1. Book Choices
REPRESENTATIONS OF WAR

2. Genre: Fiction
Setting: Iraq
War on Terror
Perry is a recent high-school
graduate who went against
his parents’ wishes and
signed up for the Army. He
writes letters to his uncle
about his experiences as a
soldier.

3. Genre: Fiction
Setting: England
Modern day
Daisy takes a trip to visit her
aunt and cousins, but war
breaks out in England while
her aunt is away on
business, leaving Daisy and
her cousins to survive on
their own.

4. Genre: Biography
Setting: Vietnam
1970s
There have been many
Marines. There have been
many marksmen. But there
has only been one Sergeant
Carlos Hathcock. A legend in
the Marine ranks, Hathcock
stalked the Viet Cong behind
enemy lines-on their own
ground. And each time he
emerged from the jungle
having done his duty. His
record is one of the finest in
military history, with 93
confirmed kills.

5. Genre: Nonfiction
Setting: Bosnia/Sweden
1990s
S. lies in a Hospital in Sweden, where
she has just given birth to a baby boy.
She refuses to nurse him. The woman
lying next to her is shocked by her
behavior, but she does not know the
history of how this boy was conceived.
As she lies in the hospital bed, S.
remembers the summer of 1992, from
the day when the soldiers rounded up
the occupants of the Muslim village of
B., shot the men and herded the
shocked, obedient women onto
buses. She remembers life in the
camp, where she was assigned to help
E., the nurse, tend the sick, and the
horrible rumors about the "women's
room," where women are taken for
the Serbian soldiers to rape.

6. Genre: Fiction
Setting: NYC
Post 9/11
Oskar Schell is not your average nine-
year-old. A budding inventor, he
spends his time imagining wonderful
creations. He also collects random
photographs for his scrapbook and
sends letters to scientists. When his
father dies in the World Trade Center
collapse, Oskar shifts his boundless
energy to a quest for answers. He
finds a key hidden in his father's things
that doesn't fit any lock in their New
York City apartment; its container is
labeled "Black." Oskar sets out to
speak to everyone in New York City
with the last name of Black.

7. Genre: Memoir
Setting: 2002
Pakistan
When Wall Street Journal
reporter Daniel Pearl was
kidnapped by terrorists in
Pakistan in 2002, his very
pregnant wife, Mariane, was
left to try to manage the search
effort. In this memoir of the
month between Pearl's
kidnapping and news of his
death, she is
unflinching, revealing every
emotional detail with such
honesty that to call the book
heart-wrenching is to minimize
its power.

8. Genre: Memoir
Setting: Cambodia
1970s
She tells the story of her family and
their battle against the Khmer
Rouge, a totalitarian party which
ruled Cambodia from 1975-1979.
Ung was five years old when she and
her family of eight were forced to
leave their home in the capital of
Cambodia, where her father was an
employee of the government which
is being destroyed, and walk into
the countryside. Her family was
forced to pose as peasants in order
to avoid the senseless brutality
dished out by the Khmer Rouge. It
seems that the horrific happenings
encountered and witnessed by
Luong's family are unending in the
middle of a genocide.

9. Genre: Nonfiction
Setting: Afghanistan
War on Terror
In May 2002, Tillman walked
away from his $3.6 million
NFL contract to enlist in the
United States Army. He was
deeply troubled by 9/11, and
he felt a strong moral
obligation to join the fight
against al-Qaeda and the
Taliban. Two years later, he
died on a desolate hillside in
southeastern Afghanistan.

10. Genre: Fiction
Setting: Poland
WWII
Two Jewish children, a girl of 11 and
her seven-year-old brother, are left
to wander the woods after their
father and stepmother are forced to
abandon them, frantically begging
them never to say their Jewish
names, but to identify themselves
as Hansel and Gretel. In an
imaginative reversal of the original
tale, they encounter a small woman
named Magda, known as a "witch"
by villagers, who risks her life in
harboring them. The story
alternates between the children's
nightmarish adventures, and their
parents' struggle for survival and
hope for a safe reunion.

11. Genre: Short Stories?
Setting: Vietnam
This isn't a memoir. It isn't a novel. A
collection of short stories wouldn't
even be the way to describe this. It's a
combination of all three. The main
character is named Tim, but the
author admits that many of the things
in the book never happened to him.
Tim wrestles with the choices of going
to Vietnam and serving his country or
running for Canada and saving his
hide. This story dances with truth as it
mirrors the real experiences of Tim
O'Brien in 'Nam, but they're not quite
what happened. This book contains
graphic scenes and a lot of colorful
language, but it is a classic, timeless
view of one of the most controversial
wars in our history as a country.

12. Genre: Memoir
Setting: Sierra Leone
1990s
Beah was a typical, michevious 12-year-old.
But when rebel forces attacked his village, he
was forced to leave his home and travel the
arid deserts and jungles of Africa. After
several months of struggle, he was recruited
by the national army, made a full soldier and
learned to shoot an AK-47, and hated
everyone who came up against the rebels.
This normal boy is easily transformed into
someone as addicted to killing as he is to the
cocaine that the army makes readily
available. But an abrupt change occurred a
few years later when agents from the United
Nations pulled him out of the army and placed
him in a rehabilitation center. Anger and hate
slowly faded away, and readers see the first
glimmers of Beah's work as an advocate. This
powerful record of war ends as a beacon to all
teens experiencing violence around them by
showing them that there are other ways to
survive than by adding to the chaos.

13. Genre: Fiction
Setting: Afghanistan
1970s-2000
An in-depth exploration of Afghan
society in the three decades of anti-
Soviet jihad, civil war and Taliban
cruelty. He impels us to empathize
with and admire those most
victimized by Afghan history and
culture—women. Mariam, a 15-year-
old bastard whose mother commits
suicide, is married off to 40-year-old
Rasheed, who abuses her
brutally, especially after she has
several miscarriages. At 60, Rasheed
takes in 14-year-old Laila, whose
parents were blown up by stray
bombs. He soon turns violent with her.
Although Laila is united with her
childhood beloved, the potential
return of the Taliban always shadows
their happiness.