Wednesday Reading Meme

[osprey_archer]

What I’ve Just Finished Reading

Thomas Hughes’ Tom Brown’s School Days is a cracking good read. I highly recommend it to anyone who likes school stories, both as an excellent school story in its own right and because it was the book that catapulted the genre to broad popularity.

I also read Julia Zarankin’s Field Notes from an Unintentional Birder, which filled me with enthusiasm for birding almost strong enough to overcome the fact that birding is evidently a hobby replete with four a.m. wake-up times. This book is part general memoir, part meditation on birding as a metaphor for life (“Focus on what’s in front of you, on what you’re looking at rather than what you want to see”), part bubbling enthusiasm about the joy of birds. Zarankin is particularly partial to warblers.

And for the Newbery Honor project, I finished Virginia Hamilton’s In the Beginning: Creation Stories from around the World. I must confess I have very little interest in creation stories and never would have read this if it weren’t for the project, but probably it broadened my horizons or something.

What I’m Reading Now

Hew Strachan’s The First World War, which is really driving home the WORLD part of the world war. In one sense I already knew this, of course, but the scope is so vast that it slips out of my grasp without regular repetition.

E. W. Hornung’s Notes of a Camp-Follower on the Western Front, which is about Hornung’s time working in a YMCA canteen during World War I. You may be familiar with Hornung as the author of the Raffles stories, and in that capacity may be pleased to hear that he helpfully informs us whenever a handsome soldier visits the YMCA canteen, which happens a lot.

I’ve also got back in the saddle with Mary Renault’s The Last of the Wine. As per usual with Mary Renault books, this will probably get a full review when I’m done, but for the moment I will just note that this book is giving me strong Sutcliff vibes. If the characters from a Sutcliff novel suddenly walked into the agora and started chatting with Alexias, I would go “Yeah, this tracks,” probably even if they were technically from an entirely different century.

What I Plan to Read Next

I’m going to keep on with Stratchan’s book, but I think I also need a book that focuses more specifically on the military history of the Western Front. Any suggestions?

Comments

[troisoiseaux]

which filled me with enthusiasm for birding almost strong enough to overcome the fact that birding is evidently a hobby replete with four a.m. wake-up times

Aww, I love memoirs that are basically just, "let me share my enthusiasm about this thing!" This one sounds great.

[osprey_archer]

It's just so much fun to bask in the author's enthusiasm like that! And without having to get up at 4 a.m. OR learn the difference between five nearly indistinguishable warblers.

[oracne]

E. W. Hornung’s Notes of a Camp-Follower on the Western Front sounds right up my alley!

I don't have this book but I covet it: Neiberg, Michael S. The Western Front, 1914–1916: From the Schlieffen Plan to Verdun and the Somme. London: Amber, 2008. Also on my wishlist: Beckett, Ian F. W. The Great War, 1914–1918.

I need to read the Strachan beginning to end - I've only dipped into it for certain information. John Keegan is a major WWI scholar with an overview book I didn't particularly love and used more as a reference than a thing to read cover to cover. Stéphane Audoin-Rouzeau in translation has a French perspective on the military history: 14-18: Understanding the Great War. There's a newish book by Jonathan Boff with a German perspective, which I have not read, and don't own yet.

More granular detail:
Tommy: The British Soldier on the Western Front 1914-1918 by Richard Holmes has a soldier's perspective. All Quiet on the Home Front: An Oral History of Life in Britain During the First World War by Humphries & van Enden might be useful to you as well. Lyn Macdonald has a whole series of books on different years or aspects of the war that compile large quantities of first person narratives in chronological order; I've found these IMMENSELY helpful for story research and significant detail.

[osprey_archer]

The Hornung is lots of fun. It's available for free on Gutenberg if you do ebooks.

My library is hit or miss on which of these books it has. It does have the Audoin-Rouzeau, but it's less relevant to my current project so I might keep that in reserve for now. I could use a book about the German perspective (not for David and Robert, for a different book), but alas, they don't have the Boff! They do have a brand spanking new book by Nick Lloyd, The Western Front: A History of the Great War, 1914-1918, which looks quite lengthy but might be the overview I'm looking for.

One thing the library does have are quite a few of Lyn Macdonald's books, although not The Roses of No Man's Land, the one I really want! I've put an interlibrary loan on that. I'll have to decide if I want to focus in at once on the books most relevant to David and Robert (specifically, to the battles where my heroes were wounded, although that happens before the book starts) or just go through them all.

[oracne]

THE ROSES OF NO MAN'S LAND is truly excellent (it was the first one of Macdonald's I read). I have a whole collection of books about WWI nursing, from the first novel I ever finished.

Through German Eyes: The British & The Somme 1916 by Christopher Duffy is supposed to be out in August, but it looks like the $1.99 Kindle edition is available now?

I find Osprey books to be of immeasurable value: https://ospreypublishing.com/store/military-history/period-books/world-war-1?___store=osprey_usa

Absolute Destruction: Military Culture and the practices of War in Imperial Germany by Isabel V. Hull is more about the way military strategies developed in their colonies were used in WWI against civilians than review of battles, so probably not useful for your purpose (I have not read it yet).

I had not heard about the Lloyd! I have now wishlisted it. My campus library (dayjob) has the Boff but I haven't gotten to it yet, and I did not want to try and get it until campus is more open. Because I AM NOT LACKING IN BOOKS TO READ AT ALL.

[osprey_archer]

My roommate is starting a project with a character who is a WWI nurse, either on the western front or back in a London hospital. Once she's decided, I may pick your brain for titles.

Do you know any titles specifically about ambulance drivers? I'm particularly interested in the girl ambulance drivers, but just ambulance drivers in general is fine too.

[oracne]

Fanny Goes to War by Pat Beauchamp - it's on Project Gutenberg.

War Girls: The First Aid Nursing Yeomanry in the First World War by Janet Lee.

There's a somewhat depressing 1930 novel, Not So Quiet by Helen Zenna Smith (Evadne Price) that was very useful to me because it has a lot of nitty gritty detail. It's apparently based on actual diaries of a driver, but those diaries are not available anywhere. Jennifer Robson used it for her novels: https://jennifer-robson.com/bonusmaterial/women-ambulance-drivers-first-world-war/

There's stuff about the later-famous Americans who were ambulance drivers: Ernest Hemingway, John Dos Passos, e.e. cummings, Walt Disney. I have not read any of it except A FAREWELL TO ARMS, which I don't recall having a lot of detail, but maybe I'm remembering wrong?

[osprey_archer]

Fanny Goes to War looks absolutely perfect! (The character in actually American, but I expect I can find an American ambulance driver/Red Cross nurse memoir to supplement. Anyway, this is all just background, she is not doing any nursing in the actual prospective book, as she gets caught up in a miniature revolution.)

My recollection is that A Farewell to Arms is like 90% a sappy romance between not!Hemingway and a nurse character (yes: here is my review) and contains no useful ambulance driving detail at all. The man actually drove ambulances! He has no excuse for leaving that out entirely!

[oracne]

DAMN IT, ERNEST, WHY NO DETAILS?!

[osprey_archer]

Genuinely baffled by Ernest Hemingway's priorities in fiction. He has this reputation as a Manly Writer for Manly Men and then he leaves out all the Manly Ambulance Driving in favor of schmoop.

[oracne]

Nurses at the Front: Writing the Wounds of the Great War ed. Margaret R. Higonnet is American.

[kore]

Last of the Wine was really popular with a bunch of my friends, but I think I only reread it once. My fave Renault historicals are The Persian Boy, The Mask of Apollo, and The Praise Singer, in about that order.

....ooh, I didn't know the BBC did the Charioteer as a radio play in 2013, I should try looking that up.

[osprey_archer]

I picked The Last of the Wine because it was the one (aside from The Charioteer) early enough that my 1965 character in Sleeping Beauty might have read it... although TBH I think it might be a little too helpful in learning to understand his new friend the Civil War veteran who has been asleep since 1865. Possibly I will just have him read The Charioteer over and over, as that might help solidify all his most unhelpful attitudes.

[asakiyume]

Warblers are such a large group of birds and have such gorgeous plumage--and are so delightful generally--that I can understand her enthusiasm. I remember the first time I saw this beauty:

--look at that sweetie! Little zebra stripes!

And so many pretty golden ones--this was the first I ever noticed nearby:



So striking! ... Yeah, I understand people loving warblers.

[osprey_archer]

That zebra-striped warbler is so striking! They're so fat and cute, too. A solid choice for favorite bird family.

[holyschist]

birding is evidently a hobby replete with four a.m. wake-up times

Yeeeeeeep. It helps to have a birding buddy (and a favorite breakfast place to go afterwards). Winter birding is colder, but sunrise is later. Dusk is not bad.

But for midday people, I really recommend getting into dragonflies. :-P

[osprey_archer]

Sometimes, the best way to enjoy a hobby is by reading a book about it in the comfort of one's own home. I feel this way about hardcore mountain climbing, too.

[holyschist]

There are many hobbies like that! Definitely how I feel about wilderness hobbies and mountain climbing, for sure...

I enjoy birding when I go with other people, but will never have enough motivation to become a serious get-up-early birder on my own. But there are other ways to bird - my grandma was a kitchen window birdfeeder birder, and I've gotten to know our yard/feeder birds really well the last few years. It's a different kind of birding - about observing behaviors of mostly common species and sometimes getting to know individuals, rather than seeking out new and different birds - but satisfying (and also lazy and comfy). And I have to admit a lot of my favorite species tend to be largeish, easy to identify, and out all day (waterfowl, herons, seabirds...). I gotta reply to your latest letter, sorry I've been slack - I have lots of Crow Family updates!

[osprey_archer]

Yes, I may scale my birding ambitions back to "birds that I see on my daily walks at whichever time I happen to take them." I can identify many of the larger ones (robins, ducks, crows, cardinals, blue jays...); the problem birds are the little ones that might be sparrows or might be warblers or might be ??? Clearly a bird book is in order.

[holyschist]

I really like Sibley - it's a classic for a reason, and I feel like it's easier not to get hung up on the markings of an individual bird with illustrations rather than photos. You can get a feel for sparrows vs finches vs warblers after a while, but I gotta admit I mostly don't even try to tell sparrows apart.

[osprey_archer]

Sometimes the most important thing is to know "is it a sparrow?", and never mind exactly which kind of sparrow.

[holyschist]

100% how I feel about gulls, and everyone who says they can identify gulls is probably lying.

(I love them all. All gulls are good gulls.)

[hedgebird]

Sutcliff's The Flowers of Adonis and "A Crown of Wild Olive" actually take place in the same timeframe as The Last of the Wine. And Sutcliff is on record as a huge fan of Renault! Their respective versions of Alkibiades make an interesting comparison.

[osprey_archer]

I am now imagining the two literary Alkibiades meeting and... probably fighting to the death, because the two Alkibiades would just take one look at each other and be all "There Can Be Only One."

I'm super curious now if Renault ever read Sutcliff, although I'm having kind of a hard time envisioning her reading children's books. Still, you never know!