Heidi Slowinski

Well, I am pleased to say I have completed my reading goal for 2022. 75 titles complete in just over three months. Last year, I missed completing 100 books by less than 5 titles. But it looks like I should manage it easily this year.

First up on my list this week is 365 Days of Gutsy Women. This book highlights the stories and accomplishments of women from a variety of historical periods, backgrounds, etc. I was honored to receive a signed copy from the author in exchange for my honest review. Said review will be coming next week.

Also on my list is the latest release from Rachel Barenbaum, Atomic Anna. I thoroughly enjoyed A Bend in the Stars by this author. She was also the first author to comment on a post of mine on Instagram. Needless to say, I

365 Days of Gutsy Women reveals hidden stories of fearless females from the beginning of time. Traditionally women were kept out of history books or simply forgotten in our patriarchal culture. This book provides a daily glimpse into the lives of courageous women who have gone before us. You will discover their stories, one for each day of the year. On Wednesday, you may learn about Mary Anning, a British fossil collector who discovered dinosaurs. On Friday, read about Queen Nanny of the Maroons, an 18^th century African who successfully freed more than 1000 slaves on the island of Jamaica. Sunday you may read about the Hindu Goddess Parvati, known as “Mother Goddess” representing a universal source of energy and power. Throughout the book, you’ll read of artists, musicians, educators, philosophers, rebels, authors, poets and innovators who fought gender, racial and religious bias.

Three brilliant women.
Two life-changing mistakes.
One chance to reset the future.

In 1986, renowned nuclear scientist, Anna Berkova, is sleeping in her bed in the Soviet Union when Chernobyl’s reactor melts down. It’s the exact moment she tears through time—and it’s an accident. When she opens her eyes, she’s landed in 1992 only to discover Molly, her estranged daughter, shot in the chest. Molly, with her dying breath, begs Anna to go back in time and stop the disaster, to save Molly’s daughter Raisa, and put their family’s future on a better path.

In the ballrooms and drawing rooms of Regency London, rules abound. From their earliest days, children of aristocrats learn how to address an earl and curtsey before a prince—while other dictates of the ton are unspoken yet universally understood. A proper duke should be imperious and aloof. A young, marriageable lady should be amiable…but not too amiable.

Daphne Bridgerton has always failed at the latter. The fourth of eight siblings in her close-knit family, she has formed friendships with the most eligible young men in London. Everyone likes Daphne for her kindness and wit. But no one truly desires her. She is simply too deuced honestfor that, too unwilling to play the romantic games that captivate gentlemen.

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book for review, please visit Contact Me and complete the form. I’ll review your request and respond within 48 hours. I’m also happy to work with authors on interviews. To set up an interview, please use the same form.

This time the gossip columnists have it wrong. London’s most elusive bachelor Anthony Bridgerton hasn’t just decided to marry—he’s even chosen a wife! The only obstacle is his intended’s older sister, Kate Sheffield—the most meddlesome woman ever to grace a London ballroom. The spirited schemer is driving Anthony mad with her determination to stop the betrothal, but when he closes his eyes at night, Kate’s the woman haunting his increasingly erotic dreams…

Contrary to popular belief, Kate is quite sure that reformed rakes do not make the best husbands—and Anthony Bridgerton is the most wicked rogue of them all. Kate’s determined to protect her sister—but she fears her own heart is vulnerable. And when Anthony’s lips touch hers, she’s suddenly afraid she might not be able to resist the reprehensible rake herself…

Sophie Beckett never dreamed she’d be able to sneak into Lady Bridgerton’s famed masquerade ball—or that “Prince Charming” would be waiting there for her! Though the daughter of an earl, Sophie has been relegated to the role of servant by her disdainful stepmother. But now, spinning in the strong arms of the debonair and devastatingly handsome Benedict Bridgerton, she feels like royalty. Alas, she knows all enchantments must end when the clock strikes midnight.

Ever since that magical night, a radiant vision in silver has blinded Benedict to the attractions of any other—except, perhaps, this alluring and oddly familiar beauty dressed in housemaid’s garb whom he feels compelled to rescue from a most disagreeable situation. He has sworn to find and wed his mystery miss, but this breathtaking maid makes him weak with wanting her. Yet, if he offers her his heart, will Benedict sacrifice his only chance for a fairy-tale love?

I am really looking forward to my reading list this week. I am two books away from completing my reading goal for 2022. Which is wild!

The first book on my list is a crime thriller, set in 1949 Tel Aviv. The protagonist is a private detective and survivor of the Shoah. This one sounds like a page turner. The second book on my list is certainly timely, Tears Over Russia. This new release from Lisa Brahin explores a nearly lost piece of Jewish history as pogroms across Ukraine, from 1917 to 1920 resulted in the murder of somewhere between 100,000 to 250,000 Jews. Brahin’s grandmother was among a group who journeyed for three years in order to escape the violence.

I learned about my third selection from another member of my Torah study group. We are currently working through the very sensual

On the dusty streets of post-war Tel Aviv, a crafty killer roams free…

Israel, 1949 – Private detective Adam Lapid knows how it feels to lose everything. His whole family died in Auschwitz. He barely survived. Now he spends his nights haunted by nightmares and his days solving cases the police won’t handle.

Hired to find a missing boy, Adam thinks the case is hopeless. But he can’t turn down a mother searching for her only child.

A sweeping saga of a Jewish family and community fighting for survival against the ravages of history.

Set between events depicted in Fiddler on the Roof and Schindler’s List, Lisa Brahin’s Tears over Russia brings to life a piece of Jewish history that has never before been told.

Between 1917 and 1921, twenty years before the Holocaust began, an estimated 100,000 to 250,000 Jews were murdered in anti-Jewish pogroms across Ukraine. Lisa grew up transfixed by her grandmother Channa’s stories about her family being forced to flee their hometown of Stavishche, as armies and bandit groups raided village after village, killing Jewish residents. Channa described a perilous three-year journey through Russia and Romania, led at first by a gallant American who had snuck into Ukraine to save his immediate family and ended up leading an exodus of nearly eighty to safety.

Milkman Dead was born shortly after a neighborhood eccentric hurled himself off a rooftop in a vain attempt at flight. For the rest of his life he, too, will be trying to fly. As Morrison follows Milkman from his rustbelt city to the place of his family’s origins, she introduces an entire cast of strivers and seeresses, liars and assassins, the inhabitants of a fully realized Black world.

Submit Your Book

book for review, please visit Contact Me and complete the form. I’ll review your request and respond within 48 hours. I’m also happy to work with authors on interviews. To set up an interview, please use the same form.

The Women’s Passover Companion offers an in-depth examination of women’s relationships to Passover as well as the roots and meanings of women’s seders. This groundbreaking collection captures the voices of Jewish women―rabbis, scholars, activists, political leaders and artists―who engage in a provocative conversation about the themes of the Exodus and exile, oppression and liberation, history and memory, as they relate to contemporary women’s lives.

Whether seeking new insights into the text and traditions of Passover or learning about women’s seders for the first time, both women and men will find this collection an inspiring introduction to the Passover season and an eye-opening exploration of questions central to Jewish women, to Passover and to Judaism itself.