This week I have read:

The Beet Fields: Memories of a Sixteenth Summer by Gary Paulsen
Not as strong as his other stuff. Wow, he has had quite a rough life and faced some horrible things. Still, this is not one of my favorites…

Soldier’s Heart: Being the Story of the Enlistment and Due Service of the Boy Charley Goddard in the First Minnesota Volunteers by Gary Paulsen
This is a sad story that really dives into the heart and soul of a soldier. It is a novel but also a psychological evaluation of what seeing so much death and destruction can do to a person. This is a sad, sad story, but a really important one. It seemed so timely with the death toll in the Middle East constantly rising.

The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
There is no way to describe this book. But I’ll give it a shot anyway. It is a fiction book but feels like more like non-fiction. It is about the Vietnam War. It is storytelling at its finest, but it is also about the art of storytelling. It is one of the first things that I’ve ever read that really and truly made me understand why my Dad will not speak about his experiences as a Marine is Vietnam and why still, 34 years later, he has nightmares every night. All I can really say is that you really need to read it.