The Women with Silver Wings: the inspiring true story of the women airforce service pilots of World War II

The Women with Silver Wings: The Inspiring True Story of the Women Airforce Service Pilots of World War II by Katherine Sharp Landdeck


Katherine Sharp Landdeck's detailed account of the day-to-day experiences of the women who flew for the Army Air Forces and the long-term machinations and political maneuvering involved in the evolving alphabet soup of acronyms is riveting. Her extensive research included years of interviewing and becoming friends with dozens of the women; reading their letters, diaries, memoirs, and speeches; combing through newspaper archives, photos, accident reports, and government documents; and triple-checking everything. My husband is an air force officer and military history buff, so I enjoyed the opportunity to read about one of his favorite subjects but from a female perspective.

It's endlessly astonishing to me how sexist (and racist) beliefs can persist when they are so demonstrably false and utterly ridiculous. Still more astonishing is that they persisted during WWII when sheer practicality should have rendered them moot: women not only could fly anything and everything, they NEEDED to do so in order to maximize the number of men able to fight. (Never mind that women could have also done an excellent job of fighting.) Landdeck's meticulously researched "The Women with Silver Wings" brings this absurdity into sharp focus.

Since I'm reading an advance reader's edition (ARC), the endnotes haven't yet been numbered, nor are they marked within the text, but once that happens for the final published version, they will be beneficial, although in some cases it would be nicer if they were footnotes and more easily read without flipping back and forth. Also, the extensive number of women featured in the book makes me wish for some sort of Cast of Characters list with a sentence or two to remind me who's who & has which background. But that's a minor quibble in an otherwise fascinating book.

Many thanks to Bookbrowse.com and the publisher for the ARC they sent me in exchange for my honest review.

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Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War

Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War by Mary Roach
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Mary Roach brings humor and humanity to every topic she covers, and her latest book is no exception. It is everything you never realized you always wanted to know about the behind-the-scenes efforts to prepare humans to wage war and (mostly) survive.

Unlike most books about war or the technology of war, this one isn't about the battles or the weaponry itself but about the science--groundbreaking, gruesome, gross...and utterly mesmerizing. Mary Roach is known for her thorough, hands-on research. Here she investigates everything from armor to zippers, flies in fecal matter to the quest for shark repellent, and breakthroughs in penile reconstruction to the struggle for sufficient sleep. Her wry witty tone brings minutia to life and highlights both the sublime and the absurd. She makes footnotes a treat.

For readers' advisors: language (humor) doorway is especially strong. There is some swearing, as you might imagine when dealing with various branches of the military. Be careful which sections you read while eating if you are squeamish.

I received an Advance Reader's Copy (ARC) from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

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Only Enchanting

Only Enchanting by Mary Balogh
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Mrs. Agnes Keeping, a young widow, lives quietly with her sister, a spinster music teacher, in the English village Inglebrook. She had married an older gentleman for comfort and convenience and doesn't expect or wish to ever fall in love. In fact, she rather fears it, thanks to her mother's scandalous behavior and consequent abandonment of the sisters when Agnes was a small child. However, when she goes to a ball given by her new best friend, Sophia, Lady Darleigh, Agnes accidentally falls in love with Flavian Arnott, Viscount Ponsonby. Thankfully, he doesn't live in the area, and she believes she'll never see him again. This being a romance novel, she of course sees him again five months later when he and the other members of the Survivors' Club journey back to Middlebury Park for their annual gathering.

Flavian was shot in the head and trampled by a horse while fighting Napoleon's army in France. He has recovered from most of his wounds, thanks the the ministrations he received at Penderris Hall, home of the Duke of Stanbrook, but he still suffers from gaps in his memory, stuttering, and unexpected flashes of anger--symptoms familiar to many of today's soldiers as well. One of those frustrating holes in his memory relates to his former fiancee who jilted him to marry his best friend after he was wounded in battle. News that she's widowed and finished with her mourning period inexplicably sends him into a panic, where only marriage to Agnes feels safe. The difficulty lies in stitching together enough pieces of the past to understand the present and salvage their future together.

Mary Balogh does such a fantastic job writing multi-dimensional characters. It's one of the things I like best about her books--you feel like the people in them are real, and you enjoy spending time with them.

My only quibble with book #4 in this series is that I could have used some sort of chart or character list to help me keep the names and relationships straight. I thought I had read all three of the previous novels, but thanks to Goodreads, I just discovered that I'd only read the first one...which helps explain why I struggled mightily to connect titles, first names, and last names. My husband is in the military, and I have the exact same difficulty with his colleagues--it's taken me years in many cases to link a face with the three separate things she or he might be called, according to the circumstances. I have often wished for a cheat sheet with my husband's friends & coworkers, and I definitely wished for one while reading Only Enchanting.

For readers' advisors: character and setting doorways. Mild historical swearing and eventually a couple of sex scenes.

I received a free e-galley copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

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The Inn at Rose Harbor

The Inn at Rose Harbor by Debbie Macomber
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It took me several tries to get into this book. Not because it wasn't interesting, but because it hit a little too close to home and revived memories of deep, dark fears.

The book opens with the story of Jo Marie, a recent widow who lost her husband after only a few months of marriage. She was in her late thirties when she met her soulmate, Paul, and they fell in love immediately. Despite his deployment to Germany two months later, they managed to sustain their relationship, and he proposed when he flew home at Christmastime on leave. They married in January, and right afterward his unit was sent to Afghanistan, where he died in a helicopter crash in April.

This is pretty much my nightmare scenario. This is what had me jumping every time the phone rang for the first year of my relationship with my (now) husband while he was deployed to Kabul. I was petrified I would lose the love of my life after having finally found him. I imagine this is the nightmare scenario experienced by all military spouses, girlfriends, and boyfriends: having your future together ripped away in one moment of violence. Then again, given recent headlines in the local newspapers, perhaps this is a fear we all share, military or not.

At any rate, by the time I finally managed to get past the first chapter and into the rest of the book, my egalley copy from NetGalley expired. ARGH! So I had to put the physical book on hold at my library and wait until it was my turn.

The Inn at Rose Harbor is actually the story of three people whose lives intersect one weekend: Jo Marie, newly minted innkeeper of the B&B she bought with the life insurance money, and her first two guests, Joshua Weaver and Abby Kincaid. Josh has returned to Cedar Cove to deal with his dying stepfather who hates him, and Abby must face the guilt she has carried for the fifteen years since her best friend died in a car accident. All three need and receive healing over the course of the long weekend.

For readers' advisors: It was hard to decide how to categorize this novel. It's not a straightforward romance, although there is some romance involved. It doesn't quite fit into "magical realism" either, although the angels/ghosts make it lean into the paranormal. I think it will appeal to people who enjoy Debbie Macomber's Cedar Cove series, and fans will recognize some secondary characters. It's a contemporary "clean read," with no sex or bad language--a very sweet novel. Character doorway is primary, and setting (Cedar Cove on Puget Sound in Washington) is secondary.

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The Proposal

The Proposal by Mary Balogh
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Not all wounds are visible.

Lord Hugh (Emes) Trentham has spent the past several years healing from the emotional trauma incurred during the Napoleonic Wars while leading the charge on a "Forlorn Hope"--what would today be called a suicide mission. His body came through unscathed, but as any veteran could tell you, his mind did not. As a reward for his heroism, he was given a title and transformed from the son of a wealthy merchant into a peer of the realm. Now that his year of mourning for his father is over, he is faced with the intimidating task of finding a wife who can guide his younger sister through the Marriage Mart. But Hugh is NOT good with the ladies. His scowling face scares most of them away before they ever have a chance to meet the person inside.

Enter Lady Gwen Muir, widowed for the past seven years and seemingly content with her peaceful life on her brother's estate. She goes for a long walk on the rocky shore to escape her obnoxious hostess and slips on a gravel slope, severely twisting her ankle only feet away from where Hugo sits hidden from view on a ledge. He reluctantly rescues her; she reluctantly lets him. Time and proximity work their magic over the next week, slowly splintering the preconceptions each holds dear. Nonetheless, the chasm between them is wide, and neither is sure they wish to cross it.

It's a refreshing novelty to read a historical romance novel where the hero and heroine are not only in their thirties but also actively dislike each other at first and come from widely differing backgrounds wherein the heroine has the higher social status. Their first impressions of each other are not favorable and do not improve for quite a while, although their budding physical attraction intensifies relatively early on. I really appreciated the gradual development of their relationship as each struggled with personal demons and societal prejudices. As in real life, nothing was simple.

Other reviewers have pointed out that Gwen's story was originally supposed to have been part of a trilogy that began with One Night for Love ...so I now need to go re-read that one! And maybe A Summer to Remember as well.

For readers' advisors: character doorway is primary, setting secondary. There are a couple of sex scenes.

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General Winston's Daughter

General Winston's Daughter by Sharon Shinn


My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I'm not quite sure how to categorize this book. It's YA because the eponymous character, Averie, General Winston's daughter, is 18 years old. It's fantasy in that Shinn set her story in a made-up world, although no one has magical abilities or rides dragons or has any other trait typical to the genre. Other than that...it has elements of romance, although that's not the focus. It's almost a commentary on war--the complexities of aggression, suppression, and rebellion--but not entirely.

What it is, is excellent, especially if you love character development. The story begins with Averie and her chaperone, Lady Selkirk, sailing to Chiarrin, a hot, dry country recently invaded by the Aebrian army, of which Averie's father is the commanding general. Averie is joining her father and fiance (also an officer in the army) with little understanding of the military and political maneuvering shaping her world. But as she befriends both a lieutenant from the long-since conquered country of Xan'tai and a young Chiarrizi woman, she begins to reevaluate her country's actions, both current and historical.

The climax of the book took me by surprise--it was far bigger in scope than I had anticipated. Which is pretty much all I can say about it without revealing too much.

For reader's advisors: character and story doorways. No sex or bad language, although there are some kisses by moonlight.

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