This WW II novel revolves around the experience of a callow youth destined to join the Fourth Infantry Division in Hrtgen Forest. The narrative traces the bonded ties of six comrades in arms, three of whom are killed and three wounded. Vividly detailed, the stressful existence of Combat Infantrymen causes some men to break. What helps those who see it through is their loyalty to one another, called a "culture of caring" by their Chaplain. In Part I our innocent recruits are sobered by incidental casualties on the way up, which initiate them into the inconsequence of death. Part II takes them into Hrtgen, a battle fought under continuous icy rain in steep-hilled terrain favoring the well entrenched Germans. Casualties often run over l00% of a Company's authorized strength. Attacks are met by unrelenting artillery and mortar fire-machine guns at close range. In a typical situation, our narrator covers a Sergeant, who, after taking out a machine gun pinning the Company down, is himself killed by a sniper. A hard-headed West Pointer insists on night action, impossible in the Forest, and, after stepping on a mine that takes his legs off, he rolls on another that hits those nearby. General Patton called Hrtgen "an epic of stark infantry combat." Part III deals with how, badly depleted in numbers and morale, the men successfully withstand the Breakthrough, thereby saving Luxembourg, a defense for which Patton gave the Fourth a Unit Citation. In the concluding Part, the narrator is wounded and put on limited assignment. He dislikes the rear echelon life-style, guys being obsessed with whores, drinking, stealing, and feasting, but he holds his peace and decides he'll return to the world wherereality matters.

"Completing the mission, they have a chance to rescue, as Mickey put it, "out of all the people we've eliminated somebody in Washington had a hard on for, how many damsels in distress have we run across?" "
JD Volt was assigned to room with Mickey Dix his senior year in high school through junior college at a deep south military academy. Their constant efforts to find ways to get away from the academy to seek out members of the fair sex led them to join, enroll and try out for any team that traveled; the rifle, drill and football teams.

After graduation from junior college, they were approached by a special forces officer to be inducted into an eighteen month training regimen as a special forces sniper team. They spend the next twenty on active duty and retire when a new regime moves into the White house and immediately makes gay rights an issue in the military.

An older gentleman clad in a rumpled three piece worsted suit that reminded JD of the benevolent God, George Burns played in a movie offers them contract employment to terminate with extreme prejudice, a Colombian drug lord that both the U.S. and Colombian Governments want removed with no one knowing exactly who did it as reprisals against Colombian officials would be severe.

Can friendship survive in a divided world? Written on the eve of the Holocaust as a series of letters between a Jew in America and his German friend, Kressmann Taylor's classic novel is a haunting tale of a society poisoned by Nazism.

First published in 1938, Address Unknown met with immediate success in English but was banned in Europe by the Nazis. Tragically prescient about what was to come, it was one of the earliest works of fiction to warn against the growing dangers of fascism and antisemitism in Europe. It became an international bestseller and has been translated into more than twenty languages.

A novel of enduring impact with a memorable sting in its tail, Address Unknown stands as a powerful reminder of the dangers posed by the rhetoric of intolerance.

The Unrequited is an incredible story of the turbulent years of the Indochina War seen through the multiple eyes of fictional French and Vietnamese. They live the historical times at the end of the Second World War through the decisive battle of Dien Bien Phu. In this time of revolutionary change French colonials and legionaries are pitted against the followers of Ho Chi Minh and General Giap. Nguyen van Phan, a reporter in exile, leads his new family from a rural village back to Ha Noi to report on the Vietnamese struggle for independence. His wife Thi reluctantly follows. Lieutenant Pasteur, a newly commissioned French Legionnaire seeking adventure, is posted to Ha Noi as a platoon leader. An aging Doctor Ashtray adbandons all hope of returning to France and cares for the few remaining French civilians and the growing number of military casualties. The oprhan Lao survives in the streets until he is forcibly recruited by the Viet Minh. These lives and others are interwoven in the threads of history, their viewpoints colored by the past and the sights and sounds of the place and era that lead them on seperate parallel journeys. Through the years of conflict, they remain unrequited. Not for the faint of heart, this novel portrays the grim face of war. History proved the period just the first act of a much longer tragedy that might have been avoided if America had learned the lesson of those years.

Forty years ago during the Vietnam War, as a Navy SEAL team was executing a daring mission deep inside enemy territory, they watched a plane crash into the Cambodian jungle. Now, possessing new intelligence that the plane contained South Vietnam's gold bullion, retired SEAL Team Commander Jake Boucher re-assembles his men to search for the gold. But riches are not the only thing found. What Jake and his team discover may cost them their lives. They find themselves targeted by two superpowers who will risk war to silence them. A vast conspiracy is underway, and only Jake and his men can stop it.if they survive.

'Look for your sister after each dive. Never forget. If you see her, you are safe.'

Hana and her little sister Emi are part of an island community of haenyeo, women who make their living from diving deep into the sea off the southernmost tip of Korea. One day Hana sees a Japanese soldier heading for where Emi is guarding the day's catch on the beach. Her mother has told her again and again never to be caught alone with one. Terrified for her sister, Hana swims as hard as she can for the shore.

So begins the story of two sisters suddenly and violently separated by war. Switch-backing between Hana in 1943 and Emi as an old woman today, White Chrysanthemum takes us into a dark and devastating corner of history. But pulling us back into the light are two women whose love for one another is strong enough to triumph over the evils of war.

A riveting, immersive read in the vein of The Kite Runner and Memoirs of a Geisha.

A war that could turn friends into enemies, lovers into fighters . . . Summer 1935. In Margaret Pemberton's Beneath the Cypress Tree best friends Kate Shelton, Ella Tetley and Daphne St. Maur are on the cusp of a new life, having graduated with Classics degrees. Kate is desperate to start work on an archaeological dig straightaway and she is thrilled to be given a position at the famous Knossos palace site in Crete. However, she doesn't bargain for working with gruff site director Lewis Sinclair - nor for her own complex feelings towards him. In Yorkshire, Ella's family expect her to marry Sam, her steady friend who is training to be a doctor, but Ella too feels pulled to the Mediterranean by the promise of freedom. When she meets Christos, life as a country GP's wife seems even less appealing . . . Daphne however throws herself into London's high society, falling madly in love with diplomat and heir Sholto Hertford - but then his work brings them to Crete, and Daphne becomes enchanted by the island as well. Meanwhile, the threat of war rumbles on, as reports of Hitler's rapid expansion across Europe become impossible to ignore. It seems that nothing can touch the perfect, glittering sea and snow-capped mountains, but Kate, Ella and Daphne know that the island haven they now call home will never be the same again.

Number one New York Times bestselling author Jocko Willink's fast-paced and exciting thriller Final Spin is a story of love, brotherhood, suffering, happiness and sacrifice - a story about life. Johnny . . . Shouldn't be in a dead-end job. Shouldn't be in a dead-end bar. Shouldn't be in a dead-end life. But he is. It's a hamster-wheel existence. Stocking warehouse store shelves by day, drinking too much whisky and beer by night. In between, Johnny lives in his childhood home, making sure his alcoholic mother hasn't drunk herself to death, and looking after his idiosyncratic older brother Arty, whose world revolves around his laundromat job. Rinse and repeat. Then Johnny's monotonous life takes a tumble. The laundromat where Arty works, and the one thing that gives him happiness, is about to be sold. Johnny doesn't want that to happen, so he takes measures into his own hands. Johnny, along with his friend Goat, come up with a plan to get the money to buy the laundromat. But things don't always go as planned . . .

Thirty years after the Vietnam War, three soldiers collaborate with three short stories each to create

George Meredith (1828 -1909) was an English novelist and poet during the Victorian era. In The Bascombe Valley Mystery, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle paid him homage when Holmes says to Watson: "And now let us talk about George Meredith, if you please, and we shall leave all minor matters until to-morrow." His Italian romance, Vittoria, introduces "peasants, citizens, and soldiers who are not simply correct, but vital; every figure in 'Vittoria' throbs with reality."

A new Second World War novel from bestselling author Diney Costeloe, based on a gripping and moving true story. Plymouth, 1941. As sirens blare all around, the Shawbrook family take refuge in a packed shelter. Bombs have already begun to fall through the night sky when they realise their infant son, Freddie, has been forgotten in the rush, left to sleep in his crib. Terrified, Vera, his young mother races to find him and bring him to safety. The next morning, air raid warden David Shawbrook returns from his watch to find the shelter pulverised, and his family seemingly all dead. Dirty footprints inside their home betray the looters who have rifled through the house. Meanwhile, Maggie waits alone for her husband. Since the death of her infant son, she passes her days at home with neither joy nor aim. But not this morning. For this morning her husband has brought home a child, found abandoned in the aftermath of the terrible raid - a child she is sure is the one she held in her arms so many months before. Praise for Diney Costeloe: 'Truly captivating' Woman & Home 'This is a truly captivating read that brings together vibrant characters and a historical setting' Woman's Own 'A gripping saga' My Weekly

Unknown to Trong, scouts had reported increased American activity to the southeast of the camp, which possibly meant the Americans were moving into the area. Every precaution had been taken to ensure that the camp was not taken by surprise. Patrols were sent out daily. Observation posts were placed well forward of the camp, and fi ghting positions around the camp were manned at all times. Trong checked his equipment one more time as he waited for the Americans. He slid the bolt back on his Soviet made AK-47 making sure that a round was chambered. Next, he checked the green plastic American-made detonator, which was attached to the Chinese claymore mine located thirty meters from his position. He thought himself ready and tried to fi ght the panic that assailed his mind. He thought of what his section leader had told him. "Wait, until the Americans were close to the mine before detonating it. Then use your rifl e to kill any of the Americans that are left alive." Chester Porter was born and raised in Texas. He was drafted into the Army in 1967 and served with the 196th Light Infantry Brigade. In 1968 he was transferred to the 199th Light Infantry Brigade. In 1982 he became a Federal Law Enforcement Offi cer for the Department of Interior, US Fish and Wildlife Service. He retired from federal service in 2005 after twenty-nine years of government service. Porter lives today, outside of Savannah Georgia in the small town of Rincon.