Wasatch County Library

Set before and during the great war, Birdsong captures the drama of that era on both a national and a personal scale. It is the story of Stephen, a young Englishman, who arrives in Amiens in 1910. His life goes through a series of traumatic experiences, from the clandestine love affair that tears apart the family with whom he lives, to the unprecedented experiences of the war itself.

“Before the Greatest Generation, there was the Forgotten Generation of World War I . . . wonderfully engaging” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review).
 
“Richard Rubin has done something that will never be possible for anyone to do again. His interviews with the last American World War I veterans—who have all since died—bring to vivid life a cataclysm that changed our world...

Focuses on a "lost generation" of Americans who fought in France during World War I and who expatriated themselves from America after the war.

A wounded aviator returns home after his time in World War One. Escorted to his small hometown in Georgia by another wounded veteran of the war and a widow, he faces the many realities that come with his return: his anything-but-loyal fiancée, the silence he lives in because of his head injury, and the widow who plans to marry him herself.

Excerpt: "It was November 9th, 1916. I lay in a state of luxurious semi-consciousness pondering contentedly over things in general, transforming utter impossibilities into plausible possibilities, wondering lazily the while if I were asleep. Presently, to my disgust an indefinable, yet persistent "something" came into being, almost threatening to dispel the drowsy mist then pervading my brain. The slow thought waves gradually ceased their surging,...

Mr. Britling Sees It Through H. G. Wells - A moving novel of one Englishman's experience as his country goes to war, from the author of who gave us The Time Machine and The Invisible Man. Mr. Britling considers himself an optimist. But as the Great War begins, he finds himself forced to reassess many of the things he thought he was sure of. As refugees from Belgium arrive in the town of Matching's Easy, telling frightening tales of what they have...

Excerpt: "A Tale intended to be after the fact. Being the experience of four men from the sunk steamer "Commodore". None of them knew the color of the sky. Their eyes glanced level, and were fastened upon the waves that swept toward them. These waves were of the hue of slate, save for the tops, which were of foaming white, and all of the men knew the colors of the sea. The horizon narrowed and widened, and dipped and rose, and at all times its edge...

Dutch thinker and theologian Desiderius Erasmus played a key role in the development of humanism during the Renaissance and early modern periods. In Against War, Erasmus mounts a stunningly lucid and detailed argument against armed combat on humanistic grounds. It's a must-read for anyone who has strong feelings about the moral and ethical dimensions of militaristic undertakings. As part of our mission to publish great works of literary fiction and...

"On the 100th anniversary of the devastating pandemic of 1918, Jeremy Brown, a veteran ER doctor, explores the troubling, terrifying, and complex history of the flu virus, from the origins of the Great Flu that killed millions, to vexing questions such as: are we prepared for the next epidemic, should you get a flu shot, and how close are we to finding a cure? While influenza is now often thought of as a common and mild disease, it still kills over...

In 1925, Lewis R Freeman became a correspondent for the United States Navy Fleet, living and working among them. Traveling all around the Pacific Ocean, Freeman observed both the environment and his fellow travelers. Separated into three sections, Stories of the Ships is a collection of narratives about this time in Freeman's life, depicting firsthand experiences and retelling the accounts and tales of the men that served in the Navy around this time....