Books like

Books like What It is Like to Go to War

12 books with a reading profile close to What It is Like to Go to War by Karl Marlantes. Inward-looking and contemplative; a moderate read.

1

The Pianist: The Extraordinary Story of One Man's Survival in Warsaw, 1939–45

by Władysław Szpilman

Also inward-looking and contemplative · history, memoir

Władysław Szpilman, a Jewish pianist for Polish Radio, provides a first-hand account of the Nazi occupation of Warsaw.
2

The Nazi Officer's Wife: How One Jewish Woman Survived the Holocaust

by Edith Hahn Beer

Also inward-looking and contemplative · history, memoir

In 1942, Edith Hahn, a Jewish law student from Vienna, escaped deportation by assuming the identity of a Christian woman named Grete Denner.
3

With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa

by Eugene B. Sledge

history, memoir

Eugene B.
4

The Best We Could Do

by Thi Bui

Also inward-looking and contemplative · history, memoir

Thi Bui narrates her family’s history through a graphic memoir format, beginning with the birth of her own child in the present day.
5

The Complete Persepolis

by Marjane Satrapi

Also contemplative · history, memoir

Marjane Satrapi chronicles her upbringing in Tehran during the Islamic Revolution and the subsequent Iran-Iraq War.
6

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier

by Ishmael Beah

Also inward-looking and contemplative · history, memoir

Ishmael Beah recounts his transition from a twelve-year-old fleeing rebel attacks in Sierra Leone to a government soldier fueled by cocaine, gunpowder, and trauma.
7

Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots

by Deborah Feldman

Also inward-looking · history, memoir

Deborah Feldman details her youth within the Satmar Hasidic community in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, a world defined by strict gender roles and the trauma of the Holocaust.
8

First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers

by Loung Ung

Also inward-looking · history, memoir

In 1975, five-year-old Loung Ung lived a comfortable life in Phnom Penh as the daughter of a high-ranking government official.
9

I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness

by Austin Channing Brown

Also inward-looking · history, memoir

Austin Channing Brown narrates her life navigating predominantly white religious and corporate organizations, beginning with the story of how her parents chose her name to ensure she would reach the interview stage of e…
10

War's Unwomanly Face

by Svetlana Alexievich

Also inward-looking and contemplative · history, memoir

Svetlana Alexievich interviewed hundreds of Soviet women who served in the Red Army during World War II as snipers, tank drivers, pilots, and field surgeons.
11

Life of Black Hawk, Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiak

by Black Hawk

history, memoir

In this 1833 autobiography, Sauk leader Black Hawk recounts his military life and the territorial disputes leading to the Black Hawk War.
12

Why Fish Don’t Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life

by Lulu Miller

Also inward-looking and contemplative · philosophy, memoir

Part biography and part memoir, this book follows Lulu Miller’s investigation into David Starr Jordan, a taxonomist who spent his life naming thousands of new fish species and rebuilding his collection after the 1906 Sa…

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