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Topic: WWII (World War 2) Stories that hold your attention. Share the good ones!

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Subject: WWII (World War 2) Stories that hold your attention. Share the good ones!
Date Posted: 1/7/2014 2:13 PM ET
Member Since: 9/13/2010
Posts: 7
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As I was glancing back at some of my book reviews I realized that few of them really get any attention.  They move down the list quickly as other reviews are placed in the queue.  I use reviews as both a reminder of how I reacted to the book and as an advertisement for the good ones.  So I spotchecked a few of the books that I really feel others would want to read, if they only knew about them, and found 0 members wanting them!

I am using this topic to encourage the listing of some books in the WWII genre that are worthy of you spending your book credits to order.  These may be for yourself, or to get someone you love to read a good book.  So following this post be sure to post other WWII books you would highly recommend.  These may be Biographies, or Fictional, or even a good History.  Please post a link to the book or review if you can, and help us each choose good books to read.



Last Edited on: 1/7/14 2:29 PM ET - Total times edited: 1
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Subject: A great WWII Biography
Date Posted: 1/7/2014 2:26 PM ET
Member Since: 9/13/2010
Posts: 7
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If real people and what they did in World War 2 interests you, then prepare to be amazed by this story!

One Man's War The WWII Saga of Tommy LaMore
Author: Tommy LaMore and Dan A. Baker

"An automobile accident keeps Tommy from pilot training on the day before it was to begin. But he soon finds that this is not the only airplane job in the Army. Soon he becomes an armorer, teaches aerial gunnery, visits the Philippines just ahead of the Japanese, becomes a B17 gunner in England, joins the French Resistance, is held as a German POW -- and escapes, joins the Russian Army behind their lines and witnessed the Mongolian Horsemen made famous by Genghis Kahn as they kill Germans with swords and pistols, and then helps to liberate a Concentration Camp. "

This is a great book!  While it can be a bit graphic, it will take you through a hard to believe, but true story.

Cosmina avatar
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Date Posted: 1/7/2014 8:09 PM ET
Member Since: 6/21/2008
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Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand was also a great book.  I don't read non-fiction but this one was captivating.  You also get a lesson in WWII aviation history which turned out to be the most interesting part for me.

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Date Posted: 1/13/2014 4:35 AM ET
Member Since: 6/30/2008
Posts: 4,173
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The Good War by Studs Terkel

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Bruce -
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Date Posted: 1/14/2014 11:17 PM ET
Member Since: 12/19/2008
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Inferno: The Fiery Destruction of Hamburg 1943 by Keith Lowe

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Date Posted: 1/16/2014 10:36 PM ET
Member Since: 12/26/2008
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For fiction, I really liked Sarah's Key, Velva Jean Learns to Fly (sequel to the very good Velva Jean Learns to Drive), The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, The Book Thief. 

 

Just ts a few off the top of my head.

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Date Posted: 1/17/2014 11:26 AM ET
Member Since: 1/5/2009
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While the focus of this book is not exclusively WWII, it occurs during WWII.  The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society occurs during the German occupation of the island of Guernsey during WWII.  It is a charming book that I really enjoyed.  Below I have listed a link to my reviews, and I have a review for this book.  This book is also on my bookshelf.

http://www.paperbackswap.com/book/members_reviews.php?m=WnhjeTRVV0lzV1k9

Dory

sprinklesteen avatar
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Date Posted: 1/28/2014 3:41 PM ET
Member Since: 10/7/2011
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Another vote for Those Who Save Us - I recommend it every chance I get!

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Date Posted: 1/28/2014 5:06 PM ET
Member Since: 7/13/2005
Posts: 8,410
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The Lost Wife by Alyson Richman and Once We Were Brothers by Ronald Balson.

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Date Posted: 1/28/2014 5:26 PM ET
Member Since: 7/29/2006
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RESISTANCE by Anita Shreve

A young wife, who is a resistance worker, hides a wounded American bomber pilot in a Nazi-occupied Belgian village......yes, sadly, they fall in love.  This is a short novel with plenty of suspence.

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Date Posted: 2/13/2014 4:26 PM ET
Member Since: 2/2/2009
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I just finished "The Golden Hour" by Margaret Wurtele, a fictional book set in Italy, in the 1940's, providing an impossible love story between an Italian girl and a Jewish resistance soldier.  The German soldiers take over the wealthy Italian girl's homestead, she secretly provides aide to freedom fighters (of which her brother is one).  I just loved it, could picture the beautiful Italian scenery and the conflicting political loyalties.  Have read several WWII fictional books, but this is the first one I read which took place in Italy, detailing the brutality and perspective of the war from there.  Highly recommend it!  (And also recommend Sarah's Key and The Book Thief as well, which others have suggested).

ETA: It looks like the paperback version of this book is wish-listed here, but a hardcover is available to order.



Last Edited on: 2/13/14 4:38 PM ET - Total times edited: 1
dcg avatar
Date Posted: 4/27/2014 10:58 PM ET
Member Since: 4/23/2014
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The Nazi Officer's Wife was extremely good.

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Date Posted: 9/18/2014 6:24 PM ET
Member Since: 7/10/2012
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The Enemy at the Gates and Flyboys were good, but I think the best (recent) WWII book is Unbroken, by Hillenbrand.  It really makes you realize the ways things were with prisoners of war in Japanese camps.  It makes you hope that this kind of man's inhumanity to man is a thing of the past, but we still see some of it today, in our war- torn world.

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Subject: WW2 books
Date Posted: 9/26/2014 7:01 PM ET
Member Since: 11/26/2011
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The Victory Club, by Robin Hatcher was great.  All about the hardships both men and women went through. The men off fighting the war and the women going to work in the factory trying to help in the war effort and worrying about sons and lovers off to war.  Loved this book.

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Date Posted: 5/26/2015 3:19 PM ET
Member Since: 6/30/2008
Posts: 4,173
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The Secret of Santa Vittoria by Robert Crichton...Castle Keep by William Eastlake...A Midnight Clear by William Wharton...Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut...The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer...A Bell for Adano by John Hersey.



Last Edited on: 5/26/15 3:21 PM ET - Total times edited: 1
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Date Posted: 5/26/2015 9:00 PM ET
Member Since: 7/25/2009
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A Town Like Alice--Nevil Shute

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Date Posted: 5/31/2015 5:57 PM ET
Member Since: 6/21/2008
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A Town Like Alice, by Nevil Shute      Best WWII, Best Australia, Best Love Story.  I now have to go to what do you reread the most and list this one.