Book of the Month: All Quiet on the Western Front

Since World War I, billed as the "war to end all wars" ended at 11:11 AM on the morning of November 11, 1918, I think it appropriate that my book of the month for this month is Erich Maria Remarque's remarkable anti-war classic, All Quiet on the Western Front.

Maybe you read it in school, maybe you read it, like I did, for "fun", maybe you saw only the movie on late-night television.

But to any veteran -- or anyone who knows a veteran or lives with a veteran -- this book captures wartime and the changes the soldier goes through, from initial patriotic jingoism to final despair like no other.

You owe it to yourself to read this book. Again. Or for the first time. Those who read my previous book selection, The Sorrow of War, will know why I, among so many others called it "The All Quiet on the Western Front of the Vietnam War".