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What Are We Currently Reading?


Rick Kitchen
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On 12/18/2021 at 11:00 AM, dubbel zout said:

I finished The Custom of the Country and LOVED it. Edith Wharton is so good. Now I'm back to semi-trashy royal-adjacent biographies, this one by Lady Anne Glenconnor, who was Princess Margaret's lady-in-waiting for years and Saw Things.

I know many know this already, but Lady Anne made an appearance on The Graham Norton Show, along with Olivia Colman, Helen Bonham-Carter and Chadwick Boseman, that should not be missed.

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36 minutes ago, sugarbaker design said:

I know many know this already, but Lady Anne made an appearance on The Graham Norton Show, along with Olivia Colman, Helen Bonham-Carter and Chadwick Boseman, that should not be missed.

Wow, Chadwick Boseman too!  I must seek this out.  I love Helena BC also, and Olivia is everywhere right now--I think she's in three movies/shows. 

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OK all you serious readers.  Getting a bit frazzled by contemporary issues (covid, politics, international affairs)?
Try the series of poetry and photos by Francesco Marciuliano (no relation, honest):
You Need More Sleep
I Could Pee on This
I Could Pee on This Too

Very quick reads. 100+ pages, half-size.
Cute, clever...just what is needed during these fun times. 

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1 hour ago, sugarbaker design said:

I know many know this already, but Lady Anne made an appearance on The Graham Norton Show, along with Olivia Colman, Helen Bonham-Carter and Chadwick Boseman, that should not be missed.

That's an excellent episode. She talks about her Paris honeymoon, which was something. In the book she goes more into her marriage, and her husband was a HANDFUL. An appalling temper (he literally threw himself on the ground at times; yes, he was an adult), a cheater, and an attention-seeker. She shows a lot of grace toward him, which I guess happens after 50 years of marriage. They were devoted to each other in their own way, and as she wisely says, "I married all of my husband." 

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I'm reading two books at once--both good.

1) Lincoln Highway, by Amor Towles.  I didn't like his Moscow book, so I am pleasantly surprised to like this one.  I have a feeling of dread about what is happening.  The book is told from multiple character perspectives, which I always enjoy. 

2)  Crossroads, by Jonathan Franzen.  I haven't liked any of his books since The Corrections.  This book is in that vein, also with with multiple character viewpoints.  The characters are the family of a minister. 

5 hours ago, BlackberryJam said:

Just finished Not a Happy Family by Shari Lapena. It's good, not great. 

I am also a fan of the cozy mystery. It's like the fast food of reading. Quick, filling, doesn't cost a lot in time and energy and they help me escape reality for a while. 

My problem is that not that writers use the same formula, it's that they abuse it. They tick off those boxes and in doing so, fail to develop interesting characters. I do enjoy those with island settings though. There's something about a beach, a fruity drink and a dead body that makes a fun mystery. 

 

Sounds like the French/British tv series Death In Paradise.

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I’m reading The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis.   In this story historians can time travel to the past to learn accurate information about the eras they are researching.   Kivrin pushes to be allowed to visit the 1300s against the advice of her mentor.   She put in 2 years of preparation but things go wrong in the both past and present potentially trapping Kivrin in the past.  

Spoiler

The story takes place in a time period where medical advances have made getting sick almost impossible.  You could go your whole life and never experience the common cold.  Kivrin is vaccinated for every possible disease she could be exposed to in the 1300s.  But what happens if someone from the present doesn’t realize they are ill and travels back in time?

 

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I am on the second book of my new favorite cozy mystery series. The Corgi Files, by Jeffrey Poole. I am a corgi lover so the cover drew my attention and the first one I got free so I thought, why not. I love the writing. I love the characters. I love that, while I expected the love interest to be the female involved in the case, it actually ended up being a woman he met and they went for coffee and ended up having a bunch in common. No angst, no involvement in the mystery/crime, and the corgi's are written with so much personality it's great.

It's been a while since I read a book that just makes me smile and laugh. I already bought the third one. Can't wait to read it but I'm trying to go slow and savour the second one. 

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4 hours ago, Luckylyn said:

I’m reading The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis.   In this story historians can time travel to the past to learn accurate information about the eras they are researching.  

Connie Willis has two other books like this, and one of the characters from Doomsday is in them. They take place during the Blitz in London and are called Blackout and All Clear.

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5 hours ago, Luckylyn said:

I’m reading The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis.   In this story historians can time travel to the past to learn accurate information about the eras they are researching.   Kivrin pushes to be allowed to visit the 1300s against the advice of her mentor.   She put in 2 years of preparation but things go wrong in the both past and present potentially trapping Kivrin in the past.  

  Hide contents

The story takes place in a time period where medical advances have made getting sick almost impossible.  You could go your whole life and never experience the common cold.  Kivrin is vaccinated for every possible disease she could be exposed to in the 1300s.  But what happens if someone from the present doesn’t realize they are ill and travels back in time?

 

Her best book, IMO, is "To Say Nothing of the Dog".

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I am currently reading Moonflower Murders by Anthony Horowitz, the 2nd book in the  Susan Ryeland series.  Susan Ryeland was a book editor, & one of her authors was a man named Alan Conway who wrote a series of old fashioned British murder mysteries featuring a detective named Atticus Pünd. One thing I had forgotten about the 1st book in the series, Magpie Murders, was that there is an entire Atticus Pünd novel in the middle of it. I didn't really care for having this extra book in the middle that I had to read because it had something to do with the murder in the book that I was actually reading. Guess when I remembered? Yeah, another entire Atticus Pünd is in the middle of The Moonflower Murders. I don't want to read this one either, but now I'm stuck with it. I really hope I remember before I buy book 3, because apparently this whole "novel within a novel" is going to happen for all the books.

Edited by GaT
Because sentences that make sense are better
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On 12/25/2021 at 4:43 PM, GaT said:

I am currently reading Moonflower Murders by Anthony Horowitz, the 2nd book in the  Susan Ryeland series.  Susan Ryeland was a book editor, & one of her authors was a man named Alan Conway who wrote a series of old fashioned British murder mysteries featuring a detective named Atticus Pünd. One thing I had forgotten about the 1st book in the series, Magpie Murders, was that there is an entire Atticus Pünd novel in the middle of it. I didn't really care for having this extra book in the middle that I had to read because it had something to do with the murder in the book that I was actually reading. Guess when I remembered? Yeah, another entire Atticus Pünd is in the middle of The Moonflower Murders. I don't want to read this one either, but now I'm stuck with it. I really hope I remember before I buy book 3, because apparently this whole "novel within a novel" is going to happen for all the books.

I just finished Magpie Murders, it was amazing!  Yes, there is a novel-within-a-novel, but what you fail to mention is that the novel-within-a-novel holds clues to the main mystery.  So one gets two mysteries that dovetail each other.  It really is a mastery of logistics.  I've only known Anthony Horowitz as the head writer of Foyle's War, and while FW was a great show, I didn't know AH was capable of such plot prestidigitation.  Magpie Murder was dense, there's no way I could read Moonflower Murders any time soon.

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I'm reading "Doan and Carstairs: Their Complete Cases" (ISBN 9781618272287) by Black Mask author Norbert Davis.  The book is an screwball mystery anthology of two novellas and three novels following the adventures of chubby, baby-faced hard-boiled dick Doan, and his assistant Carstairs, an enormous Great Dane with a superiority complex.  The books were written during the war (WWII) years.  

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On 12/27/2021 at 8:24 AM, sugarbaker design said:

I just finished Magpie Murders, it was amazing!  Yes, there is a novel-within-a-novel, but what you fail to mention is that the novel-within-a-novel holds clues to the main mystery.  So one gets two mysteries that dovetail each other.  It really is a mastery of logistics.  I've only known Anthony Horowitz as the head writer of Foyle's War, and while FW was a great show, I didn't know AH was capable of such plot prestidigitation.  Magpie Murder was dense, there's no way I could read Moonflower Murders any time soon.

I really liked both of these books, and enjoyed the novel within a novel format the series has. 

I also like his Hawthorne and Horowitz series. It's a bizarre author self insert (literally, he himself is a character in the books), but it has modern day Sherlock and Watson vibes and I enjoy the mysteries. They're not as dense as Magpie or Moonflower, but still well written. 

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On 12/27/2021 at 6:24 AM, sugarbaker design said:

I just finished Magpie Murders, it was amazing!  Yes, there is a novel-within-a-novel, but what you fail to mention is that the novel-within-a-novel holds clues to the main mystery.  So one gets two mysteries that dovetail each other.  It really is a mastery of logistics.  I've only known Anthony Horowitz as the head writer of Foyle's War, and while FW was a great show, I didn't know AH was capable of such plot prestidigitation.  Magpie Murder was dense, there's no way I could read Moonflower Murders any time soon.

 

15 hours ago, Jenniferbug said:

I really liked both of these books, and enjoyed the novel within a novel format the series has. 

Well, I finally finished. Nope, did not like.

Spoiler

There was absolutely no point to that book in the middle The "big clue" was on the dedication page of the middle novel, there was no reason for the rest of the book. Plus, I pretty much guessed the murderer (for both books) near the beginning.

 

7 hours ago, GaT said:

 

Well, I finally finished. Nope, did not like.

  Hide contents

There was absolutely no point to that book in the middle The "big clue" was on the dedication page of the middle novel, there was no reason for the rest of the book. Plus, I pretty much guessed the murderer (for both books) near the beginning.

 

That's typical of a lot of trilogies in any genre. I prefer a series, with each novel a standalone book, to a trilogy.  

I'm currently working on These Silent Woods by Kimi Cummingham Grant, with hopes to finish it before 2022 (which I should be able to easily do).  So far so good, but I'm worried that this book is so hyped right now that it might not live up to my artificially high expectations.  In retrospect, I probably should have waited for things around this title to calm down, but I'm far enough into it now that I don't want to stop.

Finished Never by Ken Follett over the holiday.   Follett is one of my favourite authors and is most famous for his historical fiction ("The Pillars of the Earth", its two sequels and a prequel).  He just released the Pillars prequel in late 2020 so I was a bit surprised he was able to release another 800 pager within about a year.  This book is his first standalone novel since "Whiteout" which was released about 15 years ago.

"Never" is a contemporary political thriller about international relations, diplomacy, espionage and war.  It has all the trademarks of his hefty historical epics... lots of characters, lots of plotlines.  While I enjoyed it, I do like his historical fiction better.  I am thankful that he was able to keep any real-life political commentary out of the book (I'm looking at you, Daniel Silva).

As I was reading and getting towards the end, I kept thinking that he was setting things up for a sequel, and the ending really surprised me.  Warning, detailed spoiler regarding the ending... 

Spoiler

North Korea dropped two nukes on South Korea, and killed thousands of South Koreans as well as U.S. citizens living at the military bases there.  The U.S. President responded by nuking most of North Korea.  China came to the aid of its ally and nuked Honolulu.  The President responded by launching 30 nukes at China.  Welcome to the end of the world. 

Truly truly depressing.  I was sure that, as with most books like this, common sense and heroism would prevail, but nope, everyone gets nuked.  I don't think there's going to be a sequel...

 

On 12/21/2021 at 10:12 AM, BlackberryJam said:

Just finished Not a Happy Family by Shari Lapena. It's good, not great. 

I am also a fan of the cozy mystery. It's like the fast food of reading. Quick, filling, doesn't cost a lot in time and energy and they help me escape reality for a while. 

My problem is that not that writers use the same formula, it's that they abuse it. They tick off those boxes and in doing so, fail to develop interesting characters. I do enjoy those with island settings though. There's something about a beach, a fruity drink and a dead body that makes a fun mystery. 

 

Curious, did you think it was better than "An Unexpected Guest"?  That's the only book of hers I've read and I thought it was terrible.

Agree about cozies, they are light reading.  Bonus if there is humour in them.  But I fully agree that the formula is abused.  And gets more and more implausible as the series continues.  Some of the series I read are now on their 8th or 9th book.  There has never been a murder in Sleepy Small Town USA until Plucky Heroine moved home a year ago, and now we are expected to believe that there have been NINE murders within a year!

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I decided to read the romance The Christmas Deal by Keira Andrews.  Seth needs a fiancé to get a promotion from his family oriented boss and Logan needs a home for himself and his step son after an accident at work left him unemployed. They fake a relationship but of course fall for each other along the way.  So far the step son is obnoxious but I have only just started so I am hoping he cools the hostility to his stepfather.  He hero worships his biological father who abandoned him and treats his stepfather like crap even though he’s the only one whose been there for him since his mother died. I know dynamics like that exist in real life.

2 hours ago, blackwing said:

 Curious, did you think it was better than "An Unexpected Guest"?  That's the only book of hers I've read and I thought it was terrible.

Agree about cozies, they are light reading.  Bonus if there is humour in them.  But I fully agree that the formula is abused.  And gets more and more implausible as the series continues.  Some of the series I read are now on their 8th or 9th book.  There has never been a murder in Sleepy Small Town USA until Plucky Heroine moved home a year ago, and now we are expected to believe that there have been NINE murders within a year!

The Unexpected Guest is Christie, a superior mystery. An Unwanted Guest is Lapena and it was so-so to me. Confusing titles.

I'm starting to prefer the woman sheriff stories because I'm tired of plucky small business owners who never think about quarterly taxes or workers' compensation insurance.

Emily Littlejohn has a good series with detective Gemma Monroe.

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I finished Clive Cussler's The Devil's Sea.  Yes, that's the actual title of the book.  This book is the latest in the Dirk Pitt series and is the first book solely authored by Dirk Cussler after the death of his father in early 2020.  The recent entries in this series were co-authored by Clive and Dirk.  I suspect that Clive only outlined the plot and did very little actual writing, because the Dirk Pitt series really declined after Dirk Cussler's name started showing up on the books.  It's obvious they want to keep Clive's name on the book to make them sell.

I believe the first Dirk Cussler book may have been the one that introduced Dirk Pitt's long lost heretofore unknown adult children, the twins Dirk and Summer.  Huge mistake.  Every book since then reads like two separate books.  Dirk Senior and Al Giordino are off doing one thing, while Dirk and Summer are doing another, and their paths don't cross much.

Quite simply, I found this book to be mindnumbingly boring and pedestrian.  A Dirk Pitt book used to be exciting.  It started off with a prologue in some long ago time that introduced some ancient artifact or treasure that was lost to history because of some calamity or disaster.  Then the action would shift to modern day, where Pitt found himself having to stop some power-hungry, larger-than-life megalomaniac.  The locations were great, the action was exciting.  Dirk Pitt was like a cross between Indiana Jones, James Bond and an underwater explorer.

Nowadays, the books are terrible.  The artifact in this book was some kind of Tibetan idol and I couldn't even tell you who the villain was (there may have been more than one?).  So disappointed with the way this series has gone.  I'm sure Dirk Cussler is going to continue cashing in on his father's name, despite the fact that he is an awful writer.  Le sigh.

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Just finished Hell of a Book by Jason Mott which won the National Book Award. It has an unusual plot and writing style, but it is a wonderful story exploring being Black in America, police shootings of Black people and long term effects of violence. I loved it. 

Edited by Madding crowd
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My last book of 2021 was Perversion of Justice: The Jeffrey Epstein Story by Julie K. Brown. It was soul-crushing, but at least I read it along after hearing the Ghislaine Maxwell verdict. 

These young girls were disposable to Epstein and the men (and women) who supported him. They enticed vulnerable girls and then made them complicit in the trafficking by convincing them to bring in their friends or encourage other young women to participate. 

I am so, so tired of people only wanting to hold these men accountable for crimes against “the perfect victim.” He was getting troubled young girls, those angry with their families, or who had no families. He used their poverty, their insecurity, their mental health against them. And when he was done, so many were left too weak to fight, and too messed up to be believed. 

I kind of hate the world after reading this book. It’s very well done and I recommend it. I just need something light now.

I just finished "The Pale Blue Eye" by Louis Bayard...I seem to recall someone else here was reading it as well. Extraordinarily well done and quite unique in giving a seemingly very authentic voice to characters living in 1830. I enjoyed it very much; it is not a traditional murder mystery in any way so don't read it expecting a "who dunnit" even though there is/are murders and there is a mystery.

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Just finished: The Overstory by Richard Powers (which won the Pulitzer in 2019), which unfolds over several decades and follows multiple characters as they deal with the looming threat of climate change, particularly as it relates to deforestation. I've always loved trees but this book made me appreciate them even more, so many species written about with such care. It doesn't offer much of a solution, but also doesn't get too defeatist either.

Next up: Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. Not sure how fun it will be to read a book about a pandemic when we're actually in the middle of a pandemic, but since this was published in 2014, at least it won't have any obnoxious winks to our current predicament.

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1 hour ago, helenamonster said:

Next up: Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. Not sure how fun it will be to read a book about a pandemic when we're actually in the middle of a pandemic, but since this was published in 2014, at least it won't have any obnoxious winks to our current predicament.

Station Eleven is a wonderful book that bears little resemblance to the show of the same name. 

Edited by Haleth
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On 1/1/2022 at 5:09 PM, isalicat said:

I just finished "The Pale Blue Eye" by Louis Bayard...I seem to recall someone else here was reading it as well. Extraordinarily well done and quite unique in giving a seemingly very authentic voice to characters living in 1830. I enjoyed it very much; it is not a traditional murder mystery in any way so don't read it expecting a "who dunnit" even though there is/are murders and there is a mystery.

I'm so glad you liked it, I'm a huge fan of Bayard, this one is his best.  I actually re-read it when a poster her mentioned it, I loved the contrasting prose of the protagonist (Landor?) and Poe!

 

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During the Christmas holidays began reading the first book of James Clavell's "Shogun". Read seven chapters so far (a chapter per day or so). Interesting so far. The book is set in the beginning of 17th century and tells a story about a captain of a privateer ship called "Erasmus" and his crew crashing on the unwelcoming shores of Japan, and trials and tribulations that face them. Since the Japanese deem the new-comers as filthy unwashed barbarians and the new-comers deem the Japanese as heretic barbarians its kind of an interesting clash of cultures.

Spoiler

But I get the feeling that somehow captain Blacktorn is going to be a daimyo (warlord) or participate in some civil war in not a minor fashion in the end of the book. Just an inkling suspicion.

 

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I loved, loved Shogun way back when, both the book and the series.  I know they were filming a remake limited series but it got pushed back due to covid.

I started Diana Gabaldon's latest, Go Tell the Bees that I am Gone.  100 or so pages in and Jamie and Claire have not had sex yet.  They talked about it, but have not done so yet. 🤣

Edited by Haleth
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I loved Shogun and rewatched the series last winter. I thought it held up pretty well for its age. I think that’s due to the good casting. (Swoon Richard Chamberlain) 
   I went off the grid with family for 5 days and read The Dark Hours by Michael Connelly. It’s the latest in the Harry Bosch series and he’s working with Renee Ballard. I enjoyed it. I also read Knots and Crosses by Ian Rankin. Another detective novel (his first) and I think I’ll read the next book to see where he goes with his character development. 
   Now I’m on to some non-fiction with The Gown

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I’m in the middle of reading Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. It reminds me a bit of Ready Player One because it involves people spending a lot of their lives in a virtual world but the writing style is different.  Snow Crash gives me 80s Noir Vibes.  I was very amused by the blurb saying the lead character’s name is Hiro Protagonist.  Society is lawless depending on what neighborhood you’re in and violence is rampant to the point that the mafia operates openly.  There’s a mafia booth at the local job fair, bill boards advertising for them and a boy scout type group they head called the Young Mafia.  Working in pizza delivery can be deadly and drivers have to be armed.   If your pizza doesn’t arrive in 30 minutes the driver won’t live very long when the mob owns the franchise.  So Hiro partners with a teen currier to investigate a new drug called Snow Crash that could have devastating consequences in the real and virtual world.  

I'm currently reading Priya Fielding-Singh's "How the Other Half Eats" where she follows different families (including four main families) from different ethno-cultural backgrounds and socio-economic classes on how they feed their children - how your wealth (or lack of it) influences the types of foods kids get (and she believes "food deserts" aren't the main cause) and how what you eat is a signifier of social status (i.e. if you're wealthier, you're able to expose your kids to more varieties of foods, perhaps making them less picky (ummm, NOOOOOO.  Picky kids are picky kids, regardless of wealth.  I grew up middle class and could have been exposed to ALL SORTS of foods.  Yet, I had maybe a small handful of things I'd eat when I was a child.  And none of it was chicken fingers and fries OR sweet and sour pork.  My palate has expanded a great deal since then...lol...

Edited by PRgal
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On 1/1/2022 at 2:09 PM, isalicat said:

I just finished "The Pale Blue Eye" by Louis Bayard...I seem to recall someone else here was reading it as well. Extraordinarily well done and quite unique in giving a seemingly very authentic voice to characters living in 1830. I enjoyed it very much; it is not a traditional murder mystery in any way so don't read it expecting a "who dunnit" even though there is/are murders and there is a mystery.

I'm reading it. I'm about nine tenths of the way through with it and I agree. It does take a while to get used to his writing style but once you do, it's an engrossing read. I can't wait to see the movie.

1 hour ago, peacheslatour said:

I can't wait to see the movie.

Movie!!???? Can you provide any more info? I am already casting this in my head...🤫 I would be particularly interested to know who would be writing the script and if Bayard is at all directly involved.

I vote for Jodie Comer as Lea Marquis! (she can wear contacts, okay)

Edited by isalicat
Bright idea after already hitting send!
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15 hours ago, isalicat said:

Movie!!???? Can you provide any more info? I am already casting this in my head...🤫 I would be particularly interested to know who would be writing the script and if Bayard is at all directly involved.

I vote for Jodie Comer as Lea Marquis! (she can wear contacts, okay)

From Imdb.com.

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18 hours ago, isalicat said:

Movie!!???? Can you provide any more info? I am already casting this in my head...🤫 I would be particularly interested to know who would be writing the script and if Bayard is at all directly involved.

I vote for Jodie Comer as Lea Marquis! (she can wear contacts, okay)

I like this idea a lot. Jodie Comer could play fucking Winston Churchill. She can play anything.  I wonder who Gillian Anderson is playing. Mrs. Marquis? Patsy?

Edited by peacheslatour
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3 hours ago, sugarbaker design said:

From Imdb.com.

Christian Bale as Gus Landor? He is a great actor but not what I had imagined - he seems too tall somehow. My ideal would be Matthew Rhys (because we know the accent would be no problem). I assume Gillian Anderson is Mrs. Marquis (she is too refined for Patsy and way too old for Lea Marquis). I'm not familiar with Lucy Boynton and there are a bunch of other young female actors listed here that don't make sense (there are only really three female characters and only one is less than 40 as I recall). Anyways...should be interesting!

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1 hour ago, isalicat said:

Christian Bale as Gus Landor? He is a great actor but not what I had imagined - he seems too tall somehow. My ideal would be Matthew Rhys (because we know the accent would be no problem). I assume Gillian Anderson is Mrs. Marquis (she is too refined for Patsy and way too old for Lea Marquis). I'm not familiar with Lucy Boynton and there are a bunch of other young female actors listed here that don't make sense (there are only really three female characters and only one is less than 40 as I recall). Anyways...should be interesting!

Maybe Gillian is playing Landor's wife in flashbacks? Yeah, I didn't really picture CB as Landor either. I was thinking of someone more like Paul Giamatti. Kind of world weary and the type who lives in his head.

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