All the Flowers in Paris by Sarah Jio - Resehlved Books

Hello Dewey Readers! 

My next book club pick is Sarah Jio's latest novel All the Flowers in Paris, which I just finished last night.  All I can say is wow.  

The novel follows two parallel story lines set in Paris, one in the present day and one during WWII.

Present Day: Caroline is riding a bike when a truck is coming towards her with no intention of stopping.  She has to make a quick decision to either run into the truck or run

into a mother and young child.  She chooses the truck and wakes up in a hospital with her memory as to who she is completely erased.  As she begins to search for who she is, in the back of her apartment she find letters written by a woman dating back to WWII. 

The Past: Celine's husband passed away before she was able to tell him that she was expecting their first child. He was hit by a truck while riding his bike home to her.  As the Nazis begin to occupy Paris, her family is singled out. The yellow star of David is painted on her father's florist shop, and the man she has now fallen in love with has gone away as a resitance officer.  One day he sends a note with a hidden message warning of danger.  Things then begin to unravel as evil creeps in and disrupts their once quiet lives.    

While I've read books that flip between the present day and the past, I haven't read a book where they story lines were so close and parallel, yet distinctly their own.  I think a lot of historical fiction novels seem total place during WWII, and because of this they came become overdone.  However, Jio's take is fresh and exciting, which leads me to give it a For the Love of Dewey rating of 5 out of 5 Coffee Beans.

Until the next read!

~Jessica 

The Book of Summer by Michelle Gable - Reshelved Books

Hello dear For the Love of Dewey Readers!

I recently just finished Michelle Gable's The Book of Summer.  I book-lusted after this novel for quite a while after seeing it on display in Barnes and Noble, but I wasn't sure I was going to buy it.  You know, I really don't need to keep buying books... actually I really need to stop. But my public library system did not own a copy, and when I saw it sitting on the shelf at my favorite local used book store in Montclair, I just knew it was meant to be. 

Aren't the hydrangeas on the cover (and in my garden) just gorgeous?! 

I totally and 100% judged this book by the cover and by how it's location is set in Nantucket.  I guess I'm a total cliche when it comes to great summer reads.  What I liked about this book was that it isn't just another summer story, but rather takes an actual environmental issue that has happened in Nantucket (the erosion of the Sconset Bluff) and personifies it to show the reader how this has effected not only one individual but also an entire family history.  Gable does this by telling the story both from present day and from a historical flashback to the 1940's, making this novel just as much as a Nantucket novel and environmental novel, as it is a WWII novel.   

A brief synopsis of the story lines:

Bess Codman is visiting Nantucket to try to get her mother to pack up her belongings and leave the house that her family has owned for generations on Sconset Bluff.  The years of erosion have slowly taken the property and sacraficed it to the ocean below.  The foundation is weak and being in the house for too much longer can be deadly.  Bess herself is going through a terrible divorce and just found out that she is pregnant.  Her mother does not leave the house easily, and is fighting to have measures taken to prevent further erosion from taking place.

Ruby (Bess' Grandmother) was married on the eve of WWII.  She struggles with her husband, brothers, and friends going off to war, while also suffering from numerous miscarriages.  The house on the bluff becomes her home as well as her strength as it is passed down onto her and thus onto the one child who she does carry to term.  

My take:

At first I thought that this novel came across as a little slow, but it soon picked up.  I loved the blending of a Nantucket summer novel, with environmental issues, and a WWII story.  It was well done and cohesively put together.  I also liked how Gable included information at the end of the novel about Sconset Bluff and the erosion.  

So dear readers, I leave you with a For the Love of Dewey rating of 4.5 out 5 Coffee Beans. 

For more information on Sconset, check out Gable's sources:

Sconset Beach Preservation Fund 
Vanity Fair: Nantucket and Malibu Disappearing 

Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly - Reshelved Books

Hello fellow readers!

I have been meaning to write this review for a while now.  Actually, I have tried to sit down and write this review 3 times but haven't really gotten anywhere.  This is my last semester in my MLIS program *yay!*  And this is also the first semester where I have had 3 projects due in Week 4 *ugh.*  It's week 2 right now.  I guess you can say life has me a bit overwhelmed. 

I recently finished reading Martha Hall Kelly's Lilac Girls, a novel that tackles the subject of WWII and the Nazi occupation of Poland.  What I liked about this novel is that it shows the horrific experience of concentration camps from a female prisoner of war perspective, rather than focusing specifically on religious persecution.  This novel follows the story of three women: Caroline, who lives in America, Kasia, a young Polish girl and devote Catholic, and Herta, an aspiring doctor.  Kelly takes these three characters, who come from different circumstances, have different dreams, and live different lives, and links them together through Hitler.  The one character that really stood out to me was Herta.  When Herta becomes a doctor, she ends up working for Hitler's concentration camps, specifically the camps for female political prisoners.  It is here that Herta meets Kasia and ends up operating on her for experimental purposes.  These experimental surgeries eventually lead to her trial for Crimes Against Humanity.  What really stood out to me was that Herta does feel guilt, but tries to justify her guilt to the people around her and to herself by saying that the women she preformed the experimental surgeries on were political prisoners sentenced to death anyway.  This theme of guilt also finds its way to Kasia, where she blames herself for her mother's death for being near her during her arrest.

This book is just as fascinating as it is gripping and horrific.  It's almost unbelievable that these terrible things happened on such a grand scale during pretty much recent history.  However, I guess terrible things happen today too.

4 out of 5 coffee beans for this novel!

If you have read this novel, please comment below with what you thought!  If you haven't, comment with what you're reading now! I need book suggestions for when Week 4 ends!         

 

~Jessica 

All The Light We Cannot See By Anthony Doerr - Reshelved Books

     All The Light We Cannot See is a historical fiction novel that takes place during WWII. This one has been on my To-Read Shelf for quite and while, and because two of our followers loved this book, I decided to start my 2017 reading off with it!
     This is the first novel that I have read by Doerr, and while I am unable to compare it to his other work, the literary style he uses in this novel captured my attention and stood out to me as being rather unique.  This is because Doerr uses short chapters that gives the reader a snapshot of a specific part of the story, but does so in a way that is fluid -- not scattered or choppy.  While working with these prosaic snapshots, Doerr is able to successfully tell the stories of two characters, Werner, a boy who is in training to be a member of the Nazi youth, and Marie-Laure, an intelligent blind girl who does not let her disability get in the way of her independence or sense of adventure.
    This novel is different from the other WWII novels, such as Kristin Hannah's The Nightingale and Martha Hall Kelly's Lilac Girls because while there is suffering, there isn't much written about Jewish suffering or groups targeted by the Nazi's.  There is government occupation, fear, and the upheaval of lives, yes, but the detailed suffering of specific groups sort of fades into the mass scenery of the text.  There is also an underlying storyline centered around the myth associated a diamond stored at the museum Marie-Laure's father works at, and that is ultimately placed into Marie-Laure's possession.  In this myth, there was a diamond called the "Sea of Flames."  This diamond is the size of a pigeon egg and is blue with a red center.  In the myth, the person who possessed the diamond was said to live forever, but the family and loved ones of the possessor were said to suffer great misfortune.  This captured my attention because 1) I didn't expect it in a WWII book 2) I never heard of it before and 3) I'm not sure what happened to the diamond in the end. The diamond might symbolize how a story lives on and can grow.  It can also symbolize the idea of myth and legend, of fear intertwined with greed, and how while time may progress, people pass away, and new lives are created, these stories continue.  While the details of these stories may falter and smudge, life always carries on.

     While I enjoyed this book and read it much faster than I originally thought I would, I am only going to give it a rating of 3 out of 5 coffee beans because I felt that the ending was a bit too "neat" and happy.  At the end of the novel, almost everything was wrapped up (except for the Sea of Flames!), which I guess can show how even after these terrible historical events, life moves on and new generations, while they may hear the details of these times, will never feel the memories of those who actually lived through them.       

So, for those of you who read this novel, what did you think of the ending?  AND What do you think happened to the Sea of Flames?      

P.S. Here is an interesting article I found while researching the Sea of Flames...I can't believe I didn't realize Werner was albino. 

~Jessica