Don't You Know There's a War On?

Wednesday, October 14, 2009


It's chapter and page count time dear readers.

For the week -

CHAPTERS - 113

PAGES - 1,911

For the year so far -

CHAPTERS - 5,770

PAGES - 73,970

Today's book, "In this evocative cultural and social history, Richard Lingeman, recreates the events - historic, humorous, and tragic - and personalities of the American home front during World War II. It was a time of partings and loneliness, tragedy and triumph, blue stars and gold star moms, when V stood for Victory, Home Front USA was the Arsenal of Democracy, and prosperity turned the corner."

1940s Thoughts:

  • Operation Deal With the To-Read Stacks continued today as I took a trip back to the 40s. I'm very tired today but nothing invigorates me more than reading about the 40s, watching a movie from the 40s or wearing my "There's a War On But I'm High Spirited So I'll Be Okay" apron (not to be confused with the "The Great Depression Has Been Hard But I'm Resourceful So I'll Be Okay" apron.) I would have put on a little Glen Miller music while reading the book, but I don't need music because I had the theme song to Homefront (a great show about the 40s that the studio absolutely refuses to release on DVD) stuck in my head all day. Why it was all I could do to keep from getting up and doing the jitterbug mid-way through reading. Although I would have been slightly hampered by the fact that I don't actually know how to do the jitterbug (I have somehow deluded myself into thinking that if I tried it, I would somehow just know how.)

  • I loved today's book - but, I think a lot of that has to do with my unnatural love of all things related to that time period. If you're not as big of a fan as I am (and by that I mean, if you don't waste ridiculous amounts of time trying to figure out how to fix your hair in the 40s style while listening to Glen Miller in between trying to figure out how to make a Ration Cake) then you might not care for this book because it was filled with a lot of statistics and facts that might be slightly dull to a person who is looking for a really fun read.

  • Among those facts and statistics; there was a rise in crime, teenage prostitution, and bigamy during the early 40s. Ahh, the good old days. Or as I like to say to people who claim that the 40s were the good old days when everything was better, "You're right. Those days were good. Hitler, rationing, the threat of polio just hanging over them at all times - they had it made." In other words, today's book tells us what we already know, that there's no such thing as the good old days and every era had it's problems, but it uses statistics I have never run across to make that point.