BOOK REVIEW: Fifteen Days

This book is filled with terrific stories of Canadian soldiers told by Globe and Mail writer, Christie Blatchford. I love her humble writing style in her telling of the stories of soldiers she met or heard about in her three embedded assignments in Afghanistan in 2006. Running at 385 pages with a full index and glossary, this book was difficult to put down. It definitely tells the stories of soldiers not heard in the mainstream media.

Growing up in a military family and spending several years as an Army cadet, I was quite familiar with most of the military lingo/lexicon. However, reading this book late at night sometimes you can get lost in all the military jargon and acronyms. To really understand and absorb all of the detail that Blatchford provides, in my opinion this book requires a second read—which I don’t mind at all—and I plan to do once everyone who wanted to borrow it from me has read it.

I received this book from my roommate last Christmas. I started reading it over a week of holidays I had back in April, but had to stop when I started working overtime at work and an intensive summer course in health economics. I picked it up again once my summer vacation started last week and read it non-stop until I finished it. Because each chapter is one “day” I didn’t feel too lost after putting it down for a little while.

A moving account of Canada’s greatest heroes, I would recommend this book to everyone who wants to know what’s going on beyond the headlines and who these soldiers are.

Overall rating: 9/10