Operation "Fifty in Twelve": July Round-Up
Yay! Still really late but not as late as last time. That's gotta count for something, right?
Anyway, July was officially "Oh, hey, let's only read stuff written by women!" month (which is kinda stupid because that should have been March but then again, we really should have more than one Women's History Month a year!) and it worked pretty well. Mostly because I still have a veritable stack of half-finished military history books written by women here and thought I could use July to finish a few of them. And what can I say: it worked! So, lots of books in this round-up but some of them, admittedly, already half-read when I took them up to finish but some of them were kind of heavy-weights so they still count!
Okay, then, let's delve into this!
Cairo in the War: 1939 - 1945, Artemis Cooper
Kind of a standard work, especially for an area not covered as extensively as other hot spots of World War II. Cairo, in this history, was a hub for a number of fronts in WWII, from North Africa to Italy, former Yugoslavia and Greece. Cooper - a renowned British writer, mainly of biographies - wrote this over thirty years ago but damn, it's still entertaining and informative and reads like a spy thriller, a well-researched military history, a juicy gossip rag, a political thriller and an adventure story all rolled into one. The title is kinda dry but the book is one hell of a ride. Cooper has a gift for writing and painting a vivid picture of the complicated network of British and Allied military, profiteers of all nationalities, natives, celebrities, royalty, spies, politicians, refugees and merchants in Cairo, the intrigues at King Faisal's court, British and Allied military action in at least five corners of the North African and European theaters of war and the general atmosphere of a fascinating city in war time. It's even, considering that it was written in the 1980s, fairly critical of British colonial policy and conduct. Even if you're not as much into WWII as I am, this is a really good book!
Rating: * * * */* * * * *
Hotel Florida: Love, Death and Truth in the Spanish Civil War, Amanda Vaill
Not exactly WWII but close enough. Result of my search for books about the Spanish Civil War, since I only knew most of the basics and, after reading C. J. Sansom's Winter in Madrid (good book, BTW, but, if I remember it correctly, with a pretty dissatisfying ending), wanted to broaden my knowledge. I also wanted a broader foundation for my academic studies, since wars of the 20th and 21st century are kinda my thing and this sounded like a good way to start. Vaill takes the Hotel Florida in Madrid as a kind of basis for her account of the Spanish Civil War mostly through the eyes of pro-loyalist journalists, both Spanish and foreign, and since apparently almost everyone who considered themselves left-leaning, antifascist and/or communist was in Spain during the Civil War at some point, this reads like a Who-is-Who. Gerda Taro, Robert Capa, Ernest Hemingway, Jon Dos Passos, Martha Gellhorn, you name them, they were there. This isn't some kind of awestruck fawning, though. Instead, Vaill dissects complicated personalities and relationships, takes great care to picture all those great names not as larger-than-life figures but as people who had dreams and aspirations, faults and passions and who loved, hated, had petty feuds, made friends and enemies and produced some of the greatest works of literature and art (c.f. Mexican suitcase, For Whom the Bell Tolls) in a savage war that was kind of a blueprint World War II. Definitely a good place to start if you want to delve into this by now half-forgotten war that foretold a lot about what was to follow later.
Rating: * * * */* * * * *
What Happens in London, Julia Quinn
Yes, another Quinn. Not a Bridgerton, but it's set in the same universe. I wish Julia would give us one big diagram of a timeline so we can see which of her books are set in the same timeframes but alas, she hasn't done so yet. Anyway, this is a funny one! It incorporates the line "Hell was boilithing in his heart, as well." and that alone makes it recommendable as hell. Sir Harry and Lady Olivia also are exceedingly nice protagonists. There's drama, of course (a Russian prince! A dramatical reading! Housemaids in tears! Even a dislocated limb!) and there's even meta (one plot point that keeps coming up is a fictional series of really bad romance but strangely enjoyable romance novels that are all the rage in Julia Quinn's Regency London, and honestly, how much more meta can you get in a romance novel about Regency London?) and it's just a book that's lots of fun. If you want light, funny and fast reading, this is definitely a book you should consider. I've read it like four or five times by now and I still love it so, so much.
Rating: * * * */* * * * *
Indian Summer: The Secret History of the End of an Empire, Alex von Tunzelmann
Originally, this is one my mom bought, because she loves India and Indian history and then abandoned because she does read English well but finds it challenging. I took it up after Mom and I watched Viceroy's House and I realized that it's been seventy years since the historical events behind the movie. I also wanted to know how much of that movie was artistic licence and how much of it had actually happened and I took it as an opportunity to learn more about a region and a time period I only know a few basic things about. Von Tunzelmann - who's British, despite the German sounding name and also a very outspoken critic of British colonialism and colonialist historiography and she's a serious academic with blue hair and honestly, just look her up on Twitter, her account rocks - starts out way earlier than 1948, though, and delves really deep into the conflicted and often enough horrible history between Britain and India as well as the personalities and personal history of her main protagonists - Lord Louis "Dickie" Mountbatten, Edwina, Lady Mountbatten, Jawaharlal Nehru, Muhammad Ali Jinna and Mahatma Ghandi chief among them - and gives a striking account of how and why Partition happened and who had what role to play. She also sheds light on the very complicated relationship between Mountbatten, Edwina and Nehru on the one hand and all participants with each other and how it impacted the fate of three nations, and doesn't spare her readers the terrible consequences of the decision to establish two separate countries. Reading this helped understand a lot of today's conflicts in the AFPAK region and on the Indian subcontinent and sheds a light on how colonialism is still hurting millions of people. A very well researched, very thorough and still very accessible account of one of the most impactful events in the first half of the 20th century.
Rating: * * * */* * * * *
Don't Mean Nothing: Short Stories of Viet Nam, Susan O'Neill
This book hurts. I bought it when I was really obsessed with the Vietnam War (okay, full disclosure: I'm still really obsessed with the Vietnam War, but most books deal almost exclusively with men's stories and let's all be honest here: there needs to be a very good reason why a book features exclusively men for me to still want to read it) and was looking for just about anything that dealt with the role of female soldiers in Vietnam. I stumbled across this and found it interesting because it features something that is really, really rare: fictional work about the Vietnam War, written by a woman who served there (there were between 7000 and 11000 and no, the Pentagon still doesn't have precise figures because back then, they really, really sucked at personnel paperwork, this isn't a joke, you can read about it in almost all non-fiction works about women in the Vietnam War), featuring almost exclusively women serving in Vietnam as its protagonists. And let me tell you... this is not a book for the faint of heart. Most of the protagonists are working in US field hospitals in some role or other (the author served as an Army nurse in Vietnam) and this book captures the brutality and the mind-fuck and the cynicism of a thoroughly fucked up war in hard uncompromising prose that sometimes makes it difficult to read on. And that's exactly what makes it so important, even fifty, forty years later (especially considering that the US and their NATO allies are bogged down in two neverending wars that seem to feature a lot of similarities with some of the worst aspects of the Vietnam War). Read this. Read this.
Rating: * * * * */* * * * *
And If I Perish: Frontline U.S. Army Nurses in World War II, Evelyn Monahan, Rosemary Neidel-Greenlee
Ah, yeah. I started this a couple years ago and then somehow discontinued because of a lot of other stuff I had to read for my studies and this was relevant but not required. It also doesn't have the same narrative quality of Cairo in the War, Hotel Florida or Indian Summer, mostly probably because it doesn't concentrate on protagonists that much but more on events. Monahan/Neidel-Greenlee do follow individiual nurses, across several campaigns actually, but there are a lot of them and there are no well-known names. What this book excels in, though, is its comprehensiveness. If you want to learn about the European Theatre of War, the history of battlefield medicine and wartime nursing, this is required reading because it's just so thorough. Also, when Monahan/Neidel-Greenlee wrote "Frontline" in their title, they meant that. I've read a couple other books about British and US military nurses in WWII but this one takes a very thorough look especially at those nurses who went ashore in North Africa in the middle of an ongoing invasion (meaning they landed in the middle of the night, right in an active combat zone, without the extensive training the male infantrists had, without any weapons or even a damn map), lived under the constand thread of shelling at Anzio and were as close to the Battle of the Bulge as you could get in a non-combat unit. It was amazing reading about these women who were told they'd care for sick and wounded soldiers and never see any combat and ended up performing tremendous acts of courage to protect each other and their patients during artillery shelling, fighter plane strafings and extremely uncomfortable weather and living conditions. Despite a bit of a lack of narrative quality, this is still a book worth reading, most of all because there is just so much to learn from it.
Rating: * * * */* * * * *
The Sum of All Kisses, Julia Quinn
My favorite among the Smythe-Smith quartet, which is why I spontaneously decided to re-read it. Both hero - brooding, wounded, a genius mathematician - and heroine - intelligent, funny and dying to get married so she never has to play music ever again - are a bit prickly in different ways, and they have a hearty antipathy going on at the start of the book which is one of my kryptonite tropes. It's a romance, so we all know they're going to end up with each other, anyway but the fun really lies in discovering how this happens. And those two have a great story, full of animosity and sarcasm and chemistry and grudging respect growing into genuine affection. And drama. Of course there's also drama. There's also a work in progress play by a budding young playwright, unicorns and so much witty dialogue. This is fun, and a really good read for a bit of an escape from reality.
Rating: * * * * */* * * * *
Ten Things I Love About You, Julia Quinn
Yes. Yes. Another re-read. It's a direct sequel to What Happens in London, featuring Sir Harry's cousin Sebastian Grey and the lovely, outspoken Annabel Winslow. Sebastian kind of steals the show in What Happens in London, so after finishing that one, I felt the urge to re-read Sebastian's book as well. We get treated to more horrible romance - and learn who the near mythical Sarah Gorely really is! - more drama - Annabel is promised to Sebastian's horrible and disgusting uncle to produce an heir because otherwise, Sebastian, whom his uncle hates, is going to inherit everything (Sebastian is a bit of Schrodinger's heir in this, which is a refreshing change from heroes already born into wealth and power) - and lots of witty and fun dialogues. Also, I loved the friendship between Annabel and her cousin Sarah a lot and I kinda found myself wishing we'd also get her story (this is why I love Julia's books so much: her portrayal of female friendship in all of her books. Julia has no time for women doing something as silly as warring for the same man but she has a lot of time and space for women supporting and loving each other). So, if you decide to read What Happens in London, just do yourself a favor and buy this, too. You will want to read it.
Rating: * * * */* * * * *
Book count as of July 31: 39/50
Alright, that's it for this month. How are you? How's your reading? Also, something I'd really love to know: so far, have you found any books on here you wouldn't have considered reading because they're not in your typical range of stuff you like but thought to give a try because I talked about them here? Any books you'd like to recommend to me that don't seem to fit in my portfolio of interests?
Anyway, July was officially "Oh, hey, let's only read stuff written by women!" month (which is kinda stupid because that should have been March but then again, we really should have more than one Women's History Month a year!) and it worked pretty well. Mostly because I still have a veritable stack of half-finished military history books written by women here and thought I could use July to finish a few of them. And what can I say: it worked! So, lots of books in this round-up but some of them, admittedly, already half-read when I took them up to finish but some of them were kind of heavy-weights so they still count!
Okay, then, let's delve into this!
Cairo in the War: 1939 - 1945, Artemis Cooper
Kind of a standard work, especially for an area not covered as extensively as other hot spots of World War II. Cairo, in this history, was a hub for a number of fronts in WWII, from North Africa to Italy, former Yugoslavia and Greece. Cooper - a renowned British writer, mainly of biographies - wrote this over thirty years ago but damn, it's still entertaining and informative and reads like a spy thriller, a well-researched military history, a juicy gossip rag, a political thriller and an adventure story all rolled into one. The title is kinda dry but the book is one hell of a ride. Cooper has a gift for writing and painting a vivid picture of the complicated network of British and Allied military, profiteers of all nationalities, natives, celebrities, royalty, spies, politicians, refugees and merchants in Cairo, the intrigues at King Faisal's court, British and Allied military action in at least five corners of the North African and European theaters of war and the general atmosphere of a fascinating city in war time. It's even, considering that it was written in the 1980s, fairly critical of British colonial policy and conduct. Even if you're not as much into WWII as I am, this is a really good book!
Rating: * * * */* * * * *
Hotel Florida: Love, Death and Truth in the Spanish Civil War, Amanda Vaill
Not exactly WWII but close enough. Result of my search for books about the Spanish Civil War, since I only knew most of the basics and, after reading C. J. Sansom's Winter in Madrid (good book, BTW, but, if I remember it correctly, with a pretty dissatisfying ending), wanted to broaden my knowledge. I also wanted a broader foundation for my academic studies, since wars of the 20th and 21st century are kinda my thing and this sounded like a good way to start. Vaill takes the Hotel Florida in Madrid as a kind of basis for her account of the Spanish Civil War mostly through the eyes of pro-loyalist journalists, both Spanish and foreign, and since apparently almost everyone who considered themselves left-leaning, antifascist and/or communist was in Spain during the Civil War at some point, this reads like a Who-is-Who. Gerda Taro, Robert Capa, Ernest Hemingway, Jon Dos Passos, Martha Gellhorn, you name them, they were there. This isn't some kind of awestruck fawning, though. Instead, Vaill dissects complicated personalities and relationships, takes great care to picture all those great names not as larger-than-life figures but as people who had dreams and aspirations, faults and passions and who loved, hated, had petty feuds, made friends and enemies and produced some of the greatest works of literature and art (c.f. Mexican suitcase, For Whom the Bell Tolls) in a savage war that was kind of a blueprint World War II. Definitely a good place to start if you want to delve into this by now half-forgotten war that foretold a lot about what was to follow later.
Rating: * * * */* * * * *
What Happens in London, Julia Quinn
Yes, another Quinn. Not a Bridgerton, but it's set in the same universe. I wish Julia would give us one big diagram of a timeline so we can see which of her books are set in the same timeframes but alas, she hasn't done so yet. Anyway, this is a funny one! It incorporates the line "Hell was boilithing in his heart, as well." and that alone makes it recommendable as hell. Sir Harry and Lady Olivia also are exceedingly nice protagonists. There's drama, of course (a Russian prince! A dramatical reading! Housemaids in tears! Even a dislocated limb!) and there's even meta (one plot point that keeps coming up is a fictional series of really bad romance but strangely enjoyable romance novels that are all the rage in Julia Quinn's Regency London, and honestly, how much more meta can you get in a romance novel about Regency London?) and it's just a book that's lots of fun. If you want light, funny and fast reading, this is definitely a book you should consider. I've read it like four or five times by now and I still love it so, so much.
Rating: * * * */* * * * *
Indian Summer: The Secret History of the End of an Empire, Alex von Tunzelmann
Originally, this is one my mom bought, because she loves India and Indian history and then abandoned because she does read English well but finds it challenging. I took it up after Mom and I watched Viceroy's House and I realized that it's been seventy years since the historical events behind the movie. I also wanted to know how much of that movie was artistic licence and how much of it had actually happened and I took it as an opportunity to learn more about a region and a time period I only know a few basic things about. Von Tunzelmann - who's British, despite the German sounding name and also a very outspoken critic of British colonialism and colonialist historiography and she's a serious academic with blue hair and honestly, just look her up on Twitter, her account rocks - starts out way earlier than 1948, though, and delves really deep into the conflicted and often enough horrible history between Britain and India as well as the personalities and personal history of her main protagonists - Lord Louis "Dickie" Mountbatten, Edwina, Lady Mountbatten, Jawaharlal Nehru, Muhammad Ali Jinna and Mahatma Ghandi chief among them - and gives a striking account of how and why Partition happened and who had what role to play. She also sheds light on the very complicated relationship between Mountbatten, Edwina and Nehru on the one hand and all participants with each other and how it impacted the fate of three nations, and doesn't spare her readers the terrible consequences of the decision to establish two separate countries. Reading this helped understand a lot of today's conflicts in the AFPAK region and on the Indian subcontinent and sheds a light on how colonialism is still hurting millions of people. A very well researched, very thorough and still very accessible account of one of the most impactful events in the first half of the 20th century.
Rating: * * * */* * * * *
Don't Mean Nothing: Short Stories of Viet Nam, Susan O'Neill
This book hurts. I bought it when I was really obsessed with the Vietnam War (okay, full disclosure: I'm still really obsessed with the Vietnam War, but most books deal almost exclusively with men's stories and let's all be honest here: there needs to be a very good reason why a book features exclusively men for me to still want to read it) and was looking for just about anything that dealt with the role of female soldiers in Vietnam. I stumbled across this and found it interesting because it features something that is really, really rare: fictional work about the Vietnam War, written by a woman who served there (there were between 7000 and 11000 and no, the Pentagon still doesn't have precise figures because back then, they really, really sucked at personnel paperwork, this isn't a joke, you can read about it in almost all non-fiction works about women in the Vietnam War), featuring almost exclusively women serving in Vietnam as its protagonists. And let me tell you... this is not a book for the faint of heart. Most of the protagonists are working in US field hospitals in some role or other (the author served as an Army nurse in Vietnam) and this book captures the brutality and the mind-fuck and the cynicism of a thoroughly fucked up war in hard uncompromising prose that sometimes makes it difficult to read on. And that's exactly what makes it so important, even fifty, forty years later (especially considering that the US and their NATO allies are bogged down in two neverending wars that seem to feature a lot of similarities with some of the worst aspects of the Vietnam War). Read this. Read this.
Rating: * * * * */* * * * *
And If I Perish: Frontline U.S. Army Nurses in World War II, Evelyn Monahan, Rosemary Neidel-Greenlee
Ah, yeah. I started this a couple years ago and then somehow discontinued because of a lot of other stuff I had to read for my studies and this was relevant but not required. It also doesn't have the same narrative quality of Cairo in the War, Hotel Florida or Indian Summer, mostly probably because it doesn't concentrate on protagonists that much but more on events. Monahan/Neidel-Greenlee do follow individiual nurses, across several campaigns actually, but there are a lot of them and there are no well-known names. What this book excels in, though, is its comprehensiveness. If you want to learn about the European Theatre of War, the history of battlefield medicine and wartime nursing, this is required reading because it's just so thorough. Also, when Monahan/Neidel-Greenlee wrote "Frontline" in their title, they meant that. I've read a couple other books about British and US military nurses in WWII but this one takes a very thorough look especially at those nurses who went ashore in North Africa in the middle of an ongoing invasion (meaning they landed in the middle of the night, right in an active combat zone, without the extensive training the male infantrists had, without any weapons or even a damn map), lived under the constand thread of shelling at Anzio and were as close to the Battle of the Bulge as you could get in a non-combat unit. It was amazing reading about these women who were told they'd care for sick and wounded soldiers and never see any combat and ended up performing tremendous acts of courage to protect each other and their patients during artillery shelling, fighter plane strafings and extremely uncomfortable weather and living conditions. Despite a bit of a lack of narrative quality, this is still a book worth reading, most of all because there is just so much to learn from it.
Rating: * * * */* * * * *
The Sum of All Kisses, Julia Quinn
My favorite among the Smythe-Smith quartet, which is why I spontaneously decided to re-read it. Both hero - brooding, wounded, a genius mathematician - and heroine - intelligent, funny and dying to get married so she never has to play music ever again - are a bit prickly in different ways, and they have a hearty antipathy going on at the start of the book which is one of my kryptonite tropes. It's a romance, so we all know they're going to end up with each other, anyway but the fun really lies in discovering how this happens. And those two have a great story, full of animosity and sarcasm and chemistry and grudging respect growing into genuine affection. And drama. Of course there's also drama. There's also a work in progress play by a budding young playwright, unicorns and so much witty dialogue. This is fun, and a really good read for a bit of an escape from reality.
Rating: * * * * */* * * * *
Ten Things I Love About You, Julia Quinn
Yes. Yes. Another re-read. It's a direct sequel to What Happens in London, featuring Sir Harry's cousin Sebastian Grey and the lovely, outspoken Annabel Winslow. Sebastian kind of steals the show in What Happens in London, so after finishing that one, I felt the urge to re-read Sebastian's book as well. We get treated to more horrible romance - and learn who the near mythical Sarah Gorely really is! - more drama - Annabel is promised to Sebastian's horrible and disgusting uncle to produce an heir because otherwise, Sebastian, whom his uncle hates, is going to inherit everything (Sebastian is a bit of Schrodinger's heir in this, which is a refreshing change from heroes already born into wealth and power) - and lots of witty and fun dialogues. Also, I loved the friendship between Annabel and her cousin Sarah a lot and I kinda found myself wishing we'd also get her story (this is why I love Julia's books so much: her portrayal of female friendship in all of her books. Julia has no time for women doing something as silly as warring for the same man but she has a lot of time and space for women supporting and loving each other). So, if you decide to read What Happens in London, just do yourself a favor and buy this, too. You will want to read it.
Rating: * * * */* * * * *
Book count as of July 31: 39/50
Alright, that's it for this month. How are you? How's your reading? Also, something I'd really love to know: so far, have you found any books on here you wouldn't have considered reading because they're not in your typical range of stuff you like but thought to give a try because I talked about them here? Any books you'd like to recommend to me that don't seem to fit in my portfolio of interests?