Home and Away

It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books.  A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured.  The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old...or for somewhere in between!  Enjoy your free peek into the book!



You never know when I might play a wild card on you!

Today's Wild Card authors are:

David and Nancy French

and the book:

Home and Away: A Story of Family in a Time of War

Center Street; Original edition (July 1, 2011)

***Special thanks to Sarah Reck, Web Publicist | FaithWords & Center Street for sending me a review copy.***

ABOUT THE AUTHORS:

Nancy French is a columnist for the Philadelphia City Paper, a weekly alternative newspaper (readership of 460,000), in which she addressed issues like politics, religion, and culture with a light, humorous touch. She also the cofounded and maintains the blog re:formation which has a large following and focuses on a discussion of today's conservative Right.



David French is a captain in the United States Army Reserve. In his civilian life, he is a senior counsel of the Alliance Defense Fund and is the director of its Center for Academic Freedom. In Iraq he served as the Squadron Judge Advocate for the 2d Squadron, 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment in Diyala Province, Iraq. At the conclusion of his tour, he was awarded the Bronze Star for meritorious service in combat operations.



Visit the authors' Facebook.

SHORT BOOK DESCRIPTION:

David French picked up the newspaper in the comfort of his penthouse in Philadelphia, and read about a soldier - father of two - who was wounded in Iraq. Immediately, he was stricken with a question: Why him and not me?



This is the story of what happens when a person - rather a family - answers the call to serve their nation. David was a 37-year-old father of two, a Harvard Law graduate and president of a free speech organization. In other words, he was used to pushing pencils, not toting M16s.



His wife Nancy was raising two children and writing from home. She was worrying about field trips and playdates, not about her husband going to war.

HOME AND AWAY chronicles not just a soldier at war, but a family at war - a husband in Iraq, a wife and children at home, greeting each day with hope and fear, facing the challenge with determination, tears, and more than a little joy.



Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com



Product Details:



List Price: $14.99

Paperback: 272 pages

Publisher: Center Street; Original edition (July 1, 2011)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 1931722900

ISBN-13: 978-1931722902



Click "Browse Inside this Book" to read the first chapter:

My Thoughts: Home and Away is a very good book about a Harvard law school graduate who feels called to patriotic duty and chooses to join the Army Reserves as a JAG officer knowing full well that a deployment is almost certain. The story is told by both David and his wife Nancy as each recalls what was going through their minda as well as their lives while apart for one year. As the wife of an Active Duty Army JAG officer, I was happy to find their depiction pretty realistic. Rarely do I read books I think my husband would enjoy but I am fairly certain this one will be read if left in the 'reading room' basket.