Anne Frank

I read this book for three, no, actually 4, reasons:

1. It's interesting.
2. Masterpiece Classic is airing a new adaptation of this on Holocaust Day (April 11th).
3. Miep Gies (a woman who helped Anne's family hide and was the one to recover and preserve Anne's diary) just died on January 10th.
4. I own it and have never read it all the way through. Sad, huh?

Plus I had to leave something out to read. All the rest of my books are packed up in boxes and will be in boxes until we get into a house which will be soon hopefully but we don't really know. Wow, I really should have used some commas in that last sentence. :D

Loved Anne Frank. I think part of its charm is how simple and innocent it is, but now and again Anne will say something completely profound. It's just heartbreaking how it ends so suddenly. One day she's talking about life as usual, maybe something about her blossoming romance with Peter, and the next, there's nothing. Just a note at the end of the book saying that her family's hiding place had been raided and all the family arrested. She died far too soon after that in a concentration camp. It is so sad and moving.

The Hiding Place

What a beautiful book this is. If I ever feel like my life is rough I plan on rereading this. I have never read a story with so much faith and hope in it. This is the story of Corrie Ten Boom, expert Dutch (non-Jewish) watchmaker, who's work for the underground during WWII puts her in a concentration camp. You'd think this would be another horrible account of concentration camps, and in a way it is, but Corrie's faith and recognition of God's tender mercies is incredible. Great book, but it had me totally bawling. I'm not always in the mood for books that make me cry like that, but I'm so glad I read it. Consider yourself warned. :D

Lincoln: A Photobiography

Generally, I'm not much of a biography reader, or a non-fiction reader of any sort for that matter, but I loved this book! It wasn't at all dry or boring. I can see exactly why this book won the Newbery. I learned a few things I'd never known before about Lincoln too. Highly recommend it.