Sunday Morning Book Thread - 4-20-2025 ["Perfessor" Squirrel]

Welcome to the prestigious, internationally acclaimed, stately, and illustrious Sunday Morning Book Thread! The place where all readers are welcome, regardless of whatever guilty pleasure we feel like reading. 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...

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

Today's Sunday Morning Book Thread is dedicated to the memory of jewells45, who went to be with the Lord this past week. I will always remember her as a smiling, laughing woman who danced with me at a TXMOME.

Prayers for NaCly Dog and his wife this morning.

"He is not here. He is risen, just as he said."

--Matthew 28:6 (NIV)

PIC NOTE

Today Christians around the world celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Although there is a lot of controversy around exactly WHEN Jesus Christ actually rose from the dead, that's really not important in the grand scheme of things. What matters is the Sacrifice.

The Dragon's blood stains the rocks of Shayol Ghul...Whoops! Wrong Messiah.

His blood was shed on the cross to redeem the sins of all mankind and grant those who follow Him life everlasting. It's the greatest gift of all.

Have a Blessed Easter for He is Risen!

Theological Questions of the Day:

I came across the following passage when reading the Gospels last night:

51 At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split 52 and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. 53 They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people.

--Matthew 27:51-53 (NIV) [emphasis added]

It seems to me that this raises some profound implications if this event happened as Matthew recorded it. As far as I can tell, Matthew is the only gospel that describes this event.

• Who were these "holy people" who were raised from the dead when Jesus died?


• Did they preach about Jesus' resurrection? As holy people, wouldn't they have added credibility to Matthew's account because they were direct witnesses to the power of God?


• Did they go on to lead normal lives and die again? Or did they disappear when Jesus ascended to heaven?

I'm genuinely curious about any explanations for what happened here. Either it happened as recorded, in which case you'd think there'd be A LOT more written about it, because it's nearly as incredible as Jesus own resurrection. Or Matthew was inserting a dramatic event for his own narrative purposes, which somewhat undercuts Matthew's credibility. Thoughts?

STORTELLING - CLEVER AND GOOD

This morning I read Lex's essay on "good vs. clever" screenwriting [NOTE: Don't comment on old threads! -- PS], and enjoyed it. As far as I can see it should apply to the written word too, novels, novelettes, and short stories. It seems to me that his "dramatic purpose" concept is roughly equal to the old adage that "The protagonist should learn something and change in some way because of the adventure or other events he's gone through."

For example, Alastair Maclean's thrillers are all cleverness, though often with wit, and quite a bit of mystery and suspense. Steinbeck's Sweet Thursday, though a comedy, features Doc learning that he's not meant to live a solitary life. In SF, Heinlein's short story "Ordeal in Space" has its hero change as he faces and overcomes a terrifying condition for a spaceman -- acrophobia.

Thoughts?
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 13, 2025 10:31 AM (omVj0)

Like Wolfus, I enjoyed Lex's essay as well, as it dives into the very heart of storytelling. He's describing the art of storytelling within the context of movies, a very specific art form, but many of his points will apply to stories in book form as well. Lex points out that many of the great movies of the 1950s are based on books. Movies have the inherent limitation of time that books do not. A good, clever movie has to tell its story in only a few hours, while a book (or series of books) can go on for many years or decades, depending on the strength of the author's writing. Regardless of the medium, "a good screenplay or story understands what its dramatic purpose is."

Wolfus points out that the essence of storytelling is change. Great stories all involve the protagonist (and sometimes the antagonist) undergoing a profound change as they grow and develop throughout the story. The Hero's Journey is perhaps the quintessential trope. In the series I've been reading (see below), the main characters go through some significant development. The main character has to learn to be a leader, a father, a husband, and a hero. One of his friends has to adapt to no longer being a cripple and what it means to be a nonhuman (he's transformed into a dwarf). Change *matters* in storytelling. Now, you can have decent stories with characters that go on adventures for many stories, but the audience does want to see something happen to the characters in a proper story arc. Sherlock Holmes, for instance, changes quite a bit over the course of many stories, as we see him through the eyes of Dr. Watson during different stages of Sherlock's life.

Now, what about CLEVER writing? Just because a story is clever doesn't mean it's also good. And Hollywood writers tend to fall into a trap of trying to write something clever without understanding if it's good or not. The writer for the Amazon Studios productions of Wheel of Time and Rings of Power are guilty of trying to be clever without knowing what's good. They think it's genius when their characters perform actions that are suicidally stupid, such as abandoning a well-fortified position to flee to an unprotected village to make a last stand (Rings of Power did this--to this day I'm baffled how anyone on the production team thought the writing was good or clever for that show).

Clever writing has to make sense within the context of the world and should demonstrate that the writer knows how to deliver the payoff. This is one of Brandon Sanderson's strengths as a writer. He lives by the writing philosophy of "promise, progress, payoff" and it shows in his writing. However, he's not above hubris himself. I was disappointed in Wind and Truth, the conclusion of the first part of The Stormlight Archive because I felt Sanderson was trying too hard to be clever and not trying hard enough to write a good story. As a result, it's a bit of mess and doesn't make a whole lot of sense for the story. Sanderson was much better when he wrote the final three novels of The Wheel of Time, as he collaborated with Robert Jordan before his death to ensure that he would tell a story that was both clever AND good--the fans were counting on him.

(NOTE: Any resemblance to Huggy Squirrel is purely coincidental.)


HT: Wingnutt

PUBLIC DOMAIN BOOKS

We live in an age of wonders. One of those wonders is the existence of books that exist in the "public domain," i.e., they are freely available for anyone to access, just requiring an internet connection and a device on which they can read the book. Although Project Gutenberg is perhaps the most well-known resource for public domain books, there are other websites out there, such as Standard Ebooks (ht: 13times). Like Project Gutenberg, they have a wide range of offerings in multiple formats.

I was a bit surprised to find some books on this list, since I would have assumed that they were still under copyright by the author or his/her estate. For instance, Harry Harrison's The Stainless Steel Rat (1961) is available for download, though I would not have thought was in the public domain just yet. According to both Project Gutenberg (which also has this work) and Standard Ebooks, copyright has lapsed or at least is no longer being enforced in the United States. Harry Harrison died in 2012 and the book was published less than 95 years ago, so I'm not sure how it has entered the public domain unless the author (or his estate) was OK with that.

On a tangential note, science fiction author John C. Wright discovered that his entire catalog of books is available for free at a pirate website. A commenter points out this is probably just a vector for installing malware, though it doesn't change the fact that someone is attempting to exploit John C. Wright's good name for their own profit.

MORON RECOMMENDATIONS

I've just finished Paying for the Party, with subtitle "How College Maintains Inequality," a 300-page sociological study published in 2013 by a pair of women who studied a group of women students.

Done at Indiana University and begun I think about 2003, the two were part of a team of sociologists, who moved into a dorm room, on a floor with 52 freshman girls, to study their behavior and progress over a five-year period.

The dorm was a recognized "party dorm," and the floor population consisted of those that chose it for what it was, and some who were clueless. The mix included some from wealth and privilege, and some from poor working class families.

It's kind of engaging in that the text includes plenty of interview quotes. The researchers spoke at length with all the 52, at regular intervals each year, to be able to conduct what they refer to as a longitudinal study.

It describes how the U gets bent into a shape that exists for the benefit of the wealthy socialites that inhabit the Greek system, in a flagship public research uni, the student population about 15 percent Greek. And it then concludes that the school does nothing to support those who need support.

Posted by: Mr Gaga at April 13, 2025 10:09 AM (KiBMU)

Comment: Colleges have come a long way in providing many, many support mechanisms for students to succeed, but most of them rely on the students knowing they exist and taking advantage of them. Where I work, we have A LOT of great resources to help students. I wish I'd known more about them when I was a student, as my life may have turned out very differently. It is pretty well recognized that the fraternity system does seem to be set up to give students in fraternities certain advantages, as they have access to MASSIVE troves of files compiled by students over the decades. The social aspect also means it's easy to find students with whom you can study. Students outside Greek life may not have as many opportunities to find study groups unless they know about the other campus resources. For my own class, I always encourage my students to find resources that can help them. They do require students to take some initiative and ownership over their own learning, however.

Last week, a request was made for books covering the French Revolution, specifically the period known as the Terror. Stanley Loomis wrote Paris in the Terror, which is a great introduction to the personalities involved in this bloody period in history. The Terror was a time when the leaders of the revolution used barely legitimized murder to control the population. Leftist revolutions always turn to mass murder.

Loomis begins his book with the death of Jean-Paul Marat. Charlotte Corday decided to kill him because the revolution executed the king. This is often noted as the beginning of the Terror.

The second event covered is the trial of Georges Danton. This trial indicated that the revolution was eating its own. The trial became a farce when Danton began revealing how the CPS chose victims and twisted the legal process to gain convictions.

The third section in the book is the end of Robespierre, when the Terror burned itself out. This story is how the leader was quickly turned into the enemy, how he failed his own suicide, and then was guillotined just like his many victims.

This book illuminates how the revolution became terrorist, and how it destroyed itself.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at April 13, 2025 09:17 AM (LuvNb)

Comment: I don't know all that much about the French Revolution, other than that it was bloody and destructive. Absolute power always seems to result in mass murder/executions as there will always be those souls who stand against "Progress." We live in interesting times right now, with the Left deciding that THEY are the only arbiters of what is good and right with the world. As has been pointed out many, many times, they would gladly kill you, me, and all of our loved ones to rule over a kingdom of ashes before yielding one inch of their ideology.

MORE MORON RECOMMENDATIONS CAN BE FOUND HERE: AoSHQ - Book Thread Recommendations

WHAT I'VE ACQUIRED THIS PAST WEEK:

1. Night's Dawn Trilogy Book 1 - The Reality Dysfunction by Peter F. Hamilton -- Doorstopper #1...


2. Night's Dawn Trilogy Book 2 - The Neutronium Alchemist by Peter F. Hamilton -- Doorstopper #2...


3. Night's Dawn Trilogy Book 3 - The Naked God by Peter F. Hamilton -- Doorstopper #3...This series is *massive,* as each book is over 1200 pages long. Should keep me occupied for a few weeks...

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.

Greatwinter Book 3 - Eyes of the Calculor by Sean McMullen

I managed to finish this book last Sunday. It sort of lost the plot about halfway through the book. I am not quite sure what happened. Lots of weird treachery that sprang out of nowhere at the end. It was an OK series, with some interesting world-building, though parts of it were quite a stretch for me to suspend my disbelief.

Easter: The Rest of the Story by Rick Renner

Moron stewburner recommended Rick Renner's Christmas: The Rest of the Story a few years ago. I thought it was excellent, going into details about Jesus and his family and what life was like back in those days. Now Renner has written the sequel (a proper sequel!) to his earlier book, Easter: The Rest of the Story. This documents the very last moments of Jesus' life, starting with His trials in the Garden of Gethsemane and concluding with His Resurrection from the tomb. Renner doesn't hold back on the details, describing in graphic detail the excruciating torture and agony the Romans put Jesus through. They *really* liked to inflict pain and humiliation, especially on one who challenged the authority of Rome. Of course, this was all according to God's Divine Plan and we know how it turned out in the end. Excellent book.

Shadow of the Leviathan 2 - A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett

This is a fantasy mystery with a Sherlock Holmes/Dr. Watson vibe to the main characters. The story is told from the perspective of an assistant to an investigator, who is trying to unravel a locked-room mystery of a man who disappeared as if by magic. Even in a fantasy series, the manner of his disappearance was unusual. Bennett's world-building is always unusual and strange. In this world, humans have conquered an empire, but in order to survive they have to "augment" their bodies to deal with the native flora and fauna which are all quite lethal. It's not quite clear if humans are native to this world or were transplanted sometime in the distant past. Giant leviathans rampage along the shorelines (a bit like Godzilla and other kaiju). The Empire fends them off and harvests the remains of the leviathans to maintain power and prestige.

Guardians of the Flame Book 1 - The Sleeping Dragon by Joel Rosenberg

One of my roommates in college recommended this to me many years ago. I decided to give it a try. It's about a group of college students who find out that the role-playing game they've been playing for the past few years is based on a real world. Their gamemaster--philosophy professor Arthur Deighton--is a sorcerer who sends them across so that they can open the Gate Between Worlds and bring Deighton into that world where he can rule as sorcerer supreme.

The characters quickly find out just how real that fantasy world is when one of them is killed not long after arrival. They have to band together and use the skills of their player-characters along with their own knowledge to survive. Along the way they free and befriend a dragon (NOT the titular "sleeping dragon").

As someone who played roleplaying games with a group in college for four years, I can identify with the situation, though the characters really don't seem to get along with each other that much. Lots of bickering and infighting, so I found it hard to believe they'd form a coherent gaming group for any length of time. They reminded me of Knights of the Dinner Table without the humor and charm. I've walked away from gaming tables before when I didn't like what was happening around the table.

Guardians of the Flame Book 2 - The Sword and the Chain by Joel Rosenberg

Karl and his friends have decided to remain in the fantasy world after restoring James Michael/Ahira Bandylegs to life. As payment for that service, they've agreed to rid the fantasy world of slavery. No small task in a world where slavery is as ubiquitous there as it is here. This book focuses mostly on their efforts to build a sanctuary for freed slaves in a remote location of the world, and then assisting one of the freed slaves in reuniting with her family. The wizards of Pandathaway have teamed up with the Slavers' Guild to hunt down and exterminate the budding abolitionist movement, starting with assassinating their leader, Karl Cullinane.

PREVIOUS SUNDAY MORNING BOOK THREAD - 4-13-2025 (NOTE: Do NOT comment on old threads!)

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

RIP Jewells...

Disclaimer: No Morons were physically harmed in the making of this Sunday Morning Book Thread. Blink twice if Peeps are holding you and your loved ones hostage. A rescue team is on its way!

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 Tolle Lege

Posted by: Skip at April 20, 2025 08:59 AM (ypFCm)

2 Gonna miss most of the thread today. Thanks, Perfessor.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at April 20, 2025 09:00 AM (0eaVi)

3 Not exactly a book, but something I try to post every Easter since I find it to be a moving Easter hymn of sorts, and every time I hear it, I wish I could have heard it live back in the day, so to speak

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DLSzginkic

Posted by: Commissar Hrothgar - THIS Year in Corsicana - again at April 20, 2025 09:02 AM (hOUT3)

4 This is the day that the Lord has made - let us rejoice and be glad!

Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at April 20, 2025 09:03 AM (OTdqV)

5 Reading a book with a great opening line. " In the beginning"

Posted by: Ben Had at April 20, 2025 09:03 AM (yp8Vj)

6 Finishing reading Russian Nobility in age of Alexander I
This was a book I wanted to read for decades. But just came out a few years ago. It filled in lots of hints given in all my reading of Russia in this period. Of course it ended with the Dec142035 revolt what failed and as the book expends lots of time on was doomed from lack of unified conviction or support.

Posted by: Skip at April 20, 2025 09:04 AM (ypFCm)

7 Happy Easter! He is risen! Glory to God in the highest!

Posted by: Dr. T at April 20, 2025 09:04 AM (jGGMD)

8 Morning, Book Folken! 'Tis pleased I am to be quoted this week.

I just finished one of John Dickson Carr's best impossible murder novels, He Who Whispers from 1946. I wondered if I'd read it before, but I hadn't, and was pleasantly astonished by the solution and payoff.

Currently I'm starting Max Allan Collins's Hard Case Crime entry, The Big Bundle, from about three years ago. His long-running private eye Nathan Heller is involved in a kidnaping case in 1953, and I'm sure, as usual, he will meet and interact with a number of historical people.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 20, 2025 09:04 AM (omVj0)

9 Reading a book with a great opening line. " In the beginning"
Posted by: Ben Had at April 20, 2025 09:03 AM (yp8Vj)
---
Always a classic!

Happy Easter, Ben Had!

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at April 20, 2025 09:05 AM (cweKM)

10 Miss Linda is here, and we are going out to the breakfast buffet at Shoney's, so I may not be back before the thread is done. Play nice, all of you!

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 20, 2025 09:07 AM (omVj0)

11 Good morning Hordelings, and happy Easter.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at April 20, 2025 09:07 AM (kpS4V)

12 Thats an intriguing note other stones would have been moved ans there would be more commotion

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at April 20, 2025 09:07 AM (bXbFr)

13 One of the clues on Jeopardy the other night was "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society" and I was like WUT, so I checked it out of the library. It's a charming novel that takes place right after the war, told in the form of letters between a London writer and the inhabitants of the Channel Island of Guernsey as they recount the years of German occupation.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at April 20, 2025 09:08 AM (kpS4V)

14 Perfessor, Happy Easter to you and thank you for the book thread.

Posted by: Ben Had at April 20, 2025 09:08 AM (yp8Vj)

15 Matthew's story: Yeah. Are there any Jewish sources that report the veil ripping apart? But, would they report it? You'd think that many people coming out of graves would be reported elsewhere. Maybe they were just regular people that no one but believers knew, so the story wasn't told far and wide. It seems the Jewish authorities would have been told about these things, but didn't they tell the guards to keep their mouths shut about what happened at the tomb? If you believe the scriptures, then you believe what Matthew wrote.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at April 20, 2025 09:09 AM (0eaVi)

16 One of the natives loved Charles Lamb's essays, specifically "A Dissertation Upon Roast Pig" (it figured in the establishment of their book club), so I pulled a nifty old illustrated edition.

I love his term for meddlesome shit-stirrers: sapient troubletombs.

Lamb has little truck with those dry-as-dust tomes "no gentleman's library should be without"...I can read almost anything. I bless my stars for a taste so catholic, so unexcluding.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at April 20, 2025 09:09 AM (kpS4V)

17 Blessed easter

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at April 20, 2025 09:09 AM (bXbFr)

18 Happy Easter. A rough week for the horde. Prayers out.

Posted by: InspiredHistoryMike at April 20, 2025 09:10 AM (L1omb)

19 One would think josephus but he wouldnt be of the sort to note these things

You know there are some who want to conflate josephus and paul despite their much different status

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at April 20, 2025 09:10 AM (bXbFr)

20 Finished "System Collapse," the 7th book in Martha Wells' outstanding "Murderbot" series. Enjoyed it quite a bit.

Spent most of the last week studying Romans and 1st Corinthians in my new Ignatius Catholic Study Bible, which is an enormous, weighty brick of a Bible, that does a wonderful job connecting OT and NT, and diving deep into the meanings that may be obscure or forgotten over the last 2000 years. Dr. Scott Hahn shepherded it's creation over a period of about 27 years. The wait was worth it. Highly recommended.

Thinking about picking up "Consider Phlebas," by Iain Banks, the first book in his "Culture" series. I've heard it's pretty good.

Happy Easter, most blessed horde.

Posted by: Sharkman at April 20, 2025 09:12 AM (/RHNq)

21 Happy Easter, Horde! He is Risen!

Since I was forced to slow down this past week, I decided to dig into the TBR pile. I started on "Room 39: A Study in Naval Intelligence" by Donald McLachlan. Published in 1968, it's the story of the naval war, mostly in the North Atlantic thus far, from the perspective of the British naval intelligence services. I'm sure there are more modern books on the subject, but I'm really enjoying this. Not only is it well-written, but the book itself is printed on paper that is impossibly thick by modern standards. It also has that "old book" scent that smells like some long-undisturbed section of an archive just waiting to be rediscovered.

Posted by: PabloD at April 20, 2025 09:12 AM (57fkQ)

22 I read Orphan X by Gregg Hurwitz. It's the first in a series. Evan Smoak was pulled by the government from foster home when he was a boy. He and others were trained to be perfect assassins. Years later he breaks with the program and becomes the Nowhere Man who saves people who are in danger from criminals. He discovers that the government is shutting down the program by having the orphans hunt each other. That's when the bodies really start to stack up. A better than average thriller.

Posted by: Zoltan at April 20, 2025 09:12 AM (SQp7G)

23 I pre-read Lex's post before he sent it to you, Perfessor. It made me wonder if any of my writing is either clever or good!

How do you know? Besides having other people read it, that is. Can it be both clever and good if it doesn't sell?

Posted by: OrangeEnt at April 20, 2025 09:12 AM (0eaVi)

24 Good morning fellow Book Threadists. I hope everyone had a great week of reading. Mine was delightful and inspiring.

Posted by: JTB at April 20, 2025 09:12 AM (yTvNw)

25 I thought it would be interesting to read up on the Beatniks. I acrually think they are more to blame for our culture than hippies. I got a collection on writings, a book by Ed Sanders and Dharma Bums. So far, I find it unreadable. I am going to hang onto Dharma Bums, as I haven't tried that. Not sure if I will donate books or trash them.

Posted by: Notsothoreau at April 20, 2025 09:14 AM (cvWHI)

26 Good Sunday morning, horde. Blessed Easter!

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at April 20, 2025 09:15 AM (h7ZuX)

27 I didnt know that about stainless steel rat ive long thought a younger chris pratt could have played him

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at April 20, 2025 09:15 AM (bXbFr)

28 He's Perfessor Squirrel by day, but when the sun goes down, he's Pimp Master Squirrel in the evening.

Posted by: Rev Wishbone at April 20, 2025 09:16 AM (fY84s)

29 One would think josephus but he wouldnt be of the sort to note these things

You know there are some who want to conflate josephus and paul despite their much different status
Posted by: Miguel cervantes at April 20, 2025 09:10 AM (bXbFr)

Maybe only the chief priest saw it, or no one did, but found it ripped later. It doesn't say anyone was there when it happened. Again, they'd probably keep it silent.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at April 20, 2025 09:16 AM (0eaVi)

30 Who were these "holy people" who were raised from the dead when Jesus died?

--

The just who died before Jesus (Moses, Abraham, Adam & Eve, Abel, and all the faithful) were raised from death to Eternal Life by Jesus when he descended into underworld.

Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at April 20, 2025 09:16 AM (Wx316)

31 "The Last Man on the Moon" isn't there yet, but Gene Cernan has made it into space aboard Gemini 9. His assignments will include a spacewalk.

I have to leave the thread early because I volunteered to hide eggs for the church egg hunt. We have kids in the congregation again, and it's pleasant.

Signal to Castle Guy: Marvel has canceled MOKF Epic Collection III. Too many Sax Rohmer characters, and Marvel let the license lapse. Idiots. If we want to read those stories, we'll have to do it the old-fashioned way: Buy back issues.

Happy Easter, fellow believers!

Posted by: Weak Geek at April 20, 2025 09:16 AM (p/isN)

32 I went to the library the other day with my little list for inter-library loans. Imagine my horror when the clerk told me that the library consortium had lost its federal grant in the DOGE depredations of 2025 and, instead of free, I would have to pay $5 per book through ILL. I was aghast. The library consortium was actually using its grant for something good instead of tranny story hour for children, and now it's gone.

I'm hoping the state will step in and fund the program, as they should. I can buy books for $5. I don't want to buy more books. I have rooms full of books and they are hard to get rid of. That's why I use the library.

Posted by: huerfano at April 20, 2025 09:17 AM (n2swS)

33 Morning, Perfessor.

Howdy, Horde.

Finished a quick read of Michael Dirda's book on Doyle, and liked it a lot. Liked it enough to see what else was out there by Dirda (as well as Doyle), and therefore have added more titles to the Amazing-Colossal-To-Be-Read-Pile. So much for any thoughts I may have had about starting to catch up...

Posted by: Just Some Guy at April 20, 2025 09:17 AM (q3u5l)

34 Reposting this from the Post thread below. I know it's not book related, but I thought some of you might like to know:

33 Wife update.

She is under the comfort protocol at the ICU. This is basically oxygen, morphine, valium, but not any food. This is the hospital's ethical path to death.

All the efforts of medicine to fix her failed. She got weaker and weaker, more and more uncomfortable, until she asked for these treatments to end.

I held her hand for hours after the morphine and valium took effect. She was unresponsive after an hour. Not her best look. She has inner toughness, so she is still alive, for varying definitions of alive.

Her last complaints were about how bright the lights were. The room was as dark as I could make it. Easter is giving us an answer.
Posted by: NaCly Dog at April 20, 2025 05:14 AM (u82oZ)

Posted by: Teresa in Fort Worth, Plucky Comic Relief, AoS Ladies Brigade - Eat the Cheesecake, Buy the Yarn. at April 20, 2025 09:17 AM (fjbk7)

35 I didnt know that about stainless steel rat ive long thought a younger chris pratt could have played him
Posted by: Miguel cervantes at April 20, 2025 09:15 AM (bXbFr)
---
I suspect the current Chris Pratt could do him justice. Slippery Jim DiGriz is middle age for most of the series (he's 35 in the first book), having two adult children who join him in his escapades....

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at April 20, 2025 09:17 AM (cweKM)

36 Happy Easter! My family gathering cancelled last minute due to the host's fall and subsequent broken ribs, so I'm stuck with you lot. This week I started and finished Dogbert's Top Secret Management Handbook so I'm ready for that promotion at work. And by the end of the day I will have finished Wisconsin My Home by Erna Oleson Xan about growing up in a Norwegian settlement in Winchester, WI. just before the turn of the last century.

Posted by: who knew at April 20, 2025 09:18 AM (+ViXu)

37 Ah see that makes more sense

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at April 20, 2025 09:18 AM (bXbFr)

38 Good morning morons and thanks perfessor

What is it with squirrels and purple felt fedoras??

Posted by: San Franpsycho at April 20, 2025 09:19 AM (RIvkX)

39 T'was grace that brought us safe thus far
And grace will lead us home

Happy Easter, friends.

Posted by: Piper at April 20, 2025 09:19 AM (pZEOD)

40 They have great sartorial sense

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at April 20, 2025 09:19 AM (bXbFr)

41 5 Reading a book with a great opening line. " In the beginning"
Posted by: Ben Had at April 20, 2025 09:03 AM

The ending is pretty wild.

Posted by: Quarter Twenty at April 20, 2025 09:20 AM (dg+HA)

42 The cartoon of the squirrel hoarding books is so appropriate to me and, I suspect, many on the thread. Mrs. JTB will understand it immediately except she'll see me instead of the squirrel. (I hope she smiles.)

Posted by: JTB at April 20, 2025 09:21 AM (yTvNw)

43 It's early in the thread and I won't be here for the last two hours, but Just Some Guy posted an interesting link on A Literary Horde last week. He may come by and post it here later.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at April 20, 2025 09:21 AM (0eaVi)

44 Keep in mind that the Gospels are "according to" the purported author.

I, too, am intrigued by this story, because it's saying that Jesus' death was followed by an earthquake. You'd think that would have been recorded in the other books.

Posted by: Weak Geek at April 20, 2025 09:22 AM (p/isN)

45 On the Kindle, I read Avogadro Corp: The Singularity is Closer Than It Appears by William Hertling. This is the first book in the Singularity series. ELOPe is the email language optimization program of the Avogadro Corp. When the program is in danger of being canceled, its designer, David Ryan, embeds a hidden directive which inadvertently creates a runaway AI.

Published in 2014, the book highlights and addresses current concerns with AI development. It also reads as a very good thriller.

Posted by: Zoltan at April 20, 2025 09:23 AM (SQp7G)

46 There was that brazilian series apocalipsis that really captured Revelation with greater verve than the left behind offering

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at April 20, 2025 09:23 AM (bXbFr)

47 Many years ago, I managed to get stuck on a 4WD trail way way out in the sticks. I met the tow truck driver at the road and we proceeded the 8 or 10 miles back in. At one point cruising along I noticed a baby bunny, cuter than anything, in the track. His eyes got bigger as we got closer. I didn’t say anything.

After a few minutes, the driver said “he should have got outta the way” or something like that. I hadn’t thought he noticed. I kind of felt bad. Who runs over a bunny?

Here’s where it gets weird. About 10 years later, Easter morning. For some reason I was thinking in my mind at that poor bunny rabbit. We’d had a freak snowstorm that night, with a good foot of fluffy white stuff. I opened the curtains in the family room, and right smack dab in the new fallen snow was a single bunny rabbit track - outlined in a perfect shape of a heart. I couldn’t believe it. It was pretty strange. I like to think the bunny got out of the way in time, lol

Posted by: True Story at April 20, 2025 09:24 AM (KP4aP)

48 Did they go on to lead normal lives and die again? Or did they disappear when Jesus ascended to heaven?
---
This is the answer. They appeared to "many people," and then, like Jesus, passed on to heaven.

it wouldn't make the conventional histories because anyone who told the stories was a Christian, and therefore a traitor/lunatic.

Oh, and Happy Easter!

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at April 20, 2025 09:25 AM (ZOv7s)

49
Her last complaints were about how bright the lights were. The room was as dark as I could make it. Easter is giving us an answer.
Posted by: NaCly Dog at April 20, 2025 05:14 AM (u82oZ)
Posted by: Teresa in Fort Worth, Plucky Comic Relief, AoS Ladies Brigade - Eat the Cheesecake, Buy the Yarn. at April 20, 2025 09:17 AM (fjbk7)

Prayers to them and to all of you on this Easter Sunday... Sorry not book related

Posted by: It's me donna at April 20, 2025 09:25 AM (VE6XX)

50 I am going to hang onto Dharma Bums, as I haven't tried that. Not sure if I will donate books or trash them.
Posted by: Notsothoreau at April 20, 2025 09:14 AM (cvWHI)

I have a copy of that. Back in my college years, I loved On The Road, though I would probably not be as impressed with it now. I have started Dharma Bums a couple of times, and couldn't get interested.

I don't think you can deny the influence that the beatniks had on both hippie and leftist culture. Ginsberg was a known pederast, and the left treats him as a god, and here we are in tranny world today.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at April 20, 2025 09:26 AM (h7ZuX)

51 Prayers to them and to all of you on this Easter Sunday... Sorry not book related
Posted by: It's me donna at April 20, 2025 09:25 AM (VE6XX)
---
Prayers are never off topic on the Sunday Morning Book Thread, especially today of all days.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at April 20, 2025 09:26 AM (cweKM)

52 I, too, am intrigued by this story, because it's saying that Jesus' death was followed by an earthquake. You'd think that would have been recorded in the other books.
Posted by: Weak Geek at April 20, 2025 09:22 AM (p/isN)
---
One of the strongest arguments in favor of the Gospels' accuracy is the points of difference. If the narratives lined up purposefully, that would be proof they were coordinated and/or subsequently edited.

People notice different things and emphasize different things. One of the most obvious ways to see this in real time as at an alumni meetup, where the same story is shared but everyone remembers it a little differently and add details that others overlooked.

This is even more relevant as I get older and you can see the divergences more clearly.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at April 20, 2025 09:28 AM (ZOv7s)

53 I was struck hoe denille had referenced josephus and philo in the opening to the ten commandments

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at April 20, 2025 09:29 AM (bXbFr)

54 The Chosen.

Posted by: Come and see at April 20, 2025 09:29 AM (dg+HA)

55 I also read the second book in the Orphan X series, The Nowhere Man, by Gregg Hurwitz. Evan Smoak, the Nowhere Man, is captured and taken to a remote location. His escape attempts and final success make for a good thriller.

Posted by: Zoltan at April 20, 2025 09:30 AM (SQp7G)

56 How Demille i hadnt noticed this at first

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at April 20, 2025 09:30 AM (bXbFr)

57 Huerfano, I'm surprised the library got DOGE'd on its interlibrary service for actual customers and not the myriad bullshit "community outreach" services today's libraries provide.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at April 20, 2025 09:30 AM (kpS4V)

58 I read On The Road and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance when I was doing a lot of drugs.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at April 20, 2025 09:31 AM (RIvkX)

59 I thought I'd try Dharma Bums as someone said the people he meets are more interesting than the ones in One The Road. At least it's a short book.

Posted by: Notsothoreau at April 20, 2025 09:32 AM (cvWHI)

60 Happy Easter, Horde. He is risen!

And my puny prayers (such as they are) for jewells and for NaClyDog and his Mrs.

Posted by: Eeyore at April 20, 2025 09:33 AM (1bNHn)

61 Her last complaints were about how bright the lights were. The room was as dark as I could make it. Easter is giving us an answer.
Posted by: NaCly Dog at April 20, 2025 05:14 AM (u82oZ)
Posted by: Teresa in Fort Worth, Plucky Comic Relief, AoS Ladies Brigade - Eat the Cheesecake, Buy the Yarn. at April 20, 2025 09:17 AM (fjbk7)

This is heartbreaking. Thank you for updating, Teresa. Prayers continue for NaCly and Mrs. NaCly.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at April 20, 2025 09:34 AM (h7ZuX)

62 The Night's Dawn.Trilogy by Peter F. Hamilton is really something. He's on par with Alastair Reynolds in my mind.

Posted by: Sharkman at April 20, 2025 09:34 AM (/RHNq)

63 I also read the second book in the Orphan X series, The Nowhere Man, by Gregg Hurwitz. Evan Smoak, the Nowhere Man, is captured and taken to a remote location. His escape attempts and final success make for a good thriller.
Posted by: Zoltan

Keep reading. That series is one of my favorites.

Posted by: Tuna at April 20, 2025 09:35 AM (lJ0H4)

64 I'm also not long for this thread, but I'd like to bring up a topic for future discussion.

The Murray/Smith debate on Rogan has provoked quite a bit of controversy, and while I don't want to revisit, that, I think a big part of the emotion surrounding it is about credentialism and the rule of "experts."

This is particularly important in books because so much of the high ground is occupied by career academics. Put simply, what qualifies someone to discuss a given topic, whether history or geopolitics? In some areas, the difficulty of the subject itself provides its own gatekeeping (like math).

But there are areas where the 'laity' can and should have a voice, particularly when academia is increasingly biased, nakedly political and riddled with bogus doctorates through plagiarism.

It is also worth noting that this is a very recent thing. For a long time, all one needed to debate was access to a printing press. J.R.R. Tolkien famously never earned a doctorate, yet he is a towering intellectual figure. Many historians were undergrads at best, yet their works are still consulted today.
But

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at April 20, 2025 09:36 AM (ZOv7s)

65 Received my copy of Heinlein's Pursuit of the Pankera yesterday. It's a parallel book to his Number of the Beast and shares the same first several chapters before taking another track. Although I haven't read Number in years, when I opened the book I found I remembered the first chapter perfectly. Haven't got any further yet. One thing I had forgotten was how WORDY it is. Talk, talk, talk with a few moments of action. This is not a bad thing but it takes a certain mind set for me to enjoy it. I'm curious to see how it diverges from the first story.

Posted by: JTB at April 20, 2025 09:37 AM (yTvNw)

66 At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split 52 and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. 53 They came out of the tombs after Jesus resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people.
_______

The first contemporary place I go to for questions like this is Jimmy Akin. I'm sure he has a discussion of this.

Posted by: Eeyore at April 20, 2025 09:37 AM (1bNHn)

67 OrangeEnt at 43 --

Yep, Just Some Guy just might come by and post the link. And here it is:
https://tinyurl.com/3pazy5cw

The link goes to the Kindle store page for Roger Zelazny's ON WRITING SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY, a collection of his articles on writing and sf. If you've already popped for the NESFA Press six-volume set of Zelazny's collected short fiction, you've got nearly all this material, but it's nice to have it gathered in one place. Right now there are two listings in the Kindle store for this book, one at 7.99 and one at 8.99 -- I see no differences in the table of contents, and the publisher hasn't yet answered my email on that; link goes to the 7.99 copy.

Just fyi for those interested.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at April 20, 2025 09:37 AM (q3u5l)

68 I was struck hoe denille had referenced josephus and philo in the opening to the ten commandments
Posted by: Miguel cervantes at April 20, 2025 09:29 AM (bXbFr)
---
Clearly not a fan of Sola Scriptura.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at April 20, 2025 09:37 AM (ZOv7s)

69 The holy people were the souls freed from "Abraham's bosom." They went into town and preached. In "Ben-Hur," Simeon and Anna are featured among them. Then they departed for Heaven.

Posted by: no one of any consequence at April 20, 2025 09:37 AM (ZmEVT)

70 I am slowly whittling away the stack of to-be-read books on the bedside table. I finished Chamberlain's Clementine in the Kitchen (which was a recommend from this book thread), but started on a new book, bought because of a comment on another book discussion: Jack Couffer's memoir "Bat Bomb" - which reads more like a comic romp than a memoir. But it is a bit of real WWII history - a wholly insane-sounding plan to drop bombs on Japan's cities - bombs containing live bats fitted with tiny incendiary bomblets. The plan was that the bats would fly off, nest in various roofs and crannies, the incendiary bombs would go off and Japan's wood and paper buildings would burn ... It was a top-secret plan, and the author was one of the youngest persons involved. The writing is very good, lively and funny. A heck of a movie could be made of their efforts, that is, if anyone in Hollywierd had any sense at all.

Posted by: Sgt. Mom at April 20, 2025 09:38 AM (Ew3fm)

71 I've just finished Paying for the Party, with subtitle "How College Maintains Inequality," a 300-page sociological study published in 2013 by a pair of women who studied a group of women students.
______
I'd be highly skeptical of this. It sounds like something narrative driven, in a major way.

Of course, I'm getting more and more inclined to see that. I now understand just how much of the British history I "learned" was government narrative, from the Saxon-worship onwards. The best mouthwash I know is Chesterton; at least he wears his biases on his sleeve.

Posted by: Eeyore at April 20, 2025 09:40 AM (1bNHn)

72 Still poking my way through Barnaby Conrad's "Absinthe: History in a Bottle". Conrad has a wonderful turn of phrase. Of the young Arthur Rimbaud: "Rimbaud believed that the poet had to deprive and degrade himself, to become morbid compost from which art would spring like enchanted mushrooms". "...drinking was not a pleasure but a necessary form of flagellation to make the nerves sing like harp wires".

Hunger
I only find within my bones
A taste for eating earth and stones.
When I feed, I feed on air,
Rocks and coals and iron ore.
My hunger, turn. Hunger, feed,
A field of bran.
Gather as you can the bright
Poison weed.
Eat the rocks a beggar breaks,
The stones of ancient churches' walls;
Pebbles, children of the flood,
Loaves left lying in the mud

The drug-soaked twink Rambaud later quit that scene, joined the army, deserted in Java, and became a gun-runner, slaver, and colonial explorer. Who says there are no second acts?

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at April 20, 2025 09:41 AM (kpS4V)

73 Look up the poem "A Carcass" by Charles Baudelaire. Don't do drugs, kids!

"The poet's appetite for absinthe, hashish, and laudanum drove him to the edge of insanity, but he probably died of syphilis."

Isn't this, really, the story of Gauloises-puffing boulevardier CBD?

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at April 20, 2025 09:42 AM (kpS4V)

74 Is anyone up for some quantum physics and exploring the multiverse?  A man is found wandering and babbling incoherently in the New Mexico desert, miles from any civilization or transportation, holding an arcane map and a ceramic talisman.  He is taken to the nearest hospital, where an MRI reveals that his blood vessels don't line up, just before he dies.

In Timeline, Michael Crichton presents a tale where tech firm ITC has developed technology that enables transport from one universe to an alternate one.  For all practical purposes, it mimics time travel, and when Professor Johnston, leader of an archeological group funded by ITC disappears, some of his staff are recruited to try and rescue him.

Their destination is medieval France, to the very site they had been excavating in the present, where their knowledge and love of history should enable them to stealthily find the professor and escape, but the world they enter is quite different than what our history books teach.

The discussion of the technology is fascinating, as well as the interactions in fourteenth century France which, due to recent historical research is indeed a very different place than commonly believed.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at April 20, 2025 09:42 AM (o321t)

75 Well certainly there were tudor propagandists like merton that josephine tey unraveled furtherback probably holinshed had their own twists

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at April 20, 2025 09:43 AM (bXbFr)

76 Thx "Professor" . I like Peter Hamilton's space opera science fiction but he is one wordy writer. You better be ready for the long haul

Posted by: Smell the Glove at April 20, 2025 09:43 AM (6TePA)

77 Finished Guite's "Word Within the Word" as a devotional during Lent and Easter. It has been eye opening and a delight as the reader accompanies Christ on his journey to resurrection (with views of many side paths opened by the poetry). At the end, I was left with the feeling of arriving home after a long, enriching voyage, seeing the world a bit differently and more clearly. This will become an annual event for my reading.

Posted by: JTB at April 20, 2025 09:43 AM (yTvNw)

78 Or Matthew was inserting a dramatic event for his own narrative purposes, which somewhat undercuts Matthew's credibility. Thoughts?

Perfessor, we see differing accounts of events from eyewitnesses who were present. This is not unusual even today. I doubt Matthew was able to wrap his mind around the events of that day, I imagine most people were the same, on seeing the most fantastic happening ever. And Jesus ain’t finished.

Posted by: Eromero at April 20, 2025 09:44 AM (LHPAg)

79 The Murray/Smith debate on Rogan has provoked quite a bit of controversy, and while I don't want to revisit, that, I think a big part of the emotion surrounding it is about credentialism and the rule of "experts."
====
The controversy was provoked as a deflection by Dave Smith simply because Douglas Murray was unsurprisingly shocked that someone who has chosen to be so assured and outspoken on the topic would not consider a visit to the area would be an expected course of due diligence.


Dave Smith talks a lot but is uninformed and therefore enjoys outsized influence.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at April 20, 2025 09:44 AM (RIvkX)

80 64
...
It is also worth noting that this is a very recent thing. For a long time, all one needed to debate was access to a printing press. J.R.R. Tolkien famously never earned a doctorate, yet he is a towering intellectual figure. Many historians were undergrads at best, yet their works are still consulted today.
But
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at April 20, 2025 09:36 AM (ZOv7s)
________
When I was at UVa, one of the full professors (Peter L Heath) had only a BA from Oxford. Nothing else. He was the most knowledgeable man I ever met; one of the other professors described him as "omniscient." If you can get your hands on the old Encyclopedia of Philosophy, read the article on "Nothing" which Mr Heath wrote.

Posted by: Eeyore at April 20, 2025 09:44 AM (1bNHn)

81 79 The Murray/Smith debate on Rogan has provoked quite a bit of controversy, and while I don't want to revisit, that, I think a big part of the emotion surrounding it is about credentialism and the rule of "experts."
====
The controversy was provoked as a deflection by Dave Smith simply because Douglas Murray was unsurprisingly shocked that someone who has chosen to be so assured and outspoken on the topic would not consider a visit to the area would be an expected course of due diligence.


Dave Smith talks a lot but is uninformed and therefore enjoys outsized influence.
Posted by: San Franpsycho at April 20, 2025 09:44 AM (RIvkX)
______
That may be, but I don't see the point of Murray's argument there. Many people have written well on places they never went to. So what?

Posted by: Eeyore at April 20, 2025 09:46 AM (1bNHn)

82 Demille want to ground his account as historically as possible

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at April 20, 2025 09:47 AM (bXbFr)

83 >> Matthew 27:51-5

Historical fact. Quickly, consistent with Peter 3, Ephesians 4, et al. That is, the tombs of the Holy People were broken open. They provided additional earthly witness and testimony to the resurrection of our Lord and truth of his place as the son of God. Remember the sequencing is important. They did not appear until after the resurrection. Just as the souls were lifted up from Sheol, so were they. Jesus is the only one who overcame death.

Have a blessed and holy Easter. May the Lord be with you all.

Posted by: Marcus T at April 20, 2025 09:48 AM (7Lr83)

84 Thx "Professor" . I like Peter Hamilton's space opera science fiction but he is one wordy writer. You better be ready for the long haul
Posted by: Smell the Glove at April 20, 2025 09:43 AM (6TePA)
---
Heh. Wordiness doesn't stop me. If I can plow through Wheel of Time, Stormlight Archive, and Malazan Books of the Fallen, the Night's Dawn Trilogy will barely slow me down....

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at April 20, 2025 09:48 AM (cweKM)

85 Prayers for you and your wife, NaCly. I'm very sorry.

Posted by: Sharkman at April 20, 2025 09:49 AM (/RHNq)

86 The controversy was provoked as a deflection by Dave Smith simply because Douglas Murray was unsurprisingly shocked that someone who has chosen to be so assured and outspoken on the topic would not consider a visit to the area would be an expected course of due diligence.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at April 20, 2025 09:44 AM (RIvkX)
---
Right, because in-person visits can't be stage-managed for propaganda purposes. I seem to recall CNN giving Saddam glowing coverage and it was all fake.

I don't have a dog in this particular fight other than the notion that I'm not less likely to trust a credentialed "expert" than some dope off the street, because almost all the experts are fluent liars. I will judge the dope on his own merits.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at April 20, 2025 09:49 AM (ZOv7s)

87 I'm pretty sure Matthew didn't insert fiction to make his Gospel more exciting. From what John said, they only described 1% of all the wonders that surrounded Jesus. Matthew described what he considered important, each of the Gospel writers had their own point of view, some stories overlapped and some did not.

Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards, Buy ammo at April 20, 2025 09:49 AM (xcxpd)

88 I love "Timeline."

Great love story too.

Lady Claire.

Posted by: no one of any consequence at April 20, 2025 09:50 AM (ZmEVT)

89 This week, I read The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit, by Michael Finkel.

In 1986, Maine man Christopher Knight went on a road trip and never came home. 27 years later, he was apprehended as he was stealing provisions from a summer camp. Finkel, intrigued, began an uneasy correspondence with Knight, and this book fleshes out Knight's life as a hermit, and his motivations (who knows? Not even Knight).

Who among us hasn't wanted to just leave it all behind at times? Knight did so, but depended on theft to keep himself alive. Interesting to think about why he persisted, even when he was near starvation or freezing to death in the Maine winters.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at April 20, 2025 09:51 AM (h7ZuX)

90 I think it's a good thing to seek clarification and explanation in our reading of Scripture. Having said that, I've noticed that whenever we kinda wonder if some event or another is accurately portrayed, some evidence turns up later that shows it was.

So I can believe there was a mass resurrection if Matthew says there was, and I can wonder about the logistics. Someday my questions will be answered.

Posted by: Emmie celebrates the Audacity of Trump! at April 20, 2025 09:51 AM (Sf2cq)

91 I'm pretty sure Matthew didn't insert fiction to make his Gospel more exciting. From what John said, they only described 1% of all the wonders that surrounded Jesus. Matthew described what he considered important, each of the Gospel writers had their own point of view, some stories overlapped and some did not.
Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards, Buy ammo at April 20, 2025 09:49 AM (xcxpd)
---
That is a good point. I remember reading that in the Gospels.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at April 20, 2025 09:51 AM (cweKM)

92 "Great stories all involve the protagonist (and sometimes the antagonist) undergoing a profound change as they grow and develop throughout the story."

This is ONE kind of story, but not all great stories have heroes that change. Many great stories do not feature a protagonist that changes and develop. Some feature an iconic hero who encounters strangers, obstacles, wonders and overcomes them. Heracles, Mike Hammer, Conan, Miss Marple even.

Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards, Buy ammo at April 20, 2025 09:52 AM (xcxpd)

93 That may be, but I don't see the point of Murray's argument there. Many people have written well on places they never went to. So what?
Posted by: Eeyore at April 20, 2025 09:46 AM (1bNHn)
====
It was never a part of Murray's argument. Dave Smith claimed it was. Murray was just surprised is all. He was surprised that for such a loudmouth Dave Smith had never actually bothered to go see it for himself. Murray never said Dave Smith did not have a right to an opinion as inexpert, just that his opinion is less-informed.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at April 20, 2025 09:53 AM (RIvkX)

94 "Jesus The Christ" by James E. Tamage is the seminal book on the life and teachings of Christ, outside the Bible.
He entered an upper room of the Salt Lake temple for inspiration until it was written.

Posted by: Elrond Hubbard at April 20, 2025 09:53 AM (VJc7E)

95 I seem to remember the cover art of those Joel Rosenberg books, but I don't think I ever read them. I spent a lot of time in the sci-fi/fantasy aisle of the library, but I always ended up reading something else.

Posted by: Pug Mahon at April 20, 2025 09:54 AM (0aYVJ)

96 Morning Horde.
Easter, hallelujah.
Just stopping by for short time. Salty prayers to Mrs. Salty and yourself.
Asking prayers for a good friend who fell yesterday, he was part of a group carrying a cross in commemoration of Jesus' struggles. Hit has head pretty hard and has a small brain bleed. If you follow the prayer thread you will know how devastating this can become based on my Cousin Charlie. Harry is still in hospital and could use the prayers of the Horde.

Posted by: neverenoughcaffeine at April 20, 2025 09:55 AM (2NHgQ)

97 This past week I finished reading "Way of the Rat," a kung-fu comic book from 20 years ago. A thief gets into trouble in a not-quite-Chinese boarder-city on the not-quite-silk-road. I went for 4 story-arcs before its publisher went bankrupt. The first arc was the best, as its primary conflict was man-vs-man while the later arcs were man-vs-magic/monster. Kung-fu only looks cool when its man-vs-man, and this artist really knew how to draw/choreograph kung fu. A few sequences were right up there with scenes from Bruce Lee movies. On the other hand, man-vs-monster fights would look the same in kung-fu comic as in a super-hero comic or a Conan comic...

One of the best parts of the series was the letter page, in which fan-mail was answered by a character from the comic; an arrogant, ill-tempered character who would end up insulting the letter-writer 75% of the time. And in the final issue, the letter-answerer went off on a rant, blaming the fans for not supporting the book...before being interrupted by the actual author thanking them for their support.

A fun read, but bittersweet, because of the abrupt end. Ah, well, today of all days is a day to find hope after endings.

Posted by: Castle Guy at April 20, 2025 09:56 AM (Lhaco)

98 Posted by: Thomas Paine at April 20, 2025 09:42 AM

I enjoyed Timeline. Good recommendation

Posted by: RedMindBlueState at April 20, 2025 09:56 AM (QESVl)

99 And I was a big fan of Joel Rosenberger's Guardians of the Flame. I was a Pen and Paper RPG gamer in college too, and we had an eclectic mix of people, but we were far more 80's kids than these more 70's characters.

It's also a pretty good fantasy story where the violence is pretty well grounded and realistic. I appreciate that.

Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards, Buy ammo at April 20, 2025 09:59 AM (xcxpd)

100 The fascinating mystery of the Shroud of Turin, believed to be Jesus' burial shroud.

https://tinyurl.com/mwhj79c2

(Yes, he addresses the radiocarbon dating issue: more went on with that than we were told at the time.)

Posted by: Beverly at April 20, 2025 10:00 AM (Epeb0)

101 Copyright in the US is weird. There are several regimes that apply, depending on various factors. These are up for grabs:

Anything for which the author has been dead for 70 years or more.
Anything published more than 95 years ago (by calendar year -- currently, that's anything published before January 1, 1930).
Anything published before 1964 for which the copyright was not renewed (likely the case with the Stainless Steel Rat book).


O/T: in a rare outburst of good sense for the Brits, the UK's Supreme Court has ruled that trannies are NOT women.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at April 20, 2025 10:00 AM (W5ArC)

102 I don't obsess about current events anymore although I stay informed, mostly through AOSHQ, without wallowing in the details. But I've been seeing quite a few headlines about the huge surge in conversions or returns to Catholicism in the US and Europe. Not just a return to faith but to Catholicism specifically. That was surprising and caught my attention so I looked for articles, not news stories as such, about it. The biggest segment of converts is among young people, under thirty, and towards the older traditional Latin mass and practices. At first I wondered if this was just a fashionable thing to do, more important but in the same category as getting a tattoo or wearing a man bun. From what I'm reading, that isn't the case. The move seems to be coming from a more profound level with branches to many cultural matters. The implications of this are intriguing.

I am NOT trying to start a discussion about religion or theology. Just mentioning what I've been reading and why it caught my attention.

Posted by: JTB at April 20, 2025 10:00 AM (yTvNw)

103 I’m nearly through Book 14 of the Aubrey/Maturin series. I’ve enjoyed them but increasingly they are becoming a slog. Has anyone made it through the whole series? There are 20 and a half books in the series.

Posted by: Pete Bog at April 20, 2025 10:01 AM (lmtSm)

104
Happy Easter, people!!!

Posted by: naturalfake at April 20, 2025 10:01 AM (iJfKG)

105 My trash read is "Aliens: Bishop". The damaged synthetic Bishop has begged to be put out of commission, but his creator Michael Bishop wants to pick his android brain for knowledge of the Xenomorph.

They never learn, do they?

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at April 20, 2025 10:02 AM (kpS4V)

106 The controversy was provoked as a deflection by Dave Smith simply because Douglas Murray was unsurprisingly shocked that someone who has chosen to be so assured and outspoken on the topic would not consider a visit to the area would be an expected course of due diligence.

Posted by: San Franpsycho


I'm kind of torn because Smith is often arrogant in how he expresses opinions, but Murray came across as not only cocky, but credentialist as well.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at April 20, 2025 10:02 AM (o321t)

107 Good morning all and Happy Easter to all who celebrate.
Well, I finished Wind and Truth. All 1330 pages. I can't give any kind of review without spoilers except it didn't need to be this long and the saga continues. Continues....

Posted by: Sharon(mwillow's apprentice) at April 20, 2025 10:03 AM (t/2Uw)

108 > 103 I’m nearly through Book 14 of the Aubrey/Maturin series. I’ve enjoyed them but increasingly they are becoming a slog. Has anyone made it through the whole series? There are 20 and a half books in the series.
Posted by: Pete Bog at April 20, 2025 10:01 AM (lmtSm)

Good example of how mileage varies.

I've read the entire series probably 10 times or more, and find new things each time.

O'Brian fans call reading your way through all the books a "circumnavigation".

A tip on that half-book -- O'Brian died while writing it. It's interesting material (if you're the kind of fan who finds that interesting), but do NOT purchase the Kindle edition. I'm all about Kindle stuff normally, but much of this partial book consists of bad low-res scans of O'Brian's truly shitty handwriting.

I had to go out and find a transcription on a pirate site.

Did I feel guilty? Not in the slightest.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at April 20, 2025 10:05 AM (W5ArC)

109 An interesting book on the French revolution is 'A Journal Of the Terror' by Jean Baptiste Clery, who was valet to Louis XVI.
It isn't all encompassing, it is just a diary of the last days of the royal family, what he saw and what he heard when he couldn't be there. As an account of someone who was right at the heart of one of the major focuses of the events it is incredibly interesting.

Posted by: stv at April 20, 2025 10:05 AM (+opPw)

110 Salty,
Our deepest prayers for you and your wife.

Posted by: Grateful - the range bag lady at April 20, 2025 10:05 AM (IQ6Gq)

111
But there are areas where the 'laity' can and should have a voice, particularly when academia is increasingly biased, nakedly political and riddled with bogus doctorates through plagiarism.

I think a variant Feynmann's maxim here hold true - I don't care how many credentials you sport, if the data doesn't back up your theories they are worthless.

And, of course, we have seen the abject failure* of the experiments be it in science or anything else over the last few years. Of course they didn't fail because the science failed, they failed because they were using their credentials for personal advantage, which is a normal human thing if a disappointing one

*Failed here meaning in the sense that they publicly claimed from clot shots to tranny surgeries, but not in the actual reason they were doing them - again personal advantage

Posted by: 18-1 at April 20, 2025 10:06 AM (t0Rmr)

112 That is a good point. I remember reading that in the Gospels.
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at April 20, 2025 09:51 AM (cweKM)
---
One of the most annoying thing about academic "Bible scholars" is the fact that they seem completely oblivious to debates within any other historical context.

You want to see profound disagreement between participants and eye witnesses? Try Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, a collection of essays published by Century Magazine 20 years after the conflict ended. There are furious arguments among the participants and wildly diverging claims about how events unfolded.

Compared to that, the Gospels are a model of seamless accord.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at April 20, 2025 10:06 AM (ZOv7s)

113 And blessings of comfort to you, Salty.
My condolences.

Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards, Buy ammo at April 20, 2025 10:08 AM (xcxpd)

114 Douglas Murray was unsurprisingly shocked that someone who has chosen to be so assured and outspoken on the topic would not consider a visit to the area would be an expected course of due diligence.

Back when the Haitians eating wild animals scandal broke out the FNM called the mayor who said it wasn't true.

I remember an FNM interview with Vance then where a news bimbo told him the claims were disproved. He noted their were sworn statements by people in the town and noted the news bimbo's supposed *job* was to go to the town, interview the people, and try to provide a balanced view of the information she acquired and...the look on her face indicated she had never even thought of this...she had her government press release to quote why would she talk to normal people?

Posted by: 18-1 at April 20, 2025 10:10 AM (t0Rmr)

115 I am NOT trying to start a discussion about religion or theology. Just mentioning what I've been reading and why it caught my attention.
Posted by: JTB at April 20, 2025 10:00 AM (yTvNw)
---
It is not just adult conversions. The religious orders and seminaries are also filling up. There is a hunger for tradition and faith. A lot of mainline Protestants (and some Catholic bishops) have bet on being trendy and cool, and that has not paid off as they expected.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at April 20, 2025 10:10 AM (ZOv7s)

116 Pete read through 100 days in the Aubrey series, kind of end of my interest. If ran across the remaining books at used book store might get them.

Posted by: Skip at April 20, 2025 10:10 AM (ypFCm)

117 >>I’m nearly through Book 14 of the Aubrey/Maturin series. I’ve enjoyed them but increasingly they are becoming a slog. Has anyone made it through the whole series? There are 20 and a half books in the series.

Posted by: Pete Bog at April 20, 2025 10:01 AM

I read them and some are better than others. I got them through ILL, so I took a lot of breaks between them. I wish I knew what happened after the last half book, because I loved the characters.

Also, I will always wonder what Z is for. Sue Grafton also died too soon.

Posted by: huerfano at April 20, 2025 10:10 AM (n2swS)

118 Yet only 1/2 way in the Sharpe series and kind of tired of those, if found at a used book store too would get them but no more ebooks

Posted by: Skip at April 20, 2025 10:12 AM (ypFCm)

119 Re: the French Revolution, I highly recommend Ann Coulter's "Demonic."

Extensively "citing the father of mob psychology, Gustave Le Bon, Coulter catalogs the Left’s mob: the creation of messiahs, the fear of scientific innovation, the mythmaking, the preference for images over words, the lack of morals, and the casual embrace of contradictory ideas.

Coulter traces the history of the liberal mob to the French Revolution and Robespierre’s revolutionaries (delineating a clear distinction from America’s founding fathers), who simply proclaimed that they were exercising the “general will” before slaughtering their fellow citizens “for the good of mankind.”

There are many shocking and appalling details from Le Bon's account of the French Revolution, including their visceral hatred of Christianity.

Posted by: Beverly at April 20, 2025 10:13 AM (Epeb0)

120 Prayers of peace and comfort, Salty. ♥️

Posted by: Piper at April 20, 2025 10:15 AM (pZEOD)

121 Although Project Gutenberg is perhaps the most well-known resource for public domain books, there are other websites out there, such as

The Internet Archive is a great resource, too. They generally provide their books in PDF and in ePub if they’re public domain. If they’re not public domain, you have to check them out and read them in your browser.

Besides being a great resource for public domain books, it’s also a great research source, since they’re very much like a library.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at April 20, 2025 10:15 AM (EXyHK)

122 13 One of the clues on Jeopardy the other night was "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society" and I was like WUT, so I checked it out of the library. It's a charming novel that takes place right after the war, told in the form of letters between a London writer and the inhabitants of the Channel Island of Guernsey as they recount the years of German occupation.
Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at April 20, 2025 09:08 AM

I happened to watch that movie on Netflix. It's adorable.

Posted by: Moonbeam at April 20, 2025 10:16 AM (rbKZ6)

123 Her last complaints were about how bright the lights were. The room was as dark as I could make it. Easter is giving us an answer.
Posted by: NaCly Dog at April 20, 2025 05:14 AM (u82oZ)

Eternal rest grant unto her, O Lord,
and let Your perpetual light shine upon her.
May her soul and the souls of all the faithful departed rest in peace.

Amen.

Posted by: The MewTwix at April 20, 2025 10:18 AM (cMvP5)

124 Sherlock Holmes, for instance, changes quite a bit over the course of many stories, as we see him through the eyes of Dr. Watson during different stages of Sherlock's life.

I recently read a collection of Doyle short stories, Tales of Terror and Mystery. It’s generally good, though not great, and the “terror” and “mystery” are much watered down compared not just to modern books but even to Sherlock Holmes.

Even more interesting, while none of these stories are Holmes stories, one or two do reference Mr. Holmes obliquely. In “The Lost Special”, a passing remark mentions a quick letter from “an amateur reasoner of some celebrity at that date [who] attempted to deal with the matter in a critical and semi-scientific manner.”

“It is one of the elementary principles of practical reasoning,” he remarked, “that when the impossible has been eliminated the residuum, however improbable, must contain the truth.”

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at April 20, 2025 10:19 AM (EXyHK)

125 Antony Beevor remains a respected military historian, yet his book on the Spanish Civil War was a load of hot nonsense, chock full of anti-Catholic bigotry (he outright says - without citation! - that Spanish priests were too poor and ill-educated for productive work). He tries mightily to sustain the Guernica lie, and was so awful I could not even hate-read him to completion.

Anyone remember Michael Bellesiles and Arming America? Anti-gun book filled with fabricated data. Guy won awards, though, and his critics had an uphill battle despite having the goods on him.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at April 20, 2025 10:19 AM (ZOv7s)

126 Reading report: I finished listening to/reading Still Life with Crows and liked it enough to go back and borrow Cabinet of Curiosities.

Also on deck from the Library is The Blessing Way by Tony Hillerman, first in his series that got turned into Dark Winds on tv.

Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at April 20, 2025 10:19 AM (OTdqV)

127 I've been on a Peter Hamilton kick lately too.

I slid into "Night Without Stars" book 2 in the Commonwealth: Chronicle of the Fallers series.

I can see how some people can find him "wordy" because he really goes into detail in his world building. I sometimes think he has another writer livening up his work with all the spectacular detail.

Posted by: pawn, RIP Vic at April 20, 2025 10:19 AM (QB+5g)

128 Since the whole Clever/Good dealio appeared on this here Book Thread, I'll bring this up:

Last Night, we saw "Spun" which is now streaming on Hulu.

"Spun" is a movie which I like very much and which strikes a solid "10" on the Clevermeter.

"Spun" is a sort of day-in-the-life of a group of casually related methamphetamine addicts and is shot in an itchy, twitchy style to duplicate the meth addict experience for the viewer.

The defined as "Good" part is where I would have a problem recommending "Spun". The story is wafer-thin and subtly strung-out(!) throughout the movie. More over what we are seeing is the endpoint of what has occurred before and in some ways only becomes visible at the end. The characters are all junkies but, instead of tragedy, the movie is played as a rather dark comedy.

I suspect as many people would hate "Spun" as like it.

But, if you'd like to see a movie/story that goes all in on clever, you'll probably enjoy "Spun".

Posted by: naturalfake at April 20, 2025 10:20 AM (iJfKG)

129 118 Yet only 1/2 way in the Sharpe series and kind of tired of those, if found at a used book store too would get them but no more ebooks
Posted by: Skip at April 20, 2025 10:12 AM (ypFCm)

I read the Sharpe books a while back; the original run, before the author went back and started adding stories in-between originals. One thing that annoyed me was that only Sharpe and Harper survived. Every other character only existed to die ignobly. Now, it a war setting, attrition makes sense....But is narratively unsatisfying. Especially since I don't remember new side characters rising up to replace the dead ones.

Posted by: Castle Guy at April 20, 2025 10:20 AM (Lhaco)

130 Steven Pressfield wrote book and a creepy religious book and a not so creepy religious book.


36 Righteous Men and A Man at Arms. As usual his writing style makes its as easy to read as any author. Flows almost like you're listening to an audio book. But it was these two books that indicated to me he may be on the woke side. Just a guess though.

The creepy book based in a near future ,climate over heated world and the other book was girl power at the expense of making boy power look bad.

I may be reading too much into it but as my favorite author , it was a disappointment.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at April 20, 2025 10:20 AM (VofaG)

131 Wow, book thread, Easter discussion, requiem service.

I'm off to Mass and will continue to pray for the Horde in all its afflictions and blessings.

Christ is risen!

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at April 20, 2025 10:21 AM (ZOv7s)

132 A decade ago, as. I was driving home, shortly after dusk, a car in front of me lost control and slammed into the side concrete wall, and began rolling perpendicular to the freeway. I began to break and a voice, the voice of my late brother, screamed in my head, “punch it and go around!” So I veered into the pullover lane and punched it, expecting the car to ram into me on my side. It just missed. Y tail and hit the opposite wall.

When I got home I told my wife this story and she reminded me. That day was my brothers birthday.

He Has Riswn, and he guides all the souls to Him.

God Bless NaCly Dog..

Posted by: The MewTwix at April 20, 2025 10:23 AM (cMvP5)

133 The Perfessor has so far escaped the terror that a Monday morning at 7:00 a.m. Zoom call from a emotionally-overwrought Ewok causes, wherein Ace vents his displeasure at a CoB.

Why has The Perfessor avoided one or more of these (reportedly) extremely unpleasant experiences?

Because The Ewok apparently doesn't pay attention to the weekly Book Thread Non-Pants Wearing Scofflaws Report that we issue.

The Perfessor *cannot* count on this beneficient state of affairs continuing indefinitely.

Do your part. Put on your d*mn pants. You know who you are.

#Be Better

Posted by: Bob from NSA at April 20, 2025 10:24 AM (0sNs1)

134 Prayers & condolences for Salty.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at April 20, 2025 10:24 AM (q3u5l)

135 93 That may be, but I don't see the point of Murray's argument there. Many people have written well on places they never went to. So what?
Posted by: Eeyore at April 20, 2025 09:46 AM (1bNHn)
====
It was never a part of Murray's argument. Dave Smith claimed it was. Murray was just surprised is all. He was surprised that for such a loudmouth Dave Smith had never actually bothered to go see it for himself. Murray never said Dave Smith did not have a right to an opinion as inexpert, just that his opinion is less-informed.
Posted by: San Franpsycho at April 20, 2025 09:53 AM (RIvkX)
_______
How is it "less-informed" in any relevant sense?

Posted by: Eeyore at April 20, 2025 10:24 AM (1bNHn)

136 Alexander the Great, king of Macedon, pupil of Aristotle, conqueror of most of the known world in his time, was one of the world’s great young leaders. After years of exercising military pomp and prowess and after extending his kingdom from Macedonia to Egypt and from Cyprus to India, he wept when there seemed to be no more world to conquer. Then, as evidence of just how ephemeral such power is, Alexander caught a fever and died at thirty-three years of age. The vast kingdom he had gained virtually died with him. Quite a different young leader also died at what seems such an untimely age of thirty-three. He likewise was a king, a pupil, and a conqueror. Yet he received no honors from man, achieved no territorial conquests, rose to no political station. So far as we know, he never held a sword nor wore even a single piece of armor,...

Posted by: Elrond Hubbard at April 20, 2025 10:25 AM (VJc7E)

137 Morning book folk.
Working swing shift has thrown a monkey wrench into my reading. I've never worked swing so have had to find ways to fit stuff in at odd hours. Reading is now from about midnight until I fall asleep. I spend my mornings doing projects and yard work.
Getting used to a whole new rise and shine routine has been hard on my 55 year old body. I used to turn into a pumpkin at 7:30 ish and go to bed to read for a while. Now that time is just after lunch.
Cleanest, easiest job I have ever found though. Bosses are pretty impressed with how I do things. I got 5700sf of anti-static floor tiles laid in my spare time last week. Not done yet but they weren't expecting it to be until the end of the month.
Hopefully I can snag the supervisor position that is open right now. Double the money and half the physical labor but I have to know the system inside and out.
Anyway, off to content.
Happy Easter everyone.

Posted by: Reforger at April 20, 2025 10:26 AM (xcIvR)

138 cont...But the kingdom he established still flourishes some two thousand years later. His power was not of this world. The differences between Alexander and this equally young Nazarene are many. But the greatest difference is in their ultimate victories. Alexander conquered lands, peoples, principalities, and earthly kingdoms. But he who is called the Perfect Leader, he who was and is the Light and Life of the world—Jesus Christ the Son of God—conquered what neither Alexander nor any other could defeat or overcome: Jesus of Nazareth conquered death. Against the medals and monuments of centuries of men’s fleeting victories stands the only monument necessary to mark the eternal triumph—an empty garden tomb.

Posted by: Elrond Hubbard at April 20, 2025 10:26 AM (VJc7E)

139 Speaking of writing.

Dreamt weirdly last night, I was trapped in a writers' conference. And every one of these would-be writers believed the 'info dump' was Holy Writ of a Good Idea.

Talk about a nightmare.

Posted by: Anna Puma at April 20, 2025 10:26 AM (SrTSl)

140 I went to the library the other day with my little list for inter-library loans. Imagine my horror when the clerk told me that the library consortium had lost its federal grant in the DOGE depredations of 2025 and, instead of free, I would have to pay $5 per book through ILL. I was aghast. The library consortium was actually using its grant for something good instead of tranny story hour for children, and now it's gone.

I'm hoping the state will step in and fund the program, as they should. I can buy books for $5. I don't want to buy more books. I have rooms full of books and they are hard to get rid of. That's why I use the library.
Posted by: huerfano at April 20, 2025 09:17 AM (n2swS)

It's very typical for local authorities to cancel popular programs insted of the shit ones when funding is restricted. Towns often cut (or threaten to cut) police and fire department budgets instead of laying off deadwood or canceling woke programs.

And why should the State subsidize your reading habit. Or mine?

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at April 20, 2025 10:26 AM (8zz6B)

141 I may be reading too much into it but as my favorite author , it was a disappointment.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at April 20, 2025 10:20 AM (VofaG)

Pressfield is a good writer but he has been living in the literary world for a while. He's a long ways from his USMC and 'living in a car and working for a living' days.

Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards, Buy ammo at April 20, 2025 10:27 AM (xcxpd)

142 re Aubrey/Maturin I will keep banging away at them. The suspension of time and historical touchstones may be what’s bothering me. They’ve become more like historical travelogues in visiting remote places and cultures prior to their despoliation.

Interspersed with complicated naval warfare and serendipitous plot twists for resolution of seemingly inescapable circumstances.

Posted by: Pete Bog at April 20, 2025 10:27 AM (lmtSm)

143 Matthew's Gospel was focused more on Jesus' fulfillment of Jewish prophecy and was aimed more at the Jews, so he would have been more interested in a resurrection of Old Testament figures.

Posted by: Norrin Radd, sojourner of the spaceways at April 20, 2025 10:27 AM (tRYqg)

144 Anyone remember Michael Bellesiles and Arming America? Anti-gun book filled with fabricated data. Guy won awards, though, and his critics had an uphill battle despite having the goods on him.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at April 20, 2025 10:19 AM (ZOv7s)

Who was the guy who utterly destroyed his work and exposed it for the crap it was? Of course you can't easily Google it because their algorithm won't allow you.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at April 20, 2025 10:27 AM (VofaG)

145 I'm kind of torn because Smith is often arrogant in how he expresses opinions, but Murray came across as not only cocky, but credentialist as well.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at April 20, 2025 10:02 AM (o321t)
====
I don't entirely disagree but the "I have opinions about that which I know little and no one should listen to me" shtick runs thin after awhile.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at April 20, 2025 10:28 AM (RIvkX)

146 As a thread dedicated to the memory of Jewells45, I'm going to get out some reading involving creativity and the positive attitude that makes it possible.

Posted by: JTB at April 20, 2025 10:29 AM (yTvNw)

147 Pressfield is a good writer but he has been living in the literary world for a while. He's a long ways from his USMC and 'living in a car and working for a living' days.
Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards, Buy ammo at April 20, 2025 10:27 AM (xcxpd)

Did you read either of those two books? If so, amI off base?

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at April 20, 2025 10:29 AM (VofaG)

148 >>I’m nearly through Book 14 of the Aubrey/Maturin series. I’ve enjoyed them but increasingly they are becoming a slog. Has anyone made it through the whole series? There are 20 and a half books in the series.

Twice.

Posted by: JackStraw at April 20, 2025 10:29 AM (viF8m)

149 I need to finish Easter dinner prep. Later, horde. Be blessed.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at April 20, 2025 10:30 AM (h7ZuX)

150 How is it "less-informed" in any relevant sense?
Posted by: Eeyore at April 20, 2025 10:24 AM (1bNHn)
=-==

Before that I would ask, why do I know anything about comedian Dave Smith because of his opinion about the Middle East, informed or not, rather than because of his comedy?

Posted by: San Franpsycho at April 20, 2025 10:31 AM (RIvkX)

151 So I am out of new book again.
Maybe there is something to having books around you haven't read yet

Posted by: Skip at April 20, 2025 10:31 AM (ypFCm)

152 Wasn't it John Lott who, er, shot down the Bellesailes book?

Posted by: Just Some Guy at April 20, 2025 10:31 AM (q3u5l)

153 Wasn't it John Lott who, er, shot down the Bellesailes book?

Posted by: Just Some Guy at April 20, 2025 10:31 AM (q3u5l)

Yes I think it was him. Thanks

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at April 20, 2025 10:32 AM (VofaG)

154 "Eat the rocks a beggar breaks,
The stones of ancient churches' walls;
Pebbles, children of the flood,
Loaves left lying in the mud"

Eat the garbage truck.

Posted by: Guy who relates everything to a Zappa song at April 20, 2025 10:32 AM (vFG9F)

155 I recently found Christopher Tolkien’s collection of his father’s earlier attempt at a Silmarillian-like book at the library bookstore in San Diego. It’s amazing. I need to re-read The Silmarillion, but my recollection of it is that it was hard going and obscure. These stories are wonderful little fairy tales with a very different take than such stories usually take, but also with a likely influence from greats such as Dunsany.

The book is basically half J.R.R.’s most recent version of each tale, and then Christopher’s take on how the story evolved and how it fit into The Silmarillion. The latter is fascinating, too, but the stories are wonderful.

Though court and street now cold and empty lie,
And Elves dance seldom neath the barren sky,
Yet under the white moon there is a sound
Of buried music still beneath the ground.
When winter comes, I would meet winter here.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at April 20, 2025 10:33 AM (EXyHK)

156 A blessed Easter to the Horde.

Posted by: Diogenes at April 20, 2025 10:35 AM (W/lyH)

157 I was going to play golf today to celebrate Easter but I think God is telling me that's not the way to do it. Thundering and soon going to start raining.

RAT FARTS !!

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at April 20, 2025 10:36 AM (VofaG)

158 Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at April 20, 2025 10:33 AM (EXyHK)

What's the title?

Posted by: naturalfake at April 20, 2025 10:36 AM (iJfKG)

159 If you can get your hands on the old Encyclopedia of Philosophy, read the article on "Nothing" which Mr Heath wrote.
Posted by: Eeyore at April 20, 2025 09:44 AM (1bNHn)

I'm looking at it right now, thanks!

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at April 20, 2025 10:36 AM (PiwSw)

160 And why should the State subsidize your reading habit. Or mine?

If there is anything the state should subsidize, it is reading. It pains me every time I go into a library and see fewer books and more ephemeral entertainment. I also have to shake my head whenever I go to a library sale and buy, not a donation, but a removed library book that is both uncommon and a very unique historical perspective.

That said, I’m pretty sure whoever said that the library was cutting the useful stuff first is probably right.

I also wonder what kind of libraries we would have if the state did not subsidize public ones. There are still remnants here and there of the old privately-run public (or semi-public) libraries, and they are fascinating.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at April 20, 2025 10:37 AM (EXyHK)

161 8 ... "Currently I'm starting Max Allan Collins's Hard Case Crime entry"

Collins is a fun read. I've read several of his disaster series, Titanic, Hindenburgm DDay, etc., involving known people involved in the trouble. He brings in known aspects of the people, such as Edgar Rice Burroughs, then uses those traits dealing with the mystery. His Hard Case Crime series is similar in that they bring in historical figures as part of the story. That series also has those wonderful 1940s and 50s scantily clad females on the covers. It's a bit of nostalgia and well written mysteries.

Posted by: JTB at April 20, 2025 10:37 AM (yTvNw)

162 What's the title?

Don’t know how that got lost. The Book of Lost Tales, volume 1 (there were two).

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at April 20, 2025 10:38 AM (EXyHK)

163 >>Wasn't it John Lott who, er, shot down the Bellesailes book?

Clayton Cramer, I believe.

Posted by: one hour sober at April 20, 2025 10:39 AM (Y1sOo)

164 Good God in heaven, we were born to live, and live in mystery, which crowds all about and would smother us if we let it. Scientific discussion is useless unless considered as one more stone put forth to step on as we move across a river so dark, so deep, that one error would drown us forever.
—Ray Bradbury, Omni Magazine, November 1981

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at April 20, 2025 10:39 AM (EXyHK)

165 Do your part. Put on your d*mn pants. You know who you are.

#Be Better
---/

Pffft!

*adjusts shorty robe, sprawls on divan*

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at April 20, 2025 10:40 AM (kpS4V)

166 Prayers for NaCly Dog and his wife this morning

Indeed. A Prayer for strength and understanding.

Posted by: jsg at April 20, 2025 10:41 AM (UJ+K5)

167 O'Brian should have ended the series after A&M returned from their South Seas trip outside of time and events. Instead, he killed off characters and invented ways for Aubrey to get richer.

Posted by: Accomack at April 20, 2025 10:41 AM (YVT+g)

168 Finished rereading Gaudy Night by Sayers, decided to reread Busman's Honeymoon.

Posted by: neverenoughcaffeine at April 20, 2025 10:41 AM (2NHgQ)

169 I’m nearly through Book 14 of the Aubrey/Maturin series. I’ve enjoyed them but increasingly they are becoming a slog. Has anyone made it through the whole series? There are 20 and a half books in the series.
Posted by: Pete Bog at April 20, 2025 10:01 AM (lmtSm)
==========================

The Aubrey/Maturin series is at its best in the first four novels (Master and Commander, Post-Captain, H.M.S. Surprise, and The Mauritius Command) and again with novels eleven through thirteen (The Reverse of the Medal, The Letter of Marque, and Thirteen-Gun Salute). If you had already become bored with the last three books you finished, then you shouldn't force yourself through the remainder of the series. I don't recall any of the last seven being particularly interesting, and the fifteenth (Clarissa Oakes a.k.a. The Truelove) is one of the two worst.

Posted by: My Ridiculously Circuitous Plan at April 20, 2025 10:41 AM (NkR8Z)

170 Andrew Carnegie built about 1600 libraries in the US. I think boy 800 still exist.

moire cliff Clavin trivia. He never built one in Delaware.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at April 20, 2025 10:42 AM (VofaG)

171 64- It is also worth noting that this is a very recent thing. For a long time, all one needed to debate was access to a printing press. J.R.R. Tolkien famously never earned a doctorate, yet he is a towering intellectual figure. Many historians were undergrads at best, yet their works are still consulted today.
But
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at April 20, 2025 09:36 AM

Boy howdy is this true in the case of Ben Franklin! I just finished his autobiography and it amazes me how many of our taken-for-granted modern-day institutions he played a major role in creating- fire departments, libraries, colleges, police forces, hospitals, etc. He started working at the age of 12, never went to college but was blessed with a singular mind and a focus on organizing municipal functions for the benefit of society. And that's without even speaking of his many inventions.

Posted by: Moonbeam at April 20, 2025 10:44 AM (rbKZ6)

172 Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at April 20, 2025 09:08 AM

I had no idea that Germany had occupied part of Britain. I guess I missed that in Churchill's book on WWII.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at April 20, 2025 10:44 AM (lFFaq)

173 The best part of a new book is cracking it open for the first time somewhere in the middle, lowering your sniffer to it, and taking a deep intake of fresh, unread paper and ink

Posted by: jsg at April 20, 2025 10:45 AM (UJ+K5)

174 (Yes, he addresses the radiocarbon dating issue: more went on with that than we were told at the time.)

Posted by: Beverly




Rather than carbon dating a piece of the Shroud (which was woven from flax), the "scientists" took their test sample from an area that everyone knew was a cotton interweaving in an area that was burned in a fire 500 years ago. So the "scientists" knew with absolute certainty that they were committing fraud in conducting their test using that material.

More recent testing has completely debunked that 1988 "science."

Posted by: Sharkman at April 20, 2025 10:46 AM (/RHNq)

175 Or is it just me ?

Could be....

Posted by: jsg at April 20, 2025 10:46 AM (UJ+K5)

176 Wasn't it John Lott who, er, shot down the Bellesailes book?

Clayton Cramer, I believe.
Posted by: one hour sober at April 20, 2025 10:39 AM (Y1sOo)

John Lott was the author of gun Rights book himself and also disputed Bellesies himself IIRC. In any event Lott was who I was thinking of even if not totally correct.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at April 20, 2025 10:48 AM (VofaG)

177 Following a recommendation from the Horde several weeks ago, I started reading Michael Crichton books in order, beginning with his first in 1966 while still in med school. He wrote one a year and decided he'd rather write than practice medicine. The first several are steamy potboilers, but by the third and fourth, they become very readable. He definitely improved as a writer year by year.

My prayers for fellow Kansans NaCl Dog and his wife on this blessed Easter.

Posted by: jayhawkone at April 20, 2025 10:51 AM (9rPx3)

178 Regarding the Aubrey/Maturin series, it is worth noting that Patrick O'Brian admitted that when he began the series he had no idea that it would be such a hit and so long running. He said that if he had he would have had Aubrey and Maturin first meet years earlier (in the first book "Master and Commander" they encounter each other in the year 1800). This is why the later books tend to be set off in the Far East or the South Pacific where he can tell his story without having conform too closely to the historical record. O'Brian also said that these books can be regarded as taking place in fictional dates such as 1814 (b) or 1815 (c) rather than in strict conformity to the calendar.

Posted by: John F. MacMichael at April 20, 2025 10:51 AM (aYnHS)

179 13 One of the clues on Jeopardy the other night was "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society" and I was like WUT, so I checked it out of the library. It's a charming novel that takes place right after the war, told in the form of letters between a London writer and the inhabitants of the Channel Island of Guernsey as they recount the years of German occupation.
Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes

I read that book quite awhile ago and enjoyed it immensely! You’re in for a lovely treat, Eris.

Posted by: nurse ratched at April 20, 2025 10:52 AM (WSQTx)

180 Or is it just me ?

Could be....
Posted by: jsg at April 20, 2025 10:46 AM (UJ+K5)

I do remember the distinct smell of the paperback books when they were delivered to you at school from when you ordered them from Scholastic Reader.

Great memory.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at April 20, 2025 10:53 AM (VofaG)

181 I had no idea that Germany had occupied part of Britain. I guess I missed that in Churchill's book on WWII.
Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at April 20, 2025 10:44 AM (lFFaq)

The occupied land was called Ireland.

Posted by: Dr Pork Chops & Bacons at April 20, 2025 10:54 AM (g8Ew8)

182 Happy Easter!

I'm so sorry to read about Jules and Mrs Salty. They and their families will be in my prayers.

I finished Evelyn Waugh's Black Mischief. It was a fun, light read. Since I'm in an Evelyn Waugh kind of mood, I'm going to try Brideshead Revisited again.

Thank you, Perfessor, for yet another wonderful Book Thread.

Posted by: KatieFloyd at April 20, 2025 10:54 AM (RDfFR)

183 Which stephen berry relies upon in his templar book

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at April 20, 2025 10:54 AM (bXbFr)

184 >>I’m nearly through Book 14 of the Aubrey/Maturin series. I’ve enjoyed them but increasingly they are becoming a slog. Has anyone made it through the whole series? There are 20 and a half books in the series.

I did some racing on a boat owned by one of the senior executives at Norton who was responsible for bringing the series to the US. They had been available in the UK for some time but it was thought the language and history wouldn't be attractive to a US audience.

He told me there was quite a debate within the company over bringing the books to the US. His side won. I love the series but they aren't for everyone.

Posted by: JackStraw at April 20, 2025 10:56 AM (viF8m)

185 I do remember the distinct smell of the paperback books when they were delivered to you at school from when you ordered them from Scholastic Reader.

Great memory.
Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at April 20, 2025 10:53 AM (VofaG)

The sweet, mysterious smell of freshly mimeographed paper.

Posted by: Dr Pork Chops & Bacons at April 20, 2025 10:56 AM (g8Ew8)

186 >>John Lott was the author of gun Rights book himself and also disputed Bellesies himself IIRC. In any event Lott was who I was thinking of even if not totally correct.

Clayton Cramer's Wiki entry has the details

Posted by: one hour sober at April 20, 2025 10:57 AM (Y1sOo)

187 181: Not the Channel Islands? I think it was Guernsey and Jersey. Ireland was "neutral"

Posted by: Night lifted.... at April 20, 2025 10:57 AM (FZn/N)

188 126 Reading report: I finished listening to/reading Still Life with Crows and liked it enough to go back and borrow Cabinet of Curiosities.

Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at April 20, 2025 10:19 AM

Still Life With Crows was also on my reading list this week! I read the first two books of the Diogenes trilogy (Brimstone and Dance of Death) and thought that Still Life might give me a bit more of the relevant backstory on Pendergast. It didn't but I enjoyed it nonetheless. I'm now reading the third book in the trilogy,The Book of the Dead.

Cabinet of Curiosities was the first one that I read. I think it might be my favorite so far.

Posted by: Moonbeam at April 20, 2025 10:57 AM (rbKZ6)

189 The library here has been engaged in gutting its collection for some years now, and that's without any budget cuts that can be blamed on DOGE. The school of thought that says a book that hasn't been checked out in 2 or 3 or 5 years should be discarded can be blamed for a lot of this; maybe nobody's checked out Montaigne's Essays or Chekhov's short stories for a while but you don't throw them away if you've still got room for multiple copies of James Patterson's stuff.

I've not run across the fee for ILL yet here, but it's been several months since I've ordered anything that way. Will have to check that out.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at April 20, 2025 11:00 AM (q3u5l)

190 I don't entirely disagree but the "I have opinions about that which I know little and no one should listen to me" shtick runs thin after awhile.

Posted by: San Franpsycho





As does the "Hey, maaaaaannnn, I'm just asking questions!" thing.

No, dude, Churchill wasn't the Big Bad of the 20 Century. No, the Jews didn't do 9/11. No, the moon landings weren't faked. No, the Erf isn't flat.

Etc, etc, etc.

Just tiresome.

Posted by: Sharkman at April 20, 2025 11:00 AM (/RHNq)

191 Received my copy of Heinlein's Pursuit of the Pankera yesterday. It's a parallel book to his Number of the Beast and shares the same first several chapters before taking another track. Although I haven't read Number in years, when I opened the book I found I remembered the first chapter perfectly. Haven't got any further yet. One thing I had forgotten was how WORDY it is. Talk, talk, talk with a few moments of action. This is not a bad thing but it takes a certain mind set for me to enjoy it. I'm curious to see how it diverges from the first story.
Posted by: JTB at April 20, 2025

***
I'm back! JTB, yes, Pursuit is as wordy as Number was, as filled with talk (though that is almost always interesting and reveals character). The book overall is much more like Heinlein's usual works than Number was.

Apparently Heinlein was suffering from a benign brain tumor at the time, and it affected his writing a little. He came roaring back with Friday, a very very different book.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 20, 2025 11:03 AM (omVj0)

192 Aubrey/Maturin... my wife is sick of me quoting particularly juicy lines that tickle me every time I read them.
I read them often.
O'Brian is both historically factual in events (though sometimes juxtaposed) and in his language. I put him in the top 3 English authors.

Posted by: MkY at April 20, 2025 11:04 AM (cPGH3)

193 Good morning. Slept late but didn't wholly miss the book thread. Blessed Easter to those who Easte.

Easter pants. Those look eggzackly wacky.

Posted by: mindful webworker - what green fairies? at April 20, 2025 11:05 AM (JodDy)

194 Citizens by Simon Schama is a good, detailed account of the French revolution, though it doesn't focus only on the Terror.

Posted by: SD at April 20, 2025 11:05 AM (xY8TR)

195 Clayton Cramer's Wiki entry has the details

Posted by: one hour sober at April 20, 2025 10:57 AM (Y1sOo)

I wasn't questioning you. Just that John Lott was who I was thinking of even if wrong.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at April 20, 2025 11:13 AM (VofaG)

196 181 I had no idea that Germany had occupied part of Britain. I guess I missed that in Churchill's book on WWII.
Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at April 20, 2025

***
They held both (I think) of the Channel Islands. That features in Jack HIggins's The Eagle Has Landed.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 20, 2025 11:14 AM (omVj0)

197 Good morning and Happy Easter!

Posted by: Rex B at April 20, 2025 11:14 AM (iHpv6)

198 181: Not the Channel Islands? I think it was Guernsey and Jersey. Ireland was "neutral"
Posted by: Night lifted.... at April 20, 2025 10:57 AM (FZn/N)


I think that was snark. Funny snark.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at April 20, 2025 11:15 AM (VofaG)

199 One last plugola for my 2013 webwork. It's not a book; pamphlet-size if it were printed. I guess.

✝️ Jerusalem Report — a cartoon graphic not-strictly-scriptural-adherent take on the crucial week, if they'd had t.v.… and mainstream media.

https://bit.ly/jeru-report

Temple Network News Reporter: There's PANDEMONIUM in Jerusalem this morning! Rumors are flying that Jesus of Nazareth is ALIVE!…

Posted by: mindful webworker - He is risen at April 20, 2025 11:15 AM (JodDy)

200 I've just ordered Paying for the Party.

"It describes how the U gets bent into a shape that exists for the benefit of the wealthy socialites that inhabit the Greek system, in a flagship public research uni, the student population about 15 percent Greek. And it then concludes that the school does nothing to support those who need support."

That's consistent with my theory about higher "education". It's not about improving human understanding or potential. It's a system to assign social rank, and social rank is what the attendees pay for.

Posted by: Bombadil at April 20, 2025 11:16 AM (MX0bI)

201 It was never a part of Murray's argument. Dave Smith claimed it was. Murray was just surprised is all. He was surprised that for such a loudmouth Dave Smith had never actually bothered to go see it for himself. Murray never said Dave Smith did not have a right to an opinion as inexpert, just that his opinion is less-informed.
Posted by: San Franpsycho at April 20, 2025 09:53 AM (RIvkX)

Jimmy Dore posted a video, compiled by someone else, showing Murray arguing exactly the opposite opinion he tried to throw at Dave Smith. You should watch it, it's hilarious.

But you won't.

Your opinions match Murray's, and people like Dave Smith are a threat to your worldview, so you lash out, pointlessly, with no argument to make against his actual opinions.

You're losing this, and the reason you're so angry is part of you knows it.

Posted by: BurtTC at April 20, 2025 11:16 AM (lH8E4)

202 >>I wasn't questioning you.

I didn't think you were. Someone said John Lott and I countered that it was probably Clayton Cramer he was thinking of.

John Lott's name gets associated with Michael Bellesiles frequently by the anti-gun left in that they claim he, Lott, fabricated facts to sell a book.

Posted by: one hour sober at April 20, 2025 11:18 AM (Y1sOo)

203 Hadn't heard of this one before:

Ernest Borgnine Saw Jesus On The Set Of Filming! (2:32)
https://youtu.be/gJibQHgVp7o

Posted by: mindful webworker - unusual at April 20, 2025 11:19 AM (JodDy)

204 One Hour Sober --

Hadn't run across the Clayton Cramer info myself. Will check that one out some time.

Thanks.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at April 20, 2025 11:21 AM (q3u5l)

205 198. Hence "neutral" was in quotation marks. Ireland is also staunchly pro-palestinian, so it does not pain me to see them get a nice angry crop of migrants.

Posted by: Night lifted.... at April 20, 2025 11:21 AM (FZn/N)

206 Movies have the inherent limitation of time that books do not. A good, clever movie has to tell its story in only a few hours, while a book (or series of books) can go on for many years or decades…

Heh. The Marvel Cinematic Universe has entered the chat....

Posted by: mindful webworker - going on for years at April 20, 2025 11:24 AM (JodDy)

207 O'Brian also said that these books can be regarded as taking place in fictional dates such as 1814 (b) or 1815 (c) rather than in strict conformity to the calendar.

Posted by: John F. MacMichael at April 20, 2025 10:51 AM (aYnHS)
==============================

War with the United States begins in book six (The Fortune of War), Napoleon's brief return to power occurs in book nineteen (The Hundred Days), and books seven through eighteen occur between those historical events.

Posted by: My Ridiculously Circuitous Plan at April 20, 2025 11:26 AM (NkR8Z)

208 Heh. The Marvel Cinematic Universe has entered the chat....

It’s a little sad thinking of what they could have done with a decade-spanning story compared to what they actually did.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at April 20, 2025 11:26 AM (EXyHK)

209 For fans of the Preston and Child Pendergast series, two of their books: "Crimson Shore" and "Fever Dream" are on sale on Kindle for 2.99 each. They usually sell for about 10 bucks. Just downloaded them for Mrs. JTB's Paperwhite.

Posted by: JTB at April 20, 2025 11:26 AM (yTvNw)

210 Oops, it's "...Potato Peel Pie Society". The island's inhabitants (and their invaders) were down to potatoes and turnips by the end, and one dish used potato peels to make a pie crust, to be filled with mashed potatoes.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at April 20, 2025 11:27 AM (kpS4V)

211 …and one dish used potato peels to make a pie crust, to be filled with mashed potatoes.

This sounds pretty good. If they have oil to make the crust crunchy.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at April 20, 2025 11:28 AM (EXyHK)

212 Movies have the inherent limitation of time that books do not. A good, clever movie has to tell its story in only a few hours, while a book (or series of books) can go on for many years or decades…

But do they have to make a great book absolutely horrible.

Shooter and American Assassin are the two worst imo. The Legend of Bagger Vance is also in the running.

The best was Captains Courageous though they changed the ending.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at April 20, 2025 11:28 AM (VofaG)

213 Movies have the inherent limitation of time that books do not. A good, clever movie has to tell its story in only a few hours, while a book (or series of books) can go on for many years or decades…

------

They have movies that do exactly that. They're called "series". Each season of the series is usually a book, with a beginning and ending. Superhero movies have used this concept the best.

Posted by: Dr Pork Chops & Bacons at April 20, 2025 11:30 AM (g8Ew8)

214 and one dish used potato peels to make a pie crust, to be filled with mashed potatoes.

This sounds pretty good. If they have oil to make the crust crunchy.
Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at April 20, 2025 11:28 AM (EXyHK)

Sounds like The Martian. Am I the only one that didn't like that DEI movie?

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at April 20, 2025 11:31 AM (VofaG)

215 hey have movies that do exactly that. They're called "series". Each season of the series is usually a book, with a beginning and ending. Superhero movies have used this concept the best.
Posted by: Dr Pork Chops & Bacons at April 20, 2025 11:30 AM (g8Ew


The first Shogun

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at April 20, 2025 11:32 AM (VofaG)

216 Sounds like The Martian. Am I the only one that didn't like that DEI movie?
----

The book didn't have to shoehorn in Chinese saviors because they helped bankroll the movie.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at April 20, 2025 11:33 AM (kpS4V)

217 Happy Easter. He is risen!

Posted by: Mick at April 20, 2025 11:33 AM (gYvAB)

218 Never got around to reading The Martian. Saw the movie and liked it while I was watching it, and except for remembering that I liked it while I was watching it I remember almost nothing about it except that that it was from a novel and that Matt Damon was in it. No desire to watch it again.

Some movies are like that. Some books too. YMMV.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at April 20, 2025 11:40 AM (q3u5l)

219 209 For fans of the Preston and Child Pendergast series, two of their books: "Crimson Shore" and "Fever Dream" are on sale on Kindle for 2.99 each. They usually sell for about 10 bucks. Just downloaded them for Mrs. JTB's Paperwhite.
Posted by: JTB at April 20, 2025 11:26 AM

Thanks JTB! About a week after the Perfesser recommended the P&C books, I was in a vintage shop that raises money for battered women. They have a great little book section that I always check out when I'm there. Imagine my surprise when the first thing I saw was 6 of the Pendergast novels! They were a buck a piece. I've found a couple more in other vintage shops. Most recently, I was in one and found a hard-back copy of Fever Dream for $4 so I bought it. When I got home, I saw that it was one of the ones that I've already bought! I also have Crimson Shore and am looking forward to reading them. I now have a note on my phone listing all of the books I have and the ones I can get at the local library. After I finish The Book of the Dead, I'm going to take a break to read some classics and non-fictions that have been waiting to be read.

Posted by: Moonbeam at April 20, 2025 11:40 AM (rbKZ6)

220 Just got word my wife Linda has died.

I would say your prayers were answered, as she passed quickly, without pain or struggle, under the comfort of good drugs.

Her last complaint to me was that the lights were so bright. This is after I closed the blinds and made the room as dark as possible.

Easter is the answer.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at April 20, 2025 11:43 AM (u82oZ)

221 Recommending again this video, thorough and up-to-date to the best of my understanding.

Shroud studies (48:07)
Dr. John Campbell
posted 5 months ago

https://youtu.be/YT1R2kDPHFA
_______

Ann Barnhardt had a good post describing just how excruciating Crucifixion was. I knew most of these details, but learned a few ways in which it was even worse than I knew.
https://bit.ly/3Gd77ms

One thing I've come to realize: every precious word spoken by Jesus from the cross was an enormous effort, not just speaking through the agonizing pain but the brutal asphyxiation that the crucifixion position created. His words to the thief on the cross, to his apostle at his feet, the snatches of Psalms he recited, and his bold final statement came at tremendous cost.

Posted by: mindful webworker - breathtaking at April 20, 2025 11:43 AM (JodDy)

222 The Legend of Bagger Face.

Posted by: Commissar of plenty and festive little hats at April 20, 2025 11:45 AM (hcwgv)

223 212 Movies have the inherent limitation of time that books do not. A good, clever movie has to tell its story in only a few hours, while a book (or series of books) can go on for many years or decades…

But do they have to make a great book absolutely horrible.

Shooter and American Assassin are the two worst imo. The Legend of Bagger Vance is also in the running.

The best was Captains Courageous though they changed the ending.
Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at April 20, 2025 11:28 AM

That list is nover complete without Bonfire of the Vanities. I loved the book and obviously hated the movie. I thought Vanity Fair was also awful. It's one of my favorite books that I have read a few times over the years. It's far too complex for a two-hour movie.

Posted by: Moonbeam at April 20, 2025 11:45 AM (rbKZ6)

224 Posted by: NaCly Dog at April 20, 2025 11:43 AM (u82oZ)

May the Lord give you strength and comfort on this day .

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at April 20, 2025 11:46 AM (VofaG)

225 Easter is the answer.
Posted by: NaCly Dog at April 20, 2025 11:43 AM (u82oZ)

May Linda be with the Everlasting Light. Sorry for your Loss.

Posted by: Night lifted.... at April 20, 2025 11:46 AM (FZn/N)

226 I am so sorry for you Nacly. Her suffering has ended and she is with the Lord.

Posted by: Tom Servo at April 20, 2025 11:47 AM (ZEzFB)

227 Posted by: NaCly Dog at April 20, 2025 11:43 AM (u82oZ)

So sorry for your loss.

Posted by: Moonbeam at April 20, 2025 11:48 AM (rbKZ6)

228 Posted by: Moonbeam at April 20, 2025 11:45 AM (rbKZ6)


I gave a tennis lesson long ago to the screen writer whose name I can't recall right now. Off to google.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at April 20, 2025 11:48 AM (VofaG)

229 Condolences again, Salty.

Thanks for the thread, Perfessor.

And a good Easter to the Horde.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at April 20, 2025 11:50 AM (q3u5l)

230 Just got word my wife Linda has died.

I would say your prayers were answered, as she passed quickly, without pain or struggle, under the comfort of good drugs.

Her last complaint to me was that the lights were so bright. This is after I closed the blinds and made the room as dark as possible.

Easter is the answer.
Posted by: NaCly Dog

My condolences Salty. So very sorry for your loss.

Posted by: Tuna at April 20, 2025 11:50 AM (lJ0H4)

231 Germany did take the Guernsey island in WWII

Posted by: Skip at April 20, 2025 11:50 AM (ypFCm)

232 NaCly Dog,
You are in my prayers. May God's grace be with you.

Posted by: Diogenes at April 20, 2025 11:50 AM (W/lyH)

233 At least think so as one of the British island in the channel

Posted by: Skip at April 20, 2025 11:51 AM (ypFCm)

234 228 Posted by: Moonbeam at April 20, 2025 11:45 AM (rbKZ6)


I gave a tennis lesson long ago to the screen writer whose name I can't recall right now. Off to google.
Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at April 20, 2025 11:48 AM

Before or after the movie was released?

Posted by: Moonbeam at April 20, 2025 11:51 AM (rbKZ6)

235 Alexander caught a fever and died at thirty-three years of age.

-
A saw a theory the other day that he may have been buried alive. Theories about his death abound. This theory is that he had a type of Guillain–Barré which rendered him paralyzed and explains why his body did not decay in the six days between his "death" and burial.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Soldier of the Persistence at April 20, 2025 11:53 AM (L/fGl)

236 We'll be watching Ben Hur later today, followed by The Robe. I should read the actual book at some point. I understand it is rather different from the movie.

Posted by: JTB at April 20, 2025 11:53 AM (yTvNw)

237 Before or after the movie was released?
Posted by: Moonbeam at April 20, 2025 11:51 AM (rbKZ6)

I assume after because I only knew the info when someone told me who he was. This was in the Catskills / Hudson Valley area of NY.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at April 20, 2025 11:54 AM (VofaG)

238 Dave Smith is an asshole deluxe on the issue, his championing of Palestinian students "criticizing" Israel, by calling for Jewish deaths crosses a line for me. No country should have to suck up this nonsense of calls for their destruction, murder of children and women, and regular shelling. Smith may be Jewish, but so are the leftist Jewish organizations who also support these "students".

As for the universities, they're accepting barrels of money from Qatar and are lying if they say Qatar has no influence, just as they are lying if they say the CCP does not decide which of the many Chinese nationals they admit.

If Israel pushes on to achieve an unconditional surrender May God help them at every turn.

Posted by: Night lifted.... at April 20, 2025 11:55 AM (FZn/N)

239 I'm so sorry, Salty.

Posted by: Retief at April 20, 2025 11:55 AM (NnMEx)

240 Prayers and condolences for Salty and his wife. Knowing she passed without pain is a small but real consolation. (I've seen that.) Both will continue in our prayers

Posted by: JTB at April 20, 2025 11:57 AM (yTvNw)

241 Alexander caught a fever and died at thirty-three years of age.

-
A saw a theory the other day that he may have been buried alive. Theories about his death abound. This theory is that he had a type of Guillain–Barré which rendered him paralyzed and explains why his body did not decay in the six days between his "death" and burial.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Soldier of the Persistence at April 20, 2025 11:53 AM (L/fGl)

Pressfield has a good historical fiction books on Alexander called The Virtues of War and The Afghan Campaign.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at April 20, 2025 11:58 AM (VofaG)

242 So very sorry for the loss of your wife, Salty. May she live in your heart forever, and smile down on you from the Kingdom Of Heaven. God bless.

Posted by: thatcrazyjerseyguy at April 20, 2025 11:58 AM (5xuJ/)

243 Condolences Salty. She is in a better place.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at April 20, 2025 11:59 AM (yzjIx)

244 I'm very sorry Salty.

Posted by: JackStraw at April 20, 2025 12:01 PM (viF8m)

245 So sorry Salty. Prayers.
May she rest in peace.

Posted by: Reforger at April 20, 2025 12:01 PM (xcIvR)

246 WE HAZ A NOOD

Posted by: Skip at April 20, 2025 12:01 PM (ypFCm)

247 Nacly Dog,
Words are meager comfort but thoughts and prayers for you and your loved ones on this day. Peace be unto you.

Posted by: whig's phone at April 20, 2025 12:04 PM (ctrM5)

248 May the peace of the Risen Christ be with you, Salty.

Posted by: nurse ratched at April 20, 2025 12:05 PM (mT+6a)

249 I would say your prayers were answered, as she passed quickly, without pain or struggle, under the comfort of good drugs.

Her last complaint to me was that the lights were so bright. This is after I closed the blinds and made the room as dark as possible.

Easter is the answer.
Posted by: NaCly Dog

God bless and keep you, Salty, and thanks be that she is in the embrace of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I'm so sorry for your loss, and I send you love and hugs and comfort in this time.

Posted by: Moki at April 20, 2025 12:07 PM (wLjpr)

250 For jewel45:. Eternal rest grant unto her, O Lord, and perpetual light shine upon her. May she rest in peace. Amen.

Prayers up for NaCl Dog & family. May jewel's memory always be a blessing.

Finally, this year the Greforian and Julian calendars sync--Happy Easter and Happy Pascha! For our Jewish Morons, Happy Pesach!

Posted by: March Hare at April 20, 2025 12:07 PM (O/GSq)

251 *Gegorian calendar. /sheesh

Posted by: March Hare at April 20, 2025 12:07 PM (O/GSq)

252 Re the question of the important people who came out of their graves at the moment of Jesus' death, yes, they probably walked around people who knew them and caused a lot of people to believe in Jesus! But the Bible doesn't expand on this. The book of Matthew was written by Matthew under the direction of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is about moving on with the important work of saving souls. When we saw Rory McIlroy make his putt to win the Masters, we human beings didn't immediately switch off the tv, we wanted to see his reaction, see him hug his wife, be so happy, but Matthew leaves out the certain rejoicing, incredulity, etc because the Holy Spirit directs the narrative and God is interested in all who will, believe. That is, us in 2025. And unfortunately for those people who were raised from the dead, they probably had to die again. Like Lazarus. Another story with an abrupt, but happy, ending.

Posted by: AgathaPagatha at April 20, 2025 12:12 PM (RyKJA)

253 condolences, Salty. Be comforted in the knowledge that her race ended peacefully and she's now home with the Lord.

Posted by: Wingnutt at April 20, 2025 12:14 PM (DNy21)

254 Salty, from your arms to God's arms, may she rest in peace until you are united again.
We are holding you close in prayer....

Posted by: Grateful - the range bag lady at April 20, 2025 12:21 PM (IQ6Gq)

255 So sorry, NaCly Dog. God Bless and keep you.

Posted by: Bombadil at April 20, 2025 12:23 PM (MX0bI)

256 "Who were these "holy people" who were raised from the dead when Jesus died?

These are the people who were in "Abraham's Bosom". The story that Jesus told about a rich man and Lazarus. Before Jesus' Ascension people did not go to Heaven, as a matter of course. They went to Sheol (Hebrew for Grave), and ended up in Abraham's Bosom (5-star Hotel in Sheol).

Did they preach about Jesus' resurrection?

They could have. They probably did But, God insists on living witnesses. "You are my witnesses", He said to the 12. And Bible also specifically says that we are not "to ask the dead, about the living". Again, God insists on living witnesses.

Did they go on to lead normal lives and die again? Or did they disappear when Jesus ascended to heaven?"

They ascended with Jesus. Jesus did not enter Heaven alone. He was first, and He was followed by all who He took out of Abraham's Bosom, at the very least. There might have been even more.

Summary: it is Death of Jesus that grants Legal right of forgiveness; it is Resurrection that allows Resurrection that allows us resurrection; it is Ascension that allows entrance to Heaven.

Posted by: Moses at April 20, 2025 12:29 PM (355Q6)

257 227 Posted by: NaCly Dog at April 20, 2025 11:43 AM (u82oZ)

Sorry, NaCly Dog, didn't mean to submit a mini sermon right after your post about your dear wife. You're right about Easter being the answer. My husband died from cancer young, age 45. Again, my deepest sympathy

Posted by: AgathaPagatha at April 20, 2025 12:31 PM (RyKJA)

258 Recommendation question: Which Sarah Hoyt book or series should Pooky start with? He's a fan of "hard sci-fi" and wants to give her work a try.

Posted by: pookysgirl, always searching for new books at April 20, 2025 12:40 PM (Wt5PA)

259 Pookysgirl, be should start with Darkship Thieves, the start of her sf series.

Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at April 20, 2025 12:52 PM (OTdqV)

260 The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society" and I was like WUT, so I checked it out of the library. It's a charming novel that takes place right after the war, told in the form of letters between a London writer and the inhabitants of the Channel Island of Guernsey as they recount the years of German occupation.
Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at April 20, 2025 09:08 AM (kpS4V)

I loved this book! We read it for a book club several years back.

Posted by: BonnieBlue at April 20, 2025 01:19 PM (xP3FQ)

261 Christ is Risen!

Posted by: katja@protonmail.com at April 20, 2025 01:21 PM (dlb1u)

262 (I'm still sleepy - link is to my website, but email address is not mine.)

Posted by: Katja at April 20, 2025 01:22 PM (dlb1u)

263 261 Christ is Risen!

He is Risen Indeed!

Posted by: Moses at April 20, 2025 01:38 PM (355Q6)

264 To the point about the holy ones who arose from the dead with Christ's Resurrection - there's a comment up above at 143 that mentions that this detail was probably included in Matthew as the audience was primarily Jewish. To add to that just a bit, the reason that this detail would be interesting to a Jewish audience is because those holy people would have been righteous under the Old Testament, and among the prophets and such, many of them prophesied to the coming of Jesus long before he was born. So imagine, say, Isaiah being resurrected and now being able to proclaim that this is the Truth which he wrote about those many centuries before. Furthermore, there is the idea is that Jesus is the Sacrifice that is necessary to reunite mankind with God. The holy ones under the old covenant would, almost logically, have something happen once this fulfillment took place.

(Sorry for my sleepiness in theology here. Not sure I'm quite saying what I want to.)

Posted by: Katja at April 20, 2025 01:39 PM (dlb1u)

265 In the Orthodox Church, the Paschal (Easter) song that we sing over and over and over in joy is "Christ is Risen". There are many different settings for this, but the English text is as follows:
Christ is Risen from the dead
Trampling down death by death
And upon those in the tombs
Bestowing life

An "Appalachian" setting of this can be found here: https://youtu.be/UgdBydT-7UI

Posted by: Katja at April 20, 2025 01:42 PM (dlb1u)

266 I am grievously sorry for your loss, Salty Dog.

Posted by: Gouverneur Morris at April 20, 2025 04:38 PM (J8OCH)

267 In at the end, just to read the latest sad news.

Salty, my condolences to you and your family.

Posted by: Weak Geek at April 20, 2025 06:13 PM (p/isN)

268 "You want to see profound disagreement between participants and eye witnesses? Try Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, a collection of essays published by Century Magazine 20 years after the conflict ended. There are furious arguments among the participants and wildly diverging claims about how events unfolded."

The same public disagreement happened with the Napoleonic War in Spain. William Napier's "History of the War in the Peninsula and the South of France from the Year 1807 to the Year 1814" was a history based on Napier's observations, those of his brothers Charles and William, and of their friends and associates. After Napier's history was published, some British officers seconded to the Portuguese Army during the war (William Beresford's crowd) wrote to the Times and other places to complain that Napier had grossly misrepresented the contributions of the Portuguese Army and was frequently mistaken in detail. Napiers' partisans then wrote letters in opposition to those of the Beresford crowd. To his credit, Napier included some (perhaps all, it's been more than 30 years since I read them) of both sets of letters in appendices in later editions of his history.

Posted by: Pope John 20th at April 20, 2025 06:28 PM (JZ/46)

269 Napier cont...

"a history based on Napier's observations, those of his brothers Charles and William"

Nope, William wasn't his own brother. It should read,

a history based on Napier's observations, those of his brothers Charles and George...

Posted by: Pope John 20th at April 20, 2025 07:11 PM (JZ/46)

270 "Guardians of the Flame" is an excellent series, worth reading all the way through.

You should consider following it up with "Not for Glory" and "Hero", also by Joel Rosenberg, covering the Metzada Mercenary Corps, featuring Jewish ninjas - in space!

Posted by: Sam at April 20, 2025 09:04 PM (7jMef)

271 As far as the copyright stuff, the laws have changed many, many times. I think everything before 1929 or so is blanket public domain. I was looking into the copyright status of some materials in the early 1950s, and although I'm still not completely clear on everything, there's a period from the late 1940s until maybe 1968 where copyright had to be officially registered, lasted for 28(ish) years, and was renewable only once. Almost everything in this era is actually public domain as well because, assuming something was actually under copyright in the first place, less than 10% of it was renewed in the 1970s and 1980s. Because of laws changing, there are a couple years at the end there that did get a boost to allow for a longer copyright in renewal, but it's a fair good mess all around. I now have one book, originally published in the 1950s, that has a "copyright" notice in the front, but, in searching for the title in that year's copyright file, there's only one book from that publisher, and that isn't it. I also have a book that was reprinted and sold on Amazon under an assumed "orphaned copyright", someone republishing something in the same situation as my 1950s book.

Posted by: Katja at April 20, 2025 09:36 PM (dlb1u)

272 Hated the news about NaCly's wife. I remember him from Neptunus Lex, and a few other places he poked his nose into.

Easter is, indeed, the answer. We know because Christ overcame the grave, that his people will too.

Posted by: Quartermaster at April 21, 2025 07:07 PM (fs8hc)

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