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From the celebrated author of THE NIGHTINGALE and THE FOUR WINDS comes Kristin Hannah's THE WOMEN --- at once an intimate portrait of coming of age in a dangerous time and an epic tale of a nation divided.

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From the celebrated author of THE NIGHTINGALE and THE FOUR WINDS comes Kristin Hannah's THE WOMEN --- at once an intimate portrait of coming of age in a dangerous time and an epic tale of a nation divided.

About the Book

From the celebrated author of THE NIGHTINGALE and THE FOUR WINDS comes Kristin Hannah's THE WOMEN --- at once an intimate portrait of coming of age in a dangerous time and an epic tale of a nation divided.

Women can be heroes. When 20-year-old nursing student Frances “Frankie” McGrath hears these words, it is a revelation. Raised in the sun-drenched, idyllic world of Southern California and sheltered by her conservative parents, she has always prided herself on doing the right thing. But in 1965, the world is changing, and she suddenly dares to imagine a different future for herself. When her brother ships out to serve in Vietnam, she 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. Each day is a gamble of life and death, hope and betrayal; friendships run deep and can be shattered in an instant. In war, she meets --- and becomes one of --- the lucky, the brave, the broken and the lost.

But war is just the beginning for Frankie and her veteran friends. The real battle lies in coming home to a changed and divided America, to angry protesters, and to a country that wants to forget Vietnam.

THE WOMEN is the story of one woman gone to war, but it shines a light on all women who put themselves in harm’s way and whose sacrifice and commitment to their country has too often been forgotten. A novel about deep friendships and bold patriotism, THE WOMEN is a richly drawn story with a memorable heroine whose idealism and courage under fire will come to define an era.

Win Up to 12 Copies of HOMECOMING by Kate Morton for Your Group

Each month, we ask book groups to share the titles they are reading that month and rate them. From all entries, three winners will be selected, and each will win up to 12 copies of that month’s prize book for their group. Note: To be eligible to win, let us know the title of the book that YOUR book group is CURRENTLY reading, NOT the title we are giving away.

Our latest prize book is HOMECOMING by Kate Morton, a Bookreporter.com Bets On pick that is now available in paperback. This sweeping novel begins with a shocking crime, the effects of which echo across continents and generations. To enter, please fill out the form below by Wednesday, April 10th at noon ET.

Lisa Hickman

Lisa Hickman has been working with The Book Report Network since 2021, coordinating contests and content for author websites. She also attends and reports on author events and book festivals. Lisa is the editor of The Roasted Beat Creative Arts Magazine and co-moderates two large book clubs. She loves to read and visit local bookstores when traveling.

Spring Preview Evening Program Signup

Shelby Van Pelt Book Group Event

February 29, 2024

I love to see how clever people are with the refreshments that are served at book groups. For our last meeting, where we discussed THE BERRY PICKERS by Amanda Peters, Julia, who feels like our book group’s honorary baker, made a berry torte, which was terrific. I brought out blue and white striped plates to go with it. For humor, we often use plates that are left over from the birthday party of someone’s child in the group. They always make me smile and remember the themed parties that I did with my boys.

Chantha Nguon, author of Slow Noodles: A Cambodian Memoir of Love, Loss, and Family Recipes

In SLOW NOODLES, Chantha Nguon recounts her life as a Cambodian refugee who loses everything and everyone --- her home, her family, her country --- all but the remembered tastes and aromas of her mother’s kitchen. She summons the quiet rhythms of 1960s Battambang, her provincial hometown, before the dictator Pol Pot tore her country apart and killed more than a million Cambodians, many of them ethnic Vietnamese like Nguon and her family. Then, as an immigrant in Saigon, Nguon loses her mother, brothers and sister and eventually flees to a refugee camp in Thailand. For two decades in exile, she survives by cooking in a brothel, serving drinks in a nightclub, making and selling street food, becoming a suture nurse and weaving silk.

Kate Quinn, author of The Phoenix Crown

San Francisco, 1906. Two very different women hope to change their fortunes: Gemma, a golden-haired, silver-voiced soprano, and Suling, a petite and resolute Chinatown embroideress. Their paths cross when they are drawn into the orbit of Henry Thornton, a charming railroad magnate whose extraordinary collection of Chinese antiques includes the fabled Phoenix Crown, a legendary relic of Beijing’s fallen Summer Palace. His patronage offers Gemma and Suling the chance of a lifetime, but their lives are thrown into turmoil when a devastating earthquake rips San Francisco apart and Thornton disappears, leaving behind a mystery reaching further than anyone could have imagined…until the Phoenix Crown reappears five years later at a sumptuous Paris costume ball, drawing Gemma and Suling together in one last desperate quest for justice.

Lara Love Hardin, author of The Many Lives of Mama Love: A Memoir of Lying, Stealing, Writing, and Healing

No one expects the police to knock on the million-dollar, two-story home of the perfect cul-de-sac housewife. But soccer mom Lara Love Hardin has been hiding a shady secret: she is funding her heroin addiction by stealing her neighbors’ credit cards. Lara is convicted of 32 felonies. She learns that jail is a class system with a power structure that is somewhere between an adolescent sleepover party and LORD OF THE FLIES. But Lara brings love and healing to her fellow inmates as she climbs the social ladder to become the “shot caller.” When she’s released, she reinvents herself as a ghostwriter. Now, she’s legally co-opting other people’s identities and getting to meet Oprah, meditate with The Dalai Lama, and have dinner with Archbishop Desmond Tutu. But the shadow of her past follows her.

Tommy Orange, author of Wandering Stars

Colorado, 1864. Star, a young survivor of the Sand Creek Massacre, is brought to the Fort Marion prison castle, where he is forced to learn English and practice Christianity by Richard Henry Pratt, an evangelical prison guard who will go on to found the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, an institution dedicated to the eradication of Native history, culture and identity. A generation later, Star’s son, Charles, is sent to the school, where he is brutalized by the man who was once his father’s jailer. Under Pratt’s harsh treatment, Charles clings to moments he shares with a young fellow student, Opal Viola, as the two envision a future away from the institutional violence that follows their bloodlines.