The Return of Philo T. McGiffin (Bluejacket Books)

In this comic and irreverent novel, author and naval officer David Poyer--famous for such bestsellers as The Med, The Gulf, The Circle, and The Passage--brilliantly re-creates the hothouse world of the U.S. Naval Academy. When the book was first published in 1983 Roger Staubach, class of 1965, wrote, "Anyone who has attended a service academy will recognize Philo T. McGiffin and his classmates. However, anyone who has ever had a dream or a goal will feel a special kinship with Philo. This is a book worth reading."

Poyer's Philo, burdened with the name of Annapolis's legendary prankster of the class of 1882, attracts attention from the day he reports for Plebe Summer, and the upperclassmen soon make his life a living hell. Stoop-shouldered and meek, he seems an unlikely candidate to carry on the tradition of the original Philo, whose outrageous escapades had served as a symbol of subversive individualism to generations of midshipmen. At first Philo nearly buckles under from the strain, but gradually "The Mouse" learns to roar and ultimately to triumph in the grand style of his predecessor. Funny, touching, and enormously realistic, this madcap novel will bring back to everyone what it was like to be 17--and in deep trouble.