Books Set in Europe and North America, Germany and New York, New York

The Girl Who Rode the White Lion, by Yishay Ishi Ron (2026)

This novel moves back and forth from the late 1930s in Germany to New York City in the late 1950s.  Mark Spence is a veterinarian for the Central Park Zoo in 1957.  When a rare white lion dies, he performs the autopsy.  He finds an SS Nazi silver ring in the lion's gut, which leads him on a hunt to find the story behind the ring.

The story then takes the reader to Nazi Germany on Kristallnacht, where a vicious SS officer used the violence to terrorize the family of a former Jewish friend.  He immediately sent his former friend to a concentration camp, but plays a cat-and-mouse with his friend's wife and young daughter.  The mother takes her daughter, Sarah Frank, to the circus, which is in town, hoping they can hide out in the crowd there.  Sarah is unofficially adopted by the circus manager and his wife.

Meanwhile, Mark Spence begins an international hunt to find clues as to the origin of the Nazi ring.

The mystery slowly unfolds with lots of twists and turns.  The story of young Sarah Frank is more interesting than that of Mark Spence.  Still, it was a fascinating novel that I read in one sitting.

Read:  September 16, 2026

4 Stars

Books Set in North America, Washington State, United States of America

Somewhere Out There, by Amy Hatvany (2016)

Jennifer was a 20-year-old woman with 2 children.  Her family had kicked her out and she was living in her car.  With basically no choice, she relinquished custody of her daughters.  She believed that they would be adopted together into a loving family.  Instead, the 6-month-old baby was quickly adopted, but the 4-year-old went through a number of foster homes until she aged out of the state system.

Thirty-five years later, both daughters independently seek information about their birth mother.  This novel is told in the voices of each daughter and their birth mother.  While not great literature, it was a compelling book that kept my interest.

Read:  September 14, 2026

4 Stars

Books Set in Europe; Croatia

The Hired Man, by Aminatta Forna (2013)

This novel takes place over the summer of 2007 and is narrated by Duro Kolak, a life-long resident of a small Croatian village.  An English woman and her two children suddenly appear and move into the "blue house", a house that holds memories for Duro.  The house had been empty for some time, so Duro approaches her and offers to help make repairs.

As Duro recounts the summer and his relationship with the English family, Laura and her teenaged son, Matthew, and daughter Grace, memories of the recent Balkan Wars come flooding back.  As a child, Duro and a close friendship with Fabjan, Kresimir and his younger sister, Anka.  Together, they would go hunting in the nearby woods.  Duro had a secret romance with Anka, but when it is discovered, he was forced to leave town.  When he returned to the village a decade later, life seemed to pick up where it had left off, except Anka was married and now lived in the Blue House.  Civil War has erupted in Croatia.  Who to trust?

As Duro and Grace work to repair a mosaic on the wall of the Blue House, she guesses that Duro is hiding dark secrets from an earlier time.  Slowly, the layers of Duro's past are peeled away, and we learn what keeps Duro and the other villagers attached to their small community.

This was a wonderfully written novel.

Read: September 3, 2026

5 Stars 

Books Set in Asia; Israel

The Future is Peace, by Aziz Abu Sarah and Moaz Inon (2026)

The Future is Peace, by Aziz Abu Sarah and Moaz Inon traces the journeys of an Israeli-Arab and an Israeli-Jew who became friends.  Both are in the hospitality/tourism industry and both lead dual tours throughout Israel and the West Bank.

This book traces a week's trip the two took together across the country following the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack.  Both authors suffered tragedy in their lives.  Inon's parents were killed in the October attack; Sarah's older brother was killed by IDF soldiers while in prison.   Thus, both men knew suffering of loved ones at the hands of the "enemy."  Together, they work towards bring peace throughout their country and try to explain their "truth" to the other.

Although both grew up in Israel, neither knew of each other's history.  Inon was not familiar with background of the Nakba, which refers to the days following the creation of the State of Israel, and Abu Sarah did not know the history of the Holocaust.

The the­sis of the book is that though the authors expe­ri­enced tragedy due to the ongo­ing con­flict, they still believe that there is a place for learn­ing, dia­logue, growth, and, one day, peace. When Abu Sarah was younger, his broth­er was killed by Israeli forces after being beat­en in prison for throw­ing rocks. Moaz’s par­ents were killed on Octo­ber 7th by Hamas. For some, these loss­es might engen­der fear or hatred of the oth­er. Yet, for Abu Sarah and Inon, they do the oppo­site. The book explains how it was their shared pain that brought them togeth­er, first in friend­ship and then in activism. 

Years before October 7, Abu Sarah founded Mejdi tours and Inon founded the Abraham Hostel in Jerusalem.  Both projects were designed to bring people together to learn about the country and ideals that unite people.  Neither men are historians, and some of the language in the book is decidedly skewed.  The narrative does acknowledge that after Israel Independence, surrounding Arab countries did not look after or take in the displaced Palestinians living in area acquired by Israel.  The book also notes that those Arab countries were more concerned with a "land grab."

Some of the language used is inflammatory.  The Israeli's are said to "occupy" land, and are "settlers."  Both refer to the conflict in Gaza as a "genocide", while the October 7 massacre is just a tragic event.  The premise also seems to place all the blame of the "Palestinian problem" on Israel, without acknowledging that there are shared responsibilities in this conflict.  The book points out that many Palestinians displaced after 1948 are still living in crowded condition that is now supported by UNRWA (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency).  That program was intended to be temporary, but nearly 80 years later is still in effect.

The book does describe the difficulty that life for Palestinians living in the West Bank is not without its struggles, and the constant checkpoints, and violence.  These are very real concerns and does need a better understanding by Israeli Jews.

This book will make you angry.  But, it will also make you think.  It will make you reconsider some of your ideas about both sides.  At the end, you will also feel a spark of hope.  Peace begins with people coming together and meeting one-on-one, considering the needs of each other.  This is the world that Abu Sarah and Inon, along with many other peace activist in Israel, are creating.  It will take time, but is not without possibility.

Read: August 30, 2026

4 Stars

Books Set in Europe, Poland

The Counterfeit Countess, by Elizabeth B White and Joanna Sliwa (2024)

In the early 1930, Josephine Janina Mehlberg was a Jewish mathematician from Lwów, Poland.  She had earned her doctorate in mathematics and was teaching in her profession.  In 1933, she married Henry Mehlberg and the couple lived a quiet life in Lwów until the Nazi invasion of the city.  In 1939, they fled to Lublin.

Mehlberg was the daughter of a wealthy landowner and her family had connections with aristocrats.  Once in Lublin, she assumed the papers and persona of a Christian Polish aristocrat and transformed into Countess Janina Suchodolska.  As a countess, she joined the Polish resistance and talked her way into providing food and medicines to the Polish prisoners at the Majdanek Concentration camp.  She also smuggled messages and weapons to imprisoned resistance fighters.  It is believed that she was persuaded the Nazis to release about 10,000 prisoners.

She and her husband survived the war and ultimately moved to the United States.  She never talked about her life during the war, but settled in to teaching mathematics at a mid-western university.  Late in her life, she wrote down her memories of her experience during the War.  The authors, one of whom is an expert own the Holocaust in Poland, received a copy of Mehlberg's manuscript, research the matter and wrote this book.  It reads like a novel and provides information about the Holocaust in Poland that is not universally known.

4 Stars

Read: August 2026

Books Set in North America (New York, New York) and England

By Any Other Name, by Jodi Picoult (2024)

By Any Other Name is a dual-timeline historical novel.  It follows the historical poet, Emilia Bassano, who may have secretly written plays that were published under William Shakespeare's name, and the fictional Melina Green, who lives in the present.  Chapters alternate between Emilia and Melina.  The novel focuses on sexism, racism, and authorship, but it seems a bit heavy-handed.  In the 16th-century, playwrights often collaborated and shared ideas.  Most of the playwrights were male, but it was an established community of writers.  Scholars have long argued that plays published under Shakespeare's name were not actually written by him.  Emilia may have written or contributed to much of Shakespeare's better known plays.  Emilia's story is the more interesting story than that of the fictional Melina.

Melina strives to write a play, but has suffered from numerous obstacles and rejections.  Her latest play was about Emilia.  Knowing that there are virtually no females playwrights whose work is performed, Andre, Melina's male friend, submitted her play in a contest under the name Mel Green.  When her play is submitted, Melina tries to hid behind Andre.  Will her play be accepted if the world thinks it was written by a man?  Is it more important that Melina's play is performed than she get credit for it?

This book was not a page-turner for me, but it was interested.  I did find the modern-day portion of the story to be a bit far-fetched.

3 Stars

Read:  August 14, 2026

Books Set in North America (Boston, Massachusetts) and Europe (Venice, Italy)

Playing with Fire, by Tess Gerritsen (2015)

Read: August 2, 2026

3 Stars