My Fat Dad

Another memoir I read this month, My Fat Dad, written by Dawn Lerman.  This one on the surface seems a bit lighter read but there is again the underlying tension of growing up in her family that makes an impression that affects her career path and her relationship to food.  This is also a book full of recipes that look delicious.  Dawn grew up in the 1970s moving from Chicago to New York City with her parents and sister.  Her father, very overweight had a love hate relationship with food.  He worked in advertising and was like the Mad Men a copywriter, famous for such slogans as, Coke Is It, This Bud's For You, and Leggo My Eggo.  Dawn writes about her father's love of eating, her grandmother's love of Dawn and teaching her how to cook good, healthy, natural foods.  Her mother was at her best when surrounded by admirers.  It is interesting to see how growing up in this environment helped make Dawn the person she turns out to be as an adult, how her upbringing shaped her connection to her family.  How both of her grandmother's Jewish heritage informed their message and feelings about food.  How satisfaction can come from feeding the ones you love.

Hello Darkness My Old Friend

Hello Darkness My Old Friend is a memoir written by Sanford Greenberg.

OK so you may think this book is about Art Garfunkel or maybe the duo Simon and Garfunkel, but in effect though Art Garfunkel plays an enormous role in the story this is really not a book about or by Garfunkel.

This is Sanford Greenberg's story.  Not to take anything away from  his story, it is, it turns out an interesting story full of perseverance and determination.  It is the story of a young man who overcomes adversity and is very successful in his life.  But also Greenberg does admit in the end that the circumstances of his childhood and medical disadvantage probably drove him and still makes him work as hard as he does.  He wants to prove to himself that he is not  handicapped and that may not be such a positive trait.

Sanford Greenberg was born and raised in Buffalo New York,  At an early age he lost his father and when his mother remarried her brother-in-law they set up house in North Buffalo.  It was the 1940s.  Sanford talks about his childhood as the son of a junk dealer, whose family had emigrated  to the United States from Poland via Germany as the war was breaking out in Europe.  After High School Sanford heads off to Columbia where he meets his new friend and roommate, Art Garfunkel, who is there to study architecture.  They become close friends.  As Sanford is going attending classes he is having trouble with his eyes.  Different incidents that he brushes aside and does not seek out an eye doctor for.  But as time goes by these problems become worse and more pronounced.  Finally he heads home to Buffalo and his mother, as he is literally becoming blind. 

HIs blindness at first seems like it will be an obstacle, but the message of the book and what makes this an amazing story is what Sanford Greenberg has accomplished in his life. 

Dr. Greenberg received his B.A. as Phi Beta Kappa from Columbia University in 1962.  He earned his M.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard and his M.B.A. from Columbia University.  He was a Marshall Scholar at Oxford and attended Harvard Law School.  Dr. Greenberg is Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Johns Hopkins University Wilmer Eye Institute.  President Clinton appointed him to the National Science Board.  The list goes on.

Greenberg admits that he has spent his life creating and keeping up an image he wants to portray, "Since becoming blind, I have been very conscious of the need to be healthy and strong.  As a result, I do a lot of exercising.... In part this regime has to do with my insistence on looking sharp.  But it all belongs to the determination not to be blind."   He is also very driven he writes to make his parents proud.  Visiting the graves of his parents he thinks about the hard lives they led, about himself and the kind of life he las led.  He writes, "Their judgement was massively important to me. I felt that they would be proud of me. But I sensed no response. (from the graves). " But," of course, he writes, "the response would have to come from inside myself."

The Postmistress

I was not planning to pick this book to read... By author Sarah Blake, published back in 2010 it was not on any of my to read lists.  So I am glad it was brought back to the forefront with my book discussion group.  It is one of those books that we all came in saying was not a favorite but it led to a terrific discussion.

It is a fast paced story..an easy read.  But there are multiple plot lines working at once.  There are quite a few characters to keep track of , many of the villagers who live in the small Cape Cod town, out at the end of the neck.  The main characters living out there are Iris James, the Postmistress and Emma Finch, the doctor's wife.  We also met a number of the town's people who interact with these two women throughout the book and play the important roles of showing the reader what life was like in 1940 as President Roosevelt tried to keep us out of the emerging war in Europe.  Trying very hard to share with Americans what is happening in Europe is the fictional character Frankie Bard, a
young woman journalist working with the very real Edward R Murrow in London.  She is witnessing the London Blitz and as  her apartment is bombed and her roommate is killed she insists on traveling across the continent to share with her audience what is really happening.  Though her audience may not really want to know the truth.

Some characters are more likable than others and draw you into their story. Frankie is the most likable and well developed character.  She is the most impassioned and determined person in the book.  Some of the other minor characters really give the reader the best idea of how people's thinking during this time in America, Otto, a refugee from Austria, who keeps to himself as much as possible and is disliked just because he has a foreign accent.   We see how their lives will become entangled both with each other and the war, though far away. Henry, the car mechanic who is always watching with his binoculars for German U-boats to come ashore on American soil.

This is an intriguing and fast paced storyline, some more engaging than others.  There are letters written and mailed some received and some not.  There are ethical decisions made to protect people from the horrors that are so very real in the world.  These decisions can lead to some personal thought and definitely great discussions among book groups.

Bronzed Betrayals

Bronzed Betrayals is the fourth book in A Bodies of Art Mystery series.  Though author, Ritter Ames says in her interviews that she writes her books to stand alone, I did not find this to be the case. I started with reading this book and constantly felt like I was missing some important information that was constantly referred to.

This is the story of Laurel Beacham, who I gather, is an art thief who steals back stolen art.  So in this novel we meet Laurel and her boyfriend and team member , Jack seems to work for the British intelligence.  As a worker for the honest side of the police, he is supposed to recover lost or stolen art.  They work together, but sometimes he turns a blind eye to Laurel's methods.  Fo course there is a murder and Laurel's life seems to be in danger.  As they work with Nico and Cassie two more members of the team, they are running against time trying to find out who stole the bronze before getting killed themselves.  There is also a side story which seems very complicated, about Laurel childhood.  Her mother died in a car accident, or was she murdered?  Her father, is he her real father or not , is there matching DNA?  Did he die or is he in hiding?  These sub plots are confusing and lead you down roads that don't seem to meet up with the main plot.

Unfortunately I will not be going back to start at the beginning to find out what I missed.  This series did not capture my attention enough, I did not connect with the characters so that I want to find out what happened to them either before after this novel.

The Only Woman in The Room

Loved this book!
Of course I must say I have loved every one of Marie Benedict's novels.

Marie Benedict a fabulous author has written the story of a woman who was overlooked.  She was beautiful and an Austrian Jew and during the 1930s and 40s these were not traits that would give you authority or lend you ideas credence.  It is funny how even today with all the advances there are some women who still feel that are not seen or recognized for their intelligence.

The Only Woman in The Room is the story of Hedy Lamarr, whose real identity was Hedwig Eva Marie Kiesler.  Though most of us have heard of the beautiful, famous actress, she was really so much more than a pretty face.  Her beauty was a fact that she spent her life trying to escape.  She wanted to be seen for her scientific knowledge and her need to right a wrong she felt she had done back in Austria at the beginning of World War II.

This is the story of the woman we have come to know as Hedy Lamarr. But this story takes us back to her childhood through the start of her career in America. She started life as Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler, in Austria. As a young woman she came to the US where Louis B Mayer promoted her as the "world's most beautiful woman". But she was so much more,  an inventor and a film producer.   

Though Benedict shares Hedy's story in novel form the reader still gets a good idea of the thoughts and feelings of Lamarr and how she ended up where she did.  She lived in a dangerous challenging time in history.  She lived in the society of Austrian Jews who felt they definitely had assimilated  into the country they were living in.  Though she and her family lived in a Jewish neighborhood, Hedy did not know much about her Jewish heritage and did not practice the religion of her birth.

What a great novel about her life.  In this novel we are treated to the author's interpretation of what Hedy's childhood was like , growing up in a secular Jewish home in Austria.   She and her parents, who adored her, lived in a Jewish neighborhood, but were not practicing religious Jews. 

This book gives us a window into the life of people living through the beginning of World War ll.  The thinking of people as they watched Hitler come into power.  The disbelief that anything as horrific as happened could happen.  The feeling that each person felt that they were impervious to what was happening to others. 

When Hitler comes to power and is starting to look at encompassing other countries in his view, Hedy's father understands the future will bring.  He encourages Hedy to make a marriage that he hopes will save her and in turn her parents from the gathering storm.  That the powerful well connected man would protect Hedy and her family from the dangers that were appearing on the edges of society.  In the end no one is saved.  The Holocaust was tragic and no one came away unscathed.

Though it does for a while the winds are blowing and as they change course the dynamics change.  Hedy makes her escape from a bad marriage and the war by traveling to America. 

Then we learn how Hedy came to the US and became the major motion picture star she was.  We also learn about her brilliant mind and scientific abilities .  What she invented and how she tried to help with the war effort and the reasons behind her determination to help.   She was an incredible woman. 
Using her power of acting she encourages Louis B. Mayer to take her under his wing and feature her in many motion pictures.  She becomes the most sought after actress of her time.  But her most important contribution to society is the invention of frequency-hopping spread spectrum, which she gets patented.  This important discovery has been part of the technological advances that have led to the development of the cell phones we use today.

Hedy Lamarr was not just a pretty face.




                                                                                                                                                                                                 

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Murder, Magic and What We Wore

Kelly Jones is a new author I am just discovering. She writes for a young adult audience but this first mystery novel was very clever and entertaining so I will try some of her other books. 

Murder, Magic and What We Wore explains it all in a nutshell.  There is a murder and young debutant Annis has become an orphan.  At the age of 16 living in London with her aunt, after father's death they are now it seems penniless.  Annis refuses to go into servitude and decides to open a dress shop to support her and her aunt, Cassia.  Taking her new maid servant, Millie with her she sets up a shop under the disguise of Madame Martine. 

Having known her father was a spy for the British government, Annis decides she wants to follow in his footsteps and her first assignment could be to find his killer.  She also discovers that she has a a rare magical sewing talent that will make spying much easier.  But the spymasters of the British War Office do not agree with her ideas.  So off she goes to prove to them and her Aunt Cassia that she is qualified.

This is a fun regency time period murder mystery novel.  The characters are fun and colorful.  The chapter headings are fun and the quotes at the start of each chapter are also very apropos .
I look forward to continuing to follow Annis and Millie's exploits.

Last Train to London

Once again this is a novel that highlights some of the more obscure facts that happened during the worst war in history.  Last Train to London written by Meg Waite Clayton tells the story of the Kinder transport.

In this novel Clayton tells the story of Geertruida Wijsmuller, known as “Tante Truus” who is part of the Dutch resistance. She helps children to escape out of Nazi controlled areas to places that will take them.  She has been taking chances as she works to rescue many children as we meet her at the beginning of the book.   She then is willing to risk everything when the chance to save hundreds of children becomes available. She approaches Adolf Eichmann after hearing that Britain is willing to accept children coming in by train to London.  they will then place them with families across the country.  Eichmann gives her a number and time limit and Truus races against the clock to get her train on the way to London in time. 

Two other stories are starting at different locations heading toward the same train station to hopefully meet up with the Kindertransport.  Can they meet there in time and will there be room for them on the train car?  Stephan Newman, a 17 year old Jewish youth and his young brother are left alone together when their parents are taken in a raid.  He has grown up in an influential and wealthy family in Vienna and as a young budding playwright feels only anger toward the changing situation in Europe.

Žofie-Helene, is the brilliant teen Christian girl whose mother edits a progressive, anti-Nazi newspaper.  She is a math prodigy and friends with Stephan.  She tries to help Stephan using her math skills and ability to negotiate the tunnels under the city as the Nazis close in.

Using factual information about Geertruida Wijsmuller, who was married to a Dutch banker, who supported her work along the way this novel fleshes out her personal story.  She was childless herself experiencing many miscarriages.  But through her own personal loss she continued to rescue children and sending them from the Baltics and Poland across borders to Palestine via Marseilles.