What's On My Nightstand

 (Other than dust and tea stains - no, wait, that's what's on DH's nightstand!)

Our summer/Christmas break traditionally gives me a chance to catch up on some non-work-related reading. Even better if I happen to be gifted a book or two for Christmas. This past summer, despite injuries and surgeries and going back to work early, I managed to read quite a variety of books - and enjoyed them too! Therefore they have been relegated to the bookcase to gather dust and are no longer technically on my nightstand. The ones that are on my nightstand are the ones that I'm part-way through. Since the majority of these were begun before Christmas I will leave it up to the reader of this post to decide if that's due to a fault on my part or the book's!

So what have I managed to read so far?

Anzac Girls (originally called The Other Anzacs) by Peter Rees and based on real letters and diaries, Anzac Girls tells the extraordinary story of Australian and New Zealand nurses who served in World War 1. They faced prejudice (trained nurses were paid less than untrained male orderlies), tiring conditions, extreme situations (from sleeping in the open to bombing of hospitals), treated horrific war wounds, saw many of their fellow countrymen die, at times had inadequate leave or provisions, and faced loneliness, and sometimes even death. I picked up this book after watching the miniseries of the same name and I don't regret it. As a result, I wanted to know more and thus read ...

"We Are Here, Too": The Diaries and Letters of Sister Olive L. C. Haynes, No 2 AGH (November 1914 to February 1918), compiled by Olive's daughter, Margaret O. Young. I particularly enjoyed the glimpses I saw of Olive through both the miniseries and the above book, and I was intrigued to learn more. I wasn't disappointed. Although perhaps not for everyone (there is hardly any narration, leaving the letters and diary entries to speak for themselves), I enjoyed how Olive's personality shone through her letters and diary, and her strength of character which was so evident in her decisions and the way she would be honest in her diary but paint everything much rosier when she wrote home so as not to worry her family. It was also beautiful to see the unfolding of her romance with Norval Henry "Pat" Dooley and their subsequent marriage which, despite initial reservations from the family back home, lasted sixty years. My only complaint? I wish I knew in more detail what happened after the war.

Empty Cradles by Margaret Humphreys was given to me to read by DIL#4 and tells the shocking and harrowing stories of child migrants sent by Britain to countries of the Commonwealth. The book deals mostly with the stories of those who ended up in Australia: children who were told their parents were dead only to learn years later that they had been betrayed by their home country and their parents had not been dead at the time they were shipped off, nor, had they in many cases, been abandoned by their parent/s. It is a book that you will not be able to put down yet is one that is sure to make you weep. 

Susie: The Life and Legacy of Susannah Spurgeon by Ray Rhodes, Jr, tells the story of Charles H. Spurgeon's wife from the time of their first meeting, to the time of her death, nine years after that of her famous husband's. To tell you the truth, I was a little disappointed with this book. I had hoped there would be more of her life than what I had already gleaned from my own amateur research but the majority of what was in the book I had already known. Perhaps if I hadn't expected it to read more like a novel than an essay, I might have enjoyed it more. Still, I finished it, and it would be a useful read for anyone wanting to know more about this godly woman who understood what it was to triumph in Christ despite almost daily suffering.

Cheaper By The Dozen by Frank Bunker Gilbreth Jr and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey was another book that DIL#4 gave me to read (along with the sequel Belles on Their Toes). This book is not to be confused with the 2003 movie which borrows nothing from the book except its title! A fun, light-hearted read, but I haven't picked up the sequel yet. A little confusing at times because the chapters are arranged by topic and not in timeline sequence, and since one daughter died at age five before several of her siblings had even been born, technically there were never twelve children at one time ... but still a good read for a laugh and a look into an American family (perhaps, though, not a typical one) of one hundred years ago.

A Castaway in Cornwall by Julie Klassen. The only book I managed to finish that was not a biography in some way or another. I ordered this book months and months and months ago and it arrived in time to go into my Christmas stocking. I am a recent convert to Julie Klassen's novels and this one did not fail to disappoint. Since it was a novel, I'm not going to give any more away but will say that if you enjoy Klassen, you'll most likely enjoy this one too.

Now for those books that I am currently reading (or pretending to be currently reading) ...

All Of Grace by Charles Spurgeon. I'm not sure what started this interest in Spurgeon. I have several of his books and when I decided that I was going to read something a little more serious I picked up this one. Its small size may have had something to do with the reason I chose it. The chapters are short and what I've been doing so far is reading just one at a time and meditating on it. Not a light bedtime reading book (another reason I'm not motoring through this - I find I need to have a fresh mind and time to absorb the words) but insightful and worth the read.

Middlemarch by George Eliot. For some reason, I also decided to read a classic that I've not read before. I've read a few of Eliot's books, and love their portrayal of English life but, for some reason, I can't seem to get past the first few chapters of this one. Perhaps the size of the book is a drawback? Still, a classic is usually a classic for a reason, and it would be good to persevere.

My Family For The War by Anne C. Voorhoeve. I'm not sure when I started this book. It's well researched and well written, and I'm probably at least two thirds of the way through but for some reason I have stalled. It's obviously not the subject matter as I have read two war books this past summer, so I'm not sure what it is but the goal is to finish this one and the other two on my "nightstand" (or else hide Middlemarch where it cannot stare accusingly at me) before work-related reading has me firmly in its obligatory and boring grasp once again.

So that's my nightstand. Obviously my love of biographies has dominated this latest selection, along with some modern and not so modern classics.