 |
Spouse CallsJoin the conversation with Stripes columnist Terri Barnes, as she explores issues relevant to the lives of military spouses. |
It's about time ...
Posted October 29th, 2007 by Terri Barnes in
Kudos to my nearest AAFES outlet, the BX at Ramstein AB. I was in the book store there this past week and saw an entire end cap display of books about PTSD.
The display had a variety of informational books, as well as paperback editions of Kristin Henderson's "While They're At War." Kristin's book provides an indepth look into the lives of spouses during deployment and after. A link to her Web site is provided on the Spouse Calls links at the right side of this page. Read comments from Kristin in Spouse Calls -- Click here.
On a nearby shelf labeled "Military" our BX also offers "Help! I'm a Military Spouse" by Kathie Hightower and Holly Scherer, a complete guide book for making the most of military spousedom. See their link also on the list at right. Read an interview with Kathie from Spouse Calls -- Click here.
Other good titles I saw on the BX shelf include "Behind the Lines" and "Grace Under Fire," by Andrew Carroll. Both of these are compilations of letters written during war time, past and present. Another book edited by Carroll is "Operation Homecoming," a National Endowment for the Arts anthology of writings by troops in current conflicts.
I'll have an interview with Carroll in the Nov. 11 Spouse Calls column. Read more about his efforts on behalf of the military at www.WarLetters.com and www.OperationHomecoming.org.
I'm glad to see this development and hope it continues. What better place than the BX for books that speak to military families and are about military life?
I hope that it is also happening at other AAFES stores. Anybody else seeing good books for military spouses and families on BX and PX shelves?
Military spouse book sections
Hi Terri--Holly and I were recently at Hickam AFB to speak at the Joint Spouse Conference there. We were happy to see an end cap display of some of the many miiltary spouse books, While They Were at War , Married to the Military, Heroes at Home, Jobs and the Military Spouse, Going Overboard...AND for the first time there were many more than 1-2 copies of each title! It's a good start.
To update your readers, a number of military spouses including the National Military Family Association, are on a mission to get good military spouse and military children's book sections in every military exchange....just like there are good professional devt for military sections in most exchanges. As we go around doing workshops we give everyone a long list of great books for military spouses and military children. We've been having to say "go to Amazon" for these...where no money goes back into the military community. We'd love to be able to say, "go to your exchange." We firmly believe this will eventually happen, AND we'd love to encourage your readers to help. Go to your exchange manager and ask, "Where is the military spouse and the miitary child book section in this exchange?" or when looking to buy a specific mil spouse/child book, ask if they can order it in. Grass roots efforts are often the most powerful. Kathie Hightower, www.militaryspousehelp.com