{"product_id":"9780063307957","title":"No Better Time: A Novel of the Spirited Women of the Six Triple Eight Central Postal Directory Battalion","description":"Author: Sheila Williams\u003cbr\u003eISBN: 9780063307957\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: HarperCollins Publishers\u003cbr\u003eYear first published: 13 Aug 2025\u003cbr\u003ePages: 240 \u003cbr\u003eFormat: Paperback \/ softback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Just the novel to elevate these unforgettable voices.”—\u003cem\u003eShelf Awareness\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe acclaimed author of \u003cem\u003eThe Secret Women \u003c\/em\u003eand \u003cem\u003eThings Past Telling\u003c\/em\u003e returns with an engrossing historical novel about a little known aspect of World War II—the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, the only Black WACs to serve overseas during the conflict. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Dorothy Thom, Spelman graduate, librarian and Francophile, joins the Women’s Army Corps wanting to do her part for the war effort. Longing for adventure, she has one question for the recruiter: “Do you think I’ll get to go abroad”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAs Dorothy and her sister WACs discover, life in the Army is an adventure filled with unexpected deprivations and culture shock. Women from all levels of society, secretaries, teachers, and sharecroppers, work together to navigate a military segregated by race and gender. At boot camp, the “colored girls” are separated for processing. At Ft. Riley, the women’s barracks are rustic and heated by coal-burning pot-bellied stoves while German POWs spend their incarceration in buildings with central heat and hot water.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn early 1945, Dorothy and eight hundred African American WACs cross the turbulent North Atlantic to their post in England. Their orders are to process the mail sent to GIs from their loved ones back home, an estimated 17 million pieces. The women arrive to find mail stockpiled for over two years in warehouses and airplane hangars, many pieces in poor condition, the names illegible. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn England and France, the WACs traverse a landscape of unimagined possibilities. With their outlooks changed forever, they return to the United States as the catalysts for change in America and build lives that transcend anything their ancestors ever dreamed of.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e No Better Time\u003c\/em\u003e illuminates a love of country and duty that has been overlooked until now.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Ships in 10 to 15 days","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46544542466206,"sku":"HPC-9780063307957","price":36.78,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0400\/9043\/5742\/files\/9780063307957.jpg?v=1771649149","url":"https:\/\/classicbargains.com.au\/products\/9780063307957","provider":"Classic Bargains Australia","version":"1.0","type":"link"}