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Showing 1 - 20 of 32 items
The great escape
By Paul Brickhill. 2000
The Great Escape tells how more than six hundred men in a German prisoner of war camp worked together to…
achieve an extraordinary break-out. Every night for a year they dug tunnels, and those who weren't digging forged passports, drew maps, faked weapons and tailored German uniforms and civilian clothes to wear once they had escaped. All of this was conducted under the very noses of their prison guards. When the right night came, the actual escape itself was timed to the split second - but of course, not everything went according to plan... 2000.The glass castle: A Memoir
By Jeannette Walls. 2006
Reporter for MSNBC.com looks back on her unsettled life. Describes growing up in a dysfunctional family, which was always on…
the move. She recalls her father's dream of building a "glass castle," and relates how she and her siblings escaped to make lives of their own. Bestseller. 2006.Philomena: the true story of a mother and the son she had to give away
By Martin Sixsmith. 2013
Journalist chronicles the life of Philomena Lee, an Irish unwed mother who was forced to give her young son up…
for adoption in 1955, then spent fifty years trying to find him. 2013. Uniform title: Lost child of Philomena LeeMy family and other animals
By Gerald Durrell. 1980
When the unconventional Durrell family can no longer endure the damp, gray English climate, they do what any sensible family…
would do: sell their house and relocate to the sunny Greek isle of Corfu. 1980.Moneyball: the art of winning an unfair game
By Michael Lewis. 2003
Author of "The New New Thing" describes how Billy Beane, general manager of baseball's Oakland Athletics, came in first place…
in the American League West in 2002. Examines Beane's use of computers, statistics, and scouting to achieve success despite a minor league budget. Strong language. Bestseller. 2003.Marley et moi: mon histoire d'amour avec le pire chien du monde
By John Grogan, Carole Delporte. 2007
Si le chien est le meilleur ami de l'homme, il peut parfois être le pire. C'est ce que vont découvrir…
John et Jenny Grogan, quand ils décident d'acheter un labrador peu de temps après leur mariage, afin de tester leurs capacités parentales. D'adorable petite boule de poils, Marley se transforme en un mastodonte de quarante-cinq kilos, qui détruit tout sur son passage, dévore quantité de nourriture et d'objets en tout genre, et témoigne d'une affection aussi débordante qu'envahissante envers ses maîtres. 2007. Titre uniforme: Marley & me.Le Pacifique: de l'autre côté de l'océan,l'enfer
By Hugh Ambrose. 2011
Novembre 1941, les troupes américaines quittent la Chine. Août 1945, l'avion du général MacArthur se pose sur le territoire japonais.…
Entre ces deux événements, cinq recrues inexpérimentées, cinq soldats venant d'horizons différents sont plongés dans une guerre violente sur le front asiatique. Débâcle de Bataan, tumulte de Guadalcanal, implacables forteresses de corail de Peleliu, terribles charniers d'Okinawa ; puis retour au pays, triomphal mais douloureux. Chacun joue son rôle dans ce conflit, et tous doivent puiser dans leurs ultimes ressources physiques et mentales pour venir à bout d'un ennemi qui préfère mourir plutôt que de se rendre. Descriptions régulières de violence, beaucoup de langage grossier, et quelques descriptions de nature sexuelle. 2011. Titre uniforme: The Pacific.La trêve (Le livre de poche #15438)
By Primo Levi. 2003
A la fin de la Seconde Guerre mondiale, un groupe d'Italiens, rescapés des camps nazis, entame une marche de plusieurs…
mois : « accompagnés » par l'Armée Rouge, ils cherchent à rejoindre leur terre natale. Héros et traîtres, paysans et voleurs, savants et nomades se retrouvent pêle-mêle dans une réjouissante pagaille : autant d'hommes qui redécouvrent, émerveillés, la vie, le monde, la forêt, les filles, sans oublier l'art du trafic pour subsister... La Trêve est le récit picaresque et authentique de leurs tribulations extravagantes sur les routes d'Europe centrale. A travers la confrontation de deux peuples, Primo Levi révèle les ressources merveilleuses d'hommes qui se montrèrent à la hauteur de leur destin.Defiance: the Bielski partisans
By Nechama Tec. 2008
The prevailing image of European Jews during the Holocaust is one of helpless victims, but many Jews struggled against the…
terrors of the Third Reich. This is the history of one such group, a forest community numbering more than 1,200 Jews, that carried out the largest armed rescue operation of Jews by Jews in World War II. These men and women of all ages - hungry, largely unarmed, and exposed to harsh winter weather - smuggled Jews out of heavily guarded ghettos, led retaliatory raids against Nazi collaborators, and offered protection to all Jewish fugitives who could find their way to them. Some descriptions of violence. 2008.Cheaper by the dozen
By Ernestine Gilbreth Carey, Frank B Gilbreth. 1948
An amusing account of happy family life in the 1920's. The author's father, an efficiency expert, believes in living fully,…
and has some unconventional ideas about raising his many children. 1948.A tale of love and darkness
By Amos Oz, N. R. M De Lange. 2005
The author takes us on a journey through his childhood and adolescence, along Jerusalem's war-torn streets in the 1940s and…
'50s. Oz's story dives into 120 years of family history and paradox, the saga of a Jewish love-hate affair with Europe that sweeps from Vilna and Odessa, via Poland and Prague, to Israel. 2005. Uniform title: Sipour Al Ahava Vehoshekh.The glass castle: a memoir
By Jeannette Walls. 2006
Reporter for MSNBC.com looks back on her unsettled life. Describes growing up in a dysfunctional family, which was always on…
the move. She recalls her father's dream of building a "glass castle," and relates how she and her siblings escaped to make lives of their own. Strong language. 2005.Angela's ashes: a memoir
By Frank McCourt. 1996
Frank McCourt recollects his "miserable Irish Catholic childhood" in the squalor of Limerick. Absent any support from his glib, but…
shiftless, alcoholic father, the family suffered hunger, cruelty, disease, and the death of children. McCourt recounts his story without rancour. Strong language. Winner of the 1998 CNIB Talking Book of the Year Award. Pulitzer Prize Winner.Monuments Men: Allied heroes, Nazi thieves, and the greatest treasure hunt in history
By Bret Witter, Robert M Edsel. 2010
From 1943 to 1951, 350 or so men and women from 13 Allied nations served in the Monuments, Fine Arts…
and Archives section of the Allied armed forces. This was the most ambitious effort in history to preserve the world's cultural heritage in times of war. They were known simply as 'Monuments Men'. This is their story. 2010.The zookeeper's wife
By Diane Ackerman. 2007
When Germany invaded Poland, bombers devastated Warsaw--and the city's zoo along with it. With most of their animals dead, zookeepers…
Jan and Antonina Zabinski began smuggling Jews into the empty cages. Another dozen "guests" hid inside the Zabinskis' villa, emerging after dark for dinner, socializing and, during rare moments of calm, piano concerts. Jan, active in the Polish resistance, kept ammunition buried in the elephant enclosure and stashed explosives in the animal hospital. Meanwhile, Antonina kept her unusual household afloat, caring for both its human and its animal inhabitants and refusing to give in to the penetrating fear of discovery, even as Europe crumbled around her. Bestseller. 2007.The pianist: the extraordinary story of one man's survival in Warsaw 1939-45
By Anthea Bell, Władysław Szpilman. 1999
Wladyslaw Szpilman was a young Jewish pianist who, uniquely, managed to stay alive in Warsaw throughout World War II. Immediately…
afterwards, he wrote this account of his experiences during the war. 1999.Jamais sans ma fille
By Betty Mahmoody, William Hoffer, Marie-Thérèse Cuny. 1988
Une américaine accompagne son mari Iranien pour des vacances dans le pays d'origine de ce dernier. Dès leur arrivée, il…
lui annonce qu'elle ne quittera jamais plus le pays. Elle va se battre pendant deux ans avant de s'enfuir... avec sa petite fille. 1988. Titre uniforme: Not without my daughter.My dog Skip
By Willie Morris. 1995
The author tells how he grew up in a small southern town in the 1940s with a dog that could…
run football patterns and, it was believed, drive a car. The author demonstrates his evocative storytelling skills in this tribute to his dog, Skip. 1995.Friday night lights: a town, a team, and a dream
By H. G Bissinger. 1990
The depressed oil town of Odessa, Texas takes its high school football seriously, with 20,000 fans at every Friday night…
game. Students suffer debilitating injuries as well as psychological traumas as they literally fight for the honour of their town. 1990.The diary of a young girl: the definitive edition
By Anne Frank, Mirjam Pressler, Susan Massotty, Otto Frank. 1997
This notebook kept by a German-born Jewish girl includes material that was omitted from the first edition in 1947. Begun…
on her thirteenth birthday, the diary is a personal, sometimes humourous, account of years spent with her family in a Dutch attic hiding from the Nazis. After Anne heard a radio appeal about the importance of such papers, she expanded the scope of her entries. High school and older. Uniform title: Achterhuis.