What are you reading?

[CineMaven]

Mave and Jacks: My dishes are stacked and piled right now. I just made Spicy Italian Spaghetti Sauce, Texas Garlic Toast ('cause a regular sized piece just ain't big enough) and Kate Hepburn's homemade brownie recipe with the crunchy, buttery outer crust......

I have the impression that Sean would be a little too above us at the festival. But Sean and Michael would be a wonderful combo.

Awww geeeez...this is the Cultured Thread. What am I doing here; I'm not as well-read as you ladies. And now as a retiree, I have the time, but still...

Betty Crocker Applegate - that meal sounds delicious. Next time you make it, please send it Federal Express up to New York. I'll heat it up in the oven when it gets here. (Nope, I do not own a microwave ). The bet's still on re: Caine & Connery (Caine'll keep Sean grounded and not full of himself), but I'll sing for my supper for some of your Texas home-cookin'!!! (My sister lives in Texas, but you're a REAL Texan). Okay tell me if this song is worth one of your home-cooked meals:



Maybe worth a home-baked pie? No...not in the face!!!

[Sue Sue Applegate]

Wow! No wonder our duet sounded so great wafting up to the second floor of the lobby at the HRH! Honey, you are a perfessional! And who was that great accompanist?


I'd say that was worth a batch of Tequila Chicken with charcoal-grilled corn on the cob, my special chilipowder butter sauce, a Greek salad, and some of Dinah Shore's Apple Pan Dowdy.

[RedRiver]

My favorite Dickens book is still The Pickwick Papers

I've heard there's a pretty good film of that one. I haven't seen it.

A Tale of Two Cities! The latter is my Dickens favorite).

I swear, I believe this is my favorite Dickens film (the 1935). The David Lean films are weighty and literate. The various Chistmas Carols sentimental and inspiring. But Jack Conway's noble adventure, with its crashing pace and sharp editing, and Val Lewton montage sequence, is simply irresistable. What really impresses me is, this thing is 75 years old. And it's much better than most of what comes out today!

[JackFavell]

WHOA, Maven!!!! Good gracious, girl! You are a real chanteuse! Man oh man, I dream of being able to sing like that.

My favorite of the Dicken's movies is a tie between Great Expectations and David Copperfield (1935). I think maybe David edges out Pip for sheer entertainment value.

[Sue Sue Applegate]

Jackie, I enjoy both those Dickens' classics.

One of the colleges in the system where I labor had a Charles Dickens' Day with a formal tea, jig dancing, and recitations this spring. It was so much fun! All the students had read Hard Times in their English classes and several other disciplines focused on London's economy, history, and health at that time.

Fascinating to be transported like that for a few moments!

[JackFavell]

Gosh that sounds like so much fun, Christy! It would be great if they had Dickens characters walking around, too, though I don't know how one could make that happen.

[charliechaplinfan]

I'm going to read The Pickwick Papers after you've both recommend it, I nearly read Pickwick instead of Nicholas Nickeleby, I'm never one to start at the beginning. I love Great Expectations too and A Tale of Two Cities, I wasn't as keen on The Old Curiosity Shop, it doesn't flow quite as well for me. I don't know why he isn't more widely read, perhaps the size of the books and the small prnt put some people off or perhaps people just don't have time to read such big books these days. I love his characters, I love the history that runs through the pages, I like the way he observes life and I like the variety and situations that he packs his books with.

Dickens the man is such a contradiction, working for the unfortunate, giving time and money to many, paying for his family to get out of debt time and again, then poor Catherine who did him no harm and bore multiple pregnancies had to suffer his wrath and he never forgave her, even though she behaved with perfect dignity, he never softened. He's a difficult man to understand but still an unmitigated genius.

As for his films, Great Expectations just pips it (sorry) A Tale of Two Cities is very good too, Oliver Twist comes in third. I haven't seen David Copperfield.

[Sue Sue Applegate]

Jackie, during the first week of December, Dickens on the Strand is a Victorian-style event held on Galveston Island.

[RedRiver]

I've heard HARD TIMES is a good book.

Dickens the man is such a contradiction

Aren't we all...

[Ann Harding]

Fie,

I had the same problem with Sragow's book on Victor Fleming. As you said, full of facts and information but his writing style is underwhelming at best. I was very disappointed by the time I had finished the book.

Like Fernando & Lzcutter I am reading Michael Sragow's bio of Fleming. I am half way through it, but I didn't warm to the character. The style is so bare-bones that Fleming comes through as some kind of macho he-man, womanizing around. But I haven't got a clue what real human being he was. I salute the huge effort in finding so much about a director who has been dead so many years and didn't leave archives as such. But the end result makes for very dry reading. The silent era proves really disappointing. The author never refers to the pictures of the time which shows that he watched only the remaining Fleming silents and nothing else. His movie references are all contemporary. When he mentions a remake made by Fleming, he usually dismisses the previous version without any further discussion. (Like when he says Henry King lacked Fleming's 'balls'...hmmm) So far I am not convinced that Fleming was in the same league as King Vidor, Frank Borzage or Howard Hawks. To me, he was mostly a competent studio director. Anyway, I'm glad I started reading this book.

[charliechaplinfan]

Hard Times is a good book, set in the North of England, Preston to be precise, most of his other books were centred around London, at least in part, this one was written after Dickens had visited the cotton towns of the North West. It's not as long as some of his other works either which would recommend it to some.

I've got the Victor Fleming book, he's a man who has come across as quite a character in other books, I was hoping this book would bring that to the fore as well as being an informative book about his work and friendships.

[JackFavell]

Yay! Dickens characters, wandering around in the modern world!

(pips it... hee hee)

[knitwit45]

Jacks, your next book should be "The care and training of a new puppy"!

[JackFavell]

Ha! That's a laugh! So far, Lily has the run of the house. Every single rule I made has been broken - not by Lily, but by the rest of the family. No jumping on the couch, - well, my daughter keeps training her to jump up there. Must be in the crate at night (which she is used to) - when I got up this morning, somehow Lily was magically out of her crate.

More like a detective novel....whodunit?

[feaito]

I finished reading Irene Mayer Selznick's "A Private View", which I liked and enjoyed very, very much. Irene must be one of the least pretentious, more "normal" and down-to-earth ladies that I've ever read about. She was truly someone special and a hard worker. The book enlightened me about her relationship with her father Louis B. Mayer and cast him in a different light. One has to read many books from different points of view to get to have an idea or a picture of a controversial human being as L.B. The book also focuses on her relationship with her only husband David O. Selznick and her career as a Thetrical producer. No dishing the dirt here. Very trustworthy & sincere account IMO. Jennifer Jones was barely mentioned by her. I had another idea of Jones' marriage to Selznick and how all had happened. Irene ended her marriage with Jones' long before Selznick's affair with her began.

Thanks Christine and Alison for recommending it to me.

Now, on to Jennifer Jones' Bio by Edward Epstein.