Grunts

What is an orc? An orc is an 18 stone fighting machine, made of muscle, hide, talon and tusk, with a villainous disposition and a mean sense of humour. And, of course, an orc is a poor dumb grunt - the much abused foot soldier of the Evil Horde of Darkness. The usual last battle of Good against Evil is about to begin. Orc Captain Ashnak and his war-band know exactly what they can expect. The forces of Light are outnumbered, full of headstrong heroes devoid of tactics - but the Light's still going to win. Orcs - the sword fodder in the front line - will die by the thousands. Life's a bitch.

A New York Times / National Bestseller "America's funniest science writer" (Washington Post) Mary Roach explores the science of keeping human beings intact, awake, sane, uninfected, and uninfested in the bizarre and extreme circumstances of war. Grunt tackles the science behind some of a soldier's most challenging adversaries—panic, exhaustion, heat, noise—and introduces us to the scientists who seek to conquer them. Mary Roach dodges hostile fire with the U.S. Marine Corps Paintball Team as part of a study on hearing loss and survivability in combat. She visits the fashion design studio of U.S. Army Natick Labs and learns why a zipper is a problem for a sniper. She visits a repurposed movie studio where amputee actors help prepare Marine Corps medics for the shock and gore of combat wounds. At Camp Lemmonier, Djibouti, in east Africa, we learn how diarrhea can be a threat to national security. Roach samples caffeinated meat, sniffs an archival sample of a World War II stink bomb, and stays up all night with the crew tending the missiles on the nuclear submarine USS Tennessee. She answers questions not found in any other book on the military: Why is DARPA interested in ducks? How is a wedding gown like a bomb suit? Why are shrimp more dangerous to sailors than sharks? Take a tour of duty with Roach, and you’ll never see our nation’s defenders in the same way again.

“A superb book—an American equivalent to John Keegan’s The Face of Battle. I sincerely believe that Grunts is destined to be a classic.”—Dave Grossman, Author of On Killing and On Combat From the acclaimed author of The Dead and Those About to Die comes a sweeping narrative of six decades of combat, and an eye-opening account of the evolution of the American infantry. From the beaches of Normandy and the South Pacific Islands to the deserts of the Middle East, the American soldier has been the most indispensable—and most overlooked—factor in wartime victory. In Grunts, renowned historian John C. McManus examines ten critical battles—from Hitler’s massive assault on U.S. soldiers at the Battle of the Bulge to counterinsurgency combat in Iraq—where the skills and courage of American troops proved the crucial difference between victory and defeat. Based on years of research and interviews with veterans, this powerful history reveals the ugly face of war in a way few books have, and demonstrates the fundamental, and too often forgotten, importance of the human element in serving and protecting the nation.

The fourth book in the hilarious series from Roald Dahl Funny Prize winning author Philip Ardagh and illustrator of The Gruffalo, Axel Scheffler. Over the years, the Grunts have made more than a few enemies. But fortunately they're all safely behind bars. Or are they? There's been a prison break-out, and three of them are after REVENGE. It's time for the Grunts to go On the Run... This last book brings back some familiar faces from the series and solves a couple of mysteries too...

The third in the hilarious series from Roald Dahl Funny Prize winning author Philip Ardagh and illustrator of The Gruffalo, Axel Scheffler. Oh no! The Grunts are on the loose. And this time they're in a VERY sticky situation. When Mrs Grunt's mother, the gloomy Ma Lunge, enters a Preserves, Jams and Jellies competition, what could possibly go wrong? Plenty. Add a nose-biting squirrel, escaped bees, rogue fireworks and crashing biplanes (AGAIN!), and you'll see why poor Sunny and Mimi have a lot on their plate. And that's BEFORE the Grunts end up in jail.

The second in the hilarious series from Roald Dahl Funny Prize winning author Philip Ardagh and illustrator of The Gruffalo, Axel Scheffler. Mr Grunt's a man with a mission. He has to get a Person of Great Importance (or POGI) to someone called Mrs Bayliss by the twenty-fifth. Alive and well. And he can't tell anyone more than that, not even his lovely wife, Mrs Grunt, because there will be people trying to snatch the POGI and so the POGI must be transported in secret. It's an exciting adventure, but what interests Mr Grunt most are the silver coins he's been promised at the end of it. The Grunts' stolen son, Sunny, has a few questions. Who is the big-earringed cyclist? Why does the POGI have to wear a barrel all the time? Is Rodders Lasenby a lovely person or simply the rudest man on the planet? And how long will it be before they find themselves All At Sea?

The first in the hilarious series from Roald Dahl Funny Prize winning author Philip Ardagh and illustrator of The Gruffalo, Axel Scheffler. Mr and Mrs Grunt, who are neither clean nor clever, live with their adopted in fact, abducted son, Sunny, in a donkey-drawn caravan somewhere or other at some time that is a bit like now but not exactly now. Sunny is an oddlooking boy, what with his left ear being higher than his right ear and that kind of sticky-up hair which NEVER goes flat, even if you massage glue into it and then jump on it. Together the unusual family find themselves in frankly improbable but very funny adventures involving bendy railings, double-barrelled shotguns, full-fat yoghurt and, always, a beard of bees.

This book provides a fresh approach to understanding the American combat soldier's experience in Vietnam. It integrates such topics as the political culture, the experiences of training, the actual Vietnam experience, and the 'homecoming', and offers a remarkable overview of the 870,000 'grunts' who bore the brunt of the fighting in the jungles and highlands of South Vietnam, and eventually Cambodia and Laos.The book addresses many of the stereotypes of the Vietnam combat veteran that have been perpertrated in popular culture, and also considers how Vietnam veterans have been commemorated through memorials and other means, and how the veterans remember each other. The coverage also includes women who served in or near the front lines as well as on the home front. The author draws on memoirs and oral histories including his personal interviews with veterans, but the book conveys a picture of the Vietnam combat soldier's experience far more powerful than what individual memoirs can provide.