Memorial Day: Remembering Joe Tofinchio

In honor of Memorial Day here in the US - a day set aside to remember those who have died in war - I want to tell you a bit about Joe Tofinchio.

My Grandpa, Nick Fontana, met Joe Tofinchio when they were in the Army together.  They became great friends, and Grandpa even brought Joe home to meet his family before they shipped out to England.  After training there for what seemed like forever, they found out that they would be part of the assault on German-occupied France (aka D-Day).  On June 6, 1944 they landed on Utah Beach.  Three days into the fight, Grandpa got word that Joe had been killed.  After 35 days of combat, Grandpa was injured in the leg by exploding shrapnel and he was sent to England to recuperated.

Grandpa didn't know much about Joe's family, and it was years before he made it home himself.  By the time he did get home he was engaged to my Grandma, Eileen Hunt, who he'd met in England and he was busy trying to get her over to the US so they could get married.  Years and years went by during which he often thought about Joe.

Around 2004 or so my extended family took a trip to the D-Day Memorial in Bedford, Virgina.  While we were there we helped Grandpa look up Joe's name in their files.  Grandpa was furious when he found out that Joe was listed as a Private - Grandpa KNEW he'd been a Sergeant.  That mistake bothered him tremendously and it came up in conversation many times over the next few years.  In 2008 I decided to do a bit of digging and see what I could find out about Joe.  Through an amazing set of circumstances I eventually got in contact with Joe's surviving sister and brother.  I exchanged letters with them and spoke to them on the phone.  It was unbelievable and fantastic.  I was able to share with them all the memories Grandpa had of Joe (Grandpa is hard of hearing and can't talk on the phone all that well, so I talked to them and passed messages back and forth) and tell them that Joe is still remembered all these years later.  They in turn were able to clarify the story of Joe's move from Sergeant to Private; apparently he asked to be demoted because he didn't feel comfortable leading his men into the battle on D-Day since he felt it would be a death sentence for them.  This news gave Grandpa a huge amount of peace, knowing that the official records hadn't made a mistake.

I was also able to learn that a man in France takes care of Joe's grave in Normandy as part of a project that pairs local families with the graves of American soldiers.  This was yet another thing that gave us all a great sense of peace and comfort, knowing that someone we (and Joe) didn't know cares enough to keep up Joe's grave.


I hope that you will take time today and throughout the year to remember the people like Joe who didn't come home from war.  These men and women left behind families who had to go on without them.  Years go by and fewer and fewer people are left to remember them, especially fallen soldiers from long ago wars.  I never knew Joe Tofinchio but I remember him today.

Kiddo carrying his Cub Scout Pack's flag in our local Memorial Day Parade

If you have a minute I'd love for you to listen to the words of this song. I can't help but think of Joe whenever I hear it, and it always makes me think of all the men and women whose memories are slowly fading away.

NYC Recap - Friday Night

This was THE.BEST.NIGHT I had in NYC. Barbara @ Reading Group Guides, Candace @ Beth Fish Reads, and Jenn @ Jenn's Bookshelves joined me for dinner at Becco (an Italian place) in the theater district. It was a hot night but the food and wine were fantastic and the company was even better. After dinner we went to the bar at a nearby hotel where we had an amazing view of Times Square from 8 stories up. A lot of wine was consumed by all. Here's to doing it again next year - cheers!

NYC Friday Recap - BBC portion

For getting only 6 hours of sleep I woke up feeling surprisingly chipper Friday morning.  I had breakfast with some bloggers and an author at the BBC dining area then listened to the opening/keynote speech. Then it was time for the panels. I spent the first two hours flitting back and forth between the panel on time management and the one called Ask the Publisher/Publicist. One of the best things I heard in the P/P panel was that reviews of ARCs can go up whenever the book is available for preorder - now THAT is helpful to know.

I ate lunch with Raych from books i done read and her lovely artist sister. This made me very happy as Raych was one of the people I most wanted to meet in person.

After lunch it was time for my panel on the Grey Areas of Blogging. I hope someone took pictures because I didn't.  I'll write up a summary of what we discussed and post it later this week, but for now I'll say that it went smoothly and I hope people got something out of it.

The final panels of the day were on technology and niche blogs. I spent some time in each one but also hung out chatting with a few lovely bloggers.  Then it was time to go. SAY WHAT?!?! I cannot believe the day went by so fast.

Pictures:
- Meg @ Write Meg! & Ana @ Book Smugglers
- Raych @ books i done read, me, & Jenn @ Jenn's Bookshelves

Lost in Shangri-La

Lost in Shangri-La

by Mitchell Zuckoff

audiobook: 8.5 hours
narrated by the author

About the Book

The subtitle of this book is "A True Story of Survival, Adventure, and the Most Incredible Rescue Mission of World War II" and that really say it all.  It's the story of a plane crash in the remote and inaccessible mountains of New Guinea that left only 3 survivors, and the amazingly risky plan to rescue them.  Check out this video for a bit about the story and to see what the survivors (and the local people) looked like.

My Thoughts

I'm a fan of WWII stories, probably because of my grandpa's involvement in the war, so books set in that time and place - especially non-fiction books - always capture my attention.  But I have to admit that I'd never heard of this plane crash or the rescue before this book.  It's always great to discover new stories like this!

The author begins by introducing the people who found themselves on the fateful plane that day. I got to know a bit about their families, what life was like on base, and something of their personalities.  He then goes on to explain the discovery of the hidden valley of Shangri-La and the lives of the native population.  When the plane crash happened I felt so sad for the families of the people who died, families I'd just learned about a short time before.  

In addition to the people on the plane I also learned about the rescue crew, the reporters, and several other important players.  Knowing about their backgrounds and their families added a lot to the story for me.

The book is not all that long and it moves quickly.  It was over before I knew it and although the story comes to a definite conclusion I was left wanting more. Not to say that the book left out anything important, more that I was enjoying the experience of listening and could have continued for many more hours.  

Oh, and the book is narrated by the author - he does a very good job with it.

Recommend?

You'd like this book if you are a fan of WWII stories, tales of survival and/or rescue, of if you are looking for a little known bit of history.  I quite enjoyed it.

NYC Thursday Recap

Today I slept in and it was glorious. I had breakfast around 9:30am and made it to BEA around 10:30am. I wanted to get a book about Hank Williams so that was my one planned stop. After that I worked my way through every.single.row in the convention center. It was fantastic!  I got to see everything that was there and had a chance to talk with lots of new contacts at various publishers. This was the highlight of my time at BEA. I'll tell you about the books when I'm back at home - I finally found some interesting and unusual books that really appealed to me.

At 1pm I met up with a group, of bloggers and hiked a ridiculously long way through the city to have a lovely relaxing lunch. By the time we got back to the convention center it was time for the Book Blogger Convention reception.  It was a mix and mingle event with bloggers, authors, and publishing people.  It was here that I finally got to meet Raych from books i done read - woohoo!

From here I headed to a bar with some people from Tor and other publishers. That was an experience deserving of it's own blog post, which I promise to write once I'm home.

Today involved lots of cab rides, hence the picture of the view from the cab.

My next event was dessert at Serendipity with JKS Communications and some of their authors and bloggers. I had the chance to talk to author Chitoka Webb and found her to be a wonderful lady. I'm hoping to check out her memoir soon. (That's us in the very bad picture below.) My roommate Megan got a frozen hot chocolate - yum.

I was back to the hotel by 10:30pm, in bed by 11:30pm, and reading CROSSED until 12:30am.

BOOK BLOGGER CONVENTION TOMORROW!

NYC Recap - my hotel

I'm staying at the Best Western right near the convention center.  The room is tiny but just fine for me. It is literally a block from the convention center - so convenient!  The picture below is the view from the front of the hotel. The convention center is the big black building at the end of the street. As you walk from the hotel you pass the "stable" where the carriage horses are kept. Across the street is an auto repair shop.

I could not be happier with this hotel and I highly recommended it to anyone who comes to BEA next year.

NYC Wednesday Recap - part 2

After a few hours I headed back to the hotel to do a book drop and ran in to a very exhausted man who couldn't handle the lines at BEA anymore.  He offered me his ticket for the Rick Riordan signing - going on at that very moment - and I gladly accepted since I'd missed the chance to get my own ticket that morning. I rushed back to BEA and got there in time to get one of the very last copies of his new book without having to wait more than 10 minutes.  Score!

Next I worked my way through the convention center to pick up a few specific books.  I felt like there were fewer review copies available compared to last year, but more importantly there were fewer books that really appealed to me. When I'm back home and able to blog from my computer I'll link up to some of the books that caught my attention last year, just so I can show you what I'm talking about. Still, I had a good time on the show floor checking things out. Oh, and I got to chat with author ML Malcolm - she's such a lovely lady. Check out our picture below.

That evening Megan and I FINALLY found a cab and made it to the Harper Collins reception about 30 minutes late. We had a good time chatting with other bloggers and authors but it was very crowded and rather hot so we weren't disappointed when it was time to go.

Our next stop was for dinner at an Italian place about a block away. There were 11 of us and we had a blast (at least, I did!). I took pictures on my camera rather than with my phone so I'll have to share those with you after I get home. And since I haven't figured out how to link to anyone's blog when I'm writing from my phone,  I'll just wait until I get home to tell you who was there too.

Back at the hotel I stayed up WAY too late reading CROSSED by Ally Condie then finally fell into a Benadyll-induced sleep (I forgot to mention that my allergies are going wacky this week, didn't I?).

More to come soon ...

NYC Wednesday Recap - part 1

It was an early morning for me - up at 6:30am to get author signing tickets - and I STILL missed one for Rick Riordan. Hung around and chatted until 9am when the exhibit hall opened then went directly to the line for Ally Condie's new book CROSSED.  Both Amanda @ Zen Leaf and I want to read this one but I could only get one copy so I'll read it then mail it to her.

For the next few hours I browsed the booths in search of books
... without a ton of success. It seems like there are fewer books I'm really interested in this year. I did pick up a few for Amanda though - Tayari Jones' SILVER SPARROW and Scott Westerfeld's GOLIATH.

More happened on Wednesday but I have to go to lunch now so I'll leave you with a few pictures.

NYC Tuesday Recap

I got New York by 11am and was checked into the hotel and BEA by noon. I hooked up with Florinda from The 3 R's and Kim from Sophisticated Dorkiness for lunch at a diner, then Florinda and I went to the Discovery Museum Pompeii Exhibit.

The exhibit was amazing. The way it was set up allowed the plaster casts of the bodies to have maximum impact when you finally got to them.   No pictures allowed inside so I can't show you what I mean, but it was pretty amazing.

After a short break at the hotel I got to meet my roommate, Megan, from Leafing Through Life. We had dinner together at a little dinner down the street then got dressed for the Bookrageous Bash.

Megan and I met up with Reagan from Miss Remmers' Review and figured out how to take the subway to Chinatown. From there we walked to the bar where we met lots of other bloggers and chatted for hours.

I have photos on my camera that I'll share when I get home (I'm blogging via phone here) but here's a quick peek at some I took with my phone.

- the Pompeii Exhibit sign
- 42nd Street
- the subway in Chinatown
- me with Lori from TNBBC

Good News and Bad News

I'm on my way to NYC! Well okay I'm at the train station getting ready to be on my way, but you get the idea.

Packing took less time and effort than I thought and getting here this morning by 7:25am was a breeze. I kept telling my husband that this all seemed too easy.

Then I checked my email and found out that, due to a cancelled flight, one of my roommates now can't make it to BEA at all - nooooo! So I won't get to spend time with Amanda from Zen Leaf after all. So sad!

Still, its going to be a great week and I'm so excited.  Stay tuned for quick updates and photos over the next few days.  NYC HERE I COME!