Author Lily Burana writes about love, war, and the realities of military marriage with an honesty few writers would dare. A former exotic dancer who once had a penchant for anarchist politics and purple hair dye, Lily's rebellious past never would have suggested a marriage into the military. But then she met Mike, a Military Intelligence officer, and fell hopelessly in love, resulting in a most unorthodox romance--poignant, passionate, and utterly...

"The city of Baghdad was full of thinkers, artists, and scientists, the littlest among them Zaha Hadid. Zaha knew from a young age that she wanted to be an architect. She set goals for herself and followed them against all odds. A woman in a man's world, and a person of color in a white field, Zaha was met with resistance at every turn. When critics called her a diva and claimed her ideas were unbuildable, she didn't let their judgments stop her from...

Scores of interviews, soldier's quotes, photos, and expression of their service and views on issues critical to the nation combine to create this is composite narrative of the experiences of U.S. service personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan. Duty, service, politics, cultural and ethical challenges, relationships to local populations, and reentry into American society are all presented in thematic chapters.

"In March of 2002, while the eyes of the world focused on Afghanistan, Jack Noble finds himself on the outskirts of Baghdad, Iraq. A Marine in name only, Jack is on-loan to the CIA. Normally an integral part of the team, he finds that he is nothing more than a security detail in Iraq. Jack and his partner Bear have a run-in with four CIA special agents over the treatment of an Iraqi family. Within hours Jack and Bear are detained. All Jack wanted...

When Lieutenant Commander Heidi Kraft's twin son and daughter were fifteen months old, she was deployed to Iraq. A clinical psychologist in the US Navy, Kraft's job was to uncover the wounds of war that a surgeon would never see. She put away thoughts of her children back home, acclimated to the sound of incoming rockets, and learned how to listen to the most traumatic stories a war zone has to offer. One of the toughest lessons of her deployment...

With their first book, Extreme Ownership (2015), Jocko Willink and Leif Babin challenged readers to become better leaders, better followers, and better people in both their professional and personal lives. Now, Jocko and Leif dive deeper into finding balance between the opposing forces that pull every leader in different directions. Mastering the Dichotomy of Leadership requires understanding when to lead and when to follow; when to aggressively maneuver...

Tells the story of Abe, a young Marine recruit who experiences the ugly, pedestrian, and often meaningless side of military service in rural Iraq. He enlists in hopes of finding that missing something in his life but comes to find out that it's not quite what he expected. Abe gets more than he bargained for when his journey takes him to the Middle East in war-torn Iraq.

Valor features the thrilling stories that are the fruit of Mark Lee Greenblatt s interviews with brave American servicemen from twenty-first-century wars. These soldiers, sailors, and Marines have risked their lives several times over for their country as well as for their fellow troops and civilians. Still, until now, their stories have largely gone unnoticed by the public, perhaps lost in the frenzied and often nasty debate surrounding those conflicts....