Schindler's Legacy

The Boy on the Wooden Box: How the Impossible Became Possible . . . on Schindler's List by Leon Leyson

No matter how many books I read about the Holocaust, I never cease to be shocked and horrified by the suffering inflicted upon the Jewish people by the Nazis.  Leon Leyson (born  Leib Lezjon) was number 289 on Oscar Schindler's list and its youngest member. Decades later, as a grown man now living in the United States, Leon has an opportunity to greet Oscar Schindler and to thank him. He does not expect Schindler will even recognize or know him, because he was just 13 when his father convinced Schindler to put his young son to work in his enamelware factory. When Leon shakes Schindler's hand, Oscar says, you are "little Leyson" the boy on the wooden box.  To operate the machine he worked on in the factory, Leon had to stand on a wooden box to reach the controls.  According to Oscar Schindler, he was an "essential worker".

This moving memoir captures the innocence and the horror experienced by a young boy who survives the holocaust with incredible luck, perseverance, courage and ingenuity.  Leon rarely spoke about how he survived the Holocaust until after Steven Spielberg's film was released.  Leon Leyson died in January 2013 at the age of 83 without knowing that his book would be published.  A MUST READ!!!

The Secrets that hide in Rare Books

The BOOKMAN'S *TALE*: A Novel of Obsession by Charles Lovett 

Anyone who loves books (about books) will get hooked on this one.  A mysterious Victorian watercolor portrait, found in an 18th century book about Shakespeare forgeries, bears an uncanny resemblance to a young antiquarian bookseller's late wife.  Just six months after losing his beloved wife, Amanda, and now living in England, antiquarian bookseller, Peter Byerly, is trying to put his life back together. In his search to find out the name of the artist and possibly who the young woman might be, Peter finds himself searching through time and possibly the original works of Shakespeare.  His research to identify the watercolor's origins uncovers what could be the holy grail of Shakespeare studies—a book possibly annotated by the Bard himself at the time he was writing the play, A Winter's Tale.

This leads Peter back into the cutthroat world of antiquarian books to prove the book's authenticity, while also trying to identify the young woman in the portrait.  This is an intricately layered literary mystery that will surely keep you turning the pages as you follow Peter's journey from the Victorian era back to Shakespeare's time.  This book is not just for bibliophiles and Shakespeare aficionados.  Anyone who enjoys a good, intricate mystery will enjoy Lovett's first novel.