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I'm talking about you, person whose book which had been on her list \"forever\" was \u003Ci\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb2926287\"\u003EThe girl on the train\u003C\/a\u003E, \u003C\/i\u003Enot even two years old! Why I've had \u003Ci\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb2205937\"\u003EVanity Fair\u003C\/a\u003E \u003C\/i\u003Eon my list for 15 years! And wasn't it nice to see that someone logged\u0026nbsp;\u003Ci\u003EVanity Fair \u003C\/i\u003Efor this challenge. I wonder how long their \"forever\" had been!\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EHow long had my choice,\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb1665922\" style=\"font-style: italic;\"\u003EThe Grand Babylon Hotel\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Ci\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/i\u003Eby Arnold Bennett,\u0026nbsp;an English author who celebrates his 150th this year, been on my TBR list? I'm not actually sure, but when I encountered it last year in the basement of the Central City Library, a quaint little volume marked on the inside back cover with a pre-smiley-face-era smiley face (no circle! a nose!) by an early, contented reader whom posterity can only know as \"L\", I didn't waste the opportunity. Reader, I took it out. And then, as sometimes happens with quaint old books, it was due back, and I still hadn't read it, so I took it out again. And again. And again, until it became the book which had been on my other TBR list forever, the \"To Be Returned\" one, which meant something had to be done, so thank you Great Summer Read!\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-oUaPgCiTYJk\/WI_LUKT7KxI\/AAAAAAAABck\/wJekATC4EfgQwLnqLCGeSoyKY_D-WJtzQCLcB\/s1600\/The%2BGrand%2BBabylon.jpg\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-oUaPgCiTYJk\/WI_LUKT7KxI\/AAAAAAAABck\/wJekATC4EfgQwLnqLCGeSoyKY_D-WJtzQCLcB\/s200\/The%2BGrand%2BBabylon.jpg\" width=\"132\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EA fantasia about the denizens of a luxury London hotel at the turn of the century, involving the kidnapping of a middle-European prince, a murderous maitre, or maybe it was the cook, a beautiful and spirited girl and her American millionaire father,\u0026nbsp;\u003Ci\u003EThe Great Babylon Hotel\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/i\u003Eis described on its back cover as\u0026nbsp;\"the forefather of all the comedy-thrillers which were to bob up successfully throughout the present century\", which for us was the last one. It was a bit of a cross\u0026nbsp;between an opéra bouffe and the cartoons\u0026nbsp;the great Peter Arno used to draw for the New Yorker, dated but still genial, but alas! lacking the music of the former, and the wit of the latter.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EI found myself wondering how it had come to be on my list. So as librarians do, I went looking for sources. Almost the only Arnold Bennett fandom I could find was from twenty years ago. A piece in the New York Times blog \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/books\/97\/09\/28\/bookend\/bookend.html\"\u003EBookend\u003C\/a\u003E found much to admire in Bennett, despite an unprepossessing opening which surmised that if you were to ask ten literature lovers (my alternate phrase for \"poets over 40 or people who travel with a copy of Trollope\") whether they've ever read this one-time giant of English literature, you will invariably find that \"no more than one in ten will have read an Arnold Bennett novel\".\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EMy result was one out of one: I sounded out my uncle, a prolific and wide-ranging reader, 88 years old, who responded that he had indeed read Arnold Bennett. He did use the verb \"sample\", though, and added \"but I couldn't get into him\".\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Bookend writer went on to report on how\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.columbia.edu\/~em36\/MrBennettAndMrsBrown.pdf\"\u003EVirginia Woolf dissed Bennett\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;as an Edwardian (read \"out-of-date\") whose lack of interest in the \u003Ci\u003Einterior, \u003C\/i\u003Eas opposed to the \u003Ci\u003Eexterior,\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/i\u003Ethings in life led him to write books which leave you so dissatisfied that upon finishing them \"you feel you must join a society, or, more desperately, write a cheque\".\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EVirginia has a mean tongue, but I suspect I might have felt that way if I had finished the book. As it turns out, I didn't. I couldn't. At first my opinion was \"A bit of a trifle, and dated, but enjoyable in its own way\", but as I read on the enjoyment was more and more in its own way, and less and less in mine, until at page 36 I had to acknowledge (after skipping to the end to make sure there were no unexpected developments) that it was gone for good. I hadn't arrived at the page Nancy Pearl would have wanted me to reach according to her \"\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/albooksinthecity.blogspot.co.nz\/2016\/12\/great-summer-read-check-out-book-bundle.html\"\u003EWhen can you stop reading a book rule\u003C\/a\u003E\", but I had gotten close enough to fire off a mental salute to Nancy on knowing her stuff!\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EI do have a romantic thing about old hotels, and maybe it was simply that which suggested this book to me. If you do too, I can recommend \u003Ci\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb3167412\"\u003EHotel Savoy\u003C\/a\u003E,\u003C\/i\u003E\u0026nbsp;a literary classic by the Austrian writer Joseph Roth set in a ramshackle hotel in Poland after the first World War, John Irving's\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb1028454\"\u003E\u003Ci\u003EThe Hotel New Hampshire\u003C\/i\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E, which features two hotels, a summer resort in Maine and a rundown Viennese pensione (if you've only tried one of his recent books, think again, this is one of three very funny, inspired books he wrote in his early period, the other two being\u0026nbsp;\u003Ci\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb1117924\"\u003EThe world according to Garp\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/i\u003Eand\u0026nbsp;\u003Ci\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb1064073\"\u003EA prayer for Owen Meany\u003C\/a\u003E)\u003C\/i\u003E, and of course\u0026nbsp;\u003Ci\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb1788099\"\u003EEloise\u003C\/a\u003E, \u003C\/i\u003Ea picture book for all ages narrated by a little girl, a relative of Ramona from the Ramona and Beezus books, who lives at the Plaza in New York.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EPlus two magnificent movies: the legendary \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb3252842\"\u003EGrand Hotel\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;from 1932 with its all-star cast led by Greta Garbo and John Barrymore, and Wes Anderson's reverie\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb2929418\"\u003EThe Grand Budapest Hotel\u003C\/a\u003E, not based on \u003Ci\u003EThe Grand Babylon Hotel, \u003C\/i\u003Ebut on Stefan Zweig's \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb2365050\"\u003E\u003Ci\u003EThe\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/i\u003E\u003Ci\u003Epost office girl\u003C\/i\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E, also recommended!\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.syndetics.com\/index.php?isbn=9780552992091\/lc.jpg\u0026amp;client=elgar\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/www.syndetics.com\/index.php?isbn=9780552992091\/lc.jpg\u0026amp;client=elgar\" height=\"320\" width=\"203\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.syndetics.com\/index.php?isbn=9781843913863\/lc.jpg\u0026amp;client=elgar\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/www.syndetics.com\/index.php?isbn=9781843913863\/lc.jpg\u0026amp;client=elgar\" height=\"320\" width=\"206\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/albooksinthecity.blogspot.com\/feeds\/5373588588102253521\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/albooksinthecity.blogspot.com\/2017\/01\/great-summer-read-book-that-had-been-on.html#comment-form","title":"3 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/2501884760724421053\/posts\/default\/5373588588102253521"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/2501884760724421053\/posts\/default\/5373588588102253521"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/albooksinthecity.blogspot.com\/2017\/01\/great-summer-read-book-that-had-been-on.html","title":"Great Summer Read: The book that had been on my TBR forever"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Karen Craig"},"uri":{"$t":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/profile\/18310967522076681423"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"23","height":"32","src":"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-WaLn2rFYxqE\/UNvHlimMvBI\/AAAAAAAAABY\/ceYnAw1lZEk\/s220\/The%2BLibrarian.jpg"}}],"media$thumbnail":{"xmlns$media":"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/","url":"https:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-oUaPgCiTYJk\/WI_LUKT7KxI\/AAAAAAAABck\/wJekATC4EfgQwLnqLCGeSoyKY_D-WJtzQCLcB\/s72-c\/The%2BGrand%2BBabylon.jpg","height":"72","width":"72"},"thr$total":{"$t":"3"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2501884760724421053.post-6603405318129535679"},"published":{"$t":"2017-01-19T18:06:00.000+13:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2017-01-25T14:33:13.273+13:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"#ALgreatsummerread"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"books into films"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"films"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Great Summer Read"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"movies"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"summer reading challenge"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Great Summer Read: Watch a movie or TV show based on a book"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both;\"\u003EWhat's everyone watching for this challenge? From the reports, lots of different movies and three TV shows.\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both;\"\u003E\u003Cb\u003EFor the TV shows\u003C\/b\u003E, I suspect the only suspense may be the ranking. And the order is:\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both;\"\u003E1. The super popular and super costume drama\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb3012402\"\u003EPoldark\u003C\/a\u003E, based on Winston Graham's historical novels set in 18th century Cornwall, which I have yet to see but intend to!\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E2. War and Peace, which I'm assuming is last year's magnificent\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb3224619\"\u003EBBC mini-series\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;starring Paul Dano as Pierre and -- just one tiny fault -- someone as Natasha who tries a bit too hard, but it could be the\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb2658771\"\u003E1972 BBC mini-series\u003C\/a\u003E with a young Anthony Hopkins as Pierre, or the \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb2595445\"\u003E2007 Russo-European mini-series\u003C\/a\u003E with Malcolm McDowell, not as Pierre, a role it would be hard to imagine him in even when he was in the right age group, but as the cruel and controlling -- or to put the role firmly in Mcdowellian territory, let's say monstrous -- Prince Bolkonsky.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E3. Last year's hit series\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb3167357\"\u003EThe Night Manager\u003C\/a\u003E, starring Tom Hiddleston and Hugh Laurie, which I have just been notified is waiting for me at my library, based on the \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb1005786\"\u003Ebook by John\u0026nbsp;le Carré\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EAnd for those who have already seen all of the above, or who are simply looking for something new, may I suggest the \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb2778089\"\u003EInspector Montalbano\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;TV series based on the \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/search\/C__SCamilleri%2C%20Andrea__Orightresult__U?lang=eng\u0026amp;suite=def\"\u003Ecrime novels by Andrea Camilleri\u003C\/a\u003E. The 91 year old Sicilian writer is a literary treasure in Italy, perhaps the only literary treasure after the recent loss of Umberto Eco, whose medieval mystery\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb2555634\"\u003EThe Name of the Rose\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;sparked a hit\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb2143984\"\u003Efilm adaptation\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;starring Sean Connery which you could also watch for this challenge!\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EInspector Montalbano lives in corrupt modern Italy, where he is a thorn in the side of both his superiors and the shady types he pursues, an idiosyncratic loose cannon whose greatest satisfaction, besides getting his man, is enjoying a good meal.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.syndetics.com\/index.php?isbn=9781447281528\/lc.jpg\u0026amp;client=elgar\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/www.syndetics.com\/index.php?isbn=9781447281528\/lc.jpg\u0026amp;client=elgar\" height=\"320\" width=\"209\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.syndetics.com\/index.php?isbn=9781447245193\/lc.jpg\u0026amp;client=elgar\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/www.syndetics.com\/index.php?isbn=9781447245193\/lc.jpg\u0026amp;client=elgar\" height=\"320\" width=\"211\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both;\"\u003E\u003Cb\u003EThe movies\u003C\/b\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both;\"\u003EMovies people have been watching for this challenge include (besides various Harry Potters and Narnias)\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb3224871\"\u003ERoom\u003C\/a\u003E,\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb3170678\"\u003EThe lady in the van\u003C\/a\u003E,\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb3099775\"\u003EThe Martian\u003C\/a\u003E,\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb2962682\"\u003EGone girl\u003C\/a\u003E,\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb2851847\"\u003EThe book thief\u003C\/a\u003E,\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb2841939\"\u003EMr Pip\u003C\/a\u003E,\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb3245451\"\u003EMe before you\u003C\/a\u003E, and\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb2986476\"\u003ELove, Rosie\u003C\/a\u003E, all from books of the same name. Also\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb3147873\"\u003ECarol\u003C\/a\u003E, from Patricia Highsmith's 1952 novel \u003Ci\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb1037655\"\u003EThe price of salt\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/i\u003E, pretty much unknown until the movie came along, as she had published it under a pseudonym, presumably for being a story of two women in love in the conformist fifties -- although Highsmith aficionados have postulated that it could also have been because someone who was on her way to becoming famous as a writer of crime novels did not want her name associated with a romantic novel, period. And how about this one --\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb3025482\"\u003EHome\u003C\/a\u003E, from\u0026nbsp;\u003Ci\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb2800573\"\u003EThe true meaning of Smekday\u003C\/a\u003E, \u003C\/i\u003Ea book described as being for children, catlovers, and anticipators of alien invasions, so presumably that holds true for the movie as well. For the movie you could add in Rihanna and Jennifer Lopez fans, since they are its stars.\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both;\"\u003EThree older movies which I was happy to see named, as they belong to that category of book-movie duo where both are truly great in their own right, were \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb2676284\"\u003EWilly Wonka \u0026amp; the Chocolate Factory\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;with Gene Wilder, from the \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb1002714\"\u003Ebooks \u003C\/a\u003Eby Roald Dahl, Steven Spielberg's \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb3174754\"\u003EEmpire of the Sun\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;from \u0026nbsp;J.G. Ballard's novel inspired by his experiences of growing up in Shanghai during World War II, and Milos Forman's masterpiece\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb2825209\"\u003EOne flew over the cuckoo's nest\u003C\/a\u003E,\u0026nbsp;from the\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb1118955\"\u003Ebook\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;by Ken Kesey.\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both;\"\u003EHere are a few more (not in order) recommendations for movie\/book combos which I put in that same double-win category:\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both;\"\u003E1 and 2. The big sleep, based on the \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb1137763\"\u003Ebook \u003C\/a\u003Eby Raymond Chandler, and \u0026nbsp;The Maltese falcon based on the \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb1188158\"\u003Ebook \u003C\/a\u003Eby Dashiell Hammett, two masterpieces of film noir starring the best trenchcoat wearer ever, Humphrey Bogart. You can get them both at one fell swoop with \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb2842281\"\u003EHumphrey Bogart: the essential collection\u003C\/a\u003E.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both;\"\u003E3. Or even better, get\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb2822445\"\u003EMurder Mysteries\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;from the Greatest Classic Films collection and you'll get them both PLUS the original and unsurpassed The postman always rings twice, with Lana Turner and John Garfield, also in the noir pantheon.\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; clear: both; color: black; font-family: \u0026quot;Times New Roman\u0026quot;; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;\"\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/div\u003E4.\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb2261429\"\u003EThe Shawshank redemption\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;based on the novella \"Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption\" (originally titled \"Hope Springs Eternal\") in the collection\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb1024057\"\u003EDifferent seasons\u003C\/a\u003E by Stephen King. Simply, on my honour roll of perfect films. And it has a happy, if bittersweet, ending!\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E5.\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb2361359\"\u003EA Clockwork Orange\u003C\/a\u003E, directed by Stanley Kubrick and based on the \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb1119260\"\u003Ebook \u003C\/a\u003Eby Anthony Burgess. Revolutionary when it came out and nothing that came later has dulled its edge.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E6. The 1962\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb2035180\"\u003ELolita\u003C\/a\u003E, the definitive one, Stanley Kubrick again, from the\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb1020779\"\u003Enovel\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/a\u003Eby Vladimir Nabokov, which some people have chosen for their banned book challenge.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E7. I should have just made a Stanley Kubrick section!\u0026nbsp;The terrifying\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb2805878\"\u003EThe shining\u003C\/a\u003E,\u0026nbsp;from the\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb1000895\"\u003Ebook\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/a\u003Eby Stephen King. \"Wendy, I'm home!\"\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E8.\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb2034680\"\u003ETrainspotting\u003C\/a\u003E, mentioned above, directed by Danny Boyle, based on the\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb1010944\"\u003Ebook\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;by Irvine Welsh. \"Choose life!\". This is the book\/movie where one of the characters illustrates his creed on aging by arguing that Sean Connery's star turn in The name of the rose, mentioned above, was \"merely a blip on an otherwise uninterrupted downward trajectory\".\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E9.\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb2290904\"\u003EBlade Runner\u003C\/a\u003E, directed by Ridley Scott from the book \u003Ci\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb1013458\"\u003EDo androids dream of electric sheep?\u003C\/a\u003E \u003C\/i\u003Eby Philip K Dick. I confess that in this case I haven't actually read the book, but I'm putting it in anyway because sci-fi cognoscenti all say it's a great read. For sci-fi lovers. Whereas the film is for everyone.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E10.\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb2780602\"\u003ETo Kill a Mockingbird\u003C\/a\u003E, from the\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb1000209\"\u003Ebook\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/a\u003Eby Harper Lee, starring Gregory Peck from my hometown, Gregory Peck who can never not be Atticus Finch for you once you've seen this movie, no matter how many times he buzzes around Rome with Audrey Hepburn on his vespa.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb2444166\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E11.\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb2444166\"\u003EFight club\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;from the\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb1192570\"\u003Ebook\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;by Chuck Palahniuk. I'm thinking this could be the one time where the movie might actually be better than the book, but don't jump on me if you don't agree, I'm not \u003Ci\u003Esure\u003C\/i\u003E-sure!\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E12.\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb2036864\"\u003EAll Quiet on the Western Front\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;- an oldie, way back from 1930, from the \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb2682436\"\u003Enovel \u003C\/a\u003Eby Erich Maria Remarque published the year before, another banned book for your Challenge 13. Yes, it was not allowed to be published in Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, for its pacifism, or as some might say, its realism.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E13.\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb2299270\"\u003ENo country for old men\u003C\/a\u003E, by Joel and Ethan Coen, from the\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb2129978\"\u003Ebook\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;by Cormac McCarthy. For me this was one of those movies that was not at all what you had pictured, but then it becomes your vision too. I simply hadn't been able to imagine the levels that 'menace' could ascend to.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E14.\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb2445871\"\u003EMy Father's Glory\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;and its sequel\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb2445873\"\u003EMy Mother's Castle\u003C\/a\u003E, directed by Yves Robert, from the \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb2271008\"\u003Eautobiographical novels\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;set in the south of France\u003Ci\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/i\u003Eby Marcel Pagnol. These should be better known! I laughed and I cried.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E15.\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb3073494\"\u003EThe remains of the day\u003C\/a\u003E, directed by James Ivory, from the\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb1088705\"\u003Ebook\u003C\/a\u003E by Kazuo Ishiguro. As always with Ivory, every detail is in tone. But I include it above all for Anthony Hopkins's performance. Which reminds me, I should put \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb2148383\"\u003EThe silence of the lambs\u003C\/a\u003E here too, from the \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb1032084\"\u003Ebook \u003C\/a\u003Eby Thomas Harris.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E16. Change of mood to silly, heartwarming, magical\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb2047087\"\u003EBabe\u003C\/a\u003E, from the book by Dick King-Smith called \u003Ci\u003EThe sheep-pig\u003C\/i\u003E, reprinted after the movie under as\u0026nbsp;\u003Ci\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb2390936\"\u003EBabe: the gallant pig\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/i\u003E.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E17. \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb2185609\"\u003EBrokeback Mountain\u003C\/a\u003E, directed by Ang Lee, based on \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb1017130\"\u003Ea short story\u003C\/a\u003E by Annie Proulx, a format which I suspect was responsible for her being able to say “I may be the first writer in America to have a piece of writing make its way to the screen whole and entire.” \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E18. \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb2835311\"\u003EThe man who laughs\u003C\/a\u003E, from the \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb2445893\"\u003Ebook\u003C\/a\u003E by Victor Hugo. If you enjoy an occasional high tragic drama, this is for you.  A young man who was disfigured as a child by a band of misfits who gave him what I discovered is called a \"Glasgow smile\", and the beautiful blind girl who thinks, from touching his face, that he is always happy.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E19.\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb2197578\"\u003ELA Confidential\u003C\/a\u003E, based on\u0026nbsp;the \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb2159905\"\u003Enovel \u003C\/a\u003Ethat won James Ellroy his place among the gods of \u003Ci\u003Enoir\u003C\/i\u003E. Some changes to the plot in the movie don't change that.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.syndetics.com\/index.php?isbn=9780099537885\/lc.jpg\u0026amp;client=elgar\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/www.syndetics.com\/index.php?isbn=9780099537885\/lc.jpg\u0026amp;client=elgar\" height=\"320\" width=\"208\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.syndetics.com\/index.php?isbn=9780743271325\/lc.jpg\u0026amp;client=elgar\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/www.syndetics.com\/index.php?isbn=9780743271325\/lc.jpg\u0026amp;client=elgar\" height=\"320\" width=\"211\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E20. What did I choose for this challenge? \u0026nbsp;I watched The lady in the van, which I thought was superbly done. \u0026nbsp;It turned out to be one of those movie versions where the characters as brought to life are very different from how you had imagined them, but nonetheless completely compelling. I had pictured Miss Shepherd as more petulant and more faded than the dogmatic and disdainful Miss Shepherd which Maggie Smith gave us, but I liked the greater toughness and thus more startling vulnerability.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EBut I also decided to re-watch the most terrifying movie I have ever seen, the one I can't believe my parents took their kids to see, even if it was showing at their favourite little art house theatre which usually showed Ingmar Bergman-type movies which might have gone over our heads but certainly not traumatised us.\u0026nbsp;It's the 1946 black and white version of\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb2925217\"\u003EGreat Expectations\u003C\/a\u003E, directed by David Lean.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ETwo things happened. One was that watching it now as an adult, having seen hundreds of films, I found myself constantly thinking how it was one of the most perfect movies ever made. And two, the scene when the huge, scary, escaped convict Magwitch jumps out from behind the tombstone in the cemetery thick with mist almost stopped my heart, again. On the other hand, it was interesting to see that while for all these years I have remembered seeing Miss Havisham burn up, down to her terrified eyes, it turns out that actually we are only shown the log rolling out of the fire and starting the hem of her cobwebby old wedding dress blazing. It's her horrible screams that let us imagine what later I was sure I had seen.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EAh, movies.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ctable align=\"center\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" class=\"tr-caption-container\" style=\"margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ctbody\u003E\u003Ctr\u003E\u003Ctd style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/static\/sys-images\/Guardian\/Pix\/pictures\/2010\/10\/11\/1286799451235\/Great-Expectations-042.jpg?w=1065\u0026amp;q=55\u0026amp;auto=format\u0026amp;usm=12\u0026amp;fit=max\u0026amp;s=933ec9b36bfcf91e6456731bc995aee0\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" height=\"233\" src=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/static\/sys-images\/Guardian\/Pix\/pictures\/2010\/10\/11\/1286799451235\/Great-Expectations-042.jpg?w=1065\u0026amp;q=55\u0026amp;auto=format\u0026amp;usm=12\u0026amp;fit=max\u0026amp;s=933ec9b36bfcf91e6456731bc995aee0\" width=\"320\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/td\u003E\u003C\/tr\u003E\u003Ctr\u003E\u003Ctd class=\"tr-caption\" style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003EPhoto: Allstar\/THE RANK ORGANISATION FILM PRODUCTIONS LTD\/Sportsphoto Ltd.\/Allstar\u003C\/td\u003E\u003C\/tr\u003E\u003C\/tbody\u003E\u003C\/table\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/albooksinthecity.blogspot.com\/feeds\/6603405318129535679\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/albooksinthecity.blogspot.com\/2017\/01\/great-summer-read-watch-movie-or-tv.html#comment-form","title":"10 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/2501884760724421053\/posts\/default\/6603405318129535679"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/2501884760724421053\/posts\/default\/6603405318129535679"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/albooksinthecity.blogspot.com\/2017\/01\/great-summer-read-watch-movie-or-tv.html","title":"Great Summer Read: Watch a movie or TV show based on a book"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Karen Craig"},"uri":{"$t":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/profile\/18310967522076681423"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"23","height":"32","src":"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-WaLn2rFYxqE\/UNvHlimMvBI\/AAAAAAAAABY\/ceYnAw1lZEk\/s220\/The%2BLibrarian.jpg"}}],"thr$total":{"$t":"10"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2501884760724421053.post-3035726738179440149"},"published":{"$t":"2017-01-12T18:39:00.000+13:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2017-05-15T12:15:19.094+12:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"#ALgreatsummerread"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"biographies"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Great Summer Read"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Joan Didion"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"summer reading challenge"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Great Summer Read: Read a memoir or biography. Part II: Biographies"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003Cdiv\u003EWho said her motto was \"Well, you can't expect to be liked in my business, but with any luck you can avoid going to jail\"?\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EA biographer.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EA nine-time biographer (including of Frank Lloyd Wright and Salvador Dali) who wrote a memoir called\u0026nbsp;\u003Ci\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb2251185\"\u003EShoot the widow\u003C\/a\u003E, \u003C\/i\u003Ewhere she also avows that the purpose of biography is \"not just to record, but to reveal\".\u0026nbsp; Oh and did I mention anagrams in the last post? The biographer is named Meryle Secrest.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.syndetics.com\/index.php?isbn=9780307264831\/lc.jpg\u0026amp;client=elgar\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/www.syndetics.com\/index.php?isbn=9780307264831\/lc.jpg\u0026amp;client=elgar\" height=\"200\" width=\"120\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.syndetics.com\/index.php?isbn=9780307701596\/lc.jpg\u0026amp;client=elgar\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/www.syndetics.com\/index.php?isbn=9780307701596\/lc.jpg\u0026amp;client=elgar\" height=\"200\" width=\"133\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EI haven't read the book, though I might yet, but I did read a review of it by the American critic and essayist Louis Menand in The New Yorker, where he goes on to take an amusing look at various aspects of the biographer's creed, such as their assumption that the real truth about a person will always involve the thing least known about them, and their belief that if they can just get their hands on the letters, all will be explained.\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EBut why, Menand asks? \"Why should we especially credit a remark made in a diary or a personal letter? People lie in letters all the time, and they use diaries to moan and vent... They are sites for gossip, flattery, and self-deception.\" I can quote it because I actually ripped his article out and saved it, I liked it so much. (It was a \u003Ci\u003Ewithdrawn \u003C\/i\u003ENew Yorker.)\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EIn answer to the question, why do people like biographies so much, Menand says Secrest was to the point: people like gossip. And, he adds, they enjoy judging other people's lives. \"It's not one of the species' more attractive addictions, and, on the whole, it's probably better to indulge it on the life of a person you have never met\".\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ESo let's indulge! I'm not going to recommend any particular biographies, because it comes down to whom you want to know more about, and you will know that better than I do. But I did want to remind everyone that you can see all the new biographies as they arrive by checking our\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.aucklandlibraries.govt.nz\/EN\/New\/newtitles\/Pages\/newbookslist.aspx?sec=Adult%20non-fiction\u0026amp;cat=Biography\u0026amp;my=201701\"\u003Enew titles list\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;every month. Just this month there are 215 new biographies at the library, ranging from\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb3229715\"\u003E\u003Ci\u003ECeleste\u003C\/i\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E, the story of most celebrated\u003Ci\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/i\u003Ecourtesan in\u0026nbsp;\u003Ci\u003EBelle Epoque\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/i\u003EParis, to \u003Ci\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb3291341\"\u003EEmma Goldman: revolution as a way of life\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/i\u003E by the astute but never arch Vivian Gornick, who presented her own memoir \u003Ci\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb3029537\"\u003EThe odd woman and the city\u003C\/a\u003E \u003C\/i\u003Eat the latest Auckland Writers Festival.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.syndetics.com\/index.php?isbn=9781250010025\/lc.jpg\u0026amp;client=elgar\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/www.syndetics.com\/index.php?isbn=9781250010025\/lc.jpg\u0026amp;client=elgar\" height=\"200\" width=\"130\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EFor my Great Summer Read, I'm reading the new biography of Joan Didion, \u003Ci\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb3020171\"\u003EThe last love song\u003C\/a\u003E, \u003C\/i\u003Eby Tracy Daugherty, and I'm almost up to her childhood. Yes, because I firmly believe with big thick biographies like this one, the reader has the right to attack it any way they please. So for instance with Nicholas Shakespeare's big thick \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb1310935\"\u003EBruce Chatwin biography\u003C\/a\u003E, which was 600 pages, I just kept it by my bedside for a couple of months (or more) and would simply open it at random and read far enough to get through the episode, and then stop. Another day, another random dip. It absolutely fit that mercurial character and his nomadic lifestyle.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EWith Joan, I've started at the end of the book, at the furthermost point from whatever we have in common -- namely, the present time, in which she is the literary \u003Ci\u003Edoyenne\u003C\/i\u003E of New York (which is to say of America). Also, I was eager to fill in the gaps in her magnetic but noticeably ungrounded (though not false), recent memoir \u003Ci\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb2621626\"\u003EBlue Nights\u003C\/a\u003E. \u003C\/i\u003EThen I moved to the middle of the book, her time as movie industry royalty, this only \u003Ci\u003Ealmost\u003C\/i\u003E totally out of my range of experience, given that I had a boyfriend from Brentwood, the Los Angeles enclave where Didion lived for many of those years, and own a memory of a breakfast with him at a deli where her DNA was certainly floating around. And now I'm closing in on the opening chapters, to finish on the things which bring me closest to Joan: California girlhood, pioneer ancestors, close acquaintance with rattlesnakes, Highway 99, a fascination with the All-American canal.\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EHow is the book? It's very very good, very very interesting, and very very well-written. But as far as revealing goes, I will say this. Asked by the man behind the \"Live from the NYPL\" author events to give him a seven word biography for his intro, Joan Didion responded with \"Seven words do not yet define me\".\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ENeither does this book of 728 pages! Luckily!\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/albooksinthecity.blogspot.com\/feeds\/3035726738179440149\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/albooksinthecity.blogspot.com\/2017\/01\/great-summer-read-read-memoir-or_12.html#comment-form","title":"0 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/2501884760724421053\/posts\/default\/3035726738179440149"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/2501884760724421053\/posts\/default\/3035726738179440149"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/albooksinthecity.blogspot.com\/2017\/01\/great-summer-read-read-memoir-or_12.html","title":"Great Summer Read: Read a memoir or biography. Part II: Biographies"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Karen Craig"},"uri":{"$t":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/profile\/18310967522076681423"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"23","height":"32","src":"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-WaLn2rFYxqE\/UNvHlimMvBI\/AAAAAAAAABY\/ceYnAw1lZEk\/s220\/The%2BLibrarian.jpg"}}],"thr$total":{"$t":"0"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2501884760724421053.post-8475984440442685648"},"published":{"$t":"2017-01-12T18:29:00.000+13:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2017-01-14T12:49:34.411+13:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"#ALgreatsummerread"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Great Summer Read"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"memoirs"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"summer reading challenge"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Great Summer Read: Read a memoir or a biography. Part I: Memoirs"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"From Daniel Nester's\u0026nbsp;\u003Ci\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb3085626\"\u003EShader: 99 notes on car washes, making out in church, grief, and other unlearnable subjects\u003C\/a\u003E:\u003C\/i\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp;May 2010. My mother handed me a manila folder with a sticky note that said 'For Danny,' written in her immaculate cursive.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp;\"Maybe these will help with, you know, your \u003Ci\u003Ememoir\u003C\/i\u003E.\" She pronounced \"memoir\" like \"mem-wah,\" in exaggerated French, accompanied by a hand motion and a cigarette waved in the air.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EMrs. Nester, and everyone else out there, I totally get how talking about a memoir could sound affected, and how the annoyance would be quadrupled by a son correcting your New Jersey pronunciation, as Daniel Nester confesses he had been enough of a jerk to do.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EBut memoir is actually a good English word. Only its origin is French:\u0026nbsp;\u003Ci\u003Emémoire\u003C\/i\u003E, a memorandum, a note, just like in Daniel Nester's book title. And this is why it's different from autobiography, from the Greek for recounting your life. A memorandum records something not just for the record, but for future use. In the case of a good memoir, I see the future uses as things like making sense of something, or dealing with it, and especially, finding the story.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EOne of the best memoirs of recent times (in my opinion), Carrie Brownstein's\u0026nbsp;\u003Ci\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb3033495\"\u003EHunger makes me a modern girl: a memoir\u003C\/a\u003E, \u003C\/i\u003Eopens like this:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\"\u003Ci\u003EI've always felt unclaimed\u003C\/i\u003E. This is a story of the ways I created a territory, something more than just an archipelago of identities, something that could steady me, somewhere that I belonged.\"\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EAnd here she is on her and her band's contribution to rock'n'roll (I can't help but notice that the adjectives apply to her book as well): \"Sometimes the works were smart or pithy, profound, poetic, and often they were really messy. But they formed a boundary and a foundation for a lot of the girls who had been undone by invisibility, including myself.\"\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.syndetics.com\/index.php?isbn=9781594486630\/lc.jpg\u0026amp;client=elgar\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/www.syndetics.com\/index.php?isbn=9781594486630\/lc.jpg\u0026amp;client=elgar\" height=\"320\" width=\"211\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ERock'n'roll is of course a classic genre in the body of memoir literature, along with misery (\u003Ci\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb2347075\"\u003EAngela's ashes\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/i\u003Ebeing the mother of all misery memoirs and also an undeniably good read, unlike many of the children it spawned), celebrity, addiction, canine, mean-mother\u003Ci\u003E,\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/i\u003Eeccentric-mother, bad dad, outlaw, redemption, sexuality, mental illness, and apparently one called Shtick-lit, from the Yiddish-derived term for a gimmick, which is when someone goes off and does something for a year just to be able to write about it. Fake, however, is not a memoir genre.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EI've been exploring a contemporary genre which as far as I'm aware has not yet been given a name, but I'd suggest \u0026nbsp;\"Funny books about horrible things\", from Jenny Lawson's\u0026nbsp;\u003Ci\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb3000180\"\u003EFuriously happy: a funny book about horrible things\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/i\u003E. One could argue this book belongs in the mental illness memoir genre, but I think it needs a different category, to respect the author's creed that you should be defined not by your life's \"imperfect moments\", but by your reaction to them. I enjoyed it, though it was a bit exhausting.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EJeanne Darst's very funny\u0026nbsp;\u003Ci\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb2641894\"\u003EFiction ruined my family\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/i\u003E\u0026nbsp;was instead an energising read which I'd also place in this genre, where I expected Jennifer Weiner's \u003Ci\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb3276382\"\u003EHungry heart\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/i\u003Ewould also go, though after reading it (most of it), I'm not sure.\u0026nbsp;I hadn't read her novels and picked it for its title and because she'd had a feud with Jonathan Franzen. I wanted someone excavating the humour in horrible experiences, but her style is more about playing it for laughs from the start. My intuition is that with personal memoirs you should look for an author you're compatible with and not at what everybody's reading -- pretty basic for anyone who's been in a relationship!\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003ERead by the author\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/b\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EDid you know you can get an\u0026nbsp;\u003Ci\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb3079603\"\u003EeAudiobook of Furiously happy\u003C\/a\u003E \u003C\/i\u003Eread by Jenny Lawson herself? Here are some other popular eAudiobook memoirs read by their authors:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb3014349\"\u003E\u003Ci\u003EThe lady in the van\u003C\/i\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E by Alan Bennett \u0026nbsp;(you can also see the \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb3170678\"\u003Emovie version\u003C\/a\u003E for Challenge 8!)\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ci\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb3063024\"\u003EBetween the world and me\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/i\u003Eby\u0026nbsp;Ta-Nehisi Coates\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ci\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb3155964\"\u003EFear of fifty: a midlife memoir\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/i\u003E\u0026nbsp;by Erica Jong\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb3038747\"\u003E\u003Ci\u003EUnsinkable: a memoir\u003C\/i\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E by Debbie Reynolds\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb3038968\"\u003E\u003Ci\u003EMoab is my washpot\u003C\/i\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E by Stephen Fry\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb3038744\"\u003E\u003Ci\u003EInstant Mom\u003C\/i\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E by Nia Vardalos (of 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding' fame)\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb2643813\"\u003E\u003Ci\u003EAn improvised life\u003C\/i\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E by Alan Arkin\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ci\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb3294566\"\u003EWhere am I now? True stories of girlhood and accidental fame\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/i\u003E by Mara Wilson\u0026nbsp;(star of \u003Ci\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb2838296\"\u003Ethe movie version of \u0026nbsp;Roald Dahl's Matilda\u003C\/a\u003E)\u003C\/i\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003Eand many more which you can find on the 'Read by the author' list curated by our Collections team on the\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/auckland.overdrive.com\/\"\u003EOverdrive home page\u003C\/a\u003E in our Digital Library.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EIf you like perusing recommendations, here are some of my\u0026nbsp;favourite memoir genres and writers:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cb\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/b\u003E\u003Cb\u003EObsession (possibly my favourite memoir genre)\u003C\/b\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ci\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb2319771\"\u003EMy Judy Garland Life\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/i\u003E\u0026nbsp;(2008) by Susie Boyt. \"Speaks to anyone who has ever nursed an obsession\" says the cover blurb. Non-obsessives will find it over the top. I loved it.\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Ci\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb2524352\"\u003EWhat to look for in winter: a memoir of blindness\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/i\u003E\u0026nbsp;(2010) by Candia McWilliam. If you haven't ever suffered from self-doubt, we probably couldn't be friends. Candia McWilliam's self-doubt was crippling, or more correctly, blinding.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/b\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb1319010\"\u003E\u003Ci\u003EDouble down: reflections on gambling and loss\u003C\/i\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;(1999) by Frederick and Steven Barthelme. The addictive land of possibility. \"We would have been willing to win, but we were content to lose.\"\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ci\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb2286191\"\u003ENothing to be frightened of\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/i\u003Eby Julian Barnes (2008). A portrait of a family and a philosophical, intellectually curious, and often funny exploration of our obsession with death.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.syndetics.com\/index.php?isbn=9781844084111\/lc.jpg\u0026amp;client=elgar\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.syndetics.com\/index.php?isbn=0395954290\/lc.jpg\u0026amp;client=elgar\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/www.syndetics.com\/index.php?isbn=0395954290\/lc.jpg\u0026amp;client=elgar\" height=\"200\" width=\"130\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/www.syndetics.com\/index.php?isbn=9781844084111\/lc.jpg\u0026amp;client=elgar\" height=\"200\" width=\"157\" \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cb\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/b\u003E\u003Cb\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/b\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/b\u003E\u003Cb\u003ENostalgia\u003C\/b\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/b\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Ci\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb2480811\"\u003EJust Kids\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;by\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/i\u003EPatti Smith (2009). Patti and Robert, on their way to becoming legendary. The book is already legendary itself, and rightly so.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb3253420\"\u003E\u003Ci\u003ESlow days, fast company: the world, the flesh, and L.A.\u003C\/i\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;(2016) by Eve Babitz. A look back at the 60s-70s L.A. scene by one of its protagonists.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/b\u003E\u003Cb\u003ESadness and grief\u003C\/b\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ci\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb2244051\"\u003EDog Years\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/i\u003E(2007)\u0026nbsp;by the American poet Mark Doty was recommended to me as one of the saddest books ever written. (If you wonder why that would be a recommendation, just skip this!). In a time of despair and depression, his long-term partner dying of AIDS, Doty's dogs convey something essential. \"It isn't that one wants to live for the sake of a dog, exactly, but that dogs show you why you might want to.\"\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb3093388\"\u003E\u003Ci\u003EThe Year of Magical Thinking\u003C\/i\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;by Joan Didion (2012). An idiosyncratic book about grief after sudden loss, from an author at the top of her game.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ci\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb2628318\"\u003ENox\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/i\u003E\u0026nbsp;(2010) by Anne Carson. I found this attempt (half book, half artwork) by a poet to come to terms with the loss of her brother, taking as her departure point an elegy by Catullus, incredibly affecting.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/b\u003E\u003Cb\u003EDads:\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/b\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb3235234\" style=\"font-style: italic;\"\u003EIn the darkroom\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Ci\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/i\u003Eby Susan Faludi (2016). Faludi describes her book as a pursuit of her father, a man who exited her life as a tyrant and bully, and who gets in touch almost 30 years later to announce that he has undergone sex-reassignment surgery. No happy endings, but some precious understandings.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ci\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb2173107\"\u003EThe Bill from my Father\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/i\u003E(2006) Art critic Bernard Cooper's father once sent him an itemised bill for his upbringing. One of the best books I read last year. Is articulate an anagram of art critic? Not quite but it should be. Needs an anagram for witty, too, though!\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb1518170\"\u003E\u003Ci\u003EThe Duke of Deception\u003C\/i\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;by Geoffrey Woolf (1979). You may be, or then again you might not be, surprised at how many deceptive dad memoirs there are; for me, this one, from way back in 1979, is unsurpassed.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cb\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/b\u003E\u003Cb\u003EBoyhood, girlhood, families:\u003C\/b\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb1647911\"\u003E\u003Ci\u003EToast: the story of a boy's hunger\u003C\/i\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Ci\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/i\u003Eby Nigel Slater (2003). I have long championed a ban on the phrase 'achingly beautiful' - whew, this book isn't achingly beautiful, but it is beautiful in its description of an achingly hungry, above all for love, boy.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ci\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb1652562\"\u003ESkating to Antartica\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/i\u003E\u0026nbsp;by Jenny Diski (2005)- Another deceptive dad, here matched with an eccentric mother, but it's not really \"Families\". Probably more \"Unclassifiable\". I plucked it off a travel books display at the Leys Institute Library, didn't find a travel book, but did find a great memoir writer. Practically everything Jenny Diski wrote was a memoir, up to and including the book she wrote while dying of cancer -\u0026nbsp;\u003Ci\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb3163725\"\u003EIn gratitude\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/i\u003E(2016).\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb2188835\" style=\"font-style: italic;\"\u003EFun home: a family tragicomic\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Ci\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/i\u003E(2006) by Alison Bechdel. \u003Ci\u003EFun home\u003C\/i\u003E is a memoir in comic format, and that's about as far as the comic in 'tragicomic' goes. Growing up in a funeral home can be funny, a closeted father moves us into irony, and with suicide, we're at tragic. I note that on our catalogue record the publisher is down as calling the ending 'redemptive'. My word of choice would have been 'unforgettable'.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ci\u003EFun home\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/i\u003Eis actually only one of a large number of memoirs in comic format. \u0026nbsp;Here are a few more I recommend:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003EGraphic memoirs\u003C\/b\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/b\u003E\u003Ci\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb2570263\"\u003EPersepolis\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/i\u003Eby Marjane Satrapi\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ci\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb2468333\"\u003EStitches: a memoir\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/i\u003Eby David Small\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Ci\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb1074958\"\u003EOur cancer year\u003C\/a\u003E \u003C\/i\u003Eby Harvey Pekar and Joyce Brabner\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ci\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb2780382\"\u003EHyperbole and a half: unfortunate situations, flawed coping mechanisms, mayhem, and other things that happened\u003C\/a\u003E \u003C\/i\u003Eby Allie Brosh\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Ci\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb1166775\"\u003EEpileptic\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/i\u003Eby David B.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ci\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb2939222\"\u003ETomboy\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/i\u003Eby Liz Prince\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cb\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/b\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cb\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/b\u003E\u003Cb\u003EMusic\u003C\/b\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/b\u003E\u003Ci\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb2520757\"\u003EStraight life\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/i\u003Eby Art Pepper (1979, updated 1994). \u0026nbsp;Living the jazz life, with boundless talent, beauty and self-destructiveness.\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ci\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb2480268\"\u003EPoison heart: surviving the Ramones\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/i\u003E\u0026nbsp;by Dee Dee Ramone (2009) A music journalist I know recommended this one!\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EAnd closer to home -- and new:\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ci\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb3299416\"\u003EGoneville\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/i\u003E\u0026nbsp;by Nick Bollinger (2016). \"Goneville is at once a coming-of-age memoir and an intimate look at the evolving music scene in 1970s New Zealand. It show how this music intersected - sometimes violently - with the prevailing culture, in which real men played rugby, not rock. Nick Bollinger draws on his own experiences and also seeks out key figures and unsung heroes to reflect on the hard, often thankless and occasionally joyous life of the career musician\"-- Cover blurb\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cb\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/b\u003E\u003Cb\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/b\u003E \u003Cb\u003EArt \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/b\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb2153192\"\u003E\u003Ci\u003EGrayson Perry: portrait of the artist as a young girl\u003C\/i\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;as \"caught by\" Wendy Jones (2006). Self-deprecating, irreverent and insightful thoughts about growing up by the rebellious artist and transvestite. I'm waiting for my copy of his new book,\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb3298602\"\u003E\u003Ci\u003EThe descent of man\u003C\/i\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E, \"exploring everything from sex, seriousness and intimidation to clothing, childhood and power.\"\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb3020590\"\u003E\u003Ci\u003EStrangeland\u003C\/i\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;(2005) by Tracey Emin. Only for people who find a sentence like this appealing: \"Here I am, a fucked, crazy, anorexic-alcoholic-childless, beautiful woman. I never dreamt it would be like this.'\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/discover.elgar.govt.nz\/iii\/encore\/record\/C__Rb3173189\"\u003E\u003Ci\u003EMy avant-garde education\u003C\/i\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;(2015) by Bernard Cooper. The same entertaining Bernard Cooper cited above, this time looking back at his salad days in the pop art and then conceptual art years.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.syndetics.com\/index.php?isbn=9780099485162\/lc.jpg\u0026amp;client=elgar\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/www.syndetics.com\/index.php?isbn=9780099485162\/lc.jpg\u0026amp;client=elgar\" height=\"200\" width=\"130\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.syndetics.com\/index.php?isbn=9780393240719\/lc.jpg\u0026amp;client=elgar\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/www.syndetics.com\/index.php?isbn=9780393240719\/lc.jpg\u0026amp;client=elgar\" height=\"200\" width=\"131\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cb\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/b\u003E \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EMemoirs have never been as popular as now, in our age of Reality Hunger, and all these are just to make you aware of the range. I'm sure you will find a good one which suits your taste, your mood, your time.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EHappy reading!\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/albooksinthecity.blogspot.com\/feeds\/8475984440442685648\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/albooksinthecity.blogspot.com\/2017\/01\/great-summer-read-read-memoir-or.html#comment-form","title":"0 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/2501884760724421053\/posts\/default\/8475984440442685648"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/2501884760724421053\/posts\/default\/8475984440442685648"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/albooksinthecity.blogspot.com\/2017\/01\/great-summer-read-read-memoir-or.html","title":"Great Summer Read: Read a memoir or a biography. Part I: Memoirs"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Karen Craig"},"uri":{"$t":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/profile\/18310967522076681423"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"23","height":"32","src":"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-WaLn2rFYxqE\/UNvHlimMvBI\/AAAAAAAAABY\/ceYnAw1lZEk\/s220\/The%2BLibrarian.jpg"}}],"thr$total":{"$t":"0"}}]}});