Fiction

Title: No Paved Road To Freedom
Author: Sharon Rushton
Genre: Historical Fiction
Reviewer: Weymouth Symmes

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 098313040X

No Paved Road To Freedom is a gripping and emotional story that humanizes the impact of communist occupation in Romania after World War II. It is relevant, it inspires, and it reminds us that freedom is precious. Based on a true story, it documents the extraordinary courage of Cornel Dolana and his family as they pay an incredible price for resisting communism. Cornel makes up his mind to escape the oppression and uses his ingenuity to put his plan in place. His fortitude keeps him moving toward his goal, despite enduring enormous setbacks, brutality, and extreme outdoor elements that few humans could survive.

Title: Hidden Wounds: A Soldiers Burden
Author Marious Tecoanta & Nate Brookshire
Genre: Literary Fiction
Reviewer: John Cathcart

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 1934266221

April 13, 1945...The last days of WWII...Eight lone German soldiers surrendered. Instead of a POW camp, their steps took them into a shallow grave. John Dougall, an 18-year-old American soldier, stood by as the murderous shots were fired. Laying there among the dead was Rudolph Haas, an officer whose death would burden John for a lifetime.

John sought redemption in the rugged hills of Korea and in the swamps of Vietnam. Chaining him to remorse and guilt were the private thoughts of Haas, written carefully into the diary that John had taken from the German's body.

Six decades later, fate gave John one last chance to set things right and make peace with his past.

This is the story of two soldiers robbed of their happiness, yet both clinging fiercely to their honor; and the stories of their wives, as strong in heart as any warrior.

The journey takes our heroes from the safety of South Carolina to the battlefields of Europe and from the frozen Siberian Gulag to the gothic cities of Bavaria. The secrets of the Journal connect them all and, unbeknownst to John, spark a love that heals their hidden wounds.

Why Hidden Wounds? This story started coming together in the spring of 2004 when two Officer Candidates decided to write a book about an American and a German soldier whose lives and families become intertwined on the battlefield in the last stages of WWII.

Action and inaction has a generational impact as the main character reflects on his choices and deals with the guilt of participating in a war crime. Is it too late at the age of 84 to make things right?

The story has evolved into a discussion of PTSD, addiction, suicide awareness / prevention and forgiveness. Please join us in the journey...

Title: The Edge of Freedom
Author: John Willingham
Genre: Fiction, Historical
Reviewer: John R. r. Faulkner

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 1592994466

The Alamo resounds in memory and myth...Goliad whispers from the shadows. Along with the familiar stories of Jim Bowie, David Crockett, and William B. Travis-the heroes of the Alamo-it is time, in the 175th anniversary year of the Revolution, to understand the more complex stories of James W. Fannin and his Mexican counterpart, José de Urrea. In The Edge of Freedom, these and other historical figures show that the search for peace at Goliad was as dramatic as the fight for glory at the Alamo.