Monday was book club.  I needed book club.  I couldn't wait for book club and I am SO sad that I'm going to miss next month's book club!  (Even though I'm super excited about the reason I'm not going to be at book club!)  The book was "Day After Night" by Anita Diamant.  Here's a little bit about the book from the author:




I read "The Red Tent" which Anita also wrote.  In fact, it is one of my all time favorite books.  Seriously.  I'm not sure what exactly it is about the book that I loved so much but I couldn't put it down.  I wanted to know what happened next to every character and I loved recognizing bits of a story I was already familiar with but hearing it from a totally different perspective.  I've also developed a fondness for historical fiction and both of these books fall into that category (at least I think they do).  If you haven't read "The Red Tent" I HIGHLY recommend it.  "Day After Night" on the other hand...

I've started awful books and I NEVER finish them.  I finished this one which means it isn't awful.  It just didn't thrill me.  I really wanted to feel an emotional connection to any of the characters but the story seemed to move from one character to another so quickly and I couldn't keep track of who had what experiences from one night of reading to the next.  I never did develop that connection to any of the characters.

I've read/learned a lot about the holocaust.  I did a semester long project about Auschwitz when I was in college.  My roommate was doing her project on Anti-Nazi War Propaganda.  I remember her discovering Sophie Scholl and her brother Hans along with The White Rose non-violent resistance group.   I thought I knew just about everything and every horrible detail about the holocaust.  I am amazed that I never thought of or ran across any information about what happened to the Jewish people AFTER the war and AFTER the concentration camps were liberated.

That is what "Day After Night" is about - Zorah, Shayndel, Leonie and Tedi are all Jewish survivors of the holocaust.  The weren't all in the concentration camps and they all have very different stories but they become friends in Atlit (the internment camp that they are in while waiting to gain entrance into Palestine).  The book tells you each girl's story but not all upfront.  I did like that aspect of the book.  Each story was told at a time in the book when you needed to know it.

In general, we all had about the same feelings about the book.  It was kind of hard to get into and we weren't "in love" with it but we did finish it (or were going to finish it) because we wanted to find out how it ended.

I gave it 2 stars on Goodreads.  2 stars means "it was ok" and that is exactly how I feel.  I wouldn't tell anyone to run out and read it but I can't say that I regret reading it.

(PS - I can't wait to tell you about the book I'm reading now but I'm waiting until I finish it!)