Doreen Lowe is a young, sophisticated junior associate in a small Manhattan law firm that primarily serves the lower echelons of society. Regularly visited by three ghosts, Doreen is forced to listen to their pleas that she “carry on for them”- after the Holocaust- all while balancing the demands of her career and personal life.

After Doreen marries a banker with an entrepreneurial spirit, he achieves his dream of establishing a telecommunications company. Within a few years, Doreen is serving as the company’s legal counsel while simultaneously raising a son, but is still being tormented by her spirits. As the young couple rides out the tech boom of the late 1990s, Doreen must reconcile her unorthodox personal choices with her widowed father, her friends, and her large conscience.

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Doreen is a likable character. She’s young and career minded and seems to have things heading in the right direction.  She lives with her dad and has a wonderful man in her life.  It really could be a dream life if she could just do something about the ghosts.

Uhhhhh…excuse me…. did you say ghosts?

I did.  Doreen has three spirits that speak to her and have been with her for years. While these spirits represent her heritage, I found them a little hard to wrap my mind around this concept.   Her family are survivors of the Holocaust and the ghosts/spirits she hears are constantly reminding her of her responsibilities to this heritage.

The story behind the story is Doreen learning to deal with the ghosts, come to terms with the history she carries with her and all this wrapped up with a little luck. When she meets the man she wishes to marry her family has concerns and this is when Doreen really starts to make decision for herself and head towards quieting the ghosts.

I enjoyed the characters in the book and once I could get used to the voices of the spirits that spoke to Doreen I started to get more into this read.

Author

Kay Mupetson graduated from NYU Law School and has been practicing corporate law for over twenty-five years. She served as general counsel for a New York telecommunications company and previously worked as a journalist reporting on the Middle East. She currently lives in Manhattan with her husband and sons.

I received my copy from Jocelyn Delgado, Meryl L. Moss Media Relations, Inc.

In 1986, Susan Jane Gilman and a classmate embarked on a bold trek around the globe starting in the People’s Republic of China. At that point, China had been open to independent backpackers for roughly ten minutes. Armed only with the collected works of Nietzsche and Linda Goodman’s Love Signs, the two friends plunged into the dusty streets of Shanghai. Unsurprisingly, they quickly found themselves in over their heads–hungry, disoriented, stripped of everything familiar, and under constant government surveillance. Soon, they began to unravel–one physically, the other psychologically. As their journey became increasingly harrowing, they found themselves facing crises that Susan didn’t think they’d survive. But by summoning strengths she never knew she had–and with help from unexpected friends–the two travelers found their way out of a Chinese heart of darkness.

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Can you say road trip?  😉

I love the story here!  Author Susan Jame Gillman shares in this memoir, a road trip here and her friend Claire took when they were in college.  I love that!  As they venture into China their story unfold at first as a fun girls trip to quickly escalating into something I would describe as pretty scary fro me – let alone two young college girls in the 80’s, which would be the exact time frame when I would have been getting out of school myself!

As the girls do their exploring things change rapidly for Claire and I don’t want to give too much away here, but let me just say her mental health became unstable which puts a bit of a scary dimension to the book as the story unfolds.  For myself I can not imagine dealing with such circumstances in an area unknown to myself and no one to turn to for help.

Susan writes this story with a refreshingly funny and open voice and with a wonderful recollection of the events that took place.  At times I was in awe of what was happening, and at other times I laughed out loud.  I found her writing descriptive and I could get a good picture of a country and people who I have never had the experience of seeing for myself.  Through Susan’s eyes and her words I feel as though I have just closed the pages to an exciting adventure.

About The Author

Susan Jane Gillman is the author of three nonfiction books, Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven, Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress, and Kiss My Tiara (see bookshelf). Have contributed to numerous  anthologies, worked as journalist, and written for New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Ms., Real Simple, Washington City Paper, Us magazine among others. Won New York Press  Association Award for features written on assignment in Poland.

In her own words: Funny, but... I never set out to write books that made people laugh. My main love has always been literary fiction, and the first book I completed (which has yet to be published) was a collection of serious short stories. However, even with my darkest work, people would always tell me that parts of it were funny. This annoyed me because I aspired to be an American Dostoevsky with Breasts.
But in 1999, I took a writers’ workshop at the Bethesda Writers’ Center. The first story I submitted was a heartbreaking tale of a man’s addiction, which impressed the class. The second was an absurd story about mistaken identity full of Jews, Rastafarians, and dental hygienists. To my great irritation, the class liked this one infinitely more.
After class, a man pulled me aside. “I have to tell you,” he said. “My wife has been battling breast cancer. I read her your story last night, and it was the first time in two years she really laughed. You’ve got a gift. Please don’t ignore it. Not everyone can make a sick woman laugh in her hospital bed.”  That’s when I finally saw the merit in my own, lurking smart-ass and stopped fighting it.

My review copy was given to me by Hachette Book Group

Becky and her brother John were best buddies, telling jokes, caring for their dog Toby, and playing soccer. John was always there to cheer her up and help her out—until he died. Becky wishes everything could go back to the way it was. When she is surprised and feels guilty about enjoying a friend’s birthday party, her mom wraps reassuring arms around her and says, “Don’t you think he’d want you to laugh, even now?” She gradually realizes that she can still enjoy the things that they used to do together and that the memories of John continue to make him part of their family. Always My Brother is a sensitive, realistic story about the process of grief, acceptance, and recovery. Phyllis Pollema-Cahill’s lovely illustrations bring readers right into the heart of Becky’s family as they struggle to move forward.

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This book touched the very center of my heart.  I felt the sense of loss that Becky did with every turn of the page.  This book deals with what it feels like to lose someone close to you at a young age.  Appropriately worded to be understood at a grade school level I not only loved the gentle words used by Jean Reagan, but also felt the compassion come through in the illustrations by Phyllis Pollema Cahill.

This book is one I would recommend to any one who has a young child in their life who is dealing with grief.  I think this book should be a must in every grade school library.  I know as someone who dealt with this topic at a young age a book like this would have been wonderful.

Please visit Tilbury House for discussion points, classroom activities, literature links and further resources for using this book in the classroom.

Thank you to Natasha at Maw Books, where I won this autographed copy of this book.  I am now donating this book to Harrison Elementary School in our town, in memory of my sister Tara, who died in a house fire when she was 5.  Truly missed every day of my life.  ♥