What are you reading?

[charliechaplinfan]

I'm finding that, I'm only a few chapters in but enjoying very much what I'm reading. I have Quirk's book but found myself to be a little dissappointed because it is too short.

I've got my reading head on at the moment. I think I'm just happy to be able to digest books after many months of not being able to concentrate enough to digest them.

[charliechaplinfan]

I've just finished reading She Walked in Beauty by Bernard F Dick a biography of Claudette Colbert. I was quite impressed by this scholarly account of Claudette's life, laid out in an unconventional way but one that works, unconvential as the films are dealt with slightly out of order and a chapter towards the end dealt with her personal life, her unconvential marriage to Norman Foster (the love of her life) ad those rumours of her being a lesbian. Anyone who had bought the book hoping to find out that she was or to enjoy more salacious rumours would have been dissappointed. If you want to read more about her films, some of the people she worked with, her Broadway career and TV career and her life and times will be pleased. Well researched and respectful. I'd recommend to any of Claudette's films.

[feaito]

Thanks for your review and opinion Ali. The reviews at Amazon, bar one, are horrendous! It seems people want to know about private lives mostly....

[charliechaplinfan]

I agree, I was put off by the reviews at first.

[charliechaplinfan]

My friend bought me two books for my birthday, the first one Hellraisers by Robert Sellers about the lives of Richard Burton, Peter O'Toole, Oliver Reed and Richard Harris should be entertaining reading. I wonder which one was the biggest soak? My money is on Oliver Reed but I think all the others could give him a run for his money.

The other book she bought me was a biography of Elizabeth Taylor by none other than David Bret, I can't possibly read it, disliking intensley the kind of biography that he pedals but I did sneak a look to see his references and acknowledgements, no references at all and acknowledgments only to his publisher and family. It seems to pay homage to her 'obsession' with gay men giving these more pages than her husbands. This kind of author really makes my blood boil as it's these books the papers serialise and then people quote to me as facts about famous people who haven't committed half the indiscretions that 'authors' like Bret allege they've done. If only there was a list for biographers as there are for doctors that they can be struck off from. Has anyone ever sued Bret for defamation?

I wolud like a good biography of Liz but this one is definetly not it.

[Lzcutter]

I wolud like a good biography of Liz but this one is definetly not it.

Furious Love is a great bio of Elizabeth and Richard's love affair, marriage and the grand passion they shared for each other. It's a terrific book, a great read and comes with lots of research, noted, to back it up.

In addition, Elizabeth allowed the authors to quote from some of the love letters the couple sent to each other.

A must read for any fans of the couple.

[charliechaplinfan]

I ordered it and it was never delivered, not from Amazon I hasn't to add, I'd decided to use another store that was slightly cheaper but they couldn't deliver, then we went on holiday so I didn't reorder. I do have Melvyn Bragg's book on Burton, a very good read and I found a cheap copy of David Heymann's book on Elizabeth, I remember reading a book about Jackie O years ago and finding it interesting. I'll probably end up ordering Furious Love at some point.

[JackFavell]

The dilemma is what to do with the Bret book.... tempting to burn it rather than put it out there for the general public to find.

I would love to read Hellraisers - my money is on Reed too.

[charliechaplinfan]

Well, there's the school fair, a raffle prize but I feel bad even if I do that as he's such an unkind author.

[charliechaplinfan]

Has anyone read Fred Laurence Guiles book about Tyrone Power? I've read Guiles book on Marilyn and on Marion Davies both seem well researched. I don't know much about Tyrone Power, I've not even seen many of his films, I wonder if it's a good place to start.

[charliechaplinfan]

I'm really having a reading spell at the moment. Thanks to Synnove I got chance to read Gosta Berling's Saga which I thoroughly enjoyed. Her style isn't one I've come across a lot, there are lots of characters but well drawn, the story is set in Varmland in the 1820s, Berling is a drunken preacher who gets defrocked for being drunk once too often, he becomes a tramp but is rescued by the major's wife at Ekeby. It does seperate from th plot of the movie and has far more strands, it's very well done and everything only really becomes apparent at the end when you think, oh yes, of course. Given the nature of the text, Maurice Stiller made a very good movie of it.

I've started reading Arch De Triumph by Erich Maria Remarque, I loved the story when I watched the movie and felt I wanted to know the characters better as the movie was troubled and edited. So far so good.

[feaito]

I finished reading "Nephilim" published originally in German by Leah Gordon. A page turner, but not as good as the similarly themed "Angelology" by Danielle Trussoni. I still have to finish Kay Francis' Bio by Scott O'Brien which IMO is better than the Kear & Rossman Bio I read two or three years ago.

Has anyone read "Sisters: The Story of Olivia De Havilland and Joan Fontaine" by Charles Higham? It has good reviews on Amazon, but I want first-hand information from fellow SSO members. Thanks

[Ann Harding]

The only Higham bio I read is the one about Cary Grant. It just literaly fell from my hands. Just a huge pile of gossips...and Cary appears just like an evil human being. I have never understood somebody who writes a book about someone he loathes.

[charliechaplinfan]

Me neither, something makes me steer clear of Charles Higham, I think he was the author who pushed the Errol Flynn is a Nazi rumours. I've looked at the Higham book on the sisters but thought that Joan Fontaine's book, Bed of Roses looked better. I don't mind being a bit of artistic licence with autobiographies, I can understand the author wants to keep some things hushed up or put their own side of a story across and read them accordingly to hear their voice.

When looking at Errol Flynn books yesterday I noticed David Bret had published two books on Flynn, he must have found more stories to embellish and tell untruths about than usual.

[feaito]

Thanks for your valuable feedback girls.