It is your character, and your character alone, that will make your life happy or unhappy. . . . And you choose it, says Senator John McCain in the introduction to his latest book, Character Is Destiny: Inspiring Stories Every Young Person Should Know and Every Adult Should Remember, written with his administrative assistant, Mark Salter. This collection of short biographies of both the great and the barely known in some cases, just snapshots within a life highlights examples of personal character worth emulating. Here are presidents and prison guards, warriors and washerwomen, scholars and slaves all lives that demonstrate how we can make our world better, richer and fuller. From honor to love, from faith to humor, McCain offers stories that help us understand what the human character can and should be. Written in a style that is both accessible enough for younger readers and thoughtful enough for their parents, this book rises above the ordinary. The senator is correct: these are stories worth reading and remembering, and they transcend politics of any sort.
Valiant Women is a vital and engrossing attempt to correct the record and rightfully celebrate the achievements of female veterans of World War II.
