March was the month of the Nonfiction!
Normally I feel like I tend to go more towards fiction novels, but I have to say I have absolutely LOVED the nonfiction I've read this month!
It started with A Grief Observed by CS Lewis. This was actually recommended to me by one of my closest friends. Near the end of February a good friend of my good friends passed away. He was merely an acquaintance to me, but I was still absolutely shocked and still saddened. I never know how I will react to death. In this case I could feel old emotions of anger and that overwhelming sense of "why?" coming up. This book was recommended to me actually by a friend who was really close to the guy who passed away. I trust her recommendations about pretty much anything and this was a good book in this circumstance. It basically follows Lewis as he loses his wife and deals with his own grief, anger, and confusion toward life and especially God. Through it it made me realize how selfish my emotions are relating to not just this death, but just death in general. It helped me reach a better understanding and peace. I don't doubt that next time I experience death I will probably pick this book back up for a quick read (and it really is pretty quick!)
Next was The Monuments Men by Robert Edsel. This was another book that was made into a movie this year. I've always really liked learning about WW2 and thought this sounded great! It is a perspective that I have NEVER heard or thought about before. It surrounds a group of unlikely war heroes who use their background in art history and art restoration to go find, protect, and restore art that either has been stolen by the Nazi Party (who knew Hitler was such an art buff!) or may have been in threat of being ruined just by he movement of troops.
Apparently The Monuments Men didn't fill all the WW2 books for the month. My book club this month decided to read The Nazi Officer's Wife by Edith Beer. Another true story about a woman's journey during WW2. This was also a perspective I had never heard as it was a Jewish woman who goes undercover basically pretending to be her Christian friend. Edith goes to a work camp and you learn about what that experience was like, before returning home, going undercover and moving to a new country, meeting a man who is a Nazi and actually is attracted to the fact Edith is lying about her whole story and marries her. As much as I feel for Edith's fear and paranoia that her real identity could be found at any time, I also found myself feeling a bit of disdain at the fact that other Jews were in hiding and not able to go outside, or at concentration camps, while this woman ends up essentially rising to a place of respect by being a Nazi Officer's wife and mother of his baby. There were some confusing feelings in this book for sure, but overall it was still really good.
Lastly I read Out of Africa and Shadows on the Grass Isak Dinesen. Technically 2 books, although Shadows on the Grass was much shorter and was basically a call back to Out of Africa. It followed Karen Blixen (the author's real name) through many of her years in Africa. Karen was a Danish woman who moved to Africa to start a coffee plantation in 1913 and lived there until about 1931. She talks about her struggles, some of her hunts, but more than anything her interactions with the natives. It was a cool perspective, again-that I hadn't really heard before.
Another successful month of reading. Starting to get to the point where I'm going to need more recommendations from friends and do more searching to find what books I want to read next!
Books Read in 2014:
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Wild by Cheryl Strayed
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Burned by Ellen Hopkins
Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
A Grief Observed by CS Lewis
The Monument Men by Robert Edsel
The Nazi Officer's Wife by Edith Beer
Out of Africa and Shadows on the Grass Isak Dinesen
Normally I feel like I tend to go more towards fiction novels, but I have to say I have absolutely LOVED the nonfiction I've read this month!
It started with A Grief Observed by CS Lewis. This was actually recommended to me by one of my closest friends. Near the end of February a good friend of my good friends passed away. He was merely an acquaintance to me, but I was still absolutely shocked and still saddened. I never know how I will react to death. In this case I could feel old emotions of anger and that overwhelming sense of "why?" coming up. This book was recommended to me actually by a friend who was really close to the guy who passed away. I trust her recommendations about pretty much anything and this was a good book in this circumstance. It basically follows Lewis as he loses his wife and deals with his own grief, anger, and confusion toward life and especially God. Through it it made me realize how selfish my emotions are relating to not just this death, but just death in general. It helped me reach a better understanding and peace. I don't doubt that next time I experience death I will probably pick this book back up for a quick read (and it really is pretty quick!)
Next was The Monuments Men by Robert Edsel. This was another book that was made into a movie this year. I've always really liked learning about WW2 and thought this sounded great! It is a perspective that I have NEVER heard or thought about before. It surrounds a group of unlikely war heroes who use their background in art history and art restoration to go find, protect, and restore art that either has been stolen by the Nazi Party (who knew Hitler was such an art buff!) or may have been in threat of being ruined just by he movement of troops.
Apparently The Monuments Men didn't fill all the WW2 books for the month. My book club this month decided to read The Nazi Officer's Wife by Edith Beer. Another true story about a woman's journey during WW2. This was also a perspective I had never heard as it was a Jewish woman who goes undercover basically pretending to be her Christian friend. Edith goes to a work camp and you learn about what that experience was like, before returning home, going undercover and moving to a new country, meeting a man who is a Nazi and actually is attracted to the fact Edith is lying about her whole story and marries her. As much as I feel for Edith's fear and paranoia that her real identity could be found at any time, I also found myself feeling a bit of disdain at the fact that other Jews were in hiding and not able to go outside, or at concentration camps, while this woman ends up essentially rising to a place of respect by being a Nazi Officer's wife and mother of his baby. There were some confusing feelings in this book for sure, but overall it was still really good.
Lastly I read Out of Africa and Shadows on the Grass Isak Dinesen. Technically 2 books, although Shadows on the Grass was much shorter and was basically a call back to Out of Africa. It followed Karen Blixen (the author's real name) through many of her years in Africa. Karen was a Danish woman who moved to Africa to start a coffee plantation in 1913 and lived there until about 1931. She talks about her struggles, some of her hunts, but more than anything her interactions with the natives. It was a cool perspective, again-that I hadn't really heard before.
Another successful month of reading. Starting to get to the point where I'm going to need more recommendations from friends and do more searching to find what books I want to read next!
Books Read in 2014:
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Wild by Cheryl Strayed
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Burned by Ellen Hopkins
Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
A Grief Observed by CS Lewis
The Monument Men by Robert Edsel
The Nazi Officer's Wife by Edith Beer
Out of Africa and Shadows on the Grass Isak Dinesen
