What Are You Reading

[Fading Fast]

I'm just finishing the last of Mary Stewart's Arthurian Saga, "The Wicked Day." One of my favorite tellings of Merlin, Arthur, and the rise of Camelot.

That looks very good. Just read the first few pages on Amazon and put it in my ever expanding (and always expensive) Amazon cart.

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

"The Lady From Zagreb," by Philip Kerr. It's 1942 and Bernie Gunther, Berlin cop and sometime private eye, has been drafted into the SD. I love this series.

 

[Touchofevil]

Chester Himes' The Real Cool Killers.

 

[dh66]

Chester Himes' The Real Cool Killers.

Haven't read that one, but I'm a big fan of what I have read of his.

 

[Touchofevil]

Haven't read that one, but I'm a big fan of what I have read of his.

It's been quite a while since I last read it, but I am looking forward to it. I have enjoyed everything I have read by Himes. Like Chandler, Goodis, MacDonald, Wahloo, and a few other, I wish he had been more prolific. I have to pace myself so as to not quickly run through them.

 

[GHT]

My wife found an illustrated book entitled: Gentlemen of the Golden Age. It only cost a couple of pounds from some vintage market she had gone to. I looked it up, it's still in print, but at fifty dollars. Fifty bucks! How lucky am I to have a copy for the equivalent of just three dollars?

 

[Fading Fast]

Took me awhile to finish - life has been quite hectic lately - but just completed "Circling the Sun" by Paula McLain, a fictionalized biography of the aviatrix Beryl Markham. Good not great. I enjoyed it and it held my interest, but I always knew I was reading a book - it never fully engrossed me. It felt a bit formulaic - start with a dramatic moment in chapter one, then go back to her childhood and follow a timeline after that. That said, she did capture the atmosphere of colonial Africa and weaved in some other interesting historical people and places.

Now on to the new James Bond novel "Trigger Mortis." I bought it for my girlfriend's dad as he's been chair bound recently recovering from a leg injury and, since this one is set back in the '50s an is supposed to be faithful to the original Fleming novels, I thought he'd enjoy it. I was on the fence about reading it, but since he liked it and it will give us something fun to chat about, I'm going to read it. I'll report back afterwards.

 

[AmateisGal]

Took me awhile to finish - life has been quite hectic lately - but just completed "Circling the Sun" by Paula McLain, a fictionalized biography of the aviatrix Beryl Markham. Good not great. I enjoyed it and it held my interest, but I always knew I was reading a book - it never fully engrossed me. It felt a bit formulaic - start with a dramatic moment in chapter one, then go back to her childhood and follow a timeline after that. That said, she did capture the atmosphere of colonial Africa and weaved in some other interesting historical people and places.

Now on to the new James Bond novel "Trigger Mortis." I bought it for my girlfriend's dad as he's been chair bound recently recovering from a leg injury and, since this one is set back in the '50s an is supposed to be faithful to the original Fleming novels, I thought he'd enjoy it. I was on the fence about reading it, but since he liked it and it will give us something fun to chat about, I'm going to read it. I'll report back afterwards.

Whoa. I didn't know there was a new James Bond novel. How did that fall off my radar? Going to go add it to my Goodreads list...

 

[PeterB]

"The Lady From Zagreb," by Philip Kerr. It's 1942 and Bernie Gunther, Berlin cop and sometime private eye, has been drafted into the SD. I love this series.

IT's a great series. Read Field Grey a couple of years back. Very atmospheric. Try Alan Furst's Dark Star for even more atmosphere and plot twists.

 

[Fading Fast]

Whoa. I didn't know there was a new James Bond novel. How did that fall off my radar? Going to go add it to my Goodreads list...

I'm planning to start it today if time allows. If you jump it to the top of your queue, we can compare notes.

 

[AmateisGal]

I'm planning to start it today if time allows. If you jump it to the top of your queue, we can compare notes.

I won't be starting any new books for a bit since I have novel revisions to get done and off to my agent. But I am definitely going to add it to my queue...especially since I see Anthony Horowitz is the author!

 

[Fading Fast]

I won't be starting any new books for a bit since I have novel revisions to get done and off to my agent. But I am definitely going to add it to my queue...especially since I see Anthony Horowitz is the author!

That caught my attention as well. It reminds me of when Sebastian Faulks wrote a Bond novel, I'm guessing, ten years ago. They hired a very real author then as now.

 

[Historyteach24]

Pegasus bridge by stephen ambrose

 

[DNO]

Just started C. J. Sansom's Lamentation.

 

[Fading Fast]

Finished the new James bond novel, "Trigger Mortis," by Anthony Horowitz.

While it didn't break any new ground, you don't read a Bond novel to have it do so. You read Bond novel or see a Bond movie because you know what you are getting and hope that the current novel / movie is a good version of the formula. For "Trigger Mortis," I love that it was set back in the '50s: That gave it Bond-verisimilitude versus having a 2015 Bond using smart phones and fighting - whom else - Middle Eastern terrorists, Russian revanchists and usually (for political correctness) an evil American billionaire businessman. But by setting it back in the '50s, Horowitz, overall, does capture the feel of those original novels.

My only quibble is that it didn't have the political denseness of the original novels. You didn't feel the US-USSR knife-edge tension the way Fleming limned it, the way he took a global conflict of good versus evil and made it play out in Bond versus SMERSH. And where Horowitz tried to bring that out - when he described the Space Race and its geopolitical nexus - was the one part where I could see the author's seams - where it almost felt as if he said, "here is where I need to show the Cold War conflict."

That notwithstanding, it was a fun romp and good to see that Bond is still out there fighting the good fight, smoking, drinking and surviving the not survivable. If you are a Bond fan, enjoyed the original novels and don't expect too much - I think you'll enjoy this one.

 

[Harp]

Pegasus bridge by stephen ambrose

I haven't read Pegasus Bridge but heard that Ambrose's research was faulted by British sources.

 

[tropicalbob]

I've been rereading my way through the works of Thomas Pynchon since last summer and have almost finished Mason & Dixon. What a beautiful, fascinating book. Next up is Gravity's Rainbow, which I haven't read since it first came out in '72 or so. What amazes me is how each of his novels is such a thorough exploration of a particular era or concept. Michel Houellebecq opens his new novel, Submission, with a lovely description of how, in life, we get to know so few people really well, but that, by reading, we can know intimately several worthwhile writers. I think this is particularly true of Pynchon, who comes to sound like one of your best, funniest, and most interesting friends.

 

[Harp]

I've been rereading my way through the works of Thomas Pynchon since last summer and have almost finished Mason & Dixon. What a beautiful, fascinating book. Next up is Gravity's Rainbow, which I haven't read since it first came out in '72 or so. What amazes me is how each of his novels is such a thorough exploration of a particular era or concept.

Since undergrad reading, I always thought Pynchon rather enigmatic and deliberately so. Interesting fellow.

Descartes, Discourse on Method

 

[AmateisGal]

Finished the new James bond novel, "Trigger Mortis," by Anthony Horowitz.

While it didn't break any new ground, you don't read a Bond novel to have it do so. You read Bond novel or see a Bond movie because you know what you are getting and hope that the current novel / movie is a good version of the formula. For "Trigger Mortis," I love that it was set back in the '50s: That gave it Bond-verisimilitude versus having a 2015 Bond using smart phones and fighting - whom else - Middle Eastern terrorists, Russian revanchists and usually (for political correctness) an evil American billionaire businessman. But by setting it back in the '50s, Horowitz, overall, does capture the feel of those original novels.

My only quibble is that it didn't have the political denseness of the original novels. You didn't feel the US-USSR knife-edge tension the way Fleming limned it, the way he took a global conflict of good versus evil and made it play out in Bond versus SMERSH. And where Horowitz tried to bring that out - when he described the Space Race and its geopolitical nexus - was the one part where I could see the author's seams - where it almost felt as if he said, "here is where I need to show the Cold War conflict."

That notwithstanding, it was a fun romp and good to see that Bond is still out there fighting the good fight, smoking, drinking and surviving the not survivable. If you are a Bond fan, enjoyed the original novels and don't expect too much - I think you'll enjoy this one.

Thanks for the review! I need to get this one.

 

[AmateisGal]

I finally gave up on the book I was trying to read. It was set in 1930s Vienna and should have been fantastic (the author's last novel was), but I just got so bored I had to force myself to pick it up. My TBR pile is FAR too massive for me to waste time on books I don't like.

So, I'm reading something nice and frothy right now: The Cornish Affiar by Liz Fenwick. I picked up a bunch of novels while I was in England, and this is one of them.