Four Blue Stars in the Window


Book Description

Fifty years ago, a young girl opened a cardboard box in her basement. Long forgotten, it contained her father's World War II uniform, vintage photos, semaphore flags, and other WWII keepsakes. The box opened up a world of pain and joy to author Barbara Eymann Mohrman as she set out on a personal journey to trace her family history and inadvertently, unspoken Eymann family secrets. This is the story of hard-scrabble life in rural Oakdale, Nebraska (population 851) starting in the heyday of the 1920s. Chriss Eymann, a newly arrived Swiss immigrant and his wife, Hattie Mae, raised ten children on the Dust Bowl-ravaged plains during the 1930s in the depths of the Great Depression. But their greatest sacrifice was yet to come-when they sent four young sons off to war in the South Pacific and Europe. The mother's flag with its four blue stars proudly displayed the family's precious contribution to the war effort. The story traces in detail and vintage photos from 1930 to 1947 the anguish, danger, and their everlasting hope with some surprising family news that brings the story full circle.




Jimmy's Stars


Book Description

Ellie counted the days on the kitchen calendar. October 2nd was a Saturday. Twenty-one days until Jimmy had to go. That was a long time. Maybe the war would be over by then. But the days slipped by as fast as the trees shed their leaves. And the war didn't end. Ellie hates the stars proudly displayed in her neighbours' windows: a blue one for every man gone to serve in the war, a gold one for every man who will never return. She doesn't want a star – all she wants is for her big brother Jimmy to stay safely at home. But then Jimmy is called up, and Ellie can only desperately hope that his star never turns gold. "You won't find a better novel to paint a picture of family life and woes during World War Two" - Lovereading4kids




Unsinkable


Book Description

Documents the true story of a U.S. Navy destroyer that inspired the writings of John Ford and Herman Wouk, drawing on the journals and other writings of five shipmates who witnessed the Anzio attacks and D-Day invasion.







Clay in the Potter's Hands


Book Description

Set amid the Great Depression and World War II, a young man and a young woman from two completely different worlds meet only twice before they start writing to each other during the war. The letters bring romance, but the atrocities of war change the gentle man . Will he be the man she falls in love with and, together, can they erase the painful memories of the war that still haunt him? The coal mining towns and steel mills of Southwestern Pennsylvania provide the backdrop for this love story that spans almost a century, from the 1920s into 2010. Take a ride as young Rudy hot rods with his grandfather's horse and buggy and wins the heart of his beloved Lois, as they grow into the man and woman they were meant to become. Follow their footsteps and watch the divine Potter at work, gently turning the clay on His potter's wheel, forming vessels full of love and warmth, hope and passion, as these two young people overcome their differences and start making history of their own.




Blue Stars and Other Tales of Darkness


Book Description

Following his critically hailed first collection The Seeds of Nightmares, and fresh off his Bram Stoker-nominated novel The Moore House, Tony Tremblay offers up his second collection of tales in Blue Stars and Other Tales of Darkness. As with his first collection, these stories cover a range of genres, all guaranteed to provoke a variety of emotions from abject horror to amusing chills, all honed to a razor’s edge. The eleven stories in Blue Stars and Other Tales of Darkness include his post-apocalyptic novella Steel, the acclaimed title story “Blue Stars”, as well as nine other journeys into the realms of despair, demonic possession, and madness. Also included in Blue Stars and Other Tales of Darkness is the never-before-published short story “Trout Fishing At Glen Lake”, featuring one of the central characters in The Moore House—the pawnshop owner. “Trout Fishing at Glen Lake” further explores the pawnshop mythos in a blood-soaked tale that will leave readers shocked and heartbroken. Dive in to Blue Stars and Other Tales of Darkness, eleven tales spanning Tremblay’s first published story to his latest, and be prepared to be devilishly entertained. Stories included in this collection: Steel The Scum Bar The Thaumaturge Blue Stars Eyes Incident of N.H. Route 666 The Reverend’s Wife Trout Fishing at Glen Lake Stanley’s Hole The Little Man Burning Rain




Congressional Record


Book Description

The Congressional Record is the official record of the proceedings and debates of the United States Congress. It is published daily when Congress is in session. The Congressional Record began publication in 1873. Debates for sessions prior to 1873 are recorded in The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States (1789-1824), the Register of Debates in Congress (1824-1837), and the Congressional Globe (1833-1873)




Projections of War


Book Description

Topics include: the influence of Leni Riefenstahl; negro soldiers; depicting Vietnam in films. Films examined include: Sergeant York, Air force, Saving Private Ryan, The thin red line.




His Name Was Amy Mable


Book Description

Take a trip down memory lane and revel in the adventures of "little Raz", a child of the depression. For the young reader it is a chance to live history through the eyes of a child struggling with little Raz as he gets into and out of "situations". For the young reader it imparts knowledge of living in a world without electricity. The teen-ager will react to the frustrations and emotions of a young boy living poor, working hard and forced to accept the responsibilities of adulthood at an early age. The older reader will recall with nostalgia, a gentler world of yesteryear. Do you recall memories of walking down a country road with the smell of new mown hay and honeysuckle wafting on the breezes? It recalls the privations and hardships of a great depression and a world at war. It recalls the window flags with their white stars representing young Americans away from home on foreign battlefields, while their country was reeling under the burden of wartime rationing? Every incident in "Amy Mable" is true. It was experienced by the author in a long and exciting life. Treat yourself to a cup of nostalgia.




Cleveland in World War II


Book Description

Berthed on the Cleveland lakefront, the battle-hardened submarine USS Cod serves as a proud reminder of the wartime contributions from the Greater Cleveland community. Clevelanders did their duty and more, from round-the-clock work on the factory assembly lines to the four Medal of Honor recipients on the front lines. The Cleveland Bomber Plant churned out thousands of B-29 parts, while Auto-Ordnance Co. developed the design for the Thompson submachine guns used by GIs on nearly every battlefield. Indians pitcher Bob Feller left the game to go into the service, and Clarence Jamison flew with the famed Tuskegee Airmen. Through interviews and archival material, authors Brian Albrecht and James Banks honor a time when Clevelanders of all stripes answered the call to arms.