Good wartime reads....

[magneto]

Grace Livingston Hill wrote christian romance novels, very similar to Emilie Loring, but a little more realistic. She is one of my favorite authors, but don't expect deep-thinking.
{{SNIP}}

I recognized the name and it was because I'd found a bunch of her books online. In case you didn't know, Project Gutenberg has several of her novels for free download (they're available at http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/h )

The titles they have are...
Hill, Grace Livingston, 1865-1947
* The City of Fire
* The Girl from Montana
* Lo, Michael!
* The Mystery of Mary
* The War Romance of the Salvation Army

So if the author sounds interesting to the OP, this is an easy way to check out her work.

 

[MelissaAnne]

Judith Pella has a terrific four-book series called "The Daughters of Fortune."

Excellent historical accuracy, IMO. And the storytelling was wonderful. I quickly read all four of them.

 

[jitterbugdoll]

I just thought of another book I enjoyed: Too Dead to Swing: A Katy Green Mystery, by Hal Glatzer. It was written in the late-40s by mystery ghost-writer Hanna Dobryn, who willed her unpublished works to Mr. Glazter on the condition that he would see them to print. Glatzer reworked this story a bit; it takes place in 1940 California, and centers on an all-girl swing band.

 

[magneto]

OK, now I have a *real* WW2 book...

Little did I know, the lovely actress Carole Landis (who seems to have her fans about these parts) did an "entertain the troops" tour during WW2 with 3 other ladies and wrote a book about her experience, called "Four Jills in a Jeep". The copy I found at the library is Random House, 1944. I don't if it has ever been reprinted but it is a touching and funny book worth checking your local library for.

 

[Lauren]

Just moved this one to WWII

 

[jitterbugdoll]

Little did I know, the lovely actress Carole Landis (who seems to have her fans about these parts) did an "entertain the troops" tour during WW2 with 3 other ladies and wrote a book about her experience, called "Four Jills in a Jeep". The copy I found at the library is Random House, 1944. I don't if it has ever been reprinted but it is a touching and funny book worth checking your local library for.

A movie loosely-based on the true story, starring Carole, Kay Francis, Martha Raye, and Mitzi Mayfair was made using the same title.

 

[Cobden]

Can I recommend Alistair MacLean's "HMS Ulysses". A fantastic book, very moving, I can't recommend it enough.

 

[Hondo]

Remember the Library

Little did I know, the lovely actress Carole Landis (who seems to have her fans about these parts) did an "entertain the troops" tour during WW2 with 3 other ladies and wrote a book about her experience, called "Four Jills in a Jeep". The copy I found at the library is Random House, 1944. I don't if it has ever been reprinted but it is a touching and funny book worth checking your local library for.

How many of us visit the Library? I haven't been to one in years, its just a bit out of the way but seeing how I went to Ebay, and with no new prints available of "Four Jills in a Jeep" only two used copies going for $22 bucks. I'll have to give the local library a tour or visit.
The library seems to be a thing of the past, due to local budgets, and with the internet and all, many are finding it hard to keep local libraries open. I hope to find a new print or used copy (4 Jills) when I get around to it, sounds like a great adventure.

 

[magneto]

Re: Four Jills in a Jeep

A movie loosely-based on the true story, starring Carole, Kay Francis, Martha Raye, and Mitzi Mayfair was made using the same title.

Oh, thanks for this info, I didn't know about the movie! Yes, those are the same 4 "jills" as in the book.

 

[jitterbugdoll]

Oh, thanks for this info, I didn't know about the movie! Yes, those are the same 4 "jills" as in the book.

Apparently though, it was not a very successful film. I'd still like to see it one of these days

 

[Paisley]

Memoirs of a Geisha is an amazing novel that has been mentioned in other threads. It isn't as racy as the title suggests. Although I usually don't care for novels, I could hardly put this one down.

I just finished reading The Flamboya Tree, the true story of a Dutch family's life in a Japanese concentration camp on Java. The narrator is the daughter, who was a little girl at the time. The book has photos of the family before and after the war. The girl and her brother, though still children, look middle-aged in the 1946 photo.

 

[Decobelle]

I enjoyed the novel "Shining Through" by Susan Isaacs (part romance, part spy story). It was made into a movie w/Melanie Griffith & Michael Douglas, which was fine, but I liked the book better.

In non-fiction, I just finished the excellent "We Band of Angels" by Dr. Elizabeth Norman, about the nurses who served on Bataan and Corregidor.

 

[Story]

Two novels that resonate even in today's world are:

Herman Wouk's THE CAINE MUTINY (where are my strawberries??)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Caine_Mutiny

and

Joseph Heller's CATCH-22 (You can only see the Major when he isn't in..)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catch-22

Uniformed lunacy hasn't changed a bit.

 

[Haversack]

A couple of books I would recommend are:

1. _The Forgotten Soldier_ by Guy Sajer. Somewhat controversial as to its authenticity as the memoirs of an Alsatian, (someone from that region, not a German Shepherd), who fought in the Wehrmacht on the Eastern Front. So, it is either a novel or an autobiographical memoir. Either way, it is a good read about someone from the other side.

2. _Quartered Safe Out Here_ by George MacDonald Fraser. His memoir of his experiences as an enlisted infantryman in the Border Regiment fighting in Burma. A lot of introspection and observed detail about the thinking of the time.

3. _The General Danced at Dawn_, _McAuslan In the Rough_, and _The Sheikh and the Dustbin_ all by George MacDonald Fraser. Novelized short stories of the author's experiences as a junior officer in a Highland Regiment stationed in North Africa and Scotland immediatly following the Second World War. Most of the stories are humourous. Some are not. Again, Fraser has a story-teller's eye for pertinent detail.

Haversack.

 

[Spitfire]

A couple of titels for all you flyboys and -girls out there:

Andrew Greig: That summer.
Smithy introduced me to it. Just bought it. But it starts out great. Cant say so much more, as I have only just started.

John T. Godfrey: The look of Eagles.
His amazing and touching biography. Almost impossible to get. Try libaries.

Patrick Bishop: Fighter Boys. Saving Britain 1940
"I know of no more thoughtfull nor yet more moving study of their achievement." Sunday Telegraph

Paul Richey: Fighter Pilot
A superb and very personal story,first published 1941. Written after personal diary in Battle of Britain.

Geoffrey Wellum: First Light
Very passionable and moving story of a very young pilot

Enjoy. I sure did!

 

[Cracker]

"To Hell And Back" -- Audie Murphy's autobiography. My favorite book as a kid.

Any of the Cornelius Ryan books (The Longest Day, A Bridge Too Far, Last Battle).

"Baa Baa Black Sheep" -- Col. Gregory "Pappy" Boyington's autobiography. I tried to read it during grade school b/c I was in love with the F-4U, but was shocked that it didn't star Robert Conrad, and I lost interest. Thirty years later, I've decided to give it another shot, and it's pretty good.

 

[Smithy]

Ooh this one I can really get my teeth into as I read (have read) loads of books about WWII (it's my favourite subject). The RAF in WWII is my main focus so my list is skewed towards this as well. Here's my picks:


Fiction:

That Summer by Andrew Greig - This is a wonderfully evocative novel about a young Hurricane pilot in the Battle of Britain and his girlfriend. Told in the first person from both of their perspectives it truly is moving and takes you back 67 years. I'm pleased to hear you picked up a copy Spitfire, I'm sure you'll enjoy it!

Piece of Cake by Derek Robinson - Absolutely brilliant novel of a fictional RAF squadron during the Battle of France and the Battle of Britain. Contains some of the best dialogue I have read in any novel and has a healthy vein of black humour running through it. Was made into a mini-series as well.

Under an English Heaven by Robert Radcliffe - The book centres around the lives of both a USAAF bomber group stationed near a small English village and the lives of the local villagers. This really is a wonderful novel, at times nerve-racking, at times humourous, and at others heartbreaking. One of the best.

Das Boot by Lothar-Gunther Buchheim - Stunning, stunning, stunning book. Based on an actual patrol it is rivetting, harrowing, terrifying, moving but most of all, brilliant.


Non-Fiction

To start with there are so many great non fiction accounts of WWII, it is impossible to really go into them all. At least a dozen come to my mind immediately. And I'd be here all day listing them.

What I've decided to do here is pick just one of the very, very best (IMHO)...

The Big Show by Pierre Clostermann - the first hand account of this French pilot who served with the RAF. Based on his actual diaries that were written in the thick of it, no other book will get you as close to knowing what it felt like to fly a Spitfire or Tempest in combat. You can almost smell the cordite and hear the shells buzzing past it is so good at putting the reader in the cockpit, but it is also a treatise on real fear and what it is like to live with that day in, day out. William Faulkner called it the greatest book to come out of WWII, I'd agree.


Well hopefully there's something in that lot which will spark someone's interest.

Cheers,

Smithy.

 

[Harp]

Piece of Cake by Derek Robinson - Absolutely brilliant novel of a fictional RAF squadron during the Battle of France and the Battle of Britain. Contains some of the best dialogue I have read in any novel and has a healthy vein of black humour running through it. Was made into a mini-series
Cheers,

Smithy.

That scene when Mogie flies a Spitfire under the village bridge....

 

[Smithy]

That scene when Mogie flies a Spitfire under the village bridge....

Great stuff!

For the mini-series Ray Hanna actually flew a Spitfire under a bridge, fantastic piece of piloting...

The book was based on a Hurricane squadron but in the mini-series they had to change it to Spitfires as there were very few (still are) Hurricanes in flying condition and it was before CGI.

 

[Harp]

Great shot! :eusa_clap