Enjoy some of the lessons the author's family learned from their yellow lab, Grunt, and remember to Live Like Grunt.

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 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 in combat. She visits the fashion design studio of U.S. Army Natick Labs and learns why a zipper is a problem for a sniper. She visits a repurposed movie studio where amputee actors help prepare Marine Corps medics for the shock and gore of combat wounds. At Camp Lemmonier, Djibouti, in east Africa, we learn how diarrhea can be a threat to national security. Roach samples caffeinated meat, sniffs an archival sample of a World War II stink bomb, and stays up all night with the crew tending the missiles on the nuclear submarine USS Tennessee. She answers questions not found in any other book on the military: Why is DARPA interested in ducks? How is a wedding gown like a bomb suit? Why are shrimp more dangerous to sailors than sharks? Take a tour of duty with Roach, and you’ll never see our nation’s defenders in the same way again.

Tomie dePaola's classic (and hilarious) story of a young cave boy and his mysterious egg. Mama Grunt sends Little Grunt out to find a dozen eggs. All he can find is one huge egg. The egg hatches and out pops a baby dinosaur. Little Grunt names him George. Soon George grows too big for the Grunt family cave, and poor Little Grunt has to send him away. But when the local volcano erupts, there's only one dinosaur who can save the day!

What is an orc? An orc is an 18 stone fighting machine, made of muscle, hide, talon and tusk, with a villainous disposition and a mean sense of humour. And, of course, an orc is a poor dumb grunt - the much abused foot soldier of the Evil Horde of Darkness. The usual last battle of Good against Evil is about to begin. Orc Captain Ashnak and his war-band know exactly what they can expect. The forces of Light are outnumbered, full of headstrong heroes devoid of tactics - but the Light's still going to win. Orcs - the sword fodder in the front line - will die by the thousands. Life's a bitch.

Farm animals intone humorous musical chants in Latin and Pig Latin

"Marines don't know how to spell the word defeat." Gen. James "Mad Dog" Mattis Staff Sergeant Brett Black is a decorated, Force Recon Marine dedicated to Country, Family and God. Married to the colonel's daughter, Courtney Black, the father of two and prepping for a promotion, his world is finally on track after a long history of unfortunate events. However, while on a special op in in Afghanistan, Brett is severely wounded. Immediately, he is shipped back to the U.S. with the expectation of being medically retired for injuries sustained in the line of duty. Only for a man who has only known one way of life his entire adulthood, the prospect of being kicked of out the Marine Corps creates an internal crisis and an external family conflict. Will he be able to fight back to the man he was in order to stay in his beloved Corps or will he have to take a new path? Courtney Black is a new bride with an adorable stepson and a brand new baby girl; however, she doesn't want to just be a military wife her entire life. So, when her husband is injured, she sees an opportunity for them to leave Camp Lejeune and start a new adventure, especially when Brett's son's biological father comes out of the shadows and threatens to take away the little boy that brought Brett and Courtney together. It's her job to keep her family together despite everything that is tearing them apart. Will she be able to find the balance between personal aspirations and family obligation? Read the love story about two young hearts as they discover that wars are not only fought on the battle field but also at home and marriage is nothing about convenience but everything about sacrifice and unity in The Grunt 2, the sixth installation of The Lonely Heart Series, by USA TODAY, Amazon and National Bestselling Author Latrivia S. Nelson.

BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Sandra Kring's A Life of Bright Ideas. Wisconsin, 1961. Evelyn “Button” Peters is nine the summer Winnalee and her fiery-spirited older sister, Freeda, blow into her small town–and from the moment she sees them, Button knows this will be a summer unlike any other. Much to her mother’s dismay, Button is fascinated by the Malone sisters, especially Winnalee, a feisty scrap of a thing who carries around a shiny silver urn containing her mother’s ashes and a tome she calls “The Book of Bright Ideas.” It is here, Winnalee tells Button, that she records everything she learns: her answers to the mysteries of life. But sometimes those mysteries conceal a truth better left buried. And when a devastating secret is suddenly revealed, dividing loyalties and uprooting lives, no one–from Winnalee and her sister to Button and her family–will ever be the same.

“I was always happy to see first light. By first light it was over . . . for a while.” –from Down South There were a lot of ways to get killed in Vietnam. You could get “zapped,” “dinged,” “burned,” “popped,” “smoked,” or “wasted.” Marine 2nd Lt. William H. Hardwick was familiar with all of them because, unlike most USMC artillery officers–who waged their war from bunkers inside protected compounds–Hardwick as a forward observer fought alongside rifle companies and lived like a grunt for most of his thirteen-month tour. In Okinawa, Vietnam was referred to as “Down South,” and in 1968, “Down South” was a bad place to be. Hardwick did it all–walking point, springing ambushes, capturing prisoners, and spending months in the bush surrounded by crack NVA troops. At times the attacking enemy was so close, Hardwick had to call in air strikes almost on top of the Marines themselves just so they could survive. William Hardwick volunteered to fight as one of the few, the proud, the Marines.

A look inside the world of forensics examines the use of human cadavers in a wide range of endeavors, including research into new surgical procedures, space exploration, and a Tennessee human decay research facility.

Fifty years after the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, authorizing US forces to defend South Vietnam, this incredible book arrives with a one-stop visual tour of every item of gear employed by American infantrymen in the long years of battle that followed. With over 2,000 photos accompanied by insightful text (did we know that the US buildup was so sudden that initial divisions had to be issued black leather footwear instead of tropical boots?) this work digs into every nook and cranny of the infantry's experience "in-country." M-16s, Claymores, M-60s, grenades and knives and knives are naturally examined in full color. But so is every variety of clothing, rations, helmets, hats and caps, as well as medals, patches and insignia. This remarkable collection does not stop there, however, as it also examines the soldiers' pastimes, from music to magazines (not just Life or Time but Mad, Playboy and the periodical Grunt) as well as the brands of beers, cigarettes and other leisure elements. Rare photos of soldiers themselves in Nam spot the narrative, as well as glimpses of what was going on back in the States meantime, including protests. Carefully compiled and lavishly illustrated, this unique book provides a visceral tour down memory lane for every soldier who served in Vietnam. It is also a revealing guide to those in the general public who may have wondered exactly what our troops felt, handled and experienced during that tumultuous American war in remote Southeast Asia.