An outstanding war story that could make a riveting film in the Saving Private Ryan vein.
The moving tale of three brothers determined to fight for the U.S. after 9/11.
In this unforgettable narrative, we follow the close-knit Wise brothers, all of whom heard the call to serve and answered it: Jeremy as a Navy SEAL and then a CIA contractor; Ben as a sniper in the Army Green Berets; and Beau, the youngest and only survivor, as a Marine. Seized by the wave of patriotic fervor that swept the nation following the 9/11 attacks, the brothers were inspired by President George W. Bush’s declaration that the U.S. would defeat “every terrorist group of global reach.” To Beau, “President Bush’s speech was the moment 9/11 first felt like my generation’s Pearl Harbor. It also came with the sobering realization that at least one of my brothers—and many more men and women like them—would probably spend a significant portion of their adult lives at war.” Jeremy dropped out of medical school to enlist. “Those people trapped in the World Trade Center couldn’t fight back,” he said. “I can.” And fight he did: “As the calendar flipped to 2007, Jeremy was in firefights approximately three out of every five nights.” The book opens with a somber tone, at Jeremy’s funeral. Then another, as we see Beau bury Ben. Then the narrative flips back to the intertwined lives of these three heroes, following their careers, family lives, and deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan. It’s a gripping read and an exemplary collaboration between a participant and a professional writer—Sileo has co-written other military memoirs, including Brothers Forever (2014) and 8 Seconds of Courage (2017). More than that, it's a consistently absorbing story of the 9/11 generation and of America’s response to global terror, a topic still relevant today.
An outstanding war story that could make a riveting film in the Saving Private Ryan vein.Pub Date: Jan. 5, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-250-25344-6
Page Count: 304
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2020
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
A determined if self-regarding portrait of a candidate striving to define herself and her campaign on her own terms.
An insider’s chronicle of a pivotal presidential campaign.
Several months into the mounting political upheaval of Donald Trump’s second term and following a wave of bestselling political exposés, most notably Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson’s Original Sin on Joe Biden’s health and late decision to step down, former Vice President Harris offers her own account of the consequential months surrounding Biden’s withdrawal and her swift campaign for the presidency. Structured as brief chapters with countdown headers from 107 days to Election Day, the book recounts the campaign’s daily rigors: vetting a running mate, navigating back-to-back rallies, preparing for the convention and the debate with Trump, and deflecting obstacles in the form of both Trump’s camp and Biden’s faltering team. Harris aims to set the record straight on issues that have remained hotly debated. While acknowledging Biden’s advancing decline, she also highlights his foreign-policy steadiness: “His years of experience in foreign policy clearly showed….He was always focused, always commander in chief in that room.” More blame is placed on his inner circle, especially Jill Biden, whom Harris faults for pushing him beyond his limits—“the people who knew him best, should have realized that any campaign was a bridge too far.” Throughout, she highlights her own qualifications and dismisses suggestions that an open contest might have better served the party: “If they thought I was down with a mini primary or some other half-baked procedure, I was quick to disabuse them.” Facing Trump’s increasingly unhinged behavior, Harris never openly doubts her ability to confront him. Yet she doesn’t fully persuade the reader that she had the capacity to counter his dominance, suggesting instead that her defeat stemmed from a lack of time—a theme underscored by the urgency of the book’s title. If not entirely sanguine about the future, she maintains a clear-eyed view of the damage already done: “Perhaps so much damage that we will have to re-create our government…something leaner, swifter, and much more efficient.”
A determined if self-regarding portrait of a candidate striving to define herself and her campaign on her own terms.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
ISBN: 9781668211656
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
