100 books like The Nine

By Gwen Strauss,

Here are 100 books that The Nine fans have personally recommended if you like The Nine. 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 Code Name: Lise: The True Story of the Woman Who Became World War II's Most Highly Decorated Spy

Sharon Maas Author Of The Last Agent in Paris

From my list on World War 2 SOE heroines in France.

Why am I passionate about this?

WW2 was part of my family history; my RAF father and three of his seven brothers had been volunteers; one was killed. Plunging into the rabbit warren of SOE, I discovered a secret world of agents and dangerous missions, heroism, and horrors experienced deep beneath the official historical narrative. Ordinary men and women threw themselves into selfless service, putting their need to stop the Nazis even above personal survival. These books are a tribute to all such unsung heroes. Their lives should not be in vain; they inspire me and might inspire YOU. These recommended books bring them back to life, if only through our admiration and respect. 

Sharon's book list on World War 2 SOE heroines in France

Sharon Maas Why did Sharon love this book?

I’d never heard of Odette Samson before starting this book, even though I’d been researching SOE agents for years. But only a few pages in, I knew that Odette was truly one of the greats and that this read would be in my Great WW2 Heroine category.

I HAD, of course, heard of Peter Churchill (no relation to Winston!), who crops up again and again in books about SEO, and who also plays a major role in this book. I loved how Odette, even in the worst circumstances, never lost faith and never gave up; she had an inner strength that kept her going even in the most horrific circumstances, and even in the greatest suffering, she was able to give strength and hope to others.

World War 2 produced many men and women of enormous resilience and character strength; Odette was one of them. 

By Larry Loftis,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Code Name as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

NATIONAL BESTSELLER
A Goodreads Choice Awards semifinalist
Florida Book Awards Silver Medalist
Featured in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Time, New York Newsday, and on Today!
Best Nonfiction Books to Read in 2019-Woman's Day
The Best Nonfiction Books Coming Out This Year-BookBub
"A nonfiction thriller."-The Wall Street Journal

From New York Times and international bestselling author of the "gripping" (Michael Connelly, #1 New York Times bestselling author) Into the Lion's Mouth comes the extraordinary true story of Odette Sansom, the British spy who operated in occupied France and fell in love with her commanding officer during World War II-perfect…


Book cover of The Long Road Home: An account of the author's experiences as a prisoner-of-war in the hands of the Germans during the Second World War

Ken Scott Author Of Do the Birds Still Sing in Hell?

From my list on WWII prisoner of war.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have studied WW2 and prisoners of war during that period for more than 20 years. They're very much the forgotten soldiers of war in my opinion. Few spoke of their treatment and brutality at the hands of the enemy, starvation, and the psychological effects that they lived with for many years afterward. Marriages fell apart, alcoholism was commonplace and many committed suicide, during a time where the term PTSD hadn't been invented. I've selected books that tell the story from several different perspectives. There were good and bad on all sides and for every ten stories of brutality and murder, there were another ten stories of good men and women who did their best to help the POWs survive.

Ken's book list on WWII prisoner of war

Ken Scott Why did Ken love this book?

Another prisoner who lost five years of his life to Nazi tyranny. A real honest and at times, brutal account of what it was like in a German POW camp during WWII. It begins with the soldier's capture in Northern France, and the horrendous journey just to get to the camp in Germany. A story that captures the hopes and the hopelessness of these young men, who at first believed it, 'would be all over by Christmas' and endured year after year staring down the barrel of a gun behind barbed wire, wondering where the next meal would come from. 
A very well-written, emotional journey, not for the faint-hearted.

By Adrian Vincent,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Long Road Home as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The honest account of one prisoner-of-war’s struggle to survive through five years of Nazi imprisonment. An essential book for readers of Horace Greasley, Alistair Urquhart and Heather Morris.

On a cold May morning in 1940, Adrian Vincent arrived in France with his battalion.

His war didn’t last long.

Within five days the Siege of Calais was over and nearly all his comrades were killed, wounded or, like him, taken prisoner.

After a brutal journey across the breadth of Germany, Vincent and his fellow survivors began their life in Stalag VIIIB, set to work in terrible conditions down a Polish mine.…


Book cover of An American Heroine in the French Resistance: The Diary and Memoir of Virginia d'Albert-Lake

Ellen Hampton Author Of Women of Valor: The Rochambelles on the World War II Front

From my list on or by women on women in WWII.

Why am I passionate about this?

I was fortunate enough to meet a dozen Rochambelles while I was working on a PhD in history, and leapt at the chance to interview them and write their story. I had moved to Paris after a decade of journalism that included some war reporting, and while the conflicts of Central America were a snippet compared to WWII, I had a sense of the environment and the personal testing war invoked, especially for their generation. I’ve been working recently on a book about the Nazi Occupation of France, and while many great resources are in French, the following English-language books offer insight, detail, and fine writing about that momentous time.

Ellen's book list on or by women on women in WWII

Ellen Hampton Why did Ellen love this book?

Edited by historian Judy Barrett Litoff, who wrote a comprehensive introduction outlining Virginia d’Albert-Lake’s war, this memoir recounts the dramatic experience of a rare American woman resistance agent in occupied France. Working with the legendary Comet escape line, she and her French husband helped shelter and move 66 Allied airmen to safety. But in 1944, a German question answered in her American accent got her sent straight to the Gestapo and then to Ravensbrück concentration camp. Virginia d’Albert-Lake tells her amazing story of life on the edge from the pages of her diary.

By Virginia d'Albert-Lake,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked An American Heroine in the French Resistance as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This fascinating book tells the remarkable story of an ordinary American woman's heroism in the French Resistance. Virginia Roush fell in love with Philippe d'Albert-Lake during a visit to France in 1936; they married soon after. In 1943, they both joined the Resistance, where Virginia put her life in jeopardy as she sheltered downed airmen and later survived a Nazi prison camp. After the war, she stayed in France with Philippe, and was awarded the Legion d'Honneur and the Medal of Honor. She died in 1997.
Judy Barrett Litoff brings together two rare documents-Virginia's diary of wartime France until her…


Book cover of Chaucer: A European Life

ffiona Perigrinor Author Of Life in a Medieval Gentry Household: Alice de Bryene of Acton Hall, Suffolk, C.1360-1435

From my list on medieval life and widows who prefer independence to remarriage.

Why am I passionate about this?

I didn’t enjoy my first degree in Modern History and Political Science and it took twenty-five years and another MA in Women’s History, Gender, and Society, before my enthusiasm was rekindled. I’ve always believed it’s important to know where we come from, as well as the history of our country, and I don’t just mean wars, laws, and politics – but the lives of ordinary people, men, women, and children, because finally, we discover that our hopes, aspirations, and challenges are not so very different to the people who lived 500 years ago. I’m also passionate about the reality of women’s lived experience in all periods of history.

ffiona's book list on medieval life and widows who prefer independence to remarriage

ffiona Perigrinor Why did ffiona love this book?

I love this book despite feeling frustrated by the excessive detail. Turner brings Chaucer’s cosmopolitan world and diverse literary works to life by focusing on places and spaces significant to him. I especially enjoyed the chapter on Households, where Chaucer was sent to serve in his adolescence, like many of his contemporaries, as page-boy, valet, entertainer, general factotum. I also learnt about his international travels, as a diplomat, prisoner of war, member of Parliament, and the sadness of his unfulfilled private life.

The last two chapters recount Chaucer’s final year living in the precincts of Westminster Abbey, his sudden death, relatively obscure burial, subsequent reburial in Poet’s Corner, and elevation as Father of English Literature, which Turner controversially challenges, placing him in a European cultural background.

By Marion Turner,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Chaucer as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

An acclaimed biography that recreates the cosmopolitan world in which a wine merchant's son became one of the most celebrated of all English writers

Geoffrey Chaucer is often called the father of English literature, but this acclaimed biography reveals him as a great European writer and thinker. Uncovering important new information about Chaucer's travels, private life, and the circulation of his writings, Marion Turner reconstructs in unprecedented detail the cosmopolitan world of Chaucer's adventurous life, focusing on the places and spaces that fired his imagination. From the wharves of London to the frescoed chapels of Florence, the book recounts Chaucer's…


Book cover of Femme Fatale: Love, Lies, and the Unknown Life of Mata Hari

Gregory J. Wallance Author Of The Woman Who Fought an Empire: Sarah Aaronsohn and Her Nili Spy Ring

From my list on women spies of the First World War.

Why am I passionate about this?

As an Assistant United States Attorney, I was a member of the ABSCAM prosecution team, which involved an FBI sting operation targeting corrupt congressmen (the basis for the movie “American Hustle”). Using undercover techniques and video surveillance, ABSCAM convicted six U.S. Congressmen and a U.S. Senator of bribery. Ever since I have been interested in deception in law enforcement and in espionage. That, together with an interest in the First World War, led me to this subject. 

Gregory's book list on women spies of the First World War

Gregory J. Wallance Why did Gregory love this book?

The image of the female spy should have been Marthe McKenna and women spies like her.  Instead, because of a nude dancer from The Netherlands, the popular but unfair image of a spy in spy thrillers and Hollywood films is often that of a devious seductress. The nude dancer’s stage name was Mata Hari, who became the mistress to senior French officers and officials during the war. She may have pretended to spy for both sides to earn money, but revealed no significant secrets. Nonetheless in 1917, the French accused her of being a German spy who had used her seductive talents to obtain secrets that sent tens of thousands of French soldiers to their deaths. The evidence at her trial came nowhere close to proving the accusation, but the French needed a scapegoat for the mutiny and collapse of much of their army. She was convicted, executed by firing…

By Pat Shipman,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Femme Fatale as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Mata Hari was the prototype of the beautiful but unscrupulous female agent who uses sexual allure to gain access to secrets, if she was indeed a spy. In 1917, the notorious dancer Mata Hari was arrested, tried, and executed for espionage. It was charged at her trial that the dark-eyed siren was responsible for the deaths of at least 50,000 gallant French soldiers. Irrefutably, she had been the mistress of many senior Allied officers and government officials, even the French Minister of War: a point viewed as highly suspicious. Worse yet, she spoke several European languages fluently and travelled widely…


Book cover of Of Walking in Ice: Munich-Paris, 23 November-14 December 1974

Jim Leary Author Of Footmarks: A Journey Into our Restless Past

From my list on walking and the magic of paths.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am an archaeologist, writer, and university lecturer, who spends his days dreaming of being on the move. I was filled with life-long wanderlust from a peripatetic childhood living in Malaysia, Fiji, and Cyprus, and this sense of needing to move around has never left me. I am a passionate walker and have rambled and roamed and trekked and trailed around most of the British Isles, often with my (occasionally willing) family. This has led to an intense fascination with the way people moved around in the past and how they knew where they were going, and I have centred much of my research, and my writing, on the subject.

Jim's book list on walking and the magic of paths

Jim Leary Why did Jim love this book?

For me the best book on walking is by the German film director Werner Herzog.

In 1974 Herzog was told that his friend, the film historian Lotte Eisner, was dying. In what can perhaps be described as a fugue state Herzog pulled on his boots, grabbed a jacket and compass, and set off on a monumental, almost shamanic, journey from his home in Munich to her deathbed in Paris, believing his act of walking would keep her alive.

The journey took three weeks and Herzog walked through the thick of winter. On arrival, Eisner had already recovered. Of Walking in Ice is Herzog’s diary charting this incredible pilgrimage. Tender, beautiful, and genuinely insightful, I’ve read this short book over and over again. It’s probably time I read it again!

By Werner Herzog, Martje Herzog (translator), Alan Greenberg (translator)

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Of Walking in Ice as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In late November 1974, filmmaker Werner Herzog received a phone call from Paris delivering some terrible news. German film historian, mentor, and close friend Lotte Eisner was seriously ill and dying. Herzog was determined to prevent this and believed that an act of walking would keep Eisner from death. He took a jacket, a compass, and a duffel bag of the barest essentials, and wearing a pair of new boots, set off on a three-week pilgrimage from Munich to Paris through the deep chill and snowstorms of winter."Of Walking in Ice" is Herzog's beautifully written, much-admired, yet often-overlooked diary account…


Book cover of Game of Spies

Peter Dixon Author Of Return to Vienna: The Special Operations Executive and the Rebirth of Austria

From my list on living undercover in constant danger during WW2.

Why am I passionate about this?

Hodder and IVP had already published two of my earlier books—during my three decades as a Royal Air Force pilot and another one leading a conflict resolution NGO—when my journey as a WW2 author began. It all started with my wife's book about her German mother and British Intelligence Corps father (The Bride's Trunk). That got me interested in the links between 'the Corps' and the Special Operations Executive. Three SOE books later, I’m following the organisation into Austria. I've barely scratched the surface of undercover operations and I’m always finding new niches to discover.

Peter's book list on living undercover in constant danger during WW2

Peter Dixon Why did Peter love this book?

Apart from viewing the late Paddy Ashdown as perhaps the best Prime Minister Britain never had, I also know him as an under-recognised author of gripping Second World War books. The community of WW2 researchers is mutually supportive; knowledgeable colleagues have been immensely helpful to me over the years, and I recall helping Paddy with some information for one of his books. Several of them are worth reading, but here he tells the true stories of three men who pitted their wits against each other in the treacherous milieu of wartime France. The stakes were measured in lives, betrayals, and deaths.

By Paddy Ashdown,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Game of Spies as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Spies, bed-hopping, treachery and executions - this story of espionage in wartime Bordeaux is told for the first time.

Game of Spies uncovers a lethal spy triangle at work during the Second World War. The story centres on three men - on British, one French and one German - and the duels they fought out in an atmosphere of collaboration, betrayal and assassination, in which comrades sold fellow comrades, Allied agents and downed pilots to the Germans, as casually as they would a bottle of wine.

In this thrilling history of how ordinary, untrained people in occupied Europe faced the…


Book cover of Sleeping with the Enemy: Coco Chanel's Secret War

Merryn Corcoran Author Of The Silent Village

From my list on for lovers of French and Italian history, romance, and mystery.

Why am I passionate about this?

I was born in New Zealand and now live half the year in London and the other half on the border of The French and Italian Riviera. I am fascinated by the history of the buildings and the color of the European lifestyle. I love to write novels about the past and how that past relates to scenarios of present day. I am keen to tell the untold stories of WW2 that are based on fact. Then weave them with embellishment from my own imagination.     

Merryn's book list on for lovers of French and Italian history, romance, and mystery

Merryn Corcoran Why did Merryn love this book?

I have always adored the Chanel brand and have been intrigued by Coco Chanel’s childhood story and her rise to fame. Then to read the back story of her activities during World War 2 in Paris, I was gutted. The author depicts her as a full-on collaborator. All done in a bid to save her fortune, but at the expense of others. In this explosive narrative the author pieces together Chanel’s hidden years, her relationships with top-ranking Nazis, and her anti-Semitism.  

By Hal Vaughan,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Sleeping with the Enemy as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This explosive narrative reveals for the first time the shocking hidden years of Coco Chanel’s life: her collaboration with the Nazis in Paris, her affair with a master spy, and her work for the German military intelligence service and Himmler’s SS.

Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel was the high priestess of couture who created the look of the modern woman. By the 1920s she had amassed a fortune and went on to create an empire. But her life from 1941 to 1954 has long been shrouded in rumor and mystery, never clarified by Chanel or her many biographers. Hal Vaughan exposes the…


Book cover of Strange Victory: Hitler's Conquest of France

Michael A. Barnhart Author Of Can You Beat Churchill? Teaching History Through Simulations

From my list on history books for teaching and learning.

Why am I passionate about this?

Gaming led to my career as a history professor. When I was about ten, I discovered some of the first commercial board games, Gettysburg or Diplomacy. Hooked, I delved into the history behind such games and discovered a passion for delving deeper. After I began teaching, I thought I could share that passion with my students through historical simulations. My “sim” courses became among the most popular in the university. 

Michael's book list on history books for teaching and learning

Michael A. Barnhart Why did Michael love this book?

Another benefit of teaching through simulation is to show that history’s outcomes are not preordained. All of May’s works, but especially this one, stress the contingent nature of history. There was nothing inevitable about Germany’s victory over France in 1940. On the contrary, that victory was unlikely. May lays out a solid case that France ought to have won, and then takes care to dissect the circumstances that contributed to its defeat.

By Ernest R. May,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Strange Victory as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

How did Hitler and his generals manage the swift conquest of France, considering that the French and their allies were superior in every measurable dimension and considering the Germans' own scepticism about their chances? This title is a new interpretation of Germany's lightning attack that swept the Wehrmacht to Paris in the spring of 1940. It studies the years leading up to those crucial weeks and suggests new ways to think about the decisions taken on both sides.


Book cover of The Wandering Jews

Ori Yehudai Author Of Leaving Zion: Jewish Emigration from Palestine and Israel after World War II

From my list on modern Jewish migration and displacement.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am a historian at The Ohio State University. When I started my academic studies in Israel, I was initially interested in European history and only later began focusing on Jewish and Israeli history. I’m not exactly sure what attracted me to this career, but it’s probably the desire to better understand my own society and identity. I enjoy studying migration because it has played such an important role in Israeli and Jewish history, and even in my own life as an “academic wanderer.” Migration also provides a fascinating perspective on the links between large-scale historical events and the lives of individuals, and on the relationships between physical place, movement, and identity. 

Ori's book list on modern Jewish migration and displacement

Ori Yehudai Why did Ori love this book?

In this short book of essays, Joseph Roth, author of the great novel The Radetzky March, describes the efforts of Eastern European Jews to find new homes in the West following the turmoils of World War I and the Russian Revolution. Roth reports on interwar Jewish life in shtetls in Eastern Europe and in what he calls “ghettos in the West” such as Vienna, Berlin, and Paris, as well as in America and the Soviet Union. He writes with sympathy about “ordinary people” forced out of their homes at a time of growing restrictions on international movement and mounting animosity towards migrants in many countries. 

By Joseph Roth, Michael Hofmann (translator),

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Every few decades a book is published that shapes Jewish consciousness. One thinks of Wiesel's Night or Levi's Survival in Auschwitz. But in 1927, years before these works were written, Joseph Roth (1894-1939) composed The Wandering Jews. In these stunning dispatches written when Roth was a correspondent in Berlin during the whirlwind period of Weimar Germany, he warned of the false comforts of Jewish assimilation, laid bare the schism between Eastern and Western Jews, and at times prophesied the horrors posed by Nazism. The Wandering Jews remains as vital today as when it was first published. "[A] book of impassioned…


Book cover of Code Name: Lise: The True Story of the Woman Who Became World War II's Most Highly Decorated Spy
Book cover of The Long Road Home: An account of the author's experiences as a prisoner-of-war in the hands of the Germans during the Second World War
Book cover of An American Heroine in the French Resistance: The Diary and Memoir of Virginia d'Albert-Lake

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Interested in France, prisoner of war, and Germany?

France 941 books
Prisoner Of War 88 books
Germany 491 books