When We Had Wings

Posted on October 30, 2023October 30, 2023

When We Had Wings is inspired by the real-life “Angels of Bataan and Corregidor.” Seventy-seven American military nurses taken prisoner in the Philippines, provided lifesaving care to the civilian POWs in the Santo Tomas and Los Banos Internment Camps where they were held from 1942 to 1945. The book is a collaboration between historical fiction heavyweights Ariel Lawhon, Kristina McMorris, and Susan Meissner. The story unfolds through the perspectives of Eleanor Lindstrom, who leaves her Minnesota dairy farm for the U.S. Navy Nurse Corps, Penny Franklin, an army nurse escaping personal troubles in Texas, and Lita Capel, who has a Filipina mother and American father and works as a nurse […]

September 2022 Picks and Pans

Posted on November 28, 2022February 6, 2023

No five-star reads this month, but The Happiest Man on Earth was definitely life-changing. I gave one novel a 2-star rating, which is rare for me. I read two books set in the Philippines, which is totally random. I’ll be curious to hear what you have to say. Circle back to Facebook and let me know! The Happiest Man on Earth By Eddie Jaku “Life can be beautiful if you make it beautiful. It is up to you.” Eddie Jaku, The Happiest Man on Earth. In this uplifting memoir in the vein of The Last Lecture and Man’s Search for Meaning, a Holocaust survivor pays tribute to those who […]

Angels of the Pacific Review

Posted on November 1, 2022November 1, 2022

I knew little about what took place in the Philippines during World War II—most of the books I’ve read about that era were set in the European theatre—so Angels of the Pacific was enlightening. Elise Hooper’s historical novel was inspired by the true stories of US Army nurses and the contributions of Filipinas of the resistance. Nurse Tess Abbott is posted in Manila and enjoys life in a tropical paradise near sandy beaches and exciting nightclubs and restaurants. But when the Japanese Imperial Army invades the island nation, the nurses escape to Bataan where they live in the squalor of a battlefield hospital. On April 9, 1942, the American forces […]