NPC Books & Brunch discussions on Jan. 28 and Feb. 18
The next two NPC Books & Brunch discussions will be about books that focus on individuals caught up in major wars.
At noon on Saturday, Jan. 28, Books & Brunch will meet at the Club’s Fourth Estate Restaurant to talk about “The Nightingale” by Kristin Hannah. It tells the story of two sisters, just coming of age in France on the eve of World War II, and their struggle to survive and then to resist the German occupation of France.
On Saturday Feb. 18, the Books & Brunch discussion at the Fourth Estate will be about “The Quartermaster." It is a biography of General Montgomery C. Meigs, who was the U.S. Army’s quartermaster general during the Civil War. The author is Robert O'Harrow.
Books & Brunch is for all NPC members and their guests; in fact members are encouraged to bring guests.
“The Nightingale” will give the group much to talk about; it raises ethical issues of making choices with no possible moral outcome.
In her Amazon.com review of the book, Sara Nelson says: “Kristin Hannah is a popular thriller writer with legions of fans, but her latest novel, The Nightingale, soars to new heights … and will earn her even more ecstatic readers. Both a weeper and a thinker, the book tells the story of two French sisters – one in Paris, one in the countryside – during WWII; each is crippled by the death of their beloved mother and cavalier abandonment of their father; each plays a part in the French underground; each finds a way to love and forgive. If this sounds sudsy. . . well, it is, a little. . . but a melodrama that combines historical accuracy.”
In fact, one of the characters is based on the exploits of a woman who resisted the occupation by working with a French underground group that led downed British and U.S. airmen to safety in Spain.
“The Nightingale” was originally scheduled to be discussed on Dec. 17 but was canceled because of the ice storm.
The book to be discussed on Feb. 18 is a biography of Montgomery Meigs, who is credited with organizing and running the U.S. Army organization that not only got the troops to the war’s many battlefields, but got them there with all the supplies and equipment they needed, and did this with a minimum of graft and outright theft.
Reading about the rampant graft and dysfunction in the highest parts of the U.S. government before and during the Civil War helps put today’s concerns into context. Reading about how Meigs met and mostly overcame them offers hope for today.
Meigs’ talents were more than military. Before the War he directed the rebuilding and expansion of the U.S. Capitol Building, including putting today’s stunning dome into place using innovative techniques. He also supervised the building of the Washington Aqueduct, which supplied the city with a good supply of fresh, clean water for the first time. Parts of this system are still in use.
After the Civil War, he designed and directed the construction of the building at 401 F Street Northwest that is now the National Building Museum. It was built to house the hundreds of clerks and administrators who handled pensions for Union Civil War Pensions. Meigs designs included a ventilation system that enabled those in the building to work in relative comfort even in the summer, long before air conditioning was invented.
For more information contact Jack Williams, the Books & Brunch chair, at [email protected]