Rhoda D'Ettore

Goin’ Postal: True Stories of a U.S. Postal Worker & The Creek: Where Stories of the Past Come Alive by Rhoda D’Ettore is two books in one. The first half of the book focuses on true stories from working in a post office. This part of the book follows a woman named Jessica and her experiences in the post office.

I like how Rhoda sets up Going Postal. She has worked for USPS and states that United States Postal workers are the hardest working people she has ever known. She how diverse the workers there are, the post office has people of different ages, backgrounds and cultures working in the same building with a common goal. If you ever worked a blue-collar job you can relate to the people that she is talking about here. You have stories of 12 hour work days, racist co-workers, sexist co-workers and drugs and gambling on the job. You also get stories of how people show compassion to their fellow workers and help each other out when someone needs it. Going Postal is a great look at what an American work place is like and shows that no matter where you might work you will come away with some great stories to tell.

The second half of this book is called: The Creek: Where Stories Of The Past Come Alive. This work of historical fiction is a collection of short stories focusing on people living through different eras in the same neighborhood over 200+ years. This novella has humor, sadness, love, heart-break, murder and lots of surprises. It also covers the Revolutionary War, World War 1, Vietnam, the Civil Rights movement, The Great Depression, the Women’s Rights movement and how they all effected one neighborhood in the United States.

I don’t feel that I’m giving anything away here when I say that the point of The Creek is to show how every neighborhood has a history and a story to tell if you’re willing to look for it. This neighborhood had some great stories to tell, I liked how what was happening in American history at the time effected the stories and how the neighborhood changed with the times. Reading this book reminded me how much fun reading can be and made me wonder what interesting stories have happened in the neighborhoods that I’ve lived in.

This is the third book I’ve read by Rhoda D’Ettore and I have to say she is a gifted storyteller. When I read a book I try to guess where a story is going to go and if I can guess, it wasn’t a good book. With Rhoda’s books you have to sit back and enjoy the ride because its impossible to predict what’s going to happen next. It seems like Rhoda’s goal in writing is to keep you entertained and to throw a few surprises your way. In the second half of this book, no one was safe as Rhoda introduced characters, made you like them, have them do things you didn’t think they would do and sometimes meet an untimely demise. When I finished this book I couldn’t stop smiling and I found myself taking a look to see what other books she has available.… (lisätietoja)

Tower of Tears by Rhoda D’Ettore is a compelling book about an Irish family, who immigrated to America during the 1800’s, looking for a better life. What they experienced instead though, was prejudice, betrayal and even murder.

Jane boarded the ship heading for America with her son, Liam while Thomas her husband, tearfully watched from Ireland’s shore. They had never been separated before, but life on their farm had become too difficult. Thomas promised to join Jane as soon as he could. It took two years though before he could travel to America. And in those two years life had changed drastically for the two of them.

Jane’s time in America had not been easy or kind to her. But her life changed from a torturous existence to a living hell when her husband Thomas showed up.

I loved this historical fiction book. Tower of Tears has everything in it, a great historical time and setting, love, romance, betrayal and even a murder mystery. I found the characters easy to care for and well developed. I would highly recommend reading this book.

5 out of 5 stars… (lisätietoja)

It’s 1934 in Germany and the Nazis are rising to power and kids are being taken from their homes to join the Hitler youth. These kids will be trained to be the future of the Nazi party and SS officers. Edmund was 14 years old when the Nazis came for him. His older sister Hedwig tried to stop them and her husband was murdered in the process.

With her brother gone, Hedwig takes over her husband’s secret mission to stop the Nazis from building concentration camps to kill the Jews. Hedwig also wants revenge for the death of her husband and she enlists her brother in America to help with those plans. Hedwig’s family enters a world of spies, double agents and the underground movement to stop the Nazis. There task is not an easy one and Edmund is torn between having to report anti Nazi behavior that he sees or helping his family.

Newborn Nazi by Rhoda D’Ettore is historical fiction thriller with enough twists to constantly keep you guessing. In the first part of this book I was positive the story was going to go a certain way with Hedwig and one of the SS officers starting a relationship. You see how the officer is changing as he starts to fall for her and I was enjoying how love was changing what appeared to be the story’s main villan. Then the author surprised me by taking the story in a different direction, changing the book from what seemed like a bizarre romance to a mystery and an emotional thriller.

Hedwig is a character who you can’t help to fall in love with. She is a victim of circumstance, she leads a life that she doesn’t want but does what she has to do in order to help others and do the right thing. One of the saddest part of the books is a scene where Hedwig realizes that she missed out on certain things in life and then things get much worse for her. Hedwig has the opportunity to be a good Nazi and lead an easier life but her conscience will not let her and this brings her into conflict with Edmund who believes that the Nazi way is right.

Another thing I liked about this book was how not all of the Nazis are shown as being bad. In some historical fiction books that I’ve read the Nazis are shown as being evil, where in Newborn Nazi some are bad while others are just doing what they need to do to survive. This book takes place over a long period of time and you watch as each character grows and their viewpoints change. I also liked how the Hitler youth camps are portrayed and how the kids are forced into believing a certain way.

Newborn Nazi takes place mostly in Germany but there are a few scenes with the main characters in America and I loved how time spent in America shapes some of the German characters. It doesn’t influence them the way you think it would and shows how unpredictable this book is. Newborn Nazi carries a theme about how powerful family love is. Even under the worst of circumstances and with opposing viewpoints, some families never break up but they are forever changed. Rhoda D’ Ettore puts some great research into her fiction and tells stories that have some great twists to it. If you love historical fiction you will like Newborn Nazi.… (lisätietoja)

Life was hard for most people in 1820. At the time in Ireland the life expectancy was only 40 years. Most people worked the fields from sun up to sun down and only had Sundays off for church. Twenty-two year old Jane made a promise to her mother that she would take a ship away from Ireland with her three-year old son for a better life in America. Jane’s husband Thomas would join her when he could afford the trip.

As soon as she gets on the ship, Jane finds out she is pregnant and things are going to be harder than she thought. When she makes it to Philadelphia she finds learns the family she will live with expects her to work and pay rent. They have a job lined up for her, she then has to deal with a boss that sexually assaults her.

Tower Of Tears by Rhoda D’Ettore is a hard book to put down. The story is excellent with a little mystery and quite a few twists. The characters are great and the book does a great job showing you what life was like in 1820. After reading this I found myself thinking that if I had to live in this period I couldn’t survive. Times were hard for Irish immigrants back then with lots of businesses refusing to hire them. It was even harder for a woman, as Jane’s boss is about to sexually assault her he tells Jane to check all the signs around town that say they won’t hire Irish Immigrants and Jane feels hopeless and does what he asks.

Jane’s story had me hooked right away, this woman thinks she is going to live the American dream but her dream quickly becomes a nightmare. She looks for help from the church which is unwilling to help her. This woman who tries so hard to be a good mother and wife does her best to survive but society is against her. In a time when the church is an important institution in people’s lives, Jane feels abandoned by god and is left to deal with her problems with help from her family.

Tower Of Tears shows how women of this period get treated through Jane’s story and through some of the other female characters. You see Katie, the woman Jane moves in with deal with this man’s world in her own unique way. Woman were not allowed to own property during this period and when Katie’s husband goes missing while working in a mine, she finds a way to keep her home. One of my favorite scenes in the book was when a female friend of Jane’s who was attacked by a male intruder and had the property in her husband’s home damaged. She has the police come to the home and they say they can find and arrest the man responsible but not for the assault on her, only for the damage to property. The woman points out how horrible it is that someone can get away with abusing a woman but this is how it is during the 1820’s.

Tower Of Tears is an excellent read, I can’t say enough good things about it. I loved how strong the female characters were and the glimpse of how society was at the time. This book even has some humor as Katie’s mother shares stories of things they will have in the future such as a washing machine. This book is a masterpiece and even if you don’t like historical fiction you will like this.… (lisätietoja)