Lucky Stars and Gold Bars: A World War II Odyssey

By Karen Sladek

A South Dakota farm boy has no inkling his destiny is tied to Japan's conquest of China and Hitler's rampage in Europe. Just three months into college, his world is turned upside down by the surprise... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0972192581
• ISBN13: 9780972192583
• Release Date: December 2004
• Publisher: Penlyric Pr
• Length: 522 Pages
• Weight: 1.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.8" x 1.5" x 6.3"

Customer Reviews

discovering your parents

Rebeccasreads highly recommends LUCKY STARS AND GOLD BARS as an epic labor of love which is chockful of the adventures, thoughts & language of one ordinary American caught up in an extraordinary era. Luckily for us, Karen's father, Lt. Lyle Sladek, came from a family who wrote letters & saved them in their envelopes, together with postcards, snapshots, along with all sorts of memorabilia. LUCKY STARS AND GOLD BARS is much, much more than a mere recording of her father's letters. To better fill in the gaps, she has added historical perspectives with excerpts from President Roosevelt's wartime speeches, narratives about life back on the farm, & the happenings of other family members. LUCKY STARS AND GOLD BARS also includes many photographs of both her mother & father's immigrant parents dating back to 1895 when they first arrived in Dakota Territory, the building of farmhouses, family, school & college groups, as well as the snapshots from her father's odyssey around the world as an Intelligence Officer & Cryptographer in the Army Air Corps during the final years of World War II.

Benjamin Franklin Award Winner in Biography/Memoirs

Lucky Stars and Gold Bars was a winner in the 21st Benjamin Franklin Awards from Publishers Marketing Association (PMA) in recognition of excellence in editorial and design. PMA honored the "best of the best" at the annual Benjamin Franklin Awards ceremony in New York on June 1, 2005, two days prior to the annual Book Expo America conference. Lucky Stars and Gold Bars--providing an overview of the WWII era based on a soldier's 400 letters home and contributing to the historical record--was among the most successful in achieving its purpose and meeting its intended audience's needs. Judged by a panel of more than 150 book industry experts including buyers at wholesale and retail levels, librarians, book critics, design experts, and publishing consultants, books are scrutinized by individuals involved in the very markets in which the books are competing. Publishers large and small from across the nation, Canada, and Mexico competed for the coveted Benjamin Franklin Awards. The 2005 Awards experienced more than 1,600 entries.

Mind and Heart

As I read "Lucky Stars and Gold Bars" my mind remembered the major events I'd learned about World War II but my heart felt the freshness and immediacy of an uncertain, impatient and youthfully optimistic young man who was interrupting a college career to join the war effort. Lyle's engaging, thoughtful and humorous letters home from the Army Air Corps are woven together with narrative, photographs and historical documents to create a coming-of-age story with heart and a history book with a personal perspective. I found the concept to be fresh, the writing crisp and clear, and the production values to be of the highest quality. I was fortunate to have a chunk of free time because when I started reading this book I couldn't put it down. I highly recommend it to all audiences because it both provides a first-person perspective on an immensely important historical period and yet is an almost novel-like portrayal of a young man maneuvering through all the sometimes outwardly senseless procedures that many other non-combat veterans will relate to.

A Must Read!

Easy to read and excellently written. While being entertained, you will learn a lot about the WWII era. Here's a great tip: watch the video of Lyle Sladek, the WWII letter writer, produced by the Ventura County Star at http://wms.scripps.com/ventura/sladek.wmv

A 522-page distillation of some 400 letters by Lyle Sladek

Unlucky Stars And Gold Bars: A World War II Odyssey is a 522-page distillation of some 400 letters written by Lyle Sladek, a South Dakota farm boy during his military service as a second lieutenant in the Army Air Corps. Lyle served as a Cryptographic Security and Intelligence Officer in the China-Burma-India; European; and Mediterranean theaters of war. He wrote about his observations respecting profound socioeconomic changes in Asia and Europe posting his letters home from five continents. Compiled and edited by his daughter, Lucky Stars And Gold Bars is especially valuable in what it reveals about the noncombat side of military life "in the field" during World War II as experienced by four out of five GIs during the second world war. Enhanced with 236 illustrations and thoroughly "reader friendly", Lucky Stars And Gold Bars is a rather unique and enthusiastically recommended addition for personal, academic, and community library Military History & Biography collections.