The German Suitcase

by Greg Dinallo

I loved this book.  The story is told in two different time periods ~ present day and 1944.  In present day an advertising firm gets a hold of an old German suitcase that was sitting on the curb with the garbage.  They decide to use the suitcase in an ad campaign and try to locate the owner.

In WWII Germany we learn about the people who owned the suitcase and the events of their lives.  At one point it belongs to an SS officer and later to a Jewish medical student on the run from the SS and Gestapo.

There's a bit of mystery that easily figured but I think that was the author's intention.  I don't usually figure out mysteries so I was a little surprised that it was so easy but by the time I figured it out there was the tension of what might happen to that character if I was right.  The author created a greater concern for the reader than solving the mystery.

I learned more about the evils of the Nazi regime and the atrocities they carried out.  At the same time I learned more of the Jewish culture and I enjoyed that part.  This book relieves the horrific by switching back and forth between time periods and stories.  I appreciated that because it gave me time to contemplate and to catch my breath.  There were times when the scene shifted and I didn't want it to because I wanted to find out what was going to happen next, but I prefer books that tell more than one story at a time that are connected in some way.

The German Suitcase reminds me that I can't make broad generalizations about people or circumstances.  I need that reminder on a regular basis.  Sometimes, as humans, we think we can sum up a person's motives in a single, overreaching judgement.  People are complex and so are their lives. I'm working at righting my grandfather's history and I have to be so careful to not draw conclusions but to just report events and hope they let those who read about him to feel his humanity, his time period, and his struggles.  I hope I never say that he did this because of that.  The only ones who know that is him and God.   Kind of wandered away from the book, but that is one insight the book provided me.

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in history, WWII, or a well-written and intriguing book.

Speaking From Among the Bones

by Alan Bradley

I have heard and read many good things about the Flavia de Luce series.  Enough so that I bought the first three books but, alas, they set on my bookshelf unread.

That is one of the problems with accepting galleys to read ~ I always feel pressed to read the next in line so I don't pick up and read the lovely books languishing on my shelves.  I suppose if I was a faster reader I could do both.  Or if I didn't get so wrapped up in quilting, genealogy, or gardening then I would be able to read more.  The only plausible solution is to sleep less but then I would be miserable as would be those who had to live with me.

When Netgalley offered book four in this series I requested it.  Not the ideal situation ~ to read book 4 first but I thought it would provide the push I need to fall head over heels in love with this series so that I could not wait to go back and indulge in the earlier three.  Unfortunately, that didn't happen.

I was not prepared for a 12-yr-old heroine or the fact that these read like Young Adult fare.  I was not captivated enough to want to read when I could be working on my beautiful quilt.  I probably would have quit after 20 or 40 or 60 pages if it wasn't for the good reviews I had read on the earlier books.  Somewhere along the line I became intrigued but still didn't carve out time to read very often.  By the end I decided it was an okay book and I had grown quite fond of Favia.  And there was an interesting bombshell right at the end that makes me want to read book five in the future but I'm really not crazy about this series.  Since I own the other books I suspect I will get around to reading them someday but I don't feel compelled to get to them sooner than later.

I highlighted a few good passages.  This one from our young Heroine who is precocious and a budding chemist.

I had found by experience that putting things down on paper helped to clear the mind in precisely the same way, as Mrs. Mullet had taught me, that an eggshell clarifies the consomme or coffee, which, of course, is a simple matter of chemistry.  The albumin contained in the eggshell has the property of collecting and binding the rubbish that floats in the dark liquid, which can then be removed and discarded in a single reeking clot: a perfect description of the writing process.

Wouldn't those be fun sentences to diagram?!  Another quote from Flavia.

Antigone smiled at me like a Madonna who had just had a foot massage.

I do love the covers and they look quite nice stacked on top of each other just across the room from where I sit at my computer.  The first, The sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, is green.  The next yellow and the third is a pretty purple.  And the last is blue.  I may take them to the quilt store and see if I can find those pretty colors in fabric.

This book will be available in bookstores on Jan 29.

The Secret Keeper

by Kate Morton

I wish I would write my reviews as soon as I finish a book.  It would sure make things easier.

This write-up is from the author's website.
1961: On a sweltering summer's day, while 

her family picnics by the stream on their
Suffolk farm, sixteen-year-old Laurel hides out
in her childhood tree house dreaming of a boy
called Billy, a move to London, and the bright
future she can't wait to seize. But before the
idyllic afternoon is over, Laurel will have witnessed
a shocking crime that changes everything.

2011: Now a much-loved actress, Laurel finds herself overwhelmed by shades of the past. Haunted by memories, and the mystery of what she saw that day, she returns to her family home and begins to piece together a secret history. A tale of three strangers from vastly different worlds--Dorothy, Vivien and Jimmy--who are brought together by chance in wartime London and whose lives become fiercely and fatally entwined...

The Secret Keeper was my favorite read of the year.  I loved it and look forward to discovering other books by Kate Morton.  There was a healthy dose of mystery with sufficient twists and turns to keep the excitement bubbling. 

Have you read a book by Morton that you highly recommend for my next read? 

The Genealogist's Internet

by Peter Christian

I was hoping this book would help me in finding birth, death, divorce, etc. records for some of my ancestors.  It didn't, but it did explain why these records cost us money to get a copy.  We help pay salaries of workers who put them in digital form and for the upkeep of these records.  I know scanning is a tedious job so now I don't mind paying the fee.

Christian offers some valuable internet sites for those working on American or British Isles research, but not so much for other countries. 

Mathematics Minus Fear

Mathematics Minus Fear: How to Make Math Fun and Beneficial to Your Everyday Life 

by Lawrence Potter

This is the 2nd nonfiction book I've read about Math this year.  Does that qualify me as a true geek?  If so, I'm okay with that.

The title of this book is a little miss leading.  I don't think reading it will help anyone who has a fear of math.  I thought it had some interesting historical facts about math.  In ancient times  (I'm not just sure how ancient) the technique for working out 'long multiplications' was to create a grid called 'gelosia' , after the grills which were placed over the windows of houses where nuns or chaste women lived.  Writing that made me realize that the interesting part was the connection to math but that grids over the windows indicated the home of nuns or chaste women.  

There were some fun riddles and math problems sprinkled throughout the book that might prove fun for a math teacher to present to the students.  'As far as how to make math fun or beneficial to your everyday life'  I don't think this book succeeded.