Last Book You Read

[drinkanddestroy]

So you wouldn't watch other Wilder movies because these are mostly comedies?

correct

[titoli]

I wonder if this book was subsidized by the Italian Tourism Council, just as The Broker might have been. Anyway, I can't judge what an american "american football" fan  may find here that might interest him. Maybe the description of the field actions are excellent but I'm not a fan and so I just skipped over them. Anyway, as to plot this is as unimaginative as can be, lacking a dose of humour (except in the description of the first approach of a NFL player to Italy) which might render the reading memorable. Grisham knows though how to keep a good plot rhythm but you don't want to read this stuff again. Just use it as a travelogue if you plan to visit Parma. 5\10

[titoli]

Originally published in 1968 and last reprinted in 1982 (the paperback edition I read), this would be an excellent collection of essays mainly composed of excerpts from books were it not that the truth about most of the cases discussed was brought to light only in the last two decades. For example, it would look as "Cicero" was really a British double agent. So a visit to wikipedia after reading some of the artcles is mandatory.  But the reading was engrossing, as some very interesting cases I had never heard before of were discussed: the Noel Field family's disappearance, the Zimmermann telegram, the Gouzenko almost failed defection, or the most incredible of all: the Ievno Aseff double crossing of czar's secret police and the would-be czar's revolutionary assassins. Not to talk of Alfred Redl. 8\10

[titoli]

These notes on the modern american way of life are sometime funny, sometime perceptive and sometime sad as compared to Bryson's experiences in his own country 20 years before and in Great Britain. It makes an amusing reading anyway, though apparently some american readers took it as an anti-american attack, which is not. 8\10  

[titoli]

A third of the book is about the legal feud and it's the part that is narratively compelling, as usual with this author. the rest is padding, this time of the preachy kind, about the D.C. homeless. But if I want to read about them I buy some essay on the subject. 8\10 for the first plot, 3\10 for the padding.

[titoli]

I liked this, as there was less padding and preaching than usual, though I think that this stuff should go beyond 200 pages instead of the roughly 500 of the paperback edition I read. The "class action" theme from the lawyers pov is something  I had no idea before and the catches it might involve (though I saw them coming ) make the reading compulsive. 8\10

[drinkanddestroy]

The New York Yankees: An Informal History, by Frank Graham

great book on the early history of the greatest baseball team of all-time. Was first published in 1943 (with results through the '42 season), then published again in 1947 (with results through the '46 season). It was re-printed in 2002, but I got an edition from the '40's on Amazon (11th impression of the 1947 version).

[titoli]

Bogdanovich is not a film critic of the obnoxious kind, the one who searches for hidden meanings and (gay) subtexts: he lets people talk and he had the fortune of being able to let some great ones do it. It is always interesting and you get a wagonload of otherwise unavailable infos. The pieces I prefer are the ones on Dietrich and the party at Camp David. 8\10

[Groggy]

Trevor Howard: A Gentleman and a Player - Vivienne Knight - More interesting than the Michael Munn bio I read awhile back. But as the authorized biography it's obviously geared to paint a positive impression, even in circumstances that don't flatter the subject. Here I learned, albeit through winks and nods, that Howard was an inveterate womanizer and Helen Cherry tolerated it for decades. There's a woman - clap her! That leaves Terence Pettigrew's 2001 bio, which I understand is more critical.

[Groggy]

Originally published in 1968 and last reprinted in 1982 (the paperback edition I read), this would be an excellent collection of essays mainly composed of excerpts from books were it not that the truth about most of the cases discussed was brought to light only in the last two decades. For example, it would look as "Cicero" was really a British double agent. So a visit to wikipedia after reading some of the artcles is mandatory.  But the reading was engrossing, as some very interesting cases I had never heard before of were discussed: the Noel Field family's disappearance, the Zimmermann telegram, the Gouzenko almost failed defection, or the most incredible of all: the Ievno Aseff double crossing of czar's secret police and the would-be czar's revolutionary assassins. Not to talk of Alfred Redl. 8\10

Titoli, have you read Peter Hopkirk's stuff? Something tells me he'd be up your alley.

[titoli]

Titoli, have you read Peter Hopkirk's stuff? Something tells me he'd be up your alley.

No, I didn't. I'll check him out.

[sargatanas]

STUNTMAN !
Hal Needham

car crashes - plane jumping - bone breaking
death - defying - hollywood life  
the show must go on

 

[titoli]

The movie follows quite closely the book, not only in the main plot but also in some dialogues and details. But there are some relevant differences, inevitables considering that the book, in the paperback edition, is more than 500 pages long. The narrator has a knack for explaining all the procedures of a trial and he never refrains from commenting whatever move his trial adversary makes. So I wonder how many readers made it to the end. Actually the last 50 pages are the least dramatically effective as the include the final arguments by the parts and the reading of the defensive instructions by the judge. To skip them though would be a pity, as the defensive plead explains something that in the movie isn't clear, i.e. that the victim had set the scene expecting the murderer to arrive and kill him, being thwarted in his scheme by the fact that the Lt. was left-handed.  The character played by Stewart is younger, so much so that he finally gets the girl Mary Pilant who here is not the daughter of the victim. Here the lawyer plays the drums, not the piano.  There are no "panties" lost and so all the Mary Pilant decisive revelation  (especially on a dramaturgically pov) is not there. I think that, on the whole, the book is better than the movie, though the bulk may attract only non casual readers. 8\10

[stanton]

Since when are books better than films?

[titoli]

Since when are books better than films?

That depends on the books.