What Are You Reading

[High Pockets]

My Life with Bonnie & Clyde

Blanche Caldwell Barrow
edited by John Neal Phillips

Blanche's memoir of her time with Clyde, Bonnie and her husband Buck.
A remarkable handwritten account on a note-pad that was found recently, edited, (to correct spelling and punctuation), and published. What's incredible about the whole thing is the fact that she wrote the thing in prison right after it all happened and almost every single paragraph has been researched for accuracy and all check out to be dead-on the money!

Not the least bit romantic,.......quite sad as a matter of fact.

 

[Harp]

Originally posted by Harp...


Also, have been nursing a cold with Evan Williams whisky,
an aged sour mash that stands favorably to Maker's Mark
at a third the latter's price.
It ain't that caffeine-free still swil bivouac route march hooch.

Harp, are these the lyrics to an as-yet-unreleased song of yours?

...nope. Culled from Wormwood's Toast, the unexpurgated Hellgate edition.

 

[conrad5157]

Lindberg by A. Scott Berg. This is my first Lindberg biography, I'm about 3/4 through the book. I knew of Lindy's rise and fall I just didn't know how BIG the rise and fall were.

 

[AmateisGal]

The Great Gatsby. To my utter mortification, I have never read this book - not in high school lit class, not in all my college lit classes (I minored in English). It is now time to rectify the situation!

 

[MissECP]

Pedals and Petticoats: On the road in post-war Europe
By Mary Elsy

Fascinating true story of how 4 women from Britain in 1950 decided to cycle through Europe, camping in a tent for accommodation. 3,000 mile trip through Belgium, Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain, France etc. with all their camping equipment/ supplies strapped to thier bicycles. It's really interesting to see what the places they visited were like only 5 years after the second world war. Lots of interesting people met along the way. Good read.

 

[Zip Gun Aria]

And I am just starting The Annotated Alice, with notes by Martin Gardner.

The Annotated Alice and The Annotated Snark were among my favorite books as a child -- possibly because the esoteric aspects of all three contributions (Carroll, Gardner and Tenniel's) were really for adults. Those books, the Complete Works of Poe (including the satires), Ovid's Metamorphosis and Flowers of Evil, by Baudelaire (New Directions edition), were the books that gave me sustenance. I still need bilingual editions to appreciate Les Fleurs du Mal, but its beauty remains crepuscuar and symphonic.

Leave it to a fellow mathematician (Gardner) to bring out the most menacing ramifications of Carroll's universe. "I see what I hit" and "I hit what I see" on a limitless metaphorical battlefield -- their tendencies forging a single sinkhole, a black hole created by complimentary shades of violence.

There's sweetness and charm in Carroll as well, but his ability to conjure and redeem the nightmares of childhood is what makes him plangent. His chamber music of logical absurdism is what makes him complex.

 

[Harp]

The Great Gatsby. To my utter mortification, I have never read this book -

Better late than never. Arguably Fitzgerald's best.

Robert Redford brought Gatsby to the screen and nailed Fitz's title character cold. Good flick; great book.

 

[LordBest]

The Phryne Fisher Mysteries.
A delightful series of detective stories set in 1920s Melbourne. The heroine is a flapper, its all rather good.

 

[lolly_loisides]

The Phryne Fisher Mysteries.
A delightful series of detective stories set in 1920s Melbourne. The heroine is a flapper, its all rather good.

Oh yes, she's great fun

 

[Nathan Dodge]

Hemingway: The Homecoming

Another in the late Michael Reynolds' essential bios on the author. I'm reading the Key West, 1928 portion of the book where Papa is working on A Farewell to Arms. Wife Pauline is set to give birth to their first son and Hemingway's father commits suicide in December, 1928.

Odd that I'm in a Hemingway mood in winter, but it's always good to read Hemingway's work or about his life.

 

[AmateisGal]

Better late than never. Arguably Fitzgerald's best.

Robert Redford brought Gatsby to the screen and nailed Fitz's title character cold. Good flick; great book.

Finished Gatsby last night. Terrific story. I absolutely fell in love with Fitzgerald's writing.

 

[dhermann1]

"The Democratic Roosevelt", by Rexford G. Tugwell. This is a very well done bio by one of FDR's main "Brain Trusters" of the early 30's. Tugwell was big on central planning, which made people think he was a socialist, but was against large scale social welfare programs. Go figure. Anyway, aside from a lot of dense participles, which make it a somewhat arduous read, it's a very insightful and detailed look at mainly the political career of the nation's leader during most of the "Golden Age". He does as good a job as anyone, I suppose, in getting into the head of this very enigmatic leader.

 

[Avalon]

About halfway through Tess of the D'Ubervilles. Heartbreaking, infuriating - I can't wait to see what happens to Tess. Just a brilliant book.

I finished Tess last night (after having set it aside during the holidays) and it was everything I'd hoped for. A gorgeous book. Oh, that ending...

Decided after such a deeply cathartic book I needed a break, so I'm working through Mick LaSalle's Dangerous Men, about pre-Code actors. It's the companion volume to his excellent Complicated Women.

 

[Feraud]

Public Enemies: America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-34 by Bryan Burrough is a fantastic read for those interested in crime and law enforcement of the era.
It is amazing to read how unprepared the newly formed FBI was in coping with crime at this time. The high majority of men selected to be agents seemed to have absolutely no experience in law enforcement and no one to teach them. The bad guys had experience and older yeggs to show them the ropies while the FBI agents had to fumble their way through a violent learning curve.
I read the first 250 pages of this book like like it was nothing. The author did his homework on the subjects at hand and presents the facts on both sides of the story without glorifying either. The book is very readable and highly recommended.

 

[Wally_Hood]

Red Badge of Courage

 

[Son_of_Atropos]

I am beginning to read "Jude the Obscure."

 

[Miss Dizzy Dame]

Public Enemies: America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-34 by Bryan Burrough is a fantastic read for those interested in crime and law enforcement of the era.
It is amazing to read how unprepared the newly formed FBI was in coping with crime at this time. The high majority of men selected to be agents seemed to have absolutely no experience in law enforcement and no one to teach them. The bad guys had experience and older yeggs to show them the ropies while the FBI agents had to fumble their way through a violent learning curve.
I read the first 250 pages of this book like like it was nothing. The author did his homework on the subjects at hand and presents the facts on both sides of the story without glorifying either. The book is very readable and highly recommended.

Great read,especially for starters on this subject.

 

[JennyLou]

Im about to take a creative writing memoir class so I thought I would read a memoir next. I choose The War: A Memoir by Margurite Duras

 

[Diamondback]

Assorted "___ In Action" and "Detail & Scale" volumes on various WWII ships and planes for a research-project.

----------------
Now playing: James Horner - Re-Entry And Splashdown
via FoxyTunes

 

[Atterbury Dodd]

Read Jane Eyre. Forbidden Area by Pat Frank is going to be next for me.