The Things We Cherished by Pam Jenoff

I love stories that span time. I feel that the characters within these stories lend themselves to becoming more a part of the story being told. This one sounds good to me as does its sequel, The Kommadant's Girl.

The Things We Cherished is a suspenseful story of love and betrayal set during the Holocaust.

An ambitious novel that spans decades and continents, The Things We Cherished tells the story of Charlotte Gold and Jack Harrington, two fiercely independent attor­neys who find themselves slowly falling for one another while working to defend the brother of a Holocaust hero against allegations of World War II–era war crimes.

The defendant, wealthy financier Roger Dykmans, mysteri­ously refuses to help in his own defense, revealing only that proof of his innocence lies within an intricate timepiece last seen in Nazi Germany. As the narrative moves from Philadelphia to Germany, Poland, and Italy, we are given glimpses of the lives that the anniversary clock has touched over the past century, and learn about the love affair that turned a brother into a traitor.

Rich in historical detail, Jenoff’s astonishing new work is a testament to true love under the worst of circumstances.
About the Author
PAM JENOFF is the author of The Kommandant’s Girl, The Diplomat’s Wife, Almost Home, and Hidden Things. She attended George Washington Univer­sity, Cambridge University in England, where she received a master’s in history, and the University of Pennsylvania Law School. A former Special Assis­tant to the Secretary of the Army and State Department officer, she lives in Philadelphia, where she works as an attorney.

Wednesday Wish List

It's time to start narrowing down the list of the books for 2012! Instead, I keep adding to it!

Domestic Violets by Matthew Norman

Tom Violet always thought that by the time he turned thirty-five, he’d have everything going for him. Fame. Fortune. A beautiful wife. A satisfying career as a successful novelist. A happy dog to greet him at the end of the day.

The reality, though, is far different. He’s got a wife, but their problems are bigger than he can even imagine. And he’s written a novel, but the manuscript he’s slaved over for years is currently hidden in his desk drawer while his father, an actual famous writer, just won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. His career, such that it is, involves mind-numbing corporate buzzwords, his pretentious archnemesis Gregory, and a hopeless, completely inappropriate crush on his favorite coworker. Oh . . . and his dog, according to the vet, is suffering from acute anxiety.

Tom’s life is crushing his soul, but he’s decided to do something about it. (Really.) Domestic Violets is the brilliant and beguiling story of a man finally taking control of his own happiness—even if it means making a complete idiot of himself along the way.

This book sounds like it'll be funny and entertaining. The description made me think of the main character from American Beauty (with Kevin Spacey).

The Times on Tuesday

What's on the NY Times best seller list today for combined print and e-book fiction?

1 THE HELP, by Kathryn Stockett. (Penguin Group.) A young white woman and two black maids in 1960s Mississippi. (It's been on the list for 31 weeks!)

2 NEW YORK TO DALLAS, by J. D. Robb. (Berkley.) An escaped child molester pursues Lt. Eve Dallas; by Nora Roberts, writing pseudonymously.

3 THE MILL RIVER RECLUSE, by Darcie Chan. (Darcie Chan.) Only one man knows an abused widow, which revealed will change many lives in her small Vermont town.

4 KILL ME IF YOU CAN, by James Patterson and Marshall Karp. (Little, Brown.) When a young man finds a bag of diamonds, he gets the attention of the Ghost, a major assassin, and a rival assassin who wants the Ghost gone forever.

5 THE NIGHT CIRCUS, by Erin Morgenstern. (Knopf Doubleday.) Two young rivals at a magical circus become collaborators as they fall in love.

The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night.

But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway—a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love—a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands.

True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus per­formers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead.

Written in rich, seductive prose, this spell-casting novel is a feast for the senses and the heart.

It's only been released for about 2 weeks, but so far has a 4.28 rating on Goodreads.

6 THE BLACK ICE, by Michael Connelly. (Little, Brown.) The Los Angeles detective Harry Bosch investigates the scandalous death of a narcotics officer.

7 THE ABBEY, by Chris Culver. (Chris Culver.) Against orders, a former homicide detective begins an investigation into his niece's murder.

8 BLIND FAITH, by CJ Lyons. (Legacy.) A woman finds no closure after a man is executed for the murder of her husband and son.

9 1105 YAKIMA STREET, by Debbie Macomber. (Mira.) Bruce Peyton’s pregnant wife has left him, and he’s not the only one in town with problems; Book 11 in the Cedar Cove series.

10 A THOUSAND TOMORROWS, by Karen Kingsbury. (Center Street.) Two troubled young rodeo performers are unable to avoid falling in love, no matter what consequences their actions might bring.

Besides The Help, of course, has anyone read any of the other top best sellers this week?

Movie Mondays

Moneyball

Book, 2003 by Michael Lewis

Moneyball is a quest for something as elusive as the Holy Grail, something that money apparently can't buy: the secret of success in baseball. The logical places to look would be the front offices of major league teams and the dugouts, perhaps even in the minds of the players themselves. Lewis mines all these possibilities - his intimate and original portraits of big league ballplayers are alone worth the price of admission - but the real jackpot is a cache of numbers - numbers! - collected over the years by a strange brotherhood of amateur baseball enthusiasts: software engineers, statisticians, Wall Street analysts, lawyers, and physics professors. "What these geek numbers show - no, prove - is that the traditional yardsticks of success for players and teams are fatally flawed. Even the box score misleads us by ignoring the crucial importance of the humble base on balls. This information has been around for years, and nobody inside Major League Baseball paid it any mind. And then came Billy Beane, general manager of the Oakland Athletics." Billy paid attention to those numbers - with the second-lowest payroll in baseball at his disposal he had to - and this book records his astonishing experiment in finding and fielding a team that nobody else wanted. Moneyball is a roller coaster ride: before the 2002 season opens, Oakland must relinquish its three most prominent (and expensive) players, is written off by just about everyone, and comes roaring back to challenge the American League record for consecutive wins.

Moneyball has a 4.22 rating on Goodreads. Michael Lewis is also the author of The Blind Side.

Movie, 2011 directed by Bennet Miller

Features: Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill

Tagline: What are you really worth?









Watch the trailer:



I can't wait to see this movie! It was just released this weekend...has anyone seen it yet?

It's Banned Books Week!

Do you know what books were challenged most in the last year? Here are the top 10:

1) And Tango Makes Three by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson
2) The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
3) Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
4) Crank by Ellen Hopkins
5) The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
6) Lush by Natasha Friend
7) What My Mother Doesn't Know by Sonya Sones
8) Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich
9) Revolutionary Voices edited by Amy Sonnie
10) Twilight by Stephenie Meyer


What does it mean to challenge a book anyway? "A challenge is an attempt to remove or restrict materials, based upon the objections of a person or group." Read more at the ALA.

Want to participate in the virtual read-out? Go here.