For all you conspiracy theorists out there...

...and you know who you are, here's a brand new 'Hitler got away' story to chew on. I thought we were done with these many years ago, but fortunately the authors of a brand new book have brought back one of our favorite conspiracy theories. Shades of the Twilight Zone!

DID ADOLF HITLER ESCAPE?

According to the book by Simon Dunstan and Gerrard Williams, Adolf Hitler escaped

Monday October 17,2011

By Adrian Lee

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AS Russian tanks closed in on Berlin in 1945, two figures slipped away from the devastated Reich Chancellery through a secret tunnel.

Despite the shells bombarding the German capital the roads were still clear and sufficiently wide for a transport aircraft to land.

Soon the middle ­aged couple were safely on board a plane and captain Peter Baumgart began taxiing away.

Although he was an experienced pilot and the take­off was routine, the pilot was ashen­faced and sweating.

Perhaps, however, he summoned the courage to sneak a glance over his shoulder at his cargo. On board were Adolf Hitler and his mistress Eva Braun.

This sensational claim that the Nazi leader and his mistress fled Berlin at the end of the second World War to begin a new life in Argentina is made in the new book Grey Wolf: The Escape Of Adolf Hitler.

The authors claim they have “compelling evidence” that there was a carefully orchestrated plot to spirit Hitler out of Germany once it became clear that the tide of war was turning against the Nazis.

According to the book by Simon Dunstan and Gerrard Williams, Adolf Hitler escaped

On April 27, three days before he is officially said to have committed suicide, the Führer agreed a body double to take his place. an unknown actress stepped in for Eva.

According to the book by Simon Dunstan and Gerrard Williams the genuine Nazi leader and his mistress were first flown to Tonder in Denmark, where the party took a second flight to the Luftwaffe base at Travemunde.

Changing planes again they boarded a Long­range Ju 252 and flew to the Spanish military base at Reus, south of Barcelona.

From here General Franco supplied a further aircraft in Spanish markings to fly Hitler to Fuerteventura on the Canary islands.

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A day later he and Eva boarded a U-­boat, which was the signal for their doubles in Berlin to be executed.

Under heavy Russian gunfire their remains were incinerated in the garden.

By the time the Russians reached Hitler’s bunker and found the fakes their real prey was deep beneath the atlantic Ocean.

The most audacious ruse in history was complete and it is claimed that Hitler spent his remaining 17 years living peacefully in a Nazi enclave in Argentina.

A fortune in looted gold and jewellery, loaded on to the submarine during the escape, ensured that he wanted for nothing.

Gerrard Williams, a journalist and film director, says: “There is no forensic evidence that Hitler died in the bunker. The Nazi high command had been making plans since 1943 to get out of Germany and to set up a Fourth Reich, mainly in South America, so they had no need to die in Germany. There was a very effective route out of the country.

“We never wanted this story to be true but the horrifying reality is, we believe, that at the end of the war the most evil man in the world escaped from Germany and lived out his life in Argentina.”

It is known that Argentina was sympathetic to the Hitler regime – even supplying fake paperwork to help them escape from Europe – and became a haven for many prominent nazis after the war, evil men such as Josef Mengele, Adolf Eichmann and Klaus Barbie.

The entire plan is claimed to have been masterminded by Hitler’s private secretary Martin Bormann and “Grey Wolf” was the codename for the Nazi leader.

The soviets always gave conflicting information about the discovery of the bodies in the Führerbunker and what happened in the chaos of the end of the war.

The remains were said to have been buried but later exhumed and moved to different locations, apparently to avoid Hitler’s grave becoming a shrine.

However it later emerged that the Russians kept a piece of his skull with a distinctive bullet hole. The fragment was always said to be incontrovertible proof that Hitler had indeed died by his own hand in 1945.

Then two years ago archaeologist and bone specialist Nick Bellantoni concluded that the skull really belonged to a woman aged under 40 and not Hitler, who was 56 when he supposedly died.

Bellantoni also dis­ counted the possibility that the skull was that of Braun because she was said in reports from the bunker to have killed herself by taking cyanide and would therefore not have suffered a bullet wound.

Intriguingly, declassified FBi files from the late Forties also contain a reference to Hitler having escaped Berlin and begun a new life in South America.

For almost 30 years J Edgar Hoover and his FBI maintained a detailed dossier on the Nazi leader and investigated any report that indicated he still was alive, including dispatching agents to Argentina on several occasions.

When US president Harry S Truman asked Joseph Stalin in 1945 whether Hitler was dead, the Soviet leader is said to have replied bluntly, “No”.

As late as the Fifties US president Dwight D Eisenhower declared: “We have been unable to unearth one bit of tangible evidence of Hitler’s death.”

At the end of the war the death of Hitler was a neat conclusion. It was not surprising that the world lapped up the stories of his suicide without asking too many searching questions.

Williams, who spent five years researching the book and made numerous visits to Argentina, says: “Everyone wanted to close the chapter very quickly because the Cold War was just starting. It’s only now Argentina is once more a thriving democracy that the real stories are coming out. The more files and reports we looked at, the more we realised the death in the bunker was a fiction.”

The book includes testimony from the pilot who “flew Hitler and Eva Braun out of Berlin” and a dozen other witnesses.

According to the book 53 days after leaving Spain by submarine the couple arrived off the Argentine coast, south of Mar Del Plata. The Führer and his mistress were quietly but enthusiastically welcomed.

Hitler would live there in a village in the foothill of the Andes until 1962, planning the rebirth of the Nazis. It is claimed that he and Eva did marry but separated in 1953 when she moved to Nequén.

The book also contains the testimony of bodyguards, cooks and doctors who claim to have worked for Hitler. The authors say they have evidence that pinpoints the exact house where he lived in Patagonia. A rather grand wooden chalet-style building, it must have reminded Hitler of the Bavarian Alps.

The Führer is claimed to have died on February 13, 1962 at 3pm. He was said to be demented but still clinging to his dream of Nazi domination.

There is a chilling postscript revealed in the new book. Before they separated Adolf and Eva are claimed to have had two daughters. According to the authors both are still alive in South America.

If this account is to be taken seriously Hitler’s bloodline survives with them.

http://www.express.co.uk/features/view/277962/

Hitler's Rocket Soldiers

Here's a history that doesn't have much history for you bookies. Not much has been written about the men and organization of the German rocket warfare units of World War II. The rockets themselves? Yes. The scientists, such as Werner von Braun? Yes. But the men who did the actual deploying and firing? No.

For the WW2 buffs and those who love them, this is a site to bookmark.

Hitler's Rocket Soldiers

The Men who fired the V2s against England
Murray R. Barber and Michael Keuer

Buy Online

‘We V2 soldiers fulfilled our tasks with the knowledge that every firing meant innocent people lost their lives…’

This substantial book provides an invaluable contribution to the operational history of the A4 (V2) rocket. Little has been written about the secret activities of the special troops whose role was to protect and fire the operational A4 (V2) rocket under field conditions in World War Two. Carefully researched, the book goes a long way to filling this void. As the result of many years tracking down the few remaining veterans the authors have complied eleven individual biographies of rocket troops whose pre-combat occupations included a scientist, chemist, engineer, toolmaker and builder. The text is written clearly and concisely and is well referenced.
The book provides a fascinating insight into the day-to-day lives of the rocket troops including their personal combat experiences, attitudes, humour and interpersonal relations. Particularly intriguing are their interactions with such Peenemünde notables as Dr. Wernher von Braun and Major General Walter Dornberger. Light is also thrown on the establishment of the field units and the training of the troops. The fact that several of the veterans interviewed have subsequently passed away highlights the urgency and importance of collecting such historical material. The scholarly work is highly recommended to any one with an interest in the history of Hitler’s rocket troops and the field deployment of the world’s first long-range rocket.

Brett Gooden author of Projekt Natter - Last of the Wonder Weapons and Spaceport Australia

In the final, desperate months of World War Two, at a time when the German war machine was considered by the Allies to be an almost spent force, Adolf Hitler unleashed a new weapon against England and western Europe that fell from the silence of the Earth’s upper atmosphere and the edge of space. It was a weapon that struck fear into the hearts and minds of wartime civilians; it came without warning and defence was impossible. This was an unseen threat that fell at supersonic speeds, levelling suburban streets to dust in seconds, terrorising the residents of London and Antwerp – this was the V2 Rocket.

The V2 – ‘Vergeltungswaffen Zwei’ (Vengeance Weapon 2), designed by the rocket scientist and engineer, Wernher von Braun, and his colleagues at the secret Nazi research centre at Peenemünde, was the most sophisticated weapon developed in Europe during the war. Following the end of hostilities, von Braun and many in his team transferred their allegiance to the United States and subsequently went on to design the mighty Saturn V that took the Americans to the moon. The experiences of von Braun’s rocket team are well documented, but somewhat surprisingly, some aspects of the V2 story remain largely uncovered. This is especially true from the German perspective and more specifically, the view of the men who formed the firing teams for this formidable weapon that embraced supersonic technology. From September 1944 to early 1945, V2 launch teams fired more than 3,000 rockets, each with a high-explosive one-ton warhead, at targets in England, France, Belgium, Holland and even within Germany itself. Many rockets were fired from mobile launch sites in The Hague and from concealed wooded areas hidden from Allied aircraft, using fleets of modern, purpose-built transporters and trailers with sophisticated ancillary and support vehicles.

For the first time, this book tells the story of the V2 through the eyes and experiences not only of the men who fired the missiles at targets such as London, Norwich, Antwerp and Paris, but also of some of the military scientists and technicians involved in its development. The authors have spent many years tracking down and interviewing the few surviving veterans of these little-known and secretive units and have unearthed new and rare information from first-hand accounts. These are the unique recollections of the ‘Rocket Soldiers’ who have spoken candidly to the authors about their wartime duties.

The accounts show that, mostly, they were not stereotypical and ideologically indoctrinated ‘Aryan warriors’, but very ordinary soldiers and technicians living through extraordinary times, handling the most sophisticated weapon ever developed in pre-nuclear Europe. The book also describes the development of German rocketry following the end of the First World War and the technology embodied within the V2. The veterans tell of their first encounters with the awesome new rocket and how, having survived the devastating RAF raid on Peenemünde, training was dispersed to test sites in Poland. They recall the move to forward firing positions, gun battles with the Resistance and the start of the rocket offensive. In truth, the more battle-experienced veterans knew that the V2 was a waste of valuable human and matériel resources – a last-ditch hope to save a desperate regime. Conversely, the book illustrates how inexperienced troops drafted directly to the V2 units from basic training, vainly hoped and believed that the fortunes of war would turn in Germany’s favour. The veterans tell of their desperate experiences when the inevitable defeat came, as they were rushed to the east to defend Berlin where so many Rocket Soldiers lost their lives. Yet while some V2 troops ended the war with tears of regret for a robbed youth, others shed tears of frustration, knowing that they would never live through such extraordinary times again.

Hitler’s Rocket Soldiers forms an important new contribution to our understanding of the German war machine and its technology. Using never-before tapped resources, this book will be a revelation and valuable resource to all military historians and those with an interest in rocket development.

The Authors

Murray R. Barber F.R.A.S., was born in 1956 and is married with two children. He lives in Devon, England where he pursues several business interests that are related to astronomy. He has developed and written curriculum support information for the teaching of astronomy as well as the history of ancient Egypt, which is in use in planetariums worldwide. Since his schooldays he has always been interested in the history of World War Two and in particular its aviation. The V2 rocket represents a cross-over of his two main interests – the V2 being the very first man-made object to enter space and which was to lead, ultimately, to vehicles travelling beyond Pluto. Through the International V2 Research Group he met Michael Keuer and, following visits to see the remains of the former Peenemünde research and development establishment on the Baltic coast, they decided to study, together, the history of the V2 rocket. It was to fill the void of first-hand accounts of the operational use of the weapon, that the idea for this book was born. Murray is a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Michael Keuer was born in 1959 in Hannover, Germany and is a senior software developer in a veterinarian pharmaceutical supply company. He has always held a keen interest in historical technical developments and the personalities behind scientific advancement. Following the reunification of Germany, he was able to visit the previously restricted area of Peenemünde to see the remains of the development works from where the V2 rocket was created and launched. During World War Two his grandfather worked as a technical skilled worker at Peenemünde and, indeed, Michael’s father was born just 32 kilometres away from the cradle of modern space science. As his interest grew, he met Murray Barber and the two decided to research the reminiscences of the last few surviving men involved in the military development and employment of this extraordinary weapon of war.

The Architect of Kokoda

A bright good morning to you, bookies! It's cool and bright in West Tennessee today. I have neglected those of you who either are World War two buffs, or know someone who is, so let's rectify that by linking up to a few reviews of recent books. The scholarship on World War Two never stops, and someone who is writing just such a book can tell you, and book sales are better than ever. So, without further ado, the review, this one from the Coolum News of Coolum Beach, Australia.

Michael Roser | 22nd September 2011

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Tags book review, the architect of kokoda

Bert Kienzle is the "man who made the Kokoda Track".

THE ARCHITECT OF KOKODA

Author: Robyn Kienzle

Publisher: Hachette Australia

RRP: $35

THE name of Bert Kienzle rates an almost fleeting mention in many of the excellent books written about the famous Kokoda campaign in New Guinea in the Second World War.

The famous battles which raged over the Kokoda Track are credited with turning the tide of the Japanese advances through the Pacific and saving Australia from possible invasion.

The Japanese were stopped by fierce Australian defence, poor supply lines and the efforts by men like Bert who pioneered the trail and then organised vast numbers of native carriers to carry food and ammunition to the troops and evacuate the wounded.

Crucially, he found areas high in the mountains where supplies could be air-dropped to exhausted troops needing lots of help against a determined enemy.

His knowledge of Papua-New Guinea was crucial in helping Australia's rattled army, firstly retreat in the face of fierce opposition and then turn and attack with such ferocity that the Japanese were eventually forced out of the territory.

This is why Bert's daughter-in-law Robyn Kienzle has described Bert as the "man who made the Kokoda Track".

This excellent book describes his progression from a young boy in Fiji, to his family's internment in the First World War as German sympathisers, to his early work in New Guinea and then development of plantations and gold mines in the Kokoda area in the north of the country.

His life reads like a Boys Own manual of adventures in a unique time in history.

This is an excellent book, well written and incredibly interesting.

Robyn Kienzle has done much to fill in a gap in the Kokoda story and give Bert Kienzle the recognition he justly deserves.

She quotes Peter FitzSimons, author of the best-seller Kokoda, as saying of Bert, "In my humble opinion, Bert Kienzle did more than another single man to make Australian victory possible."

http://www.coolum-news.com.au/story/2011/09/22/book-review-architect-kokoda/

Erich von Manstein

Groan...good morning bookies. Your friendly neighborhood bookseller is feeling his age today after taking all 4 of his dogs to a farm yesterday to let them run free. Of course, said bookseller had to make sure they didn't go off chasing a random deer or something, so he wound up walking and running about as much as they did. And today he's paying the price.

As many of you know, I recently bought a massive collection of graphic novels, which all tend to have a certain flavor to them. Sort of punk-combat. Anyway, the name Erich von Manstein would serve perfectly as the name of a hero (or villain) in such a book, wouldn't it?' Erich von Manstein and His Morningstar of Death', or some such. Of course, the real Manstein was a German general during WW2, one of the best of a rather illustrious pantheon of military masters. If this sounds like I am elevating Nazis, I'm not. But I'm a WW2 historian and making evaluations is part of the gig. The Germans had the best generals of the war and that's just how it was. And Manstein was in the top 3.

So it's surprising that he hasn't had a major biography, a situation that has now been rectified with Retired British General Mungo Melvins' new "Manstein: Hitler's Greatest General." The reviewer shows the general ineptitude you find among such people, criticizing the book for precisely what would make it interesting, an in-depth look at Manstein's military maneuvers. If the reviewer does not like such stuff then what qualifies him to review the book? He eats up the coverage and inferences of Manstein's involvement in the Holocaust, however, which is de rigeur for reviewers these days. Military history of Germany now has to include something about the persecution of minorities within the Third Reich.

Frankly, that's not why I would read a book about 'Hitler's Greatest General.' I want to know what made him great. I already knew that the German generals were complicit in the Holocaust. I've studied the Holocaust in minute detail, and if I want to continue my research in that direction, I will. But there are far too few strictly military books being published these days, and this one appears to have missed a great opportunity to fill in that gap. So maybe I'll get the book and read just the first half, about the military matters. Or, after reading Nagorski's review, maybe I won't read the book at all.

Ghost Train From Hiroshima

Good morning bookies! It cloudy and grey and 35 degrees in West Tennessee. Nothing like weatherman's spring, eh?

Charles Pellegrino's Last Train From Hiroshima was widely acclaimed, won awards, was optioned for a movie by no less a personage than James Cameron and generally was accepted as great historical writing. Books implying that America was wrong for using the A-bomb are nothing new, of course, or telling pitiful stories of Japanese civilians who were there when hell came to Earth, or any one of about a thousand other agendas that seem to get wrapped around any controversial subject. And few subjects are as controversial as the sole use of atomic weapons.

The big problem with Pellegrino's book is that, well, some of it didn't happen. Indeed, it would appear that a lot of it was made up out of whole cloth. For political reasons? I don't know. Did Pellegrino get duped? Maybe. Or was this nothing more than greed from an author who has known controversy before? I don't know. Whatever the reasons, Pellegrino's publisher has pulled the book, which means they can no longer stand by it.

To be clear, however: I am damned glad we dropped those bombs. Not that I enjoy the thought of civilians being incinerated, but that was already happening. The Tokyo fire raids killed at least as many civilians as the Hiroshima attack, but you never hear about those. Because the Japanese were willing to accept such losses to keep the war going. If the two atom bombs had not worked the only alternative was to invade Japan.

I had 4 uncles serving in the military at the time, 3 in the Army, 1 in the Seabees. All 4 were scheduled to have been included in the invasion of Japan, an invasion that would have cost more than 1 million US casualties, based on what happened at Okinawa. Chances are good I would have lost at least one of my uncles, and one was too many.

Oops.

Watch on the Rhine

Hiya Bookies! Sorry for the delay in blogging, life happens.

65 years ago today, December 16, 1944, the Germans launched Operation Watch on the Rhine, known to them as the Ardennes Offensive and to the Allies as the Battle of the Bulge. There have been literally hundreds of books written about this battle, from both perspectives, and in my experience many of them would make a fine gift for the World War II buff. In particular I like Charles MacDonald's A Time For Trumpets. He was a company commander for the US during the battle, his prose is clean and clear.

But for those in the US, especially, it is necessary to put the Bulge into context. At the time most US generals panicked when the attack came. The German plan was to attack a weak spot in the American lines, break through and cross the Meuse River, then swing north and re-take Antwerp, thus cutting off all US, British and Canadian troops to their north and east. In short, to re-create their crushing victory of 1940. The problem was that the Germans simply didn't have the manpower to pull it off, and the German General Staff knew it. The only person wholly in favor of throwing in the very last of Germany's offensive striking power, not to mention her last troops reserves and every drop of gasoline they could siphon out of the pipeline, was Adolf Hitler. And anything less than total victory would be a defeat, making the subsequent Allied counter-attack all the more successful as fewer Germans would be around to stop it.

And that's more or less what happened. The Germans attacked but never had the weight necessary to even cross the Meuse River, much less attack Antwerp. They inflicted a lot of casualties but suffered more than twice as many as they caused. Patton knew right away that is was a huge mistake and took advantage. Hitler made things worse by not allowing the attack to be called off even when it had clearly failed. When the Allies finally did counter-attack later in 1945, there were tens of thousands fewer Germans left to defend their homeland, and more than 1,000 irreplaceable tanks no longer on hand to help.

But just because we can see this clearly now doesn't mean it was so clear then, nor does it alleviate the suffering our troops went through in one of the coldest winters on record. When you see the aged veteran who suffered through this ordeal, throw him a salute and remind him how thankful we are for his service. Sitting in a foxhole covered with ice and snow as German tanks were heading for you would not have been any easier if you knew that it was a huge strategic mistake. It would have been just as terrifying as if you were fighting to hold the Germans out of Washington, DC. It would have been just as cold as winter is anywhere, and if the Germans shot you it would not have mattered how much faster their foolish attack might end the war.

The dangers of re-reading a book

Good morning bookies!

Bright sunshine today in West Tennessee, but cold, high 30's, which to me might as well be Antarctica.

No link today, just a passing thought. I guess you all know I'm researching a book dealing with World War II. Whether or not the book ever actually gets written, I don't know, but I research it daily. Last night about 11:30 I was re-reading (for the umpteenth time) The Last 100 Days by John Toland, a book I probably could repeat large swatches off by heart. And what did I suddenly find that I had never found before? A major error. How could I have missed it? Moreover, how could his editors have missed it, not to mention the historian himself?

On page 205 he mentions that Sepp Dietrich's Sixth Panzer Army had lost 30% of its tanks and AFVs attempting to relieve Budapest.

Ummm...no, it didn't. Budapest fell on February 11-12, with breakouts continuing for a few more days by small groups. The three relief attempts in January and February were all carried out by Sixth Army, commanded by Hermann Balck, not Sixth Panzer Army commanded by Sepp Dietrich. Sixth Panzer Army wasn't even fully in Hungary yet and did not actually fight in that area until the offensive on the Gran River later in the month. How had I never noticed this before? And how many other errors have I overlooked in this book?

It just goes to show you that re-reading a favorite book isn't always a good thing.

Will secrets be revealed?

Happy Halloween, bookies!

Those who have followed this blog for any length of time know that your friendly neighborhood bookseller is something of a World War II buff. Aside from working daily on his own book on a fairly obscure part of this war he reads, eats, watches and absorbs through osmosis just about anything presented about the war. And before you ask, he doesn't know why. This is how it has always been.

Anyway, there is a new book coming that has him truly excited. Fritz Darges was one of Adolf Hitler's SS adjutants during the war. Oddly, he was not a member of 1st SS Division Adolf Hitler, the unit specifically tasked with protecting him, but instead was a member of 5th SS Division Viking, the pan-European unit that included not only Germans but French, Dutch, Norwegians, you name it. Darges died recently and his family is honoring his wishes that his memoirs be published after his death. Historians are champing at the bit to read them, me included, for a variety of reasons. Mostly, though, they are hoping that Darges will provide eye witness testimony that Hitler was directing the implementation of the Holocaust. To date nothing has surfaced that ties him directly to the Holocaust leaving apologists to blame everything on Himmler.

I'm interested in the inner workings of the German High Command, as well as the battlefield accounts of a man serving with perhaps the most idealistic of all the Waffen SS formations. Doesn't that sound like fun?

What secrets are in Fritz Darges' memoirs?

The books that never were, or will be

Good morning bookies!

As you all know this blog is all about books. A boy, his books and a bunch of words. However, today's blogette is about books that may never be written, because the author has been arrested. And what is the crime of this evil-doer? Trying to find out what happened to German prisoners of war during the Stalin Era in the USSR.

See, those in power in Russia don't think Stalin was such a bad guy. Sure, a few tens of millions of Soviet citizens were killed on his orders during his reign, but so what? Just a necessity, right? Those are the numbers generally put out but coming up with an accurate count is hard, the USSR wasn't exactly what you would call an open society.

So today we live in an era we can call Stalin's Rehabilitation, when Vlad Putin and his buddies want to present Stalin as more misunderstood than anything else. And along comes a researcher writing a book about the fate of Wehrmacht POWs and bingo! He's arrested. For what? Does it matter? His apartment is cleaned out, his research materials confiscated. And now those two books he was going to write that would, no doubt, have added tremendously to our understanding of WW2 in Russia, may never get written.

The new Russia sure looks an awful lot like the old Russia.

Gluecksfall

Good morning bookies!

Today's new word of the day titles this blog: gluecksfall. To be accurate, there should be an umlaut over the 'u' and no 'e' at all, but that's what happens when you write German with an English keyboard. The word means 'stroke of good luck', and that's what happened to Germany when an aging GI decided to return two books that he took as souvenirs during World War II.

As a bookie myself the part of this story that stuck out most was when the gentleman described walking into an underground salt mine filled floor to ceiling with antique books. Sure, they're in German. So what? That's what online translators are for.

Aging GI returns souvenir books to the Germans

Good news, new news and bad news

Good morning bookies! Stand by for news and comment.

The 'life comes at you' stuff that has eaten up my time in the last few months has been at it again, so my apologies for not having a blog up lately. This could continue for a while yet, but I hope not. Anyway, let's get to today's news and comment.

*** Ah, leave it to the French to make something good out of something very bad. In this case, the very bad part was surrendering to the Germans during World War II. Sure, the downside was pretty drastic, having German soldiers getting big discounts and the best tables in all of the swankiest restaurants, putting up with those drab Gestapo men standing on street corners giving you the creeps. No fun. But the upside! Ah, the upside. If you were a madam in a bordello, or even just a common streetwalker, those were the best of times.

At least, that's the claim in a new book that has France all a-twitter. (No, not Twitter, a-twitter.) 1940-1945, Erotic Years by Patrick Buisson is a history of the French sex business during the German occupation. According to many of those Buisson interviewed for his book those years were an absolutely howling good time, business was booming for brothels and the Germans were just fun-loving teutons far from home who only wanted to have fun.

Quite predictably, the French aren't wild about this book, portraying as it does a harsh reality many would like to forget, namely, that not only did the French Army gets its butt kicked badly but the French people weren't all that upset about it. C'est la vie!

When the Germans came it was party time for the French!

*** I'm a big movie buff, especially good war movies, and double especially war movies about World Wars 1 and 2. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of good WW2 movies, but far fewer about WW1. I mean, once you've shown the horror of living in a mud-filled trench for months at a time, with machine guns ready to slice you in half and the occasional artillery barrage that might obliterate all traces you were ever there, there just isn't all that much left to portray. Except for the very small number of movies about the war in the air. And one of the best of those was The Blue Max. George Peppard was great, of course, but the whole thing was well done.

Did you know that it was based on a book? It was. And that book's author has, sadly, just passed away. Jack Hunter was 87 and lived in one of the great cities of America, St. Augustine, FL.

Blue Max author has written his last chapter

*** I have to admit that reading stories about great book collections being auctioned is something that I always find fascinating. I don't really know why. Maybe it's just the chance to see what other people collect, to wonder where they found this or that rarity. Anyway, he's a short piece about a major collection going under the hammer down under.

New Zealand collection auctioned

*** When Burt Reynolds posed for Playgirl magazine there was quite an uproar. How could a man possibly be a pin-up? Women didn't want or need that sort of thing, did they? It was considered bad form and, to a male eye, with good reason. But Burt wasn't the first, oh no, not by a long shot. No doubt some ancient Roman had his likeness carved into a wall somewhere for the admiration of the girls. But even if Trajan wasn't a pin-up in his day, we know someone who was: Hermann Goering.

That's right, the Reichsmarshall himself, was once a glamour boy for women of the Reich to swoon over. Hitler's Number Two was considered an ideal of German manhood, at least, he was before he gained so much weight that he looked like a bipedal walrus. And, largely forgotten today, Goering really was a hero of the First World War. He was an ace, a very good pilot and the last commander of the famed Richthofen Flying Circus. Goebbel's propaganda machine had some actual grist for its mill with Goering, which must have surely irritated the club-footed little doctor no end, since the two men could not stand each other.

I do take exception with one piece of the article, however. National Socialism wasn't so much a fascist regime as it was a hodge-podge of whatever kept the economy from collapsing at the moment.

Thank God he wasn't wearing panty hose

*** Just when you thought Ebay could not do anything more stupid than they already have, along comes John Donahoe to prove you wrong. The doofus who ruined the company last year is now saying it may take another 3 or 4 years to completely destroy it. Not in so many words, mind you, but from the beginning nothing this man has said has come through, none of his changes have proved beneficial, the stock price is less than half of what it was...one can only wonder what he's got on the board of directors that allows him to keep his job.

Ebay's Donahoe says more stupid things to go along with all of the other stupid things he's said

*** Here's something you don't see every day: Holocaust victims being pursued as terrorists. Jews in Lithuania who escaped captivity when the Nazis marched in, who then went on to fight a partisan war against the Nazis and their countrymen who helped the Nazis, are now being investigated for those actions.

In truth, Lithuania had no good choice. In 1940 they ceased to exist as a nation when the Soviet Union overran them without a fight. Stalin wasted no time in rounding up and executing thousands of Lithuanians who might oppose his rule, so is it any wonder that when the Germans came through on their anti-Bolshevik march the Lithuanians supported them as liberators?

That's not to make excuses, merely to point out that things aren't always as cut and dried as they seem. Anyway, this relates to books because much of the evidence against one of these so-called criminals is his memoir, The Partisan. The claim is made that members of a partisan band executed Lithuanians who aided the Germans. Seems pretty thin to me, but then again, I'm not a Lithuanian prosecutor.

Be careful what you put in your autobiography

*** For lovers of fine literature, fans of compelling thrillers and researchers of obscure history, this week brought the worst possible news: Dan Brown has written a sequel to The Da Vinci Code. That's right, as if writing the 2nd worst book of all time wasn't bad enough, now this hack has to slaughter a whole new generation of trees to publish more worthless nonsense. The only question for me is, after using every cliche known to the English language in his previous book, what will he do for an encore? Use the same ones again? Find cliches from other languages?

Fortunately, I won't read this tripe and won't care. May God have mercy on those who will.

A small and wonderful world, despite the US Congress

Good morning bookies! Stand by for news and comment.

*** The lunacy of banning children's books as dangerous lurches forward as the US Congress wastes its time on non-issues and allows the important stuff to lie fallow. Seriously, think about this. In an age where we are doing everything we can to encourage kids to read more, the US Congress wants to ban children's books because of their possible lead content! What? Is this some bad joke? Can this even be real?

Unfortunately, it can be and it is. You have to wonder how the world survived before do-gooders were given the power to regulate anything and everything. How long will it be before they regulate the content of the books?

The US Congress wastes time determining whether to ban children's books over a non-issue

*** A new end-of-the-World-War-2- history has been purchased by British publisher John Murray, written by Michael Jones. This one will focus on the end in the east and will be published in 2011.

Okay, I'm a sucker for end of the war histories. Indeed, of the two books I am currently writing, one is an end of the war history focusing on the East. But by and large I have a problem with British historians about this period, because they tend to make the American commanders appear to be more idiotic than they really were, and the English less so. (Let's be clear: there were damned few good Allied commanders in either army, at least at the very top.) Since this seems like it will deal with the Wehrmacht and the Red Army, one assumes there will be some objectivity. Let's hope there's no Montgomery worship.

Another new history coming soon

*** The internet has certainly changed things more than we ever expected, hasn't it? This past Christmas I received a query about a book that I was selling, the customer wanted it for her brother as a Christmas present. She was in Boston, no problem, I had the book, all was well. But her family lives here in Memphis! Wow, small world. And she was coming home for Christmas, could I meet her and deliver the book in person so that there was no risk of it being damaged in shipping? Sure, I've done that a few times. I gave her my phone number to call when she hit town.

Well, when she called to make arrangements, it turned out that we were both, independently, headed for exactly the same food store at exactly the same time. Can you say 'synchronicity?' I met her there, delivered the book, and discovered a new and wonderful website that she recommended (because she works there), one devoted to regional histories, one I had never noticed but instantly fell in love with.

The History Press

Let's face it, if you can't find something here then you aren't trying. And, what's more, there is even a book signing event that I can promote right here and now for one of their titles. John Elkington is signing a history of the rebirth of Beale Street at Davis Kidd this coming Tuesday at 7 pm. As Memphians know, Elkington was in on this from the beginning, long before anyone even remembered that Memphis had a downtown, much less than it could be a tourist destination.

John Elkington signing info

I feel pretty certain that you can find something at History Press for your area and interest. It's one of those sites you bookmark for future reference as the perfect place to find unusual gifts.

Rumors, interviews and a death sentence

Good morning bookies! Stand by for news and comment.

First, thank you to all who read yesterday's Top 10 list for 2008. That blog set a record for visitors and I like to think that at least some of them weren't ranting about what I got wrong. It's gratifying to do this and to think someone out there actually enjoys reading it. And now, speaking of reading-

***-Larry McMurtry is not what you would call shy with his opinions and, while I have never had the pleasure of meeting him, I can certainly agree with much of what the says. But I pray that he's wrong in this linked article, in which he predicts the demise of reading by children. And while I understand his point I am encouraged by those rare moments when I attend an event with a children's author, such as T.A. Barron at Southern Festival of Books three years ago, where literally hundreds of kids show up to get their books signed.

Larry McMurtry gives a short, rare interview

*** World War II books remain as popular as ever, as noted by the forthcoming publication of Outbreak by London's Imperial War Museum senior historian Terry Chapman. It centers on the months preceding and just after the coming of war to Britain in 1939, and seems to be something of an oral history. Should be interesting, as my reading indicates most British knew war was coming and were resigned to it.

A new World War II history coming soon

*** Rumors are afoot that BookExpo Canada will be cancelled this year due to the economy. Not that I was going but it seems a shame if this happens.

*** So, I thought that I was fairly well in the loop regarding mystery authors. I mean, I read a lot of crime titles, I write a pretty decent number of reviews, I read blogs, forums, etc. And yet with the publication of this year's Edgar nominees list I realized that I have never even heard of some of these writers. How can that be? Well, for one thing, it shows that for all the doom and gloom about economics and book sales, there are still a lot of books being published. In fact, what I think is happening is that many borderline hack writers-bestsellers, who never were good enough to sell at the top of the bestseller lists but somehow got there anyway, those writers have lost their audience as the casual reader stops buying their books, leaving only the more serious readers who demand a better product.

This is just opinion, of course, just a feeling based on being around a lot of material on crime fiction. But let's face it, there are some very bad writers out there who have sold a LOT of very bad books, and the publishing houses have come to depend on those sales. Does anybody read a new Patricia Cornwell novel and then think 'wow, that was $27.95 well spent!' Probably so. But probably not many. Most probably think 'my God, I spent $27.95 for that crap?'

Edgar is back!

*** Remember the fake Holocaust book I blogged about a while back? Well, Oprah has an opinion about that. However, since this is an Oprah-free blog, I cannot tell you what it is.

*** It has now been 20 years since Salman Rushdie was condemned to death for The Satanic Verses. Not being dead yet, he has given some interviews on the subject which indicate that he has mixed feelings about the whole thing. I can see that. Having people declare you a legitimate target for execution isn't necessarily a good thing, but it is one heck of a marketing tool.

Bookselling, battleships and bookmen

Good morning bookies! Stand by for news and comment.

*** The new issue of ILAM has posted, the best mystery/thriller review site on the internet, mostly because my reviews are featured there. What's that you say? Why, yes, it's true, I am a humble man. Some truly great books are reviewed in this issue and the editor, Sally, does her usual fantastic job, although my photo is still not used as part of the sites' official logo. Which is probably smart.

iloveamysterynewsletter

*** Okay, I get it. Normal folk don't get excited by histories of ships that were sunk more than 65 years ago, at Pearl Harbor, no less. But I do. What that says about me I 'm afraid to ask.

As a boy these sorts of books were coming out all the time, but now, with timing passing, it's infrequent. So I note the publication of Battleship Oklahoma BB-37 by Jeff Phister with Thomas Hone and Paul Goodyear, University of Oklahoma Press, with excitement and sadness, knowing such books will be unlikely in the future. Oklahoma was docked outboard on December 7, 1941, and rolled over (turned turtle in the parlance of the day) after being torpedoed on her starboard side. Hundreds were trapped below decks, some were rescued by cutting holes in the ship's bottom, some weren't. Eventually she was re-floated and was being towed mainland when she sunk in the open ocean.

New history of the USS Oklahoma

*** Laura Bush has signed a book deal to publish her memoirs, including her time in the White House. Whatever you may think of her husband, love him or hate him, Laura was and is one great lady. It is thanks for her that we have the annual Washington D.C. Book Fair, she has always been a friend to readers and writers and I wish her all the best.

Laura signs for the big bucks

*** I don't know O.J. Brisky, but I have a feeling that I would like him if I met him. He runs my kind of bookstore in my kind of climate: warm and sunny Florida. If I get the chance I'm going to have to drop in and pay him a visit.

A Florida book man

*** We have all been reading about bookstores closing for a while now, and while that is always a sad thing it doesn't really hit home until it happens to a store we know. And so it's with ennui that I mention the closing of a London bookstore that I have actually visited, Murder One on Charing Cross Road. The story goes like this:

On our first trip to England our tour group had the world's most incompetent guide. For a variety of reasons, BBG and Mrs. BBG found themselves wandering London on Holy Saturday. With Easter next day, most shops were closing up. About 4 pm, having absolutely no idea where we were, we exited a tube station at Charing Cross Road and I observed, like a vision from Heaven, shop after shop with the neat little sign 'Books' out front. Most were about to close and we were leaving London first thing Sunday morning. Aaaieee!

Frantically shopping at a dead run, the one shop that did NOT close at 5 pm was Murder One. I'll never forget wandering the shop, marveling at all of the British editions of favorite authors, wondering just how much room I had in my suitcase for books. (In the end, I crammed 56 hardbacks into my two suitcases, both of which weighed about 80 lbs. Fortunately, this was before weight limits and surcharges.) I wound up buying a number of books there and wishing I could afford/carry more.

And now it's closing. One more life event faded to memory, never to be relived.

Another good one bites the dust

New look at a heroic feat of arms

*** Researching this blog keeps me up on things that I really want to know about, such as a new book about 617 Squadron of the RAF and their amazing raid on the German dams during World War II, a raid that earned them the sobriquet of The Dambusters.

I'm not sure what new information has been dug up, or whether this is just recounting stories that might have been abridged elsewhere, or perhaps not told because they could not be verified. Oral histories give that latitude, they are more about what the person remembers than about what actually happened. But I was shocked, truly shocked, to learn that there is a remake of the 1954 film due to begin shooting next year, and that the screenplay is being written by Stephen Fry.

For those who don't know, Stephen Fry is a brilliant British actor/comedian/novelist/humorist, whom I first encountered as Jeeves to Hugh Laurie's Bertie Wooster. Fry and Laurie were very well known in England long before either hit the international big time, Fry with his books, Laurie with the American TV show 'House.' If this film actually gets made I'll look forward to seeing it with great relish. (No, not that kind of relish)

*** So, is your place of employment one of the best for 2009? One of the worst? Take a look here and see what you think. It's an interesting article on a site that is gaining credence as a look inside corporate American. You will note, I'm sure, that ebay is one of the 50 worst places to work. What a surprise.

Glassdoor and the best and worst places to work in 2009

A stormy Saturday

Good morning bookies! Stand by for news and comment.

Storms are expected later today here in West Tennessee. Your friendly neighborhood bookseller dislikes storms intensely, much preferring calm, sunny weather with a gently rolling surf lapping at his ankles, a cool drink sweating in the sand by his side and a fascinating book begging to be read. Sigh...

...okay, back to reality.

*** An Estonian firm has published a calendar featuring re-touched reproductions of Waffen-SS recruiting posters from World War II. Naturally, this has sparked controversy.

The Russians don't like this at all. They are offended. Of course, Russia tried to wipe out Estonia in the first place, so they are offended by its very existence. In 1940 Stalin overran the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and eliminated them without provocation. He did this for two reasons: first, because he could and second, he did it while the rest of the world was distracted with Hitler beating up on the French, Dutch and Norwegians. When the Germans overran The Baltic States themselves in 1941, they gave them back at least nominal independence. They then proved to be fertile recruiting grounds for the Waffen-SS as men joined to defend their homeland against the Red Army.

The calendar is history, even if the infamous Waffen-SS lightning bolts are air-brushed out and replaced with a sword. No doubt many are upset at seeing the images of German soldiers, but at least as many must surely be upset by images glorifying Russia. You can't please everybody, and when did it become necessary to try?

Estonian calendar causes uproar

*** There's yet more on the whole issue of whether a 'holocaust memoir' is made up, partly true or wholly true. That horse has been dead for weeks but the New Republic keeps trying to beat it back to life. Here's the link to their latest 'journalism', with as much objectivity as they usually show in their work. Heck, the article is listed in their politics section. I thought it concerned a new book, but apparently to them this is a political matter. Quite telling, if you ask me.

The New Republic continues beating up a couple of old people

See, here's the deal: who cares if it's true or not? If it's a good story, it's a good story. The man has said this is how he remembers it, so if it's apocryphal, so what? But apparently the snots at the New Republic are offended that this old man has made a lot of money without their blessing. It's not like they haven't peddled fiction and called it true.

*** Next weekend Memphis will see the one and only book fair that is held in this entire state. It's put on by another bookseller here in West Tennessee. BBG won't be there as a seller, life keeps intruding and making such things difficult, but he will be there as a friend-of-the-court. I'll try to take some photos of the exciting goings-on. Here's the details.

What: Overton Park Antiquarian Book Fair
Place: Parkview Retirement Community, the Ballroom
1914 Poplar Avenue, at Overton Park, Memphis
Dates: Saturday and Sunday, January 3 and 4, 2009
Times: 10-5 Saturday, 11-4 Sunday
Admission: Free.
Parking: Free street parking

Bye Forrie

Good morning bookies! It's Saturday! Stand by for news and comment.

*** As I sat here downing my first cup of coffee and listening to the radio, willing the neurons to begin firing, I heard on the news of the passing of Forrest J. Ackerman. For those who don't know, Ackerman was one of the earlier founders of modern SFF, is credited with having coined the term 'Sci-Fi', discovered and became literary agent for Ray Bradbury, agented Isaac Asimov and others, wrote a few stories, lots of essays and articles and, in general, was a jack-of-all-trades for an industry that mainstream publishers felt was nonsense and not worth their trouble.

I met Ackerman once, at DragonCon 1998, and remember him as a very kind, gentle-seeming man. One morning during the con, BBG and his posse were having breakfast at the hotel restaurant and at the next table, drinking coffee and chatting, were Bradbury, Ackerman and Harlan Ellison. It was amazing to consider the talent assembled at that one small table. It's a great example of what makes attending conventions so much fun. I'll miss knowing Ackerman is around, not so much that he directly made my life better, just because I felt better knowing men such as he were in the world.

So long to an old friend I didn't know

*** Ebay has no sense of irony. They are doing absolutely everything they can to crush the small sellers on their site, while simultaneously their lobbyists are in front of Congress whining about big box retailers trying to crush the small sellers. Have they no shame? Well, aside from that being a rhetorical question, the answer is no, they don't.

Ebay has become just another big corporation. Now, you're friendly neighborhood bookseller is not someone who automatically dislikes big corps. After all, who works at big corps? People do, although the theory that some corporate upper management types might be either part or completely machine-driven does seem to hold water in some cases. I knew this guy once when I worked in the corporate world who...wait, wrong topic. Sorry. Where was I? Oh, Ebay. Right.

Ebay began life as the ultimate egalitarian website. Level the playing field, let the little guy make a buck, fight back against the corporate bullies, all that good stuff. Except now Ebay has become what they were created to fight. Do John Donahoe and team see the irony? They must, surely. Nobody could be blind or stupid enough not to understand. So if we give them enough credit to understand the irony of the situation, then we also have to conclude that they don't care.

Ebay's whining again

*** Tomorrow is the 67th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. This isn't about a book, but the topic is one that BBG happens to be pretty familiar with, having read almost everything he can find about the attack. So with the anniversary once more rolling around we are seeing the same tired old conspiracies dragged out that FDR knew the Japanese were going to attack and allowed it to happen so the USA would be forced into WW2. The following article makes the case fairly succinctly for the 'FDR knew' school of thought.

FDR knew the Japanese were coming, and other bedtime stories

What is never pointed out by such conspiracy theories is this: a Japanese surprise attack on WW2 was a declaration of war, period. There was no reason to allow the fleet to be destroyed, it would have served our purposes just as well for the Japanese to have found the naval base on alert and the air filled with US fighters. Only the silliest of the lot give FDR the prescience to know that battleships were obsolete and to allow them to be destroyed because they had such low value.

If this topic interest you or someone you know, you can pick up Gordon Prange's trilogy on Pearl Harbor fairly cheaply. At Dawn We Slept, December 7, 1941 and Pearl Harbor, the Verdict of History. Granted, it's aging a bit, and here and there a fact or detail may have been overruled by later research, but I haven't read anything that is comprehensively better, or better written.

Beginning the long fall into Fall

Good morning bookies! Stand by for news.

Today is gloomy, wet and chilly, the first cold day of this season here in West Tennessee, the type of weather that clogs the old blogging juices and channel's your friendly neighborhood bookseller's already sluggish brain into new culverts and drains, diverting it from its normal obsession with books. So today we start with a story on another obsession, autographs.

*** Dorothy Phillips lost her suit against the Avon & Somerset Police. It seems that her signed photograph of Adolf Hitler was seized in 2006 during a police raid (an illegal one, by the way. She was later award 7500 pounds in compensation) and she claims that it faded while in police custody and lost half its value. Well, maybe, maybe not. Certainly fading could cause that much harm, but without before and after photos how could you know? Anyway, I bring this up because I, too, am an autograph collector and this story brings up the old rule that autograph collectors must be non-political in their hobby. Hitler may have been in the handful of most evil men of the 20th century, but there is no denying his influence on history. To me, however, a much more interesting story would have been how Ms. Phillips came to have the autograph in the first place. Hitler signed photos have never been cheap.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1079707/Pensioner-sues-police-damage-signed-picture-Hitler.html

*** Since BBG is also a baseball fan from way back, he remembers Jose Canseco from his playing days. A big, strong home run hitter with a Barry Bonds complex. Yawn. So when Canseco wrote Juiced, accusing just about every baseball player within living memory of using steroids, it was unimpressive on several levels. First, coming from a washed-up under-achiever it seemed like sour grapes. Second, is sounded mostly untrue. Thirdly, who cared? (Yes, I know much of the world did care, just not me. However, writing about it gave me the chance to switch from third to first person in the same paragraph) Indeed, had the book not been so successful, it would not have made today's blog. But it was, it made huge changes to baseball, thus today's follow up.

So with Juiced a fading memory, the also fading Canseco needed to feed his ego some more and is now publicly regretting the effects of his book. Poor Jose seems to have been mis-understood by his fellow ball-players. Boo-hoo.

http://blogs.suntimes.com/sportsprose/2008/10/jose_canseco_regrets_writing_j.html

*** In the season for book awards comes a new Canadian prize for historical writing, cut down to three entries. It goes almost without saying that one will be on Economics, although I like that it's Economics during the Dutch Golden Age (did you know there WAS a Dutch Golden Age?), and one must be about either WW2, Hitler or the Third Reich. In this case, the latter.

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2008/10/22/cundill-shortlist.html

*** On the list of 'books-I've-never-heard-of-but-now-want-to-read' comes John Birmingham's Without Warning. The setup is fairly simple: on the eve of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, a freak energy wave wipes out the United States homeland, but leaves the army intact in the Middle East. If this were the typical (and boring) 'it's-America's-fault' (what does 'it' mean? Fill in the blank) fantasy I would not be mentioning it. But that does not appear to be the case. The scenario sounds like fun in a brutal, end of the world sort of way.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24495166-5001986,00.html

Of battleships and DeathStars

Good morning bookies! Stand by for news.

*** In the category of both 'I'll-believe-it-when-I-see-it' and 'now-I've-heard-everything', it appears there is a movement afoot to re-float the largest battleship ever built, Imperial Japanese Navy Musashi, and turn it into a tourist attraction. Uh-huh. Now, I'll be the first to admit that if such a thing were ever done I'd be all over seeing it, damn the cost. But come on! Musashi went down on Oct. 24, 1944, in a blizzard of bombs and a school of torpedoes during attacks from Admiral Bill Halsey's mammoth fleet of aircraft carriers. Aside from weighing more than 70,000 tons, how are they going to plug all of the holes and get them much weight to the surface? Are the turrets still attached? Because if you don't lift the main batteries to the surface you won't have much of an attraction. The whole thing sounds like a scam to me. But you be the judge.

And yes, I know it's not book related.

http://www.mb.com.ph/PROV20081021138571.html

*** The Tales of Beetle the Bard, J.K. Rowling's latest book, will be released in Scotland on December 4, with all sorts of special editions, collector's editions, non-collector's editions, you name it, scheduled for every nook and cranny in the known world. And one hopes that books such as this will continue spurring young people to read, even if one gets a bit cynical about the marketing end of things.

*** Support is pouring in for Italian anti-Mafia author Robert Saviano, whose expose of organized crime in the Naples area has left him marked for death. It seems the Italian government hasn't been all that excited about protecting him, leading 6 Noble prize winners to sign a petition drive urging the Italian government to keep him alive. Good luck with that. Salman Rushdie says Saviano is in far more danger than he ever was. All he had to endure was a fatwah from some barbarians, Saviano is up against the Mob. My thoughts are that as long as he's in Italy, he's in deep doo-doo.

*** Never let it be said that your friendly neighborhood bookguy isn't constantly on the lookout for new, innovative and terminally yummy products to compliment your book addiction. Think about it, the winter winds are curling and swirling outside, a light freezing mist is falling, a fire is crackling in the hearth and you're comfortable in your favorite chair with a terrific book and a chocolate covered bacon bar. How could life be better?

http://www.vosgeschocolate.com/product/bacon_exotic_candy_bar/exotic_candy_bars#

*** I Like 'Star Wars' as much as any non-fanatic-general-public kind of guy, I like Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia, I have nothing against her. And, since tell-all Hollywood biographies aren't really my reading matter of choice, I doubt I'll ever read Ms. Fisher's apparently very gossipy biography. But if I did want to read something trashy this certainly sounds like it would do the trick.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/10202008/gossip/pagesix/princess_carrie_settles_scores_134343.htm

*** As the financial markets tanked people turned to the one thing that reminded them the world was not, in fact, coming to an end: books. Yep, people are reading more now that they can't afford the latest gizmo (or the electricity to run it). Good news. Gizmos come and go but books are forever. The snots in their ivory towers will intone about the masses reading drivel and what a shame it is that serious writers can't get noticed (by serious writers, they mean them) for all of the drek, the science fiction, the witches and goblins and comic books and other opiates for the under-educated. I know they will say this because they always say this as way of explanation for why nobody wants to read anything they write.

But your friendly neighborhood bookseller has a different view of things: if you like it, read it. Who gives a damn what anybody else thinks about it?

http://www.reuters.com/article/artsNews/idUSTRE49J81Q20081020

Monday October 20

Good morning bookies! Stand by for news!

64 years ago today Gen. Douglas MacArthur's invasion to liberate the Philippines began with an attack on the island of Leyte, which prompted a Japanese counter-offensive that lead to the largest naval battle of all time, The Battle of Leyte Gulf.

*** Following up the continuing story of the fire-bombing attack in England on the home of the publisher for The Jewel of Medina, it seems three men were in court at the Old Bailey in the case. (Aside: whenever I hear of someone going to the Old Bailey, I wonder if perhaps Horace Rumpole will be their barrister)

http://www.thebookseller.com/news/69210-jewel-of-medina-three-in-court.html

*** Sunday, October 19, saw the demise of Acres of Books in Long Beach, CA. Founded in Cincinnati in the 1920's, legendary bookseller Bertrand L. Smith moved the store to Long Beach in 1934. It seems that such classic buildings are no longer wanted in 21st century California, probably too much history, not enough glass, and so the store is now gone. I never had a chance to visit this mythic oasis and now I never will. Had I been there, I would have taken a sleeping bag and slept in the aisles for the last week or so.

http://www.acresofbooks.com/

*** It seems that ABEbooks is having difficulty keeping staff. As an ABE seller, it makes you wonder what they are doing with the fees they charge their sellers. We have known for some time that they encourage workers to take frequent breaks for company supplied diversions such as foosball, but Wii? Seriously? I'm paying fees so these people can play Wii? No doubt there is some logic behind this. No doubt. Okay, there is some doubt.

The Vancouver Sun had a long article about this, which had drawn some pretty sarcastic comments, and it was mysteriously pulled down after a day. Interesting. Perhaps ABE's notoriously thin skin for criticism came into play?


*** William Christopher, aka Father Mulcahy on M*A*S*H*, is 76 today. Gack!

*** Historian Nicholas Rankin has a new book that is right up my alley, Churchill's Wizards: The British Genius for Deception 1914-1945. To date it seems the only edition is the English from Faber & Faber. I'm not sure exactly how you justify Churchill in the title, since of that 31 year period he was only PM for 5 years, but I'm sure it helps sell the books.

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/non-fiction/article4954406.ece

*** I've laid off of Ebay for a while, but since it is a legitimate venue for new and used books, both buying and selling, it seems appropriate to follow its continuing demise. On July 26, 2008, I wrote this: "Ebay stock this week is trading around $24.30 or so. I think it was around $32 when they started this idiocy of wiping out their customer base. Maybe their strategy will work. Maybe they will bounce back to become dominant again. And maybe not. And the Motley Fool has declared it their stock to dump. Good. I'm always glad to see Corporate Arrogance rewarded."

As of today, Monday, October 20th, 10:11 am CDT, Ebay is trading around $15.30. More and more articles are appearing in the financial sectors publications about the company not responding to the market and having serious underlying issues. In other words, these financial gurus are beginning to figure out what we peasants in the trenches have known for 6 months, that Ebay's declaration of war on sellers was not just bad business, it was suicidal. And until they reverse direction, assuming at some point that they do reverse direction, it will not get better. Indeed, it may already be too late.