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Sunday Morning Book Thread 11-27-2016

Library of That SOB Van Owen_525.jpg
Library of Moron That SOB Van Owen


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 gorgeous, safe spaces are underneath your house and are used as protection against actual dangers, like tornados, hurricanes, IRS audits, Donald Trump becoming president, and special snowflakes are sure to melt. And unlike other AoSHQ comment threads, the Sunday Morning Book Thread is so hoity-toity, pants are required. Even if it's these pants, which takes the concept of "camel toe" to a whole new level.

“Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.”
― Francis Bacon, Essays


The New Art of War

Could very well be Heinlein's Starship Troopers replaces Sun Tzu's classic book, according to this article in Popular Mechanics:

Robert A. Heinlein's Starship Troopers, published in 1959, is aging remarkably well. The tome chronicles the early military career of Johnnie Rico, who fights alien arachnids while clad in a heavily armed exoskeleton. The troopers drop from orbit one by one to wreak havoc on whatever target the Sky Marshal deems worthy of the attention. It's a cool adventure novel with a soldier's eye view that doubles as a treatise on modern warrior culture, the limits of military technology, and the awful glories of fighting infantry. There's a reason military academies like West Point recommend cadets read the book.

I've always liked it because it is so loaded with common sense, such as:

"Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than any other factor, and contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst."

So much for the old lyric "War, what is it good for? Absolutely nuthin'!" This is make-believe. We would like to think this. Heinlein's view is ugly, but undoubtedly true.

Read the rest of the article when you get a spare moment.

H/T to The Political Hat

Why Trump Won -or- The View From Manhattan


new yorker mag cover.jpg

This is an oft-reprinted New Yorker magazine cover. It brilliantly captures the insularity of the Manhattan liberal hive, and how tightly their little world is circumscribed.

I just think it's ironic how all of the characteristics of fly-over country they claim to abhor, the parochialism, the narrow-mindedness, the inbred thinking, the lack of any kind of broader perspective or self-reflection, all of these characteristics the Manhattan mandarins exhibit in spades. And, other than brief, infrequent flashes (like this magazine cover), they seem utterly incapable of seeing it.


Moron Recommendations

Moron lurker fearr maidir recommends the latest by James D Hornfisher, The Fleet at Flood Tide: America at Total War in the Pacific, 1944-1945, about which he says:

An excellent read...anyone that sobs about dropping a couple nukes on Japan ought to read this book. He follows the paths of Col Tibbets, Adm Fletcher and a few lesser-knowns. Also details a few Japanese that survived the island campaigns. Maybe not new material here but he puts it all together in a readable format. I enjoyed his earlier Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors this one is equally well written.

How would you like to be a swabbie on a destroyer during WWII and hear this from the commander:

"This will be a fight against overwhelming odds from which survival cannot be expected. We will do what damage we can."

This is what they were facing:

With these words, Lieutenant Commander Robert W. Copeland addressed the crew of the destroyer escort USS Samuel B. Roberts on the morning of October 25, 1944, off the Philippine Island of Samar. On the horizon loomed the mightiest ships of the Japanese navy, a massive fleet that represented the last hope of a staggering empire. All that stood between it and Douglas MacArthur’s vulnerable invasion force were the Roberts and the other small ships of a tiny American flotilla poised to charge into history.

This is the subject of Hornfisher's earlier book referenced by fearr maidir, The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors: The Extraordinary World War II Story of the U.S. Navy's Finest Hour

I can't even imagine. For those brave men to put themselves in harm's way like that, I am not worthy to swab their decks.

___________


I've been reading a lovely book, A-B-C Et Cetera: The Life and Times of the Roman Alphabet, by Alexander and Nicholas Humez. It goes through each letter and then tangents off into Roman history. So yesterday I learned the word "cisvestitism," which means dressing in clothes appropriate to your sex, but inappropriate to your station, such as a king dressing as a pauper or Obama dressing as a president.
Just thought I'd share that.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at November 23, 2016 10:18 AM (X6fMO)

So here's the book he's talking about: ABC Et Cetera: The Life & Times of the Roman Alphabet. And there's nothing really I can do to improve MP4's excellent description, other than to note that the authors wrote a similar book on the Greek alphabet, Alpha to Omega: The Life and Times of the Greek Alphabet


Books By Morons

Heard from a lurking 'ette author this week, who has written her first novel, a YA fantasy romance, The Body Electric

Lena Clark, a small-town teenager, falls for a stranger with a mysterious past—and a frightening present. Before she knows it, she is a target, wrapped up in his quest to escape the wrath of a jealous queen from a world Lena never believed existed…

Allie says her novel "...would be a great Christmas gift for all the teen daughters of the AoS readership (in my super humble opinion!)."

The company that publishes her novel, Istoria Books, is unfortunately going out of business. But the editor/owner is also an 'ette, and an author. So I asked her about her own books and she said, "I think the AoS crew would probably be most attracted to my two-mystery set: DEATH IS THE COOL NIGHT and LOST TO THE WORLD (in one volume)"

DEATH IS THE COOL NIGHT: On the eve of America's entry into World War II, a tortured pianist can't remember the night his nemesis, an opera conductor, is killed. Did he do it? Or is the murderer his beautiful and troubled new love? A dramatic story with operatic overtones...

LOST TO THE WORLD: Ten years after the war, Detective Sean Reilly finds no peace. His wife is gone, he has to raise two boys on his own and solve a complicated new case: the murder of a researcher at the Johns Hopkins polio research labs on the eve of the famous vaccine trials that will save so many children while leaving current polio victims lost to the world.

And here's here retelling of Jane Eyre, Sloane Hall:

In 1920s Hollywood, young John Doyle learns the craft of cinematography when a stupid mistake costs him his job. On a tip, he heads to Sloane Hall, the estate of a famous silent screen actress, Pauline Sloane, where he lands a position as chauffeur. Sloane Hall first offers him peace as he enjoys the bounty of the luxurious home, then unrest as its beautiful namesake returns and starts preparing for her first talking picture. Despite his best efforts to resist, John falls hopelessly in love with his employer. His future brightens, however, when she appears to return his affection, leading to plans for a secret wedding—until other awful secrets intrude, leading to heartbreak and separation.

That old Hollywood setting makes this novel sound like one that our own MP4 might write.

And lasty, there's the more lighthearted romantic comedy Fire Me: A Tale of Scheming, Dreaming and Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places

Fed up with impossible deadlines and meaningless busywork, Anne Wyatt goes to work one day determined to resign. But that's the day her boss announces someone's getting laid off (and with a generous severance package). Now Anne has one day to ruin her career and convince her boss that someone should be her.

Anne's hysterical tactics are unwittingly undermined by Ken, the handsome graphic designer in the next cubicle, who has his own ideas for liberation from the corporate grind. In the end, Anne and Ken have to decide together what is important in life, and what they can discard without a second glance.

This one has been optioned for film.


___________

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: OregonMuse at 09:00 AM




Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 Tolle lege

Posted by: Skip at November 27, 2016 08:57 AM (5sOEp)

2 Working on the last book in the Island In The Sea of Time series.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at November 27, 2016 09:00 AM (mpXpK)

3 Looks like some of my book cases. I did give away all my Vince Flynn books that I had in dead tree format though. I have all of them on my Samsung now so I made some room giving them to my MIL.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at November 27, 2016 09:01 AM (mpXpK)

4 I have too many books. I need a bigger house.

Posted by: Kodos the Executioner at November 27, 2016 09:02 AM (J8/9G)

5 Ah Heinlein's Starship Troopers. I loved that book as I did almost all of his books. The movie absolutely blew chunks though.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at November 27, 2016 09:03 AM (mpXpK)

6 I have too many books. I need a bigger house.

Posted by: Kodos the Executioner

But first, I need some books on how to build/buy a bigger house!!

Posted by: Bruce at November 27, 2016 09:03 AM (8ikIW)

7 who fights alien arachnids

Effing editors.

'Arachnids' has a particular definition, you know, it doesn't just mean 'bug.'

Posted by: Mr. Peebles at November 27, 2016 09:04 AM (QX0Xt)

8 Last night my usual insomnia was hitting me even harder than usual. So I put the audio-book version of Patrick O'Brian's H.M.S Surprise on and drifted right to sleep dreaming of a different time and world. There's something magical about those books, I swear.

Posted by: Citizen Cake at November 27, 2016 09:05 AM (ppaKI)

9 Good morning fellow Book Threadists. I hope everyone had, and continues to have, a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. It has been a lovely bookish time for us at Castle JTB.

Posted by: JTB at November 27, 2016 09:05 AM (V+03K)

10 Manhatten needs their very own Castro.....not some wanna-be....someone who'll blow the bridges and tunnels and outlaw boats.

Posted by: BignJames at November 27, 2016 09:06 AM (x9c8r)

11 Finished Desolation Island by Patrick O'Brian last night having no Internet or tv. Desolation Island can be found on Google maps being a tiny island off way off Antarctica below South America. The Waakzaamheid was a real ship but a much smaller 20 gun.
Been wanting a hard cover book on the Russian officer corp by Alexander Mikberdze whom also I read Moscow Burning next before going to Fortune of War the next title in the Aubrey/Maturin novels.

Posted by: Skip at November 27, 2016 09:06 AM (5sOEp)

12 Recount scam:

Well, I for one think that the Clintons's Recount scam is just that. A scam. I will no longer contribute money or butt boys for this scam.

"Stein has glommed onto this recount scam as a way to serve herself, she certainly is not serving anything else." -Emtywheel.

https://tinyurl.com/z4ukhew

Good day.

Posted by: Barney F at November 27, 2016 09:06 AM (4acWK)

13 I read Kurt Schlichter's People's Republic. It's a pretty standard shoot-em-up in the context of a USA squandered into red and blue nations. The latter isn't doing well, naturally, and the descriptions of life under lib policies taken to their logical ends are the most interesting part of the book.

Posted by: Pep at November 27, 2016 09:07 AM (LAe3v)

14 That photo looks something like my library. Needs moar piles of books on the floor, though.

Posted by: rickl - THE MEDIA IS LYING TO YOU at November 27, 2016 09:07 AM (sdi6R)

15 OM, Thanks for the Book (and Chess) threads. I'll spend part of the afternoon checking out the books you mentioned in the post. I read the article about "Starship Troopers". I thought I was the only one who regarded it as a guide, not just as fiction.

Posted by: JTB at November 27, 2016 09:09 AM (V+03K)

16 Giovanni Guareschi's The Little World of Don Camillo stories are now becoming available in e-book format. They tell the story of Don Camillo, a hulking Catholic priest, and Peppone, the equally huge Communist mayor, of a small town in the Po valley.

Both stop at nothing to embarrass the other politically but draw the line at the personal level and will work together for the good of the town, half of which seems to hate the other half. The stories are short and funny, poignant or occasionally grim.

Only about half the stories were originally translated into English. The e-book volumes seem to be more complete. They're worth a look and I'm looking forward to the final volumes coming out soon.

Posted by: Kodos the Executioner at November 27, 2016 09:09 AM (J8/9G)

17 @13
Sundered, not squandered.

Posted by: Pep at November 27, 2016 09:10 AM (LAe3v)

18 5 Ah Heinlein's Starship Troopers. I loved that book as I did almost all of his books. The movie absolutely blew chunks though.
Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at November 27, 2016 09:03 AM (mpXpK)


The movie and book are both enjoyable in their own way if you pretend they have no connection to each other.

Posted by: hogmartin at November 27, 2016 09:10 AM (8nWyX)

19 Got Willowed, re-posting

The most 'interesting' book I have read re Cuba. Note that it was written in 1960, just after the revolution.

http://preview.tinyurl.com/gsdsbqd

Reading it as a retrospective is fascinating. The author was a well-known (among the Left) Columbia University sociologist who went down there to capture the ethos of the revolution.

The book was earnestly written, but it's hard to believe that the author could write this stuff without critical examination. But then, here is a tad of his resume:

"Mills was concerned with the responsibilities of intellectuals in post-World War II society, and advocated public and political engagement over disinterested observation."

In other words, color the message. Mills is the guy that coined the term "New Left".

After read the diatribe, I tossed it into the recycle bin, because trash. I shouldn't have done that... I see that used paperbacks sell for $20.

Posted by: Mike Hammer,

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at November 27, 2016 09:10 AM (CxB0h)

20 Book thread!
Tyrants may die and commies may wail, but The Book Thread ensures!

Posted by: Votermom the Deplorable @vm on Gab.ai at November 27, 2016 09:10 AM (Om16U)

21 I was a kid in NYC when that magazine cover came out and it perfectly encapsulated my mental picture of the country I had at the time. I was about 12.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at November 27, 2016 09:10 AM (EZebt)

22 If I were a military officer I would have my men read Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield. I think it addresses best why I think soldiers fight. Admittedly my untested thoughts mean nothing.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at November 27, 2016 09:10 AM (DT2/W)

23 Okay, now that looks a lot more like my library. I don't see any dust though...

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at November 27, 2016 09:11 AM (CxB0h)

24 Speaking of dead tyrants, found a good short history of Cuba.
Check it out later when the book thread winds down.
Link in nic.

Posted by: Votermom the Deplorable @vm on Gab.ai at November 27, 2016 09:12 AM (Om16U)

25 21 I was a kid in NYC when that magazine cover came out and it perfectly encapsulated my mental picture of the country I had at the time. I was about 12.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at November 27, 2016 09:10 AM (EZebt)
.

Now you're in San Francisco, where it's the same perspective looking East.

Posted by: Kodos the Executioner at November 27, 2016 09:12 AM (J8/9G)

26 @17
Although I suppose either is appropriate.

Posted by: Pep at November 27, 2016 09:12 AM (LAe3v)

27 "The Wright Brothers". David McCullough's latest. What comes around mostly is the lost spirit that once was America, the bravery, the gumption, and drive of the times. The brothers changed history while continuing to work in their bicycle shop in Dayton, Ohio.

Posted by: Libra at November 27, 2016 09:12 AM (u0gU9)

28 Checking in this morning from Johnson City in the Hill Country - where we had a booth at the Johnson City launch of Christmas! They lighted the Blanco Co. Courthouse, had a artisan market over three days - a fireworks display and a lighted parade, games for kids and everything to make the heart of a Texan glad.
I sold a lot of books, my daughter a ton of her origami jewelry, and we have had a wonderful time. The people in Johnson City are fantastic. It was kind of reassuring -seeing a whole community come together for a nice local celebration.

Posted by: Sgt. Mom at November 27, 2016 09:12 AM (r8RbR)

29 With all the helmets on the shelves I bet I could stop by there for a evening reading and glass of brandy and stay a long while.

Posted by: Skip at November 27, 2016 09:12 AM (5sOEp)

30 That starship troopers article was facepalm bad. He quoted Tzu saying if you want to win all the time attack where the enemy isn't and then tried to say that was about movement rather than about uncertainty and the necessity of getting stuck in.

Posted by: Bigbys Cellphone at November 27, 2016 09:13 AM (U0lQa)

31 The only redeeming quality of the Starship Troopers movie was the perky elbows in the shower scenes. The book is so superior it bugs (get it? bugs?) me that they made the movie at all. I can only hope it inspired some to read the novel.

Posted by: JTB at November 27, 2016 09:13 AM (V+03K)

32 My old Navy Department Head (a full Captain) once recommended that I read Anton Myers' Once An Eagle. I read it and actually liked it even though it was written by a raging liberal.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at November 27, 2016 09:14 AM (mpXpK)

33 This will be a fight against overwhelming odds from which survival cannot be expected. We will do what damage we can.

--

I like it better than "England expects that every man will do his duty."

Posted by: Votermom the Deplorable @vm on Gab.ai at November 27, 2016 09:14 AM (Om16U)

34 There isn't a cat present in the library picture, need to get one.

Posted by: Skip at November 27, 2016 09:14 AM (5sOEp)

35 Now you're in San Francisco, where it's the same perspective looking East.
Posted by: Kodos the Executioner at November 27, 2016 09:12 AM (J8/9)
====

I haven't been to Oakland in years!

Posted by: San Franpsycho at November 27, 2016 09:14 AM (EZebt)

36 Anytime Heinlein is discussed I've posted that Armor by John Steakley is the best bug fighting book I've read and no one else has seemed to have read it. Your missing a really good book.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at November 27, 2016 09:16 AM (DT2/W)

37 Love that photo of Van Owen's library but he needs more, and bigger, books. The shelves aren't yet sagging in the middle from the weight of the books. That's not right.

Posted by: JTB at November 27, 2016 09:16 AM (V+03K)

38 Then: " This will be a fight against overwhelming odds from which survival cannot be expected. We will do what damage we can."

Now: "I need Playdo and a safe space"

Posted by: Pep at November 27, 2016 09:16 AM (LAe3v)

39 36 I've read it.And Vampire$ too(James Woods is great but the movie version sucks)

Posted by: steevy at November 27, 2016 09:17 AM (r/0kC)

40 36 Anytime Heinlein is discussed I've posted that Armor by John Steakley is the best bug fighting book I've read and no one else has seemed to have read it. Your missing a really good book.
Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at November 27, 2016 09:16 AM (DT2/W)

I've been meaning to look that up after you mentioned it.

Posted by: Votermom the Deplorable @vm on Gab.ai at November 27, 2016 09:17 AM (Om16U)

41 35 I haven't been to Oakland in years!

Posted by: San Franpsycho at November 27, 2016 09:14 AM (EZebt)

I used to like Jack London Square in Oakland. Took my wife back out there in 1985 for a visit. I would not go to Oakland on a bet now.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at November 27, 2016 09:18 AM (mpXpK)

42 "Starship Troopers" is the greatest movie ever made about killing giant space katydids.

Posted by: josephistan at November 27, 2016 09:18 AM (7qAYi)

43 I learned a lesson this week: Don't give up on a book just because you haven't read it.

I've been reading background material on (and by) Tolkien and CS Lewis so I can better appreciate their works. I kept coming across references to "The Tolkien Reader". The title was familiar and I could see the cover in my mind but I hadn't read it that I remembered. That bothered me so I went through the older boxes of books that litter the house. And there it was at the bottom of a box.

The pages are turning yellow but the spine is uncracked. I had paid the full retail price of 95 cents to Ballentine Books. I must have bought it while in college, got busy with work, study and women and forgot about it. I've been carrying it around for 44 years.

It's quiet patience is being rewarded this week as I open its covers. And I'm FINALLY going to read Tolkien's essay "On Fairy Stories" and "Leaf By Niggle", among others.

I know some people and libraries get rid of books if they haven't been used in a long time. Hell, I've done it myself. No more. If I give away or trade in a book now it will be because I know I won't read it or re-read it.

Posted by: JTB at November 27, 2016 09:19 AM (V+03K)

44 29 With all the helmets on the shelves I bet I could stop by there for a evening reading and glass of brandy and stay a long while.
Posted by: Skip at November 27, 2016 09:12 AM (5sOEp)

The helmets are obviously there to be used when reading while using the exercise machine. Safety first!

Posted by: Votermom the Deplorable @vm on Gab.ai at November 27, 2016 09:19 AM (Om16U)

45 Posted by: steevy at November 27, 2016 09:17 AM (r/0kC)

Finally. The opening chapters were some of the best I've read of any book. Is it just me or were they not as good as I have praised them to be?

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at November 27, 2016 09:20 AM (DT2/W)

46 Art of War isn't even all that advanced. Kind of minor in the Eastern military corpus. It's just popular because it's the most accessible here in the West.

Posted by: Bigbys Cellphone at November 27, 2016 09:20 AM (U0lQa)

47 Posted by: josephistan at November 27, 2016 09:18 AM (7qAYi)

Plus I've heard that since the giant space katydids were added digitally, Paul Verhoeven would jump around the actors, waving his arms and yelling "baahgs! baaahgs!" so they had something to react to. That image amuses me greatly.

Posted by: hogmartin at November 27, 2016 09:22 AM (8nWyX)

48 Heinlein, as everyone here knows right?, was a USNA grad, and served some time in the Fleet before being invalided out, so would have seen the 1920's naval hierarchy in all its glory. He got better. You'll find little gems of "executive advice" scattered throughout his stories, and I'm surprised they haven't been collected into one of those compendia like "Leadership Secrets of Attila the Hun." There's a winter project for some Moron.

One of my favorites was how to handle a hide-bound senior officer who started a meeting with an absolutely wrong strategic summary. The correct foot-in-the-door is "That's what we thought, too, Sir." I used that one many times.

It's just not possible to overstate the ball size of the sailors off Samar. I'll fight any man who claims the apocrypha aren't true: that a skipper heading in called for his bugler to sound the charge over the ship's PA, or that a gunnery chief, seeing Yamato turn out and pick up speed, said "Dammit boys, they're getting away." You have to get back to Thucydides to find better Laconiscisms.

Extra points for the Roberts, which was a DE, not a DD; what the Brits called a frigate. They were just barely seaworthy -- ask anybody who's been on one -- and were even less survivable than "real" destroyers. Brass. Balls.

Posted by: Stringer Davis at November 27, 2016 09:23 AM (H5rtT)

49 Posted by: JTB at November 27, 2016 09:19 AM (V+03K)



LOL, The Tolkien Reader was 99 cents. It is now $7.34 in paperback at Amazon. No Kindle available.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at November 27, 2016 09:23 AM (mpXpK)

50 I should point out that Armor is not entirely about bug fighting.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at November 27, 2016 09:23 AM (A3edJ)

51 Mike Pence is a homophobe, so I don't blame Raymond Burr for being rude to him in the theatre.

Posted by: Joe Biden at November 27, 2016 09:23 AM (Pby3z)

52 Yay Book Thread!


I'm reading a Korean War history on the recommendation of a military Moron, Fehrenbach's "This Kind of War".

Military aspects aside (we weren't ready and didn't know what we were doing and didn't listen to intel) there's a side note that I find fascinating.

Fehrenback, writing in 1962, laments the arbitrary division between North and South. The North had all the manufacturing, the South had agriculture. Both were miserably poor. He thought that would cripple Korea permanently.

He said that with aid, investment, and training a unified Korea might have a chance to stand on its own by 2000. Imagine the time machine that could show him the South making cars and flat screens and smart phones.

Posted by: Bandersnatch at November 27, 2016 09:24 AM (mgbwf)

53 45 Armor is very good.I think Vampire$ is even better.

Posted by: steevy at November 27, 2016 09:24 AM (r/0kC)

54 Sorry to go OT but if any morons would like to see Kaepernick getting sacked while the crowd goes wild, the 49ers are playing the dolphins in Miami at 1 today. I'm setting my DVR...

Posted by: Adorably deplorable delayna at November 27, 2016 09:25 AM (KNFU5)

55 Posted by: steevy at November 27, 2016 09:24 AM (r/0kC)

I don't know why Steakley only wrote two books. I guess he thought he couldn't do any better than those two.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at November 27, 2016 09:26 AM (A3edJ)

56 Being a Trump supporter in Manhattan is like being a Christian in Imperial Rome.

Posted by: vivi at November 27, 2016 09:28 AM (11H2y)

57 55 Sadly,he is dead.Just looked this up.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Steakley

Posted by: steevy at November 27, 2016 09:28 AM (r/0kC)

58 Mornin' Book threadists.

I would like to second MPPPP's recommendation for the Bros Humez' "ABC Et Cetera". Lots of droll humor throughout. You can dive in at any letter of the alpha beta and learn something new, so it's like the classiest bathroom reading ever. I still have it somewhere *putters around bookcase* Ah! Now I know what I'll be reading this morning.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at November 27, 2016 09:29 AM (EnKk6)

59 And I'm FINALLY going to read Tolkien's essay "On Fairy Stories" and "Leaf By Niggle", among others.

SOUND HOMOPHOBIC AND RAYCIST TO ME! A TWOFER FOR CONSERVATIVES! HAH!

Posted by: AL SHARPTON at November 27, 2016 09:29 AM (Pby3z)

60 47 Posted by: josephistan at November 27, 2016 09:18 AM (7qAYi)

Plus I've heard that since the giant space katydids were added digitally, Paul Verhoeven would jump around the actors, waving his arms and yelling "baahgs! baaahgs!" so they had something to react to. That image amuses me greatly.
Posted by: hogmartin at November 27, 2016 09:22 AM (8nWyX)

Ha! That's awesome if true.

Posted by: josephistan at November 27, 2016 09:29 AM (7qAYi)

61 @54 Heh. Here's hoping the SF O-line honors Castro by taking a knee on the first play. And repeats as necessary.

Posted by: Stringer Davis at November 27, 2016 09:30 AM (H5rtT)

62 steevy - missed the pet thread yesterday if you were there but hows your cat?

Posted by: Skip at November 27, 2016 09:30 AM (5sOEp)

63 29 With all the helmets on the shelves I bet I could stop by there for a evening reading and glass of brandy and stay a long while.
Posted by: Skip at November 27, 2016 09:

Where the f**k is your Hemet?

I should consider Njp'n your ass.

Posted by: Sgt Major Sixta at November 27, 2016 09:31 AM (aAlFX)

64 Rare footage of the naval action off Samar:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0wSXxa3TlY

Posted by: rickl - THE MEDIA IS LYING TO YOU at November 27, 2016 09:31 AM (sdi6R)

65 16 ... Kodos, Thanks for mentioning the Don Camillo stories. I often enjoy that kind of format. And I've been described as 'hulking' often enough so I should be able to identify with the protagonists. :-)

Posted by: JTB at November 27, 2016 09:31 AM (V+03K)

66 62 Her eye looks almost normal this morning.I wonder if it was a foreign object after all.

Posted by: steevy at November 27, 2016 09:31 AM (r/0kC)

67 Love seeing Moron libraries.

But, but!... I thought we didn't read!

Posted by: Kodos the Executioner at November 27, 2016 09:31 AM (J8/9G)

68 I've got a pot of Mariage Freres Marco Polo The Vert brewing, perfect for a Book Thread. I've not started any new books, but am still enjoying "England's Last War Against France" by Colin Smith, about the WWII fight against Vichy France. Who needs to read yet another book about Pearl Harbor or the Bulge when you can read about the all but forgotten fighting in West Africa or Iraq?

Posted by: josephistan at November 27, 2016 09:32 AM (7qAYi)

69 I realize this makes little sense other than to go back and enjoy a couple of old friends, but before I read Votermom's new novel on the California gold rush, I am re-reading "Jubilee Trail" and "Calico Palace" by Gwen Bristow. "Jubilee Trail" ends with the gold rush in the offing, and "Calico Palace" is set right smack in the middle of it. Voter Mom's book is, of course, "The Golden Road."

I finished "Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon" by Donna Andrews. This is one of her Meg Langslow mysteries: very light fare but I do enjoy them.

What's-his-name, the super FBI agent who is better than all other FBI agents and who just knows everything about absolutely everybody and who excels at hindsight, well, I'm still limping through his boundless egomania, er, book. Memo to self: do NOT make this mistake again.

And I started "Prayer for Beginners" by Peter Kreeft. It says to read it slowly so I am cooperating. And at Adoration Saturday morning I started the Gospel According to St. Luke. I am reading the New International Version, I think, and it's a study bible so I like the links and all, but may I just say that the King James Version is possibly the most beautiful works of writing in English ever, ever, ever.

Posted by: Tonestaple at November 27, 2016 09:32 AM (uAU0q)

70 Has anyone else read Idaho Falls? If you're a fan of air crash investigation shows, or other shows where they put together what happened to cause a disaster, you might like that one.

If you ask any random person what the worst nuclear disaster on US soil was, they'll probably say 3MI, but compared to SL-1, very few people were found pinned to the ceiling by rods after a steam explosion and buried in a lead coffin encased in concrete. Idaho Falls is a really good story and analysis of a nuclear disaster nobody's ever heard of.

Posted by: hogmartin at November 27, 2016 09:33 AM (8nWyX)

71

Wait...wait... are those exercise machines? In the Liberry? Seriously?

Posted by: Skandia Recluse at November 27, 2016 09:33 AM (CAstU)

72 Getting started on decorations. Gotta get a tree.

Posted by: Bigbys Cellphone at November 27, 2016 09:33 AM (U0lQa)

73 I remember that New Yorker cover very well. I had ongoing dealings with NYC at the time and the attitude of the natives. I thought the cover was understated.

Posted by: JTB at November 27, 2016 09:34 AM (V+03K)

74 Speaking of the Philippines, they discovered a new species of crab - it's purple!

Https://twitter.com/Oceanwire/status/802867082060664832

Posted by: Votermom the Deplorable @vm on Gab.ai at November 27, 2016 09:35 AM (Om16U)

75 Being a Trump supporter in Manhattan is like being a Christian in Imperial Rome.
Posted by: vivi


Trump Tower is now open to the public. Are you in the area? We could have a drink there.

Posted by: Steve and Cold Bear at November 27, 2016 09:35 AM (Pby3z)

76 And I must add that the library of That SOB Van Owen gives me a little bit of hope about maybe someday rearranging my stacks and taking a picture of my mess and not being too severely mocked for my housekeeping and book-buying compulsion.

Posted by: Tonestaple at November 27, 2016 09:36 AM (uAU0q)

77 Regarding "Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors," LCDR Copeland was pretty badass. Ultimate badass was CDR Ernest Evans, CO of the USS Johnston. Posthumous MOH.

A survivor of the doomed Asiatic Fleet, at the commissioning ceremony he said his ship would not run from a fight and if anybody didn't feel the same, he should transfer now.

Hornfischer has written several other WWII books: "Neptune's Inferno" (Guadacanal naval campaign) and "Ship of Ghosts" (USS Houston, death of the Asiatic Fleet, and ship's surviving crew ordeal as POWs).

All excellent.

Posted by: Butch at November 27, 2016 09:37 AM (hXu8T)

78 But, but!... I thought we didn't read!
Posted by: Kodos the Executioner at November 27, 2016 09:31 AM

No, its just guns are easier to get than books.
You ought to see the weapon collections!

Posted by: Skip at November 27, 2016 09:38 AM (5sOEp)

79 I'll post photos of my books after Christmas, when I will get new cases & dust everything

Posted by: josephistan at November 27, 2016 09:38 AM (7qAYi)

80 Giovanni Guareschi's The Little World of Don Camillo stories are now becoming available in e-book format. They tell the story of Don Camillo, a hulking Catholic priest, and Peppone, the equally huge Communist mayor, of a small town in the Po valley.

I'm a fan of the French actor Fernandel, who played Don Camillo in five films. Those led me to the first book.

Posted by: Mr. Peebles at November 27, 2016 09:39 AM (QX0Xt)

81 "This will be a fight against overwhelming odds from which survival cannot be expected. We will do what damage we can."
- LCDR Copeland

Number 5 son serves on a guided missile destroyer in the Pacific. He's told me that during training exercises, some of the chiefs walk around point to random sailors and say "Dead, arm blown off, sucking chest wound, dead, dead, dead." etc. They say to the rest "What now sailor?"

I'm thankful we still have men like that to lead my son.

Posted by: Tonypete at November 27, 2016 09:39 AM (tr2D7)

82 Tonestaple, The Golden Road is by 'ette Celia Hayes, one of our awesome and prolific Horde writers.

I just blog about books.

Posted by: Votermom the Deplorable @vm on Gab.ai at November 27, 2016 09:39 AM (Om16U)

83 The most comprehensive analysis of shipping records over the course of the slave trade is the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database, edited by professors David Eltis and David Richardson. (While the editors are careful to say that all of their figures are estimates, I believe that they are the best estimates that we have, the proverbial "gold standard" in the field of the study of the slave trade.) Between 1525 and 1866, in the entire history of the slave trade to the New World, according to the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database, 12.5 million Africans were shipped to the New World. 10.7 million survived the dreaded Middle Passage, disembarking in North America, the Caribbean and South America.

And how many of these 10.7 million Africans were shipped directly to North America? Only about 388,000. That's right: a tiny (3.6%) percentage.

Posted by: undocumented illegal alien at November 27, 2016 09:39 AM (e8kgV)

84 Ah Heinlein's Starship Troopers. I loved that book as I did almost all of his books. The movie absolutely blew chunks though.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at November 27, 2016 09:03 AM (mpXpK)


I hate director Paul Verhoeven with the heat of ten thousand suns. If I were the guy in charge of Heinlein's estate, I'd sue his sorry ass to scrub all trace of Heinlein's name off that execrable movie.

Posted by: OregonMuse, deplorable since 2004 at November 27, 2016 09:40 AM (sZ8UC)

85 josephistan

Iraq: Covered in part by The Road Past Mandalay by John Masters. This chronicles his WWII experience, and is a great eye-opening and well written recounting of forgotten campaigns.

This book is a sequal of sorts tohis great book of being a company officer in a Gurkha Regiment pre-WWII.: Bugles and a Tiger.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at November 27, 2016 09:42 AM (u82oZ)

86 Morning all

Posted by: Nevergiveup at November 27, 2016 09:43 AM (dELE3)

87 Posted by: Tonestaple at November 27, 2016 09:32 AM (uAU0q)

Pretty sure that's *Sgt Mom*'s book that votermom has been pushing. Sgt Mom has several historical fiction books, many of which are set in TX.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at November 27, 2016 09:43 AM (GDulk)

88 The movie version is 'Starship Troopers 90210.'

Posted by: Mr. Peebles at November 27, 2016 09:43 AM (QX0Xt)

89 67
Love seeing Moron libraries.



But, but!... I thought we didn't read!

Posted by: Kodos the Executioner at November 27, 2016 09:31 AM (J8/9G)

I think we don't do math.

Posted by: Deplorable Ian Galt at November 27, 2016 09:44 AM (8iiMU)

90 The movie Starship Troopers is the subject of a great RiffTrax.

Posted by: josephistan at November 27, 2016 09:44 AM (7qAYi)

91 I worked with a New Yorker in DC. He was constantly bitching about what a tiny little town DC was, without the many cultural and culinary delights of Manhattan. No skyscrapers - you call this a city? He made a big deal of going back to NY on the weekends to "get back to civilization."

I didn't really care about how he ran down DC, but I recall telling him about 6 times I was from Wisconsin, and he couldn't remember. He kept saying, you're from Minnesota, right? Michigan? I'd say, no, I told you I'm from Wisconsin and he'd say I can't keep those boring midwestern states straight.

Yeah, he was a total dick.

Posted by: Donna&&&&V(deplorably brandishing ampersands&&&&and so there at November 27, 2016 09:45 AM (P8951)

92 Castro's death has inspired me to read that copy of "Against All Hope" by Armondo Valladares that I've had sitting around unread for a long time. He spent 22 years as a political prisoner in Castro's jails. But hey, they have free health care & literacy!

Posted by: josephistan at November 27, 2016 09:46 AM (7qAYi)

93 I would invite all Hordelings to send photos of their book grottoes to OM. Its weirdly liberating to show the world your dusty collection of treasures, manias, and secret shames.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at November 27, 2016 09:46 AM (EnKk6)

94 On fictional books with a WWII setting I did like Once An Eagle the best. But Herman Wouk's Winds of War was also very good. I have considered it before but it is a little pricey right now being on the edge of my limit for e-books at $10.00.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at November 27, 2016 09:48 AM (mpXpK)

95 94 On fictional books with a WWII setting I did like Once An Eagle the best. But Herman Wouk's Winds of War was also very good. I have considered it before but it is a little pricey right now being on the edge of my limit for e-books at $10.00.
Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at November 27, 2016 09:48 AM (mpXpK)

My mom still has that series on VHS!

Posted by: josephistan at November 27, 2016 09:48 AM (7qAYi)

96 I read Billy Budd last week. I had never read it before but had seen the Peter Ustinov movie, which was pretty close to the book. A lot is crammed in that little story.

They didn't fool around with discipline back then. The rules were clear and not to be disobeyed.

Posted by: freaked at November 27, 2016 09:49 AM (BO/km)

97 This probably reflects my ignorance of the topic more than anything, but...

After learning that Castro died, it struck me that I couldn't think of any great novels coming from under the years of communist rule and oppression from Cuba as you saw coming from Russia and Eastern Europe during the Cold War and even earlier.

I wonder if that was due to Castro's greater success in snuffing out all forms of creative liberty, or

perhaps, small island/small population thus fewer chances for greatness, or

perhaps due to the cooperation of "Our Betters" in the literary/critic community in suppressing or simply not giving credence to the great Cuban writers who address the horror of Castro's rule and communist oppression. No enemies on the left, ya know?

Anyway...my main point here is that I could rattle off a couple of dozen Russian/Eastern Europe great novels (IMO) written during the years of communist oppression.

Yet, none of the few Cuban novels I've read have really stuck with me.


So...morons, Put me some knowledge.

What are the great Cuban novels that you've read? And enjoyed reading.

It seems most of the great ( or "great" if you wish) writing out of Latin America and the Caribbean has a definite pro-communist slant.

There have got to be some great Cuban writers on the other side of that fence, I would think.

Posted by: H D Woodard - "Wearing the Cat" at November 27, 2016 09:50 AM (9q7Dl)

98 If you like bios , I think a must read is Clarence Thomas's
My Grandfather's Son.

A simple read but it's my favorite bio after American Caesar. It is proof of American exceptionalism and a prime example of the 'American Dream' .

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at November 27, 2016 09:50 AM (A3edJ)

99 Do you know how hard it is to find a decent non-toddler book for a 5 year old boy who is just now learning to sound out the beginning letter of a word? I get every grandchild a book for Christmas, and this year has me stumped. He is sandwiched between "read me a story" and "I kind of want to try this myself but I can't do it yet."


Any suggestions would be welcome. I'm off to church and can't stay, but I'll look in later this afternoon to see if anyone has a suggestion for my dilemma. Thanks.

Posted by: grammie winger at November 27, 2016 09:52 AM (bpfzP)

100 I just finished Ambrose's book "Nothing Like It In The World", about the transcontinental railroad. Very interesting. I didn't know Lincoln was a big time railroad lawyer. Won a Supreme Court case, allowing railroads to cross rivers. Seems like a no-brainer today....


Now I'm starting to slog through "Walt Whitman: A Life" by Kaplan.
So far, the author is a bit full of himself. But, I'll try to withhold judgement until I finish this thing.


Posted by: Deplorable Ian Galt at November 27, 2016 09:52 AM (8iiMU)

101 I'm re-reading Cornwell's Sharpe's Rifles books. It turns out I hadn't read the prequels, so I'm pretty happy.

Posted by: Laura M at November 27, 2016 09:53 AM (stvhI)

102 'Any suggestions would be welcome.'

One Fish Two Fish is great book to start with.

Posted by: freaked at November 27, 2016 09:53 AM (BO/km)

103 I went to a training course in Alameda back in mid-'80s. Found a bar near/off Jack London Square. It had an uneven, unimproved floor, sloped down from the door. Panties were thumbtacked all over the ceiling. And rumor has it the only head was monitored by CCTV behind the bar. Wish i could remember that bar's name..... classic.

Posted by: deplorablegoatexchange at November 27, 2016 09:53 AM (g3zKi)

104 @99

Green Eggs and Ham

Posted by: Pep at November 27, 2016 09:54 AM (LAe3v)

105 95 My mom still has that series on VHS!

Posted by: josephistan at November 27, 2016 09:48 AM (7qAYi)

Once An Eagle or Winds of War?


I have Once An Eagle on a DVD. They finally released it about 2 years ago. It followed to book pretty good but cut it off very early in the book. They also changed a few things here and there, but not as much as I would have expected. But the movie had wifey's hunk as the lead role (a young Sam Eliot) so all was right with her.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at November 27, 2016 09:54 AM (mpXpK)

106 Iran's semi-official Tasnim news agency is reporting that the country's chief of staff of the armed forces has said that Tehran is interested in setting up naval bases in both Syria and Yemen.

People will be writing many books about Fredo's foreign policy failings.

Posted by: Nevergiveup at November 27, 2016 09:55 AM (dELE3)

107 On an art thread this week Uncle Palpatine mentioned a painting called (something like) "Response of the (fill in specific name I forgot) Cossacks to the Demands of Sultan (yeah, I forgot his name too)"

Harold Lamb has several short stories about an old (even though bold) Cossack of an encampment on the Dneiper river that I strongly suspect is based on the band portrayed in the painting. It's not a group or area that gets written about a lot in the West and the storirs are interesting.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at November 27, 2016 09:56 AM (GDulk)

108 @102
I find One Fish Two Fish to be jejune and derivative. Not his best work.

sniff

Posted by: Pep at November 27, 2016 09:57 AM (LAe3v)

109 105 95 My mom still has that series on VHS!

Posted by: josephistan at November 27, 2016 09:48 AM (7qAYi)

Once An Eagle or Winds of War?


I have Once An Eagle on a DVD. They finally released it about 2 years ago. It followed to book pretty good but cut it off very early in the book. They also changed a few things here and there, but not as much as I would have expected. But the movie had wifey's hunk as the lead role (a young Sam Eliot) so all was right with her.
Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at November 27, 2016 09:54 AM (mpXpK)

The Winds of War, and the follow-up "War and Remembrance." I recall them being pretty good when they were first on TV.

Didn't know "Once an Eagle" was ever a movie. I'll have to check that out.

Posted by: josephistan at November 27, 2016 09:57 AM (7qAYi)

110 104 Green eggs and Ham


I think I read somewhere (maybe here) that it was written using only 50 words..

Posted by: Sgt Major Sixta at November 27, 2016 09:57 AM (aAlFX)

111 I see Amazon has the Winds of War DVD (6 disks) for $22. If I reread the book may have to go for that.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at November 27, 2016 09:57 AM (mpXpK)

112 107 On an art thread this week Uncle Palpatine mentioned a painting called (something like) "Response of the (fill in specific name I forgot) Cossacks to the Demands of Sultan (yeah, I forgot his name too)"
Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at November 27, 2016 09:56 AM (GDulk)


The response of the Zaporozhian Cossacks to the Sultan

Posted by: hogmartin at November 27, 2016 09:58 AM (8nWyX)

113 Yes. All Of The Seuss.

Posted by: Bandersnatch at November 27, 2016 09:58 AM (mgbwf)

114 12
Recount scam:

I think next week someone will find a box of ballots from a heavy minority precinct like philly or detroit in a dumpster and un-counted.
That will be enough to at least incite more rage at best - worse, it allows clinton backers an opportunity to recover their investment by feeding stein more cash.

Posted by: steve at November 27, 2016 09:58 AM (/NSeN)

115 Rekindling sectarian rivalries at a sensitive time, Iraqs parliament on Saturday voted to fully legalize state-sanctioned Shiite militias long accused of abuses against minority Sunnis, adopting a legislation that promoted them to a government force empowered to deter security and terror threats facing the country, like the Islamic State group.


Oh yeah what could possibly go wrong?

Posted by: Nevergiveup at November 27, 2016 09:59 AM (dELE3)

116 106 Iran's semi-official Tasnim news agency is reporting that the country's chief of staff of the armed forces has said that Tehran is interested in setting up naval bases in both Syria and Yemen.

People will be writing many books about Fredo's foreign policy failings.
Posted by: Nevergiveup at November 27, 2016 09:55 AM (dELE3)

As a Moron put it recently "obamam's screwed things up so badly in the Middle East that no matter who we side with we're backing an enemy."

Posted by: josephistan at November 27, 2016 09:59 AM (7qAYi)

117 103
I went to a training course in Alameda back in mid-'80s. Found a bar
near/off Jack London Square. It had an uneven, unimproved floor, sloped
down from the door. Panties were thumbtacked all over the ceiling.
And rumor has it the only head was monitored by CCTV behind the bar.
Wish i could remember that bar's name..... classic.

Posted by: deplorablegoatexchange at November 27, 2016 09:53 AM (g3zKi)

If it is the one I am thinking about it was a small bar down at the boat landings. They did have a microphone that talked to the bathroom from the bar. Don't think they would have got away with a camera.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at November 27, 2016 10:01 AM (mpXpK)

118 Polliwog, here it is:

https://tinyurl.com/zbd95a5

And the flavor of Cossack is Zaporozhian.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at November 27, 2016 10:01 AM (EnKk6)

119 5 Ah Heinlein's Starship Troopers. I loved that book as I did almost all of his books. The movie absolutely blew chunks though.
Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at November 27, 2016 09:03 AM (mpXpK)

They're *supposed* to be doing a new movie that hews closer to the book.

Posted by: Hugh Jorgen at November 27, 2016 10:01 AM (R5EqA)

120 Let me start this in the literary sense and then segue also into Thanksgiving.

I love Tolkien's work. As I get older, I appreciate it more and more for its themes and ideas. As I learn more about Tolkiens life, it becomes more breathtaking in the way it shows the kind of man he was.

Before the Jackson movies, the scene that always grabbed be in the books was the Battle of the Pelenor Fields. It was best typified in the Rankin Bass animated movie from umpteen years ago. That sense of defeat. That heavy weight of evil settling over the land. The despair on every face. The sight of Gandalf sitting his horse as the men of Gondor ran for their lives. One man against the tide, knowing he would fail, but standing still. You knew he was doomed. There was no hope.

Then somewhere in the darkness, a cock crowed. Speaking not of war, death , and despair, but of the dawn. And a single ray of light pierces the darkness.

And then the Riders come like the fist of an angry God.

Jackson's version lacked that simplicity, that feeling, for me.

How this ties into today and what I feel thankful for is obvious. We all know the general feeling we have had these past 8 years. And I am not saying that Trump is in any way a savior or God sent. I am saying in the past few days, it has been amazing that the feeling of hope has seemed to have pierced the blanket. Trump is not the savior.

But I will buy that he is that rooster crowing.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at November 27, 2016 10:02 AM (NLQj5)

121 Vic - all i know is when a female customer went to the head, all the locals got up and went behind the bar. did the bar you're thinking of have a sloping dirt floor and hundreds of panties tacked to the overhead? That's really its most memorable, unique feature.

Posted by: deplorablegoatexchange at November 27, 2016 10:04 AM (g3zKi)

122 The movies didn't capture LOTR at all.


All they got right was Gollum.

Posted by: eleven at November 27, 2016 10:05 AM (qUNWi)

123 As a Moron put it recently "obamam's screwed things up so badly in the Middle East that no matter who we side with we're backing an enemy."
Posted by: josephistan at November 27, 2016 09:59 AM (7qAYi)


yup

Posted by: Nevergiveup at November 27, 2016 10:05 AM (dELE3)

124 121
Vic - all i know is when a female customer went to the head, all the
locals got up and went behind the bar. did the bar you're thinking of
have a sloping dirt floor and hundreds of panties tacked to the
overhead? That's really its most memorable, unique feature.

Posted by: deplorablegoatexchange at November 27, 2016 10:04 AM (g3zKi)

No dirt floor and it had all kinds of stuff tacked to the walls. But I don't remember any panties.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at November 27, 2016 10:05 AM (mpXpK)

125 I read Ashes of Victory, the ninth in the Honor Harrington series by David Weber. Rather than space battle scenes, although there are some, most of the book concerns itself with the political in-fighting of the three principals in the war: Manticore, Grayson, and the Peoples Republic of Haven. Also, there is much discussion of new weapons systems for the Star Kingdom alliance. Still an interesting story which will set up subsequent books in the series.

Two weeks ago I read with interest the reviews of Red Sparrow by Jason Matthews. The day before I had checked it out from our library. It's probably the best spy novel that I have read. It's very tightly written; every scene moves the story along. Because Matthews is retired from the CIA Operations Directorate, there is an abundance of trade craft descriptions and a look into the inner workings of the spy agencies of both sides. The book has a very authentic feel. Finally there are the descriptions of Moscow, Helsinki, Rome, Greece and Estonia which I enjoy because I can learn something new while reading a novel.

Posted by: Zoltan at November 27, 2016 10:06 AM (r8Q8T)

126 Green eggs and Ham insists upon itself.

Posted by: Grump928(C) at November 27, 2016 10:06 AM (0F67M)

127 How this ties into today and what I feel thankful for is obvious. We all know the general feeling we have had these past 8 years. And I am not saying that Trump is in any way a savior or God sent. I am saying in the past few days, it has been amazing that the feeling of hope has seemed to have pierced the blanket. Trump is not the savior.

But I will buy that he is that rooster crowing.
Posted by: Aetius451AD at November 27, 2016 10:02 AM (NLQj5)

Lovely. Very well put.

Posted by: Gem at November 27, 2016 10:07 AM (uaHyk)

128 He is pretty cocky.

Posted by: eleven at November 27, 2016 10:09 AM (qUNWi)

129 Tolkien, Robert Heinlein, Leon Uris..Three of my go-to guys

I started my kidon them as they aged into subject matter.

You never has to guess where they stood on any question

Posted by: Sgt Major Sixta at November 27, 2016 10:09 AM (aAlFX)

130 I think the name of the bar was the First And Last Chance Saloon, maybe Ned Kelley's name in there somewhere.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at November 27, 2016 10:10 AM (mpXpK)

131 Posted by: hogmartin at November 27, 2016 09:58 AM (8nWyX)

Yes, them. Pretty sure that's the band "The Wolf" belongs to in the stories.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at November 27, 2016 10:11 AM (GDulk)

132 Daniel Janosik, John of Damascus: First Apologist to the Muslims

I was at the Society of Biblical Literature conference at San Antonio last week. They had an "exhibition hall" which was basically an enormous book bazaar. I picked this up among many others.

John of Damascus is a discussion of the last Chalcedonian Church Father, John called Chrysorrhoas of the Mansur family, mainly how he presented his theology against that of the "Ishmaelites". Since John was writing under the later Umayyads, he also incidentally gives a snapshot of Islam while the latter was still a work in progress. To John, Islam isn't even a religion (yet); it's a threskeia, a kind of cult.

Janosik identifies two works as probably authentic: the "Heresy of the Ishmaelites", part of the well-preserved Fount of Knowledge; and Disputation between a Christian and a Saracen, which is in a terrible textual state and which Janosik spends a lot of effort reconstructing.

You know what else is in a poor textual state? Janosik's book, that's what. I don't recall ever reading an allegedly academic book, even Christian one (Janosik teaches at Southern Evangelical), so badly organised. John was a proponent of the 451 AD Council of Chalcedon which attempted to clarify the 421 AD Council of Ephesus. If you go by Janosik p. 18, the Church doctrine jumped from Augustine all the way to John. As for Augustine, I don't think John even read him; his stuff never got translated into Syriac or Arabic.

So when we read that John classed "Jacobitism" and "Nestorianism" among the heresies, we have no way of knowing what was at stake there.

The index is lousy too. Good luck finding the correct page numbers on Nestorianism or Monophysitism. Or Chalcedon, or Ephesus.

Then there are the mistakes, some of which a first-year divinity student would roll his eyes at. Or hers, in the case of "Triados", where the Greek is feminine "Trias" / "Triada". We also get Clement as the author of "1 Clement" which went out in the name of the whole church at Rome; Docetism as an outgrowth of Gnosticism rather than the other way around; Marcion as a Gnostic (he was just a dualist); Sophronius as author of Pratum Spiritual (sic) where the Pratum Spirituale text is in the name of a Theodore; "heresy" in quotes where analysis of John's actual term threskeia is needed.

This is the sort of work for which editors get fired. A second edition will have to happen and its editor will have to get authorial billing.

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at November 27, 2016 10:12 AM (6FqZa)

133 Battle Cry by Leon Uris is a pretty good first novel.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at November 27, 2016 10:12 AM (u82oZ)

134 No. 84: "If I were the guy in charge of Heinlein's estate, I'd sue his sorry ass to scrub all trace of Heinlein's name off that execrable movie."

Friends of mine knew Virginia Heinlein (She is, alas, gone.) and asked her about that movie. He opinion was that, bad as the movie was, some percentage of the people who saw it would seek out her late husband's book of the same title, read it, and take something away from it. Without the film, the books would be more likely to just sit in a warehouse.

Very hard-headed lady.

Posted by: RNB at November 27, 2016 10:13 AM (DjjZJ)

135 How this ties into today and what I feel thankful for is obvious. We all know the general feeling we have had these past 8 years. And I am not saying that Trump is in any way a savior or God sent. I am saying in the past few days, it has been amazing that the feeling of hope has seemed to have pierced the blanket. Trump is not the savior.

But I will buy that he is that rooster crowing.
Posted by: Aetius451AD at November 27, 2016 10:02 AM (NLQj5)


"Sometimes there's a man... I won't say a hero, 'cause, what's a hero? But sometimes, there's a man. And I'm talkin' about the Donald here. Sometimes, there's a man, well, he's the man for his time and place. He fits right in there."

Posted by: The Stranger at November 27, 2016 10:14 AM (7qAYi)

136 Posted by: Zoltan at November 27, 2016 10:06 AM (r8Q8T)

My two favorite spy novels are The Charm School by Nelson Demille and American Assassin by Vince Flynn. ( would AA be considered a spy novel?)

I think they are supposed to be making an American Assassin movie. Of course I expect it to be nothing like the book.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at November 27, 2016 10:14 AM (A3edJ)

137 And I'm FINALLY going to read Tolkien's essay "On Fairy Stories" and "Leaf By Niggle", among others.

SOUND HOMOPHOBIC AND RAYCIST TO ME! A TWOFER FOR CONSERVATIVES! HAH!
Posted by: AL SHARPTON at November 27, 2016 09:29 AM (Pby3z)


IT'S FUNNY CUZ THE ONE IS ABOUT REAL FAIRIES NOT HOMOS, AND THE OTHER IS ABOUT WHEN THEY HAD NOT YET INVENTED NEGROES.

Posted by: Ben Rothlessburger at November 27, 2016 10:16 AM (Pz4pT)

138 "I think next week someone will find a box of ballots from a heavy minority precinct like philly or detroit in a dumpster and un-counted."

They'll need to "find" over 100,000 votes to overturn the election. Trump won PA by 70,000 votes.

Posted by: Donna&&&&V(deplorably brandishing ampersands&&&&and so there at November 27, 2016 10:17 AM (P8951)

139 Kodos the Executioner, thanks for sharing the info. I've read only a few Don Camilo stories courtesy of a defunct website.

That SOB Van Owen's library looks like my late uncle's library, except he had whittled figures instead of helmets. I like the handsome set of books in the upper right, but I can't read the titles.

Still reading "Talented is Overrated" but also John C. Wright's The Vindication of Man popped onto the Kindle, so I started that, too. I think it's going to take all December to finish those.

Posted by: NaughtyPine at November 27, 2016 10:17 AM (UwMHj)

140 136 My two favorite spy novels are The Charm School by
Nelson Demille and American Assassin by Vince Flynn. ( would AA be
considered a spy novel?)



I think they are supposed to be making an American Assassin movie. Of course I expect it to be nothing like the book.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at November 27, 2016 10:14 AM (A3edJ)

Yes, all his are "spy" novels. And yes, they are making a movie. Given the normal way movies from books run, it will be bad. But there are cases where the movie follows the book very well and even a few cases where the movie is better than the book. (Atlas Shrugs anybody?)

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at November 27, 2016 10:18 AM (mpXpK)

141 Spy novels, Wilderness of Mirrors. You'll have to decide if it's a novel or not.

Posted by: Jean at November 27, 2016 10:19 AM (2RVmA)

142 Good morning, horde! Aetius451AD, I appreciate that description of DT. And eleven, you beat me to the joke.

I don't know yet what I'm reading this week. It's been a busy month. I bought about half a dozen books, both dead tree and kindle, after last week's thread, and haven't started any of them. The world is my oyster.

Posted by: April at November 27, 2016 10:19 AM (e8PP1)

143 Grammie Winger.

The wife suggests
Henry and Mudge
by Cynthia Rylant.

Start with the first book. The whole series is about a boy and his dog.

Or google "ready to read 5 year old"

Posted by: Bruce at November 27, 2016 10:20 AM (8ikIW)

144 I would recommend Hop on Pop.

It leads us to look deep into our souls and determine:

Are we the hopper . . .

Or are we the Pop?

Posted by: Deplorable Elinor, Who Usually Looks Lurkily at November 27, 2016 10:20 AM (NqQAS)

145 107 On an art thread this week Uncle Palpatine mentioned a painting called (something like) "Response of the (fill in specific name I forgot) Cossacks to the Demands of Sultan (yeah, I forgot his name too)"

Harold Lamb has several short stories about an old (even though bold) Cossack of an encampment on the Dneiper river that I strongly suspect is based on the band portrayed in the painting. It's not a group or area that gets written about a lot in the West and the storirs are interesting.
Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at November 27, 2016 09:56 AM (GDulk)

==========================
Try looking to the history of Poland in the years leading up to breaking the Siege at Vienna. In particular the exploits of the brothers Sobieski prior John taking the Polish throne are right in the history you are asking about.

Sorry no titles to recommend.

Posted by: Old Toby at November 27, 2016 10:20 AM (+wjl1)

146 The books my kids reread endlessly from K-3 and had to get replacements every other year:

Box set of Seuss
Good Dog Carl (a rottweiler who saves his kids)
Hank the Cowdog series (with companion tapes read by author)
Captain Underpants
Zin Zin a Violin
Drummer Hoff
Where the Wild Things Are
Old Readers: Harry the Dirty Dog and Mr Pine's Purple House
Nursery Rhymes by various illustrators (each of mine had a different illustrator they liked)

All of the above were replaced and reused (4 kids) because they kept rereading -- or at least as much as 3-5yo 'read' --

Posted by: mustbequantum at November 27, 2016 10:21 AM (MIKMs)

147
No mention of the Black Friday book coupons?

Amazon.com:

HOLIDAYBOOK

$10 off $25+


BN.com

BNBFRIDAY16

30% off one item

Exclusions ect. Expiring later today. Details at Slickdeals if one needs more info.

Posted by: Laurie David's Cervix at November 27, 2016 10:21 AM (kdS6q)

148 Long time lurker, first time poster.

Just started David Weber's Off Armageddon Reef.

Posted by: I.M. Nincompoop at November 27, 2016 10:21 AM (6K3JO)

149 136 Sebastian Melmoth

Nelson Deville, The Charm School is a great read.

Also, when I want to completely drop out and not focus on everyday BS. Le Carre does it for me. You have to pay attention to him, or he will leave you questioning your own comprehension skills.

Posted by: Sgt Major Sixta at November 27, 2016 10:22 AM (aAlFX)

150 Grammie, check out P. D. Eastman too, many people associate him (her?) with Dr. Seuss.

Put Me In The Zoo is good. Also, there is an alphabet dictionary that is perfect for a beginning reader.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at November 27, 2016 10:23 AM (EZebt)

151 I may have asked this in the past but not sure. There are several biographies of GK Chesterton on the market. Can anyone suggest a good one to start with? I have plenty of background on Tolkien and Lewis on the shelves, but not Chesterton.

Posted by: JTB at November 27, 2016 10:23 AM (V+03K)

152 88 The movie version is 'Starship Troopers 90210.'
Posted by: Mr. Peebles at November 27, 2016 09:43 AM (QX0Xt)


Melrose Space

Posted by: Hugh Jorgen at November 27, 2016 10:23 AM (R5EqA)

153 Regarding early reading books-

Dr Seuss (almost any of them)

Eric Carle

Toad and Frog series

"The Little Rabbit"

and there was one book that showed different birds, they were drawings roughly halfway between realistic and cartoony....sorry, I can't remember the name but the kiddos just loved it. Just different birds and their names more or less.

Posted by: h D Woodard - "Wearing the Cat" at November 27, 2016 10:25 AM (9q7Dl)

154 "Idaho Falls" puts me to mind of another Heinlein story in which people working at a nuclear energy facility were going nuts periodically because they could not cope with the uncertainty of wondering when the thing would blow. I now have to wonder if he was aware of this Idaho Falls incident and ran with it.

Posted by: Tonestaple at November 27, 2016 10:25 AM (uAU0q)

155 143 Grammie Winger.

The wife suggests
Henry and Mudge
by Cynthia Rylant.

Start with the first book. The whole series is about a boy and his dog.

Or google "ready to read 5 year old"

Posted by: Bruce at November 27, 2016 10:20 AM (8ikIW)

I have to agree- my kids adored Henry and Mudge. I'm using the phonics books of Little Critter and Berenstain Bears with a child I am tutoring, and those are pretty good. If you use the regular books as a read along, and the phonics books for the child to sight read, it's pretty effective.

Posted by: Moki, deplorable mom and sammich maker at November 27, 2016 10:25 AM (VnCI9)

156 Jackson's version lacked that simplicity, that feeling, for me.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at November 27, 2016 10:02 AM (NLQj5)


Well stated, and on this theme of movies not living up to the books, I recently saw the Russian version of Don Quixote, which is much praised for its performances, it's ability to capture the madness of the wayward knight.

What it lacked though, and this isn't surprising, given that it was done during the heart of the Soviet era, was any sort of believable portrayal of the ordinariness of the people.

All too often, when books capture this well, people being people, movies turn them into cardboard cutouts.

Posted by: BurtTC at November 27, 2016 10:27 AM (Pz4pT)

157 'Peter Rabbit' is 'Crime and Punishment' for 5-year olds. My daughter chose it every time.

Posted by: deplorablegoatexchange at November 27, 2016 10:27 AM (g3zKi)

158 Votermom/Sgt Mom - I'd die of embarrassment but I did already buy the book so I have to read it first.

Posted by: Tonestaple at November 27, 2016 10:27 AM (uAU0q)

159
Read the historical "Reply". It's Horde-worthy.

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

Posted by: IllTemperedCur at November 27, 2016 10:28 AM (LuZz8)

160 Yes, YES I am a slob!!
I'm going to sort through the mess just as soon as I get my resupply of Roundtoits. The other walls are just as bad, but I didn't want to show the gun cabinets (empty of course due to the tragic boating accidents). Skip, you may have to settle for JB instead of brandy. And the exercise equipment makes handy racks for winter jackets.
Anyhoo, my public service contribution to make all the other Morons feel better about their own libraries.

Posted by: That Deplorable SOB Van Owen at November 27, 2016 10:28 AM (9aqe+)

161 104 @99

Green Eggs and Ham

I have been the best buddy of scores of pre schoolers for many a year.

Posted by: Tuna at November 27, 2016 10:28 AM (JSovD)

162
What type of books does this Moron buy? - a limerick


Van Owen's a Moron book lover
With your books stacked one on the other
Hail fellow, well met
With your army hel-met
I'd guess you'd prefer "hard cover"

Posted by: Muldoon at November 27, 2016 10:28 AM (wPiJc)

163 141 Spy novels, Wilderness of Mirrors. You'll have to decide if it's a novel or not.
Posted by: Jean at November 27, 2016 10:19 AM (2RVmA)

I knew the Angleton name regard to the CIA but no real knowledge. I just went to wiki and it sounds like any doc or story about him would be interesting and scary. As they say, sometimes you don't want to know how the sausage is made, you just want to have available to eat.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at November 27, 2016 10:29 AM (A3edJ)

164 161
Correction:
Sam I Am has been the best buddy of preschoolers.....

I blame it on auto correct not my own fat fingers.

Posted by: Tuna at November 27, 2016 10:30 AM (JSovD)

165 No. 154: "I now have to wonder if [Heinlein] was aware of this Idaho Falls incident and ran with it." The SL-1 accident happened in 1961. "Blowups Happen' was published in 1940.

Posted by: RNB at November 27, 2016 10:30 AM (DjjZJ)

166 Le Carre does it for me. You have to pay attention to him, or he will leave you questioning your own comprehension skills.

Posted by: Sgt Major Sixta at November 27, 2016 10:22 AM (aAlFX)

Yes. His early stuff is good.I recall reading a couple of his later books, and they came across as angry rants. He is a big time lefty, I believe, and his politics seemed to come out more in these last two. My two cents worth.

Posted by: Deplorable Ian Galt at November 27, 2016 10:30 AM (8iiMU)

167
Posted by: grammie winger at November 27, 2016 09:52 AM (bpfzP)

Have you checked out the Step Into Reading books? There are five levels (I believe), so you can decide which level is the appropriate reading level for your grandson. There are a wide variety of titles, including some non-fiction (at a quick glance, I saw books on trains, volcanoes, and squids - my son's personal favorite)

Posted by: No One of Consequence at November 27, 2016 10:30 AM (BXC+l)

168 Anyhoo, my public service contribution to make all the other Morons feel better about their own libraries.
Posted by: That Deplorable SOB Van Owen at November 27, 2016 10:28 AM (9aqe+)


Well done, and as stated above, you need moar books. The shelves do not appear to be sagging, and you seem to have none on the floor.

Posted by: BurtTC at November 27, 2016 10:31 AM (Pz4pT)

169 My kids, now in college, loved Richard Scarry's books.

They are a combination of detailed illustrations and simple storylines.

Posted by: Deplorable Elinor, Who Usually Looks Lurkily at November 27, 2016 10:31 AM (NqQAS)

170 A Muldoon limerick for me! I've hit the big time.

Posted by: That Deplorable SOB Van Owen at November 27, 2016 10:32 AM (9aqe+)

171 Try looking to the history of Poland in the years leading up to breaking the Siege at Vienna. In particular the exploits of the brothers Sobieski prior John taking the Polish throne are right in the history you are asking about.

Sorry no titles to recommend.
Posted by: Old Toby at November 27, 2016 10:20 AM (+wjl1)

There's several books on the Siege of Vienna (1683), but nothing that I can find on the subsequent Great Turkish War (1683-1699) that drove the Ottomans out of Hungary & central Europe. Interestingly, both the first & last great battles (Zena, 1697) of that war took place on 9/11.

Posted by: The Stranger at November 27, 2016 10:32 AM (7qAYi)

172 Long time lurker, first time poster.

Well, damn it, lurk less and post more.

Posted by: Kodos the Executioner at November 27, 2016 10:33 AM (J8/9G)

173 Big A little a, what begins with "A"? Aunt Annie's alligator, A...A...A

...

Big Z little z, what begins with "Z"? A Zizzer Zazzer Zuzz, as you can plainly see.


Dr. Seuss illustrated A to Z just popped into my head. Used to read that to my son when he was four-ish.

Posted by: Muldoon at November 27, 2016 10:34 AM (wPiJc)

174 Those Zaporozhian are having way too much fun at the expense of the Catamite Of Tartary.

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at November 27, 2016 10:36 AM (6FqZa)

175 159
Read the historical "Reply". It's Horde-worthy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reply_of_the_Zaporozhian_Cossacks
Posted by: IllTemperedCur at November 27, 2016 10:28 AM (LuZz


Oh, that's marvelous!

Posted by: josephistan at November 27, 2016 10:38 AM (7qAYi)

176 166.My two cents worth

Agreed on his later work. I have always thought he began trying to please the literati and got sucked down the hole. The tradeoff of talent for political correctness is sad to watch.

Not only writers succumb. See W's second term

Posted by: The guy with the hair at November 27, 2016 10:38 AM (aAlFX)

177 Kelly Anne Conway has been delivering a public beat down on Mittens all morning, and why he should not and will not be Secretary of State. Truth hurts Mittens.

Posted by: Pepe, Proud American Nationalist at November 27, 2016 10:38 AM (A+FdC)

178 139
I like the handsome set of books in the upper right, but I can't read the titles.
Posted by: NaughtyPine at November 27, 2016 10:17 AM (UwMHj)


National Geographics in slipcases.

Posted by: rickl - THE MEDIA IS LYING TO YOU at November 27, 2016 10:39 AM (sdi6R)

179 169 - I loved Richard Scarry's books as a kid!

Posted by: josephistan at November 27, 2016 10:39 AM (7qAYi)

180 Kelly Anne Conway has been delivering a public beat down on Mittens all morning, and why he should not and will not be Secretary of State.

You know who this benefits? Mitt Romney.

Posted by: Hugh Hewitt at November 27, 2016 10:41 AM (6FqZa)

181 Nice library -- full, comfy. Looks like there is a bike in there. If so, just like my library books (and other stuff) and bike.

Doing a chronological read of M. Connelly -- because I am unsettled and haven't found anything yet. It's meh.

Posted by: gracepc at November 27, 2016 10:41 AM (OU4q6)

182 O'muse, I don't comment too often, but do I read all of your posts, especially the chess and book threads. Please accept my hearty thanks.

Posted by: GolfBoy at November 27, 2016 10:42 AM (8k5Qk)

183 Thou Babylonian scullion, Macedonian wheelwright, brewer of Jerusalem, goat-fucker of Alexandria, swineherd of Greater and Lesser Egypt, pig of Armenia, Podolian thief, catamite of Tartary, hangman of Kamyanets, and fool of all the world and underworld, an idiot before God, grandson of the Serpent, and the crick in our dick. Pig's snout, mare's arse, slaughterhouse cur, unchristened brow, screw thine own mother!
=============================

So the Turkish Sultan was a Democrat? Never knew that.

Posted by: MTF at November 27, 2016 10:42 AM (sCBEO)

184 All too often, when books capture this well, people being people, movies turn them into cardboard cutouts.
Posted by: BurtTC at November 27, 2016 10:27 AM (Pz4pT)

I think it's very difficult to turn a great book into a great movie because a novelist can do things a filmmaker can't - go deep into a character's thoughts and motivations. Novels can explore the internal lives of their characters in a way the movies can't or they can do so only in a relatively superficial way.

Shakespeare got around that by giving his characters soliloquies where they talk to the audience directly and reveal their real thoughts.

Pauline Kael (yes, her politics were crap, but she actually was a pretty good movie critic) once noted that filmmakers actually do better with second or third-rate novels and books. In those cases, the films can add subtleties the original works add. IMO, the "Godfather" movies are much better than Puzo's book.

Posted by: Donna&&&&V(deplorably brandishing ampersands&&&&and so there at November 27, 2016 10:42 AM (P8951)

185 I. M. Nincomppop.

What Kodos the Executioner said at 172

I just started posting after years on the nerd wall.

You'll get ignored about 99.9 % of the time at first, but that drops to about 99.6% after a year or two

Posted by: The guy with the hair at November 27, 2016 10:44 AM (aAlFX)

186 148 Long time lurker, first time poster.

Just started David Weber's Off Armageddon Reef.

Posted by: I.M. Nincompoop at November 27, 2016 10:21 AM (6K3JO)


Welcome! And with a nic like "I.M. Nincompoop", you'll fit right in.

Posted by: OregonMuse, deplorable since 2004 at November 27, 2016 10:45 AM (sZ8UC)

187 Since grammiew is an artist, maybe the illustrated rhymes would work. As I said, each of mine had a different illustrator that they wanted to 'live' in, so that might be an inspiration. Also, I forgot, for some reason my son adored the big fat 'science' books/encyclopedia on clearance at BandN - meant for much older kids - but he loved the pictures and actually worked at getting the words and concepts right.

Posted by: mustbequantum at November 27, 2016 10:46 AM (MIKMs)

188 The first chapter book I ever read was The Secret Sea by Robb White. Although I didn't understand it at the time, the battle our hero's destroyer was sunk during at the beginning of the book was the battle off Samar. I loved that book, read a bunch of Robb White, and began a lifetime of reading. I got that book at school through the Scholastic Reading program. I'm sure it would be banned today because it disrespects the Japanese, glorifies war, and doesn't include homosexuality (even though the hero was in the Navy).

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, This Is the Dawning of the Age of the Trumpius! at November 27, 2016 10:46 AM (Nwg0u)

189 Swineherd of Greater AND Lesser Egypt.



That's gotta hurt.

Posted by: eleven at November 27, 2016 10:46 AM (qUNWi)

190 I am sorry, I can not recommend The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors by Hornfischer.

For one thing, USS Gambier Bay was not the first carrier sunk by naval gunfire. That dubious honour fell to HMS Glory during the British retreat from Norway in 1940 when the aircraft carrier, with deck fouled by RAF fighters, was overtaken by two German warships and sunk.

Another issue is Hornfischer uses a fictional character from a Herman Wouk novel to criticize Admiral Halsey's actions in chasing Ozawa.

There is the matter of speculation near the end of the book, not as an appendix but in the body of the book. Hornfischer explicitly speculates it is because of Ozawa that Halsey only got one ship named after him while Spruance got a whole class of destroyers named for him.

Posted by: Anna Puma at November 27, 2016 10:46 AM (KMWTO)

191 Posted by: GolfBoy at November 27, 2016 10:42 AM (8k5Qk)

Thank you for your kind words.

Posted by: OregonMuse, deplorable since 2004 at November 27, 2016 10:46 AM (sZ8UC)

192 All too often, when books capture this well, people being people, movies turn them into cardboard cutouts.
Posted by: BurtTC at November 27, 2016 10:27 AM (Pz4pT)

I think it's very difficult to turn a great book into a great movie because a novelist can do things a filmmaker can't - go deep into a character's thoughts and motivations. Novels can explore the internal lives of their characters in a way the movies can't or they can do so only in a relatively superficial way.

Shakespeare got around that by giving his characters soliloquies where they talk to the audience directly and reveal their real thoughts.

Pauline Kael (yes, her politics were crap, but she actually was a pretty good movie critic) once noted that filmmakers actually do better with second or third-rate novels and books. In those cases, the films can add subtleties the original works add. IMO, the "Godfather" movies are much better than Puzo's book.
Posted by: Donna&&&&V(deplorably brandishing ampersands&&&&and so there at November 27, 2016 10:42 AM (P8951)


That's only a partial answer. The aforementioned LOTR movies, the problem wasn't how to give time to each character, it's that the filmmaker decided to make everyone an angsty teenager. Or worse, have them be "bad" then "good," then back again.

The opportunity to show people (and dwarves and elves) behaving the way real(ish) characters would, was there, but Jax decided instead it was better to put time and effort into CGI effects.

Posted by: BurtTC at November 27, 2016 10:47 AM (Pz4pT)

193 I seem to have fallen into the Victorian Era, reading-wise. First it was 'Inside the Victorian Home'- non fiction domestic history of middle class Victorians. Really interesting, and I'm fascinated-and slightly freaked out- by the domestic ethos of the time. And how the advice books rubbed up against the actual practices of ordinary people. It's a wonderful reminder that just because an idea is officially sanctioned, doesn't mean it's universal.
Next on the reading list is Anthony Trollope's Barchester Chronicles, because I've read some of his other work and found it interesting in an oh-my-god- what-a train-wreck sort of way. The plots and characters, I mean, not the writing. And it's fun to read something that has no political connection to anything that's happening today.

Posted by: right wing yankee, who is less whippersnapper-y than before at November 27, 2016 10:48 AM (26lkV)

194 Aetius451AD:
But I will buy that he is that rooster crowing.

If all comments were this interesting, I might not make it past the top ten. Bravo!

Posted by: French Jeton at November 27, 2016 10:49 AM (WMvHw)

195 Le Carre does it for me. You have to pay attention to him, or he will leave you questioning your own comprehension skills.

Posted by: Sgt Major Sixta at November 27, 2016 10:22 AM (aAlFX)

Yes. His early stuff is good.I recall reading a couple of his later books, and they came across as angry rants. He is a big time lefty, I believe, and his politics seemed to come out more in these last two. My two cents worth.

Posted by: Deplorable Ian Galt at November 27, 2016 10:30 AM (8iiMU)


Le Carre went mad with America hate after 9/11. Nothing he wrote since then is worth reading, even if you get it for free.

Before that is another matter. His Karla trilogy is arguably the best in the genre.

Posted by: cool breeze at November 27, 2016 10:50 AM (StZrq)

196 180 Kelly Anne Conway has been delivering a public beat down on Mittens all morning, and why he should not and will not be Secretary of State.

I don't understand this at all. Just pick somebody else already. Why the continued bashing of Romney by top Trump people unless it's some childish schoolyard payback by Trump who never intended to appoint Romney.

Why alienate people who admire Romney but voted for Trump with this game.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at November 27, 2016 10:50 AM (A3edJ)

197 178
National Geographics in slipcases.
Posted by: rickl - THE MEDIA IS LYING TO YOU

Well, then it's even more like Uncle Gary's library. Any fishing magazines?

Posted by: NaughtyPine at November 27, 2016 10:50 AM (UwMHj)

198 Would love to see Anna Kendrick get the Anne Wyatt part in Fire Me. She's my new Impossible Crush.

Reading One Jump Ahead by Mark L. Van Name. About a nanomachine-enhanced ex-mercenary whose best friend and partner is a sentient military flying machine bristling with weapons. The machine's name is Lobo, which is a very unsubtle tip of the cap to Keith Laumer, he of the Bolo series of books. Of course Laumer is also well known for his Retief books, which are all classics of hilarity and Sci Fi fun. All of which I've read.

There are 5 books in the Jon and Lobo series, all of which I will probably read before digging into the five books I got last weekend at the Mercer Island Thrift Store.

Ahhhhhh, Anna Kendrick. Sing to me!

Posted by: Sharkman at November 27, 2016 10:51 AM (kD0u4)

199 the new yorker cover is by saul steinberg, the brilliant cartoonist and fine artist. if you have a chance get one of his books of "cartoons" (they're more than that) published in the 50's and 60's. you'll be glad you did. he's a great draftsman and observer of the human and american condition.

of course, he's not from nyc. he was an emigre from europe. but that's very much to the point. what most of these ny "elites" fail to recognize is that just about all of their industries are dependent on the rest of the country - publishing, finance, the various art worlds, etc. without the rest of this country's people, resources & investments, nyc would shrivel and die.

Posted by: musical jolly chimp at November 27, 2016 10:51 AM (WTSFk)

200 Manhattan needs a Project.

Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at November 27, 2016 10:52 AM (IqV8l)

201 Today's the first day of Advent. I'll have to put out the wreath, and see what other decorations I can get set up.

Posted by: josephistan at November 27, 2016 10:52 AM (7qAYi)

202 180 Kelly Anne Conway has been delivering a public beat down on Mittens all morning, and why he should not and will not be Secretary of State.

You know who this benefits? Mitt Romney.
Posted by: Hugh Hewitt at November 27, 2016 10:41 AM (6FqZa)

I'm guessing it benefits America and myself.

Posted by: Rep. Dana Rohrabacher at November 27, 2016 10:52 AM (A+FdC)

203 Posted by: Anna Puma at November 27, 2016 10:46 AM (KMWTO)

Another thing to be aware of - not a historical issue, but irritating - is the Kindle versions of a lot of these books are puddles of poor OCR, especially because ship names are usually italicized. I think it's Symonds' Battle of Midway that talks about IJNS Hiryu and then a few pages later IJNS Hmyu has magically sprung from the sea. I read Shattered Sword in dead tree, but I've heard the Kindle version has similar annoying OCR errors.

Posted by: hogmartin at November 27, 2016 10:55 AM (8nWyX)

204 I love spy fiction, and literate spy fiction is a special treat. But Le Carre has never grabbed my attention for long. He writes some wonderful passages but his plotting is lacking- either excessively hard to follow or kind of obvious. Also, his writing goes on too long for my taste; he's one of those writers who could have used a really good editor. A different editor, I mean.

Posted by: MTF at November 27, 2016 10:55 AM (sCBEO)

205 175 159
Read the historical "Reply". It's Horde-worthy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reply_of_the_Zaporozhian_Cossacks
Posted by: IllTemperedCur at November 27, 2016 10:28 AM (LuZz

Oh, that's marvelous!
Posted by: josephistan at November 27, 2016 10:38 AM (7qAYi)


We ought to send a copy of that to Trump. It could come in handy someday; you never know.

Posted by: rickl - THE MEDIA IS LYING TO YOU at November 27, 2016 10:55 AM (sdi6R)

206 197 -- No fishing magazines, but about 30 years worth of The American Rifleman.

Posted by: That Deplorable SOB Van Owen at November 27, 2016 10:56 AM (9aqe+)

207 196 180 Kelly Anne Conway has been delivering a public beat down on Mittens all morning, and why he should not and will not be Secretary of State.

I don't understand this at all. Just pick somebody else already. Why the continued bashing of Romney by top Trump people unless it's some childish schoolyard payback by Trump who never intended to appoint Romney.

Why alienate people who admire Romney but voted for Trump with this game.
Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at November 27, 2016 10:50 AM (A3edJ

Romney alienated himself and caught harder to get Clinton elected and against Trump (along with the rest of the NeverTrump brigade) than he ever did against Barack Obama. They ran a spoiler for crying out loud in Macmuffin.

Trump and company are cleaning house and even better he is actually listening to his supporters and the people he serves.... And not big money donors and lobbyists.

Refreshing.

Posted by: Pepe, Proud American Nationalist at November 27, 2016 10:58 AM (A+FdC)

208 195 Cool breeze.

I think the Guardian did a piece on him a while back titled

From cold war spy to angry old man shouting at trees, or something like that..

But as you said that's a different matter,

And I always substitute the word "Soros" for "Karla" in that context..

Posted by: The guy with the hair at November 27, 2016 10:59 AM (aAlFX)

209 Any suggestions would be welcome. I'm off to church and can't stay, but I'll look in later this afternoon to see if anyone has a suggestion for my dilemma. Thanks.
Posted by: grammie winger at November 27, 2016 09:52 AM (bpfzP)


Grammie, the Cat in the Hat books are very good. Also some of the older beginning readers we saw as kids are around.

Try at the goodwill bin store if you have one local to you.

Kids are hard on books and they don't go to the retail stores after kids read them hard - and they are way cheaper bought that way.

Alternatively, you can make your own. Cut pictures out of magazines, paste them to half sheets of card-stock, and write simple sentences under them in sharpie. You can bind them together in books with Japanese Stab Binding - that just requires an awl, thread and a needle. You can have them laminated if you want to keep them for multiple readings.

Posted by: Kindltot at November 27, 2016 11:00 AM (vU79J)

210 120 Let me start this in the literary sense and then segue also into Thanksgiving....

Posted by: Aetius451AD at November 27, 2016 10:02 AM (NLQj5)


Threadwinner.

Posted by: OregonMuse, deplorable since 2004 at November 27, 2016 11:00 AM (sZ8UC)

211 I don't understand this at all. Just pick somebody else already. Why the continued bashing of Romney by top Trump people unless it's some childish schoolyard payback by Trump who never intended to appoint Romney.

Why alienate people who admire Romney but voted for Trump with this game.
Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at November 27, 2016 10:50 AM (A3edJ)


Most likely the battle is not yet decided, and the different factions within Team Trump are the ones doing the fighting.

Fault Trump for not signaling to his troops the outcome, or maybe that's what Conway is doing now. But we can bet that much of the squabbling that gets played out in public is political backroom types, doing what they do.

It will be interesting to see if Trump starts telling these people to knock it off.

Posted by: BurtTC at November 27, 2016 11:01 AM (Pz4pT)

212 filmmakers actually do better with second or third-rate novels and books.

-
Boy, that must mean that The Girl On tbe Train is a great movie.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, This Is the Dawning of the Age of the Trumpius! at November 27, 2016 11:01 AM (Nwg0u)

213 Reading "Fields for President" by W.C. A very short read but funny.

Pity he never got the chance to run the country.

Posted by: BeckoningChasm at November 27, 2016 11:01 AM (MZcWR)

214 16 Giovanni Guareschi's The Little World of Don Camillo stories are now becoming available in e-book format. They tell the story of Don Camillo, a hulking Catholic priest, and Peppone, the equally huge Communist mayor, of a small town in the Po valley.

Posted by: Kodos the Executioner at November 27, 2016 09:09 AM (J8/9G)

The Don Camillo stories get you right in the heart and reflect values that today almost no longer exist. Guareschi led an amazing life as he was a monarchist to the end. The Christian Democrats AND the Communists hated him, yet he never backed down from his political beliefs and served jail time for them.
Let's see any author today live such a life.

Posted by: RondinellaMamma at November 27, 2016 11:02 AM (oQQwD)

215 People who admire Romney?

Please

Posted by: Nevergiveup at November 27, 2016 11:02 AM (dELE3)

216 kindletot and others were discussing basic bookbinding on the ONT. For those interested, check out "Hand Bookbinding: A Manual of Instruction" by Aldren A. Watson.

My mechanical abilities are, to put it generously, limited. But I love books and have enjoyed this book on the matter for many years. Those with talent could do a lot with the techniques Watson discusses.

Posted by: JTB at November 27, 2016 11:02 AM (V+03K)

217 Hail, Book Thread!

Charmingly deshabille library pic. Like a stained cookbook, you know it is good because it is well-used.

I recommend Daniel Pinkwater's children's books, especially The Big Orange Splot. (Which is nicely subversive about boring conformity, and the Moron Way of having pictures of pretty ladies around if you like that sort of thing). When the kid gets more confident, Pickle Chiffon Pie

Hope all the Morons have good books to read. You never know when a 20 lb cat will start his winter hibernation sleep in your lap and you won't be able to get up until, say, February... (sigh)

Posted by: Sabrina Chase at November 27, 2016 11:03 AM (SuJIo)

218 Hope all the Morons have good books to read. You never know when a 20 lb cat will start his winter hibernation sleep in your lap and you won't be able to get up until, say, February... (sigh)
Posted by: Sabrina Chase at November 27, 2016 11:03 AM (SuJIo)

isn't that what the TV remote control is for and kids for getting you something to eat and drink?

Posted by: Nevergiveup at November 27, 2016 11:04 AM (dELE3)

219 the new yorker cover is by saul steinberg, the brilliant cartoonist and fine artist. if you have a chance get one of his books of "cartoons" (they're more than that) published in the 50's and 60's. you'll be glad you did. he's a great draftsman and observer of the human and american condition.

of course, he's not from nyc. he was an emigre from europe. but that's very much to the point. what most of these ny "elites" fail to recognize is that just about all of their industries are dependent on the rest of the country - publishing, finance, the various art worlds, etc. without the rest of this country's people, resources & investments, nyc would shrivel and die.
Posted by: musical jolly chimp at November 27, 2016 10:51 AM (WTSFk)


Thanks, just ordered one of his books on Amazon, "The Discovery of America."

Posted by: BurtTC at November 27, 2016 11:04 AM (Pz4pT)

220 Posted by: cool breeze at November 27, 2016 10:50 AM (StZrq)


I don't know. It wasn't just 911. He really started being Ranty McLefty with "The Little Drummer Girl".

911 probably just reset his inner tuning to Carzy Commie Uncle status.

Posted by: H D Woodard - "Wearing the Cat" at November 27, 2016 11:04 AM (9q7Dl)

221 I am looking for recommendations. I know little about the Korean War. My Dad served -- Italy and Africa WWII (USACE) . Later, Vietnam, Laos (non combat USAID). We talked some but never about the Korean War.

Small "history" of, or personal recollections would be a good start for me. Or whatever you guys think.

Thanks in advance.

Posted by: gracepc at November 27, 2016 11:04 AM (OU4q6)

222 Nonfiction recommendations:

If anyone around is the kind of history nerd who loved the Connections TV series, take a look at Bee Wilson's Consider the Fork. It's an engaging look at how cooking techniques and equipment and eating utensils shaped, and were influenced by, societies up to modern times. Very good read if you're both a history nerd and a food nerd.
http://www.considerthefork.com/

Along those lines, also check out Mark Kurlansky's Salt and Cod, histories of two food items that were strategic assets for centuries and even triggered wars, but that we don't think twice about today.

Posted by: hogmartin at November 27, 2016 11:05 AM (8nWyX)

223 201 Today's the first day of Advent. I'll have to put out the wreath, and see what other decorations I can get set up.
Posted by: josephistan at November 27, 2016 10:52 AM (7qAYi)

===

Wishing you and all the Christian morons a joyful Advent season! Something Joos and Christians can agree on: Moshiach habah!

Posted by: San Franpsycho at November 27, 2016 11:05 AM (EZebt)

224 Posted by: gracepc at November 27, 2016 11:04 AM (OU4q6)

What branch?

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at November 27, 2016 11:05 AM (A3edJ)

225 Ahhhhhh, Anna Kendrick. Sing to me!
Posted by: Sharkman at November 27, 2016 10:51 AM (kD0u4)

Appropriately enough for the book thread, Anna Kendrick has a book out - Scrappy Little Nobody. I've been debating whether or not to get it, primarily because it's Anna Kendrick!

Posted by: No One of Consequence at November 27, 2016 11:06 AM (BXC+l)

226 Posted by: gracepc at November 27, 2016 11:04 AM (OU4q6)

Sorry must read closer.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at November 27, 2016 11:06 AM (A3edJ)

227 "211 I don't understand this at all. Just pick somebody else already. Why the continued bashing of Romney by top Trump people unless it's some childish schoolyard payback by Trump who never intended to appoint Romney.

Why alienate people who admire Romney but voted for Trump with this game.
Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth"

Agree. He doesn't need Romney's support ers now, but they will ultimately be part of any lasting legacy.

Humiliating him is petty and Obamanesque.

Posted by: Pep at November 27, 2016 11:07 AM (LAe3v)

228 hogmartin- those both sound awesome and right up my alley. I'd happily spend the rest of my life reading about all the interesting little- and not so little- things that don't make it into the bog-standard textbooks that were inflicted on me in school.

Posted by: right wing yankee, who is less whippersnapper-y than before at November 27, 2016 11:11 AM (26lkV)

229 I guess people with Amazon or Barnes + Noble discounts burning holes in their digital pockets could always purchase my book to read.

Amazon Kindle link
http://astore.amazon.com/aoshq-20/detail/B014BTSEYO

Barnes and Noble link
http://preview.tinyurl.com/zynnfah

Buy Moron books.

Posted by: Anna Puma at November 27, 2016 11:13 AM (KMWTO)

230 OT: Put Romney at IRS -- clean out the swamp.

Posted by: mustbequantum at November 27, 2016 11:13 AM (MIKMs)

231 OT: Put Romney at IRS -- clean out the swamp.

Posted by: mustbequantum at November 27, 2016 11:13 AM (MIKMs)

Or the VA

Posted by: Nevergiveup at November 27, 2016 11:14 AM (dELE3)

232 "I now have to wonder if [Heinlein] was aware of this Idaho Falls incident and ran with it." The SL-1 accident happened in 1961. "Blowups Happen' was published in 1940.
Posted by: RNB at November 27, 2016 10:30 AM (DjjZJ)
166 Le Carre does it for me. You have to pay attention to him, or he


H Beam Piper wrote Day of the Moron in 1951: it is about the intersection of labor union politics and nuclear physics

It is for free on Gutenberg
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/18949

Posted by: Kindltot at November 27, 2016 11:16 AM (vU79J)

233 216 kindletot and others were discussing basic bookbinding on the ONT. For those interested, check out "Hand Bookbinding: A Manual of Instruction" by Aldren A. Watson.

Watson's two books on woodworking are gems of the highest order.
'Hand Tools and How To Use Them'
and
'Furniture Making Plain and Simple'

The pencil illustrations are unsurpassed.

Posted by: retropox at November 27, 2016 11:16 AM (s6N8L)

234 For those interested in bookbinding, I saw this school exhibiting at the Boston Antiquarian Book Fair.

http://tinyurl.com/lxoaqru

Posted by: MTF at November 27, 2016 11:17 AM (sCBEO)

235 Anybody think, as I do, that the Red Sparrow novel by Jason Matthews was good?

It certainly had a cinematic ending. Tense spy swap on a bridge at the Russian border, in winter, snipers at the ready on both sides.

I got it for $0 through our Amazon Prime membership, and will gladly pay for his #2 in the series, and #3 when it comes out next spring.

Posted by: the littl shyning man at November 27, 2016 11:17 AM (U6f54)

236 Sabrina Chase: Yes! I forgot Daniel Pinkwater.

Posted by: mustbequantum at November 27, 2016 11:20 AM (MIKMs)

237 Put Romney in charge of a new "Grace Commission"!

Let him and his consultants identify the list of cuts to make all over the government.

Make the VA work better, but why stop there? Go through all the agencies, like Godzilla through Tokyo.

Posted by: MTF at November 27, 2016 11:20 AM (sCBEO)

238 I updated my page to include what it means to be an Infantryman.

link in sig.

Posted by: Raider Nation at November 27, 2016 11:21 AM (CRotO)

239 Life lessons from the Berenstein Bears, including alternate realities.

https://tinyurl.com/okv29de

https://tinyurl.com/grmlrg6

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, This Is the Dawning of the Age of the Trumpius! at November 27, 2016 11:21 AM (Nwg0u)

240 Just an aside, but I hope Carrot Man remains on the sidebar for a while; he just tickles me to no end.

Fun fact about the episode, considered a "jump the shark" moment for the series, its "Spock's Brain", if you will: Guy Williams and June Lockhart were written out of the next two episodes at full salary because of their uncontrollable laughter during filming.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at November 27, 2016 11:22 AM (EnKk6)

241 Started reading The Travels of Jaime McPheeters, which won a Pulitzer way back when I was a kid. Thought it might be as good as Huckleberry Finn, for our 10-year-old grandson, who is an avid reader.

Sad to say it's got way too much violence.

Posted by: the littl shyning man at November 27, 2016 11:22 AM (U6f54)

242 Nevergivup-- no kids of my own and the neighbors complain when I "borrow" theirs and neglect to return them. And no TV. That's how I have time to write! (When not pinned underneath a House Panther...)

Please send a handsome rescuer with hot chocolate and cookies and a cat toy.

Posted by: Sabrina Chase at November 27, 2016 11:23 AM (SuJIo)

243 Kindltot, You mentioned some cloth you used on your bookbinding covers during the ONT. What kind of cloth is it? I would like to try making some half-assed journals that sort of look like old bookkeeping ledgers. Thanks.

Posted by: JTB at November 27, 2016 11:26 AM (V+03K)

244 173, Muldoon - was just reading that to my 7 year old yesterday and was pleased to see she could sound out some of the words (she is autistic and very delayed). Dr Seuss cracks me up especially his A BC book.

Posted by: IC at November 27, 2016 11:27 AM (gcme+)

245 Anna @ 190 - I stand by my recommendation of "The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors." Hornfischer, with some justification, has the opinion that Spruance was a better admiral than Halsey. The Quiet Warrior deserved a fifth star rather than The Bull.

Halsey's haring off after the decoy Northern Force was one factor in not getting a class of warships named after him. Getting s schwacked by TWO typhoons as likely another.

I suspect naming a class of destroyers after him was in part to make up for Spruance not getting that fifth star.

Regards.

Posted by: Butch at November 27, 2016 11:27 AM (hXu8T)

246 Read the historical "Reply". It's Horde-worthy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reply_of_the_Zaporozhian_Cossacks


They don't write 'em like that any more.

Posted by: Greg Kihn at November 27, 2016 11:27 AM (IcT7t)

247 Since Prime was mentioned:

Us Prime Members just got free access to Audible Channels.

I don't see anything worth listening to, but others may.

Posted by: Oschisms at November 27, 2016 11:27 AM (ZsN9X)

248
If I were a military officer I would have my men read Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield.


It's on several read lists, the Commandant's Reading List for one.

Posted by: no good deed at November 27, 2016 11:28 AM (/O5Ax)

249 Kelly Anne Conway has been delivering a public beat down on Mittens all morning, and why he should not and will not be Secretary of State. Truth hurts Mittens.
Posted by: Pepe, Proud American Nationalist at November 27, 2016 10:38 AM (A+FdC)


Trump per his close in people say that he is a voracious reader. I wondered if he had read and digested Machiavelli's The Prince.

The Prince was one of the book suggested to me for career enhancement.

Posted by: Kindltot at November 27, 2016 11:28 AM (vU79J)

250 From Jimmie to Carl,

The Infantryman walks the line between life and death and lives to do it again.

We came to terms with our mortality and place the lives of others above our own.

We've raised our hands and said, "Take me, America. I am willing to kill for you. I am willing to sacrifice and I will be the first to do for you."

Because of this, we have a certain pride and arrogance that others don't understand.

Today, enjoy this day with your new wife.

Tomorrow, we face our mortality together.

Because we are brothers.

We are the Infantry.

Jimmie Fredrich.

"Infantry all the way"

21 October 2016.

Posted by: Raider Nation at November 27, 2016 11:29 AM (CRotO)

251 First to die, ugh.

Posted by: Raider Nation at November 27, 2016 11:30 AM (CRotO)

252 Oh, and on bookbinding...it is a lot of fun. You can also re-bind paperbacks as hardbacks fairly easily. New, blank books are a bit more difficult. Any kind of cloth can be used, just make sure to use the bookbinder's paste instead of glue that might seep through the cloth. I've even done leather bindings (Tandy Leather, if they are in your area, has thin supple leather that works for books for not extortionate prices.)

Posted by: Sabrina Chase at November 27, 2016 11:31 AM (SuJIo)

253 Your conclusions were all wrong. Halsey acted stupidly.

Posted by: Marko Ramius at November 27, 2016 11:32 AM (8nWyX)

254 Jimmie works for the VA here in Temple, and is a wounded combat veteran.

He was also Carl's best man.

Infantry all the way.

Posted by: Raider Nation at November 27, 2016 11:32 AM (CRotO)

255 one further comment on steinberg's new yorker cover: new york's parochialism was shattered on 9/11, when america opened its hearts and resources to new york. new yorkers like to see the city as separate, an international city (which it is). but it is actually wholly an american city. many nyers expect some kind of hostility from the rest of the country, but 9/11 showed that wasn't the case.

of course, it didn't take long for downtown denizens to appear on c-span saying "thank you, america, now go away" or for the mayor to accuse mid-americans of a muslim bombing in times square.

the thought crossed my mind shortly after 9/11 that osama's biggest mistake was hitting nyc. if he had hit d.c., the pentagon and langley, half pf nyc would have said they deserved it.

Posted by: musical jolly chimp at November 27, 2016 11:33 AM (WTSFk)

256 Anonosaurus,

Friday night I had a few friends over and we talked about the Mandela Effect. One guy said that he was surprised when Obama went to Cuba and met Castro because he remembered the old monster dying in the 90's. I read the news when I got up yesterday and the first thing I thought was, "Holy shit! We killed Fidel!"

I am convinced that the people who thought Mandela died in prison in the 80's all saw Cry Freedom and have him confused with Stephen Biko.

Posted by: the guy that moves pianos for a living at November 27, 2016 11:33 AM (x3uSY)

257 Not a book, but I just read an article by Michael J. Totten, "The Last Communist City".

http://www.city-journal.org/html/last-communist-city-13649.html

It's from 2014, but it's a good link to send to your Facebook friends who are all weepy over Fidel.

Posted by: rickl - THE MEDIA IS LYING TO YOU at November 27, 2016 11:33 AM (sdi6R)

258 In all honesty, I think Romney would be a very poor choice for an important position within the Trump administration.

With all the behind the scenes back-stabbing and attempts to sabotage Trump's run in favor of Hillary, you could never be sure of his loyalty.

I would never hire someone like that.

However, if he really wants Romney then put him in some big mess like the IRS and give him a timetable to clean things up.

Then if he does a great job look at him for something else.

Posted by: H D Woodard - "Wearing the Cat" at November 27, 2016 11:35 AM (9q7Dl)

259 Whenever I see photos of morons' libraries, I always feel a pang of sadness for all of the books I've left behind in my moves. They're just too heavy to "buy back" in a move. There are a handful that I still have from my youth - my Missal (from First Communion), Elementary Symbolic Logic (Mr D and I both took that course), Plato's Republic and The Essays of Montaigne (from freshman year in college). Not to mention the ton of books Mr. Deplorable had. I was only able to save a small portion of his art books.

I consider books to be symbolic of the life I've lived - many enjoyed, but ultimately left behind. You can't take it with you - not in practice - but your memories are portable and non-taxable.

Posted by: Miley, Duchess of the DSR at November 27, 2016 11:36 AM (tHwdc)

260 I don't want romney at State because he'd be on TV all day every day and I would have to listen to that annoying sucking sound he always makes when he talks..But hey that's just me

Posted by: Nevergiveup at November 27, 2016 11:37 AM (dELE3)

261 I think Romney could do some good at the VA or IRS. I can't see him as Secretary of State.

Posted by: rickl - THE MEDIA IS LYING TO YOU at November 27, 2016 11:39 AM (sdi6R)

262 hogmartin, thanks for those recommendations. Just put them on my list. Right up my alley. Also, thanks for your help on Friday.

Posted by: Infidel at November 27, 2016 11:39 AM (So9FI)

263 259 Whenever I see photos of morons' libraries, I always feel a pang of sadness for all of the books I've left behind in my moves. They're just too heavy to "buy back" in a move. There are a handful that I still have from my youth - my Missal (from First Communion), Elementary Symbolic Logic (Mr D and I both took that course), Plato's Republic and The Essays of Montaigne (from freshman year in college). Not to mention the ton of books Mr. Deplorable had. I was only able to save a small portion of his art books.

---

Understand too well, Miley.

Most of my books now are in boxes, since moving has been a constant the past 15 years or so.

One day, I'll have a library again.

Posted by: SMFH at November 27, 2016 11:39 AM (CRotO)

264 Posted by: josephistan at November 27, 2016 10:52 AM (7qAYi)

And soon Advent Calendar. I love them and there are some great ones out there now. Growing up we always had Advent Calendar and to this day I get one.

Posted by: gracepc at November 27, 2016 11:39 AM (OU4q6)

265 I finished A Gentleman in Moscow this past week. I loved it. I am still a little hungover from that book. If you like Russian history, this may be a book for you. A beautiful capture of the human condition.

I am also reading Evicted. Pretty interesting. I find it to be balanced. I could be wrong, but I am learning a lot about both sides.

Posted by: Quirky bookworm at November 27, 2016 11:40 AM (gppsv)

266 Posted by: Infidel at November 27, 2016 11:39 AM (So9FI)

How did it turn out with your stove?

Posted by: hogmartin at November 27, 2016 11:41 AM (8nWyX)

267 Romney would be nuts to take a job in the Trump administration. Why would you take a job in an administration where so many in the administration are allowed to go out and publicly trash you?

Just give the job to Rudy and move on. No need to start a new administration with all this needless drama, there will be enough drama coming up soon.

Posted by: JackStraw at November 27, 2016 11:41 AM (/tuJf)

268 Halsey acted stupidly.

-
In the novel War and Remembrance, Woulk uses Halsey's mistake as a metaphor for the limits of technology. The then cutting edge technology of Halsey's fleet was undone by the human capacity to err.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, This Is the Dawning of the Age of the Trumpius! at November 27, 2016 11:44 AM (Nwg0u)

269 Give Mittens something do-nothing, like Commerce.

Mittens is Lyft.
Rudy is Uber.
Bolton is a gold-plated limo.

Posted by: Oschisms at November 27, 2016 11:45 AM (ZsN9X)

270 Speaking of le Carre, I enjoyed "The Night Manager", and the Amazon video version.

Posted by: An Poc ar Buile Uafásach at November 27, 2016 11:45 AM (1zS3A)

271 Idaho Falls SL1 documentary from the Atomic Energy Commission on youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOt7xDKxmCM

Posted by: Chuck C at November 27, 2016 11:45 AM (h99GH)

272 Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at November 27, 2016 11:05 AM (A3edJ)

Unfortunately I do not know. He has passed and my brother, in another state, is keeper of the memorabilia. Although I have the photo albums -- alas, packed away. I came too late to some of the particulars. And I regret that.

Posted by: gracepc at November 27, 2016 11:46 AM (OU4q6)

273 Posted by: Oschisms at November 27, 2016 11:45 AM (ZsN9X)

Don't want to turn this into political thread. But final comment. I am in the give Mittens nothing crowd.

Posted by: gracepc at November 27, 2016 11:48 AM (OU4q6)

274 Kelly Anne Conway has been delivering a public beat down on Mittens all morning, and why he should not and will not be Secretary of State.

I don't understand this at all. Just pick somebody else already. Why the continued bashing of Romney by top Trump people unless it's some childish schoolyard payback by Trump who never intended to appoint Romney.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at November 27, 2016 10:50 AM (A3edJ


Plus, it indicates that the Trump people are not taking the recount threat seriously. By this time in 2000, James Baker had already been parachuted into Florida to coordinate the Republican response to the recount there, but I have heard nothing similar from Team Trump.

If they ignore this situation, the Democrats will find a way to set a new standard in election theft. And then all the time Kellyanne spent bashing Mittens will seem pretty pointless.

Posted by: HTL at November 27, 2016 11:48 AM (mUWne)

275 Miley, what annoys me about the books I gave away when I moved is that I have books on my shelves that I've carted around for years - and didn't like that much. I got rid of books I really miss and kept these turkeys? What was I thinking? The only thing I can think of was that I was in such deep packing fatigue that I wasn't thinking straight. "I can't pack another box of books, that stack over there will have to go."

Posted by: Donna&&&&V.(brandishing ampersands) at November 27, 2016 11:49 AM (P8951)

276 What annoys me the most Butch about that is Hornfischer is explicitly beating the reader upside the head with HIS opinion in what is supposed to be a history book; a majority of who's material I have already read in such books as three from Edwin P. Hoyt: The Battle of Leyte Gulf, The Men of the Gambier Bay, and How they Won the War in the Pacific: Nimitz and his Admirals along with Theodore Roscoe's Tin Cans.

*goes and checks sources*

I really should pause and double-check. It was HMS Glorious that had succumbed to naval gun fire from Scharnhorst and Gneisenau.

Posted by: Anna Puma at November 27, 2016 11:49 AM (KMWTO)

277 *Waves to Anna*

How's the writing going?

Posted by: SMFH at November 27, 2016 11:50 AM (CRotO)

278 But final comment. I am in the give Mittens nothing crowd.
Posted by: gracepc at November 27, 2016 11:48 AM (OU4q6)

My final offer is this: nothing. Not even the fee for the security investigation, which I would appreciate if you would put up personally mr romney!

Posted by: Nevergiveup at November 27, 2016 11:50 AM (dELE3)

279 For pete's sake, no leader needs Machiavelli any more -- all you need is Vetinari and the Pratchett oeuvre.

Posted by: mustbequantum at November 27, 2016 11:51 AM (MIKMs)

280 SOB Van Owen: Fun shelves. Needs more dust and pet hair.

Posted by: mustbequantum at November 27, 2016 11:53 AM (MIKMs)

281 Miley, what annoys me about the books I gave away
when I moved is that I have books on my shelves that I've carted around
for years - and didn't like that much. I got rid of books I really
miss and kept these turkeys? What was I thinking? The only thing I can
think of was that I was in such deep packing fatigue that I wasn't
thinking straight. "I can't pack another box of books, that stack over
there will have to go."

Posted by: DonnaV.(brandishing ampersands) at November 27, 2016 11:49 AM (P8951)

Yeah - when bugging out, a kind of insanity rules. OTOH, many books have been replaced. Multiple times.

Posted by: Miley, Duchess of the DSR at November 27, 2016 11:53 AM (tHwdc)

282 "Starship Trooper" is a really cool Yes song.

Who knew there was a book?

Posted by: RKae at November 27, 2016 11:55 AM (JTuAn)

283 SMFH, managed to get just over 2,100 written last night/this morning. Now it is really crunch time. I have 4 days left to madly scribble another 10,000 words. *thud*

Posted by: Anna Puma at November 27, 2016 11:55 AM (KMWTO)

284 Posted by: mustbequantum at November 27, 2016 11:51 AM (MIKMs)

A buddy who is an electronics hobbyist once took apart a rather loud wall clock, put in a stepper motor, and programmed an Arduino to to the Vetinari clock trick - never tick at the right second, but still manage to keep time.

It was unnerving and awesome at the same time.

Posted by: hogmartin at November 27, 2016 11:55 AM (8nWyX)

285 230 OT: Put Romney at IRS -- clean out the swamp

now, *that* would be a big dig.

Posted by: Anachronda at November 27, 2016 11:56 AM (BxB4b)

286 How did it turn out with your stove?

Posted by: hogmartin at November 27, 2016 11:41 AM (8nWyX)

Good, ventured out Friday and bought one. Won't be delivered for a couple weeks.
Thanks for your help. I'm excited. I ended up with the one you gave me a review of after about 4 hours of comparison research.

Posted by: Infidel at November 27, 2016 11:56 AM (So9FI)

287 2,500 words a day.

Yep, crunch time.

Working on some loglines right now, which are due Monday.

This week, the outline.

Posted by: SMFH at November 27, 2016 11:56 AM (CRotO)

288 >>>Small "history" of, or personal recollections would be a good start for me. Or whatever you guys think.

Thanks in advance.

Posted by: gracepc at November 27, 2016 11:04 AM (OU4q6)

===

Try "Dispatches" by Michael Herr. I read it more than 30 years ago. Nonetheless, when I saw your post it was the first book that jumped to mind.

Posted by: An Poc ar Buile at November 27, 2016 11:57 AM (1zS3A)

289 Miley, yes,I've done the same thing - replaced books I used to own. Luckily, some of those were classics I had no problem finding in used bookstores or estate sales.

Posted by: Donna&&&&V.(brandishing ampersands) at November 27, 2016 11:58 AM (P8951)

290 28: nice! I'm heading to the Caverns today, which is up your way, I think.

Posted by: LASue, now even more deplorable at November 27, 2016 11:58 AM (wgFcF)

291 Hillary Clinton's campaign intends to back the statewide election recount effort in the battleground state of Wisconsin spearheaded by third-party candidate Jill Stein.





Why even pretend any more that Stein is behind this. She's just another paid stooge like Comrade Bernie was. The recount is the Beast's and her minion's doing

Posted by: TheQuietMan at November 27, 2016 11:59 AM (auHtY)

292 I just finished Phil Collins' autobiography. Really enjoyed it. He comes across as a really nice guy.

Oh, also, discovered "Genesis" is the basis for "Spinal Tap." Who knew?!?!!

Posted by: An Poc ar Buile Uafa'sach at November 27, 2016 12:00 PM (1zS3A)

293 In the 80's, while a paratrooper in Italy, ST was on the NCO Professional Development reading list. That time was my third reading.

Posted by: Iron Mike Golf at November 27, 2016 12:01 PM (di1hb)

294 Posted by: An Poc ar Buile at November 27, 2016 11:57 AM (1zS3A)

Thanks. I read it and it has disappeared in my mind. I might even have a copy. Will do.

Posted by: gracepc at November 27, 2016 12:02 PM (OU4q6)

295 293 In the 80's, while a paratrooper in Italy, ST was on the NCO Professional Development reading list. That time was my third reading.
Posted by: Iron Mike Golf at November 27, 2016 12:01 PM (di1hb)

---

Didn't read it then (80s).

Read it when I reenlisted in 2001.

Posted by: SMFH at November 27, 2016 12:03 PM (CRotO)

296
Why even pretend any more that Stein is behind this. She's just another paid stooge like Comrade Bernie was. The recount is the Beast's and her minion's doing
Posted by: TheQuietMan at November 27, 2016 11:59 AM (auHtY)
-----------
I was explaining this to the lovely WeaselWoman last night. She's a little too trusting of legacy media sources and this recent election cycle has been a real eye opener.

Posted by: Weasel at November 27, 2016 12:03 PM (Sfs6o)

297 Kindltot, You mentioned some cloth you used on your bookbinding covers during the ONT. What kind of cloth is it? I would like to try making some half-assed journals that sort of look like old bookkeeping ledgers. Thanks.
Posted by: JTB at November 27, 2016 11:26 AM (V+03K)


I have used the material salvaged from worn out Dockers slacks and I found that to be possibly a touch thick for smaller sizes, but very sturdy ( and cheap, cheap is important), and I have used a good soft brown leather for the spine. The chunk I have I bought at a garage sale, and I think it is goat or deer. It is thick enough to have body on its own and not need a backer - it is the thickness of glove-leather.
I have bought calf hide at the shoe/leather working shop and that is very nice but it is not thick enough to hold up on it's own, so it does need a spine piece backing it or it will wrinkle and fold funny when you open the book

The sand/kakhi/ecru color is pretty dull after a while so I also got some fabric wallpaper sample swatch books, and lucked into a couple of yards of a lighter weight fabric wall covering in what I think is called "Chaperone Stripe". I am using a light patterned cotton for the spine.

You don't need to do a spine covering, but I like it because it gives more contrast.

I would use any woven material as opposed to a knit, and I prefer cotton because it picks up the flour paste and the white glues I use, and they set hard without much shrinking.

The slacks material and the leather spine are very classy together, and they hold up wonderfully to every day use in a journal.

Posted by: Kindltot at November 27, 2016 12:03 PM (vU79J)

298
Guy Williams and June Lockhart were written out of the next two episodes at full salary

But there was only one episode left in the show.
Unless things were filmed in a different order than in which they were broadcast.

Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at November 27, 2016 12:03 PM (IqV8l)

299 The pacific war is one I know very little about in WW2 other than the intelligence side of things. I was looking forward to the Pacific miniseries quite a bit because of that, but it was basically an annoying, all-too-fast overview that made marines look weak and stupid, and gave us nothing to cheer about.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at November 27, 2016 12:06 PM (39g3+)

300 @ 125 Zoltan,

Thank you for your recommendation of Red Sparrow by Jason Matthews. I immediately went to Amazon. I am especially intrigued by descriptions of 'trade craft'. It is a bit out of my price range, but you mentioned getting it from the public library.

Amazon has a used hard cover, and paperbacks, that I might get, but the Kindle is 'way over priced. (At first glance.)

For me, leaving seclusion to go to the public library is difficult. It is a characteristic I have given up on ever overcoming.

Posted by: Skandia Recluse at November 27, 2016 12:06 PM (kWWMy)

301
It was unnerving and awesome at the same time.

Posted by: hogmartin at November 27, 2016 11:55 AM (8nWyX)
=====

The story of my life commenting here.

Posted by: mustbequantum at November 27, 2016 12:06 PM (MIKMs)

302 lol mustbequantum

Posted by: SMFH at November 27, 2016 12:06 PM (CRotO)

303 Good luck and success with the outline.

Probably should scoot and write.

Posted by: Anna Puma at November 27, 2016 12:07 PM (KMWTO)

304 Bought a book earlier this week for grandson for Christmas. Bio of Audie Murphy. Maybe it will help him to enjoy reading.

Posted by: Infidel at November 27, 2016 12:07 PM (So9FI)

305 It probably didn't help that Tom Hanks made his "the US in WW2 was all racist" speech before The Pacific came out. Yeah, and they were racist back at us. Its a push and irrelevant to the discussion. Go back to making Forrest Gump 2, jackass.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at November 27, 2016 12:07 PM (39g3+)

306 Thanks Anna.

Have fun.

Posted by: SMFH at November 27, 2016 12:08 PM (CRotO)

307 >>>OT: Put Romney at IRS -- clean out the swamp

I'd think replacing Koskinen and his minions would be the easy part. But the hard part, what needs to be done, is that Lerner and Koskinen must be made an example of. They must be dealt with harshly and brutally. I'm thinking Cruz, since he is an attorney.

Posted by: Steve and Cold Bear at November 27, 2016 12:08 PM (mBYZv)

308 I'm going to have my foot worked on week after next and will be sitting around the house while it heals (heels!). I've been thinking of what I'm going to read - thinking maybe Mark Twain.

Posted by: Weasel at November 27, 2016 12:10 PM (Sfs6o)

309 I'm almost done with the Sherlock Holmes story, it was fun to write a mystery for the first time but I don't know how mysterious it all really is. The points of a Sherlock Holmes story are to mystify the reader with what's so obvious to Holmes, to show his skill with deduction and reason unfolding the complex and confusing, and to entertain. I don't know how well I did in all that but I enjoyed writing at least.

All that's left to do is have Holmes explain what happened and how he knew it. Unlike Doyle, I tried to make sure the reader had all the necessary information to figure it out as well, he was bad at skipping key bits; Raymond Chandler called that "bad faith" mystery writing in The Simple Art of Murder.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at November 27, 2016 12:11 PM (39g3+)

310 The slacks material and the leather spine are very classy together, and they hold up wonderfully to every day use in a journal.

Posted by: Kindltot at November 27, 2016 12:03 PM (vU79J)

Gosh, wish I had know before They did such a shitty job on my old Betty Crocker cookbook.

Posted by: Infidel at November 27, 2016 12:11 PM (So9FI)

311 Book binding is a whole nother topic. So frustrating when a book falls apart because it was cheaply bound. Hero Games was infamous for that with their rule books back in the 90s, they just fell to pieces. Thankfully they aren't going so cheap now but the company is just about nonexistent these days

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at November 27, 2016 12:13 PM (39g3+)

312 The recount is the Beast's

-
Drudge is back with a Beast of the Opera photo.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, This Is the Dawning of the Age of the Trumpius! at November 27, 2016 12:14 PM (Nwg0u)

313 Cool beans.
Just found out that my big Sis is dropping by. She & her husband went to Duck, NC for the weekend, and we're all going to lunch.

We're going to fight the Sunday crowd to go to one of her fave restaurants - Olive Garden (she lives in the sticks - it's a treat for her).
Wouldn't be my choice, but it's better than most give it credit for.

Posted by: Chi - #FreeCthulhu at November 27, 2016 12:14 PM (L9ISu)

314 The recount is the Beast's


Let her continue to be clown herself.

Posted by: Nevergiveup at November 27, 2016 12:15 PM (dELE3)

315 I haven't read too many horde-written books because they want money for them, but Anna's Golden Isis would make a great film or TV movie. Its basically impossible to get done without a high powered agent pitching to the right people or getting someone famous and powerful in Hollywood excited with your book.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at November 27, 2016 12:16 PM (39g3+)

316 Somehow, we missed Emily Ratajkowski's birthday on Friday. In celebration of that event, a book is coming out with some of her most revealing photographs. ( NSFW)

http://tinyurl.com/hc2fzat

Posted by: MTF at November 27, 2016 12:17 PM (sCBEO)

317 Today's Maureen Dowd column includes an additional guest column from her conservative brother, Kevin.

Online images include Trump Champagne bottles on the table. MD reports much gloating from her conservative siblings.

Kevin Dowd nailed the "deplorable" 2016 campaign zeitgeist.

Posted by: mrp at November 27, 2016 12:18 PM (JBggj)

318 As far as bookbinding: Heh. Duct tape or gorilla tape is just fine for me (old paperbacks that I haul out to reread).

Posted by: mustbequantum at November 27, 2016 12:18 PM (MIKMs)

319 The points of a Sherlock Holmes story are to mystify the reader with what's so obvious to Holmes, to show his skill with deduction and reason unfolding the complex and confusing, and to entertain.

-
Inspired by a character in To Say Nothing of the Dog who was obsessed with Lord Peter Wimsey, I read the first of his novels. It was OK, but not great and I solved the mystery.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, This Is the Dawning of the Age of the Trumpius! at November 27, 2016 12:18 PM (Nwg0u)

320 Have fun, Chi : )

Posted by: SMFH at November 27, 2016 12:21 PM (CRotO)

321 The recount is the Beast's and her minion's doing
Posted by: TheQuietMan

*****


Late at night, when the moon is full and a light dusting of early winter snow lies like a blanket over the landscape, it you dare to take a walk up the hill to the small fenced-in cemetery at the top and if you sit quietly on one of the tombstones, so quietly that you can almost hear your own heart beat you will begin to detect a faint sound that resembles fingernails scrabbling frantically against hardwood. Local legend has it that the Old Woman of Chappaqua (by way of Yale and Arkansas) was accidentally buried before she was completely dead, and the sound you hear is the sound of her scratching the inside of her coffin lid. Some locals believe that if you opened the coffin you would be able to see the dried blood on the remnant stumps of her fingers and see her face frozen in a rictus grin. They say you can read her final words, scratched into the wood: "I demand a recount in Mich ~ ~ichigan ~......ack...!"

Posted by: Muldoon at November 27, 2016 12:21 PM (wPiJc)

322 299 The pacific war is one I know very little about in WW2 other than the intelligence side of things. I was looking forward to the Pacific miniseries quite a bit because of that, but it was basically an annoying, all-too-fast overview that made marines look weak and stupid, and gave us nothing to cheer about.
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at November 27, 2016 12:06 PM (39g3+)


While Band of Brothers was based on a somewhat flawed book, it was a book about a whole company's actions throughout the European theater. The Pacific was pretty disappointing by comparison, but it was also based on one man's memoirs, so you get primary source but lose big picture. Is there a particular part you want to know more about? The Pacific war was enormous in scope, and I don't know offhand of any books that properly cover the whole thing. Ask around, we can offer suggestions, and then Anna Puma can school us all.

: subliminal :
Submarines. You want to ask about submarines.

Posted by: hogmartin at November 27, 2016 12:21 PM (8nWyX)

323 Drudge is back with a Beast of the Opera photo.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, This Is the Dawning of the Age of the Trumpius! at November 27, 2016 12:14 PM (Nwg0u)




The Clinton Foundation donations are dropping like a rock and speaking fees will dry up. She and the rest of the crime family need one last desperate grab for power

Posted by: TheQuietMan at November 27, 2016 12:21 PM (auHtY)

324
Posted by: Skandia Recluse at November 27, 2016 12:06 PM (kWWMy)

301

Many public libraries have a connect where you can read the books on your Kindle or other readers. I am lazy and have not used it, but others have and might be worth checking out.

Posted by: gracepc at November 27, 2016 12:22 PM (OU4q6)

325 While Band of Brothers was based on a somewhat flawed book, it was a book about a whole company's actions throughout the European theater. The Pacific was pretty disappointing by comparison, but it was also based on one man's memoirs, so you get primary source but lose big picture. Is there a particular part you want to know more about? The Pacific war was enormous in scope, and I don't know offhand of any books that properly cover the whole thing. Ask around, we can offer suggestions, and then Anna Puma can school us all.

: subliminal :
Submarines. You want to ask about submarines.
Posted by: hogmartin at November 27, 2016 12:21 PM (8nWyX)

yeah, I had problems watching Pacific...And my dad was on Iwo Jima so I was eagerly looking forward to it also.

Posted by: Nevergiveup at November 27, 2016 12:23 PM (dELE3)

326 The Wimsey novels are in my opinion less about the mystery than Wimsey and the setting and culture of England. He's quite a brilliant thinker and does a good job but while Sayers is a good writer, her mysteries usually aren't that challenging, I agree.

Chandler's mysteries were usually impenetrable, but that wasn't the point of his books anyway. He wrote about Marlow and LA at the time and life and good vs evil and a mystery happened to be involved at some point. He was so good at it you forgot details like... who killed the chauffeur in The Big Sleep?

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at November 27, 2016 12:23 PM (39g3+)

327 Anna - Thank for your response and three more books I will have to buy.

Regards.

Posted by: Butch at November 27, 2016 12:23 PM (hXu8T)

328 @280 mustbequantum: The picture isn't high enough resolution to show the roving herds of dust bunnies. And I collect enough dog hair to weave a sweater about once a week.

Posted by: That Deplorable SOB Van Owen at November 27, 2016 12:23 PM (9aqe+)

329 My favorite of the Sayers' Wimsey novels is 'The Nine Tailors' -- don't know why, but it is always rereadable for me. Good mystery, evocative background, etc.

Still think she is underrated as a thinker -- same time period as Tolkien and Lewis.

Posted by: mustbequantum at November 27, 2016 12:24 PM (MIKMs)

330 Welp, time to get ready for some football.

Y'all have a great afternoon.

Posted by: SMFH at November 27, 2016 12:25 PM (CRotO)

331 #299

The pacific war is one I know very little about in WW2 other than the
intelligence side of things. I was looking forward to the Pacific
miniseries quite a bit because of that, but it was basically an
annoying, all-too-fast overview that made marines look weak and stupid,
and gave us nothing to cheer about.
===================

"The Pacific" is a magnificent miniseries. Guadalcanal, Pelilieu, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. For a temporal displacement of 75 years, the battle scenes were a jolt.

And after a second viewing, I had a greater appreciation for the adjustment the survivors endured after coming home.

Posted by: mrp at November 27, 2016 12:28 PM (JBggj)

332 The Pacific war was enormous in scope, and I don't know offhand of any books that properly cover the whole thing.

-
I enjoyed John Toland's The Rising Sun. I also liked Japan at War by Theodore and Haruko Cook. This is a book that pulls no punches regarding Japanese brutality yet also vividly describes Japanese suffering.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, This Is the Dawning of the Age of the Trumpius! at November 27, 2016 12:29 PM (Nwg0u)

333 Kindltot, Thanks for the suggestions. If I ever try bookbinding or repair (always done at the least expense) I'll make a trip to the Good Will store for appropriate material.

The local used book store has a bin of give away books that they can't sell. It would be a means to get a free book to experiment on.

Posted by: JTB at November 27, 2016 12:30 PM (V+03K)

334 gracepc at November 27, 2016 12:22 PM

Thank you for the idea.

Posted by: Skandia Recluse at November 27, 2016 12:30 PM (kWWMy)

335 Inspired by a character in To Say Nothing of the Dog who was obsessed with Lord Peter Wimsey, I read the first of his novels. It was OK, but not great and I solved the mystery.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, This Is the Dawning of the Age of the Trumpius! at November 27, 2016 12:18 PM (Nwg0u)

Speaking of mysteries and dogs, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time is worth looking at. It's a brief novel from the first-person perspective of an autistic boy in England who decides to solve the mystery of his neighbor's dog's murder. It's probably OK for young adults, but even though the narrator is 15, it's probably not a good one for younger kids. Not that the content is graphic, more that you have to have an awareness of what autism is to appreciate the narration.

Posted by: hogmartin at November 27, 2016 12:30 PM (8nWyX)

336 The Nine Tailors is the only full-length Wimsey novel I have ever read, it was an interesting read. I'm reading some Agatha Christie now, Poirot short stories. It bothers me though, that she kind of did a Sherlock Holmes knockoff character complete with hapless sidekick, but unlike Watson who was actually pretty smart and useful to Holmes, Captain Hastings is pretty pointless except as comedy. I can't figure out why he's even in the stories, and that's probably why after a certain point, he just isn't.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at November 27, 2016 12:31 PM (39g3+)

337 I think Hanks and Spielberg should have just done The Pacific as a story of Guadalcanal. Just that one island. Then they could focus on a set of characters and tell the story properly instead of giving it such incredibly short shrift.

And what was with that exploding pencil?

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at November 27, 2016 12:33 PM (39g3+)

338 "The Fighters", by Colin Willock, is a really good fictional retelling of the air war in Europe, but from the perspective of Luftwaffe pilots. I enjoyed it.

https://www.amazon.com/Fighters-Colin-Willock/dp/0722191693

Posted by: An Poc ar Buile Uafa'sach at November 27, 2016 12:34 PM (1zS3A)

339 I remember reading Tia Pan. It was so long ago, more than 30 yrs ago, that I think at the time I thought is was good.

Posted by: Infidel at November 27, 2016 12:35 PM (So9FI)

340 Speaking of books & movies, I just popped in the DVD for "Something Wicked This Way Comes."

Posted by: josephistan at November 27, 2016 12:36 PM (7qAYi)

341 328 @280 mustbequantum: The picture isn't high enough resolution to show the roving herds of dust bunnies. And I collect enough dog hair to weave a sweater about once a week.
Posted by: That Deplorable
------------

Animal dander, FTW!

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at November 27, 2016 12:37 PM (ZO497)

342 All that's left to do is have Holmes explain what happened and how he knew it. Unlike Doyle, I tried to make sure the reader had all the necessary information to figure it out as well, he was bad at skipping key bits; Raymond Chandler called that "bad faith" mystery writing in The Simple Art of Murder.
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor


"Watson! You've been stuffing ballot boxes with Democrat votes, utilizing the identities of the recently deceased!"

"I say, Holmes, how the devil...???"

"Elementary, my dear Watson. When I told you I was voting for Trump, you replied, 'Die, Nazi scum! You must be defeated by any means necessary!' Then I observed you clipping out obituary notices from all the local newspapers."

"I say, Holmes, that is billiant!"

Posted by: Steve and Cold Bear at November 27, 2016 12:38 PM (mBYZv)

343 Holy Shit! Justin Tredeau looks just like a young Fidel Castro. And his mom was very close to Fidel as well. Judge for yourselves with this side by side picture. Uncanny.

https://i.sli.mg/UEq3cn.png

Posted by: Pepe, Proud American Nationalist at November 27, 2016 12:38 PM (A+FdC)

344 Ah, a Clavell novel.

Posted by: Infidel at November 27, 2016 12:40 PM (So9FI)

345 What a glorious library the little town in "Something Wicked" has - two floors, a wrought iron spiral staircase.

Posted by: josephistan at November 27, 2016 12:41 PM (7qAYi)

346 If anyone wants to boost their self esteem, they should read Ngaio Marsh. Her mysteries are often fairly easy to solve ahead of time.

Posted by: Steve and Cold Bear at November 27, 2016 12:42 PM (mBYZv)

347 An interesting little read I've mentioned before is The Lost Lore Of A Man's Life. It's one of those "grab and read a chapter" books.

"Lots of cool stuff guys used to know but forgot about the Great Outdoors."

Sample Chapter Headings:

How To Select A Shotgun
The Knack Of Hitting A Flying Target
Miscellaneous Trapper's Aids

And what to do if pursued by game.

Posted by: Meremortal, Bigly all the way at November 27, 2016 12:44 PM (3myMJ)

348 Starship Troopers and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress were pivotal in developing my political weltanschauung.

Heh, how many pretension points do I get.

Posted by: Vlad the Impaler, whittling away like mad at November 27, 2016 12:45 PM (dIc3Q)

349 Yeah Marsh is another one that's not reallky about the mysteries at all, its about relationships and characters and curious locations.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at November 27, 2016 12:45 PM (39g3+)

350 This will be a fight against overwhelming odds from which survival cannot be expected. We will do what damage we can.

Because Shrillary is now joining the re-count fight, I'd say this is the Left's new mantra or ethos.

And to 106- foreign policy 'failings'? To those who would be writing those books, they will be 'successes' whose implementation under Trump are failures. No lib would dare have PBO fail at anything for generations.

Posted by: Mr Wolf at November 27, 2016 12:46 PM (rD+jq)

351 Still think she is underrated as a thinker -- same time period as Tolkien and Lewis.

Posted by: mustbequantum at November 27, 2016 12:24 PM (MIKMs)


Dorothy Sayers stopped writing detective novels, I think her last one was written during WWII, and went on to scholarship in translation and Christian apologetics. She translated Dante's Divine Comedy

I liked Murder Must Advertise, since it has the most rounded and personal feel to it (Sayers worked for a time at an advertising agency) and the Nine Tailors was presented to me as a murder mystery wrapped around a treatise on English Bell Ringing.

Posted by: Kindltot at November 27, 2016 12:46 PM (vU79J)

352 Just found out that my big Sis is dropping by. She & her husband went to Duck, NC for the weekend, and we're all going to lunch.
---------

My favorite OBX town name: Salvo

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at November 27, 2016 12:48 PM (ZO497)

353 My first comment on AoS and so of course it has to be on the book thread....I just finished reading The Mandibles: A Family 2029-2047 by Lionel Shriver. It's the story of a family living in NYC and Washington, D.C. in a time when everything has crashed - and the NY Times is no more! Next up: Gather the Seekers by Vince Milam.

@Christopher R Taylor: I love Sayers ... you must read Murder Must Advertise.

Posted by: Carolinabibliophile at November 27, 2016 12:48 PM (DAhTc)

354 I keep thinking that Roland's head is under one of those helmets.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at November 27, 2016 12:50 PM (ZO497)

355 Thanks so much for featuring my books today! Over the years I've tried to interest conservative sites in reviewing them and haven't had any luck. I've been reviewed by Publishers Weekly, Book List, and the like, but conservative publications...hit a brick wall. And I love Ace of Spades! Read it every day. Several times a day. Probably too many times...since I have work to do. THANK YOU AGAIN!

Posted by: Libby Sternberg at November 27, 2016 12:50 PM (ZBLz4)

356 Ah, a Clavell novel.
Posted by: Infidel


In a Parisian mosque, in a no-go area riddled with crime.
Lived twelve little jihadis in two straight lines.
They studied bomb making at half past nine.
At half past nine in rain or shine.

"Good night, good night! Dream of killing the infidel!"
"Good night, good night! Dear imam Clavell!"

Posted by: Steve and Cold Bear at November 27, 2016 12:52 PM (mBYZv)

357 My first comment on AoS and so of course it has to be on the book thread....I just finished reading The Mandibles: A Family 2029-2047 by Lionel Shriver. It's the story of a family living in NYC and Washington, D.C. in a time when everything has crashed - and the NY Times is no more!
==========================

I'll take a bite of that.

Posted by: MTF at November 27, 2016 12:52 PM (sCBEO)

358 # 337

And what was with that exploding pencil?

I agree that an entire miniseries could be devoted to the Solomon Islands campaign - air, sea, and land.

The "exploding pencil"? If you are referring to the charcoal stick(s) breaking during the episode introduction, that's probably an allegorical reference to the fragility of life during war.

Charcoal drawings was an important medium for combat artists in both main theaters of the war. James Jones discussed the role of combat artists and art brilliantly in his "WW II' history of the war.

Posted by: mrp at November 27, 2016 12:54 PM (JBggj)

359 Ngaio Marsh books are comedies of manners. She only kills people so Alleyn can show up and be appalled at everyone's behavior.

Posted by: the guy that moves pianos for a living at November 27, 2016 12:58 PM (x3uSY)

360 Iran's semi-official Tasnim news agency is reporting that the country's chief of staff of the armed forces has said that Tehran is interested in setting up naval bases in both Syria and Yemen.

People will be writing many books about Fredo's foreign policy failings. treasons.

fixed

Posted by: Vlad the Impaler, whittling away like mad at November 27, 2016 12:59 PM (dIc3Q)

361 Holy Shit! Justin Tredeau looks just like a young Fidel Castro. And his mom was very close to Fidel as well. Judge for yourselves with this side by side picture. Uncanny.

https://i.sli.mg/UEq3cn.png
Posted by: Pepe


I forget who first observed it, but Trudeau looks like a gay serial killer.

Posted by: Steve and Cold Bear at November 27, 2016 12:59 PM (mBYZv)

362 Late as usual. The Pacific I found very disappointing, but basically agree that it was "mission impossible" to do what it tried to do. (and I think it was based on two memoirs, plus the story of another - Basilone - wasn't it?)


The one catastrophic stumble I thought was spending almost an entire episode on Leckie's Melbourne R and R/romance - out of a 10-part series that was starved for time to tell its gigantic story? (the time spent on Leckie's time at the field psych hospital also seemed excessive)


Guadalcanal vet I knew (who just passed 2 months ago) - aviation ordnanceman, not infantry - stopped watching it after that episode. He also thought the thing just didn't hang together overall.

Posted by: rhomboid at November 27, 2016 01:01 PM (QDnY+)

363 246
Read the historical "Reply". It's Horde-worthy.

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



They don't write 'em like that any more.

Posted by: Greg Kihn at November 27, 2016 11:27 AM (IcT7t)
*****When I lived in Russia I made an effort to see as much of Ilya Repin's work as I could. The one that struck me was Sofia Alekseyevna banished to Novodevichy. It was huge and terrifying.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sofia_Alekseyevna_of_Russia

Posted by: gracepc at November 27, 2016 01:01 PM (OU4q6)

364 Anne Perry's mysteries are okay, they are sort of a blend of gentleman police and Jane Austen cultural critique and Victorian party girls. I got a bit tired of them after a while, though, because I don't care for the latter part and she has this fixation on "the inner circle" of super rich evil plotting monsters in high position who are responsible for everything.

Just once it would be nice to read a mystery where the super rich and powerful weren't the guilty ones. Its like no ordinary street crime ever happens in these books.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at November 27, 2016 01:04 PM (39g3+)

365 I have mentioned Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors by Hornfischer here and on ONTs several times (as have other morons). A TX moron whose name I can't recall and who's not around much any more said he emailed Hornfischer about something and got a nice personal reply - said the guy was very open to contact from readers. FWIW.


Also good by Hornfischer is Ship of Ghosts, about the USS Houston - though it really is more about the Burma Railroad, where much of the captured crew ends up, and about others who went through that hell.

Posted by: rhomboid at November 27, 2016 01:04 PM (QDnY+)

366 Sorry, I forgot 'Murder Must Advertise' as a rereadworthy novel. The Christian apologetics is what has made Lewis and Tolkien such favorites with the Horde. Spooky how they managed prescience, which is why they are so respected.

Anyway, for 'literary' whodunits, Sayers is great.

Posted by: mustbequantum at November 27, 2016 01:07 PM (MIKMs)

367 The one catastrophic stumble I thought was spending almost an entire episode on Leckie's Melbourne R and R/romance - out of a 10-part series that was starved for time to tell its gigantic story? (the time spent on Leckie's time at the field psych hospital also seemed excessive)

Yeah I know what they were trying to do but it just was not the right move in a limited series about such a huge story. They'd be better off doing a full scale series for years telling the tale, following different groups of guys around. Then they'd have time for this "human interest, casualties of war, fitting into society etc" stuff.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at November 27, 2016 01:07 PM (39g3+)

368 361 Holy Shit! Justin Tredeau looks just like a young Fidel Castro. And his mom was very close to Fidel as well. Judge for yourselves with this side by side picture. Uncanny.

https://i.sli.mg/UEq3cn.png
Posted by: Pepe



CBC News said Castro was an honorary pall-bearer at his father's, former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau's funeral.



Now they're in hell together.



On the plus side, my Kindle PaperWhite is arriving tomorrow and I've found several sites online to get free textbooks.

Posted by: Stateless Infidel at November 27, 2016 01:09 PM (/ZyBQ)

369 Nood.

Posted by: HH at November 27, 2016 01:09 PM (DrCtv)

370 I think I was first in the new thread, so obligated to inform? I'll meet you all back here later though. I like this thread best.

Posted by: April at November 27, 2016 01:09 PM (e8PP1)

371 Funny that Fleet At Flood Tide is mentioned - my local library system is still waiting for its copy and I'm #3 on the waiting list.


On the WWII book side, just finished Antony Beevor's "Ardennes 1944" about the Battle of the Bulge, obviously, and can barely recommend it.


Not even sure how to describe the problem. Too many factoids and details whizzing by you at break-neck speed, impossibly confusing/overwhelming unit and geographic details unsupported by sufficient maps or other info. Paragraphs touching on 3 separate issues. A sort of incoherence. Lack of balance between combat details and leadership/personality intrigues


To remedy that I got "Snow and Steel" by Patrick Caddick-Adams, an 800+ page behemoth. We'll see if I can get a sense of the "northern shoulder" and the "southern shoulder" after that is digested.


As an interlude I'm gobbling (per Bacon's advice above) "A Higher Call" by Adam Makos about the incredible Bf-109/B-17 incident involving mercy, honor, and the eventual friendship of the participants.

Posted by: rhomboid at November 27, 2016 01:11 PM (QDnY+)

372 On reflecing on Pacific at first I was disappointed after Band of Brothers which does have many flaws which does include making up stuff. But it does explain the progression that the Pacific war was.

Posted by: Skip at November 27, 2016 01:12 PM (5sOEp)

373 Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at November 27, 2016 01:07 PM (39g3+)

That's kind of what I was trying to express comparing BoB and The Pacific, one was based on a broad survey book and the other on individual memoirs, and it really showed. Both series had episodes that focused on individuals, but in BoB, you never lost the whole picture of what was going on.

Not gonna lie, though, I'd watch an 8 episode series of that Greek-Australian girl just pinning the wash to the clothesline in 1940s dress.

Posted by: hogmartin at November 27, 2016 01:16 PM (8nWyX)

374
I forget who first observed it, but Trudeau looks like a gay serial killer.
--

Gay serial killer?

Secret son of Castro?

Can't he be both?

/bizarre stuff going on in America's chapeau.

Posted by: shibumi, a deplorable who now just wants to yell at stupid people at November 27, 2016 01:18 PM (OlyEd)

375 Its like no ordinary street crime ever happens in these books.
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor


Maybe one could write a parody of the Holmes/Watson mysteries. LeStrade and Dobbins, in which which Lestrade and his even more inept seargent assistant attempt to solve prosaic street crimes. And not even always then.

"Let me tell you abaht the only time me old mate LeStrade was bested by a bird. Deidre Adler."

Posted by: Steve and Cold Bear at November 27, 2016 01:21 PM (mBYZv)

376 27 "The Wright Brothers". David McCullough's latest. What comes around mostly is the lost spirit that once was America, the bravery, the gumption, and drive of the times. The brothers changed history while continuing to work in their bicycle shop in Dayton, Ohio.

Amen...it blows my mind that these 2 brothers had to do so much from scratch. Great book and well worth the read

Posted by: RGallegos at November 27, 2016 01:27 PM (59GQk)

377 Michel Cuypers, The Composition of the Qur'an has some heavy hitters endorsing him, among them Gabriel Said Reynolds.

This one is an apologia / foreword / handbook to another book he wrote, Le Festin. He responds to some critiques of that one, at the end of chapter 4 of this one. I can attest, personally, that a lot of Qur'anic scholars don't know what they're doing (especially in Germany) and/or bring a lot of Islamist propaganda to their work (especially among Muslims). So Cuypers somewhat has to spell it all out for the idiots.

This one's in English but I get the feeling he should have done it in German and Arabic first. I'm still grateful, though, to have it in my language.

Cuypers' argument is that the Qur'an has revived a form of "Semitic" rhetoric, parallelism and chiasmus among other techniques, not used in the West except among Semitic-influenced writers like the New Testament Evangelists. He explores this in many suras, but especially sura 5 (the one le Festin was about). This home-grown rhetorical form died with the last Muslim qurra to the extent that, when the Muslims started studying rhetoric formally, they had to start with Aristotle, and so were crippled in understanding the form of rhetoric used in their own holy book. I mean, they knew it was rhetoric, and they knew it wasn't Aristotelian, but they didn't have the means of defining it.

To those who are at all interested in seeing how the Qur'an presents its arguments, whatever you think of the value of those arguments, I recommend it.

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at November 27, 2016 01:28 PM (y9ZKC)

378 Swineherd of Greater AND Lesser Egypt

Sovereign of pondscum and dungbeetle...

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at November 27, 2016 01:31 PM (y9ZKC)

379 I believe this delay in selecting a SoS reveals a fissure within Trump's transition team. I don't trust Romney, but Trump did reach out to him, so I believe he should get a job in his administration ---but not as Secretary of State.

I love Rudy, but is he really SoS material? He's older and seems I don't know, too angry and unpolished. He'd have been perfect at one time--10 or 15 years ago.

I have a feeling neither Mitt nor Rudy will be named SoS, and that the one who is picked is a name already in the mix.

Posted by: JoeF. at November 27, 2016 01:32 PM (OqQnz)

380 Charcoal drawings was an important medium for combat artists in both main theaters of the war. James Jones discussed the role of combat artists and art brilliantly in his "WW II' history of the war.
Posted by: mrp at November 27, 2016 12:54 PM (JBggj)
---
My dad, an artist though not a combat artist, kept journals with charcoal drawings of the people and places he encountered, some of which he made into paintings after the war.

PBS had a documentary on these artists called "They Drew Fire":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpZEiM3vBcs

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at November 27, 2016 01:33 PM (EnKk6)

381 Maybe one could write a parody of the Holmes/Watson mysteries. LeStrade and Dobbins, in which which Lestrade and his even more inept seargent assistant attempt to solve prosaic street crimes.

I don't like mocking Holmes but one where he's sure its some vast conspiracy by someone powerful and it turns out just a thug would be a good twist.

But short stories of Lestrade doing what he is better at -- street crime and ordinary stuff -- could be interesting. Especially to demonstrate the limitations of police powers and technique at the time.

Bruce Alexander does a great job with his series about Sir John Fielding, the blind judge that basically created the Bow Street Runners and the Metropolitan Police Force in the early 1800s. But again, its never just a street crime.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at November 27, 2016 01:34 PM (39g3+)

382 I have a feeling neither Mitt nor Rudy will be named SoS, and that the one who is picked is a name already in the mix.
===============

Sarah Palin.

She has the talent and toughness to be a good Secretary of State.

And the resulting epidemic of exploding heads would be ... awesome.

Posted by: mrp at November 27, 2016 01:36 PM (JBggj)

383 I believe this delay in selecting a SoS reveals a fissure within Trump's transition team.

I think its a power struggle between factions, not sure where Trump sits on it but he's kind of slow to forgive and quick to punish those that annoy him.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at November 27, 2016 01:43 PM (39g3+)

384 I wish we had another crusty broad like Jean Kirkpatrick to assign to the United Nations. Until she was implicated in a sex scandal with Bill the Cat she was unassailable.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at November 27, 2016 01:43 PM (EnKk6)

385 We have a new political thread to talk about politics.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at November 27, 2016 01:48 PM (mpXpK)

386 @5 Ah Heinlein's Starship Troopers. I loved that book as I did almost all of his books. The movie absolutely blew chunks though.
-----------------

Then I'm afraid I have some bad news for you...


It turns out that Hollywood wants to do a reboot of Starship Troopers as a movie. And from the previous filmography of the scriptwriters they picked, it's pretty clear that it's going to be another joke.

(unfortunately, I can't remember the scriptwriters off the top of my head, or what they had previously worked on; I saw the news a few weeks ago)

Posted by: junior at November 27, 2016 01:49 PM (ff27+)

387 In Starship Trooper, only those who had served got to vote. Means that the screaming weenie Snowflakes that infest our campuses, the feminists, the LGBTQ crowd, and the professors in the academy, and Paul Krugman at the NYT could just go sit in the corner with a dunce's cap while the real guys got to vote.

Posted by: Skeptical Voter at November 27, 2016 01:50 PM (Sda6L)

388 I enjoyed the film Starship Troopers okay, but it was nothing like the book and completely missed the point -- or rather, it got the point, but Verhoven is a radical leftist and despised the point Heinlein was making.

You can't really do the book as is, but you could do something much more like it, particularly as a miniseries.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at November 27, 2016 01:51 PM (39g3+)

389 The major disappointment for me was Ender's Game as a film. They sort of were kind of close to the story, but left out its key elements and downplayed the "this kid is basically psychotic but he's who we need" part.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at November 27, 2016 01:53 PM (39g3+)

390 For kids books, check out the Library Project at likemotherlikedaughter.org. There are some good suggestions.

Posted by: Notsothoreau at November 27, 2016 01:55 PM (Lqy/e)

391 Sarah Palin.

She has the talent and toughness to be a good Secretary of State.

And the resulting epidemic of exploding heads would be ... awesome.
Posted by: mrp at November 27, 2016 01:36 PM (JBggj)


It won't be Palin.

Posted by: JoeF. at November 27, 2016 01:59 PM (OqQnz)

392 259 Whenever I see photos of morons' libraries, I always feel a pang of sadness for all of the books I've left behind in my moves.

Amazon should consider selling posters that are custom covers of ones kindle books.

Posted by: Votermom the Deplorable @vm on Gab.ai at November 27, 2016 02:00 PM (Om16U)

393 "Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than any other factor, and contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst."

Didn't know Heinlein said that. Hmmm. For years I've been trying to deflate the "Violence doesn't settle anything" with the au contraire that violence or the threat of it settles just about everything.

Posted by: Steven Wilson at November 27, 2016 02:00 PM (vlwe5)

394 @211
It will be interesting to see if Trump starts telling these people to knock it off.
-----------------

He needs to. Whether you like Romney, or loathe him, Conway's public outbursts are dangerous for Trump as it makes it look like Trump can be swayed by such things. The last thing Trump wants is to have his staff start going public every time there's a disagreement, and that's what her actions are going to encourage if Trump doesn't put a stop to it.

Posted by: junior at November 27, 2016 02:09 PM (ff27+)

395 393 Didn't know Heinlein said that. Hmmm. For years
I've been trying to deflate the "Violence doesn't settle anything" with
the au contraire that violence or the threat of it settles just about
everything.

Posted by: Steven Wilson at November 27, 2016 02:00 PM (vlwe5)

He also coined TNSTAAFL in The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress. (There's no such thing as a free lunch)

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at November 27, 2016 02:10 PM (mpXpK)

396 Last Stand is an excellent book.

Posted by: exhelodrvr at November 27, 2016 02:11 PM (jo8t2)

397 I know it sounds silly but Louis L'Amour had a profound impact on my thinking as a conservative. His approach was a bit different than most, but he emphasized concepts of self-reliance, right and wrong, hard work, learning, and truth in a very powerful and entertaining way, particularly in his Sackett books. He was the one that got me to reading more than I used to, as well.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at November 27, 2016 02:23 PM (39g3+)

398 I found a cute pic of pirates reading which made me think of the horde.

I posted it with the $10 off coupon that Laurie mentioned in my blog

Link in nic

Posted by: Deplorable votermom @vm on Gab at November 27, 2016 02:53 PM (Om16U)

399 The late Sir Terry Pratchett had a nice take on the old "War, what is it good for?" question in one of his Discworld novels:

"War, Nobby. Huh! What is it good for?" he said.

"Dunno, Sarge. Freeing slaves, maybe?"

"Absol--well, okay."

"Defending yourself against a totalitarian aggressor?"

"All right, I'll grant you that, but--"

"Saving civilization from a horde of--"

"It doesn't do any good in the long run is what I'm saying Nobby, if you'd listen for five seconds together," said Fred Colon sharply.

"Yeah, but in the long run, what does, Sarge?"

"Thud" p. 50.

Posted by: John F. MacMichael at November 27, 2016 03:12 PM (khzs0)

400 Thanks so much for featuring my books today!

-
I just bought Death, in part because I'm a music nerd.

Speaking of music nerds, check this album cover. It was a simpler time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxEl7pwksWU

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, This Is the Dawning of the Age of the Trumpius! at November 27, 2016 04:38 PM (Nwg0u)

401 I agree that an entire miniseries could be devoted to the Solomon Islands campaign - air, sea, and land.

-
One of my all time favorite history books is Guadalcanal by Richard B. Frank, partly because it was an air, sea, and land battle small enough in scope to be comprehensible in a single volume and partly because it is remarkably even handed. I've often thought it would make a good miniseries. I even have the soundtrack, Yo-yo Ma's The Japanese Album for when the Japanese do stuff and John Williams Plays Bach for when the Yanks do stuff.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, This Is the Dawning of the Age of the Trumpius! at November 27, 2016 04:54 PM (Nwg0u)

402 399 The late Sir Terry Pratchett had a nice take on the old "War, what is it good for?" question in one of his Discworld novels:

"War, Nobby. Huh! What is it good for?" he said.

"Dunno, Sarge. Freeing slaves, maybe?"

"Absol--well, okay..."

Posted by: John F. MacMichael at November 27, 2016 03:12 PM (khzs0)


Ha! It sounds like Sir Pratchett is borrowing liberally from the "what have the Romans ever done for us?" bit in Monty Python's 'Life of Brian' movie. Not that I'm objecting, it's a funny template you can hang any number of jokes on.

And for all I know, Monty Python may have borrowed it from someone else.

Posted by: OregonMuse, deplorable since 2004 at November 27, 2016 05:21 PM (sZ8UC)

403 Christopher you might be onto something as I read about ever Louis L'Amour book as a young teenager.

Posted by: Skip at November 27, 2016 05:52 PM (5sOEp)

404 36 Anytime Heinlein is discussed I've posted that Armor by John Steakley is the best bug fighting book I've read and no one else has seemed to have read it. Your missing a really good book.


I read it. It was really good.

Posted by: Miss Sippi at November 27, 2016 07:06 PM (ByoS/)

405 test

Posted by: JT at November 27, 2016 08:23 PM (cb0VN)

406 I just finished Night School, the latest Reacher novel and it was very good.

Posted by: JT at November 27, 2016 08:25 PM (cb0VN)

407 I've posted that Armor by John Steakley is the best bug fighting book I've read and no one else has seemed to have read it. Your missing a really good book.

I read it and liked it and I also thought that his
Vampires was the best vampire story that I've ever read.

It seems like you mention this on every book thread.
Does the author owe you money or sumpin' ?

Posted by: JT at November 27, 2016 08:31 PM (cb0VN)

408 Nice library, Van Owen.

Posted by: JT at November 27, 2016 08:34 PM (cb0VN)

409 Dear Morons, Deplorables and irredeemables from sea to shinning sea, as a newly minted ciitizen I cannot recommend enough, 'Enlightened Democracy - The Case for the Electoral College', by Tara Ross. I thought I knew Amercan history... this book was quite an eye opener. The founders were very wary of the popular vote and mob rule. The knew what happens when majorities or slim majorities rule over minority interests and they wanted to prevent it:

The arguments against pure democracy continued after the Constitutional Convention had concluded. Madison spoke to Jefferson of the dangers that could be created when the Government becomes "the mere instrument of the major number of the constituents." Alexander Hamilton continued these arguments against democracies in a June 21, 1788 speech before the New York ratifying convention: It has been observed, by an honorable gentleman, that a pure democracy, if it were practicable, would be the most perfect government. Experience has proved that no position in politics is more false than this. The ancient democracies, in which the people themselves deliberated, never possessed one feature of good government. Their very character was tyranny; their figure, deformity.

Quite. These people were no dummies. Sadly, this stuff is not taught at all. I think it's high time to re-marinate ourselves in what the founders intended. Which leads me to my humble recommendation:

''The French Revolution" by Christopher Hibbert. When Washington was halfway through his first term , over in France, the mob rule of the French revolution was busy keeping their guillotines running 24/7. It is a stark lesson of what happens when a cause has no philosophical premise; I.e. Discontent with no guiding ideas to replace it. Yes, they admired the Americans but not enough to consider what exactly would replace a monarchy. Pure chaos and mob rule ensued. (The communists learned a great deal from Robespierre and his gang of 12) the book reads like a thriller and is an excellent reminder of what can happen when societies collapse into a hodgepodge of romantic fallacies.

Posted by: bonedaddi at November 27, 2016 08:45 PM (dE9Jm)

410 Posted by: bonedaddi at November 27, 2016 08:45 PM (dE9Jm)

Congrats on obtaining your citizenship.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at November 27, 2016 08:56 PM (GDulk)

411 Thank you!

Posted by: bonedaddi at November 27, 2016 09:00 PM (dE9Jm)

412 I'm about two-thirds of the way through G. K. Chesterton's Orthodoxy, and still loving it. He's getting into the paradoxes of Christianity now, and it has a surprisingly contemporary feel to it. I like how he describes the faith as the world's sensible center, and how each criticism of its says more about the person making that criticism than the faith itself.

I'm liking the book so much I went to HamiltonBook.com to see what other Chesterton works were available and came away with a copy of The Everyman Chesterton, a nice hefty hardcover collection of his most significant works -- it has Orthodoxy in its entirety, The Everlasting Man (his biography of Jesus), 15 Father Brown stories, his other biographies of Charles Dickens and St. Thomas Aquinas, poems, and lots more. Even includes a ribbon marker, a real bargain at $7.98. This will keep me busy for quite some time!

Also, a milestone of sorts: Last week on eBay, I won two auctions for the December 18, 1926 and March 5, 1927 issues of Liberty magazine. The significance, you might ask? They contain two of the last Sherlock Holmes stories ever written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle -- The Adventure of the Retired Colourman and The Adventure of Shoscombe Old Place, respectively. Altogether, Doyle wrote six Holmes stories for Liberty in 1926-27, followed by a new two-part Professor Challenger story, When The World Screamed, in 1928.

It also gets me a little closer to crossing off another item on my bucket list: to compile a substantial run of one of my favorite magazines. After I bought several of the large-size issues of Liberty from the 1920s, I decided to see if I could complete a run of the magazine from its beginning in 1924 to the end of 1929 -- all 295 weekly issues. My wins from last weekend brought the number to 293. The only dates I'm missing now are the October 9, 1926 and June 11, 1927 issues. So close, and yet so far! I waited several years to win these issues, but I think I will eventually complete the run.

I'll write more on this later (OregonMuse. keep your eyes open!).

Posted by: DynamiteDan at November 27, 2016 09:30 PM (XeY55)

413 DynamiteDan, That is so cool about the Conan Doyle stories in Liberty Magazines.

The more I read Chesterton, the more impressed I am. I'm setting aside several shelves in a bookcase to hold all my Chesterton, CS Lewis, Tolkien, and related tomes. They deserve their own space.

You can also get a compendium of most of Chesterton's writings for under three bucks on Kindle.

Posted by: JTB at November 27, 2016 09:52 PM (V+03K)

414 Addendum:

''The French Revolution" by Christopher Hibbert is available at Amazon at various prices, starting at a very reasonable .48
used and @ $9.00 new.

Kindly

Bonedaddi

Posted by: bonedaddi at November 27, 2016 09:53 PM (dE9Jm)

415 "I just bought Death, in part because I'm a music nerd."

I hope you enjoy it! I went to Peabody, which is where the book is set.

Again, I'm very grateful for being featured here. Although I've been reviewed by bunches of mainstream book publishing reviewers, I've found it enormously difficult to get attention from conservative sites and publications. This distresses me on a personal level, obviously, but also because I think these outlets are missing a huge audience -- readers of women's fiction. (Not that that is all I write, obviously, but it does make up a big part of my oeuvres.)

Posted by: Libby Sternberg at November 28, 2016 07:00 AM (ZBLz4)

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