Monday, January 27, 2014

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

I didn't finish any books last week; despite this winter being brutally cold and me spending a ton of time indoors, my reading has been slow.

I'm continuing on with Remember Me Like This and The Ghost Road, but I've also started Saving Mozart, by Raphael Jerusalmy, a short epistolary novel set in Germany in World War 2. An aging musician named Otto Steiner is living out his last days in a convalescent home, where he is terrified that he'll be found out as a Jew, but that's not his only problem. His financial situation is deteriorating too. The only comfort he finds is in music, and he's appalled to learn that a Mozart concert will be used to promote Nazi propaganda. Is there a way for him to foil the Nazis' plans?


In audio land, I'm listening to Neil Lochery's Lisbon, an interesting account of that city's role in World War 2. Ben Macintyre's Double Cross featured a lot of action in Portugal, and I'm learning that neutral doesn't mean uninvolved when it comes to global conflict.

I got the Europa Editions catalog for the summer season the other day, and I was delighted to find out that Deirdre Madden's book Time Present and Time Past will be published by Europa in May.  I bought a paperback of Time Present in Dublin while on vacation last year. I should bump it up the pile right away, don't you think?

What are you reading today? See more at BookJourney.wordpress.com.

5 comments:

Tea said...

I would like Saving Mozart. I like to read letters in a book.

Anonymous said...

the cozy indoors from the cold seems like a great time for reading, but I also end up sleepy.

am reading Mansfield Park, a Jane Austen I hadn't read (for a class), and some James Joyce for a class. need to finish a SF, but there is this sleepiness with the cold out...

~L (omphaloskepsis)

Mystica said...

All new to me. Look forward to your review on the Saving Motzart book.

The Many Thoughts of a Reader said...

I am reading The Intercept by Dick Wolf.

Sandy Nawrot said...

OK, Saving Mozart and Lisbon are both on my radar. I'll never tire of a good audio.