What Are You Reading

[Fading Fast]

The only question then is thin crust versus deep dish, an argument that tends to bring out the fundamentalist ideologue in anyone.

Quite against type, I am very broadminded regarding pizza. Yes, thin crust is the (your phrase, I believe) ultima thule of pizza -hey, I'm a New Yorker, it's in my DNA - but have enjoyed many a deep dish pie. I believe in home field choice: In NYC, I'll take you to my favorite thin crust pizza place http://www.johnsbrickovenpizza.com, but in Chicago, lead the way to the deep dish pie of your choice.

Edit add: and in Maine, you show the way to the Lobster Roll.

 

[Harp]

Quite against type, I am very broadminded regarding pizza... in Chicago, lead the way to the deep dish pie of your choice.

A circuitous pie to be had in Chicago. 1st, Go to Gino's East, 500 N LaSalle, grab a large cheese deep dish; 2nd, Head to Le Colonial, a French-Vietnamese house at 937 N Rush Street. Once settled inside order Cari Tom, sautéed jumbo shrimp with coconut sauce, place over the Gino's East, enjoy with a bottle of La Scolca.

 

[Benzadmiral]

Picked up a collection of stories by Shirley Jackson, some of which I've read before, and one by Flannery O'Connor, only a few of which are familiar to me.

 

[tmal]

Been reading a lot of G K Chesterton lately. Never read him before. A tremendous writer. It feels like a conversation and not "writing". Especially I have been reading his essays, regarding politics and modern life (as it was 1900-1930). All I can say is, "the more things change, the more they stay the same".

 

[Fading Fast]

"Manhattan Monologues" by Louis Auchincloss

In a way, other than "The Rector of Justine," if you've read one Auchincloss story / collection, you've read them all. Basically, he's a poor man's Edith Wharton, which still leaves plenty of room for him to be a decent, readable author, which he is.

However, "Manhattan Monologues" is a later-in-life effort for him and it shows both in its repetitiveness and, sometimes, sloppy construction. Still enjoyable, but not his best. If you want his best - and I highly recommend it if you like New England prep school / old money stories - pick up a copy of "The Rector of Justine."

Also finished "Sweet Smell of Success: And Other Short Stories" by Ernest Lehman - I took a break from his seedy film noir world about two-thirds of the way through to read "Manhattan Monologues," as I was "noired" out for the moment. That said, upon return, I enjoyed a surprising third story related to the famous title one. This one focused exclusively on Sidney - slimy as ever, but with enough humanity left that he knows he is, which keeps us caring, a bit - and his miserable dishabille and scuzzy business and mind.

The title story - reviewed here http://www.thefedoralounge.com/threads/what-are-you-reading.10557/page-372#post-2240188 - and "The Comedian" are the strongest entries in the collection, but most are engaging and, as noted, there are two additional stories based on "Sweet Smell of Success" characters that help to round them out. Worth the read for both fans of the movie and fans of noir fiction - from the period - in general.

 

[Benzadmiral]

Finished the collection by Shirley Jackson, and am trying out Flannery O'Connor. As good a stylist and character creator as O'Connor is, I'm not as fond of her work. Possibly because so much of it is set in the rural South, which doesn't appeal to me. Jackson's New York and New Hampshire are closer to my world view. (Yeah, I live in Noo Awlins, but I've never really felt at home here. Ever.)

Jackson also had a sense of the funny, especially in her "domestic humorist" pieces about her husband and their 3 kids (a predecessor to Erma Bombeck's columns). In her tale of how she got ready for, and then gave birth to, her third child, everything seems to be going along in a leisurely fashion, until she hits the hospital. Then the sentences and paragraphs get shorter and the scenes really move. My favorite bit: She's heading for the delivery room, the doctor patting her hand and offering the usual bromides; and Shirley, doped to the eyeballs no doubt, finds it appropriate to quote Othello.

" 'She loved me for the dangers I had passed,' I told the doctor, 'and I loved her, that she did pity them.' "

 

[Fading Fast]

⇧ I read O'Connor in high school and, while I get her talent, for me, I bucketed her in my head with Tennessee Williams, Faulkner and others in the category of "depressing southern fiction." Even at that young age, what I remember most about those authors is that I didn't want my life to resemble anyone of their characters. Completely unfairly, it also made me have no desire to ever live in the South.

 

[Benzadmiral]

⇧ I read O'Connor in high school and, while I get her talent, for me, I bucketed her in my head with Tennessee Williams, Faulkner and others in the category of "depressing southern fiction." Even at that young age, what I remember most about those authors is that I didn't want my life to resemble anyone of their characters. Completely unfairly, it also made me have no desire to ever live in the South.

Same here, FF. Unfortunately I'm marooned here for now.

With Faulkner, I've enjoyed a couple of his short stories, including his mystery/detective tales about Gavin Knight, a lawyer in his mythical and unpronounceable county in Mississippi (Knight's Gambit is the collection). But when I tried Sanctuary, all I got out of it was that all the characters shared some belief or attitude that they never explained, but always referred to obliquely. The other characters got it, but I couldn't.

 

[Trenchfriend]

"Islandglocke" ("Íslandsklukkan"), by Halldór Laxness, 1943.

Thriller!!

 

[Bushman]

Just finished a Hemingway biography called "Hemingway's Boat", which was a fascinating read, getting into more intimate details than I ever wished to know about the man.

 

[Tiki Tom]

Just finished a Hemingway biography called "Hemingway's Boat", which was a fascinating read, getting into more intimate details than I ever wished to know about the man.

A very good book. Well written and it contains a lot of --for me-- new information about the man and his dysfunctional family. For all of that, I thought it managed to stay sympathetic to its subject while also maintaining a degree of objectivity. I enjoyed the more in-depth looks at some of the bit-players in the tale. I found the tale of Mice (short for "Maestro") particularly fascinating as it showed how a young writer fell under the Hemingway spell, lived the magic for a year, then went off on his own and, well, ...no spoilers. The back-story to "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" was also very interesting. Prior to reading this book, I always thought the woman in the story was patterned after Pauline. Wrong! (Or at least that is not the full picture.) One quote from the book sticks in my mind: "Amid so much ruin, still the beauty." Definitely recommended for people who are intrigued by the complex character of EH. My main criticism is that, at 700 or so pages, the reader has to consciously make an investment in this reading project.

 

[Benzadmiral]

In a Perfect World by Laura Kasischke. The blurb on Amazon and the paperback cover tells just enough: "In a Perfect World is critically acclaimed writer Laura Kasischke’s new novel of marriage, motherhood, and the choices we make when we have no choices left. Kasischke . . . tells the story of Jiselle, a young flight attendant who’s just settled into a fairy tale life with her new husband and stepchildren. But as a mysterious new illness spreads rapidly throughout the country, she begins to realize that her marriage, her stepchildren, and their perfect world are all in terrible danger."

Oddly, I think it qualifies as science fiction as much as the first half of Stephen King's The Stand does, re: portraying the breakdown of civilization. If it hadn't been for the mention of the "new illness" on the cover, I might not have picked it up. Kasischke keeps it fascinating all the way through without going into technical medical detail, plays fair (she has unpleasant female characters and good male ones as well as the reverse), makes sure things get tougher and tougher for her heroine and her new family so you keep turning pages, and leaves you at just the right place.

A good example of a novel which, if it had been marketed as SF, would have been bypassed by literary readers who sneer at "genre" fiction.

 

[Harp]

Chicago Sun Times sports page.... Cubs hover .500 though just swept Cincinnati, a badly needed sweep after the Yankees, Red Sox, Phillies et al.
Bull pen needs another starter, and Jake Arietta has lost his speed ball, cannot simply pound the zone, needs to work the corners like a magician. He can still spot the ball, pump the zone,
though anything short of a Faustian compact with Mephistopheles to regain devilish speed and his old bag of tricks seems futile. And speaking of Faust, John Lester has started to hit.
Long balls to center field wall, no homers, but real contact. Makes a Cub fan think he's been in discussion with the D but not yet signed any letter of intent. Any homers hit by Les will indicate a done deal.
Candelaria sent back downstairs to triple A Iowa. A radical thought: Arietta to the minors for a bull pen purgatorial. Doubtful, but he is presently untradeable. And the Cubs desperately need Jake to regain form.

 

[AmateisGal]

Finished Demelza, book 2 in the Poldark series. Off to the library tomorrow to get book 3! Winston Graham is an excellent storyteller.

 

[Fading Fast]

A couple of chapters into "Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet" by Jamie Ford. I know, I'm several years behind on this one, but it's rare when I read a book when it comes out as my queue is always overflowing. So far, okay, by-the-numbers and a bit too much modern moralizing about people living with different facts, circumstances and mindsets than we have today - but there is enough period vibe and substance to keep me engaged.

 

[AmateisGal]

A couple of chapters into "Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet" by Jamie Ford. I know, I'm several years behind on this one, but it's rare when I read a book when it comes out as my queue is always overflowing. So far, okay, by-the-numbers and a bit too much modern moralizing about people living with different facts, circumstances and mindsets than we have today - but there is enough period vibe and substance to keep me engaged.

I really enjoyed this book. Hope you do, too!

 

[Julian Shellhammer]

To Kill a Mockingbird, with the Missus

 

[Fading Fast]

To Kill a Mockingbird, with the Missus

An interesting follow up book would be "Go Set A Watchman" by Harper Lee, published in '15 but written prior to "To Kill a Mockingbird." It is kinda a sequel / kinda a different angle on the same story - interesting and worth reading IMHO. I think it would have been more successful (although, clearly not as mature or complete a work), but it undoes some of the perfect morality of some of the characters in "TKAM" which, I think, turned off many.

Enjoy "TKAM -" a wonderful read.

 

[AmateisGal]

An interesting follow up book would be "Go Set A Watchman" by Harper Lee, published in '15 but written prior to "To Kill a Mockingbird." It is kinda a sequel / kinda a different angle on the same story - interesting and worth reading IMHO. I think it would have been more successful (although, clearly not as mature or complete a work), but it undoes some of the perfect morality of some of the characters in "TKAM" which, I think, turned off many.

Enjoy "TKAM -" a wonderful read.

I've read TKAM at least three times, I think. Such a wonderful story. I have "Go Set A Watchman" on my shelf but haven't read it yet.

 

[AmateisGal]

Reading Jeremy Poldark by Winston Graham, Book 3 in the Poldark series.