Category Archives: Helene Hanff

Finished some books

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Since I wrote my first three posts on March 1, I have finished some books, bought some books, started some books AND managed to get my blog about reading books to display on the Interwebs.  (If you want to start a blog, I have some tips.)  This post is about the books I have finished:

I finished one book that was on hiatus:  We Meant Well: How I helped lose the battle for the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people, by Peter van Buren (Kindle).  This book is a personal, heartfelt account of the author’s frustrations with the prescribed methods of nation-building in Iraq, where he had a Foreign Service assignment on a Provisional Reconstruction Team (PRT).  Just after I finished the book, I read a news article saying that the State Department has taken action to fire Peter van Buren from the Foreign Service.  Nearly all of the reasons cited for firing him have to do with a blog he has kept since his book was published last fall.  My take as a retired Foreign Service Officer (FSO):  the things he did on his blog were stupid and ugly and wouldn’t be acceptable from any FSO.  However, his book is important and interesting; the things he writes about might be embarrassing to State and Defense, but the wacky processes he describes for spending appropriated funds (“the taxpayers money”) ring true.

I finished current book Underfoot in Show Business, by Helene Hanff (my book), an autobiography of the author’s experiences writing for the NYC theater in the 1940s, and writing for television in the 1950s.  Funny, sweet, realistic, great storytelling.  Helene Hanff’s most famous book is 84, Charing Cross Road, about the books she ordered from a used book shop in London after WW2.  The book is short, in the form of letters between Helene and the bookshop, and has cult status with many book lovers.  84, Charing Cross Road, and Q’s Legacy, another autobiographical book, are still in print.  Ms. Hanff’s other books are available through Amazon’s used book sellers.

I also finished Flashman on the March, by George MacDonald Fraser (library book), and actually returned the book to the library before it was due.  I had put Flashman aside for many years, because the bigoted bombast from him and his curmudgeonly creator Mr. MacDonald Fraser finally got to me, but really, given the obnoxious tone of current public discourse, I’ve toughened up a lot.  In their favor, the Flashman books are intelligent, historically accurate and funny, the exact opposite of the aforementioned obnoxious current public discourse.  I got so enthusiastic about my renewed interest in the irascible George MacDonald Fraser that I ordered his book The Hollywood History of the World (from an Amazon used book seller) and started reading a book of his short stories, The Sheikh and the Dustbin (my book), based on his experiences in the British Army.  These books are interesting and clever, but just don’t have the charisma and dash of awful Harry Flashman.  I think I’ll start with Flashman, the first book in the series, and read through them again.  Yes, I still have all of them. 

Away all Boats and Midnight Rising are still in hiatus.  Still reading Ireland in fits and starts.

Current books, March 1, 2012

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I only have three books going now, probably because my main book, Flashman on the March, George MacDonald Fraser’s final Flashman book, includes several of the characteristics I like: history, adventure, humor, great storytelling.  “Flashman on the March” is set during the British military expedition into Abyssinia in 1868 to rescue European hostages held by the mad emperor Theodore.  I haven’t read a Flashman book in quite a while, but I read that MacDonald Fraser published this one shortly before his death, and fortunately the library had a copy.  There is a formula to these books:  Flashman - cad, coward, womaniser, shameless self-promoter – finds himself thrown into a real 19th century historical event and experiences the utmost of intrigue, seduction, danger, torture and battle that the history will allow.   Flashman is a bigoted, foul-mouthed untrustworthy witness to history, so the author provides lengthy historical notes at the back of the book with accurate information on the real people and situations that appear in the story.  All very clever and entertaining, although the author sometimes lets Flashman run off at the mouth too long. 

  • MacDonald Fraser is one of the best swashbuckling adventure writers ever:  he wrote the scripts for the great 1973 “Three/Four Musketeers” movies with Michael York and Faye Dunaway.  
  • Theodore and the British rescue mission make up most of The Blue Nile by Alan Moorehead, a classic of history.  It, along with Moorehead’s The White Nile are coincidentally in the revolving bookcase, high on the reread roster. 

My other two books are Underfoot in Show Business, by Helene Hanff, a paperback ragged from repeated reading, and Horrible Histories Ireland by Terry Deary.  Horrible Histories is a British series of smartass, irreverent history books for children, usually pretty accurate, with lots of funny drawings, silly quizzes, disgusting historical recipes and suitable amounts of blood and gore.  I always pick some of these up when I’m in the UK, and have quite a collection.