Today begins the Memorial Day Weekend, here in the United States. Memorial Day is a day of remembrance for those who have died in service of the United States of America. Traditionally, it was also a day where families would visit national grave sites and decorate each fallen heroes last resting place.

As writers, it is always important to remember those who have come before us. They inspire us, give our work meaning and depth, and often provide us with clarity in a very unclear world.

Given this, I have compiled a top 10 books to read this weekend while honoring our fallen soldiers. Each image links to the Amazon page or Goodreads page and most can be found at your local library. Happy reading!

1. Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five

2. Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms

3. Norman Mailer’s The Naked and the Dead

4. Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace

5. Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief

6. Homer’s The Iliad

7. Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind

8. Charles Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities

9. Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables

10. Joseph Heller’s Catch-22