Favorite Book or Author

What is the best or your favorite book (fiction or non-fiction) on World War Two or anything else that you have read? Or who is your favorite author? Mine are The Longest Day by Cornelius Ryan and The Five People You Meet In Heaven by Mitch Albom.

 

I like all kinds of autobiography books and diaries from WW2. They tell about the life in the trenches and why decisions were made during the battles and so on. I like almost all the books on Kharkov 1943 battles and Kursk 1943.

http://www.amazon.com/Platz-Leibstandarte-SS-Panzer-Grenadier-Division-Kharkov-January-March/dp/0965758427

http://www.amazon.com/Battle-Kharkov-Winter-1942-1943/dp/0921991487/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1421483861&sr=1-2&keywords=kharkov+1943

Kurowski makes great books so the winner is for me:

http://www.amazon.com/Operation-Zitadelle-July-Franz-Kurowski/dp/0921991630/ref=sr_1_34?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1421483967&sr=1-34&keywords=kurowski

 

Battle:The Story of the Bulge by Toland...I remember having not read much of the Bulge for 8 years while I was in the USMC [ read more Nam ] then one day in December [1991? ], started reading of the towns involved in the Bulge, and the names brought me back to the Ardennes 1977 26 December..it didn't snow on Christmas where I was, 1977, but on the 26th it snowed heavily/thick....I was a teen then, and we had Christmas vacation, so that seemed like forever when you're a teen....I'll never forget that

 

Great ! Just the title I was going to nominate ( as this thread is for 'favourite', not 'best' ).

I bought a secondhand, battered first edition of this book in the late 1970s. It was the first book I'd read about the Bulge and sparked a fascination with the Battle which has never left me.

I re-read it ( the same copy ! Priced '£1.75p' inside the cover... ) over Christmas and although it's now dated ( Toland unwittingly started several Bulge myths which have endured over the years ) it's still a great 'read' and succeeds in capturing much of the drama and action of the Ardennes Offensive.

 

I agree...it being the 70s, they got away with that [ more so? ]...a lot of books/media/etc embellish the stories, now also....I guess I should buy it....you know, maybe it's just me, but I really enjoy and, can read ''easier'', pre - 1960-/70s books...they seem to have been better writers back then??

 

You could probably find a lot of those at used book sales. A good number of my books which were written in the 60s/70s came from used book sales.

 

Soldier's memoirs always captivate me, The Rise and Fall by Shirer and anything Leon Uris (Battle Cry, Mila 18).

 

There is so much great literature coming out of WW2 that it's hard to pick one. I've decided that I'll go with a first person account rather than one of the greats like Toland or Ryan - Fire Mission!: the Siege at Mortain, Normandy, August, 1944.

If you want to really know what WW2 was like, this book tells you. This young guy had a birds-eye view of the battle. He did his job and he did it very well. 60 years later he tells the story.

http://www.amazon.com/Fire-Mission-Mortain-Normandy-August/dp/1572493135/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

 

Enjoyed Uris' sequel to "Trinity" about the Anzacs at Gallipoli

 

a lot of reading there...good for the old days with no PC/laptops/etc

 

Excellent book

 

Still can't bring myself to use a digital reader myself. My father is pushing 70 and he uses them, lol.

 

wow...yes, my dad reads the entire newspaper still....I still will buy a newspaper when I go out to eat....I sometimes just look, smell, and feel [am I psycho? ] the old, non-covered books....it brings me back to my younger days...do you think, one day, there will be no more books? I don't see how...the only time I would use a D reader, is if I couldn't find info in a book

 

what about the old, Bantam, pocket war books with the artistic book covers? anyone read those??? I loved those...

 

It wasn't exactly a book published by Bantam, but I did read a pocket war book (Marine at War by Russell Davis). I agree I do love those pocket books.

 

question to all: some of these books get very detailed, specific facts such as weather that day [ 1940s ]/quotes from that day/etc....how much is true?? the stories sometimes seem too detailed for memory of so long ago...and the details go from -for example-waking up at 6, to maybe noon, with all the details in between...maybe if someone's diary had them?...

 

Ones that I've read in the last few years that would make the list:
Shattered Sword
Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors
Neptune's Inferno

 

I'm sensing a theme here......or possibly a rut