May 11, 2014

Sunday Morning Book Thread 05-11-2014: America Reads [OregonMuse]
— Open Blogger


Harvard Club Library.jpg
Libary Annex at Casa de Muse*


*no, not really. This is the library of the Harvard Club of New York City, in midtown Manhattan. You have to be a member if you want read one of the 30,000 available books. (From the article Secret Libraries of New York City.)

Good morning morons and moronettes and welcome to AoSHQ's stately and prestigious Sunday Morning Book Thread.


America's Favorite Books

The Harris polling company asked 2,300 people to name their all-time favorite book. Here is the top ten:

1. The Bible
2. "Gone with the Wind" by Margaret Mitchell
3. "Harry Potter" (series) by J.K. Rowling
4. "The Lord of the Rings" (series) by J.R.R. Tolkien
5. "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee
6. "Moby Dick" by Herman Melville
7. "The Catcher" in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
8. "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott
9. "The Grapes of Wrath" by John Steinbeck
10. "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Also:

Dropped off the list in 2014:

The Stand by Stephen King (was No. 5), The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown (was No. 6) Angels and Demons by Dan Brown (was No. and Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand (was No. 9)


What Our Kids Are Reading These Days

I thought this study was interesting. You can download the pdf document that breaks it down by grade. There's a mixture of contemporary (The Hunger Games, Diary of a Wimpy Kid) and classic (The Diary of Anne Frank, To Kill a Mockingbird). Depending on the grade-level of course.


In Honor of Mothers' Day

Mrs. Muse is out of town visiting relatives for the next week, so we didn't plan anything and it kind of crept up on me. So all I'll do is point you at a list of 10 of LiteratureÂ’s Most Horrifying Mothers. Grendel's mom, Emma Bovary, and Scarlett O'Hara are here, among others.

I think that Mrs. Bates from Robert Bloch's novel Psycho would be a worthy addition to the list.


riure6hyuergter2.jpg
I Can't Get Enough of These Classic Finned Rockets


Classic Science Fiction Books?

So Buzzfreed asks, How Many Of These Classic Science Fiction Novels Have You Read? and they provide a list of 100 books. The word 'classic' is admittedly a bit open-ended, but even so, some of their choices are question. Like A Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. Seriously? A forgotten book that was made into a movie nobody went to see, and this is supposed to be a 'classic' science-fiction novel? One thing I will say about AHT, though, is that its underlying world view is very left of center. So you can see the appeal: progressive lit-crit types, who may not necessarily read a lot of the science fiction genre, would be very comfortable with Atwood's novel, as it affirms so many of their political and cultural prejudices.

Being a fan, I would think that I would know most, if not all, of any list of 100 classic science fiction books that could be compiled. But a large number of the titles on the Buzzfeed list I've never heard of, much less read. It could be that I'm now completely out of the loop. On the other hand, maybe many of the books are like AHT, i.e. they say all the right things and affirm all of the prejudices of progressive lit-crit circles, but they don't have much appeal anywhere else.

Or, maybe I've got this all wrong. I'd be curious if any of you morons can look at this list and tell me, "yep, those are 100 classic science-fiction books, all right."

And on another note, has "Hunger Games" really been around long enough to be considered a classic?


More Weird Books

Some of these you've already seen before, but you're getting them again, because I'm hard up for content this week.

One author (Lorraine Peterson) managed to make the list twice. Congrats!


In North Korea, Bookstore Finds YOU

So what's it like in a bookstore in Pyongyang? What can you find there to read?

About what you'd expect:

The store that the writer visited, which was located in Pyongyang, was called the Foreign Language Bookshop and the majority of what was for sale were works by Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il, available in a number of languages, or books of which they were the subject.

Zzzzzz....

According to Peixoto, the fiction section was small enough that he purchased a copy of every title they had, which included an epic poem in English titled “Mount Paektu” and a novella titled “The People of the Fighting Village,” which was penned by the director of the prose sub-committee of the Central Committee of the Korean Writers' Union.

Who says communism stifles the arts?


Are You Reading a Gothic Novel?

If you don't know, this helpful article in the Guardian helps you identify all of the necessary elements. With pictures.


Books of Note

Via BookBub, all of you military history buffs can get The Drive on Moscow, 1941 by Frankson and Zetterling for only $2.99, until 5/31/14. The fighting was absolutely brutal and the Germans came this close: -><- to taking Moscow.

___________

At first this subjects of this book, Baseball Haiku: The Best Haiku Ever Written about the Game, may seem like an odd combination, but baseball has always been immensely popular in Japan, so why shouldn't the two go together?

Here are some examples:

spring breeze
this grassy field makes me
want to play catch

Doesn't follow the 5-7-5 syllable pattern, but I like it, anyway. The love of baseball can be very great indeed:

until raised to Heaven
I'll go to fields of green
carrying my glove

And there's nothing quite like listening to a ballgame on the radio:

radio static
somewhere in the muggy night
a ballgame

Baseball and radio sort of grew up alongside each other, so they also fit very well together. Now all that remains is to figure out how to combine all three, baseball, radio, and haiku, into one perfect art form.

The intro to the book mentions that baseball-inspired haiku and tanka poetry date back to as early as 1898(!)

Here's mine:

it's in the bag
routine roller to Buckner
aarrggh, the curse lives on

___________

Now here's an oddity: there's a new book out on the history of atheism. A further oddity is that written by a Christian. And on top of all of that, it received a generally favorable review in The Guardian.

Cats and dogs living together. Inconceivable.

___________

I guess I've been remiss in not mentioning the economics book that currently has progressives swelling with pride that's lasting way more than 4 hours. Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty. The central argument of the book is that economy is dying because return on capital is greater than economic growth, which means that "the rich" are going to eat up most of the pie. In other words, the economy is producing income inequality, whch is a bad thing. And this at the same time as the Democrats are amping up "income inequality" as an issue, so this is the "book of the hour". It has sold > 200,000 copies, which is absolutely phenomenal for an economics book.

Hyper-partisan Paul Krugman, more tumescent about this book than most on the progressive side, crows how devastating it is for conservatives, but in reality, Piketty isn't really all that.

___________

So that's all for this week. As always, book thread tips, suggestions, rumors, threats, and insults may be sent to OregonMuse, Proprietor, AoSHQ Book Thread, at aoshqbookthread, followed by the 'at' sign, and then 'G' mail, and then dot cee oh emm.

What have you all been reading this week? Hopefully something good, because, as I keep saying, life is too short to be reading lousy books.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 06:08 AM | Comments (267)
Post contains 1313 words, total size 10 kb.

1 Foist?

Posted by: IllTemperedCur at May 11, 2014 06:12 AM (AHzA7)

2 Second!

Posted by: IllTemperedCur at May 11, 2014 06:13 AM (AHzA7)

3 Third!

Posted by: IllTemperedCur at May 11, 2014 06:13 AM (AHzA7)

4 Fourth!

Posted by: IllTemperedCur at May 11, 2014 06:13 AM (AHzA7)

5 Fifth!

Posted by: IllTemperedCur at May 11, 2014 06:13 AM (AHzA7)

6 Sixth!

Posted by: IllTemperedCur at May 11, 2014 06:14 AM (AHzA7)

7 Book rec: Chewing Rocks by Alan Black. Decent scifi story.

Posted by: eman at May 11, 2014 06:15 AM (EWsrI)

8 Okay, now I'm even annoying myself. Seventh!

Posted by: IllTemperedCur at May 11, 2014 06:15 AM (AHzA7)

9 The List of 100 Best SF is crap. Totally loaded with female authors, ton of them I've never even heard of. Only 2 Heinlein? Please. I've been reading it my whole life and scored a 42. I'm guessing they went with gender diversity and therefore half are unheard of titles.

Posted by: Kyle Kiernan at May 11, 2014 06:15 AM (NyE/C)

10 Re: worse moms, how about Cerise or what ever her name is? And Lady Stark was a handful. The Mother of Dragons, also looks like she may have a few screws loose.

Posted by: Pug All Zipped Up at May 11, 2014 06:16 AM (3U9Bd)

11 "Harry Potter" is honest. "Catcher In The Rye" is a damn lie. Another case of poll respondents giving an answer they think makes them look good instead of the the actual truth. Which was probably something like "Twilight" or "I have no idea, I haven't read an actual book in more than a decade." "Catcher" is a horrible book that would quickly and deservedly be forgotten except for its continued place on high school reading lists.

Posted by: bittergeek at May 11, 2014 06:17 AM (bBZdU)

12 My choice for best scifi book is Liege Killer by Christopher Hinz.

Posted by: eman at May 11, 2014 06:17 AM (EWsrI)

13 I loved The Stand. It was the first time I've ever seen my name in print, not referring to me (Glendon).

Posted by: Yep, I'm a nerd... at May 11, 2014 06:19 AM (FCgaq)

14 First?

Posted by: Mathman at closing time at May 11, 2014 06:19 AM (8F/HA)

15 Some good titles on that list, but a lot I've never even heard of. Too PC for my taste.

Posted by: kalel666 at May 11, 2014 06:20 AM (9xbt0)

16 Reading C. J. Box's newest - "Stone Cold." Highly recommended. I was introduced to Box by the @hughhewitt radio program. Hugh does something unusual in his author interviews -- he actually reads the book before the interview. He also gets excellent authors because he does lengthy, serious interviews. Mostly a political show, but the author interviews are great for book lovers. You can read more about Box's books at cjbox dot net. IMO, you don't need to start with the first book in the series, as Box always provides enough backstory in each book. Opening quotation in "Stone Cold": "It's not inequality which is the real misfortune, it's dependence. -- Voltaire"

Posted by: doug at May 11, 2014 06:21 AM (QWvAN)

17 12. My choice for best scifi book is Liege Killer by Christopher Hinz. Loved the Paratwa books, first was best, nice to finish them all.

Posted by: Kyle Kiernan at May 11, 2014 06:21 AM (NyE/C)

18 I ended last week's book thread, long after it was dead, with a rant about To Kill a Mockingbird as being incredibly overrated (it's a pleasant and enjoyably simple book written, as Flannery O'Connor pointed out, for children), one of the books in that Top 10 list.  I'd like to skewer another one today, The Great Gatsby, a gasbag collection of heavily stylized prose about a bunch of not particularly interesting people about whom we're supposed to think huge things.  The reason I'm bringing that up is that my book group is reading "Tender is the Night", another Fitzgerald work, and it is bringing back all of the horrible memories of Gatsby, only even more tedious.  At least Part 1 of it was; the second part is a little more interesting as it provides insight about the married couple at the center of the story and just how fucking clinically nutso the wife is.  The other main character is a young (1 actress who has told her dipshit stage mother how "in love" she is with the married main character and her mother's reaction is like "tra la la; you're my meal ticket and you can do whatever you want".  The minor characters are a bunch of fucking drunks and shitheads making garish fools out of themselves in Europe.  A total slog which I'm continuing to read only to be able to trash it more effectively.  Btw I've been led to understand that this is autobiographical based on Fitzgerald's insane wife; not a good idea imo.

Posted by: Captain Hate at May 11, 2014 06:22 AM (G+GiZ)

19 Wait a second. The doors to that rocket are actually on the fin? or into the rocket exhaust port? Either way doesn't look right.

Posted by: S. Muldoon at May 11, 2014 06:23 AM (MKpBT)

20 I read A Handmaid's Tale for school. It was filmed next door to me at Duke Chapel. The movie is a lefty view of how a right wing world would end up like. Every fucking trope is in there: rape, immigration, religious zealotry, police state, abortion, etc.

Posted by: EC at May 11, 2014 06:23 AM (doBIb)

21 All those scary literary moms were based on my own Mommy Dearest. She had enough crazy personalities to populate way too many books. And to all who were lucky enough to have a somewhat normal upbringing with a relatively sane Mom, Happy Mother's Day.

Posted by: BackwardsBoy, who did not vote for this shit [/i][/s][/b][/u] at May 11, 2014 06:23 AM (0HooB)

22 I stand by my assertion that Lonesome Dove is the best American novel since Of Mice and Men. Non-sexual love between men is a great thing, and makes great stories.

Posted by: Bob at May 11, 2014 06:24 AM (mTM2n)

23 I want that library. I do have a library in my house, it was formerly the dining room, but I lack the second story and the deep leather chairs. Working on it. That list of quote classic SF unquote is very strange. Some stuff is classic and other books I've never even heard of--and I WRITE SF. To me, classic means it is so much a part of the genre that you recognize references, like Frankenstein even if you haven't read the whole book yourself. I don't think Hunger Games qualifies just yet--and I don't think it is really high quality SF either. Interesting story, but needs work.

Posted by: Sabrina Chase at May 11, 2014 06:24 AM (2buaQ)

24 I've read five on the sci-fi list and the number is that high only because three of Octavia Butler's novels are there. And her best is not listed.

Posted by: baldilocks at May 11, 2014 06:25 AM (36Rjy)

25 so gay

Posted by: Dr. Varno at May 11, 2014 06:26 AM (V4CBV)

26 Finished "The Stars Came Back" which was recommended here a couple of weeks ago. Loved it. Took a couple of pages to get used to the screen play format but didn't even notice it after that. As a good book should, left you wanting to know each character better. The ship's AI was especially intriguing. It only has part of its memory so there's much more to learn about it. Hopefully, that means the author is writing a sequel. Can't recommend this one enough. Fun, fun, fun.

Posted by: Tuna at May 11, 2014 06:26 AM (7KPIw)

27 24 I've read five on the sci-fi list and the number is that high only because three of Octavia Butler's novels are there. And her best is not listed. Posted by: baldilocks at May 11, 2014 10:25 AM (36Rjy) I like her books very much. Which one do you think is her best one?

Posted by: eman at May 11, 2014 06:27 AM (EWsrI)

28 Fahrenheit 451 for the little kiddies.

Posted by: fairweatherbill at May 11, 2014 06:28 AM (ejkNv)

29 "Man in the High Castle" was great. Anyone interested in in alt-history fiction, check out: uchronia dot net

Posted by: Dr. Varno at May 11, 2014 06:28 AM (V4CBV)

30 I've read 47 of the hundred. There are 17 I do not recognize. 6 are on my reading list. Of the 30 remainding books, I have a different reason not to read each one. The list is suspect to have so many Octavia Butler stories without one by Lois McMasters Bujold. Plus I prefer some other novels by featured authors. YMMV. There are a number of great novels on the list. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and Starship Troopers would never show on a list for leftists. Snow Crash, A Fire upon the Deep, The Space Merchants and both Bester novels are in the heart of good SF. I question Lucifers Hammer in place of the Mote in God's Eye or Footfall, but that novel is another with an anti-left message.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at May 11, 2014 06:29 AM (u82oZ)

31 Old Man's War is a classic already?!?!

Posted by: EC at May 11, 2014 06:29 AM (doBIb)

32 Haven't yet read Hunger Games, don't know that I want to.

Posted by: The Poser at May 11, 2014 06:30 AM (krYP4)

33 Read Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain then save time by never watching TV again. There is no plot twist in anything today that Samuel Clemens did not use in his book. All the occult excrement and chastity problems masquerading as edgy fiction write themselves. Oops, no dinner party invitations for me.

Posted by: DM at May 11, 2014 06:30 AM (Ztudx)

34 10 "The Mother of Dragons", also looks like she may have a few screws loose." Too much inbreeding. Never a good thing.

Posted by: Tuna at May 11, 2014 06:31 AM (7KPIw)

35 Well, that didn't take long.  I ordered Nicholas Wade's "A Troublesome Inheritance: Genes, Race and Human History", which just came out.  I'm about a 1/4 of the way through it, and so far it's pretty good, if a bit light for my tastes.  Its core thesis is that recent developments in genetics and DNA sequencing pretty much dispose of the idea that there are no races, or at least no differences between races. 

For those who don't know Mr. Wade, he's a long term science writer for the NYT.  Or rather, he WAS a long term science writer for the NYT.  Remarkably, a few days after his book's publication, he no longer works for the NYT.  No explanations have yet been given. 

Just remember, liberals are all about science, unlike you sister-humping, snake-worshiping deniers. 

Posted by: pep at May 11, 2014 06:32 AM (4nR9/)

36 It's it far to early to call "hunger games" a classic buzz feed?

Posted by: tsrblke, PhD(c) (No Really!) [/b] [/i] [/s] at May 11, 2014 06:32 AM (HDwDg)

37 > it's in the bag routine roller to Buckner aarrggh, the curse lives on The score was tied at that moment. And game seven came after.

Posted by: Comrade Arthur at May 11, 2014 06:33 AM (h53OH)

38 That list of quote classic SF unquote is very strange. Some stuff is classic and other books I've never even heard of--and I WRITE SF.

Thanks, all of you morons are confirming my impression of that list, i.e. it's a heavily PC compilation put together to satisfy the prejudices of  progressive lit-crit types.

Posted by: OregonMuse at May 11, 2014 06:33 AM (fTJ5O)

39 Babel-17 looks interesting!

Posted by: Waterhouse at May 11, 2014 06:34 AM (20O/1)

40 21 All those scary literary moms were based on my own Mommy Dearest. She had enough crazy personalities to populate way too many books. And to all who were lucky enough to have a somewhat normal upbringing with a relatively sane Mom, Happy Mother's Day. Posted by: BackwardsBoy, who did not vote for this shit at May 11, 2014 10:23 AM (0HooB) I can totally relate. Childhood was hell.

Posted by: Insomniac at May 11, 2014 06:34 AM (8nDPF)

41 "The Mother of Dragons", also looks like she may have a few screws loose." Yeah. Ever since she became a queen in Slavers Bay she decided to always wear clothing. Crazy craycray.

Posted by: IllTemperedCur at May 11, 2014 06:34 AM (AHzA7)

42 Ref buzzfeed list of SF books. Yes, there are some REALLY marginal books there. Marginal in that they are marginally good - not barely good enough to make the list.

Posted by: Comrade Arthur at May 11, 2014 06:34 AM (h53OH)

43 The University Club on 5th ave has, I believe, the largest private library in the city.

It is huge. 

The NYAC also has a very nice, but small library.  Most of the old clubs in the city have libraries, since when they were built, there was no other entertainment.  The Metropolitan Club and Union League Club also have nice libraries.


Posted by: Nip Sip at May 11, 2014 06:34 AM (0FSuD)

44 The sci-fi list is bonkers. If I see "The Windup Girl" mentioned one more time as a great piece of literature, I'm going to throw my computer across the room. Global warming pseudo-science combined with anti-capitalist 'post-government' worlds, as if the corporations have the ability to take over everything. Dumb. Dumb. Book. And then there were the feminist manifestos passing as sci-fi. Pathetic.

Posted by: Shawn at May 11, 2014 06:34 AM (/lltO)

45 The score was tied at that moment.
And game seven came after.

Shut up, you.  

Posted by: OregonMuse at May 11, 2014 06:35 AM (fTJ5O)

46 That's a strange sci-fi list, which is what I'd expect from the Buzzfeed turds.  Gravity's Rainbow isn't sci-fi (and I really really hated it) nor is The Road which I loved.  Having said that, The First and Last Men is an inspired choice.

Posted by: Captain Hate at May 11, 2014 06:37 AM (G+GiZ)

47 Is there an over-rated book list.  Catcher in the Rye and To Kill a Mockingbird would be #1 and #2.

Posted by: Trainer's looking to join a Militia. at May 11, 2014 06:37 AM (7EbAY)

48 Parable of the Sower is my favorite Octavia Butler book(I know it wasn't me that you asked.) I'd also recommend Wild Seed and Parable of the Talents.

Posted by: LadyS at May 11, 2014 06:37 AM (5dip8)

49 Posted by: Comrade Arthur at May 11, 2014 10:34 AM (h53OH) It's more like a list of "Marginal Scifi books" with the occasional actual classic mixed in.

Posted by: tsrblke, PhD(c) (No Really!) [/b] [/i] [/s] at May 11, 2014 06:37 AM (HDwDg)

50 I've read or at least heard of probably 80% of the books on the sci-fi list. I agree that there is a definite left wing slant both on the list and it sci-fi in general. The collection of short speculative fiction/satirical sci-fi that I'm writing is coming from a decidedly conservative/libertarian standpoint. Of course, I doubt anything I write would ever end up on a "must read" works list. Anyway, I'm planning to publish the first in the series next week. Title: Just Another Oppressor. A anti-PC/Orwellian thriller /shameless plug

Posted by: Lauren at May 11, 2014 06:39 AM (ejehg)

51 The First and Last Men is an inspired choice

I agree. My HS English teacher got me into Olaf Stapledon. FALM is an amazing book.

Posted by: OregonMuse at May 11, 2014 06:39 AM (fTJ5O)

52 I made it about a third of the way through "Catching in the Rye". Holden Caulfield can go fuck himself.

Posted by: Mark in Sandy Ut at May 11, 2014 06:39 AM (xGX1p)

53 If I had the energy I'd write a book name The Hamster in my Fly

Posted by: IllTemperedCur at May 11, 2014 06:40 AM (AHzA7)

54 Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty. I still prefer ace's spelling. Pinketty.

Posted by: rickl at May 11, 2014 06:40 AM (sdi6R)

55 Re: what our kids are reading - I used to think "Will" by G. Gordon Liddy should be required reading by any boy as he reached teen years, but I haven't even skimmed it in years, I wonder if I'd still feel the same today? Maybe i'd put Call of the Wild & White Fang on my "required" list these days. Ask me in a week, the answer would probably change.

Posted by: shredded chi at May 11, 2014 06:42 AM (xVSXE)

56 Love the snappy space suits shown above. Pink suit for the lady? Too cute!

Posted by: Tuna at May 11, 2014 06:43 AM (7KPIw)

57 If you're a tv show only viewer and have a problem with the mother of dragons now just wait until next season.

Posted by: Adam at May 11, 2014 06:44 AM (Aif/5)

58 Seems to have been a semi-coordinated campaign to demean Atlas Shrugged and people who read it. In recent years I've seen a lot of throw away lines of casual derision by left-wing writers, comics, etc. The basic stereotype is of Atlas Shrugged being the favorite book of the Aspie, right wing weirdo at work that's never known the touch of a woman. I think it's been effective mockery.

Posted by: Frank at May 11, 2014 06:45 AM (ZPrif)

59 My HS English teacher got me into Olaf Stapledon. FALM is an amazing book.

Posted by: OregonMuse at May 11, 2014 10:39 AM (fTJ5O)



Excellent teacher imo.  You can tell when there's an outstanding book when you can remember how you found out about it; in my case it was a rec from a guy who was obviously trustworthy in a small bookstore.  It was a two-fer with Star Maker, which was also very very good but not quite as ground shaking as FALM.

Posted by: Captain Hate at May 11, 2014 06:46 AM (G+GiZ)

60 I call Bullshit! on the Harris poll. There aren't 2300 Americans under 50 who've read "Moby Dick". Because they're all so damn Bartleby the Scrivner'ing away their school days. Oops! Off to church.

Posted by: MTF at May 11, 2014 06:47 AM (F58x4)

61 And The Road is considered SF?

Posted by: Adam at May 11, 2014 06:47 AM (Aif/5)

62 "The basic stereotype is of Atlas Shrugged being the favorite book of the Aspie, right wing weirdo at work that's never known the touch of a woman. " You're right. I think that's a direct quote from several Cracked articles over the past few years.

Posted by: Lauren at May 11, 2014 06:48 AM (ejehg)

63 Tried to read White Fang to my girls. Not a good out-loud read. London's prose can be great, but the other 90 percent is locquacious gobbledygook.

Posted by: Bob at May 11, 2014 06:48 AM (mTM2n)

64 I Can't Get Enough of These Classic Finned Rockets SpaceX's rockets don't have fins, but they do have retractable landing legs.

Posted by: rickl at May 11, 2014 06:50 AM (sdi6R)

65 One more thing about the sci-fi list:  any list of that type which doesn't have a work by Clifford Simak or Phillip Jose Farmer is incomplete imo.

Posted by: Captain Hate at May 11, 2014 06:52 AM (G+GiZ)

66 61 I call Bullshit! on the Harris poll. There aren't 2300 Americans under 50 who've read "Moby Dick". Because they're all so damn Bartleby the Scrivner'ing away their school days. &&&&&&&&& I would prefer not to have read it. It's like philosophy books ... It takes hundreds of pages to say what could be said in 20.

Posted by: Bob at May 11, 2014 06:52 AM (mTM2n)

67 I've read 57 of the Buzzfeed list (and maybe Nova by Delany, fuzzy memory).

"Zoo City".  BS.  Not a bad book, but it's all of four years old, and while it was a Hugo nominee (for what that's worth, see Larry Correa) it DIDN'T WIN in 2011.  I know, I was at the ceremony.

A ton of these are from the last twenty years and trending towards the left-lit patterns.

Posted by: Captain Comic at May 11, 2014 06:53 AM (DRuIr)

68 Big release this week is A Troublesome Inheritance: Genes, Race and Human History by NYT genetics writer Nicholas Wade. Presents the latest research on the genetic history of humanity and how the different racial and ethnic groups evolved. A lot of new genetics research in the last decade that most people aren't aware of. Most people don't realize how easily race/ethnicity can be measured with simple DNA tests. Also the recent evidence of human interbreeding with Neanderthal and Denisovan hominids. Every human being who isn't 100% sub-Saharan African is 2-5% Neanderthal. And Polynesians are a few % Denisovan. As humanity spread around the globe, we encountered pre-existing hominid species, and we inter-bred with them (probably a lot of raping on both sides) and ultimately drove them to extinction.

Posted by: Frank at May 11, 2014 06:53 AM (ZPrif)

69 @29 - "Anyone interested in in alt-history fiction, check out: uchronia dot net" Home page has C. J. Sansom's "Dominion", which I loved.

Posted by: doug at May 11, 2014 06:54 AM (QWvAN)

70 On the SF quiz (and I've been reading the genre for 60 years now: Have read for sure, 43 Started, could not finish, 9 Reviews indicated I'd dislike, 7 Never heard of, 33 Can't remember, 6

Posted by: Empire1 at May 11, 2014 06:55 AM (RvJwb)

71 Started reading the The Eight Wilderness Discovery books by John Muir, father of the Sierra Club. He's probably rolling over in his grave right now.


Posted by: BEL at May 11, 2014 06:55 AM (thLL8)

72 It was a two-fer with Star Maker, which was also very very good but not quite as ground shaking as FALM.

Now that you mention it, I remember the edition I read also had Star Maker as a two-fer, but I didn't like as much.

Posted by: OregonMuse at May 11, 2014 06:55 AM (fTJ5O)

73 27 24 I've read five on the sci-fi list and the number is that high only because three of Octavia Butler's novels are there. And her best is not listed. Posted by: baldilocks at May 11, 2014 10:25 AM (36Rjy) I like her books very much. Which one do you think is her best one? Posted by: eman at May 11, 2014 10:27 AM (EWsrI) The Xenogenesis Series: Dawn, Adulthood Rites, and Imago.

Posted by: baldilocks at May 11, 2014 06:56 AM (36Rjy)

74 Recently finished "Everyday Stalinism, Ordinary Life in Extraordinary Times:  Soviet Russia in the 1930s".  Great read.  Easy, not bloody, and (frighteningly) becoming all-too-familiar -- underlying, and not camoflaged, theme is the rampant-and-incompetent bureaucracy.  Leaves me curious as to what would have happened if Trotsky had won the power struggle.

Still trying to finish De Tocqueville's masterpiece, but it's a difficult read (and yes, I have it in English).  The big problem is lack of context.  You really have to understand 1830s Europe to read it.  It's interesting as a contemporary social studies book though.  However, as soon as I finish it, I'm delving back into Adam Smith.  He's quite well-written and it doesn't require historical context.  Thence to Keynes and Hayek.

Posted by: SFGoth at May 11, 2014 06:56 AM (TgEDt)

75 If I couldn't have that library, I'd settle for the one at the Biltmore Estate in Asheville. http://tinyurl.com/n8jv98w

Posted by: BackwardsBoy, who did not vote for this shit [/i][/s][/b][/u] at May 11, 2014 06:56 AM (0HooB)

76 Oh, and "Flowers for Algernon" is a short story.  The novelized lengthening is called "Charly".  Okay movie with Cliff Robertson.

Posted by: Captain Comic at May 11, 2014 06:56 AM (DRuIr)

77 @65 "SpaceX's rockets don't have fins, but they do have retractable landing legs." Like the SpaceX Falcon 9R. Amazing!

Posted by: doug at May 11, 2014 06:57 AM (QWvAN)

78 I'll repost http://minx.cc/?blog=86&post=349087#c22124412 from last night. It's a (rushed) review of "Tambora" by Gillen D'Arcy Wood. Shorter version: volcanos are bad hmmkay. -- I also leafed through "Nazis, Islamists, and the Making of the Modern Middle East" by Barry Rubin and Wolfgang G. Schwanitz. It says pretty much what we already know about how those nazi punks (f- off!) helped build all those Baath-type national liberation movements in the Near East. A few tidbits I didn't know: this was a break from the Kaiser's policy. The Kaiser had supported *Islam* in the Near East. He did this because he was trying to keep up the Ottomans as a going imperial concern, to rule over Turks and Arabs alike. Back then it was the Brits and Frogs stirring up Arab *nationalism*, like they'd stirred up Greek nationalism before that. Hitler on the other hand figured he could gather Islam and nationalism together to screw over the Allies (which after 1940 just meant Britain). Hitler lost, and his fascist allies lost, except - the authors point out - in the Near East. Plenty of Nazis ended up in Egypt, Syria and Iraq. And here's the part that really sucks: Some of the "repentant" Nazis in western Germany stayed in local government. In Bavaria they lobbied for that famous "mosque in Munich" to be built. They did this with the full knowledge that militant anti-Western Muslims would stock the place, which they sold to a naive CIA as "is anticommunism, ja?". As a result the Ikhwan got its first official mosque in the West.

Posted by: boulder t'hobo at May 11, 2014 06:57 AM (30eLQ)

79 Well I went and finally pulled the plug.  Published as an e-book on Amazon a snippet of Sluggor plus other stuff, some original to anthology and some revised from the blog.

And once I hit published, realized I had allowed a goof to slip through.  So do I pull it to revise?  If I do that, will be tempted sorely to add the 12k other words of Sluggor to the 4k already in anthology.

But if you want to buy it anyway, its called The Princess Who Caused Fear: An Anthology.  You have been warned and the goof is plain to see. 

http://tinyurl.com/k7clao4

Posted by: Anna Puma (+SmuD) at May 11, 2014 06:58 AM (HXcdb)

80 35 Well, that didn't take long. I ordered Nicholas Wade's "A Troublesome Inheritance: Genes, Race and Human History", which just came out. I'm about a 1/4 of the way through it, and so far it's pretty good, if a bit light for my tastes. Its core thesis is that recent developments in genetics and DNA sequencing pretty much dispose of the idea that there are no races, or at least no differences between races. For those who don't know Mr. Wade, he's a long term science writer for the NYT. Or rather, he WAS a long term science writer for the NYT. Remarkably, a few days after his book's publication, he no longer works for the NYT. No explanations have yet been given. Just remember, liberals are all about science, unlike you sister-humping, snake-worshiping deniers. Posted by: pep at May 11, 2014 10:32 AM (4nR9/) I have it on my Amazon wishlist.

Posted by: baldilocks at May 11, 2014 06:58 AM (36Rjy)

81 I'm a 19 of the 100, but find including certain titles (e.g. 1984) as "science fiction" a bit of a reach. No, a LOT of a reach. Most of my reads were the Classics -- Heinlein, Asimov, Pohl, etc. -- and for good reason: when sci-fi wanders into fantasy territory, I wander away.

As for "Atlas Shrugged" and every other damned thing Rand wrote: If you don't cut her slack for "conservative" political views, Rand is preachy, droning, repetitious, ham-handedly obvious and just plain not all that as a writer. Her characters are plastic, formulaic, and downright un-human.

Her two Big Books could have been edited down to a couple hundred pages and might then be palatable. With some good rewriting, that is.

I read them in college and recently plowed through them again. That's hours of my time I'll never get back.

It would be wonderful to have a conservative voice in literature, but Rand ain't it. I hear she was really kinky, though, so that's a plus.

Posted by: MrScribbler at May 11, 2014 06:59 AM (dDzOj)

82 Most people don't realize how easily race/ethnicity can be measured with simple DNA tests. Also the recent evidence of human interbreeding with Neanderthal and Denisovan hominids. Every human being who isn't 100% sub-Saharan African is 2-5% Neanderthal. And Polynesians are a few % Denisovan. The problem with Wade's book is it doesn't mention any of this stuff about the Denisovans et al. It's like a book he sent to the publisher in 2001 that they just sat on. It would have been great in 2001. In 2014, it's so dated as to be useless.

Posted by: boulder t'hobo at May 11, 2014 06:59 AM (30eLQ)

83 Hitler even had a General of Mountain Troops (3 star) who had converted to Islam (though I forget which one).  Hitler admired Islam for its violent spirit. 

Posted by: SFGoth at May 11, 2014 07:00 AM (TgEDt)

84 Yeah, Cracked uses the Atlas Shrugged insult a lot. That liking it is revealing something especially shameful, if not outright dangerous, about yourself.

Posted by: Frank at May 11, 2014 07:00 AM (ZPrif)

85 I mean, I appreciate that it's politically-incorrect, but it's also incorrect.

Posted by: boulder t'hobo at May 11, 2014 07:00 AM (30eLQ)

86 Suspicions about that sci-fi list are correct. Thought the list is sprinkled with generally acknowledged classics, one of the books was published in 2012. Now, unless the author is dead, it's a bit early for the anointing.

Posted by: baldilocks at May 11, 2014 07:02 AM (36Rjy)

87 Congrats, AP. OK, pixel/page people, I gotta get ready for my gig this afternoon. Y'all have fun and try not to trash the place, 'k?

Posted by: BackwardsBoy, who did not vote for this shit [/i][/s][/b][/u] at May 11, 2014 07:04 AM (0HooB)

88 I ended last week's book thread, long after it was dead, with a rant about To Kill a Mockingbird as being incredibly overrated (it's a pleasant and enjoyably simple book written, as Flannery O'Connor pointed out, for children)

Which is why they assign it in 8th-9th grade English classes.

Posted by: OregonMuse at May 11, 2014 07:04 AM (fTJ5O)

89 "Anthem" was a great read in 6th grade.  I didn't get all the "we" until the end, but I was really, really disappointed in her final word.  Instead of "ego" it should have been "I".

Posted by: SFGoth at May 11, 2014 07:05 AM (TgEDt)

90 Haven't read much sci-fi but have enjoyed; Asimov's Foundation series Herbert's Dune series Couple of Heinline's were fun. And shredded chi, agree on "required". Maybe toss in My Side of the Mountain for 9-12 yr old boys. Of course Mr Twain's works and one not many know, Bristle Face by Zachary Ball. Did I say Old Yeller?

Posted by: teej at May 11, 2014 07:06 AM (t20SK)

91 I've always thought those " favorite books" were more the books people think they should like rather than the books people have actually read an enjoyed.

Posted by: Tuna at May 11, 2014 07:06 AM (7KPIw)

92 I wouldn't really consider The Space Merchants the classic they claim.  Pohl's Heechee maybe.  Kornbluth's Not This August is at best cautionary science fiction meet political thriller.

Sclazi?  Should not count, too recent.  And besides there is already The Forever War[/i[ in the list.

Posted by: Anna Puma (+SmuD) at May 11, 2014 07:07 AM (HXcdb)

93 I used to think "Will" by G. Gordon Liddy should be required reading by any boy as he reached teen years, but I haven't even skimmed it in years, I wonder if I'd still feel the same today? Maybe i'd put Call of the Wild & White Fang on my "required" list these days. Ask me in a week, the answer would probably change. Posted by: shredded chi "The Call of the Wild" and "White Fang" are great books, even if Jack London was reputed to be a proto-Marxist. "Will" is funny in a really weird way, but I really don't think it's good reading for kids; maybe cynical teenagers. Liddy is an odd but very interesting man. I miss his radio show, when it was carried in my town back in the '90's. Of course, now he's completely retired from that.

Posted by: Bossy Conservative riding Orca at May 11, 2014 07:08 AM (+1T7c)

94 Rand is preachy, droning, repetitious, ham-handedly obvious and just plain not all that as a writer.

I agree, but consider this: if someone wrote a book like Atlas Shrugged with a progressive world view, about a cast of progressives doing progressive things while being opposed at every step by murderous conservatives, it would probably have won the Pulitzer Prize.

Posted by: OregonMuse at May 11, 2014 07:09 AM (fTJ5O)

95 And I just avoided the Barrel.  Yay me. 

Thanks Backwards Boy, good luck and have fun with your gig.

Posted by: Anna Puma (+SmuD) at May 11, 2014 07:10 AM (HXcdb)

96 List of American's favorite Books? I think that is on the list of top 10 myths of list of what American's like.

Posted by: Burt Toste at May 11, 2014 07:10 AM (xzZPy)

97

My recommendation for today/tonight as it's 1am here.....

 

The series of books by Aussie author Kerry Greenwood about Miss Phryne Fisher, a beautiful lady detective in Melbourne in the 1920s

 

These books have been adapted into a wonderful and very entertaining TV series, Miss Fishers Murder Mysteries which some of you may have seen

 

Kerry Greenwood has also written heaps of kid's books and also some science fiction which I haven't read yet

 

Bedtime and have a wonderful yesterday everyone!

 

 

Posted by: aussie at May 11, 2014 07:11 AM (flMT4)

98 I hear she was really kinky, though, so that's a plus.

Heh. I hadn't heard that. I do know that by all accounts, she was a petty, vindictive, loathsome person.

Posted by: OregonMuse at May 11, 2014 07:11 AM (fTJ5O)

99 Happy Mother's Day to all the mom Ettes. I just finished reading VDH's book, A War Like No Other, his look at the Peloponnesian war. Damn good read.

Posted by: fastfreefall at May 11, 2014 07:12 AM (0WhgA)

100 I am proud to be an American now that Dan Brown's books are off the list for America's favorite books. Considering the statistics about the % of Americans who read, I'd wager that the list is composed of books Americans have recalled from their school days (and might or might not have actually read). Clearly the reason books like TKAM, Gatsby, and other such classics made the list.

Posted by: Mary at May 11, 2014 07:12 AM (2wZs/)

101 Yesterday I got an e-mail from Amazon with book recommendations. Scrolling down, I discovered that John Lundstom's "The First South Pacific Campaign" has been released in paperback. https://tinyurl.com/mbkhtt2 I was not previously familiar with this book. I do, however, have his "The First Team". https://tinyurl.com/m44zkge So naturally, I went online and bought a first edition hardcover for $70. I got off lucky. Most of the used copies are $100 and up. *** Check out the reviews at the first link. One of them is by Jonathan Parshall, who mentioned using it "for my own forthcoming Battle of Midway volume". Here it is: https://tinyurl.com/83nrb8q It's also garnered some fairly favorable reviews.

Posted by: rickl at May 11, 2014 07:12 AM (sdi6R)

102 I've always thought those " favorite books" were more the books people think they should like rather than the books people have actually read an enjoyed. Posted by: Tuna at May 11, 2014 11:06 AM

Lotta truth to that.

Most of my "favorite" books -- and there are a shit-ton of them -- will never make ANY "best" list, which strikes me as both too bad and utterly irrelevant. I like 'em, and nobody's forcing you to read over my shoulder!

I do know people who will proudly assert that they are reading some new Philosophical Masterpiece (one of those with an explanatory subtitle after the semicolon that follows the main title) while in reality they are much more comfortable with comic books or coffee-table monstrosities. So be it.

Right now, I'm re-reading a couple of favorite novels. Unimportant. Unenlightening. Funny.

Posted by: MrScribbler at May 11, 2014 07:12 AM (dDzOj)

103 They left off Armor in the 100 sci fi books. My favorite.

Posted by: Burt Toste at May 11, 2014 07:14 AM (xzZPy)

104 I believe "Gone with the Wind", "Harry Potter", "The Hobbit" (not LOTR), "To Kill a Mockingbird", and "The Catcher in the Rye". People do read these and, in the latter two cases, take them to heart. Maybe the former one as well. The Bible is not a work of belles-letters and is not generally read for pleasure. Most of you read it for spiritual edification, which is different. I read it for historical research, which is also different (except maybe for some valuable proverbs but, again - different).

Posted by: boulder t'hobo at May 11, 2014 07:14 AM (30eLQ)

105 After looking over the bookshelves (I really need to dust in here!), I think I'll add "The Education of Little Tree" to my required list for kids coming of age. Now, it's time to take Mom to brunch & have a morning beer with my sister that I haven't seen since Christmas. Have a great day, all!

Posted by: shredded chi at May 11, 2014 07:16 AM (xVSXE)

106 I just finished reading VDH's book, A War Like No Other, his look at the Peloponnesian war. Damn good read. Posted by: fastfreefall I read that some years ago....meh. But if you liked that, you should read "The Tides Of War" by Steven Pressfield. A really tremendous novelization of the Peloponessian War, focusing on Alcibiades. Reading that really brings the history of the war alive.

Posted by: Bossy Conservative riding Orca at May 11, 2014 07:16 AM (+1T7c)

107 So it looks like I've read 44 of the books on the list. Some great, some not so.


And Captain Comic  is certainly correct about "Flowers for Algernon".


One hell of a story with a killer ending.

Posted by: HH at May 11, 2014 07:18 AM (XXwdv)

108 87 Suspicions about that sci-fi list are correct. Thought the list is sprinkled with generally acknowledged classics, one of the books was published in 2012. Now, unless the author is dead, it's a bit early for the anointing. Posted by: baldilocks at May 11, 2014 11:02 AM (36Rjy) If it hits all the liberal talking points, it must be a modern classic! ... yeah.

Posted by: ConservativeMonster at May 11, 2014 07:19 AM (ioT3q)

109 buzzfeed eh? Did they twll you what mind of parasitic wasp you were?

Posted by: the Truth, the whole Truth, and nothing but the Truth at May 11, 2014 07:19 AM (6jKOp)

110 103 If truth be told, an accurate America's Favorite Books list would be pulled from the top sellers on Amazon's Sci Fi/Fantasy, Mystery, and Romance novels lists. And you know what? There's nothing shameful about that either.

Posted by: Tuna at May 11, 2014 07:19 AM (7KPIw)

111 Oh and speaking of belles letters - yesterday I bought Hobbitus Ille, a translation into, uh, Latin. I could actually understand some of it! (But not enough of it.) Recommend this one to anyone trying to learn or relearn the language. The translator believes that it should be *fun* to learn a new language and I agree. He also notes that there isn't much like it in Latin.

Posted by: boulder t'hobo at May 11, 2014 07:20 AM (30eLQ)

112 Heh. I hadn't heard that. I do know that by all accounts, she was a petty, vindictive, loathsome person. Posted by: OregonMuse at May 11, 2014 11:11 AM (fTJ5O) IIRC, she pretty much bought into the crackpot notion that she could reason her way out of her humanity, and thus all those silly things like monogamy no longer applied.

Posted by: Colorado Alex at May 11, 2014 07:20 AM (lr3d7)

113 Posted by: Bossy Conservative riding Orca at May 11, 2014 11:16 AM (+1T7c) I still think about the narrator's description about being in the pit as a prisoner and not being able to piss they were so dehydrated. Don't know why that has stuck with me .

Posted by: Burt Toste at May 11, 2014 07:20 AM (xzZPy)

114 Nood.

Posted by: Y-not at May 11, 2014 07:21 AM (zDsvJ)

115 Y-not, you must summon the corgis...  

Posted by: Anna Puma (+SmuD) at May 11, 2014 07:21 AM (HXcdb)

116 Preachy, droning, repetitive Ayn Rand was a Russian. She wrote a Russian novel. Compared to other Russian novelists, she's a marvel of concision.

Do not get me started on the French.

I takes a Russian all day to get anything said; with the French, it's just as long but doesn't really say anything anyway.  

Posted by: Stringer Davis at May 11, 2014 07:21 AM (xq1UY)

117 I've always thought those " favorite books" were more the books people think they should like rather than the books people have actually read an enjoyed.

Also, a "great book" is now defined as "one that says things left-wingers want to hear".

Posted by: OregonMuse at May 11, 2014 07:22 AM (fTJ5O)

118 You all got me to thinking about reading for pleasure, rather than what you "should" be reading. Every now and again I pull out A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. It always makes me laugh out loud. Maybe it is just a southern thing, but it always lifts my spirits!

Posted by: 'Ette in training, a striving wannabe at May 11, 2014 07:22 AM (zvxqj)

119 Bossy, Pressfield's books are outstanding, ive read them all.His and VDHs books have made my time in Greek museums all that more fruitful and enjoyable.

Posted by: fastfreefall at May 11, 2014 07:22 AM (0WhgA)

120 VDH is good. He's someone who I always half-expect to be Derbified from the Right and exiled to Taki mag. He writes in a dry, academic style so perhaps that saves him. Still, many wanted him excommunicated just for the tile of his book Mexifornia for even hinting that maybe California won't be better off transforming into Mexico North.

Posted by: Frank at May 11, 2014 07:22 AM (ZPrif)

121 The SF list? Meh. I've read about half those books, recognize a bunch titles I'd like to read, some are junk. "Slaughterhouse Five" is SF? It was a bizarre and poorly written book, IMHO. "Player Piano" and "Mother Night" are really Vonnegut's two best books. "The Sirens of Titan" is his funniest book, along with "Cat's Cradle", which is not SF either. And nobody has really read "Moby Dick". They're making that up.

Posted by: Bossy Conservative riding Orca at May 11, 2014 07:23 AM (+1T7c)

122 Been slowly working my way through "At the Master's Feet". Thanks to whomever linked it last week, I'm enjoying the spiritual perspective.

Posted by: ConservativeMonster at May 11, 2014 07:24 AM (ioT3q)

123 Not many cookbooks in NoKo, I'm guessing.

Posted by: --- at May 11, 2014 07:24 AM (MMC8r)

124
"How Many Of These Classic Science Fiction Novels Have You Read?'



Scans....hmmmm -- looks to be 55 or so.

The list is the sort you see in English Lit department SF classes.  The books by Delany are a give away.  Gay, black and leftist? Three books on the mandatory reading list guaranteed.

Posted by: Laurie David's Cervix at May 11, 2014 07:25 AM (kdS6q)

125 I'm currently reading Greek Warfare: Myths and Realities. After this I'll probably read VDH's history of Greek Warfare as a counter-point. Greek Warfare is interesting. The author writes well and does a good job building an argument that the capabilities of the ancient Greeks were overstated by historians. What I find more interesting are the social and political problems that play into the organization of a city-state's army. The issues that they faced in their day are the same ones that we face now regarding militias, conscription, etc.

Posted by: Colorado Alex at May 11, 2014 07:25 AM (lr3d7)

126 I had both my kids read Flowers for Algernon in 9th grade, outside of any school requirements. They loved it, and have been adventurous readers ever since. Unfortunately, public (and many private) school reading lists are created for the ease of the teacher-because there are tons of prepared curricula, so that they don't really have to do any work. They download questions, and hand them out to the kids. As a result, students read the same books, year in and year out, without really reading them, and getting anything useful out of them. And heaven forbid a teacher go out of the demarcated reading zone and suggest books that stretch the mind, and are enjoyable. No wonder we are so far behind on standardized tests. And Happy Mother's Day y'all. I hope all the mothers here have a wonderful day.

Posted by: Moki at May 11, 2014 07:26 AM (EvHC8)

127 I've read most of the science fiction on the list. I also own most of it in first edition hardback.

Sadly, first editions of Frankenstein are a bit beyond my means at the moment...

Posted by: Lawrence Person at May 11, 2014 07:26 AM (eA2yu)

128 Every now and again I pull out A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. It always makes me laugh out loud. Maybe it is just a southern thing, but it always lifts my spirits! Posted by: 'Ette in training, a striving wannabe It's not just a Southern Thang, lady. That's a funny book. John Toole died way to young.

Posted by: Bossy Conservative riding Orca at May 11, 2014 07:26 AM (+1T7c)

129 Much of the Left thinks The Handmaid's Tale is our blueprint for the future, when it's really just their own paranoid fever-dream.

Posted by: --- at May 11, 2014 07:27 AM (MMC8r)

130 Re Mexicocare, I know several people in So Cal without health insurance who have been going to Mexico for years to get prescription drugs. Much cheaper. I predict many US docs will open offices near the border too.

My friends have no intention to get on Obamacare, as soon they will be 65. In my little burb, I just saw the first medical concierge office open up. Signs of the times...

Posted by: PJ at May 11, 2014 07:28 AM (ZWaLo)

131 I stand by my assertion that Lonesome Dove is the best American novel since Of Mice and Men. Non-sexual love between men is a great thing, and makes great stories. - Genocidal cowboys exacting profit from bovine torture and murder.

Posted by: WalrusRex at May 11, 2014 07:28 AM (Mogjf)

132 Half good sci-fi, half pinko crit-lit. Le Guin at #3 and Heinlein at # 96 kind of says it all.

Posted by: Motionview at May 11, 2014 07:28 AM (e6TyM)

133 Left Hand of Darkness is on the list because someone remembered its about a third gender so it scored magical political points. 

Posted by: Anna Puma (+SmuD) at May 11, 2014 07:29 AM (HXcdb)

134 117 Preachy, droning, repetitive Ayn Rand was a Russian. She wrote a Russian novel. Compared to other Russian novelists, she's a marvel of concision. Posted by: Stringer Davis at May 11, 2014 11:21 AM (xq1UY) I have no idea what you're talking about.

Posted by: Leo Tolstoy at May 11, 2014 07:29 AM (36Rjy)

135
And in "let's hope this becomes a thing" book news:

New York's Outdoor Co-ed Topless Pulp Fiction Appreciation Society, a book group which loves "good books and sunny days and enjoying both as nearly in the altogether as the law allows".

http://tinyurl.com/oy9d9se

Posted by: Laurie David's Cervix at May 11, 2014 07:32 AM (kdS6q)

136 Anna-Puma @#80 - yes, you can very easily pull your book and out up a revised version. I've done it for a couple of my own books, where I found mistakes later. Takes Amazon about a day to post the revision. Not to worry ! ;-)

Posted by: Sgt. Mom at May 11, 2014 07:32 AM (Asjr7)

137 oops, wrong thread.

Posted by: PJ at May 11, 2014 07:33 AM (ZWaLo)

138 I was a little surprised that CJ Cherriyh was not on the Sci Fi list. She was one of the first Sci Fi writers I read, and while she may not be a classic, she was certainly a prolific-a gateway drug, if you will. I also thought at least half of the sci fi listed weren't actually sci fi, so it seems political correctness has invaded that genre as well. It gives me a sad. As for what I am currently reading: I just finished Son , by Lois Lowry, which is the fourth book of the Giver series. Not bad, but I really hate her ambiguous endings. I am also reading Life in a Jar, about Irene Sendler, and Warsaw 1944, about the Warsaw uprising. Both are excellent.

Posted by: Moki at May 11, 2014 07:33 AM (EvHC8)

139 Recommend this one to anyone trying to learn or relearn the language. The translator believes that it should be *fun* to learn a new language and I agree. He also notes that there isn't much like it in Latin.

I believe I saw 'Winnie Ille Pu' in a bookstore a while back. Same sort of deal, Wiinnie the Pooh translated into Latin.

Posted by: OregonMuse at May 11, 2014 07:33 AM (fTJ5O)

140 Colorado Alex, Reason i liked VDH discussion of Greek warfare was because he goes beyond the tactical level of war. He gos to the operational and strategic level to include things like the effect on society ofAthens finally conscripting slaves to man triremes. He constantly points to current events to indicate problems of state never reallychange. Really good stuff.

Posted by: fastfreefall at May 11, 2014 07:34 AM (0WhgA)

141 136 New York's Outdoor Co-ed Topless Pulp Fiction Appreciation Society, a book group which loves "good books and sunny days and enjoying both as nearly in the altogether as the law allows". Posted by: Laurie David's Cervix at May 11, 2014 11:32 AM (kdS6q) I seriously doubt that I would be able to concentrate on my book, no matter how good it is.

Posted by: rickl at May 11, 2014 07:34 AM (sdi6R)

142 rickl wants as reading partner Kate Upton
will settle for Sophie Vigara
and gets Helen Thomas....

Posted by: Anna Puma (+SmuD) at May 11, 2014 07:35 AM (HXcdb)

143 122 Well "Call me Ishmael ". I read "Moby Dick" when I was a junior in high school. Every single page. We had a 3 novel textbook that included the aforementioned Moby plus " The Scarlet Letter" and "The Red Badge of Courage". I also had an English teacher who could sniff out slackers, skimmers and Cliff Notes users like nobody's business. For us is was read or pay the price on your report card.

Posted by: Tuna at May 11, 2014 07:37 AM (7KPIw)

144 In the top ten list, the only ones that I have not read (at least in part) are Little Women and the Harry Potter series. Good to see that that literary tripe of the hack, Dan Brown, fell off the list.

Posted by: [/i] [/b] [/s] [/u] Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars at May 11, 2014 07:37 AM (jJ3HS)

145
And in "there will always be an England -- just not for very much longer" news, the UK equivalent of AP English is getting a new reading list:

A-level students will study Russell Brand's views on drugs and Caitlin Moran's Twitter feed alongside more conventional literature in a new A-level reading list that was immediately denounced as "rubbish" by sources at the Department for Education.

The OCR exam board said it had teamed up with an educational charity, the English and Media Centre, to develop the A-level in English language and literature to study unorthodox texts, such as a BBC Newsnight interview with rapper Dizzee Rascal and the work of former Guardian columnist the Secret Footballer.

http://tinyurl.com/m7xgcfq

Posted by: Laurie David's Cervix at May 11, 2014 07:39 AM (kdS6q)

146 New York's Outdoor Co-ed Topless Pulp Fiction Appreciation Society, a book group which loves "good books and sunny days and enjoying both as nearly in the altogether as the law allows".

This seems like such a natural fit for AoSHQ I was going to cover this for the thread, but then I thought no, because, you know, the book thread is all hoity-toity  and classy and shit.

Posted by: OregonMuse at May 11, 2014 07:42 AM (fTJ5O)

147 I believe I saw 'Winnie Ille Pu' in a bookstore a while back. Same sort of deal, Wiinnie the Pooh translated into Latin. How does one say "Oh, bother" in Latin?

Posted by: ConservativeMonster at May 11, 2014 07:42 AM (ioT3q)

148 I don't have a "favorite" book(s), but for sheer reading pleasure I return again and again to Raintree County (Ross Lockridge, Jr.) and Herman Wouk's "The Winds Of War" and "War and Remembrance".  Too much Roosevelt love in the last two, but Wouk is a man of his times.

Posted by: mrp at May 11, 2014 07:43 AM (JBggj)

149 I found the What Kids Are Reading list to be depressing. My 3rd grade boy hates to read fiction - and the list of books his peer is reading is dominated by ill-behaved main characters and potty humor. Maybe I'm too harsh on DOAWK and Captain Underpants, but it's hard to encourage reading books where the kids have to read past the juvenile humor that appeals to them to find the redeeming message.

Posted by: Kendall's Mom at May 11, 2014 07:44 AM (AA+mC)

150 I had 31 of the sci-fi books. There were some that my husband read, that I hadn't been interested in. But there's not a single Harlan Ellison book. Really????

Posted by: Notsothoreau at May 11, 2014 07:46 AM (Lqy/e)

151 That Buzzfeed list is about as useless as is the current process for determining Hugo award winners. Hit or miss, with a heavy ideological weighting.
 
So sad. I'm curious though -- Could someone weigh in on about what year the Hugos became politicized, so I can just check the publishing date when I find a winner at the used book store?
 
Oh, and nice job on the book thread OM (as usual).

Posted by: GnuBreed at May 11, 2014 07:46 AM (cHZB7)

152 "Also the recent evidence of human interbreeding with Neanderthal and Denisovan hominids."

Posted by: Frank at May 11, 2014 10:53 AM (ZPrif)



About 10yrs ago there was a young man where I work who seemed to have predominant Neanderthal genes. I mean this kid looked like every depiction of them you've ever seen. He was really nice, about 21, with a lot of health problems.


And all I could think of was how  his childhood must have been hell. 

Posted by: HH at May 11, 2014 07:49 AM (XXwdv)

153 The most popular books for liberals is the Harry Potter series?  I can see the attraction  ... Magic!  Everything changes with the right words and a magic wand.

Posted by: mrp at May 11, 2014 07:50 AM (JBggj)

154 Man, I hate it when the iPhone dumps my posting info...

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars™ [/b][/i][/s][/u] at May 11, 2014 07:50 AM (jJ3HS)

155 "are"  arrrrr....

Posted by: mrp at May 11, 2014 07:51 AM (JBggj)

156
And unsurprising, a company run by an Obama-pal is pretty comfortable with Obama-tactics:

AmazonÂ’s secret campaign to discourage customers from buying books by Hachette, one of the big New York publishers, burst into the open on Friday.

Among AmazonÂ’s tactics against Hachette, some of which it has been employing for months, are charging more for its books and suggesting that readers might enjoy instead a book from another author. If customers for some reason persist and buy a Hachette book anyway, Amazon is saying it will take weeks to deliver it.

The scorched-earth tactics arose out of failed contract negotiations. Amazon was seeking better terms, Hachette was balking, so Amazon began cutting it off. Writers from Malcolm Gladwell to J. D. Salinger are affected.

The uneasy relationship between the retailer and the writing community, which needs Amazon but fears its power, immediately soured as authors took to Twitter to denounce what they saw as bullying.

http://tinyurl.com/n85fv5b

Posted by: Laurie David's Cervix at May 11, 2014 07:54 AM (kdS6q)

157 Add Ingrid Magnusson from White Oleander to the list of horrible mothers.  She drags her daughter all over creation, goes to prison when she murders the guy who dumped her, which leaves her daughter in foster care where she is abused by the first foster father (voluntarily, but she's 14 and he's in his fifties), shot by the foster mother, used as an unpaid housemaid and babysitter in the second foster home, mauled by dogs...you get the drift.  Depressing damn book and an Oprah book of the month!

Posted by: huerfano at May 11, 2014 07:55 AM (bAGA/)

158 The most popular books for liberals is the Harry Potter series? I can see the attraction ... Magic! Everything changes with the right words and a magic wand. No, it's the whole idea of being secretly part of a special group of people who are better than the rest of the world, complete with it's own culture, fashion, neighborhoods, and rituals.

Posted by: Colorado Alex at May 11, 2014 07:55 AM (lr3d7)

159 I wonder if anyone can think of mothers in literature, who while not perfect, are engaging and appealing?

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at May 11, 2014 07:57 AM (XyM/Y)

160 I read The Grapes Of Wrath and then all of Steinbeck's stuff when I was Eleven and Twelve. Pissed me off and made me a radical.

Posted by: Mr. Wizard at May 11, 2014 07:57 AM (gmrH5)

161  No Harlan Ellison books because it's ostensibly a list of novels.  HE was pretty much short fiction all the way.

Although they did include "The Martian Chronicles" which Bradbury called an "accidental novel"  and "I, Robot" which is flat out a story collection.

Posted by: Captain Comic at May 11, 2014 07:59 AM (DRuIr)

162 My reading of late has been dominated by texts that deal with metalworking and jewelry making. To wit, Patina: 300+ Coloration Effects for Jewelers & Metalsmiths and handcrafted wire findings. The former covers the intersection of color theory, chemistry and thermal effects applied to metals, while the latter deals with creating clasps (e. g., hooks & eyes), earring wires, and links and connectors. I've been taking jewelry and metalworking classes with the missus since last September and have found both fascinating and challenging.

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars™ [/b][/i][/s][/u] at May 11, 2014 08:00 AM (jJ3HS)

163 I just thought of a mother who seems almost too good and selfless to be true-Marmee in "Little Women". On the other hand, Louisa May Alcott spoke highly of her own mother.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at May 11, 2014 08:00 AM (XyM/Y)

164 I listened to "Drinking: a love story" by Caroline Knapp. This was very moving and horrifying, what with my father having drank himself to death. As I listened to the sections on her family, I thought, jeez Louise, no wonder you're an alcoholic: your father was unbelievably invasive, emotionally, and I would have resorted to some drug or another just to be able to chill out from that. There but for the grace of God go I. I finished "Gulp" by Mary Roach which I think I read about here. Not sure it was 100% worth the time but still interesting and educational. And I started "Hell to Pay" by Barbara Olson, all about the unlovely and untalented Mrs. Bill Clinton. In the car I started Ann Coulter's latest. So it's going to be a cranky week.

Posted by: Tonestaple at May 11, 2014 08:00 AM (B7YN4)

165 I read The Grapes Of Wrath and then all of Steinbeck's stuff when I was Eleven and Twelve. Pissed me off and made me a radical. Posted by: Mr. Wizard at May 11, 2014 11:57 AM


My dad says the worst thing that happened to all his Okie relatives who moved to California during the Dust Bowl is that they became Californians.

Posted by: huerfano at May 11, 2014 08:02 AM (bAGA/)

166 No, it's the whole idea of being secretly part of a special group of people who are better than the rest of the world, complete with it's own culture, fashion, neighborhoods, and rituals.
=========
That, too.  And the killing.

Posted by: mrp at May 11, 2014 08:04 AM (JBggj)

167 Louisa May Alcott spoke highly of her own mother. - Yeah, well, did she ever dress up like a vagina and dance to stop the war?

Posted by: WalrusRex at May 11, 2014 08:07 AM (Mogjf)

168 124 Not many cookbooks in NoKo, I'm guessing. Posted by: --- at May 11, 2014 11:24 AM (MMC8r) **** Although I hear Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass is popular.

Posted by: S. Muldoon at May 11, 2014 08:07 AM (MKpBT)

169 I read GWTW when I was in 8th grade and loved it. When I reread it in my 30's, it struck me that Scarlett O'Hara was Hillary Clinton in petticoats. A Hillary with more charm and sex appeal.

Posted by: Donna and V. (no ampersand) at May 11, 2014 08:08 AM (+XMAD)

170 So I was just wondering. How come "The Population Bomb" was left off the Science Fiction list?



Posted by: HH at May 11, 2014 08:09 AM (XXwdv)

171

170 Louisa May Alcott spoke highly of her own mother.

 

 Hey, I beat everyone in the "Honor Thy Mother" Department.

Posted by: James Whistler at May 11, 2014 08:10 AM (+XMAD)

172 Posted by: FenelonSpoke at May 11, 2014 12:00 PM (XyM/Y) *** Of course, there's Laura Ingalls Wilder's mother in the Little House series. Strong, compassionate, capable.

Posted by: S. Muldoon at May 11, 2014 08:11 AM (MKpBT)

173 Donna V thank you for that image...  from the movie when the maid is trying to cinch up Scarlett's corset...  if it was Hillary would need a winch I think and truly one of the steel corsets...

Posted by: Anna Puma (+SmuD) at May 11, 2014 08:11 AM (HXcdb)

174 Mothers are important. I mean, Frankenstein didn't have a mother and look how he turned out.

Posted by: WalrusRex at May 11, 2014 08:15 AM (Mogjf)

175 Scarlet's mom in Gone With the Wind was a good mother. She tried to teach and raise her daughters right. It didn't take with Scarlet but that wasn't her fault.

Posted by: WalrusRex at May 11, 2014 08:18 AM (Mogjf)

176 The mother question got me thinking about Disney movies. Can you think of a single one where the mother wasn't killed? I think *maybe* The Lion King, but I could be wrong there.

Posted by: Lauren at May 11, 2014 08:19 AM (ejehg)

177

I wonder if anyone can think of mothers in literature, who while not perfect, are engaging and appealing? Posted by: FenelonSpoke at May 11, 2014 11:57 AM (XyM/Y)

 

Good question. I thought of the mothers in "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn."

 

It's been many, many years since I read that book, but I recall the immigrant grandmother was something of a saint, and the mother, Katie was a very tough cookie who felt for a handsome but weak drunk and ended up supporting the family herself by being a cleaning lady. She was sometimes harsh and favored her son over her daughter, but in the slums of Brooklyn in the early 20th century, you had to be made of pretty strong stuff to survive.

Posted by: James Whistler at May 11, 2014 08:20 AM (+XMAD)

178 Good mothers don't make for good literature. That is, how do you write about an interesting novel about a mom who does everything right? I think it's more fun for an author to write about Hillary Clinton than, say, Laura Ingall's mother.

Posted by: OregonMuse at May 11, 2014 08:21 AM (fTJ5O)

179 Oops, 180 was me!

Posted by: Donna and V. (no ampersand) at May 11, 2014 08:22 AM (+XMAD)

180 I really like it when a renowned artist like James Whistler stops by and drops a couple of comments. Really classes up the joint.

Posted by: OregonMuse at May 11, 2014 08:23 AM (fTJ5O)

181 The SF list is lacking. There are a couple of items on there that draw a complete blank for me, about 75 I read, a number more I started and gave up on, and some I cannot recall if I actually read or just know so much about them from their notoriety that I cannot recall for sure.

Call me sexist but Ursula K. LeGuin is tedious and over rated. I read some of her stuff more out of a sense of obligation than anything else. If you wanted to be well read in SF back in the late 70s, you had to be conversant in her stuff. What a friggin' slog. Octavia Butler is another whose acclaim evades me. It seemed like everything of hers I read is awful humans ruin everything but angelic aliens might save a few.

Blind Sight? Are they friggin' kidding? This is one of the all time greats? It's pretty recent and a fairly uninspired 'unusual assemblage of people are sent to investigate massive alien object' exercise. There are about a dozen of these published every year.

No accounting for taste, I suppose.

Posted by: Epobirs at May 11, 2014 08:23 AM (Icq+V)

182 @161 Colorado Alex "No, it's the whole idea of being secretly part of a special group of people who are better than the rest of the world..." Ah. A socialist.

Posted by: Buckeye Abroad at May 11, 2014 08:26 AM (xFO/q)

183 Yeah, that poofter James Whistler gets all the good coverage. What am I, chopped liver?

Posted by: Seamus Squeaker at May 11, 2014 08:26 AM (MKpBT)

184 Seamus, baby, everybody here loves your face, you know that. So don't worry about it, come over here and give me a big kiss.

Posted by: OregonMuse at May 11, 2014 08:29 AM (fTJ5O)

185 #177

Tsk, tsk. Of course Frankenstein had a mother. It's the Creature he created that lacked one.

Posted by: Epobirs at May 11, 2014 08:30 AM (Icq+V)

186 Good mothers in books. These are kids or YA books. Never Miss a Sunset, The Children who stayed alone. Good moms are not going to be center of a story since no dramatic tension.

Posted by: PaleRider at May 11, 2014 08:30 AM (cQZV0)

187 Had never read Blind Sight but from your description Epobirs it does sound like Pohl's Heechee or of more recent vintage W. Michael Gear's The Artifact.

Posted by: Anna Puma (+SmuD) at May 11, 2014 08:30 AM (HXcdb)

188 >>"Catcher In The Rye" is a damn lie. Another case of poll respondents giving an answer they think makes them look good instead of the the actual truth. No kidding - *someone* has been buying all of those "50 Shades of Gray" and "Twilight" books, and it's not all teens. I'm also surprised Pride and Prejudice wasn't on the list.

Posted by: Lizzy at May 11, 2014 08:30 AM (8zTpe)

189 @180 James Whistler "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn." I only know the title thanks to my Saturday cartoons of "Bug-Bunny." Never read it, but from the passages over the years, the main character marries a loud mouth drunk and ended up finding a nice guy at the end.

Posted by: Buckeye Abroad at May 11, 2014 08:31 AM (xFO/q)

190

183 I really like it when a renowned artist like James Whistler stops by and drops a couple of comments. Really classes up the joint.

 

 Whistler? Classy?  Er....fuck that dude. Not that I ever did.

Posted by: Zombie Oscar Wilde, having an off day in the wit department at May 11, 2014 08:34 AM (+XMAD)

191 VALIS by Philip K. Dick.

Posted by: Buckeye Abroad at May 11, 2014 08:34 AM (xFO/q)

192 Ug! My mother was a horrible person that Hitler would have called a kindred spirit. Our broken bones healed but the hatred never left any of her children. We all raised normal, amazing children though, so something came out right.

Posted by: abbygirl at May 11, 2014 08:38 AM (iR4Dg)

193 We all raised normal, amazing children though, so something came out right.

Good on you for breaking the cycle.

A disturbingly large part of raising my children consisted of remembering what my parents did, and then doing the exact opposite. Sounds like your experience may have been similar.

Posted by: OregonMuse at May 11, 2014 08:41 AM (fTJ5O)

194 >>The mother question got me thinking about Disney movies. Can you think of a single one where the mother wasn't killed? The mom in "The Princess and the Frog" was fine, but her father had died and it was her father's dream of owning a restaurant that drove her. Mom was just a maid.

Posted by: Lizzy at May 11, 2014 08:42 AM (8zTpe)

195 Oh yes. We all remembered what we went through and were determined how not to live and how to make our children enjoy life. It was difficult at times but we had good partners, too.

Posted by: abbygirl at May 11, 2014 08:44 AM (iR4Dg)

196 I don't believe half of that Harris poll. The first 4, sure. And 'Little Women' probably is in the top 10 somewhere. But the other 5, no way. They all have something in common: assigned reading in high school. People who don't read books are put on the spot when asked to list their "greatest novels", and so they think back to the last novels they can remember reading, and this is the result. "The Grapes of Wrath" for God's sake!

Posted by: Dr. Mabuse at May 11, 2014 08:47 AM (FkH4y)

197 The mom in "The Princess and the Frog" was fine, but her father had died and it was her father's dream of owning a restaurant that drove her. Mom was just a maid.

What I hate about families in Disney movies is the father, who is almost always an idiot, a goof, or an incompetent bumbler.

Posted by: OregonMuse at May 11, 2014 08:48 AM (fTJ5O)

198 Luckily, Pixar is much kinder to parents.

Posted by: Lizzy at May 11, 2014 08:53 AM (8zTpe)

199 I would think that for a book to have been your all-time favorite you would have to have read it more than once. Getting through The Grapes of Wrath and Moby Dick *once* was painful.

Posted by: Lizzy at May 11, 2014 08:56 AM (8zTpe)

200 A really big +1 for Parshall and Tully's "Shattered Sword" about Midway. It's one of the three books I couldn't have done my long paper for MH530 on Mahan and the Pacific War without.

Geoffrey Perrett's "Winged Victory" about the AAF in WWII is an awesome read. It may help a bit of you read his "A War To Be Won" about the ground forces first, but it's still a magnificent work.

As for the sci-fi, I've pretty much gotten monogamous with Baen Books just because they seem to have all the good conservative or libertarian voices in SF. They even are picking up some of Heinlein's rights. But Tom Kratman, John Ringo, Michael Z. Williamson, Larry Correia, and Travis Shane Taylor is a lineup that works for me.

Posted by: SGT Dan's Cat at May 11, 2014 08:57 AM (4hwtR)

201 Luckily, Pixar is much kinder to parents.

Agreed. I loved the family in 'The Incredibles', even the dad. They had their problems, but they were ultimately solid and whole.

Posted by: OregonMuse at May 11, 2014 09:00 AM (fTJ5O)

202 204 I was just thinking the same thing. My favorite Pixar movie

Posted by: Tuna at May 11, 2014 09:03 AM (7KPIw)

203 My all time favorite book is "Little Women". I think I've read it nine times. I look forward to reading it to my grandchildren when they get a little older. Wonderful book. I also want to get the complete Little House series and read those to my grand kids too. I like reading aloud, so I'm blessed to have little ones who like to snuggle and listen.

Posted by: grammie winger at May 11, 2014 09:03 AM (oMKp3)

204 Interesting that there is no Neil Gaiman on that 100 sci-fi classics list, but several Margaret Atwood. She's just awful.

Posted by: Lizzy at May 11, 2014 09:03 AM (8zTpe)

205 And no Edgar Rice Burroughs - whaaaa?

Posted by: Lizzy at May 11, 2014 09:07 AM (8zTpe)

206 From The Incredibles when Dash says, "If everyone is special, then no one is special."

Posted by: Anna Puma (+SmuD) at May 11, 2014 09:08 AM (HXcdb)

207 Top hundred my ass. Schismatrix by Sterling? Really? And They have Consider Phlebas and not Player of Games? And LeGuin and Russ? Even at their height there were better sellers than them. And where is: H. Beam Piper. Hugh Cook, Cordwainer Smith, George O Smith, Harry Harrison, Christopher Anvil, Fritz Leiber, Randall Garrett, Terry Pratchett or David Drake? Why no Sprague de Camp, or Eric Frank Russell? I am amazed that they did Canticle for Leibowitz and did not include The Godwhale or Half-Past Human by T.J. Bass. I mean talk about the seething masses of Man is a plague on the world meme.... They should not have used advice from SFWA to assemble that list.

Posted by: Kindltot at May 11, 2014 09:08 AM (OxDCe)

208 Handmaid's Tale just seemed an allegory of a theocratic totalitarian state to me. Works just as well with Islamists rather than the vaguely Christian state she used. I try not to know anything about an author's personal views because I find it distracting from the story.

Posted by: Mustbequantum at May 11, 2014 09:12 AM (MIKMs)

209

I've got three going: Proof of Heaven, Eben Alexander; Running For My Life, Lopez Lomong; and re-reading The Circle Maker by Mark Batterson. 

 

I thought "Running" was hard to put down until I looked at the opening page of "Proof," which I had originally shrugged off when the doc was being interviewed everywhere a few months ago on his near death experience.  BUT, the description of his malady is so bizarre and unexplainable as was his complete recovery, that I'm nearly halfway through it in less than two sittings. 

Posted by: RushBabe at May 11, 2014 09:12 AM (hrIP5)

210 >> Much of the Left thinks The Handmaid's Tale is our blueprint for the future, when it's really just their own paranoid fever-dream. Actually, we're inching closer to it thanks to progressives, just not in the whacko, Christianist slaver way she imagined it. Women not having kids, just being sex objects - slut culture + state-sponsored contraceptives and abortion. Fertile women being used to create and/or carry kids for those who can't have them - male same-sex couples paying others to produce a kid.

Posted by: Lizzy at May 11, 2014 09:16 AM (8zTpe)

211 In looking through the Rennaissance study one comment stood out: "kids are more likely to read books that interest them". This conclusion is both superficial and devoid of real meaning, because it is supposed to be a cautionary statement to teachers, especially early education teachers, when it diverts teachers from the real goal. Kids "like to do" things, and pursue subjects, at which they are adept, or think they are adept. So drill in reading speed and reading comprehension is the best way to interest children in books. Help children become adept readers, hopefully at an early age, and you will have created a life-long reader.

Posted by: MTF at May 11, 2014 09:18 AM (F58x4)

212 Classic Science Fiction Books?

I've read  more than 70 of them and have heard of most of the rest, but there were at least a handful that had me saying "Um, what?" because I had never heard of them. No idea who compiled this list, but I'm not certain that I'd have them do another.

Posted by: physics geek at May 11, 2014 09:26 AM (llWHs)

213 Why do kids have to read "unorthodox" texts these days? School is for the basics; let them read tweets and comic books on their own. But Western civilization is bad, so I guess our literature is too.

In one high school, the kids were assigned a Jodi Picoult book! Because it had sex and a school shooting?

Her books are all right, but they're not classics of any sort.

Posted by: PJ at May 11, 2014 09:29 AM (ZWaLo)

214 Well rolled the other 12,000 words of Sluggor into revised version.  Its now being reviewed by Amazon Kindle.  So stay tuned for the expanded version of The Princess Who Caused Fear.

Posted by: Anna Puma (+SmuD) at May 11, 2014 09:38 AM (HXcdb)

215 203, Don't forget Sarah Hoyt on Baen's list either. Though Baen isn't 'right-wing only,' despite Scalzi's tirades. Flint is a Leftist, and there's at least one card-carrying Trotskyite with them. But that's part of why I like them. For Baen, it's story that matters. Not the screed.

Posted by: Shawn at May 11, 2014 09:53 AM (/lltO)

216 Cinderella's dad was good, apart from being dead.

Posted by: boulder t'hobo at May 11, 2014 09:55 AM (30eLQ)

217 I was perusing the list of weird books, and -- oddly enough -- I was familiar with one beforehand. In fact, I was at the author's store about six months ago. I'll leave it to the Horde to figure out which one.

Posted by: cthulhu at May 11, 2014 09:56 AM (T1005)

218 Handmaid's Tale was just a circle-jerk for the Cambridge, MA crowd it should have been titled Handjob's Tale

Posted by: boulder t'hobo at May 11, 2014 09:57 AM (30eLQ)

219 Ahem. Sorry. And "rivvid!". I was laughing hard at the pictorial guide to Gothic. Although the only one I finished (apart from Poe's stuff) was "Dorian Gray".

Posted by: boulder t'hobo at May 11, 2014 10:05 AM (30eLQ)

220 >> In fact, I was at the author's store about six months ago. I'll leave it to the Horde to figure out which one. Eleanor Burns' quilt shop in Paducah, KY?

Posted by: Lizzy at May 11, 2014 10:05 AM (8zTpe)

221 "And on another note, has "Hunger Games" really been around long enough to be considered a classic?" With a list like that, they needed to make sure that they had at least one book that was both contemporary, and wildly popular. I got 18 on the list. There were maybe another 3 or 4 which I think I may have read, but wasn't sure enough to tick, and another 20 or so which I own, but haven't got around to reading yet. The list included *Gun With Occasional Music*, which I happen to have read recently, and had no place being there. It wasn't truly bad, but it was pretty mediocre, and barely an SF novel. I know that the author has since built up a strong following as a mystery/crime novelist, but I haven't read any of his other books

Posted by: jic at May 11, 2014 10:08 AM (dXMER)

222 For those who haven't heard, Brad Bird is currently writing  Incredibles 2.

Posted by: mrp at May 11, 2014 10:13 AM (JBggj)

223 Posted by: 'Ette in training, a striving wannabe at May 11, 2014 11:22 AM (zvxqj) Oh, girl, ya gotta read Handling Sin, by Michael Malone. One of my favorites. Reminds me of Confederacy, in some ways.

Posted by: Tammy al-Thor at May 11, 2014 10:24 AM (++4vU)

224 and so they think back to the last novels they can remember reading, and this is the result. Yep. "The Grapes of Wrath" for God's sake! Posted by: Dr. Mabuse at May 11, 2014 12:47 PM (FkH4y) Sucked and..... Getting through The Grapes of Wrath and Moby Dick *once* was painful. Posted by: Lizzy at May 11, 2014 12:56 PM (8zTpe) Hated them both.

Posted by: 98ZJUSMC Waiting for the Sun at May 11, 2014 10:30 AM (OKEvr)

225 Grammie, look for Elizabeth Enright's Melendy Children series. )The Saturdays, Four Story Mistake, Then There Were Five) Not historical like Alcott or Wilder, but thoroughly enjoyable. I re-read them all myself every few years.

Posted by: Tammy al-Thor at May 11, 2014 10:30 AM (++4vU)

226 The Baltimore Sun on being an author.  Having book readings and no one shows up.  Adventuring across the country sleeping in the car.

http://tinyurl.com/khc3pto


Posted by: Anna Puma (+SmuD) at May 11, 2014 10:34 AM (HXcdb)

227 I am a huge Louisa May Alcott fan-gurl; have all her novels, and just about every shot-story, many of which have been released fairly recently. I have two first editions of her lesser-known works and would probably sell off body parts for a FE of Little Women in excellent condition. But 42 years after reading Little Women, I still haven't forgiven her for not letting Jo and Laurie marry. That is right up there with killing off Fred Weasley.

Posted by: Tammy al-Thor at May 11, 2014 10:38 AM (++4vU)

228 Full disclosure: I teach physics, but my university lets me teach science fiction occasionally. The list has a healthy dose of meh. "Handmaid's Tale" is only taught over in womyn's courses. Lots of works explore the same ideas better. Atwood claims her work isn't SF since "it could actually happen" so I have that bias against her too. Le Guin should be there, but for her other work. Connie Willis is awesome, but if "Doomsday Book" is too heavy for you, try "To Say Nothing of the Dog." It's a time-travel mystery romantic comedy and though it has a lot of references for a college student my kids really liked it. I'm guessing that Scalzi is there for politics. (His "Red Shirts" disappointed me terribly.) I've taught "Old Man's War" twice and it's good but too young for classic. Same with Hunger Games: it's a young adult novel with almost no complexity. (And the two sequels didn't need to be written.) I've only taught HG for a freshmen-only class as a way to ease students into analyzing a story. Although "Windup Girl" is also too young to be classic, I'm sure it will be; Bacigalupi has basically defined bio-punk. In fact I'd say "Pump Six" and "Windup Girl" are the counterparts to cyberpunk's "Burning Chrome" and "Neuromancer." He also has two YA novels set in the same future. Worth your time. I too would put "Footfall" or "Mote in God's Eye" in over "Lucifer's Hammer." And, really, "Gun with Occasional Music"? It was ok SF but certainly not classic. I'd sooner recommend A Lee Martinez and "The Automatic Detective," since at least it's funny. Kind of on topic: Just taught a short seminar for adult retirees. You might want to try the short stories "Eros, Philia, Agape" by Rachel Sworsky or "Bridesicle" by Will McInstosh. You can find pdf copies of both via Google. They sparked some great discussions.

Posted by: CJM at May 11, 2014 10:45 AM (dokRh)

229 TAmmy- I LOVED the Saturdays. It was a Scholastic book I got at school (I loved ordering books through that, and did so for my kids) and I desperately wanted to be a Melendy. I also agree with you about Jo and Laurie. They were supposed to be together. I never really forgave her either. (And I am slightly ashamed to say I had all the Madame Alexander Little Women dolls, as well as the Scarlett O Hara dolls. A spiteful sister took them and sold them while I was overseas.)

Posted by: Moki at May 11, 2014 10:46 AM (EvHC8)

230 Moki, HELLO!!!! LTNS! I found The Saturdays the same way! Are the book selections still as good? Have you read the sequels to The Saturdays?

Posted by: Tammy al-Thor at May 11, 2014 10:52 AM (++4vU)

231 Oh and I didn't have the dolls, but I still have several of the stuffed animals I named Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy. I take that back; I never had one named Amy.(Perish the thought) I think I named one Marnie, instead. I did love the dear professor, very much so, but...... Jo and Laurie were meant to BE.

Posted by: Tammy al-Thor at May 11, 2014 10:56 AM (++4vU)

232 224 >> In fact, I was at the author's store about six months ago. I'll leave it to the Horde to figure out which one.

Eleanor Burns' quilt shop in Paducah, KY?
Posted by: Lizzy at May 11, 2014 02:05 PM (8zTpe) Hide posts from (8zTpe)


That was quick. Actually, the shop is in San Marcos, CA. Does she have one in KY?

Posted by: cthulhu at May 11, 2014 11:07 AM (T1005)

233 Posted by: Lauren at May 11, 2014 12:19 PM (ejehg) Brave. Of course, she does get turned into a bear by the heroine and *nearly* killed by her own husband, so.... At least it all works out and they "learned a good lesson"?

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at May 11, 2014 11:11 AM (GDulk)

234 Apparently Louis May Alcott was adamant that Laurie and Jo not end up together. In fact, she refused to write a second book-which is the part of the book when the girls get married-unless the publisher agreed to that stipulation Perhaps that's because Alcott herself never married and couldn't imagine herself in that position. She had traveled to Europe and she meant a younger Polish man she was fond of whom she may have modeled in parts of Laurie on, but there's no indication-as far as I know from reading her life-that she and the Polish fellow were ever a romantic couple

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at May 11, 2014 11:16 AM (XyM/Y)

235 Hi. Aaaahhh, Sunday, the day of rest and the book thread. When (if) the grass dries, I get to mow. "Til then, I get to read. I bagged 27 of those 100. Classic SF? WTF? __Gravity's Rainbow__ doesn't qualify as SF (I recommend it, anyway; nobody does sensory imagery better than Pynchon) and Scalzi doesn't qualify as classic (__Redshirts__ was better than the preachy __Old Man's War__). Where's Zamyatin's __We__ (disclaimer: I have not read this) or Capec's __RUR__ (same disclaimer) or __The War with the Newts__ (I recommend).

Posted by: Malcolm Kirkpatrick at May 11, 2014 11:17 AM (uHUBu)

236 Probably my favorite science fiction was written by Keith Laumer.  He sort of fell into a rut later, but his early Retief stories were both funny and a trenchant commentary on the State Department, of which he had at one time been a part.  The Bolo stories were also excellent.  I also like Poul Anderson and the Flandry books.  Tellingly, neither is anywhere on the list of the "classics". 

Posted by: CQD at May 11, 2014 11:17 AM (tcvYF)

237 The mother is the "Little House" books is certainly an positive literary mother too.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at May 11, 2014 11:18 AM (XyM/Y)

238 #2 Gone With The Wind? I have never in my life seen a copy of Gone With The Wind- Not at a library, bookstore, or supermarket, not in a bookcase or on a shelf somewhere. I have never heard anyone say they have read it. I read through every comment on this thread- not a single mention of Gone With The Wind. It might have sold a lot of copies in 1938, but almost no one alive today has read it, or even seen a copy. It's a movie, a 1939 chick-flick with Clark Gable. The book is a myth. None of those people polled read it. Fucking liars...

Posted by: joe at May 11, 2014 11:19 AM (2Hkbk)

239 Ohm, yes, I know.. she hated people whining about it, too. But I'm still mad about it! There is certainly no indication that her relationship with Ladislas was anything beyond platonic. I suspect she was gay or a-sexual, maybe. I'd say most likely gay, and didn't realize it, perhaps from not being overly sexual in the first place, let alone given the mores of her time.

Posted by: Tammy al-Thor at May 11, 2014 11:26 AM (++4vU)

240 Oh, my God, I have read Gone With the Wind a hundred times, joe! And Vic has mentioned it more than once! It didn't hold up well over time for me. The last time I tried to read it, I found it a little hokey. But I have several copies, and some gol-danged "commemeratove plates" ( a gift from an aunt) and one of my dearest friends suggested it to her Book Club, and they love it so far. (Which surprises me, as they're mostly all science majors)

Posted by: Tammy al-Thor at May 11, 2014 11:30 AM (++4vU)

241 WTF?? Commemorative, sorry about that. A gift, damn it. And they're still in boxes somewhere, not displayed.

Posted by: Tammy al-Thor at May 11, 2014 11:32 AM (++4vU)

242 And it's just possible that she just didn't want to get married. Too busy providing a home for her mother and the things her family never had. The life of her which I read said that she received several proposal of marriage, but didn't mention who they were from. But I think most people who love that book think she and Laurie should be together. I don't know that I do; entirely I think they'd have fought a lot of the time because their personalities were too similar. It's so funny to me that the original publisher who wasn't married didn't think there was anything of interest in the story but her gave a copy it to girls he knew and they all loved it. Otherwise it would never have been published. I'm glad that Alcott got to provide some nice things for her family after their moving around, being in the "commune" and being rather poor.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at May 11, 2014 11:35 AM (XyM/Y)

243 I have never liked the "Grapes of Wrath" ever since I read it in high school and I can't recall why I don't like it. That probably means I should read it again/

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at May 11, 2014 11:37 AM (XyM/Y)

244 Wow- It doesn't take long around here before I get egg on my face... Okay, Tammy al-Thor and her egghead pals in some Book Club have read it, and Vic talks about it obsessively I guess, like he has some kind of Gone With The Wind Tourette's Syndrome...anybody else wanna check in? Geez Tammy, now I feel like Pauline Kael.

Posted by: joe at May 11, 2014 11:41 AM (2Hkbk)

245 when "The Grapes of Wrath" and "To Kill A Mockingbird" are gone from that list, gone from even the top 100 then we will be free again. there is no freedom as long as people steep themselves in emotionalism and tell themselves that it is noble and right to do so.

Posted by: Shoey at May 11, 2014 11:41 AM (vA94g)

246 Tammy, Alcott was single all her life. That is the only thing we can know. Period.

Posted by: Ticklebee at May 11, 2014 11:42 AM (FVtBM)

247 The List of 100 Best SF is crap. Totally loaded with female authors, ton of them I've never even heard of.
Only 2 Heinlein? Please.
I've been reading it my whole life and scored a 42. I'm guessing they went with gender diversity and therefore half are unheard of titles.

Posted by: Kyle Kiernan at May 11, 2014 10:15 AM (NyE/C)



It's all explained here: http://tinyurl.com/klg4z5e



and here: http://tinyurl.com/n5a59b3



oh, and here: http://tinyurl.com/l9ysqpk



and finally: http://tinyurl.com/mbp8wn9



You're welcome.

Posted by: GGE of the Moron Horde, NC Chapter at May 11, 2014 11:51 AM (yh0zB)

248 I have read it and also have a copy, if you would want to read it.

Posted by: abbygirl at May 11, 2014 11:51 AM (iR4Dg)

249 Oh joe, you hush! I didn't mean to put egg on your face, either, I'm sorry! And I am pretty sure Vic hated it and couldn't even get half way through. I am far too ignorant to know who Ms Kael is! What are some of your favorites books?

Posted by: Tammy al-Thor at May 11, 2014 11:52 AM (++4vU)

250 I have never read "Gone With The Wind". That is the only book on that list I haven't read. It never occurs me to read it unless it gets mentioned in a list of the favorite books that people have read. As far as literature, I would take out "Catcher In The Rye" (uhhh) and "The Great Gatsby" (They're all unpleasant people) and substitute "Middlemarch " by George Eliot and "Portrait of a Lady". Those two are among my favorite books, but then the list would be too heavy with English writers

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at May 11, 2014 11:56 AM (XyM/Y)

251 Whoops; I also didn't read all the the "Harry Potter" books. I gave up after the third one.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at May 11, 2014 11:59 AM (XyM/Y)

252 Well, now, dear FenelonSpoke, when all is said and done, English authors are the best, right?

Posted by: Tammy al-Thor at May 11, 2014 12:00 PM (++4vU)

253 Thank you everyone.  I now have 4 purchases for today.  I might be able to afford a Happy Meal in a week or so.

Thanks again.

Posted by: Anna Puma (+SmuD) at May 11, 2014 12:03 PM (HXcdb)

254 I think they are but I admit to being heavily biased. My mother was a professor of English Lit. I was almost obligated to read English authors and like them from an early age. ;^)

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at May 11, 2014 12:04 PM (XyM/Y)

255 Pauline Kael was a theatre critic with either the "New Yorker" or the "NYT".

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at May 11, 2014 12:05 PM (XyM/Y)

256 Pauline Kael was a theatre critic with either the "New Yorker" or the "NYT".

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at May 11, 2014 04:05 PM (XyM/Y)

She is also the person who allegedly commented about Richard Nixon's election that he couldn't have won because nobody she knew voted for him, although that appears to be an apocryphal quote.

Posted by: CQD at May 11, 2014 12:14 PM (tcvYF)

257 This is a stupid book related question. I would like to find out what the books are which are being used for "Common Core" for NJ public schools. I know there was some dad (from NH?) upset because there was a sexuallu graphic book on the list for the 9th grade and they never bothered to ask the parents before they assigned it. Do you just ask the English teachers or someone else? I could not find this information online but perhaps I wasn't doing a search correctly.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at May 11, 2014 12:22 PM (XyM/Y)

258 I did the SF novel quiz and scored 50 out of a hundred. Have I mentioned I've been reading (and writing) SF for thirty years? Definitely needs some Poul Anderson (I'd suggest The Man Who Counts), some James Blish (Cities in Flight), some CORDWAINER MOTHERFUCKING SMITH, Lois Bujold, Harry Harrison (West of Eden), Alastair Reynolds (Revelation Space), Norman Spinrad, Walter Jon Williams . . .

Posted by: Trimegistus at May 11, 2014 12:22 PM (1DY2C)

259 Books read recently: Under a Graveyard Sky by John Ringo, Witchfinder by Sarah Hoyt, Amy's Amazing Adventures by our very own Sabrina Chase's sister Juliet, Awake in the Night Land by John C. Wright, The Grey Man by J.L. Curtis, Starliner by David Drake, An Unproven Concept by James Young, and Ark Royal by Christopher G. Nuttall. Reading now: The Lotus Eaters by Tom Kratman.

Posted by: GGE of the Moron Horde, NC Chapter at May 11, 2014 01:03 PM (yh0zB)

260 Time to get ready for work. Later roonz and roonettez, fear no evil!

Posted by: GGE of the Moron Horde, NC Chapter at May 11, 2014 01:06 PM (yh0zB)

261 I've read 32 of the "Classic Sci Fi" books.  But, wow, lots of those titles look like they were included because of political correctness.

Posted by: Null at May 11, 2014 02:19 PM (xjpRj)

262 The Melendy family stories, by Elizabeth Enright - I loved them, growing up - and it wasn't too far off from when they were written, although my family situation was a little different - west coast and suburban and 1950-60s, not east coast and 1930-40s, and an intact family, as opposed to a widower with a stalwart housekeeper. Lovely stories and nice people to read about. My mother also had a tattered copy of her 'Thimble Summer' which I may have a copy about somewhere - minus the cover, which came off from it, early on.

About Gone With the Wind - I have read it, a couple of times - resisting a strong impulse to throw it across the room now and again. Scarlett was a horrible human being, like Becky Sharp - but a creation that we keep coming back to, as if mesmerized. I did a similiar  'southern belle' character in one of my books - a selfish, self-centered and manipulative woman, the sister-in-law of one of my heroes, trying to manipulate him into marrying her, without any luck. I described her to my alpha-readers as 'Scarlett O'Hara to men and women who didn't like her at all. '

"She was a widow with a small son, and with little inclination towards managing her own affairs. Looking around for someone who would masterfully take all these burdens from her, AmeliaÂ’s eyes couldnÂ’t help but fall onto Peter. Against all those practical considerations and what she perceived as her overwhelming need, his disinclination was merely a small obstacle to be overcome. No doubt she thought it would be only a matter of time before she wore him down as she had worn down his brother, with tears, tantrums, and pretty displays of forgiveness and reconciliation. Peter had observed this from afar, indulgently thinking his brother could be forgiven that kind of soft-headedness; Horace had loved her, after all. But Peter did not, and he had no intention of being maneuvered into doing as Miss Amelia wished."

Yeah, I really did not like Scarlett O'Hara. I quite enjoyed the exercise of painting her as a woman to be avoided ... at all speed and running in a zig-zag pattern.


Posted by: Sgt. Mom at May 11, 2014 03:02 PM (Asjr7)

263 227, Miss Tammy, et al: Handling Sin is on sale for Kindle at the moment for $2.14.

Posted by: RovingCopyEditor at May 11, 2014 03:08 PM (UMsIr)

264 Fenelon, there really isn't a Common Core list that everyone has to follow. The students' reading list is going to depend on the teacher and/or the school district, just as before. And it is probably changing heavily at the moment; schools are rehauling everything right now. Contact your English teacher or school department to find out what their plan for the upcoming year is.

Posted by: Jobey at May 11, 2014 03:56 PM (dGWLp)

265 As far as literature, I would take out "Catcher In The Rye" (uhhh) and "The Great Gatsby" (They're all unpleasant people) and substitute "Middlemarch " by George Eliot and "Portrait of a Lady". Those two are among my favorite books, but then the list would be too heavy with English writers

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at May 11, 2014 03:56 PM (XyM/Y)



I agree with everything here.  To alleviate the English-centric concern (although James was born in New York), you could substitute "House of Mirth" by Edith Wharton for either one although I don't think its as well known as the two you mentioned.

Posted by: Captain Hate at May 11, 2014 04:50 PM (G+GiZ)

266 And Sgt. Mom will be spending the evening in the barrel.

Posted by: OregonMuse at May 11, 2014 05:17 PM (fTJ5O)

267 Sorry - *weeps into ladylike lace-trimmed handkerchief* I don't know how it happened! All I did was copy and paste a para from my own files - now I am distraught!

Posted by: Sgt. Mom at May 11, 2014 05:48 PM (Asjr7)

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