On sale April 15th, 2025

Read by David Baldacci, Stewart Crank, Alexandra Boulton, John Lee, Nicola F. Delgado, Matthew Lloyd Davies and Joe Pitts

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Calamity of Souls comes a David Baldacci novel, set in London in 1944, about a bereaved book shop owner and two teenagers scarred by the second world war—and the healing and hope they find in one another.

Fourteen-year-old Charlie Matters is up to no good, but for a very good reason. Without parents, peerage, or merit, ducking school but barred from actual work, he steals what he needs, living day-to-day until he’s old enough to enlist to fight the Germans. After barely surviving the Blitz, Charlie knows there’s no telling when a falling bomb might end his life. 
​
Fifteen-year-old Molly Wakefield has just returned to a nearly unrecognizable London. One of millions of people to have been evacuated to the countryside via “Operation Pied Piper,” Molly has been away from her parents—from her home—for nearly five years. Her return, however, is not the homecoming she’d hoped for as she’s confronted by a devastating reality: neither of her parents are there, only her old nanny, Mrs. Pride. 

Without guardians and stability, Charlie and Molly find an unexpected ally and protector in Ignatius Oliver, and solace at his book shop, The Book Keep, where "a book a day keeps the bombs away". Mourning the recent loss of his wife, Ignatius forms a kinship with both children, and in each other—over the course of the greatest armed conflict the world had ever seen—they rediscover the spirit of family each has lost. 

But Charlie’s escapades in the city have not gone unnoticed, and someone’s been following Molly since she returned to London. And Ignatius is reeling from a secret Imogen long kept from him while she was alive—something so shocking it resulted in her death, and his life being turned upside down.  

As bombs continue to bear down on the city, Charlie, Molly, and Ignatius learn that while the perils of war rage on, their coming together and trusting one another may be the only way for them to survive. 

Listen Here

Strangers in Time By David Baldacci (Audiobook Excerpt)

A conversations with Beatrice Quirk about her early life in Peel and working at her mother's cafe on the promenade through the war years.

Bea's time at Peel Clothworkers School was successful despite the life-threatening interruption of diphtheria which saw her isolated at the White Hoe. At 14 she left school to help at her mother's business, Grainger's Cafe, close to the Marine Hotel on Peel Promenade.
The war years were more remarkable, as the establishment of Peveril Internment Camp in the city left Grainger's as effectively the only remaining venue for meals and events. Food supplies, work, meals, cooking, rationing and more are discussed in detail, as well as their ice cream which had people queuing down the street.
Bea then goes on to discuss other aspects of life in Peel at that time, such as the fishing industry, chapel & church, poverty, music, early car journeys, characters and friends. She then talks about her marriage and professional life outside of Peel, first at The Crown in Ramsey and then joining her mother at the Carrick Bay Hotel in Port St Mary, before going on to live all over the Island.

This oral history interview with Beatrice Quirk was recorded by Elizabeth Ardern-Corris on 15 December 2011.
This interview is part of the collection of nearly 200 oral history recordings freely available on the Culture Vannin website: culturevannin.im/watchlisten/oralhistory/

Culture Vannin exists to promote and support all aspects of culture in the Isle of Man.
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Oral history interview with Breatrice Quirk (15 Dec 2011)

On sale May 6th, 2025

A powerful, unsparing new history of World War II, recasting the conflict as a brutal struggle for survival among declining and ascendant imperial powers

In popular memory, the Second World War was an unalloyed victory for freedom over totalitarianism, marking the demise of the age of empires and the triumph of an American-led democratic order. 

In Scorched Earth, historian Paul Thomas Chamberlin dispatches the myth of World War II as a good war. Instead, he depicts the conflict as it truly was: a massive battle beset by vicious racial atrocities, fought between rival empires across huge stretches of Asia and Europe. The war was sparked by German and Japanese invasions that threatened the old powers’ dominance, not by Allied opposition to fascism. The Allies achieved victory not through pluck and democratic idealism but through savage firebombing raids on civilian targets and the slaughter of millions of Soviet soldiers. The Soviet Union and the United States emerged as hyper-militarized new imperial powers, each laying claim to former Axis holdings across the globe before turning on one another and triggering a new forever war.  
 
Dramatically rendered and persuasively argued, Scorched Earth shows that World War II marked the culmination of centuries of colonial violence and ushered in a new era of imperial struggle.

Scorched Earth By Paul Thomas Chamberlin, Read By Jefferson Mays (Audiobook Excerpt)

This episode of Big Blend Radio’s WAY BACK WHEN History Show features Mir Bahmanyar—acclaimed author, military historian, and TV/film producer—discussing his gripping new book, "The Houdini Club: The Epic Journey and Daring Escapes of the First Army Rangers of WWII," releasing April 22, 2025.

A former U.S. Army Ranger who served in the Second Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, Mir Bahmanyar brings unmatched authenticity to the story of WWII’s elite “Darby’s Rangers.” He shares the untold, uncensored saga of the original Army Ranger battalions—highlighting their brutal training, combat missions across North Africa, Sicily, France, and Italy, and the legendary POW escapes that earned them the nickname “The Houdini Club.”

Bahmanyar draws from firsthand interviews, personal correspondence, and newly uncovered historical sources to portray the raw courage and human drama behind one of America’s most daring military units. His military expertise, deep research, and storytelling make this episode a must-listen for history lovers, military buffs, cultural travelers, and fans of WWII true stories.

Mir Bahmanyar holds a B.A. in History from University of California at Berkeley and an M.A. in War Studies from King's College London. Mir served on the Board of Directors for the 75th Ranger Regiment Association and was an Associate Historian of the World War Two Ranger Battalions Association. Learn more about his work and books: https://www.mirbahmanyar.com/

Subscribe to Big Blend Radio's WAY BACK WHEN History show, here: https://way-back-when-history.podbean.com/

Mir Bahmanyar - The Houdini Club

CELLULOID DREAMS THE MOVIE SHOW host TIM SIKA talks  MOVIES on #TheAfterPartyLive (4-18-25) with program host Kim McCallister:

---#SinnersMovie (**)
---#TheWeddingBanquet (**1/2)
---#theshroudsmovie (***1/2)
---On Swift Horses (****)

Classic Movie Rec of the Week: #TheNunsStory (1959) 
LIVE Fridays at 1:30pm Pacific Time.  Please consider subscribing for free ‪@theafterpartylive‬
YouTube San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle

Film Critic TIM SIKA talks MOVIES on THE AFTER PARTY LIVE  (4-18-25) with program host KIM MCCALLISTER

Escape to Cornwall this summer with the latest heart-warming and uplifting novel from Sunday Times bestselling author Fern Britton! 

 Set by the wild Atlantic coast of Cornwall comes a story about finding home in the most unlikely places.

Cordelia Jago has lost everything. Her mother, her father, her career, her husband and her best friend, her trust. All she has left is a legacy she never expected – and would never have wanted.

Wilder Hoo – The Wild House – is a crumbling Cornish Manor House which she hates, full of unhappy memories for her. It is falling down to the brink of ruin.

Determined to sell-up and forget the past forever, she begins to spruce up its echoing rooms – but the house seems to speak to her and to pull her back to happier times in Cornwall.

With the help of the locals, Cordelia breathes new life into the home, But will she find a way to heal her heart too?

A Cornish Legacy, By Fern Britton, Read by Fern Britton

Why is Russia using World War II as its major historical anchor? Why is the end of World War II seen in Ukraine as a victory of one evil over another, rather than a victory of good over evil? What was Ukraine’s role in World War II? 

Host: Volodymyr Yermolenko, Ukrainian philosopher and writer, the chief editor of UkraineWorld, president of PEN Ukraine.

You can support our work at https://www.patreon.com/c/ukraineworld. 
Your support is crucial as our media increasingly relies on crowdfunding.

You can also support our volunteer trips to the front-line areas, where we provide assistance to both soldiers and civilians - mainly by bringing cars for soldiers and books for civilians. You can support our trips via PayPal at ukraine.resisting@gmail.com.

More information: 

Historian Serhii Plokhii: World War II and the Russian invasion of Ukraine - Vol. 1

https://ukraineworld.org/en/podcasts/ep-223

What Russian Propaganda Says about Ukraine’s History? Analysis and Deconstruction

https://ukraineworld.org/en/articles/books/re-vision-of-history-book


Ukraine, Russia, and World War II

Eighty years ago the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany closed the curtain on six years of total war in Europe, a conflict that tested the courage and forever changed the lives of five young Americans who survived to write astonishing personal narratives of their experiences, from the frontlines of the Battle of the Bulge to the navigator’s seat of a B-17 bomber.

To mark the 80th anniversary of VE Day, West Point professor Elizabeth D. Samet, editor of <a href="https://www.loa.org/books/world-war-ii-memoirs-the-european-theater/"><em>World War II Memoirs: The European Theater</em></a>, joins National Book Award–winning author and Marine veteran Phil Klay for a conversation about these classics of modern war literature: remarkable memoirs that capture the immediacy of history in the making and the impact of wartime on combatants and noncombatants alike.

The views expressed in this interview do not reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Army, the Department of Defense, or the U.S. Government.


Remembering Victory: World War II Memoirs of the European Theater

On sale May 20th, 2025

From the New York Times bestselling author of Washington's Spies, "a page-turning thriller" (James M. Scott) about ​one of the greatest heists in history: the U.S. Navy’s clandestine capture of a Nazi U-boat at the climax of World War II.

Shortly before noon on June 4, 1944, the sonar operator on a destroyer prowling off the coast of West Africa heard a sharp, metallic ping. The sound could mean only one thing: The German submarine that their hunter-killer group had been tracking, U-505, was lurking somewhere below. The ensuing struggle between exhausted hunter and venomous prey would make history when American sailors boarded an enemy warship at sea for the first time since the War of 1812.

That day’s victory was the culmination of an unrelenting campaign against the Nazi submarine threat by the U.S. Navy’s “Tenth Fleet”—a mysterious unit that could predict the locations and movement of Hitler’s U-boats. Run by Commander Kenneth Knowles, Tenth Fleet had guided Captain Dan Gallery to U-505; to repay the favor, Gallery was going to steal an Enigma machine for him.
 
Now all they had to do was to make an entire U-boat, its crew, and its secrets vanish into thin air . . .
 
In this swashbuckling adventure story, bestselling historian Alexander Rose draws on long-classified encrypted documents and intercepted German transmissions to reveal in full, for the first time, how an owlish egghead and a glory-seeking buccaneer teamed up to score the richest prize on the high seas.

Phantom Fleet By Alexander Rose, Read By Jonathan Todd Ross (Audiobook Excerpt)

First-hand memories of witnessing aeroplanes crashing off the coast of Jurby during the Second World War, as recalled by a member of the Land Army working in the fields close to RAF Jurby at that time.

This is an extract from the oral history interview with Jean Skinner, recorded by Liz Brand with the assistance of Mrs Skinner's daughter, Winnie Callister, on 8 August 2006.
The full interview is available online here: https://culturevannin.im/watchlisten/oralhistory/jean-skinner-889897/

Culture Vannin exists to promote and support all aspects of culture in the Isle of Man.
https://culturevannin.im/
www.facebook.com/culturevannin/
www.instagram.com/culturevannin/
www.youtube.com/@culturevannin8486

Watching WW2 plane crashes from RAF Jurby

Library of America is a nonprofit publisher and cultural organization dedicated to preserving America's best and most significant writing.

Grammy-winning audiobook publisher. Authors include James Patterson, David Baldacci, and Michael Connelly. Earbuds encouraged. Follow us on Twitter at @HachetteAudio.

Publishers of award-winning fiction and non-fiction audiobooks for adults and children. Listen to exclusive clips from our books and free audioook extracts here on Soundcloud.

Promoting and supporting all aspects of culture in the Isle of Man.

Culture Vannin awards grants and initiates schemes whilst supporting the work of development officers for music and language. The work of Culture Vannin has been fundamental to the revival of interest and support for Manx language and culture over the last twenty years.

Culture Vannin is the trading name for the Manx Heritage Foundation, registered charity 333 in the Isle of Man.

A podcast by UkraineWorld.org, a multimedia project about Ukraine run by Internews Ukraine. Explaining Ukraine, its politics, society and its culture. Support us: patreon.com/ukraineworld

Select Big Blend Radio interviews that are featured in the digital, interactive Big Blend Radio & TV Magazine and Parks & Travel Magazine. Hosted by Nancy J. Reid and Lisa D. Smith, mother-daughter travel team and publishers.

New tracks tagged #world war ii