March 20, 2026 - The Berlin Candy Bomber by Gail Halvorsen (2010, 244 pages) is Halvorsen's autobiography of his service during and after World War II. He was a pilot in the U.S. Army Air Forces. In 1948 after the war, he volunteered to take another pilot's place who was being sent to Germany to fly during the Berlin airlift. The Soviet Union had blocked food and gas from reaching Berlin by roads and rails as they sought to take over all of Germany. So the United States and England decided to fly supplies to airports for direct distribution to citizens. Children would come to the fence at the airport to watch pilots take off and land. One day Gail talked with a few children at the fence and gave them two sticks of gum he had in his pocket. They asked for more. So Lt. Halvorsen made parachutes from handkerchiefs, filled them with gum and candy, and began dropping them out of his plane. His one act of kindness grew to an international effort and changed his life.

March 17, 2026 - In the 1990s, Douglas Brinkley, author and historian, was searching for a definitive biography of Rosa Parks, Mother of the Civil Rights Movement. He could not find one so he decided to write it. Rosa Parks: A Life (2000, 231 pages) is a fascinating and well researched book. Buried in papers, Brinkley found some of Rosa's notes from a two-week civil rights workshop she attended in summer 1955 in Tennessee. And as he notes in his book, Brinkley said that many civil rights historians have not realized the importance of Rosa's job as a secretary at Maxwell Field during World War II. The Army base was integrated so she rode a trolley on which she could sit anywhere but as soon as she left Maxwell to board a city bus to go home, she had to sit in the back of the bus. It was a humiliation she vowed to end. The book is a gift to all. Read the Stories 250 story about Rosa: Rosa Parks (1913-2005): Mother of the Civil Rights Movement. 

March 8, 2026 - Recommended by the Wright B Flyer Museum in Dayton, Ohio, The Bishop's Boys: A Life of Wilbur and Orville Wright (1989) by Tom D. Crouch is a comprehensive, impeccably researched account of Wilbur and Orville Wright's lifelong quest to conquer human, powered flight. The title is interesting in that it recognizes their father, Bishop Milton Wright. In addition to telling the story of how two brothers who never married devoted their entire lives to building a flying machine, the book also details the boys' upbringing and their family life as their father preached and also battled his church, the United Brethren in Christ. At 529 pages, the book is not a quick read but well worth it.

March 8, 2026 - The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown (2013) is a riveting story of the University of Washington's rowing team that won a gold medal at the 1936 Olympics, the same Olympics where Jesse Owens won four gold medals. The nine boys had to first beat all of the Ivy League rowing teams to represent the United States at the Olympics. Few gave them much of a chance but they did. The book is based on Brown's interviews with Joe Rantz, one of the nine boys in the boat, shortly before he passed away. Brown traveled to Berlin to look at the lake where the boys, against all odds and attempts to deny them a fighting chance, won the gold. It's a terrific book that has been made into both a documentary and a feature film.