The AUSCHWITZ ESCAPE by Joel C. Rosenberg *****

One of the best books I ever had the pleasure of reading. As I kept getting closer to the end I didn't want the story to end. I dreaded it being over and not having it to read anymore.

Very good novel about he Holocaust and a few particular people who worked to let the world know what was happening inside Germany "work" camps. I had no clue that most of the population in Germany didn't know Jews were being cremated as soon as they arrived towards 1945. They were herded into rail cars, shipped to Auschwitz and stood in line with none of their belongings, told to strip naked and while other prisoners went thru the clothing etc, the unfortunate new arrivals, be they Christians who helped hide Jews, Jews or Gypsies were led directly into the crematorium.

You begin reading about Jacob Weiss who is forced to flee Germany even tho his father was adamant the Germans wouldn't kill someone who has lived and loved Germany all his life. It only took a bullet to his head and his wife's head for that to force Jacob to run. A lot of the German Jews were under the impression they wouldn't be treated badly by Hitler. BOY they were wrong.

So on Jacob's trip he joins an underground resistance to stop a train when things go wrong and he ends up at Auschwitz accidently and must assume someone else's identity in order not to be held accountable for the train stopping and a few hundred Jews running for their lives or shot on the way.

He eventually meets his future wife, a lot of people who help each other by sneaking small bits of very welcome food to them or help them get in a better position to survive. It's such a good story I don't want to ruin it for anyone. Please read this book!

I got it at the library book sale day. It was so worth the nickel. I would buy it full price. Great reading.

IQ by Joe Ide ***

The things I don't like about the novel are 1) chapters change from 2006 to 2013 when least expected, It was totally incoherent to me. 2) Most of the characters are gang bangers with the same language, clothing and attitude which is kind of wearing after a bit. 3) Didn't like the explanation for how fighting dogs "win titles" like champion lines-that actually means the winning dog survived and perhaps the losing dog did not. Otherwise he got a lot of basic facts correct about Pit Bulls.

I liked some of the story line but still got confused with so many similar characters one guy out to kill another guy, a self taught PI??? That possible? I never knew if he was using nicknames, first names or last names. Throws me off a lot. So I had to keep going back to the beginning of each chapter if I put the book down for any length of time to figure out who the FK he was writing about.

Also tons of 'must have flashback" type interruptions of the tell not show variety. Got sick of being halted in my story line to read about some new guy's meager history.

In general if I was forced to read it again I would only pretend. I'm not done but the book is being returned after 290 pages of confusion.

HUMANS BOW DOWN by James Patterson & Emily Raymond ****

Future world with robots and half human/half bots running around lording it over the humans living in filth and garbage with little to eat. A few of the bots have an emotional input by the creator and feel for the people and don't want or like killing them unlike their leader.

A human and a hu-bot connect and meet the grandfather of the girl who is the creator of the bots. He is trying to infuse some human qualities in them but most of them have already killed many hundreds or thousands of people.

So it's a run and struggle here and there each one saving the other one, trust is built and they have an almost happy ending. I liked it enough, Patterson is also a prolific writer with other people sharing the load. This wasn't too painful to get thru as I like futuristic stuff.

Would either buy or get in library.

LONG AFTER MIDNIGHT by Iris Johansen ****

Kate works in a genetic facility and is close to a breakthrough but someone is trying to make sure she never completes her work.

She is now being stalking by an unpredictable killer and she needs to trust a new guy in her life to survive. Seems straight forward and it's almost a page turner but falls a tiny bit short. Prolific writer with tons of fans. Most will enjoy the book, it doesn't have pages of sexual behaviors in it which really is painful in most cases to read.

Not bad but I'd get it from the library.