TGIF!

I had big intentions of sharing different best of and holiday gift giving posts last month, and then our household spent an entire month trying to get all of us healthy at one time. So fun.  We never got to see Santa because we were never healthy enough.  So that stunk since Adeline has only gone once as a newborn and she actually really wanted to do that this year.  Hoping for this year! And since January 1st we have managed to stay healthy! Yay.

The high of my week was :  Wednesday we were able to go playoutside at a park, make it to story time at Barnes and Noble and the play area at the mall! And I worked out exactly what I planned for and drank all the water I planned for.

The low of my week was : finding out how expensive my dental work is going to be.  Boo genetics.  Boo healthcare that doesn't include teeth. 

Meal plan for the week was  

Monday -  chicken strips, baked potato, salad

Tuesday -  Super Nacho Taco Dip/Casserole, salad, chips/queso, pico

Wednesday -  spaghetti, meatballs, garlic bread, salad, broccoli

Thursday - orange chicken, rice, salad

Friday -  pizza and breadsticks

The best money I spent was on: a new package of underwear for myself! Cleaned out my underwear/bra / shapewear this week and decided to buy a new set after I threw out some.

What I’m listening to  Here's Where it Gets Interesting, The Girl Next Door, Culpable

What I’m watching Southern Hospitality

What I’m reading:  Pieces of Her by Karin Slaughter

My plans for the weekend:  hopefully going on a hike, putting away the random pieces of Christmas I came across that we somehow missed when we put it away!

What are you watching/reading/listening to?

The Girl Who Counted Numbers

 

I really enjoy reading historical fiction and memoirs set around WWII.  I don't particularly like reading about the Holocaust because it was a horrible horrible thing and I do not like reading a romanticized tale about it nor do I want to read the horrors of the camps.  I've read them already and I just cannot.  

I do enjoy reading about people who took charge of their situations or what they did to help during that time period.  

The Girl Who Counted Numbers is a different take than what I've read previously.  It is set in Israel in 1961.  Susan Reich is a smart 17 year old who graduated from high school early with hopes of convincing her father gruff father that she should travel instead of going straight to college.  His compromise is Israel, where she will take Hebrew classes and look for her Uncle Yakov.  Susan's father left their home in Poland in 1920 and never saw his older brother again.  After the war he has written to many organizations and has heard not a thing about what happened to his beloved older brother.

Susan arrives in Israel looking for a lover, a good time, and maybe to find her uncle.  She has an adolescent struggle over if she even wants to look for him or if she even can.  She resents that she is sent her with the Adolf Eichmann trial going on, and so much pain in the air.  

She attends her Hebrew classes and makes friends with Moroccan immigrants who are unhappy with the way they are being treated.  She slowly learns bits and pieces about her uncle Yakov on her journey and does aa little growing up as the story progresses as well.

The book is based on the author's own trip to Israel but the story is fictional.

I was given a copy for review and all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Have your read any books set in Israel? What is your favorite recent historical fiction read?