Discussion: Give me your best WWII book recs
Fiction and non-fiction alike.
I’ve always read a lot of history and biography. Going through a biography of every president gave me an incomparable crash course in American history as a whole. When it comes to specific time periods, though, I’ve generally been more of a Civil War reader than anything else. I’ve read plenty of bestsellers about the great conflict of the 20th century, but I’ve never really done a deep dive. In the last month or so, I’ve read a handful of WWII books, largely by happenstance, that have piqued my interest to a new level.
So, as a 37-year-old suburban dad, I’m more than ready for my WWII era. It was bound to happen at some point.
What’s great about WWII reading is that it spans genres and audiences more than almost any other subject. From prize-winning literary fiction (Catch-22 and All the Light We Cannot See) to mystery novels (Kate Quinn and Ken Follett) to pop history (Erik Larson) and serious scholarship, the options truly run the gamut.
Your turn: What are your favorite WWII books? Fiction, non-fiction, old, and new — I want ‘em all.
WWII is one of my favorite areas of study. So many options to choose from.
- The Nightingales by Kristin Hannah - women in the French resistance.
- The Requisitions by Samuel Lopez-Barrantes - metafiction by one of our Substack authors.
- The Corps series starting with Semper Fi by W.E.B. Griffin - 10 books covering 1941-Korean war.
- There is a trilogy by Ian Toll covering the war in the Pacific. First book is Pacific Crucible.
- Flyboys by James Bradley.
- The Second War by Winston Churchill (6 volumes)
- Band of Brothers by Stephen Ambrose.
- The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank.
- Night by Elie Wiesel
- The Desert War: The North African Campaign, 1940–1943 by Alan Moorehead
- The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
- The Bridge Over the River Kwai by Pierre Boulle
- The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick - Alternate history/speculative fiction
- Every Man Dies Alone by Hans Fallada
Just finished the Rick Atkinson trilogy (starts with Army at Dawn); takes you through the US Army’s development as a fighting force from North Africa, through Italy, and then into France and Germany. It’s detailed and unsparing, no jingoism. Sort of a parallel to Bruce Catton’s trilogy about the Civil War.
Also loved Victor Davis Hanson’s book “The Second World Wars”; which is a high level strategy analysis about how the war was won, industrial advantages, etc…