Move Over, Bookninja!

Got the following email yesterday:

Dear Frank:

Ten years ago, Yale-educated Elizabeth D. Samet began teaching English literature to future Army officers at West Point military academy. It was pre-September 11, a time of peace, when none of Samet's students appeared to have combat in their future. But after that fateful day, everything changed; the Army was mobilized, and the United States was embroiled in a war that put all of her former and current students in danger of being deployed.

Intimate and poignant, SOLDIER'S HEART chronicles the various tensions inherent in military life as well as the ways in which war has transformed Samet's relationship to literature. Fighting in Iraq, Samet's former students share what books and movies mean to them—the poetry of Wallace Stevens, the fiction of Virginia Woolf and J.M. Coetzee, the epics of Homer, or the films of Bogart and Cagney. "Literature helps them to understand their own increasingly complicated lives," Samet explains. Their letters in turn prompt Samet to wonder exactly what she owes to cadets in the classroom.

Samet also considers the role of women in the army, the dangerous tides of religious and political zeal roiling the country, the uses of the call to patriotism, and the cult of sacrifice she believes is currently paralyzing national debate. Ultimately, Samet offers an honest and original reflection on the relationship between art and life. In addition, SOLDIER'S HEART was recently named one of the 100 Notable Books of 2007 by The New York Times.

I am writing today on behalf of Farrar, Straus and Giroux to see if you would like to receive a copy of SOLDIER'S HEART: Reading Literature Through Peace and War at West Point to review or discuss on your website, CODE PINK: Women for Peace. More details about the book and the author --- including an excerpt and reader's guide --- can be found online at http://www.fsgbooks.com/fsg/0soldier.html .

Samet's podcast interview with Sam Tanenhaus can be found on The New York Times' website at http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/08/books/books-podcast-archive.html?ref=books.

Newsweek's feature interview with the author can be found at http://www.newsweek.com/id/67513.

"A thoughtful, attentive, stereo-type breaking book…[Samet] offers a significant perspective on the crucial social and political force of honor." --- The New York Times Book Review.

"Strong, deeply articulate…Elizabeth Samet…gives us some provocative glimpses into the military mind-set." ---Chicago Tribune

"Absolutely fascinating…Her book explores serious issues --- moral questions about courage and obedience --- but with graceful writing and flashes of humor. I know of no other new book that's a better choice for any reading group that loves to debate literature and politics." ---USA Today

Feel free to get in touch for a review copy, to request an interview with the author, or if you have any questions or comments. Thanks for your time, and I look forward to hearing from you.

Best wishes,

Anna Jarzab

I don't know how I got on the poor woman's contact list, but I'm rather tickled by it and almost tempted to email and get an interview with the author. "So, Dr. Samet, West Point plebes: bossy bottoms or voracious tops?" *LOL*