Author: Seniye Groff

The Aftermath

Posted on by Seniye Groff

“In austere times, self–pity was a heavily rationed commodity, a thing no one should be caught indulging in public.”

Rhidian Brook indulges the reader in “The Aftermath” to details of 1946 Hamburg during the rebuilding and denazification of Germany.  Colonel Lewis Morgan, a British officer, makes the unorthodox decision to live with the German family owning the house he has been stationed in, during his work in Hamburg.  Soon after Lewis moves in, his wife Rachel and son Edmund join him in the very grand home.   Herr Lubert and his daughter Freda, must move to the top floor servant quarters.

Lubert is still reeling from his wife’s death two years earlier.  Freda is combative and divisive with secrets of her own.   At the same time, Rachel is still distraught over her older son, Michael’s, death.  Rachel is lonely and lost in her foreign surroundings.    Rachel is very aware of what the other military families think about her living with a German family.  She is intent on keeping her distance from the household  “enemy”.

As Rachel slowly removes the imaginary wall, and gets to know Lubert, she discovers herself again.  When Lewis must leave to take another assignment, Rachel decides to secretly travel.  As she is fearful, but also free, she must share a secret that will change the path she has chosen.

Brook is a master with mixing the mundane details with characters’ trials and tribulations.  His specifics are engrossing and the way he leads the reader down the path to be immersed is masterful.  In the end, this story of passion, betrayal and ultimate truth and forgiveness will have you hooked.

 

Margot by Jillian Cantor

Posted on by Seniye Groff

Yes, I read a lot of books!  Due to being a book reviewer, as well as, an avid book lover on the side, I read lots.  TONS!  I have managed to find several books this year that have been stunning.  And now I have found a book that is also transformative.  The dictionary tells me that is not a word, so be it.  “Margot” by Jillian Cantor is absolutely that–transformative.

Cantor has skillfully taken “The Diary of Anne Frank” and introduced the reader to Anne’s sister, Margot Frank.  Margot escapes to Philadelphia and becomes Margie Franklin (even though history tells us she died in Bergen-Belsen).  Peter,the boy she loved at seventeen and who lived in the annex with her,  decided that when WWII was over, they would move to Philadelphia and lose “their Jewishness”.    Margie believes Peter is dead but has a faint glimmer of hope that maybe he survived, also.

Margie works as a secretary in a Jewish law firm.  She does everything to hide her Jewishness including wearing a sweater no matter how hot the temperatures reach, in order to hide her numbered tattoo that she received in the Nazi camp.  She practices her religion (or ritual of religion) on Friday nights and rests on the Sabbath.  Margie is constantly “tested” as she works for a Jewish lawyer, Joshua.  Joshua asks her for help during a case dealing with the unfair treatment of Jews.  Joshua becomes a representation of Peter in many ways.

Margie “needs to be whole again” and faces many crossroads as she remembers the past, sees her sister’s story on the big screen and dreams of the future.  Pick up this book.  Read it!  You will never be the same again.

Songs of Willow Frost

Posted on by Seniye Groff

After reading “Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet”, I waited anxiously for a second book from Jamie Ford.  After several years, Jamie has delivered another stunner!  “Songs of Willow Frost” is set in 1920’s and 1930’s Seattle.  William, a twelve-year-old, Chinese-American boy lives at the Sacred Heart Orphanage.  Not only does he carry the stigma of being an orphan, but he is also Chinese–practically as low as the Coloreds.  William’s only friend, a blind girl named Charlotte, challenges William to find his mother after a school field trip to the city exposes William to a theater poster that he thinks is his mother.

Charlotte and William escape the orphanage and manage to find William’s mother, Willow.  Willow shares her past with William, as he tries to understand why she left him.  Willow is nothing but a hard-luck story; but she never wavered on her love for William.  The 1920’s is a difficult time for a Chinese, unwed mother to try to make her break in show business.  Willow thinks she has found love but cannot verbalize her feelings.  But, alas,  the possibility of hope, love and safety do not materialize.

William returns to the orphanage feeling lonelier than ever.  This story will pull at your heart strings.  Ford writes with passion and empathy as hope, love, struggle and being an outsider collide in this beautiful story.

Working with Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)

Posted on by Seniye Groff

I am currently working on a development project where I am heavily relying on SMEs.  The course content is very technical (and on a topic I have never developed before).  Existing content is primarily pictures with facilitators spewing facts from their heads.  To no surprise, the SMEs are overly busy with no time to answer a nagging ID!  So I share some ideas when working with SMEs:

  • Remember, SMEs have full-time jobs besides what you are requesting from them.  Consolidate your e-mails, conference calls and documents so that they can use their minimal time efficiently.
  • Put questions in an SME-friendly document.  I recently pulled all my questions from my design document and put it in an easy-to-read table format.  This document was much more user-friendly to the SME than my instructional-focused design document.
  • Create visual maps of your courses.  Sometimes pictures say it better than words and it might be easier for your SME to “see it” rather than read it and try to visualize it in their heads.

What strategies have you used when working with a SME?  Send me a comment!

Instructions for a Heatwave

Posted on by Seniye Groff

Maggie O’Farrell presents the reader with an interesting dilemma as she tells the story of a crisis in the Riordan family.  London is experiencing a vicious heatwave and one morning, Gretta Riordan’s husband of forty years, Robert, disappears while on his morning task of buying the newspaper.  Oh, and he empties out the bank account at the same time.  All the children are alerted and descend upon the family home.  Michael Francis has a failing marriage; Monica is on her second marriage with two stepdaughters that barely tolerate her and mysterious, wild child Aoife flies in from New York City.

While all three children are focused on finding their father, Greta slowly reveals potential clues which revolve around a hidden past.  Simultaneously, each child hides a secret that O’Farrell seductively divulges.  In the end, each family member realizes no one is as they seem.  O’Farrell writes with depth and exposes tantalizing details while moving from one character to the next rather quickly.  Each deep, dark secret is one that a reader can relate to and very much empathize with the character.  There are no “grand” surprises here, but instead, revelations that make each character whole, human and believable.

The Girl You Left Behind

Posted on by Seniye Groff

Jojo Moyes has written an astoundingly great book.  If you read “Me Before You” and were enraptured, get ready to be even more enamored with her latest book, “The Girl You Left Behind/”.  Sophie and Helene are barely surviving in a small French town during the German occupation of World War I. The sisters run the local restaurant, Le Coq Rouge, and are forced to feed the German soldiers every night.    The Kommandant is mesmerized by a painting in the dining room by Sophie’s husband, Edouard Lefevre, called “The Girl You Left Behind”.  It is a painting of Sophie when she was full of love and life after she first met Edouard.  Sophie dreams of Edouard daily; hoping he is alive on the front.  Sophie decides to make the ultimate sacrifice by offering her painting to the Kommandant in return for seeing her husband.

Alternating chapters reveal Liv, a woman living in 2006 London.  She is still struggling four years after the sudden death of her 38 year-old architect husband.  David gave Liv “The Girl You Left Behind“ for their honeymoon and it is proudly displayed in Liv’s home.  Liv’s life has essentially stopped.  She is unwilling to make anything different in David’s house since his death.  During a chance meeting, Liv meets Paul and finally gets a shot at the possibility of a  “normal” life.  But the mysterious painting plays an integral role in both Sophie and Liv’s life as events unfold in this engrossing novel.  

Moyes writes of love, sacrifice and loss with glaring detail.  Her characters leap from the pages with the vivid writing of the author.  “The Girl You Left Behind” is fraught with deeper meaning and readers will be thinking of the characters long after they finish the book.  

Moyes will be reading her book at Powells at Cedar Hills this Monday, September 16th at 7 p.m.

Whistling Past the Graveyard

Posted on by Seniye Groff

I laughed out loud to the many antics of nine year old narrator, Starla, in Susan Crandall’s latest novel,  “Whistling Past the Graveyard”.  Starla lives with her Mamie (grandmother) in a small southern town while her father works on an oil rig and her mother is busy getting “famous” in Nashville.  Starla is sassy and acts before she thinks and lands herself on restriction on her most favorite holiday:  July Fourth.  So Starla decides she is going to run away, find her mother in Nashville and her father will join them and, of course, a perfect family will form.

Starla is quickly picked up by Eula, an African American woman in an old rickety truck accompanied by a white newborn.  Eula Takes Starla and the newborn to her home and husband, Wallace.  Wallace is a bit of a drunkard and nuts and insists that Eula cannot form an “instant” family with two white children.  Starla tries to escape and disaster ensues.  Eula, Starla and the baby decide to head to Nashville to find Starla’s mother.  During their adventures to Nashville, Starla begins to understand what is “allowed” for Coloreds in 1960’s America.  Watching (or reading) Starla discover the discrimination is mesmerizing.  As the reader, I almost felt I had been transported back to the 1960’s.

This story has so many layers to it: the south, being nine, being white vs. African-American, being childless, being battered and being a part of small town America–just to name a few.  Starla is smart, clever and naive all at the same time.  Crandall writes with skill and emotion and this novel will make you laugh, cry, smile and gain an understanding of how difficult it is to make change happen (and how brave those change agents really are!).

Crandall has written nine novels prior to this latest release, and I cannot wait to read all of her other books!