Date:01/30 Wednesday 7:30pm 6:45pm Doors Brian Castner, author of "The Long Walk," and Sue Diaz, author of "Minefields of the Heart," are interviewed on stage by Mercury News columnist Mike Cassidy. A book signing will follow the program. Welcoming music will be provided by Prospect High School students, under the direction of Ryan Goodenough.Brian Castner served three tours of duty in the Middle East, two of them as the commander of an Explosive Ordnance Disposal unit in Iraq. He and his team would engage in the nerve-racking yet strangely exhilarating work of either disarming the deadly improvised explosive devices, or picking up the pieces when the alert came too late. However, "The Long Walk" is not just about battle itself. When Castner returned home to his family, he began a struggle with a no less insidious foe: an unshakable feeling of fear and confusion and survivor's guilt that he terms The Crazy. His thrilling, heartbreaking, stunningly honest book immerses the reader in two harrowing and simultaneous realities: the terror and excitement and camaraderie of combat, and the lonely battle against the enemy within.In "Minefields of the Heart," Sue Diaz explores similar themes. How do combat veterans and their loved ones bridge the divide that war, by its very nature, creates between them? How does someone who has fought in a war come home, especially after a tour of duty marked by near-daily mortar attacks, enemy fire, and roadside bombs? With a journalist's eye and a mother's warmth, Sue Diaz asks these questions as she chronicles the two deployments to Iraq of her son, Sgt. Roman Diaz, from the perspective of the home front.2013 is the eleventh year of the Silicon Valley Reads program, which is presented by the Santa Clara County Library, the Santa Clara County Office of Education, and the San Jose Public Library Foundation. This event is co-sponsored by Commonwealth Club Silicon Valley and LiveSV. Free Open seating; no reservations required. First come, first seated.