Review: A Train in Winter

A Train in Winter: An Extraordinary Story of Women, Friendship, and Resistance in Occupied France

Author: Caroline Moorehead
Pages: 384
Publisher: Harper
Source: Publisher via TLC Book Tours

Description from Goodreads:
They were teachers, students, chemists, writers, and housewives; a singer at the Paris Opera, a midwife, a dental surgeon. They distributed anti-Nazi leaflets, printed subversive newspapers, hid resisters, secreted Jews to safety, transported weapons, and conveyed clandestine messages. The youngest was a schoolgirl of fifteen who scrawled "V" for victory on the walls of her lycée; the eldest, a farmer's wife in her sixties who harbored escaped Allied airmen. Strangers to each other, hailing from villages and cities from across France, these brave women were united in hatred and defiance of their Nazi occupiers.

Eventually, the Gestapo hunted down 230 of these women and imprisoned them in a fort outside Paris. Separated from home and loved ones, these disparate individuals turned to one another, their common experience conquering divisions of age, education, profession, and class, as they found solace and strength in their deep affection and camaraderie.

In January 1943, they were sent to their final destination: Auschwitz. Only forty-nine would return to France.

A Train in Winter draws on interviews with these women and their families; German, French, and Polish archives; and documents held by World War II resistance organizations to uncover a dark chapter of history that offers an inspiring portrait of ordinary people, of bravery and survival—and of the remarkable, enduring power of female friendship.

First Sentence: "On 5 January 1942, a French police inspector named Rondeaux, stationed in the 10th arrondissement of Paris, caught sight of a man he believed to be a wanted member of the French Resistance."

Review:
Obviously, I don't read too much nonfiction these days, still not recovered from the glut of required readings for my history major and also unable to resist the page-turning allure of fiction. Still, there are a few subjects that can tempt me into some scholarly reading, one of which is World War II. For whatever reason, I have always been drawn to everything about both WWI and WWII. As such, when I had the opportunity to review this, I jumped at it.

Very few history books read as smoothly as fiction, or as quickly. Moorehead's reads like history, and not like a story, but her prose is still beautiful and much less dry than most of the history texts I've encountered. Her phrasing also reads as delightfully un-American, very suited to the French women she's describing. I intended to just sit down and read this the way I do my fiction books, but ended up reading it in fits and starts, because it just went down better in small gulps, giving me time to mull things over, rather than frustrate myself by trying to read speedily.

Although the focus of this on the surface is a train, the train that took 230 female members of the resistance in France to Auschwitz, about half of the book focuses on how they got caught. Moorehead met with many of the still-living survivors as part of her research, and she obviously knew more about these women and the ones they were close to then some of the others. She doesn't tell the stories of all 230, of course, but she gives a nice picture of life in Occupied France, and the various roles women played in the resistance. This was an area I knew little of, so I was thrilled to expand my knowledge.

Sent to the Auschwitz, these women endure all the hardships there, most of which are probably quite familiar, as the horror of the Holocaust is already well-known. Moorehead's central thesis is that the reason so many of them (49/230) managed to survive was because of the kinship between these women. The friendships they developed and the way they supported one another in the camp greatly heightened their odds of survival.

These French women did their best to keep their minds active, reciting snippets of remembered poems and holding classes. They shared their food voluntarily, giving the largest portions to those most in need. At the freezing roll calls, they propped up those who could not stand. They secreted women who would otherwise be taken to the gas chambers away. They made each other Christmas presents from odds and ends they managed to steal. In short, the camps were still hell, but they were just slightly better with friends, serving as evidence that not all humankind is so evil and incapable of feeling.

One of my favorite things about A Train in Winter, I must admit at the risk of sounding childish, were the pictures. Okay, okay, hear me out. Many history texts include photos of the important figures, but they're often sectioned off into the middle so the photos can be glossy, which is nice, except that, by the time you get to that section you don't remember who most of them are. Moorehead located many pictures of the women, including ones taken in some of the camps. Seeing the change in the women once incarcerated is astonishing. Even more horrifying is the picture of some of the Auschwitz guards, presumably on some holiday, smiling and looking like any young, healthy folks out for a good time in the 40s, not like abusive killers.

Not what I expected Auschitz guards to look like. SOURCE.

Moorehead touches on so much, and I find reviewing history books a bit difficult. I thought her book quite well done, and would recommend it to those interested in studying the Holocaust or the French Resistance, whether for fun or for school.

Rating: 4/5

Review: Before the Rain

Before the Rain: A Memoir of Love and Revolution

Author: Luisita Lopez Torregrosa
Pages: 226
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publication Date: August 7, 2012
Source: TLC Book Tours

Description from Goodreads:
In a voice haunting and filled with longing, Before the Rain tells the story of love unexpected, its fragile bounds and subtle perils. As a newspaper editor in the ’80s, Luisita Torregrosa lived her career. Enter Elizabeth, a striking, reserved, and elusive writer with whom Torregrosa falls deeply in love. Their story—irresistible romance, overlapping ambitions, and fragile union—unfolds as the narrative shifts to the Philippines and the fall of Ferdinand Marcos. There, on that beautiful, troubled island, the couple creates a world of their own, while covering political chaos and bloody upheavals. What was effortless abroad becomes less idyllic when they return to the United States, and their ending becomes as surprising and revealing as their beginning. Torregrosa captures the way love transforms those who experience it for an unforgettable, but often too brief, time. This book is distinguished not only by its strong, unique, and conflicted heroines, but also by Torregrosa’s lyrical portrait of the Philippines and the even more exotic heart of intimacy.

First Sentence: "In the years since that first letter came, postmarked New Delhi and written on pale lavender Claridges Hotel stationery, I have begun this story a hundred times, and each time I was afraid."

Review:
Having completed Before the Rain, I find myself with very little to say, a rather rare occurrence for me. Speechlessness, of course, can be the result of many emotions, too fraught by the impact of the tale or too bored to care. Unfortunately, my reactions more closely resemble the latter.

What drew me to this book was both the lgbt element and the historical aspect. Coming into it, I knew practically nothing about the history of the Philippines, and learning about that history as a backdrop for a touching romance sounded like perfection. Having read the last page of this memoir, though, I do not feel that I know much more than I did when I started, other than now knowing a couple of names of political figures.

This autobiography should, more accurately, be subtitled simply A Memoir of Love, as there is little of revolution. The focus lies almost entirely upon the relationship between Luisita and Elizabeth. While that's fine, the book's description prepared me for something with a broader scope. History receives only the barest treatment, insomuch as it separated the two lovers, as both are reporters and had to travel to cover various events.

I would expect, though, that I would have a very strong picture of Luisita and Elizabeth in my head, since they are the focus, that I would have a good sense of their bond. Alas, I do not. I feel like Torregrosa keeps the audience at a distance from them. She clues us in on the big events of their romance, but does not let us in on any of the small details that really make a life. For all that she is proudly discussing her lesbian relationship, I found it surprising that we never get any sense of their sexual life at all. For all the talk of their intense passion, only a couple of kisses and hugs are mentioned. This made for a disconnect between what she claimed and what I was actually sensing through her words.

I will say, however, that the writing is incredibly beautiful. Torregrosa composes lovely sentences, and she has a unique flair for language. She puts her sentences together in ways I might never think to, slightly strangely, and coaxes a new and different beauty out of them.

For me, this memoir was vastly disappointing, but lovers of language largely for its own sake might find this more interesting than I did. I, personally, hoped to learn more about the author in reading a memoir, but left it with very little sense of Luisita herself.

Rating: 2.5/5

Favorite Quote: "Elizabeth, who readily saw the things in me that were so much a part of her, too, had touched that sense of aloneness in me, had been drawn to it. I was dark and fierce and had a face of shadows and moods, a face that to her seemed ageless. I was the very thing that she wanted to avoid—chaos, intensity, a fall from grace. I was writing, passion, books, long drinks in the night."

Hippy, Hippy Shake - The Beatles

Baby's in Black:
Astrid Kirchherr, Stuart Sutcliff and The Beatles

Author: Arne Bellstorf
Pages: 199
ARC Acquired from: First Second via NetGalley

Description from Goodreads:
A fascinating, exhilarating portrait of the Beatles in their early years. 

Meet the Beatles . . . right at the beginning of their careers. This gorgeous, high-energy graphic novel is an intimate peek into the early years of the world’s greatest rock band. The heart of Baby’s In Black is a love story. The “fifth Beatle,” Stuart Sutcliffe, falls in love with the beautiful Astrid Kirchherr when she recruits the Beatles for a sensational (and famous) photography session during their time in Hamburg. When the band returns to the UK, Sutcliffe quits, becomes engaged to Kirchherr, and stays in Hamburg. A year later, his meteoric career as a modern artist is cut short when he dies unexpectedly. The book ends as it begins, with Astrid, alone and adrift; but with a note of hope: her life is incomparably richer and more directed thanks to her friendship with the Beatles and her love affair with Sutcliffe. This tender story is rendered in lush, romantic black-and-white artwork. 

Baby’s In Black is based on a true story.

Review:
You can probably tell that I am a huge music fan. Well, what you may not know is that I grew up a child of the 60s/70s so far as musical taste goes. Until sixth grade, I didn't really have a conception of 'modern music,' because I listened to what my parents listened to: oldies CDs and the oldies radio station, which tragically went out of business some time in high school. Although my tastes have diversified, I will always have a soft spot for music of that time period, and some of it will always be a favorite. Primary among my favorite bands, oldies or not, are The Beatles. Thus, upon spying this graphic novel about The Beatles in NetGalley, I just had to have it, and First Second was kind enough to approve me.

The cover is a bit misleading, though. The marketing makes this appear to be more about The Beatles than it actually is. The real story that the graphic novel is telling is that of the romance between Stuart Sutcliffe, bassist for The Beatles during the time when they were playing in Germany, and Astrid Kirchherr, a photographer. Reading real life love stories is always so charming, although they are not as neat and happy as fictional ones.

Now, I know I said that this isn't ABOUT The Beatles, but there is still so much to be learned about their early days in here. As a fan who doesn't research music history much, I found those details fascinating. The Beatles were implicated in a fire in Hamburg! Weird, right? One thing I learned, which I should have known, was that The Beatles smoked constantly. I mean, obviously I knew that, but, in my mind, no one smokes, so that reminded me why I would not want to go back in time and hang with The Beatles.

The one thing that I did not, personally care for was the artwork. It's very crude and simplistic, and just did not jive with me at all. However, I do imagine that Kirchherr would approve. Art is a very personal taste, so you should really take a look for yourself. It's just like what you see on the cover.

I wanted to know more and to test the accuracy, so I consulted my good friend Google and found this awesome article from the Daily Record, which pretty much sums up this period in the history of The Beatles, who thankfully changed their name from The Quarrymen. So cool! Also, I would recommend doing a search for Astrid and The Beatles, because you can see a bunch of pictures of her and pictures she took, which is just amazing.

A graphic novel weighing in at just 200 pages, this is a really easy read. Beatles fans, you should definitely check this out!

Rating: 4/5

Let's Talk About Sex - Salt 'n' Pepa

The Origins of Sex: A History of the First Sexual Revolution

Author: Faramerz Dabhoiwala
Pages: 364 (main text)
ARC Acquired from: Oxford University Press via NetGalley

Description from Goodreads:
A man admits that, when drunk, he tried to have sex with an eighteen-year-old girl; she is arrested and denies they had intercourse, but finally begs God's forgiveness. Then she is publicly hanged alongside her attacker. These events took place in 1644, in Boston, where today they would be viewed with horror. How--and when--did such a complete transformation of our culture's attitudes toward sex occur? 

In The Origins of Sex, Faramerz Dabhoiwala provides a landmark history, one that will revolutionize our understanding of the origins of sexuality in modern Western culture. For millennia, sex had been strictly regulated by the Church, the state, and society, who vigorously and brutally attempted to punish any sex outside of marriage. But by 1800, everything had changed. Drawing on vast research--from canon law to court cases, from novels to pornography, not to mention the diaries and letters of people great and ordinary--Dabhoiwala shows how this dramatic change came about, tracing the interplay of intellectual trends, religious and cultural shifts, and politics and demographics. The Enlightenment led to the presumption that sex was a private matter; that morality could not be imposed; that men, not women, were the more lustful gender. Moreover, the rise of cities eroded community-based moral policing, and religious divisions undermined both church authority and fear of divine punishment. Sex became a central topic in poetry, drama, and fiction; diarists such as Samuel Pepys obsessed over it. In the 1700s, it became possible for a Church of Scotland leader to commend complete sexual liberty for both men and women. Arguing that the sexual revolution that really counted occurred long before the cultural movement of the 1960s, Dabhoiwala offers readers an engaging and wholly original look at the Western world's relationship to sex. 

Deeply researched and powerfully argued, The Origins of Sex is a major work of history.

First Sentence: "We could start anywhere in the British Isles, on any date almost from the dawn of recorded history to the later seventeenth century."

Review:
No matter how fascinating the topic, I always approach nonfiction skeptically. While some is well-written and engaging, it sometimes seems the authors are intentionally trying to put their readers, mostly luckless students, directly to sleep. Much as I love sleep, I can generally manage it just fine on my own, so I have no interest in such tomes. Thankfully, the writing of The Origins of Sex, while highly scholarly, is also pretty readable so far as serious scholarship goes.

What strikes me perhaps most of all, having read this book, is how little progress we have actually made as a culture with regards to sex. Sure, we went through a sexual revolution and all of that, and we definitely see ourselves as being way more open to sex than our antecedents, but this just isn't the case. I mean, the idea, which is most definitely still pervasive, that women don't have as much of a sexual drive as men do, for example, stems from the mid eighteenth century. Prior to that point, women were believed to be lusty tempters, like Eve. Really the only real difference lies in the treatment/place of women in society, but that's not too different in all countries, and it doesn't apply much to the sexual realm for many.

It should be noted that Dabhoiwala is speaking specifically to the development of opinions of sex in Europe. The discussion is, in fact, limited almost exclusively to Britain. However, the thought there obviously impacts the United Stated quite a bit. I'm not sure how helpful this would be to completely different cultures, except perhaps to get people thinking about their own cultures treatment of sex throughout the ages.

Scholarship may not be your thing (honestly, it's usually not mine either), but there are some seriously shocking facts in here, as well as some facts I'm just going to store away. The focus is definitely on the treatment of women with regards to sex, so I definitely recommend this to feminists. Now, just so you can see how entertaining history can be, I'm going to share a couple of fun facts with you about special 'masculine sex clubs':

"One of its most vigorous proponents, the politician Sir Francis Dashwood, founded several libertine societies. At the centre of his estate he built a temple to Venus, landscaped to resemble a gigantic vagina."

"Even more remarkable was a much humbler club called 'the Beggar's Benison,' which from the 1730s onwards spread from the east coast of Scotland to Edinburgh, Glasgow, and as far afield as St. Petersburg in Russia. Its members met regularly to drink, talk about sex, exchange bawdy jokes and songs, and read pornography. They paid young women to strip and display themselves naked. Their central purpose was to compare penises and masturbate in front of one another, singly and together, in elaborate rights of phallic celebration."

"In the United Kingdom it is now legal for a man to brand his wife on the buttocks with a red hot iron during sex."

Men are WEIRD. What blows my mind most is that there were so many societies doing this. And they had accoutrements. It's like they thought they were a special phallus religion. Gross. As for the last, what I want to know is can the woman brand him? If not, that is RUDE. These are just a couple of historical goodies you can learn in The Origins of Sex.

I found this to be an entirely enlightening read, and recommend it highly to anyone interested in scholarship on the history of opinions on sex. It will definitely make you question some of our modern thoughts, as you realize that they're not really modern at all.

Rating: 4/5

"Let's talk about sex, baby"

Jessie's Girl from Glee

Pilgrims Don't Wear Pink
Pilgrims, Book 1

Author: Stephanie Kate Strohm
Pages: 204
ARC Acquired from: Graphia via NetGalley


Description from Goodreads:
A story of crushes, corsets, and conspiracy.

Libby Kelting had always felt herself born out of time. No wonder the historical romance-reading, Jane Austen-adaptation-watching, all-around history nerd jumped at the chance to intern at Camden Harbor, Maine’s Oldest Living History Museum. But at Camden Harbor Libby’s just plain out of place, no matter how cute she looks in a corset. Her cat-loving coworker wants her dead, the too-smart-for-his-own-good local reporter keeps pushing her buttons, her gorgeous sailor may be more shipwreck than dreamboat — plus Camden Harbor’s haunted. Over the course of one unforgettable summer, Libby learns that boys, like ghosts, aren’t always what they seem.

First Sentence: " 'Please remind me again why you're going to pilgrim camp.' "

Review:
Initially, I thought this sounded awesome. I mean, the heroine loves Jane Austen and history. That's totally exactly like me, right? How can this not be great? Easily, apparently. All you have to do is make the heroine completely vapid and ridiculous. It reminds me a lot of Past Perfect, which was really popular with other people, but that I thought was disappointing. God forbid a heroine actually be able to handle only using her cell phone at night. THE HORRORS!

What's so incredibly frustrating about this is that Libby (I've never met a good Libby) is obviously very smart. She knows a TON of stuff about history. She legit is a nerd. However, she's a complete dumbass otherwise. She got this job at a living history museum, and is like super stoked, until she gets there and realizes she's not allowed to wear her 8 billion sexy outfits with matching shoes and that she can't take her cell phone with her when she's in costume. What the hell did she expect?

My problem is not with the fact that she loves fashion despite being a history nerd. People have varying interests, which is what makes them interesting. No, my issue is that, unless she's telling someone a historical fact, she sounds like she doesn't have a brain in her head. Oh, and because she makes fun of a guy wearing a Star Wars t-shirt. You, lil' miss, are the worst. Probably more importantly, she completely trivializes any woman's interest in history, and makes it into being boy crazy:

"Now, here is the dirty little secret of almost every girl who loves history: somewhere along the line, she fell for a fictional historical hottie. Maybe it was Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy in that dripping wet shirt. Or Clark Gable imagining Vivien Leigh without her shimmy. Or a rascally Hugh Grant charming a girl Senseless. Even Leonardo DiCaprio clinging to the Titanic as he slowly turned blue. Believe you me. If a girl loves history, this probably happened. Many of us dream of a time of true love, courtly manners, and real gentlemen."

Can we talk for a second about just how freaking much this PISSES ME OFF? I was a history major in college, so I don't really appreciate that Libby/Strohm just reduced 'almost every' female who likes history into a delusion, boy-crazy girl. I make no secret of my affection for Darcy (and even more, Mr. Tilney, which is the one thing I really share with Libby), but this has NOTHING to do with my interest in history. In fact, my favorite time periods to study are World War II, the Vietnam War, and shogunate Japan. None of these are associated with a particular studly literary hero, thank you very much. And why is it only women? You don't see her saying men like history because they're in love with some fictional figure.

Part of the awkwardness of the novel, especially that of Libby's character never really coalescing into a realistic person, is likely a byproduct of Strohm's half-hearted attempt to make this into an Austen spinoff. Although I had seen nothing about that in the description, it was pretty apparent by the end that this is a modernized Northanger Abbey forced onto the plot about the girl working at the living history museum. To do so, she had to make what should have been an intelligent, history-loving character into a boy-obsessed, stupid ninny. Catherine, Northanger Abbey's heroine, is not the cleverest and she's incredibly naive.

This leads me to a discussion of the romance in the book, which is incredibly formulaic. Through most of this book, I had the vague sense that I'd read it before, largely because it reads like so many other forgettable YA novels. Who the heroine's going to end up with is evident right from the opening, as is who the heroine is going to spend much of the book crushing on, despite his obviously being a prat. If you don't want to know, you might want to skip the rest of the review just in case.

There are two romantic interests in the book: sexypants Cam and sarcastic, nerdy Garrett. Undoubtedly, you can guess which one's going to win and which one was my favorite character. Of course, she initially is turned off by Garrett and obsessed with Cam (a bit of P&P up in the Northanger Abbey story). Sexypants is so obviously a manwhore, but she LEGIT thinks he's a good guy for almost all of her summer at this place, even though he shoved his tongue down her throat UNASKED WHILE SHE WAS WORKING on the SECOND day they'd ever spoken. Yes, honey, go on thinking that that is the behavior of a gentleman. A girl who reads so much Austen supposedly would have seen the warning signs. Just because he brought you flowers does not make him a gentleman. But he's just so hot that he must be nice. Shut up, Libby. Shut up.

Then there's Garrett, who loves Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, and Stargate-SG1. He's funny, sarcastic and kind. Surprise, surprise, she thinks he's a jerk and that Cam is a nice guy, even though Cam and his friends stare at her breasts all book and throw up all the time from all of the cheap beer they drink. Honestly, I wish she and Garrett hadn't gotten together, because she sure as hell does not deserve someone that awesome. Why is it that nerdy, sarcastic guys are so easy to find in fiction? If the heroines don't want them, they should send them my way, rather than mistreating them for 95% of the book and then taking them as a backup. UGH.

Wow. I really didn't like this. I will say, though, that it was a quick read, and, though it obviously irritated me no end, it wasn't hard to read. I imagine others might enjoy it, so I'm giving it a 2: Not for me. Plus, it deserves a little bonus for the sassy best friend, who I really would have liked to have seen more of, since he reminded me of Betty's nephew on Ugly Betty.

Rating: 2/5

Favorite Quote: "I am a girl of odd and diverse talents with little to no practical value." NOTE: I like this quote, both because it's true of her (she's ridic) and because I often feel like that.

Today's theme song unfortunately has the wrong name, but imagine that it's Garrett singing "Cam's Girl" and that the were never friends, and it's about right.

"And she's watching him with those eyes
And she's loving him with that body I just know it
And he's holding her in his arms late at night

You know, I wish that I had Jessie's girl
I wish that I had Jessie's girl
Where can I find a woman like that"

Murder City - Green Day

Midnight in Peking:
How the Murder of a Young Englishwoman Haunted the Last Days of Old China

Author: Paul French
Pages: 251
Review Copy Acquired from: Penguin

Description from Goodreads:
Peking in 1937 is a heady mix of privilege and scandal, opulence and opium dens, rumors and superstition. The Japanese are encircling the city, and the discovery of Pamela Werner's body sends a shiver through already nervous Peking. Is it the work of a madman? One of the ruthless Japanese soldiers now surrounding the city? Or perhaps the dreaded fox spirits? With the suspect list growing and clues sparse, two detectives—one British and one Chinese—race against the clock to solve the crime before the Japanese invade and Peking as they know it is gone forever. Can they find the killer in time, before the Japanese invade?

Historian and China expert Paul French at last uncovers the truth behind this notorious murder, and offers a rare glimpse of the last days of colonial Peking.

First Sentence: "The eastern section of old Peking has been dominated since the fifteenth century by a looming watchtower, built as a part of the Tartar Wall to protect the city from invaders."

Review:
I've never read a true crime book before, I don't think, although given my memory I could be forgetting. Anyway, I was willing to give it a shot. Although I do not think true crime will be my new genre of choice, I definitely do not walk away from Midnight in Peking with a bad opinion of the genre.

From what I understand, which is very little, true crime can go one of two ways: very historical and fact-driven or very fictional and sensational. This is based solely on the covers I've seen and perhaps reviews. The genre seems to straddle the boundary between history and fiction, which is part of why I've avoided it up to now, because I've not been sure precisely what it entails. Whether my assumptions were correct or not, I can say with assurance that Midnight in Peking is definitely a true crime history. French clearly did a lot of research and the book reads like anything I would have read for my history major in school.

Having looked at some reviews of the book prior to writing this one, I know that some people had trouble with the level of detail in the book. I both liked and didn't like that. I don't know much of anything about China during that time period, so learning about it was fascinating, but it didn't always seem to add into Pamela's story particularly. So, I guess, I just want to say that you'll likely enjoy this more if you go into it expecting it to be about the last days of old China, with Pamela's brutal murder serving as a lens through which to view the situation.

Pamela's story is certainly an interesting and, as a woman, completely terrifying one. To be a little bit morbid, I really hope that, should I ever be murdered for some reason, that the killer comes to justice. It may not matter to me, what with the being dead and all, but I feel like I would feel better. The things that people do to women are simply horrifying. Also, the fact that they really should have caught her killer, but that the cops didn't do their jobs...NOT COOL.

Whether French has the correct analysis and killer is unclear, even he openly admits that. His solution does make sense and he's done his research. I greatly appreciated that he pointed out in a section at the end, "The Writing of Midnight in Peking" which parts he wrote entirely on his own, which he got from other investigators, what research he did and how everything could still be different The fact that he's open with the limitations of his research makes me more trusting of his results.

History, mystery and true crimes will likely enjoy Midnight in Peking even more than I did. To that end, I am offering up my copy to one reader. Simply fill out the Rafflecopter below. There's no need to follow my blog, but that's always appreciated. Good luck!

Rating: 3/5

"The clock strikes midnight in the murder city"

Read more »

Childhood (1) - Yann Tiersen

Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Journey from North Korea to Freedom in the West

Author: Blaine Harden
Pages: 191
Review Copy Acquired from: Viking

Description from Goodreads:
North Korea is isolated and hungry, bankrupt and belligerent. It is also armed with nuclear weapons. Between 150,000 and 200,000 people are being held in its political prison camps, which have existed twice as long as Stalin's Soviet gulags and twelve times as long as the Nazi concentration camps. Very few born and raised in these camps have escaped. But Shin Donghyuk did.

In Escape from Camp 14, acclaimed journalist Blaine Harden tells the story of Shin Dong-hyuk and through the lens of Shin's life unlocks the secrets of the world's most repressive totalitarian state. Shin knew nothing of civilized existence-he saw his mother as a competitor for food, guards raised him to be a snitch, and he witnessed the execution of his own family. Through Harden's harrowing narrative of Shin's life and remarkable escape, he offers an unequaled inside account of one of the world's darkest nations and a riveting tale of endurance, courage, and survival.

First Sentence: "His first memory is an execution."

Review:
I wrote my Independent Study senior year of college about Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's writings. One of the things I read was his Gulag Archipelago. For some reason, which I really don't want to consider too much (this may have something to do with my love for dystopias too), I have always been fascinated with books about the concentration camps and the gulag system. When I read in the blurbs sent to me by Penguin that the North Korean camps make those pale in comparison, I knew that I had to read this book.

The scale of the camps is simply staggering. Shin attended a rudimentary school with approximately 1,000 other children. This is mindboggling, considering that only the children of camp marriages were allowed any form of education within the camp. Marriages were used as a reward for the hardest workers, so just imagine how many people might be in this one camp, of which there were many more. And of all of those people, Shin is still the only person known to have escaped and survived.

Perhaps even more startling are all of the other facts about North Korea. It seems as though, horrendous as life can be in the camps, it's not actually that much better on the outside. In some instances, there may be more reliable food in the camps.

Harden did a great job with this. He includes a lot of details about North Korea in general, whatever he's managed to learn, that add context to Shin's story. Personally, I knew practically nothing about North Korea beforehand; apparently, there's only so much to know, because the North Koreans really don't want anyone else to know anything. Plus, he emphasizes the limits of our knowledge of North Korea and of Shin. There is often no way to corroborate Shin's tale, because he is the only one known to have escaped from a no-release camp.

[Random comment, but I really will never understand why photo inserts in history books/biographys are always put in the middle of a chapter. Hundreds of pages, between any of which the photos could go, but they always put them in the middle of a chapter (actually, usually a sentence), necessitating a back and forth shuffle through the pages. Why not just put them after a chapter and let me flip through the book the way I usually do?]

Although Escape from Camp 14 is a brief book, it packs a punch. For those with an interest in history or contemporary politics, this is a must-read.

Favorite Quote: "'I am evolving from being an animal,' he said. 'But it is going very, very slowly. Sometime I try to cry and laugh like other people, just to see if it feels like anything. Yet tears don't come. Laughter doesn't come.'"

Rating: 4.5/5

Dawn of a New Day (Song of the World's Fair) - Horace Heidt and His Musical Knights

Love, Fiercely:
A Gilded Age Romance

Author: Jean Zimmerman
Pages: 289
ARC Acquired from: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt via NetGalley
 
Description from NetGalley:
For readers who savored The American Heiress, Jean Zimmerman recreates the glittering world of Edith Minturn and I. N. Phelps Stokes. Contemporaries of the Astors and Vanderbilts, they grew up together along the shores of bucolic Staten Island, linked by privilege—her grandparents built the world's fastest clipper ship, his family owned most of Murray Hill. Theirs was a world filled with mansions, balls, summer homes, and extended European vacations.

Newton became a passionate preserver of New York history and published the finest collection of Manhattan maps and views in a six-volume series. Edith became the face of the age when Daniel Chester French sculpted her for Chicago’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 as The Republic, a colossus intended to match the Statue of Liberty's grandeur.

Together they battled on behalf of New York's poor and powerless, as reformers who could never themselves want for anything. Through it all, they lived what might be the greatest love story never told.

From the splendid cottages of the Berkshires to the salons of 1890s Paris, Love, Fiercely is the real story of a world long relegated to fiction.

Review:
Love, Fiercely began with the painting that appears on the cover. Zimmerman started out researching I. N. Phelps Stokes because of her interest in his ponderous history of New York City he wrote. When she viewed John Singer Sargent's painting of the two, though, she became captivated by his wife, Edie (nicknamed Fiercely). Thus, her studies shifted, encapsulating their romance along with the gilded age of New York.

I do not often venture into nonfiction, despite the fact that I was a history major in school. While history itself is more often fascinating than not, historians are not necessarily good writers. Many nonfiction titles read like a catalog of facts, putting the reader to sleep immediately. Zimmerman, on the other hand, has a fanciful, very fiction-oriented style. Even those who ordinarily avoid nonfiction will probably enjoy Love, Fiercely.

Women end up wearing a lot of stupid things for fashion in the gilded age. Zimmerman outlines many that the Minturn girls suffered through, like corsets, absurdly large hats, leg of mutton sleeves (if you google those, the wikipedia result for 1890s fashion actually includes the famous picture of Edith and Newton), and droopy 'pouter pigeon' bosoms. What on earth does that last one mean, you might wonder. Well, I certainly did, since I don't know about any kind of pigeon except the regular ones that are everywhere, and they sure don't seem to look remotely bosom-y. I had to know, especially because I was shocked by the description of the bosoms as 'drooped at the perfect angle.' Here's what I found:

Style is for the birds.

Okay, so that is a pouter pigeon. Yikes, right? So, you're probably wondering now how this translates to clothing, and, no, it's not because the bosoms are so large that they look like birdie goiters. End result:

Bosoms: the new bellies.

Okay, that was fun, but I should probably review more than just two words of this book, huh?

What makes Edith so interesting is that she is such a strong woman. Before marriage, she posed for a sculpture, a big one, representing the public; this was rather scandalous, but she did not let it stop her. Unlike most women of her time, she felt no shame in waiting to marry until the age of 28. She even turned Nelson down the first time he proposed, unsure whether she wanted to give herself in marriage. Once married, she did take his name, but she maintained her control over her own money. Their relationship was a love match and based on equality and mutual respect.

The one thing that really bothered me about Zimmerman's account was her constant focus on the fact that their union was childless. She mentions that Edith must have wanted children, because that's what women were supposed to do back in the day. What I find odd is that she has no quotes from anyone at the time mentioning this desire for children. Also, the phrasing of it ("it would be natural for Edith to wish for children") seems to suggest that there is actually know way of knowing. If she is just making an assumption, why keep bringing it up like fact? And, if she truly believes Edith Stokes to be the new American woman, why is it so hard to believe that she might not want to be like every other woman and have children?

The Stokeses were instrumental in the evolution of New York. Newton was an architect, aside from his hobby of gathering historical views of Manhattan, and spent a lot of his career designing improved tenements. Edith was part of radical efforts too, like teaching unskilled immigrant women sewing or starting kindergartens.

Love, Fiercely is a fascinating look at turn of the century New York, although I might have been happier with a little less focus on Newton Stokes' book, especially given the fact that the title stresses the romance.

Rating: 3/5

"It's the dawn of a new day
Here we come young and old
Come to watch all the wonders unfold"

Turn Me On - Norah Jones

The Kama Sutra

Author: Vatsyayana
Translator: A.N.D. Haksar
Pages: 186 (209 with Notes and Bibliography)

Everyone knows what The Kama Sutra is about. Right? Well, for those of you laughing at me or looking at me askance, maybe you don't know quite so much as you think you do. Yes, it is about sex, but, more than that, it is a study of pleasure, of courtship. Only one chapter focuses on sexual positions, although the other chapters do include other sexual acts.

This new edition of The Kama Sutra does not have any pictures of how to accomplish the sexual positions. Disappointed? Well, there's always the cover and the inside flaps. Reading this, I'm a bit curious how the work became known as a book full of pictures of sexual positions. Certainly, Vatsyayana does describe a fair number, but probably not as many as are in the books that have been published. My own theory is that people came up with a bunch more positions while trying to figure out the ones Vatsyayana described, with limited detail.

From a historian's viewpoint, this was a really neat book to read. One thing I read for particularly was the treatment of women. Now, considering that it's from roughly the third century CE, women are obviously property. Their role is to be subservient. Still, I was somewhat impressed with two things. 1) Vatsyayana also wrote this with women in mind, and included discussions of how a woman can come to have power over her lover or husband. 2) Vatsyayana openly says that women can have strong sexual drives. This is something that is often denied still today.

On the other hand, some of the advice is spot on, and modern males could still learn from it. For example, Vatsyayana says that "One needs to study a woman's behaviour when making a pass at her." Very true. Women are generally going to give off some hints, some signals telling you whether or not they are interested. Being able to read these signals is an art. Of course, his next piece of advice, should she for some strange reason, not be interested is that in some cases "she is available, but by force when they are alone." Not so good. Oh, ancient value systems.

Despite having been written by a celibate focused on meditation, The Kama Sutra really strikes me as the guidebook of a 3rd century Barney Stinson. Seriously, think about it. Within there are precise descriptions on how to bed women of every variety, along with consideration of sexual positions and how to be attractive. "A paste of rosebay, ginger and dried plum leaves" was probably the old school Indian method of 'suiting up.' Or not. Haha. But seriously, it is so much more awesome to read while thinking about this. Additionally, I really think How I Met Your Mother should totally do something with this idea.

Interested in reading The Kama Sutra for yourself, so that you can figure out how to give a proper blow job, to study the historical Indian views of sex, or to see if you can figure out the sexual positions described? Well, you're in luck! Tomorrow, I'll be posting a giveaway! You know you want to enter...if only to feel classy/wild when you see it on your bookshelf!

Rating: 2.5/5 (Rating nonfiction is really difficult!)

"Like a flower
Waiting to bloom
Like a lightbulb
In a dark room
Im just sittin here waiting for you
To come on home and turn me on"

Storybook Love - Willy DeVille

A Discovery of Witches
All Souls Trilogy, Book 1

Author: Deborah Harkness
Pages: 579
Review Copy Acquired from: Penguin

Brief Summary:
Ever since the murder of her parents when she was 7, Diana Bishop has turned her back on her magical heritage, refusing to admit that she is anything but human. Well, except in emergencies, like when the washer starts to overflow. Mostly, though, Diana pretends normality, throwing herself into her scholarship (she is a respected historian of alchemy) and exercise, which she needs because she has always suffered from an excess of adrenaline. One day, while researching at the Bodleian library, she finds that one of the alchemy books she requested is magical. Freaked out by her accidental proximity to magic, she flips through it quickly and returns, not realizing that her find has set in motion something huge. To protect herself and her love, Matthew Clairmont, a vampire, Diana will have to come to terms with her witchy self.

Review:
First things first: before I get into the serious reviewing, I want to state for the record how much I enjoyed reading this. Thanks so much to Penguin for sending me a copy! Although vampires, witches, etcetera have been done to death (or undeath) in recent years, I still adore a well-done story on any of the aforementioned topics.

Harkness' world is an interesting one, benefiting largely from her love of history and wine. In fact, Harkness works as a professor of history, not as a romance novel author, so it would be a mistake to dismiss her work as merely paranormal romance. What drew me into the story initially, which had a somewhat slow windup so far as action is concerned, was the beautiful writing and the view into academic life. I'm a big nerd, so getting a window into Oxford and the Bodleian was such a treat.

Now, about the romance. I'm sorry if you think I spoiled something by revealing that Diana's going to get with Matthew, but, honestly, what reader didn't see that coming? Their love story I still have a love/hate relationship with.

At first, Matthew and Diana did not get along all that well, but quickly they begin to feel a very strong attraction to one another. This I liked, because they did not fall in love at first sight exactly, despite some claims otherwise later on. They had to develop a rapport and it took some time, although not much. Still, the crazy speed of their love for one another does not bother me, because in times of extreme emotion and danger, people (or creatures) are apt to move along at such things at a greater rate. They are very soon able to see the best and worst in one another's characters, and to accept it.

What did irk me about them was that Diana, an incredibly strong woman, both magically, mentally, and physically (thanks to all of that exercise, although she still is not going to beat a vampire) seems to follow Matthew obediently a bit more than I am quite comfortable with. She has no issue with him watching her sleep or with his obsessive need to protect her at all times. And, for a large portion of the book, everyone around her is so worried about her that she never gets to go anywhere by herself. It seems odd to me that the Diana of the beginning of the book would put up with that. However, Diana does maintain her willful streak, occasionally putting her foot down, Matthew's opinions be damned, which made me able to accept some of those other aspects.

Earlier, I mentioned creatures. This is the other part of Harkness' worldbuilding that you should know beforehand, because it's pretty cool. In this alternative history (same historical events and characters but with paranormals added), there are four different races: humans, witches, vampires and daemons. Most of those are pretty self-explanatory, but daemons are essentially hyper-creative, and supernatural in some way I do not quite understand yet. Undoubtedly the reader will learn more about this (and the mysterious facts of the other races) later in the trilogy, since that is kind of the reason everyone wants to get their hands on the magical alchemy book (Ashmole 782) Diana has been the only one to locate for hundreds of years.

Go get yourself a case of delicious wine, pop the cork on a bottle, and get reading! The paperback version is available now with the completely gorgeous cover you see pictured above. Book two Shadow of Night will be published some time this summer. Can't wait!

Rating: 4/5

"Come my love I'll tell you a tale
Of a boy and girl and their love story
And how he loved her oh so much
And all the charms she did possess"

Requiem for the Masses - The Association

Drum-Taps and Memoranda During the War

Author: Walt Whitman
Narrator: Bronson Pinchot
Duration: 6 hrs, 50 mins
Publisher: AudioGo

Story:
Okay, I know that neither of these are exactly possessed of a story, but I couldn't devise a better term and I like consistency. So. Memoranda During the War consists of Walt Whitman's experiences in the hospitals of the Union during the Civil War. Drum-Taps (which I humorously initially mistyped as Dum-Taps) is a collection of his war poems. Despite the title, Memoranda During the War comes first on the audiobook, which I think is stupid.

Memoranda During the War is interesting, assuming you are curious about the conditions of the Civil War. My one history course that spent a time focusing on that conflict would have benefited from these reminiscences perhaps more than from some of the books we did read (or were supposed to read). However, given its construction, which is just a series of short vignettes, it's a bit awkward to listen to. In audiobook form, it was hard to pick up on what exactly was going on. Instead, a sense of the blood, the guts, the pain and the terrible things that constantly happened just sort of washed over me. Maybe that's good, but I'm not sure. Certainly, I got an idea of the mood and the conditions, if not specific instances.

Drum-Taps I did not like at all. I suppose I should inform you that I am not a fan of poetry. Obviously, some poetry I do like, Shakespeare's sonnets (some of them) for example, but, mostly, I find prose to be much more beautiful. Anyway, I especially do not care for Whitman, or at least not when read by this guy. And, in audio format, poems are worse it seems. Poetry needs to be chewed on a little more, and listening to someone plow through poem after poem does not give time for appreciation. One definite failing of Whitman in this format is that he is one of those poets who almost always titles his poem whatever happens to be the first line, meaning that you have to hear that line twice. Many times. Ugh.

Even worse, there was a message saying this portion was over, but it was just a tease, because there were many more poems. fml.

Performance:
I have already intimated that I did not care for this narrator. My problem with Pinchot is primarily his accent. I don't care for the sound of his voice either, but that could just be me, so I won't harp on that. However, his accent is really distracting. He has a bit of a Jersey or New York sound to him (I don't know which). This means that 'er' tends to be come 'ah,' as in the case of mothah. I just can't take that seriously. Any time he dropped some serious dialect, I would start laughing, even though the content is sad.

Also, I looked at the two books herein contained just a little bit, trying to figure out what the format was, because, as I mentioned, it was a bit confusing to listen to without preparation. In the short time I spent doing so, I found two words he swapped for different ones (i. e. 'these' instead of 'those'). They didn't really make a change in content, but I do know you're not supposed to do that as a narrator.

Rating: 1/5

"Red was the color of his blood flowing thin
Pallid white was the color of his lifeless skin
Blue was the color of the morning sky
He saw looking up from the ground where he died"

Kreutzer Sonata - Beethoven

Tolstoy:
A Russian Life

Author: Rosamund Bartlett
Pages: 454 (plus a hundred or so more in notes/bibliography)
ARC Acquired from:

As a history major in undergrad, I have some familiarity with history books such as this one. Many of them are painfully dry and dishearteningly long. Thankfully, since I was reading this for fun and not with the threat of a test to push me through, Bartlett's tome, while long (which is to be expected given the subject matter), proved to be pretty readable.

That is not to say, of course, that it was a speedy read. It was not, at least not for me. However, Bartlett is a good writer and she conveyed information in a logical order, something one does not always find in such books. Plus, Tolstoy's a pretty interesting guy to read about, even if he was a bit of a jerk (ex. his treatment of his wife, who was pregnant all the time from their marriage until she pretty much couldn't have kids anymore). Did you know his belief in nonviolent resistance was an inspiration to Gandhi? And that he was a huge proponent of vegetarianism?

Looking at this in terms of how useful it would be for a paper, I would give it pretty high marks, since, as previously mentioned, it is both well-written and a wealth of information. The one drawback I see is the construction of the chapters, many of which cover a couple different aspects of his life. For example, one chapter is entitled "Student, Teacher, Father" and another is "Landowner, Gambler, Officer, Writer." Honestly, I think it would have been better to break these up into their own chapters, since there tended to be a pretty obvious switch from one of the subjects to the next. This would serve two purposes: shortening the chapters and making it easier to locate what you're looking for in the text. Really long chapters are both depressing to a student and make it really hard to go back and locate that one quote that is crucial to proving your thesis.

Despite that, I would consider this a pretty awesome choice for your learning-about-Tolstoy needs, be they self-motivated or required for class.

Time Trap - Built to Spill

The Revisionists

Author: Thomas Mullen
Pages: 402
ARC Acquired from: Mulholland Books via NetGalley

Brief Summary:
In the Perfect Present, people have even attained the ability to travel backwards in time. Of course, with this power comes great responsibility, namely that of preventing revisionists from changing history, thus changing the present. Such is the job of Zed, or Z. His current job is set in Washington D.C., where he is masquerading as Troy Jones, a missing man, who has a similar back story to that of Z. Z must prevent the hags, the people trying to change history, from preventing a major disaster.

Review:
Were it not for my current goal of reading every dystopia ever, or at least the first in a series should it be a series, I would have stopped reading this book. From the very beginning, I found it boring, heavy-handed, and completely improbably. Not only that, but confusing to. The opening chapters alternate between the perspective of Z and a selection of other characters, who, for the first hundred or so pages meant little to me and were hard to distinguish and remember.

The book did get better once Z had less chapters and the other characters became more familiar, but I never ever liked it. For one thing, I'm really not into political thrillers, of which this is most definitely one. If that's up your alley, you may want to go for this, despite my bad opinion or, perhaps, because of it.

I mentioned that the story struck me as improbably, which may seem strange from a person who just eats up all the latest paranormal nonsense and loves everything fantasy/sci fi. Here's the thing. I think if someone's going to write a book or make a movie on time travel, they have to be really careful explaining how that's possible. This story did not do that. You pretty much have to have the characters travel to another dimension/time stream or have to make the declaration that everything happens as it did in the past, because your future was in the past. Mullen did not do this. They were capable of changing the past, and likely did frequently. That just doesn't work, at least not with more of an explanation.

The one thing I really did like about the book was the interweaving between Troy Jones and Z. He finds himself become very bound up in his cover, and, in some ways, indistinguishable. This added a really cool psychological element to the story. Only, if I had written this, I would have ended the story on an awesome twist, rather than a boring logical conclusion to the ridiculous plot he wrote. It would have been so much cooler were it just about Z being crazy.

"It's barely yours on loan
What you think you own
The place that you call home
The ideas in your bones
In your bones

This would still feel dumb
Back where you're from
Do you want to change your mind?
Do you want to change your mind?

'Cause you could never know that
In a time trap
In a time trap"

All the Things She Said - T.A.T.U.

Aimée & Jaguar: A Love Story, Berlin 1943

Author: Erica Fischer
Pages: 274
Publisher: Alyson Books

Brief Summary:
This is a true story about Lilly Wust and Felice Schragenheim. Aimée (Lilly's nickname) was a typical housewife living in Berlin during the Nazi era, married to a good soldier with four German sons. Both she and her husband had affairs, but neither particularly cared. That is until Jaguar (the nickname of Felice) came into her life. As a joke or challenge, the Jewish Felice decided to seduce the Aryan housewife, with little plan of actually succeeding, only she did. Of course, love stories set during WWII often do not end happily.

Review:
The World War II time period is one of my favorites to read about and study, so I was very curious to read this title. While I do not think the author's writing was very good (quite dry and boring), the story was astounding. In none of my other reading, courses or film watching have I heard a story from a similar lens. The lesbian angle is new of course, but so were all of the details about the Jews who managed to keep living underground (as it were) in Berlin throughout the conflict.

Much of the story, thank goodness, is told in snippets from Aimée's diary, Jaguar's poems, letters and interviews with the people who were still alive when this book was being constructed in the early 1990s. The number of primary sources included in the tale is unique, as well.

The epilogue of the book consists of Erica Fischer's comments on the creation of the book, most of which is a diatribe of Lilly. She does not trust Lilly, the main source for most of the recounted memories, because Lilly apparently knew her story too well and left gaps of time out. I cannot help but wonder if this is why her writing is so stilted and I did not care much for Aimée or Jaguar on a close level; I wanted them to live, of course, but I was not emotionally invested. I think Fischer's mistrust and judgment came into her writing and storytelling. For all that the cover names this a love story, she has her own opinions about that and it is quite evident.

After the war, Lilly wanted to convert to Judaism and thought of herself as a Jewess, about which Fischer has this to say: "I do not grant her the status of victim. I guard the line that runs between her and Felice, my mother, and myself obdurately, protective of my small piece of identity" (271). I leave this book skeptical of Erica Fischer as a historian, as she seems to biased, in this tale at least. Still, I am happy to have read it, if only for its unique historical perspective.

"I'm in serious shit, I feel totally lost
If I'm asking for help it's only because
Being with you has opened my eyes
Could I ever believe such a perfect surprise?

I keep asking myself, wondering how
I keep closing my eyes but I can't block you out
Wanna fly to a place where it's just you and me
Nobody else so we can be free"

Other Possibilities - Rachel Portman

Disenchantment: George Steiner and the Meaning of Western Civilization After Auschwitz

Author: Catherine D. Chatterley
Pages: 182 (of which almost 50 are notes and references)
Publisher: Syracuse University Press

Disenchantment is Catherine Chatterley's dissertation, which has evidently been deemed worthy of publication. I did not decide to pursue a history degree, but I did attend an undergraduate institution which required me to write an I.S. (sort of a master's thesis for undergrads). Chatterley's dissertation definitely took me back to the time I spent composing my own insanely long historical paper.

Her essay resembles mine also in scope and organization. She analyzes the history of one historian's (George Steiner's) opinions through the lens of his works, as I did with Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. The layout is remarkably similar too: starting with an introduction, then a biography, then through the works by time period. Although, she only explicitly goes through work by work in the second chapter. After that, she still analyzes publication by publication, but does not really organize it that same way, which I found to be weak and clunky.

I read this hoping for more of an analysis on the Holocaust, putting a stresser on Auschwitz in the subtitle rather than Steiner, but this is really more about Steiner's own personal opinions than that. Not knowing anything about Steiner, this was a bit boring for me. Plus, it reads like a dissertation, which is to be expected, but still is not particularly attractive.

Chatterley definitely seems to have done her research; she knows Steiner backward and forward. If I were studying Steiner, this would be an invaluable source. So, for historical research, Disenchantment would be quite useful, but, as a pleasure read, not so much.