WWW Wednesday

To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…

1) What are you currently reading?
2) What did you recently finish reading?
3) What do you think you’ll read next?

1)  Star, by Peter Biskind. It's a fascinating, compulsively readable biography of Warren Beatty. There's a lot about moviemaking, even more about women. As I wind toward the end, I wonder if his career really deserves such an exhaustive study.  He's only made 22 movies (compared to about 40 for his contemporary and chief competitor, Robert Redford), and really only about 6 were important. Though granted, Bonnie and Clyde is one of the great, influential American films. Instead I think Biskind named the book Star for a reason, for it's about how Beatty leveraged power and persona that played a bigger part in his career than his actual work.

2) MWF Seeking Same by Rachel Bertsche. I didn't finish this book, but alas, I am done with it. This began as a magazine article and, in my humble opinion, that's how it should have stayed. The premise is charming. A newly wed moves to Chicago and wants to find a new BFF. The author claims this is hard to do once you're out of the dorm. But expanding the story to book length doesn't enhance it. There's a sameness to her "friend dates." Plus, as the book wore on, I realized I didn't really like Rachel that much. So I ditched it and moved on.


3) LA Mental by Neil McMahon. A psychological thriller set in Los Angeles. According to the foreword, James Patterson loved it, so I know what to expect -- a literary candy bar that's plenty of fun while it lasts. All the studio politics, the on-set clashes and the sexual sturm und drang of Beatty makes me long for some mindless literary empty calories.