Her Own Vietnam by Lynn Kanter

MWSA Review

Lynn Kanter has hit a home run in Her Own Vietnam.  This is more than just a story about a woman suffering from PTSD, or a story about a nurse's experiences in the Vietnam war.  Her Own Vietnam is a thought provoking journey into the realities of war and its impact on individuals and society. 

Don't let me scare you into thinking this is some philisophical treatise that you have to fight your way through, this book is an easy, interesting read.  It is also a book that will leave you thinking about a significant, but often overlooked part of any war - the life and death in an evacuation hospital where the troops are brought directly from the battlefield. 

At first, I thought the book's focus was fairly specific, but as I read on I realized there was more than one story being told here.  The book is well written.  I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys good literary fiction.

Reviewed by Bob Doerr (2015)

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Author's Summary

For decades, Della Brown has tried to forget her service as a U.S. Army nurse in Vietnam. But in the middle of the safe, sane life she’s built for herself, Della is ambushed by history. She receives a letter from a fellow combat nurse, a woman who was once her closest friend, and all the memories come flooding back.

As the U.S. prepares to plunge into war in Iraq, Della struggles to make peace with her memories of Vietnam. She must also confront the fissures in her family life; the mystery of her father’s disappearance, the things mothers and daughters cannot—maybe should not—know about one another, and the lifelong repercussions of a single mistake.

An unflinching depiction of war and its personal costs, Her Own Vietnam is also a portrait of a woman in midlife — a mother, a nurse, and long ago a soldier.

Publisher: Shade Mountain Press (2014)
Binding: Paperback, 214 pages

Young Soldiers Amazing Warriors: Inside One of the Most Highly Decorated Battalions of Vietnam by Robert H Sholly

Review

Reviewed by: Bill McDonald (2015)

I was honored to have actually held this book in my hands and to have been able to read about such heroic young men in battles long forgotten by the world at large. "Young Soldiers - Amazing Warriors" by Col. Robert Sholly is a book that future generations will read and wonder if these men really ever existed. Thank God for such men who sacrificed so much of their own lives and youth for a cause bigger than themselves. Actually, they were truly there for each other as brothers in battle. The author, I think, under tells the story without embellishments that most of us old veterans seem to add to our old glory stories about the war. You get the feeling that he is just telling you of how it was. But what a history to share, and what stories of such young warriors.

There are not many books about the Vietnam War that surprise me or generate the emotional connections that this book brought to me. I have read over 200 books related to the Vietnam War and most of those were memoirs or history books. This is by far one of the best of the group. One gets the feeling that it is the heroic history of the 4th Infantry Division itself that enriches the reading experience - after all, these young men needed nothing more than a narration of what happened. However, I was impressed with the author's ability not to get in the way of the stories themselves. He tells it in a style and manner that honors it.

I am a Vietnam Veteran and an author as well, so for me to impressed with another book on the Vietnam War means it had to be special and above the rest. This was! This is a FIVE STAR BOOK on any rating chart! I fully endorse it and recommend it for anyone who enjoys reading history, or reading about heroes!

Author's Summary

Book covers the first year of combat for the 1st Battalion, 8th Infantry of the 4th Infantry Division (1966-67). The narrative follows the author's daily journals and is augmented by descriptions of events by his men from their differing perspectives. It describes the harsh environmental conditions in which infantrymen had to live even before they confronted their first enemy. The combat scenes are tragic and brutal. Time and again, men knowingly sacrificed their lives to save their friends. The combat tempo was such that in a 60-day period there were four Medals of Honor and five Distinguished Service Crosses awarded to men of the battalion for their bravery and valor. The book was written to help educate the American public what their soldiers experience when the country sends them to war, no matter where or when they fight.

Corrales Writing Group 2013 Anthology

MWSA Review

How does one rate and talk about a book that has six individually talented authors with diverse interests and focus? I dove into the book by not beginning at the front of the book - but by randomly jumping into the middle where I found author Jim Tritten's chapter called "Night Flight to Norway". This kind of got my attention and so that was where I began the process of discovering digesting the whole book. I found it was like reading six very short books but that did not bother me, nor do I think it would anyone else. Each story captivates and entertains in a different fashion. No two authors had the same energy, or point of view. The only thing that ties them all together is the like ability of the authors. The book is certainly a journey which is easy to walk. The stories are just long enough for those times when you want to read something while you are not engaged doing anything or waiting.

I personally explored it by skipping over stories that I would later come back to and explore. The key is to enjoy your own time with this book. In the end, I devoured it in all it’s entirely. Yes, some of the stories stood out for me more so then others - like the first one I read by Tritten but there were none that were bad, or that I did not enjoy or find some valve in. Nice book to have laying around the house for light reading, or for when you are at an airport or on vacation.

Reviewed by: Bill McDonald (2015)

Author's Summary

Jim Tritten (Navy vet and MWSA member) wrote: Night Flight to Norway (memoir about a military flight during which he almost died), Two Old Soldiers (memoir about his veteran grandfather), & So Why Did they Invent Pink Duct Tape? (humorous essay). The latter two have won awards elsewhere.

Tom Neiman (Army vet) wrote: The Leather Truths (memoir about teenage life in New Jersey), & A Heart's Journey (memoir about his wife).

Leon Wiskup (Army vet) wrote two short stories - The Newcomer & Funniest Damn Thing (a military story); as well as two poems - On Being 88 & Dawn Encounter.

Don Reightley (Navy vet) wrote five serious essays: On Becoming Sixty, Meditations on Life, Making the Best of It, Dragon's Lair, Is Anybody Home?, & Corporate Oligarchy.

Sandi Hoover wrote: An Amazon Night (memoir fantasy while hospitalized), What Love Is (memoir about her husband), My Father had a Sweet Tooth (memoir about her father), and Saving Mother Earth (essay).

Patricia Walkow wrote two memoirs from her teenage years in New York - Revelation & The Aristocrat. She also contributed an excerpt (the first two chapters) from her forthcoming fictionalized biography of her father-in-law's life in Germany during WWII as a slave laborer - The War Within - Jozef's Story

The entries in the group's first anthology will make the reader laugh, wonder, cry, smile and reminisce.

Corrales Writing Group 2014 Anthology

MWSA Review

I actually love anthologies with different authors and poets because it gives me a chance to explore and discover new writers that I may just wish to read more from. Anthologies are samplers of great chocolates or wine or cheese - you get to have small tastes of them without having to eat or drink just one. So they do serve a great purpose in the literary world for readers and can offer up stories or authors that they might never have chosen. So I do encourage that readers read them.

This is the second volume from this writers group. Having read through the 2013 edition, I kind of thought I knew what each might bring back to the table for readers. However, I was wrongly surprised, as the group upped its energy and delivered something much stronger than their first efforts. I did read author Jim Tritten first and was rewarded right way with his two chapters. But I was taken by the quality of work in the book by Patricia Walkow who’s 3 stories start off the book and are worthy contributions to this volume.

There are 7 contributors to this year's collection as author Jasmine Tritten joins in with a wonder story called "Kato's Grand Adventure". The whole volume is rich with literary gems and is worthy of having on your bookshelf.

Reviewed By Bill McDonald (2015)

Author Summary

I actually love anthologies with different authors and poets because it gives me a chance to explore and discover new writers that I may just wish to read more from. Anthologies are samplers of great chocolates or wine or cheese - you get to have small tastes of them without having to eat or drink just one. So they do serve a great purpose in the literary world for readers and can offer up stories or authors that they might never have chosen. So I do encourage that readers read them.

This is the second volume from this writers group. Having read through the 2013 edition, I kind of thought I knew what each might bring back to the table for readers. However, I was wrongly surprised, as the group upped its energy and delivered something much stronger than their first efforts. I did read author Jim Tritten first and was rewarded right way with his two chapters. But I was taken by the quality of work in the book by Patricia Walkow who’s 3 stories start off the book and are worthy contributions to this volume.

There are 7 contributors to this year's collection as author Jasmine Tritten joins in with a wonder story called "Kato's Grand Adventure". The whole volume is rich with literary gems and is worthy of having on your bookshelf.