The Daughter of Auschwitz: The Girl Who Lived to Tell Her Story by Tova Friedman

Rating:

5 Stars

Themes:

History, Middle-Grade, Non-Fiction, Memoir

Thoughts:

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. No matter how many holocaust stories I read, I will always be appalled by the pain and suffering inflicted. This is a particularly hard read with Tova being so young throughout her experiences but I think that makes it even more important and powerful a read. As this is a middle-grade adaptation of her book, the historical events and Tova’s experiences are adapted in age appropriate ways without watering down or minimising the reality.

Favourite Quote:

“We should have had a happy life there, and maybe I would have had brothers and sisters too. But history had other plans for us.”

Comments

The War of Sober by Edward Rand

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Shame-Sex Attraction by Lucas Wilson

Rating: 4 Stars Themes: Non-Fiction, LGBTQ+ Thoughts: I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. This is definitely a difficult read and it took me quite a while to get through it for that very reason. It is split up into 17 different peoples experiences with a foreword and afterword. It’s definitely an important read for many as these practices are still legal in many countries, including my own, and without knowledge of the damage of the practices many may not join in the protests or sign the petitions to try to get laws in place. As a member of the community myself I found some of these stories such as the ‘Sniffing the Gay Away’ and ‘Convert’ especially difficult to read and reminded me just how lucky I was to have such a supportive and loving community around me. I appreciated that the afterword highlighted the limitations of the collection such as having little to no religious, geographical or racial diversity but that they did try to ga...

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