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Kurt Vonnegut’s Unpublished World War II Scrapbook Reveals Origins of ‘Slaughterhouse-Five’

From Smithsonian Magazine: Volume features 22 letters from author to his family, photographs of the razed city of Dresden, telegrams and news clippings…  Support our news coverage by subscribing to our Kindle Nation Daily Digest. Joining is free right now! 

When he was an American prisoner of war in Nazi Germany, Kurt Vonnegut famously survived the 1945 aerial bombing of Dresden by hiding in the meat locker of a slaughterhouse—a harrowing experience that closely informed the plot of his masterful 1969 novel, Slaughterhouse-Five. During his lifetime, Vonnegut commented extensively on this wartime episode, cataloguing the destruction of “possibly the world’s most beautiful city” and describing the burial duties undertaken by him and his fellow POWs: most significantly, the retrieval of 130,000 corpses trapped underground, a task that the writer, in typically blunt fashion, later termed “a terribly elaborate Easter egg hunt.”

But until now, Lauren Christensen reports for the New York Times, a trove of photographs, newspaper clippings and correspondence compiled by Vonnegut and his family between 1944 and 1945 had remained unseen by the public, carefully hidden in the safekeeping of the author’s sister and his father.

The 84-page volume, which sold for $187,500 in Christie’s Fine Printed Books & Manuscripts auction earlier this month, includes 22 letters from Vonnegut to his family, photographs the young soldier took of the razed city of Dresden and a January 1945 telegram stating that “Private First Class Kurt Vonnegut Jr Has been reported Missing in Action.”

According to Christie’s, the notes reflect Vonnegut’s “trademark satire and dry humor” under even the most dire of circumstances. In a January 3, 1945, letter composed around two weeks after his capture, he offers a gross understatement: “It’s been one helluva holiday season for all of us.” And, in a message written two days after his liberation, he declares, “It is a source of great delight to be able to announce that you will shortly receive a splendid relic of World War II with which you may decorate your hearth—namely, me in an excellent state of preservation.”

Read full post on https://www.smithsonianmag.com/

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The Story of Arthur Truluv: A Novel (Mason Book 1)

by Elizabeth Berg
4.7 stars – 1,605 reviews
Text-to-Speech: Enabled
Here’s the set-up:

“I dare you to read this novel and not fall in love with Arthur Truluv. His story will make you laugh and cry, and will show you a love that never ends, and what it means to be truly human.”—Fannie Flagg

An emotionally powerful novel about three people who each lose the one they love most, only to find second chances where they least expect them

“Fans of Meg Wolitzer, Emma Straub, or [Elizabeth] Berg’s previous novels will appreciate the richly complex characters and clear prose. Redemptive without being maudlin, this story of two misfits lucky to have found one another will tug at readers’ heartstrings.”—Booklist

For the past six months, Arthur Moses’s days have looked the same: He tends to his rose garden and to Gordon, his cat, then rides the bus to the cemetery to visit his beloved late wife for lunch. The last thing Arthur would imagine is for one unlikely encounter to utterly transform his life.

Eighteen-year-old Maddy Harris is an introspective girl who visits the cemetery to escape the other kids at school. One afternoon she joins Arthur—a gesture that begins a surprising friendship between two lonely souls. Moved by Arthur’s kindness and devotion, Maddy gives him the nickname “Truluv.” As Arthur’s neighbor Lucille moves into their orbit, the unlikely trio band together and, through heartache and hardships, help one another rediscover their own potential to start anew.

Wonderfully written and full of profound observations about life, The Story of Arthur Truluv is a beautiful and moving novel of compassion in the face of loss, of the small acts that turn friends into family, and of the possibilities to achieve happiness at any age.

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4-in-1 BOXED SET ALERT! Save 89% with this Kindle Countdown Deal! Ancient Enemy Box Set: Books 1 – 4 by Mark Lukens

Ancient Enemy Box Set: Ancient Enemy Books 1 – 4

by Mark Lukens
4.3 stars – 56 reviews
Everyday Price: $8.99
FREE with Kindle UnlimitedLearn More
Text-to-Speech and Lending: Enabled
Here’s the set-up:
The complete Ancient Enemy series together for the first time – all four books in one box set.

It starts when Stella, an archaeologist specializing in Anasazi culture, finds David, a young Navajo boy who stumbles onto their dig site in a remote corner of the Navajo Reservation. David’s coat is smeared with blood and he’s in shock from something he’s seen, revealing nothing but his name. Soon Stella and the other archaeologists will discover that something is chasing David, an unimaginable ancient evil that will stop at nothing to get him.

After Stella escapes the dig site with David, driving north into Colorado, right into a blizzard, she’s carjacked by a gang of criminals fleeing a botched bank robbery. All of them take refuge from the snowstorm in what they believe is an abandoned cabin. But after they find the owner’s mutilated body stuffed into a freezer, they realize that something is out there in the blizzard waiting for them.

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Richer Than God

by Amelia Wilde
4.1 stars – 713 reviews
Text-to-Speech and Lending: Enabled
Here’s the set-up:

I’m the city’s cruelest billionaire. And I’m the only one who can save her.

In a life like mine, there is only danger dressed up in money and power. I’m a monster in expensive suits and an opulent home. Brigit is an innocent angel with only the clothes on her back.

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But the moment she steps into my life is the moment she’s trapped forever.

She thinks she can tempt me and slip away like a thief in the night. She thinks I can make her mine and then let her go.

She’s never been so wrong.

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Burn District 2

by Suzanne Jenkins
4.5 stars – 42 reviews
Text-to-Speech and Lending: Enabled
Here’s the set-up:
After the New Year, Jenna Hayward regretfully accepted that she had waited too long to leave Jacksonville for her father’s Arizona ranch. An unknown benefactor provided buses for the stragglers last minute exodus. While she waited to board with the other doubters, her sister, Laura, and father, Steve toiled along with the rest of the camp dwellers, attempting to turn the barren desert into a homestead. At the end of book #1, as they tried to settle in to a new life, waves of pandemonium hitting the camp became the new normal. The camp dwellers asked themselves if they’d found asylum in the desert, or was the illusion of safety a flimsy veil?

* * *

I’ll Meet You at the Rainbow

by Jillian Rodriguez
4.9 stars – 28 reviews
Lending: Enabled
Here’s the set-up:
Drift off to dreamland and hop on your unicorn, as we go on a magical adventure.
Explore every color of the rainbow and find out what each color holds inside.Get ready to go on an action packed, color filled, dream adventure with a father and his daughter, as they explore each color of the rainbow. With every new page comes a new venture that will be sure to capture the attention of any child.

* * *

Winds of Strife: An Epic Fantasy Adventure (The Dawnless Night Book 1)

by U. G. Gutman
4.7 stars – 23 reviews
Text-to-Speech and Lending: Enabled
Here’s the set-up:

“They burned me and mine. I’m not done until I burn them and theirs in return.”Witch-hunts have plagued the kingdom of Olyanath for decades. Thousands were slain due to the king’s paranoia of women who practice Senspiritic magic.

No more.

Nye and his companions have seen enough of murder and misogyny. Fifteen years have passed since he joined the witch-hunters, and now, at long last, an opportunity to destroy them from the inside reveals itself.

An opportunity to overthrow the king and end his reign of cruelty.

But fifteen years of pretense have taken a toll. The strive for vengeance has steered Nye toward a path of violence and villainy. His hands are stained by the blood of countless innocents, his heart is scorched by grief, and his sanity hangs by a thread.

Even if he can kill the king and see this revolution through, it may not suffice to purge the voices from his head.

* * *

FIREBUG: A city burns while a psychopathic killer lurks in the shadows

by Wes Snowden
4.7 stars – 5 reviews
Text-to-Speech and Lending: Enabled
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“Wes Snowden delivers a psychologically, morally complex novel of blood ties, duty, crime, and retribution, set in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA and Mogford, Somerset, England, in which Maxwell Muggs must face a maniac arsonist and killer while trying to come to terms with a long-buried secret about his past.

Years have passed since Maxwell Muggs came under the radar of IRS because of his gambling addiction, and much has changed. Maxwell has controlled his gamble addiction. His work as investigative journalist is gaining him a solid reputation, and he and his younger sister Ruthie have finally come to terms with their parents’ accidental death more than a decade earlier.

But his seemingly content life soon becomes the thing of past as an arson case involving a series of ten deliberate fires in a row throws him in the path of a group of powerful enemies.
As bodies begin to pile up, Maxwell realizes that finding the truth isn’t just about finishing his professional assignment… it’s about justice, about right and wrong… and it’s also about retribution.”

* * *

Sniper’s Nest: A Gripping Vigilante Justice Thriller (The Detective Jesse McCord Police Thriller Series Book 1)

by C.M. Sutter
4.2 stars – 2,268 reviews
Text-to-Speech and Lending: Enabled
Here’s the set-up:

The ambush is in place, he takes aim, and shots ring out. Chicago is officially on notice, and a siege is underway on the city’s men and women in blue.

Assigned to the task force investigating the shootings, Jesse McCord and twenty of Chicago’s top-notch detectives work day and night to track down the sniper whose agenda is apparent—to kill as many police officers as possible.
Getting in front of the crazed assailant is the only way to stop him, but without a name, a face, or a witness to the shootings, the police department is chasing a ghost.

As a profile evolves, Jesse is struck by the realization that he and the sniper have much more in common than anyone could have known. It’s the epiphany he needs to stop the shooter, and a dangerous game of cat and mouse begins.

Taking on the killer face-to-face, and single-handedly, is the only way Jesse can protect his colleagues and end the siege on his beloved Chicago—the city he calls home and always will.

* * *

What if Mulan had to travel to the Underworld? Reflection: A Twisted Tale by Elizabeth Lim

YA eBook of The Day

Reflection: A Twisted Tale

by Elizabeth Lim
4.8 stars – 1,579 reviews
Text-to-Speech and Lending: Enabled
Here’s the set-up:
What if Mulan had to travel to the Underworld? When Captain Shang is mortally wounded by Shan Yu in battle, Mulan must travel to the Underworld, Diyu, in order to save him from certain death. But King Yama, the ruler of Diyu, is not willing to give Shang up easily. With the help of Shang’s great lion guardian ShiShi, Mulan must traverse Diyu to find Shang’s spirit, face harrowing obstacles, and leave by sunrise–or become King Yama’s prisoner forever. Moreover, Mulan is still disguised as the soldier called Ping, wrestling with the decision to reveal her true identity to her closest friend. Will Mulan be able to save Shang before it’s too late? Will he ever be able to trust her again? Or will she lose him–and be lost in the Underworld–forever?

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A Black Girl Once Told Me To Never Give Up

by Verlisa Shanklin
5.0 stars – 23 reviews
FREE with Kindle UnlimitedLearn More
Text-to-Speech and Lending: Enabled
Here’s the set-up:
Once you read A Black Girl Once Told Me To Never Give Up, you will get the encouragement you need to keep moving forward even in the midst of your challenging times. Also, you will get a better understanding of the challenges and obstacles that most black students face as they strive to obtain higher education at a predominantly white university. If you are looking for a little inspiration, motivation and guidance to keep you moving forward along your journey to success, this is the book for you. No matter if you are a parent, a student in high school, in college or you are planning on going to college – this book is for you.

Fans of Michael Connelly are in for a treat with this Vigilante Justice Thriller! Sniper’s Nest by C.M. Sutter

Today’s Thriller of The Day:

Sniper’s Nest: A Gripping Vigilante Justice Thriller (The Detective Jesse McCord Police Thriller Series Book 1)

by C.M. Sutter
4.2 stars – 2,268 reviews
Everyday Price: $4.99
Text-to-Speech and Lending: Enabled
Here’s the set-up:

Fans of James Patterson and Michael Connelly will love C.M. Sutter!

Download this first book in the unputdownable Detective Jesse McCord Police Thriller Series now!

The ambush is in place, he takes aim, and shots ring out. Chicago is officially on notice, and a siege is underway on the city’s men and women in blue.

Assigned to the task force investigating the shootings, Jesse McCord and twenty of Chicago’s top-notch detectives work day and night to track down the sniper whose agenda is apparent—to kill as many police officers as possible.
Getting in front of the crazed assailant is the only way to stop him, but without a name, a face, or a witness to the shootings, the police department is chasing a ghost.

As a profile evolves, Jesse is struck by the realization that he and the sniper have much more in common than anyone could have known. It’s the epiphany he needs to stop the shooter, and a dangerous game of cat and mouse begins.

Taking on the killer face-to-face, and single-handedly, is the only way Jesse can protect his colleagues and end the siege on his beloved Chicago—the city he calls home and always will.

She’s caught in a web of sensual desire and unending passion that’s as terrifying as it is satisfying… Billionaire Unwed~Zeke: The Billionaire’s Obsession by bestselling author J. S. Scott

❤️ Kindle Nation Daily Romance of the Day ❤️

Billionaire Unwed~Zeke: The Billionaire’s Obsession

by New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author J. S. Scott
4.8 stars – 75 reviews
FREE with Kindle UnlimitedLearn More
Text-to-Speech and Lending: Enabled
Here’s the set-up:
You met Lia and Zeke in Billionaire Unloved, Jett and Ruby’s book. Now you can find out what happened to them. Did Lia really end up marrying the wrong guy?

Although this story is part of The Billionaire’s Obsession series, it can be easily be enjoyed as a standalone friends to lovers billionaire romance.

Lia:

I thought I had my life all worked out. My wedding had been meticulously planned. All I had to do was walk down the aisle and get married to the man I’d been engaged to for over a year.

Pretty easy and uncomplicated, right?

Unfortunately, all of my well laid plans go up in smoke when my fiancé leaves me at the church alone because he found a woman who was better suited for his snobby world of wealth and privilege.

After realizing what kind of man my intended groom really was, it was hard not to be more relieved that I’d dodged a bullet than I was heartbroken. Problem is, I still need to get married. All of my hopes and dreams are dependent on me tying the knot by my twenty-eighth birthday, and that date is closing in fast. Way too quickly for me to fall in love all over again.

As usual, my best friend Zeke Conner is there to pick up the pieces after I’m left at the altar by a jerk. He helps me work through the demoralizing event so I can put it behind me and move on. I’m stunned when he offers to marry me himself, but it’s a bargain I can’t really refuse.

As my relationship starts to change with my best friend, I find myself caught in a web of sensual desire and unending passion that’s as terrifying as it is satisfying. Probably because it seems all too real.

Our arrangement was supposed to be temporary. A deal between friends that Zeke swore would benefit both of us, but as our marriage starts to feel like so much more than just a charade for me, what will happen when it all ends?

This book was originally published under the title “Temporary Groom” as a part of the now-discontinued Left at The Altar Series. It’s been completely re-written with added chapters and material, and retitled Billionaire Unwed as part of The Billionaire’s Obsession series.