Thursday Thirteen #42

Thirteen books about World War II found in the Babystepper bookshelves

Some of these are more in-depth, and some are better for bathroom perusal. I've read most of them, though, and several more than once. A says I'm "obsessed with WWII". Maybe he's right. I did one of my high school term papers about intelligence work that prepared the Allies for the North African campaign (Operation Torch) and in college I did a huge year-long project on two fiction writers who wrote during and about the war. Is this in any way useful? Probably not. At least I know enough now
not to attack countries on both sides of mine. Hmmm. Probably wasn't really an option anyway.

I took actual pictures of my actual books instead of trying to find pictures online, to show that they really are mine and really have spent some time on the blue recliner that is the back-drop for all my fancy pictures. You'll notice that many of them are missing their book jackets. That is because I married a book jacket nazi (err, so to speak) and he can't stand to have book jackets around for some reason. He says they're pointless and redundant. (This is the man who keeps all the cases for his X-box and Wii games [even though we keep all the games in a cd wallet] because he might want to sell them someday and they'll sell better with the case) *sniff sniff* I smell a teensy-weensy double standard.




1. The War: A Concise History 1939-1945 by Louis L. Snyder - I'm not exactly sure how this is "concise" but I suppose the author was comparing it to the six volume set by Churchill mentioned below. I've read bits and pieces of this one, while researching my college project, but it's not really the type that you want to just sit down and read through in one sitting. A bit dry.




2. The Gathering Storm (Volume I) by Winston S. Churchill - These next three are just half of the above-mentioned six-volume work. I only have these three because I just happened to find them on paperbackswap.com (A site I highly recommend, btw) If any of you out there are thinking of spending lots of money on me for Christmas, I would love to have the last three books in this set, or even a complete set of six. You know, either way would be fine. Signed first-editions would even be fine. Just whatever.

3.Their Finest Hour (Volume II) by Winston S. Churchill

4. The Grand Alliance (Volume III) by Winston S. Churchill




5. WWII: The People's Story ed. by Nigel Fountain - This is one of those Reader's Digest coffee table books. I'm not too proud to say that I enjoy these books just as much as the more "scholarly" works. I love the pictures, of course, and this book particularly includes a lot of individual accounts both from soldiers and from the home front.




6. World War II: In Photographs ed. by Richard Holmes - This one too, as it says in the title, is mostly photographs. It does an excellent job of giving information too, and was made in association with the Imperial War Museum, so has many pictures I haven't seen in other places. (This book is pictured above with the next one.)

7. The War by Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns - Yes, another coffee table size picture book. This one, however, is the companion to the Ken Burns series also titled "The War". It follows the war fortunes of four American cities and their citizens, so has a completely different approach than the others. If anyone else would like to spend, oh, lots, of money on me for Christmas, the video series and soundtrack would be great.




8. Children of the Storm: Childhood Memories of World War II ed. by Charles Perkins - OK, yes, this one has pictures too, but it's mostly, like it says, accounts of the war written by people who were children at the time. Very interesting, actually. I found this on a trip to Branson, MO with my college Bible study and was so excited. Yes, they thought I was a geek, thanks for asking.




9. Berlin Diary by William Shirer - This is, hands down, my favorite WWII book. I don't know why, really. Even my loving nerd husband makes fun of me for this one. You can see the book has been seriously used. I've read it three times at least. Shirer was the CBS correspondent for most of the time from 1934-1940 in Berlin and occasionally a few other European capitals. He was very astute and wrote about the climate and feeling of pre-war Germany very well. You get a real sense of being in the country.





10. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William Shirer - I can't believe I'd never read this before, since I love his Diary (above) so much, but it just never really hit me that it was written by the same person until my Uncle E mentioned it at Thanksgiving. It's a pretty hefty book, though. I'm on page 702 and the war hasn't even started yet. I mean, in Europe. Hitler hasn't even invaded Poland yet. Can we say "detailed"?




11. Secrets and Spies: Behind-the-scenes Stories of World War II by Reader's Digest - This was possibly the book that turned me on to studying WWII back in high school. It was published in 1964, so I would love to see it updated with new information now that time has revealed so much more. It just has lots of short stories about intelligence and resistance during the war, and lets face it, spies are just cool.




12. European Resistance Movements by Trevor Nevitt Dupuy (Col. U.S. Army, Ret.) - The top of this book says that it is Volume 15 in The Military History of World War II. I don't know what happened to the other 14 volumes, because I certainly never had them. I think I found this one at one of those stale cigarette scented used book shops back in college, that sells used furniture in the back. (I know this because our first kitchen table came from there, and it was a pretty cute little table, too.)




13. Paris- Underground by Etta Shiber - I honestly know absolutely nothing about this book, except that, apparently, it involves the underground movement in Paris. I'm sharp that way. I know it's about WWII because the little chain with a broken link logo on the front has tiny little red swastikas on it. I'll get around to this one someday, because I really am interested in the underground movements from this time period. I just, well, you know, don't like France very much. The more I study WWII the less I like them. (Not the people, you understand, the government and military, really.) Sorry if any of my readership are Francophiles... or Francos.

There, now, if you actually read all thirteen of those little snippets, you get a bloggity gold star and my sincere condolences er..congratulations.

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