Thursday, August 27, 2015

The Nightingale
By Kristin Hannah

It's World War II, and French sisters Isabelle and Vianne have different ideas of how they want to get through it.

Vianne hopes to be as normal as possible while raising her daughter and waiting for her husband to return from the war. That hope is dashed when a Nazi soldier moves into her home.

Isabelle wants to do something -- anything -- to contribute to the war effort. She offers to drive an ambulance, roll bandages ... anything. She ends up being one of the bravest people -- man or woman -- in Occupied France and contributing to the effort in ways she's couldn't have imagined when it started.

Even Vianne ends up doing things she never imagined -- heroic, brave, necessary.

When I interviewed Kristin Hannah she said she wanted to not only show that women played an important part in the war, but to make readers feel what they felt.

She succeeded.

You can hear my interview with Kristin Hannah at WESB.com/on-demand.

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Friday, August 14, 2015

Pulitzer Prize Winner Speaks at Chautauqua

Pulitzer Prize winning author Anthony Doerr (All the Light We Cannot See)spoke today at Chautauqua Institution. He is a wonderful speaker and a gracious book-signer.

As for my review of the book ...

All books are meant to be read. Some are meant to be savored. "All the Light We Cannot See" is one of those rare books that I didn't want to rush through, although I loved the main characters and wanted to find out what happened to them. I wanted to enjoy every phrase, every metaphor, every brilliant description. This book is a masterpiece in the way it's written and researched, and also for putting the reader directly into the action, whether it be in occupied France, a German orphan's home, a museum in Paris or a training school for Hitler Youth.

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