Top Ten Tuesday - Historical Settings

This is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. They feature a different top ten list every week. This week's topic is all about history. 

If you have read my blog for any length of time, you know how crazy I am about dystopian novels set sometime in the future. But I really, really love historical fiction, specifically the WWII era. I love reading books that have new twists on the war or come at it from an angle that I hadn't thought of before. 

This is a list of some of my favorite books set in WWII.

1. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak - You can't have more of a twist than a book narrated by Death. This book will crush your soul.

2. The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah - This book is loosely based on the true story of an eighteen year old girl in France who helped the Resistance by sneaking hundreds of soldiers across the border before they could be captured by Nazis. The best part was that she wasn't even a suspect most of the time because the people looking for the person behind this were looking for a man. They had no idea a woman could be behind it! This book was one of my favorites of 2015. 

3. The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank - No WWII list would be complete without this one. I am planning a trip to Amsterdam soon, where I will definitely be visiting Anne Frank's house. I may need to reread this one beforehand.

4. All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr - I adored this tale that talked of a blind girl living in Paris when the Nazis invaded and also of a young orphan boy and his decision to join the Nazi party. Marie-Laure is one of my favorite characters and I loved that the author gave a voice to boys who may have joined the Nazi party and their side of the war because they simply had no choice. 

5 The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult - Man, talk about twists: this book talked of a girl (Sage) who befriends a man who thinks he deserves to die. Why? Because he served in the Nazi Army. Oh, and her grandmother is a Holocaust survivor. This book goes back and forth between modern day and Sage's grandmother's experiences during WWII. This is a wonderful book about choices and whether people are truly evil and forgiveness.

6. The War Bride Club by Soraya Lane - Technically, this takes place after WWII has ended, but I felt I just had to include it. It's about a group of four women who had met and married (very quickly) American soldiers while they were at war. Now that the war is over, the women take a very long voyage overseas to America to meet their husbands, who are virtually strangers to them. The differences between each woman's expectations vs. their realities was a heartbreaking story to read.

7. Number The Stars by Lois Lowry - This one is geared towards the middle grade ages, but it's still very moving. This is about a ten year old girl (Annemarie) in Denmark and her best friend Ellen, who is Jewish. When the Nazis invade Denmark, Annemarie and her family risk their lives to get Ellen to safety.

8. Between Shades Of Gray by Ruta Sepetys - This is about a fifteen year old girl in Lithuania who is sent to a work cam in Siberia during the war. She grows up while witnessing horrific events. 

9. Front Lines (Soldier Girl #1) by Michael Grant - This is one amazing book. In this one, Michael Grant reimagines WWII as a time when women are eligible for the draft. I absolutely loved this one. 

10. Night by Elie Wiesel - Harrowing account of a boy's experience in a concentration camp. 

What is your favorite historical setting? Any recommendations for books set during WWII?