Mod post: theme suggestions

[damned_colonial]

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.

Comments

[jest]

Theme: The Crimean War
Are you prepared to run it? Depends on my school schedule.
Suggested books:

Off the top of my head...

Flashman at the Charge by George McDonald Fraser
Jack Archer by G.A. Henty

...and I suppose it wouldn't be the Crimea without The Charge of the Light Brigade.

(Ha, the Crimean War also sneaks into Sherlock Holmes as the place where Dr Watson was shot.)

[damned_colonial]

Wonder if there's anything fictionalised about Florence Nightingale?

[isis]

I vaguely remember having read one such. But only vaguely.

[jest]

There's bound to be something written for the YA market...

[jest]

The Rose of Sebastopol

It's not Nightingale but it might fill the niche. My local library has it - I'm going to check it out.

[damned_colonial]

That looks interesting actually, exactly because it's *not* explicitly about Florence.

[kinetikatrue]

Yep, The Story of Florence Nightingale, by Margaret Leighton. Childhood favorite of mine.

[oursin]

Or even better, Mary Seacole.

[wychwood]

I was about to suggest that - she's a cracking read! :)

[gloss]

There's also Beryl Bainbridge's Master Georgie.

[jest]

Ooh, have you read it? Is Bainbridge good? I've had her book "According to Queeney" on my shelf for over a year but haven't had a chance to crack the cover.

[gloss]

I haven't read Master Georgie, but I liked an earlier Bainbridge -- Another Part of the Wood -- and I hear consistently good things about her work.

[damned_colonial]

I haven't read it, but the review makes me want to.

[oursin]

Watson was shot during the Second Anglo-Afghan War, 1878-80, ('I see you have lately been in Afghanistan') was he not? The Crimea would make him really quite a bit older than Holmes.

[jest]

Damn, you're absolutely right. Somebody at the library said Crimea the other day and I swallowed it without a second thought.