What Are You Reading

[Fading Fast]

I''m only 60 pages in and at the point where Trevor was cast in Brief Encounter but am enjoying the biography.

Thank you, I will pick it up. That is my favorite Howard movie.

 

[Feraud]

I haven't seen nearly as many of Trevor Howard's films as I had hoped to by this point in my life but Brief Encounter is a wonderful film.

 

[Fading Fast]

I haven't seen nearly as many of Trevor Howard's films as I had hoped to by this point in my life but Brief Encounter is a wonderful film.

He brings that understated elegance and talent that the best British actors have - it's a very subtle skill. Leslie Howard had it too.

 

[carolineno]

Hello all! Getting my feet wet here...

Cuba Then: Rare and Classic Images From the Ramiro A. Fernandez Collection
Haunted Air: A Collection of Anonymous Hallowe'en Photographs, American c.1875-1955 (some are adorable, most are really frightening!)
Mayhem by Sarah Pinborough
Northeast Foraging by Leda Meredith. This is a great one, with photos so I don't poison myself. I hope some version of this comes out for smartphones. The book is a little too big to tote around.

 

[Tommy]

Just finished two books: No Country For Old Men by Cormac McCarthy, and Midnight in Peking by Paul French. Still reading 7 Pillars of Wisdom by T.E. Lawrence.

 

[Two Types]

Once a Jailbird by Hans Fallada

 

[cw3pa]

Finished "The Count of Monte Cristo" last night. A rather lengthy tome of revenge and redemption.

 

[Mystic]

Can't even remember the last time I stopped by this thread.

Reading Little Man, Meyer Lansky and the Gangster Life. Very insightful biography and social history of the "Mafia's banker", Cuba and Las Vegas casinos. Great photos from 1920s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, and 70s.

 

[Fading Fast]

Can't even remember the last time I stopped by this thread.

Reading Little Man, Meyer Lansky and the Gangster Life. Very insightful biography and social history of the "Mafia's banker", Cuba and Las Vegas casinos. Great photos from 1920s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, and 70s.

I read it when it came out and remember it being a not-sensationalized view of the mob and Lansky. It showed the not-glamorous side of his life - both "business" and personal. For that reason, it felt very real to me and it has stayed with me since I read it.

Some impressions I had (and these are twenty plus years old) were that the mob lost serious money in Cuba, Lansky's son's life was sad and Lansky seemed somewhat "normal" for a mobster. I believe the Hyman Roth character in "The Godfather" was based on Lansky which is interesting because you can see both where Puzo portrayed parts of Lansky's life accurately and where he took some, shall we say, liberties with the truth.

 

[Retro Spectator]

I am currently reading two books. One is Of Mice and Men. The other is This Saint Will Change Your Life.

 

[TimeWarpWife]

And what do you think of it so far?

I remember reading a few Agatha Christie mysteries in the late 80s and early 90s and liking them. However, it was a real struggle getting through The Mysterious Affair at Styles because I just couldn't get into it. I'm not sure why. Anyway, to be completely honest, I skipped a few chapters just to see "whodunit." For now I won't be reading another Christie mystery, maybe my tastes in books have changed from when I was in my 20s and 30s, now that I'm in my 50s.

 

[Fading Fast]

I remember reading a few Agatha Christie mysteries in the late 80s and early 90s and liking them. However, it was a real struggle getting through The Mysterious Affair at Styles because I just couldn't get into it. I'm not sure why. Anyway, to be completely honest, I skipped a few chapters just to see "whodunit." For now I won't be reading another Christie mystery, maybe my tastes in books have changed from when I was in my 20s and 30s, now that I'm in my 50s.

I never felt anything more than, "it was okay" regarding Agatha Christie's books - but respect the success she had with them.

I'm currently reading "Fear in the Sunlight" which (and I only learned this after I bought it) is part of the "Josephine Tey" mysteries series (don't ask me, I had never heard of it). The book is set in the 1950s and '30s and is a basic British mystery with Hitchcock and his wife as central characters. So far - about 100 pages in - it's okay. Interesting enough for me to want to finish it, not good enough yet to recommend it.

As to tastes changing. Sometimes, when I go back an re-read a book I loved in my 20s, I'm less enthusiastic about it now that, like you, I'm in my 50s.

 

[Mystic]

I read it when it came out and remember it being a not-sensationalized view of the mob and Lansky. It showed the not-glamorous side of his life - both "business" and personal. For that reason, it felt very real to me and it has stayed with me since I read it.

Some impressions I had (and these are twenty plus years old) were that the mob lost serious money in Cuba, Lansky's son's life was sad and Lansky seemed somewhat "normal" for a mobster. I believe the Hyman Roth character in "The Godfather" was based on Lansky which is interesting because you can see both where Puzo portrayed parts of Lansky's life accurately and where he took some, shall we say, liberties with the truth.

You have a very good memory.

 

[Fading Fast]

You have a very good memory.

I think there was something about how his life had a lot of normal elements to it - family problems, money worries in old age - and that he was more of a businessman mobster than a psychopath mobster that it stayed with me. He seemed more like a Tolsty character than a Puzo character.

 

[Mystic]

I think there was something about how his life had a lot of normal elements to it - family problems, money worries in old age - and that he was more of a businessman mobster than a psychopath mobster that it stayed with me. He seemed more like a Tolsty character than a Puzo character.

It wasn't what I expected either. I don't normally read "mafia" books but, I'm glad I ran across this one.

 

[DNO]

I never felt anything more than, "it was okay" regarding Agatha Christie's books - but respect the success she had with them.

I'm currently reading "Fear in the Sunlight" which (and I only learned this after I bought it) is part of the "Josephine Tey" mysteries series (don't ask me, I had never heard of it). The book is set in the 1950s and '30s and is a basic British mystery with Hitchcock and his wife as central characters. So far - about 100 pages in - it's okay. Interesting enough for me to want to finish it, not good enough yet to recommend it.

Josephine Tey's A Daughter of Time is one of my favourites. It's basically an examination of the death of the princes in the Tower and the role of Richard III.

Inspired by the recent discovery of one of Sir John Franklin's ships, I've started re-reading Dan Simmonds' The Terror. It's a fictionalized account of the Franklin expedition mixed with doses of Inuit mythology...sort of an arctic horror story. Good read.

 

[Dixie_Amazon]

The Baritone Wore Chiffon (The Liturgical Mysteries Book 2) by Mark Schweizer. A funny little mystery series and several of them are 99 cents for Kindle.

 

[Fading Fast]

Josephine Tey's A Daughter of Time is one of my favourites. It's basically an examination of the death of the princes in the Tower and the role of Richard III..

That is an endorsement that will get me to buy the book - have you read "Fear in Sunlight?" If so, how does it compare to "A Daughter of Time?"

 

[Harp]

Just started my second try on Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck. Some books sit for years in my shelf until I'm finally in the right mood. But I'm not sure if I'll really warm up to Steinbeck.

The Larousse Encyclopedia of Ancient and Medieval History. Trying to make up for those Western Civ. classes I never took.

_______________________________________

Steinbeck's Travels With Charley is a good ice-breaker for J.S. Recounts a jaunt from NYC to California; egg coffee in Louisiana
and zeroing a rifle against wolves in Montanta, a great read. I am the same way with Gabriel Garcia Marquez...still haven't finished his Of Love and Other Demons.

_____________

Jacques Barzun's From Dawn To Decadence; 1500 To The Present; 500 Years of Western Cultural Life is fantastic. :eusa_clap

 

[DNO]

That is an endorsement that will get me to buy the book - have you read "Fear in Sunlight?" If so, how does it compare to "A Daughter of Time?"

Unfortunately it's the only work by Josephine Tey that I've read but it's one of the books that I re-read every once in a while. I believe it is available on Project Gutenberg Canada.