Creative Non-fiction

Title: Incoming
Author: Jack Manick
Genre: Non-Fiction, Creative Non-Fiction
Reviewer: Weymouth Symmes

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 1452061122

1969 was a momentous year for the world and especially America. It was a year when man first set foot on the moon and in an equally amazing feat, the New York Mets won baseballs coveted World Series.While earth shaking events were happening two hundred thousand miles from home or deep within the confines of Shea Stadium, men of every race, education and age group were fighting and dying 12,000 miles from home in Americas most unpopular war, Vietnam. Today, 40 years later, writer, husband and Veteran Jack Manick reaches into his soul and resurrects the fear, tension, foreboding, laughter and terror that he and his fellow "Band of Brothers" felt as they walked the jungles and forests of the Central Highlands of Vietnam in 1969.While in the "Bush", he carried a pack, a medical aid bag, two knives, three grenades, a rifle, pistol and an unbreakable commitment to save the lives of his fellow soldiers, even at the cost of his own. The story of Jack "Doc" Manick and his fellow soldiers is one of survival...survival in a country laden with malaria, crawling with venomous snakes, scorpions, rats, giant centipedes and tigers and dominated by an enemy determined "Not to lose the War!" The language is as tough as the enemy who fought against him, as unrelenting as the blistering heat of the Dry Season and as depressing as the endless mud and mold of the Monsoon Season. Incoming invites you to lace up your jungle boots and take a walk with Jack through the jungles and the fields of dry grass in the Central Highlands of Vietnam in 1969.

Title: Inside the President's Helicopter: Reflections of a White House Senior Pilot
Author: Gene T. Boyer and Jackie Boor
Genre: Non-Fiction, Creative Non-Fiction
Reviewer: Joyce Faulkner

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 1934980900

How does a dirt-poor kid from Ohio become the senior helicopter pilot for the White House? "One adventure at a time," says retired U.S. Army LTC Gene T. Boyer. As the pilot who flew President Nixon away from the White House in Army One the day he resigned, Colonel Boyer weaves a fast-paced and revealing account of his extraordinary aviation career through the keen eyes of a Skywitness to History.

Title: Gated Grief: The Daughter of a GI Concentration Camp Liberator Discovers a Legacy of Trauma
Author: Leila Levinson
Genre: Creative Non-Fiction, Non-Fiction, Autobiography, History
Reviewer: Weymouth Symmes

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 1934980552

After the death of her father, a World War II Army doctor, Leila Levinson discovered a concealed box of shocking photos he had taken of victims of a Nazi slave-labor camp. "A foot emerged from the chaos of countless bodies, a leg. Grotesquely frozen faces. My fingers turned the photo over: Nordhausen, Germany, April 12, 1945."
Intuiting that the photos might be clues to her father’s cold silence and detachment, his intolerance of grief or sadness, she became a detective, finding and interviewing dozens of World War II veterans who also liberated Nazi concentration camps. Veteran after veteran demonstrated ongoing pain and shock. “My mind froze.” “I was never the same.”
Still traumatized by the unimaginable horrors they found, most of the veterans have spoken very little of what they witnessed, not even to their spouses or, as decades passed, to their adult children and grandchildren. “No words could convey the horror.”
As many liberators opened up to Levinson, their recalling long suppressed memories created closure for them as well as for her. Gated Grief weaves their eyewitness accounts with Levinson’s own story to portray the trauma that has followed the veterans and shaped their children’s emotional lives. Gated Grief, which includes dozens of her father’s and other veterans’ never-before-seen photos, concludes with the author’s journeying to Nordhausen in a necessary attempt to reconcile her own life.

Title: America's Finest
Author: Stephen Peterson
Genre: Non-Fiction, Creative
Reviewer: jim greenwald

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 1438985681

The more than sixty short stories that make up "America's Finest" details the humanitarian service as well as the personal sacrifices of the men and women of each of the branches of the United States Armed Services in Iraq. United States service members provided Iraqi citizens health care services, formal education, public works and many other services too numerous to describe. Though the United States Armed Services are trained in the art of war, more than 70% of its activities, even during the period of armed conflict, was dedicated to non-combative work for and on behalf of the Iraqi people. within days following combat action, American service members began initiating public service work toward re-building the infrastructure and personal lives of individual Iraqis in a spirit of compassion, mercy and forgiveness towards those who had been enemies only hours before. Airmen/women, Marines, Sailors and Soldiers gave thousands of manhours each week in their attempt to make life better for the Iraqi people. A number of these service members gave the citizens of Iraq the greatest gift any person could render-their lives. Privates, junior enlisted non-commissioned officers and junior company grade officers most between the age 18 and 24 years of age make up the majority of the figures in these stories. These brave, resourceful young men and young women are the REAL heroes and heroines. From rural communities, suburbs and inner cities; rich, middle class and poor; every racial and ethnic group make up the United States armed services. As an all volunteer force, there is no compulsion to serve. Yet each do so willingly for freedom and liberty for all. They are indeed "America's Finest" and patriots all!