What Are You Reading

[Julian Shellhammer]

Death In The Long Grass - Peter H. Capstick

Several years ago I read Death in the Long Grass and Maneaters; the books were a gift from a friend who was clearing out his library.

 

[Harp]

"After Many A Summer" by Robert Murphy. The be-all and end-all of what really happened between 1952 and 1957 -- and why. Thoroughly and exhaustively documented, and removes all real doubt about where the end responsibiliy falls.

Thanks Lizzie.
I will acquire and hide 'til after the Cubs have repeated; though lightning never strikes twice in the National League Central, but after last season's Cleveland clinch and Divine thunderstorm intervention anything can happen.

 

[Benzadmiral]

Gone to scoop up a couple more John Dickson Carrs at the library, and I may purchase some paperbacks of his early novels online.

I've also brought home two Willa Cather novels. I read Death Comes for the Archbishop long ago because of the New Mexico setting, but never anything else of hers.

 

[Harp]

Forbes, 2017 Belmont Stakes: Updated Friday Odds

Always enjoy reading Forbes' thoroughbred articles. America's Best Racing Longines site is also excellent; especially J. Keeler Johnson's analysis.

 

[Fading Fast]

Currently reading "Next Time We Live" a '35 novel by Ursula Parrott.

Parrot, based on the number of books she wrote and because several were turned into major movies (this one became "Next Time We Love" with Margaret Sullivan), seems to have been a quite popular author in her day.

I've read three or four of her books over the years. They are decent little "boy meets girl, they fall in love, they have obstacles" stories, but what makes them fun is the window they provide into the '20s and '30s (when she was writing).

You'll quickly see that the code-restricted movies do not tell the full story of the period as these books have a lot of discussions about issues we are still dealing with and that were rarely shown in code-restricted movies: drugs, women's roles (what if she makes more than he does, should she put her career on hold for a baby), sex out of marriage, etc. Also, little things come up like the fact that some men and women were already running for exercise - that one surprised me as there was a roof-top running track for exercise in one of her stories from the '20s set in NYC.

There are plenty more "regular life" moments like the above that really show you a window into that time. Modern authors who write period pieces will put in a details like that, but it never feels as organic as it does in these of-the-period novels. And modern authors, despite their best efforts, bring a modern bias to their books. These period books, too, have their biases, but they are the biases and prejudices of the times.

The modern period novels almost always have "forward-thinkers / rebels / mavericks" (and they are usually women) who coincidentally get almost everything "right" based on our accepted views today. There is, IMHO, no better way to truly learn about the Golden Era than studying material from that period like its novels.

 

[PADDY]

"A Bearskin's Crimea." Grenadier Guards & Colonel Henry Percy in the Crimea War of 1853-56. Riveting. ..!

 

[Bushman]

My aunt just lent me a copy of "Devil in the White City" and though I have yet to turn to page 1, I'm pretty excited to begin reading.

 

[greatestescaper]

My aunt just lent me a copy of "Devil in the White City" and though I have yet to turn to page 1, I'm pretty excited to begin reading.

I found "Devil in the White City" to be a thoroughly excellent read. I enjoyed it immensely.

 

[Benzadmiral]

Just finished The Burning Court by John Dickson Carr, a 1937 mystery novel set in the suburbs of NYC/Philadelphia. A young book editor is heading home by train on a Friday night with the latest manuscript from one of their authors, a specialist in "true-crime" books. This one, the title page announces, is about women poisoners. There's a photograph of the woman Chapter One focuses on, labeled "Marie d'Aubray, guillotined for murder in 1861."

And Stevens is stunned -- as it seems he's looking at a photo of his own wife.

It's an impossible crime story, yes; in fact there are two connected miracle crimes in it. And yet, after all is explained, there is one more screeching surprise tucked into the ending.

 

[Benzadmiral]

The Professor's House, a 1925 Willa Cather novel. It starts off a little slowly by today's standards, but there is a sudden switch in Part Two to another character's viewpoint and recollections of his time in New Mexico. I wonder how she will tie an about-to-retire Michigan history professor to a steep mesa which hides a long-abandoned cliff city in NM?

 

[Fading Fast]

Currently reading "Next Time We Live" a '35 novel by Ursula Parrott.

Parrot, based on the number of books she wrote and because several were turned into major movies (this one became "Next Time We Love" with Margaret Sullivan), seems to have been a quite popular author in her day.

I've read three or four of her books over the years. They are decent little "boy meets girl, they fall in love, they have obstacles" stories, but what makes them fun is the window they provide into the '20s and '30s (when she was writing).

You'll quickly see that the code-restricted movies do not tell the full story of the period as these books have a lot of discussions about issues we are still dealing with and that were rarely shown in code-restricted movies: drugs, women's roles (what if she makes more than he does, should she put her career on hold for a baby), sex out of marriage, etc. Also, little things come up like the fact that some men and women were already running for exercise - that one surprised me as there was a roof-top running track for exercise in one of her stories from the '20s set in NYC.

There are plenty more "regular life" moments like the above that really show you a window into that time. Modern authors who write period pieces will put in a details like that, but it never feels as organic as it does in these of-the-period novels. And modern authors, despite their best efforts, bring a modern bias to their books. These period books, too, have their biases, but they are the biases and prejudices of the times.

The modern period novels almost always have "forward-thinkers / rebels / mavericks" (and they are usually women) who coincidentally get almost everything "right" based on our accepted views today. There is, IMHO, no better way to truly learn about the Golden Era than studying material from that period like its novels.

Finally finished "Next Time We Live." I can only emphasize the value of reading of-the-period books like this to really see and feel how people thought during the GE - or in the case, the mid '20s-'30s. Recognizing, of course, that a book of the time has its own prejudices and limitations, but at least it isn't distorted by a 2017 lens.

In addition to the examples noted in my earlier comments, there is one smart successful character who ardently believed that fascism or socialism would take over the world. Since the book was written in '35, the author didn't know how the history of those two very popular movements would play out in WWII and beyond.

Another good example is that the main couple is one in which the woman out earns the man meaningfully and, while it creates discussion and some emotion for them, their response is closer to today's view - there shouldn't be any issue with it, but they both acknowledge that there is some "legacy" or "cultural" baggage that can create friction around it. They both know it shouldn't matter and it isn't a major or, even, minor hurdle, but it is noted. In a way, I think it is dealt with in a very modern way but with less preachiness and absolutism than in today's pieties. Very cool to see that view in a 1930s novel.

 

[AmateisGal]

Still reading The Black Moon (Poldark #5), but today at the library, I snagged a copy of A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles. I believe Fading Fast highly recommended this book, so I'm anxious to start it!

 

[Fading Fast]

Still reading The Black Moon (Poldark #5), but today at the library, I snagged a copy of A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles. I believe Fading Fast highly recommended this book, so I'm anxious to start it!

I did and can't wait to hear your impressions.

 

[Harp]

Hart's Posthumous Reply, Ronald Dworkin; Harvard Law Review 06/10/17

Dworkin's September 1994 essay to H.L.A. Hart's The Concept of Law, reprinted in this month's HLR brought back a name not heard lately,
pulled several online obituaries from The Guardian and New York Times. Always meant to read through his legal and philosophic canon, so this summer is time.

 

[Fading Fast]

Hart's Posthumous Reply, Ronald Dworkin; Harvard Law Review 06/10/17

Dworkin's September 1994 essay to H.L.A. Hart's The Concept of Law, reprinted in this month's HLR brought back a name not heard lately,
pulled several online obituaries from The Guardian and New York Times. Always meant to read through his legal and philosophic canon, so this summer is time.

With all this Supreme Court action, I thought you'd be all over that today as that seems right up your alley.

 

[Harp]

With all this Supreme Court action...

Justice Thomas filed separately, which opinion was joined by Justices Alito and Gorsuch; therefore avoiding the Court tailoring of the administration order.
The 9th Circuit opinion given earlier this month that the order exceeds presidential privilege is an example of ruptured penumbra that skates underlying
religious claim voiced by other circuit and does at least indicate cognizance of ideological tenuousness, then tosses further secular speculate to the mix.
Alito will perhaps prove the more perceptive jurist.

 

[Nobert]

Day of the Locust. Although I had to put aside for a bit, as it contains a character named, no kidding, Homer Simpson. I need a brief amount of time to adjust to that.

 

[Harp]

Trump is Violating the Constitution, David Cole, New York Review of Books; 2/23/17
An amusing, if rather tortured, southpaw profile of the incumbent's trespass across Article I and the emoluments clause.

 

[Harp]

Insider Trading's Legality Problem, Miriam H Baer, Yale Law Journal; vol 127, 19 Jun 2017

A fine analysis of the need to define insider trading according to law and not simple judicial interpretation.

 

[MisterCairo]

The Last Man by Mary Shelley. A little-known novel compared to Frankenstein, it is an apocalyptic tale in which characters, based on Percy Shelley, Lord Byron and Mary S. herself, deal with a contagion that leaves one man alive, Lionel Verney, the character based on PBS.