This took a turn. Post 4!

When I say that this book just got even more sad, I mean it. Within the 72 pages I read, homegirl has gone absolutely through it.

If you read my last post, Jamie is dead. He will not be growing from his experience. It is quite sad that Frankie had to watch the medics stop CPR because he was gone. Very sad, very karma-like. I did actually like Jamie and his character. Other than the fact he was married with and had a child, he was a really great guy and treated Frankie very well.

But Frankie moved on pretty quick. One of her brothers friends from the Naval Academy was stationed near Frankie. His name is Rye and we love him dearly. He said to her at the beginning that women can be heroes too, which helped persuade her into joining the Army. They met, they both felt things, but HE WAS ENGAGED. Frankie never took a day off the year she was on her tour. Suddenly, she was told that she needs to. She ended up in Kauai for a week. Poof, Rye appears telling her he broke off his engagement and wanted to be a cutie little nurse/pilot couple. How kind and sweet of him. They spend the whole week together in Kauai. Back to reality, they don’t see each other for quite a while because the war is getting intense (spoiler, we basically lost in Vietnam).

Me because I have liked him from the start and they found their way back to each other!

Frankie gets her date to go home after another tour in ‘Nam. Her dad hasn’t written her once, her mother is furious she reupped, but at least Barb is a dawg telling Frankie that she is very proud of her. She gets home and she is counting down the days until Rye comes home (little less than a month after her). She is struggling to adjust with being back home.

She remembers all the great parties back in Vietnam, so she decides to throw one for Rye coming home. She hunts down his dad a couple cities over from where she lives, and learns that he, like every other guy she seemed to love, is dead. She goes in a deep depression that Ethel and Barb help make easier for her. Yay friends!

Hopefully, they wouldn’t actually take a picture like this because it’s pretty cringy and they’ve been through too much to settle for a dumb picture pose like that. Good thing they’re fictional characters!:) (Please listen to Marie Laveau by Bobby Bare if you have a great sense of humor because it really is for Frankie):)

“It’s ‘Nam” post 3

I fear as though my predictions of Frankie being an absolute baddie were right. She girl bossed so hard, she was transferred to a hospital closer to the fighting which means much more intense injuries. She gets to move to a more intense unit because she actually became a good nurse. In my words, she became the baddie I hoped/knew she would be.

Me because Frankie finally pulled her head out of her butt:)

Frankie made a few friends named Ethel and Barb. They both ended up getting their dates to return home, which is great for them. They both did multiple tours to Vietnam and helped save many lives, so it is safe to say that it was well deserved that they get to return home safely. Ethel and Frankie keep in touch through letters and talk a lot about visiting Ethel where they will eat barbeque and ride horses (she lives in the south of the United States). Barb finds out about Frankie being moved, so she is determined to follow because she won’t leave Frankie’s side as long as they’re in ‘Nam together.

Now to like a really sad part that also makes me a bit mad (it’s a common occurrence), but this time, I hope it makes you mad as well. Frankie met a dude earlier in the book named Jamie. Super cute, very kind, the ideal dude. Homie is even a surgeon! They both end up falling for each other hard core, but Frankie is then told that HE IS MARRIEDDDD!! And yet he is still trying to get close with Frankie. She has a hard time because she truly loves him, but she knows it’s wrong because she is not completely stupid (she just makes stupid choices, but not this time!). He claims that his wife got pregnant on their first time in college and they didn’t know what else to do other than get married. Jamie asks Frankie to come with him to SEE HIS WIFE, but she says no. Good thing she did because the aircraft he was in was shot down and he is probs gonna die. Sucks being a cheater now, huh Jamie?

Me because what was Jamie thinking. Like genuinely.

Anyways, lots of lose already in this book, both living and non, but I hope Jamie will learn and grow from this experience

I am still mad.

The main character, once again, has made me very very mad. This girl manages to GET MALARIA not even twenty-four hours into being in Vietnam. AFTER she drinks the water, people then inform her to not. Great start for your first tour Frankie. You truly rock.

Frankie has gone to party-like gatherings and even, kind of sort of, helped with mass casualty with them. I say kind of sort of because she was handed a boot with a foot in it and puked. Was it the malaria? Probably. Could it also be her being startled by a foot ripped off a persons body and stuck in the boot the person was wearing? Also probably. This girl literally tells her friend Ethel (I know. I don’t like the name either) that she was only taught how to basically put a band-aid on a scratch. Girl, be for real. You are going to be nurse in a war. You totally won’t find some bullet wounds and severe burns that you have to treat. Can’t put a band-aid on that, can ya Frankie?

On an actual good note though, she did make a friend. Ethel seems sweet. She has helped Frankie with getting out of her comfort zone, like the foot in the boot, and has even showed her how they do things at the hospital. Frankie even watched her first soldier die while holding her hand. I don’t know how she didn’t sob like a baby. I stared at a wall for a fat minute because I was in shock of how the scene was described. Ms. Hannah Kristin is a wonder with her words. Frankie has found a spot near the ocean that reminds her of her dead brother.

I am really debating on if I think she will be one of my favorite book characters later on. She still is making me angry.

Me because I am very frustrated.

I am already upset:( (Post 1!)

I can already tell that this book is going to be a sad one. The book started out with her older brother dying in Vietnam. Great way to hook the reader, but why so depressing? They were going to buy an apartment together, but no. He had to die TWENTY pages into the book. I suppose it was a good addition to show just how sad war can be. Smart move, but still extremely sad.

Anyways, Frankie, the main character, has already made me mad, and I am only thirty-six pages in. Homegirl wanted to go to war immediately so she could basically go on adventures with her brother. After her brother dies, she realizes that it was a poor choice to enlist because she realizes how bad war actually is, but good thing she is just going to be a nurse! No “life at risk” moments what so ever! (the plane she took to get to Vietnam was almost shot down, she isn’t allowed to salute or call herself lieutenant unless she wants to be killed by the enemy and is only sixty miles from the frontlines).

I believe that Frankie is really stupid. She is going to war and still thinks she won’t have near death experiences. It’s war. It’s what happens. I am talking a bit negative, but I am already very frustrated. I do think this will be a really good book. I am almost positive that I will end up liking Frankie, but she needs to stop being stupid. When she finds her place, learns the ropes, makes friends and finds her real purpose in the war, I think she might be one of my favorite book characters. She has the potential to be a total baddie, but the question is if she will allow herself to reach that full potential.

Starter Post- The Women

My book of choice for this assignment is called “The Women” by Kristin Hannah. I chose this book because I previously read “The Nightingale” which is also written by Kristin Hannah and enjoyed how she presented the story to her reader, her ability to connect little details to greater ideas and how she makes her characters hardships similar to ones that women are struggling with today. Her books are easy to understand if you have little to no knowledge of the historical event the book is based off of. I am a little nervous reading another one of her books since I enjoyed “The Nightingale” so much that my expectations for “The Women” will not be met. I chose the image bellow because historical fiction helps to widen my understanding along with empathy for history while also challenging me with learning different words you don’t often see in your daily reads.