What Are You Reading

[Hercule]

Just finished City of Nets: A Portrait of Hollywood in the 1940's by Otto Friedrich. Though the author admits from the beginning that he isn't presenting anything that hasn't already been published, he does pull together from his 500 some sources a wonderful overview of 40s Hollywood. Easy to read, quite detailed, and very engaging.

 

[Hepville]

Just finished Dearly Devoted Dexter... was fun to read... so I guess I´ll read some more of those Dexter thrillers.

 

[Wally_Hood]

Death in the Silent Places by Peter H. Capstick. A collection of biographical stories mostly about big game hunters from the 1890s to the 1920s (approximately).

 

[Mr Vim]

I discovered in the public library the first volume of Will Eisner's the Spirit Archives. Having never read the original comic, I'm currentely going through it now. He truly was a genius.

 

[Dixie_Amazon]

Rules of Civility by Amor Towles

 

[Hercule]

Don't You Know There's a War On? The American Home Front, 1941-1945 by Richard R. Lingeman. About half way through it at this point and can't put it down. It's turning out to be quite a definitive look at the home front. It's chock full of stats, anecdodes and data. Though sometimes these aspects can be a bit overwhelming, it is nonetheless an easy and engaging read.

 

[davidraphael]

Just finished City of Nets: A Portrait of Hollywood in the 1940's by Otto Friedrich. Though the author admits from the beginning that he isn't presenting anything that hasn't already been published, he does pull together from his 500 some sources a wonderful overview of 40s Hollywood. Easy to read, quite detailed, and very engaging.

yes, great book. A good companion book is The Genius of the System by Thomas Schatz and Steven Bach

 

[Hercule]

yes, great book. A good companion book is The Genius of the System by Thomas Schatz and Steven Bach

Thanks, I'll look into it.

 

[DNO]

Joe Haldiman's Forever Peace.

 

[Chasseur]

Re-reading Chandler's Big Sleep, Farwell my Lovely and the High Window. The first two in particular I can re-read every 3-4 years.

 

[Touchofevil]

Re-reading Chandler's Big Sleep, Farwell my Lovely and the High Window. The first two in particular I can re-read every 3-4 years.

The Big Sleep was my introduction to Vintage Crime/Black Lizard publishing many years ago. Great choices for a Summer Reading!

 

[Tomasso]

I'm on an Agatha Christie kick. They're like potato chips;you can't stop reading them. BTW, Guinness Book of World Records has her sales pegged at 2 BILLION copies.....:eusa_doh:

 

[Widebrim]

After putting it down for a while, just finished An Assembly Such As This, the first of the Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman trilogy. Well done and enjoyable. Just started The Winter Queen, by Boris Akunin, the author who is a living legend in Russia. It's an easy, interesting read, and includes some great vignettes concerning late-19th century Moscow life.

 

[Widebrim]

Re-reading Chandler's Big Sleep, Farwell my Lovely and the High Window. The first two in particular I can re-read every 3-4 years.

Which do you prefer, Chasseur, if any? I am particularly fond of Farewell, My Lovely, despite its overuse of metaphors/similies...

 

[Chasseur]

Which do you prefer, Chasseur, if any? I am particularly fond of Farewell, My Lovely, despite its overuse of metaphors/similies...

Both of those two are my favorite of his work, by the High Window and after its not as good. I really like complicated nature of plot and all the craczy characters from Farewell, My Lovely. In particular the sequence where he goes to Amthor and then ends up in the dodgy hospital. Just brillant I thought.

 

[Widebrim]

Both of those two are my favorite of his work, by the High Window and after its not as good. I really like complicated nature of plot and all the craczy characters from Farewell, My Lovely. In particular the sequence where he goes to Amthor and then ends up in the dodgy hospital. Just brillant I thought.

The film version with Dick Powell does a good job with the segment, too.

 

[Chasseur]

Yes I liked the Dick Powell version. I should re-watch the Robert Mitchum one I've not seen it for a long time.

 

[skyvue]

I'm reading Robert Goolrick's Heading Out to Wonderful. It's set in the postwar years in small town Virginia, and a somewhat mysterious young man, Charlie, has chosen to settle in a small town in Virginia, and neither the townspeople nor the reader knows why (at least not 102 pages in, in any case). There's a hint or two that trouble might be brewing, but until it does, I'm enjoy the small-town atmosphere, the author's way with prose and his interesting characters.

One such character, Claudie, is an eccentric woman who lives on the edge of town and is something of a miracle worker when it comes to dressmaking; there's also a striking young women (I imagine her being played by Scarlett Johansson) who was raised deep in the hills and was virtually sold to the richest man in town by her impoverished father. This character, Sylvan, longs to live the life she sees depicted in the movies. To that end, she has lost her hillbilly dialect by listening for hours on end to the radio ("The Loves of Helen Trent" is a particularly strong influence on her).

I suspect Sylvan may prove to be Charlie's downfall (or he hers), but that's only conjecture.

Anyway, there's lots of period detail and the author has a literary (but not overbearingly so) style that is pleasing. I recommend it as at least a library title, and it might even be worth purchasing to some here.

 

[cw3pa]

A C. Auguste Dupin trilogy by Poe. The Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Mystery of Marie Roget and The Purloined Letter.
A good primer on ratiocination.

 

[AmateisGal]

I'm reading Robert Goolrick's Heading Out to Wonderful. It's set in the postwar years in small town Virginia, and a somewhat mysterious young man, Charlie, has chosen to settle in a small town in Virginia, and neither the townspeople nor the reader knows why (at least not 102 pages in, in any case). There's a hint or two that trouble might be brewing, but until it does, I'm enjoy the small-town atmosphere, the author's way with prose and his interesting characters.

One such character, Claudie, is an eccentric woman who lives on the edge of town and is something of a miracle worker when it comes to dressmaking; there's also a striking young women (I imagine her being played by Scarlett Johansson) who was raised deep in the hills and was virtually sold to the richest man in town by her impoverished father. This character, Sylvan, longs to live the life she sees depicted in the movies. To that end, she has lost her hillbilly dialect by listening for hours on end to the radio ("The Loves of Helen Trent" is a particularly strong influence on her).

I suspect Sylvan may prove to be Charlie's downfall (or he hers), but that's only conjecture.

Anyway, there's lots of period detail and the author has a literary (but not overbearingly so) style that is pleasing. I recommend it as at least a library title, and it might even be worth purchasing to some here.

Thanks for the recommendation! Will put this on my huge to-be-read list.