Like love, war has provided inspiration for authors and interest for readers throughout time. Today there are many publications on the sociopolitical and economic aspects of the current Middle East wars. There are also some provocative reads about war itself
Like love, war has provided inspiration for authors and interest for readers throughout time. Today there are many publications on the sociopolitical and economic aspects of the current Middle East wars. There are also some provocative reads about war itself including War: Ends and Means by Angelo Codevilla, Armageddon in Retrospect by Kurt Vonnegut, The Culture of War by Martin van Creveld and Peace is the Way: Bringing War and Violence to an End by Deepak Chopra.
But in observance of Memorial Day this week’s Book Buzz list turns to focus on the warriors themselves. These writings give insights on the soldier’s experience: preparing to fight, life on the battlefield and returning home after serving their country’s interests. As with love stories, you will find fear, pride, heartache, triumph, trust, doubt and faith.
Read on.
A Long Way Gone:
Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
By Ishmael Beah
966.404 Beah Be
An absorbing account by a young man who, as a boy of 12, gets swept up in Sierra Leone’s civil war. Bereft of family, Beah finds himself in the army-in a drug-filled life of casual mass slaughter that lasts until he is 15, when he’s brought to a rehabilitation center sponsored by UNICEF. But soon, the war sends 17-year-old Beah fleeing again, this time to the U.S., where he now lives. (Beah graduated from Oberlin College in 2004). Told in clear, accessible language by a young writer with a gifted literary voice, this memoir seems destined to become a classic firsthand account of war and the ongoing plight of child soldiers in conflicts worldwide.
Big Boy Rules:
America’s Mercenaries Fighting in Iraq
By Steve Fainaru
335.35409 Fa
Pulitzer Prize winning author Fainaru, embedded with private security forces in Iraq, provides vivid reportage and makes the mercenary’s dubious motives and chaotic methods a microcosm of a misbegotten war.
The Day After He Left for Iraq: A Story of Love, Family, and Reunion
By Melissa Seligman
956.70443 Se
Author Seligman is the mother of an eight week old son and a two year old daughter when her U.S. Army husband deploys to Iraq. She is suddenly a single parent, a mother who doesn’t know if her children will ever see their father again, and a wife temporarily without a husband. Her memoir reveals a woman’s struggle to maintain her sense of normality-and her spirit-while her husband is fighting a far-off war. Moving, intelligent, insightful, and timely.
Final Salute: A Story of Unfinished Lives
By Jim Sheeler
956.70443 Sh
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Sheeler pays eloquent tribute to the soldiers who have died in Iraq and their devastated families. The author spent two years shadowing a marine in charge of casualty notification. He puts readers in Beck’s shoes as he walks up to houses, delivers the knock on the door so dreaded by military families and tries to comfort distraught spouses and parents. Dedicated to everyone who opened the door.
The Forever War
By Joe Haldeman
Adult Fiction Haldeman
Also the title of a new non-fiction book by Dexter Filkins about the Middle East, this award-winning classic science fiction novel of endless war among the stars is a thoughtful adventure.
Heroes Among Us: Firsthand Accounts of Combat from America’s Most Decorated Warriors in Iraq and Afghanistan
Edited by Chuck Larson
956.70443 La
This book tells the extraordinary true stories of valor, honor and sacrifice from American soldiers who have earned a Silver Star, Navy Cross, Air Force Cross, Distinguished Service Cross, or the Medal of Honor. They come from all branches of the military, from all over the country and all walks of life, representing the entire spectrum of races and creeds. But what unites them are their deeds of consummate bravery, beyond the call of duty. In contrast, check out Willy Peter Reese’s A Stranger to Myself: The Inhumanity of War: Russia, 1941-1944, the haunting memoir of a young German soldier.
Men at War: The Best War Stories of All Time
Edited By Ernest Hemmingway
808.831 He
“This book has been edited in order that…boys…can have [a] book that will contain truth about war as near as we can come by it,” says Hemingway in the anthology’s introduction. As a result of careful selection and organization, this collection of war stories accomplishes what Hemingway set out to do. For a truly felt history of what war is all about also try War Letters: Extraordinary Correspondence from American Wars edited by Andrew Carroll or Pacific War Stories: In the Words of Those Who Survived edited by Rex Alan Smith.
One Bullet Away:
The Making of a Marine Officer
By Nathaniel Fick
359.96 Fi
The author’s vast skill set as a recon marine puts him out front of the front lines leading twenty-two marines into deadly conflict. Fick unveils the process that makes marine officers such legendary leaders and shares his hard-won insights into the differences between the military ideals he learned and military practice, which can mock those ideals. Perhaps most astounding is Fick’s candor concerning his own emotions, fears, and moral quandaries as he rises to the challenges of leadership. An inspiring account of mastering the art of war. For another marine’s story try Over There: A Marine in the Great War by Carl Andrew Brannen.
Sniper One: On Scope and Under Siege with a Sniper Team in Iraq
By Sgt. Dan Mills
956.79443 Mi
Within hours of landing in Iraq in April of 2004 The Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment, sent to win hearts and minds was ambushed; and the author had killed a man with a round that removed his assailant’s head. If any of Mills’s eighteen-man sniper platoon had thought that the people of Al Amarah were going to welcome them with open arms, they were rapidly forced to reconsider. This is a breathtaking chronicle of endurance, camaraderie, dark humor, and courage in the face of relentless lethal assault. Parachute Infantry: An American Paratrooper’s Memoir of D-Day and the Fall of the Third Reich by David Kenyon Webster gives another riveting account of a soldier’s war experience. Or try The Visitable Past: A Wartime Memoir by the gifted biographer Leon Edel.
Vets Under Siege: How America Deceives and Dishonors Those Who Fight our Battles
By Martin Schram
362.86097 Sc
Using decades of case histories, statistics, and firsthand accounts from World War I to the present, the author exposes a shocking culture of antagonism toward veterans by the Department of Veterans Affairs, the agency formed to serve them.
Warrior: A Visual History of the Fighting Man
By R.G. Grant
355.0209 Gr
A large format beautifully illustrated book that focuses on the frontline soldiers who fought for their tribes, their cities, their overlords and their countries—from the Ancient Greeks who repelled the invading Persians in the 5th century to the U.S. Marines in action in Korea, Vietnam and the Persian Gulf. This visual history features vivid accounts of daily life, training, and tactics of the ordinary fighting man through 2,500 years of history.
What Every Person Should Know About War
By Chris Hedges
355.00973 He
A just-the-facts manual in Q&A format for what war is like. Excellent reading for potential service members, their families and all voters. The book answers questions about enlistment, weapons and wounds, combat, imprisonment and torture, dying, and after the war. For example: What diseases could I get? Will I be more likely to divorce? What does it feel like to get shot? What do artillery shells do to you? What does it feel like to kill someone? Can I withstand torture? What will happen to my body after I die?
• Carolyn Larson is head librarian at Lihu‘e Public Library. Her weekly column brings you the buzz on new, popular and good books available at your neighborhood library. Book annotations are culled from online publishers’ descriptions and published reviews.
