If you liked Unbroken,
You'll love PURE GRIT
You'll love PURE GRIT
|
Buy now! 'Pure Grit': An informative, harrowing tale of nurses' survival as Japanese prisoners Mary Cronk Farrell’s informative, sometimes upsetting book follows a group of U.S. military nurses who had been stationed, quite happily, in the Philippines before Pearl Harbor. “I had no idea there was going to be a war,” one later lamented. “That’s how naive I was.” How American WWII Nurses Survived Battle & POW Camp in the Pacific |
Publishers Weekly
"Grit" scarcely describes what the heroines of this stark chronicle of wartime military service demonstrated. Farrell (Fire in the Hole!) lays bare the experiences of Army and Navy nurses who enlisted for peacetime duty in the Philippines, caring for military families at base hospitals. Their jobs and lives drastically changed when the Japanese invaded the country after attacking Pearl Harbor, thrusting the nurses into...
"Grit" scarcely describes what the heroines of this stark chronicle of wartime military service demonstrated. Farrell (Fire in the Hole!) lays bare the experiences of Army and Navy nurses who enlisted for peacetime duty in the Philippines, caring for military families at base hospitals. Their jobs and lives drastically changed when the Japanese invaded the country after attacking Pearl Harbor, thrusting the nurses into...
Kirkus Reviews: "A fine purchase for young-adult--and adult--World War II collections that illuminates a previously unexplored aspect of the war." Read more...
Booklist Starred Review
February 15, 2014
"Well-chosen quotes from interviews, personal accounts, and articles bring their voices into the story, while the many period photos offer intriguing glimpses of the war, the camps, and the women’s later lives. At times the narrative is nearly overwhelmed by the sheer number of experiences recorded and women profiled. But in the end, the details of many nurses’ individual trials combine to form a memorable portrayal of their shared experience, one which will emotionally impact readers." — Carolyn Phelan
February 15, 2014
"Well-chosen quotes from interviews, personal accounts, and articles bring their voices into the story, while the many period photos offer intriguing glimpses of the war, the camps, and the women’s later lives. At times the narrative is nearly overwhelmed by the sheer number of experiences recorded and women profiled. But in the end, the details of many nurses’ individual trials combine to form a memorable portrayal of their shared experience, one which will emotionally impact readers." — Carolyn Phelan
| booklist_review.pdf |
The Horn Book Magazine
March/April 2014
There are many books written about young people enlisting in the military, being unprepared for the horrors of battle or tortures of capture, serving bravely, and coming home.
But women? In direct fire? In POW camps? During World War II? Not so many, a void Farrell admirably fills with this account of the more than one hundred army and navy nurses who served in the Philippines during the bombing and evacuation of Manila, the Battle of Bataan...Read more
March/April 2014
There are many books written about young people enlisting in the military, being unprepared for the horrors of battle or tortures of capture, serving bravely, and coming home.
But women? In direct fire? In POW camps? During World War II? Not so many, a void Farrell admirably fills with this account of the more than one hundred army and navy nurses who served in the Philippines during the bombing and evacuation of Manila, the Battle of Bataan...Read more
The Association of Children’s Librarians of Northern California
has named Pure Grit a 2014 Distinguished Book. Books are chosen for this list to recognize their outstanding literary merit, high quality of illustration and design, and contribution to a child’s understanding of the world. For the full list of 2014 Distinguished Books, click here...
has named Pure Grit a 2014 Distinguished Book. Books are chosen for this list to recognize their outstanding literary merit, high quality of illustration and design, and contribution to a child’s understanding of the world. For the full list of 2014 Distinguished Books, click here...
WGN-TV Midday Fix
Chicago, Ill January 22, 2014
Steve Sanders interviews me about how the food supplies dwindled in the POW camp until the nurses were receiving only 500 calories a day. So weakened by starvation they hardly had the strength to climb a stair step, the women continued nursing others in the camp hospital. Click here to see PURE GRIT on WGN-TV Midday Fix.
Chicago, Ill January 22, 2014
Steve Sanders interviews me about how the food supplies dwindled in the POW camp until the nurses were receiving only 500 calories a day. So weakened by starvation they hardly had the strength to climb a stair step, the women continued nursing others in the camp hospital. Click here to see PURE GRIT on WGN-TV Midday Fix.
KGO 810 News/Information
San Francisco, CA, January 19, 2014
The Pat Thurston Show
Click here to listen to Pat's interview with me covering the nurses before the war, their experiences in POW camp and betrayal when they came home to the United States.
San Francisco, CA, January 19, 2014
The Pat Thurston Show
Click here to listen to Pat's interview with me covering the nurses before the war, their experiences in POW camp and betrayal when they came home to the United States.
Through the Eyes of Women Radio on KHSU FM
Women's Views, Women's Issues, Women's Lives
Author Mary Cronk Farrell has once again given her readers a long, historic and passion filled chronology of a distinct American event. Mary tells the story of 80 women who served in the Army and Navy Nurse Corps and were prisoners of war once Pearl Harbor was bombed. Their capture, survival and ultimately recognition from a grateful country defy imagination. Pure Grit honors these courageous women with compelling tales of their strength, compassion, kindness and unbelievable spirit. Read more...
Listen now...
Women's Views, Women's Issues, Women's Lives
Author Mary Cronk Farrell has once again given her readers a long, historic and passion filled chronology of a distinct American event. Mary tells the story of 80 women who served in the Army and Navy Nurse Corps and were prisoners of war once Pearl Harbor was bombed. Their capture, survival and ultimately recognition from a grateful country defy imagination. Pure Grit honors these courageous women with compelling tales of their strength, compassion, kindness and unbelievable spirit. Read more...
Listen now...
Stella Bain and Pure Grit
by Major Van Harl USAF Ret.
I read two books this weekend, one Stella Bain, fiction by Anita Shreve and Pure Grit, non-fiction by Mary Cronk Farrell. Both books dealt with the same subject: women and war. One book had the objective to entertain the reader and the other to tell the true stories of women and combat. Both books were about women who go to war as healers and caregivers—nurses. Read More...
by Major Van Harl USAF Ret.
I read two books this weekend, one Stella Bain, fiction by Anita Shreve and Pure Grit, non-fiction by Mary Cronk Farrell. Both books dealt with the same subject: women and war. One book had the objective to entertain the reader and the other to tell the true stories of women and combat. Both books were about women who go to war as healers and caregivers—nurses. Read More...
Hearts in the Darkness
By Leah Sottile
Inlander, Spokane, WA
March 5, 2014
In her new book, local author Mary Cronk Farrell writes of the unsung female heroes of World War II....As she entrenched herself in research, Farrell heard story after story that horrified her — tales of bombings and mass carnage, of violence and steadfast courage. She found out that even as bombs were falling around them and bullets were flying past, these World War II nurses never wavered from their compassion. Farrell was floored by a photo she found in her research of a young Japanese soldier receiving care from American nurses.
"They were in the middle of combat. ... They didn't have guns and they were nursing the enemy," she says. "I'm not saying they loved it. They didn't. They did not. It was hard for them — but they did it because that's who they were. Read more...
By Leah Sottile
Inlander, Spokane, WA
March 5, 2014
In her new book, local author Mary Cronk Farrell writes of the unsung female heroes of World War II....As she entrenched herself in research, Farrell heard story after story that horrified her — tales of bombings and mass carnage, of violence and steadfast courage. She found out that even as bombs were falling around them and bullets were flying past, these World War II nurses never wavered from their compassion. Farrell was floored by a photo she found in her research of a young Japanese soldier receiving care from American nurses.
"They were in the middle of combat. ... They didn't have guns and they were nursing the enemy," she says. "I'm not saying they loved it. They didn't. They did not. It was hard for them — but they did it because that's who they were. Read more...
PURE GRIT: HOW AMERICAN WORLD WAR II NURSES SURVIVED BATTLE AND PRISON CAMP IN THE PACIFIC http://t.co/ESndiMPJ1I
— alscblog (@alscblog) February 25, 2014New Review: Pure Grit by Mary Cronk Farrell http://t.co/Qtqhizd035 True story - How American nurses survived as POWs in #WWII #YA
— Alex Baugh (@thechildrenswar) January 13, 2014Review of "Pure Grit: How American #WWII Nurses Survived Battle and #Prison Camp in the Pacific" - http://t.co/kD6c5KXefm
— Truthout (@truthout) February 9, 2014Right Here Book Reviews
"I fell in love with the women featured in this book. I fell in love with their strength, determination, and willpower.
I fell in love with their grit.
I fell in love with this book." Read more...
"I fell in love with the women featured in this book. I fell in love with their strength, determination, and willpower.
I fell in love with their grit.
I fell in love with this book." Read more...
Social Cafe Magazine
"Definitely a must read not only because we are in the Year of Military Women, or because the Women’s History Month is approaching, but because this book is educational and an excellent read for readers of all ages."
"Definitely a must read not only because we are in the Year of Military Women, or because the Women’s History Month is approaching, but because this book is educational and an excellent read for readers of all ages."
1st Lieutenant Ethel Thor, 1945
The News Tribune
Tacoma, WA December 6, 2013
Bataan Peninsula captivity of ‘angel’ from Tacoma among stories featured in book
by adam.ashton@thenewstribune.com
Ethel Thor did not talk much about the three years she spent in captivity as an Army nurse in World War II, nor of the Japanese attack that started it all 72 years ago this weekend.
She’d say the men captured on the Philippines’ Bataan Peninsula suffered far more than she and the nearly 80 other female American military nurses who were taken prisoner in the war’s early days. She felt there was little more to say.
“We didn’t grow up around that,” said her daughter, Carla Kingsbury of Gig Harbor. “And even when we were adults, my mom just did not talk about it.”
Now, 11 years after Thor’s death, the stoic Tacoma woman’s days in captivity are coming back in focus through a Spokane author’s effort to share the stories of the so-called “Angels of Bataan and Corregidor.” Click to read more:
Tacoma, WA December 6, 2013
Bataan Peninsula captivity of ‘angel’ from Tacoma among stories featured in book
by adam.ashton@thenewstribune.com
Ethel Thor did not talk much about the three years she spent in captivity as an Army nurse in World War II, nor of the Japanese attack that started it all 72 years ago this weekend.
She’d say the men captured on the Philippines’ Bataan Peninsula suffered far more than she and the nearly 80 other female American military nurses who were taken prisoner in the war’s early days. She felt there was little more to say.
“We didn’t grow up around that,” said her daughter, Carla Kingsbury of Gig Harbor. “And even when we were adults, my mom just did not talk about it.”
Now, 11 years after Thor’s death, the stoic Tacoma woman’s days in captivity are coming back in focus through a Spokane author’s effort to share the stories of the so-called “Angels of Bataan and Corregidor.” Click to read more:
December 7, 1941
THE PACIFIC WAR
FROM PEARL HARBOR TO GUADALCANAL
Text and Web-site by James Bowen.
Convener, Pacific War Historical Society
The USS Arizona (BB-39) burning after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor - NARA 195617
Although General Douglas MacArthur was informed of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor nine hours before Japanese bombers struck at the Philippines, the commander of the United States Army and Air forces in the Philippines was paralyzed by indecision and ...read more