What Are You Reading

[Dixie_Amazon]

Steampunk II: Steampunk Reloaded
Edited by Ann & Jeff Vandermeer

 

[Touchofevil]

Ross MacDonald, The Way Some People Die (1951).

 

[Miss Stella]

Began Edith Whartons, "Age of Innoconce" but think I'd rather read, "The Memories of Sherlock Holmes" instead.
It's not unusual for me to have two books going at once

 

[RBH]

Jeffery Deaver - Garden of Beasts.

http://www.jefferydeaver.com/Novels_/Garden/garden.html

I picked it up yesterday [had a cool cover of a man in a fedora] and bought it.
So far its good.

 

[Gromulus]

Dumas' "Count of Monte Cristo". Somehow I never got around to this one over the years.

 

[dnjan]

Enjoyed that one, but it made me wonder just how many people are there today who are so driven by revenge that they end up killing off their joy.

 

[AmateisGal]

Jeffery Deaver - Garden of Beasts.

http://www.jefferydeaver.com/Novels_/Garden/garden.html

I picked it up yesterday [had a cool cover of a man in a fedora] and bought it.
So far its good.

I LOVED this book.

 

[AmateisGal]

Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay. Incredible so far (I just started last night and I'm almost halfway through it).

 

[Salty O'Rourke]

While I wait for the new Walter Mosley novel to come out, I'm re-reading the Lew Archer novels by Ross MacDonald. I've just finished the third one, The Way Some People Die, and am starting The Ivory Grin today. Great stuff.

 

[HadleyH]

I am reading "An impersonation of angels: a biography of Jean Cocteau" by Frederick Brown. A very complete close-up of Cocteau , although a negative one. Great book!


Jean Cocteau was a French poet, novelist, visual artist, screenwriter, actor and film maker. An early pioneer of surrealist film...

with Mademoiselle Chanel

 

[Taz-man]

Hadley, sounds like a good book.

 

[HadleyH]

Hadley, sounds like a good book.

It is! Jean Cocteau knew almost everyone in the European art scene the first fifty years of last century, from Proust to Modigliani to Edith Piaf to Chanel the list is endless! A very interesting life.

 

[LocktownDog]

A Doc Savage reprint. Nostalgia Ventures has been great with these ... original texts, original illustrations. Nice work with the Shadow also.

 

[ThesFlishThngs]

Since November, when the Mr. gave it to me as a birthday present, I've been reading "Everybody Was So Young", a biography of Sara and Gerald Murphy; interspersed with "Letters From the Lost Generation", which is mostly correspondence between the Murphys and Hemingway, with a bit of Fitzgerald and others tossed in. All enchanting, but poignant too, as things crumble into tragedy in the 30s.
Also, since receiving a Kindle Fire for Xmas (though I promise real paper books will always be my favorite), I downloaded some of the Dorothy Parker Mysteries by Agata Stanford (thanks to notice in Zelda mag). Though they aren't the most impeccably penned tales, I'm enjoying them for what they are.

 

[MissNathalieVintage]

The Last Light-Terri Blackstock

 

[Bluebird Marsha]

"Undersea Warrior": the World War II Story of Mush Morton and the USS Wahoo". Actually a bit embarrassing, since I didn't realize it came out several months ago. A coworker was doing some work on it, and asked if I had seen it. I hadn't, but that was easily corrected at the company bookstore. Anyhoo. I'm certainly glad I bought it, but I have a few reservations. In the notes, the author states he used the Freedom of Information Act to acquire some information, but I can't think of a thing in the book that was new that would've been there courtesy of the FOIA. All of the controversy concerning Morton and the killing of Japanese sailors after they had abandoned their ship has been extensively covered in other sources.

He also thanked members of the Morton family, so apparently he interviewed several of them. That makes it worthwhile for some things only family would've known. Nothing earth shattering, but still enlightening. Morton had a mahogany dining table made in Manilla, because it would be a nice wedding present for his wife. Except when he had it made, he hadn't actually met his wife yet. Awww.

But the things that made me go hmmm was first, there was no bibliography. No bibliography means no verifiable sources. So I have to wonder how much was factual, and how much was the author "filling in" the spaces. Second, since he talked to the family, I would've thought he'd have had access to some photos. Apparently not- since all of the photos in the book were ones I've seen on the internet.

Okay. So I'm obsessive. Professional hazard

 

[BigFitz]

The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson.

 

[angeljenny]

Flicking through Dressing Marilyn, Forties Fashion: From Siren Suits to the New Look and Horrockses Fashion to try and build up some motivation!

 

[dhermann1]

After sloggin through three volumes of the Diaries of Harold Ickes (FDR's secretary of the Interior), a long but still very enjoyable read, I zipped through the 650 page bio of FDR, aptly titled "FDR", by JeanEdward Smith. Another terrific book.
So now I moved ahead to David McCullough's bio of Harry Truman, aptly named, "Truman". Enjoying it a lot, also.

 

[katiesparkles]

i'm giving stephen king's "skeleton crew" another try. usually, i love his short stories but i got stuck at "the monkey" in this book (dull and somewhat boring, in my opinion) and just leaped to reading "from a buick 8" instead - which was awesome, by the way! i'm too broke to buy a new book until friday, so i guess i don't really have much of a choice there. haha.