Sunday, October 7, 2007

Suggestions for next book

Simrit said, "Let's try to decide the next book. Has anyone read The Boy in the Striped Pajamas? It's sad but anyone intrested? Another suggestion is The Memory Keeper's Daughter. I have both of these, so it's not a problem."

The Memory Keeper's Daughter is a 2005 novel by Kim Edwards. On a winter night in 1964, Dr. David Henry is forced by a blizzard to deliver his own twins. His son, born first, is perfectly healthy; his daughter has Down's Syndrome. Rationalizing it as a need to protect Norah, his wife, he makes a split-second decision that will alter all of their lives forever. He asks his nurse to take the infant to an institution and never to reveal the secret, then tells his wife their daughter was stillborn. Caroline, the nurse, cannot leave the baby at the institution and disappears into another city to raise the child herself. What happens when secrets are revealed?

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne is a 2006 YA book about Bruno, a 9-year-old German boy, and Shmuel, a 9-year-old Polish boy ... and the commandant who said, "They're not people at all, Bruno" (p. 53). The author calls this a fable ... as fable it is more than a book for young adults, and it left me thinking from the viewpoint of Bruno's father, "The end of the story negates the simple beginning and dictates the appropriateness of this book for older readers."

Bonnie said, "I have read both of these excellent books, and each of them would give us a lot to discuss. I recommend them both."

5 comments:

Marg said...

I haven't read either of these, and they are both on my TBR list.

Gerry said...

They both sound good tome.
Gerry

caboose said...

Count me in too. My first choice would be The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. And I do not know why?

Shirley said...

Marg's photo of what appears to be a Playmobil figure reminds me of many happy hours my kids spent playing with them. My oldest son even made an exhibit in which a group of the figures were in various dioramas behind a "rope" with other figures standing outside the diorama. He wrote a book about the dioramas to boot.

Both book suggestions sound like good reads.

Anonymous said...

Both books sound good to me!!