What Are You Reading

[PADDY]

The Bolter

About the 20's and 30's socialite (of 'White Mischief' fame), Idina Sackville, written by her great grandaughter, Frances Osbourne. Great parties in Kenya.

 

[splatt]

That must have been pretty weird for your parents (and yourself) to read a crime fiction book that referenced somebody you actually knew.

I'll have to drag out "Death Before Wicket" for a re-read and check that bit out Mojito

 

[AmateisGal]

Just started Joan Fontaine's autobiography, No Bed of Roses. Excellent so far.

 

[dhermann1]

I envy you folks who can gobble up good books quickly. I'm a little lysdexic, so it's always a slow but steady trudge for me.
Right now I'm reading "1676: The End of American Independence", by Stephen Webb. It's the second of a series of three books, starting with "The Governors-General; The English Army and the Definition of the Empire, 1569-1682", and "Lord Churchill's Coup: The Anglo-American Empire and the Glorious Revolution Reconsidered, 1667-1701". Long titles, but the gist of it all is that there was a HECK of a lot going on in the New World during the 17th century that we never hear about. The current 1676 book describes Bacon's rebellion in Virginia, when they actually set up a republic for a few months, until the whole thing fell apart, and the creation of th English-Iroquoian Empire in North America. Fascinating stuff, that explains a lot of later American history. The book is strangely structured, and he uses an appalling number of subordinate clauses on the subordinate clauses. But really fascinating. This ties in with some of the Francis Parkman books about the century before the American Revolution. Amazing and little known background on American history.
I'm fascinated wit the 17th century in general (the English Civil Wars!!!!!). So near and yet so far from our reality.

 

[shepkatt]

The last three books I have read:

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen - Is the story of a young man's experiences when he runs away to the circus in the 1930s after his parents die in a car crash and he finds out he is broke.

Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs - It's the story of Burrough's life from the age of roughly 13 to 16. Burrough's lived a middle-classed life, but the people around him were gradually losing it. His mother began to have "psychotic breaks" (although it sounds like she may have had bipolar disorder) and hooked up with a bizarre psychiatrist - Dr. Finch. Soon, every aspect of their lives are touched by Dr. Finch and his equally bizarre family..

The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets - by Eva Rice - It was an appealing read about family and love in England during the 1950s. Story mostly centered around 18 year old Penelope and her friends/family.

 

[Caroline]

Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs - It's the story of Burrough's life from the age of roughly 13 to 16. Burrough's lived a middle-classed life, but the people around him were gradually losing it. His mother began to have "psychotic breaks" (although it sounds like she may have had bipolar disorder) and hooked up with a bizarre psychiatrist - Dr. Finch. Soon, every aspect of their lives are touched by Dr. Finch and his equally bizarre family..
.

I read this too and enjoyed it. His other ones were not so great, IMHO. I don't know about the new book he's written about his father. It appears it's stirring up the surviving family members though. The mom claims to be working on a memoir - THAT should be interesting.

I'm just finishing up Lawrence Block's "Lucky at Cards" and I plan on modelling my new avatar based on the cover (hard case crime version). Then I have "The Devil and Sonny Liston" on the list, and a free copy of "Ripley Under Ground" by Patricia Highsmith.

 

[shepkatt]

I read this too and enjoyed it. His other ones were not so great, IMHO. I don't know about the new book he's written about his father. It appears it's stirring up the surviving family members though. The mom claims to be working on a memoir - THAT should be interesting.

I'm just finishing up Lawrence Block's "Lucky at Cards" and I plan on modelling my new avatar based on the cover (hard case crime version). Then I have "The Devil and Sonny Liston" on the list, and a free copy of "Ripley Under Ground" by Patricia Highsmith.

The fact that the people in this book actually exist is just amazing. If they are just 1/10th as bizarre as depicted in this book - I am just floored! My 16 year old daughter read the book first and asked me for my thoughts on it. I told her that if she were to open up the ceiling in the kitchen to add a sky light like the kids in this book did.. she should be prepared to not see the light of day for years..

 

[Feraud]

Currently reading The Portable Graham Greene. The book contains reminiscences, fiction, criticisms, etc. Good stuff.

 

[carebear]

"What Paul Meant" by Garry Wills.

Part of my apparent ongoing conversion to Catholicism. [huh]

 

[miss_elise]

i'm re-reading the Pop Larkin series... The Darling Buds of May..etc.

 

[Diamondback]

Two volumes in Osprey's "Battle Orders" series:

#21, US Armored Units in the North African and Italian Campaigns 1942-45
and
#28, Desert Rats: British 8th Army in North Africa 1941-43.
Woulda picked up #20, Rommel's Afrika Korps: Tobruk to El Alamein to cover the other side also, but they didn't have a copy in at the bookstore.

 

[CharlesB]

Confessions of an Economic Hitman

 

[Mojito]

I think I'm a candidate for "as dumb as they come", Splatt - I have every book by Greenwood in the Phryne series, and yet I've been calling her "Greenway" in this thread. Presumably vaguely associating her with Kate Greenaway, a horse of a rather different colour (but a very pretty one). D'oh. And yes, it was a surreal but happy moment when I stumbled across Bert and Dora in Death Before Wicket. I have a vague intention of writing to Greenwood to tell her how much joy she brought to a couple of their old cronies - I was having dinner with my folks the night I showed them the scene, and it triggered an entire evening worth of yarns about them. Dora worked on the 1946 movie The Overlanders and wrote the novelisation. When her books were being reprinted in the 80s she asked my mother if she could borrow her copy as Dora didn't have a copy of her own work - my mother was able to find her a copy to keep in our brilliant local second hand bookshop.

I'm working my way - chronologically backwards - through Liza Picard's series on London. Started with Victorian London, then Dr Johnson's London, and am halfway through Restoration. Elizabethan to follow. It's confirmed my conviction that as fascinating as the past is, I wouldn't want to live there and am not entirely sure I'd want to visit - not for long, anyway.

 

[classyguy]

The Amber Room by Steve Berry, very much like Da Vinci Code

 

[Midnight Palace]

I'm currently reading Edward G. Robinson's autobiography, All My Yesterdays

 

[Colby Jack]

Just started Ian Flemming's "Thrilling Cities"...

 

[magnolia76]

<a href=http://www.amazon.com/Dying-Season-Richard-Leverone/dp/0979915503/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1211342014&sr=8-1>"The Dying Season"</a> by Richard Leverone. It's an intense murder mystery that takes place in the '60's. GREAT read!

 

[Harp]

A Cornell Law note, District of Columbia v Heller.
Talk about stealing Second.

 

[Harp]

"What Paul Meant" by Garry Wills.
Part of my apparent ongoing conversion to Catholicism.

Wills is Catholic?
(I caught a few of his lectures at Northwestern)

Ever read George Weigel?

 

[LocktownDog]

Tall Ships Down by Daniel Parrott