The Women by Kristin Hannah

"Somehow Frankie would find a way to tell the country about her sisters---the women with whom she'd served. For the nurses who had died, for their children, for the women who would follow in the years to come. 

It started here. Now. By speaking up, standing in the sunlight, coming together, demanding honesty and truth. Taking pride.

The women had a story to tell, even if the world wasn't quite yet ready to hear it, and their story began with three simple words.         We were there."                  

                                             ---from the novel

I waited for this one a good long time. Seems it's been on the Bestseller list forever! It was worth the wait, not just a compelling story but a very informative work. I cannot imagine how much research went into the writing of this novel. 

Soon after nursing school, Frankie McGrath volunteers for Vietnam as a nurse, partly out of patriotism and to follow in her brother's footsteps. In spite of horrendous circumstances, she sticks it out for two years with the help of Esther and Barb, fellow nurses who become like sisters, and Captain Jamie Callahan, the surgeon who patiently encourages her. She eventually becomes an excellent surgical nurse, seeing the most horrible injuries, pain and death imaginable. Of course, these were difficult parts to read.

When Frankie returns home to California, the reader might think her troubles are over but not by a long shot! She is greeted by fellow Americans who spit on her, call her names or even shun her. Even her parents seem to be embarrassed by her service. She suffers from PTSD, becoming addicted to drugs and alcohol. I knew this had happened to our Vietnam vets but somehow it was more intense seeing it through Frankie's eyes. Shockingly some of the fellow vets she meets tell her "there were no women in Vietnam"!

Thankfully, Frankie is able to overcome these challenges, even joining and protesting with Veterans Against the Vietnam War. 

I really liked the book and rated it a 5 although I did find a couple of occurrences pretty miraculous, almost unbelievable. I learned so much I didn't know and was captured by Frankie's story. I wish I could personally thank the real women who served!

The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

"Chona had never been one to play by the rules of American society. She did not experience the world as most people did. To her, the world was not a china closet where you admire this and don't touch that. Rather, she saw it as a place where every act of living was a chance for tikkun olam, to improve the world. The tiny woman with the bad foot was all soul."

                 -from the novel

I really wanted to like this book. It had been a NYT bestseller for so long and our book club made it an end-of-the-year selection because it would be easier to find a copy. I was very disappointed. I found it very confusing with so many characters and the story seemed to jump from one conflict to another. Hard to keep it all straight.

Chona Ludlow, wife of Moshe, owns the Heaven and Earth Grocery Store in the Pennsylvania neighborhood of Chicken Hill. It is a mostly Jewish and Black area with typical racial tensions. Chona was an especially likeable character, as you might guess from the quote I selected. She becomes the guardian for a black deaf 12-year-old boy named Dodo who is like the son she never had. 

When Dodo is falsely accused of a crime and sent to the notorious Pennhurst State Hospital, plans are made by a few of the neighbors to break him out. Finding out what happened to Dodo is probably what kept me reading. That and the fact that it is a Page Turners selection. I am generously giving the novel a 3 but I was thinking 2 for a while. I look forward to our group discussion so I can hear what others found enjoyable.

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When We Were Widows by Annette Chavez Macias

 

"Some people believe like me that we're connected to certain people because they're meant to be in our lives, meaning you're destined to have some sort of experience with them. Sometimes we meet these people before we're supposed to. Kind of like a 'wrong time, wrong place' sort of thing. So we drift apart, only to be pulled back together again by an invisible string when the universe decides you're both ready to be in each other's lives again."

                   -Evie, from the novel

Three generations of widows----Mama Melda, Ana Diaz and Yesica Diaz-Taylor must live together when a plumbing catastrophe forces Mama and Ana to move from their home to live with Yesica. As one might imagine there are long-time resentments that keep this living arrangement from being a happy time. All the women hold on to secrets that must gradually come to light in order for them to find understanding and compassion and the love they should have had as a family all along.

I rated the book a four, not a favorite but it kept my interest.

Spirit Crossing by William Kent Krueger

 

"There is a single thread that runs through us all and connects us to the Creator. In birth, that thread draws our life spirit from the heart of the Creator. In death, the thread draws our spirit back into the Creator's heart. It is the same for every living thing."

                   -Henry Meloux, from the novel

I practically inhaled this one! I did feel a little sad when I finished this last in the Cork O'Connor series (#20) since I now have to wait for the next installment.

So much is going on in this novel---pipeline protests, 3 missing women, two found dead; Steven is awaiting his wedding to Belle and Annie is home from her mission in Guatemala with her partner, Maria, and a troublesome secret. And 7-yr-old grandson, Waaboo, little rabbit in Ojibwe, may be in danger because of his visionary gift.

I have loved each novel by this author. This one gets another 5 rating. I enjoy the Minnesota settings so much; very different from Florida where I live. It has been so interesting "watching" the O'Connor family grow and change. Also, I have learned some about Ojibwe culture---language and especially spiritual beliefs which I find inspiring. (See quote) Henry Meloux is a favorite character, over a hundred years old, and I fear reading of his death in a future novel.

The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy and the Path to a Shared American Future by Robert P. Jones

 

"The spirit of the Doctrine of Discovery continues to haunt us today. We remain torn by two mutually incompatible visions of the country. "Are we a pluralistic democracy where all, regardless of race or religion, are equal citizens? Or are we a divinely ordained promised land for European Christians? The confounding paradoxes, constant confusions, and violent convulsions of the present are signs that we have yet to choose between these two streams of American history."

      -Robert P. Jones

This is the October selection of our Page Turners group. We rarely read nonfiction, but this one made it to the 2024 list. I can rate it a 5 but I suspect not everyone in our group will appreciate it so much. It confirmed much of US history I know and taught me a lot I didn't. It is certainly not an easy or enjoyable read but was thoroughly researched, revealing important truths about our country.

Jones addresses the roots of white supremacy with examples from the Mississippi Delta (the author is a Missippian), Duluth, Minnesota and Tulsa, Oklahoma. In each of these three parts he relates stories of the horrible treatment of Indigenous people of the area and the enslaved African Americans, as well as free blacks. In this way "Jones exposes the role of white supremacy that originated in 15th century Vatican documents called the Doctrine of Discovery justifying slavery and land theft." 

The second part of the title is presented in a final section about each of these geographic areas telling ways in which the people involved and/or their descendants are trying to face the truth of the ugly history and make some amends for it. These parts are the easiest to read and give some hope for a "shared American future."

The author calls out some states where the reality of history such as slavery is denied, including our own, Florida. Very disturbing to a former teacher who wanted to teach ALL of history not just the feel-good parts! I hope the book will be widely read and bring positive changes to our country.

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Our Page Turners meeting was sparsely attended but no less rewarding for the 8 of us present. In-person participants liked the book with votes of 4 and 5. Average 4.0 for all ratings. Most of us had a difficult time with the content---definitely NOT a page-turner, but we learned things we did not know and felt were important to understand. The member who suggested the book said it was "painful but helpful." We were reminded in The Hidden Roots... of Killers of the Flower Moon which we read in August, especially in the author's description of the great harm done to Indigenous peoples by Euro-Americans. 

Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez

 "As I eat, I remember that first day I met the family, the time Mrs. Williams fed me the stew cooked over a hole in the ground. I had never seen anyone cook like that. The Williamses had always fed my soul, even when I did not know I was hungry. It occurs to me that I have received more from them than I ever could have given." 

          -Civil, from the novel

Someone gave me this paperback copy quite a while ago, maybe a couple of years. Since I read e-books about 90% of the time, I kept putting it off. I am so glad I finally pulled it off the shelf and read it! My rating is 5; I believe it is an important story to know.

The Author's Note describes how this novel is inspired by a true story of 2 young black girls profoundly mistreated by a broken system in early 1970's Alabama. Civil Townsend, newly graduated from Tuskegee Institute, is employed as a nurse at the Montgomery Family Planning Clinic. She is assigned to administer birth control injections to two young black girls---Erica and India Williams, ages 11 and 13, respectively. When Civil visits the poor family for the first time, she is appalled at their living conditions and sets out to help them get into government housing. 

When Civil finds out that the drug, Depo-Provera, that the clinic is dispensing, including to the Williams' girls, is not FDA approved and has caused cancer in lab animals, she is extremely concerned and sets out to make some changes. About this time and without Civil's knowledge, the girls are subjected to surgical sterilization. Both she and the family--father and grandmother---are horrified. Civil takes her activism even farther by finding a young lawyer willing to seek legal action. Since these procedures are financed through the U.S. government, they end up taking a federal office to court. 

The novel has two time frames, 1973, when most of the action occurs and 2016 as Civil goes back to visit Erica and India. As Civil is returning in 2016 she is relating her memories and thoughts to her daughter, Anne--an interesting literary device.

This book reminds me a great deal of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, in which a black woman's cancer cells are used in research with no permission of next-of-kin. And the author brings out the fact that many black men had been untreated for syphilis in a Tuskegee study for decades prior. The story of the two sisters certainly informs the reader of just another instance of racial injustice. And one can't help but think of the overturning of Roe v. Wade recently and consider how abortion bans affect poor women of color, as well as whites.

All the Glimmering Stars by Mark Sullivan

 “The medicine man also told me that our spirits come from stars and return to stars when we die. So, when you look up at the stars, Anthony, you may also be seeing the spirits of your ancestors and the souls of your children shining back at you.”

     -George Opoka, to his young son 

 "He bowed his head and wished to God that all the glimmering stars in the sky, the souls of his ancestors and the spirits of the unborn, could come together to show him the right direction to take."

     -Anthony Opoka, remembering his father's words

I've read 2 historical novels by this author and enjoyed them both. In selecting this one, I surely didn't know what I was getting into!

Based on a true story it begins in Uganda in the late 1980's when the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) is wreaking havoc in the country under the leadership of maniacal Joseph Kony. 

Two teens are kidnapped from their loving families in two different villages and forced to become soldiers in the LRA. Anthony Opoka is an outstanding student and athlete while Florence Okori, also an excellent student, dreams of becoming a nurse. The situations they are forced to endure among other "child warriors" makes for difficult reading. In the course of 400+ pages, one wonders if they will ever be able to escape but one keeps reading and hoping.

When Anthony and Florence meet and fall in love, there is some joy---briefly, but they remain slaves to Kony, called the Great Teacher, whose cruelty is horrifying. By the time the couple have two sons, they become desperate to get away. Memories of their good upbringing helps them survive. And Anthony's chance meeting with Mr. Mabior, a dying man whose last words to Anthony are very wise and inspiring make a huge difference for him through some terrible times.

The story was compelling but far from enjoyable, so I am rating it a 4. The story of Anthony and Florence Opoka is an amazing one, to be sure, and it is interesting to read Sullivan's notes about how he discovered it. I can only hope it brings attention to the use of children in combat because that horrible practice should be banned across the globe.