100 Books Like Flags of Our Fathers

This is a World War II memoir by United States Marine Eugene Sledge, first published in 1981. 

It is a powerful depiction of war, honest and authentic, describing what it was like to fight in some of the fiercest battles of World War II. The writing is vivid and gripping, sometimes humorous, but mostly reflective of the horrors of war. There is a very refreshing “non-commercial” tone to the narrative.

Sledge originally wrote this as a private memoir for his immediate family, a way to finally tell them what he could never verbalize in person. Sledge’s passion comes through on every page, a reminder that the best books come from the heart.  

Imagine being the son of the most legendary US Marine of all time? Think those are huge boots to fill?

Lewis B. Puller, Jr.’s father is Lieutenant General “Chesty” Puller – recipient of five Navy Crosses and one Distinguished Service Cross, making him the most decorated marine in history. Puller Jr.’s Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir chronicles his service as a marine lieutenant in Vietnam attempting to fill his father’s enormous shoes. But Junior arrives home early missing both legs, most of his left hand, and a thumb and finger on his right hand after tripping a booby-trapped mine.

Fortunate Son tells the story of a broken man returning to his family, and high-profile legendary father, to attempt to put together the pieces.  

I came to the piano as an adult and felt pretty sorry for myself–how am I supposed to do all this torturous practicing before and after work?

Then I read Zhu Xiao-Mei’s account of studying the piano during the Cultural Revolution, and realized what real commitment looks like. Zhu is a brilliant concert pianist who had to master Bach while practicing in a labor camp freezer. Read this tragi-comedy of China, politics, and Bach, and surmount your (room-temperature) challenges.

Hidden from the English-speaking world for more than 50 years, this panoramic novel begins with the Red Army invasion of Belarus in 1939. Ivan Kulik has just become headmaster of school number 7 in Hlaby, a rural village in the Marsh of Pinsk. Through his eyes, I witnessed the tragedy of Stalinist domination where people are oppressed, randomly deported to labor camps, or tortured in Zovty Prison in Pinsk.

The author’s individual gift that sets him apart from his contemporaries is the range of his sympathies and his unromantic, unsentimental approach to the sensual lives of women. His debt to Chekhov is obvious in his ability to capture the internal drama of his characters with psychological conciseness.

This historical novel serves as a stern warning against adopting socialism in America.

The Mosquito Bowl was a football game between two Marine regiments that was played on Christmas Eve 1944 on Guadalcanal. Only one brief chapter is devoted to the game itself, which, as one reviewer noted, “is both a pretext and an organizing principle for the book.”

Bissinger tells the stories of several of the players, many of whom were from big-name schools. The players came alive as I learned about their families and upbringing, achievements on the gridiron, how they became Marines, and their wartime experiences. I was reminded of the sacrifices their generation made. I cared about them and hoped they would survive the bloodbath at Okinawa, where fifteen of the players in the Mosquito Bowl were killed.

Brokaw’s book popularized the term “Greatest Generation” for those who came of age during World War II. The book consists of stories of some 50 men, women, or couples who were representative of this generation. Some stories are of  “famous” people, such as George Bush, but most of them are about ordinary people who “were not widely known outside their families or their communities.”

Reflective of this generation, these people interrupted their lives to answer the call to serve, got on with their lives when the war was over, were proud of their service, but rarely talked about the war years. Although aware of challenges to Brokaw’s general portrayal of this generation, I was inspired by the accomplishments of these people and believe they measure up to his label.

This book is about the author’s brother, Elden: life in his hometown of Vega, Texas, and his experience as a Navy seaman aboard the USS Franklin. Elden’s letters provide the framework for the story but consist almost entirely of small talk and gossip. Yet as Rogers expands on the letters, I learned how life in Vega differed from today’s world and how it was affected by the war. Rogers’ reconstruction of Elden’s almost daily experience during the year he served in the Navy was also enlightening.

The Franklin was the most heavily damaged aircraft carrier to survive the war, and Rogers provides gripping accounts of a kamikaze attack at Leyte and a horrific bombing near mainland Japan in March 1945 that killed over 800 seamen, including his brother Elden.

Of the books I have read consisting of collections of World War II letters, this is the best. The significance of mail during the war cannot be overestimated. Mail was a morale booster for the troops and a lifeline between loved ones at home and those on the war front. A massive number of letters—in the billions—were transmitted.

Charles and Barbara’s letters cover over four years in their lives, from August 1941 to November 1945. Mail sustained their relationship when they were often separated during their courtship and early years of their marriage, and during the 18 months that Charles was in Europe. Through their correspondence, I learned about the private lives of ordinary people caught in the sweep of history.

At last, a book about photography! And one that is arguably the best from which to learn to see, Szarkowski, the legendary curator who worked at the Museum from 1962 to 1991, has published many influential books. But none more radically and succinctly demonstrates why - as U.S. News & World Report put it in 1990 - his thinking about photography "has become our thinking about photography".

Look and look and look. Keep it on your bedside table. It will be your friend. Learn from it – about composition, about story, about the many ways that one can see. Whether you take a photograph or not, you will learn that ineffable thing that can’t be taught but which can be inspired: how to see. Enjoy!

Antarctica is the one continent I have never taken a photograph in. It has barely changed in the past 100 years, but Hurley’s images still take me to an unknown world and how people have struggled to survive there.

I love the way he can capture the majesty of a landscape that is mostly just one colour and how his photographs give a sense of the puny humans grappling with the harshness of the environment.