Well, Kellie, Lindsay and I were surprised to find ourselves the only 3 at book club this Friday. But, we enjoyed the small group and had a long and lively discussion. We all loved the book. Kellie and Lindsay rated it a 5. I rated it a 4.5 …I’m never that generous with my ratings😊 Since those of you who didn’t come didn’t write in with any comments or ratings on the book, I’m not sure who read it. It is a story about a woman who is an expert at preserving books and researching/dating/exploring the various things that are found in old books (blood drops, wine stains, etc.) The book she is asked to preserve is a particular Haggadah (a Jewish book that tells about the Passover). This Haggadah dates back to the 1400’s and is an actual book housed in Sarajevo today. It is a curiosity because it has illustrations. However, in the 1400’s the Jews considered illustrations in a sacred text to break the 2nd Commandment of not having any idols. The storyalternates between Hannah – the book preserver in modern time, and older times. Each chapter set at an earlier date describes a particular time period and the lives of the people who owned/created the book. The dates range from the 1400’s up through WW2 and give a mini history of the book during that time. I am not by any means doing the book justice but it is hard to describe. Most of the stories about the “people of the book” are tragic, but really interesting. It was a very unique way to tell a story, and we appreciated the author’s writing, her creativity, the contents of the stories, and just about everything about the book!
Sunday, June 12, 2016
The Nightingale - Review by Pat
For our May meeting, we met and reviewed The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah. With five of us at the meeting, we all were of the consensus that it was an easy read and everyone thoroughly enjoyed the book. The overall ratings ranged from 4 to 4.5 with an average of 4.35. All of us in attendance agreed that when we compared this book with the other World War II books we have read recently at book club (The Book Thief and All The Light We Cannot See), we felt that Hannah’s writing style was not as eloquently written but the overall plot and character development was intriguing and well executed.
The Nightingale is the story of two sisters, Vianne and Isabelle, each with their own unique personalities that come into play with how they deal with surviving World War II. The story begins with the narrator, Vianne, recanting her life story of the war beginning in France, 1939 and the reader doesn’t know until the end of the story which sister is the narrator. This is one of the many twists and turns that the reader encounters throughout the book.
The sisters have opposite personalities as well as a significant age difference between the two of them. Isabelle is eighteen, rebellious and reckless, and she joins the Resistance to save numerous lives in her quest to fight the Nazi’s. Vianne, is older with a passive personality, however, as the story progresses, she becomes braver and assumes an active role in saving her best friends son as well as saving the lives of Jewish children. Our book club decided each sister was equally heroic based on the circumstances and the decisions each of them had to deal with during the war. Vianne had her children, Sophie and Ari, to protect and we all agreed that she had to assume a more cautious role in order for her family to survive.
Each of the sisters had their own love stories and the book follows their strength, endurance and courage during this dark period of their lives. The book had some brutal scenes with starvation, rape, torture, and prison camps – just what you expect when reading about World War II. The story does a good job of portraying the strength both of these women exhibited and what they had to sacrifice in order to survive.
The biggest disappointment we had about the book was the ending where Isabelle died in Gaetan’s arms which we felt was a little contrived and unrealistic. We did like the reunion scene at the end of the book where Vianne reconnects with Gaetan and Ari. In summary, this book gets a solid “thumbs up” as a really great read.
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