![\"_webbooks\"](\"https:\/\/lamesacourier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/webbooks.jpg\")
<\/a>It took only 21 years for the Great War to lose its grand name and become World War I, as World War II took over the headlines. World War II is the subject of so much quality nonfiction that it\u2019s difficult to settle on one, so we\u2019ll focus on a memoir. \u201cThe Eighteen-Year-Old Replacement: Facing Combat in Patton\u2019s Third Army\u201d is Richard Kingsbury\u2019s story of being drafted to Patton\u2019s 94th Infantry Division just six weeks after D-Day. Kingsbury\u2019s honest trepidation about shooting at fellow humans creates an intimacy with the reader that can\u2019t be achieved in a historical narrative of war.<\/p>\nBy the time Armistice Day was renamed Veterans Day in 1954, as a tribute to the military service of all veterans, the Korean War had been over for a year. \u201cThe Coldest Winter\u201d by David Halberstam provides the most comprehensive view of the Korean conflict. If you\u2019ve already read it, you might choose \u201cA Christmas Far From Home\u201d by Stanley Weintraub, which follows the commanders behind the Battle of Chosin Reservoir and the U.S. Marines and soldiers who managed to escape Chinese forces during this infamous fight.<\/p>\n
Like Korea, the Vietnam War was a \u201cconflict,\u201d never officially declared a war by Congress, but unlike Korea, it has produced a huge field of literature and memoir. The autobiographical account \u201cWhat It Is Like to Go to War\u201d by Karl Marlantes is informed by the author\u2019s years fighting in Vietnam, but his observations about the psychology of warfare apply to the present day as well. Given Marlantes\u2019 skepticism of war and the inner conflict with his status as a decorated war hero, his memoir would be an excellent choice for a book discussion. Marlantes is also the author of \u201cMatterhorn,\u201d considered one of the finest novels on the Vietnam War, which took him over 30 years to write.<\/p>\n
From Vietnam we travel to the Persian Gulf, and although there is little literature about the 1990-91 Gulf War, we can\u2019t pass over the bestselling memoir \u201cJarhead: A Marine\u2019s Chronicle of the War and Other Battles\u201d by Anthony Swofford. Don\u2019t conflate Swofford\u2019s experience with that of the many narratives from the recent Iraq-Afghanistan War, such as \u201cDanger Close\u201d by Amber Smith, a chronicle of an elite female helicopter pilot, or \u201cRise\u201d by Daniel Rodriguez, the author\u2019s story of surviving Iraq and triumphing over PTSD by earning a spot on the Clemson University football team. The soldiers, sailors and marines serving in Iraq and Afghanistan are publishing as they come to terms with what they have experienced, and I expect we will ultimately see a body of literature that will rival that from the Vietnam War.<\/p>\n
Noticias de nuestros amigos<\/strong><\/p>\n Our first-time Oktoberfest booth was a huge success. Thank you to all who stopped by to purchase art books, join the Friends of the La Mesa Library, or register your opinion on La Mesa\u2019s library. Your purchases and memberships support books, movies, magazines, and special events at the library all year long. We hope to see you again!<\/p>\n \u2014Heather Pisani-Kristl is managing librarian of the La Mesa branch of the San Diego County Library. Call the library at 619-469-2151, visit in person at 8074 Allison Ave., or go online at sdcl.org.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Heather Pisani-Kristl Veterans Day was originally known as Armistice Day for the cessation of fighting between Allied forces and Germany during \u201cthe eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month\u201d of 1918. Armistice ended \u201cthe Great War,\u201d where technological advances had enabled troops to battle each other with previously unknown ferocity. Mortality […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":747,"featured_media":223802,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11548","_seopress_titles_title":"Books by and about veterans","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11549,11547,11548],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-223801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-features","category-la-mesa-courier"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/747"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223801\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/223802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}