What Was the Last Book You Read?

[Zhivago]

Is Bligh the mustache-twirling villain in the book he was in the Gable movie (and also in the later Marlon Brando version)? A more recent book by Caroline Alexander portrays Bligh in a more sympathetic way, at least that is what I've heard. There is also, of course, the Mel Gibson film in which Anthony Hopkins' Bligh is not nearly the villain he was in the two older films.

The book lacked the drama of the movies, since it followed the documents the authors dug up from the court martial and other sources. I really should read their remaining two volumes as Robert did (above). The second covers the 19 who were put off the Bounty into the launch and their survivor's perilous journey back to England, and the third deals with the mutineers who ended up on Pitcairn Island. It would be interesting to compare the more recent books. I confess I like period 18-19th century maritime tales, fiction and non-fiction, print and on film.

As to movies, for a really great villain on the open seas, see Robert Ryan in the 1962 film Billy Budd. Herman Melville wrote the novel which wasn't definitively finished until 1962 after Melville's original notes were discovered. Now I must get my hands on a copy. Abebooks to the rescue!

Thanks. I should read Alexander's book at some point.

It is an amazing story, and I doubt Bligh was quite like how Laughton and Trevor Howard portrayed him in the older movies.

+1 to Robert Ryan's performance in Billy Budd. Pure evil. Plus, as some critic or other pointed out, he played the part without any sinister charm or humor.

[Robert]

*Vigano vs. the Vatican: The Uncensored Testimony of the Italian Journalist Who Helped Break the Story* - - by Marco Tosatti.

[VertOlive]

*Vigano vs. the Vatican: The Uncensored Testimony of the Italian Journalist Who Helped Break the Story* - - by Marco Tosatti.

“V” is for Vigano!

[Kaputnik]

Sometimes I go on a subject or author binge without being quite sure why. I had just read the first two of V.S. Naipaul's books on his visits to India, An Area of Darkness, and India, a Wounded Civilization. Now I'm starting on the third, India, a Million Mutinies Now, which so far is taking a somewhat different approach from the first two, with more in depth profiles of individuals and their lives.

Apart from the fact that I like Naipaul's writing, the thirteen year gaps between each of the trips give each book its own character. The first one, An Area of Darkness, was banned in India, but I don't know if it still is.

[FredRydr]

I finished binge-reading the full English translation of The Three Musketeers by Alexandar Dumas, and now into the first chapter of his equally weighty sequel, Twenty Years After.

Waiting by my desk is Republic of Drivers - A Cultural History of Automobility in America, 2008, by Cotten Seiler,

[Deb]

The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister edited by Helena Whitbread: the basis of the BBC TV series Gentleman Jack

[Robert]

*Goodbye, Good Men: How Liberals Brought Corruption into the Catholic Church* by Michael S. Rose. Published in 2002, this well written, abundantly documented book looks at the state of Catholic seminaries during the last decades of the 20th century and serves as a sort of "prequel" to where the Church finds itself today. As Yogi B. would say, "It's deja vu all over again."

[Lady Onogaro]

Just finished Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe. I've never read a nonfiction book so quickly in years. It's tragic and fascinating at the same time. Just a great read.

[Deb]

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. A great picaresque novel.

[Fermata]

Star of the Sea by Joseph O Connor.

A story based on real events, set in 1847 dealing with the horror of people leaving the Irish Famine in search of a better life in America.

[fountainpagan]

The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister edited by Helena Whitbread: the basis of the BBC TV series Gentleman Jack

Also a film, distributed and produced by the BBC.

[Deb]

The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister edited by Helena Whitbread: the basis of the BBC TV series Gentleman Jack

Also a film, distributed and produced by the BBC.

I think it's probably the series as a film. Starring Suranne Jones?

[fountainpagan]

No, Deb it is a film. I think it was made before the series.

Actresses - Maxine Peake and Anna Madeley

[Chrissy]

No, Deb it is a film. I think it was made before the series.

Actresses - Maxine Peake and Anna Madeley

Maxine Peake is a good actress.

[Chrissy]

I've just finished "To Kill The Truth" by Sam Bourne. I was in two minds throughout this book. I think Sam is a decent fiction author, but, at times, this one seemed frantic and implausible. It would never be a 5* book for me, but it's a decent "before sleep" read when you go to bed. A neat and unexpected "good feeling" at the end.

[Deb]

No, Deb it is a film. I think it was made before the series.

Actresses - Maxine Peake and Anna Madeley

Oh, thank you. I didn't know about that.

[fountainpagan]

You are welcome.

[VertOlive]

Grandmother and the Priests by Taylor Caldwell. Narrated by a young girl who listens In on tales told around her society grandmother’s dinner table by the priests she invites each week. Charming.

[An old bloke]

Currently finishing 'In Defense of Sanity'. It is a collection of GK Chesterton's essays.

Two things are evident from reading it. One, many of the same 'new' social issues that we are confronting today are matters about which he wrote about 80 and 100 years ago. The second, that Chesterton must have possessed an I.Q. far enough above the 'genius level' that he would be the envy of every Mensa member on the planet.

[penwash]

Currently finishing 'In Defense of Sanity'. It is a collection of GK Chesterton's essays.

Two things are evident from reading it. One, many of the same 'new' social issues that we are confronting today are matters about which he wrote about 80 and 100 years ago. The second, that Chesterton must have possessed an I.Q. far enough above the 'genius level' that he would be the envy of every Mensa member on the planet.

I am convinced that God gave GK Chesterton an extra helping of divine perspectives. The way this man was able to see, analyze, and best of all summarize timeless truths and common sense are just mind-boggling.