Bending Toward the Sun A Mother and Daughter Memoir by Leslie Gilbert-Lurie & Rita Lurie – of how the mother’s holocaust experience affected later generations

The book is well researched, it presents events with historical accuracy without spending time on nuances which will bog down the story. I enjoyed that the author tried to make the story flow presenting relevant facts intertwining with the narrative.

The book is certainly worth reading, we should not be losing this kind of history, and future generations of the author’s family will have something that many others wish they did.

A short biography of William Bailey, an American who stood his ground against Hitler’s Germany, in New York harbor, at a time when the US was solidly neutral.

Titans of History: The Giants Who made Our World by Simon Sebag Montefiore is a non-fiction book of extremely short biographies of those people the author deemed as changing the world they lived in. Mr. Montefiore is a prize winning author for both fiction and non-fiction.

This is not an easy book to read, but it’s not meant to be and is not afraid to ask difficult questions – some of which have no answers

The different points of view give the story a much wider view of the world and how little human kind has advanced

Jewish noir is a genre which I generally enjoy. The Jewish people like to think of themselves as the “chose ones”, but that title is a mixed blessing and a curse. It’s interesting to read how the definition of noir changed from economic desperation and government corruption to stories about simply fitting in, belonging and all the drama and trauma that it entails.

Flags Over the Warsaw Ghetto: The Untold Story of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising by Moshe Arens, former Ambassador to the U.S., Israeli Defense Minister and Foreign Minister, tells the story of the uprising in Warsaw Ghetto which the history books have missed. Interestingly enough, the uprising started on the eve of the Jewish holiday of Passover, a holiday known as celebrating liberation.

After the war ended, Brenner has accidentally taken on a new identity and becomes a janitor in the courthouse where the Nuremberg Trials are being heard. Trying to heal is conscious, Brenner writes a letter to his wife which set up each chapter of the book.