Love knows no limit to its endurance, no end to its trust, no fading of its hope; it can outlast anything. Love still stands when all else has fallen. – Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), French writer and philosopher, mathematician, physicist, inventor.

The book I introduced you to last week – New York Times Best Seller, Tell My Sons, by Lt. Col. Mark Weber with David Murray – gained national fame as a powerful, inspiring memoir of an accomplished soldier who was also a husband and parent, facing terminal cancer. Words like heroism, courage, leadership, integrity, and discipline are typically used to describe Mark. He was a soldier’s soldier who used General Douglas MacArthur’s famous 1962 speech to West Point cadets to frame a message to beloved sons he would never see grow to adulthood.

Mark’s honesty inspires me. I therefore confess an embarrassing misstatement in Part One of my webcast, which went online at www.bookedwebcast.com on August 19th. I inadvertently demoted Mark to the rank of Lieutenant. In fact, Mark Weber earned his Lieutenant Colonel rank by serving the United States of America with great distinction, a fact I was well aware of. My error is herewith corrected.

While I’m in this introspective confessional mood, I wonder if book reviewers (myself included) are missing the opportunity to identify this gallant memoir as a wonderful love story. In focusing on Mark’s remarkable military life, are we failing to give enough credit to his remarkable military wife? The relationship between Mark and Kristin Weber was not easily navigated. Through recalled scenes that are, at times, funny, frightening, turbulent or deeply touching, Mark’s memoir captures what marriage is really like, and how we should re-think our role in that partnership because marriage matters. The insights about marriage that Mark learned and left for his sons in this book can serve all of us well. We also gain even more respect for the sacrifices military families make every day so their loved ones can serve our nation.

Part Two of my interview with Tell My Sons co-author David Murray goes online at www.bookedwebcast.com on Monday, August 26th at 8 PM, EST. We talk about what happened to Mark and his family after the book was published. You will learn insights that have not been revealed in any other interviews. You’ll also hear about David’s interesting, varied, sometimes quirky, very popular solo writing. You’ll come away from the show understanding why Mark chose David as his co-writer and what David learned from Mark during their collaboration on Tell My Sons. If you’ve missed Part One, you can find it in the Book●ed Archives on my website. When you visit the website, be sure to also check out the Book Excerpts page to read a sample of the book and find links to some of Mark Weber’s interviews.