What is it about the Vietnam War?

Just finished another book centered on the Vietnam War. Totally dug the female author's perspective. She was an Army nurse in Vietnam for one year, and does a heck of a job remembering the entire time.

Would I recommend this book? Sure, but I'm trying to think about what it has to offer the thirty-something housewife of 2010. Especially considering most of my friends aren't necessarily history or war buffs. (If you are one of those things, this book is a must-read.)

This book provides a clear look outside my life as a homemaker and a parent and spouse and even a believer in the gospel. I think it's good and healthy to try to appreciate a diversity of people, experiences, and perspectives. Not to try to escape my circumstances (not at all), but to step outside of them for even the couple days it takes to read and become absorbed in a book. Maybe all I'm really saying is that I like a good story.

Home Before Morning is a good story. And a true one, written by Lynda Van Devanter. I loved getting to hear details (even some gory ones) of this woman's whole experience there. As a writer and an analyzer and a self-proclaimed therapist - I would have RELISHED getting to witness the process this woman went through to recall all this stuff and get it onto paper.

Plenty of books have brought me to tears, but this one did it over and over again. And I wondered, considering the many attitudes our society has toward the Vietnam War, and considering all the hopelessness I was reading from page to page, how it would all turn out for Ms. Van Devanter. The ending was completely inspiring. And I'll leave it at that. If you read it, you don't want me to ruin it. And if you don't, you're probably content to hear it ends well. At least this particular Vietnam story.