Critics' Circle Book Group

Two women, a Red Cross truck, and the Battle of the Bulge. September's selection is Good Night, Irene by Luis Alberto Urrea, in which Irene Woodward leaves an abusive fiance in New York in 1943, enlists with the Red Cross, and ships out to Europe. In training she meets Dorothy Dunford, a towering Midwesterner with a ferocious wit, and the two join an elite group of women nicknamed the Donut Dollies who drove military buses called Clubmobiles to the front line, delivering camaraderie and a taste of home to troops about to go into battle.

After D-Day the pair follow the Allied advance into France, through the Battle of the Bulge and the liberation of Buchenwald. Urrea drew on his own mother's Red Cross service to write it, and the result is a piece of women's heroism in the Second World War that most readers have never encountered.

How it works. Critics' Circle meets in person on the second Tuesday of the month, every month except December, at 6:30 pm in the Randolph Board Room. Discussions are led by Margaret Eustace and cover both new and classic titles. New readers are always welcome, and many of the selections can be downloaded through the Library. Registration is required.