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The Home Front: Days of Our Lives

A new generation of military wives--defying the un-written rule that you don't whine about your husband's job--are sharing their deployment woes in new books. Sarah Smiley recently released "Going Overboard: The Misadventures of a Military Wife," a humorous take on the home front. "Just because your husband is getting shot at, does that make everything else in your life null and void?" she quips. After Jessica Redmond's husband was deployed to Iraq, she e-mailed other spouses asking how they were coping. She got 50 replies in 48 hours and turned some of their stories into "A Year of Absence: Six Women's Stories of Courage, Hope and Love." The women discuss once taboo topics like mental illness and drinking problems. But this confessional style goes too far for some. "We have to know our boundaries," says 20-year Army wife Patti Correa, whose own book, "From a Pebble to a Rock," offers historical, morale-boosting portraits of military wives. "Some newer spouses may not."

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