Every time I pick up a book about the Holocaust, I sit and wonder how on Earth anybody allowed it to happen. It just blows me away.

Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay covers a part of the Holocaust that I wasn’t aware of. It is about the Vél’ d’Hiv’ roundups of Jews in Paris in July of 1942. 13,000 people were rounded up only to be shipped to Auschwitz.

Sarah is a 10-year-old girl in Paris in the summer of 1942. When the police come knocking, she locks her 4-year-old brother in their secret cupboard hiding place to keep him safe. But, she had no idea what the police had in mind for the family.

The story jumps back and forth between Sarah’s plight and Julia Jarmond, an American born journalist living in Paris that is writing a story about the 60th anniversary of the Vél’ d’Hiv’ roundups. A Julia does more research on the events of that summer, she begins to unravel the story of Sarah and how their lives connect.

Sarah’s Key is a heartbreaking story of one of humanity’s darkest times. It’s a page-turner that keeps you up, wanting to find out whatever became of Sarah. I highly recommend this book.

The Year of Fog by Michelle Richmond is one of the most gripping books that I’ve read in a long time. It begins with Abby Mason, walking a beach in the Bay area with her finance’s 6-year-old daughter, Emma. For one moment, Abby looks away at a dead seal pup on the beach. When she looks up, Emma is gone.

The rest of the book covers the next year in Abby and Jake’s relationship, and their relentless search for Emma. What DID happen to her? Was she kidnapped? Did she drown? The story is every parent’s nightmare. I cannot imagine being in such a situation, and it made me hug my daughter a bit tighter while reading it.

The story will leave you not wanting to put it down. I highly recommend The Year of Fog.

She’s Come Undone by Wally Lamb is an incredible coming-of-age story. The protagonist of the story is Dolores Price. It begins with Dolores as a child, and the unraveling of her parents’ marriage. Everything falls apart when Dolores is raped at 13 by her grandmother’s tenant. Dolores deals with the trauma by eating away her feelings, and becoming morbidly obese.

The book follows Dolores throughout her life, decision after decision, many of which are destructive. It’s one of those books where you just want to shake the characters and say, “What are you doing??? STOP!!!” But, you keep reading, wanting to see where life takes her.

The book is gritty and raw, and discusses subjects that many may find uncomfortable. But, the story is a good one, and I really felt a part of the story and wanting to find out what happens to Dolores in the hope that she found happiness.

I highly recommend She’s Come Undone.

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen is a book that takes place during the Great Depression. Jacob Jankowski is a young veterinary student at Cornell, intending then to join his father’s veterinary practice when he is through with his schooling. Just before graduation, his parents are killed in a car accident, and their farm and veterinary practice are taken by the bank. Feeling that he has no future and nowhere to go, Jacob jumps on a train that happens to be going by, only to discover that it is a circus train.

The author’s descriptions of The Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth makes you feel like you are there, all the way from the men that set up the circus to the performers. It’s a story of friendship, love, and betrayal, both human and animal. This book quickly became one of my favorites, and I highly recommend it to a wide variety of readers.