Every Man Dies Alone
by Hans Fallada
FIC FALLADA
It presents a richly detailed portrait of life in Berlin under the Nazis and tells the sweeping saga of one working-class couple who decides to take a stand when their only son is killed at the front. With nothing but their grief and each other against the awesome power of the Reich, they launch a simple, clandestine resistance campaign that soon has an enraged Gestapo on their trail, and a world of terrified neighbors and cynical snitches ready to turn them in.
The Corps Series
by W.E.B. Griffin
FIC GRIFFIN
Semper Fi
From Shanghai to Wake Island, the Corps was America's first line of defense as the winds of war exploded into the devastating surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. Now, the bestselling author of the acclaimed BROTHERHOOD OF WAR saga brings to life the men of the Marine Corps--their loves and their loyalties--as they steeled themselves for battle, and prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice...
Catch-22
by Joseph Heller
FIC HELLER
Bombardier, Yossarian, is endlessly inventive in his schemes to save his skin from the
horrible chances of war. His efforts are perfectly understandable
because as he furiously scrambles, thousands of people he hasn't even
met are trying to kill him. His problem is Colonel Cathcart, who keeps
raising the number of missions the men must fly to complete their
service. Yet if Yossarian makes any attempts to excuse himself from the
perilous missions, he is trapped by the
Great Loyalty Oath Crusade, the hilariously sinister bureaucratic rule
from which the book takes its title: a man is considered insane if he
willingly continues to fly dangerous combat missions, but if he makes
the necessary formal request to be relieved of such missions, the very
act of making the request proves that he is sane and therefore
ineligible to be relieved.
When the Elephants Dance
by Tess Uriza Holthe
FIC HOLTHE
In the waning days of World
War II, as the Japanese and the Americans engage in a fierce battle for
possession of the Philippine Islands, the Karangalan family and their
neighbors huddle for survival in the cellar of a house a few miles from
Manila. Outside the safety of their little refuge the war rages on—fiery
bombs torch the beautiful Filipino countryside, Japanese soldiers round
up and interrogate innocent people, and from the hills guerillas wage a
desperate campaign against the enemy. Inside the cellar, these men,
women, and children put their hopes and dreams on hold as they wait out
the war, only emerging to look for food, water, and medicine.
Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths
by Shigeru Mizuki
FIC MIZUKI
This is a
semiautobiographical account of the desperate final weeks of a Japanese
infantry unit at the end of WorldWar II. The soldiers are told that they
must go into battle and die for the honor of their country, with
certain execution facing them if they return alive. Mizuki was a soldier
himself (he was severely injured and lost an arm) and uses his
experiences to convey the devastating consequences and moral depravity
of the war.
Nobody Comes Back: A Novel of the Battle of the Bulge
by Donn Pearce
FIC PEARCE
Toby Parker was
America's unwanted son. Only sixteen years old, he was too young to be
enlisted in the army, but old enough to know that he didn't want to
return to the life he knew: moving from new home to new home, neglected
by his mother, ignored by his father, overlooked by everyone else. The
war overseas promised exotic locations and adventure, but what it
delivered was something else entirely. The Nazis were beginning to fall
back, and the war was all but over. But the fighting still raged on in
pockets of Europe. Out of the critical focus on France, only one last
position needed to hold: the city of Bastogne. Thrown into battle almost
immediately upon arrival, he soon found himself wounded and alone,
struggling to survive and looked upon to lead. It was here that Toby was
to learn what war really was, and what kind of man he was destined to
become.
White Flag Down
by Joel N. Ross
FIC ROSS
In June of 1941, two
years after signing a on-Aggression Pact, Nazi Germany invaded the
Soviet Union. Within six months, the Russians lost a thousand miles and
three million men—and in, 1942, the relentless German Wehrmacht swept
into Stalin’s namesake city, Stalingrad. Combat seethed in the city
streets, ten thousand Soviet soldiers died in one day fighting for a
single hill. Now, in mid-September 1942, Hitler orders a final
offensive to capture Stalingrad. Yet on October 7th, the German army
pauses. As General von Richthofen, commander of the Luftwaffe, writes in
his diary: “Absolute quiet at Stalingrad.” After months of combat, a sudden silence rises on the eastern front. But why? This tells the story of an American airman, a Russian major, and a Swiss
journalist in a crucial race against time during this eerie quiet on the
battlefield. An unlikely alliance, they have united to track down the
one document that could stop negotiations between Germany and Russia for
another Non-Aggression Pact—a truce that would open the floodgates for
German domination of the Western world. Unfortunately, they’re not the only ones aware of the document’s importance, and time is running out.
World War II: 1939-1945 Series
by Jeff Shaara
FIC SHAARA
The Rising Tide
As Hitler conquers
Poland, Norway, France, and most of Western Europe, England struggles to
hold the line. When Germany’s ally, Japan, launches a stunning attack on
Pearl Harbor, America is drawn into the war, fighting to hold back the
Japanese conquest of the Pacific, while standing side-by-side with their
British ally, the last hope for turning the tide of the war. As British and American forces strike into the “soft
underbelly” of Hitler’s Fortress Europa, the new weapons of war come
clearly into focus. In North Africa, tank battles unfold in a tapestry
of dust and fire unlike any the world has ever seen. In Sicily, the
Allies attack their enemy with a barely tested weapon: the paratrooper.
As battles rage along the coasts of the Mediterranean, the momentum of
the war begins to shift, setting the stage for the massive invasion of
France, at a seaside resort called Normandy.
