Book picks similar to
Ella's War by Sarah Bourne
book-club-read
emotional
wanda
world-war-two
Stormtrooper on the Eastern Front: Fighting with Hitler's Latvian SS
Mintauts Blosfelds - 2008
So he 'volunteered' to fight for the Nazis. He describes his training and how he became an instructor before being sent into Russia. He nearly perished during the terrible winter of 1943-44 being wounded and finding himself with his friend lying dead on top of him. As the tide turned and the Russians advanced remorselessly through. He was wounded twice more and awarded the Iron Cross for bravery.With German resistance collapsing, the author had to flee for his life - capture by the Russians meant almost certain death. He surrendered to the Americans but describes the neglect he suffered at their hands. Unable to return to Latvia now occupied by the Russians, he became a Displaced Person eventually settling in the UK.
Bismarck: 24 Hours to Doom
Iain Ballantyne - 2016
After a bloody chase lasting more than 1,700 miles, Britain’s Home Fleet is finally closing in on the world’s most powerful battleship. There will be a fight to the finish, between more than 5,000 men of the Royal Navy and 2,600 servicemen of Hitler’s Kriegsmarine. Thousands will die... Published here for the first time, alongside a compelling narrative of the final 24 hours of the mission to sink the Nazi ship, are eyewitness accounts of Royal Navy sailors who saw the combat up close. Seventy-five years on from the epic mission to destroy the flagship of Hitler’s navy, these testimonies are the product of a unique project by Iain Ballantyne. Over a period of several years he interviewed a select group of surviving veterans in the UK and one in Canada, with transcripts of those remarkable on-camera interviews forming the basis of the exciting first-person stories that unfold here. It all combines to provide fresh insight into one of World War Two’s most dramatic events. Awards In 2007, Iain's work in the maritime arena was saluted with a Special Recognition Award from the British Maritime Charitable Foundation (BMCF), for making 'a consistent and unwavering contribution to raising maritime awareness over the years'. "Highly recommended for anyone interested on WW2 naval history." - Manchester Military History Society "This short book is a fascinating, quick read." - Terri, NetGalley Reviewer
Bella Vol.6 (A Sagatori family saga)
Kimberly Soto - 2016
The lines I cross are without the protection I know I’ll need or the strength to survive the destruction my past will leave me in the center of.
The Sense of Paper
Taylor Holden - 2006
How ubiquitous it is in everyday life….A material of paradoxes, it can be used and abused in a thousand ways and still be the same under its skin. It is the embodiment of man’s achievement, yet it is as transient and as flimsy as tissue…. In its strengths and weaknesses, faults and flaws, it is intensely human….”A lush and intoxicating blend of art history, eroticism, and suspense, Taylor Holden's The Sense of Paper is like no other debut novel you’ve ever read. An enthralling exploration of the role of paper in art, it is also the sumptuous story of a woman living on the dangerous edge of obsession, passion, and murder.
The Long Road Back To You
Buck Turner - 2022
Before he is drafted to fight in Vietnam, Charlie falls head over heels for a beautiful girl named Anna Cochran. They spend the summer on the banks of the river where they plan their future together. But as their magical summer draw to a close, their future together begins to slip through their fingers.Anna promises to wait. But when Charlie is taken prisoner and later presumed dead, Anna is left to pick up the pieces to her shattered world.A decade later, after enduring a nightmarish hell in the jungle, Charlie returns home to find Anna has moved on. To make matters worse, she is married to the man who left him for dead in the jungle. Convinced they are meant to be together, Charlie will stop at nothing to win her back.Is it too late for these star-crossed lovers or will love win out in the end?Praise for The Long Road Back To You:"Southern fiction at its best!"`"An amazing love story...couldn't put it down!""Captivating from the first sentence to the last..."
Forever Sunshine
Collette Scott - 2011
Cher's carefully ordered life quickly comes to an end. Trapped in an abusive marriage, Shelly is terrified and has nowhere else to go but to her overworked and oblivious sister. Though Cher is not prepared to handle the effects of a controlling and violent husband, fate delivers help via police sergeant Brandon Nicholson. With his strength and guidance, he shows Cherisse and Shelly how to survive and how to live life to the fullest. As both women find their inner strength, Cher and Brandon fall in love and build a future together. However, life is full of ups and downs, and through it all Cher and her family must continue to face every day with a feeling of hope and optimism, even when it seems as though all hope is gone.
Pathfinder Pioneer: The Memoir of a Lead Bomber Pilot in World War II
Celia Straus - 2016
Like thousands of other young Americans, Ray Brim was plucked by the U.S. Army to be a combat flyer, and was quickly pitted against the hardened veterans of the Luftwaffe. Brim turned out to have a natural knack for flying, however, and was assigned to the select squadron developing lead Pathfinder techniques, while experimenting with radar. He was among the first to test the teeth of the Luftwaffe’s defenses, and once those techniques had been honed, thousands of other bomber crews would follow into the maelstrom, from which 80,000 never returned.This work gives us vivid insights into the genesis of the American air campaign, told with the humor, attention to detail and humility that captures the heart and soul of our “Greatest Generation.” Brim was one of the first Pathfinder pilots to fly both day and night missions leading bomb groups of 600-plus bombers to their targets. At the onset of his missions in the spring of 1943, B-17 crews were given a 50-50 chance of returning. Each of his raids were nerve-wracking forays into the unknown; with struggles to survive the damage to his plane due to flak and German fighter attacks, in order to bring his 10-man crew home, often wounded but still alive.
Written In The Stars: Rollin On Series Prequel
Emilia Finn - 2018
It's the Kincaid genes. She knew what she was getting herself into when she gave me the yes. Everything we have, everything we are... It was Written In The Stars This is a companion short story that ties into the Rollin On Series. Don't read this if you haven't read Begin Again
The Archers: Ambridge At War
Catherine Miller - 2020
. . ‘Intriguing, comforting and endearingly familiar’ Katie Fforde It’s 1940 and war has broken out. It is midnight at the turn of the year, and Walter Gabriel speaks the same line that opened the very first radio episode – 'And a Happy New Year to you all!' For Ambridge, a village in the heart of the English countryside, this year will bring change in ways no one was expecting. From the Pargetters at Lower Loxley to the loving, hard-working Archer family at Brookfield Farm, the war will be hard for all of them. And the New Year brings the arrival of evacuees to Ambridge, shaking things up in the close-knit rural community. As the villagers embrace wartime spirit, the families that listeners have known and loved for generations face an uphill battle to keep their secrets hidden. Especially as someone is intent on revealing those secrets to the whole village . . .
Anita Diamant's The Red Tent: A Reader's Guide
Ann Finding - 2004
A team of contemporary fiction scholars from both sides of the Atlantic has been assembled to provide a through and readable analysis of each of the novels in question. The books in the series all follow the same structure: a biography of the novelist, including other works, influences, and, in some cases, an interview; a full-length study of the novel, drawing out the most important themes and ideas; a summary of how the novel was received upon publication; a summary of how the novel has performed since publication, including film or television adaptations, literary prizes, and so forth; a wide range of suggestions for further reading, including web sites and discussion forums; and a list of questions for reading groups to discuss.
The Wehrmacht
Bob Carruthers - 2010
Like old soldiers everywhere, they are fading away. But these soldiers have an incredible and sometimes shocking story to tell. It certainly does not make for comfortable reading. Secrets which have been bottled up for a lifetime are revealed, stories are told at last and memories which have been hidden away for 60 years finally resurface. These are facets of history's most dreadful war being revealed for the very first time. "The Wehrmacht" is a remarkable personal record of the Third Reich's rise and fall from the inside: of how those responsible for the maelstrom sent their armies to conquer only to see them crushed as the world united against them; of men who were seduced by the siren call of Hitler, only to pay a terribly heavy price. It allows the human stories to unfold within the bigger picture behind the major campaigns of the Second World War - from the early Blitzkrieg successes through the submarine warfare of the Battle of the Atlantic, and the brutal hardships of the Russian Front, to the last days of the Reich and the fall of Berlin. "The Wehrmacht" is a brilliantly researched and thought-provoking book that reveals unique human dimensions of the world's greatest military conflict.
Devil's Own Luck: Pegasus Bridge to the Baltic 1944-45
Denis Edwards - 1999
He brilliantly conveys what it was like to be facing death, day after day, night after night, with never a bed to sleep in nor a hot meal to go home to. This is warfare in the raw ' brutal, yet humorous, immensely tragic, but sadly, all true.
Lost Dogs
Kenton Kilgore - 2014
Their home is Kent Island, MD: a beautiful, peaceful place, good for raising a family, good for having dogs. When unearthly beings strike without warning or mercy against humankind, Buddy and Sally lose the ones they love and the lives they knew. Now they must band together with other "lost dogs" to find food, water, and shelter without their masters. But survival is not enough for Buddy: he holds out hope that Rob, Genn, and Audrey live. And that he can find them before inhuman forces ensure that man is never again Earth's master.