Miki reviews Dead Wake, the newest book by Erik Larson

I am officially an Erik Larson groupie.  This man can do no wrong in my eyes.  As a person who hated history class is school, I almost find it comical how much I love Larson’s books.  Not only do I absorb everything he writes, but he also inspires me to read more and more about the topics he writes about.  I am OBSESSED with history now.

Larson’s newest work, Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania, has yet again pulled me into the past.  Most of us have heard about the sinking of the Lusitania.  Some of us may have even known the significance of this event.  What makes this book fascinating is the humanity that Larson puts into the story.  Dead Wake is more than just a retelling of the journey of the Lusitania; it is more of a catalog of the stories of those people connected to the tragedy.  Some of the people that Larson writes about are survivors, some are victims, and some or responsible for the fate of the ship and its unlucky passengers. 

With all of these stories, Larson gives life to the people on the ship and he gives life to the story.  Sometimes, when we read about tragedies of the past, we forget how many hearts were broken, how many lives were changed, and what all was lost.  In this book, the reader can really connect to the event.  The lives of newlyweds, newborns, young hopefuls, and even old men were all changed or ended by the torpedo that struck the giant ship.  In Dead Wake, you are bound to find a story that will connect you to the tragedy and pull at the heart strings.  Especially if you are a book lover, you will find that there is now a very sacred treasure at the bottom of the sea. 

I encourage history buffs and history 'rebuffers' to give one of Larson’s books a try.  If anyone can make history a page turner, it is Erik Larson.

A Review of The Hotel on Place Vendome, a book by Tilar J. Mazzeo

There is perhaps no more storied hotel in the world than the Ritz in Paris. Its sometime residents included Coco Chanel and Ernest Hemingway. In the bar, one might find the ghosts of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald. And, during the German occupation of WWII, the hotel was also home to many of the Luftwaffe officers and its leader, the notorious Hermann Goring. The Ritz was the last stop for Princess Diana before her fatal car crash.

 

The Hotel on Place Vendome, by Tilar J. Mazzeo, tells the story of the Paris Ritz from its establishment in 1898 (founded by Switzerland’s Cesar Ritz), through the German occupation from 1941 to 1944, and its bright future following several renovations (which continue to this day).

I found the German occupation portion of the story the most compelling. Gathered in one hotel you had German sympathizers, German collaborators, Free French activists, spies and counter spies, French actresses dating German officers, and on and on…And it all seemed miles away from the raging war until people began disappearing, rumors spreading about torture and death camps.

It was interesting to read about what happens when a great city like Paris is all of a sudden occupied by another country. And even more interesting to read about its liberation. Hemingway plays his part. And what about the actress who dated the German officer? You’ll have to read it to find out. 

Pete Reviews the New Novel, The Last Days of Video

A Review of The Last Days of Video by Jeremy Hawkins

Not so long ago there were bright blue Blockbuster video stores seemingly everywhere. I remember having my own Blockbuster card and renting a couple videos for the weekend. With the smell of popcorn, the staff recommendations, the new releases, it was kind of a nice memory. It wasn’t so nice, however, for the independent video stores of that era, the stores that struggled mightily against the Blockbuster brand but usually lost in the end. The Last Days of Video, a novel by Jeremy Hawkins, tells the story of Star Video, a barely surviving independent video store in a small college town in North Carolina. The store has the town to itself until a brand new Blockbuster opens just down the street.

It’s 2007 and Star Video isn’t the place you’d go to find the latest Fast and Furious installment, but rather where you’d find a nearly forgotten classic or something from the French New Wave. It’s where you might find Wax, the hapless owner, and Alaura, his devoted second-in-command. There’s also Jeff, the freshman, virgin, new hire, and an assortment of other eccentrics, employees and regulars alike. But all who enter Star Video have one thing in common, they all love movies no matter what new technology threatens to rub them out of existence.

If you’re a fan of the book or movie High Fidelity, or the movie Empire Records, or simply a reader who also loves movies, then I would highly recommend this funny, sentimental, first novel from Jeremy Hawkins. Can one be nostalgic for 2007 -- just eight years ago as I write this? Surprisingly, yes.