I just finished The Berlin Stories and I enjoyed it very much. I’ve always been fascinated by World War II Germany and this book is set close to that time. It is actually set in the time just before WWII and describes much of the political unrest and mentalities of people in Berlin at the time. This is actually two books within a book. The first book is written about the author’s experiences with one main character and the second book is a collection of stories about various people he came in contact with while in Berlin. The characters are based on real people that the author met while in Germany and he does a great job of developing them. My only real criticism is that in the second book it is almost as if you are starting a new book every 50 pages or so. New characters and situations are constantly being introduced and if I had not been reading it in my 7 hour a day fashion, I would probably have been pretty lost trying to keep up with everyone.
Water for Elephants wasn’t actually on my list. Jake got it for me for Christmas. It was written in the 21st century so it couldn’t have been on my list. I have been reading it in the evenings before bed and I was completely taken in by it starting with the first chapter. It is a very interesting story. The plot flows well, the characters are well developed and there is a great mixture of comedy and drama. It was also quite a bit lighter and less intense than most of the books I’ve been reading on my list. I highly recommend it.
