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Don't forget the online sources. Some are good reads, and all of them are free...

I'd first recommend Hyperwar, an account of the US Navy in WWII, with detailed accounts of USN/USMC campaigmns, and summaries of the other major events:

https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/index.html

If you really want to splash out Samuel Morisons set of books is interesting. Not everything is accurate but it gives a good flavor of what the Allies though was going on/happened. But not inexpensive. The other one is the Conways book on all the world's fleets (I think published in 45). Again, gives a taste of what the Allies THOUGHT they were dealing with.

Just saw an Amazon alert for Ian W. Toll's Twilight of the Gods: War in the Western Pacific, 1944-1945 (Vol. 3) (Pacific War Trilogy). I think this just came out. Has anyone read it yet?

Actually it comes out on September 1,2020

Thanks Fencer51D, didn't notice that. Read Toll's first 2 volumes, they were a pretty decent overview and an easy read.

I would recommend several..

A trilogy covering the entire Pacific theater by Ian Toll..

Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941-1942 (Vol. 1) (Pacific War Trilogy): War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941–1942
The Conquering Tide: War in the Pacific Islands, 1942-1944 (Vol. 2) (Pacific War Trilogy): War in the Pacific Islands, 1942–1944
Twilight of the Gods: War in the Western Pacific, 1944-1945 (Vol. 3) (Pacific War Trilogy) Due September 1,2020

A close look at the US Navy fighter air arm 1941-42, 2 volume set by John Lundstrom..

The First Team: Pacific Naval Air Combat from Pearl Harbor to Midway
First Team and the Guadalcanal Campaign: Naval Fighter Combat from August to November 1942

A great book about the Japanese military lots of info about ships, planes, equipment, culture leaders etc, try ABEBOOKS, published in 1976 by S.L. Mayer

The Japanese War Machine

A trio of excellent detail ridden books about the two carrier battles and one major naval action around Guadalcanal, by Eric Hammel

Carrier Clash: The Invasion of Guadalcanal & The Battle of the Eastern Solomons August 1942
Carrier Strike : The Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, October 1942
Guadalcanal: Decision at Sea, the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, November 13-15, 1942

He has several other excellent books as well!

A trio of recent best sellers by James Hornfischer..

The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors: The Extraordinary World War II Story of the U.S. Navy's Finest Hour
The Fleet at Flood Tide: America at Total War in the Pacific, 1944-1945
Neptune's Inferno: The U.S. Navy at Guadalcanal

A masterpiece on the sub war in the pacific by Clay Blair jr, old book published in the mid 70s, try abebooks, although the USNI republished it in 2001ish.
Careful buying older books as it was sometimes broken into two volumes

Silent Victory: The U. S. Submarine War Against Japan
"this history of the U.S. submarine war is one of the most informative and entertaining books written on the Pacific campaign. The author, a respected journalist and World War II submariner himself, is credited with providing a complete and unbiased account of what happened. When published in 1975, it was the first such account to detail controversial aspects of the American campaign, from the torpedo scandal to discrepancies between claimed and confirmed sinkings. To get to the truth, Clay Blair interviewed scores of skippers, staff officers, and code breakers, and combed thousands of documents and personal papers. In addition, he thoroughly researched the development of the submarine and torpedo from pre-war to post-war times. As a result, he takes the reader into the submarine war at all levels--the highest strategy sessions in Washington, the terrifying moments in subs at the bottom of the ocean waiting out exploding depth charges, the zany efforts of a crew coaxing a chicken to lay an egg. He also exposes the reader to the jealous infighting of admirals vying for power and the problems between cautious older skippers and daring young commanders. Supplementing the text are nearly forty maps showing submarine activity in the context of every important naval engagement in the Pacific, more than thirty pages of photographs, multiple appendixes (including a calendar of submarine war patrols), and an index of over 2,000 entries. This is a work of great scholarship and scope that makes a timeless contribution to the history of World War II."

Biography of one of Japan's top Naval aces authored my Martin Caiden and Saburo Sakai..

SAMURAI!

Interesting view of the war by a Japanese destroyer captain, written by Tameichi Hara

Japanese Destroyer Captain: Pearl Harbor, Guadalcanal, Midway - The Great Naval Battles as Seen Through Japanese Eyes

I could go on..

ORIGINAL: Fencer51D


Twilight of the Gods: War in the Western Pacific, 1944-1945 (Vol. 3) (Pacific War Trilogy) Due September 1,2020

Oh, yeah. Ian Toll. Looking forward to that one. [8D]

ORIGINAL: mind_messing

ORIGINAL: Voltreffer

Reading and playing are very complementary to one another. The game will give you a much better grasp of geography and units discussed in the books, and the books will provide context for various parts of the game.

I'd second this as a great starting point - you only have to buy one book & it's very good:

To be honest I don't think I'd recommend Spector as the sole work on the subject.

It has been some time since I last read it, mind you, but I think it fell into the trap to relying too heavily on the Japanese testimony in a number of cases.

The IJN carrier decks at Midway "packed with planes rearming" is the main error, from what I recall. The later works tend to treat the Japanese sources much more critically (as by this point Japanese language sources are more readily accessible to western authors).

Not to suggest it isn't a worthwhile read, but just that it needs to be understood in the context of it's time (in that the information from the Japanese side was fairly limited and to some extent largely self-serving and focused on saving face).

The historiography of the war is another subject entirely

True. However, he does give an interesting look into the opportunities afforded the IJN by the CentPac/SwPac 2-front strategy.

ORIGINAL: Bleek

ORIGINAL: warspite1
* I struggled to find decent books on Ker Plunk or Hungry Hippos

Ah, I believe you're looking for Sun Tzu.

warspite1

Thanks for the tip. My best Hungry Hippos score has rocketed since reading the Art of War.

I found four key quotes invaluable and would recommend these to any war gamer:

"The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting"

"I'll be the yellow one please"

“Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt.”

"The art of being a woman, is knowing when not to be too much of a lady"

Sun Tzu

warspite1

Thanks for the tip. My best Hungry Hippos score has rocketed since reading the Art of War.

I found four key quotes invaluable and would recommend these to any war gamer:

"The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting"

"I'll be the yellow one please"

“Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt.”

"The art of being a woman, is knowing when not to be too much of a lady"

Sun Tzu

Ah, more pearls of wisdom from the irreverent warspite1.[:D]