Book Review Corner

@catmanblue wrote:

Can highly recommend a book called “The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas” by John Boyne.
I borrowed if from a friend and read it cover to cover in a day without moving from the sofa and it is only 216 pages long.

“… nine year old Bruno knows nothing of the Final Solution and the Holocaust. He is oblivious to the appalling cruelties inflicted on the people of Europe by his country. All he knows is that he has been moved from a comfortable home in Berlin to a house in a desolate area where this is nothing to do and no one to play with. Until he meets Shmuel, a boy who lives a strange parallel existence on the other side of the adjoining wire fence adn who, like the other people there, wears a uniform of striped pyjamas.

Bruno’s friendship with Shmuel will take him from innocence to revelation. And in exploring what he is unwittingly a part of, he will inevitably become subsumed by the terrible process.”

Would give it 8/10

Dont know if your aware of this Catty but its just out on film. Hitting cinemas about now, I saw a trailer for it. I think this will make a grand job of showing kids what went on,during these horrible days.

found this catty.

http://www.thefilmfactory.co.uk/boy/

Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier tells the story of a young, unnamed protagonist who meets a handsome, older gentleman, Maxim de Winter, in Monte Carlo. It is well-known that Maxim’s widely adored wife Rebecca, has recently drowned at sea and the local people of Maxim’s home county are devastated. The main character quickly falls in love with Maxim and the couple enter into a whirlwind marriage despite Maxim’s troubled past. On arriving home to Maxim’s West Country estate ‘Manderley’ after their honeymoon, the unnamed protagonist faces a painful struggle against the ‘other woman’ Rebecca, whose presence at Manderley remains overbearing even from beyond the grave. Maxim’s new wife is constantly compared to Rebecca, who was loved and admired by all, and faces cruelty from the malevolent Mrs Danvers, Rebecca’s old maid. As the new lady of the house, the main character struggles to adjust to Maxim’s more privileged way of life and to find her own identity amongst Rebecca’s legacy. However, as the story unfolds it becomes clear that Rebecca was not as angelic as people had believed her to be and her death is not as tragically accidental as it would seem…

…….And I have just finished it………..Fabulous!!!!

@tinks wrote:

At last I have read To Kill a Mockingbird

Scout Finch aged 6 and her older brother, live in sleepy Maycomb, Alabama spending much of their time with their friend Dill and spying on their reclusive and mysterious neighbour, Boo Radley. When Atticus, their widowed father and a respected lawyer, defends a black man named Tom Robinson against fabricated rape charges, the trial and tangent events expose the children to evils of racism and stereotyping.

Loved it

………..and then I watched the film

A great read tinks …. a book I first read at school as part of exam syllabus.

tinks wrote:

At last I have read To Kill a Mockingbird

Scout Finch aged 6 and her older brother, live in sleepy Maycomb, Alabama spending much of their time with their friend Dill and spying on their reclusive and mysterious neighbour, Boo Radley. When Atticus, their widowed father and a respected lawyer, defends a black man named Tom Robinson against fabricated rape charges, the trial and tangent events expose the children to evils of racism and stereotyping.

Loved it

………..and then I watched the film

What did you think of the film version? I finally got around to reading the book a couple of years ago. To be honest, I wasn’t crazy about it.

In terms of the American contemporary classics, I read Uncle Tom’s Cabin last year and thought it was well worth the read.