The Fighters: Americans in Combat in Afghanistan and Iraq

The Fighters: Americans in Combat in Afghanistan and Iraq by C. J. Chivers, 374 pages.

Chivers gives us several moving portraits of American soldiers, sailors (Navy Corpsmen, anyway) and pilots who fought in the ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. It is stunning to realize that over 2.5 million American military personnel have served in these two conflicts since 2001. Chivers, who served as a Marine Corps officer, starts his book with the story of Lt. Layne McDowell. McDowell's carrier, the USS Enterprise, was returning from the Persian Gulf in 2001 just as the twin towers were destroyed. McDowell, who had flown combat missions over Serbia and Montenegro, would now fly his first missions in his F-14 Tomcat over Afghanistan. Years later he would return to the conflicts flying an F/A-18 Super Hornet.
Leo Kryszewski, a Staff Seargent in the Army served in Iraq. Dustin Kirby, a Navy Corpsman was horribly wounded while serving with the Marines and lost years to recovery and post traumatic stress (and attendant problems like alcohol abuse).Army Air Cavalry Kiowa helicopter pilot Michael Slebodnik served and died in Afghanistan. All of these important stories, and others, are respectfully told in an engaging and riveting narrative.
An important account of these seemingly endless wars.
The downloadable audio is narrated ably by Scott Brick

The Woman in the Window

The Woman in the Window: a Novel / A.J. Finn, 427 p.

I loved being completely engrossed in this disquieting and creepy novel.  Anna, formerly a successful child psychologist, is stuck in her house, with a severe case of agoraphobia.  She entertains herself with DVDs of Hitchcock and other old suspense films, lots of merlot, and by watching her neighbors.  When a new family moves in across the park, Anna sees something terrible through their parlor window. At least, she might have seen something terrible.  The real and the imagined are very hard to tease apart here, and suspense builds to a satisfying conclusion.  If occasionally the reader can see some of the surprises coming, it doesn't detract from an excellent reading experience. 

Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk

Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk / Ben Fountain, 307 pp., read by Oliver Wyman

Billy Lynn is home briefly from Iraq for a publicity tour following a heroic firefight which was caught on camera.  In the course of one day in which Billy and his fellows in Bravo Company will be part of the Dallas Cowboys halftime show, we see Billy, young and befuddled, try to reconcile his own war experiences with the shallow, often comedic, platitudes and patriotism he witnesses at home.  Beautifully executed, with humor and pathos delicately layered throughout.  Oliver Wyman's reading was terrific.