Moving story of a break from the carnage of WW I trench warfare
590450
Moving story of the 1914 Christmas Truce.  I knew something about this, but not the details.  A friend gave me a copy as a gift - I liked it so much I gave a copy to each of my grown daughters as they each have one of the vintage small brass Christmas 1914 gift boxes given by the British government to British and colonial troops.  Excellent book.
439532
This is a compelling story of World War II about 2 brothers from Brussels who flee to France to outrun the Germans. Andre and Alex Sauverin are Jewish by birth but don't practice their faith traditions. This does not mean however that they are safe from Hitler's army when it conquers Belgian.  They take their family, 10 people altogether including children and parents to southern France to wait out the war so they can return to their lives. Andre, a professor and Alex, a stamp trader live a quiet, urban, civilized life until war comes knocking at their door.

Their flight to France for safety leads them to small, rural villages in southern France where they encounter a Protestant pastor working with the French resistance. The story of how the French people in these remote villages risk their lives to protect the strangers in their midst is heartwarming as well as heartbreaking and suspenseful.  The Sauverin family is running for their life to stay one step ahead of the Gestapo while trying to blend in with the farming community that has taken them in. The story was so fascinating that I overlooked some of the stilted writing.
1542239
Great read - very interesting setting and insite to what happened after the first world war to the fighters on the front lines
1595792
Birdsong was given to me by a colleague who said it was "a GREAT book".  Judging by its subject matter (World War I) I wouldn't have normally touched it let alone read it (..war novels/films are either too  depressing or a thin excuse for some flag-waving).  Well I am delighted to  have read Birdsong.  It's not a great book (in my judgement); it doesn't  cover new ground in re-telling the horrors of war.  But it is  well-structured, moving, and keeps focused on finite (and often forgotten)  aspects of the Great War - specifically, trench warfare.  Mr. Faulks  leaves out nothing in describing the unspeakable horrors our forefathers  (..from both sides) have suffered.  Absolutely shocking and nausating, yet  it's really compulsive reading.
While Faulks succeeds in telling the  human anguish of those who suffered during the war, he fails in one minor  aspect of the novel when he "fast forwards" to scenes of the late  1970s where the granddaughter of a soldier feels compelled suddenly to  learn more of her departed grandfather.  While the author's heart was in  the right place, this minor aspect of Birdsong comes off a bit  contrived.
Nonetheless I fully recommend Birdsong.  It makes for gruesome  reading, so it's not for the squeamish.  But I hope others will give it a  try and, like me, feel as though they learned something new by it.
4847470
I was a student of history looking for any kind of historic account of WWI. What I found was a moving piece of literature.  This book made me think I was in the trenchs with Kat and the boys.
What makes this book so good is you live the times through a young man.  While you get to know him personally you see what times where like.  It really tells you why it was called the "Lost Generation".  This book does have a strong message but never feels like propaganda.
The best thing about the book is it makes as much sense now as it did 70 years ago.  Its message about war is something we should all learn.  I hope you read the book.
4157706
While Chaplain Joseph Reavley does what he can for the troops in the trenches of Flanders, his sister Judith drives the general's car as a volunteer. American volunteers drive the ambulances and do other work that frees British soldiers to fight. The battle lines move very little as this new type of warfare makes its realities known. The eternal horror of war, though, remains unchanged. Ordinary men do extraordinary things for love of their "mates" - not for the lofty ideals that inspired them to enlist in the first place. For it's still an all volunteer military, and home front morale matters terribly in order to keep those volunteers coming.

Back in England, an amazingly short journey across the Channel, intelligence officer Matthew Reavley continues investigating the June 1914 murder of the Reavley parents. That happened just after John Reavley telephoned Matthew to tell him about a mysterious document that, if revealed, could shatter England's honor. The Reavleys, including Hannah who keeps the family home going while her Navy officer husband is away at sea, believe their parents died because of that document. Now ongoing events in Joseph's life, and that of Judith, bring them together with people who may be somehow connected - directly or indirectly - to the murders. The more that they uncover, the greater the danger grows. To the Reavleys, and still more to those around them.

This second book in Anne Perry's five-volume World War I series carries on the larger mystery arc effectively while giving readers closure on its immediate plot. Her battlefield descriptions are wrenching (and accurate) without any deliberate attempt to shock, and her characters make sense. I read this one much faster than I intended to read it, because I found it difficult to put down.

--Reviewed by Nina M. Osier, author of "Love, Jimmy: A Maine Veteran's Longest Battle"
3755995
Truly  sad story. At first a bit graphic but ok after the first few chapters. Some is moving, some is laughable, life experiences. Young school boys sign up to WW1 They go away as boys and those that do return, as what? They become men at war but without the normal experiences of being a teenager. They have no job or wife to return to but are too old for school. A generation lost. A particularly sad part for me was the main character returning home for a visit. He was so happy to leave the trenches for a while and see his family but when he got there he couldn't fit in or share his experiences with those at home. The only life he knew as an adult was in the trenches. And so many died, the futility of it all. It's not all doom and gloom, I thought i wouldn't be able to handle it but it really was an excellent read.
1757192
Fictionalised account, but based on some solid factual research, Jody Shields boldly tells the story of soldiers brutally disfigured by facial injury during the First World War. Shocking, and yet compelling, I found I couldn't put this book down, even though I wasn't particularly drawn to Shields's quite ethereal writing style.

The year is 1915. It's early days for the war, and yet a young woman on a large country estate is mourning the loss of her husband, made even more unbearable by the fact that nobody saw him die. Catherine cannot believe that Charles has truly left her. She turns her home over to the military, for use as a war hospital, whilst maintaining a small suite of rooms for herself. Initially Catherine tends to hide herself away from the changes going on in her home and doesn't immediately realise that her home has become a specialist hospital for men with severe facial wounds. Nearly all patients are tube fed a liquid diet, and have to suffer many pioneering operations to their faces to try to restore some facial features, and functions.

Catherine looks for signs of Charles everywhere - messages from him to show her that he is still there. Then she starts to look for Charles in one of the patients, Julian. His stature and posture bear a striking resemblance to Charles... Catherine wonders if she can turn him into Charles altogether, but soon realises her mistake.

Intertwined, is the story of the elderly Dr. MacLeary, brought back from retirement as a 'specialist' in this area of surgery, although he has never before seen anything like the wounds he is now encountering. Having no other attachments, he comes to form a fatherly bond with a young lad from the estate, Artis, not quite yet of conscription age. It's easy to form an empathy with these characters, but less easy to empathise with Anna, the artist recording the men's facial wounds, and Dr. Kazanjian, the innovative dentist sent from a field hospital at the Front to assist Dr. MacLeary. Anna and Kazanjian have a tense and strained bond but spend much of their time avoiding conversation. A strange relationship, made all the more difficult to empathise with due to Anna's terse and abrupt mannerisms. Anna and Dr. Kazanjian are the two characters in the novel inspired by real historical figures, Anna Coleman Ladd and Varaztad Kazanjian.

A very thought-provoking novel. I can highly recommend it for the story, the different perspective of suffering in the First World War, the portrayal of the origins of plastic surgery. The writing style is very light, almost intangible in places, whereas there are parts of the novel which I feel could have benefitted from some more full and vivid descriptions and explanations. A minor criticism for an otherwise excellent book.
985307
Well written telling of a heart-breaking real story. Refreshing that it's not a story of battles and strategy,  but instead is a story of foot soldiers and their everyday experiences -- the boredom and monotony as well as the preparation and fighting. Well done.
270525
This was a great tale of atmospheric horror born on the bloody battlefields of WW1. Great characters, I believed in, having read other books describing the trench warfare of WW1. The plot was well  paced with Lord Baltimore guiding his three friends to a meeting that would lead them in a battle with the insidious form of vampires feeding off the remains of soldiers lying wasted on the fields of death. Well written and illustrated. I enjoy illustrated books, which should be brought back today. Highly recommended.
109773
What an absorbing story about the war, told from the viewpoint of the women left behind.  These were women who tried to carry on with jobs and family, while watching for letters that were often far between.  They lived through discouraging days and sleepless nights, worrying about their men who were fighting, and above all, dreading receiving a telegram beginning with the words We regret to inform you..
  This story centers on Catherine and her family, and the way they deal with wartime.  When her father voluntarily enlists, it leaves Catherine, her mom and her younger sister alone.  They face some tough challenges, but also have some lovely surprises.
  For those of us who are too young to have lived in this period, this story is engrossing and hard to put down.  Excellent historical story, with very appealing characters.
2153127
The foreword to this book does an excellent job of setting the scene, and the author follows with a well composed work of storytelling. Though not particularly long (I read it in two evenings), the book is well organized and the author does an excellent job of elucidating her sources and sousing fact from fiction/legend without detracting from the very human core of her story.

I thought the insights into World War I were fascinating, since it gets much less press in terms of modern books than WWII. The combination of new technologies and old standbys was well depicted, as were the varying roles (and ends) of the animals in the war, from dogs to pigeons to horses. Occasionally, the story felt a bit detached, but that couldn't really be helped, considering the dearth of facts to draw from during large stretches of the war-time life of both the title canine and his main human. Bausum did an excellent job of filling in by describing what was happening to their unit overall, and what we know the realities of life for soldiers in those conditions usually looked like.  Honestly, I cried more than once over sweet Stubby and am delighted that his once-famous story is being retold for modern audiences to appreciate. Highly recommended.
2877967
Just finished Greg Higsons  Flither Lass and enjoyed it very much.  Its set in an English fishing village at the beginning of the First World War.  As the English gear up for combat, German U boats are scouting Englands coast and young men are coping with the prospect of dying on a foreign battlefield.  Sixteen-year-old Amy Trott, the novels main character, is oblivious to all this.  Grindingly poor, scorned by the villagers, berated and beaten by her mother, Amys whole world is her Dad and her flithers-whelks she pries from the sea-swept rocks so her fisherman father can use them for bait.  Amys narrow world disintegrates when her dad  is lost at sea.  Devastated by the disappearance of the only person who seems to care about her, Amy rescues a German mapmaker from the ocean,  hides him in a cave and nurses him back to health. Readers who cherish idyllic ideas about English village life will have those notions challenged by Higsons gritty portrayal of Amys struggles.  I love historical novels so this story of an incident that may have changed the course of the war fascinated me.
3561182
A little-known subject to me was WWI and Vimy Ridge, especially Canadas involvement in it. Too, Ive not read many war stories, usually veering away to more peripheral stories of courage or metaphorical battles. But this book, it grabbed me.
It alternates between the home front in Nova Scotia and the front in France where the protagonist is for most of the novel. There was a chunk of the book that dragged for mefrom 25% to 50%but then it really got rolling, and all the setup was worth it! The Nova Scotia parts were rich in period detail, in the language of the fishermen, in the daily habits of small town coastal folk, and this gave a very solid foundation for the protagonists torment of being away and on his mission to find his brother-in-law, whod gone missing.
The France scenes were rich in detail too, from the eerily peaceful village found after winning a bloody ridge, to the farm life still going on, to the vision of thousands of dead bodies left for months undisturbed in a valley. There were definitely poignant parts such as these, that might be disturbing for some, but I found them arresting, like they really captured the moment, the frame of mind, the despair.
Especially in Angus mind while on the front, as you listen to his internal battles, there is a definite pathos, one that even a mid-30s single woman from California can relate to! Excellently written, structured, pacednot too dense, but it does take some time to absorb. And a quick-flipped, but satisfying, ending.
I would recommend this book to anyone wanting a novel with some substance, but without a pushy message; it is the journey of a mans heart, which has been to purgatory and back.
1081650
This book gives a literate and intimate portrayal of a slice of Civil War history using space-time scales of yards and miles, hours and days. The chosen slice is significant for being a prototype of trench warfare later seen in WW1, but also for the harshness of the terrain and the weather. The perspective alternates impartially from one to the other side of lines. The deliberations and moment-by-moment decisions of the generals are shown colored by their clearly revealed personalities. The emotional vicissitudes of the men, both blue and gray, predicated by the ebb-and-flow in their fortunes of war, are told with compassion. The rendering of battle interludes, battle scenes and their aftermath are both gripping and wrenching, and made more so by being told in the present tense. The author's passionate interest in the area and time, and the evident depth of his research, are matched by his storytelling ability. I found it hard to put the book down.
1662715
A well written story of a young lieutenant during The Battle of the Somme. Brings you right into the muddy, bloody trenches as young Brits give their lives for their country in a war without really understanding why they are fighting. Ranks up there with All Quiet on the Western Front.
744914
This was well-written and an overall good WWI story.