UNBROKEN - the beginning of the wrap up!

Hello Everyone,


It's the end of the month already and we all should have read the book of the month.  I hope you have enjoyed it in some way.  It was a very difficult book for me to read but I am glad I did.  Following are some questions you can respond to whenever you can.  BTW:  One of the member that I know of is still having difficulty posting comments so I have offered to post them for her in the future.  I will cut and paste and let you all know they come from her.  (BTW:  I posted this post before but it didn't show up so I am posting again - if you see it twice - sorry!)


The book for December is listed in Books of the Month column.  It is available to download free for IPAD, or other Free Book apps for computers.  Or you could be like me and have an illustrated copy somewhere in the Christmas decoration boxes.  Happy readying!

Unbroken – Book Club questions.

1. Critics alike have described Unbroken as gripping, almost impossible to put down. Was that your experience as well? How do you account for the page-turning quality given the grim subject material? Also, would your reading experience have been different if you didn't know that Zamperini survived?
2. Laura Hillenbrand gives us a moving story, one that brings to life the suffering and courage of not just one man but thousands, whose stories are untold. What is it about Hillenbrand's writing that keeps you going back to keep reading?
3. What do you admire most about Zamperini? What do you think enables him to survive all of his trials and tribulations? Does he possess special strengths—personal or physical?
4. What is your favorite part of the book?  What part is most horrifying for you?
5. I mentioned a few posts ago about ‘Mans inhumanity to man’.  Many would claim the Japanese were singular in this but it could be applied to the Nazis, or the Somalis, or the treatment of the American Indians in America.  Tell us one thing that allows us to reduce those persecuted to less than human. 
6. How is his family involved in Louie’s survival? How does his conversion under Billy Graham help him? What role does his wife, Cynthia, play?
7. We hear so much today about PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome).  In your mind is it ‘real’ or an excuse? 

Two weeks have flown by.... like an albatross

Hello everyone,


The poorest excuse in all the lot is I didn't know or I forgot, as a great man once said.  


There I was on the way to PA for Thanksgiving and I forgot to take my laptop. My I PAD doesn't allow me to go on and on while writing so I never took the opportunity to say:  Hello, Happy Thanksgiving to all of you and Happy Birthday to my mother!  She would have gotten a kick out of me writing on this blog.  While typing up some of her memoirs, I discovered that she would have liked to write and book but realized that was never going to happen so she hoped her daughters would pick up the gauntlet. {would a blog count?} She really didn't appreciate reading many books but I think this biography would have struck a cord with her, having lived through WWII.  


I hope you all have been reading Unbroken and enjoying the true life story.  I just can't imagine the events and found the book ..... oops, next time.


I will announce the next book in two days and the questions and discussion for Unbroken will begin then.   


Until next time,
Barbara

Collapsed!

Hello Everyone,


I try to write on Sundays but yesterday was a busy day for me.  I am very excited!  I went to 'Stitch Camp' here in Stowe and Kathy from the Wooden Needle asked me to speak to the 30 ladies about Quilts of Valor.  I took a few quilts along, showed them pictures, newsletters, etc., and there are a few ladies who are interested in participating in a group.  WOO HOO!  I won't have to travel 1 1/4 hours to the closest group once a month anymore.  All to say, sorry I didn't write to you all yesterday.


I did stay up to finish Unbroken last night.  Whew!  That is all that will be said about it until the end of the month.  WHEW!!  I am so glad the last 100 pages were footnotes and references.  Now I will turn the book over to Jim and see how he likes it.  


If anyone who is signed up for the blog can write in a comment about how to write comments on the blog it will be helpful to those who are having problems going about how to do it.  Since it is my blog my computer automatically sends me to the correct spot and I don't have any problem.  There are people out there who want to comment but can't so if you can help, please do.   {step by step for the computer challenged}  


Next Sunday I will be 'on the road again' but I will try to blurb out something by the end of the week.  Remember the December "BOM" will be easy, short and available free on many computers and websites.  January's book is not in my mind yet so if anyone has suggestions, email me.  


Have a wonderful week and keep on reading.


Barbara

Winter Garden Revisited

Hello everyone and happy Sunday!


It's been about a week and I am enjoying your comments about Winter Garden.  I will now blather on about my thoughts on the book.


I found it easy to read but difficult in the way I have found Kristen Hannah's books.  The suspense of what is going to happens makes me hesitate to continue but then I can't put the book down for long.  I probably wouldn't read it again because I usually don't do that either.   I thought the story very believable until the end when they went to Alaska and met up with her daughter.  As a friend of mine used to say about such stories: it was pure manipulation.  (Does anyone know if there is a large population of Russian families in Alaska? ) But then again it did wrap up the story all nice and tidy.  That is the only problem I had with this book in relationship to real life - it's not always so tidy and usually not very neat.  


I know from reading Still Alice that there is proof that a person has Alzheimers but when Anya started losing her mind, all I could think about was whether she had the gene?  If not, how many people are diagnosed that are just 'going a little crazy' for the time being.  


Just a little about the siege of Leningrad - I am so blessed!  I can't fathom the depth of hurt something like that could do to me.  I remember encountering a woman who was in Auschwitz and had a tattooed number on her forearm.  I had no clue what that tattoo was.  Just thinking about the depth of hatred of one group of people against another is foreign to me.  In reading Unbroken and the short paragraphs about the 'Rape of Nanking' took me back to what we had read about Leningrad.  It just gives me the creeps and I feel blessed and empathy for those who live through such trauma.  As my dear husband would say - Man's inhumanity to Man.  


Although Anya is a very damaged woman, I don't really like her.  My thought is that she struggled so hard to hold all those emotions inside and away from her daughters that she was in the end, dishonest with them throughout their father's life. She allowed/required him to carry all the emotion while she remained bottled up.  Of course if she had relayed all the history to her daughters while they were children it would be a different book.  


My thoughts on the sisters:  Meredith was a Martha - running around trying to make sure everything was perfect for her family, obsessively.  Then missing out on things by not  being 'present' in the moment.  Nina was searching for female unity 'away from home' when she probably could have found feminine beauty in her own backyard.  


Do any of you have any additional comments about the book?  


I am enjoying Unbroken and hope you have located a copy to read.  


Til next time,
Barbara