Books to Read for Memorial Day

by Donna Huber

Monday is Memorial Day, which for many in the United States marks the unofficial start of summer. If you are heading to the beach, lake, or pool this summer, we have featured several books that would be perfect for a relaxing weekend. But if you are looking for books that will help you appreciate the true purpose of the holiday, keep reading for some recommendations.

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For those readers outside the United States, Memorial Day is our Remembrance Day. It's a federal holiday to commemorate those who died in the service of our country. It is not to be confused with Veterans' Day, which is celebrated in November to honor living service members.

I looked through a few lists, including the Memorial Day reading list I put together in 2024, and they all feature stories of people who survived. I get it - we want a hopeful story to come out of the devastation of war.  But we should tell (and read) the stories of those who never made it home. I hope to do that with this year's list, which is just as much for me as it is for you.

Sacred Duty: A Soldier's Tour at Arlington National Cemetery by Tom Cotton

An extraordinary journey behind the scenes of Arlington National Cemetery, Senator Tom Cotton’s Sacred Duty offers an intimate and inspiring portrait of “The Old Guard,” the revered U.S. Army unit whose mission is to honor our country’s fallen heroes on the most hallowed ground in America. (Goodreads)

Buy Sacred Duty at Amazon

Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10 by Marcus Luttrell and Patrick Robinson

On a clear night in late June 2005, four U.S. Navy SEALs left their base in northern Afghanistan for the mountainous Pakistani border. Their mission was to capture or kill a notorious al Qaeda leader known to be ensconced in a Taliban stronghold surrounded by a small but heavily armed force. Less then twenty-four hours later, only one of those Navy SEALs remained alive. (Goodreads)

Buy Lone Survivor at Amazon

The Unknowns: The Untold Story of America's Unknown Soldier and WWI's Most Decorated Heroes Who Brought Him Home by Patrick K. O'Donnell

Patrick O'Donnell illuminates the saga behind the creation of the Tomb itself and recreates the moving ceremony during which it was consecrated and the eight Body Bearers, and the sergeant who had chosen the one body to be interred, solemnly united. Brilliantly researched, vividly told, The Unknowns is a timeless tale of heeding the calls of duty and brotherhood, and humanizes the most consequential event of the twentieth century, which still casts a shadow a century later. (Goodreads)

Buy The Unknowns at Amazon

After the Flag Has Been Folded: A Daughter Remembers the Father She Lost to War--and the Mother Who Held Her Family Together by Karen Spears Zacharias

Karen Spears was nine years old, living with her family in a trailer in rural Tennessee, when her father, David Spears, was killed in the Ia Drang Valley in Vietnam. It was 1966; in a nation being torn apart by a war nobody wanted, in an emotionally charged Southern landscape stained with racism and bigotry; and suddenly the care and well-being of three small children were solely in the hands of a frightened young widow with no skills and a ninth-grade education. (Goodreads)

Buy After the Flag Has Been Folded at Amazon

‘Charlie, Don’t Be a Hero’: A Mother’s Story of the Extraordinary Life of Her Son, U.S. Navy SEAL Charles Keating IV by Krista Keating-Joseph and Will G. Merrill Jr. 

Charlie, Don't Be a Hero' is a moving story from a mother's heart about her son, Charles Keating IV, an All-American boy who grew up to become a heroic U.S. Navy SEAL. At age thirty-one, his death by ISIS in 2016 on the battlefields in Iraq made headlines worldwide. (Goodreads)

Buy 'Charlie, Don't Be a Hero' at Amazon

If you have any books to include in this list, please leave them in the comments.

Donna Huber is an avid reader and natural encourager. She is the founder of Girl Who Reads and the author of how-to marketing book Secrets to a Successful Blog Tour.

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