What Are You Reading

[casechopper]

Currently in the middle of reading The Black Fawn by Jim Kjelgaard to my oldest daughter

 

[Barbigirl]

Home A Memoir of My Early Years by Julie Andrews

I've enjoyed it very much. She has a bit of a naughty side, more Mary Poppins that Fraulein Maria.

 

[Chasseur]

Robert Harris, Archangel, what a silly book... made Enigma look like Ashenden...

Just started Charriere's Papillion interesting so far.

 

[DNO]

Robert Harris, Archangel, what a silly book... made Enigma look like Ashenden...

Just started Charriere's Papillion interesting so far.

Enjoyed Papillon when I read it (though that was quite some time ago!)

Currently reading The Gropes by Tom Sharpe.

 

[ThesFlishThngs]

My bedtime book is Christie's "Secret Adversary".

Yesterday I had a surprise delivery of a book (surprise because I'd pre-ordered it in January and after the initial spring release was delayed, rather forgot all about it): "Talking Pictures" by Ransom Riggs. He has written "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children", which has the unique feature of being a fiction illustrated with real life vintage found photos. That was right up my ally. His newest is not a fiction, but just a fascinating and often poignant collection of found photos with captions. Most are individuals, but there is a little series in the middle of the book, of a girl called Janet Lee, which is beautifully sad story told one caption at a time.

 

[Hercule]

Just finished The Day We Found the Universe by Marcia Bartusiak.

 

[Chasseur]

The hat was sold by Galleries Lafayette one of group of "Grand Magasins" or Department stories that were founded in the mid-19th century in Paris (like the earlier Le Bon Marche, La Samaritaine, etc.). Really the precusors to the "all in one" department store that came to dominate urban shopping in the late 19th and 20th Centuries. My favorite Zola novel, Au Bonheur des dames, is about these stores.

The original store is a beautiful building:

I'm not an expert on old French hats but it looks like it sold for 47 francs at the time and also letters there (the "E" and "R") are normally the initials of the purchasers of the hat. Letters like that are pretty common on the nicer vintage French hats I see. Is there a name for the hat maker on the leather sweatband? My understanding is that much like the big catalogue stores in the US these stores did not generally actually make the hat they sold hats made by others under their name.

Hope this helps! (or at least misleads you until the real hat experts show up!)

 

[John Boyer]

"Looking for Spinoza: Joy, Sorrow and the Feeling Brain" by Antonia Damasio; and
"Centuries of Meditations" By Thomas Traherne

 

[Derek Cavin]

Dragonlance: Legends (aka the Twins Trilogy)

 

[dhermann1]

Dizzy. Not a bio of Dizzy Gillespie, but of British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli. What a wild man! FASSSSSkinatin.

 

[minkowski1552]

"Bleeding Kansas", by Sara Paretsky.

 

[Tomasso]

 

[Derek Cavin]

Shadow of a Doubt by William J Coughlin

 

[AmateisGal]

Just finished up Daniel Silva's latest, Fallen Angel. Excellent.

 

[John in Covina]

EZ 66 Guide for Travelers. A step by step guide for Route 66 and highlghts along the way.

 

[davidraphael]

Recently finished Maus II by Art Spiegelman

rereading Ray Harryhausen's Scrapbook. I've had it since I was a kid and occasionally dip into it

 

[AmateisGal]

David, what did you think of Maus II? I want to read these books. They look incredibly interesting.

 

[davidraphael]

I really liked both Maus books. They cut between the author's relationship with his father in modern day and his father's recollections of being in Auschwitz.
The artwork is very suited to the subject matter and in some ways resembles period illustrations.

Both books are important and worthwhile additions to anyone's bookshelf; they're not just for those who like graphic novels. In fact, I think Spiegelman received a Pulitzer for them.

ps - I just saw that you're a copy editor too. I'm currently copyediting a series of academic books about East/West culture.
I will never be able to retain the entire Chicago Manual of Style in my head! So many obscure little rules!

 

[Feraud]

Holy old memories Batman! I'm sure I had this as a kid!!
I love Harryhausen's work.

rereading Ray Harryhausen's Scrapbook. I've had it since I was a kid and occasionally dip into it

 

[davidraphael]

Yeah, me too. Harryhausen IS my childhood (not to mention the Bernard Herrmann soundtracks).
I tried making dinosaurs and monsters just like Harryhausen...but they just never came out right somehow.