Publication year 2022
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Femininity, Marriage, Memory, War
Tags Historical Fiction, Life-Inspired Fiction, World War II, Military & War, Russian Literature, World History, Romance
Memorial Day Reads
Our selection of Memorial Day Reads highlights the voices of writers with experience serving in the military or living through conflict. Exploring the concepts of war and peace, these selections expound on the nature of conflict and its impacts on the people affected by it.
The Diamond Eye
The Diary of Anne Frank: A Play
The Diary of a Young Girl
The Dictionary of Lost Words
The Dovekeepers
The Dragon Republic
The Dragons, the Giant, the Women
The Dressmaker of Khair Khana
The Dressmakers of Auschwitz
The Drowned and the Saved
The End and the Beginning
The Endless Steppe
The End of the World Is Just the Beginning
The English Patient
The Escape Artist
The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine
The Family Romanov
The Fighting Ground
The First World War
The Floating Opera
Publication year 2022
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Femininity, Marriage, Memory, War
Tags Historical Fiction, Life-Inspired Fiction, World War II, Military & War, Russian Literature, World History, Romance
Publication year 1955
Genre Play, Fiction
Themes Coming of Age, Loneliness, Good & Evil, Future, Fear, Hope
Tags Holocaust, Drama, World War II, Grief & Death, European History, Military & War, Love & Sexuality
Publication year 1947
Genre Autobiography / Memoir, Nonfiction
Themes Coming of Age, War, Family
Tags European History, Coming of Age, World History, World War II, Holocaust, Education, Education, Military & War, Classic Fiction, Biography
Written between 1942 and 1944, The Diary of Anne Frank, aka The Diary of a Young Girl, is a collection of journal entries by Anne Frank, a thirteen-year-old Jewish girl, while in hiding with her family for two years in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam. When Anne died of typhus in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945, her diary was given to her father, Otto Frank, the only known survivor of the family. The diary was first published... Read The Diary of a Young Girl Summary
Publication year 2020
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Literature, Gender Identity, Friendship, Social Class, War
Tags Historical Fiction, Coming of Age, Realistic Fiction, Arts & Culture, Social Class, European History, Military & War, Gender & Feminism, British Literature, World History, Romance
Publication year 2011
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Perseverance, Femininity, War, Fate, Religion & Spirituality, Safety & Danger
Tags Historical Fiction, Military & War, Gender & Feminism, Magical Realism, Jewish Literature, Grief & Death, World History
The Dovekeepers (2011) is a historical fiction novel by Alice Hoffman, set in ancient Israel in 70-73 CE. Infused with magical realism, the book is a dramatized feminist retelling of the Siege of Masada, an event in which 960 Jews resisted the onslaught of Roman forces for nine months. The siege took place in the rugged mountain fortress of Masada and left only seven survivors: two women and five children. In Hoffman’s telling, the narrative... Read The Dovekeepers Summary
Publication year 2019
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Colonialism, War, Religion & Spirituality
Tags Military & War, World History, Historical Fiction, Fantasy
Publication year 2020
Genre Autobiography / Memoir, Nonfiction
Themes Gender Identity, Family, Immigration
Tags Immigration & Refugeeism, Relationships, History: African , Gender & Feminism, Women`s Studies, Race & Racism, African American Literature, Military & War, World History, Biography
Publication year 2011
Genre Autobiography / Memoir, Nonfiction
Themes Family
Tags Business & Economics, Women`s Studies, Military & War, World History, Biography
The Dressmaker of Khair Khana: Five Sisters, One Remarkable Family, and the Woman Who Risked Everything to Keep Them Safe is the nonfiction debut of American journalist and author, Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, first published in 2011. It chronicles the story of Kamila Sidiqi, a young woman living under the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, who became a fashion entrepreneur at a time when the rights of women were strictly limited. Lemmon traveled to Afghanistan to study... Read The Dressmaker of Khair Khana Summary
Publication year 2021
Genre Biography, Nonfiction
Themes Friendship, Emotions/Behavior: Courage, Perseverance, Art
Tags World War II, Holocaust, European History, Military & War, World History, Biography
Publication year 1986
Genre Autobiography / Memoir, Nonfiction
Tags Italian Literature, Holocaust, World War II, Military & War, World History, Philosophy, Philosophy, Biography
First published in Italy in 1986 as I sommersi e i salvati, The Drowned and the Saved, is a collection of eight essays by Primo Levi about his experiences in the concentration camp at Auschwitz. The book was translated into English in 1988 by Raymond Rosenthal. Some critics categorize The Drowned and the Saved as a memoir, while others believe it to be an autobiography; still other critics name this book a treatise in which... Read The Drowned and the Saved Summary
Publication year 2001
Genre Poem, Fiction
Themes Grief, Love, Politics & Government, Conflict, Nostalgia
Tags Lyric Poem, Military & War
Publication year 1968
Genre Autobiography / Memoir, Nonfiction
Themes Community, Coming of Age, Family
Tags World History, World War II, Relationships, Russian Literature, Children`s Literature, Education, Education, Military & War, Historical Fiction
The Endless Steppe is a young adult memoir in which Esther Hautzig, the author, details her five-year exile in Siberia, from June 1941 to March 1946. When the American politician and diplomat Adlai E. Stevenson visited the village of Rubtsovsk and wrote about it, Esther Hautzig wrote to him to tell him about her time living there. Stevenson suggested that Esther write about her experience. Published in 1968, during the Cold War, the book resonated... Read The Endless Steppe Summary
Publication year 2022
Genre Book, Nonfiction
Themes Globalization, Economics, Politics & Government, Community, Safety & Danger
Tags Politics & Government, Business & Economics, US History, Agriculture, Social Class, Finance, Food, World History, Immigration & Refugeeism, Military & War, Technology, Urban Development
Publication year 1992
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes War, Memory, The Past, Race, Community, Grief
Tags Historical Fiction, Military & War, World History, Classic Fiction, Romance, World War II
The English Patient (1992) is a historical romance novel by Canadian writer Michael Ondaatje. The novel explores the relationships between four dissimilar people living in an abandoned Italian monastery at the end of World War II. The eponymous English patient—actually a Hungarian count burned beyond recognition—tells Canadian nurse Hana the story of his forbidden romance with British amateur cartographer Katharine Clifton as their small team attempted, several years earlier, to map North African deserts. Using... Read The English Patient Summary
Publication year 2022
Genre Biography, Nonfiction
Tags Holocaust, World War II, European History, Military & War, World History, Biography
Publication year 2006
Genre Book, Nonfiction
Themes Indigenous Identity, Colonialism, War, Nation, Truth & Lies
Tags Middle Eastern History, Race & Racism, Military & War, World History, Social Justice, Politics & Government, Religion & Spirituality
Publication year 2014
Genre Book, Nonfiction
Tags European History, Children`s Literature, Russian Literature, Military & War, World History, Biography
First published in 2014, Candance Fleming’s The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion and the Fall of Imperial Russia is a young-adult nonfiction book detailing the last generation of Romanovs to rule Russia from 1894 to 1917, and the fall of Russia’s autocracy through the Russian Revolution. The Family Romanov won both the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Young Adult Literature and the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for nonfiction. In The Family Romanov, Fleming combines her nonfiction... Read The Family Romanov Summary
Publication year 1984
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes War, Coming of Age, Justice
Tags Historical Fiction, Children`s Literature, Military & War, American Revolution, World History
The Fighting Ground, a novel by children’s writer Avi, tells the story of a 13-year-old boy who runs away from home to join the American Revolution. The book gives a minute-by-minute account of one day in the boy’s life and the hard lessons he learns about war. First published in 1984, the novel won several honors, including the Scott O’Dell Award, but it was also challenged or banned in some school districts for its use... Read The Fighting Ground Summary
Publication year 1999
Genre Reference/Text Book, Nonfiction
Themes War, Wins & Losses, Politics & Government
Tags World History, Military & War, World War I, European History, Politics & Government
Publication year 1956
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Death, Appearance & Reality
Tags Classic Fiction, Satirical Literature, Grief & Death, Military & War, Magical Realism, Postmodernism, US History, American Literature, World History
Published in 1956, The Floating Opera is a literary novel by John Barth. Barth’s first novel, The Floating Opera focuses on Todd Andrews as he makes plans to commit suicide in the late 1930s, utilizing first-person nonlinear storytelling and humor to meditate on life and death. Following its publication, the novel was nominated for the National Book Award. Barth has published numerous novels since, becoming a seminal figure in postmodern American literature. Plot SummaryTodd Andrews narrates... Read The Floating Opera Summary