Thalberg by Roland Flamini

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Just a tremendous biography of a creative genius who knew his time was short and decided not to sit around and mope about it, but went out and lived life to it’s very fullest, thereby changing an industry. I really like the author’s focus on Thalberg’s greatest achievement, his work in film. There would seem to be nothing else to focus on, but the writer really delves deep into the inner workings of Thalberg’s work. A reader can telly get the feeling of someone, like Thalberg,that runs hard with a weak constitution.

I comboed this with reading ‘The Last Tycoon’ by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald based his main character Monroe Stahr on Thalberg and Fitzgerald’s dealing with him and the Mayer studio system. The two authors either were both accurate in their portrayals or both way off. Reading both at the same time really fleshed out the biography further. Though I recommend e Flamini’s book over Fitzgeralds.

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The Last Tycoon (An Unfinished Novel) together with The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Fitzgerald’s fictitious tale pulled from the life of Irving Thalberg sure does flesh out Thalberg’s manner and ways around a studio. I read this at the same time reading Roland Flamini’s ‘Thalberg’ about Irving’s life. Reading Fitzgerald was like reading Flamini as both illustrated the legendary producer’s life. Fitzgerald follows Thalberg closest with the studio scenes in the book. Otherwise Thalberg’s manner is well drawn out, though the personal circumstances noted in ‘The Last Tycoon’ are purely fictional to Thalberg’s life.

I’m not nutty about the writing. There are certainly good lines and passages, but as a whole it is clearly in the development stage.

Well worth reading if you are a Thalberg fan.

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Here’s Swampy, Rob and Marcia Gaedcke, President of the Titusville Area Chamber of Commerce with a page of art for the upcoming ‘Swampy’s Florida: Titusville’.

Been penciling and inking and penciling and inking and… I guess ya get the idea…

Got lots done on the upcoming ‘Swampy’s Florida: Titusville’. Lots more to do. And that’s besides this Swampy book!

Here’s a piece of artwork I’m drawing of the upcoming ‘Swampy’s Florida: Lake Wales’.

Charlie by Ben Hecht

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is outstanding in so many ways it’s hard to know where to start. I want to be sure to point out something that might be missed and that is that author Hecht has this biography of his pal Charlie MacArthur with excellent quotes. Much to be quoted is just descriptions made by Hecht. I have my volume full of sticky notes where I found wonderful quotes.

Hecht’s writing is typical Hecht and his love of his friend shines through often in the text. I’m glad he wrote many of the chapters more as if approaching a column than a linear biography. It gives the opportunity to read a part and walk away and savor the writing abilities of Hecht.

Certainly the biggest drawback to the book is that there’s a good deal not told about MacArthur. Especially missing is information in his youngest years. However, the entire book is a joy to read and I highly recommend it.

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The Faithful Spy by Alex Berenson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

‘The Faithful Spy’ is a fantastic thriller of terrorism in the U.S. The various sides are well covered with the viewpoints of each well laid out. Author Berenson has so well laid out the Muslim view that I could see people who are not Muslim take the religion in consideration. The view of being a radical Muslim can have a reading start to sympathize with the terrorists drive.

Same true for the efforts of the C.I.A. as various characters navigate through the bureaucratic maze to get a job done. The hero is very well illustrated as one straddling two worlds at times not knowing for sure which one he’s firmly in.

I really like the location descriptions. Whether US or Middle East, the author gives a great feeling of place.

At nearly 500 pages you’d think this is one I would point to as needing editing. Not in this case. There is some extraneous stuff here and there, but this still adds up to a mean and lean thriller that will have any reader much more aware of the world around themselves after reading.

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Acres and Pains by S.J. Perelman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

S.J. Perelman is my favorite humorist. I love the way he plays with words and sets a scene with eh cleverest turn. This short set is of his families move to the farm life of western Pennsylvania. Though short, it is best to savor each entry and take in the word fun and hilarious situations. Included is his infamous column involving Chicken Inspector No. 23. If you haven’t read Perelman before this might be the best to get started as it is the shortest of the collections and a great taste of one of America’s best humorists and writers.

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On July 28th I introduced the new Florida History text book at The Knowledge Exchange. I conducted to talks. One about cartooning and the other about Florida history. Above are some from the Florida history class.

During the cartooning class I got the attendees to contribute various ideas and we all came up with this scene.

Here’s a close up of the artwork.

Dead Silence by Randy Wayne White
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Every so often I give another swing to a book by Randy Wayne White. Each time I walk away disappointed. There are a number of reasons why I know that happens. One is the embracing of illegal drugs. To me this makes the characters dirty and I immediately don’t like them. In this book practically all the “good” guys are involved in illegal drugs of some sort. This puts me in an odd position with the bad guys who don’t use drugs. I found myself rooting for them at times. Since the book’s intent is to have some kind of good guy stop the bad guy, I’m obviously having trouble with the intent. This all pointing to White’s pointed political viewpoints being intertwined with the characters so that it is often difficult to say one is bad or good. If that is his intent then his books really stink because it leaves him with the option of killing off even the reoccurring characters. I mean, what the Hey, if he doesn’t know who is after who or if they even should be, just knock off the Tomlinson character, which I think would be a step in the right direction.

About the story: Kidnapping, Senators, Castro, secret papers, horses makeup the core of this story. If that sound confusing, the book doesn’t help. All of it is convoluted and way too much coincidentally happens in one area. There’s a whole thing about Castro papers that really doesn’t matter to the plot except as a MacGuffin. There is waaaaay too much about the kidnap victim that really bogs things down.

All in all, as much as I dislike White books, this one also gets a thumbs down due to the plot.

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Florida: Enchantment of America by Allan Carpenter
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

“Enchantment of America: Florida’ is part of a 1960s series that each cover a different state and written for students in junior high school. My experience with this is that state series typically do a poor job of telling the history of Florida. This one is an exception. Especially refreshing to read the non-PC version of Florida history that is setup in all Florida history books I’ve seen published in the past fifteen years. I also like the author’s writing style. The watercolor illustrations are outstanding. That is another difference in a young person’s textbook from the 1960s and the textbooks of today. Today’s textbooks have little artwork. Illustrations in today’s textbooks are usually boring computer graphics and static photographs. I recommend this book for anyone wanting to learn about Florida history.

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