FICTION
Eleven days by Lea Carpenter. New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2013. Debut novel about a mother who is determined to discover what happened to her son who has been missing for nine days following a Special Operations Forces mission that took place the same night as the bin Laden raid. Call Number PS3603.A7698 E44 2013
Fobbit: a novel by David Abrams. New York : Black Cat, ©2012. A combat-avoiding staff sergeant spends his time composing press releases that spin grim events into more palatable statements for the public.Call Number PS3601.B7346 F63 2012
The knife by Ross Ritchell. New York : Blue Rider Press, 2016. Suspense novel about
©2015. After two helicopters in a sister squadron are shot down, a U.S. Special Forces unit operating in Afghanistan is sent deep into insurgent territory to find and destroy a mysterious new organization called Al Ayeelaa. Call Number PS3618.I7556 K66 2015
Redeployment by Phil Klay. New York : The Penguin Press, 2014. Twelve unflinching short stories about those affected by the Iraq War or its aftermath who struggle to make meaning out of chaos. Winner of the 2014 National Book Award for fiction. Call Number PS3611.L4423 A6 2014
War of the encyclopaedists : a novel by Christopher Robinson and Gavin Kovite. New York : Scribner, 2015. Story of two best friends—one a national guardsman manning a checkpoint in Baghdad, the other miserably studying literature in Boston. Much of the novel is woven from threads of the authors’ real lives.
Call Number PS3618.O3233 W38 2015
Yellow birds: a novel by Kevin Powers. New York : Little, Brown and Co., 2012. Both memoir and fiction, this harrowing story centers on two young soldiers trying to stay alive. Finalist for the 2012 National Book Award. Call Number PS3616.O88348 Y46 2012
NON-FICTION
Awesome sh*t my drill sergeant said : wit and wisdom from America’s finest by Dan Caddy. [New York] : Dey St., [2015. Funny, off-the-wall and “awesome” pearls of wisdom from real-life drill sergeants and instructors from all branches of the military. Call Number PN6231.M5 C25 2015
Band of sisters : American women at war in Iraq by Kirsten Holmstedt. Mechanicsburg, PA : Stackpole Books, ©2008. Profiles twelve women soldiers who have served in the Iraq War, describing their experiences in the war, discussing the pressures of the job, and touching on the difficulties of being a woman in the military. Call Number DS79.76 .H652 2008
Demon camp : the strange and terrible saga of a soldier’s return from war by Jen Percy. New York : Scribner, 2015. A riveting true story of a veteran with PTSD and an exploration of the battles soldiers face after the war is over.Call Number RC552.P67 P446 2015
Dust to dust : a memoir by Benjamin Busch. New York, NY : Ecco : HarperCollins 
Publishers, ©2012. A U.S. Marine who served two combat tours in Iraq, an actor on “The Wire,” and son of novelist Frederick Busch reflects on his childhood in rural New York, his experiences as a Marine, and the nature of mortality. Call Number DS79.766.B87 A3 2012 (located in Popular Reading, 1st fl)
The forever war by Dexter Filkins. New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2008. A prizewinning “New York Times” correspondent chronicles a remarkable chain of events that begins with the rise of the Taliban in the 1990s, continues with the attacks of 9/11, and moves on to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Winner of the 2008 National Book Critics Circle Award, General Nonfiction. Call Number DS79.76 .F53 2008
Friended at the front: social media in the American war zone by Lisa Ellen Silve
stri. Lawrence, Kansas : University Press of Kansas, 2015].
Explains how our communication landscape changes what it is like to go to war for individual service members, their loved ones, and for the American public at large.
Call Number U766 .S58 2015
Generation vet : composition, student-veterans, and the post-9/11 university edited by Sue Doe and Lisa Langstraat. Boulder, CO : Utah State University Press, 2014. Recommendations for curricular and programmatic responses to student veterans for English and writing studies departments. Call Number UB357 .G44 2014r
Ghosts of war : the true story of a 19-year-old GI by Ryan Smithson. New York, NY : Collins ; c2009. A inside look at the motivations and life of a contemporary soldier, which is often humorous-and occasionally devastating. Call Number DS79.76 .S6225 2009
Good Soldiers by David Finkel. New York, N.Y. : Picador/Farrar, Straus and Giroux, ©2009. Washington Post correspondent Finkel chronicles the 15-month deployment of the 2-16 Infantry Battalion in Baghdad during 2007 and 2008, when the chaos in Iraq subsided to a 
manageable uproar. Call Number DS79.764.B35 F56 2010
Hard and heavy thing by Matthew J. Hefti. Blue Ash, OH : Tyrus Books, [2016]. A soldier struggles with the burdens of war. Call Number PS3608.E3385 H38 2016 (in Popular Reading, 1st fl)
I’m still standing : from captive U.S. soldier to free citizen– my journey home by Shoshana Johnson with M.L. Doyle. Johnson gained national attention as America’s first black female prisoner of war. She was in the 507th Maintenance Company convoy ambushed on March 23, 2003, in Nasiriyah, and captured with five other soldiers including Jessica Lynch. Call Number DS79.767.D38 J64 2011
Joker one: a Marine platoon’s story of courage, leadership, and brotherhood by Donovan Campbell. New York : Random House, c2009. A sobering account of the seven-month street to street, house to house battle in Ramadi fought by Marine platoon “Joker One.” Call Number DS79.76 .C355 2009
Kaboom : embracing the suck in a savage little war by Matt Gallagher. New York : Da Capo Press, ©2010. Based on his controversial and popular blog, which the U.S. Army shut down in June 2008, Kaboom is a sardonic, unnerving, one-of-a-kind Iraq war 
memoir. Call Number DS79.766.G35 A3 2011
The long walk : a story of war and the life that follows by Brian Castner. New York : Anchor Books, 2013.
An intertwined story of two journeys: an outward struggle of surviving the urban combat of modern war in order to return home at all costs, and the inward journey to find the new person that emerges after undertaking such a task. Written by a leader of a military bomb disposal team.
Call Number DS79.766.C37 A3 2013
The long road home : a story of war and family by Martha Raddatz. New York : G. P. Putnam’s Sons, c2007. Written by the chief White House correspondent for ABC News, the story of a brutal forty-eight-hour firefight that conveys in harrowing detail the effects of war not just on the soldiers but also on the families waiting back at home. Call Number DS79.76 .R33 2007
Love my rifle more than you : young and female in the U.S. Army by Kayla Williams with Michael E. Staub. New York : W.W. Norton, 2006. On-the-ground view of one military woman’s experience in Iraq. Call Number U53.W61752 A3 2006 (in Popular Reading, 1st fl)
My war : killing time in Iraq by Colby Buzzell. New York : Berkley Caliber : Penguin Group, 2006. After trading a dead-end future for the army, Colby ends up as a machine gunner in Iraq. To make sense of the absurd and frightening events surrounding him, he started writing a blog about the war. Call Number DS79.76 .B894 2006
Outlaw platoon : heroes, renegades, infidels, and the brotherhood of war in Afghanistan by Sean Parnell with John R. Bruning. New York : William Morrow Paperbacks ; Enfield : Publishers Group UK [distributor], 2013. A lieutenant’s gripping, personal account of the legendary U.S. Army’s 10th Mountain Division’s heroic stand in the mountains of Afghanistan. Call Number DS371.413 .P38 2013
Outside the wire : American soldiers’ voices from Afghanistan edited by Christine Dumaine Leche. Charlottesville : University of Virginia Press, [2013]. A riveting collection of thirty-eight narratives encouraged by a writing instructor who taught at the Bagram Air Base near the volatile Afghan-Pakistani border. Call Number DS371.413 .O95 2013
Pink marine : one boy’s journey through boot camp to manhood by Greg Cope White. New York, NY : AboutFace Books, [2016]
©2015. A story full of hilarity and heartbreak – of how a teenage boy who is eighteen, underweight, gay and doesn’t fit he traditional definition of masculinity finds acceptance and self-worth in Marine Corps boot camp. Call Number VE25.W48 P5 2016
Plenty of time when we get home: love and recovery in the aftermath of war by Kayla Williams. New York : W.W. Norton & Co, 2014. Documents the author’s marriage to a fellow Iraq War veteran, describing the impact of his brain injury on their relationship, their shared efforts to overcome post-traumatic stress, and the lack of support for veterans. Call Number DS79.767.V48 W55 2014
Rule number two : lessons I learned in a combat hospital by Dr. Heidi Squier Kraft. New York : Back Bay Books, 2012. A clinical psychologist in the US Navy discusses the experiences of her deployment to Iraq, describing the dangers and chaos of the war and her efforts to treat traumatized soldiers. Includes reading group guide. Call Number DS79.76 .K73 2012
Soldier girls : the battles of three women at home and at war by Helen Thorpe. New York, NY : Scribner, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc., 2015. ©2014.
Follows the experiences of three women in the Indiana National Guard — one a young college student, one a single mother, and one a grandmother — who chose to enlist for different reasons, never expecting they would go to war. While apart in age and political views, the three women become close friends. Also explores how military service changes their relationships with their families, their lovers, and their children.
Call Number UB418.W65 T56 2015
They were soldiers : how the wounded return from America’s wars–the untold story by Ann Jones. Chicago, Illinois : Haymarket Books : Dispatch Books, 2013. A reporter’s firsthand, close-up-and-personal look at the impact of our recent wars on America’s unlucky soldiers. She takes readers on a journey from the devastating moment an American soldier is first wounded in rural Afghanistan to the return home. Call Number UH603 .J66 2013
Where youth and laughter go: With “The Cutting Edge” in Afghanistan by Lt Col Seth W. B. Folsom, USMC. Annapolis, MD : Naval Institute Press, 2015. Candid and detailed account of what it’s like to prepare and lead a Marine infantry battalion in one of the most dangerous areas of Afghanistan.Call Number DS371.413 .F65 2015
You know when the men are gone by Siobhan Fallon. New York : New American Library, 2012. A collection of interconnected stories about Fort Hood military wives who wait for their husbands to return.Call Number PS3606.A45 Y68 2012
POETRY
Here, bullet by Brian Turner. Farmington, Me. : Alice James Books, ©2005.
A collection of poems that were inspired by the author’s experiences as a soldier.
Call Number PS3620.U763 H47 2005
Phantom noise by Brian Turner. Farmington, Me. : Alice James Books, ©2010. A collection of poetry that draws on the author’s own experience as a rifle team leader in Iraq.
Call Number PS3620.U763 P46 2010
GRAPHIC NOVELS
Walking wounded : uncut stories from Iraq by Olivier Morel ; art by Maël ; translated by Edward Gauvin. New York : NBM, Nantier, Beall, Minoustchine Publishing inc., 2015. Gripping graphic novel that illustrates the challenges that Iraq War veterans face when they try to get back to “normal.” The effort is huge: some can’t make it and others score their own victory by finally turning the corner. Walking Wounded is a parable for our country’s war sickness. Call Number PN6747.M67 R3813 2015 (located with Graphic Novels, 1st fl)
IU South Bend Veterans Book Club 