It was me! It was me! I am SO happy you like this book! I thought it was wonderful - one of those "windows into a world I'll never see" books that fascinated me. I know I posted this in the "what are you reading" thread, but www.u869.com is Richie Kohler's website about the U-boat.

When you are finished with the book, I'd love to discuss it further with you. I had to come up with questions for my book club about this book and if you are agreeable, I'd find your opinions on my questions very helpful and maybe you have some questions we can add to the list.

Enjoy! Glad your reading slump is over!
PAM

It was me too! We read it in my bookclub a few months back, Pam. Pam and I both recommended it on the nonfiction thread someone had up a while ago! I've recommended it to several people and they all liked it!

cc,

Yea for us! It must be a C PA knack for picking good books! Did you have a good discussion? Did you watch the movie Hitler's Lost Sub? Did everyone in the book club finish the book?
PAM

cc and PAM, it must be the central PA link--I figure it is all the deep sea diving central Pennsylvanians do. Maybe I can write a bestseller about the Hairy Hand of Laurel Lake, or perhaps my mountaineering experiences on South Mountain in Mt Holly Springs, then wow'em with a follow up about Nittany Mountain. Of course, now I am wondering if your Easter included pickled eggs and beets?

Anyway, I am quite taken with this book and would like to discuss it further (when I'm finished.) My book club planning meeting takes place next month, at which time each member brings several books for which they are willing to lead a discusssion and the club votes on the one to read. This is one of the reasons I've been reading desperately through my slump because for once, I don't really have any books in mind. Or at least, didn't until I read "Shadow Divers" but I haven't ever led a non-fiction discussion. In short, I would love to see (and possible pirate) your book club discussion questions and hopefully contribute to them, too.

I'll be out of town till next week, at which time I should be rarin' to go discussion-wise.

We'll just tread water here until you're ready.
My Easter weekend was all volleyball and family squabbles!
I'll see if I can reconstruct some of the questions we discussed. Everyone finished it, but I'll reserve the rest of my comments until bookmom is finished.

Two other books we all enjoyed discussing were Alas, Babylon and The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie if you need other suggestions that are also quick reads ;-)

Chekced with our discussion leader for this book-here's where she got her questions. Some are better than others but we did spend a long time of a couple of them.

Here is a link that might be useful: discussion question ideas

Hey it was me, too! Quite a book. I'm going to check the History channel and see if that show is being repeated.

I'm back on-line and have finished the book, and even found myself in tears (admittedly, it doesn't take much) while reading about Kohler's visits to the families in Germany. Dummy me--I never checked RGG for discussion questions even though I refer to it all the time for fiction books. This book will be one of my "proposed" books at my bookclub's planning meeting next month.

My overriding thought while reading this book was that it reminded me of "Into Thin Air." Both deep sea diving and high altitude mountaineering involve extreme danger and in both stories, these men pursued their quest even while others around them were becoming seriously ill or dying. Their single-mindedness was not a matter of survival because they could stop at any time--they were (are) engaged in a dangerous hobby. While I found the story fascinating and admired their commitment and especially the academic research which Kohler and Chatterton conducted, I also thought they were somewhat selfish. To the first and third questions posed in RRG, I will add--and do you think gender has an influence here?

Here is a link that might be useful: Reading group guide questions

My book club is going to be meeting in two weeks to discuss this book and I promise to give you all a report on how the discussion went. From the bits of feedback I'm receiving from members, it looks like the discussion will be a good one. And cece, thanks for the link to the questions. I've got them printed out and in my book club tote ready to go. I think they are the same questions that bookmom linked, too.

In case some of you didn't already know, there is an awesome website done by Richie Kohler about the U-869. I will link it below.

PAM

Here is a link that might be useful: Richie Kohler's U-869 website

PAM,

How did your book club discussion go? My club is reading this book now and it will be discussed in June; I won't be the leader, however, since another member--our experienced non-fiction leader--also brought the book to the our planning meeting and it was assigned to her. Any questions or issues you found particularly thought-provoking?

bookmom, You and I are on RP at the same time this morning and thinking of the same thing! I just posted on the what are you reading thread when I saw this one pop up to the top.

My book club meeting was AMAZING. It was great. I brought with me a book from the Time-Life Series on WW-II entitled "Wolf Packs" because there were some great pictures of life in a German U-boat both inside and outside the sub. It gave us all an idea of how cramped the quarters were in those boats. It was "smooshed" enough when the boat was battle-ready. I can't imagine how tight and cramped it must have been after sitting at the bottom for fifty years, damaged and in the dark.

I used the RGG discussion questions and a few of my own that I jotted down as I was reading the book. The discussion was very lively and we covered lots of ground. We actually talked for over two hours just on the RGG questions and went off on full-length discussions as well. I even had an email from Richie Kohler to share with the club. I was so impressed with what he and John Chatterton accomplished that I wrote to him via the link on the U-869 website and he kindly wrote back.

If anyone's book club is looking for a great and different discussion book, this is a great choice. Books like this one are a rare find. Maybe my interest would not be so great if I lived far from New Jersey. But this happened in my own backyard and wow... it really brought the real threat of that war home. Other than the trajedy at Pearl Harbor, we tend to think of WW-II as happening "over there" but those U-boats were "right here", too.

PAM

Thanks, PAM. Isn't it great when a discussion really takes off? I am going to forward this thread to "my' discussion leader (who, herself, is always well prepared with all sorts of extras for discussion) Can't wait.

I picked up this book at the library this morning and am pretty well hooked on it - I have been on a non-fiction reading binge lately and it fits the bill. Why hadn't I ever heard of this book before? Maybe I wasn't paying attention. When I get about halfway through, I will read the discussion questions.

Oddly, I have always been interested in submarines and loved the Field Museum U-Boat mentioned in the intro, like the author, more than the coal mine. I always visited the Russian sub in Long Beach, California more than once. I've never been able to imagine those cramped tubes filled with men who actually lived and worked in them for weeks and months at a time.

Correction to above - the U-Boat is in the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry, not the Field Museum.