What are you reading?

[feaito]

Thanks for your feedback Alison.

[charliechaplinfan]

Sounds very entertaining.

I'm half way through The Memoirs of a Professional Cad by George Sanders, it's taking my time, not because it's difficult but because I find him smug and the caddishness a mask. I'm sure the smugness hide insecurities but for me it's ladled on a little thick. I'm glad I hired this from the library as it's really expensive secondhand.

For another look at Sanders, check out A Dreadful Man by Brian Adherne. They were close friends (or as close as anyone could get to Sanders) and the book reveals many insights that are not often discussed about his life.

I read An Exhausted Man by Richard Vanderbeets and he discredited Brian Aherne's version as being unreliable and having an axe to grind, I think Aherne lost some money in a venture George Sanders fronted. After reading both Sander's book and vanderbeet's I can't say I really take to George Sanders, in his autobiography he's witty but sometimes at others of other cultures expense, my distaste at this might just be the passing of fifty years when his view isn't acceptable anymore. Yet there is a moving section about Tyrone Power were we perhaps get the only peek at his emotions. In both books he comes across as a cold man, an intellectual snob and the cad image which was put on as a front, I'm sure he was a psychiatrist's dream patient and he does narrate a funny section on psychiatrists. I did feel pity for him, he found a woman who he was happy with for her to die a lingering death, this plunged him into a final depression. A Complicated Man might be another good title, I do love him on film. Unfortunately our library doesn't carry Brian Aherne's book, I am curious though.

[Mr. Arkadin]

Sounds very entertaining.

I'm half way through The Memoirs of a Professional Cad by George Sanders, it's taking my time, not because it's difficult but because I find him smug and the caddishness a mask. I'm sure the smugness hide insecurities but for me it's ladled on a little thick. I'm glad I hired this from the library as it's really expensive secondhand.

For another look at Sanders, check out A Dreadful Man by Brian Adherne. They were close friends (or as close as anyone could get to Sanders) and the book reveals many insights that are not often discussed about his life.

I read An Exhausted Man by Richard Vanderbeets and he discredited Brian Aherne's version as being unreliable and having an axe to grind, I think Aherne lost some money in a venture George Sanders fronted. After reading both Sander's book and vanderbeet's I can't say I really take to George Sanders, in his autobiography he's witty but sometimes at others of other cultures expense, my distaste at this might just be the passing of fifty years when his view isn't acceptable anymore. Yet there is a moving section about Tyrone Power were we perhaps get the only peek at his emotions. In both books he comes across as a cold man, an intellectual snob and the cad image which was put on as a front, I'm sure he was a psychiatrist's dream patient and he does narrate a funny section on psychiatrists. I did feel pity for him, he found a woman who he was happy with for her to die a lingering death, this plunged him into a final depression. A Complicated Man might be another good title, I do love him on film. Unfortunately our library doesn't carry Brian Aherne's book, I am curious though.

That's odd, because I never felt Aherne's book was critical of Sanders, if anything, I thought he was perhaps too generous. He talks of Sanders amazing abilities which not only included being a great actor and singer, but also his genius with electricity, wood and metal craft, inventons, and many other things. On the down side, he did feel that Sanders courted some women for money, was always looking for a way to get rich, and hated paying taxes (can't blame him there). He also talked at length of his love for Benita and what a magical pair they were.

If you cannot get the book at your local library, try Worldcat:

http://www.worldcat.org/

[JackFavell]

I didn't catch the chip on Aherne's shoulder either, except maybe in the business discussions, which I thought he at least attempted to be fair about. I loved some of the sections of the book especially about Sanders love for Benita Hume and his fear of playing the lead in South Pacific.

I am not sure that you would like Sanders any more from reading this book, Alison, but I do believe that Aherne's book is firmly tongue in cheek. The touching way he writes of Sanders' death leads me to think he had fond thoughts of the man in the final analysis.

[charliechaplinfan]

Thank you both for resetting the balance towards the Aherne book, sometimes authors will malign another author if they have both written about the same subject. I didn't get the impression that Sanders liked himself very much or that Vanderbeets liked him too much either. Neither book said much about Benita, it was obvious from what was said that she changed his life, brightened him and gave him hope for a happier, more settled future but her death a few years into the marriage and the terrible suffering she went through put the final nail in the coffin of his life. I don't think Vanderbeets particularly liked Benita very much either which surprised me, I think the issue was money, a woman who had made two big stars happy had to have some good qualities. Sanders was a father figure for Juliet Colman, she had only nice things to say about him.

[JackFavell]

That is interesting about Juliet Colman, Alison. I guess I really need to read the newer Sanders book soon.

I am struggling through Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals right now, all about Lincoln. I shouldn't say struggling, it's a great read, easy to understand, easy to get lost in, but family gets in the way of my reading. I am over halfway through and seem to be stuck on one paragraph about the fear of invasion of Washington at the beginning of the Civil War. I must have read that paragraph 15 times now, on different days, without ever getting past it. Either someone needs something, or they are laughing at a TV show, or I just can't get a moment alone to push through that section. And then there are the movies I've been wanting to watch all summer, calling to me to come and watch them!

[Rita Hayworth]

I am struggling through Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals right now, all about Lincoln. I shouldn't say struggling, it's a great read, easy to understand, easy to get lost in, but family gets in the way of my reading. I am over halfway through and seem to be stuck on one paragraph about the fear of invasion of Washington at the beginning of the Civil War.

I read that book too; Jack Favell and its one of my favorite book about Lincoln. As a student of the Civil War - I often tutor both middle school and high school students on History and this book is a perfect book to get student to understand more about Lincoln and the American Civil War. I'm retired now, and I help tutor my friends kids on any subject of History and get them a better understanding of it. I tutor on an average of 2-5 hours a week usually on any afternoon before dinner.

[JackFavell]

That's great, kingme. I do love history, and I've been waiting to get this one from the library for so long. It's very popular, so I was lucky to get it. Goodwin has such a comfprtable way of writing, it makes you feel you know Lincoln and the men in his cabinet.

[charliechaplinfan]

I understand totally about family getting in the way of reading or films, they have a way of swallowing up 'me' time. I hope you get past your paragraph.

I love history too, I really enjoy my kids history projects, I get my teeth into them more than they do.

[RedRiver]

My mother said she didn't read a book in twenty years. Too much going on!

[JackFavell]

Hahaha!

Plus they eat your brain...

[charliechaplinfan]

Yes, it's a fight to keep hold of the brain cells.

I'm juggling books from the library, I've a couple of Elizabeth Speller books that others are waiting for, she seems to be the author of the moment here, so I'm prioritizing these. I had started Josef Von Sternberg's book Fun in a Chinese Laundry, I'm not very far into it but here is a man who is not afraid to stand out from the crowd, he's prepared to put his own theories forward whoever he might upset, he's blunt, takes the long way around with some of his stories, goes off at tangents. I think it's going to be entertaining.

[ChiO]

CCF wrote:
I had started Josef Von Sternberg's book Fun in a Chinese Laundry, I'm not very far into it but here is a man who is not afraid to stand out from the crowd, he's prepared to put his own theories forward whoever he might upset, he's blunt, takes the long way around with some of his stories, goes off at tangents. I think it's going to be entertaining.

You're not the only one. While we were at the Freud Museum in Vienna last week (excuse the name and city-dropping), one of the items on display was a copy of the book that had been given to Von Sternberg. It was inscribed:

I thought you might find this of interest.
-- Marlene

Oh, I suppose that sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

[RedRiver]

I suppose that sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

Try telling that to Monica Lewinsky!