Ruth

I'm just over 100 pages into Madame Bovary, and hmmm.....not sure whether I like it or not. I'm going to stick with it, but it's not overly enjoyable for me at the moment.

I'm adding Sunset Boulevard to my list of must-see films. I watched it on Saturday night, having never seen it before. It was frankly stunning. I was gripped by every second. Not sure how to categorise it really - film noir, black comedy, psychological thriller...it doesn't matter really - but it blew me away!

Really looking forward to seeing The Artist. The good thing is that from what I've heard, it really IS fantastic, and not just a case of The Emperor's New Clothes. On Saturday night, I watched Sunset Boulevard, with William Holden and Gloria Swanson. What can I say? This film was incredible. I could hardly bear to turn my eyes away, and it's easily one of the best films I've ever seen (which I don't say lightly).

Agree about Harry Potter. I have nothing against Daniel Radcliffe, but I thought the movies were way over-rated. Well, the first one anyway - which was the only one I saw. I was bored. I also read the first Harry Potter book, and dare I say that I thought that too was over-rated? *ducks for cover*

So true. What a dull film, especially considering the talent involved. By the way Coffin Nail, I love your avatar. That's one of all time favourite movies and actors

Citizen Kane, for me. Also, most things with Brad Pitt in - very over-rated actor. Oh, and The Blair Witch Project. I was still waiting for it to get started, when it finished!

Me too. In fact, I've had Valley of the Dolls on my tbr for years. Yes, years! I'm glad you liked it Erin; your review has encouraged me to bump it up the list a bit!

Yes, when I've seen other people's reviews that's the impression I get. I'm only about 30 pages in - started it this morning - but it seems okay so far.

Yes, it's a shame to think that it's not going to be appreciated.

Ah bless you Frankie I always think it's wonderful when someone loves a book as much as I do Hope you love it too Bookworm

Painting Ruby Tuesday, by Jane Yardley In 1965, Annie Cradock is a 10 year old girl, living in the quiet village of Muningstock with her strict parents, and spending most of her free time with her best friend and next door neighbour, Babette. When a series of murders rocks the village, and Mrs Clitheroe, a local lady beloved of both Annie and Babette, is a victim, Annie’s world turns upside down. More than 30 years later, Annie is a music teacher, living in London with her second husband Alan, who wants to move to New York. Annie’s marriage is in trouble, she cannot make up her mind whether to stay in London or move to the USA, and the strange events of 1965, still haunt her. Only when Annie has come to terms with what happened in her past will she be able to face her future. Annie narrates both the events that happened when she was 10, and the problems which she is facing as an adult, and the narrative cuts between the past and the present. I quite enjoyed this book, but cannot say that it was one of those occasional, almost magical reads that you fall in love with. I liked the character of Annie, both as an imaginative child, and an intelligent woman, but sometimes I did feel like shaking her and telling her not to be so silly. The author did portray the confused mind of a frightened child very well however, and I preferred the parts of the story that were set in the past more than those set in more recent times. The mystery of the murders is not fully solved until the end of the book. I won’t give away the ending, but suffice to say that while I was confident that I had worked it all out, the story threw me a curveball, and I was surprised when the story resolved itself. Despite the subject matter, the book is not a depressing or miserable read. There’s actually a lot of humour within, thanks to Annie’s narration, but while some parts did actually make me laugh out loud, at other times the humour seemed somewhat forced. So, while this was not a book that set my world alight, there was quite a lot to enjoy in this story. It’s a book that I liked, but which I doubt would make any lasting impression in my memory. *********************************************************************** Painting Ruby Tuesday was okay - it had it's moments (and occasionally did make me laugh out loud), but sometimes the humour seemed forced. I didn't guess the ending though - although I thought I had - and that's always a bonus! My next read is going to be Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert.

I love this film. Love it, love it, love it. Grant and Hepburn created magic when they starred together.

I felt the same way about Gone With The Wind. It was so big I couldn't face reading it for ages. Finally picked it up last year, and loved it. And even though it was such a long novel, I honestly don't think any of it needed to be cut out. The film is long too - about 4 hours - but well worth watching. The Art of Racing in the Rain is an AMAZING book. I totally agree with Frankie, it's just a fabulous read. Ditto The Book Thief - terrific. I loved Breakfast at Tiffanys too. Different from the film, but just as enjoyable. (And I have The Hunger Games trilogy on the Kindle, but am saving those for holiday). I hope you enjoy the other three as much as I did I'm still reading Painting Ruby Tuesday, for my f2f reading group. It's....meh. Quite good, easy enough reading and amusing in places, but it still hasn't really grabbed me.

I don't think it's dying out, but books go through phases - certain types of books are popular at certain times. For example, paranormal romance is big right now. I always think that Westerns have a smaller, but loyal fanbase.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is just a lovely, lovely book. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. I have I Capture the Castle on my tbr, and like you have seen great reviews for it. Also, I've heard good things about Sanctus, although I haven't read it myself. I have a lot of the Hornblower books as well. I must admit that I only bought them because I loved the film with Gregory Peck (*obligatory swoon*) and the tv movies with Ioan Gruffudd, but they are easy enjoyable reads.

butternut truckle I don't know why - I just really like these words. Maybe it's because they're food related

I watched Swing Time at the weekend - an Astaire and Rogers movie. I loved it; well except for one scene. I don't like it when white actors dress up in black make-up. I appreciate that it was accepted as a legitimate form of entertainment in 1936 when the film was made, but it still makes me grimace.

After seeing a totally fabulous production of The Taming of the Shrew, at the RSC this weekend, I decided to read To Be Or Not To Be, by Liz Evers (actually, it was a book that happened to be in my bag, and I was looking for something to read on the train!) For anybody who has ever thought Shakespeare dull or dry, this book is perfect reading! It gives a brief introduction to Shakespeare’s life and work, and provides a short synopsis of all of his plays. It also provides other interesting information such as words that Shakespeare created (assassination, luggage, moonbeam, cater – to name very few of a long list!) and phrases that he coined – if you’ve ever thought of jealousy as a green-eyed-monster for instance, then you have Shakespeare to thank! It also provides a list of all of the main characters in Shakespeare’s plays, and a brief description of their roles. The book is written in a clear, easy to understand, and often amusing fashion, and even for someone who is not particularly bothered about Shakespeare, it still makes for interesting reading! As an academic book, I probably would not recommend this – it is really only the briefest introduction to The Bard’s life and work, but if you have ever seen a film adaptation of one of his plays and would like to learn more, this would be a great place to start. It is only a short book – I read it in two sittings, but it could easily be started and finished in a couple of hours. So while it may not cover it’s subject in great depth, it certainly opens the door to learning more about Shakespeare, and left me wanting to know more. Definitely recommended!

Welcome back Sue Nice to see you.

I've been really tempted to get this after seeing it in the shops. I must have picked it up and put it down countless times (I'm trying to really cut down on my book buying!) But I think I might have to get it Another one I'm intrigued by. Normally it wouldn't be my kind of thing, but SO many people have said how good this book is. I can see a library visit coming on!

I have The Book of Human Skin, on my tbr. I read Carnivale by the same author, and really enjoyed it. (Although in my reading group, I was the only one who did like it!)

Cary Grant: A Biography, by Marc Eliot Cary Grant was one of the biggest movie stars in Hollywood in the mid-20th century. He made 72 films in his career, and was – and is – loved by fans the world over. However, there was another side to Cary Grant. He married five times, experimented with LSD, and was constantly the subject of specualtion over his alleged homosexuality. This book charts his life, and attempts to compare and contrast the persona of Cary Grant with whom audiences are so familiar, with the private Cary Grant behind the scenes. I actually found the first half of this book intensely irritating. It is the job of a biographer to give the details about their subject’s life, not to take speculation and discuss it as if it is fact. After a good description of Grant’s troubled childhood, and his start in showbusiness with an acrobatic troupe, with whom he went to America and decided to carve out his future in the movie business, Eliot seemed to become preoccuppied with Grant’s alleged homosexuality (this being at a time when being homosexual could destroy an actor’s career). Grant always denied any attraction to men, yet the author seems to ignore that fact, and give details of relationships with men that Grant apparently had (although he is unable to cite any sources for his information). When discussing the friendship between Cary Grant and Randolph Scott, Eliot describes the domestic set-up in the bachelor pad which the two men shared, and muses that “sex was an afterthought.” But where did he get this information?! (There were also a few minor factual errors elsewhere in the book. For example, when discussing Director George Cukor, Eliot states that Clark Gable had Cukor fired as Director of Gone With the Wind, because he didn’t like the fact that Cukor was gay. Although this has been erronously stated elsewhere, it is simply not true. Cukor actually lost the job because of he found Producer David O. Selznick hard to work with, or get along with.) The book did improve the further along I got. There was lots of information about many of Grant’s films, goings on behind the set, and the casting processes. Most films also have a fairly detailed synopsis (some readers may want to skip these parts if they have not seen the films, because the synopses generally give away the endings to the films). Grant’s marriages and the possible reasons for the breakdown of four of them are discussed. Again, some of this is speculation, but much of it can be verified. However, I did get the impression that the author spent too much time on the less savoury aspects of Grant’s life – for example, towards the end of the book, casual mention is made of the extensive charity work that Cary Grant did for numerous Jewish charities. However, this is not mentioned elsewhere in the book at all – surely, such extensive charity work should have warranted more than a passing mention? I sometimes got the feeling that Marc Eliot did not actually like Cary Grant very much! Eliot’s writing does flow well – he would probably make a great novelist – if at times, he does tend towards the cringeworthy – when describing the dimple on Cary Grant’s chin, he says, “…whose two smooth and curved bulges resembled nothing so much as a beautiful woman’s naked behind while she was on her knees in sexual supplication before the godlike monument of his face.” I’m not making this up! Fortunately however, there aren’t too many of these kinds of statements. My overall feeling after reading this book was that it seemed somewhat mean-spirited towards its subject, but there were some interesting aspects – mostly about the movies which we love Cary Grant for giving us. In fact, had Eliot written a book solely about Grant’s film career, it would have probably made for terrific reading. This book isn’t awful, but such a major celebrity certainly deserves better. Grant always tried to keep his personal life private, but he left his legacy of 72 films behind – and maybe those are how he should be remembered.

Gene Kelly: The Biography, by Clive Hirschhorn Gene Kelly was in the process of writing his autobiography, but sadly died at the age of 83, in 1996, before completing it. His widow Patricia Ward Kelly is said to be writing a book about her late husband’s life, but I’ve just about given up hope of it ever appearing. Until such time as it does however, there are a few biographies of Gene available, and this book by Clive Hirschhorn is widely regarded to be the best in its field. It is certainly the first place I would direct anyone wanting to know more about Gene Kelly. There is a mistake right at the beginning of the book however; Hirschhorn gives Gene’s date of birth as 3rd August, when it was in fact 23rd August. This seems like such an easy thing to have checked that I cannot help but wonder if this was a typo that somehow escaped correction! I feel obliged to mention it however, because anyone starting the book may wonder if it is going to be filled with other errors – happily, it isn’t. The book gives a good account of Gene’s childhood, with his strict but happy family life, including the dance lessons which his mother insisted all of her five children take, and the dance school which Gene started, together with other members of his family. It then describes his move to New York, where he found success on Broadway, and then his film career, starting in the early 40s, when he made his first film ‘For Me and My Gal’, starring opposite Judy Garland. Overall, the description of Gene’s career is comprehensive, and mentions the high and low points of his career, which not only consisted of dancing, acting and singing, but also directing, producing and choreographing (yes, Gene Kelly was truly deserving of the description ‘multi-talented’). The book also gives a detailed but respectful account of Gene’s personal life, including his first marriage to Betsy Blair with whom he had a daughter, Kerry, and which marriage ended in amicable divorce; and his second marriage to Jeanne Coyne, with whom he had a son and a daughter, Timothy and Bridget. This marriage ended in tragedy, when Jeanne died of leukemia in 1973. Gene himself was interviewed for this book, and there are many, many quotes from him, as well as people he worked with, and members of his family (predominantly Kerry). The book is interesting, and well written; my interest was held throughout, and although I am a big fan of Gene Kelly, I found out a few things which were previously unknown to me. Hirschhorn seems to have great respect for his subject, but is still able to be objective. As well as the many films which Gene starred in, I also found the accounts of his work as a director to be very interesting (in particular, his work on the film Hello Dolly!, which must have been in difficult circumstances, considering that the two main stars, Barbra Streisand and Walter Matthau, could barely stand the sight of each other!) I would have liked to have seen more about Gene’s involvement with liberal politics, and his business relationship with Stanley Donen (which unfortunately ended in a falling out, but while the two men worked together, they certainly produced some amazing films). Overall, Gene Kelly comes over as I have always imagined him to be; determined, hard-working (in the extreme), a perfectionist, but a very kind, unfailingly honest man, with a strong sense of right and wrong, and a very deep love for his family. Sadly, as this book was written in the 1970s, it does not cover any of the last 20 years of it’s subject’s life, which is a shame. It is however, worth mentioning the lovely foreward, written by Gene’s friend Frank Sinatra. It is a lovely start to the book, and a nice tribute to Gene Kelly. If you are interested in reading about Gene Kelly, or his work, I would certainly recommend this biography. The Einstein Girl, by Philip Sington This novel is set mainly in Berlin, in the months before Hitler came to power. Martin Kirsch is a psychiatrist, about to marry into a rich family, but increasingly disillusioned with the path his life and his profession is taking. When a young woman who Martin met briefly a short time earlier, is admitted to his clinic, with no memory of her own identity or her past, he takes on her case. The young woman was found semi-naked, and the only clue to her identity is a flier for a lecture given by Albert Einstein. The press are fascinated by the case and call the woman The Einstein Girl. Kirsch too is fascinated by the case, but his fascination turns into a potentially dangerous obsession. As he attempts to unravel the mystery of the woman’s past, he finds links with the eminent Albert Einstein, who is one of the Nazi’s most prominent enemies, and realises that danger could be closing in… I’m in two minds about this book. It started very well, and I thought I was going to love it. However, as the story progressed, it became more and more convoluted, which I think hampered the telling of the story. Generally speaking, I like books that weave fact and fiction, and this book certainly made me interested in finding out more about Einstein’s life, but even as a character, Kirsch himself often seemed unsure what was fact and what was fiction. This does seem to be something of a recurring theme throughout the book, because at the beginning of the story is a letter from a character who does feature later on, which suggests that the whole book itself was written as a novel within a novel. However, I was interested to find out the real identity of The Einstein Girl, which is revealed incrementally throughout the story, although it was never clear until the end as to what was true and what was false. What I found particularly interesting was the glimpses into (now) outdated beliefs regarding psychiatry and the treatment of psychiatric patients. Some of the ideas which were invested in, seemed particularly disturbing and there was a general undertone of menace surrounding the whole subject. As a character, I found Kirsch hard to warm to, although I did feel that he was well drawn, and was believable. Neither could I find much about The Einstein Girl to invest in (and indeed Einstein himself does not come across as a particularly sympathetic character). All in all then, there were some interesting aspects to this story, and I would probably consider reading more by this author. However, I feel that it got a bit too tangled up in itself at times. Carter Beats the Devil, by Glen David Gold At the start of this book, it is 1923, and the acclaimed magician, Carter the Great, puts on a grand show, in which President Harding comes on stage to take part in the final illusion. Hours after the show, the President is dead, and Carter is under suspicion of causing his death, and has to flee the Secret Service. After this tantalising peek into the life of Charles Carter the adult, the story of his life begins, from his childhood, where he turns to magic to defeat loneliness and a servant who bullies Charles and his brother. His rise to fame is not without problems, and he suffers professional and personal triumphs and defeats. As the story progresses up to and beyond the night of the President’s death, layer upon layer is added, including such story lines as the invention of television, and the book becomes a sprawling novel, with Carter right at it’s heart… This is a hard book for my to review, because I have such mixed feelings it. It started promisingly and I felt certain that I was going to love it, but as it progressed I started to feel underwhelmed, and – while I cannot say that I didn’t enjoy lots of it – I was slightly relieved to finish it. Carter the Great was a real person, although this is a highly fictionalised account of his life. Further, President Harding did indeed die under unusual circumstances (or rather, the way his death was immediately handled raises questions), although again, this book deals with it in a fictional manner. I did think that Carter was an extremely likeable and enjoyable protagonist. He was witty and clever, but also surprisingly vulnerable, and carried a sadness about him, the reason for which is explained in the story. I also liked his brother James, who is a recurring character throughout the story, and Carter’s assistant Ledocq. The reason that I did not enjoy this book as much as I hoped to, was that at times there just seemed to be too much going on. From Secret Service agents (some corrupt, some incompetent, and some under-appreciated) who were trailing Carter, to an old friend who pops up throughout the story, to Carter’s rivalry with fellow magician Mysterioso – there were just so many elements to the story, some of which detracted from the part I was most interested in, which was Carter’s life story. However, on the plus side, the author had clearly done lots of research about the era, and the popularity of vaudeville shows, where magicians such as Carter made much of their living, and I did enjoy that aspect of the story. Overall, I would say that there was probably a terrific 400 page book contained within this 500+ page book, and it has certainly received many glowing reviews, but it perhaps wasn’t quite the right fit for me. There was enough here though, that I would certainly read more by this author.

A bit belatedly, I've decided to start posting my reviews of books on this thread, rather than just making a few comments. A Beautiful Blue Death, by Charles Finch This novel – the first in a series – is set in Victorian London and features as it’s main character, Charles Lenox, an armchair investigator, who sometimes helps the police with their enquiries, although they are never prepared to give him the credit he deserves! When his neighbour and good friend Lady Jane asks him to investigate the suspicious death of her former maid, Prue Smith, Charles finds himself caught up in a web of intrigue. There are numerous suspects and motives, and Charles’ efforts seem to be blocked whichever way he turns. But Charles is resourceful and intelligent – and with the help of his brother Edmund, his friend Doctor McConnell and his trusty valet Graham. I really enjoyed this book. It reminded me slightly of Sherlock Holmes, but with the social skills that Holmes lacks! However, this book did not feel like a poor copy of a Holmes story at all. Lenox was a terrific character, and carried the story beautifully. I also liked his friendship with Lady Jane (and hope to see more of her in subsequent books), and especially the friendship and mutual respect that he shared with Graham, who was a great character in his own right. The mystery element of the book had me guessing all the way. When it came to the final denoument, I realised that the clues had been revealed throughout the story, but I had missed some of them, and I had no idea ‘whodunnit’, although while reading the book I suspect almost everyone at some point! Crime fiction used to be a favourite genre of mine – not so much these days, however, but when I read a book like this, it makes me want to pick up more of the same. If I absolutely had to find something to gripe about, it would possibly be the occasional American speech patterns in the book (“gotten off of” for example, instead of “got off”), but these are honestly so few and far between that they should not impact upon anybody’s enjoyment of the book. Victorian London is portrayed beautifully, and it is clear that the author must have done a lot of research. The period detail is second to none, and I loved reading the wonderfully descriptive passages. Overall, a great debut and a very promising start indeed to a series. I’ll be looking out for more, and would highly recommend this book.

Yes, it was that one. I did wonder whether it would be worth it, because it was on the True Movies channel or something like that, which has a tendency to show pretty bad films about real life events (often skewed beyond all recognition though!) It was on at about 7.30am!!! Pretty early for such a gruesome story! I have added the book to my Amazon wishlist, but am now off to have another look to see if it is available on Kindle or iBooks, so I can get it even quicker. Edit: Harumph! Not available on either. The library have it though.