Nothing in Reserve: True Stories, Not War Stories

Road Work … is about as perfect a short story as any author could hope to craft—and like the rest of Jack’s writing, it hits hard and leaves a mark.

— Andrew Carroll,
editor of Operation Homecoming

Nothing in Reserve invites the reader to an intimate glimpse of one middle-aged soldier’s journey to Iraq and back. True stories set in wartime, these are not war stories. Jack Lewis offers an unexpectedly vulnerable glimpse into one of the timeless tests men have faced: going to war, and returning home. While the veteran will find honesty and truth within, this book is accessible to the uninitiated as well. Early stories give an authentic and often funny glimpse of military life, building to a crisis of self all too common among returning soldiers. Exploring the universal human question of how we move through our lives, acknowledging mortality and pain without becoming lost within it, Jack shares with us his own journey toward elusive redemption.

Reviewer’s choice : Jan. 2012 Midwest Book Review

Nothing in Reserve is 310 pages, was released in paperback on April 19th, and is also available as a Kindle edition, for the NOOK, and Kobo and iTunes. 

Additional information is aviailable by downloading the Press Kit.

Lewis manages to find wry humor and a great deal of genuine human compassion, both for the soldiers and some of the local inhabitants.
– Carl Paukstis

Make no mistake, this book is going to take you on an emotional roller coaster and deliver the occasional sucker punch to your gut!
– J. Stephen Riley Silber

While the familiar comfort of routine becomes a crutch, and later a cage, Lewis catalogs the manifold insults (and rare joys) of life lived persistently in umbra.
– Ry Jones

Jack’s the real deal. I took the day off, so I could read this without a break, except to grab a sandwich!
– WetGeek

This is not a hoo-rah story. There’s sadness and pain. But there’s also love and joy, and a dog and Pretty Girl. So quit reading my review, and go read the book! 🙂
– Barcud

Jack … welcomes us into the deeper world of one who introduced himself to the war. What goes on in the mind when you become part of the violence for the first time?
– Professor and Veteran

There are parts of this book that are so brutally honest and of such physical, psychological, and emotional agony that they are hard to read, but you must read to the end to attain the redemption.
– David Preston.

Jack Lewis’ raw, emotional, honest portrayal
of his experiences at home and in Iraq left me humbled.
– Ranger M

For the first time I might finally understand why a soldier would volunteer to fight.
– Book Grrrl…

[Amazon.com 5/2011]