http://home.att.net/~newbooks/WWIIbooks2.html
This site has at least 6 pages each of WW2 books in alphabetical order (listed like "Titles - A-C through Titles - T-Z , and purchases are provided by Amazon.com.
To me, these are the most famous/noted books about WW2:
"The Air War 1939-1945" by Richard J. Overy
"Alamein" [paperback] by Stephen Bungay--a major battle in N Africa; also in hard cover
"The All Americans in World War II: A Photographic History of the
82nd Airborne Division at War" by Phil Nordyke--one of the Army's most noted divisions
"All This Hell: U.S. Nurses Imprisoned by the Japanese" by Evelyn M. Monahan
"Alternatives to Hitler: German Resistance under the Third Reich" by
Hans Mommsen --not all Germans followed Hitler
"The Army Nurse Corps in World War II" by Judith A. Bellafaire--title tells it all
"Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest" [paperback] by Stephen E. Ambrose
--made into a great TV miniseries
"Bataan Death March: A Soldier's Story" by James Bollich --march to a Japanese POW camp that cost more than 8,000 American and Filipino lives & the author's three and a half years of Japanese
imprisonment.
Any book about the major battles gives little-known facts that teachers often don't know about or forget to teach you.
"The Black Sheep: The Definitive Account of Marine Fighting Squadron 214 in World War II "[mass market paperback] by Bruce Gamble--a group of Marines who fought the war their way (usually against orders) but became highly decorated because of it.
" Black Sheep One: The Life of Gregory "Pappy" Boyington" by Bruce Gamble--about the commander of the group above
"PT 109: John F. Kennedy in WWII" by Robert J. Donovan--former President JFK's Pacific Theater experiences as commander of a "Patrol Torpedo" boat.
"Rosie the Riveter: Women Working on the Home Front in World War
II" by Penny Colman--women at home helping the war effort by working in airplane factories, etc.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_b_3_6?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=world+war+2&sprefix=World+
41,746 Results for World War 2 books
This is strictly my opinion, but people wrote about World War 2 not only to tell of their experiences, but to basically tell people that it CAN happen again and there are ways to prevent it if we JUST SIT BACK AND LISTEN to what other people are saying about the subject. Otherwise, like I always say, "God brought us in with a BIG BANG and He'll take us out the same way if we don't wake up and smell the coffee."
A good book, from a grade-school student's perspective, is called "Children of the A-bomb", stories compiled by Arata Osada. The
compositions which make up this book were written by children
between ten and eighteen, who were four to twelve when the bomb fell.
An example, from a seventeen-year-old boy: "an old man, the skin of his face and body peeling off like a potato skin, mumbling prayers while he flees. They (the girls) had clung to the side of the water tank and plunged their heads in to drink and there in that position they had died. From their burned and tattered middy blouses I could tell that they were high school girls, but there was not a hair left on their heads; the broken skin of their faces was stained bright red with blood. I could hardly believe that these were human faces"
From a 5th grade girl, who was 5 at the time: "Since my house was…close to the place where the bomb fell, my mother was turned into white bones before the family altar. On the sixth day of every month Grandfather and I go to visit Mother. But no matter how much I try I can't remember how Mother looked. When I think that for all those years I haven't been able to talk to Mother, I feel so sad…When I see the mothers of my classmates I suddenly feel so lonely that I want to cry."
(NOTE: I read Mr. Osada's book when I was about 15--shortly after its publication in 1963--and it is one I will never forget."Thousand Paper Cranes" is very similar, according to the review on amazon.com)
NOTE to longshiren: "The Longest Day" was also made
into ,a 3-hour-long 1962 Academy Award-winning, black & white movie; had some actual battle footage included, and had a great soundtrack/theme song. Was a fabulous movie and it had a fabulous cast of actors: John Wayne, Henry Fonda ( as Brigadier General Theodore Roosevelt Jr).,,Robert Mitchum, Sean Connery, Richard Burton,
Peter Lawford ,Rod Steiger, Richard Todd (who took part in the actual invasion), etc. Some of the day's current teenage "heart-throbs" played minor parts, too (Paul Anka, a singer; Fabian Forte, actor/singer; Sal Mineo,actor; & Tommy Sands, singer). Interesting facts: (1) Joseph Lowe landed on Omaha Beach and scaled the cliffs at Pointe du Hoc on D-Day. He repeated the climb for the cameras 17 years later.
(2) German actor, Curt Jurgens--portrayed the German General Blumentritt -- was actually imprisoned by the Nazis in his youth. (3) Former U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower was considered for the role of himself in the film, and he indicated his willingness. However, it was decided that makeup artists couldn't make him appear young enough to play his World War II self. (4) Acclaimed British actor Christopher Lee--known for all his "Dracula" movies-- auditioned for a role, but was turned down because he did not look like a military man, even though he had served in the Royal Air Force as an Intelligence Officer.