What Are You Reading

I am currently reading The Life and Death of Pretty Boy Floyd by Jeffery S. King. I am very interested in this piece so far. I am only in the third chapter but the opening selection goes into great detail of Floyd's funeral. I didn't realize how much the general public responded to his services.

His funeral "was a circus with the mob eating peanuts, drinking corn liquor, spreading picnic lunches, carrying pistols, upsetting gravestones, trampling graves, and ripping down fences as they tried to hear the sermon and catch a glimpse of the notorious outlaw."

Not sure how the book will continue, but hooked at this point.

 

Still with "Foujita" ... God, I am relishing every single page! Better than I could ever imagine!:eusa_clap

 

Soldat: Reflections of a German Soldier 1936-1945 by Siegfried Knappe and Ted Brusaw.

 

Just picked up "Black Pulp" based on a recommendation I read. Definitely pulp fiction! Looked over to the table next to me and I see I still have "The Butler's Guide to Running the Home and Other Graces" off the bookshelf.

 

A Century of Proust-Interactive Feature, New York Times

 

Currently reading Bradbury's Farenheit 451. Also, since Monday is my birthday, My father got me an H.P. Lovecraft book that I already owned so I took it back and traded it for Kerouac's Big Sur. I'm really stoked to start it.

 

Three books by James Lileks: "The Gallery of Regrettable Food", "Gastroanomolies", and "Interior Desecrations".

 

That's a great book. Knappe was one of the last people to see Hitler alive and not croak. He lead in interesting life to say the least. He was working for Weilding, the last Commander of Berlin (or somewhere around there.)

Later

 

It is good so far.

 

I recently finished Purge, by Finnish-Estonian writer Sofi Oksanen. It portrays the predicament of an Estonian family from the time of the Estonian republic through WWII and the subsequent Soviet occupation, to the modern day. Told with a level of artistry that shines through even in translation. See the review at Three Percent.

 

Matthew Arnold by Lionel Trilling; and

The Moral Obligation to be Intelligient: Selected Essays by Lionel Trilling

 

John Sandford's Dead Watch,

Forrester's Lieutenant Hornblower (decided to re-read the series...it's been a while),

and William Manchester's A World Lit Only By Fire.

 

Norse Stories. Retold by Hamilton Wright Mabie. Originally published in 1901 by Dodd, Mead and Company.

 

Four currently in the process of being consumed:

Manipulating the Ether: the power of broadcast radio in thirties America / by Robert J. Brown
The Lisbon Route: entry and escape in Nazi Europe / Ronald Weber
Benny Goodman's Famous 1938 Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert / Catherine Tackley
Berlin Embassy, by William Russell

 

Just finished a great biography of Peter Lorre by Peter Youngkin. I'll likely re-read The African Queen by C.S. Forester until I find something new.

 

Finished "Sharpe's Christmas" two short stories by Bernard Cornwall.

 

Finished Robertson Davies's The Deptford Trilogy. Whoa. Wow. And all the rest. Had to read a Lee Child as a palette cleanser. Now onto Laughter in the Dark.

 

That sounds a fascinating read, will have to track that one down.

Me, I just finished "The Legend Of Beau Baxter" a very amusing romp based around the 1924/1925 "The Invincibles" All Black rugby team's tour of Britain, Ireland, France and Canada - a team which holds almost mythic status in NZ. I've heard this described as "Flashman in rugger shorts" and that's not too far from the mark, a good "Boy's Own" caper that brings a smile.




And now just started, Steven Pressfield's "Killing Rommel" about the Long Range Desert Group in North Africa during WWII. Only read 50 pages thus far but looks to be very promising.

 

I have just finished 'The Train' by Georges Simenon:

 

Yes! It is always good to find another fan of Simenon.