Women's Struggles – Murder on Washington Square by Victoria Thompson

This series set in New York around 1900-1910 is so entertaining. This particular book was well-plotted, with a very unexpected twist. Having read several of the later installments, it's interesting to have taken a step back in the relationship between lead characters Sarah Brandt, a society woman turned midwife, and Frank Malloy, a New York City detective. At that time, graft and payoffs to the police were rampant, and Frank would have been one of the few honest cops, though he certainly knew how it all worked. 

Someday I'll go back to the beginning and read all the books in the series I've missed, which is still most of them, so I have plenty of enjoyment ahead.

Not Forgotten – The Many Lives of Anne Frank by Ruth Franklin

The Diary of Anne Frank is the best-known chronicle of Jews in hiding during World War II and Anne Frank is one of the war's most famous victims. Anne was a German Jew who emigrated with her parents, Otto and Edith and older sister Margot, to Amsterdam during the rise of Hitler. At the age of 13, Anne and her family went into hiding in rooms above and behind her father's place of business, where they were joined by their friends, the van Pels and their son, and later Fritz Pfeffer, a dentist. They were able to survive in hiding for over two years, but were betrayed, arrested, and sent to the concentration camps. The sole survivor of the eight was Otto Frank, who lived to 1980, and died at the age of 91.The diary has been translated and published in a multitude of languages and countries. It was dramatized in a Broadway play, Hollywood movie, and other formats. This is all well known.

Ruth Franklin, this volume's author, has taken a unique approach to Anne's life. She has divided Anne's life and afterlife as a celebrated icon into separate sections.

The first section is biographical, but in greater depth than is often presented, with material about her friends and classmates, as well as her parents and sister, and of the helpers who brought food and supplies to the hidden families, and who kept their secret.

The second part addresses the publishing of the diary, the development of the play and film, and delves deeply into Otto Frank's decades of work to bring his daughter's writing to the greater world. While I was certainly familiar with some of the events that resulted in the diary's initial publication, and translation into English, this book examines the circumstances of its publication and the following representations in much greater depth. Franklin also covers the creation of the Anne Frank House, the museum in Amsterdam at the site of the hiding place, and its further evolution.

I first read the English translation, published in the United States in 1952, as Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, in the mid-1960s, when I was about 12, so I was close to Anne's age at the time. I remember how shocked I was when reading the text after the final entry: "Anne's diary ends here". I felt such a strong kinship with her, and each year, when her birthday would come around, just two days before my own, I would remember her and how old she would have been had she survived the war – and I still think of her each year, though now she would be approaching 100. I had such a hard time accepting that Anne had been arrested, held in captivity, and eventually died a sad and painful death. It truly registered with me in the most graphic way just how unfair life could be.

I no longer have my original copy, but I read it over and over, along with the following revised edition, and many books that both examine and extol Anne's work, but Franklin's book is so insightful, and so moving, that I felt almost overwhelmed by it. It is a fascinating testament in particular to Otto Frank's work to bring the diary, and Anne's story, to the world. He succeeded. As Anne wrote, "I want to go on living after my death", and yes, she truly has.

Trailblazer –The Path Beneath Her Feet by Janis Robinson Daly

A great book for Women's History Month.

This is a work of historical fiction centered around a woman physician in the early decades of the twentieth century battling sexism, ageism, and conventional mores.

The fictional Dr. Eliza Edwards is a rarity in her time as a gynecologist and obstetrician in private practice in Boston. When the Great Depression forces her and professional partner to close down due to dwindling business, she is at loose ends. As a woman in her late 50s, there are very few options.

She finds a temporary opportunity at the polio institute in Warm Springs, GA where she will encounter a frustrating and difficult situation.

Her next challenge is in Jellico, Tennessee, a remote and impoverished community in the mountains of Appalachia, where she first assists a surgeon operating on children with facial birth defects, but then stays on to provide gynecological and obstetrical medical care. There she also meets individuals who will change her life in many ways.

As the 1930s roll into the 1940s, Eliza will return to Boston where she cares for an aging aunt who is suffering from dementia, seeing her younger son off to the war in the Pacific, and a host of other personal challenges – an early example of what we now call "the sandwich generation".

This is a fascinating book full of carefully researched historical information and memorable settings, and is peopled with both real-life figures and institutions, as well as well-drawn fictional characters. It is the second book featuring Eliza Edwards – the first is The Unlocked Path, covering her earlier years, which I plan to read as soon as I can.

From the Flames – Kalman & Leopold: Surviving Mengele's Auschwitz by Richard K. Lowy

This extraordinary book is an account of what two young teenaged boys, each one half of sets of fraternal twins, experienced, in the time preceding, and during their incarceration, in Auschwitz during World War II.

They were subjects of cruel, invasive, and horrific medical experimentation performed by Dr. Josef Mengele and his staff of doctors and technicians. Mengele's particular subjects of interest were sets of twins and dwarfs, who upon their arrival at the concentration camp, were separated from other family members who were often sent directly to their deaths in the gas chambers, or worked to death if they were deemed fit enough upon entry.

The two boys were Kalman Braun, who became Kalman Baro-On in his new post-war life in Israel, and Leopold Lowy, who emigrated to Canada where he married and became the father of three, including Richard K. Lowy, a filmmaker and the author of this book.

In Auschwitz, the two boys worked together on whatever duties were assigned to them by their Nazi handlers. Any mistake or misstep resulted in harsh punishment, but their solidarity helped them to survive, with Leopold (known as "Lipa"), the older and more worldly wise, often advising and protecting Kalman.

Many years later, Richard Lowy made a film about his father's life, which was shown on Israeli TV. Kalman, who had been searching fruitlessly for Lipa for decades, saw it, and that ultimately led to their being reunited. Kalman contacted Richard, and with his reminisces, along with his father's, this extraordinary book came about.

The book includes accounts of their Auschwitz experiences from Kalman and Leopold, maps, and other supporting documents, all carefully annotated and footnoted. Reading what these boys and the other inmates experienced is horrifying.

Yet, the reader leaves on a positive note, because both of these boys, as men, were able to create new and productive lives, a testament to the resilience of their humanity, and a lesson about what can be accomplished in life despite an experience of the worst that humankind can inflict on one another.

I highly recommend this book with the caveat that it is not sparing in its recounting of what Kalman and Leopold and millions others experienced at the hands of the Nazi regime. It does not whitewash or excuse any of the crimes that were perpetrated, or diminish their impact. We must never forget, but we can heal.