April 5, 2024 • 18 mins
It’s the first official episode of Caelynn’s Book Club! We’re starting off with The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah. Just a warning! You’ll enjoy the podcast much more if you read the book first!
Find out what connected with Caelynn about the characters, and why she felt a strong Dean presence within the pages.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Suckers.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
I'm Klein Bell, I'm Dean Bell, and I'm Jared.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Habn An iHeartRadio podcast. Hello everyone, Welcome to an all
new episode of Suckers Kaylin's Corner. I am so excited
about this episode because I've been waiting a month for it.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
We are finally doing book club.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
If this is your first episode, make sure you have
read The Nightingale before you listen, because this is one
of the best books I have ever read, and I
do not want to spoil one second for you. Oh
my gosh, it's I can't stop thinking about this book.
And I have to thank Jess Higgins for this recommendation.
I have a on my notes. I have a list
(00:43):
of books and it's about fifty books long. And Jess
we were in Hawaii a few months ago and she
went through this list and she was like, The Nightingale,
make sure that's number one on your list, Like, you
have to read that first, And so that's been marked
for a while. But I got so deep into the
fantasy world that I couldn't pull myself out of it.
And honestly, if it weren't for this book club, I
(01:05):
would still be deep in fantasy and who knows how
long it would have taken me to get out of it,
because I talked about this on TikTok, but I read
Fourth Wing, which led to Acuitar, which led to Thrown
off Glass, which led to Crescent City. So it's been
a few months of fairies and dragons and it was
very nice to pop back into the real world for
(01:26):
a little bit. And I'm so happy it was with
this book, because I just can't stop thinking about it.
It was phenomenal. Kristin Hannah's writing was so beautiful, it
was so well done. So I want to start. I
know we've all read it, but I want to start
with a synopsis of the book, just a little refresher.
I was just looking at my notes and I finished
it last week, but there's already things that I forgot.
(01:47):
And it was not like a super heavy book by
any means, but so much happened, and there were so
many characters, and oh it's great. Kristin Hannah's The Nightingale
tells the story of Bann and Isabelle, two French who
resists occupying Nazi forces during World War Two by hiding
Jewish children so they are not taken to concentration camps
(02:07):
and by leading the escape of Allied pilots whose planes
have been shot down over France. Okay, jumping into this book,
I was immediately drawn in by the French, like the
little bits of French here and there. I loved it
because I'm trying to learn French, so that was just
like a little nice added thing for me.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
I also thought Kristin Hannah did a really good job.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
So the book starts out with a flash forward of
a woman thinking back on her life. She has cancer,
she's dying, she's moving into a home. Then you jump
back in time, and I thought it was about Venn
because you jump back into Vanne's life, So I'm like
that flash forward was for sure about Venn. With this son,
Julian and Kristen did such a good job of never
(02:49):
mentioning Sophie, never mentioning anyone else, So I had convinced
myself until the very end that the flash forward was Isabelle,
and I was wrong, unfortunately, but I think she did
a really good job of that of just like giving
you tidbits here and there.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
I was just really really holding on hope.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
But with the characters, I felt like van Is me
like she keeps her head down, she listens to authority.
It's very very much who I am, like real follower
to a t and Isabelle is more of who I
want to be, like standing up for what you believe in,
saying screw you to authoritative figures if they're wrong. And
(03:32):
then I realized while reading it, I was like, Vann
is very much who I am and Dean is very
much Isabelle. So I kind of liked those parallels. And
I loved Isabelle's character.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
I loved her journey. I just loved everything about her.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
My one qualm was her telling gait I don't know
how to say his name, Giton that she loved him
after meeting him, for she barely knew the guy. She
had known him for maybe twenty four hours at that point,
maybe less, and she says, I love you. That took
me by surprise, and it made sense for her character
in that moment where she was in her life. She
(04:10):
was just like desperate for love and to be appreciated
and accepted. But it makes sense. But then she would
I thought, would just move on and find another man.
And I don't know, but the fact that she said
I love you and held on to that and was
just waiting for that. The entire book really took me
by surprise and didn't totally make sense to me. All
(04:33):
that to say, I did really love their love story
and loved them together.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Especially the end, but I don't want to jump ahead.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
I also think that Biann's character arc was amazing. I
just related to her so much, even though I didn't
really like her at times. She just like went from
being so obedient, keeping her head down, to then having
this drastic shift. You know, she kicked her sister out
of her house. She was like, you are going to
get us killed, which I thought for sure something was
(05:04):
going to happen. I thought Isabelle was being so reckless
to then saving nineteen children and risking her life, risking
her children's life, doing everything she could to save these children.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
It was so beautiful, and to find out the whole.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Family it was a family of rebels in the most
beautiful way. Her dad was working on, you know, changing
people's names and making sure that they could be saved.
Isabelle was saving all these airmen, and then Vanne took
part in her family's legacy essentially and was saving children too.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
I just it was really really beautiful.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
Reading this book just made me have such a different
perspective on World War Two. And I know this is
fiction obviously, but World War two happened, and these things
happened in some way or another, like maybe not directly,
but these things happened. You know, this war was just
atrocious and disgusting and brutal. And when I think about it,
(06:04):
that's what I think about. The concentration camps are Nazis,
and I've never really thought about the way that Nazis
slowly took over European countries.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
It was good to put all of that into perspective
for me.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
They controlled what they ate, they controlled vehicles, radios, curfew,
and then to see the way that they turned against
Jewish people, like we know now that was always their intention,
but it was started with anti Jewish propaganda. Then they
slowly outed the Jews by firing them from their jobs
and then making them wear yellow stars, and then taking
(06:40):
certain people to quote unquote working camps. Then you know,
some Jews were saved, some weren't, and then all Jews
are not safe, and that progression was just so terrifying.
I also again loved, I loved loved Isabelle. She's so
fearless and truly all she want it. You know, She's
(07:00):
abandoned by her sister, her dad, her mom died, she
had no one, and even growing up with her sister,
her sister wanted absolutely nothing to do with her.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
So she was just.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Alone her whole life, and I think just of course
caused her to be reckless and rebel and everyone really
thought the worst of her, which she was eventually able
to use to her advantage and let people think the
worst of her so she could do what she needed
to do to rescue these airmen. But her fearlessness and
(07:32):
recklessness at first, I was like, she is going to
get someone killed when she Nazis are first taking over
France and they're like being forced to pass over their
radius and stuff. I'm like, you need to be smart
and not stupid in this situation because they will kill you.
And I really thought she would have a different end.
But I think her fearlessness and recklessness really paid off,
and her becoming the Nighting guilt, even though she said
(07:54):
she felt untouchable. I think this was such a necessary
shift in her character. It was like, once she was
able to say the Nightingale Flu and cross those mountains.
Oh my gosh, I'm.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Just obsessed with Isabelle.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
I thought she was the most fascinating character and not
what I expected of her, honestly, from going to meeting
Gate and saying, I love you, let me fight in
this Like I read a book about this woman who
helped in World War One or the Great War, and
I want to be just like that. To actually becoming
that was incredible. And just going back to the Nazi occupation,
(08:28):
the food and everything being stolen from them. I really
loved Beck's character. Honestly. It seemed like he was like,
oh my gosh, I got into this war. I thought
it would be something else and I don't know what
to do. Like he seemed like he was doing everything
in his power to be good despite being a Nazi,
you know, And that internal struggle that we saw a
(08:50):
little bit was super interesting to me.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
But I was surprised.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
There was a point where Vian goes to Beck's office
and she sees piles and piles of food. When Beck
watched Vann starve and pass out from starvation and have
to be bedridden, she watched Sophie starve, Like I'm surprised.
I think he helped out a little bit, but I
feel like he could have helped out a lot more,
could have stolen some food. So Beck warned van to
(09:16):
get her best friend out of her house and to hide. Obviously,
Sarah was killed in that. I think that really broke
something in Vanne, something necessary, like broken her where she
was like, Okay, I can't just sit idly by like
Isabelle's been right this whole time. And Sarah's death just, oh,
it was like part of my heartbreaking in this book,
(09:37):
the fact that it wasn't just one bullet hole, it
was many bullets and then the mom having to just
go on anyways, and oh, just absolutely heartbreaking and that shift.
I think if it wasn't for Sarah's death, I don't
think Vann would have been able to kill Beck. And
his death really shocked me. I was honestly really sad
(09:57):
for him. I grew to like him as a character. Again,
he is a Nazi and he is the enemy, but
I do think he was trying his best to He
was having conflicting feelings and conflicting emotions, but doing his
best to save as many.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
People as he could. From my perspective.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
I feel like he seemed like a good guy and
he didn't really agree with what he was having to do.
But I yeah, I was really shocked by his death,
and I thought for sure that Vianne and him were
going to do something, like I thought for sure they
were going to cheat on their spouses.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
It seemed like it was really building up to that.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
Really really took me by surprise, and I think that
was great writing by Kristen because I was like, duh,
this is so obvious, this is about to happen. But
after Sarah's death, it was just I mean, all of
this was the start of Sophie having to grow up
really fast. And I think a huge focus is on
Isabelle and how amazing she is and Van, but I
think Sophie is a very underrated character and she just
(10:50):
had to grow up so fast. She lost her best friend.
She's watching war in front of her eyes. She's watching
her mother's starve. She's watching her Jewish friends be kicked
out of school. Teacher is being kicked out, like she's
seeing all this at the butcher shop. She's like, this
isn't right, Like this is not their shop. What's going
on here? So her having to grow up really fast
and then losing Sarah was heartbreaking, and then taking Sarah's
(11:12):
brother and making him her own brother, only to eventually
lose him. Then she had to lie to her father,
Like there's so much that Sophie had to deal with.
I think she was fourteen maybe or thirteen fourteen when
that horrible officer was blaied at their house and she
just had to watch what's happening to her mom and
shield her now little brother. Gosh, it just it was
(11:34):
is such a heartbreaking book, but also so so good.
Another heartbreaking moment was Antoine's return. Oh my gosh, it's
like you're just waiting and waiting and waiting for him
to come home, and then he comes home and it's
(11:56):
just not the same. It's not that they fell out
of love, but they went through so much that it
it was hard to come back together again. And then
on top of it, Vann had to lie to him
and then lie to her son about who her father.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
His father was. Oh, back to Beck real quick.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Sorry, I'm just reading through my notes. I do wonder
if then told Beck, like, hey, I know where the
soldier is. He is down below, stowed away with my sister.
Let's hide the guy's body. Let's say you found him,
but please let my sister go. Maybe I'm thinking too
highly of Beck, but he seemed like a good enough
(12:30):
guy that they could have made it work. And maybe
that's just one of those lingering questions that you're like,
what if, And maybe I am dumb for thinking that,
but I really do believe that Beck would have helped
them to the best of his ability, Like they could
have just hid the body and just been like, I
found him, all's good. Another there's just I feel like
every point is heartbreaking. But another heartbreaking point was the
(12:51):
dad and finally stepping up becoming a dad in only
two be killed, but he did save his daughter and
just her being tortured in the fridge. I didn't even
write that down, but that just really haunted me. I
was shocked that the dad was the one forging the papers,
and it was odd to me that that Isabelle is
in Paris and they're like, don't tell your father, But
(13:13):
then her father knew the whole time, So that was
another weird point for me. Maybe they were just testing
her in some way, but I was really really shocked
to find out that he was the one forging papers,
and he wasn't this slime ball working with the Germans.
You know, he was doing his best to help in
the resistance. I really did believe he was serving them.
I believed everything Isabelle said about him. And then the
(13:35):
fact that he saved his daughter and Vann named her
son with von Richter after her dad. That one when
it clicked for me. It took a while for it
to be like Julia Julian, Oh my gosh, that's who
the son is named after. And still I was still
thinking it was Isabelle, Like I was holding on until
the very last second, even when she's sick, I'm still
(13:56):
like convincing myself that Isabelle is alive. A really prescious
moment for me was Sophie holding on to that invisible
line where Isabelle told her when she was just a
little kid, She's like, I can turn myself, I can
make myself invisible. And Sophie held on to that all
this time as she grew older. They're looking for Isabelle,
they're trying to figure out which concentration camp she's at.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Why hasn't she been found yet?
Speaker 1 (14:19):
And then Sophie says, well, maybe she just made herself
invisible to escape. It was like, Oh, I can't believe
she held on too that for so long. Something that
I really hated about this book was that. And it
wasn't anything to do with Christian's writing. It's more about
the character. But the fact that Vianne didn't tell Antoine just, oh,
it made me so mad. I'm like, he would understand.
(14:43):
I have to believe that he would understand, like, you
didn't choose this, you didn't want this. That guy was
a monster. And the fact that Sophie knew whose baby
that was and who her brother's father was this whole time,
and the fact that it was just their secret and
she didn't tell Antoine. But also a part of me
wonders too, when she was going to tell Antoine, he
(15:04):
was like, let's just let's just move on. Let's just
you know, what happened happened. So maybe he knew. And
that makes me feel better about it all. Daniel leaving
and not understanding why he's leaving and them saying that
they kind of need to erase that family and he
needs to start over, only to find out that he
never forgot them. It's just so sad, but I'm so
(15:27):
happy that he found Vienn even though she has cancer
and probably only has a few more years left. But
the fact that he found her, and maybe him and Julian,
these fake people that I'm so invested in, maybe him
and Julian can be friends and bond and spend time
together because they both live in America. I mentioned in
the beginning, I was holding on hope that this flash
forward was Isabelle. And even when she is dying and
(15:50):
it's clear that she's not doing well, she has pneumonia,
she's super, super sick, and then she meets up with Gate,
I'm like, I know that this is Isabelle. I know
she's going to get better, she's going to fight through it.
She's going to have a baby with Gate, and they're
going to name that baby Julian, Like this is about
her until the very next chapter and you find out
that she passed it. Honestly, this book just broke me.
(16:12):
That last chapter where it's like one thing after another.
It's being speech on stage, it's seeing that the airmen
that Isabelle saved now have families. It's Julian realizing that
his mother was also a hero, seeing Daniel again. It's
seeing Gate again and finding out that Gate named his
daughter Isabelle. It was so beautiful and tragic. It's one
(16:34):
of the best books I've ever read. I rated it
a five out of five on Goodreads, and pretty much
everything I rate is a four out of five.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
I love this book so much.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
I'm very surprised people are critical of this book and
saying that they couldn't get into it. It did take me, like,
I don't know, maybe like three or four chapters to
get into it. It maybe a little bit, but I'm
also coming from Aqatar, where it takes you a whole
book and a half to get into, so it's not
that crazy for me. Maybe people don't like sadness, and
I totally get that. It's definitely not an upper of
a book, but still beautiful and still wonderful, and I'm
(17:05):
so happy I read it, and we'll probably read it
again someday. But that's going to do it for the Nightingale,
and I do want to talk about next month's book club.
I'm really really going to try to get Dean to
read this one, because it's a lot easier to banter
when it's two people. Obviously, can't banter with myself. It's
a lot easier when he's here to kind of bounce
ideas off of and see if we came to the
same conclusions about things. With that being said, I do
(17:27):
have a list here of books that I want to read.
Some I've looked into, some I haven't. Some have popped
up on TikTok Okay. Magnolia Parks is all over TikTok
for me, so we'd love to read that one if
you guys are into it. Inheritance Games heard that one's good.
I haven't looked too much into it. I really want
to read the Women, but we just read Kristin Hannah,
(17:48):
so it's like to do too. Kristin Hannah books probably
not great. Carrie Soto is back. I've heard that's good.
It's about tennis, book Lovers, a Little Life, a man
called Oh Just Kids. So if you have any idea,
if you like any of these, let me know. I'll
probably do another poll on Instagram. I think it would
be super helpful if Dean could read it or get
one of my friends to jump on with me. Maybe
(18:09):
I can get just to jump on and we can
chat books for everyone who suggested The Nightingale. I know.
I did a poll and I got a lot of
dms saying yes, yes, yes, yes yes. Thank you for
encouraging us to read this month. I'm so happy I
read it and I can't wait for next month. Thank
you so much for listening. Make sure you tune in
next week.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
We'll talk about.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
Pop culture and I'll fill you in on what book
we're reading. But make sure you tune in next week,
where maybe we suck just a little bit less
This is Suckers.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
I'm Klein Bell, I'm Dean Bell, and I'm Jared.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Habn An iHeartRadio podcast. Hello everyone, Welcome to an all
new episode of Suckers Kaylin's Corner. I am so excited
about this episode because I've been waiting a month for it.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
We are finally doing book club.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
If this is your first episode, make sure you have
read The Nightingale before you listen, because this is one
of the best books I have ever read, and I
do not want to spoil one second for you. Oh
my gosh, it's I can't stop thinking about this book.
And I have to thank Jess Higgins for this recommendation.
I have a on my notes. I have a list
(00:43):
of books and it's about fifty books long. And Jess
we were in Hawaii a few months ago and she
went through this list and she was like, The Nightingale,
make sure that's number one on your list, Like, you
have to read that first, And so that's been marked
for a while. But I got so deep into the
fantasy world that I couldn't pull myself out of it.
And honestly, if it weren't for this book club, I
(01:05):
would still be deep in fantasy and who knows how
long it would have taken me to get out of it,
because I talked about this on TikTok, but I read
Fourth Wing, which led to Acuitar, which led to Thrown
off Glass, which led to Crescent City. So it's been
a few months of fairies and dragons and it was
very nice to pop back into the real world for
(01:26):
a little bit. And I'm so happy it was with
this book, because I just can't stop thinking about it.
It was phenomenal. Kristin Hannah's writing was so beautiful, it
was so well done. So I want to start. I
know we've all read it, but I want to start
with a synopsis of the book, just a little refresher.
I was just looking at my notes and I finished
it last week, but there's already things that I forgot.
(01:47):
And it was not like a super heavy book by
any means, but so much happened, and there were so
many characters, and oh it's great. Kristin Hannah's The Nightingale
tells the story of Bann and Isabelle, two French who
resists occupying Nazi forces during World War Two by hiding
Jewish children so they are not taken to concentration camps
(02:07):
and by leading the escape of Allied pilots whose planes
have been shot down over France. Okay, jumping into this book,
I was immediately drawn in by the French, like the
little bits of French here and there. I loved it
because I'm trying to learn French, so that was just
like a little nice added thing for me.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
I also thought Kristin Hannah did a really good job.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
So the book starts out with a flash forward of
a woman thinking back on her life. She has cancer,
she's dying, she's moving into a home. Then you jump
back in time, and I thought it was about Venn
because you jump back into Vanne's life, So I'm like
that flash forward was for sure about Venn. With this son,
Julian and Kristen did such a good job of never
(02:49):
mentioning Sophie, never mentioning anyone else, So I had convinced
myself until the very end that the flash forward was Isabelle,
and I was wrong, unfortunately, but I think she did
a really good job of that of just like giving
you tidbits here and there.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
I was just really really holding on hope.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
But with the characters, I felt like van Is me
like she keeps her head down, she listens to authority.
It's very very much who I am, like real follower
to a t and Isabelle is more of who I
want to be, like standing up for what you believe in,
saying screw you to authoritative figures if they're wrong. And
(03:32):
then I realized while reading it, I was like, Vann
is very much who I am and Dean is very
much Isabelle. So I kind of liked those parallels. And
I loved Isabelle's character.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
I loved her journey. I just loved everything about her.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
My one qualm was her telling gait I don't know
how to say his name, Giton that she loved him
after meeting him, for she barely knew the guy. She
had known him for maybe twenty four hours at that point,
maybe less, and she says, I love you. That took
me by surprise, and it made sense for her character
in that moment where she was in her life. She
(04:10):
was just like desperate for love and to be appreciated
and accepted. But it makes sense. But then she would
I thought, would just move on and find another man.
And I don't know, but the fact that she said
I love you and held on to that and was
just waiting for that. The entire book really took me
by surprise and didn't totally make sense to me. All
(04:33):
that to say, I did really love their love story
and loved them together.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Especially the end, but I don't want to jump ahead.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
I also think that Biann's character arc was amazing. I
just related to her so much, even though I didn't
really like her at times. She just like went from
being so obedient, keeping her head down, to then having
this drastic shift. You know, she kicked her sister out
of her house. She was like, you are going to
get us killed, which I thought for sure something was
(05:04):
going to happen. I thought Isabelle was being so reckless
to then saving nineteen children and risking her life, risking
her children's life, doing everything she could to save these children.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
It was so beautiful, and to find out the whole.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Family it was a family of rebels in the most
beautiful way. Her dad was working on, you know, changing
people's names and making sure that they could be saved.
Isabelle was saving all these airmen, and then Vanne took
part in her family's legacy essentially and was saving children too.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
I just it was really really beautiful.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
Reading this book just made me have such a different
perspective on World War Two. And I know this is
fiction obviously, but World War two happened, and these things
happened in some way or another, like maybe not directly,
but these things happened. You know, this war was just
atrocious and disgusting and brutal. And when I think about it,
(06:04):
that's what I think about. The concentration camps are Nazis,
and I've never really thought about the way that Nazis
slowly took over European countries.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
It was good to put all of that into perspective
for me.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
They controlled what they ate, they controlled vehicles, radios, curfew,
and then to see the way that they turned against
Jewish people, like we know now that was always their intention,
but it was started with anti Jewish propaganda. Then they
slowly outed the Jews by firing them from their jobs
and then making them wear yellow stars, and then taking
(06:40):
certain people to quote unquote working camps. Then you know,
some Jews were saved, some weren't, and then all Jews
are not safe, and that progression was just so terrifying.
I also again loved, I loved loved Isabelle. She's so
fearless and truly all she want it. You know, She's
(07:00):
abandoned by her sister, her dad, her mom died, she
had no one, and even growing up with her sister,
her sister wanted absolutely nothing to do with her.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
So she was just.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Alone her whole life, and I think just of course
caused her to be reckless and rebel and everyone really
thought the worst of her, which she was eventually able
to use to her advantage and let people think the
worst of her so she could do what she needed
to do to rescue these airmen. But her fearlessness and
(07:32):
recklessness at first, I was like, she is going to
get someone killed when she Nazis are first taking over
France and they're like being forced to pass over their
radius and stuff. I'm like, you need to be smart
and not stupid in this situation because they will kill you.
And I really thought she would have a different end.
But I think her fearlessness and recklessness really paid off,
and her becoming the Nighting guilt, even though she said
(07:54):
she felt untouchable. I think this was such a necessary
shift in her character. It was like, once she was
able to say the Nightingale Flu and cross those mountains.
Oh my gosh, I'm.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Just obsessed with Isabelle.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
I thought she was the most fascinating character and not
what I expected of her, honestly, from going to meeting
Gate and saying, I love you, let me fight in
this Like I read a book about this woman who
helped in World War One or the Great War, and
I want to be just like that. To actually becoming
that was incredible. And just going back to the Nazi occupation,
(08:28):
the food and everything being stolen from them. I really
loved Beck's character. Honestly. It seemed like he was like,
oh my gosh, I got into this war. I thought
it would be something else and I don't know what
to do. Like he seemed like he was doing everything
in his power to be good despite being a Nazi,
you know, And that internal struggle that we saw a
(08:50):
little bit was super interesting to me.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
But I was surprised.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
There was a point where Vian goes to Beck's office
and she sees piles and piles of food. When Beck
watched Vann starve and pass out from starvation and have
to be bedridden, she watched Sophie starve, Like I'm surprised.
I think he helped out a little bit, but I
feel like he could have helped out a lot more,
could have stolen some food. So Beck warned van to
(09:16):
get her best friend out of her house and to hide. Obviously,
Sarah was killed in that. I think that really broke
something in Vanne, something necessary, like broken her where she
was like, Okay, I can't just sit idly by like
Isabelle's been right this whole time. And Sarah's death just, oh,
it was like part of my heartbreaking in this book,
(09:37):
the fact that it wasn't just one bullet hole, it
was many bullets and then the mom having to just
go on anyways, and oh, just absolutely heartbreaking and that shift.
I think if it wasn't for Sarah's death, I don't
think Vann would have been able to kill Beck. And
his death really shocked me. I was honestly really sad
(09:57):
for him. I grew to like him as a character. Again,
he is a Nazi and he is the enemy, but
I do think he was trying his best to He
was having conflicting feelings and conflicting emotions, but doing his
best to save as many.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
People as he could. From my perspective.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
I feel like he seemed like a good guy and
he didn't really agree with what he was having to do.
But I yeah, I was really shocked by his death,
and I thought for sure that Vianne and him were
going to do something, like I thought for sure they
were going to cheat on their spouses.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
It seemed like it was really building up to that.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
Really really took me by surprise, and I think that
was great writing by Kristen because I was like, duh,
this is so obvious, this is about to happen. But
after Sarah's death, it was just I mean, all of
this was the start of Sophie having to grow up
really fast. And I think a huge focus is on
Isabelle and how amazing she is and Van, but I
think Sophie is a very underrated character and she just
(10:50):
had to grow up so fast. She lost her best friend.
She's watching war in front of her eyes. She's watching
her mother's starve. She's watching her Jewish friends be kicked
out of school. Teacher is being kicked out, like she's
seeing all this at the butcher shop. She's like, this
isn't right, Like this is not their shop. What's going
on here? So her having to grow up really fast
and then losing Sarah was heartbreaking, and then taking Sarah's
(11:12):
brother and making him her own brother, only to eventually
lose him. Then she had to lie to her father,
Like there's so much that Sophie had to deal with.
I think she was fourteen maybe or thirteen fourteen when
that horrible officer was blaied at their house and she
just had to watch what's happening to her mom and
shield her now little brother. Gosh, it just it was
(11:34):
is such a heartbreaking book, but also so so good.
Another heartbreaking moment was Antoine's return. Oh my gosh, it's
like you're just waiting and waiting and waiting for him
to come home, and then he comes home and it's
(11:56):
just not the same. It's not that they fell out
of love, but they went through so much that it
it was hard to come back together again. And then
on top of it, Vann had to lie to him
and then lie to her son about who her father.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
His father was. Oh, back to Beck real quick.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Sorry, I'm just reading through my notes. I do wonder
if then told Beck, like, hey, I know where the
soldier is. He is down below, stowed away with my sister.
Let's hide the guy's body. Let's say you found him,
but please let my sister go. Maybe I'm thinking too
highly of Beck, but he seemed like a good enough
(12:30):
guy that they could have made it work. And maybe
that's just one of those lingering questions that you're like,
what if, And maybe I am dumb for thinking that,
but I really do believe that Beck would have helped
them to the best of his ability, Like they could
have just hid the body and just been like, I
found him, all's good. Another there's just I feel like
every point is heartbreaking. But another heartbreaking point was the
(12:51):
dad and finally stepping up becoming a dad in only
two be killed, but he did save his daughter and
just her being tortured in the fridge. I didn't even
write that down, but that just really haunted me. I
was shocked that the dad was the one forging the papers,
and it was odd to me that that Isabelle is
in Paris and they're like, don't tell your father, But
(13:13):
then her father knew the whole time, So that was
another weird point for me. Maybe they were just testing
her in some way, but I was really really shocked
to find out that he was the one forging papers,
and he wasn't this slime ball working with the Germans.
You know, he was doing his best to help in
the resistance. I really did believe he was serving them.
I believed everything Isabelle said about him. And then the
(13:35):
fact that he saved his daughter and Vann named her
son with von Richter after her dad. That one when
it clicked for me. It took a while for it
to be like Julia Julian, Oh my gosh, that's who
the son is named after. And still I was still
thinking it was Isabelle, Like I was holding on until
the very last second, even when she's sick, I'm still
(13:56):
like convincing myself that Isabelle is alive. A really prescious
moment for me was Sophie holding on to that invisible
line where Isabelle told her when she was just a
little kid, She's like, I can turn myself, I can
make myself invisible. And Sophie held on to that all
this time as she grew older. They're looking for Isabelle,
they're trying to figure out which concentration camp she's at.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Why hasn't she been found yet?
Speaker 1 (14:19):
And then Sophie says, well, maybe she just made herself
invisible to escape. It was like, Oh, I can't believe
she held on too that for so long. Something that
I really hated about this book was that. And it
wasn't anything to do with Christian's writing. It's more about
the character. But the fact that Vianne didn't tell Antoine just, oh,
it made me so mad. I'm like, he would understand.
(14:43):
I have to believe that he would understand, like, you
didn't choose this, you didn't want this. That guy was
a monster. And the fact that Sophie knew whose baby
that was and who her brother's father was this whole time,
and the fact that it was just their secret and
she didn't tell Antoine. But also a part of me
wonders too, when she was going to tell Antoine, he
(15:04):
was like, let's just let's just move on. Let's just
you know, what happened happened. So maybe he knew. And
that makes me feel better about it all. Daniel leaving
and not understanding why he's leaving and them saying that
they kind of need to erase that family and he
needs to start over, only to find out that he
never forgot them. It's just so sad, but I'm so
(15:27):
happy that he found Vienn even though she has cancer
and probably only has a few more years left. But
the fact that he found her, and maybe him and Julian,
these fake people that I'm so invested in, maybe him
and Julian can be friends and bond and spend time
together because they both live in America. I mentioned in
the beginning, I was holding on hope that this flash
forward was Isabelle. And even when she is dying and
(15:50):
it's clear that she's not doing well, she has pneumonia,
she's super, super sick, and then she meets up with Gate,
I'm like, I know that this is Isabelle. I know
she's going to get better, she's going to fight through it.
She's going to have a baby with Gate, and they're
going to name that baby Julian, Like this is about
her until the very next chapter and you find out
that she passed it. Honestly, this book just broke me.
(16:12):
That last chapter where it's like one thing after another.
It's being speech on stage, it's seeing that the airmen
that Isabelle saved now have families. It's Julian realizing that
his mother was also a hero, seeing Daniel again. It's
seeing Gate again and finding out that Gate named his
daughter Isabelle. It was so beautiful and tragic. It's one
(16:34):
of the best books I've ever read. I rated it
a five out of five on Goodreads, and pretty much
everything I rate is a four out of five.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
I love this book so much.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
I'm very surprised people are critical of this book and
saying that they couldn't get into it. It did take me, like,
I don't know, maybe like three or four chapters to
get into it. It maybe a little bit, but I'm
also coming from Aqatar, where it takes you a whole
book and a half to get into, so it's not
that crazy for me. Maybe people don't like sadness, and
I totally get that. It's definitely not an upper of
a book, but still beautiful and still wonderful, and I'm
(17:05):
so happy I read it, and we'll probably read it
again someday. But that's going to do it for the Nightingale,
and I do want to talk about next month's book club.
I'm really really going to try to get Dean to
read this one, because it's a lot easier to banter
when it's two people. Obviously, can't banter with myself. It's
a lot easier when he's here to kind of bounce
ideas off of and see if we came to the
same conclusions about things. With that being said, I do
(17:27):
have a list here of books that I want to read.
Some I've looked into, some I haven't. Some have popped
up on TikTok Okay. Magnolia Parks is all over TikTok
for me, so we'd love to read that one if
you guys are into it. Inheritance Games heard that one's good.
I haven't looked too much into it. I really want
to read the Women, but we just read Kristin Hannah,
(17:48):
so it's like to do too. Kristin Hannah books probably
not great. Carrie Soto is back. I've heard that's good.
It's about tennis, book Lovers, a Little Life, a man
called Oh Just Kids. So if you have any idea,
if you like any of these, let me know. I'll
probably do another poll on Instagram. I think it would
be super helpful if Dean could read it or get
one of my friends to jump on with me. Maybe
(18:09):
I can get just to jump on and we can
chat books for everyone who suggested The Nightingale. I know.
I did a poll and I got a lot of
dms saying yes, yes, yes, yes yes. Thank you for
encouraging us to read this month. I'm so happy I
read it and I can't wait for next month. Thank
you so much for listening. Make sure you tune in
next week.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
We'll talk about.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
Pop culture and I'll fill you in on what book
we're reading. But make sure you tune in next week,
where maybe we suck just a little bit less
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