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WWII Fiction

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Misfit
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Location: Seattle, WA

Post by Misfit » Sun August 12th, 2012, 4:16 pm

I'm currently reading Omamori by Richard McGill. Barely over 100 pages in, but it's a very promising start. Begins in the 1930s and centered around a third generation business partnership between American and Japanese family. Silk trade is suffering after the depression, but they're getting into making parachutes to sell to the Germans, and a German couple is being worked into this new partnership. Also a love match that can never be between the American partner's young son and the Japanese partner's young daughter. Big thumbs up to the author for using a business dinner and dialogue to set up the background of what's going on with Hitler's rise to power and policies, especially with a character that is Jewish born, but raised Protestant.

I see tons of drama ahead. The cover is ugly as sin, but look what's in the step back.
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Mark Evans
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Location: Wales

Onamori

Post by Mark Evans » Tue August 28th, 2012, 8:35 am

Hi

Sounds like could be an interesting read. I agree about the cover - awful. Looks like something cheap and trashy form the 1970s. How on earth did the publisher allow that to go to print?

John Sliz
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Post by John Sliz » Thu September 20th, 2012, 1:27 pm

One of the most savage novels of WWII is `The Cauldron' by Zeno. It is based on his experiences as a paratrooper at Arnhem and some say that there is very little fiction in it. I agree. It isn't for everyone, but it is my favourite WWII novel.

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rockygirl
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Location: Upstate New York

Post by rockygirl » Sat May 25th, 2013, 2:07 am

Has anyone else been reading the Maggie Hope series by Susan Elia MacNeal? It starts with Mr. Churchill's Secretary. The latest is The King's Hope. Spy/detective fiction with a lot of twists and turns. I like them so far.
Currently reading Cocaine Blues.

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klang
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Let's get this thread going again.

Post by klang » Thu February 12th, 2015, 2:46 am

I am a new member who is especially interested in reading good novels that take place between 1930 and 1950. . . World War II era. It looks like this thread has died out and I hope to revive it.

A few books I have recently read are:


Bliss, Remembered by Frank Deford - The 1936 Olympics in Germany are the setting for a love story and a spy thriller with excellent plotting and great characters.

City of Women by David R. Gillham - Sigrid seems a typical German housewife, struggling to make ends meet during the war while her husband is on the Eastern Front but when she falls in love with a Jewish man she meets at the movie theater, her life takes a dramatic turn. Excellent writing that reflects the Sigrid's always fascinating perspective.

Ostland by David Thomas - Based on a true story, Ostland tells its story in two time frames. 1959 to 1963 Berlin is the setting for an important trial of a group of ex-SS officers facing war crimes charges. Contained in that framework is the story of one of the defendants, George Heuser, a homicide detective who becomes a mass murderer of Jews in the Latvia during the war. The novel is a portrait of the degree to which a man can change from good to evil in the name of advancement and survival.

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