Lex Park Library Hosts Vets Book Group
The Lexington Park Library hosts a Veterans Book Group on the first Saturday of the month.
The book discussion series for vets is led by Vietnam veteran Wayne Karlin. Registration required; space is limited.
For wait list information, contact Kimberlé Fields at 301-863-8188 or [email protected].
The book discussion series is tailored for veterans and their families. Service members of all eras, their spouses, and adult children are welcome. The group will read and discuss three books written in very different styles but connected by themes of war, courage, honor, and trauma. Materials are provided.
The Veterans Book Group is coordinated statewide by Maryland Humanities and is presented locally in partnership with St. Mary’s County Library. It is supported in part by Lockheed Martin, David Bruce Smith, and the Wawa Foundation.
Current reading list:
May 4: “The Long Reckoning: A Story of War, Peace, and Redemption in Vietnam – Part One: War” by George Black.
June 1: “The Long Reckoning: A Story of War, Peace, and Redemption in Vietnam – Part Two: Peace” by George Black.
The moving story of how a small group of people—including two Vietnam veterans — forced the US government to take responsibility for the ongoing horrors agent orange and unexploded munitions —inflicted on the Vietnamese. George Black recounts the inspirational story of the small cast of characters — veterans, scientists, and Quaker-inspired pacifists, and their Vietnamese partners — who used their moral authority, scientific and political ingenuity, and sheer persistence to attempt to heal the horrors that were left in the wake of the military engagement in Southeast Asia.
Their intersecting story is one of reconciliation and personal redemption, embedded in a vivid portrait of Vietnam today, with all its startling collisions between past and present, in which one-time mortal enemies, in the endless shape shifting of geopolitics, have been transformed into close allies and partners.
“The Long Reckoning” is being published on the 50th anniversary of the day the last American combat soldier left Vietnam.
Book descriptions are from Barnes & Nobles unless otherwise noted. Photo credit: Pixabay.com.
