Best Books Like The Women by Kristin Hannah

Book Summary

This coming-of-age story is about three different 18-year-old men growing up in 3 different time periods. 

William was 18 in 1967 when he went to Vietnam as a Marine. Vincent is 18 in 1979 when he meets William, working on a construction crew, and hears William’s stories of his wartime experience. 

The third young man is Vincent’s son, Beau, who has had an easier life than the first two men. He was 18 in 2015 when Vincent received William’s old Vietnam journal in the mail as a thank-you for listening to his stories years ago. It was written while he was a Marine and facing things that no one, much less a teenager, should have to encounter. 

The three stories are woven together in a beautiful way that many are calling a must-read for everyone, despite the grim nature of William’s combat experiences. 

Book Summary

As WWI rages in Europe, twenty-four-year-old Ruby Wagner, the jewel in a prominent Philadelphia family, prepares for her upcoming society wedding to a man her family chose for her.

When her beloved older brother is killed in combat, Ruby follows her heart and answers the Army Signal Corps’ call for women telephone operators to help overseas. She becomes one of the trailblazing “Hello Girls” deployed to war-torn France.

Book Summary

This suspenseful saga is set both during the war and in present-day Việt Nam. Trang and Quỳnh are sisters from a rural village, and like many in the region, their parents are struggling to survive. In 1969, the daughters take the desperate step of becoming “bar girls” in Sài Gòn, drinking, flirting (and more) with American GIs in return for money.

Trang becomes involved with a charming helicopter pilot named Dan. Decades later, we’ll see Dan return to Việt Nam with his wife in an attempt to heal from his PTSD and reckon with secrets from his past.

Also, in the present day, we’ll meet Phong as he tries to find his parents, a Black American soldier, and a Vietnamese woman. He was abandoned at an orphanage as a baby, and grew up being called names because he was a “child of the enemy”. He dreams of finding a way to America in hopes of a better life for his family.

Book Summary

This dual-timeline novel opens in 2019 at the funeral for BettyKay in a small town in Iowa. BettyKay’s daughters are shocked when Hollywood movie star Kitty Devereaux walks in and places something into their mother’s casket. Over the course of the weekend, BettyKay’s daughters discover a whole other side to their mother as Kitty shares stories of their lifelong friendship, which all began in 1967 at a St. Luke’s Nursing School in the fictional town of Greensboro, Iowa. 

BettyKay grew up on a farm in the Midwest and risked everything to attend nursing school against her parents’ wishes. Her assigned roommate, Kitty, came to Iowa to escape her past in Atlanta but already had her sights set on Hollywood. The two, having little in common, became unlikely friends. Another new student, Jenny, completed their trio. Jenny had aspirations of becoming a doctor, but she knew that the combination of being a woman and being Black meant that the odds were stacked against her in the late 60s. 

The bond these three women formed at their Iowa nursing school would carry them through the years as their lives led them in different directions – from the jungles of Vietnam to the movie sets of Hollywood.

Book Summary

In 1963 Saigon, Vietnam, two American women become unlikely friends. Tricia is a newlywed, whose husband is an oil engineer who has been loaned to US Navy Intelligence. Charlene is a mother of three and an experienced corporate wife.

When Tricia has a miscarriage, Charlene recruits her into her groups of well-dressed American wives as a distraction. Together, they pass out toys and candy to hospitals, orphanages, and even a leper colony on the coast.

Six decades later, Charlene’s daughter, Rainey, reconnects with Tricia and the two relive their shared experience in Saigon.

Book Summary

This novel by debut author Ash Davidson transports you back to 1977 in the Northern California logging town of Klamath, just an hour north of Davidson’s hometown of Arcata.

Rich Gunderson comes from a long line of loggers. For generations, his family has made their living off of the Redwood trees, but now his way of life is threatened as the National Park Service is expanding to protect tens of thousands of acres of trees. Additionally, environmentalists are protesting the logging operations on the remaining private lands, raising concerns about water contamination. In an effort to secure his family’s future, Rich secretly spends their savings on a grove of ancient Redwoods that he hopes to harvest.

Rich’s wife, Colleen, is an amateur midwife who hopes for a second child of her own. She has suffered a long string of miscarriages and has begun to see a disturbing number of birth defects and fetal deaths throughout her small community. She begins to suspect that the herbicides used by the logging company that employs her husband might be to blame.

Book Summary

In this story of love and loss, Emma married her high school sweetheart, Jesse. The two are building a life of adventure together on the West Coast, far from the expectations of their families back east. But on their first wedding anniversary, Jesse’s helicopter crashes over the Pacific Ocean and he is assumed dead. 

Just like that, the book closes on the fairy tale life that Emma thought would be her happily ever after. She moves back home to Massachusettes to rebuild her life. Years later, now in her thirties, Emma finally found love again after reuniting with an old friend, Sam. But when Jesse is found alive after more than four years, Emma will be forced to choose between her husband and her fiance.

Book Summary

This emotional and beautifully written saga follows generations of a family impacted by war and political strife. The story starts in the 1920s when Trần Diệu Lan is born. As Communism rose in northern Vietnam, she was forced to flee her home with her six children and persevere through almost unbearable strife.

You’ll also follow the story of her granddaughter, Hà Noi, who is coming of age during the Vietnam War as her parents and uncles head to fight. Her grandmother tells her stories of the family history as they hope for the men to return home safely.

Book Summary

When General John Pershing arrived in France to establish American forces in Europe, he quickly identified the lack of communication with soldiers in the field as a significant barrier to success. Although women were not allowed to enlist at the time, the Army Signal Corps needed to recruit experienced telephone operators.

More than 7600 women responded to the call, like Grace, a Barnard grad, Marie, the French aspiring opera singer, and Valerie, the young telephone operator from LA hoping to do her part. When the women arrived, they could connect a call in ten seconds compared to the sixty seconds it took the men they replaced.

The job was dangerous and included time near the front lines. This historical fiction novel shows the essential role the brave women of the US Army Signal Corps played in WW1.

Book Summary

In the late 60s and 70s, being a flight attendant was one of the most exciting and envied jobs for young women. This was especially true for the glamorous Pan Am World Airways. However, competition for the positions was fierce, with new hires facing strict physical and educational requirements. For example, you had to speak at least two languages and be under 5’9” and 140 lbs.

This non-fiction book tells the story of several stewardesses while weaving in the history of the company and the world. Among the tales, you’ll learn what it was like for Hazel Bowie, one of the few black stewardesses. The book also covers Operation Babylift, the dramatic evacuation of over 2000 children during the fall of Saigon in 1975.

Book Summary

This scary classic will make you wonder what is really happening at many points along the way. When Rosemary and Guy move to a NYC apartment with a dark history, they aren’t worried. Guy’s acting career is picking up and Rosemary is pregnant. Life is going well. But then Rosemary begins falling ill. Strange events begin happening, and it becomes clear that something is very wrong.

Book Summary

In an era when women were expected to become housewives, three best friends instead struggled to make their mark in NYC as they climbed their way to the top of the entertainment industry.

But once there, they discover there is no place to go but down – into the Valley of the Dolls.

Book Summary

This 1970 classic novella is about a seagull who just doesn’t fit in with the others. He’s bored with the status quo of fighting over food with other seagulls. Instead, he wants to learn new things and fly high. While he starts as an outcast, he finds other friends and learns to be true to himself.