Sergeant Melody Finnegan has never felt good enough--not for her family, not for her career, and especially not for First Sergeant Jason Stewart. But she was there for him once, on a night when he had no one, and she's never forgotten the way he made her feel.

The year is 1969... Gary Fairchild is a hippie college student. Richard Ronsman is a soldier in the Vietnam War. Woodstock and war forged a bond between these two very different men that would shape the rest of their lives. For Richard's first Christmas home, he's gifted a special angel ornament that just might make a soldier's wish come true.

Feb. 12, 1917 The world will settle down to peace and harmony and let us hope with the firm knowledge that there will never be such a holocaust of murder as this has been." The year is 1915 and the world is in chaos. Ernest Diss was a successful entrepreneur running a car repair business in Los Angeles. He saw it as his duty to return to Canada and join the fighting, persuading his brother, Frank, to enlist with him. He finished his training in Winnipeg, Manitoba, where he met Amy Graham at a dance. They corresponded at least weekly and often more frequently. Through his 187 letters, they fell in love, became engaged and planned their future together. Through those letters we are able to experience what life was for an ordinary soldier in England, Belgium, France and finally Germany. Ernest's descriptions of everyday life afford us a glance back in time. Ernest was not a hero. In fact, because of his mechanical ability, except for a short time on the frontline constructing trenches he spent a large part of the war behind the lines building armaments. What he was was a musician, an explorer, an organizer and a romantic. He had three wishes: first that the war would end with the allies victorious and there would never be another war; secondly, that his brothers and he would come through the war unscathed; and thirdly, that he would return to Canada and start a family with Amy. How different our world is today with instant communications, machines that provide us with our entertainment and the ability to get anywhere in the world within 48 hours. How similar in that we still value family over everything and we still possess a duty to the welfare of others and a loyalty to our country.

As young men Lucas James, Mark Adams and John Tripp meet for the first time their freshman year at college. The three boys, all from different parts of the State of Kentucky, quickly develop a close almost unbreakable friendship. They soon decide to refer to themselves jokingly as the three disciples. But it becomes no joke. Together their ambition, determination and strong desire to be successful under tough personal and economic times will compel them into a life of marijuana deals, money laundering and horse racing scams. With the help of yet another college friend, Juan Ortez, they become the Bluegrass Boys, and inherit a marijuana smuggling empire that they secretly run from their horseracing track. Their education, business knowledge and savvy take them from college graduates to become the youngest and most powerful controllers of marijuana in the State of Kentucky, while holding a strong grip on state politics in order to better protect their business interests. Their common, moral upbringings are honest and heartfelt. Their sense of business awareness is admirable. They very easily could be the boy(s) next door. But the business itself leaves no one untouched, and will bring about a very chilling end to their strong friendship.

FROM MY HANDS TO YOURS young readers will discover through reading Jae's story how she gained a deeper appreciation for those that fought for our freedoms and for some that were POW (prisoner of war) veterans.

"...an engaging and enlightening account from which we all can benefit."—The Wall Street Journal A better way to combat knee-jerk biases and make smarter decisions, from Julia Galef, the acclaimed expert on rational decision-making. When it comes to what we believe, humans see what they want to see. In other words, we have what Julia Galef calls a "soldier" mindset. From tribalism and wishful thinking, to rationalizing in our personal lives and everything in between, we are driven to defend the ideas we most want to believe—and shoot down those we don't. But if we want to get things right more often, argues Galef, we should train ourselves to have a "scout" mindset. Unlike the soldier, a scout's goal isn't to defend one side over the other. It's to go out, survey the territory, and come back with as accurate a map as possible. Regardless of what they hope to be the case, above all, the scout wants to know what's actually true. In The Scout Mindset, Galef shows that what makes scouts better at getting things right isn't that they're smarter or more knowledgeable than everyone else. It's a handful of emotional skills, habits, and ways of looking at the world—which anyone can learn. With fascinating examples ranging from how to survive being stranded in the middle of the ocean, to how Jeff Bezos avoids overconfidence, to how superforecasters outperform CIA operatives, to Reddit threads and modern partisan politics, Galef explores why our brains deceive us and what we can do to change the way we think.

Soldiers tell of their experiences during the Battle of the Ia Drang Valley, the siege of Khe Sanh, the Tet Offensive, the Fall of Saigon and at other times during the war.

A young aesthete from a privileged Roman family, Alexandro Giuliani, found his charmed existence shattered by the coming of WWI. Highly recommended.