What Are You Reading

[Hemingway Jones]

I cannot recommend enough, "The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein," by Peter Akroyd. It is absolutely wonderful.

Go out now and pick it up, then tell me what you think.

 

[Burton]

I'm reading the great director John Hustons "An Open Book". Quite an interesting perspective on early Hollywood.

 

[maggiethespy]

Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore.

Southern Horrors: Women and the Politics of Rape and Lynching by Crystal Feimster

Richard the II by William Shakespeare

and

Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

When the Mob Ran Vegas: Stories of Money, Mayhem and Murder by Steve Fischer (Omaha, NE: Berkline Press, 2005)

 

[Chas]

"The Club Dumas" by Arturo Pérez-Reverte.

 

[HosManHatter]

"Snow Crash" by Neal Stephenson (1992).A science fiction/futuristic novel which looks promising.

* Also reading "An Introduction to Heraldry" by Stefan Oliver (1987) as I find heraldry interesting. *

HMH

 

[PrairieSunrise]

I just finished "Travels with Horses" by Len Ritchey. It's a fabulous book, written by a guy who trucks horses around the country. Basically it's the James Harriot of the horse world!

 

[Big Man]

I just finished "Look Homeward, Angel" by Thomas Wolfe. It was a great read and I highly recommend the book. While the book is fiction, it is, in reality, an autobiography of Wolfe. Maybe it's because of the "local connection" (Wolfe was from Asheville, NC and the book is set almost exclusively there), but I could easily visualize the characters events as the story progressed. I really enjoy a book that I can "get into" like that.

 

[anon`]

The Unfinished Tales or JRR Tolkien, as compiled, edited and annotated by his son Christopher.

 

[Smithy]

"Carry on, Jeeves" by P.G. Wodehouse. As always with his books, laugh out loud hilarious. An absolute scream

 

[Harp]

Cry Wolfe

I just finished "Look Homeward, Angel" by Thomas Wolfe.... While the book is fiction, it is, in reality, an autobiography of Wolfe. Maybe it's because of the "local connection" (Wolfe was from Asheville, NC and the book is set almost exclusively there)

Wolfe has always intrigued me since school days---he and Agee,
and I'll add Faulkner and Harper Lee, and others too, but there is a
brilliance in American letters sent from the South that pierce Time's veil
unlike any New England Yankee chapter, and keeps drawing me back.
My brother lives in Asheville and I need to revisit Wolfe before summer.

 

[Big Man]

... My brother lives in Asheville and I need to revisit Wolfe before summer.

If you visit Asheville, read (or re-read) "Look Homeward, Angel" - especially the last couple chapters where he describes his brother's death. Then go by the Thomas Wolfe Memorial (the boardinghouse his mother ran) and walk up on the square. I guarantee you it will make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. You can almost "see" the events unfold that Wolfe wrote about. And, if you linger long enough and look hard enough, you just may see ol' Ben sitting on the rail. Is he a ghost, how should I know ...

 

[Harp]

If you visit Asheville... go by the Thomas Wolfe Memorial (the boardinghouse his mother ran) and walk up on the square. I guarantee you it will make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.... if you linger long enough and look hard enough, you just may see ol' Ben sitting on the rail. Is he a ghost, how should I know ...

I was going to Vegas next week, Big Man. Gotcha.

 

[RetroPat]

Currently reading "Katharine of Aragon" by Jean Plaidy. It's actually three of her novels rolled into one. So, it's long, but very interesting.

 

[Harp]

Thesis research: Philosophia, the thought of Rosa Luxembourg,
Simone Weil, and Hannah Arendt by Andrea Nye.

Andrea Nye is Professor of Philosophy at Wisconsin, Whitewater,
and an avowed feminist whose perspective regarding male philosophers
is decidedly unfavorable, though her subjects; most especially Weil,
are fascinating women by any objective measure.

Also, Moe Berg, Athlete, Scholar, Spy by a trio: Louis Kaufman,
Barbara Fitzgerald, and Thomas Sewell; also, Nicholas Dawidoff's Berg
biography: The Catcher Was A Spy.

Berg, a former Chicago Wite Sox catcher could recite all of Edgar Allan Poe's poetry.
Fascinating fellow. I just can't believe he played for the Sox.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Berg, a former Chicago Wite Sox catcher could recite all of Edgar Allan Poe's poetry.
Fascinating fellow. I just can't believe he played for the Sox.

"He could speak a dozen languages, and couldn't hit in any of them."

 

[Harp]

"He could speak a dozen languages, and couldn't hit in any of them."

.243 Major League average. Uhmm, yeah.
...but he could recite all of Poe's poetry.

 

[Big_e]

The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas. Really makes me want to put on my large beret and seek adventures like a Gascon.
Ernest

 

[Darhling]

Oscar Wilde's 'Dorian Gray'. I adore that book.

 

[Big Man]

"Marion Massacre" by Mike Lawing. It's a short book about the textile strike of 1929 in Marion, NC (about five miles from me) that resulted in the death of several (five, I think) strikers and the resulting court actions that followed. It's an interesting look at a significant event in local history.