Ultimate Spouse Holiday Pack (Surviving Deployment; Help! I'm a Military Spouse: I get a life too!; Deployment Journal for Spouses; Heroes at Home; A Year of Absence; Life After Deployment)

Surviving Deployment by Karen Pavlicin
Learn what to expect, how to prepare, and how to personally grow as individuals and families. Your survival gear will range from a sturdy toilet plunger to the fine art of letter writing. You'll manage financial changes, help children express their feelings, and discover a renewed appreciation for everyday life. Solid information. Practical checklists. Personal stories from hundreds of families. Awarded the Military Writers Society of America's Gold Medal for best reference book.

Help! I'm a Military Spouse: I get a life too! (Second Edition) by Kathie Hightower & Holly Scherer
Make the most of this challenging yet rewarding military life. Learn how to craft a life for YOU as you move with the military. Includes ideas for pursuing a career while married to the military, ways to make and maintain friends as you move, pros and cons of volunteering, and fun goal-achieving techniques.

Deployment Journal for Spouses by Rachel Robertson
A personal journal for anyone who has a significant other deployed with the military. Gentle journal writing prompts and inspirational sayings guide you through deployment and homecoming. Keeping Track section in the back helps you log milestones, communication, and special moments.

Heroes at Home by Ellie Kay

Written in encouraging language and from a spiritual perspective, this book offers helpful ideas for saving money, surviving frequent moves, keeping in touch during deployment, and other aspects of military life. Written by the wife of an Air Force pilot and mother of five children known for her keen financial advice.

A Year of Absence by Jessica Redmond

Six Army wives struggle to make it through their husbands’ 15-month deployment to Iraq in this true story by Jessica Redmond. A young lieutenant's wife comes dangerously close to alcoholism. Marriages are pushed to the breaking point by the constant strain of the long months apart. Each morning the women anxiously scan the headlines, wondering if they still have a husband, if their children still have a father. Some form friendships that become their lifeline. Others somehow find courage despite their isolation. First place winner (current events) from the Midwest Book Awards; Military Writers Society of America's Gold Medal for best nonfiction book.

Life After Deployment by Karen Pavlicin
Captures the tender and moving stories of military families during their reunion. Service members and their spouses, parents, fiancées, and children share the joy and anxiety of homecoming, the adjustments of living together again, and how they coped with anger, depression, PTSD, injuries, grief, and other challenges. Some families had fairytale endings. Most worked hard to rebuild their relationships after much time and change. A few suffered great losses. These military families talk candidly about what their experience was really like, offering hope and advice to others who walk this journey.