100 books like EO-N

This was one of the first books I read showing how, in 1939, no one knew how to fight a major air war. I didn’t know that meant the first year of World War II would be a series of bloody, deadly experiments.

This book brings out this uncertainty and the often-fatal consequences for a squadron of RAF pilots flying Hawker Hurricanes in defense of France. I’ve always loved the Hurricane, and wondered what it would be like to fly for the RAF in that time and place, to sit in the cockpit of a Hawker Hurricane, and be both hunter and hunted.

This book let me live the story, as much as any story can.

This beautiful wartime novel is by one of my favourite authors and tells the story of a British WW2 pilot facing the deadly attrition rate amongst bomber crews, but is also a gentle soul and poet, who becomes a husband, father, and grandfather.

It is a tale as much about navigating the peace as it is about surviving the war, a future the beleaguered protagonist never expected to have. At times very funny and wonderfully observed, it is emotionally charged, sometimes tragic, but also heartwarming and uplifting.

With a diverse cast of characters, it is like my own stories where I believe only a large cast can do justice to the scale, tragedy, and epic impact of cataclysmic WW2. 

One of the books that got my writing about WW2 aviation.

Set during the Battle for France in 1939 it is the story of two very different RAF pilots, one a precise and reserved Englishman, the other an aggressive, volatile, and passionate American. Their methods and motivations for fighting the war couldn’t be more different but they develop an unlikely partnership and mutual respect during the chaos of France’s collapse and the Allies’ humiliation and defeat.

A work of dazzling action, humour, and historical accuracy, with vividly drawn wartime settings and well-developed, sometimes larger-than-life characters who are times endearing, frustrating, hugely funny, bleakly dark, and always well observed. A benchmark for me for everything that I’d want my own novels to be.

A moving WW2 novel set in occupied Poland and beleaguered Britain.

A dual timeline tale of love, intrigue, and the terrible choices made in war, resistance, and collaboration, during occupation. It delves into the often-forgotten contribution of Polish airmen and female ATA pilots to the Allied war effort, the precarious relationship with the invader in conquered Poland, and one of the war’s darkest secrets, the fate of the Polish officer class and the atrocity of the Katyn massacre.

This dark story is of divided loyalties, lost loves, and outcomes that depend on a twist of fate, and fragile truth subject to interpretation, divided loyalties, and clashing ideologies. Beautifully evocative of the times and wartime places, it is a story to make you think of the choices you might have made. 

A generational ship fallen to ruin and tribalism? Sign me up! Roy spares no effort in bringing to life his vivid, action-packed book. The fun here is less the characters than the world-building and how artfully the past is revealed plot-point by plot-point like a delicious sci-fi strip-tease. Plus, Roy drew the shit out of this book.

The last book in Lucy Maud Montgomery’s beloved Anne of Green Gables series, this volume focuses on Anne’s children as they grow into adulthood during the tumultuous years of World War I.

With Anne’s youngest daughter Rilla as the central protagonist, Rilla of Ingleside is the poignant story of a young woman coming of age at a time when people thought the world might be coming to an end.

Rilla grows from a spoiled and flighty young teen to a capable and level-headed young woman as she watches the young men in her community – her brothers included – march off to war.

While it’s not central to the story, a highlight of this book is Dog Monday, the little yellow dog belonging to Rilla’s eldest brother, whose loyalty as he patiently waits at the train station for his master’s return knows no bounds.

Although it’s the final book in… show more.

Grounded in historical fact, The Orenda (The Magic) tells the story of Jesuit missionaries caught up in the war between the Wendats (Hurons) and the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) living on the shores of Lake Huron in the mid-1600s. It’s a very dark book, with its depictions of ritual torture not for the squeamish, but it perfectly captures the time and culture of two very different civilizations, grappling to understand one another. Bowden does an excellent job of capturing the thoughts and outlook of the Wendat war chief Bird, and the French missionaries struggling to Christianize his village.

I loved this book because it helped me to understand the Indians’ way of thinking and their outlook on the world.

This book written by a leading scholar of indigenous history fills a serious gap in scholarly studies of that conflict. Whether or not to remain neutral or, if they participated, which side to support in the war were life and death decisions for the Iroquois or Haudenosaunee. Benn’s account with a very informative appendix and bibliography adds to our understanding of how those nations responded.

This is a book of unparalleled scholarship by Canada’s finest military historian of all time.

Stacey’s magisterial, wide-ranging, immensely insightful, deeply researched, and engagingly written masterpiece illuminates those many policies and personalities that governed Canada’s tremendous war effort during the Second World War. It is literally one-stop shopping for understanding Canada’s wartime political intricacies (and intrigues!), diplomatic manoeuvring, and industrial and military mobilization.

No stone is left unturned, and Arms, Men, and Governments is, and will remain, unequalled. It has greatly influenced my understanding of this pivotal moment in Canadian military history, and I refer to it constantly in my research and teaching.

This book provides an answer to a question that historians of arms control have asked since WWII ended: Why had the use of chemical weapons on the battlefield not become widespread in WWII, in the same manner it had in WWI? Focusing on Britain, Canada, and the United States, Holding Their Breath explores Allied reluctance to use chemical weapons and their formulation of a joint policy on chemical warfare. M. Girard Dorsey shows that the potential for chemical warfare in WWII profoundly influenced the course of the war’s events.