21 Comments
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David Nash's avatar

I also learned little about Vietnam, but Viet Thanh Nguyen's The Sympathizer sparked my interest, I'd love to read more. I'll add this to my TBR.

This week I'm reading The Story of Lost Child by Elena Ferrante. Her voice and scenes are so good!

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Kolina Cicero's avatar

Ferrante is my all-time favorite author. You can’t go wrong with her! The Sympathizer sounds fascinating, thanks for bringing it to my attention!

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Biblio Baggins's avatar

The Women was the best book I read in 2024.

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Kolina Cicero's avatar

It is absolutely brilliant!

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The Literary Assistant's avatar

I wanted to get to the Christmas Cookie Wars, but alas, I don't think it's going to happen this year. Maybe next year. Thanks for sharing The Women.

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Kolina Cicero's avatar

OKAY you're coming on my journey with me of realizing I don't get notifications for comments on my posts (????), which I need to change because I like to respond to everything. Christmas Cookie Wars will be waiting for you next Christmas! Along with loads of new releases we'll be drooling over, too 🥹🥹🥹

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Alison Freeborn's avatar

I loved The Women too. I just wish there was another character so not all trauma and tragedies happened to Frankie. Definitely glad to have a book about women in Vietnam.

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Kolina Cicero's avatar

Alison -- that's such a smart comment and I hadn't thought of that. But yeah, why DID it all have to happen to Frankie?! (Frankie is my daughter's name 🥹).

Apologies for the EXTREMELY late reply, I'm just seeing this today! And you've opened my mind up about having multiple points of view. Thank you!

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Alison Freeborn's avatar

No worries. I’m still learning how to interact on Substack. Frankie’s a great name btw.

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Izzy | The Sunday Reads's avatar

Thanks for the mention! This book was an absolute masterpiece. My favorite of hers for a long time was the nightingale - my first introduction. But the women? The writing is just amazing, pacing incredible, and you can tell the effort put into this one.

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Kolina Cicero's avatar

Yes, same for me! The Nightingale is incredible (and incredibly sad) but this one is more somehow. I can’t even fathom how much work went into it.

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Peggy Isaac's avatar

I started to read The Women but couldn't continue. It hit too close to home. My husband was that corpsman bringing the wounded to triage from the helicopter. My husband was in those most dangerous areas during Frankie's deployment.My husband saw things and did things no-one should ever have to see or do. My husband was the angry, self medicating alcoholic I lived with and cared for for fifty years. My husband was a hero and so was I.

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Kolina Cicero's avatar

Ooof. I can understand why you put the book down. Nobody can expect you to sit through ~15 hours of those memories. Thank you for sharing, Peggy ❤️‍🩹

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azia archer's avatar

“I put these together because they were similar (and similarly boring for anyone uninterested in novel structure).” 😂😂😂😂😂

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Kolina Cicero's avatar

Hahah they’d be so boring if you didn’t care

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Kuleigh Baker's avatar

I loved The Women and The Nightingale! I don't often read historical fiction but both books stuck with me.

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Kolina Cicero's avatar

They’re both wonderful. A high bar for other historical fiction titles!!

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Julie Gabrielli's avatar

Thanks for this recommendation. It's now top of my next-read list. Just finishing "Site Fidelity" -- it's wonderful.

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Kolina Cicero's avatar

I haven’t read that one! Thanks for putting it on my radar 🤓. If you read The Women, please let me know how it goes for you!

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nadia g's avatar

I read this book a couple months back and I still think about it🥲 It is truly phenomenal!

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Kolina Cicero's avatar

Isn’t it?? What a masterpiece.

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