Books of the week September 1, 2021
Title: “Cilka’s Journey”
Author: Heather Morris
“Cilka’s Journey” is the sequel to “The Tattooist of Auschwitz.”
Although this is fiction, it is based on facts the author obtained from Cilka’s friends and what documentation still exists.
Cecilia Klein, or Cilka, is imprisoned in Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp when she is 16 years old and is soon forced to become a mistress of a high-ranking Nazi officer. When the camp is liberated, she is confused when she is taken to an office and told she has been found guilty of consorting with the enemy. She is sentenced to 15 years of hard labor in a Siberian prison.
Cilka becomes friends with the ladies in her hut and eventually gets offered a spot working in the hospital on site.
One of the doctors at the hospital takes Cilka under her wing and trains her in record-keeping, nursing and, eventually, the tasks of a surgical nurse.
Cilka likes being able to help others in this awful place but often wonders how much she can endure. The other women talk about love lost and possibly finding love again, but Cilka wonders if she even knows what love is because of the horrible things that have happened to her all her young adult life.
Eventually she does meet someone, but the future isn’t clear.
Will she live to make it out of this prison – and if so, how will she survive in a free world when all she knows is slavery?
Title: “One to Watch”
Author: Kate Stayman-London
Bea Schumacher is a beloved plus-size fashion blogger with a wonderful support group of family and friends and an enormous social media following.
She is nursing a massive heartache and indulges in one of her favorite TV shows, “Main Squeeze.” She live tweets her thoughts of the show as she watches.
She makes enough noise about how unrealistic the show is and how it is not body inclusive, and she ends up gaining the attention of the show’s executive producer.
Bea has sworn off men at the very moment she is presented with the opportunity to become the first plus-size leading lady on “Main Squeeze.” She is intrigued but also hesitant to even consider this new opportunity.
She ultimately decides to do the show to broaden Hollywood’s inclusivity, but she has no intention of finding love and is even skeptical of some of her leading men’s intentions.
Will Bea find her happily ever after on TV? Will she overcome some of her own insecurities? You’ll have to stop by the library and check it out to see.
