100 books like Sharks and Little Fish

By Wolfgang Ott, Ralph Manheim (translator),

Here are 100 books that Sharks and Little Fish fans have personally recommended if you like Sharks and Little Fish. Shepherd is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of War of the Rats

Ursula Wong Author Of Amber Wolf

From my list on WWII and Eastern Europe (that you may not know about).

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m a Lithuanian-American with a Chinese name, thanks to my husband. Thirty years ago, I found papers among my uncle’s possessions telling a WWII story about our ancestral Lithuania. I had heard about it in broad terms, but I could hardly believe what I was reading. I spent years validating the material. The result was Amber Wolf, a historical novel about a war within the war: the fight against the Russian occupation of Eastern Europe. While many countries were involved in separate struggles, I focused on Lithuania and their David and Goliath fight against the Russian army. After all this time, the story still moves me.

Ursula's book list on WWII and Eastern Europe (that you may not know about)

Ursula Wong Why did Ursula love this book?

This riveting novel brings us into the lives of Russian snipers during the WW II siege of Stalingrad.

We live in a basement, learn something of extreme patience, and get a sense of how people barely remain sane in pressure-cooker situations. What struck me most were the women. One was a sniper with extreme convictions. Others were there for the pleasure of the men. But the best part of the novel was the cat-and-mouse game between opposing snipers. 

Not only did I learn something about warfare, but I couldn’t put the book down.

By David L. Robbins,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked War of the Rats as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Stalingrad in 1942 is a city in ruins, its Russian defenders fighting to the last man to repel the invading German army. One of their most potent weapons is the crack sniper school developed by Vasily Zaitsev. Its members can pick off the enemy at long range, and their daring tactics - hiding for hours in no man's land until a brief opportunity presents itself - mean that no German, and particularly no German officer, can ever feel safe. This part of the battle is as much psychological as anything, and to counter the continuing threat to German morale, the…


Book cover of King Rat

Sam Foster Author Of Non-Semper Fidelis

From my list on showing that a man is the sum of his choices.

Why am I passionate about this?

I heard a Jordan Peterson interview in which he boiled down my entire life’s struggle in a single phrase.  The interviewer was pushing Jordon on the subject of male toxicity. Jordon said something like, “If a man is entirely unwilling to fight under any circumstance, he is merely a weakling. Ask in martial arts trainer and they will tell you they teach two things – the ability to fight and self-control. A man who knows how and also knows how to control himself is a man.”

Sam's book list on showing that a man is the sum of his choices

Sam Foster Why did Sam love this book?

James Clavell’s first book, King Rat, is the story of allied servicemen trapped by the Japanese in Singapore at the beginning of World War II and held captive for the duration in the infamous Changi prison. The captured consisted of some 10,000 men made up of a British regiment, a few Australian companies, and one small American platoon. After three years of brutal, virtually starvation conditions even the British Commanding General was reduced to a uniform of nothing more than rags. Only one prisoner, an American Corporal, had lost no weight, wore a freshly pressed uniform and spit-shined shoes every day. With physical courage and an understanding of human weaknesses and breaking points he dominated all the other prisoners and many of the guards as well. When the camp was liberated he was the only man among the survivors who left without one friend. Why? The key to both his…

By James Clavell,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked King Rat as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Set in Changi, the most notorious prisoner of war camp in Asia, King Rat is an heroic story of survival told by a master story-teller who lived through those years as a young soldier. Only one man in fifteen had the strength, the luck, and the cleverness simply to survive Changi. And then there was King.


Book cover of The Caine Mutiny: A Novel of World War II

Constantine Pleshakov Author Of The Tsar's Last Armada: The Epic Journey to the Battle of Tsushima

From my list on epic naval battles of the 20th century.

Why am I passionate about this?

I grew up in the town of Yalta on the Black Sea. The sea had gotten its name because of its bad temper–storms, squalls, fogs. Warships never docked in Yalta, but passenger ships did. If the ship was a regular (and many were because people still used them to get from point A to point B), we recognized it by the sound of its horn. When passing by, the warships gave us a wide berth–dim silhouettes on the horizon on an unknown mission. I left Crimea for good many years ago, but I am still a sucker for bad-tempered seas and secretive navies.

Constantine's book list on epic naval battles of the 20th century

Constantine Pleshakov Why did Constantine love this book?

I had often wondered how it felt to be a part of a big war on its periphery. This book gave me the answer: what happens is piecemeal disintegration of humanity, sparing no one.

I discovered that the book was a page-turner, but that, of course, should’ve been expected from a top novelist; what I had not expected–I realized I knew people in positions of authority who were exactly like the infamous Captain Queeq. 

By Herman Wouk,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Caine Mutiny as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?


Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and a perennial favorite of readers young and old, Herman Wouk's masterful World War II drama set aboard a U.S. Navy warship in the Pacific is "a novel of brilliant virtuosity" (Times Literary Supplement).

Herman Wouk's boldly dramatic, brilliantly entertaining novel of life--and mutiny--on a Navy warship in the Pacific theater was immediately embraced, upon its original publication in 1951, as one of the first serious works of American fiction to grapple with the moral complexities and the human consequences of World War II.

In the intervening half century, The Caine Mutiny has sold millions…


Book cover of The Thin Red Line

William A. Glass Author Of As Good As Can Be

From my list on that show World War II as it was.

Why am I passionate about this?

An unusual thing about me when it comes to historical fiction is that I write it but rarely read it. So, why should anyone care about my recommendations for historical fiction books? Perhaps because of what I do read, which is mainly non-fiction. On my bedside table right now, insistently beckoning me away from my laptop, is With The Old Breed, a harrowing memoir about the veteran Marines the author, E.B. Sledge, got to know while fighting the battles of Peleliu and Okinawa during World War II. My bookcase is filled with histories, memoirs, war diaries, and biographies. Only a few novels are present, and what sets them apart is their historical accuracy and realism. 

William's book list on that show World War II as it was

William A. Glass Why did William love this book?

You cannot make a list of realistic World War II novels without including The Thin Red Line. While it’s not popular to admit that Americans commit atrocities in war, James Jones goes there. Imagine that you are a Japanese soldier who has just been eviscerated by flying shrapnel. You see flies buzzing around your entrails now looped obscenely in the dirt but are too weak to shoo them away. A shadow falls across your face, and you look up to see a U.S. Marine holding a combat knife.  He uses it to pry open your mouth, then clinches pliers around one of your teeth and yanks. Mercifully darkness closes in, and you see no more.

Yes, American’s collected gold teeth from dead and dying Japanese. Why? Well, seeing what the Japanese did to captured Americans – they left the mutilated bodies to be found by advancing GIs – created a…

By James Jones,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Thin Red Line as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

It is 1942. An American rifle company is sent to the island of Guadalcanal as the Japanese mount a desperate offensive aimed at establishing their superiority in the South-West Pacific. James Jones's story of C-for-Charlie Company is told with graphic and unsparing realism. Every man fights his own war.


Book cover of The U-boat War

Lawrence Paterson Author Of Schnellboote: A Complete Operational History

From my list on U-boats that aren't Das Boot.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have been writing non-fiction Second World War history books since 2000 and just recently had my twenty-first published by Osprey. Most deal with aspects of the history of Germany’s U-boats. Though I have had a lifelong interest in military history, the desire to write about this topic began while living near Brest in Brittany, France. I am a scuba diving instructor and spent a great deal of time diving on wrecks left behind by the Kriegsmarine, all in the shadow of the huge U-boat bunkers created in Brest’s military harbour. Encouraged by authors Jon Gawne and Robert Strauss I submitted the proposal for the First U-Boat Flotilla to Pen & Sword in 2000…and it went from there. 

Lawrence's book list on U-boats that aren't Das Boot

Lawrence Paterson Why did Lawrence love this book?

Related to Das Boot this may be (same author, same boat as within the novel) but this is a factual photographic essay of photos taken by Buchheim, predominantly aboard U96 during August-September 1941 as a member of the Propaganda Company. The photographs show life as it actually was in the North Atlantic on patrol, and end with shots taken aboard U309 as it escaped Brest in August 1944 and was involved in the rescue of crew from U981 which sank after hitting a mine with twelve crewmen killed.

This is, quite simply, a brilliant and evocative set of photographs. Buchheim was part of the propaganda machine that he so vocally lambasted in his later years, and, talking to U-boat veterans, opinions of him as a human being were extremely polarised. However, there can be no doubt about his mastery of the visual medium.

By Lothar-Gunther Buchheim,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The U-boat War as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Chronicles submarine warfare in the North Atlantic during the Second World War, and describes the battles above and below the surface


Book cover of Count Not the Dead: The Popular Image of the German Submarine

Lawrence Paterson Author Of Schnellboote: A Complete Operational History

From my list on U-boats that aren't Das Boot.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have been writing non-fiction Second World War history books since 2000 and just recently had my twenty-first published by Osprey. Most deal with aspects of the history of Germany’s U-boats. Though I have had a lifelong interest in military history, the desire to write about this topic began while living near Brest in Brittany, France. I am a scuba diving instructor and spent a great deal of time diving on wrecks left behind by the Kriegsmarine, all in the shadow of the huge U-boat bunkers created in Brest’s military harbour. Encouraged by authors Jon Gawne and Robert Strauss I submitted the proposal for the First U-Boat Flotilla to Pen & Sword in 2000…and it went from there. 

Lawrence's book list on U-boats that aren't Das Boot

Lawrence Paterson Why did Lawrence love this book?

Hadley’s book examines the popular image of the U-boats and their crews through an examination of their portrayal in film and books as well as any other applicable medium. A brilliantly written analysis of how perceptions towards the subject have been manipulated both positively and negatively, dependent on the period or any intended bias of the creator.

Written examinations of elements of the Wehrmacht and Waffen SS can frequently be coloured by either an intrinsic dislike of the subject or, by contrast, an almost messianic apologist's belief in the infallibility of the German military. Hadley deftly and dispassionately separates fact from fiction and highlights the pitfalls of believing too much in the popular portrayal of a complex subject.  

By Michael L. Hadley,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Count Not the Dead as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In Count Not the Dead Michael Hadley explores the complex relationships between political reality and cultural myth, and draws important conclusions about the way Germans have interpreted their past and how present concerns are changing these views.
Basing his study on some two-hundred-and-fifty German novels, memoirs, fictionalized histories, and films (including Das Boot), Hadley examines the popular image of the German submarine and weights the values, purposes, and perceptions of German writers and film makers. He considers the idea of the submarine as a war-winning weapon and the exploits of the "band of brothers" who made up the U-boat crews.…


Book cover of Iron Coffins: A Personal Account of the German U-Boat Battles of World War II

Taylor Zajonc Author Of The Wrecking Crew

From my list on rogue submarines and underwater mayhem.

Why am I passionate about this?

My fascination with underwater adventure began as a teenager, when I accompanied a Russian expedition to the deepest archaeological site on the planet. I descended three miles deep into the Bermuda Triangle aboard a Soviet-era submersible to explore a mysterious wooden shipwreck inadvertently discovered during the search for astronaut Gus Grissom’s lost space capsule Liberty Bell 7. Since then, I’ve contributed to a number of historic shipwreck discoveries, including World War II treasure ships, lost Nazi U-Boats, Admiral Balchen’s HMS Victory, and the treasure steamship SS Connaught. These adventures and others serve as the inspiration for my novels.

Taylor's book list on rogue submarines and underwater mayhem

Taylor Zajonc Why did Taylor love this book?

Brilliantly told and deeply tragic, Iron Coffins recounts the Battle of the Atlantic from the firsthand perspective of one of the few surviving German submarine captains.

Herbert A. Werner’s service took him on multiple tours, including the Mediterranean and various battlegrounds in the Atlantic, where he sank ships, dodged sub hunters, and watched the Third Reich crumble, all the while as his personal losses and wartime guilt mounted.

By Herbert A. Werner,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked Iron Coffins as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The former German U-boat commander Herbert Werner navigates readers through the waters of World War II, recounting four years of the most significant and savage battles. By war's end, 28,000 out of 39,000 German sailors had disappeared beneath the waves.


Book cover of No Ordinary War: The Eventful Career of U-604

Lawrence Paterson Author Of Schnellboote: A Complete Operational History

From my list on U-boats that aren't Das Boot.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have been writing non-fiction Second World War history books since 2000 and just recently had my twenty-first published by Osprey. Most deal with aspects of the history of Germany’s U-boats. Though I have had a lifelong interest in military history, the desire to write about this topic began while living near Brest in Brittany, France. I am a scuba diving instructor and spent a great deal of time diving on wrecks left behind by the Kriegsmarine, all in the shadow of the huge U-boat bunkers created in Brest’s military harbour. Encouraged by authors Jon Gawne and Robert Strauss I submitted the proposal for the First U-Boat Flotilla to Pen & Sword in 2000…and it went from there. 

Lawrence's book list on U-boats that aren't Das Boot

Lawrence Paterson Why did Lawrence love this book?

I have a personal attachment to this book, as I knew radio man Georg Seitz from whom this history of U604 originates. It is an incredible story and Christian has diligently woven together the history of what, on the surface, seems a relatively unremarkable U-boat career. It nonetheless carries an engrossing human tale of triumph and tragedy, ending with the boat’s loss in action and the commander’s suicide. Georg then went on to crew aboard U873 which surrendered to the US Navy at the end of hostilities and which carries the terrible distinction of a second commander’s suicide. Many previously unpublished photos from Herr Seitz’s personal albums vividly illustrate the history of U604 and its crew.        

By Christian Prag,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked No Ordinary War as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

U-604 was a standard Type VIIC of which over 600 were built, and at first glance her six war patrols might seem typical - but they were far from ordinary.Using the official war diary and the eyewitness testimony of survivors this book weaves a detailed but vivid tapestry of life and action during some of the fiercest convoy battles of the Atlantic war. Often counter-attacked, but seeming to bear a charmed life, U-604 had her successes, including inflicting the largest single loss of US mercantile personnel in one attack. However, the drama of her career pales alongside the epic story…


Book cover of The U-Boat War: A Global History 1939-45

Arthur W. Gullachsen Author Of Bloody Verrières: The I. SS-Panzerkorps Defence of the Verrières-Bourguebus Ridges: Volume II: The Defeat of Operation Spring and the Battles of Tilly-la-Campagne, 23 July–5 August 1944

From my list on the First and Second World Wars.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have a lifetime interest in military events of the First and Second World Wars, and my current status as an Associate Professor teaching military history within the Royal Military College of Canada’s RMC History Department allows me to live my dream of exploring past conflicts for a living. I am currently also a contracted author at Casemate Publishing of Havertown, PA, and I am very lucky to have this company support me and publish my work.

Arthur's book list on the First and Second World Wars

Arthur W. Gullachsen Why did Arthur love this book?

The majority of books written about the German U-boat naval campaign in the Second World War focus on the Battle of the Atlantic.

A new approach by Lawrence Paterson challenges this narrative and makes the argument that the German U-boat Wolfpacks fought a truly global naval campaign, one that occurred during the entire wartime period 1939-1945.

Paterson also makes the argument that the operations by the U-Boats were not separate from the activities of other German service branches, but in concert with them to attain larger strategic goals.

He concludes that the ultimate failure of the U-Boats was due to this overreaching global strategy, combined with the impact of overpowering Allied anti-submarine warfare resources directed against them.

By Lawrence Paterson,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The U-Boat War as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The accepted historical narrative of the Second World War predominantly assigns U-boats to the so-called 'Battle of the Atlantic', almost as if the struggle over convoys between the new world and the old can be viewed in isolation from simultaneous events on land and in the air. This has become an almost accepted error. The U-boats war did not exist solely between 1940 and 1943, nor did the Atlantic battle occur in seclusion from other theatres of action. The story of Germany's second U-boat war began on the first day of hostilities with Britain and France and ended with the…


Book cover of Das Boot

Kevin J. Glynn Author Of Voyage of Reprisal

From my list on epic sea voyages filled with drama and conflict.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have always been a fan of history. As a journalist by education and an investigator by trade, I love to carefully research my settings and weave original fictional plots through actual history in a seamless manner that both entertains and informs the reader. I also appreciate the need for compelling characters, page-turning plots, conflict, and tension to keep readers engaged. I have a long-term fascination with piracy, privateering, and exploration during the early age of sail. I am also attracted to Elizabethan England and the Renaissance period with its ideological struggles. I really love a good sea story, and who doesn’t? Enjoy my reading list!   

Kevin's book list on epic sea voyages filled with drama and conflict

Kevin J. Glynn Why did Kevin love this book?

This book is a gritty, realistic fiction novel about a WWII German U-boat captain and crew facing immense challenges from the elements and the enemy while attempting to sink as many allied merchant ships as possible before running out of torpedoes or being destroyed. I particularly appreciated a view of war from “the other side” and details of life aboard a cramped submarine in wartime. The book is a timeless exploration of the privations faced by seamen who dare to wage war at sea. The tragic ending mirrors reality and adds irony and pathos to the story. I found this to be a page-turner that was very hard to put down once started.      

By Lothar-Günther Buchheim,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Das Boot as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Filled with almost unbearable tension and excitement, DAS BOOT is one of the best stories ever written about war, a supreme novel of the Second World War and an acclaimed film and TV drama.

It is autumn 1941 and a German U-boat commander and his crew set out on yet another hazardous patrol in the Battle of the Atlantic. Over the coming weeks they must brave the stormy waters of the Atlantic in their mission to seek out and destroy British supply ships. But the tide is beginning to turn against the Germans in the war for the North Atlantic.…


Book cover of War of the Rats
Book cover of King Rat
Book cover of The Caine Mutiny: A Novel of World War II

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Interested in U-boats, William Tecumseh Sherman, and Germany?

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