2009 Challenge Wrap Up

Completed 8/09












My Serial Challenge Books

1 series completed.







Completed 5/09








My A to Z Books

23/26. Incomplete.











My eBook Challenge Books

4/10 books read. Incomplete.









Completed 11/09










Completed 10/31













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WWII Challenge Completed

This was a great challenge. Thanks Serena and Anna for hosting! This challenge came right at the perfect time. I was very interested in reading books set during WWII this spring and got through 5 books in a very short amount of time. I thought I would get through more before the end of the year but my reading took a turn to YA for a bit. 


I am really glad I participated in this challenge and am interested to see what the War Through the Generations Challenge will bring in 2010.


Books read for the challenge:

1. Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay
2. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon

3. The Reader by Bernard Schlink

4. An Obsolete Honor by Helena P. Schrader
5. Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford

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Book review- Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford

The discovery of personal belongings of Japanese-American families sent to internment camps during WWII in the basement of the Panama Hotel in Seattle triggers Henry Lee's memories of childhood and his long-lost childhood friend and sweetheart. His best friend at the American school was Keiko Okabe, the only other nonwhite kid that attended. Henry is forever a loyal and dedicated friend despite numerous obstacles, including separation, discrimination and family disapproval.

The novel jumps from the time of the war to 1986. Which usually I don't like, but here it works well in setting the tone of the book. You get to see him as a young kid and experience his life in Chinatown and around Japantown of Seattle during this difficult and sad time in American history. You then see how different his life is as an adult and parent as he searches for items that once belonged to Keiko. I loved seeing the relationship between Henry and his son Marty change during this time of discovery and searching. It just shows how many misunderstandings and assumptions kids make about their parents. Marty comes to see his dad in a whole new way and Henry finds he is not over losing his friend so long ago thanks to his son.

So many emotions were brought out in me while reading this book. Anger at the kids who terrorized Henry and Keiko at their school and at the cruelty of adults towards Americans who were very much loyal citizens. Sadness when reading about the loss of so many personal belongings, memories and heirlooms. Hope that future generations of these families will never have to experience such prejudices and hatred in their lifetimes. Happiness in young love and finding lost loves.  A beautiful story I recommend to everyone. 

"He'd do what he always did, find the sweet among the bitter." Page 265.

5/5

WWII Challenge
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About the Author:

Career-wise, Jamie went to art school in Seattle to become an illustrator, and ended up an art director/copywriter. He's won an embarrassingly large amount of meaningless awards including 400+ Addys, 7 Best-of-Shows, and his work has appeared in Adweek, Advertising Age, Graphis and Communication Arts. He also had a commercial appear on an episode of The U.K.'s Funniest Commercials inspired by an embarrassing incident with a bidet that he'd rather not go into right now.

On the writerly side, he won the 2006 Clarity of Night Short Fiction Contest, was First Runner-Up in the 2006 Midnight Road Reader's Choice Awards and was a Top-25 finalist in Glimmer Train's Fall 2006 Short Story Award For New Writers. He's been published in The Picolata Review, and his fiction is online at Flashing in the Gutters and Fictional Musings. He's also an alumnus of the Squaw Valley Community of Writers and a survivor of Orson Scott Card's Literary Bootcamp.

Jamie's debut novel, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet was released by Ballantine--January 27, 2009.

On the personal side, he's the proud father of two boys and two girls. Yep, it's chaos, but the good kind of chaos.

For more information about the author or his work, please visit http://www.jamieford.com/

Book Review- An Obsolete Honor by Helena P. Schrader

An Obsolete Honor: A Story of the German Resistance to Hitler by Helena P Schrader

An Obsolete Honor follows the stories of different people and families in Germany during Hitler's rise to power. It shares their fears and concerns about Hitler and the direction their country is taking under his reign. We see the lengths that many Germans went through to follow their own beliefs and morals despite being always in danger of getting caught and tried for treason. We see the simple act of putting shoes on "Polish workers" and letting them live as humans instead of slaves, forging of credentials and id's for Jewish families, and the planning behind Operation Valkyrie, the plot to assassinate Hitler and take over the government.

It is very evident that there was a lot of research done for this book. The historical events are intertwined perfectly with the narrative and held my attention for most of the 568 pages. The drama is gripping and hard to turn away from. The only time I started to lose interest was for the few chapters that focused entirely on military tactics. It was easy to get lost and confused trying to keep track of all the regiments, officers and names of villages. However, the story continues quickly and the pace picks back up all the way to the conclusion.

I highly recommend everyone who is interested in WWII but is not a fan of reading historical texts like I am to read this. This book is perfect because it gives the history of the events with the drama of how it could have effected people's lives. It makes you feel like you are there and experiencing it as it happened.

4/5

WWII Challenge

Book Review- The Reader by Bernard Schlink

The Reader by Bernhard Schlink

I have had a hard time writing this review for some reason. It was not a difficult read. Very straightforward writing and telling of the story. It is a very matter of fact recounting of what happened to Michael Berg after the day Hannah Schmitz helped him when he got sick walking home at the age of fifteen. You never really get into the head of Michael as he commences an affair with 30-something Hannah. And even when he finds her again years later while she is on trial for war crimes she committed as a guard at a concentration camp during WWII, he seems to have no feelings or emotions. He is numb.

There are so many parts to this book. So many different things to think about. The affair between an adult and teen. Illiteracy and its affects on those who try to hide it. The coming to terms of the actions of family and friends during WWII by the younger generation of Germans. I think the lack of emotion and judgement allows for the reader to have their own unique reactions to the story. Just reading through reviews on GoodReads you can see such a difference in opinion and reactions to the story.

4/5

WWII Challenge
A to Z Challenge

New Challenge

Thanks, Serena, for letting me know about this one. Who knew I had been participating without even knowing. :) Since I read Sarah's Key, I have been very interested in reading more books about/set during WWII.

Books read for the challenge:

1. Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay
2. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon

3. The Reader by Bernard Schlink

4. An Obsolete Honor by Helena P. Schrader
5. Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford

 Others that may get read:

 Band of Brothers by Stephen E. Ambrose
 The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

Book Review- The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
Finally. I finished the last book I had chosen for the New Classics Challenge. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon. It took me much longer to read than I thought it would. It shouldn’t have surprised me, though, it is 656 pages long in not very big print.

So, what did I think?

Well, I loved it. It had a great combination of fantasy and historical fiction. The story follows cousins Sammy Clay and Joe Kavalier while they find success as comic book writers/artists in New York City in the time surrounding WWII. Both have reasons to lose themselves in their created comic world of Empire City and live vicariously through their superheroes. Joe is trying to help his family escape from Nazi occupied Czechoslovakia and Sammy is coming to terms with his sexuality.

There are chapters thrown in throughout where they diverge from Sammy and Joe and tell their Comics characters stories. Even these, however, give us insight into Sammy and Joe since they put so much of themselves into them. Their main character is The Escapists who fights fictional versions of Nazis and Hitler. It is a way for Joe to fight against those he can’t do so for real. Also, the Escapists alter ego is Tom Mayflower who has a lame leg and walks with a cane. Sammy is hindered a bit by his own legs due to having polio as a child.

So many aspects of this book make it worthy of its Pulitzer Prize. The story of these two cousins is so intriguing and inspiring. It makes you believe that anyone can be a superhero. Superheroes are not only in comics and novels.

5/5

New Classics Challenge
AtoZ Challenge

WWII Challenge

Book Review- Sarah's Key

Two stories weaved together to tell a story. One about a girl trying to protect her brother after having been arrested and sent to the Vel' d'Hiv' with her parents in Paris, July 1942. The other, an American Ex-Pat journalist researching the events of July 1942.

The chapters about Sarah and her family were the hardest part to read emotionally, but they were the best parts of the book. The modern day chapters that focused on Julia and her family started out feeling out of place and unrelated. I kept getting upset that Sarah's story was getting interrupted. I was very tempted to skip them and get back to them later. However, as I continued to read the connection became more apparent and I ended up not minding them as much.

Such a sad tale and under such terrible circumstances. This book had me crying and wanting to find more books on what happened in France during the Occupation. I am just appalled by the inhumanity of those who sent so many people to the work and concentration camps during WWII. This is one that will stick with you for awhile after reading it.

4/5

A to Z Challenge (S)

WWII Challenge