Saturday, December 31, 2011

11 Days in December: Christmas at the Bulge, 1944, by Stanley Weintraub

Book 64 of 50 Book Challenge and Book 9 of Holiday Reading Challenges


Closing out the year with a quick audio book.  Weintraub wrote another Christmas book that I read awhile ago, about George Washington.  So when I saw this at the library's holiday display I picked it up.  

I thought I was done with the holiday thing.

The jacket description lays this out with the old story of General Patton trying to get off an air campaign, being held off by weather and asking God whose side he was on.  The book spends almost no time on that subject.

There was a lot of politicking among the generals in December 1944.  Normally, I like to read about the politicking.  But this was more about who was endorsing whom for more stars and who thought whom wasn't agressive enough in the campaigns.  I didn't need to hear about how Churchill didn't like Ike.  I was really hoping for a book about the guys in the field that Christmas - like that part of Band of Brothers (who made an appearance in this book).

There were a couple of very worthy anecdotes.  American soldiers end up at a lady's farmhouse on Christmas and she is sharing the little she has when the German soldiers show up and they all manage a peaceful holiday together.  The one where the mail had been held up, but Christmas arrives and Dick Byers receives two boxes of treats from his fiancee in the States.  I wish there had been more of those.

And that just about does it for the year.  I will work on a 2011 book recap soon.






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