Lake Bluff Library Adult Reading Lists

Grace Steele and Eliza Jones may be from completely different backgrounds, but when it comes to the army, specifically the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps, they are both starting from the same level. Not only will they be among the first class of female officers the army has even seen, they are also the first Black women allowed to serve.
(Description from Amazon)

A powerful novel based on the incredible true story of the glamour icon and scientist whose groundbreaking invention revolutionized modern communication.
(Description from catalog)

It's September 1944, and the US is poised to launch Operation Frantic, a shuttle bombing mission to be conducted by American aircraft based in Great Britain, southern Italy, and three Soviet airfields in the Ukraine. Tensions are already high between the American and Russian allies when two intelligence agents-one Soviet, one American-are found dead at Poltava, one of the Ukrainian bases.
(Description from catalog)

A tale inspired by the Kindertransports of World War II finds a Jewish teen's life shattered by the Nazi takeover before he joins a member of the Dutch resistance in a life-risking effort to escape Germany. (Description from NoveList.)

Wealthy, beautiful Naneé was born with a spirit of adventure that transcends her Midwestern roots. For her, learning to fly is freedom. When German tanks roll across the border and into Paris, this woman with an adorable dog and a generous heart joins the resistance. Known as the Postmistress because she delivers information to those in hiding, Naneé uses her charms and skill to house the hunted and deliver them to safety.
(Description from Amazon)

Shocking her blueblood political family by volunteering for the war effort in 1939 London, socialite Mary teaches evacuated and marginalized children and bonds with her employer, Tom, before their romance is challenged by a painful love triangle and the grueling realities of the war. (Description from NoveList.)

Stripped of her family's privileges by the Nazi party in 1939 Berlin, Hannah Rosenthal forges a pact that she will remain true to her best friend, Leo, before embarking on a refugee ship bound for Havana, where rumors of a deadly plot force her to make an impossible choice. (Description from NoveList.)

March 19,1945: The war in the Pacific approaches its apocalyptic climax. The Task Force 58 is closing in on Okinawa. At the heart of the fleet are 14 Essex-class aircraft carriers, including the USS Franklin, known as "Big Ben"-a 27,000-ton behemoth, home to 3,500 crewmen and 100 aircraft. Just after dawn, while crewmen prepare for battle, a single Japanese Yokosuka D4Y breaks through the clouds and drops two 500-pound bombs on Big Ben. Hundreds of men are forced to leap into the sea to escape, leaving the captain with only one third of his crew and more trapped men left on board than able-bodied sailors.
(Description from catalog)

Berlin, 1938. Groundbreaking physicist Dr. Hannah Weiss is on the verge of the greatest discovery of the 20th century: splitting the atom. She understands that the energy released by her discovery can power entire cities or destroy them. Hannah believes the weapon's creation will secure an end to future wars, but as a Jewish woman living under the harsh rule of the Third Reich, her research is belittled, overlooked, and eventually stolen by her German colleagues.
(Description from catalog)

Reunited when the elder's husband is sent to fight in World War II, French sisters Vianne and Isabelle find their bond as well as their respective beliefs tested by a world that changes in horrific ways. (Description from NoveList)

Chicago, 1944: twenty-year-old Aki Ito and her parents have just been released from a California concentration camp where they have been "interned" by the US government since the aftermath of Pearl Harbor. The life the Itos were forced to leave behind is gone and they are being resettled in Chicago, where Aki's older sister, Rose, was sent months earlier as a forerunner of the new Japanese American neighborhood near Clark and Division streets. But on the eve of the Ito family's reunion, Rose is killed by a subway train. Aki is stunned. Officials are ruling Rose's death a suicide, in part because the coroner's examination revealed Rose had recently had an abortion. Aki cannot believe her perfect, polished, and optimistic sister would end her life, nor can she imagine Rose carelessly getting pregnant.
(Description from catalog)

An extraordinary, propulsive novel based on the true story of a family of Polish Jews who scatter at the start of the Second World War, determined to survive, and to reunite.
(Description from catalog)

Tending the wounded when her nation is invaded by Mussolini, an orphaned servant in 1935 Ethiopia helps disguise a gentle peasant as their exiled emperor to rally her fellow women in the fight against fascism. Description from NoveList.)

Joining the elite Bletchley Park codebreaking team during World War II, three women from very different walks of life uncover a spy's dangerous agenda years later against the backdrop of the royal wedding of Elizabeth and Philip.
(Description from catalog)

Maria Florkowska is many things: daughter, avid chess player, and a young woman brave beyond her years. Captured by the Gestapo, she is imprisoned in Auschwitz, but while her family is sent to their deaths, she is spared. Realizing her ability to play chess, the sadistic camp deputy, Karl Fritzsch, decides to use her as a chess opponent to entertain the camp guards. However, once he tires of exploiting her skills, he has every intention of killing her.
(Description from catalog)

A twisting, sophisticated World War II novel following a spy who goes undercover as a part of MI5. But in chasing the secrets of others, how much will she lose of herself?
(Description from catalog)

In late March 1944, as Stalin's forces push into Ukraine, young Emil and Adeline Martel decide they must run in retreat from their land with murderous Nazi officers they despise to escape the Soviets and go in search of freedom.
(Description from catalog)

A mother who goes into hiding when Nazis begin arresting Jewish citizens in Poland considers an impossible choice while struggling to keep her 5-year-old daughter, a musical prodigy, from being overheard. (Description from NoveList.)