"Hard times during the Depression and family sacrifices are treated with honesty and humor" in this YA book by the author of River of Earth ( School Library Journal).Sporty Creek is a series of short stories set in the Kentucky hills. Narrated by a young boy (a cousin of the narrator of Still's classic novel River of Earth), the book tells the story of his family during the Great Depression. With work in the coal mines sporadic, t...

It was a long silence that brought me to the erasure poem. Not mine, but my brother's, during his many months in a coma. I came across a notebook of his—a pocketsized, handwritten field guide of prairie grasses. I read it for companionship, signs of consciousness, attention. I read it for the rhythms of his still and distant hand…. I was reading a taxonomy of grief: silique drifted into soliloquy.>Between 2008 and 2014, while her brother was in a lengthy coma, award-winning...

James Still left eastern Kentucky for Europe in 1941 after enlisting in the US Army during World War II, leaving behind a recently published, semi-autobiographical work of fiction, On Troublesome Creek. Even as he developed a broader worldview, his work continued to draw from the agrarian and regional sources of life in the Cumberland Plateau that supported the American war effort. Like the riverbeds and creeks he so often evoked, Still reminds readers of the local and regional fo...

The dramatic conclusion to the Battle of the Atlantic series, highlighting how the Germans lost their edge in the water at the end of the war.In May 1943, Admiral Dönitz's U-boat force suffered a decisive loss in the North Atlantic. Forced to abandon the attacks, he switched the focus of U-boat operations to the central Atlantic, but was met and defeated by US Navy escort carrier groups. In September 1943, Dönitz attempted to resume North Atlantic operations. Howev...

Lavishly illustrated, this book studies the role of airpower in the New Guinea battles of 1942–43, as the Allies checked and halted Japan's last significant offensives.Mark Stille and John Rogers offer a new history of a previously neglected part of the South Pacific air war - the battles over New Guinea and the waters around it. The first of two books on the subject, drawing on Japanese, American and Australian sources, it details operations from February 1942 unt...

Fully illustrated, this is a history of airpower in the decisive stage of the New Guinea campaign, when the Allies could finally go on the offensive to shatter Japanese forces.In mid-1943, the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force (IJAAF) took over responsibility for New Guinea air operations from the Imperial Japanese Navy. In its first large-scale contest against the USAAF, the IJAAF was challenged to defend its bases, defend the sea lanes supporting numerous Japanese...

A highly illustrated study of the Solomons campaign in 1943–44 from Guadalcanal, as the US forces advanced through the island chain, to the vital Japanese base at Rabaul.Victory at Guadalcanal for the Allies in February 1943 left them a vital foothold in the Solomon Islands chain, and was the first step in an attempt to isolate and capture the key Japanese base of Rabaul on New Britain. In order to do this they had to advance up the island chain in a combined air, ...

The first in a two-part study of the October 23-26 Battle of Leyte Gulf, which resulted in a decisive defeat for the Japanese.In October 1944, the US prepared to invade the Philippines to cut Japan off from its resource areas in Southeast Asia. The Japanese correctly predicted this, and prepared a complex operation to use the remaining strength of its navy to defend its possessions.In the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the Imperial Japanese Navy's First Diversion St...

A comprehensive overview of the strategy, operations and vessels of the United States Navy from 1941 to 1945.Although slowly building its navy while neutral during the early years of World War II, the US was struck a serious blow when its battleships, the lynchpin of US naval doctrine, were the target of the dramatic attack at Pearl Harbor. In the Pacific Theatre, the US was thereafter locked into a head to head struggle with the impressive Imperial Japanese Navy, ...

The complete story of the Imperial Japanese Army's stunning victory over the British forces during World War IIFor the British Empire it was a military disaster, but for Imperial Japan the conquest of Malaya was one of the pivotal campaigns of World War II. Giving birth to the myth of the Imperial Japanese Army's invincibility, the victory left both Burma and India open to invasion. Although heavily outnumbered, the Japanese Army fought fiercely to overcome the ine...

How to complicate your rookie season in the NHL: fake date your former college rival and now teammate's ex-girlfriend.It's a bad idea, and I know it, especially since Kendra Hart has had a hold over me since our freshman year of college. She has no idea how I feel, and I have zero control over my mouth when her life goes up in smoke and she needs a friend, along with a place to stay.My coach, who also happens to be my stepdad, is warning me to stay away not...

A detailed re-examination of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the Day of Infamy that saw the USA enter World War II.In this the first comprehensive treatment of Pearl Harbor since the early 1990s. respected Pacific War naval historian Mark E. Stille traces the road to war and the Japanese attack itself. He examines the role of the man behind the operation, Japanese Admiral Yamamoto, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of the plan. The American preparations ...