The Rye Public Library Military Book Group meets at the Library on the first Thursday of every month at 2:00PM in the New Hampshire Meeting Room, and is open to any and all who are interested in all things military. Everyone is invited to join. You can find the 2025 book list below.
January 2
The Oceans and the Stars by Mark Helprin
When the President of the United States attempts to humiliate him by assigning him to the doomed warship Athena, Navy Captain Stephen Rensselaer, while exploring a last-chance romance with a brilliant lawyer, is deployed on a mission that subjects his integrity, morality, and skill to the ultimate test.
February 6
Unit X: How the Pentagon and Silicon Valley are Transforming the Future of War by Raj M. Shah
Two insiders offer an inside look at the elite unite within the Pentagon that they started – the Defense Innovation Unit, also known as Unit X – whose mission is to bring Silicon Valley’s cutting-edge technology to America’s military.
March 6
Nuclear War: A Scenario by Nancy Jacobsen
Every generation, a journalist has looked deep into the heart of the nuclear military establishment: the technologies, the safeguards, the plans, and the risks. These investigations are vital to how we understand the world we really live in – where one nuclear missile will beget one in return, and where the choreography of the world’s end requires massive decisions made on seconds’ notice with information that is only as good as the intelligence we have. Annie Jacobsen’s Nuclear War: A Scenario explores this ticking-clock scenario, based on dozens of exclusive new interviews with military and civilian experts.
April 3
The Wingmen by Adam Lazarus
Presents the untold story of the unique 50-year friendship between two American icons: John Glenn, the unassailable pioneer of space exploration, and Ted Williams, indisputably the greatest hitter in baseball history.
May 1
New Cold Wars: China’s Rise, Russia’s Invasion, and America’s Struggle to Defend the West by David E. Sanger
Drawing on interviews with top officials from five administrations, U.S. intelligence agencies, foreign governments and tech companies on the front line, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist presents this remarkable first draft history chronicling America’s return to superpower conflict, the choices that lie ahead and what is at stake of the U.S. and the world.
June 5
The Women by Kristin Hannah
In 1956, nursing student Frankie McGrath, after hearing the words “Women can be heroes, too,” impulsively joins the Army Nurse Corps and follows her brother to Vietnam where she is overwhelmed by the destruction of war, as well as the unexpected trauma of coming home to a changed and politically divided America.
July 3
Freedom’s Forge: how American Business Build the Arsenal Of Democracy that Won WWII by Arthur Herman
Herman pens this look at how two business men turned the U.S. into a military powerhouse during World War II. In 1940 , FDR asked General Motors CEO William Knudsen to oversee the production of guns, tanks, and planes needed for the war. Meanwhile, industrialist Henry J. Kaiser presided over the building of “Liberty Ships” – vessels that came to symbolize America’s great wartime output.
August 7
The Unit: My Life Fighting Terrorists as one of America’s Most Secret Military Operatives by Adam Gamal
From Adam Gamal, one of the only Muslim Arab Americans to serve inside “the Unit”, comes an incisive firsthand account of out nation’s most secretive military group. When Adam arrived in the United States at the age of twenty, he spoke no English, and at 5’1″ and 112lbs., he was far from what you might expect of a soldier. But compelled into service by a debt he felt he owed to his new country, he rose through the ranks of the military to become one of its most elite and skilled operators. The Unit is at once a gripping account of the fight against terror, an examination of the need for diversity, and an inside look at how America fights its battles abroad in the modern age of Terrorism.
September 4
The Siege: A Six-Day Hostage Crisis ant he Daring Special Forces Op that Shocked the World by Ben Macintyre
A history of one of the most harrowing hostage situations and daring rescue attempts of our time, by the New York Times best-selling author of Operation Mincemeat and The Spy and the Traitor.
October 2
Targeted – Beirut: The 1983 Marine Barracks Bombing and the Untold Origin Story of the War on Terror by Jack Carr
1983: the United States Marine Corps experiences its greatest single-day loss of life since the battle of Iwo Jima when a truck packed with explosives crashes into their headquarters and barracks in Beirut, Lebanon. This horrifying terrorist attack, which killed 241 servicemen, continues to influence US foreign policy and haunts the the Marine Corps to this day. Now, the full story is revealed as never before by Jack Carr and historian and Pulitzer Prize finalist James M. Scott.
November 6
American Heroes by James Patterson
U.S. soldiers who served in overseas conflicts – from World War II, Korea, and Vietnam, to Iraq and Afghanistan – share true stories of the actions that earned them some of America’s most distinguished military medals, up to and including the Medal of Honor.
December 4
When the Sea Came Alive: An Oral History of D-Day by Garrett M. Graff
D-Day is one of history’s greatest and most unbelievable military and human triumphs. Though the full campaign lasted just over a month, the surprise landing of over 150,000 Allied troops on June 6, 1944, is considered the moment that turned the tide for the Allied forces and ultimately led to the defeat of the Axis powers in World War II. historian Garret M. Graff explores the full impact of this world-changing event – from the secret creation of landing plans by top government and military officials and organization of troops, tot he moment the boat doors opened to reveal the beach where men fought for their lives and the future of the free world.