world war ii

In Ordinary Heroes,   retired newpaperman Stewart Dubinsky has discovered a packet of wartime letters his late father wrote to a former fiancé.  He learned of his father’s court-martial and imprisonment and was determined to learn more about this man who remained distant to him in life.  As he pieced together events provided by his father’s former defense attorney and from a memoir his father wrote in prison, he began to reconstruct the terrible events and agonizing choices his father faced on the battlefield.  Stewart gains not only a better and surprising understanding of both of his parents

Eloquent, intense, terrifying… This novel has been called the ultimate and definitive novel of German resistance during WWII. An elderly laborer and his wife learn of the death of their only son on the Western Front. They are not interested in politics or patriotism. They want only to live their mundane and predictable lives in peace. Even the loss of their son does not initially move them to act. Besides, what is one to do? You will lose your ration cards, your job, your apartment…maybe more. And if one was to try...how could you affect anything so big? So ruthless? So cruel?

But as threats

Louis Zamperini was a spirited youth who found his groove in running. So good was he that he decided he was going to run in the 1936 Olympics -- just a couple of years away. That's a lot of determined training. And he did it. The determination and self discipline required for this accomplishment would serve him well just a few short years later. Unbroken is the story of Zamperini's service in the Pacific Theater of WWII, especially his survival of the Japanese POW camps.
Zamperini served with the air corps and in 1943 his plane was shot down. He and two comrades survived the crash and

This is a delightful tale told in epistolary form. Set in 1946, its heroine is Juliet Ashton, a 33 year old London writer who like everyone else is recovering from the devastation of World War II. She corresponds regularly by mail with her close friends, Sidney and Sophie, whom she has known since childhood. Sidney is also her publisher. Juliet also receives a letter from a man on Guernsey – one of the Channel Islands that were occupied by the German army during the war. Her interest is piqued and she begins exchanging letters with other residents of the island until the time comes when Juliet

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand is not just for WWII history buffs, but also for those who like survival stories and master storytelling.

When teenager Louis Zamperini from Torrance, California, decides to turn his delinquency into a life with purpose, he devotes himself to running and breaking as many track records as he can. His athletic prowess not only earns him the name “Torrance Tornado”, it qualifies him to compete in the 1936 Olympics. Later, America’s entry into WWII stops him in his tracks. As a B-24 bombardier, he knows an

As a confirmed Anglophile who enjoys period pieces I find Kate Morton’s mix of modern day and “old England” to be very engaging. Her latest book story begins with Edie’s visit to Milderhurst Castle where the sisters Blythe have lived in seclusion all their long lives. Saffy and Percy take care of the daily living tasks and care for their younger sister, Juniper, who hasn’t been the same since “it” happened in 1941. The work contains aspects of gothic mystery and romance, the struggles of rural England during World War II, and the every-present clash of generations. All of this is woven around

Set in 1941, The Lost Garden is a beautifully written story about a thirty-five-year-old English woman who volunteers for the Women's Land Army, an organization devoted to growing crops for the war effort. Gwen Davis, who works for the Royal Horticultural Society in London, travels to a country estate in Devon to oversee a group of girls who will be planting potatoes. Gwen does not have many close friends and prefers the company of plants to people. But during her stay at Mosel, she forms a close friendship with one of the girls and also falls in love with a Canadian officer who is temporarily

There’s something romantic about the World War II era for me, so I’ve read many novels set in that period. This one is certainly romantic, and it has an unusual premise and a twist at the end that adds to the interest. Sydney was an excellent, but untrained swimmer when she began competing at age 18 in 1936. She was so good that she went with the U.S. team to the Olympics in Berlin. She fell in love with a handsome German boy and the complications began. The story and the setting were enough to keep me interested. Deford is a good storyteller, but my criticism of this book is his style. He has

I have often enjoyed reading books in which the author uses letters or diary/journal entries to weave a story. These Is My Words by Nancy Turner, Letters From Yellowstone by Diane Smith, and Letters to Callie by Dawn Miller were good reads that used this type of plot development. In The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society authors Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Burroughs bring characters to life through correspondences written between main character Juliet Ashton and a wonderful variety of inhabitants of Guernsey Island. Juliet is an author, bored with her present job of writing rather

World War II is beginning and young Davy and his best friend Scooter are busy doing their part by collecting the junk de jour. One day they're searching for scrap metal in creepy old Mr. Stonecypher's attic the next they're scavenging for milkweed near an old barn. While they're searching around the barn they spy a vintage car and try out the seats. They're scared to death when a woman shoots her shotgun and announces that they're on her property. I loved this book. There's a lot of information about rationing and daily life during the war years. The characters express emotions about loss and