Mademoiselle Satine

Books, Books, Books for me!

+Band of Brothers+
I got my order of "Band of Brothers" by Stephen Ambrose today. It's a used copy but I don't mind. And I paid only 4,20 (including the 3 € handling costs from Amazon) for it.
The best part was the wonderful "World of Books" bill with the following words printed at the bottom of the page: "Wir hoffen, dass Sie sehr viel Vergnngen von Ihrer gewShlten Veröffentlichung genie_en. Bitte seien Sie so freundlich und fngen Sie positives Feed-Back hinzu, Sie werden uns ein gro_er Dienst tun."
Aside from the fact that their PC knows how to type "ö" but not the other umlauts or the "ß" (eszett) it's some of the most formal and adorable German I've ever read.
"Sie werden uns einen großen Dienst tun" is such a adorkable translation for "render a service/great favour" and I think I've never been addressed this formally in my life. That the word come from a charity book shop in Sussex* make them more special.

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I've finally registered for my local library, after three years of living in this city. The pleasant surprise was that I - as a student - can test the library for four months for free and can then decide if I want to pay the annual fee of 7,50 € (10 $ or 6 £). I knew about this offer but was worried that I had to pay the fee anyway. I even went to the ATM to withdraw some cash, for I'm chronically cashless and can't buy myself a sandwich in a bakery in normal circumstances. The library woman was very nice, explained that I can test for the four months and can decide then.
When I came in the library had just opened for the day and there was a crowd! A crowd in a library! As I was looking for the books I wanted to borrow the masses dispersed and I didn't wait too long at the counter. And I found all the books I wanted without any trouble. (Sounds trivial but whoever had to wade through the complicated classification system in a university library knows what I'm talking about)

I borrowed the following:

Sebastien Japrisot "Die Mimosen von Hossegor" (the book "A very long engagement" is based on)
Erich Maria Remarque "Im Westen nichts Neues" (All quiet on the western front)
Louis-Ferdinand Céline "Die Reise ans Ende der Nacht" (Journey to the end of the night)

All the books are set in WWI. I believe Remarque and Céline can be read complementary - one as the account of trench warfare from the German perspective, the other from the French perspective. Japrisot's novel is more a love story than one of war (even though all stories of war are stories of love) and was classified as a "women" book in my library.

I started with "A very long engagement". I like the style of writing. The movie had that fairy-tale, too-fantastic-to-be-true feeling of "Amélie" and it's mirrored in the book. I heard that many critics didn't like director Jeunet's approach of treating the war in a "light" way.

"All quiet on the western front" will be the next book we are going to discuss at the_chairborne.

I also got "A league of their own", a baseball movie about the first female league in history. It's one of those movies the TV stations will still show from time to time and I always watched it when it was on. The DVD has a documentary about the real league which I'm looking forward to.




* the title of this entry translates to "Recycling Books for Charity" and is a direct transcript of the bill they send me (including the typing mistakes)

I'm so very excited about the new LJ commthe_chaiborne. Historical military fiction and non-fiction FTW!

And speaking of which, I just realized that I still haven't read "Journey to the end of the night" by Louis-Ferdinand Céline.

It contains gems like: "I have never voted in my life... I have always known and understood that the idiots are in a majority so it's certain they will win."

Or:
"Der Spieß von der Nachschubkolonne, Hüter des Hasses vom ganzen Regiment, zurzeit der Herr der Welt. Ein Schuft, wer da von Zukunft spricht, denn einzig zählt das Jetzt. Die Nachwelt im Munde führen heißt den Würmern Reden halten. In der Nacht des Kriegsdorfs hütete der Feldwebel das menschliche Vieh für die großen Schlachthöfe, die jüngst eröffnet worden waren. Der Feldwebel ist König! Der König des Todes! Feldwebel Cretelle! Genau! Einen Mächtigeren gibt es nicht. Und einem ihm Ebenbürtigen allenfalls noch gegenüber, den Feldwebel der Anderen."

Quotes
excerpt

Band of Brothers fanvid "Mr.Serious"

The vid is by raquel_el_pillo. The song "True Love" is by Mark Mallman. A few day ago he put his Greatest Hits (98-08) on his website but the download link is gone again. I uploaded "True Love" in case anyone like the song as much as I do.

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I really wish the author provided a summary for this excellent original story because I don't want to try it. But I guess I have to.
Fleur de Lys is the love story of two soldiers who served in the same company in WWI. It's about a friendship that could only exist in the void of war. It will turn your stomach and it will make you cry.

A quote:

Cowan had somehow got the mud off his face and more or less off his uniform, but there was nothing he could do about the stains. He was at least six foot four and younger than Dev had first thought. Hair colour was indistinguishable from mud. Blue eyed. Hard faced. Deverel leaned against the table and looked him over without interest.

“What did you think you were doing out there?”

Cowan’s eyes fixed on the wall. Deverel slammed a hand down on the table.

“Now listen. I can make life pretty damned unpleasant for you-“

Cowan’s eyes flickered down. It was a steady, hot stare, and it scorched right through Deverel, drying the rest of the lecture in his mouth.

It said You arrogant, pretentious little prick, what do you know?

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Warning: This story is intended for an adult audience, contains violence and deals with severe emotional traumata as well as suicide.

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