Persephone Books discussion

This book is pretty long, so I think it might be difficult to finish it in a month! Don't feel like you have to read the whole thing. For discussion, feel free to post about your favorite or most interesting/thought-provoking journal entries.

I'm really interested in the Great War and WW2 so this is right up my alley. I probably won't be finished by the end of January. Is it possible to push everything ahead by a month and take two months for this?

That is a great idea, Cynthia! If no one else objects, I'll change the end date for this book to 2/28 and push the other books back a month.

I'd appreciate this! So many good ones coming up, and I'd love to read each of them alongside you all.

Gina wrote: "That is a great idea, Cynthia! If no one else objects, I'll change the end date for this book to 2/28 and push the other books back a month."

Thanks, Gina!

I've started it and am reading it slowly, in between other books. I suspect it isn't going to be a fast read. Good so far, but harrowing. So many of the entries end with "Will we live to see another day?" or something very similar.

Karen wrote: "I've started it and am reading it slowly, in between other books. I suspect it isn't going to be a fast read. Good so far, but harrowing. So many of the entries end with "Will we live to see anot..."

I know and I've been reading it before bed. I'd just like to know how anyone was able to sleep.

I've been reading this before bed also and feeling so exhausted by the lack of sleep happening during that time! I don't think I could function if I was constantly being woken up like that - and to be so constantly terrified!

Oh, and here's a link to the Persephone Forum about this book: http://www.persephonebooks.co.uk/cont...

I didn't see this thread so I read it 20 pages a day through January. That worked pretty well for me.

I thought it was very interesting although it took me a while to get into it. I didn't really warm to Vere, I didn't feel I'd have got on well with her if we'd met, and I found the opening section was just too much about bombs and nothing else. I feel a little guilty saying that because it must have been a terrible time to live through. It's just that from the title, I was expecting more about housekeeping (which she does get into later, when she moves to her little flat).

Also I think I expected to be peeking into her private life more - but this was never a secret diary - it was written to be sent to overseas family members and also had to pass the censorship. So of course she was careful what she wrote.

Anyway, later she started to write about many other things and I did enjoy it. I gave it 4 stars in the end.

Did anyone else wonder if she had a crush on Dr Remy - the one with the wife and children in Germany?

Thanks for your impressions, Rosemary!
I've thought about a couple of things while reading this book - if we were in another war today that affected whatever country you live in, would blackouts be obsolete, due to improvements in airplane radar? If blackouts were necessary, would people actually observe it?? Esp in the US, I feel like people are much more individualistic and would not want the government telling them to cover their windows or turn off lights.

Yes I think blackouts would be obsolete, not only because of radar, but because the bombs don't have to come in planes any more, a lot of them can fly by themselves on a predetermined path.

But, if that was not the case, you might find people would do it if a light meant that a bomb was more likely to fall on their house. But I know what you mean. Also, there's a scary bit when Vere mentions a serial killer who's taking advantage of the blackout to grab people. I think there would be a lot more crime these days and that might make blackouts more dangerous than having lights.

I finally finished and I have to say I feel I learned a lot. I have read so many novels about WWII but the details of what they went through are incredible. Gas mask training, plus how to defend your property in the event of fire. The stress of losing family, friends and property and not having enough to eat. Also, so many sleep deprived nights. I was astounded at her energy and good nature. She was in her forties at the time. We have to say that the English showed a brave spirit in the face of so much adversity and had so much respect for Churchill who really was a strong leader. I wish more people could read this book.

I've read all the way through 1943 and the tide of the war has turned. I don't know if it's become more optimistic or if it's because the Blitz is over, but I'm finding the last half much more interesting than the first. Should finish in a couple of days, finally!

I'm in the middle of 1941 and I admire Vere & others in England so much. The Blitz must have been so awful to live through - and never to know when it would end! I find it especially affecting when she says things like, "The warning siren went off last night but I was so tired I just stayed put in my own bed." I also can't imagine what it must have felt like to walk through neighborhoods surveying the damage and wondering how much more of this there was to come.

The first book that made me really feel like I could start to understand what it was like in London during the Blitz was Kate Atkinson's Life After Life. This is the second.

I'm going slowly because I'm really going to miss this book. What a great sense it gives you of what the general population went through. I'd like to read another like this one. I'm up to February, 1943.