Sunday Morning Book Thread 12-21-2014: Christmas Time Is Here [OregonMuse]

"...And To All A Good Night."

Good morning morons and moronettes and welcome to AoSHQ's stately, prestigious, and high-class Sunday Morning Book Thread. The only AoSHQ thread that is so hoity-toity, pants are required. Or kilts. Kilts are OK, too. But not tutus.

A Short Book Review By Vic

1 Good Morning Morons. Today is Monday, December 15, 2014. On This day in 1939 Gone With The Wind premiered in Atlanta, GA. I thought the movie was OK but the book blew chunks.

Posted by: Vic at December 15, 2014 06:46 AM (u9gzs)

Shorter Vic: actually, that's about as short as it gets.

Who You Gonna Call?

From the sidebar article earlier this week, The 30 Scariest Wikipedia Pages You'll Ever See, comes 50 Berkeley Square:

Described as the most haunted house in London, this posh address has had reports of ghost sightings for about 250 years now. Though stories vary, one legend has it that the attic is haunted by the ghost of a young woman who killed herself after being abused by her uncle. At least two people staying there have reportedly died of fright, and even former resident — and 18th-century British prime minister — George Canning claimed to have had paranormal experiences there.

Well, who cares? Why am I taking up space on the book thread with this? Because of this:

The townhouse is now home to the Maggs Bros. antiquarian booksellers. Shop at your own peril.

Heh. The Maggs Bros. Ltd. web site is here. I wouldn't mind visiting it should I ever visit London. This 2010 article from the Guardian discusses the store's history and current operation. Nothing about ghosts, though.

More Neologisms

This time it's 11 Terrific Words Coined By John Milton. And we're talking basic, ordinary words like 'terrific' and 'enjoyable'. Also, 'space.'

Well, someone had to be the first to use them.

Another Business Model For Bookstores

Brick-and-mortar bookstores are having a hard time competing with online sellers such as Amazon. But in Tawain, they've found a business model that seems to be working:

The Eslite Group, which owns an enterprising chain of bookstores in Taiwan and Hong Kong, thinks so. While bookstores in countries across the world struggle to survive, business at the Taiwanese book chain is booming, and observers credit the chain's unusual model.

Eslite bookstores are open 24 hours and they're more nightclubs than bookstores:

The 24-hour store at Taipei's Dunhua Road location has five floors, each dedicated to different categories, like fashion, music, food or events. Customers - which include both middle-aged literati and young hipsters - stand or sit on small steps, reading tables, or on the floor reading and chatting quietly as classical music emanates from speakers. Many stores also have small cafes and restaurants where customers can enjoy a book or hang out with friends.

So what they've done is take a bookstore as a place where you buy your stuff and then leave, and turned it into a place where you hang out. Many bookstores have chairs and couches where you can sit down and read, but this is taking it to a whole new level.

Can something like that work here? I don't know, but it certainly won't for me. When I buy a book, the first thing I want to do is take it home and read it, not hang around and spend even money on stuff I don't need.

How Much Would You Pay For Some of These?

Many of us use AbeBooks as a good source for used books, and many can be picked up relatively inexpensively. But that's definitely not the case with these, AbeBooks' 50 Most Expensive Sales of 2014. It's fun to scan through the list and see what I'd buy if I was insanely rich and had money to burn. I might buy the 1867 edition of Das Kapital for $40,000 just to give my irony meter a good workout. But a Le Carre first edition signed by the author for $22,500? No.

Other than that, I think I'd like the 1969 Random House Alice in Wonderland, signed by Salvador Dali, who provided twelve color plates for this edition. Only $11,500. Dali seems like he'd be an appropriate illustrator for a book like Alice.

Thanks to moron commenter 'Mike Hammer' for tipping me to this.

Conservative Fiction - I

I've been putting off mentioning the Liberty Island conservative writing site even though it's been up and running for some time now. Perhaps this was a mistake. But I have mixed feelings about these sorts of self-consciously "conservative" endeavors. On the one had, conservatives ought to write and be involved at all levels of book publishing. But I don't like these self-imposed enclaves we put ourselves in, although maybe we have little other choice.

I think self-identified conservatives today, especially in the arts, are treated like Jews living in medieval Europe. That is, they're very much despised by all "right thinking" (SWIDT?) folk, and their presence is barely tolerated, just so long as they never venture out of the ghetto.

Anyway, the occasion this late mention is that I got an email this week from David Dubrow, author of The Blessed Man and the Witch, telling me that LI has just wrapped up their "Non-Traditional Holiday Fiction" short story competition, and while Mr. Dubrow didn't win, he was a runner up.

His story, which he would very much like you to read, is Get the Greek: A Chrismukkah Tale.

There's lots of other holiday-themed fiction over on the LI site. I am happy to see that moronette Elizabeth Wolfe was given an honorable mention for her holiday story Like Water For Stone.

Conservative Fiction - II

But there are exceptions, of course. Every now and then a conservative writer will break out of the ghetto and run amuck, much to the consternation of the right thinking folk. Such an author is John Ringo, who has been mentioned and recommended many times on the book thread. Currently, I'm reading The Hot Gate, which is the third book in his Troy Rising series. Very enjoyable, very exciting, and every now and then, Ringo gets in a good conservative rant, and those are very fun. And the rants fit in very much with the flow of the story, they don't read like they're pasted on artificially.

The Spy Who Stayed Out In The Cold

CIA mole Aldrich Ames was one of the most destructive traitors in the history of the U.S. He personally burned at least 11 Soviet intelligence officers who were secretly working for us, most of whom were taken out and shot. The two main CIA counterintelligence agents who led the efforts to discover and smoke out Ames, Sandra Grimes and Jeanne Vertefeuille, collaborated on a book about their investigation, Circle of Treason: CIA Traitor Aldrich Ames and the Men He Betrayed.

This book came to my attention because Mrs. Muse and I watched the 2014 ABC miniseries The Assets, which we enjoyed very much.

I was very surprised and disappointed when I learned that The Assets got very mediocre reviews. And I guess the ratings must've been pretty lousy, too, because ABC cancelled it after airing 2 episodes. We were thankful that we could watch all of it on Netflix, where it's currently available on streaming video.

One of the things I liked about the series is that the story being told, while not explicitly conservative, rests on a bed on conservative assumptions, i.e. we're the good guys, the Soviets are the bad guys, Ames is an actual traitor who did the country great harm (instead of being some misguided idealist), the CIA counterintelligence agents need to conduct their investigation according to the rules of law, while the KGB just shoots guys in the head. There were no moral equivalence games or tiresome lectures about American imperialism.

Of course, maybe that was why some of the critics didn't like it.

Final Question

What books or other gifts are you getting for the book-lovers on your Christmas list this year?

___________

So that's all for this week. As always, book thread tips, suggestions, bribes, rumors, threats, and insults may be sent to OregonMuse, Proprietor, AoSHQ Book Thread, at the book thread e-mail address: aoshqbookthread, followed by the 'at' sign, and then 'G' mail, and then dot cee oh emm.

What have you all been reading this week? Hopefully something good, because, as you all know, life is too short to be reading lousy books.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 09:08 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 Hello, book thread...

Posted by: Ricardo Kill at December 21, 2014 09:03 AM (BNIaE)

2 Nice, roomy thread we got here....

Posted by: Ricardo Kill at December 21, 2014 09:16 AM (BNIaE)

3 Yeah, that was a pretty short review. I made it through about 1/3 of the book and I kept waiting for the plot to pick up the pace. It never did. It was slower than pond scum. There aren't very many books that I never finish once I start, but that is one of them.

Posted by: Vic at December 21, 2014 09:18 AM (u9gzs)

4 Guns at Last Light, Rick Atkinson. Very readable history of US Army in Europe in 1944-1945. Dry wit, too. Atkinson describes the response to escalating VD rates this way: "Eisenhower counter-attacked by ..."

Posted by: Phil at December 21, 2014 09:19 AM (4HYng)

5 "Eisenhower counter-attacked by ..."

Well....?

Posted by: Ricardo Kill at December 21, 2014 09:22 AM (BNIaE)

6 Bookmarked that Liberty Island site so I can go back later to investigate.

Posted by: Vic at December 21, 2014 09:22 AM (u9gzs)

7 not much freetime lately, just pawing through some English civil war rules like witchfinder general and for king parliament or glory, the latter of which I knocked up on lulu rather than keep in pdf

Posted by: Bigby's Knuckle Sandwich at December 21, 2014 09:23 AM (Cq0oW)

8 Apollo by Murray and Cox. The history of Apollo program from the perspective of planning, administration, and technology. Very little mention of the astronauts.

Posted by: Joe at December 21, 2014 09:25 AM (4HYng)

9 I have been reading John Ringo since he first started being published. I have all of his books except his latest one. I no longer buy paper books and I am waiting for the Kindle version to come down. Then I will get it. In fact I just finished rereading his March Up Country series, only this time on the Kindle. They have a "deal" going on these for the Kindle where they have combined the first two and last two into single volumes for about $8. Its a good chance to read some of his stuff if you haven't before..

Posted by: Vic at December 21, 2014 09:26 AM (u9gzs)

10 What books or other gifts are you getting for the book-lovers on your Christmas list this year?

I don't get books (or movies) for people unless I know specifically they want them and don't plan on buying them for themselves.

Posted by: Vic at December 21, 2014 09:28 AM (u9gzs)

11 "Apollo by Murray and Cox. The history of Apollo program from the perspective of planning, administration, and technology."

Actually pretty fascinating. The contractors. The planners. The program plan.

"We're going to the moon in 7 years. How? That's what we've gotta figure out."

Posted by: Ricardo Kill at December 21, 2014 09:28 AM (BNIaE)

12 can't say I know a lot of book lovers anymore. readers, sure, but physical books seem more PITA now unless the person has a specific need for it, like a kid's book, a cookbook, a rules set, etc

Posted by: Bigby's Knuckle Sandwich at December 21, 2014 09:28 AM (Cq0oW)

13 can't say I know a lot of book lovers anymore.

I still love books, but not enough to pack and unpack them every 2-3 years. My husband still buys works of non-fiction in print.

Posted by: no good deed at December 21, 2014 09:32 AM (w3a0Z)

14 5
"Eisenhower counter-attacked by ..."

Well....?

---
Sorry.

"The U.S. Army ... considered a [VD infection] rate below 30 cases in 1000 to be 'acceptable'; by mid-October the rate in Europe was twice that. It doubled again among the Army Air Forces and -- at 222 per 1000 -- was sevenfold the 'acceptable' figure ... Confronted by yet another threat to Allied strength, Eisenhower counterattacked by declaring 'all brothels, bordellos and similar establishments" off limits...."

Posted by: Phil at December 21, 2014 09:33 AM (4HYng)

15 "So what they've done is take a bookstore as a place where you buy your
stuff and then leave, and turned it into a place where you hang out."

I had a couple hours to kill in Salt Lake waiting for my flight once and I had already seen enough of Temple Square to last a lifetime so I went into a coffeehouse. They had lots of used books for sale cheap, worked out good for me, had something to read besides a newspaper.

Posted by: lowandslow at December 21, 2014 09:34 AM (BXkFh)

16 I like Troy Rising.

Posted by: @votermom at December 21, 2014 09:34 AM (nm0eZ)

17 I love you all picking on Vic. Something tells me that if you so to far you might get this....

http://tinyurl.com/9awcrfw

Posted by: Nip Sip at December 21, 2014 09:35 AM (0FSuD)

18 i have a bookcase filled with my must have favorite ones and i expect it won't survive much past my life and wind up donated or thrown out, unread.

Posted by: Bigby's Knuckle Sandwich at December 21, 2014 09:36 AM (Cq0oW)

19 11
"Apollo by Murray and Cox. The history of Apollo program from the perspective of planning, administration, and technology."

Actually pretty fascinating. The contractors. The planners. The program plan.

"We're going to the moon in 7 years. How? That's what we've gotta figure out."

***

Considering that the country that built Apollo is as dead as Rome, reading about how they did Apollo is like reading how the Romans built roads and aqueducts.

Posted by: Joe at December 21, 2014 09:37 AM (4HYng)

20 "by declaring 'all brothels, bordellos and similar establishments" off limits...."

Ahhhhh....

Posted by: Ricardo Kill at December 21, 2014 09:37 AM (BNIaE)

21 I bought my Dad and my sister Sony PRS 300s.
Sony is no longer making them, and there are more complicated and more sophisticated readers out there, but I wanted something bare-bones so as not to confuse my dear, non-technical relatives.
I then loaded some books on them and will help them get stuff they actually like.

And they were $45 each online

See? Obsolete has its uses.

Posted by: Kindltot at December 21, 2014 09:38 AM (t//F+)

22 Make sure I don't fcuk up the thread.

Posted by: Ricardo Kill at December 21, 2014 09:38 AM (BNIaE)

Posted by: Kindltot at December 21, 2014 09:38 AM (t//F+)

24 Fcuk!

Posted by: Ricardo Kill at December 21, 2014 09:39 AM (BNIaE)

25 Yum!

Posted by: The Barrel at December 21, 2014 09:39 AM (0NwhT)

26 *The Hot Gate* is probably the *Troy Rising* book I liked the least, but it's still pretty good. I got the impression that the bits about the Latin American officer class probably came from personal experience.

It's a shame that Ringo seems to have lost interest in the *Toy Rising* series. It would take at least one more book to finish the main plot line, if not two or three.

Posted by: jic at December 21, 2014 09:39 AM (jynCd)

27 Hello, Barrel.

Posted by: Ricardo Kill at December 21, 2014 09:40 AM (BNIaE)

28 I just finished "Fierce Patriot: The Tangled Lives of William Tecumseh Sherman".

Interesting guy. He was given to talking without filtering his words first so he left all sorts of cogent quotes. His relationships with his adoptive family, his wife, his Children and the Catholic Church are worth reading about. He was a son of one prominent family (His brother John wrote the Sherman Anti-Trust Act) who was raised by another prominent family (Thomas Ewing was a Senator as well as Secretary of the Treasury and Secretary of the Interior) after his father died. There are many photographs of Sherman in his rumpled uniform during the Civil War but it is seldom mentioned that Sherman had that uniform made for him at Brooks Brothers.

Posted by: Obnoxious A-Hole at December 21, 2014 09:42 AM (PD6iL)

29 Are we sure Joe shouldn't be in the Barrel? I think Ricardo was a little to eager to jump in it.

Posted by: lowandslow at December 21, 2014 09:46 AM (BXkFh)

30 Maybe it was Joe. But he's a new guy so I'll take the hit.

Posted by: Ricardo Kill at December 21, 2014 09:48 AM (BNIaE)

31 Been reading an older book about Reckless the Marine horse. Wasn't willing to pay asking price on Kindle for the newest version (which was recommended here) so got the oldest version despite warnings in the reviews that the book had been moved to e-version in a very shoddy way. The reviews were absolutely right. I can block out the problems but am concerned Son will have a hard time with it since he isn't hugely fond of reading the way it is.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at December 21, 2014 09:49 AM (GDulk)

32 I'm almost certainly going to get an Uncle John's Bathroom Reader. Wife picked one up at a book fair 12 years ago and now we have at least 6 in each bathroom.

Posted by: Buck Farky at December 21, 2014 09:49 AM (0wiDy)

33 17
I love you all picking on Vic. Something tells me that if you so to far you might get this....

http://tinyurl.com/9awcrfw

Posted by: Nip Sip at December 21, 2014 09:35 AM (0FSuD)

Love that movie, but I don't think anyone was picking on me.

Posted by: Vic at December 21, 2014 09:50 AM (u9gzs)

34 Finishing "King of the Weeds" by Mickey Spillane and Max Allen Collins. The "penultimate" Mike Hammer novel. I think old Mickey would have been happy with it. Recommended.

***

About one half through "No Hero: The Evolution of a Navy Seal" by Mark Owen (author of "No Easy Day.")

A bit different from the other Seal books I've read. The author wanted to be a Seal from his early teens, but also says that most of the elite special forces are comparable. Doesn't spend any significant time on BUD/S. The focus is on how Seals confront their fears and weaknesses, ultimately overcoming them.

Continuous improvement, via candid After Action Report sessions, is key to the Seal culture. A bit like Japanese Kaizen.

It also covers how the author managed his fears through intense focus, desensitization by repeatedly confronting them, and determination to always be the best. "All in, all the time."

Entertaining, but also much more illustrative of the Seal culture than the other books I've read. It makes me respect them more to see how they handle their incredibly difficult missions. Not super men, but highly skilled and determined to complete the mission, no matter what.

Posted by: doug at December 21, 2014 09:52 AM (HvaM/)

35 I still get books on Christmas/my birthday. It's become almost a joke. For years, whenever anyone would ask me what I wanted, I'd always say "books". When I was a kid, my mother had to cajole me into coming up with something else, lest all I receive was a stack of tomes. So, I started asking for pets. Got a few lizards, hamsters, turtles that way.

Posted by: Lincolntf at December 21, 2014 09:53 AM (2cS/G)

36 Last week, I happened to hear Glenn Beck mention this book on his radio show:

As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride

http://tinyurl.com/p2lcl9c

--which is a PERFECT gift for my wife this year. I got her the novel a few years ago, and it's been one of her favorite movies for years now.

Got it, wrapped it, and stuck it in the gift closet already.

Posted by: --- at December 21, 2014 09:53 AM (MMC8r)

37 Rob Lowe, closet conservative?

Posted by: Ricardo Kill at December 21, 2014 09:53 AM (BNIaE)

38
Hello from Way Down Here and I would like to wish you a Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year - to OregonMuse, and all the people who visit this thread each week

We went Christmas pressie shoppingyesterday (Sunday) and on the list for family members were a number of books - some are still readers

"Bridget Jones - Mad About the Boy" by Helen Fielding and "1912 - The Year the World Discovered Antarctica" by Chris Turney

Although I have just realised Chris Turney is Professor of Climate Change at the UNSW and was the idiot who last year got stuck fast in sea ice while on a trip to prove Antarctica was melting and had to be rescued!

Posted by: aussie at December 21, 2014 09:53 AM (b/1aA)

39 Two authors that would be considered conservative today were Christopher Anvil and Murry Leinster. Their stories are just a delight to read. I am not sure if Anvil ever popped out a story that wasn't worse than 'pretty darned good' and Leinster, if a little more erratic, he wrote multiple genres from the 20's to the 70's, he wrote some really interesting "puzzle' type stories for Astounding..

Of course, for classic conservative science fiction try anything by Eric Frank Russell. The man who developed the concept of "taking the piss out" to the universe at large.

The short story "And then there were none" is in the expanded book, The Great Explosion, and was not only my first taste of his work, but in many ways his best.

I read it in 9th grade I think. (as the twig is bent...)

Posted by: Kindltot at December 21, 2014 09:54 AM (t//F+)

40 Posted by: Nip Sip at December 21, 2014 09:35 AM (0FSuD)

To the Horde Vic will always be the wise elder statesman who trained the child Methuselah.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at December 21, 2014 09:54 AM (GDulk)

41 Posted by: Obnoxious A-Hole at December 21, 2014 09:42 AM (PD6iL)

Son has been reading Sheridan's memoirs (also recommended here as an easier read than Grant's, which he had struggled with due to the emphasis on geography he was unfamiliar with) and was interested to find out that Sheridan had known Sherman for quite a while before the Civil War.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at December 21, 2014 09:57 AM (GDulk)

42 ""1912 - The Year the World Discovered Antarctica" by Chris Turney"

Interesting.

Posted by: Ricardo Kill at December 21, 2014 09:57 AM (BNIaE)

43 RE: John Ringo Troy Rising series. My feeling was that he provided a semi-ending at the 3rd book but allowed it to be kinda open so he could pick it back up if he wanted.

It seems that the new trend among publishers is to have open ended series that go on forever plus one day. Like movie producers, they have become "risk adverse" and want their authors to make sure they can continue the series if it is successful.

Posted by: Vic at December 21, 2014 09:58 AM (u9gzs)

44 2014 - The Year Chris Turney Discovered Irony

Posted by: Lincolntf at December 21, 2014 09:59 AM (2cS/G)

45 If anyone is wanting to read some manly lit, check out Thom Jones' "The Pugilist at Rest." It's a collection of short stories written by a former Marine, boxer, and janitor. I think most of the stories are semi-autobiographical. He writes in a very spare, beautiful way. It won a Newberry Book Award, something that would most likely NOT happen today, because no homo/minority/commie agenda.

Posted by: Brave Sir Robin at December 21, 2014 10:00 AM (5buP8)

46 Posted by: Brave Sir Robin at December 21, 2014 10:00 AM (5buP

Doesn't seem to be on Kindle.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at December 21, 2014 10:03 AM (GDulk)

47
Shopping for others also was shopping for myself

Being totally absorbed in all things ancient Rome, I picked up these books

" Hadrian and the Triumph of Rome" by Anthony Everitt and "Rome - the Autobiography" edited by Jon E Lewis

Of course, I need to finish " The Complete Works of Suetonius" on my Kindle first... the little % thing at the bottom of the page has hit 22%

Perhaps if I give up work, family life and being on the internet, I might finish reading all the unread books lying around the house, and on my Kindle

Posted by: aussie at December 21, 2014 10:03 AM (b/1aA)

48 I read an average of 2 books a week and have done so for the last decade-- this is no brag but simply a qualifier-- I've just finished the most fascinating book that I've read in years-- "The Physics of The Dead" by Luke Smitherd. It's a unique piece of fiction of the type I've never read before-- please at least try a sample (if you have a kindle) or buy a copy or borrow it from the library. I don't even know in what genre it should be labeled-- read it!

Posted by: tomc at December 21, 2014 10:04 AM (avEuh)

49 This seems like it deserves some attention.

Three weeks ago the NYPD Patrolmen's Union issued a warning to its members about the Black Guerillas targeting NYPD officers over Ferguson and Staten Island.

Posted by: Radeaminit at December 21, 2014 10:04 AM (4HYng)

50 46 Posted by: Brave Sir Robin at December 21, 2014 10:00 AM (5buP

Doesn't seem to be on Kindle.

It was published in the mid eighties. You might be forced into finding a copy made out of trees.

Posted by: Brave Sir Robin at December 21, 2014 10:06 AM (5buP8)

51
44 Lincolntf

Good one, and I feel like burning the book - however it's a gift for a committed climate change believer in the family

Posted by: aussie at December 21, 2014 10:06 AM (b/1aA)

52 Being newly liberated, I'm giving everyone Rules for Radicals.

There will be a quiz.

Posted by: El Presidente* Bullworth at December 21, 2014 10:07 AM (ePnKH)

53 "2014 - The Year Chris Turney Discovered Irony"

I don't know the book but I don't think that's meant completely literally. 1912, Scott Expedition that died but took a lot of pics and made many notations.

Posted by: Ricardo Kill at December 21, 2014 10:11 AM (BNIaE)

54 Did the Norks hit AoS HQ? Surely there are bigger fish to fry?

Posted by: Brave Sir Robin at December 21, 2014 10:11 AM (5buP8)

55 I just want you to know that every Sunday i wake up and check the book thread, and every Sunday i am shunned and discriminated against for my tutu!
What sort of a place is this?

Posted by: suger plum fairy #774-357-01 at December 21, 2014 10:12 AM (AYvi0)

56 Or is everybody that hungover?

Posted by: Brave Sir Robin at December 21, 2014 10:13 AM (5buP8)

57 Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you, aussie!

Posted by: OregonMuse at December 21, 2014 10:13 AM (H5y3n)

58 "56
Or is everybody that hungover?"

Not. So. Loud.

Posted by: Ricardo Kill at December 21, 2014 10:15 AM (BNIaE)

59 Posted by: suger plum fairy #774-357-01 at December 21, 2014 10:12 AM (AYvi0)

Is that a protected minority? Cause you surely can file a grievance. The LGBTSPF lobby will surely help you out.

Posted by: Brave Sir Robin at December 21, 2014 10:15 AM (5buP8)

60 aussie, if you like Rome and haven't listened to it, the Dan Carlin series on it entitled Death Thoes of the Republic is very good. Bonus is he often includes his reading lists at his site.

Equally worth it as a supplement is Thor`s Angels, where he discusses the german tribes and Dark Ages in context to Rome.

Posted by: Bigby's Knuckle Sandwich at December 21, 2014 10:16 AM (Cq0oW)

61 thoes = throes

sorry

Posted by: Bigby's Knuckle Sandwich at December 21, 2014 10:17 AM (Cq0oW)

62 What sort of a place is this?
Posted by: suger plum fairy #774-357-01 at December 21, 2014 10:12 AM (AYvi0)

The sort of place that would rather you shave your legs and occasionally wash the barbeque sauce off your leotard. And some starch wouldn't be amiss.

Posted by: Kindltot at December 21, 2014 10:18 AM (t//F+)

63 58
"56

Or is everybody that hungover?"

Not. So. Loud.

Posted by: Ricardo Kill at December 21, 2014 10:15 AM (BNIaE)

Went to a dance last night. If a band can't be good, they have to be loud. I can barely hear myself. Seriously dangerous noise.

Posted by: Nip Sip at December 21, 2014 10:18 AM (0FSuD)

64 19 Joe,

We still can't rellicate Roman mortar....

Posted by: sven10077 at December 21, 2014 10:20 AM (/4AZU)

65 rellicate

??

Posted by: OregonMuse at December 21, 2014 10:21 AM (H5y3n)

66 We still can't rellicate Roman mortar....

Posted by: sven10077 at December 21, 2014 10:20 AM (/4AZU)

or spellcheck

Posted by: Hrothgar at December 21, 2014 10:21 AM (fL/7/)

67 Nip, years ago I went to a wedding reception that featured a band. My GF at the time who used to do technical theater was muttering about half way through about why you NEVER let the sound-board operator drink.

Posted by: Kindltot at December 21, 2014 10:21 AM (t//F+)

68 I rellicated last night. She did not like it.

Posted by: Ricardo Kill at December 21, 2014 10:22 AM (BNIaE)

69 Romans had mortars?

jazuz what didn't they invent?

Posted by: Bigby's Knuckle Sandwich at December 21, 2014 10:22 AM (Cq0oW)

70 The Roman aqueducts could never be built today because they'd still be filling out environmental impact paperwork!

Posted by: Hrothgar at December 21, 2014 10:23 AM (fL/7/)

71 I finished The Martian which was wildly wildly wildly too full of science and math for my leisure time reading. Good story though. Half done with my bff's choice of book, The Storied Life of AJ Fikry. Meh. Chick lit. Next I'm going to read Last Train to Paradise. About the RR that Flagler wanted to build to the Florida Keys. That's one I picked for myself.

Posted by: NCKate at December 21, 2014 10:23 AM (C9K75)

72 Ben Elton, the Brit writer behind TV shows "The Young Ones', "Blackadder", and some novels like "Popcorn" that I've enjoyed-

has a newish novel out, titled,-

"Time and Time Again".

That deals with historical assassination via time travel.

Only instead of the usual kill Adolph Hitler scenario, the protagonist of "Time and Time Again", Stanton, goes back in time to prevent the trigger for WWI, the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and then for good measure take out the man who wanted war the most, Kaiser Wilhelm.

Then, according to the plan: No WWI and life is beautiful thereafter for ever and ever.

Sounds interesting, right?

And for the first 85-90% of the novel it is-

The time travel method is fun -

basically Isaac Newton discovered the nature of time. It's a bit like a slinky with a kink in it.

And "where/when" the kink occurs it allows a tiny moment in a tiny space where 2024 and 1914 simultaneously exist.

And Elton has obviously read and studied the classic -

"Rogue Male" by Geoffrey Household(a far better novel)

and for 85-90% of the book reads a lot like an updated time travelly "Rogue Male".

Then-

the whole thing just goes tits up.

Elton throws away pretty much everything he's built up to end the novel in the absolutely lamest "Twilight Zone"-style of recurring nightmare-it's all happened before and will all happen again- type baloney possible.

It's obvious that he lost interest in the book because as lame as that ending is, it's severely rushed. Almost like novelist's notes on what he was going to do.

And...and worst of all, the action that leads to the end is nonsensical. Absolutely, out of Staton's character and thinking. And one other character's thinking.

This is one of those frustrating books, where I'd like to enter a time loop, go back in time and shoot the author in the head just as he's about to ruin his own novel-

then rewrite the end because it's so frikkin' obvious where the novel should go(but I can't tell you without massive spoilers)-

and avoid the horrible future where I waste hours reading a novel that totally shits the bed at the end...

Oh....and I decide to make a larger batch of eggnog, cuz dayum!!! that batch was good.

Anyway, avoid this novel at all costs, or-

if you're the type of reader who likes their sex to be premature and unsatisfying-

please, by all means, indulge yourself.

Sidenote: Ben Elton is a longtime socialist/commie so there are some, not too many, but some, leftard statements/plot points that will just annoy the dog shit out of you. So, if you need another reason not to read this steaming pile- there you go.

Posted by: naturalfake at December 21, 2014 10:23 AM (KBvAm)

73 fire truck is going through the neighborhood with sirens blaring and santa atop for the last hour. kid is sleeping through it thank God

wtf

Posted by: Bigby's Knuckle Sandwich at December 21, 2014 10:24 AM (Cq0oW)

74
57 OregonMuse

Thanks, and also thanks yet again for this wonderful thread - and it's given me so many good books to read - most enjoyable!

Posted by: aussie at December 21, 2014 10:25 AM (b/1aA)

75 Thanks OM, I needed something new to check-out on Netflix.

Posted by: sawhorse at December 21, 2014 10:25 AM (jm3+c)

76 Damn, natch, I think I lost some time there myself.

Posted by: Ricardo Kill at December 21, 2014 10:25 AM (BNIaE)

77 66 hrothgar,

I'm on cap'n caveman's nook....

Vic how do you turn auto correct on in Babylonian?

Posted by: sven10077 at December 21, 2014 10:25 AM (/4AZU)

78
60Bigby's Knuckle Sandwich

Hi, and thanks for that - I'll search for Dan Carlin's site

Posted by: aussie at December 21, 2014 10:27 AM (b/1aA)

79 Umm - thanks for the books about W.T. Sherman, guys - I will search them out for research, as I intend that he will be a character in my next book. He was actually in California in the right time frame ... and I like to work interesting people into my books.

Books as gifts - I haven't bought much other than children's books for my niece and nephew. They get classic children's adventures. There is a writer named Sally Watson who wrote wonderful historical adventures aimed at teen girls, mostly. I bought her one of those, and another - The Sherwood Ring, by Elizabeth Marie Pope. My nephew got Marie McSwigan's Snow Treasure - a WWII adventure about how children helped smuggle Norway's gold out of the country.
Other than that, reading Sharon McCrumb's King's Mountain, on the evenings when I can keep my eyes open long enough.

Posted by: Sgt Mom at December 21, 2014 10:27 AM (95iDF)

80
Bedtime, so have a wonderful yesterday everyone!
Happy reading...

Posted by: aussie at December 21, 2014 10:29 AM (b/1aA)

81 Later, aussie....

Posted by: Ricardo Kill at December 21, 2014 10:29 AM (BNIaE)

82 "73
fire truck is going through the neighborhood with sirens blaring and santa atop for the last hour."

On a Sunday morning? What shit for brains thought that was a good idea?

Posted by: lowandslow at December 21, 2014 10:30 AM (BXkFh)

83 I read an average of 2 books a week and have done so for the last decade-- this is no brag but simply a qualifier-- I've just finished the most fascinating book that I've read in years-- "The Physics of The Dead" by Luke Smitherd. It's a unique piece of fiction of the type I've never read before-- please at least try a sample (if you have a kindle) or buy a copy or borrow it from the library. I don't even know in what genre it should be labeled-- read it!

{Posted by: tomc at December 21, 2014 10:04 AM (avEuh)

I like Smitherd. He's a good writer.

i loved his book, "The Stone Man" and recommended it a few weeks ago.

I also read his novella, "The Man at Table Ten" this week.

It's very "Twilight Zone"y, well written and all, but you'll be able to guess exactly where it's going.

Still it's well done, and worth reading, but-

I'd go for "The Stone Man" first.

Posted by: naturalfake at December 21, 2014 10:31 AM (KBvAm)

84 "Ben Elton is a longtime socialist/commie"

It's always good to know these things so that I can avoid giving any evil capitalist profits to such authors.

Posted by: torquewrench at December 21, 2014 10:31 AM (noWW6)

85 Sgt Mom:

Memoirs of P. H. Sheridan
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/4362

Memoirs of General W. T Sherman
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/4361

I haven't read the Sherman yet, I'm part way through Sheridan.

Posted by: Kindltot at December 21, 2014 10:37 AM (t//F+)

86 77 Vic how do you turn auto correct on in Babylonian?

Posted by: sven10077 at December 21, 2014 10:25 AM (/4AZU)

Tried to post the ancient cuneiform command but kept getting 500 error because pixy would not take it.

Posted by: Vic at December 21, 2014 10:39 AM (u9gzs)

87 Vic how do you turn auto correct on in Babylonian?
Wake the Hebrew slave and have him do it.

Posted by: andycanuck at December 21, 2014 10:40 AM (AbfZY)

88 ...a WWII adventure about how children helped smuggle Norway's gold out of the country.
So they killed kids; wrote fake Irish or Swedish birth certificates for them; then shipped the gold out hidden in the caskets. That's heartwarming.

Posted by: andycanuck at December 21, 2014 10:44 AM (AbfZY)

89 Tried to post the ancient cuneiform command but kept getting 500 error because pixy would not take it.

Well, at least you didn't get a bunch of black diamonds.

Posted by: OregonMuse at December 21, 2014 10:46 AM (H5y3n)

90 Ringo has a new series out, Black Tide Rising the last volume of which is coming out next month.

1.. Under a Graveyard Sky
2. To Sail a Darkling Sea
3. Islands of Rage and Hope
4. Strands of Sorrow

Posted by: Emily Nelson at December 21, 2014 10:46 AM (Ao5fh)

91 It's hard to find good time travel stories.

Posted by: @votermom at December 21, 2014 10:47 AM (cbfNE)

92 the whole Writing on the wall thinger was the Jew IT guy fixing the Kings PC and big screen monitor

Posted by: Bigby's Knuckle Sandwich at December 21, 2014 10:47 AM (Cq0oW)

93 67
Nip, years ago I went to a wedding reception that featured a band. My GF
at the time who used to do technical theater was muttering about half
way through about why you NEVER let the sound-board operator drink.

Posted by: Kindltot at December 21, 2014 10:21 AM (t//F+)

True dat. These idiots had the speakers in the front, so THEY would not get blown away. Seriously dangerous. Small place, screaming band of brothers trying their best to be James Brown, or something.
Awful.

Posted by: Nip Sip at December 21, 2014 10:47 AM (0FSuD)

94 73 fire truck is going through the neighborhood with sirens blaring and santa atop for the last hour.

Posted by: Bigby's Knuckle Sandwich at December 21, 2014 10:24 AM (Cq0oW)

That's probably going to happen here sometime today. Fortunately the local fire department has enough sense not to do it early in the morning.

I imagine that tradition started decades ago when the neighborhood was full of young families with children. Now I look out the window to watch him ride by, waving to nobody. It's kind of sad.

Posted by: rickl at December 21, 2014 10:47 AM (sdi6R)

95 "That's probably going to happen here sometime today"

Is driving through the neighborhood, lights and sirens going, at Christmastime some sort of thing?

Posted by: Ricardo Kill at December 21, 2014 10:50 AM (BNIaE)

96 90
Ringo has a new series out, Black Tide Rising the last volume of which is coming out next month.

1.. Under a Graveyard Sky
2. To Sail a Darkling Sea
3. Islands of Rage and Hope
4. Strands of Sorrow

Posted by: Emily Nelson at December 21, 2014 10:46 AM (Ao5fh)

I have read the first one and it was good, but the rest are above my $10 limit for Kindle books.

Posted by: Vic at December 21, 2014 10:50 AM (u9gzs)

97 *dons tutu* I do what I want!

Posted by: alexthechick at December 21, 2014 10:50 AM (T01yJ)

98 It's hard to find good time travel stories.

Mrs. Muse loathes time travel stories, because there are always glaring inconsistencies and out-and-out contradictions that she just can't suspend her disbelief enough to accept.

Posted by: OregonMuse at December 21, 2014 10:51 AM (H5y3n)

99 yes Ricardo

mostly with volunteer departments i think

Posted by: Bigby's Knuckle Sandwich at December 21, 2014 10:53 AM (Cq0oW)

100 *dons tutu* I do what I want!

Well, you're a girl, so, OK.

Posted by: OregonMuse at December 21, 2014 10:53 AM (H5y3n)

101 Morning horde. Last shopping trip before Christmas.

*to be honest, this is the first time I will enter a store this year for a present. Damn Amazon won't get It here in time.

Posted by: RWC at December 21, 2014 10:54 AM (WlUIO)

102 @43 Re; Ringo's open ending - On his site or maybe Baen's forum Ring has said that he intended more books in the series, but felt he had written himself into a corner and didn't know how to get out of it. My personal feeling is he starts a series then somewhere along the line loses interest so it drops.

Recommendations - I know the Monster Hunter series by Larry Correia has been mentioned before and they are pretty fun reads, but his Dead Six series is pretty good too. Mercenaries taking on supercriminals and corrupt government organizations. Lots of guns lots of explosions.

Mark Russinovich, a senior technical fellow at Microsoft and authors of the Systernals books, has written 3 novels and a novella in the cyber-thriller genre. All of them are pretty good reads but my favorite is "Trojan Horse" about a Chinese / Iranian plot to a) bring down America's critical infrastructure and b) defeat American / Israeli attempts to stop Iran's progress towards a nuclear bomb.

On those same lines "Countdown to Zero Day" is a pretty interesting read - it's about the Development, Discovery and Neutralization of Stuxnet.

Posted by: chad at December 21, 2014 10:54 AM (gYowz)

103 "mostly with volunteer departments i think"

Well, I did not know this.

Posted by: Ricardo Kill at December 21, 2014 10:55 AM (BNIaE)

104 "mostly with volunteer departments i think"

I was on a volunteer dept for years and I never heard of such a thing. Maybe it's a regional thing.

Posted by: lowandslow at December 21, 2014 10:56 AM (BXkFh)

105 98
It's hard to find good time travel stories.

Mrs. Muse loathes
time travel stories, because there are always glaring inconsistencies
and out-and-out contradictions that she just can't suspend her disbelief
enough to accept.

Posted by: OregonMuse at December 21, 2014 10:51 AM (H5y3n)

I recommend the 1632 series by Eric Flint. He is a big libtard who loves him some unions but he only lets a little in. The first three books in the series are good before it starts slowing down.

Posted by: Vic at December 21, 2014 10:56 AM (u9gzs)

106 possibly regional

Posted by: Bigby's Knuckle Sandwich at December 21, 2014 10:57 AM (Cq0oW)

107 Ah, a young Mooch, no doubt. Brandeis admitting real winners these days.

Truth Revolt @TruthRevoltOrg
Student Leader: 'No Sympathy' for Executed NYPD Officers | Truth Revolt:
www.truthrevolt.org/news/student-leader-no-sympathy-executed-nypd-officers#.VJbuHnfcIbg.twitter

Posted by: Costanza Defense at December 21, 2014 10:58 AM (ZPrif)

108 I recommend the 1632 series by Eric Flint.

Thanks, I've been meaning to get to this one. Is it really a time travel novel? I thought it was alt history.

Posted by: OregonMuse at December 21, 2014 10:59 AM (H5y3n)

109 Futurama has paradox free time travel thru the simple expedient of all the paradoxes being killed gruesomely. Although before it was discovered Philip J Fry did become his own grandfather by, as he puts it, "Doing the nasty in the pasty"

Posted by: chad at December 21, 2014 11:00 AM (gYowz)

110 I know a lot of the horde are Amazon Prime members.

Does that include Kindle Unlimitied? I see some places saying it does and others saying no.

Posted by: RWC at December 21, 2014 11:02 AM (WlUIO)

111 108 Thanks, I've been meaning to get to this one. Is it really a time travel novel? I thought it was alt history.

Posted by: OregonMuse at December 21, 2014 10:59 AM (H5y3n)

You could say it is both. The chief protagonists in the story are sent back in time from present to 1632 (the entire town)

Posted by: Vic at December 21, 2014 11:02 AM (u9gzs)

112 i think Austin Powers did the best job at dealing with the contradictions of time travel

Posted by: Bigby's Knuckle Sandwich at December 21, 2014 11:03 AM (Cq0oW)

113 Am reading the bestseller "All the Light We Cannot See" and wishing it could never end.

Posted by: the littl shyning man at December 21, 2014 11:03 AM (vSxTY)

114 I still love books, but not enough to pack and unpack them every 2-3 years. My husband still buys works of non-fiction in print.
******

This is where kindle has saved me! Excellent deck uttering device for the book lovers. I do still read print editions I already own but I've started cleaning out my library bit by bit of all but the stuff I really want to keep.

Posted by: Lea is watching White Christmas. at December 21, 2014 11:04 AM (/bd0t)

115 prime does not include it so far as i know

Posted by: Bigby's Knuckle Sandwich at December 21, 2014 11:04 AM (Cq0oW)

116 I've been reading the 2012 translation of "Roadside Picnic" by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. Short review: *hic*

Aliens come to Earth - and fly off without making contact. The book is about human "stalkers": semi-legal scavengers who make a living stealing the aliens' extremely dangerous garbage. The protagonist, if you want to call him that, is Redrick "Red" Schuhart, old before his years at 22.

It reminds me of Pohl's "Merchants of Venice" except without the hamhanded anti-capitalism, or "Gateway" without the buttsecks and 1970s psychology. I assume Pohl read the book in its 1977 translation but it didn't influence the. Anyway Red don't need no psychiatrist - he's got vodka.

The TV series "Fringe" on the other hand probably did use this book. The alien technology is so baroque in its dreadfulness that it behaves like magic.

Did I mention it was written by a couple of frustrated drunken Brezhnev subjects? Brezhnev, it seems, took notice and - as crooked commie dictators do - banned the book. Not really for political reasons (the book disdains democracy and capitalism) so much as for its lack of morals (the stalkers don't care if you approve of "capitalism", they're out to make a ruble). If you wanted to read it in Russian you were SOL.

The issues I have with it: the book is set in "Harmont" where people have names like "Schuhart" or "Pilman" or "Burbridge" - I figure Harmont is in Canada (maybe Australia). Pull the other one. Everybody is fatalistic, self-hating, cynical, drunk, and prone to violence. In brief they are all prole Russians. I guess the authors didn't get out much.

Also I'm not sure why part 2 is told from Red's viewpoint in the first person and part 3 (which is as far as I've got up to now) is told about Red in the third. It's jarring. I know, there's stuff like "Dracula" which is told in shifts of perspective but there the medium is part of the message: letters and such.

But the book *is* a classic, and if you liked "Fringe" and want a Gateway-like book without Pohl's bullshit then I recommend it. Get a cheap / free translation like Bouis's though; I suspect the 2012 translation isn't adding much.

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at December 21, 2014 11:04 AM (AVEe1)

117 Heinlein also did a pretty good job with time travel in Time Enough For Love. But you have to get by some "out there things" that are potentially offensive for most people.

Posted by: Vic at December 21, 2014 11:05 AM (u9gzs)

118 Declutering! God auto correct is stupid.

I just finished rereading an old thriller/ romance by Mary Stewart called the Gabriel hound. Crazy to read things set in Lebanon/Syria in the 50s.

Posted by: Lea is watching White Christmas. at December 21, 2014 11:05 AM (/bd0t)

119 Oh, and O/T, but Buck DeFlazio. His bodyguards should walk out on him.

Posted by: the littl shyning man at December 21, 2014 11:06 AM (vSxTY)

120 98
It's hard to find good time travel stories.

---

The Proteus Operation by James Hogan was pretty good. Time travelers from a dystopian 1975 America travel back to 1939 to aid Winston Churchill in thwarting the Nazis who are being aided by even more advanced time travelers from 2020.

Posted by: Radeaminit at December 21, 2014 11:06 AM (4HYng)

121 104
I was on a volunteer dept for years and I never heard of such a thing. Maybe it's a regional thing.

Posted by: lowandslow at December 21, 2014 10:56 AM (BXkFh)

I don't know. I live in the Philadelphia suburbs. My parents bought this house in 1969 when I was 11 and they've been doing it at least that long. Santa rides by on a slow-moving fire truck, waving and throwing handfuls of candy to the children.

But like I said, I think it started back during the Baby Boom when there were a lot more children in the neighborhood than there are today.

Posted by: rickl at December 21, 2014 11:07 AM (sdi6R)

122 " But you have to get by some "out there things" that are potentially offensive for most people"

Surely you can't mean the special loving relationship between a boy and his mother. That's just wholesome Americana.

Posted by: chad at December 21, 2014 11:07 AM (gYowz)

123 Thanks Bigby.

Posted by: RWC at December 21, 2014 11:09 AM (WlUIO)

124 Heinlein also did a pretty good job with time travel in Time Enough For Love. But you have to get by some "out there things" that are potentially offensive for most people.

Heh. Yeah, like incest and pedophilia. I'm not going to even mention any of that to Mrs. Muse.

I've always thought that Heinlein in his later years pretty much turned into the stereotypical "dirty old man" and started writing pr0n.

Posted by: OregonMuse at December 21, 2014 11:10 AM (H5y3n)

125 Amazon prime doesn't have access to Kindle Unlimited but it does have access to the Kindle Lender's Library. Don't know how good that is. It also has access to movies. My SIL has this and she likes it for the movies. My feeling is there are not enough movies anymore that I like that make me want to spend $99 a year on and I also have the problem of really crappy bandwidth.

Posted by: Vic at December 21, 2014 11:13 AM (u9gzs)

126 Doing the Saga of Recluce by L.E. Modesitt jr.

Great read. It's about 15 volumes and I've read it about 4 times now.

ICYDK it's a Future Fiction series that centers on a planet where two warring philosphys (and actually warring) wind up by some energy warp.

This is about high tech being subsumed by an almost feudal society and where the remnants of the tech is passed from generation to generation making those of pure stock "Magi'cians" able to draw power from the surrounding aether.

Runs from the first groups to land terraforming and creating and Empire due to their tech and then their counterparts arriving and being forced to land in rough country but fortunately long after the Empire has been reduced in circumstance.

Not too heavy on magick or tech but about power, poverty, philosophy, conservatism, liberalism and how sometimes the times are tough and there isn't any winners or correct solutions.

Well worth the price of any volume. Don't have to have read any of the previous or future you can jump right into the middle of the sequence and it's fine. It is best (IMO) to do them chronologically (from the plot not publication) as this will give one a better scope and understanding of how things later came to be.

Posted by: Bitter Clinger and All That at December 21, 2014 11:13 AM (RZzX3)

127 I am a prime member and get Kindle Unlimited, but my account is a little screwed up. I started with a student account, then went to work there and they used my account for testing the kindle fires. Now I am just a regular subscriber but every once in a while a weird piece of music or a book or in one case a subscription to Marie Clare pop up and then go away again in a couple days. I don't get charged for them so I don't sweat it.

Posted by: chad at December 21, 2014 11:14 AM (gYowz)

128 122 Surely you can't mean the special loving relationship between a boy and his mother. That's just wholesome Americana.

Posted by: chad at December 21, 2014 11:07 AM (gYowz)

I wasn't going to mention any spoilers.

Posted by: Vic at December 21, 2014 11:14 AM (u9gzs)

129 For *arctic* exploration, or denial / revisionism thereof: Anthony Galvin, "The Great Polar Fraud".

Seems that Cook, Peary, and Byrd pulled a fast one (or three). That leaves #4 - Amundsen.

It looked like "moon landing faked!!" crap to me except that... there really is a huge controversy over who got there first. The "None Of The Above" option is pretty darn attractive. Anyway I haven't read Galvin's book myself...

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at December 21, 2014 11:15 AM (AVEe1)

130 124 I've always thought that Heinlein in his later years
pretty much turned into the stereotypical "dirty old man" and started
writing pr0n.

Posted by: OregonMuse at December 21, 2014 11:10 AM (H5y3n)

I would say he actually started in that direction with Stranger In A Strange Land.

Posted by: Vic at December 21, 2014 11:16 AM (u9gzs)

131 Lea @118 - check out Mary Stewarts' other early romance/mysteries, especially those set in Greece in the late 40ies and 50s. Beautiful and evocative writing.

Posted by: Sgt Mom at December 21, 2014 11:17 AM (95iDF)

132 "Counterintelligence"....Not "counter-intelligence"....Just saying..

Posted by: Sua Sponte at December 21, 2014 11:17 AM (onAhE)

133 126 Well worth the price of any volume. Don't have to
have read any of the previous or future you can jump right into the
middle of the sequence and it's fine. It is best (IMO) to do them
chronologically (from the plot not publication) as this will give one a
better scope and understanding of how things later came to be.

Posted by: Bitter Clinger and All That at December 21, 2014 11:13 AM (RZzX3)

I second that recommendation.

Posted by: Vic at December 21, 2014 11:17 AM (u9gzs)

134 Posted by: Vic at December 21, 2014 11:16 AM (u9gzs)

His Hippy years.

Never a fan but though I liked Stranger and it fit the times, I always thought he was a bit "off" somehow.

Posted by: Bitter Clinger and All That at December 21, 2014 11:18 AM (RZzX3)

135 Gun thread up

Posted by: Vic at December 21, 2014 11:20 AM (u9gzs)

136 "Counterintelligence"....Not "counter-intelligence"....Just saying..

OK, thanks. "Counter-intelligence" does sound a bit like what Mrs. Muse does down at Home Depot.

Posted by: OregonMuse at December 21, 2014 11:22 AM (H5y3n)

137 Heinlein was headed that way a lot earlier but had to be restrained in discussion of such issues in the eras of those writings. But going back to the 40s there is a repeated theme of adopted daughters becoming wives ala Woody Allen and Soon Yi. 'The Door Into Summer,' which is also notable for the conceptual invention of CAD, ended with a combination of suspended animation and time travel allowing the protagonist and his adoptive daughter to sync up their ages sufficiently to become a couple.

Posted by: Epobirs at December 21, 2014 11:23 AM (IdCqF)

138 39 Kindltot at December 21, 2014 09:54 AM (t//F+)

Yes, those are wonderful authors. I really like Anvil's protagonists and his Interstellar Patrol. Vintage stuff.

Eric Frank Russell's Wasp has direct applications to today. And Then There Were None is a very interesting take on an individualistic libertarian society that works. Admittedly, SJW type humans would die quickly in that society.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at December 21, 2014 11:25 AM (u82oZ)

139 Speaking of Heinlein and Time Travel-

There's a movie based around his short story-

"All You Zombies"

coming out soon.

It's called "Predestination".

Here's the trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FcK_UiVV40

Trailer looks pretty good and the same guys wrote and directed "Daybreakers",

so I'm cautiously optimistic.

Posted by: naturalfake at December 21, 2014 11:27 AM (KBvAm)

140 Past 100 cross thread corrections:
Morons beware, EZ-Pass is being used in several States now to monitor cars for speeding.

Toll plazas have ALWAYS had speed restrictions and equipment. The article clearly states that some agencies (some bridges aren't directly a state agency) are suspending accounts for repeated egregious plaza speeders. Not ticketing, not slightly over, not 1st time but repeatedly driving like a Fcuking Maniac where people work.

Why?
Because:
http://tinyurl.com/nfrwsgp

No agency IS referral ticketing based on entry/exit times which the data IS accurate enough to do.

Posted by: DaveA at December 21, 2014 11:27 AM (DL2i+)

141 The issues I have with it: the book is set in
"Harmont" where people have names like "Schuhart" or "Pilman" or
"Burbridge" - I figure Harmont is in Canada (maybe Australia). Pull the
other one. Everybody is fatalistic, self-hating, cynical, drunk, and
prone to violence. In brief they are all prole Russians. I guess the
authors didn't get out much.
Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at December 21, 2014 11:04 AM (AVEe1)

Setting a story in the West, even when it was actually a satire or criticism of life under communism, was a means of evading censorship --- a function also frequently served by the genre of science fiction itself.

Posted by: An Inanimate Carbon Rod at December 21, 2014 11:28 AM (6shz8)

142 Posted by: Sgt Mom at December 21, 2014 11:17 AM (95iDF)

Agreed. I read The Moonspinners a couple of times. Generally enjoyed the others of hers that I've read as well.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at December 21, 2014 11:28 AM (GDulk)

143 Never a fan but though I liked Stranger and it fit the times, I always thought he was a bit "off" somehow.

Posted by: Bitter Clinger and All That at December 21, 2014 11:18 AM (RZzX3)

The current take on Heinlein among our betters (i.e. Cory Doctrow and his literary ilk) is that Heinlein was a racist, sexist, facist pig. I think all the tampering with sexual mores in his books may contribute to that - despite the protestations of open-mindedness from the SJW / Leftist writers wing of America.

Personally I think Heinlein's juveniles are among the best Sci-Fi out there and a lot of his future history (Condensed into one volume in "The Past through Tomorrow") are good up to "Time Enough for Love". At that point he starts going off the rails. Two exceptions are "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" and "Friday" both of those have some of the sexual weirdness but it doesn't overwhelm the story.

Posted by: chad at December 21, 2014 11:28 AM (gYowz)

144 'The Door Into Summer,'...ended with a combination of suspended animation and time travel allowing the protagonist and his adoptive daughter to sync up their ages sufficiently to become a couple.

That's fine, I don't mind writers dealing with sexual themes once in a while, but toward the end there, like in "I Will Fear No Evil", it was just wall-to-wall gratuitous pr0n, and it's very wearisome.

Posted by: OregonMuse at December 21, 2014 11:29 AM (H5y3n)

145 116 I've been reading the 2012 translation of "Roadside Picnic" by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. Short review: *hic*

Love, love, love "Roadside Picnic".

One of my faves.

Not the new translation, which I haven't seen, but

the old paperback trans. from 1977, I found in a used book store.

Posted by: naturalfake at December 21, 2014 11:32 AM (KBvAm)

146 Normally, I'd say turn off the EZ Pass until you are approaching the
toll booth. But that little speed feature is probably always on.

Transponders are NOT switchable although you can stick it in a metal box. They are also NOT involved in speed detection last I knew. The lanes have regular radar/laser speed detectors which are combined by the lane HW into the EZpass record. The lanes do read the transponder multiple times as you go thru but AFAIK the HW is not sensitive enough to doppler your speed from the query-response time varying.

Posted by: DaveA at December 21, 2014 11:36 AM (DL2i+)

147 137 .....ended with a combination of suspended animation and
time travel allowing the protagonist and his adoptive daughter to sync
up their ages sufficiently to become a couple.

Posted by: Epobirs at December 21, 2014 11:23 AM (IdCqF)

That was his evil partner's stepdaughter, not his adopted daughter. That is one of my favorite Heinlein books.

Posted by: Vic at December 21, 2014 11:40 AM (u9gzs)

148
It's hard to find good time travel stories.
Posted by: @votermom at December 21, 2014 10:47 AM (cbfN)

Try the short story "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate" by Ted Chiang from 2007. It takes a "Timecrimes" approach to time travel, where everything always happens the way it's always happened.

Posted by: An Inanimate Carbon Rod at December 21, 2014 11:43 AM (6shz8)

149 In the acknowledgements section of P.J. O'Rourke's "Parliament of Whores" (copyright 1991), P.J. thanks Rolling Stone for underwriting and editing his book.

They've gone from O'Rourke and Hunter S. Thompson to Sabrina Erdely...

Posted by: All Hail Eris at December 21, 2014 11:49 AM (KH1sk)

150 Posted by: Bigby's Knuckle Sandwich at December 21, 2014 10:16 AM (Cq0oW)

**************

Carlin -- Death Throes -- thanks for this. I checked it out at the website and on AMZ. I am a little confused -- audio book, podcasts (pay individually or free?) -- tree product? I would like to be able to read and listen. But -- can you explain the formats and pricing or access. Thanks for the recommendation .

Posted by: gracepmc at December 21, 2014 11:51 AM (xvd51)

151 Well into " The Greatest Knight" by Thomas Asbridge. The life of William Marshal, penniless second son of a minor noble. Almost executed at age 5 by King Stephen, he rose to become a great magnate and served every Plantagenet king from Henry II, Richard and John and into the reign of Henry III. The man was pretty much unfailingly loyal to whoever he served. His story would make a great mini series.

Posted by: Tuna at December 21, 2014 11:52 AM (JSovD)

152 Since the location of all the sensors is known, they can easily
calculate the time at which your EZ Pass was read at each sensor and if
it shows up at Sensor B in less time than it would take to get from
Sensor A at the legal speed limit, they can automatically generate a
speeding ticket for you.
...
All in all, it is a short sighted greedy policy that is likely to backfire on the people doing it.

It's radio, lane wide read footprint, multiple query-response loops, etc. local time-stamp differencing would be difficult and unnecessary. This is NOT a ticketing speeders issue it's a stop toll plaza maniacs issue. If you repeatedly can't slow to within 12mph of a repeatedly posted limit as you go thru a toll lane you don't belong in a car because - Fcuking Maniac.

Posted by: DaveA at December 21, 2014 11:55 AM (DL2i+)

153 The only time travel novel I like (and like so much I reread it constantly) is Connie Willis' To Say Nothing of the Dog . The rigor of the time travel is only just enough to keep the story together, but it is *hilarious* and has much home truth about cats and dogs and the dangers of feather-headed females.Also fiddly bits about WWII crisis points.

She has other time travel books in the same "universe" but I did not care for them. Do not read Doomsday Book if you are at all prone to depression or have knives in the house.

Oh, and there are the Paratime books of H. Beam Piper, but those are more parallel timeline than true time travel.Still, good stuff especially Lord Kalvan. Know your gunpowder recipes, guys!

Posted by: Sabrina Chase at December 21, 2014 11:55 AM (2buaQ)

154 there are people who will try to drive through at 70 mph.

Open Road Tolling lanes (typically 55 mph) are always physically separated from the old manual lanes. Express (5-30 mph) are usually all at the left of the plaza.

Posted by: DaveA at December 21, 2014 11:58 AM (DL2i+)

155 .Also fiddly bits about WWII crisis points.

I've only just recently learned of the expression "fiddly bits" from John Ringo. It makes me laugh every time I read it.

Posted by: OregonMuse at December 21, 2014 12:05 PM (H5y3n)

156 Posted by: Sabrina Chase at December 21, 2014 11:55 AM (2buaQ)
--------
This reminds me to reread Willis' "The Bellwether", in which scientists use the chaos theory to predict social fads. Very funny riffs on the madness of crowds and corporate speak.

Posted by: All Hail Eris at December 21, 2014 12:05 PM (KH1sk)

157 Thanks OregonMuse - and now the content.
Such an author is John Ringo,

Is feeding the State Department to the Posleen animal cruelty?

Posted by: DaveA at December 21, 2014 12:06 PM (DL2i+)

158 Speaking of Arctic adventures, there's "Disaster at the Pole" by Wilbur Cross, about Gen. Umberto Nobile's 1928 airship expedition to the North Pole.

The airship Italia crashed and 9 out of 16 crew members survived. They were able to recover food, a tent, and a radio from the gondola's wreckage, set up a camp on the ice, and began transmitting SOS signals.

The rescue efforts were a disorganized clusterfark of epic proportions. Several would-be rescuers died, including polar pioneer Roald Amundsen, whose search plane vanished without a trace. A couple of other planes crash-landed, leaving their crews in need of rescue.

Thanks to the radio, the survivors were in contact with the outside world, and occasionally had supplies dropped to them. Still, it took almost two months before the last of them were picked up and taken to safety.

Posted by: rickl at December 21, 2014 12:07 PM (sdi6R)

159 Part time-moron and occasional writer here. "Riding The Red Horse" is a new anthology of military sci-fi and essays was just released by Castalia House, and I have s short story in it! Whoo-hoo!
I'm by far the smallest fish in a sea of big names, including ESR, Pournelle, Nuttall, Lind, Mayes, Torgerson, Kratman, Torgerson, Dunnigan, and more. It is very much in the vein of Jerry Pournelle's "There Will Be War" series of long ago.
My story is about the first mission of the Armadillo, a ship and AI better known as Taj in "The Stars Came Back."

Posted by: Rolf at December 21, 2014 12:09 PM (H+WqQ)

160 including ESR, Pournelle, Nuttall, Lind, Mayes, Torgerson, Kratman, Torgerson, Dunnigan, and more.

You said Torgerson twice.

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at December 21, 2014 12:18 PM (AVEe1)

161 I'm taking a break from my Tolkien marathon. We lost the last of our three dogs this week. He was 18 years old and starting to feel constant pain so it was time. But right now I can't deal with even fictional conflict. I need something life affirming and, at the moment, that means plants.

I have an older book, "Pirating Plants" by Peter Tobey about different ways to propagate or rescue plants around your property. It was written in 1975 but used copies are still available. It is conversational but still informative and has an air of Hippie in the writing. The tone reminds me of "How to Keep Your Volkswagon Alive and Well" if anyone remembers that. The idea is to have fun and not worry about efficiency. As the author put it, he's not starting a business, he's just playing in the dirt. Just what I need right now.

Posted by: JTB at December 21, 2014 12:20 PM (FvdPb)

162 D'oh! Sorry. I should have said ESR twice - he's got two entries, one essay on battlefield lasers and one fiction story, in it :-)
Actually, it's just the lack of coffee relative to the amount of sleep I got last night inducing the typos. (I count at least three upon rereading my post; gack!)

Posted by: Rolf at December 21, 2014 12:30 PM (H+WqQ)

163 I hear a firetruck siren off in the distance. Santa is coming.

Posted by: rickl at December 21, 2014 12:33 PM (sdi6R)

164 Next I'm going to read Last Train to Paradise. About
the RR that Flagler wanted to build to the Florida Keys. That's one I
picked for myself.

Posted by: NCKate at December 21, 2014 10:23 AM (C9K75)

Just picked that one up. The bridges still exist although they are no longer in use, I drove to Key West for my last det down there just so I could see them.

Posted by: GGE of the Moron Horde, NC Chapter at December 21, 2014 12:41 PM (6fyGz)

165 This isn't a book, but the complete archives of Life Magazine from 1936-1972 are available online here:

https://tinyurl.com/m9sfupb

For you young'uns, Life was a weekly news magazine that concentrated on photographs. It was a big part of my childhood in the 1960s, but it was eventually made obsolete by television news.

I spent much of yesterday reading issues around the start of WWII. It's interesting to read those events as breaking news, with reactions and editorials.

Posted by: rickl at December 21, 2014 12:41 PM (sdi6R)

166 55
I just want you to know that every Sunday i wake up and check the book
thread, and every Sunday i am shunned and discriminated against for my
tutu!

Paint it plaid, call it a kilt, and you're in.

Posted by: Anachronda at December 21, 2014 12:48 PM (o78gS)

167 145 Love, love, love "Roadside Picnic".

I agree, a great book with a very interesting concept. Also fun to have very Russian protagonists.

83 I like Smitherd. He's a good writer.
i loved his book, "The Stone Man" and recommended it a few weeks ago.

The Stone Man is easy to like. I would also recommend "The Black Room." Don't be put off by the subtitle of the first installment, in which it is called a "Romance." That's sort of true, but it does not make this something other than science fiction with appeal for both sexes.

160 You said Torgerson twice.

I was so sure that the response to this would be "I like Torgerson."

Posted by: Splunge at December 21, 2014 01:01 PM (qyomX)

168 Congrats Rolf!

Posted by: @votermom at December 21, 2014 01:02 PM (cbfNE)

169 This week I read Second Foundation by Asimov which was a pretty good conclusion to the Foundation trilogy, while leaving it open for sequels. Not a big fan of Asimov's world-building but he's an interesting intellectual writer.

Also read the short novel Slaughterhouse-Five by Vonnegut, where he fictionalizes his experience in Dresden when it was bombed in WWII. Liked the characters especially Billy Pilgrim.

Posted by: waelse1 at December 21, 2014 01:13 PM (iwhGZ)

170 #147

If you look closer at the story he is functionally her father more so than the biological sperm donor. The issue isn't where the girl came from but the protagonist relationship with her. This happens repeatedly in Heinlein.

Posted by: Epobirs at December 21, 2014 01:29 PM (IdCqF)

171 Also see yesterday's Gardening Thread, for a discussion of LOTR it's trees... so enjoyable to read!!!!!

Posted by: OG Celtic-American at December 21, 2014 01:34 PM (Mw9or)

172 158
The airship Italia crashed and 9 out of 16 crew members
survived. They were able to recover food, a tent, and a radio from the
gondola's wreckage, set up a camp on the ice, and began transmitting SOS
signals.

There was a movie, The Red Tent, about it that I have seen once, although I have no memories beyond the name.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067315/?ref_=nv_sr_2

Recently saw The Red Tent pop up on one of the odd channels on the DirecTV box and got excited, only to find that someone has recently done some sort of miniseries from a novel by that name.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3068894/?ref_=nv_sr_1

Too disappointed to watch the miniseries (I was an airship nut when I was a youngun).

Posted by: Anachronda at December 21, 2014 02:00 PM (o78gS)

173 We can thank John Milton for debauchery!

Posted by: OG Celtic-American at December 21, 2014 02:00 PM (Mw9or)

174 170 that kind of thing feels so creepy to me now, after learning about MZ Bradley's abuse of her kid and marriage to a pederast.

Posted by: @votermom at December 21, 2014 02:00 PM (cbfNE)

175 I read all of the "Non-Traditional" holiday stories on libertyislandmag.com and enjoyed most of them, including (shameless plug) my own - Elfiltration. :-)

Posted by: Susan at December 21, 2014 02:07 PM (z5c5l)

176 A 'Thanks' to which ever Moron it was who mentioned Mark Helprin's, 'A Soldier of the Great War'.

Picked up a copy last week. The prose is excellent. Only a few chapters in, but it is pretty fine so far.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at December 21, 2014 02:16 PM (kgisg)

177 I still have my Little Golden Book, 'The Night Before Christmas'. I still read it every year. I also re-read 'A Christmas Carol' every year at this time, and have been doing so for decades. It is always time well spent.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at December 21, 2014 02:19 PM (kgisg)

178 177
I still have my Little Golden Book, 'The Night Before Christmas'. I
still read it every year. I also re-read 'A Christmas Carol' every year
at this time, and have been doing so for decades. It is always time well
spent.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at December 21, 2014 02:19 PM (kgisg)

I have been meaning to go to Gutenberg and get that Christmas Carol story for a long time. Now would be a good time. It should be there since it was written in the 1800s.

Posted by: Vic at December 21, 2014 02:26 PM (u9gzs)

179 For Mrs. LomondFarms, I purchased the book series (Kindle) that the "Murdoch Mysteries" TV show is based on. I can only hope that the books are as good as the show.

For her last birthday, I got her the Kindle books that "Call the Midwife" were based on.

Posted by: LochLomondFarms at December 21, 2014 02:34 PM (MOZF3)

180 An interview with conservative thriller author, Neil Russell: http://bit.ly/1zl3GMp

Posted by: Rail Black at December 21, 2014 02:47 PM (k7cFB)

181 An interview with conservative thriller author, Neil Russell: http://bit.ly/1zl3GMp

Posted by: Rail Black at December 21, 2014 02:47 PM (k7cFB)

182 Well, I got it but it just sent the blank cover page with no title.

Posted by: Vic at December 21, 2014 02:48 PM (u9gzs)

183 OK, Santa just went by on the fire truck. I didn't see any kids, but a few adults went outside and picked up the candy he threw.

Posted by: rickl at December 21, 2014 03:02 PM (sdi6R)

184 Though I have published items at Liberty Island, it still gives me pause due to the fine print. Their fine print gives them monetary dibs if something published there is picked up by some other entity, even if its a derivative story. Hence I don't publish my non-political fiction works there.

https://www.libertyislandmag.com/creator/Atelier/home.html

Posted by: Anna Puma (+SmuD) at December 21, 2014 03:04 PM (om3D0)

185 Well, no Christmas list from the 17-year-old nephew this year, so he got books. Pooky gave me a list of possibilities, and I braved Barnes and Noble on the Saturday before Christmas to discover that the only ones I could find were "Off Armageddon Reef" by David Weber and "The Warlord's Legacy" by Ari Marmell. I really hope he enjoys them.

Posted by: pookysgirl at December 21, 2014 03:52 PM (bRPUY)

186 I braved Barnes and Noble on the Saturday before
Christmas to discover that the only ones I could find were "Off
Armageddon Reef" by David Weber and "The Warlord's Legacy" by Ari
Marmell. I really hope he enjoys them.

Posted by: pookysgirl at December 21, 2014 03:52 PM (bRPUY)

That Weber book is good, but it starts what looks like a never ending series. I think it is up to book 5 now with no end in sight.

Posted by: Vic at December 21, 2014 04:00 PM (u9gzs)

187 Pookysgirl, if he has read a previous Weber trilogy - Mutineer's Moon, The Armageddon Inheritance, and Heirs of Empire - he will realize he has read the plot before.

Posted by: Anna Puma (+SmuD) at December 21, 2014 04:32 PM (om3D0)

188 I'm okay with getting my nephew addicted to books again, even if it is David Weber. He's a little adrift right now (has no idea what he wants to do with his life and wouldn't be a good fit for the military), and books might help him find solid footing again.

Posted by: pookysgirl at December 21, 2014 04:45 PM (bRPUY)

189 Just finished the 4th book in Larry Corriea's "Monster Hunter" series, "Monster Hunter Legion", I give it a hearty thumbs up.

Posted by: Darth Randall at December 21, 2014 05:10 PM (6n332)

190 "Son has been reading Sheridan's memoirs (also
recommended here as an easier read than Grant's, which he had struggled
with due to the emphasis on geography he was unfamiliar with) and was
interested to find out that Sheridan had known Sherman for quite a while
before the Civil War.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at December 21, 2014 09:57 AM (GDulk)"

The West Point graduates were quite a tight fraternity. During Sherman's civilian years they helped each other out and were a network of important contacts. While Sherman was stationed in California during and after the Mexican War he did not see combat and thought that his career was over although he was instrumental in setting up US administration of the place. Sherman was quite opposed to the vigilante movement that wound up as the de facto government in the San Francisco and Sacramento area for a while but, as with many things in his life, what Sherman wanted was not always what happened.

Posted by: Obnoxious A-Hole at December 21, 2014 05:20 PM (PD6iL)

191 "64
19 Joe,

We still can't rellicate Roman mortar....

Posted by: sven10077 at December 21, 2014 10:20 AM (/4AZU)"

Well, actually we can. The key is that the Romans mixed in pozzolan volcanic ash into their concrete. Modern concrete mixes use slag from blast furnaces producing iron ground up fine and mixed with the Portland cement.

Posted by: Obnoxious A-Hole at December 21, 2014 05:25 PM (PD6iL)

192 "Being totally absorbed in all things ancient Rome

...
Posted by: aussie at December 21, 2014 10:03 AM (b/1aA)"

You might enjoy "Household Gods" by Harry Turtledove and Judith Tarr

http://www.amazon.com/Household-Gods-Judith-Tarr/dp/0765333813/

It is fiction about a modern women transported by Deus ex Machina to a Roman city in the third century. It is not a perfect book but I found it quite entertaining.

Posted by: Obnoxious A-Hole at December 21, 2014 05:36 PM (PD6iL)

193 I loved Troy Rising. I hope he gets back to that series.

Posted by: BornLib at December 22, 2014 07:03 AM (zpNwC)

194 90 Ringo has a new series out, Black Tide Rising the last volume of which is coming out next month.

1.. Under a Graveyard Sky
2. To Sail a Darkling Sea
3. Islands of Rage and Hope
4. Strands of Sorrow
Posted by: Emily Nelson at December 21, 2014 10:46 AM (Ao5fh)

I'm reading the third book right now actually. This is the first zombie apocalypse novel series I've liked.

Posted by: BornLib at December 22, 2014 07:32 AM (zpNwC)

195 Well, actually we can. The key is that the Romans mixed in pozzolan volcanic ash into their concrete.

Yes, but were they using longbows?

Posted by: OregonMuse at December 22, 2014 10:36 AM (lHz7F)

196 I loved Troy Rising. I hope he gets back to that series.

I suspect he won't. Sigh.

Posted by: OregonMuse at December 22, 2014 10:37 AM (lHz7F)

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