You'll love this one...!! A book club & more discussion

Hi Roz! I compared our want to read lists for historical fiction and came up with a bunch of books that we are both interested in reading. Let me know if any of these interest you for February.

The Woman on the Orient Express
The Edge of Lost
The German Girl
The Two-Family House
Trail of Broken Wings
What She Left Behind
The Women in the Castle
Half of a Yellow Sun
Homegoing
A Gentleman in Moscow

If you're in the mood for something different, I noticed that we have other book outside the historical fiction genre in common as well and I don't mind switching. I just listed the historical fiction books because the was the original chosen genre.

Oh and let me know if you have a creative thread title. I was blanking when I made I thread. lol

How about:
Kristie and Roz Wander in the Past,
Kristie and Roz Get Historical,
Kristie and Roz Step Back in Time

The books that interest me the most are:

The Edge of Lost
The German Girl
What She Left Behind
The Women in the Castle
The Woman on the Orient Express

I have so many books on my Historical Fiction shelf, I could read just about anything. Do you want to narrow it down to one of these?

Good name ideas! I picked one and changed the name. :) Hope you like it!

Those are perfect! Let's see...I could really do any of those, but I own audios of The Woman on the Orient Express and The German Girl already. I think an audio will work best for me, because I have a bunch of Kindle books that I need to review. So, those two would be easiest for me, but honestly I like them all and could pick up an audio of one of the others easily enough. What do you think? Did you have one you were leaning towards?

Also, when would you want to start? We have the toppler February 10-17, so that's probably not a good time. Would you like to start right away, early in the month?

The title works for me.
Let's go with The German Girl. It's available at my library so I can get it right away. Plus I put a hold on the kindle version as well. I'll let you know when I have a copy ( it should be at the beginning of the month).
I'm looking forward to this.

Very good! I’m looking forward to it too! :)

That book sounds good! Will look forward to your thoughts after.

I’m picking up a copy from my library today. I’ll start reading it on
Thursday.

Excellent! Thursday works for me. :)

Well, I just started the book and I must say the first line is one of the most provocative ones I've read in a long time.

I agree! The first line is a grabber.

I’m listening to the book and have just started, but the narrator uses the same voice for both Hannah and Anna. I was so confused at first because I missed the “New York 2014” the first time around. So I had no idea what was going on. I’ve got it sorted now, but I’ll have to make sure I’m really paying attention so I know which is the current narrator.

Right out of the gate, Hannah and Anna seem to have the same voice (not the narrator, but the characters). I hope they become more individuals as the book progresses.

I have to admit that I didn't find the first 14% of the book enthralling, so that's as far as I've gotten. I plan to read more today. I'm hoping to get to a point where I don't want to put it down, but I'm not there yet.

How are you doing with this one? How far along are you? Are you enjoying it? Any thoughts to share?

Ok, I'm 26% in and it took me this long to finally understand what happened to Anna's father. I'm not at the "can't put it down yet" but it was worse at the beginning. I wanted to read this book because it was WWII and covered something I wasn't aware of. I didn't know there were Jews who escaped by ship and ended up in Cuba. But really when I think about it, there's a Jewish population in Cuba and they had to get there somehow, right? I remember coming across a box of photographs in my husband's grandmother's attic (we used to live in that house and the attic was full of multiple generations of stuff). The box had old letters written by relatives left behind in Europe (written in Yiddish and asking for help from relatives that got out--very disturbing) and pictures. Some were studio prints from Cuba. No one is around anymore to tell us who they are but I wonder about them.
I have to say that in from the start the 2 girls annoyed me. I understood they were 12. They had depressed mothers who stayed in their bedrooms rather than actually deal with the horrible situations they were in. Anna became the adult in the family. The mothers finally came out of their rooms when forced to. Maybe it was the writing style, writing from the child's point of view, I'm not sure what, just that I'm not totally pulled in yet. It took to the 26% point to find out what happened to Anna's father. But I'm willing to continue on with this one if you are.
Let me know if you want to bail on this one and pick one of the others. It's early in the month.

I think I'm at 21%. It's not drawing me in, but I'll give it another go today.

That box of photos and letters must have been fascinating to come across. I would have so many questions! It's too bad no one is still around who can tell you about them.

I did my mental health internship at a Jewish elderly housing facility. Some of the stories the residents told were just heartbreaking. I've always been interested in the Holocaust. I find it so unbelievable that something like that could happen.

I took a sociology course in undergrad that was specifically about the Holocaust. The instructor was a survivor, just a child during the war. He wrote the textbook that we used. He also wrote Vengeance of the Swallows: Memoir of a Polish Family's Ordeal Under Soviet Aggression, Ukrainian Ethnic Cleansing and Nazi Enslavement, and Their Emigration to America, which we read in class. It was really interesting to be in a class with someone who had experienced it firsthand.

My husband’s grandmother took a ship to Europe in the middle 1930’s to visit her Polish relatives. We have a few pictures from that trip. The letters i found date from after the voyage. One thanked her for the visit and the gifts and money she brought. Another talked about hardships and fear and how the writer felt that those that had left and gone to America had forgotten those left behind. I found a site that had access to Yiddish translators but some of the letters are in very bad condition. The ones i had translated were very sad to read knowing they didn’t make it out.

That sounds like quite the treasure, Roz.

I'm at about 42%. There've been some interesting parts, but I'm not loving it. I think it's the writing style. It feels more like a biography. There are a lot of details and it feels like they're listed instead of flowing within the story. I plan to finish it, but so far it's just an ok story for me. I can't even think of anything at the moment that stands out to discuss. How are you finding it?

I might read a little more tomorrow morning, but this is going to get put aside for the toppler for me. How about you? Are you planning to finish?

I'm about at the same spot you are: They're on the ship, Hannah and Leo are running around, 2 11 year olds planning on getting married, Hannah's mother is playing queen of the ball and Papa is listening to music. Does this sound weird to you? And the crew, etc. treated this boatload of Jews with respect? This isn't too much after Kristalnacht when the Germans went around destroying Jewish businesses, arresting people, neighbors were turning each other in, people "disappeared", Papa had been detained. It was not a good time to be Jewish in Berlin. These 2 kids were allowed to run around? Their parents weren't more concerned? I realize the fathers (Leo's and Hannah's) were trying to make plans to get out, but these kids were left to their own devices and didn't really understand the dangerous situations they put themselves in. That could be just kids being kids, but 1939 was a different time from when my own kids were "just kids being kids" doing stupid stuff. I just have a very bad feeling that something very bad is going to happen.
I'll finish the book. I've invested too much time into it to let it go.
Sorry for the rant but from this side of history, knowing what happened, it makes me wonder how they (German Jewry) could have been lulled into believing that they would have been thought of as Germans first and been left alone. How they could have not seen the bad coming earlier than they did (too late).

Yup, that's where I am too. I keep forgetting how young the kids are. I think it's a combination of the time when it takes place being different and them being written as older.

The mom annoys me too. She's so wrapped up in appearances that she's not looking after her daughter. As you said, there's no caution there at all.

I'm going to try to get to some of this tomorrow. I picked it up today (after putting it aside for the toppler) and put it right back down. It's just not striking me, which is too bad. I had high hopes for this one. Here's hoping the second half is better than the first.

I made it to 65% today. I feel like this book is taking forever. I'm going to try to listen to a bit more tonight and hopefully get to around 80%.

I don't know how to mark where I am exactly and I don't want to leave spoilers, so you may want to wait until you're well past where I am to read this. (view spoiler)[

I am still annoyed with the mother. She always acts so spoiled, thinking of herself first.

It looks like Hannah is going to make friends with her hired help. Her mother would be so annoyed to know that. **insert eye roll here**

I'm curious to find out how Leo betrayed Hannah and how she ended up raising her nephew. (hide spoiler)]

Otherwise, I'm still not very engaged with the story. It's not that I'm disliking it. I just don't really care one way or the other. I'm not sure if it's just my mood or something about the story itself. I'll be glad when this one's done.

You're ahead of me but I'm going to read some today. I know I've been avoiding it, but I want to finish it. I have a hard time deserting a book, even one that doesn't engage me.

That's why I made a big push today. I was finding myself avoiding it too and not reading anything because I knew I had to get to this one. I sort of went in with the "I need to get this over with" attitude. I think that's why I feel like I'm not giving it a fair shot. However, I was pretty far in before and not really interested in getting back to it to begin with, so I guess that's a fair enough shot. lol I'm hoping to finish it tomorrow and get it off my plate.

Finally finished! I was so disappointed in (view spoiler)[ Gustav. Apparently, all that his family went through didn't make him any more compassionate. (hide spoiler)]

Unfortunately, I was only engaged for a short portion of the book, maybe 20-25%. I'm not sure how much of that was me and how much was the book. I ended up giving it three stars, which is probably generous for my enjoyment, but I felt it was right.

I'm 70% done and it's been slow going. I read your spoiler in message 19, and I agree, (view spoiler)[mom is annoying and was appalled by the relationship (and anything pertaining to) Hortensia. (hide spoiler)]
I keep thinking about this family, the Rosenthals. (view spoiler)[They were certainly wealthy having a building in Berlin, a house in Cuba and an apartment in New York. They keep mentioning that New York apartment -- mom when there to give birth to Gustav, but they never consider leaving Cuba and going there, at least not up to the part of the book I've finished. Still waiting for Papa? The lawyer just told them about the concentration camps so they must know he died. It's about 1942 now (the date of his death on the mausoleum. (hide spoiler)]
I'm also curious about the name Alma gave her son. (view spoiler)[Gustav is named after the ship's captain? Not the traditional way to name Jewish children. Normally they are named after a passed relative. I realize he wasn't circumcised to protect him, make him fit in and that can be "rectified" later on (ouch), but the name is something different. (hide spoiler)]
I'll try to finish this tonight, tomorrow at the latest. I'm packing for vacation (Aruba for 2 weeks) and have a long flight so I can do some serious reading.

Roz - Can you add a spoiler tag to your comment? Some members have been checking out other threads and want to avoid spoilers.

I like that (view spoiler)[ they named him after the captain, but I think trying to fit in by denying who you are is bound to backfire somehow. (hide spoiler)]

Have a great time in Aruba! We just went there in January for the first time and loved it. It’s a great place to vacation.

Sorry about the spoilers. Seems my whole comment 23 is a spoiler. Amended. : )

Thanks, Roz! :) I look forward to seeing what your thoughts are at the end.

Finally finished the book. I'm going to the beach to think about what I want to write. I'll be back later. I have some thoughts about Gustav, the ending, Papa's last words to Hannah, parallels in the relationships between Hannah and Leo, and Anna and Diego. I'll come back later.

Here are some of my thoughts:
Gustavo: (view spoiler)[ I see Gustav as a kid growing up in Cuba on the cusp of changes within the country. He went to Cuban schools, had Cuban friends. He wasn’t part of Alma’s and Hannah’s past. Alma hid away in dark rooms, looked at her stay in Cuba as “temporary”. That woman carried a lot of fear and anger with her until the day she died. Staying there and being buried there out of spite for having to come there in the first place and everything that followed. Here was a woman who didn’t let go of her past and what she once had. Gustavo was part of Cuba and became part of the revolution. I don’t think of him as inconsiderate of his mother’s and sister’s past, just not part of it. (hide spoiler)]
Papa’s last words: (view spoiler)[When Papa shouted “Forget your name”, what did you think he meant? Change it? Deny it? I think it was more a plea for Hannah to reinvent herself, build a new life and not let the life and struggles they had in Berlin, influence what she became. In a way she did do some of that, changing her name to Ana (with a J) although that really wasn’t her choice entirely, going to school and becoming a pharmacist, owning her own pharmacy. So in a way she did what her father wished for her. Don't let the past dictate what you can be. (hide spoiler)]
Leo’s box: (view spoiler)[I had a feeling the last capsule would be in there. Not just the ring. But would you be able to wait all those years (75 years!) to open it? Having it in the same house with me, walking past the place I had put it (in a drawer or on a shelf) would have driven me mad. I’d have opened it long ago. Maybe if things had worked out differently with Julian and they had built a life together allowing her to put Leo’s memory in a different place, she would have. But I also don’t think Leo meant for Hannah to wait until she was 87 to open it. We don’t really know what happened to Leo and his father. All that part about never leaving the ship, taking the pills and dying on the way back to Europe, was her musings. (hide spoiler)]
The ending: (view spoiler)[I was a bit confused. Did Hannah take the pill? Did she just will herself to die (like her family seemed to do), maybe walk into the sea? She had her headstone engraved with the year (2014) because she was now 87, the age she and Leo earmarked in a conversation of their future together. But what was that Shalom at the end? It was totally out there for me. Where did that come from? The was no other part in the book where they talked in Hebrew, talked about anything religious, emigrating to Israel. It would have made more sense if she had said Hello, Leo like she was greeting him again. (hide spoiler)]
Hannah/Anna: (view spoiler)[ I found that the relationship of Hannah and Leo was similar to the relationship of Anna and Diego. Did you? Plus Hannah and Anna both liked to take pictures (had cameras). Did you find any other similarities / parallels? (hide spoiler)]