# Whats everyone reading now and/or read lately



## mybodymyself

As for me haven't been doing that much reading lately. Found that I hardly read any more as well. Have to say do have times like this and others don't. Guess it depends on the book itself as well.

_To the End of the Land_, David Grossman and Jessica Cohen (Translator)

_A Midwife's Tale : The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812_, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich. Already viewed the dvd part of it and it was worth the watch. Now, I can't wait the book to learn even more about Ms Ballard.

Finished reading _Not Afraid of Life: My Journey So Far_, Bristol Palin and Nancy French

It was definitely worth the purchase and read. 

This is taken from another thread and/response that I have done regarding Bristol's mother and Tripp's grandmother.

What is/are Sarah Palin stance/s on family leave act (maternity, paternity, etc)? The reason why I'm asking this here because she didn't bring up in neither of her books. In my opinion this should be a paid one. It should also nation and worldwide as well.

Is there anyone else on here besides whom are getting beyond tired of her still being in the spotlight? That also goes her putting her husband, kids, rest of her family, and friends being in the spotlight and etc. Even though I'm still like her as a person then a politician.

She should just go back to her husband and kids. Instead being in the spotlight. Do feel sorry for her kids and the rest of family and everyone whom is associated with her. Because politics have truly ruined her and her husband for sure. Yeah I could be wrong about this.

Finished reading these few books almost half a mo to 2 mo back now.

_The Lost Girls: Three Friends. Four Continents.: One Unconventional Detour Around the World_, Jennifer Baggett, Holly C. Corbett, Amanda Pressner.It was worth the read. Especially, returning the hardcover because found it was little worn. Had to wait until the paperback was released to read it.

_Mountain of Crumbs: A Memoir_, Elena Gorokhova a week ago. It was worth read. Especially, since found I learned more about the former Soviet Union then what I already knew about before reading your memoir. Can't wait to read more of Ms Gorokhova's life and/or her mothers life now.

_A Father's Love: One Man's Unrelenting Battle to Bring His Abducted Son Home_, David Goldman. WOW what a memoir this was and thank you, Mr. Goldman for writing about your ordeal to get Sean back home.


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## halldaniel21

_I recently read Ayn Rand's novel Fountainhead. This book was recommended to me by a friend who described it as a life-altering work and the best book he had ever read. I greeted this with the cynicism that such emotive comments often deserve. Nevertheless, I bought the book .It explores the intellectual frontiers of personal freedom and responsibility in many magnificent, powerful passages that are worth of applauds. _


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## thebot

Starting "End Game" by John Mauldin today. Great time to be reading it with the market pull back last week and S&P downgrade yesterday.


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## Francisco D'Anconia

halldaniel21 said:


> _I recently read Ayn Rand's novel Fountainhead. This book was recommended to me by a friend who described it as a life-altering work and the best book he had ever read. I greeted this with the cynicism that such emotive comments often deserve. Nevertheless, I bought the book .It explores the intellectual frontiers of personal freedom and responsibility in many magnificent, powerful passages that are worth of applauds. _


Fountainhead is one of my favorites. Rand's prose and dialog in the book are superlative.

Some favorite Fountainhead passages:

• Roark's interview with the dean

• Roark explaining his design to Mr. Jans

• Dominique's trial testimony

• Roark's response to Wynand's demand that Roark build Wynand's house and then submit to Wynand's design mandate thereafter

• Toohey's explanation of himself and his ends to Keating in Keating's bedroom

Despite my handle, I'm more fond of Fountainhead than Atlas Shrugged. They have similar themes and philosophical messages, but to me the SciFi aspects of Atlas Shrugged erode the story and the message. And Atlas Shrugged bangs on over and over again. By the time you get to "This is John Galt Speaking," you've heard what he's going to say three or four times already.


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## Francisco D'Anconia

Reading right now: The Last Tycoon by F. Scott Fitzgerald.


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## Zakk

"An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa" by Rick Atkinson. It's outstanding so far.


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## bblizzard

I haven't finished WITCH&WIZARD by James Patterson yet ic12337:


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## TheXMJohnson

I just started _Crime and Punishment_ by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.


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## Acme

I recently reread _The Seven Pillars of Wisdom. _I think revisiting Lawrence once a decade is a good idea.

After that I picked up _Charlie Wilson's War. _Now I'm reading Locher's _With Star and Crescent, A Full and Authentic Account of a Recent Journey with a Caravan from Bombay to Constantinople..._

Seems I'm lost in Arabia these days.


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## take_five

The Road by Cormac McCarthy
A Way With Words, Part III: Grammar for Adults by Michael Drout

Note. Listening to actually as I don't have time nor desire to spend my little spare time reading books these days.


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## Kelorth

_A Clash of Kings _by George R.R. Martin

To complement the HBO series...lol


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## blim8183

Kelorth said:


> _A Clash of Kings _by George R.R. Martin
> 
> To complement the HBO series...lol


Nice. I spent a few months last spring and summer reading all of the books that are out so far. The series has started to diverge from the books in many ways but I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. In fact, after last night's episode, I'm starting to think the TV series might be better than the books.


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## dks202

Gulliver's Travels the unedited version. I had never read the original unabridged "adult" version. This isn't the way you remembered it from cartoons. 

The last few chapters make for very interesting reading


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## Acme

Life and Labor in the Old South, by Phillips. It's an interesting study of plantation economics, and it pairs well with a smooth single barrel bourbon.


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## Shaver

William S Burroughs 'Cities of the Red Night'


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## ajo

Shaver said:


> William S Burroughs 'Cities of the Red Night'


Wow lets do the time warp, read the trilogy back in gasp 1982. Currently reading Music for Silenced Voices Shostakovich and his fifteen quartets.


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## Shaver

ajo said:


> Wow lets do the time warp, read the trilogy back in gasp 1982. Currently reading Music for Silenced Voices Shostakovich and his fifteen quartets.


Oh! Shall we burn all books once they've been published for, say, 12 months? Or am I simply imagining a teeny tiny hint of dismissiveness in that comment? Maybe I am....... maybe not. :rolleyes2:

Anyway, more positively; Shostakovich's second piano concerto is a work of extraordinary melancholy beauty. My wonderfully talented partner plays this for me, on lazy Sunday mornings. *sigh*


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## eagle2250

A bit less than a year back, I picked up a copy of Pat Conroy', My Reading Life, from a brick and mortar bookstore that was being put out of business by the onslaught of online book sellers. Finally got around to reading My Reading Life about four months back and enjoyed it so much that I've since purchased and read a few more of Pat Conroys books, to include: The Water Is Wide, The Lords of Discipline, The Great Santini, South of Broad and Prince of Tides. Have yet to pick up copies of My Losing Season, Beach Music and The Boo. 

Any of you southern boys, born or perhaps just choosing to live below the Mason Dixon line, ya just have to be a fan of Pat Conroy. Hell, I'm a Yankee and I can't get enough of his writing!


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## ajo

Shaver said:


> Oh! Shall we burn all books once they've been published for, say, 12 months? Or am I simply imagining a teeny tiny hint of dismissiveness in that comment? Maybe I am....... maybe not. :rolleyes2:
> 
> Anyway, more positively; Shostakovich's second piano concerto is a work of extraordinary melancholy beauty. My wonderfully talented partner plays this for me, on lazy Sunday mornings. *sigh*


Dismissiveness hardly, quite simply the book is sitting on my library shelf where it has been for years and I regard it as one of his foremost works.

And lucky you for the partner that has the ability to play Shostakovich.


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## unklbeemer

Just picked up "The Ivy Look: Classic American Clothing" by Graham Marsh at Half Priced Books.


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## Acme

eagle2250 said:


> Any of you southern boys, born or perhaps just choosing to live below the Mason Dixon line, ya just have to be a fan of Pat Conroy. Hell, I'm a Yankee and I can't get enough of his writing!


Eagle, your comment has reminded me sadly of the passing of Harry Crews this past March. Southern literature has lost one of its most unique and important voices.


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## Shaver

ajo said:


> Dismissiveness hardly, quite simply the book is sitting on my library shelf where it has been for years and I regard it as one of his foremost works.
> 
> And lucky you for the partner that has the ability to play Shostakovich.


Sincere apologies then Ajo, perhaps the phrase 'time warp' merely resonates with negative connections for me. I've finished 'Cities' now and am well into 'The Place of Dead Roads'. I first read Naked Lunch, Soft Machine and Junky thirty years ago; and have re-read each of them several times. I really appreciate Burroughs' insights, themes and perspective. I may appreciate traditional clothes but my nature is far from conservative.

As per my talented pianist partner; I acknowledge that I am very, very lucky. :redface:


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## eagle2250

Acme said:


> Eagle, your comment has reminded me sadly of the passing of Harry Crews this past March. Southern literature has lost one of its most unique and important voices.


Indeed, Harry Crews' writing was such that it could keep one up at night. He had this thing about snakes, didn't he? LOL. Snakes scare the beJesuzz out of me() and there is just nothing like a good scare to make a book hard to put down! May Harry rest in peace.


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## MikeDT

Currently reading the audiobook One Second After by William Forstchen.
 https://www.onesecondafter.com/


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## McPatrickClan

I'm listening to the audiobook version of "Gang Leader for a Day." It's not bad. The bias is evident from chapter one but I'm hoping as he spends time among the Chicago gangs, he turns the pages.

I just finished "I've Got Your Back." It's written by a tennis coach and it has helped me sharpen up my leadership style.

I am also reading "Platform" to get some simple steps to developing a way to make your voice heard in a noisy culture.


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## eagle2250

A while back I was gifted with a copy of How to Survive The End of The World As We Know It, by James Wesley Rawles. The author is the founder of survivalblog.com and a former Army Intelligence Officer, whose writing style reflects the weight and sobriety of his present and past vocations. While I cannot tell you the book is an enjoyable read, but it is quite hard to put down and considering the state of the worlds politics and finances it does certainly leave one with a lot to consider. I am not yet ready to run off into the woods with the family to live as survivalists, but am strangely comforted by the knowledge that the contents of my gun safe include a Car-15 and lots and lots of .223 ammunition!


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## Mox

_Black Hawk Down_ by Mark Bowden

_You Say More Than You Think_ by Janine Driver

Looking at the sample of _Predictably Irrational_ by Dan Ariely


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## imabsolutelyunique

I'm reading now The Count of Monte Cristo, by Dumas Sr. It is a beautiful novel with flowers of speech.
But lately I'm too busy with work, and barely have time in the night to finish it, and if I have time, I'd rather sleep.


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## ajo

The Second World War by Antony Beevor then Savage Continent Europe in the aftermath of WW2 by Keith Lowe.


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## Snow

Just done re-reading Night Chills by Dean Koontz. It is about subliminal messaging. Set within a story, it mentions some ads have subliminal messages in them. Rather interesting.


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## Acme

I just finished _Eastern Approaches_ by Fitzroy Maclean. I love a good war story.

I must admit, the world seemed a much bigger place back then.


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## eagle2250

Most recent reads; Cross Roads by Wm Paul Young, Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon's Journey into The Afterlife by Eban Alexander, M.D.; and Beach Music (second reading) by Pat Conroy.


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## L-feld

I am just finishing up "Subculture: The Meaning of Style" by Dick Hebdige. I am considering getting out of nonfiction mode for a little while and possibly rereading "The Sot Weed Factor" by John Barth.

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## toddorbertBU

Just finished reading Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned for the 3rd time. A truly remarkable collection and I would say required "men's" reading. 

Now starting on Pastoralia by George Saunders.


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## Claybuster

Bad Monkey by Carl Hiaasen.


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## eagle2250

Only partially through it at this point (it was just released for sale two days ago), but the book "Duty" by Robert Gates is proving to be a surprisingly candid, revealing and yet balanced read! Last weeks reading included Clive Cussler's, Vixon 03 and P. J. Caputo's, A Rumor of War (a second or third reading).


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## Reuben

Just started Hyperion, about a fifth of the way through. I'm enjoying it quite a bit. 


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## Anthony Charton

Just finishing a second reading of_ Tender is the Night_. I also finally got through the best (and longest) novel I have *ever* read, Albert Cohen's _Belle du Seigneur_ (recently turned into a ludicrous film adaptation).



Reuben said:


> Just started Hyperion, about a fifth of the way through. I'm enjoying it quite a bit.
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


I read the first couple of volumes when I was 16 or so- I enjoyed the numerous Keats referenes and the poet character- he has a _fantastic_ monologue at some point in the series.


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## phyrpowr

For fans of the English murder mystery, with a twist or two to be sure, the Christopher Fowler "Peculiar Crimes Unit" series, featuring the detective duo of Bryant and May, is exceptional. Zipped through all ten and am anxiously awaiting #11


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## drlivingston

Currently reading "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" by Seth Grahame-Smith (a brilliant parody of the original) and in my car I am listening to "A Confederacy of Dunces" by the late John Kennedy Toole. It was a great read but the audiobook really makes the unique characters come alive. It is freaking priceless!!


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## L-feld

Finally getting around to tackling Heidegger's "Being and Time," with Hubert Dreyfuss's online seminar as my guide.

Also decided to re-read "There's No Such Thing As Free Speech" by Stanley Fish. It's funny how relevant it is to today's political discourse. Everyone is still arguing about the same old junk. It's definitely a good re-read, though. The first time I read it, I was in college, looking at it from the perspective of an English major. Now, as a government lawyer with an eye toward public policy, I'm finding Fish's arguments to be far more useful.

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## Howard

The Daily News and there has been a whole lot of shootings from Roswell NM to Indiana lately.


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## DaveS

David Rockefeller's Memoirs.


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## thea

DaveS said:


> David Rockefeller's Memoirs.


Funny enough I am reading (with great delight) The Wit of the Robber Barons. My favorite quote is from JP Morgan elder "Listen much, speak little and write nothing". Guess I am not following that advice at the moment.


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## DaveS

THea, can you tell us the author of this? I couldn't find it in a quick search.

Thank you!


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## eagle2250

^^Silas Marner....one of my all time favorite reads.
I was required to read it for the first time when a student in high school and for some reason have found myself rereading it, every four to five years since that first read. Not sure if it is the miserly inclinations of Silas or his commitment to raising and seemingly limitless love for the child that most appeals to me.


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## thea

I misspoke, the name of the book is WISDOM FROM THE ROBBER BARONS, George David Smith and Frederick Dalzell copyright 2000, (I confess to frequenting old book stores) Perseus publishing. Hope you can find it online.


DaveS said:


> THea, can you tell us the author of this? I couldn't find it in a quick search.
> 
> Thank you!


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## Shaver

eagle2250 said:


> ^^Silas Marner....one of my all time favorite reads.
> I was required to read it for the first time when a student in high school and for some reason have found myself rereading it, every four to five years since that first read. Not sure if it is the miserly inclinations of Silas or his commitment to raising and seemingly limitless love for the child that most appeals to me.


Don't tell me how it ends! :icon_smile:


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## MaxBuck

Good primer.


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## thea

In other words "Cosi e si vi pare" Pirendello's fabulous play that was followed by the film Rashoman


Shaver said:


> Don't tell me how it ends! :icon_smile:


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## DaveS

thea said:


> I misspoke, the name of the book is WISDOM FROM THE ROBBER BARONS, George David Smith and Frederick Dalzell copyright 2000, (I confess to frequenting old book stores) Perseus publishing. Hope you can find it online.


Thank you, Thea!


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## Jae iLL

Finishing up _The Impossible State _by Victor Cha


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## thea

TheXMJohnson said:


> I just started _Crime and Punishment_ by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.


My interest is, have you ever finished it?????


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## Snow Hill Pond

_Things That Matter _by Charles Krauthammer...short essays, but very tough sledding.

In preparation for the upcoming golf season, I'm re-reading Harvey Pennick's _Little Red Book_.


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## Anthony Charton

thea said:


> My interest is, have you ever finished it?????


It's a brilliant book.


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## Dieu et les Dames

I've been re-reading a few bret easton ellis books in attempt to hold onto my youth. Graduation looms over the ides.


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## MaxBuck

Dieu et les Dames said:


> I've been re-reading a few bret easton ellis books in attempt to hold onto my youth.


My sympathies.


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## L-feld

Taking a break from Heidegger to indulge in some light reading. Just read "Black ******** and White Liberals" by Thomas Sowell.

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## thea

Anthony Charton said:


> It's a brilliant book.


Personally, I am not a fan of fiction. I don't like to read much about "things that never happened to people that never were". So for me, the "Crime" was that it was written and the "Punishment" was that I had to read it.


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## Anthony Charton

Dieu et les Dames said:


> Graduation looms over the ides.


Same here, but remember- age is a social construct !

Thea: I get that- not the easiest thing to read.


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## thea

Anthony, first thanks for the quote "If you don't know what you're doing, do it elegantly". I love it and am adding it to my lexicon. Whom shall I footnote for this??? As for Dieu et les Dames........ While I " Shall not go gently into that good night"........ I shall try to do it "elegantly".


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## Hitch

_Captain Sir Richard Francis_ _ Burton,_ Edward Rice 1990


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## Snow Hill Pond

Just ordered "The Remains of the Day" after having re-watched the movie on TCM over the weekend. Looking forward to reading the source material. BTW, I think it is always best to read the novel after seeing the film adaptation (if there is a choice)...less chance of being disappointed.


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## Acme

^That's excellent advice.


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## JohnRov

Ten Faces of Innovation by Tom Kelley
Change By Design by Tim Brown
Undercover Economist by Tim Harford


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## eagle2250

Finished Hiroshima by John Hersey (indeed, a very sobering read!), this past week and getting into Glenn Beck's Eye of Moloch (sequel to Beck's The Overton Window) this week.


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## L-feld

Still being lazy about keeping up with my Heidegger and dipping into some fictional German philosophy instead with "Sartor Resartus" by Thomas Carlyle.

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## Anthony Charton

Just finished _Coriolanus_, _Julius Caesar_, and _Titus Andronicus_ for a class. Also in the middle of Baudelaire's _Le Spleen de Paris_ and Sacheverell Sitchwell's comically idiosyncratic biography of Liszt -a composer very close to my heart.


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## L-feld

Anthony Charton said:


> Just finished _Coriolanus_, _Julius Caesar_, and _Titus Andronicus_ for a class. Also in the middle of Baudelaire's _Le Spleen de Paris_ and Sacheverell Sitchwell's comically idiosyncratic biography of Liszt -a composer very close to my heart.


Paris Spleen is one of my favorites and possibly the height of prose poetry. Makes me just want to go out in the street and pick fights with homeless guys.

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## Anthony Charton

L-feld said:


> Paris Spleen is one of my favorites and possibly the height of prose poetry. Makes me just want to go out in the street and pick fights with homeless guys.
> 
> Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk - now Free


Homeless guys ? It's all about passive agressive fistcuffs with Ennui!

Jokes aside, I take it you've also read _Les Fleurs du Mal_ ? Bit of a staple, but possibly my favourite poetry collection, ever..


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## Bohan

The eBay User Agreement. If you're new to eBay, you can opt-out of binding arbitration. Too late for me.


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## L-feld

Anthony Charton said:


> Homeless guys ? It's all about passive agressive fistcuffs with Ennui!
> 
> Jokes aside, I take it you've also read _Les Fleurs du Mal_ ? Bit of a staple, but possibly my favourite poetry collection, ever..


Wait until you get to the end.

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## drlivingston

Finishing up _The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks _by Rebecca Skloot. It is a fascinating read, especially if you are in the medical field.


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## dks202

Hitch said:


> _Captain Sir Richard Francis_ _ Burton,_ Edward Rice 1990


Good choice!


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## thea

Can't thank you enough for your suggestion of With Star and Crescent. Found it on Amazon for my husband. The only problem is I haven't really been able to corner him for an evening since. He is totally entranced and says it's one of the best he has ever read as far as good first hand commentary on the middle east. As far as Lawrence of Arabia.....must quote Noel Coward "if he was any more beautiful he would have had to call it Florence of Arabia".


Acme said:


> I recently reread _The Seven Pillars of Wisdom. _I think revisiting Lawrence once a decade is a good idea.
> 
> After that I picked up _Charlie Wilson's War. _Now I'm reading Locher's _With Star and Crescent, A Full and Authentic Account of a Recent Journey with a Caravan from Bombay to Constantinople..._
> 
> Seems I'm lost in Arabia these days.


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## Adventure Wolf

I just read Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt. I know it was highly praised, but personally I didn't like half the characters, and I think the plot took to long to unwind.


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## Barnavelt

I am intermittently reading "God and Man at Yale" for the first time. I find so many of the observations and insights to be germane to current events, but the sheer volume of ideas is such that I am digesting it in small doses.

I was half-way through "Don Quixote" when my 6 year old removed my bookmark and I just haven't had the gumption to backtrack and deduce where I left off...


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## Adventure Wolf

My next book is going to F. Scott Fitzgerald This Side of Paradise.


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## Dieu et les Dames

Adventure Wolf said:


> My next book is going to F. Scott Fitzgerald This Side of Paradise.


Excellent read.

In continuing my theme, which is the death of my youth, I picked up _The Rules of Attraction. _It's another BEE novel, for me to enjoy on my last spring break.

A younger me would have never even considered bringing a book on such a sacred excursion :/


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## Hitch

Barnavelt said:


> I am intermittently reading "God and Man at Yale" for the first time. I find so many of the observations and insights to be germane to current events, but the sheer volume of ideas is such that I am digesting it in small doses.
> 
> I was half-way through "Don Quixote" when my 6 year old removed my bookmark and I just haven't had the gumption to backtrack and deduce where I left off...


Fine choices, on both counts.


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## Reuben

I'm quite enjoying working my way through the Deathstalker chronicles by Simon R Green. Every time I think he's run out of SciFi tropes to use, he proves me wrong. So far we've faced space-vampires, space-frankenstein's monsters, space-werewolves, space-zombies, a handful of lovecraftian horrors, an evil empire, space-gladiators, ect, ect. It's a hoot!


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## Shaver




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## Acme

thea said:


> Can't thank you enough for your suggestion of With Star and Crescent. Found it on Amazon for my husband. The only problem is I haven't really been able to corner him for an evening since. He is totally entranced and says it's one of the best he has ever read as far as good first hand commentary on the middle east. As far as Lawrence of Arabia.....must quote Noel Coward "if he was any more beautiful he would have had to call it Florence of Arabia".


You're very welcome, I'm glad he enjoyed it (and hope he finished it soon ).


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## DCLawyer68

I finally started William Martin's The Lost Constitution - really enjoying it so far. 

It's sort of a US history version of The DaVinci Code.

The last really good book I finished was Ronald White's bio of Lincoln (A. Lincoln)


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## Shaver

Got my hands on a copy of this yesterday - erudite indeed. I doubt that even I appreciate all the literary references lurking within these pages......:rolleyes2:


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## Chouan

I'm just finishing Carlos Ruiz Zafon's Barcelona trilogy, "The shadow of the Wind", "The Angel's Game" and "The Prisoner of Heaven". I would describe them as brilliant if I had the wit to fully understand them! I'm certainly enjoying the process of reading, however.


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## Snow Hill Pond

Still reading "Remains of the Day". A page a night seems to be the limit of my endurance...


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## wiredroach

thea said:


> Personally, I am not a fan of fiction. I don't like to read much about "things that never happened to people that never were". So for me, the "Crime" was that it was written and the "Punishment" was that I had to read it.


Oh, that's a shame...just because the people and events in fiction aren't "real" doesn't mean they didn't exist or happen. They exist and happen in the most important place of all...your consciousness. I can't imagine walking around without the all the experiences of of _The Lord of the Rings_ or _Macbeth_ or _Legends of the Fall_ as part of my memory. The best fiction is real in a way that nonfiction sometimes can't be.


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## Bohan

thea said:


> Personally, I am not a fan of fiction. I don't like to read much about "things that never happened to people that never were".


I'm with you on that. I never finished a novel in my life. Closest I got was 3/4 through one for high school. I think I took out a book of classic short stories once and thought they were badly written. I don't like poetry either. Most poems just don't seem good to me even though I think it's possible to write one I'd like and there are probably a couple out there that I'd like. They posted poems on the subway for a while as a poetry appreciation campaign or something and I thought they were all bad. I like limericks though.


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## Dieu et les Dames

The first 13 or pages were missing from The Rules of Attraction. Damn you Barnes & Noble. I realized this 5 minutes into my first flight. But I finishe dit and had a great spring break. That was weeks ago and now I think I want to read a couple Bond novels.


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## Reuben

Bond novels are great, but if you want some real classic pulp secret agent action, check out The Destroyer Remo Williams 


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## eagle2250

In the past week I've read the novels "Tiger's Claw" by Dale Brown and "Agenda 21" by Glenn Beck and Harriet Parke. I find myself to be more than occasionally amazed at the predictive capacity of fiction, as pertains to current events to which we may serve witness! :icon_scratch:


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## kaehlin

"The Orphan Master's Son" by Adam Johnson. Great storytelling. I almost always read contemporary fiction.


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## Earl of Ormonde

Chouan said:


> I'm just finishing Carlos Ruiz Zafon's Barcelona trilogy, "The shadow of the Wind", "The Angel's Game" and "The Prisoner of Heaven". I would describe them as brilliant if I had the wit to fully understand them! I'm certainly enjoying the process of reading, however.


Shadow of the Wind was a wonderful book, unputdownable. 
I started on The Angel's Game as soon as I could get hold of a paperback copy, about 2 years ago, maybem ore, but I couldn't get my head round the complex intertwined relationships between the boy, the girl, her father, the mansion, the rich bloke and the French bloke that Daniel is writing the story for. I found it way too complex and never finished it & it put me off even attempting the 3rd one.


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## efdll

Chouan said:


> I'm just finishing Carlos Ruiz Zafon's Barcelona trilogy, "The shadow of the Wind", "The Angel's Game" and "The Prisoner of Heaven". I would describe them as brilliant if I had the wit to fully understand them! I'm certainly enjoying the process of reading, however.


Zafon manages what few writers can: page-turner bestsellers with substance. The former are usually very badly written, e.g. Dan Brown's. While the latter can be challenging and, frankly, I'm too old to read something that does not give me pleasure. Zafon engages both the hunger for a good yarn and the intellect. Though I will admit that the first, The Shadow of the Wind, is the most satisfying. Since I'm on Spanish-language bestsellers, Arturo Perez-Reverte's books are quite good too. And Cuba's master of detective fiction, Leonardo Padura, is worth a read. All of these in English translation, about which, a word. The art of translation has never been better. I was fortunate to read many of the foreign-language (not in Spanish, my native tongue) classics when my English was rough enough for me to blissfully ignore the even rougher texture of the translations I was reading -- years later when I went back to the same versions I found them unreadable. Not so today. A year ago I read the new Anna Karenina and it was great. Now I plan to take on War and Peace, by the same translators; the version I read in my late teens I'm sure would be undigestible today.
Going back to English originals, Bond is fun, but Fleming was a mediocre writer. Le Carre has great plots, but his writing falls short of the mark: one can see the seams in his aim to be "literary." Len Deighton, on the other hand, is satisfying. And there are many writers that are worth waiting for the movie, since no matter how bad it is it will only take a couple of hours of one's life on earth, which is much too short for bad literature.


----------



## SG_67

Finished "Sleepwalkers" by Christopher Clark. An account of the events leading up to WWI.

Currently reading "The Essence of Decision: Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis".


----------



## eagle2250

"Nine Stories" by J. D. Salinger. The book leaves you wishing for more of J. D. Salinger to read, that alas, is just not to be! The man, as an author, really was in a class of his own.


----------



## drlivingston

Recently read "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot. This is an absolute must read for anyone in (or going into) the medical field.


----------



## MaxBuck

drlivingston said:


> Recently read "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot. This is an absolute must read for anyone in (or going into) the medical field.


Reasonable minds can differ. I found it to be an unbalanced, emotional screed that focused excessively on some fabricated notions of ethics, and also presented a perspective on African-Americans that smacks of liberal paternalism and patronizing. When a black family acts like a bunch of venal opportunists, writing as though they're entitled to do so is its own form of racism IMO.

Couldn't finish it.


----------



## phyrpowr

Just finished two on the Paris-Spain interwar years and cognoscenti/expats: _Hotel Florida_ and _Everyone Was So Young_, both by Amanda Vaill. Now re-reading Wodehouse, Jeeves & Bertie, Psmith & Mike, the good Earl of Emsworth and the whole weird crew.


----------



## phyrpowr

SG_67 said:


> Finished "Sleepwalkers" by Christopher Clark. An account of the events leading up to WWI.
> 
> Currently reading "The Essence of Decision: Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis".


SG, to follow up on _Sleepwalkers,_ I recommend _A World Undone_, by G.J. Meyer, best one volume on WWI I've ever run across.


----------



## ajo

I have been reading the Inspector Erlender series by Arnaldur Indridason. Up to book seven at present Icelandic Noir at its best.


----------



## MaxBuck

I actually don't read all that much nonfiction, but this is really excellent. Should be required reading for all college freshmen.


----------



## SG_67

phyrpowr said:


> SG, to follow up on _Sleepwalkers,_ I recommend _A World Undone_, by G.J. Meyer, best one volume on WWI I've ever run across.


Thanks phyrpowr. I'll put it on my amazon list.


----------



## Chouan

MaxBuck said:


> I actually don't read all that much nonfiction, but this is really excellent. Should be required reading for all college freshmen.


Even those reading Philosophy, or Classics, or Medieval History?


----------



## MaxBuck

Chouan said:


> Even those reading Philosophy, or Classics, or Medieval History?


Especially them.


----------



## drlivingston

MaxBuck said:


> Reasonable minds can differ. I found it to be an unbalanced, emotional screed that focused excessively on some fabricated notions of ethics, and also presented a perspective on African-Americans that smacks of liberal paternalism and patronizing. When a black family acts like a bunch of venal opportunists, writing as though they're entitled to do so is its own form of racism IMO.
> 
> Couldn't finish it.


That's just the point the book is trying to make, Max. You have to see through the greedy attitudes of the "venal opportunists" to fully realize the importance of HeLa. It may not be the best written book out there (by a longshot), but I have to hand it to Skloot for not shying away from contentious subject matter.


----------



## MaxBuck

drlivingston said:


> That's just the point the book is trying to make, Max. You have to see through the greedy attitudes of the "venal opportunists" to fully realize the importance of HeLa. It may not be the best written book out there (by a longshot), but I have to hand it to Skloot for not shying away from contentious subject matter.


I'll give Skloot credit for bringing much wider appreciation for HeLa to the public's awareness. Just wish the book had been more skillfully (and less subjectively) written.


----------



## Acme

I just finished _Colditz, the German Side of the Story_ by Reinhold Eggers. It's a bit dry, but nonetheless its fun to get the opposing perspective to all those Boy's Own POW narratives.


----------



## drlivingston

MaxBuck said:


> I'll give Skloot credit for bringing much wider appreciation for HeLa to the public's awareness. *Just wish the book had been more skillfully (and less subjectively) written*.


I concur with that.


----------



## eagle2250

This weeks read is "A Higher Call" by Adam Makos; a historically accurate detailing of the chance encounter between USAAF Second Lieutenant Charlie Brown and German fighter ace Frantz Stigler in the skies over WWII Germany...proof that personal honor and human compassion can exist and determine the path we follow even in the hellish environment of war! Great book, well worth reading. :thumbs-up:


----------



## Chouan

MaxBuck said:


> Especially them.


Why?? (The added question mark was because the question, as it stood, was too short for the forum rules.)


----------



## MaxBuck

Chouan said:


> Why?? (The added question mark was because the question, as it stood, was too short for the forum rules.)


The objective of these disciplines is to provide a classical education, no? And an understanding of the use, misuse and limitations of data and statistics is essential to be well-educated IMO. And students in the disciplines you cited are, I believe, unlikely to learn those things in their classwork.


----------



## Reuben

Any fantasy guys out there? Just finished Butcher's newest, Skin Game, and I'm starting The Red Knight which was highly recommended to me by my father.


----------



## drlivingston

Carl Hiaasen-Dance of the Reptiles (Audiobook-while out thrifting)
Tao Te Ching-Lao Tzu (Book-when at home)


----------



## eagle2250

Reuben said:


> Any fantasy guys out there? Just finished Butcher's newest, Skin Game, and I'm starting The Red Knight which was highly recommended to me by my father.


As I recall, the last fantasy I read was Lisey"s Story" by Stephen King. King's latest installment of The Dark Tower series, "The Wind Through The Keyhole," still sits on my bookshelf waiting to be enjoyed. However, should you wish to venture of on a more historical bent, I highly recommend reading, "I'm Staying With My Boys: The Heroic Life of Sgt John Basilone, USMC" by Jim Proser and Jerry Cutter...returned to my bookshelf just moments ago and a great read it was! :thumbs-up:


----------



## Reuben

eagle2250 said:


> As I recall, the last fantasy I read was Lisey"s Story" by Stephen King. King's latest installment of The Dark Tower series, "The Wind Through The Keyhole," still sits on my bookshelf waiting to be enjoyed. However, should you wish to venture of on a more historical bent, I highly recommend reading, "I'm Staying With My Boys: The Heroic Life of Sgt John Basilone, USMC" by Jim Proser and Jerry Cutter...returned to my bookshelf just moments ago and a great read it was! :thumbs-up:


I just finished my third or fourth reading of Aidi Murphy's autobiography, really enjoyable read.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## JohnRov

The Plantagenets by Dan Jones
Keep It Simple by Hartmut Esslinger

Ever since I started riding the bus to work I get so much reading done, it's a luxury (and necessity) that I hadn't had as much time to indulge in since my first child was born.


----------



## shadoman

The Raymond Chandler Omnibus. Again.


----------



## drlivingston

I am going back through the Preston and Child Pendergast series.


----------



## L-feld

Reuben said:


> Any fantasy guys out there? Just finished Butcher's newest, Skin Game, and I'm starting The Red Knight which was highly recommended to me by my father.


I'm currently reading "The Death of the West" by Pat Buchanan, which I think qualifies as a work of fantasy.

I'm more of a sci-fi kind of guy, though.

Sent from the TARDIS using the chameleon circuit


----------



## Reuben

drlivingston said:


> I am going back through the Preston and Child Pendergast series.


Great series!

Sent from 1955 using 1.21 jigawatts.


----------



## Bjorn

The Art of Japanese Joinery by Seike. I'm in a woodworking phase. Seems to happen to guys around 35. At least there are (i)Gents saws to be had


----------



## kaehlin

Just started "Gone Girl" by Gillian Flynn.


----------



## eagle2250

Reading "Fire In The Belly: On Being A Man" by Sam Keen and published back in 1992. Whats it take to be a "real man?" What is expected of such animals? Why-Oh-why did I pick this book up in the first place? Just a bit more than halfway through the text at this point and I have to tell you, this one is more than just a bit of a snoozer. I think I might put it down and wait another 22 years to read the final chapters! LOL.


----------



## GWW

I'm currently reading the first part of Richard Wagner's autobiography "Mein Leben"


----------



## Hitch

_Sword At Sunse_t, Rosemary Sutcliff 1963. My first look into Arthurian fiction ,it was left in the trash by a former tenant . Enjoyed it very much.


----------



## racebannon

The Preppy Handbook (1980). Hadn't seen it in 30 years.


----------



## zeppacoustic

_All the Pretty Horses

_ by Cormac McCarthy


----------



## Anthony Charton

^ How is it? I recently finished _The Road_, which is certainly one of the best pieces of prose I've ever read. I was thinking of ordering _Blood Meridian_ soon.


----------



## eagle2250

^^ A couple of days back I received copies of Blood Meridian and Suttree, two additional books by Cormac McCarthy, from Barnes and Noble. Member Barnavelt recommended the titles to me and I am glad he did. Presently reading Blood Meridian...graphic, detailed, at times riveting....Cormac McCarthy manages to invest his works like the Road, Blood Meridan and even No Country For Old Men, with a 'post apocolyptic quality to his descriptions of scenes,' I find such descriptions reminiscent of post strike reconstitution and recovery plans I was once required to be familiar with. You just can't ask for much more than that from a read. Looking forward to starting Suttree, but that will have to follow Bill O'Reilly's Killing Patton. LOL..."so many books to read, so little time!"


----------



## kaehlin

^^^I'm a big fan of "The Road"! Currently working on "Moby Dick"


----------



## Anthony Charton

_The Road_ is just insane. A critic aptly called it 'the first masterpiece of the warmed-up generation'. Anyhow- ordering _Blood Meridian_ as we speak. As for reading: _Collected Poems_, Sylvia Plath, _Collected Stories_, William Faulkner, _Richard II_, Shakespeare, and _Reading Shakespeare's Sonnets,_ Don Paterson (which is a brilliant, coruscating, vividly clever book- anyone interested in WS's Sonnets should read it, twice) , and re-reading Verlaine for the first time in a while. (Yes- I like having several reads going on at the same time...)


----------



## Chouan

This. It's very good, if a trifle depressing....
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Spanish-Am...54&sr=1-4&keywords=South+American+revolutions


----------



## 3rd&17

"Doctor Faustus" by Thomas Mann. I was wondering about the the phrase "Faustian Deal," and the idea of morality tied to it.


----------



## pitchfork

zeppacoustic said:


> _All the Pretty Horses
> 
> _ by Cormac McCarthy


Great book, enjoy


----------



## pitchfork

Best I have read this year include

the brief and wondrous life of Oscar wao
A visit from the the goon squad
the orphan masters son

all literary with a modern bent, kind of like reading pulp fiction


----------



## pitchfork

Agree with praise for the road, especially powerful if you are a father and have a son


----------



## zeppacoustic

About halfway through The Border Trilogy by McCarthy. Wonderful prose indeed, poignant descriptions of nature and landscapes. Haunting passages in most of his books.


----------



## red_shift

I just finished Lev Grossman's Magicians series, sort of a grown up Harry Potter trilogy. It has a good joke about the game Gauntlet that I appreciated and overall the tone is serious without being too overbearing. Characters do things for the right reasons without making things too epic.

The 1,000 Autumns of Jacob De Zoet was the first moving novel I read this year. I haven't read anything else by the author (David Mitchell - Cloud Atlas, etc) but I know about the subject matter and found it very enjoyable.

I'm working on Gandhi Before India ; basically like all people Gandhi was formed by his past experiences and he wouldn't have done what he did later in life without the time he spent in a racist regime in South Africa. It's a very dense volume on an under-reported topic but not the most page turning read.


----------



## Dmontez

I will be going to pick up a book tomorrow that I am pretty excited about, Measure of a Man : From Auschwitz Survivor to Presidents' Tailor the Martin Greenfield story. I am pretty excited about it.


----------



## MaxBuck

The Divide, by Matt Taibbi.

Lots in it I disagree with, but very thought-provoking and extremely troubling.


----------



## kaehlin

red_shift said:


> I just finished Lev Grossman's Magicians series, sort of a grown up Harry Potter trilogy. It has a good joke about the game Gauntlet that I appreciated and overall the tone is serious without being too overbearing. Characters do things for the right reasons without making things too epic.
> 
> The 1,000 Autumns of Jacob De Zoet was the first moving novel I read this year. I haven't read anything else by the author (David Mitchell - Cloud Atlas, etc) but I know about the subject matter and found it very enjoyable.
> 
> I'm working on Gandhi Before India ; basically like all people Gandhi was formed by his past experiences and he wouldn't have done what he did later in life without the time he spent in a racist regime in South Africa. It's a very dense volume on an under-reported topic but not the most page turning read.


I just started "De Zoet" yesterday. I really enjoyed Cloud Atlas.


----------



## Snow Hill Pond

zeppacoustic said:


> _All the Pretty Horses
> 
> _ by Cormac McCarthy


Excellent book. The rest of the trilogy (_The Crossing _and _Cities of the Plain_) is equally magnificent.


----------



## Snow Hill Pond

"Civil Disobedience" by HD Thoreau.


----------



## ChrisRS

_Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance_
Robert M. Pirsig


----------



## eagle2250

Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy is a detailed, hard scrabble tale that leaves the reader reflecting on the story for seemingly many days and weeks after the book is read. Gives new meaning to the quip, "here comes the judge!" LOL Typical Cormac McCarthy and well worth the time it takes to read and savor the story. Thank you Barnaveldt for the recommendation. :thumbs-up:


----------



## drlivingston

Currently enjoying the Tim Dorsey Serge Storms series. Definitely not too cerebral... but a heck of a lot of fun! A must-read for anyone who lives in or around Florida. Dorsey is like Carl Hiaasen on crystal meth.


----------



## dr.butcher

"Dandies" James Laver.


----------



## Hitch

'No Mans River' Farley Mowatt . His personal account post WWII of life in the far north.


----------



## eagle2250

Clive Cussler's "The Thief"......a quick and entertaining read, providing further proof that this old world of ours would be a lesser place if it were not for fictional characters, such as Isaac Bell that we become acquainted with over the course of our casual reading. The book is an enjoyable read!


----------



## dr.butcher

Just finishing up Nick Foulkes' "The Last of the Dandies: The Scandalous Life and Escapades of Count D'Orsay" which took a while to get going with all the (necessary) background and pre-history and then really hit a stride when he was gallivanting around Europe with the Blessingtons. I've got two books lined up, the massive biography of Brummell by Captain Jesse "The Life of George Brummell" from 1844 and another Foulkes' title, "Rubinacci and the Story of Neapolitan Tailoring". I'll probably start with the Neapolitan tailoring book first because after the D'Orsay bio I need a break with something lighter before plunging into Brummell's life.


----------



## zeppacoustic

"In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Voyage of the USS Jeannette" by Hampton Sides. Late 19th century attempt at the North Pole, which wasn't even accurately mapped then. Incredible story and particularly well-written!

https://www.amazon.com/Kingdom-Ice-...ords=in+the+kingdom+of+ice&pebp=1418628420150


----------



## Dhaller

Currently I'm doing a two-books-per-week pace which I'm hoping to maintain through 2015.

One fiction, one non-fiction.

Fiction this week: Martin Amis' "The Zone of Interest", a pretty hard-to-read (in the sense that it's so casually horrific) depiction of the Holocaust from the perspective of camp administration, down to the little dramas and petty politics of life in a death camp.

Nonfiction this week: "The Innovators" by Walter Isaacson, a survey of the development of computing from Ada Lovelace/Babbage through the current era. It's interesting in that he emphasizes the lack of "great man" progression of computing history, demonstrating the degree to which it has been collaborative.

DH


----------



## zeppacoustic

"Comanche Moon" by Larry McMurty
book 2 chronologically of the Lonesome Dove tetralogy


----------



## Duvel

Took a break about halfway through Cheever's _Stories_ to pick up Salinger's _Nine Stories_. Almost through Nine Stories. Pretty amazing stuff, regret that it took me this long to pick up this book.


----------



## Dhaller

Duvel said:


> Took a break about halfway through Cheever's _Stories_ to pick up Salinger's _Nine Stories_. Almost through Nine Stories. Pretty amazing stuff, regret that it took me this long to pick up this book.


I read Salinger's "Nine" in high school; probably something to reread now (30 years later!). If you're partial to short fiction, I highly recommend both Margaet Atwood and George Saunders, two contemporary masters of the craft.

I've likewise gone old school, and am reading Alfred Bester's ""The Stars my Destination" (1956), one of the great influences on modern Sci Fi - it's the first in my readings of classic Sci Fi I intend to do this year (Heinlein, Simak, Asimov, etc.)

For non-fiction, reading Clay Johnson's "The Information Diet". Clay Johnson was the fellow who crafted Obama's online strategy in 2008, so the book is a bit left-leaning, but it's in interesting essay on the declining quality of media.

DH


----------



## jeffdeist

George MacDonald Fraser's_ Quartered Safe Out Here: A Harrowing Tale of World War II. _

It's an account of his British Army unit in Burma fighting the Japanese toward the end of the war. You might know Fraser from his _Flashman_ series.


----------



## Duvel

Thank you for the recommendations. I know of both but have never read them. I need to get through the rest of Cheever's stories, first. Any particular collections by Atwood and Saunders that you'd recommend?



Dhaller said:


> I read Salinger's "Nine" in high school; probably something to reread now (30 years later!). If you're partial to short fiction, I highly recommend both Margaet Atwood and George Saunders, two contemporary masters of the craft.
> 
> I've likewise gone old school, and am reading Alfred Bester's ""The Stars my Destination" (1956), one of the great influences on modern Sci Fi - it's the first in my readings of classic Sci Fi I intend to do this year (Heinlein, Simak, Asimov, etc.)
> 
> For non-fiction, reading Clay Johnson's "The Information Diet". Clay Johnson was the fellow who crafted Obama's online strategy in 2008, so the book is a bit left-leaning, but it's in interesting essay on the declining quality of media.
> 
> DH


----------



## Dhaller

Duvel said:


> Thank you for the recommendations. I know of both but have never read them. I need to get through the rest of Cheever's stories, first. Any particular collections by Atwood and Saunders that you'd recommend?


I have Atwood's "Dancing Girls" collection sitting right here on my desk, so I'll recommend that: it's a good overview of a number of her recurring themes; it's also her first collection (1977).

I read her newest collection, "Stone Mattress", a few weeks ago - the stories center around older characters (as befitting an older author) dealing with the ramifications of lives they've lived and decisions they've made. Melancholy stuff, but fine fiction.

For Saunders, I think my favorite is still his earliest collection, "Civilwarland in Bad Decline", which is also his most absurdist. His most recent collection, "Tenth of December", features one of his most strange and brilliant stories, though, "The Semplica Girl Diaries" - you can find that in back issues of the New Yorker, though (2012).

DH


----------



## Shaver

A fascinating examination of the underground eighties hardcore metal scene that led to church burning, suicide and murder amongst some of the leading Norwegian exponents of the genre.


----------



## zeppacoustic

"Citizen Soldiers: The US Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender of Germany" by Stephen Ambrose. Awesome


----------



## SlideGuitarist

Patrick Leigh Fermor.


----------



## eagle2250

Okay guys...now don't laugh at me, but "The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up: the Japanese art of decluttering and organizing" by Marie Kondo is a quick, but instructive read that restores one's focus on a simpler, more straightforward living/operating environment. Alas, after several months of thinning out the wardrobe, reducing my hoard from filling four and one half closets to just two and decluttering our home in preparation for an apparently upcoming relocation and having read this book, I am left with the certainty we still "have a long way to go and not much time to get there!" Feeling like a present day "Bandit." LOL.


----------



## Dhaller

eagle2250 said:


> Okay guys...now don't laugh at me, but "The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up: the Japanese art of decluttering and organizing" by Marie Kondo is a quick, but instructive read that restores one's focus on a simpler, more straightforward living/operating environment. Alas, after several months of thinning out the wardrobe, reducing my hoard from filling four and one half closets to just two and decluttering our home in preparation for an apparently upcoming relocation and having read this book, I am left with the certainty we still "have a long way to go and not much time to get there!" Feeling like a present day "Bandit." LOL.


Not laughable at all!

It's fairly-well proven that there are cognitive benefits to "decluttering" (related to strategic allocation of attention and executive function.)

I consider a clutter-free, zero-inbox environment as beneficial to health as daily hour-long walks and kale salads!

...

And now reading J.G Ballard's "The Crystal World" (getting back to the books...)

DH


----------



## Odradek

"Killer in the Rain", a collection of Chandler short stories that he "cannibalised" to write some of his novels, and then kept out of print.
Interesting.


----------



## Chouan

Dhaller said:


> Not laughable at all!
> 
> It's fairly-well proven that there are cognitive benefits to "decluttering" (related to strategic allocation of attention and executive function.)
> 
> I consider a clutter-free, zero-inbox environment as beneficial to health as daily hour-long walks and kale salads!
> 
> ...
> 
> And now reading J.G Ballard's "The Crystal World" (getting back to the books...)
> 
> DH


De-cluttering is one of my wife's mantras. I like clutter, myself.....

However, I'm currently reading Dee Brown "The American West", and re-reading Shelby Foote's "The Civil War - A Narrative" and Tolkein's "Lord of the Rings" again.


----------



## ChrisRS

With all the tributes surrounding the 50th anniversary of Winston Churchill's passing and funeral, I would now like to find a good biography of the great prime minister.
Do the members have any recommendations?


----------



## Dhaller

ChrisRS said:


> With all the tributes surrounding the 50th anniversary of Winston Churchill's passing and funeral, I would now like to find a good biography of the great prime minister.
> Do the members have any recommendations?


Have you read his autobiography, "My Early Life"? Hardly comprehensive, of course (he wrote it in the 30s), but it sets the stage for other readings.

The thing with Churchill is that he's a multi-volume biography (Martin Gilbert's political biography of Churchill runs 8000 pages over six hefty volumes), though the Roy Jenkins and Geoffrey Best biographies are widely cited as the best "single volume" efforts.


----------



## Dhaller

Currently reading (fiction): Donna Tartt's "The Goldfinch". I'm 550 pages in (of 875 or so total), and so far the pace hasn't been oppressive at all. I'm not sure it merits all the awards it's gotten (all, pretty much!), but it's a good yarn indeed. Fantastic character development, and I can fairly through out literary terms like "Bildungsroman" and "Dickensian" and actually mean it. Plus, Tartt remains the soul of Prep, apropos of the AAAC reader.

(Non-fiction): Drexler's "Radical Abundance", a somewhat irritating overview of the current state of atomically-precise manufacturing (APM), more popularly known as nanotechnology. Drexler is the fellow who coined the word nanotechnology, and he's a bit desperate to remind the reader of his role in the field (which is why the read is a bit irritating); otherwise, a serviceable overview of the field.

DH


----------



## ChrisRS

Dhaller said:


> Have you read his autobiography, "My Early Life"? Hardly comprehensive, of course (he wrote it in the 30s), but it sets the stage for other readings.
> 
> The thing with Churchill is that he's a multi-volume biography (Martin Gilbert's political biography of Churchill runs 8000 pages over six hefty volumes), though the Roy Jenkins and Geoffrey Best biographies are widely cited as the best "single volume" efforts.


Great recommendation. Thank you.


----------



## eagle2250

During our recent extended road trip, Tom Clancy's Threat Vector and Mitch Albom's The Time Keeper, met most of my casual reading needs.


----------



## GWW

I'm not really reading it now, but I'll read E.T.A. Hoffman's "Die Bergwerke zu Falun" as soon as possible (read: this week).


----------



## Earl of Ormonde

The Somme Stations - Andrew Martin, WWI detective novel.


----------



## Earl of Ormonde

GWW said:


> I'm not really reading it now, but I'll read E.T.A. Hoffman's "Die Bergwerke zu Falun" as soon as possible (read: this week).


I live about a four hour drive southwest of Falun, and its cooper mines, which are in Dalarna County about 230 km NE from where I live Värmland County. They are outside the town proper, and their is a mock up museum "mining" town there now and you can go down in the mines on guided tours. Falun the town itself is lovely and extremely built up for being so far out in the middle of nowhere when compared to its southern neighbour Borlänge which is a horrible place. I have a friend who lives in Ludvika and I visit Falun occasionally when I'm up the country for various reasons, usually related to work and music festivals.

A photo of the open mine, the museum and Falun town itself in the background.


----------



## Duvel

About halfway through Denis Johnson's _The Laughing Monsters. _A little slower going than I thought it would be, but entertaining nonetheless.


----------



## bernoulli

Why Nations Fail, by Acemoglu and Robinson. Great albeit repetitive book.


----------



## dr.butcher

I just started reading “Bespoke: Savile Row Ripped and Smoothed” and so far (1st chapter) it’s a very interesting read. It’s nice to get a candid look at what goes on in a (Savile Row) tailoring house and after reading so much from the frontshop viewpoint it is a nice counterpoint to read about the backshop. It’s a fairly quick and light read.


----------



## SG_67

2016 being the 100th anniversary of Verdun, I'm reading "Verdun" by Paul Jankowski.


----------



## BillyB

"Hemingway" by Kenneth S. Lynne. The Los Angeles Times Book Award Winner Biography by Harvard Books.









Hemingway was a man's man. He lived a rich and full life and squeezed every day for what he could get out of it. He also drank like a fish and swore like a sailor. His steamy relationship with Martha Gellhorn from "Collier's Magazine" was legendary. All in all, a good read so far. About 3/4 through. About 600 pages not counting the Notes, Bibliography, and Index which are substantial. Lynn, so far, has done an amazing job.


----------



## Duvel

Nabokov's _Transparent Things

_& in the queue, John Barth's _End of the Road
_
Finished _The Laughing Monsters. _Meh. So-so.

Still reading Cheever's _Stories_ but I need a break. My intention is to read the whole thing but, good as he is, one tires of too much Cheever.


----------



## eagle2250

Just finished reading Clive Cussler's "The Silent Sea," written in conjunction with Jack Du Brul. Perhaps not a socially significant or intellectually challenging read, but entertaining as hell...a good geopolitical yarn with an intriguing nautical mystery twist! :thumbs-up:


----------



## ChrisRS

Inspired by a recent trip to London and Gloucester, just started,
"Pagan Britain"


----------



## Dhaller

Current Fiction: "Half the World" by Joe Abercrombie... Norseman-inspired fantasy (a bit of light brain candy after the last few challenging novels!)

Current Nonfiction: "Shock Therapy for the American Health Care System" by Dr. Robert Levine (concise overview of the challenges facing US health care and a case for universal care)

Current Poetry: "A Maze Me" by Naomi Shahib Nye (poetry for girls 12+... reviewing it for my daughter's library)

DH


----------



## SlideGuitarist

Nonfiction: _The Peregrine_ (https://www.nybooks.com/books/imprints/classics/the-peregrine/).


----------



## SlideGuitarist

Has anyone read the book on post-War American women's style by (IIRC) Lynda Przybyszewski?


----------



## Duvel

I am finding myself very confused in Transparent Things. I find I have to read whole paragraphs over just to keep my head around what's going on. Weird. It's either Nabokov or a sign that I'm starting the decline into senility. I hope it's just Nabokov.


----------



## eagle2250

I presently find myself rereading Bill O'Reilly's Killing Patton...a shockingly persuasive and absorbing read. It quite literally grabs your eyes and mind and won't let go! Leaves one thinking that the political intrigue of yesteryear was every bit as infamous as it's present day version(s). If you have not yet experienced O'Reilly's "Killing" series of books, you really should give them a look...very thought provoking! :thumbs-up:


----------



## Dhaller

Duvel said:


> I am finding myself very confused in Transparent Things. I find I have to read whole paragraphs over just to keep my head around what's going on. Weird. It's either Nabokov or a sign that I'm starting the decline into senility. I hope it's just Nabokov.


Well, it's a playful novel; some have even charged that it's a kind of satire-in-miniature of the themes of all his works. So I think it's Nabokov, not you! (For what it's worth, John Updike found it baffling as well...)

I usually find that Nabokov runs the gamut from pretty easy (Lolita, Invitation to a Beheading, Pnin) to arcane (Ada, The Defense) to impossible (Pale Fire), and as you move along the axis it's sometimes worth putting a book aside and picking it up again later.

(I have yet to be able to complete "Pale Fire", which I include on a shelf with such works as "Finnegan's Wake" and "Gravity's Rainbow": I tried, I faltered, I'll try again!)

My current readings:

"Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking" by Dan Dennett - a pretty dense overview of the use (and misuse) of philosophical language, with forays into computing theory.

"The Three-Body Problem" by Cixin Liu - my first go at Chinese science fiction. A little different - no, a lot different - but some interesting ideas thus far ("what if physics were an alterable programmatic feature of the universe?")

Next up:
"Transhumanism and its Critics" by Hansell & Grassie - essays
"the dead fish museum" by Charles d'Ambrosio - short fictions

DH


----------



## Andy

400 to 500 e-mails a day and some men's fashion trade magazines!!:hi:


----------



## Duvel

Thanks, DH. I find TT fascinating even while not always sure I'm "getting" it. Pnin is on my to-read list. Might pick that up next. I've read Lolita a couple of times now, and wouldn't mind another romp through that one. Speak, Memory might be my favorite Nabokov. 

Speaking of Updike, I've been trying to dig up a review I swear he wrote on Transparent Things for the New Yorker when the book was published. Can't seem to find it, even when I go into the New Yorker's online archives. But who knows. I think I was all of 16 when I thought I read that--maybe it was someone else's review.


----------



## jackstraw001

The Creature from Jekyll Island: A Second Look at the Federal Reserve by G. Edward Griffin. If you've ever wondered where "money" comes from, this is a very interesting, enlightening and disturbing read.


----------



## Shaver

jackstraw001 said:


> The Creature from Jekyll Island: A Second Look at the Federal Reserve by G. Edward Griffin. If you've ever wondered where "money" comes from, this is a very interesting, enlightening and disturbing read.


Interesting, it will go on my 'to read' list (it's a very long list).

However to those who are not already familiar with the shenanigans of our unlovely financial institutions - what are you waiting for? Get reading!


----------



## L-feld

Shaver said:


> Interesting, it will go on my 'to read' list (it's a very long list).
> 
> However to those who are not already familiar with the shenanigans of our unlovely financial institutions - what are you waiting for? Get reading!


Unfortunately, Griffin is a two bit Bircher-style conspiracist.

If you want to read a more fact-based indictment of the Federal Reserve, look for "Secrets of the Temple" by William Greider. It's more technical and less sensational than Griffin's book, but it also bears a much stronger connection to reality.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


----------



## Shaver

^ Thanks L-feld, your recommendation is appreciated.


----------



## Shaver

Currently I am reading (again!) the compelling theological and philosophical semi fictive semi autobiographical conjectures of my favourite author Phil Dick - the transmigration of timothy archer.


----------



## Nolan

The Morrow Guide to Knots


----------



## Adventure Wolf

I'm currently working on the Adventures of Tom Sawyer. It's a book I probably should have read years ago.


----------



## Duvel

Finishing up Transparent Things, and I have to say, What the hell was this all about, Vlad? I almost feel like he was just putting everybody on (more so than usual).


----------



## eagle2250

Back on my Clive Cussler kick...just finishing "The Spy," a collaborative effort involving Cussler and co-author Justin Scott. It is another in the series of Isaac Bell adventures. The plot incorporates a complex series of twists ad turns, yet also reads quickly, grabbing and holding one's attention to the very end...a satisfying, though expected victory for the guy(s) wearing the white hat LOL. The good guys should win...yes, no?


----------



## Duvel

I'm re-reading John Barth's Lost in the Funhouse. Last time was way back in college. If I make it through, I might try End of the Road, too.

Also picked up Nabokov's Lectures on Literature. I've heard good things.


----------



## Dhaller

Duvel said:


> I'm re-reading John Barth's Lost in the Funhouse. Last time was way back in college. If I make it through, I might try End of the Road, too.
> 
> Also picked up Nabokov's Lectures on Literature. I've heard good things.


I haven't read John Barth in a long, long time (25 years?) I should revisit.

I just finished Richard Brautigan's "In Watermelon Sugar", so I'm a bit on a magincal realism/fabulism kick... prime for revisiting Barth or Borges.

DH


----------



## Duvel

Let me know how it goes, if you do pick up Barth again. I'm a little over halfway through the "funhouse" and I'm wondering if it's any fun.  Wow. Some of the stuff gives me a headache. Maybe I'm just not used to reading stuff like this anymore.

I'm vowing to finish, though. A great prof of mine from my Iowa days, David Morrell (yes, the one who went on to become the father of Rambo and author of all those mysteries) told us in one of his wonderful American literature survey classes that it was good to read this stuff from time to time because our brain needs exercise just as our body does. He said that even if we don't "get it all" we should stay with it and we'll be better people for it when we come out at the other end.



Dhaller said:


> I haven't read John Barth in a long, long time (25 years?) I should revisit.
> 
> I just finished Richard Brautigan's "In Watermelon Sugar", so I'm a bit on a magincal realism/fabulism kick... prime for revisiting Barth or Borges.
> 
> DH


----------



## SlideGuitarist

Duvel said:


> I'm re-reading John Barth's Lost in the Funhouse. Last time was way back in college. If I make it through, I might try End of the Road, too.
> 
> Also picked up Nabokov's Lectures on Literature. I've heard good things.


Not _The Sot-Weed Factor_? That seems like more fun.

I used to be a translator, and I have difficulty just "reading for the plot." I like to be immersed in a style, or metafictional games. OTOH with work and family, it's hard to get immersed in an extreme style, like, oh, Beckett's in _Molloy_, which I tried recently...and put down, unfinished. Work requires me to read just for content, and it takes a few days of leisure to shake that mentality.


----------



## Duvel

Might try Sot-Weed Factor next. I'm anxious to dig into my Rabbit books (Rich and At Rest). Figure they're good summertime leisure reading. But there's also plenty of style to immerse oneself in. Updike always gives me plenty to chew on.


----------



## my19

I read Barth's _Giles Goat Boy_ for a class in college -- The Grotesque in American Literature -- circa 1970.

I remember it as an 800-page beat down.


----------



## drlivingston

Tim Dorsey - Shark Skin Suite


----------



## Duvel

Returned a dozen books to the library, a year's worth, or two semesters. Renewed two, one of them being Nabokov's Lectures on Literature. The other is the Official You-Know-What Handbook. I can keep them until May 24, 2016. College libraries are so great.


----------



## toddorbertBU

Trying to get through Jon Ronson's Them! Absolutely fascinating but I keep getting pulled away by my kids. Never realized how much I took my reading time for granted.


----------



## Dhaller

Currently reading Diane Ravitch's "Reign of Error", a scathing critique of the charter school movement and its corruption by the privatization movement. Highly recommended.

And it's embarrassing to say, in light of Duvel's readings of Nabokov lectures, but I'm reading Larry Correia's "Monster Hunter International". I actually picked it up for my brother (he'll love it!), but we haven't been able to meet, so... I decided to read it. Pure brain candy. It would make a fine Vin Diesel movie, though.

DH


----------



## Duvel

An acquaintance is sending me three 1977-vintage Howard the Duck Marvel comic books, gratis. I'd mentioned in passing that I'd always been curious to read the early series and he's passing along these old copies of his. Lookiing forward to the read. He tells me these issues are not necessarily the best but that they contain what makes the series special: Omen of an Exorcist, A Duck Possessed, and The Mysterious Island of Dr. Bong.


----------



## eagle2250

^^Can't say I've read any comic books recently or that I ever was a big fan of them, but also cannot help but wonder as to the collectability of Marvel Comic's Howard the Duck series. With the copies you mention hailing from the mid 1970's I would think there to be some measure of added value...yes, no? I did pick up, I think it was, eight of the graphic novel volumes produced from Stephen King's Dark Tower novels. In the interest of preserving future value, I never even took the protective cellophane wrapping from them. They produced others, but I guess I lost interest in their collectability, not having purchased any in the past several years.


----------



## drlivingston

Tim Dorsey "Electric Barracuda"


----------



## Shaver

"The KLF: Chaos, Magic & the Band Who Burned A Million Pounds" by John Higgs. This biography is one of the most erudite tour de force potted histories of the 20th century (the short century) you will ever encounter. Principia Discordia, detournements, self referential reality tunnels, JFK synchronicities versus Jungian dreams, usury and evil economists, magical thinking and materialist rational perspective plus- how the concept of Dr Who fulfills all criteria of a lifeform. All to explain the (so far unanswered) question that was postulated by burning a million quid.

If that doesn't tempt you to obtain and devour a cheap copy then I give up.


----------



## Shaver

A superb piece of journalism. Peculiar that a Jew should provide the most compelling evidence that the NWO conspiracy (or at least its mythos) is not entirely fabricated.

May I recommend that you try 'psychopath test' once you are finished?



toddorbertBU said:


> Trying to get through Jon Ronson's Them! Absolutely fascinating but I keep getting pulled away by my kids. Never realized how much I took my reading time for granted.


----------



## Duvel

I was huge fan of comic books when I was a kid, about 69-73 or so. I even had letters to the editor published in several issues of things like Detective Comics, Batman, Green Lantern, The Flash, etc. I developed ambitions to become a comic book artist, and this, of course, was way, way before that kind of ambition became "cool," so I was definitely a comic book nerd.

I haven't read any comic books much since except for the occasional odd thing. But I remember thinking back then that Howard the Duck, in those earlier issues, seemed fairly interesting. A number of the issues, as I understand, were of the meta-comic book kind, i.e., comic books about the art/business of making comic books, etc.



eagle2250 said:


> ^^Can't say I've read any comic books recently or that I ever was a big fan of them, but also cannot help but wonder as to the collectability of Marvel Comic's Howard the Duck series. With the copies you mention hailing from the mid 1970's I would think there to be some measure of added value...yes, no? I did pick up, I think it was, eight of the graphic novel volumes produced from Stephen King's Dark Tower novels. In the interest of preserving future value, I never even took the protective cellophane wrapping from them. They produced others, but I guess I lost interest in their collectability, not having purchased any in the past several years.


----------



## Adventure Wolf

You Come Too by Robert Frost


----------



## Duvel

Just received, in the mail, from a friend across the pond, three issues of Howard the Duck from 76/77.


----------



## eagle2250

Just finished reading Clive Cussler's book, Crescent Dawn, one of his Dirk Pitt novels....a fast paced mystery of multiple acts of mid eastern terrorism, using the ongoing conflict Islam and Israel as the proverbial flint and tinder threatening to ignite the terminal holocaust. However, not to worry, as once again the good guy's win in the end!


----------



## Duvel

_The Elements of Style_ by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White.

I am one of those who feel that re-reading this book is not only a necessary task but a pleasurable pursuit as well, a worthy way to spend one's time. I return this book almost every year, giving it a full re-reading each time.

Up next: a few chapters in _On Writing Well_ by William Zinsser.


----------



## Dhaller

Duvel said:


> Up next: a few chapters in _On Writing Well_ by William Zinsser.


A very shelf-worthy book.

I, too, am a fan of writing guides of various kinds. I have a shelf devoted to them.

A few must-haves:

"Zen in the Art of Writing" - Ray Bradbury
"Spunk & Bite" - Arthur Plotnik
"The King's English" - Kingsley Amis
"Modern English Usage" - H.W. Fowler (a work so canonical that it's referred to in the biz simple as "Fowler")
"Woe is I" - Patricia O'Connor
"The Deluxe Transitive Vampire" - Karen Gordon (a wonderfully amusing book, especially for those who appreciate humor of the Edward Gorey variety)

I don't seem to have it here, but Stephen King's "On Writing" is actually quite good (he admits to being a bit of a hack writer in it; I think he's a far better reader.)

I'm vaguely disappointed that Harold Bloom has never (to my offhand knowledge) written a writing book. I'd certainly have it on my shelf.

DH


----------



## eagle2250

Still on the Clive Cussler track, this one being "The Storm," co written with Graham Brown...a fast moving yarn about a Muslim terrorist, driven by greed, rather than the more common extremist's view of Allah's teachings. In this tale of intrigue the bad guy sets out to control the weather and in turn the world with the aid of billions upon billions of microbots intent on changing the temperature(s) of our oceans and in turn, prevailing weather patterns. Fast moving, lots of intrigue, a fair amount of 'derring-do' on the part of the good guys! Could a reader ask for anything more?


----------



## ChrisRS

Beatrice and Virgil
By Yann Martel


----------



## eagle2250

And it's another Clive Cussler novel...this one titled, "The Tombs,!" It proved to be a fast moving yarn detailing the unraveling of the mystery of Attila the Hun's five tombs. As always, Cussler incorporated a personal appearance as he stepped in to give a necessary lift to the temporarily stranded Sam and Remi Fargo, extricating them from a potentially fatal encounter! Good book. :thumbs-up:


----------



## Odradek

"A Positively Final Appearance", by Alec Guinness.

A sort of loose rambling diary through the late 1990's with Alec Guinness talking about his dogs and his various eye operations etc...

Not sure if I've read it before or not. I know I've read one of his books and it might be this one, or perhaps his other diary, "My Name Escapes Me".

I'll figure it out by the end of the book.


----------



## Duvel

*Nabokov in America: On the Road to Lolita *by Robert Roper

Even though you and I know there's nothing at all wrong with reading Nabokov or about him, this is one of those books I'm a little nervous reading in parks or near parents of young girls. I took it to my medical appointment the other day and had to hand the book to the nurse for a moment. Her face reddened and she became very quiet.


----------



## Dhaller

Duvel said:


> *Nabokov in America: On the Road to Lolita *by Robert Roper
> 
> Even though you and I know there's nothing at all wrong with reading Nabokov or about him, this is one of those books I'm a little nervous reading in parks or near parents of young girls. I took it to my medical appointment the other day and had to hand the book to the nurse for a moment. Her face reddened and she became very quiet.


I'm frankly impressed and surprised that the nurse would recognize Nabokov; it's very unlikely that the name would ring a bell among the typical park goer!

I had a funny moment about 25 years ago. I was in grad school, and used to tutor various subjects as a sideline. I had a young student, Madeline, 15 or 16, whom I tutored (mostly) mathematics, but one day we were chatting, and wandered into literature; I suggested some titles I thought she should read, and being very enamored of Nabokov at the time, suggested Lolita as an introduction to his work.

Heading home later, I had a momentary chill, imagining her asking her mother to buy her a copy of Lolita because I'd recommended it; then, more than now, it was a book of racy repute. Nothing was ever mentioned, though!

But it's a brilliant piece of prose style; I'll certainly foist a copy on my daughter when she's mid-teens or so (a good formative age to be exposed to multiple literary styles.)

DH


----------



## Duvel

I think it was more the Lolita in the title than the Nabokov name that the nurse noticed. But you're right. This is more my perception or paranoia than the reality, I'm sure.


----------



## Jfrazi2

I am reading Patrick O'Brian's The Mauritius Command.


----------



## Duvel

By the way, did you know it's na-BAH-kuf, not NA-bo-kof as most of us say it. 

Just a little tidbit. I'm trying to retrain myself, but the correct pronunciation is more difficult.


----------



## eagle2250

The Clive Cussler kick continues. Recently completed The Striker, another in Cussler's Issac Bell series. This one was set in the early year(s) of the fictional detectives career.


----------



## GWW

I just finished reading this piece of literature, oft read and, even moreso, quoted. I plan not, however, on giving mind and soul much time to digest this piece, but I am already weighting off wheter I should read Hoffmann or just plain Mann next.


----------



## Duvel

Shakespeare is hard.


----------



## Shaver

Duvel said:


> Shakespeare is hard.


Not so.

I picked up a lovely, pristine, 1920's Oxford University Press edition of Othello in a junk shop last weekend for a very small sum. It is high time I re-read this work and this latest acquisition will doubtless facilitate this.

"Tis in ourselves that we are thus or thus. Our bodies are our gardens, to the which our wills are gardeners: so that if we will plant nettles, or sow lettuce, set hyssop and weed up tine, supply it with one gender of herbs, or distract it with many, either to have it sterile with idleness, or manured with industry, why, the power and corrigible authority of this lies in our wills."


----------



## ajo

Duvel said:


> Shakespeare is hard.


No Shakespeare is eminently enjoyable and rewarding both to actively engage with and watch on stage. I see on average two Shakespeare productions a year and if a new film adaptation comes out I will add it to my too do list. But then Julius Caesar did change my life in year 10 by introducing me to serious literary works.

A production of Hamlet is coming to town soon will be the first time I've seen it in 12 years looking forward to it.


----------



## Shaver

^Fine fellow. Shakespeare in the theatre is the thing, transcendent if done well. I enjoyed a lovely performance of Tempest at the, rebuilt, Globe a few years back which I shall never forget. 

Hamlet, however, is THE play. Of all the soliloquies I am able to recite by heart Hamlet's first soliloquy is the one which grants me most pleasure: I have of late, but where for I know not, lost all my mirth.....

BTW ajo, the Russian movie version of Hamlet, with the Shostakovich score, is as fine a celluloid treatment as you may ever experience.


----------



## Bernie Zack

Well, since audiobooks count as reading, I just finished "The Lincoln Lawyer" Liked the audiobook better than the movie.

Currently reading "A Confederacy of Dunces" again, for the 4th time. Love it.


----------



## Shaver

Bernie Zack said:


> *Well, since audiobooks count as reading, *I just finished "The Lincoln Lawyer" Liked the audiobook better than the movie.
> 
> Currently reading "A Confederacy of Dunces" again, for the 4th time. Love it.


They do? Does watching the Olympics on TV count as exercise then?

At any rate 'Confederacy' _is_ a marvellous book, albeit annoyingly* well-known these days.

..

.
.
.
.


*Well, annoying to we elitist snobby [email protected] at least.


----------



## MaxBuck

September 2015 issue of The Atlantic. Special mention for "How the new political correctness is ruining education."

What a consistently excellent publication that magazine is.


----------



## Duvel

Vol 2 & 3, currently, on 8-month loan from my friendly, local university library. Great stuff.


----------



## my19

Finally unpacked the last box of books from our recent move and found most of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series (though annoyingly, not the first volume, 'Master and Commander'). So after putting them aside for a couple of decades, I'm ripping through 'Post Captain,' which I like much more than I did on my first reading.


----------



## Shaver

Whilst the stories within this volume are not to my taste the artwork is sumptuous, the dynamism of Kirby aligned with the crisp line of Hergé. One suspects that latterly Sprouse has drawn deeply from the well of graphic inspiration available here.



Duvel said:


> Vol 2 & 3, currently, on 8-month loan from my friendly, local university library. Great stuff.


----------



## Duvel

Yes, I'm reading it for the artwork, mainly. I've rediscovered my fascination with comic book art. I cut my teeth on Gil Kane, Carmine Infantino, Kirby, Neal Adams, when I was a kid, and entertained notions of becoming a comic book artist, even drawing some of my own. That was a couple of decades before that sort of thing was cool.


----------



## eagle2250

The wife and I have both read several of Bill Bryson's books over the years, to include "A Walk In Woods," a tale of Bryson's attempt, later in life, to walk the Appalachian trail. This weekend we attended the just released silver screen version of the book. While the written word provided a better concept of Bryson's overall experience(s) on the Trail, the movie certainly showcased the humor of the effort, in a way the book never could...at times seemingly "in your face," but hilarious none-the-less! Well worth watching, as well as reading. :thumbs-up:


----------



## Bernie Zack

Shaver said:


> They do? Does watching the Olympics on TV count as exercise then?
> 
> At any rate 'Confederacy' _is_ a marvellous book, albeit annoyingly* well-known these days.
> 
> ..
> 
> .
> .
> .
> .
> 
> 
> *Well, annoying to we elitist snobby [email protected] at least.


LOL! Yes, and joining a fitness facility automatically makes you healthier!
Nothing to do with this thread, but it reminded me of something from my younger days. An old roommate from college joined MENSA so that he could tell his dates that he was a member. He would purposely have them come to meet him at our place rather than go to their apartments or rooms before going out on a date. He would strategically place books all over the apartment, leave them open or bookmarked, etc, to indicate how smart he was. Of course, none of those books were the ones he actually read (in fact, I don't think I ever saw him actually reading any of them!)
Ha! fond memories from my youth.


----------



## TheBigOne

Anything by Conn Iggulden. Great historical fiction. His current series is the "War of the Roses" (timely if you're watching/reading Game of Thrones) But don't miss Genghis Khan and Julius Ceasar. 


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD


----------



## Shaver

Bernie Zack said:


> LOL! Yes, and joining a fitness facility automatically makes you healthier!
> Nothing to do with this thread, but it reminded me of something from my younger days. An old roommate from college joined MENSA so that he could tell his dates that he was a member. He would purposely have them come to meet him at our place rather than go to their apartments or rooms before going out on a date. He would strategically place books all over the apartment, leave them open or bookmarked, etc, to indicate how smart he was. Of course, none of those books were the ones he actually read (in fact, I don't think I ever saw him actually reading any of them!)
> Ha! fond memories from my youth.


Heh. MENSA. Their laughably low entry criteria makes them an altogether less exclusive club than they like to promote themselves as being. Of course as they are merely a racket designed to part the gullible from their cash then a realistic measure (99.997th percentile) would impede this process.


----------



## Duvel

Also reading v. 2 of Batman Illustrated by Neal Adams. Now that guy could draw!


----------



## my19

eagle2250 said:


> The wife and I have both read several of Bill Bryson's books over the years, to include "A Walk In Woods," a tale of Bryson's attempt, later in life, to walk the Appalachian trail. This weekend we attended the just released silver screen version of the book. While the written word provided a better concept of Bryson's overall experience(s) on the Trail, the movie certainly showcased the humor of the effort, in a way the book never could...at times seemingly "in your face," but hilarious none-the-less! Well worth watching, as well as reading. :thumbs-up:


I was packing for a month in Australia for the Sydney Games and read Bryson's "In a Sunburned Country" in the final days leading to that endless flight. I don't think I've ever laughed so much -- eye-watering, stomach-aching-from-laughing funny.


----------



## Duvel

Between excursions into the wonderful world of comic books, I've been reading more "normal" material: Just finished Patricia Highsmith's Strangers on a Train (what a ride!) and I'm making my way through Robert Roper's recent Nabokov biography (good deal of it follows his travels across the states, much of which found they're way into passages of Lolita).


----------



## Repington

Having read Martin Edwards' history of 'Golden Age' Detective fiction "The Golden Age of Murder" I've galloped through D.L. Sayers' novels and am now re-reading those of Ngaio Marsh.


----------



## eagle2250

The two most recent novels read include Crashers by Dana Haynes, a yarn showcasing the National Transportation Safety Board's investigation of a fictional terrorist incident (s) resulting in the crash of multiple domestic air flights; and Zero Hour by Clive Cussler and Grahm Brown, a Kurt Austin tale showcasing a madman's misuse of an alternative energy source that brings with it great promise and even greater threat of potential misuse! Both books well worth the time it took to read them...and surprisingly...engrossing!


----------



## Duvel

Any Thomas McGuane fans among us? I'm a longtime fan, since the day 92 in the Shade came off the presses. I just picked up his recent story collection Crow Fair, even though I've read most of these stories in The New Yorker already. One of my favorite living authors of fiction.


----------



## Duvel

I hate university library recalls. Now I have to return within 5 days the Cheever book I'd had checked out until June 2016, all because probably some dorky freshman doesn't want to cough up the beer money for his required English lit text.


----------



## my19

Duvel said:


> Any Thomas McGuane fans among us? I'm a longtime fan, since the day 92 in the Shade came off the presses. I just picked up his recent story collection Crow Fair, even though I've read most of these stories in The New Yorker already. One of my favorite living authors of fiction.


92 in the Shade hooked me as well. I don't think I've read all of McGuane's books, but most of them, and I've enjoyed them, though some more than others. It's interesting to look back to his early stuff -- frenetic, a little crazed (I think of them as the Key West books) -- and then his later stuff, almost all of it centered in Montana. Sometimes it's hard to accept that the same guy wrote them.


----------



## Duvel

Yes, true! The Key West books are frenetic and a little crazed, while the Montana stories are controlled, grounded. I have a special place in my heart for 92, but I actually like his later work better.



my19 said:


> 92 in the Shade hooked me as well. I don't think I've read all of McGuane's books, but most of them, and I've enjoyed them, though some more than others. It's interesting to look back to his early stuff -- frenetic, a little crazed (I think of them as the Key West books) -- and then his later stuff, almost all of it centered in Montana. Sometimes it's hard to accept that the same guy wrote them.


----------



## Duvel

Currently, the Neal Adams run of the X-Men comic book in 1969. I don't have much tolerance for the stilted story writing the way I did when I was kid but I still marvel at the artwork this guy turned in.


----------



## Jake_Gittes

"The Polish Officer", Alan Furst. Espionage in the 1939-41 period. Furst's are dense spy novels, set in Europe, in the 30's and early 40's, appropriate for those of us that enjoy immersion in detail.


----------



## Duvel

I keep meaning to pick up his books.


----------



## my19

Just finished Peter Guralnick's epic biography of Sam Phillps, "The Man Who Invented Rock 'N' Roll." Amazing, almost overwhelming levels of detail on Phillips, the founder of Sun Records and the book posits, the discoverer of Elvis Presley, Howlin' Wolf, Johnny Cash, Ike Turner and Jerry Lee Lewis, among many others.


----------



## eagle2250

My Clive Cussler kick continues, as I've chewed through two more of his books. Zero Hour, co-written with Graham Brown, introduces the reader to a potentially catastrophic force of nature, employed by this yarns villain to threated the continued existence of our planet and features the efforts of the venerable good guy, Kurt Austin, to thwart said plans. "The Mayan Secrets," co-written with Thomas Perry offered potentially less catastrophic villainous conduct, as our old friends, Sam and Remy Fargo struggle to thwart the efforts of an well organized gang of antiquities thieves from making off with a South American nations national treasures. As always, the good guys prevail and the ever gallant Mr Cussler make a fleeting appearance in each work. Both are entertaining reads!


----------



## fishertw

"Conrack" is a wonderful writer who "gets it " about the south in the 60s.


----------



## Shaver

I never tire of this.

Except the 'rosy-fingered dawn' metaphor.

"Minerva now made the suitors fall to laughing immoderately, and set their wits wandering; but they were laughing with a forced laughter. Their meat became smeared with blood; their eyes filled with tears, and their hearts were heavy with forebodings."


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## eagle2250

fishertw said:


> "Conrack" is a wonderful writer who "gets it " about the south in the 60s.


Indeed, the second of Pat Conroy's books...a great read. Was that book not initially issued under the title "The Water Is (or was it Was) Wide?" Have you read Conroy' most recent book about growing up in the south/his family, The Death of Santini?" Another great read!


----------



## Zakk

Just finished "Kearny's March," a book about the exploring the American West. I've been making it a point to learn more about the history of my home state. 

Of the books I've read this year, my favorite by far is "The One Thing" by Gary Keller, an excellent book about achieving your goals.


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## Duvel

Tenuously linking this posting to what I had been reading a while ago... I think this picture is cool. The new Catwoman gets to meet the illustrious Mr. Neal Adams, who drew the character many times over before the young lady who now plays her was even born. I believe Mr. Adams is accompanied on his left by his wife.


----------



## TheBigOne

Anything by Conn Iggulden. Just finished the second book in his War of the Roses series. Also, Ghengis Khan and Julius Ceasar. With slim facts available, he weaves intricate scenarios about historical figures. 


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD


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## rufus4299

TheBigOne said:


> Anything by Conn Iggulden. Just finished the second book in his War of the Roses series. Also, Ghengis Khan and Julius Ceasar. With slim facts available, he weaves intricate scenarios about historical figures.
> 
> Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD


I second this. Quick and easy reading, but he's a great storyteller. Have only read the Genghis series, will start the others soon. Iggulden reminds me of Ken Follett actually. His Century trilogy is similarly engrossing.

Sent from my LG-F180L using Tapatalk


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## Duvel

IMAGINATIONS by William Carlos Williams. 

Revisiting it, actually. This isn't a book one reads from start to end. It's more a book one dips into and swims around in for a while, comes out a little breathless, a little disoriented, appetite worked up.


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## eagle2250

And another of Clive Cussler's works gets well chewed by the reading grist mill. This one was one of his earlier books, published before he started publishing collaborative efforts and was still writing solo..."Sahara!" Tying in yarns about the mysterious demise of a Confederate States ironclad, a lost female aviation pioneer and saving the world from the unintended catastrophic effects of a madman's financially lecherous pursuits. As always, the good guy's win and Dirk Pitt gets the girl! Should you pick it up and begin reading, my guess is you will be unable to put it down until the words...."the End appear on the last page of the book.

Egad, I may have to shift to a another favored author until more of Cussler's books appear on Barnes & Noble's bargain book tables!


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## eagle2250

My most recent casual reading comes from Stephen Kings, "The Wind Through The Keyhole" a claimed additional novel in King's Dark Tower series. An entertaining read, but not on a par with the other seven novels in the series and frankly, not more than a trivial fantasy created more likely to further line Sai King's pockets, rather than add substantively to this epic saga detailing the gunslinger, Roland Deschain's exploits!


----------



## Chouan

"Memoirs of a Griffin; Or, a Cadet's First Year in India &#8230; Illustrated from Designs by the Author."
by Francis Bellew
A fascinating read, first published in 1843 it expresses very interesting and remarkably liberal views on race and religion that many people, even now, haven't yet come to grips with!


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## Duvel




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## Duvel

^ Wow!


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## Dhaller

It's almost embarrassing to admit, but I'm currently reading David Allen's "Getting Things Done: the art of stress-free productivity". Yes, it's a "system", but it's quite good.

I kind of stumbled on it while reviewing Baumeister and Tierney's experimental work in the social psychology of self-regulation (pertinent to some models of human consciousness I'm working on), as it draws from Baumeister's work in "ego depletion".

I have a variety of things on my desk (kind of a no-no per Allen, actually!) which I'd intended to go through during a month in Japan, but I was too busy there: Hari Kunzru's "My Revolutions", Paul Starr's "Freedom's Power", B. Catling's "The Vorrh", and "The Sibley Guide to Trees". Alas, they tease me.

I'll at least schlep the "Sibley" guide with me on my next camping trip, which will bridge the New Year holiday. Four days of leaf and acorn classification (in large measure to get my three-year old started as a junior naturalist).

DH


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## Bernie Zack

The English Assasin, Dan Silva. Just finished The English Girl.


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## Duvel

I have all these going on right now:

Letters to Vera by Vladimir Nabokov
Nabokov in America: On the Road to Lolita (almost through it)
Imaginations by William Carlos Williams
The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens


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## SlideGuitarist

A "boy's book" for grownups! I got this last year for Christmas, and am reading it again. If you have a few days off this week, you can eat it up in a few days.


----------



## TheBigOne

I'm in Jamaica with my grandkids and they're having a ball on the beach and with other water sports. In the meantime, I finished up John Grisham's The Rogue Lawyer, a series of short stories, narrated by a criminal defense lawyer who's one step above ambulance chasing, that keep intersecting. Also George R. R. Martin 's The Glass Flower. Hints of Game of Thrones in a real sci fi quick read. I loved it. Just started Tom Clancy's Commander In Chief, which I hope to finish on the plane ride home. 


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD


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## Duvel

Can't wait for the book store to open tomorrow. I am, for some reason, consumed with the impulse to buy ARTODAY.


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## Dhaller

I've decided to have a go at Karl Ove Knausgaard's "My Struggle" (the English translation, as I never got around to learning Norwegian).

Some have labeled him a "Modern Proust". We shall see.

3600 pages, 6 volumes! I'm willing to try volume 1 (430 pages) to have a taste.

DH


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## eagle2250

A change of pace for this week...it's been John Grisham's "The Summons."


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## Duvel

Wow! What a book.


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## Shaver

Whilst I find modern pornography to be utterly reprehensible and devoid of any merit whatsoever, vintage erotica has a charming appeal. This volume was presented to me as a gift, by a lady long since dispensed with.


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## Duvel

Shaver, seriously? In all of modern photography, there is nothing? I suspect you're joking.


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## Shaver

Duvel said:


> Shaver, seriously? In all of modern photography, there is nothing? I suspect you're joking.


Pornography not photography. Although one can be the other upon occasion.


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## Duvel

Ah, crap. Apologies. My remark was made sans spectacles and pre-caffeine-infusion.


----------



## Dhaller

The greatest American novel of the 20th century.

I've read it three times since discovering it (in the late 90s), and I've given quite a few copies away; I think, actually, it's my "most gifted" (or permanently "lent") book.

I'm pretty leery of the (apparent) upcoming effort to create a film version.


----------



## eagle2250

^^
Recommended to me by another AAAC member in this thread, it was a great read and one that I will probably revisit at some point in the future! :thumbs-up:


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## zeppacoustic

Dhaller said:


> The greatest American novel of the 20th century.
> 
> I've read it three times since discovering it (in the late 90s), and I've given quite a few copies away; I think, actually, it's my "most gifted" (or permanently "lent") book.
> 
> I'm pretty leery of the (apparent) upcoming effort to create a film version.


A truly breathtaking read. Film doing even remote justice feels impossible.


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## Duvel

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

No, I've never read it.


----------



## Shaver

Duvel said:


> Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
> 
> No, I've never read it.


Don't waste your time. Drivel. Although, having said that, chapter 3 is a tolerable portion:

The horror of this strait and dark prison is increased by its awful stench. All the filth of the world, all the offal and scum of the world, we are told, shall run there as to a vast reeking sewer when the terrible conflagration of the last day has purged the world.


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## Duvel

Seriously? My wife, an English major, was surprised that I, an English minor, had never read it. I picked it up in response. She says she enjoyed the read in her college days.

Keep in mind I'm a fan of Nabokov and Updike.



Shaver said:


> Don't waste your time. Drivel. Although, having said that, chapter 3 is a tolerable portion:
> 
> The horror of this strait and dark prison is increased by its awful stench. All the filth of the world, all the offal and scum of the world, we are told, shall run there as to a vast reeking sewer when the terrible conflagration of the last day has purged the world.


----------



## Shaver

Duvel said:


> Seriously? My wife, an English major, was surprised that I, an English minor, had never read it. I picked it up in response. She says she enjoyed the read in her college days.
> 
> Keep in mind I'm a fan of Nabokov and Updike.


I found Joyce's book to be an extraordinarily tedious experience. What do we require from literature? Structure, style and substance? Perhaps, but also that it functions as a keen instrument which may allow us to perform autopsy on our hearts, our minds and (if we are very lucky) our souls.


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## Duvel

My dear wife tells me that this is what the book does.  I'll make my own determination, of course. Now where are those damned Cliff Notes?



Shaver said:


> I found Joyce's book to be an extraordinarily tedious experience. What do we require from literature? Structure, style and substance? Perhaps, but also that it functions as* a keen instrument which may allow us to perform autopsy on our hearts, our minds and (if we are very lucky) our souls*.


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## Shaver

Duvel said:


> My dear wife tells me that this is what the book does.  I'll make my own determination, of course. Now where are those damned Cliff Notes?


Oh! So you'd believe your wife over some guy on the Internet, eh? How deeply disappointing.


----------



## Duvel

Ha, well, yeah. I've always had a weakness for pretty English majors. They make me go all weak in the knees and lose all sense of what's really good or bad for me.



Shaver said:


> Oh! So you'd believe your wife over some guy on the Internet, eh? How deeply disappointing.


----------



## Howard

I read The Daily News. Does anyone else here read the newspaper?


----------



## tocqueville

Maia by Richard Adams. He's a fabulous story teller.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## zeppacoustic

Cool. How is it? In a similar vein I recently enjoyed "The Last Stand" by N. Philbrick.


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## my19

Howard said:


> I read The Daily News. Does anyone else here read the newspaper?


I write for the newspaper -- though not The Daily News -- and feel morally obliged to read it section by section, cover to cover.


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## Dhaller

Howard said:


> I read The Daily News. Does anyone else here read the newspaper?


From the time I was a child, up until a few years ago, I was a daily reader of newspapers (preferring the Financial Times). At some point, though, I found I wasn't reading the paper, and they'd pile up to an accusatory height. Eventually I didn't renew my subscription.

I'd like to resume at some point - I enjoy the whole ritual of fetching it into the house each morning, and I have a nice terrace with a view (my house backs up to a steep hill), perfect for coffee-and-paper. I just don't have time currently, with a young daughter about to start formal schooling, a start-up venture, a couple of existing ventures, and juggling life in two countries.

(I do read papers when I travel alone, since hotel rooms and flights seem to force some spare moments on me.)

DH


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## Dhaller

my19 said:


> I write for the newspaper -- though not The Daily News -- and feel morally obliged to read it section by section, cover to cover.


I sympathize, absolutely.

I have *owned* a newspaper (or more accurately, a publishing company which happened to produce a newspaper), and I lament the slow death-by-merger which plagues the industry (I sold mine to a larger publisher, a good-but-painful business decision).

I actually predict a return of the local paper - not yet, but eventually. I think the upswing in the health of small bookstores prefigures it. Let's hope!

DH


----------



## SlideGuitarist

zeppacoustic said:


> Cool. How is it? In a similar vein I recently enjoyed "The Last Stand" by N. Philbrick.


I thought it was superb. It's not an academic history, but it's not exactly popular history. It certainly takes advantage of several decades of academic work to paint the Comanches not as the "good guys," but as deliberate political actors. If Texas was once a Comanche "empire," then the Comanches were imperialists, and in any case they originally inhabited an area much further north, so their identity was never static: at least not after they got the horse. Surprising fun fact: they managed to beat back the (white) frontier by several hundred miles during and after the Civil War.

New reading:


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## my19

Dhaller said:


> I sympathize, absolutely.
> 
> I have *owned* a newspaper (or more accurately, a publishing company which happened to produce a newspaper), and I lament the slow death-by-merger which plagues the industry (I sold mine to a larger publisher, a good-but-painful business decision).
> 
> I actually predict a return of the local paper - not yet, but eventually. I think the upswing in the health of small bookstores prefigures it. Let's hope!
> 
> DH


I hope you're right. Fortunately, I'm much closer to the end of my career than the beginning. But I worry for all these eager young college interns who want nothing more than to be a big city journalist.


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## Howard

my19 said:


> I write for the newspaper -- though not The Daily News -- and feel morally obliged to read it section by section, cover to cover.


what column do you write for and what's it about?


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## Shaver




----------



## Shaver

Who could fail to enjoy the exploits of Marlowe?

This 1952 edition is charged with the musty whiff that an old book may provide to stimulate the juices of an avid reader.


----------



## SlideGuitarist

This book tries to be harder-boiled, and I know this guy was a sensation in France, but I found this book overwrought. I know that crime fiction is as much about style as plot, but for me, the complete implausibility of the plot weakened the appeal of the style.


----------



## Shaver

Although today I brew and bake
Tomorrow the Queen's own child I'll take
This guessing game she'll never win
For my name is Rumpelstiltskin


----------



## eagle2250

^^
Well Played, Sir...and a great story for the young minds out there! :thumbs-up:


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## Shaver

eagle2250 said:


> ^^
> Well Played, Sir...and a great story for the young minds out there! :thumbs-up:


Indeed so.

The folk tale may bequeath an extraordinary complexity of motivation from such seemingly simple premise and characters.

Rumpelstiltskin is an unusually ambiguous example of the medium, with an analogue in most European and Russian cultures. The dramatis personae one might expect in such a story are distorted - the deformed man (or evil woman) is normally presented as an agent of moral retribution, the benign authority figure is generally operated as an intercessor and the maid will invariably stand as cipher for innocence. In Rumpelstiltskin, however, tradition is upturned, the maid schemes and profits from deception, the deformed man fulfils his promises yet is swindled, covetous fabricators prosper and the happily-ever-after is ultimately corrupt.

It is another folk tale, though, which is my absolute favourite, both then as a boy and now as a man, one which upon my first reading (at 2 years of age) tingled with a prescience which was more than fulfilled.

.
.
.
.
.

.


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## SlideGuitarist

Long flight, so:


----------



## Shaver

Matthew 24. The most intriguing example of those speeches which are attributed to Jesus.


----------



## SlideGuitarist

I'm reading about the history of a country other than the USA, and it's quite interesting. Who would have imagined? Perhaps I'll read next about the history of a country where people don't speak English!


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## eagle2250

Have read a number of books over the past two and a half months, the most recent of which is Not My Father's Son, A Memoir by Alan Cumming. It's always good, seeking to learn from the experience of others!


----------



## Howard

The Daily News


----------



## eagle2250

Just finished reading "Crossroads," by William Paul Young...a thought provoking and uniquely timely read! Attending to the needs of our body and mind is of limited utility if we fail to nourish the spiritual cravings of our soul(s).


----------



## Chouan

Just finished this https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10993503-weep-grey-bird-weep Very good, but very depressing.


----------



## Adventure Wolf

Pandora's Box by Wesley Brian Williams.


----------



## eagle2250

This past weekend I read Stephen King's "Mr. Mercedes," a yarn featuring mental illness, mass murder, mystery and a continuing promise of more of the same that made it difficult to put the book down and walk away from it! Surprisingly, Mr, King, chose not to weave a dose of the occult into this one, uncharacteristic of many of his other writings.


----------



## eagle2250

^^
Browsing through the Melbourne, FL, Barnes and Noble store one very helpful sales associate enlightened me to the reality that "Mr. Mercedes" is the first volume of a trilogy, followed by Finders Keepers (already published) and a third volume to be released in June 2016. Two more reads to add to the 'to be read' bookshelf! :thumbs-up:


----------



## eagle2250

The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out The Window and Disappeared, by Jonas Jonasson, introduces us to a Scandinavian version of The USA'a Forest Gump. The fictional Allan Karlsson enjoys an outrageously extended event filled life that most of us may never be able to lay claim to, but may certainly enjoy reading of Allan's life journey. An entertaining and frequently humorous read! :thumbs-up:


----------



## SlideGuitarist

Pretty technical, and not at all in the pop-atheist vein of Sam Harris et al.:


----------



## Suit of Nettles

Shaver, at the risk of turning a thread of currency into a discussion of things past, I have to ask you something.

As a man of clear and admirable literary taste -- your apparent preference for Homer, Shakespeare, and the Bible above all, and in particular the brilliant Kozintsev/Pasternak/Shostakovich _Hamlet_ -- how did you come by such a dislike for Joyce? Or is it simply _Portrait_ that offends? Do you give the earlier stories or the major works any credit? (No, I don't count _Exiles _as a major work; it's just a very unfortunate play...)

I ask because I don't think I'm alone in seeing Joyce as a natural development in the canon that runs up from Homer, through the Bible, to Shakespeare, and from Joyce to the present. I'd argue, in fact, that Joyce is a more conscientious participant in that tradition than almost anyone else, save Woolf and Beckett, in the modernist period, and that the only canonical developments since -- from Pynchon, McCarthy, Alice Munro, and maybe one or two others -- came directly out of Joyce's prior art; to put it another way, that Joyce is perhaps the one indispensable writer of the past century for anyone looking to make new literary art, and that he is impossible to read properly without the classical, biblical, and above all the Shakespearean background which so informs your taste, and my own.

In short, what's not to like about Joyce?

edit: I realise that in my befuddlement, I may have seemed to imply that there is something wrong with your apparent opinion of Joyce; clearly that is not so. I don't mean to be querulous in the least; this is genuine inquiry.


----------



## Shaver

A finely posed enquiry and one to which I fully intend to respond. However, it would be remiss of me to lavish the time that the answer certainly deserves on this day (slave as I am to the vagaries of my professional commitments) but I shall return in the morrow......


----------



## Suit of Nettles

Sweet. Please do.

Part of this is entirely selfish. My wife, whose literary taste I acknowledge far more refined than my own, also loathes Joyce, so I'm hoping for some oblique insight. (She's also an Anglo-Catholic of the Healey Willan persuasion, so she's got me on moral, religious, and musical grounds as well...)


----------



## Shaver

Art should possess immediacy, demand one's attention. Visceral is the moment next yet intellectual is the memory - we cling to the transience of vital experience with the conjectures of recalcitrant analysis. Enduring Art functions as grandiose themes expressed with subtlety not subtleties expressed with grandiose themes. Joyce's hubris, his minor stylistic experiments, are lacking of spontaneity, moreover, lacking characters with whom we might identify, redolent of cloying artifice and ultimately bereft of substance. If Art expels us from our own imagination, disconnects us from our experiences, then it simply will not do.

Art must speak to our mythic narrative existence, that way in which we make sense of our flickering moment upon this stage, under the proscenium arch of a hollow sky, the kliegs of the Moon's submerged inspiration illuminating us as we clown and rage across the splintered boards of our years, desperately ad-libbing dialogue, jibes from the cheap seats, bouquets from the balcony, merciless critics salivating on our every error, to epilogue and the forlorn hopes of encore and dismal applause, to the curtain call of oblivion. Exeunt.

Joyce, however, has nothing to say at all.

.
.

.
.
.
..


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## Suit of Nettles

A reply worthy of Martial!-- and which puts me specifically in mind of Martial's 41st, addressed to Caecilius. (Though I'll admit I'm never sure whether that's the same Caecilius who was criticised by Longinus; I want it to be, but I doubt it is.)

And thank you for taking the time to articulate it; it is quite close to what my wife has said of Joyce in passing: a combination of annoyance, boredom, and disgust.

I agree that Joyce received far too much praise for supposed stylistic experiment, and usually from people who have not actually read him. There's a great story about the Canadian novelist Hugh MacLennan, loafing around in Paris (during his breaks from Oxford) with persons who professed to admire Joyce's works above all, and praised to the heavens 'the stream of consciousness'. When it finally occurred to MacLennan that he ought to read the book everyone was gushing about, he discovered that the people around him had only read a tiny fraction of it: those whose style agreed with their pseudo-political posing. He was, of course, befitting a man who went on to get a PhD in classics from Princeton, not impressed, and promptly ditched them. (Admittedly, he took a while to get over his Joyce hangover: his first two novels, blessedly unpublished until quite recently, are feeble imitations.)

I also think that stylistic experiment is, in general, gravely overpraised, and that those who have imitated Joyce's style are by and large among the worst disasters in Western art. (Beckett aside, and senile Beckett lapses into the same faults as Joyce, only further.) Great art may expand through experiments in style, but rarely do those who experiment produce any art to speak of; in this respect (and many others) I violently disagree with Lyotard. The reason great artists need to experiment is not because experimentation is a necessity, but because they have so mastered the techniques of their forbears that they may see a way forward. Look at Schoenberg: reviled in his own time, but insisted, and not without reason, that he work was simply a logical development of the Western musical tradition, and could only be understood within that context.

I would, however, make one tiny reply of my own: only in the hope of possibly colouring any future return to Joyce's work you might make, if you are ever moved to it.

If Joyce has something to say, it is this: that the myths which endure -- along with the other elements of storytelling enumerated by Aristotle, the characters, the words, the music, the ideas, the spectacles -- endure in spite of whatever artifice may obscure them, whatever viscera confound them.

If you can imagine that inversion you describe -- not of the grand theme expressed with subtlety, but subtleties expressed with grandiloquence -- on a large scale as a species of structural irony, I think his work comes into focus in an interesting way. Joyce was above all a satirist, and his mature works (U and FW) are, I think, best understood as enormous and unusually successful examples of Menippean satire (or _anatomies_, as Frye called them), in which precisely those sorts of ironies are generic necessities: think of Ishmael the uncommonly erudite librarian-sailor, treating (and indeed insisting upon) the whale and its hunting as subjects of literary inquiry, or perhaps the supreme example of Swift's Gulliver.

I would argue that you seem to dislike Joyce for much the same reasons that Johnson loathed Swift. This places you in very good company, to be sure, but I do wish that Johnson had taken a second look at what he dismissed as the ramblings of a disordered mind, and so with you as well.

You disagree, but I aver, that Joyce's major characters (Earwicker, Leopold & Molly Bloom, Stephen Dedalus, Gabriel Conroy, Mr. Duffy, Chandler, and even the oafish Farrington of "Counterparts," which may be my favourite story) are profoundly aware of their lives and imaginations as performances in precisely the way you describe. They are low, they are mean, they are debased, but they are the same stuff as Alexander and Odysseus: dead and gone to clay, we'll bung a hole to keep the wind away. Joyce's imagination, like Hamlet's, may have been as foul as Vulcan's stithy, but just as productive.

In that respect, though he may have his own faults and grotesqueries, I agree with Bloom that James Joyce the novelist is, in effect, best conceived as a character invented by Shakespeare, born belatedly into the world's literature: a strange, unhappy creation somewhere between Aguecheek and Edmund.

None of this is, of course, an attempt to convince you to like or admire Joyce, or to suggest that you are wrong -- I would correct, properly speaking, neither you nor Dr. Johnson -- but only to offer a way that Joyce might be read.


----------



## eagle2250

Offering a decidedly less intellectual perspective perhaps, but this past weeks Book Discussion Group selection was The Bone Vault, by Linda Fairstein. Fairstein, brings her 25+ years of experience as head of the Manhattan DA's Office's Sex Crimes Unit to bear, presenting us with a rather captivating tale of rape, murder and grave robbing on a massive scale. The book showcases "the good, the bad and the ugly" aspects of the operations of major metropolitan museums, incorporating just enough actual fact to keep it real for the reader! This is a book that may not expand one's intellectual prowess, but it will provide hours of arguably absorbing reading. :thumbs-up:


----------



## Dhaller

Been awhile since I contributed!

Currently reading Alexandra Kleeman's "You Too Can Have A Body Like Mine"; folks have compared her to Douglas Coupland, but I find her more in the absurdist corner with George Saunders (a favorite author the book immediately evokes). Elements of body-transformation horror which feels a bit science-fiction, as well; folks have called her "millennial" simply because she's young, but I'd hardly call the novel a Millennial novel.

Others in the queue on my "active" shelf: David Mitchell's "Slade House", Dennis Lehane's "The Drop", and Neil Gaiman's Sandman "Season of Mists" collection.


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## Suit of Nettles

Eagle, _The Bone Vault_ sounds fascinating: definitely going on the list!


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## eagle2250

Thanks for the feedback...I do hope you enjoy it!


----------



## eagle2250

Just finished reading Stephen King's Finders Keepers, the second volume of his "Mr Mercedes" trilogy. This book adds threads to the fabric of intrigue begun in Mr Mercedes, as "Ret-Det." Hodges and his crew of two solve a decades old multiple murder/grand theft mystery and in so doing, save the lives of several members of the "Saubers" family. All the while, Brady Hartsfield (AKA: Mr. Mercedes) sits in the state hospital's traumatic brain injury ward, supposedly in a catatonic state, but rather quietly and secretly working on his telekinetic prowess and a host of otherworldly weapons to bring to bear against his arch nemesis Ret.-Det. Hodges! As we await the publication of the third volume of this yarn, Final Watch, on 7 June 2016, our hero and literary friend Hodges had best be concerned with shielding that pacemaker that keeps his heart beating a danceable tune, from Mr Mercede's new found skills and find a way to bring this monster's reign of terror to an ultimate end! 

I sit waiting on the delivery of my copy of Final Watch to confirm the accuracy of my predictions of upcoming developments in a book yet to be published! Bwahahaha.


----------



## Adventure Wolf

Bernie A Lifelong Crusade Against Wall Street and Wealth by Darcy Richardson

That is not an endorsement of Bernie Sanders, but I like to read up on people for research.


----------



## Shaver

If it is not immediately apparent to you exactly why this book is so very important then you may well have to consider the possibility that you have wasted your life. Probably on marriage and children and similarly banal pursuits.

https://postimg.org/image/ngs38vcff/


----------



## Chouan

Shaver said:


> Art should possess immediacy, demand one's attention. Visceral is the moment next yet intellectual is the memory - we cling to the transience of vital experience with the conjectures of recalcitrant analysis. Enduring Art functions as grandiose themes expressed with subtlety not subtleties expressed with grandiose themes. Joyce's hubris, his minor stylistic experiments, are lacking of spontaneity, moreover, lacking characters with whom we might identify, redolent of cloying artifice and ultimately bereft of substance. If Art expels us from our own imagination, disconnects us from our experiences, then it simply will not do.
> 
> Art must speak to our mythic narrative existence, that way in which we make sense of our flickering moment upon this stage, under the proscenium arch of a hollow sky, the kliegs of the Moon's submerged inspiration illuminating us as we clown and rage across the splintered boards of our years, desperately ad-libbing dialogue, jibes from the cheap seats, bouquets from the balcony, merciless critics salivating on our every error, to epilogue and the forlorn hopes of encore and dismal applause, to the curtain call of oblivion. Exeunt.
> 
> Joyce, however, has nothing to say at all.
> 
> .
> .
> 
> .
> .
> .
> ..


Very well put. Flann O'Brien (aka Brian O'Nolan and Myles na Gopaleen) satirised him very cleverly in one of his novels, "The Dalkey archive", I think. My own view is that Joyce's work is turgid, overblown, overwritten, pretentious and, mostly, dull. Life is too short for such stuff!


----------



## Chouan

I'm about a quarter of the way through "The Spanish Holocaust" by Paul Preston; a sobering view of what a country can be like when it is dominated by the Spanish readers of the equivalents of Daily Mail, Express and Telegraph, and the Spectator, and when a country is dominated by those with a similar sense of entitlement. The self-supporting, self-justifying and self-deluding mendacity of the Right has never been so well described, although in such depressing and tragic terms. https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-...th-century-spain-by-paul-preston-7468500.html


----------



## Adventure Wolf

Others Volume III Third Parties from Teddy Roosevelt's Bull Moose Party to the Decline of Socialism in America by Darcy Richardson.


----------



## benjclark

Just finished a good one. Loved the movie as a kid and realized it was probably a novel. Tracked down a copy, and glad I did. High Road to China by Jon Cleary. It's 1920, British WWI ace is hired by an American heiress to fly a strange mission to a very far away place for a nearly unbelievable reason. Finished that a couple days ago and jumped in to a nonfiction book The Poisoners Handbook by Deborah Blum. Scary and fascinating. I'm blazing through it too.


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## eagle2250

Taking a break from Stephen King and refreshing my acquaintance with Clive Cussler's wordsmithing, I spent several very pleasant hours pouring through Cussler and Justin Scott's yarn, The Bootlegger..a literary tour through the "roaring 1920's and an invigorating tale of the criminal elements of the time and just how far they would go to get around prohibition and in the process, get rich quick. Chief Investigator Isaac Bell and the legion of good guys staffing the fictional Van Dorn Detective Agency prove more than capable of bringing the culprits to heel and introducing them to the rock solid justice represented by the Agency's motto..."We never ever give up. Never!" An absorbing and entertaining read.


----------



## Acme

benjclark said:


> ...jumped in to a nonfiction book The Poisoners Handbook by Deborah Blum. Scary and fascinating. I'm blazing through it too.


I missed the book, but just caught the movie. If you mix equal parts historic, creepy, and technical, I find I can't resist (though I could have done without the re-enactments).


----------



## drlivingston

Betty and Veronica Double Digest #241
Cerebral without being too pedantic. The characters are well-defined and provide hours of page-turning excitement.


----------



## Shaver

drlivingston said:


> Betty and Veronica Double Digest #241
> Cerebral without being too pedantic. The characters are well-defined and provide hours of page-turning excitement.


There is a considerable amount of of *ahem* 'subtext' to be found in those Archie comics:


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## Brio1

I'm halfway through a biography of Augustine's years leading up to the _Confessions _by the first-rate classicist Robin Lane Fox. While I don't share his faith, I do hope that our pious Shaver is pleased. :icon_saint7kg:


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## Brio1

Shaver said:


> I never tire of this.
> 
> Except the 'rosy-fingered dawn' metaphor.
> 
> "Minerva now made the suitors fall to laughing immoderately, and set their wits wandering; but they were laughing with a forced laughter. Their meat became smeared with blood; their eyes filled with tears, and their hearts were heavy with forebodings."


Which translation do you prefer , Lord Shaver ?


----------



## Dhaller

Brio1 said:


> Which translation do you prefer , Lord Shaver ?


Intruding here, as a reader of many translations of the Iliad and the Odyssey (and I prefer the Iliad), to say that Fitzgerald's is the finest translation; his "Iliad" first arrested me at the age of 14, and I've reread it once a decade or so. Lattimore is of course the standard academic translation, but it just doesn't *grab* the way Fitzgerald does.

(Some find his very accurate transliterations of the Greek names distracting - Akhilleus, Aias (instead of Ajax), and so on - but they usually work better with the poetry.)

DH


----------



## Shaver

Dhaller said:


> Intruding here, as a reader of many translations of the Iliad and the Odyssey (and I prefer the Iliad), to say that Fitzgerald's is the finest translation; his "Iliad" first arrested me at the age of 14, and I've reread it once a decade or so. Lattimore is of course the standard academic translation, but it just doesn't *grab* the way Fitzgerald does.
> 
> (Some find his very accurate transliterations of the Greek names distracting - Akhilleus, Aias (instead of Ajax), and so on - but they usually work better with the poetry.)
> 
> DH


I have, since childhood, only read the Rieu translation (of Odyssey) - which is a literal translation of the prose and does not attempt to mangle the meaning into a deformed English language version of the original dactylic hexameter.

The Illiad I did not find sufficiently engaging to ever consider a re-reading, perhaps in this (marginally) matured state I may be encouraged to attempt the tome anew?

.
.
.
.


----------



## Brio1

Dhaller said:


> Intruding here, as a reader of many translations of the Iliad and the Odyssey (and I prefer the Iliad), to say that Fitzgerald's is the finest translation; his "Iliad" first arrested me at the age of 14, and I've reread it once a decade or so. Lattimore is of course the standard academic translation, but it just doesn't *grab* the way Fitzgerald does.
> 
> (Some find his very accurate transliterations of the Greek names distracting - Akhilleus, Aias (instead of Ajax), and so on - but they usually work better with the poetry.)
> 
> DH


Thank you kindly , Dhaller. Your comments are most appreciated. I will acquire the Fitzgerald translation of the Iliad. I own his translation of the Odyssey , which Harold Bloom prefers. I own the Lattimore translation of the Iliad ( selected by Bloom in his _The Western Canon_ ).


----------



## Brio1

Shaver said:


> I have, since childhood, only read the Rieu translation (of Odyssey) - which is a literal translation of the prose and does not attempt to mangle the meaning into a deformed English language version of the original dactylic hexameter.
> 
> The Illiad I did not find sufficiently engaging to ever consider a re-reading, perhaps in this (marginally) matured state I may be encouraged to attempt the tome anew?
> 
> .
> .
> .
> .


Thank you , Shaver. I will examine the Rieu translation . You may find this reviewer's analysis of the Odyssey pertinent to your own ( the author of the review is a clergyman) :

https://www.nytimes.com/books/00/07/09/reviews/000709.09hedgest.html


----------



## Dhaller

Shaver said:


> I have, since childhood, only read the Rieu translation (of Odyssey) - which is a literal translation of the prose and does not attempt to mangle the meaning into a deformed English language version of the original dactylic hexameter.
> 
> The Illiad I did not find sufficiently engaging to ever consider a re-reading, perhaps in this (marginally) matured state I may be encouraged to attempt the tome anew?
> 
> .
> .
> .
> .


Translations of the Greek epics are probably a good test of one's philosophy of translation; I happen to be an advocate of "interpretive" translations myself.

It's worth considering that epics (in particular) are examples of "living" literature, as with each retelling there are embellishments and excisions governed by the audience, the teller, and the times, and there seems no particular reason to stop that practice, really; each new translation (the modern telling*) is a furthering of the epic lifecycle.

As for the Iliad, I imagine that most folks fall either into the "Odyssey" or the "Iliad" camp, so I'm not sure to what degree maturity matters (though it's worth noting that one is a tale of high adventure, and the other a war story, and while tradition dictates that a boy at any age loves both, in youth the former may edge-out the latter).

I haven't read Rieu, but for the reasons I cite above, I'm usually underwhelmed by direct translation.

* I actually have met an attorney in Atlanta who has committed the Iliad to memory, and visits schools and so on reciting it in the manner of the old tellers, so there is at least ONE other way to enjoy the epic!)

DH


----------



## Shaver

You make a reasonable case and so I shall try both books again at your recommended translation, if you would be kind enough to supply it.


----------



## Dhaller

Shaver said:


> You make a reasonable case and so I shall try both books again at your recommended translation, if you would be kind enough to supply it.


You can download it to a device, of course, but I prefer paper. In any case, I'll provide a couple of Fitzgerald's "Iliad" links, and you can link to The Odyssey from there. He has a translation of the Aeneid as well, but I'm unfamiliar with it.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/the-iliad/id378316633?mt=11

https://www.amazon.com/Iliad-Homer/...d=1466727209&sr=1-1&keywords=fitzgerald+iliad

You'll know within a few pages if it's for you! I remember being grabbed in almost immediately, "wine-dark sea" and the whole bit.

DH


----------



## LordSmoke

What a delightful exchange to come in on after not checking this thread for a while. I make two trips to Vienna each spring - one for two weeks, one for three, and this is usually the start of my spring/summer reading that runs until external distractions consume all of my time.

This year's theme was ancient civilizations (last year's was the middle ages) kicked off with Mary Beard's SPQR: History of Ancient Rome. This inspired me to cover the classics (Iliad, Odyssey, Aeneid) on my next trip, but the only one I could find at the bookstore before my departure was The Odyssey (Rieu translation revised by Rieu the younger).

This was not enough to fill my time on the road, so I turned my attention to a good reading of Verne - Mysterious Island, Around the World in Eighty Days, and I just finished 20,000 Leagues. All were far, far better than I would have expected.










Books-A-Million informs me my next set of books is on the way - Iliad (Rieu - why switch from a good thing), Aeneid (Ruden - recommended online), and a Verne omnibus, Amazing Journeys (Walter - again recommended online for correctness and completeness). The omnibus contains some redundancy (80 Days and 20k Leagues), but I am getting it for Journey to the Center of the Earth, From the Earth to the Moon, and Circling the Moon.


----------



## Shaver

LordSmoke said:


> What a delightful exchange to come in on after not checking this thread for a while. I make two trips to Vienna each spring - one for two weeks, one for three, and this is usually the start of my spring/summer reading that runs until external distractions consume all of my time.
> 
> This year's theme was ancient civilizations (last year's was the middle ages) kicked off with Mary Beard's SPQR: History of Ancient Rome. This inspired me to cover the classics (Iliad, Odyssey, Aeneid) on my next trip, but the only one I could find at the bookstore before my departure was The Odyssey (Rieu translation revised by Rieu the younger).
> 
> This was not enough to fill my time on the road, so I turned my attention to a good reading of Verne - Mysterious Island, Around the World in Eighty Days, and I just finished 20,000 Leagues. All were far, far better than I would have expected.
> 
> Books-A-Million informs me my next set of books is on the way - Iliad (Rieu - why switch from a good thing), Aeneid (Ruden - recommended online), and a Verne omnibus, Amazing Journeys (Walter - again recommended online for correctness and completeness). The omnibus contains some redundancy (80 Days and 20k Leagues), but I am getting it for Journey to the Center of the Earth, From the Earth to the Moon, and Circling the Moon.


Do you know, I have not perused the works of Verne since I was but a mere stripling although remember quite clearly the thrilling exploits of Robur and the remarkable futurescape described within the two volumes. If I recall correctly Verne is the amongst the top ten 'most adapted to movie' authors. In my dotage I find that, of those scintillating sci-fi novels of my youth, it is always Phil Dick to whom I return most frequently, then Bradbury, then Wells. Perhaps it is high time to refract Verne through the prism of my now (marginally) more mature mind.....?


----------



## Shaver

Dhaller said:


> You can download it to a device, of course, but I prefer paper. In any case, I'll provide a couple of Fitzgerald's "Iliad" links, and you can link to The Odyssey from there. He has a translation of the Aeneid as well, but I'm unfamiliar with it.
> 
> https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/the-iliad/id378316633?mt=11
> 
> https://www.amazon.com/Iliad-Homer/...d=1466727209&sr=1-1&keywords=fitzgerald+iliad
> 
> You'll know within a few pages if it's for you! I remember being grabbed in almost immediately, "wine-dark sea" and the whole bit.
> 
> DH


Download?! Sir, we shall have no more of that talk here.

More seriously, thank you. I have added a Fitzgerald translation to my wish list.


----------



## Brio1

Shaver said:


> Download?! Sir, we shall have no more of that talk here.
> 
> More seriously, thank you. I have added a Fitzgerald translation to my wish list.


Hear! hear ! Books not batteries , gentlemen. :icon_study:


----------



## Brio1

LordSmoke said:


> What a delightful exchange to come in on after not checking this thread for a while. I make two trips to Vienna each spring - one for two weeks, one for three, and this is usually the start of my spring/summer reading that runs until external distractions consume all of my time.
> 
> This year's theme was ancient civilizations (last year's was the middle ages) kicked off with Mary Beard's SPQR: History of Ancient Rome. This inspired me to cover the classics (Iliad, Odyssey, Aeneid) on my next trip, but the only one I could find at the bookstore before my departure was The Odyssey (Rieu translation revised by Rieu the younger).
> 
> This was not enough to fill my time on the road, so I turned my attention to a good reading of Verne - Mysterious Island, Around the World in Eighty Days, and I just finished 20,000 Leagues. All were far, far better than I would have expected.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Books-A-Million informs me my next set of books is on the way - Iliad (Rieu - why switch from a good thing), Aeneid (Ruden - recommended online), and a Verne omnibus, Amazing Journeys (Walter - again recommended online for correctness and completeness). The omnibus contains some redundancy (80 Days and 20k Leagues), but I am getting it for Journey to the Center of the Earth, From the Earth to the Moon, and Circling the Moon.


I was given a copy of Professor Beard's new book on the Galilean's birthday. Do you read her blog ?

https://timesonline.typepad.com/dons_life/2016/06/thank-you-goes-a-long-way.html


----------



## LordSmoke

Shaver said:


> Do you know, I have not perused the works of Verne since I was but a mere stripling although remember quite clearly the thrilling exploits of Robur and the remarkable futurescape described within the two volumes. If I recall correctly Verne is the amongst the top ten 'most adapted to movie' authors. In my dotage I find that, of those scintillating sci-fi novels of my youth, it is always Phil Dick to whom I return most frequently, then Bradbury, then Wells. Perhaps it is high time to refract Verne through the prism of my now (marginally) more mature mind.....?


*stripling*: a boy or young man (Merriam-Webster online dictionary)
Interesting word, Shaver, I only learned it last year when I was reading lots of material about or set in the middle ages. Specifically, it used not infrequently in "Hild" by Nicola Griffith.

I read where Verne was one of the most translated authors, and surely could be one of the most adapted to movies, too. However, I imagine he is spinning in his grave at some of the adaptations!

When I mentioned to my wife that I had started "Mysterious Island", she said, "Oh, wasn't that made into the movie (2012) with Michael Caine flying around on giant bees?" I read the rest of the book in fear of the appearance of giant bees - there are none! It is a book about five smart, industrious guys on a resource rich island who reproduce much of 19th century technology starting from a couple of pocket watch lenses. No damn giant bees! I research the older version (1961) for perhaps a better adaption, and it features giant crabs - there are no giant crabs! Argh! Either is an insult to the original work.

There was a recent version (2004) of Around the World, with Jackie Chan, but it was so universally panned as nonsense I didn't bother to pursue it. The 1956 version with David Niven garnered five Academy Awards, so is probably pretty good, but it features balloon travel not in the original book. This is such a strong association even the cover of my books showed a balloon, but downloading and searching an e-version confirms my memory that there is only a single mention of balloon travel, and that is as an absurd suggestion for crossing the Atlantic. Still, I would give the 1956 version a viewing, but I could only find it as a rental and didn't want to spend the money at the time.

I haven't seen 20k Leagues in a long time, but I will say that one could do worse that Kirk Douglas and Peter Lourie as mental images for Ned Land and Conseil. Of course, James Mason is great in anything.

My other books arrived. I was a bit skeptical about how they could get "complete and correct" translations of five Verne novels in a single 668 page volume. Well, "Amazing Journeys" is the size of a small city's phone book (for those of you who might remember such things). Rests nicely on the chest while lying in bed for reading the top of the page. Bottom of the page a bit more difficult. Printed on good, thick, but surprisingly light, stock, thank goodness.










I am currently reading "Journey to the Center of the Earth". I always thought the film version had to be more comical than I would expect the original to be, but the text, too, is filled with dry wit - quite humorous, actually. I watched the 1959 version this past weekend. Again, Mr. Mason rocks it.


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## Dhaller

I think people forget how incredibly best-selling Verne was, not even very long ago; I would be unsurprised to learn that he's one of the most-translated authors.

I'm just old enough that I enjoyed what were once the ubiquitous-three authors that every boy used to read: Jules Verne, Robert Louis Stephenson, and Jack London.

I shudder to imagine a boyhood bereft of Captain Nemo, Long John Silver, and White Fang.

DH


----------



## eagle2250

A recent road trip provided the motivation and opportunity to read the latest and final book in Stephen Kings trilogy of the "Mercedes Killer," titled End of Watch. A riveting yarn, filled with suspense and more than just a few unexpected twists and turns. As seems typical with so many of Stephen Kings books, once picked up and reading was begun, it was a real struggle to force oneself to put this book down for a few hours to give the old eyes a few hours rest. As did the character Brady Hartsfeild with his victims, the author Stephen King can really get into the mind(s) of his reader(s) and, for awhile, take over operations! 

As for the book, End of Watch, read it....but only if you dare! Bwahahaha!!


----------



## Shaver

Eagle, my friend, as much as I love you (and I do) this latest work of King's is, to my mind, his nadir. Acknowledging that he is no literary giant but absorbing his opus with pleasure anyway, still, this book is the daftest publication to bear his name. Zappit indeed.


----------



## LordSmoke

Brio1 said:


> I was given a copy of Professor Beard's new book on the Galilean's birthday. Do you read her blog ?
> 
> https://timesonline.typepad.com/dons_life/2016/06/thank-you-goes-a-long-way.html


Not familiar with her blog. I learned of her from an interview on public radio. When I went to inquire about the book, I was directed at the large table display. I asked if these were the 50% of table, but was told "No, this is the popular book table."

A while back, I met a classicist who knows Dr. Beard (he actually looked exactly as you would expect a classicist to look - stereotypes don't come from nowhere). He was quite outspoken about her being a good popular writer, but that that in no way warranted her taking up an academic position.  Academic rivalries and jealousies can be quite amusing if you are not directly involved.


----------



## eagle2250

Shaver said:


> Eagle, my friend, as much as I love you (and I do) this latest work of King's is, to my mind, his nadir. Acknowledging that he is no literary giant but absorbing his opus with pleasure anyway, still, this book is the daftest publication to bear his name. Zappit indeed.


LOL. I am inclined to agree with you that while both interesting and entertaining, End of Watch and the Mercedes Killer trilogy in it's entirety is/are certainly not Stephen King's best effort(s) to date. His Dark Tower series, IMHO, is his best effort, followed closely by The Stand. Those works not only grabbed the reader's interest, but literally kept one up at night!

PS: Those damned "Zappit Consoles" looked suspiciously like the Gameboy consoles I bought two of my nephews years ago!


----------



## eagle2250

Just finished reading our local book discussion group's selection for the month of July, A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman, a touching tale of an apparent curmudgeon that convincingly illustrates just how misleading and superficial first impressions can be and that there can be a veritable wealth of goodness in even the grumpiest of those among us! A relaxing and pleasant read for a rainy weekend.


----------



## Shaver

eagle2250 said:


> LOL. I am inclined to agree with you that while both interesting and entertaining, End of Watch and the Mercedes Killer trilogy in it's entirety is/are certainly not Stephen King's best effort(s) to date. His Dark Tower series, IMHO, is his best effort, followed closely by The Stand. Those works not only grabbed the reader's interest, but literally kept one up at night!
> 
> PS: Those damned "Zappit Consoles" looked suspiciously like the Gameboy consoles I bought two of my nephews years ago!


My own preference is towards The Stand (especially the expanded edition) although several of his short stories have been remarkably striking, most especially those collected in the volume 'Skeleton Crew' e.g. Survivor Type, the Jaunt, Mrs Todd's shortcut et al. Oh, and The Last Rung on the Ladder from Night Shift, a tear-jerker as I recall......

.
.
.

.

.


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## eagle2250

This past weekend I read Eric Blehm's "Legend," a biography of Sergeant First Class Roy Benavidez's valorous actions in the rescue of a Green Beret "A" Teams from behind enemy lines and in (what was then) a classified location. As a part of the rescue effort, SFC Benavidez was voluntarily inserted into a very hot LZ (landing zone), incurring three wounds in the process, and assumed command of the surviving members of the A Team. As he directed the defensive efforts of the four remaining conscious members of the unit and coordinated airstrikes against what was later determined to be a Division strength enemy force, Benavidez incurred more than 30 wounds and as he literally lifted the last of the rescued squad members into the UH-1 Huey rescue chopper, as he used his other arm are to hold his intestines inside a gaping cut in his abdomen....super human effort that quite deservedly led to Sergeant Benavidez being labelled a legend with in the Special Forces military community! This book is well worth reading! :thumbs-up:


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## eagle2250

On a recent road trip, while browsing through the racks of 'for sale' books in a local libraries room filled with older books to be sold or otherwise disposed of, I came upon one of Clive Cussler's earlier novels, titled Dragon. This volume was drafted back when Cussler's books were still an individual effort. Published more than a quarter century ago, it still provides an absorbing and entertaining read.If you, as a reader, are a fan of adventure, history, mystery and impossible odds, this just may be the read for you. :thumbs-up:


----------



## Tempest

I was stuck in a place with a limited library a couple months back and started reading "Mugged" by Ann Coulter. It's not the best written thing by any stretch, but the general argument is that liberals are racial demagogues having a severely debilitating effect on race relations. So far the book seems to be heavily padded and a bit repetitive but the point is pretty sound.


----------



## cellochris

A gift from a friend:

The Four Hour Work Week

If you can ignore/forgive the hyperbolic sales language and get to the actual tips and techniques to increase efficiency, "The Four Hour Work Week" is actually a decent read.


----------



## eagle2250

The August selection of our local book discussion group was The Lake House by Kate Morton. Enjoy being an eyewitness to the resolution of a long unsolved mystery, providing a studied look into the lives of a fictional family of privilege, the lifestyle they enjoy, the challenges they face, the standards of justice they manipulate and the land, nay, the piece of Great Britain's dirt upon which this all plays out. 

The truth be known, I would not be inclined to read this one again!


----------



## Brio1

Tempest said:


> I was stuck in a place with a limited library a couple months back and started reading "Mugged" by Ann Coulter. It's not the best written thing by any stretch, but the general argument is that liberals are racial demagogues having a severely debilitating effect on race relations. So far the book seems to be heavily padded and a bit repetitive but the point is pretty sound.


George Will has labeled her an enemy to conservatives with respect to their wish to be perceived as serious intellectuals rather than blowhards. :laughing:


----------



## Dhaller

cellochris said:


> A gift from a friend:
> 
> The Four Hour Work Week
> 
> If you can ignore/forgive the hyperbolic sales language and get to the actual tips and techniques to increase efficiency, "The Four Hour Work Week" is actually a decent read.


I would be very happy getting my work week down to 40 hours!

DH


----------



## Dhaller

Now that I have deactivated Facebook, I have freed up more time to read.

I'm resuming two books I started in on a few months ago, but set aside because I got very, very busy. Both are science fiction.

"The Vorrh" by Brian Catling. There has been a lot of buzz about this first-time novelist (older fellow and established artist, venturing into a new art form).

"The Dark Forest" by Cixin Liu. Liu is sort of the Vanguard of what I predict to be a "Chinese Invasion" of writers, especially of science fiction. A physicist myself, I appreciate his elucidation of a quantum communication system in his first novel ("The Three-Body Problem"). The basic gist of what will be a trilogy is that Earth (in the first novel) becomes aware that an invasion by a technologically-very-superior alien species is imminent - in 400 years. So, they need to get ready. Good stuff.

DH


----------



## Shaver

Dhaller, my dear fellow, why have you not mentioned physics (the only real science) before? Each day on my numerous ciggy breaks I stand before the room in which Ernie split the atom and rejoice.


----------



## Dhaller

Shaver said:


> Dhaller, my dear fellow, why have you not mentioned physics (the only real science) before? Each day on my numerous ciggy breaks I stand before the room in which Ernie split the atom and rejoice.


It's surprisingly uncommon for physics to come up as a topic on a clothing forum!

DH


----------



## Shaver

All is physics. Everything else is merely stamp collecting.


----------



## Chouan

I've just started Hugh Sebag-Montefiore's "Dunkirk", which seems good, so far.


----------



## eagle2250

Last evening I finished reading Bill Murphy, Jr.'s "In A Time of War: The Proud and Perilous Journey of West Point's Class of 2002." Another graphic illustration of how the burden of so many is frequently carried by so few, in a society such as ours. The author very effectively puts a face to the reality and scope of the tragedy of our losses in this ongoing war against terror. This volume is a very sobering read for sure! :thumbs-up:


----------



## eagle2250

And the most recent read for discussion at next weeks meeting of the local book club...Chiseled: A Memoir of Identity, Duplicity and Divine Wine, by Danuta Pfeiffer. Growing up, surviving the abuse and lies of a father who was a legend in only his own mind, engaged in a lifelong search for her true identity...Danuta finally discovers personal fulfillment and pulls her extended family together, as she nears the end of a very challenging life trail. Frankly, I'm not sure I would pick this one up to read a second time.


----------



## jpeirpont

About to start Don Quixote...


----------



## Dhaller

jpeirpont said:


> About to start Don Quixote...


Many more have started "the Quixote" than have finished it!

It's such a wonderful book that it's hard to believe that it was the first European novel. Talk about getting it right first time at bat! If you haven't settled on a translation (and assuming you're not just reading it in Spanish), I heartily recommend Edith Grossman's English translation.

DH


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## eagle2250

Adding David Baldacci's The Forgotten to my list of books read provided me with several hours of interesting diversion. It provides a fictional look into the human trafficing trade and the consequences of a bad guys decision to put down an Army CID Agent's elderly aunt, when she happened to stumble upon their dastardly actions. I enjoyed the book, but am not yet convinced to add Mr. Baldacci to my list of favored authors.


----------



## Dhaller

I am forcing myself through China Mieville's "The Kraken". I have yet to finish a novel of his, and I'm bound and determined to finally do so.

Mieville is one of the core figures of the (Largely London-based) "New Weird" literary movement which began in the mid-90s; as such, he's a figure interesting to me... but I just can't finish his damned books.

I think absurdist literature just needs containment to under 200 pages or so (like Felipe Alfau's short surrealist novels in the 1920s). Still, I press on - halfway now, so no turning back!

DH


----------



## LordSmoke

Dhaller said:


> Many more have started "the Quixote" than have finished it!
> 
> It's such a wonderful book that it's hard to believe that it was the first European novel. Talk about getting it right first time at bat! If you haven't settled on a translation (and assuming you're not just reading it in Spanish), I heartily recommend Edith Grossman's English translation.
> 
> DH


Sir, I resemble that remark! Started it after a trip to Spain many years ago. Maybe I should give another go.


----------



## LordSmoke

Finished off "The Iliad" last week. C'mon, guys. Was the wench worth all that?

Several books into "The Aeneid" - dammit, they went and changed the god's name on me. 

That will finish up my Classics readings for this year. Thinking of next year's theme.


----------



## Dhaller

LordSmoke said:


> Finished off "The Iliad" last week. C'mon, guys. Was the wench worth all that?
> 
> Several books into "The Aeneid" - dammit, they went and changed the god's name on me.
> 
> That will finish up my Classics readings for this year. Thinking of next year's theme.


While not technically "classical", I've been wanting to have a go at the Kalevala (the Friberg translation has been recommended as one which evokes the rhythm of the original Finnish, otherwise lost in translation to English).

That, or to finally tackle the Icelandic Sagas (Jane Smiley's anthology, translated by Bernard Scudder, comes recommended).

Could be an AAAC reading project for 2017! We could be discussing the proper use of drinking horns by this time next year...

DH


----------



## eagle2250

Deprived of Internet and Cable service during the passage of Mathew through our neck of the woods, in desperation I pulled an old copy of Dean Kootntzs' 2008 "paranoid thriller," Your Heart Belongs To Me off the bookshelf to occupy myself during our climatically imposed period of imprisonment. Throughout the 337 pages of fast paced narrative, the reader becomes aware of the potentially tragic error represented by focusing one's attentions on the threat(s) represented by the demons without, rather than focusing on those that originate from within one's own soul. It is a fast and absorbing read that I highly recommend!


----------



## ThomGault

After resolving to read more free classic books on my Kindle, I've returned to Oliver Twist for the first time since elementary school. Decent bedtime reading---its almost in the same seriel style in which it was published.


----------



## Shaver

If you enjoyed that Thom may I sugest David Copperfield for your next read? My favourite of all the Dickens novels.


----------



## Dhaller

Shaver said:


> If you enjoyed that Thom may I sugest David Copperfield for your next read? My favourite of all the Dickens novels.


+1, and surely featuring the best-named villain in English literature, Uriah Heep.

(Has any author better-named his characters than did Charles Dickens?)

One of the great pleasures I anticipate as my daughter (only four, now) advances into literacy is the chance to reread a number of favorite classics, though I may have to guide her into some of the "classics for boys" (like "Treasure Island").

I particularly look forward to rereading Jonathan Swift.

DH


----------



## eagle2250

This months local book club pick was Josephine Tey's "The Daughter of Time." An injured, bedridden inspector from Scotland Yard is left with only the challenges of unraveling the vagaries of English history to occupy his mind and maintain his sanity during a seemingly interminable period of recuperation. With the assistance of an emotionally besot young American in England pursuing the Thespian based love of his life, this unlikely pair debunk the Socratic claim that King Richard III had murdered his twin nephews...to secure the Throne for himself and place blame for said heinous crime at the feet of Henry VII. A book good for perhaps two to three hours of reading entertainment.


----------



## ThomGault

Shaver said:


> If you enjoyed that Thom may I sugest David Copperfield for your next read? My favourite of all the Dickens novels.


Oops, I missed your reply weeks ago. I'll definitely followup with Copperfield---its one of the few Dickens works which I've never read.

On a tangent, I heartily recommend a Kindle to anyone who doesn't own one yet. While it will never replace a real book (with that oh-so-enticing smell), the easy portability of hundreds of free (!!!) classics which have lost copyright status can't be overstated.


----------



## Dhaller

ThomGault said:


> On a tangent, I heartily recommend a Kindle to anyone who doesn't own one yet. While it will never replace a real book (with that oh-so-enticing smell), the easy portability of hundreds of free (!!!) classics which have lost copyright status can't be overstated.


Yes, I disapprove of them in principle (there's a wealth of neurophysiological imaging studies which illustrate the relative cognitive poverty of tablet vs paper reading), but as someone who is often on an airplane for 12+ hour flights, a Kindle beats schlepping books around.

DH


----------



## Shaver

ThomGault said:


> Oops, I missed your reply weeks ago. I'll definitely followup with Copperfield---its one of the few Dickens works which I've never read.
> 
> On a tangent, I heartily recommend a Kindle to anyone who doesn't own one yet. While it will never replace a real book (with that oh-so-enticing smell), the easy portability of hundreds of free (!!!) classics which have lost copyright status can't be overstated.


'Faber sniffed the book. "Do you know that books smell like nutmeg or some spice from a foreign land? I loved to smell them when I was a boy. Lord, there were a lot of lovely books once, before we let them go.'

- Bradbury.


----------



## Chouan

Dhaller said:


> +1, and surely featuring the best-named villain in English literature, Uriah Heep.
> 
> (Has any author better-named his characters than did Charles Dickens?)
> 
> One of the great pleasures I anticipate as my daughter (only four, now) advances into literacy is the chance to reread a number of favorite classics, though I may have to guide her into some of the "classics for boys" (like "Treasure Island").
> 
> I particularly look forward to rereading Jonathan Swift.
> 
> DH


Some of Conan Doyle's characters have imaginative names, including Sherlock Holmes himself. My wife and I try to entertain ourselves on long journeys by imagining place names from road signs as characters from Holmes. For example, off the AI there is Mr. Norwell Woodhouse, Mr. Scofton Osberton, Mr. Burton Coggles and Mr. Lobthorpe Gunby.


----------



## Chouan

eagle2250 said:


> This months local book club pick was Josephine Tey's "The Daughter of Time." An injured, bedridden inspector from Scotland Yard is left with only the challenges of unraveling the vagaries of English history to occupy his mind and maintain his sanity during a seemingly interminable period of recuperation. With the assistance of an emotionally besot young American in England pursuing the Thespian based love of his life, this unlikely pair debunk the Socratic claim that King Richard III had murdered his twin nephews...to secure the Throne for himself and place blame for said heinous crime at the feet of Henry VII. A book good for perhaps two to three hours of reading entertainment.


It is a wonderful book! My father recommended it to me when I was about 15. I loved it then, and I recommend it to all of my History students to show them what History is, and what the Historian's craft involves.


----------



## Chouan

I've just started "Baudolino" by Umberto Eco. I'll let you know how I get on. 
Both of sons are currently reading Frank Herbert's "Dune" and are astounded by how little known it is, or at least that they hadn't heard of it until recently. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jul/03/dune-50-years-on-science-fiction-novel-world


----------



## barca10

I'm currently reading "Washington: A Life" by Ron Chernow, and "Nelson: The Immortal Memory" by David Howarth (biography of Lord Nelson).

I recently completed "The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt," which is the first volume in Edmund Morris' three volume biography of Roosevelt. Very good book about a fascinating man.


----------



## Dhaller

Chouan said:


> I've just started "Baudolino" by Umberto Eco. I'll let you know how I get on.
> Both of sons are currently reading Frank Herbert's "Dune" and are astounded by how little known it is, or at least that they hadn't heard of it until recently. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jul/03/dune-50-years-on-science-fiction-novel-world


"Dune" was such a sci-fi staple when I was young, but at this point it's something like 50 years old, firmly in the realm of esoterica, I suppose.

It's actually more relevant now than ever - a world at an ecological tipping point, war over a scarce resource, indigenous versus colonial, terror as a viable counter to military might, and so on.

I actually think the series works best as simply the first two books ("Dune" and "Children of Dune").

DH


----------



## eagle2250

Stephen King has done it again with a book entitled "The Dark Half," introducing the readers to the arguable reality of an one yet to be born twin, consuming his/her yet to be born sibling and later being born into this world as a single birth. But reader beware, as perhaps the surviving twin failed to complete his grisly meal, not cleaning his plate, and as a result we read of an adult whose actions/life is in a sense being directed by two minds, twins, one good and one bad, trapped within a single body. This masterpiece of suspense will grab your undivided attention and refuse to let go until you have read the last line on the last page of the book! A good, entertaining read.


----------



## eagle2250

On Tuesday, next our Book Club/Discussion Group meets to share impressions of author Charles Todd's "A Duty To The Dead." This read allows us to accompany British military Nurse Bess Crawford as she struggles to carry out the final wishes of a dying patient/soldier entrusted to her care. In shouldering this final "duty to the dead," little does our battle weary nurse realize the scope of her undertaking and the ever growing number(s) of deceased and one survivor to which her efforts will grant some degree of final justice. This book is a good read. :thumbs-up:


----------



## LordSmoke

Finished off my extracurricular reading list when I completed the Aeneid the other day. Now? 
"Opengl Programming Guide, Eight Edition", anyone?


----------



## kokokel

Now i finish reading detective "Ten little *******" by Agata Christie. Also not far i was read "The Secret Adversary" also Agata.


----------



## eagle2250

^^^
Kokokel, welcome to AAAC. Looking forward to your future postings.

My latest read was another of author Clive Cussler's books, this one written in cooperation with Russell Blake, The Solomon Curse. This yarn wove threads of a search for lost civilizations, treasures, the veracity of legend(s) defining the population of an island in the Pacific and the intricacy of present day treachery and inhumanity into a fabric protectively cloaks the readers attention...right up to the very end of the story. Can't ask for much more than that!


----------



## eagle2250

Skipping Christmas....what a novel (pun intended) idea John Gridham. And for those not wanting to invest an hour or two reading this humorous little tale, you can spend a couple of hours relaxing and watching the movie, Christmas With The Kranks.....same-o-same-o! LOL.


----------



## Oldsarge

Not being a great fiction fan, I am reading _The Secret Life of Trees. _For those of 'sensitive' nature I don't recommend it. If you think you're being ethical being vegan I've got news for you!


----------



## eagle2250

Just finished reading Ghost Ship, by Clive Cussler and Graham Brown. The book provides the reader with front row seats to serve witness to the derring-do of Kurt Austin and Joe Zavalla as they struggle to offset the effects of the ongoing efforts of a multi-generational family of criminals that stretch over four continents and could eventually bring the wold wide community of man to bay! With a little help from the CIA and the USMC, the good guys prevail once again and the good life as we know it goes on. Reading this book was much like taking a ride on a "mental roller-coaster! :thumbs-up:


----------



## barca10

Currently reading Dead Wake, by Erik Larson, and Sherman's March by Burke Davis


----------



## Shaver

There is no such thing as too much knowledge. 

https://postimg.org/image/9ixjw40jh/


----------



## eagle2250

^^Talk about a coincidence!
Coincidentally, this past Christmas I was gifted with a copy of Clay Risen's, American Whiskey: Bourbon & Rye. Sound research always seems to start with a good book...and perhaps a handy tumbler!


----------



## DaveS

Reading A Gentleman in Moscow, by Amor Towles.

His debut novel, Rules of Civility, was, for me, so superb, I thought this latest to be a sure winner...and it is!


----------



## eagle2250

Just finished reading this months book club selection, Sean O'Callaghan's "To Hell or Barbados: The Ethnic Cleansing of Ireland." Examples of man's brutality to/of his fellow men never ceases to amaze and disappoint me. Reading this review of England's treatment of the Irish was indeed sobering, the cruelty of which remind's the reader of America's treatment of native Americans. Not an entertaining read, but a compelling and necessary endeavor.


----------



## eagle2250

....and it's back to Clive Cussler and (in this instance), Jack Dubrul, reading thier collaborative effort, Mirage. It is a return to Cussler's Oregon files, as the Chairman Juan Cabrillo and his crew take on a rogue Russian Admiral who has created an unholy master weapon from the inherent genius of Nicolai Tesla's research and is offering it to a nefarious world power who wants to be the worlds preeminent super power. The choice is stop the madness or face the end of life as we know it. Are Cabrillo and his crew successful? I know, but you will have to read the book to find out for yourselves...a rather entertaining challenge, for sure! Bwahahaha.


----------



## Acacian

The Man In The High Castle by Phillip K. Dick, as scifi-ish novel from 1962 about an alternative world in which the Japanese and the Germans won WWII. 

It's also a series on Amazon (?) now, which is apparently different in a lot of significant ways. This is my first foray into scifi-type writing at age 48. Not bad so far...


----------



## Shaver

^ I would wager that there is no other member of this forum who is more familiar with the works of Phil Dick than I. Most of my copies of his books are the first printing American disposable paperback versions. I even own a battered copy of the pulp magazine which published him for the first time- the short story 'Beyond Lies the Wub'.

Man in the High Castle is an admirable work but not his finest by any stretch of the imagination- the time line of the journey of the characters is alarmingly fucked up. 

A better overtly political novel is 'Martian Time Slip' and his masterpiece (to the connoisseur) is 'Now Wait for Last Year'.

.
.
.


----------



## eagle2250

This month's book club selection was Commonwealth by Ann Patchett. A story about illicit affairs, broken marriages, blended families, the ever changing weave in the fabric of resulting relationships that serves to showcase the sense of mutual caring and support developed by the children, thrown into such domestic chaos absent their consrnt. This union of necessity, this commonwealth of mutual interest provides such misused and emotionally abused/deprived children with a shield of feelings that serve to somewhat protect them from the emotional and social frailties of their parents, enabling them to mature into remarkably well adjusted adults, themselves! Enjoy?


----------



## barca10

Just finished reading John Adams by David McCullough. My goal is to read at least one biography of each U.S. president. Adams was number nine. James Madison is up next.


----------



## jpeirpont

A.N Wilson's Hitler.


----------



## Repington

The Island of Sheep by John Buchan.


----------



## eagle2250

Care to share your thoughts on books read or that you are presently reading? Do you recommend them for others to consider reading?


----------



## Mr. B. Scott Robinson

For recent trash reading on the beach, I found a book in the resort library entitled "My Boyfriend Wrote a Book About Me and Other Stories" by Hilary Winston. It was both hilarious and sad and highlights the intellectual/social/emotional pit that fourth wave feminism has left many American women struggling to escape. 

If one was ever giving serious consideration to going full red pill MGTOW, this book will push one over the edge. 

Cheers, 

BSR


----------



## eagle2250

Just last evening I finished reading Stephen King's Doctor Sleep, the long overdue sequel to King's The Shining. If you read The Shining or saw the Kubrick movie version of the story and found yourself with the "bejesus" scared out of you, Doctor Sleep is a must read! Danny Torrence has survived the drunken, maniacal rages, incited by agents of the occult, of his abusive late father, Don, and is now all grown up, but still valiantly opposing the evil inclinations/agressons of certain agents from the other side. This book will keep you on the edge of your seat and perhaps even up at night! LOL. :thumbs-up:


----------



## eagle2250

This months selection of our community book club was Charles Todd's, An Impartial Witness, another yarn in the Bess Crawford mystery series. The intrepid Nurse Crawford is once again exposing herself to potential hazard(s) as she goes forth into an unfamiliar community, doing battle with the most unlikely of villains in the furtherance of the best interests of a deceased patient, the badly burned pilot of a British Sopwith Camel. The story illustrates the dark reality that one's most threatening enemies may not be the fellow on the other side of the battlefield in another land, but rather much closer to hearth and home! A good read.


----------



## eagle2250

This past week Clive Cussler and his co-writer Boyd Morrison, provided me with perhaps a half dozen hours of reading entertainment with their book "Piranha!" Another fast moving tale of adventure featuring the intrepid crew of the Oregon, as they match wits, battle tactics and just plain, unvarnished bravado with a maniacal theoretical physicist, gifted with arguably unparalleled genius and access to weapons never before seen by man. I will not tell you who wins this test of intellectual daring-do, but keep in mind, the author Cussler has at least a few dozen more books in him! LOL. This book is a very good and entertaining read. :thumbs-up:


----------



## Adventure Wolf

I have begun reading the Three Musketeers. I am trying to conquer the entire catalog of Dumas.


----------



## tda003

I just finished Clive Cussler's "The Gangster" (with Justin Scott). It's in the Isaac Bell series. As always, a good read. Will be starting George Mac Donald Fraser's "The Reavers". It's a novel about a border clan/family conflict which plagued the border area between Scotland and England. It's one of two or three of his works that I haven't read.


----------



## barca10

I recently completed "James Madison" by Richard Brookhiser. It's fairly well-written and provides a good overview of Madison's life, but is on the short side for a biography.


----------



## drlivingston

Just finished re-reading Toole's "A Confederacy of Dunces." Now, to start on this month's Jughead Double Digest. :cofee:


----------



## Shaver

^How did you find it on the further reading? I enjoyed it the first time (way back when) but wonder if it might stand up to another examination.


----------



## drlivingston

Shaver said:


> ^How did you find it on the further reading? I enjoyed it the first time (way back when) but wonder if it might stand up to another examination.


To be perfectly honest, to truly enjoy this book, one must listen to it in audiobook form at least once. The original 1989 version narrated by Arte Johnson is good. But the 2005 re-release narrated by Barrett Whitener was masterfully done. You get such a feel for the characters. After listening to the unabridged version, reading the text version took on a whole new life.


----------



## Shaver

Why Dr L, are you trolling old Uncle Shaver? Audiobooks indeed. The last time someone read a book to me was just prior to my teaching myself to read, early 1968.


----------



## drlivingston

Shaver said:


> Why Dr L, are you trolling old Uncle Shaver? Audiobooks indeed. The last time someone read a book to me was just prior to my teaching myself to read, early 1968.


Because, on long commutes, it is very difficult (and not recommended) to carefully perch a novel on one's steering wheel. Audiobooks are a necessary evil in that they allow literary escapes while navigating the drudgery of interstate traffic. Would I ever listen to one in the comfort of my abode? Absolutely not!


----------



## Shaver

^ An eminently reasonable and, moreover, reassuring explanation.


----------



## tda003

And a much better reply than, "No, but I did read the Cliff Notes".


----------



## eagle2250

drlivingston said:


> Because, on long commutes, it is very difficult (and not recommended) to carefully perch a novel on one's steering wheel. Audiobooks are a necessary evil in that they allow literary escapes while navigating the drudgery of interstate traffic. Would I ever listen to one in the comfort of my abode? Absolutely not!


I have done so myself on a few occasions, however have noticed that my retention/understanding of details from the story seems to suffer when taken in through the ears, rather than through the eyes. Does that mean my vision is superior to my hearing...or is that just a normal response? LOL.


----------



## tda003

^I can't image that, distinguished fellow that you are, any one of your senses could be superior to another.


----------



## barca10

I recently completed "In the Garden of Beasts" by Erik Larson, which is about William Dodd, who became the U.S. Ambassador to Germany in 1933. I had a hard time getting into this book. I thought Larson's "Dead Wake" was much better. But it is worth reading for the "eyewitness" perspective of Germany during Hitler's rise to power.


----------



## paxonus

I have a 1 hour commute to work each way. Several years ago I started listening to books on disc. The technology is now up to downloaded mp3 files which I get from the web site for the local library. Right now I'm listening to John Irving's "Avenue of Mysteries." It isn't one of his best, but still entertaining.


----------



## eagle2250

Last months book club selection...David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. Last read perhaps fifty years back as required reading in an English Literature course, the degree of detail lost to the passage of time leads me to one of two possible conclusions: either one remembers greater detail from documents read due to a genuine interest vs required at the behest of other authority, on one's part, or the the passage of sufficient time does indeed wound (sometimes quite severely) all heels! At least I'm pretty sure I experienced a greater sense of appreciation for what I was reading this time around that experienced when I read David Copperfield, lo those many years ago! :icon_scratch:


----------



## Shaver

"Chapter 1. I Am Born.

Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show."



Copperfield remains amongst my very favourite examples of Dickens' glittering talent. 

Fun fact - it was this literary work which first informed me of the birth abnormality that is the caul. 
.
.


----------



## drlivingston

Shaver said:


> Copperfield remains amongst my very favourite examples of Dickens' glittering talent. It was this iterary work which introduced to the birth caul.


One of my father's favorite lines was, "My advice is, never do to-morrow what you can do today. Procrastination is the thief of time. Collar him!" In truth, Dad was not much of a literary buff. However, Dickens appealed to him on an intelligent, yet readable level.


----------



## Shaver

Heh. You caught me mid edit. This bus driver is determined to traverse each pothole of the thoroughfare. Decidedly not conducive to the enhancement of my typing.


----------



## eagle2250

This month's book club selection was Solomon Northup's 12 Years A Slave. A very sobering read, the book describes the pre civil war kidnapping of a freeman in New York and his subsequent sale into terms of slavery on three Louisiana plantations. The emotional angst was palpable and the descriptions of the various and almost continuous instances of physical cruelty committed against the slaves will continue to haunt the readers mind, long after the book has been read!


----------



## Mr. B. Scott Robinson

Just finished "3 Cups of Tea" by Mortensen and Relin. It is about an American mountain climber who dedicated his life to building schools in rural Pakistan and Afghanistan in order to fight rural poverty and the spread of fundamentalist madrassas. 

An excellent read. Highest recommendation. 

Cheers, 

BSR


----------



## Langham

My book shelves are somewhat depleted now but still contain a few treasures from my youth - very occasionally these are hauled out.
For those not familiar with the Olivia Manning's Balkan Trilogy, it concerns the small community of English academics and various footloose Bohemians resident in war-time Bucharest, stoicly carrying on while German plans for pan-European domination slowly unfold. Manning is a wonderful writer, able to convey complex characters and events with great economy. There are occasional sartorial details that may be of interest. Here is one Prince Yakimov, an Irish/White Russian Prince, living off infrequent remittances from home, his Hispano Suiza impounded by customs officials, and decidedly down on his uppers:



> Walking in the Calea Victoriei, in the increasing heat of midday, his sad camel face a-run with sweat, he wore a panama hat, a suit of corded silk, a pink silk shirt and a tie that was once the colour of Parma violets. His clothes were very dirty. The hat was brim-broken and yellow with age. His jacket was tattered, brown beneath the armpits, and so shrunken that it held him as in a brace.


The Nazis, the ISIS of their time, are of course a thoroughly unpleasant lot. First they elbow the beseiged Brits out of the English Bar at the Athenee Palace. Contemporary (and in fact real) newsreel showing burning cities, diving stukas, fleeing refugees and merciless Nazi soldiers is described being shown in a cinema, the audience (as I myself was, momentarily) left dumbfounded by the Germans' uncompromising savagery and jauntily overt disavowal of Christianity and all its values:



> "Wir wollen keine Christen sein,
> Weil Christus war ein Judenschwein,
> Und seine Mutter, welch ein Hohn,
> Die heisst Marie, gebor'ne Kohn."


The trilogy is a subtle, witty, sombre and haunting description of a city at war, of Brits putting on a brave face with the odds against them, of rumours, human absurdity, betrayals and arrests, and also the tale of a young couple who have seemingly married by mistake and in haste.


----------



## Mr. B. Scott Robinson

Given that I currently find myself with a lot of time to kill, living in the equivalent of a very posh minimum security federal penitentiary in Karachi for the next two years, I am on a one year plan to read the Bible (KJV of course) and a 30 day plan to read the Koran. 

Cheers, 

BSR


----------



## Adventure Wolf

This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald


----------



## eagle2250

This months local book club read was Fredrick Backman's "My Grandmother Asked Me To Tell You She's Sorry." As did his book "A Man Called Ove," this Backman creation once again illustrates the potential power of our daily relationships to assist in overcoming life challenges and introduce a magical component to the otherwise mundane realities of many, if not all, of our lives. Frederick Backman is indeed, quite the storyteller! A worthwhile and entertaining read. :thumbs-up:


----------



## eagle2250

Mr. B. Scott Robinson said:


> Given that I currently find myself with a lot of time to kill, living in the equivalent of a very posh minimum security federal penitentiary in Karachi for the next two years, I am on a one year plan to read the Bible (KJV of course) and a 30 day plan to read the Koran.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> BSR


If you should find yourself bogging down in your efforts to read the KJV of the Bible cover to cover, I recommend you consider reading Professor Walter Wangerin, Jr's "The Book of God: The Bible written as a novel." Having read KJV and NIV versions of the Bible, cover to cover, I found Professor Wangerin's work to be, by far the easiest to read and providing a greater depth of understanding for a relative liturgical layman such as I. Best wishes for the success of your reading quest! :thumbs-up:


----------



## Mr. B. Scott Robinson

Thanks!

The online schedule I am using only requires 5-10 minutes per day. Much of Genesis is x begot x who lived x years and begot x....does not require a lot of attention. 

To mix it up I am reading an additional couple of books. I finished 3 Cups of Tea by Greg Mortensen who has been accused of being a shyster. I am in the middle of Driving Mr. Albert by Michael Paternity and I have just cracked into Pakistan, A Hard Country, by Anatol Lieven.

I have time on my hands!


----------



## tda003

I'm currently reading Lords of the Sky by Dan Hampton which deals with air combat from WWI through 2003 Iraq. Excellent read.

Do they make a Golden Book edition of the KJV?


----------



## tda003

It's interesting to note that aside from all this current silliness about Shakespeare writing the King James Bible, the AV uses about 12000 English words (about 26,500 if one counts the Greek and Hebrew words).

Shakespeare uses about 15,000 different words.

I'm not sure that has any more significance other than my being quite pleased with myself for remembering it.


----------



## Mr. B. Scott Robinson

Several years ago, I read a book about about the history surrounding the writing of the KJV. I think it was entitled "In the Beginning". An excellent read. 

The KJV along with Shakespeare are credited with creating the written works which led to the standardization of the English language. Those works essentially codified standard English for 400 years. Most folks who were literate could only afford one book, a Bible. As a result, literate people in the English speaking world read and learn written English from the same text for several generations. A fascinating concept. 

Cheers, 

BSR


----------



## gr8w8er

Last completed: Superforecasting (Tetlock/Gardner); Goldfinch (Tartt); Rise of Robots (Ford).

Now on The Evangelicals (Fitzgerald) and The Sympathizer (Nguyen).


----------



## Brio1

Mr. B. Scott Robinson said:


> Several years ago, I read a book about about the history surrounding the writing of the KJV. I think it was entitled "In the Beginning". An excellent read.
> 
> The KJV along with Shakespeare are credited with creating the written works which led to the standardization of the English language. Those works essentially codified standard English for 400 years. Most folks who were literate could only afford one book, a Bible. As a result, literate people in the English speaking world read and learn written English from the same text for several generations. A fascinating concept.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> BSR


I believe that the book you are referring to is_ God's Secretaries _by Adam Nicholson :

https://www.harpercollins.com/9780060838737/gods-secretaries

Alister McGrath also wrote a book on the same subject entitled _In the Beginning :_

https://books.google.com/books/about/In_the_Beginning.html?id=t-iLuDI60O0C

I enjoyed the book written by Adam Nicholson although I am not a votary of the Christian religion .


----------



## Brio1

I just read _October : The Story of the Russian Revolution _by China Mieville . And , negative , I am not a communist. Apropos of communism , I would like to read the dual biography of Churchill & Orwell by Mr. Thomas Ricks :


----------



## eagle2250

Earlier this week I finished reading Stephen King's "Gerald's Game." For those of you that enjoy King's writing, are into the occult and consider handcuffs an desirable addition to your collection of sex toys for the bedroom, this is the book for you! It will hold your attention and just might serve as an incentive to change your ways! LOL.


----------



## eagle2250

This weeks Stephen King selection was "The Dead Zone," featuring a young man gifted with the ability of a second sight into the occult, through a series of head injuries, and granting him psychic ability to see into the future of others...or to peer into their past. The book, published in the year 1979, is structured in three parts; The Wheel of Fortune, The Laughing Tiger and Notes From The Dead.Ironically, the Laughing Tiger portion is strikingly reminiscent of our present day political state, but featuring an arguably more humanely and worldly astute American electorate! As are virtually all of Stephen Kings works, The Dead Zone is a very good and interesting read! :thumbs-up:


----------



## eagle2250

...and our latest Book Club selection; Margaret Atwood's The Handmaids Tale. I've read better...I'll just leave it at that, but am compelled to admit I fail to understand the many awards, critical accolades and pending theatrical renditions awarded/created showcasing this book.  :crazy:


----------



## Adventure Wolf

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote


----------



## eagle2250

Our local book clubs selection this month is A Gentleman In Moscow, by Amor Towles; a fictional narrative of Count Alexander Rostov's life of invisibility as a worldly, socially adroit Russian aristocrat after he is found guilty of being an unrepentant aristocrat and sentenced by a Bolshevik Tribunal to a life under house arrest. Confined to the inner sanctum of the Metropol Hotel, centered in Red Square and utilizing an array of well honed social skill an an overriding attitude of civility, the Count lives a surprising full life within the confines of this grand hotel! An interesting and pleasant read, but definitely not a page turner.


----------



## eagle2250

For any of you Agatha Christie fans out their, this months book club selection was her iconic murder mystery, The Murder of Roger Ackroid. Not to fear, the inscrutable Hercule Poirot is on the case and as we all know...he always gets the bad guy! Being one inclined to mentally solve such cases prior to the author revealing such to her readers, I reached three bad/erroneous conclusions before Monsieur Poirot relieved my frustration and revealed the killer...one I had never even considered. My deductive reasoning abilities seem to have deteriorated to such a sad, sad state!


----------



## eagle2250

A whole lot of casual reading going on these days. Nothing of any particular literary significance, but if you are looking for just pure entertainment in your reading experiences, may I recommend:

*Clive and Dirk Cussler's "Havana Storm"
*The late Rex Stout's "Fer-de-Lance," one of many Nero Wolfe mysteries
*Clive Cussler and Russell Blake's "The Eye of Heaven"

Enjoy! :amazing:


----------



## barca10

I just finished reading "Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush" by Jon Meacham. Meacham's biography of Thomas Jefferson is a much better book.


----------



## eagle2250

^^Meacham's book on Bush is on my list of books to be procured and read in the coming year. Is it a read that you would recommend, barca10?


----------



## Shaver

I am lounging around and thoroughly enjoying reading this rather weighty tome, a history, nay celebration, of the last 40 years of the sci-fi anthology magazine '2000ad'. I recall purchasing the first issue (February 1977) as if it were yesterday and have obtained a copy each week since then - still possessing every single issue.

The influence of 2000ad on our modern culture is as vast as it is occluded with many great talents of literature and cinema finding their artistic voice within the pages of that publication.

Zarjaz!


----------



## barca10

eagle2250 said:


> ^^Meacham's book on Bush is on my list of books to be procured and read in the coming year. Is it a read that you would recommend, barca10?


I apologize for the delayed response. I was out of town for several days. I would recommend this book. I wouldn't call it a great biography, but it is a good one that is worth reading. Regardless of what one may think about Bush's politics, he has a fascinating background.


----------



## eagle2250

^^
Thank you, my friend, for that recommendation. I will definitely pick up a copy and read it. LOL, don't let the word get out, but I am a fan of the Bush's and their politics...very Republican and very conservative!


----------



## The Irishman

The best book of 2017 for me was Sebastian Junger's 'Tribe'. A lean 133 pages. Junger is a war journalist and documentary maker with an interest in evolutionary biology. His argument is that the way we live today is at odds with the tribal or communal way in which we are biologically evolved to thrive.

It sounds dry, but his whirlwind tour of men at war, miners buried underground and even the dynamics of babies sleeping in their parents' beds (versus being relegated to a cot, or worse, their own room) is compelling.

Junger is convincing in arguing that many people who are depressed, and specifically many soldiers suffering from PTSD, are in fact having a quite normal reaction to some aspects of modern life. Couldn't agree more.

It's an odd book in that I suspect it has something for people on both the left and the right of the political spectrum.

Next up, St Augustine - The Confessions...


----------



## Shaver

The way we live now may be at odds with the way we originally evolved to thrive. So evolve again or become extinct. I am not hugely enamoured with modernity either but better that than huddled in a cave swathed by flea ridden bearskins.

As to depression? Try Uncle Shaver's counselling service $50 per hour. 'Your life didn't turn out the way you wanted it to? Shut the f*** up! Quit whining. Next'.


----------



## The Irishman

Shaver said:


> The way we live now may be at odds with the way we originally evolved to thrive. So evolve again or become extinct. I am not hugely enamoured with modernity either but better that than huddled in a cave swathed by flea ridden bearskins.
> 
> As to depression? Try Uncle Shaver's counselling service $50 per hour. 'Your life didn't turn out the way you wanted it to? Shut the f*** up! Quit whining. Next'.


Ah, of course he's not advocating we go full caveman...

But I won't synopsise the arguments made in a 133 page book any further. It can be read in a couple of days for anyone interested.

The one comment I would make regarding the depression issue is that, of course, even if I agreed with you it's a reality that the depression and related illnesses (real or imagined) of our fellow citizens often ends up costing all us taxpayers money both in healthcare costs and in lost labour. And I'm very much interested in that.


----------



## Shaver

The Irishman said:


> Ah, of course he's not advocating we go full caveman...
> 
> But I won't synopsise the arguments made in a 133 page book any further. It can be read in a couple of days for anyone interested.
> 
> The one comment I would make regarding the depression issue is that, of course, even if I agreed with you it's a reality that the depression and related illnesses (real or imagined) of our fellow citizens often ends up costing all us taxpayers money both in healthcare costs and in lost labour. And I'm very much interested in that.


It seems that social media envy is responsible for an increase in anxiety and depression.

The exhortation to be found in 1 Thessalonians 5:14 (NKJV) does not always resonate with me. When faced with those in thrall to self pity I am more irritable than patient.


----------



## never behind

Just finished “The Storm Before the Storm” about the era of Roman politics between 200 BC and the rise of Pompey/Caesar. It was an informative, quick read. Written by Mike Duncan of The History of Rome fame. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Shaver

Oft considered a lesser work from the canon, still, the themes of Phil Dick's 'Simulacra' are central to his singular oeuvre and this slim novel continues to delight me. I maintain that this tale, extrapolated from an even shorter story 'Novelty Act', illustrating the antics of Nicole Thibodeaux et al represents a more compelling allegory of complacent totalitarianism, cultural tyranny, the eradication of individuality, the commodification of celebrity, the facade of democracy, and the illusion of choice than the deeply flawed but much acclaimed Man In The High Castle. The characters here are simultaneously archetypical yet puzzling. Track down a copy, spend an hour of your time, and examine the world afresh.

Science fiction is a genre which, if done properly, employs the conceit of the future to explore the themes of the present, and no writer seems more prescient, in this 21st Century, than this once marginalised American author typing his amphetamine fuelled rants in the past.


----------



## Dhaller

I need to get back to actually reading *books* - lately I've been consumed with quantum computing, blockchain applications, and understanding the crypto-economy, and that's all white papers and technical posts on "Reddit" and the like.

The wife & daughter are abroad for a month, leaving me to my own devices. I also have a bookshelf dedicated to Books I Know are Good... yet remain unread or uncompleted: "Suttree", "Sometimes a Great Notion", "The Glass Bead Game", and others. I'm planing on tackling one or two.

DH


----------



## Adventure Wolf

The last time I was active on the forum, I think I had just finished Pandora's Box by Wesley Brian Williams. I've read two books by Darcy Richardson in the time. He's a third party activist and political history writer. Then I read The Forgotten Figure by Stan Walker (a friend).


----------



## eagle2250

This months Book Club selection was The Outer Beach; A Thousand Mile Walk on Cape Cod's Atlantic Shore. It was a pleasant, arguably relaxing read that would have been more accurately titled Two Hundred Five Mile Walks on Cape Cod's Atlantic Shore. The author does a very thorough and absolutely wonderful job of recording a litany of detail(s) pertaining to climatology and the flora and fauna encountered on his numerous walks on six select beaches over a period of two decades. Changes witnessed and reported are thought provoking for sure and leave the reader feeling as if he or she had actually taken said walks. A worthwhile read!


----------



## The Irishman

I'm about 70 pages into the Robert Fagles' translation of The Iliad.


----------



## Shaver

Fresh from a marathon viewing of the entire Twin Peaks Season 3 I have recently completed a reading of this beautifully packaged hardback book (an xmas gift from a close friend).

If you are keen on Twin Peaks (and which right minded person is not?) then I thoroughly recommend this canonical chunk of back story which not only interweaves the rich tradition of American arcana but provides quite dazzling illumination to the established Twin Peaks themes and preoccupations.


----------



## StephenRG

I am currently half-way through Alastair Reynolds' excellent new novel, _Elysium Fire -_ amongst half-a-dozen other books...


----------



## Peak and Pine

_The Dante Club._ For the second time. I read it two winters ago and it was, then, the first novel I'd read in 30 years. A dog-ear'ed paperback found on an airplane. Have since acquired a hard-back 1st edition. And read 30 more novels, including everything Mathew Pearl (_Dante Club's _author) ever wrote.


----------



## Cyril

"Appetites" by Anthony Bourdain and "Men On Strike" by Helen Smith are my current and recent reads, respectively.


----------



## eagle2250

Just finished reading Command Authority, a novel written by Mark Greaney under the Tom Clancy banner. It is a fast moving thriller featuring scenarios in which 'Geo-politics are reaching several simultaneous flashpoints, including espionage, political assassinations, financial intrigue. Using a format involving bouncing back and forth between present day events involving Jack Ryan, Jr. and those occurring 30 years earlier involving fictional US President Jack Ryan, SR. when he was serving as a CIA analyst., but facing similar challenges. A surprisingly good read that will prove hard to put down! irate:


----------



## gevans

My guilty pleasure as far as reading goes is most likely quite different from many here. What I return to time and time again for reading for enjoyment is young adult fiction, generally what I would term fantasy or occasionally sci-fy. 

Though something that would be of interest to this forum that I have been rereading for school is Valkyrie: The Plot to Kill Hitler by Philipp Von Boeselager. As I have been rereading I am remember why I liked it so much. 
The book is a memoir of Philipp and to a lesser extent his brother Georg detailing their service as cavalry officers in the German Army during WWII and their roles in the July 20th "Valkyrie" plot to assassinate Hitler and overthrow the Nazi government. What I like most about the book is that it accurately portrays German soldiers, some are evil but there are also those who are good with most in the middle. It pushes the idea that one can be a good soldier, a good German while at the same time being a good person. Georg was awarded the Knights Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak leaves by Hitler for his service and was eventually KIA on the eastern front. Philipp was awarded the Knights Cross of the Iron Cross. Both were undoubtedly good soldiers and loyal Germans yet both willing joined the conspiracy to overthrow their government and kill their leader. 

I would highly recommend the book.


----------



## eagle2250

This months book club assingment was The Luminaries, written by Eleanor Catton as her first published effort. The fictional book combines a clearly detailed understanding of astrology and historical detail pertaining to the mid-nineteenth century New Zealand gold rush. Miss Catton skillfully weaves a grand theft and murder mystery to entertain us, incorporating threads of reality pulled from vocational experiences typical of banking, shipping, the hospitality industry and of course the mining of precious metals. 

The book is long (837 pages) and painfully detailed and if you are not well familiar with astrology, you will have to do a fair amount of sidebar reading on the subject to really understand and appreciate the complexity of the writing effort you are experiencing. A critically acclaimed book, that were it up to me, would be left gathering dust on a bookshelf!


----------



## eagle2250

This past Saturday I finished reading a Tom Clancy novel by Mark Greaney, titled Support and Defend. A fast reading tale of international conspiracies involving a highly placed but compromised NSC staffer in cahoots with a litany of Iranian and Palestinian terrorists/spies, a cast of Venezuelan, Nicaraguan, and European intelligence agents facilitating their escape efforts and the intrepid Dom Caruso and his sidekick Adara, in concert with the FBI's finest, finally run the dastardly NSC staffer to ground, wiping out the nere-do-wells complicit with him and recovering the library of CIA secrets he (the NSC Staffer) was trying to pass on to the the sworn enemies of the USA and Israel. 

The book was hard to put down and as a result, while over 500 pages in length, can be knocked out in just a couple of sittings!


----------



## Dhaller

eagle2250 said:


> The book was hard to put down and as a result, while over 500 pages in length, can be knocked out in just a couple of sittings!


Spoken like a man with grown children! 

I actually checked out a copy of Joseph Conrad's "Secret Agent" from the library the other day; I've always been a huge fan of spy thrillers, but that one - the Original Spy Thriller - has thus far escaped me. Now to find the time...

DH


----------



## eagle2250

Indeed, you have called it correctly...with our youngest currently aged 34, the wife and I are empty nesters, but with the regular presence of Grand kids to keep life interesting. They are great young folks, but fortunately, when I've a particularly good book in hand, we can send them home to mom and dad! LOL. 

PS: From your postings, I know that you already do so, but enjoy your children while they are young, for they grow up and move on way too quickly. You seem to be proving yourself a wiser parent than I, as I spent way too much of my life on work related travel and missed much of the kids lives as they were growing up. These days I'm doing things with my grandchildren that I should have first done with my kids! You seem to have your priorities in better order than I had mine. I congratulate you for that!


----------



## Shaver

I have been whiling away a few hours by idly rooting through the Shaver Archive and came across several favourite items of reading material.

Here a very fine copy of the famous British comic The Dandy with a cover date December 10th 1949. Delightfully simple morality and motivations are promoted herein, unreconstructed and pure, pre ghastly post modernism, an absence of meta text, good people are rewarded with a slap up meal and bad people get slapped. Perfect!


----------



## Shaver

Another selection from my extensive archive of 20th century publications.

This pulp magazine, which graced American news stands in August 1950, was Dick's first appearance in print. I was fortunate enough to obtain this magazine over 30 years ago - long before he eventually gained his rightful recognition as one of the great American authors.

I am an enormous fan of the work of Phil Dick. The themes advanced and explored by Dick resonate with my own philosophical obsessions - en precis: what is real?

It is a tatty copy but it is a much beloved item and I treasure it. The texture of the pulp, the blurry print, the garish cover replete with bosomy damsel and grimacing BEM, the heart meltingly heady scent of vanilla and musty age which wafts from the pages, all serve to open a conduit to undiluted bliss.


----------



## Shaver

I am currently composing my review of this book - please stand by.


----------



## Shaver

More from the Shaver Archive.

This item was my father's Xmas present in 1947, it bears his splendid cursive signature.

Laurel and Hardy, Abbott and Costello, Max Miller et al plus, in accompaniment to the text stories some, uncredited, kinetic artwork that is surely heavily informed by that which issued from the pen of Thomas Henry. A politically incorrect volume chock full of mischief and larks - magical.


----------



## Mr. B. Scott Robinson

Shaver, 

Greatly enjoyed your posting as usual. 

I too am a fan of pulps in addition to heavily worn golden age comics from the '40s. I think I enjoy the tactile feel of the book in my hand and the aroma of disintegrating paper as much as the stories contained within. Walking into an antiquarian book store and breathing in that heady combination of old leather, animal glue and aging paper is one of my favorite sensory experiences. It beats any drug on the market in its ability to make my soul sing and my wallet cry!

In the early '80s, I was 15 years old and just getting into paper collectibles. I had seen an advert in the paper posted by a fellow selling his old comic book collection and I asked my father to drive me over to see what he had on offer. The fellows basement room was filled with early '60s comics, most in a shabby state. My father gave me $100 to buy the lot and I spent the next several months in a state of bliss while I poured through the collection. It was one of the greatest gifts I ever received from my father. He understood on some level that a child who reads comic books....reads! Ideas soon follow. 

Also, glad to see you enjoyed Teddy Bare. I think it is an excellent book and I look forward to your review. 

Cheers, 

BSR


----------



## Shaver

BSR, my fine fellow, why am I not surprised that you share this passion?

I can vividly, and jealously, imagine the thrill of that basement - it is such stuff as my dreams are made on.

And my little life is rounded with a Jack Kirby Fantastic Four - which I came within a hair's breadth of posting but didn't reach the main vein of my Kirby collection, just a few outliers incorrectly filed, and none of them had particularly attractive cover art.

As a boy, I read my way through the local library, the school library, and my own extensive personal library, quaffing the cream of lauded English literature. Whilst this noble thirst for education, erudition, enlightenment and edification was all well and good, still - comics with their immediacy, iconography (and not forgetting violence) represented a secret library, the revenge of the powerless, a realm obscured from grow-ups, something decidedly mine.


----------



## eagle2250

While it would not have been my first choice for a read, it was our book clubs most recent selection and so I recently read The Paris Wife, by Paula McLain. It is a novel, based on fact...well written and surprisingly informative as to Ernest Hemingway's life and times. Having read and greatly enjoyed several of Hemingway's novels, I was rather disappointed to read of what a cad he was in terms of his management of personal relationships. Oh well, another one falls from his/her ivory tower!


----------



## eagle2250

Just finished reading David BalDacci's "Zero Day," the first novel in the CID Agent John Puller four book series. Having previously read the other three books in the series, I figured it was about time to read the first. Typical of Baldacci, iot is a fast reading 'tecno mystery' that once begun, is almost impossible to put down. Not surprisingly, the good guys win, but trust me, clear your schedule before reading page one of this yarn and be sure to put on the coffee because you will be up late reading!


----------



## eagle2250

Author David Baldacci continues to hold my reading fascination as I picked up a copy of Memory Man, another series in Baldacci's writings. This one showcases a former NFL player, whose on field injury left him with the ability to remember everything to which he was exposed. Perfect memory serves Amos Decker well as a uniformed policeman and as a detective and facilitates his navigation through the complex and twisted minds of two serial killers, savaging his, Decker's, family and his community as a whole, resulting in the tracking down and annihilation of those responsible for the homicidal madness. Another very goo and entertaining read! :crazy:


----------



## Shaver

Black Kiss 2. A challenging, if not downright offensive, and cerebral graphic novel, prequel to the much lauded and controversial 1980's romp by the same creator, the inimitable Howard Chaykin.

This work requires a literary sophistication of the reader which, in combination with a broad mind, will allow for an appreciation of this unflinching tour of the twilight hinterland between the domains of Thanatic and Erotic with transport provided via the Hard-Boiled genre.

There are few pages that lack sexually explicit and/or extreme gore but this page is harmless enough to reproduce here in order to demonstrate the crackling power of the visceral kinetic art:


----------



## The Irishman

Last time I posted in the thread I was starting Robert Fagles' translation of The Iliad.

I'm still slowly going through Mortimer J Adler's reading list of 'The Great Books Of The Western World'. Barely a fraction done, so far, maybe six authors out of over three hundred.

So far I have managed The Iliad, The Odyssey, The Old Testament and of late several plays by Aeschylus, Sophocles and Aristophanes. Queued up to follow: Herodotus' The Histories, some plays by Euripedes etc.

The reading list is readily available online.

I have to say that I am finding it much easier going than I anticipated. Several of the Old Testament Books were skimmed, if I'm frank, but the majority of it is more digestible than I expected. I am being careful in terms of which translation I choose, and that seems to make all the difference for some of this stuff. I've seen some translations of The Iliad that would be far harder going.

It's not 'easy', but one reason I am staying with it - aside from plain stubbornness - is also that, frankly, a lot of books that I was buying just turned out to be rubbish. At least half. At least with the classics there is a process of winnowing that has gone on.


----------



## ran23

This turned out to be the third time, Anne Rice, the Mummy or Ramses the Damned. Just needed that time and place.


----------



## eagle2250

This past week I read Baldacci's "The Last Mile" and am currently plowing through "The Fix," two more novels from Baldacci's Amos Decker series. Both are engrossing reads to occupy one's mind, while ensconced in the comfort provided by a good air conditioner, while the world out of doors swelters and wilts in the heat and humidity characteristic of this time of year in central Florida. Entertaining reads...both of them. One just can't ask for much more than that from a book(s). 

I've also picked up and have been reading Senator John McCain's recent book, The Restless Wave. A very touching narrative...reading a book with a lump in my throat is a new experience for me!


----------



## Cassadine

The Irishman said:


> Last time I posted in the thread I was starting Robert Fagles' translation of The Iliad.
> 
> I'm still slowly going through Mortimer J Adler's reading list of 'The Great Books Of The Western World'. Barely a fraction done, so far, maybe six authors out of over three hundred.
> 
> So far I have managed The Iliad, The Odyssey, The Old Testament and of late several plays by Aeschylus, Sophocles and Aristophanes. Queued up to follow: Herodotus' The Histories, some plays by Euripedes etc.
> 
> The reading list is readily available online.
> 
> I have to say that I am finding it much easier going than I anticipated. Several of the Old Testament Books were skimmed, if I'm frank, but the majority of it is more digestible than I expected. I am being careful in terms of which translation I choose, and that seems to make all the difference for some of this stuff. I've seen some translations of The Iliad that would be far harder going.
> 
> It's not 'easy', but one reason I am staying with it - aside from plain stubbornness - is also that, frankly, a lot of books that I was buying just turned out to be rubbish. At least half. At least with the classics there is a process of winnowing that has gone on.


Kudos for having a go at the "Big boys". Fagles' 'Iliad" is excellent. You might find Herodotus a tough read. The Greek dramas are all excellent, especially if interfaced with Aristotle's Poetics. Few persons realize what a pervasive influence Aristotle is on Western thought.


----------



## Cassadine

Shaver said:


> I have, since childhood, only read the Rieu translation (of Odyssey) - which is a literal translation of the prose and does not attempt to mangle the meaning into a deformed English language version of the original dactylic hexameter.
> 
> The Illiad I did not find sufficiently engaging to ever consider a re-reading, perhaps in this (marginally) matured state I may be encouraged to attempt the tome anew?
> 
> ..


Just found this thread and hit the "back" button and stopped at 2016 and started from there. Sorry to bring up a 2 plus year old post. But I'm always in the minority on this. I like The Iliad much more. To me, Hector is as fine an example of manhood as you'll find in the Western Canon, and the comparison between he and Achilles (that overweening lout) is remarkable.


----------



## Cassadine

Dhaller said:


> It's surprisingly uncommon for physics to come up as a topic on a clothing forum!
> 
> DH


I'm doubtlessly going to be flagged by the authorities for bringing up these old posts. But without physics... there are no clothes to discuss.


----------



## Cassadine

Shaver said:


> There is no such thing as too much knowledge.
> 
> https://postimg.org/image/9ixjw40jh/


So said a Snake, once upon a time.


----------



## Shaver

Cassadine said:


> Just found this thread and hit the "back" button and stopped at 2016 and started from there. Sorry to bring up a 2 plus year old post. But I'm always in the minority on this. I like The Iliad much more. To me, Hector is as fine an example of manhood as you'll find in the Western Canon, and the comparison between he and Achilles (that overweening lout) is remarkable.


Speaking of overweening louts. Go back a few pages to post 332 and one discovers this poetry/trollery:

"Art should possess immediacy, demand one's attention. Visceral is the moment next yet intellectual is the memory - we cling to the transience of vital experience with the conjectures of recalcitrant analysis. Enduring Art functions as grandiose themes expressed with subtlety not subtleties expressed with grandiose themes. Joyce's hubris, his minor stylistic experiments, are lacking of spontaneity, moreover, lacking characters with whom we might identify, redolent of cloying artifice and ultimately bereft of substance. If Art expels us from our own imagination, disconnects us from our experiences, then it simply will not do.

Art must speak to our mythic narrative existence, that way in which we make sense of our flickering moment upon this stage, under the proscenium arch of a hollow sky, the kliegs of the Moon's submerged inspiration illuminating us as we clown and rage across the splintered boards of our years, desperately ad-libbing dialogue, jibes from the cheap seats, bouquets from the balcony, merciless critics salivating on our every error, to epilogue and the forlorn hopes of encore and dismal applause, to the curtain call of oblivion. Exeunt.

Joyce, however, has nothing to say at all."

.
.

.
.
.
..


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## Shaver

Cassadine said:


> So said a Snake, once upon a time.


The Adversary was correct.

The Tree of Knowledge edict was but a ruse to keep us away from the Tree of Life.


----------



## Cassadine

Shaver said:


> Speaking of overweening louts. Go back a few pages to post 332 and one discovers this poetry/trollery:
> 
> "Art should possess immediacy, demand one's attention. Visceral is the moment next yet intellectual is the memory - we cling to the transience of vital experience with the conjectures of recalcitrant analysis. Enduring Art functions as grandiose themes expressed with subtlety not subtleties expressed with grandiose themes. Joyce's hubris, his minor stylistic experiments, are lacking of spontaneity, moreover, lacking characters with whom we might identify, redolent of cloying artifice and ultimately bereft of substance. If Art expels us from our own imagination, disconnects us from our experiences, then it simply will not do.
> 
> Art must speak to our mythic narrative existence, that way in which we make sense of our flickering moment upon this stage, under the proscenium arch of a hollow sky, the kliegs of the Moon's submerged inspiration illuminating us as we clown and rage across the splintered boards of our years, desperately ad-libbing dialogue, jibes from the cheap seats, bouquets from the balcony, merciless critics salivating on our every error, to epilogue and the forlorn hopes of encore and dismal applause, to the curtain call of oblivion. Exeunt.
> 
> Joyce, however, has nothing to say at all."
> 
> I did read that one! This thread is going to be a problem for me. Now, onto matters at hand. A lout cannot utilize subordinate clauses with such ease; you've disqualified yourself. But I suppose you could go to a "soccer" game in Manchester and try and refurb your reputation. BTW what is this "soccer" thing?
> 
> .
> .
> 
> .
> .
> .
> ..


----------



## Cassadine

Furthermore, I basically agree with you on Joyce. I don't approve of giving books the Farenheit 451 routine, despite my philosophical and religious convictions. But Finnegan's Wake doesn't deserve a proper wake, and it never met a hearth it didn't deserve. Toss Gertrude Stein in there while your at it.


----------



## Cassadine

Somewhere in that Joyce give and take, a fellow brought up Schoenberg. Now, I adore the man and much of the 20th Century modernistic "classical" music; I also like abstract art very much. But you simply cannot--not merely may not--experiment like that with language, unless you want to end up in a corner sucking your thumb while weeping over a copy of Derrida or Foucault. I'll give Foucault good marks for creating personal sartorial style--although I think he basically went Yul Brynner with a turtleneck.


----------



## Cassadine

Shaver said:


> The Adversary was correct.
> 
> The Tree of Knowledge edict was but a ruse to keep us away from the Tree of Life.


Hmm. I'm a relative newcomer to AAAC. So, uncertain about the protocols about debate on these topics. Besides I use AAAC as a relaxing garden of gentility. I have other fora for mind-numbing debate.

I'll comment (next paragraphs), and then politely ask you to go to my question thread of early this morning "Question on Some Shoes" and offer your expert opinion. Fair enough? I could write and discuss this for hours, an dI'll be returning to work in 30 minutes. So...

Here we go. On this, and all other serious matters, knowing and rigorously examining one's presuppositions is essential because "objectivity" is something of a red herring intellectually. One must possess intellectual axioms from which to begin, and axioms, as such, are given and unprovable. Without acknowledging the need for a priori intellectual axioms for thought _to be even possible, _is to land in what I call "Hume's Never Ending Cycle of Skeptical Stupidity"--subtitled "Why Kant Can't Ever Conclude That He Can't Know That He's Kant Or Not Kant."

Locke was dead wrong--we're not born tabula rasa--an unprovable proposition, but that was his axiom. And while he got much correct, he got that wrong, and he's a main reason that more folk aren't singing "God Save The Queen". And via Romans 13, I can reasonably assert that that wondrous batch of Deists in The Colonies went off the rails. Give me George III over Clinton, Bush, Obama, and Trump anyday, anytime, anywhere. Whew! (A pox on whoever started this thread in 2011 or whenever. Just joking. Maybe just a sore throat. LOL)

Few are aware that presuppositions even exist, and even fewer are self-conciosusly examining their own presupps' when engaged in thought. And sadly, few people think, much less meta-think regarding their thinking. BTW--you seem to be one of the minority on this issue. Bully for you!

Now, to the immediate issue. The edict could not have been a ruse because The Tree of Life was unneeded at that point--"life" was already a given reality.

Furthermore, an analysis of the text, from any axiomatic set of presuppositions renders The Almighty correct. If viewed as history--He's sovereign and knows what we need better than we do--He's sovereign and may do whatever he wants. If viewed as "pious myth", the same conclusion can be reached; if viewed as "fiction", the same conclusion can be reached.

If viewed as "propagandistic myth" that's a self-refuting position. Too much dramatic detail is missing--the narrative isn't Homeric or heroic in any sense because there isn't a hero. (Ahh, but there is. More on that in a moment.) And there is NEVER a tie in to the event in the succeeding narrative in Genesis, and Genesis is a very well organized narrative with a great heroic arc.

No matter one's religious views, if you want to understand the biblical narrative you must wrestle with Genesis. I assert that Gen. 3.15 is the "skeleton key" to unlocking the ENTIRETY of the biblical narrative. Frankly, its the most important verse in the library. The "Bible" is a library--not a single volume, most people go way askew because of the presupposition that it's a solitary volume and not a collection of a wide swath of genres.

Good grief, man, look what you've done to me!

Now unto a BRIEF analysis of your response. And I could be wrong-but its been awhile (how's that for Overweening!).

1. By capitalizing "The Adversary" and by merely using that designation, you're tacitly acknowledging that a war was afoot (BTW, I'm sure you know the Hebrew for "adversary" isn't used in the Genesis narrative).

2. If the snake is the adversary, and he is correct, then why is he termed "adversary"? The Almighty must deserve that appellation from this view.

3. Your use of "us" either implies an agreement with Romans 5/1 Cor. 15 et. al or is simply an imprecise use of the term (it is the weekend and this is AAAC).

4. Sadly, the "was but a ruse" phraseology either falls prey to the "God is a Big Meany" school of thought, or is bait to get a debate going, or is sign of world weary cynicism--a view a sadly understand all too well.

Now please offer an opinion on those shoes I queried about.

But I must get back to work now, as the students will arrive shortly. Arrivederci, buon uomo


----------



## Cassadine

For the record I was reading some B.B. Warfield before taking a break on AAAC!


----------



## Shaver

Cassadine said:


> Hmm. I'm a relative newcomer to AAAC. So, uncertain about the protocols about debate on these topics. Besides I use AAAC as a relaxing garden of gentility. I have other fora for mind-numbing debate.
> 
> I'll comment (next paragraphs), and then politely ask you to go to my question thread of early this morning "Question on Some Shoes" and offer your expert opinion. Fair enough? I could write and discuss this for hours, an dI'll be returning to work in 30 minutes. So...
> 
> Here we go. On this, and all other serious matters, knowing and rigorously examining one's presuppositions is essential because "objectivity" is something of a red herring intellectually. One must possess intellectual axioms from which to begin, and axioms, as such, are given and unprovable. Without acknowledging the need for a priori intellectual axioms for thought _to be even possible, _is to land in what I call "Hume's Never Ending Cycle of Skeptical Stupidity"--subtitled "Why Kant Can't Ever Conclude That He Can't Know That He's Kant Or Not Kant."
> 
> Locke was dead wrong--we're not born tabula rasa--an unprovable proposition, but that was his axiom. And while he got much correct, he got that wrong, and he's a main reason that more folk aren't singing "God Save The Queen". And via Romans 13, I can reasonably assert that that wondrous batch of Deists in The Colonies went off the rails. Give me George III over Clinton, Bush, Obama, and Trump anyday, anytime, anywhere. Whew! (A pox on whoever started this thread in 2011 or whenever. Just joking. Maybe just a sore throat. LOL)
> 
> Few are aware that presuppositions even exist, and even fewer are self-conciosusly examining their own presupps' when engaged in thought. And sadly, few people think, much less meta-think regarding their thinking. BTW--you seem to be one of the minority on this issue. Bully for you!
> 
> Now, to the immediate issue. The edict could not have been a ruse because The Tree of Life was unneeded at that point--"life" was already a given reality.
> 
> Furthermore, an analysis of the text, from any axiomatic set of presuppositions renders The Almighty correct. If viewed as history--He's sovereign and knows what we need better than we do--He's sovereign and may do whatever he wants. If viewed as "pious myth", the same conclusion can be reached; if viewed as "fiction", the same conclusion can be reached.
> 
> If viewed as "propagandistic myth" that's a self-refuting position. Too much dramatic detail is missing--the narrative isn't Homeric or heroic in any sense because there isn't a hero. (Ahh, but there is. More on that in a moment.) And there is NEVER a tie in to the event in the succeeding narrative in Genesis, and Genesis is a very well organized narrative with a great heroic arc.
> 
> No matter one's religious views, if you want to understand the biblical narrative you must wrestle with Genesis. I assert that Gen. 3.15 is the "skeleton key" to unlocking the ENTIRETY of the biblical narrative. Frankly, its the most important verse in the library. The "Bible" is a library--not a single volume, most people go way askew because of the presupposition that it's a solitary volume and not a collection of a wide swath of genres.
> 
> Good grief, man, look what you've done to me!
> 
> Now unto a BRIEF analysis of your response. And I could be wrong-but its been awhile (how's that for Overweening!).
> 
> 1. By capitalizing "The Adversary" and by merely using that designation, you're tacitly acknowledging that a war was afoot (BTW, I'm sure you know the Hebrew for "adversary" isn't used in the Genesis narrative).
> 
> 2. If the snake is the adversary, and he is correct, then why is he termed "adversary"? The Almighty must deserve that appellation from this view.
> 
> 3. Your use of "us" either implies an agreement with Romans 5/1 Cor. 15 et. al or is simply an imprecise use of the term (it is the weekend and this is AAAC).
> 
> 4. Sadly, the "was but a ruse" phraseology either falls prey to the "God is a Big Meany" school of thought, or is bait to get a debate going, or is sign of world weary cynicism--a view a sadly understand all too well.
> 
> Now please offer an opinion on those shoes I queried about.
> 
> But I must get back to work now, as the students will arrive shortly. Arrivederci, buon uomo


Marvellous work! A most enjoyable post.

I will restrict myself to noting that whilst the serpent of the Protevangelium is not identified directly as being the a little 's', let alone the big 'S', such it was that the nuns drummed in to my noggin - along with a few other, less holy, notions, but let's not get into that right now.....

As to the Tree of Life, it is the Tree of _Eternal_ Life. G 3:22

If you have not already read it might I recommend 'The Martyrdom of Man' (1872) Winwood Reade?


----------



## Cassadine

Shaver said:


> Marvellous work! A most enjoyable post.
> 
> I will restrict myself to noting that whilst the serpent of the Protevangelium is not identified directly as being the a little 's', let alone the big 'S', such it was that the nuns drummed in to my noggin - along with a few other, less holy, notions, but let's not get into that right now.....
> 
> As to the Tree of Life, it is the Tree of _Eternal_ Life. G 3:22
> 
> If you have not already read it might I recommend 'The Martyrdom of Man' (1872) Winwood Reade?


I shall order the book this evening. Most thankful. If Sherlock and Mr. Rhodes like it, well, then who am I to dither. Nuns? I'm the product of the Dominican Order parochial system. Once got yelled at for taking TOO long in First Friday confession--hey I took that sacrament seriously!


----------



## Shaver

Another sophisticated and erudite graphic novel - Alan Moore's Triptych "Century".

This work, although it can be read as a rollocking, if convoluted, adventure, is best appreciated through the prism of an extraordinarily thorough appreciation of British culture, high brow through to lowbrow. Indeed, the references are so dense and obscure (Zanoni anyone?) in this work that even I was obliged to occasionally consult the interwebz for further illumination*.

Amongst the myriad treats none is quite so toothsome as the theme which wends its way from commencement to conclusion the damning (but subtle - litigious as she is) condemnation of J K Rowling's trite twaddle. However we do also find a rather natty adulation in the fictionalised analogue for Brian Jones, Basil Thomas.


















* This is a rather useful (but not exhaustative) resource: https://jessnevins.com/annotations/1969annotations.html


----------



## Cassadine

Shaver said:


> Another sophisticated and erudite graphic novel - Alan Moore's Triptych "Century".
> 
> This work, although it can be read as a rollocking, if convoluted, adventure, is best appreciated through the prism of an extraordinarily thorough appreciation of British culture, high brow through to lowbrow. Indeed, the references are so dense and obscure (Zanoni anyone?) in this work that even I was obliged to occasionally consult the interwebz for further illumination*.
> 
> Amongst the myriad treats none is quite so toothsome as the theme which wends its way from commencement to conclusion the damning (but subtle - litigious as she is) condemnation of J K Rowling's trite twaddle. However we do also find a rather natty adulation in the fictionalised analogue for Brian Jones, Basil Thomas.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> * This is a rather useful (but not exhaustative) resource: https://jessnevins.com/annotations/1969annotations.html


I've never spent more than 5 mins. pursuing a graphic novel. Then you go and mention Brian Jones! Sweet, innocent lil' Brian.


----------



## eagle2250

During our recent road trip, I read the latest novel in David Baldacci's Amos Decker/Memory Man series, "The Fallen." Set in the fictional town of Baronsville, PA, Amos Decker and his team of investigators pursues the perpetrators of a series of murders, seemingly somehow tied to the raging Opioid addiction crisis, but also placing the town founders' heir(s) under a cloud of suspicion. An absorbing read and one which will surprise you with it's conclusions!


----------



## The Irishman

I'm still following the Mortimer J. Adler reading list. Finished Herodotus' The Histories and now going through several plays by Euripides (Medea, Hecabe, Electra and Herakles). 

There's an interesting overlap between my print reading, as above, and my audiobook listening:-

I recently finished Nicholas Nassim Taleb's Skin In The Game, which I highly, highly recommend, and I was interested to hear his comments about the ancients' understanding of real-world risk, and the application of this insight in their individual and collective decision making. He provides a few examples from Herodotus, which were of course familiar to me, and now I cannot but help stumble over my own examples everywhere, even in Euripides. As Taleb suggests, it is a great irony that contemporary classicists and academics are so far removed, in terms of temperament and experience, from these cultures.


----------



## eagle2250

^^One of the minor luxuries being retired affords me is being able to spend a lot more time reading for pleasure, rather than knowledge. I recently finished another of David Baldacci's thrillers, "The Winner." A story about a down on her luck, young single mother in a small, dusty Georgia town, accused of a double murder, who wins a $100,000,000 national lottery and spends the next 11+ years of her life avoiding her benefactor, the local sheriffs office in her small Georgia home town, the IRS and the FBI. Life is good! LOL.


----------



## Oldsarge

For decades I was a voracious reader--of non-fiction. Currently, I'm bingeing on PBS documentaries to the detriment of my library. Once I'm all caught up I'll go back to the pages again. However, I do want to recommend _I Contain Multitudes_ by Ed Yong. He writes extraordinarily well and the subject matter is fascinating.


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## eagle2250

Thanks much, my friend, for that book recommendation...it promises to be an engrossing read! A copy will be in my next Amazon order. :icon_pale:


----------



## Mr. B. Scott Robinson

I am currently reading The Plus One by Sophia Money Coutts.

Miss Money Coutts is former features editor for Tatler and she writes a weekly column for the Telegraph. Her grandfather was Baron Deedes, long time editor of the Telegraph and Tory MP, and her father is the 9th Baron Latymer of the Money Coutts banking family. Her brother Drummond, is a well know illusionist. I have been reading her Tatler and newspaper work for the past five years and I believe she is one of the best new writing talents in the UK. I am a huge fan.

The Plus One is her first novel. It has been cast as chick-lit summer fare, but I see more subtlety in her work and the appeal is broader than its retail pigeon hole suggests.

https://www.amazon.com/Plus-One-Sophia-Money-Coutts-ebook/dp/B077V4QSP5

Cheers,

BSR


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## SG_67

"_Arguably"_ - A collection of essays by Christopher Hutchins.


----------



## eagle2250

Oldsarge said:


> For decades I was a voracious reader--of non-fiction. Currently, I'm bingeing on PBS documentaries to the detriment of my library. Once I'm all caught up I'll go back to the pages again. However, I do want to recommend _I Contain Multitudes_ by Ed Yong. He writes extraordinarily well and the subject matter is fascinating.





eagle2250 said:


> Thanks much, my friend, for that book recommendation...it promises to be an engrossing read! A copy will be in my next Amazon order. :icon_pale:


Copy received in today's mail!


----------



## Oldsarge

You will be amazed. A careful reading indicates just how unlikely 'advanced' life in the galaxy really is and ups the odds that we really are alone.


----------



## Oldsarge

Currently I'm working my way through _The Domestic Dog,_ a series of rather technical essays on the species. This is not something to enjoy over a snifter of fine Calvados, I can tell you. The reading is pretty academic but I find it fascinating.


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## Oldsarge

I just received in the mail, _Eager. _It's about the history and current status of the beaver and it is not only educational but endlessly entertaining. I may just put _The Domestic Dog_ aside for a while. This is one fun book.


----------



## Anton22

Caleb Carr The Alienist. Really good historical thriller.


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## Oldsarge

_Eager_ is just as much fun and even more interesting than my first impression. Highly recommended.


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## eagle2250

Today I will be finishing up Clive Cussler's Emperor's Revenge...a good guy dies in this one and I really hate that, but it is a riveting yarn...hard to put down! After this I plan to reread a couple of books by John McCain, Restless Wave and Faith of My Fathers, in memory of the late Senator!


----------



## Vecchio Vespa

I am immersed at present in Charles Finch murder mysteries. If you like Dorothy L. Sayers, you’ll like these. I confine my more serious reading to the smaller doses I can obtain in the New Yorker and the Atlantic.


----------



## Repington

I tried Finch's novels but found the frequent Americanisms broke the sense of time and place; I'd recommend Barbara Cleverly's Sandilands novels and her new novel set in Cambridge in 1923.


----------



## Oldsarge

Having completed _Eager_ and having enjoyed it immensely I have embarked upon _Coyote America_. Entirely different but equally entrancing. Fascinating and delightful.


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## eagle2250

This months Book Club reading was Michelle McNamara's "I'll Be Gone In The Dark," the details of an arguably obsessive quest to discover the identity of the East Area Rapist/Golden State Killer...the perpetrator of a decade long series of rapes and murders spread throughout three communities in central California. McNamara's effort will never be credited with identifying the killer, but her efforts certainly advanced the cause. It is rather alarming to consider the ongoing tragedies that seem to play out in our midst and we seen never to take notice! :icon_scratch:


----------



## Oldsarge

_The Imagineers of War_, the story of DARPA. I'm not sure if this one will keep my attention.


----------



## derum

Just started _Berlin - _Anthony Beevor. Thought provoking from the off!


----------



## Shaver

Peter Watkins - profoundly influential yet largely unknown.

A hit-and-miss collection of essays examining the extraordinary body of work that Watkins has provided.


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## derum

Shaver said:


> Peter Watkins - profoundly influential yet largely unknown.
> 
> A hit-and-miss collection of essays examining the extraordinary body of work that Watkins has provided.


I first became aware of him after reading that a letter he wrote to John and Yoko largely influenced the Lennons into starting their peace campaign. There was also a reference to a film he made: "The War Game" which I eventually watched and thought was awful. I will look for the above book.


----------



## eagle2250

Over the past couple of weeks I've read two books, each providing it's unique perspective on the same subject. The first is A Second Wind by Philippe Pozzo di Borgo ant the second is You Changed My Life by Abdel Sellou. Phillippe Pozzo di Borgo is an athletic, wealthy aristocrat who becomes a Tetrapalegic in a hang gliding accident when he is 43 years of age. Only able to move his head and afflicted with almost constant, excruciating pain, di Borgo requires the devoted services of a "life auxiliary" to perform virtually all life functions and to engage in making a living and raising a family.

Abdel Sellou is the gentleman serving as di Borgo's life auxiliary and his book conveys his impressions of that experience. Both gentlemen end up living surprisingly productive, fulfilling and generally good humored lives in spite of the obvious challenges that must be over come. Both books are well worth reading and there is a movie out, The Intouchables, that also tells the story!


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## Shaver

Isaac Newton, ever keen to lift the safety curtain a little and peer at the backstage workings of the Universe Theatre, to observe the paint and carpentry which permits us the illusion of form and substance, to glimpse the stage hands shifting the props and sets and to wonder what instruction governs their action, to guess at the content of scripts clutched in the anxious hands of under-rehearsed actors, to speculate upon the feverish fantasy stumbling 'twixt the proscenium arch of firmament and lime light of the fore-stage, here applies the scrutiny of his singular intellect to certain of those prophetic passages of scripture and ruminates upon the prisca sapienta of their eschatology.

TL;DR - Don't make any plans for 2060.


----------



## Peak and Pine

re: *What's everyone reading now?*

Well can't speak for *everyone*, but for me t'would be the above post. Highly entertaining.


----------



## The Irishman

Still plugging away at my Mortimer J Adler reading list.

About halfway through Plato's Republic, having preceded it with several of the dialogues concerned with justice and piety.


----------



## Fading Fast

"Manhattan Beach" by Jennifer Egan.

This is a good book - a solid read - that I enjoyed, but I'm really surprised it has won awards and received so many accolades and so much positive press. Every year, I try to read a few books that are highly regarded new(ish) fiction in hopes of finding a gem and to stay connected to what is currently in vogue.

In years past, doing this, I've found books that have lived up to the hype and some that have greatly disappointed, but this one - like so many - is simply a good book that left me amazed that it is an award winner and considered an outstanding literary achievement (yes, I'm also talking about you "The Goldfinch").

"Manhattan Beach" is a solid WWII historical novel about a Brooklyn teenage woman shaken by the disappearance of her (unknown to her) mob-employed father who helps her mother care for her severely disabled sister while forcing her way into the (at the time) man's career of diving at the Naval Yard.

Probably obvious, but yes, like almost all modern historical novels, it feels reverse engineered to advance today's political pieties. And here's the thing, I support most of the political views, but can't stand the transparent pandering and politicking. Sadly, maybe it's because of that political obeisance that these good books become award-winning best sellers.

Away from the forced messaging, the book does a very good job of weaving its heroine into the well-drawn 1940's worlds of her Brooklyn neighborhood, the crucial-to-the-war-effort Naval Yard and the mob-controlled docks and NYC nightclubs. Egan also builds out some complex characters: in addition to our heroine, she connects you to - almost has you rooting for - an atypical and thoughtful mob boss.

And it's a page turner - you want to know what happens next. Where it fails at greatness is that you can see the seams - characters are introduced too close to when they'll be plot-critical and guns are so obviously hung on the wall that you are just waiting for them to be used. That said, read it with moderate expectations and you'll enjoy a trip to the '40s as seen through modern eyes, but I doubt you'll think you're reading a modern classic or found a lost book from the period.


----------



## The Irishman

Finished The Republic and started on The Nichomanchean Ethics (Aristotle).

I have a few books by Xenophon and The Politics (Aristotle again) after this, and then it's on to the Stoics.


----------



## ChrisRS

The Irishman said:


> Finished The Republic and started on The Nichomanchean Ethics (Aristotle).
> 
> I have a few books by Xenophon and The Politics (Aristotle again) after this, and then it's on to the Stoics.


I am reading Thus Spake Zarathustra and Catholicism, A Journey to the Heart and Faith.


----------



## Haffman

I am reading Max Hasting’s history of the Vietnam war (Vietnam:an Epic Tragedy) - very readable, makes you reflect on the wastefulness of war and also a timely reminder of the supreme intolerance, injustice and iniquity of communism


----------



## The Irishman

ChrisRS said:


> I am reading Thus Spake Zarathustra and Catholicism, A Journey to the Heart and Faith.


Is the Catholicism one by Bishop Barron, or is it something else?


----------



## eagle2250

Having last read the book back in the early 1960's, I recently re-read George Orwell's novel "1984." On my initial reading, I seem to recall thinking..."Jeez Louise, that could never happen in our beloved USA. However, the past few years have left me wondering as to the viability of that original conclusion!


----------



## Vecchio Vespa

Someone here has to read murder mysteries and current fiction. I’m holding up that end with the latest Louise Penny.


----------



## ChrisRS

The Irishman said:


> Is the Catholicism one by Bishop Barron, or is it something else?


Why yes it is. Looking for echos between the two books, and I assume Aquinas is next for me.


----------



## eagle2250

TKI67 said:


> Someone here has to read murder mysteries and current fiction. I'm holding up that end with the latest Louise Penny.


I am a confirmed fan of author's David Baldacci and Clive Cussler. At least some of each of their works could be considered as murder mysteries...I think? Few weeks go by in which I don't chew through what some might consider a trash novel or two. LOL.


----------



## Mr. B. Scott Robinson

Just bought the Patrick Melrose series. Looking forward to digging into it.

Cheers,

BSR


----------



## Oldsarge

Lowlife that I am, I'm reading the Discworld Atlas. Much amusement.


----------



## SG_67




----------



## The Irishman

Xenophon's Anabasis


----------



## SG_67

The Irishman said:


> Xenophon's Anabasis


----------



## Vecchio Vespa

Just devoured Everybody Lies by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz. Fascinating look into the ways big data (such as Google searches) can be used to discern what we are really like.


----------



## Oldsarge

_Underground_, by Will Hunt. It's a story of one man's obsession with being beneath the earth and with those equally obsessed.


----------



## Dhaller

I've got kind of a heavy slate at the moment:

Michael Pollan's latest, "How to Change Your Mind", basically a survey of the current state of research into applications of psychedelics, as well as elements of theory and philosophy surrounding them (with typical Pollen-Level insights.)

"Rawls" by Samuel Freeman. John Rawls is a philosopher whom I sort of developed an interest in over the holidays. I used my free time to explore the common postmodern underpinnings of both the modern left and the alt-right, and somehow came out wanting to read Rawls, so I'm starting with Freeman's survey as an introduction.

"Early Greek Philosophy" by Jonathan Barnes et. al, again, a response to my studies over the Holidays.

I need something light to read, so I may head to the library tomorrow to pick up a Sharpe book by Bernard Cornwell (a series I've worked through over the years.)

DH


----------



## Oldsarge

Terry Pratchett, His World.


----------



## Vecchio Vespa

_Doc_ by Mary Doria Russell, a biographical novel about Doc Holliday and his buds. Next is the latest Charles Finch.


----------



## The Irishman

Finished Xenophon's The Persian Expedition, and also an audiobook of The Aneid by Virgil.

Now onto Aristotle - The Politics - and an audio version of Ovid's Metamorphoses.

This is very random but I'm also dipping into Tony Robbins' Awaken The Giant Within. I bought this some time ago against my own best judgment. I've always found Robbins to talk a lot, but when I drill down I can find very little of substance that I like. On the other hand, this book was heavily, heavily recommended to me so I broke down and decided I would give it a hearing. I am somewhat biased against Robbins an expecting to confirm that he is a bit of a charlatan but we'll see.


----------



## Peak and Pine

Just finished the comics in the Maine Sunday Telegram, does that count? Also three-quarters through Davies' The Cunning Man. One of the best books I've ever read, rather one of the best of the two books I 've ever read.


----------



## eagle2250

This month's book club selection was/is Killers of The Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and The Birth of The FBI. It always amazes/disappoints me to learn of and /or be reminded of how depraved our treatment of other social groups has at times been and how our corrupted legal institutions and elective governmental bodies has failed us, as badly as they failed those ostracized segments of our population. This book is a must read. Egad, we still have so much to learn.


----------



## Oldsarge

I finished Pratchett's _World_ and am not sure what to start on next.


----------



## Vecchio Vespa

Oldsarge said:


> I finished Pratchett's _World_ and am not sure what to start on next.


Are you sharing or seeking recommendations? If the latter, what is your Preferred genre? Science fiction? Mystery? History? Philosophy?...?


----------



## Oldsarge

Well, I'm not sure at present. Most fiction is out of the question and I have a strong preference for reading-for-knowledge/information. My interests are an ocean broad but sometimes a puddle deep. That's why I haven't decided . . .

Maybe I'll go work my way through some upscale seed catalogs. It is that time of year in the PNW.


----------



## Dhaller

Oldsarge said:


> Most fiction is out of the question and I have a strong preference for reading-for-knowledge/information. My interests are an ocean broad but sometimes a puddle deep. That's why I haven't decided . . .


Well, speaking of "ocean-broad interests", I highly recommend Yuval Noah Harari's "Sapiens", a survey of human history from a bit of a different perspective. Quite fascinating, and will probably open avenues for further reading.

If you're interested in language and the evolution of reading, Maryanne Wolf's "Proust and the Squid" is full of canny insights.

DH


----------



## Shaver

Oldsarge said:


> Well, I'm not sure at present. Most fiction is out of the question and I have a strong preference for reading-for-knowledge/information. My interests are an ocean broad but sometimes a puddle deep. That's why I haven't decided . . .
> 
> Maybe I'll go work my way through some upscale seed catalogs. It is that time of year in the PNW.


Might I recommend Harpo Marx's autobiography 'Harpo speaks!'? A singularly heartwarming and thoroughly entertaining tome detailing the great man's exploits from the grinding poverty of his Upper East Side childhood (reflected upon with no small affection) to international stardom and critical acclaim via an obsessive work ethic and a luminous intrinsic talent.

This rambling tale provides a sprightly articulation of the sheer delight of a character who revelled in his times.

Once commenced it cannot easily be put down - once read it cannot easily be forgotten.

Now, whilst Harpo's book maps the internal landscape of our intellect and our soul, should you consider advancing your familiarity with the external (but equally uncertain) realm of Quantum Physics then this digestible overview grants sufficient awe and wonder to inspire further reading wirhout discouraging the casual enquirer. Quantum tunneling, wave/particle duality, superpositions? 'The Quantum Universe', by Hey and Walters, will explain them all and more. 

This rambling tale provides a sprightly articulation of the sheer delight of the illusion of space/time revelling in its character.

Once commenced it cannot easily be put down - once read it cannot easily be forgotten.


----------



## Shaver

Dhaller said:


> Well, speaking of "ocean-broad interests", I highly recommend Yuval Noah Harari's "Sapiens", a survey of human history from a bit of a different perspective. Quite fascinating, and will probably open avenues for further reading.
> 
> If you're interested in language and the evolution of reading, Maryanne Wolf's "Proust and the Squid" is full of canny insights.
> 
> DH


Harari's themes appear to be right up my alley (you know the one, its cobblestones are stained with wine and piss and death desire. And sometimes blood) thus: ta dah! Sapiens is added to my 'wish list'.


----------



## eagle2250

Oldsarge said:


> I finished Pratchett's _World_ and am not sure what to start on next.





TKI67 said:


> Are you sharing or seeking recommendations? If the latter, what is your Preferred genre? Science fiction? Mystery? History? Philosophy?...?


I try to alternate my heavy/non-fiction reading with a light entertaining read. Within an hour after finishing Killers of the Flower Moon, I was diving into Tom Clancy/Mark Greaney's "Under Fire," one of the Jack Ryan, Jr. series of novels!


----------



## Oldsarge

Enjoy, but I'm staying away from Tom Clancy. I once started _Clear and Present Danger _in the evening and was still engrossed at 3:00 a.m. I didn't even eat breakfast until I'd finished it the next morning . . . at around 11:00! Entirely too engrossing and it brought back too many memories. I knew the 7th ID(Light) and Ft. Hunter-Liggett only too well.

So, _Sapiens, Proust and the Squid, _and _Harpo Speaks_? I see an order to Amazon in the offing. Thanks all.


----------



## eagle2250

^^I understand entirely, but
the last seven or eight Tom Clancy novels have been written entirely by coauthors, from outlines left in his estate after Clancy's untimely passing in October 2013. They don't grab the readers attention quite so tenaciously, as did Clancy's own words!


----------



## SG_67

Tod Hackett said:


> Robert K. Massie's seminal _Dreadnought_.
> 
> Frankly, not as profoundly insightful as I had remembered.


I recall reading both Dreadnought and Castles of Steel.

It was certainly insightful into the personalities of the principles.


----------



## SG_67

Tod Hackett said:


> That it certainly does but, somehow, he never quite pulls all of these wonderful personality sketches and vignettes into any sort central geopolitical, historical, military, or sociological thesis. It is all sort of left hanging, feeling unfinished - quite unlike Nicholas and Alexandra as I recall.
> 
> Of course, it might well be me as I read and reread it with great interest when it was first published and haven't picked it up the twenty-five years since grad school.
> 
> Frankly, I think that I might have mythologized it a bit in my minds eye.


I typically look at such books and treatments as a piece of the puzzle.

There are some other really wonderful books that fill in some of the other holes as well as giving a more overarching picture.

I view books on WWI as I do those on the Civil War; it's hard to find one or two books that really sum things up given the myriad of battles, personalities as well as differing political interpretations.

For a really wonderful read on Jutland, I would recommend "The Rules of the Game" by Andrew Gordon.


----------



## derum

Tod Hackett said:


> Thanks for the recommendation - I remember coming across it many years ago but, for whatever reason, I never did buy it. Will certainly look into it.
> 
> Pity that the centenary of Jutland went largely forgotten in 2016. Would have been a wonderful occasion for one of those "all-star-cast" war epics of yore.
> 
> I can see it now...
> 
> Leonardo DiCaprio as Jackie Fisher, Jude Law as David Beatty, and Scarlett Johansson as the woman they both loved but neither could ever have.
> 
> OK, maybe it was all for the best after all....
> 
> Just now rummaged through my library and I found this gem I knew I still had -
> 
> _The Development of a Moder Navy: French Naval Policy 1871-1904 _by Theodore Ropp.
> 
> https://www.amazon.com/Development-...f+a+modern+navy&qid=1552257279&s=books&sr=1-1
> 
> Covers much the same ground as _Dreadnought_ but from the perspective of the French and is still considered definitive work in the field. Written as Ph.D. thesis at Harvard in 1937, it pulls the sprawling (rambling?) subject matter tightly together into a coherent narrative in a way that I really (now) wish Massie would have done with _Dreadnought_.


It didn't go unforgotten in Britain and Europe:
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-hampshire-36416003
https://www.seawarmuseum.dk/en/Memorial-Park-for-the-Battle-of-Jutland
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...ntenary-marked-with-service-in-orkney-islands
and google will provide many more...
A really good read is "The Grand Fleet 1914-1916" by John Jellicoe. A first hand perspective.


----------



## Oldsarge

I think I'll go to work on the Oregon DFW regs on getting a trapping license. The Eastern grey and fox squirrels in my neighborhood are getting on my last nerve. Besides, they taste good.


----------



## eagle2250

^^
During my high school years I ran a trap line for muskrats along the Susquehanna river in central Pennsylvania. I had somehow convinced myself that I would make a fortune selling the hides. Never happened...I'm still looking for that fortune!  LOL.


----------



## Vecchio Vespa

eagle2250 said:


> ^^
> During my high school years I ran a trap line for muskrats along the Susquehanna river in central Pennsylvania. I had somehow convinced myself that I would make a fortune selling the hides. Never happened...I'm still looking for that fortune!  LOL.


That reminds me of one of my favorite bits of fiction, The River Why.


----------



## Oldsarge

I just began _Sea People_ by Christina Thompson. She's a splendid writer/story teller and a sound historian. It's the history and prehistory of the Polynesian expansion into the Pacific from both the European and Polynesian (her husband is Maori) viewpoint. Highly recommended.


----------



## Peak and Pine

The Cunning Man by Robertson Davies. A novel, his last. Am half-way through the hardback. Will finish with a paperback I got to take on the plane. Florida, spring training, the Malins. I only read novels if they're written by men, chauvanist pig that I am.


----------



## SG_67

Peak and Pine said:


> The Cunning Man by Robertson Davies. A novel, his last. Am half-way through the hardback. Will finish with a paperback I got to take on the plane. Florida, spring training, the Malins. I only read novels if they're written by men, chauvanist pig that I am.


No Jackie Collins novels gracing your bookshelves?


----------



## Peak and Pine

^

I started one years ago, mistaking Jackie for Jack. Ditto with a book by Ernestine Hemmingway.


----------



## eagle2250

eagle2250 said:


> I try to alternate my heavy/non-fiction reading with a light entertaining read. Within an hour after finishing Killers of the Flower Moon, I was diving into Tom Clancy/Mark Greaney's "Under Fire," one of the Jack Ryan, Jr. series of novels!


Surprisingly it took me nine days to chew through Under Fire. The story line was far less complex than Clancy's earlier independent writing efforts...fewer characters and sub-plots to keep track of, but the simpler story line was also less absorbing. It just didn't seem to be much of a challenge to put the tome down and walk away from it for a day...or two...or three! However, in the end, the good guys won again, making things all good in the world.


----------



## Shaver

Two quickly devoured paperbacks, (being the droll and unsavoury tale of Manchester's infamous night club and the droll and unsavoury tale of Leeds' infamous football club) both eminently readable - the very essence of page turners, albeit I was already fully aware as to how the grisly events described within their flimsy covers had concluded. 

Less lowbrow than you might imagine, social history with bite.


----------



## Shaver

Ok, ok, it's a graphic novel (or as I prefer it, sequential art) however this sprawling tale, originally published in irregular intervals over a 17 year period, requires a reasonable knowledge of arcana and trivia plundered from a variety of sources in order to appreciate the nuances which inform the smug pleasure


----------



## Shaver

Ok, ok, it's a graphic novel or - as I prefer it - sequential art. However this sprawling tale, originally published at irregular intervals over a 17 year period, requires of the reader a reasonable knowledge of arcana and trivia plundered from a variety of obscure sources in order to appreciate the nuances which will inform the smug pleasure of revelation. Still, even without an admiration for Aleister (Holy not foully) or a geeky interest in anglophile 60's horror and scifi there remains a great deal to recommend this sharp modern horror which is marvellously well emphasised with scrappy but convincingly gruesome chiaroscuro artwork.


----------



## Shaver

I have recently commenced this splendid volume of ruminations upon the history, the theory, and the activity which may be loosely defined as modern art. I am indebted to @Gurdon for the recommendation.

I would posit that there is little which may do a man more credit than the ownership of a rounded familiarity with literature and art. We exist within an information age, but data is quite inert and the seeds of knowledge require the fecund loam of a well exercised imagination to germinate understanding and (if one is exceedingly fortunate) blossom wisdom.

This is a treatise capable of providing the imagination with a robust work out:










However, this is a tome which requires of the reader a reasonably sophisticated prior knowledge of a vast subject and would likely be a less than useful beginning for any of our membership who might be encouraged to improve their own understanding of art. For those requiring a solid overview of the subject, I recommend Gombrich's indispensable opus.


----------



## Oldsarge

Ah, Gombrich. And excellent introduction. I read it through two semesters of Art History and regret to this day that I sold it to another student who needed it.


----------



## Peak and Pine

^

Was there anything about Thomas Kinkade, the Painter of Light, in that book?


----------



## Dhaller

Oldsarge said:


> Ah, Gombrich. And excellent introduction. I read it through two semesters of Art History and regret to this day that I sold it to another student who needed it.


Assuming you're referring to his "The Story of Art", there's no better introduction to the subject.

Here's a sobering thought: Gombrich wrote the book for a junior high/high school reader. Imagine a teenager reading it nowadays? How we have fallen!

(His "Little History of the World" was targeted at a similar audience.)

I became familiar with Karl Popper through Gombrich (the two had fled Vienna together during the _Anschluss_); Popper had considerable influence on some of his later work (theories of perception), and "The Story of Art" can be considered a critical rationalist view of the subject.

DH


----------



## Dhaller

Peak and Pine said:


> ^
> 
> Was there anything about Thomas Kinkade, the Painter of Light, in that book?


"The Story of Art" was written eight years before Thomas Kinkade was born.

So, no.

DH


----------



## Shaver

Peak and Pine said:


> ^
> 
> Was there anything about Thomas Kinkade, the Painter of Light, in that book?


Heh. Unfortunately not.

Jack Vettriano didn't make the cut either.

Nor Basquiat.

I wonder why?


----------



## SG_67

Shaver said:


> Heh. Unfortunately not.
> 
> Jack Vettriano didn't make the cut either.
> 
> Nor Basquiat.
> 
> I wonder why?


Don't forget Leroy Neiman.


----------



## Shaver

* might I replace the above with this please? For clarity, so SJ doesn't accidentally gain the, mistaken, impression that I was dismissing his contribution. Thank you.

"Neiman, at least, enjoyed acclaim prior to the publication of Gombrich's manual and, erm - Femlins! A worthy addition to art, as far as I'm concerned."


----------



## Shaver

Ex libris Shaver:


----------



## Shaver

This beautiful object collects a fine selection of Scott Walker's uniquely oblique lyrical imagery, a career spanning overview of his 'god-like genius'.

An exceptionally gifted, and phenomenally accomplished singer songwriter - to popular music Scott Walker was less John, Paul, George and Ringo and more Jean-Paul Sartre.

Walker's ability to manipulate language and thereby evoke acute sensation holds me transfixed and in awe.

Walker's verbal power exists undiminished, even after subtraction of the divine voice with which it is normally delivered.

The final chapter here, entitled New Songs, gives comfort that, whilst The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore, we may have one more album due from this most remarkable of music icons.


----------



## Shaver

As my favourite football (translation for the benefit of my American friends: soccer) team teeter on the brink of the big time once more I am reliving old glory, and the attendant ignominy, via this cerebral account of the team's history as refracted through the idiosyncratic lens of a staunchly supporting member of the tribe.


----------



## Shaver

Peak and Pine said:


> ^
> 
> Watching sports can be a sport unto itself. Reading about it, hardly.


I shall certainly keep those wise words in mind.


----------



## Oldsarge

I'm still working my way (intermittently) through _Sea People. _It's a fine, interesting and well-written book but I keep finding other things that need doing.


----------



## Peak and Pine

I am now reading Michel Chabon's _Telegraph Avenue_. Well not right now. Right now I'm writing this. But after supper I will pick it up and probably read eight pages. And then read them again. I only read authors who make me want to do this. I only read novels. I'm through with learning stuff.


----------



## Shaver

Devoured with relish - this sumptuous oversized coffee table edition, a joyous celebration of the life and work of the most important, talented, creative and prolific man to ever scribble funny books.


----------



## Shaver

Devoured with relish - this sumptuous oversized coffee table edition, a delve into the minutiae of the single most influential death metal band, Celtic Frost, and its precursor Hellhammer.

Celtic Frost went on to combine opera, classical music, literature, art and poetry with swathes of grinding doom laden riffs and, in so doing, captured a thoroughly novel idiom.

Often imitated but never bettered.


----------



## eagle2250

Just finished reading Tom Clancy's Commander In Chief, the text authored by Mark Greaney. Once again those ne're do-well Russian Commies are stirring up trouble in the Baltic Regions of Europe, in the Baltic Sea and projecting the threat of their most advanced nuclear Boomer on the USA, from just miles off our Atlantic coastline. The US and our NATO Allies push back against these military threats and also must deal with the overarching financial corruption of the Russian leadership. Not surprisingly the good guys win again and all becomes well with our world, at least for the moment or until one of Clancy's subordinate authors crafts our next crisis! It's a good read that should hold the attention of most. :beer:


----------



## Oldsarge

I'm about to start a book on the Mangroves of Mexico. It's one of those 'coffee table' monstrosities.


----------



## Peak and Pine

I'm still reading _Telegraph Avenue_.

And I should add, I don't understand Shaver's posts here. Or in the movie thread. Not a word. Does the formatting offer subtitles?


----------



## SG_67

Shaver said:


> Devoured with relish - this sumptuous oversized coffee table edition, a joyous celebration of the life and work of the most important, talented, creative and prolific man to ever scribble funny books.


Kirby and Lee were amongst the greatest creative duo in pop culture right up there with Lennon & McCartney and Jagger/Richards.

I was always a Neal Adams fan.


----------



## Peak and Pine

SG_67 said:


> Kirby and Lee were amongst the greatest creative duo in pop culture right up there with Lennon & McCartney and Jagger/Richards.


And the Captain and Tennille.


----------



## SG_67

Peak and Pine said:


> And the Captain and Tennille.


Don't forget Rocky & Bullwinkle.


----------



## Shaver

Peak and Pine said:


> I'm still reading _Telegraph Avenue_.
> 
> And I should add, I don't understand Shaver's posts here. Or in the movie thread. Not a word. Does the formatting offer subtitles?


Oh my dear fellow, I am shamed that I have obliged you to flounder, permit me to provide an alternate:

Read book; liked it.


----------



## The Irishman

Finished Aristotle's The Politics, now probably halfway through a compilation of Epicurus and his disciple Lucretius... The Art of Happiness. Mainly based around Epicurus' letters.

Also listening to Plotinus' The Enneads on Audible.


----------



## Shaver

I have long considered Deus Irae to be one of my least favoured novels as written by one of my most favoured authors; Philip K. Dick (in conjunction with Roger Zelazny). So much so that, although I have read nearly all of Dick's books repeatedly, I have only read this one the once previously, thirty years ago.

Having now re read it my opinion improves but marginally. Whilst the general themes of Dick's works are present they are explored in a rather lacklustre manner. I blame, perhaps unfairly, Zelazny.

I doubt that I shall read it again, most especially given the other, better, choices available to me among the forty or so novels by Dick (plus several volumes of collected short stories) stacked on my bookshelves.

Read book; unimpressed.


----------



## Shaver

Devoured with relish - this sumptuous oversized coffee table edition, a joyous celebration of the life and work of the other most important, talented, creative and prolific man to ever scribble funny books.

Ditko, a notoriously stubborn (if not irascible) fellow, sadly permitted his career to peter out somewhat ignominiously. However, his legacy, the unique quality of his penmanship, the effectiveness of his composition, the vibrancy of his pages, endures.


----------



## Dhaller

The death of sci-fi author Gene Wolfe a couple of weeks ago brought his (neglected, by me) works to my attention, so I've started in on his well-regarded "The Book of the New Sun" tetralogy.

On the nonfiction front, finishing up Cal Newport's "Digital Minimalism", a pretty lightweight but readable overview of a heavy and important topic (and really an appendix of his beefier "Deep Work".)

DH


----------



## Vecchio Vespa

In the fiction realm the spouse and I are reading the Maisie Dobbs series, quite good as murder mysteries, solid prose and obviously extensive research into the WWI era and shortly thereafter. On the nonfiction front I'm jumping into _Loon Shots. _


----------



## Shaver

My copy of Naked Lunch was, quite appropriately, retrieved from a junkie squat. Its deteriorated condition is not, as you might imagine, as I found it but rather is entirely the result of my subsequent repeated readings.

Burroughs is _the_ most important American writer. A bold claim? You decide:

"Followers of obsolete, unthinkable trades doodling in Etruscan, addicts of drugs not yet synthesized, pushers of souped-up harmine, junk reduced to pure habit offering precarious vegetable serenity, liquids to induce Latah, Tithonian longevity serums, black marketeers of World War III, excisers of telepathic sensitivity, osteopaths of the spirit, investigators of infractions denounced by bland paranoid chess players, servers of fragmentary warrants taken down in hebephrenic shorthand, charging unspeakable mutilations of the spirit, bureaucrats of spectral departments, officials of unconstituted police states, a Lesbian dwarf who has perfected operation Bang-utot, the lung erection that strangles a sleeping enemy, sellers of orgone tanks and relaxing machines, brokers of exquisite dreams and memories tested on the sensitized cells of junk sickness and bartered for raw materials of the will, doctors skilled in the treatment of diseases dormant in the black dust of ruined cities, gathering virulence in the white blood of eyeless worms feeling slowly to the surface and the human host, maladies of the ocean floor and the stratosphere, maladies of the laboratory and atomic war."


----------



## The Irishman

Reading a selection of Cicero's writings (Penguin Classics, 'On Living and Dying Well'.

Following Epicurus and Epictitus (Some chronological jumping around going on).

Also listening to Johnny Cash read The New Testament on Audible. I have to say, having read the various Greek and Roman thinkers for the past year, Christ's penchant for parables as a means of delivering his message is somewhat jarring. I suppose it's an understatement to say he came from a wholly different intellectual milieu however.


----------



## eagle2250

Shaver said:


> My copy of Naked Lunch was, quite appropriately, retrieved from a junkie squat. Its deteriorated condition is not, as you might imagine, as I found it but rather is entirely the result of my subsequent repeated readings.
> 
> Burroughs is _the_ most important American writer. A bold claim? You decide:
> 
> "Followers of obsolete, unthinkable trades doodling in Etruscan, addicts of drugs not yet synthesized, pushers of souped-up harmine, junk reduced to pure habit offering precarious vegetable serenity, liquids to induce Latah, Tithonian longevity serums, black marketeers of World War III, excisers of telepathic sensitivity, osteopaths of the spirit, investigators of infractions denounced by bland paranoid chess players, servers of fragmentary warrants taken down in hebephrenic shorthand, charging unspeakable mutilations of the spirit, bureaucrats of spectral departments, officials of unconstituted police states, a Lesbian dwarf who has perfected operation Bang-utot, the lung erection that strangles a sleeping enemy, sellers of orgone tanks and relaxing machines, brokers of exquisite dreams and memories tested on the sensitized cells of junk sickness and bartered for raw materials of the will, doctors skilled in the treatment of diseases dormant in the black dust of ruined cities, gathering virulence in the white blood of eyeless worms feeling slowly to the surface and the human host, maladies of the ocean floor and the stratosphere, maladies of the laboratory and atomic war."


 After reading that brief glimpse into the fevered mind of William S. Burroughs. I just might have to sleep with the light on tonight! :crazy:


----------



## Peak and Pine

eagle2250 said:


> After reading that brief glimpse into the fevered mind of William S. Burroughs. I just might have to sleep with the light on tonight! :crazy:


Not if you pray to the sandman for forgiveness for reading a passage from that self-absorbed, drug addled creep. Burroughs, not Shaver, though the latter's reading choices of late appear his out-of-book experience might be sorta dull.


----------



## SG_67

For me the quintessential American writer was and shall always remain John Steinbeck.


----------



## Peak and Pine

^
Yes.

And to tie this to the movie thread, Steinbeck's East of Eden with James Dean and Kazan directing, one of moviedom's finest. Saw it first run alone in a theater, so I was ljke, what, 11? Shall never forget the experience.


----------



## SG_67

Peak and Pine said:


> ^
> Yes.
> 
> And to tie this to the movie thread, Steinbeck's East of Eden with James Dean and Kazan directing, one of moviedom's finest. Saw it first run alone in a theater, so I was ljke, what, 11? Shall never forget the experience.


Steppenwolf put on a very good production a few years ago. They've always done a good job of interpreting Steinbeck for the stage.


----------



## Shaver

Peak and Pine said:


> Not if you pray to the sandman for forgiveness for reading a passage from that self-absorbed, drug addled creep. Burroughs, not Shaver, though the latter's reading choices of late appear his out-of-book experience might be sorta dull.


My dear fellow, you need not concern yourself with, indulge in speculation about, nor attempt to impose your criteria upon, the quality of my experience.


----------



## Vecchio Vespa

Following up on my prior comment, I am finding the Maisie Dobbs series to be all I said earlier plus extremely insightful on complex relationships and mental states.


----------



## Oldsarge

I'm going to peruse this month's issue of _Orchids_ and if that doesn't catch my attention I'll go back to _Mexico's Mangroves._


----------



## eagle2250

Just finished reading this months book club selection: Pachinko by Min Jin Lee. It is a novel, based on historical realities, that chronicles four generations of a Korean families struggles emigrating from Korea to Japan, living through the war years (WWII) and on into the future as far as 1990. Dreams, hopes, catastrophic personal choices, the challenges of social stratification, personal disappointment and resignation to one's apparent destiny are all part of this story. Is it a good read? There is a whole lot of reality in this yarn, but it is well worth reading.


----------



## Peak and Pine

Shaver said:


> My dear fellow, you need not concern yourself with, indulge in speculation about, nor attempt to impose your criteria upon, the quality of my experience.


Slap accepted. Perhaps deserved. Drinks at my place, maybe darts.


----------



## Vecchio Vespa

Shaver said:


> My copy of Naked Lunch was, quite appropriately, retrieved from a junkie squat. Its deteriorated condition is not, as you might imagine, as I found it but rather is entirely the result of my subsequent repeated readings.
> 
> Burroughs is _the_ most important American writer. A bold claim? You decide:
> 
> "Followers of obsolete, unthinkable trades doodling in Etruscan, addicts of drugs not yet synthesized, pushers of souped-up harmine, junk reduced to pure habit offering precarious vegetable serenity, liquids to induce Latah, Tithonian longevity serums, black marketeers of World War III, excisers of telepathic sensitivity, osteopaths of the spirit, investigators of infractions denounced by bland paranoid chess players, servers of fragmentary warrants taken down in hebephrenic shorthand, charging unspeakable mutilations of the spirit, bureaucrats of spectral departments, officials of unconstituted police states, a Lesbian dwarf who has perfected operation Bang-utot, the lung erection that strangles a sleeping enemy, sellers of orgone tanks and relaxing machines, brokers of exquisite dreams and memories tested on the sensitized cells of junk sickness and bartered for raw materials of the will, doctors skilled in the treatment of diseases dormant in the black dust of ruined cities, gathering virulence in the white blood of eyeless worms feeling slowly to the surface and the human host, maladies of the ocean floor and the stratosphere, maladies of the laboratory and atomic war."


In school I took a class that included this book, but, _mirabile dictu_, I have very little memory of it. I majored in literature, and frankly was devouring far too many books to absorb them. In recent years I've gone back and read many of them again with the benefits of time to savor and another half century of life. Some have improved with age, notably _ Invisible Man _and _Lady Chatterly's Lover. _Others have suffered, notably _Ship of Fools _and _The Plumed Serpant. _However, for the sheer glory of their writing, using words like paint, _Finnegan's Wake, Ulysses, _and the _Sound and the Fury _continue to astound and enthrall. So for American writers I'd throw Faulkner and Ellison into the mix. Now to find my ancient copy of _Naked Lunch _and, while I'm at it, some of the others from that class, like _The Moviegoer. _


----------



## Oldsarge

The magazine was of interest but only for a short time. Back to _Mexico's Mangroves_. I've long had an academic interest in the species but this book is whetting my appetite for a more personal involvement. One of the primary authors is a professor at my alma mater. The next time I head down that way (probably for an avocado tasting) I shall have to have lunch with him and pick his brains. I see a trip south in the offing.


----------



## The Irishman

Finished Cicero and taking a break before heading into Seneca and Marcus Aurelius.

I am thinking of re-reading William Gibson's Neuromancer as - by chance - I just recently picked up a Buzz Rickson x William Gibson MA-1 flight jacket.

Last night, to fill the gap, I read a couple of Richard Matheson short stories. One was the classic spacefaring ghost story 'Death Ship'.


----------



## eagle2250

^^(In response to post #640) Some pretty heavy reading? LOL.
Truth be known, I initially found the opening comment in the post above to be somewhat intellectually humiliating...as I must report progressing from reading Pachinko to begin chewing through David Baldacci's Redemption, the fifth book in his Memory Man series. Intellectually stimulating? Perhaps not, but it is entertaining as all get out!


----------



## The Irishman

eagle2250 said:


> ^^(In response to post #640) Some pretty heavy reading? LOL.
> Truth be known, I initially found the opening comment in the post above to be somewhat intellectually humiliating...as I must report progressing from reading Pachinko to begin chewing through David Baldacci's Redemption, the fifth book in his Memory Man series. Intellectually stimulating? Perhaps not, but it is entertaining as all get out!


Mortimer J. Adler's reading list, my friend ... I think I'm in my second year of it now, and don't regret starting.

( A version of it is here.https://thinkingasleverage.wordpress.com/book-lists/mortimer-adlers-reading-list/ My version is more or less this one, although I added in some extra Xenophon and Seneca).

As I explained to my wife recently, the thing about it is that each work builds upon the last. Cicero was much more intelligible as I'd read Epicurus, Aristotle and Plato beforehand. And of course I was familiar with Cicero and other personalities mentioned from Livy. Similar story with Virgil... The Aeneid makes much more sense if you've read Homer and a few of the Greek tragedies.

All of that said, lately I have started throwing in a little break if I'm on a run of particularly similar works. For example, I wouldn't go from Cicero into Seneca and Marcus Aurelius without something a little different... Hence Gibson.


----------



## eagle2250

^^
My friend, count me as one who is impressed with your reading list, both the read and waiting to be read titles. I admire your initiative. As for me, I've been retired for almost 14 years and in my efforts to scale back and live easy, I've limited my 'heavy' reading in the past year to The Bible (The new International version), Arthur Herman's Douglas Macarthur: American Warrior, Antonin Scalia's Scalia Speaks: Reflections on Law Faith and Life Well Lived, and finally John McCain's The Restless Wave. The remainder and bulk of my reading has been trash novels....a whole bunch of trash novels!


----------



## Oldsarge

Still working on _Mexican Mangroves._ The photographs are to die for.


----------



## Shaver

There is an unbridled and immeasurable joy provided with the having read of a book unto its destruction, an achievement few may attain but those who do will doubtless cherish.

I have already ordered another (rarer) version of this novel to bolster my collection.

Now Wait For Last Year is a tour de force exploration of Dick's favoured themes replete with the customary oblique laminates of reality and relentless epiphany that vex his buffeted characters.

This book is one of Dick's less well known works - neglected, even - for reasons that elude me entirely, the characterisation, motivation and dialogue is amongst the finest that he authored and the ideas presented within remain potent and relevant over 50 years later.

Political satire sharpened on a whetstone of science fiction and wielded as a scalpel to dissect our notions of moral responsibility, utterly sublime.

TL ; DR - read book, adored it.


----------



## Vecchio Vespa

The Irishman said:


> Mortimer J. Adler's reading list, my friend ... I think I'm in my second year of it now, and don't regret starting.
> 
> ( A version of it is here.https://thinkingasleverage.wordpress.com/book-lists/mortimer-adlers-reading-list/ My version is more or less this one, although I added in some extra Xenophon and Seneca).
> 
> As I explained to my wife recently, the thing about it is that each work builds upon the last. Cicero was much more intelligible as I'd read Epicurus, Aristotle and Plato beforehand. And of course I was familiar with Cicero and other personalities mentioned from Livy. Similar story with Virgil... The Aeneid makes much more sense if you've read Homer and a few of the Greek tragedies.
> 
> All of that said, lately I have started throwing in a little break if I'm on a run of particularly similar works. For example, I wouldn't go from Cicero into Seneca and Marcus Aurelius without something a little different... Hence Gibson.


That is an amazing, nay...overwhelming, reading list! As an English Literature major I encountered most of them, and I have to confess my interest picked up markedly somewhere around #89. I won't offer my quibbles with the literary recommendations, but I would like to know what folk here think of Einstein's writings. I loved the Elegant Universe and A Brief History of Time, but their authors were clearly writing for a non-scientist audience.


----------



## Vecchio Vespa

I’m reading a higher grade of mystery novels than usual, Jaqueline Winspear’s Maisie Dobbs series. They provide wonderful insights into the trauma of World War I and the aftermath, economic and emotional. I’m up to about 1930.


----------



## Dhaller

Starting a bit of a weighty tome: John Barton's "A History of the Bible".

The basic endeavor is to look at the Bible's core text afresh, ignoring the cloud of theological interpretation which tends to obscure it (the Bible is certainly the Number One book invoked to rationalize things it never even mentions).

DH


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## Dhaller

TKI67 said:


> That is an amazing, nay...overwhelming, reading list! As an English Literature major I encountered most of them, and I have to confess my interest picked up markedly somewhere around #89. I won't offer my quibbles with the literary recommendations, but I would like to know what folk here think of Einstein's writings. I loved the Elegant Universe and A Brief History of Time, but their authors were clearly writing for a non-scientist audience.


Einstein's writings are accessible; they're more essay and opinion than anything technical.

Everyone focuses on his scientific legacy, but in his day he was a significant public intellectual.

DH


----------



## richard warren

TKI67 said:


> That is an amazing, nay...overwhelming, reading list! As an English Literature major I encountered most of them, and I have to confess my interest picked up markedly somewhere around #89. I won't offer my quibbles with the literary recommendations, but I would like to know what folk here think of Einstein's writings. I loved the Elegant Universe and A Brief History of Time, but their authors were clearly writing for a non-scientist audience.


I've read Einstein's Relativity and Evolution of Physics. The writing style of both is so untechnical as to be obscure and unsatisfying. There are clearer, less idiosyncratic expositions elsewhere, but you may like Einstein's writing better than me.
Brian Greene is a good writer but his enthusiasm seems to overwhelm him. Roger Penrose (Road to Reality) also writes well and without writing down to his readers.

I'm currently reading Principles of Quantum Mechanics by Dirac (who by the way "corrected" Einstein by showing from E2=m2c4 that E=mc2 or -mc2) which is pretty technical but quite clearly written.

The other things I am reading are Morris Kline's Loss of Certainty, Mises's Theory of Money and Credit, and Wolfram's New Kind of Science. I am trying to read Adam Tooze's Crashed but which is full of interesting information but it is hard to put up with an analysis of 2008 that mentions neither the Greenspan put nor mark to market, and with his lack of objectivity about current events and persons. Reminds me of why I stopped reading contemporary history.


----------



## eagle2250

A couple of nights back I finished reading Tom Clancy's True Faith and Allegiance, written by Mark Greaney. Its a yarn about acts of international terrorism committed against the United States, facilitated by a foreign power's theft of classified computerized personnel files and the pairing of same with open source intelligence gathered from various social media platforms, to develop professional grade targeting packages to bring the Terrorist's war front to the continental United States. Loosely based on a seminal actual event, interlaced with very believable and indeed doable dips into our social media's membership postings! 

Mark Greaney has done a rather remarkable job of creating a believable yarn, with a degree of detail reminiscent of Tom Clancy's personally written novels! It is a great read, well worth your time.


----------



## Oldsarge

_Sex on the Kitchen Table_, an introduction to the incredible subject of plant reproduction. You wouldn't believe . . .

Anyway, for as technical a subject as it is, the author does a very creditable job of making it amusing and worth reading.


----------



## The Irishman

Almost done with Seneca's Letters From A Stoic.

A wonderful man and an able writer, but hardly an orthodox Stoic, I would think. Or maybe just more honest in his writings than some of the others!

Finished an Audible copy of The New Testament (Read by Johnny Cash) and next up is a BBC production of The Divine Comedy... A heavily abridged production... But the overall quality convinced me of its merits over a drier, unabridged academic Audible production.


----------



## Oldsarge

Having finished _Sex on the Kitchen Table_, I think I will start _Space 2.0_ (Rod Pyle) a proposal that leaving the confines of Earth will take the combined efforts of both government and private entities.


----------



## SG_67




----------



## eagle2250

Our community book clubs selection for this month was The Lost Girls of Paris, authored by Pam Jenoff....an interesting work of fiction, very loosely based on historical fact(s). The story focuses on a small group of British ladies recruited by the Office of The Special Operations Executive and trained to function as radio operators and couriers working in support of the French Resistance to complicate German efforts to respond to the D-Day landing sites. All suffered greatly and most did not survive...and not all died solely as a result of the Nazis efforts. While I'm hesitant to describe the book as a real page turner, it is well worth the time it will take you to read it.


----------



## Fading Fast

Thanks to Eagle, I just "discovered" this thread.

My favorite recent read was

*The Passionate Friends *by H. G. Welles published in 1913

I am very far from a Welles expert, so this not-science-fiction-only-modestly-utopian novel was a surprise to me. However, a quick web search showed that Welles wrote novels in several different genres despite being most famous for his sci-fi / futuristic-view books.

*The Passionate Friends* - if described by an English teacher - is a novel with a love story as plot, but driven by the themes of the restrictions of social and gender roles and - separately - utopian ideas inspired by a socialist / communist outlook.

That's a lot, but Welles works it all (mainly) seamlessly into a quick 300-plus pages. The strongest part is the love story - boy meets, gets and then loses girl and spends the rest of his life missing the girl. There's more, they meet a few times after their break, have an affair and write to each other; and there's plenty of collateral damage - his career, both of their marriages and, ultimately, her entire future.

The love story works and feels reasonably modern despite its 1913 style (social conventions limit their meeting and defined even their private actions) and keeps you actively engaged. The break in the relationship comes because the upper-class young woman won't marry the young man from a similar class but without wealth (owing to the British system of primogenitary, entails, etc., that created a class of to-the-manner-born-but-poor young men).

She also has a strong streak of early feminism where she doesn't want to be "owned" by any man and apparently has an agreement - never flushed out for the reader - with her wealthy husband to have an element of personal freedom in their marriage. It's also a great example of how reading novels from a period show you a view of a time period in a way that modern novels set in that period won't.

To wit, the woman in *The Passionate Friends* wants her freedom, but she very strongly sees inherent differences in men and women that she believe are innate, natural and that require different outlooks and desires. So while her independent streak aligns very much with modern progressive views, her view of gender/sex-based identity does not.

As a regular reader of modern period novels, I'd note that this second view would be changed or ignored in a modern period book as, at least my experience has been, modern liberal writers make their progressive heroes align almost perfectly with modern progressive views. That's why reading novels from a period are so important to better understand that period.

The same could be said of Welles' view in this book of communism and socialism. He is writing before the world had had the coming 20th Century experiences with those ideologies, but one sense Welles is a utopian but not a full buyer of those ideologies as he seems to have his own take on how work and want / skill and desire would be governed and determined in a future state - albeit, it was a bit muddled in its presentation here.

But like with his character's early feminist views, his socialist/communist/utopian views don't align neatly to today's liberal views. And from a literary point of view, the utopian part of the story - expressed through the young man's career of building a movement and publishing empire to advance his utopian ideas - felt forced; whereas, the woman's feminist views were central and organic to the story.

In the end, despite some noted bumpiness, the book moved quickly, had echoes of Edith Wharton themes of money, marriage and social standing (a large compliment in my opinion) and has sparked an interest in me to read more Welles.

Oh, I found my way to this book via its 1949 movie adaptation directed by David Lean and staring Trevor Howard, Ann Todd and Claude Rains. Oddly, the movie is very well done, but only overlaps with the book at a surface level as it goes its own way because, my guess, its themes and complexity would be hard to translate to a movie in 1949.


----------



## Mr. B. Scott Robinson

I am currently reading a first edition of Hemingway’s Across the River and into the Trees.

The novel was broadly panned when released, however I have found it a very interesting study of the author and one of Hemingway’s least “writerly” books. At the time of writing, Hemingway was infatuated with a young woman. This novel revels in this infatuation and reflects what appear to be the authors inner feelings toward
His young paramour. It is a bit embarrassing to read at times, a bit like watching a dear friend fall head over heels in love with the wrong woman and acting a complete fool in the process. However, the foolishness is entirely sincere and without pretense, so it is essentially raw truth exposed by the powerful brain chemicals of passionate early infatuation. It is like finding ones fathers love letters to and old lover and gaining a squirm inducing insight into the man that one has never had prior.

Cheers,

BSR


----------



## Peak and Pine

*The Dante Chamber. Matthew Pearl.*

I had not read a novel for thirty years, until a couple winters ago when the power was down as was I and cold, drove to a second hand book store, recognized not a single author excepting Danielle Steele who musta written a book every other week, and a lotta stuff like Eagle reads, so I randomly grabbed a paperback, *The Dante Club.* And I've never turned back, it was so damned good. On line I went and one by one, there are only five, I got and read all of Pearl's books. And reread *Dante Club.* Then Pearl stopped writing fiction. Until last summer, when the book propping up this cell phone got written, *The Dante Chamber.* I am half way through. Wonderful as I'd hoped.

I am famous to myself for often stopping a novel 10 pages from the finish because it's so damn good I don't want it to end. Before my thirty year drought I was reading Solzhenitsyn's *August 1914.* A 700 page behemoth. Stopped at 690. The book went missing along the way, but today another popped out at me for a buck. It's scheduled for an August reread, to conclusion.

*Since discovering *Dante Club* the winter of '16, I've bought and read dozens of novels, almost all fine reads, especially all of Lehane. And the 30 year drought did not effect the every-single-summer reread of Treasure Island. Like an 80s kid at the Rocky Horror Picture Show, I can just about quote every line.


----------



## The Irishman

Marcus Aurelius' Meditations.

Honestly, leaving me a little cold after the refreshing directness and passion of Epictetus, and even the clarity and easy manner of Seneca (a less severe Stoic).

Marcus admittedly was writing for himself rather than for publication but dare I say that although the Meditations is far better known than works by the authors mentioned, I think it is inferior.

Of course it's a relative judgment on my part... Still super stuff.


----------



## Fading Fast

*Diary of a Mad Old Man*
by
Jun'ichirō Tanizaki
Published 1961

An elderly, wealthy, Japanese stroke victim - a man trapped in a broken-down body (limited ability to walk, this, that and everything hurts, round-the-clock nursing, multiple daily pills and weekly shots and doctor visits - you get it) - develops erotic urges for his pretty, sexual and not-of-his-class daughter-in-law who, seemingly willingly, allows for a very, very modest amount of physical contact to take place to arouse and content the "old man."

Hey, don't judge me, I found this book via a WSJ recommendation and Tanizaki is one of Japan's most notable 20th Century authors with his book "The Makioka Sisters" considered a modern classic (my comments on it here: https://www.thefedoralounge.com/threads/what-are-you-reading.10557/page-380#post-2302937). And, to be honest, the story is much less creepy than it sound.

At its best, in *Dairy of a Mad Old Man*, you feel the frustration and sadness of a once robust life reduced to an almost baby-like daily routine and supervision. A man of wealth, culture and influence is treated respectfully, but like the invalid that he's become, by a family who, as the months wear on, go about their daily lives while the old, sick man - again, not at all neglected - suffers daily disappointment and sadness.

That his coquettish and somewhat conniving daughter-in-law senses and sometimes plays up to his sexual desires is, God yes, awkward but believable and poignantly sad more than anything else. You can understand how this broken-down man, with few sensual pleasures left, can look forward to catching a glimpse of - or having brief contact with - his scantily clad fantasy. You also sense Tanizaki's comments on class and social issues as none of those matter anymore to this once-proud old man who isn't now thinking about status or background as he simply wants something to give his failing mind and body joy.

To be honest, had I known the plot beforehand, I would have passed on it, but I'm glad I didn't as this quick read did touch me, did remind me of how quickly a vibrant life can be destroyed and, weird or not (okay, it's weird), showed how a dying man could garner a modicum of pleasure out of the embers of his sexual desires.


----------



## eagle2250

^^
Alas it seems you are absolutely right with your conclusions regarding our perceived value of things we once had and no longer have. So many of us are seduced into a state of complacency by the very blessings we claim to most greatly treasure...until they are no longer available to us.


----------



## Peak and Pine

Fading Fast said:


> *Diary of a Mad Old Man*
> by
> Jun'ichirō Tanizaki
> Published 1961
> 
> An elderly, wealthy, Japanese stroke victim - a man trapped in a broken-down body (limited ability to walk, this, that and everything hurts, round-the-clock nursing, multiple daily pills and weekly shots and doctor visits - you get it) - develops erotic urges for his pretty, sexual and not-of-his-class daughter-in-law who, seemingly willingly, allows for a very, very modest amount of physical contact to take place to arouse and content the "old man."
> 
> Hey, don't judge me, I found this book via a WSJ recommendation and Tanizaki is one of Japan's most notable 20th Century authors with his book "The Makioka Sisters" considered a modern classic (my comments on it here: https://www.thefedoralounge.com/threads/what-are-you-reading.10557/page-380#post-2302937). And, to be honest, the story is much less creepy than it sound.
> 
> At its best, in *Dairy of a Mad Old Man*, you feel the frustration and sadness of a once robust life reduced to an almost baby-like daily routine and supervision. A man of wealth, culture and influence is treated respectfully, but like the invalid that he's become, by a family who, as the months wear on, go about their daily lives while the old, sick man - again, not at all neglected - suffers daily disappointment and sadness.
> 
> That his coquettish and somewhat conniving daughter-in-law senses and sometimes plays up to his sexual desires is, God yes, awkward but believable and poignantly sad more than anything else. You can understand how this broken-down man, with few sensual pleasures left, can look forward to catching a glimpse of - or having brief contact with - his scantily clad fantasy. You also sense Tanizaki's comments on clas
> 
> To be honest, had I known the plot beforehand, I would have passed on it, but I'm glad I didn't as this quick read did touch me, did remind me of how quickly a vibrant life can be destroyed and, weird or not (okay, it's weird), showed how a dying man could garner a modicum of pleasure out of the embers of his sexual desires.


Gawd, that sounds really awful, considering the fictional (it is fiction, right?) creepoid might be close to my age. If you, and Eagle above, like dwelling on that sort of stuff, I recommend a very bad book with some very good parts, the parts in the elderly home, _Water for Elephants._


----------



## Mr. B. Scott Robinson

Started “The Good Soldier” by Ford Maddox Ford. FMF and Henry James are two authors neglected in my liberal education and I am working to fill the gap.

Cheers,

BSR


----------



## Fading Fast

Peak and Pine said:


> Gawd, that sounds really awful, considering the fictional (it is fiction, right?) creepoid might be close to my age. If you, and , like dwelling on that sort of stuff, I recommend a very bad book with some very good parts, the parts in the elderly home, _Water for Elephants._


As noted, I probably would have passed had I payed more attention to the plot summary when I bought the book. That said, Tanizaki is that talented, that, overall, it was still a worthy read (but not a subject matter I have any interest in revisiting).



Mr. B. Scott Robinson said:


> Started "The Good Soldier" by Ford Maddox Ford. FMF and Henry James are two authors neglected in my liberal education and I am working to fill the gap.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> BSR


I, too, have missed FMF along the way somehow. I bought "The Last Parade," put it on my bookshelf and that's as far as I've gotten with him to date .

I have read several of Henry James' books and, while I appreciate his talent, I find I'm often bored reading them. That said, it's been decades (I think), since I last gave him a shot, so I might feel different today if I get inspired to try him again.


----------



## eagle2250

Fading Fast said:


> *Diary of a Mad Old Man*
> by
> Jun'ichirō Tanizaki
> Published 1961
> 
> An elderly, wealthy, Japanese stroke victim - a man trapped in a broken-down body (limited ability to walk, this, that and everything hurts, round-the-clock nursing, multiple daily pills and weekly shots and doctor visits - you get it) - develops erotic urges for his pretty, sexual and not-of-his-class daughter-in-law who, seemingly willingly, allows for a very, very modest amount of physical contact to take place to arouse and content the "old man."
> 
> Hey, don't judge me, I found this book via a WSJ recommendation and Tanizaki is one of Japan's most notable 20th Century authors with his book "The Makioka Sisters" considered a modern classic (my comments on it here: https://www.thefedoralounge.com/threads/what-are-you-reading.10557/page-380#post-2302937). And, to be honest, the story is much less creepy than it sound.
> 
> At its best, in *Dairy of a Mad Old Man*, you feel the frustration and sadness of a once robust life reduced to an almost baby-like daily routine and supervision. A man of wealth, culture and influence is treated respectfully, but like the invalid that he's become, by a family who, as the months wear on, go about their daily lives while the old, sick man - again, not at all neglected - suffers daily disappointment and sadness.
> 
> That his coquettish and somewhat conniving daughter-in-law senses and sometimes plays up to his sexual desires is, God yes, awkward but believable and poignantly sad more than anything else. You can understand how this broken-down man, with few sensual pleasures left, can look forward to catching a glimpse of - or having brief contact with - his scantily clad fantasy. You also sense Tanizaki's comments on class and social issues as none of those matter anymore to this once-proud old man who isn't now thinking about status or background as he simply wants something to give his failing mind and body joy.
> 
> To be honest, had I known the plot beforehand, I would have passed on it, but I'm glad I didn't as this quick read did touch me, did remind me of how quickly a vibrant life can be destroyed and, weird or not (okay, it's weird), showed how a dying man could garner a modicum of pleasure out of the embers of his sexual desires.





Peak and Pine said:


> Gawd, that sounds really awful, considering the fictional (it is fiction, right?) creepoid might be close to my age. If you, and Eagle above, like dwelling on that sort of stuff, I recommend a very bad book with some very good parts, the parts in the elderly home, _Water for Elephants._


Actually, reading through Fading Fast's review, I was reminded of the novel I read written by Hendrik Groen , The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen, 83 1/4 Years Old." Written from different perspectives and set in geographically and socially different circumstance, the thrust of the story lines do seem to be quite similar. On our next visit to Barnes and Noble I'll have to look for "Diary of A Mad Old Man."


----------



## The Irishman

St Augustine - The Confessions ...


----------



## eagle2250

About two weeks back I read Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard's book, Killing The Rising Sun. The book details our march across the Pacific and eventual aerial assault on and defeat of Japan, subsequent to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The book accurately details the agony of the march across the Pacific and of the inhuman decisions that had to be made regarding deployment of a weapon such as the world had never seen. 

Some may have reservations pertaining to Bill O'Reilly's accomplishments at Fox News, but one of his earliest jobs was as a high school History teacher and I've no doubt that O'Reilly was in his element in that role. Having read (I think) all of the six books in O'Reilly and Dugard's "Killing Series," the books are first and foremost history books, written in the format of a novel, factually accurate and surprisingly readable...far more readable than most of the history books we used during my primary, and secondary school and collegiate education(s). Tying into a history book that grabs and hold one's interest is a pleasurable, as well as a surprising experience. 

In closing I commend to you the value of reading Killing The Rising Sun, Killing Lincoln, Killing Kennedy, Killing Jesus,Killing Patton and Killing Reagan.


----------



## Fading Fast

eagle2250 said:


> About two weeks back I read Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard's book, Killing The Rising Sun. The book details our march across the Pacific and eventual aerial assault on and defeat of Japan, subsequent to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The book accurately details the agony of the march across the Pacific and of the inhuman decisions that had to be made regarding deployment of a weapon such as the world had never seen.
> 
> Some may have reservations pertaining to Bill O'Reilly's accomplishments at Fox News, but one of his earliest jobs was as a high school History teacher and I've no doubt that O'Reilly was in his element in that role. Having read (I think) all of the six books in O'Reilly and Dugard's "Killing Series," the books are first and foremost history books, written in the format of a novel, factually accurate and surprisingly readable...far more readable than most of the history books we used during my primary, and secondary school and collegiate education(s). Tying into a history book that grabs and hold one's interest is a pleasurable, as well as a surprising experience.
> 
> In closing I commend to you the value of reading Killing The Rising Sun, Killing Lincoln, Killing Kennedy, Killing Jesus,Killing Patton and Killing Reagan.


Great color, thank you. I admit, I haven't paid his books any attention, but will take a look-see at them now.

Eagle, have you read *The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-1945*, by John Toland? It's my favorite book on the Pacific Theater aspect of WWII. I haven't read it in a long time, but am thinking about giving it a read through again soon. Like Shirer's "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich," it's long, but still worth one or two rereads in a lifetime.


----------



## eagle2250

Fading Fast said:


> Great color, thank you. I admit, I haven't paid his books any attention, but will take a look-see at them now.
> 
> Eagle, have you read *The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-1945*, by John Toland? It's my favorite book on the Pacific Theater aspect of WWII. I haven't read it in a long time, but am thinking about giving it a read through again soon. Like Shirer's "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich," it's long, but still worth one or two rereads in a lifetime.


I have not read John Toland's book, but will set about picking up a copy and remedy that situation. Thanks for the suggestion.


----------



## Peak and Pine

Another good WWII book is Harry Trumans account of dropping the bomb, _Bess Made Me Do It._


----------



## eagle2250

^^
LOL. That is really funny, but for those of us who have a SWMBO to whom we answer, it is also wholly believeable!


----------



## Fading Fast

*Custom of the Country *by Edith Wharton, published in 1913

Undine Spragg is no Lily Bart; that is to say, Edith Wharton's *Custom of the Country* and its protagonist Undine Spragg is no *House of Mirth* with its ineffable Miss Lily Bart.

Just as every Fitzgerald book ends up being measured against *The Great Gatsby,* it's hard not to stand every Wharton book up against *House of Mirth.* If not for that, I'd probably only have good and great things to say about *Custom of the Country* - a strong book, with sharply drawn characters, deep insight into human nature and that Wharton ability to draw comparisons between the eternal human condition we all experience - want, greed, pride, humility, love, hate... - and the challenges, accomplishments and foibles of early 20th Century New York City elite "society."

Even the plot of *Custom of the Country* reads similar to *House of Mirth's* - a strikingly beautiful young woman whose family and wealth leaves her on the edges of New York City's "proper" society strives with everything she has to find a place at/near its top by leveraging her arresting physical beauty and calculating social skills into a marriage that will propel her toward acceptance, even dominance.

But *House of Mirth's* Lily Bart is, basically, a good person who bends and stretches, but won't break, her morality to advance herself - she won't marry for money alone, she won't become a mistress to settle her debts and (oddly) remain in society (which accepted that type of arrangement if between the "right" people and handled with discretion), she won't fight dirty to win her inheritance and she won't sell out her friends.

Undine Spragg - a name more fitting an Ayn Rand villian - has no such scruples. Undine knows where she wants to go and will stop at almost nothing to get there: nearly bankrupt her parents - check, marry and divorce repeatedly for money and position - check, give up her child when convenient and later (all but) sell him to his father for money to make a better marriage for herself - check, drop old friends for social advancement - check, and that's not a complete list.

To stay engaged through three hundred pages of a battle for something most of us don't care about - will Undine become part of a sliver of some putatively elite society - we have to see something more in it, something of ourselves in it, something universal in it.

With Lily Bart in "House of Mirth," we see a good but flawed person (ourselves) struggling to her core with how much she is willing to contort herself and her morality to achieve acceptance in a group she views as important. While not elite society, how many of us haven't made compromises to fit in at work, at home, with our friends, etc.?

It's not the prettiest aspect of ourselves - or human nature in general - but in Lily Bart we see an honest struggle we can relate to. With Undine, (hopefully) most of us have more scruples and depth than to sell out our parents, our child, our word and our self respect for the acceptance of others that, while "elite" in some ways, are really all just self-indulgent posers.

Despite its shortcomings, *Custom of the Country* is an engaging read with vivid characters living in a select world few of us will ever touch that, somehow, is still relevant to us as its underlying challenges are all-too human. What it lacks is a heroine - not a superhero, but a real human who fights hard to stay on a good path despite all the obstacles and allurements life throws at her, as it does at everyone of us. That's why *House of Mirth* is a classic and *Custom of the Country* is a good book, or, succinctly - why Undine Spragg is no Lily Bart.

--
Mark Kahn
646-942-0778
[email protected]ail.com


----------



## Cassadine

Madame Bovary by Flaubert. Always wanted to read it; just now getting to it. I have a nice leather-bound edition.


----------



## Oldsarge

_The Beak of the Finch_, Jonathon Weiner. A Pulitzer prize winning account of a couple's decades long study of the evolution of finches, in real time, on the Galapagos Islands. A great companion to _Inheritors of the Earth _ and _Resurrection Science. _These are serious books by serious biologists and science writers that should grab American and European 'Environmentalists' by the lapels and shake the s**t out of them.


----------



## Cassadine

Mr. B. Scott Robinson said:


> Started "The Good Soldier" by Ford Maddox Ford. FMF and Henry James are two authors neglected in my liberal education and I am working to fill the gap.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> BSR


Love WWI novels and _The Good Soldier_ is next up. If you've never read Mark Helprin's _A Soldier of The Great War _ I highly recommend it. He can bend the English language to his will.


----------



## Cassadine

The Irishman said:


> Marcus Aurelius' Meditations.
> 
> Honestly, leaving me a little cold after the refreshing directness and passion of Epictetus, and even the clarity and easy manner of Seneca (a less severe Stoic).
> 
> Marcus admittedly was writing for himself rather than for publication but dare I say that although the Meditations is far better known than works by the authors mentioned, I think it is inferior.
> 
> Of course it's a relative judgment on my part... Still super stuff.


Epictetus was a slave; Seneca was, among other feats, Nero's tutor; Aurelius was an emperor. Though all are Stoics, their respective backgrounds informed both the content and style of their writings; it's practically impossible to separate them in a philosophical milieu. Fiction? Possibly.

Interestingly, all three faced the horrors of Ancient Rome from vastly differentiated perspectives. Epictetus' thought is based on street-level, Roman brutality as a subjugated human being. Seneca saw it from what could be termed the "upper class", that is near the highest rung of power, but not holding the keys of the kingdom; interacting with Nero at such close proximity could be nothing less than nauseating. Aurelius saw life, as reflected in most of _The Meditations_, from the throne; his writings reflect the weariness that results from knowing the arcana imperii.

Epictetus is, I agree, the most embracing writer of the three.


----------



## Cassadine

The Irishman said:


> St Augustine - The Confessions ...


No education is complete without them. For an interesting time-warp experience, jump right from Augustine to Rousseau's _Confessions_. Rousseau is a more entertaining read, and also, a significantly lesser man.


----------



## Fading Fast

Cassadine said:


> Love WWI novels and _The Good Soldier_ is next up. If you've never read Mark Helprin's _A Soldier of The Great War _ I highly recommend it. He can bend the English language to his will.


Love Helprin's "A Soldier of The Great War." I also really enjoyed his "In Sunlight and in Shadow."


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## Cassadine

Fading Fast said:


> Love Helprin's "A Soldier of The Great War." I also really enjoyed his "In Sunlight and in Shadow."


It's a crime he hasn't won a Pulitzer, nor will he ever. He wrote a speech for Bob Dole circa 1995 and the jig was up; after that he was no longer feted by the largely effete literrati of NYC. He's from the NYC Metro area, Ivy league educated etc. etc. But even back then the claws of intolerance were emerging.

Although _Winter's Tale_ is his most celebrated work (made into a major movie) I think _A Soldier of The Great War _is his high-water mark. He writes with a good deal of Magical Realistic traits and that's a taste that needs developing because the narrative isn't overtly plot driven--you have to look deep for the outline, and the narrative will float in and out of our ordinary reality.

_Memoir From Antproof Case _and _Freddy and Frederika _are fantastic. The latter has sections that are so hysterical I've read them dozens of times. You cannot go wrong with this man's writings.


----------



## Fading Fast

Cassadine said:


> It's a crime he hasn't won a Pulitzer, nor will he ever. He wrote a speech for Bob Dole circa 1995 and the jig was up; after that he was no longer feted by the largely effete literrati of NYC. He's from the NYC Metro area, Ivy league educated etc. etc. But even back then the claws of intolerance were emerging.
> 
> Although _Winter's Tale_ is his most celebrated work (made into a major movie) I think _A Soldier of The Great War _is his high-water mark. He writes with a good deal of Magical Realistic traits and that's a taste that needs developing because the narrative isn't overtly plot driven--you have to look deep for the outline, and the narrative will float in and out of our ordinary reality.
> 
> _Memoir From Antproof Case _and _Freddy and Frederika _are fantastic. The latter has sections that are so hysterical I've read them dozens of times. You cannot go wrong with this man's writings.


It is a shame - and embarrassment to those voting committees - if his political views impact the judgement of his non-political work.

I've read "Soldier of the Great War," "In Sunlight and in Shadow" and "Winter's Tale," but want to read more - "Paris in the Present Tense" is on the book shelf.

And I agree, there's a bit of whimsey or otherworldliness to his books that, IMHO, doesn't take it too far, but instead imbues the stories with a feeling that something more is going on in this world than we can see.

It's been awhile, but I use to see and read his op/ed pieces in the WSJ - as you said, the man can make words do things ordinary writers can't.

Edit add: I also read "The Pacific and other Stories"


----------



## Cassadine

Fading Fast said:


> It is a shame - and embarrassment to those voting committees - if his political views impact the judgement of his non-political work.
> 
> I've read "Soldier of the Great War," "In Sunlight and in Shadow" and "Winter's Tale," but want to read more - "Paris in the Present Tense" is on the book shelf.
> 
> And I agree, there's a bit of whimsey or otherworldliness to his books that, IMHO, doesn't take it too far, but instead imbues the stories with a feeling that something more is going on in this world than we can see.
> 
> It's been awhile, but I use to see and read his op/ed pieces in the WSJ - as you said, the man can make words do things ordinary writers can't.
> 
> Edit add: I always read "The Pacific and other Stories"


Yes! He's great at short fiction, too.


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## Fading Fast

Cassadine said:


> Yes! He's great at short fiction, too.


Have you read any of William Boyd's work? There's a bit of a similarity in their writing.


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## Cassadine

Fading Fast said:


> Have you read any of William Boyd's work? There's a bit of a similarity in their writing.


I have not. I shall investigate himHelprin cannot be easily categorized, but the magical realistic elements in his work are what set him apart--linguistic and artistic hijinks. I like Magical Realism and the Latin Americans are difficult to beat in that genre. Borges' short fiction is mind numbing, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez's novels are fantastic.


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## Fading Fast

*The Lonely Life* by Bette Davis, published in 1962

One of the hallmarks of an Ayn Rand character is his/her singular drive and ability to pave his/her own path. In Rand's books, her heroes are individualists who passionately but unemotionally pursue their goals - calm in the face of adversity and, even, brutal mendacity. As she chose for the title of her magnum opus, they are Atlases holding the world aloft despite the world's best effort to break them.

In real life, stringent individualists in singular pursuit of a goal can be a handful for the rest of us - emotional, screamers, breakers of glass, egotists - basically, pains in the arses, but they do move the world forward through their ardent will, egotism, effort, almost-miniacial commitment and relentless drive. They might work with others, but their success is only a collective effort in the broadest sense of the word; the world's achievements - its accomplishments - belong to, let's just say it, the arrogant individuals.

Bette Davis is one such arrogant individual and she wouldn't and doesn't deny it one bit. While a liberal in her political views - a huge fan of FDR - Davis is a Randian libertarian at heart. She believes that those with outsized talent and drive have a right to break the rules, push others out of the way and do whatever it takes to, in her case, make the play or movie better. If feelings get hurt, people get fired - so be it; the goal of making the best movie, with the best acting is what matters / those who can't keep up and contribute should find another line of work. Howard Roark would be proud.

While all the other elements of a normal biography are here - family (emotionally cold father, insanely devoted mother, overshadowed sister), early life, career ups and downs, one failed marriage after another (she really was married to her career first and her husbands' egos couldn't stand that or her out earning them), her work is her life and the heart and soul of the biography.

And it doesn't disappoint. She gives credit aplenty to others - and names names - and assigns blame and failure - without naming names - but not holding back otherwise. And this inside Hollywood stuff is the real fun of the book - she drops in plenty of anecdotes about her movies, her costars, her directors and the Brothers Warner, Jack in particular.

Published in '62, it seems to have just predated her '62 career-boosting comeback "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane," but it probably doesn't matter as Bette Davis was born Bette Davis, lived her entire life as Bette Davis and, from other things I've read, died as Bette Davis - one of the world's best actresses who pushed whatever she had to out of the way to let her talent shine through.

I'm sure its varnished - whoever wrote a an autobiography that didn't blend in a little hagiography? - but it's short, fast and unvarnished enough to make it one of Hollywood's better reads. Plus this, the great "ridding crop habit flip" maneuver ⇩ from *Jezebel* was self taught in a marathon overnight session followed by forty-five takes: something an actress - and Ayn Rand hero - not a star, would do. Bette Davis was, above all else, an actress.


----------



## Cassadine

Fading Fast said:


> View attachment 33260
> 
> *The Lonely Life* by Bette Davis, published in 1962
> 
> One of the hallmarks of an Ayn Rand character is his/her singular drive and ability to pave his/her own path. In Rand's books, her heroes are individualists who passionately but unemotionally pursue their goals - calm in the face of adversity and, even, brutal mendacity. As she chose for the title of her magnum opus, they are Atlases holding the world aloft despite the world's best effort to break them.
> 
> In real life, stringent individualists in singular pursuit of a goal can be a handful for the rest of us - emotional, screamers, breakers of glass, egotists - basically, pains in the arses, but they do move the world forward through their ardent will, egotism, effort, almost-miniacial commitment and relentless drive. They might work with others, but their success is only a collective effort in the broadest sense of the word; the world's achievements - its accomplishments - belong to, let's just say it, the arrogant individuals.
> 
> Bette Davis is one such arrogant individual and she wouldn't and doesn't deny it one bit. While a liberal in her political views - a huge fan of FDR - Davis is a Randian libertarian at heart. She believes that those with outsized talent and drive have a right to break the rules, push others out of the way and do whatever it takes to, in her case, make the play or movie better. If feelings get hurt, people get fired - so be it; the goal of making the best movie, with the best acting is what matters / those who can't keep up and contribute should find another line of work. Howard Roark would be proud.
> 
> While all the other elements of a normal biography are here - family (emotionally cold father, insanely devoted mother, overshadowed sister), early life, career ups and downs, one failed marriage after another (she really was married to her career first and her husbands' egos couldn't stand that or her out earning them), her work is her life and the heart and soul of the biography.
> 
> And it doesn't disappoint. She gives credit aplenty to others - and names names - and assigns blame and failure - without naming names - but not holding back otherwise. And this inside Hollywood stuff is the real fun of the book - she drops in plenty of anecdotes about her movies, her costars, her directors and the Brothers Warner, Jack in particular.
> 
> Published in '62, it seems to have just predated her '62 career-boosting comeback "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane," but it probably doesn't matter as Bette Davis was born Bette Davis, lived her entire life as Bette Davis and, from other things I've read, died as Bette Davis - one of the world's best actresses who pushed whatever she had to out of the way to let her talent shine through.
> 
> I'm sure its varnished - whoever wrote a an autobiography that didn't blend in a little hagiography? - but it's short, fast and unvarnished enough to make it one of Hollywood's better reads. Plus this, the great "ridding crop habit flip" maneuver ⇩ from *Jezebel* was self taught in a marathon overnight session followed by forty-five takes: something an actress - and Ayn Rand hero - not a star, would do. Bette Davis was, above all else, an actress.
> View attachment 33261


Great actress. Interesting gal. Her quip on Joan Crawford, upon Ms. Crawford's death, if true, is one of the most sardonic and biting remarks I've ever read. She allegedly said, "You should never say bad things about the dead, only good&#8230; Joan Crawford is dead. Good." Man alive, they really hated each another.


----------



## Vecchio Vespa

I’m nearing the end of the Maisie Dobbs series by Jacqueline Winspear. They take the protagonist through WWI and WWII. As murder mysteries they are excellent, but the nuanced look at British life during this era is terrific as well.


----------



## Peak and Pine

^

Have mentioned this before, but a little more info this time. I grew up about a mile from Davis' creaky old mansion on the Maine coast in the period between her golden years and the later years when she went Baby Jane nuts. I never saw her, but her hubby was around and when they split, she went west and he bought and lived in a decomissioned light house in my town. He is a particular hero of mine and I got to work with him later, on a crazy project as a young adult. I modeled my speakng voice on his and was somewhat successful in this. After the breakup the house was sold to friends of my family who had a kid my age. It was vacant for a few weeks and the kid and I wondered through this strange old place, which I imagine must have reeked of cigarette smoke still, she having a nine pack a day habit, but since H---- and I also smoked, we didn't notice. Because of our age, we weren't around for her vixen days and since this was before Baby Jane, we hardly who she was. But Merrill, Gary Merrill her ex, drove a '54 Corvette, the first year made I believe, was out and about and was so damn smooth. I've never forgotten him.


----------



## Cassadine

Peak and Pine said:


> ^
> 
> Have mentioned this before, but a little more info this time. I grew up about a mile from Davis' creaky old mansion on the Maine coast in the period between her golden years and the later years when she went Baby Jane nuts. I never saw her, but her hubby was around and when they split, she went west and he bought and lived in a decomissioned light house in my town. He is a particular hero of mine and I got to work with him later, on a crazy project as a young adult. I modeled my speakng voice on his and was somewhat successful in this. After the breakup the house was sold to friends of my family who had a kid my age. It was vacant for a few weeks and the kid and I wondered through this strange old place, which I imagine must have reeked of cigarette smoke still, she having a nine pack a day habit, but since H---- and I also smoked, we didn't notice. Because of our age, we weren't around for her vixen days and since this was before Baby Jane, we hardly who she was. But Merrill, Gary Merrill her ex, drove a '54 Corvette, the first year made I believe, was out and about and was so damn smooth. I've never forgotten him.


That is a audacious memory. The mansion must've seemed spooky to kids.


----------



## Cantaloop

Started reading "The richest man in babylon" by George S. Clason.


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## Fading Fast

Cassadine said:


> Great actress. Interesting gal. Her quip on Joan Crawford, upon Ms. Crawford's death, if true, is one of the most sardonic and biting remarks I've ever read. She allegedly said, "You should never say bad things about the dead, only good&#8230; Joan Crawford is dead. Good." Man alive, they really hated each another.


I've read that and often thought, my God, if she really just fired that out extemporaneously, it belongs in the Brickbat Hall of Fame. Heck, even if she thought it out in advance, she still deserves an honorable mention.



Peak and Pine said:


> ^
> 
> Have mentioned this before, but a little more info this time. I grew up about a mile from Davis' creaky old mansion on the Maine coast in the period between her golden years and the later years when she went Baby Jane nuts. I never saw her, but her hubby was around and when they split, she went west and he bought and lived in a decomissioned light house in my town. He is a particular hero of mine and I got to work with him later, on a crazy project as a young adult. I modeled my speakng voice on his and was somewhat successful in this. After the breakup the house was sold to friends of my family who had a kid my age. It was vacant for a few weeks and the kid and I wondered through this strange old place, which I imagine must have reeked of cigarette smoke still, she having a nine pack a day habit, but since H---- and I also smoked, we didn't notice. Because of our age, we weren't around for her vixen days and since this was before Baby Jane, we hardly who she was. But Merrill, Gary Merrill her ex, drove a '54 Corvette, the first year made I believe, was out and about and was so damn smooth. I've never forgotten him.


Good stuff - always neat when someone has a connect.

I'm aware she smoked like a chimney and often wondered if that is why, IMO, she aged pretty quickly. Prior to the internet, when information wasn't available (accurate or not) on everything, I remember thinking, when I saw "All About Eve," that BD must have been in her early 50s when that was filmed. I was stunned to find out years later that she was only 42.

While I'd rank the top two male voices in classic Hollywood as Cary Grant, first, and James Mason, second, Gary Merrill definitely had a good one.

I know they are said not to be particularly great cars mechanically, but I love the look of the first generation Vette.


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## eagle2250

^^
Indeed, Ms Davis aged all too young and not well at all. Long term, heavy smoking will do that to a body and can greatly curtail one's potential lifespan. I will never understand why people choose to do that to themselves?


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## The Irishman

In print... THE NIBELUNGENLIED.

Audiobook... Just finished Erasmus' THE PRAISE OF FOLLY and shopping around for which of the translations of Thomas More's UTOPIA is the way to go.


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## Cassadine

Fading Fast said:


> I've read that and often thought, my God, if she really just fired that out extemporaneously, it belongs in the Brickbat Hall of Fame. Heck, even if she thought it out in advance, she still deserves an honorable mention.
> 
> Good stuff - always neat when someone has a connect.
> 
> I'm aware she smoked like a chimney and often wondered if that is why, IMO, she aged pretty quickly. Prior to the internet, when information wasn't available (accurate or not) on everything, I remember thinking, when I saw "All About Eve," that BD must have been in her early 50s when that was filmed. I was stunned to find out years later that she was only 42.
> 
> While I'd rank the top two male voices in classic Hollywood as Cary Grant, first, and James Mason, second, Gary Merrill definitely had a good one.
> 
> I know they are said not to be particularly great cars mechanically, but I love the look of the first generation Vette.


What about Yul Brynner and Orson Welles?


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## Fading Fast

Cassadine said:


> What about Yul Brynner and Orson Welles?


Outstanding voices as well. My pics are nothing more than personal preference, but if I had to "settle" for YB's or OW's voice, it would still be a huge win.


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## Cassadine

Fading Fast said:


> Outstanding voices as well. My pics are nothing more than personal preference, but if I had to "settle" for YB's or OW's voice, it would still be a huge win.


Both more "formal" than, say, Cary Grant. Grant was just so cool, calm, and collected. Brynner's exotic accent always intrigued me. He was cool, calm, and collected as well, but with a touch of imperiousness to him that I've always liked.


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## Peak and Pine

Cassadine said:


> Both more "formal" than, say, Cary Grant. Grant was just so cool, calm, and collected. Brynner's exotic accent always intrigued me. He was cool, calm, and collected as well, but with a touch of imperiousness to him that I've always liked.


Interesting. Grant's never struck me as much special, but it had tons of style. As did Mason, but his was a style ---breathy and nasal and not far removed from Peter Lorre's --- that I found unpleasant. Orson Welles' was affected, Brynner's deep, angry with little modulation, Bogart and Wayne unlistenable, but the best of the recent past are Richard Burton (lucky enough to see live as Hamlet) and the man who could do stuff with his speaking voice like only Whitney Houston could do with her singing one, Peter O'Toole. All this very subjective I know, and wait til you hear this: the favorite among the living, hands down? Pacino.


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## Cassadine

Peak and Pine said:


> Regarding movie voices, Grant's never struck me as much special, but it had tons of style. As did Mason, but his was a style ---breathy and nasal and not far removed from Peter Lorre's --- that I found unpleasant. Orson Welles' was affected, Brynner's deep, angry with little modulation, Bogart and Wayne unlistenable, but the best of the recent past are Richard Burton (lucky enough to see live as Hamlet) and the man who could do stuff with is speaking voice like only Whitney Houston could do with her singing one, Peter O'Toole. All this very subjective I know, and wait til you hear this: the favorite among the living, hands down? Pacino?


I think many English gents tune their voices to The Bard. O'Toole was excellent. Patrick Stewart comes to mind in this regard. Anthony Hopkins is versatile, as is Ben Kingsley. Pacino? Love him, but no. Being a North Jersey boy, I can tell you that his voice, while good, is garden variety NYC, NJ, Philly.


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## eagle2250

Just finished reading "Sea Stories: My Life In Special Operations" by Admiral William H. McRaven, USN Ret. It is a rather humbly phrased memoir of one of our finest military leaders. It is well written, a very absorbing account of McRaven/s career in Special Operations...as an operator when he was a Lieutenant, JG to his leadership of this country's entire special operations initiative as a four star Admiral. From my perspective the book was hard to put down. The Admiral also provides a valuable life lesson for the crop of former special operators who separated from military service and set upon writing their own books about their experiences, as a quick way to personal wealth. There is a right way and a wrong way to do this...and Admiral McRaven did it the right way, getting all the reviews and clearances for the manuscript before, rather than after publication. Boys are boys, but you just do not violate the "Bro-Code!"


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## SG_67

Cassadine said:


> I think many English gents tune their voices to The Bard. O'Toole was excellent. Patrick Stewart comes to mind in this regard. Anthony Hopkins is versatile, as is Ben Kingsley. Pacino? Love him, but no. Being a North Jersey boy, I can tell you that his voice, while good, is garden variety NYC, NJ, Philly.


This discussion is reminding me of those Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon movies.


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## Peak and Pine

Apparently, _Gone with the Wind, _as a book, was so popular when it was released by MacMillan in june of 1936 that it was reprinted 26 (!) times before years end. I now have one of those, from November, '36. Two-bucks at a garage sale. It is 1,037 pages long. I am on page 16. I am in for a slog. Surprise tho, first 16 are quite well done. Had figured Margeret Mitchell was the 30s' Danielle Steele. Perhaps not.


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## Fading Fast

Peak and Pine said:


> Apparently, _Gone with the Wind, _as a book, was so popular when it was released by MacMillan in june of 1936 that it was reprinted 26 (!) times before years end. I now have one of those, from November, '36. Two-bucks at a garage sale. It is 1,037 pages long. I am on page 16. I am in for a slog. Surprise tho, first 16 are quite well done. Had figured Margeret Mitchell was the 30s' Danielle Steele. Perhaps not.


It was such a successful book that the movie rights were bitterly fought over as the - proven to be correct - assumption was that the movie would have such a built-in audience that it almost couldn't fail. Also, the competition amongst actors for the two leads was fierce with some established stars willing to do screen tests (something most big-name stars won't deign to do usually).


----------



## Big T

Iron Dawn, by Richard Snow. About 2/3s through, and this is the best story about the epic battle of the Monitor and the Merrimac.


----------



## The Irishman

Slow going with a copy of Thomas Aquinas' selected writings (Oxford World Classics edition, I'm a bit dubious about the selections the editor has made, I regret not just focusing on the Summa).

Recently polished off the following on holidays, combination of audiobook and text-

Machiavelli - The Prince (Must be tenth re-read, or listen in this case)
The Saga of Burnt Njal (Lawyerly and law-obsessed Vikings duke it out in tit for tat honour killings)
Bradybury - Farenheit 451


----------



## SG_67

The Irishman said:


> Machiavelli - The Prince (Must be tenth re-read, or listen in this case)


If you're going to read The Prince, I would also recommend reading some of the companion books written by Machiavelli scholars. It really will enrich your experience of reading this little pamphlet. Harvey Mansfield comes to mind as does Erica Benner.


----------



## The Irishman

SG_67 said:


> If you're going to read The Prince, I would also recommend reading some of the companion books written by Machiavelli scholars. It really will enrich your experience of reading this little pamphlet. Harvey Mansfield comes to mind as does Erica Benner.


Yes, I've read quite a bit on Machiavelli. First came across him 19 years ago and he and the milieu in which he wrote continues to fascinate me.

Sebastian De Graza's Machiavelli In Hell is a favourite. It's very accessible (for the general reader, in fact) although Harvey Mansfield gave it his stamp of approval...


----------



## Fading Fast

*The Unlikely Spy *by Daniel Silva published in 1996

Historical spy thrillers need to deliver an intricate espionage plot incorporating geopolitical events personalized by spies, spy masters and "average" people caught up in the game of intrigue.

Silva delivers all that in *The Unlikely Spy *by taking WWII's Normandy invasion as his geopolitical event, allowing him to weave in Nazi internecine intrigue, British and American coordination and tension, Winston Churchill (no WWII story would be complete without his outsized presence) and the preparation of the largest invasion force the world has ever seen.

It's amazing that the Nazis accomplished as much conquering as they did for a time as their hatred for other groups seems equal to their hatred for each other. Silva shows us one German spy agency trying to subvert another as Hitler played his usual game of pitting his senior officers against each other (the internal fighting between German spy agencies is historically accurate).

Despite that, in Silva's world, Germany tucked a small band of elite sleeper spies into England in the late '30s that are only first activated in '44, months before the Normandy invasion, in order to discover the invasion's plans and location.

Trying to thwart that effort is a modest history professor, Alfred Vicary, who was recruited early in the war by his friend Winston Churchill to identify and turn as many German spies as possible. Vicary is no James Bond -- a receding hairline, a professor's rumpledness and being a victim of both unrequited love and paralyzing seasickness forces this spymaster to use his outsized, subtle brain to succeed at a game where you never see the full picture, never have all the facts and where everyone is trying to deceive.

Having turned what MI5 believed to be all of the German spies in England at the start of the war - and running a "Double Cross" network where false information is fed back to those spies' handlers in German - Vicary is shaken out of his comfortable success when the sleeper spies' efforts to steal the Normandy invasion plans are revealed by indirect evidence. Vicary and his team are forced into a race against time to discover and stop the spy network from delivering the invasion site to Germany.

And Vicary has some worthwhile adversaries in the sleeper cell. First, is the ruthlessly cold, stunningly beautiful and searingly smart German, Catherine Blake, who uses her gun, wits and body with equally ferocious precision to steal classified Normandy documents from a senior Allied officer with whom she's sleeping. And second, there's Horst Neumann, a quiet and modest-in-stature German agent who is Caroline's contact for passing information to Germany and, ultimately, the one who leads her (and his) harrowing escape effort once they are discovered.

There are other characters - like Vicary's of-questionable-integrity-and-loyalty MI5 boss - and additional plot twists (how many times can the same spy be turned? ) - that amp up the action and drama. Also, there's plenty of sex - Ms. Blake is, basically, a bisexual Mata Hari. There's plenty of violence - the bodies start to pile up toward the end. Finally, there's a darn fine climax that has you wanting to skip ahead to see how it is resolved, but also held in the grip of its twists and turns.

More would give too much away of this fine effort. Does it rise to my personal gold standard of spy novels - Tom Clancy's Cold War classics like *Red Storm Rising*and the *Cardinal of the Kremlin* - no, but it also isn't as unnecessarily convoluted as the John le Carré ones with which I, at least with my small brain, am never really certain of what happened, even when it's all over.

I found my way to this one from a recommendation by a friend and history writer, Melissa Amiteis. Her excellent review of the book is here: https://bestofww2.blogspot.com/search?q=an+unlikely+spy


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## richard warren

I’m reading Lippmann’s Public Opinion and Bernays’s Propaganda which pretty much confirm my worst fears. If you think it’s the proper role of an invisible government to make your decisions for you, you will like what they have to say. It sure seems that many, many who read their message did find it agreeable to their ends and went on to implement the project.


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## richard warren

I finally figured out le Carre was so confusing not because of the writing or the plotting, but because he was playing for the other team.


----------



## Fading Fast

*The Guest Book* by Sarah Blake, published in 2019

If you've ever wondered what a summer read mashed up with a modern political screed would be like, here it is.

*The Guest Book's* summer read part is solid - in the 1930s, a WASP family purchases an island with a large house off the coast of Maine and, as with many a good page turner, the purchase is cloaked in a possible original sin tainting and cursing the generations that follow.

The book's political screed takes a modern view of both race and WWII and, with other than a nod here and there to the complexity of the issues in their day, weaves in a narrative that loudly and smugly passes muster with today's accepted political pieties.

How did Ogden Milton (not since Clark Kent has a name left no doubt of its American "tis of thee" roots), senior partner at the fictional investment banking firm of Milton Higginson, raise the money to buy an island in the middle of the Depression? Was he one of those horrible Wall Street capitalists who financed Nazi Germany when there was money to be made or had he simply invested based on a friendship dating back to well before the Nazi takeover of Germany?

Did his wife, Kitty, selfishly leave a window open in the Sutton Place apartment (almost every WASP redoubt gets a shout out eventually) for her infant son to find or was a good mother left forever wounded by a sad accident.

And if those two events were't enough, in a coincidence only a novelist on a political mission could love, the Miltons, really Kitty, has an opportunity to save a Jewish boy, incredibly, offered to her care the first day she visits the Island in 1936. Her refusal, perfectly aligned to a modern view of why she would, haunts her the rest of her life.

With those secrets tucked away until they aren't, Ogden and Kitty raise their family - a family that refuses to quietly and seamlessly play its part in the great American WASP dream.

First, an heir apparent son is more interested in playing music than investment banking while also showing a sensitivity to race and religious issues all but perfectly aligned to how a self-satisfied modern mind would fantasize it would have envisioned race and religious issues if transported back to the mid century. Also buffering the senior Miltons is a daughter with epilepsy who falls in love with, hold your breath, a young Jewish man who, unrelatedly (coincidences come fast and furious) becomes her father's favorite young star at Milton Higginson.

All of this drama will play out, in yet another incredible coincidence, during one concussing weekend at the Milton's island - loudly proclaimed as a perfect world by the Miltons and a ring-the-bell metaphor for the author denouncing a WASP-dominated mid-century America.

As a summer read, it's fun - sand, sunsets, tides, sailing, damp houses, affairs, secrets, lies, cocktails and big money push each page and generation of Miltons forward - a perfect companion to your own cocktail under a beach umbrella. But *The Guest Book* ruins itself because it aspires to be more in our modern age in which everything is political - especially everything "intellectual". The result is a too obvious and preachy virtue-signaling of modern race and religious views.

Just when you're settling into a good soap opera moment, you're pulled out of the forbidden sex, dirty business deal or withering WASP look to be told how wrong every view on race and religion was then and, by proxy, how right certain forward-thinkers are today.


----------



## Shaver

I have a galley copy of Gibson's soon to be released novel, Agency.

Set in an alternate 2017, in the aftermath of HRC winning the 2016 presidential election - somewhat far fetched even by Gibson's standards. However, I am a fan of this author (possibly the only truly great scifi writer publishing in the 21st century) and so I remain certain that I will enjoy the book enormously.


----------



## Fading Fast

*Padlocked* by Rex Beach, published in 1926

Beach was a popular novelist in his day (roughly most of the first half of the 20th century) who wrote smart page turners - not "literature -" that, today, give us a contemporaneous window into his time period.

Two things come clear from every Beach novel (I've read four or five by now) - the past was not as black and white as we sometimes like to think and what liberals and conservatives passionately believed has changed a lot over the years - sometimes flipped completely.

A wealthy, hard-core social "reformer -" on the "correct" side of every moral issue (he views prohibition as the reform movement's crowning achievement) , "charitable" in that "I'll lift you up way -" cannot accept the moral "failings" of his wife and teenage daughter. Though tame "failings", even by the standards of that day, they lead to the daughter all but running away from home upon the death of her mother.

Alone in New York City - with no money, family or friends - the daughter, Eddie, survives by singing in a cabaret (to the horror of her father), while trying to find the funds and a path to leverage her one special asset, her voice, into a respectable singing career.

A wealthy benefactor, a society kinda-sorta boyfriend, a from-the-streets-of-Brooklyn girlfriend and a decent booking agent - combined with some unwanted involvement from her fire-and-brimstone father - push and pull her every which way, leading to a calamitous misunderstanding landing genuinely decent girl Eddie in dire straits with the law on, of all things, a mistaken morals charge.

Today, our culture screams at us that there are no differences between the sexes resulting in many TV shows and movies having women enthusiastically initiating random and all but, anonymous sex; but in the '20s, women wanting/initiating/trading in sex, especially young women, out of wedlock, were considered wanton. Decent men were expected to protect women from predatory men. This was simply part of the public view of morality at the time (what really happened is what always happens - people had sex and then covered-up, as best they could, whatever society required them to cover-up).

Eddie's long sentence in a women's reform prison provides the book's climax. Failing physically and mentally in prison, and desperately in need of rescue, almost none of Edith's friends and family behave as expected. Some prove to be surprisingly faithful while her father, manipulated by another reformer and romantic interest with her own nasty agenda, all but destroys his daughter. (Public service announcement: always beware of the do-gooders passionately telling others how to live their lives because they, the reformers, claim to have those others' best interest at heart.)

Beach is a first-rate story teller who keeps the pages turning, which can be enough, but he also weaves social and philosophical views and opinions into the story making it more than just a plot-driven affair; it's a view into some of the prevailing bents of the day.

Effectively, for us, it's time travel to the 1920s - a '20s that can feel quite modern. To wit, note this comment from a young woman arguing with a young man that she can handle moonshine as well as he, "How Old-fashion you are!...remember, there's no longer a weaker sex. Independence has dawned for us girls."

Of course, that doesn't "prove" anything other than that few things were as black and white back then as they are often portrayed today. And "new" ideas tend to look less new when seen in the true sweep of history. And while all that is interesting and engaging, Beach's best skill is one that has had value all throughout history - he tells a good story.

N.B., For those interesting in reading his or her first Beach novel, I would recommend:

*Son of the Gods* #7878

*Mad Money* #7897

#7878


----------



## Mr. B. Scott Robinson

Two books at the moment:

The Dictators Handbook

What Happens Now, by my favorite contemporary female author Sophia Money-Coutts. She is one of the funniest and sharpest young English writers on the scene.

Cheers,

BSR


----------



## Peak and Pine

_The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters. _Every single page a steam punk delight. Problem, it's 760 pages long ( I'm on 504) and while it's never boring and each page relished, I don't like to commit this much time to a single novel. (Not when there's a new Danielle Steele in the wings. Pretend I'm using 16 laughing emojis here.)


----------



## eagle2250

A week ago I finished reading Clive Cussler and Justin Scott's "The Cutthroat." As most of Cusslers books have proven to be, it was a great read...a bit more plodding than many of his other yarns, but a good read non the less. In this novel Isaac Bell, head of the Van Dorn Detective Agency's Investigative Bureau finds himself on the trail of the fabled Jack The Ripper....following the trail through theaters on both sides of the Atlantic, in the United States and in Great Britain. The ladies keep dying in gruesome fashion and the life and death struggle between good and evil; we're talking evil wicked mean and nasty evil, right up until the very end when the dastardly Jack the Ripper gets eaten by an eight foot tall wind machine, powered by a repurposed aircraft engine. My friends, this is indeed a book well worth the time it takes to read it! Enjoy.


----------



## Dhaller

Joe Abercrombie is a guilty pleasure of mine - just started his newest book (and the start of a new trilogy) "A Little Hatred". Grimdark fantasy fare.

I've been on a reading roll of late, and have an actual stack here:

Fiction:
"Caliban"s War" (book 2 of Corey's "Expanse" series)
"Best Science Fiction of the Year vol. 4" (anthology, Neil Clarke ed.)

Non-Fiction:
"Understanding the Brain: from Cells to Behavior and Cognition" (Dowling)
"The Uninhabitable Earth: Life after Warming" (Wallace-Wells)
"An American Sickness: How Healthcare became Big Business" (Rosenthal)

Co-Reading with the Daughter (7):
"The Voyages of Doctor Doolittle" (Lofting)
"Herodotus: Histories - the Tale of the Clever Thief" (Herodotus is a surprisingly good source of stories for kids, and this particular tale is probably one of the best stories ever told... full of gems.)

DH


----------



## Fading Fast

*The Secrets We Kept* by Lara Prescott

Lara Prescott weaves three narratives into this historical novel telling the story of several US spy agencies' efforts, in the late '50s, to surreptitiously acquire, publish and, ultimately, distribute in the USSR, Russian author Boris Pasternak's unflattering-to-the-USSR novel *Dr. Zhivago*. At the same time, the USSR was trying to keep the book unpublished (a kinda pre-book banning).

The first narrative covers the above-outlined plot which starts with the FBI's and CIA's belief that ideas - spread in the Soviet Union through books, amongst other ways - could contribute to its anti-Soviet efforts. The Soviet Union was so passionate to prevent *Zhivago's* publication that it sent Pasternak's lover (Pasternak was also married) to the Gulag for three years because they believed she helped smuggle his manuscript out to the West. The threat of the Gulag was hung over Pasternak and his family, but his fame and popularity in Russia engendered some constraint on the dictatorship.

The book has its strongest moments revealing the authoritarian abuses of the Soviet secret police: the fear the average Russian lived with and the horror of being arrested, interrogated, tortured and sent to a labor camp for years - for activities such as helping to get a book published - with no legal representation, no trial, no appeal, no human rights, just a train ride from hell to the hell of a very bleak work-camp imprisonment.

The book, told from the perspective of the all-female typing pool at the CIA that handled the "subversion through ideas" effort, describes the story of how *Zhivago's *manuscript, via Western spy craft, was smuggled out and published, first in Italy and then other Western countries, before being smuggled back into the USSR.

This segues to the author's second narrative - the desire to yell at the 1950s for not giving women equal rights. Instead of representing the women rights' initiatives and views of the time - which were developing if only modestly successfully, but which would have been historically accurate - the author, as is the bane of so many modern writers, opts instead to have characters - some of the women in the typing pool - speak and think as if they had time-traveled back from an elite educational institution in 2019 to live and advocate for women's rights in the '50s.

Perhaps this is cathartic and ego-boosting for the author but it cheats historical accuracy and diminishes its impact. It becomes just another voice advocating a modern political view as opposed to a historically accurate portrayal of the aborning feminist views of the '50s. A review of books and other records from that era would show that there was a passionate effort by many women and men to advance women's rights, but it had a '50s viewpoint - and style and language and construct - that is not represented here.

Prescott's third agenda is to show the challenges a lesbian couple - two of the typing pool secretaries-turned-spies fall in love - faced in the '50s. Here she does a better job of limning a '50s outlook by reflecting that most people never even thought about lesbianism, but if they did, viewed it as an abashing perversion. While not badly handled, it added little to the broader narrative of the *Zhivago* story.

I have no idea of the historical accuracy of most of the book as it isn't footnoted (the book does have a list of citations), but the author, noting fictional elements, writes a story implying that most of the successful spy efforts and ideas that obtained and published *Dr. Zhivago* were the results of the work of female spies recruited right out of the typing pool.

Pick one story and tell it well would have been good editorial advice. The publication of the eventual Pulitzer Prize-wining *Dr. Zhivago* is blocked by the author's government because that government allows for no criticism. The book is, however, ultimately published internationally through the clandestine efforts of the West and, then, smuggled into the USSR as part of a plan to subvert the Soviet Union. That's a darn good story but it gets lost sometimes amidst the book's other politically-driven and non-core efforts.

Last point, the writing technique of using "we" to represented a group view - as was done here for the typing pool, for example, "we worked hard," "we were all good friends," "we never questioned our bosses -" is grating and demeaning as it argue some group-think collective accurately reflects the myriad of individuals and experiences of the typing pool's staff. Having suffered through an entire book constructed this way - *The Wives of Los Alamos *by Tarashea Nesbit - I swore to never subject myself to it again; fortunately, *The Secrets We Kept* only dips into this nails-on-a-chalkboard tick for a few short chapters.


----------



## eagle2250

This past week I finished reading "Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption." written by Bryan Stevenson. The book chronicles the effforts of Stevenson, a Southwest Philadelphia black youth who grows -up and graduates from Harvard Law School, to found and operate The Equal Justice Initiative. The book provides a very sobering view of yesteryear's criminal justice, or perhaps injustice delivered to minorities and the poor, downtrodden members of society. 

For example an Alabama black man confirmed to have been at a barbecue by well over a hundred witnesses and nowhere near a murder scene is convicted of murder and sentenced to death by a racist sheriff, a misguided and corrupt prosecutor and judge. Spending decades on Death Row the victim of this travesty is eventually released after the man who testified against him recants his testimony, describing how the racist, white sheriff had without proper authority, locked him up on the State's death row for months at a time to coerce said dishonest testimony.

The stories of injustice are many, with many of those victims not being proven innocent until after their execution(s). The book has been recognized with numerous prestigious awards and the author has been referred to as America's Mandela. For anyone with doubts regarding the racists among us, this book is a must read!


----------



## Mike Petrik

Right now I'm reading_ The Bostonians_, by Henry James. The comic depictions of late 19th century traditionalists and (especially) progressives is truly timeless. The more things change ....

Finished GFW's _The Conservative Sensibility_ last month. His erudite explication of our Founding Fathers and their understanding of the proper role for government shines through, even if I think he is deeply mistaken about the interplay between natural and positive law under our constitutional system.

Also recently finished Walker Percy's _Love in the Ruins _and Orson Scott Card's_ Ender's Game._ Both are great fun, and both explore the human condition though few do it with as much insight as Percy.

I subscribe to _First Things_, _The_ _National Interest_, and _City Journal_ and read each issue cover to cover.


----------



## Mike Petrik

eagle2250 said:


> This past week I finished reading "Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption." written by Bryan Stevenson. The book chronicles the effforts of Stevenson, a Southwest Philadelphia black youth who grows -up and graduates from Harvard Law School, to found and operate The Equal Justice Initiative. The book provides a very sobering view of yesteryear's criminal justice, or perhaps injustice delivered to minorities and the poor, downtrodden members of society.
> 
> For example an Alabama black man confirmed to have been at a barbecue by well over a hundred witnesses and nowhere near a murder scene is convicted of murder and sentenced to death by a racist sheriff, a misguided and corrupt prosecutor and judge. Spending decades on Death Row the victim of this travesty is eventually released after the man who testified against him recants his testimony, describing how the racist, white sheriff had without proper authority, locked him up on the State's death row for months at a time to coerce said dishonest testimony.
> 
> The stories of injustice are many, with many of those victims not being proven innocent until after their execution(s). The book has been recognized with numerous prestigious awards and the author has been referred to as America's Mandela. For anyone with doubts regarding the racists among us, this book is a must read!


Yes, and Gilbert King's ode to Thurgood Marshall, _Devil in the Grove,_ makes the same compelling case. It is a great achievement that these horrific injustices are chiefly relegated to "yesteryear." Just drive through south Georgia and south Alabama and you will see small town life, however imperfect, that the racists of the past would not recognize.


----------



## Fading Fast

Mike Petrik said:


> Right now I'm reading_ The Bostonians_, by Henry James. The comic depictions of late 19th century traditionalists and (especially) progressives is truly timeless. The more things change ....
> 
> Finished GFW's _The Conservative Sensibility_ last month. His erudite explication of our Founding Fathers and their understanding of the proper role for government shines through, even if I think he is deeply mistaken about the interplay between natural and positive law under our constitutional system.
> 
> Also recently finished Walker Percy's _Love in the Ruins _and Orson Scott Card's_ Ender's Game._ Both are great fun, and both explore the human condition though few do it with as much insight as Percy.
> 
> I subscribe to _First Things_, _The_ _National Interest_, and _City Journal_ and read each issue cover to cover.


I read Henry James's "Daisy Miller" back in high school (30+ yrs ago) and, to be honest, found it boring. He is one of the few well-regarded writers that I've never given a second change to - maybe I'll give "The Bostonians" a go. I've been told to try "Portrait of a Lady," have you read that one?


----------



## Mike Petrik

Thanks FF. _The Bostonians_ is my first James novel. It is a bit slow moving, possibly because during that era writers published their novels as serials in periodicals that paid them by the word. But insightful and funny anyway. I'll decide whether to read _Daisy Miller_ or _Portrait of a Lady_ after I finish _The Bostonians._ So many books in queue!


----------



## Dhaller

The WSJ had a glowing review of Tom Holland's "Dominion", a history of the significance of Christianity on the development of Western thought. Always a subject of interest to me.

Interesting enough that I'll interrupt my existing queue to read it.

https://amzn.to/2qzGEsI
(Which reminds me: I have yet to read Paul Johnson's "History of Christianity"... one of those books that somehow never quite makes it from the shelf into my hands.)

DH


----------



## Fading Fast

*The Philadelphian* by Richard Powell, originally published in 1957

Book themes and styles have a vogue; today, for example, almost every new fiction book I read has a strong female character(s) defeating arrogant, sexist men; in the '50s, multi-generational family sagas were popular. Often, they would start with an immigrant coming to America and would proceed to track the family's advancement as several generations "climb" the social and economic ladder until they either have arrived at/near the top where their new status is threatened or they are just about to break into the top ranks but are being thwarted by "the old guard."

*The Philadelphian* is a darn fine example of the latter. A strong-willed young Irish girl arrives in Philadelphia in the middle of the 19th Century and, after finding employment as a maid in one of Philly's "finest" families, swears to herself that her son will be raised to join the ranks of Philly's elite.

For a 1950's view of a mid-1800s woman, Maggie is a heroine - she takes responsibilities for her actions, won't play victim (to a consensual sexual encounter with her employer's son) and fights to keep her child without taking charity. However, if written today, she wouldn't be seen as one, as she passionately wants a son. She understood that a son, in her era, would have a better chance of climbing up the ladder and she accepts some help from men along the way. Not that this 1950s' view of the 1850s was pure of biases, but it is revealing to see how much a character in the 1850s would change if written to meet today's heroine standards, especially since the 1850s themselves haven't change.

It takes a few more generations than Maggie hoped for her family to climb nearly to the top of the ladder, but her dreams and the novel's narrative really take off when her great grandson, Anthony, graduates from law school and begins apprenticing at one of Philly's old-line white shoe firms.

Powell clearly knows Philly's history and, in particular, the nuances and sinews of power that its ruling class used to keep its position. Anthony, her son, leverages his smarts at both law and people (once you have the former, the latter is the real key to entering the top of the social strata) to position himself to be valuable and acceptable to Philly's elite.

His hard, but overall, not-too-bumpy rise to the top becomes threatened as he is recruited - in highly mannered but protecting-itself fashion - by Philly's business and social leaders to defend one of its own errant sons from murder charges with the unstated (and immoral by the legal community's standards) goal of not besmirching the family even if the wayward progeny has to go down. The good of the many of Philly's elite outweighs the needs of its few or, even, one - it's a cold world.

The way Anthony navigates these dangerous waters is the climax of the book and worth the read alone, but the entire book is a high-end soap-opera page turner - something '50's era American writers all but perfected. And after you finish this fun trip through the American story / dream, you can look for its movie version, *The Young Philadelphians*, which was truncated by the demands and limits of Hollywood, but is still an enjoyable saponaceous indulgence.


----------



## Mike Petrik

Fading Fast said:


> View attachment 36338
> 
> *The Philadelphian* by Richard Powell, originally published in 1957
> 
> Book themes and styles have a vogue; today, for example, almost every new fiction book I read has a strong female character(s) defeating arrogant, sexist men; in the '50s, multi-generational family sagas were popular. Often, they would start with an immigrant coming to America and would proceed to track the family's advancement as several generations "climb" the social and economic ladder until they either have arrived at/near the top where their new status is threatened or they are just about to break into the top ranks but are being thwarted by "the old guard."
> 
> *The Philadelphian* is a darn fine example of the latter. A strong-willed young Irish girl arrives in Philadelphia in the middle of the 19th Century and, after finding employment as a maid in one of Philly's "finest" families, swears to herself that her son will be raised to join the ranks of Philly's elite.
> 
> For a 1950's view of a mid-1800s woman, Maggie is a heroine - she takes responsibilities for her actions, won't play victim (to a consensual sexual encounter with her employer's son) and fights to keep her child without taking charity. However, if written today, she wouldn't be seen as one, as she passionately wants a son. She understood that a son, in her era, would have a better chance of climbing up the ladder and she accepts some help from men along the way. Not that this 1950s' view of the 1850s was pure of biases, but it is revealing to see how much a character in the 1850s would change if written to meet today's heroine standards, especially since the 1850s themselves haven't change.
> 
> It takes a few more generations than Maggie hoped for her family to climb nearly to the top of the ladder, but her dreams and the novel's narrative really take off when her great grandson, Anthony, graduates from law school and begins apprenticing at one of Philly's old-line white shoe firms.
> 
> Powell clearly knows Philly's history and, in particular, the nuances and sinews of power that its ruling class used to keep its position. Anthony, her son, leverages his smarts at both law and people (once you have the former, the latter is the real key to entering the top of the social strata) to position himself to be valuable and acceptable to Philly's elite.
> 
> His hard, but overall, not-too-bumpy rise to the top becomes threatened as he is recruited - in highly mannered but protecting-itself fashion - by Philly's business and social leaders to defend one of its own errant sons from murder charges with the unstated (and immoral by the legal community's standards) goal of not besmirching the family even if the wayward progeny has to go down. The good of the many of Philly's elite outweighs the needs of its few or, even, one - it's a cold world.
> 
> The way Anthony navigates these dangerous waters is the climax of the book and worth the read alone, but the entire book is a high-end soap-opera page turner - something '50's era American writers all but perfected. And after you finish this fun trip through the American story / dream, you can look for its movie version, *The Young Philadelphians*, which was truncated by the demands and limits of Hollywood, but is still an enjoyable saponaceous indulgence.


I recall the film very well but was unaware that it was based on a novel (now in my queue!). In the film the protagonist (played by Paul Newman) makes his bones by saving a well-healed family from a tax disaster by understanding the technicalities of the state's intangibles tax. As a retired tax lawyer familiar with these poorly understood and increasingly rare taxes, I got a big kick out of it.


----------



## Fading Fast

Mike Petrik said:


> I recall the film very well but was unaware that it was based on a novel (now in my queue!). In the film the protagonist (played by Paul Newman) makes his bones by saving a well-healed family from a tax disaster by understanding the technicalities of the state's intangibles tax. As a retired tax lawyer familiar with these poorly understood and increasingly rare taxes, I got a big kick out of it.


That's the film and that scene was taken right out of the book. Newman all but owned that kind of role - the young man pushing to succeed (see, "The Long Hot Summer," "From the Terrace," "Sweet Bird of Youth" and others) - in the late '50s/early '60s. The book is no Henry James effort, but it's a solid page turner.

I've bought the books of a lot of old films over the years as I've wanted to see the fuller story and, also, it's fun to see how the book got translated into film.


----------



## SG_67

_Coolidge _by Amity Shlaes.


----------



## Fading Fast

SG_67 said:


> _Coolidge _by Amity Shlaes.


How is it?

I read a bunch of Coolidge bios / related books many years ago and kinda burned out even though he's one of my favorite presidents.

I remember that Shlaes book coming out several years back and, then, forgot about it.


----------



## SG_67

Fading Fast said:


> How is it?
> 
> I read a bunch of Coolidge bios / related books many years ago and kinda burned out even though he's one of my favorite presidents.
> 
> I remember that Shlaes book coming out several years back and, then, forgot about it.


I just started it so it's talking a lot about his youth in Vermont and going to Amherst college. Quite the hardscrabble life back then if you were a rural New Englander.

I read "The Forgotten Man" several years ago and found it a very good read. I'm hoping this one reads the same.


----------



## Fading Fast

SG_67 said:


> I just started it so it's talking a lot about his youth in Vermont and going to Amherst college. Quite the hardscrabble life back then if you were a rural New Englander.
> 
> I read "The Forgotten Man" several years ago and found it a very good read. I'm hoping this one reads the same.


I look forward to your post-read review.


----------



## Fading Fast

*Forbidden Hollywood: The Pre-Code Era (1930-1934): When Sin Ruled the Movies*
By Mark Vieira

Published in 2019 as (as best as I can tell) part of a series of books sponsored by Turner Classic Movies

I love the movies from this period of Hollywood as they are shockingly modern in their subjects and reveal, if you can adjust your movie-watching meter for early '30s style and cultural differences. Casual sex, marital affairs, divorce, alcohol and drug use and abuse (yes, drug use and abuse), gambling, bootlegging, abortion, rape, very scantily clad women who have and enjoy sex, homosexuality and more - basically, all the things once considered "sins" (the fun ones and the bad ones) and challenges of real life are on display in this four-year window from when Hollywood started making "the talkies" until the existing censorship code was enforced with teeth at the end of '34.

*Forbidden Hollywood* is a mashup of a coffee table book with a solid historic overview of the forces at play pushing for and (with growing strength) against this realism in movies. And to the former, the book is worth it just for its beautiful - on heavy paper stock and in crystal-clear black and white - photographs of early '30s Hollywood. Sure, you can (I guess) Google most of them today, but sometimes sitting with a book, not a computer, and flipping pages, not clicking through screens, is a more pleasurable way to let pictures take you back in time.

As to the history, Vieira knows his 1930's Hollywood as he reveals the studios' ongoing fight to keep "sin" in movies - for artistic and, more so, financial reasons (people will pay to see other people doing fun and bad things) - against the censors' (from local community groups to national religious organizations including, most prominently, the Catholic Church) desire to "clean up" the movies. While the '30-'34 period is referred to as "pre-code" Hollywood, the reality is the code that would neuter pictures by the end of '34, was technically in effect from '29 on, but was, mainly, lightly and inconsistently enforced throughout.

The result is a period of very realistic films, but not the no-holds-barred gratuitousness that we see today as the studios had to bow somewhat to censorship pressures during those four years. It's this give and take - this push and pull - between the studios and the various censorship boards that drives the text. If there is a weakness in the book, it's that this narrative would be a bit hard to follow if you didn't already have some knowledge of Hollywood history from the period. To be sure, you'd get it, but the combination of coffee table book with historical account results in a few gaps in the story and some awkward jumping around - a mixed result that usually happens whenever there is more than one goal for a project.

That said, even a newbie would find it enjoyable as an overview of the period, while old hands will love having their memories constantly jarred. Plus, there are all the beautiful photographs. My new project is to keep an eye on TCM, as there are several pre-code movies mentioned in the book that I haven't yet - and, now, really want to - see.

N.B. To my friend @Shaver, I think you'd enjoy adding this one to your collection. Best, FF

And some bonus pics:


----------



## Shaver

Fading Fast said:


> View attachment 37145
> 
> *Forbidden Hollywood: The Pre-Code Era (1930-1934): When Sin Ruled the Movies*
> By Mark Vieira
> 
> Published in 2019 as (as best as I can tell) part of a series of books sponsored by Turner Classic Movies
> 
> I love the movies from this period of Hollywood as they are shockingly modern in their subjects and reveal, if you can adjust your movie-watching meter for early '30s style and cultural differences. Casual sex, marital affairs, divorce, alcohol and drug use and abuse (yes, drug use and abuse), gambling, bootlegging, abortion, rape, very scantily clad women who have and enjoy sex, homosexuality and more - basically, all the things once considered "sins" (the fun ones and the bad ones) and challenges of real life are on display in this four-year window from when Hollywood started making "the talkies" until the existing censorship code was enforced with teeth at the end of '34.
> 
> *Forbidden Hollywood* is a mashup of a coffee table book with a solid historic overview of the forces at play pushing for and (with growing strength) against this realism in movies. And to the former, the book is worth it just for its beautiful - on heavy paper stock and in crystal-clear black and white - photographs of early '30s Hollywood. Sure, you can (I guess) Google most of them today, but sometimes sitting with a book, not a computer, and flipping pages, not clicking through screens, is a more pleasurable way to let pictures take you back in time.
> 
> As to the history, Vieira knows his 1930's Hollywood as he reveals the studios' ongoing fight to keep "sin" in movies - for artistic and, more so, financial reasons (people will pay to see other people doing fun and bad things) - against the censors' (from local community groups to national religious organizations including, most prominently, the Catholic Church) desire to "clean up" the movies. While the '30-'34 period is referred to as "pre-code" Hollywood, the reality is the code that would neuter pictures by the end of '34, was technically in effect from '29 on, but was, mainly, lightly and inconsistently enforced throughout.
> 
> The result is a period of very realistic films, but not the no-holds-barred gratuitousness that we see today as the studios had to bow somewhat to censorship pressures during those four years. It's this give and take - this push and pull - between the studios and the various censorship boards that drives the text. If there is a weakness in the book, it's that this narrative would be a bit hard to follow if you didn't already have some knowledge of Hollywood history from the period. To be sure, you'd get it, but the combination of coffee table book with historical account results in a few gaps in the story and some awkward jumping around - a mixed result that usually happens whenever there is more than one goal for a project.
> 
> That said, even a newbie would find it enjoyable as an overview of the period, while old hands will love having their memories constantly jarred. Plus, there are all the beautiful photographs. My new project is to keep an eye on TCM, as there are several pre-code movies mentioned in the book that I haven't yet - and, now, really want to - see.
> 
> N.B. To my friend @Shaver, I think you'd enjoy adding this one to your collection. Best, FF
> 
> And some bonus pics:
> View attachment 37146
> 
> View attachment 37147
> View attachment 37148


Thank you FF, I have been eyeing this volume for a while but your review is sufficient to tip the scale. I have promoted this book to the top of my wish-list and will effect a purchase sooner rather than later.

By way of repayment, if you haven't already viewed Of Human Bondage then I recommend it. Released at the very last gasp of pre-code era and addressing all at once a myriad of themes which could be only lightly and singly approached for decades afterwards - an extraordinarily bleak tale of disintegration with a conclusion which still retains the power of shock.


----------



## Oldsarge

I'm still working my way through _Not Even Wrong_, Peter Wott. It's a critique of String Theory and light readin' it ain't!


----------



## Fading Fast

Shaver said:


> Thank you FF, I have been eyeing this volume for a while but your review is sufficient to tip the scale. I have promoted this book to the top of my wish-list and will effect a purchase sooner rather than later.
> 
> By way of repayment, if you haven't already viewed Of Human Bondage then I recommend it. Released at the very last gasp of pre-code era and addressing all at once a myriad of themes which could be only lightly and singly approached for decades afterwards - an extraordinarily bleak tale of disintegration with a conclusion which still retains the power of shock.


Thank you for the recommendation. I have seen it and agree with all your comments - brilliant and, as you noted, brutally depressing.

A few of my favorites: "Red Dust," (carnal lust on steroids with people smashing each other over the head with it), "The Rich Are Always With Us," (every one loves or lusts after another - but it's almost never the same two people wanting each other) and "Three on a Match" (one woman's excruciating and unnecessary self destruction in slow, painful motion).


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## Fading Fast

*World's Fair* by E L Doctorow

Set in the '30s, this historical fiction is almost a time capsule of a certain type of childhood - that of a young boy growing up in New York in what turned out to be a downwardly-mobile family whose parents struggle to hold their finances and marriage together.

The child, Edgar, brings a mix of a precocious boy's view and an adult's perspective to growing up in the 1930s - playing with the dog his mother doesn't want but grudgingly comes to love, listening to his radio heroes like the Shadow (whom he fears could be killed by an enfilading machine gun), trips to crowded near-city beaches, seeing his father as family hero at times and, perspicaciously, as a man who feels constrained by the responsibilities of a family.

It's like a '30s cultural-curio store come to life in book form as washboards, slingshots, subways, coal-delivery trucks, glass milk bottles, kids dressed up for pictures, old ice boxes, new refrigerators and so on, all play a part in Edgar's world. Edgar also senses all the adult tensions - sick relatives, failing businesses, unfaithful spouses, overwhelming bills, etc. - through a smart child's eye that pulls the reader back to his or her own childhood efforts to make sense of the adult world.

While titled "World's Fair," the actual '39 World's Fair serves more as an Oz-like, futuristic dream world to an optimistic young boy in a spiraling-down family than the center of the story. His dad has promised to take them, but time, life distractions and money are obstacles. And yes, the point is that everyday life is the real World's Fair. But the actual '39 Fair does make a not-at-all-disappointing appearance toward the end. By this point in the story, we see the Fair's wonders of the future from a 1930s perspective. But, like insightful Edgar, we also see some of the flimflam and hucksterism behind it.

Half a fictional memoir that rattles around the 1930s and half an account of the timeless impressions and impact of childhood, Doctorow packs a lot of punch and insight into a odd package that is not easily categorized, but is, overall, a fun-and-moving page turner.


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## Fading Fast

*After the Party* by Cressida Connolly published in 2018

Set mainly in late 1930s England, the author of this work of historical fiction wrote a book about three sisters involved in a famous/infamous political movement - The British Union of Fascists (BUF) - while somehow avoiding most of the politics of the movement. Even though the sisters' story is a pretty good one, it's still disappointing overall as skimming and skirting the politics of this one just doesn't work (as in a "how was the play otherwise Mrs. Lincoln" failing).

Yes, the three sisters have compelling, if by-the-number stories - the "good" girl who follows a conventional middle-class path, the "rebel" who goes for adventure and says the heck with social conventions and the "social climber" who, in this case, marries for money and position - but it's their odd coming together as adults who support the BUF and the outcome of that association that engages the reader.

But that's also why it is, ultimately, unsatisfying. We never fully understand the sisters' reasons for joining and the depth of their commitment to the BUF as the politics are elided. Maybe author Connolly was trying to keep the story focussed on the personal by keeping the to this day still controversial politics at arm's length and perhaps that would work with a story set in ancient Rome where the political passions of that era are truly history. But you can't write about World War II and be agnostic to even the British version of fascism.

There is some good time travel to the '30s in *After the Party* and, as noted, it's an engaging enough story about a family blasted apart by politics and realities of war, but that's also it's core weakness as it isn't confident enough to address the cause of the destruction.


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## eagle2250

John Grisham's The Reckoning, provided me with several days of good reading. It is the story of a family of southern aristocracy tested in the fiery crucible of WWII in the Pacific, touched by infidelity at home involving societally forbidden love and illustrating the disasterous and unfroseen consequences of jumping to conclusions based on unwarranted assumptions and the eventual disintegration of this domestic petri dish, provided by the author. Who among us have not, on more occasions then we might care to acknowledge, stepped off on personal crusades that were ill thought out and rendered unintentional damages to others, as a result of our lack of due diligence? There are lessons to be learned from this book...it is well worth your consideration!


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## Big T

Just finished the latest Grisham novel, not bad. Reading "The Butchering Art", Lindsey Fitzharris, not bad.


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## Fading Fast

Journey into Christmas _and Other Stories_ by Bess Streeter.

Every year, I try to read a "Christmas" book around this time to help set the mood, with Ms. Streeter's collection of short stories about Christmas being this year's offering.

Written in the '30s and '40s, these stories - just my guess, but they feel like "Saturday Evening Post" or similar periodical efforts - are theme, not plot, driven. Set mainly in either the mid-to-late 1800's "prairie" or 1930s/'40s small midwest towns, the stories emphasize the importance of family and community without being mawkish.

Instead, you see real families and communities that argue, do stupid things and petty things, but also, usually, rally around the right choice - raise the kids, help the needy, visit lonely relatives, etc.

Also, a sense of hardship and keeping it at bay - surviving the trip out West and building a life on the prairie or keeping a roof over your family's head / your business going / food in everyone's belly during the Great Depression - pervades these stories in a visceral way that our two-car families, smartphone-carrying, the poor-have-obesity-issues present-day society doesn't.

And all our complaints - Christmas is too much about presents, spending, decorations, competition - are here too (not so much on in the prairie stories, but the ones set in the towns in the '30s and '40s). But despite that, just like today, out of the big giant ball of Christmas does come some real charity, some real giving, some real caring - some real decency.

If it's your cup of tea, these are good Christmas short stories that capture its vibe, focus on the good - but not to excess - and, for us today, provide a little time travel to an earlier period. To wit, people travel great distances by trains not cars, cook from scratch because that's their option, put real candles (not lights) on Christmas trees and remember when they got their first radio.


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## eagle2250

Fading Fast said:


> View attachment 38010
> 
> Journey into Christmas _and Other Stories_ by Bess Streeter.
> 
> Every year, I try to read a "Christmas" book around this time to help set the mood, with Ms. Streeter's collection of short stories about Christmas being this year's offering.
> 
> Written in the '30s and '40s, these stories - just my guess, but they feel like "Saturday Evening Post" or similar periodical efforts - are theme, not plot, driven. Set mainly in either the mid-to-late 1800's "prairie" or 1930s/'40s small midwest towns, the stories emphasize the importance of family and community without being mawkish.
> 
> Instead, you see real families and communities that argue, do stupid things and petty things, but also, usually, rally around the right choice - raise the kids, help the needy, visit lonely relatives, etc.
> 
> Also, a sense of hardship and keeping it at bay - surviving the trip out West and building a life on the prairie or keeping a roof over your family's head / your business going / food in everyone's belly during the Great Depression - pervades these stories in a visceral way that our two-car families, smartphone-carrying, the poor-have-obesity-issues present-day society doesn't.
> 
> And all our complaints - Christmas is too much about presents, spending, decorations, competition - are here too (not so much on in the prairie stories, but the ones set in the towns in the '30s and '40s). But despite that, just like today, out of the big giant ball of Christmas does come some real charity, some real giving, some real caring - some real decency.
> 
> If it's your cup of tea, these are good Christmas short stories that capture its vibe, focus on the good - but not to excess - and, for us today, provide a little time travel to an earlier period. To wit, people travel great distances by trains not cars, cook from scratch because that's their option, put real candles (not lights) on Christmas trees and remember when they got their first radio.


Sounds like a book to add to my reading list. We have a fairly large collection of Christmas themed DVDs that we randomly select from to watch to get us in the mood for Christmas....Christmas Story, Christmas Vacation, Four Christmases, Bad Santa, Christmas With The Kranks, White Christmas, etc.


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## Fading Fast

eagle2250 said:


> Sounds like a book to add to my reading list. We have a fairly large collection of Christmas themed DVDs that we randomly select from to watch to get us in the mood for Christmas....Christmas Story, Christmas Vacation, Four Christmases, Bad Santa, Christmas With The Kranks, White Christmas, etc.


We do something similar this time of year - read a Christmas-themed book or two and watch a lot of Christmas movies.

A couple of nights ago, we watched "Bachelor Mother -" only somewhat Christmas themed, but a fun old movie regardless.


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## SG_67

SG_67 said:


> _Coolidge _by Amity Shlaes.





Fading Fast said:


> How is it?
> 
> I read a bunch of Coolidge bios / related books many years ago and kinda burned out even though he's one of my favorite presidents.
> 
> I remember that Shlaes book coming out several years back and, then, forgot about it.


Sorry for the delayed reply. I had forgotten about it.

This was the first bio I had read about Coolidge. Shlaes does a good job of painting a picture of the era as well as the subject of her bio. It's always interesting reading books such as this as it helps us to remember the names we now associate within large institutions; Morgan, Mellon, Crane, Arthur Vining Davis, were just people at one time.

It was an interesting read and given Shlaes's background, much of it focused on his economic and fiscal policies. But it also paints a tender picture of the first family's troubles and challenges.

What struck me most, however, was that the Coolidge presidency marked a transition point. One that saw the end of an era when limited government and interference in commerce ended and the modern big government state started, first under Hoover and writ large under Roosevelt. It was interesting to read that under Coolidge, the federal budget was around $3 billion. Now that would be a small highway project.

The world has certainly changed as has America's role in it. I'm not sure some of those same small government policies would serve us well in the modern world, but it is worth using a presidency such as Coolidge's to ask are our tax dollars being used effectively and for the benefit of the nation and is government unnecessarily interfering with business and industry so as to hinder progress.


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## Fading Fast

*The Wolf That Fed* *Us* by Robert Lowry

A collection of short stories written in the 1940s mainly about American soldiers who fought in Italy in WWII. This is no "Greatest Generation" view nor is it a battle-scene view; instead, these are stories about soldiers on leave, during downtime or immediately after the war who cheat civilians, patronize whores, drink to oblivion and suffer from what today we call PTSD.

I discovered this collection from the movie "That Kind of Woman -" a surprisingly good and complex story about a GI (Tab Hunter) on leave who meets a kept woman (Sofia Loren) on a train and has an affair (I know - whoever thought to put those two romantically together, but it works). The darkness of the movie should have prepared me for this collection of stories as no one is happy, well-adjusted or positive in Lowry's world.

One of the standout stories, "The Gold Button," shows a soldier after the war mentally breaking down despite having returned to a good job with "a bright future," as everything - Americans who didn't suffer during the war, businessmen looking to expand, young women on the make - remind him, by contrast, of the misery of Italy during the war.

It all comes together in his mind to say regular life is a meaningless charade. It's no surprise he drinks during the day just to make it through. And in a moment of honest insight, he recognizes that it isn't the Americans fault for not having suffered through a war the way the Italians did, but his mind can't accept the inequality even if, as he expresses, it is deserved.

Other standout stories include, "The Wolf That Fed Us," about a soldier on leave who, effectively, blows off seeing his family as he chases a kept woman. Yes, this is the basis of the "That Kind of Woman" movie, but the story is different - and bleaker - here as his affair is blunted time and again by the other man in his girl's life, yet, instead of getting mad, he just sort of apathetically hangs around. Any thought that casual sex and living together were not done back then are thoroughly put to rest by this and other stories in the collection.

A few more to look out for include "Visitors to the Castle" where a scam artist GI bilks an entire Italian town out of money on the premise that Mayor Fiorello La Guardia of New York - presented here as a hero to the Italian nation - was going to visit this remote, one-radio, town and another story, "The Terror in the Streets," where a women who presents herself as a war widow was really just deserted by her husband when the war was over. Her mid-'40s Greenwich Village world shows early signs of the menace that would descend on all of New York City by the '70s.

More nihilist than noir in their arrant rejection of any meaning in life / any better angles / any hope, one can still see the literary parallels to Hollywood's post-war film-noir efforts in this challenging collection of short stories.


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## eagle2250

Our neighborhood book club read Louise Penny's Glass Houses for this months discussion. I had never experienced Louise Penny's writing before and after reading the first 150 pages of this book, had developed serious doubts as to the books number one rating on the New York Times Bestseller list. However, by the time I finished reading the last of the books 466 pages, I couldn't put it down, was truly impressed with the word crafting abilities of Ms Penny and would count myself as one of her fans! The book introduces the reader to the ancient concept of Cobrador's, a figure clad entirely in black, wearing a mask and a solid black hooded cape assigned to follow a selected doer or essentially wrong and'or evil deeds, serving as a visual representation of the perpetrators conscience and theoretically causing the 'bad guy' to stand accountable for their wrongs. 

The story takes place in a mythical rural Hamlet of Three Pines, involving the Chief Superintendent of the Surete' du Quebec, The Chief prosecutor for The Crown and eventually the Provincial Head of State. It progresses from the initial public shaming of an unidentified wrong doer, progresses to the murder of a tourist visiting Three Pines and concludes with a literal war between thew forces of good and evil that results in the cataclysimic downfall of two drug cartels, one Canadian and one American. The final 300+ pages of Glass Houses is a damn good read! Read it...you will like it.


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## SG_67




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## Fading Fast

*City Boy* by Herman Wouk published in 1948

I was never a boy of eleven growing up in the late '20s in the Bronx, but now I feel I had a front-row seat to the experience as eleven-year-old Herbie Bookbinder - like Edgar from E. L. Doctorow's *World's Fair* - provides a child-like freshness with sprinkles of adult-like perspective to his view of that world.

With Herbie, you get the childhood day-to-day: playing stick ball (Herbie is horrible at sports - as he notes, he just accepted that he'd be picked last for whatever team and in whatever sport) or begging a dime from your mom for a movie and soda. But also, you see Herbie's wise-beyond-his-years observations: he knows that talking about "The Place" (the Bookbinder Ice company - co-owned, in debt and threatened with a hostile takeover) was what animates his father or recognizing the little cheats the owner of the summer camp - that Herbie all but tricked his parents into sending him to - does to squeeze a little more out of each dollar.

Surprisingly driving the story, though, is "fat" little Herbie's growing interest in girls - most of whom he and, as he says, all eleven-year-old boys, all but, put in a class of untouchables. But to his surprise, he finds a few puzzlingly infatuating to the point of obsession. It's wanting to be with his current obsession - Lucille - that motivates Herbie to cadge summer camp from his cash-strapped parents despite Lucille's on-again-off-again callous treatment of Herbie's affections.

Wouk brings Herbie's 1928 summer-camp world alive to us as we see tightfisted owners trying to control kids and keep costs down while giving them enough fun to convince them and their parents it was all worth it. From the train ride up - singing camp songs - through the horrible meals, the morning bugle wake-ups and the oddly forced competitions, I enjoyed it as a window into the past but with a feeling of relief at not actually having to be there.

While the book is more of a slice-of-life than plot driven, the story does excitingly climax as lazy Herbie - inspired to action in a last desperate attempt to regain Lucille's affections, now directed at the camp's sports hero - concocts a crazy scheme to build an elaborate ride for the camp's annual fair. Herbie's beyond-his-years machinations include taking an unchaperoned trip to New York to execute on a complex crime scheme for an eleven year old trying to obtain money to build the fair's ride. It ends in some timeless lessons about right and wrong and - most importantly - learning about the grey of adult-world morals. It's all a bit nuts, but at that point, you're just along for the trip and rooting for the little "fat" kid to succeed.

And while the plot will surprisingly hold you, for us today - and I'd bet for Wouk's 1948 audience, also - the book is a time capsule where early radio shows, empty lots in the Bronx for kids to play, the aforementioned ice company, ten-cent chocolate "Frappes" and a harsh discipline in school that is stunning (at least to us today) provides an, overall, fun and enlightening window into an earlier time. Kids' worlds were never the "safe" or "innocent" places we sometimes believe they were - Herbie sees plenty of adult deceptions, and worries, and failings - but there was much more of a separation between the two worlds than we have today.

This was Wouk's second novel and, while not up there with his *The Caine Mutiny* or *The* *Winds of War* timeless bestsellers, for a trip back to childhood and back to the 1920s, it's held up very well.


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## eagle2250

Just recently finished reading David Baldacci's End Game, a book in his Will Robie Series. As some may recall, Will Robie and Jessica Reel are premiere government assassins employed by the CIA. In this present yarn they find themselves in Eastern Colorado searching for their first line supervisor, Blue Man, who seems to have disappeared on a vacation gone bad. They find themselves collaborating with an over sexed female sheriff and an undercover FBI agent as they battle against Neo Nazis, white supremacists, Hillbilly outlaws in their attempts to find Blue Man. Who would have known they would be battling to the death against a mad Cal Tech Chemist named Fitzsimmons who has converted an abandoned Atlas missile launch facility into perhaps the largest illicit and synthetic drug manufacturing operation in the world. In their final efforts to deal with Fitzsimmons and as his drug manufacturing operation self destructs around them, some might conclude..."thank gawd for the Israelis!" Read the book...it's good. :crazy:


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## Oldsarge

I was given Fuscia Dunlop's _Land of Fish and Rice _for Christmas. It makes me want to pack my chopsticks and buy a plane ticket to Southern China . . .


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## eagle2250

Oldsarge said:


> I was given Fuscia Dunlop's _Land of Fish and Rice _for Christmas. It makes me want to pack my chopsticks and buy a plane ticket to Southern China . . .


Now that sounds like Fuscia Dunlop's book was/is a very persuasive read.


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## Fading Fast

*The Build-Up Boys* by Jeremy Kirk (a pen name for Richard Powell) originally published in 1951

Somewhere along the way, TV developed the formula for a good type of show: have ridiculously smart and pretty people work at a high level in some insanely competitive field (legal, medicine, law enforcement) by creating and executing incredibly complex long-term strategies for personal or professional gain while never missing an obscure piece of evidence or detail as they engage in speed dialogue with each other and their adversaries where no super-smart quip is ever missed, long philosophical speeches are spit out extemporaneously and no one ever wishes they had said the smart thing later as it's always said at the time.

Oh, and all these good-looking people have sex with each other if their show runs long enough. "The Practice" might have been the first one of these shows that I ever saw, but there are many shows like it as it's a proven formula that's kept series like *Grey's Anatomy*going for seventy five seasons.

The only problem is if they don't humanize the characters - don't give them faults and traits we recognize in ourselves and others, don't have them fail at big and small things now and then and act stupid and petty at times - after a season or two (or less), the shows can feel soulless. This is why so many of those characters are given drug or alcohol addictions or the inability to sustain loving relationships as, otherwise, they just become big, boring successful brains sitting on the shoulders of very attractive people.

Okay, that's a long TV-inspired introduction to a book from 1951 when most of TV was, well, not good at all other than, for us today, in a cultural curio way. But this book anticipated all those "smart" shows that were coming decades later. In *The Build-Up Boys*, we see a handsome public relations man, Clint Lortimer, take an obscure and insecure head of a small dairy company and turn him into a "Captain of Industry" in charge of one of the largest dairy consortiums in the country who, now, is being considered to lead a major government war-recovery program.

Back then, public relations was seen as an offshoot of advertising where you "built up" a client by creating an incredible public image for him or her, while also boosting his or her self confidence. Think of it as combining the flummery of advertising with the cynicism of false flattery. It's all that, but as we saw in *Mad Men*, it's also a cutthroat business that - when fictionalized, as it is here - has super-smart people hyper competing ruthlessly for clients, copy, connections and power.

Clint jousts with both his ex-boss - an "old pro" who would sooner give up one of his children than an account and who, effectively, exiles Clint from New York (where "anyone who is anyone works") - and his new boss - a (sexually smoldering) middling female ad exec whom Clint builds-up (sleeps with) and then can't control. Along the way, newspaper stories are fabricated (as Clint schmoozes or seduces women reporters), promotional contests are created out of whole cloth and congressional appearances are turned into victories through back-dated stock certificates and brazen lies.

It all happens because the "winners" create incredibly sophisticated long-term strategies that - contrary to the real world - work most of the time. Simultaneously, they engage in rapid-fire conversation that never misses a beat as every brickbat that could be said is while some life-philosophy is mixed in on the fly - and, of course, they all sleep with each other.

In the end, the characters - Clint, his old and new boss and the female reporter he seduced (discarded and brought back, who, then, turned the tables on him) - are, like the reader, exhausted. Yes, similarly to the lead character from the TV show *House*, these people live for "the game," but occasionally come up for air to see that their lives are missing something - anything - truly soul satisfying. But these brief moment of personal reflection are not enough to make them fully humanized / to make them regular people with faults and foibles / to make them three-dimensional characters.

It's a quick enough read that it's almost, but not quite, over before you end up hating all of them - usually something that leaves me cold to a book. But like the TV shows noted earlier, it is an, overall, entertaining ride and, for us today, interesting to see as an antecedent to an entire genre of TV shows. And if you hate business - especially advertising and public relations - and politicians, you'll feel right at home.


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## Fading Fast

Lady Be Good by Amber Brock, published 2018

A friend passed this one on to me as a "good beach read with some fun '50s time travel to New York, Miami and Cuba," (that hooked me) and, to be fair, that's not a bad description as it is a reasonable page turner that's not challenging, but isn't boring either. And, yes, I've fallen behind on my "beach reads;" hence, the January start date.

The young and pretty daughter - Kitty Tessler - of a self-made hotel magnate partakes in the social life of New York City while looking for a "from the best of families" society husband to scrub clean her Russian immigrant roots so that she can join her - in her mind - proper place at the top of '50s New York's social strata.

Along the way, she tries to break up her best friend's engagement to a cheating, but "from one of those top families," boyfriend while batting away her father's desire to marry her off to his first-generation-Russian hotel manager - a good man lacking any of the polish or social cachet our heroine desires - so that his daughter "will be set for life with a decent man who can also oversee her business interests when he passes."

It's fluffy and saponaceous enough for a beach read, the trouble is, as with so many writers today, the author is so anxious to aver her modern political beliefs in the middle of her period novel that she destroy both the story and its period verisimilitude.

When we meet Kitty, she is smart, spoiled and selfish in an unaware way, conniving in an aware way and ignorant of - to softly indifferent to - the prejudices of the time: It's hard to be sensitive to others when you're plotting a massive social coup. But then Kitty meets a couple of the band members - a Cuban singer, Sebastian, and Jewish trumpet player, Max - at one of her father's hotel's clubs and continues to intersect with their lives on a trip to Miami and, then, Cuba. There, a soft romance develops between Kitty and Max that Kitty allows as a safe indulgence ("nothing will come of it") and because it fits into her scheme to dissuade her father's husband candidate - the burly Russian.

All's fun and good with the story so far - with some neat '50s details popping up along the way - but, then, shallow and narcissistic Kitty morphs into a super-modern and "woke" woman when her selfishness destroys both her best friendship and her relationship with Max. In the blink of an eye, she's apologizing to everyone, has given up her goal of social conquest, is demurely trying to get Max back (the "Jewish thing" no long matters to her) and is joining her dad at work where she miraculously has a preternatural talent for business.

Oh, and this is my favorite one, in a rage against some obnoxious club patrons who insult Sebastian's ethnicity, she jumps into a fight and smashes a chair over the back of one of the antagonists. A silly tick of modern TV and movies is having 120-ish pound, small-frame women beat up over-six-feet tall, 200-plus pound men in fist fights (I'm sure it's happened once in the history of the world, but come on). Here at least, slim Kitty, who's never thrown a punch in her life, uses a chair, but still.

So, a good beach read that could have shown Kitty becoming realistically more enlightened in a way consistent with the period; instead, transmogrifies in a virtue-signaling exercise for the author willing to burn down any realism in her fun story in an embarrassment of political pieties.

And here's the thing - I shared ninety-plus percent of the author's views; but that's besides the point as 1950s' women didn't (ever and spontaneously) change into modern heroines with out-sized physical strength whose morals and values perfectly align to 2018's ideals. What a better story it would have been had Kitty grown - via experience and embarrassment, as real people do - into an imperfect '50s-style feminist (plenty existed), but that, I guess, wouldn't have been as satisfying to the desperate-to-score-modern-political-points author.


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## Oldsarge

Now that I have perfected sourdough pancakes for one person (and a poodle) I am breaking out _The Italian Baker_ and investigate the possibilities of long sponge sourdough bread. Then I'll go back to _Land of Rice and Fish_.


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## Fading Fast

Oldsarge said:


> Now that I have perfected sourdough pancakes for one person (and a poodle) I am breaking out _The Italian Baker_ and investigate the possibilities of long sponge sourdough bread. Then I'll go back to _Land of Rice and Fish_.


I have a feeling that is one well fed and loved poodle


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## eagle2250

Our local book clubs selection for this month is Kristan Hannah's "The Great Alone," a title that stands as a very accurate representation of life in the unforgiving Alaskan wilderness. The Allbright family; mother, father and pre-teen daughter Leni, emigrate from Seattle to The great Alaskan Wilderness to escape the realities of a toxic love relationship between the two adults and the reluctant acquiescence of an 11 year old child. It is a sick and twisted effort to escape the societal condemnation of a violent drunk, allegedly suffering from chronic alcoholism and a severe case of PTSD. and the wife and child who serve as his victims. Interestingly, in the isolation of the Alaskan wilderness, when the domestic violence reaches it's zenith and it appears that Leni, now a 17 year old, will be beaten to death by her drunk and anger crazed old man, Mama grows a set and takes a hunting rifle, putting two rounds into the human monster she calls her soul mate and Leni calls dad. 

While most might conclude the actions of mom to be in self defense and an effort to save her young daughter from being beaten to death, no one could consider what happened next to be legal, as they drug dads lifeless body out to the sled attached to a snow machine, added six 80 pound bear traps and hauled the body out to the middle of the lake. After drilling a hole in the ice with an auger , then enlarging same with a chainsaw, they clamped the bear traps on the body and dropped it through the ice to forever conceal it. Then it was time to enlist the aid of helpful neighbors to engineer their escape from Alaska and hide for the next decade from the authorities that were assuming dear old dad had killed the family in a drunken rage and gone into hiding. After Mom, a heavy smoker, dies of lung cancer, Leni sees fit to return to Alaska and turn herself in. I won't tell you how it happens, but it all works out and Leni, her (eventual) three children and her beloved husband Michael live long and happy lives in a small town, nestled in the wilderness of Alaska! It is a great read...so read it!


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## Fading Fast

*Forsaking All Others* _A Novel in Verse _by Alice Duer Miller published in 1931

I avoid reading verse for the same reason I avoid eating fish, while it can occasionally be wonderful, most of the time it has an off-putting smell and an offensive taste.

Okay, that's a harsh assessment of poetry/verse (and maybe, even, of fish) and not really fair, as I love some poems so much that I still think about them decades after I first read them (*A Great Hope Fell* by Dickinson and the *Tomorrow and Tomorrow*... soliloquy by Shakespeare are two). But those were "picked out" for me by the wobbly 1970's educational system of Central New Jersey; on my own, I just don't read poetry to find the rare good-tasting piece of fish.

So it was with trepidation that I opened Alice Duer Miller's *Forsaking All Others* _A Novel in Verse_. Heck, it was only because one of her novels was made into a B-movie I enjoyed (*And One was Beautiful)* that I even looked her work up - note the lowbrow way that I found myself in highbrow verse.

And here's where I'm supposed to tell you how the verse in this quite good - and very short - novel spoke to me / made me more of a fan of verse / blah, blah, blah - but, well, while the rhyming was neat and I occasionally fell into the rhythm, in truth, I enjoyed the novel for the story with the verse serving as an all but ignored sideshow. You can take the boy out of Jersey, but....

That said, it is a darn good story about a man, his wife and the woman with whom he has an affair. The characters are drawn in an almost *The Twilight Zone* manner where only necessary details of their lives are given: he's older (50s, my guess), New York successful and handsome; the wife is doughy, dowdy and devoted in a "first wife" way; and the mistress is youngish, but not for a single woman of that time (she's in her early 30s in, about, 1930 when the novel takes place), striking in appearance and embraces her role as mistress until she kinda doesn't.

To be sure, they all embrace their roles early on: the man genuinely avoids the mistress-to-be as he's been down this path before and doesn't want to hurt his suffering wife again; the wife knows it's going to happen (from the second she sees her husband and the woman meet) and is almost relieved when it starts; and the mistress is, well, hell bent on making it happen as she - unusual for the time - acknowledges her feral physical desire for the man and, call it what it is, stalks him.

The affair starts and sails along as expected - secret mid-day rendezvous, weekend romps when he's "away on business," fun gifts, little inside jokes, plenty of slap and tickle - while the wife suffers in silence. Yes, you want her to stand up and fight or leave or do something, but she is not a stand-up-and-fight-or-leave-or-do-something wife; she's been down this path before and believes her best strategy is to ignore it and let it burn out as, then, he'll return to her.

And she's not wrong until she is. After the early perfect, the seams in the affair start to pull apart a bit. When one or the other breaks an assignation, the ugly head of jealously rears up followed by recriminations, anger, explanations, forgiveness and resumption, but with a little less joy each time. Just when it looks as if the affair is about to wind down or, conversely, blow up the marriage - yup, it could either way - a surprising third path appears and changes everything. That I'll leave for those who want to read it.

It didn't change my opinion about verse, nor is it really a novel - a long short story _à la_ *The Saturday Evening Post* is more accurate - but it is an interesting approach to, and twist on, the sadly timeless story of married boy meets single girl while wife suffers.


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## Cassadine

St. Augustine, Confessions. It's been quite a few years. Always worth a revisit.


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## eagle2250

Fading Fast said:


> View attachment 39078
> 
> *Forsaking All Others* _A Novel in Verse _by Alice Duer Miller published in 1931
> 
> I avoid reading verse for the same reason I avoid eating fish, while it can occasionally be wonderful, most of the time it has an off-putting smell and an offensive taste.
> 
> Okay, that's a harsh assessment of poetry/verse (and maybe, even, of fish) and not really fair, as I love some poems so much that I still think about them decades after I first read them (*A Great Hope Fell* by Dickinson and the *Tomorrow and Tomorrow*... soliloquy by Shakespeare are two). But those were "picked out" for me by the wobbly 1970's educational system of Central New Jersey; on my own, I just don't read poetry to find the rare good-tasting piece of fish.
> 
> So it was with trepidation that I opened Alice Duer Miller's *Forsaking All Others* _A Novel in Verse_. Heck, it was only because one of her novels was made into a B-movie I enjoyed (*And One was Beautiful)* that I even looked her work up - note the lowbrow way that I found myself in highbrow verse.
> 
> And here's where I'm supposed to tell you how the verse in this quite good - and very short - novel spoke to me / made me more of a fan of verse / blah, blah, blah - but, well, while the rhyming was neat and I occasionally fell into the rhythm, in truth, I enjoyed the novel for the story with the verse serving as an all but ignored sideshow. You can take the boy out of Jersey, but....
> 
> That said, it is a darn good story about a man, his wife and the woman with whom he has an affair. The characters are drawn in an almost *The Twilight Zone* manner where only necessary details of their lives are given: he's older (50s, my guess), New York successful and handsome; the wife is doughy, dowdy and devoted in a "first wife" way; and the mistress is youngish, but not for a single woman of that time (she's in her early 30s in, about, 1930 when the novel takes place), striking in appearance and embraces her role as mistress until she kinda doesn't.
> 
> To be sure, they all embrace their roles early on: the man genuinely avoids the mistress-to-be as he's been down this path before and doesn't want to hurt his suffering wife again; the wife knows it's going to happen (from the second she sees her husband and the woman meet) and is almost relieved when it starts; and the mistress is, well, hell bent on making it happen as she - unusual for the time - acknowledges her feral physical desire for the man and, call it what it is, stalks him.
> 
> The affair starts and sails along as expected - secret mid-day rendezvous, weekend romps when he's "away on business," fun gifts, little inside jokes, plenty of slap and tickle - while the wife suffers in silence. Yes, you want her to stand up and fight or leave or do something, but she is not a stand-up-and-fight-or-leave-or-do-something wife; she's been down this path before and believes her best strategy is to ignore it and let it burn out as, then, he'll return to her.
> 
> And she's not wrong until she is. After the early perfect, the seams in the affair start to pull apart a bit. When one or the other breaks an assignation, the ugly head of jealously rears up followed by recriminations, anger, explanations, forgiveness and resumption, but with a little less joy each time. Just when it looks as if the affair is about to wind down or, conversely, blow up the marriage - yup, it could either way - a surprising third path appears and changes everything. That I'll leave for those who want to read it.
> 
> It didn't change my opinion about verse, nor is it really a novel - a long short story _à la_ *The Saturday Evening Post* is more accurate - but it is an interesting approach to, and twist on, the sadly timeless story of married boy meets single girl while wife suffers.


Poetry...an intriguing way to script a novel! How on earth did you happen to discover this literary treasure? I suspect I will be on the hunt to discover a local copy and give this one a read.


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## Fading Fast

eagle2250 said:


> Poetry...an intriguing way to script a novel! How on earth did you happen to discover this literary treasure? I suspect I will be on the hunt to discover a local copy and give this one a read.


I backed into it by accident only because I liked the movie "And One Was Beautiful." So, I looked it up on IMDB.com and found out that the author of the novel that the movie was based on is Alice Duer Miller. After that, it was all Googling and then to one of my favorite old book sites:

https://www.abebooks.com
I just did a search for the book there (use this link ⇩):

https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/Se...s&kn=&an=miller&tn=forsaking+all+others&isbn=
Plenty of good copies available for less than $10.

Take a look at this copy ⇩ ($8.89 all in with shipping):

https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/Bo...king+all+others&cm_sp=snippet-_-srp1-_-title1
I've been buying books from ABE for (wild guess) about two decades now and have almost never been disappointed with the condition of the book versus its description - 99% of the time, the description is accurate.

Good luck - it's a quick but interesting read.


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## eagle2250

Fading Fast said:


> I backed into it by accident only because I liked the movie "And One Was Beautiful." So, I looked it up on IMDB.com and found out that the author of the novel that the movie was based on is Alice Duer Miller. After that, it was all Googling and then to one of my favorite old book sites:
> 
> https://www.abebooks.com
> I just did a search for the book there (use this link ⇩):
> 
> https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/Se...s&kn=&an=miller&tn=forsaking+all+others&isbn=
> Plenty of good copies available for less than $10.
> 
> Take a look at this copy ⇩ ($8.89 all in with shipping):
> 
> https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/Bo...king+all+others&cm_sp=snippet-_-srp1-_-title1
> I've been buying books from ABE for (wild guess) about two decades now and have almost never been disappointed with the condition of the book versus its description - 99% of the time, the description is accurate.
> 
> Good luck - it's a quick but interesting read.


Thanks for the leads...that will save me a lot of looking and the prices are pleasantly reasonable. I willl provide a report after reading the book! Take care and have a great day.


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## eagle2250

Two days back I finished reading David Baldacci's novel, The Hit, another mission for CIA assassin's Will Robie and Jessica Reel. Interestingly, in this present yarn, Will Robie is assigned to take out Jessica Reel, a fellow CIA assassin who has apparently gone rogue. Two senior CIA managers have been killed by a supremely skilled assassin and Reel is the apparent suspect. Robie has his doubts and elects not to pull the trigger when he has her in his gun sights and elects to work with her on something bigger than the obvious! 

As the story unfolds, it becomes apparent that there is a Deep State conspiracy to eliminate a litany of world leaders, in the absence of sanction and in a misguided effort to change the balance of power around the globe, for the foreseeable future. The two gentlemen taken out by Agent Reel were just two of what turned out to be a collection of eight traitors, including the man who sits at the left hand of the President of the United States, acting more in their own, rather than in the State's best interests. Thank gawd, Will Robie and Jessica Reel saved our collective posteriors once again! A fast and excellent read...Baldacci never disappoints.


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## eagle2250

This past weekend I read David Baldacci's The Innocent, the Will Robie yarn published by Baldacci just prior to The Hit. Robie, just back from an assignment to kill a terrorist who is an oil rich distant relative of the Saudi Royal family, is assigned to carry out the assassination of a reported traitor within the US Government. After he stands at the foot of the bed of this sleeping alleged traitor and realizing the facts are not falling into alignment, he refuses to take the shot and in that instance a back-up shooter takes the shot and Will Robi, the hunter, becomes the hunted. Teaming up with a 14 year old, who has been orphaned by the assassins targeting Robie and Super FBI Agent Julie Vance, he manages to stay one step, or should that be one gun shot. ahead of the bad guys , as one by one they wipe out an entire squad of Army Gulf War veterans. However, Robie, as he always does, unravels the mystery of the subterfuge and brings the bad guys to heel! A good read, I slept well last night and so will you...read the book.


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## Fading Fast

*The Hucksters *by Fred Wakeman published in 1946

_"My Theory on making friends," Vic said, "I am a man of many friends. They get me railroad reservations, hotel rooms, steak, scotch, all sorts of friendly things. But is it because of my personalty? Because they like me? No, I just give them money. The cleanest, simplest basis of friendship you can find."_

And with that early cynical quote from Vic Norman, a senior advertising account executive, *The Hucksters *is off and running: a book that can narrowly be seen as an indictment of the advertising and radio businesses in the mid 1940s. But it can also be seen as an indictment of all business; however, that's only on the surface, as this is also the story of a flawed Ayn Rand character trying to find himself spiritually who discovers he is in the wrong business.

It's 1945 and Vic is a thirty-five-year-old bachelor and returning desk-jockey war vet trying to reestablish himself in the advertising business after his time in Washington and overseas (all far from the front). Broke, but confident, he talks himself into a senior role at a thriving advertising partnership as the account executive for its principal account, "Beautee Soap" owned and actively managed by the tyrannical (and wonderfully named) Evan Llewellyn Evans.

Evans wields his huge radio-sponsoring and advertising-buying dollars as a massive hammer that he smashes down on anything and anyone in his way or anyone who simply bothers him. The quick-and-dirty is that Vic's firm needs Evans' business to thrive; Evans knows this and uses it to hammer Vic to give him all his attention and to twist and shape the radio shows he sponsors to his whims. Evans is part Ayn Rand villain - he takes pleasure in torturing those whom depend on his business - and part carnival barker who believes sales pitches are best if loud and grating.

Nothing here about advertising or radio is pretty - the sponsors (like Evans) support the programs; the advertising companies, effectively, act as producers creating both the shows and the commercials supporting the shows to meet the desires of the sponsors; and everyone in it - including all the Hollywood writers, actors, directors and talent agents - make a lot of money, but hate it as they believe they are peddling pablum to the masses.

But here's the thing - author Wakeman, through Vic, tries to convince us that this is all sinister, but is it? The goal of the sponsor, the advertising agency and the Hollywood talent is to get the highest "Hooper" ratings (think Nielson ratings) for their shows, meaning to get the most people possible to listen to those shows. So, the goal is to please the most people. Is that bad? Or is it elitist arrogance that looks down on shows that "the masses" like because everyone involved believes his or her taste in entertainment is "better," is more "highbrow," is more "intellectual?" A narcissistic system effectively devotes itself to creating shows that it hates, but a large number of people enjoy.

In creating these shows and commercials for Beautee Soap, Vic navigates his way with Evans early by, like a Randian hero, being straight with Evans and telling him when he disagrees with him or when he thinks Evans has a bad idea. Evans, use to a surround of sycophants, is initial amused and bemused by Vic - a feeling boosted by Vic's early Beautee Soap campaign successes - but it all feels tenuous as even Vic knows you can't play it straight with Evans all the time as Evans' ego couldn't take it.

Vic tries to decide how much flattery he can tolerate doling out and still look in the mirror (Howard Roark in Rand's *The Fountainhead* quit a career in architecture to work in a stone quarry when he hit his limit). While doing so, Vic also tries to reshape his love life from casual sex (yup, forget '40s movies, in '40s books, people have causal sex and handsome Vic gets more than his share) to a serious relationship.

But here too, Vic draws a hard assignment as - on a train trip to Hollywood - he meets a beautiful married woman (Katherine) with two children and a husband away at war. They form a quick, platonic bond, but with plenty of sexual verve pinging between them. At the same time that Katherine is making it clear that no hanky-panky is going to happen, Vic is swatting away the sexual advances of a young attractive woman on the train and, back in New York, the "I want to get married" lament of one of his regular dalliances.

Once in Hollywood - there to sign a second-rate talent that Evans wants - everything heats up for Vic. Vic knows that Evans' choice for the star of the new show will not work; so, while trying to put the pieces of the show together, Vic also tries to find a way to get Evans to cancel the show, but of course, that idea has to appear to Evans to be all his. Simultaneously, Vic - who contrives to be at the same hotel as Katherine and her kids - continues his soft romancing until it heats up; which means, Vic ends up sleeping with a married woman whose husband is away at war. They both know it's wrong, but the heart and libido want, what the heart and libido want.

Of course, in an Ayn Rand novel - Vic just tells Evans the star won't work and he also doesn't sleep with the married woman - well, maybe he would have slept with the married woman as Rand liked her sex and there was plenty of extra marital funny business, even between the heroes, in her novels. However, in *The Hucksters*, the denouement of the two threads in Vic's life - Evans and Katherine - is more complicated than in a black-and-white morality tale, but it holds your attention in this page-turner right to the end.

And here's the thing about that opening quote on money and friendship - Vic doesn't believe a word of it. Here's Vic on what really means something to him [emphasis is mine in bold]:

_That was one good thing about New York business - at least the bluechip, Wall Street kind of people the the big advertising agencies dealt with. There was a tradition and an *ethic* in their world of mass production and mass selling. When a man gave you the nod, that was it. The contracts could come later. Not that these well-bred men could not clip you as hard, or harder, than the sharp ones. *But the wouldn't renege, once they gave you the nod.* Old Man Evans spoke for them when he told Vic, 'A contract is a contract. A man's word is his word. That's how Beautee Soap Company operates. It's not that way with talent and their agents. A contract, or a spoken pledge, is something they try to weasel out of the minute they find it not to their liking.'_

A man who believes that, is not a man who believes money buys friendships; that is a complex man living in a messy world trying to hold himself up to a Randian ideal. That is a man who wants to live in a world of "your word is your bond" and "your reputation is everything." Rand saw money as nothing more than a symbol of value whose value came from personal integrity, talent and effort - not some cynical view of everything being "for sale."

Vic grows into understanding himself as, essentially, wanting to be a Randian hero in a not-Radian world, which is much harder than being a fictional hero in a Rand novel. So, for Vic, no more meaningless sex with women looking for him to boost their careers or to cash out; no more pandering to small men with big egos; no more cynical meaninglessness, period - but what is next for Vic? He now has his personal compass set to true north - a hard step in and of itself - but as the novel closes, he's just starting his new journey.

One final thing (if anyone has read this far), author Wakeman's description, through Vic, of the feel and atmosphere of the 20th Century Limited and the Super Chief (that period's go-to luxury train combo for cross-country travelers) - the way the train's gentle rocking and tilting and numerous sounds and noises affects one's circadian rhythms and emotions, and the way the environment/ambiance of a train changes from car to car and as day turns to night - surpasses all the "travel writer" paeans to train travel that this rail fan has read. Which proves something I've always felt - most "travel writers" (not all) are "travel writers" because their writing abilities are limited.

N.B. The titillating blurb on the book's cover (at top) isn't subtle, but it isn't wrong, as a lot of the "bom chicka wah wah" from the book - Vic and Katherine basically spend a long weekend going at it (she fobs the kids off to a maid as they hightail it off to a hotel) - is expurgated from the movie. Unfortunately, this diminishes the movie as the story loses some of its logic and consistency without it. Thoughts on the movie here (second one down):  #293


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## Mr Thorvald

Lost Connections, by Johann Hari. In paperback. Principles, by Ray Dialo. In EPUB I read on my tablet.


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## eagle2250

Newt Gingrich, the 50th Speaker of the House of Representatives, a male Republican version of Nancy Pelosi, has never allowed much moss to grow under his vocational moccasins. A long time politition, a historian, a college professor, a keystone speaker of note and now an author, Newt collaborated with Jounnalist Pete Earley to write a novel, titled Treason. The book is an arguably spell binding yarn about international and domestic terrorism in this beloved Country we call home. An Islamic extremist bad guy calling himself "The falcon," is orchestrating acts of domestic terrorism in the US of A, through the efforts of another Islamic extremist Jihadist calling himself Viper, who is a highly placed mole in the the DC political apparatus. Attempts are made on the Presidents life, The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff takes a shot to the head in an assassination attempt, eight young school girls and two instructors in a ritzy Virginia private school are murdered and two other girls , one the daughter of a congressman and the other the ward of a distinguished, highly decorated female member of our military, are kidnapped and will be murdered unless the USA agrees to release 100+ Islamic Terrorists from GITMO. 

Newt Gingrich is one who understands our Federal Government and has a solid understanding of International and Domestic Terrorism and that understanding shows through in the telling of his first novel. The book will secure your attention and hold it firmly from the first to the last pages. It is a good read!


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## Big T

eagle2250 said:


> Newt Gingrich, the 50th Speaker of the House of Representatives, a male Republican version of Nancy Pelosi, has never allowed much moss to grow under his vocational moccasins. A long time politition, a historian, a college professor, a keystone speaker of note and now an author, Newt collaborated with Jounnalist Pete Earley to write a novel, titled Treason. The book is an arguably spell binding yarn about international and domestic terrorism in this beloved Country we call home. An Islamic extremist bad guy calling himself "The falcon," is orchestrating acts of domestic terrorism in the US of A, through the efforts of another Islamic extremist Jihadist calling himself Viper, who is a highly placed mole in the the DC political apparatus. Attempts are made on the Presidents life, The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff takes a shot to the head in an assassination attempt, eight young school girls and two instructors in a ritzy Virginia private school are murdered and two other girls , one the daughter of a congressman and the other the ward of a distinguished, highly decorated female member of our military, are kidnapped and will be murdered unless the USA agrees to release 100+ Islamic Terrorists from GITMO.
> 
> Newt Gingrich is one who understands our Federal Government and has a solid understanding of International and Domestic Terrorism and that understanding shows through in the telling of his first novel. The book will secure your attention and hold it firmly from the first to the last pages. It is a good read!


Newt wrote a series of "what if" books on the Civil War-all excellent reads. Anyhow, the point of my reply was that I met Newt about 15 years or so ago, and had a brief, but very engaging discussion (more a lecture!) with/from him, concerning politics. My view was that of a conservative Republican, and I made a generalized statement against Democrats. Newt proceeded to lecture me about the absolute need for a two-party system in this country, along with respect between the parties.


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## eagle2250

Big T said:


> Newt wrote a series of "what if" books on the Civil War-all excellent reads. Anyhow, the point of my reply was that I met Newt about 15 years or so ago, and had a brief, but very engaging discussion (more a lecture!) with/from him, concerning politics. My view was that of a conservative Republican, and I made a generalized statement against Democrats. Newt proceeded to lecture me about the absolute need for a two-party system in this country, along with respect between the parties.


Thanks for sharing your enounter with Speaker Gingrich with us! Rest assured that I will be reading more of his fictional, as well as factual writing in the future. He is a very talented and devoted Patriot.


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## Fading Fast

*The Maids* by Junichiro Tanizaki published in 1963

Tanizaki, the author of *The Makioka Sisters* - considered one of the most important Japanese novels of the 20th Century (comments on *The Makioka Sisters* here: https://www.thefedoralounge.com/threads/what-are-you-reading.10557/page-380#post-2302937 ) - takes the same upper-middle-class family from *The Makioka Sisters* and looks at it from the perspective of the many maids that worked for it form the '30s through the '50s.

Less a traditional plot-driven novel than a collection of vignettes about the different maids, the books works as a series of engaging stories - a maid having an affair with a local taxi driver (and ignoring her work), another suffering from epilepsy (and scaring the other maids) and another going home to take care of a sick mother and coming back with a changed personality and on and on - but it is also a window into a now-vanished world of more rigidly defined class roles: in the '30s, the maids were given new names by the family when they "entered service," but by the '50s, they kept their birth names.

And as a Westerner used to reading about maids "in service" in English households, the relative informality of being "in service" in a Japanese household versus an English one is striking. Maids in Japan had much more freedom to go out, control their day and even be confrontational with the family for whom they are working. There's also more of a feeling of family between the two groups as, often, the family will help the maids make marital matches and, with the girls far from home, will act in a parental way by vetting potential husbands and making the weddings.

The real joy in the book is getting "lost" in a foreign world at a different time so that you're halfway through a chapter and realize you're truly worrying about Hatsu's need to buy a "proper" kimono for her wedding while also trying to send money home to her widowed mother who still lives in the poor fishing village where she grew up. Tanizaki shines at liming such humanizing "mundane" details that bring these past worlds alive to us.

I recommended reading the *Makioka Sisters* first as, bluntly, it is the more engaging novel of the two, but as a followup read, *The Maids* is a well-drawn portrait that broadens our view into, and understanding of, the world of those, now, famous fictional sisters - the world of 1930s - 1950s upper middle class Japan.


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## Fading Fast

*All Fall Down*by James Leo Herlihy published in 1960


> _Ring-a-ring o' roses,
> A pocket full of posies,
> A-tishoo! A-tishoo!
> We all fall down._
> --An old English Nursery Rhyme





> From Wikipedia:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> The Great Plague explanation of the mid-20th century
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ...The invariable sneezing and falling down in modern English versions have given would-be origin finders the opportunity to say that the rhyme dates back to the Great Plague. A rosy rash, they allege, was a symptom of the plague, and posies of herbs were carried as protection and to ward off the smell of the disease. Sneezing or coughing was a final fatal symptom, and "all fall down" was exactly what happened.
> 
> Click to expand...
Click to expand...




> _All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way._
> ― Leo Tolstoy , Anna Karenina


In *All Fall Down*, we meet the very unhappy Williams family of Ohio - a mother, father, teenage son and absent young twenty-one-year-old son who spend their days nipping at each others heals as they pine for the "on-the-road" older son seemingly holding all the dreams and aspirations of this family in his wayward life.

Annabell Williams, the slim, pretty 50-year-old matriarch of the Williams clan, is perfectly captured in an early scene when the family is moving into an old Victorian in a new-to-the-them neighborhood. Trying to ingratiate herself to the neighborhood children, she pleasantly offers them marshmallows and seems to be winning them over. Then, spying a mover not being careful with an antique, she angrily scolds him as the children move away unwilling to come back even when Annabell restores her former pleasant mien. The kids weren't fooled. Annabell had lost them on day one.

Annabell also pings back and forth between pleasant kindness and scolding meanness with her family leaving them aloof - inured to both her charm and anger. Being ignored is, probably, the worst punishment for attention-needing Annabell and is just what her youngest son and husband dish out.

Husband, Ralph, an acknowledged communist from the '30s - when, in his heyday, he traveled the county preaching the gospel of the Marx, the worker and the evils of capitalism - is now a dispirited (seemingly) semi-retired successful real estate broker drinking his sorrows away in his basement redoubt. He is alternatingly presented as a hero for fighting the good fight for a losing cause or a sellout who traded his ideals for a bankroll.

Annabell, clearly not a communist nor any longer impressed with Ralph's ideals, gets some sort of cosmic marshmallow revenge when her husband brings home three random bums to Annabell's perfect Christmas Eve diner and threatens her with corporal punishment if she doesn't ingratiate herself to them.

Showing herself equal to the challenge, she offers the bums perfect hospitality or ten dollars (~$90 today) each if they, instead, prefer to leave. The choice is theirs - hospitality, food and the warm bed that Ralph says is all they want or money for booze that Annabell says they'll choose.

The scene comes to a standstill with Ralph and Annabell smiling at the bums while shooting laser looks of hate at each other; the bums happily grab the money and leave. Ralph is broken and Annabell has only moments to enjoy her Pyrrhic victory before realizing it's just another crack in their shattering marriage.

The third leg of this wobbly family stool is fifteen-year-old Clinton who doesn't attend school - which, other than Annabell, everyone seems okay with - but instead spends his days sneaking around the house writing down everything everyone says, reading their mail and listening in on their phone calls and private conversations. He still comes off as saner than the two broken parents as he seems to get that he lives in crazy town but can't center himself amidst the insanity - who could at fifteen? He, too, drives Annabell half nuts by alternatingly showing her compassion and ignoring her when she starts in on him.

Yet somehow this broken family moves forward held together, in part, by Annabell's force-of-will efforts to present a normal appearance and everyone's odd worship of absent son, the ridiculously named, Berry-berry (the name is explained, but the bottom line is the name is stupid). For half the book, "hero" Berry-berry calls home for money for bail, car repairs and clearly false reasons that, somehow, the family takes as evidence that their fair-haired son is doing something great in life as he sows his wild oats. Uh-huh

Into this sinking family ship walks thirty-year-old, spinster cousin Echo, who, with her ethereal beauty and preternatural ability to fix her 1928 Dodge, shines a light of hope and revival in the William's house on her regular weekend visits. Echo, we learn, "wasted" her youth on a boy who killed himself. We later come to know that the boy came back from the war impotent - something Echo was willing to accept - but he wasn't. Echo's calming presence, quiet enthusiasm for life and seeming ability to see and bring out the best in others lifts the William's household from despair, brings Annabell and Ralph closer together and starts to right Clinton, but then in blows Berry-berry.

Where to begin? Maybe here as it highlights aspects of both Berry-berry and his father Ralph.



> _Ralph had also said that in a capitalistic system a man's only chance at winning out over this evil [working for others] was to become an employer himself. But Berry-berry quickly observed that most of the employers he had known seemed to put out a good deal more effort than the men who worked for them. If they made a lot of money, chances were they had big families to squander it on. But Berry-berry was alone and money was a secondary matter; what he wanted was ease and pleasure and freedom._


Handsome and charming, people, especially slightly older women, are attracted to Berry-berry. He is, essentially, a lazy, angry young man who takes without giving which leads to him skirting in and out of both towns and trouble --- leaving behind a trail of brokenhearts, battered women, property damage and misdemeanors in his selfish wake.

Along the way, he learns the prostitution business - which in his violent way includes beating the prostitutes when he has sex with them. It's presented as a combination of the prostitutes' desire for pain and punishment and his angry nature, but who cares the exact dissection as it's all sick, ugly and vicious. Seemingly having worn out his welcome in the rest of the country, he comes back to his hometown where he sets up a shabby whorehouse in a broken-down apple farm on the edge of town before even announcing his return to his family.

When the putative conquering hero does appear, he tells his family he's in the plumbing business while initially charming everyone anew - including a quickly smitten Echo. Despite the age difference (it was a big deal in that day for a woman to be nine years older), the family is thrilled at the budding romance as they believe it will settle Berry-berry (his name, even over time, never becomes anything but stupid) down while bringing angelic Echo closer to the family. (Spoiler alert) Echo, accepting of all of Berry-berry's faults, asks nothing of him even when this until-now virgin discovers she is pregnant with Berry-berry's baby. She wants Berry-berry to come to her out of love, but seemingly genuinely and without rancor absolves him of any responsibility if he so desires.

Angry at getting everything he wants, which pretty much describes Berry-berry, he pushes Echo away in a crushing scene of love meeting hate and each going its separate way. From here, the denouement is awful, but must be read without prior knowledge.

Yes, Berry-berry is the great plague that causes the family to "all fall down." And, yes, all unhappy families are unhappy in their own soul-crushing way. But intentional or not, the real metaphor that comes out of *All Fall Down* is the Christ story with forgiving-of-faults and life-inspiring-simply-by-her-presence Echo (a mechanic not unlike Christ the carpenter - thinking that's not a coincidence) meeting the devil himself and suffering a Christ-like fate for man's sins. But like Christ, she left mankind a beacon, a light shining-on in apostle Clinton who - in a pivotal near-final scene - stared at evil and chose forgiveness instead of revenge, life instead of death. To fully understand his choice, one must read the end of this rich, engaging and sad, but also, hopeful book.


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## Fading Fast

*Beyond Control* by Rex Beach published in 1932

What does a love story, wrapped around an international-smuggling story, wrapped around an aviation-adventure story, wrapped around an alcoholic-addition story written in 1932 look like?

*Beyond Control* is a ripping 1932 page turner by the era's prolific and successful author Rex Beach who wrote books you want to read that aren't "literature ." They won't be studied in any high school English class, but as a window into '30s norms, cultures, interests, pop philosophies and sensationalism, you couldn't do much better.

Beach's books - this is my fifth or six - were popular fiction similar in ways to those of Clive Cussler's or Nelson DeMille's today, except that Beach's themes, stories and plots are all over the place - stock market crashes, racial prejudice, religious fanaticism and women entrepreneurs are just some of the plot-drivers of his efforts.

However, in *Beyond Control*, Beach grabs hold of aviation in the '30s. There were still daredevil fliers and trans-Atlantic records to be made and aviators and aviatrixes were some of the action-adventure heroes of the day. But they were also that era's Silicon Valley technology leaders - fliers not only had guts, they had to understand and and experiment with their crafts much as software engineers do today (Howard Hughes was a real-life example). Yet, these "engineers" took their lives in their hands when they tested their new technology as a crash wasn't about zeroes and ones refusing to play nice with each other, but a plane falling out of the sky.

Beach, a real-to-the-era feminist, centers his plot around a stunning young aviatrix and heir to a crumbling lace-fabric company who is the fiancee of an international and dashing young entrepreneur with a hobbyist's interest in aviation and a desire to make new flying records. Thrown into the mix are a famous WWI flying ace with a now-checkered reputation owing to his drinking (his picture should be in the dictionary next to "bender"), a sketchy French brother team of navigator and radio operator, a trying-to-make-a-name for himself newspaper reporter (another glamorous '30s business) and the aviatrix's preternaturally young grandmother and current owner of the lace business.

Like all good popular action-adventure writers, Beach whips in some period philosophy. Is bootlegging really immoral or is prohibition itself the totalitarian sin?There is also plenty of sex (tame by today's standards, but a scorecard wouldn't hurt), daredevil stunts, last-minute rescues and nail-biting crashes that make you wonder why it wasn't made into a movie.

All of this takes place around a surface plot of a trans-Atlantic record-breaking flight in a new and untested plane, but with backstories of potential smuggling of liquor, something else or maybe nothing, dirty business and political dealings, a love triangle (the daredevil pilot wants the international entrepreneur's exciting and beautiful aviatrix fiancee...and she's intrigued) and one man's struggle against alcoholism (that feels very modern despite 1930s' norms that don't bow to today's rigidly enforced political pieties).

I get it, why read the popular fiction of the '30s when we have similar popular fiction today that feels more relevant to our lives, especially since none of this is Tolstoy or Wharton? For me, it's still a darn good page-turner of a read and it's an historical window into the 1930s, free of the modern political biases, that (quite often) scream off the page of new period novels set in the 1930s.


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## Repington

The Plague by Albert Camus and Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe; both seemed apposite


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## eagle2250

Fading Fast said:


> View attachment 41197
> 
> *Beyond Control* by Rex Beach published in 1932
> 
> What does a love story, wrapped around an international-smuggling story, wrapped around an aviation-adventure story, wrapped around an alcoholic-addition story written in 1932 look like?
> 
> *Beyond Control* is a ripping 1932 page turner by the era's prolific and successful author Rex Beach who wrote books you want to read that aren't "literature ." They won't be studied in any high school English class, but as a window into '30s norms, cultures, interests, pop philosophies and sensationalism, you couldn't do much better.
> 
> Beach's books - this is my fifth or six - were popular fiction similar in ways to those of Clive Cussler's or Nelson DeMille's today, except that Beach's themes, stories and plots are all over the place - stock market crashes, racial prejudice, religious fanaticism and women entrepreneurs are just some of the plot-drivers of his efforts.
> 
> However, in *Beyond Control*, Beach grabs hold of aviation in the '30s. There were still daredevil fliers and trans-Atlantic records to be made and aviators and aviatrixes were some of the action-adventure heroes of the day. But they were also that era's Silicon Valley technology leaders - fliers not only had guts, they had to understand and and experiment with their crafts much as software engineers do today (Howard Hughes was a real-life example). Yet, these "engineers" took their lives in their hands when they tested their new technology as a crash wasn't about zeroes and ones refusing to play nice with each other, but a plane falling out of the sky.
> 
> Beach, a real-to-the-era feminist, centers his plot around a stunning young aviatrix and heir to a crumbling lace-fabric company who is the fiancee of an international and dashing young entrepreneur with a hobbyist's interest in aviation and a desire to make new flying records. Thrown into the mix are a famous WWI flying ace with a now-checkered reputation owing to his drinking (his picture should be in the dictionary next to "bender"), a sketchy French brother team of navigator and radio operator, a trying-to-make-a-name for himself newspaper reporter (another glamorous '30s business) and the aviatrix's preternaturally young grandmother and current owner of the lace business.
> 
> Like all good popular action-adventure writers, Beach whips in some period philosophy. Is bootlegging really immoral or is prohibition itself the totalitarian sin?There is also plenty of sex (tame by today's standards, but a scorecard wouldn't hurt), daredevil stunts, last-minute rescues and nail-biting crashes that make you wonder why it wasn't made into a movie.
> 
> All of this takes place around a surface plot of a trans-Atlantic record-breaking flight in a new and untested plane, but with backstories of potential smuggling of liquor, something else or maybe nothing, dirty business and political dealings, a love triangle (the daredevil pilot wants the international entrepreneur's exciting and beautiful aviatrix fiancee...and she's intrigued) and one man's struggle against alcoholism (that feels very modern despite 1930s' norms that don't bow to today's rigidly enforced political pieties).
> 
> I get it, why read the popular fiction of the '30s when we have similar popular fiction today that feels more relevant to our lives, especially since none of this is Tolstoy or Wharton? For me, it's still a darn good page-turner of a read and it's an historical window into the 1930s, free of the modern political biases, that (quite often) scream off the page of new period novels set in the 1930s.


A story wrapped up so well in so many different ways is to my mind, a must read. Hence, I am back on the hunt....Hope Amazon has a copy! Thank you again for very persuasive and a great book review.


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## Fading Fast

eagle2250 said:


> A story wrapped up so well in so many different ways is to my mind, a must read. Hence, I am back on the hunt....Hope Amazon has a copy! Thank you again for very persuasive and a great book review.


Thank you for the kind words.

You might want to become familiar with this site (I already set the search for "Beyond Control" for you):

https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/Se...-Results&kn=&an=beach&tn=beyond+control&isbn=
It's a great resource for finding old books at very reasonable prices.

Before you choose your first Rex Beach book, consider these too:

 #707 

https://www.thefedoralounge.com/threads/what-are-you-reading.10557/page-394#post-2401930
https://www.thefedoralounge.com/threads/what-are-you-reading.10557/page-395#post-2412080
https://www.thefedoralounge.com/threads/what-are-you-reading.10557/page-399#post-2431724
I think I liked either "Padlocked" or "Son of the Gods" best, but they are all good in a page-turner way.

Edit Add: I have no idea who the guy is whose pic shows up in the links to Fedora Lounge - it sincerely isn't me.


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## Oldsarge

ABEBooks.com is a good way to go bankrupt! I've spent soooo much money there over the years.


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## Fading Fast

Oldsarge said:


> ABEBooks.com is a good way to go bankrupt! I've spent soooo much money there over the years.


Oh dear God, me too. But that's 'cause I buy so many books. Most of the books themselves (that I buy) cost well less than a new hardcover.


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## Oldsarge

And anything worth reading twice is worth buying in hard cover!


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## Fading Fast

Oldsarge said:


> And anything worth reading twice is worth buying in hard cover!


We are a hard-cover family too.


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## Oldsarge

_The Founding Fish_, John McAfee. Mediations on the American Shad.


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## eagle2250

During this period of ongoing self-isolation I recently read a book entitled "Guts and Gunships," self published by author Mark Garrison. 

He describes having to take a semesters break from college, losing his student deferment and being drafted into the Army back in the mid 1960's. 

Mark was able to work out a deal that allowed him to go into the Army's Rotary Wing Flight Training Program and he eventually found his OD green festooned butt on the elephant grass fields of Vietnam flying first slicks and soon thereafter UH-1 Huey Gunships, in the face of almost certain death for 13 months. 

During his time in the hell of combat he was awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross, four Bronze Stars, 25 Air Medals and various other medals attesting to his valor in battle Young men, pulled from lives of relative innocence and thrust into the super heated crucible of war.... 

Mark Garrison is the real deal, one tested in combat, who has looked Mars, the God of War, in the eyes and Garrison did not blink! 

The book is well worth reading...the author earned our brief attention the hard way, earning it by facing the music.


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## Oldsarge

eagle2250 said:


> During this period of ongoing self-isolation I recently read a book entitled "Guts and Gunships," self published by author Mark Garrison. He describes having to take a semesters break from college, losing his student deferment and being drafted into the Army back in the mid 1960's. Mark was able to work out a deal that allowed him to go into the Army's Rotary Wing Flight Training Program and he eventually found his OD green festooned butt on the elephant grass fields of Vietnam flying first slicks and soon thereafter UH-1 Huey Gunships, in the face of almost certain death for 13 months. During his time in the hell of combat he was awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross, four Bronze Stars, 25 Air Medals and various other medals attesting to his valor in battle Young men, pulled from lives of relative innocence and thrust into the super heated crucible of war.... Mark Garrison is the real deal, one tested in combat, who has looked Mars, the God of War, in the eyes and Garrison did not blink! The book is well worth reading...the author earned our brief attention the hard way, earning it by facing the music.


And he had to self-publish? With a yarn like that? What has the publishing industry come to?


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## ChrisRS

_Notes From the Underground_. Self doubt, loathing, seeking purpose in world where 2 and 2 is 4 should not predetermine your life. Most agree Dostoyevsky's most self revealing book following exile.


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## Fading Fast

_I feel sure we have no need to fear the tempest. Let it roar, and let it rage. We shall come through."_

- Winston Churchill at the end of his first year and a half as Prime Minister

Not only a dark-horse choice for the best quote about fear ever, but also not a bad summary of the new Churchill biography, *The Splendid and the Vile,* by Eric Larson.

Larson chooses Churchill's first year-plus as Prime Minister for his time period as he blends the-personal-and-the-private with the-public-and-the-professional Churchill for his approach. It's a wise choice as Churchill himself didn't separate the two as adduced in the famous scene when Churchill, naked from a bath, unexpectedly encountered FDR standing in his guest bedroom at the White House and, instead of hurriedly enrobing, blithely tells the President that he can see that he, Churchill - at the White House on a crucial diplomatic mission - has nothing to hide.

But before all that, Churchill has to become Prime Minister. He does so as Chamberlain's enervated government falls in May of 1940 handing Churchill the reins of power just as Hitler is about to unleash hell-fire from above on England. While a notch below the level of a David McCullough or Stephen Ambrose, Larson is a skilled popular history writer who, citing a wealth of original material, takes you immediately into Churchill's world and his support system of close family members, famous public officials and behind-the-scenes (and super-talented) factotums who provide the Prime Minister with the resources, intelligence and emotional support he needs to succeed.

And Churchill, quite possibly, may have been the singular person for the role; the only man who could hold England together during one of its bleakest periods. But he was also an individual of many moods and emotions, of brilliant ideas and crazy ones, of tempers and doubts that required a strong surrounding coterie who understood his expansive needs to help him translate his unique talents and personality into a successful effort.

Be it his wife, Clementine, ameliorating a roughed-up-by-Churchill public official (or friend or staff member or...), Lord Beaverbrook, as Minister of Aircraft Production, angering almost everyone in the Royal Air Force as he drove critical-to-survival aircraft production up throughout the crushing bombing of England's factories during the Blitz or one of Churchill's several personal secretaries staying up through yet another fourteen-hour day to capture Churchill's late-night thoughts and directives (or to just be a sounding board for his overactive mind), Larson shows how Churchill was only able to be Churchill by having, through both luck and shrewd choosing, the right private and public people supporting him.

This allowed Churchill, a font of ideas and emotions about almost everything, to lead his country with, yes, strategy (some right, some wrong, but more right), but also with sheer willpower, an outsized personality and several of history's most famous speeches that inspired both his inner circle and the entire country.

And let's just say it, Churchill was handed a hot mess as an under-prepared-for-war England was about to endure months of intense aerial bombing of its cities, airfields and production facilities from the greatest air armada ever assembled while simultaneously worrying that a German invasion (which England knew it couldn't repel) was imminent.

Upon appointment, with almost no time to plan or even think, Churchill immediately made crucial strategic-military, high-level-staffing, factory-production and civilian-defense decisions that - despite sometimes over-delegating and at other times micromanaging - somehow where right enough to keep England breathing. As each Prime Minister must, Churchill, even while facing an onslaught of overwhelming challenges that would have broken many other men, defined the role to fit his sui generis talents. He kept his military leaders, the enlisted men and the civilian population believing he - and they - could do the impossible.

And it was Churchill's personal courting (it went well beyond usual diplomacy) of the President of the United States, FDR, a man sympathetic to England's struggle, but leading a country opposed to America's involvement in "another war in Europe," that resulted in England receiving some much needed civilian and military resources (increased when FDR shepherd the famous Lend Lease program through Congress) during its most troubled hours.

By keeping it to a crucial year and a half, Larson can dig in and reveal much of Churchill's day to day: His trips to war rooms and weapons laboratories; his visits with the King, his advisors, the world's top diplomats and the President of the United States; his personal time spent with his wife, children, friends and staff (he is somehow both an elitist and a man of the people); and his crucial visits to bombed-out sections of several of England's cities where he showed and shared both his pain and fortitude in a way that somehow emboldened a beaten-down population to believe - against all odds - that Churchill would lead them to victory.

About a year and a half into his term as Prime Minister, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and Germany declared war on America. This led to America joining England in the fight of the century. And that prompted the speech that included the opening quote above because Churchill then knew what he believed, or wanted to believe, all along - the tempest could roar and rage, but England and the free world would come through.

After the fact, it all looks preordained; Larson shows us that it wasn't at all, but that it took a man - a Churchill - to heroically shepherd England and the free world to the point where victory - after much blood, toil, tears and sweat (yup, Churchill's words again) - could and would be won.


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## Peak and Pine

^

Thank you for this. Even tho I did not read it. I'll explain, though I'm sure it was informative, insightful and thorough as your movie and books reviews always are.
.
Larson is an absolute favorite of mine, having read three earlier ones, _Devil and the White City, In the Garden of the Beasts_ and _Dead Wake_*

I'm thanking you for a Larson title I'd not heard of, and not reading you because I don't want a single Larson word to be spoilered. But I've bookmarked you for later.

*Larson's stuff is non fiction written like fiction. But Fast may have told you that. Of the three titles I've mentioned above, the first is about the 1897 Chicago World's Fair and the serial killer loose there, the second is set in Germany in the four Hitler years before WWII and _Dead Wake_ is about the sinking of the Lusitania.


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## Fading Fast

⇧ Completely understand, I like to go into books free of others' opinions. 

I read "In the Garden of Beasts -" very good, but think he did an even better job with TS&TV.

The other two are on my to-be-read list.


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## Dhaller

I'm just finishing "Last Child in the Woods" by Richard Louv, which is a critique of the loss of "nature" in modern children's lives and education, and a survey of what can be done (and is being done, mostly in Scandinavia and the Netherlands) to recapture it. Highly recommend, and a *must* for parents.

Now, I often read with amused skepticism the many claims here of people reading things like Francis Bacon or Aquinas (oh let me grab my copy of "City on a Hill"), but now I myself am using this quarantine to kind of resume an old reading project: getting through the whole of Mortimer Adler's recommended reading list (1972 revision, which numbers hundreds of volumes and 137-ish authors). Pretty much the Western Canon.

I started reading Herodotus' "The Histories" last night (Robert Strassler's excellent version for Landmark, which is chock full of maps, so much candy to this lover of history!)

My "action plan" is to read my Adler selections an hour a day... forever. Assuming an hour is about 30 pages of the kind of *reflective* reading demanded by important works (versus the gobbling-up of lesser ones), and an average book is ~400 pages ("The Histories" is 900 or so), I should be able to read ~10,000 pages a year, or 25 books. I estimate this will take 15ish years, maybe 20 if I reread the stuff I read as a youth (I had the good fortune to attend a prep school which offered a heavily classical education.)

Stay tuned! or whatever the reading equivalent of "tuned" is!

DH

https://thinkingasleverage.wordpres...tPfkYvoT83nXPIIIS_a7Esu9ettD-swcKZAl5BMitVEVs


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## Fading Fast

It comes at you hard and fast as the men of Fredrick Wakeman's 1944's *Shore Leave* are naval aviators, on leave from the cauldron of war, who hold up in a San Francisco hotel suite to drink excessively, have sex with random women and, occasionally, actually sleep so that they can do it all again tomorrow or until their leave is over. Wives, children, former relationships, commitments - none of it matters to these men, as, they believe all the rules are suspended for "the duration". They get drunk everyday, cheat (almost) everyday and care little for the consequences.

"This damn war...it not only kills half our men off, it also ruins the other half for the domestic life -" this lament of one of the fly-boy groupies perfectly sums up the "message" of *Shore Leave*. The premise is that these exceptional aviators, who stare death down daily, have been broken by war.

Yes, most are still elite fliers (some are crushed by no longer being able to do that), but the fear of death or, presented here as worse, being permanently disfigured or disabled has taken regular young men and turned them into...what? While carrying themselves with bravado, the underlying vibe is that they are mentally damaged with their drinking, sexual infidelities and devil-may-care attitude being just a coping mechanism for living with the daily fear of death. There's also a "screw society" stance to these men implying "you don't know what we've been through so 'eff' you and your norms, rules and judgement."

And this all comes at us through the lives of four, but really two, servicemen, both married with children. One, an officer but not a combat pilot who kinda, sorta stays faithful as he sees the value of his family, but the other - the all American, good looking flyboy and naval aviator hero (high number of kills and a smile that lights up a r̶o̶o̶m̶ woman's libido) and his aviator friends - go through each day laughing, drunk, numb and on the hunt for women.

San Francisco of 1943 is portrayed as a town apart from "normal" America. Most of the men are on leave and most of the women who engage with them understand the game. No man presented here forces a woman, nurse, etc., into a bar, into a hotel suite, into a car, into bed; the women go because they want to. What these woman want / and the men too - as is discussed enough to become almost numbingly repetitive - is sex or a connection through sex or something, blah, blah, blah sex.

Read form the perspective of 2020, we get it. We are aware of PTSD and all the other ways war can harm men and women physically and mentally. We get that war - right or wrong - does suspend the rules of behavior for many and we get that the firestorm of war creates an equal and opposite force of an aggressive pursuit of pleasure.

But these things weren't widely known or acknowledge publicly in 1943; hence, the book was one of the shocking ones of its day. You mean our boys aren't fighting for freedom and democracy? Maybe they are just up there trying to survive. You mean they aren't pining for the girl or wife left behind? Maybe they turn to whores or hook-ups as an anodyne.

And while it reads almost like a series of vignettes, the novel's plot - the conflict that drives the narrative - gets going when our all-American hero hooks up with a society girl who falls madly for him while he pauses his pursuit of other women for the moment. Like the green light in The Great Gatsby that represents Gatsby's dreams (societal acceptance / Daisy), the constant and ignored call from all-American boy's wife - "Operator six, Great Neck is calling sir" - represents a past he's trying to forget or simply doesn't care about, but it's also one that complicates any potential long-term romance.

Will he or won't he leave his wife to marry the society girl is the climax of the surface story, but the real story is the broken airmen, their wanton and sad pursuit of a moment of pleasure and, then and now, how there are no easy answers to any of it. Definitely not your typical 1944 war novel.

A double N.B., There's a wonderful scene where one of the officers on leaves takes a girlfriend to see Frank Sinatra perform live on radio. The description of the Sinatra teenage fans foreshadows Elvis' as the young girls are the most passionate - screaming, tearing at Sinatra's clothes, fainting, etc. - while the boys are fans but some with a hint of jealousy.

The frenzy is described as all but uncontrollable with the stage mangers having to remove some screaming girls who are disrupting the show. Many of the girl (most under eighteen) have joined fan clubs and now don't like men with broad shoulders (owing to Frank's narrow ones). Fast forward ten or so years and, other than that his shows were on TV and not radio, the description of the fans' demographics and behavior would equally apply to Elvis's early performances when he was rocketing to fame. So little is new.

And one more fun thing from a pure time-travel perspective: There's a scene where New York steak houses are passionately compared and argued over (who's best, etc.) with four of them - The Palm, Peter Lugers, Christ Cella and The Pen and Pencil - being ones that were still in business when I started working in NYC in the '80s. The first two are still going strong today. And today, fans of each - and the many new ones - still argue passionately over who has "the best steak in NYC." So little is new.


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## Fading Fast

*Love is Blind* by William Boyd

Boyd is one of the modern novelists I really enjoy as he can write a gripping spy novel like *Restless* or a book about one woman's journey through the twentieth century like *Sweet Caress* with equal eloquence.

*Love is Blind* is of the latter style as the novel opens, in the 1880s, with us meeting Scotsman Brodie Moncur born to into the large brood of a corrupt and tyrannical minister just as he is about to break free of that oppressive home. Owing to the kindness of a once-wealthy neighbor, Moncur, after learning he has only modest talents as a pianist, embarks on a career as a piano tuner - an "in-demand" and well-compensated career in an age when many homes had a piano and top concert pianists were kinda, sorta the rock stars of their age.

After proving his value to a piano manufacturer in Scotland, he is sent to the company's Paris store to be the assistant manger to the owner's son setting Moncur on an odyssey that will take him around much of Europe, Russia and even to an island off the coast of Malaysia.

In Paris, despite successfully growing the business, he becomes aware that his boss is stealing from the company. But because, as noted, his boss is the owner's son, he is all but powerless to do anything about it. Also at this time, Moncur has his first outbreak of tuberculosis - a quite common-for-the-period and, often times, lethal disease that will stay with him the rest of his life. At this point, he is offered the opportunity to work full time for the renown concert pianist John Kilbarron and his brother/manager Malachi.

Again, things go well at first for Moncur - his talents at tuning a piano reduces the pain John experiences playing - but he also meets and starts an affair with John's lover the - tall, almost gangly, wan and captivating Russian singer, Lika Blum. From here, it's off to Russia where John is commissioned to write a concert and open a theater. More drama follows: Moncur continues his affair with Lika behind John's back; Malachi catches wind of it leading to duels, break-ups and cross continental hunts as John and Lika try to build a life away from the Kilbarrons, but the past keeps coming back.

This is not Boyd's best effort as the whole is less satisfying than the parts. Yes, you care about Moncur and Lika, yes you learn a lot about the elite world of concert pianists (and, even more interesting, the incredible mechanical sophistication of their pianos), and yes you learn the late-19th-century scientific view and medical treatments for TB (a lung disease made a bit more poignant in our coronavirus age), but somewhere along the way, you realize you're reading a well-written soap opera that holds your interest but doesn't do a lot more.

Sure you can draw timeless parallels to this or that - a young man with a unique talent suffering from a debilitating disease or his and Lika's star-crossed love affair or, even, the mendacity of so many people Moncur encounters - but those parallels don't somehow do that on their own. And, yes, Moncur has a philosophy on life that ranges from spirituality without religion to a Forrest-Gump-like "just keep moving forward no matter what is thrown at you" approach, but its feels haphazard and superficial.

And, very definitely, yes, the writing is Boyd brilliant in spots, but also - in what is a modern-book tic / meme / norm as, I'm guessing, "market surveys show" the public wants/ it sells books - foul language and awkwardly explicit sexual details seem forced and break Boyd's more elegant prose. I did enjoy it, but recommend *Restless* or *Sweet Caress* if you are looking to give Boyd a try.


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## IT_cyclist

Children of the Sky. After recently reading A Fire Upon the Deep. Both resonate in this time.


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## Fading Fast

*Eight Men Out *by Elite Asinof, published in 1963

_Note: My comments are based on this book, published in '63, which had been considered the "definitive" book on the White Sox scandal for years, but new information has come to light since that expands on the story and contradicts some of Asinof's points. See here https://jacobpomrenke.com/black-sox/the-black-sox-scandal-a-cold-case-not-a-closed-case/ for one example of the newer information._

First, a couple of lessons from the book and life: the world was just as corrupt and mendacious in 1919 as it is today. Whatever level of corruption and mendacity you assume, you are too low, then and now.

Surprisingly, the scheme to throw the World Series in return for money was thought up and put in motion by the players who, then, reached out to the gamblers who, even in their line of work, had to be a bit taken back by players, apparently, offering up a fixed World Series on a silver platter. "Anything interesting happen in your day, Dear?"

The eight White Sox players who collaborated on the fix all had their individual motivations - some seemed all about the money, others seemed a bit about the money and a bit about raising a (cloaked) middle finger to a sport and an owner they felt were cheating them.

And they weren't wrong. Think what you will about players today landing hundred-plus-million-dollar contracts, the alternative in 1919 was players treated like the owners' chattel who grudgingly paid them a small percentage of their true economic value (as can be seen by the small salaries the players received relative to the large dollar amounts the owners received when they traded a player).

The White Sox Eight felt particularly aggrieved as they believed owner Charles Comiskey was especially penurious versus other owners. Nothing angers a man more than seeing someone else get paid more for doing the same job. To be sure, the players were still paid, in general, three to six times what the average American was making in 1919, but again, nothing infuriates a man more than seeing someone else get paid a larger amount for the same work. (The article in the link at the top argues this relative-to-other-teams pay disparity noted in Asinof's book did not really exist; regardless, the owners absolutely did "own" the players and captured the majority of their economic value.)

To launch this scheme, the players reached out to the gamblers. The smarter ones (read Abe Rothstein, "The Big Bankroll") kept several arm's lengths between them and the fraud, leaving the day-to-day interaction to the lower-level gambler hacks who made a complete mess of it. Corrupt activities suffer from a lack of a legal construct to enforce contracts making translating them into action - executing on a plan requiring trust covering large sums of money to be paid over several weeks - incredibly difficult to manage.

And none of them - not one of these second-tier gamblers or amateur-crook players - handled this well. Instead of using game theory strategies to build incremental trust, everyone was greedy. The gamblers outright cheated the players which was stupid as the players then lost heart in the scheme.

It turned into a version of Keystone-Cops chaos. The gamblers promised the players upfront money and, then, reneged (in part so that they had more money to actually bet on the game and in part because they held the players in contempt). The players, having decided to cheat and some having already taken some money, had no good response to not getting the said promised money as they had already corrupted themselves and the gamblers always held out the promise of more money "after the next game."

It was particularly fun seeing the players - angry as all heck at the cheating gamblers - lie to the gamblers about their intentions in game three resulting in most of the gamblers losing their shirts (not Rothstein, he saw the risk of betting on individual games and only bet on the full series). To be sure, it's a complex moral equation at play when you are rooting for the group of cheaters that got cheated by the other group of cheaters - sigh. A few smart leaders could have managed this scheme much better.

And nipping at everyone's heels all throughout was the media who heard the rumors and smelled the stink, but couldn't get well-sourced-and-confirmed information. Owing to liability concerns, the stories that were printed were vague and qualified. The somewhat-real story only broke because a few of the cheating (and cheated by the gamblers) players, well into the following season, decided to confess (in a moment driven by a mix of conscience and a desire to hurt others - players and gamblers - who seemed to get away with more money).

And those confessions - made in Chicago to the District Attorney's office - set off a firestorm of public fury and legal machinations. At least by today's standards, everything, including the confessions themselves, were executed in a slipshod, intentionally-disingenuous or outright-crooked manner to tip the outcome one way or another.

The confessing players were duped into signing liability waivers; payoffs (think Rothstein pulling strings from far away) made evidence disappear; other evidence or documents suddenly appeared out of nowhere; investigations were funded by rivals; high-priced attorneys - mysteriously paid - popped up to defend the players and no one would accuse the judge of impartiality.

Out of this poorly aimed circular firing squad came a legal exoneration for the players on, kind of, a technicality. But the public was less kind and Major League Baseball - after its own "investigation -" went into high-dudgeon mode against the players resulting in not one of the eight ever playing in the major leagues again (some did go on to play semi-pro and exhibitions games, etc.).

So what were or are the lessons? The public was cheated as its national pastime - never fully honest to start with - was corrupted in its marquee event by some of its marquee players. The expression "Say it ain't so, Joe," referencing famous Shoeless Joe Jackson's role, sadly came into the American lexicon.

The owners were greedy bullies who were handed a scandal owing, in part, to their greed and bullying.

The cheating players were cogs ground down by the owners, but again, most professional ballplayers didn't cheat and earning a multiple of what the average American earned minimizes one's sympathy for those who did cheat.

The newspapers somehow, for the most part, missed the biggest sports and cultural story of its day until it was handed to them.

The gamblers - well, few go into the gambling racket because they have a high regard for the law and, as in every "profession," there are the smart ones who rise to the top (Rothstein) and the hacks who were handed an easy victory but made one unforced error after another until they lost the game.

If there's less fixing of games today and less gambling by players, etc., it's not because human nature has improved, it's because the the vast sums of legal money that sluices to everyone involved in Major League Baseball today reduces the incentive to risk it all on cheating. But as we've learned, some still do and aways will.

Despite the new information since its publication, *Eight Men Out* is still an excellent place to start one's discovery of, perhaps, the sports world's most notorious scandal: a scandal that revealed as much about America in 1919 and human nature always as it did about the sport of baseball itself.


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## Fading Fast

*Helluva Town: The Story of New York City During World War II* by Richard Goldstein published in 2010

More a pastiche of New York in WWII than a serious history, Goldstein's effort works because the vignettes he chooses poignantly connect every day lives to the big-picture struggle. Yes, the patriotic and pull-together efforts dominate in this telling, as even the mob gets a positive spin by helping the Feds protect the waterfront it controls from sabotage, but Goldstein does recount the racism that is also part of New York City in WWII and human history, well, always.

Goldstein points out that, at a high level, New York City's direct contribution to the war effort was really just two things: Brooklyn's Naval Yard and the City's transportation hub itself. The Pacific Theater had its West Coast equivalents, but New York served as a critical builder of ships and shipper of men to defeat the Nazis (some Brooklyn-built ships did head to the Pacific, too).

Through a series of stories, the Naval Yard comes alive as we see dignitaries like the first lady christening carriers and young women all but forcing their way into the Yard in traditional male jobs as men left to fight while demand for ships and shipyard workers increased.

Perhaps no story captured more of the regular New Yorker's experience in war than that of two Naval Yard welders - one, a pioneering woman, the other, a young man who left to fight - who had worked side by side welding in the Yard, married and, then, exchanged letters when he was overseas until she received a telegram informing her that he was killed in action. He had entrusted a letter for her, in case of his death, with a commanding officer, which she received a few weeks after the telegram. In it he wrote, in part, "Having died I at least tasted the full measure of happiness" and "I had no remorse for having died for a worthy cause."

Away from the Naval Yard in Brooklyn, Manhattan, with its two behemoth train stations and deep ports, saw men from all over the country - often, fresh out of basic training - alight and spend a few days or weeks until they were shipped out. Also, many on leave or still convalescing but mobile had stayovers in the City throughout the war years.

Here, Goldstein shows us the bars, nightclubs (famous ones the world over like The Stork Club or 21), movie houses, theaters, restaurants and other attractions all but overwhelmed with young men with money and, often, an exaggerated "I just want to have fun" attitude.

The famous Stage Door Canteen - set up mainly by volunteer actors and stagehands to entertain servicemen gratis - makes an appearance where stars and famous local dignitaries apparently really did, not only cook and put on shows, but also took out the trash and held the hands of many young boys facing war for the first time.

But as noted, Goldstein also shows the ugly, like the race riots in Harlem, sparked by a black women and GI's fight with a white police officer (the story, as always, has its confusion), but building over decades of indignities, slights, economic hardship and, sometimes, brutality. Antisemitism, too, rears its ugly head with attacks by Irish mobs on Jewish synagogues and young Jewish girls. Perhaps racism's sins were included owing to modern political proclivities, as most of New York's other WWII-era sins - political corruption, prostitution, black markets and organized crime - get passed over or, as noted, given a soft touch

Also making appearances are the German spies who were caught on a New York City beach after being dropped off by a U-Boat, the spectacular fire of the Normandie (seemingly sparked by an innocent workman's error, but the rumor mill of intrigue ignored that), New York's inconsistent and restrained approach to blackouts and Mayor LaGuardia both doing good and, sometimes, letting his ego get the best of him - like New York City itself.

There's so much here that it sometimes feels as if you're drinking from a firehose: the B-25 bomber whose pilot, on a foggy Sunday morning, lost his bearing and crashed into the Empire State Building, the beginning of the named-for-its-place-of-origin Manhattan Project, the plays that led to the movies "On The Town" or "Winged Victory" and much, much more.

But that's fine because *Helluva Town *is supposed to be gatling gun of vignettes that adds up to a fun popular read about New York City in WWII. It carries enough real, smart and detailed information and stories to make it more than a guilty pleasure, but it doesn't pretend to be what it is not - a serous history of New York during the war years.


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## eagle2250

During the past months of social self-isolation, I've read more than a few books, not all of which are worthy of mention, but others were pretty good reads. The first was Beneath A Scarlet Sky, a historical novel written by Mark Sullivan documenting the Nazi occupation of Italy during WWII and showcasing the heroic struggles of a young partisan, Pino Lella and his family to protect others and his country from the scourge of a maniacal Adolf Hitler, through the hands of the Nazi military assigned to that theater of the war. Pino and his brother use their noteworthy mountain climbing skills to lead persecuted Jews to safety in Switzerland an Pino wangles his way into becoming a driver for the Nazi commanding general and proceeds to report the generals activities to the Allies for the duration of the war, but in the end is not able to bring the cretin to face the appropriate final justice. By the end of the war Pino has lost many friends and family members to the depravity of the Nazis and in the end, as the occupation was at long last collapsing, to the mob response of the embittered masses of Italian citizens. Mobs seldom chose their victims wisely. It's a very well written book...read it!


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## Fading Fast

*Good Evening Mrs. Craven *by Mollie Panter-Downes, a collection of short stories

Written for *The New Yorker* magazine between September of 1939 and June of 1944 by England native and resident Panter-Downes, an author with an acute eye for small personal details, these stories are the flip to all the "big" history books about England during WWII. Those books, like the recently released *The Splendid and the Vile* by Erik Larson (comments here:  #776 ), show you Churchill's and England's top-down, macro strategy for surviving the blitz and, ultimately, defeating the Nazis.

In those tomes of history, "the people" are often referenced as "enduring" the blitz's hardships with pluck, backing Churchill, taking in city refugees, supporting the fighting men, but all in a sort gray "background" way. "The people" show up almost as props in a play to highlight the achievements and struggles of their leaders. But here, Panter-Downes takes us into their homes, heads and hearts and shows a deeper and more-nuanced picture of "the people."

We meet older women whose lives had been flower shows and gardening finding new purpose and enthusiasm in making and distributing bandages for troops and clothes for refugees. Conversely, we meet a woman whose former, sorta boyfriend found a wife while on overseas assignment coming home to show her off as she, the ex-girlfriend, smiles pleasantly but dies a bit inside.

Older, retired men become air-raid wardens and find they actually can contribute, while a woman plots and strategizes to get a refugee family that's driving her nuts out of her house despite having enthusiastically taken them in during the blitz. In other words, Panter-Downes shows us real life; shows us the good and the bad, people doing small acts of charity and committing small acts cravenness.

Poignantly, we see a young married couple who had already slipped into a mundane day to day reenergized by his going off to war; nothing sharpens the mind like the threat of losing the good you had passively taken for granted.

Panter-Downes also sheds light on the rigid but changing-because-of-the-war class system in England as a dowager and her equally old housekeeper take in soldiers. The dowager is happy to adapt and give up the old standards, but the housekeeper, whose entire life has been "in service," doesn't want that way of life to change. A story consistent with others (see *Remains of the Day*) where the servants were, often times, more committed to the class structure and its rules than those at the top.

In a particularly sad story, a middle-aged and, what today we'd call, socially awkward woman, finds a communal experience when her heretofore anonymous neighbors share the apartment building's corridors as shelter through long evenings of the blitz. But later in the war, with the air raids waning, she is alone again in her apartment in the evenings as the neighbors return to their nod-and-move-on manners. Against her nature, she squirrels up her courage and knocks on the door of one neighbor under the pretense of taking him up on his blitz offer to "come by and borrow a book anytime." When she does so, she immediately realizes that the visit "isn't working" and quickly takes the book and retreats to another long night of loneliness.

On it goes through the war as another story shows a maid with an out-of-wedlock baby (when that mattered) coming to work for a lonely soldier's wife. The three of them, in a very modern way, form their own "odd" family as, in particular, the soldier's wife realizes the character of her "simple" maid and the unimportance of society's opinions.

And that's it as these short stories are simply a window into how "the people" experienced the war. These are the regular Brits whom the giants of history - the Churchills, the FDRs, etc. - are always saving, sacrificing, worrying about or fighting for. They are "the people" who appear as almost shadowy figures in those august leader's lives.

So, thanks to Panter-Downes, the next time we're reading how a crowd cheered on Churchill, we'll see that crowd as a little more complex than just "the people." We'll see them as regular men and women with kinds hearts and petty jealousies, with thoughtfulness and, sometimes, meanness, with fear and joy, with hope and sorrow - in total, we'll now see them as more than just "the people."


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## eagle2250

During the soon to be past month of May 2020, I got on a Clive Cussler jag, reading three of his novels; two in the Sam and Remi Fargo series and one from his (Cussler's) Oregon Files series. The Fargo adventures, written by Clive Cussler and Robin Burcell, included The Romanov Ranson and The Oracle and The Oregon Files offering was Typhoon Fury, written by Cussler and Boyd Morrison. All three writings followed Cusslers ever successful literary format; Good vs Evil, fast moving w/lots of action, lives and at times the future of Nations hanging in the balance, ever heroic and auguably super, hero's/heroine's. The good guys win, the bad guys lose, Nations and lives are saved. Now tell me, does life get any better than that? Cusslers books are an entertaining read, at times seemingly mesmerizing. They are just downright fun to read...do it!


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## Fading Fast

eagle2250 said:


> During the soon to be past month of May 2020, I got on a Clive Cussler jag, reading three of his novels; two in the Sam and Remi Fargo series and one from his (Cussler's) Oregon Files series. The Fargo adventures, written by Clive Cussler and Robin Burcell, included The Romanov Ranson and The Oracle and The Oregon Files offering was Typhoon Fury, written by Cussler and Boyd Morrison. All three writings followed Cusslers ever successful literary format; Good vs Evil, fast moving w/lots of action, lives and at times the future of Nations hanging in the balance, ever heroic and auguably super, hero's/heroine's. The good guys win, the bad guys lose, Nations and lives are saved. Now tell me, does life get any better than that? Cusslers books are an entertaining read, at times seemingly mesmerizing. They are just downright fun to read...do it!


Last Christmas, when we flew to MI to see my girlfriend's parents, I had a CC novel in my hand in the airport's bookstore, but since I had taken two books with me, I passed. It's been many years since I've read a CC book, but your description is spot on to my memory - a fun romp through a world of international intrigue and super-cool technology where all ends well. I'll need to pick one up again soon.


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## Oldsarge

Exactly what it says and a total hoot.


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## Fading Fast

*The Big Bankroll: The Life and Times of Arnold Rothstein* by Leo Katcher published in 1959

Born in 1882, Arnold Rothstein plowed his own path through life as, first, a successful gambler, then a successful owner of gambling establishments, and finally, as the incredibly successful owner, financier and / or middleman to many legal and illegal businesses in the Roaring Twenties.

Starting his "career" as a gambler, Rothstein had a choice: you can be a gambler or you can be the house - Rothstein chose to, mainly, be the house. You can act with strict integrity in a dishonorable system (and lose) or you can cut corners and, sometimes, outright cheat (as most others did) - Rothstein chose to cut and cheat.

The latter might sound terrible, but that was the way the game was played in his time (and, often, today as well). Basically, people who want to live lives of traditional honor and values need not apply to any position in the early twentieth century's gambling industry.

But within that world, there are rules around "acceptable" cheating - as crazy as that sounds - and Rothstein scrupulously abided by those rules, which, combined with his incredible success, placed him in a position of authority and respect in this border town to the legal economy.

And despite outsized success as a gambler, bookmaker, operator of gambling establishments and owner of racehorses - how he legally manipulated the odds and outcome of two horse races to win, in today's dollars, about $20 million, are edge-of-your-seat-exciting reading - all that was just a springboard to other more lucrative legal and illegal ventures.

While born into a respectable, religious and upper-middle class Jewish family, growing up, Rothstein never embraced his family's values and all but broke completely from his parents in his teens to carve out his early career in gambling. From there, after his aforementioned outsized success as a gambler and owner of gambling enterprises, he evolved into a sort of _éminence grise_ of New York City and, to an extent, the northeast's organized corruption in an era when gangsters, police and politicians were, sadly, much more integrated than they are today (at least we hope).

Rothstein earned his nickname "The Big Bankroll" by, on his way up, carrying a huge sum of cash to show his seriousness to the top gamblers. Later, when his career branched out from gambling, his large capital made him the go-to guy to provide funding for everything from bail bonds, fencing, money laundering, real estate, fixing the World Series (which he didn't really do) to backing buckets shops (shady brokerage firms in the pre-regulated days which acted, basically, as gambling establishments using stocks instead of horses as the game), narcotics and, when it was the thing, bootlegging.

It was his bankroll/capital, plus his extensive and high-level network of underworld and political connections - he was tight with Tammany Hall when it ruled New York City - his intelligence, his preternaturally calm personality (even in a storm) and his integrity (his word and his money were known as money good - crucial in a world that operates without contracts) that resulted in Rothstein sitting at the center of, but somehow legally insulated from, everything corrupt in New York City in the Roaring Twenties.

He had managed to be the one cog that gangsters, politicians and union bosses all needed to help coordinate, finance and, oftentimes, run their corrupt efforts; yet, he wasn't a gangster (or part of a mob), a politician or a labor leader.

Instead, Rothstein had become a sui generis figure sitting in the middle of many above-board and not-above-board businesses and schemes, but in a way that left him reasonably legally immune. If you dumped your morals overboard and lived your life to make money - and you had the particular type of brains, personality and emotional control that Rothstein did - his would be a smart path to choose, until it wasn't.

At his career peak in the Twenties, it's simply hard to keep track of all his businesses which range from gambling and bookmaking, to real estate, restaurants, bootlegging and narcotics. As bootlegging became more violent, he seemed to lean away from it (although he still financed bootleggers), but via his huge bail-bond business (which seemed, overall, legitimate), he became the lynchpin in much of the growing union corruption that labor leaders and politicians used to line their pockets. Sadly, as presented here, New York City's construction unions were all but birthed in corruption with politicians and labor bosses lining their pockets at the expense of their members.

With his place secured (for the moment), as the Twenties roared along, so did Rothstein - getting richer and more involved in everything. Oddly, despite his personality being a key ingredient to his success - he seemed to be good at surface friendships, at knowing whom to befriend and what relationships to cultivate - he appeared unable to form deep bonds with anyone, even his very decent wife Carolyn.

And while long-suffering Carolyn was his only confidant, it still had to be on his terms where he shared and confided when and only what he wanted. Proving as adept at choosing his wife as almost everything else, Carolyn accepted her role and, even when she finally asked for a divorce (no intimacy, him cheating and having everything on his terms wore even her down), she demanded nothing (he offered to provide comfortably for her anyway) and even remained a confidant after the split. Divorce lawyers would go out of business if most breakups were like this.

And right when his marriage was unwinding, Rothstein made a critical mistake that proved how tenuous his position had been all along. Usually a winner at poker - and always, until now, a disciplined player - he played sloppily in a high-stakes game and left many six-figure IOUs that, by gambling convention, he should have honored within two or three days.

But just at this time, Rothstein was cash poor and asset rich. He was financing so many investments - land development, bail bonds, bootlegging, restaurants and on and on - that he didn't have the liquidity to settle his IOUs and he didn't want to sell any of his businesses or investments. Basically, he was in a classic liquidity crisis - solvent (positive net worth owing to his illiquid assets), but unable to meet his bills with available cash.

In the legal world, this is settled, usually, by the individual, effectively, being forced to sell some assets to meet his debts (worst case - that happens in bankruptcy court); but in Rothstein's world, his attempt to bully time out of his creditors resulted in one trying to collect, in gangster style, by threatening Rothstein with a gun. Things went badly and down went Arnold for good.

After avoiding the violent side of his "business" his entire professional life, Rothstein died a very typical underworld death. But what the heck, he had a great run - unique and spanning a few decades - in a field not known for its longevity. And that's what makes *The Big Bank Roll* such a good read; it has that rare thing, a unique personality at its core. Author Katcher didn't need to exaggerate as the reality of Rothstein's life reads better than most fiction.


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## Fading Fast

*The Jane Austen Society* by Natalie Jenner published in 2020

I'm a Jane Austen fan and I enjoy a good breezy beach read as this book has been advertised, so I took a shot on the latest output from the seemingly never-ending Jane Austen merchandising machine.

But, unfortunately, this one's on the disappointing side. Set in the '30s and '40s, the premise is that several lonely or broken-hearted locals, from the village where Jane Austen lived a hundred and fifty years prior, decide to start a historical society to preserve Austen's home (a cottage on an estate about to be sold to a big developer) and other Austen memorabilia.

It's disappointing because the writing and story are simply average. Additionally, many of the characters are anachronistically modern while others are just black-and-white heroes or villains. And all these efforts seem to exist in order to advance the author's political biases.

The plot itself is straightforward - will the society be able to raise the funds to buy the Austen "cottage" before the (of course) evil land developer buys the estate and demolishes everything to (of course) build a golf course? Being an Austen cognate, the story is also full of unrequited love, relationship misunderstandings and "marriage for advantage versus marriage for love" challenges.

Unfortunately, you can see the story's seams, see every gun hung and feel every "critical" moment when it's coming. And while we know it is very important to modern female writers to have strong female characters, in a period novel, a strong female character should be written to reflect what a strong female - there were plenty of them - would have thought and acted like in the 1940s, not like one that was transported back from 2020.

I often wonder if these authors (and there are many modern ones who make the same mistake) even bother to read newspaper articles and fictional stories from the period they write about to learn how to accurately portray a strong 1940s female. Authors like Ursula Parrot and Rex Beach (and others) were writing popular novels about smart, independent women in the '20s - '40s. You could also pick up any old newspaper to read about these fictional women's real-world equivalents.

In these books and newspapers from those times, authors would learn that there were powerful, independent, forward-thinking women, but they still thought and acted in a period-consistent way. They worked on the edges of the social constructs of their times and held the progressive views of their day, which often don't align with today's progressive views.

That, I'm guessing, is what modern authors don't like about period-accurate characters. So, instead of drawing them accurately, modern authors limn these women as if they were time-traveling heroines visiting some past era to show the people how backward and wrong their thoughts and actions are. I think authors like Ms. Jenner really want to write science fiction novels, but they don't know it.

The other thing that hurts this one is when Ms. Jenner's characters quote passages from Austen novels: few modern authors' writing looks good in a side-by-side comparison to Austen.

It's June and it's hot and I'd be very happy for a mindless beach read, but unfortunately, this one offers too little fun while irritating with its period-inconsistent characters' moral posturing.


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## IT_cyclist

Breasts and Eggs. Halfway through. Not exactly what I expected. But really engaging. Makes me want to read it in the original Japanese. (which would take an AGE after over 2 decades since my last residency in that country.)


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## Fading Fast

*Kipps* by H.G. Wells published in 1905

In the early 20th-century world of England's rigid class and social order, what would happen if a young man from a lower-middle-class family who works as a sales clerk in a drapery and fabric store inherited (in today's terms about) $5,000,000?

That's the premise in this fun story from Wells about the challenges inheriting money can create especially in a not-particularly-sure-of-himself young man with, surprisingly, little interest in material possessions.

Kipps, the young man in question, before his windfall, follows the path laid out for him by the uncle who raised him: he becomes an apprentice in a drapery shop. Initially, after the windfall, all he does is buy a few modest things and helps out a few friends. However, it is his passion to court a woman in society whom he knew before he was rich (and who was out of his league back then), which leads him to find a mentor to teach him how to be a "gentleman."

While this entails having to buy a lot of accoutrements, the real hurdle for Kipps is the social customs and manners he has to learn to become a real "gentleman." Besides his mentor, Kipps studies a manners guide only to learn the challenges of trying to follow a rigid set of rules set down in a book versus the fluidity of real-world social situations.

In a insightful twist on the old adage to be careful of what you wish for, after becoming engaged to his society avatar, Kipps accidentally meets an old childhood, kinda, sweetheart - now "in service" as a maid - who reminds him of the joy of sincere love not complicated by social status or motives about money. Additionally, he simply likes his old friend; whereas, his fiance has become unpleasantly didactic to him about the ways of society.

You're now about two-thirds in and all heck is about to break out. (Spoiler alerts) Kipps breaks his engagement, ditches society, marries his childhood friend, losses his money (which he gave to his society fiance's brother to manage - he embezzled it), and, Candide like, he and his wife have to restart their lives poorer but wiser (a cliche, but true in this case). There's one more twist to come - it's a fun one - but you want to discover it in the book.

Toss in some innocent ruminating about socialism - not having had the ensuing hundred years of socialism's history to edify, Welles' pondering feels naive not misguided - and that pretty much covers the book. In the end, *Kipps* is basically an enjoyable homily about being true to yourself, the value of sincere love, the dangers of money, the pretentiousness of status and the rewards of work and purpose.


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## eagle2250

Just a couple of weeks back I read the novel American Dirt, #1 on the New York Times Bestseller list, written by Jeanine Cummins. An interesting and socially worthwhile read. The story is of a 30 something year old mother and her eight year old son whose family is assassinated by order of the Jeffe of a local drug cartel because of the factual articles her husband a reporter, has been putting in the news paper, in spite of repeated threats/warnings of the local drug cartel. Mama and her son are quite literally running for their lives, from their home in Acapulco Mexico to "El Norte," to survive the continuing efforts to eliminate these last two surviving members of the Perez family and in search of a better, safer and more predictable. The script quite graphically depicts the hazards experienced by the migrant caravans and provides a surprisingly accurate perspective on the impact of the competing drug cartels and on the corruptive effect those cartels have on the societies within the South American countries. 

American Dirt is not only a good read, it is also a very worthwhile read! It leaves you with a better sense of the realities of immigration issues and with you continuing to reflect on the book, long after you have finished reading it!


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## Fading Fast

*Lilies of the Field *by William Edmun Barrett published in 1962

Always read the book first. Great advice, but sometimes not possible as, occasionally, you find your way to a book via the movie, as I did with *Lilies of the Field*.

The movie (see comments here:  #373 ) is fantastic; it's a little gem of a film. The book, to, is a little gem, but surprisingly, the movie might be slightly better.

The story is the same: a young black Baptist man, Homer Smith, driving cross country and living out of his beat-up station wagon stops at a poor Midwest, desert outpost of five nuns, escapees from East Germany, trying to scrape out an existence and build a chapel for the surrounding and poor community of, mainly, Mexican Catholics.

The nuns, led by the indomitable Mother Maria Marthe, the "Mother," engage Homer to do some work for them for a day in exchange for food and some not-discussed wage. Immediately, Homer and the Mother lock horns as she, in her broken English, decides his name is "Schmidtt" and refuses all entreaties by him to correct her mistake. She also decides that God has answered her prayers by sending him to her to build the chapel; a thought he laughs at as he plans to leave at the end of the day.

But intrigued by the imperious Mother and her quirky and pleasant band of nuns - trying to learn English from lessons on a record, the nuns incorporate the record's scratches and skips into their English - Homer stays on "for one more day" to do "a little more work."

Despite continually butting heads with the Mother - you don't reason with her as her English seems only to work when she's telling "Schmidtt" what to do - he stays on a bit longer and, then, longer still, but, finally leaves in frustration (there's little food and no pay), only to come back as he can't get the nuns, the Mother or their chapel out of his head.

Once back, it's full steam ahead on the chapel-building effort with Homer working for a construction crew twice a week to help pay for building supplies and food for the nuns and himself (he's all in even if he doesn't admit it to himself). But even with his wages, there's still not enough money to buy all the supplies, which worries Homer, but not the obdurately faithful Mother who believes her prayers will produce the necessary materials. Homer and she do not see eye to eye on this point.

(Spoiler alerts, next two paragraphs) Just in time, the poor Mexicans begin randomly bringing supplies to Homer as the story of the chapel building by a black man working without pay for the East German nuns inspires the town to rally around the effort. From here, it's non-stop work for Homer, now aided by the Mexicans (who know much better than he how to work with adobe bricks), evenings teaching English to or singing with the nuns and more butting of heads with the Mother.

As the chapel is being completed and the first service is planned for the following Sunday, the Mother tells, yes tells, "Schmidtt" that he'll be sitting in the front pew with her. He knows this is her way of thanking and honoring him, so despite being a Baptist with no desire to pray in a Catholic church, this man who went round after round with the Mother, can't say no.

It's a story of faith and good will bridging cultural, racial and ethnic gaps. It's presented as a fable or legend and, to be sure, it is fable-like as it is all too easy. But that's what good and hopeful stories do: they inspire us to be better people and to make a better world than we have today.

While, as noted, the movie might nudge out the book, I'd start with the book because, one, it is an excellent, short and inspiring read and, two, you want to form your own images of the people and places in your head before seeing the movie.


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## Fading Fast

*Voyage in the Dark* by Jean Rhys originally published in 1934

New York has always been a tough city as it was when I first came to it in the 1980s. Many hopeful young men and women try to make a go of it, but sadly, many don't.

I knew several young women (the book is about a young woman) back then who got to the first wrung of a career - a small part in a play, a junior trading seat on Wall Street, an assistant-buyer position at Macy's - only to stall there, or worse, be let go.

The competition for every job, every position, every opportunity is intense as people from all over the country and the world come to New York City to make a start. Just holding a job is a challenge; getting ahead; an epic struggle. New York companies fire average-good workers all the time simply because they believe they can "upgrade" from New York's massive talent pool (this human-resource strategy is built into the business plans of many New York companies).

And when you stumble, without parents with funds behind you, there is no net - the rent, the food, the utilities, the medical bills are all meaningfully higher here and there are ten people who want your apartment if you can't pay your rent. Landlords (also facing insanely high expenses) don't carry too many, too far. The downward spiral is awful; the exit, oftentimes, swift.

*Voyage in the Dark* avers that 1930s London was no nicer than 1980s New York, specifically, to one young English woman just arrived in London from a colonial outpost in the West Indies where she was born. Anna Morgan starts out okay; she gets to that first wrung as a chorus girl in a traveling production that winds up its season in London.

Living in various cheap London boarding houses or in small flats with girlfriends, she gets by with, initially, a little help from an indifferent stepmother. Pretty in a wan, fragile way, she has an affair with a married man - at nineteen, she's naive enough to believe it's true love and he'll leave his wife for her. When he ends the affair, but surprisingly continues to provide her with some funds, she goes into a downward emotional spiral resulting in, what today we'd probably call, clinical depression.

She's always tired, always cold, sleeps most of the day and makes little effort to find another show in which to act. Her friends try to help, but struggling themselves, and with Anna making no effort and, frequently, sad to be around, she slowly pushes many of them away. A few other men show interest, but her heart's not in it and they too get pushed away by her ennui.

Written from Anna's perspective, we don't initially see how depressed she is or how she's wrecking her friendships and opportunities as she - as most people will do - make her actions seem justified and reasonable to herself and, initially, the reader. And that's part of the beauty of the writing here as it only slowly dawns on you that Anna, and not everyone else, is the reason why Anna is failing. Even knowing that, you still fall into the trap of seeing things from Anna's perspective and having to remind yourself that her view is not reliable.

As money and opportunity become scarcer, Anna slides into, not hard-core prostitution, but a pattern of passively finding wealthy men to have affairs with for support. And while this succeeds for a bit, her depression pushes even these men away. Now the spiral down is almost complete, hastened by a crisis that leaves Anna even more damaged.

The details are different, but Anna is several young women I knew when I first came to New York. It's awful to see the slide; you and other friends try to help - and can bridge a short set back - but in an expensive, heavily taxed and merciless city, you either right yourself and earn your way, or the city will shove you aside.

The blurb on the cover of my edition says "A dateless classic." Yes it is as Anna's 1930s experience aligns to the experiences of young women in New York in the 1980s and, I'd bet, pretty much, at any time in any expensive and hard-driving city.


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## eagle2250

A week or so back I finished reading another Clive Cussler novel, titled Nighthawk and co written with Graham Brown. The X-37 Nighthawk is a reduced size progeny of Space Shuttle technology and designs, the most shphisticated air frame design the USA ever produced that has been on a 10 year Top Secret Secret Compartmented Information space mission. On it's scheduled return to Earth high tech interference on the part of those eternal bad guys, the Russians and the Red Chinese, with the encouragement of a nutcase Central/South American interloper calling himself the Falconer causes the Nighthawk to go off course and become lost. What follows is a frantic game of "Marco Polo," played by the big three, the USA, Russia and Red China as they attempt to find and recover the Nighthawk and claim it as their very own , before the others can manage to do so. 

Unknown to two of the participants in the frantic search, the cargo collected from the dark side of our polar earth caps, is such that if it is mishandled or not kept within strict storage criteria for even but a moment the explosion that follows would literally destroy our planet and bring an earth wide end to life as we know it! But have no fear, youse proverbial good guys...Kurt Austin and Joe Zavala and the NUMA Crew are on our side and rumor has it that they always manage to win.

This Cussler yarn is an absorbing, fast and delightful read. You will literally cheer over the ending! Well, maybe not? LOL.


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## Fading Fast

*KItty Foyle* by Christopher Morley originally published in 1939

You can ignore most modern historical fiction and most movies made after 1934 (under the code) if you want a clear window into the 1930s; instead, read the novels from the era. While not as sexually explicit and graphic as modern novels, they don't hold back about sex, or, pretty much, anything else.

Kitty Foyle, the character, is a woman in her late twenties in 1939 looking back on her life that, like most lives, had a heck of a lot of unpredictable twists. Born into working-class Philadelphia in 1911, Kitty quickly learned her place in a very class-conscious city. But after her mother dies and her father gets sick, she's shipped off to comfortably middle-class relatives in the Midwest for high school. This less-hidebound, less-hardscrabble culture opens her eyes up to life's opportunities, in general, while shrinking the importance, in her mind, of "Main Line" Philly.

Back in Philly after high school, she begins work as a secretary and, more life-altering, starts dating a Main-Line banker scion. He's nice, but his family doesn't embrace Kitty. To be fair - and against simple stereotypes - they do not snobbishly reject her as some of the family welcome her as a potential fresh addition, while others, not mean-spiritedly, just prefer someone from "their" class. Kitty, smarter than her boyfriend, realizes that he can't live without his family's support and that she doesn't want to be smothered by it.

From there, it's a breakup, Kitty moves to New York, she and Philly boy kinda date again, she gets pregnant (yup), doesn't tell him, has an abortion (yup, again), he gets engaged to a Main-Line girl and Kitty moves on as much as she can. After that, she builds a career in the cosmetics industry, meets a Jewish doctor and debates an inter-faith marriage versus staying single while still carrying a lightly glowing torch for her Main-Line Ex.

Kitty also drinks regularly, gets seriously drunk now and then, smokes up a storm, is indifferent to religion - basically, she is a "modern" girl in the 1930s with, for the time, progressive views on society and life. And that's why, if you care about what people in the '30s really thought, you want to read these novels as Kitty's liberal views are aligned to their times and not, as modern historical fiction writers portray, aligned to today's liberal views.

Hence, Kitty has an abortion, but sees its downsides and suffers some reoccurring guilt afterward. Today, liberal orthodoxy requires even period characters to only have positive, nearly one-hundred-percent guilt-free views about abortions (that's fine if that's your view, but it isn't period accurate). The same goes for Kitty's views on equality of the sexes - she's a strong advocate for it, but as is not allowed today, she still sees inherent differences in the sexes and fully respects those women who choose to be housewives.

These period differences also apply to her views on race. Kitty sees positive traits in blacks that puts her in the vanguard of 1930s progressive thought, but her approach sounds like a needle scratching a record to our 2020 ears. From a modern lens, she'd be denounced as a racist by today's implacable liberal views. To wit, modern authors would never deign to write a character that has KItty's views on race; instead, they'd write characters that could be best described as time travelers in a science fiction novel sent back from 2020 with fully modern race views.

And even as Kitty considers marrying a Jewish man, she notes several of his characteristics, some positive and some negative, as being representative of Jewish people in general - an unacceptable framing to us today. Kitty, like most of us, can only see so far past the biases and boundaries of her day. Sadly, as we see antisemitism on the rise again in 2020, this is one where Kitty might be ahead of our "modern" times.

Again, this is not debating the merits of these views, just their period accuracy and the condescending passion of modern writers to put virtue signalling ahead of period verisimilitude.

Away from all the above, the beauty in Kitty Foyle - the book and the character - is Kitty's stream of conscious thoughts on so many things that ring true, at least to the period.

On work, Kitty is a self-described "white-collar girl," who notes that it will be hard for women like her to give up earning an income in exchange for taking care of a husband and home. But as she approaches her late twenties, she also sees that just being a business woman is not completely fulfilling for her and many of her friends.

On sex, while it's the 1930s, Kitty neither denounces pre-marital sex nor fist-pumps her advocacy for it. To her, it's just something a single woman in her twenties is going to do from time to time.

By the end of *Kitty Foyle*, you feel as if you've just sat down and had a long conversation with a young woman in 1939. And judging from its contemporaneous reviews, *Kitty Foyle* was viewed just that way in her time: she represented a young modern woman to 1939 America. Oh, and how 'bout this, *Kitty Foyle* was written by a man.


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## eagle2250

Last months Book Club selection was The Little Old Lady Who Broke All The Rules, by Catharina Ingelman Sundberg. The story is about a group of 80+ year olds who are disgruntled by the deteriorating standards of their senior living community and whose reaction is turning to a life of crime (A la Robin Hood!), argumentatively to overcome the boredom and to raise the standard of living for pensioners in Norway. They proceed to defraud the Grand Hotel, steal paintings from the National Museum of art, valued at 20 to 30 million Kroner and ransomed back for 2 million Kroner, and rob a bank security van servicing ATM's of 10 to 20 million Kroner, after which they fly off to a life in Barbados. Societal perceptions of the pensioners as frail, disabled old people allowed them to succeed in and or not be held reasonably accountable for their lives of crime. I'm not sure whether the thrust of this story is an indictment on the treatment of pensioners in Norway or an explanation of the mindsets of those seemingly being left in societies dust. In either event, I do hope it is not predictive of the future(s) we have to look forward to....or do I?


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## Fading Fast

eagle2250 said:


> Last months Book Club selection was The Little Old Lady Who Broke All The Rules, by Catharina Ingelman Sundberg. The story is about a group of 80+ year olds who are disgruntled by the deteriorating standards of their senior living community and whose reaction is turning to a life of crime (A la Robin Hood!), argumentatively to overcome the boredom and to raise the standard of living for pensioners in Norway. They proceed to defraud the Grand Hotel, steal paintings from the National Museum of art, valued at 20 to 30 million Kroner and ransomed back for 2 million Kroner, and rob a bank security van servicing ATM's of 10 to 20 million Kroner, after which they fly off to a life in Barbados. Societal perceptions of the pensioners as frail, disabled old people allowed them to succeed in and or not be held reasonably accountable for their lives of crime. I'm not sure whether the thrust of this story is an indictment on the treatment of pensioners in Norway or an explanation of the mindsets of those seemingly being left in societies dust. In either event, I do hope it is not predictive of the future(s) we have to look forward to....or do I?


Sounds like a neat premise. Over the years, there have been a few movies that riff on it.

My girlfriend and I spend hours - literally - hours every week (and, sometimes whole days) as advocates for our three elderly parents. While there are some incredibly kind and decent people within the system, the system itself (private and gov't healthcare - it makes no difference) is designed to defeat you.

It is designed to wear you down, beat you on technicalities, beat you with process and, even, beat you by ignoring you (promised return calls don't happen, emails don't get sent, docs don't get reviewed and on and on). A sick older person either needs to be incredibly capable of dealing with a brutal bureaucracy or they need a passionate advocate who can devote endless hours, all the time, fighting on their behalf.

The system has been reversed engineered by the gov't, the insurance cos and the hospitals to provide as few benefits as they can for as much money as they can get. But it's even worse as it is also pro-actively designed to deny you things you are entitled to by law (patients rights) or contract (insurance policies). The level of intentional design to deny you things you have paid for or are entitled to by law is breathlessly stunning and absolutely corrupt.


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## Dhaller

Nothing too lofty at the moment (I think I last mentioned my forays into Herodotus and Hesiod?)

Getting back to my "comfort reading" roots with Kelly Link's short fiction collection "Pretty Monsters" (horror, more literary than shock), and Gene Wolfe's "Shadow & Claw" (sci-fi in the mannered vein of Jack Vance). Genre, but "the good stuff".

Feeding my head with Yuval Harari's "Sapiens" and Burton Malkiel's "A Random Walk Down Wall Street".

I'm also behind on magazines (I subscribe to too many, but mainly follow London Review of Books, The Economist, Harvard Business Review, MIT's Technology Magazine, Nature, and Men's Health) - I think I may take a stack on the porch and just coffee my way through them.

DH


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## Fading Fast

*Montauk* by Nicola Harrison published in 2019

This was my second attempt at a "beach read" this summer (however, read not at the beach, but in a NYC apartment during the pandemic).

Highly touted (as all books seem to be today, hmm), it's an adequate effort, but nothing more. Set in the late '30s, the story follows the life of a young New York City society woman, Beatrice Bordeaux, who decamps with her husband, Harold, for the summer to an oceanfront hotel, the Manor House - a new hotel "palace" for society - in the fishing village of Montauk. He comes for the weekends, while she stays out there all summer.

Their marriage is stressed as five years has produced no heir for hubby Harold and the Bordeaux dynasty. While alone during the week and bored with the society women and their endless luncheons and charity committee meetings, Beatrice befriends a local woman who takes in some of the hotel's laundry. From there, she meets outdoorsy handsome and stoically gentlemanly-in-a-not-society-way lighthouse keeper Thomas.

Yup, this is an author who has no shame in living out her fantasy life in cliches in her book, but hey, I wanted a beach read, so all's fair so far. The rest of the novel is Beatrice realizing that she doesn't really love her husband and being "in society," and wants to live a "truer" life with Thomas and the Montauk locals.

Okay, that too is fair enough and has happened. But of course, being a modern novel, the author can't help virtue signalling all her politically correct views stuffed anachronistically into her 1930s' heroine and plot. So, we have a MeToo moment as Beatrice's husband rapes her one night after they've stopped having sex, but Thomas, the lighthouse keeper, of course, only touches her after getting positive consent.

Also, most of the men are two-dimensional cliches that range from mansplainers to misogynists, except for the few women-fantasy-perfect men like the lighthouse keeper. However, the women are sensitive, smart and, usually, abused or dismissed by men - except for a few wealthy white women who seem fair game for condemnation by this author.

And perhaps the favorite cliche of all time of progressive movies and books going back many decades - that wealthy people do not enjoy their parties as they are all posturing and backstabbing, but poor people only have genuine fun and good will at theirs - is trotted out. Anyone who's been to both kinds of parties knows the cliche is nonsense, not worthy of any serious writer. It's not that the reverse is true; it's just simply that each group has its good and bad parties, its good and bad people, its good and bad intentions.

There are a lot of twists and turns and secrets revealed as Beatrice plans her escape from her rich husband and society to join the "real" people of the fishing village and her hunky but, of course, sensitive and supportive lighthouse keeper. At times, it's a fun page turner, but the too-easy-to-guess plot and completely not-of-the-period politics weighs down the effort. I'm done with "beach reads" for this summer.


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## eagle2250

^^
Having picked up more than a few such disappointing reads myself, over the past several years, I have felt the pain that you describe. The problem seems exacerbated by the unfortunate reality that when I pick up and start reading a book, I feel compelled to read that book to it's very end, whether I like it or not. Egad, I am a victim of my very own internal nag! :crazy:


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## Fading Fast

eagle2250 said:


> ^^
> Having picked up more than a few such disappointing reads myself, over the past several years, I have felt the pain that you describe. The problem seems exacerbated by the unfortunate reality that when I pick up and start reading a book, I feel compelled to read that book to it's very end, whether I like it or not. Egad, I am a victim of my very own internal nag! :crazy:


It's frustrating as I used to enjoy a quick read of a new period novel, but almost all of them today jam modern politics in, in an aggressive and obvious way. Period movies and TV shows are doing the same thing more and more.


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## Oldsarge

_The Horse, the Wheel and Language_, the story of the steppe people's migration into Europe. It is _not_ light summer reading and I am nibbling my way through it, along with trying geezerfully to catch up on my months long backlog of periodicals.


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## eagle2250

Oldsarge said:


> _The Horse, the Wheel and Language_, the story of the steppe people's migration into Europe. It is _not_ light summer reading and I am nibbling my way through it, along with trying geezerfully to catch up on my months long backlog of periodicals.


Back when I was working full time, and then some, I was always able to keep up with my periodicals, but now that I have become a man of leisure, many of those periodicals are discarded unread! Odd, for sure.


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## Dhaller

Fading Fast said:


> It's frustrating as I used to enjoy a quick read of a new period novel, but almost all of them today jam modern politics in, in an aggressive and obvious way. Period movies and TV shows are doing the same thing more and more.


My go-to author for Quick Period Novels is Bernard Cornwell, a seeming firehose of well-researched historical fiction. Not a speck of modern political jam to be found in the lot.

I always have a Sharp novel or the like in the hopper (I have to keep a spreadsheet of what I've read to keep track, though!)

DH


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## eagle2250

Earlier this week I finished reading another of Newt Gingrich and Pete Early's novels, Vengeance...the third book in their "Major Brooke Grant" series. Putting it all in perspective, recall if you will Islamic Jihadist The Falcon issued a FATWA against Major Grant. Vengeance opens up with a suicide bomber driving a caterer's van filled with explosives, blowing up himself and over 300 guests at Grant's wedding ceremony, including the sitting President of the United States, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Stall and a litany of other government officials. Now, if you dare, tell me you didn't see this coming...everyone at the wedding, except for Brooke Grant and her adoptive daughter, die in the blast! The Falcon's next threat is to destroy three American cities and perhaps bring to an end our way if life with his "nuclear sword!" 

USMC Major Brooke Grant finds herself appointed to serve on a four man/woman CIA Hit Squad assigned to hunt down the Falcon. There are two important points to take note of at this point. First, the assignments to the hit team never goes beyond three; a Saudi Agent, a female Mossad agent and Brooke Grant. Clearly the Director of the CIA struggled with his numbers! And secondly,The Squad does indeed run the Falcon to ground in a mountain cave in Afghanistan, but it takes them 383 pages to do it. As in Gingrich and Earley's earlier books, this book leaves the reader hanging, with an unexpected and highly improbable plot twist at the very end. If you want to know what that is, you have to read the book.

Sit back and relax...Vengeance is a long and a very interesting read!


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## The Irishman

I'm still following the Mortimer J Adler reading list. With, as before, some small changes.

Right now I am about one third of the way through Voltaire's 'Candide'. 

I also listen to audiobooks when I am commuting to and from work, and draw from the same list. I have just finished Rousseau's 'The Social Contract' and about to begin Smith's 'The Wealth of Nations' (...Which will take a while by the looks of it).


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## Fading Fast

The Irishman said:


> I'm still following the Mortimer J Adler reading list. With, as before, some small changes.
> 
> Right now I am about one third of the way through Voltaire's 'Candide'.
> 
> I also listen to audiobooks when I am commuting to and from work, and draw from the same list. I have just finished Rousseau's 'The Social Contract' and about to begin Smith's 'The Wealth of Nations' (...Which will take a while by the looks of it).


"Candide" is one of those books that has stayed with me my entire life. It's been almost thirty years since I read it, but I still think about it regularly.

I was gifted a very old copy of "The Wealth of Nations" years ago (see pic below), but like "Candide," it's been a long time since I've read it. But I have read excerpts from it regularly since.


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## The Irishman

As far as Candide goes, I agree, there is something striking about it. I wish I could read it in French but I am not up to that.

I must admit the scale of The Wealth of Nations is daunting. 

However, this is not the first time in my adventures with this reading list that I have listened to a behemoth of 40 hours plus... It just takes a substantial amount of time.


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## Fading Fast

The Irishman said:


> As far as Candide goes, I agree, there is something striking about it. I wish I could read it in French but I am not up to that.
> 
> I must admit the scale of The Wealth of Nations is daunting.
> 
> However, this is not the first time in my adventures with this reading list that I have listened to a behemoth of 40 hours plus... It just takes a substantial amount of time.


I've considered reading "Candide" in French too, but what's stop me is that I'd first have to learn French. 

If "The Wealth of Nations" wasn't an assigned Economic course read, I doubt I'd have ever read it all, but am glad I did. I have read substantial excerpts of it since. It's much more readable than modern economic journals, IMO.


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## The Irishman

So many of the great books are more approachable than might be expected .. Adler suggested it was around the 1920s or so that academics began to write for their peers only. I’m paraphrasing, but I think his point is broadly correct.

I’ve started book 1 of TWON and yes, the discussion of division of labour is very clear.


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## Fading Fast

*Mr. S: My Life with Frank Sinatra* by George Jacobs and William Stadiem

I periodically read books about Frank Sinatra, in part, because the sites I buy books from keep sending me Sinatra-book recommendations as, in truth, I'm not that fascinated with the guy. That said, the books usually engage because the man did have a, well, fascinating life.

This one's written by George Jacobs, Sinatra's "valet" (basically, Sinatra's key personal servant) from 1953 - 1968, so a man who definitely had access to Frank. But, like all these "tell-all" books, it's just another view leaving you to decide how much of it you believe.

There's a lot here in this breezy and fun account that focuses mainly on Frank's personal life - his emotions, drinking, gambling, smoking, whoring and dating (the last two were usually in motion at the same time as Frank's views on fidelity were fluid), all of which were done to an excess worthy of a superstar with all but no financial or moral constraints.

Portrayed here, Frank is a man of many contradictions. He genuinely cared about family but divorced his devoted first wife and was erratically involved in raising his children whom he loved. He wanted to win an best-actor Oscar (he won a supporting-actor one for *From Here to Eternity*), but only took less than half of his acting roles seriously. He sincerely hated racism/antisemitism and showed it in his public support and private actions time and again, but constantly made horribly foul racist/anti-semitic comments in his personal life.

He was capable of great warmth and charity, but could also be violently mean and vindictive, able to carry a grudge with Olympic-style skill and duration. He would ping from highly confident about his abilities to moments of great doubt time and again; although, he was consistently confident (rightfully so) in his voice and singing ability.

And he was massively insecure socially and intellectually as it bothered him that he was only a high-school graduate. Thus, he was constantly looking for acceptance from society types and self-conscious around college-educated adults (doubly so if, like the Kennedys, they had social prominence and an Ivy-league degree). Even his 1960s' hunt for a wife - he bedded half of Hollywood in this quest - was driven by his desire to find "class." Meanwhile, the one seemingly great love of his life - ex-wife Ava Gardner - rejected his decade-plus-long effort to reconcile.

Which leads us to all the big-name people who make an appearance in Frank's world. So, in no particular order, here are the Cliff Notes on each according to Mr. Jacobs (to emphasize, these are his opinions):

Dean Martin - genuinely nice guy, much more stable than Frank
Sammy Davis - Passionately driven to succeed / talents not fully appreciated
Peter Lawford - skinflint, mediocre talent
Yul Brynner - amazingly, cheaper than Lawford
Ava Gardner - As sexy IRL as on the screen, very confident in herself, very down to earth
Marylin Monroe - Hygienically filthy (kinda disgusting), massively insecure, very nice and kind, had sex with many men to, pathologically, prove her worth to herself 
JFK - Good man, treated most people well, would bang almost any woman that moved
Joe Kennedy Senior - Certified baster, bigot, cheater, manipulative and vindictive
RFK - Prig
Mia Farrow - smart, but truly spacey, selfish with a mean streak, ambitious

And a few other "fun" things that spill out of the book: 

Ava Gardner might have delivered two of the best raunchy quotes ever in the recorded history of time. Neither can be written here, but if you want to see them (you've been warned, they are rude) Google:
"ava gardner frank sinatra manhood quote"
"ava gardner frank sinatra mia farrow spectator" (click on The *Spectator's *article "Franks World," you have to read a few paragraphs, but you'll get to Ava's quote about Mia Farrow that starts "Frank always wanted...")



Dean Martin, when he and Frank were nearly fifty and years after Dean had stopped carousing with Frank, came over to Frank's house one morning around 11am for a scheduled meeting about an upcoming movie project. When the front door is opened, Dean sees the living room chockablock with empty booze bottles and filled ashtrays, while six disheveled whores were splayed out sleeping here and there only to be told by author Jacobs that "Frank and the boys" were still asleep. Dean's response to Jacobs: "You'd think they'd be sick of the same old sh*t by now, wouldn't you George?" Can't you just hear Dean's voice, half smirking, saying those words? And as a reader, exhausted at this point from just hearing about all the partying and whoring, you'll all but agree.


Frank did some business with the mob and did "run" with mob bosses socially, but was never in the mob. Contrary to the mob in movies, some people, like Frank, were able to partner at times with the mob without becoming one of them - but of course, being Frank Sinatra probably made this possible. 

There are a bunch more tidbits and anecdotes in this fun and tawdry view into Frank's life. Definitely not the biography if you are either a serious scholar or someone looking for a comprehensive overview, but if mid-century-Hollywood-and-society gossip plus star-ego-driven partying is your thing now and then, *Mr. S: My Life with Frank Sinatra* is a darn good choice.


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## eagle2250

Fading Fast said:


> View attachment 48390
> 
> *Mr. S: My Life with Frank Sinatra* by George Jacobs and William Stadiem
> 
> I periodically read books about Frank Sinatra, in part, because the sites I buy books from keep sending me Sinatra-book recommendations as, in truth, I'm not that fascinated with the guy. That said, the books usually engage because the man did have a, well, fascinating life.
> 
> This one's written by George Jacobs, Sinatra's "valet" (basically, Sinatra's key personal servant) from 1953 - 1968, so a man who definitely had access to Frank. But, like all these "tell-all" books, it's just another view leaving you to decide how much of it you believe.
> 
> There's a lot here in this breezy and fun account that focuses mainly on Frank's personal life - his emotions, drinking, gambling, smoking, whoring and dating (the last two were usually in motion at the same time as Frank's views on fidelity were fluid), all of which were done to an excess worthy of a superstar with all but no financial or moral constraints.
> 
> Portrayed here, Frank is a man of many contradictions. He genuinely cared about family but divorced his devoted first wife and was erratically involved in raising his children whom he loved. He wanted to win an best-actor Oscar (he won a supporting-actor one for *From Here to Eternity*), but only took less than half of his acting roles seriously. He sincerely hated racism/antisemitism and showed it in his public support and private actions time and again, but constantly made horribly foul racist/anti-semitic comments in his personal life.
> 
> He was capable of great warmth and charity, but could also be violently mean and vindictive, able to carry a grudge with Olympic-style skill and duration. He would ping from highly confident about his abilities to moments of great doubt time and again; although, he was consistently confident (rightfully so) in his voice and singing ability.
> 
> And he was massively insecure socially and intellectually as it bothered him that he was only a high-school graduate. Thus, he was constantly looking for acceptance from society types and self-conscious around college-educated adults (doubly so if, like the Kennedys, they had social prominence and an Ivy-league degree). Even his 1960s' hunt for a wife - he bedded half of Hollywood in this quest - was driven by his desire to find "class." Meanwhile, the one seemingly great love of his life - ex-wife Ava Gardner - rejected his decade-plus-long effort to reconcile.
> 
> Which leads us to all the big-name people who make an appearance in Frank's world. So, in no particular order, here are the Cliff Notes on each according to Mr. Jacobs (to emphasize, these are his opinions):
> 
> Dean Martin - genuinely nice guy, much more stable than Frank
> Sammy Davis - Passionately driven to succeed / talents not fully appreciated
> Peter Lawford - skinflint, mediocre talent
> Yul Brynner - amazingly, cheaper than Lawford
> Ava Gardner - As sexy IRL as on the screen, very confident in herself, very down to earth
> Marylin Monroe - Hygienically filthy (kinda disgusting), massively insecure, very nice and kind, had sex with many men to, pathologically, prove her worth to herself
> JFK - Good man, treated most people well, would bang almost any woman that moved
> Joe Kennedy Senior - Certified baster, bigot, cheater, manipulative and vindictive
> RFK - Prig
> Mia Farrow - smart, but truly spacey, selfish with a mean streak, ambitious
> 
> And a few other "fun" things that spill out of the book:
> 
> Ava Gardner might have delivered two of the best raunchy quotes ever in the recorded history of time. Neither can be written here, but if you want to see them (you've been warned, they are rude) Google:
> "ava gardner frank sinatra manhood quote"
> "ava gardner frank sinatra mia farrow spectator" (click on The *Spectator's *article "Franks World," you have to read a few paragraphs, but you'll get to Ava's quote about Mia Farrow that starts "Frank always wanted...")
> 
> 
> 
> Dean Martin, when he and Frank were nearly fifty and years after Dean had stopped carousing with Frank, came over to Frank's house one morning around 11am for a scheduled meeting about an upcoming movie project. When the front door is opened, Dean sees the living room chockablock with empty booze bottles and filled ashtrays, while six disheveled whores were splayed out sleeping here and there only to be told by author Jacobs that "Frank and the boys" were still asleep. Dean's response to Jacobs: "You'd think they'd be sick of the same old sh*t by now, wouldn't you George?" Can't you just hear Dean's voice, half smirking, saying those words? And as a reader, exhausted at this point from just hearing about all the partying and whoring, you'll all but agree.
> 
> 
> Frank did some business with the mob and did "run" with mob bosses socially, but was never in the mob. Contrary to the mob in movies, some people, like Frank, were able to partner at times with the mob without becoming one of them - but of course, being Frank Sinatra probably made this possible.
> 
> There are a bunch more tidbits and anecdotes in this fun and tawdry view into Frank's life. Definitely not the biography if you are either a serious scholar or someone looking for a comprehensive overview, but if mid-century-Hollywood-and-society gossip plus star-ego-driven partying is your thing now and then, *Mr. S: My Life with Frank Sinatra* is a darn good choice.


An exceptional review...it definitely leaves the reader with an unrequited desire to read the book! We always make time for reading a good book.


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## Fading Fast

eagle2250 said:


> An exceptional review...it definitely leaves the reader with an unrequited desire to read the book! We always make time for reading a good book.


It's fun and tawdry. I thoroughly enjoyed it, but literature it ain't.


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## eagle2250

This months community book club selection was Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created The Worlds Most Dangerous Man, written by Mary L. Trump, PH.D. The author is indeed a clinical psychologist, but frankly she does a poor job of separating her personal prejudices from life's realities. Marys father was the first born Trump son and he was named after the family patriarch Fred Trump. Freddy, as he was called, was arguably a troubled child, engaging in a broad variety of activities that many would conclude were the acts of a confirmed juvenile delinquent (drinking/public drunkenness, vandalism/property destruction, vehicle theft and joyriding around the neighborhood, absent any drivers license, etc) and is relegated to the status of "a loser who has not the makings of a first born son. 
The Donald is elevated to the status of the families favored son and Fred's heir apparent, or so says Mary Trump tell us. Donald is groomed by his father, Fred to one day take over the reins of the Trump Management Company and planted the seeds for his misogynistic perspective, his arrogance, his pathological dishonesty and on and on. Marys father, mother, her brother and she were essentially excluded from the Trump family and she is of the opinion that a 20% share of close to a billion dollar inheritance was fraudulently taken from her (Mary's) nuclear family. Many of Dr(?) Trumps conclusions pertaining to The President, may have merit, but this book raises significant questions pertaining to her credibility and authority to reach such conclusions! This book is a fast read and based on sales seems to have captured the public's interest!


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## Fading Fast

*The Human Comedy* by William Saroyan, first published in 1943

_"'The world's gone Mad,' he says. 'In Russia alone, so near our own country, our own beautiful little nation, millions of people, millions of children, every day go hungry. They are cold, pathetic, barefooted - they walk around - no place to sleep - they pray for a piece of dry bread - somewhere to lie down and rest - one night of peaceful sleep. And what about us? What do we do? Here we are in Ithaca, California, in this great country, America. What do we do? We wear good clothes. We put on good shoes every morning when we get up from sleep. We walk around with no one in the streets to come with guns or to burn our houses or to murder our children or brothers or fathers. We take rides out into the country in automobiles. We eat the best food. Every night when we go to bed we sleep - and then what are we? We are discontented. We are still discontented. The grocer shouted this amazing truth at his little son with terrible love for the boy.'"
_
- First generation American grocer to his son, but really, to no one in particular

*The Human Comedy* is a slice of life from America's home front during WWII. Ithaca California represents America in this tale imbued with spirituality and religion tempered by skeptical pragmatism. Much less a story than a series of related vignettes, we see life in this town, mainly through the preternaturally observant and pensive fourteen-year-old Homer Macauley who just started working as a messenger for one of the two telegraph companies in town.

And the telegraph office offers Homer a shortcut to all of life's ups and downs as celebratory new-born-announcement telegrams come in as do U.S. Military ones notifying a family of a son's, husband's or father's death. The telegraph's dispassionate beeps become words on paper which become messages of the human comedy, that, upon delivery, Homer quickly learns results in a welter of emotions.

Homer grows up fast in this job. But he also grows up just observing and participating in life like when his slightly older sister begins to show interest in boys as a few soldiers on leave spontaneously take her and a girlfriend to the movies. And he grows up just a bit more when a high school coach plays obvious favorites in a track event dispelling the notion that all adults are honest, virtuous and promote fair play.

Regular life in the community also goes by. Boys swim in the nearby lake, play pickup games of baseball, tease a bit, but also protect (what today we'd call) a mentally challenged boy - children can be alternately cruel and kind. Games of horseshoes get played, apricots get "stolen" from a neighbor's tree (the tree's owner loves that the boys do this), while Cokes get drunk and lemon pies get eaten.

Homer's four year old brother - who is given free rein in the town (his good and loving mother for the times would be in jail today on child-abuse charges) - takes joy in waving to the men on passing trains (hurt when they don't wave back, ebullient when they do) or watching his brother work at the telegraph office or his mother hanging clothes out to dry.

With Homer's older brother, whom he worships, away at war, Homer connects the tragedy of the telegrams he delivers to the fear his mother feels and he begins to feel. But the family carries on enjoying dinners, playing piano and singing together or just walking into town to run errands.

Homer's boss is a wealthy young man who manages the telegraph office out of a passion for the business not a need to work He introduces Homer to the economics of business, the nuances of relationships - will he marries his pushing-for-a-proposal girlfriend - and respect for the elderly as Homer and his boss take care of the old telegraph operator, a functioning alcoholic who's been kinda broken by life.

Homer has a crush on the pretty girl at school, irrationally acts out at another boy she shows interest in, stirs the pot in class and then genuinely apologizes to the teacher. He inconsistently practices for the community's annual big running competition, races around town like mad on his bicycle and ignores injuries, rightfully confident in his adolescent body's ability to heal itself. Basically, Homer is a fourteen-year-old boy.

Meanwhile, back at his job, Homer sorta discovers the town brothel when he delivers a telegram to one of "the girls." Separately, he also intuitively and kindly plays surrogate son for an hour to a mother who just learned, from a telegram Homer delivered, that her own son was killed in the war.

Harvests come, prisoners from the local jail take exercise in the town square, the hardware store gets in a newly invented trap for catching animals that proceeds to trap only Homer's four-year-old brother, the telegraph office gets held up, the wonderfully name Mary Arena, Homer's away-at-war brother's girlfriend, becomes a de facto part of Homer's family and on it goes.

There's no plot other than real life moving forward for the year or so the book covers. But you feel the 1940s, the home front, Ithaca, California, people, life, goodness, decency, some mendacity, a little corruption and people's hope, dreams and fears - you feel America during World War II. You also feel, as the quote above avers, a materially fortunate America, with many of its men fighting overseas, a bit discontent, but soldiering on. Taking it all in, you feel in Saroyan's book - just gotta say it - the human comedy that is life.


----------



## The Irishman

Listening to 'The wealth of nations'. I'm at a section where Smith discusses why it will always be easier for 'masters' to organise in comparison to workers around labour conditions, profits etc. Still feels quite contemporary. 

In terms of reading I have finished 'Candide' and now about to start on Samuel Johnson's 'The Lives of the Poets'.


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## Fading Fast

*The Divine Miss Marble: A Life of Tennis, Fame and Mystery* by Robert Weintraub

Alice Marble might be the most-famous twentieth-century athlete that almost no one today has heard of. She is a tennis great with a long list of 1930s National titles who, also, sang at famous nighclubs and on the radio, overcame tuberculosis in the middle of her career, was bi-sexual when it was neither chic nor easy, edited early _Wonder Woman_ comics and boldly used her fame and pen to open tennis up for black athletes. Oh, and she might have been a spy in World War II.

But before all that, Alice Marble was born in 1913 into a hardscrabble Northern California farming family who fortunately moved to San Francisco when Alice was six, thus giving her exposure and access to municipal tennis courts. However, even prior to taking up her life-defining game, her preternatural athletic skills revealed themselves early as, by fourteen, tomboy Alice was shagging practice flies for the local professional baseball team the San Francisco Seals.

But it was on those pedestrian city-sponsored tennis courts where Alice found her future in an amateur sport that favored wealthy kids with early access to good equipment, courts, coaching and sponsorship. All things that young Alice lacked.

A book could be written about the craziness, at least to our modern-day perspective, of amateur sports. While it might sound noble on paper - athletes pursuing excellence for the love of the game, not money - the most salient feature of amateur sports is that it keeps the money away from the athletes who generate it. So even superstar amateur athletes, unless independently wealthy, need to scrounge for sponsorship and outside work.

During her career, Alice wound up with an interestingly eclectic but uncertain mix of sponsorship and work that ran the gamut from occasionally being her coach's secretary to a modestly successful effort as a nightclub and radio singer owing to her genuine vocal talent and tennis stardom. That she headlined at the Waldorf Hotel in New York City, when that was a thing, tells you she had some singing chops to compliment her tennis fame.

But she only achieved that tennis fame, like every elite athlete, by overcoming several obstacles with some combination of arrant grit, passionate drive, out-sized talent and timely serendipity. And Alice had more than her share of obstacles - lack of funds, lack of coaching, lack of guidance and a crushing early career illness (the aforementioned tuberculosis). But she did have an, overall, supportive family with older brothers who, despite limited means themselves, early on came through with funds at critical times as did, later, wealthy sponsors and her coach.

And it is that coach who proved to be the single biggest obstacle smasher and life-impacting deus ex machina for Alice. Eighteen years her senior and a former tennis star herself, Eleanor "Teach" Tennant became Alice's tennis coach, life instructor and maybe lover.

They met in 1932 when Alice, after some losses in prestigious east-coast tennis events, realized she needed a coach to take her game to the next level. And as with all good relationships, Tennant saw an equally auspicious opportunity in Alice as the athlete she could coach to reach the pinnacle of tennis, which would also drive more top-tier students Tennant's way.

Under Tennant's tutelage, Alice's career took off. Author Weintraub does a serviceable job of taking us on the journey of Alice's playing career, including her initial defeats on the East Coast - the locus of U.S. tennis then - her nearly career-ending bout with and recovery from tuberculosis followed by her success at the sport's highest venues and events. Those heights saw Alice win eighteen National titles (the equivalent of Grand Slam titles today), including five singles titles, two of those at Wimbledon.

On her way up, owing to some connections of Tennant, her rising fame, blonde good looks and bi-sexuality, Alice, like many athletes today, found herself hobnobbing with that era's Hollywood royalty including power couple Clark Gable and Carol Lombard at famous glitterati retreats like San Simeon and Palm Springs. Perhaps not crucial to her career - although Gable and Lombard became good friends providing timely emotional support for Alice - the exposure to that world is fun for Alice and the reader.

But with World War II breaking out and shutting down most international tennis competition, and after two years of completely dominating amateur women's tennis, Alice turned pro to, finally, earn some money at a career that had provided her with fame but no wealth. And Alice made good money, effectively, barnstorming around the country playing exhibition matches with a few other well-known amateur-turned-pro athletes.

Alice then spent her war years doing some sponsorships, some radio announcing and a lot of selfless fund raising for the war effort. She tried to join the "women" branches, but her former tuberculosis made her medically ineligible.

Toward the end of the war and quite dramatically, Alice either did or did not perform a spy mission for the US government which involved going to Switzerland to revive an old romantic relationship with a Swiss banker now controlling money for bigwig Nazis. She either did or did not sleep with him to gain access to his files so that she could obtain photographic evidence. Finally, she either did or did not get shot trying to escape with that evidence at night, during a high-speed chase on a dark and winding Swiss road.

In one of her biographies, Alice tells this incredibly gripping tale in believable fashion, but author Weintraub is unable to produce almost any supporting evidence leaving this reader leaning toward disbelief but open to new evidence being found. Also hurting Alice's credibility here, and in general, is a penchant for exaggeration and fabrications that makes you suspicious of this and other of Alice's claims.

Also during the war and continuing for many years after, Alice had a long running affair with wealthy scion William Du Pont - he wanted to marry, she didn't - that provided her with often-needed financial support and high-level connections. There's nothing inherently wrong with this, assuming they were honest with each other, but as a feminist icon, this is not Ms. Marble's most ennobling and independent act.

Away from that and following the war itself, Alice's activities included traveling the country giving inspirational speeches, performing tennis exhibitions, coaching young players, doing radio work and writing columns and articles. Her writing efforts included some editing work on the early _Wonder Woman_ comic strip and typing scripts for Rod Serling of _The Twilight Zone_ fame.

Somehow or other, Alice touched many twentieth-century cultural icons in her long and atypical life. But it was one article she penned - really an editorial - that changed the game of tennis, the life of Althea Gibson and showed Alice at her moral and fighting best.

After the American Tennis Association, in 1950, rejected Althea Gibson's application to play at the Nationals on a technicality, but effectively, because she was black, Alice wrote a powerful and scathing pro-Gibson editorial. In *American Lawn Tennis*, "the bible of the sport," Alice passionately, logically and morally argued on behalf of Ms. Gibson's application challenging the sport of tennis to live up to its own ideals and accept players of all races. This editorial broke the dam leading to Gibson and other black players competing in American Tennis Association events.

As the fifties and sixties moved along, Alice's name faded (but, fortunately, Du Pont's necessary-to-Alice's-lifestyle money did not) and her health deteriorated, but she kept active and even managed a doctor's office for a while - there's little this woman didn't do. And by the seventies and eighties, with her health declining further and with not much more to live on than the modest income from a trust set up by the now-deceased Du Pont, Alice struggled to make ends meet. She lived the final years of her life in a nondescript home in Palm Desert California, with the sport she loved occasionally remembering her with an award or ceremony.

The best biographies read like novels while transporting you to an almost different world. *Seabiscuit* by Laura Hillenbrand and *The Greatest Game Ever Played* by Mark Frost are two outstanding biographies of athletes that do this: they entwine their subject in his or her (or the horse's) cultural, social, economic and political zeitgeist. You almost forget that you're reading a biography as those books take you to another time and place.

*The Divine Miss Marble: A Life of Tennis, Fame and Mystery* doesn't do this as many parts read like a very thoughtful and well-researched straight timeline of Alice's life where the surrounding cultural, political and social context is competently noted, but not seamlessly weaved into Alice's world. Notwithstanding its limitations, it is still an outstanding recounting of one of the twentieth-century's top athletes and all-around charismatic figures.


----------



## The Irishman

Starting a Penguin abridged edition of Edward Gibbon's 'The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'.

Goddam, Gibbon could write...


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## Fading Fast

The Irishman said:


> Starting a Penguin abridged edition of Edward Gibbon's 'The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'.
> 
> Goddam, Gibbon could write...


Read it many, many years ago during my "Roman Empire" period - I think you'll enjoy it.


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## Oldsarge

_Tales of the Ant World,_ E. O. Wilson.


----------



## Fading Fast

*Our Man in Havana* by Graham Greene published in 1958

A tired, middle-aged British expat living in Cuba whose wife left him with a charmingly willful and crafty daughter to raise is running a struggling vacuum cleaner dealership. And now, with his daughter's expenses increasing as she gets older, he is all but unable to make ends meet until fate drops an opportunity in his lap.

If left alone, James Wormold would be content to pass away his time licking his marital and career wounds in Havana, while raising his daughter. But that daughter wields her Catholic faith (he's a lapsed Protestant or "pagan" as she calls him) and forceful temperament like a weapon to coax and guilt what she wants out of him. Unfortunately, her victories have him sliding toward bankruptcy. Hence, when he's approached by Britain's MI6 to be "their man in Havana," his initial resistance breaks down as the additional income from spying looks appealing.

The problem is he has no background and receives all but no training from MI6 in espionage, so he does what any reasonable, amoral, modestly desperate but creative man would do, he makes up a network of spies versus actually doing the real work to recruit them.

This is the book's perfect moment: a life-weary vacuum cleaner dealer with a charmingly manipulative and spendthrift daughter discovers a talent for taking bits and pieces from local newspapers, government economic statistics and Havana's social registry to create a convincing network of non-existent spies that delivers fake reports so credible that the home office is impressed.

And that also becomes the problem. His "information" and "network" are viewed as being so good in the eyes of his superiors that MI6 sends him more resources, including a secretary and radio man. His small office quickly becomes quite crowded making it hard for him to "create" his reports with, in particular, his new, smart and attractive secretary trying to organize his efforts and, even, become the contact for his ersatz network. Effectively, it's hard to find time to file fake reports from your fake network when your new staff wants to meet your non-existent real network and file real reports.

Amping everything up, both the Havana government and the USSR get interested in his activities as they, too, believe his efforts are real; ironically, they believe because MI6 believes. Okay, so our humble vacuum cleaner dealer finds himself in the middle of a cold-war spy battle over his whole-cloth network. And when things start to get serious - midnight chases, assassination attempts, actual murders, threatened torture, you know, real spy stuff - he can't easily back out as no one believes him when he tells them he made everything up.

Because spies operate in a covert world of lies and deception, his "I made this all up" confession appears to everyone else like just another machination from the brilliant British spymaster in Havana. Throw in a local police chief trying to court Wormold's daughter while also investigating Wormold's covert activities, and Wormold's own budding affair with his secretary, who's beginning to get suspicious of him, and the entire gambit starts to unravel as the book races to a conclusion. And we'll leave it there as you'll want the end to be a surprise.

As a fan of Graham Greene's complex stories that have this reader, usually, a little lost for a while, it's nice to read one of his lighter efforts. Despite being just that, it still has all of Greene's usual wit and canny observations, especially of human wants and foibles, but without requiring the reader to regularly thumb back pages to figure out what the heck is going on.

Some hard-core Greene fans dismiss *Our Man in Havana* as "entertainment," but, one, what's wrong with that and, two, it's also satire that exposes the arrogance and insularity of several countries' intelligence efforts. Either way, it's a fun, well-written, quick page turner that also gives you a contemporary feel for both the Cold War's intelligence game and pre-communist Cuba.


----------



## eagle2250

Fading Fast said:


> View attachment 49776
> 
> *Our Man in Havana* by Graham Greene published in 1958
> 
> A tired, middle-aged British expat living in Cuba whose wife left him with a charmingly willful and crafty daughter to raise is running a struggling vacuum cleaner dealership. And now, with his daughter's expenses increasing as she gets older, he is all but unable to make ends meet until fate drops an opportunity in his lap.
> 
> If left alone, James Wormold would be content to pass away his time licking his marital and career wounds in Havana, while raising his daughter. But that daughter wields her Catholic faith (he's a lapsed Protestant or "pagan" as she calls him) and forceful temperament like a weapon to coax and guilt what she wants out of him. Unfortunately, her victories have him sliding toward bankruptcy. Hence, when he's approached by Britain's MI6 to be "their man in Havana," his initial resistance breaks down as the additional income from spying looks appealing.
> 
> The problem is he has no background and receives all but no training from MI6 in espionage, so he does what any reasonable, amoral, modestly desperate but creative man would do, he makes up a network of spies versus actually doing the real work to recruit them.
> 
> This is the book's perfect moment: a life-weary vacuum cleaner dealer with a charmingly manipulative and spendthrift daughter discovers a talent for taking bits and pieces from local newspapers, government economic statistics and Havana's social registry to create a convincing network of non-existent spies that delivers fake reports so credible that the home office is impressed.
> 
> And that also becomes the problem. His "information" and "network" are viewed as being so good in the eyes of his superiors that MI6 sends him more resources, including a secretary and radio man. His small office quickly becomes quite crowded making it hard for him to "create" his reports with, in particular, his new, smart and attractive secretary trying to organize his efforts and, even, become the contact for his ersatz network. Effectively, it's hard to find time to file fake reports from your fake network when your new staff wants to meet your non-existent real network and file real reports.
> 
> Amping everything up, both the Havana government and the USSR get interested in his activities as they, too, believe his efforts are real; ironically, they believe because MI6 believes. Okay, so our humble vacuum cleaner dealer finds himself in the middle of a cold-war spy battle over his whole-cloth network. And when things start to get serious - midnight chases, assassination attempts, actual murders, threatened torture, you know, real spy stuff - he can't easily back out as no one believes him when he tells them he made everything up.
> 
> Because spies operate in a covert world of lies and deception, his "I made this all up" confession appears to everyone else like just another machination from the brilliant British spymaster in Havana. Throw in a local police chief trying to court Wormold's daughter while also investigating Wormold's covert activities, and Wormold's own budding affair with his secretary, who's beginning to get suspicious of him, and the entire gambit starts to unravel as the book races to a conclusion. And we'll leave it there as you'll want the end to be a surprise.
> 
> As a fan of Graham Greene's complex stories that have this reader, usually, a little lost for a while, it's nice to read one of his lighter efforts. Despite being just that, it still has all of Greene's usual wit and canny observations, especially of human wants and foibles, but without requiring the reader to regularly thumb back pages to figure out what the heck is going on.
> 
> Some hard-core Greene fans dismiss *Our Man in Havana* as "entertainment," but, one, what's wrong with that and, two, it's also satire that exposes the arrogance and insularity of several countries' intelligence efforts. Either way, it's a fun, well-written, quick page turner that also gives you a contemporary feel for both the Cold War's intelligence game and pre-communist Cuba.


A great review, as always. The details are fed to the reader of the review at an accelerating pace, securing the readers interest and imprisoning his/her mind with the details of the story...and then it stops, with we readers literally begging to be fed the details of the books conclusion and left with no other option than to acquire and read the book! Quoting the great cartoon character Snoopy, "Curse you, Red Baron!" :crazy:

PS: Great work...looking forward to the next one.


----------



## Fading Fast

eagle2250 said:


> A great review, as always. The details are fed to the reader of the review at an accelerating pace, securing the readers interest and imprisoning his/her mind with the details of the story...and then it stops, with we readers literally begging to be fed the details of the books conclusion and left with no other option than to acquire and read the book! Quoting the great cartoon character Snoopy, "Curse you, Red Baron!" :crazy:
> 
> PS: Great work...looking forward to the next one.


Thank you for your kind comments.

It really is a fun, quick read, but being a Graham Greene book, it still offers more than the average page turner. I think you'll enjoy it.

"Eagle, if you need my help, I'm here for you." Your pal, Snoopy








Snoopy as a WWI fighter ace is one of the best things about "Peanuts."


----------



## The Irishman

I'm halfway through Gibbon's 'Decline and fall' and still really enjoying it. Some remarkable turns of phrase. Truly this is among the best prose ever committed to the page.

I'm also listening to an audiobook of The Federalist Papers, which I have to say is fascinating and also rife with interesting insights.

Madison wrote this, which really stuck with me from a few days ago:-



> Hearken not to the unnatural voice which tells you that the people of America, knit together as they are by so many cords of affection, can no longer live together as members of the same family; can no longer continue the mutual guardians of their mutual happiness; can no longer be fellow citizens of one great, respectable, and flourishing empire. [...] No, my countrymen, shut your ears against this unhallowed language. Shut your hearts against the poison which it conveys; the kindred blood which flows in the veins of American citizens, the mingled blood which they have shed in defense of their sacred rights, consecrate their Union, and excite horror at the idea of their becoming aliens, rivals, enemies.


Later, Hamilton talks about the tempests which sometimes spring up and afflict a republic. I did think it interesting that he talks about the inevitability of popular 'paroxysms' which could burn hot and take in fair-sized segments of the population.


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## Fading Fast

*The Second Happiest Day* by John Phillips published in 1953

Somebody, I'm not saying who, has a weakness for soap-opera-style novels from the fifties. This same somebody thinks the fifties was the peak period for this genre as, afterwards, it descended into excess as all the cultural guardrails came off causing storytelling to suffered as gratuituous sex increased.

But fear not, as the fifties was chockablock with saponaceous tales of family intrigue, illicit affairs, inter-generational fighting, backstabbing frenemies, old secrets being revealed, dirty business deals and societal hypocrisy: you know, all the lurid stuff that makes a good soap-opera novel so much fun. Standing proud as a wonderful example of this genre, but little known today, is *The Second Happiest Day*.

And in *The Second Happiest Day*, author Phillips brings us into the world of upper-class, old-line, Eastern Establishment money, power and society through the eyes of an outsider allowed an insider's look. Gus Taylor, a "townie" and orphan adopted by his well-bred-but-of-modest-means aunt and uncle, enters that elite world via a scholarship to a fictional New England prep school (think Groton) allowing him to live and study with boys from wealthy and influential families.

Though, before we learn that history, Phillips starts the story near the end where we meet an in-his-mid-twenties Gus on his way to a former prep-school friend's wedding.

Here, in New York City, at the snooty Water Club, we are introduced to many of Gus' friends and acquaintances and learn that there is a lot of subtext to all these relationships: nicknames that still have the ability to hurt, financial and moral debts that haven't been repaid, affairs that haven't been forgiven and plenty of resentments, slights and grudges (like a broken nose from an aggressive game of prep-school football, fifteen years ago) still smouldering.

At the center of it all is Gus' relationship with the affable, born-to-money George Marsh who becomes Gus' best friend in prep school. In George, Gus sees a person he'd like to be and a world he'd like to enter; whereas, George, always trying to please others, sees in Gus simply someone he hopes will be a good friend for life.

Okay, you get the set up and can probably guess a lot that will happen - deep friendships form at boarding school, awkward introductions to parents occur where money and background differences are apparent, then, as the boys mature, girls come into the picture and, finally, it's off to college, the Ivies of course. All along, Gus is the "outsider" "accepted" by the others, in particular, George, who has a preternatural need to be everyone's friend. But below the surface, everyone knows, and no one more than Gus, that he's not of that world.

The next real turn in the boys' lives starts when girls become a bigger part of the story as George's girl, Lila Noris - from an "old money" Sutton Place family, but with an atypical businesswoman mother - becomes a close friend of Gus' as well. And just when everyone is about to start his or her adult life, WWII intervenes, providing another opportunity for money, class and connections to drive wedges and determine outcomes in lives and relationships.

Gus and George both survive the war without physical injuries and with respectable war records, but with some friends lost and everyone edgier and feeling like they are behind in real life. For Gus, it's off to law school as he sporadically tries to extricate himself from the upper-class social world he loves, but cannot afford. For George, it's a series of career starts that never stick (the problem is he already has enough money), but his real goal is to convince the always-hesitant-to-commit Lila to finally agree to marry him.

And after much cajoling (a big red flag to any potential suitor), Lila, at last, consents to an engagement with George, but she won't set a date. So, George goes hither and yon in search of a career (Texas - oil, Connecticut - farming, Europe - ideas and connections), while Lila ponders her future, too often, on Gus' shoulder.

And this is where all the threads of the story come together. Will Lila marry George, the safe bet of money marrying money from the same "class?" Or will she call an audible, break her engagement and pursue a risky relationship with what has become, in George's absence, her (yup) friend-with-benefits Gus? Will Gus and George's friendship be able to withstand a Brutus-level backstabbing? Will Gus even be able to stay in the world of money and social connections he loves, but has never truly belonged in? Will poor-little-rich-boy George be able to stabilize his aimless life if Gus and Lila abandon him?

Along with some other subplots centered around parental betrayal, alcoholism and shockingly immature middle-aged adults,* The Second Happiest Day* is about to wrap up, so we'll stop here and leave its final plot surprises unrevealed. I warned you at the beginning that it is a soap opera, and a darn fine one, but no one will mistake it for great literature.

However, beyond being well-done, albeit, tawdry entertainment, the book is also a wonderful time capsule of an elite slice of America just before and after World War II. Be it prep schools, Ivy colleges, clubs, cars, attitudes about sex, drinking or business - Wall Street in particular - *The Second Happiest Day* provides a revealingly contemporaneous look at the Eastern Establishment during the peak of its power.


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## Dhaller

The Irishman said:


> I'm halfway through Gibbon's 'Decline and fall' and still really enjoying it. Some remarkable turns of phrase. Truly this is among the best prose ever committed to the page.
> 
> I'm also listening to an audiobook of The Federalist Papers, which I have to say is fascinating and also rife with interesting insights.
> 
> Madison wrote this, which really stuck with me from a few days ago:-
> 
> Later, Hamilton talks about the tempests which sometimes spring up and afflict a republic. I did think it interesting that he talks about the inevitability of popular 'paroxysms' which could burn hot and take in fair-sized segments of the population.


I am constantly amazed at how the "essentials" of The American Character were already set as early as the 18th century.

Reading de Tocqueville confers a similar sensation: _wait, this was written almost 200 years ago?_

DH


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## Fading Fast

*World War II Nebraska* by Melissa Amateis published in 2020

As noted in the preface by author Melissa Amateis, *World War II Nebraska* is a blend of academic and popular history serving as a brief overview of Nebraska's activities and accomplishments during the war years.

It is a niche book that wonderfully helps fill a gap in popular history as it sits between the overarching war-strategy books and big-personality biographies of giants like Churchill on one side and the personal-account stories of the footsoldier, cryptographer at Bletchley, the spy who helped save D-Day, etc., on the other.

In all those different accounts, we are often told, almost as an aside, that the "home front mobilized" or "war production output increased while civilians pitched in with scrap drives and victory gardens," but the focus is elsewhere. In those books, the home front's "mundane" efforts are, frequently, all but taken for granted.

But here, in *World War II Nebraska*, we learn what really happened on the home front in, yes, Nebraska, but also, by proxy, much of the middle of the country. We see that all those planes that bombed Germany and Japan came about as factories and airfields were built with breakneck speed near cities and towns across "flat" and "interior" (safe from enemy bombing) states like Nebraska. And not only were factories for planes built, but Nebraska was the sight of several ammunition and ordnance plants: For the bombers to be effective, they need to have something to drop out of them that goes boom.

And while all the academic numbers and research are here, Amateis personalizes the stories as we see how some farmers were all but cheated out of their land (needed for airstrips and factories) by low-ball government bids. We also learn that rents often skyrocketed owing to the influx of workers as worker shortages were addressed by the "importation" of labor - including women and minorities - from other states, as well as, the utilization of prison and (yup) prisoner-of-war labor.

The ugliness of segregation of the armed forces is here, too, including even separate USOs and other recreational facilities for black and white servicemen. And, of course, with soldiers and airmen coming to the bases, venereal diseases spiked in the general population, despite all the military's efforts, including films and educational material for the troops, to prevent it.

But good also came to Nebraska in economic growth, new friendships and the incredible North Platte Canteen that welcomed and fed, solely from donations and volunteer work, soldiers passing through on trains. Nebraska was also home to a ground-breaking military-dog-training program. Additionally and wonderfully, several POWs - so taken with Nebraska and the USA - chose, after being sent home following the war, to immigrate to Nebraska.

In an inspiring section, we learn about notable Nebraskans whose individual efforts stood out even in a war, a moment in history and a generation marked by impressive personal sacrifice, courage and achievement. One stirring example is Nebraskan-born Ben Kuroki of Japanese descent who pushed against racial prejudice to be allowed to fight for his country. Pause on that for a moment: A man experiencing ugly racism in his own country still fought for and won the right to - what? - potentially die in combat defending a country that was humiliating him and relocating, to internment camps, many of his fellow Japanese-American countrymen.

And Kuroki not only won the right to join the military, he won the right to fly combat missions as a tail gunner over both Germany and Japan. There is nothing more complexly American in WWII than a Japanese American man having to fight for the right to join a B-29 crew to participate in bombing runs over Japan. We should never stop pushing against prejudice and racism, but one doubts that today's absolutist views could produce a man such as Kuroki who could balance the good and bad of his country with such dignity and purpose.

Lastly, we learn about Nebraska's prodigious agricultural output that helped to feed, not only American civilians and servicemen, but also, the United State's allies in war-ravaged Europe. Nebraska's excess farm labor and food output of the 1930s, which depressed wages and crop prices throughout that decade, became shortages of labor in WWII, as men enlisted, moved to cities or went to work in war factories, while increased food demand drove crop prices higher.

Yes, you want to read *World War II Nebraska* for its academic bona fides, its unique home-front perspective and its inspiring stories of small and large sacrifices and struggles. But you also want to read it so that the next time you're in the middle of a traditional World War II book that elides the contributions made on the home front, you will understand the depth of civilian commitment, focus, effort and patriotism that made the home front, in Nebraska and, by inference, the rest of the country, the backbone of those overseas WWII victories that are celebrated to this day.


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## Fading Fast

*B.F.'s Daughter* by John P MarQuand originally published in 1946

"Nobody cares about a girl on a yacht." - Tom Brett to Polly Fulton

*B.F.'s Daughter* examines this statement as we follow the life of a young girl, Polly Fulton, the daughter of a wealthy industrialist. Born into a world of money - big houses, chauffeurs, maids, private schools, etc. - in the Depression, Polly struggles to create her own identity and space in a world that maybe doesn't care that much about a girl on a metaphorical yacht.

A just-out-of-college Polly shocks her father, a self-made man with a kind heart, an endless interest in everything and a personality that just takes over if allowed, by breaking her engagement to Bob Tasmin, a born-to-a-good-family, up-and-coming lawyer who is also a nice guy and sincerely in love with Polly, to marry a left-wing teacher and writer, Tom Brett.

Why does Polly do this? She doesn't even really know herself, but somehow "feels" that life has been made too easy for her and that Tom - good with words, but not people or life - will need her more than Bob, which will give her life real meaning. We'll see shortly how that works out.

And if you think this is going to be a book about capitalism versus socialism or even about a dominating industrialist versus a radical intellectual, as I thought at first, you'll realize later on that their roles here are to provide antipodes for Polly to measure herself against. To that end, the book takes a reasonably balanced view of both men: a refreshing approach in what is usually a world, then and now, that makes one all good and one all evil.

But back to our girl on the yacht, um, Polly. Despite her stated willingness to renounce her father's money, both she and (surprisingly) Tom accept the generous allowance her dad gives her upon her marriage, which Polly uses to support Tom in a very comfortable lifestyle while he goes on fighting for the working class. Polly likes saying she doesn't care about money, but she seems to enjoy having it. After several good years of married life, we find Tom as a bigwig "New Dealer" in Washington before and during WWII with Polly in New York always waiting for Tom to come home.

Fed up with waiting, the book climaxes as Polly goes to Washington to spend a weekend with Tom where we see how strained their relationship has become. Tom's needs and selfishness now grate on Polly, while her smothering desire to "help" him drives him away. It's a marriage where no one is all right or all wrong, but you know it's on the rocks. Another big blow comes when Polly learns that Tom has been having an affair.

And as Polly learns, it is not a fling, but a long-term relationship where - and this crushes Polly - Tom finds comfort in a frumpy secretary who idolizes him. Simultaneously, Polly runs into her former fiancé, the now-married Bob Tasmin, an Army planner based in Washington.

A decade after she broke their engagement, Polly now sees Bob's quiet, inherent decency and character as qualities she too casually dismissed years ago for Tom's fiery passion and needy personality. But as Bob tells her, she needed to marry Tom for herself even if her marriage is failing and even if, and here Polly takes another blow, she's at fault for smothering Tom in her world of luxury, which undermined Tom's sense of self worth.

That's a lot for Polly to unpack as she decides whether to fight for her marriage or move on. And we'll leave that outcome for those who want to read the book. But what about the girl on the yacht and do we care? Author Marquand argues we should, but you'll have to decide for yourself if the problems of this not-her-fault spoiled rich girl struggling with life, but always having a safety net of money to fall back into, are worth caring about.

N.B., I found my way to the book via the movie version of *B.F.'s Daughter *(comments here:  #434  ), which, owing to the Motion Picture Production Code, changed or palliated so much of the story that I sought out the book knowing there had to be a better story buried under the movie's limitations - and there was. And both the well-written book and engaging movie are a fun enough time capsule of a small slice of the '30s and '40s to be worth the effort.


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## Oldsarge

I just started _Kindred _by Rebecca Sykes, a summery of everything we think we know about the Neanderthal folk. Beautifully, wittily written.


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## Vecchio Vespa

Every several books I go back and revisit books that deserved more time and attention when I was a student. This time I added a wrinkle, trying two very different books at the same time. So right now I am reading Women in Love (D.H. Lawrence) and Naked Lunch (William Burroughs). This Lawrence more than others is dense as poetry. I cannot believe I used to devour things like those books along with maybe some Milton and a bunch of critical materials at the same time and in the course of about a week!


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## ChrisRS

The Price of Peace: Money, Democracy and the life of John Maynard Keynes. 600 pages of monetary and fiscal policy, complicated legacy searching for philosophical evolution.


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## Fading Fast

*The Mouse in the Mountain *by Nobert Davis first published in 1943

At one-hundred-and-fifty not-dense pages, this "hard-boiled" detective fiction packs a lot of story, character development, action and dog into its crisply told tale.

Chubby and affable private detective Doan and his small-horse-sized Great Dane Carstairs are staying at a tourist hotel in Mexico in 1943. Why, we don't know, but the immediate goal is for Doan - with Carstairs, naturally - and several of the "tourists" to take a day trip to the remote village of Los Altos.

Shepherded by their Mexican bus driver and tour guide - and his syntax-challenged English - the trip begins hesitantly as the rag-tag collection of tourists amble onto the bus. An arguing father-mother-daughter American family debate going, while a young and attractive heiress with her swarthy gigolo and ancient maid pretentiously board. Thrown into this mix is a young, cute school teacher who fell in love with the history of Mexico and Los Altos from her studies, and off we go.

After an arduous trip, the group arrives in the village where Doan has to immediately shoot an armed man seemingly attacking the group as they alight from the bus. From here, their time spent in Los Altos - extended owing to an earthquake collapsing the one access and egress bridge - is one of murders, police arrests and, seemingly, random violence amidst many clues but mainly confusion.

Smart readers will probably pick up the tells along the way, but most readers (like this one) will just let the story unfold having realized early on that they aren't going to figure it out ahead of time. It's a complex tale that weaves in three centuries of Mexican history, Nazis, drug dealers, the mob, American political corruption, local intrigue, power struggles, art forgery and family feuds. As noted, a lot of story is packed into this short book.

And while the impressively complex but tight (when revealed at the end) plot is engaging, the book's charm comes from its quirky and nuanced characters led by Doan. Short, stocky and mildly pleasant looking, this seemingly amiable and effacing man has a searing wit and preternatural ability to cut through lies and connect disparate clues. This brings no end of frustration to the Mexican police trying to sweep unpleasant facts under the rug while pinning the blame for every murder and theft on Doan.

In addition to Doan's cerebral talents, he has surprisingly quick reflexes and masterful skills with guns, knives and other random weapons. And helping him at every turn is languid, but whip-smart Carstairs who seems to know when action is needed or when Doan is going to drink too much, of which Carstairs deeply but ineffectively disapproves.

As in any good detective story, few of the characters are who they first appear to be - the arguing American family being the exception - as secrets are revealed and true personalities and pasts are exposed. And the story takes so many twists and turns that you're proud just to be keeping up. But the book's joy comes from its humanity - driven by a chubby detective with a personal morality that might not exactly align to your or my values, but that you respect for its consistent application. Plus you have to love his loyal but criticizing dog.

*The Mouse in the Mountain* does not rise above its hard-boiled-detective genre, but it is an outstanding entry in this noirish corner of literature. And the really good news, it's one in a series of four Donan and Carstairs novels.


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## bengee

Just finished Jean Edward Smith's bio of FDR, and starting his bio of Eisenhower; both fascinating....

After Ike , will read Bremer's bio of John Winthrop.....


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## Fading Fast

*Forever and a Day* by Anthony Horowitz published in 2018

Apparently (I Googled it), there are forty "officially licensed" James Bond books: the first fourteen by Ian Fleming and the rest by reasonably well-known authors. I had already read a couple of the more recent efforts, *Devil May Care* by Sebastain Faulks and *Trigger Mortis* by Anthony Horowitz, and found them entertaining but somewhat uninspired. So, it was with modest expectations that I gave Horowtiz's more-recent attempt, *Forever and a Day,* a try.

I was nicely surprised. Set in the early fifties, the book opens by showing how James Bond became a Double-0 agent. Not being steeped in all the Bond lore, I don't know if this is consistent with the Bond canon, but it's fascinating to see the process at MI6 for how an agent gets elevated to the esteemed and rarefied position of Double-0. Horowitz handles it very well even taking us through Bond's first day on the new job and his first meeting with M as a Double-0. Oh, and we learn how Bond got the actual 007 number.

After all that fun inside-Bond stuff - including his first time bantering with Moneypenny - the story takes a more predictable path as it must, but Horowitz continues to personalize Bond. In his first assignment as a Double-0, we see a "rookie" Bond investigating the murder of a Double-0 agent (Bond's his replacement) that took place on the southern coast of France.

But instead of outsized action-adventure sequences at the start, we see Bond more as a smart detective following the former path of the murdered agent and hunting down small clues. It's been awhile since I've read any of the original Fleming books, but from memory, it felt more like those where the story built up logically and, somewhat, believably.

And as other characters are introduced, a not-Felix-Leiter CIA agent and a mysterious female agent provocateur, Madame 16, Bond's relationships develop naturally. In a wonderful casino scene - which, in the acknowledgments, Horowitz admits he cribbed from Fleming's notes for a TV script - Bond "meets" Madame 16 when he disrupts her elaborate efforts to win at blackjack - _vingt-et-un_ in France.

Here, too, less is more as the stakes are high but not insane, Bond's actions clever but subtle and Madame 16's response controlled and studied. Neither we nor Bond yet know if she'll be friend or foe. However, from that tense game and Bond and Madame 16's ensuing conversation over drinks, we learn that she is a professional and experienced "freelance" spy and, of course, alluring. It's a classic Bond casino story, but it felt smart and fresh owing to the thoughtful and original details as Horowitz channeled Fleming.

From here, the story continues along the established Bond arc, but it never loses its personalized and natural feel. I'll try to avoid most spoilers even though it's not as if you don't know the outcome of a Bond book before you open it. As his investigation advances, Bond faces off against a Corsica drug kingpin - a glandularly damage man of prodigious fat and muscle - who has somehow teamed up with an apparently legitimate American businessman in the photographic film business to do something big, but what?

Mainly taking place on the southern coast of France, Bond and, eventually, in an uncertain partnership, Madame 16, follow clues to a massive chemical factory, the American businessman's mansion, a heavily guarded and deep-in-the-woods film factory and finally to a huge, new, state-of-the-art cruise ship. All these are traditional Bond venues that allow for a standard mix of espionage, nerve-racking tête-à-têtes, glamour, drinks, sex and plenty of action adventure.

Along the way, Bond is captured, tortured, escapes, kills a bunch of henchmen, is captured again, tortured again, kills again and, then, with Madame16 (and yes, he eventually sleeps with her) makes a last-ditch desperate attempt to thwart the villains' plan, which includes flooding the US street drug market with cheap heroine. Basically, it's Bond by the numbers at this point - as it has to be. But Horowitz keeps the "scale" of the plot and Bond's ability to prevent it almost believable versus the movie's always-go-bigger ethos.

Even the de rigueur final confrontation-and-twist scene is handled with nuance and a reasonable amount of verisimilitude versus having Bond morph into a superhero. To be sure, throughout, you need to suspend reality here and there, but like those early Fleming books and Bond movies, you can almost kid yourself that it was all possible.

A big part of why it works is because it takes place in the '50s, a time tailor made for a single spy like Bond to take on megalomaniacal villains as the technology of the day hadn't eclipsed the ability of one man to master and employ it. If those in control of the Bond franchise want to expand its market, they could bifurcate the movies into, yes, continuing with the modern ones, but also launching a series of period-Bond movies set in the '50s. Horowitz's book would be an excellent jumping off point for those early Bond-movie efforts.

A hat tip to @drpeter for prompting this enjoyable read.


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## drpeter

I am glad you enjoyed the yarn, Faders! I hope to see many more Bond novels coming out in the future. I have even thought of trying my hand at one myself. One of these days.


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## The Irishman

Still reading Gibbon, but now juggling it with Jane Austen (Pride & Prejudice).

Some Wordsworth and Coleridge last week.


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## eagle2250

Recently read author Dale Brown's NYT Best seller, The Price of Duty. This techno thriller showcases the growing impact and vulnerability of computers that are integrated in virtually every aspect of governmental operations and specifically our national security efforts. Cyber warfare is the battlefield of our future and he who controls it will win the war He who dosen't will be knocked back into the reality of the old industrial revolution. Nationalized cadres of computer hackers (on steroids) can wreck havoc our national/international banking systems, electrical power grids, water supply systems, flight controls in aircraft, and the list goes on and on and on! As might be expected, the good guys hackers are more diabolically wicked than the bad guys hackers and hence, we win the war...or was it the battle we won, because as we all know, the war never ends! 

The Price of Duty is at once, an absorbing and a fast read. I highly recommend it.


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## Fading Fast

*The Apple Tree* by Daphne du Maurier originally published in 1952

This long short story is billed as a ghost story, but you have to decide as the surface story is more of a psychological thriller than traditional spirit tale.

A middle-aged man loses his wife and, through third-person narrative, we learn that their marriage was an unhappy one in a very British way of surface politeness, quiet suffering and some vicious passive aggressiveness. Who's at fault? Probably both as he's a generally inactive guy who likes things done for him, but also just likes to be left alone; whereas, she's a doer who resents if her every action isn't acknowledged with applause.

Overtime, they had settled into an unpleasant armistice of living together for practical reasons, but apart emotionally. He would escape from her to his study; she would escape from him by going to committee meetings or seeing friends.

The story opens a few months after her passing where he's content to have the house to himself as we are sure she would be had he passed first. But then he notices an ugly, craggy apple tree in his yard - amidst all the healthy apple trees - whose existence begins to irritate him in an eerily similar way to how his wife irritated him.

From here the story becomes one of man versus tree, at least in his head. The view from his bedroom window is spoiled for him because of the tree's ugliness. The gardener objects to his suggestion to cut it down arguing that it's still alive and bearing fruit. The fruit it does bear is, only to him, inedible. When a dead branch of the tree is cut up for firewood, he finds the smell it makes in the fireplace intolerable; whereas, others enjoy it.

On it goes in this tale of man versus tree with him getting more and more desperate to get rid of the tree. As his antipathy increases, we begin to wonder how much of this is in his head or if the tree really is haunted with the ghost of his bitter dead wife. The ending is effective if not a complete surprise leaving you to decide if it was a ghost or mental anguish at work.

It's a quick one- or two-sittings read that's enjoyable enough for what it is. I bought the Biblioasis edition, which is part of a ghost-story series. The book, while paperback, had a nice hand feel to it with thick pages and a few wonderful sketches, similar to the cover one above, spaced throughout. For seven bucks on Amazon, if you enjoy the look and feel of physical books, this is a fun one to get.


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## Big T

"The Old Man's Boy Grows Older", by Robert Ruark. The is the sequel to his earlier "The Old Man and the Boy". Both are collections of short stories, loosely centered on Ruark's early life, in Southport, NC. Many of the stories were published in the 1950's in "Field & Stream", and maybe even a few in "Esquire".

I've read each book multiple times through the years, and usually re-read at least one of them, during hunting season. For those who enjoy outdoor sports, such as hunting and fishing, along with the tales of a youth mentored by his grandfather, these are worth a peek. Ruark also has written a number of other books, with tales of African safaris, also worthwhile, but some of his other work, not so much.


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## Fading Fast

*The Late George Apley* by John P. Marquand originally published in 1938

This novel is a 1930s' version of a progressive look-back at a Boston Brahmin born just after the Civil War who tried to embody all that being an upper-class, protestant, proper-Bostonian of his day, 1870s - 1930s, entailed.

Today, it's easy to mock, even denounce, that culture and conduct, but as always, using simple shorthands and only a modern perspective to judge a different time and place misses the context and circumstances that created that man, moment and way of life.

And it is a way of life that clearly was already on the way out when this Pulitzer Prize winning novel was penned. Written in the form of a memoir, we learn about George Apley mainly through his copious correspondence with family and friends. It takes some adjustment reading a novel composed mainly of the lead character's letters, but once you settle in, the different personalities come to life and the family reveals are powerful.

Apley was born on third base, but breaking the metaphor, he understood that his entire life, and tried to live up to the responsibilities the role and fates demanded of him. It meant following a prescribed path and belief system where one's individual wants and passions are suppressed because the good of the family, the social structure and Boston comes first.

And that makes it, despite his, for the most part, unearned wealth and position, an odd and, oftentimes, difficult life as one rarely does what one wants to, but what one is supposed to do as George Apley's father, wider family and circle of older friends makes very clear to George from an early age. College-age George painfully learns this lesson when an affair with a local Irish girl (the horror!) turns serious and the family steps in, not to force - almost nothing is forced on George - but to explain why a marriage to this admittedly nice girl would damage, not just George, but all those directly and indirectly relying on him to carry on the responsibility of being an Apley.

They note the clubs he wouldn't be admitted to (important for connections in that day), the leading businessmen that would turn away from the family's firm, the social circles and other informal seats of power that would shun him and how even his children would carry a stigma. And as the male heir of the main Apley branch, he would be undermining the entire family and its history. Even with a modern perspective of how ridiculous all this sounds, you can feel the intense pressure on Apley to part company with his Irish girlfriend and marry only within his class - which he sadly does.

That sets the pattern for George's life as choice after choice - work, clubs, committees, how to raise his children, even where to bury the family's dead - is made for the greater good of the family, the Brahmins and the city of Boston. He does all this even though, in Boston, his class's leading influence is already, if not admittedly, in decline. At some point, George the individual almost ceases to exist as his fealty to his role, to its value to the family and wider society becomes who he is. Decisions aren't made based on individual desire but a holistic-group perspective, which (theme alert) diminishes and damages the individual.

Harder still, all this attempted molding and grooming to lead the Apley family is repeated in George's son John. (Spoiler alert) However, after seeing up close what this soul-crushing responsibility did to his father - a polite but passionless marriage and public and private behaviour dictated by expectations not personal choice - son John walks away from it all. However, he did it not in a 1960s style "I hate you" rebellion, but by graduating Harvard Law (as expected) and then taking a job and building a career and life in New York (Sodom and Gomorrah to a Boston Brahmin).

In some of the most heartbreaking moments in the book, George tries to cajole and induce, but never force or threaten, John back to Boston as he sees all that his life has stood for implicitly renounced by his son. But the son and daughter, who refuses to marry "in her class," want no part of the Apley legacy as they see, not only the personal damage the Brahmin life causes, but that its entire belief system is dated and failing.

*The Late George Apley* is not only a eulogy for George Apley the man, but also for the Brahmin way of life, especially as social and civic leaders of Boston. Today we see that former leadership as prejudiced, classist and elitist. It was all those things and it was wrong. But those inside the system were no more all evil than the oppressed are ever all angelic. Apley was a man of his times; times we can denounce today, but a man who lived a life within that construct with integrity and fortitude that can't so easily be dismissed. The value in Marquand's Pulitzer Prize winner is its perceptive capture of George Apply as a representative of a ruling class in its twilight.


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## eagle2250

This past week I finished reading Stephen King's "The Institute." 

What would a present day derivative think tank of Adolph Hitler's Third Reich, be doing with telekinetic and telepathic children they kidnap and imprison in 11 Institutes (their terms, not mine) located throughout the world. Whatever it is, it has been ongoing for the past 70 or so years, since the final days of WWII. The average child may seem cherubic, harmless and incapable of great harm, even when they may indeed be capable of performing parlor tricks showcasing their abilities to read minds and/or move small objects around on tables. Delightful, harmless and yes, even cherubic may be appropriate assessments of the little darlings, but beware of the terrible psychic tsunami of destructive/life threatening capabilities that appear when the psychic abilities of the little darlings are 'daisy chained' to combine the abilities of hundreds! Alas, life is not good for the little children who are taken, abused, killed and then disposed of in ways reminiscent of the Holocaust .

Should you wish to know more, read the book...just like I did. As always seems to be the case, Stephen Kings, The Institute, is a real page turner!


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## eagle2250

As a follow up to his Book Camino Island, author John Grisham, wrote Camino Winds. In this more recent yarn, our idyllic island is struck by a devastating hurricane, suffering massive storm damage and the inevitable loss of life. However, at least one death (a best selling author who lived the good life on the island) was the result of a well disguised murder. It seems one of the books written by our celebrity victim focused on massive financial fraud committed by the nursing home industry against the Federal Government. Insurance company executives less than appreciative of their moment under the microscope hired professionals to travel to the island, under cover of a major storm, to scratch/eliminate the itch that tormented them. 

Do they get caught and if so, who does the catching? If you want to know all the 'gory' details, read the book. It is a page turner and probably a two sitting read for most folks! Enjoy.


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## Mike Petrik

I always keep a book on each level of my home. Right now I'm reading:

_From People Into Nations -- A History of Eastern Europe,_ by John Connelly;
_The Life and Legend of the Sultan Saladin_, by Jonathan Phillips;
_The Age of Innocence_, by Edith Wharton.
I recommend all of them.


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## Mike Petrik

Fading Fast said:


> View attachment 52095
> 
> *The Late George Apley* by John P. Marquand originally published in 1938
> 
> This novel is a 1930s' version of a progressive look-back at a Boston Brahmin born just after the Civil War who tried to embody all that being an upper-class, protestant, proper-Bostonian of his day, 1870s - 1930s, entailed.
> 
> Today, it's easy to mock, even denounce, that culture and conduct, but as always, using simple shorthands and only a modern perspective to judge a different time and place misses the context and circumstances that created that man, moment and way of life.
> 
> And it is a way of life that clearly was already on the way out when this Pulitzer Prize winning novel was penned. Written in the form of a memoir, we learn about George Apley mainly through his copious correspondence with family and friends. It takes some adjustment reading a novel composed mainly of the lead character's letters, but once you settle in, the different personalities come to life and the family reveals are powerful.
> 
> Apley was born on third base, but breaking the metaphor, he understood that his entire life, and tried to live up to the responsibilities the role and fates demanded of him. It meant following a prescribed path and belief system where one's individual wants and passions are suppressed because the good of the family, the social structure and Boston comes first.
> 
> And that makes it, despite his, for the most part, unearned wealth and position, an odd and, oftentimes, difficult life as one rarely does what one wants to, but what one is supposed to do as George Apley's father, wider family and circle of older friends makes very clear to George from an early age. College-age George painfully learns this lesson when an affair with a local Irish girl (the horror!) turns serious and the family steps in, not to force - almost nothing is forced on George - but to explain why a marriage to this admittedly nice girl would damage, not just George, but all those directly and indirectly relying on him to carry on the responsibility of being an Apley.
> 
> They note the clubs he wouldn't be admitted to (important for connections in that day), the leading businessmen that would turn away from the family's firm, the social circles and other informal seats of power that would shun him and how even his children would carry a stigma. And as the male heir of the main Apley branch, he would be undermining the entire family and its history. Even with a modern perspective of how ridiculous all this sounds, you can feel the intense pressure on Apley to part company with his Irish girlfriend and marry only within his class - which he sadly does.
> 
> That sets the pattern for George's life as choice after choice - work, clubs, committees, how to raise his children, even where to bury the family's dead - is made for the greater good of the family, the Brahmins and the city of Boston. He does all this even though, in Boston, his class's leading influence is already, if not admittedly, in decline. At some point, George the individual almost ceases to exist as his fealty to his role, to its value to the family and wider society becomes who he is. Decisions aren't made based on individual desire but a holistic-group perspective, which (theme alert) diminishes and damages the individual.
> 
> Harder still, all this attempted molding and grooming to lead the Apley family is repeated in George's son John. (Spoiler alert) However, after seeing up close what this soul-crushing responsibility did to his father - a polite but passionless marriage and public and private behaviour dictated by expectations not personal choice - son John walks away from it all. However, he did it not in a 1960s style "I hate you" rebellion, but by graduating Harvard Law (as expected) and then taking a job and building a career and life in New York (Sodom and Gomorrah to a Boston Brahmin).
> 
> In some of the most heartbreaking moments in the book, George tries to cajole and induce, but never force or threaten, John back to Boston as he sees all that his life has stood for implicitly renounced by his son. But the son and daughter, who refuses to marry "in her class," want no part of the Apley legacy as they see, not only the personal damage the Brahmin life causes, but that its entire belief system is dated and failing.
> 
> *The Late George Apley* is not only a eulogy for George Apley the man, but also for the Brahmin way of life, especially as social and civic leaders of Boston. Today we see that former leadership as prejudiced, classist and elitist. It was all those things and it was wrong. But those inside the system were no more all evil than the oppressed are ever all angelic. Apley was a man of his times; times we can denounce today, but a man who lived a life within that construct with integrity and fortitude that can't so easily be dismissed. The value in Marquand's Pulitzer Prize winner is its perceptive capture of George Apply as a representative of a ruling class in its twilight.


Congratulations on such a perceptive and well-written review.


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## Fading Fast

Mike Petrik said:


> Congratulations on such a perceptive and well-written review.


Thank you, that's very nice of you to say.


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## Fading Fast

Mike Petrik said:


> I always keep a book on each level of my home. Right now I'm reading:
> 
> _From People Into Nations -- A History of Eastern Europe,_ by John Connelly;
> _The Life and Legend of the Sultan Saladin_, by Jonathan Phillips;
> _The Age of Innocence_, by Edith Wharton.
> I recommend all of them.


Edith Wharton is, probably, my favorite author - definitely in the top three. I love "Age of Innocence," but would say "House of Mirth" is my all-time favorite of hers.


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## Dhaller

My daughter, now 8, has become an avid reader. Fortunately for me, her favorite genre is "tales of adventure".

I am now introducing her to my version of "the classics" - Wells, Verne, etc.

The current line-up is "The Island of Doctor Moreau" (Wells), "Treasure Island" (Stevenson), "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" (Verne), and "The Story Doctor Doolittle" (Lofting).

Some I read to her, and some we read in parallel (she's a fan of "lit group" at school, so we replicate literary discussion at home).

It's actually nice to have a chance to read books I "missed" as a kid (for example, I never read Verne's "The Mysterious Island").

As for *me*, I seem to be catching up on periodicals lately... I have an oppressive stack of "MIT Technology Report" issues to work through.

DH


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## Fading Fast

Dhaller said:


> My daughter, now 8, has become an avid reader. Fortunately for me, her favorite genre is "tales of adventure".
> 
> I am now introducing her to my version of "the classics" - Wells, Verne, etc.
> 
> The current line-up is "The Island of Doctor Moreau" (Wells), "Treasure Island" (Stevenson), "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" (Verne), and "The Story Doctor Doolittle" (Lofting).
> 
> Some I read to her, and some we read in parallel (she's a fan of "lit group" at school, so we replicate literary discussion at home).
> 
> It's actually nice to have a chance to read books I "missed" as a kid (for example, I never read Verne's "The Mysterious Island").
> 
> As for *me*, I seem to be catching up on periodicals lately... I have an oppressive stack of "MIT Technology Report" issues to work through.
> 
> DH


That sounds like so much fun you're having with your daughter. And great to see her reading in this age of social media / technology / etc. I was a kid who read, but I grew up in the '70s with a B&W TV that got six or seven channels - reading was my escape / the library was my sanctuary.


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## Mike Petrik

Fading Fast said:


> Edith Wharton is, probably, my favorite author - definitely in the top three. I love "Age of Innocence," but would say "House of Mirth" is my all-time favorite of hers.


I shall add _House of Mirth_ to my queue.


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## Fading Fast

*Oh Murderer Mine* by Norbert Davis originally published in 1946

This is another in the Doan and Carstairs series (see other review here:  #835 ). It's an even shorter (120 not-dense pages) effort of hard-boiled-detective fun driven forward by short, chubby, affable but whip-smart private investigator Doan and his equally smart, if sometimes lazy except when truly needed, huge Great Dane, Carstairs.

Taking place at a small university in Los Angeles, Doan and Carstairs have been hired by a self-promoting cosmetics company owner to look after her much younger professor husband, Eliot Trent, now employed at the university. Ostensibly, Doan is there to protect him as she's very wealthy, but he's really there to make sure her young, handsome husband doesn't cheat on her.

From here, a lot of stuff happens in a hurry: the apartment of a young, cute female teacher, Melissa, who lives just above Trent's apartment is broken into, she's roughed up, Doan is shot at and Trent's laboratory experiments are wrecked.

Things then amp up from there, as Melissa's boyfriend is killed, a odd foriegn professor, who escaped Nazi Germany, keeps popping up in surprising places and a teacher friend of Melissa is killed when she visits Trent's wife's beauty "institute." Meanwhile, the police investigator of all this, Humphrey, is just itching to blame it all on Doan, who is always two steps and three quips ahead of Humphrey. And, finally, a Mexican detective shows up, bringing an international element to all of this.

As noted, it's a short book, but it packs a lot of story, twists and turns in, too many for this reader to figure it out ahead of time. But in truth, the book is not about its confusing plot, it is about, one, the atmosphere of post-war Los Angeles trying to restart civilian life, two, the banter driven by Doan's retorts providing continuous sparks and, three, Carstairs, a dog that clearly thinks he's smarter than humans and usually is. All those things make the books in this series quick, smart and fun reads.


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## eagle2250

Pulling some 'already read novels' together to pass on to others, I noticed author John Grisham's novel, The Guardians in the stack. Having read this book several months back, I don't recall ever sharing it with the Brotherhood...so here it comes. The Guardians is a story about a young public defense attorney who quickly becomes convinced that our criminal justice system serves only select groups well and badly serves so many others, resulting in far too many (and just one is really too many) wrongful convictions.. Our disillusioned public defender leaves the law and becomes a minister, after which he combines his ongoing zeal for real justice with the efforts of two other attorneys and a paroled felon to form The Guardian.s, a firm focused on righting the wrongs of past wrongful convictions. Throw in a drug cartel employing contract killers, a crooked sheriff running cover for the drug cartel, vengeful ex-spouses looking for some payback, a young black man, convicted of a murder he didn't commit who has spent the past 20+ years in prison. The book chronicals the 3+ year quest to right that wrong. It's a good book and well worth the time you will spend reading it!


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## Mike Petrik

I recently started "Tough Luck" by Richard D Rosen. Rosen does a fine job of sharing the remarkable story of the last great Chicago Bears quarterback, Sid Luckman, paying special attention to the Luckman family's association with organized crime in Brooklyn, especially the scandal of his father's murder conviction.


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## Fading Fast

*High Fidelity* by Nick Hornby published in 1995

Some books are good because they accurately capture a moment, a place and a group of people, as *Bright Lights Big City* did for just-out-of-college kids in NYC in the '80s. I was a kid just out of college living in NYC in the '80s and, while I didn't live the drug culture of that book (I still agonize over taking one aspirin), I still saw its people and culture all around me back then. Was it well written, I don't know, but it was real.

*High Fidelity* feels like it did the same thing for mid-thirty-year-olds in London in the '90s, capturing that time in life when an ennui sets in as many have to accept, for the first time, that they are in no way young anymore and that all their dreams aren't going to come true. But there's enough humor about bad decisions and life stuck in first gear to keep the book from being a downer. Instead, it's a pretty fast, light read.

College-drop-out Rob is a struggling record-store owner who dwells on every failed relationship that he's had back to the early teen playground stuff that most of us breeze past in reflection if we remember it at all. But it was getting dumped in college that led to his dropping out and, eventually, a DJ gig and record store that turned a passion into, what has presently become, a failing business.

Now in his mid thirties, he still makes lists of his favorite songs and movies - and looks down on anyone with less-nuanced taste with disdain (like in high school) - with his equally directionless friends / store employees. Yet he can't help noticing that his other friends, especially the college grads, have moved on with their careers and relationships. This includes his lawyer girlfriend who has just left him for another guy, thus, sparking an early mid-life crisis.

Rob is so self absorbed that he can remember twenty-year-old conversations with a girl he went out with for a week, but can't see that his obsessing has left his life in a cul-de-sac. With that set up, the rest of the book is Rob half trying to get both his lawyer girlfriend back and his life in order, while also sabotaging both of those efforts with his obsessing, his inability to stop making the same mistakes and his ego that he knows is his enemy, but still can't help.

If you have a friend like Rob in your life - kinda self destructive, but also charming in his or her enthusiasm and silliness - you can feel the authenticity in *High Fidelity*. Plus it's pretty darn funny at capturing the small craziness that goes on in everyone's life, loves, jobs and family.

And it's equally good at capturing the cultural zeitgeist of that final pre-internet moment when making mixed tapes to impress a girl was still a thing or when stapling paper flyers to telephone poles was how people promoted everything from garage bands to new magazines. It's a good, fun and fast read to breeze through while you're deciding what you really want to read next.

N.B. The book was made into a movie that I think I enjoyed, but my only real memory of it is that Rob's girlfriend in the film was insanely pretty. I'm sure the book is better, but I'll be looking out for the movie to see it again just to compare.


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## karenburton1305

I got some fantastic books for Christmas! I'm a huge fan of historical fiction - I've started a henry 8th's wives book collection after being inspired by the musical SIX!


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## Fading Fast

*Inside Warner Brothers (1935-1951)* by Rudy Behlmer originally published in 1985

The majority of* Inside Warner Brothers* is an incredible treasure of business memos and letters sent to and from the Warner Brothers themselves, top executives, producers, directors, agents and the studio's famous stars from the titular years of 1935-1951 (with a few from the pre-code era of '30-'34).

These letters and memos provide such a direct view into the workings of the studio that you feel like you're a Warner Brothers' exec getting cc'd on the major movie and business events happening at the company. Helpfully augmented by author Rudy Behlmer's periodic commentary that provides context or follow up, it's hard to imagine a better way to see how a major studio operated during the peak years of the studio system, which also overlaps with Hollywood's putative Golden Era.

You quickly learn how much of a business making movies really is as budgets, personalities, power struggles, egos and worrying about what the customer (the ticket-buying audience) wants dominates the memo flow. While artist considerations pop up, the real drive is to create, at the lowest cost possible, movie after movie that the public wants to see.

*Inside Warner Bros.* shows why "the studio system" is a good description for how the company operated. It broke the business of making movies down into its component parts and tried to standardize each one while maximizing efficiency by doing things like utilizing the same sets and props across many movies, limiting location shots and reusing the heck out of stories it had already paid for.

While that's neat stuff, the real fun of the book comes from the window into how some of your favorite movies got made or its reveals of the stars' personalities and foibles. Yes, the silliness is here, like Errol Flynn, who comes across as a pretty nice guy, hating the part in his long-hair wig in *The Adventures of Robin Hood* enough to write a wordy but thoughtful letter to Hal Wallis, the number two man at Warner Brothers (the wig got changed).

But you also see that actresses such as Bette Davis wrote intelligent and nuanced letters directly to studio head Jack Warner (stardom does have its privileges) on serious subjects ranging from whether a part was right for her to why she is willing to be "suspended" (not paid her salary because she refused to do a movie) owing to the unfairness of her contract.

However, star Humphrey Bogart comes across as an insecure cry baby who's vain and emotional. And while studio-head Jack Warner was, oftentimes, brutal, manipulative and dishonest, you wonder if you wouldn't start to pick up some of those traits if you had his insanely demanding job to do with many loudly complaining stars, directors, producers, censors and others firing missiles at you every single day.

Most enjoyably, we see those memo missiles flying around the making of classics like *Jezebel*, where there was much worry at the studio that it was too similar to *Gone With the Wind*. *Now Voyager* pops up, where it seems every actress was considered before Bette Davis (who killed it in the role). Even the noir classic *The Big Sleep's* confusing story was fretted over, but those concerns were put aside as Warner's movie-makers understood that good scenes and actor chemistry matter more to movie-going audiences than the story itself (see Hitchcock films for the apotheosis of this view).

Finally, when reading all the memos about the uber-classic *Casablanca*, you almost get nervous that they are going to screw it up as they consider other actors for the roles: George Raft for Rick, Hedy Lamar for Ilsa, Dean Jagger for Lazlo. They are all fine actors, but you don't change one brushstroke in the Mona Lisa.

The *Casablanca* angst ramps up more when you learn that executive producer Hal Wallis wasn't in love with Dooley Wilson for the part of Sam as all you want to do is scream "shut up Wallis, no one asked you." He also wanted the role of Sam changed to a woman, again, "shut up, Wallis."

While some of the memos can be tedious, overall, it's a heck of a trip through Golden Era Hollywood. It's not the book for a newbie, but for those reasonably familiar with the movies and stars of the period, it's an incredible insider's view of one of the defining studios of the day.


----------



## Fading Fast

*The Asphalt Jungle *by W.R. Burnett originally published in 1949

I enjoyed the movie (comments here: - I wasn't posting movie comments on AAAC yet back then), so much so, that I bought the book. And the book did not disappoint.

Noir, hard-boil, heist story, crime drama: *The Asphalt Jungle* fits in all of those categories as it walks you, step by step, through the planing, execution and denouement of a professional jewelry store robbery in a large, seedy and corrupt Midwest city in post-war America.

But this is no regular "heist" story as the characters are so well developed that you feel as if you know them. And while you won't be proud to admit this, you are almost rooting for some, not all, of the bad guys to get away with it.

The brains behind this caper is a short, bald, nondescript, German immigrant who was just released from jail: "professional" criminal Erin Riedenschneider. He's respectfully known in his "field" as "Herr Doktor" or "The Professor" as he is a mastermind of heists. He is a thinking man's criminal who, one believes, could easily have been a real doctor, a professor or some other highly educated or intellectual man had his life taken a different path.

But he operates on the "other" side of the law and begins recruiting gang members and raising financing for a new heist immediately upon his release from prison. It's so thoughtfully done that his approach is like that of a start-up business looking to hire experienced employees while soliciting funds from established backers. But of course, it's all harder as it has to happen in the shadows and noir nooks of the city, especially with a new and driven police commissioner trying to crack down on crime.

And this is where the book shines as you see a smart man assemble a team and source funds with the focus and planning of any honest business, except he moves through the city's gambling parlors, back rooms, seedy corners and, occasionally, into the somewhat respectable houses of men who keep one foot in the legitimate world and one in the criminal one.

Along the way, he brings together a team comprised of an experienced safecracker who approaches his job as any legitimate technician would, a hump-backed getaway driver with an incredible knowledge of the illegal networks operating in the city and a big, strong, but maybe unstable, "thug" about to age-out of his "profession," who just wants to make enough money to "get home."

Eventually, "Herr Doktor" obtains financing from a slick, quasi-respectable lawyer with all the shiny accoutrements of a successful life - proper wife, big house, expensive cars, fancy clothes, imported cigars, flashy jewelry and a young girlfriend tucked away in a second big house - but unbeknownst to all, he's drowning in debt and looking for his take (or perhaps more than his take) of the heist to bail him out. He also offers to fence the stolen goods.

And each man in the team has his concerns and weaknesses. The safecracker has a wife and child he loves and worries deeply about (think of any good family man whose job happens to be safe cracking, not insurance sale); the financing lawyer has his mountain of debt; the "Doktor" has a weakness for young women (he's got a pimp on speed dial); the getaway driver has a blinding hatred of the police and the "thug" is dragging around "Doll," his stupid but fanatically loyal girlfriend that he wants to dump but he just can't bring himself to do it.

Building this team of well-regarded-in-their-field criminals is more than half the book and it's worth it as, by the time you get to the heist itself, you are vested in these men and, sadly, rooting for, at least, a few of them to get away with it. The honest business and insurance company that will pay for the crime are amorphous to us at this point, but we, against our better natures, now identify with several of the men. When an author can warp your morality like that, you know you are in the hands of a talented writer.

After that, it's the heist with the professionals proving their mettle as they overcome several unplanned obstacles, but as always, fate plays a hand as well. Then, it's on to the dual challenge of escaping the city and monetizing their "work" by selling the jewels through a fence. Neither is easy as the aforementioned police commissioner sets up an all-encompassing dragnet, while the fence, the "respectable" lawyer, tries a double-cross. At this point, you are patting yourself on the back for having chosen the apparently much-easy path in life of making an honest living.

*The Asphalt Jungle* deserves more attention in its genre than it seems to get. W.R. Burnett has penned a hard-boiled noir fiction that can stand up proudly next to the works of Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett and James M. Cain. You would think it would be better known today as it birthed, possibly, the best noir crime-drama movie of the post-war era. But despite its lack of present-day popularity, the book's trip through mid-century noirland is still a gripping and eye-opening read.


----------



## eagle2250

Fading Fast said:


> View attachment 53849
> 
> *The Asphalt Jungle *by W.R. Burnett originally published in 1949
> 
> I enjoyed the movie (comments here: - I wasn't posting movie comments on AAAC yet back then), so much so, that I bought the book. And the book did not disappoint.
> 
> Noir, hard-boil, heist story, crime drama: *The Asphalt Jungle* fits in all of those categories as it walks you, step by step, through the planing, execution and denouement of a professional jewelry store robbery in a large, seedy and corrupt Midwest city in post-war America.
> 
> But this is no regular "heist" story as the characters are so well developed that you feel as if you know them. And while you won't be proud to admit this, you are almost rooting for some, not all, of the bad guys to get away with it.
> 
> The brains behind this caper is a short, bald, nondescript, German immigrant who was just released from jail: "professional" criminal Erin Riedenschneider. He's respectfully known in his "field" as "Herr Doktor" or "The Professor" as he is a mastermind of heists. He is a thinking man's criminal who, one believes, could easily have been a real doctor, a professor or some other highly educated or intellectual man had his life taken a different path.
> 
> But he operates on the "other" side of the law and begins recruiting gang members and raising financing for a new heist immediately upon his release from prison. It's so thoughtfully done that his approach is like that of a start-up business looking to hire experienced employees while soliciting funds from established backers. But of course, it's all harder as it has to happen in the shadows and noir nooks of the city, especially with a new and driven police commissioner trying to crack down on crime.
> 
> And this is where the book shines as you see a smart man assemble a team and source funds with the focus and planning of any honest business, except he moves through the city's gambling parlors, back rooms, seedy corners and, occasionally, into the somewhat respectable houses of men who keep one foot in the legitimate world and one in the criminal one.
> 
> Along the way, he brings together a team comprised of an experienced safecracker who approaches his job as any legitimate technician would, a hump-backed getaway driver with an incredible knowledge of the illegal networks operating in the city and a big, strong, but maybe unstable, "thug" about to age-out of his "profession," who just wants to make enough money to "get home."
> 
> Eventually, "Herr Doktor" obtains financing from a slick, quasi-respectable lawyer with all the shiny accoutrements of a successful life - proper wife, big house, expensive cars, fancy clothes, imported cigars, flashy jewelry and a young girlfriend tucked away in a second big house - but unbeknownst to all, he's drowning in debt and looking for his take (or perhaps more than his take) of the heist to bail him out. He also offers to fence the stolen goods.
> 
> And each man in the team has his concerns and weaknesses. The safecracker has a wife and child he loves and worries deeply about (think of any good family man whose job happens to be safe cracking, not insurance sale); the financing lawyer has his mountain of debt; the "Doktor" has a weakness for young women (he's got a pimp on speed dial); the getaway driver has a blinding hatred of the police and the "thug" is dragging around "Doll," his stupid but fanatically loyal girlfriend that he wants to dump but he just can't bring himself to do it.
> 
> Building this team of well-regarded-in-their-field criminals is more than half the book and it's worth it as, by the time you get to the heist itself, you are vested in these men and, sadly, rooting for, at least, a few of them to get away with it. The honest business and insurance company that will pay for the crime are amorphous to us at this point, but we, against our better natures, now identify with several of the men. When an author can warp your morality like that, you know you are in the hands of a talented writer.
> 
> After that, it's the heist with the professionals proving their mettle as they overcome several unplanned obstacles, but as always, fate plays a hand as well. Then, it's on to the dual challenge of escaping the city and monetizing their "work" by selling the jewels through a fence. Neither is easy as the aforementioned police commissioner sets up an all-encompassing dragnet, while the fence, the "respectable" lawyer, tries a double-cross. At this point, you are patting yourself on the back for having chosen the apparently much-easy path in life of making an honest living.
> 
> *The Asphalt Jungle* deserves more attention in its genre than it seems to get. W.R. Burnett has penned a hard-boiled noir fiction that can stand up proudly next to the works of Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett and James M. Cain. You would think it would be better known today as it birthed, possibly, the best noir crime-drama movie of the post-war era. But despite its lack of present-day popularity, the book's trip through mid-century noirland is still a gripping and eye-opening read.


Reading your review, I slowly realized that I had read this book, at some point in my past. I'm thinking it was assigned as required reading in some long past English/ Literature class...perhaps way back in high school? In any event, I must complement you on the depth of your observations. As I read the book, I don't recall rooting for the bad guys, but reading your review I seem to recall that I may have been doing just that. If my reading comprehension had been a s detailed as yours, I might have gotten a better grade in that class! LOL.


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## Fading Fast

eagle2250 said:


> Reading your review, I slowly realized that I had read this book, at some point in my past. I'm thinking it was assigned as required reading in some long past English/ Literature class...perhaps way back in high school? In any event, I must complement you on the depth of your observations. As I read the book, I don't recall rooting for the bad guys, but reading your review I seem to recall that I may have been doing just that. If my reading comprehension had been a s detailed as yours, I might have gotten a better grade in that class! LOL.


I really enjoyed this one. I was surprised at how well written and engaging it was. I only picked it up because I liked the movie so much and wanted to learn more about the characters. Little did I know, when I go it, that I'd be reading, what I think is, a noir classic right up there with the best of them. I'm glad to see it was, at some point, taught in some classes. I've picked up a few more of Burnettt's books, so I'm sure I'll be posting comments on them down the road.


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## Fading Fast

*Tomorrow* by Damien Dibben published in 2018

Stripped to its core, this is a good story, but it is undone by its desire to be a great one because its endless flourishes and overreach for literary brilliance has the reader slogging through too much turgid prose and too many overwritten pages. Had the author simply told the story of a dog and two brothers who, by quirk of medieval medicine and chemistry, live for several hundred years, he'd have written a wonderful tale of love, betrayal, history, camaraderie, devotion, faith and failings - a tale of the human condition.

Instead, Dibben attempts to write an epic - to cover hundreds of years of history from King Charles' beheading through the Thirty Years' War and to Napoleon at Waterloo all while weaving in the meaning of existence, the political science of nations, the philosophy of leaders and the boundaries and exaltations of love. And he attempts to do all this, primarily, through the eyes of an anthropomorphized dog. Despite much good in the book, it all but collapses under its own weight.

The good core story here is the one about a dog, Tomorrow, his master, Valentyne, and Valentyne's brother, Vilder, all who, owing to the aforementioned medical quirk, have a long or eternal life. But instead of bringing some sort of everlasting happiness or, at least, release from the fear of dying, this "gift" sets the three on overlapping but separate journeys of agony, exhilaration and discovery.

All is good at first as Tomorrow and Valentyne have that rare man-dog bond where they communicate and connect on a level that few humans achieve. But after years of happiness where the two live in several royal courts, admitted because of Valentyne's medical talents, a rift between the brothers turns into a multi-century Cain-and-Abel-like struggle that separates all three for almost a hundred years until a final climatic reunion dramatically puts the past behind them.

And when the story focuses on the three characters and their interactions and feelings, it's on firm ground. However, Dibbens was not content writing "that" book so, instead, he takes them on one Homeric-like odyssey after another with long asides about, well, everything from history, to medicine, to politics, to theology, to descriptions of war that are only tangential to the story.

Even when the brother's century-long battle is explained at the end, an end that bizarrely includes a castle restored as an act of penitence, neither the extreme evil done nor outsized contrition offered is consistent with any sense of proportion. As with everything in this book, the good is overwhelmed by a story trying to exceed its reach.

And that is a shame as Dibben is at his best taking you inside Tomorrow's thought process such as how this contemplative and observant dog marvels at the creativity of the human species, but also appreciates the more reliable loyalty of his own. It is those insights of Tomorrow that almost make this unpruned shrub of a story worth it.

But of course, to enjoy even that, you have to slog through the compulsion of most modern writers to pay strict obeisance to present-day political pieties. So, in this tale set hundreds of years ago, the dog and human heroes are (in most cases) pacifists, vegetarians, fully accepting of homosexuality, self sacrificing, arrantly charitabe and, naturally, they have a distaste for making money.

However, even that isn't enough groveling to today's elitist talismans, as there is a forced scene showing our hero driving the movement to end slavery in the British Empire. And, for good measure, no man or dog hero in *Tomorrow* - a novel set in a time whose cultural standards and views on sex and race were oceans apart from ours - has even a taint of racism, classism or sexism. You are surprised the author deigned to even use traditional pronouns.

Why are these obvious anachronisms forced into the story? Is it virtue signalling? Do they help attract a publisher and/or garner good reviews? Or, perhaps, they spring from such a sincere passion in these ideas that Dibben was willing to sacrifice the integrity of his promising novel on the altar of political correctness.

There is an enjoyable two-hundred page man-and-his-special-dog story here tucked inside too much aureate other "stuff" that stretched the book to three-hundred-plus pages. Is the good here worth the slog? I'm still not sure, but darn it, I really did like the insightful, observant and loyal dog at its center.


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## eagle2250

Fading Fast said:


> View attachment 54148
> 
> *Tomorrow* by Damien Dibben published in 2018
> 
> Stripped to its core, this is a good story, but it is undone by its desire to be a great one because its endless flourishes and overreach for literary brilliance has the reader slogging through too much turgid prose and too many overwritten pages. Had the author simply told the story of a dog and two brothers who, by quirk of medieval medicine and chemistry, live for several hundred years, he'd have written a wonderful tale of love, betrayal, history, camaraderie, devotion, faith and failings - a tale of the human condition.
> 
> Instead, Dibben attempts to write an epic - to cover hundreds of years of history from King Charles' beheading through the Thirty Years' War and to Napoleon at Waterloo all while weaving in the meaning of existence, the political science of nations, the philosophy of leaders and the boundaries and exaltations of love. And he attempts to do all this, primarily, through the eyes of an anthropomorphized dog. Despite much good in the book, it all but collapses under its own weight.
> 
> The good core story here is the one about a dog, Tomorrow, his master, Valentyne, and Valentyne's brother, Vilder, all who, owing to the aforementioned medical quirk, have a long or eternal life. But instead of bringing some sort of everlasting happiness or, at least, release from the fear of dying, this "gift" sets the three on overlapping but separate journeys of agony, exhilaration and discovery.
> 
> All is good at first as Tomorrow and Valentyne have that rare man-dog bond where they communicate and connect on a level that few humans achieve. But after years of happiness where the two live in several royal courts, admitted because of Valentyne's medical talents, a rift between the brothers turns into a multi-century Cain-and-Abel-like struggle that separates all three for almost a hundred years until a final climatic reunion dramatically puts the past behind them.
> 
> And when the story focuses on the three characters and their interactions and feelings, it's on firm ground. However, Dibbens was not content writing "that" book so, instead, he takes them on one Homeric-like odyssey after another with long asides about, well, everything from history, to medicine, to politics, to theology, to descriptions of war that are only tangential to the story.
> 
> Even when the brother's century-long battle is explained at the end, an end that bizarrely includes a castle restored as an act of penitence, neither the extreme evil done nor outsized contrition offered is consistent with any sense of proportion. As with everything in this book, the good is overwhelmed by a story trying to exceed its reach.
> 
> And that is a shame as Dibben is at his best taking you inside Tomorrow's thought process such as how this contemplative and observant dog marvels at the creativity of the human species, but also appreciates the more reliable loyalty of his own. It is those insights of Tomorrow that almost make this unpruned shrub of a story worth it.
> 
> But of course, to enjoy even that, you have to slog through the compulsion of most modern writers to pay strict obeisance to present-day political pieties. So, in this tale set hundreds of years ago, the dog and human heroes are (in most cases) pacifists, vegetarians, fully accepting of homosexuality, self sacrificing, arrantly charitabe and, naturally, they have a distaste for making money.
> 
> However, even that isn't enough groveling to today's elitist talismans, as there is a forced scene showing our hero driving the movement to end slavery in the British Empire. And, for good measure, no man or dog hero in *Tomorrow* - a novel set in a time whose cultural standards and views on sex and race were oceans apart from ours - has even a taint of racism, classism or sexism. You are surprised the author deigned to even use traditional pronouns.
> 
> Why are these obvious anachronisms forced into the story? Is it virtue signalling? Do they help attract a publisher and/or garner good reviews? Or, perhaps, they spring from such a sincere passion in these ideas that Dibben was willing to sacrifice the integrity of his promising novel on the altar of political correctness.
> 
> There is an enjoyable two-hundred page man-and-his-special-dog story here tucked inside too much aureate other "stuff" that stretched the book to three-hundred-plus pages. Is the good here worth the slog? I'm still not sure, but darn it, I really did like the insightful, observant and loyal dog at its center.


I really do appreciate the helpful frankness of your reviews. I am always a sucker for a good dog and his master story and I would have been reading this one before the current month was out. However your candor prevents me from jumping into it too quickly and instead, I have just added it to my 'to be read someday' list. Hence I will jump right into our neighborhood book club's February selection, The Guest List by Lucy Foley. Thank you for another great and very helpful review!


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## Vecchio Vespa

I just finished re-reading Women in Love. Much of the prose is so fine that it makes clear why Lawrence is revered, but too much is self-absorbed and repetitious. Now I am reading The Man Who Ate Too Much, a new biography of James Beard.


----------



## Fading Fast

eagle2250 said:


> I really do appreciate the helpful frankness of your reviews. I am always a sucker for a good dog and his master story and I would have been reading this one before the current month was out. However your candor prevents me from jumping into it too quickly and instead, I have just added it to my 'to be read someday' list. Hence I will jump right into our neighborhood book club's February selection, The Guest List by Lucy Foley. Thank you for another great and very helpful review!


Thank you. My girlfriend (like you and me) is also a huge dog-man story fan and told me about this book, but after I showed her my comments, she did the same thing that you did, pushed down further in her reading queue. It's a shame as he had a good core story that he tried to do too much with, plus all the modern politics were tiring.


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## Dhaller

Elon Musk has become an interesting character (to me) lately, so I'm reading Ashlee Vance's "Elon Musk" bio (from 2015 - granted, ancient history but it provides some context for SpaceX and Tesla.) I have "the everything store" (about Amazon) lined up after that.

My daughter and I are reading Robert Lewis Stephenson's "Treasure Island" together ("daddy, what is keel-hauling?") When we finish, I'll show her the 1950 film version (with Robert Newton - inventor of the modern pirate accent - as Silver... can there really be another?) We'll follow that with Wells' "The Island of Doctor Moreau".

DH


----------



## Mike Petrik

I'm reading Baroness Orczy's The Scarlett Pimpernel. Quite enjoyable, and tragically it seems wonderfully relevant.


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## eagle2250

Did ya all know that author Clive Cussler passed away this past February (2020). With perhaps 40 or so of his books packed away in closets or in one of six bookcases spread throughout our house, it felt like loosing a member of the family when I learned of this loss. The Titanic Secret is one of the last works he collaborated on, with coauthor Jack Du Brul. The story focuses on a group of nine Colorado miners, who stage their collective deaths and then depart on a secret mission to illegally mine a mythical nuclear rich ore from a mountain centered in an arctic wasteland that is part and parcel of Russia. Their intent is to return with the ore to the United States and turn it over to the Military authorities. Throughout the yarn all nine of the miners come to untimely ends and the prescious ore ends up in a cargo hold of the Doomed Titanic, eventually ending up at the bottom of the ocean..."warming Casey Jones's butt cheeks on those cold winter nights." An interesting and arguably unique twist in this book is that it involves the major characters from two of Cusslers' book series, representing two different centuries/periods of time. Detective Isaac Bell was collaborating with the miners to get the ore back to the us and then Dirk Pitt, fictional head of NUMA, comes upon Bell's case journal of the adventure, 30 years after Isaac Bell's death. May the honorable and very talented Clive Cussler rest in eternal peace!


----------



## Tweedlover

eagle2250 said:


> Did ya all know that author Clive Cussler passed away this past February (2020). With perhaps 40 or so of his books packed away in closets or in one of six bookcases spread throughout our house, it felt like loosing a member of the family when I learned of this loss. The Titanic Secret is one of the last works he collaborated on, with coauthor Jack Du Brul. The story focuses on a group of nine Colorado miners, who stage their collective deaths and then depart on a secret mission to illegally mine a mythical nuclear rich ore from a mountain centered in an arctic wasteland that is part and parcel of Russia. Their intent is to return with the ore to the United States and turn it over to the Military authorities. Throughout the yarn all nine of the miners come to untimely ends and the prescious ore ends up in a cargo hold of the Doomed Titanic, eventually ending up at the bottom of the ocean..."warming Casey Jones's butt cheeks on those cold winter nights." An interesting and arguably unique twist in this book is that it involves the major characters from two of Cusslers' book series, representing two different centuries/periods of time. Detective Isaac Bell was collaborating with the miners to get the ore back to the us and then Dirk Pitt, fictional head of NUMA, comes upon Bell's case journal of the adventure, 30 years after Isaac Bell's death. May the honorable and very talented Clive Cussler rest in eternal peace!


I did not know that. Have read many Cussler books and enjoyed them. For some years now, have read only fiction and typically it's mysteries and suspense/thrillers. Probably my current favorite author of that genre is CJ Box.


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## Fading Fast

*Vanity Row*by W.R. Burnett originally published in 1952

"Roy Shook his head, sighed, sat down, and forced himself to think about the possibilities and ramifications of the case. The ethical side of the business he pushed completely into the background. It was not a question of innocence or guilt. To the Administration this was a complete irrelevancy. Staying in office was the main, in fact, the only point."

- Thoughts of Captain Roy Hargis, police chief and loyal Administration man.

Lynch (Hargis' lawyer): "Isn't this a little unusual Captain - not to say unethical?"

Hargis: "What does that last word mean, Mr. Lynch?"

- The same Captain Hargis discussing ethics with his lawyer

After reading the outstanding noir crime drama *Asphalt Jungle* by W.R. Burnett (comments here: ), I went looking for other Burnett books and found my way to *Vanity Row*. While it is a notch down from *Asphalt Jungle*, it is another smart noir crime drama. But where *Asphalt Jungle *takes the point of view of the criminals,* Vanity Row* follows a police captain "investigating" a crime that the powers that be want "solved" in a way that protects the Administration.

And the Administration, in this large Midwest town, is a major political party that, effectively, operates as a legal and illegal racket of patronage, graft and payoffs whose goal is to get and stay in office. It is in bed with the local mob and, when in power, runs the city for its benefit. This is not the case of a few bad apples, but an institutionalized corruption that is shocking for its efficiency, reach and self-confidence.

But when one of the Administration's high-profile lawyers - one of the respectable faces of the Administration - Frank Hobart, is murdered gangland style in the middle of the city, the Administration faces an existential crisis.

Hobart had recently strong-armed a national mob syndicate over the split of the "wire services" (the take from the gambling books in the city) and the Administration believes he was killed as payback. Now, the Administration needs a quick arrest and conviction for public consumption that points the finger at anyone but the mob that it believes did the killing as it doesn't want the newspapers or public questioning why an "honest" Administration lawyer would be the target of a mob hit.

To this end, the Administration turns to one of its most trusted men, police captain Roy Hargis, the quintessential Administration Man. He's whip smart, completely immoral, fine with corruption and lines his pockets, not with arrant greed, but with a dispassionate entitlement as, to him, that is how he gets paid for his loyalty to the Administration. He is also coldly indifferent to women - sleeps with them in a detached way and then moves on. If he has a flaw, it's that he is so perfectly integrated in the corrupt system that he's losing any sense of himself and his humanity.

As Hargis begins the investigation, we see a thorough man, respected by some and feared by others in his department, smartly following clues through the seedy and respectable sides of the city. He threatens or cajoles, depending on the need, prostitutes, gamblers, high-end restaurateurs, luxury-hotel managers and even prominent and influential citizens. We quickly learn how all of these seemingly disparate parts of the city are connected, in particular, by the men who run or frequent them.

Trailed by a talented and alcoholic newspaper reporter, Hargis begins to put the pieces of the murder together while feeding the press only the snippets and perspective that he wants it and the public to have. At this moment, Hargis is a man at the top of his game who, when he discovers that married Frank Hobart had a beautiful demimonde girlfriend, sees the perfect fall guy (girl) to hang the crime on.

Ilona Vance is beautiful in a way that shows the failings of ordinary beautiful women. She's tall, cool, oddly friendly and prepossessing to both men and women. Since she has no connections and with real evidence adducing that she might actually have killed Hobart, Hargis has all he needs to hang the crime on her and please the Administration. And while other men (and women) wilt in Vance's wake, Hargis coolly builds his case against her - problem solved.

That is, until it isn't. After placing Ms. Vance under arrest and having her brought to his office for an interview, in a wonderfully written scene, we see aloof Hargis begin, hesitatingly at first, to fall for Vance's charms. By the end of this meeting, Hargis is gone: the hardened, detached veteran is all in for Ms. Ilona Vance. The rest of the book is watching incredibly wily Hargis spin everyone and everything - cops, lawyers, the press, his story, facts, evidence and the leaders of the Administration themselves - to help Vance and to keep his job.

While fun to see and engagingly written, Hargis' metamorphosis to a man in love - a man with some ember of humanity still glowing inside him - and the book's overall conclusion stretch credibility a bit further than one would like. Even if that keeps *Vanity Row* a touch below the level of *Asphalt Jungle*, it's still a solid entry in the crime-noir genre.

N.B., While much of this book's views on, well, almost everything would fail today's uncompromising political views, it's interesting to see *Vanity Row's* complex 1950s take on homosexuality. In it, several heterosexual characters - hardened policemen and politicians - view homosexuality as no big deal, even if they understand that it has to be kept quiet. Of course, it's wrong that it had to be kept hidden, but it still felt surprisingly accepting for the time. Modern writers of period noir stories would almost never have the guts to present this type of nuance - hence, the value of reading these contemporaneous books.

P.S. Alas, my copy didn't have the awesomely tawdry cover illustration shown in the above picture.


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## eagle2250

Our book clubs selection for February was author Lucy Foley's "The Guest List." Written in an arguably simplistic format, with the entire book in three and four page segments reflecting perspectives of each of the individuals named on the guest list, it is certainly a convenient and easy read. The book is built around a high society wedding at an exclusive and unique venue, with the reflections of individual guests incrementally revealing and hinting at the growing condemnation of the sociopathic personality and lifestyle of (of all people) the groom...leading to his demise; and now we have a murder mystery. Read and enjoy this fun little mystery...it will take only four to six hours out of moist readers lives and it will not leave anyone agonizing over it's literary impact!


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## Fading Fast

eagle2250 said:


> Our book clubs selection for February was author Lucy Foley's "The Guest List." Written in an arguably simplistic format, with the entire book in three and four page segments reflecting perspectives of each of the individuals named on the guest list, it is certainly a convenient and easy read. The book is built around a high society wedding at an exclusive and unique venue, with the reflections of individual guests incrementally revealing and hinting at the growing condemnation of the sociopathic personality and lifestyle of (of all people) the groom...leading to his demise; and now we have a murder mystery. Read and enjoy this fun little mystery...it will take only four to six hours out of moist readers lives and it will not leave anyone agonizing over it's literary impact!


That's a nicely done summary. Amazon keeps sending me emails telling me I should like this one. I think I'll put it in my cart now that it has your stamp of approval.


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## eagle2250

Fading Fast said:


> That's a nicely done summary. Amazon keeps sending me emails telling me I should like this one. I think I'll put it in my cart now that it has your stamp of approval.


My friend, this book will not be a keeper for my collection and the copy I have is close to brand new, read only by my wife and I. If you would like, I would be happy to post it to you and when you are done with it, feel free to past it on, as you see fit! Take care and have a great day!


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## Vecchio Vespa

I am jumping into the VP's autobiography. I finished The Man Who Ate Too Much, the biography of James Beard. It was fascinating but on balance very sad.


----------



## Fading Fast

eagle2250 said:


> My friend, this book will not be a keeper for my collection and the copy I have is close to brand new, read only by my wife and I. If you would like, I would be happy to post it to you and when you are done with it, feel free to past it on, as you see fit! Take care and have a great day!


That's a very generous offer, but it will be here Monday from Amazon (I ordered it after my earlier post) - so thank you, but gift it to someone else or Goodwill as I'll do with my copy when done. Thank you again, that's very nice of you to offer.


----------



## Fading Fast

*Veronica: The Autobiography of Veronica Lake *(with Donald Bain) published in 1969

Eddie Muller, the host of TCM's outstanding "Noir Alley," turned me onto this one, in part, because he mentioned that he wrote the introduction. Well, I'm a fan of Muller, but I expected more than a brief two-and-a-half pages from him. However, what he wrote was good and the book is an entertaining enough fast read.

Autobiographies are what they are - a person writing his or her own history. Even an honest attempt at the truth would suffer from memory lapses and unintentional bias, but how many write an honest autobiography?

Based on my general knowledge of Ms. Lake's life, which includes a biography of it read many years ago, Ms. Lake wasn't shooting for total honesty in this one. But what the heck, it's a book by a huge Golden Era star that has some fun inside-Hollywood tales and adds something to the Veronica Lake story.

After her not-great-not-horrible upbringing, including the early loss of a father, but a very good relationship with her ensuing stepfather and a mixed one with her driven mother, Lake came with her family to Hollywood at sixteen years old.

In a case of almost instant stardom, less than two years after her first role as an extra, Lake was a major star. First, in a wonderful happenstance during a promotional shoot, an airplane's propeller wash wrapped her skirt tightly around her, creating a perfect and very popular cheesecake publicity photo (see below) for her first real movie, *I Wanted Wings. *Then, with all but no experience, she improbably got the starring role in her next movie, the smartly funny and socially conscience *Sullivan's Travels, *and it was a hit.

Veronica Lake movie star and sex goddess was launched. And, for the next few years, several hits followed propelling her and her peek-a-boo hairstyle to mega stardom. But throughout it, Lake, by her own admission, was often difficult to work with. While she claims it was to cover for her insecurities, even with her spin, you're still thinking stardom might also have gone to her head, at least somewhat.

Add into that time period her first of four marriages, the birth of her first child, the death of her stepfather and a break with her mother and a lot of chaotic life was squeezed into a narrow window. Also lightly touched on was too much drinking and way too much spending.

But there were also some wonderful Golden Age of Hollywood moments as when lothario Errol Flynn takes her rejection of his suggestion for a roll in the hay in stride, which led to a nice platonic friendship between the two. Even better was the description of a quixotic night-long bender Lake had with Gary Cooper where the two enjoyably spent the evening (deep into the morning) hopping from one tawdry strip club to another critiquing the women "performers" as they went.

Lake characterizes all her issues - the spending, the fighting with the studios, her difficult reputation - as part of her rebellious nature, but that makes one wonder what exactly was she was rebelling against other than adulthood. Sure, studios weren't fair and some family and friends tried to use her, but that's also called life. Stars like Bette Davis and Joan Crawford fought their way through the same issues to forge decades-long careers.

Unfortunately, Lake's anger and personal life - including a divorce and second rocky marriage - worked against a long career so that less than ten-years later, by the end of the forties, her time in movies was all but over just when her spendthrift ways had pretty much drained her bank account.

From there, Lake spent the fifties into the sixties milking some good money out of her fading stardom via TV and summer-stock work, but usually spending more than she made, so that any slowdown in income quickly became a crisis. This time also saw periods of alcoholism, the failure of marriages number two and three and inconsistent parenting of her, now, three children.

To her credit, Lake doesn't gloss over or excuse all of her self-inflicted problems, but when you think through her explanations, you see many gaps that don't reflect favorably on the star. And what most jumps out at you is that she seemed only to learn very, very slowly from her mistakes.

To wit, even in the late fifties, after having been up and down financially several times and after a publicly embarrassing exposure when she was bartending in a run-down hotel in return for a room, she immediately took an expensive apartment when she caught a good job in radio for a few months. You almost want to scream at the book, "save some money, you should know better by now." But that was not what Lake, the self-described "rebel," would do (until later in life).

In the end, we're left with a woman with many personal shortcomings that hurt her more than anyone else (except, maybe, her children). Despite all that, I still love Veronica Lake the movie star. *This Gun for Hire* was a picture I first saw in my teens where Lake and her famously flowing blonde locks hooked me for life.

I wanted to read that her life turned out well and I wanted to blame her problems on others, but even with her spin, you come away from her autobiography mainly disappointed because she seems like a reasonably decent person who was also her own worst enemy. However, at least by the late sixties, it appears she had settled down into an okay life with the self-destructive extremes and excesses kinda sorta behind her. Who knows what's true and what's Lake-spin in *Veronica*, but still, the book is a fun enough quick swim through a notable rivulet of Golden Era Hollywood.

The career-boosting promo picture from *I Wanted Wings*









And the famous peekaboo hairstyle


----------



## Fading Fast

*The Case of the Velvet Claws* by Erle Stanley Gardner, the first Perry Mason novel originally published in 1933

I don't think I've ever seen a full episode of the old Perry Mason TV show, but kinda sorta know about it by reputation. I just started watching the new HBO version of Perry Mason, which is very good, but it injects a lot of modern identity politics and 2021 social-justice-warrior tics into a 1930s character.

I had also never read a Perry Mason book before this one. But after having just seen a 1930s Warner Bros. Perry Mason movie (comments here:  #568  ), I decided I needed to go to the original source material - the first Perry Mason book written - to see what had birthed almost a hundred years of Perry Mason cultural iterations.

There's a lot of cool 1930s stuff in *The Case of the Velvet Claws* and Mason himself is interesting enough, but the real gem in the original novel is Mason's secretary Della Street. Heck, had author Gardner done nothing other than named her Della Street, he'd have had something to be proud of, but he did more.

He created a strong, smart woman not as imagined by today's period writers obsessed with checking every intersectionality box, but a 1930s woman who thinks for herself, calls Mason out on his BS, shows physical courage (but doesn't beat up men twice her size as modern writers preposterously imagine women regularly do) and is sexy in a not-obvious way.

And, yes, she's a secretary and she cries, so, horrors, she's in a traditional woman's role and has some, what were once considered, feminine traits. Yet, no one reading *The Case of the Velvet Claws* will fail to appreciate the strength, courage and integrity of this woman. I'd choose her over almost every man in the book to go into battle with.

Even though Della Street lifts every page she's in, this is still a Perry Mason novel and he doesn't disappoint in a very 1930s way. A lawyer cum private investigator who has an odd moral code that basically says: if I take on a client - innocent or guilty, good or bad - I will use every legal and many illegal means to get him or her off. Today of course, his clients would have to be oppressed underdogs, but today we don't value individual integrity unless it's in service to the privilege-discrimination political Talmud.

But this Perry Mason is a 1930s hero who plows his own path in service to his own personal code. So in *The Case of the Velvet Claws*, his client is a lying criminal who throws Mason under the bus repeatedly, but he still fights like heck to get her off, not so much for her, but for his professional integrity. And if that isn't enough to turn off today's progressive elites, he actually charges his clients money versus our crazy modern morality that all but requires heroes to be averse to taking money for their work as if it's dirty or beneath them.

The titular case itself is what's become a by-the-numbers murder mystery, but it must have felt fresher in the 1930s. A wealthy and reclusive owner of a scandal-sheet newspaper that, effectively, blackmails people it has dirt on is murdered. Everyone, including the owner's son, his business partner, his young and pretty wife (Mason's client), his housekeeper and Mason himself (his client set him up, yup) is a suspect.

The fun in this one is not figuring it out, but watching Mason manipulate suspects, tangle with the police, create elaborate ruses to trick people into talking while, basically, staying one tiny step ahead of everyone as they all try to bring him down for various reasons.

At the distance of nearly ninety years, the plot is the least special thing in the book. What is special, and refreshing, is a hero in service to his own moral code - a man of personal integrity and honor for integrity and honor's sake, not one charitably fighting for the underdog (the dominant hero standard since the 1960s).

Mason's real friends would do anything for him, not because he's saving the world or freeing the oppressed, but because they know he is a man of character, a man they can trust. Della Street has the same code - her word is worth more than five signed contracts. Watching these two honor their own value system and not bend at the knee to every modern political piety is almost jarring as, today, we've become programmed to expect our heroes to be social justice warriors above all else.

While the 1930's Warner Bros. movie was, kinda, consistent with Mason's character in the novel, it strayed a bit, as did (I think) the later TV version and today's HBO one where Mason, of course, has addiction and anger management issues. Fair enough, as every generation defines its heroes in its own way, but it's still a nearly hundred-years-long compliment to Erle Stanley Gardner that his pulp-fiction creation has had cultural currency throughout that entire time.

Heck, maybe one day we'll even have the courage as a culture to appreciate the progenitor Mason - a man of integrity who lives by his own code, isn't an oblation to modern politics and who isn't opposed to making a (sorta) honest buck. For now though, we can simply read the original Erle Stanley Gardner Mason novels to see a world where all of those things are valued.


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## eagle2250

Fading Fast said:


> View attachment 55553
> 
> *The Case of the Velvet Claws* by Erle Stanley Gardner, the first Perry Mason novel originally published in 1933
> 
> I don't think I've ever seen a full episode of the old Perry Mason TV show, but kinda sorta know about it by reputation. I just started watching the new HBO version of Perry Mason, which is very good, but it injects a lot of modern identity politics and 2021 social-justice-warrior tics into a 1930s character.
> 
> I had also never read a Perry Mason book before this one. But after having just seen a 1930s Warner Bros. Perry Mason movie (comments here:  #568  ), I decided I needed to go to the original source material - the first Perry Mason book written - to see what had birthed almost a hundred years of Perry Mason cultural iterations.
> 
> There's a lot of cool 1930s stuff in *The Case of the Velvet Claws* and Mason himself is interesting enough, but the real gem in the original novel is Mason's secretary Della Street. Heck, had author Gardner done nothing other than named her Della Street, he'd have had something to be proud of, but he did more.
> 
> He created a strong, smart woman not as imagined by today's period writers obsessed with checking every intersectionality box, but a 1930s woman who thinks for herself, calls Mason out on his BS, shows physical courage (but doesn't beat up men twice her size as modern writers preposterously imagine women regularly do) and is sexy in a not-obvious way.
> 
> And, yes, she's a secretary and she cries, so, horrors, she's in a traditional woman's role and has some, what were once considered, feminine traits. Yet, no one reading *The Case of the Velvet Claws* will fail to appreciate the strength, courage and integrity of this woman. I'd choose her over almost every man in the book to go into battle with.
> 
> Even though Della Street lifts every page she's in, this is still a Perry Mason novel and he doesn't disappoint in a very 1930s way. A lawyer cum private investigator who has an odd moral code that basically says: if I take on a client - innocent or guilty, good or bad - I will use every legal and many illegal means to get him or her off. Today of course, his clients would have to be oppressed underdogs, but today we don't value individual integrity unless it's in service to the privilege-discrimination political Talmud.
> 
> But this Perry Mason is a 1930s hero who plows his own path in service to his own personal code. So in *The Case of the Velvet Claws*, his client is a lying criminal who throws Mason under the bus repeatedly, but he still fights like heck to get her off, not so much for her, but for his professional integrity. And if that isn't enough to turn off today's progressive elites, he actually charges his clients money versus our crazy modern morality that all but requires heroes to be averse to taking money for their work as if it's dirty or beneath them.
> 
> The titular case itself is what's become a by-the-numbers murder mystery, but it must have felt fresher in the 1930s. A wealthy and reclusive owner of a scandal-sheet newspaper that, effectively, blackmails people it has dirt on is murdered. Everyone, including the owner's son, his business partner, his young and pretty wife (Mason's client), his housekeeper and Mason himself (his client set him up, yup) is a suspect.
> 
> The fun in this one is not figuring it out, but watching Mason manipulate suspects, tangle with the police, create elaborate ruses to trick people into talking while, basically, staying one tiny step ahead of everyone as they all try to bring him down for various reasons.
> 
> At the distance of nearly ninety years, the plot is the least special thing in the book. What is special, and refreshing, is a hero in service to his own moral code - a man of personal integrity and honor for integrity and honor's sake, not one charitably fighting for the underdog (the dominant hero standard since the 1960s).
> 
> Mason's real friends would do anything for him, not because he's saving the world or freeing the oppressed, but because they know he is a man of character, a man they can trust. Della Street has the same code - her word is worth more than five signed contracts. Watching these two honor their own value system and not bend at the knee to every modern political piety is almost jarring as, today, we've become programmed to expect our heroes to be social justice warriors above all else.
> 
> While the 1930's Warner Bros. movie was, kinda, consistent with Mason's character in the novel, it strayed a bit, as did (I think) the later TV version and today's HBO one where Mason, of course, has addiction and anger management issues. Fair enough, as every generation defines its heroes in its own way, but it's still a nearly hundred-years-long compliment to Erle Stanley Gardner that his pulp-fiction creation has had cultural currency throughout that entire time.
> 
> Heck, maybe one day we'll even have the courage as a culture to appreciate the progenitor Mason - a man of integrity who lives by his own code, isn't an oblation to modern politics and who isn't opposed to making a (sorta) honest buck. For now though, we can simply read the original Erle Stanley Gardner Mason novels to see a world where all of those things are valued.


Once again you have crafted an even better than excellent book review. It is engagingly informative, grabbing the readers interest and never letting go. I cannot help but hope that the the 1933 edition of The Case of the Velvet Claws was as well written as your book review. I seem to recall, many years ago and in a land far, far away watching a Perry Mason TV series featuring Perry Mason, Della Street, his secretary and Paul Drake, his private investigator. As I recall, there never was a charlatan who could match their metal! Thank you good sir.


----------



## Fading Fast

*Ann Veronica* by H. G. Wells originally published in 1909

It's always an interesting read when you don't really like a book's main character, especially when, I think, the author wants you to like him or her.

Ann Veronica Stanley (props for the name) is a middle-class English woman in her early twenties who rebels against the social and legal constraints put on women at that time. Good for her as it's the rebels - the ones willing to break things and take the social and legal blowback that ensues - who expand the Overton Window for the next generation. Still, I didn't like her.

Living at home with her father and aunt (her mother passed away years ago), at a time when a father's word was all but law, even to a daughter in her twenties, Ann Veronica, "Vee," chafes at the social and cultural restraints and limited career opportunities for a woman of her class in early twentieth century England.

Vee has been listening to and discussing with friends the "radical" ideas of the time propounded by the Suffragettes and similar liberal ideologues, including the socialists. While her personal philosophy is incipient, she "feels" the restraints and intuits that economic freedom is as necessary as the vote (the Suffragettes argue the vote will lead to economic freedom).

Precipitated by her father's refusal to let her go to a dance in London and then stay the night with friends, Ann Veronica leaves home and moves to London without much thought or money and with only the vague outline of a plan.

Once there, reality quickly sets in, so Ann Veronica borrows money from a middle-aged, married man, Mr. Rampage. She knows him from her hometown and borrowed from him believing (hard to tell if she was lying to herself or truly ignorant) that he was simply a friend who wanted to help her.

Now with brass in pocket, Ann Veronica continues her studies in biology, but at a real university and not at the woman's college her father had sent her too. She also becomes deeply involved in the Suffragette movement, while her platonic friendship with Mr. Rampage expands to include dinners out and long conversations, but no nooky.

All of this gives author Wells much opportunity to explore the Suffragette movement, socialistic ideas (a Wells tic), sexual norms for a young woman in London and traditional societies' views of these rebellious ideas. While Wells is sympathetic to these new views, he is willing to harshly point out their advocates' foibles and inconsistencies in a way that most modern progressive shrink from doing in their period novels.

Ann Veronica is unable to find work as she views the jobs she's qualified for - secretarial or domestic - as being unworthy of her; some would say her _bougie_ slip was showing beneath her leftist skirt. She also begins to recognize her own sexuality, via Rampage's aborning unwanted advances and her growing crush on a married college professor. A sexuality that had been suppressed by the Victorian mores of the day.

Vee's London adventure is shattered when, owing to her growing involvement with the Suffragette, she participates in a protest that sends her to jail. She uses her time in the clink to recognize that some of her own failings - her complete dismissal of her family and borrowing from Rampage - were because she was arrogant and lazy. In a moment of true introspection, she sees that just because she wants something - even if she is right - it doesn't give her carte blanche to roll over anyone in her way.

Ann Veronica emerges from prison a little more thoughtful, especially when, perforce, she returns home to survive, but her new perspective only lasts for so long. After a compromise with her father leads to her return to college, she begins an affair with the married professor she had been pining for.

Ms. Veronica proves to be less of a committed rebel as she's dropped the Suffragettes and more about her simply getting what she wants, in this case, an unhappily married man. So, Vee, for a second time, obnoxiously bolts unannounced from her home - a home that took her back in after prison - to run away with her married boyfriend.

We then jump four years ahead to find Ann Veronica happily married to the former college professor who is now a successful playwright. All that's left is a joyous reunion with her father who learns that now-domesticated Vee is going to make him a grandfather. The rebel Ann Veronica effectively became what her father wanted her to be all along: a respectable wife and mother.

While Wells is clearly and rightfully sympathetic to both the Suffragette movement and equal economic opportunities for women, he created a character who basically hitched her sails to those causes only when it suited her and, then, jumped ship when it didn't. Ann Veronica is an antecedent to many "radical" 1960s college students who took up leftist causes in their early twenties only to settle down into middle-class lives as lawyers and stockbrokers by the 1980s.

A more sympathetic echo of Ann Veronica can be found in Edith Wharton's 1905 *House of Mirth.* Wharton's character Lily Bart finds, like Ann Veronica, that her only economic opportunity is borrowing from wealthy men - with an implied sexual obligation, understood or not - or menial labor.

Lily Bart, once she realizes the obligation borrowing created, makes a sincere effort to repay her debt even taking those low-pay and low-status jobs that Ann Veronica dismisses. Lily Bart is a real heroine, not for her political views, but for her personal character and integrity.

Ann Veronica is, like many of us, a rebel with one cause - whatever is good for herself. It's not heroic, but is a more-honest look at some of the supporters of causes and social change than the pure-of-heart and fearless heroines that modern period writers so adore creating.

Wells seems to have been a sorta fellow traveler with the rebels, but one that plowed his own intellectual path and didn't hesitate to highlight the contradictions and hypocrisies within those progressive movements. A view he imputes in *Ann Veronica*, both the novel and the character.


----------



## eagle2250

Fading Fast said:


> View attachment 56220
> 
> *Ann Veronica* by H. G. Wells originally published in 1909
> 
> It's always an interesting read when you don't really like a book's main character, especially when, I think, the author wants you to like him or her.
> 
> Ann Veronica Stanley (props for the name) is a middle-class English woman in her early twenties who rebels against the social and legal constraints put on women at that time. Good for her as it's the rebels - the ones willing to break things and take the social and legal blowback that ensues - who expand the Overton Window for the next generation. Still, I didn't like her.
> 
> Living at home with her father and aunt (her mother passed away years ago), at a time when a father's word was all but law, even to a daughter in her twenties, Ann Veronica, "Vee," chafes at the social and cultural restraints and limited career opportunities for a woman of her class in early twentieth century England.
> 
> Vee has been listening to and discussing with friends the "radical" ideas of the time propounded by the Suffragettes and similar liberal ideologues, including the socialists. While her personal philosophy is incipient, she "feels" the restraints and intuits that economic freedom is as necessary as the vote (the Suffragettes argue the vote will lead to economic freedom).
> 
> Precipitated by her father's refusal to let her go to a dance in London and then stay the night with friends, Ann Veronica leaves home and moves to London without much thought or money and with only the vague outline of a plan.
> 
> Once there, reality quickly sets in, so Ann Veronica borrows money from a middle-aged, married man, Mr. Rampage. She knows him from her hometown and borrowed from him believing (hard to tell if she was lying to herself or truly ignorant) that he was simply a friend who wanted to help her.
> 
> Now with brass in pocket, Ann Veronica continues her studies in biology, but at a real university and not at the woman's college her father had sent her too. She also becomes deeply involved in the Suffragette movement, while her platonic friendship with Mr. Rampage expands to include dinners out and long conversations, but no nooky.
> 
> All of this gives author Wells much opportunity to explore the Suffragette movement, socialistic ideas (a Wells tic), sexual norms for a young woman in London and traditional societies' views of these rebellious ideas. While Wells is sympathetic to these new views, he is willing to harshly point out their advocates' foibles and inconsistencies in a way that most modern progressive shrink from doing in their period novels.
> 
> Ann Veronica is unable to find work as she views the jobs she's qualified for - secretarial or domestic - as being unworthy of her; some would say her _bougie_ slip was showing beneath her leftist skirt. She also begins to recognize her own sexuality, via Rampage's aborning unwanted advances and her growing crush on a married college professor. A sexuality that had been suppressed by the Victorian mores of the day.
> 
> Vee's London adventure is shattered when, owing to her growing involvement with the Suffragette, she participates in a protest that sends her to jail. She uses her time in the clink to recognize that some of her own failings - her complete dismissal of her family and borrowing from Rampage - were because she was arrogant and lazy. In a moment of true introspection, she sees that just because she wants something - even if she is right - it doesn't give her carte blanche to roll over anyone in her way.
> 
> Ann Veronica emerges from prison a little more thoughtful, especially when, perforce, she returns home to survive, but her new perspective only lasts for so long. After a compromise with her father leads to her return to college, she begins an affair with the married professor she had been pining for.
> 
> Ms. Veronica proves to be less of a committed rebel as she's dropped the Suffragettes and more about her simply getting what she wants, in this case, an unhappily married man. So, Vee, for a second time, obnoxiously bolts unannounced from her home - a home that took her back in after prison - to run away with her married boyfriend.
> 
> We then jump four years ahead to find Ann Veronica happily married to the former college professor who is now a successful playwright. All that's left is a joyous reunion with her father who learns that now-domesticated Vee is going to make him a grandfather. The rebel Ann Veronica effectively became what her father wanted her to be all along: a respectable wife and mother.
> 
> While Wells is clearly and rightfully sympathetic to both the Suffragette movement and equal economic opportunities for women, he created a character who basically hitched her sails to those causes only when it suited her and, then, jumped ship when it didn't. Ann Veronica is an antecedent to many "radical" 1960s college students who took up leftist causes in their early twenties only to settle down into middle-class lives as lawyers and stockbrokers by the 1980s.
> 
> A more sympathetic echo of Ann Veronica can be found in Edith Wharton's 1905 *House of Mirth.* Wharton's character Lily Bart finds, like Ann Veronica, that her only economic opportunity is borrowing from wealthy men - with an implied sexual obligation, understood or not - or menial labor.
> 
> Lily Bart, once she realizes the obligation borrowing created, makes a sincere effort to repay her debt even taking those low-pay and low-status jobs that Ann Veronica dismisses. Lily Bart is a real heroine, not for her political views, but for her personal character and integrity.
> 
> Ann Veronica is, like many of us, a rebel with one cause - whatever is good for herself. It's not heroic, but is a more-honest look at some of the supporters of causes and social change than the pure-of-heart and fearless heroines that modern period writers so adore creating.
> 
> Wells seems to have been a sorta fellow traveler with the rebels, but one that plowed his own intellectual path and didn't hesitate to highlight the contradictions and hypocrisies within those progressive movements. A view he imputes in *Ann Veronica*, both the novel and the character.


As is your way, another very detailed and informative book review, written in a style that grabs the readers attention and hold onto it to the very end. I have but a single question for which my mind literally itches for an answer. In completing Ann Veronica, it appears that HG Wells has extended his writing pen way beyond the limits of his vocational wheelhouse. Is my fevered mind deceiving me or would you agree with my perception(s)? Thank you again for a great review.


----------



## Fading Fast

eagle2250 said:


> As is your way, another very detailed and informative book review, written in a style that grabs the readers attention and hold onto it to the very end. I have but a single question for which my mind literally itches for an answer. In completing Ann Veronica, it appears that HG Wells has extended his writing pen way beyond the limits of his vocational wheelhouse. Is my fevered mind deceiving me or would you agree with my perception(s)? Thank you again for a great review.


Like you, I was surprised when, a few years back, I discovered Wells who, as you imply, is best known for his science fiction writing, was insanely prolific and wrote on many topics beyond science fiction.

While I tend not to agree with his philosophy, I really enjoy his writing.

*Ann Veronica* was my third non-Sci-Fi Wells book.

These are the other two not-Sci-Fi books of his that I've read:  #793  and  #652


----------



## David J. Cooper

Champagne Uncorked by Alan Tardi.

An engaging history and first hand account of the making of Krug Champagne.


----------



## eagle2250

This past week I finished reading author Dan Brown's novel "Origin." For the Dan Brown enthusiasts among us who have enjoyed Brown's books The Da Vinci Code, The Lost Symbol, Inferno, etc. The Origin will also be a winner for you. Edmond Kirsch, a billionaire Computer Scientist/Futurist who has been long studying the age old evolutionary questions; "Where did we come from(?)" and "Where are we going(?)". Kirsch is making a presentation to announce a new discovery that promises answers to these questions and will forever settle the ongoing debate between Earths Creationist and those ever lovable Darwin hugger's , the Evolutionists. Kirsch is assassinated in the middle of his presentation and before he can announce his myth shattering discovery and it appears an extreme faction of the Catholic Church may have been responsible. 

However, be careful about jumping to those all too convenient conclusions...at one advanced point in his presentation Edmond Kirsch prayed for the future, stating "May our philosophies keep pace with our technologies. May our compassion keep pace with our powers. And may love, not fear be our engine of change!" Edmond Kirsch is an atheist, not a Christian; he is an evolutionist, not a creationist. Having said that, I will tell you no more about the book, but will offer a long standing and in the present instance a very prudent caution..."be careful what you wish for, because you may find it!" Read the book, as it is a great read!


----------



## Fading Fast

*Homer and Langley* by E. L. Doctorow

This E. L. Doctorow effort is kinda sorta a trip through the first-three quarters of the 20th century seen through the eyes of two reclusive and wealthy brothers - one blind, who narrates, and one a WWI veteran with damaged lungs and a damaged psyche owing to enduring a gas attack in the trenches.

Homer and Langley Collyer are the sons of a well-to-do and socially prominent physician, but the loss of sight for teenage Homer, the aforementioned WWI scars for Langley and the early death of their parents left these two boys adrift and alienated in the world. Had they not inherited sufficient funds to free them from work, reality might have forced a normalcy on them, but instead, these two examples of the broken idle rich became, over time, quasi-reclusive hoarders.

From their Fifth Avenue mansion, we see these young men partake in the speakeasy party culture of the twenties, even meeting an up-and-coming gangster who rewards their friendship with a gift of champagne and hookers for the evening. The gifts, despite some compunction, were accepted. Blind Homer, in particular, deeply enjoyed the prostitute as he did his first sexual experience, years earlier, with the family's Irish maid.

During the Depression of the thirties, the boys see the labor protests and encampments of homeless men living in Central Park right outside their mansion's front door. After that, it's on to World War II where Homer, who has made a remarkable adjustment to his blindness, feels his disability greatly for one of the first times as he can make no contribution to the war effort. Conversely, his brother's always-present bitterness toward the world grows with the onset of another global war.

After the war, whose end provides hoarder Langley with an opportunity to stuff the house full of military surplus, the fifties finds the boys more isolated. In the funniest scene in the novel, these two oddballs become hostages to the gift-giving mobster of the twenties when he uses their house, by force, as a hideout for several days while he recovers from a bullet wound received in a failed hit attempt. After a day or so, the gangsters stop guarding the boys as they realize these nutjobs are no threat to them, so everyone goes about their days as if the mobsters and Collyer brothers just happen to be living together.

With Langley's hoarding increasing - he gets on jags for everything from typewriters to art supplies to a Model T and, always, newspapers - and with their bill paying further in arrears - owing to some quirky principle, not because of lack of funds - the house deteriorates to a state many would find unlivable. But the boys persevere into the sixties, even taking in several hippies during the Summer of Love in a quirky moment of Roaring Twenties outcasts meet Flower Power children.

After a sexual encounter for Homer with one of the free-love young-women guests, the coming cold weather sees the departure of their hippie friends.Then, it's the seventies, a further decline in the house, especially when the power and water are cut off as the boys continue to refuse, on principle, to pay their bills. A brief period of unwanted media notoriety follows, then finally, the inevitable passing of the brothers.

So what is it all about? On one level, as noted, it's a trip through the 20th century as seen through the eyes of two outcasts who are less-naive Forrest Gumps. It can also be seen as broken people being the ones who see the insanity of the world, but there's also a cheapness to this sentiment as we all are, for example, against war and hate to see young men (and women, today) die in battle, but sentiment won't stop the Hitlers and Stalins of the world.

More narrowly, it's a contrast of a man damaged by failing genes causing a loss of sight being more normal than his brother who was damaged physically and mentally in war. While it appears Langley is taking care of his blind brother, one feels blind Homer could have found a more-normal place in the world - a job (he's a talented pianist) and wife would have made him happy - but he knew his brother needed to take care of him. So, counterintuitively, it is the war-damaged brother who was emotionally dependent on the blind brother.

Maybe it's about hoarders as the junk collectors of our culture - or some such college-term-paper stuff. Or perhaps it simply adds up to a commentary on the absurdity of life. Doctorow is a talented enough author to pull this peculiar novel off, but he's written much better books.


----------



## eagle2250

Fading Fast said:


> View attachment 56554
> 
> *Homer and Langley* by E. L. Doctorow
> 
> This E. L. Doctorow effort is kinda sorta a trip through the first-three quarters of the 20th century seen through the eyes of two reclusive and wealthy brothers - one blind, who narrates, and one a WWI veteran with damaged lungs and a damaged psyche owing to enduring a gas attack in the trenches.
> 
> Homer and Langley Collyer are the sons of a well-to-do and socially prominent physician, but the loss of sight for teenage Homer, the aforementioned WWI scars for Langley and the early death of their parents left these two boys adrift and alienated in the world. Had they not inherited sufficient funds to free them from work, reality might have forced a normalcy on them, but instead, these two examples of the broken idle rich became, over time, quasi-reclusive hoarders.
> 
> From their Fifth Avenue mansion, we see these young men partake in the speakeasy party culture of the twenties, even meeting an up-and-coming gangster who rewards their friendship with a gift of champagne and hookers for the evening. The gifts, despite some compunction, were accepted. Blind Homer, in particular, deeply enjoyed the prostitute as he did his first sexual experience, years earlier, with the family's Irish maid.
> 
> During the Depression of the thirties, the boys see the labor protests and encampments of homeless men living in Central Park right outside their mansion's front door. After that, it's on to World War II where Homer, who has made a remarkable adjustment to his blindness, feels his disability greatly for one of the first times as he can make no contribution to the war effort. Conversely, his brother's always-present bitterness toward the world grows with the onset of another global war.
> 
> After the war, whose end provides hoarder Langley with an opportunity to stuff the house full of military surplus, the fifties finds the boys more isolated. In the funniest scene in the novel, these two oddballs become hostages to the gift-giving mobster of the twenties when he uses their house, by force, as a hideout for several days while he recovers from a bullet wound received in a failed hit attempt. After a day or so, the gangsters stop guarding the boys as they realize these nutjobs are no threat to them, so everyone goes about their days as if the mobsters and Collyer brothers just happen to be living together.
> 
> With Langley's hoarding increasing - he gets on jags for everything from typewriters to art supplies to a Model T and, always, newspapers - and with their bill paying further in arrears - owing to some quirky principle, not because of lack of funds - the house deteriorates to a state many would find unlivable. But the boys persevere into the sixties, even taking in several hippies during the Summer of Love in a quirky moment of Roaring Twenties outcasts meet Flower Power children.
> 
> After a sexual encounter for Homer with one of the free-love young-women guests, the coming cold weather sees the departure of their hippie friends.Then, it's the seventies, a further decline in the house, especially when the power and water are cut off as the boys continue to refuse, on principle, to pay their bills. A brief period of unwanted media notoriety follows, then finally, the inevitable passing of the brothers.
> 
> So what is it all about? On one level, as noted, it's a trip through the 20th century as seen through the eyes of two outcasts who are less-naive Forrest Gumps. It can also be seen as broken people being the ones who see the insanity of the world, but there's also a cheapness to this sentiment as we all are, for example, against war and hate to see young men (and women, today) die in battle, but sentiment won't stop the Hitlers and Stalins of the world.
> 
> More narrowly, it's a contrast of a man damaged by failing genes causing a loss of sight being more normal than his brother who was damaged physically and mentally in war. While it appears Langley is taking care of his blind brother, one feels blind Homer could have found a more-normal place in the world - a job (he's a talented pianist) and wife would have made him happy - but he knew his brother needed to take care of him. So, counterintuitively, it is the war-damaged brother who was emotionally dependent on the blind brother.
> 
> Maybe it's about hoarders as the junk collectors of our culture - or some such college-term-paper stuff. Or perhaps it simply adds up to a commentary on the absurdity of life. Doctorow is a talented enough author to pull this peculiar novel off, but he's written much better books.


I'll put this one on the list to be read, but it's going to be a bit down on the list! Got a lot of good books waiting on the bookshelves and calling my name...I can't believe I have five Baldacci books I have yet to read? In any event, thanks for another great and persuasive review.


----------



## Fading Fast

eagle2250 said:


> I'll put this one on the list to be read, but it's going to be a bit down on the list! Got a lot of good books waiting on the bookshelves and calling my name...I can't believe I have five Baldacci books I have yet to read? In any event, thanks for another great and persuasive review.


It's a peculiar book. I did enjoy it, but I get that it wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea. No reason to rush to read.


----------



## Fading Fast

*Trio* by William Boyd published in 2021

I make an effort to read a few newly published books each year as my lean is to older fiction, but I don't want to lose touch with the current vibe of publishing. Since William Boyd is one of my regular authors, this one was an easy choice.

The reviews and jacket snippets of *Trio*, which I skimmed to get a feel, but tried not to read in detail as I like to form my own opinion, billed this one as a trip back to Swinging '60s London seen through the interconnected lives of a movie producer, film star and novelist.

On the surface, sure it is, but otherwise, not really. The title is a more-accurate giveaway as the book comprises three character studies of the aforementioned producer, actress and writer whose lives overlap, but only in a meaningful way a few times.

*Trio* should have been broken into three novelettes, one for each character, where we see the interconnections in the separate novelettes in a cool, "ah, I get it way," versus one book where we expect a more integrated tale. But "A Study of Three Characters" would probably sell less books than a "Rollicking Romp through Swinging '60s London" (which it, pretty much, isn't), so we got a book and not three novelettes.

A late middle-aged film producer, Kyle Talbot, a conventional family man on the surface, lives a double life as a gay (maybe bi-sexual) man who maintains a "photography studio" for his separate life. Through him, we see how late-sixties England is adjusting to the end of the sodomy and indecency laws as gay bars open up and homosexuals begin to come out in the open.

We also see Talbot's struggles to raise the money for the movie he's making - a very of-the-moment '60s-crazy-drug-trip-metaphor film - and then deal with all the problems and ego clashes that come up during filming. This also introduces us to the second of the trio, young, lithe, pretty American film star Anny Viklund.

Viklund seems to have it all - looks, wealth, a rock-star boyfriend and a successful career - but no one in this book is close to whom they appear to be on the surface. Viklund is also an unreliable narrator of her life as we eventually learn, contrary to her telling, that her casual attitude masks an odd mix of radical sixties politics and drug use that leads her, as happened in that era, down a very dangerous legal road.

The last of our trio is the film director's wife, Elfrida Wing, who is all but unconnected to the main story. A former successful novelist, she hides her writer's block to herself with an impressively masked but devastating alcoholism. Funny at first as she tells it - vodka in her morning orange juice, "reinforcing" flasks always at hand and buried empty bottles - her descent into crippling alcoholism is frightening when we see she, too, has been lying to us all along.

Talbot, Viklund and Wing are all interesting characters with engaging story arcs that reflect the madness, social change, increasing personal freedom, extreme politics and excessive drug use of the period. They just don't come together in a particularly well-integrated narrative, which leaves the book feeling like less than the sum of its parts.

It's still an enjoyable effort by William Boyd who has always been more of a character-than-plot-driven author. For modern fiction, he, refreshingly, doesn't twist himself into knots trying to pay homage to every au courant political fetish. He has more of a post-'60s/pre-'90s view of individual freedom and responsibility; hence, every personal problem isn't the result of some victim-privilege construct that absolves almost everyone, except those deemed "privileged," of blame.

If you're new to Boyd, I'd recommended some of his earlier works first, but if you're a fan, *Trio* is a good, quick read with some fun '60s cultural references and singular characters to enjoy.


----------



## Big T

I tried a Ken Follet fictional work, but at 50% through, I gave up.

Started yesterday, H.W.Brands’ “The Zealot and the Emancipator”, lead up to Civil War, through story of John Brown and Abraham Lincoln.


----------



## Fading Fast

Big T said:


> I tried a Ken Follet fictional work, but at 50% through, I gave up.
> 
> Started yesterday, H.W.Brands' "The Zealot and the Emancipator", lead up to Civil War, through story of John Brown and Abraham Lincoln.


My experience has been Follet is hit or miss. I've really enjoyed some of his books "Eye of the Needle," "Pillars of the Earth" and "Night over Water" for example, but others, l've struggled to get through.

He's such a big name and has written so many books, I wonder if he is a "brand" with other writers "helping" him as, as with Tom Clancy, when that starts to happen, the quality of the books often goes down.


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## Big T

eagle2250 said:


> I'll put this one on the list to be read, but it's going to be a bit down on the list! Got a lot of good books waiting on the bookshelves and calling my name...I can't believe I have five Baldacci books I have yet to read? In any event, thanks for another great and persuasive review.


A few years back, I spent a summer reading through every Baldacci book I could lay my hands on. Then it ended!

As Phineas says to Ferb, "Ferb, I know what author we're putting on our summer reading list, again".

Thanks for the brain tickler, as I enjoyed Baldacci, as a fiction author!


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## Dr.Watson

Reading _Civilisation _since I loved the old miniseries (all on youtube). This is essentially a transcript, but with some added Kenneth Clark "hot takes" that they couldn't fit into the program. Fun if you like this sort of thing.


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## Mike Petrik

Great fun and illuminating ....


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## some_dude

Lately, I have been reading a lot of John O'Hara. I credit this website, since there was a reference to Appointment in Samarra in a thread I was reading, and I thought that sounded interesting, and now I've read a bunch of his books and stories. Just bought some more, in fact.

I prefer to read on the Kindle, and there aren't as many there as I would like, but I will probably end up buying some hardbacks as well.


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## Fading Fast

some_dude said:


> Lately, I have been reading a lot of John O'Hara. I credit this website, since there was a reference to Appointment in Samarra in a thread I was reading, and I thought that sounded interesting, and now I've read a bunch of his books and stories. Just bought some more, in fact.
> 
> I prefer to read on the Kindle, and there aren't as many there as I would like, but I will probably end up buying some hardbacks as well.


I read one of his, "From the Terrace," a few years ago and commented on it here: #8196.


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## Howard

The Daily News


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## Vecchio Vespa

Just finished the latest Charles Finch and jumped into the new Jaqueline Winspear. The latter, another in the Maisie Dobbs series, is wonderful as the author spins a wonderful and many layered story but also, over the span of many books, takes you into WWI and we are now in WWII. The former was a fascinating dive into the social systems of earlier years in New York and Newport, the staid Knickerbockers and the flashier followers.


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## eagle2250

Just a few days back I finished reading David Baldacci's "Long Road To Mercy," the first novel in his (Baldacci's) Altee Pine series. Atlee Pine is a young female FBI agent who is also the victim of a malevolent, but seriously intelligent serial killer who Pine believes is the man who came through her and her sister, Mercy's bedroom window when they were just six years old. The perpetrator fractured Atlee's skull and abducted Mercy who was never recovered and has never been seen since. Atlee chose the career she is in largely because of the guilt associated with those memories. She is now involved in an investigation involving international intrigue, a tactical nuclear bomb that was made in Russia, with tech plates indicating it is a North Korean weapon and it was subsequently secreted into an cave in the Grand Canyon by misdirected American agents. The long term intent is to fabricate justification for the US Govt to wipe North Korea off the map.

It is illegal immoral, unconscionable, and thank gawd, it does not happen because Atlee Pine is a good guy, smarter than the bad guys and she, an Amazonian throwback for sure, kicks their collective butts. Our government is cleansed of some of the bad characters therein; the Russians are chagrined that their plot to discredit the US Government has failed; the North Koreans whine about 'why's everybody always picking on us' and Atlee Pine gets to punch the crap out of a pedophile serial rapist she encounters on the trip back to her home office. 

This book was so good and so hard to put down, before reading the last word, I bought the other two books in the series, A Minute Before Midnight and Daylight and have already begun reading A Minute To Midnight! I highly recommend any of David Baldacci's books.


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## Fading Fast

*The Disenchanted* by Bud Schulberg originally published in 1950

In 1937, a dissipated F. Scott Fitzgerald facing, as always, financial troubles and fighting, as always, the bottle, came to Hollywood (MGM) to make money and revive his career. Often partnered with young writers, the result was a small amount of work that was, maybe, sometimes brilliant, but rarely usable screenwriting. Three years later, at the age of forty four, enervated Fitzgerald was dead of a heart attack.

One of the young writers that Fitzgerald was teamed up with is author Budd Schulberg (writer of the screenplay *On The Waterfront* amongst other notable movies). In *The Disenchanted*, Schulberg pens a roman a clef of his time with Fitzgerald in Hollywood, substituting young fictional screenwriter Shepard Stearn for himself and fictional author Manley Halliday and his wife-from-Pluto Jere for F. Scott and his wife-from-Pluto Zelda.

But Schulberg doesn't stop with just dissecting Fitzgerald's/Halliday's troubled time in Hollywood as, through flashbacks, he also recounts Fitzgerald's/Halliday's glory years and flameout with Zelda/Jere in the Roaring Twenties. If Fitzgerald's famous life and Hollywood's Golden Age in the thirties are your things, Schulberg's book is an enjoyable page-turner that weaves two fantastic early twentieth-century cultural narratives into one.

By the time Halliday/Fitzgerald hit Hollywood in 1937, his career, marriage and health were close to flatlining. While the studio's money was crazy good, $2000 per week (approximately $36,000 in 2021), Fitzgerald/Halliday's fragile ego and spirits, toggling back and forth between arrogance and insecurity, seemed to be further broken by Hollywood's unforgiving demand for "product." Authors were just another cog in the "studio system" that expected its writers to hit deadlines with assembly line regularity.

Schulberg excels at revealing the mindset and process of the studio system. In fictional studio head Victor Milgrim, subbing for MGM's head Louis B. Meyer, we meet a "self-made" man whose business talents include managing an insanely large organization and controlling, by alternating encouragement and threats, the sizable egos that report to him.

Milgrim is also trying to scrub the immigrant dirt off himself with custom-tailored suits, studied speech, over-stylized manners and, even, by hiring literary giants to write for him. Yet, all his new posh can slip away in a tense business conference where the old street fighter once again appears. Milgrim does have a respect for art and artists - that's partly why he all but pulled Manley/Fitzgerald out of the gutter - but he still wants to force art into his production schedule as, well, it's a business he's running after all.

Manley/Fitzgerald, drunk more than half the time, off kilter from poorly managing his insulin for diabetes and flipping from extreme egotism to extreme self doubt minute by minute, is not the writer to give Milgrim on-demand art. So Milgrim and the studio system continually bodycheck manic-depressive Manley/Fitzgerald into a further downward spiral.

How did the golden-boy writer of the Roaring Twenties end up financially broke, mentally broken and desperately hawking himself to one of the dream factories? Halliday/Fitzgerald's own analysis, as penned by Schulberg, avers that he and Jere/Zelda never grew up as the money and fame of his early success allowed them to ride the twenties' wave of wealth and irresponsibility without doing the hard work of maturing his prodigious talent or controlling his and Jere's/Zelda's many vices.

Jere/Zelda might have been his "one love," but he would have sincerely been better off had he settled for number two. Her excessive drinking, drug use, partying, spending, philandering (yup), obsessive-compulsive behaviour and stunning negligence (including horribly indifferent and inconsistent parenting of their one child) greatly exceeded and exacerbated Fitzgerald's similar weaknesses. This was a man who needed to marry a responsible woman to manage his career and life, but instead he married a super enabler.

When it all came crashing down with the stock market in 1929, Jere/Zelda ended up in a series of expensive asylums as Halliday/Fitzgerald, whose writing was now out of favor with the Depression-era zeitgeist, struggled to pay all the bills (and pay off their debt accumulated in the twenties). He spent a good part of the thirties hawking uneven short stories to popular magazines. Though, these stories would introduce a generation of high-school students to his work several decades later.

Halliday/Fitzgerald even avers that he and Zelda, both in body and memory, would have been better off dying with the end of the twenties. But they didn't, so by the second half of the thirties, the man who coined the term and symbolized the excesses of the Jazz Age was, out of desperation, working in Hollywood with author and newbie-screenwriter Schulberg.

Shulberg's alter ego, Shepard Stearn, goes from, initially, hero worship of Halliday/Fitzgerald to disgust at his immaturity and self absorption. Schulberg also begins to blame Halliday/Fitzgerald, as a representative of the twenties, for the woes of the thirties. This was part of a wider and understandable intergenerational war of that period pitting those raised in the depredation of the thirties against those who enjoyed the profligacy of the twenties.

Even when angry at Halliday/Fitzgerald - when Halliday/Fitzgerald is drunk, abusive and ignoring his screenwriting responsibilities - Stearn is still awestruck by Halliday/Fitzgerald's preternatural writing talent. Halliday/Fitzgerald can, off the cuff, pen a passage or create a realistic atmosphere for a scene that shows genius is still alive inside the devitalized famous author.

That's really what Schulberg leaves us with at the end. Halliday/Fitzgerald was a man already broken by the 1929 crash when desperation landed him in the movie capital in the late thirties. Busted or not, Halliday/Fitzgerald was a horrible fit for Hollywood's time-management approach to writing, which wanted the literary shine of a famous author, but also wanted him to punch a time clock with its carpenters and cafeteria workers.

It wasn't going to work and ended up angering the studio and further breaking Halliday/Fitzgerald. Schulberg avers that literary geniuses, like all special horses, need to be allowed to run free even if, as with Halliday/Fitzgerald, they ultimately destroy themselves. For whatever time they do run, the brilliance they create and share with us is the point of their existence.

Schulberg, writing before Fitzgerald was rediscovered in English classes in the sixties and seventies, was prescient in his assessment of Fitzgerald's lasting artistic contribution. Fitzgerald's work is brilliant, even if cancel/woke culture will, probably, during its benighted reign, remove Fitzgerald's Jazz-Age genius from school curriculums.

For Fitzgerald fans and fans of Hollywood's studio system at the pinnacle of its power, *The Disenchanted* is an entertaining trip through a moment when these two separate threads had a brief and inauspicious intersection.

P.S., Written in 1950 about the twenties and thirties, the casual racism and antisemitism of both those times is jarring and dispiriting to our modern ears. In particular, the anti-semitism in *The Disenchanted*, which is a much larger part of the book than its racism, while repugnant, isn't Nazism, but shows a culture with a generally accepted negative attitude toward Jewish people. It's odd because this antisemitism was inconsistent and amorphous as, sometimes, Jewish people were integrated and accepted in certain places and, then, viciously excluded and denounced in others and all by the same people.


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## Fading Fast

*Breakfast at Tiffany's* by Truman Capote originally published in 1958

After decades of watching the movie and "hearing" the book is darker, I finally gave the original source material a read.

Yes, it is darker - the ending in particular - but the movie changed the story in a structural way that made its happier ending holistic to the movie's story and not just "slapped on" as many upbeat Hollywood endings are to darker books. Yet, the real surprise is that the one key change made for the movie's screenplay improved the story.

The broad outline of the story in both the book and movie are the same: "glamorous New York playgirl" Holly Golightly, really a reinvented "hillbilly," funds her outwardly expensive city lifestyle as, effectively, a high-priced courtesan. Additionally, she, somewhat obliviously, earns extra money masquerading as the niece of an incarcerated mob boss from whom she brings back "the weather report" to his "lawyer."

Holly keeps this fragile world together with a combination of innate guile, force of personality, looks and luck. She's somewhat helped in this effort by her new friend and upstairs neighbor Paul Varjak. Through Paul, we see that "free-spirit" Holy is really an emotionally struggling young woman looking to find a place for herself in the world.

When she was growing up, poor country-girl Holly's parents passed away early leaving her and her simpleton brother Fred to bounce in and out of a few abusive surrogate homes until fourteen-year-old Holly married a kindly, but much older man.

While we rightly denounce such marriages today, Holly genuinely loves and respects her husband, who also took in and supports her brother. Yet, her youth and adventurism inspires her to run away to the "glamour" of New York where we meet her living in an empty apartment except for the expensive accoutrement of her trade - lacy underwear and champagne, yes; furniture or food in the fridge, no.

In both the book and the movie, Holly's past resurfaces as her confused-but-decent husband, clearly out of his depth with New York City Holly, tries to bring her back home. At the same time, Holly's attempts to marry money - a sexually confused scion or a Brazilian diplomat - both fall through.

Then, when the Feds and media come knocking as the mob-boss connection surfaces, Holly's paper-mache world crumbles. All that's left is her next act as neither returning to her husband nor her old New York City life are on the table for shattered Holly.

In the book, Holly Golightly's friend and upstairs neighbor, Paul, is simply a struggling author and, cloaked a bit, gay. In a stroke of inspired story improvement (forced, one assumes, by the Motion Picture Production Code), Paul's movie version is a gigolo. Like Holly, he supports himself in a posh nook of the sex trade where wealthy older New Yorkers pay young, struggling, good-looking New Yorkers for sex and to be arm candy.

This duality in the movie creates a wonderfully engaging dynamic and immediate bond between Holly and Paul that holds them together in a way that never fully develops in the book. Maybe, reading the book after the movie drives that view, but the book feels somewhat empty as, without a relationship to center it, the Holly Golightly story in the novel lacks the movie's more-compelling story arc.

At the end of the book, Holly appears further lost and speeding to embittered. But in the movie, as Paul and Holly hold a mirror up to each other, they both begin to see the corrosive effect the sex-for-money trade is having on their lives and self respect. They also start to see the benefits of genuinely caring for someone and having someone care for them, not just for sex or money.

Sure, it's a much-less-dark message and ending in the movie, but it's also a believable story of personal growth. Holly and Paul start as shallow "kids" looking for an easy route to money, but end up seeing the value of building something real even if it's harder and takes longer.

Away from the story itself, and as in the movie, the book has a very stereotypical period view of the mannerism and lifestyle of gays and lesbians. It's not one of rancor, anger or hate, that of course existed too, but sort of a de facto "their different and funny" view.

For these, mainly, decent in their day, liberal New York and Hollywood types, this view results in the casual use of derisive homosexual comments, but otherwise a passive acceptance of these "differences." While, rightfully, an unacceptable attitude by today's standards, it also reflects a grayer and more-nuanced societal view of the fifties than is often portrayed in modern period books and movies.

Not speaking to every single line or scene, but *Mad Men* was a modern period show that got this attitude more right than wrong as many of the characters had a flippancy toward homosexuals reflected in their mocking jokes and comments, but, beyond that, a live-and-let-live attitude, which is what one often sees and reads in books from the time.

There was violence against gays and homosexuality was a crime back then - all horrible things - but in books and movies like *Breakfast at Tiffany's, *you also see that many didn't have a hostile attitude toward homosexuals. Also tossed into this mix, in the book, Holly expresses some very forward-looking gender-bending views about women or men choosing to love people from the same or opposite sex if so inclined. Nothing was ever as black and white as our thumbnail history of a period suggests.

All these jumbled* Breakfast at Tiffany's* fifties' views on sexuality are confused, but honest in a way that isn't allowed today. Now, everyone is supposed to think about it all in one prescribed way, which is difficult to keep up with, in part, because the "approved" landing spot keeps moving.

Also, and there's nothing to say about this that we don't already sadly know and feel, but just an alert, the "N word" is used a few times in the book.

Despite being a rare example of a movie improving on the book, the book is still well worth the quick read for its more direct look at fifties sexuality and prejudices in a way that is tamped down, overall, in the movie. You also get a fuller view of Holly's background and motivation. Sadly, though, in the book, there's no Holly Golightly early morning visit - clad in evening gown with coffee and danish in hand - to Tiffany's windows.

N.B. How's this for an adumbration of social-media envy to come. This is how Holly's country husband explains to Paul why a young impressionable Holly left his decent home for the glamour of New York City: "We must've had a hundred dollars worth of magazines come into that house. And ask me, that's what done it. Looking at show-off pictures. Reading dreams. That's what started her walking down the road."


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## eagle2250

Excellent writing as always and an interesting and very informative comparison/contrast between the film versus the written versions of the story. Adumbration: Truth be known...I had to look it up...I like that , learning something new every day!  Thank you, my friend.


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## eagle2250

This past weekend I finished reading the second book in David Baldacci's Atlee Pine series, A Minute to midnioght. As you may recall, Atlee Pine is a female FBI agent whose twin sister had been kidnapped and probably killed when the girls were just six years old. After the stress of not knowing for sure happened to her sister contributes to her almost beating to death a child rapist and murderer that Atlee had apprehended, her FBI supervisor directed that Atlee take some time off and find the answers to those questions about her sister that are so clouding her judgement and get her personal "shit in a bucket," before it results in an abrupt and untimely end to her FBI career. 

Atlee and her assistant, Carol Blume set off for the small Arkansas town where she lived with her mother, father and twinn sister when her twin sister, Mercy, was abducted and taken away. As Atlee opens her personal investigation into a crime that occurred 32 years ago Atlee and Carol run head-on into a series of apparent serial killings that are taking place present day, in that small Arkansas town.. By the time the story ends, the 'thought-to-be' serial;murders are solved and the bad guys either killed or caught, Atlee has discovewred that her father was not her father, her mother had been a world class madel at the age of 16 and after tiring of modeling had become a mole for law enforcement investigating the New York based mob/Mafia. She and her husband had come to Arkansas through the US Marshall's Service Witness Protection Program and they apparently blew it. Atlee is left still holding the bag and she and Carol on their way to New Jersey on the trail of the mob enforcer who apparently committed this unthinkable crime against SA Agent Pine and her family! 

Now it's on to the Novel "Daylight" ...the next volume in this series. Can I hear a yahoo foe Baldacci?


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## Fading Fast

*The Pat Hobby Stories* by F. Scott Fitzgerald originally published as serialized short stories from 1939-1942

After reading the excellent roman a clef of F. Scott Fitzgerald's time in Hollywood, *The Disenchanted* (comments here:  #898 ), I needed to read something by Fitzgerald himself. *The Pat Hobby Stories* were written in a hybrid format during Fitzgerald's time in Hollywood. I learned this reading the introduction after I finished the book, as I usually do, because I like to form my own impressions.

Fitzgerald started writing these short stories simply for money. The man made a ton in the twenties, yet, by the thirties, he had spent even more and was struggling to pay off debt and meet his wife's hospital bills, so he was always "short." Despite this motive and pressure, by the second or third Pat Hobby story, Fitzgerald began to see these tales and the character of Pat Hobby as a continuous "portrait" of a man he wanted to explore artistically, beyond simply grinding them out for a buck.

Unfortunately, while Fitzgerald was creating a holistic view of Pat Hobby, time pressure (he was working his studio job during the week) and his premature death prevented him from finishing the effort. Still, read in one collection, as in *The Pat Hobby Stories*, they are an engaging and different way to "meet" a character and see a narrow sleeve of thirties Hollywood.

Consistent with the style of the time, each story has a "twist" or "surprise" ending, which can feel modestly hokey today. These were, in a way, TV episodes in a pre-TV age. A tired worker could sit down at night with a magazine, read a short story, get a laugh, turn the TV off, um, put the magazine down, and go to bed.

*In The Pat Hobby Stories*, not only do you meet Pat Hobby, an all but failed script writer for the studios, but you also get a glance inside Hollywood in the thirties. Fitzgerald's talent at seeing the nuances, contradictions and emotions behind the facade of business and personal relationships is on full display.

Pat Hobby, once a reasonably successful writer during the silent era of filmmaking, owing more to being in the right place at the right time than having any great talent, is now, by the late thirties, struggling to stay employed, find a place to flop at night and keep the repo man at bay from his dilapidated car.

Pat is not a likable or honest guy. Part of the fun in these stories is seeing a low-rent grifter try to steal an idea from a fellow writer, take credit for someone else's work after the fact, cage liquor from anyone (he's good at it), borrow money, also, from anyone, even people he just met, hit on younger women who have no interest in him and, the best of all, be sincerely offended when he's called out, as he often is, doing any of these things. Pat only gets away with all this as he appears more harmless than meanspirited.

Along the way, you watch Pat try to keep a toe-hold in the studio system where, even in his diminished state, he can still get paid decent money if they'll only "put him on salary for a few weeks." Of course, once they do, he finds a way to offend his bosses and coworkers by not doing his job, showing up late and/or drunk and, in general, pushing people's buttons. So why do they kinda keep helping him?

If you came into the workplace after the 1980s, it will be hard to appreciate that there was a time when some companies took an uneven paternalistic view of their long-time employees, even the lazy and disgruntled ones. So, from story to story, you watch Pat play a sort of emotional blackmail on the few old-time bosses around from his better days. While they know he's doing it, they still cave in now and then, only to regret it not much later.

As all of this is going on, a picture of a Hollywood studio in the 1930s emerges. Even in the Depression, it's a successful business, but less so than in the twenties, which has everyone nervous about his or her job, all the time. Writers feel unappreciated by directors, who feel unappreciated by producers, who feel unappreciated by the "New York Money" that is the real power behind Hollywood.

Actors are seen more as aliens to the system. They are respected and feared when on top, while laughed at behind their backs, or worse, when in decline. The "studio's bookie" acts as an _éminence grise_ who serves as a payday lender, the nexus of the studio's grapevine and, yes, a way to get some money down on Wild Night in the fifth at Santa Anita for everyone from the cafeteria worker to the top executive in gambling-crazed Hollywood.

It's a shame Fitzgerald didn't live long enough to give reasonably benign scammer Pat Hobby a fuller treatment as he's a heck of a thirties kinda-sorta antihero or stock character (think Runyonesque). For fan's of the era's comic strip *Gasoline Alley*, Pat Hobby is an aging Wilmer who's still scamming, but with less asperity and conviction. Possibly, time and life grinds down the sharp edges of even the office miscreant.


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## Fading Fast

*What Makes Sammy Run?* by Budd Schulberg originally published in 1941

Sammy Glick is the ultimate corporate political animal who gets ahead by any means possible. People, relationships, deals, projects, ideas, friendships and his personal life are all just transactions to be leveraged or discarded to advance his career.

What makes Budd Schulberg's fictional Sammy Glick particularly exhausting and successful is he's also smart and hard working. Many Glicks are lazy and, basically, stupid, but have enough craftiness to achieve some initial success. Eventually, though, their lack of effort, brains and knowledge stop their advance and, when the gods are smiling, can even end their careers.

But if a Glick does the work and has the brains, combined with his do-say-and-screw-anyone ethics, we're faced with the makings of a truly successful sociopath. Sammy Glick, in Schulberg's page-turner, over-the-top novel about a young Hollywood executive phenom, is a sociopath.

Glick's amoral singular focus on success was forged in the early twentieth century's Lower East Side Jewish ghetto of his youth. He saw "weak" and honest men like his father made into suckers by crooks and politicians, while Glick himself was bullied in school by the stronger boys who succeeded by ignoring the rules.

By the time teenager Glick, now a newspaper office boy, meets the smug conscience of the book (and, probably, author Schulberg's fictional doppelganger), columnist Al Manhein, he's already thinking three steps ahead as he sees the senior newspaper men as "suckers" for working for years to make $50 a week.

Manhein is, at first, amused and bemused by this boy tornado, but when Glick somehow pushes his way into writing a column that cuts into Manhein's column's space, he realizes this kid is something malevolently unusual.

Glick, using friends and colleagues, spinning yarns and, pretty much, stealing a buddy's manuscript, jumps from New York columnist to Hollywood screenwriter in a giant leap, despite having limited story-writing talent. It's a move that also jumps his pay by about five-hundred percent, meaning five times what a newspaper man makes - score one for Glick.

Manhein, shortly afterwards, follows Sammy to Hollywood where the boy genius is learning the "picture" game of self promotion while leveraging other writers' work. Along the way, Glick has also left a few broken hearts as his promises to women are just more empty Glick sophistry.

Anyone who has worked in a corporation will recognize Hollywood Sammy Glick. He learns the lingo and the key players while managing up with energy and precision. He also befriends a few lower-level, talented employees who have no people or self-promotional skills - people whose work he can take credit for. He leverages that mix into a quick ascent of the corporate ladder. His only belief and care is himself, but one of his talents is manipulating others to believe he cares about them.

While Manhein sanctimoniously huffs and puffs his displeasure, Glick shoots to the top. From writer, to producer of B movies, to assistant to the studio head - whom Glick stabs in the back in only months - to studio head himself, it's a dizzyingly quick ride fueled by lies, deceptions, self promotion, cunning and plenty of hard work and some talent.

It is enjoyably frightening to see Glick gain confidence, prestige, money, possessions (cars, houses, a manservant, etc.) and women, while honest and reasonably talented Manhein struggles to produce quality work inside the studio "system."

Along the way, we get a pretty good peek inside that system, which is, basically, Hollywood companies backed by New York money that are trying to spit out movies with widget-like regularity by pushing writers to produce screenplays, not literature, on demand.

To be sure, that's a writer's (author Schulberg's) view, as the other angle is if the "machine" didn't spit out profitable movies regularly, there would be no out-sized paycheck for writers like Manheim (Schulberg).

While Manheim is confident that all evil springs forth from the Glicks of the world, a less self-righteous author might see them as just another challenge in a world full of struggles. Sometimes a Sammy Glick succeeds; sometimes one doesn't - so what?

The Manheims/Schulbergs of the world are so confident in their moral superiority, they never stop to see their own hypocrisy. Yes, they want Hollywood's better pay (than newspaper work), but then pompously denounce the hand that feeds them for wanting scripts that put bodies in movie-theater seats instead of art for art's sake.

Schulberg is a talented writer who understands the sinews of Hollywood and human nature. In *What Makes Sammy Run?*, he limns a frighteningly wonderful portrait of a man on a mission to advance himself at all costs. He also reveals a bit more about his own jealousies and elitism than he probably intended.

N.B. *What Makes Sammy Run?* also provides a brief insider's look at the newspaper business in the forties when it was a good solid career where one didn't need a college degree. Many reporters, even those with their own bylines, had worked themselves up from office boy. Today, you probably need a degree in journalism just to get a foot in the door to a field I'd advise any sane person to run away from.


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## eagle2250

Fading Fast said:


> View attachment 58639
> 
> *What Makes Sammy Run?* by Budd Schulberg originally published in 1941
> 
> Sammy Glick is the ultimate corporate political animal who gets ahead by any means possible. People, relationships, deals, projects, ideas, friendships and his personal life are all just transactions to be leveraged or discarded to advance his career.
> 
> What makes Budd Schulberg's fictional Sammy Glick particularly exhausting and successful is he's also smart and hard working. Many Glicks are lazy and, basically, stupid, but have enough craftiness to achieve some initial success. Eventually, though, their lack of effort, brains and knowledge stop their advance and, when the gods are smiling, can even end their careers.
> 
> But if a Glick does the work and has the brains, combined with his do-say-and-screw-anyone ethics, we're faced with the makings of a truly successful sociopath. Sammy Glick, in Schulberg's page-turner, over-the-top novel about a young Hollywood executive phenom, is a sociopath.
> 
> Glick's amoral singular focus on success was forged in the early twentieth century's Lower East Side Jewish ghetto of his youth. He saw "weak" and honest men like his father made into suckers by crooks and politicians, while Glick himself was bullied in school by the stronger boys who succeeded by ignoring the rules.
> 
> By the time teenager Glick, now a newspaper office boy, meets the smug conscience of the book (and, probably, author Schulberg's fictional doppelganger), columnist Al Manhein, he's already thinking three steps ahead as he sees the senior newspaper men as "suckers" for working for years to make $50 a week.
> 
> Manhein is, at first, amused and bemused by this boy tornado, but when Glick somehow pushes his way into writing a column that cuts into Manhein's column's space, he realizes this kid is something malevolently unusual.
> 
> Glick, using friends and colleagues, spinning yarns and, pretty much, stealing a buddy's manuscript, jumps from New York columnist to Hollywood screenwriter in a giant leap, despite having limited story-writing talent. It's a move that also jumps his pay by about five-hundred percent, meaning five times what a newspaper man makes - score one for Glick.
> 
> Manhein, shortly afterwards, follows Sammy to Hollywood where the boy genius is learning the "picture" game of self promotion while leveraging other writers' work. Along the way, Glick has also left a few broken hearts as his promises to women are just more empty Glick sophistry.
> 
> Anyone who has worked in a corporation will recognize Hollywood Sammy Glick. He learns the lingo and the key players while managing up with energy and precision. He also befriends a few lower-level, talented employees who have no people or self-promotional skills - people whose work he can take credit for. He leverages that mix into a quick ascent of the corporate ladder. His only belief and care is himself, but one of his talents is manipulating others to believe he cares about them.
> 
> While Manhein sanctimoniously huffs and puffs his displeasure, Glick shoots to the top. From writer, to producer of B movies, to assistant to the studio head - whom Glick stabs in the back in only months - to studio head himself, it's a dizzyingly quick ride fueled by lies, deceptions, self promotion, cunning and plenty of hard work and some talent.
> 
> It is enjoyably frightening to see Glick gain confidence, prestige, money, possessions (cars, houses, a manservant, etc.) and women, while honest and reasonably talented Manhein struggles to produce quality work inside the studio "system."
> 
> Along the way, we get a pretty good peek inside that system, which is, basically, Hollywood companies backed by New York money that are trying to spit out movies with widget-like regularity by pushing writers to produce screenplays, not literature, on demand.
> 
> To be sure, that's a writer's (author Schulberg's) view, as the other angle is if the "machine" didn't spit out profitable movies regularly, there would be no out-sized paycheck for writers like Manheim (Schulberg).
> 
> While Manheim is confident that all evil springs forth from the Glicks of the world, a less self-righteous author might see them as just another challenge in a world full of struggles. Sometimes a Sammy Glick succeeds; sometimes one doesn't - so what?
> 
> The Manheims/Schulbergs of the world are so confident in their moral superiority, they never stop to see their own hypocrisy. Yes, they want Hollywood's better pay (than newspaper work), but then pompously denounce the hand that feeds them for wanting scripts that put bodies in movie-theater seats instead of art for art's sake.
> 
> Schulberg is a talented writer who understands the sinews of Hollywood and human nature. In *What Makes Sammy Run?*, he limns a frighteningly wonderful portrait of a man on a mission to advance himself at all costs. He also reveals a bit more about his own jealousies and elitism than he probably intended.
> 
> N.B. *What Makes Sammy Run?* also provides a brief insider's look at the newspaper business in the forties when it was a good solid career where one didn't need a college degree. Many reporters, even those with their own bylines, had worked themselves up from office boy. Today, you probably need a degree in journalism just to get a foot in the door to a field I'd advise any sane person to run away from.


Another great review. I'm going to have to follow up on this one. Amazon offers it in both book and four star DVD version(s). Having read the book, do you have an opinion on whether reading the book and/or watching the movie would be preferable in this instance?


----------



## Fading Fast

eagle2250 said:


> Another great review. I'm going to have to follow up on this one. Amazon offers it in both book and four star DVD version(s). Having read the book, do you have an opinion on whether reading the book and/or watching the movie would be preferable in this instance?


I haven't seen the movie - but appreciate the heads up and will look for it now. I would encourage you to read the book as it's a fun page turner.


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## eagle2250

Late last month, my ravenous eyes chewed through the third and possibly, final volume of David Baldacci's Atlee Pine series. Titled "Daylight," this book continues female FBI agent Atlee Pine's quest to discover the fate of her Twin sister, Mercy, kidnapped and possibly murdered more than 30 years ago. At this point the quest takes Atlee to Trenton, New Jersey the home of record of the brother of a mob enforcer whom Pine believes abducted and disposed of her sister, so many years ago. The bad guy is dead, but surviving members of his family are still living in the area and still involved in their lives of crime. By the time Atlee is done mucking around, all of the bad guys surviving relatives are dead, except for the man's Alzheimer stricken widow, confined in a nursing home. However Agent Pine is able to discover through the recently deceased that her sister was abducted, but not killed. She was given to a mentally disturbed couple of village idiots who raised Mercy to adulthood, chained like a mad dog, behind a heavy wooden door in a small cave on a wooded hillside. Mercy had eventually managed to escape and apparently killed her mentally ill keepers and, present day, appears to be on the run. Now if this isn't an opening for volume four of the Atlee Pine series, I don't know what is!

This is a good/fast read. Reading David Baldacci's writings is highly addictive...be careful! LOL.


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## Fading Fast

*February Hill* by Victoria Lincoln originally published in 1934

What does a family look like from the worst part of the wrong side of the tracks? Victoria Lincoln pens a tale about an odd family - mother, father, grandmother, three daughters and a son - who live in a glorified shack supported by the mother's slightly upscaled prostitution, one daughter's job at the nearby cannery and the small-time larceny of another daughter.

The father is a completely non-functioning alcoholic while the son reads classic plays and books to escape his crazy world. The youngest, a grammar-school-aged daughter, somehow rarely goes to school, but instead spends her days learning how to curse and eat chocolate (seemingly just about the only food this family buys) from her "retired" prostitute grandmother.

After setting up these bowling pins, Lincoln then knocks down or scatters each one to see how the family will survive. One daughter, Dorothy, the cannery worker, can't stand her family, views her mother and, really, all of them with disgust and moves out of the house without warning when she gets married. She hopes they'll suffer without her income and even plots acts of revenge after she's left. Yes, she's a joy.

Middle daughter Jenny, the casual grifter (she does it occasionally when the family is short or she wants some small thing), loves her family and seems to only marginally realize how strange their existence is. But that reality is forced on her when she falls in love with a young man who, despite making his living as a rum runner during Prohibition, makes it clear he wants no part of, what is to him, her embarrassing and immoral family.

The son, Joel, is offered the "opportunity" to live with his paternal grandmother who has both money and position. While this seems auspicious on the surface, the alcoholic father believes his mother's meddling and moralizing drove him to alcoholism. Despite this fear, and despite some real problems with the grandmother, the family sends Joel, who is clearly a book-smart kid, to her as they realize it is his one shot at a real education.

Finally, we have the glue of the family, the prostitute mother, Minna, who is worried about aging out of her "profession," but somehow is the cheeriest of the lot. In her own way, she is a super mom and wife who keeps the house going financially and ties everyone together emotionally as one crisis after another rocks their fragile existence.

Minna, though, is also proffered an "out" when one of her clients, a nice wealthy man, offers to marry her and support her family. While Minna considers this after her husband dies, even going so far as to visit him in Texas with her youngest daughter, she decides against it.

In part, she didn't like that her daughter was becoming greedy for things. Okay, most people would see no longer living in poverty, supported by illegal activities, as a plus, while considering the need to put limits on a young child's avarice as part of parenting. But Minna, instead, returns to February Hill.

Yet it's Jenny's story that provides the central conflict of the book as she tries to reconcile the demand of her, again, rum-runner husband to distance herself from a family she loves. It highlights the, perhaps, hypocrisy of society that looks down on this family while ignoring its own limitations and failings.

That's fair, but this is also fair: stealing, as the daughter does, is not the same as prostitution or rum running, both crimes that many believed simply skirted bad laws in the first place. It's one thing to steal in a moment of abject desperation (a la Jean Valjean) and another as a casual way of life (a la daughter Jenny). Despite her cuteness and general decency, Jenny is still taking someone else's work - their money for food, shelter, clothing and medicine - for her own selfish needs.

(Spoiler alert) After Jenny's husband is killed by the authorities, she returns home to the smaller remaining brood of mother, grandmother and youngest daughter. Author Lincoln presents this as filial love winning out in the end, but one wonders how long a family held together by prostitution and thievery - a family that doesn't educate its children - will survive.

I found my way to this quirky book after seeing the movie *Primrose Path* (comments here:  #681  ) which is very loosely based on *February Hill*. Not surprisingly, much of the book was censored for the movie, leaving a lighter and happier tale for the big screen.


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## eagle2250

A detailed and well thought out review of the book, which goes a long way towards unraveling and imposing good order to what sounds to be a rather disjointed story line in the book. Based on the tenor of your spoiler alert, near the end of your review, it seems the book failed to come to a satisfactory conclusion , leaving many great questions unanswered..,yes, no? Do you recommend February Hill as a good read? Thanks for another exceptional review.


----------



## Fading Fast

eagle2250 said:


> A detailed and well thought out review of the book, which goes a long way towards unraveling and imposing good order to what sounds to be a rather disjointed story line in the book. Based on the tenor of your spoiler alert, near the end of your review, it seems the book failed to come to a satisfactory conclusion , leaving many great questions unanswered..,yes, no? Do you recommend February Hill as a good read? Thanks for another exceptional review.


Your questions are insightful. The book, pretty much, didn't have a conclusion or closing opinion as it just faded out with the smaller family in place. To be fair, the author could say her book was a "slice of life" not a plot-driven narrative. IMO, the book needed more of an opinion, but that's just me.

As to recommending it, I'm on the fence, but would say there are many other books worth your effort before *February Hill*. If you want a good '30s family drama read, I'd recommend *Kitty Foyle* well ahead of *February Hill* (comments here:  #794 )


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## Fading Fast

*Children of the Ritz*by Cornell Woolrich originally published in 1927

Cornell Woolrich was a popular Jazz Age novelist and, later, successful pulp fiction writer. His 1927 novel *Children of the Ritz* is about as Jazz Age and 1920s as it gets.

While the story is serviceable, a big part of the fun today of reading *Children of the Ritz* are all the period details that were current at the time: transoms, railroad flats, new "movie palaces," race-track bookies, dumb waiters, radios, ocean cruises and on and on. Everything has its filters and bias, even contemporaneous writing, but a 1920s novel is going to get you closer to the period than a modern period novel.

Beyond that, *Children of the Ritz* is a reasonably good page-turner where we meet Angela Pennington, of "The Pennington," an eighteen-year-old girl with too much money and time on her hands and way too little sense.

Pretty and self absorbed to the point of never passing a mirror without luxuriating in her own reflection, Angela develops a crush on the Pennington's new chauffeur, Dewey, right at the time her father's financial fortunes take a hard downturn.

Not coincidentally, when Dewey wins $50,000 in a crazy bit of luck at the racetrack, Angela agrees to marry him, who, at twenty six and from a humble background, seems to be the more mature one in the relationship.

Maybe he is, but neither of these "kids" really thought through what marriage would be like. Angela seems to view it as a transition from her father's bank account to Dewey's; whereas, Dewey seems to have married pretty Angela because she's, well, pretty and he found her cluelessness to the real world cute.

If you're thinking those are unstable reasons for a marriage, you'd be right as clueless Angela quickly spends more than Dewey can afford, so money arguments dominate their marriage from the start and never recede.

That's pretty much the story as, for the next year or so of their lives, we watch Angela buy all the expensive accoutrements of her old lifestyle as Dewey sees his windfall-filled bank account plummet, while his new wife makes no effort to be a real day-to-day wife.

Woolrich captures the clash of the two worlds - Angela's upper class one and Dewey's blue collar one - but he never really develops either character deeply enough for us to understand the why of it all.

Both float through the story almost as cliches: she's the spoiled rich girl and he's the put-upon former chauffeur who doesn't understand her spendthrift ways. But why do they stay together, especially after Angela's family recovers most of its money? Why does he fight so hard to keep her despite his anger at, well, pretty much everything she does? Why does selfish Angela, despite mocking his "common" manners and outlook, still want to be with this man?

The climax revolves around Angela's potential affair with a handsome older man "of her class," which could provide an easy out for her from her troubled marriage. But neither she nor Dewey seem to really want to end the marriage as we are supposed to believe, deep down, they are still in love. It's hard to even know what that word means in the context of their always-combative marriage, since we never really understand what motivates either of them.

It's an uneven novel with several loose ends never tied up, but it's still a fun quick read. For us today, and probably even back then, the real joy of *Children of the Ritz* is its trip through Jazz Age New York City. From nightclubs with live goldfish in water-filled glass tables to bootleg gin to late-edition newspapers to Jazz in Harlem, reading Woolrich puts you right in the middle of the glitzy part of the 1920s.


----------



## Fading Fast

*Summer of '49* by David Halberstam originally published in 1989

While it drifts into nostalgia here and there, *Summer of '49* is an engaging account of the early years of the post-war Yankees-Red Sox rivalry with the 1949 pennant race providing the book's pinion. That pennant-race story is wrapped inside an insightful look at baseball's expansive place in American culture in the 1940s.

You don't have to be a box-score fanatic to enjoy *Summer of '49*, as a casual fan will find much to like, but if baseball isn't your thing at all, there are other books to read.

Before Halberstam gets to the 1949 Yankees-Red Sox down-to-the-wire pennant race, he takes a casual look at the more-recent history of baseball and the two clubs to establish the zeitgeist of the teams, the sport and the larger culture going into that season.

The Yankees, with all the lore (even then) of past dynasties, anchored by names like Ruth and Gehrig, versus the closely-tied-to-their-home-city Red Sox, with its passionate fans, had, by 1949, already developed into an intense rivalry. It blossomed at a time when most boys (and some girls) grew up playing some version of baseball while following their teams and heroes with a singular passion hard to imagine with our present-day plethora of entertainment options.

Kids in the summer would listen for hours to the, then, mainly day games on radios often placed at odd angles to improve reception. Halberstam argues the relationship a fan develops with the sport listening to it on the radio is more intense than watching on TV. As a kid who did both regularly in the 1970s, I'd agree.

Newspapers too - waiting on street corners for the latest edition and then pouring over the box scores - absorbed many hours of these young fan's summers. A select few of these boys grew up to be players, while most grew up to be lifelong fans.

Those who did become players might have come up through a series of semi-pro leagues or as "bonus babies," promising young prospects that, by Major League Baseball rules, had to go straight to the professional teams (that was a new one to me).

With management in a much stronger negotiating position and endorsements a sliver of what they are today, baseball, the game itself, commanded much more of the players' attention. Less money also meant more camaraderie as, other than the top stars, these were men, while paid more than the average American, with middle-class worries.

Even the travel, mainly by train, with air travel for teams just starting, had the players spending many of their off-hours together, furthering the team's bond. Along for those enervating rides were the sportswriters whose expenses were subsidized by the management of the teams they covered.

That acceptable-in-its-day conflict of interest and the era's more-reserved press culture resulted in a symbiotic press-team-management tripartite where the sides fought a bit, but only inside the lines. There were fewer gratuitous and embarrassing stories written and more player hagiography.

Unacceptable to us today, but in 1949, the baseball press, overall, protected the players and the game itself. Much, much worse than that, though, was the era's and sport's very ugly inveterate racism.

While it's the conceit of many young today to believe that they are the first to speak up and force the country to look at its racist past, Halberstam, in a mainly otherwise positive look at the sport, writing over three decades ago and like many others at that time, doesn't flinch from identifying and denouncing the ugly prejudice of the Yankees and Red Sox management of that era.

Those two teams' unwillingness to embrace the period's aborning entrance of black players into the majors is revealed as nothing more than unmitigated racism. Yes, eventually, this hurt the teams (boo-hoo), but for the period, their repugnant attitude slowed the acceptance of black players into the league.

Sadly, notwithstanding the above, Halberstam isn't wrong in calling baseball the national pastime. The sport, then, was woven into the fabric of America in a way no sport or entertainment is today.

After framing baseball's place in 1949 America, Halberstam focuses on the players, managers, owners and games themselves that made the Red Sox-Yankees 1949 pennant race special.

The players, including the big names we know, like Joe Dimaggio or Ted Williams, get their deserved attention, but so do lesser known players like Dimaggio's glasses-wearing brother, Dom, an outstanding outfielder for the Red Sox.

It's not new information to baseball fans, but Halberstam's reveal of Williams as an intense and almost professorial student of hitting - so much so, he openly shared his secrets with opposing teams' batters (to Red Sox management's displeasure) - wonderfully personalizes the man known as The Splendid Splinter.

Odd-ball one-season phenom pitchers, undersized stars like Yankees shortstop Phil Rizzuto, tightfisted-and-narrow-minded Yankees general manager George Weiss (who only saw radio and TV as reducing gate receipts, a classic forest-from-the-trees error), private and shy Red Sox owner Tom Yawkey, restaurateur Toots Shor (owner of the unofficial bar of NYC baseball), possibly, the first player agent, Frank Scott, and others are all part of the pennant race story.

The 1949 pennant race itself, which only becomes the singular focus of *Summer of '49* toward the end, is a classic with the Red Sox making an historic run from twelve games back in July to go ahead of the Yankees by one game with a two-games Sox-Bombers series left to end the season and determine the winner. Hollywood couldn't have scripted it better.

The *Summer of '49* is an enjoyable trip through a slice of baseball's history. It admirably shows many of baseball's warts, yet, overall, it is an upbeat look at the national pastime in its post-war glory days.


----------



## Vecchio Vespa

My wife has perfected the gentle art of plowing through murder mysteries and loves it when she chances upon a good and lengthy series. The Longmire series by Craig Johnson was her latest find. I can read as quickly as most but find very little time to do so. She has convinced me to jump into this series. We also tried one episode of the series on Netflix. She said it bore little relationship to the books and ought to be avoided.

Walt Longmire is a widower, Viet Nam veteran sheriff in a very sparsely populated county in Wyoming. His best friend, Henry Standing Bear, is also a veteran and runs a bar, the Red Pony, so named because of his love of Steinbeck. The other characters are painted beautifully. This is ensemble cast at its best.


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## eagle2250

Fading Fast said:


> View attachment 60842
> 
> *Summer of '49* by David Halberstam originally published in 1989
> 
> While it drifts into nostalgia here and there, *Summer of '49* is an engaging account of the early years of the post-war Yankees-Red Sox rivalry with the 1949 pennant race providing the book's pinion. That pennant-race story is wrapped inside an insightful look at baseball's expansive place in American culture in the 1940s.
> 
> You don't have to be a box-score fanatic to enjoy *Summer of '49*, as a casual fan will find much to like, but if baseball isn't your thing at all, there are other books to read.
> 
> Before Halberstam gets to the 1949 Yankees-Red Sox down-to-the-wire pennant race, he takes a casual look at the more-recent history of baseball and the two clubs to establish the zeitgeist of the teams, the sport and the larger culture going into that season.
> 
> The Yankees, with all the lore (even then) of past dynasties, anchored by names like Ruth and Gehrig, versus the closely-tied-to-their-home-city Red Sox, with its passionate fans, had, by 1949, already developed into an intense rivalry. It blossomed at a time when most boys (and some girls) grew up playing some version of baseball while following their teams and heroes with a singular passion hard to imagine with our present-day plethora of entertainment options.
> 
> Kids in the summer would listen for hours to the, then, mainly day games on radios often placed at odd angles to improve reception. Halberstam argues the relationship a fan develops with the sport listening to it on the radio is more intense than watching on TV. As a kid who did both regularly in the 1970s, I'd agree.
> 
> Newspapers too - waiting on street corners for the latest edition and then pouring over the box scores - absorbed many hours of these young fan's summers. A select few of these boys grew up to be players, while most grew up to be lifelong fans.
> 
> Those who did become players might have come up through a series of semi-pro leagues or as "bonus babies," promising young prospects that, by Major League Baseball rules, had to go straight to the professional teams (that was a new one to me).
> 
> With management in a much stronger negotiating position and endorsements a sliver of what they are today, baseball, the game itself, commanded much more of the players' attention. Less money also meant more camaraderie as, other than the top stars, these were men, while paid more than the average American, with middle-class worries.
> 
> Even the travel, mainly by train, with air travel for teams just starting, had the players spending many of their off-hours together, furthering the team's bond. Along for those enervating rides were the sportswriters whose expenses were subsidized by the management of the teams they covered.
> 
> That acceptable-in-its-day conflict of interest and the era's more-reserved press culture resulted in a symbiotic press-team-management tripartite where the sides fought a bit, but only inside the lines. There were fewer gratuitous and embarrassing stories written and more player hagiography.
> 
> Unacceptable to us today, but in 1949, the baseball press, overall, protected the players and the game itself. Much, much worse than that, though, was the era's and sport's very ugly inveterate racism.
> 
> While it's the conceit of many young today to believe that they are the first to speak up and force the country to look at its racist past, Halberstam, in a mainly otherwise positive look at the sport, writing over three decades ago and like many others at that time, doesn't flinch from identifying and denouncing the ugly prejudice of the Yankees and Red Sox management of that era.
> 
> Those two teams' unwillingness to embrace the period's aborning entrance of black players into the majors is revealed as nothing more than unmitigated racism. Yes, eventually, this hurt the teams (boo-hoo), but for the period, their repugnant attitude slowed the acceptance of black players into the league.
> 
> Sadly, notwithstanding the above, Halberstam isn't wrong in calling baseball the national pastime. The sport, then, was woven into the fabric of America in a way no sport or entertainment is today.
> 
> After framing baseball's place in 1949 America, Halberstam focuses on the players, managers, owners and games themselves that made the Red Sox-Yankees 1949 pennant race special.
> 
> The players, including the big names we know, like Joe Dimaggio or Ted Williams, get their deserved attention, but so do lesser known players like Dimaggio's glasses-wearing brother, Dom, an outstanding outfielder for the Red Sox.
> 
> It's not new information to baseball fans, but Halberstam's reveal of Williams as an intense and almost professorial student of hitting - so much so, he openly shared his secrets with opposing teams' batters (to Red Sox management's displeasure) - wonderfully personalizes the man known as The Splendid Splinter.
> 
> Odd-ball one-season phenom pitchers, undersized stars like Yankees shortstop Phil Rizzuto, tightfisted-and-narrow-minded Yankees general manager George Weiss (who only saw radio and TV as reducing gate receipts, a classic forest-from-the-trees error), private and shy Red Sox owner Tom Yawkey, restaurateur Toots Shor (owner of the unofficial bar of NYC baseball), possibly, the first player agent, Frank Scott, and others are all part of the pennant race story.
> 
> The 1949 pennant race itself, which only becomes the singular focus of *Summer of '49* toward the end, is a classic with the Red Sox making an historic run from twelve games back in July to go ahead of the Yankees by one game with a two-games Sox-Bombers series left to end the season and determine the winner. Hollywood couldn't have scripted it better.
> 
> The *Summer of '49* is an enjoyable trip through a slice of baseball's history. It admirably shows many of baseball's warts, yet, overall, it is an upbeat look at the national pastime in its post-war glory days.


I'm one of those idiots that writes out their New Years resolutions each year and one of my carryover resolutions is my Reading List for the coming year. Truth be known, I'm so backed up on my reading list that I doubt I will be adding The Summer of '49' to that list. However I did want to acknowledge that as it is with your movie reviews, your book reviews are so detailed, so well laid out and well organized and insightful that when read a book or view a movie after reading one of those reviews, I always get so much more information and yes, pleasure out of it than when I read or view a work, absent the advantage of one of your ever fabulous reviews. If I do get around to reading the Summer of '49' I'm sure I will enjoy it because I will be referring to the review above3 as my guide! Thanks again.


----------



## eagle2250

About a month ago I finished reading David Baldacci's most recent novel in his Memory Man series, titled Walk The Wire. In this one Amos Decker and his partner are in the oil fracking fields of northern Iowa, supposedly investigating the murder of a local prostitute hwo had been murdered, autopsied and butchered and stacked in a neat pile on the prarie to feed the local wolf pack. The investigation blossoms into a series of local murders involving community leaders and their families and international intrigue that has lead to the creation of secret stockpiles of chemo-biological weapons hidden beneath the Iowa prairies and threatened by the fracking operations that could result in mass casualties throughout much of Iowa. The case reaches such proportions and involves complications that the powers that be bring Blue Man, Will Robie and Jessica Reel (From Baldacci's Will Robie series) in to assist in keeping the threat contained and solving the mystery(s) that threaten mass casualties in Iowa. An absorbing yarn and a fast read...if you are like me, you won't put this book down until you have read the last word. Nuff said.


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## Fading Fast

*The Legend of Bagger Vance* by Steven Pressfield originally published in 1995

I purchased this book after seeing its enchanting movie (comments here:  #701 ), expecting the book to be better. While the core plot is the same in the book and the movie, the theme is so different in the book, it's not about "better" or "worse," but a different intent.

Author Steven Pressfield penned a story of Jesus Christ, as a humble caddie, coming to earth to save the soul of a WWI veteran suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. To be sure, that's an interpretation quite open to debate, but I saw a Christ story in this engaging tale.

Rannulph Junuh is the war hero whose battle trauma has left him shattered and directionless over a decade later. Once a young golf phenom, he now hangs around his dilapidated plantation drinking his days away with his workers and BaggerVance, an enigmatic and impressive man who speaks in a soft-but-attention-demanding tones about the philosophy of finding your place in the world.

It's now 1931 and the Depression is about to bankrupt the Krewe Island golf resort on the coast of Georgia. Owner Adele Invergordon hits on the idea of a match tournament between the two great golfers of the day: Bobby Jones and Walter Hagen. Her creditors and town officials will only approve the plan if a local golf hero will also play, which leads to Junuh.

After Junah rebuffs the invitation from the city officials to participate, Vance convinces Junuh that this is his opportunity to find, once again, both his golf and life game. With the tournament now on, professionals Jones and Hagen blast out to a commanding lead over struggling Junuh, while Georgians look on with horror and shame as their local hero falls all but helplessly behind.

Bagger Vance, till now inscrutable, begins to coach Junah not only as a traditional caddie, but with comments laced with Eastern spiritualism and New Testament forgiveness, expectations and personal responsibility.

As Junah all but collapses from the pressure of the match, metaphorically reaches rock bottom, Bagger Vance goes full-Christ on him opening up "The Field" to Junah - a sort of extra-dimensional view of the world that can take Junah on a trip through history or as a way to see "waves" of motion that make the world "clearer" in a metaphysical sense.

Bagger wants Junah to learn fighting the good fight with purity of heart is the point. The goal is to be true to yourself, or something like that as Vance often talks in gnomic riddles. Wrapped in there is Vance's expression of unconditional love for everyone. Sound familiar?

After delivering all this metaphysics, extra-dimensional insight, spiritualism and biblical echo to Junah, Junah, following a few more ups and down and facing an all but insuperable five-shot deficit with six holes remaining, feels it "click in" as he proceeds to play with pure heart and talent.

Pressfield clearly loves the game of golf as he writes with a passion and clarity that engages the non-golf fan in the competition and personal struggle of a high-profile professional match tournament.

His gripping account of the incredible last five holes reads as a Biblical battle between two professionals and a spiritually inspired amateur where all three play for the love of the game and the love of competition, but with no animus toward each other. Is that Pressfield's message - that man is on earth to do battle, but to battle with integrity and honor? Is the game of golf a metaphor for living life?

Maybe. There are a lot of possible interpretations of *The Legend of Bagger Vance* with, at least for this agnostic, the Christ parallel being the engaging and trenchant one.

What makes an author think he can pull off having Christ return to earth in 1931 as a caddie helping a mentally troubled veteran compete in a match golf tournament? The risk of trivializing the Christ story would scare off many writers, but credit Pressfield for taking a big leap of writing faith and pulling it off.

And what about the movie version? It's still a fun, charming trip back to 1931, which wraps a love story, inside a personal resurrection story, inside a golf tournament all shepherded forward by a pleasant guardian angel. The movie's a good but different and lighter tale than the thought-provoking Biblical sniper shot that Pressfield penned in his impressive novel.


----------



## Big T

Tiger at the Bar, by Chester Harris, a biography of Charles Margiotti. Margiotti was a regional politician and attorney in Western PA. Time frame is pre-depression to early 50's. Excellent read for those here that enjoy local politics, are lawyers or just enjoy non-fictional history.


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## eagle2250

Fading Fast said:


> View attachment 61474
> 
> *The Legend of Bagger Vance* by Steven Pressfield originally published in 1995
> 
> I purchased this book after seeing its enchanting movie (comments here:  #701 ), expecting the book to be better. While the core plot is the same in the book and the movie, the theme is so different in the book, it's not about "better" or "worse," but a different intent.
> 
> Author Steven Pressfield penned a story of Jesus Christ, as a humble caddie, coming to earth to save the soul of a WWI veteran suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. To be sure, that's an interpretation quite open to debate, but I saw a Christ story in this engaging tale.
> 
> Rannulph Junuh is the war hero whose battle trauma has left him shattered and directionless over a decade later. Once a young golf phenom, he now hangs around his dilapidated plantation drinking his days away with his workers and BaggerVance, an enigmatic and impressive man who speaks in a soft-but-attention-demanding tones about the philosophy of finding your place in the world.
> 
> It's now 1931 and the Depression is about to bankrupt the Krewe Island golf resort on the coast of Georgia. Owner Adele Invergordon hits on the idea of a match tournament between the two great golfers of the day: Bobby Jones and Walter Hagen. Her creditors and town officials will only approve the plan if a local golf hero will also play, which leads to Junuh.
> 
> After Junah rebuffs the invitation from the city officials to participate, Vance convinces Junuh that this is his opportunity to find, once again, both his golf and life game. With the tournament now on, professionals Jones and Hagen blast out to a commanding lead over struggling Junuh, while Georgians look on with horror and shame as their local hero falls all but helplessly behind.
> 
> Bagger Vance, till now inscrutable, begins to coach Junah not only as a traditional caddie, but with comments laced with Eastern spiritualism and New Testament forgiveness, expectations and personal responsibility.
> 
> As Junah all but collapses from the pressure of the match, metaphorically reaches rock bottom, Bagger Vance goes full-Christ on him opening up "The Field" to Junah - a sort of extra-dimensional view of the world that can take Junah on a trip through history or as a way to see "waves" of motion that make the world "clearer" in a metaphysical sense.
> 
> Bagger wants Junah to learn fighting the good fight with purity of heart is the point. The goal is to be true to yourself, or something like that as Vance often talks in gnomic riddles. Wrapped in there is Vance's expression of unconditional love for everyone. Sound familiar?
> 
> After delivering all this metaphysics, extra-dimensional insight, spiritualism and biblical echo to Junah, Junah, following a few more ups and down and facing an all but insuperable five-shot deficit with six holes remaining, feels it "click in" as he proceeds to play with pure heart and talent.
> 
> Pressfield clearly loves the game of golf as he writes with a passion and clarity that engages the non-golf fan in the competition and personal struggle of a high-profile professional match tournament.
> 
> His gripping account of the incredible last five holes reads as a Biblical battle between two professionals and a spiritually inspired amateur where all three play for the love of the game and the love of competition, but with no animus toward each other. Is that Pressfield's message - that man is on earth to do battle, but to battle with integrity and honor? Is the game of golf a metaphor for living life?
> 
> Maybe. There are a lot of possible interpretations of *The Legend of Bagger Vance* with, at least for this agnostic, the Christ parallel being the engaging and trenchant one.
> 
> What makes an author think he can pull off having Christ return to earth in 1931 as a caddie helping a mentally troubled veteran compete in a match golf tournament? The risk of trivializing the Christ story would scare off many writers, but credit Pressfield for taking a big leap of writing faith and pulling it off.
> 
> And what about the movie version? It's still a fun, charming trip back to 1931, which wraps a love story, inside a personal resurrection story, inside a golf tournament all shepherded forward by a pleasant guardian angel. The movie's a good but different and lighter tale than the thought-provoking Biblical sniper shot that Pressfield penned in his impressive novel.


While I have seen the Legend of Bagger Vance movie, I have not yet read the book. From your review it strikes me that while the movie placed more of an emphasis on humor, the book did more with the spiritual aspects/Biblical aspects of the story. In any event, it sounds like quite a good read, one which I'm going to have to add to my list! Thanks for a very thorough and very interesting review.


----------



## Fading Fast

eagle2250 said:


> While I have seen the Legend of Bagger Vance movie, I have not yet read the book. From your review it strikes me that while the movie placed more of an emphasis on humor, the book did more with the spiritual aspects/Biblical aspects of the story. In any event, it sounds like quite a good read, one which I'm going to have to add to my list! Thanks for a very thorough and very interesting review.


You summed up the differences well. I think you'll really enjoy this one. I look forward to hearing your comments after you read it.


----------



## eagle2250

Several months back our neighborhood book club selected the novel What She Left Behind, written by Ellen Marie Wiseman, as our monthly read. The novel is set in the early 1900's and continues to the final decade of the century, providing a shockingly clear indictment of mental health care in the USA during that period. The central character, Claire Cartwright, has grown up in the roaring 20's and has fallen in love with a dashingly handsome Italian immigrant. 

Raised in a house of privilege by well endowed, but overbearing parents she enrages her autocratic father when she declares she will have no part in the arranged marriage he has planned for her and will instead marry Bruno, the father of the baby she carries, but has kept a secret. Her over bearing father declares her a "nervous invalid" and commits her to a private mental hospital. When the family fortunes change, Claire is transferred to a State run mental house of horrors, where her baby is stolen from her by one of the psychiatric doctors and she spends the vast majority of the rest of her life subjected to a never ending series of horrors at the hands of corrupt and inept medical staff. 

The real value in this book is that based on background commentary provided the descriptions in the book leaves the reader with the understanding that the book provides a description of the mental health practices included in the book are pretty consistent with conditions that actually existed. The book does offer a happy ending of sorts, as Claire eventually reunites with the daughter that was stolen from her and lives her final days with that daughter! The book is an OK read, but with this one, a sense of responsibility to the book club made me read it.


----------



## Vecchio Vespa

I am enjoying Craig Johnson's Longmire series.


----------



## Fading Fast

*Haven Point* by Virginia Hume published in 2021

Every summer I try one or two of the current and popular "beach reads." The trick for me is finding one, leaning against the wont of most new fiction today, not overly imbued with modern politics. Also, most importantly, I want it to be a big ball of giant soap-opera cheese with back-stabbing, shady finances, extramarital affairs and plenty of family skeletons tumbling out of the closet.

*Haven Point's* author understands the "genre," but you never get vested enough in her characters to care about the back-stabbing, shady fiances, extra-marital affairs and family skeletons that populate her story.

Set, mainly, in a small enclave in Maine and spreading across three generations of the Demarest family, the broad outline of a good "beach read" is here. We see the grandparents meet in WWII - he's a doctor, she's a nurse - where, after a quick war-time romance, they marry before meeting each other's family.

She, Maren, is a Midwest salt-of-the-earth farm girl; he, Oliver, is a Maine Yankee from an old family who lives in a small community on a remote peninsula in Maine (the families there are WASPy, but most are not uber rich).

From there, and told through chapters that alternate time periods, we see how Oliver and Maren and their children and grandchildren fare in changing times amidst all the big and small dramas that impact most families.

The Demarest have a strain of alcoholism that pops up here and there over a few generations. There are also, of course, extra-marital affairs, young tragic deaths, sexual awakenings, homosexuality (when that was a big deal), great friendships formed and equally great enemies to battle.

Along the way, the turbulent 1960s, with their anti-war protests, adds a few more family scars. There are also the other usual problems and issues all families face, but heightened as is the style of a "beach read."

Yet *Haven Point *doesn't really work because the characters are "types," not fully developed people. While Hume avoids gratuitous politics, the book still clearly tilts "progressive" in the way most books do today.

That would be okay, but the author, like many modern writers, hasn't figured out how to make her heroes conform to all the in-vogue progressive demands or have her villains stand opposed to them and still come across as three-dimensional characters. That is possibly because, in real life, most people are complex contradictions not neatly aligned to ideological purity.

But in *Haven Point*, the "good" women, the heroes, are super smart, independent, caring, charitable and confident, but diffident about their beautiful looks, kind hearts, incredible skills and talents. So their big fault is they are too modest: "She doesn't realize how smart she is, how kind she is, how self sacrificing she is." Give me a break; it's the "I work too hard" job-interview answer to what is your greatest weakness.

The mean girls are always "privileged" (as if there are no mean girls from modest backgrounds), while the men are either (and mainly) bad because they are (fill in all the bad-men tropes) bossy, arrogant, bullying, cheating, destructively competitive, cold introverts, etc. or they are good guys who are so nice and deferential to women that no man or woman could stand being in a room with them.

So another book dies on the altar of modern politics. And that's without even going into all the horrible things we can no longer abide about an old WASP enclave, but all the boxes were checked and appropriately modern condemning words used. To be fair, there was one very favorable scene about the community supporting a family who had just suffered a tragic death, but the overall message didn't change.

It's not that I disagree with all the politics - I don't - it's that a fictional beach read that fails to create engaging characters because of its political obeisance has failed at its core mission.

There are plenty of books out on politics that you can carry to the beach, but a "beach read," like *Haven Point*, should be a soap opera first and foremost; after that, the author can tuck in some politics if he or she wants.


----------



## eagle2250

Two of three weeks back I finished reading Tom Clancy's Power and Empire, written by Marc Cameron, a retired Chief Deputy US Marshal. Jack Ryan, Sr. is still the US President and Jack Junior continues working for an off the books counter terrorism operation, with strong liasons within the FBI and pretty much the entire Intelligence community. Communist China is led by a newly seated Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party. A series of inexplicable terrorist actions seemingly impacting The Peoples Republic of China are occurring that seem to be pointing back at the Jack Ryan led US of A. We, the red, white and blue good guys know that such chicanery could not represent the actions of the Guys wearing the white hats. So we send the first team out to unravel the mystery and after 582 pages of script, they do just that, uncovering a plot by the Chinese Foreign minister and a group of corrupt Chinese Generals who are plotting the overthrow and assassination of their very own Party Chairman and the collateral assassination of President Jack Ryan, both of whom will be attending a financial conference of world leaders. With just minutes to spare the counterinsurgency team from the "Campus" are able to prevent the bad guys... 

Yea!!!! The good guys win again. However, I regret to inform you, this is the first of The Tom Clancy novels that I was able to easily put down and walk away from. This one just never grabs you and threatens to not let you go. It is not a great book, but more of a tolerable read! Nuff said.


----------



## Fading Fast

*Wall of Noise* by Daniel M. Stein published in 1963

"His doubts about Kelsey were diminished by the memory of all the bets Tarrant had won for him in the past. The money involved had long ago been spent, lost and replaced, but the satisfaction of having won it remained. The thought of it gave Papadakis a warm feeling of opulence and easy profit. He loved to gamble and Tarrant's proposition had been irresistible to him from the start."

Everybody is a gambler all the time; life necessitates it. The only difference between people is some see it and some don't and some are good at it and some aren't. But whether you see it or not, or are good at it or not, doesn't change the fact that life is just a series of gambles.

I found my way to *Wall of Noise *via its 1963 movie adaptation (comments here:  #742 ). Once again, the cliche is true: the movie is good; the book is (much) better.

As noted often, the mid 1950s into the early 1960s was a heyday for dramas, umm, melodramas, umm, soap operas, umm, big giant ball-of-cheese soap-opera stories. Saponaceous book upon saponaceous book was churned out with the better (ehh, I guess, better) of them being turned into movies.

In *Wall of Noise*, author Stein wraps two wonderful things into one story: a insider's look at the world of thoroughbred racing and the torrid life of a brilliant, but erratic trainer whose gambling nature, prickly personality and passion for women keeps his career on the margin, buffeted by a series of ups and downs in his professional and personal life.

Back then, thoroughbred racing was a major sport familiar to much of the public. Stein's protagonist, talented trainer Joel Trarrant, in his mid thirties, ruggedly handsome and taciturn, has a gift for understanding the high-strung horses in his care. Yet, he hasn't mastered the politics of people - in particular, the rich and, usually, clueless-to-horses owners that hire him.

When the book opens, Trarrant is training a few mediocre horses at a small Baltimore track, but then a wealthy California developer, Sal Rubio, hires him, sight unseen, to train his horses, with the promise of autonomy in decisions related to the horses (ha!).

Without a contract - Tarrant often takes wild gambles with his life decisions (but not his horses) - he moves out West and begins training Rubio's horses. There he meets Rubio's much-younger wife, former movie star Helen Hastings, with whom he's quickly having an affair.

Everything in Tarrant's world is amped up: his prior marriage imploded when his best friend and favorite jockey stole his wife; he thinks nothing of gambling his last dollar on one race; he'll drink through the night and, then, work a full day at the track and he'll ride the unbroken horses in his care because he won't ask another man in his employ to do a difficult job he won't first do himself. Tarrant's personal and even professional life is chaos, but he is thoughtful and protective of his horses.

*Wall of Noise* is an engaging window into the nuances of Tarrant's world of thoroughbred racing where we learn how horses are prepped for races, how a good trainer can spot the smallest change in a horse's gait (a sign of a potential injury) and how everything from a thoroughbred's feed to its gate position is part of that day's racing strategy. It's a tutorial on racing that flows seamlessly with the narrative arc of Tarrant's ups and downs.

After the job and affair in California blows up as it had to (sleeping with the boss' wife and all, plus he didn't have the autonomy he was promised), Tarrant heads out to a small track in Nevada with one horse, a powerful but moody thoroughbred who has not won a race in years (he overpaid Rubio for him in a fit of anger).

Also part of this traveling circus is his friend, the jockey who stole his wife (who'd guess, but there's still some friction between these two), who is the only jockey who really knows how to ride Tarrant's temperamental horse.

In hock for his overpriced thoroughbred, Tarrant reconnects with an old pal, a gangster and gambler, Johnny Papadakis (sorry, but in the 1950s, the accepted stereotype was that many Greeks were gamblers and bookies) who uses a legitimate modeling agency, which doubles as a escort service, as a front for his various "less-legitimate" businesses.

After putting everything he has plus on the upcoming race of his horse (betting some money legitimately at the track and more through his pal Papadakis) and winning, Tarrant proceeds to party with Papadakis and some of his, umm, "professional" women. Now, most men, you assume, would know to draw a hard line between prostitute and girlfriend, but not Tarrant.

So, when he heads back to the West Coast, with his now rising-star race horse to enter him in the big-money California races, his circus includes his beautiful, but mercurial-in-nature hooker-girlfriend - hey, it's a choice.

Tarrant and his winning horse now have a high profile in racing circles, which only increases the pressure to win. For the moment, he's the new star of thoroughbred racing with the beautiful girlfriend (her job history isn't known in California) who everyone wants a piece of.

Despite his new prestige, Tarrant's hold on racing fame is tenuously based on one horse. If his horse stops winning (it happens sometimes) or is injured (it happens often), the fame and money flow go as well.

So when his horse's tendon swells a bit the week of the upcoming stakes race (the big one), Tarrant is faced with a go-no-go decision with everyone from the jockey to the media opining. By race day, the horse seems better, but is he almost imperceptibly still favoring that leg? *Wall of Noise* takes you to the edge of your seat on this race and the book's equally dramatic ensuing denouement.

Ayn Rand wrote captivating novels about men of passion and honor who would not sacrifice one bit of integrity in their professional lives for easy advancement. They are wonderfully inspiring tales, but they are not real life.

Joel Tarrant is a real-life version of an Ayn Rand character. He isn't perfect, but his default is to honor his profession as a horse trainer and tell everyone else to go to hell if they don't like it. But he does compromise, especially when he starts to taste success. And like those Randian characters, his personal life is a mess with a series of passionate but broken relationships littered about his past and present.

*Wall of Noise* rises above its saponaceous genre and mediocre writing because, in Joel Tarrant, you meet someone you understand and respect, despite his many flaws.

You appreciate his Randian skills and professional integrity, but recognize and relate to him because he's a man who makes mistakes and bad decisions sometimes, like all of us. But he doesn't go for the quick or easy buck as he lives life by his own honest-but-flawed standards. He's Randian at his best, but human quite often, which makes him an engaging character and *Wall of Noise* an engaging read.


----------



## Fading Fast

*Summer of '69* by Elin Hilderbrand published in 2019

*Summer of '69* is an enjoyable beach read that would have been unmitigated fun if author Elin Hilderbrand hadn't, as almost all authors today do, jammed a lot of virtue-signalling modern politics into her period novel.

1969 was a jarring year in America that saw the flower-power, hippie movement finally break the traditional culture that had reigned in the country since the end of WWII. With the Vietnam War tearing America apart, conventional beliefs in politics, religion, sex, race relations and gender roles were all being challenge by and, often, losing out to the new ideas of the "youth movement."

Rock and roll, drugs and "free love" were some of the new memes and norms shoving the old values and customs out the window. Whether you embraced the new or stood on the ramparts defending the old, the ground beneath everyone was shifting quickly.

In *Summer of '69*, an old Boston family comprising matriarch "Exalta" Nichols, her daughter Katie, Katie's second husband and Katie's four children from her two marriages face the challenges of the times. From their Nantucket summer outpost - Exalta's in-town old house on the "best" street - her family is buffeted by all of the summer of 1969's cultural and political crosscurrents.

Katie and second husband David's thirteen year old daughter, Jessie, has a coming-of-age-summer as she has to survive having her heart broken by her first crush, Exalta's required tennis lessons, the embarrassment of shopping for her first bra (with her very pregnant sister), the perceived disapproval of her Jewish heritage at Exalta's very Waspy Nantucket tennis and boating club and being caught at her occasional shoplifting habit.

The bra-buying sister, in-her-early-twenties Blair, is pregnant with twins while her college professor and NASA technical advisor husband appears to be having an affair that throws Blair into the arms of her husband's brother whom she dated before marrying her husband. Hey, it's a beach read.

Late-teen middle sister Kirby is the required "rebel" (you can't be a family during the summer in 1969 without having one kid in full rebel mode) who decamps from Nantucket to the "horrors!," according to Exalta, of Martha Vineyard to gain some independence. There, she engages in an interracial relationship, while she nearly crosses paths with the famous senator Ted Kennedy on the night of Chappaquiddick.

Also required for accurate reflection of the summer of 1969 is Kate's eighteen-year-old son "Tiger," the handsome, high school star athlete and kid everyone likes who has just been drafted and sent to the front lines in Vietnam.

This fractious summer for Exalta's family is one of trying to keep up a surface appearance of normal (that's her culture), despite the body blows they all are absorbing. Author Hilderbrand portrays this family as a microcosm of the country in that turbulent summer.

Kate, unable to find a place for her fear about her son fighting in Vietnam, escapes into the bottle, something the family does its best to ignore (once again, that's their culture). How many in the country in 1969 were burying their fears in some sort of mind-altering substance?

Thirteen-year-old Jessie's emotions almost bubble over when she wants to scream "I'm Jewish" (she's half Jewish) to force the Nantucket club and her grandmother to face her heritage. But she learns later from her Jewish father she has exaggerated the issues as he has been, basically, accepted by all but a few at the club.

Nothing is ever perfect, but sometimes it's good enough, for now anyway. Yet, like thirteen-year-old Jessie, many in the country couldn't accept that in 1969; whereas, those who could felt that they were under assault.

Kirby, loving her status as the family rebel and ready to become a political science major, has the scales fall from her eyes when she learns what a drunk Ted Kennedy did that night in Chappaquiddick.

After that, she's looking to turn her summer job as a front desk clerk at a small inn into a career in hotel management, including an Exalta-funded semester studying abroad in Geneva. Like many in the country, as the sixties ended, idealism gave way to pragmatism, especially as many rebels saw they were being played by politicians like the famous Senator.

Pregnant Blair learns her husband wasn't cheating, but was so embarrassed that he was seeing a psychiatrist that he let his wife think he was having an affair rather than admit the truth. Once the truth is out, they begin to repair their relationship.

It's an early embrace of therapy for the masses, which, along with many former personal failings being redefined as "diseases," would change how America judged itself and its fellow citizens in the ensuing decades.

Finally, son Tiger, after a brief appearance early, effectively haunts the book as a looming death stalking Exalta's clan, an experience familiar to many families in 1969. In a dramatic moment, Tiger rejects his mother-maneuvered non-combat assignment as he's proud of his soldiering ability. He did not want to be "the fortunate son," from one of that era's defining songs.

The war is shown as the confused disaster it was, but adumbrating today's view, in *Summer of '69*, the soldiers are respected even when their political leaders are denounced. That was not a universal view in angry 1969, when returning soldiers were sometimes called "baby-killers" and spat on.

*Summer of '69* often captures the feel of that tumultuous period. Occasionally, it even uses restraint and perspective looking at 1969 through a 2019 lens. But as is the wont of modern authors, Hilderbrand can't help stuffing too-many modern political tics and narratives into her period novel.

"Progressive," "diversity," "privilege," "cultural appropriation" and "patriarchal power structure" were all words and phrases that existed in 1969, but none of them were on the tip of the tongue of the average person or even political rebels in that period.

There are plenty of books, movies and newspapers from then to confirm that those were not the words or framing that liberals or others of that generation generally used.

Yet, it just feels so good to today's authors to virtue signal their modern political pieties that they can't help undermining the verisimilitude of their period novels by having their characters speak as if they were time travelers from today. Or maybe the authors need to do it to get the elitist (read uber-liberal) New York City editors interested in their books.

Perhaps it's because of this political bent that so many of the men in the book are serial cheaters or sexual predators who physically abuse their girlfriends or molest teen and pre-teen girls, while most of the women are caring, giving and kind - and often unappreciated by the Neanderthal men in their lives. The men who are good in the book are so epicene and deferential to women, most women (and normal men), in real life, couldn't stand them.

If you can put all that political preening aside - and you have to if you read modern fiction - *Summer of '69* is a darn good beach read that often takes you back to that chaotic and defining summer. The end of the book isn't surprising, as a change in summer houses for Exalta's offspring symbolizes the period's generational schism, while foreshadowing the long-term impact the summer of 1969 would have on the country.


----------



## eagle2250

Fading Fast said:


> View attachment 63404
> 
> *Summer of '69* by Elin Hilderbrand published in 2019
> 
> *Summer of '69* is an enjoyable beach read that would have been unmitigated fun if author Elin Hilderbrand hadn't, as almost all authors today do, jammed a lot of virtue-signalling modern politics into her period novel.
> 
> 1969 was a jarring year in America that saw the flower-power, hippie movement finally break the traditional culture that had reigned in the country since the end of WWII. With the Vietnam War tearing America apart, conventional beliefs in politics, religion, sex, race relations and gender roles were all being challenge by and, often, losing out to the new ideas of the "youth movement."
> 
> Rock and roll, drugs and "free love" were some of the new memes and norms shoving the old values and customs out the window. Whether you embraced the new or stood on the ramparts defending the old, the ground beneath everyone was shifting quickly.
> 
> In *Summer of '69*, an old Boston family comprising matriarch "Exalta" Nichols, her daughter Katie, Katie's second husband and Katie's four children from her two marriages face the challenges of the times. From their Nantucket summer outpost - Exalta's in-town old house on the "best" street - her family is buffeted by all of the summer of 1969's cultural and political crosscurrents.
> 
> Katie and second husband David's thirteen year old daughter, Jessie, has a coming-of-age-summer as she has to survive having her heart broken by her first crush, Exalta's required tennis lessons, the embarrassment of shopping for her first bra (with her very pregnant sister), the perceived disapproval of her Jewish heritage at Exalta's very Waspy Nantucket tennis and boating club and being caught at her occasional shoplifting habit.
> 
> The bra-buying sister, in-her-early-twenties Blair, is pregnant with twins while her college professor and NASA technical advisor husband appears to be having an affair that throws Blair into the arms of her husband's brother whom she dated before marrying her husband. Hey, it's a beach read.
> 
> Late-teen middle sister Kirby is the required "rebel" (you can't be a family during the summer in 1969 without having one kid in full rebel mode) who decamps from Nantucket to the "horrors!," according to Exalta, of Martha Vineyard to gain some independence. There, she engages in an interracial relationship, while she nearly crosses paths with the famous senator Ted Kennedy on the night of Chappaquiddick.
> 
> Also required for accurate reflection of the summer of 1969 is Kate's eighteen-year-old son "Tiger," the handsome, high school star athlete and kid everyone likes who has just been drafted and sent to the front lines in Vietnam.
> 
> This fractious summer for Exalta's family is one of trying to keep up a surface appearance of normal (that's her culture), despite the body blows they all are absorbing. Author Hilderbrand portrays this family as a microcosm of the country in that turbulent summer.
> 
> Kate, unable to find a place for her fear about her son fighting in Vietnam, escapes into the bottle, something the family does its best to ignore (once again, that's their culture). How many in the country in 1969 were burying their fears in some sort of mind-altering substance?
> 
> Thirteen-year-old Jessie's emotions almost bubble over when she wants to scream "I'm Jewish" (she's half Jewish) to force the Nantucket club and her grandmother to face her heritage. But she learns later from her Jewish father she has exaggerated the issues as he has been, basically, accepted by all but a few at the club.
> 
> Nothing is ever perfect, but sometimes it's good enough, for now anyway. Yet, like thirteen-year-old Jessie, many in the country couldn't accept that in 1969; whereas, those who could felt that they were under assault.
> 
> Kirby, loving her status as the family rebel and ready to become a political science major, has the scales fall from her eyes when she learns what a drunk Ted Kennedy did that night in Chappaquiddick.
> 
> After that, she's looking to turn her summer job as a front desk clerk at a small inn into a career in hotel management, including an Exalta-funded semester studying abroad in Geneva. Like many in the country, as the sixties ended, idealism gave way to pragmatism, especially as many rebels saw they were being played by politicians like the famous Senator.
> 
> Pregnant Blair learns her husband wasn't cheating, but was so embarrassed that he was seeing a psychiatrist that he let his wife think he was having an affair rather than admit the truth. Once the truth is out, they begin to repair their relationship.
> 
> It's an early embrace of therapy for the masses, which, along with many former personal failings being redefined as "diseases," would change how America judged itself and its fellow citizens in the ensuing decades.
> 
> Finally, son Tiger, after a brief appearance early, effectively haunts the book as a looming death stalking Exalta's clan, an experience familiar to many families in 1969. In a dramatic moment, Tiger rejects his mother-maneuvered non-combat assignment as he's proud of his soldiering ability. He did not want to be "the fortunate son," from one of that era's defining songs.
> 
> The war is shown as the confused disaster it was, but adumbrating today's view, in *Summer of '69*, the soldiers are respected even when their political leaders are denounced. That was not a universal view in angry 1969, when returning soldiers were sometimes called "baby-killers" and spat on.
> 
> *Summer of '69* often captures the feel of that tumultuous period. Occasionally, it even uses restraint and perspective looking at 1969 through a 2019 lens. But as is the wont of modern authors, Hilderbrand can't help stuffing too-many modern political tics and narratives into her period novel.
> 
> "Progressive," "diversity," "privilege," "cultural appropriation" and "patriarchal power structure" were all words and phrases that existed in 1969, but none of them were on the tip of the tongue of the average person or even political rebels in that period.
> 
> There are plenty of books, movies and newspapers from then to confirm that those were not the words or framing that liberals or others of that generation generally used.
> 
> Yet, it just feels so good to today's authors to virtue signal their modern political pieties that they can't help undermining the verisimilitude of their period novels by having their characters speak as if they were time travelers from today. Or maybe the authors need to do it to get the elitist (read uber-liberal) New York City editors interested in their books.
> 
> Perhaps it's because of this political bent that so many of the men in the book are serial cheaters or sexual predators who physically abuse their girlfriends or molest teen and pre-teen girls, while most of the women are caring, giving and kind - and often unappreciated by the Neanderthal men in their lives. The men who are good in the book are so epicene and deferential to women, most women (and normal men), in real life, couldn't stand them.
> 
> If you can put all that political preening aside - and you have to if you read modern fiction - *Summer of '69* is a darn good beach read that often takes you back to that chaotic and defining summer. The end of the book isn't surprising, as a change in summer houses for Exalta's offspring symbolizes the period's generational schism, while foreshadowing the long-term impact the summer of 1969 would have on the country.


Having lived through the period in which the Summer of 69 was set, I found your review to be absolutely absorbing. While the characters in the book represent starkly different financial/social strata that those from which a poor, white country boy in Pennsylvania was drawn, the problems with which they must grapple were not all that different from the issues I witnessed in that period of my life.

Although my summer of 69 was spent working for Penn DOT, The Pennsylvania Dept of Transportation, repaving roads throughout Clinton County, PA. and based on the heat and a blazing sun, seemed more like a scene out of Cool Hand Luke, rather than the settings in The Summer of 69. My older sister had gotten married, just the year before and had begun a career as a beautician, My younger brother was a rising junior at Lock Haven High School and working at Villelo's Fruit and Vegetable Stand and I had finished my first 2+ years at Penn State. And our Mom was at home, holding it all together for us! My beech/swimming trips were to a section of rounded out river bank along the Susquehanna River where some accommodating individual had cleared out some brush and dropped a couple of dump truck loads of sand, so that we wayward kids would have a place to call a beach and swim.

Looking back, life had it's challenges...and plenty of them, but it was nonetheless pretty darned grand

I am adding the Summer of 69 to my reading list and am going to recommend it as a futuer monthy selection for our local neighborhood book club Thanks for another great review.


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## Fading Fast

eagle2250 said:


> Having lived through the period in which the Summer of 69 was set, I found your review to be absolutely absorbing. While the characters in the book represent starkly different financial/social strata that those from which a poor, white country boy in Pennsylvania was drawn, the problems with which they must grapple were not all that different from the issues I witnessed in that period of my life.
> 
> Although my summer of 69 was spent working for Penn DOT, The Pennsylvania Dept of Transportation, repaving roads throughout Clinton County, PA. and based on the heat and a blazing sun, seemed more like a scene out of Cool Hand Luke, rather than the settings in The Summer of 69. My older sister had gotten married, just the year before and had begun a career as a beautician, My younger brother was a rising junior at Lock Haven High School and working at Villelo's Fruit and Vegetable Stand and I had finished my first 2+ years at Penn State. And our Mom was at home, holding it all together for us! My beech/swimming trips were to a section of rounded out river bank along the Susquehanna River where some accommodating individual had cleared out some brush and dropped a couple of dump truck loads of sand, so that we wayward kids would have a place to call a beach and swim.
> 
> Looking back, life had it's challenges...and plenty of them, but it was nonetheless pretty darned grand
> 
> I am adding the Summer of 69 to my reading list and am going to recommend it as a futuer monthy selection for our local neighborhood book club Thanks for another great review.


I enjoyed your personal summer of '69 memories - very real. Like you, I was not of Exalta's family's class. I was five years old in the summer of '69 and we lived in a neighborhood somewhat like the one portrayed in the TV show "The Wonder Years."

The only "pool" we had was one of those silly little plastic ones you filled in two minutes with a garden hose and, maybe, two small kids could sit in it at once.

I do remember (and this was into the early '70s) a neighbor losing a son in Vietnam and that was an enormous and scary event. I also remember driving down the highway and you'd see all these hippies on the side of the road. I didn't get what it was all about back then, but I can still see those "kids" with their long hair, tie-dyed shirts, suede fringe jackets, etc.


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## Fading Fast

*Love in the Afternoon* by Claude Anet originally published in France in 1924

"They persisted in proving to themselves that they were not in love, that between them stood nothing but an episode in which pleasure was the beginning and the end." - Claude Anet, *Love in the Afternoon*

"The lies we tell ourselves are the most subtle of all lies." - Lewis B. Smedes

I found my way to this short novel via the 1957 Audrey Hepburn and Gary Cooper movie *Love in the Afternoon* based on the book. Very loosely based on the book would be more accurate as you can see some of the book's outline in the movie, but it's much easier to note the many differences.

Set in pre-Revolutionary Russia (versus 1950s Paris, as in the movie), this 1924 novel has a surprisingly modern feel as the heroine - young, beautiful, scholastically brilliant and fiercely independent Ariane Nicolaevna - is the kind of heroine modern period writers love to create.

But modern writers, in their virtue-signalling glee, can't control themselves and often create a two-dimensional character who is more out of time than of their period. The intention of these modern writers is to have the character check every in-vogue progressive box versus creating a real, living, breathing and flawed human from a historical era.

Ariane Nicolaevna, though, is of pre-revolutionary Russia if famous 19th century Russian novelists accurately represented their country's views toward women, society and sexual freedom.

While hardly as libertine and out loud as our anything-goes 2021 world, 19th century Russia allowed a lot of sexual escapades to take place if handled with discretion and within the unwritten rules that kept "proper" society still looking, well, proper.

Ariane Nicolaevna, by the time she is a high school senior, is the cynosure of her provisional town as men of all ages so covet her that they shower Ariane with attention and gifts, often, in return for nothing more than the opportunity to be seen in public with her. That is an odd foreshadowing of our present-day social media age in this 19th century Russian village.

When her father denies her request for funds to go to university and the aunt who raised her attaches strings to her offer of tuition dollars, Ariane, very business like, obtains the funds from an older admirer in return for sex.

Sure, we're in the realm of the famous quote about having already established what a particular woman is with only the price left to discuss, but with limited options and done with cold detachment, Ariane comes out looking like a calculating woman in control of her situation.

It's now off to Moscow and university, where Ariane meets Constantin Michel, a man several years her senior. He's a successful and worldly businessman who is the first lover Ariane has wanted for pure passion and not for what she can obtain from him.

Yet, she still approaches her relationship with him in a detached manner often telling him this will be just a short affair. That aligns nicely with globe-trotting Constantin who avers he is an old pro at this and equally happy to have a quick affair before moving on.

Pause for a moment on the moderness of this 1924 novel looking back a decade or more from there to pre-Revolutionary Russia. But nothing then or now is ever easy.

We have two people who enjoy casual dalliances, not love affairs, getting together. What could go wrong? Well, one or both could fall in love and ruin the equanimity of their relationship. What if they both fall in love, but deny it to themselves and each other? What if they try so hard to deny it to themselves and each other they end up brutally hurting the person they love?

That is, basically, the last third of the novel. Two people who have designed their lives and psyches not to fall in love - who mock and dismiss it - begin falling in love and repeatedly cycle through the five stages of grief trying to deny it.

They lash out at each other, do petty things to hurt each other, talk about their other lovers (some real, some made up) or what they are going to do when their affair is over. Yet when they are not brutally hurting each other, they can't help falling in love.

(Spoiler alert) Literally, right at the end, they drop their guard and kinda, sorta admit their love or, at least, that they are going to stay together - end of novel. Yet it's only a somewhat happy ending as you wonder if these two can really do the hard work of sustaining a long-term relationship when they are so good at finding and indulging in casual affairs.

*Love in the Afternoon* has an incredibly modern feel to it, adjusted for time and place. Movies and novels before and since have been exploring its same theme: can two people turn casual sex into a life-long monogamous love. The human condition is eternal.

What oddly makes Anet's novel fresh is its 1924 publication date; a time when a women having casual sex openly and without guilt was a statement. It's libertine attitude is recognizable to us today, yet also, thankfully free of our modern obsessive politics.* Love in the Afternoon* is a short, entertaining trip to pre-Revolutionary Russia with a surprisingly open take on sex, love and relationships.


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## Fading Fast

*Butterfield 8* by John O'Hara originally published in 1935

"...she was thinking that the only thing she wanted was to be with Liggett, lying in bed or on the floor or anywhere, drunk as hell, taking dope, doing anything he wanted."

- Gloria Wandrous thinking about sex with her illicit lover Weston Liggett

Twenty-three years before Truman Capote created Holly Golightly in *Breakfast at Tiffany's*, John O'Hara had created a harder core New York City party girl slash high-priced somewhat prostitute in *Butterfield 8's* Gloria Wandrous.

If Ms. Golightly shocked 1950s America, then Ms. Wandrous should have blasted American into orbit back in the 1930s. While the sex is palliated in *Breakfast at Tiffany's*, you need a scorecard to keep track of Wandrous' between-the-sheets adventures in *Butterfield 8*, so much so, even she admits they are too numerous to remember.

Yet, as with explicit pre-code 1930s movies, it seems America in that decade was more willing to be exposed to life's realities than in the 1950s - at least on the surface. Booze, drugs (cocaine), affairs, prostitution, gambling, divorce, childhood sexual abuse, lesbianism, dirty cops: it's all there in this 1935 bestseller that makes 1958's "shocking" offering from Capote look tame.

Protagonist Gloria Wandrous, not subtle, but O'Hara had fun with that name, apparently was the author's fictional take on the life of, also wonderfully named, real-life Manhattan party girl Starr Faithfull. Faithfull, born Marian Starr Wyman - then her mother divorced and married Stanley Faithfull - was found washed up dead on a Long Island beach in 1931.

When we meet Gloria, she's waking up in a wealthy married man's apartment. He's gone, so she wanders around looking at all the nice things, takes a shower, has a drink, steals the wife's mink coat and heads down to Greenwich Village to meet a friend.

Beautiful Gloria seems to float through Manhattan's nightlife of speakeasies, clubs, bars, drugs, men, hotels with an almost blasé aloofness supported by her mother and uncle who still have some of their upper-middle-class money from before the Depression. Gloria also picks up some extra cash from the "kindness" of the men she sleeps with.

But Weston Liggett, the man whose apartment she woke up in and with whom she had, what she thought would be, a one-night stand, has affected her in an unsettling way. Ms. Gloria Wanderous might be in love, whatever that means in her mixed-up mind and mixed-up life.

LIggett is a wealthy, proper, society and business man. He's married to the "right" kind of woman, has two charming daughters, belongs to the "better" clubs and has social-registry friends. Basically, he seems to have a life to envy.

Yet he is either having a midlife crisis or, like Gloria, is falling in love. But, despite his outward appearance of success and control, his mind and life are no less mixed up than hers; so, we have two very unstable people smashing into each other.

Gloria is more than "mixed up" because she was molested at the age of eleven by a close adult male family friend who kissed and touched her inappropriately, but did not rape her. That, even in a novel, had to be a shocking reveal for its day. From that moment on, Gloria' personality changed and, it's assumed, explains her wanton adult lifestyle.

Individually, Gloria and Liggett are well-drawn characters, but you struggle to feel and believe in their love for each other. Maybe that's intendional as both are really looking for a lifeboat from their unhappiness with their love affair being more an escape than the real thing.

But the wreckage the affair does to both their lives is a real thing as Liggett confesses all to his wife, which starts the we're-getting-a-divorce ball rolling. He didn't have to do this, as his wife was happy to keep the marriage going under a don't-ask-don't-tell policy, but maybe for love, maybe for anger, maybe for stupidity, Liggett wanted to blow it all up.

Gloria, comparing her life to Liggett's proper married life, can no longer go on playing the carefree party girl as she's beginning to disgust herself. But she also can't quite see her future with Liggett really working out.

The conclusion (spoiler alert) has Gloria killed in either a suicide or accident similar to her real-life inspiration Starr Faithfull. But *Butterfield 8* is not a plot-driven book as it's hard to care about Liggett and Gloria's affair. Neither of them are mature enough to feel true love for anyone besides themselves.

The real power, exposition and fun of* Butterfield 8* is Gloria Wanderous' very New York City nightlife existence, which has a very strong echo in New York City's disco and drug zeitgeist of the 1970s (or its 1980s cocaine-fueled sequel). Proving, once again, that little is new as the past had all of our modern vices.

It's also pretty amazing that Truman Capote's fictional Holly Golightly created such a stir in 1958 when her darker antecedent, Gloria Wandrous, had already shown America the sex, drugs and rock-and-roll lifestyle of a New York City party girl a couple of decades earlier.

N.B. *Butterfield 8* was turned into a pretty good movie in 1960, comments here:  #720 .


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## eagle2250

A great book review and with your closing comment, you answered the question that had been haunting me as I read this present review...they did make a movie with the same title. What disturbs me most is that I read and greatly enjoyed your review of the movie just two months ago and ironically, I had also watched the movie, lo so many years ago. All in all, I guess my memory isn't what it used to be! :crazy: LOL.


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## Vecchio Vespa

Another in the Longmire series.


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## Fading Fast

*Goodbye, Columbus* by Philip Roth, published in 1959

Philip Roth is an author whose writing talents I respect, but whose politics and philosophical views usually turn me off so much that I'm annoyed reading his books. Hence, I've read only four or five Roth novels over the years despite his double-digit output.

However, having recently caught a blurb about *Goodbye, Columbus* being his first novel, I was intrigued as it's interesting to read a famous novelist at the beginning of his or her career. Plus, I guessed (fortunately, correctly) that the politics would be light in this one.

In *Goodbye, Columbus, *Neil Klugman is a young Jewish man who graduated from Rutgers Newark (relevant NJ factoid: Rutgers Newark is an orphaned-sister college within Rutgers University) who lives with his aunt and uncle in a small apartment in lower-middle-class Newark, NJ. He meets and begins dating very upper-middle-class Jewish Radcliffe college student Brenda Patimkin of the pretty, spacious and wealthy nearby suburb of Short Hills.

*Goodbye, Columbus* is an inside-Jewish baseball story, but it took me a bit to realize this as I was waiting for the typical Roth interfaith-sexual-fascination tic to appear. But nope, this is all about a poor Jewish boy dating a rich Jewish girl, yet, even intra-faith, the cultural divide is pretty darn wide.

The attraction between these two kids from different worlds is the usual: he/she is intriguing because he/she is not like the other boys/girls in his/her world. For Neil, the fun is coming to Brenda's much-more-comfortable locale of country clubs, big houses, new cars, pools, private golf courses, etc., as her family welcomes him despite their reservations. For her, she gets to "rebel" safely by bringing a not-too-dangerous "outsider" inside her protected sphere.

While Brenda takes all the expensive stuff for granted, Neil is amazed at seeing a world of extra and well-stocked basement refrigerators, in-house bars with every liquor conceivable, sporting equipment casually lying around and money for whatever comes up.

In what was a big deal in that day, Neil and Brenda quickly become sexually active with Neil sneaking into Brenda's room each night when he stays over. In another ahead-of-its-time move, Brenda is the more aggressive one sexually. But the story is less about their sexual relationship than how they can bridge their two oddly distant worlds.

While they believe they are in love and try, somewhat, to figure out how to keep the relationship going after the summer when Brenda will be back at Radcliffe and Neil back at his dead-end job at the Newark public library, we know before they do (spoiler alert) that this was a fling, not a love affair for the ages.

Rumbling in the background of the Neil-Brenda drama is the gulf between the "successful" Jews of Short Hills and the struggling ones of Newark. Usually, the struggling ones would be presented as heroic and morally bound by older values not compatible with success in capitalist America; whereas, the successful ones would be presented as sellouts for money and acceptance.

Yet here, most of the Jews are presented as "gonifs" (small cheats or schemers) who all want to succeed, but some (the Short Hills ones) are just better at it than the others (the Newark ones).

It's an unflattering picture all around that, my guess, was only able to be shown because author Roth is Jewish. Having worked in New York City for over three decades, it doesn't gel at all with my experience, which is that all groups have their good people and "gonifs." However, this young author didn't flinch from expressing his scathing view of his own people.

Roth, who one can't help feeling identified with somewhat-autobiographical Neil, also didn't flinch at limning an unlikable lead character. Neil has a chip on his shoulder about everything Newark, constantly goads Brenda and her family about their wealth and, in general, does small selfish things, yet you don't outright hate the guy. Not that Brenda is any prize herself, as she's basically spoiled and a, umm, what's that word that starts with the letter B and rhymes with witch?

Kudos to, at the time, newbie author Roth for keeping the reader engaged in this short novel with two unlikable lead characters as that's not easy to do. So it is no surprise *Goodbye, Columbus* is an award winning book, showing that, right out of the shoot, Roth's talent was recognized.


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## AldenPyle

I went on a Roth jag 2-6 years ago (losing track) and read Columbus, Portnoy and the American Trilogy. Goodbye, Columbus was a pretty easy read (and short, 100-ish pages). How the lower middle class Jews of northern NJ felt about their upper middle class counterparts in the late 1950s is not necessarily high on my list of things that I was necessarily interested in. Roth is really deft with detail though and kind of pulls you in. Probably better off reading it as a middle aged man; as a younger person, I would likely have identified a bit too strongly with the narrator. Now, I think I have a little more sympathy for Brenda. Its a good introduction to the ambivalent themes about assimilation in the American books though . 

Portnoy is more eh. Probably it got a lot of credit at the time for being honest, but it covers ideas that were more than well worn by the time I got around to it.


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## Fading Fast

*Checkmate In Berlin* by Giles Milton, 2021

In *Checkmate in Berlin*, Author Giles Milton argues the Cold War started not on a day and not with one event, but as part of a continuum between the last shot fired in Germany's capital in 1945 and the first plane that took off in the Berlin Airlift in 1948.

From the geopolitics played at the top of the house by presidents and prime ministers to the day-to-day tussles between the Soviet and Western commanders of divided Berlin, East and West were adversaries, in all but name only, from the end of WWII.

At the 1945 Potsdam Conference, the "Big Three," FDR, Churchill (owing to an election loss, he was replaced by Clement Attlee mid conference) and Stalin, met to, well, carve up Europe.

In the crazy tradeoffs of geopolitics and realpolitiks, Germany was split between the West (one American and one British Zone and, later, a French Zone carved out of the British Zone) and the East (the Russian Zone), which is not too crazy, but what to do with the symbolically important capital city of Berlin, which was deep in the "Russian Zone?"

"Split it" was the answer, so the American and British Zones (and, later, French Zone) of Berlin sat like a Western island deep in the Russian Zone. With only two roads, a single rail track and three air corridors connecting West Berlin with West Germany, the Western sinews were few and tenuous, but East and West were allies...maybe.

At the end of WWII, when the USSR army fought its way into Berlin two months ahead of the Americans and British, Milton avers the Russian army used its lead time to rape and pillage the city with a feral viciousness.

All approved at a high level of its command, the Russian soldiers systematically and violently raped Berlin's women, while it stripped Berlin bare everything including wrists of watches, houses of furniture, factories of equipment and museums of art. What it couldn't take, especially in what would be the Western Zone, it destroyed.

By the time the American and British arrived, they took over despoiled sectors populated by starving and shocked people. It was quickly obvious to the on-the-ground American and British Zone commanders there would be no honeymoon period with their Russian "partners."

Author Milton argues that while most of the American and British commanders in the West German Zone brought a genuine spirit of camaraderie toward the Russians, with orders from above to "get along with our 'allies'," the Russians were in full Cold War mode from the start trying to leverage the West's friendship solely for its own interest.

After only a few meetings of Berlin's joint ruling council, the "Kommandatura," the American commander of West Berlin, Col. Frank Howley, summed up the situation thusly, "There is only one way to deal with gangsters, Russian-uniformed or otherwise, and that is to treat them like gangsters."

At the same time, three events conflated to open American and British eyes to the aggressive anti-West policy of the USSR. These, effectively, ended the West's policy and efforts at maintaining the bonds between Russian and itself.

The first was Churchill's Iron Curtain speech in 1946 where he averred the Soviets were already carving up Europe by taking as much of the East as they could. Out of power, but still considered a "giant" by both the American and British public, his speech was a loud opening salvo in what would become The Cold War.

Then, George Kennan, deputy head of the American Mission in Moscow, sent his famous "long telegram" back to Washington warning that appeasement and friendship with the USSR was impossible in the face of arrant and inveterate Soviet aggression. His telegram began to turn "elite" Washington opinion toward the Soviets around. Kennan's subsequent work led to America's decades-long "policy of containment" toward the USSR.

The final spark in this volte-face in the West's view toward Russia was the "Gouzenko Affair." In a post-War first, a Soviet spy defected to the West and exposed an extensive Soviet espionage ring operating at high levels in Canada, the US and the UK. It was a spy ring that included Western scientists providing the Soviets with atomic bomb secrets. When the story finally broke in the newspapers, the public now knew the USSR was not an ally in any sense of the word.

As relations continued to deteriorate in both divided Germany and divided Berlin, the first post-war election in Berlin, for the city administration, in which Germans were able to vote, was set for the fall of 1946. Both the USSR and the West went all in campaigning legally, quasi-legally and illegally as everyone understood that this was a meaningful moment for Berliners to give their approbation to either the Russians or the West.

On election day, the Russians were jubilantly predicting victory with the West reconciled to defeat, but in one of those wonderfully telling moments in history, Berliners handed the Russians an ignominious defeat as the Soviet-backed Socialist Union Party garnered only twenty percent of the vote.

It was the West's first big, public victory in post-war Berlin, but after the Soviets engaged in their usual purging of most of the Soviet officials who oversaw the defeat (do not mistake being "purged" with being "fired"), the day-to-day and strategic battle for control of Berlin and Germany continued to escalate.

Finally, in the summer of 1948, the Soviets had had enough and played one of the cards the West had been fearing from the start: they effectively laid siege to the Western Zones in Berlin, a city deep inside the Soviet Zone of Germany.

The Soviets cut off both power (ninety percent of the Western Zone's power in Berlin came from power plants in the Eastern Zone) and transportation in and out via the two roads and rail line connecting West Berlin to West Germany.

These actions cut off food, fuel and medicine, in addition to power, to the Western Zone. The cutting of power, effectively, also cut off fresh water and sewerage operations. Without a solution, the Western Zones in Berlin would have an untenable health crisis (starvation and disease) on their hands within weeks.

America either has a brilliance or providence in its ability throughout its history to put the right person in the right place at the right time as it did with Col. Frank "Howlin' Mad" Howley, the effective head of the American Zone in Berlin.

Howley, from day one on the job in a newly divided Berlin, immediately saw the Soviets' goal was a complete communist takeover of Berlin, even when his own government's policy and his orders from above were to play nice and treat the Russians as allies.

Somehow, this colonel repeatedly stood up to generals and senior officials, from his country and others, including secretaries of state, for over four years. When he had to, he defied orders and made controversial decisions on the fly, regularly angering his superiors. Yet somehow, he wasn't removed (or court marshalled) and, as time revealed, his approach saved the Western Zones in Berlin.

But in June of 1948, when the aggressive but frustrated Soviets finally played their trump card by laying siege to West Berlin, the West and Howley facing their biggest challenge: how to save West Berlin from collapse and a Soviet takeover.

Despite much opposition, as happened time and again in the immediate post-war years, out of the tempest of democratic debate, the right decision was made. Truman, defying the recommendation of his Joint Chiefs of Staff, authorized a full "airlift" of Berlin. The city whose roads and rail lines were blocked would be fully supplied by air.

It was the right decision, but only nice words at that point as no one had ever tried, and few believed it possible, to supply a city of West Berlin's size (approximately 2.25 million people) solely by air. This was a city that had only two airports with a combined three runways.

But this was a post-war America of industrial might and a can-do attitude, both forged in a global victory that saved the world from fascist oppression. From the guys repairing the planes, to the pilots flying endless hours of dangerous flights, to the logistics experts who solved the unsolvable problems, to the American people themselves who supported the effort, the Berlin Airlift was one of America's finest moments.

The British also put out a herculean effort, but due to its limited resources, the success of the Airlift needed America's scale. After early struggles and setbacks and a historically harsh winter, the metronomic-like beat of the Airlift - plane after plane, landing minute after minute, for twenty four hours, day after day - and with a retaliatory boycott of East Germany by West German, the Soviets knew they were defeated.

When the USSR finally folded its hand on the siege in May of 1949, it was clear the Soviets had lost one of the first major confrontations of the aborning Cold War. By now, the Marshall plan and Truman doctrine were forming the cornerstones of the West's response to Soviet aggression in Europe.

After the airlift, Nato's founding members launched the military union that would knit Western Europe's defensive strategy together. Author Milton argues the airlift's defeat of the Soviet blockade "checkmated" the grand Soviet strategy to take over all of Berlin and use it as a catalyst to further communist aggression in Europe.

Twelve years later, Milton notes, the Soviets were playing such a rear-guard-action in Berlin, they had to build a wall to keep their best and brightest from leaving for the West. Winning countries don't build walls to keep their citizens in.

In *Checkmate in Berlin*, Milton pens an engaging tale of the nuanced yet post-war-defining gamesmanship that took place in Berlin from 1945 to 1949. Yes, it was only one city, but, Milton asserts, that tiny spot launched the Cold War that framed the geopolitics for much of the second half of the twentieth century.


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## Fading Fast

*I, The Jury* by Mickey Spillane originally published in 1947

1940s movies were pretty nice affairs; even film noir then was nearly bloodless on screen where the good guys mainly won and the bad guys usually paid a price. Drug use, prostitution, homesexuality and other Motion Picture Production Code taboos occasionally made it to the screen in the open or, more often, by inference, but overall, 1940s movies were a tidy world.

Not so for the era's books. In *I, The Jury*, drug use, homosexuality (when it was a big deal), nymphomania and prostitution are very in the open as all play pivotal roles in the plot of Mickey Spillane's first Mike Hammer novel.

Hammer himself is no Hollywood hero as Spillane's famous private investigator breaks rules, laws and many things on his revenge-driven hunt to find and, as he states loudly, kill the murderer of his close friend.

Earl Stanley Gardner's 1930s creation, Perry Mason, also broke rules, laws and things as he solved crimes, but there was a positive vibe and good-guy aura to Mason. He occasionally worked outside the legal perimeter, but only to file down the rough edges when the legal architecture wasn't quite working.

Mike Hammer doesn't care about the legal architecture except when he can use it to his advantage and he isn't neatening things up - he is a vigilante out for justice. He does have a morality - he's loyal to his friends, he honors his word and he has a general sense of right and wrong - but if society had too many Mike Hammers in it, justice would come down to each man and his gun.

There's also an superhero immaturity to Mike Hammer as he's obvious a Spillane fantasy character who is so tough he can beat up two professional thugs who jump him from behind, can shoot better than anyone else and women often want to (and try to) sleep with him immediately after meeting him, while other women pine away hoping one day he'll ask them to marry him. Hammer's a twelve-year-old boy's perfect daydream of adulthood.

In *I, The Jury*, Hammer's good friend, Jack Williams, who lost an arm saving Hammer's life in WWII, is killed in cruel cold-blooded fashion (a gunshot to the gut and, then, left to die on his bedroom floor). Hammer immediately swears to everyone who will listen, including his friend police inspector Pat Chambers, that he will avenge this death by killing the murderer in the exact same way. That this is illegal and would lead to his arrest is all but ignored throughout the book.

Hammer and Chambers agree to work together to some extent, but they also understand that they'll each go their own way when necessary. From here, the investigation sifts through Williams' friends and acquaintances including his girlfriend Myrna, a shady mob guy, the mob guy's gay lover, wealthy twin sisters, one of whom is a nymphomaniac, and a voluptuous blonde psychiatrist who, years ago, helped cure Myrna of a drug addiction.

In addition to the above list of suspects, also involved in this complex murder are drug dealers, mobsters and a prostitution ring that, effectively, shanghais vulnerable girls from college. Hammer and Chambers struggle to untwist all these people and parts, especially as William's murderer keeps killing potential informants whenever Hammer gets close.

Along the way, Hammer has a couple of "quickies" with the nympho twin while he begins to fall in love with the smart and prepossessingly beautiful psychiatrist. Additionally, he consumes the equivalent of a medium-sized liquor cabinet while smoking his way through a small tobacco plantation's annual production.

Also part of the Hammer mystique are his cool friends and contacts who seemingly pop up wherever needed as when he goes up to Harlem investigating the drug angle. Sometimes these cool friends get killed because they are connected to Hammer, which only further fuels his passion for revenge.

In the end, and this is only a spoiler alert if you miss the Hammer-fantasy zeitgeist that Spillane has been spinning from the first page, Hammer solves the mystery and exacts the revenge he planned all along.

Added into the climactic moment is an awkward prurience as Hammer's victim, a beautiful woman, undresses completely and offers herself to Hammer in a desperate attempt to save her life right before Hammer shoots her: Twelve-year-old Mickey Spillane's fantasy is complete.

*I, The Jury* is a fun, quick read where hero Mike Hammer drinks, smokes and bangs pretty women as he pursues his vigilante-justice quest for his friend's murder. You can't take it too seriously, but it works as lighthearted escapism. It's also another entry in the "lone warrior working outside 'the system' to avenge a wrong" genre America has been perfecting with its superheroes and private detectives for generations.


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## Fading Fast

*Some Wore Bobby Sox*: _The Emergence of Teenage Girls' Culture 1920-1945_ by Kelly Schrum published in 2004

"Teenage Girl Power" is nothing new according to author Kelly Schrum in *Some Wore Bobby Sox* as she avers it started in the 1920s with roots going back to the second half of the nineteenth century.

In the mid-to-late 1800s, industrialization led to urbanization which, combined with a general push from many in the public and government to keep children in school into their teen years, started the creation of a "teen" culture. Teens were now spending large amounts of time away from their parents and with other teens.

These inchoate trends gained momentum in the early years of the twentieth century, finally creating a true "teen culture" by the 1920s, three decades earlier than the 1950s when many often claim the teen-culture began.

Aiding and abetting this development was not only America's early-twentieth-century growing economic shift to mass-produced goods, but also its handmaiden national advertising. Everyone being able to buy the same things, hawked the same way, helped create a common culture across disparate parts of the country.

As author Schrum says, by the 1920s, "A teenage girl in a remote part of Northern California shared enough with a Jewish girl on Staten Island and a farm girl in Indiana to demonstrate a distinct teenage culture in the making." This culture itself was a self-reinforcing feedback loop as companies discovered teenage girls and girls discovered mass-marketed products, often showing up in stores with advertisements from teen-oriented magazines in hand.

Many companies were only too happy to expand this market with targeted products and ads. Schrum proffers, though, it was girls, more than boys, who were likely to succumb to peer pressure, thus creating a stronger and more-homogenized female teen culture. In those early years, "teenager" and "teen culture" (the terms themselves were still evolving) often were understood to refer to girls only.

Supporting her theory, Schrum notes some clothing manufacturers and stores created "teen" departments for teenage girls, but only rarely for boys. The same distinction can be seen in the periodical business, which put out several magazines targeting a girl-teen audience, but not a similar effort for teenage boys.

With, as noted, roots going back farther, but beginning to codify in the 1920s, hair styles, cosmetics, jewelry, clothes and personal hygiene products all became part of the teenage culture. Sometimes, the girls reached into the adult market for items and, sometimes, the manufacturers and marketers reached out to the girl-teen market for customers. By the 1940s, the teenage culture and market, while always evolving, was already well defined.

It was a bumpy road the whole way, with parents, educators, government officials, religious organizations and social commentators all weighing in and, often, arguing over each change: bobbed hair - horrors, lipstick - the decline of civilization and so on. But with or without support from the formal institutions, the girls, interacting amongst themselves at school and social events, aggressively pushed the boundaries out over time.

Music and movies were another "bonding" opportunity that helped create the teen culture, while telling companies there is a market in teen-girl products if they'll just look for it. With the coming of the phonograph - the Victrola - records were highly sought after and collected by teens. In the early 1940s, and years before Elvis, Frank Sinatra was a teen idol.

Going back to the silent era, movie stars were also teen idols. Perhaps not surprisingly, the teenagers looked up to and fantasized about the adult stars like Clark Gable and Jean Harlow, but not the popular teen stars like Judy Garland or Mickey Rooney. Those latter stars were more liked by either the younger kids or their parents, who were attracted to the wholesome messages in those stars' family friendly movies. Effectively and quite modern like, teenagers were too cool for the teenage movie stars.

Author Schrum brings many historical facts, references, illustrations and anecdotes to support her premise that girl teen culture began in the 1920s. The writing and approach in *Some Wore Bobby Sox* is a touch too academic-paper like for a mass-market cultural read, but if you can stay with it through its "dry" parts, it has some sparks here and there, while providing an enlightening look at the origins of girl-teen culture.


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## Fading Fast

*A Christmas Carol* by Charles Dickens originally published in 1843

I first read *A Christmas Carol* many, many years ago and have seen so many movie versions of the story since, it's hard to read the book in a fresh way, but a few things jumped out at me in this go through.

While the Victorians were no strangers to Christmas ghost stories, they all but invented the genre, *A Christmas Carol *must have seemed incredibly fresh and daring when it came out.

You can't swing a dead cat and not hit a ghost in *A Christmas Carol*. And these are not amorphous apparitions skulking around in the background; no, these are confident ghosts with purpose.

Be it Scrooge's former partner, Marley, from the counting house, sentenced to an afterlife in purgatory dragging the chains of his greed around for eternity or the well-fed ghost of Christmas present, they are all clearly formed spirits delivering a Christian message to Scrooge, and all of us, in a four-team ghost relay race.

After the ghost of Marley comes to show Scrooge what life will be like for him if he doesn't mend his ways, the ghost of Christmas past arrives to remind Scrooge of his earlier life when Scrooge had youthful hopes, aspirations, kindness and joy still in his heart.

Next up is the aforementioned ghost of Christmas present whose purpose is to show Scrooge both the misery and joy around him that he ignores in his insular mental and physical world of obsessively counting money and economizing on everything to no logical end.

Finally, we get the ghost of Christmas yet to come, who shows Scrooge how his own death will be a bleak and lonely one met with only derision and indifference as he made no real friends and had pushed all his family away.

After the ghosts, it's the big transformation scene where Scrooge, with the bejesus now scared out of him, becomes generous of heart and pocketbook as he pledges to "keep Christmas" all year round. His infectious joy is the emotional, spiritual and Christian payoff Dickens has been building to from page one.

*A Christmas Carol* is wonderful. It's also propaganda whose characters are cartoons rather than flesh and blood humans. Yet exaggeration has its place in making points as Dickens did to great effect in his classic tale of greed and charity.

The other thing that struck me on this read is how incredibly faithful to the book many of the movie versions - especially, two of the classic earlier ones (from 1938 and 1951) - have been.

*A Christmas Carol* has also been riffed on countless times (check out 1961's *Cash on Demand* for a wonderfully understated British take, comments on the movie here:  #295 ), but as a compliment to the strength of Dickens' story, many movie makers scrupulously adhere to the plot, descriptions and dialogue in the book.

With "original source material" from Charles Dickens, why wouldn't a smart director just take what's there and put it on screen? It's the same reason reading it today is still rewarding. Despite having saturated our culture and being almost two-hundred-years old, *A Christmas Carol* is still a relatable, relevant, fun and fast Christmas-time read.


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## eagle2250

Fading Fast said:


> View attachment 69129
> 
> *I, The Jury* by Mickey Spillane originally published in 1947
> 
> 1940s movies were pretty nice affairs; even film noir then was nearly bloodless on screen where the good guys mainly won and the bad guys usually paid a price. Drug use, prostitution, homesexuality and other Motion Picture Production Code taboos occasionally made it to the screen in the open or, more often, by inference, but overall, 1940s movies were a tidy world.
> 
> Not so for the era's books. In *I, The Jury*, drug use, homosexuality (when it was a big deal), nymphomania and prostitution are very in the open as all play pivotal roles in the plot of Mickey Spillane's first Mike Hammer novel.
> 
> Hammer himself is no Hollywood hero as Spillane's famous private investigator breaks rules, laws and many things on his revenge-driven hunt to find and, as he states loudly, kill the murderer of his close friend.
> 
> Earl Stanley Gardner's 1930s creation, Perry Mason, also broke rules, laws and things as he solved crimes, but there was a positive vibe and good-guy aura to Mason. He occasionally worked outside the legal perimeter, but only to file down the rough edges when the legal architecture wasn't quite working.
> 
> Mike Hammer doesn't care about the legal architecture except when he can use it to his advantage and he isn't neatening things up - he is a vigilante out for justice. He does have a morality - he's loyal to his friends, he honors his word and he has a general sense of right and wrong - but if society had too many Mike Hammers in it, justice would come down to each man and his gun.
> 
> There's also an superhero immaturity to Mike Hammer as he's obvious a Spillane fantasy character who is so tough he can beat up two professional thugs who jump him from behind, can shoot better than anyone else and women often want to (and try to) sleep with him immediately after meeting him, while other women pine away hoping one day he'll ask them to marry him. Hammer's a twelve-year-old boy's perfect daydream of adulthood.
> 
> In *I, The Jury*, Hammer's good friend, Jack Williams, who lost an arm saving Hammer's life in WWII, is killed in cruel cold-blooded fashion (a gunshot to the gut and, then, left to die on his bedroom floor). Hammer immediately swears to everyone who will listen, including his friend police inspector Pat Chambers, that he will avenge this death by killing the murderer in the exact same way. That this is illegal and would lead to his arrest is all but ignored throughout the book.
> 
> Hammer and Chambers agree to work together to some extent, but they also understand that they'll each go their own way when necessary. From here, the investigation sifts through Williams' friends and acquaintances including his girlfriend Myrna, a shady mob guy, the mob guy's gay lover, wealthy twin sisters, one of whom is a nymphomaniac, and a voluptuous blonde psychiatrist who, years ago, helped cure Myrna of a drug addiction.
> 
> In addition to the above list of suspects, also involved in this complex murder are drug dealers, mobsters and a prostitution ring that, effectively, shanghais vulnerable girls from college. Hammer and Chambers struggle to untwist all these people and parts, especially as William's murderer keeps killing potential informants whenever Hammer gets close.
> 
> Along the way, Hammer has a couple of "quickies" with the nympho twin while he begins to fall in love with the smart and prepossessingly beautiful psychiatrist. Additionally, he consumes the equivalent of a medium-sized liquor cabinet while smoking his way through a small tobacco plantation's annual production.
> 
> Also part of the Hammer mystique are his cool friends and contacts who seemingly pop up wherever needed as when he goes up to Harlem investigating the drug angle. Sometimes these cool friends get killed because they are connected to Hammer, which only further fuels his passion for revenge.
> 
> In the end, and this is only a spoiler alert if you miss the Hammer-fantasy zeitgeist that Spillane has been spinning from the first page, Hammer solves the mystery and exacts the revenge he planned all along.
> 
> Added into the climactic moment is an awkward prurience as Hammer's victim, a beautiful woman, undresses completely and offers herself to Hammer in a desperate attempt to save her life right before Hammer shoots her: Twelve-year-old Mickey Spillane's fantasy is complete.
> 
> *I, The Jury* is a fun, quick read where hero Mike Hammer drinks, smokes and bangs pretty women as he pursues his vigilante-justice quest for his friend's murder. You can't take it too seriously, but it works as lighthearted escapism. It's also another entry in the "lone warrior working outside 'the system' to avenge a wrong" genre America has been perfecting with its superheroes and private detectives for generations.


"You can't take it too seriously, but it works as lighthearted escapism." At this point in life, I, The Jury" sounds like a great read for me! Thanks for the review and the recommendation.


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## Fading Fast

*Miracle on 34th Street* by Valentine Davies originally published in 1947

I found this book by way of its famous movie, which apparently, according to the author in the book's forward, is also how the story made it to a book. Author Davies explains that he first wrote the story for Hollywood; a story adapted by the movie's screenwriter and director, George Seaton. Only after its success, did Davis then write a novel version of his Christmas-time tale.

With that birthing, it's no surprise the book hews closely to the movie, but there are still some enhanced scenes and nuanced differences that, along with all its core Christmas charm, make it a fun holiday read.

The book also showcases the humor better than the movie as there are a surprising number of funny lines that almost get lost in the on-screen flow. Conversely, Edmund Gwenn's iconic portrayal of Santa in the movie creates a more empathetic and enjoyable Santa than the, still, very good one in the book.

The basic story, as noted, is the same. An old man who looks and talks like Kris Kringle, which he claims is his real name, becomes Macy's Christmas store Santa, bringing a spirit of holiday charity, camaraderie, good will and faith that's often lost amidst the season's relentless commercialization.

He even begins to win over one of the store's managers, a pragmatic single mom raising her daughter to think "rationally" and not believe in silliness like Christmas. This view is rebuked by her handsome, single, lawyer neighbor who has been unsuccessfully trying to woo her.

When the store's jealous, petty and narrow-minded therapist gets Kris committed to a mental hospital, a very public trial is held to determine if Kris is crazy. All the good-hearted people want Kris judged sane. Even the trial judge, owing to his upcoming election, is trying to find a way to rule accordingly. Only the store's therapist, the State's attorney general and few mean-spirited people are hoping otherwise.

(Spoiler alert, if you somehow don't know this story) The judge requires the defense to produce some sort of imprimatur stating that Kris is really Santa, which seems to doom Kris. But in a wonderful moment, Kris' attorney - the store manager's single neighbor - has the Post Office deliver mailbag upon mailbag of letters addressed to Santa to Kris Kringle at the courthouse. This is an official-enough recognition for the judge to rule that Kris is, in fact, Santa.

All rejoice; Kris is happy and the "pragmatic" store manager and her daughter become true believers in Christmas. Completing the joy, the store manager and the lawyer get engaged and buy the dream house the store manager's daughter had asked Kris to get her for Christmas.

*Miracle on 34th Street* is full of charm and whimsy, but has enough humor and adult perspective to make it a fun read for kids of any age. It's a nice compliment to one of the all-time-classic Christmas movies.


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## eagle2250

Fading Fast said:


> View attachment 72243
> 
> *Miracle on 34th Street* by Valentine Davies originally published in 1947
> 
> I found this book by way of its famous movie, which apparently, according to the author in the book's forward, is also how the story made it to a book. Author Davies explains that he first wrote the story for Hollywood; a story adapted by the movie's screenwriter and director, George Seaton. Only after its success, did Davis then write a novel version of his Christmas-time tale.
> 
> With that birthing, it's no surprise the book hews closely to the movie, but there are still some enhanced scenes and nuanced differences that, along with all its core Christmas charm, make it a fun holiday read.
> 
> The book also showcases the humor better than the movie as there are a surprising number of funny lines that almost get lost in the on-screen flow. Conversely, Edmund Gwenn's iconic portrayal of Santa in the movie creates a more empathetic and enjoyable Santa than the, still, very good one in the book.
> 
> The basic story, as noted, is the same. An old man who looks and talks like Kris Kringle, which he claims is his real name, becomes Macy's Christmas store Santa, bringing a spirit of holiday charity, camaraderie, good will and faith that's often lost amidst the season's relentless commercialization.
> 
> He even begins to win over one of the store's managers, a pragmatic single mom raising her daughter to think "rationally" and not believe in silliness like Christmas. This view is rebuked by her handsome, single, lawyer neighbor who has been unsuccessfully trying to woo her.
> 
> When the store's jealous, petty and narrow-minded therapist gets Kris committed to a mental hospital, a very public trial is held to determine if Kris is crazy. All the good-hearted people want Kris judged sane. Even the trial judge, owing to his upcoming election, is trying to find a way to rule accordingly. Only the store's therapist, the State's attorney general and few mean-spirited people are hoping otherwise.
> 
> (Spoiler alert, if you somehow don't know this story) The judge requires the defense to produce some sort of imprimatur stating that Kris is really Santa, which seems to doom Kris. But in a wonderful moment, Kris' attorney - the store manager's single neighbor - has the Post Office deliver mailbag upon mailbag of letters addressed to Santa to Kris Kringle at the courthouse. This is an official-enough recognition for the judge to rule that Kris is, in fact, Santa.
> 
> All rejoice; Kris is happy and the "pragmatic" store manager and her daughter become true believers in Christmas. Completing the joy, the store manager and the lawyer get engaged and buy the dream house the store manager's daughter had asked Kris to get her for Christmas.
> 
> *Miracle on 34th Street* is full of charm and whimsy, but has enough humor and adult perspective to make it a fun read for kids of any age. It's a nice compliment to one of the all-time-classic Christmas movies.


Another great review! Miracle on 34th Street, The Christmas Story, and It's A Wonderful Life are all movies watched almost on an annual basis in the Eagles Crib. I think I also read the book, but my memory is pretty sketchy on that point. Though, I'm not surprised to hear you impune that the book is in some ways even better than the movie. Reading the book affords one greater opportunity to live the moment and enjoy the experience. I've also found such to be true when watching movies based on the late Tom Clancy's, Stephen King's and Clive Cussler's writings. I'm going to try to locate a copy of the book to read, or re-read as may be the case.


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## Fading Fast

*Appointment in Samarra*by John O'Hara published in 1930

*Appointment in Samarra* is the story of a man born on third base who spends three days running toward home, the wrong way.

Set in the small fictional town of Gainesville Pennsylvania in 1930, Julian English is a successful thirty-year-old businessman with a beautiful and smart wife. They are the unofficial leaders of the "young set" of the "Lantenengo Street crowd."

Born to a socially prominent family, Julian's father, with ancestors dating back to the American Revolution, is the respected doctor English, chief of staff of the Gainesville Hospital and member or head of every "proper" club, organization and charity in town.

Julian had every advantage from the beginning, yet had, perhaps, a rebellious streak or, more likely, just an obstinacy resulting in childhood scrapes with the law. It's less that Julian has some philosophical opposition to his father's life and world, than that he's simply angry or ungrateful by nature.

Fictional Gainesville is author O'Hara look at small-town America at the start of the Depression. In that world, the Irish, Italians and Jews have made great progress in business and the professions, but are still often kept at arm's length or further from the "proper" social clubs, organizations, neighborhoods (like Lantenengo Street) and cliques (like Julian's).

Since the old-line Protestant leaders need these groups' business and, sometimes, capital, you can feel the walls coming down, but of course, not to everyone's liking. At a Christmas party at the club, Julian's anger toward Harry Reilly, a successful Irish businessman who has been "pushing" into the "old" clubs and organizations, bubbles over prompting him to throw a drink in Reilly's face.

Later we learn Julian borrowed a significant amount of money from Reilly to keep his Cadillac dealership afloat at the start of the Depression. Julian's tossing of the drink was the unofficial start of his downward spiral.

Like the petulant child he basically is, Julian's relationship with his wife is immature as everything descends into a fight, even just trying to have sex, since he doesn't understand, or like, compromise. Worse, Julian, a handsome man who's had his way with women his entire life, cheats on his wife, but is viciously jealous of any man who shows his wife even just friendship.

A day after Christmas, at a nightclub, Julian, in front of his wife and their friends, takes a singer out to his car for what everyone assumes was to have sex. Julian not only blew up his marriage that evening, but alienated the local mob boss as the singer is the mob boss' girlfriend.

As opposed to the movies, the mob boss isn't going to "rub Julian out," but his influence in the Italian community will cost Julian business, something Julian can't afford to lose.

To complete his destruction, the next day, Julian, at his club, has a fist fight with a handicapped WWI vet. Whatever was left of Julian's goodwill with his own clique, let alone the larger community, has ended.

In only a few days, Julian English, perhaps Gainesville's most-prominent young citizen, has ruined his business by angering his major investor, alienating his friends and customers and destroyed his marriage. All of it was fueled by alcohol and anger, but anger at what?

It's hard to find any way to respect or justify Julian's anger as he had so much handed to him and has, what most would consider, a very good life. Maybe some people are just wired to be mad at the world.

Or maybe O'Hara sees Julian as a representative of a class, the old-line WASPs, losing its grip and position as the growing wealth and power of other groups, combined with the flattening of everyone by the Depression, erodes its status and influence.

Julian could be Tom Buchanan from *The Great Gatsby* if the Depression had forced Buchanan to have to earn a living. Buchanan's arrant racism and superiority complex would be enraged by having to "deign" to work with, and even ask favors from, those he considers his racial and social inferiors.

While most races and religions are denigrated at some point in *Appointment in Samarra*, there is a soft, but constant anti-semitism running throughout in the background. It might only be a comment here or there about the "Jews" or about "a Jew pushing his way in," but it's relentless and spiteful. It's another, in this case ugly, thread that touches back to Fitzgerald's Jazz Age stories.

(Spoiler alert) Julian's and the novel's denouement is a long lonely night of drinking, including rejection from a female reporter he made a pass at, followed by a trip to the garage - motor on, doors and windows sealed - with the coroner declaring it a suicide. It was Julian's only out.

O'Hara has a talent for exposing the nuances, sinews and shades of small-town life and society. Writing in 1930, O'Hara could not have known the Depression would last for a long, enervating decade, but he saw its start, in real time, as a turning point in America. Julian English is O'Hara's unflattering look at the old guard being forced to cede space to others and not liking it one bit.

For us today, *Appointment in Samarra* is a contemporaneous look at America on the brink of a major social and cultural pivot. It's also a short insightful novel that sits right next to Fitzgerald's work on the literary continuum of the American story.


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## eagle2250

^^
I'm going to have to put any detailed reading off for a month...perhaps two, but after that I will take a closer look at Appointment in Samarra, assuming I can find a local copy! Thank you, Fading Fast, for a characteristically great review.


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## Oldsarge

_My Backyard Jungle_ by James Barilla. A Nature loving journalist moves to the suburbs and decides to landscape his yard into a haven where he and wildlife can live in harmony. But when the local wildlife turns out to be garden-ravaging squirrels and wall-dwelling rats, chaos ensues. The writing is absolutely lovely.


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## Fading Fast

*Point of No Return* by John P. Marquand originally published in 1947

F. Scott Fitzgerald's literary star has eclipsed many strong authors from the first half of the twentieth century who also wrote about America's social and class structure, the cachet of "old money" and the struggles and limitations on moving up by earning more. While Fitzgerald deserves his reputation, his glow has hidden several other authors who have insightfully and effectively tread similar ground.

John P. Marquand's particular focus is on the decline of the once "ruling" Wasp culture and class. Marquand's *The Late George Apley* (comments here:  #839 ) is a "decline and fall" look at the Wasp culture, which, by abiding its own rules and ideals, slowly, and not so slowly, lost ground and influence to America's rising cultural and ethnic mix.

In *Point of No Return*, Marquand focuses less on the decline of the Wasps than on mid-century America's evolving class and social structure. He introduces us to Charles Gray, an assistant vice president at the old-line New York City Stuyvesant Bank (a trust bank). Gray is in competition with another assistant vice president for a vice-presidency position that just opened up.

In his mid-forties and in a small but respected financial institution, this could be his last shot at real career and compensation advancement. Gray is married with two kids and lives in a new suburb. He and his wife Nancy, a former law-firm secretary, are on edge over his promotion as they know the upward trajectory of their social and material life could stop for good if Charles is passed over.

Marquand, after drawing us into Charles' present world, takes us back in time to Charles' upbringing in the small town of Clyde Massachusetts, thirty miles north of Boston.

In this "very typical" New England town, Charles's family is a "lower upper" class Wasp. We learn of this very specific class categorization of the Grays when Charles returns home with a degree from Dartmouth and meets Malcolm Bryant, a sociologist studying the town of Clyde who has put the Grays in the "lower upper" category.

Through both Charles and Bryant, we learn that Clyde is a reasonably prosperous town with a few key factories providing the bulk of the employment. The town has divided itself into neighborhoods based on ethnicity, income and an intangible but very real old-line Waspy-ness.

While the social status runs kinda along the lines of poor and ethnic domestic servants on the low end to wealthy Wasp businessmen, judges, etc. on the high end, the lines blur at the overlaps.

The Italian who has a new and successful construction company is moving up (but only so far); where as, the Grays, whose now-deceased grandfather was a judge and member of some of the right clubs, are moving down as Charles' father, just a mid-level accountant, is only surviving, as everyone in the town knows, with financial help from his sister.

Marquand shines at limning the nuances of the social and class aspects of small-town America. Kids from different classes can mix and play together when very young, but less and less as they get older; a middle class woman might be able to join an upper class club, but she'll never be appointed to a committee leadership role; if your father owned a drugstore, you can only move so far up in society even if you go to the "right" college and build the "right" career.

Charles discovers one of these limitations when he begins dating the very "upper- upper" class Jessica Lovell whose father is unfailingly polite to Charles, but sends subtle messages of disapproval such as only greeting Charles in certain rooms.

Frustrated by this rebuke, Charles tries to advance his career by quitting his job in Clyde and obtaining a position in an investment house in Boston. But nothing will ever be enough for Mr. Lovell, so eventually, Charles leaves for New York and a fresh start at Stuyvesant Bank. Soon after, he meets and marries a woman who, like him, is trying to climb the social ladder.

Here he discovers a different but also strong social stratification, yet being New York, there is more give and fluidity to it. The plot of the book, will Charles be appointed vice president is thin, but it's a construct Marquand uses well to analyze early and mid-twentieth-century America's class structure.

It's a structure that is much-less rigid than the older European ones. It allows for plenty of movement, especially as America's economy provides for plenty of opportunity to build wealth. But at this time in America, there is still an old-line Wasp class sitting astride most of the important businesses and organizations.

While their position seemed nearly unassailable to Fitzgerald in the 1920s - think Tom and Daisy Buchanan escaping back into their world of money and status with Gatsby dead - by mid century, Marquand could see the cracks forming - cracks that would completely shatter the old order by the end of the century.

Marquand lacks Fitzgerald's genius for creating Greek-tragedy-like characters from stories out of American business and society, but he has Fitzgerald's eye for seeing the subtleties and hidden sinews of America's social classes and organizations. That alone makes him a worthy read as, in books like *Point of No Return*, he insightfully captures an America of a certain time and place.


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## Fading Fast

*The Graduate* by Charles Webb first published in 1963

The movie is better than the book is not something you hear often, but it is true for *The Graduate*. While the book adds some enlightening character background information, the movie is both funnier (thank you Dustin Hoffman) and better at capturing the zeitgeist of the sixties angst and cultural pivot from "Ivy League" to "hippie" style. (Comments on the movie here:  #29,651 )

Benjamin Braddock is an overachieving Ivy League student who returns to his upper-class west coast home after graduation completely disaffected with life. While his parents and their friends want to celebrate Ben's scholastic accomplishments, including a graduate school scholarship he's won, he's moody and withdrawn to the point of rudeness.

In what would become a pretension of those of a particular bent in the later sixties (and on), "rebel" Ben leaves home to live amongst the "regular" people of the world. Yet he returns a few weeks later when he discovers farmers, shop clerks, firefighters and truck drivers aren't the romantic heroes his condescending elitist arrogance led him to believe they were.

Now indulging his discontentment from the safe and luxurious confines of his parents' home, he floats around in their pool all day drinking beer and acting glum as his tolerant parents only modestly question him about his future. It's the classic hypocritical rebellion of "I don't like your values or your money," but it's easier to be against those things while still enjoying them.

Enter Mrs. Robinson, his parents' married forty-year old close friend who has known Ben his entire life. Like a lioness stalking a kill, she culls him from the herd, comes on to him hard and, after a little hesitancy by Ben, they begin a sexual affair all but devoid of emotion or even conversation.

Enter Elaine Robinson, Mrs. Robinson's home-on-break-from-Berkeley daughter and contemporary of Ben. Clueless-to-it-all Mr. Robinson begs Ben to date Elaine, while Mrs. Robinson, in some of the only pillow talk she and Ben share, "forbids" it. After Ben is all but cornered into taking Elaine out, and after his aborted attempt at sabotaging the date, Elaine and he hit it off.

Enter the nuclear option. Mrs. Robinson (who is probably psychotic) threatens Ben with exposing the truth of their affair to Elaine if he sees her again. Ben, launching the missiles first, tells Elaine the truth (good God), which leads to her melting down and wanting nothing to do with Ben anymore (the one good decision anyone ever makes in this book, but it is sadly reversed later).

She's sent back to college, while Ben pines away for her until he decides to go up to her campus at Berkeley. But first he announces to his parents that he's going to marry her, despite Elaine herself having no knowledge of this plan. Yes, Ben has many issues.

Ben rents a room in Berkeley and hangs around the campus until he runs into her. From Elaine, he learns her mother claims Ben raped her, which is untrue, but which, for a time, deeply alienated Elaine form Ben. Ben, single mindedly, insists they should get married, staying on point even when Elaine notes many practical problems to the idea. You want to scream, "run Elaine, run!"

After much back-and-forth discussion and hesitation over the next weeks, Ben begins to win her over, until Elaine's father swoops in and takes her away. Ben then goes in search of Elaine, finally finding her at the church where bride Elaine is walking down the aisle in a hastily-arranged marriage to a "nice college boy."

(Spoiler alert) Ben disrupts the affair and she and Elaine run off together with a hint of discord or regret or something unsettling between them as the book ends. One doubts that happily ever after is in the cards for these two.

In the movie, Ben isn't quite likable, but he seems more confused than selfish. In the book, he is an insufferable snob and hypocrite, who bullies people to get what he wants.

His default setting is passive aggressive, which becomes simply aggressive when he meets resistance. One can only hope Elaine sees this before marrying him. Other than that he is quirky and passionately wants to marry her (that's always an ego boost), she seems to understand that he is unhinged from reality.

The book version of the story also lacks the atmosphere of the movie. You don't feel the sixties; you don't feel Ben's youthful angst as anything but an indulgence, and you don't even feel the sexual spark between Ben and Mrs. Robinson.

*The Graduate* is an okay and quick read if you want to learn a bit more about the characters than you do in the movie, but it is one of those rare times where the movie is better than the book.


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## eagle2250

Fading Fast said:


> View attachment 78011
> 
> *The Graduate* by Charles Webb first published in 1963
> 
> The movie is better than the book is not something you hear often, but it is true for *The Graduate*. While the book adds some enlightening character background information, the movie is both funnier (thank you Dustin Hoffman) and better at capturing the zeitgeist of the sixties angst and cultural pivot from "Ivy League" to "hippie" style. (Comments on the movie here:  #29,651 )
> 
> Benjamin Braddock is an overachieving Ivy League student who returns to his upper-class west coast home after graduation completely disaffected with life. While his parents and their friends want to celebrate Ben's scholastic accomplishments, including a graduate school scholarship he's won, he's moody and withdrawn to the point of rudeness.
> 
> In what would become a pretension of those of a particular bent in the later sixties (and on), "rebel" Ben leaves home to live amongst the "regular" people of the world. Yet he returns a few weeks later when he discovers farmers, shop clerks, firefighters and truck drivers aren't the romantic heroes his condescending elitist arrogance led him to believe they were.
> 
> Now indulging his discontentment from the safe and luxurious confines of his parents' home, he floats around in their pool all day drinking beer and acting glum as his tolerant parents only modestly question him about his future. It's the classic hypocritical rebellion of "I don't like your values or your money," but it's easier to be against those things while still enjoying them.
> 
> Enter Mrs. Robinson, his parents' married forty-year old close friend who has known Ben his entire life. Like a lioness stalking a kill, she culls him from the herd, comes on to him hard and, after a little hesitancy by Ben, they begin a sexual affair all but devoid of emotion or even conversation.
> 
> Enter Elaine Robinson, Mrs. Robinson's home-on-break-from-Berkeley daughter and contemporary of Ben. Clueless-to-it-all Mr. Robinson begs Ben to date Elaine, while Mrs. Robinson, in some of the only pillow talk she and Ben share, "forbids" it. After Ben is all but cornered into taking Elaine out, and after his aborted attempt at sabotaging the date, Elaine and he hit it off.
> 
> Enter the nuclear option. Mrs. Robinson (who is probably psychotic) threatens Ben with exposing the truth of their affair to Elaine if he sees her again. Ben, launching the missiles first, tells Elaine the truth (good God), which leads to her melting down and wanting nothing to do with Ben anymore (the one good decision anyone ever makes in this book, but it is sadly reversed later).
> 
> She's sent back to college, while Ben pines away for her until he decides to go up to her campus at Berkeley. But first he announces to his parents that he's going to marry her, despite Elaine herself having no knowledge of this plan. Yes, Ben has many issues.
> 
> Ben rents a room in Berkeley and hangs around the campus until he runs into her. From Elaine, he learns her mother claims Ben raped her, which is untrue, but which, for a time, deeply alienated Elaine form Ben. Ben, single mindedly, insists they should get married, staying on point even when Elaine notes many practical problems to the idea. You want to scream, "run Elaine, run!"
> 
> After much back-and-forth discussion and hesitation over the next weeks, Ben begins to win her over, until Elaine's father swoops in and takes her away. Ben then goes in search of Elaine, finally finding her at the church where bride Elaine is walking down the aisle in a hastily-arranged marriage to a "nice college boy."
> 
> (Spoiler alert) Ben disrupts the affair and she and Elaine run off together with a hint of discord or regret or something unsettling between them as the book ends. One doubts that happily ever after is in the cards for these two.
> 
> In the movie, Ben isn't quite likable, but he seems more confused than selfish. In the book, he is an insufferable snob and hypocrite, who bullies people to get what he wants.
> 
> His default setting is passive aggressive, which becomes simply aggressive when he meets resistance. One can only hope Elaine sees this before marrying him. Other than that he is quirky and passionately wants to marry her (that's always an ego boost), she seems to understand that he is unhinged from reality.
> 
> The book version of the story also lacks the atmosphere of the movie. You don't feel the sixties; you don't feel Ben's youthful angst as anything but an indulgence, and you don't even feel the sexual spark between Ben and Mrs. Robinson.
> 
> *The Graduate* is an okay and quick read if you want to learn a bit more about the characters than you do in the movie, but it is one of those rare times where the movie is better than the book.


I am always impressed with the detail and depth of understanding incorporated in your book and movie reviews. I have watched the movie, The Graduate, a few times and if my memory serves me well, you previously reviewed the movie herein. I don't recall having read the book and am therefore rather impressed with the details incorporated in your character reviews gleaned from reading the book. From watching the movie and reading your review I almost feel like I know Benjamin and Elaine, agreeing with your conclusion that they have a tough road ahead of themm and have acquired a visceral dislike of Mrs Robinson. Thank you for another great review.


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## Fading Fast

*Your Turn, Mr. Moto *by John P. Marquand originally published in 1935

John P. Marquand is a Pulitzer Prize winning author of novels about twentieth century American society. His *The Late George Apley* (comments here:  #839 ) and *Point of No Return* (comments here:  #939 ) provide Fitzgerald-like insight into American class and social structure and mobility that are still enjoyable reads today.

So why is this noted author of award-winning literary novels penning popular spy thrillers? Probably because he wanted to - some authors just have to write. For twenty years, from the mid 1930s to the mid 1950s, Marquand wrote seven Mr. Moto spy novels about Japan's elegant, refined and highly intelligent superspy, Mr. Moto.

*Your Turn, Mr. Moto* is the first entry in the series. Oddly, Mr. Moto's initial outing is more about an American pilot, Casey Lee, than Mr. Moto himself, but perhaps (I've only read this one in the series, so far), Mr. Moto will become more of a central character in subsequent outings.

For fans of the comic strip *Terry and the Pirates*, which ran from the 1930s to the 1970s, the world of Mr. Moto - war-torn China trying to push out the Japanese invader - will be familiar territory.

Both the comicstrip and Mr. Moto leverage a complex and nuanced East-meets-West dynamic as American and British spies and adventurers play agent provocateurs, heroes, mercenaries and missionaries amidst the chaos of war in China.

Casey Lee, once a reasonably famous aviator war-hero and daredevil pilot, now an expat in Japan disaffected from his home country, agrees to do a small "favor" for a mysterious Japanese man, Mr. Moto. In return, Moto promises Japan will fund Lee on a solo trans-Pacific flight (back when that was still an adventurer thing to do).

Mr. Moto sends Lee into China to bring back a message from a contact of Mr. Moto's, but before Lee even gets there, all hell breaks loose. On the ship over to China, he meets a beautiful blonde ex-pat Russian (she fled her country when the communists took over), while several Chinese and Japanese seem to be watching Lee closely.

After a mysterious Chinese man, who was trying to pass Lee a message, is killed in Lee's cabin, Lee, with help from the blonde Russian, escapes the ship and swims to China. There, it's game on as he is played between the Chinese, the Japanese and the Russian seductrix.

(Spoiler alert) Only toward the end do we learn that everyone is chasing Lee because they all believe the mysterious Chinese man on the ship gave him the formula for a catalyst that will dramatically increase gasoline's fuel mileage. With a war underway and more combatants about to join, the formula could be a game changer.

The formula, itself, was discovered by the blonde Russian's now-deceased chemist father, so she's been hanging on to Lee trying to get it for herself. With it, she hopes she can help the White Russians take back her country. We all have our dreams.

As in any good spy novel, the end has everyone racing for the formula - planes, trains and cars all converge on a remote Chinese village where someone will or won't walk away with the valuable formula.

For 1935, it's a good spy novel, but it takes too long to get its story out. The last few chapters - when you finally learn why everyone is pursuing Lee and willing to do anything to find out what they think he knows - are gripping. Yet, up till then, author Marquand keeps you too in the dark as to the _why_ of the story to be fully engaged.

*Your Turn, Mr. Moto* shows promise, but stumbles out of the gate. It pushes its title character too far into the background and, then as noted, takes too long to roll out its plot. If later books in the series, though, build on the last few chapters of this inaugural offering, another Mr. Moto book could be worth a try.


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## The Great Garbanzo

All The Sha's Men.

Rather bad narrative of Persian history, correct but not well presented, but a compelling read. The first few chapters will give you an idea of why the U.S. (and GB), are not well loved by modern Iran.


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## georginamorris

THE GAME CHANGER


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## Big T

James McPherson’s “This Mighty Scourge”.


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