As you read this week’s article, I am visiting sites along the Danube River with 17 friends on the inaugural Book Whisperer Reader’s Trip. To become acquainted with the history, people and culture of Central Europe, travelers chose from a curated list of books, movies and TV series to read and watch before setting sail.
Two of those: The Sound of Music Story: How A Beguiling Young Novice, A Handsome Austrian Captain and Ten Singing von Trapp Children Inspired the Most Beloved Film of All Time by Tom Santopietro and The Vienna Writers Circle by J.C. Maetis.
Do you love The Sound of Music? I DO! As a child, my family stopped what we were doing for three hours to watch the annual broadcast on NBC. My mother and I knew every word to every song, and I plan to sing a few of those songs while visiting Salzburg, Austria.
The Sound of Music Story by Tom Santopietro may have tarnished the mystique of Maria a bit. After all, she was a real person with flaws and not the perfect woman Julie Andrews portrayed. However, the reader will learn more about the real von Trapp family and the many people who made the movie such a success. I recommend the audiobook.
J.C. Maetis’s backstory makes The Vienna Writers Circle even more interesting than just the book jacket blurb. The famous British spy writer John Matthews wrote The Vienna Writers Circle as a tribute to his father, his Lithuanian extended family who died in the Holocaust and the Jewish writers of Vienna. Matthews learned his father was Jewish and Maetis was his true family surname when his father was dying and believed it was fitting to write this novel as J.C. Maetis.
In the 1930s, Sigmund Freud met with other Viennese writers and friends in the Café Mozart, and they were known as Freud’s Circle. Those meetings became extremely dangerous after the Anschluss, Hitler’s annexation of Austria, in 1938. Freud’s Circle was targeted by the SS, and the story follows two Jewish cousins who were members of the Circle, their families and friends. Loyalties are tested, and the characters exhibit amazing acts of courage. Those were desperate times, and people made incredibly difficult choices. The reader learns so much about the effects of the Anschluss on the people of Austria.
Four other books on the curated list were recommended in previous articles. If you would like to join this trip in your imagination, check out The Accidental Empress by Allison Pataki, The Secret Society of Salzburg by Renee Ryan, Code Name: Helene by Ariel Lawhon, and The Forest of Vanishing Stars by Kristin Harmel. Look for two more books from the list next week.
Linda Sullivan is an avid reader and wants to make you one, too. For more recommendations or just to talk books, reach out to her at thebookwhisperertn@gmail.com. She can also be found @thebookwhisperertn on Instagram.
