Best War Books

War may be one of the darker aspects of humanity, but the storytelling that comes out of it can be one of the more vibrant. Great art has risen out of times of conflict by looking back and analyzing war times—whether through reporting of facts or the construction of fiction—which helps humans as a species attempt to learn from our past mistakes in the hopes of preventing a repeating of history.

There are several key titles that you won’t find in our list here simply because they’ve already appeared elsewhere on the site, and as warlike as beating a dead horse may be, it’s not something we aspire to do here. One such book is Anne Frank’s diary. While not exactly a book explicitly about battlefields, it was penned during the Holocaust while the Frank family hid in an attic hoping to avoid capture by the Gestapo and internment in concentration camps. This heartrending first person account of a young girl who was wise beyond her years already appeared on our Best History Books list. If strategy piques your interest, the Sun Tzu’s The Art of War is an ancient yet still crucial title, but it’s already been featured on our Best Political Books list. Likewise, Kurt Vonnegut’s classic Slaughterhouse-Five is clearly deserving of placement here, but already received our Best Novels of All Time treatment. But what we have here are five of the best war stories (though not necessarily non-fiction accounts of war) that have ever been put to the page.

blackhawkdownBlack Hawk Down by Mark Bowden

This fiction-heavy list begins with the non-fiction account of the Battle of Mogadishu in 1993, the most extensive close combat by U.S. military forces since the Vietnam War. Mark Bowden comes from a journalism background and is not a historian, so while his book is non-fiction, it’s written in narrative format that reads like a novel. The book derives its title from the pair of UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters that were downed by local militias and the ensuing efforts by the elite forces of the U.S. military to rescue the imperiled soldiers from behind enemy lines. Black Hawk Down makes for a fascinating and true story about modern war.

 

allquietAll Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque

War stories have a tendency to focus on the more sensational and action-oriented aspects of battle, but All Quiet on the Western Front (1929) is a novel by a World War I veteran that details the less talked about aspects of military life. Remarque details the day-to-day living conditions dealt with by troops, the tedium and boredom between battles even with the constant threat of artillery fire, the difficulty of keeping troops nourished, and the seeming randomness of who managed to live and who ended up dying either in battle or in the barracks. Given the groundbreaking angle taken by its author, it’s little wonder that All Quiet on the Western Front also became a landmark film.

 

catch-22_coverCatch-22 by Joseph Heller

Heller’s classic novel Catch-22 is perhaps the all time best portrayal of the absurdity inherent to war. Not even the timeline of novel about World War II is conventional, as Heller skips around with the chronology and tells the story from the multiple perspectives of the various characters involved. The book was so influential that “catch-22” is now commonly used in the English language to describe a no-win situation, based as it is off protagonist Yossarian’s attempts to avoid flying missions because he thinks he’s crazy (in the book, crazy people aren’t allowed to fly missions, but if you think you’re crazy than you must not be). Catch-22 perfectly encapsulates the warped logic and bureaucracy inherent to military action.

 

war and peaceWar and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

No war books list is complete without Tolstoy’s seminal War and Peace. Published in 1869, and focusing on the French invasion of Russia during the Napoleonic era and its impact on the Russian culture and political structure as seen through the eyes of the aristocracy, War and Peace was even considered unconventional by its author. Tolstoy didn’t consider this a novel, which makes sense given that the last portion of the book is essentially a philosophical discussion rather than a narrative story. But however you want to classify this book, one thing’s for sure: War and Peace is one of the best war books of all time.

 

 

Farewell_to_ArmsA Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway

A Farewell to Arms, first published in 1929,  did more than establish Ernest Hemingway as a literary force (it went on to become his first bestseller), it also focused on issues of romance, allegiance and loyalty during wartime. Centered around an expatriate American serving in the Italian army during World War I, the book is cynical and bleak, and many of the imagery in the book are culled from Hemingway’s own experiences serving in World War I during the Italian campaigns, and the primary female character in the book is based off a nurse who cared for him, making this novel one of those essential works of fiction that are pulled straight from reality.

Best Thrillers

There’s a fine line between a horror books and thrillers, and that line is often blurred. We’ve touched on the Best Horror Books already, a list rife with paranormal monsters and unexpected phenomena. While those types of stories have long had the ability to give goosebumps in those of us with even the steeliest nerves, a good thriller is a bit more grounded in plausibility and the monsters are usually flesh and bone humans with the potential for great evil rather than something from another plane of existence.

We’ve also touched upon Best Stephen King Books already, otherwise Misery certainly would be in contention. And The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo series gets the adrenaline pumping as well, but was featured in our Best Mystery Novels list. But below we have five of the most pulse-pounding thrillers ever to grace the page, filled with crimes and intrigue by very human monsters (one even a non-fiction book) and also one instance of the supernatural aided by a group of mortals with nothing but treachery in mind. Check out these titles and you’ll probably also check the closets before you go to bed.

Thomas-Harris-The-Silence-of-the-LambsThe Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris

The terrifying murderous genius of Hannibal Lecter may have first made it to the page in Harris’ Red Dragonbut in this much more famous sequel he (while behind bars) actually uses a twisted game of cat and mouse to aid young FBI agent Clarice Starling in solving the mystery of a horrific serial killer who has been abducting women and dumping their corpses with moth pupae lodged deep in their throats and large sections of skin missing. Meanwhile, Lecter manages to orchestrate a masterful escape from captivity, setting the stage for future books in which he becomes something of an anti-hero.

 

ALONG CAME A SPIDER COVERAlong Came a Spider by James Patterson

Along Came a Spider has been so successful since it was first published in 1993 that it has spawned a staggering 20 sequels featuring homicide investigator and forensic psychologist Alex Cross. In this first installment, Cross is yanked off a murder case involving the killings of two African American prostitutes and an infant in order to investigate the kidnapping of two white children from a prestigious private school. The racial component plays a large part in this breathtakingly tense novel that introduced the world to the enthralling character and brilliant mind of investigator Alex Cross.

 

in cold blood

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

The only non-fiction book to make the list, this Truman Capote real crime classic is considered one of the best of its type. Detailing the quadruple murder of a farmer and much of his family, In Cold Blood is told in a narrative style virtually the same as that of a fictional novel, and this true crime book is widely considered to be the first of its kind. While it’s primarily a non-fiction book, there are some details of the book that differ from actual events and Capote takes a certain amount of license in speculating on the private thoughts of both the killers and the victims, but that only makes this book that’s based on a true story all the more spellbinding.

 

rosemarys babyRosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin

One supernatural tale managed to make it onto our list. In Rosemary’s Baby, the titular protagonist and her husband, Guy, move to a Gothic style New York City apartment, disregarding the rumors they’ve heard about the building having a history of witchcraft and even murder. When Guy, a struggling actor, gets a big break, it seems too good to be true. When Rosemary becomes pregnant she discovers her neighbors are leaders of a Satanic cult and she tries to convince people, in vain, that her neighbors want her baby for a Satanic sacrifice. As it turns out, the truth is much more horrifying than she had imagined.

 

andromeda strain

The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton

Thrillers can also involve the effects of unknown biological entities on everyday people. In The Andromeda Strain, it’s an extraterrestrial bacteria that causes society to go haywire when it is carried back to Earth on a satellite. Those infected are either killed or driven to madness to the point of harming themselves in bizarre ways that bring about their deaths. Throughout his career, Michael Crichton was responsible for many thrilling novels, but the otherworldly terror of The Andromeda Strain and its frightening effects on the biological processes of the humans it infects causes this novel to stand alone as one of Crichton’s greatest works, and one of the best thrillers ever.