Sunday Morning Book Thread - 06-30-2024 ["Perfessor" Squirrel]

(HT: Iris)

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...(50% less PRIDE starting tomorrow...)

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?

PIC NOTE

Iris sent me today's picture, which is a neat little sculpture of book turned into a bench. Doesn't look all that comfortable, but might be a nice place to sit for a few minutes to watch the people passing by and possibly read a chapter or two on a warm summer day. This is located in Zaporozhe, Ukraine, which is in the southeastern region of that country. It's entirely possible the bench is nothing more than twisted rubble right now...

MID-YEAR REVIEW

Today marks the midway point through the calendar year, more or less, so let's take a moment to pause and reflect on what I've read so far. It's quite a long list, so I won't bore you with the details, just focus on some stats and describe the more memorable reading experiences.

NUMBER OF BOOKS READ: 81 (Includes books that have been combined into omnibus editions)

NUMBER OF PAGES READ: 33,301

LONGEST SERIES READ: Malazan - Books of the Fallen by Steven Erickson

MOST BOOKS BY SINGLE AUTHOR: Tie between Steven Erickson's Malazan - Books of the Fallen (10 books) and Roger Zelazny's Chronicles of Amber (10 books combined in omnibus edition)

WEIRDEST BOOK READ THIS YEAR: Richard Littler's Discovering Scarfolk which is a disturbing "travelogue" for a fictional town in England stuck in the 1970s.

MOST DISAPPOINTING BOOK READ THIS YEAR: William Gibson's Neuromancer - There's a lot of hype around this book, but I didn't find it all that engrossing. The world building was OK but the characters just didn't grab my attention.

MOST REWARDING BOOK/SERIES READ THIS YEAR: Steven Erikson's Malazan - Books of the Fallen - Truly an awesome, epic fantasy series. I can understand why people love it. The action scenes are *intense* and the world-building is top tier. The characters are fun and interesting, without going too far down into grimdark territory. Well worth the investment of time and energy to read this series. Highly recommended.

NOTABLE READING EXPERIENCES:

I read all of Isaac Asimov's Foundation series, including the prequel that led up to the creation of Foundation by Hari Seldon. It was OK, but not great. Asimov is much better at writing short fiction, as he can use those as "thought experiments." His longer stories just aren't all that phenomenal, even though they do sometimes explore larger issues. I find them mildly entertaining, but also a bit bland.

I also read Ursula K. LeGuin's Earthsea series. It's interesting to see how much influence her stories have had on the fantasy genre. There's a direct link from her portrayal of witches and wizards in Earthsea to they way that Terry Pratchett portrays them in his Discworld series. It's pretty blatant when you see it. Though Pratchett gives both wizards and witches his own distinctive twist.

Dan Simmons Hyperion Cantos was a very pleasant and engaging series of novels, with some very wild ideas. The first one is modeled after Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales with it's narrative framework of a group of pilgrims sharing their stories during their journey. However, the later books get weirder and weirder, once the mystery boxes start being revealed. The Shrike, for instance, is an all-powerful being in the first couple of books, having mastery over time and space. But then we see the truth behind the Shrike in the last two books...Another highly recommended series for fans of space opera.

Finally, I've greatly enjoyed my discovery of authors Michael Crichton and Dean Koontz. I've known about both of them for decades, of course, but I probably would not have explored them without encouragement and recommendations from the Moron Horde. So thank you, for helping me expand my own horizons and find two authors that are new to me that I can savor over the next several months...

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MORON RECOMMENDATIONS

I just finished reading a bio of Thomas Cochrane, the British naval hero of the Napoleonic era whose career was even more implausible than any of the fictional characters like Aubrey or Hornblower based on him. He really did capture a frigate with a sloop, and then later fight three ships of the line with the same sloop for most of a day before he had to surrender. When his enemies in the Admiralty forced him out (a manufactured scandal and a rigged trial -- hmm) he went off to South America, founded the Chilean Navy, also helped win the independence of Peru, then commanded the Brazilian and Greek navies as well.
The book's called simply Cochrane, and it's by Donald Thomas. Recommended.
Posted by: Trimegistus at June 23, 2024 10:03 AM (QkS9F)

Comment: Some people are cursed and/or blessed to lead very interesting lives indeed. Whether they seek out a life of adventure or stuff just happens to them, they always seem to have a wild story to tell. Just hearing the description above reminds of Audie Murphy, whose own military career was so incredible that Hollywood had to *tone it down* for the movie about his life because no one would believe it.

+++++

Just started Judi Dench's Shakespeare The Man Who Pays the Rent wherein she recounts her stage appearances in the Bard's plays and her thinking about each role. So far so good. I was surprised to learn Dame Judi is 89 years old.
Posted by: Tuna at June 23, 2024 09:30 AM (oaGWv)

Comment: I've always enjoyed Dame Judi Dench's performances. She always struck me as a classically trained British actor who knew her business and excelled at her job. I'm not surprised she'd have some entertaining stories to tell about her time in Shakespearean theater.

+++++

Read Colonial Nightmare by Moron author David M. Vining. This historical tale recounts Major George Washington's mission by the governor of Virginia to deliver a message to the French General who has decided to overstep his bounds and colonize the Ohio Valley, which at that time was being colonized by English settlers in the Colonies. The trip undertaken by GW is harrowing, not only because of unknown territory and horrible winter weather, but also because GW has multiple encounters with what can only be described as an otherworldly being intent on killing anyone it encounters. No one knows for sure if the dark force has been unleashed by France as a weapon, or whether it resides outside the Ohio Valley. I enjoyed the detailed descriptions of the new territory, the harrowing journey from Virginia, up through what is now Pittsburgh, and up north nearly to Lake Erie, and the recounting of everyday life for those tasked with the mission. GW's official diary of the mission omits any reference to the strange and deadly being. Recommended. (The book's editor was missing during the final read of the manuscript, but don't let those errors detract from a well-told and gripping adventure.)
Posted by: Legally Sufficient at June 23, 2024 09:26 AM (U3L4U)

Comment: As usual, I like to feature reviews of Moron-Authored books as a means of encouraging any current or future Moron Authors to continue their work. I would also like to remind Moron Authors that you MUST spend endless hours proofreading and copyediting your work again, and again, and again. It's very, very easy to turn off readers if the story is filled with glaring typos, mechanical errors, and grammatical mistakes. Now in TJM's book, he could argue that he was writing in the style of an American colonial, but even then you have to be very careful with your writing style so that those "mistakes" come through naturally.

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

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WHAT I'VE BEEN READING THIS PAST WEEK:

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

Sandman Slim Book 2 - Kill the Dead by Richard Kadrey

Sandman Slim (a.k.a. James Stark) is back! Now he's working for the Golden Vigil on the side, hunting down monsters. It's a job. Then Lucifer comes to town to hire Stark as a bodyguard. Then the zombies start taking over the city and Stark has to figure out who let out this plague of undead on the unsuspecting city of L.A. and who is targeting Lucifer. Like the first Sandman Slim novel, this one has a lot of very dark humor, but it can be pretty entertaining. Stark's "roommate" is the head of a man who he decapitated in the first book, but now that head "lives" on a mobile platter that gives him control over his surroundings. Pretty weird setup. The zombies in this book are a bit more dangerous than most. Some of them are aware enough to pass for human most of the time. And the only way to kill them permanently is to destroy their spinal cord.

Star Trek #6 - The Abode of Life by Lee Corey

This is a very early Star Trek novel and involves Kirk exploring ramifications of the Prime Directive while his ship is under dire threat. Damaged by a gravitational anomaly, the Enterprise limps into orbit around an unknown planet in a remote sector of the Sagittarius Arm of the galaxy. The planet orbits a star that it unstable and will erupt soon after the Enterprise arrives. Meanwhile, Kirk and his crew need to solicit help from the inhabitants of the planet, but they have to be careful because they do not want to interfere in the local culture any more than they have to. Fortunately, the planet already has a high level of technology--including an incredibly powerful and ubiquitous transporter network. However, internal politics has split the people into three main factions, one of which is at odds with the other two and threatens the societal stability.

Weirdly, the three factions remind me of the Minbari castes from Babylon 5, as the Technics, Proctors, and Guardians in this novel serve much the same roles as the Worker caste, Warrior caste, and Religious caste serve in that series. At the end, Kirk gets to display his diplomatic prowess when he brings the three squabbling factions together, shows them the truth of their world, and formally invites them to join the United Federation of Planets.

State of Fear by Michael Crichton

Several Morons have recommended this in the past. I had the opportunity to pick it up at a library book sale for $2. Kind of like Crichton's Next, there does not appear to be an overarching plot (at first). Mostly it's a collection of narratives that tie into each other at the end. Along the way, we get to see a variety of positions on global warming from the perspectives of those who believe the earth is doomed and from those who believe otherwise. At the end of the book, Crichton lays out his own unambiguous position on the subject. This is one reason why I like Crichton's novels. He does a fair amount of research on the subject, gives you the bibliography for further reading, and also provides his own honest opinions on the subject. They are also well-written and fast-paced, so you never feel like it's a slog to read to his "lectures" to the audience.

The Darkest Night of the Year by Dean Koontz

Dean Koontz LOVES dogs. This is his love letter to golden retrievers, his favorite breed, but he's quite fond of all dogs in general. They often show up in his books in one way or another and sometimes play a crucial role in the climax of the plot. This is the case here. A woman who rescues golden retrievers for a living pulls a dog out of an abusive home and finds out the dog is just the sweetest gal ever. She and her boyfriend soon find out there is more to the dog than meets the eye, once the main plot gets rolling. It's a very sweet novel in many ways, as Koontz shows us just how much he really loves dogs through the eyes of the main characters. If you love dogs, you will most likely enjoy this novel, as long as you don't mind too much extreme evil on the part of the human antagonists. It is Koontz, so you can expect a reasonably happy ending.

Sandman Slim 3 - Aloha from Hell by Richard Kadrey

James Stark--a.k.a. Sandman Slim--is pulled into yet another adventure in L.A. and beyond. His nemesis from the first book, the warlock Mason, has sent Stark a message from Hell. Mason has taken over the place after Lucifer left and is now conspiring with a fallen angel to wage war against Heaven and displace God as the ruler of the cosmos. His plan is just crazy enough to work. Now Mason wants to rub his success in Stark's face and lures him to Hell with the one bait he knows Stark can't resist--the soul of Stark's one true love, Alice.

As with the other books in the series, there is a lot of black humor because Stark is an unkillable asshole and he knows it. He does have friends and comrades that he can call on for assistance. They see him as the monster that fights monsters, which is a role that he himself embraces. Entertaining urban fantasy fluff.

PREVIOUS SUNDAY MORNING BOOK THREAD - 06-16-24 (NOTE: Do NOT comment on old threads!)

(Celebrating the Few. The Proud. The Obscene.)

Disclaimer: No Morons were harmed in the making of this Sunday Morning Book Thread. Nor were any golden retrievers.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 09:00 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 Tolle Lege

Posted by: Skip at June 30, 2024 09:00 AM (fwDg9)

2 Did read something this week. Only online as I picked up an old Signet paperback to read... and couldn't. The print was too small, even with my bifocals. So, off to Internet Archive.

"A History of Advertising" by Stephane Pincas and Marc Loiseau. The book declared "this book explores legendary campaigns and brands of advertising's modern history... You will find the picture of the camel that originated the Camel cigarette pack, some of the very first Coca-Cola ads, and even see how artworks by masters such as Picasso and Magritte have been used in advertising."

It was definitely an interesting read. Kub, the world's first mass marketed meat concentrate appeared in Picasso's Landscape with Posters in 1912. The book insists that's the source of calling Picasso's work, Cubism. A poster for a hair tonic, Dada, led to art in the style of the poster being called Dadaism.

The most intriguing part of the book was a little illustration showing that all ad agencies are owned by the same conglomerate, Publicis Group. Talk about an octopus.

If you're interested in the history of advertising, I'd say it's a good starter book.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 30, 2024 09:00 AM (0eaVi)

3 Happy Sunday

Posted by: rhennigantx at June 30, 2024 09:00 AM (ENQN6)

4 That bench is probably gone now.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 30, 2024 09:00 AM (0eaVi)

5 Country air, scrubbed clean by last night's storms. Grasses green and glistening. Mushrooms freshly popped up. Birds lending their sweet songs. Magnificent simplicity of the heavenly creati...

Dagnabbit! A bug just flew right into my ear!

True story. No malarkey.

G'morn, y'all!

Posted by: mindful webworker's ode to the road at June 30, 2024 09:01 AM (WoU8W)

6 I would wear those pants reading that guilty pleasure.

Posted by: All Hail Eris at June 30, 2024 09:01 AM (kpS4V)

7 Top 10?

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 30, 2024 09:01 AM (omVj0)

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

Posted by: JTB at June 30, 2024 09:02 AM (zudum)

9 Perf, you forgot the word count....

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 30, 2024 09:02 AM (0eaVi)

10 Good morning book threadists.

Posted by: Tonypete at June 30, 2024 09:02 AM (WXNFJ)

11 OK the book thread

lemme get my church glasses

Posted by: Don Black at June 30, 2024 09:03 AM (/7KEl)

12 Less than 200 pages left in Rick Atkinson's The Guns at Last Light, can hardly put it down. Getting to end of the Battle of the Bulge. It covers extremely detailed D-Day to end in western Europe.
This is the 3rd book of 3 and will get An Army at DAWN covering the North African campaign, a favorite as a kid

Posted by: Skip at June 30, 2024 09:03 AM (fwDg9)

13 A chill reading week. Another Loren Estleman Valentino mystery and a Nancy Thayer romance set on Nantucket (no, not the limerick).

Posted by: All Hail Eris at June 30, 2024 09:04 AM (kpS4V)

14 Morning, 'rons and 'ronettes.

From the design of the Enterprise and the uniforms on the cover, I'm presuming The Abode of Life takes place before the complete makeover of the uniforms for Star Trek II.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at June 30, 2024 09:04 AM (Q0kLU)

15 Perf, you forgot the word count....
Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 30, 2024 09:02 AM (0eaVi)
--
I know word count is a far more accurate measure of reading, but it's also a lot more work to dig up the word count for all of my books. Page count is just easier for me to manage.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 30, 2024 09:05 AM (BpYfr)

16 I also read Ursula K. LeGuin's Earthsea series. It's interesting to see how much influence her stories have had on the fantasy genre.

Here's a thought. If LeGuin has changed the genre, does that mean that a writer that doesn't follow along with it, is considered "wrong" in their writing, because "that's not the way it's done?"

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 30, 2024 09:05 AM (0eaVi)

17 Still reading the Oppenheimer book, American Prometheus

I'm up to the part when the House Un-American Activities Committee is bringing pretty much everybody in for questioning

Posted by: Don Black at June 30, 2024 09:05 AM (/7KEl)

18 Patrick O'Brian used Cochrane as the model for a lot of his Master and Commander series, if I'm not mistaken.

Posted by: Dr. T at June 30, 2024 09:05 AM (jGGMD)

19 Currently estimating I will get to read a book again in about 3 years.

I've got some off topic stuff running through my mind, so going to head down to Pixy's thread to write them down.

I'll check in later.

Posted by: Dave in Fla at June 30, 2024 09:06 AM (5p7BC)

20 The excellent thing Rick Atkinson gets to is the pilfering and outright theft of supplies after D-Day, and wastage in equipment just vaporized into the country.
Couldn't recommend this book enough

Posted by: Skip at June 30, 2024 09:07 AM (fwDg9)

21 Unkillable Asshole = band name

Posted by: All Hail Eris at June 30, 2024 09:07 AM (kpS4V)

22 Reading John Fraleigh's A First Course in Abstract Algebra with ChatGPT as my tutor/professor and loving it.

Posted by: Oglebay at June 30, 2024 09:07 AM (ogTiX)

23 From the design of the Enterprise and the uniforms on the cover, I'm presuming The Abode of Life takes place before the complete makeover of the uniforms for Star Trek II.
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at June 30, 2024 09:04 AM (Q0kLU)
----
Correct. The uniforms are evocative of Star Trek: The Motion Picture. However, the novel didn't come out until 1986, well after Wrath of Khan. Kirk is still a Captain in the novel.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 30, 2024 09:07 AM (BpYfr)

24 Morning, Book Folken!

This week I've been plaowing through a collection of short stories, Waiting for Winter, by John O'Hara. I'm kind of underwhelmed. Though his writing is clear and engaging, and you always know who is speaking, and his characters are well-drawn, some of the stories do not seem to *go* anywhere. The kind of stuff that appeared in The New Yorker even sixty years ago, I guess. Though some of these appeared in the Saturday Evening Post during its last decade, and some have been placed in this collection without ever having been published elsewhere.

One tale called "The General" has an eye-opening surprise. Another, "Natica Jackson," about a 1930s up-and-coming H'wood film actress and her love life, has a portrait of evil in the person of Natica's lover's wife that has to be one of the most powerful ever in short fiction.

I picked O'Hara up years ago, and am trying him again now, because the great John D. MacDonald was called "the John O'Hara of crime fiction." I can see their similarities in style and characterization. But John D. tells *stories* that go somewhere, always.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 30, 2024 09:08 AM (omVj0)

25 Dr T that's my understanding on Patrick O'Brian

Posted by: Skip at June 30, 2024 09:08 AM (fwDg9)

26 A chill reading week. Another Loren Estleman Valentino mystery and a Nancy Thayer romance set on Nantucket (no, not the limerick).
Posted by: All Hail Eris at June 30, 2024 09:04 AM (kpS4V)

You've mentioned those Valentino mysteries before, Eris. I remember starting one (it might have been the first) and then putting it down in frustration because Estleman is so much of a better writer than I am and it depresses the hell out of me.

I should pick one up again once I finish my new novel.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at June 30, 2024 09:09 AM (Q0kLU)

27 I'll check in later.
Posted by: Dave in Fla at June 30, 2024 09:06 AM (5p7BC)

OK!

Posted by: runner at June 30, 2024 09:10 AM (V13WU)

28 I hit a couple of used book shops yesterday. Found something Moron Wolfus might find interesting. It's a book of photographs of New Orleans published in 1949 showing, in essence, the city that created its reputation for clean, genteel, southern easy living before sliding into the big, crowded, dirty, crime ridden pest hole that it is today.

Posted by: Oddbob at June 30, 2024 09:10 AM (/y8xj)

29 Unfortunately most of my reading this week has been a policy guidelines document I'm proofreading. I did finish O'Brian's _Treason's Harbor_, which I started back in April, but the book got covered up by other books so I kind of lost track of it.

That, in turn, reminds me of a conversation I had recently about the film _Master and Commander_, which was based on the O'Brian novel _The Far Side of the World_.

Out of that whole series, why did the director pick that one? Was it just that two ships and a big ocean makes for a relatively cheap budget? You don't have to re-create British Malta or an Indonesian sultanate? Or (sigh, politics alert) was the moviemaker worried about the "problematic" aspects of showing the British fighting against threats to their empire in India?

Posted by: Trimegistus at June 30, 2024 09:10 AM (78a2H)

30 In writing news, a short story of mine has been purchased by Raconteur Press. The anthology, All Will Burn 3, is supposed to come out in late July (these guys move fast). When they send me some promotional links, as they say they will, I'll provide them to the Perfessor.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 30, 2024 09:11 AM (omVj0)

31 It's been lawyer week here. First, Perry Mason in "TCOT Counterfeit Eye" from 1935. Gardner was still feeling his way through the series; two supposedly key characters vanish midway through the story. Only one's disappearance was intentional. The other's just gone.

Then across the Atlantic and into the '80s to enjoy some of the cases of Horace Rumpole in "Rumpole and the Age of Miracles." I understand these stories began as "Rumpole of the Bailey" TV scripts.

Speaking of scripts, I've been filling lax periods at work by reading the original of one of my favorite stories, "The Front Page." It's fun to see what lines have been added subsequently -- and, more to the point, what's been taken out. Slurs abound, and Earl Williams isn't a sympathetic figure. Also, the writers put in a lot of remarks that would not transfer to the stage, such as the reporters being "always glad to see whores."

Posted by: Weak Geek at June 30, 2024 09:12 AM (p/isN)

32 OrangeEnt --

Don't feel like the Lone Ranger re: paperback print size. I don't even consider mass market paperbacks any more for that reason, and some trade paperbacks aren't much better. (15 years ago I bought a Penguin pbk of a Stewart O'Nan novel from Amazon and put it on the donate pile the day it arrived because I knew on page one I'd never be able to read the thing) Hardcover or Kindle these days and even some hardcovers are iffy.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at June 30, 2024 09:12 AM (q3u5l)

33 Master and Commander is a buddy movie

Posted by: Don Black at June 30, 2024 09:12 AM (/7KEl)

34 In writing news, a short story of mine has been purchased by Raconteur Press. The anthology, All Will Burn 3, is supposed to come out in late July (these guys move fast). When they send me some promotional links, as they say they will, I'll provide them to the Perfessor.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 30, 2024 09:11 AM (omVj0)
---
I look forward to it!

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 30, 2024 09:12 AM (BpYfr)

35 30 In writing news, a short story of mine has been purchased by Raconteur Press. The anthology, All Will Burn 3, is supposed to come out in late July (these guys move fast). When they send me some promotional links, as they say they will, I'll provide them to the Perfessor.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 30, 2024 09:11 AM (omVj0)

+++++

Awesome - congrats! Looking forward to reading it.

Posted by: Oglebay at June 30, 2024 09:12 AM (ogTiX)

36 Quick one, as I have to get to Mass:

Just started Erik Larson's newest, "The Demon of Unrest". I'm about 50 pages in, and I am disappoint, to put it mildly.
I love Larson's books, but this one is kind of a mess.
In the intro, he compares J6 to Fort Sumter and calls those calling for possible secession "benighted", without considering that actions that look similar may have different causes.

I'm thinking this is setting the tone for the whole work.
I will give it a few more chapters.

Posted by: sal: tolle adversarium et afflige inimicum at June 30, 2024 09:14 AM (y7DxH)

37 I hit a couple of used book shops yesterday. Found something Moron Wolfus might find interesting. It's a book of photographs of New Orleans published in 1949 showing, in essence, the city that created its reputation for clean, genteel, southern easy living before sliding into the big, crowded, dirty, crime ridden pest hole that it is today.
Posted by: Oddbob at June 30, 2024

***
You are right about the pesthole. I'm not sure it was ever clean and genteel except for certain posher neighborhoods. Roads were bad, drainage was poor, and the civic corruption had to be seen to be believed. (Pretty much like now.) It used to be a pretty inexpensive place to live -- but not no mo'. What's the title and author? Maybe my college library has it.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 30, 2024 09:14 AM (omVj0)

38 I know word count is a far more accurate measure of reading, but it's also a lot more work to dig up the word count for all of my books. Page count is just easier for me to manage.
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 30, 2024 09:05 AM (BpYfr)

Well, I wasn't really expecting it.

Besides, I've never seen a book telling its word count. I guess you could estimate....

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 30, 2024 09:14 AM (0eaVi)

39 In between pointless scribbling, I picked up The Cleopatras: The Forgotten Queens of Egypt, which is a history of the seven women who bore the name, which, as it turns out, wasn't Egyptian at all, as the first (Cleopatra Syra) was, as her name implies, born and raised in Syria before being given in marriage to Ptolemy V.

It's a well-researched and surprisingly well-written book; my only quibble is that the author uses that imbecilic "BCE" and "CE' dating system. Seeing that tempted me to put the book back on the library shelf, but I am sticking with it. So far.

https://tinyurl.com/4y8en47u

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at June 30, 2024 09:15 AM (Q0kLU)

40 Steven, your bird is flightless?
Yes
It's not going anywhere

Posted by: Skip at June 30, 2024 09:15 AM (fwDg9)

41 In State of Fear, I always wondered if the actor character, Ted Bradley, was an actual TV actor Crichton apparently detested. Any thoughts on who it might be?

Posted by: EveR at June 30, 2024 09:16 AM (MUpk6)

42 Congratulations Wolfus Aurelius!

Posted by: Huck Follywood at June 30, 2024 09:16 AM (Yb/r/)

43 Hey-yay, Wolfus! Great news!

Posted by: Weak Geek at June 30, 2024 09:16 AM (p/isN)

44 Family emergency, must run.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at June 30, 2024 09:16 AM (Q0kLU)

45 I read The Spies In Warsaw by Alan Furst. This is the tenth book in The Night Soldiers series. Lt-Colonel Mercier is the military attache at the French embassy in Warsaw in the late 1930's; that is to say he is the chief spy. He gathers German tank specifications from a recruit, exfiltrates a married couple who are Russian spies and are facing one of Stalin's show trials, and finally gets information from the German war planning staff that the invasion of France will come through the forests of Belgium. His superiors in Paris discount the information because they think it is impossible for tanks to traverse a forest. Two years later they were proved wrong. An exciting tale where one learns a little history along the way.

Posted by: Glenn Mackett at June 30, 2024 09:16 AM (rGaN8)

46 You've mentioned those Valentino mysteries before, Eris. I remember starting one (it might have been the first) and then putting it down in frustration because Estleman is so much of a better writer than I am and it depresses the hell out of me.

I should pick one up again once I finish my new novel.
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at June 30, 2024

***
I read almost everything Estleman produces, because he is a very good storyteller and wordsmith. But some of his narration and dialogue is a little hard to follow now and then, requiring a quick re-scan of the sentence to make sense of the new one.

Still, his crime stuff is very good, and his Westerns, esp. the Page Murdock series, are dynamite.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 30, 2024 09:17 AM (omVj0)

47 The best accounts of battle are often provided by those who were there. Peter Townsend is the author of Duel of Eagles, one of the most insightful accounts of the Battle of Britain. Townsend commanded the 85th fighter unit at the height of the campaign. As Churchill said, the Battle of Britain ranks with the defeat of the Spanish Armada and Nelson defeating Napoleon's combined fleet in importance to the defense of England. Goering had underestimated the size of the RAF, and the tenacity with which they would fight, but here we see what a close run thing it was. At one point Churchill was in fighter command, and asked where the reserves were. "There are none" was the reply. He was so moved that he could not speak on his way back home, and wrote his famous "the few" speech for parliament shortly thereafter. With documentation of the development of both air forces and the thoughts of both German and English combatants, this book truly captures the full story of the Battle of Britain.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at June 30, 2024 09:17 AM (kWYxo)

48 Wolfus,

Re: O'Hara -- if memory serves his short stories tended to be more 'slice of life' so you might try the novella length works in Sermons & Soda Water. The Modern Library did a collection of these a while back (very descriptive title -- The Novellas of John O'Hara) that included Sermons and several others from later collection.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at June 30, 2024 09:17 AM (q3u5l)

49 The excellent thing Rick Atkinson gets to is the pilfering and outright theft of supplies after D-Day, and wastage in equipment just vaporized into the country.
Couldn't recommend this book enough
Posted by: Skip at June 30, 2024 09:07 AM (fwDg9)

Pfft. Nothing new there.

Posted by: Gaza Pier at June 30, 2024 09:17 AM (0eaVi)

50 I am reading "Forty Days With John Wesley by Reuben Job, who was a former Bishop in the Methodist Church. It contains a prayer, scripture, portions of Wesley's sermons, reflections and a blessing from the scriptures. I like it very much.

I am also reading "The Essential Writings of Christian Mysticism" edited by Bernard McGinn.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at June 30, 2024 09:17 AM (oUxZc)

51 Posted by: Don Black at June 30, 2024 09:12 AM (/7KEl)

I have the movie on hold from the library. I loved the book.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at June 30, 2024 09:19 AM (oUxZc)

52 Good Sunday morning, horde!

I read Glitter Girl by James Y Bartlett. It was mildly entertaining, but I doubt I'll read any further in the Swamp Yankee series. Just OK for me.

I'm undecided on what to read next. Nothing is grabbing my interest. I did get a Thriftbooks order this week, which included Krakatoa by Simon Winchester. That might be a good change from my usual fare.

And a co-worker recommended to me A Woman of Valor: Clara Barton and the Civil War, by Stephen B. Oates. Might give that one a try.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at June 30, 2024 09:19 AM (OX9vb)

53 Working on projects for the Teeny Publishing Bidness, about halfway through the next book project - and I took a flyer on a mystery novel that was mentioned on the Book Thread a couple of weeks ago: Preston & Child's series with archeologist Norah Kelly. "Old Bones" sounded like an interesting premise, concerning the historic Donner Party.
Nope - just didn't grab me sufficiently. Premise for the overall mystery improbable, plot details unlikely, characters seemed thin and unmemorable, and the price of $10+ for a kindle version is something I will only pay for a book by an author whose books I deeply adore. Honestly, I think I will go on sticking to books by indy authors, or who aren't looking to wring every penny out of readers.
I know from comments here that the Agent Pendergast series has fans, but I'm just not intrigued. I bailed from Charles Todd's Inspector Rutledge series for pretty much the same reasons.

Posted by: Sgt. Mom at June 30, 2024 09:19 AM (Ew3fm)

54 Congratulations Wolfus Aurelius!
Posted by: Huck Follywood at June 30, 2024

***
Thanks! The story is a fantasy I wrote some years ago, after reading about the ghost town that once straddled the Texas-New Mexico border. But it is not a ghost story or a Western. "Ant Farm" is the title, and it's set in August of 1941.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 30, 2024 09:19 AM (omVj0)

55 The pic of the book bench reminds me of one of the niftier pieces of cover art I've seen lately.

Hop over to Amazon and look up the listing for Jonathan Carroll's The Land of Laughs -- not the earlier editions but the one forthcoming in July -- and zoom in on the cover illo. I've got the book in an earlier edition, but I may buy the new one just for the new cover.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at June 30, 2024 09:21 AM (q3u5l)

56 Well, I wasn't really expecting it. Besides, I've never seen a book telling its word count. I guess you could estimate....
Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 30, 2024 09:14 AM (0eaVi)
---
Yeah, at best you will find an estimate. Also, do you include front/end matter? For instance, State of Fear has some author's notes and a bibliography. Should I count those?

I go by the page count of the story, leaving out end matter (appendices, end notes, bibliographies, etc.) It's always going to be an approximation, but it's good enough for what I want to convey.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 30, 2024 09:21 AM (BpYfr)

57 I think you missed a major point in "State of Fear. That is that big industry and the government have a vested interest in keeping the general public in a constant state of fear over some perceived threat to maintain control over them. Think about it.

Posted by: Ray at June 30, 2024 09:21 AM (Y6wK3)

58 Taking a break from reading "The Life of Lenin" (700 pages, small print and heavily detailed), I managed to finish up Thomas Sowell's autobiography, "A Personal Odyssey." The book is a very light read - too light! Did you know that early on in Sowell's post-high school college days, Sowell was somewhat of a maven on Marx and perhaps even loving it? I say perhaps because the book is a bit ambiguous about that stage of his life's philosophical outlook. Maybe I skimmed something more clarifying but it couldn't have been more than a sentence or two.

Make no mistake about it, Sowell is a wonderful conservative classic libertarian non-party affiliated intellectual. Those are hard to find nowdays, especially in politics where they're needed. Sowell throughout his lifetime turned down numerous political career offers.

(cont.)

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at June 30, 2024 09:21 AM (ilFrm)

59 Re: O'Hara -- if memory serves his short stories tended to be more 'slice of life' so you might try the novella length works in Sermons & Soda Water. The Modern Library did a collection of these a while back (very descriptive title -- The Novellas of John O'Hara) that included Sermons and several others from later collection.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at June 30, 2024

***
Yes, the longer stories in this volume seem better. I've read several of his novels, mostly the ones made into movies like Butterfield 8 and A Rage to Live.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 30, 2024 09:21 AM (omVj0)

60 (cont.)

The main thrust of the book is Sowell's being born black in America in 1930 and his paths to success through the military in WWII, through universities, jobs, the civil rights movement and that movement's heavy baggage. Sowell was no fan of reverse discrimination. He remains forever an unwavoring advocate of meritocricy, whether in education or in employment.

As I said, this book is very light on Sowell's life works and principles. There is a lot of personal family and relationship storytelling, yet it never goes overboard in minute detail.

After closing the book, I'm left with a curiosity that I need to research a bit about Sowell's writings and presentations. Maybe that's what the author was hoping his readers would do.

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at June 30, 2024 09:21 AM (ilFrm)

61 I did read one of furst precursor efforts spy trade its sort of a series of stories where some operators interact with each other but more sloppily than his series beginning with night soldiers there are vignettes of scenes in angola laos kurdistan et al

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at June 30, 2024 09:21 AM (PXvVL)

62 That is a great bench up top..

Congratulations on the short story, Wolfus.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at June 30, 2024 09:22 AM (oUxZc)

63 What's the title and author? Maybe my college library has it.

New Orleans, Stuart M. Lynn, Bonanza Books, 1949

Posted by: Oddbob at June 30, 2024 09:22 AM (/y8xj)

64 Simmons' Hyperion Cantos is required SF reading.

Posted by: Captain Ned at June 30, 2024 09:22 AM (lcmeR)

65 Okay, here's one thing about _Master and Commander_ that puzzled me: the film emphasized Stephen Maturin's scientific interests, but basically ignored his role as a spy. Seems like that's leaving out a lot of the best stuff in the series.

That's why I'd go with something like _HMS Surprise_. Imagine the pitch: "James Bond and Captain Kirk in colonial India."

Posted by: Trimegistus at June 30, 2024 09:24 AM (78a2H)

66 Thanks to Tuna or whoever mentioned Judi Dench's "Shakespeare the Man Who Pays the Rent. Got a library copy this week and I am impressed. The book started out as a series of audio interviews intended for the Royal Shakespeare Company. She discusses the characters she has played (and there are a lot of them), the different approaches, and how and, more importantly, why she played them that way. This sounds rather academic but it is done like a casual conversation that happens to include a lot of information. She provides a lot of insight into how a scene is effective because of the way it is played. Very different from just reading the plays. The book is very informative and entertaining. I expect to end up with my own copy.

Dench has a robust sense of humor and has no problem with the occasional F bomb. She is pretty much retired due to her diminishing eyesight but mentally she is very sharp. Also, she does a number of sketches used in the book. They are sort of scribbles with pen and ink but she manages to convey just what she wants.

If you are interested in Shakespeare's plays and why they are so effective, this is a good book to go with.

Posted by: JTB at June 30, 2024 09:24 AM (zudum)

67 What's the title and author? Maybe my college library has it.
*
New Orleans, Stuart M. Lynn, Bonanza Books, 1949
Posted by: Oddbob at June 30, 2024

***
I'll have a look, though it may be in Rare Books or the "Offsite Depository."

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 30, 2024 09:24 AM (omVj0)

68 My favorite Leguin book is The Lathe of Heaven. It was also made into a surprisingly good TV movie. Another notable book is The Dispossessed, which is an interesting but difficult read. The chapters are interleaved, with one set moving forward in time and the other moving backwards. So you start with both the beginning and the end, and by the end of the book, you get to the middle.

Posted by: MichiCanuck at June 30, 2024 09:24 AM (vbH4y)

69 Anybody else collect Modern Library editions of used books? I mean, I'm sure everybody has a few or more, but I go out of my way to find stuff I want to read in that format.

Posted by: Biff Pocoroba at June 30, 2024 09:24 AM (Dm8we)

70 I am pleased to say that a Moron who came to me a few years ago as a result of the Book Thread is almost ready for book publication (which I am handling). The manuscript was shortlisted for a BookLife award, sponsored by Publishers Weekly, and scored a 10 out of ten for quality of story and writing. A splashy book launch and ad campaign are in the works. Can't wait to send the Book Thread a copy for review.

Posted by: Elaine Ash at June 30, 2024 09:25 AM (UQO0B)

71 Posted by: Just Some Guy at June 30, 2024 09:12 AM (q3u5l)

JSG, this was a book I've had for decades. Just looking for something to finally read. Hardbound books are fine, just the old style paperbacks are out of the reading comfort zone. That's one reason for creating an Internet Archive account. Besides, it's free.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 30, 2024 09:25 AM (0eaVi)

72 good morning Perfessor, Horde

Posted by: callsign claymore at June 30, 2024 09:25 AM (JcnCJ)

73 30 In writing news, a short story of mine has been purchased by Raconteur Press. The anthology, All Will Burn 3, is supposed to come out in late July (these guys move fast). When they send me some promotional links, as they say they will, I'll provide them to the Perfessor.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 30, 2024 09:11 AM (omVj0)

Hey, congratulations! I look forward to seeing it!

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at June 30, 2024 09:25 AM (OX9vb)

74 Morning all.
My reading for pleasure has been curtailed by current events. It seems my need to be constantly updated about the news of the day has caused me to spend more time on the internet. So, I am still reading but not happy about it.
I am still reading People of the Book and I understand why people are so high on it. It is a very well crafted story interspersed with Jewish history I never knew about. However, thee is much cruelty in the story and watching protesters in the US calling for death to Jews and saying We are Hamas makes what is going on today all too real.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at June 30, 2024 09:25 AM (t/2Uw)

75 So relax, find yourself a warm kitty (or warm puppy--I won't judge)

This is straight-up feline supremacy, and we approve.

Posted by: Brattleboro w at June 30, 2024 09:26 AM (Xnrdt)

76 Just started to read 'Lee's Lieutenants: A Study in Command' by Douglas S Freeman. It's a one volume abridgement and been sitting in my bookcase for over 15 years.

I don't remember when or where I got it.

Posted by: dantesed at June 30, 2024 09:27 AM (Oy/m2)

77 NUMBER OF PAGES READ: 33,301

**********

Serious question. Can you explain the significance of this bit of information?

Posted by: Muldoon at June 30, 2024 09:29 AM (uCfKO)

78 Anybody else collect Modern Library editions of used books? I mean, I'm sure everybody has a few or more, but I go out of my way to find stuff I want to read in that format.
Posted by: Biff Pocoroba at June 30, 2024

***
Not collecting per se, no, but I have two I bought in the Sixties: Haycraft's Fourteen Great Detective Stories and the Three Famous Murder Novels volume with an intro by Bennett Cerf. The former has stories from Poe, Melville Davisson Post, Dorothy L. Sayers, Ellery Queen, and Rex Stout. The latter contains Before the Fact by Francis Iles (the basis for the Hitchcock film Suspicion) and Trent's Last Case by E.C. Bentley.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 30, 2024 09:29 AM (omVj0)

79 This is straight-up feline supremacy
Posted by: Brattleboro w at June 30, 2024 09:26 AM (Xnrdt)
-

Just come out and say "the catriarchy."

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at June 30, 2024 09:31 AM (ilFrm)

80 Watching Australia GP whole reading here

Congratulations Wolfus

Posted by: Skip at June 30, 2024 09:31 AM (fwDg9)

81 Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at June 30, 2024 09:09 AM (Q0kLU)
----

Poppins, you are a unique voice and we want to read more! Please don't compare yourself to other authors. Let it instead whet the desire to write.

Posted by: All Hail Eris at June 30, 2024 09:31 AM (kpS4V)

82 NUMBER OF PAGES READ: 33,301

**********

Serious question. Can you explain the significance of this bit of information?
Posted by: Muldoon at June 30, 2024 09:29 AM (uCfKO)
-

In Yiddish, it's called schvitzing.

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at June 30, 2024 09:32 AM (ilFrm)

83 70 Way to tease those of us who are faithful book threadists. Who is it? When does it come out? Shouldn't we be the first to know?

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at June 30, 2024 09:32 AM (t/2Uw)

84 Last week I mentioned reading some of Donald Hamilton's non-Helm books. Glad I did. Smoky Valley is one of his westerns. It is very cinematic and I believe it was made into a movie. He makes it easy for the reader to see the places, action and characters. As usual, he builds the suspense to the final confrontation and follows with a nice denouement. And, of course, the guns in the story are accurately shown.

Going to non-fiction, "Cruises With Kathleen" describes how he designed and sailed his boat after he got tired of powered craft. (You can follow that shift and interest in his Matt Helm books.) He brings the reader along with the whole process and situations. The book includes the usual Hamilton opinions and preferences and why they are good or bad. There is information and dry humor and he keeps the account moving. If the Matt Helm character were to write this, it would be the same. A very pleasant read.

Posted by: JTB at June 30, 2024 09:34 AM (zudum)

85

Poppins, you are a unique voice and we want to read more! Please don't compare yourself to other authors. Let it instead whet the desire to write.
Posted by: All Hail Eris at June 30, 2024

***
Exactly, MPPPP. I've often been discouraged by looking at other authors' work in my favorite genres, because, it seems to me, my stuff isn't anything like theirs. Well, I've come realize that's a good thing! If you can't find the kind of book you want to read -- write it!

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 30, 2024 09:35 AM (omVj0)

86 Good morning, Sharon. You had other stuff to do last Sunday, so we didn't talk about The Running Grave.

I finished it, and I agree that it's the best yet.

Great treatment of the cult world, and how people can be drawn in and convinced of things. And the revelation at the end--will be interested in seeing how that shakes out in subsequent books.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at June 30, 2024 09:35 AM (OX9vb)

87 Fenelonspoke, I have to know -- did you watch that movie last night?

Posted by: All Hail Eris at June 30, 2024 09:35 AM (kpS4V)

88 Serious question. Can you explain the significance of this bit of information?
Posted by: Muldoon at June 30, 2024 09:29 AM (uCfKO)
---
It has absolutely no significance whatsoever.

File it away under the most useless bit of trivia ever devised by man.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 30, 2024 09:36 AM (BpYfr)

89 "My favorite Leguin book is The Lathe of Heaven. It was also made into a surprisingly good TV movie."

I am no fan of sci fi or fantasy, but I did see that TV movie when it aired. It has haunted me for a long time. It was filmed in Dallas where I lived for 10 years, so that made it feel pretty close to home.

Posted by: Art Rondelet of Malmsey at June 30, 2024 09:37 AM (FEVMW)

90 Want to say I accidentally saw the pants once a very long time ago but would like to guess those who would buy them today don't own a weed wacker if you catch my drift.

Actually looked where that is today and have no idea how you see them

Posted by: Skip at June 30, 2024 09:38 AM (fwDg9)

91 Zaporozhye has been under Russian control since before the war, so I'm betting it's still mostly standing, but who knows.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at June 30, 2024 09:39 AM (0FoWg)

92 I go by the page count of the story, leaving out end matter (appendices, end notes, bibliographies, etc.) It's always going to be an approximation, but it's good enough for what I want to convey.
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 30, 2024 09:21 AM (BpYfr)

If you read it, count it. At least, that's my opinion. The back of cereal boxes count too! I think the current thought is approximately 350 words per page. Multiply by page count. But, I'd bet font and paper size changes it.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 30, 2024 09:39 AM (0eaVi)

93 In Yiddish, it's called schvitzing.
Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs

*******

Okay, I'll admit you lost me there. To sweat?

Posted by: Muldoon at June 30, 2024 09:40 AM (uCfKO)

94 Its where the reactor was

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at June 30, 2024 09:40 AM (PXvVL)

95 I guess I'm just egotistical or something, because my main comparison of my own work with that of others is "I can do better than that!" And when I make the attempt, I usually feel as though I've succeeded. My sales may not support that, but I know perfectly well how much marketing and network effects can affect that. (And I know I suck at marketing and networking.)

There are about five (living) writers in my field who I genuinely believe I can never equal or surpass. But as to the rest of them . . . it's on, boys and girls!

Posted by: Trimegistus at June 30, 2024 09:41 AM (78a2H)

96 Dash, this is what makes this thread so much fun. I know she's involved in the Harry Pottr television series. I hope it doesn't keep her from writing the next book.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at June 30, 2024 09:41 AM (t/2Uw)

97 'Master and Commander' will always be one of the better Star Trek movies...

Read Vince Milam's latest Case Lee thriller, and enjoyed it quite a bit. Thank you, sir!

Currently working through D.W. Pasulka's works on Otherworldly Encounters, inner development, and globe-spanning intelligence. Far out, man...

Posted by: Brewingfrog at June 30, 2024 09:42 AM (Rwiut)

98 Darn it. Big black Stirling cat (he who is also known, since an incident last evening, as Goblet Killer) wants to sit in my lap. But I can't participate in the Book Thread with him on me. What to do . . .

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 30, 2024 09:42 AM (omVj0)

99 What's the significance of 33,301?

Well, it's a pretty big prime number...

Posted by: PabloD at June 30, 2024 09:43 AM (swb5m)

100 A group of experts, so wide-ranged as to have little in common, I call a "Crichton ".

Spielberg casting annoying Malcom as sexy-man Jeff Goldblum, no homo, was a good choice. Also making Hammond sympathetic.

Earthsea books felt ancient. It seems like she delved into the wizard and witch archetype as much as Tolkien ever did.

Current rotation:

Rigged by Molly Hemingway
The Ancient City by de Coulanges, recommended by Auron MacIntyre
RE Howard Conan the Cimmerian omnibus
Alcatraz vs the Evil Librarians by Brandon Sanderson. I could not resist the title, and it is wonderful to discover such a prolific writer, even if I am behind the curve on this

I dropped the Elon Musk biography, because I imagine his most-interesting days are ahead not behind.

Posted by: BourbonChicken at June 30, 2024 09:43 AM (lhenN)

101 Rereading the Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons. Partly due to the prompting of "Perfessor" Squirrel

I last read this 20 yers ago. Finished Hyperion last night. This is world-class literature disguised as rip-roaring Space Opera. Every page pulsates in spectrums if colors as if thrown onto the page with a peristaltic pump.

I've been reading lesser works, but it is good to wait before rereading this Hugo winning masterpiece.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at June 30, 2024 09:43 AM (u82oZ)

102 That the ukrainians insisted on shelling it popped up in one of valerie plames attempts at a spy novel which features a chechen nuclear scientists who steal uranium from the reactor there but the twist is the big baddy is dick cheney (sort of)

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at June 30, 2024 09:43 AM (PXvVL)

103 Good Morning!

Let's smile & be happy & strike fear into the heart of killjoy leftists everywhere.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at June 30, 2024 09:43 AM (u82oZ)

104 I went to the coast this week, and we dropped by Bob's Books in Lincoln City, where I picked up a Manning Cole's mystery novel.

Posted by: Kindltot at June 30, 2024 09:44 AM (D7oie)

105 I wonder if the Kirk-and-Spock dynamic between Aubrey and Maturin is one reason O'Brian's books have such a strong following among SF fans?

Posted by: Trimegistus at June 30, 2024 09:44 AM (78a2H)

106 I lucked into a nice surprise at the local Ollie's discount store. A hardcover of "The Complete Fiction of H. P. Lovecraft" was on the bottom shelf for 9 bucks and there was a storewide sale so I got it for 15 percent less than that. Seven dollars and change for a well made Lovecraft compendium, versus 15 from Amazon, is a good deal. It's easy to imagine Lovecraft's works being cancelled or 'improved' by some editorial numb nuts for young readers and I wanted a copy that can't be messed with. This is like stockpiling treasure.

This approach makes my bookshelves groan but insulates me from woke culture BS.

Posted by: JTB at June 30, 2024 09:44 AM (zudum)

107 This week I finally finished up a comic book collection that has been sitting on my currently-being-read shelf for over a year; "The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu Omnibus 1." It was a back-and-white anthology comic/magazine from Marvel. I bought it because: I was on a kung fu kick, it was cheap (or at least steeply discounted), and because one of Marvel's other back-and-white comic/magazines (The Savage Sword of Conan) produced some of the best comics I've ever read. I was hoping for more of that from this collection, but I was wrong.

The book is cheap shlock. I don't mind the schlock, its the cheapness that gets to me. Nearly every story in the book takes place in modern (well, 70's) New York, or occasionally LA. The stories are essentially super-hero stores with a kung fu veneer, with all the cheesy set-ups on corny overly-expository dialogue that goes with super-hero stories of the era. There is practically nothing exotic in the collection. We don't visit feudal Japan, or Imperial China, or any similarly inspired fantasy world. Which is infuriating, because it's a comic book, and it shouldn't be any more expensive to draw an exotic setting than a mundane modern one...

Posted by: Castle Guy at June 30, 2024 09:45 AM (Lhaco)

108 she's involved in the Harry Pottr television series. I hope it doesn't keep her from writing the next book.
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at June 30, 2024 09:41 AM (t/2Uw)

Oh, I wasn't aware of that. I hope not, too. This is the bad thing about series. We get involved, and have to wait.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at June 30, 2024 09:45 AM (OX9vb)

109 Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 30, 2024 09:36 AM (BpYfr)

*******

Ah. Thanks.

Posted by: Muldoon at June 30, 2024 09:46 AM (uCfKO)

110 Posted by: Elaine Ash

Just FYI, if you want that link to work, you need to include the whole "http://" stuff in the URL box.

Posted by: Oddbob at June 30, 2024 09:46 AM (/y8xj)

111 Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks (1636):

O sultan, Turkish devil and damned devil’s kith and kin, secretary to Lucifer himself. What the devil kind of knight are thou, that canst not slay a hedgehog with your naked arse? The devil shits, and your army eats. Thou shalt not, thou son of a whore, make subjects of Christian sons; we have no fear of your army, by land and by sea we will battle with thee, f##k thy mother.

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

So the Zaporozhians declare, you lowlife. You won’t even be herding pigs for the Christians. Now we’ll conclude, for we don’t know the date and don’t own a calendar; the moon’s in the sky, the year with the Lord, the day’s the same over here as it is over there; for this kiss our arse!

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at June 30, 2024 09:47 AM (0FoWg)

112 I don't normally post on this thread, because I don't read much anymore, but I read the first couple chapters of "The Mighty Moo: The USS Cowpens and Her Epic WWII Journey From Jinx Ship to the Navy's First Carrier in Tokyo Bay."

The author's grandfather was on the ship.

The Cowpens was a CVL or "light carrier" built upon what originally was going to be a Cruiser. That part of the story is interesting in its own right.

There were 8 built... the first, "Independence" is the class ship. The Cowpens was the 8th.

I've put the e-book down as there are some "distractions" I've got to deal with for the next couple days. But it appears to be interesting.

Posted by: Martini Farmer at June 30, 2024 09:47 AM (Q4IgG)

113 Ursula K. Leguin is one of those rare literary-oriented SF writers whose stuff often works as good storytelling. Her Left Hand of Darkness I re-read during the Sniffle Scare and was impressed all over again. Possibly I read The Dispossessed once and don't remember it; and all I can recall of The Lathe of Heaven is some dim image of an intelligent turtle-like creature, or at least an alien with some kind of shell (?).

Larry Niven is on record as saying, if literature teachers want some suggestions of what SF to choose, LHoD is a good choice. He said, "It's good by their standards as well as our [meaning, SF readers and writers] own."

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 30, 2024 09:47 AM (omVj0)

114 Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 30, 2024 09:36 AM (BpYfr)

*******

Ah. Thanks.
Posted by: Muldoon at June 30, 2024 09:46 AM (uCfKO)
---
the fact that 33,301 is a prime number does make it mildly interesting...

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 30, 2024 09:48 AM (BpYfr)

115 @107 --

Castle Guy, are the Jack of Hearts stories in that omnibus?

Posted by: Weak Geek at June 30, 2024 09:48 AM (p/isN)

116 My first book thread thrilling moment was when OM posted my review of A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness. I then read all 4 of her books and watched the three seasons based on the books by the BBC.
Just saw that she has written a 5th book due out soon.The Blackbird Oracle continuing the All Souls saga.
I can't wait.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at June 30, 2024 09:49 AM (t/2Uw)

117 I went to the coast this week, and we dropped by Bob's Books in Lincoln City, where I picked up a Manning Cole's mystery novel.
Posted by: Kindltot at June 30, 2024

***
One of the Tommy Hambledon spy stories? TH was a forerunner of James Bond without the hardboiled edge and with a flash of humor now and then.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 30, 2024 09:50 AM (omVj0)

118 In Yiddish, it's called schvitzing.
Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs

*******

Okay, I'll admit you lost me there. To sweat?
Posted by: Muldoon at June 30, 2024 09:40 AM (uCfKO)
-

To sweat is the literal meaning. It is very often used to mean "boast", as in:

"Ever since Marvin inherited a fortune from his uncle Shmelka, he's become such a schvitzer, doing donuts and driving that Bugatti around the neighborhood!"

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at June 30, 2024 09:51 AM (ilFrm)

119 I love those Tommy Hambledon spy novels. I discovered them quite by accident at an antique store. One of my favorite purchases.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at June 30, 2024 09:52 AM (OX9vb)

120 Way to tease those of us who are faithful book threadists. Who is it? When does it come out? Shouldn't we be the first to know?
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at June 30, 2024 09:32 AM (t/2Uw)

Well, it's not me. Nobody wants what I write.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 30, 2024 09:52 AM (0eaVi)

121 Well, it's not me. Nobody wants what I write.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 30, 2024 09:52 AM (0eaVi)
-

I'm trying to remember if anything (joke, short story) I every submitted to Reader's Digest in my youth got published.

I'm drawing a blank.

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at June 30, 2024 09:54 AM (ilFrm)

122 the fact that 33,301 is a prime number does make it mildly interesting...

I (dimly) recall reading a little essay about "interesting" numbers. The author starts off with reasons why 1, 2, etc. are interesting and gets to some number and says, paraphrased "There's nothing interesting about [ x ], which makes it the first uninteresting number. Which is very interesting indeed."

Posted by: Oddbob at June 30, 2024 09:56 AM (/y8xj)

123 (More complaints of "Deadly Hands of Kung Fu Omnibus 1", because the comment box cut me off)

The book isn't all terrible. I found some of the book/movie reviews surprisingly entertaining. And through them I discovered a few titles to keep an eye out for. ("Kiai" by Piers Anthony, and a movie called "Golden Needles" with Joe Don Baker). And there was some decent art towards the end of the book, by Rudy Nebres and George Perez. But, again, their art is wasted on drawing just another New York City street fight. We had a chance to see them drawing a real chop-sockey epic, but, no...

It's a shame. They didn't even bother to give us back-up stories set in olden times. 10-page shorts of a wandering warrior setting things right, or an old monk dispensing wisdom. I have a "Kull the Savage" omnibus where 2/3's of it was just back-up stories from "Savage Sword of Conan", and the book is great.

To sum up, I received more authentic-feeling kung fu fun from "Way of the Rat: The Walls of Zhumar" (A 6-issue trade paperback set in fantasy-China) than I got from the entire "Deadly Hands of Kung Fu Omnibus 1." And, sadly, I already own Omnibus 2. But I'm just not ready to start that yet.

Posted by: Castle Guy at June 30, 2024 09:57 AM (Lhaco)

124 I guess I'm just egotistical or something, because my main comparison of my own work with that of others is "I can do better than that!" And when I make the attempt, I usually feel as though I've succeeded. My sales may not support that, but I know perfectly well how much marketing and network effects can affect that. (And I know I suck at marketing and networking.)

There are about five (living) writers in my field who I genuinely believe I can never equal or surpass. But as to the rest of them . . . it's on, boys and girls!
Posted by: Trimegistus at June 30, 2024 09:41 AM (78a2H)

I don't try to write like anyone else. I read to learn how, but I don't consciously copy anyone. And I've been told that in no uncertain terms!

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 30, 2024 09:57 AM (0eaVi)

125 So many fiction titles, when biographies and history books are so much more interesting, to me.

Posted by: mrp at June 30, 2024 09:57 AM (rj6Yv)

126 111 Repin's painting of Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks is a blast.

Posted by: callsign claymore at June 30, 2024 09:57 AM (JcnCJ)

127 >41 In State of Fear, I always wondered if the actor character, Ted Bradley, was an actual TV actor Crichton apparently detested. Any thoughts on who it might be?

Hmm. . . given the obvious choice between Ted Koppel and Ben Bradlee, I'd say it's either Dan Rather or John Chancellor.

Posted by: SPinRH_F-16 at June 30, 2024 09:57 AM (5CEo8)

128 I love those Tommy Hambledon spy novels. I discovered them quite by accident at an antique store. One of my favorite purchases.
Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at June 30, 2024

***
Flashes of humor now and then. In one novel set during the Nazi era, Green Hazard, a scientist has developed a new explosive, "ulsenite," more powerful than nitroglycerin. Tommy refers to it more than once as "Poppo."

In David McDaniel's U.N.C.L.E. novel the Rainbow Affair, ulsenite appears by name. And TH himself may be in the story. Solo and Illya speak with a British intelligence officer whose name is never given. When two characters, clearly John Steed and Mrs. Peel, appear, the unnamed officer calls her "you little minx."

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 30, 2024 09:58 AM (omVj0)

129 Love the bench in th top pic

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at June 30, 2024 09:58 AM (Ka3bZ)

130 I don't normally post on this thread, because I don't read much anymore, but I read the first couple chapters of "The Mighty Moo: The USS Cowpens and Her Epic WWII Journey From Jinx Ship to the Navy's First Carrier in Tokyo Bay."

The author's grandfather was on the ship.

The Cowpens was a CVL or "light carrier" built upon what originally was going to be a Cruiser. That part of the story is interesting in its own right.

There were 8 built... the first, "Independence" is the class ship. The Cowpens was the 8th.

I've put the e-book down as there are some "distractions" I've got to deal with for the next couple days. But it appears to be interesting.

Posted by: Martini Farmer at June 30, 2024 09:47 AM (Q4IgG)

I ordered a copy last week...Cowpens is just up the road from me. Gonna' try to make the "Mighty Moo" festival this year.

Posted by: BignJames at June 30, 2024 09:59 AM (AwYPR)

131 I've been reading the "Amphigorey" volumes by Edward Gorey. They are very entertaining.

Posted by: BeckoningChasm at June 30, 2024 09:59 AM (CHHv1)

132 _Guten Morgen_, book Horders.

USEUCOM just upped their Force Protection Condition to "OMG" for the next several days.

I'm hoping it goes back to "MEH" and not up to "WTF" soon.

Posted by: SPinRH_F-16 at June 30, 2024 09:59 AM (5CEo8)

133 Reading Twain's _The Innocents Abroad_. They're in Paris right now. I'm hoping they get to Germany before long. I always enjoyed his essay _The Awful German Language_.

Posted by: SPinRH_F-16 at June 30, 2024 10:00 AM (5CEo8)

134 46 ... "I read almost everything Estleman produces, because he is a very good storyteller and wordsmith."

Hi Wolfus (and congratulations on the sale),
Agree about Estleman's writing. I haven't read any of his stuff recently but I should correct that. I was especially fond of his westerns and Valentino stories.

I believe he still writes all his books on a manual typewriter. Bless him.

Posted by: JTB at June 30, 2024 10:00 AM (zudum)

135 Perfesser, wanna read/reread Riddle Master of Hed?
It's a long time favorite of mine though I haven't reread it in a while

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at June 30, 2024 10:01 AM (Ka3bZ)

136 I'm about to get started on Sword Bearer, book 8 in the Tiger and Del series from Jennifer Roberson.

I read the first book when it came out in 1986 and was hooked on the series ever since. The fact there is a new one was a pleasant surprise to me.

Posted by: NR Pax at June 30, 2024 10:01 AM (tt23h)

137 I am still reading People of the Book and I understand why people are so high on it. It is a very well crafted story interspersed with Jewish history I never knew about.

Sharon-
I'm about half way through Paul Johnson's "A History of The Jews". It's been really interesting to fill in all the gaps of my knowledge on this topic, so if that's also of interest to you, I recommend it.

Posted by: Archimedes at June 30, 2024 10:02 AM (xCA6C)

138 @123 --

Ah, Way of the Rat! Chuck Dixon goodness.

I was so sorry when CrossGen collapsed. We lost so many great titles.

Posted by: Weak Geek at June 30, 2024 10:03 AM (p/isN)

139 This is the 3rd book of 3 and will get An Army at DAWN covering the North African campaign, a favorite as a kid
Posted by: Skip at June 30, 2024 09:03 AM (fwDg9)
---
I remember reading this and being disappointed. It focused on a few personalities, but the bigger operational details simply weren't there. I'm not saying it was badly written, but I returned it to the friend who loaned it to me disappointed.

To be clear, this isn't Antony Beevor territory. That guy's a disgrace to the profession.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 30, 2024 10:03 AM (llXky)

140 Here's a question that came to mind while browsing used books yesterday. How big a monster would it make me to buy an old, but not particularly valuable, book just for the purpose of breaking it apart and mounting the full page illustrations?

Posted by: Oddbob at June 30, 2024 10:04 AM (/y8xj)

141 16 I also read Ursula K. LeGuin's Earthsea series. It's interesting to see how much influence her stories have had on the fantasy genre.

Here's a thought. If LeGuin has changed the genre, does that mean that a writer that doesn't follow along with it, is considered "wrong" in their writing, because "that's not the way it's done?"
Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 30, 2024 09:05 AM (0eaVi)

These days, that would probably just put the offending author into some sub-genre. "Gritty Fantasy" or "Low Fantasy" or however a reviewer wants to describe the way the author deviated from the norm.

Posted by: Castle Guy at June 30, 2024 10:05 AM (Lhaco)

142 One of the Tommy Hambledon spy stories? TH was a forerunner of James Bond without the hardboiled edge and with a flash of humor now and then.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 30, 2024 09:50 AM (omVj0)

Not negotiable, which apparently is about counterfeit banknotes. Tommy Hambledon seems much more like PG Wodehouse meets Len Deighton, all hail well met, fellows style adventure followed by someone getting a steel knitting needle in the ear

Posted by: Kindltot at June 30, 2024 10:05 AM (D7oie)

143 In reading news, I'm re-reading Evelyn Waugh's Helena, a small book about the mother of Constantine the Great. It was Waugh's favorite book and he was disappointed by its poor reception.

I think a lot of authors are like that - unhappy when the book they really think was great is overlooked by the reading public.

I'm not in the boat - my best-selling book is the one I like best, Long Live Death. I'm sure one reason why it sells and the topic holds my interest is our current political situation.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 30, 2024 10:05 AM (llXky)

144 In State of Fear, I always wondered if the actor character, Ted Bradley, was an actual TV actor Crichton apparently detested. Any thoughts on who it might be?

I was envisioning Matt Damon. The interesting thing about the book is that it was written twenty years ago, and is still timely.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at June 30, 2024 10:05 AM (M/bod)

145 Here's a question that came to mind while browsing used books yesterday. How big a monster would it make me to buy an old, but not particularly valuable, book just for the purpose of breaking it apart and mounting the full page illustrations?

My wife's cousin's wife used to do that. It caused me a real twinge, but if the book is in bad shape already, I suppose I can overlook it.

Posted by: Archimedes at June 30, 2024 10:05 AM (xCA6C)

146 Gonna read that Dean Koontz doggy book

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at June 30, 2024 10:06 AM (Ka3bZ)

147 A.H. Lloyd will take it as advise, maybe read lots of reviews.

Posted by: Skip at June 30, 2024 10:06 AM (fwDg9)

148 Tommy Hambledon.

*makes note*

Posted by: Weak Geek at June 30, 2024 10:07 AM (p/isN)

149 Sharon, I have bad news about the latest Patricia Briggs book. (Winter Lost). I am only a few chapters in and already there is a throwaway woke pro-tranny pronouns virtue signal.
Ugh

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at June 30, 2024 10:08 AM (Ka3bZ)

150 Not negotiable, which apparently is about counterfeit banknotes. Tommy Hambledon seems much more like PG Wodehouse meets Len Deighton, all hail well met, fellows style adventure followed by someone getting a steel knitting needle in the ear
Posted by: Kindltot at June 30, 2024

***
From what I know, the WWII stories are more realistic with only bits of humor, but the postwar tales are more lighthearted overall. Like Ellery Queen, Manning Coles was two people, and the "Coles" half, a guy, actually had been a British intelligence officer himself.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 30, 2024 10:08 AM (omVj0)

151 Dune's Jessica: A drop of the Water of Life will revive Paul.
Me: Hair of the dog, huh?

Posted by: BourbonChicken at June 30, 2024 10:09 AM (lhenN)

152 I have nothing but unreserved praise for Dr. Crichton’s State of Fear. I only wish there was an actual government agent today who was willing to fight the climate change hoaxters.

Posted by: Eromero at June 30, 2024 10:09 AM (DQ6WD)

153 the fact that 33,301 is a prime number does make it mildly interesting...

**********

Perhaps. You know what else is mildly interesting?

You could change the name of this thread to "The Reading Thread" only spell it colloquially and have it be...

Th' reading thread

Okay, I'lll admit that is not even mildly interesting. I'll show myself out now.

Posted by: Muldoon at June 30, 2024 10:10 AM (uCfKO)

154 So they sent Kamala out to meet the low life people and be one on them.

She is wearing a $60k neckless.

Posted by: rhennigantx at June 30, 2024 10:11 AM (ENQN6)

155 A.H. Lloyd will take it as advise, maybe read lots of reviews.
Posted by: Skip at June 30, 2024 10:06 AM (fwDg9)
---
I'm not quite sure what you mean, a friend loaned the book to me, I read the jacket and blurbs and simply expected stuff that wasn't there. I guess I was looking for more operational detail rather than a "popular history" that uses a broad brush.

I also think that (with notable exceptions), modern authors aren't as versed in how operations work as some of the older ones.

But people seem to like it, and unlike Beevor, he doesn't just make crap up to score political points.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 30, 2024 10:13 AM (llXky)

156 The Church of Global Warming is a state religion

Posted by: Skip at June 30, 2024 10:13 AM (fwDg9)

157 It's easy to imagine Lovecraft's works being cancelled or 'improved' by some editorial numb nuts for young readers and I wanted a copy that can't be messed with. This is like stockpiling treasure.
=====

You and I know that Bowdlerization is alive and well. Can't have the tender and fragile minds of youth polluted by ideas. /s

Posted by: mustbequantum at June 30, 2024 10:13 AM (MIKMs)

158 Oddbob, it probably depends on the overall value of the book.

I've seen a couple of Antiques Roadshow episodes where the appraiser felt that it was not only fine to do, but increased the value of the illustrations.

***Not usually, but a couple of times.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at June 30, 2024 10:14 AM (OX9vb)

159 Used book store pickups yesterday:

History of Russia, Vol. II, Paul Miliukov ($25)
Poe's Best Tales, 1924 Modern Library ($10)
Paperback Tom Wolfe, Radical Chic/Flak Catchers ($12.50)
Military Effectiveness, Vol. I, Millett, (covers WW I) ($25)

Posted by: Biff Pocoroba at June 30, 2024 10:15 AM (Dm8we)

160 You and I know that Bowdlerization is alive and well. Can't have the tender and fragile minds of youth polluted by ideas. /s
Posted by: mustbequantum at June 30, 2024 10:13 AM (MIKMs)
---
Tolkien really nailed it when he said that evil cannot create, only destroy.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 30, 2024 10:15 AM (llXky)

161 How big a monster would it make me to buy an old, but not particularly valuable, book just for the purpose of breaking it apart and mounting the full page illustrations?

I bought an 1850 map of what is now Alaska and Canada that was sliced from an atlas that had its cover damaged. Alaska was noted as Russian, and it has 30 or so "territories" in Canada that were owned by various companies like Swan River. One can see how the provinces were formed. The map is titled British, Russian and Danish North America.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at June 30, 2024 10:15 AM (d35Yx)

162 The book-bench makes me wince a bit. I'd hate to see anyone put a real book down in that position.

Posted by: Toad-0 at June 30, 2024 10:15 AM (cct0t)

163 Oddbob, I once found some pages from an Audubon book with gorgeous illustrations of flowers. I bought them and had them framed. Felt like I was preserving a bit of history. When I sold my house and had to cut down on prized possessions, it was one of the few things that my son asked for.
So, I would vote yes.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at June 30, 2024 10:15 AM (t/2Uw)

164 154 So they sent Kamala out to meet the low life people and be one on them.

She is wearing a $60k neckless.
Posted by: rhennigantx at June 30, 2024 10:11 AM (ENQN6
Her fan base is the same as Oprah’s., all useful idiots who ‘elected’ ubama

Posted by: Eromero at June 30, 2024 10:17 AM (DQ6WD)

165 140 ... "Here's a question that came to mind while browsing used books yesterday. How big a monster would it make me to buy an old, but not particularly valuable, book just for the purpose of breaking it apart and mounting the full page illustrations?"

Unless the volume is rare or noteworthy I wouldn't worry about it. Sometimes the illustrations are better and more important than the narrative. Just be careful removing those pages.

Posted by: JTB at June 30, 2024 10:17 AM (zudum)

166 the book I am currently reading is Trumps The Art of the Deal, which is about making million dollar bets on being able to build, manage and profit off of building projects in some of the most expensive places in the world, and why Trump thought it was a good idea.

Posted by: Kindltot at June 30, 2024 10:18 AM (D7oie)

167 Agree. I'm an old book fetishist but illustrations and maps ought to be seen.

Posted by: All Hail Eris at June 30, 2024 10:18 AM (kpS4V)

168 The book-bench makes me wince a bit. I'd hate to see anyone put a real book down in that position.

Posted by: Toad-0 at June 30, 2024 10:15 AM (cct0t)
---
Now I feel bad. I just set my book down like that...

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 30, 2024 10:19 AM (BpYfr)

169 I'm about half way through Paul Johnson's "A History of The Jews". It's been really interesting to fill in all the gaps of my knowledge on this topic, so if that's also of interest to you, I recommend it.

-----------

*ahem*

Posted by: Flavius Josephus at June 30, 2024 10:19 AM (jdHxK)

170 That's "old book" fetishist, not "old book fetishist".

Well actually.....

Posted by: All Hail Eris at June 30, 2024 10:20 AM (kpS4V)

171 So they sent Kamala out to meet the low life people and be one on them.

She is wearing a $60k neckless.
Posted by: rhennigantx at June 30, 2024 10:11 AM (ENQN6
Her fan base is the same as Oprah’s., all useful idiots who ‘elected’ ubama

Posted by: Eromero at June 30, 2024 10:17 AM (DQ6WD)

I noticed CNN had the debate replay on at least twice yesterday...didn't check to see how much editing ha been done.

Posted by: BignJames at June 30, 2024 10:20 AM (AwYPR)

172 156 The Church of Global Warming is a state religion
Posted by: Skip at June 30, 2024 10:13 AM (fwDg9
The government agent in State of Fear was a certified badass dedicated to taking down golbal wormrning. Nobody like him today.

Posted by: Eromero at June 30, 2024 10:21 AM (DQ6WD)

173 Argh. Vmom, it is on my bedside table for my next read.
Currently reading J.R.Ward's Mine. Slow going. Think I am growing tired of some of these authors universes. It seems there has to be an obligatory gay coupling. Or two. Or three.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at June 30, 2024 10:21 AM (t/2Uw)

174 Peter Townsend is the author of Duel of Eagles, one of the most insightful accounts of the Battle of Britain.

-
I quite liked that book. He is also known for a royal quasi-scandal involving Princess Margaret (?) I've forgotten the details.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Free the Trump 45! at June 30, 2024 10:21 AM (L/fGl)

175 It was covered in the bank job well alluded to

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at June 30, 2024 10:23 AM (PXvVL)

176 As the reason for the lloyds bank job of 71

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at June 30, 2024 10:24 AM (PXvVL)

177 *ahem*
Posted by: Flavius Josephus at June 30, 2024 10:19 AM (jdHxK)

Hey, Josephus!

Posted by: Oedipus at June 30, 2024 10:24 AM (0eaVi)

178 Peter Townsend is the author of Duel of Eagles, one of the most insightful accounts of the Battle of Britain.

-
I quite liked that book. He is also known for a royal quasi-scandal involving Princess Margaret (?) I've forgotten the details.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks

It wasn't mentioned in the book, but I think he and Margaret were a thing, but the royal family said no to marriage

Posted by: Thomas Paine at June 30, 2024 10:24 AM (TNVmU)

179 The government agent in State of Fear was a certified badass dedicated to taking down golbal wormrning. Nobody like him today.
Posted by: Eromero at June 30, 2024 10:21 AM (DQ6WD)
----
It was very ambiguous what his role in the government actually was. Although he had the credentials and ID to get just about anyone else to do his bidding, he didn't seem to have an actual job. He also had an international network, such as an outfit in Tokyo that processed intelligence for him. Kind of a weird dude.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 30, 2024 10:24 AM (BpYfr)

180 Unless the volume is rare or noteworthy I wouldn't worry about it.

Nah, I'm specifically thinking of used books with < $20 prices like the New Orleans book mentioned above. But not actually that one; it's a keeper.

Posted by: Oddbob at June 30, 2024 10:25 AM (/y8xj)

181 This is the 3rd book of 3 and will get An Army at DAWN covering the North African campaign, a favorite as a kid
Posted by: Skip at June 30, 2024 09:03 AM (fwDg9)
---
I remember reading this and being disappointed. It focused on a few personalities, but the bigger operational details simply weren't there. I'm not saying it was badly written, but I returned it to the friend who loaned it to me disappointed.

-
I liked it but it might best be summarized as how Eisenhower grew in command.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Free the Trump 45! at June 30, 2024 10:26 AM (L/fGl)

182 The book-bench makes me wince a bit. I'd hate to see anyone put a real book down in that position.

Posted by: Toad-0 at June 30, 2024 10:15 AM (cct0t)
---
My parents are both avid readers, but of very different types. My mother is a typical mystery/bodice-ripper reader, sometimes veering into historical fiction while my father is more into literature.

He's a hard-cover kind of guy and always uses bookmarks. My mother would flatten books like that bench since she didn't plan on holding onto them.

I did that once to a paperback at my father's house and he was outraged, pointing out that he had lots of magazines chock full of reply cards that served as bookmarks. No need to ever do that!

Clearly this was a factor in their divorce.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 30, 2024 10:26 AM (llXky)

183 For fans of series novels, I've run across this:

https://www.bookseriesinorder.com/

It appears pretty exhaustive. But the commentaries on the authors and the books read as though written by someone whose first language is not English, or maybe AI. Still, the lists of books in order in each series would be useful.

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

184 I bought an Xbox for the Grands to use when they are hanging out with us.
Got duped. Forgotten Realms "free" game sucked my brain out.
I've been playing a video game all week.
I got maybe 20 pages read in A Distant Mirrror.

A week wasted and all I really want to accomplish is getting to Icewind Dale.
Thought I had this morrning but NO! I've got more hoops to jump through.

Stupid game.

Posted by: Reforger at June 30, 2024 10:27 AM (xcIvR)

185 Morning all.

Reading Astor, The Rise And Fall Of An American Forture.

The Astors really were garbage people. The old man who started it all, John Jacob Astor, was a piece of work.

Posted by: mpfs, Jooish Spy Dolphin reporting for duty at June 30, 2024 10:28 AM (c4NPH)

186 Do that to a paperback (some hardcovers too) these days and it would probably fall apart.

I do like the bench, though. Would put it on the porch.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at June 30, 2024 10:29 AM (q3u5l)

187 I'd like to thank the horde for recommending "Teaching with AI: A Practical Guide to a New Era of Human Learning." Bought it for a teacher in the family. It is greatly appreciated.

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at June 30, 2024 10:29 AM (ilFrm)

188 It appears pretty exhaustive. But the commentaries on the authors and the books read as though written by someone whose first language is not English, or maybe AI. Still, the lists of books in order in each series would be useful.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 30, 2024 10:27 AM (omVj0)

I didn't use that to get the Matt Helm books in order, but it's certainly a useful idea.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 30, 2024 10:30 AM (0eaVi)

189 --
It was very ambiguous what his role in the government actually was. Although he had the credentials and ID to get just about anyone else to do his bidding, he didn't seem to have an actual job. He also had an international network, such as an outfit in Tokyo that processed intelligence for him. Kind of a weird dude.
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 30, 2024 10:24 AM (
‘The enemy of my enemy….’ Perfesser

Posted by: Eromero at June 30, 2024 10:30 AM (DQ6WD)

190 Wolfus, I hope you would mention your sale here. I just want to comment that it comes at such a lucky time--as you are making a life change. An omen for the future.

Posted by: Wenda at June 30, 2024 10:30 AM (4GhzG)

191 111 Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks (1636):

O sultan, Turkish devil and damned devil’s kith and kin, secretary to Lucifer himself....

(redacted)

So the Zaporozhians declare, you lowlife. You won’t even be herding pigs for the Christians. Now we’ll conclude, for we don’t know the date and don’t own a calendar; the moon’s in the sky, the year with the Lord, the day’s the same over here as it is over there; for this kiss our arse!
Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at June 30, 2024 09:47 AM (0FoWg)

Yeah, the Cossacks were kind of insane. I've been reading anthologies of Harold Lamb's Cossack Stories ("Wolf of the Steppes" to "Swords of the Steppes") and just when you think he's crossed the line into absolute fantasy, you get an author's note telling you what real-life battle he was fictionalizing. Anyways, some of the characters in those anthologies are just wild...

Posted by: Castle Guy at June 30, 2024 10:31 AM (Lhaco)

192 I liked it but it might best be summarized as how Eisenhower grew in command.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Free the Trump 45! at June 30, 2024 10:26 AM (L/fGl)
---
To be more specific, I thought it would go into command relationships, how the combat commands evolved, changes in doctrine, unit organization, etc.

It was really a leadership biography.

I know it's pretty dry stuff for a lot of people, but because of my background, command relationships are of great interest to me. It took me a very long time to dig out the Spanish Army's organization in 1936 - I don't mean the divisions, but how the regimental system worked, whether divisions were triangular or square, that sort of thing.

The paradox was that the Republic - which junked the old army and started from scratch - was very rigid and cookie cut, while Franco's forces were tailored to specific tasks and the organizational framework was honestly close to something the US would do, with "heavy divisions" getting extra maneuver elements. I love that sort of thing.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 30, 2024 10:31 AM (llXky)

193 Wolfus, I hope you would mention your sale here. I just want to comment that it comes at such a lucky time--as you are making a life change. An omen for the future.
Posted by: Wenda at June 30, 2024

***
Wenda, you are right about that. I hope to retire by 9/30. And this is a good omen! The political news we had on Thurs. evening and on Friday made me feel hopeful about the future for the first time in a long while.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 30, 2024 10:32 AM (omVj0)

194 Wolfus, I hope you would mention your sale here. I just want to comment that it comes at such a lucky time--as you are making a life change. An omen for the future.
Posted by: Wenda at June 30, 2024 10:30 AM (4GhzG)

Which reminds me, Wolfus, did you set up a pubshare account yet? That's the only way they pay.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 30, 2024 10:33 AM (0eaVi)

195 Reforged, I understand your problem but in a different way.
I got engrossed in a TV series called the Originals that has all the witches, vampires and werewolves characters that I love in books with very attractive actors set in New Orleans. There are 5 seasons with 22 episodes in a season. It has caused a severe reduction in my reading time.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at June 30, 2024 10:33 AM (t/2Uw)

196 Good morning, Fellow Bibliomaniacs!

Just finished listening to The Tattooist of Auschwitz. The story is engaging and I thought well-written. Come to find out that it’s based on a real person. But, as with movies, a more accurate description might be “inspired by” a real person. As there are some major factual discrepancies.

Question (which might be more suitable for A Literary Horde Group): what responsibilities does an author bear to factual truth and history when writing a novel based on real people and taking place during a specific time and setting? Especially if the author has interviewed the real person the main character is based on?

Posted by: March Hare at June 30, 2024 10:33 AM (jfX+U)

197 58- Did you know that early on in Sowell's post-high school college days, Sowell was somewhat of a maven on Marx and perhaps even loving it?

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at June 30, 2024 09:21 AM

Yes, Thomas Sowell was a full-on Marxist in his younger days. I think you would really appreciate his several interviews with Peter Robinson on “Uncommon Knowledge”, available on YouTube. He goes into great detail about his transition to the conservative side. Also, several were taped during the rise and presidency of Barack Obama and Sowell can lay down some sick burns! There are more than a dozen videos. You might also want to read Jason Riley’s book “Maverick” and watch that video as well.

Posted by: Moonbeam at June 30, 2024 10:35 AM (rbKZ6)

198 Which reminds me, Wolfus, did you set up a pubshare account yet? That's the only way they pay.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 30, 2024

***
Yes -- both PubShare and Draft2Digital, as the editor instructed me.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 30, 2024 10:35 AM (omVj0)

199 Now I feel bad. I just set my book down like that...
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel

--
10 lashes!

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at June 30, 2024 10:35 AM (Ka3bZ)

200 115 @107 --

Castle Guy, are the Jack of Hearts stories in that omnibus?
Posted by: Weak Geek at June 30, 2024 09:48 AM (p/isN)

No. At least not in Volume 1, and I see no sign of him on the cover gallery on the back of Volume 2. Volume 1 consists of Shang Chi, some clowns called the Sons of the Tiger, and a tiny bit of Iron Fist.

So, was Jack of Hearts a martial arts guy?

Posted by: Castle Guy at June 30, 2024 10:36 AM (Lhaco)

201 How big a monster would it make me to buy an old, but not particularly valuable, book just for the purpose of breaking it apart …

I’ve set aside my first copy of The Fellowship of the Ring for this purpose. It’s a mess but could make a nice craft project. Being lazy, it’s been sitting in my work drawer for several years now further deteriorating.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at June 30, 2024 10:37 AM (olroh)

202 I know it's pretty dry stuff for a lot of people, but because of my background, command relationships are of great interest to me.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 30, 2024 10:31 AM (llXky)

I tried reading a "Battle of the Bulge" account....written by a unit historian...so dry I needed gatorade.

Posted by: BignJames at June 30, 2024 10:38 AM (AwYPR)

203 Yes, Thomas Sowell was a full-on Marxist in his younger days. I think you would really appreciate his several interviews with Peter Robinson on “Uncommon Knowledge”, available on YouTube. He goes into great detail about his transition to the conservative side. Also, several were taped during the rise and presidency of Barack Obama and Sowell can lay down some sick burns! There are more than a dozen videos. You might also want to read Jason Riley’s book “Maverick” and watch that video as well.
Posted by: Moonbeam

I've seen those. Sowell is one of the most brilliant and insightful people I have heard, but to listen to him talk, you get thrown off by how much he sounds like just some guy from Brooklyn.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at June 30, 2024 10:38 AM (7pFwY)

204 Question (which might be more suitable for A Literary Horde Group): what responsibilities does an author bear to factual truth and history when writing a novel based on real people and taking place during a specific time and setting? Especially if the author has interviewed the real person the main character is based on?

Posted by: March Hare at June 30, 2024 10:33 AM (jfX+U)
---
Generally speaking, none. If it's fiction, you can twist it any way you want.

A lot of "fiction" is informed by people we meet in real life. The character of Maxim Darius in the Man of Destiny series is based on the late, great, Jerry Roe, who was the head of the Michigan GOP in the 1970s and my political mentor.

My novel Three Weeks with the Coasties: A Tale of Disaster and also an Oil Spill is based on my tour at the Unified Area Command in 2010 and I could reference my notebooks and emails to keep things straight. Out of respect for people who were there, I made some major changes in names, appearances, etc.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 30, 2024 10:40 AM (llXky)

205 Yes, Thomas Sowell was a full-on Marxist in his younger days. I think you would really appreciate his several interviews with Peter Robinson on “Uncommon Knowledge”, available on YouTube. He goes into great detail about his transition to the conservative side. Also, several were taped during the rise and presidency of Barack Obama and Sowell can lay down some sick burns! There are more than a dozen videos. You might also want to read Jason Riley’s book “Maverick” and watch that video as well.
Posted by: Moonbeam at June 30, 2024 10:35 AM (rbKZ6)
-

Thanks!

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at June 30, 2024 10:40 AM (ilFrm)

206 138 @123 --

Ah, Way of the Rat! Chuck Dixon goodness.

I was so sorry when CrossGen collapsed. We lost so many great titles.
Posted by: Weak Geek at June 30, 2024 10:03 AM (p/isN)

When they died, I fell out of comics entirely for more than a decade. And since I got back in, I haven't found anything (except maybe Savage Sword of Conan) that compared to them.

Posted by: Castle Guy at June 30, 2024 10:41 AM (Lhaco)

207 I've seen those. Sowell is one of the most brilliant and insightful people I have heard, but to listen to him talk, you get thrown off by how much he sounds like just some guy from Brooklyn.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at June 30, 2024

***
Our institute offers an annual endowed lecture, apparently thought of as prestigious, where we pay some notable to come to town and give a talk. My boss asked his staff, including me, to make suggestions.

My two were Victor Davis Hanson and Thomas Sowell. Crickets, of course.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 30, 2024 10:41 AM (omVj0)

208 Question (which might be more suitable for A Literary Horde Group): what responsibilities does an author bear to factual truth and history when writing a novel based on real people and taking place during a specific time and setting? Especially if the author has interviewed the real person the main character is based on?

Posted by: March Hare at June 30, 2024 10:33 AM (jfX+U)

If it's a "based on actual events," I'd keep close to real actions. If "inspired by," I'd do whatever works best as a story.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 30, 2024 10:41 AM (0eaVi)

209 I tried reading a "Battle of the Bulge" account....written by a unit historian...so dry I needed gatorade.
Posted by: BignJames at June 30, 2024 10:38 AM (AwYPR)
---
Those are useful as sources for broader approaches. Over on Goodreads Long Live Death got blasted by some guy because I didn't provide maps on the *tactical level*, despite my saying in a note on the sources that E.R. Hooten already wrote that book, and footnoting his work.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 30, 2024 10:44 AM (llXky)

210 Our institute offers an annual endowed lecture, apparently thought of as prestigious, where we pay some notable to come to town and give a talk. My boss asked his staff, including me, to make suggestions.

My two were Victor Davis Hanson and Thomas Sowell. Crickets, of course.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 30, 2024 10:41 AM (omVj0)
---
When I was in college, Michigan State actually had a senior seminar on the history of American intellectual conservatism. It was great! Sowell was prominently featured, as one would imagine.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 30, 2024 10:45 AM (llXky)

211 Question (which might be more suitable for A Literary Horde Group): what responsibilities does an author bear to factual truth and history when writing a novel based on real people and taking place during a specific time and setting? Especially if the author has interviewed the real person the main character is based on?

Posted by: March Hare at June 30, 2024 10:33 AM (jfX+U)
---
Generally speaking, none. If it's fiction, you can twist it any way you want. . . .

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 30, 2024

***
I'd always heard that if you were going to slam a real-life person in fiction, esp. if they or their relatives are still alive, you'll want to use a fictional name for that character and maybe obscure his background a little. If it's a well-known public person like Abraham Lincoln or the like, anything would go. And if the portrait is positive, I'm sure no living notable would mind you using his name.

Maybe in our age of hair-trigger lawsuits, this advice is out of date.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 30, 2024 10:45 AM (omVj0)

212 I made some major changes in names, appearances, etc.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 30, 2024 10:40 AM (llXky)

Do you know Hank Choate?

Posted by: Reforger at June 30, 2024 10:45 AM (xcIvR)

213 185 Morning all.

Reading Astor, The Rise And Fall Of An American Forture.

The Astors really were garbage people. The old man who started it all, John Jacob Astor, was a piece of work.
Posted by: mpfs, Jooish Spy Dolphin reporting for duty at June 30, 2024 10:28 AM

I read a book a couple of months ago called “The Second Mrs. Astor” by Shana Abe, a biographical novel based on the life of John Jacob Astor’s teenage bride Madeleine Talmage Force. It was interesting reading how Astor perished on the Titanic and the Astor name and fortune eventually went down with him. I definitely want to read the book you recommend.

Posted by: Moonbeam at June 30, 2024 10:45 AM (rbKZ6)

214 I know it's pretty dry stuff for a lot of people, but because of my background, command relationships are of great interest to me.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd
__________

Recommended if you dont already have it: Command or Control by Matin Samuels. British vs German thinking through WW I.

Posted by: Biff Pocoroba at June 30, 2024 10:47 AM (Dm8we)

215 203- I've seen those. Sowell is one of the most brilliant and insightful people I have heard, but to listen to him talk, you get thrown off by how much he sounds like just some guy from Brooklyn.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at June 30, 2024 10:38 AM

Exactly!

Posted by: Moonbeam at June 30, 2024 10:48 AM (rbKZ6)

216 My two were Victor Davis Hanson and Thomas Sowell. Crickets, of course.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 30, 2024 10:41 AM (omVj0)
====
All due respect VDH is ubiquitous, I hardly ever see or hear Sowell. He should comment more often.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at June 30, 2024 10:48 AM (hLUfO)

217 Anyone interested in ex-Marxists would do well to read David Horowitz's Radical Son. It's not just about the 60s radicalism, it also give an insightful look on how so much of American Judaism was drawn to Marxist concepts.

One of his most telling observations was how his parents and fellow Jews recreated the ghettos of Eastern Europe, substituting the committee room for the synagogue and the writings of Marx and Comintern for sacred scripture.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 30, 2024 10:49 AM (llXky)

218 I drove to LibertyCon in Chattanooga last week and stopped by The Thrifty Peanut Book Warehouse in Shreveport on the way.

Picked up three old paperbacks, two of which were great and one that was good except for the tacked-on “modern” ending.

Clifford D. Simak’s Cosmic Engineers was a great old-school gem with adventure and a real cosmic storyline wrapping around on itself.

Alan E. Nourse’s The Universe Between from 1965 reprints two earlier novellas about a weird fourth dimensional space discovered in the search for easy transport between planets. The third chapter adds an unnecessary non-twist that makes it a bog-standard three dimensional universe.

Edgar Rice Burroughs’s The Moon Maid isn’t quite up to A Princess of Mars but it is close and it features possibly the most horrific underlying set of cultures of all his planetary stories. I'll definitely be on the lookout for the next book in this three-book series.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at June 30, 2024 10:49 AM (olroh)

219 ...Sowell is one of the most brilliant and insightful people I have heard, but to listen to him talk, you get thrown off by how much he sounds like just some guy from Brooklyn.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at June 30, 2024 10:38 AM
=====

Excuse me.

That is how decent people speak. Just ask JJ.

(Actually he grew up in Manhattan)

Posted by: San Franpsycho at June 30, 2024 10:50 AM (hLUfO)

220
Coming up on 11 am and possible new thread but 'Dave in Fl' left some interesting stuff in the Tech Thread starting at #286.

Posted by: Divide by Zero at June 30, 2024 10:50 AM (RKVpM)

221 Do you know Hank Choate?
Posted by: Reforger at June 30, 2024 10:45 AM (xcIvR)
---
Not off the top of my head. Who is he?

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 30, 2024 10:50 AM (llXky)

222 Sowell had a syndicated column for a while if memory serves -- think I used to run across it frequently at the Jewish World Review site and a few others. Think he retired some years back -- isn't he in his upper 80s now, maybe even early 90s?

Haven't read nearly enough of his work, but The Vision of the Anointed is a goodie.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at June 30, 2024 10:52 AM (q3u5l)

223 I'd always heard that if you were going to slam a real-life person in fiction, esp. if they or their relatives are still alive, you'll want to use a fictional name for that character and maybe obscure his background a little. If it's a well-known public person like Abraham Lincoln or the like, anything would go. And if the portrait is positive, I'm sure no living notable would mind you using his name.

Maybe in our age of hair-trigger lawsuits, this advice is out of date.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 30, 2024 10:45 AM (omVj0)
---
People use thinly-concealed caricatures all the time, though. England has very rigourous libel laws and Eveyln Waugh regularly used the name "Crutwell" because that was the don who sent him down from Oxford.

One of my former bosses has been in several of my works and on Three Weeks with the Coasties his identity is obvious. I figured my boss would never read the book, but if he did and sued me, I hoped to ask him what about the phrase "malignant gnome" made him think of himself?

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 30, 2024 10:53 AM (llXky)

224 By coincidence, today is Thomas Sowell’s 94th birthday!!! Happy Birthday Thomas!!

Posted by: Moonbeam at June 30, 2024 10:53 AM (rbKZ6)

225 I reread the very first science fiction book I ever read (at age 11 in 1974) "The Mote in God's Eye" by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. Classic, outstanding tale of First Contact with aliens. Such a great story and I really enjoyed it.

Will probably reread their "Lucifer's Hammer" next. Classic tale of civilizational collapse after a comet hits the Erf. Then, their "Inferno", an excellent retelling of Dante's Inferno (writer dies stupidly, find self in Hell, must navigate through with much excruciating pain and hijinks ensuing.

I'm definitely revisiting favorites of my misspent yute. With much satisfaction and enjoyment.

Posted by: Sharkman at June 30, 2024 10:53 AM (tczCu)

226 I read a lot of books about disasters. Just read "Tinder Box" by Anthony P. Hatch about the 1903 Iroquois Theater Fire, and "Wall of White" by Jennifer Woodleif about the avalanche at Alpine Meadows in the 1980s. Both are very good.

Posted by: Someone Else at June 30, 2024 10:54 AM (IrqeV)

227 Reading Astor, The Rise And Fall Of An American Forture.

The Astors really were garbage people. The old man who started it all, John Jacob Astor, was a piece of work.

To his credit, John Jacob Astor IV acted very honorably when the Titanic sank, with him on it.

Posted by: Archimedes at June 30, 2024 10:55 AM (xCA6C)

228 Recommended if you dont already have it: Command or Control by Matin Samuels. British vs German thinking through WW I.
Posted by: Biff Pocoroba at June 30, 2024 10:47 AM (Dm8we)
---
Added to the list.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 30, 2024 10:55 AM (llXky)

229 Anyone interested in ex-Marxists would do well to read David Horowitz's Radical Son. It's not just about the 60s radicalism, it also give an insightful look on how so much of American ~~Judaism~~ Jewry was drawn to Marxist concepts.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 30, 2024 10:49 AM (llXky)
-

FIFY. Judaism has no place for Marxism.

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at June 30, 2024 10:56 AM (ilFrm)

230 Not off the top of my head. Who is he?
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 30, 2024 10:50 AM (llXky)

One of the MI 16 electors.
My favorite Uncle. Lives outside Cement City.
He's been involved with MI republicans for a long time.
I was just wondering.

Posted by: Reforger at June 30, 2024 10:56 AM (xcIvR)

231 226 I read a lot of books about disasters. Just read "Tinder Box" by Anthony P. Hatch about the 1903 Iroquois Theater Fire, and "Wall of White" by Jennifer Woodleif about the avalanche at Alpine Meadows in the 1980s. Both are very good.
Posted by: Someone Else at June 30, 2024 10:54 AM

“The Big Burn” by Timothy Egan is really good.

Posted by: Moonbeam at June 30, 2024 10:57 AM (rbKZ6)

232 I hardly ever see or hear Sowell. He should comment more often.
Posted by: San Franpsycho at June 30, 2024 10:48 AM (hLUfO)

Well, he is 93 years old...

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at June 30, 2024 10:57 AM (OX9vb)

233 Gonna be sad to lose him.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at June 30, 2024 10:57 AM (OX9vb)

234 I read a lot of books about disasters. Just read "Tinder Box" by Anthony P. Hatch about the 1903 Iroquois Theater Fire, and "Wall of White" by Jennifer Woodleif about the avalanche at Alpine Meadows in the 1980s. Both are very good.
Posted by: Someone Else at June 30, 2024 10:54 AM (IrqeV)
-

Are you the smiling dog in the "This is nice" house fire meme?

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at June 30, 2024 10:57 AM (ilFrm)

235 When I was in college, Michigan State actually had a senior seminar on the history of American intellectual conservatism. It was great! Sowell was prominently featured, as one would imagine.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 30, 2024 10:45 AM (llXky)

Just curious A.H., did you ever meet Russell Kirk?

Posted by: Auspex at June 30, 2024 10:58 AM (j4U/Z)

236 He's been involved with MI republicans for a long time.
I was just wondering.
Posted by: Reforger at June 30, 2024 10:56 AM (xcIvR)
---
I probably met him socially but I got out of politics 18 years ago and have forgotten a lot of people.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 30, 2024 11:00 AM (llXky)

237 It's very, very easy to turn off readers if the story is filled with glaring typos, mechanical errors, and grammatical mistakes.

That's the reason I trashed Forstchen's "One Second Later" and didn't proceed to any of the sequels.

Posted by: Additional Blond Agent, STEM Guy at June 30, 2024 11:00 AM (/HDaX)

238 Haven't read Horowitz's Radical Son, but his earlier collaboration with Peter Collier, Destructive Generation, ain't too dusty either.

There are days when I wonder how some of the 60s and 70s lefties can still hang on to those views, and pass 'em to their kids; then I think about Alec Guinness at the end of Bridge on the River Kwai, saying "What have I done?" and figure that nobody wants to be that guy, so...

Posted by: Just Some Guy at June 30, 2024 11:01 AM (q3u5l)

239 Sharkman, pretty much all of Niven & Pournelle's collaborations are great. They worked with a third writer, Steven Barnes, in the '80s for The Legacy of Heorot, in which an Earth colony on a planet of Tau Ceti discovers something dangerous about the local wildlife . . . and it discovers them.

You'd think a book written by three people would be a mishmash. It isn't. One reviewer said it "makes Aliens look like a Disney wildlife film."

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 30, 2024 11:02 AM (omVj0)

240 Next week I think I will hit all of Keith Laumer's Retief and Bolo stories, and follow that by rereading all of Pournelle's John Christian Falkenberg novels.

Posted by: Sharkman at June 30, 2024 11:02 AM (tczCu)

241 How big a monster would it make me to buy an old, but not particularly valuable, book just for the purpose of breaking it apart …

Since many Libraries are flat out dumping old rare books in the trash, I wouldn't lose any sleep doing this to a book I owned. I have purchased books for this intended purpose, but not anything valuable.

Posted by: InspiredHistoryMike at June 30, 2024 11:02 AM (L1omb)

242 Just curious A.H., did you ever meet Russell Kirk?
Posted by: Auspex at June 30, 2024 10:58 AM (j4U/Z)
---
No, but knew Walter Adams. My freshman year, I dislocated my knee playing intramural football, and I was in the marching band. Adams was a huge supporter of it. So when he saw me in my uniform with a trumpet but on crutches, he asked if I knew how to play "Taps." I said "of course," and so he hired me to play it for his class on Veterans Day at 11 a.m. He insisted on paying me because he didn't work with amateurs, only professionals.

So I did the gig, and have played "Taps" on Veterans Day every since. Prof. Adams never forgot me, and on game days he would come over and we would chat.

College used to be really cool.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 30, 2024 11:05 AM (llXky)

243 Big thumbs up for the Legacy of Heorot series.

Posted by: All Hail Eris at June 30, 2024 11:05 AM (kpS4V)

244 Emergent signs of hope (from Insty):

CHANGE: One of oldest women’s studies departments in U.S. on chopping block. “Wichita State University is closing its women’s studies department, one of the oldest in the country, due to continuously low student interest.”

Posted by: Archimedes at June 30, 2024 11:05 AM (xCA6C)

245 Anyone interested in ex-Marxists would do well to read David Horowitz's Radical Son. It's not just about the 60s radicalism, it also give an insightful look on how so much of American Judaism Jewry was drawn to Marxist concepts.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 30, 2024 10:49 AM (llXky)
-

FIFY. Judaism has no place for Marxism.
Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at June 30, 2024 10:56 AM (ilFrm)

Is the pope Catholic ?!

Posted by: runner at June 30, 2024 11:05 AM (V13WU)

246 Thank you, Perfessor, for another great Book Thread. And Congratulations Wolfus on your upcoming publication - I look forward to reading it.

I finally finished C.S. Lewis' That Hideous Strength. It's funny that others have mentioned mass market paperbacks and tiny print because that was the case with the Space Trilogy set I purchased. I was too stubborn to go out and buy a better copy, thus spending $ on something I already owned, so I grumbled and kept reading. Then the story became so engaging that I didn't notice the small print and I could not put it down.

I could go on and on about what a great story THS is and how well C.S. Lewis understands and portrays human nature. I'm glad I made the effort to read all three books in the series as I'm not sure I would really have appreciated THS as much as I did.

Also read Robert Barnhard's A Stranger in the Family in which a young man learns from his dying mother that he was actually adopted and realizes he was actually abducted from his birth family. I thought it was good, not great. Of course, to be fair, I had just finished reading C.S. Lewis.

Posted by: KatieFloyd at June 30, 2024 11:06 AM (EO0H2)

247 Here so very late, but congrats to Wolfus on your short story!!!

Posted by: Debby Doberman Schultz at June 30, 2024 11:06 AM (Sgq8y)

248 By coincidence, today is Thomas Sowell’s 94th birthday!

When Sowell does make a rare appearance nowadays, he definitely looks old. But not 94!

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at June 30, 2024 11:06 AM (olroh)

249 The local public library here pretty much trashed the stuff I'd planned on reading once I hit retirement (as well as a number of titles I'd donated to them over the years).

These days if I want to read a book, I'm more inclined to buy it if it isn't ridiculously expensive.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at June 30, 2024 11:06 AM (q3u5l)

250 Big thumbs up for the Legacy of Heorot series.
Posted by: All Hail Eris at June 30, 2024

***
With modern CGI it would be possible now to do a slam-bang film of at least the first book. Along with Niven's Ringworld and some of his shorter stories.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 30, 2024 11:07 AM (omVj0)

251 When Sowell does make a rare appearance nowadays, he definitely looks old. But not 94!

And infinitely sharper than Biden, who is apparently meeting with family today to discuss whether or not to drop out.

I predict he will.

Posted by: Archimedes at June 30, 2024 11:08 AM (xCA6C)

252 I think Christianity , especially in its early centuries , has had more Communist tendencies than , well all other religions. Take monasticism for example. If that is not a commune, I don't know what is !

Posted by: runner at June 30, 2024 11:09 AM (V13WU)

253 There are days when I wonder how some of the 60s and 70s lefties can still hang on to those views, and pass 'em to their kids; then I think about Alec Guinness at the end of Bridge on the River Kwai, saying "What have I done?" and figure that nobody wants to be that guy, so...
Posted by: Just Some Guy at June 30, 2024 11:01 AM (q3u5l)
---
They are too deep in denial. I know ageing lefties who still trying to settle scores with the dead parents. It's a replacement for religion, and impervious to reality. Sowell calls them "the anointed" but my term is Yard Sign Calvinists because by these signs they are saved.

People with SUVs in their three-car garage driveway with "Climate Action Now" signs in the law.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 30, 2024 11:09 AM (llXky)

254 Thomas Sowell was a marxist when he was young, as a bookish black man growing up in Harlem might do. He was still under the idea when he worked for Milton Freedman, and yet they got along well enough. Such was the muted partisanship of intellectuals then.

The veil was raised when he went to work for a government agency that ostensibly helps people, IIRC. He was rebuffed for trying to solve the problem, because that would lessen the need for the agency.

He surely would have found his way to conservative ideas through data and studies, but it would have taken longer.

Posted by: BourbonChicken at June 30, 2024 11:10 AM (lhenN)

255 With modern CGI it would be possible now to do a slam-bang film of at least the first book. Along with Niven's Ringworld and some of his shorter stories.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 30, 2024 11:07 AM (omVj0)
---
I wouldn't trust today's modern Hollywood writers to do any of those stories justice, regardless of how amazing the special effects would be.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 30, 2024 11:10 AM (BpYfr)

256 I think Christianity , especially in its early centuries , has had more Communist tendencies than , well all other religions. Take monasticism for example. If that is not a commune, I don't know what is !
Posted by: runner at June 30, 2024 11:09 AM (V13WU)
---
Marxism is a Christian heresy. It replaces God with man and promises paradise on earth.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 30, 2024 11:10 AM (llXky)

257 There are days when I wonder how some of the 60s and 70s lefties can still hang on to those views, and pass 'em to their kids; then I think about Alec Guinness at the end of Bridge on the River Kwai, saying "What have I done?" and figure that nobody wants to be that guy, so...
Posted by: Just Some Guy at June 30, 2024 11:01 AM (q3u5l)
---
They are too deep in denial. I know ageing lefties who still trying to settle scores with the dead parents. It's a replacement for religion, and impervious to reality. Sowell calls them "the anointed" but my term is Yard Sign Calvinists because by these signs they are saved.

People with SUVs in their three-car garage driveway with "Climate Action Now" signs in the law.

It's always amazing to see old Nazis and Stalinists who insist they were right. I guess it's really hard to look back on your life and realize you were the baddies.

Posted by: Archimedes at June 30, 2024 11:11 AM (xCA6C)

258 Here so very late, but congrats to Wolfus on your short story!!!
Posted by: Debby Doberman Schultz at June 30, 2024

***
Hello, DDS! I usually only see your name pop up on the Overnight Threads during the week. This is the second anthology sale I've made partly through my time here. In 2019 another Moron author/editor (I've forgotten his screen name) was putting together an anthology of fantasy stories which, like the Raconteur one, focused on family. I sent him a story, he liked it, and it appeared in The Wand That Rocks the Cradle: Magical Stories of Family. You can find it on Amazon.

When I pick my copy up and re-read the story, I'm utterly amazed that I could have written it.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 30, 2024 11:11 AM (omVj0)

259 O/T

We still have a reasonable and insightful discussion going on at the previous thread.
Doesn't happen often, but it is today.

We now return you to your normally scheduled Book Thread.

Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at June 30, 2024 11:11 AM (a1415)

260 >>> 132 _Guten Morgen_, book Horders.

USEUCOM just upped their Force Protection Condition to "OMG" for the next several days.

I'm hoping it goes back to "MEH" and not up to "WTF" soon.
Posted by: SPinRH_F-16 at June 30, 2024 09:59 AM (5CEo

Curious if they said *why* and whether or not you can share? and in another example of 'stuff I wouldn't have thought of only a few years ago' my first thought was, what is "our" feralgov going to blow up soon and try to blame someone else?

Posted by: Helena Handbasket at June 30, 2024 11:12 AM (llON8)

261 Reading Astor, The Rise And Fall Of An American Forture.

The Astors really were garbage people. The old man who started it all, John Jacob Astor, was a piece of work.
Posted by: mpfs, Jooish Spy Dolphin reporting for duty at June 30, 2024 10:28 AM

-
I saw a short TV documentary about the death of Belgian multimillionaire Alfred Loewenstein in 1928. He went to the bathroom and never came back. He was a passenger in his tricked out Fokker trimotor when he fell, jumped, or was pushed to his death in the English Channel. I was so intrigued I bought The Man Who Fell From the Sky The Bizarre Life and Death of ‘20s Tycoon Alfred Loewenstein by William Norris.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Free the Trump 45! at June 30, 2024 11:12 AM (L/fGl)

262 Is the pope Catholic ?!
Posted by: runner at June 30, 2024 11:05 AM (V13WU)
-

I've seen enough observant Catholics express their opinion that the current one isn't.

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at June 30, 2024 11:12 AM (ilFrm)

263 249 The local public library here pretty much trashed the stuff I'd planned on reading once I hit retirement (as well as a number of titles I'd donated to them over the years).

These days if I want to read a book, I'm more inclined to buy it if it isn't ridiculously expensive.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at June 30, 2024 11:06 AM

Check out local vintage and antique shops. I was in one a few weeks ago and Winston Churchill’s “A History of the English Speaking Peoples” was very reasonably priced and it was also 50% off! I think I could have gotten all four volumes for less than $30- in the original printing!

Posted by: Moonbeam at June 30, 2024 11:12 AM (rbKZ6)

264 With modern CGI it would be possible now to do a slam-bang film of at least the first book. Along with Niven's Ringworld and some of his shorter stories.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 30, 2024 11:07 AM (omVj0)
---
I wouldn't trust today's modern Hollywood writers to do any of those stories justice, regardless of how amazing the special effects would be.
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 30, 2024

***
Yes; it would be possible to film *something* with those titles -- but unlikely it would resemble the original, or be a good stand-alone story.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 30, 2024 11:13 AM (omVj0)

265 Sowell has become elderly. He doesn't get out much anymore.

Happy Birthday Professor Sowell. Today is his birthday and he is 94 years old.

Posted by: No one of any consequence at June 30, 2024 11:13 AM (VuZH8)

266 Here so very late, but congrats to Wolfus on your short story!!!
Posted by: Debby Doberman Schultz at June 30, 2024 11:06 AM (Sgq8y)

(puffs up with pride)

I read him before he was famous.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 30, 2024 11:14 AM (0eaVi)

267 Curious if they said *why* and whether or not you can share? and in another example of 'stuff I wouldn't have thought of only a few years ago' my first thought was, what is "our" feralgov going to blow up soon and try to blame someone else?
Posted by: Helena Handbasket at June 30, 2024 11:12 AM (llON

---
We'll find out of it gets to "Oh Sh!t"

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 30, 2024 11:14 AM (llXky)

268 265 Happy Birthday Professor Sowell. Today is his birthday and he is 94 years old.

Posted by: No one of any consequence at June 30, 2024 11:13 AM (VuZH

And he's a good man as evidenced by the types of people that loathe him.

Posted by: NR Pax at June 30, 2024 11:14 AM (lXCUP)

269 Jerry Boyd has just released Book #48 in his "Bob's Saucer Repair" series, maintaining an output of one a month. I think he is the sole author, with just a proofreader and an editor downstream of him.
The series is a standard SciFi Space Opera, and does a fine job of it. It may not be great literature for the ages, but then it doesn't try to be. I like it.

Posted by: Idaho Spudboy at June 30, 2024 11:14 AM (a5cWI)

270 And infinitely sharper than Biden, who is apparently meeting with family today to discuss whether or not to drop out.

I predict he will.
Posted by: Archimedes at June 30, 2024 11:08 AM (xCA6C)

From what I think I understand, it will be difficult to replace him "democratically" under party rules.

Posted by: BignJames at June 30, 2024 11:14 AM (AwYPR)

271 The Antipope Bergoglio is not Catholic.

Posted by: No one of any consequence at June 30, 2024 11:14 AM (VuZH8)

272 Here so very late, but congrats to Wolfus on your short story!!!
Posted by: Debby Doberman Schultz at June 30, 2024
*
(puffs up with pride)

I read him before he was famous.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 30, 2024

***
And made many solid suggestions for improvements, most of which I took!

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 30, 2024 11:15 AM (omVj0)

273 The Antipope Bergoglio is not Catholic.

Posted by: No one of any consequence at June 30, 2024 11:14 AM (VuZH

-

What did I tell you!

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at June 30, 2024 11:15 AM (ilFrm)

274 Posted by: KatieFloyd at June 30, 2024 11:06 AM (EO0H2)

Katie, it was just too hard to read for me. I would have either had to keep one eye closed, or keep my head tilted to one side to keep it from bothering my eyes.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 30, 2024 11:15 AM (0eaVi)

275 It's always amazing to see old Nazis and Stalinists who insist they were right. I guess it's really hard to look back on your life and realize you were the baddies.
Posted by: Archimedes at June 30, 2024 11:11 AM (xCA6C)
---
What's even more telling is the way they have to rewrite reality itself to justify their policies and actions. How many times do you hear people insist that mass-shootings only happen in the USA? Reality is truly optional for these people.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 30, 2024 11:16 AM (llXky)

276 And sure that when Saint Paul went to the Corinthians the third time for money to help the folks in Jerusalem, at least one guy spoke up and said "Do any of these folks work? "

Posted by: No one of any consequence at June 30, 2024 11:17 AM (VuZH8)

277 244 Emergent signs of hope (from Insty):

CHANGE: One of oldest women’s studies departments in U.S. on chopping block. “Wichita State University is closing its women’s studies department, one of the oldest in the country, due to continuously low student interest.”
Posted by: Archimedes at June 30, 2024 11:05 AM

While it might seem like a good sign on its face, my first reaction was that they no longer need a separate department because every other major is steeped in it!

Posted by: Moonbeam at June 30, 2024 11:18 AM (rbKZ6)

278 heck out local vintage and antique shops. I was in one a few weeks ago and Winston Churchill’s “A History of the English Speaking Peoples” was very reasonably priced and it was also 50% off! I think I could have gotten all four volumes for less than $30- in the original printing!

My church used to have a book fair, and I bought a pristine (as in never opened) elephant hide copy of Gibbon's Decline and Fall with slipcase for about $30. I felt like I had won the lottery.

Posted by: Archimedes at June 30, 2024 11:18 AM (xCA6C)

279 Wolfus, I think I have Legacy of H, just never started it. Isn't it a retelling of Beowulf, or at least Beowulf-adjacent?

Posted by: Sharkman at June 30, 2024 11:18 AM (tczCu)

280 There is this idea among Catholic circles that the laity are not authorized to decide the issue. What is "manifest heresy?"

One word: Pachamama.

The Laity must discern the truth.

Posted by: No one of any consequence at June 30, 2024 11:19 AM (VuZH8)

281 Folks may recall that a month or so ago I got Hillaire Belloc's The Great Heresies, and though almost a century old, it's one of those books that predicts a lot of our current madness.

Belloc and Chesterton both saw no division between religion in politics, merely an attempt by secularists to rule Christian ideals out of bounds.

Consider how different things are from the 1990s, when you had policy debates about whether stuff would actually work as intended. Now it's just "the right thing to do" and if people suffer, so be it.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 30, 2024 11:20 AM (llXky)

282 Ex-Friends by David Podhoretz was a good look into communist Americans. Impervious to ideas but thirsty to watch a "friend" get brought low by a craven gossipy preference cascade.

In the end I lost patience with the author, that he didn't have the sense to put his common beliefs under a microscope. "I didn't leave the left -- the left left me" is the words of someone who crashed into trees at 100 MPH and regretted that he didn't go 80 MPH instead.

Posted by: BourbonChicken at June 30, 2024 11:20 AM (lhenN)

283 time for Avignon Papacy !

--the French !

Posted by: runner at June 30, 2024 11:21 AM (V13WU)

284
There were actually semi-conservative faculty at Michigan State in the late 70's. Catholics as well.

Now there's an open season on them, but placards and shouting obscenities are the only weapons (technically) allowed.

Posted by: Auspex at June 30, 2024 11:21 AM (j4U/Z)

285 Not much reading done this week but some progress has been made on both The Joke and The Red Badge of Courage.

SPinRH_F-16: The Innocents Abroad is a great book. When I was in 5th or 6th grade the teacher played a reading of the part of the book where Twain mocks the guides in Europe and I thought it was hilarious. I almost immediately went to the library and checked it out, igniting a life long love of Twain.

Posted by: who knew at June 30, 2024 11:21 AM (4I7VG)

286 "I didn't leave the left -- the left left me" is the words of someone who crashed into trees at 100 MPH and regretted that he didn't go 80 MPH instead.

Stolen.

Posted by: Archimedes at June 30, 2024 11:21 AM (xCA6C)

287 264 Yes; it would be possible to film *something* with those titles -- but unlikely it would resemble the original, or be a good stand-alone story.

Normal Hollywood.

"OK, this is a very valuable and well-loved IP. We are sitting on a platinum mine. You know what to do."
"Yeah. I'm gonna wokeify the shit out of it!"
"What? NO! That's is exactly what you should not do!"
"Oh come on. A gender swap here, a palette swap here. Ooh! This character can be a they/them-"
"Why? Why are you like this?'
"But it will be sooo much better. And if it fails, we'll blame the patriarchy!"

Posted by: NR Pax at June 30, 2024 11:22 AM (lXCUP)

288 One word: Pachamama.

Posted by: No one of any consequence at June 30, 2024 11:19 AM (VuZH

-

You pachamama, I smasha yo face!

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at June 30, 2024 11:22 AM (ilFrm)

289 "But it will be sooo much better. And if it fails, we'll blame the patriarchy!"
Posted by: NR Pax at June 30, 2024 11:22 AM (lXCUP)
-----------
Toxic fandom. And try to cancel The Critical Drinker.

Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea, Radioactive Knight at June 30, 2024 11:23 AM (3Fz6p)

290 And made many solid suggestions for improvements, most of which I took!
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 30, 2024 11:15 AM (omVj0)

I guess I may have to be content to be Bennett Cerf instead of Hemingway.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 30, 2024 11:23 AM (0eaVi)

291 Yomama >> Pachamama

Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea, Radioactive Knight at June 30, 2024 11:23 AM (3Fz6p)

292 There is this idea among Catholic circles that the laity are not authorized to decide the issue. What is "manifest heresy?"

One word: Pachamama.

The Laity must discern the truth.
Posted by: No one of any consequence at June 30, 2024 11:19 AM (VuZH

---
He's a valid pope in serious mental decline and being manipulated by his advisors. That's why one minute the Church calls for "pastoral blessings" of sodomites and the next minute the pope is complaining about "faggotry" in the seminaries.

There's a concerted push by the dying liberal wing to try to lock in their policies and/or damage the Church because they know their generation is dying off and younger clergy are very orthodox.

The important thing is to keep the faith, focus on your parish, community, and family and leave Rome to God.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 30, 2024 11:23 AM (llXky)

293 Wolfus, I think I have Legacy of H, just never started it. Isn't it a retelling of Beowulf, or at least Beowulf-adjacent?

Posted by: Sharkman at June 30, 2024

***
Kind of. The title gives that away; Heorot, I think, was the name of Beowulf's village or the place where he lived when Grendel came along. Certainly it seems Beowulf was the inspiration.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 30, 2024 11:24 AM (omVj0)

294 244 Emergent signs of hope (from Insty):

CHANGE: One of oldest women’s studies departments in U.S. on chopping block. “Wichita State University is closing its women’s studies department, one of the oldest in the country, due to continuously low student interest.”

I told a friend that I minored in Women's Studies in College. She asked me what authors I had read, what classes I had taken, etc. She was a bit disgruntled when I said it was independent research.

Posted by: NR Pax at June 30, 2024 11:24 AM (lXCUP)

295 They are too deep in denial. I know ageing lefties who still trying to settle scores with the dead parents. It's a replacement for religion, and impervious to reality. Sowell calls them "the anointed" but my term is Yard Sign Calvinists because by these signs they are saved

--

A lot of problems with the Catholic Church today is because of ageing Flower Children era hanging on to power.

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at June 30, 2024 11:24 AM (Ka3bZ)

296 Oh, imagine how much worse it would have been if it wasn't pride month. It was pride month, right?

Posted by: Hokey Pokey at June 30, 2024 11:25 AM (QSrLX)

297 289 And try to cancel The Critical Drinker.

I'm sure that they have tried and like everything else in life, they failed horribly.

Posted by: NR Pax at June 30, 2024 11:25 AM (lXCUP)

298 When I was in 5th or 6th grade the teacher played a reading of the part of the book where Twain mocks the guides in Europe and I thought it was hilarious. I almost immediately went to the library and checked it out, igniting a life long love of Twain.
Posted by: who knew at June 30, 2024 11:21 AM (4I7VG)
---
One of my best friends from college was named Chris, and it was such a common name that I called him "Ferguson" because of Twain.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 30, 2024 11:25 AM (llXky)

299 "Oh come on. A gender swap here, a palette swap here. Ooh! This character can be a they/them-"
"Why? Why are you like this?'
"But it will be sooo much better. And if it fails, we'll blame the patriarchy!"
Posted by: NR Pax at June 30, 2024

***
Imagine Louis Wu as a woman, Teela Brown as her lesbian lover, and as for the puppeteer and Kzin . . . I don't wanna imagine that.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 30, 2024 11:26 AM (omVj0)

300 Pachamama.

Posted by: No one of any consequence at June 30, 2024 11:19 AM (VuZH

Patch a mama? Why, is she holey?

- something JT might say.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 30, 2024 11:26 AM (0eaVi)

301 Heorot, I think, was the name of Beowulf's village or the place where he lived when Grendel came along.
-----------
Heorot (Hart) is King Hrothgar's hall. Beowulf is the outsider who takes on Grendel.

Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea, Radioactive Knight at June 30, 2024 11:26 AM (3Fz6p)

302 Skid marks for pride month. Everybody sing!

Posted by: Hokey Pokey at June 30, 2024 11:26 AM (QSrLX)

303 For fans of Simmon's Hyperion books, I recommend his Ilium & Olympus books for more of his literary SF type work.

Posted by: cheztrainor at June 30, 2024 11:27 AM (uH9R9)

304 The only Star Trek book I've read was The Vulcan Academy Murders, it was pretty good.

I have meaning to get into the novelization of the ST:TOS by that dude who hated Star Trek, but I just haven't had the time.

Ah well, maybe later.

Posted by: Thomas Bender at June 30, 2024 11:28 AM (XV/Pl)

305 I'm sure that they have tried and like everything else in life, they failed horribly.
Posted by: NR Pax at June 30, 2024 11:25 AM (lXCUP)
----------
Disney actually made the attempt, recently. Him and Gary from Nerdrotic.

Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea, Radioactive Knight at June 30, 2024 11:28 AM (3Fz6p)

306 285- The Innocents Abroad is a great book. When I was in 5th or 6th grade the teacher played a reading of the part of the book where Twain mocks the guides in Europe and I thought it was hilarious. I almost immediately went to the library and checked it out, igniting a life long love of Twain.
Posted by: who knew at June 30, 2024 11:21 AM

That might be my favorite Twain book, or possibly tied with “Roughing It”. Simply hilarious. Unfortunately, I leant it to someone and never got it back. I need to get another copy and read it again.

Posted by: Moonbeam at June 30, 2024 11:29 AM (rbKZ6)

307 Well, reality intrudes...

Thanks for the thread, Perfessor.

Congrats again to Wolfus.

And have a good one, gang.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at June 30, 2024 11:29 AM (q3u5l)

308 What have I done?" and figure that nobody wants to be that guy, so...
Posted by: Just Some Guy at June 30, 2024 11:01 AM

That was all Hollywood fiction you know, it never happened.
The bridge was still standing at the end of the war

Posted by: Skip at June 30, 2024 11:29 AM (fwDg9)

309 I have meaning to get into the novelization of the ST:TOS by that dude who hated Star Trek, but I just haven't had the time.

Ah well, maybe later.
Posted by: Thomas Bender at June 30, 2024

***
The novelization of one of the movies? Or we've had John M. Ford's How Much for Just the Planet? mentioned here -- is that what you mean?

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 30, 2024 11:29 AM (omVj0)

310 He's a valid pope in serious mental decline and being manipulated by his advisors.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 30, 2024 11:23 AM (llXky)

So did JPII. He kissed another faith's scriptures.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 30, 2024 11:30 AM (0eaVi)

311 Wolfus, I have always thought that 'Ringworld' would be a fabulous film. The problem is, anything Hollywood gets it's hands on is ruined or perverted in the most infuriating ways...

Imagine a teaser reel, set to the close of Yes' "Awaken" with the majestic organ fills, we see a pullback from a planets surface and see that it is Earth (establishing scale), next a pullback from the Puppeteer Fleet of Worlds showing the cluster of planets and suns in motion, then a pullback from the Ringworld that keeps going, and going, and going... Until the frame breaks to the edges and space begins to take over the screen, moving past the Shadow Squares, the Sun, and past the other side of the Ringworld until the immensity of it is stretched out lengthwise across the screen and the Sun is eclipsed by the near side of the Ringworld.

Niven described the scale as "set a candle on the floor, and stretch 50 feet of Christmas ribbon around it." That's big!

Posted by: Brewingfrog at June 30, 2024 11:31 AM (Rwiut)

312 Wolfus,
Just saw the post about your story sale. Mucho congratulations!! Perhaps now is the time to try that Gawith brown flake tobacco.

Posted by: JTB at June 30, 2024 11:31 AM (zudum)

313 @309

>>he novelization of one of the movies? Or we've had John M. Ford's How Much for Just the Planet? mentioned here -- is that what you mean?

No, the novelizations by that Blish guy.

Posted by: Thomas Bender at June 30, 2024 11:31 AM (XV/Pl)

314 I too have some chores to do around here before I can crash for my luxurious Sunday afternoon nap. And big black Stirling wants to sit on my lap again; he's been curled on the cushion next to me, as if just waiting for the moment I put the computer off my lap.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 30, 2024 11:31 AM (omVj0)

315 280 The laity can't issue a binding declaration or judgment, true. But they can recognize a wolf in sheep's clothing.

One of the last things Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount was a warning about the wolves in wool. It was addressed to everyone, not just clergy.

Francis Bergoglio isn't the pope. He's a viciously anti-Catholic antipope and a brutal thug.

Archbishop Vigano is the newest, boldest voice to say so. Blogger Ann Barnhardt made a compelling case for that several years ago.

Posted by: callsign claymore at June 30, 2024 11:32 AM (JcnCJ)

316 And try to cancel The Critical Drinker.

-
Eddie Murphy is trying to cancel David Spade for a joke he told in 1995.

https://is.gd/MBQv7X

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Free the Trump 45! at June 30, 2024 11:33 AM (L/fGl)

317 305 Disney actually made the attempt, recently. Him and Gary from Nerdrotic.

I'm sure he mocked them and finished with "Now go away."

Posted by: NR Pax at June 30, 2024 11:33 AM (lXCUP)

318 Somewhat apropos, hit up a random record store while I was out yesterday, scored two records by Antonio Carlos Jobim.

They simply don't make music like that anymore.

Posted by: Thomas Bender at June 30, 2024 11:34 AM (XV/Pl)

319 >>he novelization of one of the movies? Or we've had John M. Ford's How Much for Just the Planet? mentioned here -- is that what you mean?
*
No, the novelizations by that Blish guy.
Posted by: Thomas Bender at June 30, 2024

***
Oh, the adaptations into short stories of the individual episodes! I grew up on those. Blish didn't *hate* Trek; he'd never seen an episode when he first began to write the adaptations (he lived in England then). I think he did a fine job telling the hour-long stories in a short space, and making Kirk as viewpoint character a likeable and accessible guy.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 30, 2024 11:34 AM (omVj0)

320 Wolfus,
Just saw the post about your story sale. Mucho congratulations!! Perhaps now is the time to try that Gawith brown flake tobacco.
Posted by: JTB at June 30, 2024

***
You may be right!

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 30, 2024 11:35 AM (omVj0)

321 Heorot (Hart) is King Hrothgar's hall. Beowulf is the outsider who takes on Grendel.
Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea, Radioactive Knight at June 30, 2024 11:26 AM (3Fz6p)
---
Battle Officer Wolf by yours truly is also a retelling of Beowulf in space. It takes place on Hart Station, a premier research facility.

I peppered the narrative with translations names and various references, such as the planet where the station is located is named after the catalog scroll containing the Beowulf manuscript.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 30, 2024 11:35 AM (llXky)

322 No, the novelizations by that Blish guy.
Posted by: Thomas Bender at June 30, 2024 11:31 AM (XV/Pl)
-----------
Blish wrote an original novel: "Spock Must Die!" I don't think he novelized any of the shows.

Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea, Radioactive Knight at June 30, 2024 11:36 AM (3Fz6p)

323 So did JPII. He kissed another faith's scriptures.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 30, 2024 11:30 AM (0eaVi)
---
Yeah, he took the ecumenism a bit too far.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 30, 2024 11:38 AM (llXky)

324 Niven described the scale as "set a candle on the floor, and stretch 50 feet of Christmas ribbon around it." That's big!
Posted by: Brewingfrog at June 30, 2024

***
Ringworld is kind of like The Wizard of Oz -- except the Yellow Brick Road is 3,000,000 times the surface of the Earth.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 30, 2024 11:38 AM (omVj0)

325 317 305 Disney actually made the attempt, recently. Him and Gary from Nerdrotic.

I'm sure he mocked them and finished with "Now go away."

How to say you're affecting the market bigly without saying you're affecting the market bigly.

Posted by: Archimedes at June 30, 2024 11:38 AM (xCA6C)

326 Re: how close can you/should you pattern a character after a real person. Word on the street is, if the character is male, say he has a small penis. He'll never admit the character is him.

Posted by: Wenda at June 30, 2024 11:38 AM (4GhzG)

327 Yeah, the Cossacks were kind of insane. I've been reading anthologies of Harold Lamb's Cossack Stories ("Wolf of the Steppes" to "Swords of the Steppes") and just when you think he's crossed the line into absolute fantasy, you get an author's note telling you what real-life battle he was fictionalizing. Anyways, some of the characters in those anthologies are just wild...
Posted by: Castle Guy at June 30, 2024 10:31 AM (Lhaco)

Very warlike. Savage, even. Russia took centuries to subjugate them, and it took Grigoriy Potemkin to do it - arguably the only person crazier than a Cossack.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at June 30, 2024 11:39 AM (0FoWg)

328 Blish wrote an original novel: "Spock Must Die!" I don't think he novelized any of the shows.
Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea, Radioactive Knight at June 30, 2024

***
No, he didn't expand the episodes into full novels. That would have been outrageous padding, for one thing, and at the time (1967 and for a few more years) ST was probably not yet considered a major income-producing property. He took each episode and crafted it into a short story, compressing some things, summarizing, and making it move on the page.

Blish was a very good writer. You always learn something new when you read him.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 30, 2024 11:41 AM (omVj0)

329 Very warlike. Savage, even. Russia took centuries to subjugate them, and it took Grigoriy Potemkin to do it - arguably the only person crazier than a Cossack.
Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at June 30, 2024 11:39 AM (0FoWg)
---
Light cavalry is basically unbeatable on the open plains, and that goes back to the invention of riding.

Sometimes they can be bought off, or co-opted, but their dominance only ended with the development of gunpowder.

The reason why the Ch'ing Dynasty was so successful was that it combined steppe cavalry with Han infantry.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 30, 2024 11:42 AM (llXky)

330 Sorry, I it's Qing these days.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 30, 2024 11:43 AM (llXky)

331 Geez, at Insty, there have been better rocket launches. It looks like they launched from the middle of a city. See the clip at Insty first, then this one:

https://m.weibo.cn/detail/5050998629862652#&video

Posted by: Archimedes at June 30, 2024 11:43 AM (xCA6C)

332 Blish wrote an original novel: "Spock Must Die!"

-
What I learned yesterday. Leonard Nimoy was not Roddenberry's first choice to play Spock. He want George Lindsey, Mayberry's Goober.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Free the Trump 45! at June 30, 2024 11:45 AM (L/fGl)

333 "Recommended if you dont already have it: Command or Control by Matin Samuels. British vs German thinking through WW I."
"Posted by: Biff Pocoroba at June 30, 2024 10:47 AM (Dm8we)"

Anything by Martin Samuels is interesting. My own favorite is "Doctrine and Dogma, German and British Infantry Tactics in the First World War," which, IIRC, was recommended to me by Bruce Gudmundsson. If you're not acquainted with Bruce, you might give him a try; "Stormtroop Tactics" is a good introduction to his work. When I knew Bruce he was publishing The Tactical Notebook as a printed periodical, while today it's more of a blog with additions. Bruce is very interested in organizational stuff, with emphasis on the period around the First World War. Lots of his info comes from the national archives.

Posted by: Pope John 20th at June 30, 2024 11:45 AM (cYrkj)

334 Blish wrote an original novel: "Spock Must Die!" I don't think he novelized any of the shows.
Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea, Radioactive Knight at June 30, 2024

***
SMD was the first adult-oriented, full-length, original ST novel to be pro-published. (There'd been one from Whitman Books aimed at younger readers, Mission to Horatius, also penned by a pro SF writer.) It features some solid imagination, as you'd expect from Blish, good dialogue (you can often hear the actors' voices as you read), and an eruption of a war between the Federation and the Klingons. So it's not considered "canon." But it's quite fun.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 30, 2024 11:45 AM (omVj0)

335 The way Star Trek went from a failed TV show to a cult to a mass market brand is quite remarkable.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 30, 2024 11:46 AM (llXky)

336 SMD was the first adult-oriented, full-length, original ST novel to be pro-published. (There'd been one from Whitman Books aimed at younger readers, Mission to Horatius, also penned by a pro SF writer.) It features some solid imagination, as you'd expect from Blish, good dialogue (you can often hear the actors' voices as you read), and an eruption of a war between the Federation and the Klingons. So it's not considered "canon." But it's quite fun.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 30, 2024 11:45 AM (omVj0)
-----------
I have a copy that I have not read for decades. I'll have to try it again.

Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea, Radioactive Knight at June 30, 2024 11:46 AM (3Fz6p)

337 Star Wars is doing the opposite - going from a mass market success to a brand and now a cult.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 30, 2024 11:47 AM (llXky)

338 The way Star Trek went from a failed TV show to a cult to a mass market brand is quite remarkable.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 30, 2024 11:46 AM (llXky)
----------
Given that the network deliberately tried to kill it, all the more so.

Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea, Radioactive Knight at June 30, 2024 11:47 AM (3Fz6p)

339 The Cossacks were also fanatical Orthodox Christians. One of the reasons they often tilted toward Russia, even against their own interests, was that their alliances with Poles and Lithuanians were distasteful to them. Catholics.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at June 30, 2024 11:48 AM (0FoWg)

340 Given that the network deliberately tried to kill it, all the more so.
Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea, Radioactive Knight at June 30, 2024 11:47 AM (3Fz6p)
---
Battlestar Galactica says "Hi."

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 30, 2024 11:48 AM (llXky)

341 Battlestar Galactica says "Hi."
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 30, 2024 11:48 AM (llXky)
-------------
Original BG was krep. I watched it because it was the only SF on TV at the time. There was mockery involved.

Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea, Radioactive Knight at June 30, 2024 11:50 AM (3Fz6p)

342 Given that the network deliberately tried to kill it, all the more so.
Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea, Radioactive Knight at June 30, 2024 11:47 AM (3Fz6p)

They preferred me in Lost in Space.

Posted by: Carrot Man at June 30, 2024 11:50 AM (0eaVi)

343 >260 Curious if they said *why* and whether or not you can share?

I got just that bit of info via a text message. Confirmed it with sender, but haven't seen any other info on it, and State hasn't pushed an update via "Smart Traveler" yet.

The first thing I did was look at the calendar to see if it was the anniversary of something. Nothing aside from the obvious jumped out at me.

Posted by: SPinRH_F-16 at June 30, 2024 11:51 AM (5CEo8)

344 Original BG was krep. I watched it because it was the only SF on TV at the time. There was mockery involved.
Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea, Radioactive Knight at June 30, 2024 11:50 AM (3Fz6p)

*checks dates

Not a Buck Rogers fan ??

Posted by: runner at June 30, 2024 11:51 AM (V13WU)

345 Not a Buck Rogers fan ??
Posted by: runner at June 30, 2024 11:51 AM (V13WU)
-----------
Never watched it.

Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea, Radioactive Knight at June 30, 2024 11:52 AM (3Fz6p)

346 Original BG was krep. I watched it because it was the only SF on TV at the time. There was mockery involved.
Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea, Radioactive Knight at June 30, 2024 11:50 AM (3Fz6p)
---
I own it on DVD and I think it's quite good, especially given the constraints. Unlike Trek, they're trying to run a cohesive narrative, which was unique for the time.

One thing that stands out is how characters got taken out and added during the season, which was also unusual.

A lot of the hate at the time was because of comparisons with Star Wars, but it stands well on its own. The remake was utter trash.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 30, 2024 11:54 AM (llXky)

347 Not a Buck Rogers fan ??
Posted by: runner at June 30, 2024 11:51 AM (V13WU)
---
Erin Gray for the win.

She did a guest appearance on Magnum p.i. and rocked the bikini. I was to young to appreciate the volcanic levels of hotness on the screen.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 30, 2024 11:55 AM (llXky)

348 Particularly grateful for the recommendation of the Cochrane biography; sounds like a fascinating story of a larger-than-life character.

Posted by: Paco at June 30, 2024 11:55 AM (njExo)

349 And another world-class Book Thread winds down! Thanks, Perfessor, and all of you!

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 30, 2024 11:56 AM (omVj0)

350 Posted by: Archimedes at June 30, 2024 11:43 AM (xCA6C)

XIAZILE!
XIAZI!
AIYAAAAA!

Posted by: All Hail Eris at June 30, 2024 11:56 AM (kpS4V)

351 KLAATU
BARATA
NE*CGHWKU

There I said the words.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 30, 2024 11:57 AM (llXky)

352 Thanks again, Perfesser!

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 30, 2024 11:58 AM (llXky)

353 Welp, thanks for the thread, Perfessor. Got people coming next week, don't know if I can spend time here the next two Sundays. I'm sure I'll miss some great discussions. Hope I can get in for a few minutes.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 30, 2024 11:58 AM (0eaVi)

354 Reruns of My Favorite Martian and Lost in Space (which was spoofed in a number of episodes by ST Voyager btw).

Posted by: runner at June 30, 2024 11:59 AM (V13WU)

355 285 . . . Twain mocks the guides in Europe and I thought it was hilarious. I almost immediately went to the library and checked it out, igniting a life long love of Twain.

That's actually right where I am right now in the book! You're right, it's funny as all get-out. I also enjoyed his descriptions of Napoleon III and the Ottoman sultan.

I hadn't read Twain since Junior High. Since my permanent address is somewhere near his boyhood haunts, I figured I'd better pick him back up again.

Posted by: SPinRH_F-16 at June 30, 2024 11:59 AM (5CEo8)

356 thanks for the thread, Prof !

Posted by: runner at June 30, 2024 11:59 AM (V13WU)

357 Morning Hordemates.
I'm between books at the moment.

Posted by: Diogenes at June 30, 2024 11:59 AM (W/lyH)

358 I own it on DVD and I think it's quite good... Unlike Trek, they're trying to run a cohesive narrative, which was unique for the time.

I rewatched again in order a few years ago, and I agree. Not only does it stand up well, it features a perspective that was not very popular in Hollywood even back in the seventies.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at June 30, 2024 12:00 PM (olroh)

359 Gracias, Perfessor

Posted by: callsign claymore at June 30, 2024 12:01 PM (JcnCJ)

360 WE HAZ A NOOD

Posted by: Skip at June 30, 2024 12:01 PM (fwDg9)

361 298. . . One of my best friends from college was named Chris, and it was such a common name that I called him "Ferguson" because of Twain.

Funny, one of my recent co-workers Chris F.

And he was German.

And American.

Posted by: SPinRH_F-16 at June 30, 2024 12:01 PM (5CEo8)

362 Thanks to whoever recommended Poul Andrrson's "Brain Wave"! I'm only one chapter in and I can tell I'm going to like it.

Posted by: All Hail Eris at June 30, 2024 12:24 PM (kpS4V)

363 Ursula K. Leguin is one of those rare literary-oriented SF writers whose stuff often works as good storytelling. All I can recall of The Lathe of Heaven is some dim image of an intelligent turtle-like creature, or at least an alien with some kind of shell (?).

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 30, 2024 09:47 AM (omVj0)

The turtle-like creatures come at the end (in the film). The plot of the story is a man whose dreams change reality, but only he is aware of the changes in reality. This causes such noisy nightmares that his neighbors complain, and he is referred for psychiatric counseling by the "state".

His shrink is able to see the changes and has grand plans to solve all of the worlds problems by directing the patient's dreams. Unfortunately, the dreams produce unexpected results....

Posted by: Wethal at June 30, 2024 01:29 PM (NufIr)

364 @200 --

Castle Guy,

No, strictly superhero. First appearance DHoKF #22.

Jack of Hearts (real name Jonathan "Jack" Hart) suffered a chemical spill that turned half of his body dark but enabled him to emit blasts of energy from his fists and feet. He could use these to fly.

He is known for his original costume, based on the playing card. Designed by Perez, it had the reputation of being impossible for anybody else to draw -- so much so that Marvel eventually changed it to something with less filigree.

His origin also was changed, but I don't recognize that.

The Sons of the Tiger returned as supporting characters in the merged title Power Man & Iron Fist.

Posted by: Weak Geek at June 30, 2024 01:51 PM (p/isN)

365 I'm probably closing out the thread, as usual, and am still working on LOTR, but took a short break this week to try out a Flannery O'Conner short story- "A Good Man Is Hard to Find". It's about a family unlikeable family driving from Georgie to Florida who encounters an escaped convict named the Misfit; it's quite a dark story, but extremely well-written IMO. O'Conner was a devout Catholic and her writings supposedly reflect that but I'm going to have to think more about the symbolism in this one. It certainly didn't' jump out at me as a redemptive or spiritual tale. I'd love to hear other morons' experiences and views with her work.

Posted by: LASue at June 30, 2024 01:56 PM (Gq9/0)

366 @30/Wolfus Aurelius: Congratulations on getting a story into 'All Will Burn 3'!

I think I was the first person here to start commenting about Raconteur Press (over and over and... seriously, I was getting concerned y'all would think I was hired by them or something.)

I'm absolutely thrilled that they'll be publishing a story of yours, and I very much look forward to reading it when it comes out.

Posted by: Grumpy and Recalcitrant at June 30, 2024 02:56 PM (O7YUW)

367 The last book or two of Simmons' Hyperion were such disappointments as the overarching plot took a major swerve. Best I could come up with was that Simmons wrote himself into a corner - what he had planned, he just couldn't make work - so he had to swerve. I don't think Simmons himself could convince me that the swerve was always the plan.

Posted by: Kreskin at June 30, 2024 05:52 PM (0z7Ys)

368 I think "Radical Son" would be a great re-read after a re-read of Whittaker Chambers' "Witness".

Posted by: mrp at June 30, 2024 06:11 PM (rj6Yv)

369 Hey there would you mind sharing which blog
platform you're working with? I'm going to start my own blog in the near future
but I'm having a tough time deciding between BlogEngine/Wordpress/B2evolution and Drupal.
The reason I ask is because your layout seems different then most blogs and I'm looking
for something completely unique. P.S My apologies for being off-topic but I had to ask!

Posted by: https://polajp.smansabinjai.sch.id at July 01, 2024 03:02 AM (ALQtB)

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