Sunday Morning Book Thread 01-31-2016: Around the Edges of the Gospel [OregonMuse]

Cincinnati Public Library, c. 1927

Good morning to all of you morons and moronettes and bartenders everywhere and all the ships at sea. Welcome to AoSHQ's stately, prestigious, internationally acclaimed and high-class Sunday Morning Book Thread. The Sunday Morning Book Thread is the only AoSHQ thread that is so hoity-toity, pants are required. And when I type up the book thread, my pinkies remain elevated the whole time, that's how classy it is. And don't forget your pants!

One is never lonely when one has a book.
-Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell

Stories From Sacred History

So in a thread earlier this week, the landlord opined that he thought the upcoming movie Risen might be a clever bit of filmmaking:

The trick here is that the movie actually begins (I imagine) like a pretty secular affair -- we've got a political problem with this uprising of Jews and these silly claims, so we're sending in a detective to find the body.

I don't think, in this movie, the centurion is going to find the body.

So what begins as a secular detective mystery (with odd historical trappings) winds up as a conversion piece.

I grew up Roman Catholic, went to Catholic primary school for 8 years, and am old enough to have witnessed the "modernization" of the RCC that happened as a result of Vatican II. I wasn't fooled one bit. Instead of an old priest wearing a cassock, which identified him as obviously a priest, these youngish guys with long hair and guitars kept showing up at school and church. But I remember thinking, "Yeah, this is just the same old boring religion that the nuns have been trying to beat into me for years, only it's now some clown pretending to be a hippie. Screw you." That was my attitude. I hated both, but if I had to have one or the other, I think that even back then I would have chosen the old one.

So ace is saying that Risen is kind of like that. Although it wouldn't be fair to call it "bait and switch" -- if the trailer doesn't make it completely obvious what you're getting, note that one of the production companies is a division of Sony called AffirmFilms which is also responsible for The Remaining ("After the Rapture, There Are Fates Worse Than Death") and Miracles From Heaven ("based on the incredible true story"). Given this, it seems unlikely that Risen is going to end with "Oh look, we found the stinking corpse. Hey everybody, it's all a big fake."

You really ought to take a look at those trailers I linked to. I don't know how they are from an artistic standpoint, but they certainly look good. Sony is obviously dropping a lot of money into them. And obviously, the suits believe these ~~religious~~Christian-themed films are going to make them a metric boatload of money.

But I'm getting off track. This is the book thread, not the movie thread. The point is, and this was pointed out in the comments, there are books which take this same approach, such Ben Hur, which is probably the most famous one, and also, The Robe:

A Roman soldier, Marcellus, wins Christ's robe as a gambling prize. He then sets forth on a quest to find the truth about the Nazarene's robe-a quest that reaches to the very roots and heart of Christianity and is set against the vividly limned background of ancient Rome. Here is a timeless story of adventure, faith, and romance, a tale of spiritual longing and ultimate redemption.

I've heard that the movie version wasn't very good. I wonder if the book is any better?

Another one is The Silver Chalice by Thomas Costain, which

takes place shortly after Christ's death and resurrection. Basil is called to design the case which will hold the silver cup that Christ and His disciples drank from at the Last Supper, and plans to sculpt their likenesses upon it. As he seeks out these followers of Christ, he encounters grave danger.

And I can't go on without also mentioning. Dear and Glorious Physician, Taylor Caldwell's novel about St. Luke.

So there's any number of these novels written "around the edges of the Gospel", in boulder terlit hobo's apt words.

Now here's something interesting that I learned from the comments. Remember Barry Sadler, the guy who did "The Ballad of the Green Berets" ("Put silver wings on my son's chest/Make him one of America's best...")? Well, he wass an author, too. In fact, he wrote a series of books featuring the character Casca Rufio Longinus, who was a Roman soldier, stationed in Judea, and who was assigned to stab Jesus' side with his spear as He hung on the cross. For doing that that he was cursed to not die, but to roam the earth until the Second Coming. Of course this is a variation of the old Wandering Jew myth. But Casca is condemned to a soldier's life wherever he goes, and the book series has him fighting in various historical times and places such as Rome, Byzantium, Germany, France, America (Civil War), Vietnam, Japan, etc. There are a great number of these Casca novels, like over 40 of them. Sadler is credited with writing 22 of them. And then the task was handed off to various ghost writers.

I guess they're pretty pulpy. Whoever's writing them can crank them out pretty fast.

There's also an official Casca web site.

Pander Bear

You morons may or may not have heard of Britain's Man Booker Prize. It's an "important" literary prizes that's handed out every year to the author of the novel that most greatly reinforces the liberal worldview and prejudices of Britain's literati. It's like a big, squishy group hug for progressives.

This winner of the 2015 Man Booker Prize, an author by the name of Marlon James, has apparently taken to Facebook to complain that writers of color (such as himself) are forced to cater to the tastes of white women.

Oh, the humanity:

At a sold-out Guardian event on Friday night, James said publishers too often sought fiction that “panders to that archetype of the white woman, that long-suffering, astringent prose set in suburbia. You know, ‘older mother or wife sits down and thinks about her horrible life’.”

The reason for this is obvious:

Women, particularly white women, make up the vast majority of regular fiction readers, purchasing two thirds of all books sold in the UK. Almost 50% of women classify themselves as avid readers, compared to 26% of men.

Sometimes reality is just like getting smacked in the face with a dead fish, and it looks like that is what happened to James here.

Now what's also true is that white women also predominate over the higher ranks of the book publishing industry as well. This makes them effectively the gatekeepers. So what gets published in America and England is mostly decided by a relatively small contingent of upper middle class white, liberal women.

Now that's a frightening thought, isn't it?

James certainly thinks so:

“If I pandered to a cultural tone set by white women, particularly older white female critics, I would have had 10 stories published by now,” he continued. “Though we’ll never admit it, every writer of colour knows that they stand a higher chance of getting published if they write this kind of story. We just do.”

Of course, it's not just "writers of colour" who have to pander to older white female critics; EVERY WRITER WHO EVER WANTS TO BE PUBLISHED has to run that gauntlet. If James thinks he's being singled out because of the melanin content of his skin, he's deluding himself.

I see two solutions:

1.) Write whatever you want, and self publish. It's a lot easier to do this now than it used to.

2.) "Writers of colour" should pool their resources and build their own publishing houses. And don't hire any older white women as editors. That way, they can see to it that none of the diverse voices they're always telling us about remain unheard.

The problem is, these are market-oriented solutions, and James sounds like the kind of guy to whom these will never occur, and if by some fluke chance they did, he wouldn't understand them, because he doesn't understand markets

But of course, this happens in other industries. Back in 1919, D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks, had grown so fed up by how the Hollywood Studios then in existence were running things that they founded their own studio, United Artists, in order to have better control their own work as well as their futures.

I think this is just another aspect of the clash between "writing as Art" vs. "writing as a 9-to-5 job". James is clearly resentful that he has to keep his audience in mind as he writes. But if the stories he wants to write are stories no one else wants to read, maybe he should just do something else with his life.

Or, just give it up and start writing to suit the sensibilities of neurotic, liberal, white women. There are worse ways to make a living.

The Great Courses

The Great Courses is an outfit that sells educational videos (and audio CDs) of all sorts.

There is a yuuge selection of topics to be explored in the Literature and Language section, among them:

Writing Great Fiction: Storytelling Tips and Techniques
The Art of Storytelling: From Parents to Professionals
The Secret Life of Words: English Words and Their Origins
Life and Writings of C. S. Lewis
How to Read and Understand Shakespeare
Great Minds of the Eastern Intellectual Tradition
Great American Bestsellers: The Books That Shaped America
Classics of Russian Literature
36 Books That Changed the World
Masterpieces of the Imaginative Mind: Literature's Most Fantastic Works

I didn't provide links, but you can easily get to them by the main 'Literature and Language' link I provided. The courses vary in price and some of them are rather spendy (prohibitively so, at least for me). On some of them, you can save money by getting audio CDs rather than the DVD set. For some of the courses, you don't need to see the instructor, anyway. Another way you can save money is to see if your local public library has any of them. That's what moron 'Dj' did, he found a course on How to Publish Your Book. Here's the course description:

In the 24 eye-opening lectures of How to Publish Your Book, Jane Friedman, publishing industry expert and educator, provides you with sought-after secrets of the publishing process that will help you navigate this difficult progression, bypass pitfalls that many novice authors get hung up on, and improve your chances of being considered for publication. She acts as your personal guide though the entire process from finalizing your manuscript, to writing the perfect pitch, to reviewing contracts and marketing your book. She provides the candid scoop on what you need to do in order to increase your chances of being considered. The knowledge you’ll gain by having an inside expert teaching you how to position your book for publication gives you a unique advantage and drastically increases your chances of getting noticed in this increasingly competitive industry.

You can purchase downloadable audio files of these lectures for $44.95. Or, if you're lucky like Dj, you can check them out from your local library.

Free Book Sites

I found a new one the other day, or, at least one I hadn't seen before, Loyal Books. There isn't anything new here that you can't find elsewhere, but I like it because it's set up as an attractive interface so you can browse through their catalog quickly and easily. I've never much liked the Project Gutenberg site, even though it has pretty much every public domain text that's ever been digitized. I've only gone there when I knew exactly what book I was looking for. The Gutenberg interface is clunky and primitive and looks like something from 1997. The whole Gutenberg front end could use a serious makeover to bring it into the 21st century. So, as I said, I don't go there much.

But maybe you'll find Loyal Books a bit better, as I did.

Also, one of the 'ettes tipped me to Book Angel, a British site that highlights free Kindle book deals featured on amazon.co.uk, but American readers can take advantage of them, too.

What I'm Reading

I'm glad that the Android Kindle app has a function that allows you to tap on a word to see the dictionary definition pop up in a separate window. I've been using that feature a lot ever since I started reading book 1 of the Aubrey/Maturin series Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian. I've had to look up words like pertinacious ("holding firmly to an opinion or a course of action."), mumchance ("silent, tongue-tied") and, because one of the main characters (Stephen Maturin) is a physician and surgeon, we get to see some antiquated medical terminology, such as "gleet" (which is kind of disgusting, so I'm not going to tell you what it is. But I will say that referring to an MSNBC news show, or indeed the MSNBC network entire, as a "gleet-fest" would not be amiss). Also, one of my favorite old-timey medical terms, laudable pus has not yet made an appearance, but perhaps it will later.

But I like these old words, they add authenticity to the story. One of my pet peeves is period fiction that sounds modern. The trick is to avoid modern speech patterns (as well as modern thinking patterns) without going down the Howard Pyle route where the text gets so overloaded with "thees" and "thous" and "ye this" and "ye that" that it just comes off sounding like really crappy Shakespeare. O'Brian manages to avoid both of these ditches to good effect. I will say, though, that it's sometimes hard to read, particularly when he's describing the shipboard operations, what sails are being furled and unfurled, and how the ship is being steered to take full advantage of whatever wind was available. There's a large and complex vocabulary used to describe all of these operations, and for a lubber like me, it all kind of blurs together into a confusing ball.

But having said all that, I must say it doesn't diminish my enjoyment of the book, and I intend to continue on with the series.

Incidentally, the movie version of Master and Commander is very different than this book. In fact, I'm tempted to say the only thing they have in common is the title. Both are good, just different products.

One more thing. Even though I knocked Howard Pyle for his crappy dialog, you should read his wiki entry I linked to. He sounds like he was an interesting guy.

Book bleg: OK, speaking of seafaring stories, I'd like to tap into the repository of HordeKnowledge™ to see if we can come up with the title of a book I read when I were a wee lad, but that is now sadly lost. The author claimed to be a 97-year-old man writing about when he first went to sea about the time of the California gold rush. He signed aboard one of the then new-fangled "clipper" ships whose hull design this book explained was such that the ship sliced through the waves rather than were carried by them, so the speeds attained were incredibly fast. So this adventure book, geared to a (male) YA audience, shows him learning the ropes (literally) of shipboard life, going south over the equator and around Cape ~~of Good Hope~~ Horn enroute to California, and ends up in a disaster as he has to fight his enemy while the ship is burning. One scene that has stayed with me was when the author describes being up in the rigging when the ship slices through a particularly uuuge wave which then collapses onto the ship so that the entire deck is awash, and looking down and seeing the masts sticking out of the ocean, and wondering if the ship was ever going to come back up. Powerful stuff.

The author claims the story is true, but I'm guessing it probably isn't, but so what, it's a ripping good yarn nonetheless, and it's too bad I can't remember the title or the author. I remember the book looked old, like it was printed in the 40s or 50s, or maybe even earlier. It definitely wasn't a recent book. So I'm hoping at least one of you morons knows which book I'm talking about.

___________

Once again, remember the the AoSHQ reading group on Goodreads. It's meant to support horde writers and to talk about the books, great and otherwise, that come up on the book thread. It's called AoSHQ Moron Horde and the link to it is here: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/175335-aoshq-moron-horde.

___________

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 08:55 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 Finally

Posted by: Skip at January 31, 2016 08:57 AM (hk3Fb)

2 Ahhhhh......

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at January 31, 2016 08:59 AM (jR7Wy)

3 Does that top photo make anyone think of "Young Frankenstein"?

Posted by: JTB at January 31, 2016 09:00 AM (FvdPb)

4 Started on a re-read of the Poslen series by David Weber but will have to take a break here soon. Too many good cheap books came out this past week either on book bub or the daily deals. So my standby pile is stacked up.

Posted by: Vic-we have no party at January 31, 2016 09:01 AM (t2KH5)

5 I finished Luna City Chronicles by our own Celia Hayes and it is a delightful glimpse into small town life, Texas style. It introduces the people and history that make Luna City what it is. (I've never been to Texas but I can say it is damn similar to small town New England with its odd characters, the ongoing effect of history and gradual acceptance of newcomers. The kind of place where directions include 'then take a right where the big maple tree USED to be'.)
This is relaxing, pleasant reading and different from her Sons of Texas stories. I smiled a lot while reading it and a few scenes had me laughing out loud. I hope the next book comes out soon.
Before anyone asks, I posted a review on Amazon. Least I could do for such a good time.

Posted by: JTB at January 31, 2016 09:02 AM (FvdPb)

6 Now how did that guy get up there to those stacks? Must be stairs on the other side.

Posted by: Vic-we have no party at January 31, 2016 09:02 AM (t2KH5)

7 What a great book thread, OM! Thank you!

The sea faring series question doesn't ring a bell for me.

Posted by: @votermom at January 31, 2016 09:05 AM (cbfNE)

8 Before I run out the door, just had to thank the ron/ette who recommended The Gates of Evangeline. I was up till the wee hours finishing it.

The main character is a northeastern lib (who even mentions white privelege toward the end of the book!) who is thrown into an old plantation family in Louisiana to help with a cold case of a toddler who disappeared 30 years earlier.

The comments on the jacket compare this first-time effort with du Maurier and Hitchcock, and I agree. It's a stunner.

More red herrings than a sardine store.

BBL

Posted by: RushBabe at January 31, 2016 09:05 AM (/NEnw)

9 Wait, wait, I just finished Vic's news in the ONT and haven't read the morning thread yet. Siiigh. What I get for getting a good night's sleep for a change.

OMuse, since you've dropped the line in the introduction, I'm wearing my TUUTu today (hash).

Posted by: mindful webworker - invulnerably at January 31, 2016 09:06 AM (TUUTu)

10 Read The Robe decades ago. Couldn't get through Jonathan Strange book or tv series. Am hoping to get more into Everlasting Man once the boy goes back to school.

Posted by: Beth M at January 31, 2016 09:07 AM (kiy9d)

11 The Silver Chalice was an early starring role for Paul Newman.It was a flop and he hated it.He took out an ad apologizing for it and supposedly showed it at parties for years and made fun of it.

Posted by: steevy at January 31, 2016 09:07 AM (8HTq1)

12 I've been busy this week,
Golden Iris - loved it, wish it was longer and think I need a break from other stuff I normally read such as follows.
10 1st Airborne and the Defence of Bastogne - big Band of Brothers fan
The Battle of Monte Casino by Charles Rivers Editors - a good historical back drop for readers of Seamus's book
Rape of Nanking - also from Charles River Editors and
Massacre of Nanking from Murkuro Muro

I can read this kind of books but I guess it's good to take a break
Been thinking of reading Master and Commander

Posted by: Skip at January 31, 2016 09:09 AM (hk3Fb)

13 6 Now how did that guy get up there to those stacks? Must be stairs on the other side.
Posted by: Vic-we have no party at January 31, 2016 09:02 AM (t2KH5)
---
Vic, I would love a vertiginous set-up like the Cinci library inn my own (post-lottery) mansion, and I'd use a series of bungees to retrieve the goods a la Sin City's Aureole Bar:

http://tinyurl.com/zppzbtn

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at January 31, 2016 09:10 AM (jR7Wy)

14 There were a couple of authors in the 40s-50s (?) that wrote fiction about the merchant marine, back when there was a US merchant marine, but darn if I can remember the names of any of them, although for some reason, I seem to remember one had a last name starting with W, where I found it at the end section of the stacks.
Since I had an uncle that was in the merchants, and on the Murmansk Run. I was very interested in the topic. Any clues form the horde would be appreciated, although I really need more books!

Posted by: Hrothgar at January 31, 2016 09:10 AM (wYnyS)

15 The Robe is not too bad.Richard Burton plays the Centurion.

Posted by: steevy at January 31, 2016 09:10 AM (8HTq1)

16 Btw we start reading State of Fear as a group in February on goodreads.

Also happy birthday to Zane Grey. Short bio in my blog, link in nic.

Posted by: @votermom at January 31, 2016 09:10 AM (cbfNE)

17 Women have controlled the publishing industry in the US for long time. And most of the books you see written and published now are written by women for women. There are still a few Davide Webers and John Ringos but they are gradually thinning out.

I can remember in the days of my youth when women writers would publish under a male name so that they could get published. I guess we have come full circle where male writers will have to publish under a female name now.

Posted by: Vic-we have no party at January 31, 2016 09:11 AM (t2KH5)

18 Thanks, for the nice review, JTB! And I got several new reviews this week, after the book thread plea last week, AND the downloads for Luna City Chronicles doubled in one week. Yay, bookthread, and thanks, OM.

I am going to try and bring out the next Luna City by November, in time for the Christmas book shopping season - the revelation of who Richard's mysterious visitor is, what and where Old Charley Mill's treasure is hidden, and what the management of Venue Properties International is up to -- all will be revealed. In the mean time, on the advice of one of my book publishing clients (who is a wiz at promotions) we set up a Luna City Texas website, to post little bits of Luna City materiel in between books. It's at lunacitytexas.com. Enjoy. y'all.

Posted by: CeliaHayes at January 31, 2016 09:12 AM (95iDF)

19 Second the Great Courses recommendation, which are also available on Audibles (and somehow tie in with "credits" with your Prime Membership if you pay the monthly Audibles fee, which is about $15)

Just finished a two part monster "Survey of Westrn Civilisation" course, over 40 hours total, each part was one 'credit' . Have also listened to courses on French Revolution and England Tudors and Stewarts. Now listening to "Culinary History of the World" and have a few others lined up. Enjoyed the Stewarts-Tudors one the best, and part II of the Western Civ course. Really recommend, I will check out the titles listed above too.

Posted by: Goldilocks at January 31, 2016 09:13 AM (pOgVG)

20

I'm busy reading my Game Theory 101 atm, but I am intrigued by the latest by Newt Gingrich

Duplicity
http://amzn.com/1455530425

It's getting rave reviews, and who doesn't like a good Thriller? What sounds intriguing is that it is written with an insider's knowledge of real world events, and seems relevant, and very timely.

The greatest nightmare for the free world today would be a master terrorist hiding somewhere, controlling and coordinating radical Islamic groups at the highest level around the globe.

In DUPLICITY, the newest thriller from former Speaker of the House and bestselling author Newt Gingrich, such an invisible hand overseeing havoc worldwide plays a major role. Gingrich has teamed with former Washington Post reporter and bestselling author Pete Earley to create a highly plausible mix of domestic and global action in this ripped-from-the-headlines thriller.

And of course, it's set during an American presidential election.

I've added it to my TO-READ list.

Posted by: artisanal 'ette at January 31, 2016 09:13 AM (qCMvj)

21 Posted by: Skip at January 31, 2016 09:09 AM (hk3Fb)

Master and Commander is a great start, you won't regret reading it. Just reread it after years, and am thinking of working my way through to the last/final book of the series.

Posted by: Hrothgar at January 31, 2016 09:13 AM (wYnyS)

22 16
Btw we start reading State of Fear as a group in February on goodreads.

Also happy birthday to Zane Grey. Short bio in my blog, link in nic.

Posted by: @votermom at January 31, 2016 09:10 AM (cbfNE)

LOL, I just re-read that one two weeks ago.

Posted by: Vic-we have no party at January 31, 2016 09:14 AM (t2KH5)

23 Posted by: Vic-we have no party at January 31, 2016 09:11 AM (t2KH5)

Do tell!

Posted by: W E B Griffin at January 31, 2016 09:16 AM (wYnyS)

24

...back to my own reading!

My toes in front of the fire, recliner, and coffee.

Best Sunday morning ever.

Posted by: artisanal 'ette at January 31, 2016 09:16 AM (qCMvj)

25 One question I have is Amazon let's you give a star rating, but as wrote last week I received a email from them for a word review. But don't see a way to do that for a book I want.

Posted by: Skip at January 31, 2016 09:16 AM (hk3Fb)

26 23 Do tell!

Posted by: W E B Griffin at January 31, 2016 09:16 AM (wYnyS)

Yes, I have read all your stuff too.

Posted by: Vic-we have no party at January 31, 2016 09:16 AM (t2KH5)

27 panders to that archetype of the white woman, that long-suffering, astringent prose set in suburbia. You know, 'older mother or wife sits down and thinks about her horrible life'

--

Yeah, I hate those books.
*shudder*

Posted by: @votermom at January 31, 2016 09:16 AM (cbfNE)

28 LOL, I just re-read that one two weeks ago.
Posted by: Vic-we have no party at January 31, 2016 09:14 AM (t2KH5)

I hope you join our discussion!

Posted by: @votermom at January 31, 2016 09:18 AM (cbfNE)

29 And speaking of State of Fear even Michael Crichton has gone on to the great library in the sky.

Posted by: Vic-we have no party at January 31, 2016 09:19 AM (t2KH5)

30 Wife is starting to read my copy of War and Peace and the topic came up if that was why I turned into a Napoleoic history freak. But told her it was, but actually it was the movie version when I saw it probably on PBS in very early 70's.

Posted by: Skip at January 31, 2016 09:21 AM (hk3Fb)

31 25 One question I have is Amazon let's you give a star rating, but as wrote last week I received a email from them for a word review. But don't see a way to do that for a book I want.
Posted by: Skip at January 31, 2016 09:16 AM (hk3Fb)

When you go to the product /book, click on reviews, there's usually an "add your own review" link.

Posted by: @votermom at January 31, 2016 09:21 AM (cbfNE)

32 And the library picture, forget how to get books to the top,
I'd love to built it

Posted by: Skip at January 31, 2016 09:22 AM (hk3Fb)

33 28 I hope you join our discussion!

Posted by: @votermom at January 31, 2016 09:18 AM (cbfNE)

Short discussion, the liberal warmies hated it because it does not bow to their AGW God.

Posted by: Vic-we have no party at January 31, 2016 09:25 AM (t2KH5)

34 What is funny is that book came out in 2004 and Chrichton left it open. Since then more and more evidence has piled on that the whole AGW scam is exactly that. Fraud. There is no science involved.

Posted by: Vic-we have no party at January 31, 2016 09:27 AM (t2KH5)

35
Was the book from your youth Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana?

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at January 31, 2016 09:30 AM (BK3ZS)

36 Anyone have more than passing experience with Cormac McCarthy?

He was recommended by a friend, but I know nothing of him, other than he is quite popular....which immediately predisposes me to disliking him.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at January 31, 2016 09:32 AM (Zu3d9)

37 I as just about to ask if it could be Two Years Before the Mast. Wild guess on my part as I haven't ever read it.

Posted by: Grey Fox at January 31, 2016 09:34 AM (bZ7mE)

38 Speaking of time-travel science fiction, which I haven't yet but will soon (SWIDT?)...

I watched the second episode of Legends of Tomorrow last night. Slight spoiler ahead. (Sorry, this is not exactly bookish, but relates to storytelling, at least.)

Old dude from the present goes back and meets his younger self in the 1970s. Younger self has startling new experiences as a consequence. Yet, older self doesn't have those memories. What have you got now?

Marty likewise didn't remember his life with his cool parents, in Back to the Future, as was well pointed out in the Everything Wrong With BTTF video.

Time alteration is tricky stuff, and most writers don't seem up to it. There was some show, I can't recall what now, that the person ended up with two sets of memories. That, at least, addresses the paradox.

/rant

Posted by: mindful webworker - time traveler (in one direction only) at January 31, 2016 09:35 AM (TUUTu)

39 I see now how to write reviews, how does Amazon know every book I've ever got from them, even hard backs for the past 5 years?

Posted by: Skip at January 31, 2016 09:35 AM (hk3Fb)

40 "Was the book from your youth Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana? "

I believe that Two Years Before the Mast was Vic's second Cruise Book.

His first one was autographed by Noah.

Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at January 31, 2016 09:36 AM (ptqRm)

41 Jane Austen is getting the last laugh on Marlon James.

Posted by: A Southerner of Honor at January 31, 2016 09:36 AM (26e2V)

42 I brought this up midweek so I know now that it was Grey Fox who recommended "The Book of Camping and Woodcraft", a 1906 book by Horace Kephart, last week.

I read the Kindle free sample, which is the first three chapters. I don't mind that the gear advice is dated. (Ponchos should be made of rubber or the much more durable pantasote). We live in a golden age of lightweight thermodynamic camping gear. I could support a small family outdoors for an extended time with stuff that lives in the back of my truck every day.

What I found depressing was the premise. That you could just light off for the woods and live there for a while. In the Northeast, you can't.

I've done weeklong canoe camping trips in New York, New Hampshire, and Maine. Even for these you have to reserve specific campsites weeks in advance. You have to have a plan and decide how far to paddle each day.

My favorite Hemingway work has always been "Big Two-Hearted River". When I was a kid it was a camping and fishing story. As I matured I understood the backstory and the layers. But the narrative is still a camping and fishing story. A guy gets off a train, hikes overland, and contemplates things while he goes about the business of making camp and catching dinner.

I'm kind of bummed that I can't just light out with a backpack, a fishing rod, and a .22 and live off grouse and squirrels for a month. The frontier is so far gone.

Posted by: Bandersnatch at January 31, 2016 09:38 AM (1xUj/)

43 The Wandering Jew idea was used by Nicholas Montserrat in "Master Mariner," but he died before he could complete the series.

He also wrote a great book called "The Cruel Sea," one of the great WWII novels (based on his own experience) I have read.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at January 31, 2016 09:39 AM (Zu3d9)

44 Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend.

Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read.

- Groucho Marx

Posted by: BackwardsBoy at January 31, 2016 09:39 AM (LUgeY)

45 Reading What should we be worried about? : real scenarios that keep scientists up at night edited by John Brockman.

Somewhat interesting, as it's from 2014. It has some of my favorite SF authors in it, and a few stunners. My favorite is how democracy is being replaced with crime syndicates as the basis for society. Third world here we come.

I'm returning my books on interviewing. I did not do well. I think I need coaching rather than knowledge. And a course on butt-kissing. I suck at that. I view this all as a continuation of the War on Merit, and the new Age of Networked Assholes.

Finally, I'm also rereading is To Lose a Battle: France 1940 by Alistair Horne. This time I'm focusing on the arc of French governmental and societal collapse from winning WWI to complete defeat in 1940. The parallels are sobering.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at January 31, 2016 09:39 AM (u82oZ)

46 I look at the photos of the great libraries of the past, and two thoughts come to mind.

A huge expense was spent towards providing the average citizen access to virtually unlimited knowledge.

And

None of these great structures could be built now days, with ADA compliance requirements.

Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at January 31, 2016 09:39 AM (ptqRm)

47 >>> how does Amazon know every book I've ever got from them, even hard backs for the past 5 years?

We remember every time you clicked on the Hello Kitty vibrator, "Skip".

Posted by: Amazon at January 31, 2016 09:40 AM (AfsKp)

48
Time alteration is tricky stuff, and most writers don't seem up to it. There was some show, I can't recall what now, that the person ended up with two sets of memories. That, at least, addresses the paradox.

I watched the Plinkett review of the JJ Abrams Star Trek last night. He addressed the making over of the ST universe time line by that movie and Into Darkness. He pointed out that practically all the ST series messed around with time travel quite a bit, so he answered the "Did Abrams mess up the timeline?" with "So what - who cares?"

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at January 31, 2016 09:42 AM (BK3ZS)

49 40 Village Idiot's Apprentice

My first deployment had a cruise book. It was scanned and now my picture is at Ancestry.com.

Gee thanks, internet.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at January 31, 2016 09:42 AM (u82oZ)

50 Well I tried to give reviews to all of them as I usually hold out for books I really really want.It says I'll get a email if it's good so if not I'll try again.

Posted by: Skip at January 31, 2016 09:44 AM (hk3Fb)

51 "My first deployment had a cruise book. "

I think several of mine are now online as well.

Of course, Vic's first one was either a Cruise Scroll, or more then likely, a Cruise Tablet.

Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at January 31, 2016 09:44 AM (ptqRm)

52
Vic's first sea voyage had a cruise "tell" as writing of any sort had yet to be invented.

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at January 31, 2016 09:46 AM (BK3ZS)

53 "Or, if you're lucky like Dj, you can check them out from your local library.
"

Or you could head over to madgeniusclub.com, where a number of published authors can give you that course plus indie for free.

Posted by: SDN at January 31, 2016 09:46 AM (NG7bb)

54 Let me assure you that laudable puss does appear. Also the wonderful word froward - As a descriptor of womenkind.

Posted by: simplemind at January 31, 2016 09:47 AM (BTnAK)

55 51
"My first deployment had a cruise book. "

I think several of mine are now online as well.

Of course, Vic's first one was either a Cruise Scroll, or more then likely, a Cruise Tablet.

Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at January 31, 2016 09:44 AM (ptqRm)

LOL, every cruise I made had a cruise book. I didn't get all of them though.

Posted by: Vic-we have no party at January 31, 2016 09:48 AM (t2KH5)

56 OM, I had a similar experience growing up Catholic and it turned me off of religion generally and the Catholic church specifically. (I suspect I could still recite the Latin prayers if attending an old style mass.) All rote 'learning' and questions were ignored or discouraged. Maybe it was just my area and time although I've heard the same complaint from others. The Hippie element didn't help. (I was a very unsuccessful Hippie.) Fifty years later I'm trying to make up for that lack of understanding. Chesterton and Lewis are my starting point.

Can anyone suggest a book that helps explain or interpret the Gospels?

Posted by: JTB at January 31, 2016 09:48 AM (FvdPb)

57 I suppose the most famous (in it's day) book of the

"Oh look, we found the stinking corpse. Hey everybody, it's all a big fake."

variety, is

"Behold the Man" by Michael Moorcock (Limey SF writer)

The book is written primarily and maliciously as a series of kicks to nuts (or cunt punts for the ladies) about the story of Jesus Christ.

A guy who has quasi-erotic dreams regarding the crucifixion goes back in time to discover the real historical Jesus Christ and finds that he is literally a deformed, drooling idiot, the bastard child of a Roman soldier and Mary, his cheap whore mother.

Shenanigans ensue, and the time traveler winds up taking the place of Christ, then winds up getting crucified. His body is stolen from the tomb by an alchemist for magical purposes, dissected then thrown in a garbage pile.

It was published in the 60's and (surprise!!!) won a bunch of awards like the Hugo and Nebula if I'm remembering correctly.

I guess this only surprise is that it was never made into a movie.

I read the book when I was a teen without quite knowing what it was (used book store buy)-

and I wasn't shocked so much as sort of depressed by the display of pure vitriol and hate by Moorcock.

The novella really is an act of hatred, so I suppose Moorcock had a lot of personal issues to get over.

On the upside, Moorcock is a good prose writer and the style is punchy and the story is short and doesn't go on too long.

So, if what you're looking for in a read is a big ole spewing of anti-Christian hatred, Baby, have I got a book for you.

Posted by: naturalfake at January 31, 2016 09:50 AM (KUa85)

58 Let me assure you that laudable puss does appear. Also the wonderful word froward - As a descriptor of womenkind.

Also the adjective "drabbletailed."

Posted by: Grey Fox at January 31, 2016 09:50 AM (bZ7mE)

59 Posted by: Bandersnatch at January 31, 2016 09:38 AM (1xUj/)

"Big Two-Hearted River" (both parts) was from one of his earliest collections called "In Our Time." I think he was close to the height of his writing skills, and it certainly shows in those short stories.

Those descriptions of making camp (and looking for bait) are simple and beautiful and just loads of fun to read.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at January 31, 2016 09:51 AM (Zu3d9)

60 Hrothgar. thy HMS Ulysses by Alistar Maclean.

Posted by: Jake from State Farm at January 31, 2016 09:51 AM (msVAP)

61 Test. To see if I get a server error again.

Posted by: Tonestaple at January 31, 2016 09:52 AM (RtCTo)

62 Guess it worked (my reviews ),

Posted by: Skip at January 31, 2016 09:52 AM (hk3Fb)

63 I am appalled by David Lamb's take on terrorism in "The Arabs" which is proving to be a much faster read than "The Africants." He doesn't say it's all the Jooooooos but it is the fault of all the white folks for making the Arabs cranky, and probably for taking the side of the Jooooooos. I just haven't gotten to the chapter on "Palestine" yet.

Posted by: Tonestaple at January 31, 2016 09:53 AM (RtCTo)

64 I'm hooked on the Master and Commander series. About half-way through. I've been listening to them with Audible audiobooks. The Patrick Tull narrations are outstanding. He recorded the entire series and listening to them feels like watching a movie. His voice characterization is incredible. You do miss out on being able to look up some of the obscure words and terminology, but I've bought several supplementary books to help me figure out some of the old nautical terms O'Brian weaves in throughout.

Posted by: Zuke at January 31, 2016 09:53 AM (lgW+1)

65 to discover the real historical Jesus Christ and finds that he is literally a deformed, drooling idiot, the bastard child of a Roman soldier and Mary, his cheap whore mother.

This sounds so familiar...

Posted by: Barack Hussein Obama at January 31, 2016 09:54 AM (mxCgt)

66 Paul Johnson's "Jesus: A Biography from a Believer" is a good book. I'd write more, but I have angered the comment gods. I will probably give this book five stars on amazon when I finish it.

Posted by: Tonestaple at January 31, 2016 09:55 AM (RtCTo)

67 FYI.... On the movie version of the O'Brien novels. The movie is faithful to the entire series, taking a bit here and a bit there. The Far Side of the World is a different novel, which, as I recall, is about the hunt for Acheron.

The A/M novels are some of the most intellectually rewarding stories I've ever read. I think I read through 15 or 16 before I finally burned out.

I loved the movie, and I wish they had made one or two more. Criminally underrated film.

Posted by: Sam in va at January 31, 2016 09:56 AM (9stgl)

68 Posted by: mindful webworker - invulnerably at January 31, 2016 09:06 AM (TUUTu)

Dude. That's an awesome hash.

Posted by: OregonMuse at January 31, 2016 09:57 AM (goH/2)

69 I so want Risen to be good. One of my many flights of fancy is wondering what would happen if things from the Bible were to occur today. I'm also of the opinion that human nature has not changed so much over the past couple of millennia or so. Risen appears to be along those lines in a way.

I particularly liked Fiennes' hand-to-forehead "oh shit" moment when he's told that Pontius Pilate "wants to see him" for what can only be an ass-chewing. Some things never change.

At.

All.

Posted by: BackwardsBoy at January 31, 2016 09:59 AM (LUgeY)

70 I've listened to about a dozen of ways Boccirini has been played, from duets to orchestras

Posted by: Skip at January 31, 2016 10:00 AM (hk3Fb)

71 Or you could head over to madgeniusclub.com, where a number of published authors can give you that course plus indie for free.
Posted by: SDN at January 31, 2016 09:46 AM
_____

GMTA. Just went over there this am because of a Hoyt link on Insty.

Posted by: mustbequantum at January 31, 2016 10:00 AM (MIKMs)

72 Was the book from your youth Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana?
Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at January 31, 2016 09:30 AM (BK3ZS)

No, that sounds similar, but Dana's book wasn't it.

Posted by: OregonMuse at January 31, 2016 10:01 AM (goH/2)

73 Yeah, I meant to mention that. As "Sam in va" said, as I've worked my way through the books, I find bits and pieces from almost all of them that were woven into the movie. They did and excellent job with it and I second the notion that I wish they would have made more. So much great material here.

Posted by: Zuke at January 31, 2016 10:01 AM (lgW+1)

74 JTB. There is a kindle audio bible that is called the truth and the life. It has an audio New testament with actors reading the bible. It's very very well done. It is also footnotes and includes bible study. It really showcases the kindle platform ability to teach.

Also, to get in touch with Catholicism again research lives of a saint. Pick one Google or go to ewtn website they have on line library of saints biographies.

For Easter get the dolorous passion of our Lord Jesus Christ by Catherine Anne emmerick. Mel Gibson used her visions to create his movie almost shot for shot. However her vision of the passion is more moving. Read it and see why. I read it during holy week every year now as Easter warm up. Wife does too.

Posted by: simplemind at January 31, 2016 10:02 AM (BTnAK)

75 21 60 Hrothgar

The Cruiser is a good book by Warren Tute. It's about a RN light cruiser just prior to WWII and then its war service.

Nicholas Monsarrat wrote short stories as well. I actually like his short stories better.

H.M.S. Marlborough Will Enter Harbour; I Was There; The Ship That Died of Shame and Depends on What You Mean by Love are superb stories.

However, avoid his autobiographies at all cost. I would not want him in my house. This is part of a general theme where I am repulsed by the person behind works of art I celebrate.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at January 31, 2016 10:02 AM (u82oZ)

76 Book bleg: Cape of Good Hope is the long way to Kalifornia, MAYBE the Australian gold rush? Cape Horn is more like it...

Basic Bing search = wowser! Needle, haystack, ymmv

Clipper ships

Even though yea be a lubber thank thee for the shove off the search plank!

Posted by: Fewenuff at January 31, 2016 10:03 AM (T/sbU)

77 Book thread participation seems desultory this morning.

Still on topic, since they are both authors, D'Souza is debating Ayers this Wednesday. I don't have a link, just that it will be on D'Souza' s website.

Posted by: @votermom at January 31, 2016 10:03 AM (cbfNE)

78
Does that top photo make anyone think of "Young Frankenstein"?
Posted by: JTB at January 31, 2016 09:00 AM (FvdPb)

Makes me think of the Krell's machine in Forbidden Planet

Posted by: Kindltot at January 31, 2016 10:08 AM (q2o38)

79 76 Book bleg: Cape of Good Hope is the long way to Kalifornia, MAYBE the Australian gold rush? Cape Horn is more like it...

Posted by: Fewenuff at January 31, 2016 10:03 AM (T/sbU)

Yeah, thanks, I always get those capes confused, I've made the correction.

Posted by: OregonMuse at January 31, 2016 10:08 AM (goH/2)

80 The Great Courses are wonderful and cover a HUGE range of topics. If you have an interest in ancient classics like Homer, check out the courses taught by Elizabeth Vandiver. They are excellent both for content and her presentation. If she recorded her reading of Homer, I would buy a copy even though I don't know Greek. What a great voice!

In addition to the academic topics, they have been expanding into practical subjects like learning chess, how to draw, cooking various cuisines, etc.

Definitely worth looking into. If the course you want is too expensive, they offer good sale prices several times a year.

Posted by: JTB at January 31, 2016 10:08 AM (FvdPb)

81 Morning, all!

I finished "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance". It was tough for me. I only had one philosophy class eons ago, and trying to keep up with his (literal) Sophistry made it slow going. Then, as a story, I didn't like the way he treated his son...his resolution was self-indulgent, I thought. Anyway, I'm still very glad I read it.

Sea stories! Allow me to suggest a couple. They're both written by a friend, but don't hold that against him. One is called "A Hanging Offense" and the other "Sea Cobra". Both about the US Navy (one in the 19th century and the other during WWII), both are historical accounts, and both read like adventure stories. The links below are to the Amazon page for each:

http://tinyurl.com/zd8yz4n

http://tinyurl.com/hrjwfv8

Posted by: MarkW at January 31, 2016 10:08 AM (kQfoP)

82 In library at the top
Railings are not 42", ends are not closed and not wide enough for wheelchairs as well as having no turning area at end.

Posted by: Skip at January 31, 2016 10:11 AM (hk3Fb)

83 The Great Courses are pretty good most of the time. We have bought several but the one on geology was my favorite.
The Mr would pick the one on jazz.

Posted by: FCF at January 31, 2016 10:12 AM (kejii)

84 Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World is one of my favorite movies. It reminded me of my first exposure to nautical stories, Youth by Josef Conrad. Gritty and realistic.

It was a preview of things to come for a young Moron that I was the only one in literature class who liked it.

Posted by: BackwardsBoy at January 31, 2016 10:13 AM (LUgeY)

85 Still on topic, since they are both authors, D'Souza is debating Ayers this Wednesday. I don't have a link, just that it will be on D'Souza' s website.
Posted by: @votermom at January 31, 2016 10:03 AM (cbfNE)
---
Bill Ayers: no jail time.
Dinesh D'Souza: jail time.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at January 31, 2016 10:13 AM (jR7Wy)

86 Not done reading the post yet, but this jumped out at me:

The Gutenberg interface is clunky and primitive and looks like something from 1997.

Hmmm. (Looks at AoSHQ commenting set-up) Yeah, nobody should put up with that kind of thing.

Posted by: mindful webworker - random housely at January 31, 2016 10:13 AM (TUUTu)

87 I finished Joshua Guess' "The Fall" series and am now reading James Cook's "Surviving the Dead" series. Two newish authors that are surprisingly good. "The Fall" has a unique, to me, take on the whole zombie apocalypse. Anyways, the subject matter suit the current atmosphere in general plus it's entertaining. It's not non-fiction....yet, so you can judge me on my low brow subject matter.

Posted by: lindafell de spair at January 31, 2016 10:15 AM (xVgrA)

88 Bill Ayers: no jail time.
Dinesh D'Souza: jail time.
Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at January 31, 2016 10:13 AM (jR7Wy)

Well, technically, it wasn't a jail, it was a halfway house. He was allowed to leave for wirk during the day.
But yeah, the selective justice is horrifying.

Posted by: @votermom at January 31, 2016 10:15 AM (cbfNE)

89 Apropos of nothing. I read, or reread, Heart of Darkness while I was in Africa this month.

It's a great book and was very appropriate.

I spent a little bit of time on Paradise Lost as well, which somehow also seemed appropriate. Evidence of the fall and resulting chaos was evident all around, to my eyes at least. That's not a negative reflection on the African people, because I genuinely loved the ones met it is more about the awareness of disease and poverty and corruption in what could, potentially, be paradise.

Back to regular programming.

Posted by: Northernlurker, feeling grumpy today at January 31, 2016 10:15 AM (4rzL1)

90 Good morning all!

Carried over from the earlier thread since it's slow going this morning.

Slow news day from this date in 1944.

Jan 31, 1944 - The EZ Dog Journals
Cool and cloudy. Limited action. Infantry and tanks across bridgehead above Cassino. Slow advance because of mines and heavy emplacements. Artillery fire comparatively light.

Big change is in the works for EZ Dog this coming week. Tune in on the EMT each day.

(Thanks to all the Morons who have read and commented on "To Save Us All From Ruin" here and at Goodreads. Special thanks to those who posted an Amazon review. Humbly appreciated.)

Link in nick

Posted by: Seamus Muldoon at January 31, 2016 10:15 AM (NeFrd)

91 Still reading the post...

...Android Kindle app has a function that allows you to tap on a word to see the dictionary definition pop up in a separate window....

Funny you should say that. In a forthcoming comment, I'm going to mention the lack of that feature as a drawback to good old printed works.

Posted by: mindful webworker - living today backward at January 31, 2016 10:17 AM (TUUTu)

92 This past week I read an old SF paperback: "The Tar-Ayim Krang" by Allan Dean Foster. His first novel, it turns out, and the beginning of his "Flinx and Pip" series.

It starts off strong -- scrappy street kid (Flinx) and his pet flying snake (Pip) gets mixed up in an expedition searching for an alien artifact of fabulous antiquity (the Krang, built by a species called the Tar-Ayim, hence the title). There are rivals trailing them and enemy aliens trying to stop them and conflicts among the team . . . real classic stuff. Kipling's Kim joins the Prometheus looking for the Lost Ark, so to speak.

And then . . . it kind of peters out. The Krang (which is a lot like the Krell Machine from Forbidden Planet in scale and power) turns out to be kind of boring. I find myself wondering if Foster ran out of steam before finishing, or if he originally had a different idea for the ending but changed it, or maybe he had a length limit.

Anyway, I give it three stars out of five.

Interesting note: I don't think you could publish a novel today with a title that's nothing but made-up alien words. The marketing department would have a conniption and insist it be retitled something like "Hunt For The Alien Thingy."

Posted by: Trimegistus at January 31, 2016 10:18 AM (zq6az)

93 Can anyone suggest a book that helps explain or interpret the Gospels?

Posted by: JTB at January 31, 2016 09:48 AM

Try David Limbaugh's Jesus on Trial, and The Emmaus Code.

Posted by: IrishEi at January 31, 2016 10:19 AM (E6RIJ)

94 Well whaddaya know! Several of The Great Courses are at my local public library. Thanks for the suggestion!

Posted by: gp at January 31, 2016 10:20 AM (+Jpqc)

95 I tried ty ing with my inky fingers lifted but it m de it h rd to hit some of the keys.

Posted by: Trimegistus at January 31, 2016 10:20 AM (zq6az)

96 I was able to read in Africa thanks to Kindle and iBooks, which I have as apps on my phone.
I'm very much thankful for the technology when I travel.

Posted by: Northernlurker, feeling grumpy today at January 31, 2016 10:20 AM (4rzL1)

97 Read a couple of books on Andersonville prison. Thinking about visiting for genealogy reasons

Posted by: nckate at January 31, 2016 10:22 AM (G0dcM)

98 I succeeded in my big blizzard project of purging and reshelving all my books, and now I have close to 100 books to donate.

I have some of my grandparents' books, and my reshelving inspired me to read "Parnassus on Wheels", by Christopher Morley, published in 1917. This was Morley's first novel, and it's more of a novella, about a bookseller who travels around the Northeast in a horse-drawn van, buying and selling books - the precursor to the bookmobile. The narrator is a long-suffering unmarried farm woman who keeps house for her brother, who has become a famous author, and the woman decides to buy the van and have an adventure herself. By the end of the book she's fallen in love with the bookseller. It's a sweet, humorous book that anybody who loves books will appreciate.

Morley wrote a sequel, "The Haunted Bookshop", which has the couple relocated to Brooklyn where they've opened a second-hand bookshop. I only got half-way through this book before I gave up because the narrator has shifted to the man, who is nothing but a puppet for the author. Lots of discussion about high-brow versus low-brow literature, the uneducated masses reading pulp fiction, and references to other 100-year-old-or-more books. What turned me off, though, was the author injecting his politics into the book. (He thinks that because America sacrificed the least in the Great War, America should sacrifice the most in establishing peace. Also, he was very big on the League of Nations.) I hate to get halfway through a book and then give up, so I may finish the book, but it wasn't has fun as the first book.

Looking at Christopher Morley's wiki page, I see he was your typical Northeast elite. He was a prolific writer, and his best-known book is "Kitty Foyle". He was a co-founder of the Baker Street Irregulars and was one of the first judges of the Book of the Month Club. He died in 1957 - it would be interesting to know if his politics changed over time.

Anyway, interesting to read what was considered good literature and bad literature 100 years ago. And also interesting to think that someone who must have been a mainstay of the literary establishment in the first half of the last century could now be almost completely unknown. Life is fleeting.

Posted by: biancaneve at January 31, 2016 10:22 AM (e98eb)

99 Actually, truthfully, I'm not feeling grumpy today just kind of tired and still slightly jet lagged.

I just wanted to clarify.

Posted by: Northernlurker at January 31, 2016 10:22 AM (4rzL1)

100 84 Conrad is amazing - hard to believe that English was not his native language.

Posted by: Weasel at January 31, 2016 10:23 AM (e3bId)

101 My suggestion is to not try to read all the O'Brien Aubrey/Maturin books in one go. It is easy to get burned out, and get wound up in some of the inconsistencies of characterization. Maturin, especially, swings around in characterization.

Oh, and if I had one issue, just one issue in the whole series, it would be Diana Villers wandering off at such useful intervals.

Hornblower's Maria only died once, at least.

Posted by: Kindltot at January 31, 2016 10:23 AM (q2o38)

102 Posted by: OregonMuse at January 31, 2016 10:08 AM (goH/2)

No capes!

Posted by: Edna 'E' Mode at January 31, 2016 10:23 AM (Zu3d9)

103 Posted by: Trimegistus at January 31, 2016 10:18 AM (zq6az)
---
I loved the books in the Flinx and Pip series that I read, beginning with "Flinx in Flux" and ending in "Flinx Transcendent". Kind of loose shaggy dog adventures meeting various and sundry aliens and cultures.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at January 31, 2016 10:26 AM (jR7Wy)

104 This book thread always creates a huge dilemma - should I read a book, or read about books?

Thanks, OM, for the weekly entertainment.

Posted by: biancaneve at January 31, 2016 10:29 AM (e98eb)

105 The Aubrey/Maturin books are good, but Horatio Hornblower is almost infinitely better. You can learn to be a man, father, and leader from Horatio Hornblower books.

By the end of the fifth Aubrey/Maturin book, I've come to the conclusion that they are entertaining, sometimes funny, but a bit plotless and fluffy.

Posted by: Hillary's alcoholic depression at January 31, 2016 10:32 AM (NBhge)

106 Thanks for the suggestions about the Gospels. I'll check them out.

Posted by: JTB at January 31, 2016 10:34 AM (FvdPb)

107 Life is too lousy to be reading short books.

Posted by: Insomniac - Pale Horse/Death 2016 at January 31, 2016 10:34 AM (kpqmD)

108 @86 It's not just the comments. As much as I love the content on this site, the webmaster could give seminars on how to make slow-loading sites with maximum call-outs per page.

Did I emphasize how much I love the content? Please put down that ban-hammer! Pretty-please?!?

Posted by: doug at January 31, 2016 10:34 AM (q59R0)

109 >>> Conrad is amazing - hard to believe that English was not his native language.

His first novel was written in French.

Posted by: fluffy at January 31, 2016 10:35 AM (AfsKp)

110 Finally plowing through the comments...

NaCly Dog: ...My favorite is how democracy is being replaced with crime syndicates as the basis for society....

Clinton/Arkansas mob. Obama/Chicago mob. Heck, going back to JFK I suppose one might say.

"It can't happen heeerrre" -FZ

Posted by: mindful webworker - theoretically at January 31, 2016 10:35 AM (TUUTu)

111 85 Bill Ayers: no jail time.

Dinesh D'Souza: jail time.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at January 31, 2016 10:13 AM (jR7Wy)

Technically Ayers skated because the FBI ran an illegal wire tap and their case was thrown out of court.

Posted by: Vic-we have no party at January 31, 2016 10:36 AM (t2KH5)

112 Missus Muldoon and I are continuing to work our way through "The Politics of Guilt and Pity" by R.J. Rushdoony. We take turns reading a chapter and then presenting a discussion of the chapter between us, with discussion, comparison and contrast to current events. We have been doing this 3 or 4 days each week, so it is slow going.

I hear faint echoes of Hayek in some of the passages in this book. Rushdoony gives analyses of secular society and government from a Calvinist scripture-based viewpoint, but shares certain fundamental concepts with Hayek's more economics-based observations. Lots of analyses of man's relationship to the state.

We enjoyed this passage in a chapter discussing the myth of ultimate power in the hands of a humanistic "state".

Man can, as God's creature, live only in terms of limited power and limited liberty as exercised under God's sovereignty and word. To assume more is to live in terms of an impossibility. The fact that for a time it seems to "work" is itself a delusion. The man who believes that he can flap his arms and fly will certainly find it a fast and simple flight, as he leaves the Empire State Building, until he meets the hard earth. No less a destiny faces modern man and his state.

Posted by: Seamus Muldoon at January 31, 2016 10:37 AM (NeFrd)

113 I picked up a Beverly Cleary book, Ellen Tibbets, to read again. I first read it in grade school, and Cleary was considered a local author.

A friend's kid is fining a lot of the reading he is assigned to be uninteresting, so I have been looking for things he would like better.

I don't think he would like Ellen Tibbets, much.

Posted by: Kindltot at January 31, 2016 10:39 AM (q2o38)

114 I watched the Plinkett review of the JJ Abrams Star Trek last night. He addressed the making over of the ST universe time line by that movie and Into Darkness.
He pointed out that practically all the ST series messed around with
time travel quite a bit, so he answered the "Did Abrams mess up the
timeline?" with "So what - who cares?"

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at January 31, 2016 09:42 AM (BK3ZS)

My biggest issue with Abrams so called "Star Trek" is quite simple. You DO NOT give command of your most powerful warship to some snot nosed punk MIDDIE ferfucksakes, I don't care if you're Grand Admiral of the fucking UNIVERSE. Never happened, never will. That makes the entire lineup unwatchable for me.

Not a big JJ Abrams fan at any rate, but that just did it for me.

Posted by: GGE Hades of the Moron Horde, NC Chapter at January 31, 2016 10:39 AM (vbvxt)

115 His first novel was written in French.

Posted by: fluffy at January 31, 2016 10:35 AM (AfsKp)

He was an amazing man.

By the way, that first photo on your newest blog entry is gorgeous!

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at January 31, 2016 10:40 AM (Zu3d9)

116 "the Diary of a Forty-Niner" as a guess for your lost book title. Came up in the customers also bought with Two Years before the Mast on Amazon.

Posted by: PaleRider at January 31, 2016 10:40 AM (chkUd)

117 .You know, ~~'older mother or wife~~ teen victim of sex trafficking sits down and thinks about her horrible life'."

FIFY Marlon, you stinky turd of a human being.

Posted by: Rotherham asian man at January 31, 2016 10:41 AM (b2qGx)

118 Skip thank you for the kind words about Golden Isis. That is some heavy reading you are slogging through otherwise. Yes take a break.

Was rewriting and preparing current story for a try at Angry Robot but encountered a couple problems. How to write a synopsis of story when the story is not finished. And as I working through to spruce up the first ten thousand words, realized I was writing within one scene inside several of the character's minds which is something I had stopped doing in the remaining 48,000 words written so far.

So will keep writing story to conclusion and wait for another open submission call by a suitable publisher. Or self-publish.

And if you want to be like Skip:
http://astore.amazon.com/aoshq-20/detail/B014BTSEYO

Posted by: Anna Puma at January 31, 2016 10:42 AM (a4xvv)

119 naturalfake: ..."Behold the Man" ... I wasn't shocked so much as sort of depressed by the display of pure vitriol and hate by Moorcock....

I mentioned this in passing, maybe last week? Had pretty much the same reaction. Hideous drivel. Never would read anything by Moorcock after that.

Posted by: mindful webworker - drivel drivel at January 31, 2016 10:42 AM (TUUTu)

120 It probably doesn't matter if your local library owns the materials or not. Most libraries will send away for materials from other libraries and let you check them out and return them to your local library. You can search for materials on WorldCat and let your local library order them for you.

Posted by: Ken Begg at January 31, 2016 10:43 AM (VFTxL)

121 My Little G'Dette is stirring (babysitting).

BBL. Y'all try and behave.

Posted by: BackwardsBoy at January 31, 2016 10:44 AM (LUgeY)

122 As an antidote to Moorcock's "Behold the Man" (yuck, what a resentful, nasty-minded pissant ... wonder if he has the nerve to do a hack job about Mohammad, the pedophile bandit gang leader?) for a romp concerning the early Christian church in Rome; Barbara Hambly had an early book called The Quirinal Hill Affair (or alternately, Search the Seven Hills) which involved a young man searching for a kidnapped girl, and get involved with a quarrelsome underground cult ... but it is quite respectful of religious belief, although it does play up the comic schisms between early Christians, as well as the quiet authority of the first Popes...

Posted by: CeliaHayes at January 31, 2016 10:44 AM (95iDF)

123 Reading Master and Commander? Check out this book...

A Nelson Companion: Guide to Royal Navy of Jack Aubry by C Maynard

It's a small hardback full of definitions and terms. How ships were classed, etc. Very useful when reading older books about exploration and sailing

Used editions at Amazon for pretty cheap.

Posted by: Dang at January 31, 2016 10:46 AM (2oWD2)

124 Not "Two Years before the Mast" by Dana?

Posted by: Dingbat at January 31, 2016 10:46 AM (KD4MM)

125 More on Christopher Morley and the transitory nature of fame - "Kitty Foyle", his best known book which was turned into a movie starring Ginger Rogers, is no longer in print, there are no copies at my library, and the only Kindle version is in Italian!

And I may have to rethink Morley and finish "The Haunted Bookshop." Here are his final words to his friends:

"Read, every day, something no one else is reading. Think, every day, something no one else is thinking. Do, every day, something no one else is silly enough to do. It is bad for the mind to be continually part of unanimity."

Posted by: biancaneve at January 31, 2016 10:47 AM (e98eb)

126 A Piece of the Action

Star Trek episode about a planetary culture based on a book left behind by another starship that describes Chicago gangs of the 1920s. Yeah, screw the Prime Directive.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at January 31, 2016 10:47 AM (EZebt)

127 Support a new Moron writer - AllenG. His book will hit the shelves very soon.

http://astore.amazon.com/aoshq-20/detail/B01B3YB4L0

Posted by: Anna Puma at January 31, 2016 10:50 AM (a4xvv)

128 Tonestaple, you may be having trouble because you're trying to copy and paste characters the software won't accept? Angled quotemarks and apostrophes, characters beyond the standard 26 letters and standard punctuation (characters with umlauts, long dashes, etc) cause the hamsters to choke.

You can either search/replace all the violating marks, or, use this page to convert the text to acceptable form:
http://bit.ly/pixyize

More details and other hints in my unauthorized Ace of Spades Blog Commenters Survival Guide
http://bit.ly/aoshq-csg

Posted by: mindful webworker - technically squeaking at January 31, 2016 10:50 AM (TUUTu)

129 Two inexpensive amateur radio books that I'd highly recommend.

"Minimum QRP: Doing more with under five watt amateur radio" by Peter Parker VK3YE, for $4.99 on Kindle. Peter is a well-known QRP (low-power) enthusiast with a very popular web site and dozens of excellent youtube videos. The emphasis is on Keep It Simple, Stupid (just not too simple). 229 pages, 4.8/5.0 for 20 reviews. I'd give it a five.

"The Hobbyist's Guide to the RTL-SDR: Really Cheap Software Defined Radio" by Carl Laufer. Free on Kindle Unlimited, $9.99 for Kindle, $17.96 for paperback. Very comprehensive collection that would help both beginners and more experienced users. 475 pages, 4.7/5.0 for 89 reviews. I'd give this a five, too.

Posted by: doug at January 31, 2016 10:50 AM (q59R0)

130 Morning horde.

Going over the Catholic sacraments at dinner with my nephew last night. He was running them down..Baptism, Eucharist, Reconciliation, Confirmation....then Marriage. Without missing a beat he sarcastically said 'RWC....?'

Loving how he is growing up.

Posted by: RWC - Team BOHICA at January 31, 2016 10:50 AM (hlMPp)

131
45 . . .

I'm returning my books on interviewing. I did not do well. I think I need coaching rather than knowledge. And a course on butt-kissing. I suck at that. I view this all as a continuation of the War on Merit, and the new Age of Networked Assholes. . . .

Posted by: NaCly Dog at January 31, 2016 09:39 AM (u82oZ)

******

I have been thinking of you.

I spent over a decade in the Air Force and then became a stay-at-home mom for over 20 years. Then an unwanted change in my personal situation and a partial loss of fortune forced me to re-enter the job market in my late 50s.

Facing those interviews was so hard for me, especially with no recent "real" job experience. One of the things I did was create a "Portfolio" containing a cover letter type page about why I wanted the job, my resume, an extremely detailed section on my military experience, and a section that contained my writing and research samples and examples of spreadsheets I had created.

I just kinda came up with this on my own because I found that the interview books weren't that helpful. I also constantly honed the job detail pages to make it more understandable and applicable to civilian situations. I knew that I had valuable skills, but I it was difficult to express them. Writing all this down helped me organize my thoughts.

Another thing I did was purposefully interview for several jobs I did not want. I called these my "trash" interviews. These gave me experience being questioned in front of a panel of interviewers. They helped me figure out that what I thought sounded good coming out of my mouth didn't always come across that way. Then I would come home and edit my portfolio again. I suck at butt kissing, too, and I had to constantly figure out how to sell myself. It's also hard being interviewed by folks who are young enough to be your kids.

Most interviewers merely glanced through the portfolio and handed it back, but it made an impression with some.

I eventually got an acceptable job with the state. I am underemployed, but at least I have income to pay my mortgage and partially support the kids in college. Things are tight, but I'm much better off than some, and I am thankful for that.

I think it would have been helpful to have a mentor or a coach because I didn't find the books or online resources very helpful.

Sorry this is so long. This worked for me, YMMV.

I'll be hoping things work out for you!

Posted by: Elinor, Who Usually Looks Lurkily at January 31, 2016 10:51 AM (NqQAS)

132 114 GGE Hades of the Moron Horde, NC Chapter

Exactly! The command relationships in the Star Trek reboot were so out there as to be unwatchable. What rubbish.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at January 31, 2016 10:54 AM (u82oZ)

133 Follow up on two moron recommended books:
Comanche Empire/hamalainen and Empire of the Summer Moon/Gwynne. As the subtitle of the latter suggests (Qhanah Parker and the Rise and fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History), the book is about historical characters and war. Gwynne creates an interesting and compelling narrative by interleaving biographical sketches with a geo-historical perspective . Comanche Empire is more of a textbook compendium of facts and is well referenced. It is not very interesting to read, but is useful as a reference source for Empire. Recommend both.

Posted by: edmundburkesshade at January 31, 2016 10:54 AM (cmBvC)

134 The O'Brian books definitely span a range of quality. HMS Surprise is one of the best novels in English, period. Desolation Island is . . . kind of boring. No author can hit a homer every time at bat.

Posted by: Trimegistus at January 31, 2016 10:56 AM (zq6az)

135 131 Elinor, Who Usually Looks Lurkily

Thank you for your help. I will use this in the future.

I am now focused on finding that open window.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at January 31, 2016 10:57 AM (u82oZ)

136 "Writers of colour" should pool their resources and build their own publishing houses. And don't hire any older white women as editors.

But how can this world's problems be fixed, except by putting old white women in charge of everything? It's our turn.

Posted by: Hillary Clinton at January 31, 2016 10:57 AM (b2qGx)

137 Star Trek episode about a planetary culture based on a book left behind by another starship that describes Chicago gangs of the 1920s. Yeah, screw the Prime Directive.
Posted by: San Franpsycho at January 31, 2016 10:47 AM (EZebt)

"Yeah, screw the Prime Directive" was pretty much Kirk's ROE during the entire run of ST:TOS, wasn't it?

Posted by: OregonMuse at January 31, 2016 10:57 AM (goH/2)

138 >>> I picked up a Beverly Cleary book, Ellen Tibbets, to read again. I first read it in grade school, and Cleary was considered a local author.

I had a second or third grade teacher read some Ramona to us. I liked them at the time. They were stories about a girl, not girly stories.

Posted by: fluffy at January 31, 2016 10:58 AM (AfsKp)

139 Posted by: Elinor, Who Usually Looks Lurkily at January 31, 2016 10:51 AM (NqQAS)

Elinor, what a helpful post!

I'm also an unemployed SAHM - too long from programming to be employable and not sure I want try get back into it anyway.

Posted by: @votermom at January 31, 2016 10:59 AM (cbfNE)

140 GGE, exactly. If a Captain pus a snotty in charge of the charge in a real situation the Captain needs to be relieved by the XO immediately.

And apparently in Star Trek Beyond Kirk treats USS Enterprise like he did the Corvette that went over the cliff in Iowa of the 23rd Century.

Posted by: Anna Puma at January 31, 2016 10:59 AM (a4xvv)

141 Still on topic, since they are both authors, D'Souza is debating Ayers
this Wednesday. I don't have a link, just that it will be on D'Souza' s
website.

Posted by: @votermom at January 31, 2016 10:03 AM

It's 'sposed to be Wednesday evening at 7 PM somewhere on the UoM (Hail to the Victims!) campus, but I've yet to find an exact location.

Any morons in the vicinity of The Peoples' Republik of AnnArbor?

Posted by: AltonJackson at January 31, 2016 10:59 AM (KCxzN)

142 Exactly! The command relationships in the Star Trek reboot were so out there as to be unwatchable. What rubbish.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at January 31, 2016 10:54 AM (u82oZ)

Some salty old space chief would have kicked Midshipman James T Kirk's not-in-the-chain-of-command's ass up between his still wet ears.

Posted by: GGE Hades of the Moron Horde, NC Chapter at January 31, 2016 11:00 AM (vbvxt)

143
Over 10,000 migrant children missing, says Europol http://f24.my/1Tv5nDR

=========
They are either being pimped out or they are not children or both.

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at January 31, 2016 11:00 AM (iQIUe)

144 >>> By the way, that first photo on your newest blog entry is gorgeous!

Thank you!

That spot needs to visited for fall color.

Posted by: fluffy at January 31, 2016 11:00 AM (AfsKp)

145 Casca/The Wandering Jew actually shows up in my latest novel, not gonna explain any more

The Silver Chalice was a great read - most of Costain's stuff was good reading, actually. He's kind of a forgotten classic these days.

one of my favorite old-timey medical terms, laudable pus has not yet made an appearance, but perhaps it will later.

Oh yes, trust me. And a whole lot more

Its worth picking up Dean King's book A Sea of Words if you read the whole series.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at January 31, 2016 11:00 AM (39g3+)

146 And I should proofread before posting...

In Piece of the Action, Kirk and crew are sent to Iota to see what happened because a previous ship accidentally left a book on the planet.

As Oregon Muse points out, Kirk treats the Prime Directive more as guidelines to be taken under advisement if something threatens his ship.

Posted by: Anna Puma at January 31, 2016 11:02 AM (a4xvv)

147 Thank you, mindful webworker, but I copied and pasted first into Notepad before attempting to paste quotes from that book into a comment. I thought Notepad stripped off all of the unacceptable formatting. I was copying from my Kindle for PC, so who knows what sort of evil mojo is contained therein.

Posted by: Tonestaple at January 31, 2016 11:02 AM (RtCTo)

148 NaCly Dog, I was suggested to look at SHARE model interview techniques. If nothing else it gives you a framework to explain the situations, barriers and resolutions as well as what would have happened without that resolution in that way.

I was given some coaching in it by a girlfriend years ago - I remember goofing off on it, role-playing on how different fictional characters would handle a situation too. My favorite was Don Corleone dealing with bad trash service, if I remember correctly.

Just a technique to look at.

I could give you a suggestion to relax but I am sure everyone you have talked to you has told you that.

Posted by: Kindltot at January 31, 2016 11:03 AM (q2o38)

149 And I just tried copying a quote from the Kindle again and pasting it into your Unicode converter, and it still wouldn't take it.

Posted by: Tonestaple at January 31, 2016 11:03 AM (RtCTo)

150 Has anyone mentioned The Bronze Bow for the religiousy books? I remember thinking that one was pretty cool when I read it (I think I was

Posted by: Turd Ferguson at January 31, 2016 11:04 AM (/ciMI)

151 Clipper ships are truly awesome craft. There are sailing records that were set by these things that have never been broken. I wish someone would do an Aubrey/Maturin type series set in that time period, it was very fascinating.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at January 31, 2016 11:04 AM (39g3+)

152 "The Robe" is worth watching. I thought it was a decent movie. Jean Simmons, Richard Burton, Michael Rennie, Victor Mature, Richard Boone as Pontius Pilate. Jay Robinson as Caligula chews the scenery. Richard Burton's overacting is the weakest link.

Posted by: Tuna at January 31, 2016 11:04 AM (JSovD)

153 Almost everything I know about Catholic comes from Walter Miller's 1960 "A Canticle for Leibowitz."

Following the atomic wars, monks in the southwest desert rescue and preserve the books that would otherwise be burned by the warlords and know-nothings. The order endlessly petitions New Rome to make their founder, former engineer Isaac Leibowitz, a saint.

In three parts spanning twelve centuries, the monastery collection of ancient documents attracts attention from the secular academy and its barbarian patron. Meanwhile, a sciencey monk figures out the ancient electrics texts to create an arc lamp. Let there be light! Secular and religious wrangle, and another war grinds progress to a halt. The monks abide.

600 years later, civilization is reborn, and we're reaching out for the stars. But not all ancient knowledge is benign, and there are rumors of war.

It's rooted in the same history that became "How the Irish Saved Civilzation," published 45 years later. It was written pre-Vatican II, so I never understood how these valiant monks begat the hippie dipshit priests of 2001.

I like that the whole course of history hinges on a scrap of paper reading "Pound pastrami, can kraut, six bagels--bring home for Emma." It's that kind of funny.

Naturally, the Catholic characters are weak sauce contending with them scene-stealing Jews.

The Wikipedia entry presents it quite nicely, and the book is still in print. Used copies are cheap, but I don't see it in Kindle Store. There are bootleg .mobi files out there. It won the Hugo.

Posted by: Spellcheck at January 31, 2016 11:08 AM (HKBpI)

154 Well, off to bed so I can be up for work tonight. Later roonz and roonettez, fear no evil!

Posted by: GGE Hades of the Moron Horde, NC Chapter at January 31, 2016 11:08 AM (vbvxt)

155 There was tv so on Discovery or something with a stupid title like "how to hack your interview" -something like that.

The tips were all about body language, little interactions, sales technique stuff, bit it was interesting.

Posted by: @votermom at January 31, 2016 11:08 AM (cbfNE)

156 BackwardsBoy: ...One of my many flights of fancy is wondering what would happen if things from the Bible were to occur today....

It's early to toot about my Easter-ish cartoon, but it was sort-of like that. More like if they had television news media, and cell phones, Twitter, etc. in the First Century A.D. (Harks of steampunk maybe?) Not.. um.. strictly Gospel-based. No irreverence intended, though.

Jerusalem Report
http://bit.ly/jeru-report

Posted by: mindful webworker - pandemonium! at January 31, 2016 11:09 AM (TUUTu)

157 149 And I just tried copying a quote from the Kindle again and pasting it into your Unicode converter, and it still wouldn't take it.
Posted by: Tonestaple at January 31, 2016 11:03 AM (RtCTo)

Really? Wow. I've never known that converter not to work.

Of course, I've never used it with my Kindle, either.

Posted by: OregonMuse at January 31, 2016 11:09 AM (goH/2)

158 145
Ditto on Costain. I read "The Black Rose" in high school. I can recommend it to those who love medieval historical novels.

Posted by: Tuna at January 31, 2016 11:10 AM (JSovD)

159 [I will] fear no evil

is generally considered to be one of the weakest Heinlein books.

Posted by: Ready for Hillary! (Not) at January 31, 2016 11:12 AM (brIR5)

160 The Wikipedia entry presents it quite nicely, and the book is still in print. Used copies are cheap, but I don't see it in Kindle Store. There are bootleg .mobi files out there. It won the Hugo.
Posted by: Spellcheck at January 31, 2016 11:08 AM (HKBpI)

Yeah, that one is a moron favorite; it's been discussed on the book thread many times.

Posted by: OregonMuse at January 31, 2016 11:13 AM (goH/2)

161 "Risen" looks like it could be quite good.

And it does, at least looking at the trailer,

one thing, which I love, that is extremely hard to pull off in a convincing manner whether in writing, movies, etc, and that is-

the moment where the main character suddenly realizes that everything he thought, believed, and knew-

is completely wrong.

I love that.

As a f'rinstance, I think that's what made the first "Matrix" movie so popular--- a great WTF?!? moment for both the character and the audience as we realize that everything we've seen is completely false.

Posted by: naturalfake at January 31, 2016 11:14 AM (KUa85)

162 Horde! I had a book published recently. It's got a bit of everything, especially how to get along with your sister.

Posted by: Lena Dunham at January 31, 2016 11:14 AM (/ciMI)

163 I found a paperback copy of "A Canticle for Leibowitz" at a yard sale awhile back. I'll have to read it one of these days. I know it's highly regarded.

Posted by: rickl at January 31, 2016 11:16 AM (sdi6R)

164 113 I picked up a Beverly Cleary book, Ellen Tibbets, to read again. I first read it in grade school, and Cleary was considered a local author.

A friend's kid is fining a lot of the reading he is assigned to be uninteresting, so I have been looking for things he would like better.

I don't think he would like Ellen Tibbets, much.
Posted by: Kindltot at January 31, 2016 10:39 AM (q2o3

I read "The Mouse and the Motorcycle" when I was a kid. He'd probably like that.

Posted by: rickl at January 31, 2016 11:18 AM (sdi6R)

165 Slightly OT, but Thomas Costain wrote a series of gripping books, appropriate for teenagers with a taste for history. My son was hooked by The Tontine and then plowed through several other Costain books as well (including The Silver Chalice), and enjoyed them.

Posted by: MTF at January 31, 2016 11:18 AM (TxJGV)

166 Over 10,000 migrant children missing, says Europol http://f24.my/1Tv5nDR
=========
They are either being pimped out or they are not children or both.
Posted by: Bruce With a Wang!

Yeah, 15 going on 22 like that shitster in Sweden. If Europe doen't care about crimes against its own people, it shouldn't do anything about this, except publish it as a deterrent.

Posted by: angela urkel at January 31, 2016 11:18 AM (b2qGx)

167 Wow. Beverly Cleary is still alive, and will turn 100 in April.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beverly_Cleary

Posted by: rickl at January 31, 2016 11:21 AM (sdi6R)

168 My heart bleeds for Booker prize winner Marlon James. Life is so hard for him, having to jump through the same hoops every man must to get published. You have two choices: pander to the leftist women who control publishing, or publish yourself. That's been true for over a decade now.

Women dominate agents, editors, publishers, and all levels of the industry, and it shows in what they choose to publish. This has been true for years, maybe decades.

And yet you still find whining online by the ocean about how males dominate the industry. Their evidence? Dudes sell so many books!

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at January 31, 2016 11:22 AM (39g3+)

169 Read Canticle for Lebowitz as a kid. The two headed character freaked me out.

Posted by: @votermom at January 31, 2016 11:22 AM (cbfNE)

170 165 Slightly OT, but Thomas Costain wrote a series of gripping books, appropriate for teenagers with a taste for history. My son was hooked by The Tontine and then plowed through several other Costain books as well (including The Silver Chalice), and enjoyed them.
Posted by: MTF at January 31, 2016 11:18 AM (TxJGV)

No offense, but why *on earth* would you think this is in the least little bit OT? If it's about book *at all*, it's not OT

My view of what's OT on the book thread is a lot like how Kirk viewed the Prime Directive.

Posted by: OregonMuse at January 31, 2016 11:22 AM (goH/2)

171
So, when is Iowa? Tuesday?

And then there is SuperBowl next Sunday?

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at January 31, 2016 11:22 AM (iQIUe)

172 Jeebus, Priebus!

Posted by: Hillary the Pest at January 31, 2016 11:23 AM (b2qGx)

173 Posted by: @votermom at January 31, 2016 10:59 AM (cbfNE)

I spent part of my time in the military as an instructor and got a degree in education before I got out.

I could have possibly looked for a job as a high school teacher, but would have had to go back to school to get a certification and then student teach before I would be hirable.

Being the mom of recent high school graduates, I had little desire to put myself in that situation.

But I did go back and take some community college courses that helped get me back in the groove, especially with my rusty computer skills.

By the way, I've always said that being a stay-at-home Mom challenged me just as much as most of what I did in the military!

Posted by: Elinor, Who Usually Looks Lurkily at January 31, 2016 11:24 AM (NqQAS)

174 148 Kindltot

Thank you. Your help, and that of Elinor is most appreciated.

I may age out before I have another chance, but who knows? That position has had 6 people in it in less than 5 years. It may open next year.

I'm pretty relaxed about it. I had solved the work issues with solutions. So I have that. The failure in the 9 member interview will become a learning experience. I will get a magazine article out of part of the process. And I have a robust Plan B and C.

My wife, less so. She had mentally spent 3-4 years of salary on her priorities. She is not as relaxed. But I have a cunning plan.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at January 31, 2016 11:25 AM (u82oZ)

175 167 Wow. Beverly Cleary is still alive, and will turn 100 in April.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beverly_Cleary

Posted by: rickl at January 31, 2016 11:21 AM (sdi6R)

I think I read all of her "Henry Huggins" and "Ramona" books when I was in grade school.

Posted by: OregonMuse at January 31, 2016 11:26 AM (goH/2)

176 129 ... Doug, Thanks for mentioning the QRP book. I'm refreshing my CW skills (which had atrophied to almost nothing) and QRP operation with code is my favorite. Using simple gear, wire antennas, and with a battery that is good for days of operating has always been appealing. Relatively inexpensive, good for emergencies, and as portable as possible. Not to mention the challenge.

Posted by: JTB at January 31, 2016 11:27 AM (FvdPb)

177 has anyone ever had the experience of climbing a ladder to get to a second stack of books in a library?

Posted by: Josephistan at January 31, 2016 11:28 AM (7qAYi)

178 Posted by: Hillary the Pest at January 31, 2016 11:23 AM (b2qGx)

Ha! Thread-winner for best nic, and extra style points for the book reference.

Posted by: OregonMuse at January 31, 2016 11:29 AM (goH/2)

179 I had the same problem with the new Star Trek as GGE Hades above: they made him a captain? After flubbing his way through the academy and one mission on a ship? Seriously?

I was hoping he would be a low level officer aboard a ship at least one more film, then given some piece of junk to struggle with, finally getting the enterprise, eventually. But no.

It made as much sense as Iowa's vast canyon (???) he almost fell into.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at January 31, 2016 11:29 AM (39g3+)

180 My favorite Thomas Costain books are The Plantagenets series.

The Conquerors
The Magnificent Century
The Three Edwards
The Last Plantagenets

The prose is a tad purple for today, but waw, he brings that history to life.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at January 31, 2016 11:29 AM (u82oZ)

181 165
I, too, read his books when I was a teen. Granted, that was a long time ago but I remember them fondly. I said in a previous post that " The Black Rose" was my favorite. I read it after watching the movie version on the old NBC " Saturday Night at the Movies". Tyrone Power and Orson Wells were the leads. As a teen, I thought Mr. Power was dreamy so I immediately went to the library and checked out the book.

Posted by: Tuna at January 31, 2016 11:29 AM (JSovD)

182 heh, I still have a copy of a Girl From Yam Hill.

Posted by: Hillary the Pest at January 31, 2016 11:30 AM (b2qGx)

183 Tonestaple: ...I thought Notepad stripped off all of the unacceptable formatting....

I've never understood why people say that works. If you try to save from Notepad in ANSI format, and get a warning to use Unicode instead, that means you have Pixy-choking characters in the text, but just pasting into Notepad and copying back out changes nothing. In my experience.

Posted by: mindful webworker - technically squeaking at January 31, 2016 11:31 AM (TUUTu)

184 The prose is a tad purple for today, but waw, he brings that history to life.
Posted by: NaCly Dog at January 31, 2016 11:29 AM (u82oZ)

What, pray tell, is the definition of "waw"?

Posted by: OregonMuse at January 31, 2016 11:31 AM (goH/2)

185 Finally remembered but still haven't found Bloody River by Martin Blumenson a book on the Texas Division crossing the Rapido river in the Italian campagne in WWII.

Posted by: Skip at January 31, 2016 11:32 AM (hk3Fb)

186 Re: historical novels and the delicate balance of trying to sound authentic without making the language too hard for the modern reader, Diana Galbaldon (Outlander) uses what she calls "bygonese."

Posted by: artemis at January 31, 2016 11:32 AM (AwPyG)

187 184 The definition means wow. From a bad typist.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at January 31, 2016 11:33 AM (u82oZ)

188 I had the same problem with the new Star Trek as GGE Hades above: they made him a captain? After flubbing his way through the academy and one mission on a ship? Seriously?

Posted by: Christopher Taylor

That's the military legacy Obama leaves us.

Posted by: Turd Ferguson at January 31, 2016 11:33 AM (/ciMI)

189 There was an "edges of the Gospel" novel I read in Junior High. "The Bronze Bow."

Posted by: buzzion at January 31, 2016 11:33 AM (zt+N6)

190 may i suggest:

"the western tradition", a video lecture series by eugene weber that traces western history from the neolithic to today (about 30 years ago). he's brilliant and it has a lot of great pictures from the metropolitan museum. (oops, this is a reading thread).

let us hope it is not an artifact of a lost and forgotten culture.

another fine overview is an encyclopedic timeline of world history over 5,000 years published by macmillan. it covers in some great detail the people and events that occur simultaneously in the world's cultures.

Posted by: musical jolly chimp at January 31, 2016 11:33 AM (WTSFk)

191 Tonestaple - oh, also, if you're one of those who can't use ampersands, then all bets are off, because the substitutes all start with an ampersand. Sorry you're having problems. This quirky "interface is clunky and primitive and looks like something from 1997."

Posted by: mindful webworker - technically squeaking at January 31, 2016 11:33 AM (TUUTu)

192 Posted by: Skip at January 31, 2016 11:32 AM (hk3Fb)

http://tinyurl.com/hzfgqn2

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at January 31, 2016 11:34 AM (Zu3d9)

193 People who love Patrick Obrien might also enjoy "Sailing Alone Around The World" by Joshua Slocum. It purports to be a true memoir of his solo circumnavigation and its a pretty good adventure story.

Posted by: MTF at January 31, 2016 11:34 AM (TxJGV)

194 Read Terms of Enlistment (Frontlines #1) by Marko Kloos, a futuristic military sci-fi story. Fun story of young man receiving his training and his various space adventures, good stuff.

Listened to Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Nietzsche, epic poem of man who after living in the mountains as a hermit for years comes down to deliver his wisdom to men. Sort of an atheistic messiah, collecting followers and giving advice. Enjoyed the writing, thought most of the substance was nonsensical.

Since Shakespeare died 400 years ago I'm working on reading all his works this year, hopefully in approximate writing order. Read The Two Gentlemen of Verona, where two men fall for the same lady. It's OK but no great poetry or human insights, worth reading to see where he started from. Also read The Taming of the Shrew where Petruccio tames Katherine from her angry violent behavior. Fun reading all the angry SJW reviews on Goodreads about that. It's not one of his greatest comedies but still pretty good.

Posted by: waelse1 at January 31, 2016 11:35 AM (3cHzs)

195 Posted by: MTF at January 31, 2016 11:34 AM (TxJGV)

He put tacks all over the deck to repel pirates!

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at January 31, 2016 11:35 AM (Zu3d9)

196 190 may i suggest:

"the western tradition", a video lecture series by eugene weber that traces western history from the neolithic to today (about 30 years ago). he's brilliant and it has a lot of great pictures from the metropolitan museum. (oops, this is a reading thread).

I remember watching that series, back when I had TV. I agree; it was very good.

Posted by: rickl at January 31, 2016 11:36 AM (sdi6R)

197 And I have to respectfully disagree about the gender complaining. If you are a man, write a thriller. You go to the front of the line, and everyone will sit up and take notice, since that's where the best-sellers are made (take a look at any airport bookstore.)
The agents and editors for thrillers tend to be male.

Posted by: artemis at January 31, 2016 11:37 AM (AwPyG)

198 the weber series is available as a free stream over the internets.

Posted by: musical jolly chimp at January 31, 2016 11:37 AM (WTSFk)

199 The new Star Trek is crap.

It is hipster Trek.

It is Twitter Trek.

It is Facebook look at my salad Trek.

I'd rather they made the movies about Dr. McCoy solving crimes on Rigel IV and Kirk and Spock are rival pirates.

Posted by: eman at January 31, 2016 11:38 AM (MQEz6)

200 Sailing books--I liked Kon-Tiki and the Mutiny on the Bounty trilogy.

Posted by: Turd Ferguson at January 31, 2016 11:38 AM (/ciMI)

201 Speaking of Gaylord's military...

Set about 8 years down the road. Invent a third world pest hole that decides to kidnap their American ambassador to get more foreign aid. So a LCS is sent to play gunboat. The crew will make Cary Grant's crew in Operation Petticoat seem top flight. The Captain is a paperwork pushing martinet in the mold of Marcus Aurelius Arnheiter.

Hilarity ensues as a collision with an uncharted log gravely damages the LCS when it tries to make port.

Posted by: Anna Puma at January 31, 2016 11:38 AM (a4xvv)

202 @189 I loved The Bronze Bow.

Posted by: artemis at January 31, 2016 11:38 AM (AwPyG)

203 Posted by: Hillary the Pest at January 31, 2016 11:23 AM (b2qGx)

Ha! Thread-winner for best nic, and extra style points for the book reference.
Posted by: OregonMuse

I believe this nice was partially lifted. I was known as "the gatekeeper of pestilence before Hillary had her buck teeth fixed. I claim infringement.

Posted by: fairweatherbill at January 31, 2016 11:38 AM (QeYJC)

204 More on Barry Sadler. He got into trouble when he was involved in a love triangle and the other fellow wound up dead. If I remember correctly, they wanted to try him for murder but he pled it out for time server.

Posted by: The Great White Snark at January 31, 2016 11:38 AM (Nwg0u)

205 He put tacks all over the deck to repel pirates!

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at January 31, 2016 11:35 AM (Zu3d9)
---------------------------------------------------

I loved how he spent a huge amount of time in Tahiti but wrote little about it, only mentioning the weather was good and the women were mostly topless. Sounded like my kind of place.

Posted by: MTF at January 31, 2016 11:39 AM (TxJGV)

206 O'Brian does a brilliant job making the language sound old but still readable. If they didn't really talk that way back then, they should have. Its something I struggle with in my fantasy novels, trying to find a way to make the characters sound like they're from another time and place without becoming unreadable. I experimented a lot with that in Old Habits inventing slang words a street thief would use but making them at least comprehensible in context. I still put a glossary in the book just in case.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at January 31, 2016 11:39 AM (39g3+)

207 186 Re: historical novels and the delicate balance of trying to sound authentic without making the language too hard for the modern reader, Diana Galbaldon (Outlander) uses what she calls "bygonese."
Posted by: artemis at January 31, 2016 11:32 AM (AwPyG)

Hi artemis!

Because I'm a lazy guy, I never got around to thanking you for the nice Christmas card you sent me.

So...

Thank you for the nice Christmas card you sent me!

I like that word "bygonese". It kind of suggests that your dialog doesn't actually have to be written in, say, 16th century English in order to be authentic, it just has to sound like it, in order to convey to the reader the idea that these aren't modern people talking.

Posted by: OregonMuse at January 31, 2016 11:40 AM (goH/2)

208 Bygonese - I really like the remake of True Grit for that.

Posted by: @votermom at January 31, 2016 11:41 AM (cbfNE)

209 97 - wish you would have mentioned which books on Andersonville but guessing there are not to many. That stuff will sober you up on mankind. I've went through the 4 books on gutenberg.org and have a original if cover less of Life in a Rebel Prison. Someday I'll get to Myrtle Beach and will go to Florence to see the site there where Andersonville prisoners were moved to.

Posted by: Skip at January 31, 2016 11:41 AM (hk3Fb)

210 @207 You do such good work here, I love the book thread!

Posted by: artemis at January 31, 2016 11:41 AM (AwPyG)

211 199 The new Star Trek is crap.
It is hipster Trek.
It is Twitter Trek.

Posted by: eman at January 31, 2016 11:38 AM (MQEz6)

It is Star Wars Star Trek.

Posted by: OregonMuse at January 31, 2016 11:42 AM (goH/2)

212 @176 Glad it is or interest.

For a good intro to Parker's approach to QRP, check out the video "Three features every homebrew QRP CW rig must have" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hj9va9LMB78 as well as the rest of his channel. Many of Parker's videos concern portable operation, including pedestrian.

Download the free sample of Parker's book to your Kindle device/app and I think you will know whether it is for you.

The "QRP School" youtube channel might also be of interest. If you are interested in homebrew, check out http://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/

Posted by: doug at January 31, 2016 11:42 AM (q59R0)

213 Kon-Tiki

I remember watching that as a kid in he '70's. Read the book later. Great story.

Posted by: Infidel at January 31, 2016 11:42 AM (MtMEd)

214 Excellent book thread (again), OM!

Re: Writers of colour" should pool their resources and build their own
publishing houses. And don't hire any older white women as editors.

Maybe it was the movie talk at the beginning, but Tyler Perry popped into mind. Entertainers 'of colour' scoff at the guy because some of his stuff is low-brow, but darned if he didn't create his own successful production company that churns out all sorts of shows/movies outside of the few, precious overly PC movies Hollywood puts out (magical blacks, the noble slave, biography of the first black whatever, etc.) and then pats themselves on the back for making. Then again, maybe he's hired a bunch of middle-aged black women who make all the decisions....

Posted by: Lizzy at January 31, 2016 11:43 AM (NOIQH)

215 *cues up the music*

"With JJ Abrams its nothing but star wrecks!"

Posted by: Anna Puma at January 31, 2016 11:43 AM (a4xvv)

216 Mr. Muse,
Have you read the sequel to "How Dark the World Becomes" yet. Just wondered what you thought of it .

Posted by: Tuna at January 31, 2016 11:43 AM (JSovD)

217 Forgot to note that I'm reading "The Man in the High Castle", after the series piqued my interest in the novel. The series has done an admirable job of crafting a straightforward narrative out of what is mostly internal dialog and casually tossed off references to some horrific social engineering done by the Reich, as well as ho-hum news items of interplanetary travel -- in the 60's. The show fleshes out the characterizations nicely.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at January 31, 2016 11:43 AM (jR7Wy)

218 Another thumbs up for the "Western Tradition" series.

Also Eugene Weber looks like Harvey Korman.

Posted by: the guy that moves pianos for a living... at January 31, 2016 11:44 AM (tEDMc)

219 Wasn't there another trilogy? I think I remember reading a book called, I think, King Rat? It was a POW story.

Posted by: Infidel at January 31, 2016 11:44 AM (MtMEd)

220 Remember reading a couple of Thor Hyerdal? books as a kid

Posted by: Skip at January 31, 2016 11:44 AM (hk3Fb)

221 210 @207 You do such good work here, I love the book thread!
Posted by: artemis at January 31, 2016 11:41 AM (AwPyG)

Thank you for your kind words, and for stopping by the book thread today.

And I eagerly await hearing about your next book.

Posted by: OregonMuse at January 31, 2016 11:45 AM (goH/2)

222 Last week, I mentioned I was re-reading The Time Traveler's Wife. Finished it on Friday.
http://acecomments.mu.nu/?blog=86&post=361178#c24730306
et al.

Some additional thoughts about the book, and the art of writing.

♦

My HS English teacher encouraged me to write for publication, and I got some very classy rejection slips before I gave up.

At the time, I really didn't think I could be a writer. "Write what you know," they say. I didn't know anything. I'd never been anywhere, or done anything, nor had any interesting experiences, so I thought. As I said once before, all I knew was the bright joys, and dark secrets, of small-town America in the 1960s; dysfunctional families that divorce and turn into two dysfunctional families; explosive teen angst - who would read about that ordinary stuff? (!)

This is why I veered more toward comedic cartooning.

Time Traveler's Wife is the kind of book that puts me right back in that humbled-to-death frame of mind.

There is a breadth of knowledge that went into it. The fine arts: poetry, opera and music from classical to punk, literature, painting, and even details of paper arts. History and mythology. French, German. Politics. I'm in my seventh decade, and I feel so abysmally ignorant in these fields - well, under-educated at least, even with my long-ago liberal-arts upbringing - that I can sometimes only barely appreciate the references. Had I been reading with computer at hand, I might've done more websearching on many of the references - a slight problem with good old print, can't just highlight and click "search."

The author has a list of acknowledgements for assistance in research, but you can't research without a good grounding in the first place.

1st of 2

Posted by: mindful webworker - artifictionally at January 31, 2016 11:45 AM (TUUTu)

223 The Patrick O'Brian books are great as books on tape for those with a long commute.

Posted by: DaveA at January 31, 2016 11:45 AM (DL2i+)

224 2nd of 2

I was more politically conscious on this reading of the hip urban Marxism of several of the main characters - talking about overthrowing The Man while living the life of the bourgeoisie - the kind of folks who, as commenters here say, would be so surprised to find themselves first on the firing line, or in the work camps, come the Revolution. I know some Chicagoans like that; they were well-depicted in the book.

Which brings me to: what authors do to our characters.

I know when I was writing my humble short story, Invulnerable (link in nic - see how I slipped this week's plug in there?), that my main character's troubles at the end seemed to be inherent to the story and his personality and the changes he'd been put through - inevitable, "wrote itself," rather than anything I intended at the outset.

Similarly, the harsh things Henry has to go through in TTTW seem inherent to the emotional impetus (fears) that direct his time travels, and are likewise inevitable to the story.

I'm reminded also of Rowling talking about killing off certain characters in the Potter series, specifically the house-elf, somewhat to her own surprise and consternation.

But we choose to do this to our characters, nonetheless. Don't we? However seemingly necessary for the dramatic telling, it's our own choice to follow where the story must go to be the better story, however much our dear characters suffer.

Gives one a certain sympathy with the Supreme Being's choice to create a universe of time-space free-will mortals, with all the magnificent and terrible consequences thereof - witness Jesus' prayer in the Garden to "let this cup pass," and its answer, tragic, then glorious. To be the better story.

♦

TTTW sort-of jumped into my hands before I'd finished Wells' First Men in the Moon. As I write this up on Saturday morning, I'm wondering, now what to read? (Looks around at small mountain of books in our home.)

My thanks to the book thread host and participants for the inspiration to get back into "real" reading. Took a while, but it finally seems to be working. Have to sacrifice some AoS thread-following time, but there's so much redundant political argument nowadays, it's not that hard.

Posted by: mindful webworker - artifictionally at January 31, 2016 11:45 AM (TUUTu)

225 208 Bygonese - I really like the remake of True Grit for that.
Posted by: @votermom at January 31, 2016 11:41 AM (cbfNE)

I still haven't managed to see the remake, even though I love the Coen Brothers.

I thought the dialog in the John Wayne version was meant to sound like the old dime novels, and I remember the Mad magazine parody making a point about the characters not using contractions.

Posted by: rickl at January 31, 2016 11:46 AM (sdi6R)

226 202 @189 I loved The Bronze Bow.

Posted by: artemis at January 31, 2016 11:38 AM (AwPyG)

I was actually surprised by it. I read it because we had that dumb accelerated reader program and it was worth the points I needed. So I wasn't really expecting Jesus to show up.

Posted by: buzzion at January 31, 2016 11:46 AM (zt+N6)

227 King Rat by James Clavell. Being a prisoner of the Japanese in WWII.

Posted by: Anna Puma at January 31, 2016 11:46 AM (a4xvv)

228 Apparently, Abrams didn't like Star Trek at all but took the job as a resume to get the job of making a Star Wars movie. He just doesn't get the setting, characters, or themes.

I liked the film mostly at first (it had some nagging stupidity in it like Kirk's promotion, the vast canyon out of nowhere, and the utter lack of defenses on Vulcan ???) but the more I thought about it the more it annoyed me because it lost the hard sci fi feel of Star Trek's original series.

I can't fault him for the lack of military structure, the first series only gave a vague nod to it, and the later series almost wholly abandoned the entire concept of it being a military at all.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at January 31, 2016 11:46 AM (39g3+)

229 I used to drive through Yamhill a lot. It was one of the back-ways north and south.

That route always felt like it had been ignored by time other than have the highway put in.

Posted by: Kindltot at January 31, 2016 11:46 AM (q2o38)

230 216 Mr. Muse,
Have you read the sequel to "How Dark the World Becomes" yet. Just wondered what you thought of it .
Posted by: Tuna at January 31, 2016 11:43 AM (JSovD)

No! Is it out yet? I searched for it a couple of weeks ago, and I didn't see it anywhere. Arrrgh! Now I've got to go look for it again...

Posted by: OregonMuse at January 31, 2016 11:48 AM (goH/2)

231 JTB

Two books for understanding the Bible-

"You can understand the Bible" by Peter Kreeft-He is a professor of philosophy at Boston College and a RC Christian. Since you came out of the RC tradition that might be a good place to start.

"The Divine Conspiracy" by Dallas Willard which is more along the lines of Chesterton, but by a man who is Protestant and is about the Bible but is more about the living the Christian life.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at January 31, 2016 11:48 AM (w4NZ8)

232 Posted by: Lizzy at January 31, 2016 11:43 AM (NOIQH)
--
I also like that it's away from the L.A./New York axis. I don't watch his movies but I admire his drive. Nobody was making fun movies for middle class black America so he made his own.

Rodriguez does most of his production in Texas and has told young filmmakers that if you can develop a history of bringing a film in under budget they will give you more creative control.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at January 31, 2016 11:48 AM (jR7Wy)

233 I'd rather they made the movies about Dr. McCoy solving crimes on Rigel IV and Kirk and Spock are rival pirates.

Posted by: eman at January 31, 2016 11:38 AM (MQEz6)

*****

I'd watch that!

Posted by: Elinor, Who Usually Looks Lurkily at January 31, 2016 11:48 AM (NqQAS)

234 The first chapter book I ever read was also a seafaring yarn, The Secret Sea by Robb (double Bs) White. It was set during the last days of WWII when a young Navy Officer who had been invalidated out after being wounded while being sunk at Leyte Gulf comes across an account of the sinking of a Spanish treasure gallon in the Caribbean (double Bs) and goes treasure hunting to get money for his brother's operation. Meanwhile, there's this bad guy in a black ship . . .
I loved it and read a bunch of Robb White after that.

Posted by: The Great White Snark at January 31, 2016 11:48 AM (Nwg0u)

235
I found Loyal Books about 2 years ago and have to add my recommendation.

I mainly use it for the audio books (man reading I call it) while doing other things. Some are well read, some are terrible, but it works for me.

Posted by: Guy Mohawk at January 31, 2016 11:48 AM (ODxAs)

236 If you like Kon Tiki you might like the movie Against The Sun (2014) based on the book The Raft, the true story if 3 airmen on a life raft for more than a month in the Pacific.
Watched it on amazon streaming (free with Prime) - liked it a lot.

Posted by: @votermom at January 31, 2016 11:49 AM (cbfNE)

237 OT: Guy who screwed half the country wants to screw all of it

Ron Jeremy endorses Fat Hag

http://preview.tinyurl.com/jdgjxrn

Posted by: Pappy O'Daniel at January 31, 2016 11:49 AM (oVJmc)

238 >>> Bygonese - I really like the remake of True Grit for that.

I want paying attention, Man.

Posted by: Jeff Bridges at January 31, 2016 11:50 AM (AfsKp)

239 Read a lot of the Casca books back in the 80s. Fun stuff and I think there was even one where California suffers an earthquake and separates from the continent and Casca is caught up in killing a lot of the crazies who are roaming about in the aftermath.

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at January 31, 2016 11:50 AM (ej1L0)

240
228 Apparently, Abrams didn't like Star Trek at all but took the job as a resume to get the job of making a Star Wars movie. He just doesn't get the setting, characters, or themes.

I liked the film mostly at first (it had some nagging stupidity in it like Kirk's promotion, the vast canyon out of nowhere, and the utter lack of defenses on Vulcan ???) but the more I thought about it the more it annoyed me because it lost the hard sci fi feel of Star Trek's original series.

I can't fault him for the lack of military structure, the first series only gave a vague nod to it, and the later series almost wholly abandoned the entire concept of it being a military at all.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at January 31, 2016 11:46 AM (39g3+)

Abrams told all the actors "You guys are all doing impressions of the actors doing their characters."

Except for Chris Pine. He didn't tell him to do Shatner. He told him "But you're doing Luke Skywalker."

Posted by: buzzion at January 31, 2016 11:50 AM (zt+N6)

241 I can't fault him for the lack of military structure, the first series only gave a vague nod to it, and the later series almost wholly abandoned the entire concept of it being a military at all.
Posted by: Christopher Taylor at January 31, 2016 11:46 AM (39g3+)
---
This is why I liked the much-maligned ST: Enterprise series, which got back to the roots of early space exploration and had military underpinnings.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at January 31, 2016 11:50 AM (jR7Wy)

242 I think the Galaxy Quest writers understood Trek a lot better. Or at least understood its fans

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at January 31, 2016 11:51 AM (KmVn3)

243 I read a series in first grade about divers. I think the covers were blue. I enjoyed them a lot--learned about the bends and all sorts of stuff. Wish I could remember the series.

Posted by: Turd Ferguson at January 31, 2016 11:51 AM (/ciMI)

244 Godless Blasphemer.
Repent of your sins.

Posted by: muns at January 31, 2016 11:51 AM (XCknZ)

245 Abrams throws tinsel at the screen and sees what sticks. It might work once. Do a sequel and he runs out of steam fast.

Posted by: Pappy O'Daniel at January 31, 2016 11:51 AM (oVJmc)

246 I've thought that a cool idea for a new Star Trek series would be set 100+ in the future (of the series). The Klingon Empire is back into the warrior business, and has taken over half the galaxy, including Earth. The Federation is more interesting in reclaiming their worlds than exploring strange new ones.

Posted by: Josephistan at January 31, 2016 11:52 AM (7qAYi)

247 The best Star Trek reboot is FarScape.

Posted by: @votermom at January 31, 2016 11:53 AM (cbfNE)

248 242 I think the Galaxy Quest writers understood Trek a lot better. Or at least understood its fans

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at January 31, 2016 11:51 AM (KmVn3)

They certainly have a better idea of how fast things can travel in space.

Posted by: buzzion at January 31, 2016 11:53 AM (zt+N6)

249 Tuna--

OK, there it is: Come the Revolution. I'm almost positive it wasn't there when I went looking for it not too long ago. It must be brand spankin' new.

Thank you for the heads-up.

Posted by: OregonMuse at January 31, 2016 11:54 AM (goH/2)

250 Speaking of self publishing, Hard Luck Hank, who has been mentioned with approval several times on the book thread, self published in 2013 and now has four or five novels and a couple of books of short stories. I don't know if the author is all champagne and bimbos now but it is pretty inspiring.

Posted by: The Great White Snark at January 31, 2016 11:54 AM (Nwg0u)

251 Voter Mom never seen The Raft but I know the story.

Early 1942, before Unbroken, a carrier launched TBD-1 Devastator crew goes in the drink in the vast Pacific. Radio silence was observed so no one knew what happened to the three man crew. And for over a month they drifted across the vast trackless waste of the Pacific. IIRC the life raft is on display at the Pensacola Naval Aviation Museum.

Another incredible story of survival is Eddie Rickenbacker flying across those same vast stretches of emptiness called the Pacific in a B-17 that goes down. Most amazing of all, only one man died. In spite of almost no survival gear.

Posted by: Anna Puma at January 31, 2016 11:55 AM (a4xvv)

252 >>Apparently, Abrams didn't like Star Trek at all but took the job as a
resume to get the job of making a Star Wars movie. He just doesn't get
the setting, characters, or themes.

Well that explains a lot. He does not get the Kirk/Spock thing at all.

Posted by: Lizzy at January 31, 2016 11:55 AM (NOIQH)

253 Thank you, Anna. I guess I'm not losing my mind. After a bing search, I remember reading Tai-Pai as well. (sp)

Posted by: Infidel at January 31, 2016 11:56 AM (MtMEd)

254 This is why I liked the much-maligned ST: Enterprise series, which got back to the roots of early space exploration and had military underpinnings.

I liked the concept of Enterprise but the execution just didn't work for me. It had decent characters just not very good writing. They all seem to forget that Star Trek was basically a series of Twilight Zone stories written by top sci fi authors. Go back to that and you have something really fascinating.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at January 31, 2016 11:56 AM (39g3+)

255 244 Godless Blasphemer.
Repent of your sins.
Posted by: muns at January 31, 2016 11:51 AM (XCknZ)

Pfft. This could apply to almost anybody on this thread.

Context, man!

Posted by: OregonMuse at January 31, 2016 11:56 AM (goH/2)

256 The Force Awakens was a pretty thin stream of fan service, too. If Abrams were doing the next movie he'd be even more out of ideas and it'd be a train wreck.

Posted by: Pappy O'Daniel at January 31, 2016 11:57 AM (oVJmc)

257 good morning all

Posted by: chemjeff at January 31, 2016 11:57 AM (uZNvH)

258 @234 I am a big Robb White fan. "Use a search engine" to read his bio. Lived one hell of a life. I get the feeling he may have been on an actual submarine once, too.

Posted by: Stringer Davis at January 31, 2016 11:57 AM (xq1UY)

259 reading black mass. whitey bulger, pillar of society compared to the clintons. at least he never sols anything to china.

Posted by: chavez the hugo at January 31, 2016 11:58 AM (ucDmr)

260 Posted by: Anna Puma at January 31, 2016 11:55 AM (a4xvv)

Yup, that's the story. Quite amazing. The movie title is Against the Sun and the three actors have great chemistry. (One of them is Draco Malfoy, btw)

Posted by: @votermom at January 31, 2016 11:58 AM (cbfNE)

261 About two thirds through Atlas Shrugged this week. I kept thinking to write about it but all i would quote would be so long.

This is one of the most amazing books I've ever read. I am reminded of Ram Dass saying when you first start to get the spirit you want to ruin down the aisles of the church screaming "listen to the words you're singing!"

The idea that money is the root of all good, that production us the expanding of the human spirit, that we are taken advantage of by looters who use our own morality against us... i knew all of these things sort of but, this book is blowing my mind.

I cam see went someone (i think Anna P) listed it recently as one of the books that changed her life!

Posted by: Sugar Plum Fairy #176-671 at January 31, 2016 11:58 AM (hnCis)

262 I went through a serious historical novel period when I was a teen. Costain, Irving Sone, James Michner, etc. I loved Samuel Shellabager. "Captain from Castile" and "Prince of Foxes" were my favorites. Both were made into great movies starring Tyrone Power. Added plus..Orson Wells plays Cesare Borgia in "Prince of Foxes". As you can tell my teenage reading habits were occasionally dictated by viewing Tyrone Power movies. LOL.

Posted by: Tuna at January 31, 2016 11:59 AM (JSovD)

263 Here's another one-Understanding the Bible by Dr, John RW Stott was was an Anglican Christian. I quite enjoyed that.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at January 31, 2016 11:59 AM (w4NZ8)

264 >>The best Star Trek reboot is FarScape.

Heh, always though John Creighton was very Kirk-like.

Posted by: Lizzy at January 31, 2016 11:59 AM (NOIQH)

265 We speak of the Abrams reboots mucking up the time stream. Enterprise threw the time line and continuity out the airlock.

In the episode Balance of Terror we have Spock giving a history lesson of the Earth-Romulan War. Neither side saw each other, apparently no view screens. And the weapon of choice during that war was nuclear weapons, not a single photon or quantum torpedo to be seen.

Posted by: Anna Puma at January 31, 2016 12:00 PM (a4xvv)

266 "With JJ Abrams its nothing but star wrecks!"
Posted by: Anna Puma at January 31, 2016 11:43 AM (a4xvv)

Umm . . . In the Pirkinning?

Posted by: Kindltot at January 31, 2016 12:01 PM (q2o38)

267 Ayn Rand's ability to diagnose problems with collectivism and socialism are second to none. Her solutions... not so stellar. You'll notice there are no kids or ill people in her heroic cast. All healthy, strong adults. Because anyone else doesn't fit in her worldview.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at January 31, 2016 12:01 PM (39g3+)

268 "Write what you know," they say. I didn't know anything. I'd never been anywhere, or done anything, nor had any interesting experiences, so I thought.

Yeah. I thought I was going to be a writer, but when I took the writing classes in college what I knew was mostly how to be a suburban kid who ran cross-country and had unrequited crushes on girls.

I set out to be Hemingway, so I learned the languages and set out to see the world. I didn't like myself as the protagonist of my stories, and the best ones happened when I was too drunk to remember the details. I thought it would maybe distill into a story.

Then a few years ago a story and a world came nearly fully-formed into my head, and I wrote a lot of it. (That's a fancy way of saying I haven't finished it). To my surprise the protagonist is an artistic teenager who encounters what genre would call fantasy characters (though they're derived from myth and legend). This shocked me because I don't even read fantasy.

Posted by: Bandersnatch at January 31, 2016 12:01 PM (1xUj/)

269
242 I think the Galaxy Quest writers understood Trek a lot better. Or at least understood its fans

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at January 31, 2016 11:51 AM (KmVn3)

***

After the JJ Abrams Star Trek, I always wished that they would have made a Galaxy Quest 2. The plot would involve the studios remaking the Galaxy Quest series with a new, young cast and the old cast would desperately posture to become involved. The "real" aliens would return with some kind of need only the Galaxy Quest crew could assist them with and all, old and new, would be swept away on another space adventure.

Aww, now I'm missing Alan Rickman. . .

Posted by: Elinor, Who Usually Looks Lurkily at January 31, 2016 12:01 PM (NqQAS)

270 249
Sasha is front and center in this one. Lots of down and dirty urban warfare and some surprising revelations about his family. Takes a couple of chapters to get going.

Posted by: Tuna at January 31, 2016 12:02 PM (JSovD)

271 In re historical fiction, one of my daughters just read the play "The Lion In Winter" (from which I assume the movie was made) and she loved it.

This is certainly an interesting time period to read about, and Shakespeare used it as base material more than once. I'm not much of a play reader myself, but if Falstaff is in it I'll make an exception and

Posted by: MTF at January 31, 2016 12:02 PM (TxJGV)

272 264 >>The best Star Trek reboot is FarScape.

Heh, always though John Creighton was very Kirk-like.

Posted by: Lizzy at January 31, 2016 11:59 AM (NOIQH)

Of course with his pop culture love he was probably intentionally channeling Kirk and Han Solo depending on the situation.

Posted by: buzzion at January 31, 2016 12:02 PM (zt+N6)

273 I read an many Thomas B Costain books I could find when I was a teen. I also really liked Kenneth Roberts for books related to American history.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at January 31, 2016 12:03 PM (w4NZ8)

274 Another incredible story of survival is Eddie Rickenbacker flying across those same vast stretches of emptiness called the Pacific in a B-17 that goes down. Most amazing of all, only one man died. In spite of almost no survival gear.

Seven Came Through.

Mom and Dad and I all read that one family vacation ca. '71.

Posted by: Bandersnatch at January 31, 2016 12:03 PM (1xUj/)

275 >>reading black mass. whitey bulger, pillar of society compared to the clintons. at least he never sols anything to china.

Does the book go into what his brother, Billy Bulger, was doing?
Billy was a local South Boston savvy politician known for taking care of the locals (like Robert Byrd did w/W VA). Always wondered how much the Bulger brothers' work intersected.

Posted by: Lizzy at January 31, 2016 12:03 PM (NOIQH)

276 OMG. Go check out Drudge for the picture of Susan Sarandon and the caption under it.

Posted by: Pappy O'Daniel at January 31, 2016 12:04 PM (oVJmc)

277 Heh, always though John Creighton was very Kirk-like.
Posted by: Lizzy at January 31, 2016 11:59 AM (NOIQH)

Except the Peacekeepers are the Federation.

Scarrans are bad Klingons.
Luxans are good Klingons.
Nebari are Vulcans.

Posted by: @votermom at January 31, 2016 12:04 PM (cbfNE)

278 >>O'Brian does a brilliant job making the language sound old but still readable. If they didn't really talk that way back then, they should have.

One of my all time favorite series. I actually did the Newport to Bermuda race with a guy who was a big wig at Norton, the US publisher. Even they were surprised at how big the books got.

Posted by: JackStraw at January 31, 2016 12:04 PM (/tuJf)

279 John Creighton is 'America!

Posted by: Turd Ferguson at January 31, 2016 12:04 PM (/ciMI)

280 Anna, Balance of Terror is one of my favorite submarine movies!

And now I think I'll watch Day of the Dove. Ansara made a great Klingon.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at January 31, 2016 12:05 PM (jR7Wy)

281 In the ongoing search for enjoyable juvenile literature, I want to second someone's recommendation of the 'Hank the Cowdog' series by John Erickson. For reluctant readers, the audio read by Erickson (with the book itself) is absolutely stellar. My two youngest really came into their own reading along to his narration.

Posted by: mustbequantum at January 31, 2016 12:05 PM (MIKMs)

282 Good morning, what's left of it. I was going to read that Marlon James book, too. Now, I am not so inclined. @@whiners

Posted by: April at January 31, 2016 12:05 PM (79ZSg)

283 277 Heh, always though John Creighton was very Kirk-like.
Posted by: Lizzy at January 31, 2016 11:59 AM (NOIQH)

Except the Peacekeepers are the Federation.

Scarrans are bad Klingons.
Luxans are good Klingons.
Nebari are Vulcans.

Posted by: @votermom at January 31, 2016 12:04 PM (cbfNE)

Hynerians are Ferengi

Posted by: buzzion at January 31, 2016 12:05 PM (zt+N6)

284 Pappy ha

Posted by: chemjeff at January 31, 2016 12:06 PM (uZNvH)

285 Always wondered how much the Bulger brothers' work intersected.

See "The Brothers Bulger" by Howie Carr.

Posted by: Bandersnatch at January 31, 2016 12:06 PM (1xUj/)

286 Just reading "Life at the Bottom," by Theodore Dalrymple. An excellent diagnosis and chilling prognosis of the social pathologies engendered by liberalism.

Posted by: Jay Guevara at January 31, 2016 12:08 PM (oKE6c)

287 Scholastic Book Services changed my life.

I got The Raft from their list. Most of it went over my head at the time.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at January 31, 2016 12:09 PM (u82oZ)

288 272
I think it was in the first episode after Creighton has his first not-so-pleasant first contact where he does that channeling and says something like, " Friendly aliens my ass" . I laughed at loud and knew I had to make the series required viewing.

Posted by: Tuna at January 31, 2016 12:09 PM (JSovD)

289 276 OMG. Go check out Drudge for the picture of Susan Sarandon and the caption under it.
Posted by: Pappy O'Daniel at January 31, 2016 12:04 PM (oVJmc)

I don't get it. Is Drudge saying Sarandon just joined the Screen Actors Guild...?

Posted by: OregonMuse at January 31, 2016 12:09 PM (goH/2)

290 Posted by: Christopher Taylor at January 31, 2016 11:00 AM (39g3+)

I had wondered if that was the case since he was described as something else (see how good I'm being about no spoilers?) but had apparently fit into the ghetto without being remarked.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at January 31, 2016 12:10 PM (phT8I)

291 #276. Another good caption would have been "Gravity is a bitch".

Posted by: OregonMuse at January 31, 2016 12:11 PM (goH/2)

292 I actually did the Newport to Bermuda race with a guy who was a big wig at Norton, the US publisher. Even they were surprised at how big the books got.

Given that they refused to even publish the books in the USA until Starling Lawrence at Norton finally read one of his novels in 1989 and started crusading to get them published, I'm not surprised. They figured the books wouldn't sell at all. O'Brian's decades-long struggle to become an overnight sensation is inspiring to me in my writing career. He wrote the first Aubrey-Maturin book in the 60s.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at January 31, 2016 12:11 PM (39g3+)

293 Did the Screen Actors Guild give out enough awards last night to black people? Or are they all racists too?

Posted by: buzzion at January 31, 2016 12:11 PM (zt+N6)

294 219
Wasn't there another trilogy? I think I remember reading a book called, I think, King Rat? It was a POW story.

Posted by: Infidel at January 31, 2016 11:44 AM (MtMEd)

That was a Clavell book about a Japanese POW camp in WWII. It was the only book by him that I did not like.

Posted by: Vic-we have no party at January 31, 2016 12:11 PM (t2KH5)

295 Day of the Dove is cool because it is all about choice. Humans and Klingons choosing not to give into their anger. It would make me smile if the Klingons found that prankster's planet and blew it up. And the pranksters are wailing 'why aren't our tricks working on these people!' And Kang tells them, "Because we love our self-inflicted pain sticks."

Balance of Terror is The Enemy Below in space. Which is a hard thing to adapt. Glenn Cook and his Climber fleet in Passage at Arms is about the only other one I can think of.

Posted by: Anna Puma at January 31, 2016 12:12 PM (a4xvv)

296 227 King Rat by James Clavell. Being a prisoner of the Japanese in WWII
-----------------------------------------------------------

Really good summer reading. Any Clavell book is good summer reading.

One of me favorite stories of life in the Pacific war, focusing on India and the Burmese arena, is George MacDonald Fraser's "Quartered Safe Out Here". You've probably read his fiction (the great Flashman series) but might not have read this army memoir. Well worth it.

Posted by: MTF at January 31, 2016 12:12 PM (TxJGV)

297 Off to church, bbl and thank you all for making this a (another) fun book thread.

Posted by: OregonMuse at January 31, 2016 12:12 PM (goH/2)

298 293
Lots of black people. So there!!

Posted by: Tuna at January 31, 2016 12:12 PM (JSovD)

299 Nelson DeMille's "The Quest" is pretty darned good, and is a search for the Holy Grail.

Posted by: the littl shyning man at January 31, 2016 12:13 PM (U6f54)

300 That's one big library, pal.

Posted by: eleven at January 31, 2016 12:13 PM (qUNWi)

301 I picked up an old copy of The Far Frontier by William O. Steele, which is about a boy on the frontier hired (bound-out) to a naturalist in the Tennessee frontier.
It was one of my "trash-picked" books, stuff I buy at garage sales and such for around a quarter.

He wrote a lot of boys' books, including one about the pioneer trail and one about Francis Marion, the Swamp Fox.

Posted by: Kindltot at January 31, 2016 12:14 PM (q2o38)

302 I had wondered if that was the case since he was described as something else (see how good I'm being about no spoilers?) but had apparently fit into the ghetto without being remarked.

His name doesn't fit his supposed ethnic background, either. I tried to drop hints without making it too obvious, if I can come up with another story set in the time period he'll show up again. For a wild idea that came to me as I was writing he turned out to be a pretty interesting character.

The fact that he cannot die makes his attitude... different from other people.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at January 31, 2016 12:14 PM (39g3+)

303 Yeah, Creighton embodies "America (humans), F#@$ Yeah!"
* * *
>>See "The Brothers Bulger" by Howie Carr'

Will check that out, thanks!

Posted by: Lizzy at January 31, 2016 12:15 PM (NOIQH)

304 57
"Behold the Man" by Michael Moorcock (Limey SF writer)

The book is written primarily and maliciously as a series of kicks
to nuts (or cunt punts for the ladies) about the story of Jesus Christ...

Shenanigans ensue, and the time traveler winds up taking the place
of Christ, then winds up getting crucified. His body is stolen from the
tomb by an alchemist for magical purposes, dissected then thrown in a
garbage pile.

Yeah, well, Moorcock's got a bunch of them. In Warlord of the Air, Lenin is a kindly old man building a successful Utopia in an out-of-the-way spot in China. Still like the book, though; it's got airships!!

Posted by: Anachronda at January 31, 2016 12:15 PM (o78gS)

305 276
Too, too funny.

Posted by: Tuna at January 31, 2016 12:15 PM (JSovD)

306 251
Another incredible story of survival is Eddie Rickenbacker flying across those same vast stretches of emptiness called the Pacific in a B-17 that goes down. Most amazing of all, only one man died. In spite of almost no survival gear.
Posted by: Anna Puma at January 31, 2016 11:55 AM (a4xvv)

There is a movie, "Captain Eddie", made during WWII about that incident. It starred Fred McMurray, later of "My Three Sons" TV fame.

I was a yuuge Eddie Rickenbacker fan when I was a kid. Indy race car driver, America's top WWI flying ace, later owner of the Indianapolis Speedway and a founder of Eastern Airlines. He was also nearly killed in a DC-3 crash while flying on business in 1941. All that before the 1942 sea survival incident. I think he spent about three weeks in that raft.

He wrote one autobiography, "Fighting the Flying Circus" about his WWI exploits, and another one in the 1960s that recounted the other parts of his life.

Oh yeah, he was also a Medal of Honor recipient.

It's a damn crime that he's almost forgotten today.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Rickenbacker

Posted by: rickl at January 31, 2016 12:16 PM (sdi6R)

307 >>Given that they refused to even publish the books in the USA until Starling Lawrence at Norton finally read one of his novels in 1989 and started crusading to get them published, I'm not surprised. They figured the books wouldn't sell at all

Honestly, I'm surprised they did as well as they have. I love the writing style but I am very into sailing. I thought they would have a more limited appeal.

Posted by: JackStraw at January 31, 2016 12:17 PM (/tuJf)

308 And now I think I'll watch Day of the Dove. Ansara made a great Klingon.
Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at January 31, 2016 12:05 PM (jR7Wy)

I'm due for a TOS marathon. Tonight. Yeah.

*checks beer stash*

Posted by: 98ZJUSMC Staring at the Lake in the rain at January 31, 2016 12:18 PM (zYV5P)

309 For some reason my mind has been going back to GBS 'Major Barbara' as something that should be revisited. Holy Rollers v Evil Capitalists or something. Undershaft steals the play. Like Shylock, nominally the villain, but grabs attention and articulates real concerns. I know Shaw gets no love here because of his socialism, but I also think that sometimes characters are larger than their stereotypes.

Was searching for my copy, but could only find Earnest. Don't know why this is pinging at me so hard, but that is my next mission.

Posted by: mustbequantum at January 31, 2016 12:18 PM (MIKMs)

310 Star Trek needs to get out of Star Fleet.

Enough with Enterprise.

Posted by: eman at January 31, 2016 12:18 PM (MQEz6)

311 Moorcock is a mixed bag. Some of his stuff is phenomenal, some is just awful. The more he sticks to just fantasy the better. Phillip Jose Farmer is another hit and miss author. His Riverworld and World of Tiers stuff is fantastic, but some of his other stuff is just bizarre and repugnant (his Doc Savage/Tarzan stuff... just, no. Avoid the entire genre and series).

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at January 31, 2016 12:18 PM (39g3+)

312 91
...Android Kindle app has a function that allows you to tap on a
word to see the dictionary definition pop up in a separate window....

Funny you should say that. In a forthcoming comment, I'm going to
mention the lack of that feature as a drawback to good old printed
works.

Many e-books make up for it by not supplying a table of contents.

I'm beginning to suspect there's some sort of universal conservation of convenience principle going on.

Posted by: Anachronda at January 31, 2016 12:18 PM (o78gS)

313 "Watched it on amazon streaming (free with Prime) - liked it a lot."

Watched it about three weeks ago.

Two thumbs up.

Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at January 31, 2016 12:19 PM (ptqRm)

314 Honestly, I'm surprised they did as well as they have.

Ultimately the books are about a friendship, and two amazingly fascinating characters. And the literary quality is incredible yet still accessible without being depressing, something too many authors do not comprehend.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at January 31, 2016 12:20 PM (39g3+)

315 "Behold the Man" by Michael Moorcock (Limey SF writer)

Sounds like a book to avoid.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at January 31, 2016 12:21 PM (w4NZ8)

316 Period fiction that sounds like the period. Yes!

One of my favorites is "Cloudsplitter" by Russell Banks, spoken in the first person by one of John Brown's sons, Owen. It's fiction and I don't believe Brown had an Owen.

Using the language and cadence of the first half of the nineteenth century, the book is a masterpiece of storytelling, and somewhere around 750 pages long.

Banks was the something or other chair of English at Princeton, but these days putters around in his vintage pickup in Keene, NY, just over the Cascade Lakes pass from where the abolitionist is buried on the grounds of his North Elba farm. I see Russell at the Keene dump when I'm there in summer. We sort our beer containers, glass and aluminum.

Posted by: the littl shyning man at January 31, 2016 12:22 PM (U6f54)

317 108
@86 It's not just the comments. As much as I love the content on this
site, the webmaster could give seminars on how to make slow-loading
sites with maximum call-outs per page.

Indeed. When I read on my iPhone, the spinny "loading something" thingie at top of the screen keeps going, long after I've left the page. I always have to close the page on which I've read the HQ to make it go away.

Posted by: Anachronda at January 31, 2016 12:23 PM (o78gS)

318 The Wandering Jew idea was used by Nicholas Montserrat in "Master Mariner," but he died before he could complete the series.

That book worked a lot better than most of his, because it was a series of short stories rather than one long book. I read a version that had his notes and bits on what came after and its a pretty amazing story. I'd never read anything like it before - the main character is actually the British Navy, and the man cursed to live forever is just the witness to it until he learns honor and to appreciate the Navy and what it stands for.

Lots of great historical bits and worth reading, even in its truncated form.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at January 31, 2016 12:26 PM (39g3+)

319 Donald Trump is reading Two Corinthians, an action piece set in 1970s New York City. A couple of brothers, their father a wealthy guy who operates warehouses in the leather district, go their separate ways. One makes it yuge.

Posted by: the littl shyning man at January 31, 2016 12:27 PM (U6f54)

320 275: The book leaves nothing out. Very detailed.

Posted by: chavez the hugo at January 31, 2016 12:28 PM (ucDmr)

321 I have heard pastors and theologians refer to it as "two Corinthians" I'm not sure where that whole controversy came from. Usage varies a lot. Some people always say "gospel of" some just say Matthew.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at January 31, 2016 12:30 PM (39g3+)

322 John Brown had a lot of sons. His youngest, Salmon, wound up on Portland Oregon, was a butcher, and died in 1919.

Posted by: Kindltot at January 31, 2016 12:31 PM (q2o38)

323 I'm a Corinthian Suede man myself.

Posted by: eleven at January 31, 2016 12:32 PM (qUNWi)

324 try HMS Ulysses by Alistar Maclean.

Anything by MacLean is worth reading, even the later books when he fell into a bit of a pattern. The man was a genius at interesting thrillers and brilliant leading men with twists of betrayal. Even when you know its coming you can't quite work it out (see Where Eagles Dare).

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at January 31, 2016 12:32 PM (39g3+)

325 re: gleet
Deadwood had an episode entitled Requiem for a Gleet. It was, shall we say, painful to watch.

re: modern speech patterns vs. authenticity
I agree that it is jarring to have a period piece contain dialogue that is obviously modern. On the other hand, too much authenticity can be difficult to read. Here's a passage from Huck Finn (Jim speaking):

" Oh, my lordy, lordy! Raf'? Dey ain' no raf' no mo'; she done broke loose en gone I -- en here we is!"

That kind of dialogue is difficult for me to read because I have to interpret everything just to figure out what is being said.

Another pet peeve: movies set in the past but with an obviously modern soundtrack. I love a screeching guitar as much as the next guy, but somehow it just seems out of place in a movie set in the old West.

Posted by: Anon Y. Mous at January 31, 2016 12:34 PM (R+30W)

326 Yeah, thanks, I always get those capes confused, I've made the correction.

Posted by: OregonMuse at January 31, 2016 10:08 AM (goH/2)

"I always get those capes confused." Superman's last words?

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at January 31, 2016 12:35 PM (Z8fuk)

327 Perhaps, or perhaps not, related to the prevalence of women authors, publishers, and readers, but Audible has increasingly become a hardcore pornography site particularly of the B & D variety. I'm not a delicate hot house flower but many of the offerings do offend me. I emailed Audible this week stating that many of their customers may well opt out of Audible entirely if they are not provided with an opt out feature for their hard core pervert pornography. I check their new releases nearly every week day and increasingly often I am offended by the titles. I also suggested they should provide an opt out feature for foreign language books, not because their dirty frostback books offend me but just because it's waste of time and space given that my Finnish is a might rusty. I also mentioned that there is irony in a company affiliated with or owned by Amazon so readily offending given that Amazon's sense of propriety is so acute they don't sell Confederate flags.

Posted by: The Great White Snark at January 31, 2016 12:36 PM (Nwg0u)

328 Another pet peeve: movies set in the past but with an obviously modern soundtrack. I love a screeching guitar as much as the next guy, but somehow it just seems out of place in a movie set in the old West.

-
I hate that too.

Posted by: The Great White Snark at January 31, 2016 12:37 PM (Nwg0u)

329 I think it means the bloody raft broke loose.

Posted by: eleven at January 31, 2016 12:37 PM (qUNWi)

330 Posted by: Christopher Taylor at January 31, 2016 12:14 PM (39g3+)

I had intended to message you on Twitter and ask if that was who he was, now I have the answer. I'd hesitated because sometimes the Wandering Jew is viewed as 'problematic' or even offensive, ans if I'd been wrong....

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at January 31, 2016 12:40 PM (phT8I)

331 Posted by: Anon Y. Mous at January 31, 2016 12:34 PM (R+30W)
---
I think a lot of the books of that era were meant to be read aloud. Kipling's Tommies can be a hard road to read too.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at January 31, 2016 12:41 PM (jR7Wy)

332 NaCly Dog......One year after years and years of struggling thru interviews, reading books about interviews, listening to all the self empowerment crap, I arranged several one on one sessions with a acting instructor from a local university. The results were amazing. He taught me so many things, including how to walk into a room. The point of a company hiring someone remains in the ability to play into the 'role', or 'fitting into the tribe'.

The real interview should be the counter interview, "Is this company worthy?' Discretely done of course. Best wishes. good Luck......

Posted by: Backhasword at January 31, 2016 12:41 PM (NeFrd)

333 Posted by: Christopher Taylor at January 31, 2016 12:26 PM (39g3+)

Speaking of a character being there to observe and bear wirness, I was noticing that that pretty well describes most of the final boss fights in WoW.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at January 31, 2016 12:46 PM (phT8I)

334 I have heard pastors and theologians refer to it as "two Corinthians" I'm not sure where that whole controversy came from.

-
Have you heard the latest Trump criticism? He has short, stubby, mutant fingers.

http://tinyurl.com/ha3ao6f

Posted by: The Great White Snark at January 31, 2016 12:47 PM (Nwg0u)

335 Special thanks to those who posted an Amazon review. Humbly appreciated.)
Posted by: Seamus Muldoon at January 31, 2016 10:15 AM (NeFrd)

I posted a review on Goodreads, also, not realizing that I had linked my facebook account to Goodreads. A non-moron friend saw it, and thanked me for posting the review. So, one never knows how far one's reach really is. Hope I gained a reader for you!

Posted by: April at January 31, 2016 12:47 PM (79ZSg)

336 Posted by: Christopher Taylor at January 31, 2016 12:32 PM (39g3+)

MacLean was one of my favorite authors growing up. I can't believe that my kids aren't interested in reading his books *at all*.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at January 31, 2016 12:49 PM (phT8I)

337 I remember when long-haired people with guitars started coming to my Catholic Church in the early '70's. The young people weren't fooled and the old people hated it, hated it with the passion of 1,000 suns.
But there was one priest, the absolutely coolest-looking priest I ever saw. He had long brown hair--really long ,like Eric Clapton on the cover of his first solo album--and a full beard. Yep, he looked just like You-Know-Who. But he wore mirrored sunglasses and rode a decked-out black Harley Davidson which he parked directly in front of church --where only hearses parked for funerals --on the Sundays he celebrated Mass. And he didn't say much--didn't try to act cool or "down with the kids"--so of course, we loved him. But the older priests--all Irish--couldn't stand him and he didn't last long.

Found out he left the priesthood a few years later.

Posted by: JoeF. at January 31, 2016 12:50 PM (9TO2x)

338 Shenanigans ensue, and the time traveler winds up taking the place
of Christ, then winds up getting crucified.

-
Sucks to be him.

Posted by: The Great White Snark at January 31, 2016 12:50 PM (Nwg0u)

339 We were promised rain and thunderstorms all day long. Well, it tinkled for about 15 minutes and now it is clearing up. I hate weathermen.

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at January 31, 2016 12:51 PM (iQIUe)

340 If you're looking for books to inspire young boys, you could hardly do worse than books written by or about Eddie Rickenbacker:

https://tinyurl.com/jgt3jzd

He was a genuine American hero and entrepreneur. That he is not prominently featured in school curricula and is not a household name speaks volumes about the modern educational establishment, none of it good.

Posted by: rickl at January 31, 2016 12:54 PM (sdi6R)

341 #276. Another good caption would have been "Gravity is a bitch"

-
And so is Suzie.

Posted by: The Great White Snark at January 31, 2016 12:55 PM (Nwg0u)

342 OMG! They want 15-30 for Costain e-books! I guess we'll check the library.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at January 31, 2016 12:58 PM (phT8I)

343 Posted by: rickl at January 31, 2016 12:54 PM (sdi6R)

His Fighting the Flying Circus is only $.99 on Kindle, so I got that.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at January 31, 2016 01:02 PM (phT8I)

344 That's funny, Damascus is deserted. It's like they all killed each other, or went to Germany or something.

Posted by: Saul of Tarsus at January 31, 2016 01:06 PM (b2qGx)

345 328
"Ladyhawk" is a good example of that. Fine movie with a too, too modern soundtrack.

Posted by: Tuna at January 31, 2016 01:06 PM (JSovD)

346 332 Backhasword

Thanks for that advice. I will put that into my self-improvement to-do list. As contrasted with my honey-do list. Different list - sometimes.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at January 31, 2016 01:09 PM (u82oZ)

347 has anyone ever had the experience of climbing a ladder to get to a second stack of books in a library?

-
Back in prehistoric times right after I graduated from law school, I worked as a law clerk for a district court judge in the Denver City and County Building. Our research was done with actual books and we had to climb ladders attached to the wall by rails to get to the upper shelves.

Posted by: The Great White Snark at January 31, 2016 01:10 PM (Nwg0u)

348 342 Polliwog the 'Ette

Library book sales is where I get my best deals. It is a bit like the Running of the Bulls horde of book buyers, so I get a Friends of the Library membership and become a Sooner.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at January 31, 2016 01:11 PM (u82oZ)

349 In the episode Balance of Terror we have Spock giving a history lesson of the Earth-Romulan War. Neither side saw each other, apparently no view screens. And the weapon of choice during that war was nuclear weapons, not a single photon or quantum torpedo to be seen.

Posted by: Anna Puma at January 31, 2016 12:00 PM (a4xvv)

Actually a more realistic view of what space war might be like. Nuclear weapons could be quite effective against starships, as long as they were nearby when they went bang. Inverse-square law, and all that. And the view screens always bugged me, as a viewer of TOS. Why were we supposed to accept the notion that strange alien starships would have video cams in their bridges, and obligingly send video at a standard scan rate to strange (to them) alien starships? And if the viewscreens were not video as we know it, but were driven by some sort of magic scanner on board the Enterprise, how did they always manage to find the other ship's bridge and captain right off the bat? Why not a Klingon in the head, taking a dump?

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at January 31, 2016 01:15 PM (Z8fuk)

350 Re. Great Courses
You can purchase downloadable audio files of these lectures for $44.95. Or, if you're lucky like Dj, you can check them out from your local library.

Additionally, if one is an Audible.com member they can use a monthly subscription credit and pay nothing OR pay the member list price which is generally half the listed price, more at:Audible Great Courses

Posted by: Sailfish at January 31, 2016 01:15 PM (AGAxT)

351 Posted by: NaCly Dog at January 31, 2016 01:11 PM (u82oZ)

The books and piano are our major shipping expenses when we move (which is way too often) so I'm trying not to get any more dead-tree editions (especially hard bound) than I can help.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at January 31, 2016 01:18 PM (phT8I)

352 Moorcock is a mixed bag. Some of his stuff is phenomenal, some is just awful. The more he sticks to just fantasy the better. Phillip Jose Farmer is another hit and miss author. His Riverworld and World of Tiers stuff is fantastic, but some of his other stuff is just bizarre and repugnant (his Doc Savage/Tarzan stuff... just, no. Avoid the entire genre and series).

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at January 31, 2016 12:18 PM (39g3+)

Before "Behold the Man", I'd read-

The "Dancers at the Edge of Time" novels, which I loved.

Then "The Cornelius Quartet" which I liked quite a bit.

After "BTM", I tried again with "Byzantium Endures" but, meh, I just couldn't get into it.

The main character struck me a bit like a Mary Sue character for Moorcock if he'd lived in pre- and post- revolutionary Russia - lots of drugs and sex and weird anti-semitic rants.

Anywho, not my thing because it committed the sin of being just boring as hell.

After that I figured Moorcock was too hit and miss-

mostly because if he had a good story to tell and no particular axe to grind- he was great.

but, man, if he was going to write about his political/personal baggage- he rode that hobbyhorse to splinters.

So, I dropped him as an author to read.

Cuz I didn't know which I was going to get.

Posted by: naturalfake at January 31, 2016 01:19 PM (KUa85)

353 343 Posted by: rickl at January 31, 2016 12:54 PM (sdi6R)

His Fighting the Flying Circus is only $.99 on Kindle, so I got that.
Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at January 31, 2016 01:02 PM (phT8I)

Glad to hear it!

I don't know whether it is available on Kindle, but his 1960s autobiography has rave reviews. I read it myself when I was a kid and loved it.

https://tinyurl.com/gu8hvfw

Posted by: rickl at January 31, 2016 01:23 PM (sdi6R)

354 Library book sales is where I get my best deals. It is a bit like the Running of the Bulls horde of book buyers, so I get a Friends of the Library membership and become a Sooner.
Posted by: NaCly Dog at January 31, 2016 01:11 PM (u82oZ)
---
My mother is a volunteer at her local library -- more a citadel of books, it's one of the most beautiful modern public libraries I've been to -- and because I helped her sort, stack, and shelve books for the big annual sale, I got first dibs on the good stuff. Drove home with three boxes of books. This is after vowing to read what I already have, which is already lined on the floor for lack of shelf space. Ha!

It's a disease.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at January 31, 2016 01:24 PM (jR7Wy)

355 Why not a Klingon in the head, taking a dump?
Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at January 31, 2016 01:15 PM (Z8fuk)
---
Klingons do that shit right on the bridge. Like warriors!

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at January 31, 2016 01:26 PM (jR7Wy)

356 Risen is reminiscent of the end of Jesus Christ Supestar when the cast looks at the audience with a "well, what do you think?" expression.

Posted by: TOF at January 31, 2016 01:27 PM (CuTfa)

357 Another good historical religious novel is Quo Vadis by Henryk Sienkiewicz. The language is a bit clunky in that it was written in Polish in the 19th century. (And the author uses the Latin term "insula" wrong.) Hopefully, there is now a better translation. There was a pretty good movie starring Robert Taylor made from it. It is about Nero's persecution of the early Christians.

Posted by: The Great White Snark at January 31, 2016 01:29 PM (Nwg0u)

358 Teenage rebel trades birthright for a mess of pottage, eschewing greatest, most sublime Gift in the universe, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity.

Film at 11.

Who codified the Canon of Scripture?

Posted by: Tantumblogo at January 31, 2016 01:37 PM (7OF+y)

359 353
I don't know whether it is available on Kindle, but his 1960s autobiography has rave reviews.
https://tinyurl.com/gu8hvfw
Posted by: rickl at January 31, 2016 01:23 PM (sdi6R)

So in addition to his other accomplishments, Rickenbacker was a pretty decent writer as well. Then again, he had a lot of material to work with.

Posted by: rickl at January 31, 2016 01:39 PM (sdi6R)

360 I've been meaning to get the Casca series. Although 3-4 of the ghost written novels were discovered to be stolen ideas from another book series and therefore struck from the official list of novels.

Posted by: Deathknyte at January 31, 2016 01:40 PM (RrW1d)

361 Posted by: The Great White Snark at January 31, 2016 11:48 AM (Nwg0u)

Is that the same Robb White who wrote the novel Deathwatch that the movie Ace reviewed was based on? There seems to be two Robb Whites on Kindle, one who worked with boats and boat building and the other who seems more recent, and I want to make sure I get the right one (who seems to have passed away recently)

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at January 31, 2016 01:44 PM (GDulk)

362 You know what would be awesome? A Klingons TV series. Take all the classic Trek tropes and situations, then drop a ship full of ruthless imperialist ass-kickers into the middle of them. Elevator pitch: "It's like the Sopranos with a starship!"

Posted by: Trimegistus at January 31, 2016 01:44 PM (OLgc9)

363 Klingons were very popular with the German fans. Hmmmm...

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at January 31, 2016 01:46 PM (jR7Wy)

364 Is that the same Robb White who wrote the novel Deathwatch that the movie Ace reviewed was based on?

-
Yes, and I thought that movie sounded a lot like Deathwatch.

Posted by: The Great White Snark at January 31, 2016 01:47 PM (Nwg0u)

365 Posted by: The Great White Snark at January 31, 2016 01:47 PM (Nwg0u)

I only knew because Ace posted an update since I haven't seen or read either. The book blurb makes it sound like the movie was pretty much lifted straight from the written source.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at January 31, 2016 01:49 PM (GDulk)

366 When I was a teenager, riding my bicycle over to the neighborhood bookstore every weekend to loot the science fiction and fantasy section, I kind of hated the Casca series because it took up such a huge effin' chunk of the shelf space. At least ten percent of the whole SF/F aisle was devoted to those damned Immortal Mercenary paperbacks. I had a friend who loved them (partly, I suspect, because he looked just like whoever was the model for the cover art) but I found them uninteresting. I mean, we know the guy's going to be around until Jesus returns, so there's exactly zero suspense, and I'm not the sort who appreciates lovingly-detailed descriptions of military practices, especially when it's just the author cribbing from the Brittannica anyway.

Posted by: Trimegistus at January 31, 2016 01:51 PM (OLgc9)

367 When your fantasy world has transporters and replicators, what the hell do you need starships for?

Picking up alien chicks?

Posted by: Fritz at January 31, 2016 01:59 PM (BngQR)

368 One of the best scenes to show what Klingons are about is from The Search for Spock when Kurge tells a minion to feed the dog. The look on the poor guy's face is 'Feed him what? Me?'

Posted by: Anna Puma at January 31, 2016 02:08 PM (a4xvv)

369 I can't believe the clarity in these revamped Star Trek eps. You can see the cheesecloth under Shat's toupee!

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at January 31, 2016 02:16 PM (jR7Wy)

370 By the time I finish this thread, it will be dead, so I'm jumping right in.

1) Does anybody remember the "M*A*S*H" paperback series of the 1970s? It had the original characters in contemporary time, and added a bunch of recurring characters as the series continued. Absolutely hilarious. The authors were Richard Hooker, pseudonym for the original author, and William E. Butterworth, who I have since learned uses the byline of W.E.B. Griffin. Saw his name in an earlier post today. If that was really him, I want to say Thank You for many hours of enjoyment.

2) I'm nearly done with the audio book of "The Crook Factory" by Dan Simmons. It uses the real-life frolicking of Ernest Hemingway in Cuba during 1942 for a WWII espionage tale. Pretty good, although with more name-dropping than I think necessary (JFK, Ian Fleming). I hope the last disc has some references; I want to know which events are made up out of whole cloth. One disc was terribly scratched, but it doesn't seem to have crippled the story. One last observation: There's nothing like arriving at work after listening to a torture scene involving sodomy with a screwdriver.

Now to read the thread.

Posted by: Weak Geek at January 31, 2016 02:20 PM (eJsvd)

371 Saying Hi as instructed on Good Reads

Posted by: Tim at January 31, 2016 02:25 PM (Rb1zp)

372 Klingons do that shit right on the bridge. Like warriors!
Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at January 31, 2016 01:26 PM (jR7Wy)

One ep of FarScape they did the unexpected body switching thing, and Rygel (Hynerian) in Crichton' s body has to pee right now so he takes a whiz in the cargo bay.

Posted by: @votermom at January 31, 2016 02:25 PM (cbfNE)

373 I've never heard of "gleet" either, nope, no doctor has ever used my name and that word in a sentence together, Huma has never mentioned it either in connection with me or our relationship, nope not ever. Monica may have once used that word in a deposition, but certainly not more than once, in a deposition anyway.

But me nope never heard of it and no one has ever seen a gleet stain on my trousers, I may have heard that adult diapers are useful for things like that but I don't recall where I heard that but it was certainly not my doctor or Humas who mentioned it, nope def not.

Nope never heard of it, so just move on.

Posted by: Anthony Weiners Ghost at January 31, 2016 02:27 PM (N1ljp)

374 Added you, Tim.

Posted by: @votermom at January 31, 2016 02:28 PM (cbfNE)

375 Thank you for promoting The Great Courses. For years I have seen their ads and brochures... finally dived in and enjoy them greatly.

The Life and Writing by CS Lewis is the only one of their courses for which I had to give a negative review. I am sure the professor is an excellent scholar and teacher, and at least the course was extremely cheap, but by far the weakest one I have listened or watched so far. If others enjoy it... good for them.

Working through Old Testament with Amy-Jill Levine right now. (Which sounds silly given what I studied in seminary and graduate school but hey... am always interested in how others present this subject.) I sometimes disagree with what she teaches but overall it is very good. I spent 4(?) months slogging through Introduction to Astronomy with Alex Filippenko. 96(!!!) lectures.

Posted by: Rick67 at January 31, 2016 02:39 PM (stEzM)

376 367 When your fantasy world has transporters and replicators, what the hell do you need starships for?

Picking up alien chicks?
Posted by: Fritz at January 31, 2016 01:59 PM (BngQR)

Why do you need alien chicks if you have a holodeck?

Posted by: rickl at January 31, 2016 02:50 PM (sdi6R)

377 Why do you need alien chicks if you have a holodeck?
Posted by: rickl at January 31, 2016 02:50 PM (sdi6R)
---
Because you can't imagine what's available in the galaxy until you go out there.

IDIC, baby!

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at January 31, 2016 02:58 PM (jR7Wy)

378 "Don't hire any older white women as editors?"

What else is left?

Posted by: Grampa Jimbo at January 31, 2016 02:58 PM (1ijHg)

379 IDIC? Thought they said Ein leiber dick...

Posted by: Anna Puma at January 31, 2016 03:10 PM (a4xvv)

380 Anna! Really!

I'm viewing "Day of the Dove" for the first time since adolescence and I didn't recall the sheer depth of Shat-tastic scenery chewing in it. He's biting the sofa cushions.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at January 31, 2016 03:14 PM (jR7Wy)

381 #370 Don't worry, the book thread never dies.

Posted by: OregonMuse at January 31, 2016 03:22 PM (15gBU)

382 I'm not interested in perusing the college thread. How long did it take before the phrase "massive endowments" was made sport of? 10 comments? 20?

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at January 31, 2016 03:24 PM (jR7Wy)

383 All Hail Eris, when did Shatner never not eat the cushions?

Posted by: Anna Puma at January 31, 2016 03:25 PM (a4xvv)

384 He's occasionally given some uncharacteristically underplayed moments of, dare i say it, subtlety. He's just cranking it up to 11 in Season 3. In "Turnabout Intruder" he was hammy AND bitchy.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at January 31, 2016 03:29 PM (jR7Wy)

385 370 ... This came up last year. The MASH books co-written by Butterworth were pretty much a farce using some of the original characters. Still fun but could have been done by National Lampoon. But the two books written by Hooker that followed the original, MASH Goes to Maine and MASH Mania are different. They have the fun and silliness but are basically vignettes that go from absurd to poignant and touching. I liked them so much I tracked down hard cover editions. If you haven't read them two you should give them a try. I liked them more than the original book.

Posted by: JTB at January 31, 2016 03:29 PM (FvdPb)

386 I agree about transporters and replicators being plotkillers.

Posted by: @votermom at January 31, 2016 03:34 PM (cbfNE)

387 he was hammy AND bitchy

--

Translator microbes read that as "he was a female canine porcine."
Sounds like an interesting alien life form.

Posted by: Moya' s Pilot at January 31, 2016 03:38 PM (cbfNE)

388 OM - Your comment about the old-time movie stars starting their own movie company reminded me of one of MP3's stories on an EMT a while back.

Mae West was giving W.C. Fields grief about his weight in his last picture.

Fields: You know, the camera adds 10 pounds.

West: How many cameras were they using?

Posted by: RushBabe at January 31, 2016 03:43 PM (/NEnw)

389 I first read "The Robe" back in the early 1960s and I've read it several times since then. I highly recommend it. You can get a copy for $0.01 on Amazon (plush S&H).

The movie has about 1/3 the storyline of the book, and omits my favorite part. I cordially hate the movie. Richard Burton was completely miscast. My hope is that someone does a limited TV seines on this property.

Posted by: Beryl at January 31, 2016 03:48 PM (eeuKZ)

390 JTB --

I thumbed through "M*A*S*H Goes to Maine" in the bookstore when I was buying all of those books. But it didn't have Horsey/Boris/Hassan, so I passed on it.

Come to think of it, I never read the New Orleans book, which I consider the start of the series.

Loved the one that started it all. I burrow into it about once a year.

Conversely, now I wouldn't watch the TV show's post-Blake seasons without being paid.

Posted by: Weak Geek at January 31, 2016 03:49 PM (eJsvd)

391 If you are hankering for a series from "The Great Courses," you can find them at Audible (now owned by Amazon.) I have an Audible subscription which lets me choose one book a month, pre-paid. I have been picking Great Courses series (one series=one book!) and have been a very, very happy fella.

Great commute listening!

Posted by: Beryl at January 31, 2016 03:53 PM (eeuKZ)

392 All Hail Eris, had to go pull from the shelf Star Trek Lives! by Jacqueline Lichtenberg, Sondra Marshak, and Joan Winston.

Joan Winston was on the set during the filming of Turnabout Intruder.

pg 180.

Returning to the set from John's workshop, we found out that Bill wasn't letting the morning's backfire deter him. There was a huge screen surrounding the captain's chair and a lot of snickering stagehands standing around. Suddenly the screen was lifted away and lo, there was Captain James T. Kirk in a long black fright wig, huge purple sequined eyelashes, bright red lipstick, falsies and a purple (to match the eyelashes, no doubt) ukelele sitting his legs primly crossed in the captain's chair. When he was sure everyone's attention was riveted (and it was!), he broke into "Tip-Toe Through the Tulips" a la Tiny Tim.

Posted by: Anna Puma at January 31, 2016 04:06 PM (a4xvv)

393 I had no idea TOS was that transgressive! Bravo, Bill!

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at January 31, 2016 04:08 PM (jR7Wy)

394 All Hail Eris, Shatner's failed morning prank involved the scene where McCoy is examining him. Shatner unrobed to reveal falsies. McCoy goes through the examination without missing a beat. And announces the Captain either has a tumor or is pregnant.

And the crew's unofficial name for the episode was "Captain Kirk, Space Queen."

Posted by: Anna Puma at January 31, 2016 04:13 PM (a4xvv)

395 I'm not interested in perusing the college thread.
How long did it take before the phrase "massive endowments" was made
sport of? 10 comments? 20?

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at January 31, 2016 03:24 PM
---------
36
I got all kinds of things with my massive endowment
Posted by: Peter North at January 31, 2016 12:40 PM (kpqmD)
---------

*snort*

Posted by: jow at January 31, 2016 04:14 PM (7d8Ef)

396 389
I first read "The Robe" back in the early 1960s and I've read it several
times since then. I highly recommend it. You can get a copy for $0.01
on Amazon (plush SH).

The movie has about 1/3 the storyline of the book, and omits my
favorite part. I cordially hate the movie. Richard Burton was completely
miscast. My hope is that someone does a limited TV seines on this
property.

Posted by: Beryl at January 31, 2016 03:48 PM (eeuKZ)

$9.99 ??????

Posted by: Vic-we have no party at January 31, 2016 04:21 PM (t2KH5)

397 Folks might want to check out the works of Morris West for Catholic mysteries/thrillers

Posted by: JC at January 31, 2016 04:25 PM (ZnmSi)

398 How about Barabbas?

Posted by: King James at January 31, 2016 04:26 PM (SJ184)

399 Over 30 comments before succumbing. Such moral continence! I am proud of you Horde!

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at January 31, 2016 04:27 PM (jR7Wy)

400 $9.99 ??????

Posted by: Vic-we have no party at January 31, 2016 04:21 PM (t2KH5)

Yow. That's kinda steep, ain't it?

Posted by: OregonMuse at January 31, 2016 04:29 PM (goH/2)

401 397 Folks might want to check out the works of Morris West for Catholic mysteries/thrillers

Posted by: JC at January 31, 2016 04:25 PM (ZnmSi)

Wait, didn't he write Shoes of the Fisherman?

Posted by: OregonMuse at January 31, 2016 04:31 PM (goH/2)

402 400 Yow. That's kinda steep, ain't it?

Posted by: OregonMuse at January 31, 2016 04:29 PM (goH/2)

I think he must have been talking about a used copy of the book and not the Kindle edition.

Posted by: Vic-we have no party at January 31, 2016 04:44 PM (t2KH5)

403 Wait, didn't he write Shoes of the Fisherman?

--

I think I read that ...something about the Vatican...

Posted by: @votermom at January 31, 2016 04:55 PM (cbfNE)

404 I also listened to the Master and Commander series on audiobook, but chose the Simon Vance versions. Also good.

The full title of the move is Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. The Far Side of the World is book 10 in the series. The movie takes events from several of the books and alters the 10th as well, but there are recognizable features.

Posted by: JT at January 31, 2016 05:32 PM (GLvqX)

405 "Shoes of the Fisherman" was about an EasternBloc Catholic being elected Pope. Cyril I, I believe. There was a movie, with Anthony Quinn as Cyril.

Always late to the thread, alas. Another slightly "round the Gospels" novel is How Far to Bethlehem? by Norah Lofts.
She weaves in the narrative of all the characters in the Nativity, with some ficitional add-ins. Gospel characters like Lazarus, Mary and Martha of Bethany, and Barrabas make an appearance as children. The Magi are aggressively of the three major races- a Caucasus warlord, an African slave and a Korean astonomer. I remember it as being pretty good, but rather heavy-handed.

Posted by: Sal at January 31, 2016 05:44 PM (MRX6w)

406 >>389 I first read "The Robe" back in the early 1960s and I've read it several times since then. I highly recommend it. You can get a copy for $0.01 on Amazon (plush S&H).

>>The movie has about 1/3 the storyline of the book, and omits my favorite part. I cordially hate the movie. Richard Burton was completely miscast. My hope is that someone does a limited TV seines on this property.

I could never get past Victor Mature as Demetrius myself. All of Marcellus' pre-conversion angst is a little drawn out (I always hear grand musical stings in my head whenever he sees the Robe or contemplates his dagger), but once he meets St. Peter things really get rolling.

Posted by: tms at January 31, 2016 05:45 PM (gQHeD)

407 O Brian, MacLean, Casca books - best Sunday book thread yet. Reminded me I haven't re read a MacLean book in a while and need to do so...

Posted by: kerrjen at January 31, 2016 06:14 PM (X4nCP)

408 JTB, if you're still around
Try some Belloc for Church history: Europe and the Faith, How the Reformation Happened, etc.
When you're ready for theology- anything by Frank Sheed would be good intro/review material.

Posted by: Sal at January 31, 2016 06:50 PM (MRX6w)

409 When I clicked on the book thread and saw the lead picture, I said to myself, "Gosh, wherever that is, it sure looks like the old Cincinnati Public Library." Then I scrolled down and found out it WAS the old Cincinnati Public Library! Thanks, OM!

That building was originally designed as an opera house, but the company it was built for broke up before they could occupy it. Fortunately, the main public library was looking for another building to expand into, and it was gradually adapted as the main library building. You can see some of the stairs at the left of the picture above. I've seen other pictures that show circular staircases giving access to the larger shelves on the other end -- you really can't see them in this picture.

Sadly, this building was torn down to make way for the new main library building in 1955, which still stands. Another building, now known as the 9th Street Annex was built and connected with a bridge to the older building. I think that happened in 1995. They housed the periodicals on the bridge, and it is still a great, sunshiny place to read during the day.

The Clifton branch of the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County (its official title) was relocated to Parkview Manor, a palatial home that Boss Cox built for his family in 1895. It's a beautiful building, and very well re-purposed for use as a public library. Here's a webpage showing the building and construction:

http://www.cincinnatilibrary.org/info/construction/clifton.html

Yes, this is the place where I'm working on the book of my hotel experiences. I try to get there as early as I can to work at one of my favorite tables in the adult reading room, which is very comfortable and inspiring on a sunny day.

Thank you, FenelonSpoke, mindful webworker, and any others who prayed for and with me last week. My interview with the Hampton Inn went well for the most part, and I'm hopeful about getting the job -- I even asked for it directly at the end! Coincidentally, after church today, my friend Georgia introduced me to her friend Dana, who happens to be a career counselor. Georgia mentioned my interview, and Dana asked how I did. I told her just about everything that happened, and Dana told me that, so far, I was doing everything right, even to the point of sending thank-you cards to my interviewers. (Boy, was I relieved!) She told me to call them at the end of this week if I don't hear from them before that.

Fingers crossed, still praying. Please join me, and pray that God's will be done!

I also finished the 9th and 10th installments of Merwin and Webster's Calumet "K" in the Saturday Evening Post this week. I read two installments this week because the installments are getting shorter and the suspense is building -- can Charlie Bannon and his workers complete the grain elevator in time to prevent a corner on December wheat on January 1? Bannon just had his work crews work on Christmas with the promise of a full Christmas holiday and dinner the week following. Could anybody do that today?

OregonMuse, thanks again for the book thread. I didn't get to write to you this week -- understand, I had some pressing matters to attend to -- but I hope to write to you soon.

Blessings and thanks to all of you, fellow Morons!

Posted by: DynamiteDan at January 31, 2016 06:58 PM (BaDMP)

410 I have to admit, I did enjoy Michael O'Brien's "Theophilos", which is a novel that follows the life of the man to whom Luke addressed his gospel.

http://www.amazon.com/Theophilos-A-Novel-Michael-OBrien/dp/1586176315

Posted by: DRH at January 31, 2016 07:05 PM (huabK)

411 On thing to bear in mind when buying materials from Great Courses : BE PATIENT. When a set goes on sale it's a steep discount... and pretty much everything seems to end up on sale every few months. So check prices every month or so

Posted by: DRH at January 31, 2016 07:13 PM (x3Acc)

412 IDIC is a Star Trek-ism for :

Infinite Diversity in Interstellar Chicks.

Posted by: DRH at January 31, 2016 07:16 PM (x3Acc)

413 412 IDIC is a Star Trek-ism for :

Infinite Diversity in Interstellar Chicks.

Posted by: DRH at January 31, 2016 07:16 PM (x3Acc)

Bah! If green is good enough for Capt. Kirk, it should be good enough for you.

Posted by: OregonMuse at January 31, 2016 08:02 PM (goH/2)

414 349
Why were we
supposed to accept the notion that strange alien starships would have
video cams in their bridges, and obligingly send video at a standard
scan rate to strange (to them) alien starships?

Why do alien starships agree on which way is up? Why don't we have trios of Klingong warbirds patrolling in a /_\ formation?

Posted by: Anachronda at January 31, 2016 08:21 PM (o78gS)

415 The Aubrey/Maturin series is in my top three as far as fiction works... As good as Shogun by Clavell. Desolation Island is my favorite of the series. Great language, characters, and plot. I wish I could find more like O'brian. Anyone recommend something similar?

Posted by: Utr at January 31, 2016 09:30 PM (8OdfZ)

416 Many of The Great Courses are available from Audible for 1 credit, which is $14.95 a month. Full orice, they are still cheaper than buying directly from the company. Obviously, video courses are not available.

Posted by: doppelganglander at January 31, 2016 09:33 PM (znppm)

417 Two Years Before the Mast was a memoir of the author's employment as a seaman around the Horn to Mexican California and his return. Dana dropped out of Harvard and went to sea. No fighting/blood/guts etc, but interesting nonetheless, I read it as a free Amazon Kindle download.

Posted by: Hal Dall at January 31, 2016 10:48 PM (/+PHN)

418 I am always late to the book thread so I seldom comment, but I do have to add my vote for the Great Courses. The Better Half and I have been sucking these up as time and finance allow. Almost done with the Tudors through the Stuarts; I may finally be able to keep the Henrys and Edwards straight now! The one on Understanding Greek and Roman Technology: from the Catapult to the Panthenon is my favorite thus far--getting the math and physics those old-timers had shows they weren't fools! The instructor is Professor Stephen Ressier, a retired Brig. General from West Point. He has a new one on the Physics of the Modern World which we'll begin as soon as we finish the Stuart Kings.

And thanks OM and the Horde for all the word on Good Books of every kind.

Posted by: Sigfried at February 01, 2016 12:23 AM (aXl87)

419 Actually, THE ROBE (1953) was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Actor (Burton) and Best Cinematography.

It is a moving film with a glorious musical score by the legendary Alfred Newman (q.v., on IMDB).

I wish folks would watch these flicks for themselves. Remember that our Enemies (inter alia, most movie critics) will denigrate anything that undermines their rotten agenda.

Posted by: Beverly at February 01, 2016 03:03 AM (Hrdij)

420 OM:

There is a site that helps people find half-remembered books from their childhoods.

Fun to browse, too.

http://tinyurl.com/gppkdxz

Posted by: Joy McCann at February 01, 2016 03:36 AM (HI1YC)

421 14 hrothgar

Try Howard Pease for juvenile merchant maRine yarns.

Posted by: Stonefree2rant at February 01, 2016 06:14 AM (LVIaV)

422 You run a gantlet and you throw down a gauntlet. Just sayin....

Posted by: Fluor at February 01, 2016 09:18 AM (98vXF)

423 The Master and Commander series is among my favorites. I have read the series through perhaps four times now. I have learned to skip pages though when the tacking descriptions come along. As for the movie, they took the title of the first book and screwed it tightly onto the action in two of the other books and changed the enemy from an American frigate to a French frigate. Still and all, a well done adaptation. Thanks, by the way, for introducing me to the "Sailor of Austria" series. Equally good. My only complaint being that I did not find it sooner and that there are only four of them.

Posted by: Dr. Todd at February 01, 2016 09:53 AM (NGvig)

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