Weekend Reading List

I wonder what led PH, a movie enthusiast, to pick this book, one out of hundreds on his gleaming new shelves groaning with books, to press on me? As I read it, I'm left wondering what it says about me. But PH is right: I'm reading it with relish - the book is Bette & Joan The Divine Feud by Shaun Considine (1989). It's quite a romp, a camp, juicy (it's not a scholarly work but salacious and entertaining) and well-paced 'history' of the bitter rivalry between Hollywood Queens Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, set against the backdrop of the Golden Age of Cinema. It's not a pretty picture, and neither the leading ladies turn out sympathetic. Although parts of it is Laugh Out Loud, a given with the salty material, I felt that it wasn't entirely milked. But still, deliciously drag. PH gave me another gorgeous book, this one also related to Bette Davis in a way: The 1937 Agatha Christie classic Death On The Nile, which was made into a 1978 movie that featured Ms Davis as part of an ensemble cast. It's a yummy Hercule Poirot mystery and I'm looking forward to reading this, once I finish One, Two Buckle My Shoe (1941) also by Agatha Christie (this one a tattered National Library loan). For a change of pace, I'm rediscovering The Viceroy Of Ouida (1982) by Bruce Chatwin. It's like drinking pu-er tea after stuffing oneself with pineapple tarts. This slim novel is wonderfully restrained, and elegantly comic and tragic, with touches of the macabre and the lyrical, a unique and inspiring piece of writing.
We need both tea and tart, don't we?