Surprise New Reads!

How surprised I was to go to  my mailbox on Friday and find these two signed copies of Pamela Foster's books waiting for me.  She even included a couple of post cards. And, all I did was make a comment on her blog, that she found favorable.
I haven't had the opportunity to read Pamela's books, but they sure look interesting. I have a brother that actually spend some time in  Costa Rica and was considered a Gringo by the locals and my father-in-law was a WW2 Vet. So, I expect to really enjoy these two books.
Have you had the opportunity to read any of her work?




The comments following the books are from either Amazon or from Pamela's blog:

 My husband, Jack, and I sit in our recliners – you know, the ones you see on TV with old people in them – and watch CNN while we pet the fur-covered, 150-pound trunkless elephants we call dogs, and contemplate another winter in the high desert of Arizona.

“You know what?” I ask rhetorically.

Jack doesn’t answer. We’ve been married long enough that, first of all, he knows one of my lead-ins to a discussion about our lives when he hears it and, secondly, he’s trained his brain to simply filter out nine-tenths of what comes floating out of my mouth.

Knowing this, with no encouragement whatsoever, I continue, “It feels like we’re just sitting here waiting to die.”

He turns his head and looks at me.

A minute later, he says, “Yeah. It does, doesn’t it?”

After breakfast, I say, “Let’s move to someplace green and warm with a beautiful blue ocean.”

This, right here, turns out to be the equivalent of saying, “I’ll bet we could strap these two giant dogs to our backs and just leap right across that rocky abyss over yonder. Don’t worry about those loose boulders. We’ll be fine.”

Why would I even consider such a thing? Because Jack’s my hero, and he came into my life when I really needed a hero.

From the dry Arizona desert to tropical Panama, Foster shares the adventures she experienced traveling with her Vietnam veteran husband with PTSD and their two gigantic service dogs. By weaving charm, wit, and humor throughout the story, Foster masterfully brings to light the daily challenges faced by veterans with PTSD and their spouses. Insightful, endearing, funny yet sad, Clueless Gringos in Paradise brings understanding and hope to all those who deal with the unseen wounds and scars of war.”

~ R.H. Burkett, author of Soldiers in the Mist

When night falls on another Veterans Day, when the leftover chicken waits in plastic tubs for a quick breakfast the next morning, and the confetti is swept from the streets, and the flags are folded in tight triangles; when the holiday ends, most of us get on with our lives. But for those warriors who carried an M14 along a jungle trail, who patrolled the streets of Fullujah or Bagdad, who developed the skills to survive and return to us, for those combat-seasoned men and women, life does not exactly just go on. My Life with a Wounded Warrior is the true story of the joys, challenges, and lessons of living with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD. This collection of deeply honest personal essays shares Pamela Foster's twenty-five years of living with and loving a combat Marine, a veteran of Vietnam. With humor and love and respect, as well as with frustration and anger and sadness, Foster lifts the curtain on the true cost, the individual cost of war, and gives hope and joy and laughter to those who love their own wounded warrior. The author will donate $3 from the sale of each book to Freedom Dogs, an organization which provides PTSD service dogs to combat veterans.

To view more of Pamela's books , please select the link here.