We hardly ever have this book in stock at our store. Everyone comes in asking for this book and many say it is the selection for their next book club meeting. So when it was my time to choose a book for a club that I am in, I jumped at the chance to pick this book.
At first, I was extremely excited to start reading this book. I loved how each chapter jumped back and forth from the holocaust period to modern day. It started in Paris, July 1942, as Sarah, a ten year-old girl, is brutally arrested with her family by the French police in the Vel’ d’Hiv’ roundup and it jumped to Paris, May 2002, where on Vel’ d’Hiv’s 60th anniversary, journalist Julia Jarmond is asked to write an article about this black day in France’s past. I must say, I absolutely flew through the first half of this book. At what I would define as the first climax (when Sara found out about her brother), the book took a sharp downhill turn for me and never recovered. I wanted to know more about Sara. I did not care to read too much about Julia. I wanted to know how Sara lived her life, not how Julia dealt with her pompous and selfish husband. It was not until almost the very end that we get a glimpse of how Sara lived out her life. That was a downer.
Yes, the book was heartbreaking, but what book about children in the holocaust isn’t? And yes, now I can say I know a little about the Vel’ d’Hiv’ Roundup. So it wasn’t a total loss for me. Perhaps I held on to the fact that never having it in stock would produce a better book (which is usually the case with used book stores). Out of five stars, I’d give it a 2.

Robyn recently read Still Alice by Lisa Genova and rated it
Still Alice was a wonderfully sad book. A story about fifty year old Alice Howland, a world-renowned expert in linguistics and a cognitive psychology professor at Harvard is diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. I read it in one sitting. Having heard of the difficult times family members have dealing with a loved ones Alzheimer’s, I followed Alice’s discovery and progress on pins and needles. I could have smacked her husband a hundred times during this read, but in the end, I was comfortable with the fact that Alice lived in her own happy world. And that’s how I want to think the victims of Alzheimer’s Disease live–as happy people.

I was a tad perplexed that I had heard this was a biographical novel and after reading it, I set out to find out more about Alice. However, I could not find proof anywhere that it was actually based on a true story. So fiction it is. A solid 4 star book. Well worth the read and would make a great book club selection.

Reviewed by Robyn

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