What Are You Reading

[LocktownDog]

In the middle of: A Mile Down by David Vann.

Richard

 

[Smithy]

Reading Hemingway's "To Have and Have Not", good read thusfar...

 

[Kilted_Surveyor]

Bretheren by Robyn Young.
Excellent so far.

 

[Alex Oviatt]

Just finished Elaine Dundy's "The Dud Avocado"--fun read abour boho life in Paris in the fifties. Reminded be a little of Carl Van Vechten's "Parties" with a little Nancy Mitford thrown in. Am also reading a biography of George Patton.

 

[MrNewportCustom]

I'm over-doing it again.

Three books at this time.

Magic Lantern Guides, Nikon D40x, by Simon Stafford (Since I'll be getting one soon.)

Light Science and Magic - An Introduction to Photographic lighting, by Hunter, Biver and Fuqua (As a refresher.)

and

Grammar Snobs are Great Big Meanies - A Guide to Language For Fun and Spite, by June Casagrande.

Which biography of Patton are you reading, Alex?


Lee

 

[thebadmamajama]

DRACULA!

 

[Steve]

DRACULA!

Ah, one of my personal favorites. Read it late at night with a cup of steaming tea for full effect.

At present, I'm reading through one of the great Doc Savage's adventures: "The Land of Always-Night." Most enjoyable

 

[thebadmamajama]

Ah, one of my personal favorites. Read it late at night with a cup of steaming tea for full effect.

You know me too well.

 

[Helen Troy]

James Ellroy, "The big nowhere." Hard-boiled, tough ans sordid, just the way I like it!

 

[Steve]

You know me too well.

To the contrary, I don't know you at all; but I do know Dracula.

 

[Dr Doran]

James Ellroy, "The big nowhere." Hard-boiled, tough ans sordid, just the way I like it!

Can you tell us more. I've been wanting to read him.

 

[Patrick Murtha]

Can you tell us more. I've been wanting to read him.

I'll jump in to say that the one Ellroy I've read so far, American Tabloid, blew me away. Unique staccato style, and an ambitiously thorough take on Kennedy era America.

 

[Dr Doran]

I'll jump in to say that the one Ellroy I've read so far, American Tabloid, blew me away. Unique staccato style, and an ambitiously thorough take on Kennedy era America.

Oh, please DO jump in. All the info I get on Ellroy the better. OK, perhaps I'll look for that today.

 

[Helen Troy]

OK, a little about Ellroy. I am no expert, though, so far I have only read "Black Dahlia" and "L.A.Confidential." And "The big nowhere" that I just started. They are all books from his "L.A Quartet", novels set in 40s and 50s L.A.

Ellroys books are fiction including real life crimes and events. Some of the characters, like the gangsters Johhny Stompanato and Mickey Cohen, are historical real life characters.

Ellroys books are realistic, filled with historical details, and they are very, very dark and sordid. One thing is the grisly murders that tends to be part of the main plot, but even more sordid and shocking is the picture he paints of movie business, oragnized crime and especially the police force. Institutional racism, corruption in politics and the police force, drugs and violence is a big part of that picture.

There are no true heroes in the books. Some characters you really despise, some you get sympathy for, but the even the "good guys" are too realistically troubled, failing people too be heroes.

The novels typically has one "main plot" and a myriad of side plots. The novels follows many characters through a long period of time, portraying their individual stories and plots with the main plot allways laying underneath. This complex storytelling might be the reason why it seems to be impossible to make movies of Ellroys novels that are as great as the books.

Ellroy's style is clean, simple and hard, and the lanuage can be described as "telegraphic." He is not the one for lengthy passages about the characters inner feelings, but is matter-of-fact-style displays the characters feelings and personality perfectly and is really moving.

If you want to read nice, sunny stories, stear clear of Ellroy, because nothing ever ends well and the world is a really bad place in his novels. But if you want extremely well-written, dark as hell noir, Ellroy's your man.

 

[Decodence]

A Nation in Torment: The Great American Depression 1929-1939

Picked it up at my library's book store, brand new, unread, for $4.

 

[imoldfashioned]

Another Ellroy fan here--parts of The Black Dahlia scared me so much I went to check the door was locked! Great writing style, psychological depth the the characters, real page turners but, boy, he's dark, dark dark! Cue up a Deanna Durbin film or the like to bring you out of it!

I've seen interviews with him and he seems as strange as his books, but who knows how much of that is for publicity. His autobiographical piece My Dark Places was really well done too.

Somebody on the Lounge said they were doing a tour of LA hosted by Ellroy--I wonder how that went?

 

[Curt Dawson]

Book of the day

"To Conquer Hell,The Meuse-Argonne,1918" by Edward G. Lengel
Not much is out there about the great war.But this looks to be a great one.Back in high school I had the oppurtunity to travel through this area of n.e. France and s.w. Belgium.Thus my interest.I will give a report when finished.

 

[LocktownDog]

Just started Isaac's Storm by Erik Larson.

Richard

 

[AmateisGal]

I've been on a Stuart Kaminsky kick lately, reading his Tobey Peters mysteries. They're a lot of fun.

 

[Dr Doran]

Helen, I'mOld, Murtha -- thank you. Tres interessant.