You would think Cecilia LaRoque has it all: a loving father, wealth, beauty, social position and a devoted suitor. She doesn’t. Crushed by a cold and critical mother who soon absconds to live with a dissolute lover, ‘Cissy’ struggles to prove herself worthy of love and respect. She could not have foreseen in her teenage years that the genteel and privileged life she had led would come to a crashing halt with the outbreak of Civil War, a bitter struggle that would tear her world apart. Despite the hardships and inherent danger, she seizes the opportunity to forge an unorthodox role for herself as a spy.
By the late summer of 1940 most of Europe lay under the heel of the Nazi boot or allied with the Axis powers. The tiny but strategic kingdom of Greece with a population of only six million was trying hard, despite several Axis provocations, to maintain her neutrality between the warring powers. Markos Androlakis, an American of Greek descent, chose to travel to his parent’s homeland to the island of Crete for an archeological sabbatical. By that winter, the clouds of war soon covered Greece and the tiny nation was invaded by Fascist Italy who was looking for a quick victory. Markos soon joins the cause against the fascists as an interpreter liaison to the British allied mission on Crete. Offered a commission to the Greek Army, Markos gladly accepts. Throughout the winter of 1940-41 the Greeks astonished the world by not only stopping the second largest axis power dead …
Ernie Pyle, America’s greatest war correspondent, covered the battle fronts in Africa, Italy, France and Germany. Then, during his last assignment, he was killed on tiny Ie Jima off the coast of Okinawa. There have been speculations as to who shot Ernie Pyle. Grandpa Ojii-chan who was in the battle of Ie Jima fighting for Japan alarmingly discovers that he could have been the one who had killed the famous non-combatant war correspondent.
A young soldier, presumed dead for 25 years, returns to the US from Vietnam with the help of the underground church to face a wife he thought he’d lost, a daughter he didn’t know he had, and what he remembers as a fractured family who must accept a half-Vietnamese daughter he would not leave behind.
The story of the Raderman family is an epic tale of four brother’s journey from their farm in northern Sweden to war torn Prussia in 1756. The youngest brother, Pehr, leaves behind his childhood sweetheart and fiancé, Lovisa Öhn, vowing to return to her after the war. The Pomeranian war rages for seven years and their love for one another will be tested both on the battlefield and at home. While Pehr and his brothers endure the horrific conditions in war torn Prussia, Lovisa forges her own legacy as a respected mid-wife for both Swedish and Sámi women. Unforgettable characters and events throughout the story.
Tidge Mackiewicz, new patriarch of his family, received several orders from his dying father, Kid Scream. One order stated that Tidge should quit believing in Santa Claus and stop acting like every day was Christmas. Tidge should also abandon his belief that the Luftwaffe shot down Santa Claus on Christmas Eve in 1944 and Santa survived. Approaching fifty, Tidge still wears a scuffed and stained Army Air Corps flight jacket given to him as young boy by his late uncle, a Navy aviator and Korean War hero, who claimed it belonged to Santa Claus. His uncle also believed that the jacket possessed a special magic. It is “The Jacket” and the spirit of Christmas that brings eighteen family members to Tidge and his wife’s magnificent log chalet located in Wisconsin’s Northwoods on Lake Namakagon for the Christmas holidays. Tidge can now carry out his father’s final order of unscrewing his …
I’d like to stress the angle of a female double agent during that time period (WW1), when it was a shocking thing for a woman to do. A Parisienne from the slums of Montmartre, acting as a double agent for France during WW1, is sent by the desperate Chief of the Fifth Bureau to become the mistress of the German Chief of Naval Intelligence in the service of her country.
The letter addressed to Rabbi Mark Davidson, Rabbinical Council of America, New York, NY, arrived on June 10. It was from Antonio Giannini, an attorney in Seattle, Washington. It read: Dear Rabbi Davidson, I represent a woman from this area named Pat Meisenger who passed away a few days ago in Bellingham. Last year when she learned of her terminal illness, she wrote a letter to your father, Samuel Davidson, regarding a brief encounter she had with him on Iwo Jima in 1945 and the impact that encounter had on her life. She entrusted me with her letter and instructed me to send it to your father upon her demise. However, in view of Mr. Davidson’s age and physical condition, I have taken it upon myself to deviate from her wishes and contact you instead. I will adhere to her instructions and forward the letter to you only upon your …