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The generals: the Canadian army's senior commanders in the Second World War
By J. L Granatstein. 1993
Granatstein's study of life at the top during the Second World War centres on the most senior ranks in the…
Canadian Army. Men like Andrew McNaughton, Harold Crerar, Thomas Burns and Guy Simonds had not only to win military campaigns, but also command the sympathies of bureaucrats and powerful politicians. None, however, forgot they were fighting a war, and that their decisions directly affected the lives of Canadian soldiers. 1993.The girl in Saskatoon: a meditation on friendship, memory and murder
By Sharon Butala. 2008
In 1962, Alexandra Wiwcharuk was found murdered on the banks of the Saskatchewan River. Nearly 50 years later, her murder…
still haunts Saskatoon residents, especially those who, like Butala, were Alexandra's friends. Compelled by her memories of Alex, Butala returns to that still-unsolved murder, writing an in-depth investigation of the tragic death, a nostalgic coming-of-age story, and an exploration of the nature of good and evil. Some descriptions of sex and violence. 2008.The flight of the patriot: escape from revolutionary Iran
By Yadi Sharifirad. 2010
Sharifirad was shot down in the Iraqi-Iranian war in the early 1990s, saved by a group of local Kurds, and…
eventually returned to Iran where he became a national hero. The Ayatollah sent him to Pakistan as military attaché, but when he returned to Teheran, he was accused of being a CIA spy and was imprisoned, interrogated, and tortured. Upon his release, despite constant surveillance, he resolved to smuggle his family out of the country. Some descriptions of sex and violence, some strong language. 2010.The fighting Newfoundlander: a history of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment (Carleton library series ; #209)
By G. W. L Nicholson. 2006
When the First World War began, Newfoundland had been without any kind of military organisation for more than half a…
century, so public-spirited citizens immediately formed themselves into a Patriotic Association, and within sixty days had recruited, partially equipped and dispatched 537 officers and men overseas. Nicholson details the harrowing experiences of the Newfoundland Regiment at Gallipoli, Beaumont Hamel, the Third Battle of Ypres and Cambrai, for which they were granted the title "Royal" - the only army unit to receive such a distinction during World War I. Some descriptions of violence. 2006.The First World War
By John Keegan. 1998
The First World War created the modern world. A conflict of unparalleled ferocity which extended far beyond its European epicentre,…
it broke the century of relative peace and prosperity which we associate with the Victorian era and unleashed the demons of the twentieth century - pestilence, military destruction and mass death - and also the ideas which continue to shape our world today - modernism in the arts, new approaches to psychology and medicine, and radical ideas about economics and society. Includes violence. 1998.In the winter trenches and flak-filled skies of World War I, soldiers and pilots alike might avoid death, only to…
find themselves imprisoned in Germany's archipelago of POW camps, often in abominable conditions. The most infamous was Holzminden, a land-locked Alcatraz of sorts that housed the most troublesome, escape-prone prisoners. Its commandant was a boorish, hate-filled tyrant named Karl Niemeyer who swore that none should ever leave. Desperate to break out of "Hellminden" and return to the fight, a group of Allied prisoners led by ace pilot (and former Army sapper) David Gray hatch an elaborate escape plan. Their plot demands a risky feat of engineering as well as a bevy of disguises, forged documents, fake walls, and steely resolve. Once beyond the watch towers and round-the-clock patrols, Gray and almost a dozen of his half-starved fellow prisoners must then make a heroic 150 mile dash through enemy-occupied territory towards free Holland. Drawing on never-before-seen memoirs and letters, Bascomb brings this narrative to cinematic life, amid the twilight of the British Empire and the darkest, most savage hours of the fight against Germany. At turns tragic, funny, inspirational, and nail-biting suspenseful, this is the little-known story of the biggest POW breakout of the Great War. 2018.The fighters
By C. J Chivers. 2018
Almost 2.5 million Americans have served in Afghanistan or Iraq since September 11, 2001. C.J. Chivers has reported from both…
fronts from the beginning, walking side by side with combatants for more than a dozen years. He describes the experience of war today as it is endured by those most at risk-the camaraderie and profound sense of purpose, alongside courage, frustration, and moral confusion mixed with technical precision. In these remote places where the reason for their presence is sometimes not clear, these young men kill or are killed, facing palpable and often constant threat of ambush or hidden bombs. They repeatedly return, rushing toward danger, often to rescue the wounded in wars that escalate around them as the Pentagon changes doctrines and plans. Weaving a history of the war through troops' experiences, the characters in The Fighters climb into an F-14 cockpit for the opening strikes after the attacks of 9/11, hunt for Osama bin Laden along the Pakistani border, chase insurgent rocket teams with helicopters alongside American bases, face snipers in a hostile city in Anbar Province in Iraq, and engage in deadly counterguerilla warfare in the soaring mountains of the Korengal Valley in Afghanistan. Some suffer terribly. All are changed. They return home, uncertain of their place in the world and what their wars have achieved. 2018.The fence: a police cover-up along Boston's racial divide
By Dick Lehr. 2009
The Fence documents the true story of a Boston police incident during which an undercover officer was brutally beaten by…
fellow officers who mistook him for a murder suspect. Some strong language and some descriptions of violence. c2009.The enforcer: Johnny Pops Papalia : a life and death in the Mafia
By Adrian Humphreys. 1999
By the time Johnny "Pops" Papalia was gunned down at the age of 73, his massive crime network had earned…
him the nickname "Canada's Capone." Filled with tales of extortion, loan sharking, gambling and heroin, this book chronicles the rise and fall of Canada's most successful Mafia don. Some descriptions of violence. 1999.The chosen ones: Canada's test pilots in action
By Sean Rossiter. 2002
From the dawn of aviation, Canada has produced intrepid pilots of renown. Learning their craft in some of the most…
difficult conditions anywhere, many of these flyers became expert pilots, navigators and mechanics. These great Canadians pilots were among the highest-scoring Allied aces of both world wars. 2002.The Dillinger days
By John Toland. 2017
John Dillinger's thirteen-month criminal career captured the imagination of Depression-era America and is chronicled here, along with fellow outlaws like…
Baby Face Nelson, Bonnie and Clyde, Ma Barker, and Machine Gun Kelly. 2017.The devil's defender: my odyssey through American criminal justice from Ted Bundy to the Kandahar massacre
By John Henry Browne. 2016
For the last four decades, Browne has defended the indefensible. From Facebook folk hero the "Barefoot Bandit" Colton Moore, to…
Benjamin Ng of the Wah Mee massacre and Kandahar massacre culprit Sergeant Robert Bales, Browne's unceasing advocacy and the daring to take on some of the most unwinnable cases--and nearly win them all--has led 48 Hours' Peter Van Sant to call him "the most famous lawyer in America." But although the Browne that America has come to know cuts a dashing and confident figure, he has forever been haunted by his job as counsel to Ted Bundy, the most infamous serial killer in American history. Browne, a drug- and alcohol-addicted yet wildly successful defense attorney who could never let go of the case that started it all, here asks himself the question others have asked him all along: Does defending evil make you evil too? 2016.The Hitler I knew: the memoirs of the Third Reich's press chief
By Otto Dietrich. 2010
When Otto Dietrich was invited in 1933 to become Adolf Hitler's press chief, he accepted with the simple uncritical conviction…
that Adolf Hitler was a great man, dedicated to promoting peace and welfare for the German people. At the end of the war, imprisoned and disillusioned, Otto Dietrich sat down to write what he had seen and heard in twelve years of the closest association with Hitler. c2010. Uniform title: 12 Jahre mit Hitler.The great rescue: American heroes, an iconic ship, and the race to save Europe in WWI
By Peter Hernon. 2017
For German u-boats hunting Allied ships in the treacherous waters of the Atlantic, no target was as prized as the…
Leviathan, carrying more than 10,000 doughboys per crossing. But the Germans were not the only deadly force threatening the ship and its passengers. In 1918, a devastating influenza pandemic--the Spanish flu--spread throughout the globe, predominantly striking healthy young adults, including soldiers. Peter Hernon tells the ship's story across multiple voyages and through the experiences of a diverse cast of participants. 2017.The Grey Fox: the true story of Bill Miner, last of the old-time bandits
By John Boessenecker, Mark Dugan. 1992
Between the years 1860 and 1911, Bill Miner's criminal career included stagecoach and train robberies. A gentleman robber who never…
killed, Miner believed that railroad companies robbed the public and he therefore had a right to rob them back. 1992.The greatest generation
By Tom Brokaw. 1998
Recalling his coverage of the fortieth anniversary of D-Day in 1984, reporter Brokaw describes World War II veterans as "the…
greatest generation any society has produced." Profiles individuals who sacrificed for their country, including Thomas Broderick--who founded the Blinded Veterans Association--and businessman Bob Bush, who lost an eye in a heroic rescue mission. Bestseller. 1998.The Great War and modern memory
By Paul Fussell. 1975
Examines the British experience during World War I through the eyes of writers Siegfried Sasson, Robert Graves, and Edmund Blunden;…
through the poetry of David Jones, Isaac Rosenberg and Wilfred Owen; and through the amateur memoirs of the men in the trenches. 1975.The deserter's tale: the story of an ordinary soldier who walked away from the war in Iraq
By Lawrence Hill, Joshua Key. 2007
2002. Author Key enlisted in the U.S. Army to learn a trade and provide for his family, and was assured…
that he would never see combat. Instead, he was sent to Iraq to hunt for terrorists, a mission that involved beating civilians, kidnapping, and destroying homes and families. While on a two-week furlough, Key decided he couldn't go back to Iraq, and took his family to Canada. 2007.The death of old man Rice: a true story of criminal justice in America
By M. L Friedland. 1994
A sensational trial -- questions about the influence of the media, expert witnesses, the issue of the death penalty, and…
the advantage of wealth. While it sounds like one of today's headlines, this actually happened in 1900. The author investigates the remarkable trial of two men accused of murdering William Marsh Rice, founder of Rice University. 1994.The constructed Mennonite: history, memory, and the Second World War
By Hans Werner. 2013
A unique account of a life shaped by Stalinism, Nazism, migration, famine, and war. John Werner was a survivor. Born…
in the Soviet Union just after the Bolshevik Revolution, he was named Hans and grew up in a German-speaking Mennonite community in Siberia. As a young man in Stalinist Russia, he became Ivan and fought as a Red Army soldier in the Second World War. Captured by Germans, he was resettled in occupied Poland where he became Johann, was naturalized and drafted into Hitler’s German army where he served until captured and placed in an American POW camp. Eventually he was released and immigrated to Canada, where he became John. 2013.