{"id":816,"date":"2024-10-12T16:35:19","date_gmt":"2024-10-12T23:35:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ericidle.com\/blog\/?p=816"},"modified":"2024-10-12T16:40:15","modified_gmt":"2024-10-12T23:40:15","slug":"reading","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ericidle.com\/blog\/reading\/","title":{"rendered":"Reading 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"

2024<\/h1>\n

Ok I\u2019m still playing catch up.\u00a0 Many of these I read some months ago. I\u2019m unsure in which order but I start off as usual with a re-reading of:<\/em><\/p>\n

Tender is the Night\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 F. Scott Fitzgerald<\/h2>\n

Which I enjoyed more than ever and indeed am now convinced that this is his greatest novel.<\/p>\n

I loved the opening prose so much that I picked it up a few weeks later and found myself once again happily on the plage<\/em> in Juan Les Pins, intrigued by the story of Rosemary and her mother meeting the Americans of all sorts on the tiny beach.\u00a0\u00a0 I could read it again today.<\/p>\n

Black Water\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Joyce Carol Oates<\/h2>\n

I met this incredible lady at Steve\u2019s New Year\u2019s Eve Party and I had to rush out immediately and buy something. \u00a0I knew her name but not her work, so I grabbed this, and really enjoyed it.\u00a0\u00a0 A fascinating novel based on Chappaquiddick.<\/p>\n

The Snow was Dirty\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Georges Simenon<\/h2>\n

A Man\u2019s Head\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Georges Simenon<\/h2>\n

Maigret\u2019s First Case\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Georges Simenon<\/h2>\n

F\u00e9licie\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Georges Simenon<\/h2>\n

A Maigret Christmas and other stories Georges Simenon<\/h2>\n

I love everything Simenon, Si mais non? Mais oui.<\/p>\n

Same Time Tomorrow \u00a0\u00a0 Bob Cryer.<\/h2>\n

A funny and revealing and sweet remembrance of my old pal and mentor, his father the wonderful, legendary and sadly missed Barry Cryer.\u00a0 Tears and laughter.<\/p>\n

Territorial Rights\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Muriel Spark<\/h2>\n

She is one of my favourite novelists. I just love her books. She never disappoints.<\/p>\n

The Prague Orgy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Philip Roth<\/h2>\n

He still re-reads well.<\/p>\n

Byron, A Life in Ten Letters\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Andrew Stauffer<\/h2>\n

A lovely idea and a clever way of dealing with the life of the much biographied perhaps over rated poet.\u00a0 He definitely poured his art into his life.\u00a0\u00a0 This is a fascinating and succinct romp through the limping upper class shagnasty, who poured his sperm into many of the most fascinating women of the early 19th<\/sup> century.<\/p>\n

I used to be charming.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Eve Babitz<\/h2>\n

The rest of Eve Babitz.<\/p>\n

Read in paper and Kindle.\u00a0 Essential reading.\u00a0 I adore her.<\/p>\n

City of Dreams\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Don Winslow<\/h2>\n

His penultimate novel, continuing the tale of Danny Ryan who fled\u00a0 Providence providentially to discover gold in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

City in Ruins\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Don Winslow<\/h2>\n

His final novel, which he very kindly sent me an advanced readers edition of, so I could start to miss him sooner.\u00a0\u00a0 Luckily he is going to pop up on television and movies rather a lot and he leaves us a huge body of work, which, at my age I can often re-read without knowing what is going to happen.\u00a0 That is obviously why I began to keep a Reading Diary.\u00a0 This, the third part of the crime trilogy loosely based on The Aeneid<\/em>, which itself I must read one day \u2026<\/p>\n

Sex and Rage\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Eve Babitz<\/h2>\n

A novel.\u00a0 I prefer her more direct books.\u00a0 This is about her writing a novel, and is of course about her attempts to write a novel.\u00a0 She was always a writer.\u00a0 And is a delightful read.<\/p>\n

Dickens and Prince\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Nick Hornby<\/h2>\n

A fascinating coupling.\u00a0 Coming next Proust and Elvis.<\/p>\n

Vertigo\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 W.G. Sebald<\/h2>\n

I loved the opening chapter and always have, but a rereading of the rest of the book I found disappointing.<\/p>\n

Agostino\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Alberto Moravia<\/h2>\n

A wonderfully written, and absolutely touching novel.\u00a0 I doubt I will read anything as great as this again this year. He is a magnificent novelist. An excellent translation too.<\/p>\n

Answered Prayers\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Truman Capote<\/h2>\n

This gets better over time.\u00a0 Thanks to him who would ever have heard of these women?<\/p>\n

He tried for Proust but he revealed something about the wealthy and entitled without changing their names and sexes like Proust did and so he was bashed around by the rich and powerful, as they do. Writers are always observing.\u00a0 What else should they write about?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Somewhere along the way I fell in love with the short story.\u00a0 Maybe because with the decline in memory it is easier to remember what just happened in a short story!\u00a0 In particular the two great American masters of the modern short story Carver and Cheever.\u00a0 Amongst the collections I read and enjoyed were:<\/em><\/p>\n

What We Talk About When We Talk About Love\u00a0 Raymond Carver<\/h2>\n

Exquisitely, and very briefly written stories.\u00a0 Very short some of them.\u00a0 Lightly sketched the caricatures seem to breathe effortlessly.<\/p>\n

The stories of John Cheever\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 John Cheever<\/h2>\n

A wonderful collection of this admirable writer.\u00a0 I had read them before, Mike Nichols gave them to me, but the great advantage of the memory loss of old age is you can read books again without remembering. Obviously all great books get better on re-reading.\u00a0\u00a0 This is one of them.<\/p>\n

Gutshot Straight\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lou Berney<\/h2>\n

Don Winslow recommended it and I bought it and I\u2019m happy to say that even when I realised I had already read it, I carried on a read it with even more enjoyment.\u00a0 As we have learned, that is the mark of a good book.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Springtime<\/u><\/h2>\n

Feel Free\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Zadie Smith<\/h2>\n

I very much enjoy her essays.\u00a0 Some are a little esoteric for me.\u00a0 If I don\u2019t like the writers I skip.\u00a0 But she is so clear headed and damn sensible I read 90 per cent of them with great enjoyment.<\/p>\n

Knife\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Salman Rushdie<\/h2>\n

An account of the monstrous and fearful attack on him, which he barely, but mercifully survived.\u00a0 As I wrote to him, \u201cthe last thing I expected from your book was that it would be a love story,\u201d and yet indeed it is.\u00a0 A hymn to his love for Eliza, who raced to him and whose love and patience encouraged him to continue life to all our great relief.\u00a0\u00a0 Sometimes a man can be married many times but only find his true love at the end.\u00a0 So it was with Mike Nichols, so it seems with Salman.\u00a0 A great, and deceptively simple read.<\/p>\n

A Hitch in Time\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Christopher Hitchens<\/h2>\n

Sometimes when Salman came to LA to do Bill Maher, he would bring Hitch over and we would have great conversation and fun.\u00a0 I was very excited to learn that often at the end of a contentious interview Hitch would burst into my Philosophers Song \u2013 to which he knew all the words.\u00a0 These collected articles on a variety of subjects are greatly entertaining and never less than fascinating.\u00a0 A great and funny man, a wit, a philosopher, a great drinker and a great companion.\u00a0\u00a0 Subjects range from Princess Margaret to P.G. Wodehouse. You can\u2019t get more eclectic than that.<\/p>\n

Blood Rites\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Barbara Ehrenreich<\/h2>\n

Origins and History of the Passions of war.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I devoured this book when I first found it, but left it somewhere in France, so I was happy to stumble on this paperback in Vromans and raced through it.\u00a0 A fascinating and deeply interesting discussion of the origins of war in homo sapiens with many intriguing new thoughts and suggestions.\u00a0\u00a0 I have always thought war was something we evolved once we had dispatched of predators, for we self-predate in order to keep evolving.\u00a0 Though she does indeed go into the beginnings of when we were prey, this simplistic idea is far more interestingly explored here.\u00a0 I want to read a lot more both from her and on this subject.\u00a0 War is the curse of our planet.\u00a0 Can it be cured?\u00a0 Let us hope so.\u00a0 It seems unlikely.\u00a0\u00a0 As long as they build armies, they will use them.<\/p>\n

The Pole\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 J. M. Coetzee<\/h2>\n

A poem of a book.\u00a0 A sweet an delicate romance between a middle aged Spanish man and a courtly Chopin loving Polish pianist.\u00a0 Delicately sketched but deeply felt.\u00a0 I loved it and read it through again immediately.<\/p>\n

Goodbye Columbus\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Philip Roth<\/h2>\n

It is a short novella and I remember reading it with enjoyment.\u00a0 This time reading it I was struck with what an amazing and precocious talent the young Roth possessed.\u00a0\u00a0 This Modern Library edition comes with five other short stories.<\/p>\n

The Ghost Writer\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Philip Roth<\/h2>\n

I have been re reading Roth with great enjoyment but this one I remembered not liking much the first time and my mind was not changed.\u00a0 I think when he goes into the weird story of Ann Frank being still alive I remained puzzled and unconvinced.\u00a0 I know some people love this, but it ain\u2019t for me.<\/p>\n

France\u00a0 An Adventure History\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Graham Robb<\/h2>\n

I fell on this book with delight and relief at the soi-disant<\/em> Best Bookshop in Palm Springs when I had run out of reading matter on a short birthday break in Desert Hot Springs.\u00a0\u00a0 I loved it, but only got half way through as I was more interested in his wonderful scenes from history, than his own personal memoirs of a cycling tour of France, even if it was up Mont Ventoux.\u00a0\u00a0 Fortunately a couple of months later I picked it up again and I couldn\u2019t put it down.\u00a0 He is the most amazing writer of French history I know.\u00a0 It kept me spell bound till the end.\u00a0 Of particular interest to me is Louis Napoleon where history becomes almost buffoon like. A totally great read.<\/p>\n

The Beginning of Spring\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Penelope Fitzgerald.<\/h2>\n

A Moscow novel set in 1913.\u00a0 I notice I had read this before in 2019, when I wrote briefly \u201cInteresting but not perfect.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I think I stopped around the same time this time.\u00a0 Not for me.\u00a0 Though I love many of her books.<\/p>\n

Uncle Vanya\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Anton Chekhov<\/h2>\n

I gave it a read because it has been so successfully revived at Lincoln Centre, but I think I would have preferred to see it.\u00a0 This to me was always the one play of Chekhov\u2019s that never grabbed me.\u00a0 It didn\u2019t grab me this time and I think there is something I am missing.<\/p>\n

Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 Raymond Carver<\/h2>\n

I have recently become much more fond of Short Stories, largely because of this brilliant writer and in particular because of this almost flawless collection.\u00a0 He is extraordinary.\u00a0 Totally brilliant.<\/p>\n

Dark Ride\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lou Berney<\/h2>\n

A man sees two kids who have been tortured by cigarettes.\u00a0 He sets out to discover them and their mother to see if he can get anyone to help him rescue them\u2026. A charming thriller.\u00a0 So I wrote a year ago but I went out and bought it again and was once more completely engrossed.<\/p>\n

Black Swans\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Eve Babitz<\/h2>\n

I picked this up and re-read them with even more enjoyment.\u00a0 The first time I had scrolled in pencil in the back of her book \u201cShe\u2019s half a journalist and half a novelist.\u00a0 So occasionally the fiction gets too factoid and the facts get too factionary \u2013 with the occasional brilliant balance.\u201d\u00a0 On re-reading I think this is far too simplistic because as I also observed \u201cshe is interested in the truth\u201d and it is this search to capture life in words that makes her such a captivating and deeply honest writer.\u00a0 So I was happy re-reading.<\/p>\n

Burn Book.\u00a0 A tech love story\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Kara Swisher<\/h2>\n

I loved this.\u00a0 She was so in on tech and the people who would matter so early, that her story is fascinating to read.\u00a0 When I recommended it online there were a few instant haters, but I think that\u2019s because she is fearless and takes no prisoners.\u00a0 Very much worth a read for all she has to say about men who have now become monsters.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Summer Reading<\/h1>\n

Everywhere an Oik Oik.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 David Mamet<\/h2>\n

I loved this book and I would have said so even if I hadn\u2019t found later on in the book he says how I made him laugh his ass off.\u00a0 I remember the occasion very well, Mike Nichols 75th<\/sup> Birthday Party and I was determined to be funny and I went for it, shamelessly and successfully.\u00a0 It\u2019s rude its disgusting, and that\u2019s just me. I looked up to see David Mamet choking for breath!\u00a0 I was proud of Mamet for not holding back at all in this book, and slightly ashamed I hadn\u2019t realised just how many movies he has directed.\u00a0 Proud to be included.<\/p>\n

The Beautiful and the Damned\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 F. Scott Fitzgerald.<\/h2>\n

For travel I took a tiny Collector\u2019s Library edition of this book which I hadn\u2019t read in a long time.\u00a0 The satisfying clarity of the print and the fact it has a built in book mark ribbon makes it a good choice for a travelling companion.\u00a0 Swiss Air ensures my ride is efficient, on time and I am well fed and pampered. The book is really a tragedy.\u00a0 The love story of Anthony for Gloria, a wonderful romantic tale, declines into the demise of the bright young things in a heady mixture of balls, idleness and alcohol.\u00a0 Having no purpose but pleasure ruins the pleasure of pleasure.\u00a0\u00a0 Managing to insult his rich and future benefactor his great expectations are snatched away, and he grasps at the straw of a long lawsuit.\u00a0 Even his stint of self-punishment in the army leads to no overseas glory in WW1, as the armistice comes to soon for his glorious suicide and leads to further feminine distraction.\u00a0 It is a harsh self-portrait of himself and Zelda and Tender is the Night<\/u><\/em> will be a more accurate account of the inner secrets of both.\u00a0 It ends both tragically with him as a bum being ejected for New York places where he once was heralded, and ironically, with him finally winning the lawsuit, and being wealthy confined to a wheelchair on the deck of a liner to Europe, sadly imagining that he has won.<\/p>\n

Nero\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Anthony Everitt & Roddy Ashworth<\/h2>\n

Matricide and Murder in Imperial Rome<\/p>\n

As a change I picked up this large but interesting new book on Nero.\u00a0 We all know a little and indeed he does become history\u2019s monster but before he does so there are many fascinating tales of him growing up an heir in the dangerous world of Augustus.\u00a0 His mother Agrippina pushes him towards the Imperial throne in her own quest for power.\u00a0 He will coldly remove her, after having poisoned his brother Germanicus at a banquet, removing any potential challenge to his power.\u00a0\u00a0 This is a highly readable history of Rome under the Caesars including quite a lot about the dangerous barbarians who live in the British Isles. (Clearly not much has changed.).\u00a0 Enjoyable popular history which gives a fresh look at one of history\u2019s greatest tyrants with many corrections of historical cliches.\u00a0 Hint:\u00a0 he didn\u2019t fiddle while Rome burned.<\/p>\n

Where Angels Fear to Tread\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 E.M. Forster<\/h2>\n

As a palate cleanser I turned to this beautiful short novella which highlights the delightful comedic talents of Morgan Forster. The Herriton family are worthy precursors of E. F. Benson\u2019s Mapp and Lucia.\u00a0 <\/em>Mrs. Herriton is a monster and has brought up a priggish daughter whose smug British confidence will lead to tragedy. Lilia, an unhappy widow escapes from the rigid captivity of her controlling mother-in-law in the social sterility of the society of Sawson for freedom in Italy.\u00a0\u00a0 She finds escape in an unfortunate love affair with a young Italian, her friend Miss Abbot is unable to help her and Philip, Mrs. Herriton\u2019s son, sent to prevent the match, fails to save her.\u00a0 A delightful read.<\/p>\n

Life as a novel \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Martin Amis.<\/h2>\n

A sad and lovely book. Amis, aware he is pegging out invites you into his own demise.\u00a0 Come in, sit down, have a drink.\u00a0 He calls it a novel.\u00a0\u00a0 Of course.\u00a0 It contains perhaps one of the most dislikeable and manipulative female characters in literature.\u00a0 Poor Amis, both fascinated and disgusted with her, is easy meat.\u00a0 Enter the dreadful Phoebe, who recurs throughout the book like a bad habit. With a masters or mistress degree in prick teasing which keeps the poor chap on the hooks long after he should have run for the hills.\u00a0 (Perhaps rivaled only by Larkin\u2019s appalling Monica.). But who Catriona now assures me is a fictional character, so I am completely confused!<\/p>\n

I had read some of this before, for instance The death of Hitchens.\u00a0 Like an 18th century painting.<\/p>\n

Still as sad and as poignant, but his own demise shortly following had me completely and horribly shocked. I always thought he would be here with a new book to cheer me up.\u00a0 Slightly too much Bellow for my taste.\u00a0 This \u201cfictional\u201d highly readable autobiography. is an odd but lovely farewell.<\/p>\n

The Island\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Adrian McKinty<\/h2>\n

I find it odd that the only two books of this brilliant author I have had to abandon were his two best sellers.\u00a0 This and The Chain.\u00a0 I think it is because I am personally averse to horror, in books and the cinema.\u00a0 I found both manipulative, whereas the Northern Irish novels, where horror is a daily fact, seem to me realistically and beautifully written.\u00a0 I agree it\u2019s my fault.\u00a0 I apologize. \u00a0As a counterpoint to this let me mention three of his novels which I read recently and loved:<\/p>\n

The Dead Yard\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Adrian McKinty<\/h2>\n

City Street Girl\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Adrian McKinty<\/h2>\n

Falling Glass\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Adrian McKinty<\/h2>\n

And any of his exquisite Northern Ireland detective novels you can lay your hands on.\u00a0\u00a0 He is very very good.<\/p>\n

The Wager \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 David Grann<\/h2>\n

In contrast to which I found The Wager, long, boring and dull, and was happy to jump overboard early.<\/p>\n

The Kind worth Killing\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Peter Swanson<\/h2>\n

Seizing on a palate cleanser I found after a few pages I remembered reading this recently.\u00a0 It\u2019s good, a little strangers on a train, and a little Gone Girl it is wonderfully crafted and it will keep you guessing.<\/p>\n

Unless you had already read it.\u00a0 Which is I guess the problem with Who Dunnits.\u00a0 If you can remember who there\u2019s no point in re-reading.<\/p>\n

Cocktails with George and Marsha\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Philip Gefter<\/h2>\n

I did very much enjoy this book about the making of the movie of Who\u2019s Afraid of Virginia Woolf<\/em>, not just because of my love for Mike Nichols, here revealed as a very powerful young first time director, able to stand up to Jack Warner, to insist that the movie be made in black and white and not colour, and to gently remove Ernest Lehman\u2019s \u201cimprovements\u201d from his film script adaptation of Edward Albee\u2019s brilliant stage play, in favour of Albee\u2019s own words.\u00a0 To be able to direct Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, at the height of their tabloid fame, is in itself remarkable.\u00a0 To pull it off and fight off the censors, and cleverly manipulate the widow Kennedy into saying at a screening \u201cJack would have loved it\u201d cutting the feet from beneath the studio censors and the powerful nay sayors, is remarkable.<\/p>\n

A (Very) Short History of Life on Earth \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Henry Gee<\/h2>\n

4.6 billion years in 12 Pithy Chapters<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

My favourite book of the year and maybe the decade.\u00a0 Henry Gee is both brilliantly funny and brilliantly informative.\u00a0 So many times I found myself\u00a0 saying out loud \u201cOh my gawd\u201d as some fact or information came at me.\u00a0 We are not the end of evolution.\u00a0 We are not even the summit of it.\u00a0 We are mistaken about our place in the incredible and very long evolution and continuous breaking of new life forms on earth.\u00a0 I shall read this book again and again.\u00a0 You might find the early chapters a little dense because there are so many monocellular Latin forms of life.\u00a0 Don\u2019t be afraid to skip, move forward, the story gets better and better with incredible chapters on animal life and the evolution of mammals.\u00a0 Learn your place in the Universe, which is both incredible and unlikely and puny.<\/p>\n

Kindle Reads<\/h1>\n

Cocktails with George and Martha \u00a0\u00a0 Philip Gefter<\/h2>\n

Being just about to publish a book about Mike Nichols I naturally seized on this.\u00a0 The balls of the man.\u00a0 His first movie and he is telling Harry Warner it has to be in black and white.\u00a0 He was so funny and so talented, he had told me a few tales but amazing to see him pulling a hit movie out of this unlikely Broadway hit play \u2013 mainly by cutting all the Hollywood apapted bits and letting the play speak.\u00a0 Imagine your first cast are Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in the prime of their fame but also their talent.\u00a0 A fine tale well told.<\/p>\n

(Sidebar: I fell in love with Edward Albee early, directing The Zoo Story with John Shrapnel and Johnny Lynn at Cambridge. I was at the same time an enormous fan of Mike Nichols and Elaine May and had their album.)<\/p>\n

Eve\u2019s Hollywood\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Eve Babitz<\/h2>\n

I am totally in love with Eve Babitz.\u00a0 I think she is the most wonderful and fascinating writer.\u00a0 I recommend trying all her writing. Some of her essays are to die for.\u00a0 They can vary widely between autobiography, sexual reminiscences and barely disguised fiction.\u00a0 But she is never boring and she tells the truth, shamelessly, breathlessly and wonderfully.\u00a0 Many males can learn a lot from her tales.\u00a0 Enjoy.<\/p>\n

Ask Not.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Maureen Callahan<\/h2>\n

The Kennedy\u2019s and the Women they destroyed.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

A timely and essential reminder of just how appallingly the Kennedy boys sexual ethics were covered over and dismissed.\u00a0 We must never<\/strong> let people behave like Kings.\u00a0 Apart from their appalling Father, Joe, their avoiding mother Rose seems to have helped enormously into creating the entitled bastards so many of them became. No women should have to put up with this.\u00a0 I found her insights insightful.\u00a0 JFK sex was all about power and not enjoyment. \u00a0Jackie seems to have finally survived to become a normal person, but they wounded and used and injured and killed so many women, the horrible mound of Ted and his public display of cowardice, all in the name of achieving the Oval office, is a warning, that the pursuit of power attracts the most appalling people.\u00a0 America was set up to avoid this officially, but it hasn\u2019t and it is constantly at threat.<\/p>\n

The Michael Forsyth Trilogy.\u00a0 Adrian McKinty<\/u><\/h2>\n

Fifty Grand,<\/h2>\n

The Dead Yard,<\/h2>\n

Dead I May Well be.<\/h2>\n

Perfect holiday reading.\u00a0 Check the order.\u00a0 I love the way he writes.\u00a0 Just a delight. I love his Belfast books.\u00a0 I had a terrific time with these.\u00a0 I think he writes wonderfully.\u00a0 Such a relief to find many books of his I haven\u2019t yet read.<\/p>\n

The Accidental Species. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Henry Gee<\/h2>\n

Misunderstandings of Human Evolution.\u00a0 <\/strong>Another fascinating book about our species and the contrast between how we perceive of ourselves and the reality of the fortune of our survival on this planet.<\/p>\n

Bambi vs Godzilla\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 David Mamet<\/h2>\n

On the nature, purpose and practice of the Movie Business<\/strong><\/p>\n

I love the disrespect with which he treats his subject!\u00a0 Always funny and always on point.<\/p>\n

The Neil Carey mysteries\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Don Winslow<\/h2>\n

I had to slow down to save a couple for my travels I was reading them with so much enjoyment.<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t wait to continue the final two.<\/p>\n

A Cool Breeze on the Underground<\/h2>\n

The Trail to Buddha\u2019s Mirror<\/h2>\n

Way Down on the High Lonely<\/h2>\n

Summer Reading in Books (continued)<\/h1>\n

Caste\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Isabel Wilkerson.<\/h2>\n

The Origins of Our Discontents.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>She spots that Caste is a very basic and vile form of human social organisation most obviously with Slavery which goes back millennia, and of course builds Empires, and vast fortunes such as paid for and built huge houses during the British Empire, and that the most pernicious and easiest to continue form of slavery to continue is when it involves skin color.\u00a0 The slavery in the Southern states affects US Society today, in a most invidious form for a supposed land of the free.\u00a0 The tales in the book are horrendous, shocking and heart breaking.\u00a0\u00a0 Hard to read. But important.\u00a0\u00a0 I was struck how much Caste itself is present in most societies outside of the US.\u00a0 For instance the English caste system which is kept in place by the Monarchy.<\/p>\n

Butterfield 8\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 John O\u2019Hara<\/h2>\n

A re-reading.\u00a0 Stands up pretty well. Not a classic but a good yarn from that time.<\/p>\n

Cathedral\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Stories\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Raymond Carver<\/h2>\n

Sad and wistful stories.\u00a0 Nobody writes better about the US working classes.\u00a0 The lack of money, the sadness, the marriages.\u00a0 I suppose because traditionally in the novel \u2013 because they are writing for readers in those strata – people write more about the middle and aspiring or upper classes.\u00a0 Very few D. H. Lawrence although a spate of working class books and plays in the UK in the Sixties.<\/p>\n

A Clue to the Exit\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Edward St. Aubyn<\/h2>\n

A re reading.\u00a0 A dying man intends to rid himself of his money gambling in the Monte Carlo Casino.\u00a0 Not entirely successfully.\u00a0\u00a0 He is certainly the finest writer of prose novels currently in the UK.<\/p>\n

No Orchids for Miss Blandish\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 James Hadley Chase<\/h2>\n

So I had no idea until just now that the author of this classic American crime noir novel first published in 1939 was born in England in 1906 as Ren\u00e9 Brabazon Raymond, began his career as a bookseller wrote this his first novel over six weekends with the aid of a dictionary of American slang and had never even been to America.\u00a0 A very fine and totally convincing work of fiction.\u00a0 It is a dark masterpiece.<\/p>\n

Arctic Summer\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 E. M. Forster<\/h2>\n

Abandoned and unpublished by Forster shortly before he began work on A Passage to India <\/em>\u00a0this subversive attack on the code of the gentleman would actually make a fine film and is very nicely written.<\/p>\n

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Junot Diaz<\/h2>\n

A superbly written brilliant book, which thoroughly deserves the Pulitzer Prize he won, it is the most wonderful novel set in the Dominican Republic, often during the time of the appalling dictator Trujillo largely about a Tolkien nerd, but actually about so much more.\u00a0 I read it with so much joy I never wanted it to end.<\/p>\n

Cadillac Jack\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Larry McMurtry<\/h2>\n

I am very fond of his books, but I never quite finished this one.\u00a0 Curate\u2019s egg.\u00a0 Good in parts.<\/p>\n

Caesar\u2019s Vast Ghost\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lawrence Durrell<\/h2>\n

Aspects of Provence<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

I think Durell writes the best books on Provence even if I hadn\u2019t visited his brother Gerry in the Maz he wrote this book in.\u00a0 He frequently combines history with geography.\u00a0 Here he adds biography and poetry.\u00a0 Once again we get the amazing story of how Marius saves Rome, which I could read every day.<\/p>\n

Fall Reading\u00a0 (Books)<\/h2>\n

Goodbye Darkness\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 William Manchester<\/h2>\n

A magnificent beautifully written history of the nightmare that was the Pacific War in WW2.\u00a0 We concentrate so much on the invasion of Europe and D Day that we sometimes forget the extraordinary and magnificent struggle the Marines waged against the Japanese, after Pearl Harbor and the tremendous loss and suffering on both sides.\u00a0 William Manchester was there, he fought to take back every island and atoll en route to Japan, each at tremendous cost.\u00a0 This is him revisiting this bloody journey and his memories of the bitter fight he and his companions waged before they were spared the ultimate horror of invading Japan by the atom bomb.\u00a0 It is history from the battlefield itself and the most remarkable book I have read for a very long time.\u00a0 I think it just might be the best war history ever written.\u00a0\u00a0 We owe them all so much.<\/p>\n

A World Lit Only by Fire\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 William Manchester<\/h2>\n

Of course I then had to go back and read one of my all-time favourite history books also written by him, which is subtitled The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance, Portrait of an Age.\u00a0 <\/em>If you ever needed to remember just how evil mankind can be, this is the book.\u00a0 The six Popes alone are enough to put you off religion forever.\u00a0 There is much about Martin Luther and the Reformation, where you soon discover that one kind of nastiness is just replaced by another.\u00a0 It is the most agreeable reading of history and ends with a virtual encomium to Magellan, whose genius I had not quite appreciated, and whose religious folly led him to trust in God and not in man, which meant he never made it home, although a few of his crew did stagger back to Spain, completing the circumnavigation of the globe.\u00a0 The first to do it.\u00a0\u00a0 Sheer, wonderful, magnificent, narrative history.<\/p>\n

Chess.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Stefan Zweig<\/h2>\n

A short but highly readable and finely written novella about a Chess Master and a strange confrontation about an Ocean liner.\u00a0\u00a0 Delightful.<\/p>\n

Revenge of the Tipping Point.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Malcolm Gladwell<\/h2>\n

An interesting sequel to Malcolm Gladwell\u2019s first book and filled with interesting facts about superspreaders of COVID and the overstory<\/em> which he defines, but which ended for me with the most powerful explanation of the vile achievements of the Sackler Family to make a fortune by starting an Opioid crisis which continues to ravage America to this day.\u00a0 Almost impossible to believe, and virtual impossible to stop, since it has spread to the black market and Fentanyl which continues to kill more and more Americans daily.<\/p>\n

Paris in Ruins\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Sebastian Smee<\/h2>\n

Another history, this time through the eyes and brushes of the contemporary French artists Manet, Monet, Degas and the amazing Berthe Morisot which shows the horrors that Paris undergoes after the idiot Emperor Napoleon 111rd led France into a disastrous war with Prussia.\u00a0 It led to the siege of Paris with many of these artists remaining in Paris, where rats became a vital food, and then to the Commune, after France had capitulated to Bismarck, when Paris was once again besieged and bombarded, this time by the rest of France.\u00a0 A terrible story, but brilliantly told through the painters who suffered it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Some books I read on the plane to and from New York, promoting my own book:\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

The Spamalot Diaries<\/strong><\/h3>\n

 <\/p>\n

Bonjour Tristesse\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Francoise Sagan<\/h2>\n

The book that begin it all.\u00a0 A very honest story of a young girl growing up in the South of France with her very French father, and his girlfriends.\u00a0 Written when she was 19, this book changed everything.<\/p>\n

Every Frenchman has one\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Olivia de Havilland<\/h2>\n

A brilliant short and very, very funny reprint of a book by the film star Olivia de Havilland, about moving to and living in Paris, which had me laughing out loud.\u00a0 And that my friends is very rare.\u00a0 Chapeau to Crown Archetype for discovering and reprinting this hilarious book.<\/p>\n

The Goodby People\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Gavin Lambert<\/h2>\n

Again a reprint, by McNally editions, of a classic collection on stories by a remarkable writer.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And as I head for Sydney and a long tour of Australia and New Zealand I very much continue to enjoy this on my I Pad \u2013 the gift to travellers.<\/em><\/p>\n

Tune In\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Mark Lewisohn<\/h2>\n

The Beatles:\u00a0 All These Years\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Vol 1<\/strong><\/p>\n

A compulsive and terrific and incredibly in-depth history of the Beatles.\u00a0\u00a0 So detailed and wonderful that I am on Page 638 and Ringo still hasn\u2019t joined.\u00a0 Though we have learned all about him.\u00a0 And them.<\/p>\n

Just a magnificent and compelling and definitive history of the world\u2019s pre-eminent Group.\u00a0 I\u2019m totally gripped and glad I have some long flights ahead!\u00a0 Happy Reading!\u00a0\u00a0 October 12th<\/sup> 2024<\/p>\n

Eric<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

2024 Ok I\u2019m still playing catch up.\u00a0 Many of these I read some months ago. I\u2019m unsure in which order but I start off as usual with a re-reading of: Tender is the Night\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 F. Scott Fitzgerald Which I enjoyed more than ever and indeed am now convinced that this is his greatest novel. I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ericidle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ericidle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ericidle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericidle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericidle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=816"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericidle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":830,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericidle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816\/revisions\/830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ericidle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericidle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericidle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}