Apr 12 2011

Hitler’s Master of the Dark Arts by Bill Yenne

When I think of pure Evil in this world, one of the groups of people that comes to mind is the Nazis.  This group of men and women took control of Germany and transformed the country.  The hate they preached was foul and disgusting.  Among the many who stood beside Hitler was his primary henchman – Heinrich Himmler – head of the SS.  In Hitler’s Master of the Dark Arts: Himmler’s Black Knights and the Occult Origins of the SS Bill Yenne chronicles Himmler’s rise to power and how Himmler led the Nazis into the Dark Arts.

Through Himmler’s rise to power, Yenne explores the bizarre world of the Nazis’ connection with the occult.  Since its creation, the Nazi Party was heavily influenced by the occult.  The Party leadership embraced the idea that the Aryan Race was far superior to the other races and they spent vast sums of money exploring the world and science to prove their warped view.  This exploration was influenced by an ancient pagan Norse religion combined with nineteenth-century spiritualism.  At the head of this exploration was Hitler’s “witch doctor,” Himmler and his SS.

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By Jeff Grim • Featured, Reviews • 0 • Tags: , , , ,

Apr 11 2011

Ruta Sepetys discusses Between Shades of Gray (video)

After watching this video and reading this NYT book review I have added Between Shades of Gray to the TBR list. The video below is a little long but it is worth watching all the way through. And not really because of the book, although it sounds very interesting, but because of the history it discusses and the need not to forgot about this part of the world and the horrors they endured.

By Kevin Holtsberry • Views • 0 • Tags: , ,

Apr 10 2011

The better is the enemy of the good

The first step is admitting you have a problem, right? OK, I am Kevin Holtsberry and I am obsessed with WordPress themes. I just can’t seem to settle on a theme that I like and that doesn’t eventually bug me to the point of changing it and spending hours trying to figure out what I want to do.

Perceptive regular readers (who knows if I have any of those left) will have noticed I once again have been mucking about with the themes around here.  I had thought to go with a more “magazine” style theme since I posted less often and mostly just reviews and “In the Mail.” Bit for a variety of reason I never really like the theme even though I like the idea of a front page with book covers to tempt you into reading more reviews.

I toyed with using Tumblr to “blog” and offering more formal type reviews here but ultimately decided against that idea. Partly, because the fancy magazine themes require skill with code and images that I lack (and book cover are tall and narrow rather than the short and wide image locations so many seem to feature).

I want to try to write more, and more thoughtfully, and one way to do that is to blog more about what I read – the content as I am reading – rather than just post reviews. So a more traditional blog look would match that focus.

So here we are with yet another theme and layout. FYI, the five latest reviews will scroll across the top while the rest will fall in reverse chronological as befitting a blog.

Sorry for any inconvenience and I hope you like the new layout. Carry on.

*Ten points for the person who names the author of the phrase used for the post title without Google …

By Kevin Holtsberry • Featured, Site news • 0 • Tags: , , ,

Apr 9 2011

In the Mail: Alone With You

Alone With You: Stories

Publishers Weekly

Unwellness is woven through these eight beautiful and brutal stories from Silver (The God of War), who gives readers finely wrought slivers of lives scarred by sickness and the intermingling of hope and despair. The characters in the first two stories, “Temporary” and “The Visitor,” carry scars from their mothers’ illness into adult life. In “In the New World,” a 14-year-old boy gets a classmate pregnant, leading his hardworking immigrant father to reflect on his son’s future and his own battle to get away from an overprotective father. In “Leap,” a pet-owner’s wounded heart heals along with her injured dog, who she believes tried to kill himself. “Three Girls” tells the story of sisters who have to raise themselves in the face of incapable parents, while the title story details the resolution, made while trekking through the Sahara, of a woman recovering from a nervous breakdown. While the stories contain woes that can befall anyone—addiction, brain tumors, heart disease, disability—Silver infuses her characters with a fatalistic resilience that’s revealed through tiny, perfect details.

By Kevin Holtsberry • In The Mail • 0 • Tags: , ,

Apr 8 2011

T.J. English & The Savage City on The Daily Show

I am late in posting this but thought it still worth doing so. The Savage City by T.J. English is one of a great many serious and engaging books that I am unlikely to get a chance to read but wanted to make you aware of it.

By Kevin Holtsberry • Interviews • 0 • Tags: , , , ,

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