Summer Reading thread

fuzzylizzie

fuzzylizzie

Alumni
It's time to catch up on all those books I have squirreled away. First, I've got to finish the last year of Andy Warhol's <i> Diary</i>, then I'll move on to <I>D.V.</I>, Diana Vreeland's autobiography.

Then, the new Harry Potter should be out.


For those of you who loved <I>Mommie Dearest</i>, there's the fashion world version, <I>Mommie Dressing</i>, which was written by Jo Copeland's daughter. It gives a pretty good insight in the NCY fashion world of the 40s and 50s. And here's a bargain price:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=378&item=4549016499&rd=1&ssPageName=WD1V

So what are the rest of you into right now?
 
I usually have two books going at once...a brain feeding book and a mind candy book. Right now it's:

Revolutionary Mothers, Women and the Struggle for American Independence by Carol Berkin

The Problem with Murmur Lee by Connie May Fowler
 
I am in the middle of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy..... never read it before..... not really into that kind of stuff, but want to see the movie..
 
not exactly highbrow, i don't really have time for reading lately but i did demolish this over the course of a few nights when i could keep my eyes open..'in a dry season - an inspector banks novel' by peter robinson

one of a fictional series, you don't need to read the others for it to make sense (i haven't). mum gave it to me as it is set part in the present day, part in wwII and is all very accurately researched... at one point the character goes and buys utility dresses with her clothing coupons, and i have a dress with the same label! anyway, it's a murder mystery a bit along the agatha christie route, young woman killed in wartime is only discovered present day due to the draining of a reservoir and so on..

a good train or plane journey filler!

and on a similar theme but non-fiction this time is 'wartime women - a mass observation anthology, 1937-45' .something that i am in the middle of and am enjoying very much and would thoroughly recommend (should you ever need an insight into the lives of british women of all classes, during the second world war!)

and finally, in complete contrast, i am about to embark on projects from 'the illustrated hassle-free make your own clothes book' and 'son of hassle-free sewing (further adventures in home made clothes)'. my son should be very afraid...

good grief, how erratic is my reading list! that and billy connelly's biography that i picked up in a charity shop..:BAGUSE:

...i think i need more recommendations, and quick!
 
:baguse: hate to admit it but my husband and I (ages 41 and 31) are hooked on the Harry Potter books. Supposed to be for kids, eh? We have to have a coin toss on who gets to read it first or its whoever is gast enough to grab it first LOL

A book I own and I pick up again periodically is.
"Creating a Life Worth Living." (subtitle: A Practical Course in Career Design for Aspiring Writers, Artists, Filmmakers, Musicians, and Others Who Want to Make a Living from Their Creative work) by Carol Lloyd.

Interesting read for anyone struggling with the idea of taking the plunge of being self employed or specifically in a creative field. I am not usually really into a lot of self help types of books, but this is a good one.

Alana, I would recommend getting ahold of the tapes of the radio show of Hitchhiker's Guide. It was original devised as an episodic radio serial format. don't know if its on cd.
 
I read <i>Hitchhiker's Guide</i> (all of them, in fact) way back when... but I picked it up again when I heard the movie was coming out. Sadly, I've heard the movie isn't really worth seeing... think I'll now wait for video. It was nice revisiting the books, though.

Currently reading a book called Open Season on Lawyers.. which isn't quite as fluffy as I'd originally thought. It's a pre-release copy, though (my mom is a bookstore manager) so I'm not sure if it's out yet. (UPDATE! it's out.. .amazon link provided) Serial Killer has a thing against rotten lawyers and goes on an ingenious spree. Not bad.

I have a thing about serial killers. I read a LOT so I doubt this was the last one... but I also recently read <i>Black Dahlia Avenger</i> by Steve Hodel. Yet another theory on thye killer of this infamous late 40's murder. Very interesting. I keep meaning to pick up <i>Severed</i> which is purportedly one of the more respected theories.

Hmmmm what else? I ALWAYS recommend Barbara Kingsolver. Especially The Bean Trees (and the two follow-ups) &The Poisonwood Bible which is about a missionary family in the... 50's, I thinK? it's been awhile!... the father is a preacher and they move to Africa to convert the natives. Ha! Really incredible tale and Kingsolver has an AMAZING writing style. I also strongly suggest her essays in High Tide in Tucson
Other classics I always suggest include:

<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0441790348/qid=1118690336/sr=8-1/ref=pd_csp_1/002-6939720-3156055?v=glance&s=books&n=507846"><i>Stranger in a Strange Land</i></a> by Robert Hinlein

<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0451187849/qid=1118690471/sr=8-3/ref=pd_csp_3/002-6939720-3156055?v=glance&s=books&n=507846"><i>We the Living</i></a> and also <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0451191153/qid=1118690471/sr=8-2/ref=pd_csp_2/002-6939720-3156055?v=glance&s=books&n=507846"><i>The Fountainhead</i></a> both by Ayn Rand. Sadly.. I never could get into Atlas Shrugged, which is supposed to be her classic. We The Living is much more of an autobiographical tale and I think is the more impressive of the two. So much more richly emotional than her other books. So much so that I decided long ago that my firstborn daughter would be named after the main character- Kira. I still loved Fountainhead, though... although she starts waxing philisophical at that point.
 
Creative Visualization by Shakti ....Garain? I'm not usually into books like this but at this point - why not! Chris, your book sounds interesting too. I might make a little trip to Chapters...

I usually only have time to read short stuff (magazine articles). I don't usually have time to commit to a novel and when I do it is usually something educational or self-help. (God, I'm boring!)

The Automatic Millionaire was good (talked about setting up bill-paying & investments so it happens automatically (assuming you have $ to pay bills & invest)), another finance book by Suzy Orman was good, and a book about Marketing by Rick Crandall was good.

Deb
 
I've only had time for magazine articles lately (although, since I have an ongoing addiction to the New Yorker, some of them can go on a bit...)

<b>1</b>) I read (most of) '<u>The Garden of Allah</u>' by Robert Hitchens recently, and, boy, is it a purple-hued potboiler of the highest order.
Read only if you're in the mood to sit in a Moroccan courtyard next to a bubbling fountain stuffing your face with over-sugared pink Turkish delight.

<b>2</b>) I hugely enjoyed '<u>Fashion is Spinach</u>' by Elizabeth Hawes, which I only got hold of recently. Terribly witty and brusque, with fascinating memoirs of Paris as a hot fashion capital in the 20s.
As the book goes on, you become increasingly in awe of this woman's energy (in setting up her own couture house) and, actually, a little scared about what she must have got up to next (she packed in the house just after writing the biog).

I'm going to track down her biography next.

<b>3</b>) I just bought as an idiosyncratic wedding present for a hill-walking friend, an illustrated first edition of '<u>The Ascent of Rum Doodle</u>' by R. Bowman - it kind of defies description, but if you know 'Three Men in a Boat', just imagine that, up a mountain, with an even greater degree of po-faced, stiff-upper-lipped delivery of utter, coffee-spluttering, breath-snatching hilarity. Genius.

On my list:

During a despairing moment during a job interview day recently (I've cheered up since) I thought 'I might as well buy some good books' in a decent 2nd hand dept I whiled lunch away in.
I was an absolute sucker for a rounded cornered little volume titled '<u>By Desert Ways to Baghdad</u> by Louisa Jebb (Mrs. Roland Wilkins). Haven't started it yet, but, by golly, it looks bracing!!

Also, almost bought today, and will buy soon: '<u>Snow</u>' by Orhan Pamuk. One of my most favourite authors currently writing - Turkish, half-resident in New York, and concerned with the most amazing issues of identity in contemporary and historic Turkey (sometimes mixed together).
I've been looking forward to having some time to read this. Think I will have to wait for some kind of a holiday though. I'm getting two behind now, since he has just published 'Istanbul' too.

OK, I'm getting a bit carried away, but if anyone wants to read a book they're going to like, no matter what, this summer, I recommend
<u><b>'I Capture the Castle'</u></b> by Dodie Smith:

- much better than the film.
- written about 2 poverty-stricken girls in 30s Britain (see the Dept store thread for a quote!)
- as hinted at during the book, a direct cross between Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte, with added 30s-40s seasoning and glamour.
- written by a homesick Englishwoman overlooking the Pacific in Los Angeles while exiled from Britain during the war. Her writing about it is so intense you can practically smell the woodland mulch and mossy hedges...
- I guarantee you'll like it or your money back. Really.

Lin
 
Deb, when i got it, it was on publisher remainder at barnes and noble a few years back so am not sure if it is still in print, but half.com, etc, has it.

Oh, you will appreciate this Lin...I just opened up "With Lawrence in Arabia" by Lowell Thomas (c. 1924) last night. I have owned the book for some time but the right moment never came along to read it. It is much more highly accessable than what T.E.Lawrence wrote, but then of course it was written by a journalist so it probably would be. Its a
"make sure your hands our throughly clean before reading as to not add additional acid to the pages of the book" but i am reading it just the same.
I don't know if the book was subsequently reprinted.
 
That sounds good, I'll keep an eye open for it. And yes, TE Lawrence... I just haven't, erm, ever got that far into 'Seven Pillars of Wisdom' (the film succeeds by jettisoning/merging half of it).

That well known Lady of Taste and Letters, betty*blackbent, has a thing for spurious orientalia too, and is searching for an original of 'One Man Caravan' by... drat... author has escaped me. But it involves a motorbike in the 30s, in Asia, and it sounds pretty good to me.

L
 
did you try abebooks for the caravan one? at least to get some complete info on dates, author, etc.

I could not crack the 7 pillars. i started to read it once. I think it mainly had to do with his personal writing style versus actual subject matters.

I really liked the movie and then i found the 2 books in an antique book store and have held onto this one for years and it has stayed with me unread. I think, like I say, that one can just really dive into this other book because a professional writer wrote it. It also has a couple of photo plates. one is a portrait of the actual T.E. Lawrence dressed in some rich desert textiles so you have a real image instead of just picturing Peter O'Toole as Lawrence in your minds eye as you read.
 
or, as a friend and I have great fun shouting when we're tipsy and Orientalist, " 'ORRRRANCE!!!!' " (see the film if you think I'm nuts)

That's when we're not shouting 'A-Ka-BAAAARRRrrrRRrrr!!!' (vary end with allowance for galloping camels)
 
hee hee hee.

I know exactly what you are talking about, El Lin.
And for some reason i am picturing yelling form a balcony? why am i getting that image?

not that i have done that, but i know the context.
 
I use to read all the time but not that much now. However, I think I will read O. J. Simpson's book which I have had for a long time since the Michael Jackson trial is over.
 
Me & my friends sang Newfie songs in the back of a bus travelling through Oxford at the top of our lungs. We innocently started out sightseeing in Oxford, but nature called. Then cider called. Then we went on a pub crawl. Then the pubs closed. Then nature called and the pubs opened. Then we got thirsty again and cider / food / nature wouldn't stop calling. We ended up getting a bus back to friend's house, belting out all the songs we knew.

Deb
 
I know what it is...its ever since i have starting working on my website..any serious reading has gone out the window.

I have to definitely carve out some time
 
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