TREASURES FROM THE ATTIC : THE EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF ANNE FRANK'S FAMILY
by Mirjam Pressler

In 2001, in the attic of a home in Basel, Switzerland, a treasure trove of over six thousand documents consisting of letters, photographs, poems, telegrams, drawings and postcards was discovered by Gertrude Elias, wife of Buddy. The historical significance was tremendous due to the fact that all of this correspondence had to do with the Frank family. Buddy Elias was Anne Frank's cousin. His mother, Helene or Leni, as she was known, was Otto Frank's sister.
The Frank family was very close-knit. There were four siblings: three brothers and one sister. They all enjoyed writing letters to each other and were quite good with composing poetry. Even as the family became separated and the children lived elsewhere, they all continued to correspond. Then, World War II began and the letter writing became one-sided. Whatever was sent to Amsterdam was not answered for two years. The Elias family had no idea that Otto Frank, his wife, Edith and their daughters, Anne and Margot were in hiding from the Nazis.
A year and a half later, when the war was over, Otto came to Switzerland for a three-week visit, alone. It was quite a reunion.
Treasures From the Attic is a fascinating read because you learn about the rest of Anne Frank's family that you never knew about. It actually starts with ancestors back in the 1700s (there is an extensive family tree in the back of the book), discusses their lives and how they influenced the generations to come.
When Otto Frank discovered Anne's diary in the Secret Annex and read it, he was stunned. He realized that he never really knew who his daughter was having always treated her like a child. Her diary revealed another side to her: maturity, intelligence, sensitivity and sympathy to all mankind. Otto decided to have the diary published to let the world see the gift that his daughter had.
There are many photographs of the entire family including Anne and Margot when they were young and when they became teenagers. When I look at the girls, I start tearing up. It was such a tragedy. Otto survived while Edith and her daughters were murdered in the concentration camps.
Being able to read the original letters, translated from German into English, you get a rich portrait of what shaped Anne Frank and you get to experience her warm, wonderful, tremendous family.
Recommended.

THE GREATER JOURNEY : AMERICANS IN PARIS
by David McCullough

They came from Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Louisiana, Ohio, North Carolina and almost all of the twenty-four states. Having never crossed the Atlantic before, these Americans were determined to have a new and different life in Paris between the years 1830 and 1900. They were almost all men, except for a few intrepid women; some came with their entire families, some came alone. Having accomplished so much, already, in America, their dreams were to be even more successful in the City of Light.
Medical student Oliver Wendell Holmes and Elizabeth Blackwell (the first female doctor in America) would learn from retired practicing doctors attending patients in twelve hospitals; writer James Fenimore Cooper and Samuel F.B. Morse (the best of friends) would go every day to the Louvre where Morse would paint his masterpiece (he didn't come up with the idea of the telegraph until he returned home); the American ambassador Elihu Washburne remained at his post during the Franco-Prussian war and the horrible Siege of Paris when the Germans invaded and kept an incredible diary of these events.
Sculptor Augustus Saint-Gardens, the painters Mary Cassatt (she was from Philadelphia although born in western Pennsylvania) and John Singer Sargent, were three of the greatest American artists ever and would flourish and be greatly accepted by Paris and its people.
Author David McCullough writes about so many people but highlights their brilliance, prowess, and creativity. He really knows how to tell a story. I have learned an incredible amount of history from the time span and the adventures that our countrymen went through. Paris enriched their lives and affected each and every one of them.
There are scores of paintings and sculptures throughout the book (Samuel Morse's painting is astounding) in both color and black-and-white with photographs of artists, historians, the Eiffel Tower, scenes of Paris, etc.
Phenomenal research is on display here. A truly stupendous read.
Very highly recommended.

AN EXCLUSIVE LOVE : A MEMOIR
by Johanna Adorjan

Vera and Istvan were Hungarian Jews who survived the Holocaust (they were both interred at Mauthausen). Istvan never spoke about it when asked. They left Budapest in 1956 due to the Soviet Invasion and went to Denmark. There were many immigrants from Hungary and the Danish citizens welcomed them quite warmly. It seems that Vera and Istvan were quite happy in their new environment and didn't have too much trouble adjusting. They learned the language, acquired a dog named Mitzi, entertained, gardened, and listened to classical music. But all was not to be.
In 1991, the couple was found in their bed, hands entwined. They had committed suicide together.
Granddaughter and author, Johanna Adorjan, tries to reconstruct the last day of their lives. She interviews relatives, friends and neighbors who knew her grandparents much more than she did, herself. Johanna only has fleeting memories.
Istvan was a doctor, Vera a physiotherapist. They did quite well and lived comfortably: a nursemaid for their children, a cook, fancy cars, plenty to eat. This changed when they had to leave Hungary.
Those who knew Istvan said that he was introverted and didn't reveal too much. He absolutely adored his wife and would never do anything contrary to upset her. They were inseparable.
Vera lived for her husband. On the surface, she seemed happy but in reality, she was not and was very insecure thinking that nobody loved her.
When Vera was in her seventies and still quite healthy, her husband, in his eighties, was declining. He was getting worse by the day and his breathing was labored. The thought of living without him was not something she would even consider even though the family invited her to stay with them.
So, the two of them made a pact to commit suicide. Vera bought the book Final Exit which she followed, meticulously. Istvan wrote out the prescription. They gave the dog away. She cleaned the house from top to bottom and baked a cake. The doors were locked. Vera left all the lights on. They were discovered four days later.
Who would have thought that a story about a couple who take their own lives could be so powerful? The way it is written in exquisite, simple prose makes the tale both intense and beautiful. The book is not very long (under 200 pages) and it doesn't take long to read. It's very hard to stop.
Theirs was a quite a romance both in life and in death.
Highly recommended.

AL JAFFEE'S MAD LIFE
by Mary-Lou Weisman

Al Jaffee has been an icon at MAD since 1955 and is still going strong at the age of eighty-nine. The magazine drips with adult hypocrisy and has been read by three generations of American children (including yours truly) and continues to delight many more. Who better to create such satire than Al? His life is pretty much like one large comic strip.
Jaffee's parents were from Lithuania and when they first came to the United States, they lived in New York. Then they moved to Savannah, Georgia because Al's father, Morris, became the manager of a large department store. He did very well, but the same could not be said for his wife, Mildred. She never adjusted.
In 1927, Mildred uprooted all four sons and transported them and herself back to Lithuania. Jaffee was six years old. They went from having indoor plumbing, electricity and plenty of food to eat to a shtetl from the nineteenth-century and had to deal with outhouses, extreme hunger and abuse. Two years later, Morris, would come to rescue them (he lost his job due to the expense of bringing everybody home). In little more than a year, Mildred brought them back again to Lithuania and stayed there for four years. They would return to America without their mother and the youngest son, David.
While in Lithuania, his father would send the boys cartoon strips that left them enthralled. Morris was talented in his own right (too bad he didn't use it). He could replicate anything that he saw. His two oldest sons inherited his incredible artistic gift.
When Al came back to America, for good, it was quite an adjustment. He spoke with a Yiddish accent and was constantly ridiculed. The teachers saw his amazing abilities, though, and when he attended New York City's High School of Music and Art, his life changed for the best.
Somehow, Jaffee retained his tremendous sense of humor all through his tumultuous childhood and beyond.
What a story! Amidst such angst and suffering, there is plenty to laugh at. The entire book is illustrated by Jaffee so you can see what he went through in his artwork. The pages are very heavy and glossy but it's well worth it to see what he produced. Truly outstanding, very visual, and with meticulous detail, the pictures literally jump out at you.
It's a very fast read (I finished the book in two days) and the author did a tremendous job in her biography of a man who survived a horrendous, dysfunctional life and still came out ahead.
Recommended.

IN THE GARDEN OF BEASTS : LOVE, TERROR, AND AN AMERICAN FAMILY IN HITLER'S BERLIN
by Erik Larson

William E. Dodd was a mild-mannered professor at the University of Chicago from 1909 to 1933. He loved history and was an authority on the American South. Eventually he hoped to finish a four-volume series, but time constraints and duties always got in the way. Dodd felt that he was stagnating at the university and thought that his career needed an uplift. He got it. Franklin D. Roosevelt chose Dodd to be America's first ambassador to Germany in 1933.
The entire family goes: Dodd, his wife, Mattie, his son, Bill, and his daughter, Martha. Dodd is a very humble man and prefers to not to live in a luxurious environment. He is so frugal that he brings over his old Chevy from America but will never drive it. Dodd leaves that to his son. He prefers to walk to work every day and he is constantly teased about that from his staffers. Their residence is a mansion with four floors (the family lives in the first three) and it's actually quite beautiful.
While Dodd is acclimating himself to Germany (he speaks the language fluently), his daughter, Martha, is totally enamored by the country and its inhabitants. She has no morals, goes to many parties and has one affair after the other, one of which will be with Rudolf Diels, the chief of the Gestapo. She will become quite an embarrassment to the family and the German government who keep tabs on her.
That first year will become quite pivotal because that is when Hitler becomes chancellor. Subtly and then, not so subtly, the climate changes as freedoms are restricted, rules are enforced, Americans are attacked for not bearing the Hitler salute, Jews are persecuted, the press is censored and new frightening laws are instituted.
In the Garden of Beasts is quite a tremendous story. I was riveted from the first page to the last. You get a true glimpse of what Berlin was like at that period of time.
Erik Larson fleshes out the weird and dangerous personalites of Hitler, Goring and Goebbels in such a way, that it literally makes you shudder.
I thought the title of the book was very appropriate. The family lived across the street from the Tiergarten, a beautiful park, which was really the only place anybody could go and not be watched and to have a private conversation. The name means "animal garden" or "garden of the beasts." Yet, all of Berlin would become paralyzed from the Nazis, the SS, and the Storm Troopers who would behave like monstrous beasts and terrorize the citizens.
Truly a superb narrative of a horrible time in history brilliantly written.
Very highly recommended.

SACRED TREASURE, THE CAIRO GENIZAH : THE AMAZING DISCOVERIES OF FORGOTTEN JEWISH HISTORY IN AN EGYPTIAN SYNAGOGUE ATTIC
by Mark Glickman

In Jewish law, it is forbidden to discard any sacred document. Words are powerful, especially those of the Torah. They must be handled with great care. In order to preserve Hebrew books and papers, they should be kept in a repository, such as a designated room in a synagogue called a genizah. Whatever was kept here would be safe, even though they were unusable. Originally, only documents bearing the names of God were allowed then any document with Hebrew on it.
From the tenth through the nineteenth centuries, the Ben Ezra Synagogogue, in Cairo (a Jewish community thrived and flourished here back in the day), stored an amazing collection of sacred scraps. It was a dark room in the attic. Scarcely anybody knew that these papers existed.
If it wasn't for Rabbi Solomon Schecter, the importance of what he found would have completely disintegrated in a matter of time.
Some of the incredible finds were: early copies of the Dead Sea Scrolls; the last letter to Moses Maimonides from his brother David who was lost at sea; twelfth century Jewish sheet music composed by an Italian priest who converted to Judaism; the list continues.
Sacred Treasure is one fascinating gem of a book. Mark Glickman keeps your interest from the beginning to the very last page. He reveals some really startling facts about early Jewish life that is a contradiction to what is written today in modern Jewish history, who picked up the torch from Schecter to carry on the genizah research, the scholars who wrote and published works on their discoveries, the preservationists and their methods trying to prevent parchment from crumbling into dust, and the digitization that would provide instant access to people from all over the world to instantly see ancient manscripts on the Internet.
Truly a remarkable account of a forgotten and little known period in history and a terrific read.
Recommended.

MY FATHER'S FORTUNE : A LIFE
by Michael Frayn

Tom Frayn was an ordinary man who lived his life extraordinarily. He grew up in a house consisting of two rooms with six other people all of whom were extremely deaf in North London. Tom left school at the age of fourteen and became an asbestos salesman. Everyone liked him. He was smart, quick on his feet, used very interesting vocabulary and had an enchanting smile.
In a few years, he is married and then a son and a daughter are born. By the time he is middle-aged, he has lost his hearing.
Tom pulled himself out of poverty and became a self-made man. He was not much for emotions and kept his feelings to himself. Through all of his trials and tribulations, he never once complained.
My Father's Fortune is a beautiful tribute to a humble, hardworking man who never asked for much and always made do with what he had. It's both funny and sad and the writing is terrific.
Highly recommended.