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Empty Nesters Book Club | Good Night, Irene

When
Thursday, August 13, 2026
7:00 PM
Location
Diane Januska's Home - 1111 Birch Lane. Western Springs
Spaces left
7

Registration

Event Fee

This book club is open to all Empty Nesters who enjoy reading and sharing their thoughts on a variety of genres. We are looking forward to having an engaging and lively discussion about this month's selection!

August Selection:

Title: Good Night Irene

Author: Luis Alberto Urrea

Book Description: Fiction - 336 pages

This New York Times bestselling novel tells an exhilarating World War II epic that chronicles an extraordinary young woman’s heroic frontline service in the Red Cross.

“Urrea’s touch is sure, his exuberance carries you through ... He is a generous writer, not just in his approach to his craft but in the broader sense of what he feels necessary to capture about life itself.” —Financial Times

In 1943, Irene Woodward abandons an abusive fiancé in New York to enlist with the Red Cross and head to Europe. She makes fast friends in training with Dorothy Dunford, a towering Midwesterner with a ferocious wit. Together they are part of an elite group of women, nicknamed Donut Dollies, who command military vehicles called Clubmobiles at the front line, providing camaraderie and a taste of home that may be the only solace before troops head into battle.

After D-Day, these two intrepid friends join the Allied soldiers streaming into France. Their time in Europe will see them embroiled in danger, from the Battle of the Bulge to the liberation of Buchenwald. Through her friendship with Dorothy, and a love affair with a courageous American fighter pilot named Hans, Irene learns to trust again. Her most fervent hope, which becomes more precarious by the day, is for all three of them to survive the war intact.

Taking as inspiration his mother’s own Red Cross service, Luis Alberto Urrea has delivered an overlooked story of women’s heroism in World War II. With its affecting and uplifting portrait of friendship and valor in harrowing circumstances, Good Night, Irene powerfully demonstrates yet again that Urrea’s “gifts as a storyteller are prodigious” (NPR).

Registration: Space is limited to 15 registrants, with a waitlist enabled. If you are certain you can attend, please be sure to register early so that we can accommodate as many interested members as possible. If your plans change, kindly let us know (as far in advance as possible) so that someone else can take your spot.