While war in the Middle East seems unwinnable, a book that profiles three women who've served in the National Guard won a major victory for a Colorado author. Last year Helen Thorpe, whose Just Like Us took the Colorado Book Award for Creative Nonfiction in 2009, published Soldier Girls: The Battles of Three Women at Home and at War — and not only did Thorpe's efforts earn her good reviews and a segment on Jon Stewart's Daily Show, but Time named it the magazine's top non-fiction pick for 2014. "The mobilization of the U.S. National Guard to Afghanistan and Iraq is one of the most remarkable chapters in the war on terror, and Thorpe's reporting draws on the experiences of three female soldiers to illustrate it," Time said. Illustrate it, and remind us all that no matter how distant the battlefield, war can hit very close to home.