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Our Books

Franca's Story: Survival in World War II Italy (2005) Franca’s Story chronicles a young girl’s determination to help her family survive World War II in Italy, 1937-1945.  The onset of war shatters Franca Mercati’s privileged childhood in Florence, devastates her aristocratic family, and threatens the Italian way of life.  The family flees their palatial home in Florence to escape Allied bombs and settles in their beach home at Viareggio.  One brother is soon killed, and a second is missing in action. Franca and her father secure a private audience with the Pope – will his influence help them find her missing brother, Lt. Mercati?

Franca discovers her father is helping Jewish children escape; she secretly uses his connections to rescue a wounded British pilot.  She watches in horror as her school friends die in the bombing of a train station; helps when her brother-in-law is severely beaten by Fascists; and survives a harrowing ride with a deserting Nazi doctor.  Franca and her family slide from wealthy aristocrats to impoverished refugees surviving hand to mouth at an old Hapsburg palace.    She overcomes obstacles with courage, ingenuity, good humor, and a deep faith in God in a world filled with turbulence. 

Traveling in Time: From the Philippines to Alaska (2007) is the story of Susan Ansula Romero, born in the Philippines in 1929, who survived the invasion of the Japanese army during World War II by hiding with her family in the rain forests.  Desperate to leave poverty behind and see the world, she married a man from Alaska and arrived in Ketchikan only to learn that she had six step-children to raise and, soon, two of her own.

Condo Divas Nothing compares with the experience of living in a community with a diva or two.  In this odyssey, we define “divas” as extremely arrogant or temperamental women; or distinguished women who want it done their way.  They scheme, sneak, come close to stealing as they solve the major issues of pets, parking, and people with their own skewed logic.  

That Spark: What it Takes for a Welfare Mom to Find Success (in draft form) is both a true story of "getting out of the system" and a collection of tips on how to repeat this success.