Despite this past Friday marking the start of the 2024 college baseball season (my favorite sports season of them all), I managed to complete three books I've been reading: Larry McMurtry: A Life, Ex-Libris: 100 Books to Read and Reread, and Galway Confidential. I've already reviewed the Larry McMurtry biography, and I hope to share my thoughts on the latter two books later on this week. I also decided to table a couple of books for at least the moment (The Last Outlaws and What to Read and Why) because I just wasn't feeling connected to either of them anymore, but I did make good progress on a few others.
This week I plan to finish Study for Obedience, a 2023 Booker Prize nominee (despite having cursed it aloud several times along the way), along with The Blues Brothers (a book I've appreciated more and more the deeper I've read into it), and maybe one or two others.
These are the new ones I started (or more seriously started) last week:
Recent events reminded me of the stories and rumors that surrounded Alfred Hitchcock and his relationship with his leading ladies back in the day, so I'm not particularly surprised by the revelations in Hitchcock's Blondes. But really, I'm reading this one as much because I'm a fan of Hitchcock movies as for any other reason, so after reading the chapter about the making of Notorious with Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant, we sat down and watched that 1946 movie last night for the first time. Pairing the movie and the book that way worked so well that I plan to do that at least one or two more times.
In addition to reading steadily from Agustina Bazterrica's short story collection Nineteen Claws and a Black Bird and from Erle Stanley Gardner's The Case of the Empty Tin, I'll also likely add one or two of these:
And as always, I'll be surprised if something completely off my radar as of this moment doesn't come out of nowhere to demand to be started this week too. Can't wait to see what that turns out to be. Have a good reading week, everyone. Have fun!
I share your feelings on books based on Native Americans, so much so that I tend to avoid them now. 'Although' there are some crime series that I think have a more positive feel to their NA characters. Killers of a Certain Age I found entertaining when I read it last year but have not, for some reason, continued on with the series.
ReplyDeleteIt's easy enough for me to understand that Native American writers want to explore their feelings and the impact that the attempt to exterminate them from the U.S. had on their people, Cath. I just think it would almost as impactful if sometimes the "story" included those who have dealt with it all more successfully. I know those people are out there somewhere.
DeleteEven the crime fiction I've read by Native writers has left me a little depressed with all they are still dealing with in their personal lives or families.
Native Americans have a lot to be bitter about. Their overall "silence" does astound me sometimes, so it's good that so many of them are writing and being published these days.
I love that idea of reading a chapter in Hitchcock's Blondes then watching the corresponding movie. I'm a fan of Hitchcock films, and am interested in reading that obok. And There There sounds really good, too, though why all the stories in it have to be depressing is a little bit sad. Surely there are some happy Native American stories and experiences out there somewhere.
ReplyDeleteNot sure how many of the movies I'll be able to find, but it's much easier to do that right now than it would have been even just a few years ago. Hitchcock was a strange man when it came to women, and I'm fascinated by what some of these women were willing to put up with in order to work with him.
DeleteThere There has an "Interlude" section that is as much nonfiction as fiction, that delves into contemporary Native American culture as it's evolved over the last 150 years or so. It's sad, and I think I would still be pissed off too if I were a Native American. I hope, though, that Native Americans don't get completely hung up on the past now that they are being published so regularly.
Thomas King is an excellent Native writer. He has a mystery series as well as novels. Chris Wallace
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tip. Thomas King is someone I hadn't heard of, and I'll be sure to take a look.
DeleteWhat a treat for you to see Notorious for the first time!! It has been a long time since I've seen it so had to look it up. If you haven't seen this page, you might find it interesting.
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notorious_(1946_film)
Any others of his that you haven't seen?
When I was a kid, there was a TV show which Hitchcock introduced, and the music still gives me chills. My parents watched it, and I did sometimes but some of them were really scary to me!
Thanks for the link, Nan. That's a well done page.
ReplyDeleteThe book, because it is organized by actress, features in detail only a few of the films, usually beginning with the first one of each actress. It begins with a silent film from 1927 called The Lodger that I've never seen, and then highlights these: The 39 Steps (don't think I've seen that one), Notorious, Dial M for Murder (which I've seen three or four times), North by Northwest (three or four times), Marnie (once, al long time ago), Vertigo (at least twice), and Psycho (two or three times).
It also covers the old television shows that I remember watching so religiously as a kid. Seems that Hitchcock had two series, maybe one of half-hour length and a later one of an hour each. Luckily, both series are included right now on Peacock, so I've been sampling those a bit and looking to see how much I remember of them. They are holding up surprisingly well.
So, you have Peacock! Or as we know it, the rugby channel. We watch part of a game every suppertime as a replay of a week or so ago. I am interested in Oppenheimer, but haven't checked into anything else they offer.
DeleteI have never seen Psycho. Too scary for me! And Vertigo, I keep thinking I "should" like it, but every time I watch, I am rather more creeped out.
One of my fave H. movies Is Rear Window.
We got Peacock almost entirely because they moved the Six Nations rugby tournament over to that channel and shut down the old sports channel that was streaming the games. It worked out well when Peacock was the only place broadcasting that Kansas City Chiefs game a few weeks ago that my wife wanted so badly to watch (she's a Mahone fan now that Brady retired).
DeleteRear Window is a masterpiece. Reading about that huge sound stage they built as a set was fascinating. Hitchcock, strange though he may have been, was some kind of genius.
I look forward to hearing about the Russell Banks book. I didn't like the ending of the Tommy Orange book. I think I was in the minority on that one but I just didn't like the obliteration of the characters we just spent learning about the whole book.
ReplyDeleteI finished the Russell Banks movie this morning...going to remember it for a long time, I think. It's just so Russell Banks. Hard to believe that it will be the last book of his to be published.
DeleteGetting near the climax of There There right now. Seems like a disaster just waiting to happen, so I'm curious as to where everyone ends up.
I might enjoy Hitchcock's Blondes. I will have to see if my husband has it or has read it. Notorious is my favorite Hitchcock movie, or maybe it is tied with North by Northwest. We have watched both of those movies many times. Today we watched Rope, another Hitchcock movie. Neither one of us had seen it, which amazes me since Glen is such a big fan of his movies. It was good. A very different movie from those other two, but very good and tense. Last week we watched Ministry of Fear, also Hitchcock, based on a Graham Greene book, that I have not read.
ReplyDeleteI hope you like Killers of a Certain Age. The Russell Banks book sounds interesting.
This does sound like the perfect book for both of you just based on what you say about Hitchcock's movies. I've been fascinated by North by Northwest since I first saw it, and I think that Rope might be the one that spooked me the most. Just the thought that two so very ordinary people could conspire to do what those two did really opened my eyes back then, I think. I don't think I've ever seen Ministry of Fear; I'll have to see how available that one is.
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