This forum section has a FAQ page. There's a button near the top of this page. You can see several pages about the good textbooks that you may find useful. If for some reason you can't see the button for the link, here it is: https://www.eng-tips.com/faqs.cfm?fid=1832

Old books are always good to have. Consider the reasons:
Aircraft serve for 20, 30, 40 years. The design principles are still effective.
The methods of FEM and stress analysis have not substantially changed in 40 years. 90% of FEM models are linear models, processed with NASTRAN or its derivatives.
In classical methods, you solve a lot of problems by looking up a method in Roark.

The new design, the creativity comes from what you DO WITH the method.

Please remember: we're not all rednecks!
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For a book on Finite Element Analysis I would have thought you'd just start by using the textbook you learned from in your program. If you didn't have a course in FEM I'd be surprised. Still I would recommend "A First Course in Finite Element Method" by Daryl Logan.

You will probably hear a lot of people recommend the tried and true classics, so I'll just point out a couple I think are even better, but often overlooked:
Aircraft Structures by David J. Peery, and "Theory and Analysis of Flight Structures" by Robert M. Rivello.

Keep em' Flying
//Fight Corrosion!