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  Searching for Home - The Impact...

  Joseph Gosler

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  The Second World War ends and Josje is returned to his parents. Who are these people who call themselves my parents, he imagines. He is three years old and feels abandoned, confused and angry. He wants to return to his “real” parents who loved and sheltered him during the war. “My name is Pietje Dijkstra not Josje Gosler!”, he states tearfully when goaded by his cousin. As a Jew and a Hidden Child, his innocence protected him as much as his Christian family.  
  At seven months of age, for his own safety as well as his parents’, he was given to a young nursing student from the Dutch resistance, and placed with the Dijkstra family in Wageningen. The impact of his first separation from his parents, may not be so easily ascertained, but when he is returned to them, his porcelain psyche is damaged and his closest companions are fear and distrust. Childhood wounds never fully heal and the impact of his early life is seen through the lens of an immigrant, as he migrates with his family to Israel and subsequently to the United States.  
  This is a personal memoir of a child survivor that spans from WWII to the late 20th century. A story of a young boy, who becomes a man, ever wandering and struggling to find himself. His parents, emotionally gutted from their own wartime experiences, are barely able to care for themselves, let alone this young stranger.

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  Long Road Home - Testimony of a...

  Kim Yong, Suk-Young Kim

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  Kim Yong shares his harrowing account of life in a labor campa singularly despairing form of torture carried out by the secret state. Although it is known that gulags exist in North Korea, little information is available about their organization and conduct, for prisoners rarely escape both incarceration and the country alive. Long Road Home shares the remarkable story of one such survivor, a former military official who spent six years in a gulag and experienced firsthand the brutality of an unconscionable regime.As a lieutenant colonel in the North Korean army, Kim Yong enjoyed unprecedented privilege in a society that closely monitored its citizens. He owned an imported car and drove it freely throughout the country. He also encountered corruption at all levels, whether among party officials or Japanese trade partners, and took note of the illicit benefits that were awarded to some and cruelly denied to others.Copyright © 2009 Columbia University Press.  Published by arrangement with Columbia University Press.

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  Fly Girl - A Memoir

  Ann Hood

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  An entertaining and fascinating memoir of “gifted storyteller” (People) Ann Hood’s adventurous years as a TWA flight attendant. 
   
  In 1978, in the tailwind of the golden age of air travel, flight attendants were the epitome of glamor and sophistication. Fresh out of college and hungry to experience the world?and maybe, one day, write about it?Ann Hood joined their ranks. After a grueling job search, Hood survived TWA’s rigorous Breech Training Academy and learned to evacuate seven kinds of aircraft, deliver a baby, mix proper cocktails, administer oxygen, and stay calm no matter what the situation. 
   
  In the air, Hood found both the adventure she’d dreamt of and the unexpected realities of life on the job. She carved chateaubriand in the first-class cabin and dined in front of the pyramids in Cairo, fended off passengers’ advances and found romance on layovers in London and Lisbon, and walked more than a million miles in high heels. She flew through the start of deregulation, an oil crisis, massive furloughs, and a labor strike. 
   
  As the airline industry changed around her, Hood began to write?even drafting snatches of her first novel from the jump-seat. She reveals how the job empowered her, despite its roots in sexist standards. Packed with funny, moving, and shocking stories of life as a flight attendant, Fly Girl captures the nostalgia and magic of air travel at its height, and the thrill that remains with every takeoff.

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  Destination Dachshund: A Travel...

  Lisa Fleetwood

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  With teenage children and in-laws in tow, the Fleetwood family embark on their 3 month family vacation just days after the tragic loss of their beloved dachshund, Coco. When two miniature dachshunds in smart winter coats are spotted in Moscow, it’s game on! A riotous, often hilarious dachshund spotting competition for the lovable, long-bodied dog ensues across 15 countries.  
  Filled with love, laughter, and sadness at times, Destination Dachshund offers a unique twist on the travel memoir with remembrance for those who have been loved and lost, at the heart of one family’s extraordinary adventure through Turkey, Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Germany, France, the UK, and the United States.  
  Through the wonder of travel, this remarkable travelogue explores the bond of extended family, the abiding love we have for our pets and the grieving for loved ones, both human and hound. 
  Winner: Gold Medal for ‘Non-Fiction – Travel’ in the Readers’ Favorite International Book Award Contest. 
  Editorial Reviews 
  "A likable author makes for a likable, dog-centric travel book." - Kirkus Review 
  "Fleetwood’s resulting chronicle of a multigenerational family trip—86 days, 15 countries, and 60 dachshund spottings—has an invitingly chatty tone that makes one feel like one is traveling with her." - Kirkus Review

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  God Gave Me Diarrhea - A true...

  Rachel Yong

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  An Unlikely and Not-So-Funny Path to Redemption  
  Does God call us to difficult paths in order to transform us? 
  When Ann said yes to bringing two young foster boys into her home, she had no idea what a long haul she was signing up for. 
  After two difficult pregnancies, Ann chooses to open her home to two foster boys who eventually became eligible for adoption. Raising them alongside her biological children, their paths become conjoined forever—riddled with constant behavior issues from one and health issues for the other. 
  Suddenly at age 27, the oldest son needs to return home after suffering a catastrophic brain injury. Ann becomes his caretaker and is faced with the hardest questions in her life. 
  She throws up desperate pleas, unsure if the God she has believed in her whole life will hear her. In the process, love changes everything, and she comes face to face with the younger prodigal son who swore her out of his life. 
  When all her life plans come suddenly to a halt, will God find her in the mire? 
  A journey rich in growth, truth, and forgiveness with a dab of humor, this compelling story will leave readers with a tear in their eye and hope in their heart.

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  Memoirs of a Kamikaze - A World...

  Kazuo Odachi, Shigeru Ohta,...

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  **Independent Publisher Book Award (IPPY) Winner**Now Available on Audio. An incredible, untold story of survival and acceptance that sheds light on one of the darkest chapters in Japanese history.This book tells the story of Kazuo Odachi who—in 1943, when he was just 16 years-old—joined the Imperial Japanese Navy to become a pilot. A year later, he was unknowingly assigned to the Kamikaze Special Attack Corps—a group of airmen whose mission was to sacrifice their lives by crashing planes into enemy ships. Their call sign was ""ten dead, zero alive.""As you listen to Memoirs of a Kamikaze, you will experience the hardships of fighter pilot training—dipping and diving and watching as other trainees crash into nearby mountainsides. you will witness the psychological trauma of coming to terms with death before each mission, and breathe a sigh of relief with Odachi when his last mission is cut short by Japan's eventual surrender. You will feel the anger at a government and society that swept so much of the sacrifice under the rug in its desperation to rebuild.Odachi's innate ""samurai spirit"" carried him through childhood, WWII and his eventual life as a kendo instructor, police officer and detective. His attention to detail, unwavering self-discipline and impenetrably strong mind were often the difference between life and death. Odachi, who is now well into his nineties, kept his Kamikaze past a secret for most of his life. Seven decades later, he agreed to sit for nearly seventy hours of interviews with the authors of this book—who know Odachi personally. He felt it was his responsibility to finally reveal the truth about the Kamikaze pilots: that they were unsuspecting teenagers and young men asked to do the bidding of superior officers who were never held to account.This book offers a new perspective on these infamous suicide pilots. It is not a chronicle of war, nor is it a collection of research papers compiled by scholars. It is a transcript of Odachi's words.

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