SPECIAL EDITION containing all-new bonus material to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack...and the setting of this story. ________________________________________ From USA TODAY bestselling author Alan Simon: 'Twas the week of Christmas, Nineteen forty-one; The season's joy overshadowed by the war just begun. The Great Depression years finally behind them, the entire Coleman family of Pittsburgh has been looking forward to this Christmas for almost the entire year. For the first time in more than a decade, Gerald and Irene Coleman have tucked away enough extra money to make up for all the lean years of disappointingly modest Christmas gifts for their children. But December 7, 1941 has changed everything, and for the past two weeks the entire family has followed with despair the Japanese advances all over the Pacific as well as America finally being dragged into the two-year old European war. Though a few glimmers of hope can be found amidst the ominous war news, both parents fear not only for the country's fate as this new war begins but also, more personally, for the fate of their sons who will likely soon be joining the fighting in one war theater or another. Still, despite the sense of dread hanging over almost every aspect of the family's daily affairs, Irene Coleman is determined that if indeed this will be the last Christmas that the family spends together--at least until after the war, or perhaps even forever--then she will do everything in her power to make Christmas, 1941, the first Christmas of the war, a happy one for her children and her entire family. Come spend the week leading up to Christmas, 1941 with the Coleman family including: Jonathan--The eldest son at nineteen, Jonathan fatalistically realizes the inevitability of his military days arriving very soon, whether he succumbs to the pressure to enlist or if he waits until he is drafted.But Jonathan has other problems on his mind as well. His long-time girlfriend Francine Donner, whom only days from now he plans to ask to marry him, broke a date with him this past weekend to go out with one of Jonathan's best friends from high school (and one of her own former boyfriends), because he is headed off to boot camp right after Christmas. Jonathan has ominous feelings about this turn of events...and he's right. Charlene--The third child in the family and the oldest daughter, Charlene has just become secretly engaged at the age of sixteen to her boyfriend who is soon headed to boot camp. She shares the news of her engagement with her cousin Lorraine Walker, but Lorraine quickly breaks her promise to keep the news secret. When Irene Coleman learns of her daughter's engagement and the circumstances surrounding it, she has yet another problem to confront. Irene--In many ways, the backbone of the family...the classic 1930s-1940s matriarch who runs her household her way, no questions asked. Like her husband, Irene is mortified by the ominous war news and does her best to occupy the hours of her day with an endless string of tasks and chores, trying to keep her mind off her own fears for her sons' safety....and the others. December 20-26, 1941:The First Christmas of the War

The First Christmas of the War (An American Family's Wartime Saga)

Literature & Fiction

Simon, Alan

Genre Fiction

Alan Simon

The 1st of a series of sequels to THE FIRST CHRISTMAS OF THE WAR.Take a trip back in time to spend the first Thanksgiving of World War II with the Coleman family and the return home to Pittsburgh of the two older sons--Jonathan and Joseph--for a brief holiday furlough in the middle of their Army Air Forces training... and what all family members expect will be their last Thanksgiving at home for a long while.Halfway across the world their cousin Marty, who has already been to war, is spending his Thanksgiving with his sea-mates on the USS Augusta, thinking about and missing his family back home.And Charlene Coleman, now seventeen years old, has secret dreams of fame after being told by none other than the star of Broadway's Pal Joey - Pittsburgh native Gene Kelly - that she has a great deal of talent and should be out selling War Bonds across the country.For Jonathan, this Thanksgiving furlough presents a serious predicament: what he should do when he encounters Francine Donner, his would-be fiancé. Jonathan had just started proposing to her the previous Christmas Eve when Francine blurted out a shameful secret that halted the proposal...but what will happen eleven months later when Jonathan and Francine come together again?Irene Coleman is determined to make this Thanksgiving as joyous as possible for everyone in her family who will gather around her table and share the holiday festivities, despite the wartime circumstances and how difficult a year 1942 has been on the war front and also the home front.THANKSGIVING, 1942 follows Jonathan, Joseph, Charlene, Irene and her husband Gerald, and the other members of the Coleman family during the days leading up to the first Thanksgiving of the war.

Thanksgiving, 1942 (The Coleman Family Saga)

A USA Today bestseller from the author of The First Christmas of the War and its sequels:July 1-3, 1863: The famed Battle of Gettysburg turns the tide of the Civil War, but not before approximately 50,000 soldiers from both sides become casualties during those three terrible days of carnage.June 29-July 4, 1913: To commemorate the 50th anniversary of The Battle of Gettysburg, more than 50,000 Civil War veterans ranging in age from 61 to more than 100 years old converge on the scene of that titanic battle half a century earlier in an occasion of healing that was known as the Great Reunion.Abraham Lincoln had incorrectly surmised in his famed Gettysburg Address that "the world will little note nor long remember what we say here" four months after the battle itself, but those very words could well be said about the Great Reunion that occurred half a century later. Though at the time the 1913 gathering was a widely anticipated, momentous commemoration with 50,000 spectators joining the 50,000 veterans, the grandest of all gatherings of Civil War veterans has been all but forgotten in the nearly 100 years since that occasion.Until now.GETTYSBURG, 1913: THE COMPLETE NOVEL OF THE GREAT REUNION (originally published as a 3-part serialized novel)_______Travel back in time to meet and spend the occasion of the Great Reunion with the following unforgettable characters in this meticulously researched tale:Doctor Samuel Chambers, a young unmarried Philadelphia physician thrust into great responsibility as Pennsylvania's chief planner of medical and aid facilities for more than 50,000 Civil War veterans, averaging 70 years of age...all of whom will be spending the duration of The Great Reunion encamped in outdoor tents under temperatures expected to approach or even exceed 100 degrees.Louisa May Sterling, a Gettysburg nurse and the young widow of a West Point-educated Army officer whose untimely death from typhoid left her alone with only her son Randall for companionship...but for whom The Great Reunion opens up an unexpected second chance at happiness when she meets Samuel Chambers.Angus Findlay, now just past his 85th birthday but during the Battle of Gettysburg a dashing cavalry officer serving with the Army of Northern Virginia directly under the legendary J.E.B. Stuart...and who became a leading figure in Virginia politics during Reconstruction.Chester Morrison, a classic Gilded Age Titan of Industry (and recent widower) from Philadelphia who decades earlier had been a green private facing battle for the first time at Gettysburg.Edgar and Johnny Sullivan, brothers from Illinois who had been members of the Union Cavalry Division that arrived at Gettysburg the day before the battle began. Years later, the Sullivans became allies of the Earp brothers in Tombstone and were first-hand witnesses to the evolution of Arizona from the Old West to the early 20th century.Ned Tomlinson, a Confederate veteran from Norfolk, Virginia who lost his left leg during the ill-fated assault known ever since as Pickett's Charge before being taken prisoner by the Yankees.John K. Tener, the real-life Governor of Pennsylvania - born in County Tyrone, Ireland, only weeks after the Battle of Gettysburg - who was a former Major League baseball player and under whose leadership The Great Reunion was planned and held.

Gettysburg, 1913: The Complete Novel of the Great Reunion

The sequel to THE FIRST CHRISTMAS OF THE WAR and THANKSGIVING, 1942 is here.Christmas season, 1945.The terrible years of war are finally over and millions of American solders, sailors, and airmen will be reunited with their families just in time for this glorious holiday season. Among them are the grown children of Gerald and Irene Coleman.Major Jonathan Coleman is on his way home after surviving many hazardous bombing missions over Europe and later in the Pacific. Anxiously awaiting Jonathan are not only his parents but also his fiancé Francine Donner, with Jonathan's and Francine's wedding planned for only days after Christmas.Captain Joseph Coleman wasn't as fortunate as his brother, having been shot down in late 1943 and then spending the rest of the war in German prisoner-of-war camps. But with the war now over, Joseph is also on his way home...accompanied by constant nightmares.Private Thomas Coleman enlisted in the Marine Corps following his high school graduation in the spring of 1945, but the war ended before he could be sent to the Pacific. Home for Christmas furlough, Thomas wonders what next awaits him.Charlene Coleman - better known to movie-goers as Carla Colburn, one of Hollywood's newest wartime starlets - is also on her way home, preparing for yet another round of verbal sparring with her mother over Charlene's burgeoning movie career. But Charlene has her own concerns about her movie prospects now that the war is over.Join the Coleman family as the years of non-stop worrying and being apart from one another finally come to an end, and each one prepares for what lies ahead following:The First Christmas After the War

The First Christmas After the War (An American Family's Wartime Saga)

Seventy-five years ago, in the earliest days of World War II, hundreds of thousands of young American women hastily married their sweethearts before those young men went off to war. This is the story of two of those young women who became known as furlough brides.Much to the dismay of her haughty mother, nineteen-year-old Elizabeth Buchanan marries her high school sweetheart, Carlo DeLuca, during Carlo’s brief furlough following Marine Corps boot camp before he departs for infantry training…and then the bloody islands of the Pacific Theater.One week later, Elizabeth’s high school acquaintance Angela Antolini marries Carlo’s older brother Tony while Tony is home on furlough following his U.S. Army basic training. As with Carlo – and their other two brothers – Tony will soon be off to war.Elizabeth and Angela – the DeLuca furlough brides – form a bond that carries them through the World War II homefront years. Both young women find jobs as government agency secretaries to help them cope with one lonely day after another. Katherine Buchanan, Elizabeth’s meddling mother, refuses to accept her daughter’s marriage to someone that Katherine considers to be beneath her daughter. Elizabeth’s black market-dealing brother and father present her with even more problems, even as she worries day after day about Carlo’s well-being.Come spend the war years with Elizabeth and Angela as they each struggle with the same monumental question:How can a wartime marriage survive years apart from each other, amidst constant fear and many other trials?

The DeLuca Furlough Brides: Book 1: The Ones They Left Behind (The DeLuca War Brides)

An empty marriage. Divorce papers almost finalized. What happens when fate brings both Leslie and Greg Meyer back to Venice, Italy…the scene of their long ago fairy-tale wedding?

Venice Redux

Romance

Bianco Ellis, Erica

Contemporary

Deanna Cooper is at a turning point in her life. 2 years past a divorce, she takes early retirement after 15 years as a Navy lawyer. With a whole month until her new job as a corporate lawyer begins, Deanna and her sister Tracy embark on a one-week Baja cruise. Fortunately for Deanna, as she boards the Jubilee cruise ship she can totally relax, because this entire next phase of her life is neatly laid out...or so she believes.

Lost at Sea

The Voice of Prophets

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Books by Alan Simon