This is Helen Thorpe...

...author of the recently published Just Like Us: The True Story of Four Mexican Girls Coming of Age in America. We were on a panel together with Po Bronson at the Miami Book Fair.

In today's Miami Herald, in "What are you reading now?", she writes:

``At the Miami Book Fair, I was on a panel with Michael Rosen, who read a stunning passage from his memoir What Else But Home. In it, he tries to explain the enormity of the Holocaust to five impoverished boys who lived in projects near his penthouse and had never heard of the Holocaust before. Rosen and his wife wound up adopting all five of the boys. I was riveted by his spare and dynamic account of the experience, an act of bravery and compassion.'' [the BOLDS are entirely mine, and thank you Helen!]

I'm a slow reader, am a third into Helen's book and am caught by the prose and the story. A recommended read.

and this is James Galvin, my favorite living poet...

He agreed to a coffee today, and then agreed to sign six books, three for me and three for my friend John Howard, also a fan. which reminds me of the lyric, "a peanut butter sandwich made with jam, one for me and one for David Amram," but that's another folk story.

I read Mr. Galvin's poems. They have a quiet and beautiful voice that might talk into you, whisper something you need to hear. Perhaps.