A Work in Progress

A Reading List Inspired by The Women

My library has a three week check out for books, and I am now well past the midway mark until that looming due date (the holds list is remaining at a steady 440 or so people waiting), but I am not quite at the midway mark of Kristin Hannah's The Women.  I am very much enjoying the story and writing and can see why she is such a popular writer as she is a very good storyteller.  However, I need to step up my game this weekend (and really the book does read pretty fast), as I don't want to hold on to the book too far past that due date.

Along with the novel, I requested the first season of China Beach through interlibrary loan (I love libraries!).  Once again, I only have a two week window to get through six episodes plus the pilot.  It is interesting to have visuals to go along with my reading and will see how the two compare.

I have been thinking a lot about this period and my curiosity, of course (this happens to me a lot), has extended to other stories.  I have been adding to a list of other books about the period, though have broadened things a bit from 'women nurses in Vietnam' to other stories set there (though with women as more of the focus) as well as related stories peripherally set in that era.  So here is a mishmash of a list of books (fiction and nonfiction) with a very few movies thrown in.  Most of these are just books I have come across that sound interesting, but I admit I have not read most of them--they are books that I found in my library catalog or that struck me as books I want to try and look for and peruse/read.  I am happy to add to the list if other suggestions are made!

Novels:

A Catalog of Birds, Laura Harrington

In Country, Bobbie Ann Mason

Absolution, Alice McDermott

Haven Point, Vrginia Hume

Don't Mean Nothing: Short Stories of Viet Nam, Susan O'Neill (written by a nurse who served there).

Ru: A Novel, Kim Thuy

If I Had Two Lives, Abbigail N. Rosewood

Spearfield's Daughter, Jon Cleary

Signal Flame, Andrew Krivak

Between the Battles, Helen Nolan (this is fiction, but it appears to be based on her experiences there).

Nonfiction:

Close-Up on War: The story of Pioneering Photojournalist Catherine Leroy in Vietnam, Mary Cronk Farell

War Torn: Stories of War from the Women Reporters Who Covered Vietnam, Denby Fawcett

Girls Don't: A Woman's War in Vietnam, Inette Miller

Round Eyes: An American Nurse in Vietnam, Diane Klutz

Officer, Nurse, Woman: The Army Nurse Corps in the Vietnam War, Kara Dixon Vuic

Home Before Morning: The Story of an Army Nurse in Vietnam, Lynda Van  Devanter

Donut Dolly: An American Red Cross Girl's War in Vietnam, Joann Puffer Kotcher

Movies:

I know there are many movies about the war, but these are two that I have seen and really loved and were memorable to me.

Coming Home (1978)

Dogfight (1991)

I know there has been a LOT of books written about the war, many classics of literature (Tim O'Brien is a favorite and his The Things They Carried is literally one of the best books I have ever read), so this very brief list is a mere pebble drop into an ocean.  I hope I can add more books in the future (and hope to read much more about women in this era).

Happy weekend everyone.

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Edited (4/4/24)

Books mentioned in Kristin Hannah's acknowledgements section in her book The Women:

Healing Wounds, Diane Carlson Evans with Bob Welch

American Daughter Gone to War, Winnie Smith

Home Before Morning, Lynda Van Devanter

Women in Vietnam: The Oral History, Ron Steinman

A Piece of My Heart, Keith Walker

Also:

After the Hero's Welcome, Dorothy H. McDaniel

The League of Wives, Heath Hardage Lee

In Love and War, Jim and Sybil Stockdale

The Turning: A History of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, Andrew E. Hunt

A few Reading, (and watching, and borrowing) Notes

Last week when I tried to post here Typepad would not let me in, better luck today.  Apparently there is also an ongoing issue with adding books to the sidebar current reads list as well.  I still hope to migrate to a different platform--I wonder if Typepad is simply aging (I think they no longer take new subscribers).  Ah, the joy of technical problems for someone not inclined to too much technical savvy.

In that vein, I listen to podcasts on my android phone using Google Podcasts and that is also going away at the end of the month and I still need to sort that out.  Any suggestions for another service (free if possible) that I can easily use to listen on my phone?

Last weekend my turn came up (quicker than anticipated) for a copy of Kristin Hannah's The Women.  I think when I got in line I was about #144 and thought that sounded like a long wait, but when I checked out my copy I noticed that the line behind me has extended to well over 450!  That means there will be no renewing the book.  I have paired it with a book I own, You Don't Belong Here by Elizabeth Becker, which is a biography of three women journalists who reported from Vietnam.  This is the first Hannah book I have read and so far I am very much enjoying it.  It's interesting that it has become quite the hit with readers--maybe having a period of history that is not much written about (in fiction--women's history in the war that is) has struck a nerve for readers.  I wonder if this will begin a trend?

I have been looking for other novels about the period (preferably with women characters) and have come across a few, so I will share my list soon.

There are a number of books on the Women's Prize longlist that I find appealing and hope to read, and I have finished the first, which had already been on my reading pile.  Claire Kilroy's Soldier Sailor is a visceral reading experience and quite well done.  I could literally feel her (very emotional) pain.  I do not have children but I could empathize with the attitudes about mothering.  I dog eared pages as the narrator's observations, and her struggles and fears and hopes were so very astute.  Next I have picked up Isabella Hammad's Enter Ghost.

I was lucky to be able to grab a galley copy of Colm Toibin's Long Island from the bookstore I help out occasionally.  I recently reread Brooklyn, which I loved just as much the second time around as the first.  I plan on watching the film again, too.  I loved Long Island and it cemented my appreciation for Toibin's writing in general.  His prose is very straightforward and almost simple, yet he writes in such a way as to really capture the feelings and inner workings of his characters.  I find Eilis really interesting and sometimes, I thought, sort of prickly.  But the more I think about her, and how she always keeps her cards close to her and not reveal things in a hasty manner, the more I admire her.  Toibin presents small town Ireland and the closeness of families and how they present themselves to each other and the world at large, absolutely pitch perfect.  I feel like Eilis, despite the period and being a 'foreigner' in America and with her large Italian extended family, and then a now 'foreigner--American' upon her return visit to Ireland as someone who actually has a lot of agency.  She navigates it all so well, if not always perfectly.  There are a couple of 'love?' triangles going and the complexity of how they all orbit each other was riveting.  I am only disappointed that the ending leaves many things unresolved.  I do hope Toibin is at work on the rest of the story!

As for my watching, my Sundays are generally dedicated to PBS in the evenings, and now I have two new shows to follow.  I love Alice & Jack, though it is very different (not in a bad way) than I was expecting.  I like the three main actors and find their story really fascinating.  It is the sort of story I want to find a book just the same to read for a similar experience.  Nolly is also great fun and how could it not be with someone as talented as Helena Bonham-Carter!

A few links I had been saving up and had planned to share previously:

I am looking forward to reading Xochitl Gonzalez's new book, Anita de Monte Laughs Last, and here is a review.

I think Pat Barker's books have inspired me for some 'paired' books reading (as in reading two of her three set books--more on that later, too).  I read Up the Junction a few years ago and this makes me want to revisit the book.

More books to explore on the Carol Shields Prize Longlist.

I wasn't sure about a remake of Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley, but I do love Andew Scott and maybe it will be worth a look when it comes out after all.

This looks yummy and I want to try this, so I leave you with a mug of chocolate cake!

Happy reading everyone.

A Few Reading Notes . . .

Hello from the beginning of Prize season!  Can you tell what was just announced this week?

This is just a little place holder, interim post, mostly to thank you for comments (always appreciated) and book suggestions (also very appreciated).  I feel like I am again falling behind a bit (aside from being here and adding to the conversation, I owe a few people emails, too).  It is all definitely on my mind and I do plan on catching up very soon.  

I have assembled a few books (I had a few already on my TBR) from the Women's Prize for Fiction longlist--I lucked out and one was a galley copy that the bookstore owner where I help out was kind enough to let me grab and read, and the rest are library copies.  The books I own I, of course, want to read and the others are interesting-sounding and I will peruse.  I did start And Then She Fell by Alicia Elliott as the book is about a young woman of the Mohawk Tribe, which is set in Canada (Toronto, but it works for me!).  That seemed serendipitous!

I finished reading The Road to Belhaven by Margot Livesey and loved it!  I hope to explore more of her work now.  Typepad is still giving me error messages on the backend as I try and do some things, including adding to my book list on the sidebar, but more on my current reads in the next day or two.

I am still interested in reading about the Vietnam War through the eyes of women and their experiences, so I appreciate the book suggestions and I am not averse to male authors, if the stories include women characters (in order to broaden the choices).  I will say progress is being made as I am now at #66 in line!  Since I have a stack of other potential reads staring me down at home, I can afford to be patient.

I hope everyone is reading something really good!  More news very soon from me!