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.
Ruth is a 24-year-old, unmarried woman who has never shared more than a kiss with a man. But one day, she’s walking through town to her diner job when she’s stopped by the local sheriff, who insists that she accompany him to a health clinic. By the end of the day, she is one of dozens of women suspected of being “promiscuous,” held at the State Industrial Farm Colony for Women.
Dorothy is the colony’s superintendent and believes she is transforming degenerate souls into upstanding members of society. And she creates these transformations through her strict rulebook and harsh consequences for anyone who doesn’t stay in line.
Why This is a Great Pick
This novel is based on the real early-20th-century ‘American Plan’ policies (linked to the Chamberlain–Kahn Act). It’s one of those lesser-known aspects of US history that can be hard to read about, but is important to learn about.
Jazz prodigy Hazel is only 23, but she’s already a film star and fierce advocate for civil rights. When she encounters Harlem’s electrifying preacher-turned-politician, Adam Clayton Powell Jr, he’s the perfect other-half to create a Harlem power-couple…except for the fact that he’s already married.
Over the next 17 years, their affair turns into a marriage, but things don’t get any easier. Hazel’s star is rising in the Jazz world, and Adam is elected to Congress. What is Hazel willing to sacrifice for her family, and what will she refuse to give up?
What to Expect in This Book
This is a romantic, history-rich drama that features many real people from 1940s Harlem beyond Hazel Scott and Adam Clayton Powell Jr, including Billie Holiday, Langston Hughes, and James Baldwin.
While much of the book takes place in the 1940s, Hazel and Adam’s story also includes the 1950s and the impacts of McCarthyism and segregations.
When Anne arrives at Vassar as a freshman, she does her best to blend into her group of popular WASP friends. But none of them know that her real name is Miriam and she’s Jewish. She even goes as far as turning a blind eye to the casual anti-semitic comments that are frequent with her friends and classmates.
Then she meets Delia, who not only isn’t from her crowd, but is unashamedly Jewish even when that makes her an outcast. Anne keeps her friendship a secret, and Delia doesn’t try to reveal her real identity. But then Anne does something unforgivable, and Delia suffers the consequences, sending the young women in different directions around the world.
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.
Themes in This Novel
There’s always something new to learn about World War II, and this novel includes the rarely talked about clothing rations and rules.
Peggy is a librarian whose twin brother is fighting on the front lines of World War II in 1940. When she’s given the opportunity to take on a new job assisting in the war effort as a proofreader for the Ministry of Information and the Publications Department, she’s thrilled 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.
What to Expect in This Book
In addition to Peggy’s story, this novel also includes information about the other jobs women took on during the war, from working in factories to serving as 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.
Set in the real-life neighborhood of Sugar Hill in Los Angeles during the 1940s, this modern retelling of The Great Gatsby follows the mysterious and glamorous James Mann, whose parties illuminate the night—but whose past is shrouded in secrets.
Charlie, a young veteran, comes to town at the invitation of his cousin, Marguerite, and is shocked to discover the world of L.A.’s Black elite. Marguerite’s cousin helps him land a promising career as an insurance agent.
Soon, Charlie is drawn into Mann’s glittering orbit. He discovers that behind the glamor, Mann is haunted by love and ambition, and is determined to reclaim something, or someone, that he lost.
Real historical events and figures are woven throughout the novel, including a court battle over racial covenants and real stars like Hattie McDaniel and Lena Horne.
More About This Book
The Great Gatsby is one of Angela’s favorite classics (in fact, her dog is named Gatsby), so she was immediately intrigued when she learned of this new retelling. The foreword by the author explains that The Great Gatsby is also one of her favorite classics, despite the inclusion of racist elements. She notes that there were only a few African Americans in The Great Gatsby, and that their role was only addressed in a dismissive way. With that in mind, Kyra Davis Lurie wanted to retell the story with Black characters in the central roles.
What really sets this novel apart from other retellings is its grounding in real history. Sugar Hill is a real neighborhood in Los Angeles that, in the 1940s, was the center of a legal battle about racial covenants. Angela first learned about this neighborhood and the legal challenge in the 2024 historical fiction novel The Queen of Sugar Hill, which tells the life story of actress Hattie McDaniel. Having enjoyed that book, this novel, which sets The Great Gatsby in Hattie’s neighborhood, felt like the perfect companion read.
In 1940, the Nazis invaded and occupied the Channel Islands, including Jersey. While thousands of islanders evacuated, many also stayed in their homes, including 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?
More About This Book
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 part of this story closely follows 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 beyond the alternating perspectives of Grace & Bea.
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 information. But is he a double agent?
In 1946, after the war, Alix moved 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.
What to Expect in This Book
This novel spans much of the 1940s across three timelines: before, during, and after WWII. It’s perfect for those who enjoy both history and fashion, with reviewers noting they appreciated the author’s end-of-novel notes on her research.
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.
Thoughts on This Book
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 differ from 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 fiancé 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.
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.
Our Thoughts on This Book
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 the contemporary 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 for a way to reconnect.
In addition to giving readers a closer look at the Japanese internment camps in America, which are often glossed over in our history lessons, this book also peeks into the 1940s Seattle jazz scene.
Our Thoughts on This Book
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.
No one expected obscure Missouri politician Harry Truman to become the US president. He was selected as Franklin Roosevelt’s vice president for his good judgment and lack of enemies, and, luckily, he was also known for his strong 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 it for more than just 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.
Based on a True Story
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!
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.
Our Thoughts On This Book
Hattie McDaniel was the first African American to win an Academy Award, yet her name is underrecognized today.
This historical fiction novel is not only a fascinating and inspiring look at the life and resilience of a very talented actress, but it also provides insights into the complexities of the fight for equality. After reading this novel, Angela now has a long list of McDaniel’s movies that she plans to watch, and she’ll be able to appreciate them through an entirely new lens.
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 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.
Our Thoughts on This Book
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.
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 lives 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 was 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.
Consider This Before Reading
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.
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.
Our Thoughts on This Book
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.’
Specifically, you’ll find this to be the story of two people who choose to be helpers, and one who found herself accidentally aligned with evil.
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 embroiderers.
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.
Our Thoughts on This Book
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.
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 who 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 and 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.”
Additional Books You May Enjoy
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 with her father to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo. 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.
Awards and Accolades
All the Light We Cannot See won the Pulitzer Prize and was a National Book Award finalist, both well-deserved, as the author captures the effects of war on two children with vivid details. Fans of literary fiction will be drawn to the writing in this one.
We also recommend the beautiful Netflix miniseries adaptation by the same name.
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 Hitler’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.
Thoughts on This Book
If you’re looking for a short book, 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 received attention 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 often left off the scientific discoveries she made in favor of her male co-workers, but she still forged ahead diligently.
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 the small town of 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.
Themes in This Book
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.
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, forcing her to question everything.
Thoughts on This Book
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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Printable Version This Book List
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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.
The Book Girls are best friends who jointly read over 200 books per year. We started Book Girls' Guide in 2019 to help others de-stress and find joy through the power of a great book. We do in-depth research on thousands of novels and non-fiction titles each year to provide curated book lists covering a variety of genres.
Another great read about the polio epidemic in Hickory, NC is Blue by Joyce Moyer Hostetter. The author has 2 other books that continue the main character’s story and are also good.
I love historical fiction. I’ve read alot of WWII stories. Yet, as always, you have managed to find MORE BOOKS that I have not read!
I also noticed that ( perhaps one of you is a fan) you have a novel by Sarah Jio in each category this month. I might just go get all 3 from the library!! ( Then reread some favorites..like..Things We Cannot Say. & Hotel on the corner of Bitter & Sweet.!)
Melissa, Another interesting book during WWII, is The Alphabet House by Jussi Adler-Olsen. My husband and I listened to the audiobook on a long trip. It was very interesting. Description as follows:
Two British pilots during World War II are shot down during a raid over Germany. They survive the crash, but are faced with a German dog patrol. They manage to save themselves by jumping aboard a hospital train and hide among the patients. But when they reach their destination, it occurs to them that it is a mental hospital. Now they can either try to simulate insanity or try to escape.
During this time of uncertainty, except the library is closed until further notice!, finding good books is a challenge unless of course you order it. That is my downfall. I’d rather take my time and look it over. Lol! Stay healthy and be well.
That does sound interesting! I can’t wait to check it out. I totally understand that it’s way more fun to browse books in person too! My habit of buying books faster than I can read them is coming in handy right now because I have a stockpile at home to work through.
It might be fun to find a neighbor to trade some books with if you happen to have a Facebook group or Nextdoor page for your neighborhood. With careful sanitation and social distancing of course!
Please Please Please add: Code Name Helene by Ariel Lawhon. Its an incredible story about a woman named Nancy Wake who becomes a british spy in France during world war II. It’s historical fiction, based on the true story of her life. It is such a great read. It was just published in March.
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Another great read about the polio epidemic in Hickory, NC is Blue by Joyce Moyer Hostetter. The author has 2 other books that continue the main character’s story and are also good.
I love historical fiction. I’ve read alot of WWII stories. Yet, as always, you have managed to find MORE BOOKS that I have not read!
I also noticed that ( perhaps one of you is a fan) you have a novel by Sarah Jio in each category this month. I might just go get all 3 from the library!! ( Then reread some favorites..like..Things We Cannot Say. & Hotel on the corner of Bitter & Sweet.!)
Melissa, Another interesting book during WWII, is The Alphabet House by Jussi Adler-Olsen. My husband and I listened to the audiobook on a long trip. It was very interesting. Description as follows:
Two British pilots during World War II are shot down during a raid over Germany. They survive the crash, but are faced with a German dog patrol. They manage to save themselves by jumping aboard a hospital train and hide among the patients. But when they reach their destination, it occurs to them that it is a mental hospital. Now they can either try to simulate insanity or try to escape.
During this time of uncertainty, except the library is closed until further notice!, finding good books is a challenge unless of course you order it. That is my downfall. I’d rather take my time and look it over. Lol! Stay healthy and be well.
That does sound interesting! I can’t wait to check it out. I totally understand that it’s way more fun to browse books in person too! My habit of buying books faster than I can read them is coming in handy right now because I have a stockpile at home to work through.
It might be fun to find a neighbor to trade some books with if you happen to have a Facebook group or Nextdoor page for your neighborhood. With careful sanitation and social distancing of course!
Please Please Please add: Code Name Helene by Ariel Lawhon. Its an incredible story about a woman named Nancy Wake who becomes a british spy in France during world war II. It’s historical fiction, based on the true story of her life. It is such a great read. It was just published in March.
We hadn’t seen that one and it sounds amazing! Thank you so much for the great suggestion!