| 1 |
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The Things They Carried
by
4.15 avg rating — 351,384 ratings
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| 2 |
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The Sorrow of War
by
4.08 avg rating — 12,135 ratings
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| 3 |
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A Gracious Enemy & After the War Volume Two
by
4.29 avg rating — 6,044 ratings
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| 4 |
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The Full Circle for Mick
by
4.33 avg rating — 6,431 ratings
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| 5 |
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We Were Soldiers Once... and Young: Ia Drang - The Battle that Changed the War in Vietnam
by
4.34 avg rating — 33,646 ratings
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| 6 |
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Huế 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam
by
4.33 avg rating — 8,478 ratings
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| 7 |
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Shōgun (Asian Saga, #1)
by
4.41 avg rating — 217,165 ratings
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| 8 |
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The Quiet American
by
3.98 avg rating — 73,598 ratings
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| 9 |
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The Boy From Block 66: A WW2 Jewish Holocaust Survival True Story (Heroic Children of World War II Book 1)
by
4.44 avg rating — 8,519 ratings
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| 10 |
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Matterhorn
by
4.28 avg rating — 48,410 ratings
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| 11 |
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Fire in the Lake: The Vietnamese and the Americans in Vietnam
by
4.10 avg rating — 2,808 ratings
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| 12 |
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Inside Out & Back Again
by
4.12 avg rating — 68,031 ratings
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| 13 |
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The Vietnam War: An Intimate History
by
4.51 avg rating — 2,774 ratings
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| 14 |
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McNamara at War: A New History
by
4.18 avg rating — 505 ratings
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| 15 |
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In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam
by
3.83 avg rating — 2,968 ratings
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| 16 |
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After Dunkirk (After Dunkirk #1)
by
4.36 avg rating — 12,751 ratings
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| 17 |
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The Vietnam War: A Military History
by
4.36 avg rating — 642 ratings
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| 18 |
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The Sympathizer (The Sympathizer, #1)
by
4.01 avg rating — 141,721 ratings
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| 19 |
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Chickenhawk by Robert Mason (1984-09-04)
by
4.28 avg rating — 15,864 ratings
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| 20 |
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On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous
by
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 427,708 ratings
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| 21 |
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When Heroes Flew (When Heroes Flew #1)
by
4.51 avg rating — 4,757 ratings
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| 22 |
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Magenta
by
4.27 avg rating — 5,027 ratings
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| 23 |
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Kill Anything That Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam
by
4.24 avg rating — 6,054 ratings
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| 24 |
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The Mountains Sing
by
4.31 avg rating — 66,337 ratings
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| 25 |
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Confederates: A Novel
by
4.09 avg rating — 1,372 ratings
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| 26 |
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A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam
by
4.24 avg rating — 12,683 ratings
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| 27 |
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An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943 (World War II Liberation Trilogy, #1)
by
4.30 avg rating — 23,390 ratings
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| 28 |
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What It is Like to Go to War
by
4.01 avg rating — 9,958 ratings
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| 29 |
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Diplomats & Admirals: From Failed Negotiations and Tragic Misjudgments to Powerful Leaders and Heroic Deeds, the Untold Story of the Pacific War from Pearl Harbor to Midway
by
4.30 avg rating — 5,490 ratings
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| 30 |
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The Bomber Mafia: A Dream, a Temptation, and the Longest Night of the Second World War
by
4.02 avg rating — 65,895 ratings
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| 31 |
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The Watch
by
3.58 avg rating — 1,390 ratings
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| 32 |
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Vietnam: An Epic Tragedy, 1945-1975
by
4.32 avg rating — 8,190 ratings
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| 33 |
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Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War
by
4.31 avg rating — 69,802 ratings
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| 34 |
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Facing the Mountain: A True Story of Japanese American Heroes in World War II
by
4.48 avg rating — 12,740 ratings
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| 35 |
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Dispatches
by
4.22 avg rating — 22,222 ratings
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| 36 |
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From Sand and Ash
by
4.38 avg rating — 68,624 ratings
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| 37 |
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The American Girl (Maureen Ritter #1)
by
4.45 avg rating — 3,799 ratings
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| 38 |
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Making Faces
by
4.29 avg rating — 81,862 ratings
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| 39 |
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The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany
by
4.23 avg rating — 151,000 ratings
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| 40 |
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The Rose Code
by
4.44 avg rating — 391,169 ratings
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| 41 |
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To Hell and Back
by
4.27 avg rating — 8,997 ratings
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| 42 |
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The Mosquito Bowl: A Game of Life and Death in World War II
by
3.79 avg rating — 4,102 ratings
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| 43 |
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The Diamond Eye
by
4.29 avg rating — 217,918 ratings
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| 44 |
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Flags of Our Fathers
by
4.23 avg rating — 63,847 ratings
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| 45 |
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Prisoners of the Castle: An Epic Story of Survival and Escape from Colditz, the Nazis' Fortress Prison
by
4.26 avg rating — 11,062 ratings
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| 46 |
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Behavior Reports: A WWII Submarine Adventure Novel (USS Bull Shark Naval Thriller series Book 5)
by
4.40 avg rating — 1,856 ratings
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| 47 |
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The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914
by
4.24 avg rating — 14,572 ratings
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| 48 |
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The Spitfire Girls
by
4.36 avg rating — 10,446 ratings
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| 49 |
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The Paris Affair
by
4.42 avg rating — 3,989 ratings
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| 50 |
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Wings of Destiny: A USS Enterprise Naval Adventure Novel (Fightin'est Ship in WWII series Book 1)
by
4.32 avg rating — 2,290 ratings
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| 51 |
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The Book of Lost Names
by
4.44 avg rating — 315,319 ratings
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| 52 |
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Operation Pedestal: The Fleet That Battled to Malta, 1942 – A Definitive WWII History of the Royal Navy Convoy and Mediterranean Siege
by
4.24 avg rating — 2,030 ratings
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| 53 |
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The Best and the Brightest
by
4.27 avg rating — 12,971 ratings
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| 54 |
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The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War
by
4.23 avg rating — 9,461 ratings
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| 55 |
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Vietnam: A History
by
4.13 avg rating — 7,959 ratings
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| 56 |
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Shot Down: The True Story of Pilot Howard Snyder and the Crew of the B-17 Susan Ruth
by
4.21 avg rating — 8,607 ratings
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| 56 |
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The Memory Keeper of Kyiv
by
4.43 avg rating — 20,321 ratings
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| 58 |
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The Naked and the Dead
by
3.95 avg rating — 26,688 ratings
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| 59 |
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Catch-22
by
3.99 avg rating — 896,388 ratings
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| 60 |
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Corruption (Grumpy Old Wizards, #2)
by
3.87 avg rating — 231 ratings
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| 61 |
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Blood Meridian, or, the Evening Redness in the West
by
4.15 avg rating — 233,184 ratings
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| 62 |
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The Forgotten Soldier
by
4.39 avg rating — 12,333 ratings
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| 63 |
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The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944-1945 (World War II Liberation Trilogy, #3)
by
4.48 avg rating — 11,120 ratings
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| 64 |
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The Alice Network
by
4.32 avg rating — 655,408 ratings
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| 65 |
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Citizen Soldiers: The US Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender of Germany
by
4.25 avg rating — 24,977 ratings
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| 66 |
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Churchill's Secret War: The British Empire and the Ravaging of India During World War II
by
4.19 avg rating — 978 ratings
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| 67 |
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Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941–1942
by
4.61 avg rating — 10,547 ratings
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| 68 |
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Killing the Rising Sun: How America Vanquished World War II Japan
by
4.35 avg rating — 21,977 ratings
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| 69 |
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The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II
by
3.73 avg rating — 32,291 ratings
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| 70 |
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Berlin Diary: The Journal of a Foreign Correspondent 1934-1941
by
4.34 avg rating — 6,588 ratings
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| 71 |
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Hiroshima
by
4.06 avg rating — 91,558 ratings
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| 72 |
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Leaving Isn't the Hardest Thing
by
3.43 avg rating — 10,596 ratings
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| 73 |
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In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin
by
3.90 avg rating — 223,642 ratings
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| 74 |
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Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest
by
4.44 avg rating — 141,105 ratings
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| 75 |
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The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics
by
4.39 avg rating — 367,150 ratings
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| 76 |
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The Hiding Place: The Triumphant True Story of Corrie Ten Boom
by
4.48 avg rating — 363,003 ratings
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| 77 |
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The Last Battle: The Classic History of the Battle for Berlin
by
4.25 avg rating — 7,162 ratings
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| 78 |
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Night
by
4.38 avg rating — 1,386,475 ratings
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| 79 |
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The Longest Day: June 6, 1944
by
4.34 avg rating — 26,464 ratings
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| 80 |
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Clotho's Loom
by
4.08 avg rating — 52 ratings
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| 81 |
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The Girl in the Garden
by
3.44 avg rating — 1,427 ratings
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| 82 |
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The Yellow Birds
by
3.74 avg rating — 26,943 ratings
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| 83 |
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My Sister's Betrayal (The Blood Sisters, #2)
by
4.17 avg rating — 2,393 ratings
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| 84 |
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Crabwalk: A Powerful Historical Family Saga of the Deadliest Maritime Disaster and Its Legacy
by
3.48 avg rating — 4,236 ratings
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| 85 |
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Escape From Davao: The Forgotten Story of the Most Daring Prison Break of the Pacific War
by
4.24 avg rating — 1,290 ratings
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| 86 |
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Why the Allies Won
by
4.20 avg rating — 2,343 ratings
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| 87 |
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With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa
by
4.50 avg rating — 49,028 ratings
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| 88 |
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Lost in Shangri-la: A True Story of Survival, Adventure, and the Most Incredible Rescue Mission of World War II
by
3.87 avg rating — 47,146 ratings
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| 89 |
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Our Vietnam Wars: As Told by 100 Veterans Who Served (Our Vietnam Wars, #1)
by
4.04 avg rating — 1,513 ratings
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| 90 |
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Whispers In The Tall Grass
by
4.24 avg rating — 2,138 ratings
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| 91 |
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Pegasus Bridge
by
4.16 avg rating — 11,397 ratings
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| 92 |
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Beyond Band of Brothers: The War Memoirs of Major Dick Winters
by
4.33 avg rating — 20,486 ratings
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| 93 |
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Life After Life (Todd Family, #1)
by
3.78 avg rating — 245,604 ratings
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| 94 |
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Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption
by
4.39 avg rating — 1,009,072 ratings
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| 95 |
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Civilianized: A Young Veteran's Memoir
by
3.99 avg rating — 150 ratings
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| 96 |
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Dereliction of Duty: Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies That Led to Vietnam
by
3.99 avg rating — 4,932 ratings
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| 97 |
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Fobbit
by
3.54 avg rating — 2,173 ratings
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| 98 |
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This Kind of War: A Study in Unpreparedness
by
4.18 avg rating — 4,351 ratings
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| 99 |
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The Railway Man: A POW's Searing Account of War, Brutality and Forgiveness
by
4.13 avg rating — 8,295 ratings
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| 100 |
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The Forgotten 500: The Untold Story of the Men Who Risked All For the Greatest Rescue Mission of World War II
by
4.10 avg rating — 13,785 ratings
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—The Body Keeps the Score by Dr. Bessel van der Kolk is a best-selling, compassionate book by one of the world's top experts in mental illness. He started his career in the '60's in the VA, but had to leave when he was told that research into trauma was not one of their concerns. The book describes the physiology of trauma, many case studies (including military situations handled with extraordinary compassion), and new non-pharmaceutical treatments. Note: the case studies involve some graphic descriptions of atrocities.
—Trauma and Recovery by Dr. Judith Herman is a classic on the history of the treatment of mental illness: the similarities between the experiences of traumatized vets and abused women, how Freud was pressured into retracting his discovery that his female patients were victims of childhood incest (resulting in the cruel psychoanalytic practice of blaming the victim), the use of borderline diagnosis as a pejorative substitute for PTSD, etc. Note: the Recovery section is out-of-date.
Good fiction (not about mental illness) can reduce the need for medications, prevent hospitalizations, and interrupt suicidal ruminations by distracting traumatized readers from their pain. If you read general fiction for pleasure, please vote on and/or add suggestions to this reading list: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...