To End All Wars: Robert Carlyle and Kiefer Sutherland both worked on the 24 movie Redemption with Sutherland, so that fact and the subject matter of this movie made it worth the full price of three bucks. Being about prisoners of war in a Japanese camp isn’t a fun subject, but it pays off in showing how even under those circumstances, it is still possible to endure, survive, and ultimately forgive as well as rely on one another for survival.
The Marne, 1914: I find it difficult to keep all of the battles straight from World War I, so a book dedicated to one battle is always welcome. One of the problems I have with so many books is that one paragraph, even a sentence, can contain a books’ worth of information. I was reading a magazine article on some battles from the Franco-Prussian war today, and like so many other articles it passingly mentions casualties and logistics that in real life were so much more than words on a page. Going in-depth on one of these topics is always a good thing to explore.
Aces and Aircraft of World War I: This book is just great! It is lighter reading with a lot of photos and very good illustrations on a very interesting topic. So happy to find this one. I have a lot of books like it, and in all cases I was very lucky to find them as they aren’t common in thrift stores.
West Like Lightning: I try not to buy too many books on the old west as I don’t have room, but the subject is so interesting, and on this topic in particular, especially so. Just reading the dust-jacket I discovered that the Pony Express was only in operation for nineteen months!
Khrushchev: The Man and His Era: Khruschevs’ name comes up so often when reading about World War II and Stalin, that a book dedicated to him is something I can use in my library. It is the second book on him that I own so far. According to the dust-jacket, it was twenty years in the making!
The Planets: As if I need another version of this, but at the same time it is one of those works that one can’t have enough renditions of.
Stalin: Man of Steel or Mass Murderer?: Well, that’s a dumb title! This is the kind of book I usually pass on because it covers the basics for people who don’t know anything about the topic. However, I still want to read this because it is interesting what is covered and what is left out. Also, this is one of those bargain books from Barnes & Noble that I want to buy, but is hard to justify when I know I’ll see it in the thrifts for a fraction of the ‘bargain’ price. It’s always nice to find these for two bucks instead of the $8.99-$24.99 prices.
The Destruction of the Dutch Jews: When I was a bank teller, I got to know a survivor of the occupation of the Netherlands. This fellow had watched his parents be executed, amongst other things. So I wasn’t going to not buy this book. I left another book on the Jews in Russia, but I should have bought it too and hopefully it’s still there next week!
Randy Rydberg 