The Amazing Tale of Being ‘Switched at Birth: My Life in Someone Else’s World’ by Fredrick J. George

Frederick George grew up in Dunedin, New Zealand where he attended an Irish Catholic school. At twenty-six, George joined the army and came to the U.S.A. where he met and married his wife. George has two children and a grandson and lives in Pembroke, Massachusetts.

Publisher: Frederick J. George Publishing
Publication Date: 4/17/2013
ISBN-13(e-book): 9780615796895
Price: $9.00

After inexplicably being placed in the wrong bassinet at the city hospital where I was born, I grew up with a nagging feeling of somehow not belonging, and a father who always suspected I was not his. I lived another’s life and he mine, our paths amazingly crossing throughout the years, until 57 years later I discovered the truth. This is the story of my life in someone else’s world, my quest for answers, and how I’ve come to terms with the hand which fate has dealt me.” – Fred George, Author. This is a story about two boys who, at birth, were inexplicably switched, a switch that would dramatically change the author’s life in every aspect—religion, ethnicity, economics, and culture. Time and time again, the two boys’ paths cross with one another’s before ultimately discovering, decades later, that they aren’t who they spent their whole lives believing they were. At 57, Fred George sees his birth family for the first time, recognizing in them his own mannerisms and traits. George’s retelling of his switch at birth is not so much an account of the switch itself, but rather the story of his life from birth to present with the George family. The story is interesting and insightful, complete with family photos that provide readers with an inside view of the culture and of the times of George’s life.

AVAILABLE AT THE FOLLOWING EBOOK RETAILERS:

 

 

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A STORY OF THE ‘DALHOUSIE BURNING’ BY PATRICIA LAMB AMOROSO

In the winter of 1930, a fire threatens to destroy the small Canadian town of Dalhousie. When the raging fire ignites, a trifecta of a disaster strikes. The flames endanger a new paper mill—the town’s economic future—the water system fails, and the town is faced with a harsh reality: it has virtually no fire fighting equipment and no professional fire fighting force. The perseverance and close ties of the community work to save the town even as some residents take matters into their own hands. ‘Dalhousie Burning’ is based on a true story taken directly from the headlines of Canadian newspapers in 1930. As a daughter of New Brunswick natives, author Patricia Lamb Amoroso came across the event while researching her family history.

Publisher: Amoroso Press

Publication Date: 9/9/2013

ISBN-13(e-book): 9780615884370

Price: $6.99

 

Patricia Lamb Amoroso holds a B.A from the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, where she majored in English, and minored in history and secondary education. After operating a kindergarten/nursery school in New Hampshire, Amoroso moved to Florida in 1993. She worked as a junior partner of an electronics manufacturing business before retiring in 2005. Amoroso is a member of both the Florida Freelance Writers Association and Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators.

AVAILABLE AT THE FOLLOWING EBOOK RETAILERS:

  
  

Monday Book Review: Autobiography of Laura Schmid Hogan – ‘I, Laura: The Story of a Kansas Family’

Review by Laura Garnier, Super Phlum Book Reviews

“I picked this story out of a line-up of potential stories for review, and honestly, what drew me to it is the fact that my name is also Laura. That, and I was intrigued to learn about the life of another Laura in what is, essentially, a whole other world (specifically the town of Atwood, Kansas, U.S.A).

I was fascinated by Laura’s story from start to finish. Not only had her early life been quite different to mine, but it started nearly one hundred years ago. Another world, another time. Despite some similarities I found between myself and Laura Schmid (she was born with dark eyes and hair, like me; her father named her Laura, like mine had; she never liked her name, and neither have I, though she disliked it due to the fact no one had heard it before, and I dislike it due to how common it is these days!), her upbringing couldn’t have been more different.

She was born, lived and worked on her parents farm along with her fourteen other brothers and sisters, being the youngest girl with only three brothers below her in age (I grew up with five other siblings, and I thought that was tough!). They all attended school when they reached the right age, but were never permitted to go on to high school, as their father wouldn’t allow it. Of course, Laura, at eighteen, did eventually attend high school, and then college, although she was ‘twelve hours’ from graduating when she decided instead to marry. Quite a different time indeed.

Throughout the story (which reminded me of the television show, Little House on the Prairie, that I used to watch every Sunday, that included another young girl named Laura), Laura recounts not only her childhood, but that and the lives of her immigrant parents and her numerous brothers and sisters, even putting in accounts from her brothers Joe and Paul on their experiences of life on the farm and in World War II. Laura and her family experienced a lot when it came to life and death, loyalty and sacrifice, but in reading you get the sense that camaraderie was a way of life in those days; times were tough so you had to look out for each other. Illness was rife and much of it still uncured and untreatable, so when a family member or close friend was taken it certainly had a knock on effect on every one who knew them.

Laura’s story is beautifully and intriguingly written. It’s very factual but you also get a feel of who Laura is as a person; strong, smart and incredibly devoted to her family, close and distant. Not only do you come to understand what life was like for a large family in the early twentieth century Mid-West of North America, you also get to know what the world was like in general, particularly with the war and the Great Depression hitting the U.S.

I’m used to picking up biographies on celebrities or those who have led eventful lives in one way or another, and normally I would think that the majority of people in the world don’t have any particular reason to bother writing an autobiography (I may only be twenty-four, but so far I know my life would not make for an interesting read!). Indeed nothing major in the way of events ever really happened to Laura, but reading and understanding her life under different circumstances and in a different time is almost like a reading a history book, teaching lessons in humility, loyalty and sacrifice, and learning that although life may not seem eventful whilst you’re living it, when you’re eighty-something and looking back over the years, your achievements and experiences can mean a heck of a lot more than they did way back when.

Maybe instead of picking up another life story of some reality T.V star who is barely out of school, I will think twice and search the bookshops for something a little more understated and unknown. Perhaps I’ll come across another life like Laura’s, and learn a few more things from a stranger’s life on the other side of the world, and perhaps learn to appreciate mine even more.”

 

This book is available at the following eBook retailers:
– Amazon
– Barnes & Noble
– Kobo
– iTunes
– OmniLit
– e-Sentral
– Hive
– Foyles
– Tesco eBooks
– The Indie eBook Shop
– Kalahari eBooks

Special thanks to Laura Garnier with Super Phlum Book Reviews!