What are you reading?

[Birdy]

I just read The Night Country by Stewart O'Nan. It's a teenage car wreck ghost story and I couldn't put it down and read it in an evening. I would say it was good, and only moderately creepy with a twist ending. It will probably be made into a movie someday, but I doubt I'll see it. Most of us have a teeange car wreck story from our high school years and the book brings back that immortal feeling of cruising in the country and leaves you thinking, 'That could have been me.' There were several fatalities in my high school years, including the star quarterback. Just like the kids in the book, we thought all there was to do was ride around and listen to music and party. Even though it's set in modern times, I was transported back. Now I relate to the parents in the book and am thinking of a dear friend who lost her son in a wreck on homecoming night.

I don't expect any bad dreams from this book, unlike the last ghost story I read. I hate ghost stories, so why do I let them suck me in? Anyone else read this or anything else by O'Nan?

B

[mrsl]

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Someone suggested I should read Lauren Bacall's book, when I said bio's were not for me. Well, Lauren's book was also in the bag my friend gave me, but this is named 'By Myself and Then Some'. The jacket makes it sound like it is 'By Myself', but with the addition of the 80's and 90's. I wonder if it is an extension? I perused the last 25 or so pages and her Broadway work is discussed. In any case, it is a much more friendly and quicker read than Mitchums or Ava's, so I guess I have to be more picky when I choose what to read as far as bios go.
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[charliechaplinfan]

Anne, I think it is an extension of her earlier work. I don't think you'll be dissappointed although you may need tissues when it gets to Bogie's demise.

A badly written book is a frustration, I try to either look up the reviews on Amazon and see what people who've read the book have to say or ask around here.

I've just started a book on Montgomery Clift by Patricia Bosworth, so far, so good. The person Monty in his earlier years isn't the Monty I'd imagined him to be.

[mrsl]

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I have a friend who is a total nerd. She is a funny, lovable woman who loves to tell and hear jokes, but she is the most book smart, and least common sense smart of anyone you might want to meet. I mentioned one day that I was getting into reading biographies, and she said "don't buy any, because I have several that I'll bring over to you." She did that within a week or so, which surprised me, but she included the Lauren Bacall, Barbara Stanwyck, Betty Davis, and a John Wayne, however, when I thanked her and asked her if she realized who those people were, she said "No, but I figured if they had bios written about them, they had to be somebody". Can you imagine. . . ? They are all hard cover, $25.00 to $35.00 books, and she has more yet. She's one of these people who will for instance, go out and buy every book someone like Jon Stewart interviews in a week's time.
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[charliechaplinfan]

That's a great friend, Anne. If she's so book learned why has she not heard of some of the movie greats. Who is Barbara Stanwyck book written by, I was looking for one but was unsure which author to go for?

[MichiganJ]

I'm reading a fascinating (but dry as toast) book on early movie censorship called Policing Cinema: Movies and Censorship in Early Twentieth-Century America. Chicago plays a prominent role in early censorship, bringing the scissors to even the Nickelodeon films, or more accurately wanted to ban many of them outright because, they said, the movies were inciting the immigrant population to become politicians--WAIT!, I meant inciting the immigrants to become thieves and crooks.

Interesting, too, how many of the films in question were "ripped from the headlines" stories, which did contain much sex and violence. But, whereas these same headlines inspired many hit plays, which were perfectly legal to produce (and had 1st Amendment protection), the films were deemed as bozo no-nos.

Also reading The Official Razzie Movie Guide: Enjoying the Best of Hollywood's Worst. The bad thing about a book like this is wanting to see many of the movies under discussion. I mean how can I pass up A*P*E? It stars Joanna Kerns for Pete's sake!

[mrsl]

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CCFan:

She is a good friend. I'm sorry but I was wrong in printing Stanwyck, it's actually Streisand. I did stop at B&N this morning though, and thought I would look it up for you, and the only bio they have for Babs is by Axel Madsen, written and released in 2001. Can you believe nobody else has written a bio on her? I was shocked. Unless that is the only one B&N can get their hands on, though that seems strange.
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[charliechaplinfan]

That's the only book about her that looks any good, there are quite a few second hand copies available.

Well, I've had my eyes opened about Montgomery Clift. I didn't really know anything about the strange childhood he's led. Traipsing all over Europe leaving Daddy at home making the money, pursuing his mother's idea of respectability.

I always thought Monty was a homosexual but not according to this bio, he was a bisexual who enjoyed company of men and women. He seemed to want to settle down and get married and got close a couple of times but pulled away from the edge, I suppose from knowing that he had this inner conflict. He comes across as far more of a gent than either Brando or Dean and why I always coonect these three in my mind I don't know because Monthy's acting has always seemed very different from the other two. A quote I came across in the book from a friend of both Brando and Clift said that Monty pretended to be dumb and he was quite intellectual and Brando pretended to be an intellectual but was actually quite dumb.

The conflict he felt drew him towards drink and prescription drugs and he received analysis. This bit I've just started and I think his analyst is controversial although I don't know why yet.

I haven't even come close to the accident he had but I know I'm reading about a great talent unravelling. Looks like I'll be watching Monty movies for the next week or so.

[charliechaplinfan]

Still reading the book on Montgomery Clift, it's very well written and researched but he had profund moments of sadness, seemed only his work relieved him. He's another example of someone who has a real gift for something but is plagued with demons, demons he treated with numerous pills and an analyst and this is before his accident.

Is it part of the price you have to pay if you are gifted that you must punish yourself?

[markfp]

Every once in a while, I like a good adventure thriller with a touch of horror. I just finished BLOOD AND ICE by Robert Masello. It's 1856 and a British ship is thrown off course by a horrendous storm and ends up in the Antarctic. Something has the crew terrified and that results in two passengers, a British officer, a veteran of the Crimean War and a young woman who served as a nurse under Florence Nightingale during the that war, are chained together and thrown overboard.

The story shifts to present day where a photographer assigned to an Antarctic scientific station discovers the two bodies frozen in the ice. Of course, they are recovered and an attempt is made to thaw them out. When the ice melts, surprise, surprise, they are alive. (this sounds like something Howard Hawks could have made into a movie) Anyway, that's all I tell you. If you like this kind of book, I think you'll enjoy this one.

[feaito]

I read Ildefonso Falcones' very absorbing Historic Novella "La Catedral del Mar" (Cathedral by the Sea), set in Barcelona, Spain, during the XIVth Century. Entertaining, well researched and set, a page-turner, but not altogether satisfying, because on the other hand I perceived as a kind of manipulative historical "soap opera".

I'm currently reading his most recent novel "La Mano de Fátima" (Fatima's Hand) set in XVIth Century Spain in Andalucía. So far, good.

I'm eager to find René Barjavel's poetic science fiction novels. Has anyone read any of his books?

[MichiganJ]

One more day to Going Rogue!

[ken123]

One more day to Going Rogue!

I prefer Mad Magazine !

[jdb1]

I've read about the talkshow pilot featuring Kate Gosselin and Paul Deen. Frankly, I can't see that pairing. But Kate Gosselin and Sarah Palin -- I might watch that. I have no interest in Palin the politician, but Palin the TV presenter/talkshow host sounds pretty good. I'm basing this on Palin's performance in the Vice Presidential debates, where she acquitted herself much better than I would have expected her to. I'd rather watch her than Nancy Grace any day (not that I watch Nancy Grace, but you know what I mean).

And -- I just finished Christopher Buckley's Supreme Courtship. So funny. I tells the story of a young and pretty TV judge who is appointed to the Supreme Court. The judge's TV producer husband taps the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee to play the president in a political melodrama called "POTUS," and there are many more farcical plots going on. The recreation of a Supreme Court hearing, citing non-existent cases with silly names and throwing around nonsensical Latin phrases is a hoot. I laughed out loud on the subway when I read of one justice invoking the legal doctrine of quod sciatica. Thing is, not a single thing in this book is in any way beyond the realm of possibility these days. I loved it.

[knitwit45]

I'm re-reading a book from my childhood, "Imperial Woman" by Pearl S. Buck. It is the story of the last Empress of China, Tzu Hsi. I was enchanted with the story when I was a girl of 12, and found a used copy at Amazon recently. I have no idea how much is true, how much is fiction, but it's a good read.