Mastics-Moriches-Shirley Community Library Reader Advisory Blog: Books for Veteran's Day

Honor those who served our country this Veteran's Day by reading accounts of bravery and battle in these related titles.

The Outpost by Jake Tapper: In this story of valor, ABC news correspondent Tapper tells the story of a remote U.S. military outpost in Afghanistan known as Combat Outpost Keating. After the Taliban nearly destroyed in in 2009, the Pentagon concluded it "should not have been there in the first place".
The Liberator by Alex Kershaw: WWII officer Felix Sparks and his men saw plenty of action from the invasion of Italy to the liberation of Dachau. In depth interviews with Sparks and many of his men make the past come alive in this detailed account.
Commanding the Storm by John Richard Stevens: 12 key military leaders from the Confederate and Union side write about Civil war battles they participated in through letters and memoirs

Being Mortal by Atul Gawande

Genre: Adult Non-Fiction
Rating: 5 out of 5

"Being Mortal is about the limitations of what modern medicine can provide for people as their lives draw to a close. Gawande argues that the objective of medicine should not merely be treatment and survival; medical care should also ensure dignity in death and having control over one's final moments. He argues that instead of aggressively fighting the inescapable realities of aging, we should ask the hard questions of ourselves and our loved ones -- What makes life worth living? When should we try to extend our lives, and when should we choose a better quality of our remaining days over extending their quantity?

This book is difficult to read. Not because of the way Gawande writes -- his style is highly engaging, and he never lapses into excessively scientific jargon or overly simplistic explanations -- but because of the tough subject matter. Gawande draws on his own experiences as a doctor and peppers his book with honest and humane stories of his patients, friends, and family; the stories he tells make the book more accessible, and also more heartbreaking. (And that's not a bad thing.)

No one likes to think about their loved ones', or their own, impending mortality. But it's important to have these hard conversations, because as Gawande says, "endings matter." - Amanda

Books for Veteran's Day

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