What Are You Reading

"The Japanese Lover" by Isabel Allende

I read current books like this - recommendations from friends / NYT "bestsellers" (whatever that really means) - if I'm honest with myself, in part, to avoid being the guy that only reads old books / that doesn't keep up / doesn't read anything new / etc.

The same logic partially explains why I watch current movies and TV shows - I don't want to be the guy who only watches "old" films. But I am also drawn to some new books, movies and TV shows, so it is more than just avoiding a label. Whatever the reason, I find there are many outstanding new TV shows, some good new movies and a few good new books ("A Gentleman in Moscow," for example).

"The Japanese Lover" does nothing to change this view. The story is okay, the characters not terrible, the touch to history reasonably well researched and the writing acceptable - but it all feels flat. You can see the plot construction from page one. Throughout you can also see the outline the author created ahead of time and the "build emotional engagement" stratagems she place here and there.

And, of course, modern political pieties were all paid their obligatory obeisance (probably necessary to become a NYT best seller). It's an okay read, but not enough of a page turner to overcome its shallowness. I'll keep reading new and old books, but - following this one - it's time for an old one. Hey, did I tell you, I just read a New York Times bestseller (see, I'm not "that" guy).

Solitaire, the latest installment in the Clara Vine series by Jane Thynne (whose husband, the novelist Phillip Kerr, just recently passed away). I love these novels. They're set in 1930s Berlin, and this one is set in 1940 Berlin in the first summer of the war. The details are incredible.

Harp said:

The Certiorari Process and State Court Decisions; Jeffrey Sutton & Brittany Jones; Harvard Law Review, May 2018

Many are called but few chosen-a study of the dispiriting merits docket gauntlet.

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In an attempt to be polite, instead of saying, "He's taking the dirt nap," I prefer: "He was granted cert. to that Big Supreme Court in the Sky."

ChiTownScion said:

In an attempt to be polite, instead of saying, "He's taking the dirt nap," I prefer: "He was granted cert. to that Big Supreme Court in the Sky."

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Appellate recourse denied at the lower court.
...took this printing out of the bag when I got home Friday night and promptly forgot where I put it...

Dang! Tom Wolfe has died. An original talent and a keen social observer. For some reason, I always lumped him in with the bigger than life writers of the Golden era, although he —-of course—- came later. Maybe it was his white suits and his “presence”. He had style, talent in buckets, and the right stuff.

Tiki Tom said:

Dang! Tom Wolfe has died. An original talent and a keen social observer. He had style, talent in buckets, and the right stuff.

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For some inexplicable reason I left Wolfe alone. His sartorial approach, Manhattan et al, and the societal insularity-
or seeming enclosure-never appealed much though I always assumed a literary acquaintance would occur at some point.
Meant to give Bonfire a chance years ago. A belated encounter perhaps affords added perspective.

To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway.

Im finding that i prefer Hemingways fiction to his nonfiction. It's an interesting book. The main character is horribly racist, even by the standards of when the book was written. Yet, you can't help not to sorta like the guy. He's cruel, mean but like Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca you can't help but to think he's just a hardass with a heart of gold who's been calloused by the world around him.

Bushman said:

To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway.

He's cruel, mean but like Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca you can't help but to think he's just a hardass with a heart of gold who's been calloused by the world around him.

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Rick as literary character I believe hailed from Chicago, a lawyer whom had killed a man,
which explained his foreign sojourn. Probably a Cubs fan.

Julian Shellhammer said:

I have almost every Nero Wolfe novel and short story collection. And, yes, I re-read them even when I know whodunnit, enjoying the writing and looking for the clues.

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Julian,

There is a moment in one of the Wolfe novels or novelettes. To me it's an expert example of how well Stout wrote, how he made Wolfe work. On the phone, Wolfe is trying to reach Lieutenant Rowcliff, whom he detests (and so does Archie, and so does the reader after only one encounter!). Wolfe says to the person on the phone, referring to Rowcliff:
*

"Give him a message for me." His voice deepened and accelerated. "Tell him that Nero Wolfe pronounces him to be a prince of witlings and an unspeakable ass! Pfui!"

*
Which novel or story is that from? Rowcliff was in a lot of them, and I can't recall. Any ideas?

a bit of Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

Benzadmiral said:

Julian,

There is a moment in one of the Wolfe novels or novelettes. To me it's an expert example of how well Stout wrote, how he made Wolfe work. On the phone, Wolfe is trying to reach Lieutenant Rowcliff, whom he detests (and so does Archie, and so does the reader after only one encounter!). Wolfe says to the person on the phone, referring to Rowcliff:
*

"Give him a message for me." His voice deepened and accelerated. "Tell him that Nero Wolfe pronounces him to be a prince of witlings and an unspeakable ass! Pfui!"

*
Which novel or story is that from? Rowcliff was in a lot of them, and I can't recall. Any ideas?

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If Google is to be trusted, The Rubber Band. Beyond that I am at a loss--

About nine chapters in, Rebecca, by Daphne du Maurier. Our latest read-aloud for the Missus and me. Don't tell me nothing about what's going on! Neither of us have figured it out yet.

Julian Shellhammer said:

About nine chapters in, Rebecca, by Daphne du Maurier. Our latest read-aloud for the Missus and me. Don't tell me nothing about what's going on! Neither of us have figured it out yet.

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Love that you guys do that - kudos. Only after you are done, check out the really well done movie version: Hitchcock directing (before he fully became "Hitchcock") and, for me, the best movie Joan Fontaine ever did.

Ok...so....since I will be soon travelling overseas, just for a week.....and since the journey is about 15 hours flying .....and since I don't use I Pad or phone or electronic things when I travel lol..... I'm totally old fashion that way...

...then the book I have chosen (yes,paper book ) is called "Red Princess" by Sofka Zinovieff

I am fascinated by the life of the Russian Royal exiles.... you know....Grand Dukes becoming taxi drivers in Paris in the 20s and all that kind of thing ....



"Red Princess is a union of comedy and tragedy infused with the heady romance of a vanished Russia...A marvelous story"
GUARDIAN

Julian Shellhammer said:

If Google is to be trusted, The Rubber Band. Beyond that I am at a loss--

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Ah. I'll check through my copy of Rubber Band this weekend.

Julian Shellhammer said:

About nine chapters in, Rebecca, by Daphne du Maurier. Our latest read-aloud for the Missus and me. Don't tell me nothing about what's going on! Neither of us have figured it out yet.

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I'll say only that I read it first at 15, and when I read it again a couple of years ago, I enjoyed it just as much if not more.

"Radio Stars Of Today: Or Behind The Scenes In Broadcasting," by Robert Eichberg.

This is a large-format coffee-table-type volume published in mid-1937, and captures an excellent snapshot of the state of big-time network radio at the peak of its power. There's quite a bit of interesting information written from the layperson's point of view on how network broadcasting works, but the heart of the book is a series of photo spreads and capsule biographies of the radio favorites of the moment. All the old favorites are here -- Benny, Allen, Cantor, Burns & Allen, Crosby, Vallee, Amos 'n' Andy, Major Bowes, Kate Smith, et. al, and quite a few of the photos are rare shots that don't turn up in later books of this type. A great many books like this came out in the 70s, written from a nostalgia point of view, but this book captures the medium as a living, growing entity, not some encapsulated fossil, and you find yourself wanting to race right over the the Philco and tune right in. (Some of us can actually do that.)

A few definitive personalities of the late thirties are conspicuous by their absence, a result of timing. Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy opened on the Chase and Sanborn Hour just a month before this book came out, and by the time it hit the shelves, they were by far the biggest thing on the air -- and you won't find a word about them here. Oops. And Orson Welles was still a freelance actor making the rounds of the anthology shows, three months away from taking the role of the Shadow, and a year out from the start of the Mercury Theatre On The Air. There should have been a second, revised edition in 1938, but alas, there was not.

Aside from the bios, some additional interesting content includes an article on what to look for when buying a radio -- not quite up to Consumers Union standards, but still worthwhile -- and a "typical radio script," in this case the script for Jack Benny's Jell-O Program of October 20, 1935. Given that this is one of the few Benny programs for which no recording survives, it's fun reading. And the highlight for me, a copy of the letter potential contestants received when they requested a chance to audition for the amateur-talent segment on Fred Allen's program. "Anything goes," the letter advises, "from singing chickens to playing the harp with mittens on!" I've listened to dozens of Allen programs from the thirties, and I haven't yet come across any singing chickens -- although there was a guy who played the Stars and Stripes Forever by squeezing his hands together to make a sound like a fart. They don't mention that talent in the letter.

Not much in this book that I didn't already know, but it's pleasant browsing and earns a place on my crowded coffee-table. A scrawled pencil inscription on the inside front cover notes that this copy once belonged to "Carol Metz, Wrightstown, Wis., Age 10." Wherever her life took her, I hope Ms. Metz got a chance to hear the singing chickens.

⇧ Good stuff Lizzie. My dad, born in '24, was a fan of many of those radio programs. The impression I got was that radio was their (his and his widowed mom's) main form of entertainment when he was growing up.

He also loved big bands and all those '40s and (some) '50s crooners / singers / etc. which played on one radio station in the '70s that we listened to all the time in our house when I was growing up. That same station would play old radio shows on Saturday and, sometimes, Sunday morning.

That was my introduction to those radio programs. Some I really enjoyed and some just seemed hokey. But to be fair, I heard those shows over a ten-plus year period, so my impression was influenced by what age I was when a particular show was on (they rotated different ones in and out over the years). The thing I do remember is being surprised that one could be engrossed in a radio program as I had grown up on TV, but of course, a good story is a good story.

I get why TV shows pretty much replaced radio shows, but it is still a shame because, as a medium, radio has its unique advantages and limitations. Had radio programs continued to thrive, it would have been interesting to see how they evolved and advanced in story telling.

"Munich" by Robert Harris

As a historical fiction spy story, the book is good history, okay fiction and a weak spy story.

The strength of the book is its factual account of the Munich Conference of '38. Being a bit of a WWII history buff, I knew that the conference and its famous agreement were more complex than the Chamberlain-was-a-fool popular thumbnail view today. Harris does a good job showing how Chamberlain - playing from a brutally weak hand - made reasonable but flawed choices.

The book is at its best telling those factual historical details in a fictional narrative form. It was more enjoyable for me than just reading another popular history book on WWII. That said, you do need to have a basic knowledge of world events in the second half of the '30s to follow the story as Harris assumes his readers know the major geopolitical events of the time (why the Sudetenland was crucial at that moment in history, the general state of political affairs in Italy, German, France and England, etc.).

Where the book is weakest is in, what felt like, its snap-on spy story about two former Oxford University friends - one German, one English - now each in his respective country's government and in a position to influence the key officials at the conference. It felt force and obvious. Additionally, personal details about their lives are notably hinted at early and then either ignored or shown to be unimportant later - leaving you feel mislead.

I'm not unhappy I read it as, as noted, I really enjoyed learning more details around the famous conference, but can't really recommend a spy novel that failed in its main mission of being a spy novel.

The Two-Founding Thesis: The Puzzle of Constitutional Interpretation, Sonu Bedi & Elvin Lim; UCLA Law Review, 110 2018
Posit that the document itself is a bifurcated text caught between state and federal divergence.