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Can't hurt me: master your mind and defy the odds
By David Goggins. 2018
A retired Navy SEAL who is also an accomplished competitor in marathons and ultramarathons shares his story. Describes overcoming poverty…
and prejudice to go on to great success, and argues that most people only tap into forty percent of their capabilities. Strong language. Bestseller. 2018Unblinded: one man's courageous journey through darkness to sight
By Traci Medford-Rosow, Kevin Coughlin. 2018
In 1997, thirty-six-year-old Kevin Coughlin's eyesight began to blur, and within five days he had lost his vision. He describes…
learning he has a genetic disorder called Leber hereditary optic neuropathy and how, fifteen years later, he mysteriously began to regain his sight. Includes journal entries. 2018Lightning down: A world war ii story of survival
By Tom Clavin. 2021
An American fighter pilot doomed to die in Buchenwald but determined to survive. On August 13, 1944, Joe Moser set…
off on his forty-fourth combat mission over occupied France. Soon, he would join almost 170 other Allied airmen as prisoners in Buchenwald, one of the most notorious and deadly of Nazi concentration camps. Tom Clavin's Lightning Down tells this largely untold and riveting true story. Moser was just twenty-two years old, a farm boy from Washington State who fell in love with flying. During the War he realized his dream of piloting a P-38 Lightning, one of the most effective weapons the Army Air Corps had against the powerful German Luftwaffe. But on that hot August morning he had to bail out of his damaged, burning plane. Captured immediately, Moser's journey into hell began. Moser and his courageous comrades from England, Canada, New Zealand, and elsewhere endured the most horrific conditions during their imprisonment... until the day the orders were issued by Hitler himself to execute them. Only a most desperate plan would save them. The page-turning momentum of Lightning Down is like that of a thriller, but the stories of imprisoned and brutalized airmen are true and told in unforgettable detail, led by the distinctly American voice of Joe Moser, who prays every day to be reunited with his family. Lightning Down is a can't-put-it-down inspiring saga of brave men confronting great evil and great odds against survival. A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin's PressIsland infernos: The us army's pacific war odyssey, 1944
By John C. McManus. 2021
From the author of Fire and Fortitude , the continuation of the US Army's epic crusade in the Pacific War,…
from the battle of Saipan to the occupation of Japan John C. McManus's award-winning Fire and Fortitude enthralled readers with an unforgettable and authoritative account of the US Army's evolution during the Pacific War, from the devastation of Pearl Harbor to the bloody battle for Makin Island in 1943. Now, in this second and final volume, he follows the Army as they land on Saipan, Guam, and Okinawa, climaxing with the American return to the Philippines, one of the largest, most complex operations in American history and one that would eventually account for one-third of all American casualties in the Pacific-Asia theater. Brilliantly researched and written, the narrative moves seamlessly from the highest generals to the lowest foot soldiers and in between, capturing the true essence of this horrible conflict. It is a masterful history by one of our finest historians of World War IIThey called us "lucky": The life and afterlife of the iraq war's hardest hit unit
By Ruben Gallego. 2021
From the Arizona Congressman, a 21st-century Band of Brothers chronicling the eternal bonds forged between the Marines of Lima Company,…
the hardest-hit unit of the Iraq War At first, they were "Lucky Lima." Infantryman Ruben Gallego and his brothers in Lima Company—3rd Battalion, 25th Marines, young men drawn from blue-collar towns, immigrant households, Navajo reservations—returned unscathed on patrol after patrol through the increasingly violent al Anbar region of Iraq, looking for weapons caches and insurgents trying to destabilize the nascent Iraqi government. After two months in Iraq, Lima didn't have a casualty, not a single Purple Heart, no injury worse than a blister. Lucky Lima. Then, in May 2005, Lima's fortunes flipped. Unknown to Ruben and his fellow grunts, al Anbar had recently become a haven for al Qaeda in Mesopotamia. The bin Laden-sponsored group had recruited radicals from all over the world for jihad against the Americans. On one fateful day, they were lured into a death house; the ambush cost the lives of two men, including a platoon sergeant. Two days later, Ruben's best friend, Jonathon Grant, died in an IED attack, along with several others. Events worsened from there. A disastrous operation in Haditha in August claimed the lives of thirteen Marines when an IED destroyed their amphibious vehicle. It was the worst single-day loss for the Marines since the 1983 Beirut bombings. By the time 3/25 went home in November, it had lost more men than any other single unit in the war. Forty-six Marines and two Navy Corpsmen serving with the battalion in Iraq were killed in action during their roughly nine-month activation. They Called Us "Lucky" details Ruben Gallego's journey and includes harrowing accounts of some of the war's most costly battles. It details the struggles and the successes of Ruben—now a member of Congress—and the rest of Lima Company following Iraq, examining the complicated matter of PTSD. And it serves as a tribute to Ruben's fallen comrades, who made the ultimate sacrifice for their countryHow I Won the War for the Allies: One Sassy Canadian Soldier's Story
By Doris Gregory. 2015
Still sassy, Doris Gregory takes the reader back over seventy years to the time when she broke with tradition, first…
by publicly challenging the University of British Columbia's discrimination against women, and then by joining the Canadian Women's Army Corps. Her memoir allows us to travel with her across the Atlantic at the height of the U-boat infestation and to take refuge in underground shelters while bombs fall on London. Unlike most memoirs of the war that focus on battles, Gregory shows the everyday mundane activities of office life, working under some less-than-brilliant supervisors. Gregory transforms what could have been a dull soldier's life into one of small adventures: cycling along traffic-free roads through southern England, the midlands and Scottish lowlands, hopping on the ferry to Ulster, slipping into neutral, forbidden Eire, and looking into the gun barrel of an angry German sentry. Although at times the war weighs heavily upon her, the author's optimism,enthusiasm and sense of humour permeate this memoir, full of laughter and surprises.Searching for black Confederates: the Civil War's most persistent myth (Civil War America)
By Kevin M. Levin. 2019
My dearest Julia: the wartime letters of Ulysses S. Grant to his wife (Library of America)
By Ulysses S. Grant. 2018
A collection of letters from famed Civil War general Ulysses S. Grant to his wife, Julia Dent Grant. The letters…
range in time from their engagement in 1844 until Union victory in 1865 and provide insight into the general's experiences and mental state, especially during the Civil War. 2018God's wolf: the life of the most notorious of all crusaders, scourge of Saladin
By Jeffrey Lee. 2017
An account of the role of Reynald de Chatillon in the Crusades. Recounts his joining the Second Crusade and subsequent…
rise through the ranks. Discusses whether his historical reputation as a bloodthirsty maniac is valid. Some violence. 2016Sailor and fiddler: reflections of a 100-year-old author
By Herman Wouk. 2016
Pulitzer Prize winner and author of The Caine Mutiny (DB 31442) and other works reflects on his life. Discusses the…
books that have influenced him, his personal relationships--including his sixty-six-year marriage to his wife, Sarah--his faith, military service during World War II, recognition of his work, and more. 2016It's my country too: women's military stories from the American Revolution to Afghanistan
By Tracy Crow, Jerri Bell. 2017
A collection of accounts of women aiding in military efforts throughout American history, beginning with the Revolutionary War. Includes profiles…
of Harriet Tubman, Josette Dermody Wingo, Barbara Dulinsky, and Brooke King, among many others. Features excerpts from diaries, letters, oral histories, and memoirs. Some violence and some strong language. 2017A dog called hope: a wounded warrior and the service dog who saved him
By Damien Lewis, Jason Morgan. 2017
The memoir of a former Special Forces soldier. Wounded badly and told he would never walk again, Morgan's recovery was…
long, and his wife left him with their three young sons. At this lowest point, a special service dog named Napal entered his life. Some violence and some strong language. 2016Shoot like a girl: one woman's dramatic fight in Afghanistan and on the home front
By Mary Jennings Hegar. 2017
An account of the author's military career. Discusses her role as a pilot in the US Air Force, flying combat…
search-and-rescue missions and earning her more than one award. Also recounts her fight to eliminate the military's Ground Combat Exclusion Policy. Some violence. 2017The commander: Fawzi al-Qawuqji and the fight for Arab independence, 1914-1948
By Laila Parsons. 2016
The biography of military commander Fawzi al-Qawuqji, beginning with his time as a young officer in the Ottoman Army and…
continuing through his most famous role as commander of the Arab Liberation Army in the Arab-Israeli War of 1948. 2016American Ulysses: a life of Ulysses S. Grant
By Ronald C. White. 2016
Though Ulysses S. Grant was admired in his time, his reputation plummeted in the twentieth century. The author argues for…
a reevaluation of Grant's legacy. Using extensive primary documents, the biographer creates a portrait of Grant's character and details his work and accomplishments, including his efforts to battle the Ku Klux Klan. 2016Danger close: my epic journey as a combat helicopter pilot in Iraq and Afghanistan
By Amber Smith. 2016
Memoir of a female helicopter pilot who saw active combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. Describes the heat of battle, coping…
with the elite "boys' club" mentality in Army aviation, and lessons learned that could apply to civilian life as well. Strong language and some violence. 2016All the gallant men: an American sailor's firsthand account of Pearl Harbor
By Ken Gire, Donald Stratton. 2016
One of five living survivors from aboard the USS Arizona during the Pearl Harbor surprise attack in 1941, Donald Stratton…
recounts his harrowing escape from the burning ship amid enemy fire, his ultimate recovery, and his determination to return to the fight. Violence. 2016There plant eyes: A personal and cultural history of blindness
By M. Leona Godin. 2021
From Homer to Helen Keller, from Dune to Stevie Wonder, from the invention of braille to the science of echolocation,…
M. Leona Godin explores the fascinating history of blindness, interweaving it with her own story of gradually losing her sight. There Plant Eyes probes the ways in which blindness has shaped our ocularcentric culture, challenging deeply ingrained ideas about what it means to be “blind.” For millennia, blindness has been used to signify such things as thoughtlessness (“blind faith”), irrationality (“blind rage”), and unconsciousness (“blind evolution”). But at the same time, blind people have been othered as the recipients of special powers as compensation for lost sight (from the poetic gifts of John Milton to the heightened senses of the comic book hero Daredevil). Godin—who began losing her vision at age ten—illuminates the often-surprising history of both the condition of blindness and the myths and ideas that have grown up around it over the course of generations. She combines an analysis of blindness in art and culture (from King Lear to Star Wars) with a study of the science of blindness and key developments in accessibility (the white cane, embossed printing, digital technology) to paint a vivid personal and cultural history.Clausewitz: a very short introduction (Very Short Introductions #Vol. 61)
By Michael Howard. 2002
British military historian explains the theories of Karl von Clausewitz (1780-1831), the Prussian officer who wrote the classic treatise On…
War. Argues that, despite their limitations, Clausewitz's pragmatic insights on strategy and tactics are as relevant today as they were two centuries ago. 1983A former top Pentagon official traces how war has transitioned from being considered, typically, a temporary state of affairs between…
times of peace to a continuous state. Argues that when the boundaries around war disappear, one risks destroying the founding values of America and invites chaos. 2016