The Women by Kristin Hannah

So there's good news and bad news. Good news is, I loved this book. Bad new is that I had my top five already written up before I finished The Women, and now I have to rewrite it. It's definitely worth the extra work though (although the book that got booted might disagree).

The Women is set during the Vietnam war and follows the path of Frankie McGrath, who comes from an affluent family that proudly celebrated military service. Following the path her brother took, in 1966, idealistic 20-year old Frankie impetuously enlists to serve as a combat nurse. Her experience is so minimal that the only branch that will take her is the Army. And it's with them that she spends two years in Vietnam, treating not only servicemen wounded from the war, but local Vietnamese as well. In addition to seeing the horrific wounds caused by guns, bombs, and napalm, Frankie experiences attacks on the hospital and the loss of loved ones.

I couldn't believe Frankie's time in service took up only about a third of the book. It was so packed with information and so fascinating that I just couldn't understand what more there could be that was as memorable. But Hannah delivers from the first page to the last, continuing Frankie's story until 1982. 

After her 2nd tour, Frankie returns home to people spitting on her and cursing her for her service. Her  family denies she was ever in Vietnam, having told their friends she was studying abroad. Even the VA turns Frankie away after she seeks help dealing with her nightmares and anxiety, telling her "women weren't in Vietnam." 

With her family's refusal to acknowledge the war, the military's lack of support, and her closest friends hundreds of miles away, Frankie doesn't know how to keep her life together. And being with her through it all is captivating. Sure, this book is about the Vietnam war, but it's more about trauma. Hannah manages to remove the stigma of a lot of things Frankie deals with, like drug abuse, PTSD, and psychosis. She walks us through the metamorphosis of a bright-eyed, naive young girl to a broken, lost woman. And it all makes sense and feels so deeply personal.  

While the story is primarily about Frankie, The Women is ultimately about all the women who served in Vietnam, like Frankie's best friends Barb and Ethel. Although they and other characters play a smaller role, Hannah gives all of them dimension. And while they are all far from perfect, they are perfectly written. 

This is not just a good story, it has historical significance with themes that are still relevant today. Hannah's dedication to her research and to the women she honors is fully realized in The Women and I couldn't recommend it more!

Redeployment by Phil Klay

I accidentally read this book. Is that possible? I realized a few hours in that it wasn't autobiographical, but rather a collection of fictional short stories and had a decision to make...do I stay or do I go? It's not that it isn't well written and interesting, I just don't have much interest in reading fictional war accounts. It's not my favorite genre, but non-fiction IS. So if it's a non-fictional war story, I'm hooked! Get the difference?

via GIPHY

Redeployment is broken up into 12 stories, told from various perspectives of Marines deployed in Iraq during Operation Iraqi freedom. As you can imagine, some stories are funny, some sad, some both. Klay himself was a marine deployed in Iraq and spent years researching his characters before publishing. So he knows what he's writing about. A lot of the positive press on this book has been about the accurate portrayal of life for Marines in Iraq.

So was I hooked? I hate to say I wasn't, because I know this book is good. And it's probably more a mental thing for me, knowing the stories weren't actually true. But I have a feeling they are representative, and if you want an idea of what Marines experienced during this time, this just might be the book to read.

A Higher Call:An Incredible True Story of Combat and Chivalry in the War-Torn Skies of World War II by Adam Makos

This World War II story is written by an American war historian, Adam Makos. Makos finds a story so compelling, he fights his patriotic instincts and centers his story from the German perspective. A Higher Call highlights the life of Franz Stigler, a German fighter pilot ace. Framing his book around the so-called enemy, Makos wonders early in the book, can good men be found on both sides of a bad war?

Franz Stigler knew as a young boy he wanted to fly planes. His father taught him and his brother, August, how to fly small planes as young children. Franz eventually worked as a commercial pilot, and when WWII broke out, was recruited to teach Germans how to fly for the war.

Franz grew up in a Catholic family. During the 1930's, as Hitler's party rose to power, they cautiously watched and disagreed with the changes enacted by The Party. As Catholics, they fell under increased scrutiny, since the Pope spoke out against Hitler. August, in particular, who was dating a church official's daughter, could potentially bring the magnifying glass onto the family. In a way, Franz had a way out, having been excommunicated from the church for sword fighting.

But this official disownment of Franz on the Church's part was only one sided. Franz continued to quietly practice his faith, even making sure he always had his rosary for every mission he flew, as this became his inevitable path working for the German air force.

If you're wondering how Franz could be in the German air force during Hitler's dictatorship, if he wasn't a member of, or even supportive of the Nazi party, this was more the rule than the exception. German fighters fought for their country, not for Hitler. They prided themselves on being neutral, politically, and resented Hitler's eventual efforts to infiltrate to military with his own spies in an effort to squash dissention to The Party.

This neutrality could be taken a step further in the code Franz was taught, to down foreign planes, but not kill pilots if they ejected. This code would be brought to the forefront when an American bomber, piloted by Charlie Brown, was shot down by German fighters. The B-17 was on its first mission, flying in formation in the unfortunate position known as "Purple Heart Corner." As the bomber descended in its inevitable demise, struggling to stay airborne as it tried to leave Germany, Brown and his injured crew found they couldn't shake one German fighter. But strangely, the fighter didn't fire on them. Assuming it was out of ammo, they still couldn't explain why the fighter flew alongside the bomber's wing, taking it safely across a German flak zone.

The mystery would remain with Brown, who eventually sought out the mystery pilot decades later and learned about Franz, his amazing life, and his even more amazing code of honor.

Makos slowly helps us understand how Franz got to this point. For in the beginning, his main focus was on downing as many planes as possible and getting the coveted Knight's Cross commendation for fighter pilots. In the beginning, it was the numbers that motivated him. But as Franz neared the end of his career, something greater took over, and the numbers fell by the wayside when Franz found himself a part of an elite, yet ill-regarded unit of German fighters. Under the command of a man whom Hitler wanted to keep out of the way, this new unit was given little resources and little hope for success. But their willingness to continue to fight successfully for Germany ended up being their silent protest against Hitler and General Goring, the controversial commander in chief of the German Air Force.

This book provides not only an interesting, alternate view of WWII, but also a great story that was covered up by the American Air Force for years. A solid recommend.