SqueakyChu LEAVES the past behind...and moves ahead in 2022! 1st Quarter

It's been a tough two years. It's truly been unlike any other time through which I've lived. I sincerely hope that our days ahead will be an improvement over the recent past. In this new year I hope to read more, but we'll have to see what 2022 brings.

Wishing all of my LT friends safety, good health, and happiness in 2022.



Total pages read this year: = 2,615
Reading rate: 33 pages per day
My reading rate is going this way: decreasing

Ever onward...

JANUARY:


Photo by neiljs - Flickr, CC-A

BOOKISH EVENTS:
1. LT Zoom Meetup of DMV local group - That was fun to see _Zoe_, radicarian, WildMaggie, qebo, norabelle414. I miss all of you. Thanks for hosting, Zoe!
1. BookCrossing BCinDC meetup via Zoom - 01/22/22 - We had seven people at our meetup--six of us local and one BookCrosser from California. We talked about everything from books to butterflies to covid to cruises.

COMPLETED:
1. 10 minutes 38 seconds in this Strange World - Elif Shafak - TIOLI #9: Read a book written by a Turkish or Turkish born author (Turkish) - 311 pages
2. Freiheit: The White Rose Graphic Novel - Andrea Grosso Ciponte - TIOLI #2: Read a book first published in my birth year (1972), your birth year or the last year (2021 or 2022) (2021) - 111 pages
3. Hana's Suitcase - Karen Levine - TIOLI #3: Read a book with pictures (photos or illustrations) (photos) - 135 pages
4. I Am a Japanese Writer - Dany LaFerriére - TIOLI #5: Read a book by an author who is new to you - 182 pages
5. The Woman in the Window - A. J. Finn - TIOLI #7: Read a book by an author whose name has 2 initials or has written at least 22 books (2 initials) - 427 pages

FEBRUARY:


Photo by Pierre Guinoiseau - Flickr, CC-A

BOOKISH EVENTS:
1. January 14 - A chance to briefly socially distance visit with BookCrossers RubyLadyBug and 6of8 at the Little Free Library of Twinbrook (#7720) in memory of Becky Johns, daughter of BookCrosser ResQGeek, on the day of her birthday. Becky, we remember you with hugs and fondness. We miss you greatly.
2. Zoom BookCrossing meetup - As always, it was fun to meet up with my BCinDC group plus have guests from other countries!

COMPLETED:
6. To the Land of the Cattails - Aharon Appelfeld - TIOLI #1: Read a book in which both the title and the author's name have a qualified set of double letters (TT, PP) - Asian Book Challenge: February in the Holy Land - 148 pages
7. Waking Lions - Ayelet Gundar-Goshen - TIOLI #10: Read a book with an animal in the author's name (ayelet = deer or gazelle in Hebrew) - Asian Book Challenge: February in the Holy Land - 341 pages
8. Japanthem: Counter-Cultural Experiences, Cross-Cultural Remixes - Jillian Marshall - TIOLI #4: Read a book with an uneven number of words in the title (1) - LibraryThing Early Reviewer - 198 pages

MARCH:


Photo by liz west - Flickr, CC-A

BOOKISH EVENTS:
1. A Zoom BookCrossing Meetup - date and time to be announced

COMPLETED
9. Maus 1: My Father Bleeds History - Art Speigelman - TIOLI #2: Read a book with at least a 4.00 LT average rating (4.43) - 159 pages
10. Italian Shoes - Henning Mankell - TIOLI #10: Read a book written by a citizen of one of the 27 member states of the European Union (Sweden) - 247 pages
11. Last Exit to Brooklyn - Hubert Selby Jr. - TIOLI #16: Read a book where all the letters of the word PEACE in the correct order in any language are in the title and/or author's name (Rô/Tarawan/Micronesia) - 304 pages
12. Between the World and Me - Ta-Nehisi Coates - TIOLI #4: Read a book with the numbers 0314 in the ISBN - 152 pages

Welcome back for 2022! I love the leaf pics.

>5 drneutron: Thanks, Jim. It's fun trying to find a new theme for each year and then finding pictures to match the theme.

LOVE the leaves, Madeline! Lovely theme.

And amen to leaving this year behind!

>7 jessibud2: Thanks, Shelley. This coming year seems to be getting off to a shaky start, though. :/

I see you're leafing the old year behind.

Happy new thread!

>9 quondame: Hahahaha! Happy New Year, Susan!

Happy Holidays Madeline!

>11 quondame: That's a cheery message, Susan! Wishing you and your loved ones a wonderful holiday season.

Love your leaf images for each month. I'll be here!

ed!!

>13 Berly: Hi, Kim! I welcome your visits. Have a safe, happy, and healthy New Year.

This group always helps me to read; welcome back, Madeline. I hope that I can be more active in TIOLI this year as it is the mother of all our challenges. xx

>15 PaulCranswick: LOL! I'm so excited to be joining you in your Asia Book Challenge that I've already started reading a book by a Turkish author, I can't believe you've lured me into joining a challenge other than my own this year. Good going, Paul! :D

Happy New Year Madeline--I hope it's a better one, and I'm looking forward to another year of TIOLI and reading.

>17 AnneDC: Thanks, Anne! Happy New Year to you. Wouldn't it be fun to have another meetup in safer times? Looking forward to those days for sure.

>16 SqueakyChu: I would try to pass it off as a product of my natural charm but it is the books, the books, the books. xx

>19 PaulCranswick: LOL!

Hi, Madeline - Happy New Year / Group / Thread! I love your leaf pics. :)

>16 SqueakyChu: >19 PaulCranswick: Ah, but he has folded it into your domain, so there's that.

Happy New Year! I hope the pandemic will recede again this summer so we can have another meetup.

Happy reading in 2022, Madeline!

>21 lyzard: Thank you. Have a great New Year, Liz!

>22 quondame: That he did, but it's fine with me!

>23 _Zoe_: Happy New Year to you and radicarian! Yeah. I'd like life to get back to normal so we can have real life meetups again.

>24 FAMeulstee: You, too, Anita! May 2022 be good to you.

>22 quondame: & >25 SqueakyChu:
It isn't coincidental that I tried to coincide
the challenges. I couldn't have lied;
a shared read is a blessing
but I'm only guessing
and have nothing to hide.

>26 PaulCranswick: Oh, Paul! I appreciate your poetry so much! I totally love your incorporating your challenge into mine. They are just the kinds of books that I totally love to read. Plus, I'll be able to share some of those reads with fellow LTers I've grown to know pretty well over the years. I forsee a great reading year in 2022 for all of us. Now...back to my *shared* Turkish novel. Haha!

This is actually quite brilliant, if I say so myself. We can all see who is reading what and plan to share those reads so we can discuss them while we still remember what we've read. Another haha!

>27 SqueakyChu: As with my new year message in the 21 group etc it was entirely impromptu, Madeline, and typed straight from my sleepy head straight onto your thread. x

>28 PaulCranswick: LOL! I predict that you are going to keep me laughing through 2022.

>29 SqueakyChu: I will certainly try, Madeline.

>30 PaulCranswick: After these past two years, any laugh (or even a giggle) helps!

>32 quondame: Happy New Year, Susan! May 2022 end up as a good year!

Have a great year of reading!

>34 thornton37814: I’m going to try. Happy New Year, Lori!

Happy New Year, Madeline. Looking forward to lots of shared reads in 2022!

>36 alcottacre: Happy New Year, Stasia. I see you’re off to a great start. It’s so great to have you back with us on TIOLI!

I'm over in Club Read but dropping by to wish you a happy 2022!

>38 qebo: Happy New Year, Katherine. I miss those days we used to visit. Should things get better in the near future, I’m up for a Philly LT meetup. If that ever happens, I’ll keep you posted.

>39 SqueakyChu: Ah, should things get better... My niece is at Temple U and takes the train back and forth most weekends, says everyone's masked, but it's not a risk I've been willing to take. The company I work for has ties to a lab at U Penn and would occasionally meet there; now a few grad students are on site as needed, and we log in remotely.

>40 qebo: The covid numbers are so high here in Maryland and especially in Montgomery County. During the past two weeks, two more people I know contracted covid. Neither had to be hospitalized, but I don’t want it due to my age, but more importantly due to my husband’s other health issues. I think eventually everyone will succumb to covid, but I’m trying to keep away from it until science knows more about it. I’m back to my bubble of just family and one friend. I am hopefully never going back to a year of total isolation from kids and friends because that only brought me depression and anxiety (not to mention the previous years of political insanity). I try to take one day at a time because otherwise everything is too overwhelming.

It sure is good to hear from you again!

Hope we can burst out of our bubbles safely and soon! Here's to a better year.

>42 Berly: I totally agree, Kim. Wishing you everything safe and good for 2022.

Happy 2022! Let's hope we can finally crawl out of this misery and enjoy a healthful and joyous year.

>44 ffortsa: I'm with you, Judy. Cheers to a better year in 2022.

>41 SqueakyChu: Those numbers are making me very glad for snow days - the fewer days my kids are going to school the longer we may be able to put off that "everyone will succumb." Ugh.

I hope you're enjoying a winter wonderland with warm drinks and good books.

>46 London_StJ: Snow days aren't going to last forever. I just learned from my older son that the original metrics that our school board used to decide about closures is no longer going to be used. Primarily that is because the covid cases in the schools are rising more rapidly than they expected, and they are determined to keep schools open even though they are not prepared with test kits and the correct masks.

The winter wonderland is pretty. My hot drink of the week is hot chocolate topped with whipped cream. My book so far is "meh". It's 10 Minutes and 38 Seconds in The Strange World by Elif Shafak. I was hoping to like it better than I am.

Stay warm and safe!

>47 SqueakyChu: Our county went from the new 5-day quarantine back to the 10-day quarantine after a single day, and has alerted parents to be prepared for the *possibility* of distance learning. It's an exhausting mess.

Hot chocolate, however, is not, and I hope you like it better than today's book.

>48 London_StJ: The five day quarantine won’t work. Your county (which is your county?) has some sense. Here in Montgomery County, the schools are a mess. Covid is quickly rising among students and staff, but no one wants to stop in-person learning, even temporarily.

Enjoy a hot beverage of your choice. Cheers!

I just realized you’re Luxx. I haven’t chatted with you for years! :)

My province of Ontario is back to remote earning. Kids never did go back in person after the holiday. No one is happy about it but the way the numbers are going up, it isn't really surprising.

I can't tell you how grateful I am to be retired. I would NOT want to be in the classroom now, or teaching remotely, for that matter. From the friends I have who are still teaching, I know it is exhausting and incredibly difficult

>49 SqueakyChu: I am! I left for a year or two, and then switched all of my social media to my stage name when I returned. I missed this group. :)

One of my dearest friends is a public school teacher for my county (AA), so I hear both the parental side of things and then the professional side. The situation isn't good anywhere, but I have hope that they'll be reasonable ... ish.

Some of the schools in Minnesota are experimenting with moving the high schools to distance learning while the elementary stays in person. Some of the thinking is that the schools simply lack the bus drivers to get all the kids to and from school.

>50 jessibud2: I am equally as happy not to be in nursing. Nurse friends and relatives are overwhelmed with covid patients now and are so exhausted and burned out. Our county in Maryland STILL wants our kids in school. I simply put health over education.

>51 London_StJ: I am so happy you’re back. It was fun to discover a name I remembered from the “older LT”! :)

I have one grandchild in elementary school, and one grandchild in preschool. We are most worried about the younger one who is of course not vaccinated. However, all the kids in both schools eat lunch without a mask and talk so how are they *really* protected?

>52 Oberon: Here in Maryland, we have a niece who is a school bus driver. She doesn’t talk much about the availability of drivers. Today was fortunately a snow day! However, my older son who works in the school’s IT section often has to work when others in the school system are off. He is not with the kids, but others in his office go to the schools every day so no one is really safe.

Hi Madeline! Happy new thread for 2022. I figured since we’re chatting on the Here’s to Our Health 2022 thread, I should come over here and visit.

>47 SqueakyChu: I read 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World in October of 2019, and for some reason it worked for me. I hope it improves for you.

>54 SqueakyChu: I’m sorry that the risk is so high for your grandkids and son. My niece and her wife are in the same situation regards schooling – a 6-year old, vaccinated, and his brother, 2 ½, not vaccinated.

>55 karenmarie: Hi, Karen! Your health tips have been very helpful. Hopefully we can navigate the world to better health together. Welcome to my thread!

10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World seems to be getting better now that I'm finished reading the chapters about individual characters!

I can't wait for all of this covid mess to be over. It's been going on for so long and disrupting so many lives. We're gong to visit my son's family today for his daughter's birthday. They all took covid rapid tests so we would feel comfortable going there to visit.

1. 10 minutes 38 seconds in this Strange World - Elif Shafak


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TIOLI #9: Read a book written by a Turkish or Turkish born author
------------------------------------------------------------
ASIAN BOOK CHALLENGE 2022: "IF IT IS JANUARY IT IS TURKEY"
-----------------------------------------------------------
This novel sure had its ups and downs. It is a novel I would have abandoned were it not for the fact that I read it as part of a reading challenge. It started out with a bang and then proceeded into a structure I dislike—that of various chapters each talking about only one of the main characters. These chapters went into great detail. At that point I was becoming worried because I don’t have that great a capacity to keep various characters straight if they never interact with each other for a large part of a novel.

Then...boom! The structure changed again and we were literally off on a chase to the end. This took quite a while, but I preferred reading the second half of the book vastly more than the first half. I prefer my fiction to be told in a more linear style.

In the end, I’m glad I didn’t bail and had the opportunity to think back about what I especially liked about this book. I guess my favorite part of it was the local color and customs of its setting in Turkey as I enjoy very much reading about other cultures. Second, I appreciated that the theme of this book was friendship, maybe even more now with divisive politics hitting me all the time on social media. The characters of this book were vastly different, yet found ways to connect.

Even though I had difficulty with the structure of this book, I would definitely try another book by this author to see how she handles an entirely different story.

Rating - 3.5 stars

‘I don’t care who your uncle is. Rules are rules.’

Even children knew this was not true. Rules were sometimes rules. At other times, depending on the circumstances, they were empty words, absurd phrases or jokes without a punchline. Rules were sieves with holes so large that all sorts of things could pass through; rules were sticks of chewing gumthat had long lost their taste but could not be spat out; rules in this country, and across the entire Middle East, were anything but rules.

>57 SqueakyChu: I am glad that you stuck with Shafak's book, Madeline. I need to do the same with the one of hers I will be reading too.

>58 PaulCranswick: Which is the one that you will be reading? I think I need a short break from her writing now, though! I am curious to see if her other books will annoy me in the same way this one did. :D

>59 SqueakyChu: I am going to read The Island of Missing Trees, Madeline. I have seen some really enthusiastic reviews of it and some that have been left cold be her book and her habit to over elaborate.

She does seem a writer good at getting nominated for awards. Your read was on the Booker lists and my intended one made the Costa shortlist, but she never seems to win. Probably divides the judges as she divides our pals!

>57 SqueakyChu: I am skipping over your review since I am currently reading that one!

Have a great rest of your week, Madeline.

>60 PaulCranswick: I can see why she never wins. I agree that people are divided about her books. Either they love them or not. They really have some good points as well as bad points. I have disliked some prize-winning books in the past so prize-winners don’t necessarily impress me. Then there is the book Snow by Orhan Pamuk that I loved so much after reading it a while ago. I can’t believe that so many people reading it now are left cold by it (no pun intended, of course!).

>61 alcottacre: I can’t wait to talk to you about it at the end of the month after everyone has read it. It’s a very strange story written in a bizarre way!

>57 SqueakyChu: I've read 1 and a half books by her, and I think she has terminal overwrite-itis. Some people have enjoyed the books of hers that they've read quite a bit, but I've determined she is definitely not for me.

I'll be reading '10 minutes..' later this month for a February 1 meetup. I'll chime in if the discussion is still on after that.

>63 ursula: I definitely saw the overwriting in the first half of that book, Anita. That contributed to my wanting to bail. I think it's pretentious beside being annoying. I will give her a second chance at some point, though (but not *too* soon. Heh!).

>64 ffortsa: Chime in whenever you want, Judy! I'm curious as to what your reaction will be. This book is so strangely set up.

2. Freiheit: The White Rose Graphic Novel - Andrea Grosso Ciponte


-------------------------------
TIOLI #2: Read a book first published in my birth year (1972), your birth year or the last year (2021 or 2022) (2021)
-------------------------------------
LibraryThing Early Reviewer
------------------------------
I did not know before of the White Rose, an undercover resistence organization of university students during Hitler's Nazi regime in Germany during World War II. Six brave students printed leaflets and distributed them anonymously in an effort to create resistance among the German population to the increasing fascist rule of Hitler. All six were caught by the Gestapo and guillotined.

In this moving graphic novel, we are introduced to those students who gave their lives to attempt to bring freedom back to Germany. At the end of the graphic novel are translations of the leaflets which they distributed. Although Nazi Germany no longer exists, the message this graphic novel is trying to promote is very clear. Do not betray your personal principles to ever, ever give up on freedom. Freedom, Freiheit in German, is the name of this graphic novel which is a lesson in bravery.

Rating - 4.5 stars

The name of Germany is dishonored for all time if German youth does not finally rise, take revenge, and atone, smash its tomentors, and set up a new Europe of the spirit.

>66 SqueakyChu: I remember seeing a movie about the White Rose movement a while ago and it stuck with me because Yorkshire, my home, is the White Rose county of England. Sad story as I recall and there were siblings involved as I recall.

Have a lovely weekend, Madeline.

>67 PaulCranswick: Yeah. It was tough reading even though it was a graphic novel. There is so much cruelty in the world. People have to be very brave to stand up to so much brute force of hatred. :(

Thanks, Paul. It's going to be a tough few weeks because close family now has covid. I know you're in the same boat. I'd rather not talk about this any more now as I have no idea what is coming down the pike. I'll be more open after this scary part is over.

>68 SqueakyChu: Noted Madeline and I will of course respect that. Will keep you and your family in my thoughts and prayers.

>69 PaulCranswick: Thanks.

>66 SqueakyChu: Thank you for the review of that one, Madeline. Adding it to the BlackHole.

3. Hana's Suitcase - Karen Levine


-----------------------------------
TIOLI #3: Read a book with pictures (photos)
----------------------------------------
This is a true story in which Fumiko Ishioka, the director of the Tokyo Education Resource Center in Tokyo, Japan, reaches out to museums for artifacts with which to teach Japanese children about the Holocaust. After much effort, she was given a package of items, of which one, a suitcase which had belonged to Hana Brady, a Czechoslovakian child murdered by the Nazis, motivated her to teach others about the Holocaust by breaking the experience down to just one individual and searching for more information about her.

This book is written for school-age children, but it is well worth reading by any adult. I was surprised that anyone in Japan with their own suffering during World War II would put so much effort into learning about a Jewish child in Europe. However, the theme is the importance of learning about others who differ from ourselves culturally and seeking the human and decent things about them-- thereby learning how we are all more alike than different.

The book not only tells Hana's story well, but it provides photographs to bring it alive and much closer to to hearts of those who read it. It’s beautifully done.

Rating - 5 stars

As well as learning the truth of the Holocaust, it is also very important for children, we believe, to think about what they can do to fight against racism and intolerance and to create peace by their own hands.

--Fumiko Ishioka in a letter to Hana Brady’s brother, George Brady - August 22, 2000

>72 SqueakyChu: - I am so happy that you read this, Madeline. It is a book that has stayed with me. I was going to mention that I wrote about it and added links on the What We're Reading - Children's Lit thread in the Holocaust literature group, but I see that you already saw it there. I am still trying to figure out how to find a link to the original radio documentary that came before the book. Maybe tomorrow I will phone CBC and ask how to find it.

>73 jessibud2: What a book! Barbara's cousin from New Hampshire donated the book to me in a huge donation of children's books she brought me in November, 2021. I had the book in my Little Free Library. Nobody took it so I was going to put it in the Little Free LIbrary at my synagogue, but I read what you wrote about it so I thought I'd give it a glance. I could not put it down. I spent all day today reading it and crying over it. Thank you for bringing it to my attention in the first place.

A few thoughts diverted my attention as I was reading it. I was thinking of my maternal grandparents who died in Auschwitz. I was also thinking about the Theresienstadt money. I have two of those bills that were my father's. I have no idea from where he got them. I also read something today about the man who designed the picture of the Jew on the bill. Apparently the Nazis were not happy with the first design of the Jew holding the tablets because the face looked too Aryan. The drawing had to be redesigned into the ugly stereotype face of the Jew. I'll post the pictures here shortly.

>72 SqueakyChu: Got me with that one. I will hunt it down and read it fairly soon. Very good review too, Madeline.

>76 PaulCranswick: Paul...this is one powerful book! As quickly as you read, you can finish it in the blink of an eye! :D

>75 SqueakyChu: My word doesn't that show the sheer awfulness of that evil regime that they even had separate currency bills?

I hadn't known that to be honest; so chilling.

>77 SqueakyChu: Yes. The money was only issued for use inside of the concentration camps...in this case in Theresienstadt. Elsewhere that money had no value.

>75 SqueakyChu: - I never knew about these either. Wow.

>77 SqueakyChu: Isn't that the case though with books that catch you on the Holocaust. I think I read :
Lovely Green Eyes
Night
If Not Now When?
Man's Search for Meaning
Once
The Devil's Arithmetic

all in one sitting

>76 PaulCranswick: - Paul, I posted about this book on the other thread and included a few links, if you are interested: https://www.librarything.com/topic/338458#n7726863

>82 jessibud2: Thank you for that, Shelley. I am very much interested.

Here it is! I found a link to the original doc:

Here is a rebroadcast. At first, I got a note saying it won't play on my browser but I clicked it anyhow and it worked.

https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/1428476483549

Just as an interesting aside, the host of the program, The Sunday Edition is Michael Enright. He is the one who first aired the documentary. He also happens to be the husband of author Karen Levine!

>81 PaulCranswick: Reading about the Holocaust is a strange experience for me. I am very close to it because my mom lost her parents in Auschwitz, but she never, ever talked about that with me in my life. My mom died of cancer when I was 21 years old. I tried to learn as much as I could about my mom's family's wartime experience from her sister and brother when they were alive. My aunt even translated letters her parents in Yugoslavia sent to her in Palestine (pre-Israel) from Serbo-Croatian into English so I could save them. I still have them. I don't read them often as they are too upsettng.

I read Holocaust literature because I feel the need to...in order to memorialize my closest family. However, then I need to take a break from such literature because it is too overwhelming....and too close. As a child I was fascinated by the story of Anne Frank. I remember asking my mom to watch a program about Anne Frank on television. She declined and said no more about it.

I have read Night. I have read Man's Search for Meaning. I can't do more than one book such as these in a sitting.

Holocaust books I especially like (strange word to use here, I know) are the Maus 1 and Maus 2 graphic novels by Art Spiegelman. I like them because they take bit of the terror out of the Holocaust by making the characters animals...all the while telling EXACTLY what happened at that time. It walked me through what my grandparents must have experienced. I hoped they died quickly and didn't have to suffer much. As I get sad about these things, I try to remember that their three children did survive the war and had children of their own. I'm a living testmant to that, alive today with three children and two grandchildren of my own.

>84 jessibud2: Thanks for the link, Shelley.

>85 SqueakyChu: All of my Jewish great grandparents made it to the US around 1890, some were anarchists and many of their children didn't practice Judaism. Some including my mother, converted. So it was when my daughter was a toddler and I caught sight of a holocaust photo that featured her doppelganger that it hit me. She would have been a early casualty. Of course I would have too, but that didn't hit my gut the same way.

>87 quondame: Those photos will get you - every time!

>85 SqueakyChu: I know what you mean about "like" - it seems a strange word in the context.
I couldn't read two holocaust books consecutively if they were as harrowing as the ones named above.
I don't have the direct loss of descendants to impel my reading - only very close ties to a number people from growing up - but it is mainly a need to try and make sense and understand lunacy & the nature of institutionalised evil, to remember those who left us and to help the world in my own minute way not to forget.

It is of course paramount that those of the Jewish faith remember but it is vital also that those of other religions continue to profess that this must never be allowed to happen again or its horrid reality disregarded or downplayed.

>89 PaulCranswick: I think books make us more aware of how it feels to be in someone else's shoes. For this reason, I love to read books about people in other cultures and in situations other than my own. That's why your challenge appealed to me! If people suffer in a book, even if they are unlike me, I feel their emotions if the books are well written. I'm now reading a book (which I'll review later) about Japanese Americans in an internment camp in California. It is amazing to me how much suffering in this world actually does not have to happen, but is just imposed upon others because the few (or many) want the power over and the control of others. :(

>90 SqueakyChu: Very good points, Madeline.

>84 jessibud2: Thanks for posting the link - it sounds like one of those books that just grab hold. I will definitely have a listen / check out the book when I have the resilience.

>75 SqueakyChu: I never knew that there was separate currency (though it makes a twisted kind of sense) in concentration camps. Thank you for posting the pictures.

>92 Caramellunacy: This book did grab me. I was actually in the middle of a different book when I picked up Hana’s Suitcase and had to read it straight through to its conclusion.

The reason I pulled out those kronen notes (the currency) was because there was a reference to them in the book. I often wondered about those bills that I had in an envelope with other paper currency from different countries that I can only imagine my dad collected during wartime, although he made his escape from Nazi Germany to the United States in 1938. Who knows how or why he had them?

>89 PaulCranswick:, >90 SqueakyChu: - A friend once asked me why I like to read so many biographies and memoirs and I had to think about that for awhile. I think I read them partly for the reason you mention, Madeline, to try to understand, from an insider's perspective, to walk in their shoes, so to speak. But also, I think, to help me put my own life into some kind of perspective, to realize that I have a life of privilege and to appreciate that. Also, to wonder how I would fare, how I could survive under dire circumstances. And to wonder at the resilience of humans. I do think this is a good mental and emotional exercise.

>94 jessibud2: >89 PaulCranswick: Isn't it amazing how writers can put into words what we feel but often can't express? How much more so is the bravery of those (like in biographies and memoirs, as you mentioned Shelley) for them to talk about some pretty terrible situations. I think I look into them for some kind of hope. I think that's why I hold Elie Wiesel in my heart as a hero. After the direst circumstances through which he lived, he not only wrote, but also spoke eloquently about his Holocaust experiences and gave people hope.

This has been a terrible past two years for so many. This morning I learned about another death of a friend's mom. I guess at my age I shouldn't be that surprised about death notices, but they always hit me hard. I am trying to be grateful each day for little things because the world itself seems a bit overwhelming for me now.

"I am trying to be grateful each day for little things because the world itself seems a bit overwhelming for me now." This is how I feel, too, Madeline. It seems so many people my age or even younger (like in their early sixties) are succumbing to the virus, or something (not always specified, but sudden and unexpected) lately. I am trying not to be a worry wort, but I can't help wondering "Who next?" and even "Am I next?".

It's very affecting to read the discussion of the Holocaust here. I understand the image on the Theresienstadt money is Moses with the Ten Commandments. The Tauber Holocaust Library and the US Holocaust Memorial Museum credit two different artists with that image; one who survived, and one who died at Auschwitz.

>96 laytonwoman3rd: I understand the fear regarding mortality these days. Close family and friends so far this past year have dealt with botched eye surgery (not mine), two strokes, heart attack, covid, and broken hip. I wonder if all of this seems so overwhelming because we are all so isolated now (and for the past two years) and have not been able to gather for parties, travel with friends, attend events together, go on a fun vacation, or do other things with family and friends for fun...all out of fear of sickness and death. Doesn’t all of this seem so endless to you? Each time we think things might be getting better, everything seems to deteriorate. This doesn’t even address the moral and political things I read in the headlines (but no deeper as my anxiety will not allow it) which leave me discouraged. On a happier note, I find LT to be a nice refuge. :)

I’ll have to do some more research about the Theresienstadt bills plus the other paper bills I found. I should write it all down for my kids. So far all I have are those bills in a white envelope on which I wrote “bills from my daddy”. I have no recollection when I wrote that although my dad died about 45 years ago!

>97 SqueakyChu: Yes to everything you've said about the isolation, and lack of family gatherings. My Mom passed away in June 2021. Her death was not related to COVID, but her last months were certainly complicated by it as she didn't grasp the restrictions. We had a brief graveside service with just immediate family (8 people), with the promise of a "celebration of her life" at a future date. How many of those deferred memorials will never happen? Last summer, we thought things might be getting better; we'd been vaccinated; we visited our daughter out of state, went out to restaurants again, began to be a little more at ease in public places. In September, my younger brother contracted the virus and died. No one can reassure me now that the risk is likely to diminish any time soon.

Do take steps to explain the important things you've kept with family connections, so the next generations may begin to understand them. I've started a file called "What's with all this STUFF?", with pictures and short descriptions of the history and significance of things in my house, for the benefit of whomever is blessed with sorting it all out someday.

I am currently reading a book for my Holocaust reading called Days in the History of Silence by the Norwegian writer Merethe Lindstrom whose subject, Simon, (as related by his wife) is unable to talk about the traumatic events of his youth until a traumatic reminder sends him mute completely.

In the book the character seems to be blaming himself that he somehow survived while the rest of his family did not and he is completely at a loss to explain it to anyone. There is a bravery to witness and speak but also a bravery to endure.

>98 laytonwoman3rd: I am terribly sorry to hear about the deaths of your mom and younger brother, Linda. That is such a heavy burden to bear during these times. I'm dealing with covid in close family now, but I don't want to talk about it because I can't predict what will happen. I'm very scared.

One of my closed friends who had been fully vaccinated was one of the first people to contract breakthrough covid. That was before boosters were available. They were talking then about how "rare" breakthrough covid was. I didn't consider it rare then if someone I knew so well got it. I was right. It's not rare at all.

i am lucky to have a younger son who is very interested in family history. He has our family tree and is working on filling it out with further research. He took our oldest family photo album to copy the pictures...and I never got it back. That's okay. It would be his anyway because of his interest, and I can picture all of the pictures in my mind as I've looked at them throughout my life. My daughter who is an estate planning lawyer practically forced us to do all the paperwork for the future. It came in handy when I needed a copy of our advanced directives when both my husband and I were in the hospital at different times over the past year. We seem to be fine now, thankfully.

I like your idea to make a list of "stuff' with explanations. I wonder if I'll get around to doing that even though it's a good idea. I am such a procrastinator. The worst!

>99 PaulCranswick: Most of the adults who suffered through the war years that I knew as a kid never talked about any of their experiences to their kids. I was born two years after the war ended, and my childhood was happy and carefree. I never knew real upset, other than illness and deaths of loved ones until a few years ago with the change in the US government and the pandemic. It was like a perfect storm of horrible events. Even during the Vietnam era, I didn't feel defeated. I went to every civil rights march and to every anti-war march. We befriended and partied with GIs. I can't imagine how it felt to have lived through and survived the Holocaust. The survivors felt guilty for living after all the suffering and deaths they saw of their loved ones. I guess I read their stories to offer my emotional support to them...and as a way to thank them for sharing their experiences with us.

>98 laytonwoman3rd: It has been a terrible time that sadly continues and we all stand together both for all of us that have lost loved ones during this time or suffered dislocation and loneliness or trepidation or anxieties. Hugs to you Linda and to you too Madeline.

It's true about not wanting to talk. My grandmother was just a teen when she came to Canada. She was one of 7 siblings, the oldest brother came first, worked, sent for the next brother. They both worked, then sent for the next, etc until 6 of them were safely here. The youngest perished with their parents in Auschwitz. Even when I wanted to know and I asked, she would never talk about it. Of course, I understand why and it's truly impossible to imagine.

>98 laytonwoman3rd: - I am so sorry for your losses, Linda. It feels like everyone is affected and touched in some way or another, these last 2 years, either by the illness itself or by isolation and separation. Madeline, Paul, I feel it too. I sometimes feel such a sense of *urgency* though I am not sure that is even the right word. Maybe helplessness is more accurate. But I think having community, as we do here in LT, helps.

While the current bad times have yet to do more than inconvenience me, I grew up with WWII nightmares, possibly because I lived on a military base and WWII movies were a staple of the 1950s, not to mention the McCarthy hearings, the bomb anxiety and a few family issues. In my 20s I read several holocaust novels and that sort of filled a quotient for me, though recently I did read The Boy in the Striped Pajamas.

I feel very thankful that my 3 siblings their spouses, nephew and nieces and their spouses, and 2 great nephews haven't been victims of Covid, though one niece is a physician and has been hard pressed. We are a very pro-science family and not one of us of the "it can't happen to me" mindset, so that may have helped. I suspect my husband's nephew, a surgeon, has kept that branch of the family as healthy as he can, but we are mostly estranged. So far I haven't heard any bad news, and am very grateful.

>101 PaulCranswick: Thanks, Paul.

>102 jessibud2: That is what the urgency was when the Holocaust Museum opened in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1980. The issue was that as survivors of the Holocaust were aging and dying, there was a need to document and hear what happened from people who experienced it firsthand. People only then started to open up about it, and survivors actually addressed classes of students to talk about their experiences or agreed to be filmed while talking about their experiences.

>103 quondame: Susan, I hope and pray you and your family continue to experience safety and good health through these coming months and years.

>104 SqueakyChu: Thank you. I know it is as much luck as it is good practice, but at least there is a margin that has let the luck be in our favor.

>72 SqueakyChu: Hana’s Suitcase goes to my TBR list, Madeline. Thanks for the “heads up”!

Karen O

>106 klobrien2: I cried the whole time I was reading it, Karen.

>107 SqueakyChu: ((hugs))

Karen O

>108 klobrien2: Sending hugs back...because you'll need them with this book.

>72 SqueakyChu: I got a copy of Hana's Suitcase on Open Library and read it over a few short, painful hours.
I feel emotionally drained and still have wet eyes. I want to give a big word of praise to Ms Ishioka. If there were more people in the world like her then we would be living in a far better place.

On the up side it adds to your shared reads on TIOLI!

Thank you so much for bringing that book to my attention, Madeline. I shall not easily forget it or Hana.

>110 PaulCranswick: I could not have gifted you a better book bullet! Thanks for reading it, Paul. Isn’t Ms. Ishioka something? I ended up reading this book just because I really was curious why someone Japanese was interested in learning about the Holocaust. I received it as a donation for my Little Free Library. I was bringing it inside to get ready to release it elsewhere when I noticed jessibud2 wrote a post about it in the Holocaust literature group. I browsed through it, and then could not put it down. I plan to release this book at the Little Free Library in front of my synagogue.

One thing that especially hurt me was seeing the pictures of a young Hanna, who, with her blue eyes and blonde hair and energy as described by her brother, reminded me of my own granddaughter, who is now four generations separated from her family history in the Holocaust.

4. I Am a Japanese Writer - Dany LaFerriére


---------------------------
TIOLI #5: Read a book by an author who is new to you
-------------------------------
This book was really strange. As I was reading it, I wasn’t sure why I continued to read it because there were parts of the story I couldn’t even follow. Near the end, there was a chapter that seemed to have nothing to do with this story. Yet I felt compelled to read it through to the end. Looking back, I found some lines that were funny. I also found references to things Japanese which I liked. The premise of the story was unusual in that it was about a writer who became famous for a novel he did not write. So, the book had some lighter and good moments, but it didn’t exactly move me.

I know that this author has a good reputation for his works. I would like to try some of his other books just to see what they’re like.

Rating 2.5 stars

I am not a Japanese writer. I’m writing a book called “I Am a Japanese Writer.” That doesn't make me a Japanese writer.

>111 SqueakyChu: The pictures were especially moving, Madeline - she was a lovely young girl.

Hope all is well. x

>113 PaulCranswick: All is well. Thank you.

I'll share what happened to our family. Last week our 8-year-old grandson tested positive on his PCR. Needless to say, we were all terrified. The week went by, his parents and his four-year-old sister for whom we babysit all tested negative on their PCR. My grandson had a slight cough, but otherwise felt well. He's coming out of quarantine now, and he's going snowboarding for the first time ever tomorrow with his parents and sister. Needless to say, he's very excited. We aren't scheduled to babysit until this Wednesday so we should be good. We have rapid tests here at home should we need them, but we've felt fine and have not been near anyone else.

>114 SqueakyChu: Glad to hear things are calming down, Madeline. What a scary week.

Yikes, Madeline. Glad the worst is behind everyone! At 6, is he too young to get vaccinated? They have started here 5 and up. Still, no one wants to go through this. Tomorrow's plans sound good!

>166 m.belljackson: He already had both vaccines. The only one in his family who was not vaccinated was his four-year-old sister. He was as protected as he could have been. i think he probably got it at school, but who knows these days?

>114 SqueakyChu: Scary. Glad you're all OK.

>118 qebo: Me, too!

>72 SqueakyChu: Madeline, I just finished Hana’s Suitcase and it was as moving as you said. Thank you so much for bringing the book to our attention!

Karen O

>114 SqueakyChu: That is a blessed relief, Madeline. Thanks for updating us as I for one have been worried.

>120 klobrien2: You're welcome, Karen. That was such a moving book. I'm so glad you read it. I feel that as each one of us learns about the life of anyone who died in Auschwitz, it's a blessing in their memory. They are not forgotten.

>121 PaulCranswick: Thank you, Paul. I feel so relieved for now, but I'm still trying to not be overly anxious about the future. It's hard.

Today was kind of fun, actually. Darryl (kidzdoc) shared his mother's sour cream coffee cake recipe online, and we both ended up making it. His came out beautifully. Mine was a disaster that stuck to the pan. He posted a picture of his, while I ate the parts of my cake that stuck to the pan so there would be no record of what it looked like! It's delicious, though. :D

Earlier today we had a Zoom Bookcrossing meetup. That is always fun because I miss seeing my meetup group in person. We've only had one real life meetup since the pandemic began. Who knows when we can begin again?

In addition, I got the sad news that the Kensington Book Festival (Kensington, Maryland, USA - International Day of the Book street festival) is being cancelled for the third year in a row due to covid. I always chair the Bookcrossing booth which is one of the highlights of our group's year. We collect hundreds of books and give them away for free to fairgoers. It is such a fun event. But...not this year. :(

>122 SqueakyChu: I'll bet Darryl was pleased! At least it tasted good, Madeline, what was left of it!

>123 PaulCranswick: He was so happy. It was the first cake he ever made!

>72 SqueakyChu: I get to dodge that particular BB as I have already read that one.

>85 SqueakyChu: Maus and Maus II are wonderful. I have copies of them both that I purchased for my personal library.

>112 SqueakyChu: Sounds like one I can safely avoid.

>122 SqueakyChu: Sorry to hear that the Kensington Book Festival is cancelled yet again. Maybe next year? Finally?

Have a lovely Sunday, Madeline!

>122 SqueakyChu: - Oof! I forgot again, about the zoom meetup. And it was even written in my daybook! I was just busy and never looked at the daybook all day. Sheesh. And once again, I can't find the link.

Darryl never baked a cake??! I am speechless.....

>127 SqueakyChu: Thanks, Stasia! Yes, there will be an International Day of the Book Festival in April 2023–at least that’s the plan.

>126 jessibud2: Ha! I have been setting the alarm on my phone to remind me of things instead of just relying on my calendar. It helps. By the way, if you and Bookgirrl join the BCinDC listserv, you’ll
also get the group’s messages.
Here’s the address:
https://groups.io/g/BCinDC
bcindc@groups.io

Yep. First cake! He also plans to bake bread. I’ve been finding it fun to cook what he cooks sometimes as he posts recipes for what he makes. The last was a Spanish soup using tomatoes, spinach, chick peas and eggs. I try to modify the recipes, if I can, to make them lower sodium for Jose, but they are usually great. I know cooking is not your thing, but join us sometime. It’s fun...plus you’ll get a great meal out of it! I skip the recipes with ingredients we don’t eat, but other than that, he finds wonderful recipes!

Hi Madeline. I am going to have to look for Hana's Suitcase--such a powerful review!
I'm glad your grandson is fine. My family had a similar scare--my 7 year old nephew tested positive for COVID, and had a mild case. It's tough to keep a seven-year-old in any kind of meaningful isolation, especially one who isn't feeling well! We were concerned about my brother, who is high risk because of a lung condition, and my 5-year-old niece who was the only unvaccinated household member. No one else tested positive, though, and all are fine.

Sorry about the book festival. One of these days...

>128 AnneDC: It’s definitely a worthwhile read, Anne. Keep some Kleenex handy while you read it.

I’m glad both of our families made it through the covid scare okay. These are scary times as we have no idea who is going to get it or how it will affect that individual.

About the book festivals...there is always next year...and the year after that...and so forth. ☹️

So far behind, so just a few comments.

>72 SqueakyChu: Added to my WL!
>114 SqueakyChu: Hope your grandson continues to do well and that he had fun snowboarding!!
>122 SqueakyChu: But it must have tasted good, right?! Next time you can work on the presentation. : )
And I am so sorry the Kensington Book Festival was cancelled yet again. Sigh. You have such a good attitude though.

Happy Friday!

>130 Berly: Hi Kim. My copy of Hana's Suitcase is sitting on my living room table as I would like my husband to read it ...as well as the recently banned book in Tennessee, Maus 1 by Art Spiegelman...which also happens to be an amazing book which I would highly recommend to everyone.

Thankfully, my grandson is fine, over COVID, and back in school. I'm expecting him here for dinner tonight with his mom and sister if it doesn't start snowing before they get here. We have a winter advisory for tonight but so far it doesn't look like much.

That sour cream coffee cake was delicious! I'm going to bake it again but do a better job of preparing the pan. It's didn't last long!

Yeah! Such a bummer about the book festivals. I look forward to them all year (now I should say years) long. :(

Dropping by to say "Thank you" for coming by my thread while I have been sick, Madeline. I appreciate it!

Have a wonderful weekend.

PS - I have already started A Constellation of Vital Phenomena. I hope I like it as much as you did!

>132 alcottacre: I was really worried about you and Kerry, Stasia. One never knows how covid can affect an individual. I’m relieved that both you and Kerry are both finally on the road to recovery. Get well...and stay well!

>133 SqueakyChu: Again, thank you for your concern. Kerry has already announced he will be going back to work on Monday. I am trying to get well - I have had 3 naps today even :) I also managed to finish one more TIOLI book for January and am hopeful of finishing the last 2 tomorrow.

>133 SqueakyChu: I'm also relieved that the strains of COVID are being fought off by all our loved ones these days. Two of my three offspring have had/got it but are coming out the other side ok (both were double jabbed) and far too many of our pals here and their loved ones are recovering from the dastardly thing.

Have a lovely weekend, Madeline.

Any baking planned? :D

>134 alcottacre: Great news about Kerry, Stasia. I hope your complete recovery is not too far behind.

>135 PaulCranswick: Hurray for covid recovery of our families, Paul. However, even as we speak another friend of mine (sadly, in prison) today informed me that he tested positive. I sincerely hope that he will be okay, but I can't even begin to imagine what his experience with this virus infection will be like.

No baking today for a good reason...I relaxed with jigsaw puzzling and had to complete a page-turning novel which would just not let me stop thinking about it. That doesn't happen too often. Tomorrow no baking either as I hope to finish our quarterly business taxes which is a waste of time since we made no money at all this quarter due to my husband's illness, very cold weather, and a surge in covid. Don't worry about our sweet intake. I did bake a chocolate chip cake on Friday night for our Sabbath dinner...and we do have some leftovers even though my daughter-in-law took some of the cake home for her husband (my younger son who had to work a 12-hour shift due to a snow emergency). Oh, yeah...and that USA/Canada World Cup Qualifying soccer game. Can't forget about that!

5. The Woman in the Window - A. J. Finn


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TIOLI #7: Read a book by an author whose name has 2 initials or has written
at least 22 books (2 initials)
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What a great book! It’s an unputdownable mixture of psychological chills and thrills, agoraphobia, and neighbors who need to mind their own business. Dr. Anna Fox hears a scream and sees what she believes to be a murder. However, she is an agoraphobic psychologist who spends her time taking pictures of neighbors through their windows without their knowledge. For creepiness, this book is outstanding. For believability, it may be stretching things a bit. However, for a fun and super-interesting novel, don’t miss this book.

By the way, this novel is blurbed by both Gillian Flynn and Stephen King - to give you an even better idea of the kind of story it is.

Rating - 4.5 stars

Many of us--the most severely afflicted, the ones grappling with post-traumatic stress disorder--are housebound, hidden from the messy, massy world outside. Some dread the heaving crowds; others, the storm of traffic. For me, it's the vast skies, the endless horizon, the sheer exposure, the crushing pressure of the outdoors.

>137 SqueakyChu: I’ve now got Woman in the Window on my TBR. Thanks for the prompt!

Karen O

>138 klobrien2: It will be so hard to put down! Enjoy it, Karen.

>137 SqueakyChu: I added that one to the BlackHole too. Thanks for the review and recommendation, Madeline!

>140 alcottacre: Enjoy it, Stasia. It’s a fun read.

6. To the Land of the Cattails - Aharon Appelfeld


--------------------------------------------
TIOLI #1: Read a book in which both the title and the author's name have a qualified set of double letters (TT, PP)
--------------------------------------------------
ASIA BOOK CHALLENGE 2022: FEBRUARY IN THE HOLY LAND
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This is the story of a mother and son who leave Austria in 1939 to travel eastward in Europe to the home of the mother’s religious parents whom she abandoned many years ago. The mother and son travel by horses and wagon, stopping at inns and partaking of meals and coffee. The farther east they travel, the more uneasy the mother becomes. Having had a Christian father in Austria, the son does not appear Jewish, but his beautiful mother is recognized as a Jewess.

The reading is slow in this story as the two characters are travelling through places which are increasingly hostile to Jews. It is a very uncomfortable story because as readers we know the future of the Jews in Europe at that time. It’s a look at a mother-son relationship both with its love and its doubts. The story is mostly peaceful and quiet, but has a dark, disturbing rumble to it. The tone of the story subtlety changes to an atmosphere of fear as the journey continues. The mother Toni accepts it; the son Rudy challenges it.

Aharon Appelfeld is known to write about the atmosphere in Europe prior to the Holocaust. I had an idea of what this novel would be like before reading it, and I was correct. My suggestion for anyone who reads it is to not bail on it. The beginning of the book might seem slow, but there is a reason for the pace and all of the description in this book. The beauty of this book is in the mood it creates for the reader. Bear with it, and let it pull you along at its own speed.

There came a point at which I understood why most of this book was a slow, plodding narrative of mother and son. The briskness of the mother’s disappearance was shattering. I found this novel to be very powerful and reflective of a certain time and place in history well worth remembering.

Rating - 5 stars

I was an utter simpleton. I was attracted to Gentiles like a moth to the flame. An utter simpleton. It is hard for me to forgive myself. But you are a Jew in every fiber of your being. And here, in these regions, you will learn the secret easily.

>142 SqueakyChu: I will certainly look out for that one, Madeline - I enjoyed your review. x.

I think that your reading numbers are up a bit this year, am I right? I am enthused by the double delight of TIOLI and ABC this year so far.

Have a lovely weekend.

>143 PaulCranswick: Not only are my reading numbers up, Paul, but I’m finally enjoying reading again. I have loved your ABC challenge this year and hope to be an active part of it throughout the year. It helps that two of the countries are Israel and Japan whose contemporary authors I most enjoy reading.

>144 SqueakyChu: I am gratified, Madeline, to have played unwitting in a specific sense but well-intentioned in a general one in your rediscovery of reading mojo!

That there is a mutuality to that is also clear. The TIOLI has got my love of book lists, challenges and reading pincered in an exquisite troika of bookishness!

>145 PaulCranswick: Yay! (I love the way you expressed that!)

The TIOLI has really exploded over the past few months...in a good way.

>146 SqueakyChu: I thought I had to be careful describing the TIOLI as a pincer movement!

>147 PaulCranswick: LOL! Well, it’s never been described in quite that way before!

Madeline, we saw an extraordinary play last night called "Prayer for the French Republic", about a Jewish family in Paris, both during WWII and in recent times. The ending is a little ragged, and the play is LONG, but if it comes your way, I encourage you to see it. The sense of family, of belonging, of threat, is beautifully realized, as the members struggle with their long history in Paris and the fear of persecutions to come.

>149 ffortsa: Judy, I haven't been to live theater in years due to my poor hearing. Now I also can't see well as I had cataract surgery with a resulting complication and need further surgery in April. Only after that is resolved will I be able to get glasses for distant vision. Fortunately I can read and type!

I used to love theater and the play you describe sounds very interesting, although I would probably find it depressing as it hits too close to home. I'm thinking I would skip that particular play. I have translations of letters from my maternal grandmother Teresa who died in Auschwitz along with my grandfather (both from Yugoslavia...now Croatia). I read the letters so rarely because they also have that sense of threat...until they end.

7. Waking Lions - Ayelet Gundar-Goshen


--------------------------------
TIOLI #10: Read a book with an animal in the author's name (ayelet = deer or gazelle in Hebrew)
-------------------------------------
Asia Book Challenge: February in the Holy Land
--------------------------------------
I found the beginning of this book making me very uncomfortable. That was not because of the hit and run accident that began the book, but it was more about Dr. Eitan Green's forced relationship to a group of poor, black, and sickly Eritrean immigrants to Israel. Eitan was a successful, married neurosurgeon and father of two boys. The character who stood out the most was a sort of mysterious Eritrean woman named Sirkit whom we learn more about as the story advances. Extreme inequality always makes me uncomfortable, but this book set this contemporary Israeli social problem directly in front of me.

Not only did I have to deal with a doctor facing a moral dilemma in a repugnant manner, but I also had to face his attraction to a woman with whom he should have had no contact as well as to deal with his uncompromising arrogance. I had to keep telling myself that this was only a story in order to continue reading it!

This book was ultimately about all about lies and race. So many despicable and poor choices were made by the characters! The book hit a turning point for me about 90% of the way through it, when I had to keep turning the pages to see what would happen. Know as you read this long, involved story, that all is not as it seems at first. Then come along for the ride as I ended up feeling that this was a pretty good novel after all!

There is a long paragraph within this novel which gives voice to the idea of trying not to feel superior to a group of “others” and yet knowing guilt just because of that feeling. It was a relief to me learning before reading this novel that the author has worked for the Israel civil rights movement.

Rating - 4.5

Embarrassing as it was, she had to admit they all looked alike to her. It was difficult to differentiate the boy’s face from all the other faces. There was a good chance that if she met him on the street in another two months, she wouldn't recognize him and would pass him by without nodding hello.

>151 SqueakyChu: Good review and a reminder to me to keep going to the end!

I think it is engaging in the sense of holding one's attention rather than a frivolous way. It's themes talk to inequality in much more than just financial resources.

Have a great weekend.

>152 PaulCranswick: This book was especially interesting to me as I never experienced the Eritreans as a group in any of my living in or visits to Israel. The Sudanese and Eritrean immigrants all entered Israel after my last visit there in 2001. As if Israel doesn't have enough social problems, here was another one! I found reading about this educational and heart-breaking at the same time.

I think it is engaging in the sense of holding one's attention rather than a frivolous way.

Yes! I would say that 90% of the novel was slow, although it was always captivating.

I just bailed on Lolita which I had hoped to read for Better Than the Movie Book Club. I'm not sure what made me bail right away--whether it was the writing stytle or the heavy subject--perhaps both. I was going to give the book away, but later decided maybe I'd want to read it in the future and then stashed it back onto the humongous Mount To Be Read. :D

>142 SqueakyChu: Adding that one to the BlackHole. Thanks for the review and recommendation, Madeline!

>151 SqueakyChu: That one too!

>154 SqueakyChu: Lolita is a hard read in a lot of ways, and I get people bailing on it. I think it's a really good book, but it requires pushing through a lot of discomfort.

I was just diverted from my current read by Japanthem, an Early Reviewer book I received recently in the mail. I now have three books going at once. :(

>156 ursula: I might give Lolita another try sometime in the future, but it just didn’t feel right for now.

8. Japanthem : countercultural experiences, cross-cultural remixes - Jillian Marshall


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TIOLI #4: Read a book with an uneven number of words in the title (1)
---------------------------
LibraryThing Early Reviewer
--------------------------------
I really loved the beginning of this book in which the author discussed the process of becoming a PhD and how she decided to pursue this. I have always envied those who put great effort into earning a PhD so I found it fun to learn about the author’s experiences.

The bottom line afterward was that the author did not want to continue in the world of academia as a professor so she turned her dissertation into a series of captivating vignettes to try her hand at being a writer. I was interested in this book’s overlying themes—-Japanese traditional music, Japanese pop music, Japanese underground music, and the essence of being a gaijin (foreigner) in Japan.

The author minced no words in communicating her feelings about her experiences in a Japan, albeit sometimes a bit harshly. As she did so, I reflected upon my own knowledge of Japan through hearing about my older son’s trips there and from my own reading of contemporary Japanese literature. For me then, this book was an engaging read about a country I never visited yet whose culture and people were surprisingly familiar to me.

Rating - 4 stars

So while the man who took the menu out of my hands in Tokyo spoke to me in the politest form of Japanese and bowed profusely after I informed him that I wasn’t having problems but was simply making up my mind as to what I wanted to eat, he was communicating a very clear message: you are fundamentally different from me.

I'm bailing on Accidents by Yael Hedaya as it's too slow of a read for me, nor do I feel like reading a love story at this time. I will finish my reread of Maus 1 and then choose something else. I no longer want to hang onto half-read books for a long time. I need to move those books into the hands of other readers.

I finished reading Maus 1 which was a reread. I read both volumes in 2008. I recently acquired a copy of Maus 1 as a donation for my Little Free Library. I decided to reread it as Tim made it into a LibraryThing group read this past month. I finished it tonight. I was in tears. I love Artie's father. I find the relationship between Artie and his dad sad. I wish I still had my dad alive. He escaped from Nazi Germany but was fortunate not to ever have dealt with concentration camps. My mother's parents were not so lucky and perished in Auschwitz. The review I'm posting in the next message is the review I wrote for Maus 1 when I read it for the first time.

I want to add here that I found nothing in this book that a high school student should not be allowed to read. Real life can be deeply unfair and cruel. Let that fact be known and thought about among high schoolers before they enter the adult world.

9. Maus 1: My Father Bleeds History - Art Speigelman


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TIOLI #2: Read a book with at least a 4.00 LT average rating (4.43)
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I finally got around to reading this book. It left a very deep impression on me. I, as did Art Spiegelman, lost close family in Auschwitz, Poland.

This was an amazing read. I think it was positively brilliant of the author/illustrator to use the graphic novel as the genre in which to present his father's story.

Readers of comics are often those who choose to enter a world of fantasy. Bringing the story of the Holocaust to readers of comics greatly enlarges the number of those who are informed of this great tragedy of World War II.

The idea of each race or religion as a different animal was startling. I began to think of why the author may have chosen to do this. I think it was a way of showing how people tend to stereotype one another. I was mindful of the fact that the Nazis were the cats, while the Jews were the lowly mice. I'm curious as to why Spiegelman chose to depict the Poles as pigs. Disdain, perhaps?

In addition, portraying people as animals is another way of allowing those who otherwise would not read about the Holocaust to do so. Seeing people's faces and expressions makes it too painfully real. The animals allow a little distance between the reader and the reality that existed in that time and place.

I was intrigued by Artie's relationship with his father. I can see how the war years changed the father and what pain he carried in his old age. I can also see the impatience and lack of understanding by Artie. There is a world of difference between Holocaust survivors and children of Holocaust survivors. This is very well depicted in the book.

I thought it good of Artie's father to share his personal story with his son. Neither my father nor my mother ever would. What I learned of the war years, I learned from my aunt and uncle many years after both of my parents were dead.

Another aspect of this book that made it especially readable was the interjection of Artie's conversations with his father. It left a little breathing space - time for some relief from the oppressive tension of the story itself. That painful story is often too depressing for people to read in large amounts.

The drawing of the Auschwitz concentration camp gateway near the end of the book left me with a very heavy heart. :(

Rating - 5 stars

No, darling!
To die it’s easy...
but you have to struggle for life!
Until the last moment we must struggle together!
I need you!
And you’ll see that together we’ll survive.
This always I told to her.

10. Italian Shoes - Henning Mankell


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TIOLI #10: Read a book written by a citizen of one of the 27 member states of the European Union (Sweden)
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What a beautiful story this was. It was of an aging Swedish man, a former surgeon who left his practice because of an unfortunate incident, who lived alone in an archipelago of Sweden. He interacted with very few people, but had a cat and dog to keep him company. On the ice one day he spied a person whom he had known when he was younger. I don’t want to give away any of the beauty or surprises of this story, but I will say this person changed his life in many ways.

This book moves slowly with its characters and its secluded environment. The awesomeness of nature is always the background to the relationships that change and develop as our main character decides if he would rather be alone or have some closer relationships.

The story presents the realities of aging in a serious, realistic way. I think that's what made me love it so much.

The gorgeous writing and storytelling in this literary novel surprised me because I thought that the author, Henning Mankell, had been a crime writer. This was the kind of story that I didn’t want to end. I hated to say goodbye to the elderly gentleman who shared his personal story with us, his readers. How would he fare in the future? I sincerely wanted to know.

Rating: 5

One evening the telephone rang. A rare thing. More often than not it would be some telephone company or other urging me to change my supplier, or to install broadband. When they discovered where I lived and that I was an old-age pensioner, they usually lost interest. Besides, I haven’t the slightest idea what broadband is.

>162 SqueakyChu: Glad to see Italian shoes was good for you, Madeline.
The last book Mankell wrote was After the Fire, a sequel to Italian shoes.

>163 FAMeulstee: I’ll definitely put that book on my wishlist. I didn’t know Italian Shoes had a sequel. Thanks for letting me know!

Mankell was a really good author, wasn't he. I loved the Wallender books but there was much more to him than just those books.

Have a lovely weekend, Madeline.

>161 SqueakyChu: This quote reminds me of the writing in THE 1619 PROJECT which was recently banned in Texas.

>160 SqueakyChu:, >161 SqueakyChu: Maus
I ordered the book from Amazon after it was banned, like everyone else on earth, so who knows when it'll arrive.
I watched the interview with McMinn Co TN people.

>160 SqueakyChu: I want to add here that I found nothing in this book that a high school student should not be allowed to read.
Yeah, the ostensible objections wouldn't make any sense to LTers.

I don't have anything like the harrowing personal connection you do. My only family glimpse of that era is from my mother. She was born in 1930, grew up outside New York city in a community with a significant Jewish contingent, and her father was a high school teacher of several languages. She remembers listening to her father translating letters that neighbors had received from their relatives in Germany.

>165 PaulCranswick: He was! What a beautiful book Italian Shoes was...and now I can't wait to find and read its sequel!

>166 m.belljackson: Ironically enough, the books that are being banned are the ones that people most need to read. That's the sadness of banning books.

>167 qebo: I'm releasing my copy of Maus1 to two friends here in Maryland. One of them is now trying to read banned books that she never read before...and Maus 1 is one of them...although I do not have Maus 2 to give her.

I can't imagine what it must have been like to live during WWII, but with the tragedy of the current invasion of Ukraine by the Russians, I'm beginning to sense more and more what the uncertainty of that period felt like when feelings of stress prevailed globally. I hope and pray that this senseless invasion of Ukraine will end soon.

11. Last Exit to Brooklyn - Hubert Selby Jr.


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TIOLI #16: Read a book where all the letters of the word PEACE in the correct order in any language are in the title and/or author's name (Rô/Tarawan/Micronesia)
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This is a raw and brutal set of stories about a group of people who lived lives centering on violence, sex, alcoholism, and drugs in 1960s Brooklyn, New York. The stories are self-contained although they have some characters who appear in more than one story. I would guess these were probably based on people the author knew in his youth.

I started the book once quickly out of curiosity to see how long I’d last, but I soon restarted it to concentrate more deeply on each story as I found this book provocative and well-written. It had been praised by other authors such as Allen Ginsberg and Anthony Burgess. It packs a powerful punch, but it is not for the faint of heart or the easily offended. It is dark, misogynistic, depressing, and savage. The writing moves along at warp speed with each paragraph starting strangely at a random place and each paragraph containing multiple conversations lacking most punctuation. It is quite off-beat, colloquial and unusual in its grammatical form.

I was pretty amazed at this book. It was a slice of life in the seediest, most downtrodden parts of Brooklyn. Surprisingly, though, I found it easy to read.

The story I liked the best was called “Strike” and was about Harry Black, a leading union man, although a good-for-nothing otherwise, and the company who refused to cater to union demands unless Harry Black could be removed. This story seemed as if it went on forever, perhaps much like the length of time the workers were on strike.

In reading afterward about this novel, I learned that it was part of a genre called transgressive literature, along with such works as Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita, Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club, Ryū Murakami’s Almost Tranparent Blue and Irvine Welch’s Trainspotting. As in those novels, Last Exit From Brooklyn might have had just a thin line separating its literarary value from obscenity...or was there a line at all?

Rating - 4 stars

Vinnie was 12 the first time he was arrested. He had stolen a hearse. He was so short that he had to slide down in the seat so far to reach the pedals that a cop standing on the corner looking at the hearse, stopped for a redlight, thought the cab was empty.

>169 SqueakyChu: Adding that one to the BlackHole. Thanks for the review and recommendation, Madeline!

>170 alcottacre: Get ready! I wasn't quite sure about the appeal this particular book would have on others, Stasia! :D

>169 SqueakyChu: I need to go back to this one. I started it a long time ago, but put it down. I've only read Requiem for a Dream, which was also masterful and brutal.

>172 ursula: That was brave of you to have read Requiem for a Dream if it's anything like the book I just finished. I'm going to try to find Requiem for a Dream now because I really was engaged by the writing in Last Exit to Brooklyn.

12. Between the World and Me - Ta-Nehisi Coates


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TIOLI #4: Read a book with the numbers 0314 in the ISBN (9780812993547)
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I chose this book to read in my quest to read more books by black authors. it is written as a letter from Ta-Nehisi Coates to his son about the divide between the black and white worlds. Sadly, I think he has this right. This is a powerful and depressing book, leaving me in tears at the end, because the struggle continues.

This to me is a fascinating and eye-opening read. Over the years I have tried to understand the black culture in various ways, but I think Coates puts it all out there with the idea that no black man’s body is ever safe. I knew this partially, but his description of life as a child in west Baltimore, where I grew up in the 1950s and 1960s in what I considered a safe Jewish community, is nothing like the dangerous and violent black community in which he grew up during the 1980s. Oddly enough, we both ended up in Chocolate City, a name that used to be applied to Washington, DC. We are a generation apart. I felt a need to be part of the civil rights movement in the 1960s, but I was afraid of Malcolm X because of his rage. To Coates, Malcolm X was a hero because his rage was an outgrowth of his experience and his knowledge. I now feel a need to revisit Malcolm X’s world. Being that I am not black, I don’t anticipate being able to fully understand it, but I want to try. He did equate Martin Luther King with the Dream (or the white experience).

I love the part of this book that describes Howard University as a Mecca. It is such an amazing part of Washington, DC, and I enjoyed reading about the author’s experiences there.

The second part of the book in which Coates talks about experiences with his young son made me fear for all black parents of young children, especially those with sons. The author puts his personal terror into words which make the reader feel it. To those who never felt such terror, such as myself, it will be my duty going forward to understand it and act on it in a positive way.

I am hoping to be able to read The Beautiful Struggle, the memoirs of the author, in the future.

Rating - 4.5

Then the mother of the murdered boy rose, turned to you and said, “You exist. You matter. You have value. You have every right to wear your hoodie, to play your music as loud as you want. You have every right to be you. And no one should deter you from being you. You have to be you. And you can never be afraid to be you."

>174 SqueakyChu: Tremendous review, Madeline, and helped bump it up on my TBR too.

My next read is going to be quite a sentimental journey for me. The book is Leap of Faith : Memoirs of an Unexpected Life by Queen Noor, fourth wife and widow of King Hussein of Jordan. My husband's cousin Julia was housekeeper and caretaker for the Queen's parents in the DC area until their deaths. My beloved late sister-in-law Miriam was housekeeper and governess for Alexa, Queen Noor's sister in the DC area. The book itself was given to me by Miriam in 2003 as a birthday present. I've never read it. I started it today for the ASIAN BOOK CHALLENGE 2022 - THE ARAB WORLD. Thank you, PaulCranswick for the inspiration to finally read this book. Here I'm posting a picture of the signature from my book:

>175 PaulCranswick: Thanks, Paul. I really do want to read more of his work. He is a terrific writer.

One of the things that really spoke to me in Between the World and Me was the deep-rooted fear for safety in black men. One black man I admire very much, Mr. Jerome Price, is a black man from whom I took an online black history course during the pandemic. He taught the AP Black History Course at Richard Montgomery High School, but graciously also offered to teach it to our synagogue congregation at Tikvat Israel in Rockville, Maryland, via Zoom about the same time as the Black Lives Matters marches were taking place following the murder of George Floyd. One statement Mr. Price made during his course is something I will never forget. He said that he lived about 15 minutes from our high school, but EVERY time he drove to and from school he was afraid of being pulled over by the police. Every time. That thought echoed through my mind over and over while reading the book by Ta-Nehisi Coates.

I read Coates' book a few years ago, Madeline. It is reminiscent in style and form, of James Baldwin's The Fire Next Time. It was a powerful read. I also have Leap of Faith on my shelf, also as yet unread. One of these days.

>167 qebo: There recently was a photo, maybe of a billboard, showing Marjorie Taylor Greene

with THE 1619 PROJECT book behind her - that might send sales skyrocketing.

>178 jessibud2: I definitely need to read The Fire Next Time. The only book by James Baldwin that I have read so far is Giovanni's Room.

>179 m.belljackson: I hope so!

>174 SqueakyChu: One of my favorite books. Give We Were Eight Years in Power a try too.

>181 Oberon: I will. I’m adding it to my wishlist now.

>181 Oberon: I have Between the World and Me and his novel The Water Dancer on the shelves but his essays do look interesting too.