Rereading

The other day on Twitter I came across an article published in the Mail called "Reading a book really is better the second time round - and can even offer mental health benefits." I completely agree! I've reread several things in the past several years for the second time, and found those stories to be much more wonderful the second time around.

Here are a few of my favorite rereads:

Lord of the Flies (blog post coming soon on this one) by William Golding
Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
The Scarlett Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Pride and Prejudice (OK, anything Jane Austen)
The Color Purple (turning 30 this year, by the way) by Alice Walker
A Wrinkle in Time (my most recent reread) by Madeleine L'Engle
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Diary of Anne Frank
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

What are your favorite rereads?

World War II Reading

I’m on a bit of a World War II kick at the moment. I’ve got more reading up to do on the subject, but after having just finished two related books last week, I think I can rest for a moment and type out what I’m thinking. I’ve long since been fascinated by this time in our history, and I think it’s mostly thanks to reading The Diary of Anne Frank for the first time at age 11 and being the same age as the writer, and also because my four grandparents were young adults during the War, and I know all sorts of snippets from them about what life was like for them then.

My grandmothers were both in college during the war. One grandfather was in Officer Training School stateside and the War ended before he finished and was deployed. There are a bunch of pictures of the other grandfather walking around the French countryside in the snow with either a cigarette in his hand or what was likely a M1 Garand rifle, the standard issued weapon for most Army infantrymen during WWII. The first three grandparents talked about life during the War, and the other one, the one who saw all the action, never did. I have no idea what he experienced and he’s not here anymore to tell me if I asked.

My interest in the War hasn’t changed over the years, and it was something I paid close attention to when in London. I picked up several books on the subject, and I have already talked about three of them here, here and here.

Last week I read Churchill Goes to War: Winston’s Wartime Journeys by Brian Lavery and listened to The Postmistress by Sarah Blake. To be quite honest, the first was a bit of a bore for me. The book outlined all the logistics involved in transporting Churchill from place to place during the War on the down-low. It just wasn’t the right book for me when what I wanted to know was how he operated during the War, but when in London. I had hoped to see more mention and detail on Olive Christopher, one of Churchill’s secretaries who did some traveling with his entourage. She was only briefly mentioned in a few places, getting no more than a paragraph each time. I really liked the book I read about her at the end of 2010, and hoped I’d get a hefty portion of third person interpretation on Christopher, and that would be an interesting perspective to supplement what I already know about her. A well-research book though. I did learn a few things.

On the other hand, I thought The Postmistress was possibly the best book I’ve read so far in 2011 (it will probably make the top 10 list for the year). In it was an American broadcaster in London, the Blitz, life on the American home front and plenty of dramatic irony to keep me happy. There was so much going on and end the end, characters start coming together in a way that really wowed me. This was truly an excellent book. Read it if you haven’t. You won’t be sorry.

So what I have so far: accounts Churchill’s travels, of a London child sent to the country during the Blitz, of the Blitz from an American adult perspective, a German soldier dropped off on the American Gulf Coast to carry out a top-secret mission and of a civilian secretary working closely with Churchill. More reading is to come. On the horizon I have a fictional account of London children in the country, The Guernsey Potato Peel and Literary Society, two more biographies on Churchill and the story of a German civilian in Berlin in 1940.

More to come.

World War II Books

Recently I had the pleasure of reading a new book from a first-time author called Grayton Beach Affair, and then interviewed the author, James Harvey, an Atlanta area resident, for a story in Simply Buckhead Magazine. It's a love story set during World War II in the Florida Panhandle, Atlanta, Germany and France. I enjoyed reading the book, interviewing the author and now, seeing the story in print. It had quite a few of the things I like to read: a strong central female character, both internal and external conflicts, a sense of place and something I don't want to put down.

It was the perfect transition into the additional reading I've been doing. I've always been interested in reading about that time period, likely thanks to Anne Frank, and I've only grown more interested after visiting Churchill's War Rooms in London. I promise there will be no more Jane Austen posts for now; I'm going to move on to the theme of war and will be reading some fiction and nonfiction books from the World War II and Civil War eras over the next little while. Thanks for reading and stay tuned!

It's Teen Read Week

Monday began Teen Read Week. To recognize it, I've tried to remember what I was reading as a teenager. Truthfully, apart from a few things, I'm not sure it was a whole lot different from what I'm reading now. I read Amy Tan, Anne Frank, Anne Rivers Siddons, and I liked most everything that came my way in my English classes. Somehow it seems easier to remember what I was reading when I was about 10 and younger. Wonder why that is? My guess is that I did most of my reading for class and not for fun. And, what I like to read hasn't changed much. I was reading many of the same kinds of things in my teens as what I'm still reading now.

Anne Frank

I reread Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl this weekend, and then watched PBS' Masterpiece Theater's recently aired film interpretation. This diary is one of the most famous memoirs of the 20th century and possibly my favorite book...EVER.

It means so much more to me now, having just read it for the ninth time 20 years after reading it for the first time. When I read it as an 11 year-old, I was interested in Anne as a girl just a bit older than me. I thought we had some things in common. As I've read the book again a few more times as I've grown older, each time I've known a little more about the state of the world from 1942-45, and the abominable indecencies and injustices put upon the Jews.

Anne wrote her most private thoughts in her diary, and for that reason I find it all the more amazing that Anne remained optimistic about what life would be like for her after the war. That she was able to find joy in anything given her situation is really remarkable.

All of this makes the words of this teenage girl so much more profound, and the book so much more heartbreaking to me each time I read it.

The PBS piece was really well done; I recommend it very much for the human face it put on everyone in hiding, particularly Mrs. Van Daam and Dr. Dussel.

Books and Movies

I love to watch movies adapted from books I've already read. Ninety-nine percent of the time, the book is better. Recently, I've read two World War II novels, and over the weekend I watched the movies that correspond with each.

Late last year I listened to The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje. I enjoyed it, but found it just a bit harder to follow the story via audiobook than I'd hoped. Over Christmas this year, I read The Good German by Joseph Kanon and I just could not put it down. Because of this, I was especially interested in the movie version that came out in 2006.

I liked that The Good German movie was filmed in black and white. I really think that added so much to the destruction of Berlin and the hopelessness felt by many of the characters. Thumbs up for that. Also thumbs up for Cate Blanchett. She is especially glamorous filmed in black and white. Thumbs down for most everything else, though. I like Tobey Maguire just fine, and I liked his performance a lot in Seabiscuit, but I thought he was terrible in this movie (and not just because he plays a jerk). Thank goodness the audience doesn't have to endure it for too long before his character is killed (I don't think I'm giving away too much by saying that; it's an integral part of the story). There is a lot from the book that is left out of the movie. Unfortunately, all of them are things that gave such depth to the novel, and wove a complex tale of amazing interconnectedness. Very little of this comes through in the movie. It's too bad that the movie left me feeling so unfulfilled after reading such an excellent book version.

The English Patient, however, was a great movie. I would go as far as saying that I liked the movie version better than the book, though I realize I might have liked the book better having read it rather than listened to it. The scenery was gorgeous and so is the story. I liked the book, but the movie really made the story come alive for me. I thought the casting was excellent. And, I didn't realize until I started watching the movie that Colin Firth played in it. I was also surprised to see that Naveen Andrews, who plays one of my favorite characters on the TV show, Lost, had an important role. Definite bonuses!

I'm not the only one who thought this movie was great. It won Academy Awards in 1997 for Best Costume Design, Best Art Direction, Best Sound, Best Film Editing, Best Cinematography, Best Director, Best Music Score, Best Picture, and Best Supporting Actress, and it was nominated in several other categories. It also won five Golden Globes in 1997, including Best Motion Picture.

So, I highly recommend reading both books and watching the movie version of The English Patient if you haven't already. I have to say that I'm fascinated by World War II stories. Between these two and hearing of Miep Gies' death, I think I should probably reread Anne Frank's The Diary of a Young Girl soon, especially as the PBS adaptation is coming in April.

As a side note, my husband and I are headed to Las Vegas for a few days in March. I've done some research, but can't seem to find any fiction or interesting non-fiction books where Las Vegas is the setting. I'd love to be reading something Vegas-related on the plane ride. Does anyone have any suggestions? To cover all our bases, we watched Rain Man over the weekend, and Honeymoon in Vegas and What Happens in Vegas are both coming soon via Netflix.

Cheers!

Austen Alert!

Over the next several Sunday nights, PBS will be showing adaptations of three Jane Austen novels. To see the schedule, visit here. Emma will be shown first. To prepare yourself, go head and take the Bachelors of Highbury quiz. Apparently, my best match would be George Knightley.

Also, Sunday night, there is an Emma Twitter Party (read more about that here). Sign up to follow @pbs and @masterpiecepbs. While you're at it, feel free to start following me @betsyrhame.

Also coming up on PBS in April is The Diary of Anne Frank.

Enjoy!

Miep Gies and Anne Frank

I heard the news this morning that Miep Gies, 100, passed away in The Netherlands. She was one of around 20,000 other regular Dutch citizens who hid people of the Jewish faith from the Nazis during World War II. She was the last living member of the group who hid the eight people and provided for them for more than two years. After the Frank family and the other four people hiding with them were found, Gies found Anne's diary and kept it hidden until she gave it to Otto Frank, Anne's father, after the war had ended. She had been Otto's secretary before the war.

Otto decided to publish an edited version of Anne's diary in 1947. I received The Diary of a Young Girl from my grandmother for Christmas when I was only 11. I read it very soon after receiving it and I remember feeling fascinated by this girl's diary and all that was in it. Of course, as a fifth-grader, all of the political undertones and much of what was going on outside the walls of The Secret Annex were lost on me at the time. However, I've read it seven more times since then, and reading it has meant more to me each time because I knew a lot more about the circumstances that brought Anne and her family into hiding, and what the world has been like since. As you can probably imagine, my paperback copy is one of the most dog-eared books I have.

My grandmother must have known I'd like the book, because she also purchased Anne Frank Remembered: The Story of the Woman Who Helped to Hide the Frank Family by Miep Gies with Alison Leslie Gold in 1988 at an Anne Frank exhibition that came to her city. She may have purchased the diary for me at the same time, but waited a few years before giving me Gies' book.

A few years after I received The Diary of a Young Girl, a new edition was published that includes material Otto opted not to publish in the original version. I have a copy of the newer one too and have read it once. It includes Anne's writing of her own sexual discovery and rants about other residents of The Secret Annex. The newer version is about a third longer than the older and more well-known one.

A few years ago, I happened upon a book called The Last Seven Months of Anne Frank: The Stories of Six Women Who Knew Anne Frank by Willy Lindwer in a used book store. I bought it, but have never read it.

It sounds like it might be time for me to read this and to reread Anne's diary.