bookshelf

Reminiscences of a Stock Operator by Edwin Lefevre

Narrated by Rick Rohan
(c) 1923, Edwin Lefevre, (c) 2006 Recorded Books
Audible Download Read 03/30/09, Blog 03/31/09

Just as Proust and his madeleines seem to be trotted out in every article about memory, this volume is continually cited in articles about investing and markets. Significantly shorter Proust's, this book provides insight into trading and the early 20th century.

The Averaged American by Sarah E. Igo

Surveys, Citizens, and the Making of a Mass Public
398 pgs (c) 2007, Harvard University Press
Broward Library 301.0720732 IG Read: 03/02/08

Today we take surveys for granted. This book examines the rise of surveys at the turn of the last century, their continued development, and their effect on society at large.

Afternoon Men by Anthony Powel

221 pgs, written 1931, Little, 1963
Broward Library Read: 03/15/09

Underemployed museum clerk, Atwater, and his restless Bohemian friends drink and carry on unsatisfactory love affairs in substandard clubs, at the parties of strangers, in the country, and abroad. This satire was written and takes place in England between the wars.

Natives and Exotics by Jane Alison

236 pgs © 2005, Orlando: Harcourt; 2006 Mariner Books
Broward Library Read: 01/02/06

A lovely little book illustrated with 18th century illustrations of exotic flora. Episodic, loosely following an Australian family lineage through their voluntary and involuntary peregrinations of the globe across two centuries. Like the plants, they move or are moved without clear recognition of their predecessors or progeny.

The Architect of Desire by Suzannah Lessard

Beauty and Danger in the Stanford White Family
328 pgs (c) 1996, 1997 Delta Paperback
Broward Library 974.90933 LE Read: 01/01/06

A great-grand daughter of the architect Stanford White slowly, ever so slowly, pulls skeletons out of her family's closet.

Ancient Highway by Bret Lott

241 Pages (c) 2008, Random House
Borrowed from Petoskey Library. Read 01/04/09

Vaguely mysterious family melodrama concerning three generations uncommonly affected by show business. Again judging a book by its cover, this book looked appealing in the new arrivals area. You can't win 'em all.

Leviathan by Eric Jay Dolin

The History of Whaling in America
16 hrs, narr. by James Boles, © 2007 Tantor Media
© 2007 W.W. Norton, 480 pages
Audible download Read 02/22/09

During this 400-year history, whaling was greatly affected by war, commodity prices, trade barriers, international competition, changing consumer preferences and new technologies. In today’s era of economic failure and uncertainty, this book shows how one industry responded to the same stresses that affect businesses today.

House of Meetings by Martin Amis

242 pgs (c) 2007, Alfred A. Knopf
Borrowed from Broward Public Library. Read 09/15/07

The narrator recounts how he survived the brutalities of the Second World War and the slave labor camps of Russia. He is playful and creative with words in spite of the grim subject matter. The wordplay is a sleight-of-hand that both distracts and focuses the reader.

The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford

282 pgs (c) 1945 author, 1994 Popular Library Edition
Checked out of Broward Library. Read 10/9/08

This is a quintessential book of there'll-always-be-an-England genre, a playful amusing romp. The Radlett family lives in relative seclusion in the country home, Alconleigh. The patriarch refuses to visit other people's homes and refuses houseguests. When the odd visitor drives up, the entire family dives below the windows and the father bellows that no one is home. In spite of these difficulties, the girls must, and do marry, and start families of their own.

The Green Hat by Michael Arlen

213 pgs (c) 1924, 2007 FireCrest pub
Purchased via Amazon 09/14/08

This racy melodrama was a huge best seller of its day. The wearer of the green hat, 30-year old Iris, has been widowed twice. Her first marriage ended on the wedding when the groom threw himself out their hotel window before bedtime. The second was much less dramatic did result in a nice inheritance.

Favorite line: "...one goes to a nightclub to think, to be alone, to be comfortable, to eat a haddock." Proof positive that times have changed, at least nightclub-wise.