What are you reading at the moment?

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Little John
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Re: What are you reading at the moment?

Post by Little John »

Interesting. There seems to be a bit of a campaign in progress.
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Leigh
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Re: What are you reading at the moment?

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marymary wrote: July 15th, 2021, 7:11 am
marymary wrote: July 13th, 2021, 1:24 pm It’s based on the real life of Lale. I think we only understand- say - a collaborator if we metaphorically walk in their shoes.
The Auschwitz Museum have contacted me to say this book is disrespectful to history.

https://viewer.joomag.com/memoria-en-no ... 0/p6?short&
Just a question.... Why would the museum contact YOU about this book?
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Re: What are you reading at the moment?

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Leigh wrote: July 15th, 2021, 8:23 am
marymary wrote: July 15th, 2021, 7:11 am
marymary wrote: July 13th, 2021, 1:24 pm It’s based on the real life of Lale. I think we only understand- say - a collaborator if we metaphorically walk in their shoes.
The Auschwitz Museum have contacted me to say this book is disrespectful to history.

https://viewer.joomag.com/memoria-en-no ... 0/p6?short&
Just a question.... Why would the museum contact YOU about this book?
Just like on here, I posted on Twitter that I was reading the book. Twitter has more reach than here so they publicly contacted me to point out their displeasure. I can leave it all up or delete my original tweet. I am happy at the moment for the tweets to remain but as of this morning, over 17,000 people have seen my tweet and the response from the museum - which is why they are bothered. Over 6 million people have bought the book so they have a way to go.


The author’s response- https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-09-23/ ... l/11527252
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Little John
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Re: What are you reading at the moment?

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Sod them. I say.
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Re: What are you reading at the moment?

Post by Lady P »

I haven't read the book but it is on our shared kindle library.

Your review sounds ok and from what I have read in this guardian article the objections are bit pedantic.

https://amp.theguardian.com/books/2018/ ... ial-centre
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Re: What are you reading at the moment?

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If the author presents it a fact, that is one thing and the museum should object. Fiction, completely different. Glaswegians might be in trouble with the Apollo 11 "memorial" otherwise.
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Re: What are you reading at the moment?

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Quite.

One thing I have learned from the book is that initially people volunteered to go to the camps on behalf of the rest of their families. The museum hasn’t objected to that part of the story.

Their major objection is that they claim there was no fraternising between female prisoners and male Nazis. It’s not the first time I’ve heard that there was so I wonder why they are so sure that the author is wrong.
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Re: What are you reading at the moment?

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marymary wrote: July 17th, 2021, 8:45 am

Their major objection is that they claim there was no fraternising between female prisoners and male Nazis. It’s not the first time I’ve heard that there was so I wonder why they are so sure that the author is wrong.
I don't pretend to know much about it, MM, but would suppose a lot depends on how the museum define 'fraternizing'. From the little I have heard - from historians and from survivor interviews - I doubt the females had much choice. The Nazis seemed to think they had a god given right to use people - male and female - exactly as they pleased.

The author has made it clear the book is a novel not an historical text book so I really don't understand the furor. No one slates the like of Phillipa Gregory or Jean Plaidy - and their books are laced with inaccuracies.
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Re: What are you reading at the moment?

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The museum are saying, according to the author, the Jewish women were never coerced into relationships with Nazi officers which seems quite the position to take. The author has recorded Lale talking about his life and it was this that she used to draw his character. She says “based on a true story” but now doesn’t argue with the museum about it.

Her book publisher commented- “based on a true story' because of those moments where creative or dramatic license was taken, such as when she had to fill in small blanks in time, or delve into characters' thoughts. At one point she puts Lale and Gita together, when they were not (when the planes fly over the camp), and some of the names of smaller characters, while representative of real people, are invented. The story is based on what Lale shared with Heather over many years, and if you haven't read it yet you'll be amazed at some of the things Lale and Gita went through. I was astonished, when working on it, to learn just how much of it was true (as told by Lale). The dialogue, for example – at first I thought Heather had invented much of what was said, but many of the conversations are word-for-word what Lale told her. I have seen videos of Lale, too, and can confirm this. Of course, he was an old man by then, and so his memory of these conversations is all Heather had to go on, but in terms of the events, researchers revealed that Lale and Gita's story very much waltzed in step with history.”
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Re: What are you reading at the moment?

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As a factoid, apparently there isn’t a Hebrew word for history, they use memory instead.
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Re: What are you reading at the moment?

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marymary wrote: July 19th, 2021, 8:22 am As a factoid, apparently there isn’t a Hebrew word for history, they use memory instead.
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Re: What are you reading at the moment?

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I am doing a FutureLearn course with Edinburgh University that focuses on various books including this one which I have just ordered.
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Re: What are you reading at the moment?

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Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi’s The First Woman

This is also being discussed on the course.
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Re: What are you reading at the moment?

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After almost a year of not really reading anything I have just finished 3 books:

Left You Dead - Peter James - latest Roy Grace story, was ok, it annoyed me slightly as Grace seemed too quick to jump to certain conclusions, but I know that was kind of the point of the story. Also had me crying my eyes out due to a rather sad incident - if you have read the rest of the series then you will want to read, but I wouldnt recommend it to anyone not familiar with the series as not the best installment.

A Wedding in the Country - Katie Fforde - for me this was Katie back to her best, I feel that her books tend to be quite quaint and her attempts at doing this in a modern setting made them lose some of the magic of her earlier books. This one, however, is based in the 1960s and I was only disappointed when it came to the end because I didnt want the story to end, I wanted to know what happened after the wedding

For Any Other Truth - Denzil Meyrick - newest DCI Dayley story. For a small town up the west coast there is fair amount of trouble, for those unfamiliar with this series it is based in a fictional town called Kinloch but in reality is really Campbeltown. With each new book in this series, the storylines seem to get bigger and bigger (sensational but bordering on ridiculous) and hopefully implausible. This is not a simple whodunit but a whole network of Eco-terrorists mixed in with the N.I. Troubles. Again I wouldnt start with this one as an introduction to the series.

The first 2 I read in pretty much a day each, the last one took a few days.
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Re: What are you reading at the moment?

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The old "men don't read books by women" thing was mentioned again on the radio over the weekend. The idea does intrigue me and i was trying to decide if there was any justification and also of books by women i have read or would choose to read.

Apart from the regular crime stuff in your post, ne, there are a couple of women writers I haven't tried so i might look out for them.

We decided that Val McDermot was as good as any male crime writer but also thought that maybe the way books by women are presented might be one explanation. Im looking at the cover of a very pink Cecília Ahern book.
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