Mailbox Monday -- August 31

I'm a bit exhausted from BBAW-related blog reading over the weekend, but I've found a few new blogs I'm going to start reading regularly (like I really need to add to the Google Reader subscriptions). So while I had trouble waking up this morning, The Girl was ecstatic because it's her first day of 4th grade. Boy, the time just flies by!!

Anyway, it's Mailbox Monday time again, and I only added 3 books to my shelves this week. I'm accepting very few review copies these days because I have enough books in my house already. (If you want to see what books other peeps bought, borrowed, or received in the mail, visit The Printed Page. And as always, a big thanks to Marcia for hosting.)

Here are my new books:

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

Serena managed to snag an ARC of this book, and since she's already pre-ordered a copy, she was nice enough to give it to me and my hubby. Thanks, Serena! I started it on the train this morning because I couldn't wait (and it's our book club's September selection), and now I can't wait for the work day to be over so I can pick up where I left off.

The Night Gardener by George Pelecanos

This book was sent to me by Drey. She kindly offered me her copy after I commented on her review. She made me curious about the creepy ending. Thanks, Drey!

Everything Sucks: Losing My Mind and Finding Myself in a High School Quest for Cool by Hannah Friedman

This is a review copy from the author. I'm really picky about memoirs, but this one sounded really interesting. We'll see.

What books did you welcome into your home recently?

Dirty Water by Mary-Ann Tirone Smith and Jere Smith

Tomorrow is the second meeting of our book club, which includes Serena, our husbands, and one of our co-workers. I realize now that I never talked about our first meeting in July, when we discussed The Hunger Games, but it was a great time. Everyone enjoyed the book, and we managed to get in a full two hours of discussion while eating chili, tortilla chips and cheese, and banana bread. (Interesting combination, but it was delicious.)

This time around, we read Dirty Water: A Red Sox Mystery by Mary-Ann Tirone Smith and Jere Smith (and we'll be having Boston-themed foods). Serena snagged a copy of this book at BEA for my husband, who's a huge Red Sox fan. I'm a sports widow (he's watching his Patriots play the Redskins as I type this), but as long as it doesn't bother him that I'd rather nap or read during the games, it won't bother me that he completely shuts out the rest of the world when his teams are on tv.

I'll admit I wasn't thrilled when his book was picked because it just didn't seem like my kind of book, but I'm glad I was willing to give it a try because I ended up enjoying it.

Dirty Water opens with the 2007 Red Sox finding a one-month-old baby in their clubhouse. The baby, nicknamed Baby Ted Williams, is fine, but the players soon learn that his mother, Cinthia Sanchez, is the woman who was found dead in the Back Bay fens. Strangely, an ESPN reporter receives a photo that supposedly shows the baby's mother, but the woman in the picture is not Cinthia Sanchez. Meanwhile, a minor league player for the Red Sox, Luis Sanseverra, claims that the women in the photo is his girlfriend, and he is distraught because she's supposedly back in Cuba and definitely not a mother. Enter David Ortiz, the beloved Red Sox player known as "Big Papi," who determines that Luis is Cuban -- not Dominican like everyone thought -- and he likely was kidnapped from his homeland and sent through a pipeline that brings talented Cuban baseball players to the United States.

Boston Homicide Detective First Grade Rocky Patel is put on the case because he's the best at what he does -- and the only one in the department unfazed about the Red Sox's involvement in the case. Patel and his partner, Sgt. Marty Flanagan, are complete opposites and make an interesting pair. The two are thrust into a complicated case involving a murder, a shady sports agent, illegal dealings in the realm of baseball recruiting, and a blogger who seems to know more about the case than they do.

While it's not necessary to know the Red Sox players to enjoy the book, I'm glad I pay attention when my husband talks sports. The mother-son writing team of Mary-Ann Tirone Smith and Jere Smith know baseball, and their love for the Red Sox and the city of Boston shines through in Dirty Water. I found myself missing my favorite city (I went to college in Boston) as I read the book. The plot was complex enough to hold my attention and keep me wondering, especially about the involvement of Baby Ted's family -- who seemed distraught by grief one minute and sketchy the next -- and I found myself fascinated by all the greed tied to "America's favorite pastime." (I know the book is fictional, but the greed is not.)

But what really impressed me about Dirty Water was the characters. I like how the Smiths used actual Red Sox players in the story, but the more I read, the more the Red Sox were pushed to the sidelines. Patel and Marty stole the show. Marty cracked me up, traveling to Los Angeles to learn more about the business dealings of the "superagent" and falling in lust with the agent's beautiful but equally shady receptionist. And I just loved Patel, a thoughtful, meditative family man whose way of speaking is out of place among the Boston accents.

At the end of each chapter, there is a post by Jay the blogger, whose main focus is the nightly Red Sox games and other baseball news. While the posts were interesting -- with Jay confronting disgruntled Yankees fans and revealing information about the murder case and the pipeline of Cuban players -- I didn't feel they were integral to the plot. But they didn't stop me from enjoying the book.

Dirty Water obviously is a must-read for die-hard Red Sox fans, but I think readers who enjoy a good mystery every now and then should give it a try as well.

Disclosure:  I received a free copy of Dirty Water at Book Expo America 2009.

Interview with Deborah Weed, author of The Luckiest Penny

I've had the chance to trade some e-mails with Deborah Weed, author of The Luckiest Penny. (Click here to read my review with The Girl.) She really cares about children and wants them to feel good about themselves, and it shows through when she talks about the book and related projects.

Deborah was kind enough to take time out of her busy schedule to be interviewed. The interview is on my Examiner page, and I hope you'll take some time read what she has to say.

[In unrelated news, I'm on a panel for the Book Blogger Appreciation Week awards. It's going to take me some time to read through all the nominees' posts, so if I'm scarce on the blogs for the next several days, you know why.]

The Luckiest Penny by Deborah Weed and Ernest Socolov

"Self worth has no price tag!" That's the message Deborah Weed wants children to take from her new book, The Luckiest Penny. With warm and vivid illustrations by Ernest Socolov that pop off the page, Weed tells the story of two 1943 pure copper pennies: Allister, a shiny penny who has spent his life all alone in a protective case, and Henry, a penny who has been on several adventures. While Allister sits pristine in his case, Henry has been in the garbage, in a roll with other pennies, and even in a washing machine.

The two pennies, despite their different lives, are content, though Henry feels a bit sorry for Allister. Both Allister and Henry end up on the auction block, and I bet you can guess who gets the highest bid!

After reading The Luckiest Penny with my daughter, she and I had a fun time answering the discussion questions in the back of the book. We talked about self-worth, the things in life that are most valuable, things that make us feel lucky, and about living life to the fullest. I thought it was cute when she told me that because I'm her mom, I think she's perfect even when she's not. And she said she felt the same way about me.

She was especially interested in reading the blurb in the back of the book about the 40 pure copper pennies minted in the U.S. in 1943 by mistake. They are missing the traditional zinc-coated belly, and this error means these pennies are worth tens of thousands of dollars. Now I'm sure you can guess what happened next. Yup, she grabbed her change container and spent the evening weeding through her pennies. She was a bit disappointed that her oldest penny is from 1951.

Weed's passion for getting children to understand that we all are special in our own way and we should never undervalue ourselves shines through in The Luckiest Penny. I highly recommend the story for youngsters. Even though The Girl is a bit old for the story, she really enjoyed it.

Here's what The Girl (age 9) had to say about the book in her own words (mind you, she was really tired from summer camp, but she still insisted on having her say):

The Luckiest Penny is about two pennies who each have a life. One doesn't mind getting dirty. One wanted to stay clean. I liked this book. I would recommend other people read this story.

Deborah and I have exchanged a few e-mails since she found me on Twitter, and she was kind enough to answer a few questions. Stay tuned for the interview!

Disclosure:  We received a free copy of The Luckiest Penny from the author for review purposes.


and

He Was My Chief by Christa Schroeder

Emilie Christine "Christa" Schroeder (1908-1984) was one of Adolf Hitler's secretaries from 1933, when he became Germany's chancellor, to 1945, the end of World War II. She was an accomplished stenotypist, even winning awards for her shorthand abilities. She became a secretary for the NSDAP (Nazi party) in 1930, officially joining the party to keep her job.

He Was My Chief: The Memoirs of Adolf Hitler's Secretary marks the first time that Schroeder's notes have been published in English. The book was first published in German (Er war mein Chef) in 1985, not long after her death. Schroeder asked Anton Joachimsthaler in 1982 to publish her notes. Joachimsthaler, a technical and historical writer, was an acquaintance of Schroeder's with whom she felt she could discuss her experiences, given that when they met, he was writing a book about a broad-gauge railway planned by Hitler. He complied with Schroeder's wishes to publish the book posthumously and included clarifications of certain events, as well as footnotes to provide more detailed information about people named in her notes.

Schroeder claimed to have had little interest in politics and to have known nothing about the Holocaust, and she provided few details about war strategies or Nazi policies. I found this hard to believe, given that she was so close to Hitler, having worked at the Reich Chancellery until 1939, traveled to various Führer headquarters during the war, and resided in Hitler's bunker in the Reich Chancellery until ordered to leave on April 20, 1945. (She hadn't even planned on leaving, trading whiskey for a cyanide capsule instead.)

However, in the introduction to He Was My Chief, historian Roger Moorhouse says Schroeder was responsible primarily for typing up speeches and daily correspondence that would not contain sensitive information. Also, Schroeder was so close to Hitler and his inner circle that she was isolated from the "real world" and unable to view the events of the war objectively. In fact, Schroeder's memoirs have a bitter tone to them, mainly when she mentions this isolation, how she had to be ready at a moment's notice to travel, and how she couldn't get time off to have a "real" life.

Much of her notes detail the teas, dinners, and other events she attended as Hitler's guest and recount her travels and extended stays in Führer headquarters. She provided details about Hitler's personality, his mannerisms, his mood swings, his iron will, his food and conversation preferences. These passages are written in a gossipy tone, which made it hard to put the book down. I kept thinking to myself that it was a good thing she waited until Hitler was dead to say some of these things, and the quotes she attributed to Hitler show that he truly believed what he said...and he had some serious psychological issues.

Hitler's nose was very large and fairly pointed. I do not know whether his teeth were ever very attractive, but by 1945 they were yellow and he had bad breath. He should have grown a beard to cover his mouth. (page 49)

Despite the effort Hitler made to surprise people with his rich trove of knowledge, and to show them his superiority, he made sure he never let them know the sources of this knowledge. He was expert at convincing his listeners that everything he said was the result of his own deliberations and critical thinking. ...One day Hitler launched into a philosophical dissertation on one of his favourite themes. To my astonishment I realised that he was reciting a page from Schopenhauer which I had just finished reading myself. Hitler, taken a little aback, threw me a glance and then explained in fatherly tones: 'Do not forget, my child, that all knowledge comes from others and that every person only contributes a minute piece to the whole.' (page 54)

In the staircase room, we asked Hitler once, 'Why have you never married?' He replied:

I would not have made a good father and I would consider it irresponsible to have founded a family if I had not been able to devote myself sufficiently to the wife. Moreover I do not want children of my own. I find that the descendants of a genius mostly have it very difficult in the world. One expects them to have the same ability as their famous forebear and do not forgive them for being average. Apart from that they mostly turn out cretins. (page 132)

Schroeder was never apologetic, and she was quick to separate fact from fiction -- especially when it came to the women in Hitler's life. She devoted chapters to Eva Braun, the woman Hitler married just before their double suicide, and Geli Raubal, the half-niece whom he loved and whose suicide devastated him. Schroeder also covered in great detail Hitler's medical problems, his household at the Berghof, and the final days in Hitler's bunker as the Allies closed in.

While He Was My Chief is fascinating for the inside look at Hitler as a person, rather than as a dictator, it also was interesting to learn more about Schroeder herself, particularly why she would remain loyal to him until the end. Schroeder, even decades after the war, never seemed to regret her involvement, however little it might have been. Seeing Hitler through the eyes of someone who worked with him, respected him, and challenged him does not alter the common perception of him as a madman but provides a fuller picture of one of history's most notorious mass murderers.

He Was My Chief is the 20th book I've read for the WWII reading challenge at War Through the Generations. The ARC was my favorite find at the recent Book Expo America, and I even got my hands on a hardcover to add to my collection!

Disclosure:  I received a free copy of He Was My Chief at Book Expo America 2009, and I later purchased a hardcover copy.

A Girl's Guide to Modern European Philosophy by Charlotte Greig

"Have you read Human, All Too Human?"

I thought as it was Nietzsche, Rob might understand, but he just looked irritated.

"No," he said. "Not yet. What's that got to do with it?"

"Well, Nietzsche says that if you want to live as a free spirit, you can't be too attached to anyone or anything. You've got to live your life as a wanderer. It's difficult, and lonely, but it's your task, your secret destiny. You can't be chained up to hatred and love like other people. You have to live like a bird, fluttering here and there, flying upward, without any certainties. You have to live without yes, without no..."

Rob gave an exasperated sign. "Stop talking bollocks, Susannah. You're just trying to wriggle out of making a decision." (from A Girl's Guide to Modern European Philosophy, pages 111-112)

I'm not big on philosophy. I just can't wrap my mind around it. I have no idea how I passed Philosophy 101 because all that abstract thinking made my head hurt. But I decided to read Charlotte Greig's A Girl's Guide to Modern European Philosophy because I like coming-of-age stories, and I thought the addition of philosophy to relationship issues was a unique touch.

Greig tells the story of Susannah Jones, a 20-year-old philosophy student at Sussex University in the 1970s. Susannah lives with her boyfriend, Jason, a 30-year-old antiques dealer whose attention is consumed by a milk-teeth box that may have belonged to Princess Charlotte Augusta and could make him some serious dough if he can prove it was a gift from the Prince Regent. With Jason away for long stretches, Susannah gets romantically involved with a fellow philosophy student, Rob, who lives in a messy student apartment and promotes lecture strikes to protest Pinochet's regime in Chile.

Although I breezed through this 275-page book and never found myself bored, A Girl's Guide to Modern European Philosophy never truly grabbed me. The main point of the book (and this tidbit is in the blurb on the back cover, so I'm not giving much away) is that Susannah finds herself pregnant...and of course, she doesn't know whether Jason or Rob is the father. This plot point was too cliché for my tastes. Given that the book takes place on a college campus in the 1970s, Susannah's friend, Fiona, spits out feminist ideology every chance she gets, and of course, Susannah must choose which man she wants and whether or not she wants an abortion.

Having Susannah delve into philosophy (with Greig covering Friedrich Nietzsche, Martin Heidegger, and Søren Kierkegaard in three separate sections) to come to a decision was interesting, but I just didn't feel connected to any of the characters. Susannah seemed to care too much about what other people think, and I couldn't really relate to her situation at all. And neither Jason nor Rob seemed to be a great catch.

However, I think what kept me reading was Greig's writing style. The book is beautifully written, and I like how the philosophy was brought into the story, though I think it helps that it doesn't bother me to read things that don't necessarily align with my own personal beliefs.

Over the Christmas break, I'd started reading Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling and it had blown my mind, even more than Heidegger. In some ways, I wished I hadn't. It was too close to the bone. It was all about the biblical story of Abraham sacrificing his son Isaac to God; about what it means to kill your own child; about how you can justify that to yourself or anyone else. I kept thinking, this guy's a Christian, and I'm not; this doesn't apply to me. But I knew it did, because Kierkegaard's God wasn't a father who told you what to do; his God was a conscience that tormented you day and night until you were forced to choose your fate for yourself. (pages 205-206)

Greig also did a great job creating the setting. Susannah's words and tone transported me to the 1970s (or at least what I understand of the 1970s, as I was born toward the end of that decade).

The music wasn't like anything else I'd ever heard. It was slow and spacey and it drew you in. It sounded like a person starting to fall asleep, where everything starts going a bit weird and distorted, but at the same time you're being wrapped up in a delicious, warm haze so you want to stay there and start to dream. (page 19)

That passage just screams 1960s and 1970s music for me, and it also brings me back to all the Hendrix we listened to in college...which caused our dorm room to be nicknamed the "acid room" though we never did anything of the kind. But I digress.

A Girl's Guide to Modern European Philosophy was an okay read overall. I just couldn't connect to the story or the characters, and that's important to me. Still, I'd recommend it if you have an interest in philosophy and women's issues and are looking for something more than the usual chick lit.

Disclosure:  I received a free copy of A Girl's Guide to Modern European Philosophy from BlueDot Literacy, LLC for review purposes.

We Have Winners!!

The winners of Hugh and Bess by Susan Higginbotham (which I reviewed here) are:

teabird and virginiebarbeau!!

Congratulations and happy reading!

Movie Review: Inglourious Basterds

If you want to know what Serena and I thought of the new Quentin Tarantino flick, Inglourious Basterds, read our review at War Through the Generations!

Mailbox Monday -- August 24

Boy, the weekend sure goes by fast! Between going to the movies to see Inglourious Basterds with Serena, finishing up school shopping for The Girl (she goes back on the 31st), and getting an emergency visit from the plumber (at least the leasing office arranged and paid for it), I didn't have much time to relax.

But now it's time for another Mailbox Monday, kindly hosted by Marcia from The Printed Page, where bookish folk share the books they received in the mail, checked out of the library, purchased, or otherwise obtained over the last week. I missed last week because I was sick, so here's what I received over the last two weeks:


One Scream Away by Kate Brady, a contest win from Pudgy Penguin Perusals


I received the first four Betsy-Tacy books from HarperCollins for an upcoming TLC Book Tour:



Betsy-Tacy by Maud Hart Lovelace


Betsy-Tacy and Tib by Maud Hart Lovelace



Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill by Maud Hart Lovelace



Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown by Maud Hart Lovelace



The Day the Falls Stood Still by Cathy Marie Buchanan, from Hyperion via LibraryThing Early Reviewers



Soul Survivor: The Reincarnation of a World War II Fighter Pilot by Bruce and Andrea Leininger with Ken Gross, from Hachette



Night of Flames by Douglas W. Jacobson, from McBooks Press for an upcoming blog tour



The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks, from Hachette



The Luckiest Penny by Deborah Weed and Ernest Socolov (illus.), from the author


What books did you welcome into your home recently?

Interview with Heather of Age 30+... A Lifetime of Books

You all know Heather from Age 30+...A Lifetime of Books, right? Well, you should! Heather, a.k.a. The Book Club Madam, is moderating a panel at the Baltimore Book Festival on Sept. 26 (and one of the panelists is none other than Trish from Hey Lady! Whatcha Readin'?).

I had the pleasure of interviewing Heather about "The Book Club Toolkit" panel and her book club experiences for my Examiner page. I hope you'll take a minute to read it, and if anyone is planning on attending the festival, please let me know!

The Madonnas of Leningrad by Debra Dean

"When I go, you must try to bury me beside him," Nadezhda says.

Marina nods. It would be pointless to argue that neither of them is going to die. Already they move through their days like ghosts, one foot in front of the other, thin as vapor.

No one weeps anymore, or if they do, it is over small things, inconsequential moments that catch them unprepared. What is left that is heartbreaking? Not death: death is ordinary. What is heartbreaking is the sight of a single gull lifting effortlessly from a street lamp. Its wings unfurl like silk scarves against the mauve sky, and Marina hears the rustle of its feathers. What is heartbreaking is that there is still beauty in the world. (from The Madonnas of Leningrad, page 161)

The Madonnas of Leningrad is a heart-wrenching novel by Debra Dean that takes readers on a journey from the Soviet Union in 1941 to Seattle in the present. Marina worked in the Hermitage Museum in Leningrad during World War II, and as the Germans closed in, she and the other museum workers packed up all the paintings and other works of art and shipped them to safety. Empty frames hung on the walls in hopes that the war would end soon, and things would return to normal.

Marina and the uncle and aunt who took her in as a child lived in the museum's cellar during the siege, and as she worried about her fiancé, Dmitri, who was fighting in the People's Army, she and the hundreds of others packed in the cellar spent the winter months slowly freezing and starving to death. With the help of Anya, an older museum worker, Marina created a "memory palace" to survive the cold, the grief, and the hunger. She walked from room to room, taking in the empty frames and imprinting in her mind each detail of every painting that hung before the siege.

In the present, Marina is an elderly woman losing her most recent memories to Alzheimer's. The book takes place over the span of a few days, with her daughter, Helen, arriving to accompany her and Dmitri to their granddaughter's wedding. Marina's experiences in Leningrad are shown to readers when she drifts back to the past -- something that happens frequently. The memories of the siege are fresh in her mind, and the "memory palace" she used to weather the war helps her deal with her worsening condition.

While most of the book focuses on Marina, readers get a glimpse of Helen's mid-life struggles to fulfill her dream of being an artist and her realization that she doesn't really know much about her parents. Dean also shows Dmitri's strong love for Marina and the sadness he feels as she slips away from him.

...The bond that had first brought them together as children existed whether they spoke of it or not, the bond of survivors. Here in America, a relentlessly foolish and optimistic country, what they knew drew them closer together. She was his country and he hers. They were inseparable.

Until now. She is leaving him, not all at once, which would be painful enough, but in a wrenching succession of separations. One moment she is here, and then she is gone again, and each journey takes her a little farther from his reach. He cannot follow her, and he wonders where she goes when she leaves. (page 119)

The Madonnas of Leningrad is a moving story of love and war, memory and grief, family and survival. Once I started reading, it was impossible to put the book down, and I read all 231 pages in a little more than a day. When I turned the last page, I was emotionally drained yet wished my time with these characters wasn't over. Dean's writing is beautiful, and I felt so close to the characters. Although the characters are shown only in two fixed points in time, they are well developed and realistic, and I couldn't help but love them. Dean's descriptions of the various paintings are so vivid I could see them in my mind, and she made the hardships of the museum cellar come alive so I could feel the hunger and despair. The shift from present to past through Marina's worsening Alzheimer's was seamless, and Dean's real-life experiences with the disease shine through. (In the acknowledgments, she says her grandparents' "lifelong love affair and their journey with Alzheimer's" inspired her.)

The Madonnas of Leningrad is a complex, multi-layered story, and I highly recommend it, even to readers who normally shy away from stories involving war. It is so much more than a war story, and while it's really sad and a little hopeful, it's worth the emotional roller coaster ride.


The Madonnas of Leningrad is my 19th book for the WWII reading challenge at War Through the Generations.

(It's WWII week here at Diary of an Eccentric. It wasn't my intention, but I might have another challenge review tomorrow...)

Disclosure:  I borrowed The Madonnas of Leningrad from a friend.

Stones in Water by Donna Jo Napoli

Stones in Water by Donna Jo Napoli is a young adult novel set in Europe during World War II that focuses on Roberto, a young boy from a small village in Venice, Italy, who is captured by the Germans at a cinema in Mestre. One minute, Roberto, his older brother Sergio, and his friends Memo and Samuele are hoping to enjoy an American western, and the next minute, they're being carted by train to a work camp far away from home and fighting for their lives.

Roberto is separated from Sergio and Memo, but luckily he and Samuele manage to stay together. Since the round up, Samuele has been going by the name Enzo to hide the fact that he is a Jew.

"They can't kill someone just for being Jewish."

"Listen to yourself." Enzo's voice grew hoarse. "Your insomnia -- my nightmares -- they don't come from nowhere. They killed the boys on the train just for wanting to go home. They killed that boy at the first work camp just for fainting."

...Roberto shook his head now. He wouldn't believe Enzo's words. He couldn't. "My father brings home the newspaper every day. There was nothing in them about killing healthy Jews."

"Some news doesn't get printed."

"But something like that, people would know. People would talk about it."

"Jews talk about it." Enzo rubbed his nose and looked away. "It hasn't been going on all that long. It started in the spring. Death camps. They're in Poland, I think." The words came out with a slow deliberateness. Totally matter of fact, as though they weren't the worst words in the world. "Jews are moved from the work camps to the death camps. There's a work camp near Munich." Enzo looked back at Roberto. "When our train pulled up to the Munich station, I figured I'd die there." Enzo's voice held the same tone it had when he came out of the water yesterday -- the tone that was so terrible. The tone of resignation. (pages 60-61)

Roberto is an innocent young boy, but he learns right away the importance of quick thinking. He helps Enzo hide the fact that he is Jewish, and he shares his meager food rations with Enzo when one of the other boys discovers Enzo's secret. When he and the other boys are forced to build a holding pen for Polish Jews, Roberto slips food through the fence to a young girl and her little sister, and he learns to steal clothes and shoes from the dead -- including dead German soldiers -- to keep warm during the brutal winter months. But his strength and maturity are put to the ultimate test in the Ukraine, when he escapes from a work camp and attempts to make his way back to Venice.

Stones in Water is a heartbreaking story of innocence lost to the brutality of war. Roberto's eyes are opened wide to the true horrors of war, and he must rely on strength he never knew he had when he is on the run alone. I found myself tearing up when reading about the cold nights in the work camps, with Enzo telling Roberto stories from the Old Testament to put him to sleep. My heart broke for the characters not shown in the book, particularly Roberto's parents, who must have been crushed to learn of their sons' capture and agonized over whether they would ever be reunited.

The book is geared toward 8- to 12-year-old readers, with the war shown through young eyes. Roberto learns about the death camps from his friend, and his thoughts are those of a young boy, which will help young readers put themselves in Roberto's shoes. There are scenes in which children are beaten, even murdered, at the hands of the Germans, and while these scenes are not overly graphic, I would recommend this book only for mature readers in the intended age group. In my opinion, this is more of a "grown up" children's book about the war than Lois Lowry's Number the Stars, in that more details are provided about the evils of war without overwhelming children with intense, graphic scenes of violence. Napoli gets the point across in as gentle a manner as possible while staying true to the darkness and harshness of the events depicted.

Stones in Water is a fast, engaging read, and I flew through the 209 pages in a day. It was interesting to see in the acknowledgments that the story is based "loosely (very, very loosely) on experiences of Guido Fullin during World War II." I wish Napoli would have said what parts of the story were true and what parts were fiction, as I always find that fascinating, but the story was exciting nonetheless. However, I was a bit disappointed with the ending. It wasn't a bad ending -- there is a bit of hope after all, and Roberto shows much growth in character -- but instead of hinting toward a new story, I wish Napoli would have resolved some of the loose ends. Still, Stones in Water is a worthwhile read, and readers both young and old can learn something from Roberto's story.


Stones in Water is the 18th book I've completed for the World War II reading challenge at War Through the Generations. I just can't seem to stop myself, and I have tons more WWII books sitting on my shelf.

Disclosure:  I purchased my copy of Stones in Water.

Finally Some Knitting Content!!

It's a good thing my husband recovered from his bee sting reaction quickly because he's been spending the last several days taking care of me. I don't know if it's the flu, but it kicked my rear end hard. I'm feeling a bit better today, though still a little weak, and I promise I'm not trying to annoy everyone in my house when I can't decide whether I'm hot or cold. I'm behind in housework (though hubby and The Girl did a lot for me over the weekend) and blog reading (curse you, Google Reader!) and I totally missed Mailbox Monday yesterday (I'll do a double post next week), but at least I wasn't too sick to read.

Anyway...Diary of an Eccentric started two years ago to be mainly a knitting blog, but since I turned my focus to books, there hasn't been much knitting going on. Actually, I think the only clue that I knit is my blog header. But my fingers were itching for the needles and wool, and I recently finished my first knitting project in about a year:

Aqua Jaywalkers

I knit these socks for Serena for her birthday (and in the pictures below, those are her lovely feet modeling them). They were supposed to be part of her Christmas gift, but it had been months since I'd knit anything when I started these in December. Let's just say I was a bit rusty and made a lot of mistakes. About 10 rows from finishing the toe on the second sock, I dropped a stitch down a dozen or so rows to fix a twisted stitch (something I'd been known to do in the past without freaking out)...and it all went to hell.

I kindly told Serena that her annual pair of socks was on hold. I put down the needles and backed far, far away for fear I would make another mistake or throw the unfinished sock out of the window, needles and all.

But over the past month, I decided it was high time to finish these suckers, and lo and behold, I was able to unknit about 12 rows, fix my mistake, and finish the sock without any major problems. Thankfully, Serena loves them! I absolutely love knitting socks, but I don't do it for just anyone. ;)

Here are the Aqua Jaywalkers details if you're interested:



Pattern: Jaywalker by Grumperina

Yarn: 2 hanks of Claudia's Handpainted Fingering 55 (45% merino wool, 55% silk) in Teal Party

Needles: U.S. 2 (Susan Bates, aluminum DPNs)

Started: Dec. 2008

Finished: Aug. 9, 2009



The Jaywalker pattern is my favorite sock pattern (Serena's too). I've completed two pairs for myself, and two other pairs for Serena.

I finished up these socks as part of Dewey's Knit-a-Long.

Now I think I'll go take a nap...

Interview with Alan Furst, author of The Spies of Warsaw (and giveaway winner announced)

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Alan Furst, author of The Spies of Warsaw. (You can read my review if you haven't already by clicking here.)

I'd like to thank Alan for taking time out of his busy schedule to answer my questions. The Spies of Warsaw was my first time reading a WWII spy novel, and it won't be my last. I look forward to reading more of his work in the future.

The interview is posted on my Examiner page, and you can read it by clicking here. I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Speaking of The Spies of Warsaw, I think it's about time I announced the winner of the book giveaway. Congratulations to Linda! I'll be sending along your copy soon.

(Author photo credit: Shonna Valeska)