July 1st already?

Good morning bookies! Stand by for news and comment.

The 4th of July is coming up soon, I hope you all have something delectable to read. How else would you celebrate American Independence than by reading whatever you want?

For those following the 2009 European Adventure Tour, the next segment is coming shortly.

*** Western writer Don Coldsmith has died. I am not familiar with his work, but in reading his obituary it was obvious that here was yet another writer I wish that I had time to read. His Spanish Bit books are about the Plains Indians in the time when the Spanish have just introduced the horse and how it changed their lives. No doubt I would love them. They sound like a great gift for someone who loves westerns and history.

The Passing of Don Coldsmith

*** The horrors of the Nazi camp system seem to encompass every aspect of human existence, including prostitution. In a new book to re released in Germany in July, The Concentration Camp Bordello: Sexual Forced Labor in National Socialistic Concentration Camps, Schonigh Verlag, author Robert Sommer has collected the most comprehensive data yet made available on the women who survived the camps by serving as prostitutes for both the soldiers and the inmates. He also explores the issue of whether or not these women were 'volunteers', a claim which has made it easier to overlook this crime.

One more horror in the long list of Nazi horrors

*** And, as if to prove that new books on World War II may be expected on an almost daily basis, there is a new one on FDR's efforts to help Britain during 1941, when she fought on alone against Germany after the Fall of France. To Keep the British Isles Afloat: FDR's Men in Churchill's London 1941 by Thomas Parrish, documents the efforts of FDR's two point men, Harry Hopkins and Averill Harriman, to simultaneously encourage England and rouse the USA to the dangers of Germany.

Since I haven't read this book the one caveat that I might have is if the author plays up the danger of a German attack on mainland America. If he does, then I lose interest, because that simply was not going to happen. However, I will assume that a recognized author such as Parrish will not make such a silly mistake.

FDR's fight to help England in 1941