Zoomies, Subs, and Zeros (Annotated)


Hans C. Adamson - 2019
    The League helped save the lives of hundreds of Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps pilots - including future President George H. W. Bush - from Japanese planes as well as from death at sea. Author Charles Lockwood (Hellcats of the Sea, Sink 'Em All) brings his usual flair for submarine stories to this eye-witness narrative of the hair-raising adventures of this little-known sub-division of the US Naval Fleet.*Includes annotations and images.

Jack Archer


G.A. Henty - 1883
    The story begins with Jack at school when he is urgently sent for at home. His father tells Jack that he has gotten him a position as a midshipman on a paddle-steamer and will be leaving Portsmouth the following day.

The Bloody Battle of Suribachi: The Amazing Story of Iwo Jima That Inspired Flags of Our Fathers


Richard Wheeler - 1965
    Revised with a new introduction by the author and recently discovered photos, this book served as invaluable source material both for James Bradley’s bestseller Flags of Our Fathers as well as Clint Eastwood’s acclaimed film of the same name.

The Captain from Connecticut


C.S. Forester - 1941
    A blizzard cut visibility to yards. Long Island Sound was galloping whitecaps. But in this second year of the war of 1812, conditions like these spelled opportunity to Captain Josiah Peabody.His mission: break the British Blockade. The only thing in his favor was surprise. Who would expect a Yankee frigate in Long Island Sound at night?

Sink 'Em All: Submarine Warfare in the Pacific


Charles A. Lockwood - 1951
    Lockwood, the U.S. Navy commander of the Pacific submarine fleet during World War II. Lockwood, in his leadership role, knew the skippers and crews of the submarines, and retells their wartime successes and tragedies with an intimacy and realism often missing in second-hand accounts. Lockwood also recounts his efforts to improve the provisions and after-patrol accomodations of the submariners, and of his on-going struggle to improve the effectiveness of torpedoes and other tools vital to the war effort. 'It is a balanced and surprisingly objective account adequately supported by statistics and containing some interesting conclusions.' The Naval Review Charles Andrews Lockwood (May 6, 1890 – June 7, 1967) was a vice-admiral and flag officer of the United States Navy. He is known in submarine history as the commander of Submarine Force Pacific Fleet during World War II. He devised tactics for the effective use of submarines, making the members and elements of "silent service" key players in the Pacific victory.

Long Way Back to the River Kwai: A Harrowing True Story of Survival in World War II


Loet Velmans - 2005
    He and his family fled to London on the Dutch Coast Guard cutter "Seaman's Hope" and then sailed to the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) where he joined the Dutch army. In March 1942, the Japanese invaded the archipelago and made prisoners of the Dutch soldiers. For the next three and a half years Velmans and his fellow POWs toiled in slave labor camps, building a railroad through the dense jungle on the Burmese-Thailand border so the Japanese could invade India. Some 200,000 POWs and slave laborers died building this Death Railway. Velmans, though suffering from malaria, dysentery, malnutrition, and unspeakable mistreatment, never gave up hope. Fifty-seven years later he returned to revisit the place where he should have died and where he had buried his closest friend. From that emotional visit sprung this stunning memoir."Long Way Back to the River Kwai" is a simply told but searing memoir of World War II, a testimonial to one man's indomitable will to live that will take its place beside the "Diary of Ann Frank," "Bridge over the River Kwai," and "Edith's Story.""

Grace Valley Trilogy Complete Collection: Deep in the Valley\Just Over the Mountain\Down by the River


Robyn Carr - 2014
    Visitors to the town often remark about the valley’s peace and beauty—both of which are plentiful. Unlocked doors, front porches, pies cooling in the windows—this is country life at its finest. But visitors don’t always see what lies at the heart of a community. Or just beyond…Deep in the ValleyThe daughter of the town doctor, June Hudson left only to get her medical training, then returned home and followed in her father’s footsteps. Some might say she chose the easy, comfortable route…but June knows better. Her emergency room is wherever she’s needed—or wherever a patient finds her. She is always on call, her work is her life, and these people are her extended family. Which is a good thing, since this is a town where you should have picked your husband in the ninth grade. It’s not exactly the place to meet eligible men—until an undercover DEA agent suddenly starts appearing at all sorts of strange hours. Everybody has secrets down in the valley. Now June has one of her own.Just Over the MountainIn this peaceful community, it’s hard to keep a secret—but Dr. June Hudson has managed to keep one heck of a humdinger. Though visits from undercover DEA agent Jim Post are as clandestine as they are passionate, somehow it fits with her demanding schedule. But how can a secret lover compete with a flesh-and-blood heartthrob from her past? June’s old flame has just returned after twenty years—and he’s divorced. June is seriously rattled. So when the town’s most devoted wife takes buckshot to her husband and some human bones turn up in her aunt Myrna’s backyard, June is almost happy for the distraction. Sooner or later, love will have its way in Grace Valley. It always does.Down by the RiverPeople in town are beginning to notice the bloom in Dr. June Hudson’s cheeks—and the swell of her belly. Happily, DEA agent Jim Post is back in June’s arms for good, newly retired from undercover work and ready for new beginnings. And the community is overflowing with gossip right now. Who is the secret paramour June’s aunt Myrna is hiding? Does the town’s poker-playing pastor have too many aces up his sleeve? But when dangers, from man and nature, rise up with a vengeance to threaten June and the town, this community pulls together and shows what it’s made of. And Jim discovers the true meaning of happiness here in Grace Valley: there really is no place like home.

Blazing Star, Setting Sun: The Conclusion of the Guadalcanal–Solomons Naval Campaign of World War II


Jeffrey R. Cox - 2020
    Cox comes this insightful new history of the critical Guadalcanal and Solomons campaign at the height of World War II. His previous book, Morning Star, Rising Sun, had found the US Navy at its absolute nadir and the fate of the Enterprise, the last operational US aircraft carrier at this point in the war, unknown. This new volume completes the history of this crucial campaign, combining detailed research with a novelist's flair for the dramatic to reveal exactly how, despite missteps and misfortunes, the tide of war finally turned. By the end of February 1944, thanks to hard-fought and costly American victories in the first and second naval battles of Guadalcanal, the battle of Empress Augusta Bay, and the battle of Cape St George, the Japanese would no longer hold the materiel or skilled manpower advantage. From this point on, although the war was still a long way from being won, the American star was unquestionably on the ascendant, slowly, but surely, edging Japanese imperialism towards its sunset.Jeffrey Cox's analysis and attention to detail of even the smallest events are second to none. But what truly sets this book apart is how he combines this microscopic attention to detail, often unearthing new facts along the way, with an engaging style that transports the reader to the heart of the story, bringing the events on the deep blue of the Pacific vividly to life.

Unbound: A Tale of Love and Betrayal in Shanghai


Dina Gu BrumfieldDina Gu Brumfield - 2020
    ​Mini Pao lives with her sister and parents in a pre-war Shanghai divided among foreign occupiers and Chinese citizens, a city known as the “Paris of the East” with its contrast of  vibrant night life and repressive social mores. Already considered an old maid at twenty-three, Mini boldly rejects the path set out for her as she struggles to provide for her family and reckons with her desire for romance and autonomy. Mini’s story of love, betrayal, and determination unfolds in the Western-style cafes, open-air markets, and jazz-soaked nightclubs of Shanghai—the same city where, decades later, her granddaughter Ting embarks on her own journey toward independence.  Ting Lee has grown up behind an iron curtain in a time of scarcity, humility, and forced-sameness in accordance with the strictures of Chairman Mao’s cultural revolution. As a result, Ting’s imagination burns with curiosity about fashion, America, and most of all, her long-lost grandmother Mini’s glamorous past and mysterious present. As her thirst for knowledge about the world beyond 1970s Shanghai grows, Ting is driven to uncover her family’s tragic past and face the difficult truth of what the future holds for her if she remains in China.

The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861


Carter G. Woodson - 1915
    

St. Martin's Summer


Rafael Sabatini - 1909
    The life of an heiress is in jeopardy and her only hope is to place her trust in the wiles of a middle-aged swordsman with no use for "women's troubles." As the plots of the conspirators converge it will take all the wiles and accumulated wisdom of Martin Marie Rigobert de Garnache [to] uncover their identity, to save Valerie de La Vauvraye and keep his promise to his Queen.

Memoirs of Gen. William T. Sherman - Volume 1


William T. Sherman - 1886
    You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

Pearl Harbor: The Verdict of History


Gordon W. Prange - 1985
    The provocative sequel to At Dawn We Slept that continues Prange's masterful analysis of the attack on Pearl Harbor, delving further to examine the underlying causes and to ask whether the event that plunged America into World War II was really a surprise to President Roosevelt.

When a Toy Dog Became a Wolf and the Moon Broke Curfew: A Memoir


Hendrika de Vries - 2019
    In the aftermath of her father’s departure, Hendrika watches as freedoms formerly taken for granted are eroded with escalating brutality by men with swastika armbands who aim to exterminate those they deem “inferior” and those who do not obey. As time goes on, Hendrika absorbs her mother’s strength and faith, and learns about moral choice and forced silence. She sees her hidden Jewish “stepsister” betrayed, and her mother interrogated at gunpoint. She and her mother suffer near starvation, and they narrowly escape death on the day of liberation. But they survive it all—and through these harrowing experiences, Hendrika discovers the woman she wants to become.

The Harlem Hellfighters: When Pride Met Courage


Walter Dean Myers - 2005
    . . . It is the story of men who acted as men, and who gave a good account of themselves when so many people thought, even hoped, that they would fail.What defines a true hero?The "Harlem Hellfighters," the African American soldiers of the 369th Infantry Regiment of World War I, redefined heroism -- for America, and for the world. At a time of widespread bigotry and racism, these soldiers put their lives on the line in the name of democracy.The Harlem Hellfighters: When Pride Met Courage is a portrait of bravery and honor. With compelling narrative and never-before-published photographs, Michael L. Printz Award winner Walter Dean Myers and renowned filmmaker Bill Miles deftly portray the true story of these unsung American heroes.