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Playing Soldier Kindle Edition

by F. Scott Service (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
5.0 5.0 out of 5 stars 6 ratings
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Winner of the 2021 IndieReader Discovery Award for Memoir
Finalist in the 2021 National Indie Excellence Awards for New Nonfiction
Finalist in the 2021 Book Excellence Awards for Memoir
Finalist in the 2021 Wishing Shelf Book Awards for Best Cover Design and Adult Nonfiction
Finalist in the 2021 Independent Authors Network Book Awards for Autobiography/Biography
Finalist in the 2021 N.N. Light Book Awards for Memoir
Honorable Mention Award in the 2021 Readers' Favorite Book Awards for Nonfiction/Military

As an only child isolated within a troubled family, F. Scott Service found solace in fantasy and imagination, until a fateful day led to the discovery of his father's Korean War field jacket hidden in a closet. What began as innocent emulation and approval, eventually spiraled into the calamitous loss of everything he had built as an adult. Faced with a grievous divorce, post-traumatic stress, homelessness, substance abuse, and the failure of everything he had willed himself to believe was truth, one night communing with a loaded pistol became the mechanism for self-clarity. From that darkest time, only elemental deconstruction and reconstruction of identity would allow him to forge a reclamation with his true, original self.

Visceral, with breathtaking candor, Playing Soldier powerfully captures the unlearning of expectation, the celebration of individuality, and the nourishing of self-acceptance once buried by cultural stamps of approval and societal convention. Braided with humor, courage, fear, despair, and hope, his unflinching, evocative story of passage into adulthood, the Iraq War, and beyond, speaks to anyone who has confronted adversity from without and grappled for their dreams from within.
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  1. Print length
    347 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publication date
    December 14, 2020
  5. File size
    1729 KB
  6. Page Flip
    Enabled
  7. Word Wise
    Enabled
  8. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
  9. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"His luminous, illustrative prose paints vivid word-pictures... " - Booklife, the independent authors division of Publishers Weekly

About the Author

A former sergeant with the Army National Guard, Scott is an award-winning, full-time author. His books have won Readers' Favorite Five-Star Awards and have been featured in Publishers Weekly magazine, as well as others. Lines in the Sand: An American Soldier's Personal Journey in Iraq won in the 2022 Wishing Shelf Book Awards for Adult Nonfiction and was awarded the Pacific Book Review Star for a Memoir of Excellent Merit. Playing Soldier won the 2021 IndieReader Discovery Awards for Memoir. It also won Finalist in the 2021 National Indie Excellence Awards for New Nonfiction, the Book Excellence Awards for Memoir, the Wishing Shelf Book Awards for Best Cover Design and Adult Nonfiction, the Independent Author Network Book Awards for Autobiography/Biography, the N.N. Light Book Awards for Memoir, and the Honorable Mention Award in the 2021 Readers' Favorite Book Awards for Nonfiction/Military.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B08QNG9SJM
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Mindstir Media (December 14, 2020)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ December 14, 2020
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 1729 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 347 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    5.0 5.0 out of 5 stars 6 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
F. Scott Service

F. Scott Service

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Having earned a Bachelor of Science in Professional/Technical Communication and a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing, Scott has experience with editing, journalism, desktop publishing, videography, and is a full-time author.

Being an avid explorer and extensive traveler, he has spent time in all but two states in America and is always on the lookout for someplace new.

He lives in New England.

To find out more about him and his books, please take some time to visit his website: www.fscottservice.com

Customer reviews

5 out of 5 stars
5 out of 5
6 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Tara Bergeron
5.0 out of 5 stars Querky, Honest, Lyrical and "cheeseless" Inspiring
Reviewed in the United States on November 28, 2020
Verified Purchase
I am not typically a reader of war memoir, but in truth, this memoir is largely not about war.This work contains a good dose of twisty dark humor about the human condition under a variety of strenuous circumstances. The author does an excellent job of authentically sharing his struggles with conventionality - while maintaining a fascinating story line that takes place over decades. Poetic, without being poetry, this is a heart-warmer without being at all predictable or cheesy. Beautifully written "finding oneself" story.
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Jon J.
5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Read
Reviewed in the United States on January 21, 2021
Verified Purchase
This is the story of how a young boy fascinated with his father's time and seeking approval grows up to lose everything by doing what he felt was right. Genuine, sometimes humorous, and every word written from the heart. From BB gun wars in the woods, smoking behind the school, and sitting through a guidance councilor meeting this could be any young boy growing up in the 70s and 80s.
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N. N. Light
5.0 out of 5 stars This memoir is strikingly profound...
Reviewed in the United States on April 1, 2021
This memoir is strikingly profound. If you have any question as to what PTSD is to a vet, this book will explain that to you. Scott's father served and it was almost inevitable he would too. The tried and true - get a nice bonus, education and 'they don't call you up'. If one thing can come from this, it is this...if you join any part of the US Army, expect you are going to be sent overseas into a war zone. You will be, so don't be so naive as to think you won't.

As I read this Playing Soldier, I kept wondering how to define this brilliant work. I call this poetry from the wounded soul of a soldier. This isn't a poetry book, but it is almost poetic how Scott expresses the torments that wrack his very existence.

Reading this work took my mind to the experiences of the US 10th Mtn. Division. Being almost the only mountain division in the US Army, they got to deploy longer and more often than anyone else in the ‘oughts. The feeling Scott had of how he was owned lock, stock, and soul is 100% accurate. The modern war is done so cleanly. 95% or more get to go to the beach while the 5% are facing death 24/7.

The biggest shame is how it seems easy to send young men and women to war but it's very hard to treat them decently when they come home. Playing Soldier is a must-read for every American citizen. If you have served, you need to read this book. If a relative or friend has served, you need to read this book. If you have never served, you need to read this book. The debt America owes to those who went and never came home is as big as the one owed to those who did come home.

A powerful book that may define the experiences of a modern soldier struck with PTSD.

Disclaimer: I received a copy from the author in the hopes I'd review it.

My Rating: 5 stars
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Scott Service does all of us a real service by writing this book
Reviewed in the United States on December 20, 2020
Thank you, Scott Service, for writing, Playing Soldier. I could not put the book down. I knew I needed to read through it with as few breaks as possible. Why? Well, it was simply too important of a book to not get my full attention. I felt that I was living inside Service's mind from one day to the next to the next year to years later. Whether he was living in Montana or Iraq, Colorado or Connecticut, it did matter. Service's writing never let me down. Given all the strife and turmoil, he goes through at the mercy of countless people, including the very institution he signed up to support, his writing was the ticket to a better or clearer understanding to the choices he made.
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