Historical Fiction: World War II

            Although the war ended more than seventy years ago, novels depicting this time are relevant in today’s society.

            The Paris Architect, written by Charles Belfoure, is the story of a Parisian architect who is paid handsomely to devise secret hiding spaces for Jews in his Nazi-occupied country but struggles with risking his life for a cause towards which he is ambivalent. A personal failure brings their suffering home.

            Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, written by Jamie Ford, finds a present-day Henry Lee looking back at his youth in Seattle during World War II, when artifacts from Japanese families sent to internment camps are uncovered, reminding him of the young girl Keiko he met at that time.

            The Nightingale, written by Kristin Hannah, finds two French sisters reunited when the elder’s husband is sent to fight in World War II. Vianne and Isabelle find their bond and their respective beliefs tested by a world that changes in horrific ways.

            Lilac Girls, written by Martha Hall Kelly, tells the story of three women whose lives converge at the Ravensbreuck concentration camp as one resolves to help from her post at the French consulate, one becomes a courier in the Polish resistance, and one takes a German government medical position.

            A Thread of Grace, written by Mary Doria Russell, is about Claudette Blum, a fourteen-year-old, and her father. They are fleeing across the Alps into Italy with thousands of other Jewish refugees seeking safety, only to find an open battleground among the Nazis, the Allied forces, resistance fighters, Jews in hiding, and ordinary Italians struggling to survive the harsh realities of World War II.

 

More Sensational Spy Stories

            Read some or all of these thrillers to see how the experts handle intelligence operations.

            In The Kremlin’s Candidate: A Novel, written by Jason Matthews, Dominika Egorova overhears a Kremlin plot to install a spy in a high intelligence position so that the Russians can identify CIA assets in Moscow. She launches a desperate mole hunt, only to be exposed and arrested.

            In The Lost Order, written by Steve Berry, agent Cotton Malone becomes involved when rival factions of a clandestine organization begin a race to find billions in treasure hidden by their forerunners. Malone finds the case complicated by his personal ties to the Knights and a scheming politician.

            The Prisoner: A John Wells Novel, is written by Alex Berenson. Here, John Wells is forced to resume an old undercover identity as an al-Qaida jihadi to unmask a CIA mole. He gets close to an ISIS prisoner in a secret Bulgarian prison, where he confronts the profoundly cruel and ambitious plans of increasingly formidable terrorist organizations.

            The Quantum Spy: A Thriller, is written by David Ignatius. It tells the story of CIA agent Harris Chang, who uncovers a mole in a top secret American research lab where they are racing to develop a quantum computer before China does.

            In A Single Spy, written by William Christie, a World War II Russian spy with divided loyalties goes deep undercover in Nazi Germany and uncovers an assassination plot with the potential to change history.

            In Three Envelopes, written by Nir Hezroni, an Israeli intelligence agent receives a notebook written by a rogue agent and assassin who supposedly has been dead for years. He begins to investigate whether the rogue agent was a psychopath or actually part of a lethal, top secret operation.

            Find these and many more spy stories at your library.

Sensational Spy Stories

            Return to the genre that promises plenty of intrigue and bravado. Here are some recently published spy stories, sure to keep you up at night to find out if the hero will triumph over the forces of evil.

            In Act of Betrayal, written by Matthew Dunn, former intelligence operative Will Cochrane investigates the poisoning of a CIA agent who uncovered a mysterious situation involving the assassination of a terrorist financier.

            Agent in Place: A Gray Man Novel, written by Mark Greaney, Court Gentry accepts a contract to abduct the mistress of a Syrian dictator in order to obtain any information she may possess. Then he discovers that the woman has given birth to the dictator’s only son; he must retrieve the child safely out of Syria in order to guarantee her cooperation.

             In Cold Harbor, written by Matthew Fitzsimmons for his Gibson Vaughn series, former Marine and gifted hacker Gibson Vaughn is free after a period of brutal isolation in a CIA black-site prison. However, he has no idea where he was or how much time he has lost. Struggling to maintain his grip on reality, he races to return to the life he left behind.

            Death at Nuremberg: A Clandestine Operations Novel, written by W.E.B. Griffin, tells the story of special agent James Cronley, Jr. who is assigned to the Nuremberg war trials to protect the chief prosecutor from a rumored kidnapping. Instead, he finds himself fighting wars on multiple fronts as he also hunts down an organization that helps Nazi war criminals escape to South America.

            In Ends of the Earth, by Robert Goddard, World War I flying ace turned secret service operative James Maxted travels to Tokyo to uncover the truth behind his British Diplomat father’s suspicious death. His goal: to take down the German spymaster he believes to be responsible.

            Forever and a Death, by Donald E. Westlake, features wealthy businessman Richard Curtis, who loses everything when Hong Kong was returned to Chinese rule and vengefully plots to use a construction technology to destroy the city and steal its gold. Westlake originally wrote the storyline for a James Bond film, but it was not used for political reasons.

March Is Women's History Month

            Celebrate women from all over the world and throughout time by learning their stories. Here are some current books that will help you.

            In Praise of Difficult Women: Life Lessons from 29 Heroines Who Dared to Break the Rules is written by Karen Karbo. The author reviews the lives and accomplishments of several women from recent history, celebrities all. They include Amelia Earhart, Helen Gurley Brown, Hillary Clinton, Nora Ephron, Frida Kahlo, Billie Jean King, J.K. Rowling and more. Learn what makes them an inspiration to us all.

            Bad Girls from History: Wicked or Misunderstood? is written by Dee Gordon. From different countries, different centuries, and different cultures, these ladies aren’t the law-abiding citizens we usually honor. Whether they were cited because of sexual misconduct, murder, thievery, or other crimes, you will get the inside scoop on such women as Cleopatra, Bonnie Parker, Jezebel, Lizzie Gordon, and more.

            The Women Who Made New York is written by Julie Scelfo, a journalist who has written for the New York Times and Newsweek. The book features more than 100 women who contributed to the social, cultural, political and economic development of the city. Illustrations by Hallie Heald enrich the text.

            Bet you don’t know about all of these female radicals featured in Rad Women Worldwide: Artists and Athletes, Pirates and Punks, and Other Revolutionaries Who Shaped History. Written by Kate Schatz, this book tells the stories of forty women, from Hatshepsut (a female king of Egypt) to Malala Yousafzi (the youngest person to win the Nobel Peace Prize) and accompanies each with an illustrated portrait done by artist Miriam Klein Stahl.  

Books Recommended by Librarians

             Do you want to know some of the favorite books of our librarians?

Here is what librarian Craig likes best.

            Kon-Tiki: Across the Pacific by Raft is written by Thor Heyerdahl, a Norwegian adventurer and ethnographer with a background in zoology, botany, and geography. He became notable for his Kon-Tiki expedition in 1947, in which he sailed 8,000 km (5,000 mi) across the Pacific Ocean in a hand-built raft from South America to the Tuamotu Islands. The expedition was designed to demonstrate that ancient people could have made long sea voyages, creating contacts between separate cultures.

            The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography is written by Simon Singh. This is a look at the world of codes, tracing its history back from Mary, Queen of Scots to the world wars, and also hypothesizes what the future of cryptography will be. Simon Singh received his Ph.D. in physics from Cambridge University and is a former BBC producer.

            Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time is written by Dava Sobel. This book describes the forty-year effort of John Harrison to invent the chronometer, the first instrument to keep accurate time for navigational purposes.

            The Andromeda Strain is written by the late novelist and medical doctor Michael Crichton. Originally published in 1984, it tells the story of a team of scientists who struggle to save humanity when a deadly bacteria is brought back from outer space by a satellite. A movie based on the book also was produced.

            Enola Gay, written by Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan-Witts, tells the story of the

nuclear bombing of Hiroshima, Japan at the end of World War II, as carried out with the Enola Gay bomber.

The Fictional Abraham Lincoln

            Most readers of non-fiction are aware of Abraham Lincoln’s life and accomplishments. However, they may not be aware that he also is the subject of many novels. Here are some recent ones.

            In Perish from the Earth: A Lincoln and Speed Mystery, written by Jonathan F. Putnam, the newly minted trial lawyer and his friend Joshua Speed, the son of a steamboat owner, defend a young traveling artist wrongly accused of a murder linked to a rigged card game.

Lincoln in the Bardo: A Novel, written by George Saunders, traces a night of solitary mourning and reflection as experienced by the sixteenth president after the death of his eleven-year-old son at the dawn of the Civil War.

In Murder in the Lincoln White House, written by C.M. Gleason, when a man is found stabbed to death only yards away from Abraham Lincoln during the inaugural ball, the president dispatches his assistant, and former frontier scout, Adam Quinn, to investigate.

            A Friend of Mr. Lincoln, written by Stephen Harrigan, depicts Abraham Lincoln in his twenties and thirties, as he works as a lawyer and in the state legislature and spends time with a fictional poet, Cage Weatherby.

More February Birthdays

            Ready to see what other authors have been born in February?

            James Joyce, born on February 2, 1882, was an Irish novelist, short story writer, and poet. He wrote such classics as Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, The Dubliners, Ulysses and Finnegan’s Wake.

            Toni Morrison, born on February 18, 1931, writes novels that reflect her African-American culture and focus upon the themes of racism and sexual oppression. Some of her titles in our collection are Beloved, Song of Solomon, The Bluest Eye, and Sula, as well as others.

            Ayn Rand, born on February 2, 1905, was a Russian-born American writer of both fiction and non-fiction that focuses upon the theme of “rational self-interest”, and are in the dystopian fiction and science fiction genres. Her works include Anthem, Atlas Shrugged, and The Fountainhead.

            John Sandford, born on February 23, 1944, is the best-selling author of crime thrillers, both in series – Prey series and Kidd series – and standalone novels. His most recent books are Deep Freeze, Golden Prey, and Escape Clause.

            Amy Tan, born on February 19, 1952, also is a popular author of literary fiction focusing on Chinese and Chinese-American culture and the relationships between mothers and daughters and between women. Some of her well-known books are The Joy Luck Club, The Kitchen God’s Wife, and The Valley of Amazement.