MCRD San Diego Library Professional Book Club

August's featured book from the Marine Corps Professional Reading Program is a memoir titled, You are Worth It: Building a Life Worth Fighting For by Kyle Carpenter, the youngest living recipient of the Medal of Honor. Library staff will lead an in-depth discussion, plus share tips on how to write high-quality reports of your professional reading.

Virtual event is hosted on MS Teams at 11:00 am on August 13, 2025. Registration is required for the virtual event.

An in-person discussion will take place on the same date at 4:30 pm at the MCRD Library. Base access is required for the in-person event. No registration is required for the in-person discussion.

About the Book:

On November 21, 2010, U.S. Marine Lance Corporal Kyle Carpenter was posted atop a building in violent Helmand Province, Afghanistan, when an enemy grenade skittered toward Kyle and fellow Marine Nick Eufrazio. Without hesitation, Kyle chose a path of selfless heroism that few can imagine. He jumped on the grenade, saving Nick but sacrificing his own body.

It would take dozens of surgeries and almost three years in and out of the hospital to reconstruct his body. From there, he began the process of rebuilding his life. What he has accomplished in the last nine years is extraordinary: he’s come back a stronger, better, wiser person.

In 2014, Kyle was awarded the nation’s highest military decoration, the Medal of Honor, for his “singular act of courage” on that rooftop in Afghanistan, an action which had been reviewed exhaustively by the military. Kyle became the youngest living recipient of the award–and only the second living Marine so honored since Vietnam.

YouAre Worth It is a memoir about the war in Afghanistan and Kyle’s heroics, and it is also a manual for living. Organized around the credos that have guided Kyle’s life (from “Don’t Hide Your Scars” to “Call Your Mom”), the book encourages us to become our best selves in the time we’ve been given on earth. Above all, it’s about finding purpose, regardless of the hurdles that may block our way. Moving and unforgettable, You Are Worth It is an astonishing memoir from one of our most extraordinary young leaders.

Host or Publisher MCCS MCRD San Diego Library