What Are You Reading in January?

I’ve been busy this month, but not too busy to get my reading year off to a fairly fine start. This is typical of my reading habits, though. January is always one of my best bookish months.

This is what I’ve been up to in January, reading-wise.

Joan Crawford by Ruth Harriet Louise, circa 1930

BOOKS I’VE FINISHED:

  • OUTSIDE THE LINES: LOST PHOTOGRAPHS OF PUNK AND NEW WAVE’S MOST ICONIC ALBUMS BY MATTEO TORCINOVICH
  • JOAN CRAWFORD: THE ENDURING STAR BY PETER COWIE
  • LIFE IN A MEDIEVAL CITY BY JOSEPH GIES & FRANCES GIES
  • THE MYSTERY OF EVERETT RUESS BY W.L. RUSHO
  • LIFE IN A MEDIEVAL CASTLE BY JOSEPH GIES & FRANCES GIES
  • THE MGM STORY: THE COMPLETE HISTORY OF FIFTY ROARING YEARS BY JOHN DOUGLAS EAMES

BOOKS I’M CURRENTLY READING:

  • JUBILEE HITCHHIKER: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF RICHARD BRAUTIGAN BY WILLIAM HJORTSBERG
  • THE MAN WHO NEVER DIED: THE LIFE, TIMES, AND LEGACY OF JOE HILL, AMERICAN LABOR ICON BY WILLIAM M. ADLER

What are you reading this month? Please share in the comments!

What Are You Reading in May?

Since I didn’t write a What Are You Reading? entry last month, this post will cover April and May. Let’s get started!

Since 1st April, I’ve read:

  • Unsolved London Murders: The 1920s and 1930s by Jonathan Oates
  • Where Are They Buried? How Did They Die? by Tod Benoit
  • Outlaw Marriages: The Hidden Histories of Fifteen Extraordinary Same-Sex Couples by Rodger Streitmatter
  • Meanwhile in San Francisco: The City in its Own Words by Wendy McNaughton

I’m currently reading:

  • The A to Z of African American Cinema by S. Torriano Berry and Venise T. Berry
  • Paris Without End: The True Story of Hemingway’s First Wife by Gioia Diliberto
  • Memoirs of Montparnasse by John Glassco
  • Parallel Lives: Five Victorian Marriages by Phyllis Rose

What is your favorite book this month?

Which book on your list do you most look forward to reading?

Please share in the comments!

Happy reading.

What Are You Reading in March?

March is a transitional month: the weather, seasons, and reading habits are all in flux. For me, the latter has been a big disappointment. I still haven’t been able to get my reading pace up to its normal levels. Oh, well! There’s always April!

Since 1st March, I’ve read:

  • I Loved Her in the Movies: Memories of Hollywood’s Legendary Actresses by Robert Wagner and Scott Eyman
I’m currently reading:
  • Hot from Harlem: Twelve African American Entertainers, 1890-1960 by Bill Reed
  • You Must Remember This: Life and Style in Hollywood’s Golden Age by Robert Wagner and Scott Eyman

I promise to do better in April!

What is your favorite book this month?

Which book on your list do you most look forward to reading?

Please share in the comments!

Happy reading.

A Reading List a Mile Long: Daedalus Books Late Spring 2017 Edition

Today is the start of a new season (hello, spring!), which I think is the perfect time to share a new reading list! Let’s jump right in!

  • City of Fortune: How Venice Ruled the Seas by Roger Crowley ($6.98) #70307
  • Centuries of Change: Which Century Saw the Most Change and Why it Matters to Us by Ian Mortimer ($7.98) #64307
  • Underworld London: Crime and Punishment in the Capital City by Catharine Arnold ($4.98) #70519
  • The Last September by Elizabeth Bowen ($4.98) #70327
  • On London by Charles Dickens ($3.98) #53757
  • West’s World: The Extraordinary Life of Dame Rebecca West by Lorna Gibb ($4.98) #53607
  • Beethoven: The Man Revealed by John Suchet ($6.98) #61107
  • The Stardust Revolution: The New Story of Our Origin in the Stars by Jacob Berkowitz ($6.98) #62330
  • The Great War in 3D: 1914-1918–A Book Plus a Stereoscopic Viewer and 35 3D Photos of Men In Battle by Jean-Pierre Verney ($7.98) #70594
  • By the Book: Writers on Literature and the Literary Life from The New York Times Book Review Edited by Pamela Paul ($6.98) #70043
  • The Fool’s Tale by Nicole Galland ($4.98) #70176
  • Why Homer Matters by Adam Nicolson ($6.98) #70041
  • The 40s: The Story of a Decade (The New Yorker) Edited by Henry Finder ($6.98) #70288
  • Recollections of Virginia Woolf by Her Contemporaries Edited by Joan Russell Noble ($4.98) #63001
  • Eighty Days: Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland’s History-Making Race Around the World by Matthew Goodman ($4.98) #70315
  • A Midwife’s Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812 by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich ($4.98) #70336
  • The Year 1000: What Life was Like at the Turn of the First Millennium by Robert Lacey & Danny Danziger ($5.98) #70129
  • Mildred Pierce by James M. Cain ($5.98) #70337
  • Just One Catch: A Biography of Joseph Heller by Tracy Daugherty ($4.98) #33185

What Are You Reading in February?

What is on your end-of-winter book list? I’m finishing up preliminary work for my novella; as a result, I haven’t been able to devote too much time to reading. Here’s where I’m at this month…

Since 1st February, I’ve finished:

  • Under the Big Black Sun: A Personal History of L.A. Punk by John Doe with Tom DeSavia and Friends (Foreword by Billie Joe Armstrong)

I’m Currently Reading:

  • Treat Me Like Dirt: An Oral History of Punk in Toronto and Beyond 1977-1981 by Liz Worth
  • Hotel Florida: Truth, Love, and Death in the Spanish Civil War by Amanda Vaill
  • The Last Love Song: A Biography of Joan Didion by Tracy Daugherty
  • Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life by William Finnegan

Which book on your list do you most look forward to reading, and why?

Please share with me in the comments!

What Are You Reading in January?

What is on your book list, as the new year begins? Are you binge-reading your way into 2017, or taking a break from a well-read 2016? I’m off to a slow start, mostly because I am writing a novella of my own. Here’s where I’m at so far…

Since 1st January, I’ve finished:

  • Beautiful Boredom: Idleness and Feminine Self-Realization in the Victorian Novel by Lee Anna Maynard
  • Everybody Behaves Badly: The True Story Behind Hemingway’s Masterpiece The Sun Also Rises by Lesley M. M. Blume
Hemingway and Friends

Hemingway and Friends

Ernest Hemingway, with Harold Loeb, Lady Duff Twysden, Hadley Richardson (Hemingway), Donald Ogden Stewart, and Pat Guthrie

I’m currently reading:

  • Trotsky: Downfall of a Revolutionary by Bertrand M. Patenaude
  • The Electrifying Fall of Rainbow City: Spectacle and Assassination at the 1901 World’s Fair by Margaret Creighton

To be read by 31 January:

  • Across an Untried Sea: Discovering Lives Hidden in the Shadow of Convention and Time by Julia Markus

Which book on your list do you most look forward to reading, and why?

Please share with me in the comments!

I Read a Lot of Books in 2016, But Still Didn’t Reach My Goal…

I read 82 books in 2016, but fell 28 short of my (rather ambitious) goal of 110. My year was way too busy to read as much as I would have liked. I finished the majority of the books during the first half of the year, as life obligations slowed my pace after summer. On the bright side, 2017 will get off to a good start reading-wise, as I am close to finishing half a dozen books.

Here’s a list of every book that I finished in 2016, with some very loose ratings.

KEY:

*=Read as research for my novella

**=This designation means that I liked the book in spite of myself, but as such find it too hard to assign a fair grade

1=You are my enemy

2=We’ll stay acquaintances, thanks

3=I like you, but I don’t like you like you

4=You are my friend, but not my best friend

5=You are my love match, but don’t expect fidelity Continue reading

What Are You Reading in December?

What is on your reading list, as the days become darker and shorter? Do your habits change as the weather turns cold? I’ve been way too busy this month to do much reading, and I’m not going to be able to slow down between now and the new year.

Since 1st December, I’ve finished:

  • Labor and Freedom by Eugene V. Debs
Eugene V. Debs, 1897

Eugene V. Debs, 1897

I’m currently reading:

  •  e. e. cummings: A Life by Susan Cheever
  • Anarchism and Other Essays by Emma Goldman
  • Beautiful Boredom: Idleness and Feminine Self-Realization in the Victorian Novel by Lee Anna Maynard

Which book on your list do you most look forward to reading, and why?

Please share with me in the comments!

What Are You Reading in November?

What is on your reading list, as the days become darker and shorter? Do your habits change as the weather turns cold?

I’ve been much too busy by half to read as many books as usual. At this rate, I won’t make my 2016 goal of finishing 110 books.

Since 1st November, I’ve finished:

  • The Only Street in Paris: Life on the Rue des Martyrs by Elaine Sciolino
  • Making Tootsie: A Film Study with Dustin Hoffman and Sydney Pollock by Susan Dworkin
  • Caravaggio: Painter of Miracles by Francine Prose

I’m currently reading:

  • Film Noir FAQ: All That’s Left to Know about Hollywood’s Golden Age of Dames, Detectives, and Danger by David J. Hogan

To be read by 30th November:

  • Hooray for Captain Spaulding: Verbal & Visual Gems From “Animal Crackers” by Richard J. Anobile
The Marx Brothers, 1931

The Marx Brothers, 1931

Which book on your list do you most look forward to reading, and why?

Please share with me in the comments!