OT: Good books you have read

[fg7321]

OK folks looking for book recommendations. I really like WW2 history and spy novels have already read all of the Ken Follett books and a bunch of others about French Resistance etc Let me know what elase you can recommend.

Just finished The Boys in the Boat and other book by the same author Daniel James Brown Facing the Mountain which is the story of Japanese American patriots during WW2 a must read.

 

[Knight Shift]

There's only one. . . . .

 

[Plum Street]

OK folks looking for book recommendations. I really like WW2 history and spy novels have already read all of the Ken Follett books and a bunch of others about French Resistance etc Let me know what elase you can recommend.

Just finished The Boys in the Boat and other book by the same author Daniel James Brown Facing the Mountain which is the story of Japanese American patriots during WW2 a must read.

You would probably like The Mosquito Bowl by buzz bissinger (of Friday night lights fame).

 

[RutgHoops]

Finnegans Wake

 

[mdk01]

It's been around for a long time, but if you're into WWII history and haven't already read this I recommend "Incredible Victory" by Walter Lord on Midway.

 

[phs73rc77gsm83]

Results for: The Second World War 6 volumes

By Winston S. ChurchillFirst published between 1948 and 1953 by Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston In War: ResolutionIn Defeat: DefianceIn Victory: MagnanimityIn Peace: Goodwill The Moral of the Work for Churchill's The Second World War

www.churchillbookcollector.com

I highly recommend this series.

 

[gmay8]

OK folks looking for book recommendations. I really like WW2 history and spy novels have already read all of the Ken Follett books and a bunch of others about French Resistance etc Let me know what elase you can recommend.

Just finished The Boys in the Boat and other book by the same author Daniel James Brown Facing the Mountain which is the story of Japanese American patriots during WW2 a must read.

Have you read The Nightingale?

It's WW2 taken place in France and a lot about the spy/resistance network. I thought it was tremendous.

I also just purchased this book:
The Resistance
https://www.amazon.com/Resistance-French-Fight-Against-Nazis/dp/1847391567

i haven't started it yet as i'm finishing another

 

[RUGuitarMan]

I’m currently reading “The First World War” by Hew Strachan. It’s very good . I tend toward liking cause and effect and impact on humans more than reading about war strategy etc. This book kind of combines both. WWI really was the major catastrophic event of the 20th century. It is directly related to and ultimately caused WWII. Some contend WWII was a delayed continuation of WWI. That’s why I find that war more interesting in some ways.

 

[Rutgers Chris]

OK folks looking for book recommendations. I really like WW2 history and spy novels have already read all of the Ken Follett books and a bunch of others about French Resistance etc Let me know what elase you can recommend.

Just finished The Boys in the Boat and other book by the same author Daniel James Brown Facing the Mountain which is the story of Japanese American patriots during WW2 a must read.

I’m not so much into the genre and I really enjoyed Fly Boys after hearing it recommended so much.

Flyboys: A True Story of Courage - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[WhiteBus]

OK folks looking for book recommendations. I really like WW2 history and spy novels have already read all of the Ken Follett books and a bunch of others about French Resistance etc Let me know what elase you can recommend.

Just finished The Boys in the Boat and other book by the same author Daniel James Brown Facing the Mountain which is the story of Japanese American patriots during WW2 a must read.

What Battle of the Bulge books do you recommend?

 

[DJ Spanky]

OK folks looking for book recommendations. I really like WW2 history and spy novels have already read all of the Ken Follett books and a bunch of others about French Resistance etc Let me know what elase you can recommend.

When I was younger I really enjoyed the novels by Alistair MacLean. The Guns of Navarone, Where Eagles Dare, South by Java Head, etc. I was also partial to the original Jason Bourne novels (not the completely different stories told in the movies of the same name) by Robert Ludlum.

 

[DJ Spanky]

What Battle of the Bulge books do you recommend?

This might help:

 

[RutHut]

The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brian for the Vietnam War. Not historical but the POV story telling is good with strong melancholy.

 

[WhiteBus]

This might help:

Can you speak up sonny? I can't hear you!

 

[phs73rc77gsm83]

I’m currently reading “The First World War” by Hew Strachan. It’s very good . I tend toward liking cause and effect and impact on humans more than reading about war strategy etc. This book kind of combines both. WWI really was the major catastrophic event of the 20th century. It is directly related to and ultimately caused WWII. Some contend WWII was a delayed continuation of WWI. That’s why I find that war more interesting in some ways.

If you haven’t read them yet, read Erich Maria Remarque’s “All Quiet on the Western Front” andRobert Grave’s “Goodby to All That.” WWI perspectives from a German soldier and British soldier respectively. It’s not cause and effect but very good insights from guys were in the trenches

 

[ashokan]

Some well known war history books that people have often missed reading are

Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant
"All Quiet on the Western Front"
Joseph Plumb Martin Autobiography (Rev War soldier who fought a lot in NY/NJ - he's funny and relatable)


Erich Maria Remarque

"The months pass by. The summer of 1918 is the most bloody and the most terrible. The days stand like angels in blue and gold, incomprehensible, above the ring of annihilation. "

https://www.glscott.org/uploads/2/1/3/3/21330938/aqwf-book_20size.pdf


U. S. Grant on CA gold rush travelers

" Many were young men of good family, good education and gentlemanly instincts. Their parents had been able to support them during their minority, and to give them good educations, but not to maintain them afterwards. From 1849 to 1853 there was a rush of people to the Pacific coast, of the class described, All thought that fortunes were to be picked up, without effort, in the gold fields on the Pacific. Some realized more than their most sanguine expectations; but for one such there were hundreds disappointed, many of whom now fill unknown graves; others died wrecks of their former selves, and many, without a vicious instinct, became criminals and outcasts. Many of the real scenes in early California life exceed in strangeness and interest any of the mere products of the brain of the novelist. "

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/4367/4367-h/4367-h.htm#ch17


Joseph Martin -Private Yankee Doodle

"They then said they would give me pork and lasses; and then inquired what execution some cannon had done, just before fired from the island, if they had not killed and wounded some of our men; and if we did not want help as our surgeons were a pack of ignormauses. I told them in reply, that they had done no other execution with their guns than wunding a dog,(which was the case,) and as they and their surgeons were of the same species of animals, I supposed the poor wunded dog would account it a particular favor to have some of his own kind to assist him.”

The Adventures Of A Revolutionary Soldier - Wikisource, the free online library

en.wikisource.org

 

[WhiteBus]

I’m currently reading “The First World War” by Hew Strachan. It’s very good . I tend toward liking cause and effect and impact on humans more than reading about war strategy etc. This book kind of combines both. WWI really was the major catastrophic event of the 20th century. It is directly related to and ultimately caused WWII. Some contend WWII was a delayed continuation of WWI. That’s why I find that war more interesting in some ways.

If you ever go the Belgium the town to go to is Ypres. Most of the major battles were around Ypres. You are right about the impact to humans is the WWI. It's a beautiful town and full of museums about the war. The town still remembers the dead every night at the Menin Gate.
Don't think for a second that this a tourism thing. This is a heart felt honor to them.

 

[RUforester72]

OK folks looking for book recommendations. I really like WW2 history and spy novels have already read all of the Ken Follett books and a bunch of others about French Resistance etc Let me know what elase you can recommend.

Just finished The Boys in the Boat and other book by the same author Daniel James Brown Facing the Mountain which is the story of Japanese American patriots during WW2 a must read.

You'd probably enjoy "Ghosts of Honolulu" about the Japanese espionage network in Hawaii for years before Pearl Harbor. Written by Mark Harmon. Alan Furst wrote a whole series of excellent spy novels set around WW2. Start with "Night Soldier".

Phillip Kerr's Bernie Gunther series is about espionage in Germany prior to and during WW2. Very good.

"Beneath the Scarlet Sky" true story about brave folks about smuggling Jews out of Germany through the Alps in Winter.

And my favorite "A Gentlemen in Moscow" Amor Towles, set in post-revolution Moscow and a beautiful story.

 

[Ronnie_B]

Great book on the Korean War, it's a brutal read:

https://www.amazon.com/No-Bugles-Drums-History-Korean/dp/0471105732

 

[Scarlet Haze]

The Winter Fortress

Amazon.com

www.amazon.com

 

[MURF87]

OK folks looking for book recommendations. I really like WW2 history and spy novels have already read all of the Ken Follett books and a bunch of others about French Resistance etc Let me know what elase you can recommend.

Just finished The Boys in the Boat and other book by the same author Daniel James Brown Facing the Mountain which is the story of Japanese American patriots during WW2 a must read.

Recommend "A Higher Call". Tells the story of an American bomber pilot (Charlie Brown... yes, that was his name) and a German fighter pilot and how their lives connected.

 

[RU89]

In Harms Way. About the sinking of the U.S.S. Indianapolis.

Loading…

m.media-amazon.com

Not a war story but I like stories about human hardship and survival so would recommend the book........Alive......about the 1972 Uruguayan Rugby team that crashed in the snow capped Andes mountains and the 10 week struggle to survive. Had to begrudgingly resort to cannibalism and 2 of them pulled off one of the great mountaineering feats of all time by essentially climbing an insurmountable mountain range with no gear to save themselves and the remaining survivors. One of the great survival stories ever put in print.

Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors

On October 12, 1972, a plane carrying a team of young r…

www.goodreads.com

 

[RUsingsing]

The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brian for the Vietnam War. Not historical but the POV story telling is good with strong melancholy.

Not to be picky, but it’s O'Brien with an e. But yes, an amazing collection of stories. There is a movie version of “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong” out there. O’Brien’s other works are good too, including In the Lake of the Woods.

 

[hoquat63]

Cousin of a friend wrote about his VietNam experiences - Dusterman:Viet Nam by Joseph Belardo

 

[newell138]

If you like sports biographies, i just finished "The Longest Race" by Kara Goucher, olympic runner. Its just as much about how evil Nike and Alberto Salazar were as her running career

 

[newell138]

My son in law wrote a book about his dad I found very easy to read and enjoyable. Its a true story about his dad who lost his leg in Vietnam and went on to become a national judo champ with only 1 leg. Its like a combination of Rocky and Unbroken.

 

[RUsingsing]

OK folks looking for book recommendations. I really like WW2 history and spy novels have already read all of the Ken Follett books and a bunch of others about French Resistance etc Let me know what elase you can recommend.

Just finished The Boys in the Boat and other book by the same author Daniel James Brown Facing the Mountain which is the story of Japanese American patriots during WW2 a must read.

“Unbroken” by Laura Hillenbrand.

 

[Randal7]

This book was seriously an incredible read from start to finish...

Another great one, much lighter read, is Brian Kilmeade's book on Andrew Jackson and New Orleans

https://books.google.com/books/publisher/content?id=QUCzDwAAQBAJ&pg=PP1&img=1&zoom=3&hl=en&bul=1&sig=ACfU3U1VlGnJvHDgS5_oivwgWCP4arPLKQ&w=1280

 

[newell138]

“Unbroken” by Laura Hillenbrand.

read that a few months ago and it was excellent

 

[newell138]

Another shameless plug for my nephew's wife's book. They met on the Pacific Crest Trail and got married 30 days into it. Still married with a bunch of kids. Great story about what its like hiking that trail and the people you encounter while doing it.

 

[RU89]

read that a few months ago and it was excellent

Agree, great book!

 

[Randal7]

This is always a classic too. For those with enough guts to take it on (its dense as F!), thay generally all agree!

 

[rudad02]

The Bridge on the River Kwai

Germinal--great Emile Zola book on French coal miners.

The Keys to the Kingdom

Crime & Punishment

 

[RU Mike73]

Highly recommend Citizens of London by Lynne Olson and Dead Wake by Erik Larsen.

Also second for A Higher Call.

 

[fg7321]

What Battle of the Bulge books do you recommend?

Nothing specific to that battle. Check Operation Mincemeat great true story spy novel.

Below should get you started . Add to the list below any of the Ken Follett novels from WW2 start with the Eye of the Needle. I read that when i was 19 on the train from Switzerland to Rome in 9 hours straight .

Other titles include

The Bormann Testament by Jack Higgins- Fiction based

The Last Battle - True story of the rescue of 14 French Resistance leaders at the end of the war.

Against All odds- True story of the 4 most decorated soldiers from WW2

Someday you will Understand - True story of a family's escape from the Nazi's

The lost Girls of Paris - Women of the French resistance.

Code Name Lise; True Story of the woman who became WW2s most highly decorate Spy

Six graves to Munich a Mario Puzo novel

I will come back fro You. True Story of a Jewish family's experience in Italy under occupation.

The Cost of Courage- True story of a family in the French Resistance

Spies of the Balkans - Fiction Spy novel of WW2

The Hiding Place- Corries TenBooms experience in Nazi concentration camps

The Tattooist of Auschwitz-

The Splendid and the Vile story of how Churchill changed England in to a fighting force to take on Germany.

Black Out - John Lawtons novel about London during the blitz.

The Paris Architect - story of an architect that creates space to hide Jews and resistance in france

 

[fg7321]

Have you read The Nightingale?

It's WW2 taken place in France and a lot about the spy/resistance network. I thought it was tremendous.

I also just purchased this book:
The Resistance
https://www.amazon.com/Resistance-French-Fight-Against-Nazis/dp/1847391567

i haven't started it yet as i'm finishing another

Thnaks I will check these out ....So many people don't know the story of the French resistance and the British SOE that trained these women and reinserted them into occupied France. They helped win the war in many ways

 

[CERU00]

The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brian for the Vietnam War. Not historical but the POV story telling is good with strong melancholy.

Cousin of a friend wrote about his VietNam experiences - Dusterman:Viet Nam by Joseph Belardo

The best Vietnam War book I've read, by far, is A Bright Shining Lie by Neil Sheehan. It's more or less the biography of John Paul Vann, an early advisor who served the entire length of the war. As a bonus, there is a nice Rutgers inclusion.

 

[newwavedave1]

Oath and Honor by Liz Cheney. Have fun boys.

 

[fg7321]

“Unbroken” by Laura Hillenbrand.

Yep read that

 

[fg7321]

You'd probably enjoy "Ghosts of Honolulu" about the Japanese espionage network in Hawaii for years before Pearl Harbor. Written by Mark Harmon. Alan Furst wrote a whole series of excellent spy novels set around WW2. Start with "Night Soldier".

Phillip Kerr's Bernie Gunther series is about espionage in Germany prior to and during WW2. Very good.

"Beneath the Scarlet Sky" true story about brave folks about smuggling Jews out of Germany through the Alps in Winter.

And my favorite "A Gentlemen in Moscow" Amor Towles, set in post-revolution Moscow and a beautiful story.

Sadly Beneath a Scarlet Sky has been found out not to be a true story. Great novel though. The guy is still alive in Italy.