10 Books To Read In Honor Of Veterans Day

Looking for some good books to read in honor of today's holiday?

Here's a list of five fiction and five nonfiction titles that you can check out on the E-Zone web page, or borrow from .

Links go to the Ocean State Libraries online catalog; summaries excerpted from OSLRI catalog.

Note: These books are recommended for adults, and may not be appropriate for younger readers.

Non-fiction:

American Soldier by General Tommy Franks

The Commander in Chief of the United States Central Command from July 2000 through July 2003, Gen. Tommy Franks made history by leading American and Coalition forces to victory in Afghanistan and Iraq -- the decisive battles that launched the war on terrorism.

Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat: The Dire Warning by John Lukacs

The eminent historian and master storyteller John Lukacs ... reveals [Winston] Churchill as he has rarely been seen before: as a man both unsure of himself and deeply fearful of his nation's defeat.

Cobra II: The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq by Michael R. Gordon and Bernard E. Trainor

Informed by unparalleled access to still-secret documents, interviews with top field commanders, and a review of the military's own internal after-action reports, Cobra II is the definitive chronicle of America's invasion and occupation of Iraq — a conflict that could not be lost, but one that the United States failed to win decisively.

On Call in Hell: A Doctor's Iraq War Story by Cdr. Richard Jadick and Thomas Hayden

In November 2004, with the military reeling from an acute doctor shortage, Jadick chose to accompany the First Battalion, Eighth Marine Regiment (the "1/8") to Iraq. During the Battle of Fallujah, Jadick and his team worked tirelessly and courageously around the clock to save their troops in the worst street fighting Americans had faced since Vietnam.

The Only Thing Worth Dying For: How Eleven Green Berets Fought for a New Afghanistan by Eric Belhm

Armed solely with the equipment they can carry on their backs, shockingly scant intelligence, and their mastery of guerrilla warfare, Captain Jason Amerine and his men have no choice but to trust their only ally, a little-known Pashtun statesman named Hamid Karzai who has returned from exile and is being hunted by the Taliban as he travels the countryside raising a militia.

Fiction:

The 11th Man by Ivan Doig

Driven by the memory of a fallen teammate, TSU's 1941 starting lineup went down as legend in Montana football history, charging through the season undefeated. Two years later, the "Supreme Team" is caught up in World War II. Ten of them are scattered around the globe in the war's various lonely and dangerous theaters. The eleventh man, Ben Reinking, has been plucked from pilot training by a military propaganda machine hungry for heroes.

The English Patient: A Novel by Michael Ondaatje

With unsettling beauty and intelligence, Michael Ondaatje's Booker Prize-winning novel traces the intersection of four damaged lives in an abandoned Italian villa at the end of World War II.

Red Inferno:1945: A Novel by Robert Conroy

To win World War II, the Allies dealt with the devil. Joseph Stalin helped FDR, Churchill, and Truman crush Hitler. But what if Uncle Joeo had given in to his desire to possess Germany and all of Europe?

Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson

San Piedro Island, north of Puget Sound, is a place so isolated that no one who lives there can afford to make enemies. But in 1954 a local fisherman is found suspiciously drowned, and a Japanese American named Kabuo Miyamoto is charged with his murder.

The Zookeeper’s Wife: A War Story by Diane Ackerman

When Germany invaded Poland, Stuka bombers devastated Warsaw — and the city's zoo along with it. With most of their animals dead, zookeepers Jan and Antonina Zabinski began smuggling Jews into empty cages.