Yeah, this is as good as I get. In any potential mate you have BRAINS, BEAUTY, and SANITY, but you are only allowed to pick TWO. My wife picked brains and sanity. It’s like I tell everyone. I’m aging as well as Sean Connery. I just didn’t start out as good looking.

After my heart attack I realized that life was too short to waste on things you don’t enjoy. I have since quit my job of 10 years and am charging towards an eventual PhD in History. I now have a masters degree in Military History with a concentration in World War II and have received two scholarships to begin my PhD work at the University of North Texas. Since my specialty is World War II, Homer_J_Simpson’s Realtime Threads a valuable resource for me and one I recommend to anyone who is interested in marching through the years of the Second World War.

1. A Gathering Darkness: The Coming of War to the Far East and the Pacific, 1921-1942 – Haruo Tohmatsu and H. P. Willmott
2. A Time for Trumpets: The Untold Story of the Battle of the Bulge - Charles B. MacDonald
3. A War to be Won: Fighting the Second World War - Williamson Murray and Allan R. Millett
4. A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II - Gerhard L. Weinberg
5. Agent Zigzag: At True Story of Nazi Espionage, Love and Betrayal - Ben MacIntyre
6. Allies and Adversaries: The Joint Chiefs of Staff, The Grand Alliance, and U.S. Strategy in World War II - Mark A. Stoler
7. America’s School for War – Peter J. Schifferele
8. American Guerrilla: My War Behind Japanese Lines – Roger Hilsman
9. An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943 - Rick Atkinson
10. Armageddon: The Battle for Germany, 1944-1945 - Max Hastings
11. At Dawn We Slept; The Untold Story of Pearl Harbor – Gordon W. Prange with Donald M. Goldstein and Katherine V. Dillon
12. Atlantic Convoys and Nazi Raiders: The Deadly Voyage of the HMS Jervis Bay - Bruce Allen Watson
13. Bataan Uncensored – Colonel E.B. Miller
14. Before Stalingrad: Barbarossa – Hitler’s Invasion of Russia 1941 – David Glantz
15. Behind Hitler’s Lines: The True Story of the Only Soldier to Fight for Both American and the Soviet Union in World War II – Thomas H. Taylor
16. Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin – Timothy Snyder
17. Challenge for the Pacific: Guadalcanal: The Turning Point of the War – Robert Leckie
18. Command Culture: Officer Education in the U. S. Army and the German Armed Forces, 1901-1940, and the Consequences for World War II – Jörg Muth
19. Company Commander: The Classic Infantry Memoir of World War II - From the Battle of the Bulge to the Crossing of the Rhine - Charles B. MacDonald
20. Countdown to Valkyrie: The July Plot to Assassinate Hitler – Nigel Jones
21. D-Day: The Battle for Normandy – Anthony Beevor
22. D-Day with the Screaming Eagles – George E. Koskimaki
23. Darkest Hour: The True Story of Lark Force at Rabaul, Australia’s Worst Military Disaster of World War II – Bruce Gamble
24. Day of Infamy – Walter Lord
25. Day of Lightning Years of Scorn: Walter C. Short and the Attack on Pearl Harbor – Charles R. Anderson
26. Eagle Against the Sun: The American War with Japan - Ronald H. Spector.
27. Fatefull Choices: Ten Decisions That Changed the World, 1940-1941 – Ian Kershaw
28. First into Nagasaki – George Weller
29. Flight from the Reich: Refugee Jews, 1933-1946 – Deborah Dwork and Robert Jan van Pelt
30. From Pearl Harbor to Calvary: The True Story of the Lead Pilot of the Pearl Harbor Attack and his Conversion to Christianity – Mitsuo Fuchida
31. General Wainwright’s Story – General Johnathan M. Wainwright
32. Going Back: A Navy Airman in the Pacific War – Charles Furey
33. Guadalcanal: The Definitive Account of the Landmark Battle – Richard B. Frank
34. Guadalcanal Diary – Richard Tregaskis
35. Hell’s Highway: A Chronicle of the 101st Airborne in the Holland Campaign, September – November 1944 – George E. Koskimaki
36. Hell’s Highway: The True Story of the 101st Airborne Division During Operation Market Garden, September 17-25, 1944 – John Antal
37. Helmet for my Pillow: From Parris Island to the Pacific – Robert Leckie
38. Hiroshima – John Hersey
39. Hitler – Joachim Fest
40. Hitler: 1889-1936 Hubris - Ian Kershaw
41. Hitler: 1936-1945 Nemesis - Ian Kershaw
42. Hitler Strikes Poland: Blitzkrieg, Ideology, and Atrocity – Alexander B. Rossino
43. Hitler’s First War – Thomas Weber
44. Hitler’s Vienna: A Dictator’s Apprenticeship – Brigitte Hamann
45. Hitler’s World View: A Blueprint for Power – Eberhard Jäckel
46. Holocaust: The Nazi Persecution and Murder of the Jews – Peter Longerich
47. Holocaust: A History - Deborah Dwork and Robert Jan van Pelt
48. How They Won the War in the Pacific: Nimitz and his Admirals – Edwin P. Hoyt
49. Human Smoke: The Beginnings of World War II, the End of Civilization – Nicholson Baker
50. Ike: An American Hero – Michael Korda
51. Japanese Destroyer Captain: Pearl Harbor, Guadalcanal, Midway – The Great Naval Battles as Seen Through Japanese Eyes – Captain Tameichi Hara
52. Jimmy Stewart: Bomber Pilot - Starr Smith
53. Jungvolk: The Story of a Boy Defending Hitler’s Thrid Reich – Wilhelm Gehlen and Don Gregory
54. Kamikaze Diaries: Reflections of Japanese Student Soldiers – Emiko Ohnuki-Teirney
55. LeMay: The Life and Wars of General Curtis LeMay - Warren Kozak
56. Lieutenant Ramsey’s War: From Horse Soldier to Guerrilla Commander – Edwin Price Ramsey
57. Masters of Death: The SS Einsatzgruppen and the Invention of the Holocaust - Richard Rhodes
58. Midway: The Battle that Doomed Japan, the Japanese Navy’s Story - Mitsuo Fuchida and Masatake Okumiya
59. Mirrors of Destruction - Omer Bartov
60. Neptune’s Inferno: The U.S. Navy at Guadalcanal – James D. Hornfischer
61. Now it can be Told: The Story of the Manhattan Project – General Leslie M. Groves
62. Once a Marine: The Memoirs of General A. A. Vandegrift Commandant of the U. S. Marines in WWII – A. A. Vandegrift
63. Operation Barbarossa and Germany’s Defeat in the East – David Stahel
64. Operation Drumbeat: The Dramatic True Story of Germany’s First U-Boat Attacks along the American Coast in World War II - Michael Gannon
65. Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland – Christopher R. Browning
66. Pacific Express: The Critical Role of Military Logistics in World War II – William L. McGee and Sandra McGee
67. Panzer Leader – General Heinz Guderian
68. Partners in Command: George Marshall and Dwight Eisenhower in War and Peace - Mark Perry
69. Patton’s Peers: The Forgotten Allied Field Commanders of the Western Front 1944-1945 - John A. English
70. Patton’s Third Army in World War II – Michael Green and James D. Brown
71. Pearl Harbor: Final Judgement – Henry C. Clausen and Bruce Lee
72. Pearl Harbor: Warning and Decision – Roberta Wohlstetter
73. Pearl Harbor and the Coming of the Pacific War: A Brief History with Documents and Essays – Akira Iriye
74. Pearl Harbor as History: Japanese-American Relations 1931-1941
75. Retribution: The Battle for Japan, 1944-45 - Max Hastings
76. Rommel: The End of a Legend – Ralf Georg Reuth
77. Russia’s War: A History of the Soviet War Effort: 1941-1945 - Richard Overy
78. Slaughterhouse: The Handbook of the Eastern Front – David Glantz, et al
79. Staff Ride Handbook for the Attack on Pearl Harbor, 7 December 1941: A Study of Defending America – LTC Jeffrey J. Gudmens and the Staff Ride Team Combat Studies Institute
80. Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege: 1942-1943 - Antony Beevor
81. Supplying the Troops: General Somervell and American Logistics in WWII – John Kennedy Ohl
82. Taking Command: General J. Lawton Collins from Guadalcanal to Utah Beach and Victory in Europe – H. Paul Jeffers
83. The Atlantic Campaign - Dan Van der Vat
84. The Battered Bastards of Bastogne: The 101st Airborne in the Battle of the Bulge, December 19, 1944 – January 17, 1945 – George E. Koskimaki
85. The Blitzkrieg Legend: The 1940 Campaign in the West - Karl-Heinz Frieser
86. The Coming of the Third Reich – Richard J. Evans
87. The Crisis of German Ideology: Intellectual Origins of the Third Reich – George L. Mosse
88. The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944 – Rick Atkinson
89. The Fall of Berlin 1945 - Antony Beevor
90. The First Team: Pacific Naval Air Combat from Pearl Harbor to Midway – John B. Lundstrom
91. The Forgotten 500: The Untold Story of the Men Who Risked All for the Greatest Rescue Mission of World War II – Gregory A. Freeman
92. The GI Offensive in Europe: The Triumph of American Infantry Divisions, 1941-1945 - Peter R. Mansoor
93. The Historical Atlas of World War II – Alexander Swanston and Malcolm Swanston
94. The Knights of Bushido: A History of Japanese War Crimes During World War II - Lord Russell of Liverpool
95. The Last Year of the Luftwaffe: May 1944 to May 1945 - Alfred Price
96. The Library of Congress World War II Companion – David M. Kennedy, ed
97. The Making of the Atomic Bomb - Richard Rhodes
98. The Mammoth Book of Eyewitness World War II: Over 200 First-Hand Accounts from the Six Years that Tore the World Apart - John E. Lewis (editor)
99. The Manhattan Project – Cynthia C. Kelly, ed.
100. The Most Controversial Decision: Truman, the Atomic Bombs, and the Defeat of Japan – Wilson D. Miscamble, C.S.C.
101. The Myth of the Eastern Front: The Nazi-Soviet War in American Popular Culture – Ronald Smelser and Edward J. Davies II
102. The Nazi Dictatorship: Problems & Perspectives of Interpretation, 4th Edition – Ian Kershaw
103. The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide - Robert Jay Lifton
104. The Origins of the Second World War in Asia and the Pacific – Akira Iriye
105. The Pacific Campaign: The U. S. – Japanese Naval War 1941-1945 – Dan van der Vat
106. The Pacific War 1931-1945 - Saburō Ienaga
107. The Pacific War Papers: Japanese Documents of World War II – Donald M. Goldstein and Katherine V. Dillon, eds.
108. The Patton Papers: 1940-1945 – Martin Blumenson
109. The Pearl Harbor Papers: Inside the Japanese Plans – Donald M. Goldstein & Katherine V. Dillon, eds.
110. The Politics of Cultural Despair: A Study in the Rise of the Germanic Ideology – Fritz Stern
111. The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II - Iris Chang
112. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany - William L. Shirer
113. The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-1945 - John Toland
114. The Road to Victory: The Untold Story of World War II’s Red Ball Express – David P. Colley
115. The Wages of Destruction – Adams Tooze
116. The Wannsee Conference and the Final Solution: A Reconsideration - Mark Roseman
117. Untold Valor: Forgotten Stories of American Bomber Crews over Europe in World War II – Rob Morris 118. War as I Knew It – General George S. Patton
119. War in the Boats: My WWII Submarine Battles – Captain William J. Ruhe, USN (Ret.)
120. War in the Pacific: America at War - Jerome T. Hagen
121. War without Mercy: Race & Power in the Pacific War - John W. Dower
122. West Point Atlas for the Second World War: Asia and the Pacific - Thomas E. Griess (editor)
123. Why the Allies Won - Richard Overy
124. Why We Watched: Europe, America, and the Holocaust – Theordore S. Hamerow
125. Winston’s War: Churchill 1940-1945 – Max Hastings
126. With the Old Breed at Peleliu and Okinawa - E.B. Sledge
127. Women of Valor: The Rochambelles on the WWII Front – Ellen Hampton
128. You’re Stepping on My Cloak and Dagger – Roger Hall

Other Historical Items in Library

Revolutionary War

A Revolutionary People at War: The Continental Army & American Character, 1775-1783 - Charles Royster.

Civil War

Abraham Lincoln: The War Years, Vol. I – Carl Sandburg
Abraham Lincoln: The War Years, Vol. II – Carl Sandburg
Abraham Lincoln: The War Years, Vol. III – Carl Sandburg
Abraham Lincoln: The War Years, Vol. IV – Carl Sandburg
An American Iliad: The Story of the Civil War, 2nd Edition – Charles P. Roland
Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era – James M. McPherson
Life in the North During the Civil War: A Source History – George Winston Smith and Charles Judah
The American Civil War and the Origins of Modern Warfare: Ideas, Organization, and Field Command - Edward Hagerman.
The Civil War and Reconstruction: A Documentary Reader – Stanley Harrold (editor)
The Seventh Star of the Confederacy: Texas During the Civil War – Kenneth W. Howell (editor)

World War I

A Mad Catastrophe: The Outbreak of World War I and the Collapse of the Habsburg Empire – Geoffrey Wawro
Cataclysm: The First World War as Political Tragedy – David Stevenson.
Doughboys, the Great War, and the Remaking of America - Jennifer D. Keene.
Enduring the Great War: Combat, Morale, and Collapse in the German and British Armies, 1914-1918 – Alexander Watson.
Europe’s Last Summer: Who Started the Great War in 1914? – David Fromkin.
Great War, Total War: Combat and Mobilization on the Western Front, 1914-1918 – Roger Chickering and Stig Förster, editors.
Passchendaele: The Untold Story – Robin Prior and Trevor Wilson.
The Eastern Front, 1914-1917 – Norman Stone.
The First World War - John Keegan.
The Kaiser’s Army: The Politics of Military Technology in Germany during the Machine Age, 1870-1918 – Eric Dorn Brose.
The Killing Ground: The British Army, The Western Front, & The Emergence of Modern War, 1900-1918 – Tim Travers.
The Origins of the First World War – James Joll
The Pity of War: Explaining World War I – Niall Ferguson.
The Unquiet Western Front: Britain’s Role in Literature and History – Brian Bond.
War and National Reinvention: Japan in the Great War, 1914-1919 – Frederick R. Dickinson.
War Land on the Eastern Front: Culture, National Identity, and German Occupation in World War I – Vejas Gabriel Liulevicius.
Yanks: The Epic Story of the American Army in World War I - John S. Eisenhower.

Korean War

Combat Ready? The Eighth U. S. Army on the Eve of the Korean War – Thomas E. Hanson
East of Chosin: Entrapment and Breakout in Korea, 1950 - Roy E. Appleman.
Red Wings Over the Yalu: China, the Soviet Union, and the Air War in Korea – Xiaoming Zhang.
The Korean War – Bruce Cumings
The Last Stand of Fox Comany: A True Story of U.S. Marines in Combat - Bob Drury and Tom Calvin.
This Kind of War – T. R. Fehrenbach

Vietnam

100 Missions North: A Fighter Pilot’s Story of the Vietnam War - Brig. Gen. Ken Bell, USAF(ret).
The Army and Vietnam - Andrew F. Krepinevich, Jr.

Other War and Warfare

A Military History of China – David A. Graff and Robin Higham, eds.
A People’s Army: Massachusetts Soldiers & Society in the Seven Years’ War - Fred Anderson.
Blitzkrieg to Desert Storm: The Evolution of Operational Warfare – Robert M. Citino.
Counterinsurgency Warfare: Theory and Practice - David Galula.
Crusade: The Untold Story of the Persian Gulf War - Rich Atkinson.
Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq – Thomas E. Ricks
For the Common Defense: A Military History of the United States of America - Allan R. Millett & Peter Maslowski.
From War to Nationalism: China’s Turning Point, 1924-1925 – Arthur Waldron.
House to House: An Epic Memoir of War - SSG David Bellavia with John R. Bruning.
Major Problems in American Military History - John Whiteclay Chambers II and G. Kurt Piehler (editors).
Makers of Modern Strategy from Machiavelli to the Nuclear Age - Peter Paret (editor).
Modern Chinese Warfare, 1795-1989 – Bruce A. Elleman.
On War - Carl von Clausewitz, edited and translated by Michael Howard and Peter Paret.
Operation Anaconda: America’s First Major Battle in Afghanistan – Lester W. Grau and Dodge Billingsley
Roots of Strategy: Book 4 - David Jablonsky (editor).
Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East – Michael B. Oren
Some Did It for Civilisation Some Did It for Their Country: A Revised View of the Boxer War – Jane E. Elliott.
The Art of War - Sun Tzu, translated by Samuel B. Griffith.
The Art of War: War and Military Thought - Martin van Creveld.
The Battle for Manchuria and the Fate of China – Siping, 1946 – Harold M. Tanner
The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939 - Antony Beevor.
The Long March: The True History of Communist China’s Founding Myth - Sun Shuyun.
The Name of War: King Philip’s War and the Origins of the American Identity - Jill Lepore.
The Philippine War, 1899-1902 - Brian McAllister Linn.
The Prince - Niccolo Machiavelli, translated by George Bull.
The Regulars: The American Army, 1898-1941 - Edward M. Coffman.
War, Politics and Society in Early Modern China, 900-1795 – Peter Lorge.
Warfare and Society in Europe, 1792-1914 – Geoffrey Wawro.

Other Histories and Worthwhile Reads

33 Questions About American History You’re not Supposed to Ask - Thomas E. Woods Jr.
A Fiery Peace in a Cold War - Neil Sheehan.
A History of the English Speaking Peoples, Vol. I: The Birth of Britain – Winston S. Churchill
A History of the English Speaking Peoples, Vol. II: The New World – Winston S. Churchill
A History of the English Speaking Peoples, Vol. III: The Age of Revolution – Winston S. Churchill
A History of the English Speaking Peoples, Vol. IV: The Great Democracies – Winston S. Churchill A Patriot’s History of the United States - From Columbus’ Great Discovery to the War on Terror - Larry Schweikart and Michael Allen.
A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide – Samantha Power
All the U.S. Air Force Airplanes, 1907-1983 - Andrew W. Waters.
American Creation: Triumphs and Tragedies at the Founding of the Republic – Joseph J. Ellis.
Aviation: From Our Earliest Attempts at Flight to Tomorrow’s Advanced Designs - Donald S. Lopez.
China: A History, Volume I – From Neolithic Cultures through the Great Qing Empire – Harold M. Tanner
China: A History, Volume II – From the Great Qing Empire through the People’s Republic of China – Harold M. Tanner
Das Haus Habsburg: Die Geschichte Einer Europäischen Dynastie – Adam Wandruszka
Energy from Heaven and Earth – Edward Teller
Escape from the Deep: The Epic Story of a Legendary Submarine and her Courageous Crew – Alex Kershaw
Essays in Idleness: The Tsurezuregusa of Kenkō – Donald Keene, trans.
For the President’s Eyes Only: Secret Intelligence and the American Presidency from Washington to Bush – Christopher Andrew.
Gone to Texas: A History of the Lone Star State, 2nd Edition – Randolph B. Campbell
Historians’ Fallacies: Toward a Logic of Historical Thought - David Hackett Fischer.
Historiography: Ancient, Medieval, and Modern - Ernst Breisach.
John Adams - David McCullough.
Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA – Tim Weiner.
Modern Historiography: An Introduction - Michael Bently.
Murder Among the Rich and Famous: Celebrity Slaying that Shocked America - Jay Robert Nash.
Musui’s Story: The Autobiography of a Tokugawa Samurai – Katsu Kokichi, Teruko Craig, trans.
Pox Americana: The Great Smallpox Epidemic of 1775-82 - Elizabeth A. Fenn.
Spaceflight: The Complete Illustrated Story - From Earliest Designs to Plans for the 21st Century - Valerie Neal, Cathleen S. Lewis, and Frank H. Winter.
Spycatcher: The Candid Autobiography of a Senior Intelligence Officer - Peter Wright.
The Battle for History: Re-fighting World War II - John Keegan.
The Cold War: A New History - John Lewis Gaddis.
The Diary of Lady Murasaki – Richard Bowring, trans.
The Japanese Experience: A Short History of Japan – W. G. Beasley
The Racial Thinking of Richard Wagner – Leon Stein
The Reagan Diaries – Ronald Reagan, edited by Douglas Brinkley.
The United Nations and International Politics – Stephen Ryan.

Books Suggested:

A History of Modern Japan: Revised Edition – Richard Storry
“Alex” – Nigel Nicolson
Beacons in the Night: With the OSS and Tito’s Partisans in Wartime Yugoslavia – Franklin Lindsay
Breakout and Pursuit – Martin Blumenson
Burma: The Longest War 1941-1945 – Louis Allen
Citizen Soldiers: From Normandy Beaches to the Surrender of Germany – Stephen E. Ambrose
Comrades in Arms: British Aid to Russia 1941-1945 – Joan Beaumont
Cross Channel Attack – Gordon A Harrison
Crossing the Line: A Bluejacket’s Odyssey in World War II – Alvin B. Kernan
Disputed Barricade; The Live and Times of Josip Bronz-Tito, Marshal of Jugoslavia – Frizroy Maclean
Double Patriots: A Study of Japanese Nationalism – Richard Storry
Eisenhower’s Lieutenants: The Campaigns of France and Germany, 1944-45 – Russell Weigley
European Theater of Operations: The Supreme Command – Forrest Pogue
German Rule in Russia: 1941-1945 – Alexander Dallin
Haile Selassie’s War – Anthony Mockler
Hitler’s Stalingrad Decisions – Geoffrey Jukes
Hitler’s Strategy 1940-1941: The Balkan Clue – Martin L. Van Creveld
Hitler’s War Directives 1939-1945 – Hugh Trevor-Roper (editor) How War Came: The Immediate Origins of the Second World War 1938-1939 – Donald Cameron Watt
Inside the Third Reich – Albert Speer
Inside Hitler’s Headquarters, 1939-45 – Walter Warlimont
Last Battle: The Classic History of the Battle for Berlin – Cornelius Ryan
Lorraine Campaign – Hugh M. Cole
Lost Victories: The War Memoirs of Hitler’s Most Brilliant General – Erich Manstein
Nothing but Honour: The Story of the Warsaw Uprising, 1944 – J.K. Zawodny
Rommel: The Desert Fox – Desmond Young
Seven Pillars of Wisdom: A Triumph – T.E. Lawrence
Six Armies in Normandy: From D-Day to the Liberation of Paris; June 6 – Aug 5, 1944 – John Keegan
Strange Defeat – Marc Bloch
Strange Victory: Hitler’s Conquest of France – Ernest R. May
The Beginning of the Road – V.I. Chuikov
The Crucible of War: Western Desert 1941 – Barrie Pitt
The Desert Generals – Correlli Barnett
The Embattled Mountain – F.W. Deakin
The Halder War Diary 1939-1942 – Franz Halder
The Luftwaffe, 1933-45: Strategy for Defeat – Williamson Murray
The Rape of Serbia: The British Role in Tito’s Grab for Power 1943-1944 – Michael Lees
The Reckoning – David Halberstam
The Road to Berlin: Stalin’s War with Germany – John Erickson
The Road to Stalingrad – John Erickson
The Siegfried Line Campaign – European Theater of Operation – Charles B. MacDonald
The Struggle for Europe – Chester Wilmot
The War Hitler Won: The Fall of Poland, September 1939 – Nicholas Bethell
To Lose a Battle: France 1940 – Alistair Horne
Triumph in the Philippines: The War in the Pacific – Robert Ross Smith
Ultra in the West – Ralph Francis Bennett
Victory in Europe, 1945: The Last Offensive of World War II – Charles B. MacDonald
Wartime – Milvan Djilas
With Wings Like Eagles: A History of the Battle of Britain – Michael Korda