Lost Love's Return by Alfred Nicols

This will just be a quickie review because I don't like to say much about books that I didn't love. Lost Love's Return by Alfred Nicols is a book I bought after a friend begged me to read it (the author is a friend of her family) and then she chose it for our F2F book group's selection. I didn't go to the meeting and have only actually been once since before the pandemic but I read it so I could share my thoughts with her. 

Lost Love's Return is about an American soldier named Peter who is injured during WWI. He and a British nurse, Elizabeth, fall in love. But, when he's shipped out without time to tell her he has to leave or give her his address and he realizes he doesn't know how to get in touch with her at all — doesn't even actually know the name of the hospital where she works — they completely lose touch and he ends up in a loveless marriage back home, an ocean away from her. 

Decades pass before he's able to track her down with the help of his son. What will Peter find when he finally reunites with the love of his life?

Neither recommended or not recommended - OK, so my personal opinion is that Lost Love's Return brings nothing new to the table. There is no new insight about WWI and the love story is both predictable and one that's been done, before. Having said that, there was a point that I found myself enjoying the story and it has high ratings at Goodreads. So, I wouldn't tell anyone not to read it. There's a sweetness to the romantic storyline; it's just nothing new or special, in my humble opinion. Also, I was a little frustrated by the fact that all of the men who were main characters were tall, strong, blond, and handsome but most of the women were either unattractive or highly self-critical, except for Elizabeth. And, the men kept getting women pregnant. It was just a little trite in that way and felt like a total guy book, to me. I also thought there were a few problems with the British English but that's not necessarily something that will jump out at everyone. I opted not to rate the book at Goodreads but now that I've had time to let it marinate, I'd say it's . . . average? Not horrible, not great, just OK. 

©2021 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Band of Sisters by Lauren Willig

Band of Sisters by Lauren Willig is a fictionalized account of real-life events in which a group of Smith College graduates traveled to France during WWI to help the citizens who had been bombed out of their homes and were starving, lacking medical care, and often living in cellars of damaged buildings or barns. 

Kate Moran, a former scholarship girl from Brooklyn, is working a job she doesn't really like when her wealthy best friend from college, Emmeline Van Alden asks her to join the Smith College Relief Unit after another member dropped out. They will be going to France to help displaced and starving citizens, mostly women and children. Kate agrees for the change of pace but after being stung by the words of Emmie's cousin, many years back, she isn't sure she is interested in resuming her friendship with Emmie. 

Along with 15 other Smith grads, Kate and Emmie travel across the Atlantic Ocean and arrive in Paris to find that the proprietor of the place they planned to stay doesn't have enough rooms and some of their supplies have either gone missing or are stuck with nobody available to fetch them. Only a few of the women can drive and there are many complications but eventually they make it to a bombed-out village and set up to help the citizens get back on their feet. They are not far from the front line, relatively speaking, but they're able to set up their own lodgings and a store and provide for the villagers' medical needs and slowly branch out to aid those in the surrounding area. But, will the war stay far enough away from them or will the Germans break through and endanger the women and everything they've accomplished? 

Recommended - Excellent WWI fiction based on real events. Because the author stuck closely to the real-life events, much of Band of Sisters is about the friendships and backbiting, the difficulties acquiring supplies and dealing with automobile disasters, the dangers that single women face driving around the countryside, the touches of romance, and how the women overcome obstacles big and small. It's slow of pace in the first half to three-quarters but I was actually quite gripped by the everyday challenges the women faced and imagining how I would handle them if I'd been among them, wondering whether I would stick it out or run wailing back to the US in defeat. In the latter part of the book, it becomes fairly nail-biting and I particularly loved that bit. 

I really appreciated the fact (made clear in the author's note) that she fictionalized the characters but chose to use actual events within her work of fiction rather than making things up. As a result of that choice, there's an everyday feel to most of the book but I prefer accuracy of events, even if that means a book is a bit less action-packed. Even before I read the author's note, the Smithies' challenges seemed very realistic to me. Read Band of Sisters when you're in the mood to dip your toes into a unique view of WWI history and don't mind a quieter, slower-paced read (at least till near the end). 

I received a review copy of Band of Sisters from HarperCollins (many thanks!) in exchange for an honest review and have posed my copy on a news periodical from 1919. It's not in great shape and the pages have to be turned carefully or they'll crumble. The photos are amazing, though. I chose the spread above because the Smith women encountered ruins everywhere they went, although the photo above was taken in Belgium. Here's another photo that shows a Red Cross relief worker from Great Britain. The Red Cross is mentioned but as I recall the women worked with either the American or French Red Cross. You should be able to click on both images to enlarge them. 

©2021 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

No Man's Land by Simon Tolkien

The Jack Johnson shells tore towards them with a roar like an express train, throwing up clouds of heavy black smoke as they exploded. Most of them fell short, crashing into no man's land, but the concussion from one that burst inside the wire threw Adam back against the rear wall of the trench and half buried him under a cascade of exploding sand bags. 

Spitting out the earth and sand, he got to his feet and saw that everyone in the section had curled themselves up into foetal balls except for Rawdon, who as always seemed impervious to shelling. The belief in fate that Rawdon had subscribed to [...] had become even stronger since they arrived in France. "If it's got my name and address on it, it's goin' to find me anyway, so there's no point in cowerin' in the corner, screamin' for Mama," he had told Adam on more than one occasion, referring to the reactions of some of the other soldiers in the section. 

~p. 297 of No Man's Land by Simon Tolkien (minor spoiler removed)

No Man's Land by Simon Tolkien is a book I accepted for review because of its description, but I confess the author's name added to the appeal. Yes, he is related to J.R.R. Tolkien. More on that in a minute. I did have to adjust my expectations about No Man's Land a bit because I thought it was strictly a WWI book and the protagonist doesn't go off to war until you're at least 40% into the book, but that was not a bad thing. Adam is the protagonist. Born in London, Adam lives a life of poverty that becomes increasingly desperate when the laborers at his father's workplace go on strike.

After tragedy strikes, his father moves the family to Yorkshire to work at a coal mine. Adam is an excellent student and is bullied, first for his father getting a job that the other miners believe should have been given to a local, and then for continuing to go to school rather than working in the mine. He also falls for the parson's beautiful daughter Miriam, but he has competition and the other fellow has money. When war breaks out, Adam ends up fighting on the front lines of the Somme with friends from Yorkshire. While the bonds of friendship tighten between Adam and his buddies he finds it increasingly difficult to connect with the girl he loves. Will Adam end up with the love of his life or will Miriam's mother convince her to marry for money rather than love? Who will live and who will die in France?

The book jacket says No Man's Land is based on J.R.R. Tolkien's experience and I took that to mean it was a tribute to Tolkien rather than a biographical novel. I presume I was probably correct because of the way the book ends, but it's worth mentioning because I noticed that at least one reviewer at Goodreads, whose review I read because I was baffled by the single-star rating, was hoping for a glimpse into the Lord of the Rings novelist's choice to write fantasy and there is nothing at all that even hints at inspiration for a fantasy novelist. Because I was not expecting a biographical novel, I was not disappointed.

Sometimes, I found the book a little predictable and for that reason I took off a half point (I gave it a 4.5/5 at Goodreads). The predictability was only a factor of certain situations, though, as opposed to the plot being wholly predictable. And, a lot happens in No Man's Land so there were plenty of surprises. In general, the book is plotty enough for fans of plot-driven books but also descriptive enough and with enough depth of characterization to satisfy those who prefer character-driven novels.

Adam is a nice, strong character but he has a bit less personality than some of the other characters, so he was actually not my favorite. I adored Seaton, the eldest of the coal mine owner's sons, and came to love several of the friends who ended up together on the front lines. I've noticed sometimes an author will do a slightly better job of giving personality to the secondary characters, to the detriment of the hero or heroine, and I did think Adam suffered by comparison with some of the more vibrant personalities. But he's a good egg, he grows and changes throughout the novel, and he's very courageous. I liked him and desperately wanted him to survive the war.

Highly recommended - At close to 600 pages, No Man's Land is an immersive read, great for those who like a book you can sink your teeth into and with an ending I found satisfying. I liked the scope of the book - beyond the war itself and back to the protagonist's youth as an impoverished child of a laborer, then as a youngster living in a coal-mining town. One of the reasons it took me a long time to read the book (at least 2 weeks) was all the things I opted to look up. I looked up how coal miners looked in early 20th-Century UK, the German attack on Yorkshire during WWI (I'd never heard about that, before!), fashion in the 1920s, and Eaton Square in London's Belgravia, among other things. I like a book that makes me go running to the internet to look up additional information.


©2017 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery  or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

The Dust That Falls from Dreams by Louis de Bernières

The Dust That Falls from Dreams by Louis de Bernières
Copyright 2015
Pantheon Books - Historical Fiction
511 pp.

First things first: I used an online editor to alter the above cover image so that it would look a little less like I plunked it on an ugly kitchen counter (which I did) and more romantic. So, bear in mind that if you're looking for that cover of the book, the color is slightly off. I also noticed there are very few images of that exact cover on view at Google, so it's possible the cover has changed -- but it may have just been more widely reviewed elsewhere (like, say, England) where the cover is not the same. I have confidence in your ability to locate a copy, regardless of the cover, for what it's worth. And you definitely should seek it out.

The Dust That Falls from Dreams was written by the author of Corelli's Mandolin, which I have not read but definitely plan to because I loved Louis de Bernière's writing. It's the story of three families and how their lives are impacted by WWI. The book opens with a bit of background with a description of Queen Victoria's demise, leading into the Edwardian era and then the true beginning of the story. The McCosh family is having a party to celebrate the crowning of a new king. There are four girls in the McCosh family, three boys in the Pendennis family, and two remaining sons in the Pitt home, two having been lost in the Boer War.

At the party, Ashbridge Pendennis asks Rosie if she'll marry him one day. Rosie is only about 10 years old but she's already beautiful and the favorite of all the neighboring boys. Years later, war breaks out. As the Great War stretches on, the reader travels back and forth between the trenches and the home front. There are multiple viewpoints but what really stands out is the contrast between a home where food becomes scarce and bad things occasionally happen and the trenches, where all is misery, fatigue, horror, rot, and fear with only the occasional respite and plenty of camaraderie. It is, at times, very graphic when describing life at the front.

Rosie and Ash's romance is at the heart of the book but you get to know the characters in all of the families pretty well. To say much more would be to give away a bit too much, so I'll tread around plot with care, but I must say that I absolutely loved The Dust That Falls from Dreams. Some of you may remember way back in 2006 or 2007 that I started a thing called the "Chunkster Challenge" because I can be intimidated by fatter books and wanted to challenge myself to read them (and people wanted to join me). At 511 pages, some might not consider The Dust That Falls from Dreams a chunkster but I do. Anything over 400 is getting up there, in my opinion, and I have to really love a book to stick with it that long.

I didn't want The Dust That Falls from Dreams to end . . . and that's not something that happens often.

One of my favorite parts was very timely. Daniel, who is bilingual because his mother is French, is asked to say a prayer and here's what he chose to say:

'Pour les bonnes choses sur la table,

Pour les belles choses dans la vie,

Pour l'amour, la paix, la poésie,

Dieu soit béni.'

Translated, it means, "For the good things on the table, for the beautiful things in life, for love, peace and poetry, God be blessed." When I read that, I closed the book for the night because it was so beautiful I couldn't bear to read another word. The next day I was glued to the television for hours, watching news about the attack on Paris. The prayer helped soothe my soul, that night, when I opened the book again. I know that has nothing to do with the book itself, but I thought it was worth sharing.

The story is a rollercoaster. Sometimes it's funny. The characterization is absolutely wonderful. Mr. McCosh is a cheerful inventor who makes money and loses it with equal speed. His personality reminded me of my father's; I absolutely adored him. Rosie and Ash seem both perfect for each other and doomed. Any time you read a book about WWI, you know many young men are going to die and I felt like I was holding my breath, waiting for that to happen, during much of the book (which does go a bit beyond the end of the war). Sophie is also a truly delightful character, one who makes up her own words:

He met Sophie in the hallway, and she said, "I think you've got a loose tappet. Your Henley sounds egregiously valetudinarian."
"Gracious me," said Daniel. "You're right of course. I did notice, but--"
"You mean, it is stupendously teratitistic and inordinate that a mere handmaid of Adam should have noticed such a thing?"
"Honestly, Sophie! Teratitistic? Where do you find all these funny words?"
"If I need a new word, I make it up," said Sophie, pertly. That one means 'monstrous' I hope. The metilogomy is Greek."
"Metilogomy?"
"Etymology, silly."

~from pp. 422-23 of The Dust That Falls from Dreams

Highly recommended - Splendid depth of characterization, heart-tugging emotion and a vivid sense of time and place make The Dust That Falls from Dreams one of my 2015 favorites. It's also one of those books that had me reaching for the dictionary quite a bit and thinking that I need to resume my former habit of keeping a vocabulary notebook.

©2015 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery  or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Somewhere in France by Jennifer Robson

Somewhere in France by Jennifer Robson is the story of Lady Elizabeth Neville-Ashford, aka "Lily" and it is historical fiction but the main storyline is a romance (fair warning for those who dislike romantic themes). I don't mind a bit of romance in a storyline, provided the story is well written. Fortunately, Somewhere in France is very good.  Set just before and during WWI, Lily's story begins at a dance where her mother is trying to steer her toward marriage with an acceptable man from her class. The only man who has ever really sparked her interest, though, is a Scottish doctor with a downscale background, Robert Fraser or "Robbie". Robbie works at a London hospital and he's friends with Lily's brother.

When WWI begins, Robbie immediately signs up to work on the front lines. Lily writes to him but she wants to be a part of the war effort and not by merely rolling bandages while remaining in luxury. She wants to become a nurse.  Her parents, however, are staunchly against her involvement in something so disgusting as nursing.  At this point, I was naturally thinking of Downton Abbey's Sybil. But, the way the author chose to portray Lily's struggle is, in fact, far more realistic than Downton's.  She is not able to get into nursing school and has to take one surprising job followed by another in order to get by.  

I won't tell you any more about the storyline for fear of spoilers but I will tell you that I was surprised by Somewhere in France in many ways. First of all, Lily's experience has the ring of truth. When she's cut off by her family, nobody else comes along to sweep her back into comfort.  She has to work hard to get by.  Second, it takes her years to reach her goal and when she does the reality is dirty and stinky, dangerous and horrifying. But, like the real women of WWI who bucked up and got on with it, Lily refuses to back down. She's made a decision to do something very specific and she is not going to be dissuaded from it, regardless of the consequences.

Highly recommended - I was not surprised to find that the author has spent some time in France, when I got to the end of Somewhere in France as the settings were so very, very believable.  A gritty, realistic story with romance at its core, a heroine worth rooting for and exceptionally described settings. I found Somewhere in France highly compelling once I got into it. Near the beginning, I was hesitant because the main storyline was clearly a romantic one and the occasional years-long leap startled me but the book was so much more real than many I've read that it eventually yanked me in and held me hard.

Since I've been asked . . . another Christmas photo, this time Izzy in a cocktail dress (she was completely paralyzed by the horror - she just has a sweet face),:

©2014 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery  or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Minis: The Walnut Tree by C. Todd, A Walk in the Park by J. .Mansell, Comet's Tale by S. Wolf & L. Padwa

The Walnut Tree by Charles Todd is subtitled "A Holiday Tale" and I'm not quite sure why.  It may end at Christmas, but otherwise it is most definitely not a Christmas tale.  In fact, it's more of a war tale with a rather lame romantic love triangle and a heroine, Lady Elspeth Douglas, who feels compelled to deceive her best friend, everyone in the service in which she's trained as a nurse and both of the men in her little love triangle.

Get the feeling I didn't like The Walnut Tree?  Well, I did finish the book.  That's saying something. But I think The Walnut Tree is flawed, a bit juvenile and extremely cliche.  Lady Elspeth (again, in a manner that simply does not make sense) ends up on the front line of an important WWI battle and after seeing the casualties, decides to imitate Sybil of Downton Abbey and become a nurse.  By this point, she's helped a friend deal with childbirth and has become engaged.  But, she then encounters an old friend and falls even more in love with the second guy.

In the end, I was able to completely predict the outcome of absolutely every plot point.  It's ridiculously obvious what has to happen at every turn and the tiny hint of a mystery that's tossed in like an afterthought is patently annoying.  Why did I keep reading?  I suppose the war scenes are rather interesting. And, even though the book was terribly predictable, I still wanted to get to the goal and read about the heroine ending up with her guy.  But, honestly, I do wish I hadn't spent money on The Walnut Tree.

Since I've read a number of reviews in which regular readers of Charles Todd have said The Walnut Tree doesn't live up to the mother-son team's normal standards, I'm planning to give one of their mysteries a try, soon, because I'm now doubly curious.  We'll see how that goes.  Not recommended unless you don't mind transparent plotting . . . say you're just a fan of historical fiction and/or romance but you're not picky.  Maybe then.  

I must warn you that the words "have" and "had" are so overused that they even appear in dialogue:

"You must know how much your presence had brightened the lives not only of your cousin but of the other three officers who are working with Sister Macleod."  -- p. 153 

Drop the "had" (or change it to "has") and that bit of dialogue is acceptable, if a bit awkward.  If this particular grammatical atrocity continues in the mystery I intend to read, I will never touch another Charles Todd book.  It truly is unbearable.  But, The Walnut Tree may simply be one of those books that was rushed to press with minimal editing and I figure almost everyone deserves a second chance.  

In A Walk in the Park by Jill Mansell, heroine Lara Carson returns to her childhood home in Bath, England, for the funeral of her father.  At 16, she was kicked out of the house by the father who never loved her and the stepmother from hell -- and they didn't even know she was pregnant.  Now, Lara's daughter Gigi is 18.  Lara's best friend will be marrying soon and it turns out Lara is in her father's will.  So, as much as she'd like to avoid the boyfriend she left behind, Lara will have to stick around Bath a bit more than she intended.

Flynn always wondered what happened to Lara.  One day she was suddenly just gone and he never heard a word from her.  Now that she's back with his biological child in tow, he wants answers.  

Evie is thrilled to finally walk down the aisle but on the day of her wedding, things are going horribly wrong.  After she cancels the wedding, her ex-fiancee won't let go.  Determined to prove he's changed, he pursues her with a vengeance.  But, there's another man wooing Evie.  Will Evie make the right decision, or is there even a decision to be made?  Is Evie destined to make bad choices and remain alone?  

There's always so much going on in a Jill Mansell novel that it's a bit mind-boggling.  I love her books.  They're cheery and plotty and terribly fun. I must admit, I felt dangled a bit more than I like, didn't buy into one of the major plot points and thought A Walk in the Park ended too abruptly.  And, yet, A Walk in the Park is classic Mansell and I enjoyed it.  Recommended, but not her best.

Comet's Tale by Steven D. Wolf, with Lynette Padwa, is a pet story in which -- get this -- the dog doesn't die in the end!!!  Awesome. You have to appreciate that, since most pet memoirs do end with a death.  

Comet is a rescued greyhound.  I had no idea greyhounds came in a variety of colors; you can see from the cover image that she has an interesting calico-like coat of brindle and black and shades between.  When she was rescued, Comet had been left in a cage with a muzzle on.  The author, who goes by the name "Wolf", had two golden retrievers in Nebraska.  But, because his spine was severely degenerating, he was living away from his family and their pets in Sedona, Arizona most of the year.  Colder weather caused even more trouble with his constant pain.

Lonely and depressed after being kicked out of his own law firm, Wolf eventually decided to consider adopting a greyhound and visited the home of some people who fostered quite a few of them.  Comet was off in a corner and appeared to be depressed, herself.  But, just as Wolf was about to make a decision to adopt one of the other dogs, she appeared at his side.  The choice had been made for him.  

Comet's Tale tells about how Comet became not only a devoted pet but also eventually was trained by the author as a service dog when his condition further deteriorated and he needed help with simple tasks like opening doors and picking up dropped items.  Comet's Tale is a deeply touching story.  The only thing I disliked about it was the fact that the author went a little nutso when he had surgery that helped significantly reduce his pain.  However, he eventually "redeemed" himself, just like a fictional character, thank goodness.  An amazing story of love and devotion between pet and human, highly recommended.  

As I was reading Comet's Tale, I found myself desiring to adopt a greyhound -- which is pretty odd because I really don't have the right personality to be a dog owner, although I tend to fall in love with friends' dogs.  The way greyhounds are used and abandoned or killed is truly appalling.  

Here's our little Isabel hanging out on my legs on a day that I stayed in bed feeling yucky, recently.  Rescued pets are the best. 

©2012 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery and Babble or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

My Dear I Wanted to Tell You by Louisa Young

My Dear I Wanted to Tell You

By Louisa Young

Copyright 2011

HarperCollins - Historical Fiction/WWI
336 pages

London, April 1916

Riley Purefoy was walking across Kensington Gardens in the sun, coming up from Victoria station, going home. He hadn't been in London for two years. It seemed very peculiar to him. There were no shells going off. No one was shooting. No gas-gong. No sergeants shouting. Firm clean ground underfoot. No corpses, no wounds, no huddled smoking men, no sweet stink of blood, no star shells waving beautifully through the sky. It was quiet. There were women. He was clean and dry in the flea-free uniform he had had pressed and steamed at the hotel in Dover. God, how shamelessly he appreciated the advantages of being an officer. It was worth all the little sneers in the mess, the sideways glances from aetiolated toff twats, the dumb attempts at mockery from chinless boys whose pubescent moustaches and public-school slang did not, it turned out, make them natural leaders of men. He fully intended to buy himself some decent-quality puttees, now that he was allowed such freedoms, and to have done for ever with the annoying little thin ones.

--p. 92 of My Dear I Wanted to Tell You, Advance Reader Copy (some changes may have been made to the final print version)

I love several sentences in the opening pages of this book, so I'm going to mix them in with my own synopsis. Anything in quotes is writing by someone at HarperCollins. "The lives of two very different couples are irrevocably intertwined and forever changed in this stunning World War I epic of love and war."

Well stated. Riley Purefoy is from Paddington, a working-class part of London. Nadine Waveney is the daughter of a well-known orchestral conductor, a wealthy family into whose home he's allowed for visits as a friend of young Nadine after an accident in the park. But, as budding artists Riley and Nadine grow up, their class differences become a barrier to their growing affection, just as WWI is breaking out.

After a drunken evening leads to an incident that confuses and angers Riley, he impulsively signs up to serve in the army till the war's end. A year of service seems far too long. Little does he know how long WWI will rage and how it will change his life. The HarperCollins description: "In a fit of fury and boyish pride, Riley enlists in the army and finds himself involved in the transformative nightmare of the twentieth century." What a great way to describe the first World War.

Peter Locke is older, married to a beautiful woman, living a peaceful life. He could easily avoid the service but he doesn't feel right doing so. Because of his class, he is made an officer. Julia worries that she may have done something to drive him away and finds that she's not up to working in a munitions factory or nursing the injured. All she's good at is being pretty and keeping house. When Peter's cousin Rose joins the nursing corps, Julia is left at home with her fears while Peter is facing the kind of horror she can never even begin to understand.

As Riley and Peter fight for their lives, the reader is given a realistically harsh view of life as a soldier during WWI. When Riley suffers a disastrous, deforming injury and Peter finds himself sinking into the bottle to cope with loss, both must find a way to summon inner resources.

"Moving among Ypres, London, and Paris, this emotionally rich and evocative novel is both a powerful exploration of the lasting effects of war on those who fight--and those who don't--and a poignant testament to the power of enduring love."

What I loved about My Dear I Wanted to Tell You:

There is so much to love about My Dear I Wanted to Tell You: The depth of description, the language, the characterization, the meaning and depth of the story, the themes of undying love and how terribly unimportant looks are if one is still living and breathing. Riley and Peter are both really likable, wonderful characters in very different ways. Riley is unexpectedly heroic, witty and intelligent. Peter has a huge heart and a love of classical music and writing. He doesn't act posh or superior but he's gratified when he meets someone who can relate to the things he truly loves. Rose and Nadine are both strong and determined, truly amazing women and fantastic examples of how so many women courageously stepped forward and willingly faced the horrors of war. Julia is one of only a few characters you really want to smack. The dialogue is perfect, in my humble opinion.

Here's one of my favorite little passages, Riley's response when Nadine asks him the meaning of the archduke's assassination:

'A Serbian shot the Austrian archduke so the Austrians want to bash the Serbians but the Russians have to protect the Serbians so the Germans have to bash France so they won't help the Russians against the Austrians and once they've bashed France we're next so we have to stop them in Belgium,' said Riley, who read Sir Alfred's paper in the evening.

'Oh,' she said. 'What does that mean?'

'There's going to be a war, apparently.'

'Oh,' she said.

Well, it would be over by the time they were old enough to go to Amsterdam, where he would put his hand on her waist again, and she would laugh and sing but not run away downstairs.

pp. 20-21, ARC of My Dear I Wanted to Tell You

What I disliked about My Dear I Wanted to Tell You:

I thought the ending was a little rushed, especially given the detail in the rest of the book. When I closed the book, I recall thinking something to the effect that I was willing to overlook the rushed ending because I was so completely immersed in the story and loved it so much. I felt especially invested in Riley's life.

The bottom line:

Apart from the rushed ending, I absolutely loved My Dear I Wanted to Tell You. It's well-written, realistic, sometimes charming, often gritty. It can be gruesome in the way only a book about WWI can be, with its gas injuries and rot and horrors. The characters can be thoughtful at one time, clueless and harsh at another. In the end, it offers the one thing I find most important in a book about a time of tragedy: a light at the end of the tunnel. I always felt there were plenty of indications that there was hope, even when it appeared that Riley's situation was beyond horrifying. And it is, in the end, an uplifting story of undying love and hope. Highly recommended, but be aware that the ending is not fully wrapped up. Peter's story particularly feels incomplete.

Seems like a good time for a photo of sheep, doesn't it?

©2011 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery and Babble or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Regeneration by Pat Barker

Regeneration by Pat Barker

Copyright 1991

Penguin Books - Historical Fiction/WWI

252 pages

Regeneration is the first in a series of books by Pat Barker that are set during WWI. I don't know how the series continues, whether it follows the same characters or new ones, but Regeneration is set at a mental hospital for shell-shocked soldiers called Craiglockhart in Edinburgh, Scotland.

The year is 1917 and W. H. R. Rivers has a new patient set to arrive. The patient is Siegfried Sassoon. Although Sassoon has had nightmares and a few horrifying hallucinations in the past, he is being sent to the facility mostly to keep people from having to actually address the issue Sassoon has brought up. Having composed a letter saying he thinks England needs to get out of the war, that men are dying needlessly, there are a few people who want him silenced and the best way is to make him appear unstable. His best friend also wants to prevent a court martial and helps to get Sassoon sent to Craiglockhart.

Sassoon is perfectly sane, although he does eventually develop an interesting problem with ghosts. But, he's required to chat with Rivers and through the interaction between doctor and patient, as well as a few other key characters, you get to know the doctor and his humane treatment methods in a time when post-traumatic stress was not yet identified or named and certainly not understood.

There's a lot to Regeneration, in spite of its fairly short page count. Toward the end, Sassoon is due to go in front of the medical board. In those days, a "cured" patient was sent right back overseas to fight, again. Sassoon, in spite of being strongly against the war, desires to return to the front. Rivers, meanwhile, has determined that he (Rivers, himself) is due for a change and there is a short but wrenching section during which he goes to London to check out the hospital where he will be working. There, the contrast between humane and cruel treatment is clearly drawn during a horrifying scene describing the "treatment" of a mute soldier forced to speak after hours of torturous shocks with electrodes.

I didn't realize Rivers, Sassoon and many other characters were actual historical figures until I got to the end of Regeneration and read the author's notes. Then I dashed over to Wikipedia to read a bit more. The Wikipedia entry about the Regeneration series is fascinating. I only read about the first book; from there, I jumped to the entry about Rivers and then read about Sassoon. The third book in the series, The Ghost Road, won the Booker Prize in 1995.

The bottom line:

A fascinating, sometimes horrifying but very vivid and realistic look at treatment of post-traumatic stress and injuries during WWI, with telling descriptions of experiences by the soldiers in treatment. While the author occasionally lost me -- sometimes in dialogue, chiefly when describing things that might be common knowledge in the British Isles or for those who are knowledgeable about WWI, but certainly vague in my eyes -- I thought Regeneration was engrossing and quite a learning experience. I do plan to read on, although I own a copy of Regeneration but not the other two books and it may be some time before I get around to the following two. Recommended, with a warning that Regeneration can be a painful, jarring and even gruesome read at times because it is so realistic. An excellent fictionalized account of real-life characters.

Former blogger Kookie (aka "Michelle") didn't like Regeneration, but I neglected to ask her why. I did think the author's writing was sometimes a little nebulous where it could have easily been made clear, but other than that . . . I really thought it was so very engaging and the characters so well-developed that I can't pick on it too much. I liked the way the characters seemed to make so little sense, at times, in their thought processes. It occurred to me that humans really don't necessarily make sense. We're illogical. We say one thing and do another or change our minds abruptly. That was a part of where the realism came into play.

Cover thoughts:

That's not the cover of my book, but it's my favorite of the images I found on Google Images. Mine is ugly. But, there is something very special about my copy. It has a few pages with little mouse bites. You can actually see the tiny teeth marks! I'm probably the only person on the planet who thinks that's cool.

In other news:

I am having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad time getting around to blogging. I think it's probably a combination of heat and feeling a little overwhelmed with all that I have to accomplish in the coming months. So, while I keep thinking I want to clear out my sidebar by whipping out several reviews at once, it's not happening. If I continue to feel blah, I'll just take a couple weeks off. I don't have any scheduled reviews until June 30 so if I disappear for a couple weeks, you know when to return. I will have a post of Dug Down Deep by Joshua Harris posted on the 30th.

Photo of the day:

The cats aren't too energetic, either. Note the difference in size between my two girls. Isabel is now full-grown, so I guess she's just going to stay tiny and delicate. "Tiny" is, in fact, one of her nicknames. I've been calling her that since she arrived at our house. Last time she was at the vet, Izzy weighed a mere 5 pounds. I'd guess she's up to 6 pounds, by now. Fi, on the other hand, is a 13-pounder.

Facebook friends will have already heard this story, but I must share a little cat tale from this morning. I went out to pick up my new eyeglasses and when I returned, Isabel greeted me in the living room. I said hello and asked her, "Where's your sister?" Izzy looked at me, looked toward the kitchen and then went bounding off (bounce, bounce -- she really has the cutest way of running) to the breakfast nook, where she stopped directly below the chair in which Fiona was sleeping. She looked back at me and, of course, I exclaimed at her cleverness. And, then she jumped up into the chair next to Fi and ducked her head for a little grooming from sis.

That Isabel is one smart cookie! In fact, I've only had one cat I considered a little dim (Miss Spooky) but after her tremendously intelligent adoptive sister passed away, I discovered that I just wasn't paying attention. Spooky wasn't necessarily as sharp as Sunshine, but cats are pretty amazing creatures and they understand more than we often realize. Anyway, a little fun from the House of Bookfool.

Happy, happy day!

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