2022 Spring Read

Hello, Radio Readers; this is Kim Perez, and I am coming to you from Hays with a Book Byte for HPPR. I am here to discuss Nora Krug’s 2018 graphic novel, “Belonging: A German Reckons with History and Home.” This book is about Krug’s journey to come to terms with the fact that she is German and the guilt that she feels because her family witnessed some of the atrocities leading up to the Second World War and the Holocaust.

I am Galen Boehme from Offerle, Kansas, for HPPR’s Radio Readers Book Club. I am covering Nora Krug’s novel Belonging where she pictures the desire of a German family to recognize the dignity of each individual in spite of the decisions that the individual has made.

Hallo zusammen -- and hello everyone. I’m Miriam Scott from Amarillo, Texas, back talking to you about the fantastic graphic novel written by my fellow German immigrant Nora Krug.

“How do you understand who you are if you don’t understand where you come from?” This is the question asked in Nora Krug’s award-winning memoir Belonging. In this difficult but engaging graphic novel, Krug, a German woman, struggles to define her place in a world that has largely been defined by a war fought in her homeland before she was born.

Hi, I'm Alan Erwin from Amarillo and I've been reading Belonging, a graphic novel by Nora Krug.Nora asks us, in the words of the immortal Bo Diddly, “who do you love?”Who are these people and places that share and shape our lives? How well do we know the people we know?

This is Miriam Scott from Amarillo, Texas.This book grabbed my attention with the title and cover alone, quickly. “Belonging” is what I like to call a substantial word. Let me explain what I mean: substantial words, they pack a lot of meaning.

Hello, Radio Readers! Miriam Scott here. I was born in a small town called Mechernich in western Germany in September of 1979. Those of you who are “nearest town people” would recognize my home area as near Cologne, which is about 1.5 hours from Mechernich. My parents owned a restaurant/hotel/ bowling alley/movie theatre -- yes, all in one weirdly shaped building.

Born after the fall of the Nazi regime, Nora Krug lived with a long shadow cast by World War II. Yet, she knew little about her own family’s involvement. While all four of her grandparents lived through the war, they never spoke of it.

This is Mike Strong, in Hays, for HPPR. The books are “Persepolis” and “Persepolis 2” by Marjane Satrapi.Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novels provide information we in the US did not get at the time. From a journalist’s perspective, I now know how much information was never provided to us by our news media. The coverage sounded too much like State Department press releases. The Iranian revolution of 1978-79 really started in 1953.

Hi, I'm Alan Erwin from Amarillo and I've been reading Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi. Marjane is an Iranian artist, author and director.Persepolis is a graphic novel about Marjane’s life from age 10 to 24. A time of revolution and war in Iran. The book's mostly uncomplicated black and white artwork propels the story in a way that is sometimes very humorous and at other times just horrific.