How can you beat it? Three of the great classics of World War II in one volume!

Tales of the South Pacific, by James Michener, was a Pulitzer prize winning novel by one of the greatest authors of the twentieth century. Renowned for his detailed research, and for his storytelling ability, Michener has been described with every superlative in the book. This story may be his finest, and served as the basis for the Broadway musical and the movie, "South Pacific." The setting is a tropical paradise; windswept coral isles and the nurses, soldiers and sailors caught up by the war, and the inevitable romances that resulted.

Mr. Roberts, by Thomas Heggen, is the story of a much-loved navy lieutenant juxtaposed against the rigid, incompetent captain of a navy cargo vessel, the "Reluctant," whose duties take her from boredom to tedium and back again with little relief for the crew. The story is anything but boring, however, and the characters are unforgettable. In the movie version, Henry Fonda portrayed the herois Mr. Roberts movingly. The story mixes poignancy with satire, and is both hugely funny and profoundly tragic.

Battle Cry, by Leon Uris (another giant of literature), depicts life in the United States Marine Corps as it was during the great Pacific War. The story takes you from boot training to the foxholes with the fighting Marine Corps, who probably suffered more than any other branch of service in the Pacific in the early to middle 'forties. Faith, hope, and desire are all epitomized in this story, often described as the greatest novel ever written about the Marines.

Anyone interested in those days of Pacific conflict should have this book, unless they already have these three great stories in another form.

Joseph H. Pierre

All of the photos capture the essence of the woman, as Cokie Roberts remarks in the Preface: "Look into the eyes of the subjects of these photographs and you see the triumphs, failures, hopes, and disappointments of some of the truly talented women of our time."

The album is a diverse collection of unique women, from Helen Keller to Dorothy Parker to Gertrude Stein to Gypsy Rose Lee to Shirley Temple to Ella Fitzgerald.

We learn that upon Grandma Moses's first visit to New York City she "told reporters, 'It's nice to be here, but the city doesn't appeal to me.' 'As picture material?' someone asked. 'As any material,' she answered."

And, we discover that Joan Baez remembers singing the civil rights movement's anthem "We Shall Overcome" at the Lincoln Memorial, by saying, "...one of the medals which hangs over my heart I awarded to myself for having been asked to sing that day."

The revelatory photos and essays found in "Women Of Our Time" are a tribute to women, to our age, and to humankind.

- Gail Cooke