Armchair Travel
February 2023
Recent Releases
The Greatest Escape
by Neil Churches

The gripping, vividly told story of the largest POW escape in the Second World War, organized by an Australian bank clerk, a British jazz pianist and an American spy.

In August 1944, the most successful POW escape of the Second World War took place. 106 Allied prisoners were freed from Maribor camp, in present-day Slovenia. The escape was organized not by officers, but by two ordinary soldiers: Australian Ralph Churches (a bank clerk before the war) and Londoner Les Laws (a jazz pianist by profession), with the help of intelligence officer Franklin Lindsay. The American was on a mission to work with the partisans who moved like ghosts through the Alps, ambushing and evading Nazi forces.
Otherlands : a journey through Earth's extinct worlds
by Thomas Halliday

Mining the most recent paleontological advances, a brilliant paleobiologist recreates 16 extinct worlds, rendered here with a novelist's eye for detail and drama, bringing us up close to the intricate relationships of these ancient worlds, allowing us to discover the inner working and the fragility of our own.
Empire of ice and stone : the disastrous and heroic voyage of the Karluk
by Buddy Levy

The harrowing story of the ill-fated 1913 Canadian Arctic Expedition aboard the ship Karluk explains the events leading up to the deaths of over a dozen of the vessel’s crew and staff. 
Born to be hanged : the epic story of the gentlemen pirates who raided the South Seas, rescued a princess, and stole a fortune
by Keith Thomson

Charts a legendary two-year expedition by 300 pirates in the year 1860 to wreak havoc on the Pacific coastline, raiding cities, mines and merchant ships as well as their sensational trial back in England.
Books You Might Have Missed
Battle of the Atlantic : Gauntlet to Victory
by Ted Barris

The story of Canada’s naval awakening from the dark, bloody winters of 1939–1942, to be “ready, aye, ready” to challenge the U-boats and drive them to defeat, is a Canadian wartime saga for the ages. While Canadians think of the Great War battle of Vimy Ridge as the country’s coming of age, it was the Battle of the Atlantic that proved Canada’s gauntlet to victory and a nation-building milestone.
Taking Berlin : the bloody race to defeat the Third Reich
by Martin Dugard

Recounts the race between the Allies and Soviets to conquer the heart of Nazi Germany in the final, desperate months of World War II, chronicling a moment in history when allies become adversaries.
The open-air life : discover the Nordic art of friluftsliv and embrace nature every day
by Linda Akeson McGurk

"In The Open-Air Life, Swedish-American writer Linda McGurk introduces readers to a wide array of Nordic customs and practices that focus on slowing down and spending more and more of ones' time outdoors. An outdoorsy cousin of hygge, friluftsliv is whatNordic people do outside all day before they cozy up in front of the fireplace with their wool socks on and a cup of hot cocoa"
Blowing Up Ukraine : The Return of Russian Terror and the Threat of World War III
by Yuri Felshtinsky

Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine came from nowhere? Felshtinsky and Stanchev’s gripping history chronicles Ukraine’s story from its origins to its modern day struggle to ward off Russian interference. A bestseller published after Russia annexed the Crimea in 2014 it predicted that the Russian invasion was but a matter of time and argued how it could have been avoided in order to avoid a nuclear conflict that could drag the world into a global war. This is a must-read for those who want to understand the background of the crisis and how we can move forward safely.
Contact your librarian for more great books!
Cobourg Public Library
200 Ontario Street
Cobourg, Ontario K9A 5P4
905-372-9271
www.cobourg.library.on.ca