Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Waiting On Wednesday (11-2-11)


Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly feature hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. Each week, you highlight an upcoming release that you are eagerly awaiting. This week, my pick is: The Baker's Daughter by Sarah McCoy (expected publication date: December 27, 2011).


In 1945, Elsie Schmidt was a naïve teenager, as eager for her first sip of champagne as she was for her first kiss. But in the waning days of the Nazi empire, with food scarce and fears of sedition mounting, even the private yearnings of teenage girls were subject to suspicion and suppression. Elsie’s courtship by Josef Hub, a rising star in the Army of the Third Reich, has insulated her and her family from the terror and desperation overtaking her country. So when an escaped Jewish boy arrives on Elsie’s doorstep in the dead of night on Christmas Eve, Elsie understands that opening the door puts all she loves in danger, and yet, the boy–frail and cowering at the sounds of the Gestapo soldiers banging on her neighbors’ doors– cannot be turned away.

Sixty years later, in El Paso, Texas, Reba Adams is trying to file a feel-good Christmas piece for the local magazine. Reba is a rolling stone, perpetually on the run from memories of a turbulent childhood, but she’s been in El Paso long enough to get a full-time job and a full-time fiancé, Riki Chavez. Riki, an agent with the U.S. Border Patrol, finds comfort in strict rules and regulations, whereas Reba knows that in every good story, lines will be blurred.

Reba's latest assignment has brought her to the shop of an elderly baker across town. The interview should take a few hours at most, but the owner of Elsie's German Bakery is no easy subject. Elsie keeps turning the tables on Reba, and Reba finds herself returning to the bakery again and again, anxious to find the heart of the story. For Elsie, Reba's questions have been a stinging reminder of darker times: her life in Germany during that last bleak year of WWII. And as Elsie, Reba, and Riki's lives become more intertwined, all are forced to confront the uncomfortable truths of the past and seek out the courage to forgive.

So, what are you waiting on this Wednesday?

4 comments:

  1. I haven't heard of this book. It sounds very interesting. Greet choice!

    Here's mine: http://thebookishbabes.blogspot.com/2011/11/waiting-on-wednesday.html

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  2. Oh this sounds neat I haven't heard of it before.

    Giselle
    Xpresso Reads

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  3. This book sounds really good :)

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  4. Wonderful pick. I like reading books that are set in WWII, as this one seems to be in part.
    I will look for your thoughts, and hope you enjoy it.

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