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
I have three recommendations — two that are literary-leaning but super readable and beautifully done and a series that's consistently awesome.
HHhH by Laurent Binet, translated from French by Sam Taylor: A creative account of the assassination attempt of Reinhard Heidrich in Prague in 1942. (The book’s title HHhH stands for Himmlers Hirn heißt Heydrich, which means ‘Himmler’s brain is called Heydrich.’)
The Curse of Pietro Houdini by Derek B Miller: Set in 1943 Italy. Complex characters who form a found family at a besieged monastery. When the Nazis begin to steal art from the monks, our heroes formulate a plan to steal it back. It starts as an orphan story, morphs into a caper, and has a perfect ending with Big Feelings. My friend and I read it together and texted back and forth throughout with favorite sentences and 'OMG CAN YOU BELIEVE WHAT JUST HAPPENED' kind of messages.
The Bernie Gunther series by Philip Kerr: The series spans the years leading up to WWII, the war, and the post-war period. Throughout, homicide detective Bernie Gunther struggles with his internal conflict: He’s a native Berliner who hates the Nazis, but he’s very fond of breathing — so he ends of working against them from inside. You don't have to read in order because the series jumps around in time. One of my favorites is Prague Fatale, and it also 'stars' Reinhard Heidrich, so it makes an excellent pair read with HHhH.