charms

For a great overview of the Pacific war, I recommend "Eagle Against the Sun" by Ronald Spector. It is more or less a straight historical account of the Pacific strategy, how it was developed, and how it played out.

For a better insight into one of the bloodiest battles of the Pacific, I'd recommend "Utmost Savagery: The Three Days at Tarawa" by Col. Joseph Alexander. A very intricate and comprehensive account of the battle, right down to how the Japanese defensive bunkers were constructed and configured.

Those are both more historical books, but I enjoy memoirs. "Roll Me Over" by Raymond Gantter is a great one. A well-educated jazz musician who joined the grunts at age thirty, Ganter gives and honest and refreshingly frank account of his time with the infantry in Europe.

Lastly, one of my favorite books is "Goodbye, Darkness" by William Manchester. Thirty years later, a history professor goes back to the Pacific and retraces his time in the Marines island by island. It's a memoir, a history lesson, a travelogue, and a war story all in one. Manchester is honest and witty in the way only those old classically-educated professors can be.