Blair Sorrel

Masterful storyteller, Gerard Leval, shines a light on a pivotal historic figure who until now has languished in obscurity. Lawyer Jacques Godard was a transitional figure of the French Revolution as he championed for the rights of the oppressed and dignified the stature of that nation's Jews. Though a prodigiously comprehensive work, the words flow and the story moves deftly throughout. The reader feels engaged in the drama of the era and a marked kinship for this inspiring advocate who left such a formidable legacy in spite of his ephemeral life. Leval's exhaustive treatment of his subject has all the class of a Kenneth Clark tome with a Franco-American twist. Treat yourself and loved ones to this treasure of a brilliant biography that's as impactful as it is hard to put down. A highly recommended holiday gift and one overall great read.

Tammy Letherer's searing memoir illustrates how capriciously and suddenly our lives can alter. She navigates her impending divorce with dignity describing its profound impact on her young children and professional identity with detours to dating misadventures and the reevaluation of long standing friendships. The book's narrative is always relatable and lucid. Through loneliness, soul searching, a spate of rejections, she transitions admirably to a well-earned acceptance of her newfound solitude and self. "The heart is a very, very resilient little muscle" as Woody Allen wrote in Hannah and Her Sisters. A heartwarming book!

A universally appealing tale that will especially resonate among Baby Boomers, this heart warming novel puts an entirely new spin on race relations and rekindles the culture and contrasts of minorities trying to coexist in more intimate, empathetic ways. Ms. Blackman's wry social commentary is an eminently readable narrative that juxtaposes a love story in the climate of politics that is more separatist than equal. The music, vignettes, and New York of the era will be nostalgic to many but the crux is its insight into personal and ethnic sensibilities. The Administration attempts a unique approach to racial tension in creating a Midwestern enclave in its misguided efforts to win support; the reader's heart will be with our heroine and hero who wish to be together as do all couples and what they must suffer in their simple act of living and loving as one. Ultimately, Ms. Blackman has penned a triumph of the human spirit in this unconventional, uplifting against all odds opus.

David Gumpert's breakthrough Gouster Girl rekindles the pangs of poignant adolescence set in the turbulent era of white flight. This provocative narrative is so engrossing you simply can't put it down. The reader experiences every nuance of this volatile period and the wary mores that preceded landmark civil rights legislation. The callow Jewish protagonist, Jeff, suffers religious discrimination as a stark counterpoint to the the racial bigotry that taints his romantic relationship with the African-American, Valerie. This painful rite de passage accelerates his transformation from a sheltered youth on the threshold of manhood into an admirable mensch.  The characters and their workaday concerns were brutally real. The Chicago terrain depicted was intriguing if unwelcoming. I finished the book feeling like I had a crash course on an overlooked, unsettling 60's chapter that was the antithesis of flower power but whose dynamics continue to define our present culture.