Reviewed for Readers' Favorite at www.ReadersFavorite.com.

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I daresay that anyone who could read A Fearful Lie, by Jean Fournier Johnson, and not walk away with tears in their eyes is missing something quintessentially  . . . human.  Gloria, a perfectly normal person with a perfectly normal life, husband, children and home, stops one day for a quick drink. Unfortunately, she has one too many before she heads home. Along the way, momentarily distracted, she hits and kills three-year old Joshua. She removes his body from the road, then leaves the scene, having convinced herself that her policeman husband and her daughters ought not pay for her crime. As the years then unfold, Gloria seeks forgiveness—but before she can find it, she must first face “truth.” Her journey to find both is a painful one, but one that is oh-so-worth following.

In the law, there is something we call “jury nullification.” It is the idea that juries, after having been told the law that is to be applied to the facts of a case presented them at trial, might refuse to follow that law. Sometimes this occurs because the jurors can see themselves in the same situation. In the past it was not all that uncommon to occur in situations of drinking and driving, because so many could see themselves in the same situation. They could not bring themselves to render a “guilty” verdict when they believed the same could have happened to them. I believe that has changed over the years. Even so, I imagine many will identify in some way with Gloria—I think because she is so “normal.” She makes a terrible decision that changes her life and the lives of others, for all time. What she finds at the end of her journey is . . . Well, I guess you will have to read A Fearful Lie, to find out for yourself. You will be glad that you did.   

Thank you, NetGalley, for allowing me to read and review this work.

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Salsas and Moles, by Deborah Schneider offers what I love most in a “cookbook.” Specifically, Schneider provides a veritable cornucopia filled with tips and tricks that will make her Salsas and Moles a “go to” resource for everything from identifying the right kind of pepper, herb, or seasoning to add to a recipe, to how best to serve the end products. Main courses are not provided—though many are recommended or suggested. Such information is precisely what this reader wants in a book like this—ideas, not strict formulas to follow.

I enjoyed the basics set out in the opening pages, the pictures of products, and the “essential techniques” Schneider describes. If you are looking for good advice as to how to create flavor and balance in your salsas and moles, and how to make the best use of them, look no further than Schneider’s Salsas and Moles. I look forward to putting her ideas into practice!

Thank you, NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this work.

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I thank Open Road for the opportunity to read and to review Survival in the Shadows, by Barbara Lovenheim. The story was one that needs to be told—that cannot be forgotten—that we must do all we can to be certain is not repeated.

Barbara Lovenheim happened along the story of Ellen and Arthur Arndt and five of their family members, and how they managed to survive the last days of WWII hidden right under the Nazis’ noses, in what the party then regarded as a “Judenfrei” Berlin.  She teamed up with the family to interview each of the members at length, so as to add personal details to their harrowing story, which she intended to tell. Lovenheim then set the story forth, complete with likely dialogue. The result is a tale of a family’s love, of the heroics of those willing to help their Jewish friends and neighbors, and of the fear in which the Arndt family lived in the last dark days of Hitler’s Germany.

Of late, I’ve read quite a number of WWII/Hitler/Holocaust stories, after a number of years of taking a reprieve from them. I suppose it is fair to say that what has motivated me, is an appreciation for the realities of the world in which we live today—a world in which evil seeks, once again, to extend its thorny hand of destruction to the “civilized” world.

I particularly appreciated Lovenheim’s approach to this story, which was to tell one of triumph, rather than one of misery. Yes, there were extraordinarily difficult days the Arndts lived through—times of hunger, and of fear they would be captured and sent to a concentration camp. Yet, Lovenheim seems to have concentrated on the very things that saved this family: faith in their fellow man, hope for mankind’s better future, and their love for one another.

 

Thank you, NetGalley, for the opportunity to read and review Ravensbruck.

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I recently finished reading Ravensbruck: Life and Death in Hitler’s Concentration Camp for Women, by Sarah Helm.  I had to put it down for a couple of weeks afterward before I could gather my thoughts sufficiently well to write a review. I found this read both profoundly insightful and deeply disturbing.

I’ve read a lot of books about WWII, the Nazi regime in general, and of the concentration camps in particular.  The stories Helm shares, charged with emotion, are real. I could nearly smell death as I worked my way through. I can only wonder how long that stench hung over Europe after the war ended. The sheer number of murders and of the resulting piles of bodies—or in some cases, of ashes—is mind-boggling.

WWII, like all the “great” wars of the 20th century, was an ideological one—not a religious one—witnessed by the fact that the Nazis victimized Jews, Christians, Poles, the French, “a-socials,” gypsies, homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and so many, many more . . .  The weapons they used included those expected, as well as those I’d never read of before, namely, the mobile gas chambers.

One of the things that stood out for me with Ravenstruck, is that Helm managed to capture the personalities of some of those in charge in a way that left me shaking my head. When she shared Heinrich Himmler’s fascination with breeding chickens, or the details of his notes with his wife, he sounded so different from the beast that oversaw evil on such an unimaginable scale. When Helm set out the background of “normal” young women, turned to killer guards, I was left speechless.

From whence does such evil come? How could it survive long enough to do what it did during these days? Why did those who knew about it, do nothing about it, rather than take whatever action was necessary to stop it? That “hate” could take root and grow to such levels is shocking. In this regard, Helm also shared the intellectual dishonesty, the irrationality necessary for people to create such a system, to grow it, and to fight for it to continue.

It is a shocking reality that some would repeat those times, as our daily newscasts witness. There are people today who want to wipe out those whose ideas and way of life do not match up ideologically with their own. I recall the famous Edmund Burke quote:  “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”  Therein came the real difficulty for me when I read Ravensbruck—I was left with a deep appreciation for how much we require strength and truth and moral clarity in leadership though, I daresay, the world is struggling to find it.

I received a copy in exchange for my fair and honest review.

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Lelya Atke enjoys status as an award-winning author for her debut tale, Charm: An Amazing Story of Little Black Cat,” and for good reason. Opening with the events of a typical day, Atke tells of her discovery of a little kitten, dirty, neglected, smelling of kerosene, and lost amidst the rush of cars on a freeway. Initially, she considers leaving the kitten, then reconsiders. She rescues it, brings it home and cleans it up. Shortly thereafter, she dubs the kitten—which steals her heart—“Charm.” Charm is “smart, serious, quiet and calm.”  But life can throw unusual things our way, and so it did to the author and her beloved pet, Charm. When Atke finds him missing one day, she begins her hunt. To tell you what she finds would be to give away too much . . .

The real “charm” of Charm, is Atke’s love for her pet. When he goes missing, something magical happens. Did Charm live on? To answer that question might well be to give away the ending—but this much I can say for sure: Charm does indeed live on—whether simply in the pages of Atke’s story, or for real, I will leave to other readers to determine for themselves.