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Off Days Gone By
Price range: $3.99 through $24.99A poignant and enlightening novel-rich in history, warm characterization and strong in sense of family.
Centered around New York City at the dawn of the Great Depression, the story depicts the warm, close relationship between a young boy abandoned by his mother after his father’s tragic murder, and the gentle, loving grandfather who raised him. Through the grandfather’s storytelling, the boy learns of his own rich and colorful history-his great-grandfather’s involvement in the Underground Railroad, his great-grandmother’s journey from Africa to America, and the multitude of changes that took place before and during the Civil War.
Of Days Gone By is delightful and informative reading. One will walk away from the novel with the knowledge that African-Americans have a valuable legacy well worth passing on to their own children.
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Short Timer
Price range: $3.99 through $26.99Short-Timer is a small part of the history of the Vietnam War; America’s longest war where for the first time, men of every ethnic background and color fought together side by side in fully integrated units. It is the story of one individual’s survival in a war where flashing the peace sign was perfectly acceptable, while waving a clinched fist in the air, the Black Power symbol, was a court martial offense. At times, it’s a frightening account of how, during combat, men bonded as one to fight the enemy, while back at base camps, the realities of the sixties caught up with everyone and whites openly called blacks “nigger” while blacks angrily cursed “honkies”.
It is centered around one Marine’s experiences in the service during troubled times. The story follows the Marine from boot camp to his tour in Vietnam. It graphically illustrates the suffering and horrors that are a part of war and the sense of humor necessary for survival under such adverse conditions. The plight of innocent, little children who are far too often the biggest victims of war, is brought home all too clearly by the central character’s encounter with a Frenchman who runs an orphanage in Da Nang.
The reader is exposed to all the realities of combat in a crazy war that by 1970 had clearly begun to mean very little to those who served except surviving the war and returning to the “real world”. For the central character in Short-Timer, his tour is cut short by President Nixon’s Phase I Pull Out from Vietnam. The central character’s war experiences take on an added craziness when he is forced to commit one last, horrifying act of war just a few hours prior to his scheduled departure from Vietnam. It is apparent that the life of the central character and all those he served with will never be the same after having survived the Vietnam War.
Short-Timer blends all aspects of life in a memorable story, too authentic for comfort. It is sensitive, tough, gutsy, draws the reader in, makes them
expend emotion and doesn’t let go.
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Code Koral
Price range: $3.99 through $16.99Code Koral takes you inside secret operations of the intelligence worlds of the 1970s in both the United States and Russia where both balance on the edge of perestroika. There is a new world order waiting in the wings. Ironically, it is the would-be defecting Wings of the Soviet ice hockey team on center stage. The players become like puppets and the double-dealing puppet-masters vie for who can pull the strings. Careers, consciences and lives are on Red Alert. When the reward for loyalty is betrayal, freedom itself is in danger of being put on ice.
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The Isle of the Dragon: The Last Flight of the Bugs Bunny
Price range: $3.99 through $23.99In The Isle of the Dragon, author Rolf Stibbe portrays the heroism and courage of United States Army Air Corps flight crews during combat in World War II against the forces of Imperial Japan.
In the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese swept all Allied military threats from the South Pacific, including the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, Dutch East Indies, Guam, and the Wake Islands. Facing peril and with death likely, a unique cast of characters make for a suspenseful, riveting read.
Stibbe interviewed a World War II combat veteran who flew the B-25 Mitchell Bomber nicknamed “Bugs Bunny,” in New Guinea. It sparked his interest to write this jungle adventure story. Readers will be thoroughly drawn into the story and entertained as they follow the plight of the lost bomber crew.
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The Pain of Brokenness: A True Story
Price range: $3.99 through $10.95The Pain of Brokenness is the true story of a remarkable woman’s journey through tremendous and unimaginable trials. Having an unquenchable and ever-persistent desire to see her mother again, she clung to the New Testament promise that Christ would not leave her or allow her to be tempted more than she could bear.
Her uncrushable spirit, and burning desire to be remembered and loved like her mother, enabled her to turn to God. As a result, she found comfort and understanding. Her heavenly Father, ultimately healed her brokenness and brought hope and joy back into her life. By reaching out and touching lives of those experiencing emotional and physical pain, she was able to heal her own scars and become whole again.
The victory she attained and the wisdom she revealed will be an inspiration to all who are discouraged and totally broken.
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Nightmares
Price range: $3.99 through $13.99Nightmares will keep you wanting to read more. If you never truly understood what a soldier went thru during the Vietnam war, this will give you a good idea. This is about a unit of the 9th Infantry Division. The unit goes on patrol looking for Viet Cong or NVA regulars. They are put under fire and lost members while out. They learned to survive both mentally and physically, as death on both sides of the war could happen at any moment. Yes, it is a fiction! The names were also changed, but it is based on facts. You will go on patrol with these young men, age range of 18-24, as they become exposed to the horrors of war. Their lives were changed forever, then returned home to supposedly forget it. I lost many friends who became Brothers in Vietnam. Some were shot, some were taken by booby traps, now called IED’s. We continue dying now due to age and exposure to Agent Orange since returning home. Agent Orange (is a blanket term for 15 chemicals used as a defoliant) a large variety of illnesses such as various cancers, diabetes and many more deadly diseases are a side effect of our exposure.
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Life Struggle of a Vietnam Veteran: Out of the Vietnam War
Price range: $3.99 through $10.99This book is all about personal life experiences, which aims to inspire people. This book is made out of the realization that you should share your story to the world so that when you die, people will know about you, and your story will serve as an inspiration to other people.
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The Life and Times of Sgt. Joseph Thomas “Tom” Biway, USMC
Price range: $3.99 through $12.99This is really a story of two men, one an unscrupulous Marine and the other, an upright Chicago policeman who became increasingly disillusioned with the department and eventually coerced to join the Marines. Once in the Marine Corps, the policeman was placed under the command of the former. Not long afterwards, the two developed a mutual loathing for one another culminating in the murder of one and a court martial for the other.
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Return to Vietnam, The Memories: Facing my Demons and Coming to Terms With Them
Price range: $10.99 through $17.99When I was waiting to board the aircraft in Saigon in July 1968, following my 13-month tour of Vietnam, the last thing I would have expected was to come back to Vietnam. Not until forty-five years after the Vietnam War ended, I was dealing with nightmares, and was diagnosed with PTSD. I was encouraged by my counselor and others to write about my experiences from Vietnam. That resulted in my first book, You Are Never Alone. I started to have a better handle on my daily images, nightly dreams, and nightmares. It was about that time I began thinking about the possibility of returning to Vietnam to face my demons.
This book, “Return to Vietnam-The Memories,” Began a trip to face my demons. It was more than I expected, by meeting a VC soldier during peacetime and making friends with several gracious Vietnamese people. A cruise down the Mekong River brought memories of crossing the river during convoys. My main goal of the trip was to find the orphanage in MyTho where during a VC attack a couple of kids were killed. Having a knowledgeable tour guide that followed many leads to locate our objective worked endlessly. We saw where the orphanage was, which now was replaced with a school, but finding the last of the living nuns that worked at the orphanage in 1967 when the VC attacked and interacting with someone who was virtually there and remembered that day was overwhelming. Sister Renee and I visited parts for three days. This book covers the details of this fantastic trip and the results it had on me.
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Pirates, Privateers, and the U.S. Navy
Price range: $3.99 through $25.99The primary problem of the American Colonies in their quest to win independence from Great Britain was not the British Army, though it was formidable. Instead, it was how to deal with the overwhelming might of the British Navy. The Continental Congress had no ships and no taxing authority to fund the creation of nay in 1775. The first U.S Navy was a combination of the few merchants ships Congress was able to acquire and a large number of privateers who joined the cause of independence. The privateers were privately owned and operated by individuals and business. By the end of the war there were more than 2000 of them. The British called them pirates. From the Boston Tea Party to the battle of the U.S.S Bonhomme Richard with the British man-of-war, the H.M.S Serapis, this is their story.
