'The Women' by Kristin Hannah and 'I heard There Was a Secret Chord' by Daniel J. Levitin

The Women, Kristin Hannah (4.0)

This was a very poignant book of a young woman who signs up to serve as a nurse during the Viet Nam War. She naively follows her brother, an Annapolis graduate, thinking that she could be of help, and not be in harm’s way. Her experiences during war, in the first half of the book, are riveting and horrible. Her experiences once she returns to the US are sad and disappointing. Ms. Hannah does a great job highlighting the struggles of the unsung heroes (women, mostly nurses) of that war. I was appalled the number of times people, even vets, would say ‘there were no women in the war’. Since the author did extensive research and interviews, I can only assume this was a frequent event for these courageous women. If even a small portion of the events described happened, these nurses definitely survived ‘combat’. This book is a nice tribute to them.

 

I heard There Was a Secret Chord: Music as Medicine, Daniel J. Levitin (3.0)

I wanted to like this book and found various interesting passages, but similar to his last book, I felt it rambled on and lost my interest. Maybe due to the fact that the author often went deep into the woods on such things as how to read sheet music (I can’t imagine anyone picking up this book who wouldn’t know the basics of how notes are on a staff and read left to right) and how our ears detect sounds. The passages that described how music helped people heal (such as Joni Mitchell) or how music appears to affect those with various neurological differences were interesting. I’m not sure who would be the target audience for this book, but it wasn’t me.