All Quiet on the Western Front - Erich Maria Remarque

Title: All Quiet on the Western Front
Author: Erich Maria Remarque; translated by A. W. Wheen
Pages: 296
Published: 1987 (originally published 1928)
Genre: Historical Fiction, War Fiction, Classics
Edition: Mass-Market Paperback
Source: Personal

Description: This is the testament of Paul Bäumer, who enlists with his classmates in the German army of World War I. These young men become enthusiastic soldiers, but their world of duty, culture, and progress breaks into pieces under the first bombardment in the trenches. 

Through years of vivid horror, Paul holds fast to a single vow: to fight against the hatred that meaninglessly pits young men of the same generation but different uniforms against one another... if only he can come out of the war alive. (via Goodreads)

Thoughts: This was my book club's selection this past June and the third time that I have read the book.  It was interesting to read the book on my own for the first time (first two times I read the book were for course work; the first time was for my grade 12 English class and the second time was for a 100-level History course).  Overall, I liked the book, even though I had difficulty getting through the first half of the book.  

What I really liked was how Remarque used language to evoke what it was like to be in the those trenches a hundred years ago. My favourite scene was when Remarque described the fog rolling in, filling in where the shells had hit the ground.

Bottom line: While the book is fairly short, it a book packed with emotion and imagery, both bad and good.  It probably will leave the reader questioning the nature of warfare and wondering what it does to the soldier on both sides of a conflict.  Highly Recommended.

Rating: 4.75/5

The Quiet Little Woman - Louisa May Alcott

Title: The Quiet Little Woman : a Christmas story
Author: Louisa May Alcott
Pages: 122
Published: 1999
Genre: Short stories, Fiction, Christmas
Rating: 3/5

Everything about The Quiet Little Woman: A Christmas Story by Louisa May Alcott is heartwarming, starting with the extraordinary tale of its origin. Alcott wrote the story for three girls who emulated Little Women's March sisters by founding their own literary publication, but the magazine was lost for many years; this story is now being published in book form for the first time. The Quiet Little Woman tells the story of Patty, a young girl living hopelessly in an orphanage, who is rescued at Christmas time by a kindly woman named Aunt Jane. Also collected in this small, beautiful (and not coincidentally, Christmas stocking-size) volume are two of Alcott's other holiday stories; one of them, "Rosa's Tale," is a really lovely fable about a horse who speaks at midnight on Christmas Eve. (via Goodreads.com)

Thoughts: It was a nice light read.  Granted the book was very short and the book only took me less than 12 hours of reading time to complete, but it was still a nice diversion from the heavier books that are awaiting me.  I find it interesting that these three stories were only discovered quite recently and that Ms. Alcott took the time to pen these stories for the Lukens girls and their little publication, which was inspired by the paper that the March girls made in Little Women, even though she was a well-known author at the time of these stories and was in the midst of her own busy writing career.  The stories are quite simple and while the first two stories in the collection were more entertaining, the last story was a little confusing for the most part.  Overall it was enjoyable and a nice read.

Recommended for fans of Little Women and Alcott's other work.