War Stories

 

The English Patient
by Michael Ondaatje
Haunting and harrowing, as beautiful as it is disturbing, The English Patient tells the story of the entanglement of four damaged lives in an Italian monastery as World War II ends. The exhausted nurse, Hana; the maimed thief, Caravaggio; the wary sapper, Kip: each is haunted by the riddle of the English patient, the nameless, burn victim who lies in an upstairs room and whose memories of passion, betrayal, and rescue illuminate this book like flashes of heat lightning. In lyrical prose informed by a poetic consciousness, Michael Ondaatje weaves these characters together, pulls them tight, then unravels the threads with unsettling acumen. 

A book that binds readers of great literature, The English Patient garnered the Booker Prize for author Ondaatje. The poet and novelist has also written In the Skin of a Lion, Coming Through Slaughter and The Collected Works of Billy the Kid; two collections of poems, The Cinnamon Peeler and There's a Trick with a Knife I'm Learning to Do; and a memoir, Running in the Family. Amazon.com
Hardcover: 307 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.15 x 8.66 x 5.99 
Publisher: Knopf; ; (October 1992)
ISBN: 0679416781 

After Dunkirk
by Milena McGraw
A highly acclaimed novel about two Battle of Britain pilots. Reviewers compare this work favourably with The English Patient.
Paperback: 468 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.21 x 9.01 x 6.04 
Publisher: Mariner Books; ; (May 1, )
ISBN: 0395977800 
 

Catch 22 by Joseph Heller Paperback from Simon & Schuster

For Whom the Bell Tolls
by Ernest Hemingway
Listed under Hemingway

In the Balance (Worldwar Series, Volume 1)
by Harry Turtledove
Listed under Science Fiction
 

King Rat by James Clavell Paperback from Delta

The Naked and the Dead
Norman Mailer
Book Description: The fiftieth-anniversary edition of an American classic, with a new introduction by the author. Hailed as one of the finest novels to come out of the Second World War, The Naked and the Dead received unprecedented critical acclaim upon its publication and has since enjoyed a long and well-deserved tenure in the American canon. This fiftieth anniversary edition features a new introduction created especially for the occasion by Norman Mailer. Written in gritty, journalistic detail, the story... 

The Nostradamus Prophecy
by John S. Powell
(Hardcover)
 

The Aviators W. E. B. Griffin Fiction As the Vietnam War begins to escalate in 1964, the formation of the new Air Assault Division is delayed by logistical problems and by conflicts among the men and women who comprise the fighting force. Paperback / Published 1989

The Snow Goose
by Paul Gallico
Gallico's masterpiece about a crippled artist's daring rescue of British soldiers stranded at Dunkirk during World War II is an unforgettable story certain to be enjoyed and cherished by readers for years to come.
Hardcover (June 1988)
Random House; ISBN: 0394445937

Away All Boats (Classics of Naval Literature)
Fiction by Kenneth Dodson
Hardcover - 444 pages Reprint edition (March )
United States Naval Inst.; ISBN: 1557501734
 

Battlecruiser Fiction by Douglas Reeman Paperback from McBooks Press

The Chess Garden
by Brooks Hansen
An exotic, spiritual tale combines elements of memoir and parable, in a collection of twelve letters sent with chess pieces to his wife Sonja by Dr. Gustav Uyterhoeven while serving as a doctor in the Boer War concentration camps in South Africa. Ingram.
Paperback - 464 pages (November )
Riverhead Books; ISBN: 1573225630
 

Fields of Fire by James H. Webb Book Description:: They each had their reasons for being a soldier. They each had their illusions. Goodrich came from Harvard. Snake got the tattoo — Death Before Dishonor — before he got the uniform. And Hodges was haunted by the ghosts of family heroes.  They were three young men from different worlds plunged into a white-hot, murderous realm of jungle warfare as it was fought by one Marine platoon in the An Hoa Basin, 1969. They had no way of knowing what awaited them. Nothing could have prepared them for the madness to come. And in the heat and horror of battle they took on new identities, took on each other, and were each reborn in fields of fire....  Fields of Fire is James Webb's classic, searing novel of the Vietnam War, a novel of poetic power, razor-sharp observation, and agonizing human truths seen through the prism of nonstop combat. Weaving together a cast of vivid characters, Fields of Fire captures the journey of unformed men through a man-made hell — until each man finds his fate. Mass Market Paperback from Bantam Books 28 August, 2001

The Hunters
by James Salter
With his stirring, rapturous first novel--originally published in 1956 --James Salter established himself as the most electrifying prose stylist since Hemingway. Four decades later, it is clear that he also fashioned the most enduring fiction ever about aerial warfare. Captain Cleve Connell arrives in Korea with a single goal: to become an ace, one of that elite fraternity of jet pilots who have downed five MIGs. But as his fellow airmen rack up kill after kill--sometimes under dubious circumstances--Cleve's luck runs bad. Other pilots question his guts. Cleve comes to question himself. And then in one icy instant 40,000 feet above the Yalu River, his luck changes forever. Filled with courage and despair, eerie beauty and corrosive rivalry, The Hunters is a landmark in the literature of war. Amazon.com
(Paperback)

Kappillan of Malta (Cassell Military Paperbacks)
by Nicholas Monsarrat
Set in wartorn Malta in 1940-1942, Monsarrat weaves an epic of Malta's history from time immemorial for the refugees sheltering in the catacombs of his ancient church.
Paperback - 464 pages
Cassell Academic; ISBN: 0304358444

The Pepperdogs
by Bing West, Francis J. West
Military Fiction - US Marines
Hardcover: 384 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.16 x 9.56 x 6.36
Publisher: Simon & Schuster; ; (December 24, )

Mash
by Richard D. Hooker
Before the movie, this is the novel that gave life to Hawkeye Pierce, Trapper John, Hot Lips Houlihan, Frank Burns, Radar O'Reilly, and the rest of the gang that made the 4077th MASH like no other place in Korea or on earth. Amazon.com
(Paperback)

Miracle at St. Anna
by James McBride
In Miracle at St. Anna, James McBride, author of the bestselling memoir The Color of Water, tells a war story that, like all great tales of conflict, connects the enormous tragedy of war with the intimate stories of individual soldiers. Miracle at St. Anna vividly follows four of the U.S. Army's 92nd Division of all-black buffalo soldiers as they become trapped between forces beyond their control and between worlds. Three of the soldiers have bolted behind enemy lines to rescue their comrade, the colossal, but simple, Private Sam Train. They find themselves stranded between worlds in a remote central Italian village, with the German Army hidden on one side and their racist and largely mismanaged American commanding officers on the other. The strange world of the village floats between myth and reality, where belief in magic coexists with the most horrific acts of war. In the melee that opens the book, the giant Sam Train suddenly comes to believe he can turn invisible, the local miser believes he is cursed with a wealth of rabbits, and each of the other soldiers also exists in a mythical world of his own. But they are all about to be shattered by the Miracle. McBride illuminates an ironic moment in American history, a time when black soldiers fought bravely for the country whose "freedoms" included Jim Crow laws, segregation, and institutional and widespread personal racism. Miracle at St. Anna puts these intimate stories at the center of the much larger story of the struggle of people of color in this country. Each character is trapped and forced to act as nobly and as bravely as he can in the midst of forces beyond not only his control, but beyond his world. --Paul Ford - Amazon.com
Hardcover: 304 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.10 x 9.34 x 6.24
Riverhead Books; ISBN: 1573222127; (January 28, )

Rommel and the Rebel
Lawrence Wells
Fictional work based on the legend that Rommel visited Civil War battlegrounds prior to WWII.
Paperback / Published 1992

Exploits and Adventures of Brigadier Gerard
by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Having killed off Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle began a new series of tales on a very different theme. Brigadier Gerard is an officer in Napoleon's army — recklessly brave, engagingly openhearted, and unshakable, if not a little absurd, in his devotion to the enigmatic Emperor. The Brigadier's wonderful comic adventures, long established in the affections of Conan Doyle's admirers as second only to those of the incomparable Holmes, are sure to find new devotees... Amazon.com
(Paperback)

The White Company / Sir Nigel
by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, George MacDonald Fraser (Introduction)
(Paperback)

Rogue Warrior : Echo Platoon
Fiction by Richard Marcinko, John Weisman
Listed under Rogue Warrior Series

The Rage of Angels
Alan Fisher
Fiction
A young aviator battles with fading innocence in a powerful story of love and war that evokes the nature of comradeship in unsentimental images of a generation of young men caught up in the First World War. By the author of The Terioki Crossing. Ingram.
Hardcover / Carroll & Graf 1997

Sharpe's Fortress: Richard Sharpe and the Siege Of Gawilghur, December 1803
by Bernard Cornwell
Listed under Richard Sharpe Series

Medal of Honor (Seals - The Warrior Breed , No 5)
H. Jay Riker
Paperback

A Press Of Canvas (War of 1812 Trilogy, Volume 1)
by William H. White, et al
Historical Fiction - Panned by reviewers
(Paperback)

A Fine Tops'l Breeze (War of 1812 Trilogy, Volume 2)
by William H. White, et al
(Paperback)

The Evening Gun (War of 1812 Trilogy, Volume 3)
by William H. White
(Paperback)

Falcons of France
Charles and Hall, James Norman Nordhoff
Story of an American pilot who is shot down over France, captured by the Germans, and escapes. Historical novel.
Hardcover (June 1979)
Ayer Co Pub; ISBN: 0405121989
Special Order

Vicksburg (The Civil War Battle Series, Book 5)
by James Reasoner
Fictional saga of the Brannon Family. Light reading.
(Hardcover)
 
 
 

Search This Site