Reading books like these can be one way to remember those who lost their lives during military service. From the American Revolution to more modern conflicts, a wide range of people affected by war are represented here.


Compiled by:
Brandon R.
 Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10

Marcus Luttrell
Adult Nonfiction – 958.1047 Lut

"Four US Navy SEALS departed one clear night in early July 2005 for the mountainous Afghanistan-Pakistan border for a reconnaissance mission. Their task was to document the activity of an al Qaeda leader rumored to be very close to Bin Laden with a small army in a Taliban stronghold. Five days later, only one of those Navy SEALS made it out alive." —Publisher


Bunker Hill: A City, a Siege, a Revolution

Nathaniel Philbrick
Adult NonFiction – 973.3312 Phi

"Recounts the events of the Boston battle that ignited the American Revolution, tracing the experiences of Patriot leader Dr. Joseph Warren, a newly recruited George Washington, and British General William Howe." —Publisher


The Darkest Summer: Pusan and Inchon 1950: The Battles that Saved South Korea—and the Marines—from Extinction

Bill Sloan
Adult Nonfiction – 951.9042 Slo

"Draws on interviews with Korean War veterans to describe the first three months of the war, when one of the greatest reversals of military fortune not only saved South Korea from communist conquest but also rescued the Marine Corps from extinction." —Publisher


Day of Infamy

Walter Lord
Adult Nonfiction – 940.5426 Lor

"In piecing together the saga of Pearl Harbor, Lord traveled over fourteen thousand miles and spoke or corresponded with over five hundred individuals who were there—not just the admirals and generals, but enlisted men and families as well. He visited each of the Hawaiian bases attacked and pored over maps, charts, letters, diaries, official files, newspapers, and some twenty-five thousand pages of testimony, discovering a wealth of information that had never before been revealed." —Publisher


Dispatches

Michael Herr
Adult Non-Fiction - 959.7043 Her

"A documentation of the day-to-day realities of the war in Vietnam experienced by men on patrol, under siege at Khe Sanh, strapped into helicopters, and faced with continuing nightmares after their return to the United States." —Publisher


Ghost Soldiers: The Epic Account of World War II's Greatest Rescue Mission

Hampton Sides
Adult Nonfiction – 940.5425 Sid

On January 28, 1945, 121 hand-selected troops from the elite U.S. Army 6th Ranger Battalion slipped behind enemy lines in the Philippines in an attempt to rescue 513 American and British POWs. As the Rangers stealthily moved through enemy-occupied territory, they learned that instead of facing the few dozen prison guards, they could possibly confront as many as 8,000 battle-hardened enemy troops. —Publisher


The Ghosts of Hero Street: How One Small Mexican-American Community Gave So Much in World War II and Korea

Carlos Harrison
Adult Nonfiction – 305.86872 Har

"Twenty-two Mexican-American families who lived on that one street sent fifty-seven of their children to fight in World War II and Korea—more than any other place that size anywhere in the country. Today it's known as Hero Street. This is the story of those brave men and their families, how they fought both in battle and to be accepted in an American society that remained biased against them even after they returned home as heroes." —Publisher


Here Is Your War: Story of G.I. Joe

Ernie Pyle
Adult Nonfiction – 940.5423 Py

"Indiana's own award-winning World War II journalist Ernie Pyle 'tells how people from a cross-section of America—ranches, inner cities, small mountain farms, and college towns—learned to fight a war. The Allied campaign and ultimate victory in North Africa was built on blood, brave deeds, sacrifice and needless loss, exotic vistas, endurance, homesickness, and an unmistakable American sense of humor.'" —Publisher


Marching Home: Union Veterans and Their Unending Civil War

Brian Matthew Jordan
Adult Nonfiction - 973.708697 Jor

Traditional Civil War histories have concluded in 1865, with a bitterly won peace and Union soldiers returning triumphantly home. Civil War historian Brian Matthew Jordan creates an entirely new narrative. These veterans—tending rotting wounds, battling alcoholism, campaigning for paltry pensions— tragically realized that they stood as unwelcome reminders to a new America eager to heal, forget, and embrace the freewheeling bounty of the Gilded Age. —Publisher


The Mathews Men: Seven Brothers and the War Against Hitler's U-Boats

William Geroux
Adult Nonfiction – 940.5451 Ger

"A well-constructed and meticulously researched account of the heroics performed and sacrifices endured by the merchant marine, focusing on the Chesapeake Bay county of Mathews, Virginia. As Geroux writes, 'For more than 250 years, the profession of choice in Mathews had been sailing merchant ships.' These men, including the Hodges family, which sent seven sons to war, performed an essential but underreported service for the country.'" —Publisher


Memoirs of an Infantry Officer

Siegfried Sassoon
Adult Fiction - Sassoon

Wonderfully captures the vanishing idylls of Edwardian England and the brutal realities of World War I with a portrayal of a mind coming to terms with the brutal truths he has encountered in war—as well as his unsentimental, though often poetic, portrayal of class-defined life in England at wartime. —Publisher


A People's History of the U.S. Military: Ordinary Soldiers Reflect on Their Experience of War, from the American Revolution to Afghanistan

Michael Bellesiles
Adult Nonfiction – 355.0097 Bel

The captivating narratives of common soldiers, sampled from over three centuries of letters, diaries, and memoirs as well as audio recordings, films, and blogs—from ardent patriots to disillusioned cynics, barely literate farm boys to urbane college graduates, scions of founding families to recent immigrants, and women disguising themselves as men in order to serve their country to African Americans fighting for their freedom through military service. —Publisher


A Place of Remembrance: Official Book of the 9/11 Memorial and Museum

Allison Blais
Adult Nonfiction – 974.71 Bla

The story of the World Trade Center buildings: the earthshaking attack; the aftermath, as anxious rescue efforts became months-long recovery; the public debate over how to commemorate those lost; the plans finally approved for a plaza and museum. Also a chapter dedicated to the remarkable nine-story underground 9/11 Memorial Museum. —Publisher


Red Platoon: A True Story of American Valor

Clinton Romesha
Adult Nonfiction – 958.1047 Rom

"An account of the horrendous October 2009 attack on the American Combat Outpost Keating in Afghanistan, told in a frank, engaging vernacular by the staff sergeant and Medal of Honor winner. Romesha ably captures the daily dangers faced by these courageous American soldiers in Afghanistan." —Publisher


Section 60: Arlington National Cemetery: Where War Comes Home

Robert Poole
Adult Nonfiction – 975.5295 Poo

"Using this section as a window into the latest wars, Poole recounts stories of courage and sacrifice by fallen heroes, and explores the ways in which soldiers' comrades, friends, and families honor and remember those lost to war--carrying on with life in the aftermath of tragedy." —Publisher


Stars In Their Courses: The Gettysburg Campaign, June-July 1863

Shelby Foote
Adult Nonfiction – 973.7349 Fo

"This careful study of the 1863 Gettysburg campaign assumes the contours of a classical tragedy. Foote positions readers on the field of battle itself, among swirling smoke and clattering grapeshot, and invites us to feel for ourselves its hellishness." —Publisher