SAM'S BOOK CORNER: VOL. III & CATCHING UP

it has been over 4 years, but i am bringing back my little book corner. i have read since then but never felt like it or actually committed myself to writing a post. i am feeling inspired, as i did before, to at least keep track of what books i have read & what i thought, even if i do not want to do a very organized analysis. 

on a side note, a few books i have read/listened in the last few years but never talked about (i cannot be bothered to google the authors): 

"i capture the castle" (my favorite book i have read in the last 5 years, behind jane eyre)

carnegie's maid (still my favorite historical fiction book), 

the first 3 books in the "anne of green gables" series," 

"north & south," 

"the guernsey patato peel pie society," 

"longbourn" (my favorite jane austen spin),"

& "the help."

i just completed "the nightingale"by kristine hannah. i picked up this book because it won good read's best historical fiction (2015). the book centers on 2 french sisters who experience wwii & nazi occupation together & apart. man, was i a crier. i did not expect that when i first started. i feel like this book is actually 2 books. in the beginning, the pace is a bit slow and everything takes its time. then, somewhere in the middle the book picks up and man are you spinning in your chair so fast! to be honest, i was a bit disappointed with the book as a whole for personal reasons & pet peeves. i get peeved easily when i feel like characters are bad just to be bad and i feel like that is a really easy trope for books in wwii settings. it is something i find really glaring & hard to get past. the ending really saved it for me. it was beautiful & heartbreaking & tied everything up nicely. 

there were some nice quotes, but one that really stood out for me was a response when one of the characters was asked by a younger character why he had never been told about her wartime experiences. she responded:

men tell stories...women get on with it. for us it was a shadow of a war. there were no parades for us when it was over, no medals or mentions in history books. we did what we had to during the war, and when it was over, we picked up the pieces & started our lives over.

what an interesting perspective, especially for the eyes of someone who studied history like me. some narratives get heard & some either get pushed to the side from all the noise or the parties stay silent. i did not study a lot about the war in europe, but i will admit that i had never paid much thought from the perspective of the women who stay & experience the nazi occupation. honestly, i did not even realize that thought when i was reading the book & only thought about it when this quote popped up on the last few pages.

to add, this reminds me a lot of a quote from jane austen's persuasion. i talked about it in a past book corner post.

another quote (and it is on the first page):

in love we find out who we want to be; in war we find out who we are.

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i also finished "the kitchen house" by kathleen grissom. i enjoyed the book enough to continue reading until the end, but did not feel as emotionally invested in the characters as i wish i could have. i really enjoyed the synopsis & the idea of the identity, but it was a bit sensationalized for my taste. this novel tackles the south (pre civil war), slavery, race, social mobility, nurture, abuse, & identity. 

anyhoo, i plan to order some books from my library tomorrow, so maybe there will be another sam's book corner?