Well, another week starts and I'll be in Atlanta Monday through Wednesday. This trip is strictly work, so I'll have limited reading time. You know how it is, in work meetings all day long and you head back to the hotel to catch up on work emails. Ugh.
Anyway, I'm really digging my two whole months with no review commitments. After reading American Lightning: Terror, Mystery, the Birth of Hollywood, and the Crime of the Century, I was hit with the pre-war bug and now I'm reading:
- The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett. Which I am loving. Sam Spade is the original bad-a$#, I must admit.
- Exodus by Leon Uris will be next. I've flipped through this but wrote it off as a book my grandparents would read (not sure why that would matter). Suffice it to say I read the first few pages and I'm hooked. So, that'll be next.
- After that? I think I might stick with books written from 1900 to 1960. It's fun to read the way we all used to chit-chat with each other. So much so that my husband and I looked up slang from the 1940s and started calling each other "angel cake" all day, and then kept saying to each other when we wanted to head to a restaurant and eat a lot "let's grab the percolator and make tracks. I could bash." Not like we were rolling in beans, but you understand what I'm saying.
See ya cats next week.
Hahaha! I love that you and your husband have been talking to each other in 1940s slang!
ReplyDeleteI read Exodus in high school and remember thinking it was great. I'm sure I didn't understand it fully.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if I've read any books from the early 20th century. I'm sure they would be very interesting. Enjoy your reading and have a great work week :)
ReplyDeleteI looooooooooooove old slang.
ReplyDelete:)
Angel cake is one I use all the time.
I think it is so much fun to dig in and invest in a decade. That is exactly what a good book should do...inspire you to take a trip (or two or three) back in time! Hey, I just finished Gone Girl and holy crap you were right. I thought my head would explode.
ReplyDeleteThe Maltese Falcon is a great read. They don't write them like that anymore.
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean about language changing. I'm reading the original, unabridged text of The Secret Garden published in 1911, and there are a few words and phrases that have evolved in meaning over the past century.
I love it when I get all fired up over a specific time period and then read a whole bunch of books that fit into that category. It sounds like this is an excellent reading list, and that you are going to very busy, but also very happy with your reading! Have fun in Atlanta!
ReplyDeleteI dig that you are talking old slang with your husband - very hep! I sometimes do that for fun :) I'll have to check out The Maltese Falcon -I've only seen the film, which I loved! Have a great work trip!
ReplyDeleteHi Natalie! I hope you enjoy all your reads. I am not into reading books on war but someday I will!
ReplyDeleteHey there angel cake, you're in my backyard! I'm an hour north of Atlanta and could you meet you downtown for drinks or dinner or touring the best bookstores in Decatur!
ReplyDeleteAnd speaking of slang, if you haven't read the Gods of Gotham, man oh man is there some really cool slang in that one! Apparently during the late 1800s early 1900s, the Irish immigrants and poor children would talk "flash." It is the best slang I've heard in a long, long time. And the audio, rocks!!!
I hope your work trip is going well and that you find some time to relax between meetings and e-mail :)
ReplyDeleteangel cake is fantastic! i have been looking for early 20th c pet names as my second novel is set in 1905-1920 ish. do you mind if i borrow that?
ReplyDeletePriya, so sorry for the late response, just saw this! Absolutely, go right ahead! I wish I coined the endearment, but it's not mine, so go for it. Can't wait to read your book with "angel cake" in there!
DeleteI hope it's been a good trip! Enjoy your commitment-free reading for a bit!
ReplyDeleteI know how you feel with work trips - I have been out of town for the past three weeks for work. We are working 16 hour days, going to the hotel to sleep and back at it the next morning. I am yearning for a break! Hope your trip goes well!
ReplyDeleteOh Lord! I hope the trip went well! Atlanta is one of my least favorite cities I've ever been to -- maybe my least least favorite -- and work trips are always stressful.
ReplyDeleteLove all that lingo from the past! Hope you enjoyed the trip to Atlanta as much as you can enjoy working all day and then doing your day job at night! I've been there and done that and have a lot of sympathy for you on that one.
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