What Are You Reading

[VitaminG]

not sure if I mentioned this one...

Dennis Lehane - A Drink Before The War

 

[LittleMissPussyCat]

Currently reading a couple of books

The Baby Thief, the book about Georgia Tann
The Jungle Book
Madame Bovary

 

[dimples]

I just started Madame Bovary as well - it seems really familiar so maybe have read before.

 

[THe Conductor]

A Farewell To Arms

 

[Harp]

Next book is The Group by Mary McCarthy - its 1930s New York and I want to love it.

A splash of Padraic Fallon's poetry goes well with Maria. :drama:

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Nederlands Indië: Henneringen aan een koloniaal verleden
by Frans Naeff
(Amsterdam Boek, 1978)

Found this at a library sale many years ago. It's a pictorial history of Dutch colonial rule in what was then the Netherlands East Indies (now Indonesia). While the text is in Dutch (not very difficult to tackle with Babelfish) it's lavishly illustrated with scores of historical photos covering the period from the late 19th century all the way up to Indonesia's independence in 1949.

 

[scotrace]

Just this morning I saw the new Hillenbrand book. It looks like a good read!

It is! Finished it. It has the happiest of endings. The life of Louis Zamperini is very inspiring. The subjest of this bio is still alive!!

 

[LizzieMaine]

Rereading "The Movies In The Age Of Innocence," Edward Wagenknecht's first-person reminiscence of what it was like to be a part of the first generation to grow up with motion pictures, the generation who were kids from about 1905 to about 1919. It's not a scholarly history -- although his reminiscences usually check out against the historical fact -- and it's colored a bit by his lifelong fascination with Lillian Gish, but it's also richly detailed in describing what it was actually like to go to the movies in the 1910s. An overlooked book silent-era buffs ought to know better.

I had no idea, by the way, that Mr. Wagenknecht lived to be 104 years of age, passing away just a few years back. Perhaps a lifelong fascination with Lillian Gish is healthier than anyone realized.

 

[Harp]

Oscar Wilde's essay, "English Poetesses," from The Artist As Critic.
The critical writings of Wilde make for interesting reading.
Chesterton's quip, "critics are much madder than poets" seems especially
applicable to Wilde-poet and critic- whom perhaps possessed a slight tinge of insane jealousy.

 

[Berlin]

A book about a kid who's father joined the National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands (NSB) during WW2. Interesting.
It's called; Potgieterlaan 7 - a memory

 

[Corto]

I'm reading "Sailor" by Richard Jessup (1969). Excellent vintage merchant marine stuff with a lot of Great Depression thrown in. Jessup spent 11 years as a merchant seafarer, and also wrote "The Cincinnati Kid".

 

[Aristaeus]

Hitler's Holy Relics
A True Story of Nazi Plunder and the Race to Recover the Crown Jewels of the Holy Roman Empire.
By Sidney D. Kirkpatrick.
Simon & Schuster
Copyright 2010

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

The American Axis: Henry Ford, Charles Lindbergh, and the Rise of the Third Reich
by Max Wallace
(New York: St. Martin's Press, 2003)

Henry Ford and Charles Lindbergh have long been exalted as the two of the greatest icons of the twentieth century. From award-winning journalist Max Wallace comes groundbreaking and astonishing revelations about the poisonous effect these two so-called American heroes had on Western democracy. In his wide-ranging investigation, Wallace goes further than any other historian to expose how Ford and Lindbergh -- acting in league with the Nazis -- almost brought democratic Europe to the verge of extinction.

With unprecedented access to declassified FBI and military intelligence files, Wallace reveals how the close friendship and ideological bond between automotive pioneer Ford and aviator Lindbergh culminated in an abuse of power that helped strengthen Hitler's regime and undermined the Allied war effort. Wallace traces Henry Ford's ties to Nazi Germany back as far as the 1920s, presenting compelling evidence of a financial paper trail proving that Ford subsidized the rise to power of Adolf Hitler, who described Ford as "my inspiration." For the first time, the genesis of Ford's notorious anti-Semitism is uncovered: "The American Axis" proves that Ford's private secretary and lifelong confidant was a German spy, who channeled his employer's Jew-baiting crusades to further the cause of the Third Reich.

Lindbergh's own anti-Semitism and white supremacist views captured the attention of the Nazis, who soon manipulated him in their clandestine Fifth Column efforts. As the first unauthorized biographer to gain access to the Lindbergh archives, Wallace paints a substantially more chilling portrait of Lindbergh's prewar activities than any previous historian and produces new evidence that the Nazis plotted to install Lindbergh as the leader of the movement to keep America out of World War II...

 

[dimples]

I spent the weekend with David Niven. Bring on the Empty Horses followed by Go Slowly Come Back Quickly. Gorgeous man.

 

[martinsantos]

Just discovered Hunter S. Thompson, "Hell's Angels". I've hearded a lot about him, but just now had the chance to read him. I'm liking a lot his writing style.

Martin

 

[Widebrim]

Nederlands Indië: Henneringen aan een koloniaal verleden
by Frans Naeff
(Amsterdam Boek, 1978)

Found this at a library sale many years ago. It's a pictorial history of Dutch colonial rule in what was then the Netherlands East Indies (now Indonesia). While the text is in Dutch (not very difficult to tackle with Babelfish) it's lavishly illustrated with scores of historical photos covering the period from the late 19th century all the way up to Indonesia's independence in 1949.

That would interest me. Most Americans are probably ignorant of modern colonial history, outside of Britain's and (perhaps) France's ventures, that is. Heck, I bet that most don't even know that the US still has territories, and that the Philippines once was an American Commonwealth (as Puerto Rico still is).

 

[Widebrim]

It is! Finished it. It has the happiest of endings. The life of Louis Zamperini is very inspiring. The subjest of this bio is still alive!!

Yes, he is! I heard him speak about 15 years ago, as part of a Christian evangelistic program. Incredible how after the war he returned to Japan and forgave the guards who mistreated him. Isn't Nicholas Cage slated to portray him in film?

 

[RetroPat]

I'm currently reading "Her Royal Spyness" by Rhys Bowen. It's the first in a mystery series set in 1930s Scotland. As a Scot to loves the golden era and mysteries, it's the perfect trifecta for me.

 

[martinsantos]

Santa Claus brought me "Slighty out of Focus" by Robert Capa. What a wonderful book! The text is very very good, and the photographs are really what anybody can mean with the word "genius".

 

[PBI1944]

Just finished:

TROOP LEADER: A Commander's Story by Bill Bellamy
Sutton Publishing, 2005, London

I traded emails with this gentleman several years ago. He just passed on:

Obituary - CAPT Bill Bellamy (1923-2009) , courtesy The Times
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/o...ions-after-the-normandy-landings-1682676.html