Ghosts of War - Ryan Smithson♥

A tough but powerful look at one man’s experience. As a student in suburban Albany, Ryan Smithson joins the army after 9/11. While in Iraq, he’s shot at and faces mortar attack, but he spends more time on responsibilities like methodical cleanups of roadside bomb craters—work that’s as vital, if not as sexy, as actual combat. Smithson’s interactions with Iraqi children and families, as much as with his fellow soldiers, drive the story. Military biography clichés—from the indoctrination of boot camp (“they break us down, build us up, break us down again, and then build us back up”) to resentment of officers among the enlisted—abound because they’re no doubt true. But the real meat of the book is in Smithson’s dealings with American noncombatants, from the little boy who sends care packages to the pilot who insists on upgrading him to first class and his wife and parents. Smithson avoids writing either prowar propaganda or an anti military polemic, providing instead a fascinating, often humorous—and occasionally devastating—account of the motivations and life of a contemporary soldier.

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Cheyenne's Opinion :
I read this book a long time ago, and I'm having a hard time remembering it. I think I had a hard time getting into it and skipped a lot of pages. This was not one of my favorites on the list. Some parts made me giggle, but not enough for me to read it again. I give it a 3/5 stars.
I think it is more aimed for the boys, because all the boys in my group liked it. Not so much a girl's favorite.