I’m a former Green Beret and combat veteran of OIF (Iraq), OEF (Afghanistan), and OEF-TS (North Africa). My first unit within Special Forces is the oldest within SF, and as such, I had the opportunity to work alongside some legends amongst men, people who were there in the early days of Special Operations. After leaving Special Forces I have written three published Special Operations-focused books, both fiction and non-fiction, which has led to a life of studying everything there is to know about Special Operations, the intelligence behind wars, and the history of both.
Books that tell the story of Special Operations soldiers fighting in the Global War on Terror typically focus all of their efforts on adrenaline, explosions, the men, and the teams. While those are all critical elements and essential to the stories, most of them leave out one of the most crucial factors to keeping Special Operations troops in the fight.
In Special Forces, we had many sayings, but one of the most important was, “if momma ain’t happy, Joe ain’t happy.”
All active duty soldiers engaged in war, even we Special Operators, depend on our families to keep us going. These may be the details required to keep the household running, keeping the family happy, healthy & fed (as nearly all Special Operators are extremely family-oriented), but also to be the rocks that we can fall back on when needed, the support to keep us pushing forward, and…
Former U.S. Navy SEAL Chris Kyle tells the story of his legendary career, from 1999-2009, during which time he recorded the most confirmed sniper kills (officially a record 155, though the real number is even much higher) in the history of the United States military, any branch, from 1776 to present. Nicknamed The Legend by his fellow SEALS, Kyle's service in Iraq and Afghanistan earned him seven medals for bravery, including two Silver Stars. With the pacing of thriller, "American Sniper" vividly recounts Chief Kyle's experiences at key battles, including the March on Baghdad (beginning of Iraq War), Fallujah, Ramadi,…
I love the combination of action and romance and suspense. It’s a real juggle as an author to balance the two main elements (suspense and romance mostly), give each depth and page time, and make us care about the people both in love and in peril. I’ve always been drawn to suspense, even as a kid. But I gotta have the relationships, too. I used to direct plays with my childhood friends, and there were always bad guys and the romance—and this was long before I was thinking of having a real romance!
Suzanne was one of the early military romance superstars, at least for me. Her books aren’t always just a simple chronological storyline. Here we meet a few couples or couples-to-be, plus there’s a flashback story as well. This is the first of the Troubleshooters series, and it was great to see how it started with a SEAL hero whose sighting of a terrorist in his hometown wasn’t believed because he’d had a head injury in combat. Tracking him down, while finding himself around a lost love, makes for a satisfying read.
The new Suzanne Brockmann novel from Headline and the first book in the Troubleshooters series. Troubleshooters: Danger can be addictive. After a near-fatal head injury, US Navy SEAL Lieutenant Tom Paoletti is forced to take a leave of absence from his Seal team, the Troubleshooters. Being out of the action is so far out of character that he thinks a visit home to New England may be the answer. So much the better if that means he can see Dr Kelly Ashton again. Then the unthinkable happens as Tom catches a terrifying glimpse of an international terrorist in his hometown.…
The world is growing more turbulent, and every leader today has to be ready to be a crisis leader. I have been studying and teaching leadership and crisis leadership at Harvard for more than two decades. I have deployed to major incidents such as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and trained crisis teams around the world. I have seen that effective crisis leaders make “worst days” better. They unite and inspire, they protect communities, and, most important, they save lives. That’s why I have a passion to help current and aspiring leaders ready themselves and their organizations for whatever the world throws at them.
My work on crisis leadership uses applied neuroscience to help people get “smarter their brains” by learning to work with and, in some cases counteracting, their instinctual reactions and ingrained patterns.
Jensen, who has worked with elite athletes as well as executives, draws on some of the same science (and more) in a practical approach to how to handle pressure. He goes through how to use breathing to tame anxiety and increase focus.
One insight I’ve found particularly useful is remembering what’s not at stake in a high-stakes situation. No matter what happens, your family, friends, and pets will still love and support you, for example. Knowing what you can count on makes a seemingly overwhelming challenge more manageable.
What’s the most pressure you’ve ever been under? How did you react? What helped? What didn’t? Over the past five years, Dane Jensen has asked these questions of thousands of high performers—from Olympic gold medalists to Navy SEALs, politicians, executives and busy parents. What has emerged from these conversations is that while everyone’s experiences under pressure are unique, pressure follows patterns and develops in predictable ways. If we can recognize the patterns, we can improve our ability to sidestep the biological traps that can sabotage us—and use the energy that accompanies pressure to thrive. The…
I’ve always enjoyed mystery and suspense stories—Agatha Christie and Mary Higgins Clark being two of my all-time favorite authors. Throw in some legends and folklore, and I’m hooked. I like well-crafted stories that keep me turning the pages. Those that stump me in figuring out the mystery are a plus for me. I love books with descriptive settings that place me, as the reader, in the heart of the action.
With a title like Genuine Deceit, how could I not pick this book? How can deceit be genuine? The suspense begins in chapter one and doesn’t let up until the end.
The characters are well-developed, the story is perfectly paced to keep a reader’s interest, and there are plenty of red herrings, but not enough to reveal the truth until the last pages. The touch of romance between the main character and a former Navy SEAL is an added plus.
The first day of my career began with 1,000 people being laid off citing “post-merger efficiencies.” I was the young whippersnapper walking in as many more were walking out, boxes in hand. I saw, firsthand, the impact of uncertainty, lack of clear and transparent communications, and leadership, not just on performance, but also on the health and well-being of the colleagues around me. In that first job I became fascinated and obsessed with how work can be something we enjoy and find meaning in. Since then, I’ve devoted my career to making work more inspiring, engaging, and fulfilling. This became my passion and cause because I felt the very opposite.
We’re told to hire the most skilled and experienced folks and that couldn’t be worse advice.
Ret. Navy SEAL Commander Rich Diviney teaches us that when we hire, build teams, and promote folks not only considering their skills, but focusing on their attributes, we can truly create teams where one plus one equals infinity. Diviney examines the categories of attributes for optimal individual and team performance – Grit, Situational Awareness, Drive, Leadership, and Teamability.
A must read for anyone who wants to make the most of their life, career, and relationships around them.
'So much of what I know about trust I learned from Rich Diviney'- Simon Sinek 'Incredible... explains why some people thrive - even when things get hard' - Charles Duhigg 'If you care about getting better, you need to buy this book' Daniel Coyle
Learn the secret to being your best
During his twenty years as a Navy officer and SEAL, Rich Diviney was intimately involved in specialized SEAL selection, whittling hundreds of extraordinary candidates down to a handful of elite performers. But Diviney was often surprised by who succeeded. Those with the right skills sometimes failed, while others he…
Passionate military members are my jam, and I feel pretty confident writing about them. First, I write erotic romance myself, giving me something of an inside view of what makes a good erotic romance with a military vibe. Second, I read a lot of them. Even if the story is a mite slow, you’ve got that alpha military guy who’s going to pull the story out. Or at least, that’s the way it’s worked in every military erotic romance I’ve read. Last, as I mentioned earlier, I was raised in the Navy. I’ve seen lots of men in uniform and the sight never fails to give me a thrill. I think I recognize that passion when I see it.
Deadly Deception is not technically about a member of the military, but Jonathan O’Halleran is guided in his actions by his recent time in the SEALs, so I say it counts. This book is fast action as Jonathan seeks a traitor who is responsible for bringing death to his family. Very steamy, so you know I liked it! Really good writing, which is always something I look for.
Navy SEAL Jonathan O’Halleran’s world is upended by tragic loss. Civilian life as a single father and hunting down the traitor responsible for bringing death to his family’s doorstep are only temporary distractions from his grief, anger, and guilt.
A tough as hell woman who doesn’t know how to trust …
Andréa Swain is a brilliant, stubborn NSA Interrogations Tactics Specialist with serious daddy issues. She is yanked from the front lines in Afghanistan and ordered to work with a surly Navy SEAL who blames her for his friend’s death.
British by birth, American by naturalization, Simon Henderson started in journalism as a trainee at the BBC before becoming its correspondent in Pakistan. Joining the Financial Times a year later, he was promptly sent to Iran to cover the 1979 Islamic revolution and went back again for the U.S. embassy hostage crisis.
He now analyzes the Gulf states, energy, and the nuclear programs of Iran and Pakistan as the Baker fellow and director of the Bernstein Program on Gulf and Energy Policy at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
With this year’s 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington, this book, published on the 10th anniversary, is a useful reminder of the events of that day and the subsequent investigations of why it happened.
The civil case against Saudi Arabia for alleged complicity with the 19 hijackers, 15 of whom were Saudi, continues, albeit with little publicity. That is likely to change. Osama bin Laden’s own legal reckoning was less formal of course – the Saudi whose name has become synonymous with terrorism died in a hail of bullets from U.S. Navy SEALs. (I can also recommend the movie of that event Zero Dark Thirty.)
For most living Americans, September 11, 2001, is the darkest date in the nation’s history. But what exactly happened on 9/11? Could it have been prevented? And what remains unresolved? Here is the first panoramic, authoritative account of that tragic day—from the first brutal actions of the hijackers to our government’s flawed response; from the untruths told afterward by U.S. officials to the “elephant in the room” of the 9/11 Commission’s report—the clues that point to foreign involvement. New York Times bestselling authors Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan write with access to thousands of recently…
I love romances because the stories always end happily, and also because of the heroes! They are my ideal men—handsome, of course, but always strong and honorable. They always do the right thing, even if it requires hardship and sacrifice, and at the end of the story, when they pledge their love to the heroine, we know that love will be forever. I sold my first book back in 1982, and in every one of my stories I feature this kind of hero.
The hero Mitchell Shaw is a Navy SEAL, but as the story begins, he wakes up in a homeless shelter with amnesia. He does have a gun in his boot and money, too, but no clue how he got there. He finds a note that says “Looking forward to meeting you.”—Rebecca Keyes, the Lazy Eight Ranch. He heads for the ranch, hoping it will help him figure out who he really is. What a great hero!
I’ve spent the last 29 years studying human behavior; advising people how to affect human behavior; and advising business leaders how to help their organizations help people do more better faster; help individuals do more to help their organizations and to earn more for themselves and their families.
Great advice about living life and being strong and being happy and satisfied with your work and life from one of the greatest military leaders in American history. This guy led and commanded the mission to get Bin Laden!!!! He was and led NAVY SEALS for 37 years. This book is short and sweet and brilliant and beautiful and a great gift for yourself or anyone else! Brilliant and beautiful.
Make a new start in 2022 with positive daily habits for a healthy mind, from the incredible No. 1 New York Times bestseller
THE INCREDIBLE NO. 1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
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Struggling to find structure? Finding yourself lacking motivation?
Start by making your bed.
Maintaining routine and structure is more important than ever in the age of home working, flexi-time and the general chaos of life.
In Make Your Bed, Admiral William H. McRaven shares 10 life lessons he learned during his Navy Seal training that helped him overcome challenges not only in his…
I learned to read young. No really young. I was 3. For more than 40 years I have been a voracious reader. And on top of that, I will read nearly anything, and have for years. From Nancy Drew to Little House. Anne McCaffrey, Louis L’Amour, Dean Koontz, Stephen King, Nora Roberts, Catherine Coulter, Patricia Briggs and so many more. My preference and passion is fiction but what genre changes with my mood. If you’re willing to take a chance on something new, check these books out!
This one is a contemporary story and is another of my favorites because it’s got more than a little bit of action keeping you going even if you’re not interested in the romance part of the story.
There are actually two stories/romances going on in this one, one now and one during WWII. The characters are real people with strengths, flaws, hopes, and dreams, and bonus, they are just as insecure about themselves and their interactions with each other as the rest of us are.
And they make me laugh. Like really laugh. Bonus points to the audiobook because the performances were amazing.
Troubleshooters: They Never Let You Down. The fourth addictive romantic suspense novel in New York Times bestselling author Suzanne Brockmann's Troubleshooters series, filled with thrilling adventure, excitement and passion. In OUT OF CONTROL, Savannah von Hopf and Navy Seal Ken 'WildCard' Karmody are lost in a hostile jungle with no choice but to place their trust in one another...
When Savannah von Hopf's uncle is kidnapped in Indonesia there is only one man she can turn to help: Navy Seal Ken 'WildCard' Karmody. But before she has the chance to ask for his help, she finds herself caught up with…
