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Library for the war-wounded : a novel / by Helfer, Monika,1947-author.; Davidson, Gillian,translator.; translation of:Helfer, Monika,1947-Vati.English.;
"Inspired by the author's family history, Library for the War-Wounded transports readers to the aftermath of World War II, uncovering the life of Helfer's father, Josef. Born with the stigma of illegitimacy, he found solace in books, and his education was eventually funded by the Catholic Church. Drafted into the Wehrmacht, he witnessed the horrors of the Eastern Front and returned from the war an amputee. He married his nurse and brought his family to the high, idyllic slopes of the Austrian Alps, where he took a position as manager of a convalescent home for war-wounded. Josef was a man of many mysteries. To his daughter Monika, none was greater than his obsession with the home's unlikely and remarkable library, his great treasure and comfort as the country barrels away from the memory of war. He will stop at nothing to save it-even when it tears apart his family."--
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Domestic fiction.; Novels.; Families; Libraries; Veterans; World War, 1939-1945;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The last hill : the epic story of a ranger battalion and the battle that defined WWII / by Drury, Bob,author.; Clavin, Tom,1954-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."Bob Drury and Tom Clavin's The Last Hill is the incredible untold story of one Ranger battalion's heroism and courage in World War II. They were known as "Rudder's Rangers," the most elite and experienced attack unit the Army had. In December 1944, they would be the spearhead into Germany, taking the war into Hitler's homeland at last. Their colonel was given this objective: Take Hill 400. The second objective: Hold Hill 400. To the last man, if necessary. The battle-hardened battalion had no idea that the German Volks-Grenadiers, who greatly outnumbered the Rangers, had been given the exact same orders. The clash of the two determined forces was one of the bloodiest and costly ones of World War II. Castle Hill, the imposing 400-foot mini-mountain the grunts simply called Hill 400, was the gateway to still-powerful Nazi Germany. Even an entire division had been repulsed by the desperate defenders. The Allies had to have it to drive a dagger into Germany's heart. Hitler had to hold onto it because hidden behind it was the massive army of men and machines poised to smash their way through Allied lines in the Battle of the Bulge. The stalemate could not continue. For Gen. Dwight Eisenhower and his top brass, there was only one solution: Send in the Rangers. After two days, when they were finally relieved, only 16 Rangers remained to stagger down from the top of Hill 400. The Last Hill is filled with unforgettable action and characters-a gripping, finely detailed saga of what the survivors of the battalion would call "our longest day.""--
Subjects: United States. Army. Ranger Battalion, 2nd.; World War, 1939-1945; World War, 1939-1945;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The glass ocean : a novel / by Williams, Beatriz,author.; White, Karen(Karen S.),author.; Willig, Lauren,author.;
"From the New York Times bestselling authors of The Forgotten Room comes a captivating historical mystery, infused with romance, that links the lives of three women across a century--two deep in the past, one in the present--to the doomed passenger liner, RMS Lusitania. May 2013. Her finances are in dire straits and bestselling author Sarah Blake is struggling to find a big idea for her next book. Desperate, she breaks the one promise she made to her Alzheimer's-stricken mother and opens an old chest that belonged to her great-grandfather, who died when the RMS Lusitania was sunk by a German U-Boat in 1915. What she discovers there could change history. Sarah embarks on an ambitious journey to England to enlist the help of John Langford, a recently disgraced Member of Parliament whose family archives might contain the only key to the long-ago catastrophe. April 1915. Southern belle Caroline Telfair Hochstetter's marriage is in crisis. Her formerly attentive industrialist husband, Gilbert, has become remote, pre-occupied with business, and something else that she can't quite put a finger on. She's hoping a trip to London in Lusitania's lavish first-class accommodations will help them reconnect--but she can't ignore the spark she feels for her old friend, Robert Langford, who turns out to be on the same voyage. Feeling restless and longing for a different existence, Caroline is determined to stop being a bystander, and take charge of her own life. Tessa Fairweather is traveling second-class on the Lusitania, returning home to Devon. Or at least, that's her story. Tessa has never left the United States and her English accent is a hasty fake. She's really Tennessee Schaff, the daughter of a roving con man, and she can steal and forge just about anything. But she's had enough. Her partner has promised that if they can pull off this one last heist aboard the Lusitania, they'll finally leave the game behind. Tess desperately wants to believe that, but Tess has the uneasy feeling there's something about this job that isn't as it seems. As the Lusitania steams toward its fate, three women work against time to unravel a plot that will change the course of their own lives. and history itself"--
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Lusitania (Steamship); Man-woman relationships; Shipwrecks;
Available copies: 3 / Total copies: 4
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Every man a hero : a memoir of D-Day, the first wave at Omaha Beach, and a world at war / by Lambert, Ray,author.; DeFelice, Jim,1956-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index.Seventy-five years ago, he hit Omaha Beach with the first wave. Now Ray Lambert, ninety-eight years old, delivers one of the most remarkable memoirs of our time, a tour-de-force of remembrance evoking his role as a decorated World War II medic who risked his life to save the heroes of D-Day. At five a.m. on June 6, 1944, U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Ray Lambert worked his way through a throng of nervous soldiers to a wind-swept deck on a troopship off the coast of Normandy, France. A familiar voice cut through the wind and rumble of the ship's engines. “Ray!” called his brother, Bill. Ray, head of a medical team for the First Division's famed 16th Infantry Regiment, had already won a silver star in 1943 for running through German lines to rescue trapped men, one of countless rescues he'd made in North Africa and Sicily. “This is going to be the worst yet,” Ray told his brother, who served alongside him throughout the war. “If I don't make it,” said Bill, “take care of my family.” “I will,” said Ray. He thought about his wife and son-a boy he had yet to see. “Same for me.” The words were barely out of Ray's mouth when a shout came from below. To the landing craft! The brothers parted. Their destinies lay ten miles away, on the bloodiest shore of Normandy, a plot of Omaha Beach ironically code named “Easy Red.” Less than five hours later, after saving dozens of lives and being wounded at least three separate times, Ray would lose consciousness in the shallow water of the beach under heavy fire. He would wake on the deck of a landing ship to find his battered brother clinging to life next to him. Every Man a Hero is the unforgettable story not only of what happened in the incredible and desperate hours on Omaha Beach, but of the bravery and courage that preceded them, throughout the Second World War-- from the sands of Africa, through the treacherous mountain passes of Sicily, and beyond to the greatest military victory the world has ever known.
Subjects: Autobiographies.; Biographies.; Lambert, Ray.; United States. Army. Infantry Regiment, 16th (1869-1957); World War, 1939-1945; Soldiers;
Available copies: 2 / Total copies: 2
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Sisters in resistance : how a German spy, a banker's wife, and Mussolini's daughter outwitted the Nazis / by Mazzeo, Tilar J.,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."In 1944, the war had reached its climax in continental Europe. News of secret diaries kept by Italy's former Foreign Minister, Galeazzo Ciano, had permeated public consciousness. What wasn't reported, however, was how three women-a Fascist's daughter, a German spy, and an American socialite-risked their lives to ensure the diaries would reach the Allied forces, who would use the papers as key evidence against the Nazis at the Nuremberg Trials. Just a year earlier, Edda Mussolini, Benito Mussolini's daughter, had given Hitler and her father an ultimatum: release her husband, Galeazzo Ciano, from prison, or risk her leaking her husband's journals to the press. Knowing the diaries will expose Nazi lies and create a foundation for a criminal war crimes prosecution, Hitler and Mussolini vow to do everything in their power to see the diaries destroyed-even if it means liquidating Mussolini's daughter. To do this, they ordered Hilde Beetz, a German spy, to seduce Ciano in prison in order to learn the diaries' location. As the seducer becomes the seduced, however, Hilde shifts her loyalties and becomes a double agent, joining forces with Edda to save Ciano from execution. When this fails, Edda flees to Switzerland with Hilde's daring assistance to keep Ciano's final wish: to see the diaries published for use by the Allies. When the head of United States' intelligence, Alan Dulles, learns of Edda's escape, he sends in socialite Frances De Chollet, an "accidental" spy, assigned by chance to a mission that would change her life. Her task is to find Edda, gain her trust, and, crucially, hand the diaries over to the Americans. Against all expectations, what develops is a rich and humanizing friendship between the two women. One step ahead of the Gestapo agents who are hunting Edda, together they succeed in preserving one of the most important historic documents of the Second World War. Drawing from in-depth research and first-person interviews with people who witnessed parts of this true story, Mazzeo gives readers a riveting look into this little-known moment in cultural history and shows how, without Edda, Hilde, and Frances's involvement, certain convictions would never have been possible at Nuremberg. Sisters in Resistance is a powerful look at women's intelligence work during WWII, a moving story of unlikely wartime friendships, and an inspirational investigation into three people who, navigated the place where truth, loyalty, justice, and betrayal collide"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Personal narratives.; Ciano, Edda Mussolini, Contessa.; Ciano, Galeazzo, conte, 1903-1944; Ciano, Galeazzo, conte, 1903-1944.; Purwin, Hilde, 1919-2010.; Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiter-Partei. Schutzstaffel. Reichssicherheitshauptamt. Amt VI.; Espionage, German; World War, 1939-1945; World War, 1939-1945;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The magician / by Tóibín, Colm,1955-author.;
"The Magician opens at the turn of the twentieth century in a provincial German city where the young boy, Thomas Mann, grows up with a conservative, conventional father and a Brazilian mother, exotic and unpredictable, who will never fit in. He hides both his artistic aspirations and his homosexual desires from this father, and his sexuality from everyone. He longs for the charismatic, beautiful, rich, cultured young Jewish man, but marries his twin sister. He longs for a boy he sees on a beach in Venice and writes a novel about him. He has six children. He is the most successful novelist of his time. He wins the Nobel Prize and is expected to lead the condemnation of Hitler. His oldest daughter and son share lovers. They are leaders of Bohemianism and of the anti-Nazi movement. This stunning combination of German propriety and Bohemian revolution goes hand in hand for decades. We see the rise of Hitler, the forced exile of a swath of German writers and artists, Mann's narrow escape to America, his sojourn at Princeton, along with fellow exile Einstein, and his final move to LA in the late 40s where he presided over an astonishing community of writers, artists and musicians, including Brecht and Shoenberg, even as his children court tragedy. To call this a portrait of an artist is both reductive and true-it is a novel about a character and a family, fiercely engaged by the world, profoundly flawed, and as flamboyant as it's possible to be"--
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Biographical fiction.; Mann, Thomas, 1875-1955; Bohemianism; Gay men; Novelists, German;
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 1
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Les Parisiennes : how the women of Paris lived, loved, and died under Nazi occupation / by Sebba, Anne,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Subjects: Biographies.; Paris (France); Women; Women; World War, 1939-1945; World War, 1939-1945;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The librarian of Saint-Malo : a novel / by Escobar, Mario,1971-author.; Abernathy, Gretchen,translator.; translation of:Escobar, Mario,1971-Bibliotecaria de Saint-Malo.English.;
"Through letters with a famous author, one French librarian tells her love story and describes the brutal Nazi occupation of her small coastal village. Saint-Malo, France: 1939. Jocelyn and Antoine are childhood sweethearts, but just after they marry and are hoping for a child, Antoine is called up to fight against Germany. As the war rages, Jocelyn focuses on comforting and encouraging the local population by recommending books from her beloved library in Saint-Malo.She herself finds hope in her letters to a famous author. After the French capitulation, the Nazis occupy the town and turn it into a fortress to control the north of French Brittany. Residents try passive resistance, but the German commander ruthlessly purges part of the city's libraries to destroy any potentially subversive writings. At great risk to herself, Jocelyn manages to hide some of the books while waiting to receive news from Antoine, who has been taken to a German prison camp. What unfolds in her letters is Jocelyn's description of her mission: to protect the people of Saint-Malo and the books they hold so dear. With prose both sweeping and romantic, Mario Escobar brings to life the occupied city and re-creates the history of those who sacrificed all to care for the people they loved."--
Subjects: Historical fiction.; World War, 1939-1945;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Our darkest night : a novel of Italy and the Second World War / by Robson, Jennifer,1970-author.;
Includes bibliographical references.Hiding from the Nazis in the guise of a Christian farmer's wife, a Jewish woman is met with suspicion by a Nazi official who harbors a vendetta against the former seminary student posing as her husband.
Subjects: Historical fiction.; War fiction.; Jewish women; Jews; World War, 1939-1945; Man-woman relationships;
Available copies: 3 / Total copies: 3
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The velvet hours / by Richman, Alyson,author.;
"As Paris teeters on the edge of the German occupation, a young French woman closes the door to her late grandmother's treasure-filled apartment, unsure if she'll ever return. An elusive courtesan, Marthe de Florian cultivated a life of art and beauty, casting out all recollections of her impoverished childhood in the dark alleys of Montmartre. With Europe on the brink of war, she shares her story with her granddaughter Solange Beaugiron, using her prized possessions to reveal her innermost secrets. Most striking of all are a beautiful string of pearls and a magnificent portrait of Marthe painted by the Italian artist Giovanni Boldini. As Marthe's tale unfolds, like velvet itself, stitched with its own shadow and light, it helps to guide Solange on her own path. Inspired by the true account of an abandoned Parisian apartment, Alyson Richman brings to life Solange, the young woman forced to leave her fabled grandmother's legacy behind to save all that she loved"--
Subjects: Biographical fiction.; Historical fiction.; Grandmothers; Storytelling; World War, 1939-1945;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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