Category: Germany

2018, book review, current events, Germany, history, Middle East, narrative nonfiction, politics, world war II

Impressionistic Vignettes of a Year Still Reverberating Today

Review: 1947: Where Now Begins, by Elisabeth Asbrink I try to assemble the year 1947 into a splintered whole. This is lunacy, but time does not leave me alone. Within the first few pages of 1947, I made myself slow down because I realized I was reading something special and I didn’t want it to be over too quickly. There’s a reason why librarian Nancy Pearl called this … Continue reading Impressionistic Vignettes of a Year Still Reverberating Today

whatsnonfiction9 Comments
2018, book review, Germany, history, investigative journalism, memoir, Russia, world war II

A Family Broken Apart by War and a Stylistic Trek Across Europe

Book review: Maybe Esther, by Katja Petrowskaja The train station was recently built in the middle of this city, and despite the peace the station was inhospitable, as though it embodied all the losses that no train could outrun, one of the most inhospitable places in our Europe, united as it is forward and backward, yet still sharply bounded, a place that always feels drafty and … Continue reading A Family Broken Apart by War and a Stylistic Trek Across Europe

whatsnonfiction3 Comments
americana, book review, essays, Germany, history, investigative journalism, memoir, narrative nonfiction, Russia, science, true crime, world war II

Upcoming New Nonfiction in 2018, Part 2

One post of anticipated reads for 2018 wasn’t enough to include them all, especially with so many exciting -sounding ones already on the release calendar. Here, a dozen more of the year’s upcoming reads I think are worth taking note of, mainly from the latter part of the year. Beneath a Ruthless Sun: A True Story of Violence, Race, and Justice Lost and Found (Gilbert King, … Continue reading Upcoming New Nonfiction in 2018, Part 2

whatsnonfiction16 Comments
2017, Germany, history, narrative nonfiction, world war II

The Lost Libraries of Europe

The portal of the Berlin City Library (Berliner Stadtbibliothek) at Breite Straße 32-34 in Berlin-Mitte. It shows steel plates with 117 variations of the letter “A”, created by Fritz Kühn in 1965. By Beek100 (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 or GFDL], via Wikimedia Commons Book review: The Book Thieves, by Anders Rydell This is to a very great extent a story of dispersal – about … Continue reading The Lost Libraries of Europe

whatsnonfictionLeave a comment
2016, book review, Germany, narrative nonfiction, true crime

Secrets of Small Town Germany

Book review: The Scholl Case by Anja Reich-Osang, translated by Imogen Taylor In the last days of 2011, Brigitte Scholl, the wife of a former mayor of the small town of Ludwigsfelde to the south of Berlin, is found murdered in the forest. Shortly after, suspicion falls on her husband Heinrich Scholl, and he’s eventually convicted of the crime. I lived in Berlin at the … Continue reading Secrets of Small Town Germany

whatsnonfictionLeave a comment
2016, France, Germany, history, narrative nonfiction, world war II

Updating the Legacy of a War Heroine

Book review: Lindell’s List by Peter Hore Early on in reading Lindell’s List, I realized there was no way I was going to be able to keep track of all the people who were in some way involved in the stories and narrative, whether integrally or peripherally. There were so many introduced in rapid succession, and sometimes they’d be gone just as quickly, and I got lost. I … Continue reading Updating the Legacy of a War Heroine

whatsnonfictionLeave a comment
2015, americana, Germany, history, memoir, narrative nonfiction, world war II

Spirit of Santa Fe: Tracing a Ghost from Germany to the American Southwest

Book review: American Ghost, by Hannah Nordhaus I’d saved this for a Halloweeny read, and I’m glad that I read it after Colin Dickey’s Ghostland. It got a fair amount of negative, or at least disappointed, Goodreads reviews, and I might have felt the same if I hadn’t learned so much from his book about why ghost stories develop, and how the ghosts, along with our fears and … Continue reading Spirit of Santa Fe: Tracing a Ghost from Germany to the American Southwest

whatsnonfictionLeave a comment