Good recent reads:
The short story "Babylon Revisited" by F. Scott Fitzgerald, I read last Friday. Terrific.
Anything from Stuart Woods' Stone Barrington series - 'The Short Forever' is the most recent...okay, but deeply lacks the punch and balls-out fun of 'Swimming to Catalina,' 'L.A. Dead,' and 'Cold Paradise,' my favorites
Another by Stuart Woods, 'Under the Lake' - a tense somewhat supernatural mystery in a sleepy Southern town...pretty good. I kept seeing Brian Keith as the sherriff.
'Rat Pack Confidential,' Shawn Levy - FAN-fucking-TASTIC book. Kicks off with five breezy chapters, each dedicated to a different member of the Pack with a snappy bio leading up to the years in focus, then launches into a fascinating, quickly unspooling you-are-there recounting of the era of the Rat Pack, from formation to implosion. Some of the best parts, btw, are from the sobering last section detailing their lives after the Pack disbanded.
'The Great Gatsby,' F. Scott Fitzgerald - My all-time favorite book...I try to read it once a year or so.
'On the Road,' Jack Kerouac - Good book, but I stopped in the middle for some reason. I should finish.
Favorite guilty pleasure book: I'm not really one for romance novels, but...'Hidden Passions,' which tells the backstory of the characters from the soap "Passions" (THE WORST SHOW ON TV! and I have since given it up). Show sucks hard, but the book is spellbinding. I don't apologize, I said 'guilty pleasure.'
Currently reading:
'The Way You Wear Your Hat: Frank Sinatra and the Lost Art of Livin' - REALLY fun book so far.
'The Art of Mingling' - 'cause I approve of any excuse to improve social skills
Upcoming reads:
'No More Mr. Nice Guy' by Dr. Robert Glover - Details "Nice Guy Syndrome" and sets out to cure it. Haven't heard a bad review yet.
'All About All About Eve' and 'Close-Up on Sunset Blvd by Sam Staggs - in-depth books about my third and second-favorite movies, respectively