Transcript Memoirs - Blackbird Library

MEMOIRS
Military, War
WARRIOR: A MEMOIR BY THERESA
LARSON
“Theresa Larson has lived multiple
lives: At ten she was a caregiver to
her dying mother. As a teenager
and into her twenties, she was an
all-star high school, college, &
professional softball player. As a
young adult, she was a fitness
competition winner, a beauty
pageant contestant, and model. And
as a grown woman, she was a highachieving lieutenant in the
Marines, in charge of an entire
platoon while deployed in Iraq.
Meanwhile, Theresa was battling
bulimia nervosa, which ultimately
cut short her military service…”
272 pages
Interlibrary Loan at the
Voorheesville Public Library
CONSEQUENCE: A MEMOIR BY ERIC FAIR
“Eric Fair grew up in the shadows of
crumbling Bethlehem Steel plants,
nurturing a strong faith and a belief that
he was called to serve his country.
Consequence is Fair’s story, the story of
a man who begins with a desire to serve
and, through a winding series of choices,
becomes an interrogator for a private
contractor at Abu Ghraib during one of
our nation’s darkest moments….By the
time he leaves Iraq after that first
deployent, Fair will have participated in
or witnessed a variety of aggressive
interrogation techniques including sleep
deprivation, stress positions, diet
manipulation, exposure and isolation.”
256 pages
Interlibrary Loan at the
Voorheesville Public Library
AMERICAN WIFE: LOVE, WAR, FAITH &
RENEWAL BY TAYA KYLE
“The widow of American Sniper
Chris Kyle shares their
private journey, a moving and
universal chronicle of love and
family, service and patriotism,
grief and sacrifice, faith and
purpose….Now she embraces
a future…that will inspire
every reader.”
334 pages
Available at the
Voorheesville Public Library
UNLIKELY WARRIOR: A JEWISH SOLDIER
IN HITLER’S ARMY BY GEORG RAUCH
In wartime Vienna, Georg Rauch
helped his mother hide dozens of
Jews from the Gestapo behind false
walls in their top-floor apartment
and arrange for their safe transport
out of the country. His family was
among the few who worked
underground to resist Nazi rule.
Then came the day he was drafted
into Hitler's army and shipped out
to fight on the Eastern front as part
of the German infantry--in spite of
his having confessed his own
Jewish ancestry.
324 pages
CODE NAME PAULINE: MEMOIRS OF A
WORLD WAR II SPECIAL AGENT
BY PEARL CORNIOLEY
Pearl Witherington Cornioley
joined the Special Operations
Executive in 1943 and worked
with the French Resistance as
an undercover courier and later,
under the code name “Pauline,”
as a network leader of 3,500
men. She was instrumental in
the carrying out of numerous
acts of sabotage during WWII.
184 pages
BATTLE READY BY MARK DONALD
Gripping memoir of Navy
Cross, Silver Star, Bronze
Star & Purple Heart
recipient. As a SEAL &
combat medic, Mark serviced
for almost 25 years in some of
the most dangerous combat
actions imaginable. From the
rigors of BUD/S training to
the horrors of battlefield, the
reader experiences the unique
life of an elite warrior-medic.
352 pages
DAMN FEW: MAKING THE MODERN SEAL
WARRIOR BY RORKE DENVER
Explaining the unique
psychology behind the
SEALs' legendary training
program, a high-level
SEAL officer reveals the
modern techniques that
transform a chosen few
into lethal warriors and
details how the SEALs'
creative operations
became front-and-centerin
America's War on Terror.
290 pages
NO TURNING BACK: ONE MAN’S
INSPIRING TRUE STORY OF COURAGE,
DETERMINATION AND HOPE BY BRYAN
ANDERSON
Anderson enlisted in the
Army in 2001. He served 2
tours of duty in Iraq. In
2005, Bryan was injured by
an IED that resulted in the
loss of both legs and his left
hand. He is one of the few
triple amputees that have
survived. This is his story.
235 pages
SEAL TEAM SIX: MEMOIRS OF AN ELITE
NAVY SEAL SNIPER BY HOWARD WASDIN
SEAL Team Six is a secret unit
tasked with counterterrorism,
hostage rescue, and
counterinsurgency. In this
dramatic, behind the-scenes
chronicle, Howard Wasdin takes
readers deep inside the world of
Navy SEALS and Special Forces
snipers. Additional copies
available at Voorheesville Public
Library.
331 pages
I AM A SEAL TEAM SIX WARRIOR BY
HOWARD E. WASDIN
Abbreviated version of Seal
Team Six for teen
audience.
177 pages.
AMERICAN SNIPER BY CHRIS KYLE
Gripping, eye-opening, and
powerful, "American Sniper"
is the astonishing
autobiography of SEAL Chief
Chris Kyle, whose record 255
confirmed kills make him the
most deadly sniper in U.S.
military history.
381 pages
NO EASY DAY: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A
NAVY SEAL BY MARK OWEN
For the first time anywhere, the
first-person account of the
planning and execution of the
Bin Laden raid from a Navy
Seal who confronted the
terrorist mastermind and
witnessed his final moments.
316 pages
THE HEART AND THE FIST: THE EDUCATION OF
A HUMANITARIAN, THE MAKING OF A NAVY
SEAL BY ERIC GREITENS
309 pages
UNTIL TUESDAY: A WOUNDED WARRIOR & THE
GOLDEN RETRIEVER WHO SAVED HIM BY LUIS
CARLOS MONTALVAN
Luis and Tuesday are two
true American heroes.
This powerful story is a
testament to the
courage of veterans both
on and off the
battlefield.
252 pages
Interlibrary Loan at the
Voorheesville Public Library
GHOSTS OF WAR: THE TRUE STORY OF A
19-YEAR-OLD GI BY RYAN SMITHSON
Smithson experienced
the events of 9/11 while
in high school and
responded by
enlisting in the
Army Reserve after
graduation.
322 pages
LONE SURVIVOR BY MARCUS LUTTRELL
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. 392 pages
FAREWELL TO MANZANAR BY JEANNE
WAKATSUKI HOUSTON & JAMES
HOUSTON
Jeanne Wakatsuki was seven years old in
1942 when her family was uprooted from
their home & sent to live at Manzanar
internment camp--with 10,000 other
Japanese Americans. Along with
searchlight towers & armed guards,
Manzanar ludicrously featured
cheerleaders, Boy Scouts, sock hops, baton
twirling lessons & a dance band called the
Jive…Farewell to Manzanar is the true
story of one spirited Japanese-American
family's attempt to survive the indignities
of forced detention . . . and of a native-born
American child who discovered what it was
like to grow up behind barbed wire in the
United States.
203 pages
I HAVE LIVED A THOUSAND YEARS: GROWING
UP IN THE HOLOCAUST BY LIVIA BITTONJACKSON
This Holocaust memoir
describes what happens
to a Jewish girl who is
13 when the Nazis
invade Hungary in
1944. She tells of a year
of roundups, transports,
selections, camps,
torture, forced labor,
and shootings, then of
liberation and the
return of a few.
224 pages
I WILL PLANT YOU A LILAC TREE: A MEMOIR
OF A SCHINDLER’S LIST SURVIVOR BY LAURA
HILLMAN
In 1942 Berlin,
Hannelore, 16, bravely
volunteers to be
deported with her
mother and two younger
brothers to Poland. Of
course, they are soon
separated, and during
the next three years
Hannelore is moved
through eight
concentration camps.
241 pages
THE BOY ON THE WOODEN BOX BY LEON
LEYSON
A remarkable memoir from Leon
Leyson, one of the youngest children
to survive the Holocaust on Oskar
Schindler's list. Leon Leyson (born
Leib Lezjon) was only ten years old
when the Nazis invaded Poland and
his family was forced to relocate to the
Krakow ghetto. With incredible luck,
perseverance, and grit, Leyson was
able to survive the sadism of the
Nazis, including that of the demonic
Amon Goeth, commandant of Plaszow,
the concentration camp outside
Krakow.
231 pages
IN MY HANDS: MEMORIES OF A HOLOCAUST
RESCUER BY IRENE GUT OPDYKE
“Irene Gut was just 17 in
1939, when the
Germans and Russians
devoured her native
Poland. Just a girl,
really. But a girl who
saw evil and chose to
defy it.”
276 pages
Available at the
Voorheesville Public Library
YA 921 OPDYKE
BEYOND BAND OF BROTHERS: THE WAR
MEMOIRS OF MAJOR DICK WINTERS BY
DICK WINTERS
The commander of Easy
Company provides a firsthand
memoir of combat during
World War II, describing the
role of the “Band of Brothers”
during the D-Day invasion, the
march into Germany, and the
liberation of an S.S. death
camp.
304 pages
CODE TALKER: THE FIRST AND ONLY
MEMOIR BY ONE OF THE ORIGINAL
NAVAJO CODE TALKERS OF WORLD WAR II
BY CHESTER NEZ
The first and only memoir by
one of the original Navajo
code talkers of World War
II. Although more than 400
Navajos served as topsecret code talkers, even
those fighting should to
shoulder with them were
not told of their cover
function.
310 pages
DISPATCHES BY MICHAEL HERR
Written on the front lines in
Vietnam, Dispatches became an
immediate classic of war reportage
when it was published in 1977.
From its terrifying opening
pages to its final eloquent words,
Dispatches makes us see, in
unforgettable and unflinching
detail, the chaos and fervor of the
war and the surreal insanity of
life in that singular combat
zone.
260 pages
HOME BEFORE MORNING: THE STORY OF AN
ARMY NURSE IN VIETNAM BY LYNDA VAN
DEVANTER
This incredible story,
which plunges us
immediately into the
bloodiest aspects of the
war, is also a suspenseful
autobiography that will
keep you chewing your
fingernails to see if Van
Devanter survives any
of it at all.
331 pages
A RUMOR OF WAR BY PHILIP CAPUTO
“To call it the best book
about Vietnam is to
trivialize it.”
356 pages