Category: Books
The Muralist and LBJ, a Secret Hero.
WWII novels always figure importantly among the stacks of books waiting for me to read and summer is a great time for catching up. Maybe your “to read” stack is on your bedside table, or in leaning towers on the floor under your desk, or stashed neatly in boxes in a…
A Summer Book for Young Readers
After two years promoting my adult novel, Immigrant Soldier, I decided go back to my roots – children’s literature. As a result of the publication of the novel, I now have my very own publishing company. Why not publish a children’s book? Last February, I pulled out one of my favorite children’s manuscripts – a work where…
My Mother’s Secret – A Self-Publication Success
I have to admit, Amazon has my number! Whenever I sign in to my account on their website, I get a display of “featured recommendations,” and when I order a book, I am shown selections that “customers who bought this item also bought.” It was one of these suggestions that lead me to the wonderful…
December 7, 2016 – The 75th anniversary of the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor.
Though my blogs and my interest center on the Holocaust and the European experience of Nazi dominance in the 1930s and 40s, I never forget that action in the Pacific was crucial to World War II. The “War in the Pacific” began with the bombing of Pearl Harbor,…
Marthe Cohn, Behind Enemy Lines
Last year in the end of December, I was able to attend a talk by Marthe Cohn, holocaust survivor and French spy. A diminutive woman in her mid-90s, she perched on a high chair with her husband by her side. I was part of the audience gathered at the Laguna Beach Chabad…
Meg Waite Clayton – A World War II “Nut.”
I recently had the honor of hosting best-selling author Meg Waite Clayton for a weekend in my home. She had come to Laguna Beach in order to speak at the annual fund-raising Literary Luncheon for an organization dear to my heart .* Earlier I had been asked by the organization to write a short piece about…
We Are Readers – An Author’s Favorite Childhood Books
Most writers are also devoted readers. In fact, a love of reading, books, indeed for stories of all kinds, is almost always at the heart of why we begin writing. Most of us read voraciously from an early age. I thought it might be fun to share some of my favorite books from all…
Two Sons of China
Several months ago, when I received news from the Independent Publishers Book Awards that Immigrant Soldier had earned the bronze medal in the military/wartime fiction category, one of the first things I did (after sending the news to my readers) was to look at the other winners of this niche genre. When I had placed my book…
In Their Own Words
My interest in the Ritchie Boys goes well beyond my uncle’s story. Luckily, there is a growing selection of memoirs and nonfiction accounts of the experiences of Ritchie Boys available to interested readers. Each man’s story adds to the literature of the Holocaust, World War II, and the “Greatest Generation.” I have selected five that…
Beyond Anne Frank: Holocaust Books for Youth and Teens.
Summer is almost here. It is a good time to encourage students, who are freed from homework and after-school sports, to expand their reading beyond school-mandated curriculum. The Diary of Anne Frank is widely used as a way to teach young people about the Holocaust, as well as a tool to challenge prejudice and promote respect for…