Do you remember that magic moment when you first open a book and realize you’ve met what will be an old friend, one of those books you know you will think about for ages, that you will reread over and over again (if you read like that, which I do), and that stands a chance at actually changing your life?  Do you get all tingly inside?  Do you walk around with a goofy grin on your face?  Do those feelings of new love make you glow?

Yeah, that might be a bit much, but my feelings for Mr. Rosenblum Dreams in English are pretty extreme.  I have met my favorite book of the year my dears and… well…  I’ll try to keep the gushing to a minimum.

Jack Rosenblum, his wife Sadie and their daughter Elizabeth have fled Nazi Germany for the safety of England before World War II.  Upon their arrival, they are given a pamphlet on how to fit into England’s world.   Jack is a diminutive man, standing only five feet three and a half inches, but don’t let his size fool you.  Inside there is the heart of a lion-hearted Englishman and Jack is determined to prove it.  So he takes the list, takes it to heart, and begins to live by the list.  So when Jack is arrested as a “Class B Enemy Alien” and thrown into prison, Jack’s hopes for life in England are almost crushed.

Lucky for Jack, his friend Edgar gets him declared a “Class C Alien,” which means he is no threat to the country, and he is released.  Jack, feeling more exposed and threatened than ever, begins to add new items to the list.  Jack’s list grows and grows, until it is well over 100 items of What it Takes to be English.  He obtains all these items except one.  The last item on his list is membership in an English golf club.

For Jack membership of a golf course was the rebuilding of Jerusalem, Atlantis and the perfect salt-beef sandwich all at once-but it was proving troublesome.

They wouldn’t admit him because he’s Jewish and German to boot.  So he decides he will build one himself.

If you couldn’t get milk from someone else’s cow, you had to get your own.  No golf course would admit him and so he must build his own.

So Jack takes Sadie and moves her to Bulbarrow Hill, the new acreage and cottage Jack build for his golf course.  A Jewish business man with a thick German accent is an anomaly, to say the least, in their new village and, not surprisingly, the village folk don’t know what to think of Jack.   Jack is so desperate to change, to fit in, to be safe, that he will move mountains.  He wants assimilation, to “seep unnoticed into village life, like rain into the damp earth, and he did not like” the “scrutiny” of the village folk.  However, he doesn’t let this deter him and he begins to work on his course alone.

Sadie doesn’t know what to think of Jack.  She is stuck in the past, with the mother, father and beloved brother she had to leave behind in Germany.  She cooks, day in and day out, from her Mutti’s cookbook.  All the recipes she grew up with are her way of remembering; of saying I love you, to those who are dead and gone.

Once Sadie tried writing down her memories, attempting to preserve them in a nice book to pass on to her daughter but it did not work.  The meaning kept disappearing in the spaces between the words, and her story was written was never quite how she remembered it.  Now Sadie wondered whether it would be better for her to cook her way home to them.  Perhaps she would find them in the smell of slowly simmering cholent or cinnamon rugula.

One cake in particular, a baumtorte, that Sadie bakes, takes time, patience, and love and remembrance for those gone, and was bittersweet to read about.

Sadie has so much patience for her cooking, but very little for Jack.  When Jack declares that he will build the course by himself, Sadie retorts:

My mother warned me that craziness ran in your family.  I should have listened but no, I was young and foolish and easily impressed by your red bicycle and your thick hair.

Isn’t that great?  I hope you can tell how much I adored these two characters.  I am absolutely in love with Jack.  He reminds me of my grandmother’s family; small, short, and furiously stubborn.  And Sadie.  Oh, how I just want to scoop her up and give her a hug.  Knowing that Solomons based these characters on her grandparents makes me adore them all the more.  The writing is utterly charming.  Solomons does an excellent job of shaping these characters, of presenting their flaws and their strengths, their humor and sadness, their complete will to survive, to thrive!  It’s simply gorgeous.   This book made me laugh, cry, scream in frustration for these two people, and hug myself in rapturous contentment at their successes.  I feel as proud of Jack and Sadie as I’m sure Ms. Solomons does for her own grandparents.

I hope I have convinced you that reading Jack and Sadie’s story is something you want to do.  The book will be out June 21st.  Thank you, Reagan Arthur, for sending me this unexpected treasure.

This book is called Mr. Rosenblum’s List in England.

Mr. Rosenblum Dreams in English
Author: Natasha Solomons
Category: Historical Fiction
Published by: Reagan Arthur Books
Format: Hardcover, 368 pages
On Sale: June 21, 2010
ISBN: 978-0316077583
This book was provided by the publisher.

Challenges: The Reagan Arthur Books Challenge.

Visit Natasha Solomons at her blog.

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Dear friends and blog readers,

I completed the most marvelous novel this past week.  Have you heard of it? It is called The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.  Isn’t that the most delicious name?  It is a story told in letters, or an epistolary novel, which is why I am writing my review in this manner.  My friends, the writing is gorgeous. Would you like a taste?

Perhaps there is some secret sort of homing instinct in books that brings them to their perfect readers.  How delightful if that were true.

Doesn’t it feel that way sometimes?  You know, the times when the right book falls into your hands at the right time?  I love those moments.  I live for them.  I read for them.

That’s one thing I love about reading: one tiny thing will interest you in a book, and that tiny thing will lead you onto another book, and another bit there will lead you onto a third book. It’s geometrically progressive – all with no end in sight and for no other reason that shear enjoyment.

Isn’t that so true?  It is definitely one thing I love about reading too.

My most favorite quote though?

Reading good books ruins you for enjoying bad books.

Amen sisters.  This novel is full of tasty little morsels like that. It’s a goldmine!  You can read an excerpt here.

There is so much to gush about when it comes to this book, but I promise to try to keep the gushing to a minimum.  The main reason you should read this book is this – you haven’t met the characters.  Each and every character is delightful, will become your new best friends, and you will mourn their loss when you close the book.  Is there any higher recommendation than that? I finished this book on Saturday and I am still mourning the loss of Juliet, Elizabeth, Sidney, Dawsey, Isola (especially Isola!), Amelia, Kit, Eben, Eli…does it say something that I can remember their names when I don’t have the book here, in front on me?  

Not only are the characters delightful, the story is too.  This book takes place directly after the end of World War II.  Thousands of people have been displaced by the war, either for their own protection or thanks to the bombing of the Germans on London.  Juliet is just such a person.  The author of the hugely popular Izzy Bickerstaff Goes to War (truly, I am astounded by how much I remember when I don’t even have the book with me!) was forced to move when her flat in London was destroyed.  She has just completed her exhausting book tour when Dawsey Adams, of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, writes her a letter.  He acquired Juliet’s copy of a Charles Lamb biography and he writes for her help in finding more books about Lamb.  Juliet is, understandably, intrigued by the society name and writes back.  What follows is a remarkable correspondence that changes Juliet’s life in amazing, life-altering ways.  

Truly, I can’t recommend this book enough.   I don’t know what took me so long to read it, especially since countless book buddies told me I needed to drop everything and read it, but I dug my heels in, disbelieving the hype.  What an idiot I am.  Please don’t make the same mistake.  Mary Ann Shaffer and her niece Annie Barrows have written a remarkable book.  How sad that Mary Ann passed before seeing the joy her book brought; she sounds like a remarkable person and how lucky were are to get this small piece of her.  Trust me, you will leave the book wanting to move to Guernsey to join the Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.  You may not want to eat the Potato Peel Pie though.

Thank you to TLC Book Tours for arranging for me to join the tour. 

And thanks to the publisher for allowing me to giveaway FIVE copies of the book!  Please leave me a comment and I’ll pick winners on August 31. 

USA and Canada only, please.

Please see these other reviews for more about Guernsey.

Tuesday, August 4th:  Book Club Classics
Wednesday, August 5th:  Savvy Verse and Wit
Thursday, August 6th:  Maw Books
Monday, August 10th:  A Novel Menagerie
Tuesday, August 11th:  Brimful Curiousities
Wednesday, August 12th:  A Reader’s Journal
Thursday, August 13th:  As Usual, I Need More Bookshelves
Monday, August 17th:  Books and Movies
Tuesday, August 18th:  Bending Bookshelf
Thursday, August 20th:  Books on the Brain
Monday, August 24th:  Bookworm’s Dinner
Wednesday, August 26th:  Bookish Ruth
Thursday, August 27th:  A Lifetime of Books
Friday, August 28th:  A Sea of Books
Monday, August 31st:  She is Too Fond of Books

With love,
Heather

About the book:

Title: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Written by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
Published by: Dial Press (May 5, 2009)
Paperback: 304 pages
Category: Fiction – Literary
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0385341008
ISBN-13: 978-0385341004

Book clubs can check out the Reader’s Guide HERE.

AND Enter the SWEEPSTAKES by July 31st for a chance to win a trip to Guernsey with five friends from your book club!

No, I want to tell you about The Neverending Story by Michael Ende. I’m sure you’ve all seen the movie. I’ve seen in a million-and-one-times, thanks to the appearance of it every-single-year at our end-of-year parties in school. The movies were based on this one book, and it blows them right out of the water and all the way to that non-planet, Pluto. 

Unfortunately, its publisher doesn’t seem to interesting in promoting it.  This is all they had to say about it on Barnes & Noble’s website:

Small and insignificant Bastian Balthazar Bux is nobody’s idea of a hero, least of all his own. Then, through the pages of an ancient, mysterious book, he discovers the enchanted world of Fantastica, and only Bastian himself can save the fairy people who live there.

That does not even remotely do the book justice.  Amazon says even less:

Shy, awkward Bastian is amazed to discover that he has become a character in the mysterious book he is reading and that he has an important mission to fulfill.

What is wrong with these people???  For this book is so much more than either of these descriptions.  It’s a first class coming-of-age, adventure story for young and old.  Bastian is a lonely, shy little boy who is grieving for the loss of his mother.  He ducks into a book store to escape some bullies and comes across a book.  Not just any book, mind you.  This book is The Neverending Story, a book that pulls at him, creating a longing in him to read it so great, that he steals it from the bookseller who refuses to sell it to him.   And here you see, this is also a book for book lovers:

He cuts school to read the book, which takes him all day and into the night.  He meets many different magical peoples including; Atreyu the boy warrior, Falkor the luck dragon, Gmork the werewolf, and the Childlike Empress, and many more.   He follows Atreyu on his quest, to discover what ails the Childlike Empress and save her.  Bastian soon discovers that he is in fact a character in the book as well and not just any character, but the hero.   He goes on many wonderful, strange adventures inside the pages of the book, healing that world with the power of his imagination.  With this new power, he begins to change.  And that’s all I’m going to say.  You need to read it.

The Neverending Story was first published by German author Michael Ende in 1979.   It’s translation, by Ralph Manheim, appeared in 1983.  This is a magical novel, one any child would love, and adults too.  It’s definitely one you can get lost in.