Judith at Reader in the Wilderness hosts this meme: Bookshelf Traveling For Insane Times. The idea is to look through a bookshelf or a bookcase or stacks of books and share some thoughts on the books. And of course you can be inventive and talk about books in any context.
Two weeks ago I featured books from my son's shelves, this week it is my husband's turn. My husband reads a mix of nonfiction and fiction books. He has many books I want to read but haven't gotten to yet.
The first two books are fairly recent purchases. The other two have been on his shelves for a while.The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood by Sam Wasson
Chinatown is one of my husband's favorite movies. Thus he was interested in this book about the making of the movie Chinatown. It focuses on the four men primarily involved: Robert Towne, Robert Evans, Jack Nicholson, and Roman Polanski. From what I understand, the story is much more than a blow by blow look at the making of the movie, but delves deep into these men's lives. It also depicts Hollywood filmmaking at a time when many changes were coming to the production of movies.
And it has a great cover.
Translated from the French by Sam Gordon
A police detective, Anne Capestan, has been suspended for six months and expects her superior, Buron, to end her employment. Instead he gives her a new department and the mission is to follow up on unsolved cases. She is given a crew of misfits to work with. This premise sounds similar to that of The Keeper of Lost Causes by Jussi Adler-Olsen (set in Denmark). This one is set in France, and from what I understand it is more humorous in tone.
My husband must have liked this first book in the series because he just purchased the next book in our second curbside pickup order from our local independent bookseller, Chaucer's Books. I plan to read this one soon.
The Black Camel by Earl Derr Biggers
This is the fourth of six books by Biggers that featured Charlie Chan. I am sure that I will like this book, because I have read four others in the series and enjoyed all of them. Charlie Chan is an awesome character. He always entertains.Although we are also fans of the Charlie Chan movies and have watched most of them, Charlie Chan in the books is different from the movie character.
The Charlie Chan novels were published between 1925 and 1932. The only disappointment I have had with them is that they are not always set in Hawaii. This one takes place in Honolulu of the 1920s and I am looking forward to that.Another great cover. Actually all of these books have nice covers.
The Provincial Lady Goes to London by E.M. Delafield
Diary of a Provincial Lady is a fictional account of a middle-class wife and mother, living in an English village, and dealing with money problems, servant problems, etc. This book, published in 1931, follows up with her life after her book has been published to much success. She takes a flat in London to have time and quiet to work on the next book she is writing. Both books were a lot of fun to read, but I enjoyed this one more because I had adjusted to the style and tone of the first one.
This book ends with the provincial lady planning a trip to America and I will be reading The Provincial Lady in America soon.
15 comments:
Interesting mix, Tracy. This also reminds me that I have to read the Charlie Chan series.
Happy Easter.
The Charlie Chan books are definitely worth a try, Neeru.
Happy Easter to you, too.
Nice selection! I love the Provincial Lady books, great favourites of mine. And there are two great covers there! That Chinatown image is so iconic...
Those are some good choices, Tracy. I like the variety! You've reminded me, too, that I haven't read any of the Charlie Chan series for a while. I ought to go back to them at some point...
It is a good mix, Moira. I just wish I had time to read all the books I want to.
Thanks, Margot. I think after I read The Black Camel, I only have one Charlie Chan book left to read.
I love the cover on The Black Camel. And funnily enough I've just started The Provincial Lady Goes to London, only in the Virago omnibus edition I have it's called The Provinical Lady Goes Further. I've no idea why. The other two books in it are 'America' and 'Wartime'.
Cath, I saw that The Provincial Lady Goes to London was originally published under another title. It kind of makes sense because not all of the book takes place in London. My husband has a fifth book titled The Provincial Lady in Russia. I would like to try another book not in this series, but it will be a while before I even start looking.
Happy Easter to you! I hope you have a special day. Are you having anything special for Easter dinner?
I really like 5hevChan books and have read all but the last (saving it). But as much as I like the books, I dislike the films, which I find clumsy and poorly plotted, while the “humor” is contrived and unnecessary. Back to the books, I rather liked the one in the California desert, Parrot, and the one set in San Francisco.
As to the other books, you have me there. I’ve not read any of them.
Happy Easter to you, too, Rick. We are not doing anything special for Easter, but I am trying a new recipe tonight, for chicken rice soup with vegetables.
I liked the Charlie Chan book set in San Francisco also, but did not the one set in the desert as well as others in the series.
Fair enough.
I love the Provincial Lady books, but I'd like to try Charlie Chan sometime too.
I hope you do try a Charlie Chan novel sometime, Katrina, I would love to know what you think of it.
I think I have some Charlie Chan books. I bought a bundle package of Biggers' books for kindle and promptly forgot about it. I have the Henaff as well.
Col, the Henaff book is the first one I read this month. I liked it, it had humor but it wasn't a comic mystery. The mystery plot was interesting.
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