Veteran Sell-Out?
Everyone and everything gets a national holiday in these times, from Jesus to dead presidents to stray cats to pie. In an entitlement society, everyone gets to pick their favorite. Because it’s demonstrably true that “greater love hath no man than this,” Veterans Day is sacred to me.
A thousand companies will “celebrate” vets this year by offering specials on linens, mouse pads and bales of other useless crap. It’s almost as offensively far off-point as a White Sale on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Veterans served you and your fellow citizens out of a deep sense of honor and duty, and that’s always been a not-for-profit proposition.
O, thus be it ever when freemen shall stand, Between their lov'd homes and the war's desolation...
So how am I observing Veterans Day this year? By trying to sell you something. Ah, Irony, my pestilential little friend… how vaguely tolerable to see you again!
If I could afford to give my book to vets — and their families, too — I would do that in a heartbeat. Since my family doesn’t have that kind of bank account, we’re doing the next best thing we could think of and marking it down over the coming week. It’s a little sacrifice we can make to recognize the gigantic sacrifices so readily made by American service members.
To observe Veterans Day 2011, we are offering a special price on Nothing in Reserve. Through 11/14/2011, each copy purchased by or for anyone will be $12.00 plus shipping. After this special expires, we will maintain the twelve-buck price indefinitely for any copy ordered to be shipped to an APO or FPO address, purchased by someone with a military email account, or through any other means offering reasonable proof of military service.
If this seems crass to you, please note that this is a book about military service and its effects on the individual, family and society. If, after reading Nothing In Reserve, you still feel this is an inappropriate gesture, we invite you to go buy a fitted sheet instead.
This promotion has ended. Military orders remain discounted.
All purchases are now handled by Litsam Press. To receive a coupon for $3 off Nothing in Reserve, please email Jack from a military address. The coupon may be used for paper, signed paper or e-book copies, and the ebook link may be accessed overseas.
Lewis manages to find wry humor and a great deal of genuine human compassion, both for the soldiers and some of the local inhabitants. - Carl Paukstis
Make no mistake, this book is going to take you on an emotional roller coaster and deliver the occasional sucker punch to your gut! - J. Stephen Riley Silber
While the familiar comfort of routine becomes a crutch, and later a cage, Lewis catalogs the manifold insults (and rare joys) of life lived persistently in umbra. - Ry Jones
Jack's the real deal. I took the day off, so I could read this without a break, except to grab a sandwich! - WetGeek
This is not a hoo-rah story. There's sadness and pain. But there's also love and joy, and a dog and Pretty Girl. So quit reading my review, and go read the book! :) - Barcud
Jack ... welcomes us into the deeper world of one who introduced himself to the war. What goes on in the mind when you become part of the violence for the first time? - Professor and Veteran
There are parts of this book that are so brutally honest and of such physical, psychological, and emotional agony that they are hard to read, but you must read to the end to attain the redemption. - David Preston.
Jack Lewis' raw, emotional, honest portrayal of his experiences at home and in Iraq left me humbled. - Ranger M
For the first time I might finally understand why a soldier would volunteer to fight. - Book Grrrl...
[Amazon.com 5/2011]
