July/August 2009 – Book #5 Those Who Save Us

For those of you who are still following along, Heidi has chose our next book – Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum. All the reviews indicate this is a real page-turner. I’m excited to dive in. Enjoy everyone!

Blum, who worked for Steven Spielberg’s Shoah Foundation, takes a direct, unsentimental look at the Holocaust in her first novel. The narrative alternates between the present-day story of Trudy, a history professor at a Minneapolis university collecting oral histories of WWII survivors (both German and Jewish), and that of her aged but once beautiful German mother, Anna, who left her country when she married an American soldier. Interspersed with Trudy’s interviews with German immigrants, many of whom reveal unabashed anti-Semitism, Anna’s story flashes back to her hometown of Weimar. As Nazi anti-Jewish edicts intensify in the 1930s, Anna hides her love affair with a Jewish doctor, Max Stern. When Max is interned at nearby Buchenwald and Anna’s father dies, Anna, carrying Max’s child, goes to live with a baker who smuggles bread to prisoners at the camp. Anna assists with the smuggling after Trudy’s birth until the baker is caught and executed. Then Anna catches the eye of the Obersturmführer, a high-ranking Nazi officer at Buchenwald, who suspects her of also supplying the inmates with bread. He coerces her into a torrid, abusive affair, in which she remains complicit to ensure her survival and that of her baby daughter. Blum paints a subtle, nuanced portrait of the Obersturmführer, complicating his sordid cruelty with more delicate facets of his personality. Ultimately, present and past overlap with a shocking yet believable coincidence. Blum’s spare imagery is nightmarish and intimate, imbuing familiar panoramas of Nazi atrocity with stark new power. This is a poised, hair-raising debut.

Book# 4 The Glass Castle

As you all know by now, we are a little behind schedule for the “April” book – I think it might be best to call book #4 the May book. Tiff has selected book #4, The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls.

Amazon.com Review
Jeannette Walls’s father always called her “Mountain Goat” and there’s perhaps no more apt nickname for a girl who navigated a sheer and towering cliff of childhood both daily and stoically. In The Glass Castle, Walls chronicles her upbringing at the hands of eccentric, nomadic parents–Rose Mary, her frustrated-artist mother, and Rex, her brilliant, alcoholic father. To call the elder Walls’s childrearing style laissez faire would be putting it mildly. As Rose Mary and Rex, motivated by whims and paranoia, uprooted their kids time and again, the youngsters (Walls, her brother and two sisters) were left largely to their own devices. But while Rex and Rose Mary firmly believed children learned best from their own mistakes, they themselves never seemed to do so, repeating the same disastrous patterns that eventually landed them on the streets. Walls describes in fascinating detail what it was to be a child in this family, from the embarrassing (wearing shoes held together with safety pins; using markers to color her skin in an effort to camouflage holes in her pants) to the horrific (being told, after a creepy uncle pleasured himself in close proximity, that sexual assault is a crime of perception; and being pimped by her father at a bar). Though Walls has well earned the right to complain, at no point does she play the victim. In fact, Walls’ removed, nonjudgmental stance is initially startling, since many of the circumstances she describes could be categorized as abusive (and unquestioningly neglectful). But on the contrary, Walls respects her parents’ knack for making hardships feel like adventures, and her love for them–despite their overwhelming self-absorption–resonates from cover to cover. –Brangien Davis

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Freelance writer Walls doesn’t pull her punches. She opens her memoir by describing looking out the window of her taxi, wondering if she’s “overdressed for the evening” and spotting her mother on the sidewalk, “rooting through a Dumpster.” Walls’s parents—just two of the unforgettable characters in this excellent, unusual book—were a matched pair of eccentrics, and raising four children didn’t conventionalize either of them. Her father was a self-taught man, a would-be inventor who could stay longer at a poker table than at most jobs and had “a little bit of a drinking situation,” as her mother put it. With a fantastic storytelling knack, Walls describes her artist mom’s great gift for rationalizing. Apartment walls so thin they heard all their neighbors? What a bonus—they’d “pick up a little Spanish without even studying.” Why feed their pets? They’d be helping them “by not allowing them to become dependent.” While Walls’s father’s version of Christmas presents—walking each child into the Arizona desert at night and letting each one claim a star—was delightful, he wasn’t so dear when he stole the kids’ hard-earned savings to go on a bender. The Walls children learned to support themselves, eating out of trashcans at school or painting their skin so the holes in their pants didn’t show. Buck-toothed Jeannette even tried making her own braces when she heard what orthodontia cost. One by one, each child escaped to New York City. Still, it wasn’t long before their parents appeared on their doorsteps. “Why not?” Mom said. “Being homeless is an adventure.”
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Book #3 Meeting – Sunday March 29th @ 12 noon

It has been awhile…Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck is our third book. Since the book is set in the 60′s and the 33rd Cleveland International Film Festival is going on right now at Tower City Center I wanted to bring the book and the film festival together.

We have some options. We could meet at the Flying Fig in Ohio City at 12 noon for brunch on Sunday and then head over to the Film Festival to see THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT; which is starting at 2:20 Pm and is about the Cleveland radio station 107.9 The End (early 90′s grunge rock for those of you old enough to remember) or we can meet at Tower City (maybe the Hard Rock Cafe) around 3:30 and then go to the Film Festival to see a film about 60′s music – possibly more appropriate for book relativity – starting at 4:40 PM called THE WRECKING CREW.

I plan to attend both films and everyone who is interested is also welcome to attend both films…but I do need a head count so that I can get everyone tickets to the film(s).

Here is the link the 33rd Cleveland International Film Festival; Do you recognize anyone?

March 2009 – Book #3 – Travels with Charley

The March book has been selected. We’re heading off the “recent best sellers” list and back a  few decades to an old classic, Travels with Charley in Search of America by John Steinbeck. This is one of my personal favorites and since I will be doing quite a bit of traveling beginning in March I found it appropriate.

Review

John Steinbeck, sensing it was time to rediscover America, decided to set out on a three month odyssey with his French poodle Charley. A tornado in his first week nearly stopped him in his tracks. Steinbeck soon discovered the art of perfect scrounging: sending Charley off, he would follow to retrieve him only to find him buried in some delicious meal. Steinbeck would feign immediate petulance and retrieval, only to receive (of course) a huge welcome from Charley’s latest friends. This evocative account of travelling in America is very enjoyable. (Kirkus UK) –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. 

Product Description
With his dog Charley, John Steinbeck set out in his truck to explore and experience America in the 1960s. As he talked with all kinds of people, he sadly noted the passing of region speech, fell in love with Montana, and was appalled by racism in New Orleans. 

About the Author
JOHN STEINBECK (1902–1968) was born in Salinas, California. He worked as a laborer and a journalist, and in 1935, when he published Tortilla Flat, he achieved popular success and financial security. Steinbeck wrote more than twenty-five novels and won the Nobel Prize in 1962.

February Meeting Confirmed – Feb 15th

 

Discussing both Water for Elephants and Devil in the White City

Sunday February 15th at 2:00 pm
Winking Lizard Brunswick

3634 Center Road

Brunswick, OH 44212-4446

Thursday, February 19th Meeting?

A few people have contacted me indicating that Thursday February 19th might be a good day to meet (for both Water for Elephants & Devil in the White City). Please post your comments regarding this meeting time on the blog or email me.

Thanks!

Dual Meeting

We will be ganging the January and February meetings. Amanda selected ‘Devil in the White City’ (which in my opinion is a really fascinating look at a bygone era, a scandalous murdering spree and a refreshing history lesson – does anyone know where the nickname “the Windy City” comes from?) so, she will be selecting the meeting location.

Currently we’re thinking the week of February 16th. Several of you have mentioned meeting on a week day might be best… maybe Thursday the 19th would work?

The Show Must Go On

 As most of you know by now, Dakota passed away on January 20, 2009 in his 13th year. He was the most spectacular dog a girl could ever ask for and one of my best friends for all his years. I love him dearly and cherish every moment I shared with him. His loss has saddened me deeply and he will be missed forever.

In the words of Uncle Al, “The show must go on…that’s how Lucinda (and Dakota) would’ve wanted it.”  –actually Dakota wouldn’t have like it at all, he was always so destructive when left alone or bored –

So, I still hope to see you all this evening to discuss the magical world created by Sara Gruen in Water for Elephants.

 

Tonight, La Chateau, Strongsville, OH, 8 PM

Book Club Mention on about.com

Between the Page was mentioned on About.com as one of Cleveland’s newest Book Clubs. Check it out 

http://cleveland.about.com/

January 23rd Book #1 Confirmed

La Chateau Wine Bar in Strongsville will be the host location for our first meeting. We will be meeting at 8 PM on Friday, January 23rd.

La Chateau

12287 Pearl Rd

Strongsville, OH 44136

440-846-8818

See you all there!!