American Book Fest’s Best Book Awards Winner for Best Nonfiction Book of 2019 Military Writers Society of America Multiple Award-Winner: Founder’s Award for Standout Book of 2019 Gold Medal Award for Memoir category For readers of Educated and The Glass Castle, a moving new memoir about survival, family, and a humanizing insight into the individuals who fight the nation’s wars. As a child, he was raised in an unstable and violent home by a mother struggling with mental illness. An absent father with a firm belief in tough love left him with only his sister to understand or comfort him as they faced a home full of harshness, resentment, and physical abuse. As a man, he braved the war-torn landscapes of Kuwait, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia. Having learned early from his father that only the strong survive, he enlisted in the Air Force after high school and began an impressive military career in intelligence analysis, communications, and supporting special operations, meeting incredible individuals along the way. In his time overseas he faced harsh realities of the politics of war, the consequences of military actions, and the challenge of attempting to rebuild a country while its own people are trying to kill you. Baghdaddy is Bill Riley’s memoir: an honest and colorful depiction of his journey through a turbulent youth and into a challenging adulthood. This very human account of living in some of the least humane environments delivers the message that no matter how different we seem, we are all trying to make the best of life and learn how to be the best versions of ourselves.
