REVIEW: THE SPOON FROM MINKOWITZ - What's not to Love?

REVIEW

How to crack the mystery of who we are, why we love, 
and where we came from can be the greatest mystery of all.

What's not to love?

In her newest memoir, THE SPOON FROM MANKOWITZ: A Bittersweet Roots Journey, award-winning international travel writer Judith Fein dives beneath the surface of her Russian Jewish American heritage--pushing past all obstacles--to find the truth behind the shrouded story of where she came from, what the Old World was like, and what remains of the places so many of our ancestors left behind when they came to America.

We cannot help but want to accompany this passionate woman who will not take "No" for an answer as she treks through graveyards, has a private audience with the Gypsy Baron of Moldova, meets the last Jew standing, communes with the dead, quaffs cognac with Russians, wanders among ruins, and hears the call of the ancestors, driving her on. Ultimately, it is our story too, as we experience the legacy of what was handed down to us in our families, relationships, beliefs, fears and longings.

Suddenly, I felt as though there were people behind me, following me. I turned around, but no one was there. I continued walking. Again, I felt the presence of a lot of people in my wake. I spun around and was greeted by a chorus of voices. Although I didn’t see anybody, I heard the Eastern European ancestors of many people like me calling out. “Remember us. Don’t forget us. Our story needs to be heard. Write our story. Write your story."--The Spoon from Minkowitz

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Originally published in Marlan Warren's L.A. Now and Then Blog
Author bio and more details, including Discussion Guide, can be found on the Author's Web Site or at http://bookpublicitybymarlan.blogspot.com

INTERVIEW: JUDITH FEIN ("THE SPOON FROM MINKOWITZ"): EMOTIONAL GENEALOGY

Title: THE SPOON FROM MINKOWITZ: A Bittersweet Roots Journey to Ancestral Lands

Author: Judith Fein with Photographs by Paul Ross

ISBN:     978-0-9884019-3-8

Published 2014 by GlobalAdventure.us

Author Website: Global Adventure Web Site

Available at Amazon:  Amazon: The Spoon from Minkowitz

Summary :  Author Judith Fein embarks on a quest to call on ancestors and urges us to do the same in The Spoon from Minkowitz: A Bittersweet  Roots Journey to Ancestral Lands.

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INTERVIEW

“Finding roots is the solution for a rootless life.”

 I heard the Eastern European ancestors of many people like me

 calling out. “Remember us. Don’t forget us. Our story needs

 to be heard. Write our story. Write your story."

—Judith Fein, The Spoon from Minkowitz:

                                           

     Judith Fein is a travel journalist’s travel journalist. Like a latter-day Marco Polo, she has globe-trotted without maps or preconceived notions. By her own account, she has swum with Beluga whales, consulted with a Zulu sangoma in South Africa, and eaten porcupine in Vietnam (“not with relish”). In 2011, when Fein and her photojournalist husband Paul Ross visited Tunisia during the Arab Spring, the French-speaking American Fein found herself on the radio, speaking to Tunisians about Democracy. Her popular travel memoir Life Is a Trip: The Transformative Magic of Travel conveys her need to find out where people of different cultures come from and what makes them act, think, and behave the way they do. After decades of travel, there was one frontier that still eluded the “I-live-to-leave” Fein: the mystery of her own ancestral roots.

     Fein’s new book, The Spoon from Minkowitz: A Bittersweet Roots Journey to Ancestral Lands, takes us on the trip she finally made in 2012 to the shtetl her Jewish grandmother left behind in an obscure Russian (now Ukrainian) village.

     The Spoon from Minkowitz has garnered stellar reviews. Catharine Hamm, travel editor of the Los Angeles Times, found The Spoon from Minkowitz “as tense as a thriller and as tender as a love story.” Zelda Shluker, editor of Hadassah Magazine, noted the book is “unlike any other back-to-roots book…driven by the author's almost mystical quest to recover the past…Her curiosity, openness and passion take us along on a journey that turns out to be ours as well.”

     We had the opportunity to catch Judith Fein for a moment when she was not in perpetual motion to talk about the deeper meanings of genealogy as explored in this book:

For those who have not yet read your book, what is “the spoon from Minkowitz”?

My grandmother was from a village called Minkowitz in what was then Russia. That fact plus five others were all she would ever tell me about where she was from and why she left; she didn’t want to talk about the past. My mother told me virtually nothing.

When I met my husband Paul, we were immediately attracted. But here’s the kicker: when I asked Paul's parents about their ancestral roots, it turned out his father’s family came from…Minkowitz

Okay. So the “spoon.” When Paul told his parents we were getting married, his father offered us the only thing left from his parents’ shtetl of Minkowitz: a soup spoon they brought with them to America. I treasured that spoon because it made our ancient, ancestral connection so real and concrete. We made a place of honor for it under the chupa  (Jewish wedding canopy) on a satin pillow.

MIDWEST BOOK REVIEW: "JITTERBUG LIFT"- Food not bombs rebuild Berlin in this taut thriller

Her whole person had a fire, a hunger.  It never crossed his mind 

that it was for anything but him.
                                                                                                                      --JITTERBUG LIFT by Oliver Flynn

Title: Jitterbug Lift

Author: Oliver Flynn

Published 2013 by CreateSpace

ISBN-13: 978-1479259137

Author's Website: Oliver Flynn Web Site
Available on Amazon: Amazon: Jitterbug Lift

MIDWEST BOOK REVIEW:

Reading “Jitterbug Lift” was like watching a great movie in Smell-A-Vision on a roller coaster while trying to balance a bucket of popcorn on my knees.  It had me at page 1.  

A riveting page-turner, its themes of forgiveness and solidarity resonate in our 21^st Century as ever more lines in the sand are drawn politically, globally, sexually, and racially.   These days when someone can lose their life for wearing a “hoodie” or a turban, it’s important to remember the Berlin Airlift—when the same pilots who dropped bombs over Berlin volunteered to save Berliners from starving at the hands of the occupying Soviets three years later. 

Jesus advised us to turn the other cheek.  But just how challenging is that really? The answer fuels “Jitterbug Lift.”

As a baby boomer, I knew about the Cold War, but not what started it.  Despite my Southern teachers’ insistence that Communism was a “Red Menace,” I was not sure if that was entirely true. I don’t know why I remained ignorant of the sadistic “Berlin Blockade” engineered by the Soviets to force post-war Berliners into submission through deprivation. 

Oliver Flynn (actually 3 authors) has crafted a masterpiece that boldly tackles an aspect of Western Allies’ involvement in the Cold War that goes beyond spy vs. spy.  Not only is “Jitterbug Lift” historically accurate, it offers a fun read with delicious writing.  

Some of my favorite lines include:

AUTHOR INTERVIEW: OLIVER FLYNN FLIES AGAIN INTO THE COLD WAR ("JITTERBUG LIFT")

Title: Jitterbug Lift

Author: Oliver Flynn

Published 2013 by CreateSpace

ISBN-13: 978-1479259137

Author's Website: Oliver Flynn Web Site

Available on Amazon: Amazon: Jitterbug Lift

When a fire has blazed so hot,

one can be burned by even the ashes for a long time.

--Jitterbug Lift by Oliver Flynn

What does it take to work together successfully? 

Collaborative authors Jay Flynn, Kaenan Oliver and Dominic Oliver know the answer so well they could probably write a book about it. The Los Angeles writing team recently paused their busy screenwriting careers to produce "Jitterbug Lift," their first novel by "Oliver Flynn."

"We check our egos at the door," Dominic Oliver said. Kaenan Oliver agreed, "Whatever's best for the story makes for the best collaboration." Having worked together for years, Jay Flynn added, "It's about the relationship. We have spent weeks non-stop polishing a draft and other times had to sneak our writing in like alcoholics."

Jitterbug Lift takes off with the opening shot of the Cold War in 1948, when the Soviet Union deprived Berliners of supplies, and blockaded access to the city. The Allies flew thousands of air-drops into Berlin for a year. "The Airlift was the right thing to do," said Dominic about the controversial aid. "And Truman did it-in the middle of an election.”

Like post-World War II comic book heroes, each writer brought a special skill to the mission: Jay is a college professor and electrical engineer; Kaenan is a script consultant; and Dominic is an actor and acting coach. Together they crafted an historical thriller fueled by desire, revenge, romance and forgiveness. Here's the scoop: