Review-The German Woman

THE GERMAN WOMAN
Paul Griner,

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt,
2009, $25.00, hc, 320pp.
9780547055220.









The German Woman is the story of an English woman, Kate Zwieg, a trained nurse who is married to a German surgeon, Horst Zweig. It is 1919 during WW1 and together they work serving injured soldiers from the battles in East Prussia. Fast forward twenty-five years and Kate is now in London, the summer of 1944, considered the summer that never was. It is now WWII, bombings, air-raids, skeletal framework of once magnificent structures and massive casualties are part of every day life. Kate, is now widowed, when she meets Claus at a political rally. The speaker at the gathering is spewing propaganda falsities to a crowd of onlookers. Kate is incensed by the disinformation and steps forward with a barrage of razor sharp barbs. Claus, or rather Charles, an exiled American with German heritage, works making propaganda films for the Ministry of Information. He is in the crowd and notices Kate, and is attracted to her spirit and he introduces himself to her. Claus is also happens to be a spy supplying valuable information to the German military, although sometimes not as accurate as it should be. He knows his life depends on secrecy and trusting no one, but he meets Kate and romance turns to unexpected love. At some point, he becomes suspicious of Kate and his duality of loyalty will rock his perspicacious resolve. Kate is almost a silent, passive participant as the action is seen through Claus and his struggle.
Paul Griner shows a natural talent of subterfuge as he carefully creates a complex mask of mirrors causing a magicians allusion for the audience to solve. There are passages of beautiful lyrical poetic prose that could fit a musical score.

2009 Challenges

Sookie Stackhouse Challenge 2009

The Rules:

1. Between July 1, 2009, and June 30, 2010, catch up on Charlaine Harris's Southern Vampire series. No matter if you're starting with book 1 or book 8, you have a year to read all about Sookie. Read Sookie in print, listen to the audio, read an eBook -- format is not an issue.

2. Sign up using Mr. Linky. Put your name in the top box. For the bottom box, please use the URL that links specifically to your blog post about this challenge, not to your blog's home page.

3. After July 4, I'll create a post with another Mr. Linky where you can link your reviews so everyone can read them track your progress.

4. If you don't have a blog and want to join in, sign up in the comments here. Later, let us know about your progress by leaving comments on the review link page.

EDIT: You can join any time during the course of the challenge.

The Books:

Dead Until Dark
Living Dead in Dallas
Club Dead
Dead to the World
Dead as a Doornail
Definitely Dead
All Together Dead
From Dead to Worse
Dead and Gone

Book Buddy Blogger Challenge 2009

Hosted by Wisteria



My List of 10
1. The Last Queen by C.W. Gortner from Lesa @ Lesa's Book Critiques
2. The Heretic Queen by Michelle Moran rom Krishna @ S. Krishna's Books
3. Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie from Iliana @ bookgirl's nightstand
4. The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry from Michelle @1 more chapter
5. Sunflower and the Secret Fan from Naida @ The Bookworm
6. The White Mary from Marie @ Boston Bibliophile
7. Kushiels Mercy, by Jacqueline Carey from Medieval Bookworm
8. The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver from Naida @ The Bookworm
9. The 19th Wife, by David Ebershoff from Medieval Bookworm
10.Persuasion, by Jane Austen from Naida@ The Bookworm

Thanks to all my book buddies for the great list I now can add to my TBR pile for 2009.

Romance Reading Challenge 2009

Hosted by Naida @ the Bookworm




This is my list:
1.Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry
2.Written on the Body by Jeanette Winterson
3.The Host, by Stephenie Meyer
4.Into the Wildernes by Rosina Lippi
5.Possession: A Romance by A.S. Byatt (1991)

Backup possibilities
+Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
+Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence
+Stardust by Neil Gaiman
+Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen

War Through the Generations WWII Challenge 2009

Hosted by Anna and Serena @ War Through the Generations



My List of Books

1. Citizen Soldiers, by Stephen Ambrose
2. Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet,by Jamie Ford
3. Skeletons at the Feast, b Chris Bohjalian
4. Suite Francaise, by Irene Nemirovsky
5. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society,
by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
6. The Irregulars, by Jennet Conant
7. The Sunflower, by Simon Wiesenthal
8. The Zookeepers Wife, y Diane Ackerman
9. Truman, by David McCullough
10. The German Woman, by Paul Griner
11. Flags of Our Fathers, Brady
12. The Good War, Studs Terkel

Pup Challenge 2009

Hosted by Anna and Serena @ War Through the Generations
Hosted by Michelle @ 1morechapter



Here are the 2009 rules:

1. Read a minimum of 9 books first published in 2009. You don’t have to buy these. Library books, unabridged audios, or ARCs are all acceptable. To qualify as being first published in 2009, it must be the first time that the book is published in your own country. For example, if a book was published in Australia, England, or Canada in 2008, and then published in the USA in 2009, it counts (if you live in the USA). Newly published trade paperbacks and mass market paperbacks do not count if there has been a hardcover/trade published before 2009. Any questions on what qualifies? Just leave a comment here, and I’ll respond with the answer.
2. No children’s/YA titles allowed, since we’re at the ‘pub.’
3. At least 5 titles must be fiction.
4. Crossovers with other challenges are allowed.
5. You can add your titles as you go, and they may be changed at any time.

My List is as follows:

1. Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford, Fiction (Published 2-09)
2. The Scramble for Africa Darfur-Invertention and the USA by Steven Fake and Kevin Funk Non-Fiction (Published 2-09)
3. Agincourt by Bernard Cornwell Fiction (Published 1/20/09)
4. The History of Now by Daniel Klein Fiction (Published 2/09)
5. The Miracles of Prato by Laurie Albanese and Laura Morowitz
6. Seducing the Spirit by Louise Young
7. The Indifferent Stars Above by Daniel James Brown
8. Every Boat Turns South by Jay White
9. The Secret Keeper
10.Sweeping Up Glassd

ARC Challenge 2009

Hosted by The Literate Housewife

Here are the rules:

1. To sign up, leave a comment (here) and a direct link to your blog post about this challenge that includes your list from rule #2.

2. List all of the ARC’s that you have to read right now. Then throughout the year, you must continue updating that list as you receive more ARC’s. (This is important). You should also strike out the ones that you finish.

3 a. All of us who have or will have more than 12 ARC’s must read and review 12.
3 b. All of us who have or will have less than 12 ARC’s must read all of the ARC’s we have. Note, that if you have 11 ARC’s and then receive a 12th one you will be bumped up to category a.

4. You don’t have to make a list of which ARC’s you plan to read, but you can if you want.

5. Crossovers with other challenges are allowed and Audio-books are allowed as long as they are ARC’s.

6. Read the books and review them on your blog. If you don’t have a blog, you can post your review on sites like Powells, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, etc. Leave a comment on this post with a link to each of your reviews.

7. Please subscribe to my blog, as I will be posting updates to the challenge periodically.

My Ongoing List:

Champlain's Dream
Mozart's Wife
The Mighty Queens of Freeville
Darling Jim
The School on Heart's Content Road
High Spirits
The Hunger Games
Journey to Tracer's Point
The Book of Night Women
Blond Roots
The School of Essential Ingredients
Red Clay, Blood River
Forgotten Patriots
Giants
Mistress Shakespeare
The Rose of Sebastropol
The Scramble for Africa
American Rust
ETTA
Mrs. Lincoln
Hidden Voices
Agincourt
The History of Now
The Mind of a Genius
The Sacred Well
Cutting for Stone
Drood
Yellow Knife
Big Boy Rules
The Color of Lightening
Canvey Island
The Miracles of Prato
The Commoner
Galway Bay
The Disappearance

100+ Book Challenge

Hosted by J.Kaye

48 / 100 (54.0%)

Alas....My Challenges Recap Revised

Plan ahead, two words my father was often trying to instill in me. He would even have a diagram of the two words that ran close to the edge of a piece of paper so that the words had to abruptly change direction vertically in order to fit it on the page. This image comes to mind today. I had scheduled "Alas...My Challenges Recap" to publish at a specific date and time, hoping to finish the post by then. What you may not realize is that it is incomplete and I had intended on writing a bit as well. So, the post did come out on time, I just did not plan ahead...enough. Ok Dad, I messed up this time.

So, this is a REVISED edition of My Challenges Recap. Sorry for the mix-up.

Challenge according to The New Oxford American Dictionary is

1. a call to take part in a contest or competition, esp. a duel : he accepted the challenge.
• a task or situation that tests someone's abilities : the ridge is a challenge for experienced climbers.

I accepted several challenges this year with high hopes. I had every intention of picking up each gauntlet with equal enthusiasm. I began to tackle the lists of books and diligently made blog entries, captured my reading progress and moved on to the next selection.

I failed miserably with challenges this year. I only read one book for the Austin Challenge, Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy, by Abigail Reynolds. I still owe a review for this one. I never would have read that book had I not signed up for this challenge. I am intrigued by the many novels published with Pride and Prejudice alternative plot possibilities. This challenge has widened my book snob selection process outside of my so called comfort zone. So for that I am grateful to this challenge.


The second challenge I bombed was the Sookie Stackhouse Challenge. Again, I only read the first book, Dead Until Dark. However, I love this series and plan to continue it through 2010. I have to admit I signed up for the challenge after I read the first book, but I still have enthusiasm and drive to complete this one.

The third challenge that I totally ignored was my own Book Buddy Challenge. I didn't read one book. I am so sorry for that. Pitiful, pathetic and just no excuse. I completed snubbed my poor dog Wizard. I owe you a few treats big guy.

The last challenge I had trouble with was the Romance Challenge. I believe I read a few romance novels, The Wild Heart, by Rosemary Rogers comes to mind. I honestly don't read many romance novels and this would have been a great challenge for me. I just never got to it.



These are the challenges I did complete, along with my 100 Books Read Challenge.


Pub Challenge



1. Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford, Fiction (Published 2-09)
2. The Scramble for Africa Darfur-Invertention and the USA by Steven Fake and Kevin Funk Non-Fiction (Published 2-09)
3. Agincourt by Bernard Cornwell Fiction (Published 1/20/09)
4. The History of Now by Daniel Klein Fiction (Published 2/09)
5. The Miracles of Prato by Laurie Albanese and Laura Morowitz
6. Seducing the Spirit by Louise Young
7. The Indifferent Stars Above by Daniel James Brown
8. Every Boat Turns South by Jay White
9. The Secret Keeper by Paul Harris
10.Sweeping Up Glass, by Carolyn D. Wall

Southern Reading Challenge



1.Dead Until Dark, by Chalaine Harris (Sookie Stackhouse)
2.Scottsboro, by Ellen Feldmen
3.Sweeping Up Glass, by Carolyn D. Wall
4.Every Boat Turns South, by Jay White
5.All Other Nights by Dara Horn
6.Salvos on Blackwater: A Novel of the Civil War Period, by Erwin Wunderlich



War Through the Generations



1.The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
2.The German Woman, by Paul Griner
3.Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet,by Jamie Ford
4.Daddy's Little Spy by Isabella Rosa
5.The True Story of Hansel and Gretel by Louise Murphy


Lessons and notes after my first full year of challenges:
1. Challenges cause me stress and worry and can put a person over the edge with anxiety. :(
2. Challenges have encouraged me to expand my reading choices. :)
3. Challenges are a fun way to connect with other bloggers. :)
4. Challenges whether or not you are a participant, lead to reflective reviews posted by fellow bloggers. :)
5. Challenges show other readers what my interests are. :)

As a recap, I came up with 4 out of 5 reasons to continue doing challenges in 2010. The only sad face I gave out was because of the anxiety and stress I put on myself when I don't finish a challenge. I can easily solve this by limiting my challenges this year. Since I still have courses I am taking for my Masters in History, upon reflection, this makes sense. I also need to get better, plan ahead to make sure I track my reading better, so that posting challenges will be less arduous. Sorry it took so long to post this recap but planning ahead as my father would tell you was never my forte. I will be posting my challenges on Sunday. Don't hold me to that. LOL

Meet Pamela Schoenewaldt, author of When We Were Strangers

Recently, I posted a review of When We Were Strangers by Pamela Schoenewaldt. I was fortunate to have "snagged"(as they say) this ARC through the Early Reviewer Group at Library Thing. When I contacted the author to ask if she would be willing to visit my blog as my guest, she graciously agreed. My interview with Pamela Schoenewaldt follows. This Tuesday is the release date for When We Were Strangers, so look for it in the stores.




Hi Pamela,
Thank you so much for joining me today to answer a few questions about your debut novel, WHEN WE WERE STRANGERS.

First, I want to tell you how much I enjoyed your book.  I can’t stop thinking about it. The women characters Irma and Sofia touched me in so many ways.  What was the inspiration for your story?

When we lived in Italy, we were taken by friends for cross-country skiing in Abruzzo in the mountains north east of Naples. We rented a house in Opi, a tiny village on the tip of a small mountain. The isolation and views of the valleys spread below, the grave courtesy of the people, the sense of timelessness as I walked through the quiet streets made a profound impression. I noted that several house had stone plaques from the 1890s and felt sure that this money had come from America, since Opi was very poor then. Who sent this money? Walking in the dusk, having gotten a few vegetables and wine for dinner, I conjured a young woman, not pretty, but possessed of a graceful, solemn presence, walking before me, silhouetted against the sky, carrying a loaf of bread, I think. This was Irma. Several houses had embroidered or cutwork linen curtains and I conceived the idea that Irma was a needle worker. The story emerged from there. We returned to Naples and Irma came with me.


How did the development of your key characters emerge?

Many of my characters emerge from research, like the Missus, the abusive sweatshop worker that Irma encounters in Cleveland. Others just appeared, like Jacob, the rag picker in Chicago. He walked in the door, ribbons fluttering and at some point it was apparent that he had two younger sisters, and that something terrible had happened to them which bound them to Irma. Molly I created to serve a plot function – do Irma out of a job. But she’s a bustling, entrepreneurial type and bustled herself right into a larger and larger role in the novel.


How did the setting for your story unfold?

See above for Opi.
The novel began as a short story which was essentially the first chapter. As soon as I began thinking of a novel, of following Irma to America, I conceived of her ending in San Francisco. There seemed to be a logic in her long voyage west, with the geography of journey paralleling a discovery of her self and an evolution of her work. And in a way it was my journey. I grew up in New Jersey, went to college near Cleveland, and after some forays back east, and moved to San Francisco, where I began to write seriously.

Why historical fiction and why this period in history?

Historical fiction gives a certain freedom. I feel that the history somehow creates a stage for the fiction, an artifice that keeps me from simply creating a veneer over a telling of “real life” because you must create everything – the setting, the physicality of the world, the issues and possibilities of the characters. There’s a lot of work to do --- the research burdens are tremendous – but I like to read history, particularly social history, and squirreling around to discover this or that detail of daily life is fascinating, as well as offering a convenient distraction from the hard work of writing . . . Also I think that choosing a setting can underscore a basic theme in a novel, in my case, Irma’s struggle to find a place for herself and work that reflected her evolving sense of who she is and what she can contribute is played out in the late 1800s, a time in our country defined by movement, masses of people coming here on their own journeys.

I got the idea for this story when I was living in Italy, married to an Italian, with work and friends, speaking Italian – and yet a stranger. Once I went to pick up an order of frozen fish. All others there to get their fish had their names on a long order sheet. I had no name, only L’Americana – the American woman. It was in the many moments like this that I could sympathize with Irma’s sense of exclusion. And it’s funny but I felt it again when we moved back to the U.S., after having been away for ten years, I felt like a stranger all over again.




What do you hope your readers will glean after reading WHEN WE WERE STRANGERS? Is there a universal message you hope readers will reflect upon?

All of us have been strangers, found ourselves someplace that is either geographically new or a new situation in which nothing we know before is useful. When that happens, we are thrown back on character, on our native wit, on values that persist. Irma has only a few practical skills -- sheepherding and needlework -- so she must dig into those skills to find the tools to negotiate utterly new situations. Her particular mix of pride and humility and willingness to connect with those around her is successful and Carlo’s mix of characteristics is not.
So the novel is in part about those parts of us that travel with us even as circumstances change. And today, when the issue of immigration is so charged, and in many ways the treatment of immigrants even more hypocritical and vicious than it was in Irma’s time, I hope readers can connect, perhaps with their own family history as immigrants or at least with some time in which they were strangers and someone welcomed them, someone helped them on their journey.



The upcoming release (January 25, 2011) of When We Were Strangers has to be exciting and perhaps scary. What are you feeling and how are you coping?

While I was researching and writing I didn’t much let myself think about the book finding an agent or even publisher. I just had to dig in and keep working with the issues as they arose – this chapter, this character turn. So I didn’t have any image of how this pre-release time would be. It’s exciting. It’s very moving and gratifying to feel so many good friends excited and supportive. I hope the novel does well also because so many at HarperCollins as well as my agent worked hard and believed in the project. And it’s scary, it’s very public, like walking around semi-dressed. It’s also hard to try to move on to the next project which is also historical but much earlier – the 1100s. But I’m grateful, I’m very nervous. And I’m sad that my father, who was supportive of my writing, isn’t here to hold the book.



What else would you like to share about When We Were Strangers or your writing process?

There are two scenes of sexual violence in the novel and they were very hard to write, for one must go there as a victim, see and feel the event and its repercussions on your own body if the scene is going to be more than action-exploitation fiction. No amount of technique or practice takes away from the need to do this or makes it easier on the writer. A tendency, mine anyway, is to skim over these scenes and that won’t work. I’m not talking about wallowing in gory details, or being melodramatic in the telling, but just truly being there emotionally and spiritually with the characters. That was hard enough, and my fiction group with the Knoxville Writers Guild was ruthless when I tried to back away. But later, as I working on revisions with my agent and then the editor I realized that there was a more difficult journey required – to be there with the perpetrator, to find that dark place in me that could engender such violence. I truly believe that if a writer can’t at some level empathize with the most negative character created, then that character has no business in the piece. I wanted to reach the unbroken soul beneath the brokenness. Not to excuse the act, but to acknowledge that none of us is born a sexual predator and even the two perpetrators in my novel were capable of love, maybe earlier in their lives, and had been loved, and there but for heaven, grace, good luck or any of the mysterious factors that shape our lives, go I.


Now, here are some fun questions.

I understand you have a dog and I know my hounds are sometimes jealous of my reading and writing time.  Would you tell us a little about your dog?
We got Jesse in a classic way, I fear. Our daughter brought home a soft adorable puppy, which she swore she could take care of. Perhaps other parents know the scene? In fact, for various reasons, I had to take over more and more care of Jesse and in caring for this dog I had initially resented, I got ridiculously attached. Later, our daughter moved out to another stage in her life and Jesse stayed put, graduating himself from a cage on the ground floor to a bed in our bedroom. He has silky black hair, feathered ears and paws, sweet and thoughtful. I was teaching him left and right (as in “left paw, right paw”) but my husband pointed out that I was teaching him from my left and right, not his. Fortunately Jesse is too much of a gentleman to point this out.

Asking you to tell us your favorite author I know is very difficult. In the blog community reading about what others are reading is always fun and helps to spread the word about great books. Would you share some of your most memorable reads either novels or non-fiction?

Plainsong, by Kent Haruf, surely for its crystalline prose and deep heart. Recently Mr. Pip by Lloyd Jones; Little Bee by Clive James. Right now I’m reading the graphic novel Persepolis, by Marjane Satarapi and The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb, about the Columbine incident. I started Lamb’s book before the Tucson massacre and it reverberates painfully.
 

How do you unwind and decompress?

I garden, on the principle of “good enough gardener,” doing what I can in any piece of time. I’d plant the front yard to perennials and pachysandra since it’s shady and the Tennessee clay needs a lot of persuasion to grow grass but Maurizio wants a lawn. I each spring I chisel away a bit more for hostas. We have a pretty active social life, run a “Cinema Sotto Le Stelle” Italian film series in the summer on our deck. I’m the social justice deacon of my church, organizing various initiatives. Next month, for instance, we’re hosting a community forum on immigration – close to the topic of my book. By massive bad timing I’ll be in Nashville at a reading when we have the forum.

How do you pronounce your last name?

Show-EN-walt. It means “beautiful forest” in German. I believe that my father’s family came from near the Black Forest and at least one was a cabinetmaker.

What is your astrological sign?

Aquarius

Further information can be obtained at Harper Collins Author Page.

Pamela Schoenewaldt Website


© [Wisteria Leigh] and [Bookworm's Dinner], [2008-2011].

The Baker's Daughter, by Sarah McCoy

THE BAKER’S DAUGHTER
Sarah McCoy
Crown Publishers
January 2012,
$23.00, Hardcover
304 pages, 978-0307460189.








In 1944, Elsie Schmidt accompanies a German officer to an official Nazi party given on Christmas Eve in Garmisch, Germany during World War II. Elsie, a baker’s daughter is a bundle of nerves yet lighthearted as her date, Herr Josef Hubb arrives. Many surprises greet Elsie at the party. She is accosted by drunk and vile officer with lascivious intentions. Fortunately she is saved when a young boy who had just finished singing for the Germans interrupts the crime. The boy’s name is Tobias, a Jew. Also during the evening Josef stuns Elsie with a marriage proposal and presents her with an exquisite engagement ring. Josef will have to wait for Elsie’s answer. She becomes suspicious and curious when she discovers some barely visible Hebrew letters nearly etched away on the inside band. She has heard stories about camps and confiscation of property, but would Josef be involved? Later in the evening she is surprised again when Tobias arrives at her back door, he has escaped. With no time to spare, Elsie decides to hide the boy, even though the risk of death at the hands of the ruthless Gestapo is chilling.

Reba Adams is a journalist for a local magazine in El Paso, Texas, in 2007. Her assignment is to research and write about ways various cultures celebrate Christmas. She attempts to interview the elderly woman who owns Elsie’s German Bakery with little success. Finally after meeting Elsie’s daughter Jane at the bakery, she is introduced to the feisty, outspoken, hard working Elsie. Ironically, Reba wears the engagement ring her boyfriend Riki gave her around her neck, still unable to commit to marriage. Riki works for the Border Patrol along the Texas/Mexican border, assigned to capture and return of illegal aliens.

Sarah McCoy has written and expansive, multi-generational family history that is intricately complex. The result is a deep and satisfying story that involves a clever strategy of interconnected lives. Many parallels between characters over time and place become apparent. The reader is pulled across the decades with this writer’s clever craft as you follow Elsie at age seventeen in 1944, to Elsie’s life in Texas at seventy-nine. Family secrets, courage, love and forgiveness are themes that resonate throughout this richly well written novel with boundless depth that will pull the reader forward.

On a personal note: I was a captive reader unable to put it down, reluctant to see this story end.
Thanks to the author for a welcomed legacy from Elsie’s bakery: a warm encore. This will be a top pick for Bookworm’s Dinner in 2012.


Wisteria Leigh
Sunday, April 1, 2012

Disclosure: This book was won in a giveaway through Read It Forward. Many thanks.


© [Wisteria Leigh] and [Bookworm's Dinner], [2008-2012].

Mailbox Monday

History and historical fiction being my passion and inspiration, this photo seemed appropriate for this Mailbox Monday. They did manage to get here from Cripple Creek with five books this week.

1) regina's closet by diana m. raab
Thanks to Marcia from The Printed Page and host of Mailbox Monday
2) The Secret Keeper, by Paula Harris
3) Tater & Tot, by Andrea Burris
4) The German Woman, by Paul Griner
5) The Strain (The Strain Trilogy)by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan

By the way Marcia...your book looks brand new, thank you again for sending me this. I can't wait to read it.