In February, the Village Literary Club will read You Don’t Belong Here: How Three Women Rewrote the Story of War by Elizabeth Becker (2021, 323 pp). The Literary Club will follow our reading and discussion of CRISPR and Nobel Prize winner Jennifer Doudna, with another book that highlights the contributions of outstanding women. Becker’s book tells the story of three female journalists who were the first female reporters in Vietnam: Kate Webb, Frances (Frankie) Fitzgerald, and Catherine Leroy. They were very different from each other, and they had different experiences in Vietnam. What they shared was youth, courage, a thirst for adventure, and a desire to tell the truth about the war.

Author Elizabeth Becker was also a war correspondent (and now lives on Capitol Hill). The Washington Post reviewer notes that this book, which describes the incredible risks these women took, often “reads like a thriller,” but also provides “cultural and historical insight into the conflict.”