11 Days in December: Christmas at the Bulge, 1944, library edition

Eisenhower's heroic gloss dims in this portrait of the WWII offensive by the Germans against Allied troops in Belgium and Luxembourg. Patrick Cullen delivers the first-person accounts collected by Weintraub so that listeners share the cold, loss, and sense of doubt plaguing the ordinary soldier. There are higher momentsâ of course, supplied by Patton, whose famous treble Cullen does not attempt. Ernest Hemingway appears as does Marlene Dietrich, as well as memories of lice and men. Well worth hearing are the letters, journals, and recollections of soldiers who fought and celebrated the holiday far from home. Christmas trees in foxholes, orphans feted, celebratory Spam, and Eisenhower and cohorts feasting in Paris make an unforgettable portrait of war.