A Multiple Book Post

 

Parking Lot Natural Art (Naomi's Photos)
Parking Lot Natural Art
(Naomi’s Photos)

I haven’t been posting about books for a while due to my “Who Were You, Dora? Saturday’s Mystery” Series ,but I have been reading. Here’s a quick overview:

  1. “The Lost – A Search for Six of Six Million” by Daniel Mendelsohn
  2.  “Death in Venice” by Thomas Mann
  3. “Dreams from my Father” by Barack Obama
  4. “Orphan Train” by Christina Baker Kline

It’s easy to see a connection to my recent interest in geneology. The book by Mendelsohn seems the most obvious connection. It’s true detective work to find out what became of people who perished in the Holocaust so long ago, gathering information from four different continents and putting together the pieces (fragments!) of the puzzle. I could have done with a bit less of philosophy but I found the book fascinating.  I think it’s a great read even if you aren’t interested in geneoolgy, but since I’m biased I suppose I can’t really tell…

Obama’s memoir was written long before he became president, in fact even before he became a senator. No ghost writer there – he can write! Different but not so different from the previous book.  I enjoyed the parts where he wrote about the family members and the relevant history the most. Once again, I had less patience for the philosophical aspects.

Orphan Train is very readable. I found large parts of it (not the last bit) to be very believable. I was most interested in the story of the older woman, the Irish immigrant orphan – once again I’m drawn to a certain time period… The ending is a bit too pat for me. Real life is stranger than fiction anyway.

Thomas Mann’s book has nothing to do with geneology. My husband has read a lot of European classics and from time to time I pause and fill in what we call “holes” in my education. I could see why it was a classic and there certainly was what to discuss after I read it but I have no desire to read anything else by Mann… I much preferred my husband’s reccomendation “The day lasts more than a hundred years” by Aitmatov, for example.

Next week I’ll catch up to what I’m reading at the moment!

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