Random Reads

Real life stories too good not to mention.

Girlbomb: A Halfway Homeless Memoir by Janice Erlbaum

  Janice had a hard life growing up in the 80's New York drug scene.  She left home at age 15 because of her violently abusive stepfather.  Janice enters a shelter and then a group home where she depicts her life among other wayward teens.  Her life becomes one big party as she consumes alcohol, drugs, and engages in sex with different boys.  She cannot return home because her mother keeps reuniting with her stepfather.  This autobiography is a compelling read and Janice is a sympathetic character that readers will immediately care about and root for her  to survive.  She later meets Sebastian and moves in with him.  Although she is getting hooked on drugs, he seems like a stable force in her life.  I read this book over the course of the weekend and didn't want it to end.  I hope there'll be a sequel to this author's life because it seems there is more of the story to tell.  I highly recommend this book to readers who enjoyed the book Alice. 4 stars for this novel! ****

Mayada, Daughter of Iraq: One Woman's Survival Under Sadaam Hussein by Jean Sasson

     Mayada Al-Askari is a single mother raising her two children in Iraq.  Her family lineage is quite distinguished.  Her grandfather was recognized as an Arab Nationalist who greatly influenced Iraq and was admired by Hussein himself.  Her uncle served as Prime Minister for almost 40 years and her mother was a high government official.  Despite her family history, Mayada was not free from Sadaam's rule.  She owns a print shop and is arrested and tortured because one of her employees may have printed anti-government slogans.  Since the government wasn't really sure which printshop was guilty, they arrested ten other printshop owners.  Mayada chronicles her prison stay, the horrible conditions, and the torture of other prisoners.  Sadaam Hussein's reign of power is depicted and his evil and unjustified brutality is explained.  Readers will better understand Sadaam's evil nature. 

From Baghdad, With Love: A Marine, the War, and a Dog Named Lava by Jay Kopelman, Melinda Roth

     Lt. Colonel Jay Kopelman became a Marine with a mission after Lava, a puppy, came into his life.  Kopelman was serving his country in war torn Iraq when his unit, nicknamed the Lava Dogs, came upon a puppy.  The soldiers defied military law by adopting the puppy which was against military policy of soldiers harboring pets of any kind.  Kopelman fell in love with Lava and vowed to rescue the dog by having him flown to the United States.  Lava's rescue attempt involved many people who decided to help one marine save his dog.  Kopelman's war memoir will touch readers' hearts as they cheer for Lava and Kopelman's reunion in the United States.

Shadow Divers: The True Adventures of Two Americans Who Risked Everything to Solve One of the Last Mysteries of World War II by Robert Kurson

  Readers will be taken on an adventure of a lifetime!  John Chatterton and Richie Kohler, two deep sea wreck divers, become obsessed with identifying a sunken WWII German U-boat.  It would take the pair seven years to positively identify the wreckage which ends up rewriting history.  During their quest, they lost three fellow divers, their mentor to alcoholism, and a marriage.  The narration is superb and readers will be absorbed with this tale of life and death adventure.  This is one of the best non-fiction books I have ever had the pleasure of reading.  I was completely fascinated by the risks that divers take in order to identify wrecks and learned about a whole other world below the ocean.  I highly recommend this book to everyone of all ages!

Crossing Over by Ruth Irene Garrett with Rick Farrant

  This book is a fascinating read that is told through the eyes of Ruth Irene Garrett, an Amish women who bravely left her family and married a non Amish man.  She discusses the Amish culture of being almost cult-like in their desire to keep the Amish seperate from the rest of the world.  For example, she explains that children only attend school through the eighth grade in order to keep them ignorant of the outside world.  She describes her father's stern role in the family and the treatment of her brothers and sisters.  She meets Ottie, an older man, who is friendly with the Amish and drives them on errands and such.  They eventually fall in love and get married.  Ruth describes the shunning process by her family and how the church banned her.  I absolutely loved this book and could not put it down.  I would love to meet her and think she is a brave and courageous woman for telling her story.  I would highly reccomend this book for anyone interested in the Amish culture.

      Hunter Scott is in sixth grade when he is watching the movie Jaws with his father.  In the movie, there is a scene that talks about a WWII warship, the U.S.S. Indianapolis, and how the captain was ultimately blamed for its sinking.  Hunter researches the topic and discovers that the ship was hit by a Japanese torpedo and left 880 men in the water for five days enduring shark attacks and cold temperatures.  Eventually only 317 survived from a crew of 1,197.  He later learned that he was court martialed and blamed for the incident.  The further he investigated, the more he was convinced that the captain was wrongfully blamed.  He decides to use the incident as a history fair project.  He interviews crewman who survived the attack as they relive those awful days of survival. Hunter testifies before Congress and actually helps change history by clearing the name of Captain Charles Butler McVay III who was wrongfully blamed for the incident and later committed suicide before his name was cleared.  This inspiring novel relives the tragic incident but tells a remarkable story of how one young individual helped change history.

    Katie Tarbox was thirteen when she was first introduced to American Online and the wonderful world of chatrooms.  Katie had low self-esteem, was overweight, and felt ignored by her mother and stepfather.  While chatting one night, she met a man named Mark who said he was 23 years old.  Mark told her that she was very mature and Katie fell in love with him.  Katie was apprehensive about their age difference but Mark constantly reassured her.  He asked her to meet him in California but she said no.  Mark later offered to meet her in her hometown in Connecticut but again she said no.  Finally Mark arranged to meet her in a hotel room in Texas where Katie would be for a swim meet.  Upon arriving at the hotel room, she discovers that Mark is actually named Francis and is 41 years old.  He molests Katie and she tells her story as a seventeen year old in this novel.  She bravely documents her struggle to overcome depression and deal with the issues of what happened to her.  A compelling read that will send shivers up your spine.

      Kat Albrecht trained her first dog to do search and rescue.  She always dreamed of owning a bloodhound and eventually added one to her family that she also trained.  She became a K-9 officer for many years until she used her knowledge and experience and formed her own pet detective business.  One day, another dog of Kat's had gotten lost and she wondered if her bloodhound could track the scent of her dog.  Bloodhounds are traditionally trained to track the scent of people, not animals, so Kat was venturing into new territory.  Surprisingly, her bloodhound followed the trail and found her missing dog.  Kat wondered if a bloodhound could be trained to search for missing pets.  Colleagues told her she would ruin a good search dog by training it to search for other animals.  After much training and research, she discovered that dogs could be trained to follow the scent of individual animals.  In the beginning, she contacted ads from newspapers of missing pets.  She offered her dog to see if he could track the scent of the missing pets.  In many instances, she was able to reunite lost pets with their owners.  In other cases, her bloodhound was able to follow the scent which gave the owners at least a direction in which to search.  This fascinating book will hook readers from the opening page and will marvel at the direction of her life's work.

     Ginsberg has spent twenty years of her life as a waitress in many different settings.  She has worked in upscale restaurants, kitchens, and bars.  During her profession, she has also been a writer and single mother.  She gives the reader an inside view of restaurant establishments.  She details her work from when she was sixteen and worked in the kitchen at Yellowstone National Park.  She chronicles her waitressing career over the span of two decades.  She talks about tipping, rude customers, and even sex in the workplace.  Readers will laugh, be disgusted, and cheer for her as she relates her personal experiences and tales from other waitressing friends.  She talks about the camaraderie and fighting that goes on behind the scenes.  Readers will not be able to put this book down!