As I've mentioned before, I enjoy listening to books on tape while working out or cooking when I'm doing those activities by myself. Recently, I got The Long Road Home out from the library on CD. I take the CDs and rip them to MP3 so I can listen to them on my MP3 player. When I'm done, I go ahead and delete them, so don't worry that I'm stealing. :) I listened along until I thought it would be done, when I was greeted with the message to load the next disk. Yikes! I'd missed ripping the last disk. That was a bummer. I put a hold on the book again, started listening to something else and waited. It came in after only a week and now I'm done.
The Long Road Home was an interesting, but rather confusing book. The story is about the April 4th, 2004 ambushing of American troop in Sadr City. What was going on with the troops, hailing from Ft Hood in Texas (they were in the process of taking over duty from another division), what was happening with which troops, what the decision making process was and what went on back at home with the wives/children/parents back at home.
The answers to those questions were very interesting, but, there were so many people who were involved that it was, ultimately also confusing. I had a hard time following the individual people. That said, I was able to follow the over all flow of the story.
As with most nonfictional books about war, you do get a good feel for the cost of war and it isn't pretty. Whatever your feelings about the Iraq war, you will get a feel for what that day was like for both the soldiers and their families. The politics are not discussed.
Overall, I give The Long Road Home a 5 - fairly average.
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