Literary Notes: Yes, we owe thanks to those who served on Afghanistan. But we owe more — our literacy about that war.

Afghanistan’s fall to the Taliban leaves so much to say and yet so little. Americans and others who served in some way — from Zip and Anne to Jay, Mack and Ray, and many thousands more — all left some part of themselves there while too many of us sat over here, comfortable, oblivious and uncaring.

For certain readers, then, a couple new books will be of interest.

Carter Malkasian’s history, “The American War in Afghanistan.” He worked extensively there for the State Department and was a special assistant to the Joint Chiefs chairman; he’s fluent in Pashto. The Afghan forces are weak partly, he says, because they have no unifying, resonant cause and depend heavily on the U.S. But the Taliban fight for their culture and Islam; they “exemplified something that inspired, something that made them powerful in battle, something closely tied to what it meant to be an Afghan,” The Washington Post wrote. David Ignatius: “superb.” (Oxford University Press, 576 pp.)

“The Afghanistan Papers,” Craig Whitlock’s investigation for The Post, is due in book form Aug. 31. Like its Vietnam-era counterpart, the 2019 report examines internal U.S. government documents on the failures of U.S. war-making and nation-building in Afghanistan, wrote columnist Ishaan Tharoor. They show that “successive U.S. administrations recognized that the Taliban were not going to be easily vanquished, that the Afghan state was weak and riddled with corruption, and that muddling through without a coherent strategy was still preferable to admitting defeat.” (Simon & Schuster, 368 pp.)

Then there’s Ashraf Ghani, the Afghan president whose secret escape Sunday to the United Arab Emirates opened the door wider to the country’s fall. A New York Times reporter noted deftly that Ghani “often reminds people” of a book he wrote: “Fixing Failed States.”

“We Were Soldiers Once ... And Young”: Joe Galloway — the war correspondent who with retired Army Lt. Gen. Hal Moore wrote this account of their experience in the pivotal 1965 battle in the Ia Drang Valley of South Vietnam — has died. He was 79. He was awarded the Bronze Star with “V” for rescuing wounded under fire, the only civilian awarded an Army medal for valor in that war. The book, a bestseller, was the basis of the 2002 movie “We Were Soldiers.” (AP)

And also ...

L. Penelope’s “Requiem of Silence” — the fourth and last in her Earthsinger Chronicles — is out. This just ahead of her talk at next month’s Hampton Roads Writers conference in Virginia Beach: hamptonroadswriters.org.

More Pac-Man. The giant Hachette Book Group is buying another publisher, Workman, one of the biggest U.S. independents. It’s the parent of, among others, Algonquin Books, rooted in Chapel Hill. In the $240 million deal, Hachette gets a lucrative “backlist” of enduring titles such as “What to Expect When You’re Expecting.” (NYT)

A $1 million fine for education publisher Pearson settles charges by the Securities and Exchange Commission that it misled customers about the extent of a 2018 data breach. (Computer Weekly via Publishers Weekly)

A Louisville police officer involved in the raid that killed Breonna Taylor has canceled his book deal with Post Hill Press, lacking a distributor. Jonathan Mattingly said he’s seeking alternatives. Simon & Schuster backed out of distribution after a public outcry. (CityBeat via Publishers Lunch)

Dolly Parton and James Patterson are writing a thriller: A singer/songwriter aims to make it big in Nashville. Due in March, with an album.

— Erica Smith, erica.smith@pilotonline.com