nun shall pass ~

i feel like i didn't do much this weekend, but i guess i did read two books for research and the 50bookchallenge:

no. 16 ~ No Cross, No Crown: Black nuns in nineteenth-century New Orleans by mary bernard deggs. very interesting transcription of the history of a black convent written by one of its early members. the racism of the free creole people for ex-slaves is especially disturbing. mostly this is an account of the history of a particularly small group. it was interesting, but didn't yield much that i can work with. glad i read it though.

no. 17 ~ To Bind up the Wounds: Catholic sister nurses in the U.S. Civil War by mary denis maher. man, this one was pretty dry, redundant reading unfortunately. but it yielded a wonderful bibliography of excellent sources. and i got some interesting information here about how nuns went pretty freely between the lines (smugglers, anyone?) and how at first people were sorta scared of them, but gradually came to prefer their care in the hospitals, etc. (there's one funny incident relayed in which wounded soldiers were so freaked out by their hats, they requested that they not wear them on the ward). this text is written by a nun and so is a bit skewed in terms of perspective. it would be interesting to read some more balanced accounts.

i'm thinking maybe nuns might be more complicated than i want them to be given everything else i have going. on the other hand, a gaggle of nuns would be fun to play with ~ just not sure i can make the leap from war-time to post-war. maybe just have some post-war nuns and leave it at that. i dunno. nuns are sorta a hard sell these days ~ unless they're funny. and i don't actually have anything in mind for these.

the morning's fortuitous find ~

sometimes you need something very particular research-wise.

sometimes you find it.

Last in Their Class: Custer, Pickett and the Goats of West Point

sweet.



check out this really fun interview with the author for Failure Magazine (ha!) by jason zasky.

the only thing i'm irritated about is that the goat of '47 was well enough known to make a name for himself in this book (which means maybe i will push james' graduation to '48 as i had been considering), but even more bizarre (in that freaky coincidental way i keep running up against), a.p. hill's graduation (he was not a goat) was delayed for the same reason as i made for james. i guess i will forever feel like a copycat, no matter what i come up with. i'm actually considering not making james the goat just because i can see his instructors raising his standing just to spite him.

regardless, i'll bet no one at west point ever had a four-legging duckling. yeahhhh.

i'm so getting this from innerliberry loan.

: D