A book critique magazine has named a former Kalispell writer’s novel one of the best of 2013.

Mike Banzet’s “A Flowershop in Baghdad” was named one of Kirkus Review’s top indie books of the year. Kirkus has been reviewing the nation’s most notable books since it was founded in 1933.

“A Flowershop in Baghdad” offers an insider account of the Air Force and the U.S. occupation of Iraq. In the book Banzet, a retired major who now works as a civilian for the Air Force, tells stories about the positive things he witnessed as a pilot during a year spent helping train the new Iraqi Air Force.

The book is full of Banzet’s humor and his pride in his country and its military.

“Banzet’s wit is a WMD itself, and readers might guess he detests [Democrats] even more than Saddam [Hussein],” the Kirkus review reads. “Fortunately, instead of talk-radio bloviating, most of the time he uses solid storytelling and eyewitness examples to maintain that the U.S. presence in Iraq was beneficial to and appreciated by the Baghdad locals he came to know.”

Banzet graduated from Flathead High School in 1986. He now lives with his wife, son and daughter in Springboro, Ohio; his parents, Gerry and Joyce, live in Kalispell.