BT Book Club -- What are you reading/recommending? (Page 2)

"The Mascot: Unraveling the Mystery of My Jewish Father's Nazi Boyhood"

This is a true story:   Mark Kurzem was happily ensconced in his academic life at Oxford when his father, Alex, showed up on his doorstep with a terrible secret to tell. When a Nazi death squad raided his village at the outset of World War II, Jewish five-year-old Alex Kurzem escaped. After surviving the Russian winter by foraging for food and stealing clothes off dead soldiers, he was discovered by a Nazi-led Latvian police brigade that later became an SS unit. Not knowing he was Jewish, they made him their mascot, dressing the little “corporal” in uniform and toting him from massacre to massacre. Terrified, the resourceful Alex charmed the highest echelons of the Latvian Third Reich, eventually starring in a Nazi propaganda film. When the war ended he was sent to Australia with a family of Latvian refugees.

Fearful of being discovered—as either a Jew or a Nazi—Alex kept the secret of his childhood, even from his loving wife and children. But he grew increasingly tormented and became determined to uncover his Jewish roots and the story of his past. Shunned by a local Holocaust organization, he reached out to his son Mark for help in reclaiming his identity. A survival story, a grim fairy-tale, and a psychological drama, this remarkable memoir asks provocative questions about identity, complicity, and forgiveness

NightOwl - 2008-05-02 3:05 PM I'm reading Holes by Louis Sachar with my son who is doing a book report on it. I'm also reading a book about central auditory processing disorder called When the Brain Can't Hear by Teri James Bellis, and at night when everyone is in bed I am reading Twilight by Stephanie Meyer, for pure  escape.

 I read the Twilight series in just over a week.  All three books back to back to back.  My poor family was neglected but I just couldn't stop reading them.  Can't wait for the next book and the movie to come out.

 I'm reading the Spiderwick series (on book three) and Leven Thumps and the Whispered Secret.  I guess I have a thing for nice, easy reads!  

The fountainhead by Ayn Rand.  

and Home Depots Flooring 1-2-3

Have been in a humor mood this week:

I am reading 'Born Standing Up" by Steve Martin (very good).  Just finished "What I would say to the Martians' by Jack Handey (funny). 

I just finished 'Diary of Indignities' by Patrick Hughes and highly highly recommend it if you need a good laugh.  Seriously, I laughed out loud the whole time I was reading it, and subjected my husband to me reading most of it out loud to him, then he read it, laughed out loud, and ended up reading most of it out loud to me. 

I am also reading about six other books, but won't bore y'all with the details.  Read the funny ones if you need a laugh!  And along those lines, anything by Paul Feig, too.

"The World Without Us" 

It's about what would happen if humans just disappeared from the planet tomorrow - what would happen to all of our infrastructure, monuments, etc, and what nature would look like (and how it would be changed) when it re-takes the landscapes we've altered.