Book reviews

Two books and a giveaway!

Title: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Author: Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
Tags: World War II, Guernsey Island, London, historical fiction, letters

This book follows Juliet Ashton, a writer in London in 1946. Life on the island of Guernsey was not good under Nazi occupation during WWII and Juliet becomes enthralled with their history after becoming acquainted with some of the islanders. The letters written to, from and about her from various individuals in her life comprise the text of this novel. Tales of good and bad under the German occupation and what the war did to common people comprise the bulk of the story here. It is a nice little book that reads fast but it is rather predictable. (3 stars)

Title: Those Who Save Us
Author: Jenna Blum
Tags: World War II, historical fiction, Jews, German Resistance, Weimar Germany, Nazis, families, mothers and daughters, Minnesota, Buchenwald, Holocaust

This story follows a mother and daughter through World War II and beyond, from Germany to Minnesota 50 years later. It is a tale of sadness, terror, survival, heroism and understanding. Anna, a young German woman, falls in love and hides an older Jewish doctor who works for the German Resistance trying to get information out about Buchenwald concentration camp. They fall in love, he is arrested and she is pregnant.

The story follows Anna's tale of love, hardship and survival trying to keep daughter and herself alive when her employer and friend is murdered. Anna's daughter Trudy does not understand her mother and does not know her story. It is best left dead and in the past according to Anna. Trudy has never known who her father is and struggles to understand how people could let the Holocaust occur. It is that mission that leads Trudy to discover the truth of her existence and the horrors of what happened in Germany 50 years before.

This book is honest and horrifying. It is well written and progresses in ways that keep you guessing and turning pages. Overall, the key to this book is to subtly ask the question, "What would I have done in that time and place?" It is a soul-searching question. (4 stars)

Are you interested in reading either book? If so, leave a comment by April 7 and they might be yours.

- Ju