Am sorry to say this is a very boring book. Does not refer to any of the goings on during the golden years of Hollywood. None of the hijinks of the stars, male or female of that time. Rather sedate gossip is the content of this novel. No reference of the really talented people who wrote, directed and photographed the movie work of that time. Some of the greatest fashion designers were employed in Hollywood as well as the most serious and most hilarious drunks gave us their art. Dozens of magazines about Hollywood stars were published and read. My generation read them in study hall in High school and got into trouble for it. This "Do Tell' novel by Lindsay Lynch has no energy, No laughter or tears to remember.

This is a spine chilling tome. Not so much the description of the Communist Regime. Their snooping into private lives, their control of everyone and the soul destroying of citizens who do not walk the line. The lack of any kind of freedom for any citizens. The lack of goods and food. Lack of housing. Horrible living conditions.

It is the story of Milena Urbanska. Her personal strength, her very controlled emotions, Her ability to make the decision to leave, defect, her country because of a man she loves. Not a political belief. The inner strength that allows her to go through an abortion totally alone. The performance of this deed is not known to the father. In many ways he is child like. Of course Milena realizes this. Yet she loves him.

Her father is a top man in the Communist Party and there is nothing he does not know about his people, in particular about his daughter. It is within his power to assist her or block her. Milena remains true to herself. She puts all herself into marriage of an Englishman, lives in London and literally gives up all she knows of her culture, abandons her parents and works very hard to support the two of them with not too much understanding or appreciation from her husband. When I got to the end of the book my esteem, compassion, admiration, as well as thoughts of needing more women like Milena in order to create a better world was upmost in my thoughts.

This tome by Esther Safran Foer is very detailed about her extended family just about all of whom were destroyed in the Holocaust, killed in mass graves but their love for their beliefs not destroyed. Her unrelenting search for survivors of her large family, her poignant verbal cameos of humor with and about her mom are mesmerizing. What is more important is her never give up search on the European Continent for her family members. She has found the graves of many in the most impossible places. This is dedication to one's family, the belief in the good future and teaching young generations of what is possible to achieve if one has a heart and soul and the belief in continuity of life. The life one believes in.

The world has an immense amount of literature, fiction and nonfiction, about the Hitler era. This tome "At the Wolf's Table" by Rosella Postorino does not tell us anything new, for one; also it moves very slowly. Being the official food taster of Hitler is not a life threatening position considering the immense security this man had about him. What rubbed me the wrong way in particular was that these women were getting three meals a day, guaranteed, as compared to the thousands that were dying of starvation. Yes, true, if the food was poisoned these women would die but somehow I could not find within me to feel sorry for them in view of the destruction of human life all around them. So many of them from starvation. The fact that the commanding officer had singled Rosa out to have an intimate relationship with did not impress me either as his reasons for this were not analyzed. I feel he did this only because he could, so to me this relationship had no value. Rosa was still going to get her food three times a day. She allowed it, she did not stand up to him. I did not like this novel, there was nothing of value in this writing, no standing up for one's religious belief, one's family, one's pride. Just existing. It was not a case of Rosa agreeing to his demands or he would kill her. So much of that was going on at that time. What I am saying is that this story did not have a back bone
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Those of us of a certain age who have been fortunate enough to hear and see Frank Sinatra perform in person, either in a grand concert or Vegas will appreciate this book by John Brady as we have seen, in person, all of Frank's antics and outbursts. We have listened to his dreamy voice and actually still do, on CD, on Sirius, in our homes and in restaurants. He is the man for a certain generation. Unforgettable.

Ava Gardner was elegant, lithe, beautiful. Her throaty voice and movements like a cat were and are marvelous. Again those of us of a certain age watched every film of hers as they came out. She was particularly impressive in "Mogambo".

John Brady has taken the events in the lives of those two and presented them to us in a way which makes us go down memory lane. Theirs and our own. He also describes Frank's wife Nancy and his mother. The environment that shaped Frank.
Ava born in a shack in the South, five sisters. No education but mesmerizing beauty. This book depicts her as a woman who did what she wanted , how she wanted to do it and when she wanted to do it. Takes courage, willpower, spirit.
Their fights were legendary, their lavish life style, their not welcome back at certain high end hotels during their life time were fodder for newspapers of those times. Their love of life and love for each other. A great book, very readable and most enjoyable.

For the first fifty pages or so of "The Same Sky' by Amanda Eyre Ward I was struck by how similar to the daily stories of separated families, possible death in crossing the border into the USA and all the heart-wrenching news reports we read every day. Seemed to me the book was cobbled together from the headlines. Then as I read on I realized the deeper story within. The heartbreak of childlessness and a near baby having a bay. How all this colors the lives of those who are experiencing this, as well as, us the bystanders who have a large enough heart to want to help. The novel is not talking about the faction of society who is swimming in flat screens, iPods, WiFi, designer clothing and are limo driven. These are individuals who want to come here and be able to buy a plate of beans, have a pair of shoes, experience the love of their parent, not be afraid every minute of the day and night. Go to school. Take advantage of what is possible here with a lot of hard work. This little girl, age ten, is sitting on top of a moving train, traveling from a Latin country to Mexico and is exposed to all a cruel, uncaring world is dumping on her. If nothing else, after reading this novel we are forced to look around us and say "Thank You".

I did not fall in love with Kelly Corrigan's memoir. Her intense and clearly meant to be amusing criticisms of her mother and her parenting skills are unfair and show Kelly's immaturity. leaving the country to backpack overseas to experience "life" is irresponsible as her parents have invested in Kelly's college education and want the best for her. So the "best" turns out to be a job as a nanny in Australia. The one thing this job does do is created the realization in Kelly that she misses her family and needs her mother. This kind of blow by blow description of one's growing up may be quite satisfactory to the individual's immediate family but does nothing for anyone else. Once Kelly became quite ill she understood that the only person on this planet who could help her walk through this disaster was her mom.

The human spirit is indestructable. This has been shown in our human history over and over again. It is also so in Martin Fletcher's novel. This is a diary of various moments in the lives of Jacob and Sarah during WW II and its aftermath. Having lost everything, family, home all support systems, totally subjected to the kind of torture we humans are capable of, these two Jews try to survive in an environment that hates them. Jacob is a survivor of Bergen-Belsen, torture camp for Jews. He witnessed the killing of his little brother. Sarah had lost the love of her life, Hoppi, one night in a deserted cemetery she prematurely gives birth to her baby. Baby is born dead. She is alone and terrified as the chance of her life coming to an end instantly either at the hands of the Soviets or the Nazis is a given. Sarah and Joseph meet by chance while hiding and together attempt to survive mentally and physically. Sarah has many emotional scars.The vivid descriptions of foraging for food, cigarette butts, as well as safety are very vivid. Sarah is helped by an American GI after being brutally raped. The soldier takes her to a hospital. Eventually Sarah and Jacob fall in love. They are not able to move on with their lives until Jacob is able to avenge the murder of his little brother Maxie. The psychological scars are receding somewhat for the two of them but all is definitely not well. There are many moments here in this novel where I had to put the book down and go for a little walk to air out my head. It is an amazing, yet, a very disturbing story. Surely required reading for generations who are interested in WW II and those who are interested in what exactly happened in the now distant past. There are not many left who can tell the human history of WW2 in the first person. We must read and learn about those times so as to help prevent this from ever happening again. This book is a lesson in geography, human prejudice, fear, and above all history.

Ellen Marie Wiseman knows how to tell a story.
She also has a wealth of inner feelings to draw on which makes her story very alive. Have not read anything that even comes close to describing the emotion, the smells, the despair and unbelievable suffering of the characters in this book, so very close to the history of what happened all over that part of the world, at that time. Ellen Marie Wiseman is very courageous as she is of German extraction, she is able to talk so vividly about the tragedy of the Jews, the Germans and others in terms of her individual characters and their suffering and the reasons for their suffering. The helpful American soldier depicted in this story made me smile. This book is fantastic. Am anxiously awaiting her next one.