What I Read In February | Black History Month & Classic Dystopia

Books Mentioned:

The Known World by Edward P. Jones
Wild ImPerfections edited by Natalia Molebatsi
Women in the Picture by Catherine McCormack
The Descendants by Kaui Hart Hemmings
Winter by Ali Smith
1984 by George Orwell

Find me elsewhere:

#booktube #readsoullit #blackhistorymonth #poetry #classicliterature

[gregoryross.]

I read 1984, while studying English Lit at university in 1970-72, along with many other classics such as Lord of the Flies, Brave New World, and Dickens, Austen, Smollett, and others.
I have recently read a large book titled 'Out of the Night', by Jan Valtin. It is an amazing true account of his life in the dangerous social mess that was Germany during the 1920s and 1930s. Richard Julius Herman Krebs, used the non de plume of Jan Valtin, when he wrote and published this book in 1941, because he was afraid of the Nazis and the Russians tracking him down.
I would be interested to hear/see your review of this book, Jennie, if you ever get a chance to read it, if in fact you can stomach such a disturbing tale the whole way through its long narrative.
OUT OF THE NIGHT was a big eye-opener for me, who reads mostly nothing but history and memoir, especially WW II history, as my father's generation lived through that war and most of them took part in it as military personnel. My father was stationed at CFB Camp Borden in Ontario, and was getting ready to go and fight in 1945, at age 17, when the war ended and saved him from it. But his older brother, my uncle, did go for three years of it in Europe, in our Air Force, Like the fathers' of many of my childhood and teenage friends, they all came back after witnessing years of killing, death, and the destruction of countless priceless works of art, of historic towns, superb historic cathedrals, and cities, returned home as very changed and hardened young men.
Reading this book of Valtin's helps you to much better understand how insane Germany was during the 1920s and 1930s, and how that terrible and very unstable state of affairs allowed a madman like Hitler and his criminally-minded gang to gain control of and manipulate the people of Germany.
We must learn from history, so we don't allow such horrific events to repeat themselves. Valtin's book is a very well-written 'riveting read', and an excellent lesson about what NOT to allow to happen in any country, ever again.
But, I'd like to hear others' opinions of this not-so-well-known book. You can buy used copies of it online via such used books sources as ABEbooks.com, for very reasonable prices, around $12.00 including shipping.