Reviving this thread...
Currently listening to
World War II at Sea: A Global History, by Craig L. Symonds. At first I was hesitant to pick this book up, as I felt it would mostly be U-boats in the Atlantic and the carrier war in the Pacific. While these two topics do take up a lot of the book, I've also learned WAY more about naval history in WW2 than I thought I would--quite literally, I didn't know what I didn't know! The book covers not only those aformentioned major theaters, but also delves into many, many other facets and issues of the naval side of the war. For example, naval supply issues--the dearth of LSTs that the Allies desperately needed as they conducted simultaneous amphibious assaults in the Mediterranean and Pacific, while trying to pre-position LSTs for Operation Overlord. If you have any interest at all in naval history of this era, I highly recommend this book--you're almost guaranteed to learn something new about the conflict. The Audible narrator is pretty good, but takes some getting used to.
https://www.amazon.com/World-War-II-Sea-History/dp/0190243678/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1549417224&sr=8-1&keywords=world+war+2+at+sea+craig+symondsAlso, just finished
Star Wars Battlefront: Twilight Company, by Alexander Freed. This book was published a few years ago when EA released the rebooted Star Wars: Battlefront video game. But don't let that stop you--the book doesn't really tie into the game; I think they were released together to build hype for the game itself (which isn't too bad, although I can't speak for the sequel).
Twilight Company reminds me very much of the Gaunt's Ghosts stories by Dan Abnett, but the prose is tighter and it's better-written. This book is set during the Galactic Civil War and takes place shortly after the destruction of the first Death Star. However, it doesn't follow the main characters that we all know so well...as a matter of fact, almost all of those characters appear only as brief mentions in this book and don't really play a part in what is going on. Instead, this book is about the grunts--the soldiers and officers of Twilight Company, as they slog it out against Imperial troopers on one planet after another. No lofty ideals here about liberating the galaxy and pushing back the Dark Side...these soldiers, for the most part, barely look up from the trenches to consider the wider conflict. They fight to survive and to protect their squadmates; after the battle, they declare the planet liberated, hold a recruiting drive, gather up whatever fresh food/supplies they can pack onto their assault transport, and then it's off to the next theater, because that's what the orders are. Definitely a different take on Star Wars, but it's a good reminder that there were billions of other beings living, fighting, and dying in the background of the Skywalker saga.
https://www.amazon.com/Battlefront-Twilight-Company-Star-Wars/dp/1101884762/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1549417265&sr=8-1&keywords=battlefront+twilight+company
