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

Updated October 29, 2025
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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...
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
Audiobook
Leslie Marmon Silko's sublime Ceremony is almost universally considered one of the finest novels ever written by an American Indian. It is the poetic, dreamlike tale of Tayo, a mixed-blood Laguna Pueblo and veteran of World War II. Tormented by shell shock and haunted by memories of his cousin who...
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).
The Country Under Heaven
Durbin, Frederic S.
Paper Book
Set in the 1880s, the story follows Ovid Vesper, a former Union soldier who has been having enigmatic visions after an explosion at the Battle of Antietam. As he travels across the country following those visions, he finds himself in stranger and increasingly more dangerous encounters with other...
The Dead We Honor
Johnstone, William W.
Paper Book
Small town America is under attack-but one group of patriots are fighting back-in this explosive contemporary thriller from the bestselling Johnstones . . . THE FIGHT FOR THE SOUL OF AMERICA BEGINS Welcome to Maverick, Iowa. Once a thriving farm community, the...
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
A New York Times / National Bestseller "America's funniest science writer" (Washington Post) Mary Roach explores the science of keeping human beings intact, awake, sane, uninfected, and uninfested in the bizarre and extreme circumstances of war. Grunt<...
The Heart That Fed : A Father, a Son, and the Long Shadow of War
Sciacchitano, Carl
Paper Book
A PUBLISHERS WEEKLY TOP 10 BEST BOOK OF 2024 A NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY BEST NEW COMIC OF 2024 FOR ADULTS A brilliant, "powerful" (Booklist) graphic memoir, and a loving son's exploration of his tumultuous relationship with his father, told through...
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...
SEAL Team Six : memoirs of an elite Navy Seal sniper
Wasdin, Howard E.
Paper Book
TheNew York Timesbest selling book that takes you inside SEAL Team Six - the covert squad that killed Osama Bin Laden SEAL Team Six is a secret unit tasked with counterterrorism, hostage rescue, and counterinsurgency. In this dramatic, behind-the-scenes...
Shoot like a girl : one woman's dramatic fight in Afghanistan and on the home front
Hegar, Mary Jennings.
Paper Book
"A must-read about an American patriot whose courage and determination will have a lasting impact on the future of our Armed Forces and the nation."--Senator John McCain On July 29, 2009, Air National Guard major Mary Jennings "MJ" Hegar was shot down while on a Medevac...
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...
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...

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