I try to pick at least three books to read each month and here’s what I have in the pipeline for February… Some have been on my to read list for ages, others are quirky, and one just sounds like fun!
Nonfiction:
One Bullet Away: The Making of a Marine Officer by Nathaniel Fick
If the Marines are ‘the few, the proud,’ Recon Marines are the fewest and the proudest. Nathaniel Fick’s military training begins with a hellish summer at Quantico, and just after 9/11 Fick finds himself leading a platoon into Afghanistan.
Two years later he advances to the pinnacle — Recon — on the eve of the war with Iraq. Leading twenty-two Marines into this deadly conflict, he vows to bring them all home safely. To do so, he’ll need luck and an increasingly clear vision of the limitations of his superiors.
Fick unveils the process that makes Marine officers such legendary leaders and shares his hard-won insights into the differences between military ideals and military practice, which can mock those ideals. One Bullet Away never shrinks from blunt truths, but ultimately it is an inspiring account of mastering the art of war.
Graphic novel:
The Encyclopedia of Early Earth by Isabel Greenberg
This book contains many stories, big and small, about and pertaining to the following things: Gods, monsters, mad kings, wise old crones, shamans, medicine men, brothers and sisters, strife, mystery, bad science, worse geography, and did we already mention true love?
Critics are saying it is probably the best thing since sliced bread.
Romance:
Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
When his mother became President, Alex Claremont-Diaz was promptly cast as the American equivalent of a young royal. Handsome, charismatic, genius–his image is pure millennial-marketing gold for the White House.
There’s only one problem: Alex has a beef with the actual prince, Henry, across the pond. And when the tabloids get hold of a photo involving an Alex-Henry altercation, U.S./British relations take a turn for the worse.
Meandering Michelle 