Dazzled by the author’s wonderous blondness? 
And her Smithness. Don’t forget her Smithness!
Apparently her general awesomeness is a light brighter than Colossus in the sun! 
Evidently, her awesomeness is so blinding, it causes people to make typos. 
I’m about to start Fields of Fire: The Canadians in Normandy, by Terry Copp. This is in response to a thread in GQ about Normandy and Canada’s contribution to the war effort. The book apparently vigorously disputes the “common knowledge” that the Canadian forces had poor leadership and performed less than adequately.
Well, that was quick. Opened the book last night and the print is so tiny that I can’t comfortably read it, even with my glasses. Why would anybody publish a book with print that small? To save paper? Also, it’s written in giant paragraphs that nobody wants to wade through. Bummer.
I am reading three books at the moment. That’s a really bad sign. All three are not bad enough to stop reading, but not good enough to get very involved in.
Firstly there is Orange Is The New Black. As others have said she is just too good to be true. She’s bestest friends with everyone. There is no sense of dread or dismay - because she’s blonde and lovable. Just one question: why orange? She says several times that they wear khaki. (I’m only 50% of the way through.)
Next is Dear Leader by Jan Jin-Sun. He was someone quite important in North Korea and has escaped the country. Unlike most other books on North Korea he has first hand experience of life there. It’s interesting, but not gripping.
And then there is Look Who’s Back by Timor Vermes. It has a great concept: Hitler returns to Berlin in 2011 at the same age as he was in 1945. No-one - not surprisingly - realises that he is the real thing, and take him to be a comic impersonator. It’s written in Hitler’s words, and his intention is to restart his campaign to give the Volk the Aryan world he thinks they deserve. It’s written as a comedy, but doesn’t shirk from the tough issues, such as anti Semitism and brutality.
I gave up on Washington Irving and I read Edith Wharton’s House of Mirth instead. I liked it, except for (a) the endless Jewish stereotypes and (b) the name “Mrs. Peniston”. Peniston? Really?
She’s from Vaginia.
I finished Sunstroke By Jesse Kellerman and he is definitely not either of his parents. Overall the book has pacing issues and the ending was incredibly anti climatic, but it was a decent read for a debut book. Interestingly, none of the characters are very likeable but they are interesting and realistic.
Finished The Associate, by John Grisham. A bright Yale law-school graduate is blackmailed into accepting an offer from a major law firm so he can steal secrets from them regarding a military-contractor client. Very good.
Have started Get Shorty, by Elmore Leonard. We saw the film version when it played here in Bangkok, but that was 19 years ago, so while I remember much of the movie, the book still reads fresh.
I’m in a book group hosted by one of my favorite authors. It just started this week. Unfortunately I can’t get my hands on our first book, Fortune’s Pawn by Rachel Bach. The nearest copy is over 100 miles away so I’ll have to wait a few days for an interlibrary loan copy to get here.
I tried reading Dune last week but still can’t get into it. I tried back in college and it’s not my cup of tea. Meanwhile, I picked up a copy of How About Never? Is Never Good for You? by Bob Mankoff. That one sparked my interest.
I thought that the most depressing of her books. At least of the ones I’ve read so far.
I am reading *A World Lit Only by Fire: The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance Portrait of an Age *by William Manchester. It’s basically the story of Martin Luther and the sparking of the modern era after a great time of almost nothing at all in Europe. As someone who is not Christian I find that Manchester has a wonderful knack for making difficult Christian concepts clear to the non-specialist. His prose is very engaging with an eye for the thoughtful and insightful detail.
Check out the Rejection Collection books and Blown Covers, about cartoons and covers that didn’t make it (for various reasons) into The New Yorker. A lotta good stuff there, and funny essays by the cartoonists/artists, too.
It had a sad ending, but it was no An American Tragedy. Maybe I’m just hard-hearted, but I only have a limited amount of sympathy for someone whose main problem is that she doesn’t want to live within her financial means and feels that she’s getting sucked into marrying gasp a rich Jew.
Ethan Frome is much, much more depressing.
Thanks to a recommendation on here, I am about 50 pages into The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker. So far it is quite interesting and I like the characters. My only fear is that the narrative style is going to get on my nerves before the end.
“Check out the Rejection Collection books and Blown Covers, about cartoons and covers that didn’t make it (for various reasons) into The New Yorker.”
I’ll look for those, thanks!
Elizabeth Drew’s Washington Journal-Reporting Watergate and Richard Nixon’s Downfall
Bought it today after seeing her discuss it on Book Tv this a.m. A 2014 republication of the original 1974 pub, with new Introduction and Afterword. My first gripe is that it apparently makes no mention (at least in the index) of the HERO of the entire affair, security guard Frank Wills (2/4/48-9/27/00) who, on his midnight shift rounds, found a basement door’s latch taped over. He removed the tape and later that night found it re-taped over. He reported it and they caught the “plumbers” that had been directed by RMN and his administration’s henchmen to burgle the DNC HQ. See NYT story:
I thought there was a little too much exposition in the beginning, but it got better.
I seem to be caught up in series books this month. I’m reading more into C.J. Cherryh’s Foreigner series and Ben Aaronovitch’s urban fantasy series. I have the new book in Alexander McCall Smith’s No. 1 Ladies’ Detective series, The Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon - these cozy mysteries are fun. I have the new Scott Lynch book, The Republic of Thieves, lined up to read next.
But right now I’m deep into the new Diana Gabaldon book, Written in My Own Heart’s Blood. It won’t be my favorite in this series, but I am excessively fond of Gabaldon’s work. It only feels like a smutty melodramatic time travel historical soap opera when I try to describe the plot out loud.