Celebrate Veteran's Day: Inspiring Adult Fiction and Nonfiction Reads

Updated October 29, 2025
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1795 : the order of the furies : a novel
Natt och Dag, Niklas
For more than a year, Emil Winge has dedicated himself to capturing the diabolical Tycho Ceton, with the invaluable assistance of one-armed army veteran and watchman Jean Michael Cardell. Their mission is made more difficult by the ever-increasing paranoia gripping Sweden's royal family, who fear...
An American dreamer : life in a divided country
Finkel, David
Paper Book
A man navigates the deep divisions in America today and discovers that sometimes change can start by finding common ground with your neighbors in this immersive account by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Thank You for Your Service and The Good Soldiers. "A...
American Heroes: From the #1 Bestselling Authors of Walk in My Combat Boots
Patterson, James
Paper Book
In this instant #1 national bestseller from the authors of Walk in My Combat Boots, "American Heroes is a gripping collection of firsthand accounts...capturing the indomitable spirit of our nation's finest" (Jack Carr, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Terminal List series...
American veteran
Williams, Leah (Television producer)
DVD
Today, America has nearly eighteen million living military veterans, from the 'Greatest Generation' to men and women coming home from recent tours in Afghanistan and Iraq. They join the now-silent ranks of American veterans reaching back to our earliest conflict, the Revolutionary War.
Billy Lynn's long halftime walk
Fountain, Ben
Paper Book
Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction and a finalist for the National Book Award "Brilliantly done . . . grand, intimate, and joyous." --New York Times Book Review From the PEN/Hemingway Award-winning author of the critically acclaimed short story collection,...
Black Hawk down : a story of modern war
Bowden, Mark
Paper Book
Recounts a 1993 firefight in Mogadishu, Somalia, that resulted in the deaths of eighteen Americans and more than five hundred Somalis, examining the rationales behind the disastrous raid.
Blind tiger
Brown, Sandra
Paper Book
From a New York Times bestselling author, a war-weary soldier jumps from a moving freight train to avoid trouble-and lands in more than he bargained for. On the day Thatcher Hutton arrives in Foley, Texas, a local woman goes missing. Thatcher becomes the...
Ceremony
Silko, Leslie
Paper Book
Tayo, a young Native American, has been a prisoner of the Japanese during World War II, and the horrors of captivity have almost eroded his will to survive. His return to the Laguna Pueblo reservation only increases his feeling of estrangement and alienation. While other returning soldiers find easy...
Chamber divers : the untold story of the D-day scientists who changed special operations forever
Lance, Rachel
Paper Book
The previously classified story of the eccentric researchers who invented cutting-edge underwater science to lead the Allies to D-Day victory In August 1942, more than 7,000 Allied troops rushed the beaches of Normandy, France, in an all but-forgotten landing. Only a small...
Code girls : the untold story of the American women code breakers of World War II
Mundy, Liza
Paper Book
The award-winning New York Times bestseller about the American women who secretly served as codebreakers during World War II--a "prodigiously researched and engrossing" (New York Times) book that "shines a light on a hidden chapter of American history" (Denver Post).
Every day is a gift : a memoir
Duckworth, Tammy
Paper Book
In this New York Times bestselling book, learn the incredible story of Illinois senator and Iraq War veteran Tammy Duckworth and see what inspired her to follow the path that made her who she is today.​ In Every Day Is a Gift, Tammy...
Grunt : the curious science of humans at war
Roach, Mary
Paper Book
Grunt tackles the science behind some of a soldier's most challenging adversaries'panic, exhaustion, heat, noise'and introduces us to the scientists who seek to conquer them. Mary Roach dodges hostile fire with the U.S. Marine Corps Paintball Team as part of a study on hearing loss and survivability...
Healing Wounds : A Vietnam War Combat Nurse's 10-Year Fight to Win Women a Place of Honor in Washington, D.C
Evans, Diane Carlson/ Welch, Bob (CON)/ Galloway, Joseph (FRW)
Ebook
The red horse : a Billy Boyle World War II mystery
Benn, James R.
Paper Book
The convalescent hospital Billy and Kaz find themselves in after their most recent exploits, is really a secret installation for those in the world of clandestine warfare to recover from wounds, physical and emotional. Some are allowed to leave; others are deemed security risks and are kept in...
The River We Remember
Krueger, William Kent
Paper Book
AN EDGAR AWARD NOMINEE In 1958, a small Minnesota town is rocked by a shocking murder, pouring fresh fuel on old grievances in this dazzling novel, an instant New York Times bestseller and "a work of art" (The Denver Post). On Memorial Day...
The Sailing of the Intrepid: The Incredible Wartime Voyage of the Navy's Iconic Aircraft Carrier (Original)
Williams, Montel
Paper Book
*A New York Post Best Book of the Week* From twenty-two-year naval and marine veteran Montel Williams comes a page-turning history of how one World War II aircraft carrier's crew defied all odds, redefining the very meaning of what it means to...
Same bed different dreams : a novel
Park, Ed
Paper Book
PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST * A wild, sweeping novel that imagines an alternate secret history of Korea and the traces it leaves on the present--loaded with assassins and mad poets, RPGs and slasher films, pop bands and the perils of social media "Your view of twentieth-century...
SEAL Team Six : memoirs of an elite Navy Seal sniper
Wasdin, Howard E.
Paper Book
A New York Times Bestseller. When the Navy sends their elite they send the SEALS. When the SEALS send their elite they send SEAL Team Six SEAL Team Six is a secret unit tasked with counterterrorism hostage rescue and counterinsurgency. Now Howard Wasdin takes readers deep into their world beginning...
Shoot like a girl : one woman's dramatic fight in Afghanistan and on the home front
Hegar, Mary Jennings.
Audiobook
On June 29, 2009, Air National Guard major Mary Jennings "MJ" Hegar was shot down while on a Medevac mission on her third tour in Afghanistan. Despite being wounded, she fought the enemy and saved the lives of her crew and their patients. But soon she would face a new battle: to give women who serve...
Soldier girls : the battles of three women at home and at war
Thorpe, Helen
Paper Book
From an award-winning, "meticulously observant" (The New Yorker), and "masterful" (Booklist) writer comes a groundbreaking account of three women deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq, and how their military service affected their friendship, their personal lives, and their families. ...
The things they carried
O'Brien, Tim
Paper Book
One of the first questions people ask about The Things They Carried is this: Is it a novel, or a collection of short stories? The title page refers to the book simply as "a work of fiction," defying the conscientious reader's need to categorize this masterpiece. It is both: a collection of...
Valiant Women : The Extraordinary American Servicewomen Who Helped Win World War II
Andrews, Lena S.
Paper Book
National Bestseller * Goodreads Choice Awards Finalist A groundbreaking new history of the role of American servicewomen in WWII, illuminating their forgotten yet essential contributions to the Allies' victory, hailed as "an ingenious look at WWII" (Publishers Weekly, Starred Review) ...
Walk in my combat boots : true stories from America's bravest warriors
Patterson, James
Paper Book
Discover "the stories America needs to hear" (Admiral William H. McRaven, US Navy (Ret.)) with these moving and powerful recollections of war, told by the men and women who lived them. Walk in my Combat Boots is a powerful collection crafted...
The war on warriors : behind the betrayal of the men who keep us free
Hegseth, Pete
Paper Book
AN INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Real men fought for our freedoms. It's time we fought for theirs. Pete Hegseth joined the Army to fight extremists. Then that same Army called him one. The military Pete joined twenty years ago was fiercely focused on lethality,...
What feasts at night
Kingfisher, T.
Paper Book
An Instant New York Times, USA Today, and Indie Bestseller A Barnes & Noble Best Horror Book of 2024 A Goodreads Best Horror Choice Award Nominee Enter a cold, silent forest and find out what feasts at night in this new gothic tale...
Why We Serve : Native Americans in the United States Armed Forces
Harris, Alexandra N./ Hirsch, Mark G.
Paper Book
Rare stories from more than 250 years of Native Americans' service in the military Why We Serve commemorates the 2020 opening of the National Native American Veterans Memorial at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, the first landmark in Washington, DC,...
The women
Hannah, Kristin
Paper Book
A #1 bestseller on The New York Times, USA Today, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times! From the celebrated author of The Nightingale and The Four Winds comes Kristin Hannah's The Women--at once an intimate portrait of coming of age in a...
The women with silver wings
Landdeck, Katherine Sharp
Paper Book
"With the fate of the free world hanging in the balance, women pilots went aloft to serve their nation. . . . A soaring tale in which, at long last, these daring World War II pilots gain the credit they deserve."--Liza Mundy, New York Times bestselling author of Code...
You are worth it : building a life worth fighting for
Carpenter, Kyle
Paper Book
The youngest living Medal of Honor recipient delivers an unforgettable memoir that "will inspire every reader" (Jim Mattis) NATIONAL BESTSELLER ^ A Marine Commandant's Reading List selection On November 21, 2010, U.S. Marine Lance Corporal Kyle...
Your Presence Is Mandatory
Vasilyuk, Sasha
Paper Book
Winner of the 2025 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature | Gold Medal Winner for the 94th Annual California Book Awards | Longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize A riveting debut novel, based on real events, about a World War II veteran with a secret that...

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