20 Greatest World War II Novels Ranked / My Favorite World War Two Novels.

[@Arven8]

Thank you. I only recently discovered that I love war novels. I read All Quiet on the Western Front (WWI) about six months ago, and then The Things They Carried (Vietnam) a month ago. Both of them knocked me over. I've never read a WWII novel, so it's great to have your list. I loved Ken Folette's Pillars of the Earth, although I haven't read anything else by him. Seeing as he made your list 3 or 4 times, I think I'll start with something by him. Thanks again. ... And you crack me up. "No one wants to see me bend over. I shouldn't have even said that." lol

[@dayleclarke4433]

Matterhorn is an incredible book set in Vietnam.

[@Arven8]

@dayleclarke4433 Thanks, I'll check it out.

[@ConnorBoyle05]

Great list. I discovered this video after searching YT for WW2 fiction recommendations, and that's exactly what I got. I haven't read too many WW2 novels, but of all those I've read, Jack Higgins' 'The Eagle Has Landed' is my favorite. It presents a lot of interesting moral conflicts. 'The Valhalla Exchange' is also good.

[@Merciuh]

This couldn't have come at a better time for me, thanks!

[@sherribugd3799]

Adding so many to my tbr. Good thing I’m off work after shoulder surgery. Actually I’ve watched so many of your videos during this recovery. Just after surgery I was in so much pain I couldn’t concentrate to read so I kept watching your channel. So thank you for keeping me company. At any rate I have always enjoyed the literature of war, in fact I took Literature of War for my lit class in college. Good class, even if it was a bit Hemingway heavy. Love your channel.

[@johngrimshaw7193]

Your videos Always awesome every time

[@GardnerGoldsmith]

Fantastic! I'm delighted that you included Mr. McCammon's work there! Loved that novel!! Rock on, man!

[@robinsonsuarez6334]

Awesome list going to go get a few right now 👌

[@facts7075]

I'm definitely gonna check out Herman Wouk. Thanks for the great video

[@iBsteveT]

Don't throw your books on the floor Brian... Great video!

[@PhatYeti]

Thanks for the Recommendations as usual! I did not know you liked WW2 so much! You must go to Wheaton, Illinois at Cantigny Park it has The First Division Museum there, Next year they are doing a big display for the 80th Anniversary of DDAY

[@jarrodjeffrey759]

Hey Brian, King Rat is set in Singapore. They are being held in Changi, the POW Camp. This is where the author himself spent the war after being captured by the Japanese in 1942.

[@B.LEE.DbrianleedurfeeREVIEWS]

Ya. I just reviewd the book a few weeks ago. Went over those details in the review. But thanks. And I didn't know Clavell spent time there!!!

[@anothersarahreading9961]

You should read The Siege by Helen Dunmore. About the siege of Leningrad in WW2. A novel that gave me nightmares.

[@torbennielsen7006]

Ken Follett only suffered a flesh wound. You missed armageddon by Leon Uris and Alistair McLean books on your list.

[@GeorgeWilliamson-ls3yj]

Hi Brian, Love your channel. Could you suggest some books on Middle Eastern history? If you do try to include present day. Thanks,

[@minajefferson]

"The Winds of War" is my favorite book of all time. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time waiting for it to come up. I was just hoping it wouldn't be too low on the list, I didn't even expect it to go #1. Now for some shame: I haven't read "Caine Munity" yet. What am I doing with life?!?!

[@B.LEE.DbrianleedurfeeREVIEWS]

Herman Wouk is great

[@muttineni03]

Ive never read any WWII books as i mostly read fantasy and scifi but your videos intrigued me to read now, which one would you suggest as first WWII book? Shall i pick number one?

[@caomhan84]

I love Winds of War and War and Remembrance. I read the novels after watching the excellent miniseries on both of the stories. The only thing that I dislike about these novels is the end of War and Remembrance, when it is clear that Herman Wouk had an editor breathing down his neck. Because he wraps up the story in less than 100 pages, And by the time he gets there he is zooming on by, truncating. The considerable detail he was going into before. I think that it robbed us of a "fuller" ending. In fact, one of the reasons I read the books is because I wanted more context to the ending than the miniseries provided, only to be disappointed when I saw that the book was the same thing. But reading this duology is such an experience that it would be a disservice to rate them as less than 10 out of 10.

[@fuad7us1]

Thanks for the recommendations. I read some of those and will check the others, too. What's your thought on Alistair MacLean's books. Once he leads the genre I guess and some great movie adaptation as well.

[@gergelynagy2994]

Very good list. I would have added Sven Hassell books to it too

[@Theisaakgz]

I’m reading Unbroken right now. What are your thoughts on that one? I love how incredible Louie’s story is, and I’m only about 80 pages in

[@B.LEE.DbrianleedurfeeREVIEWS]

Loved it. I might do a top 20 world War two non-fiction list. Unbroken would be on it mos def

[@MrSparky229]

Amazing book!

[@fjuran1]

So many great books, I have read so many of them. Winds of War and War and Remembrance, the pinnacle of WWII historical fiction. I remember also watching the miniseries with Robert Mitchum as Pug Henry. McCammon loved Wolf's Hour. Never read Greg Iles, have to check him out. Thanks.

[@nudge2626]

Curious what your thoughts are on Alister Macleans novels such as Where Eagles Dare.

[@DAGDRUM53]

I can corroborate Brian's recommendation/high rating of Wouk's The Winds of War & War and Remembrance. First read them 40 years ago like one long 2421-page story, reread them again a decade later. Thanks for the reminder, BLD, it's time to bring 'em into the 21st century and is as good an excuse to DNF my reread of Harvest Home (Thomas Tryon) as any.

[@jobuckley2999]

Great list. I have read quite a few. Funny story. I wanted to read Mutiny on the Bounty and ordered The Caine Mutiny. Best mistake I ever made. To The White Sea by James Dickey about a shot down pilot in Japan is amazing.

[@momiriseni5320]

Thanks for your recommendations - it seems to me I'll soon be reading some Ken Follett. 🙂 Anyway, check out Ostland by David Thomas - chilling novel about young police detective in Berlin, who slowly becomes mass murderer in Eastern front.

[@fuad7us1]

Thanks. Will check Ostland. Did you read Blackout by Simon Scarrow? Superb wartime thriller.

[@thomasking2550]

Brother, I can't believe no Alistair MacClean made this list.. C'mon, The Guns of Navarone? Where Eagles Dare? Maybe you haven't read them yet? If not, they are an absolute must!

[@mrmicro22]

Fully expected to see at least one of them.

[@liamwillis9496]

Im reading the winds of war now thanks to this video and its great, is there a similar style novel set around WW1?

[@harrychilds3445]

Winds of War and War and Remembrance

[@duffypratt]

A bunch here I’ve not read yet. Can’t disagree about Wouk, and I was glad to see Cryptonomicon and Doerr. Some I would have included: Night by Elie Wiesel, Catch-22 by Heller, Slaughterhouse Five by Vonnegut, Gravity’s Rainbow by Pynchon, Empire of the Sun by Ballard, and almost any of Alan Furst’s books, but maybe Red Gold.

[@tlou_daryl]

Thank you! Being a lit major, I always think of Catch-22 and Slaughterhouse Five as WWII novels; they just aren't historical novels per se. By the time we got to the top 10, I realized this was mostly from a historical novel angle. Anne Frank is mentioned, novels that make you cry are foreshadowed, but her Diary didn't make the cut. It's still an amazing list. Damn I have a lot of reading to do now! haha.

[@jeffnewbery7376]

Love the shirt😉

[@smalltown2223]

I used to sew Winston Churchills bonnets for when he was throwing gin at the bishop of Tadcaster. After a while though, his shoes turned blue and a spaniel ate his wig.

[@jasonsanders8091]

Catch 22 by Heller, The Eagle had Landed, One Night in Lisbon by Remarque, Over to You (short stories) by Dahl, ....

[@epiphoney]

Durfee reads all the books. I love the Ice Station Zebra movie. Maybe the book is good. I guess that's cold war not ww2. Do you play board games? Is the Eye of the Needle book better than the movie? All the light we cannot see just got adapted by netflix, but it doesn't get that many tomatoes.

[@lockdowntechie3122]

Yo Durfee can you make 20 most violent books you have ever read?

[@B.LEE.DbrianleedurfeeREVIEWS]

I did make a 20 most Disturbing

[@virgilflowers9846]

Have you ever read The Apocalypse Watch by Ludlum? It’s a later book and generally regarded as not one of his best, but I still absolutely love that book. It was my first Ludlum, and I read it while taking an Amtrak train across the US in January, so it’s quite possible that some of why I love it so much is because I have such great memories of actually reading it, but I still think it’s a solid book, if a bit ridiculous, about a possible Fourth Reich situation

[@wbl5649]

omg...City of Thieves is my all time favorite book..followed by Kite Runner

[@ianwebling8411]

Any such list which does not include Len Deighton's "SSGB" and "Winter" is incomplete.

[@davidaldinger3666]

I thought for a moment that Brian had forgotten the great Len Deighton but after checking I realized most of his work was set during the cold war. However I do see that The Eagle Has Landed by the great Jack Higgins was sadly left off

[@fuad7us1]

Agreed. The Eagle Has Landed should be in the top five. Higgins wrote some great World War 2 novels.

[@michaelsamerdyke108]

I really like James Jones' "The Thin Red Line," which is much better than the movie. Also, "Piece of Cake," by Derek Robinson, is a terrific book about the RAF in the first year of the war.

[@VDRP]

Your poor books, I bet they have a silent cry hitting the floor. :( :) It hurts everytime I hear a book dropping.

[@Fuzreads]

And he still keeps them at 95%. I read to chapter 6, and I've bent my cover up and somehow ripped a page

[@mrgauth]

The Eagle Has Landed. That's all I'm gonna say.

[@jarrodjeffrey759]

You said King Rat is set in China. It's set in Singapore

[@B.LEE.DbrianleedurfeeREVIEWS]

My bad

[@Fuzreads]

To be fairs, it's more than 3/4 Chinese heritage there

[@penitent468]

Surprised I did not see Alistair McLean or Jack Higgins even as honorary mentions. Otherwise your list rules!

[@KVP94Guitar]

Stalingrad as well as it's sequel Life and Fate so the unfortunately less discussed Eastern Front. It's basically the WW2 versions of War and Peace

[@B.LEE.DbrianleedurfeeREVIEWS]

I will look them up

[@eazymethod01]

I understand you're a good person Brian and Forgetting Moon is excellent, but it's time now for western people to understand that the Soviet Union, also known as the Russian people, who did the majority of the work in defeating Germany for 4 years before America entered a war that was now determined. And this is not to say the Bolsheviks were good (they weren't) and they were also an outside force initially, another thing not widely understood. Nevertheless, It's been a century of lies and fantasy entertainment such as Inglourious Basterds (tiny squads defeating Hitler in France, yea right) that has warped history and it needs to come to an end. People cannot have informed opinions and decisions without critical thinking and real understanding of history.

[@alejandrorubio305]

Durf durf