pickWhile I was in Berlin, I met a British tour guide who referenced this specific book as a great introduction to the advent and dissolution of East Germany or the German Democratic Republic. Funny enough, I was already reading it. Hoyer does a particularly nice job with the format relating individual experiences of citizens of various locales, backgrounds, industries, dissenters and true believers and builds the historical narrative off this device.
Someone recommended this book to Tim Miller of The Bulwark, he added to footnotes, I borrowed it. Originally published in 1947, Reck details the rise of Hitler and Nazism with appropriate horror. I‘m only a bit into it , this paragraph !
pickThe concise history of the GDR covers the time leading up to the building of the Wall and ending in 1990. Hoyer aims to show the reader what life in the GDR was like - including welfare state, home and family, popular culture and foreign relations -while also focusing on key figures such as Walter Ulbricht, Erich Honecker and head of Stasi, Erich Mielke. When it comes to women‘s equality, the GDR was one step ahead of the west: women were working
pickHans Fallada survived Nazi Germany, wrote a novel based on the story of Otto and Elise Hampel in 24 days, and then died before its publication. If that wasn‘t tragic enough, his depiction of the grinding away of morality, loyalty, and self-respect to leave a society immersed in fear and loathing is exceptional.
pickReviews had me prepared to dislike this #wpf25 title but instead I flirted with loving it. I couldn‘t fully commit because there was so much about her unhealthy relationship with Marlowe which didn‘t add much, just another story of an older male misusing a damaged girl. Nila‘s other relationships and what she hides from herself and others as she struggles with her identity are what made this book special. So many lines made me pause and reread.
On the way home from ballet rehearsal on Sunday I visited 2 different Little Free Libraries. These were my spoils. 5.5 hours of ballet done this weekend ✅. I‘m a bit sore as I had a bit of a rest in the school holidays just gone.
so-soI admire the writing and the akill of this novel. I see why it has made the short list for #womensprize, but it was not a novel for me.
