Top Ten Tuesday:Books set in World War One or World War Two

Published on by Margaret

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish and now hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl.

The rules are simple:

Each Tuesday, Jana assigns a new topic. Create your own Top Ten list that fits that topic – putting your unique spin on it if you want. Everyone is welcome to join but please link back to Jana in your own Top Ten Tuesday post. Add your name to the Linky widget on that day’s post so that everyone can check out other bloggers’ lists. Or if you don’t have a blog, just post your answers as a comment.

The topic today is Books I Enjoyed that Were Outside My Comfort Zone. But because it is Remembrance Day marking the anniversary of the end of the First World War in 1918 I’m sharing books set in either World War One or World War Two, or about the wars.

  1. Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain. This is Vera Brittain’s autobiography. She was 21 in 1914.
  2. The Monocled Mutineer: The First World War’s Best Kept Secret: The Etaples Mutiny  by John Fairley & William Allison
  3. Highlanders’ Revenge by Paul Tors
  4. Our Longest Days: a People’s History of the Second World War by the Writers of Mass Observation.
  5. Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky
  6. The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
  7. White Rose, Black Forest by Eoin Dempsey
  8. Operation Mincemeat: The True Spy Story that Changed the Course of World War II by Ben Macintyre
  9. The Spoilt City by Olivia Manning
  10. Good Evening, Mrs Craven by Mollie Panter-Downes

19 thoughts on “Top Ten Tuesday:Books set in World War One or World War Two”

    1. I’ve read The Rose Code and had a mixed reaction to it because on the one hand it’s just the sort of book I love – historical fiction with a thrilling story and interesting characters that kept me wanting to read on and yet also made me want it to last as long as possible. But, as she stated in her Author’s Note that she ‘lightly fictionalized from the real-life Osla Benning, a beautiful, effervescent, Canadian-born heiress and Hut 4 translator who was Prince Philip’s long-term wartime girlfriend‘, But by the time of the Royal Wedding Osla Benning was already married, not pining after Prince Philip. In writing their story Kate Quinn was not writing from facts but from her imagination as she put words in her characters’ mouths and described their emotions thoughts and feelings, which, of course, she could not have known. I’m sorry but that did annoy me.

      I’ve also read her short story, Signal Moon, which I loved

      Liked by 1 person

    1. The Appendix to Suite Francaise was so painful to read as it reveals how Irène was interned in France because she was of Jewish descent. Despite all their efforts her friends and family were unable to find out where she was sent and her fate in Auschwitz was not known until after the end of the war. Heart-rending!

      Like

    1. White Rose, Black Forest is so different from other books set during the War that I’ve read before, told from the perspective of a German who opposed the Nazis. It’s a novel inspired by true events, although the author doesn’t clarify what is fact and what is fiction – I learned so much about what life was like in Germany during the war.

      Like

  9. I loved Testament of Youth, but the “sequel,” Testament of Friendship, wasn’t as good, for me. I have read FAR too many WWI and WWII books, I couldn’t do this one. Well, maybe I could.

    Liked by 1 person

  10. You are the second person who has chosen war and my thought was immediately that this was probably outside your comfort zone. That is quite understandable but commendable that you still give it a try. It is important that the past doesn’t get forgotten, otherwise we will be in the same mess again and again. So, thanks for this.
    I have read Suite Française from your list.
    This is my post.

    Liked by 1 person

Comments are closed.