A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

     A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith is the heart wrenching journey of one young girl and her immigrant family as they reach for the American dream.  Smith captures more than the poverty of Brooklyn during the first decades of the twentieth century; she captures the indignity that the poor face as they live at the mercy of those who own everything as they hang on to the edges of life with their dreams.  She captures the determined steel in the characters’ survival instincts as they refuse to be corroded by the toxic fumes of oppression; she  does this as they maintain family pride with love and humor.
     Smith makes the reader aware that in poor communities, intimate noises come across narrow spaces between crowded housing and linger on air waves; it is where little girls and little boys find their role models as they gaze into neighbors' lives; it is where hands reach out to catch those who stumble.  It is also where those hands find ways to push each other toward their dreams.  They leave connections humming.  Life is palpable!
     The reader chokes on swollen emotions but, before they overwhelm the heart and inner strength, love refuses to die.  Johnny, the father, is the gentle beauty that soothes Fancie; Neeley is the little brother that gives her life meaning; Katie,  her mother, is that flexible piece of steel that drives determination into them all.  And Sissy!  Sissy is that beautiful aunt that everyone loves; she is the aunt that allows some rules to break; she is youth and, no one can resist her temptation.
     Fancie's story, childhood to woman, holds the novel together.  Her tree is not only planted in the soil, but it is planted in your heart, and in her heart.  The tree refuses to die; it endures and endures and eventually it thrives.
     

An Invisible Thread by Laura Schroff and Alex Tresniowki

          The Invisible Thread is a true story.  It reveals the profound change that the bond of friendship has on two individuals.
          It is New York; it is 1986.  Laura, a successful white young woman is a lonely individual.  One day she makes a decision that some of us toy with for a moment or two.  Maurice, a young African American boy without dreams, meets Laura one day on the corner of a busy New York street.  They both feel the risk, but follow their hearts and take a chance on spirit. 
          Laura Schroff and Alex Tresniowski weave language in its simplicity to reveal the most complex of human emotions.  As the reader follows the stories of Laura and Maurice, it becomes obvious that the outward material trappings of humans do not reveal what lies in the hearts.
          For Laura...  "All we knew was that once my father's rages had started, they could not be stopped.  Most nights we'd be in bed when he arrived at midnight or later.  We'd listen for the telltale sounds - the way he slammed the front door or the clinking of the ice in a glass in the kitchen..... Sometimes it would just start."
          For Maurice... "  As she injected, she'd say, "Oh, that's good," and her head would tilt back.  She would hum a tune and wave her hand through the air to the melody, and she would drift, drift, drift away until there was no pain at all.  For Maurice, these were the best moments - when his mother found her peace.  It was moments that came before it, when she was fidgety, angry, hopelessly restless, that upset Maurice ......"
         Laura lives on Broadway in a trendy studio; Maurice Lives two blocks away in a welfare hotel.  Their paths cross; their lives change as they recognize something similar in each other.  They form a relationship and the friendship helps them sort through their pain and, over time, they accompany each other on a path of hope, beauty, and family.