CAPSULE COMMENTS

March 8, 2007

New World War II Books

Warrior Priest, the first book of historical fiction by local author, Mike Johnson offers a suspenseful, witty read about a young priest turned airborne chaplain, a Cracow student who enlists with the Polish lancers (horse cavalry), two young women Resistance fighters in Warsaw and a tiny French village in the Vosges Mountains, a fireman aboard the legendary aircraft carrier Hornet, and a small town girl who joins the U.S. Army nurse corps after following a volunteer flyer to England. While most World War II stories are told from the perspective of national leaders, generals, and the occasional infantryman, Johnson’s narrative illuminates the lives of everyday people and their relationships with one another. Through the use of authentic locales and situations, and a chronologically accurate timeline from 1939 through 1946, the author offers us a plot full of intrigue and battlefield action intertwined with the compelling lives of ordinary people dealing with the very difficult realities of war.

Mike Johnson is a native of Shelby, Ohio and a current North Canton resident. As a 2003 retiree from the Timken Company, vice president-communications, Johnson exhibits a zeal for historical detail as he adds documentary research, as well as the knowledge and experiences of friends, to his personal knowledge of locations and events found in his book. His second book, Fate of the Warriors, was released just this month and both are available for circulation at the main and branch libraries. Watch for forthcoming announcements concerning Mike Johnson’s visit to Rodman Public Library on April 16, 2007.

Some new non-fiction offerings pertaining to World War II:

Ship of Ghosts: the Story of the USS Houston, FDR's Legendary Lost Cruiser, and the Epic Saga of Her Survivors, by James D. Hornfischer

Hornfischer’s formidable account of the devastating sea battle that destroyed the USS Houston, which had been trapped in the far Pacific after Pearl Harbor, is only the beginning of the harrowing story of the nightmare faced by surviving crewmembers. Using journals and letters, historical documents and eyewitness accounts, the author recounts the horrific truths of the oft' glamorized Burma-Thailand Death Railway.

While for three years their fate remained a mystery to family and friends at home, the men of the USS Houston, although pushed to the limits of their human endurance, fought back with dignity, ingenuity, sabotage and willpower against their abusers, and exhibited a valor so awe-inspiring that it is difficult to remember that the story is true.

Sybille Steinbacher writes about the history of concentration camps and their social context. In her powerful new book, Auschwitz: A History, Steinbacher examines the process through which the unthinkable—the extermination of millions, becomes an industrial reality during the course of World War II. The author examines how a suburb of the city of Oswiecim evolved into a horrific nightmare of experimental science and technology, how victim and managers alike came to be there, and more importantly, how it was allowed to happen.