The summer shelves hold new books by and about women, about mental and physical recovery, about leadership (including, predictably, a SEAL title), about spiritual and heroic action, and about fictional characters who try to survive conflict that can follow combat.
Here are the reviews:
"I'd Walk With My Friends If I Could Find Them" by Jesse Goolsby, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 292 pages, $24
Occasionally, a first novel introduces real talent. For example, first books by veterans Kevin Powers ("The Yellow Birds," 2012) and Atticus Lish ("Preparation for the Next Life," 2014) demonstrate how new writers can use nuance and substance to produce a distinctive plot.
Add Jesse Goolsby to the list of promising military-experienced writers including Phil Klay ("Redeployment," 2014). The novelist is an Air Force officer whose short works appear in literary publications, and his fiction is about three soldiers. If his look at veterans of Afghanistan turns out not to be the great Goolsby — presumably he has more to write — it is a good Goolsby.
His trio, Ellis, Dax and Torres, serve together in combat, where an instant decision brings moral trauma that stays with them for at least "20 years of waking up, living, sleeping, repeat, and repeat" — and influences their children. The perceived sins of the fathers give a rare, multigenerational scope.
Ellis deals with sexual violation, and self-mutilation and a wife who believes "the war won't live in him forever."
Torres, as a teenager, "questions why no one has ever taught him the right way to touch someone you love." As a father, his wife implores him to "touch your children."
Dax marries trouble — a brother-in-law who brings danger home and leaves readers, if not Dax, wondering what happens next. Three chapters later, a new, intriguing character resolves ambiguity with understatement, which is a flaw in an otherwise fine first effort.
"The Unraveling: High Hopes and Missed Opportunities in Iraq" by Emma Sky, Perseus Books, 416 pages, $28.99
A 5-foot-4-inch British woman named Sky volunteers to work — without getting any briefing — at the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq in 2003. Later, 6-foot-5-inch Gen. Ray Odierno reaches for Sky to stand next to him as his official political adviser, his polite but frank "secret weapon" who gets people to talk — to each other.
A scholar and a strategist, Sky's political perception alone makes worthwhile reading, including a preface that is as succinct a synopsis of Iraq today as you will find: the Islamic State group ISIS, or Da'ash, "is the hideous product of a sacralised determinism born out of secular failure."
Beyond policy, there is personality. Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez has "a limited sense of humour." Col. William Mayville can "recite by heart" a Wilfred Owen poem. To the classics major at Oxford, Odierno is "not widely read." Department of Defense deputy director Paul Wolfowitz makes "snide comments." Gen. David Petraeus is "extremely smart" at Camp Victory. Sky works with CPA head Paul Bremer's speechwriter to remove "the mentions of 'evildoers' that were prone to pepper his speeches."
Odierno and she have "none of the happy talk that had defined the Coalition," and in 2007 she tells him Iraq "is the greatest strategic failure since the foundation of the United States."
His response? "What are we going to do about it? We're not leaving it like this."
"Ashley's War: The Untold Story of a Team of Women Soldiers on the Special Ops Battlefield" by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon
Photo Credit: HarperCollins
"Ashley's War: The Untold Story of a Team of Women Soldiers on the Special Ops Battlefield" by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, HarperCollins, 320 pages, $26.99
Consider the "untold" now told, with respect and real drama.
First Lt. Ashley White and more than 100 other women volunteer for possible selection as members of the Army's pilot Cultural Support Teams in 2010. If selected, they'll serve next to Rangers or Green Berets.
Each woman is accustomed to shining as "the best female" in their units — until CST training, where Ranger Scottie Marks tell his class of 20, frustrated, overachieving GI gems that "every soldier we pick is a diamond."
The GI Janes (off duty, they watch "G.I. Jane" and a Green Beret documentary) are trying not "to make some kind of statement," White tells her husband, a soldier home from Afghanistan.
"All they wanted," Lemmon writes, "was a shot at going to war on a mission they believe in with America's best fighters."
They get their shot in Afghanistan, where White is killed by an IED blast during a mission at a Taliban compound. Her death is no surprise but Lemmon's research and interviewing give the moment emotional punch.
At the funeral, a woman approaches White's mother and tells her she "brought my daughter today because I wanted her to know what a hero was. And I wanted her to know girls could be heroes, too." Readers — and Rangers in the book — agree.
"A Higher Standard: Leadership Strategies from America's First Female Four-Star General" by Gen. Ann Dunwoody
Photo Credit: Da Capo Press
"A Higher Standard: Leadership Strategies from America's First Female Four-Star General" by retired Army Gen. Ann Dunwoody with Tomago Collins, Da Capo Press, 288 pages, $25.99
When the author enlists in the Army Reserve in 1974, "pregnant soldiers were automatically discharged." At Airborne School, she is asked to jump first "so that any male jumper behind me would be too embarrassed to chicken out." In 38 years in uniform, she never reports to another woman.
Is the retired general annoyed? Not in this book, which serves as part management guide, part memoir and partial salute to history about that salutes "whites, blacks, women, and gays who were willing to kick down doors."
If only the book had more kick. Eyes blur at 15 references to four stars in the first 14 pages and wince at a "solider" typo on page 217. Dunwoody mentors "hundreds of soldiers" — and readers want to know what she tells some of them. A visit to Ground Zero in 2011 prompts "strong emotions," but only exposition here.
Now that the soldier who put "logistics muscle" into the "logistics tail" in Pentagon discussions has outlined her groundbreaking career, perhaps her next book can show the muscle she evidently musters.
"God Is Not Here: A Soldier's Struggle with Torture, Trauma, and the Moral Injuries of War" by Lt. Col. Bill Russell Edmonds
Photo Credit: Pegasus Books
"God Is Not Here: A Soldier's Struggle with Torture, Trauma, and the Moral Injuries of War" by Lt. Col. Bill Russell Edmonds, Pegasus Books, 298 pages, $27.95
Not a part of the so-called Greatest Generation, the author is in Generation One Percent — "the tiny portion of Americans who have served and sacrificed these last 14 years." His is a "lesser" sacrifice, but he hopes his memoir will allow fellow Americans to "realize that their demands come at irreplaceable expense."
Edmonds' place is "a sick and twisted version of Groundhog Day." He deteriorates, watching himself "through the prism of an Iraqi prison" where he is assigned, in 2005, to advise Iraqis who interrogate prisoners.
"My attempt to deter abuse by an appeal to morality engenders only their contempt," he writes of learning that he is a "soft, hypocritical American."
Now he is asking the questions — about his attempt to help "right the boat we've capsized" and about "moral injury and the never-ending journey of recovery" — and its "bombardment of thoughts."
He also sees an answer. "I will write my way through this,." aAnd he does, with a precision that might help others who remain bombarded.
"Blasted by Adversity: The Making of a Wounded Warrior" by Luke Murphy with Julie Bettinger
Photo Credit: Inkshares
"Blasted by Adversity: The Making of a Wounded Warrior" by Luke Murphy with Julie Bettinger, Inkshares, 256 pages, $25
Despite the dour title, the memoir of a former Army staff sergeant is not morose. "The amputee petting zoo," for example, is what he calls his celebrity-stop rehab unit at Walter Reed American Medical Center. (hospital style cq)
Why is he there? At 17, Murphy enlists in the National Guard, "mostly looking for a way to build my résumé and maybe pay for college." Soon he wants "in the fight" in the active-duty infantry, a "tough job" with only one perk: an endless supply of "bravado." On the anniversary of a sergeant friend's death, an IED severs his right leg and takes much of the other.
Seven years after the 2006 blast, his "crumbling" stump is still a "gooey and nasty" mess — but his mind is sharp and assured. "Everybody heals at a different rate," and he writes in order "to help give a voice to this new generation."
His and his co-author's voices could be clearer sometimes. His first deployment in 2003 contributes to "establishing a free and democratic Iraq." Huh? Walter Reed is in, not "near," Washington, D.C., in 2006. And at a "highfalutin" dinner, Paul Wolfowitz is "to my right." There's no mention of what the former Defense Department deputy director, reportedly an advocate of the Iraq invasion, says or doesn't say to the wounded warrior.
"The Navy SEAL Art of War: Leadership Lessons from the World's Most Elite Fighting Force" by Rob Roy with Chris Lawson
Photo Credit: Crown Business
"The Navy SEAL Art of War: Leadership Lessons from the World's Most Elite Fighting Force" by Rob Roy with Chris Lawson, Crown Business, 204 pages, $25
The former SEAL admires the simplicity in Sun Tzu's "The Art of War," and his own book, written with a former Military Times editor, tries "to mimic that approach."
This "Art" has 57 varieties of "SEAL maxims" compared to Sun Tzu's 13 chapters. The "Commit to Commitment" chapter has three sentences, but "You'll Know What to Do" includes four-and-one-a-half pages of Gen. George S. Patton's "rousing" 1944 Normandy speech.
Participants may pay "thousands of dollars" to attend the 20-year SEAL veteran's 90-hour leadership-communication course, but the book — about developing your bearing in topics such as cohesion, character, communication and command — requires minimal investment.
"Dustoff 7-3: Saving Lives Under Fire in Afghanistan" by Erik Sabiston
Photo Credit: Warriors Publishing Group
"Dustoff 7-3: Saving Lives Under Fire in Afghanistan" by Erik Sabiston, Warriors Publishing Group, 234 pages, $12
The cover of a 2012 Newsweek edition — "The Heroes Issue" — features the Dustoff 7-3 team, and the magazine recounts the "miracle rescue" by the helicopter crew in Afghanistan's "Valley of Death" in 2011.
This expanded, firsthand report by the pilot, a chief warrant officer, offers eyewitness details, including the valiant efforts of Sgt. Julia Bringloe, the medic whose leg was fractured and who later received a Distinguished Flying Cross for rescuing "14 soldiers in the worst possible circumstances." Sabiston claims no hero status but "does fly heroes to a hospital" — with a crew that impressively shares his conviction.
"Jesus Was An Airborne Ranger: Find Your Purpose Following the Warrior Christ" by John McDougall
Photo Credit: Multnomah Books
"Jesus Was An Airborne Ranger: Find Your Purpose Following the Warrior Christ" by John McDougall, Chaplain, U.S. Army Rangers, Multnomah Books, 224 pages, $14.99
Jesus is a "man's man" who, like an Airborne Ranger, "executes daring missions to rescue humanity at the cost of his own life," says the West Point Military Academy graduate and veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan.
In Ranger words, "Jesus was a badass" — not the "pale-faced, slack-jawed pretty boy" in popular culture.
"Real men can't relate to this feminized Christ."
Rangers lead in unexpected ways in this book expressly for those who "want to live a life of purpose." The Christ-in-combat comparison will require a leap of faith in some, but for McDougall, "that's where the analogy of an Airborne mission can help."
Jesus enlists "men and women who are willing to enter enemy territory and [to quote the mission of the U.S. Army Infantry] to 'close with and destroy' the evil in our world."
"Choosing Courage: Inspiring Stories of What It Means to Be a Hero" by Peter Collier
Photo Credit: Artisan
"Choosing Courage: Inspiring Stories of What It Means to Be a Hero" by Peter Collier, Artisan, 240 pages, $18.95
You could argue that a hero chooses not to be courageous but to act selflessly unselfishly in a catastrophic situation. Title aside, this book, produced for "children and teenagers," can inspire grown-ups, too. Visually appealing, "Courage" shares stories of 25 heroes — mostly Medal of Honor recipients — including a teacher and a physician.
In an essay, Deb Dunham meekly notes that her son, Cpl. Jason L. Dunham, "acted boldly in the space of an instant to cover a grenade that might have killed" three other Marines.
J. Ford Huffman is a Military Times book reviewer.
