Finished: A Farewell to Arms (Hemingway). Gosh, that was a good book...sad, but good! I generally don't like to read books about war, but this one kept me turning the pages. I didn't know anything about the story, so I never knew what to expect. The narrator, Lt. Henry,  was an American who joins the Italian army as an ambulance driver in World War I. He meets a British nurse, Catherine, right before he goes out on an ambulance run and is severely injured. He's sent to a hospital further from the  front lines in Italy, and so is Catherine. While he recuperates and she tends to him and the other wounded, they fall in love and before he is sent back to the front line, she lets him know she's pregnant. When he gets back to the front line, within a couple of days the battle conditions are terrible and the Italian army and civilians are all in a mass retreat. The Italian police go crazy and start executing any officers who are not with their regiments. Lt. Henry is taken to be executed. He sees what's going on, jumps in the river, hops a train, goes back to Catherine, and they escape into Switzerland. Hemingway is so good at describing the horrific details of the war, and the harsh, rainy conditions of the retreat...and the mental stress that the soldiers are under, yet also the camaraderie of the soldiers who become like family. It's heartbreaking. :-(  He's so capable of writing that good mix between sharp, quick dialogue and authentic descriptions. It's like you can just hear Lt. Henry narrating the story. Once in Switzerland, Lt. Henry and Catherine have an idyllic life for a few months until the baby is born. They are truly in love and in such sync with each other and plan to marry after the baby is born. Things take a tragic turn, however, when the baby is still born and then Catherine dies of hemorrhaging. Lt. Henry is left to walk back to his hotel in the rain by himself. Sigh, heart wrenching.