Good wartime reads....

[AllaboutEve]

I just wondered if any of you ladies out there could recommend any good novels set in the WWII era. I just finished Anne Tyler "The Amateur Marriage" which was pretty good but it only spent the first few chapters in the 40's and by the time I had finished it was in the 80's!!!!![huh]

I would love it if you have anything you could recommend....many thanks!

 

[Irena]

I have several Grace Livingston Hill books set during the second World War, as well as the first. They are christian romance novels, very sweet, and I can get you the titles if you are interested.

 

[AllaboutEve]

That would be great thanks!

 

[Miss_Bella_Hell]

Do you mean novels of non-fiction? I can help in the non-fiction department for sure!

 

[AllaboutEve]

Fiction or non-fiction, I would be keen for titles of either!

 

[Miss_Bella_Hell]

Well well well!

Here are some I have thoroughly enjoyed. They are all well-known for good reason:

Wartime : Understanding and Behavior in the Second World War by Paul Fussell

Band of Brothers : E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest by Stephen E. Ambrose

Flyboys : A True Story of Courage by James Bradley

 

[VintageJess]

I highly enjoyed Citizen Soldiers (also by Stephen Ambrose) as well.

 

[jitterbugdoll]

I second "Flyboys"--that was a very good read.

Also, the book "No Time for Fear," which is a collection of stories about nurses in the war, is excellent.

 

[Caledonia]

Here are some I have thoroughly enjoyed. They are all well-known for good reason:

Wartime : Understanding and Behavior in the Second World War by Paul Fussell

Band of Brothers : E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest by Stephen E. Ambrose

Flyboys : A True Story of Courage by James Bradley

I should have known Band of Brothers was a book. I assume it's where the BofB DVD came from? I must get it.

"All Quiet On The Western Front" floored me it's so powerful. I'd recommend that. And slightly fftopic: I can recommend "The War Bride" DVD with Anna Friel as a gentle but evocative film.

 

[jitterbugdoll]

"The Man Who Flew the Memphis Belle," by pilot Robert Morgan, is another good read.

I also bought my dad two books for Father's Day by 101st Airbone Division paratrooper Donald Burgett; my dad is enjoying them and I plan on borrowing the books after he's done

 

[maisie]

I should have known Band of Brothers was a book. I assume it's where the BofB DVD came from? I must get it.

"All Quiet On The Western Front" floored me it's so powerful. I'd recommend that. And slightly fftopic: I can recommend "The War Bride" DVD with Anna Friel as a gentle but evocative film.

I also like 'The Land Girls' with Anna Friel, not very true to life and not many 'real' land girls like it! But the clothes are nice and it is worth watching for the storyline!!

 

[Caledonia]

Didn't see that and it's not come up on the "money off" shelf in my DVD store yet, but I'd like to give it a shot. Wasn't the teddy in War Bride just perfect for what you can run off on a machine. I love it! Sorry girls, "off topic". PS I'm going to start typing "off topic" because I hate that "I'm really angry" off topic that we have. In fact.....

 

[LizzieMaine]

Historywise, I liked "The Murrow Boys" by Stanley Cloud and Lynne Olson, the story of Edward R. Murrow and his team of CBS radio correspondents, and how they covered the war. While I disagreed with certain aspects of the premise -- they downplay the accomplishments of other networks' correspondents a bit too much -- I do think that the picture they paint of Murrow and his team is fascinating.

A good overall history is "There's A War To Be Won!" by Geoffrey Perret. A very hefty volume, but good reading thruout. Perret also wrote an excellent biography of Gen. Eisenhower, which is worth checking out too.

Probably the best and most accessible history of the era I've ever read -- not just WW2/the 40s but the whole period from 1932 to 1972 -- is "The Glory and the Dream," by William Manchester. It's a two-volume work published in 1973, and rather than just dully reciting facts, it puts the whole history of the era into a breezy narrative form. Manchester's political point of view sometimes is a bit too prominent for my taste, but the readability and depth of the book more than compensate for that. A must-read for anyone interested in what life in the Era was really like.

 

[J. M. Stovall]

My two favorite books on the air campaign in Europe would have to be "Twelve O'Clock High" and "Serenade To The Big Bird".

 

[cherry_bomb]

A good post WW2 fiction I recommend is "Lucia, Lucia" by Adrianna Trigiani. And another one of my favorites is "Flight of the Maidens" by Jane Gardam.

 

[magneto]

An interesting novel I'm reading right now is John Marquand's "So Little Time" about the U.S. right before entrance into WW2, from the perspective of a WW1 vet (published 1943).

 

[AllaboutEve]

I love the "Land Girls" film but it doesn't seem to be that easily available at the moment.
I don't mind going "off topic" it makes life more interesting.
Thanks for all of the book suggestions, I have a great list ready for my summer reading now.

 

[synapse_shock]

Re: Good wartime reads

I haven't read any books set in WWII, but I read a book that was a bestseller in 1941 last summer called, "Out of the Night" that was wonderful. Its an autobiography of a man who began his life as a European revolutionary and died in Maryland as a member of the PTA. Hitler and Stalin both wanted him dead!

 

[magneto]

Sorry to post twice, but remembered a novel I enjoyed re: a family in England during WW2 (the BBC also made a series based on it), Mary Wesley's "The Camomile Lawn". Not highbrow literature but a good story.

 

[Irena]

It took me a little longer than I thought it would to go through my books, but here are my "Wartime reads".

Emilie Loring wrote sweet romance novels, very clean and not always so realistic (most of the people in her stories are very rich), but still I enjoy them.

Rainbow at Dusk, 1942, one of my favorites.
When Hearts are Light Again, 1943

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.

The Street of the City, 1942
Through These Fires, 1943
More Than a Conqueror, 1944

And this one is not WWII, but still a wonderful wartime read:

The Search, Grace Livingston Hill, 1919

Both of these authors, I'm sure, have more books from both wars, but my collection is not complete. Grace Livingston Hill wrote most during the 1930s.