Last book bought

Hilly KCMG wrote:

Philip Kerr's A Man Without Breath. Bernie Gunther marches on.

I bought that one too, I hope it is as good as the previous three.

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Just purchased the Kindle Editions of the following.

THE DAY OF THE LOCUST - Nathaniel West
MISS LONELYHEARTS - Nathaniel West
THE MAGUS - John Fowles
STRANGER IN A STRANGER LAND - Robert A Heinlein

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Erica Ambler wrote:

Largo's Shark wrote:

STRANGER IN A STRANGER LAND - Robert A Heinlein

Which version?

The 800 page non-censored one. Current bookmark's at page 63.

Got a couple of Stephen Baxter's (Voyage and Time Ships), a copy of Walter Schellenberg's memoirs and best of all perhaps The Hiding Place by the man himself, Robert Shaw. The copy is from 1959 and thus a very youthful Shaw peers out from the author page.

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Hodges' rants on Corbyn and Labour on the Telegraph are both inspired and demented. Almost like the poor swine has lost the will to live.

Picked up some Chandler (THE BIG SLEEP, FAREWELL MY LOVELY and THE LONG GOODBYE), Philip K. Dick's THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE, Puzo's THE LAST DON and Kafka's METAMORPHOSIS AND OTHER STORIES.

I find Hodges highly unimpressive in general. A typical hack whose unnamed party sources almost always confirm something that everybody observing the political scene already knows. I'm much more interested in Goodwin's book on the UKIP campaign which seems to contain some juicy behind-the-scenes gossip.

Well my last book brought was a rare excursion into the brand new book market and Philip Kerr's The Lady from Zagreb. Bernie is returning in the spring with the story set in 1956 and in the South of France. Kerr does a good job (I only wish I could write pre-war/wartime Berlin so realistically) but Bernie's best days are past I fear.

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"Jean Dewasne"

I know everybody here's already read it...

Having gotten a sizeable tip from an American at work, I eventually frittered it on the latest Bond (Forever and a Day) and The Manchurian Candidate. I have semi-high hopes for Horowitz as I did enjoy Trigger Mortis more than I thought I would.

Once I get through my next few books I'll be tackling the non-Fleming Bond adventures - Forever And A Day being one of them. I know work's been a bitch but have you managed to pick it up yet, Hilly?

Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang wrote:

Once I get through my next few books I'll be tackling the non-Fleming Bond adventures - Forever And A Day being one of them. I know work's been a bitch but have you managed to pick it up yet, Hilly?

sorry Fields, just saw this, yes I did. I wrote a little on it in the Bond book thread but worth a read. Definitely recommend it.

The Fog by James Herbert is one of my favourite horror classics...but this edition with this cover is not easy to get in nice shape. Finally managed to get another one. Just in case someone wants to borrow one and never returns it.

Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang wrote:

Once I get through my next few books I'll be tackling the non-Fleming Bond adventures - Forever And A Day being one of them. I know work's been a bitch but have you managed to pick it up yet, Hilly?

I bought Forever and a Day a couple of weeks ago, I started it this weekend and halfway through it. I'm really enjoying it.

I'll have to bump it up a few places on my reading stack. Still haven't got to it.

Too many!
Most recent is a book I first read from a library and finally found an affordable copy at a decent price. Pat MacGilligan's biography of Nicholas Ray entitled: Nicholas Ray: The Glorious Failure of an American Director

As with all of his bios it is essential reading, and goes alongside his Hitchcock bio and book on Young Welles as among the best film books ever written.

Finished "Forever and a Day". I liked it, well written, lean, simple. No messing about with useless filler.

Good to see, T.A. F&D punches away at a rate of knots.

T.A. Ferguson wrote:

Finished "Forever and a Day". I liked it, well written, lean, simple. No messing about with useless filler.

Might just be my next book, with that kind of review!

Read A HOLLYWOOD MEMOIR, a biography of film editor turned producer/20thcenturyFox troubleshooter Elmo Williams. Not much about editing (though they go into the back-and-forth over HIGH NOON, which on first cut was considered a dud), but there are large sections on what went into making THE LONGEST DAY and TORA TORA TORA that are very interesting reads. Some stuff about Elizabeth Taylor acting out during the CLEOPATRA period that wasn't surprising, but still infuriates. Also, apparently SOUND OF MUSIC was intended for Ingrid Bergman, but she didn't want in (that was when William Wyler was going to make the movie.) Williams seems way too ethical to have been successful, so it was kind of sweet to hear how this guy managed his personal and professional life without much in the way of compromise.

There's also mention of the guy who took over Fox and really messed a lot of stuff up in the 70s, Dennis Stanfill. He was at Fox all the way into the early 80s, so he got a lot of credit for SW, even though I don't think he had a clue what was going on with it. Just came across this little gem about it, though the source is not exactly top-notch, as this is the guy who almost managed to permanently cancel STAR TREK VI and really clipped Shatner's wings on the previous film: https://www.davidpaulkirkpatrick.com/tag/dennis-stanfill/

Current non-fiction read is Bruce Campbell's 'Hail To The Chin', the follow-up to his first autobio 'If Chins Could Kill'. The trials, tribulations and triumphs of this particular non-A-lister make for highly entertaining reading.

Current fiction one is 'The Vesuvius Club', the first of Mark Gatiss' Lucifer Box trilogy (character is a sort of Edwardian-era Bond). Really fun, have genuinely laughed out loud quite a few times.