Larry Loftis

The intriguing story of Aline Griffith, who went from Pearl River, New York to working for the OSS in Madrid during WWII to marrying into Spanish Royalty. Larry Loftis has researched and pieced together her story from a variety of sources, including some of Griffith’s own published writing, both fiction and non-fiction.

An interesting aspect of her memoirs is that Griffith included murders that could not have happened. Loftis surmises that she wished to spice up the story of her life, which apparently needed no embellishment.

Another question is exactly what espionage work she did, still classified, even after marrying the wealthy Count of Romanones and while raising her family and traveling extensively.… (mais)

First sentence: Tick. Tick. Tick. It was a soothing sound, methodical and predictable.

The Watchmaker's Daughter is a [new] biography of Corrie Ten Boom and family. Her father, Casper Ten Boom, was a watchmaker [like his father before him]. Casper [and Corrie] followed in his footsteps in other ways. As a young man, Willem Ten Boom, Corrie's grandfather, began to take a [genuine] interest in the welfare of the Jewish people. The opening chapter reveals that he held prayer meetings to pray for [the [peace of] Jerusalem and the [blessing of the] Jews. A hundred years later, those prayers would be more fervent and needed. The Ten Booms saw this horrifying situation unfold. The Ten Booms could not stand by and do nothing. They opened their home and began hiding Jews, helping them to escape from the Nazis and near certain death.

Corrie Ten Boom wrote her own autobiography, The Hiding Place. If you've read The Hiding Place do you need to read The Watchmaker's Daughter? Maybe. Maybe not. Probably not.

The two differ mainly in scope. The Watchmaker's Daughter is a more expansive, big picture story. The Hiding Place is more narrow in scope; it is a biography of HER life and HER family. She does not try to tell the story of Anne Frank or Audrey Hepburn. She does not try to loop in (for lack of better word) other players into the story.

The book is more history-history than spiritual biography. That is another way the two differ. Though you cannot tell the story of Corrie Ten Boom [and family] without writing of their faith in God.… (mais)