History Book Group Meeting – Sixty Blades of Grass

The History Book Group meets once a month to discuss history books and enjoy our time together.  Anyone who enjoys reading history is welcome to join us. Feel free to bring your lunch!

THIS MONTH’S BOOK:  Sixty Blades of Grass (Elizabeth Millane)  Local Author!

During the Second World War, Rika, a seventeen-year-old Dutch Resistance fighter, paints in fields overlooking the busy rail yards. Hidden in her artwork is information crucial to the Dutch Underground about the concentration camps and Jewish prisoner transports. But Rika’s covert activities aren’t the only thing on her mind. In these uncertain times, even trusting family is risky. She suspects her father of collaborating with the Germans and is determined to uncover the truth. Across town, her German-born father is also living a double life. But his desire to keep his daughter safe proves inadequate when he invites a German colonel into his home with terrible consequences.  With no one to rely on or turn to, Rika knows her greatest challenge has only just begun as she must fight for her own survival.  Inspired by the author’s own family history, this is a riveting, heartrending novel of danger and betrayal that explores what it takes to lay down one’s life for another in the most harrowing of circumstances. (amazon.com description)

Betsy Millane grew up along the shores of Lake Michigan where her love for books and stories developed. She was educated at Boston College, earning a Bachelor’s of in English literature, and at the University of Lancaster, Lancaster, England, where she completed a Junior Year Abroad program. It was during that year that she traveled extensively on the continent, visiting her Dutch relatives several times and learning their tales of heroism and sacrifice which formed the basis for Sixty Blades of Grass. She resides in Needham Massachusetts, travels to her two children and grandchild in Chicago and Hawaii as often as she can. She is currently at work on two novels.