The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak - This was one of those stunning books that really stays with you. It's about a young girl in Nazi Germany during World War II. One of the things that makes this book so unique is that it is narrated by "Death." This book is marketed as a young adult novel, but for no real reason as far as I can see other than the age of the main character. This book was on on my 2009 Top 10 favorites list and has stuck with me ever since.
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows - This is such a charming and witty novel. It's an epistolary novel (told in the form of letters), and describes life on the British Island of Guernsey both during and just after World War II and the Nazi occupation of the island. This also made my 2009 Top 10 list.
The Lost Wife by Alyson Richman - I read this one with my book club, and we all consider it one of the best books we have read in our 7 years as a book club. This novel starts at a wedding in contemporary Manhattan, where the groom's grandfather meets the bride's granddaughter and realizes that she was his long lost wife, before the Holocaust separated them. The story then shifts back in time to Prague in the 1930s and 1940s, going back and forth between the story of Lenka and her experiences at an unusual concentration camp called Terezin during that time, and Josef during the time after he came to America. This book was on my 2012 Top 10 Favorites list.
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah - I feel like everyone read this book, so if you enjoy World War II fiction, you probably read this one already. It's set in Occupied France during WWII, about two adult sisters - one in a small town in the French countryside, and one who takes a more active role in the resistance. Enjoyed it and found it gripping throughout, and was literally dripping tears at the end. This one was on my 2015 Top 10 Favorites list.
Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein - I read this book this summer for my book club of two people, GCBC - I LOVED it and it just about definitely will make it to my top 10 list for this year (though my friend Sarah who I read it with inexplicably hated it, much to my dismay). This historical novel begins as an account a young British female spy is writing after being captured by the Nazis occupied France, where she is supposed to be sharing her knowledge to avoid further torture - and she starts by taking a long time to work up to how she came to be there, telling the story not just of how she came to be captured but also about how her best friend Maddie came to be a female pilot. This is another one where I'm not sure why it was marketed as a young adult novel, especially because it was pretty intense. It started a little slow, but once I got into it, I couldn't put it down. I not only finished the book with my face and neck wet from crying but couldn't fall asleep afterwards, and I still tear up thinking about it today.
Secrets of a Charmed Life by Susan Meissner - This was a great historical novel about two sisters in WWII London and the countryside during the Blitz. (It also alternates with a present day story. so also falls into one of my other favorite genres, dual period historical fiction.)
The Plum Tree by Ellen Marie Wiseman - This is another one I read with my book club. It was a moving and fascinating WWII/Holocaust novel told from a different perspective - that of an ordinary German girl in a small village, who is Christian but in love with a Jewish boy.
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr - This book is set both before and during World War II, and alternates between the stories of a blind French girl, and a young German genius sent to military school and then to fight. Long and slow but beautifully written.
City of Thieves by David Benioff - Before he was the co-creator of the TV version of "Game of Thrones," David Benioff wrote this novel about a young man trying to survive in Leningrad during World War II - a black comedy that is part war story, part coming of age novel. I don't think I've ever read a WWII book set in Russia, so that was definitely an interesting and different story. It was slow going at times, but ultimately I found myself quite moved at the end.
Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan - This is definitely a very different kind of World War II book, because while much of the book is set during WWII, it was definitely a different take on it dealing with such things as a civilian woman becoming a diver in NYC repairing military ships, and a man in the merchant marines. It was not as amazingly mind-blowing as Jennifer Egan's previous, non-historical novel, "A Visit From the Goon Squad," but was very good.
The Women in the Castle by Jessica Shattuck - This novel is set in Germany before, during, and mostly after World War II, with the post-war part set in part a crumbling castle in Germany where 3 widows of German war resisters are living together with their children. Again, interesting for providing a very different take on the war.
Dear Mrs. Bird by A.J. Pearce - Totally charming historical novel set in London during the Blitz, where the main character, a plucky young woman named Emmeline, ends up taking a job working at a woman's magazine (where she types up the advice column) along with her work as a telephone operator for the Fire Auxilliary Service. It's written in a bit of an old-fashioned style which took a tiny bit to get used to, but once I did, I found it just added to the quirky charm of this book.
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