Note from the Wicked Witch of Publishing (TM): Thanks, Bill. The irony is that Bela Szigethy turned down a much  more favorable settlement offer years ago. I had no choice but to throw myself on the mercy of the court and a jury of my peers…and beg them to save me. Awful.  My attorney Thomas Flinn of Garrity Graham Favetta & Flinn was brilliant. He was my knight in shining armor.

In Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged generations of former railroad employees spontaneously came to Dagny Taggart’s rescue by positioning themselves on the tracks, shotguns in hand, to prevent sabotage. The descendants of the German immigrants who built my pretty house in 1902 grabbed their white hats, saddled up their white horses and galloped into town from as far away as England to testify for me. I had managed to locate their grandfather, Charles Hartdegen, in the 1880 census via Ancestry.com. The grandchildren (in their 70′s and 80′s) and great grandchild heard the cries of a damsel in distress. 

I fought my adversary off mano-a-mano, witness-by-witness, broomstick swat by broomstick swat. My case made The Star Ledger (the biggest newspaper in New Jersey) and the front page of the New Jersey Law Journal in January.

The first book I can remember having a huge emotional impact on me was Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment. After growing up in a middle class home, the story took me to dark places I had never known existed. I can still recall some of the visual pictures that book painted in my mind.

Most recently, the book having the greatest impact on me was Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go. It is one of the most beautiful books I have ever read. Despite the sense of dread I felt throughout the story, the narrator pulled me gently along, setting me back on the ground with the greatest of care when the story ended. Just an amazing book.

I developed a love of reading when my mother introduced me to the Ann of Green Gables books when I was a child. She had read them during her childhood and was enchanted by them.

God gave us a brain so we must use it and good really does triumph over evil in the first one. I read that book at least 5 times when I was about 7 years old. It also taught me delicious words like “portico” and “valise” and “musket”. I have a huge vocabulary because of that. I read it again as an adult and it was as riveting then as it was when I was a kid.

The second one taught me a person doesn’t have to be beautiful to be a winner, but must have courage and heart and a deep desire to win.

The third is more complicated. It wasn’t a good book, regardless of how cute the movie was. It was boring until about the last 1/3 to 1/4 of it. However, this book taught me to look for the personality in animals. Because of that, I’ve enjoyed many a moment watching animals.

Note from the Wicked Witch of Publishing (TM): I had to be carried out of the movie theatre after watching “The Incredible Journey.” I was such an emotional wreck!

I remember vividly The Water Babies by Charles Kingsley. Who could forget Mrs Doasyouwouldbedoneby and Mrs Bedonebyasyoudid? Also Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild and Black Beauty by Anna Sewell.