These audio books, and books, are ready to go to our troops recovering in Germany, and in the field in Afghanistan, as well as their wives and families here at home. They’ll begin their journey on Saturday. But it never would have happened had not these wonderful people stepped up to donate. Here’s wishing them all, and you, and America’s troops, a Happy Thanksgiving!

• Patton Oswalt
• Julia Sweeney
• Alice Sebold
• Tess Gerritsen
• Meg Gardiner
• Vince Flynn
• Glenn David Gold
• George Mastras
• Jon Guenther
• James Landis
• M. Glenn Taylor
• Guy Fieri
• Mark Stevens
• Karin Slaughter
• Eddie Stack
• Kim Barnes
• Alfred Martino for books by Jim Wheeler, Donna Hanover, David Kushner
• Marysue Rucci and Simon & Schuster for books by Dan Brown, Carrie Fisher, Stephen King, Steve Martin, Ted Kennedy, Chelsea Handler, Jeffrey Deaver (also thanks to Jennifer Smith and Sophie Epstein at S&S!)
• Sheial Emerson at Recorded Books for audio books by John Ferling, Margaret Macmillan, Jane Smiley, Ian McEwan, Hunter S. Thompson, Ivan Doig, Lee & Bob Woodruff, James Frey, Jeff Lindsay, Cormac McCarthy, Edward Lengel, Stephen Mitchell, Mark Helprin,
  Doug Fine, Philip Roth, Charles Baxter, Chuck Palahniuk, Andrew Meier, Kris Radish.
• Brilliance Audio for books by Suzanne Brockman, Stephan White, Daniel Siwa, Jayne Anne Krentz.
• Jofie Ferrari-Adler at Grove/Atlantic for books by Bill Heavy, Bob Drury and Tom Clavin, Ed Macy, P.J. O’Rourke, Sam Sheridan, Arkady Babchenko.
• And last but not least, Colonel George Reynolds and his wife, Kate, Major Robert Davis, our good friend Yvette Manessis Corporon.

You can support OWL contributors like Guy by purchasing copies of their books, CDs and DVDs in the OWL Store.

Thanks, Guy!

And thanks, Yvette!

You can catch the Galleycat post here.

You can catch the AgencySpy post here.

You can actually listen to the interview here.

As a reminder to everyone who wants to help but may not have books or audiobooks to donate – you can support the authors who are donating their books to us by buying copies of their books in the OWL STORE. You’ll find all their books there. Proceeds from these sales also help us continue to deliver great books to our troops.

Jon has a new novel out, SOUL RUNNER, and it sounds like a great thriller:

The year is 1988. As a former Hasidic Jew raised in the Bronx, Dr. Bram Aronsfeld is no stranger to trouble.

Now the secret organization known as ARK is sending him into Communist-controlled Romania to rescue the beautiful Ileana Tarus, a Christian Gypsy woman who possesses information vital to ARK’s intelligence operations. Spearheading the subjugation of her people is the evil Drago Profis, a despot backed by the current regime.

When Bram realizes it’s not just Ileana but her whole village that need rescuing, the two will embark on a perilous adventure from which only their foolhardy courage and Almighty God can save them all!

Well, thanks to a bunch of generous authors (see the previous post) Operation Warrior Library suddenly had another 500 books to deliver to troops in Afghanistan. Now, the first part of that journey begins when with us delivering the books from OWL central in New Jersey to Major Davis at Fort McPherson outside of Atlanta. Not an easy trip for us to make.

That’s where my favorite company, uShip, comes in. They connect people with things that need hauling with truckers looking to haul. They can hanlde full loads, or in our case, partial loads. Now, what makes this company truly cool, is that they have a charity option. When you click that, wonderful people offer to haul for next to nothing. Dave turned out to be the right guy in the right place at the right time – which turned out to be a parking lot outside of Cherry Hill, NJ.

And Dave brought company. He helps deliver rescued horses from lives of abuse. The horse he was delivering had been sold by a woman as a yearling and she came across him on the Internets and rescued him. So Dave was bringing the horse home. While we transferred the boxes to the horse trailer, a retired mounted police officer joined us to chat horses. He keeps a picture of his horse in his wallet right next to photos of his family. It was obvious that the “horse smell,” as he put it, made him very, very happy.

You can find out a bit more about Dave at his website. His daughter has also been involved with turning one of their rescued horses into a dressage horse in a film called, Dartagnan is the Champion.

So, Dave got the books delivered. I was just informed yesterday that the books are heading to the 278th Heavy Brigade Combat Team (HBCT) of the TN Army National Guard. And new books for the next shipment are already coming. Which means that if Dave is in the area, I hope to get to have him help out again. If not, I’ll be posting again on uShip, and looking forward to meeting another very cool American.

You can find these books, and support these authors, in the Operation Warrior Library Store.

• Stephan Talty, EMPIRE OF BLUE WATER
• Susan Gregg Gilmore, LOOKING FOR SALVATION AT THE DAIRY QUEEN
• Chris Grabenstein, TILT A WHIRL
• Stefanie Pintoff, IN THE SHADOW OF GOTHAM
• Armin A. Brott, THE MILITARY FATHER: A HANDS-ON GUIDE FOR DEPLOYED DADS
• Nick Katsoris, GROWING UP WITH LOUKOUMI
• Kevin Smith, SHOOTIN’ THE SH*T WITH KEVIN SMITH

It’s because she’s a good writer. Her new memoir is a funny and honest look at marriage.

She’s also cool because she donated four boxes of her book to Operation Warrior Library. Because of the nature of her subject matter, we decided to disperse these a little differently this time. Half of the books went to Afghanistan. The other half has been turned over to the Family Readiness Groups (really the wives groups) to distribute to their members.

You can support Lily by purchasing her book. Remember, any purchase you make in the Operation Warrior Library store goes to helping us continue to deliver great books to our troops.

Thanks, Lily!

Here it is. The paperback of JACK LONDON IN PARADISE drops on October 20, 2009.

Just in time for some early holiday shopping.

Of course, purists may still want the original hardcover.

Spread the word.

So why the apology?

Because we met Sherri and Amanda all the way back in March. Here it is the end of July and I’m just getting around to publicly thanking them. They make great shirts for kids, adults, and everyone in between. Trust me, I’ve seen a lot of book-themed clothes in my travels. These are the best.

Visit them on the web at literarythreads.com. You can even find them on Facebook by searching for, you guessed it, Literary Threads. In case you were thinking of getting the book lover in your life a kindle, get them one of these instead.

You will never be the bad-ass that Chris Ryan is. The man is an SAS Gulf War Veteran who had to escape on foot through Iraq into Syria after a mission got hit hard by Murphy’s Law. After telling that story in THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY: MY SAS MISSION BEHIND ENEMY LINES, Chris turned to fiction. And if you have any problems with that, take it up with Chris.

ULTIMATE WEAPON is a big hit in England and deserves to be here as well. Taking place during the current Iraq war, the book is terrifically entertaining as well as pertinent.

Thanks to Chris, we’ve been able to ship four boxes of ULTIMATE WEAPON to troops serving in Afghanistan. You can support Chris by picking up a copy of his book. Remember, any purchases made in the OWL STORE go to continuing to help us deliver great books to our troops.