Study on WWII Germany
Are there ever periods where you seem to have a common thread in all the books you’re reading?
Lately, it’s been a thread linking the movies I’ve seen and the books I’m studying. What’s that tie? Germany during and after World War II.
It began with The Good German by Joseph Kanon, which was later turned into a movie (that I hope to see soon!). This book gets to the heart of Germany’s slow and painful recovery after the Allies claim victory in Europe.
The Good German is the story of an American reporter who returns to Berlin to find a woman he’d had an affair with before he fled Berlin at the start of the war. In those years, everything has changed: the landscape, the people, the line between good and evil.
This book tackles the guilt of the German people and the effect the Nazi’s had on the people.
Along those same lines, I watched both “Miracle at St. Anna” and “The Reader” in the past week. While “St.Anna” is an inspirational and heart-wrenching story about the black soldiers, it deals with the later repercussions of war on the heart and mind.
“The Reader” (also a best-selling book by Bernhard Schlink) was far from what I expected. The post World War II story of a boy who has an affair with an older woman, only to see her ten years later on trial for war crimes.
This reached a deeper level of the German people’s reaction to the sins of their fathers during Nazi reign. The question is, “How could you have let that happen?”
The woman hides an even deeper secret that she will go to prison for life to protect. The atrocities at Auschwitz echo to this day and for every soul, and this story questions who deserves the punishment for those crimes.
Next on my to-read list: The Book Thief (1939 Germany young adult fiction) and Bonhoeffer (new nonfiction release from Thomas Nelson about the life of a pastor and spy who went against Nazi Germany)
I’ll update you with the latest reads in upcoming posts. For now, I’ll leave you with these words:
Read More“Silence in the face of evil is evil itself. God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.” - Dietrich Bonhoeffer
For writers…er…revisers
Wonderful post today on agent Nathan Bransford’s blog about how cocktail parties should really go:
http://blog.nathanbransford.com/2010/04/way-cocktail-parties-should-really-go.html
It’s true! I’m a reviser.
Question for you: What other “-ers/-ors” would a writer be?
- Procrastinators 
thoughts on kindle
I’ll come right out and admit it: I’m in love with the Amazon Kindle (and I don’t even have one!).
I do have the Kindle for Mac and have been downloading free and inexpensive books for the past few weeks and am loving it. At first, I was the staunch, rigid fan of real books only. And truly, there really is nothing like the feel of a new book, or old book, in your hands on a rainy day.
But after growing used to editing and critiquing manuscripts on the computer, I’ve become so accustomed to it, that reading on a screen doesn’t bother me. However, the actual Kindle’s screen resolution is such that it is like reading a regular book page, so I’m hoping one day to fully experience that.
The Kindle for PC or Mac also sync up with your handheld Kindle and it even recalls what page you were on in each book. The Amazon Kindle Store is easy to navigate and they offer a variety of free books from all genres.
I don’t believe this new influx of Kindles, iBook, Nook, etc, will replace the paper and ink of traditional books. This is just a new direction for the publishing industry, the same that the internet was to newspapers and online music was to CDs. I get some of my news from print, some from the web. I get some of my music from iTunes, others from CDs. For each venue, there are drawbacks. The Kindle online store will never replace the atmosphere of a used bookstore. But the portability of dozens of books in my hand is hard to resist, especially when I blaze through a book in a few hours.
For me, I’ve enjoyed my time with the Kindle for Mac and am tucking away some extra cash to save up for the actual Kindle. It’s a time of change for writers and readers alike, and I say we go forward!
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