Books like Remember Us

Great perspective

This is a book that simply cannot be siloed into one genre, and it resulted in many precious hours of lost sleep.

I was captivated by the story’s ability to shift effortlessly between a serial killer thriller and an unrequited love story spanning four decades in the lives of an artistic would-be pirate and his beekeeper-turned-FBI agent best friend.

What I loved most about this book were the extremes the author went to regarding 3-dimensional characterization. While there are several prevalent characters throughout, no two are alike; each has his/her own ambitions and pitfalls, and all eventually become interwoven in an explosive climax and an immensely satisfying, full-circle ending that left me thinking long after I put the book down.

I didn't know before reading this book that German and Italian POWs from WWII were housed in prisoner of war camps in Missouri. I had never heard of this, so this book gave me a deep insight not only to these men's situation but also of the building of such camps and the staffing of them. I learned of the numerous camps throughout the state and the opportunity these men had to work on farms and other places to keep busy. There were several such camps around the area in which I live. I took one afternoon to drive to one such camp not too far from me. There is nothing left of it but a tall chimney that was part of a large rec room in the camp. It is a crime that such history is nearly lost. It should have been preserved as an historical building. Just standing… show more.

I know of author Lucy Worsley from her many PBS TV documentaries, so I hoped her book would echo her narrative style of the programs. It does. She writes in the same manner as her TV shows -- sometimes tongue in cheek, sometimes slightly irreverent, sometimes with humor. I've read many books on British royalty, mainly of the Plantagenet and Tudor periods. This book gives the history of those figures, but with an "unusually personal history", as the book states. Worsley tells the lives of these people via her position as Chief Curator of Britain's Historic Royal Palaces. As such, she knows the palaces intimately, knows the personal stories of the monarchs, and learned how these royals built and lived in these grand palaces. I found it interesting how one sometimes influenced the other, and I especially loved learning about the buildings. I've visited some of the places Worsley talks… show more.

If you want to know about art thefts in Europe during World War II, this is the book to read. This is the Bible!

Lynn Nicolas provides an exhaustive account of why the works were taken, where the looting took place, how it was done, how many artworks were plundered (the answer is in the hundreds of thousands), and what attempts were made after the war to recover the works and restore them to their owners.

I was awed by the extent of her research, which is truly groundbreaking. Before The Rape of Europa was published in 1994, little was known about the means and scale – and even the fact – of Nazi looting.  

I was traveling Europe as I read this one, about the art theft and its recovery during WWII. So much interesting history! It changed my entire perspective on the museums I was visiting.

This is the book that forced me to rethink how deeply race and criminal punishment are intertwined in America.

I had already spent years representing innocent people when I first read it, but Michelle Alexander still managed to make me uncomfortable in the best possible way. I remember constantly putting the book down just to process what I had read. What I admire most is that it doesn’t rely on outrage alone. It connects history, politics, policing, and incarceration in a way that made me see patterns I had previously viewed as isolated failures.

Few books have changed national conversations the way this one has, and I think it remains essential reading for anyone trying to understand modern America.

Few books have reminded me more powerfully that our circumstances and our inner life are not the same thing.

I first read Man's Search for Meaning years ago, and its impact has only deepened over time. Frankl's willingness to look directly at suffering without becoming defined by it challenged many of the assumptions I carried about happiness, success, and what it takes to live a meaningful life.

I return to this book because it continually reminds me that meaning is not something life hands us once everything finally goes our way. It is something we discover in how we meet what life places before us.

During difficult seasons of my own life, Frankl's perspective helped me remember that even when we cannot control our circumstances, we still have a relationship with how we respond to them. Few books have given me more courage, perspective, and hope.

You want heartwarming books about man’s best friend? You’ve come to the wrong place. Novels with dogs don’t have to be heart-warming. They can be quite strange, sinister or both.

Here’s a prime example: The Dogs of Babel, which starts as the heartbroken narrator discovers his artsy, Goth wife has fallen from a tree and died. There are plenty of clues that this was not an accident. But there are no witnesses, except for poor Lorelei the dog. What starts out as a heartbreaking account of grief then takes a sharp turn into the bizarre as the narrator tries to teach Lorelei to speak so he can reconstruct his wife’s last hours. It descends into a seething underground, complete with people operating on dogs’ vocal chords to make them speak. Have I mentioned my list isn’t heartwarming? Did I swipe elements of this novel for my book? You bet… show more.

This book also made me cry, because I related to it so much. When my dog’s behavior kept getting worse on a leash, and then when she bit someone, I felt very much alone. I felt like no one understood what I was going through, and I didn’t understand what was wrong with my dog. I wish this book existed then. It contains all the lessons it took me years to learn. Phenix explains what it means for a dog to be above the threshold and how to use counterconditioning to unring that bell. She also debunks the myth that walking a dog more will solve the problem. Not true when those uncontrollable triggers encountered on walks stack on top of one another, pushing the dog over the threshold and increasing their reactivity.