Military Veteran Authors

On Veterans Day or any other time, check out these books by authors who served in the military (including those from other countries).

Updated October 9, 2025
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Enduring freedom
Arash, Jawad
Paper Book
This powerful novel set in the tumultuous times surrounding 9/11 follows a teenage American army private and an Afghan boy living under the Taliban as they discover they have much more in common than they ever could have imagined.​ Baheer, a studious Afghan teen, sees his family...
The BFG
Dahl, Roald.
Paper Book
From the bestselling author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Matilda!  One of TIME MAGAZINE's 100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time The BFG is no ordinary bone-crunching giant. He is far too nice and jumbly. It's lucky for Sophie...
Charlie and the chocolate factory
Dahl, Roald.
Paper Book
From the author of The BFG and Matilda! Willy Wonka's famous chocolate factory is opening at last! But only five lucky children will be allowed inside. And the winners are: Augustus Gloop, an enormously fat boy whose hobby is eating; Veruca Salt, a spoiled...
Charlie and the chocolate factory
Dahl, Roald.
Paper Book
From the author of The BFG and Matilda! Willy Wonka's famous chocolate factory is opening at last! But only five lucky children will be allowed inside. And the winners are: Augustus Gloop, an enormously fat boy whose hobby is eating; Veruca Salt, a spoiled...
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Dahl, Roald.
Paper Book
This collectable hardcover edition will feature a beautiful cover and deluxe packaging, including red interior text and illustrations! From the bestselling author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The BFG. Someone's been stealing from the three meanest farmers...
James and the giant peach : a children's story
Dahl, Roald.
Paper Book
This collectable hardcover edition will feature a beautiful cover and deluxe packaging, including peach-colored interior text and illustrations! From the bestselling author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The BFG comes the story of a young boy on a magical...
Matilda
Dahl, Roald.
Paper Book
From the bestselling author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The BFG! Adapted into a Tony Award-winning Broadway musical and a Netflix film! Matilda is a sweet, exceptional young girl, but her parents think she's just a nuisance. She expects...
Escape! : the story of the great Houdini
Fleischman, Sid
Audiobook
Nothing could hold him! He was the Escape King! He was The Great Houdini! But before that he was Ehrich Weiss, a poor immigrant boy with big dreams. Before long he was reinventing himself by making elephants disappear (among other illusions) and perfecting his escapes from chains, handcuffs and...
Catch-22
Heller, Joseph.
Paper Book
Named one of America's best-loved novels by PBS's The Great American Read * One of The Atlantic's Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years One of the funniest books ever written, Joseph Heller's masterpiece about a bomber squadron in the Second World War's...
A farewell to arms
Hemingway, Ernest
Paper Book
The definitive edition of the classic World War I romance novel, featuring all of the alternate endings: "Fascinating...serves as an artifact of a bygone craft, with handwritten notes and long passages crossed out, giving readers a sense of an author's process" (The New York Times).
For whom the bell tolls
Hemingway, Ernest
Paper Book
Ernest Hemingway's masterpiece on war, love, loyalty, and honor tells the story of Robert Jordan, an antifascist American fighting in the Spanish Civil War. In 1937 Ernest Hemingway traveled to Spain to cover the civil war there for the North American Newspaper Alliance. Three...
The old man and the sea
Hemingway, Ernest
Paper Book
A Scribner Classics Edition Ernest Hemingway's most beloved and popular novel--now in a gorgeous new package designed for the modern reader. The last novel Ernest Hemingway saw published, The Old Man and the Sea has proved itself to be one of the most...
Dune
Herbert, Frank
Paper Book
Frank Herbert's classic masterpiece--a triumph of the imagination and one of the bestselling science fiction novels of all time. Set on the desert planet Arrakis, Dune is the story of Paul Atreides--who would become known as Muad'Dib--and of a great family's ambition to...
The horse and his boy
Lewis, C. S.
Paper Book
A beautiful hardcover edition of The Horse and His Boy, book three in the classic fantasy series, The Chronicles of Narnia. The full-color jacket features art by three-time Caldecott-winning artist David Wiesner and interior black-and-white illustrations by the series' original...
The last battle
Lewis, C. S.
Paper Book
The last battle is the greatest of all battles, and the final ending the most magnificent of all endings in this, the last book of C.S. Lewis's timeless series, The Chronicles of Narnia.
The last battle
Lewis, C. S.
Paper Book
The last battle is the greatest of all battles, and the final ending the most magnificent of all endings in this, the last book of C.S. Lewis's timeless series, The Chronicles of Narnia.
The lion, the witch, and the wardrobe
Lewis, C. S.
Paper Book
A beautiful hardcover edition of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, book two in C. S. Lewis's classic fantasy series, The Chronicles of Narnia.  The full-color jacket features art by three-time Caldecott Medal-winning illustrator David Wiesner. The interior includes ...
The silver chair
Lewis, C. S.
Paper Book
A beautiful hardcover edition of The Silver Chair, book six in the classic fantasy series The Chronicles of Narnia. The full-color jacket features art by three-time Caldecott Medal-winning illustrator David Wiesner and black-and-white interior art by the series' original illustrator, Pauline...
War horse
Morpurgo, Michael.
Paper Book
A powerful tale of war, redemption, and a hero's journey. In 1914, Joey, a beautiful bay-red foal with a distinctive cross on his nose, is sold to the army and thrust into the midst of the war on the Western Front. With his officer, he charges toward the enemy, witnessing the...
Hoops
Myers, Walter Dean
Ebook
An ALA-YALSA Best Book for Young Adults New Bonus Content:-Q&A with Walter Dean Myers -Q&A with screenwriter John Ballard -Teaser chapter from On a Clear Day-Excerpt from 145th Street All eyes are on seventeen...
1984
Orwell, George
Audiobook
This major new stage production explores the world inside protagonist Winston Smith's head, as well as the world beyond it, and catches the euphoria and bliss buried deep underneath the cold face of Big Brother. In an age of mass surveillance, "total" policing, and GPS tracking, "1984" is as...
Animal farm
Orwell, George
Paper Book
One of Time magazine's 100 best English-language novels and the most famous of all twentieth-century political allegories * "A wise, compassionate, and illuminating fable for our times." --The New York Times This story of a group of barnyard animals who revolt against...
Nineteen eighty-four
Orwell, George
Paper Book
Written 75 years ago, 1984 was George Orwell's chilling prophecy about the future. And while 1984 has come and gone, his dystopian vision of a government that will do anything to control the narrative is timelier than ever... This 75th Anniversary Edition includes: *...
Hatchet
Paulsen, Gary.
Paper Book
This award-winning contemporary classic is the survival story with which all others are compared--and a page-turning, heart-stopping adventure, recipient of the Newbery Honor. Hatchet has also been nominated as one of America's best-loved novels by PBS's The Great American Read....
The catcher in the rye
Salinger, J. D.
Paper Book
CELEBRATING 75 YEARS OF THE CATCHER IN THE RYE, 1951 - 2026 The "brilliant, funny, meaningful novel" (The New Yorker) that established J. D. Salinger as a leading voice in American literature--and that has instilled in millions...
Nine stories
Salinger, J. D.
Paper Book
The "original, first-rate, serious, and beautiful" short fiction (New York Times Book Review) that introduced J. D. Salinger to American readers in the years after World War II, including "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" and the first appearance of Salinger's fictional Glass...
More scary stories to tell in the dark
Schwartz, Alvin
Paper Book
Now with new illustrations from a celebrated artist, a repackaged edition of supernatural tales presents a selection of stories about haunted houses, ghastly deeds, wailing specters and other terrifying phenomena. Simultaneous. 10,000 first printing.
Scary Stories Audio Collection
Schwartz, Alvin
Paper Book
This spooky addition to Alvin Schwartz's popular books on American folklore is filled with tales of eerie horror and dark revenge that will make you jump with fright. There is a story here for everyone -- skeletons with torn and tangled flesh who roam the earth; a ghost who takes revenge on her...
Light in the attic: poems and drawings
Silverstein, Shel
Paper Book
Shel Silverstein, the New York Times bestselling author of The Giving Tree, A Light in the Attic, Falling Up, and Every Thing On It, has created a poetry collection that is outrageously funny and deeply profound. Come in . . . for where the sidewalk ends, Shel Silverstein's world begins. ...
Falling up : poems and drawings
Silverstein, Shel.
Paper Book
Del autor bestseller del New York Times, Shel Silverstein, creador de El árbol generoso, Lafcadio, el león que disparó al cazador y Cayendo hacia arriba, llega un maravilloso libro de poemas y dibujos. Poemas y dibujos con el sello característico del...
Of mice and men
Steinbeck, John
Paper Book
A controversial tale of friendship and tragedy during the Great Depression "A thriller, a gripping tale . . . that you will not set down until it is finished. Steinbeck has touched the quick." --The New York Times John Steinbeck's classic novella follows an...
Of mice and men
Steinbeck, John
Paper Book
A controversial tale of friendship and tragedy during the Great Depression "A thriller, a gripping tale . . . that you will not set down until it is finished. Steinbeck has touched the quick." --The New York Times John Steinbeck's classic novella follows an...
The pearl
Steinbeck, John
Paper Book
The classic novella from Nobel Prize-winner John Steinbeck explores the secrets of man's nature, the darkest depths of evil, and the luminous possibilities of love. Like his father and grandfather before him, Kino is a poor diver, gathering pearls from the gulf beds that once...
The fellowship of the ring
Tolkien, J. R. R.
Audiobook
The Fellowship of the Ring
The hobbit, or, There and back again
Tolkien, J. R. R.
Paper Book
The journey through Middle-earth begins here with J.R.R. Tolkien's classic prelude to his epic fantasy Lord of the Rings trilogy. "A glorious account of a magnificent adventure, filled with suspense and seasoned with a quiet humor that is irresistible... All those, young...
The return of the king : being the third part of The lord of the rings
Tolkien, J. R. R.
Paper Book
The standard hardcover edition of the concluding and final volume of The Lord of the Rings includes a large format fold-out map and extensive appendices. In this epic high fantasy, as the Shadow of the Dark Lord Sauron grows across the land, the Companions of the Ring have become...
The two towers
Tolkien, J. R. R.
Paper Book
The standard hardcover edition of the second volume of The Lord of the Rings, a classic of high fantasy, includes a large format fold-out map. Frodo and his Companions of the Ring have been beset by danger during their epic quest to prevent the Ruling Ring from falling into the hands of the Dark...
The two towers : being the second part of The lord of the rings
Tolkien, J. R. R.
Paper Book
The standard hardcover edition of the second volume of The Lord of the Rings, a classic of high fantasy, includes a large format fold-out map. Frodo and his Companions of the Ring have been beset by danger during their epic quest to prevent the Ruling Ring from falling into the hands of the Dark...
Cat's cradle
Vonnegut, Kurt.
Paper Book
"A free-wheeling vehicle . . . an unforgettable ride!"--The New York Times Cat's Cradle is Kurt Vonnegut's satirical commentary on modern man and his madness. An apocalyptic tale of this planet's ultimate fate, it features a midget as the protagonist, a...
Slaughterhouse-five : or, The children's crusade, a duty-dance with death
Vonnegut, Kurt.
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * Kurt Vonnegut's masterpiece, Slaughterhouse-Five is "a desperate, painfully honest attempt to confront the monstrous crimes of the twentieth century" (Time). Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels of all time * One of...

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