The Lady in the Tower: The Fall of Anne Boleyn - Alison Weir

Rejecting as myth that Henry VIII, desirous of a son and a new queen, asked his principal adviser Thomas Cromwell to find criminal grounds for executing Anne Boleyn, the prolific British historian Weir (The Six Wives of Henry VIII) concludes that Cromwell himself, seeing Anne as a political rival, instigated one of the most astonishing and brutal coups in English history, skillfully framing her and destroying her faction. Ably weighing the reliability of contemporary sources and theories of other historians, Weir also claims that though perhaps sexually experienced, Anne was technically a virgin before sleeping with Henry. Anne was also, Weir posits, a passionate radical evangelical, with considerable influence over Henry regarding Church reform. Weir wonders if Anne's childbearing history points to her being Rh negative and thus incapable of bearing a second living child. Dissecting four of the most momentous months in world history and providing an eminently judicious, thorough and absorbing popular history, Weir nimbly sifts through a mountain of historical research, allowing readers to come to their own conclusions about Henry's doomed second queen.

Frauen: German Women Recall the Third Reich - Alison Owings

Owings, a freelance television writer who is neither a German nor a Jew, has compiled and edited a groundbreaking set of oral histories. She interviews women from many spectrums of the Third Reich: Germans, Jews, individuals of "mixed" parentage, a countess, a camp guard, women who hid Jews, Nazi supporters, Communists, and other women who witnessed and participated in everyday and extraordinary events. Owings has tried, as much as possible, to quote her interviewees directly yet still manages to create an even and engaging text. This volume is an excellent companion to Claudia Koonz's Mothers in the Fatherland: Women, Family Life, and Nazi Ideology , 1919-1945

A vivid picture of Germany under the Nazis emerges from this collection of unsettling interviews conducted by freelance TV writer Owings with 29 women of diverse backgrounds, both Aryan and Jewish. Among the women whose lives in Germany's war-torn homefront are chronicled are the widow of a resistance leader and the wife of an SS guard, who refers to her husband's work in the Ravensbrook and Buchenwald "manufacturing plants." Not only did Hitler attract the young but, according to one supporter, "he understood how to fascinate women." Some of these women claim that they privately protested mistreatment of Jews and prisoners and risked their lives to assist them. Only one non-Jewish woman, however, admits to "hearing" that Jews were gassed.

ON THE ROAD - Jack Kerouac

On the Road is a novel by American writer Jack Kerouac, written in April 1951, and published by Viking Press in 1957. It is a largely autobiographical work that was based on the spontaneous road trips of Kerouac and his friends across mid-century America. It is often considered a defining work of the postwar Beat Generation that was inspired by jazz, poetry, and drug experiences. While many of the names and details of Kerouac's experiences are changed for the novel, hundreds of references in On the Road have real-world counterparts.

When the book was originally released, The New York Times hailed it as "the most beautifully executed, the clearest and most important utterance" of Kerouac's generation.The novel was chosen by Time magazine as one of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005.

A CLOCKWORK ORANGE - Anthony Burgess

A Clockwork Orange (1962) is a dystopian novel by Anthony Burgess.

The title is taken from an old Cockney expression, "as queer as a clockwork orange"¹, and alludes to the prevention of the main character's exercise of his free will through the use of a classical conditioning technique. With this technique, the subject’s emotional responses to violence are systematically paired with a negative stimulation in the form of nausea caused by an emetic medicine administered just before the presentation of films depicting "ultra-violent" situations. Written from the perspective of a seemingly biased and unapologetic protagonist, the novel also contains an experiment in language: Burgess creates a new speech that is the teenage slang of the not-too-distant future.

The novel has been adapted for cinema in a controversial movie by Stanley Kubrick, and also by Andy Warhol; adaptations have also been made for television, radio, and the stage. As well as inspiring a concept album, the novel and films are referred to in, and have inspired, a number of songs and bands.

I, Claudius & Claudius the God - Robert Graves

I, Claudius is a novel by English writer Robert Graves, first published in 1934, that deals sympathetically with the life of the Roman Emperor Claudius and cynically with the history of the Julio-Claudian Dynasty and Roman Empire, from Julius Caesar's assassination in 44 BC to Caligula's assassination in AD 41. Graves's interpretation of the story owes much to the histories of Gaius Cornelius Tacitus, Plutarch, and (especially) Suetonius (Lives of the Twelve Caesars). Graves translated Suetonius before writing the novel. Graves continued his tale (from Claudius's accession after Caligula's death to his death in 54, as well as a sequel involving the early life of Herod Agrippa) in Claudius the God (1935). Both books were adapted by the BBC into an award-winning television serial, I, Claudius.

In 2005, the novel was chosen by TIME magazine as one of the one hundred best English-language novels from 1923 to present.

I, Claudius and Claudius the God were written as if they were the rather secret autobiography of the Emperor Claudius, the fourth emperor of Rome (r. 41-54 A.D.). Historically, Claudius was kept out of public life by his family, the Julio-Claudians, until his sudden elevation at the age of 49. This was due to several disabilities, including a stammer, a limp, and various nervous tics which made him appear mentally deficient to his relatives. This is how he was defined by scholars for most of history, and Graves uses these peculiarities to develop a sympathetic character whose survival in a murderous dynasty depends upon the incorrect assumption that he is a harmless idiot.

Robert Graves claimed that after he read Suetonius, Claudius came to him in a dream one night and demanded that his real story be told. The life of Claudius provided Graves with a way to write about the first four emperors (Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, and Claudius) from an intimate point of view. In addition, the real Claudius was a trained historian and is known to have written an autobiography (now lost) in eight books that covered the same time period. I, Claudius is a first-person narrative of Roman history from the reigns of Augustus to Caligula; Claudius the God is written as a later addition documenting Claudius's own reign.

Graves provides a framework for the story by having Claudius describe his visit to Cumae, where he receives a prophecy in verse from the Sibyl, and an additional prophecy contained in a book of "Sibylline Curiosities". The latter concerns the fates of the "hairy ones" (i.e. The Caesars - from the Latin word "caesar", meaning "a fine head of hair") who are to rule Rome. The penultimate verse concerns his own reign, and Claudius assumes that he can tell the identity of the last emperor described. From the outset, then, Graves establishes a fatalistic tone that plays out at the end of Claudius the God, as Nero prepares to succeed Claudius.

At Cumae, the Sibyl tells Claudius that he will "speak clear" nineteen hundred years hence, which he takes to mean that he should write his secret memoirs and leave them to be found by posterity in the 20th Century. He therefore chooses to write in Greek, since he believes that it will remain "the chief literary language of the world." This allows Graves to explore the etymology of Latin words (like the origins of the names "Livia" and "Caesar") that would otherwise be obvious to native Latin speakers, who Claudius (correctly) believes will not exist in the future.

Major themes
Themes treated by the novel include the conflict between liberty (as demonstrated by the Roman Republic, and the dedication to its ideals shown by Augustus and young Claudius), and the stability of Empire and centralized rule (as represented by Livia Drusilla, Herod Agrippa, and the older Claudius). The Republic provided freedom but was inherently unstable and threw the doors open to perennial civil wars, the last of which was ended by Augustus after twenty years of fighting. While Augustus harbours Republican sentiments, his wife Livia manages to convince him that to lay down his Imperial powers would mean the destruction of the peaceful society they have made. Likewise, when the similarly minded Claudius becomes emperor, he is convinced by Valeria Messalina and Herod to preserve his powers, for much the same reason. However, Graves acknowledges that there must be a delicate balance between Republican liberty and Imperial stability; whereas too much of the former led to civil war, too much of the latter led to the corruption of Tiberius, Caligula, Valeria Messalina, Sejanus, Herod Agrippa, Nero, Agrippina the Younger, and countless others – as well as, to a lesser extent, Livia and Claudius himself.

Near the end of Claudius the God, Graves introduces another concept: that when a formerly free nation has lived under a dictatorship for too long, it is incapable of returning to free rule. This is highlighted by Claudius's failed attempts to revive the Republic; by the attempts of various characters to 'restore' the Republic but with themselves as the true rulers; and by Claudius noting that 'by dulling the blade of tyranny, I reconciled Rome to the monarchy' – i.e., in his attempts to rule autocratically but along more Republican lines, he has only made the Roman people more complacent about living under a dictatorship.

The female characters are quite powerful, as in Graves's other works. Livia, Drusilla, Valeria Messalina, and Agrippina the Younger clearly function as the powers behind their husbands, lovers, fathers, brothers, sons and/or daughters. The clearest example is provided by Augustus and Livia: whereas he would have inadvertently caused civil war, she manages, through constant and adroit manipulation, to preserve the peace, prevent a return to the Republic, and keep her own relatives in power. Roman women played little overt role in public life, so the often unpleasant but always significant events supposedly instigated behind the scenes by women allows Graves to develop vital, powerful female characters.

Another common theme throughout the novels is the immediacy and validity of the Roman religion. All prophecies made in the narrative come to pass, from the succession of the Caesars, to the "discovery" of the secret autobiography, to the date of Claudius's death. Religious omens and prophecies function as the major means of foreshadowing in the narrative.

THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP - John Irving

The story deals with the life of T. S. Garp. His mother, Jenny Fields, is a strong-willed nurse who wants a child but not a husband. She encounters a dying ball turret gunner known only as Technical Sergeant Garp who was reduced to a perpetually priapic mental vegetable by pieces of shrapnel that pierced his head. Jenny rapes Garp in his bedridden, uncomprehending, dying state to impregnate herself, and names the resultant son after him "T. S." (standing only for "Technical Sergeant"). Jenny raises young Garp alone, taking a position at an all-boys school.

Garp grows up, becoming interested in sex, wrestling, and writing fiction—three topics in which his mother has little interest. He launches his writing career, courts and marries the wrestling coach's daughter, and fathers three children. Meanwhile, his mother suddenly becomes a feminist icon after publishing a best-selling autobiography called A Sexual Suspect (referring to the general assessment of her as a woman who does not care to bind herself to a man, and who chooses to raise a child on her own).

Garp becomes a devoted parent, wrestling with anxiety for the safety of his children and a desire to keep them safe from the dangers of the world. He and his family inevitably experience dark and violent events through which the characters change and grow. Garp learns (often painfully) from the women in his life (including transsexual ex-football player Roberta Muldoon) struggling to become more tolerant in the face of intolerance. The story is decidedly rich with (in the words of the fictional Garp's teacher) "lunacy and sorrow", and the sometimes ridiculous chains of events the characters experience still resonate with painful truth.

The novel contains several framed narratives: Garp's first novella, The Pension Grillparzer; a short story; and a portion of one of his novels, The World According to Bensenhaver. As well, the book contains some motifs that appear in almost all John Irving novels: bears, wrestling, Vienna, New England, people who are uninterested in having sex, and a complex Dickensian plot that spans the protagonist's whole life. Adultery (another common Irving motif) also plays a large part, culminating in one of the novel's most harrowing and memorable scenes. There is also a tincture of another familiar Irving trope, castration anxiety, most obvious in the lamentable fate of Michael Milton.


John Irving's mother, Frances Winslow, had not been married at the time of his conception,and Irving never met his biological father. As a child, he was not even told anything about his father, and he baited his mother that unless she gave him some information about his biological father, in his writing he would invent the father and the circumstances of how she got pregnant. Winslow would reply, "Go ahead, dear." When The World According to Garp was written, with the protagonist's biological father a comatose but aroused Second World War veteran, Irving was unaware that his own biological father had been in the military.

In 1981, Time magazine quoted the novelist's mother as saying, "There are parts of Garp that are too explicit for me."

Death
Irving concludes the novel by stating, "In the world according to Garp, we are all terminal cases." Indeed, throughout the book, Garp seems to be obsessed with death, both in his writing and in his personal life. Garp remarks in a reading that his novella, The Pension Grillparzer, features the death of seven of his nine characters. His third novel, The World According to Bensenhaver, features multiple scenes of death and mutilation. However, Garp's writing merely reflects the broader nature of his obsession with necrosis. Garp irrationally fantasizes about ways in which those which he loves might die. At one point Garp rants about his hatred of late-night phone calls—which undoubtedly bring news of a loved one's death. Ironically, several of the people closest to him do die—often in outlandish, even comical ways. In a truly Wildesian sense, Garp's art imitates life, and vice-versa, and his writing drives home the absurdity of a fear of death, as well as the absurdity of death itself.

[edit] Gender roles
Unavoidable in The World According to Garp and in Garp's own writing itself is the treatment of extreme feminism. Garp's mother Jenny Fields finds herself amidst elements of the women's rights movement, and, rejecting almost any interaction with men, is the locus of Irving's feminist overtones. Driven home by her adoption of radical feminists and her absurd New England feminist enclave at Dog's Head Harbor, Irving paints a complicated view of the women's movement. Indeed, Irving oscillates a decidedly unsympathetic view of the overzealous Ellen Jamesians, while vesting in the character of Roberta Muldoon a sanguine portrayal of a transsexual—one who ends up becoming Garp's best friend. Garp's relationship to the feminist movement is also muddled. Garp becomes a reluctant representative of the movement with his third—and most widely read—novel. At the same time, however, he is rejected outright by many feminists and Ellen Jamesians for his work's misogynistic tone.

[edit] Sexuality
Garp's world is one where sexuality — replaced in the book with the nomenclature "lust" — is basically a source of trouble and heartache. Garp's earliest feelings of lust, namely those for a girl, Cushie, result in what are ultimately negative feelings for Garp. Garp's second encounter with lust is with an Austrian prostitute, a relationship which his mother would use as material for national rebuke in her successful autobiography, A Sexual Suspect. In fact, the only character Irving creates without any symptoms of lust is Garp's mother, Jenny Fields, an asexual nurse whose repulsion from sex is highlighted by her conception of Garp himself. As a result, Garp's mother appears as one of the few steady, morally justified characters in the novel—in spite of having committed rape. Although she does have non-consensual sex with the Sergeant, that seems to be the only time where Jenny engages in sexual activity. Irving throws doubt onto Garp's moral compass due to numerous lurid affairs, Garp's marriage through an odd sexual quadrangle with another married couple (a similar situation was the primary focus of Irving's previous novel, The 158-Pound Marriage), and especially Garp's wife, Helen, due to her sexual liaisons. Perhaps the most striking image of the book is the scene in which Irving links Helen's fellating of a young man to the death of her son.

Did the Children Cry: Hitler's War Against Jewish and Polish Children, 1939-1945 - Richard C. Lukas

Based on eye-witness accounts, interviews, and prodigious research by the author, who is an expert in the field, this is a unique contribution to the literature of World War II, and a most compelling account of German inhumanity towards children in occupied Poland.

This book is known less for its content than for the controversy that has surrounded it. Nominated for the Janusz Korczak Literary Award, it was subsequently beset with a flurry of Jewish protests. After a spate of bad publicity, and the threat of legal action, the award was belatedly presented--but without any ceremony.

For more detailed info read comments from Jan Peczkis

Someone Named Eva - Joan M. Wolf.

Someone Named Eva is a young adult novel by Joan M. Wolf. It concentrates on the life of Milada, an eleven year old Czech girl, who lives during World War II, after Hitler annexes Czechoslovakia, during the years 1942 - 1945.

Milada Kralicek, a young Czech girl, lived in the village of Lidice, a few miles away from Prague. In May, she celebrated her eleventh birthday. She received a telescope as gift from her father, because she loved gazing at the stars. Her best friend, Terezie, Zelenka and Hana and a classmate, Ruzha attended the birthday. A few days later, the Nazis soldiers came to their house, taking Milada, her mother, her younger sister Anechka and her grandmother away. Her father and Jaroslav, Milada's older brother were separated from the rest of the family and taken somewhere else.tuzset

Milada, her mother, grandmother and Anechka were held together with the rest of female inhabitants of Lidice in a school building of Kladno. For having straight blond hair and light-colored eyes, Milada fitted the Aryan ideal. She is sent to a Lebensborn center outside of Pucshkau,Poland along with Ruzha and several Polish girls. She is renamed Eva, and Ruzha is renamed Franziska. The camp is brutal, and she works hard to remember her name Milada. But as hard as she works to remember, Franziska works to forget as Ruzha fades to a shadow. She spends years around other Aryan girls including Siegrid,Ilsa,Gerde,Leisel(who Eva befriends, learning her real name is Katarzyna),Heidi(who is sent off to a concentration camp after speaking Polish), and Heidi's sister Elsa(who is sent away shortly after Heidi).The camp and its staff seem cheerful on the outside,but appear to be hiding something unpleasant.

Once judged sufficiently trained, she was adopted by a German family from Fürstenberg near Berlin. The Werner family was composed of Vater, (father in German) who was a high official at the Nazi government, Mutter (mother), Elsbeth and Peter, her adoptive sister and brother. They lived in a very large house, where Eva enjoyed her own room. She was well treated, helping Eva to develop quite positive relations with her new family. The only strange feature she noticed was a horrible smell that penetrated the house nearly all the time.

One day, as she walked around the house with Elsbeth, Eva heard the Czech anthem being sung. Coming closer, she discovered a concentration camp with female prisoners singing in Czech. This brought back all the memories, enabling Milada to see clearly who she really was. Elsbeth explained to her that this was the Ravensbruck concentration camp and that her Vater was the head of the camp. Eva/Milada had some strange feelings that possibly her family could have been detained in this camp, meaning that all that time she could have been so close to her family.

By April 1945, the Nazi were losing on all the war fronts and Berlin was encircled by the Russian troops. Vater and Peter decided to go hiding, while Mutter, Elsbeth and Eva moved to a shelter made in the basement to protect themselves. In May Russians soldiers came and asked for the papers left by Vater in his office, but Mutter told them that she was not aware of anything. They left without causing any harm to a family that had done so much damage.

A few days later, Hitler was declared dead and the war was over. Eva, Elsbeth and Mutter decided to fix up and clean the house, trying to survive in the new situation.

Some time after, two representatives of the Red Cross Associaton came to the house and announced that Milada's mother was alive and launched a search after her daughter. Eva recognized that she was the person they were looking for. At that moment Eva was Milada again. She was taken back to Czechoslovakia.

She met her mother in Prague, discovering that her mother was indeed detained in Ravensbruck, a few steps away from the Werner household. Milada also learned that sadly her father and brother Jaroslav were killed by the German Nazi the same day after they were separated and that her grandma died in the Ravensbruck concentration camp. She was also told that her sister Anechka got separated from her mother and taken away and that the red cross are looking for her. Her close friend Terezie was killed in Poland.

As their house, as well as all other houses in Lidice, were completely devastated by the Germans, Milada and her mother lived since then at house of their distant cousin in Prague. Milada had to learn the Czech nearly from scratch. Milada and her mother got closer again as they were telling each other what had happened during the horrific times of their separation. Finally, Milada managed to recover her true identity and pride.