Answering The Call: A Commenorative Tribute to Nursing In WWI

Answering The Call

from

The U.S. Government

The U.S. Military

The Department Of Defense

The U.S. Army

and 

The Surgeon General

As I explained in my post prior to this one,  I am working on a project connected to the nurses who served in WWI.  That post can be read HERE.  As a result for the next year or so I will read some back ground books from time to time.  One of those books is this non fiction about about the Army Nurses in WWI.  This book provides a clear explanation of the various types of medical facilities used in the war.  For example the base hospital was farther from the battle field from the camp hospital which was farther from the front lines than the mobile units.  This has been helpful to me as I look for where the nurses I am researching were, to recognize the various facilities.  Overall the book explains in a clear manner much of the information I need to know for the project I am working on.  It is also an interesting book.  So as we approach the centennial of the end of WWI on Armistice Day 2018,  this is a good book to add to one's reading list.  Please click on the links above for more information and enjoy the video that follows.  

A Service Of Love In War Time by Rufus Matthew Jones

A Service Of Love In Wartime

by

Rufus Matthew Jones

The non fiction book,  A Service Of Love In Wartime,  can be downloaded from either Google Books or Open Library at no cost.   For example you can find the book HERE.  It is the story of the work of conscientious objectors in WWI.  They were organized by the Quaker Church and accomplished a monumental amount of work during and after WWI.  The book starts out  a little slow with some of the political problems they ran into trying to establish with the government an alternative to the draft for CO's.  By a quarter of the way into the book things start to really pick up.  There are descriptions of the treatment CO's received in training camps prior to the alternative service getting set up and the struggles to work with in the system to remedy the situation.  The officers in our armed services were sensitive to the issues but the drill sergeants were not in the loop.  There were some pretty gruesome examples of how they tried to break the CO's convictions and convince them to fight.  Eventually the alternative service was established and the Quakers, Mennonite, and Dunker draftees were off to Europe but in a different role.  Still working within the shell fire,  instead of firing back they were evacuating civilians and providing medical care and other services to the war displaced populations.  The organization that was formed by the Quakers to meet this need in WWI later received the Nobel Peace Prize.  I have never seen a movie or a mini series about this work in WWI and I have to wonder why.  This book is a story to be told and a movie or mini series would be a wonderful venue to educate the public about this little known corner of WWI.  Please click on the book title and author's name above to follow the links to move information and enjoy the video that follows.  And then read on below the video to see how I came to read this book. It is very different than most books I would select.

Any one who has read my blog much knows that I have an interest in history and that historical novels are my genre.  They may also know that I have a family history hobby and spend a lot of time researching my ancestors.  What they may not know is that I am Diest.  I respect people's religious affiliations but am not involved in a religious social group.   So the book in this blog is not one that would normally jump off the shelf at me.  But I have gotten involved in a project as a volunteer that caused me to read this particular book.  I will also be reading more non fiction books about WWI in the next year.  This is because, due to my genealogy contacts,  I was asked to volunteer and join in a project that the county I was born in is planning for Armistice Day 2018.  This will be the 100 year anniversary of the ending of WWI.  It is unfortunate that our WWI Vets have not been as celebrated as some of our other veterans of war.  The committee I am working with is trying to find out what they can about the WWI veterans from the county.  This task is made more difficult due to a fire the NARA center in St Louis had that housed the records for WWI personal.  While I hate when our service men and women are put in harms way,  I do feel strongly that when they are they should be thanked and be remembered for their service.  Since I have some experience in finding out about "dead people"  with my genealogy hobby,  I was asked to pitch in.  I have been given the task of finding out about the Red Cross Nurses from the county I was born in.  Once in Europe the Quaker group was joined with both the British Quakers and both theBritish and the  American Red Cross.  And one of our county's gals is on the list in the back of this book A Service Of Love In War Time.  Therefore,  along with a lot of other WWI and Red Cross Information,  I read this book.  I enjoyed the book very much and recommend it to others.  And as I indicated I wish there was a movie about the information in it.  But back to the WWI Centennial Project,  there is a national push to have functions and memorials around the country for Armistice Day 2018.  There is a web page to post memorials that can be found HERE along with the adjacent site that is full of information for those that want to get involved with WWI commemorative programming.  The web page that the county I am involved working with can be found HERE.  So far I have been chasing down four different Red Cross Nurses and I have not yet determined where my Quaker lady served at in Europe.  I am sure more names will surface as the research continues.  I do not know if they will chose to use the information I am finding but I am having a ball finding it.  Please follow the two links  in this paragraph for more information and enjoy the video that follows.  I hope others will get involved in a WWI 2018 Armistice Day project at the county, state, or national level.  

The Winds Of War by Herman Wouk

The Winds Of War

by

Herman Wouk

On my way home from work this night, I finished listening to the novel The Winds Of War by Herman Wouk.   It is a very long book but I am looking forward to the sequel.  The Winds Of War is the story of a navy man and his family on the eve of World War II.  I have read and listened to a great many WWII books and this has to be my second favorite, second only to Ken Follett's treatment of the second world war in his century trilogy.  Wouk treats the subject more conservatively than Follett but it is still a classic and an excellent book.  I am not sure how I managed not to read this book till now.  It was published in the 1970's and there was a mini series that was very popular that I didn't see either.  I am looking forward to seeing it soon.  Please click on the author's name and book title above to follow links to more information and enjoy the video that follows.  If you have not read the book or watched the mini series do not delay any longer.  This book will definitely make my top ten list for 2017.  I highly recommend it. 

Mindless Eating by Brian Wansink

Mindless Eating

by

Brian Wansink

It was necessary to put this best seller on hold on the digital service at the library and wait a few weeks in order to check it out on my kindle app.  Reading it did not take long and the language was not difficult.  It addresses our eating habits and how we eat by habit instead of conscious choice.  But rather than making a point to pay attention to what we eat, which was what I expected the message to be,  the author goes on to give tips on changing our habits  so that we eat less while not paying attention rather than more.  His premise is to cut our caloric intake by a slight amount that we don't notice thereby causing a weight loss instead of gain over the course of our year.   Since I have had a struggle with weight my entire life there is a lot of review for me in this book.   But it was a review presented in an enjoyable manner and there was new information for me.  I recommend this book for those with a desire to get their eating habits under control.  I intend to read his other book in the future.   The ideas suggested can be incorporated to use along with other diet programs.   Please click on the book title and author's name above to follow the link to more information and enjoy the video that follows.  

Saturday Night Genealogy Challenge: Database Statistics

This weeks challenge and the links to those that participated can be found HERE.http://www.geneamusings.com/2017/08/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-your.html  The challenge is worded as follows:

Tell us which GMP you use, and how many persons, places, sources, etc. are in your database(s) today in a blog post of your own, in a comment to this blog post, or in a Facebook status or Google+ stream comment.

I use Reunion Genealogy Software.   I was not able to find one page that had all the items together.  Under reports,  then statistics,  I found the number of people which was followed by a list of them.  Under side bar I found the places and the sources listed with the totals at the top.  And under reports,  then multimedia usage,  I found a list of multimedia and indications of how many times they were viewed with the amount of files on the top.  

Going through and adding my sources to the right fields is something I need to do.  I do have more sources than indicated in other areas such as the photo description field or in the notes area.  

The Bees: A Novel by Laline Paull

The Bees: A Novel

by

Laline Paull

This novel has been compared in reviews to the Handmaids Tale and The Hunger Games.  While I saw no connection with this book and those other two mentioned The Bees is a well written novel and enjoyable to read.  It is timely with all the concerns about the dwindling bee population and does make one look at bees more affectionately.  It is the story of a worker bee who wants to lay eggs and only the Queen Bee is supposed to lay eggs.  The worker bee has many adventures gathering nector out in the world and in trying to keep her egg alive.  It has an interesting human connection in the beginning and ending that ties up the story nicely.  This is not my normal genre so probably won't make my top ten list for the year but was an enjoyable enough read.  Please click on the author's name and title above to follow the links to more information and enjoy the video that follows.