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japple

(10,420 posts)
11. I was in the middle of Margaret Atwood's Oryx & Crake when I got a notice from the
Wed Mar 11, 2015, 07:31 PM
Mar 2015

library saying that an e-book I had on hold was available. It is titled When Books Went to War by Molly Guptill Manning and is about the enormous effort it took to keep up the morale of US soldiers during and after WWII by providing reading materials to the troops. It is a very interesting story and I was surprised to find that the two most popular books among American GIs were Betty Smith's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and Rosemary Thomas's Chicken Every Sunday. I requested a copy of Chicken Every Sunday from the library just out of curiosity. Betty Smith and Rosemary Thomas received thousands of letters from GIs who were so grateful for books that reminded them of home and a normal life back in the US. For many of the soldiers, the war was the first time they ever read a work of fiction or read anything for pleasure.

I will probably get back to Oryx and Crake after this little detour.

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