WWII, TV shows, musicians, odd reads ... all have been book trails in past posts. Here are a few more to add to them :-)

When Books Went to War: the Stories That Helped Us Win World War II, by Molly Guptill Manning. Far from home, dirty, wet, bad food, people shooting at you ... turns out, what many of those so far from home wanted was reading material. This is the story of fulfilling that need, starting with book drives to collect donated books, to the War Department joining with publishers to create the Armed Services Edition of paperback books on every subject (fiction and non-fiction) imaginable. An absolutely amazing service! It also was a snub to Hitler and the book banning and burning in Germany. I think you'll be surprised at the books that were the most popular. Well, okay, not in every case, but sometimes .... ;-)

It may be a classic, familiar, old-favorite now, but when the Mary Tyler Moore show was first imagined (before all the cast had been hired, before the first script was complete) it was deemed a failure. Then, the day of the first filming (there was to be no laugh track, those would come from the studio audience) it turned out the cameras (a new style) were too big for the audience to see around, the sound system failed so they couldn't hear the actors, the air-conditioning died so the studio was sweltering ... oh, and don't forget the bomb threat! Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted and All the Brilliant Minds Who Made The Mary Tyler Moore Show a classic, by Jennifer Keishin Armstrong, is the history of what was then quite a radical show. A most enjoyable read.

Some biographies are a bit of a slog, some look overwhelmingly huge, but for a more light hearted, quick read type collection of biographies there's Lives of the Musicians: Good Times, Bad Times (And What the Neighbors Thought), written by Kathleen Krull and Illustrated by Kathryn Hewitt. A nice introduction for kids. Each entry has a fun bit at the end called 'Musical Notes' with trivia about the composer.

Although a favorite of mine, there's a lot more to Bambi than the Disney movie. I've read where it is considered by some to be the first 'environmental' novel in that it shows what damage humans can do to an eco-system. Bambi: a Life in the Woods, by Felix Salten is complex, intense, and a bit grim in parts, but worth it.

And two that might fit best with the 'you read what?' post as I rarely read about business or computers. I read these back to back: the everything store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon, by Brad Stone. Jeff Bezos had the right idea at the right time, and pursued it relentlessly. He had a vision of what the internet could be, and how people might shop and set forth to make that easy and friendly for the shoppers he knew would come. The author took his time with this book, interviewing investors, employees (past and present) as well as Bezos himself, so you'll read about the good and the bad. It started with books and expanded to what you see today, and is still growing. I prefer to buy books at a local, independent bookstore, but for other things, amazon is the first place I check. (Imagine that little amazon 'smile' here). ;-)

That book took me to one click: Jeff Bezos and the Rise of Amazon.com, by Richard L. Brandt. (Hmm, interesting that both titles use lower case, and bold face type). Jeff Bezos was a man with ideas (he still is, actually) and this is the story of how he implemented those ideas. He could see the future where paper was not a requirement for a book ... the Kindle was the result.

I've yet to get an ereader, still preferring the old fashioned book. ;-)

Reading Hermit With Dog