Staff Picks

A nurse still reeling from personal tragedy returns to the trenches  of WWI to find her missing younger brother in this magical-realist historical fiction. The life-affirming story echoes ancient myth to explore what war and trauma take from us all--and how hard we have to fight to reclaim it.

 

Publisher's description: 

During the Great War, a combat nurse searches for her brother, believed dead in the trenches despite eerie signs that suggest otherwise, in this hauntingly beautiful historical novel with a speculative twist, from the author of The Bear and the Nightingale.

 

This coming of age novel weaves together the stories of three young men in a powerful narrative. We travel to different time periods when each of the characters is at the cusp of becoming a man. In 1968, there is the raw emotion from the journal of the young Marine, William, stationed in the bush in Vietnam; In 1979, the impact on Vincent working a construction site with two Vietnam vets; and in 2016, the ability of Vincent's son to deal with life's unpredictability. An emotional book that is hard to put down.

 

Publisher's description: 

In 1979, Vincent Bianco has just graduated high school. His only desire: collect a little beer money and enjoy his final summer before college. So he lands a job as a laborer on a construction crew. Working alongside two Vietnam vets, one suffering from PTSD, Vincent gets the education of a lifetime. Now forty years later, with his own son leaving for college, the lessons of that summer--Vincent's last taste of innocence and first taste of real life--dramatically unfold in a novel about breaking away, shaping a life, and seeking one's own destiny.

 

And There Was Light by Jacques Lusseyran is an incredible memoir that tells the story of a remarkable man who overcame immense challenges to become a beacon of hope and inspiration for generations to come. The book chronicles Lusseyran's life from his early childhood to his time as a resistance fighter during World War II. Despite losing his sight at a young age, Lusseyran never let his disability hold him back. In fact, he saw his blindness as a gift, a way of seeing the world in a different and more profound way.
What I love about this book is Lusseyran's writing style. His prose is simple and direct, yet it has a poetic quality that makes the book a joy to read. He writes about his experiences with such vividness and detail that you can't help but be drawn into his world.
And There Was Light is also a book about resilience, courage, and the power of the human spirit. Lusseyran faced numerous obstacles in his life, from the loss of his sight to the horrors of war. Yet, through it all, he remained optimistic and hopeful, believing that the world was fundamentally good and that he had a role to play in making it a better place. Overall, I would highly recommend And There Was Light to anyone looking for a powerful and inspiring memoir. It's a book that will leave you feeling uplifted and inspired, and one that you'll want to share with others.

- Bella, eighth-grade teen volunteer

Publisher's description:

Autobiography addressing the author's childhood experience of inner spiritual vision after becoming blind as a boy, his forming a boys' resistance group in occupied Paris at age seventeen (which later merged with Défense de la France), and his imprisonment in the Buchenwald concentration camp--

 

Find And There Was Light in our online catalog.
 

This book is what makes history writing interesting when done well. Morris tells the reader about what is known of the personalities of those individuals who had them built as residences. He also discusses the changes in their architectural styles over time, along with weapons used in defending them.

 

Publisher's description: 

This book is what makes history writing interesting when done well. Morris tells the reader about what is known of the personalities of those individuals who had them built as residences. He also discusses the changes in their architectural styles over time, along with weapons used in defending them.

 

A delightful, atmospheric, and healing story told through the perspective of beekeeper Sergey Sergeyich. This book, written before the current 2022 conflict, offers glimpses into the cultural lives of Ukrainians, Tartars of Crimea, Russian occupiers, and the complex relationship between loyalist and separatist forces in Ukraine's Grey Zone. "Wherever he goes," Kurkov writes, "Sergeyich's childlike simplicity and strong moral compass disarm everyone he meets. But could these qualities be manipulated to serve an unworthy cause, spelling disaster for him, his bees and his country?"

 

Publisher's description: 

Little Starhorodivka, a village of three streets, lies in Ukraine's Grey Zone, the no-man's-land between loyalist and separatist forces. Thanks to the lukewarm war of sporadic violence and constant propaganda that has been dragging on for years, only two residents remain: retired safety inspector turned beekeeper Sergey Sergeyich and Pashka, a rival from his schooldays. With little food and no electricity, under constant threat of bombardment, Sergeyich's one remaining pleasure is his bees. As spring approaches, he knows he must take them far from the Grey Zone so they can collect their pollen in peace. This simple mission on their behalf introduces him to combatants and civilians on both sides of the battle lines: loyalists, separatists, Russian occupiers and Crimean Tatars. Wherever he goes, Sergeyich's childlike simplicity and strong moral compass disarm everyone he meets. But could these qualities be manipulated to serve an unworthy cause, spelling disaster for him, his bees and his country?

 

Here are the fascinating, true accounts of 15 extraordinary women who fought and survived, who lived and served, in their own unique way during World War II. The author, Mari K. Eder, a retired 2-star U.S. Army Major General, has clearly done her research and has a real talent for conveying the innate characters of these women: their fortitude, their diversity, the intensity of their struggles, and their unwavering devotion to their cause. The vital roles they played touched almost every facet of the war except actual military combat, and yet they shied away from any recognition or awards. For many, the records of any contribution they made were sealed away for decades so that none of their countries' citizens even knew of their existence. Most were never formally recognized by their governments until well into the 90s and 2000's. My personal favorite is the story of Ola Mildred "Millie" Rexroat, a WASP (Women's Airforce Service Pilots), since my own grandmother was a WASP during WWII and for whom we all attended, finally, their Congressional Gold Medal award ceremony in Washington D.C. in 2010. Mari K. Eder not only acknowledges these women with compelling, page-turning style, but also delves deeply into the effect they had on the women who followed in their footsteps and the struggles women still face today. Most of all, she helps define what it all means for future opportunities for all women in military, government, and vital leadership rolls in the United States and throughout the world.

 

I don't think I will ever be able to forget this book. It is so painfully intimate and stunning and heartbreaking. The author pieced together from historical sources the story of her distant relative who was involved in the German resistance to the rise of Hitler. The book in such a powerful way shows us how unbelievably fast Hitler rose and how unbelievably cruel the world became under him. There is the story of how hard it was for the people in the resistance to get the outside world to listen and to act. The bravery of the people doing any small part possible. The undermining and spies all around them. The world needs to understand what happened and how it could happen again. Truly an astonishing read.

 

Publisher description:

Historians identify Mildred Harnack as the only American in the leadership of the German resistance, yet her remarkable story has remained almost unknown until now. Harnack's great-great-niece Rebecca Donner draws on her extensive archival research in Germany, Russia, England, and the U.S. as well as newly uncovered documents in her family archive to produce this astonishing work of narrative nonfiction. Fusing elements of biography, real-life political thriller, and scholarly detective story, Donner brilliantly interweaves letters, diary entries, notes smuggled out of a Berlin prison, survivors' testimony, and a trove of declassified intelligence documents into a powerful, epic story, reconstructing the moral courage of an enigmatic woman nearly erased by history. 

 

Find Don't Forget, God Bless Our Troops in our online catalog.