Tag Archives: historical fiction

Book Review: The Giver of Stars, by Jojo Moyes

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The Giver of Stars is yet another book recommended to me by my fabulous fantasy fans on Facebook. You can totally join and hang out there with us, we’re pretty cool. It goes to show how important book recommendations are to authors. Psst … if you’ve read my books and liked them, please recommend them! I would be much obliged. Cheers!

While I don’t read a lot of literary or historical fiction, I’ve enjoyed the ones that have made it on my list. Some of my all time favorite reads are on this list such as The Book Thief and The Glass Castle. I’m happy to add The Giver of Stars to this growing list, it is a lovely read.

The Story

Alice Wright is a proper British girl who doesn’t quite fit in at home and ends up marrying an exotic American man and moving west to definitely not fit in there as well. Her new home is inhospitable to say the least, mostly due to the ever disapproving presence of her new father-in-law who has plenty of opinions on what’s proper for a woman.

Her hubby’s not much better, seeing as his first reaction in any situation is to see which way his daddy leans, then agreeing. When Alice sees an opportunity that will get her out of the house and allow her to be useful in the community, she grabs it and doesn’t look back. Eleanor Roosevelt’s traveling library initiative has created a need for able young women to take books to the people living too far to come to a local library. These packhorse librarians not only provide books, but for some, they are the only connection for these families to the rest of the world.

Alice works closely with Margery, a woman whose family has a muddy past in the community. She’s everything that Alice wants to be, self-sufficient, smart, and most importantly, happy. The two make friends, along with the other librarians, giving Alice the sense of belonging to a community that she’s always wanted.

With every good, there comes a bad. There are those in town, including Alice’s ridiculous father-in-law, who oppose the packhorse library and believe it’s spreading indecency and immoral content to the good people of Kentucky. The weather and the terrain itself is a constant challenge. And of course, there’s the matter of Alice’s heart. She and her American husband just can’t see eye-to-eye.

The Giver of Stars is a story of friendship, grit, and determination and based on true events in America’s past.

My Review

A story with great characterization, fascinating history, and some well-deserved personal angst? I’m sold. The structure of the story itself is a bit different than what’s expected, and the way it’s handled makes the reading experience that much better. Alice’s main problem is how she can find happiness in this new world and with her spouse. Her solution to part of the problem is the packhorse library, therefore every threat to its continued functioning, is a threat to Alice. Which is why having a murder mystery appear in the third act doesn’t feel as out of place as it should have.

I loved the use of different quotes at the beginning of each chapter set the tone, and especially loved how the poem “The Giver of Stars” is used as a turning point for Alice to help her have the courage to make hard decisions and stand up for herself.

I also loved the amazing inclusive friendship of the packhorse librarians and how they watch out for each other.

Recommendations

While this is an objectively clean read, one of the storylines has to do with marital intimacy within a society that isn’t allowed to talk about such matters. It’s handled with tact and admirable respect, but it’s something that wouldn’t be appreciated or understood by younger readers. For that, I’d recommend a reading age of high school and up.

The other sensitive storyline is that of treatment of the coal miners and black population during the depression era. The book gives an accurate an unbiased look at what life was like, and should be appreciated for shedding light on the truth. However, for readers who are uncomfortable with gross unfairness, consider yourself warned.

I give The Giver of Stars 5/5 stars for an endearing and authentic look at an interesting period of time. And I might have cried a teeny tiny bit.

Thank you for joining me as I shared my review of The Giver of Stars, by Jojo Moyestoday on the blog. If you enjoyed reading this review and would like to see more, please consider connecting with me by either following the blog here on WordPress, liking my Facebook page, joining my Facebook group, or subscribing to my newsletter. As an added bonus, newsletter subscribers receive free books, stories, and special offers every week.

Book Review: The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne

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Years ago, I went on a reading binge of all the Holocaust books I could get my hands on. The experiences shared in those books were as much cast-iron testaments to the power of the human spirit as they were chilling. This book came out after that binge ended, but I kept hearing about it off and on, so I added it to my list.

That said, it was probably not my greatest idea to read a Holocaust book during our current difficult time. On the flip side of the argument, I would say that it’s also important to maintain perspective. The world has continually gone through periods of difficulty and gotten through them. We will get through this. With hard work and a dash of hope, we will have learned something valuable as well.

The story

Bruno is a nine-year-old German boy who’s father is a high ranking Nazi. At the beginning of the story, his family has to move because of his father’s work and he ends up at a place he calls “Out-With”. While it is never said in the text, readers are led to believe this is the Auschwitz concentration camp.

For the first half of the story Bruno is full of his anger at having to give up his friends and move to a place that is definitely not as nice as his home in Berlin. He misses all the things he enjoyed with his friends and the shops and the places he could go and explore.

It’s this craving that pushes him to go exploring along the long fence of the camp, a place that he has been told in no uncertain terms is “off limits with no exceptions.” This is how he meets Shmuel, a boy from Poland who shares Bruno’s exact same birthday. Bruno is thrilled that there is another boy his age and starts visiting him every afternoon.

We see through all these visits just how different the lives are for the two boys. Bruno always has plenty to eat, Shmuel is starving. Bruno’s life has been merely inconvenienced, Shmuel’s life has been completely overturned. Bruno shows a childlike naivete as he hears about Shmuel’s experience and often tries to tell Shmuel that what is happening to him can’t be all that bad, especially when compared to the minor inconveniences that Bruno has suffered.

***Skip this paragraph if you hate spoilers***

However, this is a Holocaust book, and as such, it certainly does not have a happy ending. Bruno learns that he is to go back home and as a farewell to Shmuel, agrees to help him search the camp for his missing father. They are collected up by the soldiers and marched into the gas chamber and both boys die. The last chapter of the book explores Bruno’s mysterious absence and the father’s chilling realization of what must have happened.

There goes my hope for a story that showed grit and determination in the face of a bad situation.

***End of spoilers***

My review

There are many who applaud this book as a gentle way of teaching children about the Holocaust and expose them to the history of the era. In that aspect, it does a fair job at teaching the basics and some of the ideas of what happened without diving into specifics. In essence, it’s a sanitized and simplified version of history.

For me, this book feels like if Winnie the Pooh were to be a German child in Nazi Germany. All of Bruno’s reactions are realistic to a young child where his immediate worries come first, and the rest of the world come in a very distant second. There is a beauty in seeing the world this way and for that I feel Boyne’s choice in writing style fits well.

However, there is so much about this book that bothers me, like never stating the truth of what’s happening. At every instance where it could have been an educational moment, Boyne pulls back. Bruno is told the correct words for things, but we never see the words themselves, and Bruno himself doesn’t use them because he doesn’t understand them. For example, instead of Führer he always refers to Hitler as “the fury.” Auschwitz is never named, and it’s purpose is only briefly touched on in a very childlike way.

Is the writing unique and interesting? Yes. Does the main character feel realistic and engaging? Yes. Does this book give an accurate sense of history? No. As the son of a high-ranking Nazi, Bruno would have been required to be part of Hitler’s Youth and would have been well educated about what was going on and why. Would he have understood what it actually meant? Probably not. This is a far cry from how Bruno is portrayed as being an innocent young boy. Shmuel in essence was just a hungry belly who Bruno could talk to. We see little more than him responding to Bruno’s endless questions and comments. In reality, Shmuel wouldn’t have been alive. Most young boys his age were sent straight to the gas chambers.

My recommendations

If you have a child who is interested in the Holocaust, but you want to introduce the ideas to them slowly, this book is a good pick because it doesn’t dwell on any of the uglyness and cruelty of the time period. It is an easy read, fairly short, and moves quickly enough so most readers won’t get bored. It is also available in audiobook with an excellent narration.

As an adult who has read a fair share of Holocaust books, this wasn’t as fulfulling as I’d hoped it would be. I wanted a story of survival against the odds or of good overcoming evil and got neither. Instead, I got a tragic story of a young boy who met an early end because he chose to be a good friend.

I rate The Boy in the Striped Pajamas 3/5

You can find The Boy in the Striped Pajamas on Amazon

Don’t miss it!

Stonebearer’s Apprentice comes out this Friday! Squee! It’s been a wild ride to get here and early readers have loved it. Even better, it has a happy ending.

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Book Review: Book Thief, by Marcus Zuzak

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Asking an author which book is their favorite is a complicated question. There are books that keep us on the edge of our seats, or tease us with amazingly constructed story lines. There are those that fill us with a sense of wonder and those that light a creative spark. There are those which are tender and beautiful and make us cry.

Then, there are those books that have such a uniqueness to them they don’t quite fit anywhere else. That’s where the Book Thief falls for me. It balances tender with tension and beautiful prose with a touch of snark.

And it ranks in the top five books I’ve ever read.

About the story:

This is a holocaust book. But – don’t despair. The purpose of the book isn’t to showcase the horrors of that time period, but rather to give voice to a girl who lived it and how the books she stole made it possible to survive. What’s interesting and makes this book very different is that it’s told through the eyes of a rather unusual narrator – death.

Liesel Meminger steals her first book at the graveside service for her brother and carries it with her to her new home and foster parents, the Hubermann’s. Death has been watching her, as he does all people he finds interesting, and chooses to share the different scenes he’s witnessed of her life through the eternal lens of his own experience. The book is what seals her love for her foster father, Hans, as he uses it to help her cope with the nightmares that haunt her and teaches her from it.

It is this book and these late night teaching sessions that starts the embers glowing of what will turn into a fire within Liesel for the written word. All the while, World War II is tearing the country apart. The Hubermann’s must protect the son of a family friend by hiding him in their basement at great personal risk.

Liesel takes special interest in him and shares the one thing she has, her love of words. First, by sharing with him what the day is like outside, then by sneaking him newspapers, then by reading and writing their own books together.

I won’t ruin the ending for you by telling what happens, suffice it to say that it is a survival story, and Liesel survives.

Recommendations:

I recommend this book to anyone who loves expert level wordsmithing. The lyric nature of the prose is gorgeous and surprising in all the right ways. Also, it’s a strong historical fiction as well and portrays Nazi Germany in a very realistic and unsensational manner. Because of it’s unique narrator and style, it should also appeal to those who appreciate non conventional stories.

I would not recommend this for people who prefer clear and direct language in their stories. This book borders on poetry at times and often veils the truth with metaphor, or pulls back into the point of view of death and away from Liesel’s experience. It’s also a long book, so it might be harder work to get through because of how language is used.

I give Marcus Zuzak’s The Book Thief 5 stars.

Psst! Jodi here. Did you enjoy today’s review? Did it help you decide if this book was for you? Cool, eh?

Guess what? You can do the same for me. If you’ve read any of my books, head on over to Amazon, Goodreads, or the book site of your choice and leave me a review.

It doesn’t have to be big and long like this one – a few sentences is perfect! Thanks in advance!

Holy Smokes, FanX is this week! If you are coming to the the conference, come find me at the following panels on Thursday: