Book Review

Okay, so a couple of you are laughing that I am writing about a book. Yes, I have been reading it but haven't finished yet . . . you will understand why later. I got an Express Mail package last week and it was from Simon and Schuster. I couldn't imagine what they were sending me. And then I opened it and had a moment. It was a copy of The Blog of War. I immediately flipped to Chapter Seven: The Fallen . . . I read my story and the next story and the entire chapter was over . . . my brain was hurting because it was a sad chapter. I started reading at the beginning but would soon have to stop . . . this is some heavy, deep reading but I highly recommend it. Here is the official release . . .

Front-line Dispatches from Soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan

Military blogs have transformed the way we look at war and the military, says U.S. Army veteran and military blogger (“Blackfive”) Mathew Currier Burden, author of THE BLOG OF WAR: Front-line Dispatches from Soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan (Simon and Schuster; September 12, 2006; $15.00). Military blogs—milblogs, for short—give readers an uncensored, intimate, and immediate view of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. “Military blogs”, says Burden, “have been an experiment in putting lives that are on the line online.”
The first milblogs came after the invasion of Afghanistan, when the U.S. military gave soldiers internet access. Blogging became the perfect way for soldiers to stay in touch with and to tell their stories to their comrades-in-arms, their friends and families, and even the public at large. Milblogs were ideal for filling in the gaps that both the media and the military left out of the war. For the first time in the history of warfare, the public had access to an immediate, uncensored bird’s-eye view of what was really happening on the ground. Unfortunately, the U.S. government is now trying to shut down these blogs and otherwise censor them. THE BLOG OF WAR could very well be one of the last real-time records of the war told by our troops as they risk their lives. After the death of a friend in Iraq, Burden started his own blog, Blackfive.net, in mid-2003 to support the troops fighting the War on Terror and tell their stories. Blackfive.net quickly became one of the most visited and linked blogs and has won consecutive “Best Military Blog” honors in the Weblog Awards. Now, Matt Burden has collected some of the most riveting and insightful work by other bloggers in THE BLOG OF WAR.

If you like blogs . . . which if you read this you probably have one too . . . then I recommend this book. I cry every time I pick it up but it is a good book and a good insight especially from our soldiers on the front line. It is the first book I have read in a very long time . . .