Sunday Salon...The Lanugage of Flowers and The light Between the Oceans

I don't know if this is random or if I'm like the "Sugar Queen" and books find me, but... I finished reading the Language of flowers last week in preparation for my luncheon.

Well both books were heartbreaking stories of children, lost children.  I actually had to stop reading a couple of times to regain my composure, not good to cry on public transit.

While I like to read around the world these two books took me to San Francisco, and Australia.  Had to keep reminding myself that Australian Christmas are warm.

Both books very good stories, would recommend them both, great books.  And you'll look at flowers in a whole new way.

Up next... maybe a visit with Flavia.

It's Monday what are you reading...

Sheila at Book Journey hosts this weekly event where we celebrate what we are reading for the week as well as books completed the previous week.

Although I got a nice little delivery last week, I didn't receive any books this week.  I'm trying to clear up my stack of books from the library.

Up next is The Welsh Girl:

Summary

Set in the stunning landscape of North Wales just after D-Day, Peter Ho Davies's profoundly moving first novel traces the intersection of disparate lives in wartime. When a POW camp is established near her village, seventeen-year-old barmaid Esther Evans finds herself strangely drawn to the camp and its forlorn captives. She is exploring the camp boundary when the astonishing occurs: Karsten, a young German corporal, calls out to her from behind the fence. From that moment on, the two foster a secret relationship that will ultimately put them both at risk. Meanwhile, another foreigner, the German-Jewish interrogator Rotherham, travels to Wales to investigate Britain's most notorious Nazi prisoner, Rudolf Hess. In this richly drawn and thought-provoking work, all will come to question where they belong and where their loyalties lie. (from library description)

I just finished reading Once, Morris Gleitzman.  This is a short YA novel, written from the point of view of a young boy, who apparently has no clue that there is a war on.  His parents have placed him in a Catholic orphanage to hide him from the Nazi's.  One day he gets a whole carrot in his soup, this is very unusual, and he takes this as a sign that he is to search out and find his parents.  As he sets out to do so, he encounters the war elements and is soon engaged in survival tactics.

my thoughts:  I enjoyed this short novel.  Perhaps enjoyed is the wrong word, but I suppose we never think of how young children view the horrors they witnessed and how did this affect them.  I am always amazed at the strength that comes forth in these difficult times.  I'm also always amazed at how uncivilized some behavior becomes in difficult times.  Fighting for survival is ugly, no two ways about it. I saw the review for this book on one of the book blogs, and thought I'd give it a try.  When my mom and I visited Poland we walked through the area known as the Warsaw Ghetto, it's hard to believe such things existed, but they did.