Katherine Scott Crawford

Hi, folks! Don’t forget that tonight, March 13, 2024, is Historical Fiction Book Club at Highland Books in Brevard, NC! We’re chatting about the utterly riveting, Maine-set novel by Ariel Lawhon: The Frozen River. (Psst: It’s one of the best books I’ve read in a long time.) While I have a work commitment, bookseller extraordinaire Leslie Logemann will lead the discussion.

On to The Women:

Got my lucky hands on an ARC (Advance Review Copy) of Kristin Hannah‘s The Women. It’s stirring, heavy, rich with intense and visceral detail, and does a masterful job of layering history into its most personal scenes. Every time I looked up, I would almost have to shake my head to clear it. It felt like I was in Vietnam, that I needed to duck for cover.

I feel so much more informed about the war in Vietnam now, and about the remarkable women veterans who served there. Hannah’s dedication page is particularly moving.

The Women is our April read at Highland Book’s Historical Fiction Book Club! Pick up your copy—book clubbers get 20% off!—and join us Wednesday, APRIL 10th at 6 pm for a chat about The Women.

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From the publisher, @stmartinspress :

“‘Women can be heroes, too.’

When twenty-year-old nursing student Frances ‘Frankie’ McGrath hears these unexpected words, it is a revelation. Raised on idyllic Coronado Island and sheltered by her conservative parents, she has always prided herself on doing the right thing, being a good girl. But in 1965 the world is changing, and she suddenly imagines a different choice for her life. When her brother ships out to serve in Vietnam, she impulsively joins the Army Nurse Corps and follows his path.

As green and inexperienced as the men sent to Vietnam to fight, Frankie is overwhelmed by the chaos and destruction of war, as well as the unexpected trauma of coming home to a changed and politically divided America.

The Women is the story of one woman gone to war, but it shines a light on the story of all women who put themselves in harm’s way to help others. Women whose sacrifice and commitment to their country has all too often been forgotten. A novel of searing insight and lyric beauty, The Women is a profoundly emotional, richly drawn story with a memorable heroine whose extraordinary idealism encourage under fire define a generation.”