5 Fab Reads, Including In The Garden Of Beasts

Modern rules of civility should include nodding hello to the neighbors, not talking about bodily afflictions on your cell phone when at Target and holding the door for the elderly. Back in the day though, there were a whole lot more rules. Specifically in 1920s, pre-Depression New York there were myriad rules. And that’s the picture the book Rules Of Civility strives to paint about a girl with gumption who falls for a boy of means. It’s fizzy and fun, depicting jazz age New York, and it delves deeper than typical flapper gal stereotypes. All is not as it seems in the fizzy champagne.

It’s an examination of social class, social striving and the emptiness even the most glittering of shells hides. It’s interesting, but it doesn’t grab you by the heart. Because at its heart it’s about a relationship between a girl and her fella, and this part doesn’t quite ring true. (It’s by Amor Towles and available for around $11 on amazon.)

 

I liked it, but it wasn’t unputdownable, which is what my current read is turning out to be. In The Garden Of The Beasts is a non-fiction account of one American family’s experience in Berlin when Hitler first assumed control of Germany. I don’t love non-fiction. I don’t love history books. But this one is different. It goes into enough detail that you feel like you’re there. And it helps answer the question that’s been asked so many times since the days of Hitler’s reign: Why didn’t people see the evil that was coming and stop him before it started?                                                  

There’s a phrase “the banality of evil”. It means that evil seldom marches in, trumpeted by horns. Instead it creeps in subtly, through small actions and choices. This book is a riveting account of those actions and their tragic cost.(By Erik Larson; available on amazon. com for around $11.)  

Other book recommends:

- The Dogstars – Hig is a pilot in a post-Apocalyptic world where almost everyone has died from a flu epidemic. It’s a story about what makes Hig survive. It’s not his gun-toting neighbor, but the humanity Hig rediscovers in his own soul. 

- The Watchers – My friend Pam says it’s positively Da Vinci Code-ish.

- The Story of Beautiful Girl – If you liked the book Memory Keeper’s Daughter from a few years ago, you’ll like this one. A baby is born and left with a widowed school teacher on her farm. What does she do with the newborn? Why was the infant left? The answer is exoneration and indictment both.