Historical Fictionistas discussion

My favorite book is The Auschwitz Escape . I'm looking for more books to read. I loved The Boy in the Striped Pajamas and The Book Thief . Recommendations please!

Hi Madelynn!

I adored Code Name Verity, Prisoner of Night and Fog, Sarah's Key, Between Shades of Gray, Salt to the Sea, and The Complete Maus as far as WWII historical fiction :)

There are so many good ones! I also really enjoyed Sarah's Key. Some others that I loved include The Nightingale, Lilac Girls, All the Light We Cannot See, The Storyteller, Torn Thread (if you are looking for YA) and The Reader. There are also the classics Night, The Diary of a Young Girl, and The Complete Maus.

I just read a new book that I loved: by Jennifer Robson

I recently read by Flora Solomon. It is about American nurses captured by the Japanese in the Philippines during WWII. An amazing book! I cried at the end and its been years since that last happened.

It's had lots of great reviews and deserved every one of them.

Lilac Girls
The Nightingale
All the Light We Cannot See

The Paris Architect

I read a lot of these when writing my own novel, and these are the ones I especially liked:

Life After Life
We Were the Lucky Ones
Mr. Churchill's Secretary
Blackout
Atonement
Lilac Girls
The Book Thief
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Absolutely was enthralled by A Pledge of Silence.

I loved The Chilbury Ladies' Choir out earlier this year. Set at the beginning of WWII it follows the stories five women living in a small village in Kent who come together to sing in the village choir. It’s a cracking read and a real page turner as you get drawn into each of the characters stories. With love, loss and friendship, as the characters find out who they really are there are moments of joy and moments of sadness that bring a tear to your eye. Highly recommended.

(wasn't my cup of tea but others enjoyed it)

On my bedside table TBR

I can't do links at the moment but Lilac Girls and the Nightingale were very good. Something different from everyone else's I also enjoyed the Kommandant's Girl, The Key to Rebecca, The Paris Architect, Sarah's Key, and Those Who Save Us. All good reads!

I have read many of these and enjoyed them . Also recently discovered Jennifer Robson and the latest Amy Stewart

New and different is "The 5K Zone: Cold War Border Intrigue. A post-war novel dealing with the expulsion of ethnic Germans from the Czechoslovakian Sudetenland. It deals with the lives of German youngsters Trudi Kehle and Peter Ackerman as they mature and escape Russian/Czech oppression in the Sudetenland.

Based on reality and thoroughly researched by the author.

City of Women

Madelynn wrote: "My favorite book is The Auschwitz Escape . I'm looking for more books to read. I loved The Boy in the Striped Pajamas and The Book Thief . Recommendations ..."

Really enjoyed Birdsong by Sebastian FaulksBirdsong
A Long Long Way
Private Peaceful
The One Man
Five Quarters of the Orange

I'm reading Those Who Save Us right now for book club -- it's good so far. I also recently read The Lost Letter, which is partially set during the war (Austria in 1938/1939) with a dual narrative set in the 1980s -- loved the book, gave it 5 stars!

The Chilbury Ladies' Choir was also very good -- definitely recommended.

Also loved All the Light We Cannot See, which I read at the beginning of the year for another book club -- it's one of my favorite reads this year!

I just started The Women in the Castle, and it's pretty good. A slightly different take on WW II as the main characters are German women.

Suite Francaise by Nemirovsky

Alison wrote: "I loved The Chilbury Ladies' Choir out earlier this year. Set at the beginning of WWII it follows the stories five women living in a small village in Kent who come together to sing ..."

I keep seeing this title everywhere. I just HAVE to read it! But what should I do about the pile of 20 books on my night table? That's a rhetorical question that I keep asking myself.

A Spy at the Heart of the Third Reich: The Extraordinary Story of Fritz Kolbe, America's Most Important Spy in World War II
Lucas DeLattre - Highly recommend the audio......available on YouTube via Chrome

If you like stories about brave women serving in WW2, I would suggest We Band of Angels: The Untold Story of American Nurses Trapped on Bataan by the Japanese. A good book about raw courage and dedication to duty to others.

Another interesting book is Night Witches: The Amazing Story of Russia's Women Pilots in WWII, about the exploit of Soviet female combat pilots.

The Winds of War and also War and Remembrance, both epics by Herman Wouk, and on my top 10 lifetime favorites.

Fiction: The Alice Network by Kate Quinn. Nonfiction that reads like a novel: Operation Mincemeat

Jasmine wrote: "Peter is that book fiction? My husband is in the Navy and it seems like the only books I can get him to read are ones about the Navy."

I recently finished Crossing the Line: A Bluejacket's Odyssey in World War II, memoir of a young naval recruit. It was excellent and I would highly recommend for your husband (though non-fiction.)

If you enjoy historical fantasy, a WWII novel that just came out is AT THE TABLE OF WOLVES, by Kay Kenyon, a pre-war spy thriller with a touch of the fantastic. Great read.

I LOVE Atonement by Ian McEwan...

Miss M wrote: "Jasmine wrote: "Peter is that book fiction? My husband is in the Navy and it seems like the only books I can get him to read are ones about the Navy."

I recently finished [book:Crossing the Line: ..."

Thanks. I'll pass that one on too!

I'm new to this group and was thrilled to find people whom love historical fictions as much as myself .
I have enjoyed most HF's but Sarah's Key and The Nightingale are my ultimate Favourites books.
Some of these recommended WWII books I haven't heard of yet and I cannot wait to stick my nose in every single one
Thank you .

Not sure if this has been mentioned yet but I have just finished reading The Alice Network by Kate Quinn. I loved everything about it!

I'm currently enjoying A Man without breath

Wolfsangel
Blackout
All Clear
The Bronze Horseman and its sequels
Tasa's Song
Between Shades of Gray

The Nightingale is freaking amazing!!

The Violin of Auschwitz (you'll also find it listed as The Auschwitz Violin)
The Narrow Road to the Deep North
Once We Were Brothers
HHhH

You could also try Charlotte Binghams House of Flowers duo there are two in the series but it is kind of twee I enjoyed it but it does depend on taste. Also Noel Barber’s Tanamera and a farewell to France are just marvellous

I am currently reading The Book Thief. It is so good so far.

Erin wrote: "I am currently reading The Book Thief. It is so good so far."
Loved that book!

I would add "The 5K Zone: Cold War Border Intrigue." A post-war novel (1944 - 1958) which creates a coming of age/spy novel based on the reality of the Sudetenland/Czechoslovakia/West German expulsion crisis. Yours truly the author.

Kathy wrote: "Erin wrote: "I am currently reading The Book Thief. It is so good so far."
Loved that book!"
When I read "The Book Thief" I could not help being reminded of the book "thief" from those days in our family -- my own mother-in-law, Vera, as she was known then. Vera was 12 years old when the Nazis came to her home city of Budapest. The Nazis pressed all the children of that age into service, carrying coal, for example. Another job they forced the children to do was to help then clear out the homes of Jews who had been taken away. She was in an apartment house following the orders of a Nazi officer to take all the books that had been removed from the apartments of the Jews and throw them down below to be burned. As she did so, she came across the third book in Pearl Buck's trilogy "The Good Earth." So this 12-year-old girl simply stopped working, approached the Nazi officer and asked him if she could keep the book, because she hadn't read it yet. He said yes. My mother-in-law Vera's formal schooling stopped when the Nazis invaded Budapest. When the war was over, at age 16, she married and she and her husband came to newborn Israel and made their lives there. She was a lifelong reader and learner, self-taught in history, art and music. Vera died one month ago at age 87, mother of two sons, with four granddaughters and four great-grandchildren. She was a powerful influence in all of our lives; I created one of the characters in my own historical novel, "The Scroll," based on her inimitable personality. May her memory be a blessing. www.miriamfeinbergvamosh.com

I loved ‘all the light we cannot see’ and ‘alone in berlin’

I really liked The Painted Bird, by Jerzy Kosinski. Not an easy, feel-good read, but excellent.

Ronnie wrote: "I really liked The Painted Bird, by Jerzy Kosinski. Not an easy, feel-good read, but excellent."

I feel like if a WWII book is a feel-good read I missed out on something. There should be some hope, but I always expect it to be a hard read.

a few thoughts: read W.E.B. Griffin - two series center on WW II
the Corps and Brotherhood of Arms

also once an Eagle by Anton Myers (sp?)

Any of these set in Hawaii? Looking for a pearl harbor type historical fiction book.

It's not fiction, but I am really enjoying Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory - story of WWII operation to convince Germany that D-Day would target Italy not France.

On the other hand, one wonders how much of it is, ahem, exaggerated, so perhaps it could be called fiction after all?

I have not seen this book mentioned yet and I am so surprised! It is amazing and makes the top of my all time favorite books list. As well as it is based on a true story.

Beneath a Scarlet Sky
By: Mark T. Sullivan

Erin wrote: "Any of these set in Hawaii? Looking for a pearl harbor type historical fiction book."

Under the Blood-Red Sun
I haven’t read it, but my daughter did last year.
It’s YA fiction, if you’re not opposed to the genre.
I don’t know much more than that it takes place in Hawaii, after Pear Harbor, & there is an element with the main character and the Japanese Internment camps.
Hope that helps!

Rachel wrote: "It's not fiction, but I am really enjoying Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory - story of WWII operation to convince..."

Not sure about the exaggeration but there are several other books plus a movie on the subject, so the basics are true!
The Man Who Never Was

I remember thoroughly enjoying Herman Wouk's THE WINDS OF WAR and sequel, title of which escapes me.

Anne wrote: "I remember thoroughly enjoying Herman Wouk's THE WINDS OF WAR and sequel, title of which escapes me."

War & Remembrance