Any Stephen Ambrose book, such as Band of Brothers, D-Day or Citizen Soldiers. Those are all World War 2 books.
Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson. It takes place off the NJ coast near Manasquan.
Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer.
And my favorite of all time:
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. If you have never read this book you really need to. It's only about 100 pages, it will take you no time at all to finish.