BOOKS | GREAT READS
BOOKS YOU
CAN’T
LIVE WITHOUT “The Storyteller” By Jodi Picoult Review by Wendy Bidne
Jodi Picoult is one of my favorite authors. Two of the things I like about her books is that she writes about hot topics and she adds some kind of twist at the end. “The Storyteller” is unlike most of her books because it is a historical fiction, in that most of the book takes place during the Holocaust and the other takes place in current times. Sage Singer, a young woman who is struggling with her own personal issues, meets an elderly man named Josef in her grief support group and builds an unlikely friendship with him. He tells her a story of Minka, a Jewish woman, imprisoned in a concentration camp in Europe during World War II. Minka’s life in the camp and her job working for a Nazi officer become a critical story within this book. This is a story of friendships, hardships, despair and resilience.
“From Tragedy to Triumph” By John Vernon Smith
“I am not afraid of tomorrow, because I have seen yesterday, and I love today!” Excerpt from the introduction written by his wife, Elaine Smith: “This book tells the story of how a family, who experienced in the early days the bondage of slavery, somehow managed to become free and to realize the dream of America. It is truly a story of tragedy turned to triumph. The author hopes that others reading this book can be influenced to find their
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own way to achieve the American dream. “My husband is now, as of this writing, 85 years old, and he looks back on his life with awe and nostalgia. He thinks about his childhood when he was raised by his single father. He wonders what his mother was like or what it would have been like to have a mother, since she died when he was just 2 years old. He remembers the “businesses” he organized as a child — “Johnny’s Delivery Service” and a haircutting service for smaller children whose parents couldn’t afford a barber. Even then, he was providing service to others. “And, so, as he grew up and became an adult, he was always giving and doing for others and trying to make this world a better place.”
