Reva Spiro Luxenberg – författare

GRAND ARMY PLAZA By Reva Spiro Luxenberg Jamal Holden, an eleven year-old black boy, tries to cope with the death of his mother as he resumes his life in the home of a compassionate Jewish widow. Jamal Holden, an outstanding present day childrens writer, is squeamish about his past. But when Mamie Carmichael interviews him on television she presses for the truth, and Jamal reveals what happened in his eleventh year. It was quite a year, he says. Plunged into a nightmare of despair after his mother dies, Jamal faces a clash of cultures when his Jewish neighbor, pitying the eleven year-old orphan, takes him into her home. GRAND ARMY PLAZA deals with the stormy and loving relationship between a Jewish widow, Chaya Bloom, and Jamal Holden who has to adapt to a lifestyle that he had no idea existed. Its gefilte fish versus pork and beans. Its no television in the home, no bread on Passover, and matzo that tastes like cardboard. Jamal and Chaya encounter prejudice coming at them from all sides-- her neighbors who ask them to move--her daughter who advises her mother to let the boy fend for himselfblack and white children who want to see a black kid live with black folks. Chaya introduces the depressed child to the beauty of books in the main library of Brooklyn. She hopes that the Grand Army Plaza library will eventually fill a void in Jamals life, helping him to grow and heal. Meanwhile the child remains traumatized by the murder of his father when he was five, and in attempt to capture the killer he agrees to assist detectives by exposing himself to danger. This causes Chaya a great deal of anxiety. Both Jamal and Chaya struggle with the question of whether the best place for him is with black professional adoptive parents or in the home where Orthodox Jewish laws reign. This book deals with a cultural clash that apparently defies resolution.

Sadie Weinstein, wife and joint owner with her husband, Nathan, of Weinsteins Grocery, is a wacky amateur defective detective modeling herself after Agatha Christies Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. She enlists the help of the Cereal Killer Squad in her quest to aid the police capture the infamous Cereal Killer who murders dope pushers and sprinkles cereal on their bodies. Nathan objects to the squad of two prostitutes, a guidance counselor, an aunt of a victim, and an Indian psychic, but zany Sadie doesnt heed his warning. Her persistent sleuthing fails to uncover a single clue until she comes face to face with the Cereal Killer who finally loses his appetite for cereal and murder.

A FLICKERING FLAME is a compelling tale about Jeffrey Shulman, a brilliant pathological liar, an emotionally scarred man with a rare condition named by psychiatrists as Pseudologia fantastica. It is an engrossing chronicle of his life, from his infancy when he was abused, to when he becomes a convincing impostor, to a time when his wife attempts to murder him with a .357 magnum aimed at his chest, and his subsequent struggle to survive and get custody of his children.

After Reva Spiro Luxenberg retired as a psychiatric social worker she began a second career as a writer with three cozy mysteries starring her favorite protagonist, Sadie Weinstein. Shes written a childrens book that she illustrated, an anthology of short stories, two dramas, a non-fiction book, and seven screenplays. Playing Scrabble helps her relax as does her class in ceramics.

Reflections and Recollections is a delightful collection of imaginative stories. It contains memoirs and poemssome of which are hilarious. Once you start reading the book, you wont want to put it down. The section on memoirs is unusual, to say the least, as the author relates her brief relationship with boxer Tommy Hurricane Jackson and her close call in almost burning down the Empire State Building. This is a book you might like to read at many separate sittings.

Emotionally alienated from her parents but living in their home, Sara Solomon is helped in therapy. She gains the strength to move from Tampa, Florida, to Palm Oasis on the east coast where her landlady, Helen, an older woman, both employs and befriends her. The women find dates through an online dating service. Sara meets a policeman with whom she falls deeply in love, but two weeks before their wedding, he is shot and killed. The trauma afflicts Sara with amnesia accompanied by confusion, depression, and fear. Will she recover? This is the gripping story of a courageous young womans fight through psychological tangles to reclaim a normal life and to find love again.

There are four suspects in the beauty school murder in Florida. Sadie Weinstein, the quirky amateur sleuth who owns a mom-and-pop grocery in Brooklyn with her husband, Nathan, is the primary suspect. Sadie prevails upon her reluctant spouse to help her entrap the murderer while they are on a much-needed vacation. She also contacts Rhajmah, her psychic, pickle-eating customer and friend to help her unravel the enigma and keep her out of jail. She needs all her skill, energy, ingenuity, eccentricity, and Poirot-like grey cells to unravel the mystery. The Beauty School Murder is an expansion of an earlier version of the cozy mystery story, Curl Up and Die.

The author is a senior citizen who has the desire to share some of her experiences and practical, down-to-earth learning with other mature women. The book covers relationships with children and husbands and advice about mind and body that includes senior moments, food, clothes, skin, and care of nails and hair. The author talks about weight, interests, finance, cleaning, medical and age discrimination, and housing and winds up with hints for making travel easier and more pleasurable. Mrs. Luxenberg hopes that older women will benefit from her suggestions.

Sadie Weinstein runs a mom-and-pop grocery in Brooklyn in 1969 with her husband, Nathan. A quirky amateur detective, she persists in solving a murder that takes place when she is present at a home in Staten Island. The murdered victim is a bigamist who had two wives, and possibly more, in different far-removed locations. She tracks down suspects from Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and as far away as Biloxi, Mississippi. Sadie is a suspect herself and must solve the mystery to clear her name. Nathan warns her constantly not to stick her neck out, but she is undeterred. Her charming pickle-eating customer and psychic Rhajmah has revealing visions. The excitement mounts in Biloxi during the savage onslaught of Hurricane Camille. The story involves anguish, but Sadies antics and repartees lighten tension. This is a gripping Sadie Weinstein mystery, Luxenbergs fourth.

During a counseling session Joan Pearl reveals to her psychologist, Dr. Becca Grove, that her husband Spence is a billionaire. Becca, who is immoral and greedy, conjures up a plan to exacerbate Joan's relationship with her husband with the intent of encouraging her to divorce so that she herself could marry Spence. Despite complications Becca pursues her devious plan. On the couple's vacation to Australia, Joan, who is a librarian, meets the Australian Sherilee-also a librarian-and they form a strong sisterly bond. They develop the entrepreneurial idea to be partners in the creation of the largest mystery bookstore in the world. When Spence refuses to part with monies that would facilitate their enterprise, they nevertheless persist in their plans. Becca moves from her expensive apartment on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue to a Brooklyn basement apartment. The pandemic and its consequences begin

She has experience as a sewing teacher who made projects easy and fun. Her painted rocks are used as gifts and are selling in stores.

The wedding that takes place in the ballroom of the 5-star Palm Tree Hotel in Key West is upended when Flora, the bride, is murdered in the bridal suite. The groom, Mark Morris, a physical therapist, is arrested by the sheriff. Meanwhile, Lloyd, the bartender, and Lori, his wife and concierge, set out to clear Mark, who is in deeper trouble than he's ever known. Lloyd and Lori suspect that the killer may be one of the people who visited Flora after the wedding-maybe the stepmother, or one or both of her twin sisters, or her first cousin, or, possibly, the chambermaid. Mark is prosecuted in a lengthy courtroom trial for the murder of his wife. Lloyd and Lori race against time to identify the killer before the jury would render a guilty decision for a crime the defendant didn't commit.