Showing titles in 20th Century

Just weeks before Christmas, severe wintry weather damages the church hall hosting the Christmas Boutique - an annual sale of handcrafted gifts and baked goods that supports the county food pantry. Determined to save the fundraiser, Sylvia Bergstrom Compson offers to hold the event at Elm Creek Manor, her ancestral family estate and summertime home to Elm Creek Quilt Camp.

In 1942, London, Nancy Mitford is worried about more than air raids and German spies. Still recovering from a devastating loss, the once sparkling Bright Young Thing is estranged from her husband, her allowance has been cut, and she’s given up her writing career. On top of this, her five beautiful but infamous sisters continue making headlines with their controversial politics. Eager for distraction and desperate for income, Nancy jumps at the chance to manage the Heywood Hill bookshop while the owner is away at war.

1941. A talented flier, Jessie Lovelace yearns for a career in aviation. When the civilian flight school in her small Texas town begins to clandestinely train British pilots for the RAF, she fights to become an instructor. But the task isn’t without its perils of near-misses and death. Faced with the weight of her responsibilities, she finds solace with a British officer who knows firsthand the heavy price paid in war . . . until he returns to the battles he never truly left behind.

D-Day. June 6th, 1944. The trajectory of the Second World War – and with it the course of modern history – is changed forever. For three young former schoolmates from South Wales, their war is only just beginning. These young men, and thousands of others, will soon be a part of one of the bloodiest and most brutal parts of the Normandy campaign: the battle for Hill 112. The horror, the fear, the filth; the savage fighting; the sheer exhilaration and moments of farce and laughter: those who come through the carnage will never be the same again.

During the perils of World War II in Alexandria, Egypt, two people from different worlds will find their way back to each other time and time again, their love a beacon for their survival. After the war, James and Yvette establish roots in England hoping for a new beginning, until a tragic event drives a wedge between them and the path back to each other is one they both must be brave enough to face. Decades later, and ten years after his wife’s death, James moves to the English village of Upton seeking change.

New England, 1992. Sophie’s hand trembles as she places the birthday card on to the creamy wood of her dresser—this one postmarked from far away, and signed with a name she’s never forgotten, despite their years apart. Downstairs, guests wait around a colourful pile of gifts—Happy 90th Birthday, Sophie! But Sophie has a gift of her own to give today—a tattered collection of photographs she’s never shown anybody. Holding it to her heart, a single tear slides down her wrinkled cheek.

Cuando los nazis amenazan con tomar el control de París, una joven cierra para siempre el maravilloso departamento de su abuela, dejando tras sus puertas tesoros y bellezas inimaginables. Marthe de Florian, famosa cortesana durante su juventud, buscó llenar su existencia con arte y lujos, evadiendo los recuerdos de una infancia ensombrecida por la pobreza y los oscuros callejones de Montmartre. Mientras la guerra está a punto de desatarse en Europa, usa las preciadas posesiones que ha coleccionado durante una vida para compartirle su historia y secretos a su nieta Solange.

Germany, 1943. Rosa Sauer’s parents are gone, and her husband, Gregor, is far away, fighting on the front lines of WWII. Alone, she has little choice but to leave war-torn Berlin behind and live with her in-laws in a village near the Wolfschanze, the Wolf’s Lair, Hitler’s hidden headquarters. Convinced the enemy wants to poison him, Hitler conscripts 10 women, including Rosa, to be his food tasters. Even though food is a luxury, eating the decadent feasts Hitler will soon be served is an act of torture - after each meal, the women must wait an hour to see if they will die.

As OSS agents Kathryn Hammond and Jenny Ryan navigate the dangerous world of espionage, they are faced with the ultimate test of love and loyalty. Can their love overcome the obstacles in their path, or have time and the shadows of the past cost them a second chance at happiness?

On a November day in 1940, Adam Paskow becomes a prisoner in the Warsaw Ghetto, where the Jews of the city are cut off from their former lives and held captive by Nazi guards to await an uncertain fate. Weeks later, he is approached by a mysterious figure with a surprising request: Would he join a secret group of archivists working to preserve the truth of what is happening inside these walls? Adam agrees and begins taking testimonies from his students, friends, and neighbors.

With the country on the brink of war, single mother Jean embraces her ten-year-old daughter, Valerie, before she puts her on a train to Somerset alongside hundreds of other evacuees. Jean’s heart breaks as she vows they’ll be together again soon, knowing it’s a promise she might not be able to keep. Wrenched away from her mother and everything familiar, Valerie arrives in Somerset and nervously waits in the village hall to find a host family.

Five linked families live out their destinies as the world is shaken by tyranny and war in the mid-20th century. Berlin in 1933 is in upheaval. Eleven-year-old Carla von Ulrich struggles to understand the tensions disrupting her family as Hitler strengthens his grip on Germany. Into this turmoil step her mother’s formidable friend and former British MP, Ethel Leckwith, and her student son, Lloyd, who soon learns for himself the brutal reality of Nazism.

As the Nazi regime crumbles, Hanni hides from her father on the fringes of Berlin. She develops the photographs she took to record the brutality of the camp - the empty food bowls and hungry eyes - and vows to get justice for the innocent people she couldn’t help. But, on the day she plans to deliver these damning photographs to the Allies, Hanni comes face to face with her father again. Reiner Foss is now working with the British forces, his past safely hidden behind a new identity. He will go to deadly lengths to protect his secrets, but Hanni knows she can’t give up her fight.

On the brink of the Nazi occupation of Paris, a German-Jewish bookbinder stumbles across a manuscript called Crossings. It has three narratives, each as unlikely as the next. And the narratives can be listened to one of two ways: either straight through or according to an alternate chapter sequence. The first story in Crossings is a never-before-seen ghost story by the poet Charles Baudelaire, penned for an illiterate girl.

Britain's secret intelligence service, MI6, has lost contact with its informant in northern Italy, just as important information about the future plans of Austria and Nazi Germany is coming to light. And young Elena Standish, to her surprise, is the only person who can recognize MI6's man - because he is her former lover. Aiden Strother betrayed Elena six years ago, throwing shame on her entire family. Now, with so much to prove, Elena heads to Trieste to track down Aiden and find out what happened to his handler, who has mysteriously cut off contact with Britain.

From New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Chiaverini, a bold, revelatory novel about one of the great untold stories of World War I—the women of the U.S. Army Signal Corps, who broke down gender barriers in the military and battled a pandemic as they helped lead the Allies to victory.

The Ritter family is fractured. Maureen, Michael, and his new wife, Monika, are in exile in the city of Paris. Seamus, Lisa, and the other children remain in Berlin, where 15-year-old Fiona is falling further under the spell of Nazi propaganda. Under constant pressure to inform on her parents and impress her peers, she will soon be faced with a stark choice on which direction her life is going to take.

At age 15, Ned Halloran lost both of his parents - and almost his own life - when the Titanic sank. Determined to keep what little he has, he returns to his homeland of Ireland and enrolls at Saint Edna's school in Dublin. Saint Edna's headmaster is the renowned scholar and poet Patrick Pearse - who is soon to gain greater fame as a rebel and patriot. Ned becomes deeply involved with the growing revolution...and the sacrifices it will demand.

Fourteen-year-old Moshe Kessler steps off the train at Buchenwald concentration camp. Having endured the horrors of Auschwitz-Birkenau, lost touch with his entire family, and survived the death march in the freezing winter, Moshe has seen more than his share of tragedy. At Buchenwald, the new arrivals are assigned to their barracks. Kinder Block 66 is to be Moshe’s new home, but he doesn’t yet realize just how significant this will turn out to be. For just a short time later, the Germans decide to destroy the camp—but they are not prepared for Buchenwald’s secret resistance.

Sobre el fango negro de Auschwitz que todo lo engulle, Fredy Hirsch ha levantado en secreto una escuela. En un lugar donde los libros están prohibidos, la joven Dita esconde bajo su vestido los frágiles volúmenes de la biblioteca pública más pequeña, recóndita y clandestina que haya existido nunca.