When you have nothing to do but look at a lot of billboards while you’re driving from one side of the US to the other, it’s good to have some books to read or music/podcasts to listen to. Here are the three road trip reads that I took with me on our latest road trip, and my thoughts on each one.
This is a name I’d heard many times (apparently there’s a film that came from the book, but that has somehow passed me by) and so when I spotted a copy of it in a thrift store in the US, I picked it up. Although I love my Kindle, I still sometimes hanker for the days when I could pick up a physical book and also because the synopsis sounded like something I’d be interested in. I also read the first page while I was in the store (something I can never help doing when I’m perusing books) and it hooked me immediately.
Unfortunately, I can’t say the same for the rest of the book. It is split into short, individual stories of each of the character’s past lives, which often left me feeling confused and unable to distinguish who was who. Because of this, there was no recurring theme running through each story and I started to confuse the foreign names and forget which character was being discussed. I’m sorry to say that I gave up on this book about 2/3 of the way through, something I very rarely do. I guess in the end I just wanted it to be another Memoirs of a Geisha or Wild Swans, but it just wasn’t.
Where to buy: Amazon, iTunes
It’s pretty obvious by now that I have a fascination with all things World War 2, and this book was no exception. Unlike The Storyteller, this is a real-life account of one girl’s life in Auschwitz. Rena was on one of the first transports to Auschwitz from Poland and managed to survive until the end of the war. She lived at Auschwitz with her younger sister, and it was because of a promise that she made to her sister early on that she managed to survive.
This book re-iterated a lot of the facts I already knew about Auschwitz life, but also gave some details about specific people and experiences that I had never heard of before. I loved this book because Rena is so relatable and because it was a real-life account. If you are interested in tales of the war or life at Auschwitz, I definitely recommend it.
Where to buy: Amazon, iTunes
This is a very sweet book, albeit one that I wouldn’t normally read. It follows an unexpected journey by pensioner Harold as he attempts to save an old friend of his who is terminally ill. He meets many people along the way and learns a lot about his life and how he and his wife have become estranged.
Although it is a light read, it didn’t really hook me in. I liked the main character, but was never compelled to learn his story. It is a book you can easily read in a few hours if you’re taking a flight or lying on a beach and don’t want anything too heavy (like my Auschwitz read!), but it isn’t a groundbreaking story and didn’t leave me feeling bereft after I finished it, like many of my favourite books do.
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