Jane Cooper (5)

A total turkey, 17 Mar. 2016

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This review is from: Jane Cooper in Tajikistan: a travelogue (Kindle Edition)
I have read numerous books on unusual countries written by volunteers or other workers out there. Though varying in their literary merit, one expects a glimpse at the people, the culture and perhaps some politics, history and geography.
So I embarked on this with interest: but it's absolutely dreadful. Firstly, it's not a book: the Canadian author herself show more describes it as an "article" (I read it start to finish while taking a bath!)
Ms Cooper tells us she was working for an "international non-gvernment organization". She never names it, and if it's any kind of charity that's undoubtedly very wise, for we never hear of any successful 'good works' achieved by her employers. She dashes off to the new head office to prepare frantically for some "special foreign guests." She attends a video-conference ("I think someone felt the equipment wasn't getting enough use") where (oh, horror!) "there was no coffee or snacks. All my friends will tell you that I get both drowsy and irritable if my dinner is late by two hours."
She attends - no, not a Tajik festival, but a Burns Night supper for the international contingent, for which "two members of our planning team flew all the way to Almaty to bring the haggis back." (Am I alone in feeling this to all be slightly inappropriate in "one of the 20 poorest countries in the world"?)
Tajikistan really only gets a glancing mention. After a passing reference to Ramadan, Ms Cooper says, a few pages on, "now you may remember that Tajikistan is a Muslim country"! I would have liked to learn more about the civil war which was a contributory factor to the poverty, but she tells us not a word.
If you want a book about Jane Cooper - her job, her social life - this may fit the bill. If you're at all interested in Tajikistan, this is a total turkey. show less

Intended as an aid to Ontario teachers planning their lessons for the WW I unit in the Grade 10 History curriculum this booklet of 82 pages is a collection of letters sent from overseas by Elmo A. Sully to his friend Fannie Iveson. Raised in Metcalfe, Ontario, Sully planned to attend university and possibly become a teacher. WW I changed all that. After training in Canada with his two close friends also from Metcalfe, he sail with them to England in June, 1916.

More training and then to the show more front in August in time for the 1916 Battle of the Somme. The letters describe his training in England and his impressions of life at the front. He mentions the trenches and wounds but as he is writing to a teenage girl who lives in a rural Ontario village, he doesn't tell too much about what it was really like. The editors provides context for what the battles means in the history of the war. They also footnote names and terms that were common in 1916 especially in England.

Includes photos of the main characters as well as of the troops in training and at the front. Bibliography for those who wish to read more about Sully and the war. show less