Review by Eleanor J. Bader

When Janet Kintner graduated from law school in 1968, she was rejected by employers who told her point-blank that they did not – and would not – hire a woman.  This, despite the fact that she had passed the bar exam in Arizona and California and had graduated at the top of her class. While she eventually secured a much-loved position with the Legal Aid Society in San Diego, Kintner never forgot the sexist banter she heard or the demeaning comments directed at her by male attorneys and courthouse staff. But she refused to quit. 

A subsequent job with the City Attorney’s office gave her the opportunity to prosecute exploitative businesses, and she developed a niche in the then-developing field of consumer law. Her work drew notice and, in 1976, Democratic Governor Jerry Brown appointed her to the bench. At the time of her swearing in, Kintner was 31 years old and seven months pregnant. Two years later, a contested election to maintain the seat forced her to face two male adversaries, one of whom hurled a near-constant barrage of personal insults at her. Her account of the successful campaign – when she was again pregnant – and of juggling a toddler and a demanding judgeship, is both humorous and harrowing. 

Kintner worked as a judge for a total of 47 years before retiring, and her look back, A Judge’s Tale, is important. Nonetheless, while she offers a stark denunciation of sexist behavior, she seems wholly disconnected from the many feminist campaigns waged by law students and attorneys to win equity and respect. Likewise, she alludes to unspecified marital discord, but offers few clues about why she waited three decades to call it quits. They’re disappointing omissions. Still, A Judge’s Tale is an inspiring book, detailing one woman’s quest for recognition and power. It’s a worthwhile memoir.

A Judge’s Tale: A Trailblazer Fights for Her Place on the Bench by Janet Kintner. She Writes Press, December 2025.

Reviewer bio: Eleanor J. Bader is a Brooklyn, NY-based journalist who writes about books and domestic social issues for Truthout, Rain Taxi, The Progressive, Ms. Magazine, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and The Indypendent. https://www.eleanorjbader.com/

Review by Eleanor J. Bader

Sarah Vogel’s life has been a series of losses as well as lucky breaks. Her birth in Auschwitz coincided with her mother’s death, but women in the concentration camp did what they could to ensure her survival. Time in Birkenau and Bergen-Belsen followed. Then liberation, adoption by the Vogelmann family until, at 15, she is sent to live with someone new. Escape to Berlin came next, along with her first romantic encounter. Then, thanks to the Jewish Immigrant Resettlement Program, she met people whose job it was to help her find her way. At first, emigrating to Israel seemed alluring, but Sarah ultimately opted for the US. First, however, she gave birth to a daughter, conceived during a hasty hook-up with a Russian soldier.

For a time, she and Sasha lived in Queens, NY, where she found work as a custodian at a local college. A series of promotions, as well as an affair with a married professor, offered both heartbreak and opportunity, the upshot of which was a move to Ohio, where Sarah took an administrative job at Kent State. There, she married Walter, and together, they raised a family.

Becoming Sarah tells this fictional story, tracking four generations of Vogel women and covering more than 100 years, from Sarah’s birth in 1942 to the 100th anniversary of the end of the war in 2045. It’s a sweeping look at the Holocaust’s impact on successive generations, even when the actual facts of Sarah’s experience are neither discussed nor disclosed to her offspring or partners. It’s also an in-depth personality profile of an astoundingly passive — and simultaneously fatalistic, fierce, and independent — woman, someone who never hired a private investigator or tried to find Sasha after she vanished. It’s unclear why.

Becoming Sarah is an unusual and deeply moving peek into the aftermath of the Nazi Holocaust — leavened with occasional humor — about a flawed but believably-human protagonist and the positive and negative influence she cast on subsequent generations of family members.

Becoming Sarah by Diane Botnick. She Writes Press, October 2025.

Reviewer bio: Eleanor J. Bader is a Brooklyn, NY-based journalist who writes about books and domestic social issues for Truthout, Rain Taxi, The Progressive, Ms. Magazine, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and The Indypendent.

Review by Eleanor J. Bader

By the time psychotherapist Leah Fisher was in her early 60s, she was sick of eating dinner alone while her husband, Charley, worked late into the evening. She was also sick of his reluctance to take an extended vacation. But rather than stew in resentment or anger, she presented him with a carefully thought-out plan. If he couldn’t envision taking a year-long trip – a real break from their life in the San Francisco Bay – she’d go alone.

As she presented it, the idea was more of a negotiation than an ultimatum. After all, Fisher still loved Charley and wanted to remain married. Nonetheless, she was ready for something new, an adventure. As the pair talked, they came up with an arrangement in which Fisher would travel for several months and then return home for a week or two. They also broached sexual infidelity and developed ground rules for what would, and would not, be allowed. Moreover, Charley arranged his occasional vacations to meet her in some of the seven countries – Bali, Costa Rica, Colombia, Cuba, Guatemala, Java, and Mexico – she visited.

Fisher’s travels – staying in each location for a month or longer – allowed her to learn Spanish and dance salsa, all while maintaining the spark between her and her mate. It also allowed her to contribute to the communities she visited. Indeed, Fisher moved beyond tourism and volunteered in numerous capacities, running a short-term women’s group and translating and adapting a workbook, first created for American hurricane survivors, to help kids process their emotions after a mudslide destroyed their homes.

Deeply felt and emotionally honest, Fisher spent 16 years writing and revising My Marriage Sabbatical. As she and Charley continually alter their relationship, they model lived feminism and compromise. The result is wanderlust-inducing – the stuff of dreams and daring.

My Marriage Sabbatical: A Memoir of Solo Travel and Lasting Love by Leah Fisher. She Writes Press, January 2025.

Reviewer bio: Eleanor J. Bader is a Brooklyn, NY-based journalist who writes about books and domestic social issues for Truthout, Rain Taxi, The Progressive, Ms. Magazine, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and The Indypendent.

Review by Eleanor J. Bader

The Other Side of Nothing, Anastasia Zadeik’s second novel, is an emotionally resonant exploration of what it means to love someone with a life-threatening mental illness. The story centers around Julia, a suicidal soon-to-be-18-year-old who believes that she hastened her father’s death from cancer. After signing herself into a psychiatric hospital, she begins to stabilize. That is, until she meets 23-year-old Sam in group therapy. Sam, an up-and-coming artist, is everything Julia admires and they immediately become a couple. But things unravel almost as quickly as they began.

As Sam’s release date approaches, he convinces Julia to bolt the facility and join him on a cross-country road trip to Yosemite National Park. Once there, he intends to replicate Ansel Adams’ photo of Half Dome. From the start troubles lurk: Sam discards his medication, takes Julia’s cell phone, and becomes increasingly manic and controlling. Julia is terrified.

The hospital, meanwhile, has no clue about Julia’s whereabouts, and although staff have suspicions, they also know that they have to do something–and fast. Despite hesitation, they notify Sam and Julia’s mothers about the disappearance, prompting the pair to take a harrowing road trip of their own.

The Other Side of Nothing addresses heavy themes–bipolar disorder, depression, suicide–with sensitivity and grace, making the book both illuminating and unforgettable.

The Other Side of Nothing by Anastasia Zadeik. She Writes Press, May 2024.

Reviewer bio: Eleanor J. Bader is a Brooklyn, NY-based journalist who writes about books and domestic social issues for Truthout, Rain Taxi, The Progressive, Ms. Magazine, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and The Indypendent.

Dena Rueb Romero’s memoir, All for You, tells an incredible story about a love affair between the author’s German Lutheran mother, Deta, and German Jewish father, Emil, a relationship that began in pre-Nazi Germany and lasted until Emil’s death in 1980. As Romero recounts in her intro, she learned details about her parents’ liaison when she was house-sitting for her mom and discovered letters that documented their seven-year wartime separation.

The book, part political and part social history, covers the growth of Nazism in Europe. But this is also a highly personal story: Deta’s 1937 emigration to England and her subsequent work as a nanny were acts of anti-Hitler resistance. Nonetheless, as a German citizen, her loyalties were questioned and she was imprisoned as an “enemy alien.”

Emil’s story – his emigration to the US and his work as a photographer in Hanover, New Hampshire – both lucky breaks, offers additional insights into who got out of Germany and why. Still, there is tragedy here; although Emil and Deta reunited in 1946, he was unable to get his parents, sister, or brother-in-law out of Germany, a reality that cast an ever-present pall on his relationships and business dealings.

All told, All for You not only documents an enduring, if troubled, love, but offers insights into trauma and survival.

All for You by Dena Rueb Romero. She Writes Press, May 2024.

Reviewer bio: Eleanor J. Bader is a Brooklyn, NY-based journalist who writes about books and domestic social issues for Truthout, Rain Taxi, The Progressive, Ms. Magazine, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and The Indypendent.