Pennyworth Books

Recently, I read a book that I thoroughly enjoyed. It was especially interesting to me due to the fact that my dad, Norman Sprague, had been at Iwo Jima when the battle began. He had also fought on Bougainville and the Solomon Islands as a marine during the World War II conflict in the Pacific Theater. The novel takes you back in time and unpacks the episodes of this past conflict in a vivid way. For me, it was one of those hard to put down books.

My dad was not one of the flag raisers but he was there observing from a nearby field and his position as a member of the 3rd marine division, that day. As you may recall, James Bradley’s father was John Bradley who was a Navy Corpsman with the 5th marine division who was also on Iwo Jima. Another division of marines was also there…

Compiled by Scott Taylor Hartzell

Publishers: Arcadia Publishing and imprint of Tempus Publishing Inc

ISBN: 0-7385-1425-X

Prior to 1888, St Petersburg, Florida was a tiny fishing village where deer, bear, raccoons, panthers, wildcats, gators and rattlesnakes roamed the area. Not exactly what we would imagine if we traveled to the sunshine city today.

In 1880 a Russian, Pyotr A. Dementyev, who later shortened his name to Peter Demens, established a lumber company in Florida and became the owner of the Orange Belt Railroad. Demens teamed up with the founding father of St. Petersburg, J.C. Williams and the pair brought the railroad to St. Petersburg in 1888. Henceforth, this tiny village was never the same, as it transformed itself into a thriving southern city.

Divided into three sections, The Dawn of St. Petersburg, The Glorious Boom and the Bust and Beyond, Scott Taylor Hartzell抯 Voices of America: St. Petersburg An Oral History takes us on a journey…

To fully understand the memoirs of Lady Hyegyong, one must first understand the political circumstances at the time. At this period of the ChosOn Dynasty there were two major political parties, that of the Soron and the Noron. Crown Prince Sado was on the side of the Soron and his wife, Lady Hyegyong, followed her father on the Noron side. There was destined to be some degree of discord politically in the couple’s marriage from the beginning. Though westerners may have mixed opinions about Lady Hyegyong, Koreans, for the majority, believe that Lady Hyegyong showed much more support for her father than she ever did for her husband, the Crown Prince. After all, the marriage between the two was a decision made by parents-not desired by either of them.

Lady Hyegyong repeatedly emphasizes the need to plead the case of her family members that they might be judged fairly and be…

The Secret Speech by Tom Rob Smith is a historical yet very intense and exciting novel. Another masterpiece Tom Rob Smith was published since Child 44. The setting of the story is on Soviet Grounds in 1956. During this war era between the government and the civilians, everyone had seen the terror of the effect of government taking over the whole society.

Police were always right; innocent will be pinpointed for a crime without further assessment and investigation. From his first novel Child 44, Leo Deminov, the protagonist in that particular story is still one of the main characters in the Secret Speech. He is now the head of the homicide Department in Moscow from just a security Officer.

Even this book is knowingly written in fictional way, It is still exciting to read, events happened in real life but characters were just made. It’s like titanic and Pearl Harbour. Tom Rob…

Snap Me a Future – Review of a Book Written By Connie Gotsch

Blast from the past! Scarred for life, Shelby McCoy hangs onto her dreams as a stubborn, capable, single Administrator of the Mall along the San Martin River in New Mexico. Her love of Native American Artifacts keeps her focused on the museum and art galleries on the mall, and elsewhere in the Land of Enchantment. As a photographer, her views took on greater interest.

When J. Rodney, owner of the Mall, challenged her personal values and professional choices, Shelby took his challenge, tendered her resignation, and exited her safe secure position for the bawdy gray-green walls of the local newsroom. Candid photos, words of warning, and her own significant desire to achieve something great while protecting the land she loves sent her perilously into the arms (or pit, as it were) of danger. Warner’s break into her home left her…

In the Northern part of Walachia, close to first capital of the country, Curtea de Arges town (Arges Court), there is an ancient and solitaire fortress that guards for centuries this entrance in Walachia, over Arges River Valley. Here is the well known Poienari Fortress!

This was first built in the XIII century on the pick of a rock to the altitude of 850 m, as a part of the fortresses chain that had the aim to defend the North border of Walachia. Being built only by soil and timber, the fortress soon crushed, so that in the XIV century it became only a ruin. After he became ruler of Walachia in 1456, Vlad Tepes decided to rebuild and consolidate Poienari fortress, realizing the strategically position of this important military building. For this work, he used the traitor walachian boyars: Vlad arrested them in the day of Easter 1457 and led…

Who’s Your Daddy?

People say you can’t judge a book by its cover.牋 Maybe so; but the minute I laid eyes on the cover of Hell Hawks: The Untold Story of the American Fliers Who Savaged Hitler’s Wehrmacht, I had to read the book.燱hy?燘ecause I wanted to find out if these guys really did savage the Wehrmacht; and if so, why has their story remained untold?

The Hell Hawks were the 365th Fighter Group, three fighter bomber squadrons flying the P-47 Thunderbolt, affectionately called the “Jug.”燭heirs was a gritty and unglamorous mission flown by pilots fresh from flight training.燤ost were barely twenty years old.燨ften working at treetop level in poor weather, they bombed and strafed everything that moved; from tanks, trucks, and trains to troops deployed in ground positions.燬tationary targets were not immune from their attacks either, especially aircraft parked on German airfields.

The 365th arrived in the European theater just prior to…