my mom had wanted a specific book for chanukah, a book she'd read years ago. she said that used was fine, but not to spend a small fortune on shipping.

 

i found it on half.com, and, keeping in mind that i could combine shipping, looked in the seller's stuff for "Holocaust" books. i think there were three titles i didn't already own. i've read everything that came in the package, with the exception of my mom's book, and the "romance" stood out among all the other books.

Bodie Thoene's Vienna Prelude is sold as a Christian book, but I've got to say that, as a source of historical fiction, it was amazing. the book covers the mid-1930s in Germany and Austria, an era with which i'm not that familiar because most of the Holocaust books I have take place in the concentration camps, from 1939 through 1945 and then sometimes to present days. One portion struck me as religious (i didn't see it as a "Christian" book until i looked at the above-linked web site):

..."We have food enough to feed a dozen children," Karl replied quietly. What more does a child require? A little love. Happy times. A warm, clean place to sleep. Mama has been tucking children into bed for nearly thirty years. My mother and grandmother and hers before her have rocked babies to sleep in this old house. By the grace of G-d, we can provide all that is needed for these three little souls, and a dozen more if you choose to bring them here."

Money is nto required," Frau Marta added. We have lost a son.* There is much love in our hearts for many more." She raised her eyes to the crucifix above the Herrgottseck. "He says that if we offer a cup of cold water in His name to a child, we have done it to Him. Dear Elisa, bring the children! For Jesus' sake I will feed them fresh bread and ..."

--Vienna Prelude
XXX, P. 283

The first thing that went through my mind as I read that was, They are of the Yad Vashem, the Hand of G-d, the non-Jews who helped the Jews during the Holocaust. The passage is a rare Christian page, about taking in children as they leave Germany for... anyplace that isn't Germany.

It was a great book with a LOT of history (Thoene's husband has a degree in history, and a lot of research went into the book).

___

* The "lost" son had gone over to the Nazis.

 

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i worked on those paying posts last year to earn money to keep my mom in large-print books, just like she kept us in books as we grew up. now, thanks to her cataract surgeries, she can see well enough to read regular-sized print, and there is still money in my paypal account. i'm considering getting the rest of this series; Vienna Prelude is the prelude to the Zion Chronicles. i ordered the next book today.

had i seen these books sold as "Christian," i might not have gotten Vienna Prelude. all too often, i've read books of certain genres and have found that the story was hidden behind the message the author was paid to send. (for example: i used to look for "nursing" books when i was a pre-teenager, before i hated everyone, and wanted to work with the public. i was so disappointed when many books under the "nursing" umbrella were poorly-written romances whose only nod to healthcare was that a nurse would fall in love with a doctor, and it would be reciprocated.)

for that reason, i'm telling people about this book - not only Christian friends, but also Jewish friends and friends of other faiths who like a good history book, and who might not automatically be looking in the Christian Fiction section of the bookstore.

my sister Sonya is Christian. while the Thoene book wasn't the historical smut we love, she's got to let me know if she's read this because, if she hasn't, i'll have to send it to her. (lu and monica: sonya had sent me LAMB after she read the first page. by the time i'd finished the beginning, i was online ordering copies for the two of you.)

Currently reading :
Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance
By Barack Obama