This book discussion series is tailored fo r veterans and their families. Service members of all eras\, their spouses \, and adult children are welcome. Author and retired college professor Wayne Karlin will lead us through conversations about books written in very different styles but connected by themes of war\, courage\, love\, honor\ , and trauma.
\nMeetings will be held at Lexington Park library on t he first Saturday of the month from 2-4 p.m. Supplies are limited\; partic ipants may pick up a copy of the book one month before the meetings.
\nTh
e Veterans Book Group is coordinated statewide by Maryland Humanities and is presented locally in pa
rtnership with St. Mary&rsquo\;s County Library. Veterans Book Group is su
pported this year by St. Mary&rsquo\;s County Library.
BOOK LIST
\nFebruary 07 - With the Old Breed: at Peleliu and Okinawa by Eugene Sledge \;
\nBased on notes Sledge secretly kept in a copy of the New Testament\, With the Old Breed captures with utter simplicity and searing honesty the experience of a soldier in the fierce P acific Theater. Here is what saved\, threatened\, and changed his life. He re\, too\, is the story of how he learned to hate and kill&mdash\;and came to love&mdash\;his fellow man.
\n&ldquo\;In all the literature on t
he Second World War\, there is not a more honest\, realistic or moving mem
oir than Eugene Sledge&rsquo\;s. This is the real deal\, the real war: unv
arnished\, brutal\, without a shred of sentimentality or false patriotism\
, a profound primer on what it actually was like to be in that war. It is
a classic that will outlive all the armchair generals&rsquo\; safe account
s of&mdash\;not the &lsquo\;good war&rsquo\;&mdash\;but the worst war ever
.&rdquo\;&mdash\;Ken Burns
March 07 - Seeking Quan Am: A Dual Memoir by Susan R. Dixon and Mark Smith
\nWhat happens when a two-tour Vietnam veteran tries to talk to an anti-war activist decades after the war has ended? Will buried memories\, simmering resentment\, and divisive stereotypes sabotage their effort? Has too much time passed?
\nMark M. Smith chose to enlist in the Army after his high school graduation in 1966 and to serve in Vietnam as an infantryman w ith the First Air Cavalry. He wanted to experience war directly\, to feel what it was like to come under fire&mdash\;and he got his wish. His high s chool classmate
\nSusan R. Dixon had seen the physical effects of wo rld wars\, the Six Day War in Israel\, and even the French Revolution duri ng her travels in Europe and the Middle East. She also witnessed the emoti onal effects of the Civil War and world wars in generations of her own fam ily. She opposed the war Mark chose to fight in.
\nWhen Mark and Sus an reconnected in 2012\, Mark needed an editor for the writing he had done immediately after the war. Susan had become interested in how the trauma of the Vietnam War had affected not just the veterans\, but those who witn essed the war indirectly. Together they journeyed into memory and toward m odern Vietnam\, with no guarantees where that journey would take them.
\nApril 04 - Street Without Joy: The French Debacle in Indochina by Bernard Fall \;
\nFirst published in 1961 by St ackpole Books\, Street without Joy is a classic of military history.
\nJournalist and scholar Bernard Fall vividly c aptured the sights\, sounds\, and smells of the brutal&mdash\; and politic ally complicated&mdash\;conflict between the French and the Communist-led Vietnamese nationalists in Indochina. The French fought to the bitter end\ , but even with the lethal advantages of a modern military\, they could no t stave off the Viet Minh insurgency of hit-and-run tactics\, ambushes\, b ooby traps\, and nighttime raids. The final French defeat came at Dien Bie n Phu in 1954\, setting the stage for American involvement and a far blood ier chapter in Vietnam&lsquo\;s history. Fall combined graphic reporting w ith deep scholarly knowledge of Vietnam and its colonial history in a book memorable in its descriptions of jungle fighting and insightful in its ar guments.
\nAfter more than a half a century in print\, S treet without Joy remains required reading.
\nMay 02 - An Artis t's Legacy by Khanh Ha \; \;
\nAmid the raging Indochina War war blossoms a love story when an artist/reporte r meets a singer/performer who travels with an entertainment troupe to the valley of Dien Bien Phu for the climactic confrontation between the Viet Minh and the French Union. The lovers become separated after the victory o f Äien Bien Phu when the artist is sent to South Viet Nam to fight the American Viet Nam War. They meet again 40 years later in that valley calle d Äien Bien Phu. His solitary soul is reunited with his truelove. It is a simple love story that transcends cultural barriers.
\nJune 06 - Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner's Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause by Ty Seidule
\nTy Seidule grew up revering R obert E. Lee. From his southern childhood to his service in the U.S. Army\ , every part of his life reinforced the Lost Cause myth: that Lee was the greatest man who ever lived\, and that the Confederates were underdogs who lost the Civil War with honor. Now\, as a retired brigadier general and P rofessor Emeritus of History at West Point\, his view has radically change d. From a soldier\, a scholar\, and a southerner\, Ty Seidule believes tha t American history demands a reckoning.
\nIn a unique blend of histo ry and reflection\, Seidule deconstructs the truth about the Confederacy&m dash\;that its undisputed primary goal was the subjugation and enslavement of Black Americans&mdash\;and directly challenges the idea of honoring th ose who labored to preserve that system and committed treason in their fai led attempt to achieve it.
\nPart history lecture\, part meditation on the Civil War and its fallout\, and part memoir\, Robert E. Lee and Me challenges the deeply-held legends and myths of the Confederacy&mdash\;and provides a surprising interpretation of essential truths that our country still has a difficult time articulating and accepting.
\n\n< em>Photo by Ron Carver
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