If you're a regular blog reader, you know I'm a big fan of the book From Baghdad With Love: A Marine, the War, and a Dog Named Lava, by now-retired Marine Lt. Col. Jay Kopelman and writer Melinda Roth. I reviewed it over the summer and have been in intermittent e-mail contact with Kopelman since. The book is about his superhuman efforts to spirit a little Iraqi puppy back to the U.S., an escapade that involved lots of people willing to take incredible risks, given that doing so was a clear violation of military policy (not to mention the danger).
Kopelman gave me a heads-up the other day that he's a Border's Original Voices finalist in nonfiction writing. Winners in five arts categories get $5,000. That's a lotta kibble!
Click here to read about the competition. But more important, click here to read about Lava (and see his adorable little puppy face on the book cover). He's all grown up now and living happily in San Diego with Kopelman, his new wife, her son and dog. To see a really cool video about Lava on YouTube, click here.