The Winds of War, the first book in this saga, did a brilliant job of integrating an interesting and robust fictional story with the real-world events leading up to the U.S.'s entry into WW II. Unfortunately, War & Remembrance utterly lacks this balance between fiction and reality. The fictional portion is a rather dull and paper thin veneer that could easily be told in 100-200 pages. (The book contains over 1,000.) The vast majority of this work presents the story of WW II and, even more so...

Quite brilliant and at times unforgettable.

“[W]hat a target, that mess of airplanes [on the Japanese aircraft carrier] rushing up at him now in the telescopic sight, so clear that he could see white numbers on the fuselages…No other this yet; he’d go. Now his heart was racing, his mouth was parched, and his ears seemed about to burst. He yanked the bomb release, felt the jolt of lightness as the missile flew clear, remembered to keep going to make sure he didn’t throw the bomb, and he pulled up…His body sagged to the seat, his head swam,...

Reread (and partial miniseries watch for now, though not yet audiobook) - better than I remembered from long ago and while harrowing and dark as the times were, I still think that some of the author's choices that have been forced to allow us to experience the dark times through characters we are invested in could have been made to be less obviously forced

Occasionally I get a craving for something a little different, especially in audiobook format since I share them with my husband. And his tolerance for romance is loooooow. So I stepped outside of my usual comfort zone to give the Winds of War (the preceding book to War and Remembrance) a try, since it's considered to be THE quintessential WWII historical fiction novel. I schlepped through W of W on my daily commutes, alternately bored to death or white-knuckling my steering wheel, and when I go...

“War and Remembrance” is a legitimate 5 STAR book if there ever was one! It is, along with The Winds of War, the Gold Standard of historical fiction for World War II.Readers should seriously consider reading The Winds of War before reading this book for two reasons. One, the first book in the dualology is a prequel and the understanding the story and the characters makes reading the second book that much more enjoyable. The second reason is to be sure you like how Herman Wouk writes and treats h...

I read these back in the 80s at the same time a friend of mine did. She loved them and sort of aimed me at them (we both liked Robert Ludlum, Frederick Forsyth and a few other authors). I can't say I liked these as much as she did.This duology concentrated more heavily (so heavily) on the romances and love lives of the characters in these books that I was hardily sick of them by the time I finished. The books basically became one long extended soap opera so far as I was concerned. The actions of...

I do not think I would be able to review this wonderful book.The book details the History of the Second World War in all its intricacy, but without the statistics, which is fine for me.Somehow, I can make the time to understand the statistics but the human History is important to me. Whenever I read about World War II I want to know what happened to the people, what did they go through, how did they cope with this tremendous impact to their lives, how is that they did not go mad, or commit suici...

This review covers both books in this story of World War II, The Winds of War and War and Remembrance. Together they follow the experience and growth of Victor Henry, a U.S. Navy Officer, his family, and the many people they meet (American and otherwise) in the great events of that global conflict. As with all great novels, these books are not meant merely to entertain, but to teach and communicate something of the human condition. Here, the auther attempts to reveal the depth of human goodnes...

This book was my life for a good 2 months and I will never be the same. I read this before Winds of War which is actually supposed to be first. I would recommend reading them in order, but I do believe that War and Remembrance is slightly better. It's the story of a family during WWII, and you grow to absolutely care about everyone, and really understand all the complexities and personality flaws of the characters. Some are in America, some are in Europe, some feel strongly against Hitler, some ...