Susannah’s Fall, Winter Reading list…2020-2021
On behalf of Pete and myself, we wish you a most happy read.
This entry was posted in alcohol, Books, Cinema, creative writing, Culture, History, humanity, humor, inspiration, words, writing and tagged Great books, great writing, Having a library card, New York Society Library, Pete Hamill 1935-2020, Reading changes your life, The gift of learning. Bookmark the permalink.
A terrific selection, Susannah. Makes me want to take some time off from writing to just read. We both enjoyed Prince of Tides and if you want more Conroy read his first The Great Santini. (Which you may have done) Loved Gatsby and The Thin Man so that leaves a bunch to go get. Thanks for your insights into some pretty great sounding books.
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You know John, no one reads my reading list that I joyously pen twice annually, and my guess is, one, it’s always long, and sadly, people don’t read. In any event, I’ll say again, how much I enjoy compiling them. And yes, I read The Great Santini. He is, was…sigh…an amazing writer. Thanks John, for taking the time. 🙂
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I enjoyed it
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Thanks. Means a lot.
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😊
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It’s Monday…wonder what anniversary we’re celebrating. I know Lucy and Ricky are in the batter’s box. 🙂
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Yup. October 15 for Ricky and Lucy. Today is the Cannes Film Festival in 1946.
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I visited Cannes, earlier. 🙂
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I saw you there. 😊
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What was I wearing?
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White boat neck cotton shirt, Skinny black jeans, Ferragamo pumps, and a cashmere cardigan. Acessories included a Cartier tank watch, a black Celine bullet bag, a stack of three David Yurman bracelets on you left arm, solitare diamond necklace, pave pearl earrings, a ruby and diamond ring on your right hand.
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WOW…I MUST HAVE LOOKED PRETTY GRAND. !!!
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Of couse I wasn’t really paying attention. 😁
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Of course not. You were preening for the press.
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This is a great list. You always have such interesting books to share. I’ve read a few of them, just about to start Prince of Tides now. 🙂
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How coincidental. 🙂
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haha, I know, right?
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That tickled me. 🙂
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What a marvelous list! I didn’t see the movie, but “The Help” had the best Southern dialect in writing that I have ever seen.
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I just loved it Anne. It was the second time I read it and was over the moon, all over again. I’m not a big novel reader, but then again, I kind of am. Thanks. I appreciate you taking the time to peruse the list. 🙂
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There were many on your list I’d like to read, but I know I won’t make time for reading.
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I understand, though, you never know. 🙂
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You are right. I’d have plenty of time to read if I broke my hip. I have no desire to do that and intend to approach the floor with caution.
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Now that was an odd remark Anne. You truly don’t have to trade in your healthy movable body parts for a good book. You’re so very smart. You certainly had to read sometime. 🙂
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I used to read books. Now I read email, Facebook, and Reader. There are people who are important to me in each one. It just dawned on me that a book doesn’t require a response! Maybe I’ll try again to get a library book.
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I didn’t mean to interfere Anne. I’m sure whatever you do is just fine. Really!!!
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Friends like you don’t interfere, but you tell the truth with love. I appreciate that. I wish reading would take precedence over some of the things I do.
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I’m certain you enjoy the things that you do. “)
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Most of them, yes. Gardening hasn’t made it into the “enjoy” list yet.
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I’ll bet you’re a great gardener. I can see you with a big brimmed hat, tending to roses and hydrangeas, clippers and gloves. a big smile on your face. 🙂
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Don’t use the big hat, after all. I kept knocking it off my head. I deadhead roses (two pitiful bushes), and the hydrangea put out one bloom this year after six barren years. Must be doin’ somethin’ right!
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See, I knew it!!!!!! 🙂
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I wrote an essay about reading. I like you so much, so you’re the last person it’s directed to. You have John who knows so much about history and God knows what else. You’re musical. You write. There are people whose minds just stay stagnant without any interests aside from their Facebook Page. It’s one my pecking peccadilloes I can’t seem to quell. Stay tuned.
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I’m looking forward to what is coming. Reading certainly broadens a person. Our son has only a high school diploma, but he reads all the time. I love hearing father and son discuss historical events. They both know a tremendous amount, but it’s often from slightly different angles.
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He’s self-taught, like me, and I believe it was Dale who said, it’s the best way to learn since, it’s all your idea. Who said, youth was wasted on the young?
I’ll bet they have grand talks about history that can’t help but perk up your ears. I’ve been having a ball telling everyone who’s cavilling about Mrs. Ginsberg being laid out at the Capitol, that Henry Clay was the very first to lie in state in its famous Rotunda.. Henry Clay? Who’s he? WHO’S HE…HE WAS THE ELVIS OF THE SENATE, THAT’S WHO HE WAS…and boy, could we sure use him now. 🙂
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I follow those history discussions, rarely adding anything.
I had no idea that Henry Clay was the first to lie in state in the Rotunda. You always know details that make history exciting.
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Yup..in 1852. Sure wish I could have been there to pay my respects to the amazing man, from Kentucka’. Do you know, when he was due to speak on the floor of the Senate, the women, who were only allowed to sit in the balcony, would pack the seats in their best frocks, to hear him. They’d coo and swoon, like doves, in heat. Are ya smilin’ Anne? I was countin’ on it. 🙂
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He had his fan club! Yes, I’m smilin’.
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I remember seeing his straw hat at The Smithsonian and getting very steamy. He was quite the fellow, Mr. Clay was.
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PS I just looked it up. George Bernard Shaw said it, even though I urbanized it. “Youth is the most precious thing in life; it is too bad it has to be wasted on young folks.”
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I like your version better. Young folks hasn’t the same ring to it that youth does. This is dangerous, because I didn’t look back at what you wrote. I’m just hearing it in my head.
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As long as the sentiment’s the same, semantics shouldn’t matter. And Mr. Shaw should just lighten up if he can’t take a joke from the ether.
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Ether he likes it or he doesn’t.
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Simple, isn’t it.
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Always an eye-opening list which makes my to-read list ever longer! I love your quick synopses which really grab and capture our interest. When I read lists like this, I just want to drop my blog and sit with a book.
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I’m a reading fool, as are you. and you know what? That’s okay. It’s what makes us interesting. 🙂
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I’m less a fool than I wish I was (and used to be)!! But I’m working on it. 😉
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Knowledge is power, said the English philosopher, Francis Bacon, and being self-taught as opposed to formally schooled, it’s true, adding layers to my self-confidence I don’t mind telling you, was down a few quarts. Reading helped me heal from my mother telling me repeatedly, how stupid I was, the worst thing you can tell anyone, let alone a kid. Knowledge is power. AMEN!!!
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That it is. Self-taught has more meaning as it is a choice we make. Parents don’t realise jus how much their words can fuck up a kid. Or they do, and don’t care. So kudos to you on breaking past that and showing how not stupid you are.
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That didn’t stop me, however, from asking David as well as my pal Ed, both scholars and well read, to read it first in search of blunders. Got a clean bill of health, except, Ed told me to capitalize Light, in City of. Guess I got an A. 🙂
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Nothing wrong in asking for clarification or verification!
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True. Grateful they’ll help.
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That’s what friends do! 🙂
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Yes. 🙂
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I’d get started on this list right now if only I could finish Truman – sheesh, it’s a tome of epic proportions. I may finish before I’m 80.
And then I have Woodward’s book — it’s the first, and only, book about Trump I’m going to read.
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My friend Ed is reading the new one and can’t put it down. I had read FEAR, and it’s what you’d expect.
Hang in there with Harry, but that was why I thought you’d do better with McCullough’s essays. Don’t ya just love to read Mark? That’s all that really matters. 🙂
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I’ll never stop reading. Never.
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Me either. I just read a chapter of Hemingway’s Green Hills of Africa. It’s my, next to the bed book. I read a chapter before falling asleep and one when I wake up. My day book which is AMAZING is, The Woman Who Smashed Codes. I’m trying not to gulp, to quote my friend Ed, so I can savor it but, it’s like downhill skiing. An amazing story about breaking codes during World War II. I’m not doing it justice with my pithy review…but…I’m elated by it. I LOVE TO READ MIDGET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 🙂
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Perfect timing, Susannah. I’m almost finished with my last physical book. Although I plan to read Pookie’s historical stack when he’s done. I need fluff right now, so I can’t wait to start on the Thin Man series.
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I didn’t include, The Maltese Falcon, and The Glass Key, since…23 selections seemed enough, but they’re great too. The Thin Man movies with Dick Powell and Myrna Loy are also pretty spectacular. They play Nick and Nora to the hilt, plus we mustn’t forget Asta, the dog. 🙂
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I’ve gone back to the classics, because I feel as if writing has been hijacked by impostors. It’s all about branding and self professed experts.
That said, I’ve read a good few of these. Not the Bourdain selection. Truth be told, it scares me to go inside his head. I feel like I know how he felt about life and living, and man, when you get to that point where you go, “Nope, this ain’t working,”. It happens.
Then again, Mary Shelley ain’t exactly been offering me up a hopeful counterpoint. Even if her prose is brilliance.
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Did you know, she received no credit for writing Frankenstein? Boy, that sticks in my craw. I understand how you feel about Anthony Bourdain. I do. I just got a copy of his last memoir, Medium Raw, and know it will be an uneasy read. The Nasty Bits though, are all essays on food. They’re pretty funny and that darkness is at bay. So you know.
You sound a little gloomy all on your own Mr. Imma. Try extra self-care. It helps during these unbelievable weird times we’re dwelling in. This too shall pass.
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Mary was never a part of the in crowd of writers. And so she was subjected to doubts as to whether she had written it at all. And even those who gave her the credit railed on about how she was simply a copycat of earlier themes.
It’s just my dark side, which comes out to play most of the time. The only reason I don’t wear my sunglasses at night any longer is because it’s no longer cool, it’s a hazard.
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Somebody better tell Jack Nicholson then. As for Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, she rocked.
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Where can Jack be reached these days? I’ll call him myself. And I’ll ask him if it’s okay to record the conversation, because yanno . . if you put your hook in the water, you best be looking to land a prize catch.
I once did one of those “Who Do You Write Like?” text analyzers and it came back Shelley. I was over the moon about that, how can you not be?
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Are the Lakers playing? You can call him ringside. I’m sure he’ll pick up. He’s Jack after all.
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What with no fans in attendance, I think Jack has taken to listening to the game from his RV in the parking lot. It’s not just any ole RV, it has a slushy machine and a second story- where he houses some of his art collection.
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And one or two blondes, with extended features.
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Haha! So cheeky, I love it.
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Cheeky…great word. Always makes me want to watch Sinatra in Pal Joey.
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You are too cool for school, SB
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Wasn’t that from Grease? Doesn’t Rizzo say that to one of the Pink Ladies???
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Yes I think you are correcto, SB. I remember seeing that movie at the old Crossbay Theatre. Seems like a million years ago.
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I could have sworn I answered this. WordPress is slipping in my opinion, that new fucking editor of theirs. I had said, Kenickie was my favorite character, and it pains me to know, Jeff Conroy is no more. The old lesson, even though one’s blessed with the grace of success, it does not always translate into peace and happiness. Less is more, it keeps you balanced. I’m raving. More coffee is needed I think.
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WP is so concerned with giving us stuff we didn’t ask for in the first place, I agree.
All that talent, gone to the ether. Which is why I say the stars win too many days. And no, it doesn’t. And it doesn’t guarantee a damn thing, as Steve Jobs would attest.
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