false 356806 669092 1590512138 9781590512135 3 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1176950778m/669092.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1176950778s/669092.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/669092.Taking_Care_of_Cleo_A_Novel 3.70 10 A rich and suspenseful novel about two enterprising young women who unwittingly run afoul of the notorious Jewish Purple Gang in Prohibition-era Detroit.

The year is 1928, the height of Prohibition; the setting is a resort town on the shores of Lake Michigan. The Bearwalds are the only Jewish family in town, owners of the local dry goods store. Cleo, the elder daughter, is a beautiful, autistic twenty-year-old who, in her own way, operates more successfully than her loved ones. Rebecca, eighteen, yearns to escape what looks to be a lifetime of "taking care of Cleo"—the only role her parents see for her. Cleo herself has other ideas.

The novel's intricate plot is set in motion when Cleo discovers a beached bootleggers' yacht filled with illegal liquor. Using materials and tools from the boatworks where she is an apprentice boatwright, she renovates the yacht and coerces her sister into helping her to sell the liquor so that Rebecca, who is unaware of the plan, will have money to attend the University of Michigan. Cleo's activities cause the Purple Gang, famous Jewish gangsters out of Detroit, to mistake her father for a rival bootlegger, with near-fatal results.

Running through Taking Care of Cleo is a subtle and life-affirming reevaluation of autism, which becomes one bright thread in a novel that is by turns serious, ironic, and comic, and ends with a happy surprise.]]> 356806 3.73 11 3 2002 909604 0871565838 9780871565839 0 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1179367197m/909604.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1179367197s/909604.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/909604.SC_SACRED_HOOP 0.0 0
Praise for The Sacred Hoop]]> 356806 3.73 11 3 1982 1540796 0937858234 9780937858233 0 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1184932683m/1540796.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1184932683s/1540796.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1540796.Remember_This_Time 0.0 0 Remember This Time recreates Western Russia during the First World War and Bolshevik Revolution through the powerful, yet intimate story of the Chodorov family from 1914 through 1919. At the center is Kala, the second oldest of four daughters, a patriotic and spirited sixteen year old when the novel begins, a young woman characteristic of the hardworking, energetic life of the times, devoted and proud of her family, her traditions, and her home town of Lyesk. As war escalates and the Russians enforce a scorched earth policy, Kala's beloved Lyesk--in the midst of what was known as the Pale of Jewish Settlement--is destroyed. Against her mother's wishes, she becomes a refugee, joins her Russian countrymen on their retreat into Great Russia while her sisters and parents hide in the woods to await the advancing German armies and plan to rebuild their burnt-out home under the new government. With drama, humor; care for historical detail, and a story-telling magic, the authors make one feel so close to the people of the time that it is like hearing the story of one's own family. They follow Kala on her grueling march, during her love affair and marriage to a young revolutionary and during their life together in Moscow as civil war erupts. They show her disillusionment with the new socialist people's government and describe her eventual return to Lyesk, where she is witness to the town being ruled and victimized successively by the Germans, the Poles, the Bolsheviks, and, once again, the Poles. They share the intimacies of the Chodorov family life, including small and great moments of happiness and tragedy. Throughout, we see how the family's loyalties are challenged, their endurance tested, and finally understand why they choose to flee the home they love. Ultimately, the Chodorovs epitomize the dilemma of the world split apart by rival ethnic and national clalins, representing that generation of immigrants who came to America in the twenties full of dreams and anger.]]> 312512 5.00 1 0 356806 3.73 11 3 1983