Julian Shellhammer
Practically Family
- Messages
- 898
Several years ago I read Death in the Long Grass and Maneaters; the books were a gift from a friend who was clearing out his library.Death In The Long Grass - Peter H. Capstick
Several years ago I read Death in the Long Grass and Maneaters; the books were a gift from a friend who was clearing out his library.Death In The Long Grass - Peter H. Capstick
"After Many A Summer" by Robert Murphy. The be-all and end-all of what really happened between 1952 and 1957 -- and why. Thoroughly and exhaustively documented, and removes all real doubt about where the end responsibiliy falls.
My aunt just lent me a copy of "Devil in the White City" and though I have yet to turn to page 1, I'm pretty excited to begin reading.
Currently reading "Next Time We Live" a '35 novel by Ursula Parrott.
Parrot, based on the number of books she wrote and because several were turned into major movies (this one became "Next Time We Love" with Margaret Sullivan), seems to have been a quite popular author in her day.
I've read three or four of her books over the years. They are decent little "boy meets girl, they fall in love, they have obstacles" stories, but what makes them fun is the window they provide into the '20s and '30s (when she was writing).
You'll quickly see that the code-restricted movies do not tell the full story of the period as these books have a lot of discussions about issues we are still dealing with and that were rarely shown in code-restricted movies: drugs, women's roles (what if she makes more than he does, should she put her career on hold for a baby), sex out of marriage, etc. Also, little things come up like the fact that some men and women were already running for exercise - that one surprised me as there was a roof-top running track for exercise in one of her stories from the '20s set in NYC.
There are plenty more "regular life" moments like the above that really show you a window into that time. Modern authors who write period pieces will put in a details like that, but it never feels as organic as it does in these of-the-period novels. And modern authors, despite their best efforts, bring a modern bias to their books. These period books, too, have their biases, but they are the biases and prejudices of the times.
The modern period novels almost always have "forward-thinkers / rebels / mavericks" (and they are usually women) who coincidentally get almost everything "right" based on our accepted views today. There is, IMHO, no better way to truly learn about the Golden Era than studying material from that period like its novels.
Still reading The Black Moon (Poldark #5), but today at the library, I snagged a copy of A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles. I believe Fading Fast highly recommended this book, so I'm anxious to start it!
Hart's Posthumous Reply, Ronald Dworkin; Harvard Law Review 06/10/17
Dworkin's September 1994 essay to H.L.A. Hart's The Concept of Law, reprinted in this month's HLR brought back a name not heard lately,
pulled several online obituaries from The Guardian and New York Times. Always meant to read through his legal and philosophic canon, so this summer is time.
With all this Supreme Court action...