What Are You Reading

[Feraud]

Last weekend I started browsing Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson at a bookstore and could not put it down.
There is a Ken Burns documentary on Johnson I need to see.

 

[SamMarlowPI]

World War Z - Max Brooks

if you like the zombie genre then you would enjoy this book...

it's not only about the zed apocalypse but also society during the war...Brooks is great...

 

[Harp]

Waiting for: The Long Sonata of the Dead;
A Study of Samuel Beckett by Michael Robinson.

I quit Paris without meeting Beckett; foolish sin of youth.

 

[Paisley]

I just finished Rome 1960, a new Pulitzer prize winner by David Maraniss. It's about the 1960 summer Olympics. I'm not a sports fan, but I enjoyed this book. Here's an excerpt from an interview with the author:

In so many ways, the 1960 Olympics marked a passing of one era and the birth of another. Television, money and doping were bursting onto the scene, changing everything they touched. Old-school notions of amateurism, created by and for upper-class sportsmen, were being challenged as never before. New countries were being born in Africa and Asia, blacks and women were pushing for equal rights. For better and worse, one could see the modern world as we know it today coming into view.

...

Along with the legendary figures who competed in Rome, the book teems with other characters. One of my favorites is Ed Temple, who was the coach of Wilma Rudolph and her Tigerbelles. Temple still lives in Nashville not far from the campus, and is a great storyteller with a lively sense of humor, so his memories of Rome help bring it alive. He worked without scholarships, without his own office, and from the threadbare facilities at little Tennessee State built a powerhouse women’s track team that changed history. I also love the story of Dave Sime, a medical student at Duke who lost a photo-finish in the 100-meter dash and had been recruited by the CIA to try to get a Soviet athlete to defect in Rome.

...

I admired Wilma Rudolph for the courage she showed upon returning from Rome and insisting that her hometown of Clarksville, Tennessee, not hold a banquet for her unless it was integrated, the first of its kind in that city. I admired Abebe Bikila for the sheer courage of running the marathon through the streets of Rome barefooted, and for doing it in the capital city of a country, Italy, that had invaded his Ethiopian homeland a few decades earlier. I admired Rafer Johnson perhaps most of all, just for his integrity as a human being. Cassius Clay was the same then, in 1960, at age 18, as he would later be as the world-renowned Muhammad Ali, the same personality at least; his larger meaning was not there yet.

​

Read the rest of the interview here:

http://www.davidmaraniss.com/QA.htm

 

[vonwotan]

I am reading the tenth Modesty Blaise adventure, The Night of the Morningstar by Peter O'Donnell.

Next on the shelf is Evelyn Waugh's Bridehead Revisited. I will not make any judgements about the movie adaptation vs. the novel but I will say that I enjoyed the movie and loved the wardrobes.

My next summer hat will be something along the lines of Sebastian Flyte's straw hat - seen in the scene where Sebatian and Charles Ryder are driving up to his family's home and again in a gondola in Venice.

 

["Skeet" McD]

Which movie?

I am reading the tenth Modesty Blaise adventure, The Night of the Morningstar by Peter O'Donnell.

Next on the shelf is Evelyn Waugh's Bridehead Revisited. I will not make any judgements about the movie adaptation vs. the novel but I will say that I enjoyed the movie and loved the wardrobes.

My next summer hat will be something along the lines of Sebastian Flyte's straw hat - seen in the scene where Sebatian and Charles Ryder are driving up to his family's home and again in a gondola in Venice.

Dear vW: are you referring to the recent film (which manages, apparently, to make a supremely Catholic book turn on its head, and make God a villain--if he appears at all)(BTW, that's a rough quote from the director), or the 1980s British multipart TV adaptation?

I haven't seen the recent film, but find the TV one a very true and good adaptation of the novel. Like any filming of a book, it can't be the same thing--and I believe you'll find the book better than either of the films. Let us know what you make of the novel. It's one of my favorites (but, then again: I'm a Catholic )

"Skeet"
fftopic: I see you're in Eastie. Where do you do your upland shooting? My wife and I lived in Saugus before moving up-country to near Haverhill. We may have met each other on the trail at some point: I was the lunatic with the tie, fedora, SxS and red and white setter . I've shot at Martin Burns, but it's a zoo scene there. You'll find me at Crane Pond these days...

 

[vonwotan]

I was actually referring to the new movie and my third reading of Brideshead Revisited. Waugh is one of my favorite authors since - ever since we read Vile Bodies in boarding school. I reserved comment because I am frequently disappointed by movie adaptations. On its own, as a movie with no reference to the book it was enjoyable, shot beautifully with excellent wardrobes.

"Skeet" - are you also a clays shooter? I shot registered for nearly ten years (and a bit, earlier, also in boarding school) before moving in to Boston. It's been difficult to make the time and the trip to our clubs. Most of my upland game hunting is done on Long Island, some at preserves, and a few spots in Maine where friends have houses... I've traveled a bit to shoot in Scotland, and prairie chicken in South Dakota many years ago before the populations shrank to their present state.

 

["Skeet" McD]

Aha!

I was actually referring to the new movie and my third reading of Brideshead Revisited. Waugh is one of my favorite authors since - ever since we read Vile Bodies in boarding school. I reserved comment because I am frequently disappointed by movie adaptations. On its own, as a movie with no reference to the book it was enjoyable, shot beautifully with excellent wardrobes.

Aha! Well, you don't need my comments then....and perhaps I'll see the new film and try to suppress an urge to connect it to the book which it claims to represent

As our shooting life is OT here, I'll PM you re: that.

Cheers!
"Skeet"

 

[HadleyH]

I'm reading "The Memory of all That" - the Life of George Gershwin -" by Joan Peyser

What i like about this particular biography is the fact that this time, it's his sister Frances ( as opposed to other family members who never deviated from the party line) ... "who talks frankly and with candor about family relationships and intimate details not usually covered in the staid world of musical biography... this is a provocative and disturbing look at one of America's musical geniuses."

 

[RBH]

Daily Life in the United States, 1920-1940:

Just picked up

Daily Life in the United States, 1920-1940: How Americans Lived Through the Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression

Its seems like a great book... not enough photos but the ones here are nice.

Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
What were your grandparents doing in the 1920s and '30s? How did they spend their days and how were they affected by the popular culture? What were their work and domestic lives like? These are the questions Kyvig, a Bancroft Prize winner for Explicit and Authentic Acts and Northern Illinois University history professor, explores probingly in his new study. Kyvig covers everything from the development of the small pick-up truck to the spread of country and western music and shifting practices in religion and health care. He delineates how the mass production of cars changed people's buying habits with the introduction of credit, and how battery-powered radios meant rural folks could share the new mass culture with city dwellers. Kyvig also documents the massive impact—most of it negative—of Prohibition, a sign of the federal government's growing impact on people's lives, an impact greatly heightened by the New Deal. In the midst of his quite lucid and readable analysis, the author also touches on race, gender, class and the differences between rural and urban environments. In sum, Kyvig's book represents a penetrating information-packed portrait of Main Street, USA, during tumultuous times. 53 b&w photos.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

 

[K.D. Lightner]

I just started reading a book by Nicholas Clapp, called The Road to Ubar. It is about the early 90's exploration and discovery of an ancient lost city in Arabia, known as the "Atlantis of the Sands."

I got interested in it after reading Josephine Tey's book, The Singing Sands, a murder mystery about a young pilot who accidentally discovers a fabled lost city in Arabia, called Wabar, when he flew off course. He was later murdered for his knowledge.

I wondered if Tey was making up something totally ficticious, or if such a place existed and was it ever discovered. It is real, and was only recently discovered, 40 years after Tey's book was published.

Wabar is another name for Ubar.

karol

 

[carter]

I'm reading "Mere Marie of the Ursulines - A Study in Adventure" by Agnes Repplier (Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., Garden City, New York - 1931).
This is the true story of an Ursuline nun who landed in Quebec in 1639, founded a convent in 1641, and dedicated her life to the French and Indian children who were educated by her order.

 

["Skeet" McD]

I just started reading a book by Nicholas Clapp, called The Road to Ubar. It is about the early 90's exploration and discovery of an ancient lost city in Arabia, known as the "Atlantis of the Sands."

If you want to read something quite different--but which uses the same theme of a lost, ancient city in the desert--try HP Lovecraft's THE SHADOW OUT OF TIME. One of his best, I think...

"Skeet"

 

[Slate Shannon]

I just started reading a book by Nicholas Clapp, called The Road to Ubar. It is about the early 90's exploration and discovery of an ancient lost city in Arabia, known as the "Atlantis of the Sands."

I read that book a few years ago, and it's pretty interesting. There is also a documentary about Clapp's expedition that I saw on Nova/PBS that is likewise pretty interesting. The documentary was called "The Lost City of Arabia".

P.S. After relaxing and winding down from the workday, I happened to remember that Sir Ranulph Fiennes - probably better known for his polar adventures - was also a member of Clapp's Ubar expedition and wrote his own book, Atlantis of the Sands: The Search For the Lost City of Ubar, which I personally liked better than Clapp's book.

 

[WinoJunko]

I just finished reading the Thorn Birds not too long ago and it was really good! The mini series on the other hand...

 

[Fedord Spaniard]

See a Grown Man Cry, Now Watch Him Die by Henry Rollins.

 

[Mike1939]

I'm reading Spade & Archer: The Prequel to Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon by Joe Gores. This is a great book, Gores brings 1920's San Francisco to life with that Hammett style.

 

[John Boyer]

Ignatius of Loyola: the Psychology of a Saint by W.W. Meissner, S.J., M.D. This is not only a comprehensive biography of a complicated historical figure—Ignatius of Loyola—knight, saint, mystic and ascetic—but also an interesting contribution to both psychoanalysis and the religious, political and social history of the 16th century. Truly the best book on Ignatius I have read and of value to anyone interested in the inner processes that result in life-changing transformations of men/women--secular or non-secular.

Also, just completed, after a few months of "off-and-on" reading, The Letters of Noel Coward (b.1899-d.1973), as edited by Barry Day; a wonderful compilation of personal correspondence from a legend in theatre history and should be of interest to anyone interested in the Golden Era; and to those who yearn for a return of quality heartfelt personal correspondence and a reintroduction of the “pen and paper”.

 

[Harp]

Ignatius of Loyola: the Psychology of a Saint by W.W. Meissner, S.J., M.D. This is not only a comprehensive biography of a complicated historical figure—Ignatius of Loyola—knight, saint, mystic and ascetic—Truly the best book on Ignatius I have read and of value to anyone interested in the inner processes that result in life-changing transformations of men/women--secular or non-secular.

Soldiers, as a rule, make exceptional priests.
The late Pedro Arrupe SJ, Society General and Hiroshima witness
is another fascinating Jebbie, and Ignatius' opposite in so many ways.
Ever read Thomas Merton's The Seven Storey Mountain?
I read Merton during my discernment and was greatly disappointed
by his biographic tale: his conversion neither sufficiently explained,
nor his monastic vocation fully validated.

...on a different yet somewhat similar note, just received
Simone Weil's Letter to a Priest, a theologic essay she wrote
to a French cleric during her brief New York stay(1942), prior
to London and Free French enlist. Her observations are always
interesting and Weil gave the Manhattan Jesuit community a scold.

Also, Sean O'Casey's The Shadow of a Gunman. A secular
contrast from Dublin's hardscrabble, O'Casey, a stevedore, wrote
by candlelight after twelve-hour dock shifts. He is a stunning
example of literary genius in all its complications, twists, and utter
simplicity. For my money, O'Casey was the better of Yeats and Joyce.

 

[Lulu-in-Ny]

Yesterday, I was lucky enough to be handed an Advance Reader's Copy of the new novel from Carlos Ruiz Zafon, who wrote Shadow of the Wind. It's calledThe Angel's Game, and I couldn't be more excited about a new book from an old favorite.