Between Shades of Gray is a World War Two story that is not often told. It is the story of the Soviet Union’s occupation of Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia. The Soviets captured those who they saw as anti-Soviet, mainly the educated- doctors, lawyers, teachers, military servicemen, writers, business owners, musicians, artists, and librarians. These people were rounded up and murdered, sent to prison, or sold into slavery in Siberia. We follow the story of Lina, who is separated from her father, but is with her […]
Next time, more history less theory, please
Funny story: a number of years ago I read Blackout by Connie Willis, one of my favorite authors. I really love Connie Willis, even though there have been some disappointments (Remake is way too obvious and Promised Land. . .I don’t even want to talk about it). But when she’s on, I’m nuts for her writing. Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog, which are curiously tied together by a time-travel theme and some shared characters, are two of my favorite contemporary novels, in spite of them being very […]
Jam Packed, Still Boring
I believe this book was one of the free kindle books that Amazon Prime members have access to. I have quite a few of them stacked up in my electronic TBR pile and this was the first one I dove into. I’m… not impressed. Maybe there’s a reason it was free? I hope the others are better than this one. This book is aggressively mediocre. It is so middle of the road that it refuses to go places that might take it somewhere interesting. The […]
Sid is a Jerk
As a person of mixed race (White mother, Black father) who loves the blues, I thought that a book like Half-Blood Blues (featuring several mixed race characters and blues) would be right up my alley. It was not. In fact, it took me nearly a week to read the first 50 pages and I was bored to death almost the whole time. On page 54 things finally (finally!) got interesting from a story standpoint, but I still had to contend with the writing, which never […]
“You blew it up! Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell!”
There is a complex tapestry of finely woven threads that make up this story; each one reaching back into antiquity, becoming drab of color and less distinct. The tapestry details the modern world, and without these threads, it’s impossible to understand the context in which we live. This book is an attempt to explain this tapestry, and details its creation via the economic systems of Great Britain, France, Germany and the United States. It follows their development in the 19th century, through WWI and it’s […]
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
This story is from the perspective of Bruno, a nine year old boy living in Berlin, Germany. In the beginning, Bruno moves with his family from Berlin to a place that he calls “Out-with.” Throughout, you see his confusion about what’s going on around him. Why did his family have to move? Bruno wants to go back to Berlin where his friends are, and where his grandparents are. Looking out his bedroom window, he sees in the distance a fence, and beyond that fence, he sees […]
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