Sunday Morning Book Thread - 10-27-2024 ["Perfessor" Squirrel]

HT: TRex

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. Here is where we can discuss, argue, bicker, quibble, consider, debate, confabulate, converse, and jaw about our latest fancy in reading material. As always, pants are required, unless you are wearing these pants...("I AM THE PUMPKIN KING!")

So relax, find yourself a warm kitty (or warm puppy--I won't judge) to curl up in your lap, enjoy a pumpkin spice Snickers bar, and dive into a new book. What are YOU reading this fine morning?

PIC NOTE

TRex sent in today's pic. LEGO minifigs can be set up in all sorts of cool diorama situations. In this case, it's a bit hard to tell, but it looks almost like something from an Agatha Christie story. All of the minifigs are sitting around in the library. One appears to be a police officer who might be on the scene to question witnesses to a murder. And the library has a cat!

FOUR KINDS OF HORROR:

When it comes to horror there are quite a few subgenres, a little something for just about every horror afficionado out there. I think most of them can be described as some combination of the following categories of horror:

Biological Horror

This type of horror feeds on one of our most primal fears: death. We are mortal creatures, but we seldom like to confront our own mortality directly. Biological horror--or horror of the body--exposes us to that fear, if only vicariously, through the adventures of the protagonists confronted by evil that seeks to deprive them of their lives or otherwise damage their physical forms. Mary Shelly's Frankenstein is one of the most famous examples of this, as Victor Frankenstein seeks to conquer death itself by reanimating his own Creature composed of the decayed remains of numerous human victims. The Creature is almost always depicted in literature as a scarred, disfigured behemoth with freakish strength, nearly invulnerable to conventional weapons. Bram Stoker's Dracula preys on more subtle fears, as Dracula has the power to turn his victims into lesser copies of himself. He and his minions feed on the blood of humans to survive. Both Frankenstein's monster and Dracula pose difficult physical challenges to the protagonists of their respective stories, and both use biological horror to terrify their victims.

Psychological Horror

Although we all fear death deep down inside, we also fear being driven mad, when we are convinced that we now occupy a different reality than the one we were raised to believe in. Psychological horror explores our fears, our insecurities, our anxieties, and our phobias. In Dean Koontz's The Face of Fear, the main protagonist, Graham, must confront his deepest fears about climbing after suffering from PTSD due to a bad fall while climbing Mt. Everest. Meanwhile, a serial killer is stalking Graham and his girlfriend through an empty office building. The Butcher is intent on causing as much fear and chaos in New York City as a prelude to taking over the world! (Yes, this plot is straight out of Pinky and the Brain despite being written decades earlier.)

Supernatural Horror

Whereas biological horror and psychological horror involve terrors of the body and mind, respectively, supernatural horror has a spiritual dimension. Evil ghosts, poltergeists, and demons inhabit this domain. Often one of the greatest challenges for the protagonists is to accept the existence of supernatural horror, as they've been raised to be rationalists, pragmatists, and otherwise skeptical that supernatural entities are real. Supernatural horror can be deeply personal for the victims as the demonic forces target us in our innermost heart, striking at us where we are most vulnerable to their influence. Depending on the writer, there may be an even more powerful spiritual force for good that can save the heroes, but they must relinquish their old belief system and take a leap of faith. Frank de Felitta's Golgotha Falls is a good example of this. A demonic force corrupts and desecrates a small rural church so thoroughly that it declares, "Christ was defeated at Golgotha Falls!" Naturally, it is proven wrong by the end of the story, but the protagonists need to bring in the big guns, i.e., the Pope himself is called upon to intervene spiritually. (NOT the current Pope! It was written in 1984, so he's clearly an expy of Pope John Paul II.)

Cosmic Horror

Of all of the types of horror, this one is the youngest, I think. The works of H.P. Lovecraft are among the most famous examples, though Lovecraft was drawing upon earlier inspirations such as William Hope Hodgson and Lord Dunsany. Unlike supernatural horrors, which take a direct interest in the affairs of mortal creatures, cosmic horrors see us as insignificant bugs in the greater scheme of things. The universe is so vast and strange that humans are barely an afterthought to beings that are so far beyond our understanding that to even gaze upon one can drive us to madness. It's a cold, unfeeling world out there and we have no place in it.

Many authors like to mix and match these to evoke the desired reaction in their reader. For instance, Hannibal Lector from Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris is a cannibal (bio horror) but he's also a highly skilled psychiatrist and loves to toy with his victims' minds. F. Paul Wilson's Repairman Jack series features quite a bit of both biological and cosmic horror, but also features a protagonist who is not above using psychological horror on bad guys who are messing with his clients. One notable example: A couple of thieves steal Christmas toys from a charity that helps crack-addicted and AIDS-afflicted children. Jack tracks them down. To send a message, he dresses up as Santa Claus, straps on a couple of lead-weighted boxing gloves, and beats the crap out of both of them. He then straps them to the front of the truck they used to steal the toys, and drives the truck back to the charity before calling the cops. The thieves are now terrified of Santa Claus (as they should be!).

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FEATURED MORON REVIEW:

Biden's Dog has been working his way through The Life of Lenin (1964) by Louis Fisher and has some comments:

This book took me over 4 months to read. It was a tedious effort. This was due to the small size of the print, along with the author's going into minute detail on the historic aspects covered in the book.
I learned a lot about the fine differences between Mensheviks and Bolsheviks and those in between. I learned how Lenin was an anti-utopian who nevertheless sought a utopian communist world. When that didn't happen neither outside of Russia nor inside Russia after the Revolution, Lenin breaks numerous of his own rules in an attempt to control the damage brought about by collapsed agricultural and industrial economies and the draining of Russia's "bourgeois" intellectuals, artists, and capitalist financiers and factory managers.
The book covers Lenin's early life, his moving up the Marxist ladder, his endless dialogs and disputes with other players including Trotsky, Stalin and so many more comrades. The book covers in great minutiae Lenin's daily micro-management of the vast former Tsarist Empire. Lenin ruled via tyrannical dictatorship. Along the way, Lenin was almost killed in a failed assassination attempt. At the end, he died of one stroke too many. Before he died, he saw what was coming if he would not derail Stalin from climbing up the party ladder. But it was too late. The rest is history.
Those who loved him worshiped him as a god, both during his lifetime and after his embalmment and long term public display in Moscow's Red Square. Oh, the irony!
Should you read this book? I love history books but this one is geared more toward a student of Sovietology.
I think it's important to have a look at the author's bio page on Wikipedia. He led an interesting life:
Louis Fisher - Wikipedia
In spite of everything stated on Wikipedia, Fischer clearly waxes cynical numerous times throughout the book on communism in general and with regard to many of Lenin's actions. And it is clear throughout the book that he was no fan of Stalin--not at all. I do not know how to bridge what is reported in Wikipedia versus what the author himself wrote here and there in this book.

At Biden's Dog's recommendation, I did check out Fischer's bio page on Wikipedia. It does seem like he was very conflicted when it came to Communism. He wasn't a fan of Stalin's brutality, I guess, but didn't quite make the connection that it was that very brutality that was the endpoint of Communism. It's always someone else's fault when Communism inevitably fails.

MORON RECOMMENDATIONS

I'm finishing up my send reading of Vampires of Michigan. I enjoyed it the first time but rushed through it because I just had to find out what happened to Zip. I'm enjoying it even more the second time.
Zip is the lead singer in a local rock band. They're good. He has big dreams but the other band members have lives and day jobs. For them it's a hobby; for Zip it's his life. Besides, because of some past mistakes, he feels he's unemployable in a regular job. His old girlfriend has moved on and is now engaged. He's living out of his van. He can't seem to move forward.
Zip has recently noticed a beautiful, mysterious blond woman at his shows. She always slips away before he can talk to her, but one night Zip manages to catch up with her. One thing leads to another and Zip has unwittingly been drawn into the world of the Vampires of Michigan, a cross between Dark Shadows and The Godfather.
Who knew that vampires lived in Michigan? What happens when the discipline and sense of duty of the older generations breaks down? What is the meaning of life when life goes on almost endlessly?
Posted by: KatieFloyd at October 20, 2024 09:28 AM (EsfzF)

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Books of powerful magic always have to be written in an obscure language. That's so that nobody can see what bullshit they are.
I'm not just being cynical here. A lot of the "practice of magick" was invented by failed seminary students in the late Medieval/early Modern era. Flunk out of priest training, hit the road as a "wizard" or an "alchemist." You can spin the jargon, you've got some strange books in Latin (probably a bootleg Satyricon), and you're just educated enough to put one over on provincial merchants and minor gentry. Naturally they played up the Halloween decoration aspects -- skulls, blood, etc. And because you've always got to "cool the mark" before you blow town, invite them to some ritual in a cemetery and maybe pretend to stab your girlfriend or something equally serious, so there's no way they can run to the local authorities.
See Elliot Rose's A Razor for a Goat for a good hard-nosed look at the bullshit behind the bullshit in "occultism."
Posted by: Trimegistus at October 20, 2024 09:21 AM (78a2H)

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More Moron-recommended reading material can be found HERE! (1000+ Moron-recommended books!)

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WHAT I'VE BEEN READING THIS PAST WEEK:

After reviewing some of OregonMuse's old Book Threads, I thought I'd try something a bit different. Instead of just listing WHAT I'm reading, I'll include commentary as well. Unless otherwise specified, you can interpret this as an implied recommendation, though as always your mileage may vary.

REAMDE by Neal Stephenson

After the success of Snow Crash and The Diamond Age, Stephenson apparently decided he preferred writing doorstoppers. Most of his output since then has been quite lengthy novels exploring some topic in *excruciating* detail. He also likes to give you the full backstory on characters, even when it's not necessary to the novel, if only to explain some of that character's quirks and eccentricities.

Although the blurb for this book seems to indicate that it's about a computer virus delivered via a file called REAMDE.txt, that's just a McGuffin to kickstart the actual plot. A young woman is caught up in shady shenanigans when her boyfriend gets mixed up with Russian mobsters. They abduct both Zula and Peter on a mad quest to track down hackers in China that stole a great deal of money. They find the hackers, only to then get caught up in the Global War on Terror as Zula is kidnapped by Islamic terrorists plotting attacks in America. Most of the story is about a bunch of different groups all trying to track down Abdallah Jones before he can launch his grand scheme here in the heart of the good old U.S. of A.

PREVIOUS SUNDAY MORNING BOOK THREAD - 10-20-2024 (NOTE: Do NOT comment on old threads!)

Tips, suggestions, recommendations, etc., can all be directed to perfessor -dot- squirrel -at- gmail -dot- com.

Disclaimer: No Morons were physically harmed in the making of this Sunday Morning Book Thread. We disavow any emails from us that may include a reamde.txt file as an attachment. Open at your own risk.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 09:00 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 Tolle Lege

Posted by: Skip at October 27, 2024 08:59 AM (fwDg9)

2 Hello book freaks!

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Cat Slave at October 27, 2024 09:00 AM (kpS4V)

3 Still slowly plugging along on Martin Gilbert Churchill, a Life
But at least up to War!

Posted by: Skip at October 27, 2024 09:02 AM (fwDg9)

4 It's very good, just can't seem to find reading time

Posted by: Skip at October 27, 2024 09:02 AM (fwDg9)

5 With all my science fiction and fantasy reading I've been neglecting my history jones, so it's on to "Love to Love You Bradys: the Bizarre Story of The Brady Bunch Variety Hour". I caught Susan Olsen on a podcast talking about it and knew I had to check it out. Apart from riffs such as "The Simpson Family Smile-Time Variety Hour", it's been justifiably relegated to the ash heap of TV history. Says Susan, "I believe this show's time has arrived! With the nostalgic love for the horror that was the 70's aesthetic, there is no more garish a Technicolor display than "the Brady Bunch Variety Hour". Bring it out to the light of day! We mustn't forget it happened. For we who survived, and for future generations."

I never tuned in as a kid; even then, I had standards. I was not surprised to learn that the spliff-yellowed hands of Sid and Marty Krofft were instrumental in bringing it to horrifying fruition.

"You just have to get stoned and watch it because it all makes sense when you're stoned." --- writer Bruce Vilanch

I was charmed to learn that the cast genuinely loved working with each other and that's one of the reasons they agreed to do it (and of course money).

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Cat Slave at October 27, 2024 09:03 AM (kpS4V)

6 "...many people gave their all and did their jobs well, very well. But nobody notices a lovely sweater on a hunchback." --- Susan Olsen

It's hilarious that everyone involved, when asked "what the hell?!", responds with *shrugs* "It was the 70's!"

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Cat Slave at October 27, 2024 09:04 AM (kpS4V)

7 Well, my reading this week consisted of a couple of great submissions to the Epistolary Project for A Literary Horde. We're working on a mystery taking place in the late 40s - early 50s.

Richard Caire and March Hare have added to the story. Any members of A Literary Horde, or those who might be interested in joining, can contact us on the sidebar.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at October 27, 2024 09:04 AM (0eaVi)

8 Well, my reading this week consisted of a couple of great submissions to the Epistolary Project for A Literary Horde. We're working on a mystery taking place in the late 40s - early 50s.

Richard Caire and March Hare have added to the story. Any members of A Literary Horde, or those who might be interested in joining, can contact us on the sidebar.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at October 27, 2024 09:04 AM (0eaVi)

The butler did it ! Cherchez la femme !

Posted by: runner at October 27, 2024 09:05 AM (V13WU)

9 Good morning morons and thanks perfesser.

I'm reading a book by the famous hotelier Hans Scholze, but after hearing him speak I am reading it using his heavily accented English.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at October 27, 2024 09:06 AM (RIvkX)

10 So you are all wearing pants? But what about your feet?
Did you know that the reclusive French inventor of the sandal was ..... wait for it ....

Philippe Philoppe ?

Posted by: Ciampino - No flipping about either at October 27, 2024 09:07 AM (i0xsb)

11 On the Kindle I read Windrush: A Ditch In Egypt by Malcolm Archibald. The eleventh book in the series finds Windrush as leader of the Royal Malverns regiment in Egypt in 1882 helping Britain capture and control the Suez Canal, its lifeline to India. I learned some history while enjoying a good story.

Posted by: Zoltan at October 27, 2024 09:07 AM (d7Hjf)

12 Half Price Books offered all of three bucks for an early printing of a Perry Mason novel and a few other books. I had thought the PM would have fetched more than that by itself, but I accepted the offer -- no need to bring them home.

I got "con buzz" at the flagship store, buying at least one TC that I could have passed. However, I also scored two of the later books in the Liturgical Mysteries series. I never have seen this series locally, but its frequent mentions in the Book Thread drew my interest.

Then I went to one more HPB store, where I hit the jackpot -- "Nobody's Perfect," a Donald Westlake Dortmunder novel that I've hunted for more than two years; "With a Single Spell," which gained notice in the BT just a few weeks ago; and "Taking Flight," another book in that series by Lawrence Watt-Evans.

With Halloween near, I'll go back into "Ghosted," a short-lived horror caper series by Image Comics. The setup: Mr. Bigbucks breaks Hotshit Thief out of a state slammer to organize the heist of a ghost.

I own all four TCs but never got further than No. 1. Once more into the breach.

Posted by: Weak Geek at October 27, 2024 09:09 AM (p/isN)

13 "...With the nostalgic love for the horror that was the 70's aesthetic, there is no more garish a Technicolor display than "the Brady Bunch Variety Hour". Bring it out to the light of day! We mustn't forget it happened. For we who survived, and for future generations."
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*breaks out gabardine leisure suit, platform shoes, and puka shells*

Posted by: San Franpsycho at October 27, 2024 09:10 AM (RIvkX)

14 Morning, Book Folken!

I just finished a John Dickson Carr that I think I'd read once before, Till Death Do Us Part (1944). Dr. Fell and a playwright who specializes in psychological mysteries, the viewpoint character, investigate the death of a man in one of Carr's signature locked rooms: All the windows and doors are fastened on the inside, and the victim has died from an injection of prussic acid (cyanide). At first the idea is suicide, but the fellow clearly was not the type and had no motive to do so; and there was more to him than met the eye as well. There's a love story too, as Carr often did, integrated with the main plot. The murderer is well concealed (I didn't remember who it was), but the story is fairly clued. Dynamite stuff.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at October 27, 2024 09:11 AM (omVj0)

15 During my road trip I listened to the audio book version of Hillbilly Elegy as read by J.D. Vance.
Almost seven hours long.
Wish I could say I liked it. But truthfully I can't say I DIDN'T like it either.
I think it's just that there were some aspects of it I didn't like.
It's too long and needs an editor.
It moves too slowly and he relates one dysfunctional event after another. Three hours in and you're wondering if he'll EVER get out of seventh grade.
There's also a good bit of profanity that's necessary for character development, but I still found it distasteful.

But I'm glad I listened to it and it wasn't so bad that I couldn't finish it.
That said, I certainly don't want to see the movie.

Posted by: Quarter Twenty at October 27, 2024 09:12 AM (dg+HA)

16 In German, everything sounds like an order.
In Russian, everything sounds like a complaint.
In Cantonese, everything sounds like an argument.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at October 27, 2024 09:12 AM (RIvkX)

17 The butler did it ! Cherchez la femme !
Posted by: runner at October 27, 2024 09:05 AM (V13WU)

No drawing room mystery this. Mass murderer of unknown origin or motivation.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at October 27, 2024 09:13 AM (0eaVi)

18 That said, I certainly don't want to see the movie.
Posted by: Quarter Twenty at October 27, 2024 09:12 AM (dg+HA)
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The acting is very good.

I hated reading The Shining, but the movie....

Posted by: San Franpsycho at October 27, 2024 09:14 AM (RIvkX)

19 My current book is another John Dickson Carr, from 1958 but set in '48: The Dead Man's Knock, set at a small private college in PA or NJ. So far only two practical jokes that almost resulted in murders have occurred; the story up to this point is about the viewpoint character, a young professor at the college, and his troubles with his marriage. But Dr. Fell is soon to make an appearance.

Carr's supreme ability lay not only in constructing and solving these impossible crimes he sets up, but also in showing character and character conflict -- and his skill at evoking atmosphere, often creepy or edge-of-the-supernatural. As he pointed out in one of his essays on the detective story, those can provide clues as well as physical stuff.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at October 27, 2024 09:15 AM (omVj0)

20 I was charmed to learn that the cast genuinely loved working with each other and that's one of the reasons they agreed to do it (and of course money).
Posted by: All Hail Eris

And here I thought that the Hawaiian two part mystery was when they jumped the shark.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at October 27, 2024 09:16 AM (BK/fL)

21 Good Sunday morning, horde.

I do not like the body horror kind of thing, as those are usually the ones that are gross and gory.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! Catz for Trump! at October 27, 2024 09:18 AM (OX9vb)

22 Yesterday on the Hobby Thread, I mentioned my Halloween tradition these days: a reread of M.R. James's "Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad," one of the creepiest stories in literature; and John B.L. Goodwin's "The Cocoon," ditto. And maybe a scene or two from Stephen King's masterpiece Salem's Lot. ("I will see you sleep like the dead, teacher.")

I wish the DST time change would happen before Halloween; hard to get into such chilling stuff when it's still light outside until seven p.m.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at October 27, 2024 09:20 AM (omVj0)

23 Philippe Philoppe ?

Posted by: Ciampino - No flipping about either at October 27, 2024 09:07 AM (i0xsb)

*snort

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! Catz for Trump! at October 27, 2024 09:22 AM (OX9vb)

24 Thanks for the Book Thread, Perfessor!

Always enjoyable and educational.

Posted by: Legally Sufficient at October 27, 2024 09:22 AM (rxCpr)

25 Still slowly plugging along on Martin Gilbert Churchill, a Life
But at least up to War!
Posted by: Skip at October 27, 2024 09:02 AM (fwDg9)
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I'm at the point where he "rats" the Tories, to whom he will "re-rat" decades later. This part is more informative to me because in his autobiography Churchill gives less details.

An interesting contemporary detail is that the cause of his split was a dispute over tariffs. The Liberals didn't like them, the Tories did. Of course, the economic situation was very different to ours. The Edwardian economy was still largely subsistence agriculture and because England was out of arable land, food had to be imported and the large landholders could not compete with (for example) American grain.

Thus, lowering tariffs had the practical effect of stretching working wages farther. It was only later that the argument became that there was some sort holy obligation to produce everything as cheaply as possible, regardless of the environmental and human cost.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 27, 2024 09:22 AM (llXky)

26 A long time ago, I read 'The Haunting of Hill House' by Shirley Jackson. Would that be considered as a horror or a ghost story?

Posted by: dantesed at October 27, 2024 09:25 AM (Oy/m2)

27 Morning, Horde.

Nothing systematic in the week's reading. Skipped around in some of the essays in Murder off the Rack (on vintage paperback noir writers) and some of the pieces in Donald Westlake's The Getaway Car. Thinking I'm due for a revisit to a bunch of Westlake (the Parker novels, some of the stand-alones, like Kahawa, The Ax, and The Hook).

And The Hook might appeal to the denizens of the book thread. Think the book business meets Strangers on a Train.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at October 27, 2024 09:26 AM (q3u5l)

28 I'm on my continuing Joe Abercrombie streak. I'm on "The Trouble with Peace" which is just as dystopian and depressing as all of the other books in the series but with some good characters.

The girlbossing is strong in this series but alas... they aren't Mary Sue characters at least. The supreme girlboss in this series spent the majority of the first book eating shit sandwiches (literally) so I'll give it a pass. And her girlbossing isn't in a physical/combat way. In fact there was a great scene where she was practicing fencing with the best knight in the country and she was sick and tired of him holding back and taking it easy on him - her father granted permission for the knight to show her what the real world is like and she was instantly regretting that decision. Her talents lie in manipulation, business sense and cold-hearted ruthlessness... using her money and sex to get what she wants.

Posted by: Defenestratus at October 27, 2024 09:26 AM (SGyXu)

29 Jeff Vandermeer’s Annihilation is cosmic/bio horror, the second book in the series is psycho thriller, the third returns to bio horror.

Posted by: 13times at October 27, 2024 09:27 AM (7oo37)

30 In German, everything sounds like an order.
In Russian, everything sounds like a complaint.
In Cantonese, everything sounds like an argument.
Posted by: San Franpsycho at October 27, 2024 09:12 AM (RIvkX)
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Charles V: When speaking to God, I use Spanish. When speaking to men, French. When speaking to women, Italian. When speaking to my horse, German.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 27, 2024 09:27 AM (llXky)

31 ...taking it easy on *her*... damnit.

More coffee required.

Posted by: Defenestratus at October 27, 2024 09:27 AM (SGyXu)

32 Didn't Stephenson also use "README" as the title of an essay about technology? I seem to recall something like that from the fairly early days (say late 90s) of the WWW.

Posted by: Oddbob at October 27, 2024 09:28 AM (/y8xj)

33 Good Sunday morning, horde.

I do not like the body horror kind of thing, as those are usually the ones that are gross and gory.
Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! Catz for Trump! at October 27, 2024 09:18 AM (OX9vb)
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Catholic media is offering up tips for Halloween and how to keep it Christian. Thus: skulls, skeletons, gravestones and things that remind us of mortality are good.

Gore and demonic stuff is bad. And Mexican death cults are right out!

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 27, 2024 09:30 AM (llXky)

34 _Guten Morgen meine Bucherliebenden Freunde!_

I'm just here to say "Hello" quickly and to bounce out for a three-day getaway from town and out to the Bavarian Forest.

Life this past week has been consumed with Daniel Elazar's _Exploring Federalism_, O'Toole's and Christensen's _American Intergovernmental Relations_, Robert Agranoff's _Crossing Boundaries for Intergovernmental Management_, and a few related works.

Posted by: SPinRH_F-16 at October 27, 2024 09:30 AM (5CEo8)

35 A long time ago, I read 'The Haunting of Hill House' by Shirley Jackson. Would that be considered as a horror or a ghost story?
Posted by: dantesed at October 27, 2024

***
If a ghost story is a form of supernatural horror, then I guess both? The nighttime scene with the banging up and down the hallway, and the two women frozen in fear, with the capper ("Whose hand was I holding?"), certainly makes the grade as horror.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at October 27, 2024 09:30 AM (omVj0)

36 Halloween fare? Roger Zelazny's A Night in the Lonesome October.

.

Posted by: 13times at October 27, 2024 09:31 AM (7oo37)

37 I have to admit the horror genre never appealed to me. If I want to get terrified, I read the news or look at my bank balance.

I do enjoy H.P. Lovecraft, but that's because he's so campy and over-the-top - very similar to R.E. Howard. They were a pair.

But I can't take any of his stuff remotely seriously, it's just fun watching him do the latest spin on "I'm a very educated, erudite man and OH GOD I"M GOING INSANE!1!"

Peter Lorre would have been the perfect guy to do audiobooks for him.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 27, 2024 09:33 AM (llXky)

38 @36 --

Agreed. I read it last year, and I'm glad I did.

Posted by: Weak Geek at October 27, 2024 09:34 AM (p/isN)

39 Appropriately, I have my black cat on my lap.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at October 27, 2024 09:34 AM (omVj0)

40 Catholic media is offering up tips for Halloween and how to keep it Christian. Thus: skulls, skeletons, gravestones and things that remind us of mortality are good.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 27, 2024 09:30 AM (llXky)

Interesting take. I don't like any of it, really. Halloween is my least favorite holiday.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! Catz for Trump! at October 27, 2024 09:34 AM (OX9vb)

41 609 years ago last Friday, Henry V of England met an overwhelming French army and shockingly defeated it. Agincourt by Juliet Barker tells the full story of the original band of brothers.

England had ruled much of Western France for decades, but in recent years, France was becoming more belligerent.The dauphin and his faction in France were flexing their muscles after consolidating their power among the various families across the country. While Henry asserted his title as king of both England and France, the French refused to accept the idea, and assembled a massive army of 20,000 men or more, including hundreds of knights and mercenary crossbowmen. Henry brought an invasion force and took the port of Harfleur, and then marched north with around 6,000 troops and longbowmen to Agincourt. In a battle that is still renowned, Henry won a decisive victory.

Barker lays out the complete history of the royal families involved, the logistics, and the best available evidence of how this battle developed and was fought. This is a meticulously detailed yet readable account of a battle that still echoes in history.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at October 27, 2024 09:35 AM (BK/fL)

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

Posted by: JTB at October 27, 2024 09:36 AM (yTvNw)

43 Last night I finished Patricia Volk’s Stuffed. It’s a memoir/collection of vignettes about growing up as a part of the Morgen’s restaurant family. It’s a very interesting glimpse of New York City in the garment district in the sixties, seventies, and possibly eighties.

Sewing on a button, like avoiding eye contact on the subway, is a basic life skill.

It isn’t so much about the family as their relationships, especially her father (I suspect the book was triggered by his death in 2000.) But it’s also about a New York and an America that don’t exist today. She’s a very funny writer, even during moments of heartbreak.

I was initially disappointed when I started reading it because I thought it was a cookbook memoir; now I’m glad to have made that mistake.

This last store was the hub of the garment center in the hub of the city in the hub of the nation that’s the hub of the planet. Mom and dad fed the people that clothed the country when MADE IN AMERICA was the label of choice.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at October 27, 2024 09:36 AM (EXyHK)

44 I read Stephenson’s Fallen, or Dodge in Hell. I immediately disliked it and when I finished it took it to 1/2 Price Books. The guy’s still trying but will never top Cryptonomicon.

Posted by: Eromero at October 27, 2024 09:37 AM (LHPAg)

45 I suppose there is a certain irony insofar as my first book, Battle Officer Wolf is technically sci-fi horror, but that was merely an attempt to create the sense of dread that hung over Heorot in the original Beowulf tale.

A lot of stories need tension, a sense of fear for the characters, but horror has always seemed a bit contrived. I think at least half of the horror scenarios I've come across could have been solved with a .38. Wasn't that how the original Halloween ended, with Blofeld drilling the dude?

(Imagine going to a shirnk and it's Blofeld trying to turn over a new leaf. Over to you, Eris!)

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 27, 2024 09:37 AM (llXky)

46 I'm reading all fiction, all the time right now. I have several non-fiction books on my TBR list, but I can't seem to get interested in anything serious at the moment.

Escapism FTW in election season!

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! Catz for Trump! at October 27, 2024 09:37 AM (OX9vb)

47 *breaks out gabardine leisure suit, platform shoes, and puka shells*
Posted by: San Franpsycho at October 27, 2024 09:10 AM (RIvkX)
----

While waiting in line at the library to vote, I noted a historical photo of a patron with the trifecta: plaid leisure suit, platform shoes, and jewfro with long sideburns.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Cat Slave at October 27, 2024 09:38 AM (kpS4V)

48 Louis Fischer took his sweet commie ass time reporting on the horrors of collectivism and was a Holodomor denier for as long as he could. He blamed it on Ukrainian dissidents and he supported measures against them. He was a piece of shit.

Posted by: Enough Bull at October 27, 2024 09:38 AM (2NXcZ)

49 Off to church!

Posted by: Eromero at October 27, 2024 09:38 AM (LHPAg)

50 I got my copy of Bulletproof by Jack Posobiec. Just started it last night. Looks like he's leaning towards a hit by the deep state. Will update next week

Posted by: Notsothoreau at October 27, 2024 09:39 AM (gfViB)

51 Morning, Horde...How goes it?

I started Dean Koontz's Watchers this morning. It's been highly recommended here before. It's also Koontz's personal favorite.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at October 27, 2024 09:39 AM (zP09t)

52 Off to church!

Yup! About five minutes for me.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at October 27, 2024 09:40 AM (EXyHK)

53 Very little reading this week (a little bit of Paradis Lost, Christ is riding into the angelic war to defeat Satan and send him packing) and a little G. K. Chesterton, but not much of either book. I'm letting myself get too sucked into the last days of the election, which may turn into the last days of the republic.

Posted by: who knew at October 27, 2024 09:40 AM (+ViXu)

54 Booken morgen horden.
Staying home eith a cold. *coff coff*

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at October 27, 2024 09:42 AM (WbaIk)

55 le Carre's son wrote a new Smiley novel. Publshed recently..."Karla's Choice".

Nepo-insult, or carrying on the tradition?

Posted by: occam's brassiere at October 27, 2024 09:43 AM (pXeye)

56 Finally finished Except for the Dying by Maureen Jennings which is the first Inspector Murdoch mystery.
Bleh.
I am amazed they were able to turn it into the wacky and wildly successful but sadly woke tv series.

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at October 27, 2024 09:44 AM (WbaIk)

57 I started Dean Koontz's Watchers this morning. It's been highly recommended here before. It's also Koontz's personal favorite.

I should reread this. It was the first Koontz novel I read. It was well before Goodreads and about all I remember about it were thoroughly enjoying it and being very touched by the relationship between the wandering ex-military man and “his” dog.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at October 27, 2024 09:44 AM (EXyHK)

58 Wolfus,

Thanks for the mention of Richard Matheson's "Crickets" last week -- I'd somehow missed reading that one, and it is delightfully creepy.

This week for Halloween, I'm planning to revisit some of Leiber's ("Smoke Ghost," "Girl with the Hungry Eyes," his novel Our Lady of Darkness [lots of nods to M.R. James in that one]); also Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House, several Ramsey Campbell short stories, and a few by Kealan Patrick Burke. Burke's "Empathy" is one of the creepiest things I've ever read.

Campbell edited a book of stories in the M.R. James tradition called Meddling with Ghosts, and his own entry in that book, "The Guide," is a nice creepy Halloween treat too. Meddling with Ghosts is hard to come by, but you can find Campbell's story in his collections Waking Nightmares. Good stuff.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at October 27, 2024 09:45 AM (q3u5l)

59 Catholic media is offering up tips for Halloween and how to keep it Christian.

Can't see any reason they don't offer communion from the trunks of cars in a parking lot. People really go for that.

Posted by: Way,Way Downriver at October 27, 2024 09:45 AM (zdLoL)

60 Speaking of Halloween, here is a link to a post I wrote some years ago: "The Crow is a profoundly Catholic movie"

https://tinyurl.com/yc7d6kz6

This is by far the most popular post on my blog, and for some reason people in Bohemia really, really like it.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 27, 2024 09:47 AM (llXky)

61 I like supernatural horror; it's probably the most popular kind of horror book; if we don't count the ones that are thriller horror (psychological).

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at October 27, 2024 09:47 AM (WbaIk)

62 Stephenson has a new book, Polostan. I think it's a spy novel. Not sure if it's alt-history.

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at October 27, 2024 09:48 AM (WbaIk)

63 I adore the top pic btw

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at October 27, 2024 09:49 AM (WbaIk)

64 I don't know why, but I'm at a point where I'm not interested in reading, watching tv, or anything. Haven't for weeks. Maybe I need to clean something rather than just suffer boredom.

Posted by: Rob at October 27, 2024 09:49 AM (v7UnU)

65 I have always had a lot of questions about the Catholic church even though brought up as Catholic. The approach back then (maybe now for all I know) for kids was straight memorization. No understanding or context which made me agnostic. Anyway, the desire to understand and appreciate the church has been growing so I picked up The Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd edition. Just started but I'm actually beginning to get some sense of what the last 2,000 years have been about. The book is over nine hundred pages so this will take awhile. It could be quite the voyage of discovery.

Posted by: JTB at October 27, 2024 09:50 AM (yTvNw)

66 Vampires of Michigan? Whitney, Nessel, Benson

Posted by: The Ghoul Says Froggy Froggy at October 27, 2024 09:50 AM (FxINA)

67 Can't see any reason they don't offer communion from the trunks of cars in a parking lot. People really go for that.
Posted by: Way,Way Downriver at October 27, 2024 09:45 AM (zdLoL)
---
During the pandemic, I saw Protestant communion packets that were sealed up like Lunchables - cube of bread, tiny cup of grape juice in a handy travel size. It just seemed so American.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 27, 2024 09:51 AM (llXky)

68 Our priest has also been touching on Halloween. It seems that my little slice of heaven and the diocese it covers is becoming even more traditional then it was when we moved here. He hasn't outright said that your children shouldn't dress as witches, zombies, etc. However he has warned about the evil that can be promoted by people who push for gore and mayhem and glorifying the devilish aspects of Halloween and promote it as fun, also here little boy or girl have some tasty candy. Maybe we can turn you into little satanists who grow to be true believers.
I always saw Halloween as fun and non threatening except for the panic about needles and razor blades in apples, remember those times? With all things evil in this world even Halloween can become much more then it's traditionally been.

Posted by: neverenoughcaffeine at October 27, 2024 09:51 AM (2NHgQ)

69 This week I finished reading the "Mystic Omnibus," a giant book that collects the entire 43 issues of a comic book from back in the early 2000's. It takes place in a magical world, where society has developed into a magically-powered 1920's. So demon-butlers, and crystal ball-radios....It's not the greatest premise, and the two styles (guild-robes and business-suits) never quite mesh right. It doesn't help that the writers don't always take the book seriously, and aren't above winking at the audience or turning an entire issue into a joke...

Story-wise, a random event gives a party-girl extreme magical powers, at the direct expense of the high-mages of the world. This leads to the resurrection of an old world-threatening villainess, whom our hero must deal with. That takes up the first half of the comic, after which the story takes a step back to do some world-building. This isn't as exciting as the first story-arc, but does allow for the next threat to be foreshadowed and slowly built-up. This arc gets a rushed, but still satisfying conclusion, and the last few story-points are a stinger for a big cross-over event that never happened, due to the publisher's bankrupcy...

Posted by: Castle Guy at October 27, 2024 09:52 AM (Lhaco)

70 John Varley wrote the novella, Press Enter, which is a sort of horror tale, boy meets girl investigating the meaningless suicide of a hacker, boy loses girl when she commits suicide for the same reason, boy removes all technology and disconnects his house from all power sources after the computers induce him to try to commit suicide himself.

Posted by: Kindltot at October 27, 2024 09:53 AM (D7oie)

71 a good hard-nosed look at the bullshit behind the bullshit in "occultism."

Posted by: Trimegistus
--

I am enjoying the juxtaposition of tgat nic with the comment
(I don't disagree, a lot of occultism is a con and a scam)

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at October 27, 2024 09:54 AM (WbaIk)

72 Book nerds!

Posted by: Ogre at October 27, 2024 09:54 AM (i24o9)

73 Speaking of Halloween, here is a link to a post I wrote some years ago: "The Crow is a profoundly Catholic movie"

I recently reread the first twenty issues of Ghost Rider. Two things before I have to leave: the series is heavily improved by removing the comic book colors and making it black and white; and whoever wrote it had a knowledge of Catholicism that might have been superficial in its time but would be considered much deeper today.

It was a good read.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at October 27, 2024 09:55 AM (EXyHK)

74 The approach back then (maybe now for all I know) for kids was straight memorization. No understanding or context which made me agnostic.

Posted by: JTB at October 27, 2024 09:50 AM (yTvNw)
---
There's a running joke in Catholic circles that whenever someone prefaces a statement about the Church by saying "I want to Catholic school" they are about to recite heresy.

I converted in 2006, and a heavy emphasis was placed on Church teachings, and this trend has intensified, no doubt at least in part because the Pope keeps making really weird statements that require some correction/explanation.

If you want something less intense, Chesterton and Belloc are good choices. Waugh provides practical application in fictional form.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 27, 2024 09:55 AM (llXky)

75 During the pandemic, I saw Protestant communion packets that were sealed up like Lunchables - cube of bread, tiny cup of grape juice in a handy travel size. It just seemed so American.

One church we attended well pre-covid used those. I can appreciate the convenience but even if you keep the meaning of the act, it's a lot less like sharing something than like hundreds of people doing the same thing at the same time.

Posted by: Oddbob at October 27, 2024 09:56 AM (/y8xj)

76 There is a YouTube channel - "Master Samwise", a young man who provides critiques for books and movies. I appreciated his discourses on masculinity and femininity on a handful of Tolkein's LoTR characters. I humbly submit this recommendation to the horde.

Posted by: Chuck Martel at October 27, 2024 09:58 AM (fs1hN)

77 I always saw Halloween as fun and non threatening except for the panic about needles and razor blades in apples, remember those times? With all things evil in this world even Halloween can become much more then it's traditionally been.
Posted by: neverenoughcaffeine at October 27, 2024 09:51 AM (2NHgQ)
---
Heh, I remember that! "Always cut the apples so you can find the hidden razor blades."

Halloween is the favorite holiday in our household in large part because it carries none of the emotional baggage that Christmas does. It's all about fun.

I have noticed a much more strident call to observe All Saints Day, with much foot-stomping about it being a Holy Day of Obligation. As I get older, I'm leaning more into that aspect.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 27, 2024 09:59 AM (llXky)

78 (continued commentary of the "Mystic Omnibus")

On the art side of things, "Mystic" was something of a cheesecake book. Not to a gratuitous or tasteless degree, but still, the heroine was a beautiful lady, and the artists liked emphasizing that. There were three main artists over the course of the 43 issues, and while all three were pretty good, my favorite was the final one (Aaron Lopresti) who was doing his best to ape the Frank Cho style.

Overall, I give the book a mild recommendation. I'm not overly fond of the premise, but there is a decent story or two to be found, and the art (the best mix of full comic-book linework with hatches and shadows plus digital coloring that is realistic without overwhelming the linework) is always good enough to carry the book.

Posted by: Castle Guy at October 27, 2024 10:00 AM (Lhaco)

79 One church we attended well pre-covid used those. I can appreciate the convenience but even if you keep the meaning of the act, it's a lot less like sharing something than like hundreds of people doing the same thing at the same time.
Posted by: Oddbob at October 27, 2024 09:56 AM (/y8xj)
---
I imagine it sounded kind of weird - everyone cracking them open at once like it's a ChiCom snack break.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 27, 2024 10:00 AM (llXky)

80 Waiting on a biscuit w/blackberry jam...becoming inpatient.

Posted by: BignJames at October 27, 2024 10:01 AM (Yj6Os)

81 This week I finished reading the "Mystic Omnibus," a giant book that collects the entire 43 issues of a comic book from back in the early 2000's. It takes place in a magical world, where society has developed into a magically-powered 1920's. So demon-butlers, and crystal ball-radios....It's not the greatest premise, and the two styles (guild-robes and business-suits) never quite mesh right. It doesn't help that the writers don't always take the book seriously, and aren't above winking at the audience or turning an entire issue into a joke...
.
Posted by: Castle Guy at October 27, 2024

***
Sounds like an intriguing setup, though. I like the idea of the Twenties as the setting.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at October 27, 2024 10:02 AM (omVj0)

82 Not strictly cosmic horror, but I always liked Dunsany's fantasy tales with their thoroughly indifferent gods, too lazy for absolute malevolence but maybe up for some mischief.

*pulls "Tales of Three Hemispheres" from bookshelf*

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Cat Slave at October 27, 2024 10:04 AM (kpS4V)

83 I have always loved Halloween. I was probably the last of my cohort to give up trickertreating. And let me note here that I am a parent. That being said, I do get a bit annoyed at the constant efforts to make Halloween safe and bland and toothless. Doing "Trunk or Treat" in a parking lot on a weekend in mid-October just isn't the same thing. I'd rather worry about where my kids have gotten to at 10pm on Halloween night than watch them trudge across the asphalt from car to car in broad daylight.

Posted by: Trimegistus at October 27, 2024 10:05 AM (78a2H)

84 I made a delightful discovery: "God in the Garden" by Andrew Peterson. (He wrote the popular Wingfeather kids series.) It is part memoir, part observation on how nature, especially trees, appeal to the soul of man and why that is so important. It sort of rambles but is so well written Peterson ensnares the reader. It lures you in with subtle comparisons that invite, but don't demand, connections to your own life. It reminds me of Wendell Berry's novels in that way. There is a feel of listening to a story listening around a comfortable campfire.

It is another step, for me, on how imagination and appreciation of the world around us is what makes us human. It's one of those books that makes you wish it kept going when the last page is turned, partly for the insights and partly just for the lovely writing.

Posted by: JTB at October 27, 2024 10:05 AM (yTvNw)

85 In honor of spooky season, I read a graphic novel called "Dracula; Book 1: The Impaler." It's an origin story, and this volume covers how Vlad goes from living to, well, not living. Alas, it's not my cup of tea. The story arc is that of a cruel man going on a quest for power and becoming pure evil to do so....that's not a story I want to spend time with. The artwork is also overly-moody, which again just isn't my style.

I was never fully sold on this book, but it's from a pretty well-regarded team of creators, and I let other people's enthusiasm for the project rub off on me. Alas, I don't think I can justify continuing to book 2. (Which I think has a kick-starter running now)

Posted by: Castle Guy at October 27, 2024 10:06 AM (Lhaco)

86 @69 --

Castle Guy --

CrossGen?

Which puts me in mind of a later CrossGen series, "Route 666." That was the company's dip into horror. I remember nothing about it, but I might still have those issues.

Posted by: Weak Geek at October 27, 2024 10:08 AM (p/isN)

87
Back from my Christian Nationalist meeting. As it was the last Sunday of October, it was the Feast of Christ the King. So I was in fact at the right rally.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at October 27, 2024 10:08 AM (EsZUh)

88 I have always loved Halloween. I was probably the last of my cohort to give up trickertreating. And let me note here that I am a parent. That being said, I do get a bit annoyed at the constant efforts to make Halloween safe and bland and toothless. Doing "Trunk or Treat" in a parking lot on a weekend in mid-October just isn't the same thing. I'd rather worry about where my kids have gotten to at 10pm on Halloween night than watch them trudge across the asphalt from car to car in broad daylight.
Posted by: Trimegistus at October 27, 2024 10:05 AM (78a2H)
---
Yes, there's something fun about going around and meeting neighbors and such.

My Guard unit did a trunk or treat a few years back that was awesome - the various squadrons set up little tents and trailers decked out as haunted locations to creep out the tots. Very well received.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 27, 2024 10:08 AM (llXky)

89 AH Lloyd, I too am leaning more towards All Saints Day then Halloween. Not sure if it would be different if the grandkids were still celebrating Halloween or our neighborhood had trick or treaters.

Posted by: neverenoughcaffeine at October 27, 2024 10:10 AM (2NHgQ)

90 Which puts me in mind of a later CrossGen series, "Route 666." That was the company's dip into horror. I remember nothing about it, but I might still have those issues.
Posted by: Weak Geek at October 27, 2024

***
Does Route 666 still exist? Years ago it was a branch of 66 that ran north in NW New Mexico, into or on the edge of the Big Rez, from Gallup or thereabouts up toward Aztec.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at October 27, 2024 10:11 AM (omVj0)

91 Back from my Christian Nationalist meeting. As it was the last Sunday of October, it was the Feast of Christ the King. So I was in fact at the right rally.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at October 27, 2024 10:08 AM (EsZUh)

See any Feds there? All their disguises look alike.

Posted by: BignJames at October 27, 2024 10:11 AM (Yj6Os)

92 I made several book purchases this past week, due to sales.

First the ebook version "Kiai," a kung-fu novel co-written by Piers Anthony was on-sale for a buck at both Amazon and Barnes and Noble. I think that will be my first read on my new Nook e-reader.

Second, and more painfully for my wallet, I bought two comic book omnibuses: "Etreme X-Men volume 1" and "Wolverine volume 3" Neither were books I needed to have in my collection, but both were more than to 45% off, and, well, I was weak...

Posted by: Castle Guy at October 27, 2024 10:12 AM (Lhaco)

93 Supernatural horror really needs to be a tragedy if it's going to properly horrify. If your protagonists get into peril from demonic forces, God presumably can bail them out -- and I don't know about you, but I'd re-think my own religious skepticism pretty damned quick if I encountered actual demonic forces!

Which means for scary/bad stuff to happen, the protagonists (at least some of them) have to refuse to ask for divine aid, or are mad enough to believe they're on the "winning side" or something, so that you can have the proper dragged-to-damnation denoument.

Posted by: Trimegistus at October 27, 2024 10:12 AM (78a2H)

94 "I was taking Route 666 to Aztec..." sounds like a great opening line to a horror story.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Cat Slave at October 27, 2024 10:12 AM (kpS4V)

95 I read Stephenson’s Fallen, or Dodge in Hell. I immediately disliked it and when I finished it took it to 1/2 Price Books. The guy’s still trying but will never top Cryptonomicon.
Posted by: Eromero at October 27, 2024 09:37 AM (LHPAg)

I used to love, I mean really, really love Stephenson. I'd tell people he was our era's Charles Dickenson. I read Cycle of the World - twice!

He started to lose me with Seven Eves, with a barely disguised Neil De Grasse Tyson as the hero astrophysicist. The Fall absolutely killed my admiration for him - I stopped halfway through and have never read another word.

Posted by: Candidus at October 27, 2024 10:12 AM (eqAj8)

96 34, SpinRH, leave those books behind when you head off into the forest. Seems like you'd need a break from that.

Posted by: From about That Time at October 27, 2024 10:12 AM (4780s)

97 I actually have those pants. A gift from my grandsons. LOL

Posted by: RetSgtRN at October 27, 2024 10:13 AM (pttLn)

98 JTB, you may find this post (reddit, I know) useful .

It lists the different Catholic catechism books out there, by "level"

https://tinyurl.com/42d9cyct

Also, Fr Mike, the priest who does the Bible in a Year podcast also does a Catechism in a tear podcast. I haven't listened to the former but I have listened to some of Bible in a year, it's nice but not as compelling as nerdier bible podcasts imo- it's like a very nice Sunday School.

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at October 27, 2024 10:13 AM (Tw+JN)

99 Hadrian at 87. Too funny, Mass being a Christian Nationalist Meeting. Right up their with abortion being women's health.

Posted by: neverenoughcaffeine at October 27, 2024 10:13 AM (2NHgQ)

100 AH Lloyd, I too am leaning more towards All Saints Day then Halloween. Not sure if it would be different if the grandkids were still celebrating Halloween or our neighborhood had trick or treaters.
Posted by: neverenoughcaffeine at October 27, 2024 10:10 AM (2NHgQ)
---
Our grandkids are keeping it real for us, and the parish school is doing a costume parade on the 31st but with the caveat that everyone has to dress up as a saint, angel, or Catholic monarch who spread the faith. Our granddaugther is Isabella I of Spain.

From the parent chat, looks like were going to be awash in St. Michael the Archangel, sort of like how everyone was Darth Vader back in 1978.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 27, 2024 10:14 AM (llXky)

101 Can't recall if I mentioned this in the last few weeks, but if you're a fan of horror fiction, Valancourt Books is reissuing some of Robert Bloch's work. Night of the Ripper (about guess who), and his short story collections The Opener of the Way (early stuff IIRC, much of it Lovecraftian) and Pleasant Dreams.

Bloch is most famous for Psycho and that one's usually available, but a lot of his work's been out of print for quite a while. When the Karloff-hosted series Thriller was running, several of Bloch's short stories were adapted for it and they were among the best of the series.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at October 27, 2024 10:14 AM (q3u5l)

102 I have always loved Halloween. I was probably the last of my cohort to give up trickertreating. And let me note here that I am a parent. That being said, I do get a bit annoyed at the constant efforts to make Halloween safe and bland and toothless. Doing "Trunk or Treat" in a parking lot on a weekend in mid-October just isn't the same thing. I'd rather worry about where my kids have gotten to at 10pm on Halloween night than watch them trudge across the asphalt from car to car in broad daylight.
Posted by: Trimegistus at October 27, 2024 10:05 AM (78a2H)
---
Yes, there's something fun about going around and meeting neighbors and such.

My Guard unit did a trunk or treat a few years back that was awesome - the various squadrons set up little tents and trailers decked out as haunted locations to creep out the tots. Very well received.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 27, 2024 10:08 AM (llXky)
---
I live right down the street from a church that does a massive trunk-or-treat on Halloween. Then the kids spread out into the neighborhood for sloppy seconds...

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at October 27, 2024 10:15 AM (zP09t)

103 I have a dim childhood memory of riding with my parents in the car on All Saints' Day, driving past a cemetery, and remarking that "It must have been spooky in there last night." The thing is, it must have been on a Saturday or Sunday, not a weekday. We never had 11/1 off when I was in school. So that narrows the year to '64, when Halloween was a Saturday. That was a leap year, so the previous year, '63, Halloween was Thursday. (Yes, I had to look it up. I often remember the weekday of Christmas Eve when I was young, but not other days unless something really big happened.)

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at October 27, 2024 10:16 AM (omVj0)

104 Castle Guy --

I bought four books from eBay last week just because the offer was buy four, pay for three. Selecting that fourth book took some time.

Posted by: Weak Geek at October 27, 2024 10:16 AM (p/isN)

105 87
Back from my Christian Nationalist meeting. As it was the last Sunday of October, it was the Feast of Christ the King. So I was in fact at the right rally.
Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at October 27, 2024 10:08 AM (EsZUh
Having a sausage biscuit with fellow Christian Nationalists before reading some Presbyterian Standards.

Posted by: Eromero at October 27, 2024 10:16 AM (DXbAa)

106 Apropos of the season, although it's a coincidence (I was loaned this book at the book club three or four months back) I'm reading Angel of the Overpass by Seanan McGuire.

It's about the "phantom prom date" ghost of urban legent. Through machinations outside of her control (detailed in other books by Ms McGuire) she has been given the task of killing the man who killed her originally.

I don't know where Ms McGuire got the idea that rednecks were itching to blow up a truck stop to kill high schoolers that put on musicals, but whatever. After the first section ends, things move along much better as the Rose (the aforementioned ghost) gets down to the serious business of the quest.

I'm not done with it quite yet, so we'll see.

Posted by: Cybersmythe at October 27, 2024 10:16 AM (iZEhM)

107 Since somebody mentioned Dracula, let me put in a rec for the best adaptation of Dracula ever: the board game _Fury of Dracula_. Unlike all the film or stage versions, it's about the pursuit phase of the story, where the heroes are trying to find Dracula and figure out what he's doing, while Dracula's power continues to grow and spread.

Posted by: Trimegistus at October 27, 2024 10:16 AM (78a2H)

108 Interesting. I would have said Zula's *uncle*, the owner of the MMORPG that got hacked, was the main character as opposed to Zula.

Reamde is the only Stephenson book I've read. It didn't get me to read more of his work, but it did get me back into WoW after an extended break, and that is where Inspector and I began (unknowingly) courting.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at October 27, 2024 10:17 AM (s9EYN)

109 Well, I watched that interview in full. I thought it went well for Trump, and that it will have a positive impact on potential voters who've been misled about him over the years. That suspicion was confirmed this morning when I swung by Google to check the mainstream hatefeeds.

Whole lotta cringe inducing cope-and-seethe action this morning.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at October 27, 2024 10:17 AM (7oYYI)

110 He started to lose me with Seven Eves, with a barely disguised Neil De Grasse Tyson as the hero astrophysicist. The Fall absolutely killed my admiration for him - I stopped halfway through and have never read another word.
Posted by: Candidus at October 27, 2024 10:12 AM (eqAj

---

I really enjoyed "Seveneves", at least the first 3/4, and I imagined the astrophysicist as some dude I've seen on NOVA specials, rather than that butt wipe NDT.

What rather tempered my enjoyment was that no matter how many brilliant workarounds to the accelerating chaos our heroes devised, Nature always screwed them over and made things even worse.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Cat Slave at October 27, 2024 10:18 AM (kpS4V)

111 While waiting in line at the library to vote, I noted a historical photo of a patron with the trifecta: plaid leisure suit, platform shoes, and jewfro with long sideburns.
Posted by: All Hail Eris, Cat Slave at October 27, 2024 09:38 AM (kpS4V)
===

*chef's kiss*

I can smell the Olde English.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at October 27, 2024 10:19 AM (RIvkX)

112 I appreciate the sheer bloody-mindedness apparent in Biden's Dog completing the Fischer book on Lenin. It is a trait I greatly admire and a level of bloody-mindedness I aspire to.

Solzhenitsyn wrote multiple time, in different ways: Lenin and Stalin are heads and tails of the same coin. There is no atrocity, blood-lust, evil committed by Stalin that was not pioneered by Lenin.

Lenin should be remembered by his most revealing quote: The purpose of terror is to terrorize.

Posted by: Candidus at October 27, 2024 10:19 AM (eqAj8)

113 Having a sausage biscuit with fellow Christian Nationalists before reading some Presbyterian Standards.
Posted by: Eromero at October 27, 2024 10:16 AM (DXbAa)
----

You reactionary freak!

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Cat Slave at October 27, 2024 10:20 AM (kpS4V)

114 84 I made a delightful discovery: "God in the Garden" by Andrew Peterson. (He wrote the popular Wingfeather kids series.) It is part memoir, part observation on how nature, especially trees, appeal to the soul of man and why that is so important. It sort of rambles but is so well written Peterson ensnares the reader. It lures you in with subtle comparisons that invite, but don't demand, connections to your own life. It reminds me of Wendell Berry's novels in that way. There is a feel of listening to a story listening around a comfortable campfire.

======
Thanks for the recommendation.

Posted by: whig at October 27, 2024 10:20 AM (ctrM5)

115 Bloch is most famous for Psycho and that one's usually available, but a lot of his work's been out of print for quite a while. When the Karloff-hosted series Thriller was running, several of Bloch's short stories were adapted for it and they were among the best of the series.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at October 27, 2024

***
There was one with William Shatner, "The Grim Reaper," that was a Bloch story. WS ruined a surprise by a facial expression about halfway through that gave everything away -- but the episode is pretty effective nonetheless.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at October 27, 2024 10:21 AM (omVj0)

116 There was a time when I could read anytime and anywhere without being distracted. Not anymore. Perhaps due to age or even having good hearing aids, background noise, visual and audible, is a problem and interrupts my concentration and enjoyment. This really came to light while reading Count of Monte Cristo recently. And it's a bigger annoyance when reading on matters of philosophy and imagination, like a George MacDonald fantasy.

Since my curmudgeon quotient is constantly growing, it's possible the annoyance of unimportant distractions (95% of news reports, ads for things that are stupidly ephemoral, or obnoxiously loud and flashy has become more irritating. I'm looking for Rivendell and finding Bedlam.

Posted by: JTB at October 27, 2024 10:22 AM (yTvNw)

117 He started to lose me with Seven Eves, with a barely disguised Neil De Grasse Tyson as the hero astrophysicist.

Posted by: Candidus at October 27, 2024 10:12 AM (eqAj

I've got a copy of Sagan's "Cosmos" 'round here somewhere...maybe time for a re-read.

Posted by: BignJames at October 27, 2024 10:23 AM (Yj6Os)

118 good morning Perfessor, Horde

"What is this, a library for ants?" -- Derek Zoolander

Posted by: callsign claymore at October 27, 2024 10:23 AM (JcnCJ)

119 Since somebody mentioned Dracula, let me put in a rec for the best adaptation of Dracula ever: the board game _Fury of Dracula_. Unlike all the film or stage versions, it's about the pursuit phase of the story, where the heroes are trying to find Dracula and figure out what he's doing, while Dracula's power continues to grow and spread.
Posted by: Trimegistus at October 27, 2024

***
The late '70s PBS production with Louis Jourdan was the Count had the pursuit in there. It wasn't the focus, no, but the adaptation followed the book much more closely than any other before or since. Winchester rifles in Transylvania !!

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at October 27, 2024 10:24 AM (omVj0)

120 Molotov noted that Stalin was a pussycat compared to Lenin, though I'd maintain it's an academic difference at that level of evil.

Stalin just gets credit as history's most atrocious fuckface because he ruled for so much longer than Lenin, over the superstate Lenin had already consolidated.

Stalin was able to hit the ground running and go on a thirty year killing spree.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at October 27, 2024 10:25 AM (7oYYI)

121 For those interested in non-fiction supernatural horror, let me offer Diary of an American Exorcist by Stephen Rossetti. It's a fascinating book that isn't really scary, but does highlight the reality of spiritual warfare.

A Family Guide to Spiritual Warfare by Kathleen Beckman also has some scary case studies, and while I enjoyed it, she does tend to repeat herself and I found myself skimming ahead a bit because yes, I get the value of prayer, etc.

What's interesting about both books is how mundane evil is. No need for head-spinning and pea soup eruptions - a lot of oppression and possession is just terrible life choices or cruelty that we write off as a personality quirk.

The books also highlight how people can be drawn into evil simply by assuming the spirit world doesn't exist, so cool goth tattoos or Santa Muerte decorations are just fashion statements.

To put it another way, you may not be interested in the spirit world, but it's very interested in you!

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 27, 2024 10:25 AM (llXky)

122 I really enjoyed "Seveneves", at least the first 3/4,...
All Hail Eris, Cat Slave at October 27, 2024 10:18 AM (kpS4V)

SPOILER AHEAD

I can appreciate the 3/4 part of this, and maybe I am starting to get paranoid as I move past 29, but the only group that descended into cannibalism was the 'deplorables'?

Also I am wearing a Father's Day cat slave t-shirt form my daughter's Halloween party last night. Close enough.

Posted by: Candidus at October 27, 2024 10:26 AM (eqAj8)

123 Yes i skimmed through fall because it brings back enoch but stephenson lost the plot it reminds me of why snow crash was so tedious

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at October 27, 2024 10:26 AM (pGTZo)

124 Except for the turks that i suppose stoker has a romantic attachment to , who else did tepes actually kill

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at October 27, 2024 10:27 AM (pGTZo)

125 William Shatner, "The Grim Reaper," that ruined a surprise by a facial expression about halfway through that gave everything away -- but the episode is pretty effective nonetheless.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at October 27, 2024 10:21 AM (omVj0)

Mocking Shatner on a Sunday morning, suggesting he ruined something when we all know he makes all things better... just...sad.

Posted by: Auspex at October 27, 2024 10:28 AM (j4U/Z)

126 Book related- I plan to buy the Ignatius Study bible that is set to be released on Nov 26 as a bday guft to myself.
It weighs about 6 pounds.

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at October 27, 2024 10:29 AM (WbaIk)

127 A few years ago I wrote a vampire story set in 1938 Rumania. An American is visiting partly because he was born there and still speaks a few words of the language, and also because he is scouting out locations for a film crew from Hollywood. It becomes clear he's an actor. Not until the end, after the local vampire's threat has been neutralized in an unusual way, do we find out (though I hope I dropped the proper clues all along) that he is actually Edward G. Robinson, who was indeed born in Rumania and spoke a number of languages, including German.

If Raconteur Press ever does a vampire collection, or is willing to consider vampire stories, that might be a good market for this tale.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at October 27, 2024 10:30 AM (omVj0)

128 Vlad Tepes, ironically, was also pretty hard on witches. At least according to some accounts.

Of course, Stoker never comes out and says that his Count Dracula is actually Vlad Tepes. He does brag about being the same "race" (=family), but for all we know Count Dracula's just some social-climbing dead guy from Transylvania.

Posted by: Trimegistus at October 27, 2024 10:30 AM (78a2H)

129 Hopefully gonna rain this week. Kick some drought ass.

Posted by: Dr Pork Chops & Bacons at October 27, 2024 10:31 AM (g8Ew8)

130 Except for the turks that i suppose stoker has a romantic attachment to , who else did tepes actually kill
Posted by: Miguel cervantes

Russian diplomats.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at October 27, 2024 10:31 AM (BK/fL)

131 Of course, Stoker never comes out and says that his Count Dracula is actually Vlad Tepes. He does brag about being the same "race" (=family), but for all we know Count Dracula's just some social-climbing dead guy from Transylvania.
Posted by: Trimegistus at October 27, 2024 10:30 AM (78a2H)
---
A poor cousin trading on the family name. Happens all the time.

I think it's kind of funny how Romania is treated as more distant than India, you know so far away, so remote, people have funny accents.

Very Little Englander mentality there.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 27, 2024 10:32 AM (llXky)

132 There was another Thriller Bloch adaptation with Shatner too; the episode was called "The Hungry Glass," from Bloch's story "The Hungry House." Saw that one when it was first run, I'd have been 11 or so, and it creeped me out immensely -- that episode still does it for me. "Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper" was in there too.

He also did two sequel novels to Psycho -- Psycho Two, and Psycho House. Nothing to do with the sequel movies, but a lot of fun.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at October 27, 2024 10:32 AM (q3u5l)

133 Thats intriguing timeline that was under the dictator there name escapes me now that might tie in wth the princess who was a descendant of draculs who was the mistress of future spymaster wisner i referred

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at October 27, 2024 10:32 AM (pGTZo)

134 For anyone who is looking for some good spooky Halloween reading I strongly recommend the ghost stories of Russell Kirk. His short stories have been collected in various volumes, most recently in "Ancestral Shadows". He also wrote three novels: "Old House of Fear" (a "gothic" style tale set on a remote Scottish island), "A Creature of the Twilight" (which is set in West Africa in the 1960s) and "Lord of the Hollow Dark" (a sequel to "A Creature of the Twilight" that takes place in an ancient haunted house in Scotland). Several of his characters appear in more than one story. Kirk was both an excellent story teller and a believer. A combination that gives his stories exceptional power (IMHO).

Posted by: John F. MacMichael at October 27, 2024 10:32 AM (aYnHS)

135
Mocking Shatner on a Sunday morning, suggesting he ruined something when we all know he makes all things better... just...sad.
Posted by: Auspex at October 27, 2024

***
Come, come, now! I'm one of his biggest fans. But the first time I saw the episode, Shatner's expression in the scene I mention can only be described as "triumphant," instead of displaying the horror and dread that the character should show at that point. I wonder why the director didn't catch that and have him redo it. Maybe they didn't have time or money, though.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at October 27, 2024 10:32 AM (omVj0)

136 121 For those interested in non-fiction supernatural horror, let me offer Diary of an American Exorcist by Stephen Rossetti. It's a fascinating book that isn't really scary, but does highlight the reality of spiritual warfare.

--

Oh Father Martins is releasing a book this November - the Exorcist Files. He said it won't rehash the podcast, but go deeper into some cases and have some new cases as well,

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at October 27, 2024 10:33 AM (WbaIk)

137 Halloween has gone from being a one day several hour event to an entire "season."

Posted by: Quarter Twenty at October 27, 2024 10:33 AM (dg+HA)

138
Kamala and Whitmer having a beer in Kalamazoo video on YouTube is horror beyond what is written.

Kept waiting for Gretchen to pull her communion beer move.

Posted by: Auspex at October 27, 2024 10:34 AM (j4U/Z)

139 Another variation in horror is what I'm going to call "Cozy Horror".

Probably the best exemplar of this is John Wyndham's
"Village of the Damned" and "The Day of the Triffids".

While the actual circumstances, if you think about them are horrible: invasion and possible extinction through alien rape and induced blindness thus freeing one of mankind's freaky but controlled biological frankensteins freed to do as they "wish", the stories and protagonists handle them in a calm (as possible) and efficient manner. These are problems to to solved and solved they must be.

I think this is a result of these authors being Brits after living through the bombings and V-2 attacks of London. Yes, circumstances were horrible but keep calm and carry on.

It's an interesting mix instead of the modern tendency to go for a negative ending.

Posted by: naturalfake at October 27, 2024 10:34 AM (eDfFs)

140 Russia wasnt really a presemce in thd 15th century

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at October 27, 2024 10:35 AM (pGTZo)

141 For anyone who is looking for some good spooky Halloween reading I strongly recommend the ghost stories of Russell Kirk. His short stories have been collected in various volumes, most recently in "Ancestral Shadows". He also wrote three novels: "Old House of Fear" (a "gothic" style tale set on a remote Scottish island), "A Creature of the Twilight" (which is set in West Africa in the 1960s) and "Lord of the Hollow Dark" (a sequel to "A Creature of the Twilight" that takes place in an ancient haunted house in Scotland). Several of his characters appear in more than one story. Kirk was both an excellent story teller and a believer. A combination that gives his stories exceptional power (IMHO).
Posted by: John F. MacMichael at October 27, 2024

***
Look for his collection The Surly Sullen Bell. One of the tales, "Sorworth Place," was adapted for Serling's Night Gallery series with Jill Ireland and Richard Kiley.

I did not know he had reappearing characters. It's hard to find his stuff now.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at October 27, 2024 10:35 AM (omVj0)

142 Come, come, now! I'm one of his biggest fans. But the first time I saw the episode, Shatner's expression in the scene I mention can only be described as "triumphant," instead of displaying the horror and dread that the character should show at that point. I wonder why the director didn't catch that and have him redo it. Maybe they didn't have time or money, though.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at October 27, 2024 10:32 AM (omVj0)
---
That's the director's fault, not the actor. They do rehearse these things before the camera rolls, and Shatner's take was obviously pleasing to him.

I mean, yes, there are points where directors surprise the actors to get a more real response (or directors have other actors deliver the surprise - see Julie Christie's reaction to Rod Steiger sticking his tongue down her throat in Dr. Zhivago), but that's still the director doing it.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 27, 2024 10:35 AM (llXky)

143 Nameless horror might dredge up nyarthalop from the lake bed

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at October 27, 2024 10:36 AM (pGTZo)

144 74 ... "If you want something less intense, Chesterton and Belloc are good choices. Waugh provides practical application in fictional form."

AH,
Thanks for the suggestions. Chesterton, and indirectly Tolkien, and generally Lewis have fostered this growing interest on several levels. I have some works by Belloc but haven't started them yet.

Any thoughts on which Waugh novel to begin with?

Posted by: JTB at October 27, 2024 10:36 AM (yTvNw)

145 I have gone on horror reading spree. I'm a weenie so I don't do body horror or reading about children or animals being tortured. I enjoy spooky haunts, psychological horror and horror that isn't in your face. Josh Mallerman's "Incidents around the House" is spooky and psychological. It is the first book I've read ny him. I enjoyed it. "The Fisherman" by John Langon was also spooky and psychological.i don't care fir Grady Hendrix or Riley Sager. The writing isn't very good and they're very elementary.

Posted by: Megthered at October 27, 2024 10:36 AM (/bcsH)

146 Halloween has gone from being a one day several hour event to an entire "season."
Posted by: Quarter Twenty

Well, September is a bit early to be putting up Cristmas displays.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at October 27, 2024 10:36 AM (BK/fL)

147 John Wyndham's Out of the Deeps is another very gripping alien invasion tale.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at October 27, 2024 10:36 AM (omVj0)

148 Halloween has gone from being a one day several hour event to an entire "season."
Posted by: Quarter Twenty at October 27, 2024 10:33 AM (dg+HA)
---
It's been like that for a while. As far back as I can remember, October calendars had pumpkins on them. I think the stuff going on sale over Labor Day is a bit much, tho.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 27, 2024 10:37 AM (llXky)

149 Russia wasnt really a presemce in thd 15th century
Posted by: Miguel cervantes

Technically, it was Muscovite boyars

Posted by: Thomas Paine at October 27, 2024 10:38 AM (BK/fL)

150 Salutations from Southwest Oklahoma!

I am actually trying to read the manual for VARAC, a form of digital communications for amateur radio. If I can finally understand the protocols, and get my Yaesu DX-10 properly configured to play nicely with the software, I hope to hold conversations (keyboard to keyboard) with operators around the world without internet or cellular networks.

Almost a year to go before retirement. I hope to read a lot of books once I clock out for the last time.

Posted by: itzWicks at October 27, 2024 10:38 AM (JGUwI)

151 Does Route 666 still exist? Years ago it was a branch of 66 that ran north in NW New Mexico, into or on the edge of the Big Rez, from Gallup or thereabouts up toward Aztec.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at October 27, 2024 10:11 AM (omVj0)

Renumbered to US 491 in 2003.

And along those lines, the SyFy channel did a Route 666 movie in 2001. It was as cheesy as you'd expect.

Posted by: Additional Blond Agent, STEM Guy at October 27, 2024 10:38 AM (/HDaX)

152 If you want creepy and psychological, there is Anne Rivers Siddons' The House Next Door. It focuses on a young couple who live in suburban Atlanta in the late '70s, and a house -- not theirs, but next door, hence the title -- that is *bad* from the beginning. No ghosts -- but it affects the people who live there in horrifying ways. Very effective stuff.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at October 27, 2024 10:38 AM (omVj0)

153 86 Castle Guy --

CrossGen?

Which puts me in mind of a later CrossGen series, "Route 666." That was the company's dip into horror. I remember nothing about it, but I might still have those issues.
Posted by: Weak Geek at October 27, 2024 10:08 AM (p/isN)

Ah, yeah, Route 666. I read the first few issues of that series via the compendium books. Enjoyable enough, I suppose, but not something I would have collected for its own sake. Maybe I should give it re-read this week...

For any outsiders wondering what we are talking about, Route 666 was a short-lived early 2000's comic where a teenaged girl from the pseudo-50's gets chased by all the cliches from the cheap monster-movies of the era.

Posted by: Castle Guy at October 27, 2024 10:38 AM (Lhaco)

154 Brideshead might be a bit tough for a beginner perhaps the war series that has some comic elements

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at October 27, 2024 10:38 AM (pGTZo)

155 98 ... vmom,
Thanks for the references and about Father Mike.

Posted by: JTB at October 27, 2024 10:39 AM (yTvNw)

156 . . . Shatner's expression in the scene I mention can only be described as "triumphant," instead of displaying the horror and dread that the character should show at that point. I wonder why the director didn't catch that and have him redo it. Maybe they didn't have time or money, though.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at October 27, 2024
---
That's the director's fault, not the actor. They do rehearse these things before the camera rolls, and Shatner's take was obviously pleasing to him. . . .

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 27, 2024

***
I suspected that if the director didn't have him change it, there had to be a reason.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at October 27, 2024 10:41 AM (omVj0)

157 Re: Stephenson

I got my start in his books with Cryptonomicon and enjoyed the immersion in it.

I stopped with the 2nd book I partially read, Quicksilver, because the totality of the detail ground the story nearly to a halt.

Oh well.

Posted by: Additional Blond Agent, STEM Guy at October 27, 2024 10:41 AM (/HDaX)

158 Speaking of things Catholic, my journey through Geoge Weigel's superb St. John Paul II biography "Witness to Hope" continues. I'm now reading the "Reliving the Council" [Vatican II] with John Paul II doing his utmost to corral prelates and the religious orders for a comprehensive apostolic course based on the three foundational conciliar documents of the Second Vatican Council - Lumen Gentium, Sacrosanctum Concilium, and Dei Verbum. Holy cat herding.

"Witness to Hope" is a fascinating book.

Posted by: mrp at October 27, 2024 10:41 AM (rj6Yv)

159 If it was vlad tepes what did he do for the next 300 years how come he only came to london at the end of the 19th century

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at October 27, 2024 10:41 AM (pGTZo)

160 104 Castle Guy --

I bought four books from eBay last week just because the offer was buy four, pay for three. Selecting that fourth book took some time.
Posted by: Weak Geek at October 27, 2024 10:16 AM (p/isN)

Understood. Too good a deal to pass up, but you'd better have an 'important' book to be your freebie...

Posted by: Castle Guy at October 27, 2024 10:42 AM (Lhaco)

161 Any thoughts on which Waugh novel to begin with?
Posted by: JTB at October 27, 2024 10:36 AM (yTvNw)
---
Brideshead Revisited. On the surface it's a story of family breakdown, but if you read deeper, it is a conversion story.

Fell free to watch the TV adaptation with Jeremy Irons because it is so well done that if you read the book, you'll be seeing the show and the actors.

The Sword of Honour trilogy then goes even deeper, and is more overt in its discussion of Catholicism.

What make both of these books so useful is that they are *applied Catholicism* not theoretical, and the characters are flawed, realistic and struggle to figure out what they should do. Nominally observant Catholics are shown to have missed the point entirely.

And through it all you have the legendary wit of Waugh, creating laugh-out-loud scenes to lighten the mood.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 27, 2024 10:42 AM (llXky)

162 If memory serves, Russell Kirk's Ancestral Shadows includes just about all of his short supernatural fiction, but his earlier collections The Princess of All Lands and the Wolfus-mentioned Surly Sullen Bell are probably easier to find.

Also worth a look for Halloween reading (and if you're a horror fan, any old time at all...): Dennis Etchison, Charles L. Grant, and Lisa Tuttle.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at October 27, 2024 10:44 AM (q3u5l)

163 I got to the second book of the baroque series

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at October 27, 2024 10:45 AM (pGTZo)

164 Brideshead might be a bit tough for a beginner perhaps the war series that has some comic elements
Posted by: Miguel cervantes at October 27, 2024 10:38 AM (pGTZo)
---
You can watch Brideshead and not miss anything. In fact, even if you read it, you need to watch it. Lots of funny stuff in it, but Julia's conversation with Charles at the fountain is one of the most powerful, raw performances I think I've ever seen.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 27, 2024 10:45 AM (llXky)

165 If it was vlad tepes what did he do for the next 300 years how come he only came to london at the end of the 19th century
Posted by: Miguel cervantes

I'm going with the theory he wanted to try shepherds' pie.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at October 27, 2024 10:45 AM (BK/fL)

166 I know i tried brideshead in college but i came to appreciate it years later in captain did the recc

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at October 27, 2024 10:46 AM (pGTZo)

167 124 Except for the turks that i suppose stoker has a romantic attachment to , who else did tepes actually kill
Posted by: Miguel cervantes

People pass over the history there but you had quite a few Romanians, Serbs, etc. convert to being Muslim or served as Turk's enforcers in the Balkans. So, Vlad ended up killing a lot of his own countrymen because they were collaborators in his mind (and quite a few in reality) with the Turks.

You have those ancient century old grievances in the Balkans where memory of past misdeeds can only be exceeded by that of the Middle East.

Posted by: whig at October 27, 2024 10:47 AM (ctrM5)

168 I'm going with the theory he wanted to try shepherds' pie.
Posted by: Thomas Paine

Imagine his disappointment when he found out it wasn't made from real shepherds.

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at October 27, 2024 10:48 AM (Tw+JN)

169 106 I don't know where Ms McGuire got the idea that rednecks were itching to blow up a truck stop to kill high schoolers that put on musicals, but whatever. After the first section ends, things move along much better as the Rose (the aforementioned ghost) gets down to the serious business of the quest.

I'm not done with it quite yet, so we'll see.
Posted by: Cybersmythe at October 27, 2024 10:16 AM (iZEhM)

If that Seanan McGuire is who I think she is (I'm pretty sure I've heard the name before) then she's a hardcore leftist who hates anything right-ish and anyone white-ish. So, from her world-view, of course the rednecks would want to randomly kill a bunch of kids. They are inherently evil, after all...

Posted by: Castle Guy at October 27, 2024 10:48 AM (Lhaco)

170 There was a series with jeane kalilougus that set the tepes characters in the early 19th century

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at October 27, 2024 10:48 AM (pGTZo)

171 Well, time to head out to Mass to get my voting instructions directly from the Pope (funny how that trope is now completely broken).

Thanks again, Perfesser!

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 27, 2024 10:48 AM (llXky)

172 Halloween has gone from being a one day several hour event to an entire "season."
Posted by: Quarter Twenty at October 27, 2024 10:33 AM (dg+HA)

Not much else to do between the end of summer and the holidays.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at October 27, 2024 10:50 AM (0eaVi)

173 It can be hard to find fresh shepherd.

Posted by: Quarter Twenty at October 27, 2024 10:50 AM (dg+HA)

174 In line with my comment about the Catechism I got a book on the traditional Latin mass, how it came about and why it matters. Should make a good adjunct to go with the Catechism.

Posted by: JTB at October 27, 2024 10:51 AM (yTvNw)

175 I recently found a book I ordered six weeks ago, still in it's original shipping box. Turns out it was in the shipping box that I thought only contained the dried grubs.

Posted by: Candidus at October 27, 2024 10:52 AM (eqAj8)

176 Im surprised no one has really explored that interval

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at October 27, 2024 10:53 AM (pGTZo)

177 Well, September is a bit early to be putting up Cristmas displays.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at October 27, 2024 10:36 AM (BK/fL)

Don't know any Filipinos, do you?

Posted by: OrangeEnt at October 27, 2024 10:53 AM (0eaVi)

178 One of the creepiest horror novels that I've read "recently" was-

"Last Days" by Brian Evenson.

This one really gets under your skin and does something I really like in horror novels, which is that it fully embraces its own mad logic by the end to drag us all the way down the rabbit hole.

The form of the story is that of a detective novel. The story itself concerns a detective who has his hand chopped off during an encounter with a vicious criminal. That circumstance makes him perfect to infiltrate an "amputation cult" where a murder may have been committed.

Highly recommended and thoroughly creepy. And BONUS! It shines an interesting light on our mutilating crazy times.

Posted by: naturalfake at October 27, 2024 10:54 AM (eDfFs)

179 In the novel Dr. Van Helsing speculates that it took a couple of centuries for Dracula's sheer willpower to transform him from a near-mindless animated corpse to a mastermind capable of devising his schemes.

Posted by: Trimegistus at October 27, 2024 10:54 AM (78a2H)

180 And another couple of perfect for Halloween reads:

Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes, and his short story collection The October Country. Still nifty after all these years.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at October 27, 2024 10:54 AM (q3u5l)

181 Turns out it was in the shipping box that I thought only contained the dried grubs.
Posted by: Candidus

... sooo many questions ...

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at October 27, 2024 10:54 AM (Tw+JN)

182 The hammer film discards the whole setting they are set in germany? But they seem to have a stronger sense of the evil than say modern iterations

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at October 27, 2024 10:54 AM (pGTZo)

183 109 Well, I watched that interview in full. I thought it went well for Trump, and that it will have a positive impact on potential voters who've been misled about him over the years. That suspicion was confirmed this morning when I swung by Google to check the mainstream hatefeeds.

Whole lotta cringe inducing cope-and-seethe action this morning.
Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice
=======
I read your analysis of the pivot to new media yesterday as spot on. Very astute. A lot of the GOP campaigns downballot still rely on GOP tropes like the MSM is so important. I think that is in part because of media ad placement commissions for those GOPe types.

Not much money in podcast or the new alternative media land for that for those GOP grifters.

Posted by: whig at October 27, 2024 10:56 AM (ctrM5)

184 Your take on Seanan McGuire matches what I've heard.

Posted by: Trimegistus at October 27, 2024 10:57 AM (78a2H)

185 161 ... AH Lloyd,

Thanks for the Waugh suggestions and why they appeal. I foresee a visit to the used book store for Brideshead Revisited and the Sword of Honour trilogy, preferably in hardcover. From your description, these sound like books I will want to hold and maybe pass along eventually to our nieces and nephew.

Posted by: JTB at October 27, 2024 10:57 AM (yTvNw)

186 A strange path has led me to the book I am currently reading. It started with a recommendation, not sure from where, possibly Larry Correia, that I should read M.A. Rothman. So I read the Levi Yoder series (Amish guy in the Mafia, with some magic stuff. No, really.) I liked it. The guy can write, and the story grabbed my interest and moved briskly along.

So then I read the Alicia Yoder series, where the protagonist is his adopted daughter, rescued from street gangs. I liked that too.

Wanting more M.A. Rothman, I picked up Plainswalker. When the protagonist "leveled up," I started to wonder what sort of world I was in, and noticed that it's called "An Epic Fantasy LitRPG Novel."

So I'm apparently reading a novel patterned on Role-playing game structure. Huh. It's good, though.

Posted by: Splunge at October 27, 2024 10:58 AM (hmKaK)

187 Re: Stephenson

I got my start in his books with Cryptonomicon and enjoyed the immersion in it.
---
He definitely needs an editor to keep him on the story.

I've mentioned his "Fall" a while back. You have to read it like it's 2, maybe 3 different books in one.

But, they guy pulls some seriously deep insights as I think on his books.
Like, in Fall, most people will choose to live in "social media" meaningless bubbles in a VR world instead of ever venturing out and exploring the possibilities.

But, his discussion of "breaking" the internet is becoming reality with AI and deep fakes. And it's worrisome. We are in the last days of "free" internet.

Posted by: People's Hippo Voice at October 27, 2024 10:58 AM (u2wrQ)

188 Its been a while since i read the annotated version of dracula

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at October 27, 2024 10:59 AM (pGTZo)

189 Well, September is a bit early to be putting up Cristmas displays.

Indubitably.

Posted by: Giant Inflatablr Turkey at October 27, 2024 10:59 AM (/y8xj)

190 Stalin just gets credit as history's most atrocious fuckface because he ruled for so much longer than Lenin, over the superstate Lenin had already consolidated.

---------

Imagine if Stalin's reign had extended only from the opening of Barbarossa in June 1941 to the German surrender in May 1945. I think he would be considered an unqualifiedly great leader of Russia.

It was only the invasions, mass murders and purges that came before and after that make him the monster that history generally views him as.

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero43) at October 27, 2024 11:01 AM (JkO4W)

191 I did two stupid things yesterday. One of them - I went to the library's book fair. All the books you could stuff in a paper sack for 5 dollars. So I spent a lot of time looking for favorite authors of mine. I managed to find 8 books. 8 for 5 - not bad.

So I get them home and DUH none of them are large print. They are useless to me. And I can't donate them to the library - they just shoved them off on me! I sit as a hungry girl in the midst of a feast I cannot eat.

Posted by: grammie winger - cheesehead at October 27, 2024 11:02 AM (SfhV1)

192 Way back in the day, I believe it was Poul Anderson who had Earth people living in a VR bubble. One of his characters had to leave his family and the planet because everyone experienced life through a tissue of virtual reality and he felt like an odd man out for wanting to experience actual reality.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Cat Slave at October 27, 2024 11:02 AM (48V7z)

193 Trump and Rogan still racking up nearly 1 million views per hour; over 24 million now.
(20 some-odd million watched the DNC; and that was on every cable and air broadcast)

That's just on YouTube.

And doesn't count the millions in secondary views from clips and commentary.

Meanwhile, Kammie's bit on "call her daddy" is like 700k, I think. And Stern is at 1.5 million.

Posted by: People's Hippo Voice at October 27, 2024 11:03 AM (u2wrQ)

194 ad.

So I get them home and DUH none of them are large print. They are useless to me. And I can't donate them to the library - they just shoved them off on me! I sit as a hungry girl in the midst of a feast I cannot eat.
Posted by: grammie winger - cheesehead

How about one of those page magnifiers? Do those work for you?

Posted by: Piper at October 27, 2024 11:04 AM (pZEOD)

195 Stalin needed djezjinski to implement the terror who was consumed by yagoda yezhov and beria in turn

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at October 27, 2024 11:04 AM (pGTZo)

196 I sit as a hungry girl in the midst of a feast I cannot eat.
Posted by: grammie winger - cheesehead at October 27, 2024 11:02 AM (SfhV1)

I feel your pain.

Posted by: Henry Bemis at October 27, 2024 11:04 AM (0eaVi)

197 Talk about real life horrors

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at October 27, 2024 11:05 AM (pGTZo)

198 Remember all through the period of Russia in WWII that Stalin still had the Gulags running and political prisoners murdered.

Posted by: Skip at October 27, 2024 11:05 AM (fwDg9)

199 Don't know any Filipinos, do you?
Posted by: OrangeEnt

Christmas season starts when months end in -ber!

Then it's on to Chinese New Year, the Mary month of May, John the Baptist June brings in the rain & typhoons, back to Christmas season.

It's a good cycle.

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at October 27, 2024 11:05 AM (Tw+JN)

200 Of course I get an extra century in Purgatory for not mentioning Lent & Holy Week

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at October 27, 2024 11:06 AM (Tw+JN)

201 I've found in recent years that a LOT of hard-copy editions have print that's uncomfortably small for me. One big reason why most of my reading these days is on the Kindle.

But even though they're hard to read now, I've still got a bookcase stuffed with favorites that I won't unload, even though I've found ebooks for almost all of 'em. Go figure.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at October 27, 2024 11:06 AM (q3u5l)

202 I live in Massachusetts, and over the past week I've had to make some fairly long drives on secondary roads. I'm seeing a hell of a lot more Trump/Vance yard signs than I did a month ago. I hope this is the sign of a preference cascade.

Posted by: Trimegistus at October 27, 2024 11:06 AM (78a2H)

203 But even though they're hard to read now, I've still got a bookcase stuffed with favorites that I won't unload, even though I've found ebooks for almost all of 'em. Go figure.
Posted by: Just Some Guy

You know - that just convinced me to buy books in kindle rather than paper

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at October 27, 2024 11:09 AM (Tw+JN)

204 Well, time to head out to Mass to get my voting instructions directly from the Pope (funny how that trope is now completely broken).

The Pope no longer issues voting instructions?

Posted by: Zombie JFK! at October 27, 2024 11:09 AM (uxCna)

205 My reading last week was Sir Edward Coke and the The Grievances of the Commonwealth.

This book considers Edward Coke's career in Parliament in a period of transition from his legal career personally (prior to this Coke was royal judge and attorney general for the Crown among other jobs), and from King James to his son Charles I politically.

Coke died before he finished his Institutes which had a profound effect on the colonies and he died before the English Civil War began between Parliament and Charles.

But, one can clearly see that what Parliament did, while Coke was still alive and serving, from 1621-1628 created a unified Parliamentary opposition in the House of Commons to the Crown that continued to harden until Civil War broke out.

Charles I intransigence and favoritism of the Duke of Buckingham as his chief minister made the House of Commons use the power of the purse and parliamentary inquiries into the conduct of Charles' ministers to thwart Charles.

So, useful pedantic book on the slow burning match to the English Civil War.

My primary interest was in the Petition of Right of 1628 which is still considered part of Britain's unwritten Constitution.

Posted by: whig at October 27, 2024 11:10 AM (ctrM5)

206 If that Seanan McGuire is who I think she is (I'm pretty sure I've heard the name before) then she's a hardcore leftist who hates anything right-ish and anyone white-ish. So, from her world-view, of course the rednecks would want to randomly kill a bunch of kids. They are inherently evil, after all...

Posted by: Castle Guy at October 27, 2024 10:48 AM

It's only been in the last few books that it's gotten ridiculous. I mean, you could view the whole InCryptid series as commentary on anti-environmentalists, but you don't have to, not to mention that there's nothing in there to tie that to anyone to the right of Lenin, and the books are pretty entertaining. The biggest problem I have with the Covenant of St George is that they've had hundreds of years with very few cryptids to hunt and they still haven't lost the plot. That's, um, not realistic. The take of the "Witchfinder Army" in "Good Omens" is more like what would really happen.

Anyway, I'm in the book thread early enough to talk about books. Yay me!

Anyway, I don't think you should avoid the books just because of the bent of the

Posted by: Cybersmythe at October 27, 2024 11:11 AM (iZEhM)

207 Hmmm.

JTB,

Honestly, if I were starting to read Waugh I'd start with the three middle novels of his comic years.

"Black Mischief"
"A Handful of Dust"
"Scoop"

That gives you a pretty solid understanding of Waugh's worldview and strengths as a writer. Then I'd progress to

"Brideshead Revisited" where he uses many of the same techniques to generate his most profound novel.

Then "Sword of Honor" Trilogy, which has some of Waugh's best humor in "Men at Arms" with the Apthorpe sections.

And finally, "The Loved One" where Waugh attempts to fuse the profundity of his later novels with the freewheeling satire of his comic novels.

All good stuff.

Posted by: naturalfake at October 27, 2024 11:12 AM (eDfFs)

208 But, his discussion of "breaking" the internet is becoming reality with AI and deep fakes. And it's worrisome. We are in the last days of "free" internet.
Posted by: People's Hippo Voice at October 27, 2024 10:58 AM (u2wrQ)

I wish I could disagree.

Posted by: Additional Blond Agent, STEM Guy at October 27, 2024 11:13 AM (/HDaX)

209 Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at October 27, 2024 11:05 AM (Tw+JN)

Lanterns for sale at Seafood City since last month....

Posted by: Henry Bemis at October 27, 2024 11:13 AM (0eaVi)

210 I was driving through parts of rural Missouri (hi perfessor, it was gorgeous) last week and saw a plethora of Trump yard signs, flags, banners and hay bales. There was only a smattering for Old Lady Emhoff. Actually about half a smattering.

Posted by: Quarter Twenty at October 27, 2024 11:13 AM (dg+HA)

211 Molotov said, "Compared to Lenin, Stalin was a mere lamb."

Think about that.

Great description of Molotov by Sir Winston Churchill: Molotov was
‘a man of outstanding ability and cold-blooded ruthlessness…. His cannonball head, black moustache, and comprehending eyes, his slab face, his verbal adroitness, and imperturbable demeanor were appropriate manifestations of his qualities and skill. He was above all men fitted to be the agent and instrument of an incalculable machine.’

Posted by: Beverly at October 27, 2024 11:13 AM (Epeb0)

212 re #141 and #162, Russell Kirk

As to recurring characters in Kirk's stories: the hero of "Sorworth Place" appears in another short story ("Savior's Gate (IIRC)) and has a major role in the novel "Lord of the Hollow Dark". Another recurring character is that of Manfred Arcane a suave and sinister fellow who can with equal deftness and elegance kiss a lady's hand or cut a man's throat. He is the lead character in both "A Creature of the Twilight" and "Lord of the Hollow Dark" plus two of the short stories.

Fortunately I bought both "A Princess of All Lands" and "The Watchers At the Straight Gate", Kirk's two story collections from Arkham House when they were originally published. They are long out of print and used copies are quite expensive. "Old House of Fear" is available for Kindle. Publishers are missing a trick by not offering his other short stories and novels in digital form.

Posted by: John F. MacMichael at October 27, 2024 11:13 AM (aYnHS)

213 Oh, speaking of horror. And some of you were speaking of horror, I'm not a huge Larry Correia fan because he loves horror a whole lot more than I do. I mean, even his light humorous works (the "Tom Stranger, Interdimensional Insurance Agent" series, for example) have substantial horror elements.

Posted by: Cybersmythe at October 27, 2024 11:14 AM (iZEhM)

214 I am trying to read this thread to get a new book idea but Sabi is lying flat on his back with his feet in the air. Upside down kitties are very distracting!

Posted by: Piper at October 27, 2024 11:15 AM (+tzkt)

215 Stalin was a real life demon with allies all across the world some even into the current day vlad tepes was a piker

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at October 27, 2024 11:16 AM (pGTZo)

216 193 Trump and Rogan still racking up nearly 1 million views per hour; over 24 million now.
(20 some-odd million watched the DNC; and that was on every cable and air broadcast)

That's just on YouTube.

And doesn't count the millions in secondary views from clips and commentary.

Meanwhile, Kammie's bit on "call her daddy" is like 700k, I think. And Stern is at 1.5 million.
Posted by: People's Hippo Voice
----------
Undecideds are far more likely to listen/watch something like Rogan's interview than the DNC convention.

Likewise perverts and semiretired pervert streaming channels just are not going to be a mainstream choice which is why of course the Kamala campaign picked them. Lower profile if things go wrong and sexual perverts are a prime voting target for Dems to energize.

Posted by: whig at October 27, 2024 11:16 AM (ctrM5)

217 I am trying to read this thread to get a new book idea but Sabi is lying flat on his back with his feet in the air. Upside down kitties are very distracting!

Posted by: Piper at October 27, 2024 11:15 AM

Piper! It was good to meet you at the MoMe. And you got to meet my sweetie, unlike some perfessors I could name.

Posted by: Cybersmythe at October 27, 2024 11:16 AM (iZEhM)

218 Christmas season starts when months end in -ber!

***********

Christmas season starts when days begin with "Brrrr...!"

Posted by: muldoon at October 27, 2024 11:16 AM (uCfKO)

219 Piper! It was good to meet you at the MoMe. And you got to meet my sweetie, unlike some perfessors I could name.
Posted by: Cybersmythe at October

You too, and she was just lovely. You are a very lucky guy!

Posted by: Piper at October 27, 2024 11:17 AM (+tzkt)

220 Great description of Molotov by Sir Winston Churchill: Molotov was
‘a man of outstanding ability and cold-blooded ruthlessness…. His cannonball head, black moustache, and comprehending eyes, his slab face, his verbal adroitness, and imperturbable demeanor were appropriate manifestations of his qualities and skill. He was above all men fitted to be the agent and instrument of an incalculable machine.’
Posted by: Beverly
====
Churchill had the advantage in writing about great events because he had actually met or discussed matters with pretty much everyone important in the first half of the twentieth century. Had the knack of sparkling prose and the direct experience of what he was writing about which is a killer combination in a writer.

Write what you know is an old admonition to writers and Churchill could certainly do that.

Posted by: whig at October 27, 2024 11:18 AM (ctrM5)

221 Likewise perverts and semiretired pervert streaming channels just are not going to be a mainstream choice which is why of course the Kamala campaign picked them. Lower profile if things go wrong and sexual perverts are a prime voting target for Dems to energize.
Posted by: whig at October 27, 2024 11:16 AM (ctrM5)

So, they're trying to rile the perverts up?

Posted by: OrangeEnt at October 27, 2024 11:20 AM (0eaVi)

222 Most of my book purchases these days are Kindle. A lot of the print editions still on hand are old favorites, collectible editions, or titles for which no official ebook has been issued. Have found the occasional downloadable PDF via Project Gutenberg and a few other sites of titles like 1984 which might be susceptible to woke edits coming from the publishers as in the cases of Fleming and Dahl.

Thought about one of those table-top magnifiers, but given the habits of our cat (sleep on my work table, preferably on my hand), the logistics might be a bit tricky.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at October 27, 2024 11:22 AM (q3u5l)

223 213 Oh, speaking of horror. And some of you were speaking of horror, I'm not a huge Larry Correia fan because he loves horror a whole lot more than I do. I mean, even his light humorous works (the "Tom Stranger, Interdimensional Insurance Agent" series, for example) have substantial horror elements.
Posted by: Cybersmythe
========
I've read a couple of Correia's earlier works and just don't care for them much and certainly not to the point of rereading them.

Perhaps you have noted why I don't care much for him as I am not a horror fan in general. History, as noted above, has far more horrendous villains in reality than horror writers can conjure up.

Lenin, Mao, Stalin, etc. and that is why Robert Conquest's books and the Black Book of Communism are important readings along with those about the Holocaust.

Posted by: whig at October 27, 2024 11:23 AM (ctrM5)

224 So, they're trying to rile the perverts up?
Posted by: OrangeEnt
=======
Mobilize them for the polls certainly. I would imagine that the GOP is losing the troon vote substantially along with that of the promiscuous, child molester, and traditional pervert (any love is good love so I took what I could get) voters.

Posted by: whig at October 27, 2024 11:25 AM (ctrM5)

225 AH Lloyd, thank you for your essay on The Crow. Lots of good insights there.

Posted by: callsign claymore at October 27, 2024 11:25 AM (JcnCJ)

226 218
Christmas season starts when days begin with "Brrrr...!"
Posted by: muldoon at October

Unless you live here! But we do get snow makers for our tree lighting ceremony. 😂

Posted by: Piper at October 27, 2024 11:26 AM (HywUa)

227 222 Most of my book purchases these days are Kindle. A lot of the print editions still on hand are old favorites, collectible editions, or titles for which no official ebook has been issued. Have found the occasional downloadable PDF via Project Gutenberg and a few other sites of titles like 1984 which might be susceptible to woke edits coming from the publishers as in the cases of Fleming and Dahl.

Posted by: Just Some Guy
------
You can also read kindle books via your computer monitor as digital purchases. A few more technical steps are required if you want to jailbreak your Kindle books and convert them to pdfs but the instructions are out there.

Calibre is the alternative free open source reader for all sorts of epubs but can be a bit overwhelming to set up initially.

Posted by: whig at October 27, 2024 11:27 AM (ctrM5)

228 210 I was driving through parts of rural Missouri (hi perfessor, it was gorgeous) last week and saw a plethora of Trump yard signs, flags, banners and hay bales. There was only a smattering for Old Lady Emhoff. Actually about half a smattering.
Posted by: Quarter Twenty

Given rural tendencies, I am surprised that the Ms Emhoff signs did not exhibit a healthy peppering of buckshot and bullet holes.

Posted by: whig at October 27, 2024 11:29 AM (ctrM5)

229 Grammie, have you tried really powerful readers? Like +6.00? Amazon has them.

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at October 27, 2024 11:30 AM (PiwSw)

230 207 ... naturalfake,

Thanks so much for those Waugh suggestions and why they work in that order. With the enthusiasm from you and AH Lloyd I've got a lot of enjoyable reading ahead. Hoping the local used bookstore has Waugh on the shelves since the county library only has a couple.

Posted by: JTB at October 27, 2024 11:30 AM (yTvNw)

231 Thanks so much for those Waugh suggestions and why they work in that order. With the enthusiasm from you and AH Lloyd I've got a lot of enjoyable reading ahead. Hoping the local used bookstore has Waugh on the shelves since the county library only has a couple.
Posted by: JTB

I've had good luck getting books via Ebay. Better World Books and another big reseller whose name escapes me at the moment often offer a discount if you buy multiple books at a discount with free shipping. Lots of indy bookstores represented there as well where reseller rep scores are important to read before buying from them. That being said, those smaller bookstores often ship out fast which cuts the USPS book rate shipping time a bit.

Posted by: whig at October 27, 2024 11:33 AM (ctrM5)

232 My lifetime progressive sister recently sent me a long confessional on her thought process over the election. She is voting for Trump and indeed the entire Republican ticket down the line. I have learned to never underestimate my siblings. She concluded with this:

"I do not hate Harris and Walz, but it is impossible to see them in political power. A clarion NO.They both need long term psychiatric and medical care, or imprisonment."

Posted by: Ordinary American at October 27, 2024 11:34 AM (UseAb)

233 Grammie, have you tried really powerful readers? Like +6.00? Amazon has them.

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at October 27, 2024 11:30 AM (PiwSw)

I have not, but will look into them. Thanks!

Posted by: grammie winger - cheesehead at October 27, 2024 11:34 AM (SfhV1)

234 enjoy a pumpkin spice Snickers bar

We eat them upside-down so the veiny texture is on our tongues.

Posted by: White Dudes For Harris at October 27, 2024 11:34 AM (RFx0q)

235 Is it just me, or have the Democrats forgotten how to do electoral politics? They shouldn't be playing to the trans/weird hair crowd at all, let alone a week before the election. Those people are going to vote for them, so can be safely ignored. Kamala should be out hitting VFW posts in Pennsylvania, visiting MLK historical sites in Georgia, and staging tractor-riding photo ops in downstate Illinois. Reminding swing voters of who you really are is the LAST thing a Democrat should be doing in late October. Hillary! had the same problem back in 2016, going to parties with rich people on Long Island where a witch served them cake made with blood and semen. James Carville probably wanted to slap her for that.

Posted by: Trimegistus at October 27, 2024 11:34 AM (78a2H)

236 So, they're trying to rile the perverts up?
Posted by: OrangeEnt at October 27, 2024 11:20 AM (0eaVi)

"Donald Trump is gon' put y'all back in clothes. Vote as if your enormous teledildonic butt plugs depend on it - because they do!"

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at October 27, 2024 11:34 AM (7oYYI)

237 Calibre is a freakin' godsend for anyone who's heavily into ebooks, and its ability to convert from one format to another is a big part of that. Jailbreaking isn't part of its basic package, but there are add-ons that let you do that.

Pre-kindle, I bought most of my ebooks from Fictionwise. When Barnes & Noble bought Fictionwise, there was a last-minute opportunity to download all your books in mobi format as well as their original pdb formats. Kindle could read mobi, and it still can, but you can't use Send to Kindle to send mobi files to your device now; it's either load 'em by USB cable or convert 'em to epubs with Calibre to use StK. Annoying at times, but it works nicely.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at October 27, 2024 11:35 AM (q3u5l)

238 Off to girls' softball tournament. Blessed to still be able to play outside here.

Posted by: grammie winger - cheesehead at October 27, 2024 11:37 AM (SfhV1)

239 Also would point out for a " pussy cat" Stalin deposed though left alive Molotov at the end having lost is power.
Stalin hated anyone with power.

Posted by: Skip at October 27, 2024 11:37 AM (fwDg9)

240 Signing off now. Going to the moving pictures!

Posted by: Trimegistus at October 27, 2024 11:37 AM (78a2H)

241 Halloween was the Celtic New Years Eve, when a crack opened to the Underworld and you could converse with the Dead. It was so cool the Church co-opted it. They also turned the Celtic shortest day celebration into Christmas

Posted by: Ignoramus at October 27, 2024 11:39 AM (LM6ky)

242 And for reading pdfs on a kindle, it's hard to beat the Kindle Scribe reader. That big screen makes all the difference. Pricey, but if you're reading a lot of pdfs it's worth it.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at October 27, 2024 11:39 AM (q3u5l)

243 Morning Hordemates.

Posted by: Diogenes at October 27, 2024 11:41 AM (W/lyH)

244 Signing off now. Going to the moving pictures!
Posted by: Trimegistus at October 27, 2024

***
Moon pitchers are the cat's pajamas!

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at October 27, 2024 11:43 AM (omVj0)

245 231 ... "Better World Books and another big reseller whose name escapes me at the moment often offer a discount if you buy multiple books at a discount with free shipping."

Thanks whig. Haven't used Ebay for years but will check out Better World Books and similar. Amazon is usually my go to for used books not available locally but their coverage has been a bit spotty for some books. Always good to have alternatives.

Posted by: JTB at October 27, 2024 11:43 AM (yTvNw)

246 I had some good sales this month, so if that's youse guys, I appreciate it!

Posted by: moviegique (buy my book!) at October 27, 2024 11:46 AM (lpWi1)

247 Grammie, have you tried really powerful readers? Like +6.00? Amazon has them.

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at October 27, 2024 11:30 AM (PiwSw)
------------

Are those the ones made with bottom of Coke bottles?

Posted by: olddog in mo at October 27, 2024 11:46 AM (hoCmQ)

248 Perfessor,

Thanks for another wonderful book thread. It is a highlight of my weekend. That said, the many suggestions folks offer do damage to my book budget. (Not that that slows me down too much.)

Posted by: JTB at October 27, 2024 11:47 AM (yTvNw)

249 Good morning from the Left Coast!

Finished listening to "Daughter of the Third Reich." IMHO the story needed a good editor (where have they gone?) and the author needed to decide who her audience was. The heroine and POV character starts as a young girl in 1930's Germany and follows her through 1939, just before the invasion of Poland, when she is 16. There is an Epilogue that briefly recaps her life from the end of WWII and life under Russian/East German control to the 1990's. But this really didn't seem to be a YA book written for girls, either. Most of the supporting characters, including the heroine's love interest (who is Jewish--what a novel idea!), lack depth and complexity. They are all stereotypes. There was some interesting background on Leipzig and what life was like in that period.

Posted by: March Hare at October 27, 2024 11:48 AM (jfX+U)

250 abebooks.com is a pretty decent source for used books too. Their listings include Better World, Half-Price Books, and a bunch of other dealers. Prices range from excellent to dear-God-in-heaven depending on the dealer offering the items.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at October 27, 2024 11:48 AM (q3u5l)

251 Took me a while to get here this morning. Not too late for the book thread, but nearly so, I suppose.

I was thinking today of how Vic used to police the book thread, chiding folks who drifted off-topic.

Funny thing: When folks were first joking about Vic being older than dirt, he was years younger than I am now. But if we measure by experience-years (you know, like dog-years), I'll never be as old as he.

G'morn, y'all.

Posted by: mindful webworker - one word at a time at October 27, 2024 11:50 AM (zg1wV)

252 Well, reality intrudes.

Thanks for the thread, Perfessor.

And thanks to the Horde for the recommendations; the Amazing Colossal To-Be-Read Pile got bigger again today.

Have a good one, gang. Bests to all.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at October 27, 2024 11:50 AM (q3u5l)

253 250 abebooks.com is a pretty decent source for used books too. Their listings include Better World, Half-Price Books, and a bunch of other dealers. Prices range from excellent to dear-God-in-heaven depending on the dealer offering the items.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at October 27, 2024 11:48 AM (q3u5l)

I use Thriftbooks a lot too. Sometimes their used books are even cheaper than Amazon's.

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at October 27, 2024 11:51 AM (PiwSw)

254 I hadn't tried Better World Books; most of my book buying has been from eBay, AbeBooks, and ThriftBooks. Just recently I ordered paperback copies of Ken Cooper's Aerobics from one of those latter two, and The New Aerobics from the other.

True, Cooper's researches into the benefits of aerobic (= cardio) exercise have gone way beyond those two books from '68 and '70. (For one thing, age adjustments for aerobic goals stopped at 50+ back then; now we have goals for 60+ and 70+.) But they remain two of the great motivational books of all time.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at October 27, 2024 11:51 AM (omVj0)

255 I have not, but will look into them. Thanks!

Posted by: grammie winger - cheesehead at October 27, 2024 11:34 AM (SfhV1)

Maybe the next time you get your eyes checked you can ask the optometrist for a prescription for dedicated reading glasses? My wife (who has had crappy vision her whole life) did that, and she is very happy. They are specific for reading books!

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at October 27, 2024 11:51 AM (d9fT1)

256 213 Oh, speaking of horror. And some of you were speaking of horror, I'm not a huge Larry Correia fan because he loves horror a whole lot more than I do.
--

I think he has a straight military thriller series with Mike Kupari, starts with Dead Six.
His Son of the Black Sword series is epic fantasy set in an ancient India inspired world. I love it though I hated the first chapter

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at October 27, 2024 11:53 AM (6U1c2)

257 Yup, time to head off for some chores. Thanks for the great book thread, Perfessor, and all of you!

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at October 27, 2024 11:53 AM (omVj0)

258 They also turned the Celtic shortest day celebration into Christmas
Posted by: Ignoramus at October 27, 2024 11:39 AM (LM6ky)

Which is why, when people complain "they took Jesus' birthday, and turned it into a commercial racket, run by a big eastern syndicate," they sorta have it backwards.

Jesus wasn't born on Dec. 25. But it's ok to pretend he was.

Posted by: BurtTC at October 27, 2024 11:53 AM (GtZ7X)

259 Posted by: Trimegistus at October 27, 2024 11:34 AM (78a2H)

She won't go to those places because getting booed hurts her feelings.

Posted by: Dr Pork Chops & Bacons at October 27, 2024 11:57 AM (g8Ew8)

260 I had some good sales this month, so if that's youse guys, I appreciate it!
Posted by: moviegique (buy my book!) at October 27, 2024 11:46 AM (lpWi1)

Whistles innocently and looks at empty book shelf.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at October 27, 2024 11:58 AM (0eaVi)

261 || Whistles innocently and looks at empty book shelf.

That sounds tragic!

Oh, AbeBooks is owned by Amazon. I feel like when Amazon bought them, their prices got to be no different from Amazon's.

Alibris is still independent.

Posted by: moviegique (buy my book!) at October 27, 2024 12:00 PM (lpWi1)

262 Thanks for another uplifting Book thread, Perf and Horde!

*adjusts whalebone corset*

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Cat Slave at October 27, 2024 12:00 PM (48V7z)

263 I think he has a straight military thriller series with Mike Kupari, starts with Dead Six.
His Son of the Black Sword series is epic fantasy set in an ancient India inspired world. I love it though I hated the first chapter
Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at October 27, 2024 11:53 AM

I think I read Dead Six, but I don't remember it enough to comment on it. Reading "Son of the Black Sword" is basically how I reached the conclusion that everything Correia writes is horror. I mean, how much more horror can you get than demons coming out of the ocean? And it goes on and on and on. I have had absolutely no desire to read any of the other books in that series.

Posted by: Cybersmythe at October 27, 2024 12:01 PM (iZEhM)

264 YOUR AFTERNOON THREAD HAD ARRIVED
NOOD

Posted by: Skip at October 27, 2024 12:02 PM (fwDg9)

265 Funny thing: When folks were first joking about Vic being older than dirt, he was years younger than I am now. But if we measure by experience-years (you know, like dog-years), I'll never be as old as he.

G'morn, y'all.
Posted by: mindful webworker

How did the joke of Vic being older than Methuselah start anyway?
Was it because he was a commenter since ye olden dayes?

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at October 27, 2024 12:02 PM (dE3DB)

266 Which is why, when people complain "they took Jesus' birthday, and turned it into a commercial racket, run by a big eastern syndicate," they sorta have it backwards.

Jesus wasn't born on Dec. 25. But it's ok to pretend he was.
Posted by: BurtTC at October 27, 2024 11:53 AM (GtZ7X)

A few religions don't celebrate Jesus' birthday, period. They think it's sacrilegious and leads to the Godless commercialization we see today.

I see their point every year.

Posted by: Dr Pork Chops & Bacons at October 27, 2024 12:04 PM (g8Ew8)

267 I mean, how much more horror can you get than demons coming out of the ocean?

--
*kicks Servants of War under the sofa*

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at October 27, 2024 12:05 PM (dE3DB)

268 YOUR AFTERNOON THREAD HAD ARRIVED
NOOD
Posted by: Skip at October 27, 2024 12:02 PM (fwDg9)

BUT WE DON'T WANT THE BOOK THREAD TO END!

Posted by: OrangeEnt at October 27, 2024 12:07 PM (0eaVi)

269 "They abduct both Zula and Peter ... " — Wow.

I haven't seen the name 'Zula' since I visited the Zula Fricks Button Shoppe on Royal Street sometime in the late '60s. She had damned near every button ever made, and I bought several sets to swap out on the ever-so-popular navy blue blazers of the time. I hope her shop's still open ...

Posted by: Dr_No at October 27, 2024 12:07 PM (ayRl+)

270 "70 John Varley wrote the novella, Press Enter, which is a sort of horror tale, boy meets girl investigating the meaningless suicide of a hacker, boy loses girl when she commits suicide for the same reason, boy removes all technology and disconnects his house from all power sources after the computers induce him to try to commit suicide himself.
Posted by: Kindltot at October 27, 2024 09:53 AM (D7oie)"

I read that story in "Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine"! I believe it was published in the mid-1990's or early-2000's before WiFi was popular and we were all hard-wired to the Internet. Thanks, Kindltot--I was trying to remember the title and the author.

Posted by: March Hare at October 27, 2024 12:09 PM (jfX+U)

271 issues of a comic book

-
Podcaster and YouTube content creator Mr. Ballen (Johnathan B. Allen) has expanded in to graphic collection of short stories entitled, appropriately, Strange, Dark, and Mysterious.

https://is.gd/gYKc9y

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I've Been Through the Desert On a Horse With No Shame at October 27, 2024 12:14 PM (L/fGl)

272 I read that story in "Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine"! I believe it was published in the mid-1990's or early-2000's before WiFi was popular and we were all hard-wired to the Internet.

Posted by: March Hare at October 27, 2024 12:09 PM (jfX+U)
**********************************************

1984 is the year of publication for "Press Enter" by John Varley; the following year, it was included in the second Year's Best Science Fiction anthology edited by Gardner Dozois, the Annual World's Best SF anthology edited by Donald Wollheim, and the Best Science Fiction of the Year anthology edited by Terry Carr.

Posted by: My Ridiculously Circuitous Plan at October 27, 2024 12:28 PM (RL6yh)

273 This week, my wife (the lovely and accomplished Annalucia) and I are reading aloud to each other Berry Gordy's autobiography, "To Be Loved".

Gordy was the founder Motown Records in the late 1950s, and its CEO up to its sale thirty years later. Motown was the label that nurtured the careers of many of the greatest R&B and soul performers of the 60s, including Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson, Mary Wells, Diana Ross, the Temptations, the Four Tops, and many others. Their music was immensely popular, and deeply influential on pop and rock music up to this day. (I grew up listening to Motown, and love it to this day.)

"To Be Loved" is a candid description of Gordy's life and the development of Motown. Gordy is candid about his failings, especially his failed marriages, but also celebrates Motown's many successes. He's also an entertaining storyteller; and his book is an in-depth look at how the grandson of a slave organized and ran one of the most successful music companies ever. It didn't hurt that some enormously talented musicians were playing literally within blocks of his studio: not just the stars, but the musicians of the house band, the "Funk Brothers". Highly recommended!

Posted by: Nemo at October 27, 2024 12:36 PM (S6ArX)

274 @223 "History, as noted above, has far more horrendous villains in reality than horror writers can conjure up."

The author Gillian Bradshaw in an afterword to her historical novel "Render Unto Caesar" remarked that she never had any trouble finding vile and vicious villains well attested in the historical record. Her heroes on the other hand she usually had to invent.

Posted by: John F. MacMichael at October 27, 2024 12:38 PM (aYnHS)

275 The Internet Archive was completely down for a few weeks because it had been hacked/attacked very severely. It is partially back. You could read a lot of books there that weren't in the public domain but OP by borrowing them. Many of the books people recommend here were available on archive.org. The borrowing feature is down, because it requires logging in and login isn't available. I keep checking all the time to see if the site has come back completely.

Posted by: microcosme at October 27, 2024 12:40 PM (Xx9uC)

276 Stephenson has stumbled into the same ditch as Tom Clancy did - early books were so good and successful that they "outgrew" having to listen to an editor. Subsequent books for each grew in length as they added every topic that might tangentially relate to the story or a character, and then include every thought, every research nugget that they had on that topic, all at the cost of readability and the story.

I don't think I've enjoyed any of his books he's written after Cryptonomicom, his peak. Yet for some reason I've still read most of what's come after; I guess hoping he'll come back around.

Posted by: Kreskin at October 27, 2024 12:49 PM (sg0Es)

277 I've been listening to Oathbringer (book 3 in Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Archive) and should finish tomorrow or the next day, most likely.

Also been reading Shogun after having watched the FX miniseries and enjoying it very much (haven't seen the 1980 version). I had actually downloaded a sample on my kindle long before I knew the miniseries was being made, but never read it. Then Amazon removed that version of the ebook in favor of splitting it into 2 parts (its a very long book, so this may be justifiable in print, but it makes no difference as an ebook other than forcing people to make 2 purchases...got them both on sales though for a total of 5 or 6 bucks, so not a huge loss). Will finish Part 1 today.

Posted by: tintex at October 27, 2024 01:23 PM (R39cJ)

278 The tale of COVID. Which horror should that be placed in among the many evils that man is doing to man at this very moment?

Posted by: Dr. Bone at October 27, 2024 01:40 PM (z+0uZ)

279 I had some good sales this month, so if that's youse guys, I appreciate it!
Posted by: moviegique (buy my book!) at October 27, 2024 11:46 AM (lpWi1)

You can count my latest sales on fingers and toes, but I did have a 4/5 generally positive written review from a stranger. So for me as well, if it was one of youse guys, thanks.

Posted by: Candidus at October 27, 2024 02:19 PM (eqAj8)

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