War by Sebastian Junger

 

Reviewed by Ben

 

War by Sebastian Junger is a true story of an American journalist who embeds himself in Battle Company, a US Army infantry division that fought for control of the Korengal Valley in Afghanistan. Published in 2010, the events described in the book take place during the early years of President Obama's first term. While collecting notes for the book, Junger and cameraman Tim Hetherington captured video footage that would be used to make the documentary "Restrepo." War was written with plain-yet artful-language describing the company's tour in the Afghan mountains. Junger is never pretentious. He levels with the reader regarding what happens during war and how it changes people. The narrative hits the reader with a thud.

 

The overriding themes of the book are how combat forges bonds and--sometimes--sucks people in. Some of the fiercest fighting of the war in Afghanistan took place in the Korengal Valley, a short, narrow strip of land in the mountains. If you search for this location in Google, you will see a lot of sources calling this one of the most dangerous places on Earth during the war and the US occupation. The valley presented a harsh environment that conferred an advantage to local insurgents who were accustomed to climbing the steep, rocky hillsides and less laden with heavy loads of equipment. Battle Company could come under fire anywhere, at any time. The Americans thus depended on each other for protection and became very close to each other. Deaths and casualties hit the group hard.

 

Even though combat presented the dangers of potential death, dismemberment, and psychological trauma, some of the members of Battle Company enjoyed combat. When winter brought a lull in insurgent activity, the men openly wished for firefights. One member of Battle Company who featured the most prominently in the book, O'Byrne, had a hard time conceiving of life back home as his tour drew to a close. He weighed signing a new contract with the Army and returning to the remote Korengal outpost, where mysterious men would resume trying to kill him.

 

War is a book I highly recommend. The narrative of the true events is exciting. The author's reflection on combat and what it does to men is compelling. Hearing the stories of enlisted men who long for gunfights is fascinating. All of this comes in a package that eschews the partisan political takes that we all heard years ago. Do yourself a favor and read this book.

She Kills Me: The True Stories of History’s Deadliest Women by Jennifer Wright

 

Reviewed by Jeanne

In case you haven’t gathered it from the title, this is relatively light hearted look at women who kill.  Note that I didn’t say murder, because a number of these women were warriors, from the Celtic Queen Boudica who rose up against Rome to Nadeahda Vasiyevna Popva who was a member of the famed WWII Russian air squadron the “Night Witches” to Freddie Oversteegen who joined the Resistance at fourteen. Some choices I found understandable but unexpected:  Mary I of England, for example.

Some of the women are well known, including Elizabeth Bathory or Lizzie Borden, while others have been relegated to footnotes in history.  The stories are brief, mostly less than four pages, and the author has a notation about topics at the beginning of each (Torture; Child Abuse; etc.) in case a reader is sensitive. 

The author doesn’t dwell on gruesome details, thankfully, but gives a quick overview and does put the story in historical context. Some of the most horrific stories for me were the ones involving slaves, especially the section on Delphine LaLaurie.  Even her New Orleans neighbors complained about her cruelty to her slaves, to no avail.  Finally, her starving cook set fire to house, revealing the horrors within.

Locusta of Gaul was one I found particularly intriguing.  The author comments, “It’s good to have work that you’re respected for” as this section opens, before adding, “You should not become a professional poisoner.”  Locusta’s skills with poisons made her quite popular in some circles in Rome—even in the Emperor’s household. 

 It may sound strange but one thing I loved about the book was its sense of humor. Let me quickly note that the humor is not at the expense of individual victims.  Mostly, it’s situational as the comments made under the section “Poisoning Husbands”:

“Truly, it was a scary time for men in England.  Not only were women pushing for better workplace conditions, and beginning to suggest they’d like to vote, now men feared their wives were going to poison them, largely for being awful.” The paragraph goes on to point out that in the 1850s, women were considered more or less the property of their husband.  He had control of property, money, and any children.  In the words of the old folksong:

Hard is the fortune of all womankind

She’s always controlled, she’s always confined.

Controlled by her parents, until she’s a wife—

A slave to her husband for the rest of her life.

Widowhood was one of the few ways a woman could become independent.

This isn’t to say that the author condones the practice of poisoning husbands, she merely puts it in context as to why it became so much a political issue that the House of Lords accepted an amendment to make the sale of arsenic to women illegal.

Cult leaders, pirate queens, saloon owners, warriors, and vigilantes roam these pages, and I enjoyed reading about them all.

Fever Year: The Killer Flu of 1918 by Don Brown

Reviewed by Jeanne

I like the way Book Bingo expands my reading.  This year I had another “read a graphic novel” square so I was looking around for something to fit when I saw Fever Year on our catalog.  Given the current coronavirus outbreak, it seemed more than timely.

The book begins on New Year’s Day, 1918.  World War I is raging and the U.S. has men in training camps around the country, preparing to send them to Europe.  In a town near one of those camps, a doctor has encountered a strange illness that seems to target the young and vigorous rather than the elderly.  Despite this, Dr. Miner suspects this new illness is some sort of influenza. The outbreak in the town seems to disappear, but then a young man at the training camp falls ill.

Thus begins one of the greatest pandemics the world has ever seen.  Brown explains the origin of the name (ex influential colesti, referring to the belief that the disease came from the heavens) and notes some possible outbreaks dating back to ancient times.  He then charts other outbreaks—one that started in Russia in 1899 that killed a million people—before detailing the epidemic that changed the world.

I found a wealth of information in this book, from the reason for the name “Spanish flu” to famous people who survived it (Walt Disney, Franklin Roosevelt, Gandhi) to the various theories on how to combat the disease to the present day ethical questions about recreating the disease to study it.  While the format doesn’t allow an in-depth examination, it does provide a sound foundation for anyone interested in learning more.  A bibliography is provided.

The illustrations are quite well done, mostly tans and browns suggesting the sepia of old photographs.  The sketches are evocative and sometimes moving.

Brown is also the author of similar non-fiction books, including titles on the Dust Bowl and Hurricane Katrina.