readingthepast | Mod post: theme suggestions

Please suggest themes you'd like to see covered here! Cut and paste the following into a comment:

ETA: please put your theme in the subject of your comment!

Theme:
Are you prepared to run it? Yes/No
Suggested books, if you have them already:

What does it mean to run the theme?

1. At least one month in advance, you'll let everyone know about the theme and your suggested reading for it. You need to suggest at least 3 works of fiction.
2. On the first of the month, you will post a welcome/introduction/kickoff for the theme.
3. Throughout the month, you'll take an active part in discussion of the theme.

You do not have to be an expert on the theme to run it. You just need to have an interest in it.

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Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

damned_colonial

Ooh, great theme! I'd like to recommend "Freedom and Necessity" by Stephen Brust and Emma Bull (epistolary conspiracy stuff with lots of stuff about the Corn Laws and working class politics and stuff) and ummmm can't remember his name but there's a great author of YA historical fiction who wrote a lot of stuff of this period. It'll come to me.

From:

wychwood

Theme: the home front and/or women at the front during WWI

Are you prepared to run it? Yes

Suggested books:
Rilla of Ingleside, by LM Montgomery (available at Gutenberg and written only shortly after the war)

I would like to include a book from the German (or other Axis) perspective, and ideally either one from a non-European / non-Anglo perspective or set in one of the areas that were being fought over / through, if anyone has any suggestions!

Could include Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain, as non-fic.

I'd like to look at stuff other than the basic "trench warfare" narratives, in particular; I can think of lots of home-front stuff from WWII, but not so much WWI, so suggestions would be really helpful.

From:

wychwood

Shirley, by Charlotte Bronte, might be good for this, as well.

From:

wychwood

PS We should totally include some of Charlotte Yonge's (terrible!) historical fiction, as and when we get an appropriate theme - it's a fascinatingly Victorian perspective on the past.

oursin would probably be a good person to suggest titles from this, she's more familiar with the historicals than I am.

From:

naraht

I am possibly prepared to run it, depending on timeframe. It would have to be moderated carefully, for obvious reasons.

"Daniel Deronda" by George Eliot
"The Way We Live Now" by Anthony Trollope
"Oliver Twist" by Charles Dickens
"Oliver!" [musical by Lionel Bart]
"Fagin the Jew" by Will Eisner
"The House of Rothschild" [1934 film]
"Small Change" trilogy by Jo Walton

Background reading: probably lots and lots, which I can specify at a later date. Maybe it would be worth taking out "Small Change" and just doing a nineteenth century version?

From:

avendya

He Shall Thunder In The Sky - it's lighter on Egypt than most of the Peabodys, but has WWI spies and is quite good.

From:

naraht

I'd like to look at stuff other than the basic "trench warfare" narratives, in particular; I can think of lots of home-front stuff from WWII, but not so much WWI, so suggestions would be really helpful.

Do you know, I can't think of anything either, apart from Vera Brittain.

Good secondary sources can be found in the "war" section of Oxford's twentieth century social history paper...

http://www.history.ox.ac.uk/currentunder/bibliographies/fhs_fs_22_britsoc20C_october_2007.pdf

Can I put in a plug for "The Great War and Modern Memory" by Paul Fussell even though it isn't strictly speaking about the home front?

From:

naraht

Oooh, that sounds great. I can come up with some secondary reading to go with that too.

From:

naraht

Indeed. Not to mention "Hard Times" by Dickens and a host of others. Sadly I am better with historic fiction than with historical fiction, if you see what I mean, and this community really inclines the other way...

From:

naraht

Homosexuality in the 30s

An actual historical (AU) novel:

"The Summer Isles" by Ian R MacLeod

From:

naraht

"Westward Ho!" is pretty well known and by an important author. Also there's a town named after it. :)

From:

damned_colonial

Excellent theme! Agreed about the tight moderation, though. Would love to find a novel from the 30s, but can't think of anything off-hand.

From:

wychwood

Haha, yes, I am having the same problem. As you probably noticed in my WWI suggestion!

From:

damned_colonial

We should probably do WW1 in general, too.

"All Quiet on the Western Front" is an obvious choice.

One of the Richard Hannay novels would be a good comparison from the same period.

Not sure what to pick for a more modern perspective... we read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fly_Away_Peter in secondary school, and I hated it at the time, but wouldn't mind revisiting. It's short at least.

From:

damned_colonial

Here's a list from Wikipedia that we could trawl for ideas:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:World_War_I_novels

From:

wychwood

True!

I'd suggest Blackadder Goes Forth as an interesting TV series for this - it's ridiculous and hilarious, certainly, but it actually respects the context more than I expect.

Also, how about Regeneration, the Pat Barker series? I've heard a lot of good things about that, though I wasn't overwhelmed myself. That's actual historical fiction, go team me!

I'd like something from elsewhere in the world, but I don't know what to suggest, again. There's nothing obviously non-European in that category you linked, though I need to look more closely.

From:

gloss

I'd love to run this one, and I have some book ideas:
Shimmer, Sarah Schulman
Fellow Travelers, Thomas Mallon
Advise & Consent, Allen Drury

...the theme's turned into "homosexuality and Cold War America", if that's okay. The only problem is that I'm not sure how/where to find a *free* edition, since by definition nothing's old enough to be public domain yet. Any ideas would be more than welcome.

From:

nightmareink

If there's no one who has volunteered to run this one, I'd be willing to do so. WWI is an area of interest of mine and I'm at least familiar with two of the books mentioned here.

From:

nightmareink

I liked Regeneration myself. I need to read the other two books however.

From:

damned_colonial

Ooh, "A Very Long Engagement" -- the film was based on a novel by Sebastien Japrisot, written in the 90s.

http://ask.metafilter.com/97129/Stories-about-WWIWWII-home-fronts has a whole list though I didn't find anything that really jumped out at me there.

From:

vass

Theme: China?
Are you prepared to run it: I don't think I know enough to run it, no.
Suggested books:
I'm thinking things like Lisa See's Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, and if autobiography counts, then Jung Chang's Wild Swans.

From:

damned_colonial

Fly Away Peter is Australian. And there's the movie "Gallipoli", of course, for more of that. Ooh, and here's a home front New Zealand YA novel: http://teen-historical-fiction.suite101.com/article.cfm/review_a_rose_for_the_anzac_boys

Midge Macpherson is a 16-year-old New Zealand girl enrolled in an English finishing school when her two brothers go off to war. Her best friends are Anne, the youngest daughter of an aristocratic British family and Ethel, the daughter of a Yorkshire wholesale grocer.

The three girls struggle with their inactivity and the irrelevance of their studies in deportment and home management skills while their brothers and loved ones are fighting in France, Belgium and Gallipoli. Stirred into action by a telegram telling her that her twin brother is missing in action, Anne rallies her friends to join her as she sets off for France with a plan to start a canteen to provide meals to the troops travelling to the Western Front.

As they deal with the tens of thousands of soldiers who pass through their lives, the girls discover hidden strengths and abilities. They unearth a sense of purpose in their desire to contribute to the well-bring of the soldiers and are impacted by the connections that they make with the local French villagers, other volunteers and the soldiers themselves

From:

vass

Theme: Punic wars
Are you ready to run it: sorry, no.
Suggested books:
David Anthony Durham, Pride of Carthage

From:

naraht

Homosexuality and Cold War America is such a great topic. J Edgar Hoover and Roy Cohn, oh my!

"The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay" by Michael Chabon might just fit under that theme, though it might not. A good secondary source is "The lavender scare" by David K. Johnson.

From:

damned_colonial

OK, if we add in Jackie French's YA "A Rose for the ANZAC Boys" (see comment below under WW1 in general) this theme now has 3 novels and one autobiography that are clearly about women in ww1, so I'll add it to the list.

OH! And there's a Phryne Fisher novel that's all about her backstory as an ambulance driver in WW1 and in Paris afterwards. Wonder what other ambulance driver/nurse/etc novels there are?