Radio Treason: The Trials of Lord Haw-Haw, the British Voice of Nazi Germany

Radio Treason: The Trials of Lord Haw-Haw, the British Voice of Nazi Germany by Rebecca West

I felt the book was short and episodic. A later learned that it was expanded from four New Yorker articles. That explained things well. Lord Haw-Haw was a British voice for the Nazi Germany. When he was caught, he was tried for treason. He nearly was able to let away scott free. His defense was that he could not be arrested for treason since he was not a British subject. He was born in America and immigrated to Germany, becoming a German citizen at a time when the US was at peace with Germany. Alas, he had secured a British passport and renewed it right after hostilities had started. He was executed, but was able to get a reprieve for his wife.

Goodnight Moon

Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown (Author), Clement Hurd (Illustrator)

This classic children's book includes a "good night" to various things and sounds around the house. There is not a lot to it.

Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl: The Definitive Edition

Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl: The Definitive Edition by Anne Frank

Anne Frank received a diary for a birthday and started writing in it. Later he family had to go into hiding to avoid capture by the Nazis. She heard that people were looking for records from war experiences and started to edit her diary as a publishable form. The original diary is similar to what we have as an "edited" version. This version includes much of the original diary. Much of it feels like "too much information". There are cruel discussions of other people as well as sexual discussions. You can see that her feelings are evolving at the time as she is growing up. She is close to her father. She doesn't care much for her mother or some of the other people. (Though it was her father who survived to be able to publish it.) She was a blabbermouth in school. Later she hoped to be a writer. There was a lot of anticipation about "after the war". Alas, most of them were caught and died shortly before liberation. 

The war is almost an afterthought in this diary. There are occasional updates on the Russian front or the capitulation of Italy. However, much of the discussion has to do with the individual people that are hiding in the "annex." There are a few scary break ins. They have to deal with sickness and interpersonal challenges. She develops a crush on a boy and compares it to a similarly named boy she had a crush on before. People living in close quarters for extended periods of time have challenges. The fact that they could be hauled away to concentration camp if unfriendlies discover them makes it even more difficult.

The Complete Adventures of Curious George

The Complete Adventures of Curious George: 70th Anniversary Edition by H. A. Rey and Margret Rey

Curious George (1941)

Curious George Takes a Job (1947)

Curious George Rides a Bike (1952)

Curious George Gets a Medal (1957)

Curious George Flies a Kite (1958)

Curious George Learns the Alphabet (1963)

Curious George Goes to the Hospital (1966)

This collection has all the original Curious George books. They are of a higher quality than the newer stories by other authors. They also have various elements that would not be considered appropriate today. In the first book, George is found by the Man with the Yellow Hat in Africa. He smokes a pipe and then eagerly goes to the zoo. In all the books, George gets in trouble in various ways due to his curiosity. However, he always manages to get out of the trouble - often by using some of the same skills that got him in trouble in the first place.

These stories are quite old. Some look data. In Curious George Gets a Medal, George is the first animal to bail out of a rocket in space. This was before the space program had really taken off. In others, they just show a time of the past. In Curious George Rides a Bike, George gets a bike that he rides around. He later takes over a friends paper route, breaks his bike, and then joins an animal circus. He gets banished from the circus, then rescues a bear and gets to join. Everyone in the town knows each other and forgives him for not delivering their papers.

While he sometimes seems to be in a bucolic small town, other times he is in the middle of a big city. However, everyone still seems to know each other.

The collection includes CDs that include the audiobook versions of the stories. These include background music for almost the entire time.

The "Learns the Alphabet" was my least favorite. It seemed to be too slow and the pictures formed with letters was forced. For my favorite, I'd pick the first, though the early ones were all good.

Rocket Ship Galileo

When Rocket Ship Galileo was written in 1947, rocketry was in its infancy. The moon landing was still a few decades away. World War II had only recently ended and was fresh on everybody's mind.

The book is a simple adventure. A bunch of kids team up with a scientist relative and build a rocket to go to the moon. The physics and technology are covered in detail. Once they get there, they are surprised to run into other people. It turns out the others are Nazis with a plan to take over the earth with missles from the moon. The boys defeat the Nazis, saving the earth and return successfully to earth. Who needs superheroes when regular boys can save the world like this?

The Plague

The Plague reminded me of Blindness. Both deal with the changes in a society as they are isolated with disease. However, Camus takes a more realistic approach that further looks into the long term impact. In the end, life is existential voyage, and reverts back to the norm after traumatic events.

The Plague is longer than The Stranger. This is probably a result of dealing with an entire town instead of a single person. Philosophically, they are both similar works.