel just proves how wonderful is Brooks's mind, that her experiences with an ancient text allowed her thoughts to take flight and to produce this sterling work of literature.



3. The main character of the book is "Hanna". If you like a character who is impressed with herself and won't let the reader forget it, you'll like this book. Example: Hanna's favorite phrase is "... when I was at Harvard..." Not: "..when I was studying.." or "..when I was a grad student..." or whatever. After the tenth "Harvard" reminder, it gets a bit tedious.
   
   If you don't like that kind of character, then just skip this book.



4. Hanna Heath, rare book restorer, is called to Sarajevo in 1996 to help document and preserve a 15th c. Jewish haggadah (prayer book). She finds in its pages a few grains of salt, a wine stain, a white hair, and an insect's wing. As Hanna calls upon forensic friends to examine the odd extras, the book opens on separate chapters that explain the findings of those remnants and fill in a history of the `people of the book' as it changes hands through time. We are given the book's survival in World War II, its path backward through the Spanish Inquisition in 1609, the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492, and its earliest artistry, in 1480. This book impressed me much more so than the author's much lauded "March." It's inventive and clever and I really liked the evocation of time and place in the historical chapters. Brooks takes a real event, the discovery of the actual 'Sarajevo haggadah' and creates a rich and poignant fiction here.



5. I was first captured by the main character, Hannah Heath, but I found myself being even more captivated by some of the minor characters as the history of the Haggadah goes back in time to Venice, Seville, etc. I was enchanted by the slowly unfolding mystery and the creative way that Geraldine Brooks ties the history of the "people of the book" together over a 400-some year span.

5 comments about Certain Girls: A Novel.

1. Weiner picks up the life of Cannie Shapiro ten years after "Good in Bed" -- now, readers find daughter Joy almost thirteen, and husband Peter wanting a baby.
   
   Despite her initial hesitation to rock what feels like a perfect little world, Cannie agrees to consider a surrogate -- the only way they can have a biological child after Joy's traumatic birth.
   
   Meanwhile, Joy -- whose POV alternates chapters with her mother's -- is going through the usual junior high angst, trying to get in with the popular girls, wondering if her crush likes her back, spending excruciating hours on perfecting her appearance. On the other hand, Joy is also unique, as she suffers from hearing loss due to her premature birth, and like any normal 'tween, worries about hiding her hearing aids from her classmates.
   
   Joy also reads her mother's infamous book, "Big Girls Don't Cry," and is appalled by the sexcapades and debauchery of "Allie," the protagonist she knows is based on her own mother. How much is real, and how much was made up just to spice up the book? Worst of all, there's a part about Allie's horror discovering her pregnancy -- is that how Cannie really reacted upon Joy's birth?
   
   To try to ease her confusion and anger, Joy decides she'll track down Cannie's father -- the long-lost grandfather she's never known, who makes the rest of her family angry and uneasy just in passing mention. She's sure he's just misunderstood, and will want to come to her upcoming bat mitzvah...right?
   
   As always, Weiner does a wonderful job creating realistic characters, full of hopes, flaws and snarkiness just like her readers. This book -- including the unexpected bittersweet twist -- provides a satisfying sequel to Cannie and Joy's story.



2. This was a great book until the end. Then I hated it. Why the plot twist, why the added drama, just needed to add a few more pages to the manuscript????? I love this authors writing style and own all of her other books, but this may be the last one. We go from a fairly translatable story on family dynamic and growing up in the world today, to a downright dark ending, for no reason. Guess I need to find a new author to read.



3. This is an excellent sequel to In the Bedroom. It is a fast read and a book you will not be able to put down until you complete it.



4. I love all things Jennifer Weiner. I am Jewish, in my early 40s, lived much of my adult life in Philadelphia and its suburbs, write for part of my living, and have had my share of failed and often comical relationships - culminating in my current 15 year marriage to a man who I cannot imagine being without. Weiner's first novel, Good In Bed, and this latest one, Certain Girls, are written from the voice of Philadelphia Jewish girl, writer, mother, and wife Cannie Shapiro.
   
   Since we left her, Cannie has published a best-selling fictionalized sexually-charged version of her life (which she tries to hide, taking the plebian job of ghost writing science fiction novels at a steady salary), marries a diet doctor Peter Krushelevansky, and settles down to raise her daughter Joy. As Joy nears her bat mitzvah she discovers her mother's novel, cannot separate fact from fiction, and goes on her personal mission to discover her identity while at the same time Peter decides he wants to have another baby with the uterus-free Cannie.
   
   Throw in Joy's insane but brilliant Aunt Elle, her lesbian grandmother, estranged grandfather, her father Bruce and his new wife and family, and all of the angst of being 13 and you get the picture. Certain Girls manages to weave around this complexity without losing the reader or skipping anything we need to know.
   
   Weiner writes this novel from two distinct perspectives in two unique voices, Cannie and Joy. As the stories unfold we experience the drama from both the perspective of mother and daughter, and this adds extra layers of depth to what could be just a basic chick-lit comedy drama.
   
   This is a book about life and living. Parts are laugh out loud hysterically funny and parts will just make you cry. And the end is a shocker; I did not see it coming and neither will you. But again, that's life, isn't it?



5. I usually don't write reviews, but after finishing this book I was so frustrated that I wanted to say something.
   
   I generally love Jennifer Weiner's books, and actually just finished re-reading "Little Earthquakes." I was so excited to read "Certain Girls" and see what happened to Cannie after "Good in Bed". But I found this book so depressing! After leaving Cannie in the first book, we feel she may be headed for a happy ending. Instead, this book just felt like a constant struggle, in which NO one (even the supporting characters) is remotely content, much less happy.
   
   I'm not the mother of a teenager (yet, anyway!), but I don't doubt that this is a frustrating age for both parent and child. I wouldn't expect it to be all sunshine and rainbows; however, Joy is completely obnoxious throughout the book. The chapters told through her perspective only made me want to shake sense into her. I really didn't find myself empathizing with her at all... and really, what child gets away with the crap she pulls? Come on, Cannie!
   
   And the end... oh, the end. Jennifer Weiner, what are you doing to us? Why is that necessary? Does a woman really need to experience as much tragedy and heartache as Cannie has to find her inner strength? I certainly hope not.
   
   Overall this is not a terrible read. I enjoyed the first half, but I found the second half to be just a downward spiral into a frustrating, sad ending.