Books I read this autumn
I did quite some reading during our vacation in Gran Canaria as can be expected, but since then I've slowed down considerably. But here's what I've been reading beside Lucky Man, which deserved a seperate post.
The story is about a young woman, talented for fashion and sewing, from London who ends up in Paris when World War II erupts. She had followed foolishly and naively a gentleman lover, totally oblivious she didn't know him every well and totally ignoring the warning signs for the war. Her naivety irritated me quite a lot.
When war erupts she is transferred as forced labour to Germany and after a while she ends up in Dachau. Despite the title of the book, time jumps ahead quite quickly during the horror years of the war and while she was not part of the main prisoner camp, her own horrors of trying to survive were quite clear.
When I had picked up the book I had thought this would be all over the war, but when time was jumping ahead so quickly, and I was just in the middle of the book, I was surprised that the liberation was already there. So there was a considerate part of the book on the years after the war, as a nazi horror survivor. This angle of the book was quite refreshing and new to me...what do you say when you return home? Do they understand what you've been through? Do you understand what those left behind have gone through, when clearly your old city is full of scars and still under war economy and rationing.
Much to my irritation though, her naivety was still alive and she falls again in the traps of dishonest men with once again tragic consequences. Stupid girl.
When war erupts she is transferred as forced labour to Germany and after a while she ends up in Dachau. Despite the title of the book, time jumps ahead quite quickly during the horror years of the war and while she was not part of the main prisoner camp, her own horrors of trying to survive were quite clear.
When I had picked up the book I had thought this would be all over the war, but when time was jumping ahead so quickly, and I was just in the middle of the book, I was surprised that the liberation was already there. So there was a considerate part of the book on the years after the war, as a nazi horror survivor. This angle of the book was quite refreshing and new to me...what do you say when you return home? Do they understand what you've been through? Do you understand what those left behind have gone through, when clearly your old city is full of scars and still under war economy and rationing.
Much to my irritation though, her naivety was still alive and she falls again in the traps of dishonest men with once again tragic consequences. Stupid girl.
De Aanslag - Baldacci
Ha, vacation literature like I enjoy it most. A good thriller about a contract killer from the CIA going rogue and a different hit men getting the assignment to go after her.
And then after a while it's not clear anymore who is hunting who and who are the good guys and who are not. Thrilling...After a few weeks or months, I probably don't have a clue anymore about the storyline of this book, but I sure enjoyed the days while I was reading in it.
And then after a while it's not clear anymore who is hunting who and who are the good guys and who are not. Thrilling...After a few weeks or months, I probably don't have a clue anymore about the storyline of this book, but I sure enjoyed the days while I was reading in it.
Close to the wind - Pete Goss
This book had also been on my book shelf for about 11 years. I received it when working at Heineken after Pete Goss had been a guest speaker with a motivational speech at one of our international IT conferences.
Pete Goss is an amazing guy, passionate for sailing and achieving his passion in a professional carreer where he competes in cross-Atlantic and around the globe sail races. In his book you can read on how he sets his goal on his passion and starts building his way with loads of obstacles and issues, but he perseveres and gets to race. You sure can take a lot out of it as motivational leadership and going for your passion etc but there was so much sailing jargon in it and I don't feel anything about sailing so it was at the same time a lot of blablabla to me.
The race descriptions deserve a lot of respect and taught me a lot on how you do such a race solo for weeks (I had no clue) but once again...to much sailing jargon and blabla. A summary would do it for me.
But then the part comes, ...and it's more brief than I'd wanted it to be...that I remember from his speech. In the midst of a huge tropical storm in the south of the Pacific, days away from any living world, he gets the Mayday Mayday signal from a fellow competitor about 2 days sailing away from him with nobody else around while he was just barely struggling to survive the storm himself. After reading a whole book on how important this race and your position in the race are etc but also what a struggle to survive, you know it's a big thing to take the decision that he took after about 2 seconds of thinking....turn the whole boat and start searching in the mission impossible for the capsized French sailor floating in the middle of the wild ocean.
And he succeeds the mission impossible: while the Australian coast guard had managed to drop a life raft boat in the water and could send rocket flares in the area to help Pete's navigation to the right location: he reaches the floating life raft with the French sailor which he takes into his one man sailing boat and sets sail to New Zealand to drop him off in a hospital 10 days later in front of a crowd of thousands in the harbour that is awaiting this hero. He also got the French medal d'honneur later on once back in Europe.
And then there's more sailing...catching up weeks of lagging in the race, stories of self-surgery etc (that was too much information).
The pictures in the book (including some of the Australian airforce that did film the rescue) make it all very much alive. Pete Goss is definitely an outstanding man to be admired for so many skills, perseverance, courage, etc. But I also learned that I couldn't give a damn about sailing :p
Pete Goss is an amazing guy, passionate for sailing and achieving his passion in a professional carreer where he competes in cross-Atlantic and around the globe sail races. In his book you can read on how he sets his goal on his passion and starts building his way with loads of obstacles and issues, but he perseveres and gets to race. You sure can take a lot out of it as motivational leadership and going for your passion etc but there was so much sailing jargon in it and I don't feel anything about sailing so it was at the same time a lot of blablabla to me.
The race descriptions deserve a lot of respect and taught me a lot on how you do such a race solo for weeks (I had no clue) but once again...to much sailing jargon and blabla. A summary would do it for me.
But then the part comes, ...and it's more brief than I'd wanted it to be...that I remember from his speech. In the midst of a huge tropical storm in the south of the Pacific, days away from any living world, he gets the Mayday Mayday signal from a fellow competitor about 2 days sailing away from him with nobody else around while he was just barely struggling to survive the storm himself. After reading a whole book on how important this race and your position in the race are etc but also what a struggle to survive, you know it's a big thing to take the decision that he took after about 2 seconds of thinking....turn the whole boat and start searching in the mission impossible for the capsized French sailor floating in the middle of the wild ocean.
And he succeeds the mission impossible: while the Australian coast guard had managed to drop a life raft boat in the water and could send rocket flares in the area to help Pete's navigation to the right location: he reaches the floating life raft with the French sailor which he takes into his one man sailing boat and sets sail to New Zealand to drop him off in a hospital 10 days later in front of a crowd of thousands in the harbour that is awaiting this hero. He also got the French medal d'honneur later on once back in Europe.
And then there's more sailing...catching up weeks of lagging in the race, stories of self-surgery etc (that was too much information).
The pictures in the book (including some of the Australian airforce that did film the rescue) make it all very much alive. Pete Goss is definitely an outstanding man to be admired for so many skills, perseverance, courage, etc. But I also learned that I couldn't give a damn about sailing :p
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