Helen Plum Library

"From the highly acclaimed, multiple award-winning Anthony Doerr, a stunningly ambitious and beautiful novel about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II. Marie Laure lives with her father in Paris within walking distance of the Museum of Natural History where he works as the master of the locks (there are thousands of locks in the museum). When she is six,...

"For Americans, World War II began in December of 1941, with the bombing of Pearl Harbor; in Soviet historical accounts, the war was prompted by the German invasion of June 1941; for the British and the French, the war was not taken seriously until the German forces penetrated French territory in May 1940. But for Poland, the war began on September 1, 1939 when the Nazi army invaded Poland by land and by air, where they were soon joined by Stalin's...

Using the most up-to-date scholarship and research, and writing with clarity and compassion, Beevor assembles the whole picture of the Second World War in a gripping narrative that extends from the North Atlantic to the South Pacific, from the snowbound steppe to the North African Desert, to the Burmese jungle, SS Einsatzgruppen in the borderlands, Gulag prisoners drafted into punishment battalions, and to the unspeakable cruelties of the Sino-Japanese...

On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood. Then, on the ocean surface, a face appeared--Lt. Louis Zamperini. Captured by the Japanese and driven to the limits of endurance, Zamperini would answer desperation with ingenuity; suffering with hope, resolve, and humor

"If the Germans knew the Allies were going to invade, why were defenses in Normandy so unevenly prepared on June 6, 1944? Countdown to D-Day offers a unique perspective to answering this question through its detailed day-by-day perspective to the months leading up to D-Day - vividly tracing the daily activities and machinations of German High Command as they prepare for an expected Allied invasion." -- Back cover

The final volume in Evans's masterly trilogy on the history of Nazi Germany traces the rise and fall of German military might, the mobilization of a people's community to serve a war of conquest, and Hitler's campaign of racial subjugation and genocide

"Before she mastered the art of French cooking in midlife, Julia Child found herself working in the secrets trade in Asia during World War II, a journey that will delight both historical fiction fans and lovers of America's most beloved chef, revealing how the war made her into the icon we know now. Single, 6 foot 2, and thirty years old, Julia McWilliams took a job working for America's first espionage agency, years before cooking or Paris entered...

2017. It's always been easier for Cara Hargraves to bury herself in the past than confront the present, which is why working with a gruff but brilliant antiques dealer is perfect. While clearing out an estate, she pries open an old tin that holds the relics of a lost relationship: among the treasures, a World War II-era diary and a photograph of a young woman in uniform. Eager to find the author of the hauntingly beautiful, unfinished diary, Cara...

"Safecracker Ellie McDonnell hasn't seen Major Ramsey -- her handsome but aloof handler in the British government -- since their tumultuous mission together three months before, but when she hears about a suspicious robbery in London she feels compelled to contact him. Together they discover that a rash of burglaries in the city all lead back to a hotbed of spies in the neutral city Lisbon, Portugal, and an unknown object brought to London by a mysterious...

"In honor of the 75th Anniversary of one of the most critical battles of World War II ... Martha MacCallum pays tribute to the heroic men who sacrificed everything at Iwo Jima to defeat the Armed Forces of Emperor Hirohito--among them, a member of her own family"-- Provided by publisher