Interview on Monica Brinkman's blog talk radio show

Check out my interview on - Monica Brinkman blog talk radio show

The topic is Mother/Daughter relationships.

Rachel's Children by Jean Rodenbough

Rachel's Children: Surviving the Second World War by Jean Rodenbough

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Rachel's Children is a must read for anyone interested in a unique perspective on World War II. Jean Rodenbough has gathered a number of reminiscences by people who were children during that traumatic time. She's included stories from all over the world, including such places as Australia, Hong Kong, Canada, Panama, Germany, and the United States. She's given her readers perspectives from the children of soldiers to the children of Mennonite farmers and she's done this with great respect and a wonderful style.



The detail in all of these essays makes them fascinating. Each incident related seems more poignant than the last. One that struck me as particularly emotional was the story of two people who were involved with a mission hospital in Kenya thirty years after the war was over. They were eating dinner together and talking about their experiences during the war. The woman, a Dutch nurse, spoke about the horrors of the bombing of her home town by the German Luftwaffe. The man, a German doctor, revealed that he had been a navigator in the Luftwaffe. They were now working together for a good cause, but what they had experienced during that war would always be there.



Rodenbough has also weaved her poetry in among the recollections. This interesting addition unifies the book and allows readers to understand what she was feeling as she worked on the editing. I enjoyed that approach.



Any author writing a story from the World War II era would gain from reading this book. And any reader interested in world history would enjoy it.





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Rachel's Children by Jean Rodenbough

Rachel's Children: Surviving the Second World War by Jean Rodenbough

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Rachel's Children is a must read for anyone interested in a unique perspective on World War II. Jean Rodenbough has gathered a number of reminiscences by people who were children during that traumatic time. She's included stories from all over the world, including such places as Australia, Hong Kong, Canada, Panama, Germany, and the United States. She's given her readers perspectives from the children of soldiers to the children of Mennonite farmers and she's done this with great respect and a wonderful style.



The detail in all of these essays makes them fascinating. Each incident related seems more poignant than the last. One that struck me as particularly emotional was the story of two people who were involved with a mission hospital in Kenya thirty years after the war was over. They were eating dinner together and talking about their experiences during the war. The woman, a Dutch nurse, spoke about the horrors of the bombing of her home town by the German Luftwaffe. The man, a German doctor, revealed that he had been a navigator in the Luftwaffe. They were now working together for a good cause, but what they had experienced during that war would always be there.



Rodenbough has also weaved her poetry in among the recollections. This interesting addition unifies the book and allows readers to understand what she was feeling as she worked on the editing. I enjoyed that approach.



Any author writing a story from the World War II era would gain from reading this book. And any reader interested in world history would enjoy it.





View all my reviews

Blogtalk Radio Interview Thursday Feb 24 8:00 EST

I'll be on Blogtalk radio on Thursday evening from 8:00 to 9:00 EST. The link to listen is http://www.blogtalkradio.com/monicabrinkman/2011/02/25/six-unsynchronized-souls-motherdaughter-relationsh. If you would like to join the conversation the number to call is (213) 769-0952. Please note that the date shown in the link is Feb. 25, but the actual date of the show is Feb. 24. Don't let that confuse you. If you want to listen but can't make that time it will be available in the archive after Thursday.

The topic is Mother/Daughter relationships, a subject that is at the core of my novel Motherless Soul. The plan is to begin with a discussion of the book and possibly a reading from it. After touching on the importance of Mother/Daughter relationships to the story, we should be branching out to talk about the subject in more general terms. Of course I don't have any idea how the show will turn out, but I think we'll probably raise more questions than answers. And maybe we'll do a little venting as well. Please join in. It should be fun.

I learned this week that the Borders where I held my first reading of Motherless Soul will be closing soon. I love the convenience of on-line bookstores and, as anyone who reads my blog knows, I own a Kindle. But I find the closing of brick and mortar bookstores like Borders to be very sad. Hopefully, the smaller stores, such as Barnhill's in Winston-Salem and Park Road Books in Charlotte will survive the changes in technology. Readers still need a place to go and knowledgeable people to talk to face to face.

Skeletons_at_the_Feast by Chris Bohjalian

Skeletons at the Feast by Chris Bohjalian

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I listened to the audio version of this book and I thoroughly recommend it for people such as me who spend way too much of their time driving. The reader kept me enthralled and was not intrusive. Some audio books seem to interpret sections differently than I would, but that was not the case here. I love Bohjalian's writing and I believe this version did it justice.



The book is set during the final years of world war II in Europe. It focuses on two groups of people and one individual. These people start out separately, but end up changing each other's lives.



The individual is Uri Singer, a Jewish man who escapes from one of the freight cars used to transport Jews to the camps. He survives by using his wits and a willingness to be ruthless. He kills a German soldier and steals his uniform and papers so he can walk through Germany in an attempt to get to the west and the approaching allies.



Uri comes across a family of refugees also walking west, escaping Poland and the oncoming Soviet army. He joins eighteen year old Anna, her “Mutter”, her ten year old brother, Theo, and Callum, a Scottish POW they are bringing along.



At the same time a group of Jewish women who have been forced into slave labor by the Nazis are being marched to the west, also to avoid the Soviets. These women are exhausted and starving, but if they try to rest they are shot or killed in ways that are even worse. So they keep marching.



There is a wonderful sense of family in other Bohjalian books that is also present here. The Emmerlich family thrived under Hitler, but they are suffering here and through it all they show a sense of decency and love for each other. Uri's focus is often on his sister, Rebecca, and their parents, whom he is certain are dead. And Cecile, a French woman who is one of the Jewish slaves, establishes a family of sorts with the other women, especially Jeanne. This sense of family provides hope throughout the suffering.



The book was exciting enough to keep me coming back. While I was listening I actually enjoyed my commute.





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Six Unsynchronized Souls on Feb 24th

I'll be on Monica Brinkman's blogtalk radio show on February 24th at 8:00 PM EST. Click here for more information.

I'll be talking about my novel, Motherless Soul, but this time I'll be focusing on the theme of Mother/Daughter relationships. The core of the story is about a woman who is in her eighties who lost her mother when she was two. She contacts a hypnotist to recover memories from those early years so she can learn about her mother. In the process she discovers she's had many past lives and experienced the same tragedy each time. She needs to use what she learns from the past to prevent her next incarnation from going through the same horrific occurrence.

By incorporating the concept of past lives into my story I was able to approach Mother/Daughter relationships in a unique way. For example one character has the opportunity to instruct her next mother on how she should treat the child she will have someday. In another situation two friends were mother and daughter in a past life and have behavior patterns that stem from that relationship.

But the program won't be exclusively about Motherless Soul. I've invited some friends to join me. These are women who are each daughters and mothers and sometimes grandmothers as well. There won't be definite answers, just lots of opinions and stories. It should be fun.

You can call in to (213) 769-0952 on that night to join in on the conversation or you can listen in at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/monicabrinkman/2011/02/25/six-unsynchronized-souls-motherdaughter-relationsh. The show will be archived so you can hear it later if you prefer.