What Are You Reading

[scottyrocks]

In the 17 years since the movie was released (2001), I have finally gotten around to reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (1997).

My daughter is thrilled.

 

[Harp]

Jonathan Herr, The Lost Painting
The pursuit of Caravaggio's The Taking of Christ.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Translated:

"Southkorea and Northkorea - Introduction in history, politics, economy and society" by Thomas Kern and Patrick Köllner (2004)

 

[Trenchfriend]

After seventeen years, I started today rereading "Pay the devil" by Jack Higgins (1999).

 

[LeFonque]

I am reading “Like a thief in broad daylight” by Slavoj Zizek (2018).

 

[Trenchfriend]

"Pay the devil" by Jack Higgins (1999) is still very good. Very atmospheric.

 

[Fading Fast]

"Tunnel of Love" 1954 by Peter De Vries

I chose this book after seeing its 1958 movie version which is a confused effort between a real look at infidelity and a silly 1950s battle-of-the-sexes romcom. There's no similar confusion in the book: it's is all about infidelity.

The book's a mid-'50s look at an upper-middle-class suburb of NYC where a recently-moved-in couple who is looking to adopt befriends a quite-fertile neighboring couple with four children. In further contrast, the neighbor's husband is a successful editor who has rejected the adopting couple's husband's submissions of witty illustrations to his magazine (think "The New Yorker"). Adding to the the tension is the prevailing "artistic" culture in the suburb where the writers and painters look down on those who earn their living through non-artistic effort - like the editor.

All that plays on in the background, as the main conflict is the editor's mental obsession with having affairs (this guy cheats in his mind every day, but not so much in real life, except, maybe, once) and the actual affair of his neighboring illustrator which leads to added complications as he is being vetted by adoption agencies for approval - which look askance at unemployed artists who cheat on their wives. The last twist is the risk that the illustrator might end up adopting his own illegitimate baby (it's marginally less crazy in the book than it sounds here).

Then, as now, books are published that try to capture the current tensions, conflicts, hypocrisies and challenges of this or that social group, area, region, etc. My guess, this one does an okay job of reflecting a wealthy artistic suburb of NYC in the '50s, while bringing a reasonable amount of humor and insight, but that's it. As a book, it's okay, but as a window into the '50s, it's better than okay as books had fewer social and industry constraints on them than movies and TV shows did - so books could reflect life more as it was.

 

[MisterCairo]

Middlemarch by Mary Anne Evans.

 

[Harp]

Middlemarch by Mary Anne Evans.

I found Rebecca Mead's memoir, My Life in Middlemarch a nice compliment to Elliot.
_______

Baseball Chicago Style by Jerome Holtzman and George Vass. A bit dated-2004-but a fine primer on the two teams
and the competitiveness betwixt. The infamous Black Sox 1919 scandal isn't ignored but placed
in historical context without opprobrium. An elixir for the soul and baseball withdrawl tonic.

 

[Julian Shellhammer]

We have started our annual Christmas reading routine, beginning with Merry Christmas, Mr. Baxter (1956) by Edward Streeter, who also gave us Father of the Bride. It's not a long book, so we keep our readings somewhat short.

 

[Fading Fast]

Every year, at this time, I try to read a Christmas-themed book or two (a few years back, at Julian Shellhammer's suggestion, I read the very enjoyable "Merry Christmas, Mr Baxter"). This year, I'm giving this one a go - I'll report back after reading it:

 

[Julian Shellhammer]

Peter Spier's Christmas! (1983) one of my must-reads to kick off the Christmas season. A picture book with no dialogue or even captions, it captures Christmas in its day-to-day run-up, enjoyment, and return to everyday life. Spier has a deceptively sketchy style, but the amount of detail is remarkable. For FL'ers, though published in '83, the men folk generally are depicted with a tie - regular or bow- and everyone is attired nicely.

 

[Fading Fast]

"Mystery in White" by J. Jefferson Farjeon, originally published in 1937

Marketed as a classic, I was pretty excited to read this one, which, it turns out, is good book, but falls short of a classic. It's more of a well-done, but by-the-numbers, 1930s' mystery - not unlike a by-the-numbers Agatha Christie book. To wit, if Golden Era British mysteries are your thing, then this book will work for you; if not, then it won't.

It starts on a stuck-in-the-snow train at Christmastime prompting a group of passengers to alight into the storm seeking the next station. Quickly getting cold and lost in the blizzard, they, effectively, commandeer an empty old house for shelter. Once, there, the group discovers a dead body outside, several clues and, also, indications that a murder had taken place on the train they left with the murderer possibly amongst their group.

Add in some oddities about the house and its absent members and all the mystery elements are in place - mainly strangers stuck together in an isolated, bit-foreboding home in a storm, dead bodies here and there and confusing evidence, but no answers. Included in the group are some young people attracted to each other and an older man with a Sherlock-Holmes-like mind who immediately begins asking "why the dog did not bark" type questions. And that sets the book's trajectory.

As usual, I didn't solve the mystery as, IMHO, most of these stories are not solvable unless you approach the book as a puzzle to be studied (look for every cue, page back and reread sections, etc.), which is more effort than I want to put into them; so, instead, I just go along for the ride, kinda enjoying the story (the bodies do pile up, a little action adventure takes place and some aborning romance adds in a bit of spice) as the super-smart, Holmes-like older man slow walks us through his impromptu investigation.

With the old house and its fireplaces ablaze, a blinding blizzard outside and the time of year, there is a bit of a Christmas feel to the book, but really it's just a solid British mystery book that happens to take place at Christmastime. If that's your cup of tea [], then this book should work for you; otherwise, pass.

 

[Seb Lucas]

Middlemarch by Mary Anne Evans.

I just read this for the third time. I love Elliot. Mill on the Floss is bloody amazing too. I also really like Silas Marner. I generally don't read any modern fiction, unless you count 'modernists' - Steinbeck or Fitzgerald

 

[MisterCairo]

I just read this for the third time. I love Elliot. Mill on the Floss is bloody amazing too. I also really like Silas Marner. I generally don't read any modern fiction, unless you count 'modernists' - Steinbeck or Fitzgerald

Same here, other than a lot of historical fiction (Bernard Cornwell, Forrester, O'Brien) and mysteries my mum got me into.

 

[Tiki Tom]

Just finished “Jerusalem: the Biography” by Simon Sebag Montefiore. 625 pages covering 3,000 years of bloody and bigoted human calamity. You can’t help but walk away from it wondering at how amazingly tribal, narrow minded, and politically self-serving we humans are. At the same time the religious devotion ranges from the sublime to absolute insanity. After reading the book, today’s political train wreck in the Holy Land is almost understandable. Almost. The author is himself from a noteworthy ancient Jewish family that surfaces in the tale from time to time. The book is packed with interesting anecdotes and colorful characters. The author seems to be trying to be balanced at all times. The writing is spotty: mostly not bad, sometimes horrible. (Odd considering the number of books the guy has written and the acclaim received.) Anyway, it was illuminating. I shall see the news headlines in a slightly different light from now on.

 

[Harp]

Rodney Stark's The Victory of Reason
A slim analysis of Christian philosophy in the Occident and the secular application of reason.

 

[Julian Shellhammer]

Finished Merry Christmas, Mr. Baxter and we will start A Christmas Carol tonight. My copy is a 1966 reprint of a 1940 edition which includes the punctuation and spelling of Dickens' original.

 

[Fading Fast]

I bought the book because I enjoyed the James Garner and Julie Andrews 1964 movie. The movie is risqué; the 1959 book, for it's day, is outright daring in its portrayal of sex (casual with plenty of soft prostitution) between WWII American naval officers and the uniformed British women (a woman's auxiliary branch of the British military) engaged by them as chauffeurs.

The "Americanization" of the title refers to those British woman - a point is made that these were not "working" woman before the war, but woman from "nice, respectable middle-class homes" or, as referred to many times in the book, the "Cream of British Womanhood -" who agree to party with and, in many cases, have sex with American Naval officers stationed in England during WWII in return for a night out of fun, food and liquor (all in short supply for the average Brit) and some "gifts" to take home (food, liquor, clothes, jewelry, etc., depending on the exact situation).

It is all soft - i.e, no one is forced to do anything and the exchanges are well-known in advance but informal - however, when all the nice manners and other obfuscations are seen through, it's clear that the exchange is British woman getting material items they can't get in England anymore in return for having sex with American officers. This sets up the conflict in the story of one woman's, Emily's, refusal to be "Americanized," at least until she meets a very charming American officer, Jim, whose military career to date consists of procuring luxury items (women included) for - and seeing to the day-today needs of - an important-and-connected Admiral and his senior staff.

The conflict is escalated because Jim doesn't lie or promise anything to hesitant Emily - she succumbs, we believe, due to his charm, her weariness with the privations of war and her belief that he might want more - a real relationship and marriage - overtime. Had Emily been lied to, the story would have been boring, but she goes in eyes wide open and, seemingly, plays the hand she's dealt afterwards.

Amidst all the sex and tawdry exchanges, what really works, what elevates the book, is the development of the two lead characters and their relationship. Emily doesn't, overall, suffer pangs of guilt (thank God) but instead engages in a honest low-key campaign to win Jim over by being open about what she wants but not pushing or advocating; while Jim, facing a surprise, dangerous assignment, has a slow-rolling "look at my meaningless life" moment. Their relationship is mature, real and atypical and all wrapped inside a fast, fun read that also exposes a seedy little nook of WWII while making bigger points, here and there, about the post-war risks of partnering with "Uncle Joe" (Stalin).

The cliche holds: the movie's good, the book is better (and deeper, and richer).

 

[Harp]

Trollope, The Eustace Diamonds
______________
The Americanization of Emily: will catch later. Love the cover already.