Friday, September 21, 2012

World War II

We have a lot going on this fall that deals with World War II at the library. This week author, Melanie Wiggins, discussed her book, Torpedoes in the Gulf: Galveston and the U-Boats 1942-1943, and next week on Tuesday September 25 at 6:30, will be the Texas City Reads discussion of Erik Larson's book, "In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin. So I wanted to share some of the books from a bibliography I made this week about World War II fiction. I hope our programs have inspired you to read more about the events of World War II.






                                                                                                                                    Every Man Dies Alone
by Hans Fallada
FIC FALLADA


It presents a richly detailed portrait of life in Berlin under the Nazis and tells the sweeping saga of one working-class couple who decides to take a stand when their only son is killed at the front. With nothing but their grief and each other against the awesome power of the Reich, they launch a simple, clandestine resistance campaign that soon has an enraged Gestapo on their trail, and a world of terrified neighbors and cynical snitches ready to turn them in.





The Corps Series               
by W.E.B. Griffin
FIC GRIFFIN

Semper Fi     


From Shanghai to Wake Island, the Corps was America's first line of defense as the winds of war exploded into the devastating surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. Now, the bestselling author of the acclaimed BROTHERHOOD OF WAR saga brings to life the men of the Marine Corps--their loves and their loyalties--as they steeled themselves for battle, and prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice...






    Catch-22                
by Joseph Heller
FIC HELLER

Bombardier, Yossarian, is endlessly inventive in his schemes to save his skin from the horrible chances of war. His efforts are perfectly understandable because as he furiously scrambles, thousands of people he hasn't even met are trying to kill him. His problem is Colonel Cathcart, who keeps raising the number of missions the men must fly to complete their service. Yet if Yossarian makes any attempts to excuse himself from the perilous missions, he is trapped by the Great Loyalty Oath Crusade, the hilariously sinister bureaucratic rule from which the book takes its title: a man is considered insane if he willingly continues to fly dangerous combat missions, but if he makes the necessary formal request to be relieved of such missions, the very act of making the request proves that he is sane and therefore ineligible to be relieved.






When the Elephants Dance

by Tess Uriza Holthe
FIC HOLTHE



In the waning days of World War II, as the Japanese and the Americans engage in a fierce battle for possession of the Philippine Islands, the Karangalan family and their neighbors huddle for survival in the cellar of a house a few miles from Manila. Outside the safety of their little refuge the war rages on—fiery bombs torch the beautiful Filipino countryside, Japanese soldiers round up and interrogate innocent people, and from the hills guerillas wage a desperate campaign against the enemy. Inside the cellar, these men, women, and children put their hopes and dreams on hold as they wait out the war, only emerging to look for food, water, and medicine.






Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths
by Shigeru Mizuki
FIC MIZUKI


This is a semiautobiographical account of the desperate final weeks of a Japanese infantry unit at the end of WorldWar II. The soldiers are told that they must go into battle and die for the honor of their country, with certain execution facing them if they return alive. Mizuki was a soldier himself (he was severely injured and lost an arm) and uses his experiences to convey the devastating consequences and moral depravity of the war. 





Nobody Comes Back: A Novel of the Battle of the Bulge
by Donn Pearce
FIC PEARCE



Toby Parker was America's unwanted son. Only sixteen years old, he was too young to be enlisted in the army, but old enough to know that he didn't want to return to the life he knew: moving from new home to new home, neglected by his mother, ignored by his father, overlooked by everyone else. The war overseas promised exotic locations and adventure, but what it delivered was something else entirely. The Nazis were beginning to fall back, and the war was all but over. But the fighting still raged on in pockets of Europe. Out of the critical focus on France, only one last position needed to hold: the city of Bastogne. Thrown into battle almost immediately upon arrival, he soon found himself wounded and alone, struggling to survive and looked upon to lead. It was here that Toby was to learn what war really was, and what kind of man he was destined to become. 





     White Flag Down             
by  Joel N. Ross
FIC ROSS



In June of 1941, two years after signing a on-Aggression Pact, Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union. Within six months, the Russians lost a thousand miles and three million men—and in, 1942, the relentless German Wehrmacht swept into Stalin’s namesake city, Stalingrad. Combat seethed in the city streets, ten thousand Soviet soldiers died in one day fighting for a single hill. Now, in mid-September 1942, Hitler orders a final offensive to capture Stalingrad. Yet on October 7th, the German army pauses. As General von Richthofen, commander of the Luftwaffe, writes in his diary: “Absolute quiet at Stalingrad.” After months of combat, a sudden silence rises on the eastern front.  But why? This tells the story of an American airman, a Russian major, and a Swiss journalist in a crucial race against time during this eerie quiet on the battlefield. An unlikely alliance, they have united to track down the one document that could stop negotiations between Germany and Russia for another Non-Aggression Pact—a truce that would open the floodgates for German domination of the Western world.  Unfortunately, they’re not the only ones aware of the document’s importance, and time is running out.






World War II: 1939-1945 Series  
by Jeff Shaara
FIC SHAARA
 
The Rising Tide


As Hitler conquers Poland, Norway, France, and most of Western Europe, England struggles to hold the line. When Germany’s ally, Japan, launches a stunning attack on Pearl Harbor, America is drawn into the war, fighting to hold back the Japanese conquest of the Pacific, while standing side-by-side with their British ally, the last hope for turning the tide of the war. As British and American forces strike into the “soft underbelly” of Hitler’s Fortress Europa, the new weapons of war come clearly into focus. In North Africa, tank battles unfold in a tapestry of dust and fire unlike any the world has ever seen. In Sicily, the Allies attack their enemy with a barely tested weapon: the paratrooper. As battles rage along the coasts of the Mediterranean, the momentum of the war begins to shift, setting the stage for the massive invasion of France, at a seaside resort called Normandy.







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