March 2024 Monthly Question

[Robin P, Orbicular Mod]

March made me think of armies. What books do you recommend that are set in wartime? Remember, there are more wars than WWII.

[Milena]

War and Peace is the obvious answer here. I loved it. It was a really easy read, despite its' age and length (just skip the untranslated French parts, unless you speak French).

[Kathy]

I loved The Summer Before the War by Helen Simonson. It includes the beginning of World War I. Other WWI fiction I like - Regeneration by Pat Barker.

Nonfiction of WWI I've enjoyed - Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain.

[Dixie]

I don't generally enjoy books about war, but I read Girl at War for a prompt a few years ago and thought it was excellent. It takes place during and after the Yugoslavian civil war.

[Yesica]

The War That Saved My Life is sad and sweet at the same time and not too long ;)

[John]

I enjoyed A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra. It involves the Chechen wars. For the Vietnam War, I would recommend a recently published novel by Kristin Hannah focusing on combat nurses: The Women.

[J]

The Forever War is really amazing. It's not even about the war, it's about cultural shift over time.

[Denise]

I'm planning to read Say Your One Of Them this year. It's more or less about the civil war in Sudan

Revolutionary War: April Morning (fiction) or 1776 (non fiction)
Civil War: The Red Badge of Courage; Cold Mountain; The March (E. L. Doctorow)
WW1: A Farewell to Arms; All Quiet On The Western Front; The Guns of August (non fiction)
The Boer Wars: the Power of One
Spanish American War: The Most beautiful Girl in Cuba
Spanish civil war: For Whom the Bell Tolls; Guernica; The battle for Spain (nonfiction)
Korean conflict: The Island of Sea Women; The Surrendered
Chinese cultural revolution: Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress
Vietnam: We Were Soldiers Once...and Young; The Things They Carried; Vietnam: A History (nonfiction); In Country
Cambodia: First They Killed My Father
Bosnia: Zlata's Diary
Several conflicts: Pachinko

And if you really want WW2: Life After Life; Eternal

[Jennifer W]

I read lots of books set during wartimes. I'll try to limit myself...

S. aka As If I Am Not There from the Balkan wars. It's a super intense book, but I also found it very readable despite the horrific subject matter
Johnny Got His Gun, I always thought it was about Vietnam, but it is actually about WWI.
Three Day Road also WWI
The Book Thief WWII Europe
The Gift of Rain WWII Pacific
Matterhorn Vietnam

[Milena]

Jennifer W wrote: "I read lots of books set during wartimes. I'll try to limit myself...

S. aka As If I Am Not There from the Balkan wars. It's a super intense book, but I also found it..."

The Book Thief and The Gift of Rain are two of my favorite books ever. Good thing I read them a few years ago, because these days I have less tolerance for war books (and movies).

[Joy D]

In non-fiction, you can't beat Rick Atkinson's trilogy on WWII:

An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943
The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944
The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944-1945

[Jaylia3]

I'm a big fan of Olivia Manning and her two trilogies set during WWII and based on her own experiences, The Balkan Trilogy andThe Levant Trilogy : Danger Tree'@@ 'Battle Lost and Won' and 'Sum of Things

[Gloria]

I recommend *A Bag of Marbles* by Joseph Joffo

[Bana AZ]

Robin P wrote: "March made me think of armies. What books do you recommend that are set in wartime? Remember, there are more wars than WWII."

I'm not really a fan of war books or war stories in general, but the ones I've read and enjoyed are

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller and The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank. Both different perspectives of WW2.

[Shannon SA]

All Quiet on the Western Front

Matterhorn

[Trish, Annular Mod]

Milena wrote: "War and Peace is the obvious answer here. I loved it. It was a really easy read, despite its' age and length (just skip the untranslated French parts, unless you speak French)."

I enjoyed War and Peace, too. I've also always enjoyed Bernard Cornwall's Sharpe series, most of which are set during the Peninsula War theatre of the Napoleonic Wars (https://www.goodreads.com/series/4055...).

[JessicaMHR]

I just finished Kristin Hannah's new novel The Women and it was really good. It is about the Vietnam war.

I also liked her novel from a few years ago The Nightingale. It was a WWII novel set in France.

Another one I really liked was The Last Rose of Shanghai and While Paris Slept was also a decent novel. Both WWII novels.

I've also read The Most Beautiful Girl in Cuba and The Island of Sea Women

[Robin P, Orbicular Mod]

3 different series cover the Napoleonic Wars (Jane Austen's era)

Master and Commander - Patrick O'Brian - British navy

His Majesty's Dragon - Naomi Novik - similar but with dragons as the air force!

Bloody Jack - L.A. Meyer - for young people, but entertaining for everyone, especially on audio

Many Regency romances by Carla Kelly involve veterans of the Peninsular War in the same era, or even scenes from the navy or army, involving officers, surgeons, and others.

A Place of Greater Safety is a terrific book about the leadup and beginning of the French revolution. It's not for the casual reader, being both long and dense, but it struck me as equivalent to the show Hamilton - the leaders were "young, scrappy, and hungry".

A Month in the Country is a short and quiet book about a man recovering from his WWI experience.

I keep saying I can't read anymore about Nazis, but I loved the 2-part time travel book by Connie Willis, Blackout and All Clear. They are about the home front in WWII in England and show how important ordinary people were - shopgirls, actors, and even children.

Also The War That Saved My Life and The War I Finally Won are wonderful uplifting books set in England during WWII.

I am about to read The Glory Cloak: A Novel of Louisa May Alcott and Clara Barton, where those 2 women meet while tending Civil War soldiers (which probably didn't happen.)

[Marie]

I read A Brotherhood of Spies: The U-2 and the CIA's Secret War a bit earlier this year, which is about the development of the U-2 and the CIA during the Cold War. I highly recommend it to those who enjoy non-fiction history.

[Rae]

War and Turpentine is an excellent WWI book by a Belgian author. It's not just about the war, but also about a time gone by and a man's devotion to art.

[LindaLH]

Your question brings to mind the Pulitzer Prize winning novel March by Geraldine Brooks … set during the U.S. Civil War.

[Karin]

Kathy wrote: "I loved The Summer Before the War by Helen Simonson. It includes the beginning of World War I. Other WWI fiction I like - Regeneration by Pat Barker.

Nonfiction of WWI ..."

I loved this book as well, so now I don't have to think of one :) I hope she writes another book!

[Sabrina]

This one is a fantastical book based on the Second Sino-Japanese War, but I’ve got to mention The Poppy War. Brutal but so excellent

[Misty]

Yea - most of mine are set in WWII - Sorry! :) I love books set during WWII.

Empire of the Sun by J. G. Ballard
Eye of the Needle by Ken Follett
Shining Through by Susan Isaacs
The True Story of Hansel and Gretel by Louise Murphy
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
Pearl Harbor by Randall Wallace by Randall Wallace
My Real Name Is Hanna by Tara Lynn Masih
Abigail by Magda Szabo

This one is during the Turkey/Greece war over Cyprus:
The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak

This book is set during the Nigerian/Biafran war:
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

This book is partially set in Afghanistan during the war in the 1980s:
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

This book was a movie first, but I still really enjoyed the book, and it is set during Desert Storm:
Courage under Fire by Patrick Sheane Duncan

[Odette]

Here are some books that I enjoyed set during World War 2.
The Lace Weaver by Lauren Chater - emphasis on the Baltic states and family tradition of lace weaving
The Crimson Thread by Kate Forsyth - set on Crete with references to ancient civilisation and archaelogy
Code Name Hélène by Ariel Lawhon - a beautifully written historic fiction about the life in France of the female spy Nancy Wake.

Other wars
The Embroiderer by Kathryn Gauci is a well written book set in Turkey and partly in Greece. it features the art of embroidery which is passed down generations. Though a dual timeline, it is set at the time of the conflict in Turkey in 1919 and its aftermatj.
She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan a reimagining of the rebellion in 1351-1368 in China that led to the overthrow of the Yuan dynasty and the establishment of the Ming dynasty.
Sabrina mentioned The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang, which I have also. It is well written and enjoyable and agree it is a bit brutal in places. Similarly with the second book in the series: The Dragon Republic

[Ciara]

Right now I'm reading Devil Makes Three by Ben Fountain, which is set during the 1991 military coup in Haiti.

[Böcker och kaffe med mjölk]

Lord of the rings. The Malasaan series and Game of thrones are fantasy books set in war times.

[Bea]

I just finished a WW II true story of the rescue of some forgotten POWs that was well researched and amazing! 4.5* from me.

Ghost Soldiers: The Forgotten Epic Story of World War II's Most Dramatic Mission