First Book of 2009

I hope to read a little less "candy" this year, and a few more "whole-grain" books. Here's a start towards this goal!

Safe Passage by Ida Cook

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
This was a very interesting book. Ida and Louise Cook were two British sisters born in the early 1900's. They were addicted to opera and were early "groupies" of the leading operatic voices of the 1920's and 1930's. Their "claim to fame" however, was the work they did to rescue nearly 30 people, one at a time, from Nazi Germany and Austria in the late 1930's. Neither sister was wealthy; they were resourceful, energetic people who saw that something needed to be done, and they figured out how to raise enough money to support nearly 30 individuals, and provide a safe way for these people to escape Germany. This is a memoir written by Ida Cook who later became a successful British romance author writing under the name Mary Burchell. The author evokes the prewar war years quite successfully, and I learned quite a bit about the opera world.


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