With Memorial Day right around the corner, it’s a great chance to tuck into a book or two that celebrates service to our country.
This week, we’ve put together a selection of three timeless reads that really help to humanize this important day—bringing out the personal stories, the heroism, the sacrifices, and the costs entailed for our freedom.
The books gathered here stand out in particular for their wide appeal, being tales that any adult can enjoy (indeed, several are bestsellers) but that have also proven to be hits over the years with my own high school readers. The last one also works for middle-grade readers and is a great entrée into the topic.
Many have shared that they will never look at the great wars or our soldiers the same way again after these reads. A powerful, up-close story makes for an indelible impression. Great books really can be life changing.
I would also add that works like these are timely, as today’s millennials have grown up with unparalleled degrees of comfort and convenience in their lives, with the hardships and sacrifices of their forebears—which make today’s freedoms possible—often not well appreciated, if known at all.
‘Band of Brothers’ by Stephen Ambrose
Ambrose is rightly celebrated as one of America’s greatest chroniclers of war, and “Band of Brothers” is the military historian at his finest, in my opinion.The book is an utterly absorbing narrative of one of World War II’s most successful and courageous companies—East Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne. It follows the company from its arrival in Normandy to its capture of Hitler’s famed Eagle’s Nest outpost in Bavaria, sparing no detail.
Ambrose has a remarkable gift of putting you right in the trenches (you can almost feel bullets zinging overhead) while building in an amazing amount of backstory, while never getting bogged down or crushing you with the weight of his research. You come to know his soldiers as individuals, each with their own story, family, and past. The prose always feels brisk, the events immediate. Ambrose’s craftwork is striking in itself.
What may be particularly eye-opening for first-time readers is the extraordinary degree of discipline and subordination of one’s own needs, desires, and interests that are demanded in the service. There is a total dedication to your unit and cause that’s evoked by “Band”—that even might entail laying down your own life. (And kids today think forgoing the latest iPhone is a sacrifice!)
You really feel the selflessness of our soldiers with Ambrose’s writing. One can’t help but set the book down a bit humbled by what these men went through and gave of themselves, for a greater good.
‘Unbroken’ by Laura Hillenbrand
A runaway bestseller and major motion picture, “Unbroken” is the unbelievable tale of Louis Zamperini and his harrowing ordeals in World War II as an airman turned Japanese POW.Zamperini’s story is a tale of the unlikely. At the story’s outset, we meet our protagonist in anything but heroic form, then a teenage delinquent who, through a first twist of fate, sees his restless energy channeled into running, carrying him all the way to the 1936 Olympics.
But the real story begins when Zamperini’s fate takes a different turn, landing him in the Pacific Ocean at the outbreak of World War II when his plane crashes. He endures unthinkable deprivations, floating with two other crew members in the ocean, surrounded by sharks, only to be rescued (if one could call it that) by the Japanese, who throw him into a POW camp. The horrors that await make the trials at sea tame by comparison.
What makes this an utterly inspirational tale, rather than tragic, is Zamperini’s undaunted courage and indomitable will. Time and again, our protagonist is pushed to the limits of human endurance—emotional and physical—only to overcome the impossible with a great deal of grit.
Hillenbrand is a phenomenal storyteller who packs an enormous amount of research into what is always a lively, cinematic, and spellbinding read.
Readers will also appreciate how the author doesn’t gloss over the psychological toll that it all had on Zamperini, nor the redeeming power of religious renewal, years later, when he embraces faith and is finally able to forgive his tormenters and heal.
‘Fire in My Eyes’ by Brad Snyder and Tom Sileo
This is a little-known gem of a book that’s been a perennial favorite among my students, and that had a real impact on me. It forever deepened and honed my appreciation for our veterans.“Fire In My Eyes” is the autobiographical tale (unlike the other two stories here) of Brad Snyder, an Explosive Ordnance Disposal officer with SEAL Team Ten who is serving in Afghanistan.
The unthinkable happens, just months after Bin Laden’s triumphant capture, when an enemy improvised explosive device is set off and the explosion leaves Snyder enshrouded in darkness. After endless hours of operations, he is left with the crushing news: His vision will never be restored. He is blind.
But like Zamperini before him, Snyder’s is a tale of incredible will and optimism in the face of insurmountable odds. He not only battles through the emotional darkness engulfing him—finding the will to go on, allowing himself to love again—but also the physical limitations of his new condition.
Driven by incredible courage, Snyder goes on to become a champion swimmer—earning a gold medal at the 2012 Paralympic Games, just one year after his sight was taken from him.
It’s a tale that’s equal parts inspiring and humbling, and every bit as moving.
While this is the story of just one serviceman, it’s at once the tale of so many more—whose names we might not know, whose ordeals we may never share in, whose sacrifices and quiet heroism we’ll never have a chance to personally thank them for.
But that’s exactly what Memorial Day is for, and there is much gratitude to express.
