Bookbites: Four to keep you reading through the night

Sins of the Fathers
by Herbert J. Stern and Alan A. Winter

In the tradition of Herman Wouk, this eye-opening historical sequel to “Wolf” tells the dramatic true story of the foolish prime minister who undermined the coup to topple Hitler, delivered Czechoslovakia to Hitler, saved the Führer’s life and paved the road to World War II.

When Neville Chamberlain refused to meet with German military leaders, career civil servants and clergy to solicit England’s assistance to bring down Hitler in 1938, they turned to Winston Churchill. Waiting for Hitler’s telephone call ordering troops to invade Czechoslovakia, the signal for their uprising, the call never came. Bestselling author Steve Berry calls it “a masterful blend of fact and fiction that will have you thinking about it long after the last page is read.”

A Tree’s Tale
by Ellen Zaroff

Every family has secrets, and these families are no exception. Three generations, two families intertwined, hidden truths and half-told tales span the decades of these two families.

Marmy’s two children are distant from her and harbour secrets from each other as well as their parents. When unspeakable events bring out some of the truths, events unravel in ways that bring about addiction, banishment and a new limb of the family tree.

As fates take control, the next generation tries to learn from what has transpired, but history repeats itself. As the roots of a tree feed the limbs that make up these families, they also eventually define and shape them all.

Honor Through Sacrifice
by Robert E. Lofthouse

“A man can fight if he can see daylight down the road somewhere,” said President Lyndon Johnson. “But there ain’t no daylight in Vietnam — there’s not a bit.” As he said that, he was committing the first U.S. ground combat units and initiating a massive bombing campaign in North Vietnam. Unaware of Johnson’s misgivings, Gordon Lippman dutifully entered Vietnam as an Infantry Division executive officer.

Lippman was the man soldiers wanted to follow, a stud from small-town America to become a leading member of “The Greatest Generation.”

This is a sweeping story on the broad landscape of twentieth-century compromise, accommodation, and conflict, from the allied war in Europe to the forgotten victory in Korea to the televised dinnertime war in Vietnam.

Kaleidoscopic Shades
by David A. Neuman

Eleven years following the cataclysmic event that ripped apart the state of South Australia, taking civilisation and society to the brink of no return, the Triplow family has finally found peace. Settling down has ensured that the past horrors of Hastings, South Australia, remain relegated to another time, another place.

That false perception is shattered when Bob Triplow is forced to face those things buried deep within himself. He will take his son on a journey back to his past, and the horrors of his childhood. A place truly out of this world, where life is manipulated with brutal destructiveness.

Within this dark, boundless dimension, Bob will learn that past events always find a way of catching up.