Reading anything?

[BoyScoutKevin]

Ye-es!
a half dozen in various formats

M.B. Shaw
(i.e. Tillt Bagshawe)
Brit
Murder at the Mill
1st in the Portrait of a Murder series
Heroine: Brit
Place: U.K.
Time: Present


Hallie Rubenhold
Brit
The Five :
the Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper
3 more non-fiction + 2 more fiction


Claudia Gray
American
Star Wars :
Master and Apprentice


graphic novel
Asgardians of the Galaxy
v.1. The Infinity Armada


Victoria Thompson
American
Murder on Trinity Place
22nd in the Gaslight Mystery series
Heroine: Irish ex-pat
Place: New York City
Time: last decade of the 19th century


Shane and Jessica Steves
(husband and wife photographers)
Abandoned North Texas

[lester1/2jr]

I'm reading Bart Ehrman "The Triumph of Christianity"

Christianity started off as a handful of people then a few centuries later there were millions of them. How did that happen?

some of the reasons are things like

1. evangelism - other religions didn't do this. religions and gods were local

2. exclusivity - pagans worshipped all sorts of Gods and it was considered okay to do so. Christianity demanded they not do that

etc

edit - I've been sick so I had plenty of time to finish this one.

in the second half of the book the author describes attempts to persecute Christians. These edicts were scattered and random enough in their frequency and severity that they didn't affect the growth of the movement too much.  in some cases they were quite severe though, particularly early on. One reason was that it was a new religion and thus didn't get the respect that say Judaism would. and old group that didn't worship local Gods was one thing, a new one seemed more sinister.

Sadly, when Christianity became the official state religion many Christians returned the favor to Pagans, persecuting them and destroying their temples, most notably the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serapeum_of_Alexandria

in the after word the author goes to the place in the book of Acts where paul gave the speech about the "unknown God" and marvels that in fact, he won against all the naysayers and philosophes who thought he was nuts.

[FatFreddysCat]

Ticket Masters: The Rise of the Concert Industry and How the Public Got Scalped, by Dean Budnick

Bailed out on this one after about 75 pages because it was very dry, like reading a textbook.

Moved on to:

Yugo: The Rise and Fall of the Worst Car in History, by Jason Vuic

...which so far, is much more entertaining.

[BoyScoutKevin]

And a half dozen in various formats

Lina and Scott Gaille
(husband and wife travel writers)
(he a corporate lawyer, she a missionary)
Strange Tales of World Travel :
Bizarre, Mysterious, Horrible, Hilarious

Some 50 different stories, half by the couple, the other half by other people, they met on their travels.


George Bellairs
(i.e Harold Blundell)
Brit
Surfeit of Suspects
1st published in 1964
republished in 2019
British Library Crime Classics
Hero: Brit
Place: U.K.
Time: 1960s


Robert Scragg
Brit
What Falls Between the Cracks
1st in the Porter and Styles series
Hero: Caucasian and Caribbean Black
Place: U.K.
Time: Present with flashbacks to the past


Jess Sharpe
American
Captain Marvel :
Liberation Run
3 more fiction + 1 short story collection


Ramin Setoodeh
American
Ladies Who Punch :
the Explosive Inside Story of The View
1st book


Donald Bogle
Afro-American
Hollywood Black :
the Stars, the Films, the Filmmaker
part of the TCM Turner Classic Movies Library
8 more non-fiction

140 films from Birth of a Nation in 1915 to Black Panther in 2018

Next time: a half dozen more in various formats

[lester1/2jr]

I also read "Closer You Are" a biography of Robert Pollard, my all time favorite songwriter of Guided by Voices fame. Did you know he threw the only no hitter in Ohio State's history? GBV are the GOAT in my opinion, but it was also a very good book. the writer wisely left himself out of the narrative so it doesn't come off as too rock critic - y

http://youtu.be/aOYPTS3-ZvM

[RCMerchant]

I just read this for Christmas:



This one might be next on my agenda:

I read it when I was in the hospital.It's a big book! Fascinating too!
The author, William Shirer, lived in Nazi Germany as a foreign correspondent, until it got too dangerous.

[Allhallowsday]

...
This one might be next on my agenda:

I read it when I was in the hospital.It's a big book! Fascinating too!
The author, William Shirer, lived in Nazi Germany as a foreign correspondent, until it got too dangerous.

I read that one too.  It is huge... and fascinating. 

[BoyScoutKevin]

Ye-es!
And a half dozen in various formats.

Barry Lyga
Thanos :
Titan Consumed
part of the Marvel Studios' Avengers : Infinity War series
3 more fiction in 1 more series + 2 stand-alones
Hero: Titan
Place: Titan and then the universe
Time: Unknown


Bill Pronzini
American
award winner
The Flimflam Affair
7th in the Carpeter and Quincannon series
and the 2nd without his wife
Heroes: Americans
Place: California
Time: 1890s


Adam Bray
Marvel Studios 101 :
All Your Questions Answered

from Phase 1 to Phase 3
from 2008 to 2018
from Iron Man to Avengers : Infinity War


graphic novel
Back to the Future :
Tales from the Time Train


graphic novel
Back to the Future :
the Heavy Collection
v.1. collecting issuess #1-12
v.2. (which he has not seen) collecting the rest of the issues or #13-25


Ella Patrick
Star Wars :
Who's Who in the Galaxy Character Storybook
from the Phantom Menace to the Last Jedi


Next time: a special report

[ER]

I was among old books recently and came across a hardback, age-yellowed copy of Be My Guest, by Conrad Hilton. I had never heard of the book, his autobiography, and only knew of him as the weirdo on Mad Men, but wound up reading it all in a day.

Highights from Hilton's life:

He was born in San Antonio New Mexico, but the governor of Texas assumed it was San Antonio, Texas, and threw a huge party for Hilton, giving him an award reserved only for native-born Texans. Rather than admit his error in public, the governor invented a new super-power for Texas governors, thereby they could make someone an "honorary" Texan.

Hilton married Zsa Zsa Gabor when she was about half his age; the ink on the marriage certificate was barely dry before Gabor began an affair with Hilton's son.

Hilton grew up speaking German, Swedish, and Spanish and as a child used to have to be reminded  to speak in English.

Always an optimistic forward-thinker, Hilton had plans to put hotels on the moon in his lifeitme.

Hilton's amazing life inspired someone to name hotels after him. Um, at least I think that's true.

Hilton was comfortably long dead before his great-granddaughter made The Hottie and the Nottie.

[BoyScoutKevin]

A special report
The Manga Classics series
It makes even what is unreadable--readable.

So far, I have yet to read in the series . . .
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
The Stories of Edgar Allen Poe
The Jungle Book
Great Expectations
Emma
Sense and Sensibility

Then there is Shakespeare.
Romeo and Juliet
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Macbeth

And so far, I have read in the series . . .
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
The Scarlet Letter
Jane Eyre
Les Miserables
Pride and Prejudice

and the latest in the series
Dracula, which we will review next time.

There is one exception, so far, to the above.
The Count of Monte Cristo, which I find unreadable in any form.

Next time: Dracula

[FatFreddysCat]

Right now:

I'm Chevy Chase ... and You're Not: The Authorized Biography by Rena Fruchter

on deck:

Adrenalized: Life, Def Leppard, and Beyond by Phil Collen

[Rev. Powell]

Just started something called "Great Sanskrit Plays in Modern Translation" and, for bathroom reading, Frank Conniff's "How to Write Cheesy Movies."

[FatFreddysCat]

Right now:

I'm Chevy Chase ... and You're Not: The Authorized Biography by Rena Fruchter

on deck:

Adrenalized: Life, Def Leppard, and Beyond by Phil Collen

[BoyScoutKevin]

Dracula

art by Virginia Nitouhei
adaptation by Stacy King
lettering by Daria Rhodes
editor: M. Chandler
part of the Manga Classics series

Underrated
as a novel for the reasons below

Shakespeare
some things seldom change. 300 years after Shakespeare the humor in the story is generated by the lower class characters.

Product
--of its time

Price
when he went to England to see what he could see, Stoker was dead, but his wife was still living, and she and Price became good friends.

Parents
deceased. One loses their employer who is thought of as a father figure. One loses their mother. And one loses their father.

Men
it may be a product of the past, but in some ways it is remarkablely futuristic, as men are allowed to cry with their male friends comforting in their sadness.

Horror
not only horror, but also action, laughter, and tears--both joyful and sad.

Anti-semitism
as it was common for its time, it is present with Dracula having the facial features of the Jew, and at least one of minor villains is Jewish.

Americans
it is said that at the time the story was written, Stoker was only one of two British authors who had a favorable opinion of Americans, which is why one of the major characters is an American.

Dislike
the only thing I dislike about this edition is the way some of the characters are drawn.

Next time: 6 of 1

[indianasmith]

I just finished RICHARD III - A RULER AND HIS REPUTATION by David Horspool.  This was a very well-done, carefully researched, and largely neutral biography of a controversial English ruler whose short reign had inspired playwrights, novelists, and historians for over 500 years now.  Horspool contends that Richard's true character is probably impossible to know, based on the surviving sources, and points out that he was a divisive figure even during his lifetime.  An interesting afterward on the 2013 discovery of Richard's body and the 2015 reburial service showed how this long-dead Yorkist King continues to divide English opinion to this day.  An excellent read if you like English history.