Sunday Morning Book Thread - 10-23-2022 ["Perfessor" Squirrel]

Welcome to the prestigious, internationally acclaimed, stately, and illustrious Sunday Morning Book Thread! The place where all readers are welcome, regardless of whatever guilty pleasure we feel like reading (ht: CBD's ONT). Here is where we can discuss, argue, bicker, quibble, consider, debate, confabulate, converse, and jaw about our latest fancy in reading material, even if it's nothing more than "The Masque of the Red Death." As always, pants are required, especially if you are wearing these pants...

So relax, find yourself a warm kitty (or warm puppy--I won't judge) to curl up in your lap, reheat some leftover bacon from the TXMOME (spoiler: There isn't any!), and crack open a new book. What are YOU reading this fine morning?

PIC NOTE

This image is a behind-the-scenes pic from one of the Harry Potter movies, depicting Hermione doing something in the Hogwarts Library. The green hands, of course, are edited out in post-production to make it look like the books are levitating or moving on their own or via telekinesis.

GUEST CONTENT FROM "SNAPROLL"

A Moron who occasionally comments under the nic "Snaproll" sent me the following, based on the "humor" thread suggested by creeper a couple of weeks ago. Since I'll be traveling today, on the road from what I assume to be a fabulous TXMOME, I prepared this ahead of time. Enjoy!

"He was killed last year by some bad clams"
"Bad clams?"
"Yeah. They had axes."
First off, Girl Genius. Written and illustrated by Phil and Kaja Foglio, this is the grandaddy of all webcomics. Set in an alternate history version of Europe with mad scientists, airships, railway operating monks, and supernatural oddities, the story follows the misadventures of Agatha, a young woman thrust headfirst into intrigue and politics. Containing borscht belt humor, witty dialogue, and alternating between making fun of common tropes and running with them, there's a lot to look at with this one.
The comic has been regularly released (and is still going!) monday-wednesday-friday, but with over 20 years of content (plus bonus comics, asides, and fan arcs) there's plenty to get lost in.
Additionally, if graphic novels aren't your thing, the first 12 volumes have been released as 4 novels, which add to the story with hilarious footnotes and further background to the universe the story occupies. The comics themselves are free to read, the novels, naturally, cost money.
The comics and books are middle-school appropriate, with comic violence and people occasionally running around in Victorian Underwear, often steam powered.

Comment: I've read the Agatha H series of books based on the webcomics and found them hilarious and fun to read. I even wrote a paper in graduate school about teaching YA to students and used this series as a prime example of how I would teach that genre. These books are just enjoyable in all the right ways. Highly recommended!

Next up, for the graphic novel entries, Dreamkeepers.
Running almost as long as Girl Genius, Dreamkeepers is set in a parallel world where Nightmares strive to enter our reality by killing our counterparts. It's a little convoluted, but the world is vibrant, charming, and has excellent characters.
The real humor, however, comes with the Prelude webcomic. Set 5 years before the events of the graphic novel saga, it shows the main characters (young adults in the series) in their misadventures at middle school age. Charming and full of satire, this is a definite must read. The first Four Volumes of the Main saga and Prelude are free to read, with Volume 5 due out later next year. All have PDF versions available for a nominal fee.
The creators, Dave and Liz Lillie, have an interesting backstory to them as well. They met attending college studying traditional animation, wanted to pitch their own tv series, was told "You'll lose all creative control", and they decided to make their own publishing company. Dreamkeepers is the result, and along the way Vivid Publishing has a small host of other titles as well.
Dreamkeepers Graphic Novel is appropriate for kids about 8th grade and adults, while the Prelude is tame enough to read with small kids.

Comment: I've not read this comic, so I have no idea what it's about, though it looks like involves anthropomorphic cats. As a Certified Crazy Cat Person(TM), I approve of this comic already.

Finally, for the Moron readers who insist on reading books without little pictures in them, I must insist that you drop whatever it is you're doing and read The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher, unless you already have (In which case, I need hardly tell you, Polka will Never Die).
These aren't exactly humorous books, inasmuch as the main character is a hardboiled, unlucky in love private investigator who also happens to be Chicago's only Wizard, but they're chock full of humor, mostly of the self deprecating variety, plus lots of pop culture references thrown in. They're quick reads, and will grab you by the scruff of your neck, alternating between laughing, worrying what's going to happen next, and cheering Dresden on as he fights vampires, werewolves, gangsters, evil sorcerers, fairy queens, dragons, ogres, fallen angels...well, you get the picture.
Dresden's more appropriate for high school age readers and up, but definitely worth the read. There are currently 15 novels out [actually 17 + 2 anthologies of short stories - PS], plus at least another four or five planned in the series.

Comment: I'm a big fan of these urban fantasy novels. Yes, they can be a bit formulaic at times, as most long-running series are, but they are fun reads, nonetheless. The first two books, Storm Front and Fool Moon are a bit rough around the edges, as Butcher was still trying to figure out the whole novel writing thing. Things get much better in the later books, leading up to a pivotal transition moment in Changes. Highly recommended if you enjoy a wisecracking wizard who gets his ass kicked on a regular basis, but can throw down with the best of them when the stakes are high enough.

++++++++++

(An entire episode of Doctor Who is based around this story.)

++++++++++

BOOKS BY MORONS

Snaproll even has his own book out!

Finally, if you'd be so kind, I have an entry in your "Books By Morons" category: My first novel, The Astral Raiders: Book One of The Wildest Dreams.
Jakob took a deep breath and nodded to himself. “What do you know about what happens when humans dream?”
The question was so far out of left field, Jessica took a couple of seconds to process it. “What? What does that have to do with-”
Jessica Calhoun always thought that whatever didn't kill you always made you stronger. Until she had the accident, which left her paralyzed, alone, and afraid of a vast, uncertain future. And afterward, when she finds herself catapulted into a freak world filled with fox pirates and pegasus herbalists, of demons and angels, where memories are worth their weight in gold, she might discover how right she ultimately might have been.
Set in a steampunk world featuring fairy tale creatures, genocidal sky pirates, and the setting for, hopefully, future adventures and other nonsense, The Astral Raiders is something of a culmination of ideas for me that I've done my best to put together in a coherent fashion.
It's my first novel, and everyone who's read it has either left a couple stars of reviews, or sniffed at it and wagged their tails, so it's probably not terrible.

++++++++++

MORON RECOMMENDATIONS

Favorite tragedy... Frankenstein.
Victor screws everything up for his ambition of beating death. So many mistakes, made more tragic by the fact that he could have used his talents for more productive pursuits. And the fruit of his mistakes literally haunts him. Say, it's the right time of year to read it again...
Posted by: She Hobbit at October 16, 2022 09:51 AM (ftFVW)

Comment: Frankenstein's monster shows up in literature quite a bit. There are some profound moral questions implied in his story. Does he have a soul? Could he ever join society as a productive citizen? Would he ever be able to reproduce naturally? Should mankind be dabbling in the creation of life? And so on...I have a number of books that involve Frankenstein's monster in some way, including Larry Correia's Monster Hunter Nemesis where we find out that Agent Franks (who is, in fact, Frankenstein's monster) is inhabited by a spirit that rebelled against God. He's on a never-ending quest for atonement for his sin.

+++++

John J. Robinson's book Born In Blood\ attempts to link the destruction of the Knights Templar with the Peasants' Revolt and subsequent status of the Masons as a secret society.
He focuses on the genesis of the Masons being that period that passed between the Philip IV's seizure of the Templar leadership, Pope Clement's dissolution of the order and demands that their assets be seized, and the compliance by the English and Irish, by which time the Templar fleet, treasure and arms were gone. He also points out that the Peasant's rebellion was well organized with three groups, and that Wat's arm was wearing white tabards with red crosses, and that in London the rebels focused on attacking the establishments of the Knights Hospitallers who had taken over the Templar's banking and assets.
It is a fun book, and an interesting stab at trying to resolve a hidden history of a secret society that claims to go back to the Templars and Solomon's Temple.
Posted by: Kindltot at October 16, 2022 09:46 AM (xhaym)

Comment: There's always been a bit of mystique to the Freemasons...Are they really running the world? Is the United States of America founded on occult Masonic practices? And who can forget this classic Monty Python sketch?

+++++

A hard science "time travel" book that actually works is Thrice Upon a Time by James Hogan. The main characters do not travel back through time, but they can send messages. The act of sending a message to a particular part of the time line makes that section unavailable to future parts of the time line. It's an intriguing book that is a fun read.
Posted by: MichiCanuck at October 16, 2022 10:08 AM (KBHKt)

Comment: This idea of sending messages to the past crops up in science fiction from time to time. Of course, this also leads to interesting paradoxes because if you have knowledge of the future, do you change your path and therefore alter the possibility that you might receive a message from the future? Or is a stable time loop created, "locking" the events in place so that no matter what you do, you will inevitably end up in the same point in time?

More Moron-recommended reading material can be found HERE! (466 Moron-recommended books so far!)

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WHAT I'VE BEEN READING THIS PAST WEEK:

God Stalk by P.C. Hodgell -- A young woman emerges from the Haunted Lands, her ultimate fate to assume the identity of the avatar of Regonereth, That-Which-Destroys, one aspect of her Three-Faced God.

Dark of the Moon by P.C. Hodgell -- We are introduced to Jame's twin brother Tori, who is at least a decade older than her, and who is struggling to assume his role as Highlord of the Kencyrath.

That's about all I have for this week. Thank you for all of your kind words regarding my Sunday Morning Book Thread. This is a very special place. You are very special people (in all the best ways!). The kindness, generosity, and wisdom of the Moron Horde knows no bounds. Let's keep reading!

If you have any suggestions for improvement, reading recommendations, or writing projects that you'd like to see on the Sunday Morning Book Thread, you can send them to perfessor dot squirrel at-sign gmail dot com. Your feedback is always appreciated! You can also take a virtual tour of OUR library at libib.com/u/perfessorsquirrel. Since I added sections for AoSHQ, I now consider it OUR library, rather than my own personal fiefdom...

PREVIOUS SUNDAY MORNING BOOK THREAD - 10-16-22 (hat tip: vmom stabby stabby stabamillion) (NOTE: Do NOT comment on old threads!)

Posted by: Open Blogger at 09:00 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 Good morning everyone.

Posted by: Tonypete at October 23, 2022 08:47 AM (LsEU/)

2 Tolle Lege! *waves to Tonypete, waves to BookThreadists*

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at October 23, 2022 08:48 AM (PiwSw)

3 I've fallen in like with the Harlan Coben books.

Posted by: grammie winger at October 23, 2022 08:49 AM (45fpk)

4 I've got ten minutes till I have to get ready for church. Give me some good books to read, people.

Posted by: grammie winger at October 23, 2022 08:50 AM (45fpk)

5 Oh grammie, you need to come down to our library book sale, they have a TON of Harlan Coben book. On Saturday you can get a bag of them for $1.00.

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at October 23, 2022 08:50 AM (PiwSw)

6 On Saturday you can get a bag of them for $1.00.

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at October 23, 2022 08:50 AM (PiwSw)

I would love that. Fortunately, our library has a large section of Harlan Coben in large print.

Posted by: grammie winger at October 23, 2022 08:52 AM (45fpk)

7 I've got ten minutes till I have to get ready for church. Give me some good books to read, people.
Posted by: grammie winger

War and Peace by Tolstoy.

You have time.

Posted by: Tonypete at October 23, 2022 08:52 AM (LsEU/)

8 War and Peace by Tolstoy.

You have time.

Posted by: Tonypete at October 23, 2022 08:52 AM (LsEU/)

I should have grabbed that, but now I only have 8 minutes to go. Think I can get through it ?

Posted by: grammie winger at October 23, 2022 08:53 AM (45fpk)

9 I just started the first Brother Cadfael book last night, after noticing it was on Kindle Unlimited.

I enjoyed the series with Derek Jacobi, and always intended to check out the books.

So far I'd rate it as pretty good.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at October 23, 2022 08:54 AM (bW8dp)

10 > I've got ten minutes till I have to get ready for church. Give me some good books to read, people.
Posted by: grammie winger

The Count of Monte Cristo.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at October 23, 2022 08:55 AM (bW8dp)

11 Read a poem, Grammie!

Posted by: Ziba at October 23, 2022 08:56 AM (4h9M3)

12 Good morning!

It was great meeting everyone at the TXMOME.

It was fun getting a chance to see how close my imaginary versions of you morons/ettes matched reality.

Shocka!:" Mostly not at all. Though fairly close in some cases.

Anyway, a good time!

Posted by: naturalfake at October 23, 2022 08:56 AM (KLPy8)

13 10 > I've got ten minutes till I have to get ready for church. Give me some good books to read, people.
Posted by: grammie winger

Wibbly Pig Likes Bananas

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at October 23, 2022 08:56 AM (PiwSw)

14 Andrea Camilleri Inspector Montalbano detective series are fun, quick reads. Added plus, they take place in Sicily.

Posted by: Ziba at October 23, 2022 08:57 AM (4h9M3)

15 Annndd I'm off - check back after worship time!

Posted by: grammie winger at October 23, 2022 08:57 AM (45fpk)

16 Whoa, early risers!

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 23, 2022 09:01 AM (llXky)

17 Washington DC is supposedly platted out to match the Freemason 'logo'.

Posted by: davidt at October 23, 2022 09:01 AM (oTZbj)

18 Didn't read anything this week. Have a few days to go through neighbor's books before she leaves. Guess no one wants anything. Sad thing, is she's just going to dump whatever I don't take in the recycle bin. There's lots of old novels, but not my style.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at October 23, 2022 09:01 AM (7bRMQ)

19 Tolle Lege
Back in a few minutes

Posted by: Skip's phone at October 23, 2022 09:02 AM (qmLnY)

20 Frankenstein is even a better book when you read a bit about Mary Godwin and her father.

Put down Hem for a while and read some Rumer Godden. I started with two books I read as a tween An Episode of Sparrows, and The Greengage Summer. Verdict: They really aren't kids books at all, but books for adults that happen to be about children. As an adult, I see the kids' situations much more clearly, and like most of the adults less than I did before.

Next up Kingfishers Catch Fire. I am trying to decide whether or not to read In This House of Brede (I recall the 1970s movie with Diana Rigg).

Posted by: CN at October 23, 2022 09:04 AM (Zzbjj)

21 I accidentally found an interesting (I think) version of "The Inferno" the other day.

The Inferno of Dante Alighieri translated by Ciaran Carson.

Carson is an Irish poet, who didn't actually study the Inferno per se but was interested enough in it* to learn Italian and translate it into a more modern style like his poetry.

I found some of the translation online and liked what I read, so I'm giving it a whirl. It should be here later today.

I'll let y'all know what I think.
If that sounds interesting to you, it just might be for you.

*Probably because it's referred to throughout most of Western literature.

Posted by: naturalfake at October 23, 2022 09:04 AM (KLPy8)

22 Guess no one wants anything. Sad thing, is she's just going to dump whatever I don't take in the recycle bin. There's lots of old novels, but not my style.
Posted by: OrangeEnt

For my wife and I, it feels like a sin to discard books. But, sometimes. . .

Posted by: Tonypete at October 23, 2022 09:05 AM (LsEU/)

23 Two recommendations. The Everything Box and The Wrong Dead Guy by Richard Kadrey. Author of the Sandman Slim series. The story of a hard luck thief who's immune to magic. Set in LA and involves the Department of Peculiar Science. Uses the word thautamological regularly.

Posted by: Stacy0311 at October 23, 2022 09:05 AM (VfLe7)

24 I found some of the translation online and liked what I read, so I'm giving it a whirl. It should be here later today.

I'll let y'all know what I think.
If that sounds interesting to you, it just might be for you.

Posted by: naturalfake

Please do! I watched the video series on it last year and got much more out of it than I did whilst in college. A good translation (that even I can understand) would be a godsend to me.

Posted by: Tonypete at October 23, 2022 09:07 AM (LsEU/)

25 Good morning fellow Book Threadists. I hope everyone had a great week of reading.

Looks like the Texas MoMe was wonderful. No surprise about that. Be safe on the journey home.

Posted by: JTB at October 23, 2022 09:08 AM (7EjX1)

26 Posted by: naturalfake at October 23, 2022 09:04 AM (KLPy

Interesting. During my recent book cull (out old textbooks). I found a 1940 version of Paradise Lost with the Blake illustrations. It's a large book with nice large print and nice thick paper, so it feels more accessible than the onion skin versions.

Posted by: CN at October 23, 2022 09:09 AM (Zzbjj)

27 Uses the word thautamological regularly.

I thautamologically taw a Purdy Tat!

Posted by: Tweety Bird at October 23, 2022 09:09 AM (KLPy8)

28 I read The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu. As Liu was the translator into English of his brother's book, The Three-Body Problem, I was expecting something really good. I thought this was an average novel of intrigue, plots, and sweeping battles set in a mystical archipelago where the Gods look down and have their favorites among the mortals.

Posted by: Zoltan at October 23, 2022 09:10 AM (xpLRw)

29 I'm a huge fan of Girl Genius, starting from when I purchased the Secret Blueprints comic off the shelf on the strength of the name Foglio. Boy, am I glad I did!

I had purchased a few of the trade paperbacks, but only last year did I throw money to the winds and get the rest of the set. Now I hope to outlive the story.

Posted by: Weak Geek at October 23, 2022 09:10 AM (HJ5Od)

30
Please do! I watched the video series on it last year and got much more out of it than I did whilst in college. A good translation (that even I can understand) would be a godsend to me.
Posted by: Tonypete at October 23, 2022 09:07 AM (LsEU/)

I enjoyed the Everyman's version, translated by Allen Mandelbaum. It also has explanatory endnotes.

https://is.gd/ZmVnAU

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at October 23, 2022 09:11 AM (PiwSw)

31 I may have returned to college without realizing it.

On the strength of an online excerpt, I bought "Poker and Pop Culture" by Martin Harris, who teaches courses on this at the University of North Carolina Charlotte. I think this is his textbook.

It starts with the history of the game, and I'm about to start the chapter on poker on Mississippi River steamboats. Future chapters will address poker in wartime and in movies, literature, and television -- both fictional and real.

I love poker plots (the rigged game in "The Sting," for example), so I think I'll like this book. If not, the author bluffed me out of my money.

Also:

For those of you who missed the Texas MoMe, I won the first two "Wearing the Cat" books donated by our own Perfesser as a door prize. I look forward to cracking these.

Posted by: Weak Geek at October 23, 2022 09:11 AM (HJ5Od)

32 Shocka!:" Mostly not at all. Though fairly close in some cases.

Anyway, a good time!
Posted by: naturalfake at October 23, 2022 08:56 AM (KLPy8 )

Berserker is pretty much the only one who is spot-on.

Posted by: Jordan61 at October 23, 2022 09:14 AM (lJmmt)

33 Given the state of the world and the ongoing travesty of The Rings of Power, I decided to pick up The Silmarillion and have another read.

It has been many years since I paged through it, and going through it again, I paid close attention to the spiritual aspects of the discussion, noting the biblical parallels (recurring use of seven, three) and so on. I was using as a bedtime book but found it hard to put down.

For 'alert' reading I'm going through The Fall of Gondolin for a second time. I find this time of year conducive to Tolkien reading.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 23, 2022 09:14 AM (llXky)

34 Berserker is pretty much the only one who is spot-on.
Posted by: Jordan61 at October 23, 2022 09:14 AM (lJmmt)

Animal from the Muppets?

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at October 23, 2022 09:15 AM (PiwSw)

35 The 'these pants' selection is nostalgic. Wide striped, ugly, bell bottom hip huggers. Welcome back to 1967.

No. I don't miss them.

Posted by: JTB at October 23, 2022 09:16 AM (7EjX1)

36 Probably finish Koba the Dead and Laughter of 20 Million by Martin Amis and want to do a book report, been taking notes

And Friday got hard copy of Dennis Prager's Rational Bible Deuteronomy

Posted by: Skip at October 23, 2022 09:16 AM (xhxe8)

37 For my wife and I, it feels like a sin to discard books. But, sometimes. . .

Posted by: Tonypete at October 23, 2022 09:05 AM (LsEU/)

There's quite a few "Elsie" books about a very devout girl interacting with her undevout relatives and others. Paging through it seems like a series of novels for kids for teaching things instead of fun. Don't know what to do with them.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at October 23, 2022 09:16 AM (7bRMQ)

38 Weak Geek,

Have fun reading WtC!

Lemme know what you think.

Posted by: naturalfake at October 23, 2022 09:16 AM (KLPy8)

39 Ohhh, for seeing the Harry Potter movies ad nauseum that scene didn't click, now know the hands are edited out it does

Posted by: Skip at October 23, 2022 09:18 AM (xhxe8)

40
Now I want Green Hands to live in my bookshelf.

Posted by: naturalfake at October 23, 2022 09:19 AM (KLPy8)

41 No. I don't miss them.
Posted by: JTB at October 23, 2022 09:16 AM (7EjX1)

Of course, you don't. By 1975, they were a symptom of an inability to leave the summer of love behind and grow up. I don't recall any with skulls on them, though, so a new and ugly twist.

Posted by: CN at October 23, 2022 09:19 AM (Zzbjj)

42 "The green hands, of course, are edited out in post-production to make it look like the books are levitating or moving on their own or via telekinesis."
-

I thought they were the NYC Transit System Green Meanies.

Posted by: Biden's Dog at October 23, 2022 09:19 AM (odVni)

43 There's always been a bit of mystique to the Freemasons...Are they really running the world? Is the United States of America founded on occult Masonic practices? And who can forget this classic Monty Python sketch?
---
One of Franco's tics that really annoyed American diplomats was his visceral hatred of the Freemasons. Most Americans think of them as a chummy fraternal organization that's chief vice is (or was) socially excluding outsiders from the levers of power.

However, in Europe (particularly Spain), the Freemasons were an implacably anti-Catholic organization and most if not all of Spain's radical anarchist and socialist leaders were high-ranking members.

The same was true in France. Anti-clericalism and Freemasonry were essentially the same thing, and the Masonic rituals and initiations were part of ensuring political reliability.

Americans are almost totally ignorant of this, and its a mark of how different American Freemasonry is that for years Catholics had to be reminded not to join what they thought was a social club and mutual aid society. The Knights of Columbus were created in part to provide a Catholic alternative.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 23, 2022 09:20 AM (llXky)

44 G'Morning...

Nice to meet you Perfessor!

And now the long slog home starts, 22 hours...but at least I'm gonna bypass Nashville and all that construction.

See y'all on the ONT.

Posted by: browndog Official Mascot of Team Gizzard at October 23, 2022 09:20 AM (bApRP)

45 Berserker is pretty much the only one who is spot-on.
Posted by: Jordan61 at October 23, 2022 09:14 AM (lJmmt)

Animal from the Muppets?
Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes

My wife, whom doesn't even read much here, once she spied Berserker, instantly said to me "Oh, that has to be Berserker!"

Honest to goodness, those two talked hair care products for a good half hour.

Posted by: Tonypete at October 23, 2022 09:20 AM (LsEU/)

46 I don't think the pants guy owns a weedwhacker, OR a certificate of Sanity. (if you catch my drift....)

Posted by: JT at October 23, 2022 09:21 AM (T4tVD)

47 hiya

Posted by: JT at October 23, 2022 09:21 AM (T4tVD)

48 Now I want Green Hands to live in my bookshelf.

Posted by: naturalfake at October 23, 2022 09:19 AM (KLPy

---
Why thank you, Thing.

Posted by: Morticia Addams at October 23, 2022 09:21 AM (llXky)

49 TonyPete-

How's da new house ?

Posted by: JT at October 23, 2022 09:21 AM (T4tVD)

50 I came across mention of "I Got A Song" by Rick Massimo. It's a history of the Newport Folk Festival which was held in my hometown. I knew a good amount, especially for the earlier years, but the photos brought back some great memories. A folk group I was part of in high school even played on stage there. It's fun reading.

I've been pleased to see the festival has revived and is thriving.

Posted by: JTB at October 23, 2022 09:22 AM (7EjX1)

51 Picked up "Stars and Stripes" by T.K. Kennedy. Thought I was getting "Scars and Stripes" by Tim Kennedy. Big mistake. IF you thought the "West Wing" was real, you will love this book. Otherwise total magic unicorn fart liberal crap.

Posted by: Paladin at October 23, 2022 09:24 AM (sb6jj)

52 Sorry, not a book day for me. First, gotta worship Jesus this morning. Then, having folks over to watch Formula 1, which is in Austin this week.

Posted by: H.L. Mencken at October 23, 2022 09:24 AM (cz2EI)

53 I don't think Ken Liu and Cixin Liu are related. They just both have a pretty common Chinese last name.

Posted by: Trimegistus at October 23, 2022 09:24 AM (QZxDR)

54 20 Frankenstein is even a better book when you read a bit about Mary Godwin and her father."

There's a very strong argument one can make that Frankenstein is the very first Science Fiction novel. I find it fascinating that Mary S. put her finger on the fear of Science Going Too Far nearly a century before that genre became popular with anyone else.

Posted by: Tom Servo at October 23, 2022 09:24 AM (r46W7)

55 There was also an episode of X-Minus One with that prompt. I think it was that series anyway, maybe have been a competitor, anyway, the solution wasn't that it was a woman knocking on the door.

I finally read A Canticle for Leibowitz this past week, very good read.

I just started Tristam Shandy, we'll see if I continue it. Anyone read it before?

Anyone else dislike that indelible weedwhacker "joke" that stains this thread?

Posted by: .87c at October 23, 2022 09:25 AM (MJMIU)

56 JT, great - we love it! Lots of built in bookshelves to fill and an absolutely terrific corner in the 'office' for a reading spot. Beautiful view and lots of natural light.

We are really going to like it here. Still running back and forth between old and new house so we are beat. But, the future is bright.

Posted by: Tonypete at October 23, 2022 09:25 AM (LsEU/)

57 Morning, bookenfolken,

I'm reading Evelyn Waugh's Men at Arms, the first of his WWII trilogy. The lead character, Guy Crouchback, wants to get into and help fight the war (this is August '39 and, so far, up to the spring of '40). He's found an officer billet with a regiment called the Halberdiers and is training. Very unlike Gomer Pyle for sure, and thus far he hasn't seen any "action."

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 23, 2022 09:28 AM (c6xtn)

58 In writing news...Walls of Men is back from the test readers so we're getting close. I'll apply the edits, reformat it and that should be the end of it.

My daughter's working on maps and I have to figure out the cover art and blurb, that I'm hoping to have this thing go live in November. I absolutely want at least a proof copy to wave around at my National Guard retirement in December. It is eagerly anticipated by my unit.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 23, 2022 09:28 AM (llXky)

59 JT, great - we love it! Lots of built in bookshelves to fill and an absolutely terrific corner in the 'office' for a reading spot. Beautiful view and lots of natural light.

We are really going to like it here. Still running back and forth between old and new house so we are beat. But, the future is bright.
Posted by: Tonypete

Congrats and Best of Luck !

Posted by: JT at October 23, 2022 09:28 AM (T4tVD)

60 Those pants remind me of a kid I saw in the nearby town as I sat in the coffeeshop looking out the window. He had a pierced lip, shoepolish-black hair, and -- I'm totally not kidding here -- a "Hail Satan" t-shirt.

I chuckled aloud, but suppressed the urge to go outside and yell, "Hey, kid, your grandpa was a real edgelord when he wore that same outfit in 1980!"

Posted by: Trimegistus at October 23, 2022 09:30 AM (QZxDR)

61 @Hem,

Can you expound a bit on why you thought Frankenstein was a good book? I hated the monster so much (his whining and entitlement and the book's tacit endorsement of his claims--at least at that point) that I quit the book midway and went and completed my reading of the books he cites so that I could despise him from a stance of at least comparable education. (Also, Volney's Decline of Empires or whatever it is called is not that interesting a book, like a lesser Golden Bough, and doesn't live up to the title claims)

Posted by: .87c at October 23, 2022 09:31 AM (MJMIU)

62 I'm reading Evelyn Waugh's Men at Arms, the first of his WWII trilogy. The lead character, Guy Crouchback, wants to get into and help fight the war (this is August '39 and, so far, up to the spring of '40). He's found an officer billet with a regiment called the Halberdiers and is training. Very unlike Gomer Pyle for sure, and thus far he hasn't seen any "action."

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 23, 2022 09:28 AM (c6xtn)
---
The Sword of Honour is an outstanding work. Highly recommend.

The Halberdiers are a stand-in for the Royal Marines, in which Waugh served. As the series progresses, some of his Smart Set personalities creep into the narrative, which dedicated Waugh readers appreciate.

Put Out More Flags (which preceded Men at Arms) is about the Smart Set going to war.

During the war, Waugh became more contemplative and his writing took on a spiritual tone, hence Brideshead Revisited and later, Sword of Honour. He revisited the Smart Set much later with the short story "Basil Seal Rides Again," which is one of the funniest things I've ever read.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 23, 2022 09:32 AM (llXky)

63
There's a very strong argument one can make that Frankenstein is the very first Science Fiction novel. I find it fascinating that Mary S. put her finger on the fear of Science Going Too Far nearly a century before that genre became popular with anyone else.
Posted by: Tom Servo at October 23, 2022 09:24 AM (r46W7)

Apparently, scientific experiments focused on revitalizing dead limbs was a big thing for a while in London, and Mary heard about it from her father's illustrious circle. Taking the experiments of the day to an ugly conclusion was a great move. Too bad the viral "gain of function" people didn't take heed.

Posted by: CN at October 23, 2022 09:32 AM (Zzbjj)

64 > Frankenstein is even a better book when you read a bit about Mary Godwin and her father.

Or William Godwin and his (step)daughters.

I guess Godwin rethought his "free love" doctrine a bit after his teen daughters ran off to Switzerland with Shelley and Byron.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at October 23, 2022 09:33 AM (bW8dp)

65 Berserker is pretty much the only one who is spot-on.
Posted by: Jordan61 at October 23, 2022 09:14 AM

No tattoos or piercings might through them off. Lol

Posted by: Berserker-Dragonheads Division at October 23, 2022 09:34 AM (5Zo8i)

66 Dr. Frankenstein had the right idea but his attempts were clumsy.

Posted by: Dr. Herbert West at October 23, 2022 09:34 AM (4I/2K)

67 Those pants remind me of a kid I saw in the nearby town as I sat in the coffeeshop looking out the window. He had a pierced lip, shoepolish-black hair, and -- I'm totally not kidding here -- a "Hail Satan" t-shirt.

I chuckled aloud, but suppressed the urge to go outside and yell, "Hey, kid, your grandpa was a real edgelord when he wore that same outfit in 1980!"

Posted by: Trimegistus at October 23, 2022 09:30 AM (QZxDR)
---
I stopped in to get gas late one night and the guy behind the counter was decked out in satanic gear. I looked at him and almost blurted out: "Wow, sold your soul for the graveyard shift at a gas station. Sucks to be you."

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 23, 2022 09:34 AM (llXky)

68 Girl Genius absolutely rocks, and one of the reasons for that is its excellent, highly detailed character development. You never Know Everything You Need to Know once a character is first introduced; things are revealed by action and speech pretty much as in real life. Given the superb art and ingenious plotting, it wouldn't be nearly as much fun if the characters were as limited as in too many comics. (The fact that it works just as well, albeit differently, as novels as well as comics is further proof.) My only concern is that the Foglios will never make an end of it, and that would be frustrating beyond description!

Posted by: werewife, princess of Delray Beach at October 23, 2022 09:34 AM (SPNTN)

69 > Hey, kid, your grandpa was a real edgelord when he wore that same outfit in 1980!"

Wearing that crap at the time of the Inquisition or the Puritans might make him "brave and edgy".

If he wants to be brave and edgy today, he needs to wear a "Fuck Mohammed" shirt.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at October 23, 2022 09:35 AM (bW8dp)

70 I was re-reading "Diary of an Early American Boy" by Eric Sloane. It's based on a diary Sloane found from 1805 kept by a small town teenager. Between the entries, Sloane's explication of the times and circumstances, and his sketches, the book provides oodles of information about the time and place.

That led to other Sloane books on my shelves which now includes his "Weather Almanac". Sloane was likely the first TV weatherman and was a keen observer of weather both historically and for prediction. His explanations of how weather works are excellent. I love his chapter on weather folklore. Each of the old time sayings is rated as true or false or possible. Fun reading.

Posted by: JTB at October 23, 2022 09:35 AM (7EjX1)

71 64. I think he rethought it before then, but the girls never would have met Shelley and Byron had it not been for Godwin.

Posted by: CN at October 23, 2022 09:35 AM (Zzbjj)

72 Finally finished a huge project for a client, and waiting on final payment, so I could pick up on the three projects of my own: Luna City #11, the next Lone Star Sons installment for YA readers and aficionados of classic western adventure, and the half-completed Civil War novel ... so I had just enough time to finish Kenneth Roberts "Lydia Bailey", which was recommended some weeks ago on Chicagoboyz.com. Verdict - OK, but rather talky. The chief villain of the novel, one Tobias Lear, who was George Washington's secretary and business manager and battened onto that association like a remora clinging to a shark, seems to have been every bit as treacherous and immoral as he was painted.

Posted by: Sgt. Mom at October 23, 2022 09:36 AM (xnmPy)

73 If he wants to be brave and edgy today, he needs to wear a "Fuck Mohammed" shirt.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at October 23, 2022 09:35 AM (bW8dp)

Or, "Dissent is the Highest Form of Patriotism" shirt in front of the DOJ.

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at October 23, 2022 09:36 AM (PiwSw)

74 I am re-reading A Brief History Of Time. As during the first reading, my mind is bent by some of the concepts. Most. Okay, all of them.

Posted by: DB at October 23, 2022 09:36 AM (geLO8)

75 Eric Sloane was a very good artist.

Posted by: Head puddi at October 23, 2022 09:39 AM (5gQmD)

76 It still might be around here somewhere a original Stars and Stripes edition from 1945.

Posted by: Skip at October 23, 2022 09:41 AM (xhxe8)

77 Everything by Eric Sloane is amazing. He was an artist, but also a pioneering TV meteorologist (he did one of the murals in the Air & Space Museum), historian of early American tools and crafts, and a gifted writer. He wrote and illustrated a memoir of driving across the US in the 1920s in a Model T, and also a fascinating book about Hamilton's house in Harlem and its preservation.

Posted by: Trimegistus at October 23, 2022 09:41 AM (QZxDR)

78 I’ve got 5 hours left on my drive and a 5-hour energy drink. And I’m wearing sunglasses.

Let’s hit it!

Posted by: Perfessor Squirrel at October 23, 2022 09:41 AM (okxCJ)

79 Wife and I are (re-) reading Revolt Against Maturity by Christian writer R.J. Rushdoony. We do a chapter each day, reading aloud and interjecting our interpretations and cross-referencing the author's Scriptural citations. Sort of discussing it on the fly as it were.

Published in 1977, it has a lot of relevance, perspective and insights into the current upsurge of humanism and socialism.

SAMPLE: On the subject of atonement: "For all men, atonement is a need. Because a humanist sees it as a problem to be solved, his course is a lifelong absorption with his guilty burden. Not surprisingly, a humanistic age has seen a superabundance of psychiatrists and psychoanalysts, all feeding on this burden, and intensifying it by their failure."

Posted by: Muldoon at October 23, 2022 09:41 AM (kXYt5)

80 I just started Tristam Shandy, we'll see if I continue it. Anyone read it before?

I've read “The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman”.
It is a great book and very funny, but but but, you really have to be on Sterne's wavelength.

The novel purports to be a biography but is almost anything but. It's full of digressions, footnotes, flashbacks, extraneous stories, thoughts on almost everything, etc, which is part of the joke.
Here in the novel infancy is a writer who just wants to kick the novel in the nuts, pour hot sauce up it's nose, and paint its bottom blue. And pretty much do the same thing to the reader.

Shockingly, it was very popular in its day. And all the while, the critics hated it.
Warning! It is written in an archaic style, so you have to adjust your reader's expectations. If you can get on its wavelength, you'll enjoy it.
I'm an admirer of the simultaneous use in it of both high and low humor. Something I tried to do in WtC.

If that sounds like something you would like, you probably will

Posted by: naturalfake at October 23, 2022 09:42 AM (KLPy8)

81 Recently read Shadow Work by Craig Lambert. It was written in 2015 and I found it very thought provoking in light of the COVID overreaction.

Posted by: Quarter Twenty at October 23, 2022 09:42 AM (DhOHl)

82 I was watching a video about Alan Lee, the illustrator for many of the Tolkien books. His works are wonderful. In it he mentions three of his favorite books, one of which is the Gormenghast trilogy by Mervyn Peake. I hadn't heard of it (gasp!) but if it impressed Lee that much I figured it was worth checking out. My copy of the three books , all 960 pages in hardcover, just arrived. It will be part of my autumn and winter reading.

Anyone familiar with the books? What is your opinon?

Posted by: JTB at October 23, 2022 09:42 AM (7EjX1)

83 There's a very strong argument one can make that Frankenstein is the very first Science Fiction novel. I find it fascinating that Mary S. put her finger on the fear of Science Going Too Far nearly a century before that genre became popular with anyone else.

Posted by: Tom Servo at October 23, 2022 09:24 AM (r46W7)

Eh, the Greeks and Romans wrote stories about space travel. Maybe not long enough to be considered a modern novel, but still, Space.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at October 23, 2022 09:43 AM (7bRMQ)

84 No tattoos or piercings might through them off. Lol
Posted by: Berserker-Dragonheads Division at October 23, 2022 09:34 AM (5Zo8i)

You reminded me of what I noticed about early Metallica.

Posted by: polynikes at October 23, 2022 09:43 AM (P3l4J)

85 I never wore bell-bottom pants. I thought they looked stupid; we had a dress code in my high school anyway; and by the time I got to college, I was more concerned with passing everything.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 23, 2022 09:43 AM (c6xtn)

86 I’ve got 5 hours left on my drive and a 5-hour energy drink. And I’m wearing sunglasses.

Let’s hit it!
Posted by: Perfessor Squirrel

Mashup of Blues Brothers and Animal House?

Posted by: Tonypete at October 23, 2022 09:43 AM (LsEU/)

87 I didn't know the cats were strong enough to do this, but 4 of my Britannica volumes were on the floor when I got up this morning. A through Hermosil. You find yourself wondering just what they were researching. . . .

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 23, 2022 09:48 AM (c6xtn)

88 SAMPLE: On the subject of atonement: "For all men, atonement is a need. Because a humanist sees it as a problem to be solved, his course is a lifelong absorption with his guilty burden. Not surprisingly, a humanistic age has seen a superabundance of psychiatrists and psychoanalysts, all feeding on this burden, and intensifying it by their failure."

Posted by: Muldoon at October 23, 2022 09:41 AM (kXYt5)
---
Indeed. I would add that there's also a vestige of Calvinism in this. The Elect are always elect, so their sins are automatically wiped away, whereas the Damned can never be forgiven, so no apology is ever truly accepted.

The problem is that people know that they are doing wrong, and their souls cries out under that burden, but without the means to address it, they simply become ever more vindictive, trying to externalize their self-loathing.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 23, 2022 09:49 AM (llXky)

89 polynikes, Hrothgar was the lucky winner of your Moron Life painting.

Posted by: Ben Had at October 23, 2022 09:49 AM (1R33h)

90 Finished up one of Stephen Hunter's early books, Dirty White Boys. Pretty good juxtaposition of law enforcement and criminals.

Posted by: polynikes at October 23, 2022 09:50 AM (P3l4J)

91 There was a strong qnti masonic influences in this country even a political party we ignode even out own history as with the illuminati

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at October 23, 2022 09:50 AM (PXvVL)

92 Apparently, scientific experiments focused on revitalizing dead limbs was a big thing for a while in London, and Mary heard about it from her father's illustrious circle. Taking the experiments of the day to an ugly conclusion was a great move. Too bad the viral "gain of function" people didn't take heed.
Posted by: CN at October 23, 2022 09:32 AM (Zzbjj)

I've watched a couple of episodes of a show called, perhaps, The Frankenstein Chronicles. It's about that very. Boromir played the lead role.
IIRC it's very grim.

Posted by: Northernlurker, surgite at October 23, 2022 09:50 AM (eGTCV)

93 85 I never wore bell-bottom pants. I thought they looked stupid; we had a dress code in my high school anyway; and by the time I got to college, I was more concerned with passing everything.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 23, 2022 09:43 AM (c6xtn)

The hip hugger skull pants are really "flares" and not true bells which were much wider. Now the terms are interchangeable, but that was not always so

Posted by: CN at October 23, 2022 09:50 AM (Zzbjj)

94 Yes. Sometimes what doesn't kill doesn't make you stronger. It leaves you maimed.

Posted by: Chatterbox Mouse at October 23, 2022 09:51 AM (C1rbv)

95 The green hands, of course, are edited out in post-production to make it look like the books are levitating or moving on their own or via telekinesis.

*********

So, it's faked, eh?

Con man the librarian?

Posted by: Muldoon at October 23, 2022 09:51 AM (kXYt5)

96 Yes, I read the Gormengast trilogy but it's been years. It's a strange world that he creates with some memorable characters. But it may not be a world you enjoy.

Posted by: Notsothoreau at October 23, 2022 09:51 AM (uz3Px)

97 Just the usual Sunday morning stuff, IOW the Sunday Morning Book Thread.

Posted by: irongrampa at October 23, 2022 09:51 AM (KATBx)

98 polynikes, Hrothgar was the lucky winner of your Moron Life painting.
Posted by: Ben Had at October 23, 2022 09:49 AM (1R33h)

Awesome. It should be ready to ship in a few weeks. Let me know how we can coordinate that.

Posted by: polynikes at October 23, 2022 09:52 AM (P3l4J)

99 The hip hugger skull pants are really "flares" and not true bells which were much wider. Now the terms are interchangeable, but that was not always so
Posted by: CN at October 23, 2022

***
Yeah, I remember hearing the different terms back then. I always though they were just different terms for the same thing.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 23, 2022 09:53 AM (c6xtn)

100 With regard to the "Last Man on Earth Shortest Horror Story Sentence"
I always respond with "It was a woman"

Posted by: The Doctor at October 23, 2022 09:53 AM (AyuoI)

101 Awesome. It should be ready to ship in a few weeks. Let me know how we can coordinate that.
Posted by: polynikes at October 23, 2022 09:52 AM (P3l4J)

I think first it has to appear in the Art Thread. CBD?

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at October 23, 2022 09:53 AM (PiwSw)

102 One of the benefits of overstuffed book shelves and boxes is finding volumes I had forgotten about. I came across one such this week, "Wildlife Artists at Work" by Patricia Van Gelder. It contains paintings by 10 well-known artists and how they approach making their works. The paintings chosen are fantastic and the information on their processes is manna to someone trying to learn how to draw.

I must have had the book for several decades. It was a delight to rediscover it.

Surprise!

Posted by: JTB at October 23, 2022 09:53 AM (7EjX1)

103 I didn't know the cats were strong enough to do this, but 4 of my Britannica volumes were on the floor when I got up this morning. A through Hermosil. You find yourself wondering just what they were researching. . . .
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 23, 2022 09:48 AM (c6xtn)
===
To Serve Man?

Posted by: San Franpsycho at October 23, 2022 09:54 AM (EZebt)

104 Green Eggs and Hands.

Posted by: JT at October 23, 2022 09:55 AM (T4tVD)

105 There was a strong qnti masonic influences in this country even a political party we ignode even out own history as with the illuminati

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at October 23, 2022 09:50 AM (PXvVL)
---
I think the issue was that - as with everything else - Americans overdid the Freemasonry thing. It's one thing for a tiny group of entrenched elites to have some secret societies but when you reach the point where the biggest building in town is the Masonic Temple, people on the outside get a bit peeved.

I think that's why American Freemasonry became more a mutual aid society. Like most of them, the New Deal and rise of public assistance coupled with the extended length of the Great Depression pretty much crushed them.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 23, 2022 09:56 AM (llXky)

106 Burke and hare were the suppliers of said experiments the story arose out a fever dream

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at October 23, 2022 09:57 AM (PXvVL)

107 Bell-bottoms were required when I started middle school. Every day was a "Sunshine Day"

Posted by: San Franpsycho at October 23, 2022 09:58 AM (EZebt)

108 Posted by: JTB at October 23, 2022 09:53 AM (7EjX1)

Chuck Black has some good YouTube vids of painting birds if interested.

Posted by: polynikes at October 23, 2022 09:58 AM (P3l4J)

109 he Gormenghast trilogy by Mervyn Peake. I hadn't heard of it (gasp!) but if it impressed Lee that much I figured it was worth checking out. My copy of the three books , all 960 pages in hardcover, just arrived. It will be part of my autumn and winter reading.

Anyone familiar with the books? What is your opinon?
Posted by: JTB at October 23, 2022 09:42 AM (7EjX1)

I was a teenager when I read "Titus Groan" and it was pretty much right after I read (and thoroughly loved) "Lord of the Rings".

Man, I hated "Titus Groan" (first book of the Gormenghast Trilogy). It seemed like the anti-LOTR.
Very dark and dreary. High Gothic style in the writing and in its description of minutia. Think of it as a dark and depressing, well-mannered and ruled by tradition "Dynasty".

Now, that being said...that was the opinion of teenage naturalfake and his pimples. I never read the other two novels in the trilogy. However, "Titus Groan" is considered one of the great 99 Novels of the 20th Century by Anthony Burgess. So, I've been thinking of giving it another go-round and seeing what adult naturalfake and his grey hair think about it.

Posted by: naturalfake at October 23, 2022 09:59 AM (KLPy8)

110 I imagine the Theist element of Freemasonry were also increasingly problematic in America.

It was one thing for lapsed Enlightenment Anglicans to demonstrate their intellectual sophistication by denigrating the Bible, but that viewpoint didn't really last. As a mutual aid society, sure, but I bet a lot of fundamentalists found the Theism to be problematic.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 23, 2022 10:00 AM (llXky)

111 Have just started Bleak House, but only 4 chapters in, so that doesn't really count for much beyond having opened it on the kindle.

Read Lawrence Block's The Burglar Who Met Fredric Brown -- a delight, as is usual with Block.

Am considering a re-read of a whole bunch of Don Robertson. Terrific writer. If I could write something a trillionth as good as his novel Mystical Union, I would die a happy man. Only three of his books are in print in the U.S. (Harper reprinted his Morris Bird trilogy a few years ago and never did any more), but in Italy they're reprinting his stuff including (and this infuriates me) a translation of a novel never published here. There are days when I think the big American publishers are too damn dumb to survive.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at October 23, 2022 10:01 AM (a/4+U)

112 Yeah, I remember hearing the different terms back then. I always though they were just different terms for the same thing.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 23, 2022 09:53 AM (c6xtn)

Real bells were truly atrocious. I suspect you could fill the pants section of the book thread exclusively with Beatles bad fashion sense from the 60s. And if you ran out there's always Sonny Bono.

Posted by: CN at October 23, 2022 10:01 AM (Zzbjj)

113 I’ve got 5 hours left on my drive and a 5-hour energy drink. And I’m wearing sunglasses.

Let’s hit it!
Posted by: Perfessor Squirrel at October 23, 2022 09:41 AM

Safe travels,, Perfessor!

Posted by: RedMindBlueState at October 23, 2022 10:01 AM (jibTf)

114 Greetings:

Read "Red Sky Morning: The true epic history of Texas Ranger Company F" by Joe Papa-somebody this week and for the obvious reason

Colts and Winchesters abounded throughout.

Posted by: 11B40 at October 23, 2022 10:02 AM (uuklp)

115 Bell-bottoms were required when I started middle school. Every day was a "Sunshine Day"

Posted by: San Franpsycho at October 23, 2022 09:58 AM (EZebt)
---
By the time I had any control over my clothes selection, bell bottoms were done. They existed somewhat in high school thanks to second-hand stories and kids rooting through their parents' closets.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 23, 2022 10:02 AM (llXky)

116 In Dr. John Campbell's recent youtube video about the gain of function work being done at Boston University, he quotes Mary Shelly. Yes. scary shit.

Posted by: Chatterbox Mouse at October 23, 2022 10:02 AM (C1rbv)

117 Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at October 23, 2022 09:53 AM (PiwSw)

It was on the Saturday Hobby thread 5 or 6 weeks ago. Still working on getting good enough for the art thread. Ways to go. 😀

Posted by: polynikes at October 23, 2022 10:03 AM (P3l4J)

118 to .87c, Tristram Shandy is a great book and incredibly surreailstic, especially for a book written in the 1760s.
I finished Quo Vadis - meh. About halfway through In the Garden of Beasts and finding it fascinating. Started Joseph Conrad Noteson Life and Letters and the notes on letters were so-so at best but the first two essays on 'Life' (one about Russia and another about Poland) are great. Also started The Director's Cut (Theda Bara #1) and the first bit is really good.

Posted by: who knew at October 23, 2022 10:04 AM (4I7VG)

119 Real bells were truly atrocious. I suspect you could fill the pants section of the book thread exclusively with Beatles bad fashion sense from the 60s. And if you ran out there's always Sonny Bono.

Posted by: CN at October 23, 2022 10:01 AM (Zzbjj)
---
The crimes of the Beatles are many and well-documented. The 80s nostalgia craze over them (we did a Beatles halftime show) was annoying.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 23, 2022 10:04 AM (llXky)

120 Not sure I qualify as a moron; maybe a semi-moron, but I have a question--how does a semi-moron submit a title for the Books By Morons Sunday morning category? Asking for a friend.

Posted by: FIIGMO at October 23, 2022 10:04 AM (5Xtai)

121 TXMoMe fun fact--Perfessor knows his way around a dance floor in addition to his many other talents.

Thank you for everything, Perfessor.

Posted by: Ben Had at October 23, 2022 10:06 AM (1R33h)

122 I finished Quo Vadis - meh.
Posted by: who knew at October 23, 2022 10:04 AM (4I7VG)
---
Another candidate for "the movie is better than the book" club?

Peter Ustinov's Nero is magnificent.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 23, 2022 10:07 AM (llXky)

123 55
Anyone else dislike that indelible weedwhacker "joke" that stains this thread?

Posted by: .87c at October 23, 2022 09:25 AM (MJMIU)
----
I keep seeing it referenced but I must have missed the actual joke.

Posted by: Ciampino - in Africa it was a Weedeater at October 23, 2022 10:09 AM (qfLjt)

124 33 ... "For 'alert' reading I'm going through The Fall of Gondolin for a second time. I find this time of year conducive to Tolkien reading."

AHL,
Agreed! I haven't read The Silmarillion since it first came out. Maybe it's time for another session as an older reader. (I already have my annual re-reading of LOTR set for the new year.) Also, next month there will be a new, probably last, Tolkien book "The Fall of Numenor". It's supposed to be a compendium of all the Numenor references from the trilogy and Tolkien's notes. Not new information but put in one source. I'll be curious to see how it is received.

Posted by: JTB at October 23, 2022 10:09 AM (7EjX1)

125 By the time I had any control over my clothes selection, bell bottoms were done. They existed somewhat in high school thanks to second-hand stories and kids rooting through their parents' closets.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 23, 2022 10:02 AM (llXky)

Lucky you. But all in all at least the 60s-70s fashion bullshit was something you could throw out or easily change ( ugly hairstyles). This tat and piercing crap is another matter.

Well, I think I'll go do some reading, have some coffee, and then finish up a sewing project for grandson2. I have made a pillow for grandson1 out of some cloth he used in a school project. Grandson2 is now showing jealousy over this and said "I'll take anything, grandma". So it will be pillow cases based on his favorite animal of the month.

Posted by: CN at October 23, 2022 10:10 AM (Zzbjj)

126 FIIGMO - As the Perfessor is on the road think you can send a email
If I can make a coherent book report that's what I'm going to do

Posted by: Skip at October 23, 2022 10:11 AM (xhxe8)

127 CN, I do recommend In This House of Brede, if you like Godden’s books. I just re-read Five for Sorrow, Ten for Joy. ITHOB is better, IMHO.

Posted by: LadyS at October 23, 2022 10:12 AM (CS6xB)

128 120 Not sure I qualify as a moron; maybe a semi-moron, but I have a question--how does a semi-moron submit a title for the Books By Morons Sunday morning category? Asking for a friend.

Posted by: FIIGMO at October 23, 2022 10:04 AM (5Xtai)
----
Epsilon? Is that you?

[The epsilon semi-morons were the lowest of the low in Brave New World by Aldous Huxley - the fertilized egg was steeped in dilute alcohol IIRC]

Posted by: Ciampino -- in Africa it was a Weedeater at October 23, 2022 10:12 AM (qfLjt)

129 108 ... polynikes,
Thanks. Those Chuck Black YT videos look good. I'm not trying color yet but his approach to creating the scene can only be helpful.

Posted by: JTB at October 23, 2022 10:14 AM (7EjX1)

130 Those pants are neither flared, nor bell-bottomed, nor hip-huggy. They are shapeless and wouldn't look good if worn by a young Brigitte Bardot or a young Kiefer Sutherland.

Posted by: Bandersnatch at October 23, 2022 10:15 AM (e+csY)

131 [The epsilon semi-morons were the lowest of the low in Brave New World by Aldous Huxley - the fertilized egg was steeped in dilute alcohol IIRC]
Posted by: Ciampino -- in Africa it was a Weedeater at October 23, 2022 10:12 AM (qfLjt)
-

Moron morons after this word from our sponsor.

Posted by: Biden's Dog at October 23, 2022 10:15 AM (odVni)

132 The epsilon semi-morons were the lowest of the low in Brave New World by Aldous Huxley - the fertilized egg was steeped in dilute alcohol IIRC]
Posted by: Ciampino -- in Africa it was a Weedeater at October 23, 2022 10:12 AM (qfLjt)

Everyone gets Soma !

Posted by: polynikes at October 23, 2022 10:15 AM (P3l4J)

133 Agreed! I haven't read The Silmarillion since it first came out. Maybe it's time for another session as an older reader. (I already have my annual re-reading of LOTR set for the new year.) Also, next month there will be a new, probably last, Tolkien book "The Fall of Numenor". It's supposed to be a compendium of all the Numenor references from the trilogy and Tolkien's notes. Not new information but put in one source. I'll be curious to see how it is received.

Posted by: JTB at October 23, 2022 10:09 AM (7EjX1)
---
I think you'll see things very differently. I was very interested to note how much of The Silmarillion complies with Catholic theology. We know that Middle Earth is kind of like our world, but there's a sense that it isn't. Much of the activity has the sense of the pre-Flood age, which explains the absence of the other groups of humanoids.

I'll be interested to see the Numenor book. I know a bunch of Tolkien's papers regarding that are in Unfinished Tales. While I appreciate the "all in one" format, I'm not sure I need more compilations.

However, my wife will insist that we get it.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 23, 2022 10:15 AM (llXky)

134 Notsothoreau and naturalfake,

Thanks for the Gormenghast reactions. I'll give it a try and see if my older self is more tolerant of fantasy that isn't by Tolkien, Lewis, or MacDonald.

Posted by: JTB at October 23, 2022 10:17 AM (7EjX1)

135 [The epsilon semi-morons were the lowest of the low in Brave New World by Aldous Huxley - the fertilized egg was steeped in dilute alcohol IIRC]

Posted by: Ciampino -- in Africa it was a Weedeater at October 23, 2022 10:12 AM (qfLjt)
---
Eerie anticipation of the wine mom.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 23, 2022 10:18 AM (llXky)

136 To create life from dead things probably would have been regarded as abomination in earlier times

Deisk sounds nice but if God has no import on natural world then what difference does itake

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at October 23, 2022 10:18 AM (PXvVL)

137 I'm ashamed to say but I could never get through Lucifer's Hammer. Two attempts and I gave up.

Posted by: polynikes at October 23, 2022 10:18 AM (P3l4J)

138 Those pants are neither flared, nor bell-bottomed, nor hip-huggy. They are shapeless and wouldn't look good if worn by a young Brigitte Bardot or a young Kiefer Sutherland.
Posted by: Bandersnatch at October 23, 2022

***
Brigitte would make anything look good. To put it another way, Brigitte looked good in anything.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 23, 2022 10:19 AM (c6xtn)

139 From Koba the Dread
Applies to any Leftist writing in a nutshell
So may I make a suggestion? You should reread the twenty-four volumes of Lenin's works in the following way: every time you see the words "counterrevolution" or "counterrevolutionary" you should take out the "counter"; and every time you see the words "revolution" or "revolutionary" you should put the "counter" back in again.

Posted by: Skip at October 23, 2022 10:19 AM (xhxe8)

140 I learned last year that the used-book stores in Dallas are closed on Sundays, so I have nothing to delay me on my way home.

Now I just need the will power to put down the phone and pack.

Also, if I had hands coming out of our bookshelves, I would set them to dusting.

'Bye, all! Safe travels!

Posted by: Weak Geek at October 23, 2022 10:20 AM (VQDx6)

141 Everyone gets Soma !
Posted by: polynikes at October 23, 2022

***
Soma do, and Soma don't.

Posted by: Henry Gibson at October 23, 2022 10:20 AM (c6xtn)

142 Gotta run some errands. Be back to finish the thread later.

Posted by: JTB at October 23, 2022 10:21 AM (7EjX1)

143 In High School I bucked the trend of flare and bell bottom and started wearing straight leg jeans. They weren't skinny jeans but closer to boot cut.

Posted by: polynikes at October 23, 2022 10:22 AM (P3l4J)

144 Soma do, and Soma don't.

Posted by: Henry Gibson at October 23, 2022 10:20 AM (c6xtn)
---
Ford Madox Ford reference there: Some Do Not... was one of his books in the Parade's End series.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 23, 2022 10:22 AM (llXky)

145 The Don Camillo stories (Giovannino Guareschi) are hilarious. Even funnier in the original Italian. You get to read about Communists and Fascists, you know the real kind. Eventually the theme will be copied to our time and the Fascists will be the hardcore Democrats.

https://is.gd/YIkuxi

Posted by: Ciampino --- in Africa it was a Weedeater at October 23, 2022 10:23 AM (qfLjt)

146 Since I am a *real* Mad Scientist --and author-- and the Foglios live in the area, I have actually been on a convention panel with Phil Foglio. The entire family is funny, even the Experiments (their children) who very much enjoy adults that also have a rich and imaginative fantasy life

Posted by: Sabrina Chase at October 23, 2022 10:23 AM (BbSpR)

147 > The epsilon semi-morons were the lowest of the low in Brave New World by Aldous Huxley - the fertilized egg was steeped in dilute alcohol IIRC]
Posted by: Ciampino -- in Africa it was a Weedeater at October 23, 2022 10:12 AM (qfLjt)

Huxley got that wrong, IMO. Turns out that we don't actually need semi-moronic factory workers to stand on the line tightening the same bolt over and over again.

Which pretty much sucks for the people who are naturally that way. From way back when, those folks could support themselves, if not in luxury, at least at a level considered adequate for the time. Farm work, factory work, didn't matter. At its peak a factory worker for, say, Ford, could actually have a pretty decent lifestyle.

No more.

Those of us who purport to be Christians, or at least have some type of ethical and/or moral code need to not forget those people. They are human beings just the same as the rest of us. They're largely not lazy bums. History proves that they can and will work. There just aren't many jobs left they can do.

It's not an easy problem, and no, just issuing them handouts is not a solution, either. That's the communist solution.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at October 23, 2022 10:23 AM (bW8dp)

148 Too bad CN left because I don't think anyone else here reads Ford Madox Ford besides the two of us.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 23, 2022 10:23 AM (llXky)

149 Those pants are neither flared, nor bell-bottomed, nor hip-huggy. They are shapeless and wouldn't look good if worn by a young Brigitte Bardot or a young Kiefer Sutherland.

Posted by: Bandersnatch at October 23, 2022 10:15 AM (e

Way better off cutting them up and turning them into a tapestry for a man cave.

Posted by: Berserker-Dragonheads Division at October 23, 2022 10:23 AM (5Zo8i)

150
Frankenstein's monster shows up in literature quite a bit. There are some profound moral questions implied in his story. Does he have a soul? Could he ever join society as a productive citizen? Would he ever be able to reproduce naturally? Should mankind be dabbling in the creation of life?

How successful would he have been as a stand alone song and dance man?

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at October 23, 2022 10:24 AM (pNxlR)

151 > To put it another way, Brigitte looked good in anything.

Or nothing.

Preferably nothing.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at October 23, 2022 10:24 AM (bW8dp)

152 Way better off cutting them up and turning them into a tapestry for a man cave.

Posted by: Berserker-Dragonheads Division at October 23, 2022 10:23 AM (5Zo8i)
---
One you take them off Bardot, who cares where you put them.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 23, 2022 10:25 AM (llXky)

153 That line about capitalisr selling their own rope apploes to outsourcing and other steps that led to a hollowing out of the middle class a proletarization

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at October 23, 2022 10:26 AM (PXvVL)

154 "Trump Organization facing trial on charges it helped some of its executives cheat on their taxes."

Now, children. Diagram this sentence for bullshit.

Posted by: andycanuck (yikp0) at October 23, 2022 10:26 AM (yikp0)

155 Way better off cutting them up and turning them into a tapestry for a man cave.

Posted by: Berserker-Dragonheads Division at October 23, 2022 10:23 AM (5Zo8i)
---
One you take them off Bardot, who cares where you put them.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 23, 2022 10:25 AM

Narrator: He's not wrong.

Posted by: RedMindBlueState at October 23, 2022 10:26 AM (jibTf)

156 141 Everyone gets Soma !
Posted by: polynikes at October 23, 2022

***
Soma do, and Soma don't.

Posted by: Henry Gibson at October 23, 2022 10:20 AM (c6xtn)
----
Hey Paesan, come stai?
You better shaddupyourface eh!

Posted by: Ciampino - lampposts, cement boots or woodchippers? at October 23, 2022 10:28 AM (qfLjt)

157 148 Too bad CN left because I don't think anyone else here reads Ford Madox Ford besides the two of us.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 23, 2022 10:23 AM (llXky)

Based on Anthony Burgess's recommendation, Parade's End is on my TBR list.

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at October 23, 2022 10:28 AM (PiwSw)

158 Huge Girl Genius fans over here! I married a Spark, so I'm used to mad science.

Posted by: pookysgirl wishes she'd read the comic *first* at October 23, 2022 10:28 AM (NX5lE)

159 History proves that they can and will work. There just aren't many jobs left they can do.

It's not an easy problem, and no, just issuing them handouts is not a solution, either. That's the communist solution.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at October 23, 2022 10:23 AM (bW8dp)
---
There is lots they could do, but our betters would rather import foreigners and pay them under the table.

For 225 years it was understood that immigration was like a throttle on wage growth. Open up the valve, wages go down. Shut it down, wages go up.

Everyone ignores that the huge post WW II wage growth wasn't because of unions, it was because we slammed the door on immigration shut in the 1920s.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 23, 2022 10:29 AM (llXky)

160 Re: the Epsilon discussion
That's why I love the legend of John Henry. What happens when those who are limited in skill/mental set are pushed out by technology? I think the answer lies in technology. Make it simple enough that anyone can use it in a productive way. Not that that's easy or obvious, but the cause is in the domain of technology (as applied to economic activity), so I don't see any reason the solutjon shouldn't also be in the technological domain.

Posted by: .87c at October 23, 2022 10:30 AM (MJMIU)

161 Based on Anthony Burgess's recommendation, Parade's End is on my TBR list.

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at October 23, 2022 10:28 AM (PiwSw)
---
Skip the last book in the series. It's weird and boring, adding next to nothing to the story. Read a synopsis if you're curious what Ford did with the characters after the war.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 23, 2022 10:30 AM (llXky)

162 > There is lots they could do, but our betters would rather import foreigners and pay them under the table.

True enough. Among other groups, Trump appealed very much to this demographic. Largely because he promised them jobs, not handouts.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at October 23, 2022 10:31 AM (bW8dp)

163 True enough. Among other groups, Trump appealed very much to this demographic. Largely because he promised them jobs, not handouts.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at October 23, 2022 10:31 AM (bW8dp)
---
And this is why Hispanic and Latino voters are trending GOP, because they also want better wages. They know how it works.

It's a measure of the pathologies in black America that they can't see this and continue to vote against their own interest.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 23, 2022 10:33 AM (llXky)

164 It's that time. Thanks again, Perfesser!

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 23, 2022 10:34 AM (llXky)

165 Anyone else dislike that indelible weedwhacker "joke" that stains this thread?

Stale memes are sort of a meta-meme at the HQ.

Posted by: Oddbob at October 23, 2022 10:34 AM (nfrXX)

166 It's undeniable that automation has eliminated the majority of those rote jobs. We were always going to have issues finding something for those displaced workers.

Posted by: polynikes at October 23, 2022 10:36 AM (P3l4J)

167 When I was in HS girls had to wear skirts. Boys went nuts when the girls were allowed to wear tight jeans, bell bottoms were new then.

Posted by: dartist at October 23, 2022 10:37 AM (9X/y4)

168 151 > To put it another way, Brigitte looked good in anything.

Or nothing.

Preferably nothing.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at October 23, 2022 10:24 AM (bW8dp)
----
She did spread for Playboy.

Posted by: Ciampino -- lampposts, cement boots or woodchippers? at October 23, 2022 10:37 AM (qfLjt)

169 I learned last year that the used-book stores in Dallas are closed on Sundays, so I have nothing to delay me on my way home.

Not this one. Trust me, it's worth the trip.

https://hpb.com/001

Posted by: Oddbob at October 23, 2022 10:39 AM (nfrXX)

170
Just bought Merry Christmas, Don Camillo by Giovanni Guareschi, translated by Piers Dudgeon. This is a series of writings about Guareschi's time in a POW camp, his Christmas fable Favole di Natale, his liberation and return to Italy and some of the Christmas stories of the parish priest Don Camillo.

It's a sad and elegiac collection. Guareschi was a man out of place in postwar Italy, especially after the prosperity of the 1960s. Some of the little tales are grim: in an account of the Doppoguerra, a settling of accounts after the war, two thugs kill a man riding on a bicycle with his baby daughter. They find they've killed the wrong man and left the child an orphan. So they shoot her too.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at October 23, 2022 10:41 AM (1Nxff)

171 To put it another way, Brigitte looked good in anything.

Or nothing.

Preferably nothing.
Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at October 23, 2022

***
Air and sunlight.

Posted by: Henry Gibson at October 23, 2022 10:43 AM (c6xtn)

172 @oddbob
Just because it's stale doesn't mean it's good!! Haha

More on "Epsilons": Has anyone read The Golden Age by John C Wright? He has a bit in the second book that addresses this, a bunch of low-level people find they can compete economically against AI. Even though they are millions of times slower, because of opportunity cost, there are certain jobs it makes little economic sense for an AI to spend one second on but it is worthwhile for a human to spend 6 hours on. Of course this implies the prices involved and between the implicit price cap on applicable work and the number of hours in a day, guarantees income disparity--not that I think there's anything immoral in that, but apparently that's unstable situation socially sense people are both coveteous, ignorant, and shortsighted.

Posted by: .87c at October 23, 2022 10:45 AM (MJMIU)

173 Funny thread about should be Spirit Halloween costumes.

https://bit.ly/3SqUvsf

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now Smarter Than Lumpy Fetterman! at October 23, 2022 10:45 AM (FVME7)

174 The late Jerry Pournelle used to tell a story from his days as an aerospace consultant.

The aircraft in question had miniature connectors, the soldering of which was both mission-critical and extremely boring. At first the company tried putting their sharpest people on the job and paying them a big bonus. Didn't work. They soon quit due to the extreme tedium of the job.

Pournelle advised hiring retarded people. They didn't get bored, worked hard, and were largely proud to have a responsible job.

However, at some point some busybody decided that this was "exploiting" the retarded people (yeah, "exploiting" them by paying them aerospace union scale), so they couldn't do that any more.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at October 23, 2022 10:52 AM (bW8dp)

175 150 How successful would he have been as a stand alone song and dance man?

PUTTIN' ON THE RITZ!!!

Posted by: mandatory at October 23, 2022 10:53 AM (FaOSD)

176 Thanks for the feature Perfessor!

Posted by: Snaproll at October 23, 2022 10:53 AM (14i9S)

177 > Some of the little tales are grim: in an account of the Doppoguerra, a settling of accounts after the war

In France, too.

In one story, they took a Nazi collaborator and put him at the bottom of an abandoned quarry, with walls too steep to climb.

They also threw down a wagonload of turnips and a bunch of hogs, so he'd have plenty of time to think about what was going to happen when the turnips ran out.

Then they went away for a couple of weeks, came back, and had a barbecue.

Grim indeed.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at October 23, 2022 10:54 AM (bW8dp)

178 Speaking of Halloween . . .

https://bit.ly/3z6rprv

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now Smarter Than Lumpy Fetterman! at October 23, 2022 10:54 AM (FVME7)

179 The new Minutemen.

U.S. Military "Fully Prepared" to Cross Into Ukraine at a Moment's Notice

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now Smarter Than Lumpy Fetterman! at October 23, 2022 10:58 AM (FVME7)

180 Wow! The clouds are lifting on the mountain, the first layer of snow is upon it!

Winter is here.

Posted by: BurtTC at October 23, 2022 11:00 AM (i3yPZ)

181 Sean McMullen - Greatwinter Trilogy. Post-apocalyptic society reinvented by arithmetic savants.

The Souls In the Great Machine
The Miocene Arrow
The Eyes of the Calculor

Very good series; in fact gave me shivers and I wondered whether my kidlets who were good at math should be hidden.

Posted by: mustbequantum at October 23, 2022 11:01 AM (MIKMs)

182 This is a long drive. 4 hours to go and my 5-hour energy has already worn off.

Posted by: Perfessor Squirrel at October 23, 2022 11:02 AM (okxCJ)

183 Trevor Noah Says Politics Is the “New Religion of America” - “Supersedes Everything”

-
It certainly trumps comedy, huh Trevor.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now Smarter Than Lumpy Fetterman! at October 23, 2022 11:02 AM (FVME7)

184 Funny money.

Alex Jones Seeks New Trial as Sandy Hook Families Seek up to $2.75 Trillion in Punitive Damages

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now Smarter Than Lumpy Fetterman! at October 23, 2022 11:05 AM (FVME7)

185 Funny money.

Alex Jones Seeks New Trial as Sandy Hook Families Seek up to $2.75 Trillion in Punitive Damages
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now Smarter Than Lumpy Fetterman! at October 23, 2022 11:05 AM (FVME7)

Alex is just the loudest of the human sacrifices we have in this country. God bless him for not quitting.

Those Sandy Hook families are grifters, even if they lost kids. Doesn't give them permission to be c*nts the rest of their lives.

Posted by: BurtTC at October 23, 2022 11:07 AM (i3yPZ)

186 Book Thread is quiet. Too quiet.

The librarians are restless tonight.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 23, 2022 11:11 AM (c6xtn)

187 Xi confirmed for third term.

I know I'm shocked.

Nearly as shocked as I was when Saddam was reelected 11 million to zero.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at October 23, 2022 11:13 AM (bW8dp)

188 I see Paul Krugman thinks there's going to be a housing crash, which makes me think there won't be one.

Because, seriously, when is the last time that fuckstick was right about anything?

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at October 23, 2022 11:15 AM (bW8dp)

189 Can't talk books. Eatin' brekkie at Waffle House.

No sign of Lurleen, Joleen, or Arleen.

Posted by: All Hail Eris at October 23, 2022 11:15 AM (A065C)

190 First they came for the orchestra conductors . . .

Kerpatenko, 46, the conductor of the acclaimed Gileya Chamber Orchestra and the director of the Kherson Music and Drama Theater, was gunned down in his home by Russian soldiers after he vehemently refused to conduct a propaganda concert in honor of the Russian occupation of Kherson, a port city on the Black Sea, according to a statement from the Ukrainian ministry of culture.

https://bit.ly/3z74ITT

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now Smarter Than Lumpy Fetterman! at October 23, 2022 11:16 AM (FVME7)

191 There's a very strong argument one can make that Frankenstein is the very first Science Fiction novel. I find it fascinating that Mary S. put her finger on the fear of Science Going Too Far nearly a century before that genre became popular with anyone else.
Posted by: Tom Servo at October 23, 2022 09:24 AM (r46W7)

Mary Shelley was part of the Byron group of Romantics. Romanticism was an embrace of the natural world and natural themes, and rejecting the "made" world and all that technology. I don't know how much influence Rousseau and the original French Revolution had on them, but in literary areas it was moving away from the classical Graeco-Roman myths, and religious themes. It also fit in with the move towards Volks movements to develop senses of modern nationhood based on cultural traditions, and the recording of folklore like the Brothers Grimm and the Kalevala and Hungarian folklore and all the rest.

Posted by: Kindltot at October 23, 2022 11:21 AM (xhaym)

192 Or William Godwin and his (step)daughters.
I guess Godwin rethought his "free love" doctrine a bit after his teen daughters ran off to Switzerland with Shelley and Byron.
Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at October 23, 2022 09:33 AM (bW8dp)

Godwin was slapped around (logically) by Thomas Malthus in his pamphlet On Population (the book that no one read and everyone hates because Paul Ehrlich had an opinion about it)

Posted by: Kindltot at October 23, 2022 11:25 AM (xhaym)

193 If America invades Ukraine it will be spearheaded by the 101st Screaming Trannies.

Posted by: Tee hee! at October 23, 2022 11:27 AM (4qaD4)

194 On the topic of books _with_ pictures in them, I just ordered Savage Sword of Conan Omnibus 8. It collects a bunch of black-and-white Conan the Barbarian comics from the mid-80's in a big hardcover collection. It's the last volume in the collection, not because series is over, but because Marvel is giving up the Conan license at the end of the year. (Probably because the character is too 'toxicly masculine' for them.) I've really enjoyed the books, and I hope the company that picks up the license will continue publishing the series...

Posted by: Castle Guy at October 23, 2022 11:29 AM (Lhaco)

195 Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now Smarter Than Lumpy Fetterman! at October 23, 2022 11:16 AM (FVME7)

They lost me when they said ' according to the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture'

Posted by: polynikes at October 23, 2022 11:34 AM (P3l4J)

196 "Kerpatenko, 46, the conductor of the acclaimed Gileya Chamber Orchestra and the director of the Kherson Music and Drama Theater, was gunned down in his home by Russian soldiers..."

That's harsh. Even for a conductor...

Posted by: gourmand du jour, in vino veritas at October 23, 2022 11:35 AM (jTmQV)

197 So, a picture of Hogwarts, would you like to see better than Hogwarts? Book wise, the Potter books make great movies, because the books are simple, so you can fit an entire book in a movie without cutting it up so much it is unrecognizable. But what if you want a book at is less simple, a book specially made so not just young children, but peeps of all ages can enjoy it. A book for everybody.

For instance, the protagonist is carefully chosen as a thirteen year old girl, so short she can pass as a child, but so smart she can pass as an adult (sometimes).

The Unexpected Enlightenment of Rachel Griffin. Hogwarts meets Narnia (the writing is of Narnia quality).

Posted by: Nightfall at October 23, 2022 11:35 AM (xwoai)

198 I've watched a couple of episodes of a show called, perhaps, The Frankenstein Chronicles. It's about that very. Boromir played the lead role.
IIRC it's very grim.
Posted by: Northernlurker, surgite at October 23, 2022 09:50 AM (eGTCV)

I watched a few episodes of that before nope-ing out. One cool thing was that it implied that it was a sequel to the Richard Sharpe movies! At one point, Boromir's character took out his old military uniform, which was a close match to what he wore in the Sharpe movies. (Sean Bean, the main character, in addition to plalying Boromir and Ned Stark, played Rifleman Richard Sharpe in about 17 tv-movies about the Napoleonic Wars.)

Posted by: Castle Guy at October 23, 2022 11:37 AM (Lhaco)

199 Hey, a Fredric Brown quote! I just re-read Night of the Jabberwock and bought a Kindle short story anthology (one of those Megapacks) of his, which includes an elaboration of his "shortest horror story".

I will say, booze features a role in an awful lot in his tales. I was not surprised to find out he was an alcoholic.

Posted by: spindrift at October 23, 2022 11:37 AM (qxjcy)

200 I think that's why American Freemasonry became more a mutual aid society. Like most of them, the New Deal and rise of public assistance coupled with the extended length of the Great Depression pretty much crushed them.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 23, 2022 09:56 AM (llXky)

Fraternal societies were created as mutual aid societies, a lot of them were also burial societies.
Chances are the local older cemeteries were started by the various groups. Locally they were the Masons and Odd Fellows. Up further there are ones with the Knights of Columbus in the Catholic towns. When there wasn't good insurance or social support, the organizations were there to help out.
The Elks are a newer brotherhood like the Eagles, and they both work on civic improvement and mutual aid.

The elements that have driven down participation in the fraternal orgs locally, per my dad, was the development of television and the welfare state that squeezed out the local charities.

Posted by: Kindltot at October 23, 2022 11:38 AM (xhaym)

201 I too want to endorse the webcomic Girl Genius, its loads of fun and very clever. Phil Foglio is a wildly creative artist and writer along with his wife Kaja. The first art I saw from him was in Dragon Magazine in a semi-regular strip that kind of examined gaming and mostly was just goofy fun. He also illustrated graphic novels of Robert Asprins "Myth" series which was also a great compilation.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at October 23, 2022 11:39 AM (Ivdso)

202 Book Thread is quiet. Too quiet.

The librarians are restless tonight.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, dreaming of Elsewhere at October 23, 2022 11:11 AM (c6xtn)

In the book shelves
The mighty bookshelves
The librarians sleep tonightiiittteee!!

Posted by: Diogenes at October 23, 2022 11:41 AM (anj39)

203 Thanks for the recommendation mustbequantum, ordered. I noticed that the author has DRM disabled for the digital version, a nice touch.

Posted by: Candidus at October 23, 2022 11:41 AM (sYdZO)

204 Just got my latest shipment from Hamilton Book. Two or three times a year, I'll sit down with a cold beer or two and their web site. An hour later and I've picked out 20 of more books.

This last session I pretty much looked through the older part of their "going soon" pages. Ended up with mostly history but a couple of non-fiction showed up as well. 22 books, shipping, and sales tax for around $110.

Posted by: Just call me Pete at October 23, 2022 11:41 AM (a4vvV)

205 AW - Putin takes a page out of Nazi playback

If they read what I am it would be
Putin continues Stalin’s playbook

Posted by: Skip at October 23, 2022 11:44 AM (xhxe8)

206 Fredric Brown was a delight, and the only one I can think of who had a major career in both mystery and sf. Of his mystery novels, The Screaming Mimi and Night of the Jabberwock get most of the attention, if memory serves. But I've always been partial to The Far Cry and Knock Three-One-Two; the latter made a nice episode of the Karloff-hosted Thriller tv series around 1961, with Warren Oates and Charles Aidman. His short stories in both genres are a ton of fun.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at October 23, 2022 11:45 AM (a/4+U)

207 Perfessor hope it's a sunny out that will help

Posted by: Skip at October 23, 2022 11:46 AM (xhxe8)

208 Has anyone seen Mr. Poppins lately?

Posted by: Infidel at October 23, 2022 11:48 AM (Ur3ox)

209 I got nothin. Haven't felt like reading a book for a few months now. Nothing is appealing to me. When I get in these ruts I usually can pull a Kenneth L. Roberts book off the shelf or even a Patrick McManus humor book but that tactic isn't working this time.

Posted by: Beartooth at October 23, 2022 11:48 AM (4+bFW)

210 For those just now encountering God Stalk here is a list of books published so far.

God Stalk, Dark of the Moon, Seeker's Mask, To Ride a Rathorn, Bound in Blood, Honor's Paradox, The Sea of Time, By Demons Possessed, and the newest release is Deathless Gods.

But wait there is more for those who want to read about Hodgell's fertile and bizarre world where trees can go roaming due to arboreal drift.

Two short stories are found at Baen.com that are free to read. But a word of warning, wait until you have finished Seeker's Mask before reading due to spoilers.
The Talisman's Trinket -https://tinyurl.com/3vhx848r
Songs of Waste and Wood - https://tinyurl.com/2p8eam7p

Posted by: Anna Puma at October 23, 2022 11:48 AM (KHkyI)

211 A. H. got me interested in the Spanish Civil War so I started another account of it by Anthony Beevor.
Entitled "The Battle for Spain", I am listening on audio book and I have to admit, it is tough, not because of the author's style of writing but because of having to listen to all of the many horrors.

Posted by: gourmand du jour, in vino veritas at October 23, 2022 11:49 AM (jTmQV)

212 Oh, about the above "Unexpected Enlightenment" series) (six so far), be warned, the first book covers just her first; ah ,six days. Her first time away from home. So much happens in six days that I figure that even a three year education would take 365 books, that's how packed it is. She lives through it, somehow...

It takes a bit more leisurely pace after that (planned 15-16 books), still a lot happens, but spread out more, otherwise you would be exhausted and so would the author. And so would Rachel, she would never get any schooling done, assuming she lived through it.

There is no way you could fit all that in a movie, the author suggested an anima series as the only possibility. Say, one chapter an episode.

Posted by: Nightfall at October 23, 2022 11:49 AM (xwoai)

213 @204 "Edward Hamilton Bookseller" is a blast from the past. Great little reviews and blurbs, and an enticing catalogue. They hurt libraries badly, a couple of decades back, because it got cheaper to just buy a damn book than to drive clear over there and see if they had it. Just before "internet presence" caught on (in the era when I belonged to a record club to build a CD collection...) I was immoderate in my trade with them. Good times. Had to build more shelves.

Posted by: Way, Way Downriver at October 23, 2022 11:51 AM (x61Im)

214 Has anyone seen Mr. Poppins lately?
------
He delurked briefly last Thursday or Friday, denounced the do-nothing GOP for failing to state a positive agenda (ie, just running on Junta failure), and then re-lurked

Posted by: Huck Follywood at October 23, 2022 11:55 AM (ACREu)

215 Thanks Huck.

Posted by: Infidel at October 23, 2022 11:59 AM (Ur3ox)

216 184 Funny money.

Alex Jones Seeks New Trial as Sandy Hook Families Seek up to $2.75 Trillion in Punitive Damages

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now Smarter Than Lumpy Fetterman! at October 23, 2022 11:05 AM (FVME7)
----
Pay a hitman a million each and just take out those greedy bastards. Jones didn't have anything to do with the actual killing. Nothing in the Bible or our Constitution ever protected anyone from Butthearting. Have they sued the families of the killers?

Posted by: Ciampino --- lampposts, cement boots or woodchippers? at October 23, 2022 12:00 PM (qfLjt)

217 Perfesser if you could add my three books to your Horde-written list, I'd appreciate it:

Snowberrys Veil
https://tinyurl.com/5zzae9ry

Old Habits
https://tinyurl.com/36nyrmwe

Life Unworthy
https://tinyurl.com/msxjw79b

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at October 23, 2022 12:01 PM (Ivdso)

218 160 Re: the Epsilon discussion
That's why I love the legend of John Henry. What happens when those who are limited in skill/mental set are pushed out by technology? I think the answer lies in technology. Make it simple enough that anyone can use it in a productive way. Not that that's easy or obvious, but the cause is in the domain of technology (as applied to economic activity), so I don't see any reason the solutjon shouldn't also be in the technological domain.
Posted by: .87c at October 23, 2022 10:30 AM

There's an interesting take on that idea in Fredric Brown's short story "The Little Black Bag," which deals with the titular artifact (from a future in which your technological solution has been implemented) being accidentally sent back to the 1950s and landing in the wrong hands.

Posted by: werewife, princess of Delray Beach at October 23, 2022 12:02 PM (SPNTN)

219 Gah, sometimes I feel like a Jaran scholar in need of consulting Index just to find things in my own library of Hodgell related items.

The book Blood & Ivory is an anthology comprising of in publication order - A Matter of Honor, Child of Darkness, Bones, Stranger Blood, Hearts of Woven Shadow, Lost Knots, and Among the Dead.

Just to round things out, Hodgell also publishes her own Sherlock Holmes story in this volume - A Ballad of the White Plague.

Posted by: Anna Puma at October 23, 2022 12:04 PM (KHkyI)

220 The Unexpected Enlightenment of Rachel Griffin. Hogwarts meets Narnia (the writing is of Narnia quality).
Posted by: Nightfall at October 23, 2022 11:35 AM

I bought the (expensive) paperbacks a few years ago. I liked the setup except for wondering why Rachel had no idea what an angel looked like. However, the books left my home before I could even finish the first one. Darn young readers!

The first book was free on Kindle recently. Maybe still is? The others are $4.99.

Posted by: NaughtyPine at October 23, 2022 12:04 PM (/+bwe)

221 If you're looking for "The Little Black Bag," it ain't a Brown (though it's certainly got the Brown feel in spots) -- it's C. M. Kornbluth.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at October 23, 2022 12:06 PM (a/4+U)

222 There's an interesting take on that idea in Fredric Brown's short story "The Little Black Bag,"

Is that the one where the guy demonstrates how the scalpel works to, um, unfortunate effect?

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at October 23, 2022 12:06 PM (Ivdso)

223 Wasn't there an H. Beam Piper short story where everything had been reduced to pressing icons on a screen to do things, even order your flying car. That to be thought of as 'literate' was a massive faux pas that would lead to you being ostracized?

Wow, Piper predicted our now.

Posted by: Anna Puma at October 23, 2022 12:10 PM (KHkyI)

224 butthurting

Posted by: Ciampino --- lampposts, cement boots or woodchippers? at October 23, 2022 12:11 PM (qfLjt)

225 222 There's an interesting take on that idea in Fredric Brown's short story "The Little Black Bag,"

Is that the one where the guy demonstrates how the scalpel works to, um, unfortunate effect?

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at October 23, 2022 12:06 PM (Ivdso)
----
It's Kornbluth as author and it is one of my all-time favorite short stories.

Posted by: Ciampino - - - lampposts, cement boots or woodchippers? at October 23, 2022 12:13 PM (qfLjt)

226 I get paid over $85 per hour working from home with 2 kids at home. I never thought I'd be able to do it but my best friend earns over 13k a month doing this and she convinced me to try. The potential with this is endless.
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Posted by: www.Profit97.Com at October 23, 2022 12:28 PM (9CfVt)

227 Apologies and thanks to those who caught my error (Brown for Kornbluth)! See, that's what happens when one is in a hurry to post before the thread gets too long. Won't happen again (yeah, right)!

Posted by: werewife, princess of Delray Beach at October 23, 2022 12:39 PM (SPNTN)

228 It's undeniable that automation has eliminated the majority of those rote jobs. We were always going to have issues finding something for those displaced workers.
Posted by: polynikes at October 23, 2022 10:36 AM (P3l4J)

Automation is a capital intensive investment with a large initial payout and what can be limited flexibility. It is generally brought in where manual labor is too expensive.

At the moment, minimum wage and employment taxes and regulations, are more expensive than 2% improvement loans.
I have suggestions on how to reverse this trend . . .

Posted by: Kindltot at October 23, 2022 12:44 PM (xhaym)

229 Thanks for the blurb about Jim Butcher's "Harry Dresden" series. Unfortunately, I think the series jumped the shark in "Changes", turning Harry from a down-at-the-heels wizard-cum-private-eye to a superhero. IMHO, the best book in the series is "Turn Coat", which is the last book before "Changes". The two books of short stories ("Side Jobs" and "Brief Cases") are also quite good, though they assume some knowledge of the canon.

Posted by: Nemo at October 23, 2022 12:48 PM (S6ArX)

230 Wasn't there an H. Beam Piper short story where everything had been reduced to pressing icons on a screen to do things, even order your flying car. That to be thought of as 'literate' was a massive faux pas that would lead to you being ostracized?
Wow, Piper predicted our now.
Posted by: Anna Puma at October 23, 2022 12:10 PM (KHkyI)

Null ABC, it was the last of his books that was under copyright.
It is a story about intelligent subversion against the current order, which is the subtext of a lot of his works.

Posted by: Kindltot at October 23, 2022 12:53 PM (xhaym)

231 Imagine writing the monograph: H. Beam Piper, Rebel: the subversive rebellion of Sci-Fi's greatest imagineer.

Posted by: Kindltot at October 23, 2022 12:57 PM (xhaym)

232 Piper the subversive has been readily apparent since Uller Uprising followed by Oomphal in the Sky.

Posted by: Anna Puma at October 23, 2022 01:05 PM (KHkyI)

233 Also a correction to the P.C. Hodgell stories.

"Song of Waste and Wood" is contemporaneous with the publication of The Sea of Time so wait until after reading that book before tackling the short story.

Posted by: Anna Puma at October 23, 2022 01:07 PM (KHkyI)

234 Well finished sewing project, lunch, and started Kingfisher's Catch Fire, by Rumer Godden. Apparently, it's a fictionalized version of her own unwise behavior. It seems Godden was overcome by reading A Passage to India and felt bad about the separation between European women and children and their Indian counterparts. Well after her husband leaves her, she decided to take her daughters (a daughter and son in the book) and live the life of a peasant in Kashmir, except in a nice, rented house.

The lack of sense of the liberal mind, seems to know no bounds . I just started it, but in the interest of some fairness, Godden does describe her character as one who tends to make a mess out of things and essentially skip town to avoid consequences. So, I will assume that will be the skeleton of the plot.

I like how she writes, so I'll continue with the books I already have. Her sister, Jon (Jonquil, but really Winsome) Godden was also a writer, but I haven't found a lot of reviews of her work.

Posted by: CN at October 23, 2022 01:14 PM (Zzbjj)

235 I've been a fan of Frederic Brown since I was a wee cardinal. He was prolific in the pulps, and every decade or two some fan/small publisher begins a project reprinting his forgotten stories/novels. Presently, it's Haffner Press out of Royal Oak, Michigan. They've published the first two vols of what's projected to be a complete collation of his mystery stories, and a complete collection of the Ed & Am Hunter series is promised. Also promised or in print are collections by Leigh Brackett, Edmond Hamilton, Bob Bloch, Jack Williamson, etc.-variously SF, mystery and horror. Some of Haffner's books in print are available at Amazon, others are offered at the Press's web site.

Posted by: Pope John 20th at October 23, 2022 01:24 PM (cYrkj)

236 And re Brown -- NESFA Press has 2 volumes available. The first, Martians and Madness, includes all his sf novels; the second, From These Ashes, has (I think) all his short sf. Nice hardcovers (available as ebooks on NESFA's site recently and maybe soon at other online ebook retailers). Reasonably priced. Good stuff.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at October 23, 2022 01:48 PM (a/4+U)

237 NEFSA (New England Science Fiction Association) Press has been reprinting all sorts of science fiction, much of which might be described as classic science fiction, and fans of the genre should check out its offerings.

My personal favorites include William Tenn, Tony Boucher, Poul Anderson, Cyril Kornbluth, Robt Sheckley, Cordwainer Smith, Sprague DeCamp, Frederic Brown, James Schmitz, John Myers Myers ("Silverlock"), and so on. NEFSA Press also has a fair amount of stuff by people I never heard of which I presume are more modern writers-I stopped reading SF, except very casually, as the genre's giants stopped writing for one reason or another.

Posted by: Pope John 20th at October 23, 2022 02:16 PM (cYrkj)

238 I am exhausted, but I'm home and I'm posting on the book thread.

Yay me.

Posted by: Cybersmythe at October 23, 2022 02:18 PM (iZEhM)

239 Thanks werewife for the suggestion (and others for the corrections), I'll check it out. And unusual name, etymologically.

Anyone read Jack Williamson? I read With Folded Hands and just put back a collection of his short stories on the shelf in McKay's, but I'm trying to find (for cheap) a the Humanoids collection, I'd like to see the way he works out this problem of over automation in that universe.

Posted by: .87c at October 23, 2022 03:04 PM (MJMIU)

240 Nothing so sophisticated as most others but years ago while working at Target there was the typical environmental, climate change, sustainability crap being force fed to the employees. Some of it took the form of a board mounted in an employee area on which the employees were encouraged to write trite messages on using that theme.

I wrote "Green is the new red". Red being Target's trademark color. I'm not aware of anybody getting my double entendre but I hope some did. So I was able to make a political protest statement directly contrary to corporate culture in an employee area without negative consequence because of plausible deniability.

I was always amused with myself when I saw it.

Posted by: SamIam at October 23, 2022 03:27 PM (oasF3)

241 Thank you to those who tested my World/Character Generator at the MoMee.

I'm considering attempting NaNoWriMo with my draw of a talking velociraptor artificier in an Old West style gunslinger world.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at October 23, 2022 03:50 PM (nC+QA)

242 World/Character Generator?

Posted by: Anna Puma at October 23, 2022 04:21 PM (KHkyI)

243 Using a deck of playing cards without jokers.

Perfesser squirrel has a copy and said he might mention it in a future Book Thread.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at October 23, 2022 04:55 PM (nC+QA)

244 A shorter horror story:

Where did that spider go?

Posted by: Captain Comic at October 23, 2022 06:20 PM (5RbLP)

245 Cybersmythe lent me the third of Cedar Sanderson's Noir books at the MoMee, but I realized quickly that there was no way I could finish it there (and it was too interesting to skip bits successfully), so I guess I'll need to purchase my own copy at some point.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at October 23, 2022 06:37 PM (nC+QA)

246 "The Unexpected Enlightenment of Rachel Griffin. I liked the setup except for wondering why Rachel had no idea what an angel looked like."

There are lots of things like this, many mysteries, in fact, the very start of the book starts with the greatest mystery. Eventually, all will be solved, and some are even in the first book, but others remain or are replaced by further mysteries.

One smaller mystery was, why are many of the people going to this school especially beautiful/handsome? This was a complaint by one commenter on Amazon, a commenter who didn't read much of the book and thus will never know that there is a perfectly believable explanation further on. This is a feature of this series, mysteries that, when actually uncovered, make perfect sense within this world. Eventually, everything makes sense, no matter how weird it seems at first.

Compare this with, say Harry Potter. Why does one spellcast work, and another not? All you are doing is pointing your wand and saying a Latin word. This is never explained, it never makes sense, and thus, is a point where willing suspension of disbelief is hard. Eventually, everything in Unexpected Enlightenment makes sense...

Posted by: Nightfall at October 23, 2022 11:26 PM (xwoai)

247 Speaking of Butcher's The Dresden Files, taking place right after the events of the over the top Battle Ground is a decidedly old school novella The Law. Dresden decides to take an old fashioned case that does not decide the fate of the world or anything, merely does a smaller but satisfying good. A refreshing change of pace for Harry Dresden, the audience, and probably the author.

A small but satisfying book.

Posted by: Nightfall at October 23, 2022 11:44 PM (xwoai)

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Posted by: www.Profit97.Com at October 24, 2022 07:12 AM (6hvcC)

249
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Posted by: Kristin Erickson at October 24, 2022 08:29 AM (hYMyl)

250 Thanks for the image with the story from Fredrick Brown. He is one of the unsung heroes of Science Fiction, along with H. Beam Piper. Both taken too soon.

God Stalk: read it while young-ish and I never knew there was more to the series. It's one of those fantasy books that was so different when it was written it stuck with me.

Honorable Mention: Barry Hughart. Fantastic fantasy set not in the usual Tolkien rip-off, or even Western Europe influenced, but in medieval China. Excellent characters but lack of support by publishers doomed his series to three books. Bridge of Birds has an excellent plot about immortality and how even laws that constrain gods can be manipulated.

Posted by: ZilWerks at October 24, 2022 03:59 PM (0MpOC)

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