BOOKS FROM THE BACKLOG #6

Hi,

Books from the Backlog is a weekly feature hosted by Carole @ Carole's Random Life in Books. I'm doing double features every other week: one physical book and one ebook.

title: The Librarian of Auschwitz

author: Antonio Iturbe, Lilit Thwaites (Translation)

genre: young adult, historical fiction

published: October 20th 2017 by Henry Holt (first published August 18th 2012)

format: hardcover, 424 pages

purchase: Amazon | B&N | Book Depository

goodreads

Based on the experience of real-life Auschwitz prisoner Dita Kraus, this is the incredible story of a girl who risked her life to keep the magic of books alive during the Holocaust.

Fourteen-year-old Dita is one of the many imprisoned by the Nazis at Auschwitz. Taken, along with her mother and father, from the Terezín ghetto in Prague, Dita is adjusting to the constant terror that is life in the camp. When Jewish leader Freddy Hirsch asks Dita to take charge of the eight precious volumes the prisoners have managed to sneak past the guards, she agrees. And so Dita becomes the librarian of Auschwitz. 

Out of one of the darkest chapters of human history comes this extraordinary story of courage and hope.

why did I get this. I saw this while I was working on the bookstore a couple of years back and immediately ordered my own copy. It has 2 things I am so, so interested in: life in Auschwitz in WW2 and the librarian 

why is it still in my tbr. I don't know. I'm kind of scared, I think.

title: The Shadow Land
author: Elizabeth Kostova
genre: historical fiction
published: April 11th 2017 by Ballantine Books
format: hardcover eGalley, 478 pages
purchase: Amazon | B&N | Book Depository
goodreads

From the #1 bestselling author of The Historian comes an engrossing novel that spans the past and the present and unearths the dark secrets of Bulgaria, a beautiful and haunted country.

A young American woman, Alexandra Boyd, has traveled to Sofia, Bulgaria, hoping that life abroad will salve the wounds left by the loss of her beloved brother. Soon after arriving in this elegant East European city, however, she helps an elderly couple into a taxi and realizes too late that she has accidentally kept one of their bags. Inside she finds an ornately carved wooden box engraved with a name: Stoyan Lazarov. Raising the hinged lid, she discovers that she is holding an urn filled with human ashes.

As Alexandra sets out to locate the family and return this precious item, she will first have to uncover the secrets of a talented musician who was shattered by oppression and she will find out all too quickly that this knowledge is fraught with its own danger.

Kostova's new novel is a tale of immense scope that delves into the horrors of a century and traverses the culture and landscape of this mysterious country. Suspenseful and beautifully written, it explores the power of stories, the pull of the past, and the hope and meaning that can sometimes be found in the aftermath of loss.

why did I get this. I don't know, to be honest. It kind of looks interesting? Although right now I have zero clue what t's about. But being set in Bulgaria? That's kind of new to me.
why is it still in my tbr. I forgot I about it? I remembered it for a while then when I saw it in the bookstore. Then I got over it real quick.

HOW ABOUT YOU

Have you read these books? What do you think of them? Should I put them at the top of my tbr?

let's connect!