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  1. #1
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    Default What book are you reading now

    Two Lives - Vikram Seth

    I love books about India, (espeically the British Raj) although this book isn't about India, specifically. I'm terrible at writting reviews, so I'll just past this one - from Amazon of course, third on down, I think.


    As I was reading this book I kept thinking what a fascinating (if misleading) cultural document it would make for future generations: the coming together in friendship and marriage of a Hindu from India and a Jew from Berlin . . . in England! And their nephew, years later, retelling not only their story but his own, which spans continents and cultures as if space and language were not barriers. One could get a wonderfully misleading idea of how world-traveled and multi-cultured the average 20th-century citizen was! --But that's not really the point here, just a (to me) fascinating sidelight.

    Readers of Vikram Seth will immediately recognize the clear, balanced, always kind attitude in the writing. Seth takes the interesting approach of telling his own connection with the characters first, so you meet his uncle Shanti and aunt Henny as middle-aged and old people -- and follow them to their deaths before you learn very much about what brought them together or how they wound up in London as husband and wife. It's amazing that this works as well as it does -- instead of being less interested in them, you find yourself anxious to know how Shanti lost his arm, how Henny escaped from Germany on the eve of Word War II, and how they fell in love and came together.

    Each story is told in turn -- Shanti's first, then Henny's, and it is another amazing feat of writing that this doesn't become repetitive or confusing. You are carried from India to Berlin to Edinburgh to Italy to London with Shanti, incidentally learning a lot about dentistry along the way (readers of A SUITABLE BOY will smile and settle in, remembering the long discourse on shoemaking in that novel!). Then you are carried, less directly, from Berlin to England with Henny, but the real force of her story (she died before Seth began the writing project, so he never interviewed her directly in the way he did his uncle) comes in letters from her old Berlin "set" after the war. This is an intriguing story, and makes me wonder why we haven't had a flood of novels and memoirs on the topic before (perhaps we have, and I'm just ignorant of them). Henny, whose sister and mother were unable to leave Germany and perished in the death camps, slowly gets into contact with old Christian and Jewish friends still in Germany and learns piecemeal from them how they managed in the war -- who risked life to visit and bring supplies to her sister and mother in the final days before deportation, who disappeared into the cloud of Nazism, dropping old friends, who straddled the awkward line between assimilation and rebellion. We learn of the compromises everyone made, the choices they regretted and the risks they wished they had and hadn't taken. It's a fascinating glimpse into the minds of ordinary Germans after the war -- all couched in the terms of everyday life, from despair over a stolen cachet of clothing to embarrassment at the gratitude of elderly beggars when they are given just a crust of bread to cold toes in old shoes -- the stuff of life in those terrible years. Henny, safe in England, is filled with sadness and fury, and feels she must "cut" those friends whom she learns were not as kind as they should have been during the war, no matter their friendliness afterwards. She also reconnects with the fiance who buried the Jewish half of his ancestry and married a Christian girl while Henny presumably waited for him abroad.

    I've already given away too much, but this is the kind of book you yearn to sit down and dissect with good friends. It's rich in detail (you will never forget the account of the Birkenau gas chamber), good-hearted, and important, not only for its wealth of historical and biographical information but for a glimpse into the lives of people who traveled continents, making friends and connections along the way, appreciating the differences among religions, cultures, literature, and music without championing any above the others, and living full and well-considered lives. I highly, highly recommend it.
    ]

    http://www.amazon.com/Two-Lives-Vikr.../dp/0060599669
    Excellent non-fiction.

  2. #2
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    Playboy! That's a book, right?


    .....j/k
    UNITED STATES ARMY AVIATION




    Above the Best



    Why the Hell should I have to press “1” for ENGLISH?

  3. Likes Drummond liked this post
  4. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mr. P View Post
    Playboy! That's a book, right?


    .....j/k
    How dare you make a mockery out of my thread. It's to be pretentious as possible at all times.

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    Default

    I just finished Elizabeth Wurtzels Prozac Nation.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prozac_Nation

    Really good book.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Obama08 View Post
    I just finished Elizabeth Wurtzels Prozac Nation.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prozac_Nation

    Really good book.
    Liz did one helluva job on Prozac Nation. Her other books that I've read are More, Now, Again and Bitch. I wasn't too impressed with either, although More, Now, Again was captivating to read (like watching a train wreck).
    “Liberalism is totalitarianism with a human face” - Thomas Sowell

    “What "multiculturalism" boils down to is that you can praise any culture in the world except Western culture - and you cannot blame any culture in the world except Western culture” - Thomas Sowell

  7. #6
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    I like to switch between fiction & non-fiction, so:

    Death In Vienna- Daniel Silva (his whole series about Mossad assassin Gabriel Allon is fun)
    Culture Warrior - Bill O'Reilly
    After the game, the king and the pawn go into the same box - Author unknown

    “Unfortunately, the truth is now whatever the media say it is”
    -Abbey

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  9. #8
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    Default ..............

    I have three of them I am working on. The Art of the Deal ~ Donald Trump, Carolyn 101 ~ Carolyn Kepcher, You're Hired ~ Bill Rancic and of course my two catalogs I get Crutchfield ~ They have everything for personal entertainment from Car Audio, Home Theater, I-Pods, Satellite Radio, Marine Audio, Navagation Systems, Portable DVD Players, Mobile Video, Radar Detectors and a lot more. They have good deals sometimes, but I just like getting their new catalog every five weeks or so just to see all the new technology and they also have great tips. You can goto www.crutchfield.com and check it out or request a free catalog and they send you a new one everytime one comes out, that will satisfy your guy needs lol. The Second catalog is Galls. They have everything for First Responders, Emt's Police, Military Security, Water Rescue etc. They sell gear and supplies and have some great knifes. Youo can request their free catalog at www.galls.com

    If you attack the Clintons publically make sure all your friends know your not planning on commiting suicide ~ McCain 2008
    Happiness is Obama's picture on the back of a milk carton.

  10. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by 5stringJeff View Post
    How did I miss this thread?!?!?

    I'm reading Martin Van Buren and the Romantic Age of American Politics.
    Let m know how that is. Next in my batting lineup are two biographies of Alexander Hamilton.
    After the game, the king and the pawn go into the same box - Author unknown

    “Unfortunately, the truth is now whatever the media say it is”
    -Abbey

  11. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by Abbey View Post
    Let m know how that is. Next in my batting lineup are two biographies of Alexander Hamilton.
    I'm enjoying it so far. I'm reading through the "definitive" bios of all the Presidents through Reagan.

  12. #11
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    Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
    Blessed be Your name, when the sun's shining down on me, when the world's "all as it should be," blessed be Your name!
    Blessed be Your name on the road marked with suffering, though there's pain in the offering, blessed be Your name!
    Every blessing You pour out I'll turn back to praise. When the darkness closes in, Lord, still I will say...
    Blessed be the name of the Lord!
    Blessed be Your name!

  13. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by Nienna View Post
    Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
    Damn girl, it's nice to see you!!!!!!!!!!!

    I thought you may have been sucked into cyberspace!
    UNITED STATES ARMY AVIATION




    Above the Best



    Why the Hell should I have to press “1” for ENGLISH?

  14. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mr. P View Post
    Damn girl, it's nice to see you!!!!!!!!!!!

    I thought you may have been sucked into cyberspace!
    Dittos on what P said.

    Reading, Great Expectationsfor the I don't know how many times. Going to be 'teaching it' next year.

  15. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by Kathianne View Post
    Dittos on what P said.

    Reading, Great Expectationsfor the I don't know how many times. Going to be 'teaching it' next year.
    lol... It was actually a parallel universe-- a different life with all the same characters as my life, but in which everyone acted in strange and surreal ways. I'll let you know when I return for real.

    Great Expectations... good book, if you read the cliff's notes only.
    Blessed be Your name, when the sun's shining down on me, when the world's "all as it should be," blessed be Your name!
    Blessed be Your name on the road marked with suffering, though there's pain in the offering, blessed be Your name!
    Every blessing You pour out I'll turn back to praise. When the darkness closes in, Lord, still I will say...
    Blessed be the name of the Lord!
    Blessed be Your name!

  16. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by Nienna View Post
    lol... It was actually a parallel universe-- a different life with all the same characters as my life, but in which everyone acted in strange and surreal ways. I'll let you know when I return for real.

    Great Expectations... good book, if you read the cliff's notes only.
    Luckily for me, I enjoy Dickens. I will look at the Cliffnotes afterwards though, for ideas on quiz/test questions. I tend to be too 'historical' for 7th graders.

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