Book Reviews: 'The Faith of the American Soldier' and 'Faith of Our Sons: Voices from the American Homefront--The Wartime Diary of a Marine's Father'

Both of these I read (and/or listened to) about a month ago and they are both AMAZING. Everyday, our troops amaze me, but hearing their stories from this point of view (and the view of one extrodiary/ordinary military family) is really something.

Faith of Our Sons: Voices from the American Homefront -- The Wartime Diary of a Marine's Father

The second of two books (Keeping Faith: A Father-Son Story about Love and the U.S. Marine Corps) is still on my 'To Read' list (and evidently also 'Voices from the Front: Letters Home From America's Military Family', which I didn't even know about until I started writing this review), this book covers in a diary form the thoughts/emotions of a family who's youngest is proudly serving his country overseas as an Marine.

Written mostly from the father/author's perspective, the book is very raw, and very true. Every emotion displayed in the book hits the reader hard. (I teared up a few times, and it's not like me to do that.)

As the father doesn't nessecarily share his son's views (I believe he refers to both his wife and himself as being more along the lines of hippies a few times), you can really feel how hard/far he has to reach to try and understand his son's decisions/actions.

Really loved the inserted emails (from his son/family/other miliary families) through out the book.

Definite five star must read! * * * * *

The Faith of the American Soldier

A truly moving book, encompassing interviews from everyone from chaplains to soldiers; the book was amazing, the sound recording was even better. There's so much information and emotion wrapped up in the cover's of this book, I literally can't write about all of it.

From the books opening to the chapter that starts with the famous "There are no atheists in foxholes" quote, this book hits you hard from beginning to end.

It's very honestly written (stories of soldiers that found their faith on the battlefield as presented next to the stories of those who found their faith slipping for the first time- and those of soldiers who never knew how much they needed faith until they lost members of their units on the front).

I paticular liked how the book opened with a retelling of how in the Middle Ages in Europe a squire's preparations for becoming a knight were more of a religious experience/symbolic of a man's commitment to God while doing battle, which was not something I remember being taught before. (Yay, PC-correct public schooling!)

Also a must read! * * * * *