Friday Freebie: The Honor Was Mine by Elizabeth Heaney

Congratulations to Michael Cooper, winner of last week’s Friday Freebie: Vanity Fair’s Writers on Writers, edited by Graydon Carter.

This week’s contest is for The Honor Was Mine by Elizabeth Heaney. Subtitled “A Look Inside the Struggles of Military Veterans,” it is essential reading for this Veterans Day. My friend Jerri Bell (co-author of It’s My Country Too: Women’s Military Stories from the American Revolution to Afghanistan) had this to say about the book: “Elizabeth Heaney writes with humility and sincere compassion about the men and women who are continuing to pay the price for America’s wars. She paints a moving portrait of the challenges they face and the triumphs, sometimes small but never minor, that come from doing hard emotional work. She writes from a place of genuine empathy, never condescension. This book is sure to become an essential building block in the bridge across the military-civilian divide.” Keep scrolling for more information about The Honor Was Mine...

A young combat veteran hides in his closet under a pile of clothes on bad nights. Another, home for five days, can’t figure out how to talk to his wife. And a commander’s spouse recounts the soul-draining effect of attending nearly one hundred memorial services...When therapist Elizabeth Heaney left her private practice to counsel military service members and their families, she came face-to-face with unheard-of struggles and fears. Emotions run deeply—and often silently—in the hearts of combat veterans in this eye-opening portrait of the complex, nuanced lives of service personnel, who return from battling the enemy and grapple with readjusting to civilian life. Presenting the soldiers’ stories—told in their own words—as well as her own story of change, Heaney offers an intimate perspective, not of war itself but of its emotional aftermath. Some of these stories scrape the bone; others are hopeful, even comical. Every one reveals the sacrifices of those on the front lines and the courage, grace, and honor with which they serve.

If you’d like a chance at winning The Honor Was Mine, simply email your name and mailing address to

thequiveringpen@gmail.com

Put FRIDAY FREEBIE in the e-mail subject line. Please include your mailing address in the body of the e-mail. One entry per person, please. This contest is limited to those with an address in the U.S. Despite its name, the Friday Freebie remains open to entries until midnight on Nov. 17, at which time I’ll draw the winning name. I’ll announce the lucky reader on Nov. 18. If you’d like to join the mailing list for the once-a-week newsletter, simply add the words “Sign me up for the newsletter” in the body of your email. Your email address and other personal information will never be sold or given to a third party (except in those instances where the publisher requires a mailing address for sending Friday Freebie winners copies of the book).

Want to double your odds of winning? Get an extra entry in the contest by posting a link to this webpage on your blog, your Facebook wall or by tweeting it on Twitter. Once you’ve done any of those things, send me an additional e-mail saying “I’ve shared” and I’ll put your name in the hat twice.