Sunday Morning Book Thread 06-19-2016: Mo' Pimpin' [OregonMuse]

Book Pimpmobile #2

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, where men are men, all the 'ettes are lovely, safe spaces are where we store our ammo and beer, and if you've seen one snowflake, you've seen them all. Unlike other AoSHQ comment threads, the Sunday Morning Book Thread is so hoity-toity, pants are required. Especially those cargo pants with lots of pockets for extra magazines, because you'll never know when you'll need them. And because it's better to have them and not need them then need them and not have them.

How Can You Have No Books?

This was a tweet from earlier this week:

Darth Sugartits
@alexthechick
No, seriously, if I went into a house with tons of books shelves but no books, I would be all ummmm the f(redacted) are all your books?

8:50 AM - 14 Jun 2016

I must admit I have never seen this oddity, of having only 2 or 3 books on each bookshelf, like some bald guy combing over 4 strands of greasy hair But it reminded me of something worse, back a number of years ago when Mrs. Muse and I were first married, we went to see her family back East. We spent an afternoon/evening with her younger sister, and at one point, I had a few free minutes so I decided to grab something to read.

And there wasn't anything.

The living room had a giant TV and a gaming console, but no books, no magazines. So I tiptoed into the master bedroom to see if there were any books on the nightstands, but there wasn't any. I checked out all of the other rooms in the house. Even the bathroom. Surely, I thought, there must be a Reader's Digest or some other magazine to pass the time while you do your business, but no, not even that.

There were no books in the entire house, period. Not one.

I remarked about this later to Mrs. Muse. Her response was that her sister and BiL weren't the "intellectual" type. Well, that's fine, not everybody has to be an egghead. I didn't expect a college professor's house with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves. But not one book? These aren't meth-and-welfare hillbillies, the husband and wife run a very successful business, and they work hard. It's what they spend most of their waking hours doing, which is probably why they don't read. It was so outside my experience that it was actually kind of weird.

Not that that they weren't nice people. We had a good time while we were therer. But during the dinner conversations, I just couldn't start any sentence with "Have you read...?"

Possible Opportunity For Science Fiction Authors

Longtime 'ette Elisabeth Wolfe tipped me to this:

A post on Tumblr (I know, I know) by someone in the Girl Genius fandom has given rise to a project some of the sci-fi-inclined 'rons and 'ettes, especially Anna Puma and Sabrina Chase, might be interested in: Humans Wanted: A SF Anthology. The general premise is aliens discovering just how good it is to have humans along on their ships for companionship, protection, problem-solving, and general curiosity and willingness to explore. The Kickstarter campaign to fund the project has just opened today: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1962286285/humans-wanted-a-sf-anthology/description. According to the schedule posted there, the call for submissions will go out in August and close December 1.

OK, Now THIS Is What I Call A Naughty Librarian

The Betrayal Continues

Continuing on with American Betrayal: The Secret Assault on Our Nation's Character, I mentioned that I had not heard back from Ms. West as to whether she will ever return to her original book, which is about the radical Islamic infiltration of the US Government, but I hadn't heard back from her.

But then I received a very nice e-mail from Ms. West earlier this week, and not just a generic, boilerplate e-mail, but rather one that replied specifically to my questions. Her response was that she wasn't sure.

Since I finished American Betrayal, I have come to possess an extensive archive of mainly House and Senate investigations into Communist subversion, and there is so much more amazing stuff that "no one" knows about - while it is also quite relevant to today's headlines...

And then she pointed me to this blog post where she discusses some of the new stuff. So, the good news is, this vein of ore she's been mining for the past few years isn't even close to being tapped out.

Ms. West also said

It used to seem to me as if we were almost looking at sequential penetrations - first Communism, then Islam, sort of like two different layers of sedimentary rock. That seems all wrong to me now, as I have come to understand (even possibly experience?) the enduring threat from the Marxist/globalist movement, which we already know has used Islam as weapon of war.

She then referred to the 1982 book The Terror Network by Claire Sterling. I looked this up on Amazon. More than one of the 1-star reviews claim that these stories of the USSR being behind Islamic terrorism are supposdly CIA disinformation put out to discredit the Soviet Union. Even though these appear to be written by reviewers for whom "neocon" is a cuss word, I cannot immediately discount them. But I thought it was common knowledge that the USSR was funneling money to vintage terrorist groups such as the PLO back in the 70s. I mean, why wouldn't they? It's such a target of opportunity that I can't imagine the Soviet regime *not* kicking in a few rubles, and maybe more than a few.

Go Ask Alice

Moron commenter MTF tells me that an original edition of Alice in Wonderland is about to go on the auction block. The publishing history of of this children's classic is a bit complicated:

1865 would have been the year of publication for the fantastical classic if illustrator John Tenniel had approved the printing of his pictures. Due to Tenniel's dissatisfaction, Carroll cancelled the edition of 2000 and requested the 50 advanced copies produced by Macmillan & Co. of London to be returned.

And now Christie's, the British auction house has come into possession of one of these 50:

The discovery of this first issue comes as a welcome surprise, shining as one of only 22 known copies, 16 of which sit in institutional libraries and only 10 still in their original red cloth. This privately-held, originally bound copy survives as one of the original treasures that galvanized both literature and the art of reading.

There are some excellent photos of this volume at the Christie's link. The estimated selling price is (hold on to your hats) $2,000,000 - $3,000,000.

So get your wallets out.

Moron Recommendations

More moron recommendations from ace's book recommendation thread:

Moronette artisanal 'ette is reading The First Brain: The Neuroscience of Planarians by Oné R. Pagán. No, planarians aren't residents of Planar, they're flatworms with some properties scientists love to study. Why? Because

...they possess the remarkable ability to regenerate lost body parts, including complete regeneration of the nervous system. If cut into pieces, each piece of the planarian can regenerate into a complete organism. They are also unique among invertebrates in that they display addiction-like behaviors to many drugs abused by humans. Because of these distinct neurological traits, the planarian is often used as an animal model in neurological research, being used most recently for developments in neuropharmacology.

I remember these little guys from high school biology class. We'd cut 'em in half and watch 'em grow the other half, we'd cut them sort of in half and watch them develop 2 heads, and one comedian took a big fat one and managed to make 3 cuts to produce a single planaria with 4 heads. Just think: if it would register as a Democrat, it would be able to vote 4 times. And then we'd train them to run a simple "T" maze, and when we cut 'em up into little pieces, the ones that regenerated were able to run the maze quicker than the untrained ones.

Fun stuff.

___________

Artisanal 'ette is also reading about a young boy who's got more talent in his little finger than 3 of 4 of the rest of us put together: The Boy Who Played with Fusion: Extreme Science, Extreme Parenting, and How to Make a Star by Tom Clynes, is the story of young prodigy Taylor Wilson, who:

By the age of nine...had mastered the science of rocket propulsion. At eleven, his grandmother's cancer diagnosis inspired him to investigate new ways to produce medical isotopes. And by fourteen, Wilson had built a 500-million-degree reactor and become the youngest person in history to achieve nuclear fusion. How could someone so young achieve so much, and what can Wilson's story teach parents and teachers about how to support high-achieving kids?

So what's he been up to these days?

Wilson is designing devices to prevent terrorists from shipping radioactive material and inspiring a new generation to take on the challenges of science.

Good for him.

___________

Commenter Alamo recommended, specifically to ace, "The Big Fat Surprise" by Nina Teicholz. Brcause

Given [ace's] interest in dietary guidelines and hatred for big government mendacity this book lies at the current locus of your curiosity and outrage.

This title sounded familiar, and it turns out I mentioned it on a book thread a little over 2 years ago, so I'll just copy and paste:

In The Big Fat Surprise: Why Butter, Meat and Cheese Belong in a Healthy Diet, author Nina Teicholz challenges the purported connection between fat and heart disease:

She shows that reducing fat, especially of the saturated kind, has been disastrous for health, and that neither olive oil nor fish oils have convincingly been shown to prevent disease. Her groundbreaking claim that more dietary fat leads to better health, wellness, and fitness is sure to spark controversy and conversation everywhere.

What you need to cut is carbohydrates. Me, I love carbs. Carbs are my downfall. Pasta, rice, bread, yeah, pile it on. I wish I had Mrs. Muse's dietary discipline. I'm threatening to go over 200 lbs. Meanwhile, Mrs. Muse kas reduced her weight from a high of 177 back down to 155 lbs. She's done this by using the Weight Watcher's low-carb points system, and it works very well for her.

Books By Morons

This week, I heard from moron author Jerry Jay Carroll who let me know that one of his novels, Top Dog, has been revised and republished.

Carroll taunts me by saying that this, his debut novel, was first published "probably when you were still a kid blowing snot bubbles when you laughed really hard". Yeah, yeah. I suppose his advanced age gives him senior rights. I mean, look at his pic on his Amazon author's page I linked to -- if there's anything that says "you kids get off my lawn", it's that.

Anyway, Top Dog is about a Wall Street "Gordon Gekko" type guy who awakes one day and finds himself in the body of a dog and caught up in the cosmic battle of Good vs. Evil. Kind of a Kafka/Tolkien mash-up:

William B. Ingersol sits in an office high above Wall Street conducting cuthroat corporate takeovers. Just another day at work, it seems, business as usual. He puts his head down on his desk and wakes up as a big dog, trying to survive in a strange new world of wizards, fairies and monsters. To get back home, he has to choose between good and evil, devil or angel. That’s not as easy as you might think for a man used to playing with a stacked deck, not to mention both sides against the middle.

This new revised version is available for $1.99 on Kindle.

Caroll is a former reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper, and I do remember his byline from my years growing up in the SF Bay Area. He is also the author of Inhuman Beings (which has been described as a cross between Raymond Chandler and Philip K. Dick)

What I'm Reading

I'm still in the throes of my commie/KGB/espionage kick. I've just started reading Clever Girl, a new bio of Elizabeth Bentley, who ran two spy rings for the Soviets from 1938 until 1945. Then she defected, and gave testimony which exposed both spy rings and named over 80 Americans who had engaged in espionage for the Soviets.

I think it's hilarious, in light of the Venona decrypts and information gleaned from recently opened Soviet archives, that basically confirms and corroborates the testimony of Bentley, Whitaker Chambers, and Joseph McCarthy, watching the progressive left twisting itself into knots trying to maintain their cherished narrative that anti-communism is delusional and McCarthy was the most evil man in America, if not the world. This book's author, Lauren Kessler, takes this approach, and says that Bentley "ushered in McCarthyism", which is obviously the most important thing, and never mind the Soviet spy rings that were busted, who cares about that?

Again, it's absolutely hilarious. They're forced to admit that yeah, Alger Hiss was a spy, and yeah, Owen Lattimore was a spy and yeah, Lauchlin Currie was a spy, and yeah, Harry Dexter White, if not actually a spy, was pretty much the USSR's go-to guy in Washington, and, in fact, you couldn't swing a dead cat in an FDR administration meeting without hitting a Soviet spy, sympathizer or lickspittle, but even so, Joe McCarthy was still the most evil bad guy in history (except maybe for Nixon). Oh, and M. Stanton Evan's book Blacklisted by History that shows that McCarthy was pretty much correct? Just ignore it. Nothing to see here. These aren't the spies you're looking for.

___________

Moronette 'votermom' is putting together a list of moron authors over on the Goodreads site which is intended to be acessible to non-members. Here is the list she has compiled so far. Let her know if there's an author she's missing.

http://www.bookhorde.org/p/aoshq-authors.html

___________

Don't forget the AoSHQ reading group on Goodreads. It's meant to support horde writers and to talk about the great books 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 09:00 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 Morning.

Posted by: HH at June 19, 2016 08:55 AM (DrCtv)

2 Morning bookworms

Posted by: Skip at June 19, 2016 08:55 AM (d9qXV)

3 Mentioned this last week but am posting it again. I now have read both "Suspect" and "The Promise" by Robert Crais, and really enjoyed them (BTW they need to be read in order). They were both hard to put down once I got into them and if you like detective/police fiction, try these. Crais has a whole set of inter-related books with interesting characters which I also read as tension relievers.

Posted by: Hrothgar at June 19, 2016 08:56 AM (wYnyS)

4 Currently reading the first book in the Executioner Series and getting bored with it. I bought the first 3 when they had them on sale a couple of weeks ago. I wish that I had not but they were only $2 each.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at June 19, 2016 08:58 AM (mpXpK)

5 Facebook has that Gersh Kuntzman piece we were all mocking "Trending"

Posted by: steevy at June 19, 2016 08:59 AM (B48dK)

6 Cool bookmobile.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at June 19, 2016 08:59 AM (mpXpK)

7 Yay Book.Thread!

Happy Father's day to all the horde dads!

I was looking for a dad book to put on the blog and found a 1953 little golden book (link in nic)

Posted by: @votermom at June 19, 2016 08:59 AM (7lVbc)

8 Yes,the Soviets were prime movers in kickstarting Islamic terrorism.

Posted by: steevy at June 19, 2016 09:01 AM (B48dK)

9 Still reading The Burning of Moscow, Napoleon's Trial by Fire by Alexander Mikberdze. I'm at chapter 5 of 10 but barely a quarter of the way through it. Just getting to were the fires start and not sure where the writer is placing the blame. The possibilities are on purpose by one side or other or just a act of war. He did mention Moscow largely burn many times in previous history and that was with a population who's interested in stopping it. With the French occupation the Russian population evacuated much to the chagrin of Napoleon who wanted to be the conquer.

Posted by: Skip at June 19, 2016 09:01 AM (d9qXV)

10 I can't imagine someone having no books. All of my wall space is covered with book shelves that are overflowing. Good thing I finally broke down and bought a Kindle.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at June 19, 2016 09:01 AM (mpXpK)

11 Spies were one thing,the guys in the FDR admin were important agents of influence,actually shaping and in some cases creating US policy.

Posted by: steevy at June 19, 2016 09:02 AM (B48dK)

12 Jerry Jay Carroll's book "The Great Liars" is a good read as well. The Thread referenced him a while back and I've read several of his books and found them entertaining:

http://tinyurl.com/zyfe8hq

Posted by: Hrothgar at June 19, 2016 09:03 AM (wYnyS)

13 Btw, since ace told me to skip breakfast and just drink buttery coffee I've lost 4 pounds (that was just before he got his eyes zapped)

Posted by: @votermom at June 19, 2016 09:03 AM (7lVbc)

14 Anyone have or get free books from private stands?

Posted by: Skip at June 19, 2016 09:04 AM (d9qXV)

15 Darth Sugartits? Well, okay.

Saddam Hussein was well trained by the Soviet GRU (military intelligence) and was definitely "their guy", put in place to oppose the pro-American Shah of Iran and stir up trouble with pro-American Saudi Arabia (at the time, 60's into the 1970's).

The Tudeh Party of Iran (Iranian Communist Party) was instrumental in helping the Islamists plot the downfall of the Shah. They knew how to organize, which Khomeini's goons were confused about.
Then, a funny thing happened, as the Islamists turned on the Tudeh (using the apparatus of the Savak, the Shah's secret police, which they took over) and had them all imprisoned or killed.

Funny, maybe not laugh out loud funny, though.

Posted by: Bossy Conservative...pondering the future at June 19, 2016 09:04 AM (+1T7c)

16 Books are like dust in my house.
Always accumulating. Rarely cleaned out.
TMI?

Posted by: @votermom at June 19, 2016 09:05 AM (7lVbc)

17 Heh. That bookmobile? A '49 Chevy panel truck. THAT was the school bus that I rode in. Two benches, one down each side running fore and aft, and we got in and out via the rear door..

Yeah... I rode on the short bus.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at June 19, 2016 09:05 AM (9mTYi)

18 Votermom - If he told you to Skip breakfast you should have had a cup or 5 minute oatmeal with milk, raisins and cinnamon, 2 cups of coffee. English muffin is next.

Posted by: Skip at June 19, 2016 09:06 AM (d9qXV)

19 I read Surviving the End: A Practical Guide for Everyday Americans in the Age of Terror by Jay Carafano. Unless one has never approached this subject before, this work has nothing new. I downloaded it for free. It was worth every penny.

Posted by: Zoltan at June 19, 2016 09:06 AM (JYer2)

20 Still trying to get all my books into my newly regained library. Daughter left a dresser that she doesn't want so I repurposed it (grin) it hold an impressive amount of paperbacks spine up for easy viewing pleasure in each of its 6 drawers!

Posted by: FCF at June 19, 2016 09:07 AM (kejii)

21 I have many more books than bookshelves. But I don't read them because I'm on the internet all the friggin' time.

Posted by: rickl at June 19, 2016 09:07 AM (sdi6R)

22 4 Yeah,it is best to not read them consecutively or they jumble together.Happened to me with The Destroyer series and even The Shadow.Have to break it up by reading other stuff in between.

Posted by: steevy at June 19, 2016 09:07 AM (B48dK)

23 14 Anyone have or get free books from private stands?
Posted by: Skip at June 19, 2016 09:04 AM (d9qXV)

Ever since our lib got stricter on what donations they take, they put a a shelf just inside the door where patrons can leave books that they want to get rid of. I may or may not have taken books from there.
*shifty eyes*

Posted by: @votermom at June 19, 2016 09:08 AM (7lVbc)

24 Any time the MFM puts up anything about Joe McCarthy they have to play that faked up scene where the congressman asks him if he has no shame.

But his list of communists in the government was wrong, there were actually more than he listed.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at June 19, 2016 09:08 AM (mpXpK)

25 I re-read "Citizen of the Galaxy" yesterday, one of Heinlein's "juveniles". I think I first read this about 50 years ago (literally) when I was 9 or 10 years old.

Robert Heinlein still remains a great writer to me. His syntax, prose, the way he simply writes appears so effortless and natural. How he can express a subtle idea so simply, and create characters that you know are the heroes or the bad guys.

Posted by: Bossy Conservative...pondering the future at June 19, 2016 09:09 AM (+1T7c)

26 Haven't been reading, haven't been writing. In a funk.

Have imagined an interesting character but can't decide if he is a time travler or a government spook, and don't know where the story is going.

Have two other ideas that have foundered on the rocks of arithmetic, and don't know what to do about it.

Posted by: Skandia Recluse at June 19, 2016 09:11 AM (SlFFg)

27 @Skip
Heh. I'm making bacon so I am not skipping breakfast today.

Posted by: @votermom at June 19, 2016 09:11 AM (7lVbc)

28 Heh. That bookmobile? A '49 Chevy panel truck. THAT
was the school bus that I rode in. Two benches, one down each side
running fore and aft, and we got in and out via the rear door..

Yeah... I rode on the short bus.
Posted by: Mike Hammer

I bet it was fun. We were a better country then, with better people.

Posted by: Bossy Conservative...pondering the future at June 19, 2016 09:11 AM (+1T7c)

29 I finished reading "Border Wars of the Upper Ohio" by William Hintzen couple weeks ago, and, being intrigued by some of the claims he makes but irritated by the lack of decent footnotes, ordered a copy of "North American Indigenous Warfare and Ritual Violence." This is a series of essays covering pre-Columbian American warfare across North America (there is a South American volume too). I've only read one chapter so far, dealing with the Inuit and Athabaskans in Alaska (who were brutal to each other).

I also got copies of Accouterments II and III, which are basically picture books of 18th century flintlocks, tomahawks, war clubs, knives, and powderhorns. Lots of fun.

Posted by: Grey Fox at June 19, 2016 09:13 AM (bZ7mE)

30 The rocks of arithmetic?

Posted by: @votermom at June 19, 2016 09:14 AM (7lVbc)

31 Asked (on another thread) last week for Islam book suggestions. Got some good ones.

Currently reading "The Crisis of Islam" by Bernard Lewis. Highly recommended.

Fun page-turner -- "A Murder In Passing" by Mark de Castrique.

Posted by: doug at June 19, 2016 09:14 AM (TY+MF)

32 But his list of communists in the government was wrong, there were actually more than he listed.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at June 19, 2016 09:08 AM (mpXpK)

Yeah, the more I read about this era, the more I'm starting to think that McCarthy didn't know the half of it.

And the names he did have, they didn't start with him, McCarthy just got them from various state department and FBI watch lists of suspected commie spies they had in those days.

Posted by: OregonMuse at June 19, 2016 09:14 AM (MKtIU)

33 I have many more books than bookshelves. But I don't read them because I'm on the internet all the friggin' time.

Yeah, me too.

Posted by: Grey Fox at June 19, 2016 09:16 AM (bZ7mE)

34 @31 The Caliphate by Tom Kratman is fiction but eerily prescient.
It's free on Amazon.

Posted by: @votermom at June 19, 2016 09:16 AM (7lVbc)

35 Any time the MFM puts up anything about Joe McCarthy they have to play that faked up scene where the congressman asks him if he has no shame.

But his list of communists in the government was wrong, there were actually more than he listed.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at June 19, 2016 09:08 AM (mpXpK)

The guy that smarmy douche was defending was a commie. And to show how brainwashing people are this LIV I work with said after Orlando, We have to do something about terrorism but I don't want it to be like the McCarthy era where they were rounding people up. I asked him to name one person who was rounded up. Blank stare.

Posted by: TheQuietMan at June 19, 2016 09:16 AM (GILMl)

36 32 And the names he did have, they didn't start with
him, McCarthy just got them from various state department and FBI watch
lists of suspected commie spies they had in those days.

Posted by: OregonMuse at June 19, 2016 09:14 AM (MKtIU)

Ann Coulter has a good book out about the actual commies in government at the time. It is also a very good read.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at June 19, 2016 09:16 AM (mpXpK)

37 Someone recommended "All the Stars in Heaven: Louis B Meyer's MGM." I assume it was Sefton. Thanks to JJ or whomever. Great anecdotes, some patchy drywall chapters, but overflowing with history of the '30s and '40s. Not just Hollywood history, but social, political, technical context that Howard Zinn left out.

it's like a shopping list of movies that are now on my watch list.

35-year-old book, but there was still a six-month wait on the Free Library of Philadelphia reserve list. I try to keep my want list full of the hard-to-find titles, Too often, I'll get emails that there are suddenly five books on hold for me. And my local branch is closed for construction, so I'm doing my business at a branch in a dodgier neighborhood. The desk librarians roll their eyes at the crazy girl's selections.

Posted by: Spellcheck at June 19, 2016 09:16 AM (HKBpI)

38 After finishing "Hallow Mass," a delightful and entertaining book, I decided to go back to the source material but first I am reading "Discovering H. P. Lovecraft" for the sake of some background. Holding my interest so far.

In "Renaissance Lives," I am at the third-to-last subject, but it promises to be somewhat interesting as it's the tale of Jewish widow who assumed her husband's business after he died while raising 8 children and living in Europe as a Jew. And I'm going to finish the book simply because I am going to read the chapter on John Milton if it kills me to get there.

My bedtime book is the first Sackett novel by whoever wrote the Sackett novels - I'm just drawing a blank here. Anyway, I will read at least one or two more to see what happens when he tries to cut a new life out of the utter wilderness of America.

I'm almost done with this one and I'm not sure what I will read next on my Kindle. Maybe "American Betrayal" or I will dig out a copy of The Terror Network that I am sure I have here somewhere. And I would believe absolutely anything of the USSR - astonishingly bad actors who really were seeking world domination and enslavement. It amazes me that people don't know this.

Posted by: Tonestaple at June 19, 2016 09:17 AM (VsZJP)

39 35 Dalton Trumbo was rounded up right?I mean he was forced to write for the stage or write screenplays anonymously...

Posted by: steevy at June 19, 2016 09:17 AM (B48dK)

40 Good morning fellow Book Threadists. Happy Father's Day to all as appropriate.

Love that book mobile. As to the in-laws, it would kill me to have shelves or space for shelves and not have them groaning under a load of books. I'm sure they are nice people but that is dang near blasphemous.

Posted by: JTB at June 19, 2016 09:18 AM (V+03K)

41 Greetings, moron literati!

I didn't get to participate in last week's book thread. Was busy renunioning with relatives.

Two weeks ago,
http://acecomments.mu.nu/?blog=86&post=363844#c25331609
under the guise of discussing the trials and tribulations of creativity, self-publication, and self-promotion, I once again pimped my Invulnerable short story. (link to in nic)

I got two replies, one from @votermom, one from weirdflunkyonatablet, but didn't get back in time to respond, so I'm going to reply to those today.

Gonna stop and read today's post first, though.

Posted by: mindful webworker - invulnerably at June 19, 2016 09:19 AM (nQpdK)

42 38 My bedtime book is the first Sackett novel by whoever wrote the Sackett
novels - I'm just drawing a blank here. Anyway, I will read at least
one or two more to see what happens when he tries to cut a new life out
of the utter wilderness of America.

Posted by: Tonestaple at June 19, 2016 09:17 AM (VsZJP)

That would be Louis L'Amour

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at June 19, 2016 09:19 AM (mpXpK)

43 Oh I forgot.Happy Father's Day to all the moron daddies.

Posted by: steevy at June 19, 2016 09:19 AM (B48dK)

44 A great plot for a book:

The country in involved in an election that could set back the nefarious plans of an evil crime syndicate (we'll call them, the Builderfrankfurters). The election has been going swimmingly for the Builderfrankfurters for a long time, but unexpectedly, opinion swings against them.

No time to develop a sympathetic figure to use as a martyr figure, our villains (Builderfrankfurters) need to find a figure who will be widely sympathetic immediately - kind of like a young, beautiful woman who gets painted gold and suffocates, or a young beautiful woman who is drowned with oil in a James Bond movie. But where to find such an automatically sympathetic figure who might swing public opinion back to the Builderfrankfurters' side? Someone, who if murdered, would cause a large number of people to consider the whole of the opposition to be - da, da, daaaaaaa - evil.

Enter our James Bond figure (Boink, John Boink), who has been tracking the evil Builderfrankfurter crime syndicate for years, though nobody has believed they actually exist.

As he gets close to making the discovery he needs that will finally expose the Builderfrankfurters, he is captured and as he is bound and faces imminent death from the leader of the Builderfrankfurters, he engages the leader in a conversation:

"You murdered the young, beautiful woman to sway the election, didn't you?"

"Of course, Mr. Boink. Do you believe the we would actually allow our plans to be foiled at the last minute? Plans we've been working on for years?"

"But how did you manage to manipulate a crazy person to commit this act?"

Ah, Mr. Boink, we been doing this for decades! It never fails. Who would believe that an evil organization would manipulate crazy people to their evil ends? Especially one that nobody believes in? It is the stuff of movies, Mr. Boink, not real life."

That's all the plot I have to this point. More to come, I'm sure.

Posted by: Mr Macca Bean at June 19, 2016 09:19 AM (4ng05)

45 Posted by: mindful webworker - invulnerably at June 19, 2016 09:19 AM (nQpdK)

You were asking if you should publish it, as I recall.

Posted by: @votermom at June 19, 2016 09:20 AM (7lVbc)

46 The rocks of arithmetic?
Posted by: @votermom at June 19, 2016 09:14 AM (7lVbc)

I'm guessing calculus.

Posted by: Kindltot at June 19, 2016 09:21 AM (ry34m)

47 Read, " The radioactive Boy Scout" by Ken Siverstein.

A true story, it depicts the life and mischief of a teen-age boy who honest-to-god manages to build and operate a frigging breeder reactor in his back yard.

Posted by: Steamboat McGoo at June 19, 2016 09:21 AM (RK1ZH)

48 Just finished reading "Whistle" by James Jones.

Amazing the things they could do back then for the wounded and how fast they shipped them back here to the States for rehab and possible re-assignment.

Lots of sex too. I mean lots. There was a war on and people figured "Oh well, could be dead next week so let's screw."

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at June 19, 2016 09:22 AM (ej1L0)

49 Ya, the shoals of arithmetic.

Low thrust over a long time will build up velocity but the distance covered means you are half way to your destination and have to begin to slow down over an equally long time and distance, and you never get to anything approaching light speed where the time dilation effect kicks in.

And how much reaction mass is needed. And just how massive is your space ship anyway.

It's all just simple arithmetic, but all I have to go on is JPL's Dawn spacecraft that used hummmnas pounds of Xenon to get to Ceres.

Arithmetic with astronomical sized numbers.

I can do the 'how long does it take to drive to Chicago at 60mph' but traveling between star systems leaves me mumbling in the hallway.

Posted by: Skandia Recluse at June 19, 2016 09:24 AM (SlFFg)

50 OT: Space Nerds

Amazon's Jeff Bezos (see, kinda book-related) has a space company called Blue Origin, They are currently doing unmanned sub-orbital flights with reusable rockets & capsules. Max altitude approximately 100 miles.

They plan to do a test flight today. Fourth reuse of the first stage and a test of the capsule returning with one of its three parachutes deliberately disabled.

Live webcast at starting at 9:45 AM EDT with liftoff scheduled for approximately 10:15 EDT. www.blueorigin.com

We now return you to your completely book-related material...

Posted by: doug at June 19, 2016 09:25 AM (TY+MF)

51 ...aliens discovering just how good it is to have humans along on their ships...

Why, that's right out of my Invulnerable story!

Okay, not exactly...

(Not funny unless you read it, I suppose. Back to reading the post...)

Posted by: mindful webworker - invulnerably at June 19, 2016 09:25 AM (nQpdK)

52 I read once that EIGHT PERCENT of Americans had purchased A BOOK in the preceding year. (That was pre-Amazon, but I don't think the number would be better today.) Subtract Harlequins, cookbooks, cat picture compilations and repair manuals, and I weep.

Posted by: Spellcheck at June 19, 2016 09:26 AM (HKBpI)

53 Posted by: Skandia Recluse at June 19, 2016 09:24 AM (SlFFg)

I'd like to think that there is probably a simple book for this - space travel for writers or something.
Anyone?

Posted by: @votermom at June 19, 2016 09:26 AM (7lVbc)

54 My bedtime book is the first Sackett novel by whoever wrote the Sackett novels - I'm just drawing a blank here. Anyway, I will read at least one or two more to see what happens when he tries to cut a new life out of the utter wilderness of America.

First in the series or first written? My two favorites out of that series are Sackett (plot is ok, but the vision of that valley will remain with me forever) and Ride the River (protagonist is a 16 year old girl who is trying to be cute and feminine while shooting people). "Jubal Sackett" is interesting too, though I read it last as a teenager so it might not have been as good as I recall.

Posted by: Grey Fox at June 19, 2016 09:27 AM (bZ7mE)

55 47 Read, " The radioactive Boy Scout" by Ken Siverstein.

A true story, it depicts the life and mischief of a teen-age boy who honest-to-god manages to build and operate a frigging breeder reactor in his back yard.
Posted by: Steamboat McGoo at June 19, 2016 09:21 AM (RK1ZH)

And then joined the Navy, wanting (naturally enough) the Nuclear Power Program.

He was ineligible due to his lifetime radiation dose. Duh.

Posted by: Jeff Weimer at June 19, 2016 09:28 AM (0Y6mc)

56 Reading The Lion's Gate by Steven Pressfield. First hand accounts about the Six Day War. Unfortunately history only started yesterday for many people and they become the sheep that no longer recognize the difference between the wolves and sheepdogs. I understand the Israeli Left less than I understand the American Left.

Posted by: Joe Hallenbeck at June 19, 2016 09:29 AM (MNgU2)

57 I hate to threadjack (that's a lie...I love to...), but I need some advice from The Horde.

One of my snot-nosed little punk nephews actually knows how to read, and asked for a recommendation for a post-WWII American history book.

I was at a loss, and suggested "Witness," by Whittaker Chambers, for the flavor of the fight against communism. But that was it. I couldn't think of anything else. I told him to read "The Storm of War," for a great history of the war and for the background needed to understand post-war Europe. But still....

Any suggestions?

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo -- Am Yisrael Chai at June 19, 2016 09:30 AM (Zu3d9)

58 Posted by: Joe Hallenbeck at June 19, 2016 09:29 AM (MNgU2)

Go down to your basement, where I assume you have concrete block walls. Bang your head against the wall as hard and as often as you can. When you wake up, do it some more.

That should approximate the Israeli left.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo -- Am Yisrael Chai at June 19, 2016 09:32 AM (Zu3d9)

59 Hi everyone!

i just published Part One of a big comic novel on kindle.

Unfortunately, I received the okay late last night, and missed the deadline for this week's thread-

so I'll have to wait till next week for OregonMuse to pimp its fine ass on the mean streets of the AOSHQ Book Thread.

The reason I mention it now is that for the first two weeks,

it's for sale at the low, low introductory, moron-friendly price of $0.99.

Hopefully, that will encourage people to read it and leave positive reviews on amazon.

The link to the novel's kindle page is below (Pixyware doesn't like amazon apparently. It won't allow it in my nick)

Oh yeah, the title is-

"Wearing the Cat - Part One: Flaming Hoops"

https://www.amazon.com/Wearing-Cat-Part-Flaming-

Hoops-ebook/dp/B01H9HCEZ0/ref=sr_1_1/189-

1448532-8770108?s=digital-

text&ie=UTF8&qid=1466341895&sr=1-

1&keywords=wearing+the+cat

(remove extra spaces)

Check it out.

Posted by: naturalfake at June 19, 2016 09:33 AM (HGtd0)

60 Yeah... I rode on the short bus.
Posted by: Mike Hammer

I bet it was fun. We were a better country then, with better people.
Posted by: Bossy Conservative
----------

I should add that the bus driver was a HS Junior, a girl. She lived at the end of the route, and drove the 'bus' home every day.

It was a mile down a dead-end dirt road to our house, and the entire trip for her from her house to school was about 15 miles, one way.

Yup. Different days. Idyllic in many ways. I often defer to Bob Seger, "I wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then."

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at June 19, 2016 09:33 AM (eeTCA)

61 Mrs. JTB and I read 'The Terror Network' when it first came out. Partly interest and partly because it applied to her work at the time. As I recall, the revelation wasn't Soviet involvement but the extent of it in the Middle East and elsewhere.

I love the Sackett series by Louis L'Amour. The first three and especially the last one, 'Jubal Sackett', are my favorites. They take place in a different area and time from the typical western. There was a 2 part made for TV movie called 'The Sacketts' starring Tom Selleck and Sam Eliot. It combined several of the Sackett books and is a fun movie. Made in the late 70s, I think.

Posted by: JTB at June 19, 2016 09:34 AM (V+03K)

62 54: First in series, I expect, Grey Fox, since much of it takes place in England where our hero finds himself in lots of trouble with some feckless nobleman. I looked at "Order of Books" to see which came first.

Posted by: Tonestaple at June 19, 2016 09:34 AM (VsZJP)

63 She then referred to the 1982 book The Terror Network by Claire Sterling. I looked this up on Amazon.
==========
I read that book. About 27 years ago (gasp), I became interested in the topic and checked out every book in the library on the subject. My co workers laughed. LAUGHED at me!!!1!!!

Anyway, after reading Sterling's book I wondered if I was in the wrong field and shd have become an expert on terrorism. It's a growth industry and there are too many lefty "think tanks" trying to steer people wrong on the subject.

The mini series Carlos, the 5 hour version, does a great job of showing how the russians and countries in the soviet block were all involved in funding and facilitating terrorism in the mideast and how Bush I crushed them.

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at June 19, 2016 09:34 AM (iQIUe)

64 A true story, it depicts the life and mischief of a teen-age boy who
honest-to-god manages to build and operate a frigging breeder reactor in
his back yard.

Posted by: Steamboat McGoo at June 19, 2016 09:21 AM (RK1ZH)
=====

GMTA, or something similar. I was just rereading 'Rocket Boys' (retitled for Hollywood as 'October Sky'). I really do like his style and the fascinating social descriptions. Don't know if he is some kind of lefty twit, but it is a wonderful memoir of an America that is no longer there. One of my kids' teachers tried to get a rocketry group going (before the book came out), but was shut down by the safety parents in this suburban bastion land of perfectly perfect children and parents.

Posted by: mustbequantum at June 19, 2016 09:36 AM (MIKMs)

65 Although, Skandia, that MIGHT be incidental to your story. Just use handwavium and make it up.

Posted by: @votermom at June 19, 2016 09:36 AM (7lVbc)

66 That seems all wrong to me now, as I have come to understand (even possibly experience?) the enduring threat from the Marxist/globalist movement, which we already know has used Islam as weapon of war.

==========
Ms. West's pal, the late great M. Stanton Evans, did a nice job comparing the commies with the islamo-terrorists.

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at June 19, 2016 09:37 AM (iQIUe)

67 @votermom #7: ...I was looking for a dad book to put on the blog and found a 1953 little golden book...

That was cute.

Just got a text from Firstborn Daughter wishing me a happy. That's one (of three). But, not like I'm keeping score!

Posted by: mindful webworker - dadperson at June 19, 2016 09:37 AM (nQpdK)

68 57 Any suggestions?

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo -- Am Yisrael Chai at June 19, 2016 09:30 AM (Zu3d9)

Go down to the library and browse the section dealing with general history then go to a book store (or Amazon) and order the book. But since most of those books are used as a school book the prices are outrageous.

Someone borrowed my copy of South Carolina; A History and did not return it. I looked it up on Amazon and they want a fortune for it.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at June 19, 2016 09:38 AM (mpXpK)

69 50 OT:
Live webcast at starting at 9:45 AM EDT with liftoff scheduled for approximately 10:15 EDT. www.blueorigin.com
Posted by: doug at June 19, 2016 09:25 AM (TY+MF)

I did not know about that. Thanks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EI-tGVFg7PU

Posted by: rickl at June 19, 2016 09:39 AM (sdi6R)

70 I remember that TV movie, JTB, and it is why I started this. I figure all of the male Sacketts look exactly like Tom Selleck.

Posted by: Tonestaple at June 19, 2016 09:40 AM (VsZJP)

71 Once you swallow the fact that calculus mainly measures the area and volume of imaginary infinite shapes, it becomes smooth as glass. Still waiting to apply anything I learned in four semesters of the stuff to a biological or biochemical problem. But I suppose it must be useful in physics or electrical engineering.

Posted by: Spellcheck at June 19, 2016 09:40 AM (HKBpI)

72 I had a girlfriend who had some text books and a couple of magazines in the house, and nothing else, Very strange.

Of course I didn't go over there for reading or literature.

I am reading Larry Correia's Warbound which is everything the two previous books in the series are and more, and I'm re-reading Bill Adams and Cecil Brooks' The Unwound Way.

Very few science fiction writers are also poets, or write prose with a level of imagery like Raymond Chandler, who was a genius at it and flavored the whole genre of noir novels.

Unwound Way has this description of a twice abandoned alien city:

All ghost towns --all empty buildings-- would rather you went away, but this city is something colder. Not malevolent, but devoid of the promise that sustains, like the eyes of a woman who loves another. There is nothing for you here, human. A doorway to step into until the rain stops, some cold dark night when there's no place else to go. Nothing more

Posted by: Kindltot at June 19, 2016 09:40 AM (ry34m)

73
One of my fondest memories were ordering and receiving those paperback books at school.

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at June 19, 2016 09:41 AM (iQIUe)

74 @53

In another story I brazenly tried to fake my way through calculus. I think I got it right. Don't know how readable it is, but the heroine was a hands on kind of engineer who hated math. So I had her draw the problem, and then derive the equations. I desperately need someone who knows calculus to tell me if I got it right.

"Twelve days at L5" 99 cents for the kindle

Posted by: Skandia Recluse at June 19, 2016 09:44 AM (SlFFg)

75 Reading the Aubrey/Maturin books got derailed by the African adventures in Peter Capstick's books. Thoroughly enjoyable and they feed my gun interests as well. I also picked up a copy of 'Horn of the Hunter' by Robert Ruark, about the safari he and his wife took in the 1950s. It may say something that these books are still in print fifty to sixty years after they appeared but I couldn't find any in local used book stores. They sold well so the books are out there but people must hold on to them. One clerk mentioned that a copy may come in rarely but doesn't last the day. Hmmmm. I sensing a pattern here.

Part of my interest is that these books can be considered history, even though they take place in my life time. (Insert old age jokes here.) But the way of life and most of the adventure is no more or very rare. Can you imagine making the movie 'Hatari' these days?

Posted by: JTB at June 19, 2016 09:44 AM (V+03K)

76 I'll have to check out that "Humans Wanted" anthology. One of my favorite sci-fi series was the three "Call to Arms" books that Alan Dean Foster wrote back in the day. In those books, humans turn out to be the meanest, most ass-kicking race in the entire universe, thanks to (among other things) our planetary geography.

If you haven't read that series, I highly recommend it, the depictions of the effete, nonviolent aliens who faint at the sight of violence puts one in mind of the pearl-clutching liberals who are currently shrieking about "assault rifles"....

Posted by: Pave Low John at June 19, 2016 09:44 AM (b5yHT)

77 Naturalfake, I will post about it on my blog.

I usually just do the blurb for books I have not read, but if you want me to add any other info to entice readers, email me - reviews at bookstore dot org

Posted by: @votermom at June 19, 2016 09:44 AM (7lVbc)

78 Oh, and the soonest I can post it is on Tuesday.

Posted by: @votermom at June 19, 2016 09:45 AM (7lVbc)

79 happy father's day!

Posted by: phoenixgirl at June 19, 2016 09:46 AM (0O7c5)

80
I'm sorry but when I hear "humans wanted" and "aliens" I think of "anal probings".

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at June 19, 2016 09:47 AM (iQIUe)

81 reviews at bookstore dot org
Posted by: @votermom at June 19, 2016 09:44 AM (7lVbc)

Ooops

at bookhorde dot org

Posted by: @votermom at June 19, 2016 09:48 AM (7lVbc)

82 It involves books, so I guess I can put it here.

As many of you know, Little VIA graduated from High School two weeks ago.

And in preparation for the family to re-locate to the Summerville area, it's time to downsize stuff.

We must have had literally hundreds of books in the attic accumulated from the passage of Little VIA through all twelve grades.

So we spent Friday at one of the inner city Public Charter Schools dropping off box after box of perfectly good Elementary School Books.

So that's my book thread story.
And i'm sticking to it.

Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at June 19, 2016 09:48 AM (ptqRm)

83 Auto cucumber is constantly probing my posts

Posted by: @votermom at June 19, 2016 09:49 AM (7lVbc)

84 It's going to hit 105 today and I have no a.c. I dont think I'm going to make it...

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at June 19, 2016 09:49 AM (iQIUe)

85 And, undoubtedly, the power goes out so no internet or fans or refrigerator with ice. Shoot me now.

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at June 19, 2016 09:50 AM (iQIUe)

86 Bruce, hide in the basement!
Or the library / mall.

Posted by: @votermom at June 19, 2016 09:51 AM (7lVbc)

87 73
One of my fondest memories were ordering and receiving those paperback books at school.
Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at June 19, 2016 09:41 AM (iQIUe)

I probably still have them all.

Posted by: rickl at June 19, 2016 09:52 AM (sdi6R)

88 Bruce lots of non alcoholic liquids

Posted by: Skip at June 19, 2016 09:52 AM (d9qXV)

89 By the way, the book "Jubal Sackett" begins in the county I grew up in, Clay County in Western NC. Apparently, Louis L'Amour decided that the Sackett clan should originate from Shooting Creek, sitting in the shadow of Chunky Gal Mountain.

And yes, that's the name of the mountain, I'm not making that up at all. It's even in the book, which suggests that L'Amour knew that the Cherokee were the ones who named that particular piece of the Appalachians.....

Posted by: Pave Low John at June 19, 2016 09:54 AM (b5yHT)

90 Although, Skandia, that MIGHT be incidental to your story. Just use handwavium and make it up.

--

I wish. Unfortunately the idea was to reach the 'instaneous and nonlinear' transistion to faster than light for the first time. And incidently produce a sudden and unexpected amount of X-rays (a product of charged particles in an electrical field - synchrotron radiation) that would then be understood to be a characteristic of that transition (unexplained astronomical gamma ray bursts). And then people would realize that there were 'others' out there who already knew how to transition to FTL and they aren't human.

Posted by: Skandia Recluse at June 19, 2016 09:54 AM (SlFFg)

91 I am a pretty avid reader I have my own business and still read a book or so a week. Just finished Winds of War (Herman Wouk) and am bracing myself to start War and Remembrance. Both are 1,000 pageish tomes, so it's a hike. But well, well worth it.

What I have learned about WW2 thus far from Winds of War may spark me to dig in more about WW2. That is one of the neat things about reading - how it can send you in different directions and awaken new interests you may have never had.

Also plowing through Bobby Fischer's chess tutorial a few pages at a time (recommended). Used to play chess and may start again.

Anyway, as much as I love reading and actively work to fit it in my schedule, I was not able to pass the love of reading on to my son (today is his 22nd birthday). I tried, but he is simply not a reader other than as needed for school, job, etc.

Sad, but such is life.

Posted by: RM at June 19, 2016 09:55 AM (U3LtS)

92 And while cleaning, I found the entire Aubrey/Maturin, and Hornblower series which I kinda sorta forgot was up there as well.

Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at June 19, 2016 09:56 AM (ptqRm)

93 Reading The Lion's Gate by Steven Pressfield. First
hand accounts about the Six Day War. Unfortunately history only
started yesterday for many people .....
Posted by: Joe Hallenbeck

A great book to read with that is "Six Days of War" by Michael Oren. A very well researched account of the Six Day War and what led up to it, and what followed afterward.

Pressfield in "The Lions Gate", an American Jew, makes a great point about the IDF and Israel in general. They are not like us, Americans. They are almost (or were, in 1967) a nation as an extended family. There was a great deal of informality in how the military was run, but everyone knew their job, and what was expected of them.

They are, in my opinion, a very heroic people. I admire them greatly, just that they are really more than a little different from us. Not as individuals, but as a society.

Posted by: Bossy Conservative...pondering the future at June 19, 2016 09:56 AM (+1T7c)

94 V.I.A. another lucky dog

Posted by: Skip at June 19, 2016 09:56 AM (d9qXV)

95 Ever since I saw the Facebook post about "Take A Human" I have been pondering story ideas. And now there is this anthology...very Human Wave, I might add. Excellent idea.

People with no books at all in their homes cannot be trusted. How else can you surreptitiously get a sense of their minds by scanning the shelves? What books they have, how they are organized...

And since this is Father's Day, my father loved books. Especially history or archaeology, that was the gift he always wanted.

Posted by: Sabrina Chase at June 19, 2016 09:57 AM (GG9V6)

96 The Blue Origin webcast is live.

This might be the first time they've done this. They have been notoriously secretive up till now.

Posted by: rickl at June 19, 2016 09:57 AM (sdi6R)

97 Mornin' Horde! And a Happy Fathers Day to those so blessed!

Finished One Corpse Too Many this week, the second of the Brother Cadfael series by Ellis Peters. Very enjoyable reads outside the normal mold of mystery fiction, where often the murder isn't the only matter to be put right.

I got Top Dog on the Kindle earlier this week, when...was it votermom? Somebody in the Horde recommended it. I'll probably work on that one in whatever time I can manage over the next week.

Posted by: Brother Cavil, That Guy at June 19, 2016 09:58 AM (vyqqu)

98 The breadth of topics in the book thread always amazes me. But, before I refresh and get more comments...

___________

In reply to my Invulnerable story pimping 2 weeks ago, weirdflunkyonatablet #287 replied:

I just finished it. I have no idea what you call that or what you're supposed to do with it but I liked it.

If anyone here is thinking about reading MW's story don't get hung up with the cartoon beginning, it changes to something else entirely.

Like said, I liked it.

I think this is an Optimal Review. I chuckled, because, "no idea what you call that or what you're supposed to do with it" is exactly how I felt about it since I did it. Glad you liked it, WeirdFlunky - that is the main thing.

As I've said before, I started out doing sketches as if for a graphic novel (comicbook), but very quickly I felt my cartooning abilities weren't up to the serious narrative task, and moreover the narrative started spewing forth almost faster than I could handwrite it, so it starts with the cartoon sketches and then goes to text.

The cartoon part is mostly-raw scans of my original sketches, only the lettering computer-typeset to improve readability, and some cleanup and shading added. So, I said a character in the story did the art.

The whole thing was kind-of a first draft, but I published what I had as-was, just because I may never get it beyond that. I do have a bunch of additional illustrations I've been meaning to tip in - finished color pix as opposed to the b&w sketches. One of these days when my time isn't utterly consumed... with reading AoS threads....

Posted by: mindful webworker - invulnerably at June 19, 2016 09:58 AM (nQpdK)

99 read once that EIGHT PERCENT of Americans had purchased A BOOK in the preceding year.�

Which is why my home, with bookshelves in every room, is now bookfree. I expect to put it on the market within a year or so and I just don't imagine shelves filled with books is a positive anymore.

A real estate agent once told me buyers today are most concerned about where they'll hang the big screen.

Posted by: Lice Wags at June 19, 2016 09:59 AM (ZnIt3)

100 A batch of Brian Freemantle's Charlie Muffin spy thrillers turned up at my library book sale. (Many of the titles just call him Charlie M.) Very fun.

Well worth the buck apiece. Charlie is the rumpled working-class Columbo of the British Secret Service, constantly outspying upper-crust colleagues who went to all the right schools and outwitting the double-dealing superiors who use him as the expendable cannon fodder.

The series kicks into high gear when Charlie goes rogue and has to save Queen and country once a year as a fugitive on the run from his former employers.

I imagine the character's middle name was originally Raga, but Freemantle resisted the easy joke.

As a vulgar barbarian who crashed America's right schools, I'm fascinated by the British obsession with class.

Posted by: Spellcheck at June 19, 2016 09:59 AM (HKBpI)

101 You could say I worked the anti-terror beat in the 80s and 90s. Not secret spy stuff, not black not gray but white ops.

Totally out in the open. And the terrorists of the 70s and 80s, whether they were Red Brigade types or jihad types were all funded, directly or indirectly, by the Soviets. All of them.

A perfect example is the shooting of Pope John Paul the 2d. Ali Agca was a Turk, but he was recruited by Bulgarians and trained by East Germany. Which was all Soviet ultimately.

The collapse of the Soviet Union brought some disarray for that system. In July of 1990 for example, November 17 in Greece set 13 bombs off at Soviet bloc embassies and the PLO office in Athens with the claim that they were drifting from the cause. It was really because they got cut off. No more Soviet money. You don't bite the hand that feeds.

The story about why Hizb'allah left the Soviets alone in Lebanon because KGB was just too ruthless was Soviet disinformation, too. That story makes it sound like the Soviets were targets but they were just too tough. Really, the Soviets were benefactors. They paid them to go after Americans. You don't bite the hand that feeds.

People thought "transnational" terrorism was invented with AQ but they were just follow on. And transnational as in not supported by a nation state is a misnomer. There is ALWAYS a nation state. Always. Libya and Egypt and Syria were all Soviet client states. The Soviets funded Khomeini because the Shah was on our side.

So the Soviets are gone, who took their place? Saudis mostly. But I would have to think China is funding some, too. Instability is in their interest.

Posted by: blaster at June 19, 2016 09:59 AM (2Ocf1)

102 One of my fondest memories were ordering and receiving those paperback books at school.

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at June 19, 2016 09:41 AM (iQIUe)

I probably still have them all.
Posted by: rickl at June 19, 2016 09:52 AM (sdi6R)

You guys talking about the Scholastic Book Service?

Posted by: OregonMuse at June 19, 2016 10:01 AM (MKtIU)

103 Nyah??? An anthology?

Has anyone asked Tully what he thought of knocking about the galaxy with Chanur and dodging the Kif on occasion?

Wow Skandia, you are going for the really 'hard' type science fiction if talking X-rays. Break out the lead panties ladies...

Posted by: Anna Puma at June 19, 2016 10:02 AM (4Hm6M)

104 Going to pick The Strong Men by John Brick up later this week once I'm home from family event in Vancouver.

Excellent novel written in 1959 about American frontier militia joining Washington at Valley Forge. Read it the first time decades ago and still remember it.

Posted by: Sharkman at June 19, 2016 10:02 AM (yGv35)

105 Skandia, go to goodreads and look up the Science Fiction Writing Series. It includes a volume on space travel, written by Ben Bova.

Posted by: Brother Cavil, That Guy at June 19, 2016 10:03 AM (vyqqu)

106 "You guys talking about the Scholastic Book Service?"

I think I still have some of those that I ordered when I was in first and second grade.

Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at June 19, 2016 10:04 AM (ptqRm)

107 So the Soviets are gone, who took their place? Saudis mostly. But I would have to think China is funding some, too. Instability is in their interest.

Or George Soros going, "Fine, I guess I have to do this myself..."

Posted by: Brother Cavil, That Guy at June 19, 2016 10:04 AM (vyqqu)

108 I got Top Dog on the Kindle earlier this week, when...was it votermom? Somebody in the Horde recommended it.

--

Brother Cavil, that was probably me. I am doing a "New releases" feature as I hear of them.
We also want the goodreads group to list new releases.
Thanks to cool breeze for bringing the idea up.

Posted by: @votermom at June 19, 2016 10:05 AM (7lVbc)

109 Love the Sackett novels also, and anything by L'Amour.

I also remember being able to order paperbacks in elementary school from this outfit called Scholastic Book Services or something like that. It was like a birthday when they arrived and I picked up the books I ordered.

I knew there were hours of good reading ahead.

Danny Dunn and The Homework Machine, Mudhen, Babe Ruth autobiography, on and on.

A silent thank you to above to my parents for encouraging me to read, letting me spend as much time as I wanted at the town library, funding my (large) orders of the Scholastic books, etc.

Posted by: RM at June 19, 2016 10:05 AM (U3LtS)

110 Anna Puma at June 19, 2016 10:02 AM

Ya, I'm really am one of those wannabe scientists. One of the many mistakes in my life.

Posted by: Skandia Recluse at June 19, 2016 10:05 AM (SlFFg)

111 My big screen hangs in front of the bookcases on a drapery rail. All the books I'm embarrassed to own are hidden behind the TV, but I can slide the set left or right when I'm in the mood for demiporn. Thanks to Roku, Plex and Kodi, everything streams, so there's no signal cable. Still working out a pulley to manage the power cable.

Posted by: Spellcheck at June 19, 2016 10:06 AM (HKBpI)

112 Brother Cavil

Thank you
I'll do that.

Posted by: Skandia Recluse at June 19, 2016 10:07 AM (SlFFg)

113 Sabrina Chase: People with no books at all in their homes cannot be trusted. How else can you surreptitiously get a sense of their minds by scanning the shelves? What books they have, how they are organized...

But you do get a sense of their minds... empty...

Posted by: mindful webworker - snarkastically at June 19, 2016 10:07 AM (nQpdK)

114 ...oh my. Finding other "Science/SciFi element X for writers" on goodreads too. This is a rabbit hole one could disappear down for some time...

Posted by: Brother Cavil, That Guy at June 19, 2016 10:07 AM (vyqqu)

115 Henry Reed was a better version of Danny Dunn.

Posted by: Spellcheck at June 19, 2016 10:07 AM (HKBpI)

116 It is more accurate to say Islamic Terrorism has always been around.

Different actors on the world stage play a role in directing/nudging that terrorism towards the areas that serve their own best interests.

Posted by: Cactus of Liberty at June 19, 2016 10:07 AM (J567a)

117 When I was a kid I thought being a librarian would be the coolest job, being surrounded by all those books. Kind of glad I never pursued that line of work, because I'd probably be provoked into being like that virago packin' heat -- "I said turn off your f***ing cell phone!" I'm not what you'd call a people person. At least I'm surrounded by books.

In Connie Willis' Bellwether there is a character who is a librarian, and one of her guerrilla tactics is to check out books that would otherwise fall by the wayside and be eliminated (in favor of, say, 100 copies of some Dan Brown dreck).

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at June 19, 2016 10:07 AM (jR7Wy)

118 Also plowing through Bobby Fischer's chess tutorial a few pages at a time (recommended). Used to play chess and may start again.

Posted by: RM at June 19, 2016 09:55 AM (U3LtS)

Hey, I hope you're spending time on the Sat. afternoon chess thread.

AoSHQ: the full-service blog.

Posted by: OregonMuse at June 19, 2016 10:08 AM (MKtIU)

119 So the Soviets are gone, who took their place?
Saudis mostly. But I would have to think China is funding some, too.
Instability is in their interest.

Posted by: blaster at June 19, 2016 09:59 AM (2Ocf1)
=====Our economy has shifted from making to taking a cut. Stocks are not about 'underlying value' any more than real estate is. The money is made on the churn. I think this applies to most wealth now.

Posted by: mustbequantum at June 19, 2016 10:08 AM (MIKMs)

120 I dearly wish I had all those SBS books now. Long gone in the dust of time. Every once in a while I'll order one from Abe Books just for the heck of it.

Also, Henry Gregor Felsen was huge at the time. Hot Rod, Street Rod, Boy Gets Car, Crash Club.

Posted by: RM at June 19, 2016 10:08 AM (U3LtS)

121 I avoid furniture stores whenever possible but I remember seeing faux books made of cardboard used to let you see what that bookcase would look like with books.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Racist for Dinosaurs at June 19, 2016 10:09 AM (Nwg0u)

122 Finished reading Yorktown by Thomas Fleming. Interesting to see how close we were to losing the war to the British even at that point. It's a quick and interesting read.

Posted by: WOPR - Nationalist at June 19, 2016 10:09 AM (Ee2nz)

123 115 Henry Reed was a better version of Danny Dunn.

Posted by: Spellcheck at June 19, 2016 10:07 AM (HKBpI)

First time I read this as "Harry Reid was a better version of Danny Dunn" and I was all, like, that's just WRONG.

Posted by: OregonMuse at June 19, 2016 10:10 AM (MKtIU)

124 It is more accurate to say Islamic Terrorism has always been around.

All the way back to the hashashim, in spirit at least.

Only the names ever really change.

Posted by: Brother Cavil, That Guy at June 19, 2016 10:10 AM (vyqqu)

125 Skandia, try a local, limited field effect of generating a micro black hole, and pushing through the discontinuity (waves hands) allowing a single shot wormhole.
You can claim that this effect doesn't work on its own, but needs high velocity to do anything more than make a gravity wave/gamma burst.

you can use terms like Penrose effect, frame dragging and Kerr spacetime and the ergosphere and discuss the energy release of an evaporating micro black hole and the non-infinite energy release from escaping the event horizon. . .

Posted by: Kindltot at June 19, 2016 10:10 AM (ry34m)

126 Black kitty is apparently the Designated Annoyer this morning. Hard to type with her in my lap demanding petting. The real message is "time to feed us," though, so Imma do dat and be back after.

Posted by: mindful webworker - pat the bunny at June 19, 2016 10:10 AM (nQpdK)

127 "Hey, I hope you're spending time on the Sat. afternoon chess thread."

Thanks, the Chess thread and the reco of the Bobby Fischer book a few weeks ago on the thread was what spurred me to order the book.

I used to play as a kid and am tiptoeing back in. Trying to get used to Chess language now.

Posted by: RM at June 19, 2016 10:12 AM (U3LtS)

128 I finished up an Otto Prohaska novel this week - The Emperor's Colored Coat, in which he travels to the far east (under protest) and back on the eve of WWI. That's been my bedtime reading for a while, since accidentally buying it and The Two Headed Eagle, while trying to get back to the beginning of the first book. (Late at night, I was half-asleep and just randomly mashing buttons on the Kindle.) It reminds me a little of the Flashman books, actually - save that Otto Prohaska is genuinely courageous, willing and eager to have a bash at anything going. Colored Coat does give away a little of how Otto fared after the end of the Austro-Hungarian empire; officer in the Polish Navy, apparently - and a stint in a Nazi concentration camp. Very enjoyable series, but I absolutely hate paying $9 for an ebook.

Oh, and the second book of our Luna City Chronicles is finally up in print on the right page at Amazon, although apparently no cover pic yet. The Second Chronicle of Luna City enlarges on the movie being filmed nearby (we got in some shots at that ghastly Texas Rising miniseries while we were at it) and the search for the Mills Treasure - a fortune in gold coins hidden somewhere in the neighborhood ... The next book in the series will be out late in the fall. They're pretty quick reads and everyone seems to enjoy them, so far.

Posted by: Sgt. Mom at June 19, 2016 10:12 AM (xnmPy)

129 Also Skandi, if you haven't checked out the Alcubierre drive, it may be just what you're looking for, as something like what you're up to has been brought up as a likely effect of deceleration.

Posted by: Brother Cavil, That Guy at June 19, 2016 10:13 AM (vyqqu)

130 I was looking for a dad book to put on the blog and found a 1953 little golden book (link in nic)
Posted by: @votermom at June 19, 2016 08:59 AM (7lVbc)
----
I remember checking this book out of the library as a kid! I loved it! Even though there was no entry for "Daddy writes advertising copy and training manuals for the Big Three", and there's a picture of John Hamm having his third martini.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at June 19, 2016 10:13 AM (jR7Wy)

131 excuse me, but i brought up the auction of the "alice in wonderland" at christie's weeks ago on this book thread. i summarized its history and significance at that time.

the sale was on june 16, three days ago. it passed, i.e. it failed to sell at its reserve price which was probably around the low estimate of $2,000,000.

Posted by: musical jolly chimp at June 19, 2016 10:14 AM (WTSFk)

132 Mindful webworker- We call them Nudges when they do that, it's me me me what about me?

Posted by: Skip at June 19, 2016 10:14 AM (d9qXV)

133 ... you should read the comments on your book thread more often.

Posted by: musical jolly chimp at June 19, 2016 10:15 AM (WTSFk)

134 The Burning of Moscow, Napoleon's Trial by Fire by Alexander Mikberdze.

-
Russian history has always been malleable. I remember reading about how the "official" version of how this fire started has changed several times to meet the needs of government propaganda. My theory: Mrs. O'Leary's cow.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Racist for Dinosaurs at June 19, 2016 10:15 AM (Nwg0u)

135 VIA, That is so cool finding all the Aubrey and Hornblower books. I got lucky. Our local library has all the Hornblower series, which I'll re-read at some point. Read them so long ago I don't remember much. But the O'Brian books come first.

Posted by: JTB at June 19, 2016 10:17 AM (V+03K)

136 ... you should also read your own material: the link you provide for further information on the sale of the "alice" is a months=old christie's press release that provides the date of the sale, the 16th.

Posted by: musical jolly chimp at June 19, 2016 10:17 AM (WTSFk)

137 Skandia, over at Baen there is always Dr. Travis S. Taylor who works for NASA at Huntsville.

http://www.baen.com/Chapters/9781451638653/9781451638653.htm?blurb

Posted by: Anna Puma at June 19, 2016 10:18 AM (4Hm6M)

138 Posted by: Bossy Conservative...pondering the future at June 19, 2016 09:56 AM (+1T7c)

Yes I noted that as I am reading. That made me even more stumped in how there can be any significant opposition to protecting the 'family'.

Posted by: Joe Hallenbeck at June 19, 2016 10:19 AM (MNgU2)

139 ... i try... lawd knows i try.

Posted by: musical jolly chimp at June 19, 2016 10:19 AM (WTSFk)

140 We discussed the Scholastic Book Service a year or two ago. I was amazed and delighted by how many others remembered it so fondly. Think I still have one or two of the books I got back then in the 2nd Eisenhower administration. :-)

Posted by: JTB at June 19, 2016 10:20 AM (V+03K)

141 21 I have many more books than bookshelves. But I don't read them because I'm on the internet all the friggin' time.
Posted by: rickl at June 19, 2016 09:07 AM (sdi6R)

Yes, this has become a problem.

Posted by: Donna&&&&V. (a white) (whitely brandishing ampersand privilege) at June 19, 2016 10:20 AM (P8951)

142 Naturalfake, I will post about it on my blog.

I usually just do the blurb for books I have not read, but if you want me to add any other info to entice readers, email me - reviews at bookstore dot org
Posted by: @votermom at June 19, 2016 09:44 AM (7lVbc)

Hi voter mom,

Thanks and will do.

I left a message for you through the goodreads message system but perhaps it didn't go through.

I will email you.

Thanks again.

It's a fun, fast read so I hope the Horde and others will dig in!

Posted by: naturalfake at June 19, 2016 10:22 AM (0cMkb)

143 As a sanity preserving tactic to decompress from current events, I've been reading the Edgar Rice Burroughs John Carter of Mars (Barsoom) novels. The purple prose makes you roll your eyes like a 14 year old girl listening to Dad, but the plots (delightfully improbable) cruise right along.

And all the Martian wimmin are nekkid.

Posted by: That SOB Van Owen at June 19, 2016 10:22 AM (CAKDm)

144 Small Wonder. A fascinating history of the Volkswagen by Walter Henry Nelson. Pulls no punches about the Nazi years. I think my edition was a giveaway that VW dealers stuck in the glove box of every car sold. Like the Book of Mormons in every Marriott hotel room. It seems VW was a cult in the '50s

Posted by: Spellcheck at June 19, 2016 10:23 AM (HKBpI)

145 And all the Martian wimmin are nekkid.

John Carter, "Dejah are you glad to see me or is that your ovipositor?"

Posted by: Anna Puma at June 19, 2016 10:23 AM (4Hm6M)

146 131 excuse me, but i brought up the auction of the "alice in wonderland" at christie's weeks ago on this book thread. i summarized its history and significance at that time.

Posted by: musical jolly chimp at June 19, 2016 10:14 AM (WTSFk)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIj0qhYzqCU

Posted by: OregonMuse at June 19, 2016 10:24 AM (MKtIU)

147 Rostopchin has always gotten the bad rap, but previously everything I've read put me in acts of war. Looting, careless cooking and such. I do converse with the writer occasionally on another site and have a lot of faith in his quest for history. He has another book I want on Russian officers in the Napoleoic wars.

Posted by: Skip at June 19, 2016 10:24 AM (d9qXV)

148 ... so let me see if i got this right: you post information on your book thread, then turn off your computer and sit around eating bonbons or chocolate covered blueberries, right?

Posted by: musical jolly chimp at June 19, 2016 10:24 AM (WTSFk)

149 Read Shakespeare's Love's Labors Lost, where a King and three friends make a pact to swear off pleasure and women for 3 years while they devote themselves to study. The French princess and three female friends arrive on royal business and the men quickly crumble, falling in love while the women have fun mocking them. An early play, it's full of high-brow (lot of Latin) and low-brow humor, only knock is it lacks much of a plot.

Read Brad Thor's The Athena Project (Scott Horvath #10), where beautiful female CIA agents try to save the world from a plot involving Nazis and speculative science. Liked the story and how the threat is slowly revealed.

Posted by: waelse1 at June 19, 2016 10:25 AM (kZFjr)

150 Ann Coulter has a good book out about the actual commies in government at the time. It is also a very good read.

-
Title is Treason. For me that book was Copernican. It changed nothing but it changed everything.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Racist for Dinosaurs at June 19, 2016 10:26 AM (Nwg0u)

151 I identify as a meth-and-welfare hillbilly and my name shall be Cletus.

Posted by: Weasel at June 19, 2016 10:27 AM (e3bId)

152 Good Morning Horde!

I finally got the last volume of Churchill's "The World Crisis", his history of WWI. I've been trying to get this set since I first started reading military history, back when Bush was President (that would be Bush the Elder). His WWII history is very common, but the unabridged set of "The World Crisis" isn't easy to come by - I worked in the antiquarian book trade for over 10 years & only once did a complete set come our way & that was very nicely bound & went for an lot more than I could afford. But eventually & picked up a few of the volumes for a good price, since the spines were damaged. Now Churchill's Estate has finally reprinted it for the centennial of WWI, and I got the final volume "The Aftermath" yesterday.

Posted by: Josephistan at June 19, 2016 10:27 AM (7qAYi)

153 it's either bonbons or chocolate covered blueberries, usually eaten with a cheshire cat's smile of self-satisfaction at your thread, either that or perhaps a madeleine...

oh yeah, the madeleines...

Posted by: musical jolly chimp at June 19, 2016 10:28 AM (WTSFk)

154 Kindltot at June 19, 2016 10:10 AM

Heh!

I was going with the idea of 'falling' down the gravity well of the central star while using maximum thrust to escape a missile attack to slingshot around the star and 'accidently' transition to FTL, but the arithmet doesn't work.

Kinda like a P-51 Mustang in a power dive trying to avoid being shot down, and getting into the transition to faster than sound where the control surfaces were ineffective due to turbulence. Which was speculation at the time. But the word spread among pilots, don't do that, you'll lose control of the aircraft.

Posted by: Skandia Recluse at June 19, 2016 10:29 AM (SlFFg)

155 37 ...but there was still a six-month wait on the Free Library of Philadelphia reserve list. I try to keep my want list full of the hard-to-find titles, Too often, I'll get emails that there are suddenly five books on hold for me. And my local branch is closed for construction, so I'm doing my business at a branch in a dodgier neighborhood. The desk librarians roll their eyes at the crazy girl's selections.
Posted by: Spellcheck at June 19, 2016 09:16 AM (HKBpI)

You don't happen to live in the Mt. Airy section of Philadelphia, do you? I'm going through the same situation!

Posted by: Josephistan at June 19, 2016 10:29 AM (7qAYi)

156 >John Carter, "Dejah are you glad to see me or is that your ovipositor?"

Anna Puma, LOL.
I can't figure out how John Carter manages to concentrate.

Posted by: That SOB Van Owen at June 19, 2016 10:29 AM (CAKDm)

157 ... as you drift off in reveries of memories, the book thread comments go unattended. i cannot say i approve.

Posted by: musical jolly chimp at June 19, 2016 10:30 AM (WTSFk)

158 "But I thought it was common knowledge that the USSR was funneling money
to vintage terrorist groups such as the PLO back in the 70s. I mean, why
wouldn't they? It's such a target of opportunity that I can't imagine
the Soviet regime *not* kicking in a few rubles, and maybe more than a
few."

Mandatory reading for those still learning the hidden (and still not widely nor well understood) history of the Cold War, along with learning about Venona, are the Mitrokhin revelations, painstakingly smuggled out document by document over long years from the KGB archives.

They've been published in two volumes, _The Sword and the Shield_, and _The World Was Going Our Way_.

It was damned hard to find any Third World revolutionary or terrorist movement in which Sov intelligence did not have a thumb in the pie.

Posted by: torquewrench at June 19, 2016 10:30 AM (noWW6)

159 148- so let me see if i got this right: you post information on your book thread, then turn off your computer and sit around eating bonbons or chocolate covered blueberries, right?

Posted by: musical jolly chimp at June 19, 2016 10:24 AM

No! but I only first toasted my English muffin and forgot about it and the 2nd toasting!

Posted by: Skip at June 19, 2016 10:31 AM (d9qXV)

160 The general premise is aliens discovering just how good it is to have humans along on their ships for companionship, protection, problem-solving, and general curiosity and willingness to explore

They also make a delightful salad topping.

Posted by: H.R.Giger Alien at June 19, 2016 10:31 AM (Ag8Mw)

161 It was damned hard to find any Third World revolutionary or terrorist movement in which Sov intelligence did not have a thumb in the pie.
Posted by: torquewrench at June 19, 2016 10:30 AM (noWW6)

???

I thought that was public general knowledge? I mean other than Fredo who does not know and believe that?

Posted by: Nevergiveup at June 19, 2016 10:31 AM (Ozsfq)

162 Spellcheck, in Small Wonder there is an interview mentioned with Nordhoff who was in charge of Volkswagen and how the factory interacted with the small city of Wolfsburg. I can't remember the interview exactly.

I think he was asked why didn't the company have a bigger presence in the town. Why wasn't there things like a company run kindergarten. And Nordhoff replied the moment the company provided those types of services it would become the master and not the employer.

Posted by: Anna Puma at June 19, 2016 10:33 AM (4Hm6M)

163 I spent my childhood 8-12 years in Japan at a time when there were no TV programs in English. The result of that was reading was entertainment option #1. It's still my 1st choice when it isn't football season.
I have only been one place (besides where I worked) where there was nothing to read and I mean nothing. Unfortunately for him it was a friend's house. They don't know what they're missing.

Posted by: Hank at June 19, 2016 10:33 AM (/vqyz)

164 127 ... RM, I hadn't played chess for well over fifty years but OM's chess thread kinda relit the interest which coincided with a general interest in relearning classic board and card games. (No batteries needed.) I hope you stay with it. I am having a lot of fun and am improving. And I swear my mind is less stale as a result. There are online resources that are helpful, like chess.com. A bit more comprehensive than my grandfather teaching his grandsons the game, although without his affections.

Posted by: JTB at June 19, 2016 10:34 AM (V+03K)

165 " ... as you drift off in reveries of memories, the book thread comments go unattended. i cannot say i approve."

Let's check his fridge and liquor cabinet while he's not paying attention.

Posted by: Ricardo Kill at June 19, 2016 10:36 AM (9ym/8)

166 The Horde probably knows this book I am reading for the second time.

One Second After. It is about an EMP attack on the USA written by a history professor and a scholar of military history. It is truly terrifying because it is so accurate.

I'm a fan of dystopian type books.

Posted by: Cactus of Liberty at June 19, 2016 10:36 AM (J567a)

167 161 It was damned hard to find any Third World revolutionary or terrorist movement in which Sov intelligence did not have a thumb in the pie.
Posted by: torquewrench at June 19, 2016 10:30 AM (noWW6)
???

I thought that was public general knowledge? I mean other than Fredo who does not know and believe that?
Posted by: Nevergiveup at June 19, 2016 10:31 AM (Ozsfq)

Heh. You ought to read the 1-star reviews for Claire Sterling's book on Amazon. The Soviet funding of jihadism is just CIA disinformation that she's repeating. The lefties actually say this out loud in front of everybody.

Posted by: OregonMuse at June 19, 2016 10:36 AM (MKtIU)

168 Posted by: Bossy Conservative...pondering the future at June 19, 2016 09:56 AM (+1T7c)

The country was born in a firestorm. Its war of independence was brutal and all-encompassing. As an example....1/3 of my mother's high school class died in the fighting.

That kind of origin story, coupled with the Holocaust will create a bond that is amazingly strong.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo -- Am Yisrael Chai at June 19, 2016 10:37 AM (Zu3d9)

169
Say what?!

https://goo.gl/FGrua0

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at June 19, 2016 10:37 AM (iQIUe)

170 @votermom #285, two weeks ago: Mindful webworker, I am not a good judge of graphic novels, but if you decide to publish we will definitely add it to the AoSHQ list of books.

As weirdflunky noted, it's not really a graphic novel, although that was the format I had in mind when I started. The cartoons are just the introduction to the text. A format sure to throw off fans of both media!!

@votermom #45, above: You were asking if you should publish it, as I recall.

Wellll, daughter (who has been helping her ballet mentors get books edited, set up, and published) has suggested I consider the self-pub hardcopy route. That sounds like work, though.

Funny thing is, it is published.

It does seem folks will shell out for print, or even an e-book, but if it's just some story on a website with a donation button, not so readily. Nor would it be considered a "book" such as O'Muse or @votermom might list. And no Amazon reviews or stars. Just another webpage, which we all are used to being "free," right?

That's what I've pondered for twenty years of humble web self-publication. Of course, since I eschew advertising and paywalls, and don't promote myself much (or well), no surprise that I'm not making a living at it. (Understatement of the millennium.)

For fun, here's a short-lived daily comic I attempted back in 1996 which pondered digital-age creativity:

Mind Fuel
http://mindfulwebworks.com/art-of/mind-fuel

Posted by: mindful webworker - invulnerably at June 19, 2016 10:39 AM (nQpdK)

171 Dalton Trumbo was rounded up right?I mean he was forced to write for the stage or write screenplays anonymously...

-
After having written Johnny Got His Gun and using it to propagandize against the U.S. entering WWII, he changed his tune after Hitler betrayed his BFF Stalin by invading the USSR. Trumbo pulled Johnny off the market and reported anyone who contacted him for a copy to the FBI.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Racist for Dinosaurs at June 19, 2016 10:39 AM (Nwg0u)

172 57 I hate to threadjack (that's a lie...I love to...), but I need some advice from The Horde.

One of my snot-nosed little punk nephews actually knows how to read, and asked for a recommendation for a post-WWII American history book.

Any suggestions?
Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo -- Am Yisrael Chai at June 19, 2016 09:30 AM (Zu3d9)

I would recommend "SOG" by John L. Plaster. It's full of Special Forces badassery during the Vietnam War.

Posted by: Josephistan at June 19, 2016 10:41 AM (7qAYi)

173 Skandia, over at Baen there is always Dr. Travis S. Taylor who works for NASA at Huntsville.

http://www.baen.com/Chapters/9781451638653/9781451638653.htm?blurb

Posted by: Anna Puma at June 19, 2016 10:18 AM

Thank you for that. I've bookmarked it for later.

Posted by: Skandia Recluse at June 19, 2016 10:43 AM (SlFFg)

174 I finally started Don Quixote. The Edith Grossman translation. We talked about it here a few weeks back.

What surprises me so far is that the entire thing seems to have been written as a lark. Really. It's practically slapstick comedy, and I don't mean that as anything other than a supreme compliment. I don't know what I was expecting. Something stuffy, I guess.

Her translation seems to be well-done, with scattered helpful footnotes, which help put the silliness into context.

Although at times I don't know if her footnotes are her own attempt at dry humor, or if she's just missing the joke she's translating right under her own nose.

Posted by: BurtTC at June 19, 2016 10:45 AM (Dj0WE)

175 Thank you to the Moron who recommended "The Flight of Gemma Hardy". I enjoyed this update of "Jane Eyre".

Posted by: roamingfirehydrant at June 19, 2016 10:45 AM (G8DQR)

176 I understand the Israeli Left less than I understand the American Left.

-
You can't fix stupid.

- Ron "Tater Salad" White

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Racist for Dinosaurs at June 19, 2016 10:45 AM (Nwg0u)

177 Posted by: Josephistan at June 19, 2016 10:41 AM (7qAYi)

Ah....thanks!

I think he is looking for a general history, and I don't think he (or I) is going to find it.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo -- Am Yisrael Chai at June 19, 2016 10:45 AM (Zu3d9)

178 CBD -- This will sound strange, but I would recommend starting history readings with Barbara Tuchman. I know, there are scholarly arguments against her writing, but for overview and readability, I can't recommend her books (still widely available) enough. Accessible, and enough drama and footnotes to encourage further reading.

Posted by: mustbequantum at June 19, 2016 10:45 AM (MIKMs)

179 Kinda like a P-51 Mustang in a power dive trying to
avoid being shot down, and getting into the transition to faster than
sound where the control surfaces were ineffective due to turbulence.
Which was speculation at the time. But the word spread among pilots,
don't do that, you'll lose control of the aircraft.
Posted by: Skandia Recluse at June 19, 2016 10:29 AM (SlFFg)

It is actually compressibility effect where air acts more like water than air.
The ME 262 had the same issue and one pilot ejected his canopy to brake and get control back.
I suspect Ana Puma could give you actual numbers, I have a vague memory of a discussion from a Willy Ley book.

I bet though you could work in an attempt to develop a reactionless non-FTL drive moving into FTL with the realization that velocity is important.
One of the things I remember is that supposedly by grazing the ergosphere you are suppposed to be able to up to a 1/5th increase on the energy back out, and that would be an incredible gain for a spaceship

Posted by: Kindltot at June 19, 2016 10:46 AM (ry34m)

180 Does anyone know anything about author Daniel Judson?

His is the most appealing of my Kindle First books this month, but I don't want to waste my freebie if he's a raging Lefty.

Let me rephrase that; I don't care what his politics are, everyone is entitled to their own set of beliefs.

But I don't want crap like that intruding into the story line.

Posted by: Tammy al-Thor at June 19, 2016 10:47 AM (Jt36d)

181 Posted by: mustbequantum at June 19, 2016 10:45 AM (MIKMs)

She is certainly readable. Good idea...thanks.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo -- Am Yisrael Chai at June 19, 2016 10:47 AM (Zu3d9)

182 Houses with no books. The little kids won't sit still to be read to, either. In my family and close friends, babies get read to before they can walk. Day in someone's lap and cuddled with the book held in front of them and the grown-up reading in their ear. You've got to ham it up when you read to babies and kids. They'll turn into book lovers and story tellers themselves.

Posted by: Iforgot at June 19, 2016 10:48 AM (VJ2A2)

183 Skandia, I don't recall the P-51s suffering the compressibility issue to any great extent. I do recall a directive being issued to all B/C model Mustangs with the Merlin engines to avoid abrupt maneuvers to prevent shedding of the whole tail. Apparently when the USAAF and NAA needed to extend the Mustang's range with the addition of the fuselage fuel tank, it affected the plane's CG in unanticipated ways when full and the fighter would bobble and snap roll as a result. The solution was for the pilots to use about half of the fuselage tank outbound, switch to the drop tanks, punch off the empty drop tanks before combat, and then use remaining internal fuel for combat and return home.

Lockheed on the L model P-38 put these little flaps on the underside of the wings that would, when extended, break up the airflow enough so the Lighting could handle a high speed compressibility dive. As opposed to far too many poor slobs in the J models plunging past 10k ft and seeing the ground get rapidly closer and the control stick seemingly encased in concrete.

I can't recall if Republic ever put any devices on the P-47s to battle compressibility. Then again the Jug was built like the Brooklyn Bridge which helped start the compressibility issue in the first place, all that mass plunging with an open throttle on enemy planes below.

Posted by: Anna Puma at June 19, 2016 10:48 AM (4Hm6M)

184 post-WWII American history book.

-
A book of any American history topic since WWII or an overview of American history since WWII?

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Racist for Dinosaurs at June 19, 2016 10:49 AM (Nwg0u)

185 I read that Hispanics don't read to their children.

Larry Elder was once invited to a library in LA. Outside the library he saw dozens of Hispanic kids roller blading & skateboarding. Inside the library, every seat was filled--with Asian kids. Some kids had parents with them helping them to study. In 20 years, Larry said, when we see that US senators, the CEO of Merck and inhabitants of big condos in Manhattan are all Asian or white, will Jesse Jackson appear on TV and announce that racism by whites is holding back people of color in this country?

Posted by: CrustyB at June 19, 2016 10:49 AM (Hnglq)

186 "A great book to read with that is 'Six Days of War' by Michael Oren."

Oren's book _Ally_, about his tenure as Israeli ambassador to the U.S. during the Obama years, is one long and ugly string of the Obama crew inflicting everything from massive major betrayals all the way down to bitchy minor slights upon Oren and Netanyahu.

With Oren submissively cringing and ducking and beta-male rictus-grinning his way through the whole thing. Thank you sir! May I have another!

As a literary leftist, who quaffed down an entire fuel drum worth of the Historic First Black President malarkey, Oren just can't come right out and say that Obama is and was utterly unfit for the Presidency, that Obama is and was an anti-Semite and a sympathizer with radical Islam, that Obama is shallow and arrogant and narcissistic and loves humiliating others.

So it's an unintentionally grimly funny chronicle of Oren soaking up this constant torrent of abuse and bullshit and lies, with Oren never having the spine to say, "Fuck you, I'm resigning and leaving," to his tormentors in the Obama administration. (And Netanyahu, who obviously wasn't happy with Oren a lot of the time, being not able to fire Oren for fear of not being able to find anyone else with the requisite professional masochism.)

Oren doesn't come off well. Neither does, obviously, Obama. Nor Biden, Clinton, Kerry, Rice, Power, or frankly *anyone* in the Obama foreign policy brain trust. They're all revealed to be blundering fools.

Netanyahu, with whom Oren had a distant and often cold relationship, really is revealed as the quiet hero of that whole era. Oren may not have meant to paint that picture. He ended up doing so inadvertently.

Posted by: torquewrench at June 19, 2016 10:50 AM (noWW6)

187 Natural fake, I did see the goodreads msg just now - I haven't been on gr enough.

Posted by: @votermom at June 19, 2016 10:50 AM (7lVbc)

188 "One of my snot-nosed little punk nephews actually knows how to read, and asked for a recommendation for a post-WWII American history book.

Any suggestions? "

Not to preach to the pastor, but "Six Days of War" and "The Yom Kippur War" are great reads. Of course, not about U.S. history but they are full of geo-politics, military strategy, the U.S. view of the world at the time, and, where the entire world stood during both events.

Fascinating stuff. And very instructive about how the world we live in today evolved to this point.

Posted by: Ricardo Kill at June 19, 2016 10:51 AM (9ym/8)

189 One of the German WWII ideas for bombing America involved a rocket bomber that would skip across the edges of the upper atmosphere. If that what you were thinking of?

Posted by: Anna Puma at June 19, 2016 10:51 AM (4Hm6M)

190 174 I finally started Don Quixote. The Edith Grossman translation. We talked about it here a few weeks back.

What surprises me so far is that the entire thing seems to have been written as a lark. Really. It's practically slapstick comedy, and I don't mean that as anything other than a supreme compliment. I don't know what I was expecting. Something stuffy, I guess. "

I will check that out, Don Quixote being one of those classics I should have read but didn't.

Now that the Dead White Males are under attack at Yale, I feel like reading them is almost an act of defiance.

Posted by: Donna&&&&V. (a white) (whitely brandishing ampersand privilege) at June 19, 2016 10:51 AM (P8951)

191 For those who like Ellis Peters' Cadfael books, check out her 'The Heaven Tree' trilogy. Same general period as Cadfael but not otherwise related. She captures the feel and character of the time. I got a very good condition hardback of the trilogy on Amazon for a penny plus shipping. I know she wrote other series but haven't read any of them yet.

Posted by: JTB at June 19, 2016 10:53 AM (V+03K)

192 Ana, the Sanger antipodal bomber. Apparently was to fly to the Pacific to be refueled and sent back. Perfect for targeting New York.

Posted by: Kindltot at June 19, 2016 10:54 AM (ry34m)

193 167 Of course ,some of those reviews might be by actual Russian agents or paid trolls.Disinformation about disinformation.

Posted by: steevy at June 19, 2016 10:54 AM (B48dK)

194 "One of my snot-nosed little punk nephews actually knows how to read, and asked for a recommendation for a post-WWII American history book.

Any suggestions? "

Paul Johnson's "History of the American People" provides the context, and spends enough time post-WWII to qualify for at least part of the book.

Posted by: BurtTC at June 19, 2016 10:55 AM (Dj0WE)

195 I finally started Don Quixote. The Edith Grossman translation. We talked about it here a few weeks back.

*raises hand*

I'm one of the ones who talked about it. I got it in her translation.

I have dropped it, at least for now, because it seems to me that Cervantes hates Quixote. Polliwog the 'ette (I think) said he keeps hating him for the whole first book so I stopped waiting for it to get better.

If you find it worthwhile I'd appreciate a reason to keep going.

Posted by: Bandersnatch at June 19, 2016 10:56 AM (1xUj/)

196 165: !

:-D

Posted by: musical jolly chimp at June 19, 2016 10:57 AM (WTSFk)

197 Of course ,some of those reviews might be by actual Russian agents or paid trolls.Disinformation about disinformation.
Posted by: steevy at June 19, 2016 10:54 AM (B48dK)

No doubt. Russian agents and college sophomores. Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference.

Posted by: BurtTC at June 19, 2016 10:57 AM (Dj0WE)

198 89, Pave Low John, Daddy's side of the family is from Robbinsville just up the road! I will definitely be reading more Sackett books now.

Posted by: Tonestaple at June 19, 2016 10:57 AM (VsZJP)

199 Fascinating stuff. And very instructive about how the world we live in today evolved to this point.

Posted by: Ricardo Kill at June 19, 2016 10:51 AM (9ym/

Agreed. And I'll add, "Oh Jerusalem," by Collins and LaPierre. It's a great history of the battle for Jerusalem in the War of Independence.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo -- Am Yisrael Chai at June 19, 2016 10:58 AM (Zu3d9)

200 It does seem folks will shell out for print, or even an e-book, but if it's just some story on a website with a donation button, not so readily.

--

Mindful, yes, people would rather pay than donate. It's human nature.
To me a book is something you can read offline if you want.
If you can get it in a downloadable format, I would consider it a book.
Which I know is work, so if you do that, you might as well sell it on a free site like smashwords, if not Amazon.
But you bring up a good point and I will discuss it in a post (with a link to your site)

Posted by: @votermom at June 19, 2016 10:59 AM (7lVbc)

201 *raises hand*

I'm one of the ones who talked about it. I got it in her translation.

I have dropped it, at least for now, because it seems to me that Cervantes hates Quixote. Polliwog the 'ette (I think) said he keeps hating him for the whole first book so I stopped waiting for it to get better.

If you find it worthwhile I'd appreciate a reason to keep going.
Posted by: Bandersnatch at June 19, 2016 10:56 AM (1xUj/)

Hating? Hmmm, that's an interesting way to view it. Did you read the preface? I got my context from there, and apparently within the milieu in which it was published, he was certainly skewering the nonsense other writers were putting out.

Quixote is completely nuts. There's no two ways about it. And Sancho Panza is so simple-minded, he's brilliant at times.

I have no idea how this is going to turn out for our brave knight, but I'm engrossed (pun intended) with the story, and simply accept that he is going to have some awful things happen to him.

Posted by: BurtTC at June 19, 2016 11:01 AM (Dj0WE)

202 "Heh. You ought to read the 1-star reviews for Claire Sterling's book on
Amazon. The Soviet funding of jihadism is just CIA disinformation that
she's repeating."

Actually, one of the deliberate _desinformatsiya_ strategies of Soviet intelligence was to have their Western assets loudly denounce every revelation of Soviet perfidy as being... CIA disinformation. How meta is that?

Only a tiny fraction of those who screamed "CIA!" were actively handled Sov agents. The vast majority were Western useful idiots who had never had any contact with the KGB or GRU, but who were nevertheless rock solid reliable in their noisy denunciations. They just hated their own countries and were in love with the dream world peddled by the internationalist left.

I recall somewhere back in the literary fever swamps (Robert Anton Wilson?) a passage in which the great lefty conspiracy theorist Mae Brussell, on KPFA Berkeley, reveals her findings that the CIA had secretly orchestrated the crucifixion of Jesus.

Posted by: torquewrench at June 19, 2016 11:02 AM (noWW6)

203 So the Soviets are gone, who took their place? Saudis mostly.

Whoever footed the bill for Gaylord's residence on college campuses. And, since nobody would bet the farm on this dunce, how many other Gaylords are out there?

Posted by: t-bird at June 19, 2016 11:02 AM (9mTYi)

204 Re: Homes with no books
An ild guilty pleasure of mine was watching "MTV Cribs" where they do home tours of athletes and musicians and ogle all their awesome stuff. Highlights are usually what's n the fridge (Crystal champagne and that sort of thing) and the den/mancave that almost always has a framed "Scarface" movie poster.

No books.

Posted by: Lizzy at June 19, 2016 11:04 AM (NOIQH)

205 It does seem folks will shell out for print, or even an e-book, but if it's just some story on a website with a donation button, not so readily.
---

It is also a matter of finding your audience, and that takes never ending selfpromotion; promoting your work without being obnoxious about it. I don't know how to do that either; the promoting or the being obnoxious part. And tastes change. What worked once, or years ago, don't work the same way now.

"Attention K-Mart shoppers, at the Blue Light we have light bulbs on sale. . ."

Posted by: Skandia Recluse at June 19, 2016 11:04 AM (SlFFg)

206 The South American terrorists that are still active appear to be either funded by regional governments or by drug smuggling or both.
FARC was both drugs and Venezuela, and there is one in Paraguay that is all drugs, extortion and kidnapping

Posted by: Kindltot at June 19, 2016 11:06 AM (ry34m)

207 Hating? Hmmm, that's an interesting way to view it. Did you read the preface? I got my context from there, and apparently within the milieu in which it was published, he was certainly skewering the nonsense other writers were putting out.

It felt at the beginning as if it were Mark Twain. I thought it was going to attack the traditions of knighthood and nobility as well as the nonsense that others were writing about chivalry and such.

Pretty soon, though, I thought he stopped doing that and just piled on Quixote. I haven't even got to Sancho Panza yet.

It is possible that I'm just illiterate. Also that I had a bad olive in a martini the day I quit the book. Again, I may come back to it.

Posted by: Bandersnatch at June 19, 2016 11:07 AM (1xUj/)

208 It was damned hard to find any Third World revolutionary or terrorist movement in which Sov intelligence did not have a thumb in the pie.
Posted by: torquewrench at June 19, 2016 10:30 AM (noWW6)

Yup...it's funny that after 1989 all the "grass roots" armed People's Revolutionary Movements in Central and South America dried up or became mainstream. We had been told for years by the MSM that no real Soviet or Cuban involvement.
Except for the Shining Path, but they were out and out lunatics to begin with and more into drug money than Mao.

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at June 19, 2016 11:07 AM (ej1L0)

209 Whoever footed the bill for Gaylord's residence on college campuses. And, since nobody would bet the farm on this dunce, how many other Gaylords are out there?
Posted by: t-bird at June 19, 2016 11:02 AM (9mTYi)

This is a story we will never see. The narrative, as it is constructed for Obama, is written to present him as if he is some sort of Colossus, rising from the waters, that his place on the throne was inevitable, but as you read what little detail there is, it's obvious he's just a cookie-cutter lefty, who managed to land in the right spots that got him eventually elevated.

Yes, there have to be dozens, if not hundreds more, just like him, who either never rose because of mere chance, or changed courses themselves, chalking up their dabbling in the leftist stew pot as a youthful indiscretion.

It would be nice if some of them talked, but I suspect they stay leftist, even if they don't want to be in the spotlight.

Posted by: BurtTC at June 19, 2016 11:08 AM (Dj0WE)

210 In Horde writing news, AllenG emailed me to say he hopes to get back to writing the sequel to his book real soon. Life has gotten in his way.

Here is a link to his first book - http://astore.amazon.com/aoshq-20/detail/1523385642

Posted by: Anna Puma at June 19, 2016 11:10 AM (4Hm6M)

211 On the subject of big luxury homes with no books in them, I had read the recollections of a guest who had stayed overnight at the Bush family compound in Kennebunkport.

Insomniac and desperate to find something, anything, to read -- after exhausting what they had brought along -- said guest donned a bathrobe and quietly padded up and down the hallways and side rooms of the sprawling house, finding absolutely nothing.

Finally turning up what appeared to be the only printed material in the entire Bush manse: a copy of _The Fart Book_. Not kidding.

But remember! The Bushes are big Christians. Fervent ones. Especially when they're standing for office. Yessiree Bob. Why, they all read the Bible faithfully every week. Just not in Kennebunkport.

Posted by: torquewrench at June 19, 2016 11:10 AM (noWW6)

212 Just started the newest Elvis Cole/Joe Pike, "The Promise,"by Robert Crais. It crosses over with Scott James and Maggie from "Suspect."

Someone recently recommended "Eligible," a modern take on Pride and Prejudice. So, fanfic, I guess. I bought a copy for my sister for her birthday, so I just have to wait a few weeks for her to give it back to me. Win-win. :-)

Posted by: Swift Kick Meet Hipster at June 19, 2016 11:12 AM (uaHyk)

213 Finished reading "Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man's Fight for Justice" by Bill Browder. Browder was a hedge fund investor during the 90's who made a fortune heading the largest investment fund in the Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union. It's a fascinating and sad picture into the time.

It makes for a fast reading that exposes the corruption of the oligarchs that leads all the way up to Putin himself. Browder exposes corruption that unfortunately costs him his business and friend.

The fight that Browder leads in the name of his friend and lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, to get something done in the name of justice is heartbreaking at times. Note, it is no surprise that the opposition to what will become action by the U.S. Congress to try and affect some change will make your blood boil especially when it comes to Obama and John Kerry.

Posted by: RGallegos at June 19, 2016 11:12 AM (49Jfq)

214 It felt at the beginning as if it were Mark Twain. I thought it was going to attack the traditions of knighthood and nobility as well as the nonsense that others were writing about chivalry and such.

Pretty soon, though, I thought he stopped doing that and just piled on Quixote. I haven't even got to Sancho Panza yet.

It is possible that I'm just illiterate. Also that I had a bad olive in a martini the day I quit the book. Again, I may come back to it.
Posted by: Bandersnatch at June 19, 2016 11:07 AM (1xUj/)

Heh, ok. Let's blame the olive. Really, Sancho is a hoot and a half, and that's really what it is: Our hero is confronted by any number of challenges that turn out badly for him.

I hate to make this comparison, because to me it makes it sound bad, but Quixote is a bit like Borat, and some of the other characters Sasha Cohen has created. He's completely out of touch with the world in which he lives, and at least half the fun is watching how "normal" people respond to his insanity.

Posted by: BurtTC at June 19, 2016 11:13 AM (Dj0WE)

215 I never really read to my kids. If I was reading something they could pick out words next to me, or read aloud to me whatever they wanted or were assigned. Board books and stuff, I just bought more copies when they wore out. Dreadful parent that I am (and was), held a Gameboy Color over one kid's head; she had to read instructions for herself before I would break the budget. The other ones read all the time (no cable), but all of them have told me of their struggles with 'recommended' books by teachers. We all have had fun currently recommending age-appropriate reading for the 12yo step-grandkid. I think I will make a shelf just for her so she is not overwhelmed with the stack of favorites from the aunts and uncles.

Posted by: mustbequantum at June 19, 2016 11:14 AM (MIKMs)

216 Finally turning up what appeared to be the only printed material in the entire Bush manse: a copy of _The Fart Book_. Not kidding.

I find that literally impossible to believe. Not the Fart Book part, I believe the Bushes would own that.

There is no way that the Bushes wouldn't have oodles of books whether or not they read much, just because of their cultural milieu.

If you rent a shack on the Maine coast where the screen door is held shut by a hook there is still always a plethora of books from travel guides to airport fiction.

The Bushes are polite. Polite people make sure their guests have something to read.

Posted by: Bandersnatch at June 19, 2016 11:15 AM (1xUj/)

217 Since it's summer and I love a good action story at the pool, I am reading the 4th Monster Hunter book (Correia). So fun - and guns, guns, explosives, and guns!

Posted by: Lizzy at June 19, 2016 11:15 AM (NOIQH)

218 I had a panel truck like that but during the Great Culling I let a guy talk me into selling it. I still miss it. But I was living in an apartment with five cars and seven old motorcycles.

Posted by: Dave at Buffalo Roam at June 19, 2016 11:15 AM (jujYg)

219 >>The Bushes are polite. Polite people make sure their guests have something to read.

George and Laura are voracious readers, too. You'd think there's be a stash of all they've lugged up there and left behind for the rest of the family to read (the benefit of printed books - passing them around).

Posted by: Lizzy at June 19, 2016 11:17 AM (NOIQH)

220 "But I was living in an apartment with five cars and seven old motorcycles."

How'd you pull that off?

Posted by: Ricardo Kill at June 19, 2016 11:19 AM (9ym/8)

221 "It makes for a fast reading that exposes the corruption of the oligarchs
that leads all the way up to Putin himself. Browder exposes corruption
that unfortunately costs him his business and friend."

Remember all of the Wall Street assholes who confidently opined that the "BRICS" economies were the wave of the future and a can't-miss investment opportunity?

Turns out that putting your money into places like B or R or C was the biggest sucker play in history. These aren't countries with a durable rule of law, and without the rule of law, your invested money can be whisked from you overnight. And will be.

Of course, the Wall Street assholes got their generously padded percentages on these failed deals. Let's not lose sight of what's really important here.

Posted by: torquewrench at June 19, 2016 11:19 AM (noWW6)

222 I'm looking for three books/stories I read back in the 70s, so perhaps one of Teh Horde can help me out:

First story was in a sci-fi anthology. All I remember is a guy woke up on a jungle planet and he was being hunted by a creature he called "He/She" (but he wrote it like Heshe so it took awhile to cotton to the funny), and he defeated it when he took a pill from his drug stash that had a skull/cross-bones emblazoned on it, along with the word "Heavy". I remember laughing my ass off at the story.

Second story was a short novel where a couple scientists went into a subterranean cavern and encountered a civilization that had enormous wars constantly. One army had green and vermillion unis and I think the other had black. The scientists were separated into the two respective societies fighting and much hilarity and hijinks ensued until they finally escaped under cover of yet another YUUUUGE battle.

Third book was called Time Brothers, I think. Alien from the future comes back and helps his ancestor save the world, or something. Can't find it anywhere.

Your assistance is appreciated.

Posted by: Sharkman at June 19, 2016 11:19 AM (CS7jF)

223 "It was the best of apartments, it was the worst of apartments."

Posted by: Anna Puma at June 19, 2016 11:19 AM (4Hm6M)

224 204 Re: Homes with no books
An ild guilty pleasure of mine was watching "MTV Cribs" where they do home tours of athletes and musicians and ogle all their awesome stuff. Highlights are usually what's n the fridge (Crystal champagne and that sort of thing) and the den/mancave that almost always has a framed "Scarface" movie poster.

No books.
Posted by: Lizzy at June 19, 2016 11:04 AM (NOIQH)

Slight digression, the "Start Trek Cribs" parody by (now defunct?) G4 TV was hysterical:

https://youtu.be/l94v4YOqxOc

Posted by: Jeff Weimer at June 19, 2016 11:20 AM (0Y6mc)

225 Yeah, I call BS on the bookless Bush home. Even empty-headed socialites have books as decor if nothing else. And as W is reputedly a voracious and omnivorous reader, that tells me he grew up in a house of books.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at June 19, 2016 11:20 AM (jR7Wy)

226 I've been reading two books this week. The Battle of Britain 1917 by Jonathon Sutherland, real life steampunk as Zeppelins and Giants bomb Britain, and the new Hard Luck Hank, Stank Delicious.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Racist for Dinosaurs at June 19, 2016 11:22 AM (Nwg0u)

227 Thanks for the mention last week of the Kindle Fire at a low price. I got one and it is working out well. The Paperwhite is better for general reading, especially in sunlight, but the Fire has 4 times the storage, offers color, and images of maps and diagrams can be enlarged. It also has a decent speed browser. I did break down and put chess and checker games on it.

Posted by: JTB at June 19, 2016 11:23 AM (V+03K)

228 I can't imagine a bookless home. Geez, I have three taller-than-I-am bookshelves over loaded in my bedroom alone. Almost every inch of wall space in the living room is covered in overstuffed bookshelves. I can't wrap my head around a home without books. (Also, can't imagine a home without dogs, so...)

Posted by: ApacheRose at June 19, 2016 11:24 AM (6DP1N)

229 Yea, I'm sure that guest walked the entire freaking estate, which is a compound and has more than one home, by the way, and found not so much as a magazine.

Somehow I doubt that, and not because I think they're all towering intellectuals.

Posted by: Tammy al-Thor at June 19, 2016 11:25 AM (Jt36d)

230 Second story was a short novel where a couple scientists went into a
subterranean cavern and encountered a civilization that had enormous
wars constantly. One army had green and vermillion unis and I think the
other had black. The scientists were separated into the two respective
societies fighting and much hilarity and hijinks ensued until they
finally escaped under cover of yet another YUUUUGE battle.

The Hidden World by Stanton Coblentz. 1936. One of the greats from the Gernsback era

Posted by: Kindltot at June 19, 2016 11:27 AM (ry34m)

231 Posted by: JTB at June 19, 2016 11:23 AM (V+03K)

That's great!

Posted by: @votermom at June 19, 2016 11:27 AM (7lVbc)

232 221 "Turns out that putting your money into places like B or R or C was the biggest sucker play in history. These aren't countries with a durable rule of law, and without the rule of law, your invested money can be whisked from you overnight. And will be."

Browder learns this the hard way. In part, you will think he deserved what happened to him. Although he still made out well. But, you will come to admire that he tried to do something to expose Putin and what was going on over there in name of his friend.

In the end, it will reaffirm what has always been said about Russia and communism.

Posted by: RGallegos at June 19, 2016 11:29 AM (49Jfq)

233 Mrs. Skook - Max Perkins, Editor of Genius by A. Scott Berg.

Me - the latest issue of American Tugboat Review.

Posted by: Skookumchuk at June 19, 2016 11:30 AM (/WPPJ)

234 "Me - the latest issue of American Tugboat Review."

Had to look that up. It's a thing.

Who knew?

Posted by: Ricardo Kill at June 19, 2016 11:32 AM (9ym/8)

235 75. Hatari
Couldn't be made today because everyone has a cigarettte in his/her hand in every scene. Never saw so much smoking in one movie, ever. I smoked like a chimney for 30 some years, too.

Posted by: AtlJim at June 19, 2016 11:35 AM (KtpTY)

236 With the Father's Day theme

https://twitter.com/BookHorde/status/744547849027878913

Posted by: @votermom at June 19, 2016 11:37 AM (7lVbc)

237 Five Indians and two Harleys in the two bedroom apartment. A 66 Chevelle SS, the panel (white w/red pinstripes), a 48 Dodge hot rod truck and two normal vehicles outside.

One of the Indians was a 1930 four cylinder Police Special, apparently the only one that exists. It's in a Vegas museum now.

Posted by: Dave at Buffalo Roam at June 19, 2016 11:37 AM (jujYg)

238 " Hatari
Couldn't be made today because everyone has a cigarettte in his/her hand "

And also racism, sexism, animal rights, guns, and, OSHA.

Posted by: Ricardo Kill at June 19, 2016 11:38 AM (9ym/8)

239 Yeah, I call BS on the bookless Bush home. Even empty-headed socialites have books as decor if nothing else. And as W is reputedly a voracious and omnivorous reader, that tells me he grew up in a house of books.
Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at June 19, 2016 11:20 AM (jR7Wy)

You expect us to believe there wasn't at least a copy of Mein Kampf on the premises?

Come on!

Posted by: The Loony Left at June 19, 2016 11:38 AM (Dj0WE)

240 Had to look that up. It's a thing.

Who knew?

That's one of my favorite things about people. (No, I don't like people. Bear with me).

You find a subculture, or a silo of interest you've never heard of, and it turns out that there are tons of people who are ridiculously passionate about the thing you've never heard of and know all kinds of things and have both context and vendettas about all of it.

Posted by: Bandersnatch at June 19, 2016 11:39 AM (1xUj/)

241 " Five Indians and two Harleys in the two bedroom apartment. "

In....?

Posted by: Ricardo Kill at June 19, 2016 11:39 AM (9ym/8)

242 Out...

Posted by: Anna Puma at June 19, 2016 11:40 AM (4Hm6M)

243 Houston, Recardo. I-45 at Monroe.

Posted by: Dave at Buffalo Roam at June 19, 2016 11:40 AM (jujYg)

244 Yes, in the apartment.

Posted by: Dave at Buffalo Roam at June 19, 2016 11:41 AM (jujYg)

245 Hatari! was the designated "stay home from school sick" movie. Played it until the VHS tape wore out.

It didn't make me or my daughter smoke.

"tell me about the rocket again, Sean"

Posted by: retropox at June 19, 2016 11:41 AM (9cK72)

246 "Yes, in the apartment."

Reminds me of a Ray Steven's song.

*snort*

Posted by: Ricardo Kill at June 19, 2016 11:43 AM (9ym/8)

247 Three 1911s and a tommy gun? Baby, where have you been all of my life!

Posted by: Fritz at June 19, 2016 11:43 AM (f40FU)

248 CBD - If you're still around, and if your nephew is interested in spy stuff, I would recommend "By Way of Deception: The Making of a Mossad Officer".
I read it years ago, but it's an interesting peek into Mossad training and operations (and it recounts some of their better missions, IIRC).

Posted by: Lizzy at June 19, 2016 11:44 AM (NOIQH)

249 You find a subculture, or a silo of interest you've never heard of, and it turns out that there are tons of people who are ridiculously passionate about the thing you've never heard of and know all kinds of things and have both context and vendettas about all of it.

Posted by: Bandersnatch at June 19, 2016 11:39 AM (1xUj/)

And how!

Posted by: Foot fetishists, furries, and guys who like to dress up like babies at June 19, 2016 11:44 AM (MKtIU)

250 Just finished, last night, reading "Days of Rage", Bryan Burrough. Excellent read, another one I had trouble putting down. It's about, obviously, the 60's-70's "revolutionary" movement in the US. One point he makes in the book is to refute Bill Ayers' contention that they weren't trying to hurt anyone, they just wanted to blow shit up. Burrough does a great job of proving Ayres a liar. Mr.Burrough has interviewed many of the original players and reveals a lot of information heretofore untold. Although he does seem to have a slightly fawning attitude at times, he doesn't pull too many punches revealing the absolute moral turpitude of these utterly repugnant miscreants. Well worth the read, released in 2015. I actually found a copy in my local library.

Posted by: Hanzo at June 19, 2016 11:45 AM (3PKL3)

251 "Hatari! was the designated "stay home from school sick" movie. Played it until the VHS tape wore out. "

It's just a fun couple of hours. Entertainment. I don't need a "message."

Posted by: Ricardo Kill at June 19, 2016 11:46 AM (9ym/8)

252 "248 CBD - If you're still around, and if your nephew is interested in spy stuff, I would recommend "By Way of Deception: The Making of a Mossad Officer".
I read it years ago, but it's an interesting peek into Mossad training and operations (and it recounts some of their better missions, IIRC).

Posted by: Lizzy at June 19, 2016 11:44 AM (NOIQH)

That is an excellent book. I would also recommend anything by Paul Johnson, although most might be a bit over the head of a 14 year old.

Posted by: Hanzo at June 19, 2016 11:47 AM (3PKL3)

253 191 For those who like Ellis Peters' Cadfael books, check out her 'The Heaven Tree' trilogy. Same general period as Cadfael but not otherwise related. She captures the feel and character of the time. I got a very good condition hardback of the trilogy on Amazon for a penny plus shipping. I know she wrote other series but haven't read any of them yet.

Posted by: JTB at June 19, 2016 10:53 AM (V+03K)

****

Thanks! Just ordered a copy.

I read all the Brother Cadfael books in the nineties and loved them. I think they're up in the attic in boxes along with boxes of paperbacks from the seventies and eighties. I have so many boxes of books and my shelves are still groaning with books that are stacked two-deep!

Posted by: Elinor, Who Usually Looks Lurkily at June 19, 2016 11:47 AM (NqQAS)

254 OT: Wayne State University in Detroit drops math requirement in favor of more diversity.

And yet we're $19 T in debt.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Racist for Dinosaurs at June 19, 2016 11:50 AM (Nwg0u)

255 "... it turns out that there are tons of people who are ridiculously
passionate about the thing you've never heard of and know all kinds of
things and have both context and vendettas about all of it."

"With all of the multifarious schisms afflicting American society in the second decade of the 21st century, many sources predicted eventual internal unrest and perhaps even national dissolution. Few realized that the final catalyst for the penultimate Second Civil War in the U.S. would stem from ineradicable enmities within the American tugboat enthusiast community."

_Decline and Fall of the American Empire_, Dr. Click Beep, Mars University Press, Mons Olympus, 2783

Posted by: torquewrench at June 19, 2016 11:50 AM (noWW6)

256 I have broken down and got a nook...actually I buy books from Amazon (convert to nook format) or BN. I get email every day from someplace that offers books for 1.99. You can order the books from several different places
I usually buy from Amazon or BN. Same book. From BN its on the nook before I can even start it up....I feel bad, but you have to admit its convent.

Posted by: Colin at June 19, 2016 11:50 AM (3skdc)

257 Hatari:

The initial scene with the rhino is one of those short films within a film. It could stand alone. Others are the First 15 minutes of "Raiders of the Lost Ark", the barn raising in "Witness", and others. A friend and I once made a list and came up with a dozen gems of scenes that stood alone.

Posted by: retropox at June 19, 2016 11:51 AM (9cK72)

258 Book rec: The Cunning Blood by Jeff Duntemann.

Posted by: eman at June 19, 2016 11:52 AM (MQEz6)

259 I might be in a minority here, but I see Russia as a far more dangerous threat than ISIS for instance . It appears to be a Mafia state, amoral and conjuring up external enemies, just like in the past, to build nationalism while the siloviki loot the country. Sweden and Finland are doing the unthinkable, actually seriously considering joining NATO .

Anyway reading these books touching on this:
"Putin Country, a Journey into the Real Russia" by Anne Garrels
The unbelievable corruption and Russia's demographic decline. Village after village in the heart of Russia, dying because the young aren't being born, they're aborted and the populace is drinking itself to death, AIDS and drugs epidemic. "Putin has successfully managed to shift blame for the country's problems onto the West", true from what I see on various forums with insane conspiracy theories about the USA, rabid nationalism and the cult of WW2, 1941-5 not 1939-5 (don't want to talk about that). A very interesting read.

"Winter is Coming", Gary Kasparov
"Russia's kleptocracy and the complacency of Western democracies"

A Russian Diary by Anna Politkovskaya
She was murdered, one of many journalists that met this fate in Russia for pissing off people in high places. She writes with passion and disgust at Russian corruption, complacency and desire for a strong man.

The Last Man in Russia by Oliver Bullough
Russia seen through the life of a dissident priest, finally broken by the FSB. Covers a lot of the same ground as Garrels' book, the demographic decline of a nation where too many people drink themselves to death to escape the intolerable. This year Russia's population went up a bit more than it has in decades, primarily from integrating ethnic Russians from east Ukraine and Crimea, also many Central Asian guest workers, Muslims with many children. Ominous if "someone" decides to "rescue" ethnic Russians in other countries, such as the Baltics, ala Sudetenland.

Posted by: JHW at June 19, 2016 11:53 AM (kn0BL)

260 Few realized that the final catalyst for the penultimate Second Civil War in the U.S. would stem from ineradicable enmities within the American tugboat enthusiast community

*points at that*

That there is funny.

Posted by: Bandersnatch at June 19, 2016 11:55 AM (1xUj/)

261 Paul Johnson's "History of the American People" provides the context, and spends enough time post-WWII to qualify for at least part of the book.

Posted by: BurtTC at June 19, 2016 10:55 AM (Dj0WE)

While I like Johnson, I thought he got a bit lazy with "History of the American People." He did a cut 'n paste from other books he has written, simply dumping long passages from "Modern Times" and "The Birth of the Modern" into History of the American People.

Posted by: Donna&&&&V. (a white) (whitely brandishing ampersand privilege) at June 19, 2016 11:56 AM (P8951)

262 >>>"One of my snot-nosed little punk nephews actually knows how to read, and asked for a recommendation for a post-WWII American history book.
Any suggestions? "<<<

Start with the Truman Doctrine and then ease into the Cold War.

Posted by: Fritz at June 19, 2016 11:57 AM (f40FU)

263 211- torquewrench
-----------
I am surprised to see you repeating that snippet of hard-left gossip. George I and Barbara were not big readers, to be sure, but then, neither were Jack and Jackie or LBJ and Ladybird.

George II, OTOH, was an avid reader, which Laura the Librarian claims was the main thing that attracted her to him in the first place. Many lefties have testified to the shock that came upon them as they became aware of how well read stoopid Bush was.

I am no political fan of the man --- could not bring myself to vote for him in 2000 --- but I think you are buying into fanciful moonbat slander.

Posted by: Margarita DeVille at June 19, 2016 11:58 AM (T/5A0)

264 *closes book Mustang Designer*

I was conflating two separate issues. The tail shedding arose from a USAAF requirement for a type of pitch-out maneuver that exceeded what the air force thought the tail of Merlin powered Mustangs should be designed for. So North American beefed up the tail and cured the problem.

The CG issue with the 85 gallon fuselage fuel tank was the simple fix I was alluding to. Use up about 30 gallons and the issue went away.

Posted by: Anna Puma at June 19, 2016 11:59 AM (4Hm6M)

265 "*points at that*

That there is funny."

Apparently, the "double-hull" folks and the "single hull" folks can no longer liver together.

Posted by: Ricardo Kill at June 19, 2016 12:01 PM (9ym/8)

266 Finally turning up what appeared to be the only printed material in the entire Bush manse: a copy of _The Fart Book_. Not kidding.

But remember! The Bushes are big Christians. Fervent ones. Especially when they're standing for office. Yessiree Bob. Why, they all read the Bible faithfully every week. Just not in Kennebunkport.
Posted by: torquewrench at June 19, 2016 11:10 AM (noWW6)

I don't buy that either. I think it was Mark Steyn who established that Dubya was actually a very well read man.

In contrast, Obama never mentions books he is reading, only TV shows, despite the fact that he is supposedly The Smartest President Of All Times.

Posted by: Donna&&&&V. (a white) (whitely brandishing ampersand privilege) at June 19, 2016 12:01 PM (P8951)

267 Posted by: BurtTC at June 19, 2016 10:55 AM (Dj0WE)

While I like Johnson, I thought he got a bit lazy with "History of the American People." He did a cut 'n paste from other books he has written, simply dumping long passages from "Modern Times" and "The Birth of the Modern" into History of the American People.

Posted by: Donna&&&&V. (a white) (whitely brandishing ampersand privilege) at June 19, 2016 11:56 AM (P8951)

I agree. I would much rather recommend either of the two books you mentioned, but CBD was specifying recent American history, and that one is closer to meeting that criteria.

Posted by: BurtTC at June 19, 2016 12:02 PM (Dj0WE)

268 As far as the Bushes purportedly having no books (or essentially no books) at Kennebunkport, recall that it's a vacation getaway place for the Bush clan. I don't recall that any of them live there full time.

There's a school of thought among some outdoorsy WASP old money that vacations are a time to set aside the chores of the daily grind, reading being among those. Why, my good man, put that down. You should be out on the sound with your boat! Fresh air and exercise!

Here in northern California, we've got the quiet and exclusive Bohemian Grove gathering -- like Burning Man for the T. Coddington van Voorhees the VIIth set -- and among its oddities is that reading is not allowed after a certain ceremonial point is observed. I believe they actually do use the phrase "sordid cares" when announcing this.

Gawd knows where this attitude originates, but it exists in some quarters.

Posted by: torquewrench at June 19, 2016 12:03 PM (noWW6)

269 "The tail shedding arose from a USAAF requirement for a type of pitch-out maneuver that exceeded what the air force thought the tail of Merlin powered Mustangs should be designed for. So North American beefed up the tail and cured the problem."

I guess this was the genesis of the dorsal tail extension on the -D?

Posted by: Ricardo Kill at June 19, 2016 12:03 PM (9ym/8)

270 So some tugboat enthusiasts don't give a toot?

Posted by: Anna Puma at June 19, 2016 12:04 PM (4Hm6M)

271 Btw I recommend Left of Boom by Doug Laux.
(How a CIA officer infiltrated the Taliban)

I reviewed it a few days ago on my blog.

Illuminating and infuriating.

Posted by: @votermom at June 19, 2016 12:04 PM (7lVbc)

272 I do more reading on vacation than my usual load. I have work to do, and cannot read as much as I'd like to.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at June 19, 2016 12:05 PM (39g3+)

273 260 Few realized that the final catalyst for the penultimate Second Civil War in the U.S. would stem from ineradicable enmities within the American tugboat enthusiast community

*points at that*

That there is funny.

Posted by: Bandersnatch at June 19, 2016 11:55 AM (1xUj/)

What's funny about that?

Posted by: Hiram Skeezix, Publisher, _Tugboat Pron Quarterly_ at June 19, 2016 12:05 PM (MKtIU)

274 The -D model fin fillet arose to compensate for the cutting down of the rear fuselage to make the bubble canopy. The loss of all that vertical area lead to stability issues. So starting with the P-51D-10-NA the fillet was added and retrofitted to the earlier planes.

Posted by: Anna Puma at June 19, 2016 12:08 PM (4Hm6M)

275 Posted by: Anna Puma at June 19, 2016 12:04 PM (4Hm6M)

Don't push it....

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo -- Am Yisrael Chai at June 19, 2016 12:09 PM (Zu3d9)

276 Gum Thread.....

Posted by: Ricardo Kill at June 19, 2016 12:09 PM (9ym/8)

277 Saddam and the GRU? Huh? Didn't know the GRU was present in Tikrit in the 60s, or had much access to the Ba'ath middle-ranks in the 70s.

And to think he and his gang rose to serve some purpose of Moscow's and not their own? OK.

Besides which attacking Iran in 1980 meant attacking what was the most virulent and violent anti-US and anti-western regime in existence. Even I have trouble doing the gymnastics to see Soviet gain in Saddam's attack.

And factoring out the actual history and ethno-political dynamics that have shaped the region for 1,000 years also seems, well, not to be a sound analytical approach.

But who knows. Think it was here last week that I learned that the commies maneuvered the US into conflict with Japan.

Posted by: rhomboid at June 19, 2016 12:10 PM (QDnY+)

278 Bandersnatch, try a bit more of Don Quixote. It is a huge book and starts from the beginning making fun of the literary themes of the day with the emphasis on courtly love and the chivalric adventure stories of the true christian knight in a world full of the pagan supernatural. Even Sancho is an inversion of the Picaresque genre of stories started with Lazarillo de Tormes, which in itself is was a satire of the same sort of knightly tale - turned literary convention.
Cervantes would not have been happy with those things, as he was minor nobility, in a rather repressive Catholic society, who had been a soldier and wounded at Lepanto in a seminal naval battle against the Turks (he was the "manco de lepanto" having been maimed) and later captured by Algerian pirates, he later was jailed in Spain for being bankrupt and losing Crown funds

It is a bit of a slog, and in the end the knight becomes tired and ill and Sancho tries to get him to go on new adventures for fear that he will just lay down and die.

So, yes, it is a huge swipe at the literary standards of the day, but in a lot of ways it is also the start of a new sort of literature for Spain. The greatest changes in Spanish literature in Spanish seems to come from some towering talent deciding that the current conventions are a load of BS, kicking it in the balls a couple of dozen time, and the new genre arises from this inversion of ideas and concepts.

Posted by: Kindltot at June 19, 2016 12:10 PM (ry34m)

279 Then of course there are any of several foamer magazines like the Warbonnet.

Posted by: Skookumchuk at June 19, 2016 12:10 PM (/WPPJ)

280 158---It was damned hard to find any Third World revolutionary or terrorist movement in which Sov intelligence did not have a thumb in the pie.
Posted by: torquewrench at June 19, 2016 10:30 AM
---------------
Indeed.
Take "liberation theology," one of the KGB's niftiest subversion programs that dates back to the 30's.

An excellent book on the subject --- unfortunately out of print --- is Rafael Gutierrez, Father of Lies. It is the autobiography of a Peruvian (!) commie atheist infiltrating the Church as a priest, all under the direction of the Kremlin in the 1940's. (After Castro, most of the Latin American operation was run out of Havana, although the Ruskis still called the shots and of course paid the bills.)

"Father of Lies," as most know, is a traditional epithet for Satan, as well as an obvious description of Gutierrez himself.
But as one might guess, after nearly 20 years as an operative, Gutierrez finally saw the light --- or, more precisely, saw THE Light.

Posted by: Margarita DeVille at June 19, 2016 12:15 PM (T/5A0)

281 Kindltot,

Can't forget Francisco de Quevedo...

"Poderoso caballero es Don Dinero..."

Posted by: Skookumchuk at June 19, 2016 12:18 PM (/WPPJ)

282 @280 interesting
I will look that up

Posted by: @votermom at June 19, 2016 12:18 PM (7lVbc)

283 Yeah most of the hotspots of terrorism and revolt around the world were Soviet operations at least at some point. They did a lot of teaching groups terrorist ideas like cheap bomb making, sabotage, infiltration, hiding in the target area, how to deceive authorities, etc.

Unfortunately, the USA taught a lot of "anti-communist" groups the same kind of thing and now we're all suffering from the short term thinking today.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at June 19, 2016 12:18 PM (39g3+)

284 It's pretty obvious to any actually educated person that the Bushes are well read, in the same way it's obvious that Obama isn't (and that he isn't very worldly in a very basic sense). Leaving aside the book-reading contest with Rove in which Dubya allegedly polished off 60 books in one year.

But that reminds me of the depths of orwellian unreality to which so many in the US have sunk. About 2008 or so (must have been after the electoral catastrophe), for a reason I cannot fathom and with people I barely remember, I went to some comedy review/play at the local civic theater. Australian lead peformer? It's sort of hazy.

But one thing I remember clearly. In the little pre-amble, out-of-character spiel the lead performer did before the show started, among his laugh lines were referring to the well-known illiteracy of the Bushes, and "how nice it will be to once again have books back in the White House".

The crowd roared and laughed in agreement.

No way this country was as pervaded by ignorance and stupidity like this when I was born. Though without ace's time machine, it's hard to prove it.

Posted by: rhomboid at June 19, 2016 12:20 PM (QDnY+)

285 Hidden World by Stanton Coblentz. 1936. One of the greats from the Gernsback era

Posted by: Kindltot at June 19, 2016 11:27 AM (ry34m)

Thanks, Kindltot. Been looking for that since 1975 or so.

Posted by: Sharkman at June 19, 2016 12:22 PM (CS7jF)

286 Liberation theology is pernicious, but no external commie plots are needed to explain it. Infantile moral narcissism in many present-day Christians in the US is a human failing. All doctrines can be twisted or misapplied.

And nothing ill-advised about helping enemies of your enemies, in war-time.

The ultimate example of which would have been to let the Soviets be swallowed by Hitler. Churchill was not among the biggest fans of Soviet power, and I think we're still waiting for the exposes of how he, too, was driven by Soviet agents of influence, yet he seemed uncomfortable with the idea of German victory in the east.

And many here might be shocked if a quiz were given to morons, even, about the origins of the Taliban, and how many would not know it was an indigenous trend manipulated/organized by Paki intel for its own purposes - while the mujahideen we assisted were, in fact, the Taliban's enemies (and AQ's). The lazy, misinformed myth of "blowback" pollutes minds far beyond the brain-dead left.

Posted by: rhomboid at June 19, 2016 12:27 PM (QDnY+)

287 Liberation theology is pernicious, but no external commie plots are needed to explain it. Infantile moral narcissism in many present-day Christians in the US is a human failing. All doctrines can be twisted or misapplied.

It is, but there was Communist work behind the scenes in the formation and spread of Liberation Theology, for real.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at June 19, 2016 12:29 PM (39g3+)

288 "Unfortunately, the USA taught a lot of "anti-communist" groups the same kind of thing and now we're all suffering from the short term thinking today."

Huh? "A lot of 'anti-communist' groups .... blah".

Really? Such as .... ?

Posted by: Hanzo at June 19, 2016 12:30 PM (3PKL3)

289 I had a Bible once that was full of liberation theologians by notes & stuff. And pictures of poor starving 3rd world kids. I have no idea who brought it into the house.

Posted by: @votermom at June 19, 2016 12:33 PM (7lVbc)

290 JTB,

Thanks. I'm finding I do not have the time to play or participate a lot at this stage of my life, so am feeling my way, and the Chess thread is a great help. Will take a look at some others as you suggested.

I think that at some point in the not too distant future, I will likely have more time and am trying to keep my foot in the door and hopefully increase gradually.

Posted by: RM at June 19, 2016 12:36 PM (U3LtS)

291 284---rhomboid
----------------------
I think you are (hazily) remembering the ignorant joke Paul McCartney made when he was at the WH accepting a Library of Congress award for musical something-or-another.
He was so happy to get this library award from the brilliant Obamas rather than from the former occupants of the WH, who obviously never set foot in a library!

(Once again, it might have been better if Laura or a surrogate had spoken up LOUDLY instead of letting it pass.)

Posted by: Margarita DeVille at June 19, 2016 12:41 PM (T/5A0)

292 Posted by: Swift Kick Meet Hipster at June 19, 2016 11:12 AM (uaHyk)

I thought The Promise was even better than the first book (Suspect) and found it hard to put down with a great ending!

Posted by: Hrothgar at June 19, 2016 12:42 PM (wYnyS)

293 Good day, fellow bookists. I mowed through the debut novel, "The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper" in a scant two days (it's not all that thick; I'm just a slow reader). Highly recommended.

Arthur Pepper is an English widow coming up on the first death anniversary of his wife (of 40 years). Finally cleaning out her closet, he finds a heart-shaped leather box containing an ornate charm bracelet in one of her boots -- though he never remembers her wearing it.

The beauty and detail of the charms leads Arthur -- now practically a recluse -- to investigate the mystery of the bracelet. He learns revelations about his wife and more importantly, himself, in the ensuing adventures.

VERY enjoyable.

Posted by: RushBabe at June 19, 2016 12:43 PM (OJKE+)

294 OT: Wayne State University in Detroit drops math requirement in favor of more diversity./

Must be starting a School of Journalism.

Posted by: t-bird at June 19, 2016 12:47 PM (ZxmMG)

295 mustbequantum, you might try some of Hickam's other books. "Torpedo Junction" is non-fiction but an excellent read about WW2 German subs sinking ships in the Atlantic. My FIL saw one of the ships he described burning off the Jersey shore. Hickam was a safety diver at NASA, and he dove to look at some of the shipwrecks.

"Coalwood Way" and "Sky of Stone" continue the autobiography. "Carrying Albert Home" is a little silly, but I would love to know what is real and what is fiction. Buddy Ebsen gave his mother an alligator, hilarity ensues.

"The Keeper's Son" is good, but the rest of the Josh Thurlow trilogy isn't, imho.

I have "The Dinosaur Hunter" but haven't read it yet.

Posted by: roamingfirehydrant at June 19, 2016 12:48 PM (G8DQR)

296 embarassing...

Posted by: t-bird at June 19, 2016 12:48 PM (ZxmMG)

297 I await t-bird's vacation here!

Posted by: The Barrel at June 19, 2016 12:52 PM (wYnyS)

298 Nice recommendation, RushBabe, too bad it's $11.99 on Kindle. Ouch.

Posted by: roamingfirehydrant at June 19, 2016 12:53 PM (G8DQR)

299 I usually lurk and find good titles on this thread, but today I caught the thread early enough to participate.

I also read Putin Country by Anne Garrels- the level of corruption in Russia did not surprise me. The acceptance of it by most of the people did.

Syrian Dust by Francesca Borri. I picked this one up because I wanted to learn more about Syria. She is a freelance Italian journalist and writes about the battle for Aleppo. I have always believed in gun ownership, but if this book taught me anything, it taught me that an armed populace is much safer. Raw and heart-wrenching. There is no good side in this fight.

Lab Girl by Hope Jahren. A fun read. She is a great writer. Not only do I love books, but I also love the trees. This book sastified both of my loves and taught me as well.

View from the Cheap Seats by Neil Gaiman. What a fun read!

The city of Mirrors by Justin Cronin. A book that teaches that guns are priority number one in a vampire outbreak. However, I was disappointed in this final book in his trilogy.

Posted by: Quirky bookworm (formerly proud navy wife) at June 19, 2016 12:54 PM (gppsv)

300 290 ... Hi RM, That is just the approach I take. I have a bunch of other activities but wanted to get started learning the game. Started with the basic rules, reading 'For Dummies' type book on chess, etc. Gradually, I'm getting a feel for the game and enjoying the process.

As a side matter, I'm finding the history of chess and what it reveals about the different cultures over the centuries to be interesting in its own way.

Posted by: JTB at June 19, 2016 12:58 PM (V+03K)

301 _Decline and Fall of the American Empire_, Dr. Click Beep, Mars University Press, Mons Olympus, 2783
Posted by: torquewrench at June 19, 2016 11:50 AM (noWW6)

Laugh, monkey boy, then ask if it should be aitch-oh or iatch-ZERO scale for railroad modelling

Posted by: Kindltot at June 19, 2016 01:03 PM (ry34m)

302 Huh? "A lot of 'anti-communist' groups .... blah".

Really? Such as .... ?
Posted by: Hanzo at June 19, 2016 12:30 PM (3PKL3)

Start with Colombian militias. Then of course there were all sorts of tribal groups in Indochina.

But, have a nice day anyways.

Posted by: Kindltot at June 19, 2016 01:10 PM (ry34m)

303 111
demiporn

Centaur on mermaid?

Posted by: Anachronda at June 19, 2016 01:15 PM (Oi5b2)

304 So every time I see an islamic high in gubbermint I should think commie bastard. That is helpful.
Now reading The Persian Expedition by Xenophon for the innumerableth time. In English, everybody knows Greek is for math symbols.

Posted by: Headless Body of Agnew at June 19, 2016 01:19 PM (FtrY1)

305 "Start with Colombian militias. Then of course there were all sorts of tribal groups in Indochina.

But, have a nice day anyways.

Posted by: Kindltot at June 19, 2016 01:10 PM (ry34m)

Versus how many Soviet, Chinese, Viet, African "liberation", S.American, Central American, Cuban, etc., etc., groups?

What's wrong with being, as poster above stated "anti-communist" (his scare quotes)?

You have a nice day anyway too, whatever that means.

Posted by: Hanzo at June 19, 2016 01:20 PM (3PKL3)

306 "So every time I see an islamic high in gubbermint I should think commie bastard. That is helpful."

Hmm, who said that?

It's no surprise the Communist Revolutionaries, or progressives for that matter, use any/all socialist/totalitarian groups to their advantage, is it?

Posted by: Hanzo at June 19, 2016 01:23 PM (3PKL3)

307 Robbed and rephrased from Will Rogers. Half his humor was about somebody busily trying to run your life as their slave.

Posted by: Headless Body of Agnew at June 19, 2016 01:31 PM (FtrY1)

308 Just wanted again to recommend "Life Secrets" by Dr, Henry Foster. He was a Dr. and Christian who started a sanitarium for ill, tired and depressed missionaries, teachers and pastors . The sanitarium was near some hot springs in Clifton Springs, NY (The Finger Lakes region) and Foster lived from the the 1820'sto the beginning of the 20t century. I have been posting some comments from the book on various threads . The book contains selections from his chapel talks-one selection for every day of the year. Here's one for June 18th, "Praying in Adversity":

In our Christian life we often reason that if we don't go to God in times of prosperity, as we ought, when we come into adversity we have no right to call upon God, or if we do, God will not hear us because we have done wrong. That is a great mistake., for we are measuring God by ourselves. God is not such as we are. God does not withhold mercy because we have done wrong. But our God "is the same yesterday and forever." In the time of trouble, in the time of distress in the time of darkness, in the time of woe, we have the privilege and opportunity to go to God and receive what he has put before us. He will remember us always. Even if we forget Him, He will not forget us."

The bok contains great spiritual wisdom for the living of the Christian life. Dr. Foster is one of those people I'm sorry I never had an opportunity to meet in real life. He seems like an amazing man.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at June 19, 2016 01:57 PM (rmw+9)

309 Still working on 'Russia's War', which is excellent.

Took a break from serious reading to squeeze in Moron-recommended 'Pioneer Go Home!'. A lot of laughs in that one, a tip 'o the hat to whoever suggested it.

Picked up a used pb copy of 'Unbroken' this week. That will be the next read.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at June 19, 2016 02:14 PM (9mTYi)

310 OT: Wayne State University in Detroit drops math requirement in favor of more diversity./

Must be starting a School of Journalism.
Posted by: t-bird
-------------

That would necessitate dropping Economics and History also. Which are taught from books.

See? stayed on thread topic.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at June 19, 2016 02:20 PM (9mTYi)

311 The idea that that Bush was a buffoon who didn't ever read is blown out of the water by this journalist, Walt Harrington, who in this article talks about some of the many books Bush had read and enjoyed:

https://theamericanscholar.org/dubya-and-me/

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at June 19, 2016 02:43 PM (rmw+9)

312 Reading _Enigma_ by Hugh Sebag-Montefiore. There was more to breaking Enigma and the other codes than Bletchley Park. They needed wheels and code books which were supplied by spies and brave seamen and agents jumping onto captured ships. Even then the codes couldn't always be quickly broken, leading to some tragic results.

Posted by: goodluckduck at June 19, 2016 02:48 PM (3CONN)

313 Oooh, was reading Jeremy Robinson's thriller "SecondWorld", about (yet another) attempt at the Fourth Reich. It's all standard processed cheeze, until I get to the part where the hero meets POTUS, clearly our current CinC, relaxed and casual but "when it came down to the nitty-gritty business of armed combat and homeland defense, he never backed down from the tough calls."

Okay, the author has a man-crush. Fine. But then El Presidente describes the domestic Nazis: "Twenty-five members of Congress have disappeared. Over one hundred thousand men and women in the armed forces have gone AWOL. In some parts of the South, entire towns have vanished... There are a lot of religious groups and cults preparing for the end of the world. It's possible some of them have been fronts, allowing these new-Nazis to prepare behind a veil of religious freedom."

These examples of casually tossed off slander offered up in a bit of pop entertainment really shocked me.

And the next sentence brings up Mormons building underground bunkers! Jeebus, we really do live on the same planet but different worlds.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at June 19, 2016 03:22 PM (jR7Wy)

314 After keeping my eyes open for it for years, I saw the second volume of Charles Moore's bio of Margaret Thatcher is out. So I promptly ordered it. Now I need to sit down and actually READ the first volume! But in the meantime I'm about to start reading up on Montefiore's book on the Romanovs. He is one hell of a historian and, as The Economist put it, "cannot be faulted for lack of industry."

Posted by: CatchThirtyThr33 at June 19, 2016 03:31 PM (SI9/k)

315 Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at June 19, 2016 03:22 PM (jR7Wy)

Yes, he must have a man crush because Lord knows Obama cares nothing for homeland defense and he runs away from tough calls. Different worlds indeed!

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at June 19, 2016 03:49 PM (rmw+9)

316 The -D model fin fillet arose to compensate for the cutting down of the rear fuselage to make the bubble canopy. The loss of all that vertical area lead to stability issues. So starting with the P-51D-10-NA the fillet was added and retrofitted to the earlier planes.

Posted by: Anna Puma at June 19, 2016 12:08 PM (4Hm6M)

The same problem came up with the P-47, for the same reason, and was corrected in the same way.

Posted by: The Oort Cloud - Source of all SMODs at June 19, 2016 03:53 PM (2pIEi)

317 Posted by: FenelonSpoke at June 19, 2016 03:49 PM (rmw+9)
---
What really blew my mind was the assumption that of course a sizable chunk of the military would collaborate with a fascist takeover. And naturally there are whole swathes of the South that are white supremacists/separatists. And it happened under their noses because the government wasn't keeping tabs on these racist hicks!

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at June 19, 2016 04:02 PM (jR7Wy)

318 NATURALFAKE

I sent you a msg on goodreads.

cheers.

Posted by: @votermom at June 19, 2016 04:08 PM (7lVbc)

319 Posted by: All Hail Eris, Literate Savage at June 19, 2016 04:02 PM (jR7Wy)

Yes; The author sounds like an ignorant bigoted fool. Ugh!

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at June 19, 2016 04:12 PM (rmw+9)

320 Posted by: @votermom at June 19, 2016 04:08 PM (7lVbc)

Thanks for the heads up!

Posted by: naturalfake at June 19, 2016 05:11 PM (0cMkb)

321 From Drudge: AG Loretta Lynch-mob has decreed that transcripts of the Orlando 911 calls will have as references to Islamic terrorism redacted because the truth? You can't handle the truth!

And I thought the USSR had the manipulation of truth and history down to a science.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Racist for Dinosaurs at June 19, 2016 06:05 PM (Nwg0u)

322 Finished Mitterauer, __Why Europe: The Medieval Origins of Europe's Special Path__ two weeks ago. Abstract abstractions abstractly abstract abstractly abstracted abstractions until you want to take two aspirins and go to bed in the middle of the day, with a pillow over your eyes.
Don't bother.
Currently: Larsen, __The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest__.
Don't bother. Somewhere between __The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo__ and __ ... Kicked ...__ the author forgot how to write fiction. Larsen gives readers pages of author-omniscient background, and when he wakes up enough to remember that that's poor form his characters provide it with impossible dialogue. Really bad.
Next up: Dikotter, __The Cultural Revolution: A People's History, 1962-1976__

Posted by: Malcolm Kirkpatrick at June 19, 2016 06:10 PM (IbUUZ)

323 Anybody recommended a particular translation of Dante's Inferno?

Posted by: goodluckduck at June 19, 2016 07:08 PM (3CONN)

324 Re 323, Dante: Some will say Mandelbaum, some, Hollander, some, Ciardi. I say Sayers/Reynolds, or Binyon.

Posted by: Markham Shaw Pyle at June 19, 2016 07:23 PM (WlkUc)

325 Late to the party again.

This is for Vic --

If by Executioner you mean Mack Bolan, the first three books are slow. Pendleton picks up the pace with #4, and by #7 he's got Bolan solid.

I have all 38 in the original series. Read them constantly during high school and college. Highly recommended.

As for me, just finished listening to "The Golden Spiders," the grittiest Nero Wolfe I've found. Love it. Turns out I own it, too.

Posted by: Weak Geek at June 19, 2016 07:40 PM (qDOUK)

326 298 Nice recommendation, RushBabe, too bad it's $11.99 on Kindle. Ouch.

Posted by: roamingfirehydrant at June 19, 2016 12:53 PM (G8DQR)

I only read freebies on my iPad via (ereaderIQ.com) or the liberry. I got "Arthur Pepper" at the 'berry.

Posted by: RushBabe at June 19, 2016 08:09 PM (OJKE+)

327 Skandia: In the Star Trek writer's guide (issued for writers who wrote scripts for the original tv series), writers were told to show, not tell. (Actually, that's Writing 101.) Just totally skip the technical crap (I wish someone would tell David Weber that), and show the character using the particular item. The viewer should be able to grasp the context by simple observation. Don't try to explain hyper drive, just use it. Unless you actually need a full explanation of how it works to advance your story line, just toss out a few words to indicate that the hyper drive has been engaged. Don't lose yourself or your readers in the weeds.

Posted by: Catlady at June 19, 2016 11:23 PM (pmhpA)

328 Dupes by Paul Kengor is a wonderful but nerve wracking account of how the Communists played on the sympathies of people who genuinely believed all the bull guano about how great the USSR was. It covers the spies and fellow travelers who surrounded FDR. It also covers the so-called "red scare" and McCarthyism. It is well worth the time spent reading it.

Posted by: Catlady at June 19, 2016 11:34 PM (pmhpA)

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