I wanted to start this entry a bit ago, but I dragged my feet due to not being sure how to do it – mostly because I’ve avoiding doing book reviews or recommendations except in specific cases – but decided that I would be best to just do a normal post that I can update later. I also wanted to do this at the end of May for Military Appreciation Month, but by the time I got to it that was over.
I’ve had a couple of recent incidents of trainees not being as aware of military and veteran culture, and this is somewhat of an educational blindspot for me – I grew up with military/veteran families, friends that were into the military culture, had a veteran in my family, and have VA experience throughout my medical training and career so I sometimes don’t realize that the residents may not have been that into it.
(I’ve also made a significant effort to read about to learn about these things.)
So, some mild recommendations – may not be the best books but these are the ones that come to mind, with all of the biases of recency effect, selection bias (these are just the books that I read) and my perspective, and even so I may leave out a book that I read and would recommend.
Also – as I note at the end of the post – the real thing to do is to listen to veterans and get experience, as well as do specific trainings / readings from VA, VSOs, or other related groups.
A Civilian’s Guide To The US Military:
Achilles In Vietnam:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6069.Achilles_in_Vietnam
Odysseus In America:
https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Odysseus-in-America/Jonathan-Shay/9780743211574
Invisible Wounds:
Invisible Wounds: Graphic Journalism
Now, some categories of books without official recommendations:
- Books about various specific wars and military actions. Unfortunately, these can vary in quality, especially with the newer or smaller conflicts, and sometimes can be good quality but only focus on particular aspects
- Various memoirs, poetry, and writing from veterans
- VA and VSO materials
- VA and veteran-related trainings and programs
- Texts about various veteran-specific or “prevalent in veterans” conditions, such as Agent Organ, brain injury, trauma
- Disability studies / theory
- Patient-focused books, including children’s books, about various conditions or veteran/military life
That’s all for now. I’m leaving a few off intentionally for various reasons, but I also think I’m clearly forgetting a couple?
