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4.01 AVERAGE
4.01 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Germany 1933.
Althea is an American novelist who has been invited to Germany by Joseph Goebbels to participate in a cultural exchange. What begins as a glittering, exciting experience, turns sour as she learns what is happening behind the facade.
Paris 1936.
Hannah has fled Germany to France. Everything she loved has been left behind. Now she works at the German Library of Burned Books where she hopes that reason will prevail against the encroaching Nazi sentiment.
New York 1944.
Viv, a war widow, has thrown herself into the Armed Services Editions program. The program is focused on getting books in to the hands of American soldiers. The program is being hamstrung by Senator Taft though, and now Viv is desperately trying to rally public support to save the program.
As the narrative moves between the three timelines, we begin to see how they all connect. This was a good book with great moments.
Althea is an American novelist who has been invited to Germany by Joseph Goebbels to participate in a cultural exchange. What begins as a glittering, exciting experience, turns sour as she learns what is happening behind the facade.
Paris 1936.
Hannah has fled Germany to France. Everything she loved has been left behind. Now she works at the German Library of Burned Books where she hopes that reason will prevail against the encroaching Nazi sentiment.
New York 1944.
Viv, a war widow, has thrown herself into the Armed Services Editions program. The program is focused on getting books in to the hands of American soldiers. The program is being hamstrung by Senator Taft though, and now Viv is desperately trying to rally public support to save the program.
As the narrative moves between the three timelines, we begin to see how they all connect. This was a good book with great moments.
I tend to shy away from books about the holocaust. I always have attributed that to having an unhealthy obsession with The Diary of Anne Frank as a kid. Side note I chose to be Anne Frank in my school's wax museum and looking back something about me doing that at the age of 7 feels wrong but also explains so much about myself.
Childhood trauma aside I really liked this book. Something about it evoked 2 specific emotions, one that embodied waking up and choosing violence and another that made me question my SSRI dosage.
Childhood trauma aside I really liked this book. Something about it evoked 2 specific emotions, one that embodied waking up and choosing violence and another that made me question my SSRI dosage.
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This WWII story is told from three perspectives (Althea, Viv, and Hannah). I enjoyed each of their story lines and how they wove together. I highly recommend this book. I’m happy and thankful that The Librarian of Burned Books was featured on the Book Club Girl Facebook page so I could find out about it and read it for free.
I listened to the audiobook and it was really terrific. Jumping around WWII we know 3 direct characters and see how they experienced the war.
I LOVED this book! At first, I was skeptical it would be a sub-par historical fiction with three very separate story lines. However, I fell in love with learning about the ASE program during WWII and the impacts it had on troop morale. I found the stories of Althea, Hannah, and Viv to wind together beautifully. This novel had SO MANY beautiful quotes about the power of books that pulled on my heartstrings. I connected so much with these bookish characters. The parallels regarding censorship in literature during the time period is very mirrored in the world right now. The way each character uniquely expresses their experience in the final scenes is just *chef's kiss*. Ultimately, this book (though bleak due to it's time period) left me full of hope and happiness. The idea that books are fun, and cannot be erased just because we don't like them or disagree with the story is still so important today. ALSO, the author's note where she said she wanted to write a book that had LGBTQ joy when it so often surrounded by pain and trauma opened my eyes to this narrative. It made me fall in love with this story even more. This review does not do justice to how lovely this book is. A must read!!!
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Light on content and research (like a character in WWII referring to "Romantasy" books), and heavy on agenda. Misses the mark on the story telling by trying to hard to make a statement.
emotional
hopeful
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
“Books are a way we leave a mark on the world, aren’t they? They say we were here, we loved and we grieved and we laughed and we made mistakes and we existed.”
Maybe it was because of how much this book resonated with me in regard to the current state of our world, but I was pleasantly surprised by how much I loved the story. I don’t normally gravitate towards books about World War 2; however, with the story focusing on characters who were fighting for the protection of knowledge and against the censorship and erasure of stories just because they didn’t fit “your” narrative kept me thoroughly engaged.
“Burning books about things you do not like or understand does not mean those things no longer exist.”
“When they burn books, they will also ultimately burn people.”
I loved that the three POVs were from three women up against powerful men, refusing to accept the world for the way things were. My interpretation of the timelines for the three women are the different ways someone deals with injustices. Althea was the representation of believing the propaganda, which ultimately made her complicit to the atrocities being done in Germany. Her POV follows her journey of finally seeing the truth and taking small actions. Hannah’s POV represented the fear around taking action, especially once there was loss associated with the political turmoil. Viv was the image of running head on and taking action regardless of the consequences. When she hit road blocks, she continued looking for solutions and never gave up.
“It is not failure we should fear but inaction.”
And of course, the biggest meaning I got from this book, when correlating it to our current world state, was that history can so easily repeat itself. Through inaction, fear, propaganda, and fallacy, we are recreating a timeline that we should be looking back on and finding ways to avoid it. It was actually quite scary reading some of the situations in the book that represented actual events and actions taken place during the Nazi regime and seeing the distinct similarities that are showing up in our world (particularly with the US). We need to learn from history, not repeat it.
“The time and distance that came with history had a way of letting people forget.”
I think this book also highlights the hope and change that comes with perseverance and action. Even when you’re scared, taking a step towards something that is right will ultimately make a difference. The change may only be small, but it could be the catalyst for something bigger to shift, the ripple to encourage others to do the same.
“Even in the darkest days, in their deepest grief, at their most exhausted, humans found a way to create moments that were so fundamentally hopeful that they couldn’t help but inspire you to take one more step forward. And then one more.”
“History is built on moments that feel insignificant”…”And so in every moment you must ask yourself: Do you want to be the ones handing out the gasoline cans? Or the ones trying to put out the fire.”
This book was a book chosen in our bookclub, and I’m so glad I gave it a try. I love sharing the joy of reading, whether it’s to talk about the story among friends or to find these gems that resonate so deeply within yourself.
I’ll end this review on this note. We need to watch what is happening in our world. Look for the signs of manipulation, for the feelings of fear and hatred that are being indoctrinated into us by those in power. We can’t change the harm that has been done, but we can learn from those mistakes from our past and build a future that is safe and equal for everyone.
“I have had that dubious privilege and I can tell you that it comes not as a rebel shout, but as a sly whisper. The cracks creep in, insidious as anything I’ve ever seen. It can start with rumblings about an unreliable press and rumours about political enemies that will threaten your family, your children. It can deepen with each disdainful remark about science and art and literature in a pub on a Friday night. It comes cloaked in patriotism and love of country, and uses that as armour against any criticism.”
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated