Update: books

Just a quick update on the Jan to March books list, 2 now ticked off and 3rd one on the go.

Nella Lasts War: The diaries of 'Housewife 49' - read.
Band of Brothers - Stephen E. Ambrose - read.
Halfway To Hollywood: Diaries 1980 to 1988 - Michael Palin - currently reading.
Robbie - Sean Smith
Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything - Elizabeth Gilbert
The Help - Katherine Stockett

I really enjoyed Nella Lasts War, she was quite a formidable woman! It was a wonderful insight in to the life of an ordinary housewife during WWII, cooking with rations especially was something I had never really given any thought to how so very difficult it must have been, and the resourcefulness of Nella certainly made what her family ate a LOT better than some. I now really understand the 'hoarding' that a lot of old folks would do who had lived through the war and rationing.

Band of Brothers was a difficult read, but then I expected that as it IS a historical reference not a 'novel' however I'm still very unsure about the American Army ranking system and about platoons, companies and battalions etc..... I probably need to learn a bit about how the army works to fully grasp what I have read. What I KNOW from reading the book though is how awful conditions were for the men fighting on the front in the war, how much life was lost, how little prep and training many of the men had and how they were mostly so very young. For Easy Company to get through all that they did and those surviving STILL want to continue to fight - well they may have started off as just ordinary men, but the became exceptional men with an exceptional relationship. Having seen the TV dramatisation did help a little, but not a huge amount as it was changed quite a lot from the account in the book, probably to make it good TV, as with most dramatisations of books! - so I did find I was noting the differences between the two.

All in all - 2 very good books! and now on to Michael Palins diaries part 2!