What Are You Reading

[Two Types]

I have that on my to read list as well as so many others sitting and waiting. I wish so many more authors who I enjoy were as prolific as Simenon. If Ross MacDonald, Raymond Chandler, David Goodis, and too many more were able to churn it out as I wish, I would not have to savor and space out reading each and everything they wrote.

Another Goodis fan!!!!! We seem to share similar tastes.

 

[Harp]

The great tragedy of Toole's life is that he didn't live to write in the twenty-first century. Ignatius J. Reilly could be alive and well and posting on Internet forums today.

After I quit Confederacy I came across Ignatius Rising by Rene Pol Nevils and Deborah George Hardy.
A satisfactory read as far as Toole's background but its scholarship has been questioned; also, his suicide remains clouded.
_________________

Elliot Carlson, Joe Rochefort's War; The Odyssey of the Codebreaker Who Outwitted Yamamoto at Midway.

The trials and tribulations of a Navy mustang.

 

[LizzieMaine]

After I quit Confederacy I came across Ignatius Rising by Rene Pol Nevils and Deborah George Hardy.
A satisfactory read as far as Toole's background but its scholarship has been questioned; also, his suicide remains clouded.

Yep, that one is extremely controversial and divisive among Tooleophiles -- the definitive Toole bio has yet to be written, and probably never will be.

For another approach, try "Ken and Thelma," by Joel Fletcher, a book which emphasizes the role Toole's mother had in the author's life and in the publication of "Confederacy." Thelma was enough of a character in her own right to have fit right into Ignatius's world -- she wasn't quite the Irene Reilly of the novel, but you could see where Irene came from.

 

[Touchofevil]

Another Goodis fan!!!!! We seem to share similar tastes.

That is the beauty of The Fedora Lounge. Bruno Fischer and Dan Marlowe are two other authors who are under appreciated; although Goodis is less so. Fortunately, not just Vintage Crime/Black Lizard and Hard Case are re-releasing these and other authors, but now we have Prologue to be thankful for as well.

 

[1mach1]

Naked Lunch by Wm. S. Burroughs

 

[dh66]

Naked Lunch by Wm. S. Burroughs

An interesting essay, to say the least. It's a favorite of mine. Definitely not the first place most folks minds go when they think about the fabulous 50s.

 

[1mach1]

An interesting essay, to say the least. It's a favorite of mine. Definitely not the first place most folks minds go when they think about the fabulous 50s.

That's an understatement!

 

[Heather]

I'm currently reading "Harpo speaks!" An interesting life and a wonderful story teller

 

[Harp]

"And I was There," Pearl Harbor and Midway-Breaking The Secrets, Rear Admiral Edwin T. Layton, USN
with Capt. Roger Pineau, USNR, and John Costello

 

[Two Types]

'The Brothers Rico' by Georges Simenon.

 

[DNO]

Goodbye to All That by Robert Graves.

 

[TimeWarpWife]

Inspired by actor David Suchet's special on PBS, Being Poirot, I am reading the first of the Hercule Poirot books, The Mysterious Affair at Styles. Only 38 more to go, or 42 if I also read the collection of short stories.

 

[Fading Fast]

Inspired by actor David Suchet's special on PBS, Being Poirot, I am reading the first of the Hercule Poirot books, The Mysterious Affair at Styles. Only 38 more to go, or 42 if I also read the collection of short stories.

And what do you think of it so far?

 

[Harp]

Pearl Harbor Final Judgement, Henry C. Clausen

Lt Col Clausen, a San Francisco attorney served as special investigator (1944-45) for Henry L. Stimson, Secretary of War,
and his memoir recounts his investigation of the events surrounding Pearl Harbor.

And military justice is to Justice what military music is to music-

 

[jamespowers]

Pearl Harbor Final Judgement, Henry C. Clausen

Lt Col Clausen, a San Francisco attorney served as special investigator (1944-45) for Henry L. Stimson, Secretary of War,
and his memoir recounts his investigation of the events surrounding Pearl Harbor.

And military justice is to Justice what military music is to music-

You need to read Rear Admiral Layton's book And I Was There.
Stimson was NOT an impartial investigator.

 

[Harp]

You need to read Rear Admiral Layton's book And I Was There.
Stimson was NOT an impartial investigator.

I have read Layton's And I Was There, an excellent book.

....and did I write that Stimson was objective?

 

[jamespowers]

I have read Layton's And I Was There, an excellent book.

....and did I write that Stimson was objective?

No, but knowing what we know now, Kimmel and Short were set up as scapegoats and were railroaded by Washington and Stimson in particular.:doh:
It never made sense to me how they were raked over the coals while MacArthur walked away a hero for doing essentially the same thing but with much better access to intelligence that he was going to be attacked. :doh:Crazy!

 

[Harp]

No, but knowing what we know now, Kimmel and Short were set up as scapegoats and were railroaded by Washington and Stimson in particular.

But cruel are the times when we are traitors
And do not know ourselves; when we hold rumor
From what we fear, yet know not what we fear,
But float upon a wild and violent sea.

Macbeth IV; II

 

[jamespowers]

But cruel are the times when we are traitors
And do not know ourselves; when we hold rumor
From what we fear, yet know not what we fear,
But float upon a wild and violent sea.

Macbeth IV; II

Yes, poor Banquo Kimmel and Short.

 

[Harp]

Kimmel and Short.

The Hawaiian commanders were unjustly treated and endured scorn for the remainder of their lives.
Others, such as Joseph Rochefort, despite his phenomenal contribution during Midway, remained haunted by Pearl Harbor.
Edwin Layton, one suspects, carried a similar quiet guilt. And there is the thunder of silence. George Marshall (as Short himself predicted)
never penned his Second World War memoirs, and much of the official record-American and British-noted by Layton remains sealed.
And still, an advocatus diabolli scribbled by Stimson's bag boy Clausen finds the light.

And History herself remains taciturn and jealously guards her secrets.