What Are You Reading

[Sunny]

No, but I do both PaperbackSwap (US only) and Book Mooch (worldwide). I've received a few bookcrossing books through there. The latest came from Australia, if I recall correctly.

 

[flat-top]

Rock Around The Clock by Jim Dawson. If you are into early Rock & Roll and R&B, check out this book. I'm halfway through and I don't want it to end!
http://www.amazon.com/Rock-Around-C...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1205850342&sr=1-1

 

[AmateisGal]

The Sunrise Serenade: A World War II Bomber Crew Story by a Nebraska author, Jerry Penry. Very personal story of the crew and each of their missions. Plus it delves into the Belgian Underground who rescued some of the crew members after their plane went down.

 

[MississippiLong]

thread thoughts

I love that everyone is posting what they're reading, but...........maybe we should discuss in a little more detail what we're reading. I wanna read reviews, in depth analysis. Not just names of the books we've been reading (sorry its the English Major in me.) Give me some plots, some character archs, some conclusions, some opinions of people who have read the same books! Lets discuss.

Gabe:eusa_doh:

 

[Lulu-in-Ny]

I am currently immersed in Life with Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse. I have seen the BBC series numerous times, so I thought it was time I read the books. And, I must say, they are a joy. I don't think I have ever read dialogue that is so well-written, and says so much with such economy of words. I highly recommend it.

P.S. I also recommend the series; Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie are fabulous, and there are some lovely examples of period style in there, as well...

 

[Lulu-in-Ny]

Joshua Ferris, Then We Came to the End

I'm midway through this recent acclaimed novel, set in the advertising world during the layoff cycle around 7-8 years ago, and innovatively written in the first person singular ("we" did this and "we" did that). Despite the acclaim, I am uncertain as yet how much this amounts to as a novel. It has a manner, to be sure, a definite bag of tricks, but I'm already feeling that whatever point that manner can make has been made, and there are still 200 pages to go. The lapses in realism seem purposeless, the "characters" are cardboard, and there is no plotting to speak of, only observation. There are funny bits, to be sure, but those are not hard to come up with in depicting the business world.

I have been meaning to read this; I work for Barnes & Noble, and this won the Discover Great New Writers Fiction Award this year. Hence, I feel sort of duty-bound to read it since my employer gave it a prize and all... Let me know what you thought of it when you're done.

 

[AmateisGal]

I am currently immersed in Life with Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse. I have seen the BBC series numerous times, so I thought it was time I read the books. And, I must say, they are a joy. I don't think I have ever read dialogue that is so well-written, and says so much with such economy of words. I highly recommend it.

P.S. I also recommend the series; Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie are fabulous, and there are some lovely examples of period style in there, as well...

Oh, I LOVED the BBC series! Those two were absolutely brilliant. Now I need to go check out the books. Thanks for the recommendation.

 

[CeceliaRose]

Currently reading Citizen Soldiers by Stephen Ambrose, which goes a bit more in depth and includes more characters than the Band of Brothers book (which I finished a couple of days ago). Also making my way through Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky, which I picked up at the grocery store the other day after being drawn to the excellent old photograph on the cover.

 

[imported_the_librarian]

TO BIZERTE WITH THE II CORPS

(http://www.history.army.mil/books/wwii/bizerte/bizerte-fm.htm)

I just need to keep my eyes from crossing!

 

[Feraud]

Riding the Rails: Teenagers on the Move During the Great Depression by Errol Lincoln Uys

A fascinating look at the little known story of the young people who took to the rails during the Depression Era. Most young people left their families due to the burden of poverty as a result of the Depression. A small minority of runaways were women and/or African Americans. Their quest was twice as dangerous as their white male counterparts.

The comments and policies of lawmakers and social workers are especially poignant considering the age of the youths in question. When reading about the hunger, danger, and sexual predations that occurred it is interesting (actually disgusting) to read a quote from Henry Ford, "Why it's the best education in the world for those boys, that traveling around! They get more experience in a few weeks than they would in years at school." Or to read how the helpless U.S. Government considered putting supervision of the roaming youths under the control of the War Department.

Required reading for an additional perspective of "the good old days".

 

[Avalon]

Feraud, have you ever seen "Wild Boys of the Road"? It's Hollywood's account of what your book's about, and it's excellent.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024772/

 

[Feraud]

I have not seen it. Netflix does not carry it but I will keep an eye out when looking for dvds. Thanks for the recommendation.

 

[Patrick Murtha]

Riding the Rails: Teenagers on the Move During the Great Depression by Errol Lincoln Uys

A fascinating look at the little known story of the young people who took to the rails during the Depression Era. Most young people left their families due to the burden of poverty as a result of the Depression. A small minority of runaways were women and/or African Americans. Their quest was twice as dangerous as their white male counterparts.

The comments and policies of lawmakers and social workers are especially poignant considering the age of the youths in question. When reading about the hunger, danger, and sexual predations that occurred it is interesting (actually disgusting) to read a quote from Henry Ford, "Why it's the best education in the world for those boys, that traveling around! They get more experience in a few weeks than they would in years at school." Or to read how the helpless U.S. Government considered putting supervision of the roaming youths under the control of the War Department.

Required reading for an additional perspective of "the good old days".

Does the book mention the film Wild Boys of the Road, Warner Brothers' attempt at depicting this theme?

EDIT: Oops, I should have read down farther.

 

[imported_the_librarian]

Right now, I'm reading C/O Postmaster by Corporal Thomas R. St. George, but in looking for more cool stuff, I just found a wikipedia category for 1940's books:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:1940s_books

so I'm off to worldcat to see how many are within driving distance!

worldcat: http://worldcat.org/

 

[LocktownDog]

The Girl With The Pearl Earring.

 

[Patrick Murtha]

Fiction Round-Up

As usual, I've got a whole mini-library of books going at once, but I did finish three of my novels in progress within the last few days:

Charles Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit -- What a great book! (I say that after every Dickens novel I read.)

Dorothy B. Hughes, The Blackbirder -- This reads like a Forties thriller that was made into a movie -- which happened with other Hughes titles, but not this one. It would still make a good movie; Angelina Jolie, take note. The weakness (unsurprisingly in this genre) is the characterization; but I was sufficiently impressed to want to take a look at other Hughes novels.

James Blish, They Shall Have Stars -- The characterization is also the weakness in this classic science fiction novel, the first in Blish's Cities in Flight tetralogy. Am I in for the long haul? Probably: I was on the fence about this novel, but it was (partially) redeemed by a surprise conclusion that pulled everything together. It is, I think, axiomatic that classic science fiction is more reflective of the past it was written in than the future it projects; more so than some fiction, it needs to be read historically.

My comments about characterization in the two genre novels should perhaps be understood in context; when you are reading Dickens and Fitzgerald at the same time as you are reading other novels, that tends to throw certain of those other novels' shortcomings into high relief.

I am still working on:

Joshua Ferris, Then We Came to the End -- ...which the library keeps taking back because it's on hold! I'll finish it one of these days. As I've mentioned before, I think it's a pretty marginal performance despite its acclaim.

Rex Stout, The Rubber Band -- Stout is an example of a "genre author" whose sheerly literary talents, including characterization, prose, and so on, require no apologies at all.

Joe Gores, Interface -- Tough-ass book. Gores's prose seems derivative of better noir and hard-boiled novelists; but I'll withhold judgement on the whole performance for now.

F. Scott Fitzgerald, Tender Is the Night -- More about this later. A rich book.

With room opened up by the three completions, I plan to start Anthony Trollope's Can You Forgive Her?, the first in the Palliser series; and I've got a number of other novels at the ready. Today I started:

John Braine, Room at the Top -- Having just seen (and loved) the 1959 film version with Laurence Harvey and Simone Signoret (both brilliant), I had a strong urge to familiarize myself with the novel. It reads very companionably; I'm going to like it.

Alan Moore/Eddie Campbell, From Hell -- I like to have a graphic novel in progress, and Ripperologist that I am, I've been meaning to get to this one for years.

I'll get to my non-fiction reading in progress in another post.

 

[Patrick Murtha]

Non-Fiction Round-Up

Still making my way through several books I've mentioned before (I think):

James Harvey, Movie Love in the Fifties

Erik Larson, The Devil in the White City

Herbert R. Lottman, Jules Verne -- This holds every promise of being an exceptional biography. Superbly written.

I've added a couple in recent days:

Kenneth Clark, The Gothic Revival -- Yes, the Kenneth Clark of Civilisation fame; this was his first book, as a 26-year old in 1929. He was a brilliant young man, of that there is no question.

Barbara Tuchman, The Guns of August -- Celebrated account of the opening month of World War I.

I need to add some short fiction, drama, poetry, and philosophy into my current reading mix, and have plans to do so.

 

[AlanC]

The Glass Key, by Dashiell Hammett

 

[Patrick Murtha]

The Glass Key, by Dashiell Hammett

One heck of a great book.

 

[AlanC]

Yes, it's very good. I recently came across both it and The Thin Man while thrifting (at different times). I've enjoyed both a lot, and likely will end up getting the rest of Hammett, too.