I arrange my books on war in a way that works best for me, by mixing fiction and nonfiction together by conflict. Several of the titles I have bought over the years are due to my stint teaching American History on a military base in Alaska. The guys had specific interests and to keep their attention, I had to be prepared. Others are just titles I have lucked into or have received to review.

WWI:

Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain (NF) - This memoir by an author who became one of the century's leading pacifists is brilliant and heart breaking. Brittain was part of that great generation of British youth who came into the 20th century with the highest of hopes. She was attending Oxford in 1915 when she left to join the war effort as a nurse. Over the next few years she would suffer personal losses that are staggering to comprehend. Brittain is an amazing writer and what she gives to us about the First World War is immeasurable.

The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West (Fic) - I just read this book a short time ago and it still haunts me. West writes about the effect of the war back home and also how it affected the way in which the British social systems were forever altered. I don't know if you can call this a love story, but you can call it a life story.

A Very Long Engagement by Sebastien Japrisot (Fic) - I didn't see the recent movie on this book (although the stars grace my cover) but I love the story. Japrisot shows the insanity of war, particularly this war, in which several hundred men on all sides were executed for cowardice - and others left to the fate of having to jump the wall first. In retrospect, it is hard to understand how the men who were smart (or desperate) enough to realize that the war was unwinnable were the ones who were considered traitors. It's amazing what war will do to people's minds, isn't it? (Could someone please send some books on WWI to the White House....Please!) Mathilde Donnay understands her fiance to be dead, killed in the line of duty. She discovers that his death was more complicated and then begins to wonder if it happened at all. What she learns and what Japrisot reveals about both the battlefield and the years that followed Armistice is great reading. It's a love story and a war story, and the story of what happened to a generation of French men and women.

The Maisie Dobbs Series by Jacqueline Winspear (Fic) - These are actually mysteries and on that level are outstanding reading. But they take place in the post WWI era and the characters are all profoundly damaged/affected by the war. Winspear has nailed her WWI history here and the second book in particular (Birds of a Feather) has a plot that blew my mind. It is important to start with the first book, as the characters develop over time and each story builds on the previous ones.

Kipling's Choice by Geert Spillebeen (Fic) - I could spend pretty much 24 hours a day raving about this book, I love it that much. (Look for my review in the December issue of Bookslut.) It is written for young adults but it works for any audience interested in the war in general and Rudyard Kipling in particular. You do not have to know much about Kipling to enjoy it though as John Kipling was pretty much like every other young man of his generation - he wanted to fight, he longed to fight, and he lost his life in a way that he could not comprehend. If we really wanted to bring peace to the world, this would be the book I would start handing out by the millions.

Seven Pillars of Wisdom by T.E. Lawrence (NF) - Okay, it's hard reading, there are a ton of names, most of them Arabic and thus unfamiliar, and it is very hard to keep track of who is who. Lawrence also admitted later that he made some of the episodes more dramatic in order to make the troops from Arabia look as if they more involved so he could bolster his arguments to keep the Colonial powers out of the Middle East (oh, if only they had listened!) But this is the beginning of the modern Middle East and it is critical to know what was promised to the men there who fought against the Ottoman Empire. If you want to know where all the anger began - where the first promises were broken, then start here. Lawrence was the man in the field for the European Allies, and he saw it all happen first hand.

WWII:

Strange Defeat by Marc Bloch - Written in 1940 after he returned from military service, this is the story of France's defeat by a man who was both a historian and resistance fighter. He saw the French Army destroy itself and the French gov't capitulate far too early to Germany. More importantly, Bloch had seen all of this coming for some time. The sad thing is that he did not survive to see France set free, or to see how important and significant his final work would become. This is excellent history, and very well written.

Briar Rose by Jane Yolen (Fic) - Considered YA fiction and actually part of The Fairy Tale Series, Briar Rose is the novel to read about the Holocaust. Don't get me wrong - I adore The Diary of Anne Frank and would never challenge it's significance, but Yolen has recrafted the fairy tale of Briar Rose and set it in a modern day story of a granddaughter trying to understand the complicated story of her grandmother's life. I promise you, this book will shatter you and it will never ever completely leave your heart.

When the Emperor was Divine by Julie Otsuka (Fic) - This account of a Japanese American family forced to leave their home and live in a camp in the wake of Pearl Harbor is the book I wish my grandmother had lived long enough to read. It reveals just why the Executive Orders banishing Japanese Americans from their homes were wrong on so many levels - what they did on the most deeply personal level to people who had never ever done anything wrong. "We could not trust them" my grandmother always said to me "they still had ties to the old country." And I always wondered, what would she have done if it was the Irish who attacked, where would she have gone if it was us that they came looking for? Quiety devastating, and a book that is worthy of the subject it addresses.

A Sense of Life by Antoine de Saint-Exupery (NF) - This collection of essays, most of them written for newspapers in the 1930s, addresses not only Saint-Ex's relationship with aircraft but the military build-up across Europe prior to the Second World War. Saint Ex was in Spain during the Spanish Civil War and in Russia in the 1930s and also considered heavily the attitudes of the French and German people towards war and appeasement. A lot of Saint-Ex's writings have been overshadowed by The Little Prince, but he was an excellent writer period. What he saw before 1939 is amazing and what he knew was coming humbles everyone who reads is work.

In the Company of Angels by NM Kelby (Fic) - This lyrical novel about a young girl rescued by some nuns in Belgium explores the ideas of God and war in a way that I have never before experienced. It is something that resonates even stronger today however, with battles fought over religion on nearly every front and facet of American culture. But how could you be a God fearing, no, God loving person and do what so many people did in WW2? And what would you think if a miracle came to you in war, what would you do with it, how would you care for it? Beautiful, beautiful writing. I love Nicole's books and this one is beyond any stereotype of war novel I can think of.

Zazoo by Richard Mosher (Fic) - a young girl is adopted by a Frenchman and comes to love him as her dear "Grand-Pierre", but when a mysterious young boy comes to their village and asks her questions, and demands that she ask her grandfather questions, then the past returns with a vengeance and she must consider just what men can do during war and what that makes them into when the fighting stops. It's a little gem of a novel, and puts the war into a place that I have never seen it before.

When my Name was Keoko by Linda Sue Park (Fic) - Westerners know hardly anything about what happened to the Korean people during WWII. Park wrote this YA masterpiece to show just how completely the Koreans had to assume Japanese identities and how much they lost in the process. It also includes an intense storyline about the Korean resistance and what one young girl stands to lose if her family falls apart. If for no other reason then to better understand the two Koreas today, this is a must read.

I just finally received The Rape of Nanking for my birthday and while I can't recommend it on first had knowledge, it has won accolades enough to make it the book about China and Japan during the war.

There are a zillion other titles on these two wars and I've read a ton of them (especially on WW2), but these are the standouts as the ones you might be missing. Tomorrow will be the 20th century's other major conflicts - Korea, Vietnam, the Balkans, Somalia, Rwanda, Afghanistan & Iraq. Then I promise something lighthearted for Day 4 - Fantasy or Mystery for sure!