Jan-March 2023 - WWI (1914-1918)

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Jan-March 2023 - WWI (1914-1918)

1majkia
Modificato: Gen 13, 2023, 4:16 pm



June 1914 - Archduke Ferdinand assassinated
Jul 30, 1914 - Russia Mobilizes
Aug 4, 1914 -World War I Begins -Germany invades Belgium.
Apr 22, 1915 - Germans Fire on Allied lines
May 1915 - Lusitania sinks
1916 - Easter Rising in Ireland
1917 - Russian Revolution
1918 - Influenza pandemic - 500 million people or one-third of the world’s population became infected

Don't forget to update the wiki with your reading: https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/Reading_Through_Time_Quarterly_Theme_Rea...

2CurrerBell
Dic 3, 2022, 7:01 pm

I'm planning on doing Solzhenitsyn's August 1914.
"The first of a series of interlinked novels whose grand theme is the birth of modern Russia, this book describes the advance by the Russian army into East Prussia at the outbreak of World War I, and its virtual annihilation at the hands of the Germans." (Book description from the book's LT Work page)
This one should also qualify for the Big Fat Book challenge.

3MissBrangwen
Dic 4, 2022, 5:24 am

I plan to read In Distant Fields by Charlotte Bingham which has been on my shelf for nearly seven years. It is a perfect fit for January because of this topic and because "I" is one of the letters for AlphaKIT in the Category Challenge.

4Tanya-dogearedcopy
Modificato: Dic 10, 2022, 4:02 pm

For my non-fiction read, I’m starting with The Zimmermann Telegram (by Barbara Tuchman; narrated by Wanda McCaddon) - In 1917, US President Woodrow Wilson was determined to keep America out of the Great War; but the Germans hoped to have USA’s attention and resources diverted to a war on the North American continent, specifically between the USA and Mexico. It all seems rather absurd and honestly, the intrigue and machinations read something like a comic farce writ large— especially when it backfires with an intercepted telegram! This is really interesting and expands the scope of the usual interest in WWI in Europe to Japan and Mexico.

For my historical fiction read, I’m starting The African Queen (by C. S. Forester) - It’s the opening weeks of WWI and the Germans have started reaping people and resources from their African colony, German East Africa (present day Tanzania). Left alone in a village after her brother’s death, 33-year old Rose Sayer latches onto Charlie Allnut, a launch Captain who provided food and equipment to the mission, and stakes out her own mission sending them down the Ulanga River.
I know very little about the African campaigns (TBH, I didn’t even know there was a GEA!)— so I’m doing quite a bit of Googling to catch up on some of the history here. It’s early days, but Germany started mobilizing on a more far ranging scale and speed than I had thought!

5CurrerBell
Dic 10, 2022, 12:57 am

>4 Tanya-dogearedcopy: Bogie's Oscar. When I was younger, I thought his greatest performance was Captain Queeg in The Caine Mutiny; but over the years Charlie Allnut has really grown on me, I think largely because of the perfect chemistry between Bogie and Hepburn.

I ought to read the book one of these lifetimes. My understanding is that the book doesn't have the same comic quality as the movie.

6Tess_W
Modificato: Dic 10, 2022, 10:27 pm

I have many from which to choose, many that others have also suggested: August 1914 by Solzhenitsyn, The Zimmerman Telegram by Tuchman, Back to the Front: An Accidental Historian Walks the Trenches of World War 1, Birds without Wings (Greece during WWI-hist fict), and Paris 1919: Six Months that Changed the World. The last is about the Treaty of Versailles which ended The Great War, but I think it's an apropos read. I also have Rebecca West's The Return of the Solider which is about shell shock. It's also on the 1001 list.

7kac522
Dic 10, 2022, 4:32 pm

>6 Tess_W: There's a lot packed into that little book The Return of the Soldier. Time for a re-read.

8cindydavid4
Dic 10, 2022, 4:46 pm

>6 Tess_W: Back to the Front: An Accidental Historian Walks the Trenches of World War I is a book Id like to read for this theme. I love when writers 'follow in the footsteps'of events, and this looks like I should read it

birds without wings is outstanding. Took me three trys for it ti finally take, but I was hooked through the end (along with WWI the story is about a small village of Christian Greeks and Anatolia muslimd who have lived together for centuries,and what happens when the Ottoman Empire breaks apart.) there are some slow parts but for me it was well worth slogging through them

9cindydavid4
Dic 10, 2022, 4:48 pm

Touchstone for return of the soldier is wrong. Here you go.

10cindydavid4
Dic 11, 2022, 8:02 pm

someone on another thread mentioned limbo. Ive read lots of Huxley but had no idea what this was. Found it on Project Gutenberg and have spent the last hour reading it. Part of the book takes place during the war, and Im hooked on these characters and their situation. this is perfect for this theme. Ill come back with a review when Im done

11cindydavid4
Modificato: Dic 11, 2022, 9:00 pm

Wow. Limbo (1920), is Aldous Huxley's first collection of short stories, and contains six short stories and a play. The first of these is The Farcical History of Richard Greenow, a novella about an Englishman writer who,in need of money,writes romance novels under a womans name. She becomes very popular. He writes for a newspaper and discovers that he has gaps in time that he doesnt remember. He becomes a conscientous objector. While the war plays a part in the story, its actually more than that. Cant say much more, but its really good!

12Tanya-dogearedcopy
Modificato: Dic 16, 2022, 4:59 am

I finished The African Queen (by C. S. Forester) and oh, wow! I loved it! It's adventure and romance and truth in fiction.... I have this old second-hand copy (1964 printing) that was worth 60 cents when new -- and market-wise, worth zero cents now (black marker on broken spine); but which I'm keeping my permanent stacks. Honestly, while I know I've seen the Classic film, this pretty much wiped out the memory of it altogether.

Over the weekend, I watched a movie that had been on my list for awhile, "Joyeux Noel"-- a French film about the Christmas Truce of 1914. That first Christmas on the frontlines in France, various parties from both Allied and German sides initiated a temporary cease fire during which they retrieved & buried their dead from No Man's Land, and fraternized to varying degree-- from singing Christmas carols to playing soccer matches to exchanging souvenirs & invitations to visit after the war. The movie used a German tenor and his girlfriend, a soprano--- as the device facilitating the truce. A bit absurd, IMO but what the heck do I know... My only major quibble with the film was at the end (not a spoiler, I promise!) was when a certain group of soldiers were loaded into a train marked, "Tannenburg"-- implying that they were to go fight there; But that battle had already been fought back in August-- so I'm not sure what they were doing there four months later. Overall, contrived, but harmless. From there, I dnloaded and listened to Christmas Eve, 1914 ( by Charles Oliver; performed by a full cast) Same premise, but instead of German opera singers, this one uses a young British officer with the voice of an angel. The story line was actually pretty good and the performances weren't lacking; but the overall writing failed to deliver an emotional arc-- so what should have been a moving, poignant story just left me with a "meh" reaction. Both the movie and audio drama were nominally interesting and add a little to WWI the collective knowledge of the time period; but have the odd patina of myth more over fact.

I've starting reading The House of Special Purpose (by John Boyne) -- a historical fiction which promises to be about Russia circa 1915-1917-- the fall of the Romanovs. Slightly out of frame of the WWI theme; but the time period matches up. I haven't decided on the non-fiction counterpart to this one yet, but I'm leaning towards Ten Days That Shook the World (by John Reed). He was the American journalist who reported on the Bolshevik Revolution (1917). After that, I might give the movie, "Reds" a re-watch (I last saw it when it was first released in 1981 and I'm pretty sure I didn't appreciate what was going on!)

13cindydavid4
Modificato: Dic 13, 2022, 3:11 pm

Never heard about that until I heard a version of the story. John McCutcheon in college; the title of his was Christmas in the trenches. Lots of controversy if it happened, but there were so many first hand accounts, that it probably did. Listen to the song if you get a chance,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTXhZ4uR6r

14DeltaQueen50
Dic 13, 2022, 2:51 pm

>12 Tanya-dogearedcopy: Glad that you enjoyed The African Queen, Tanya. I loved it when I read it a few years ago.

15Tess_W
Modificato: Dic 13, 2022, 4:17 pm

>13 cindydavid4: Historians have documentation of it happening; and it's even in textbooks. Also, there was a general command order that this was seen as fraternization with the enemy and should it happen again, whomever was involved would be court-martialed. I've seen a copy of this order and it referred to this incident.

16cindydavid4
Dic 13, 2022, 7:30 pm

>15 Tess_W: yeah ive heard that before as well. The controversy was in the 80s when I first heard about it

17EGBERTINA
Dic 14, 2022, 1:00 pm

>13 cindydavid4: it says your video isn't available

18Tanya-dogearedcopy
Dic 14, 2022, 3:15 pm

>17 EGBERTINA: I googled "John McCutcheon song about Christmas Truce" and found this: https://youtu.be/sJi41RWaTCs

19cindydavid4
Dic 14, 2022, 9:55 pm

>18 Tanya-dogearedcopy: thanks tanya, just going to post that!

20mnleona
Dic 15, 2022, 6:03 am

>12 Tanya-dogearedcopy: Somewhere on my book shelf I have a book about the filming of the African Queen.

21Tess_W
Modificato: Dic 15, 2022, 10:17 am

There are many superb Trench poets, also:
John McCrae--In Flanders Fields
Alan Seeger- I Have a Rendezvous With Death
Wilfred Owen
Siegfried Sassoon
Laurence Binyon-For the Fallen (the Queen used to cite this every Remembrance Day at the Cenotaph)

I'm not a poetry lover, but this trench poetry is very historically rich and poignant.

22Tanya-dogearedcopy
Dic 15, 2022, 3:33 pm

>15 Tess_W: >16 cindydavid4: I know that the Christmas Truce happened; but I can see why people question it. It has acquired a certain mythic quality over the years so that most accounts are now historical fiction rather than expository or even narrative non-fiction. So many fanciful things have been embroidered onto that day that's it's hard to pick out what's true and what's not unless you dig a little deeper into it.

23Tanya-dogearedcopy
Dic 16, 2022, 9:42 pm

24benitastrnad
Dic 18, 2022, 10:38 pm

>22 Tanya-dogearedcopy:
There is also the controversy about the soccer game played in No Man's Land as a part of the Christmas Truce. The British military tried to discount that the game ever happened, but there were too many letters home from soldiers who had participated in it that disputed the "official" "It Didn't Happen." There is a good children's version of the story by Michael Foreman. War Game that is based on letters from the author's uncle, who did not survive the war. Library of Congress classifies it as nonfiction.

>12 Tanya-dogearedcopy:
I own a copy of Joyeux Noel. It might be in VCR, but I should look. I thought it would make great Christmas movie watching for the family. Another good French movie about World War I is Very Long Engagement. Nothing in it about Christmas, but it is a great story and very good movie. I also have the book, with the same title, but haven't read it yet.

25Tanya-dogearedcopy
Dic 19, 2022, 12:48 am

>24 benitastrnad: I watched "A Very Long Engagement" many years ago when it was on the cable channel, IFC. I was absolutely riveted to it, though it took me a couple of viewings to understand everything that was going on! The fact that I was willing to sit through it for multiple viewings is a testament for my adoration of Audrey Tautou (of "Amélie" fame) and the cinematography. Interestingly, on one of my Powell's runs a couple years ago, I picked up the paperback and have been meaning to get to it. It's sitting here right next to Pierre Lemaitre's The Great Swindle-- a Prix Goncourt winning mystery a few years ago... I might get to either/both by the end of February/early March. We'll see! I may have stacked more for this quarter than I can reasonably expect to get through! :-)

Not really a Christmas movie, but one that was released on Christmas a couple years ago is "1917" -- the one-continuous shot film about two young soldiers tasked with delivered a message through the lines. And for a non-fiction option, there's Peter Jackson's documentary, "They Shall Not Grow Old" where he has restored the sound and color of war footage granted him by the British Museum (?)

I'm still in the October Revolution for the next couple of weeks, but then I plan on being back to WWI proper with the New Year :-)

26Tess_W
Modificato: Dic 25, 2022, 10:59 am

I'm a little early for my first WWI read, The Thirty-Nine Steps, which was published in 1915. This was one of the first mystery/spy/thrillers published. I can almost see this as a prototype for James Bond as there were several unbelievable escapes and blasts. However, all in all, the story was not bad and I'm not even a thriller/spy reader. I like the protagonist's mantra: "A fool tries to look different: a clever man looks the same and is different." A quick read in one setting. 115 pages 3.5 stars Hitchcock made a movie (1935) with the same name. Not sure it's related, but going to rent on Amazon ($2.99) in a few days and find out. This book is also on the 1001 book list.

This is 1/3 reads of WWI that I hope to complete in January.

27kac522
Dic 25, 2022, 12:10 am

>26 Tess_W: Hitchcock changed a lot, although if I remember correctly, he kept the chase in the Scotland setting. I enjoyed the book more and I don't normally read spy/thrillers.

28Tess_W
Dic 25, 2022, 11:00 am

>27 kac522: Hitch probably did change a lot. There was not a female at all in the book, but having read something about Hitchcock, I think I remember he always had a woman--usually a blonde, in each of his films!

29cindydavid4
Dic 25, 2022, 8:12 pm

>25 Tanya-dogearedcopy:
Not really a Christmas movie, but one that was released on Christmas a couple years ago is "1917" -- the one-continuous shot film about two young soldiers tasked with delivered a message through the lines. And for a non-fiction option, there's Peter Jackson's documentary, "They Shall Not Grow Old" where he has restored the sound and color of war footage granted him by the British Museum (?)

I saw 1917, but completely forgot about the peter jackson one, not sure why. Need to watch it for this theme for sure

30benitastrnad
Dic 25, 2022, 11:37 pm

>29 cindydavid4: & >25 Tanya-dogearedcopy:
What about the movie Galipoli. This is the one that starred Mel Gibson in one of his first dramatic movies.

31AnnieMod
Dic 27, 2022, 9:00 pm

That would be the perfect time for me to get back to BBC’s Home Front radio drama.

32Tanya-dogearedcopy
Dic 28, 2022, 8:13 pm

>30 benitastrnad: I recall seeing the movie, "Gallipoli" close to when it first came out (and loving it), but had totally forgotten about it since! I wonder if it will have held up after all this time...

I'm just at the point in G.J. Meyer's book, A World Undone, where they are talking about the Dardanelles and gearing up for the infamous battle on the peninsula.

33cindydavid4
Dic 28, 2022, 8:30 pm

Now reading back to the front the author is describing the start up of the war, and all sorts of idiocy that happened. At the town of Mons in Belgium a british sargent was ordered to put up 4 watch posts to warn the town of a german assault. he only put up three. Whe asked to explain, he said,well the germans wouldn't come through here, its private property' ay ay ay

34dianelouise100
Dic 30, 2022, 3:40 pm

Since I’d like to read at least one history of the war, but am not big on military strategy and battles, the books I find most interesting deal with the international situations that led up to and resulted in war. Should I just go back and enter anything I might read in the last quarterly thread?

35Tanya-dogearedcopy
Dic 31, 2022, 12:55 pm

>34 dianelouise100: I'm not the moderator of this group, so I have only this opinion to offer: While you could certainly sort & enter books rigorously by time period, you probably won't see much engagement as readers tend to focus on the current thread and, a little bit on the threads ahead as they are posted. That said, I can see making an argument for entering in book titles that have to do with the current topic even if they fall out of the time period strictly speaking (especially if you actually explain in your comments what the relationship is to the currect topic). I think it's pretty much up to your discretion; but I would really be interested to see others weigh in.

36CurrerBell
Dic 31, 2022, 1:28 pm

In addition to Solzhenitsyn's August 1914 (>5 CurrerBell:), I also picked up a nice used copy of Churchill's The World Crisis, abridged (single volume, paperback). I'll probably do whichever one I put my hands on first.

37dianelouise100
Dic 31, 2022, 4:04 pm

>35 Tanya-dogearedcopy: I’m considering either The Sleepwalkers by Christopher Clark or The War that ended Peace by Margaret MacMillan for nonfiction. Both books begin with events very early in the century, but the more I thought about it, and especially after your comment, the clearer it stood out that the point of both books is to lead us to a better understanding of what happened in the summer of 1914. I think either would best be discussed in our current strand, since the years of WW1 is its focus. Thanks for your thoughts!

38cindydavid4
Dic 31, 2022, 4:19 pm

I think that makes perfect sense to me!

39Tanya-dogearedcopy
Modificato: Gen 5, 2023, 1:11 am

I wrapped up A World Undone (by G. J. Meyer; narrated by Robin Sachs) this morning. A fairly comprehensive overview of WWI, it alternates chapters of events of the war with shorter sections that cover background material. It's non-fiction that moves at a steady clip over the four years of The Great War, covering all the fronts (the Western Front, the Balkans, Russia, Italy and even a little on the Middle East) and giving a clearer picture of how all the moving parts work together. The material that ends each chapter includes profiles of the key players in the field and in the government, families, and home front topics that further contextualize the decisions made for better and for worse in the first truly modern war. This is not a hagiographic account of the war, but a critical assessment of the people, the choices they made and the circumstances that led them to these inflection points.

I'm looking forward to The World Remade (narrated by Rob Shapiro) which is ostensibly is about the US involvement in the war; but also looks to be an absolute teardown of Woodrow Wilson. I may take a little break beforehand with some lighter fare--maybe Cher Ami and Major Whittlesey (by Kathleen Rooney) :-)

40Tess_W
Modificato: Gen 5, 2023, 7:52 pm

I read The Real Story of the 1914 Christmas Truce by David Ault. There really isn't much content here that I didn't already know. If you don't know anything about the truce, you might be interested. If you know anything at all, don't bother! Some good background info on The Black Hand/Francis Ferdinand. 92 pages

P.S. The only bone of contention presented by this author is that he does not think they played football, and there isn't any solid proof of that; at least in my research.

41Tanya-dogearedcopy
Gen 6, 2023, 4:26 pm

Just started The World Remade (by G. J. Meyer; narrated by Rob Shapiro) yesterday - Non-Fiction overview of the US participation in WWI-- much more cynical than A World Undone; but maybe it's the American narrator who sorta sounds like Bill Maher.

42Tanya-dogearedcopy
Modificato: Gen 8, 2023, 6:42 pm

I finally finished The House of Special Purpose (by John Boyne)! The story opens in 1981 in London and, in subsequent alternating chapters, the narrator, Georgy flashes back over his life and marriage to his wife, Zoya. The other chapters are the "heart" of the novel and take place in czarist Russia, 1915-1918 as Georgy heads into service at the Winter Palace. Where the two plot lines finally meet comes the denouement; but instead of an emotionally charged "Aha!" moment, the juncture has been enervated by early and clear foreshadowings. Robbed of tension, the story becomes less interesting, a mere catalogue of scenes until the reader's early suspicions have been confirmed. Descriptions of places are painterly; of people less so, though emotional profiles are finely tuned. Pales by comparison to the author's more recent work, The Heart's Invisible Furies; but if you manage your expectations, it's interesting enough in regards to a romanticized time and place.

43cindydavid4
Gen 10, 2023, 4:28 pm

I am sorry that I cannot finish back to the front I appreciate him taking the trail left by all the trenches and at first appreciated the stories of incompetence that led to so many lost livesl His writing is really excellent and its engaged me. He includea mentions of the books and poems of that time.. But his descriptions of battle and the horror these boys had to endure on top of the total incompetence...I knew but I didnt know. Im half done, and I wont be finishing; its all more of the same. Perhaps is you want more information of the battles you might be interested in reading it. Im giving it a 4* surprisingly because his writing engaged me and he was very upfront about his goal writing this book; We do need to remember what happened here, so many are forgetting. So I think he has acheivedh his goal

44Tanya-dogearedcopy
Modificato: Gen 10, 2023, 10:08 pm

The last time I was at Powell's bookstore, I was exploring the stacks and came across The Great War: July 1, 1916: The First Day of the Battle of the Somme: An Illustrated Panorama (by Joe Sacco with an essay by Adam Hochschild). When I got home, I unpacked and shelved it, finally ripping the plastic film from the protective slipcase a couple days ago! This is a little bit of a different entry for this category: It's not text per se, though there is an introduction by Joe Sacco and an essay by Adam Hochschild, but rather an example of how a picture is worth a thousand words. Sacco took a number of photographs from various archives and libraries and created a twenty-four panel panorama of the first day of the deadliest battle in history. This is not to scale and not comprehensive; but the level of detail is extraordinary. Black ink on cream paper depictions present the day opening with British Field Marshal Douglas Haig going to church, talking a walk and going on a (horse) ride.... And ends with bodies being buried on the battlefield. In the accompanying booklet, there is a guide pointing out about four dozen things to see and, if you stick with just that, you would be finished in a few minutes. But when you let your eye travel over the scenes in full, you notice the smaller things that bring this to life.

45Tess_W
Gen 11, 2023, 9:51 pm

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Remarque was a re-read for me. I read it about 30 years ago and was not enamored of it. However, this time, I can appreciate some of the beauty of the language. Still, I did not like the story line. The book centers on Paul Bäumer, a German soldier on the Western Front during World War I. I can see what the author was trying to do with the story progression. The young boys were led to sign up for the military by their school teacher. Many of the boys go to the front together. They are young and fresh and want to change the world. As the battles and trench warfare progresses, the author refers to the soldiers and "old and dead", although they are physically living. A poignant moment was when Paul said, "We are forlorn like children, and experienced like old men, we are crude and sorrowful and superficial—I believe we are lost.” Still not one of my favs, but I can appreciate it this time around. Off to FOL as I won't be reading again. 248 pages 3 stars

46Tess_W
Gen 11, 2023, 9:52 pm

P.S. The wiki takes us to future time periods?

47cindydavid4
Modificato: Gen 11, 2023, 10:21 pm

>44 Tanya-dogearedcopy: O'Shea listed that for further reading. A few others

the first world war the complete history (the author was also Churchills biographer, and my cousins husband fwiw)

the lost voices of world war :An international anthology of writers, poets and playwrights

the roses of no man land

48Tanya-dogearedcopy
Gen 12, 2023, 1:21 am

>47 cindydavid4: Is O'Shea the author who wrote Back to the Front?

I'll WL the other titles for the next time this prompt comes around. I seemed to have already stacked waaaay too many titles for this quarter!

>45 Tess_W: I have All Quiet on the Western Front stacked here, along with Ernst Jünger's Storm of Steel; but I probably won't get to them until next month. I'm also planning on watching both the 1930 & the 2022 versions of "All Quiet"... We'll see how far I get in my admittedly over-ambitious reading plans!

49cindydavid4
Gen 12, 2023, 8:00 am

>48 Tanya-dogearedcopy: yes, sorry I didnt specify!

50Tanya-dogearedcopy
Gen 12, 2023, 10:54 am

>49 cindydavid4: That's OK! I figured as much from looking at the sidebar where the titles and authors are listed; but I wanted to make sure jic I missed a conversation/post somewhere! :-)

51cindydavid4
Gen 12, 2023, 4:59 pm

>50 Tanya-dogearedcopy: :) there are more listed but several are books already on our lists. I posted more little known ones

52Tess_W
Gen 12, 2023, 7:32 pm

>48 Tanya-dogearedcopy: I just watched the 1979 version with Richard Thomas. Meh.....!

53Tanya-dogearedcopy
Modificato: Gen 13, 2023, 4:51 pm

>52 Tess_W: I had not realized there was a 1979 version! It's kinda hard to imagine John-Boy from "The Waltons" pulling this off and; from your response I guess I'm right, lol!

Yeah, the wiki up top worked when WWI was "in the future" so to speak; but this should work:
https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/Reading_Through_Time_Quarterly_Theme_Rea...

54majkia
Gen 13, 2023, 4:16 pm

I fixed the link in the OP. Sorry.

55Tanya-dogearedcopy
Modificato: Gen 25, 2023, 2:38 am

I just finished listening to The World Remade (by G.J. Meyer; narrated by Rob Shapiro, a non-fiction title that ostensibly looks at the U.S. involvement in WWI; but is more a look at the Wilson administration. If you're looking for Pershing's exploits on the fields or tales of doughboys in the trenches, there's not much here. Instead, this is a critical look at the man who promised to keep America out of the war, then brought us in; and who preached human rights while wielding war-time powers legislation to persecute US citizens and violate the Bill of Rights. A powerful speaker and high-minded, Woodrow Wilson was also prey to blinding stubbornness, poor health that crippled his decision-making skills and, perhaps even mental issues that impaired his critical thinking & political finesse. The impact of the way in which a number of challenges were handled a little over a century ago can still be seen and felt today. Meyer follows each chapter with a "Background" section which breathes a little bit more color into the book and provides the context needed to see a little bit deeper into the the topics being covered. Truly an illuminating text and I highly recommend. The audiobook narrator sounds a bit cynical, but it's what the book demands, really. For it to dissolve into a pseudo-hagiography by striking a bright tone would hit a dissonant note.

56Tanya-dogearedcopy
Gen 19, 2023, 9:53 pm

Starting the historical-fiction novel, Cher Ami and Major Whittlesey (by Kathleen Rooney). I remember going to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History (about twenty years ago) and the top floor was dedicated to the wars that the US had been engaged in. There were stacked television sets showing Vietnam coverage, a twisted spar from the World Trade Center; but not much at all for WWI. In fact, it was pretty much just one wall about 12-feet long with a couple of items, including the carrier pigeon, Cher Ami. :-)

57Tess_W
Modificato: Gen 20, 2023, 12:29 pm

>56 Tanya-dogearedcopy: Just purchased/dl that on my Ereader. Will most definitely be interested in your take. I will read sometime this quarter! There is a very good video series (so it seems, The First World War, that is 10 episodes in length. It's on FreeVee (7 day free trial)...(Amazon Prime); or all 10 episodes for $15. The preview looks fabulous.

58MissBrangwen
Gen 20, 2023, 2:57 pm

I finished In Distant Fields by Charlotte Bingham, which is described as a romance novel, although romance is only one aspect of it. It deals with a group of mainly aristocratic young friends and what they do in the months preceding the war and then during the war. Specific events that are featured are the Battles of Loos, Ypres and the Somme, and the sinking of the Lusitania. Although there are some aspects that I think could be improved, I overall liked this novel. You can read a more detailed review here.

59Tess_W
Gen 20, 2023, 9:10 pm

>58 MissBrangwen: Going on my WL!

60Tanya-dogearedcopy
Gen 20, 2023, 10:05 pm

>58 MissBrangwen: >59 Tess_W: I put it on my WL, too! :-)

61MissBrangwen
Gen 21, 2023, 4:33 am

>59 Tess_W: >60 Tanya-dogearedcopy: Excellent! I thought that it was something other members of the group would enjoy, too!

62Tess_W
Gen 25, 2023, 8:34 am

Stubby The War Dog by Ann Bausum Billed as a National Geographic Children's book, but I doubt that a child or even a pre-teen could read this book. I would find it quite boring if I didn't know anything about the Great War. That being said, Stubby was a real dog who actually, for some miraculous reason, traveled from Connecticut to the trenches in France and back again with his owner. He had his own gas mask and was given awards by President Harding and General Pershing. Stubby was hit by shrapnel but survived. Stubby was a faithful moral booster.

63Tanya-dogearedcopy
Modificato: Gen 25, 2023, 11:24 am

Barbara W. Tuchman was an American author primarily wrote about WWI on the French Front. G. J. Meyer is an American-British writer who devoted a book to the American involvement in The Great War. And now I’ve picked up a book by Adam Hochschild, To End All Wars— which is his (American) take on the British Expeditionary Force! Hochschild takes the approach of profiling key figures of the time, and has started with General John French and his surprising connection with a known pacifist of the time.

On another note, I watched the 2022 film version of All Quiet on the Western Front (based on the novel by Erich Maria Remarque) and it’s just stunning.The 1930 classic version is good for its time, but this is remarkable not only for its production values, but it’s scripting which more firmly grounds the action in a time frame. Both are different enough to warrant watching.

64EGBERTINA
Gen 25, 2023, 2:02 pm

I'm not really here- so just ignore me.

I was reading an older Newbery book: Nicholas, a Manhattan Christmas Story.

Its not about the war at all. but having been written in the 1920's. there is sill a lot of memory of the war. it makes mention, periodically of certain moments, as though the readers are expected to comprehend the references.

I can't recommend it as war related. I just thought it was interesting to find those memories in a book so, obviously, not about the war. Mostly, it is about sight-seeing in New York City, as directed by brownies, faeries, and other small folk.

65cindydavid4
Gen 25, 2023, 2:03 pm

that does sound interesting! thanks for posting, pls stick around. Are you knew to LT?

66EGBERTINA
Gen 25, 2023, 2:08 pm

>65 cindydavid4: I am not new. i've been here since december of 2020. I just try not to irritate anyone. i've been watching this post for a year? because i am finishing up two other full time reading projects- i can't follow this yet. but i definitely wish to read some of these works.

67cindydavid4
Gen 25, 2023, 4:10 pm

gotcha (tho I think its hard to irrate anyone here. stop by when you can

68Tess_W
Gen 25, 2023, 5:46 pm

>66 EGBERTINA: You are most welcome to browse! We welcome your ideas and suggestions!

69Tanya-dogearedcopy
Gen 25, 2023, 6:42 pm

>66 EGBERTINA: I lurked for awhile too! Now, I have no problem with irritating people. It's a gift! 😁

70EGBERTINA
Gen 25, 2023, 7:21 pm

>67 cindydavid4: cindydavid4; Tess_W; Tanya-dogearedcopy

thank u and chuckles

71Tanya-dogearedcopy
Modificato: Gen 25, 2023, 10:10 pm

I recently finished The Riddle of the Sands (by Erskine Childers; narrated by Anton Lesser). While it is out of time frame for this quarter's prompt (written in 1903 and set in 1901), it does have direct bearing on WWI: Two Englishmen, one a sailor and the other fluent in German, head out from the Baltic Sea and onto the North, in pursuit of a hunch-- that the Germans are hiding military sea-based plans in the event of a war with England. This build-up was a major concern in the years leading up to WWI as Germany was, in fact building up their fleets in direct rivalry with England-- who at the time controlled the seas.
Deep with nautical terms and maps, it can be a bit challenging to get to the heart of the story unless you are familiar with sea-faring ways. Nonetheless, I was able to work through by looking up "kedging", finding a Google map that someone had put together of the boat's trail and, zooming out from the details of the story and immersing myself in the atmospheric descriptions and dialogue. It's a spy thriller and adventure story that I would like to go back to one day now that I know what to expect. I think I might get more out of it in knowing how to orient myself more geographically.

ETA: I see there's a 1979 film adaptation of the book starring Michael York. Probably not going to check it out as the trailers look pretty terrible; but if anyone has seen it and think it's worth a couple hours of my time, please chime in!

72Tess_W
Gen 26, 2023, 6:59 am

>71 Tanya-dogearedcopy: on my WL it goes!

73icallithunger
Gen 26, 2023, 1:02 pm

I don't know if it counts but I've been reading Devil in the Flesh. Also, can someone recommend me a book about the Influenza pandemic?

74Tanya-dogearedcopy
Modificato: Gen 26, 2023, 9:37 pm

>73 icallithunger:
The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History (by John M. Barry) - Non-Fiction (It's in my own stacks to tackle for this prompt);
• Influenza: The Hundred-Year Hunt to Cure the 1918 Spanish Flu Pandemic (by Dr. Jeremy Brown and;
America's Forgotten Pandemic: The Influenza of 1918 (by Alfred W. Crosby)

The Barry book seems to be a seminal work; but I don't know much about the other two. I'm trying to track them down via the library system so I can skim through and see if they are worth adding to my TBR.

75dianelouise100
Gen 26, 2023, 6:57 pm

On a recent drive of about 8 hours, we listened to An Unmarked Grave by Charles Todd. This book is part of a series featuring Bess Crawford, WWI battlefield nurse. The audio was very entertaining and actually gave a good feel for the overwhelming pressure nurses faced, coping with both the influx of wounded soldiers and with the overwhelming effects of the deadly influenza, which devastated both patients and staff.

77Tess_W
Gen 26, 2023, 10:19 pm

78dianelouise100
Gen 27, 2023, 6:45 am

I’ve gotten Lost Roses by Martha Hall Kelly from the library. It’s set during WWI with a focus on the situation in Russia. Read about 50 pages last night, and it’s got me interested.

79rocketjk
Gen 27, 2023, 1:32 pm

I finished American Midnight: The Great War, a Violent Peace, and Democracy's Forgotten Crisis by Adam Hoshschild. This is an excellent but horrifying (again!) history about an extremely violent and repressive, but mostly (as per the title) forgotten 4-year period in American history, from 1917, when the U.S. entered WW I, to 1920. Woodrow Wilson became president in 1913 as a liberal reformer, and many like-minded politicians and other figures joined his administration to help with the project of making life better for laborers and helping to reduce the large wealth gap that had formed between the working class and the owners of industry. (Sound familiar?) In many important ways, however, Wilson was no bargain. Although he'd served as governor of New Jersey, Wilson was a Georgia native and a firm proponent of Jim Crow. For example, he went about resegregating the areas of the federal government that had made progress in that area. At first he was opposed to U.S. involvement in WW I, running for reelection under the slogan, "He kept us out of war." But as the war progressed, and the allies became hard pressed, they turned to the U.S. for armaments and other supplies, going into huge debt to the U.S government and munitions companies, among others, to the extent that an Allied defeat in the war would have occasioned massive defaults and extensive losses to U.S. creditors. Well, that couldn't be allowed. That's not the only cause that Hochschild provides for the U.S. entry into the war, but it is an extremely significant one, and something I'd never realized.

Once the U.S. was involved, Wilson's Attorney General and other high-ranking figures went to town, using the war effort as an excuse for furious and violent repression. The so-called Espionage Act of 1917 made it a crime punishable by long prison terms to criticize the war effort or the government, or to complain about war profiteering. A nationwide civilian vigilante organization called the American Protective League was organized and given carte blanche for violent and even often deadly activities. People got lynched for refusing to buy War Bonds. Massive, coordinated, roundups of draft-aged men took place, and woe betide anyone who couldn't show a draft card. This was all a cover for nativist, rightwing politicians who wanted to hound immigrants, the labor movement, conscientious objectors, socialists, Jews, Catholics and, it goes without saying, Blacks.

80Tanya-dogearedcopy
Modificato: Gen 27, 2023, 1:55 pm

>79 rocketjk: My eyes were opened when I read/listened to The World Remade (by G.J. Meyer; narrated by Rob Shapiro-- on Wilson's administration) to the point that the book has re-calibrated a lot of what I thought to be true in re 20th century US history. I have American Midnight in my stacks as well and am looking forward to it :-)

81rocketjk
Gen 27, 2023, 1:56 pm

>80 Tanya-dogearedcopy: It is definitely well written and worth reading.

82Tanya-dogearedcopy
Gen 27, 2023, 2:38 pm

>81 rocketjk: I'm reading/listening to Hochschild's To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918 now and it's an interesting approach in that the author leverages pro- and anti-war figures to advance the narrative of the BEF in WWI. Unlike Tuchman's books and Meyer's other book on the topic of the Great War, it's not about military strategy or battlefront conditions. It's more of a look at the socio-political underpinnings. I was going to wait to read American Midnight until later in this cycle, but it sounds like it might be a good follow up To End All Wars. :-)

83rocketjk
Gen 27, 2023, 3:54 pm

>82 Tanya-dogearedcopy: I will very much look forward to learning what you think of American Midnight.

84benitastrnad
Gen 27, 2023, 5:26 pm

>73 icallithunger: & >74 Tanya-dogearedcopy:
I read Great Influenza by John M. Barry. It is a very in-depth look at the people who were on the front lines trying to figure out what the disease was and how to fight it. A full 1/2 of the book takes place in the years 1880 - 1918 and a huge chunk of that is a history of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. There is great detail about the discipline of Pathology. All of this is important to the outcome of the pandemic but most readers get bogged down in this part and never finish the book. In short, it is a very academic look and is a slow action book. When you get done reading it you will know more than you will ever expect to know about how medicine worked in the years right after the discover of bacteria and viruses. You will also know why no immunization vaccine for the flu, or common colds, has ever been invented and why it is unlikely to be invented in the future. (I suspect that last statement might be true for COVID as well.) Reading this book will give the reader a very good understanding of some of the why's in the pandemic that we are living through.

85Tess_W
Modificato: Gen 29, 2023, 10:28 am

The Great War: July 1, 1916: The First Day of the Battle of the Somme: An Illustrated Panorama (by Joe Sacco with an essay by Adam Hochschild). I purchased this book after reading Tanya's post about it. What a great book! It's a panorama or diorama on the Battle of the Somme, the greatest military failure of the British to date. This particular book only documents the first day of the battle and its preparations. The artist, Joe Sacco, was, in a previous life, a cartoon artist. An interesting aside, I heard Joe Sacco speak at the Thurber House in Columbus Ohio, around 1990. He spoke mostly of manga, which I wasn't interested in, but I had free ticket(s)! These drawings are phenomenal. I went through the panorama pics once, then read the essay included by Adam Hochschild, which was taken from his book To End All Wars (which I plan to read this quarter). The essay was one of the best I have ever read. I then went back through the panorama and picked up many details that I had not seen or known about before reading the essay. I'm sure I will go through these drawings several more times before I'm "done" with the book. I highly recommend this book if you are interested in the details of the Battle of the Somme. 5 stars

ETA: Sacco modeled this book after The Bayeux Tapestry

86rocketjk
Gen 29, 2023, 12:38 pm

>85 Tess_W: Thanks! I'd never heard of that book. I will seek it out.

87Tess_W
Gen 29, 2023, 11:08 pm

>86 rocketjk: I hope you enjoy it as much as I!

I just finished Hotel Sacher by Rodica Doehner The story begins in the very late 19th century with Anna Sacher taking over the Hotel Sacher in Vienna after the death of her husband. From the title, one would think the story would be about her time as manager of this luxury hotel, but it's not. The hotel and Anna play a very minor part in this historical fiction novel. To sum it up quickly, it's about people being fickle and behaving badly! I'm not even sure what the purpose of some of the characters in the novel was, and there was a plethora of them! I was hoping to get a sense of Vienna pre WWI, but there was not much in the way of sensory descriptions, just dialogue. The story takes in WWI, but only in a minor way. 274 pages 2.5 stars

88spaceowl
Gen 30, 2023, 8:50 am

Sort of connected to this, does anyone have any specific suggestions for WW1 Austria-Hungary in fiction? It's bit of a hobby of mine.
I already have:
A Sailor of Austria by Biggins
The Radetzky March by Roth
The Sojourn by Krivak
The Winter Soldier by Palmer
the Good Soldier Svejk by Hasek

Can anyone name any others?

89dianelouise100
Gen 30, 2023, 12:15 pm

Finished Lost Roses and enjoyed it a great deal. The plot concerns the plight of the White Russians and their treatment at the hands of the Bolsheviks, shedding some light on that aspect of the Russian Revolution. I was reminded of sections of the grandmother’s story in The Mountains Sing describing the oppression of those who had been more fortunate. Kelly did an impressive amount of research, detailed for us in the author’s notes at the end. I now have a number of titles to search for in the library! Rabbit holes….

90majkia
Feb 1, 2023, 10:36 am

Next quarterly thread is up: https://www.librarything.com/topic/348201

91Tanya-dogearedcopy
Modificato: Feb 2, 2023, 7:15 am

To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918 (by Adam Hochschild; narrated by Arthur Morey) - NF - This book takes a look at both the pro- and anti-war people who played roles in the shaping of the socio-political landscape of England during WWI. The War Propaganda Department, in service to the highly industrialized and mechanized war interests, incited frenzied patriotism to bolster willing conscripts for the military and to counter pacifism, socialism, and universal suffrage-- the latter three being seen as subversive elements that would undermine the economy and politics. After years of high & ugly casualties and low gains on the battlefront however, war fervor began to wane and many of the social reforms were eventually instituted to varying degrees. In paying homage to those who objected to the war as well as taking a look at those who advocated for it, Hochschild presents a more rounded picture of England's civic life. I have only two quibbles with the book: The author did not explain why Commander-in-Chief John French (BEF) was so hesitant to fully commit his troops at the beginning of the war (He was told to hold back). Glossing over this and repeating how bad he was with money and how he held on the idea of a glorious cavalry charge, diminished him and made me wonder what else the author omitted in order to shape a liberal-biased work. The second item is that there seems to have been a few paragraphs that were copy-and-pasted from one chapter to others. Because I listened to the audio, I don't know if it is because the audiobook publisher recorded from a draft copy or if it's that way in the print version also. The copied passages worked in each successive place, but somehow, I expected a higher level of writing and editorial oversight from a noted historian.

One of the interesting things I found out from To End All Wars, was that John Buchan worked for War Propaganda Department and wrote extensively during this time. One of the books he wrote is the Classic, The Thirty-Nine-Steps-- a spy thriller which features Jack Hannay, a Scottish mining engineer who had worked in Rhodesia, who finds himself at loose ends in London. When his neighbor appears on his doorstop one evening in search of refuge, Hannay gets caught up in a world of pre-WWI intrigue involving Germans, codebooks, expensive cars, an explosion... Very "Bondesque"! Buchan also paints a picture of idyllic, pastoral landscapes and quirky, well-meaning provincials who represent all that is good in the United Kingdom, conveniently ignoring the industrialized sectors that actually pervaded the rural areas. I listened to the audio narrated by Robert Powell. There were strange drops with some of the sentences (possible bad edits) and, the narrator was decidedly British who affected a near incomprehensible Scottish brogue at times (Perhaps that is the point when Hannay engages with Scottish locals, but since Hannay is supposed to be Scottish himself, it's a bit of a disconnect). Also, I have to be honest, I'm still not really sure what the premise of the intrigue was, so I just pretty much focused on the codebook (McGuffin). I think next time, I'll read the print version. :-)

92Tanya-dogearedcopy
Modificato: Feb 2, 2023, 12:28 pm

Cher Ami and Major Whittlesey (by Kathleen Rooney) - In WWI, thousands of homing pigeons were used by both the Allied and Central powers to carry messages as other forms of communications (runners, telegraph lines, radio) proved to be less than reliable, secure, or clear. At the battle of/at the Meuse-Argonne, the last battle of the war, an American battalion of men advanced deep into enemy lines, only to find themselves cut off and exposed to fire. In "The Pocket", Major Whittlesey ended up with one last pigeon to send back for help, the mis-gendered bird, "Cher Ami". This is a historical-fiction account with alternating chapters told from the point-of-views of Major Whittlesey and an anthropomorphized Cher Ami. Cher Ami's chapters tend to be a bit more expositional, showcasing the author's research; but both characters are sculpted with sensitive personalities and with poetic turns of phrase. The story brings the reader into the time and place; but the brevity of material covering the actual battle and the Lost Battalion is disappointing and, the author's decision to approach both the characters though sexual identity is of questionable merit: Major Whittlesey is no longer around to have a say as to whether or not he would like to have been "outed", in a fictional or non-fictional story (n.b. - This is not a spoiler., but made very clear in the opening chapter from his POV). Overall, a lovely story, but I found myself wanting more somehow and, copying down the list of NF titles the author used in her research.

93Tanya-dogearedcopy
Modificato: Feb 2, 2023, 4:08 pm

DUPLICATE POST

94rocketjk
Modificato: Feb 2, 2023, 11:53 am

>91 Tanya-dogearedcopy: Great review. Sounds like a good companion piece to Hochschild's American Midnight, which we discussed up thread.

95Tess_W
Feb 2, 2023, 3:54 pm

>92 Tanya-dogearedcopy: I have that on my TBR and hope to get it read this quarter.

96Tess_W
Modificato: Feb 3, 2023, 11:20 pm

I finished In Distant Fields by Charlotte Bingham, a historical romance that took place prior to WWI and ended about 1919. The first half of the book was basically the wealthy and their parties, etc. The second half of the book picked up when, surprisingly, they all "grew up" and participated in the Great War by turning their estate into a medical recuperation facility. Nice subplots of ambulance drivers in WWI as well at the Battle of the Somme and the sinking of the Lusitania. IMHO it was too long and contained too many characters. I listened to this on audio-14 hours 18 mins/610 pages

97Tanya-dogearedcopy
Feb 4, 2023, 2:51 am

Currently listening to Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage (by Alfred Lansing; narrated by Simon Prebble) - Technically a re-listen for me but it's been a few years! As much as I love this book/narration, I had forgotten that it fits into this quarter until Shackleton was mentioned in To End All Wars (by Adam Hochschild).

98kac522
Feb 4, 2023, 12:28 pm

Many thanks to >44 Tanya-dogearedcopy: and >85 Tess_W: for recommending The Great War: July 1, 1916: The First Day of the Battle of the Somme by Joe Sacco with accompanying text by Adam Hochschild. I picked this up at my library and it is stunning.

This pull-out panorama (almost 24 feet long!) was a marvel. Tess and Tanya have described it in detail, so I won't repeat that here. The comment I'll add is that this panel emphasizes what a strange war this was: from airplanes, automatic machine guns and mustard gas to horses. It seems just a symbol of this war--vastly powerful modern weapons while hanging on to ideas of the traditional "gentleman's" war.

I was also reminded of this by watching a recent episode of the BBC/Masterpiece All Creatures Great and Small, in which there are flashbacks of Siegfried in WWI. When the war is over, as the vet for his division he must destroy all the horses--they're too expensive and troublesome to transport home.

The quarter is not half-over yet and I am in awe of all the books many of you have read, especially Tess and Tanya. Thank you!

99Tess_W
Feb 4, 2023, 9:27 pm

>98 kac522: Reading WWI books to the exclusion of everything else, at this time!

The Zimmerman Telegram by Barbara Tuchman is a non-fiction read about the infamous telegram that brought the U.S. into WWI. After reading the book, I 'm sure that the US would have entered anyway, but this is just one more event that pushed America closer to the precipice of war.

Pluses:
learned about room 40
heard Mexican names I've not heard since 1972 when I studied at the Universidad de Mexico City (Villa, Carranzza, Huerta, Diaz, Madero)
saw another side presented of Woodrow Wilson that I had not read of before--that of a stubborn, hard-headed, non-compromising individual

Minuses:
so many characters, could not keep them straight; especially the German & British...I listened to this on Audio. Perhaps had I read a hard copy, my mind might have been more organized.

My expectations were that the book centered primarily on the interception and decoding of the telegram, but that was not the case. The book was primarily about high-level politics from 1914-1918. 3 stars, 7 hrs 12 mins (256 pages)

100kac522
Modificato: Feb 5, 2023, 2:58 am

>99 Tess_W: I read this in 2014; my notes say I enjoyed it and that it read like a novel. But I felt left in the dust sometimes because 1) like you, I wished there had been a "cast of characters" list and 2) unlike you, the Mexico sections were confusing to me, since I have no background in Mexican history. Even though I had to check my notes to remember these details, I do recall an overall impression of enjoying the reading experience and learning quite a bit.

101Tanya-dogearedcopy
Feb 5, 2023, 12:35 pm

>99 Tess_W: >100 kac522: Interestingly, though I didn't have trouble with the "cast of characters" and technically liked it more than Tess, I also only gave it three stars. My disappointment lies primarily in that there wasn't "more". The coming of the Great War duology is so detailed that this felt somewhat half-hearted in scope and execution. That disappointment has only been exacerbated after having read/listened to G. J. Meyer's The World Remade which is about the US involvement in WWI and, not only wider in range, but provides background sections. To be fair, The Zimmerman Telegram is really just a footnote in WWI and the US engagement was limited compared to what the French and British had committed to and suffered. Nonetheless, it feels like a lost opportunity in that she did not pursue Wilsonian democracy.

On that note, I'm about to start American Midnight: The Great War, a Violent Peace, and Democracy's Forgotten Crisis (by Adam Hochschild). When I picked it up, I thought it had to do with the beginnings of socialism in American and maybe that's sort of true, but now I'm seeing it's more likely about America's involvement in WWI which resulted in the gross abuse of the Espionage Act of 1917.

>98 kac522: LOL, I've rather startled myself in the number of books I've read for this prompt! My favorite period in history is the Medieval Era, quickly followed by the Renaissance; but for whatever reason, The Great War has seized my full attention, much to my husband's amusement and sometimes annoyance: I go around acting like WWI is "news" and offering armchair analysis :-D

102rocketjk
Feb 5, 2023, 12:43 pm

>101 Tanya-dogearedcopy: "American Midnight: The Great War, a Violent Peace, and Democracy's Forgotten Crisis (by Adam Hochschild). . . . about America's involvement in WWI which resulted in the gross abuse of the Espionage Act of 1917.

Yes. This, much more than about the beginnings of socialism. I just finished this book, but possibly you already know this. I can never remember whom I discussed what with.

103Tanya-dogearedcopy
Feb 5, 2023, 1:00 pm

>102 rocketjk: Yes, actually your review caused me to move American Midnight up in my stacks! I had incorrectly put it in a pile of Russian history and the Bolshevik Revolution. Honestly, I don't know what I was thinking as all I had to do was look at the subtitle!

104cindydavid4
Feb 6, 2023, 12:07 am

>101 Tanya-dogearedcopy: do you have a thread this year? Couldnt find it

105Tanya-dogearedcopy
Modificato: Feb 6, 2023, 8:07 pm

>104 cindydavid4: I don't have a separate RTT thread here, no; but here is where most of my posting seems to be happening!
But I am hosting the Historical Fiction Challenge over at the 2023 Category Challenge group: https://www.librarything.com/topic/346334#n8060430

106cindydavid4
Feb 6, 2023, 9:46 pm

yeah, Im over there too. Thats fine, just curious as we seem similar in reads. Dont feel you have to, I can catch up with you in both places

107Tanya-dogearedcopy
Feb 7, 2023, 11:52 am

Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage (by Alfred Lansing; narrated by Simon Prebble) - On August 1, 1914, Ernest Shackleton and his team set out from London aboard the Endurance, heading toward the Antarctic, just as the rest of the world was to embark on the ravages of WWI. Shackleton offered to defer the enterprise in service to the Great War, but The Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition's mission was sanctioned by the British government with the single word, "Proceed". What happened over the next 2+ years was a journey fraught with extreme peril, tests of courage & leadership, and luck (both good & bad) as the twenty-nine men faced down the challenges of surviving in the world's most notorious clime. Simon Prebble masterfully narrates the audiobook edition and between the story and his delivery, this has become one of my favorite audiobooks of all time: Even in re-listening (the last time was in 2016), I was captivated by the story. All the stars :-)

108spaceowl
Feb 9, 2023, 11:17 am

Recently (back end of 2021, anyway) finished reading Tip and Run, a history of the War in Africa. Although a bit of an old-fashioned, crunchy Military History, it is probably the best and most complete account of the war without resorting to the Official History.
What I liked most about it was how many little, now forgotten details were concealed in the narrative; the shambles of the Battle of Tanga, the weird war on Lake Tanganiyka, the strange Western Front in miniature that was the 1917 battle of Mahiwa, that did almost as much damage to the victorious Germans as it did to the defeated Imperial forces; that's just three examples off the top of my head.
Hard going in places (not unlike the campaign) but a worthwhile read that highlights a largely forgotten theatre of war.

109cindydavid4
Feb 9, 2023, 9:18 pm

why did I not realize the war was fought in Africa? looks like I need to read that

110Tanya-dogearedcopy
Modificato: Feb 9, 2023, 11:00 pm

>108 spaceowl: >109 cindydavid4: I didn't really know either until I read The African Queen and looked a couple things up! Now, in other books, I see references to Great Britain and France wanting Germany's colonies in Africa as part of the spoils of war... z

ETA: I put Tip and Run: The Untold Tragedy of the First World War in Africa on my wishlist :-)

111MissWatson
Feb 10, 2023, 2:26 am

There's also William Boyd's An Ice-cream War, although it left me somewhat underwhelmed.

112spaceowl
Feb 10, 2023, 4:40 am

>111 MissWatson: I know what you mean - the protagonist is hugely unsympathetic and there is a grubby, seedy feel to the writing. In its favour, the Battle of Tanga is grippingly described.
Good writing but seedy and unpleasant seems to be William Boyd's combo move, at least in the three or four of his books I've read.

113spaceowl
Feb 10, 2023, 4:48 am

>110 Tanya-dogearedcopy: The African Queen owes a great deal to the war on Lake Tanganyika, and there is an excellent account of the strange real-world goings on in that campaign in Giles Foden's Mimi and Toutou Go Forth, starring the skirt-wearing, piratical and deeply odd Captain Spicer-Simpson (Lord Belly-Cloth to his African Sailors). Well worth a read as a description of one of the weirdest campaigns in WW1.

114Tess_W
Feb 12, 2023, 7:11 am

I completed The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman. This is my second non-fiction work by this author this month. Again, I think Ms. Tuchman is a fabulous historian. However, I find when I'm reading her works, that I'm reading an encyclopedia of lists. This particular book examined the personalities that drove the first 30 days of the Great War and also battle details. It is largely a work of military history, right down to how many bullets per soldiers in certain battles. It does give one the sense of the futility of this "gentleman's war." It became tedious about half way into the book; but I have an obsession with completion, especially history books.

115Tanya-dogearedcopy
Modificato: Feb 14, 2023, 12:43 am

I just finished American Midnight: The Great War, a Violent Peace, and Democracy's Forgotten Crisis (by Adam Hochschild). As covered before in comments above, it's a non-fiction work detailing how the US's involvement in WWI precipitated gross abuses of American Civil Liberties under the Espionage Act of 1917. G.J. Meyer's book, The World Remade covers much of this same era more comprehensively; but Hochschild's book shows the impact both immediately and through the decades through the lens of the key players, in particular the socialists and anti-socialists of the early twentieth century whose battles over civil rights versus "Americanism" respectively were waged brutally. Hochschild's work is also less cynical in its treatment of Woodrow Wilson; but no less forgiving. Regardless, both books shed light on an oft overlooked time in our history and explain quite a few things we've seen recently in the twenty-first!

I haven't decided which print book to tackle next-- thought I'd give it a day or two before starting again! But I am still listening to The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History (by John M. Barry)-- which is also about public health and yes, even how politics came to play in impacting the response to the outbreak. The more about this time period I'm reading, the more things are "connecting up"!

116Tess_W
Modificato: Feb 14, 2023, 6:44 pm

Finished The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West. This is the story of a soldier during WWI who returns home shell-shocked. He can't remember the last 15 years of his life, including the marriage to his wife. He does remember a summer "love" and the two meet frequently in the garden, the wife begrudgingly agreeing that it might bring back Chris' memory. It doesn't and the wife grows more bitter. Not only is this about the horror of the Great War, it is the story of brutal class warfare. The author writes very lyrically. It was a very slow moving book. Favorite quote, "She isn't beautiful any longer. She's drearily married. She's seamed and scored and ravaged by squalid circumstances. You can't love her when you see her." 140 pages

117kac522
Feb 14, 2023, 11:01 pm

For you WWI gurus, here is yesterday's Final Jeopardy:

https://youtu.be/7YdVE-4NdSY

118Tanya-dogearedcopy
Feb 14, 2023, 11:12 pm

>117 kac522: LOL, I was yelling the answer— much to the alarm of my husband who came running in thinking I had been napping 😂

119kac522
Feb 15, 2023, 1:15 am

>118 Tanya-dogearedcopy: Excellent! Nothing like Jeopardy! to keep us awake. I got it right, but it was a pure guess.

120Tanya-dogearedcopy
Modificato: Feb 15, 2023, 1:35 am

I've started reading All Quiet on the Western Front (by Erich Maria Remarque; translated by A.W. Wheen). I'm often a little disappointed with translations from the German, but this is better than most-- a bit more lyrical/poetic than a lot of modern work. What I'm finding interesting so far is that the film adaptions reorganized the material into a more straightforward timeline. I'm only three chapters in-- so not much to say otherwise other than, for those who don't know, this is a fiction based on the author's experience in WWI. Paul Bauman, the protagonist, is a German schoolboy who gets swept up in the patriotic fervor to sign up for the Great War. Quickly sent to the front, he is disillusioned even as he finds his place within his unit.

121CurrerBell
Feb 15, 2023, 2:21 pm

>117 kac522: In fact, I've just finished that chapter of Churchill's The World Crisis, 1911-1918 (a single-volume abridged edition), which I'm reading for this quarter.

122Tess_W
Feb 16, 2023, 1:42 pm

>117 kac522:
>118 Tanya-dogearedcopy:
>119 kac522:

It was called a "Swinton" for sometime before the name of "tank", after its developer. It was Swinton who actually caused the machine to be called "tank", as it was a codename used for this vehicle. Sorry.....I teach the Great War to highschoolers and we do 2-3 days on new weapons of war during this time and I couldn't help myself! Even more interesting, to combat mustard gas, if no mask, soldiers would urinate on socks and use them to mask their noses and mouths. Seems some type of crystals in urine repelled the gas. Bad enough, but what if you couldn't go and had to ask a friend????? I digress...

I read Fever by Mary Beth Keane. It was the story of Mary Mallon, aka, Typhoid Mary. The story begins in 1905 and goes to her death in 1938, so wasn't sure where to place this story. Most of the action takes place from 1905-1922. A very well written and interesting book. Little is mentioned about the war, though. I listened to this on audio and the reader had the right amount of Irish brogue/lilt to her voice that it was pleasant without making it difficult to make out the words. Told in first person. 9 hours 54 mins (401 pages)

123Tess_W
Feb 17, 2023, 2:27 am

Spanish Flu of 1918 and the Pandemics History by Barry Larson Bare bones overview of pandemics in general and then the Spanish Flu of 1918, specifically. Covers through 2007. I did not know it when I purchased it, but it was the "short edition." Had I known, I probably would not have purchased. Didn't learn much, but did learn how WHO identifies and then responds to a pandemic. Also a chapter on controlling Avian Influenza in Birds and Mammals world-wide and in the U.S. Was hoping to get some information on the outbreak in Camp Sherman (Chillicothe, Ohio) in 1918 where almost every soldier in the camp (about 5000) was hit, but not a mention. I hate it when I buy abridged versions unknowingly! Really not good enough to go back and buy the full version; although I might look for another book on the subject. 117 pages 3 stars (barely)

124dianelouise100
Feb 17, 2023, 8:04 am

I’m about a third into The War that Ended Peace by Margaret Macmillan.This book is an excellent discussion of the times leading up to the war, informative, thorough, and readable.

125Tanya-dogearedcopy
Feb 17, 2023, 4:29 pm

I finished the classic novel, 'All Quiet on the Western Front' (by Erich Maria Remarque; translated by A.W. Wheen) last night and I can see why it has remained a subject for reading curricula, conversations, and film adaptations for over a century: The imagery and painterly descriptions of subjective thought are remarkable and ring of truth. There is a prayerful homage to the Earth, an ephemeral characterization of the polars of home, the intimacy and comradeship of the front-line unit, the descriptions of hell-like conditions of battle... All this and more creates something greater than the sum of its parts and I'm eager to pick up the other half of the duology, 'The Road Home'.

126cindydavid4
Feb 17, 2023, 6:55 pm

>125 Tanya-dogearedcopy: I read that last summer and really liked its descriptions of the hardships and hurdels faced coming home. There was a third one, dont remember the name but remember being just too depressing (as if the other two arnt) and didnt finish it

127Tanya-dogearedcopy
Modificato: Feb 27, 2023, 1:35 am

>126 cindydavid4: Yeah, I’m definitely going to wait until after the weekend before starting, ‘The Road Home’. I need something a little lighter and/or more fun— a bit of “mental floss” if you will, before heading back into Remarque’s world.

128Tanya-dogearedcopy
Feb 18, 2023, 2:21 pm

>73 icallithunger: ICYMBI, the ebook version of the book that cindydvid4 mentioned in post 76 above, 'The Pull of the Stars' (by Emma Donoghue) is on sale (Kindle & Book) for $1.99. :-)

129Tess_W
Feb 19, 2023, 8:45 am

I finished The 1916 Battle of the Somme Reconsidered by Peter Liddle. If one has been a student of WWI military strategy and leaders, the phrase "lions led by donkeys", would be familiar. This alludes to the fact that the British casualty rate was often very high and the blame rested on those in charge. The author's thesis is that this may not be true to the degree that it is actually believed as fact. Mr. Liddle does an excellent job in providing other reasons as to the frequent high casualty rate; all of them plausible. More than the alternative reasons for the high cost of success, I learned a lot more about the actual battle than we normally get in our textbooks in the U.S. 262 pages 4 stars

130spaceowl
Feb 19, 2023, 4:59 pm

>129 Tess_W: Liddle's book is pretty good, and recaps a lot of the work done by Gordon Corrigan in Mud, Blood and Poppycock - he raises the interesting point that the technology to fight battles had massively outstripped that needed to command armies, with the result that any battle was sort of pre-wired to become a blood bath.
Not speaking out in defence of the generals, you understand - just that even a genius was probably going to have a massive butcher's bill in a battle of the Great War.

131Tess_W
Feb 19, 2023, 8:39 pm

132kac522
Feb 21, 2023, 1:57 am

Like >116 Tess_W:, I also read The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West. This was a re-read for me from 2016; that first reading experience was so intense that I immediately made a note that I needed to read it again.

Tess has done an excellent summary of the book, so I won't repeat it here. I had forgotten that this was a first-person narration by the returning soldier's cousin Jenny, who has been living with his wife while he is away at war. The entire action happens during a few weeks in Spring, 1916, as he returns home from shell-shock.

What impressed me on this reading was how precisely West describes the contrasts of how people look, what clothes they wear, what furniture surrounds them, what the exteriors of the buildings and grounds look like. All of these descriptions divide the characters by class and wealth. The introduction to my edition points out that the soldier's amnesia dates back 15 years; that is, the last thing he remembers happened in 1901--the end of the Victorian era. The underlying rumbling in this book is the inevitable reality of changes in Britain that are happening in the Edwardian era and beyond.

Although a short book (my edition was only 90 pages), I could not read this quickly; each sentence is packed with intense emotional power and meaning. It is also noteworthy that this was West's first published novel, and it was published in 1918, before the outcome of the Great War was known.

133MissBrangwen
Feb 22, 2023, 3:19 am

>116 Tess_W: >132 kac522: I'm definitely adding The Return of the Soldier to my WL!

134MissBrangwen
Feb 22, 2023, 11:37 am

I finished my second book for this topic, A Collection of First World War Poetry ed. by Janet Borsbey and Ruth Swan. It features poems by 37 poets, including eight female ones. Although most poems depict the experiences and emotions of soldiers, there are also other topics, such as working as a nurse or losing a husband in the war. You can find a longer review here.

135Tanya-dogearedcopy
Modificato: Feb 22, 2023, 9:09 pm

I wrapped up listening to The Great Influenza (by John M. Barry; narrated by Scott Brick) yesterday. There's surprisingly a lot to unpack here-- we have history, biographies, biology, virology, genetics, sociology and, a lesson that should have been learned in terms of public health. Written in 2005 and updated to include material about the swine flu in 2006, getting through all the material can feel like trying to hack though a jungle with a small machete: Without a strong through-line in the narrative, it can be difficult to suss out what the point is until Barry tells us in the Afterward (Though TBH, I'm still not really clear about it!) Scott Brick, who does a masterful job in narrating the non-fiction, true crime story In Cold Blood (by Truman Capote) fails to marshal or shape the material in the telling-- but after I tried to get through the print edition in the past, I can hardly fault him. There's just so much of everything!

136Tess_W
Modificato: Feb 22, 2023, 11:28 pm

I read Gas The Battle of Ypres 1915 by James McWilliams which tells of the Second Battle of Ypres (Flanders). To be honest, there was so much information concerning regiments, brigades, companies, battalions, and troops, that it clouded what I thought should be the impetus of the book, the gassing. What was obvious was the lack of coordination between the Allied Command and the total lack of respect for human life. I was disappointed with the lack of the gas attack(s) in this book. I really wasn't interested in troop strength and movements. 247 pages 3- stars

137Tanya-dogearedcopy
Modificato: Feb 23, 2023, 12:53 pm

I started The Road Back (Remarque's Great War Duology #2; by Erich Maria Remarque) and Greenmantle (Richard Hannay #2; by John Buchan; narrated by Christian Rodska) yesterday. The Remarque novel is about the remnants of the battalion from All Quiet on the Western Front as the war ends and they make their way back to their homes. The Buchan novel was one I picked up on a whim because it's free with Audible membership. It's another spy thriller, this one set in Turkey where Hannay must figure out what is galvanizing the Arabs to a jihad against the British.
And then, I found out that the Germans actually did conspire with the Turkish to form an uprising to drive the British out of the Middle East and; that Peter Hopkins wrote Like Hidden Fire: The Plot to Bring Down the British Empire about it! So now I'm trying to figure out if I can squeeze this in next month or; maybe I'll just read it anyway even though we will have moved on to the interstitial period between the wars. :-)

138Tess_W
Feb 23, 2023, 2:59 pm

>137 Tanya-dogearedcopy: And Lawrence of Arabia (British) led the Arabs against the Turks!

139Tanya-dogearedcopy
Feb 23, 2023, 3:10 pm

>138 Tess_W: Yes, I know! I have The Seven Pillars of Wisdom (by T.E. Lawrence) in my stacks; but I'm not sure I can get to that one this round. I know it's not the same, but I might just re-watch the film :-)

140cindydavid4
Modificato: Feb 23, 2023, 3:23 pm

>139 Tanya-dogearedcopy: another person well versed in the area and trying to make Iraq independent was Gertrude Bell. Her biography desert queen is excellent

141Tess_W
Feb 23, 2023, 8:09 pm

>139 Tanya-dogearedcopy: That was a DNF for me some years ago.

142Tanya-dogearedcopy
Modificato: Feb 23, 2023, 8:52 pm

>141 Tess_W: It looks a bit intimidating… I might just settle for Peter O’Toole! 😅

143rocketjk
Feb 23, 2023, 10:51 pm

I took my time with The Seven Pillars of Wisdom a few years back and ended up finding it an interesting and rewarding reading experience all in all. Just one person's reaction, is all.

One very affecting novel I read about the oppressive nature of (U.S.) army life during the WWI era was Three Soldiers by John Dos Passos.

144Tanya-dogearedcopy
Feb 24, 2023, 12:40 am

>143 rocketjk: I have both the print & audio versions. The print is an old copy with small print and with brief thumb-through, I see a catalogue of names to track. All of that may be why I feel a bit daunted by it. Maybe audio is the way to go… We’ll see!

145Tess_W
Feb 24, 2023, 4:31 pm

>143 rocketjk: Putting the Passos book on my WL

146Tanya-dogearedcopy
Feb 24, 2023, 5:16 pm

LOL, I've gotten so many book recs here that the next time this quarterly prompt comes up, (2027!) I'll have a stack ready-to-go! :-)

147cindydavid4
Modificato: Feb 25, 2023, 8:44 pm

Another thread reminded me about Itani's Deafening about growing up deaf,as well as the horror that was WWI

ETA not death, deaf!!

148Tess_W
Feb 25, 2023, 5:48 pm

>147 cindydavid4: Another one to go on my WL!

149Tess_W
Feb 25, 2023, 8:44 pm

The Return of Captain John Emmett was a WWI/Post WWI novel about Captain Emmett, who returned home shell-shocked in 1918. His family thought it best if he get treated at a sanitorium for awhile. Sadly, while there, he committed suicide. There is a mystery surrounding his suicide and an old friend is called by the family to see if he can find out the particulars. This is where we learn about the trenches, firing squads, and the rapes of innocent French women. Quite frankly, there were too many things going on in this book that it was difficult to focus. By many things I mean a LOT of conversations. It was a slow-paced book and the ending was a bit of a let-down. I really can't recommend. I listened to this on audio, 14 hours 13 minutes-437 pages.

I am so done with this time period--am facing burn out. Time to move on!

150Tanya-dogearedcopy
Modificato: Feb 26, 2023, 12:09 pm

>149 Tess_W: I'm not facing burnout-- but I am realizing that there are whole areas that I'm not going to be able to hit before we move on to the period between the wars. I would have liked to have read more/deeper about the campaigns in the Middle East, Africa, Italy, and the Balkans and; I would have also to have read more about the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia. I've WL-ed a number of titles that have come up here and hope to get to them the next time.

My reading for the next quarterly prompt is relatively light right now; but I suspect one of the books will trigger an interest in an area that may even be an extension of something I've read this quarter. We'll see :-)

151Tess_W
Modificato: Feb 26, 2023, 8:54 am

>150 Tanya-dogearedcopy: Topics that will perhaps be for another time for me: Battle of Verdun, Gallipoli, and more in depth about the Spanish flu. Also I would want to read more about the Sedition & Espionage Acts here in America. I do teach those when I teach the Great War, but only at the high school level and I know that material; but I think I need something deeper! I still have not read Cher Ami and Major Whittlesey, but may get to this year!

152spaceowl
Modificato: Feb 27, 2023, 4:44 pm

I've just finished Russia: Revolution and Civil War, 1917-1921 by Anthony Beevor. Incredibly depressing history, as both sides struggle to make the worst calls they possibly can, quickly descending into anarchy, rapine, torture and slaughter, especially the casual cruelty of both sides to Jews; Beevor notes the rehearsal for WW2 aspects of it in the text, in fact. To give the book its due, it goes into all theatres and covers them in some depth, however I came away from the book with a very sour feeling about the doings of my fellow men.
Not to be avoided, by any means; given his High Tory credentials the author is very even-handed. Just don't expect it to be uplifting - it most definitely isn't.

153spaceowl
Modificato: Feb 26, 2023, 6:26 pm

>151 Tess_W: I'm quite interested in the history of the Spanish Flu myself - there's a very good general history of the flu by Pete Davies called The Devil's Flu (or 'Catching Cold' in the UK) that follows the course of the epidemic and the search in recent years to find intact DNA from the outbreaks. Well worth a look.

154Tanya-dogearedcopy
Feb 26, 2023, 7:25 pm

>152 spaceowl: Thanks for the "Heads Up!" I actually have that one on my WL-- and will probably get to it regardless, but being forewarned is really helpful. I have to be careful with overly cynical texts (G.. Meyer veers very close to that edge) as they tend to feed in to my own negative mindset.

155cindydavid4
Feb 26, 2023, 7:45 pm

>152 spaceowl: Mans inhumanity to man has always been in the forefront/ I do know good things happen between people, but it always seems that people want to fight. I don't know what the answer is. Would love to find some works that show us the possibilies.

156Tess_W
Modificato: Feb 26, 2023, 10:48 pm

>152 spaceowl: Will put that on my WL for future reading.

ETA...according to the Library of Congress, Anthony Beevor did not write a book with just the title "Russia." He did write one entitled Russia: Revolution and Civil War, 1917-1921. Would that be the one of which you are speaking?

157Tanya-dogearedcopy
Modificato: Feb 27, 2023, 4:16 pm

I finished listening to Greenmantle (Richard Hannay #2; by John Buchan; narrated by Christian Rodska) - During WWI, John Buchan wrote 5 spy thrillers that served as propaganda to encourage enlistment in the British Army and remind would-be soldiers what they would be fighting for, e.g. the idyllic countryside (in The Thirty-Nine Steps, it is the Scottish moors & people). In this novel, Hannay and two compatriots must figure out who/what is galvanizing the Muslims into raising a Germanic-Turko jihad against the British presence in the Middle East. Code-breaking, car theft, sexy, women, and exotic settings in Turkey creste the backdrop against which Hannay opines about the comradeship with other soldiers on the front and the ultimate, noble sacrifice of one's life in service to the cause. Much of this reads like a Bond film and has its moments; but there are a couple of places that haven't aged well, namely the racial prejudice expressed.

In related news, I saw this headline."James Bond Novels Edited to Remove Racist Content":
https://variety.com/2023/film/news/james-bond-novels-edited-racism-1235536164/

Now, I'm listening to No Man's Land: 1918, The Last Year of the Great War (by John Toland; narrated by Grover Gardner) - It's starting off with Operation Michael, the German Offensive that began in early March , 1918.

158spaceowl
Feb 27, 2023, 4:39 pm

>156 Tess_W: Yes, that's the one - I thought that was the subtitle. Silly me.

159spaceowl
Feb 27, 2023, 4:48 pm

>157 Tanya-dogearedcopy: Isn't James Bond edited for racism 'James Bond: Cocktails I have known'?
Not sure I approve of all this presentism (see also: Roald Dahl). Surely a book can only reflect the times and culture it was written in, distasteful though that may now be?
I have a strange feeling that I am not the first person to raise this point. Please delete the post if it comes over as trolling, that was never the intent.

160Tanya-dogearedcopy
Feb 27, 2023, 7:13 pm

>159 spaceowl: LOL, To be fair, without racism, you still have sexism/misogyny and anti-environmentalism!
Years ago, I read all the books and I was surprised at how Fleming manages to offend a group of people in each book! It seems almost deliberately provocative.

I’m personally not a fan of censorship or banning. Even with the best of intentions, it’s a slippery slope.

161spaceowl
Feb 27, 2023, 7:35 pm

>160 Tanya-dogearedcopy: Yes, he's an equal-opportunities offender.

162Tess_W
Feb 27, 2023, 7:57 pm

>159 spaceowl: Being a historian, I never support censorship in any form.

163Tanya-dogearedcopy
Modificato: Mar 8, 2023, 4:53 pm

I finished listening to No Man's Land: 1918, The Last Year of the Great War (by John Toland; narrated by Grover Gardner) yesterday. It's a non-fiction work covering the German Spring Offensives that started in March of 1918 and, ended with the signing of the Armistice in November. The German operations were the last gambles of the Central Powers and it was basically, "Go big or go home!" Initially, the gamble paid off, but with arrival of American Expeditionary Forces and the decision of the Allied Forces to stop reacting defensively/start acting offensively, the odds tilted against the Germans. At the onset of the book, military strategy, defined by movement of divisions & battalions, is a bit daunting and makes it difficult to picture the action taking place over a fifty-mile line; but it sorts itself out in favor of focusing on the decision-making of the generals and the journal entries of witnesses. Though not the smoothest of narratives, it does bring into focus the key points of 1918-- so we have a clearer picture of the Meuse-Argonne, for instance.

On a related note, in 1928, R. C. Sherriff wrote a play called, Journey's End about seven British offers & soldiers in a bunker at the Battle of Amiens. It's March of 1918, at the start of Operation Michael (the first of four major German pushes) and tensions are running high. The play has been adapted into a couple different film versions since 1930 and last weekend, I watched the 2017 movie-- and it is intense, underscoring some of the universal themes of the mental & physical stresses of life on the frontline.

I don't think I've ever read so many books for a single prompt before! And yet, even though I still have a a stack left for this quarter, I find myself slowing down a bit. It look like I'll get to A Farewell to Arms (set at the Battle of Caporetto in the Italian Alps; by Ernest Hemingway) and The Great Swindle (historical-fiction/mystery; by Pierre Lemaitre) this month before I started transitioning over to the the next time period.

164Tanya-dogearedcopy
Modificato: Mar 9, 2023, 8:54 pm

Last night, I finished reading The Road Back (Remarque's Great War Duology #2; by Erich Maria Remarque) - a novel based on the author's experience after WWI ended and soldiers returned home from the frontlines. The story itself covers the remnants of Paul Bäumer's company from All Quiet on the Western Front, as they come back to their hometown in Germany but as intrinsically different men. AQOTWF is a Classic; but this "sequel" if you will, is often, inexplicably overlooked. The author articulates the plight of the military veterans: the mental & physical challenges as well as the post-war landscape of Germany as it transitions to a post-monarchial scene. Remarque is eloquent, and sometimes poetical in his descriptions even as many of the things he portrays are devastating.

Next up: A Farewell to Arms (by Ernest Hemingway) - another novel based on an author's experience during WWI, this one is set in the Italian Alps and features an American lieutenant serving in the ambulance corps.

165dianelouise100
Mar 12, 2023, 5:32 pm

For nonfiction for this topic, I’ve completed (finally) The War that Ended Peace: The Road to 1914 by Margaret MacMillan. The book is thoroughly researched and packed (overly packed) with detail. It is well organized, moving through all the countries involved; it answered most of my questions, though at some point, not soon, I’ll read more about the Balkans. Often, though, I found this book tedious and sometimes dry. I rate it at 3.5*, meaning that while I might refer to it at times, this is not a book I’ll reread.

166kac522
Modificato: Mar 12, 2023, 5:49 pm

I finished A Son at the Front by Edith Wharton (1922) last week, but have spent the last few days trying to figure out what I thought about it.

The premise is complicated. The book starts on July 30, 1914 with the main character, John Campton, an American portrait painter nearing 60 years old, who has been living in Paris for the last 30 or so years. John is divorced from his American wife Julia, who is also living in Paris and re-married to a successful American businessman, Mr Brant. John & Julia have one child from their marriage, George, who was born in France, but has gone to school in England and has recently graduated from Harvard. George has been groomed to join his step-father's business and is about to arrive in Paris for a short holiday before leaving for his job in New York. But when France declares war a few weeks later, dual citizen George is called up for the French military, since he is on French soil.

The book is told from John Campton's perspective. John wants as much time with his son as he can get, and is jealous of time spent with his mother & step-father. The wealthy step-father Mr Brant has managed to arrange a desk job for George. Once George leaves, the book focuses on John, Julia, Mr Brant and the other "old New Yorkers" found in other Wharton books: wealthy Americans living in Paris and attempting to live their society lives as usual. John watches as other sons join the fighting, become wounded, die, or, for those not conscripted, put their full energies into charitable home war efforts. John is glad his son is safe, but at the same time feels somehow ashamed and guilt that George has been saved from harm. John is resentful of the step-father Mr Brant being able to "do" for George that the struggling painter cannot afford to do for his own son.

Not much happens in this book until the last few chapters; it is a character study of the parents (and sons) left at home. Even as a character study, however, I still felt a certain distance from the characters (or perhaps I didn't fully sympathize with them). Beyond scenes in hospitals with the wounded, Wharton does not show any "scenes from the front." Some have labeled this an anti-war novel, but I don't see it that way exactly. Certainly there is much talk of "when the Americans will join" and indeed, the novel ends in April 1917 after the U.S. entered the war. There is an ambivalence here: Wharton describes the devastation to people's lives but she is still devoted to "The Idea of France...if France went, Western civilization went with her" (Ch. XXXII).

I feel as conflicted about the book as the picture that Wharton paints. Speaking of pictures, apparently the idea of the book came from a sketch that Pierre-Auguste Renoir did of his son in uniform before leaving for the front. That sketch is opposite the title page of my edition.

One article that helped me through my thoughts was a comparison of A Son at the Front with Willa Cather's One of Ours (1923), another WWI novel I read about 10 years ago. Both are about the lives at home; both female authors received criticism for attempting to write a book about a man's war. If you have read either of these novels, you might appreciate this analysis of the books, and literature about the Great War in general: https://cather.unl.edu/scholarship/catherstudies/8/cs008.olinammentorp

167atozgrl
Mar 15, 2023, 6:32 pm

I returned to LT after a long absence at the beginning of this year, and I only discovered the Reading Through Time group in the middle of February. I wanted to read something for this topic, but unfortunately most of what was on my shelves didn't apply or I had recently read it. The Great Influenza was one of the first books I read after I retired late last spring. I also read The York Patrol in November last year, which is too bad, because it would have been a good fit. I read The Guns of August many years ago and I'm not ready for a re-read yet.

I wound up getting a copy of First to fly : the story of the Lafayette Escadrille, the American heroes who flew for France in World War I by Charles Bracelen Flood from the library. It is a collection of the stories of some of the Americans who served in the Lafayette Escadrille, flying for France before the United States entered the war. I enjoyed the book, but I wish the author had provided a better explanation for how the Lafayette Escadrille was formed. I gave it 3.5 stars. My full review is on my main thread at https://www.librarything.com/topic/347822#n8094885.

I finally discovered that I have a copy of Sergeant York and His People, which I apparently picked up years ago from a library sale of withdrawn books. It was hiding in a box I hadn't unpacked yet. I have started reading it for this challenge and to continue working on my ROOTs.

168Tanya-dogearedcopy
Mar 15, 2023, 7:40 pm

>167 atozgrl: Totally off-topic, but every time I see "Atoz", I'm reminded of a Star Trek episode (TOS) where they have a librarian named Mr. Atoz :-)

More to the point (but still quite not there), one of my father's favorite movies was "Sargent York". Every time it was on, he settled into his couch for a couple hours to watch!

And finally, glad to have you here! I finished The Guns of August late last year and The Great Influenza last month. I know I read something about The Lafayette Escadrille years ago, but clearly before I had started tracking my reading, so I'm somewhat at a loss. It might have been To the Last Man (historical fiction by Jeff Shaara)...

I've just started A Farewell to Arms (by Ernest Hemingway) a couple days ago and hope to finish it and at least one other book, The Great Swindle (by Pierre Lemaitre)-- a historical fiction/mystery by the end of this month.

Looking forward to seeing what you're reading! :-)

169atozgrl
Mar 15, 2023, 9:05 pm

>168 Tanya-dogearedcopy: Thanks! I appreciate the welcome!

Yes, actually, I stole the "atoz" part of my alias from that Star Trek episode. Since I was a librarian until I retired. It seemed appropriate.

Sergeant York is one of my favorite movies too. I've been curious how much of the movie was true, so I picked up a couple of books over time. The one I'm reading now was published in 1922, so it's close to when the events occurred. Obviously, I forgot I even had it.

I have enjoyed hearing about what you're reading. It looks like this was a topic that really hit home for you!

170Tess_W
Mar 15, 2023, 10:53 pm

>166 kac522: Welcome (back)!

171MissWatson
Mar 16, 2023, 5:18 am

I picked a non-fiction account of the war from my shelves and finally finished it last night: 14 – Der Große Krieg. It's brief, but very informative and gives room to the build-up and the aftermath.

172atozgrl
Mar 21, 2023, 12:42 pm

I finished Sergeant York and His People on Sunday. It was an interesting history of the area of Tennessee that Sergeant York was from, and it reveals a lot about York as a person, but there was not a lot about World War I itself in the book. York's actions in the famous battle in the Argonne are described, but this is not the focus of the book.

Since it was published in 1922, it is a good reflection of that time in history. You get a real sense of the flavor of that part of rural Tennessee. In sum, this book is better to learn about a part of the US that may be unfamiliar and what it was like at this time, and not so much to learn more about the war itself.

My complete review is on my thread at https://www.librarything.com/topic/347822#8098545.

173Tess_W
Mar 21, 2023, 2:28 pm

>172 atozgrl: Sounds lovely! I have read Sergeant York: His Own Life Story and War Diary by York himself; or rather I think taken from his diaries. My husband also mentioned there is a Sergeant York movie starring Gary Cooper from the 1940's.

174atozgrl
Mar 21, 2023, 6:16 pm

>173 Tess_W: If you've never seen Sergeant York you should definitely check it out! It's one of my favorite movies. It's what raised my curiosity about Sergeant York in the first place. If you have access to Turner Classic Movies, they're showing it on Saturday morning, the 25th.

The book I read did include a quote from York's diary, where he described the famous battle. I guess I need to check out the book you mentioned!

175Tanya-dogearedcopy
Modificato: Mar 22, 2023, 6:08 pm

Last evening, I finished the last book in my stack for this quarterly prompt, A Farewell to Arms (by Ernest Hemingway)-- the Classic novel of the love affair between an American ambulance driver serving with the Italian army on the battlefront at Caporetto during WWI, and a British nurse. The dialogue between Lt. Henry and Catherine Barkley was weird and literally off-beat; but the rest of the novel, based on Hemingway's own wartime experience, was vivid with carefully chosen details to add timbre and foreshadowing to various scenes.

I started The Great Swindle (Les Enfants du Désastre #1; by Pierre Lemaitre; translated from the French by Frank Wynne), a historical fiction set in the final days of WWI and onwards. I was going to finish out this month's prompt with this, but when I was looking up the details of this book, I discovered that the English name for the trilogy is "Paris Between the Wars"-- so I'm moving this to count for next quarter's prompt!

176Familyhistorian
Mar 24, 2023, 1:40 pm

I chose fiction to read for the WWI challenge. In this case it was a genealogical mystery with the mystery to be discovered tying in to the battlefields in France. The Somme Legacy focused both on the present day genealogist, Jayne Sinclair, and her investigation and the past both on the battlefield and back in the UK. It was a twisty tale of a marriage the bride hoped to prove and the aristocratic family strove to deny once the supposed husband and heir appeared to be lost on the Somme. In doing that the narrative showed both the battlefront and homefront during the period of the war.

177CurrerBell
Mar 26, 2023, 11:17 pm

Whew! I just finished my read for this quarter, Churchill's The World Crisis, 1911-1918. It's a one-volume abridgement (the original, I think, was five volumes) and it's a somewhat decent summary of WW1, except that the focus is very heavily on all things Churchillian (which is fairly typical of Churchill), hence the somewhat heavier emphasis on the Dardanelles Campaign than the topic warranted. At 840-some pages, it turned out to be a bit of a slog and I haven't gotten much else of anything else read these past few weeks.

OK, so now I'll be playing catchup on the March theme of Notorious Women, where I think I'm going to do Margaret Atwood's Alias Grace, which may be a quick enough read that I can get finished before the month runs out.

178MissWatson
Mar 28, 2023, 3:50 am

Das verschwundene Fräulein is set in late July 1914, the Austrian ultimatum is running out and war is declared at the end. I'll be interested to see if the author continues the series into the War. I hope she pays more attention to naval matters then, having an Oberstleutnant (Lt.Colonel) as a naval rank is an embarrassing slip-up.

179PocheFamily
Mar 29, 2023, 6:16 pm

Completed the audiobook version of TR's Last War: Theodore Roosevelt, the Great War, and a Journey of Triumph and Tragedy. It's an exhaustive survey of the political environment around WWI centered upon Theodore Roosevelt's activities and relationships. TR's youngest son died during the war, and all four sons served, but TR himself was unable to get permission to raise troops and go over to Europe.

The narration was fine, if a little difficult because there wasn't much distinction in the importance of sentences read (a pleasant voice with plenty of modulation, but every sentence was the same). When I say "exhaustive survey" I mean "included every scrap", or so it seemed. If I'd been reading a physical book I would have preferred charts or lists - so forgive my criticism if inappropriate to the physical book. Generally, very informative without getting too bogged down for too long without a point, but definitely not a general survey of the times. Last thought: holey schmoley, we do tend to repeat history, don't we?!?!

180cindydavid4
Mar 30, 2023, 12:13 am

yes indeed we do

181Tanya-dogearedcopy
Modificato: Mar 31, 2023, 1:30 pm

So, I did a little count and while I know I had read more books for this prompt than any other ever, anywhere, I was still a bit startled to realize I had covered 19 books!!! Most of it was non-fiction (about half) and the rest fiction contemporary to the time (another ~25%) and historical fiction.

In terms of the NF, a lot of areas of interest that I had little or no idea about were opened up to me which I will want to pursue later (the Italian front, the African front, the Middle eastern front and, more about the Russian/Bolshevik revolution) and I already have a wishlist & stack going! The books that I would highly recommend from this round are G.J. Meyer's The World Remade: America in World War I , Adam Hochschild's American Midnight: The Great War, a Violent Peace, and Democracy's Forgotten Crisis, Joe Sacco's panaorma, The Great War: July 1, 1916: The First Day of the Battle of the Somme and, Alfred Lansing's Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage (narrated by Simon Prebble)-- though all the material from my list helped create a syncretic picture of the times.

For fiction, I greatly enjoyed The African Queen (by C.F. Forester) and A Farewell to Arms (by Ernest Hemingway)-- both Classics that really don't need description or subtitles, LOL.

I watched about a half-dozen movies and was absolutely stunned by the 2022 film adaption of Erich Maris Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front (directed by Edward Berger; starring Felix Kammerer). It won four Oscars (out of nine noms), including Best International Feature and, honestly, I felt it was robbed of Best Film overall. I'll round out the month by watching Sargent York tonight or over the weekend. This was my dad's favorite movie and I wish I had spent some time watching it with him instead of rolling my eyes as a teenager and going on about my business while he settled into his couch with his pipe and the TV.

Now onwards to the Interwar period :-)

182kac522
Mar 31, 2023, 4:13 pm

>181 Tanya-dogearedcopy: Well done! I only read 3 books, but hope to improve on that with the inter-war years.

183countrylife
Apr 1, 2023, 1:16 pm

>173 Tess_W: : Our family loves that old Sergeant York movie. When my children were 4 to 14-ish, they'd watch it over and again.

The ladies in our family took a road trip through Tennessee to see his home. His grandson gave us the tour. (I'm the one in the far back.) Then we went down the road to see the Wolf River Cemetery where he is buried and where there is a sign pointing to the area on the mountain where he had his thinking spot. Next we visited the York Gristmill. For readers and history buffs, it was a good trip.


184atozgrl
Modificato: Apr 1, 2023, 4:11 pm

>181 Tanya-dogearedcopy: I watched Sergeant York on TCM last week, and wrote up some of my thoughts for the John Huston Film Fest thread if you are interested. Since I had just finished reading Sergeant York and His People, I wanted to get my thoughts down about the differences I noticed between what was in the book as compared to the film.

>183 countrylife: Thanks for sharing the pictures! How cool that York's grandson gave the tour that you were on! Looks like I need to make that trip.

185cindydavid4
Apr 2, 2023, 11:18 am

>183 countrylife: oh what fun! great pics

186Tess_W
Apr 15, 2023, 9:56 am

>183 countrylife: Just my kind of day!