The Secret Holocaust Diaries: The Untold Story of Nonna Bannister

 This is not the Christian version of the Diary of Ann Frank. Before the reader of this review becomes defensive, let me assure you that I am horrified by the holocaust. I believe that all the horrors including the horrors mentioned in this book happened. They may not have happened exactly at the places or on the dates Nonnie mentions in her diary, but I believe that substantively they happened as described. This book badly needs editing. Further, these diaries, documents, and notes should have been given to an expert author and not a Christian book author as was done here. I understand why the editors were conflicted. This is a diary that spans perhaps 20 years and includes the notes and entries of a very young girl. Some of the recorded "facts" were incorrectly recalled and in some cases the correct version may not have been an accurate description of the author's life experience. Instead of a messy and definitely imperfect work of non-fiction, an expert author could have written a fictionalized version based heavily on Nonnie's diary entries and memories. Further, almost everyone who survived the holocaust finds some distant Jewish relative to claim. Perhaps, Nonnie's father had a Jewish grandfather in his background, but I doubt he was Jewish. Spoken Yiddish and German are very closely related. Yiddish is a dialect of German. They are written differently. Yiddish is written with the Hebrew alphabet and German is written with an alphabet similar to the English version

. Had her father's family done extensive business in Poland, it is likely that they did business with Jews. Before the holocaust there were 2 million Jews living in Poland, many of them in business. They may have learned Yiddish so that they could do business with them. However, I also suspect that Nonnie's father had at least one Jewish relative other than a mother or father. Feodosija, Nonnie's beloved grandmother idolized the Cossacks. Her husband was one and she wanted her son to be one as well. It was the Cossacks that raided the Jewish Shtetyls raping, burning, looting and murdering Jews. They are the soldiers that chase the Jews out of their village in Fiddler On The roof. So idolizing them without seeing them in reality and context was indeed a fantasy. It is true that Nonnie and her mother suffered terribly at the hands of the Nazis. However, until Anna was sent to Ravensbruck, what she suffered was nothing compared to what the Jews suffered. Nonnie never suffered the privations the Jews suffered. They lived far longer. The typical lifespan for a Jewish inmate of a concentration camp if the inmate was not killed immediately and could work was 6 months. Nonnie and Anna lived for years in German custody. Few if any nuns concealed Jews as German orphans in hospital settings with hospital food reserved for Germans. Nonnie's children should consider hiring a novelist to turn her diaries and documents into a novel based on fact but in part fictional and labelled as fiction. Television shows called docudramas serve this function in film. We don't have a similar venue in literature.

Do not be fooled by all the strong reviews. Most of them were written by Christians who are persuaded to do so by her frequent mention of her faith in God and Christ to pull her through. Certainly her faith helped her survive. Christians will call this book a testament to the human spirit. They will call it a testament to faith in God and our savior, Christ. If those kinds of books do not interest you, you might skip this book. If you are a student of the holocaust, this book gives insight into how the Nazis treated Russian labor volunteers and Poles. However, there must be better choices out there. Further, this book will suffer on the kindle. There are many photos and documents that enrich the book and should be seen in print. This book should sell for far less than its current price. Nonnie wanted the world to know of the Nazi horrors she experienced so they would never happen again. The estate should look upon this as a donation to society and not hope to earn anything more than the expenses of publishing it. It is not a professional effort though it pretends to be one. The poems and entries are those of a young girl and a young woman with far less writing talent than Ann Frank.
I can tell that Nonnie was a wonderful person forever scarred by her holocaust experiences. I am sure she was a loving and caring wife and mother. Clearly her husband and children adored her. I do not wish to offend them with this review. I hope they take my suggestions to heart and hire an author to turn these diaries into a first rate book of fiction inspired by and based on Nonnie's life and her diaries.

Defending Jacob: A Novel (Hardcover)

Defending Jacob directly confronts the issue of whether character traits are predetermined by nature or molded by nurture. The jury is still out on the issue, but the consensus is that it is a combination of both. Jacob's father, Andy Barber is the local D.A. He is successful in his chosen field. The community in which the Barber's live and work is Newton, Mass, a safe affluent and highly educated community. When Ben Rifkin one of Jacob's classmates is found murdered in the park, the town is shocked. Jacob is identified as the prime suspect after others are ruled out. Andy Barber has never revealed to his wife his checkered family background. His father is in jail for murder. His grandfather was also convicted of murder. He is concerned that there is a murder gene and that he has passed it on to Jacob. His wife is angry that he chose to conceal these facts. The trial and the strains it puts on this family are the heart of the novel. How does a family survive the isolation, financial burdens and fear that a murder trial produces. Their only child, Jacob is the accused. Andy is put on paid leave because of the potential for a conflict of interest. Thus, he has no work to occupy his time. The people who were once close family friends such as Duffy, the police inspector assigned to the D.A.'s office, suddenly must distance themselves from the family. Alone and frightened Laurie Barber, Andy Barber, and Jacob Barber face this tumultuous experience

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A psychiatrist is contacted for consultation. Her job is to identify whether or not Jacob has any inherited traits that might make him more likely to engage in criminal activity. She does identify some of those traits and she then begins to construct evidence of mitigation should Jacob be convicted. The traits she identifies include lack of empathy, an inability to form normal parental attachments as an infant and impulsivity. For lack of a better description, these could be called "murder genes." Jacob has a sketchy history of cruelty to small animals. He also has a history of "rough" or physically violent behavior with other small children his own age. Andy and Laurie believe that they have successfully dealt with his tendency to be "rough" with other small children and that the trait disappeared by the time Jacob was 5. Both his mother and father avoid characterizing his behavior as anything but ordinary growing pains. Parents can identify with Andy and Laurie Barber and the daily horror they must face as the court case moves along. Andy correctly articulates the problems they are facing. Even if Jacob is adjudicated as not guilty, that does not mean he is innocent. It merely means that the evidence does not prove him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

 I do not want to create a spoiler here. Spoiler alert: However, someone else confesses to the crime and commits suicide. There is some indication to Andy that it is a false confession. Andy, Laurie, and Jacob flushed with relief take a much needed family vacation to Jamaica. They stay at a luxurious beach resort. Jacob meets and befriends a teen girl who is also a guest at the resort. Andy and Laurie are thrilled that Jacob is returning to the normal activities engaged in by 14 year old boys. Then the girl Jacob has befriended disappears. She is discovered seven weeks later when her body washes ashore. She has drowned, but her windpipe has also been crushed as if she were strangled. The Jamaican police cannot clearly call her a victim of homicide. However, Laurie now knows that in spite of the confession her son is a murderer, and he has killed twice. What happens next is the twist in the tale.

Defending Jacob is a fast paced legal thriller. Men as well as women will be entertained by the story. I had trouble identifying with the mother. The characters were somewhat well drawn, but the mother especially was not drawn with much depth. I found it hard to believe that in spite of the fact that her family was willing to sit with her at trial she chose to suffer further by sitting alone. This story will make a better movie than it has a book.

The Science of Good Cooking (Cook's Illustrated Cookbooks) (Hardcover)

This wonderful book breaks down the science of cooking and baking into 50 major concepts. Once learned the food maven can apply them to other dishes and experiment often with good results. I love the scientific testing behind these recommendations and concepts. They don't just taste meat to determine which method or cut produces the juiciest result, they measure the juice extruded. Many of these recipes and instructions have appeared in other publications. However, here they are organized around the concepts they illustrate. For the dedicated cook who wants to improve his/her results, this is an excellent resource. It would also make a wonderful gift.

The 19th Wife: A Novel (Kindle Edition)

The story opens with Jordan Scott, the excommunicated gay son of a modern day Mormon plural wife. She is number 19. When Jordan was 14 he dared to hold the hand of one of his similarly aged stepsisters. For this act he was expelled from the community. His mother and father left him on the side of a highway with $17 and nothing more. Jordan succeeded in making a life for himself in L.A. doing construction work and partnering with another gay young man. Now fast forward about 5 years. Jordan sees on TV that his mother is accused of murdering his father. In spite of the hard feelings he has in being abandoned at 14 with so few resources he is sure his mother is incapable of murder and he returns to Mesadale, the fundamentalist, polygamous Mormon town in which he was raised to defend her.

The author David Ebershoff weaves this murder mystery in and out of the true history of another 19th wife, Brigham Young's rebellious spouse, Ann Eliza Young. He uses several narrators to tell her tale including reporters, a woman writing a master's thesis, her son, Lorenzo, and Ann Eliza Young herself. Ann Eliza was a beautiful actress living in Salt lake City. She married a man and had two children by him. He failed to support her and she divorced him. Brigham Young was smitten with her and using various means of financial control, he forced her to marry him. He was much older than Ann Eliza, and she did not want to be a plural wife. He mistreated her and she left him escaping the polygamous community under cover of darkness. She then crusades to end polygamy claiming the practice to be barbaric and harmful to wives and their children. She travels on a very successful speaking circuit which is how she supports her two young sons. Lorenzo, the youngest boy accompanies her. She has audiences with congress and president Grant and she accomplishes her goal of outlawing plural marriage in the U.S. and its territories. In 1875 she publishes a bestselling memoir criticizing the Mormon sect and their polygamous customs. Brigham Young is furious with her, and he and the church minions are aghast that she would expose the church to ridicule.

So we have the tale of an early 19th wife interwoven with the tale of a modern day 19th wife accused of murdering her polygamous spouse. These polygamous fundamentalist Mormon sects are really cults that have brain washed their members. We see the danger of cults such as this through the modern day murder mystery. Unlike other reviewers I found the historical fiction of Ann Eliza's life to be more interesting than the modern mystery story. I am not a fan of novels that alternate between different narrators and time periods. For that reason I downgraded this book to 4 stars. However, this author changed the narrator and the time period as seamlessly as possible. The changes were not nearly as annoying as they could have been. I did enjoy the book, and I could not put it down. I'd like to see a film version. I understand there is a Lifetime channel film of this novel. This review is for the kindle version.

Ice Cream!: Delicious Ice Creams for all Occasions (Spiral-bound)

I was looking for a basic ice cream recipe book that would help me make basic flavors like vanilla and vanilla chocolate chip. Further, like none of the other books this had no instructions on the successful use of stabilizers or alternatives to deal with the iciness resulting from the periodic softening and refreezing of all ice creams. Of all the available books The Perfect Scoop by David Leibovitz best satisfied this need. Still the best recipe for vanilla ice cream and a successful way to deal with the issue of iciness formation was a recipe from Cooks Illustrated which uses corn syrup as part of the sugar to prevent iciness. Save your money and buy the Leibovitz book and use the basic recipe from Cooks Illustrated by buying a subscription to the online service. Further, I have learned that the commercially available ice creams are superior to anything you can turn out from your home freezer. Graeters from Ohio, Marble Slab and Ben & Jerrys have it all over homemade. Further, they have lots of unusual and exotic flavors. So unless you wish to make a specific exotic flavor for a special occasion, you would be better off buying another book, getting the Cooks Illustrated recipe, or buying a commercial ice cream.

Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home (Hardcover)

If you are looking for a book that provides the basic flavors and some exotic options skip this book. Buy The Perfect Scoop by Leibovitz instead. Better yet subscribe to Cooks Illustrated online service which has one of the few recipes which deals with the issue of stabilizers to prevent iciness. If you wish to make an unusual exotic flavor for a special occasion then by all means go ahead and try. Because of rapid deterioration, you can't prepare this far in advance and freeze it. For that you need stabilizers or the ice cream will turn icy and unpalatable. None of these recipes offer any suggestions for stabilizers. Some should in case the cook wishes to make something that will keep for more than 2 weeks in the freezer. Several threads online deal with these issues and I found "organic" stabilizers but few recipes that include exact amounts and how to vary flavors using them. Cooks Illustrated did the best job so save the book money and subscribe to Cooks online. Unfortunately, none of their many books contained an ice cream recipe and I have most of them. I did learn that making ice cream is best left to the professionals. You really can't make a better tasting ice cream than Graeters of Ohio, Marble slab, Ben & Jerrys or Baskin Robbins.

The Perfect Scoop: Ice Creams, Sorbets, Granitas, and Sweet Accompaniments (Paperback)

Like all the other ice cream cook books this one has beautiful pictures and clear instructions. It also contains recipes for basic flavors like vanilla, chocolate, and chocolate chip. I suspect that most ice cream cooks are interested in exotic flavors not easily available commercially. I and my minions have no desire to eat green tea ice cream or any other exotic like mango mint etc. I just wanted to make something that tasted better than the commercially available premium ice creams. That is simply not possible. Ice cream preparation is a science which requires special machinery and the proper use of stabilizers to create a full flavored ice cream. None of these recipes instructs in the use of stabilizers. In fact had I not followed a thread online which dealt with the issue of stabilizers, I would not have learned why none of the ice cream books recommends keeping ice cream more than 2 weeks in the freezer. Homemade ice cream becomes "icy" from the softening and refreezing of same over time. Only the use of stabilizers prevents this. None of the online recipes in the threads instructed on when to add these stabilizers to the mix. One could guess that one should add them just before placing the mix in the freezer. The best available recipe which deals with the "iciness" issue and stabilizers by substituting corn syrup for some of the sugar is a Cooks illustrated online recipe. You must subscribe to the online service since I did not fine the recipe in any of their myriad books and I have over 10 of them. Further, you cannot make anything that tastes as good as Graeters of Ohio, Marble Slab, Ben & Jerrys, or Baskin Robbins. Save yourself the time, trouble and money and buy your ice cream commercially prepared.

The Look of Love: Eye Miniatures from the Skier Collection (Hardcover)

I have been fascinated by the lovers' eye brooches ever since I learned about them. I'd love to have the means necessary to collect them. They are so rare that I don't even have one. So instead I look at the beautiful pictures of this one collection of many often spectacular examples of this interesting and exotic jewelry. This book contains photos of this one extensive collection which features examples of all forms of this type of jewelry. I judged this book the way I judge all books on collections by the number and quality of the photos. This book contains many gorgeous and clear photos cataloguing this one collection of lovers' eye jewelry.