I asked Hope at Worthwhile Books what WWII books she would suggest. She introduced me to the War Through the Generations Reading Challenge.
I love the discipline of a reading challenge: I get heftier books read, ones that don’t always go down easy, when I plan my reading in advance. Because, the truth is this: I’m never quite ‘in the mood” to read Mein Kampf.
I’m starting the challenge with books from my bookshelf.
Winston Churchill:
The Second World War, Volume 2: Their Finest Hour
The Second World War, Volume 3: The Grand Alliance
The Second World War, Volume 4: The Hinge of Fate
The Second World War, Volume 5: Closing the Ring
The Second World War, Volume 5: Closing the Ring
Adolf Hitler
Stephen Ambrose
Dick Winters
William Manchester
Tadeusz Borowski
Leo Marks
Leo Marks is the son of the owner of the Marks & Co., the bookstore at 84 Charing Cross Road.
Tom Brokaw
Elie Wiesel
Richard J. Maybury
John Betjeman
This isn’t specifically a WWII book, but many chapters are BBC radio talks during the war.
Thomas Keneally
Stewart Binns and Adrian Wood
Theodor Seuss Geisel
I also plan to listen to Shaara’s WWII books: The Rising Tide
Trolling through other participants’ reading lists, got me jonesing for more books. Hope will write one of her stellar reviews and I’m sunk. But I will begin with what I have available to me. The problem with WWII literature is that the vast number of books written on this subject makes one dizzy.
I’m thankful for a summer and fall immersed in reading, viewing and listening to all things “Great War.” That gave me the foundation (and perhaps the fortitude) to tackle and understand better another grim war.
Onward, then.
A Living Pencil 