West with Giraffes: A Novel
by Lynda Rutledge
Wonderful Adventure (6/16/2024)
This is a heartwarming story of Woody Nickle’s adventure. He is now 105 years old and is writing about his adventure when he was 17. There was a hurricane in 1938 in the north east. Giraffes were on board a ship to be transported to the San Diego zoo. Two giraffes survived this horrific voyage.
This book is fictional tale based on a true event. There are very interesting characters as they travel the Lee Highway from town to town from New York to California. The giraffes were welcomed by the people in each town as newspapers, documented their arrival.
This is a wonderful story that will stay with you for a very long time.
Highly recommended.
Only the Beautiful
by Susan Meissner
Interesting Historical Fiction (6/4/2024)
Another wonderful novel from Susan Meissner. This book is about a topic I knew little about, Eugenics. It was shocking to discover during WWII what Hitler was doing to the young children and to realize that this was happening in the U.S.
This novel was written in two story lines.
Rosie California, 1930’s . Rosie was a young girl who lived in a home on a vineyard with her parents until their sudden death. Celine and Truman owned the vineyard and took her in giving a job as a maid. Rosie had a special gift as did her mother of seeing colors in her mind when words were spoken. Her mother told Rosie never to tell anyone about her gift. All went well until Rosie at the age of seventeen became pregnant. Rosie is forced to leave the vineyard and becomes institutionalized because of her gift. She fights to keep her baby and to leave this horrid place.
Helen sister of Truman has lived in Europe all through WWII. She was living in Vienna and saw first hand what Hitler was doing. When she returns to the U. S. She discovers what happened to Rosie and tries to find her and what happened to the baby.
A captivating story.
