By Jussi Adler-Olsen
This book was written by Denmark's #1 Crime writer. For anyone who enjoys crime fiction, this is an excellent book. It is styled after hard boiled crime fiction but had some very distinctly different features. The detectives assistant was a perfect compliment to the jaded cop. I enjoyed this book enough to look for more books by him but this was the only one the library had.
"They told him that his eyes had a dead look to them. They thought it was the shock, but it was shame." Pg. 18
"We've all been up shit creek at one time or another. Anyone who hasn't is not a real cop. We just have to go our there, knowing that we might be out of our depth once in a while. That's our job." Pg. 286
Book 66
Saturday, November 26, 2011
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Nightmares
Memoirs of the Years of Horror Under Nazi Rule in Europe, 1939 - 1945
By Konrad Charmatz
"The last safety plank had collapsed. There was nowhere else to hide, no one left to offer protection. No Jew was needed now. Hitler had kept his word: his fiendish project to destroy all the Jews was being carried out according to plan." pg. 49
"A command was heard, and the Nazi murderers began heaving the children out of the first of the wagons as if there were bags of coal or sacks of garbage....The ground actually shook from the screams of the children. The kapo stretched out on the ground and told us to do the same, but still we could see and hear what was happening at the crematoria, and it froze our blood. Two more transport wagons arrived full of children, and the same happened to them. Their terrified screams will never be forgotten by all those who witnessed this. We also heard the beastly laughter of the tower guards, who watched calmly as this spectacle took place.
Suddenly I heard a choked mournful outcry from the kommando. I looked around and saw the rebbe and his son had risen to their feet. Now they stretched their arms to heaven, and the rebbe called out with all his strength, "Lord of the Universe, where are you? How can you witness this and remain silent? No, no fellow Jews-there is no God!" pg. 103
"Here in this place of Jewish martyrdom, a few slaves were able to perform one year later a new act of Jewish holiness, continuing the tradition of generations." pg 142
"the kapos and the guards beat us pitilessly, and the number of dead grew steadily. We wanted either water or to be put to death." pg 169
"I wandered the city like a ghost, unable to stop crying. I looked into many Jewish homes and stores where at one time it had been so easy to encounter friends and acquaintances, handsome faces and friendly looks. I encountered none of the former owners. As I looked into the courtyards, scenes of Jewish children at play flashed before my eyes, th Shloimelech, and Peselech, the Hershelech, and Devorelech. All of them disappeared. I reminded myself of the long caravans and transports, the executions, the gas chambers and crematoria where I watched them being led to their deaths. The Nazis and their partners had thought of thousands of ways of death for their victims." pg 268
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
By Konrad Charmatz
"The last safety plank had collapsed. There was nowhere else to hide, no one left to offer protection. No Jew was needed now. Hitler had kept his word: his fiendish project to destroy all the Jews was being carried out according to plan." pg. 49
"A command was heard, and the Nazi murderers began heaving the children out of the first of the wagons as if there were bags of coal or sacks of garbage....The ground actually shook from the screams of the children. The kapo stretched out on the ground and told us to do the same, but still we could see and hear what was happening at the crematoria, and it froze our blood. Two more transport wagons arrived full of children, and the same happened to them. Their terrified screams will never be forgotten by all those who witnessed this. We also heard the beastly laughter of the tower guards, who watched calmly as this spectacle took place.
Suddenly I heard a choked mournful outcry from the kommando. I looked around and saw the rebbe and his son had risen to their feet. Now they stretched their arms to heaven, and the rebbe called out with all his strength, "Lord of the Universe, where are you? How can you witness this and remain silent? No, no fellow Jews-there is no God!" pg. 103
"Here in this place of Jewish martyrdom, a few slaves were able to perform one year later a new act of Jewish holiness, continuing the tradition of generations." pg 142
"the kapos and the guards beat us pitilessly, and the number of dead grew steadily. We wanted either water or to be put to death." pg 169
"I wandered the city like a ghost, unable to stop crying. I looked into many Jewish homes and stores where at one time it had been so easy to encounter friends and acquaintances, handsome faces and friendly looks. I encountered none of the former owners. As I looked into the courtyards, scenes of Jewish children at play flashed before my eyes, th Shloimelech, and Peselech, the Hershelech, and Devorelech. All of them disappeared. I reminded myself of the long caravans and transports, the executions, the gas chambers and crematoria where I watched them being led to their deaths. The Nazis and their partners had thought of thousands of ways of death for their victims." pg 268
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Monday, November 14, 2011
A Match Made in Hell
Larry Stillman from the testimony of Morris Goldner
This is the true story of Morris Goldner. As a young boy he witnessed, with his own eyes, Nazi horrors, somehow survives and then finds himself being mentored by a notorious criminal to stay alive. Their exploits eventually lead to sabotage against the Nazi's. This is an incredible survival story, told with courage and honesty; detailing experiences which unopen the spaces between good and evil particular to the hell that was WWII. I commend Morris' willingness to share his experiences in this important, and unique, Holocaust story.
"It was finally getting through to me that while the war lasted, my life could no longer be the same. Although I had not been happy going back and forth to school in Debica, now I felt like a prisoner in mu own home. Yet I had no idea how much better my life was compared to waht most families faced in the large cities." Pg. 25
"On another day I spent several fascinating hours - for I had never been a better student than when I learned about the weapons of war - reviewing the characteristics of various hand grenades." Pg. 37
"A howl of anguish rose suddenly to my left - cries of such piercing pain, it struck me as being almost inhuman in origin. I turned in that direction, toward the women's group, searching for Mama and Gita. I could not spot them, because soldiers had moved in among the frenzied women. What I saw taking place there, just meters away from where I stood, paralyzed me with such horror, I cannot find proper words to describe what I witnessed and what I felt. How can words describe such inhumanity?
This can't be happening! I thought at the time, and I think it anew each of the hundreds of times the scene replays itself, even now, in my nightmares. For this is what I see:
SS men are singling out all the women with babies and small children, brutally driving them at bayonet point toward the barrels. Give us your garbage! they are shouting in German. Put your babies in the barrels! The mothers are screaming louder than the children, They cannot believe they understand what the soldiers want them to do. The SS monsters push them harder, force them toward the barrels. Then one after another, they pry the babies from their mothers' protective arms and stuff the beautiful, innocent children into the barrels as if they are nothing more than freshly pickled cucumbers. As each barrel becomes filled with babies, the SS man slams its cover tightly into place and moves on to the next barrel." Pg 48
Encounter with the priest:
"'I am ashamed of my own people' - his precise words - 'both within the church and outside it. When the war ends and we have to answer to the rest of the world, what will we say? How will the Polish people face them?'"
Pg. 105
"Something gelled at that moment in the back of my mind, a hunger that had been there all along but had just now been given light and substance, like an image materializing on a sheet of photosensitive paper. From that moment on, it would remain in my consciousness, fixed indelibly, until my own plans for retribution could be put in action." Pg. 145
"It was at this moment the explosion blew apart the carriage I had just left. Projectiles of mangled steel splayed in all directions, destroying the carriages both immediately in front and behind, overturning several of the remaining cars and scattering others off the track.
I pulled myself deeper into the forest, wincing in pain from my bruised ribs and torn shoulder. I could have easily been killed three times over: by the force of the nearby explosion, or the carnage of flying glass and metal, or in my jump from the speeding train. This time I did not even try to understand why, once more, I had escaped with my life." Pg. 153
"In German-occupied homes the Russians spared no one, including the family pets. Men were forced to watch as their wives and daughters, screaming for mercy, were savagely raped by Russian soldiers - who, after having their way, slashed each German throat. From what I could tell, the Red Army authorities made no effort to reign in the barbarity. Stalin himself, I have since heard, shrugged off the rape and looting as 'having some fun' and 'taking a few trifles.'" Pg. 178
"And for the first time since my earliest missions with Kopec, I felt a vague sensation of uneasiness seeping down into the pit of my stomach, like water eroding rock. But this time it was not the anxiety of being caught, or tortured, or killed, or failing a mission that unnerved me so. It was something much less definable and far more paralyzing:
The consternation of having survived, with no idea, no idea at all, of what to do about it." Pg. 179
Book 64
Crossed
This is the much anticipated second book to the YA dystopian fiction Matched. Given the conclusion to Matched, it should be no surprise that this book takes place outside of the Society. And strange as this may be, I missed it. There were some great parts of this book but it may be my least favorite in the series. There were some places I just wanted both the story and the characters to reach a little deeper and parts of the story where even my wide, wide net of suspended disbelief had to snicker. I look very forward to the next book which I have faith will continue the intriguing series and take the story to the next level.
Book 63
Forest of Hands and Teeth Book 2 & 3
The Dead-Tossed Waves
The Dark and Hallow Places
By Carrie Ryan
This YA series is probably the best series from a pure story telling perspective. Ryan writes an unpredictable story and is willing to take a lot of risks. By this I mean, in YA it is easy (and popular) to fall back on some of the simple formulas that teenage girls have fallen for time and time again. In my opinion, Ryan creates a much deeper story line by not taking that route. The result is much more difficult to endure as a reader, but far more rewarding.
Book 61 & 62
Forever
This is the third book in a young adult series which began with the book Shiver. The story is loosely about humans that turn into wolves under certain conditions and their struggle both internally to survive and thrive given their situation and their relationship with the external world and the small town they live in that does not understand.
Other than that, here is not much I can tell you about the plot itself without giving far too much away. Let me just say that I highly recommend the series if you are into YA at all. It was a unique story with interesting characters and compelling language. Stiefvater has sentences or paragraphs sprinkled throughout her books that just move me. In her own words (from her blog): "I will sacrifice most anything in order to change someone's mood in a certain way. I can't do that without careful navigation of metaphor and character development."
Book 60
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)