In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson

In the Garden of Beasts tells the story of the U.S. Ambassador to Germany during the 1930s. William Dodd was a professor at the University of Chicago when he was selected for the position. Many deemed him unqualified and inexperienced, which was warranted given his lack of foreign politics. He brings his family along and discovers firsthand how Germany was being quietly transformed. He meets with Hitler and different government officials often. At first Dodd was naïve of the real things occurring around him. But after living in the country for a year, he believed war was eminent unless the world intervened. Unfortunately, his worries fell on deaf ears.

Many details come from Dodd’s daughter, Martha, because she kept an immaculately detailed journal of everything. There was more Martha in the story than I initially expected, but she does play an important role in networking with officials. Contradictory to Martha, her brother was completely absent from the book even though he was in Germany the entire time. Maybe because I’m a guy, but I thought there was too much about all the men Martha chased. (A book written about past lovers is not ideal.) I wasn't that interested in all the romances; although it’s sort of justified because she did almost became a Soviet spy after dating a Russian man and she was set up on a date with Hitler himself. 

The author writes very eloquently. He uses the most complex vocabulary that I’ve read since I’ve started the blog. But it does not disturb the flow. It’s quite refreshing to be honest. Difficult parts for me (a.k.a. made for slower reading) were all of the German terminology. Hard to sound things out and names/places can be a bit forgetful, but that is expected because of the circumstances. My only complaint is I wish there was more to the book. The first two years are told in entirety; the last few years are summed up too quickly for my liking.

This book was recommended by a friend and it is right up my alley. I am starting to appreciate books based on true stories and I may give those more preference going forward.

My rating for In the Garden of Beasts: 3.5 stars out of 5. Get it here!

Remember, if you would like this book, send me a message and I will be more than happy to send it to you.

A Hope in the Unseen by Ron Suskind

A Hope in the Unseen follows a young African-American boy as he journeys through his last two years of high school and freshmen year of college. Cedric Jennings comes from a poor, broken family living in a terrible neighborhood in Washington, D.C. His faith in God carries him through tough times and he works incredibly hard to earn good grades in a high school where fewer than 5% will go to college. Cedric works hard enough to get into Brown University. He is overwhelmed at the cultural differences as well as the classwork. But he perseveres to graduate with a 3.3 GPA and go onto graduate school at Harvard.

Cedric’s story is rare in the sense that very few can escape the dire circumstances they are put in. Many would give up and make up excuses. The determination Cedric possesses is something everyone could learn from. Most of us (probably everyone reading this blog) had a better upbringing than Cedric. Yet he was able to accomplish so much with so little.

I have to mention how much race is discussed in the book. One of the challenges Cedric faces is never being around white people growing up. He constantly ponders how whites treat him. Is it because of his skin color? At the same time, he doesn’t want to fall into his previous life of only being surrounded by his own kind. The author does a good job of writing from Cedric’s perspective and the reader really gets a sense of how deep race can affect someone.

Although this book was recommended to me, I really wanted to read it because all incoming students to UMASS were given A Hope in the Unseen at summer orientation and required to read it before they returned for the start of school. (It's the first time I've heard of required summer reading for college.) Then they brought Cedric in as their speaker at Convocation. I wanted to see what made his story so special. After reading the book, I also believe this story would be powerful for younger high school students to read. It could provide some motivation for what they could accomplish if they worked hard enough.

My rating for A Hope in the Unseen: 5 stars out of 5. Get it here!

Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult

If you’ve been following my blog, you may remember how I said my brother had to read Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult for his summer reading and that I wanted to read it alongside him. (Obviously my brother waited until the week before school to read the book.) This is what I said at the time:

“I haven’t read the book yet, but I did look it up online…the story includes a high school shooting, bullying, and suicide. I think it’s a perfect topic for a high school student to read. Kudos to whoever selected it.”

After reading the book, I do NOT agree with what I said two months ago. For a sophomore, I don’t think this book was a good choice. The beginning of the book is incredibly confusing as countless characters are discussed, some of whom are irrelevant but the reader wouldn’t know that until the middle of the story. The novel is not written in the usual manner Jodi Picoult writes; instead, each chapter is written at a different point in time with insights into every character in the book. I was able to follow the logic, but my brother struggled with whose thoughts were whose.

I also thought some of the discussions in the book were not needed. Things like sex, abortion, parties. I get the idea of trying to set the scene and build characters, but it was a tad too much in my opinion. My last rift with the book was the ending. It simply ended. No real drama. No huge surprise. There is a slight twist, but the outcome remains as expected.  

Maybe Nineteen Minutes wasn’t written for high school students. But I was even a little uncomfortable with some parts of the book. I did think the author did a good job getting into the mindset of the shooter. The problems with bullying are real and the book does an excellent job of showing that. But as in most awareness campaigns, there's no solution presented to fix bullying in the book. It’s weird for me to say this (first time on the blog), but I would not recommend Nineteen Minutes. Sorry Jodi.

My rating for Nineteen Minutes: 2 stars out of 5. Get it here!