Pride of America, We're With You: The Letters of Grace Anderson U.S. Army Nurse Corps, World War

Title: Pride of America, We're With You: The Letters of Grace Anderson U.S. Army Nurse Corps, World War I (American Voices Series)

Author: Shari Lynn Wigle (Editor), Grace Anderson

Genre: biography, historical non-fiction, WWI

Summary: All of our strength we'll gladly give you ... In their unit song, Grace Anderson and the Base Hospital No. 115 nurses promised the soldiers: "Pride of America, we're with you, all of our strength we'll gladly give you ." More than ten thousand World War I army nurses volunteered for a perilous overseas venture. They aided the troops in the fight for democracy before American women had the right to vote. Grace, a nurse anesthetist, helped save lives in the operating rooms and hospital wards. She healed "our boys" and her own heartaches-a life-changing romance and the tragic loss of a loved one. Her 1917-1925 letters follow her from Camp Pike training to France, occupied Germany, and her return home. The narrative interweaves her correspondence with World War I history and her personal life, including her secret relationship with an army surgeon. The true story focuses on the human side of the Great War and recounts Grace's challenges in the postwar years. About the Author During a home remodeling project, Dana and Lynn Swan found the World War I letters of his grandmother, Grace Anderson, a U.S. Army nurse. The serendipitous event led Shari Lynn Wigle on a journey back to the Great War and offered her a new adventure in research and writing. About the Author: Shari Wigle has had many articles published in magazines and newspapers. Her career also includes newspaper reporting, film production, and corporate publications/publications. A graduate of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College in Indiana and the University of California, Los Angeles, she lives in Westlake Village, California. Pride of America, We're With You is the author's first book.

Rating: Excellent!

Why I Like It: So easy to read, interesting, learned so much in many different areas of WWI. Photos included through out the book.

Reviewer: Patsy

YOU DON'T BELONG HERE

 

Title: YOU DON'T BELONG HERE

Author: Elizabeth Becker

Genre: nonfiction

Summary: Excerpts from the inside cover: The story of three women who arrived in Vietnam with starkly different life experiences but one shared purpose: to report on the most consequential story of the decade. At a time when women were considered unfit to be foreign reporters, they challenged the rules imposed on them by the military, ignored the belittlement of their male peers, and ultimately altered the craft of war reportage for generations.

The author uses these women's work and lives to illuminate the Vietnam War from the 1965 American buildup, the expansion into Cambodia, and the American defeat and its aftermath. Arriving herself in the last years of the war, Becker writes as a historian and a witness of the times.

Rating: Very good
Why I Like It: Easy to read and understand. Provided a lot of good back ground information. At that time I was just beginning to be aware of what was going on in our government and the world. Reading about these women and more about what really went on in Vietnam was very interesting.

Name: Kathy