The Pianist: The Extraordinary True Story of One Man's Survival in Warsaw, 1939-1945 by Wladyslaw SzpilmanMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Named one of the Best Books of 1999 by the Los Angeles Times, The Pianist is now a major motion picture directed by Roman Polanski and starring Adrien Brody (Son of Sam). The Pianist won the Cannes Film Festival’s most prestigious prize—the Palme d’Or.
On September 23, 1939, Wladyslaw Szpilman played Chopin’s Nocturne in C-sharp minor live on the radio as shells exploded outside—so loudly that he couldn’t hear his piano. It was the last live music broadcast from Warsaw: That day, a German bomb hit the station, and Polish Radio went off the air.
Though he lost his entire family, Szpilman survived in hiding. In the end, his life was saved by a German officer who heard him play the same Chopin Nocturne on a piano found among the rubble. Written immediately after the war and suppressed for decades, The Pianist is a stunning testament to human endurance and the redemptive power of fellow feeling.
My Thoughts:
I finally took the time to read this book a few years after watching the movie. This is one time I feel that the movie did justice to the story by giving more visual to the atrocities that happened during WWII.
This book is his memoir that was written shortly after the war ended and was banned. In a way it doesn't surprise me, as so many things about the horrors of WWII have been dismissed as never happening and/or taken out of history books.
People need to know about these horrible things that have happened, not deny them. History repeats itself and I for one would not want to have to go through that ordeal.
Killing Kennedy: The End of Camelot by Bill O'Reilly
More than a million readers have thrilled to Bill O'Reilly's Killing Lincoln, the page-turning work of nonfiction about the shocking assassination that changed the course of American history. Now the anchor of The O'Reilly Factor recounts in gripping detail the brutal murder of John Fitzgerald Kennedy—and how a sequence of gunshots on a Dallas afternoon not only killed a beloved president but also sent the nation into the cataclysmic division of the Vietnam War and its culture-changing aftermath.
In January 1961, as the Cold War escalates, John F. Kennedy struggles to contain the growth of Communism while he learns the hardships, solitude, and temptations of what it means to be president of the United States. Along the way he acquires a number of formidable enemies, among them Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, and Alan Dulles, director of the Central Intelligence Agency. In addition, powerful elements of organized crime have begun to talk about targeting the president and his brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy.
In the midst of a 1963 campaign trip to Texas, Kennedy is gunned down by an erratic young drifter named Lee Harvey Oswald. The former Marine Corps sharpshooter escapes the scene, only to be caught and shot dead while in police custody.
The events leading up to the most notorious crime of the twentieth century are almost as shocking as the assassination itself. Killing Kennedy chronicles both the heroism and deceit of Camelot, bringing history to life in ways that will profoundly move the reader. This may well be the most talked about book of the year.
My Thoughts:
Killing Kennedy was a book that was selected for our book club. I had a hard time finishing this book. The book seemed to drag about petty things about Kennedy and his family.
This to me is a book you have to read for yourself to truly determine if it is good or not. As much as I love American History this was more tabloid trash than history. The historical aspects seemed over powered by the petty tabloid worthy information. Which if I remember correctly a good chunk of that information was supposed to be sealed up until 2027, according to the book. (Or maybe I read that wrong).
In January 1961, as the Cold War escalates, John F. Kennedy struggles to contain the growth of Communism while he learns the hardships, solitude, and temptations of what it means to be president of the United States. Along the way he acquires a number of formidable enemies, among them Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, and Alan Dulles, director of the Central Intelligence Agency. In addition, powerful elements of organized crime have begun to talk about targeting the president and his brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy.
In the midst of a 1963 campaign trip to Texas, Kennedy is gunned down by an erratic young drifter named Lee Harvey Oswald. The former Marine Corps sharpshooter escapes the scene, only to be caught and shot dead while in police custody.
The events leading up to the most notorious crime of the twentieth century are almost as shocking as the assassination itself. Killing Kennedy chronicles both the heroism and deceit of Camelot, bringing history to life in ways that will profoundly move the reader. This may well be the most talked about book of the year.
My Thoughts:
Killing Kennedy was a book that was selected for our book club. I had a hard time finishing this book. The book seemed to drag about petty things about Kennedy and his family.
This to me is a book you have to read for yourself to truly determine if it is good or not. As much as I love American History this was more tabloid trash than history. The historical aspects seemed over powered by the petty tabloid worthy information. Which if I remember correctly a good chunk of that information was supposed to be sealed up until 2027, according to the book. (Or maybe I read that wrong).
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