Janis Cooke Newman

A pleasant and languid tale that ultimately felt like too much work for not enough payoff.

Jack is a twelve year old with glasses thick enough to get him beat up. When his fathr dies unexpectedly, he creates a fantasy where his father, still alive, has become a spy. So Jack starts hunting Nazis on the streets and subways of 1942 New York to help his dad's mission and thus bring him home. His sleuthing leads him to Jakob, a German jew who asks for Jack's help in planning a rescue of jewish children (where the book's title originates). Twenty-three children are smuggled in through Coney Island per Jack's plan but they are nearly caught (thanks to Jack's persistent delusion that his father lives) and Jakob sacrifices himself to save the plan, being sent back to Germany and the Nazis who will surely kill him. I suppose its an inspiring story about personal sacrifice but ultimately failed to touch my heart.

Thank you to Penguin who were kind enough to send me this advance copy.… (plus d'informations)

3.75 stars

Mary Todd was Abraham Lincoln’s wife. She grew up in a well-off family, but Abraham was poor. They had four sons, but only one, Robert the oldest, made it to adulthood. Although Mary loved her son with all her heart, Robert never returned that love, nor the affection she so craved.

Ten years after Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, Robert had Mary confined to an insane asylum, though she insisted she was sane and didn’t belong there. This book goes back and forth in time from when Mary is confined to the asylum (and her attempts to have Robert have her released) back to when Mary met Abraham, their courtship, marriage and all the way up to what led Robert to confine her.

I quite liked this. I went back and forth, on thinking Mary didn’t belong in the asylum to wondering if she did. I can’t say I liked her much, but I certainly felt badly for her, as Robert was awful to her. I took 1/4 star off my rating because there is no historical/author’s note at the end. I know nothing about the real Mary – did these things really happen?… (plus d'informations)

I always begin a book with such great hope. That I will love it and not be able to put it down. That it exactly what happened with this one. It is a first person account of the life of Mary Todd Lincoln.
This woman had such a tragic life. Her husband was elected president, then vilified throughout most of his first term. His reelection after the Civil War ended was followed only days later by his assassination as Mary sat by his side in Ford's Theater. By this time they had already lost two of their fours sons to illness. Mary would later watch a third son die.
Throughout it all she had to deal with her own demons, what seems to me to have been a form of PTSD, and the drive to shop endlessly. The author attempts to explain Mary's compulsive buying habits. Then there is her ongoing grief over her deceased huband and children. The final insult is the emotional disconnect between Mary and her oldest and only surviving child Robert, and his decision to have her declared insane and imprisoned in an asylum.
I could not put this book down, and as a result over the last week I have missed a few hours of sleep!
… (plus d'informations)