Stacy Alesi's BookBitch.com™

From the publisher:

From the celebrated author of The Nightingale and The Four Winds comes Kristin Hannah’s The Women―at once an intimate portrait of coming of age in a dangerous time and an epic tale of a nation divided.

Women can be heroes. When twenty-year-old nursing student Frances “Frankie” McGrath hears these words, it is a revelation. Raised in the sun-drenched, idyllic world of Southern California and sheltered by her conservative parents, she has always prided herself on doing the right thing. But in 1965, the world is changing, and she suddenly dares to imagine a different future for herself. When her brother ships out to serve in Vietnam, she joins the Army Nurse Corps and follows his path.

As green and inexperienced as the men sent to Vietnam to fight, Frankie is over-whelmed by the chaos and destruction of war. Each day is a gamble of life and death, hope and betrayal; friendships run deep and can be shattered in an instant. In war, she meets―and becomes one of―the lucky, the brave, the broken, and the lost.

But war is just the beginning for Frankie and her veteran friends. The real battle lies in coming home to a changed and divided America, to angry protesters, and to a country that wants to forget Vietnam.

The Women is the story of one woman gone to war, but it shines a light on all women who put themselves in harm’s way and whose sacrifice and commitment to their country has too often been forgotten. A novel about deep friendships and bold patriotism, The Women is a richly drawn story with a memorable heroine whose idealism and courage under fire will come to define an era.

“Hannah again shines her light on overlooked women in history” ―People Magazine (Book of the Week)

“Hannah is in top form here… Hannah’s real superpower is her ability to hook you along from catastrophe to catastrophe, sometimes peering between your fingers, because you simply cannot give up on her characters. She gathers women into the (Vietnam) experience with moving conviction.” ―The New York Times

Fans of women’s historicals will enjoy this magnetic wartime story.” ―Publishers Weekly

“a moving, gripping tale that pays tribute to the under-appreciated skill and courage of combat nurses.” —Booklist, starred review

https://amzn.to/48gaUb8

I started reading Kristin Hannah back in the last century when she was writing women’s fiction or domestic fiction. She was always a popular author, but became a mega-best-selling author with The Nightingale, historical fiction about two sisters during World War II that stayed on the New York Times bestseller list for an incredible 58 weeks. That was followed by The Four Winds, another historical novel, this one set during the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. This new one, The Women, is about the nurses who served during Vietnam, what they went through, what they returned to, and how they survived.

The story is based around our protagonist, Frances McGrath, who goes by Frankie. It is the 1960’s, the start of the Vietnam War, and Frankie’s brother has just enlisted. Theirs is a military family, with the exception of their father, who was 4F. They live in a wealthy enclave in California, and Frankie was brought up to be a wife. She attended Catholic schools throughout her life; she became a nurse, one of the three acceptable women’s careers (secretary, teacher, nurse.) Shortly after she graduates, she decides to follow her brother to Vietnam. As proud of her brother as her parents were, they are horrified by Frankie volunteering and, in fact, lie to their friends about where she is.

Hannah brings the Vietnam War and the role combat nurses played into sharp focus. The horrors of war play out in the MASH unit where she is first assigned, followed by a stint on the front lines. Yet when she realizes she needs help after she returns, the VA tells her there were no women in Vietnam, and only combat veterans are entitled to any kind of help.

The first half of the book or so is about Frankie’s experiences in the war, from her first day when she is told not to salute as “Charlie” likes to kill officers, to the married men who want her, to the two women she serves with who become her closest friends. The second half of the book is about reentry into the “real world”, a civilization that spit on returning veterans, even the women. Frankie turns to alcohol and drugs and eventually gets the help she needs, but it is a long, difficult road to get there. I really loved the ending – instead of everything tied up neatly, we see progress made, both for Frankie and all Vietnam veterans, and the hope of a happy ending for Frankie.

There are so many important themes here, from war to racism to alcoholism and other addictions, and family discordance, and reading groups will have much to discuss. I lived through most of this through elementary school and junior high, but Hannah took me deeper into Vietnam than I’ve been since Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, which I’ve always considered to be the essential read of the Vietnam War. The Women is also an essential read and the first book to be guaranteed a place on my best books of the year list. While it was gut-wrenching at times, it is also poignant, provocative, and too important to be ignored. This is the kind of book that makes me glad I have this platform so I can encourage people to read it. I hope you love it as much as I do.

2/2024 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch

THE WOMEN by Kristin Hannah. St. Martin’s Press (February 6, 2024). ISBN: 978-1250178633. 480p.

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From the publisher:

When a woman discovers a rare book that has connections to her past, long-held secrets about her missing sister and their childhood spent in the English countryside during World War II are revealed.

In the war-torn London of 1939, fourteen-year-old Hazel and five-year-old Flora are evacuated to a rural village to escape the horrors of the Second World War. Living with the kind Bridie Aberdeen and her teenage son, Harry, in a charming stone cottage along the River Thames, Hazel fills their days with walks and games to distract her young sister, including one that she creates for her sister and her sister alone—a fairy tale about a magical land, a secret place they can escape to that is all their own.

But the unthinkable happens when young Flora suddenly vanishes while playing near the banks of the river. Shattered, Hazel blames herself for her sister’s disappearance, and she carries that guilt into adulthood as a private burden she feels she deserves.

Twenty years later, Hazel is in London, ready to move on from her job at a cozy rare bookstore to a career at Sotheby’s. With a charming boyfriend and her elegantly timeworn Bloomsbury flat, Hazel’s future seems determined. But her tidy life is turned upside down when she unwraps a package containing an illustrated book called Whisperwood and the River of Stars. Hazel never told a soul about the imaginary world she created just for Flora. Could this book hold the secrets to Flora’s disappearance? Could it be a sign that her beloved sister is still alive after all these years?

As Hazel embarks on a feverish quest, revisiting long-dormant relationships and bravely opening wounds from her past, her career and future hang in the balance. An astonishing twist ultimately reveals the truth in this transporting and refreshingly original novel about the bond between sisters, the complications of conflicted love, and the enduring magic of storytelling.

“[A]ffecting…Henry’s offering shines most in its exploration of the ways relationships grow and adapt to time and trauma, making for a poignant meditation on the bonds of sisterhood. This captivates.”—Publishers Weekly

“Magical…an enchanting tribute to the power of storytelling.”—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“A charming story that weaves fairy tale, mystery, and historical importance with a good dose of romance, The Secret Book of Flora Lea will appeal to all ages, as the author unfurls a fantastic story about ‘an invisible place right here with us.’” New York Journal of Books

“In this heartfelt novel, Henry deftly examines the bonds of sisterhood while seamlessly melding the horrors of war with the comfort of fairy tales, reminding us that “telling stories is one of the greatest powers we possess.” The Washington Post

https://amzn.to/3Ptlhma

This was my first book by this author, and I’m not sure how she has escaped me! This was such a lovely book about storytelling and families and sisters and first loves, set in a backdrop of war but moving back and forth in time. It is a wonderful book, and everyone should read it.

I had never heard of Operation Pied Piper, but it was a real program where children from London were sent to live with strangers out in the English countryside to keep them safe from all the bombings during WWII. They packed up a few clothes, their gas masks, and were packed onto busses. In this story, Hazel, a young teenager, and her little sister Flora get lucky and a warm, loving woman agrees to house them during the War. That was not always the case; they meet another girl in the same village who was taken in by a “hag,” a nasty woman who, like some foster parents, took her in for the money she would be paid and to put her to work. But Hazel and Flora were very lucky, and Bridie is such a warm, loving mother figure to them, it makes the transition that much easier. She has a son, Harry, who is around the same age as Hazel, and he is an artist. He draws beautiful pictures of Flora and the lovely countryside and slips them under their bedroom door each night.

But that is only part of this story. Hazel has a vivid imagination, and she invents a fairytale for her younger sister, set in a small enchanted town with a “river of stars” running through it. She begins every story the same way, and the two girls are always in the story, sometimes as girls, but often as other fanciful beings, fairies, owls, etc. But then tragedy strikes; Flora goes missing and is never found. Hazel was with Harry at the time, and she can’t forgive herself or Harry for not keeping an eye on Flora, and she vows to never see him again.

Fast forward many years to 1960, and Hazel is working for a rare books dealer. It’s her last day on the job; she has gotten a new position at Sotheby’s. On her last day of work, her boss asks her to unpack a new shipment, which she does. To her shock, it is a fairytale about the place she invented as a child. The author’s name is unfamiliar, and she lives in the United States. Along with the book are some illustrations, and before she even realizes she’s done it, Hazel has taken them all and gone home.

Hazel has never accepted that Flora died. A few years later, a body of a young girl is found not that far from where they lived and the police consider the case closed, but Hazel does not. So when she finds this book, she is convinced more than ever that Flora must still be alive.

It’s a beautifully written, totally engrossing story that I hated to end. Book groups will find lots to discuss here. Put it on your summer reading list and enjoy!

7/2023 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch

THE SECRET BOOK OF FLORA LEA by Patti Callahan Henry. Atria Books (May 2, 2023). ISBN:‎ 978-1668011836. 368p.

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