Whether you’re participating in our Decades Reading Challenge or found this post searching for books set in the 1940s, the booklist below provides a wide variety of reading options.
World War II largely consumed the news of the early and mid-1940s. There are some heartbreaking, but important, books from this period in world history. Outside of the war, other historic events such as the polio epidemic and the partition of India were taking place. But don’t worry – our 1940s booklist also includes a variety of other topics, including some that have a lighter feel!
WW2 brought many technological advancements, including nuclear fusion and the starting points for both commercial air travel and space exploration. After the war, the 1940s saw the beginning of the Baby Boomer generation.
For additional historical context, check out the timeline of major world events included at the end of the post.
Sisters Isabelle and Sylvia started their adult lives on different paths. Isabelle embraced working at her mother’s dressmaking shop, Mrs. Shelton’s Fashions. Meanwhile, Sylvia married a wealthy doctor and turned her back on her family.
Yet, when their mother dies, the shop is left equally to Isabelle and Sylvia. Isabelle plans to buy out Sylvia’s share and run the shop alone, but then she is conscripted into the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force, and she’ll need Sylvia’s help to save the shop. But first, the sisters must reconcile. They begin writing letters back and forth, and while the entire book is not in epistolary format, the letters throughout do add to the story.
The Book Girls Say…
There’s always something new to learn about World War II, and this novel includes the rarely talked about clothing rations and rules.
For many actors and actresses, winning an Oscar is the pinnacle of success that sets them up for an even better future. But for Hattie McDaniel, her best supporting actress win after playing the role of Mammy in the controversial movie Gone With the Wind was life-changing in a different way.
After winning, Hattie was trapped between two worlds, neither of which appreciated her. White Hollywood saw her only as her character, Mammy. The Black community, led by the NAACP, detested the demeaning portrayal of their community and waged war against her.
Through it all, Hattie struggled but also continued her fight to pave a path for other Negro actors, focused on war efforts, fought housing discrimination, and navigated four failed marriages. Along the way, she was supported by a core group of friends, including Clark Gable, Louise Beavers, Ruby Berkley Goodwin, and Dorothy Dandridge.
The Book Girls Say…
Hattie McDaniel was the first Black person to win an Oscar, yet her name is underrecognized today. We’re excited to learn more about her life and resilience through this historical fiction novel.
Peggy is a librarian whose twin brother is fighting on the front lines of WW2 in 1940. When she’s given the opportunity to take on a new job assisting in the war effort herself as a proofreader for the Ministry of Information and in the Publications Department, she’s thrilled to be able to play a part in ending the war and helping her brother return home safely.
However, now she reports to socialite Lady Marigold Cecily, who seems more interested in dancing than ending the war. Peggy finds solace in writing, but when the Ministry of Information publishes her inner thoughts without her knowledge, she realizes she needs Lady Marigold’s help.
The Book Girls Say…
In addition to Peggy’s story, this novel also includes information on the other jobs women took on during the war, from working in factories to driving to air raid wardens. Overall, it’s a heartwarming story of determination, friendship, and family, but you’ll feel plenty of other emotions along the way as well.
Bess is the college-educated daughter of poor Russian Jewish immigrants living in the Bronx. In 1945, she competed in the Miss America pageant, bringing traumatized Jews an opportunity to root for one of their own in Atlantic City’s Warner Theatre. She hoped to win the $5000 scholarship in order to further her education.
This is a fictionalized look at the early years of the real Bess Myerson, who became the first (and only) Jewish Miss America. Bess was nearly six feet tall and gorgeous, but in her world, success was measured by intellectual attainment. In this precarious post-war period, she searched for love and acceptance as she tried to make her mark on the world.
The Book Girls Say…
This book provides a glimpse into both pageant life and the struggles of the Jewish community in 1940s America. Many did not want a Jewish woman to represent America, but Bess wasn’t focused only on her own barriers. She noticed that there were no Black contestants and this motivated her to win and push for changes.
In 1940, Nazis invaded and occupied the Channel Islands, including Jersey. While thousands of islanders evacuated, many also stayed in their homes. In this novel, those staying include librarian Grace and her best friend, Bea, a postwoman.
By 1943, Grace had become Chief Librarian after her boss was sent to an internment camp in Germany. She is taking a great risk in hiding books banned by the Nazis in order to protect them from destruction. She also strongly believes in the importance of access to books during this terrible period. But when neighbors are offered extra rations for reporting each other, who can she trust?
The Book Girls Say…
Each chapter of this novel starts with information on a different banned book, adding an extra layer to this already engaging story. Don’t miss the author’s note that highlights which parts of this story closely follow the history of the occupation of Jersey.
Keep in mind that this novel is on the long side (512 pages) and includes a large cast of characters outside of Grace and Bea’s alternating perspectives.
Independence takes you into the lives of three sisters during a traumatic period of history – partition, in which India became only for Hindus. At the same time, a carved-out area became Pakistan, which was assigned to Muslims. It was one of the largest human displacements in history.
Sister Priya is intelligent and determined to follow in her father’s footsteps to become a doctor, even though that isn’t a normal path for a woman. Deepa is considered the beautiful one, and dreams of a marriage that will increase her family’s status AND bring her joy. Jamini is a talented quiltmaker with deep passions she doesn’t reveal to her family.
When Deepa falls in love with a Muslim and partition is declared, the sisters are separated and propelled onto different paths. They fear for themselves, but also for what could happen to each other.
Alix St Pierre is at the top of her career in the advertising world in New York. Her successful campaigns have caught the attention of US Intelligence officials, who enlist her as a spy in 1943. She’s sent to Europe with the goal of getting close to a Nazi who may be willing to provide infomation. But is he a double agent?
In 1946, after the war, Alix moves to Paris to run the PR department of the new fashion house, Christian Dior. However, she seems unable to fully escape the past when a figure from the war reappears in her life and threatens her future.
The Book Girls Say…
This novel covers much of the 1940s in three timelines – before, during, and after WWII. It’s perfect for those who enjoy both history and fashion, with reviewers mentioning that they enjoyed the author’s notes about her research at the end of the novel.
The Greek Civil War lasted from 1946 to 1949, between a Communist-led uprising and the established government of the Kingdom of Greece. This novel tells the story of two ten-year-old friends, Marco and Katerina, who lived in a poor community in northern Corfu during this period.
While Marco’s family may be the poorest now, his grandmother once worked for the royal family, and Marco’s mother grew up playing with Prince Philip. In fact, his mom still holds out hope that the royal family will save them. But, as the war escalates, villages are further divided. Greece’s Queen Frederica opens a children’s village to keep them safe, then the Communists do the same. Entire villages are emptied, thousands of children are taken by the truckload, ripped from their mothers’ arms.
Eventually, Marco is sent to the queen’s village while Katerina and her family flee on foot, but both vow to make their way home again.
The Book Girls Say…
This novel primarily focuses on the period after World War II and leading up to the Greek Civil War, but it does continue on through the end of the 20th century, showing the long-term impacts of the war on the characters’ life trajectories.
In 1943, the Müller family seems like the model Nazi family, with Ava working for Joseph Goebbels alongside her father, a high-ranking official in the Reich. Her sister, Hanna, is a nurse for German soldiers.
When Ava visits the family’s country home, she is shocked to discover that Hanna and her parents have been secretly working for the Resistance. Not only are they hiding childhood friend Eliana and her parents in the attic, but their work has a wider reach. Once Ava’s eyes are open to the truth about the regime, she begins the dangerous job of undermining the Reich from within its own headquarters.
This novel transports you to 1940s rural Colorado and the home of teenager Victoria Nash. Despite her young age, she runs the household as the sole female in a family of troubled men. One day, she meets Wilson Moon, a mysterious young drifter who has been displaced from his tribal land. Their sudden and passionate connection is full of danger and secrets.
Victoria ends up fleeing to the harsh mountain wilderness in a small hut, where she struggles against impossible conditions. As the Gunnison River rises and threatens her homeland, she begins a quest to fight for all she has lost.
The Book Girls Say…
This is a great pick if you enjoy deep and descriptive, character-driven reads. While much of the book is slower-paced, the final chapters are said to be the best.
This story of friendship introduces us to three young women in 1943 New York. Although their struggles are different than those who had the war on their doorstep in Europe & around the world, they were each impacted in different ways.
Margaret works at the Navy Yard by day but at night, she knits socks for soldiers. When she sticks a note inside a pair of socks, she ends up with an unexpected pen pal.
Gladys is a feminist before the rise of feminism, but when she meets someone who respects her, she wonders if she can have it all.
Dottie’s fiance has been deployed to fight. However, she became pregnant before he shipped out. She’s terrified her parents will make her give up the baby if she tells them, so her friends are even more important than ever.
Sally is 11 and desperate to fit in with the cool kids at school. In an attempt to earn her way into the group, she steals a notebook from Woolworths. But she’s being watched, and not by the store clerk.
Frank is 52 and has just been released from prison. He convinces Sally that he is an FBI agent and that she must do what he says to avoid being arrested for theft. For two years, Frank mentally and physically assaults Sally while the two of them travel westward from Camden to San Jose. `
The Book Girls Say…
This is a dark and completely devastating read based on the true 1948 crime that partially inspired Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita. Readers say the writing is poetic, but you should only pick it up if you are in a good mental spot to handle the evilness involved.
Inspired by the author’s own family history, this novel is a tragic love story. Alina and Tomasz were best friends who planned to marry. But when their village falls to the Nazis, Alina doesn’t know if Tomasz is alive or dead.
Decades later, Alice is struggling to support her son, who was born with an autism spectrum disorder. When her grandmother is hospitalized, she begs Alice to return to Poland to see what became of those she loved. Alice travels to Poland and begins to uncover her grandmother’s story.
The Book Girls Say…
We both really enjoyed this unique look into WW2. It’s not a light read, but it’s a great look at what generations before us endured on a personal level. The split storyline between current times and the war is a nice reprieve from the harder 1940s scenes.
Henry Lee’s father desperately wants his son to be an American. But, at his school, he is ignored by all of the white kids. The one friend he makes is a young Japanese girl named Keiko. Soon, Keiko and her family are rounded up into a Japanese internment camp. Forty years later, Henry finds himself searching to reconnect.
In addition to giving readers a closer look at the Japanese internment camps in America that often get glossed over in our history lessons, this book also peeks into the 1940s Seattle jazz scene.
The Book Girls Say…
Melissa really enjoyed learning about a part of WWII that she knew very little about. This one will make you think, but it’s NOT a graphic look into the horrors of war.
The Accidental President: Harry S. Truman and the Four Months That Changed The World
A.J. Baime
Publication Date:
11/07/2017
Setting:
1945, Washington D.C. & beyond
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
4.3 out of 5 94% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
No one expected obscure Missouri politician Harry Truman to become a US president. He was selected as Franklin Roosevelt’s vice president because of his good judgment and lack of enemies, and luckily, he was also known for his good work ethic. In 1945, Truman became the 33rd president when Roosevelt suddenly died in office, amidst a world at war.
This well-researched biography covers Truman’s first 120 days in office, in which he faced constant challenges. In those four months alone, he was heavily involved in the founding of the United Nations, the Potsdam Conference, the Manhattan Project, the Nazi surrender, the liberation of concentration camps, and the decision to drop the bomb and end World War II.
While many English children were sent from London to the English countryside as part of Operation Pied Piper, others went to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. This novel takes us into the lives of a young widowed mother and a young teacher, who bravely volunteers to help protect children amidst a war.
Until 1940, Alice only experienced adventure and bravery through characters in books. But when a plane crashes near her home, she finds new motivation and strength to join the war effort. As a schoolteacher, she’s the perfect volunteer to help accompany children overseas.
Lily has a talent for math, and once dreamed of using that for more than calculating her grocery budget. But then she found love, and had two adored children. Her world is ripped apart by war, and as bombs rain down, she must decide how to keep her children safe.
The Book Girls Say…
The Last Life Boat is a well-researched look into the torpedoing of The City of Benares in September 1940. One reviewer calls it “terribly sad yet uplifting in its own way,” so be prepared for an emotional read if you pick this one!
In this non-fiction book that reads like fiction, we are introduced to Louis Zamperini in his childhood. He’s considered a bit of a delinquent before channeling his angst into running. And he was great. His talent for running took him all the way to the Berlin Olympics in 1936. But when the second World War begins, Louis goes from athlete to airman.
In May 1943, Louis’ bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean. His unlikely survival aboard a tiny raft surrounded by sharks, and on the verge of starvation, lands him in an even more perilous trial as he is driven to the limits of endurance and ingenuity.
The Book Girls Say…
Prior to this book, most of Angela’s knowledge of WWII centered around the wrongs of the Third Reich and the devastating impacts of the atomic bomb dropped on Japan. But outside of Pearl Harbor, she didn’t know much about Japan’s role in the war. Before reading this book, she also didn’t think she had much interest in WWII non-fiction – Unbroken changed all that!
If you’re a Gilmore Girls fan, you may have noticed the name of the audiobook narrator sounded familiar. Edward Herrmann is the actor who played Richard Gilmore, Lorelai’s tough, yet endearing father.
Beatrice dreamed of enjoying an escapist year teaching English, but now she is stranded in war-ravaged Italy. Francesca and Edoardo let her stay in their beautiful walled garden, Villa delle Colombe, which has an elaborate cypress maze in the center.
Francesca has also invited other children and adults to shelter on the estate with its mysterious maze. As the war gets closer, the residents witness unthinkable things.
In 2015, Beatrice is now the custodian of the estate and welcomes Tess, who is seeking healing after the loss of her husband. Tess finds solace in the gardens until Marco, the estate’s absent owner, arrives. He’s ready to sell to developers. Is it finally time for Beatrice to reveal the villa’s painful past?
Bletchley Park is a real English estate and was an elegant country home before becoming the secret location of WW2 codebreakers. The Rose Code imagines the life of three women from different backgrounds who all qualified for this challenging and vital task. While the three become friends, the war and secrecy required for their jobs prove too much to keep them close.
Seven years later, in 1947, the wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip is on everyone’s minds. But, when an encrypted letter is received, the former friends must reunite to crack the code and figure out which former Bletchley Park worker is now a traitor.
The Book Girls Say…
This book is long at 624 pages, but our readers say it’s engaging throughout! If you enjoyed The Alice Network or The Huntress, you know Kate Quinn’s books are worth the extra time.
Set in a small Cajun community, a young black man – Jefferson – is in the wrong place at the wrong time when a liquor store shooting leaves three men dead. As the only survivor, he is convicted of murder and sentenced to death.
Grant Wiggins left his hometown to attend university but returned to teach at the plantation school. His aunt persuades him to visit Jefferson in jail to share some of his learning so that Jefferson can “die a man.”
The Book Girls Say…
When it was published in 1993, the Chicago Tribune called this book “an instant classic”. It was also a National Book Critics Circle Choice winner.
Lilac Girls crosses three continents and follows three women whose lives are on a collision course.
Caroline is a New York socialite working at the French consulate, Kasia is a Polish teenager and a courier for the underground resistance movement, and Herta is an ambitious young German doctor who finds herself trapped in a male-dominated world of Nazi secrets and power.
The book alternates between the three stories, each providing thought-provoking insights into uniquely difficult situations as the war progressed.
The Book Girls Say…
Melissa loved Lilac Girls, although it includes tragic scenes that are tough to read. She was devastated when she learned that this historical fiction was based on the true experiences of the ‘Ravensbrück Rabbits.’
Get your tissues ready; this story is part of history that we shouldn’t ignore.
The Gown takes us inside the workrooms of the famed fashion house of Norman Harnell, where one of the most famous wedding gowns in history was created for Princess Elizabeth. Here we meet Ann and Miriam, two embroidered.
Seventy years later, Heather seeks to unravel the mystery of a set of embroidered flowers left behind by her late grandmother, who never spoke of her life in Britain.
The Book Girls Say…
This is the first book Melissa read that focused on the years right AFTER the war. While making the gown is important to the story and fascinating, it’s not what you’ll remember. The story is much broader, and we think you’ll love this step back into the post-war years.
HEADS UP: There is a sexual assault scene in the book that some readers may find difficult.
As London is emerging from WWII, Juliet Ashton, a writer, is looking for the subject of her next book. She begins exchanging letters with a man she’s never met – a native of the island of Guernsey. Through their letters, Juliet is drawn into the man’s and eccentric friends’ world. Though they range from pig farmers to phrenologists, they are all literature lovers.
As Juliet learns about their tastes in books, she also comes to understand the impact that the German occupation has had on their lives.
The Book Girls Say…
This is a great choice for those who love epistolary novels, which are told through written correspondence between the characters.
Geography Note: Located between the UK and France, the Channel Islands, including Guernsey, are not part of the UK or the EU, but are dependent territories of the British Crown.
Told from the perspective of an older woman looking back on her youth, City of Girls is a fictional life story set in the New York theater world during the 1940s.
Nineteen-year-old Vivian has been kicked out of Vassar College due to poor performance, and her affluent parents send her to live with her aunt, who owns a flamboyant but crumbling midtown theater.
Other charismatic theater employees, from showgirls to Olive, the no-nonsense secretary that keeps everyone in line, have their own spaces on the 3rd and 4th floors. Vivian loves fashion and is a talented seamstress, which is perfect for making clothes for the Lily dancers on and off the stage.
The main setting of the book is 1940s New York City, spanning the years before the US entered WW2, along with the war years. Vivian reflects on the events of those years, including a personal mistake that almost ruined the course of her life in a moment.
Many years later, at the age of 95, she tells her story, musing that “at some point in a woman’s life, she just gets tired of being ashamed all the time.”
The Book Girls Say…
We loved this book so much that we curated an entire list of books with similar themes. Some have very obvious connections – others on the list may surprise you!
The author spent ten years creating this book, and the final result is a beautifully written story of a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II.
Marie-Laure was twelve when the Nazis occupied Paris. She was forced to flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo with her father. Along with the other things they could carry, they have what might be the most valuable and dangerous jewel from the Museum of Natural History, where her father worked.
Werner is a German orphan and spends his time becoming an expert at repairing radios. His knowledge makes him a prime recruit for those hoping to track down resistance workers.
The Book Girls Say…
All the Light We Cannot See won the Pulitzer Prize and was a National Book Award finalist, both well-deserved as he captures the effects of war on two children with vivid details. Fans of literary fiction will be drawn to the writing in this one.
Set in 1943 Copenhagen, Number the Stars is the story of 10-year-old Annemarie and her best friend, Ellen. While they’re attending school every day like normal, the country faces food shortages, and Nazi soldiers are all around town. As Hilter’s regime gains power, the Jewish citizens of Denmark, including Ellen’s family, are “relocated.” Annemarie’s family agrees to keep Ellen in their home, at significant risk to her and themselves.
The Book Girls Say…
If you’re looking for a short book to kick off the year, this is your winner at only 137 pages. While it’s technically a middle-grade book, it’s been enjoyed by readers of all ages since its original publication in 1989 and recognition as the Newbery Medal winner in 1990. If you read this one in the 90s, especially if you were a child or young adult at the time, it’s worth a re-read now.
In the 1940s, polio became a feared pandemic across the world. The disease was cruel, killing or paralyzing those contracting it, with children particularly impacted. This historical fiction tells the story of a real scientist, Dorothy Horstmann, who worked desperately for a cure.
While many male scientists raced to beat each other to a polio vaccine so they could achieve notoriety, Dorothy’s eye remained on the goal of saving lives. Her name was commonly left off of the scientific discoveries she made in favor of her male co-workers, but she still forged diligently ahead.
The Book Girls Say…
This book provides an interesting look at a real-life female scientist whose work overlapped the 1950s timeline of Elizabeth Zott’s fictional chemistry career.
Twenty-three-year-old nurse Tess is engaged to the love of her life; however she finds out she is pregnant, and he is not the father. While staying with him would make her happy, she doesn’t want to trap him in a lie. So instead, she marries the baby’s father, Henry, and moves to small Hickory, North Carolina.
Henry isn’t the best to Tess, and neither are the neighbors in her new home. When a polio outbreak begins and the town builds a polio hospital, Tess knows this is her opportunity to get back to work and create a life outside her unhappy home. However, Henry isn’t happy about her revitalized career, and his mysterious actions escalate.
The Book Girls Say…
While this is a fictional drama, it also provides insight into another defining feature of the 40s that you may not have read about as much – the explosive growth of polio cases in the mid to late 1940s.
Soaring to Glory: A Tuskegee Airman’s Firsthand Account of WWII
Philip Handleman with Lt. Col. Harry T. Stewart, Jr.
Publication Date:
06/04/2019
Setting:
WWII, Home & Abroad
Book Summary
This is the remarkable true story of Lt. Col. Harry Stewart Jr., one of the last surviving Tuskegee Airmen pilots who experienced air combat during World War II.
Soaring to Glory recounts the bravery and heroics of Stewart’s combat missions, as well as the cruel injustices that Stewart and his fellow Tuskegee Airmen faced during their wartime service and when they returned home after the war.
The Book Girls Say…
This memoir is a quick read at under 300 pages, but it tells such an important and often overlooked story of WWII.
Ten-year-old Sarah is arrested with her family in the Vel’ d’Hiv’ round up – the most notorious act of French collaboration with the Nazis. But before the police come to take them, Sarah locks her younger brother in their favorite hiding spot – a cupboard in the family’s apartment and holds onto the key, thinking she’ll be back soon.
On the 60th anniversary of the Vel’ d’Hiv’, an American journalist is asked by her Paris-based magazine to write an article about that day in France’s past. Having lived in Paris for 25 years, she realizes her ignorance about the event and is shocked by the silence that still surrounds it. She begins to follow a trail that connects her to Sarah and forces her to question everything.
The Book Girls Say…
Keep the tissues handy because this book will bring you to tears.
You are welcome to choose any book that you’d like to read for the challenge, but we hope that this list of books has given you a good starting point.
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We compiled this list of major events of the 1940s to provide some historical context for your reading. We hope you enjoy learning a bit more about this period in history.
Aggression in World War II, which officially began in 1939, continued. Germany expanded their aggression into Denmark, Norway, France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands. Germany also began “The Blitz,” bombing London in an attempt to weaken the British Royal Air Force.
During 1940, Franklin D. Roosevelt won an unprecedented third term as the U.S. president. The same year, President Roosevelt instituted the first military draft in the United States during peacetime.
In the early 1940s, the Tuskegee Institute was at the forefront of preparing young African-American pilots to fight for freedom in the skies.
During 1941, Soviet Russia and Japan signed a non-aggression pact, becoming allies with Germany. The Siege of Leningrad began as German troops entered the Soviet Union and lasted until 1944.
On December 7, 1941, Japan launched a surprise attack on the U.S. naval base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. This act of war finally brought the United States to the front lines. Italy and Germany also declared war on the U.S.
The Battle of Midway between Japan and the U.S. began in 1942. Fearing they would become a security threat during wartime, the US government began the internment of Japanese-Americans.
The same year, the U.S. Congress created several branches of the armed forces for women to join the war effort.
On June 6, 1944, famously known as D-Day, more than 150,000 Allied troops successfully stormed the beaches of Normandy in France. Shortly thereafter, the Allies liberated Paris.
FDR began his fourth term as President of the United States. However, he unexpectedly died in April of 1945, moving VP Harry Truman to the Oval Office.
1945 brought the end of WWII, as Allied and Soviet forces liberated concentration camps on their way toward Germany.
In August 1945, the U.S. dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, ending the war in the Pacific Theatre. In the aftermath of the war, fifty nations signed the charter to create the United Nations.
In 1945, Vietnam declared its independence from France under Ho Chi Minh.
During 1947, India became independent from the United Kingdom. The same year, the country instituted the tragic policy of partition. Leaders carved out Pakistan for Muslim citizens, with Hindu citizens assigned to reside in India.
In 1947, Jackie Robinson joined the Brooklyn Dodgers, becoming the first African-American to play Major League Baseball in the modern era. Robinson and other black athletes during the 1940s, including boxer Joe Louis and Olympian Jesse Owens. These athletes became popular heroes and paved the way for future generations.
In 1948, Indian independence leader and pacifist Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated on his way to a prayer meeting, after achieving independence for India.
Following the continued growth of Jewish refugees and settlers to Israel during WWII, Israel was created as an independent Jewish state in 1948.
Following the Chinese Civil War, Mao Zedong’s Communist forces declared the founding of the People’s Republic of China on October 1, 1949.
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