1 Still working on The Way of Kings.  Its a long book.



Its retro

2

*Sigh*

 

 

And  I was just rolling  on the gun thread.   Oh well....time for all you emsmartened fuckers to start gabbing.

3 I am reading the oft-recommended The Forgotten Man, by Amity Shlaes, which is a history of the Great Depression. The price of the Kindle and Nook editions have dropped to $2.99, so, being a cheap bastard, I finally coughed up some dough.



And I am still waiting for it to drop back to $2.99.  $9.78 now.

4 Sabrina Chase has a new one out, "Scent of Metal". Pluto turns out to be an alien interstellar spacecraft. The humans sent to investigate accidentally turn it back on. Adventure ensues.

Highly recommended. I cannot say enough good things about her stuff.

5 Gilligan's Wake kind of goes askew during the Professor's sequence. We'll see if it gets straightened out before the end.

6

Fuck....on topic I suppose.  Working on Book Trois of Game of Thrones.....debating on firing through it or  watching the next season first.

 

 

Thoughts from the edumacated types?  I'm usually a book first, movie later type but not sure with this  one.

7 Posted by: Vic at March 24,2013 11:16 AM(53z96) Loved Way of Kings. My favorite part of fantasy is the world building and Sanderson does a great job of creating a truly different yet believable world.

8 Wow. I mean, think about it. That was nearly EIGHT years ago. And the funny thing is, I don't even remember where or how I came upon this site.



I remember how I came here.  I was following links at another "smart military" blog long ago.  I posted at Townhall and "lurked" here.  Until the trolls took over Townhall.  I left there and started posting here in 2008.

9 I don't remember ever hearing anyone say, "hey, you should check out ace and his smart military blog" or anything like that. I probably just clicked on a link on another conservative site. It very well could have been in a post over on Allahpundit, as that was back in the day when he had his own blog worth reading, which I checked frequently. same here I have no clue how I got here so many moons (nics) ago, but glad I took root.

10 Well, I'm doing the first pass of editing my new script. Hopefully it will be in theaters in the next few years, if the still exist. If the country still exists...

11 I must have stumbled on this site sometime during Bush's second term, probably around the time of the Iraq Surge debates?

12 Still have no idea what "mu.nu" is.

13 6 Book first. I think # 3 is the best of the series.

14 Posted by: Assault CitizenAnachronda atMarch 24,2013 11:20 AM (1c58W) Agreed. I'm thinking of getting her trilogy in deadtree format so my kids can read them. She credits you with checking her editing, which is absolutely first rate. In this era of speelcheck instead of real editors reading something with no jarring spelling or grammar errors is a delight.

15

I think I'm gonna wrtie a book about how awesome my penis is.

16 Book first. I think # 3 is the best of the series.

Posted by: Tuna at March 24, 2013 11:26 AM (M/TDA)

My wife bought me the first two in hardback.  I tried reading the first one twice.  Never could get past the 3rd chapter.  I gave both of them to the library unread.

I thought it sucked a big root.

17 I found this blog around 2009 and started irregularly commenting 2 years later

18 Went from TH for about five years, then HA for about a year, and then to this wonderful place. Feel like I graduated up, or got addicted to harsher drugs...not too sure.

19 I got here years ago from a Michelle Malkin link. She dropped the link to ace since though.

20 13 I read the first two in less than a week but have still yet to open the third.

21 I spent too much time looking for the comment thread where progressoverpeace and ace went at it over Tardasil. Somehow couldn't find it. Oh well, someday.

22 I read about half of Master and Commander. O'Brian's writing style drove me insane. I'm not sure if he wrote it the way the English spoke in the 18th century or not. This was one time the movie was better than the book.

23 I was at red state before here. Harsher drug indeed

24

Most blogs, you read the main post and get the blogger's point of view.  Then you start to read the comments and after about 10 comments I move on to something else, because, yawn.

 

For the first few months I looked at AoSHQ I didn't even find the comments section, it was just another blog that I rolled by quickly.  Once I found the comments, I have learned that you get not only the blogger's point of view, but a whole lot of other interesting viewpoints.  This blog has the best mix of posts and comments of any I've found. 

 

 

(I especially find my comments to be both witty and informative) 

25 Listened to Zane Grey's The Last Trail with TTS on my Kindle. It was public domain and free, and not a *bad* story just not what I expected. It was set in the west when "west" was Ohio and seemed more...I don't know, girly(?) maybe? I wanted to slap the heroine went she couldn't decide from one day to the next if she wanted the hero to kill or spare the murdering theif who'd kidnapped her.

26 Muse, thanks for mentioning my books! If any of y'all do take a look, I'd love to know what you think. As a heads up, they're about a woman who can see into other people's dreams, and all the trouble that talent gets her into...

27 "Combat Tracking Guide" John Hurth
"Navy SEAL Sniper" Glen Doherty (KIA, Benghazi), and Brandon Webb
"Target Deck" Jack Murphy

28 6, I'm gonna go against the grain here and recommend you watch the series first before reading the first book. GRR Martin is an effective writer in spite of his sparseness, but there is an absolutely RIDICULOUS number of names thrown around in just the first few chapters, and a lot of them will sound the same. Watching the show first helped me get a handle on the cast, and reading the books afterward was kind of like discovering the "deleted scenes." Oh, and by the way, don't waste your money on A Feast For Crows or A Dance With (of?) Dragons. Whether through laziness, fatigue, or greed, they are turgid 1000 page pieces of crap.

29 Still reading John Toland's Rising Sun. Crapper material.

30 Seamus, I concur...the comments are what makes this place. Hell, half the posts are "open threads". HA used to have decent comments, but now it's down to Facebook levels of discussions on most threads.

31 Just finished "The Long March: The True History of Communist China's Founding Myth".

The first third or so of the book is fascinating and terrifying. It reads like a future history of the FSA. After a while, I stopped being startled by the similarity to the Occupiers and it stopped being so terrifying.

What really stood out to me was the casual attitude of everyone, even the author, towards confiscating things from those who were better off. When the Red Army was able to feed itself, that was due to confiscating stuff from evil landlords. Hard times on entering poor areas were attributed to there not being enough evil landlords from which to confiscate stuff.

The Long March itself was a disaster. It started with the Reds being chased out of their base (the establishment of which was, itself, a story of epic disaster). Mao kept trying, and failing, to make it to the Soviet border. They would head for some distant Red stronghold, only to find it disappointing when they go there. Then they'd be chased out again and head off for some other distant, rumored to be strong and well-supplied, stronghold.

In the end, the Reds only survived because a warlord who was ostensibly working for Chiang Kaishek, but was secretly allied with the Reds, decided to kidnap Chiang and hold him until he agreed to unite against the Japanese.

The Long March is only a great success because Mao won. Who controls the present controls the past.

32 happy anniversary, ya eggheads

33 In the end, the Reds only survived because a warlord who was ostensibly working for Chiang Kaishek, but was secretly allied with the Reds, decided to kidnap Chiang and hold him until he agreed to unite against the Japanese.

The Long March is only a great success because Mao won. Who controls the present controls the past.

Posted by: Assault Citizen Anachronda at March 24, 2013 11:38 AM (1c58W)

And the US State department, under the advice and actions of traitor John Stewart Service, chose to undermine all US support. I'm guessing that part is missing in that book.

34 I got banninated at Lucianne (by her highness herself) and the Kook Star. Both for bullshit reasons. I'd been here before being kicked out of the other venues and it looked like the best place to migrate to. Turned out I was right.

35 Posted by: Icedog at March 24,2013 11:38 AM(9ScGj) Having come here from Rachel Lucas' blog full of witty, profane, long-time commenters, it took me awhile to realize how special and rare such a thing is. Now I can't quit you all, even though this is my last remaining time-sink.

36 "Where Troy Once Stood" by Iman Wilkens sounds interesting. First published in 1993, it's been in and out of print since. Wilkens proposes the 10 year Trojan War of Homer's Iliad did not take place in Western Turkey and was not between the Greeks and Trojans as is commonly believed. He proposes the war took place in Eastern England near Cambridge and it was between Celts. It also was not about that silly Helen going over to the Trojans, but was about the control of the tin mines. Tin mixed with copper creates bronze. Since the war supposedly took place around 1200 B.C. during the Bronze Age it makes more sense. On his website he actually makes a pretty good case supporting his belief. The Iliad's description of the geography, the weather, the people, the distances between Greece and Troy, plus other stuff doesn't match with reality. According to Wilkens Eastern England and Western Europe does.

37 In the end, the Reds only survived because a warlord who was ostensibly working for Chiang Kaishek, but was secretly allied with the Reds, decided to kidnap Chiang and hold him until he agreed to unite against the Japanese.

The Long March is only a great success because Mao won. Who controls the present controls the past.

Posted by: Assault Citizen Anachronda at March 24, 2013 11:38 AM (1c58W)

Hah!  If you haven't been banned from somewhere on the internets you're doing it wrong.

38 34 And the US State department, under the advice and actions of traitor John Stewart Service, chose to undermine all US support. I'm guessing that part is missing in that book.

----------

Indeed, it is. The author is Chinese and grew up steeped in the conventional ChiCom history of the Long March. She tends to assume her readers did as well, although she does provide brief summaries of certain key bits to help us heathens along.

39
In upcoming books, Warren Fahy has a sequel to his novel Fragment (2009) on the way. His new book Pandemonium is out in  hardcover March 2013.

Fragment was a killer book.  Imagine Michael Crichton combing Congo and the Andromeda Strain in the best way possible.

From the publisher's site:

Deep beneath the Ural Mountains, in an underground city carved out by slave labor during the darkest hours of the Cold War, ancient caverns hold exotic and dangerous life-forms that have evolved in isolation for countless millennia. Cut off from the surface world, an entire ecosystem of bizarre subterranean species has survived undetected—until now.

http://tinyurl.com/by44obw

40 I got most of my knowledge about Chaing vs. Mao from Barbra Tuchman's book about Stilwell. I hope you morons will tell me I got the straight poop.

41 Books for an Moron:

Matt Bracken's Enemies Foreign and Domestic trilogy, available on Amazon. The series has an female hero, Ranya Bardiwell. She kicks ass and takes names.

Link in name.

42 I found AOSHQ roughly one year after 911. I think through an Insty link. Commented under different names through the years(not just socks) cuz I get bored with whatever my current nom de blog is after a while.

43 I just read the excellent "In the Heart of the Sea" about the sinking by a sperm whale of a whaling ship that inspired the dense and unreadable Moby Dick.  The survivors sailed thousands of miles on leaky, rickety boats and cannibalized their dead shipmates sailing back to South America when they could have gone to Tahiti much more easily and quickly, but they were stubborn Nantucketers who didn't read reports from other ships or countries and feared they might be eaten by cannibals if they went there.  Ironic.

44 I still don't know how I got here. This isn't Little Green Snotballs?

45 Just started in on Trillion Year Spree: The History of Science Fiction by Brian W. Aldiss. So far so good.

46 So far enjoying "Bitter Seeds" Thanks to the book moron who recommended it. It's an alt history of WWII where surgically altered Nazi supermen fight against English warlocks evoking Lovecraftian horrors.(i know, I know) Well done, well written, and moves nicely. Haven't finished it yet so I hope it doesn't crap the bed in the last few chapters. It's part of a trilogy which I've lately started to hate as a form. Most people can't write that much story, or rather don't have that much story but stretch it out anyway, but....well, we'll see....befouled bedclothes or springtime freshness.

47

Thanks for the 'GoT book vs. movie first' thoughts friends in a box.  I'd respond individually but I'm one lazy fucker today.

 

 

I will say I love picturing Tyrion as that smart ass midget.  I know he's supposed to be uglier but I think it's perfect.

 

 

Can't remember how I first got here.  Sometime around the 2008 debacle.....maybe linked from Geraghty's Morning Jolt  if that existed then.

 

 

Anyway, you fuckers rock.  Mainly because I can call you fuckers.

 

 

Also because of Rachel Corrie pancake jokes.  That never gets old.

48 Listening to The Federalist Papers with TTS on the Kindle. I'm at 16 and intend to get through 5 a day since it's fairly extensive. The arguments for a republic and for general union (economy of scale in bureaucracy , one border instead of many leading to easier self-defense and less chance of strife between states leading to military involvement) are still valid today. Unfortunately, the cancer that is DC is unlikely to be stpped without something catastrophic so I expect to get the chance to see first hand whether the federalists were as right as I think or not.

49 By the way, this is the most awesome site on the web for book reviews, no joke. This guy is one of the most pleasant and effective writers I've ever read on the interwebs. http://matthilliard.wordpress.com/

50 And the funny thing is, I don't even remember where or how I came upon this site. I don't remember ever hearing anyone say, "hey, you should check out ace and his smart military blog" or anything like that. Right when Rathergate blew up, Drudge posted a link to LGF were I studied the famous animated GIF. There were links to instapundit, which led to powerline, Wizbang and Ace. Those 5 were ALL OVER rathergate and that was the first time I paid attention to blogs. And I'm still stuck here.

51 :::: Also because of Rachel Corrie pancake jokes. That never gets old. :::: I think a few of her friends banded together for Rachel Corrie Pancake Breakfasts in her honor. Actually, I just found the link. Confirmed, they really did. http://tinyurl.com/ahu3wbg Who said liberals don't appreciate humor once in a while?

52 I spent too much time looking for the comment thread where progressoverpeace and ace went at it over Tardasil. Somehow couldn't find it. Oh well, someday.

Posted by: Yoshi, Aggrieved Victim of the White Man at March 24, 2013 11:32 AM (csi6Y)

I assume progressoverpeace got banned again.  I could usually tell when he'd reappear under a new nic because of his posting style but I haven't seen anybody other than DiogenesLamp that remotely resembles him.  Maybe he just said fuck this place.

I came here at some point during the 2008 perpetual campaign.  I'd spent time lurking at Warm Gas until one of their open enrollment windows opened and I registered only to see the whole fucking dump turn into a shitshow of squishes and trolls.  So I came here.

Regarding books, I'm still slowly making my way through Europe Central which I'm enjoying a great deal.  If you like Bloodlands you should like this.

53 Interesting progression. For me it was something like LGF>Insty>Powerline>Protein Wisdom> Wizbang> Ace Haven't looked back!

54 I just read the excellent "In the Heart of the Sea" about the sinking by a sperm whale of a whaling ship that inspired the dense and unreadable Moby Dick. The survivors sailed thousands of miles on leaky, rickety boats and cannibalized their dead shipmates sailing back to South America when they could have gone to Tahiti much more easily and quickly, but they were stubborn Nantucketers who didn't read reports from other ships or countries and feared they might be eaten by cannibals if they went there. Ironic.

Posted by: huerfano at March 24, 2013 11:58 AM (bAGA/)

I've had that on my bookshelf for a while.  Thanks to your heads up I'll get on it shortly.  Btw, I'm pretty sure the writer wrote a book within the last couple years that is like a reader's guide to Moby Dick, which I enjoyed a lot more than you apparently did.

55 I finished one of the Fu Manchu books.  The writing was a little overwrought at the end.  Eh, it was free.

Since "Gifted Hands" was a daily deal a week or so ago,  I have that waiting for me on my kindle.

56 I was also at LGF for quite a while before the cocksucking douche completely lost his mind and I just left out of disgust without being banned.

57 I slogged through Moby Dick my junior year of high school. Tons of Biblical references is about all I remember,  except that I wished Ishmael had died as well,  and then the story would never have been told.

58 59 I slogged through Moby Dick my junior year of high school. Tons of Biblical references is about all I remember, except that I wished Ishmael had died as well, and then the story would never have been told. Posted by: Miss Marple at March 24, 2013 12:14 PM (GoIUi) There is a trope in which the story is told by a guy who died within the story

59 52 And the funny thing is, I don't even remember where or how I came upon this site. I don't remember ever hearing anyone say, "hey, you should check out ace and his smart military blog" or anything like that. Right when Rathergate blew up, Drudge posted a link to LGF were I studied the famous animated GIF. There were links to instapundit, which led to powerline, Wizbang and Ace. Those 5 were ALL OVER rathergate and that was the first time I paid attention to blogs. And I'm still stuck here. Posted by: Comrade Arthur at March 24, 2013 12:05 PM (TcQWW) I am very sticky

60

Who said liberals don't appreciate humor once in a while?

 

 

Heh.  That's fairly amusing.

 

 

Although I'm guessing  that's partially because of the leftist appreciation for 'martyrdom' and death....at least when it's someone else  doing the dying.

61 Shit, still no word on if my cardiac surgeon made it out of Denver. Goddamn operation is at 8:00 tomorrow morning and we're supposed to get 6" overnight

62 Posted by: Captain Hate at March 24, 2013 12:08 PM (1g7wL) I can't remember his TPOP handle getting into a slugfest with anyone, so maybe he did just peace out at some point. Started reading Ace about a year after you did from a link courtesy of Allahpundit. After a few months I realized Ace was everything Hot Gas was, and better, and what the hell was I doing getting the first take of the day from Ed and "dude" headlines anyway? Since then, HA got chunked by the double whammy of Townhall "design" and the T-800 series of coblogging robots certified as more boring than Ed himself. Their regular posting community is even worse, but in a different way I'm not sure of. Squishes and trolls about sums it up.

63 Been reading about the fortification of DC during the Civil War. Very interesting how they were willing to spend so much money to keep the capital there as a sign of strength

64 :::: Although I'm guessing that's partially because of the leftist appreciation for 'martyrdom' and death....at least when it's someone else doing the dying. :::: Care for some strawberry sauce on those pancakes?

65 I think that the only reason Washington DC remained the capital was because of Lincoln, rather than moving to a location closer to the center of population

66 66 :::: Although I'm guessing that's partially because of the leftist appreciation for 'martyrdom' and death....at least when it's someone else doing the dying. :::: Care for some strawberry sauce on those pancakes? Posted by: Yoshi, Aggrieved Victim of the White Man at March 24, 2013 12:24 PM (csi6Y) Make it Chocolate and you have yourself a deal.

67 63 Shit, still no word on if my cardiac surgeon made it out of Denver. Goddamn operation is at 8:00 tomorrow morning and we're supposed to get 6" overnight

Posted by: Albie Damned at March 24, 2013 12:22 PM (Yhu4q)

Sending prayers your way Albie.   Stay calm....it's bad for your heart. 

68 I will second huerfano's recommendation of "Into the Heart of the Sea". But in the author's "Why You Should Still Read Moby Dick" or some such title he pissed me off with his discovery of racial symbolism and an off topic remark about oil companies destroying the oceans in pursuit of profit. "Hey asshole, your heroes decimated the cetaceans for profit."

69 New gaming thread up

70

"The Disappearing Spoon" by Sam Kean tells about chemistry and the periodic table of elements.  Once you get past the periodic table part, he has some great stories to tell.  Worth your while. 

 

Kapooya to all.

71 Who does Number One work for?

72 Speaking of retro -- what happened to that blogger named Bill (last name escapes me)? Wanted to be a war correspondent, was rather aggressive, lived in DC area, and I believe was a pharmaceutical salesman.

73 I am about a quarter way into "I am Charlotte Simmons" by Tom Wolfe; it is masterfully slaughtering the pious superiority of a big University (especially the college sports aspects), but since I have two daughters who will hopefully go to college some day, I find it deeply disturbing also.  He is probably the premier satirist of American culture living today, so I decided to collect all of his books used/on the cheap and read them.  Most are non-fiction, I believe he just released his 4th novel that got a good review somewheres; the only prior Wolfe book I've read is "Bonfire of the Vanities" which was outstanding; haven't seen the movie--has anyone on this blog?  I believe it didn't get great reviews.

74 60 59 I slogged through Moby Dick my junior year of high school. Tons of Biblical references is about all I remember... Posted by: Miss Marple at March 24, 2013 12:14 PM (GoIUi) Hey, me too. We had to do a paper on it and I wrote on the Biblical significance of the names. It was *real easy* and I got an A.

75 Random recommendation: Black Aces High is a nonfiction tracking the Navy's bombing campaign in Kosovo. It's a pretty damn revealing look into the naval aviator's mindset, or just the fighter jock's for that matter. Best I have read. You might think that you wouldn't want to read a combat flight story that doesn't involve dogfighting, but the SAM operators in Kosovo were a much bigger threat to Tomcat crews than Iraqi SAMs or MiGs. Their job basically required them to dodge telephone-pole length missiles every sortie. I'd say they had the most taxing flights in the last 30 years.

76 @6 I find that seeing the movie first rarely ruins the book. Not so much the other way. I love GoT the show, but I would nitpick the hell out of it if I had read the books. When the show is over I will buy the books.

77 Reading another Nero Wolfe novel, The Rubber Band. Makes an off-hand reference to "Jews running down to the harbor to tear the flags off of German ships" as if it happened frequently in the Thirties. I don't think I ever heard that colorful bit of NYC history. Will have to check the veracity.

78 Shit, I don't know how long I've been here either. But 2006 at the latest.

79 Finished the first Fu-Manchu book by Sax Rohmer, which I got free from Gutenberg on a recommendation here.

Not bad, not great. Miss Marple picked a good word to describe the writing: "overwrought." The Sherlock Holmes books and stories have a similar kind of writing in occasional passages, usually referring to something foreign. I remember one story which kept referring to "the fiery heat of her Latin passions" or some such, about a wife from South America. But in Sherlock Holmes, that sort of thing is maybe 3% of the total writing. Here, it's maybe 50%.

The books are quite atmospheric, dark London, creepy rooms, ominous corridors. But I'm not sure I'll seek out another, even for $0, because the story didn't really coalesce for me. None of the characters seemed like real human beings; they were all sort of diffuse and indistinct in character. There was not so much plot as a series of conflicts -- stitched together from short stories perhaps?

Now I'm reading High Crimes: The Fate of Everest in an Age of Greed by Michael Kodor. The basic theme seems to be "assholes have arrived on Everest." It's a compelling read because of the fascination of the subject matter, but the author is not much of a writer -- clumsy in his wording, not really putting what he has to say in the form of a story, just meandering around. It's no Into Thin Air. Still, I'll be finishing it, because I'm interested. The writing is not bad enough to drive me away; it's just not good.

80 I will second huerfano's recommendation of "Into the Heart of the Sea". But in the author's "Why You Should Still Read Moby Dick" or some such title he pissed me off with his discovery of racial symbolism and an off topic remark about oil companies destroying the oceans in pursuit of profit.

"Hey asshole, your heroes decimated the cetaceans for profit."

Posted by: Mr. Dave at March 24, 2013 12:28 PM (zSE71)

Thanks for the heads up; I've lost my patience with fuckheads who lard up their books with glowbull worming and shots at conservatives.  Fuck those turds; I can find plenty of entertainment elsewhere.

81 Gosh......THIS is what I come here for.......the 1-year anniversary threads.

82

@75 Annabethblue.  Whatever you do, don't see the Bonfires movie.  Incredibly bad and a total injustice to Wolfe's book.  His fourth novel is "Back to Blood" which is next up on my stack so I can't comment.  You might like his second, "A Man In Full," which I thought better than "Charlotte Simmons."   Try some of Wolfe's early non-fiction essays.  A real hoot.

83

I was never banned from L.com, but I left it disgust when they started banning and censoring all the anti-starvation posts during the Teri Schiavo fiasco.  I then realized just how far they'd go in pledging loyalty to the Noble House of Bush.

 

I'm reading Robert Bork's "Slouching Toward Gomorrah" right now.  Depressing.  I keep glancing back at the publication date; "1996, huh?  Wow.  That's, what?  Ten...fifteen...17 years ago now.  And everything is truer and further along the downward slope than when he wrote it."   Bork's a darn good writer, though.  If he didn't have such good control over the English language, the subject matter would have made me give up in despair by now.

84

I've been lurking here for a long time - prior to the Bush/Kerry election, for sure. No idea how I got here. I tend to click around a lot and if I find a place I like, I stay. The political analysis here was far better than what I've found anywhere else. And being an irreverent type myself, well, where else was I to go?

As for reading - currently I'm on The Mysterious Island, by Jules Verne. Kindle has a lot of free classics available. What I'm finding interesting about this book is reading it from a twenty-first century perspective. A group of four men (and one dog) are shipwrecked on an island. The lead character is an engineer, and thanks to his know-how they find deposits of iron ore, clay and pretty much everything else they need. The castaways make pottery, iron weapons and start going after the animals on the island for food. They find a freshwater lake with an underground cavern that the engineer thinks would be a great place to live. So he concocts nitroglycerine - really - and proceeds to blow away part of a rock wall surrounding the lake so that he can lower the lake's level enough to gain access to the cavern! Any environmentalist reading this book would have a fit.

85 80 Reading another Nero Wolfe novel, The Rubber Band. Makes an off-hand reference to "Jews running down to the harbor to tear the flags off of German ships" as if it happened frequently in the Thirties. I don't think I ever heard that colorful bit of NYC history. Will have to check the veracity.

Seems likely to be true, considering that he was writing during the period. I've been rereading all the Wolfe books and stories, and asking the question: of the novels, which are my favorites?

Hard question, but if I had to do a top 5, it might go like this:

(1) And Be a Villain
(2) Plot it Yourself
(3) Before Midnight
(4) Murder By The Book
(5) Too many Cooks

Naturally to write it down is to think of several that could have been there instead, including The Rubber Band. The search warrant scene alone seems to qualify it.

86 Posted by: Dr Alice at March 24,2013 12:58 PM(tRcjU) Swiss Family Robinson was a lot like that. It's a little hard to believe that even people who had planned on being settlers would know so much off the tops of their heads. The author also freely mixed American native species with Australia specific species made for a strange blend of mistaken details with, as far as I could tell, accurate technique details.

87 It's hard to say, one enjoys 'Europe Central' but it is remarkably informative about some lesser known details of the Nazi and Eastern bloc, like Hildegarde
Benjamin, the East German zampolit who 'Red Squaw' is modeling herself after. also it puts into perspective the circumstances of Vlasov, the Russian general who defected to the Nazis, after he surrendered, he wasn't a mere toady but a distinguished officer betrayed by his superiors, who moved upwards, and all too trusting that the Nazis wouldn't let their hatred of Slavs
overwhelm good strategy.

88 Any environmentalist reading this book would have a fit.

Posted by: Dr Alice at March 24, 2013 12:58 PM (tRcjU)

They tend to have fits about pretty much everything!

89 I just finished the latest Virgil Flowers book by John Sandford, entitled Mad River.  I love that f*'n Flowers, but this book I think falls a little short on the charm and tends towards overkill on the killing, if that makes sense.  Still a good crime thriller though.

Also finished John MacArthur's "Twelve Ordinary Men", a look at that rag-tag band of  ne'er-do-wells, thieves, outcasts, nobodies and generally inadequate human beings that changed the course of the entire world after hanging around Jesus for a couple of years. 

90 Yes, archie, it puts the reader in a "what would you do" situation where there are no good options.  I particularly like how characters introduced in early chapters keep wending their way through subsequent ones, viewed from differing perspectives.


The dedication to Danilo Kis is very in keeping with his prose.


Btw, where has OSP been lately?

91 Oh, and I found this site after hCarles the Pretender started bitching about it. I figured anything he despised had to be pretty good.

92 Nook just came out with a great app. It allows you to copy your books to your android devises. It is free and a very nice app. You can read anywhere without taking your nook along. Been here since the mid 2000s I guess. Found through warm gas link, been mostly lurking.

93 Btw, where has OSP been lately?

Posted by: Captain Hate at March 24, 2013 01:28 PM (3T3x3)

He is working an "away" outage.

94

Finished the Vorpatril book. Liked it.

 

Decided to go back and read the entire Miles series. About half way through Warrior's Apprentice.

95 Oh dang, I posted on that thread too, under and old handle. Guess I've been here for 8+ years... yikes. Not saying which!

96 He's working on that novel about the CIA, I believe.

97 Intrigue! Assad shot by bodyguard. In hospital in Damascus. http://bit.ly/13oevlM

98 Swiss Family Robinson was a lot like that. It's a little hard to believe that even people who had planned on being settlers would know so much off the tops of their heads. The author also freely mixed American native species with Australia specific species made for a strange blend of mistaken details with, as far as I could tell, accurate technique details. Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette, assault Hobbit at March 24, 2013 01:04 PM


"Swiss Family Robinson" was one of my favorites when I was a little girl.  I just thought the Swiss were incredibly well prepared.

99 Oh, and I found this site after hCarles the Pretender started bitching about it. I figured anything he despised had to be pretty good.

Posted by: mama winger at March 24, 2013 01:31 PM (P6QsQ)

Poor Cahrsle; he didn't realize that everybody was bailing on him because he was such a brainless asswipe.

100

Second the Gulag nomination. All of Solzhenitsyn's prose work will repay your attention, including the collection of essays by other authors that he invited to contribute, From Under the Rubble. His drama (Candle in the Wind, The Love Girl and the Innocent)  is less succcessful than his prose (fiction and non-fiction).

In the last week I finished Murray and Hernstein's The Bell Curve and read Chris Kyle's American Sniper and John Scalzi's satire on bad TV sci-fi, Redshirts. All good. The fundamental concern of The Bell Curve, the cost of a detached political elite in an ostensible democracy, remains even if one disputes the genetics of IQ (or "cognitive ability" or "nervous system function"), or disputes the reduction of IQ to a single non-negative real number, or disputes the existence or magnitude of a mean difference between regional varieties of human.

101 75 I am about a quarter way into "I am Charlotte Simmons" by Tom Wolfe; ...He is probably the premier satirist of American culture living today...the only prior Wolfe book I've read is "Bonfire of the Vanities" which was outstanding; haven't seen the movie--has anyone on this blog? I believe it didn't get great reviews.

I've read them all. IMO, Wolfe was the premier satirist, but he's gotten old and his quality slipped badly between BOTV and IACS.  I found the latter really not very enjoyable because, and I say this advisedly, it insisted upon itself. 

Really, it did.

102 There are new John Ringo and Tom Kratman novels will be out this year. John's got Under A Graveyard Sky coming out in October- we don't have a date for the electronic Advance Reader Copy yet- hell, the hard copies were supposed to be out by DragonCon. Tom has Come and Take Them, the latest of the Carrera novels, at the publisher, and is putting pieces of The Rods and the Axe up in The Bar as he writes them.

103 Well, 'Charlotte Simmons' was beyond satire, and yet very prescient about the Duke Lacrosse case, 'Man in Full' I didn't find that interesting.

104 Recently read: Terms of Enlistment by Marko "Maj. Caudill" Kloos. If you haven't yet read his essay "Why The Gun is Civilization" (http://tinyurl.com/63y7hb)...why the fuck not?

The Flux Engine by Dan Willis. Fun fun fun read, steampunk novel starring Wild Bill Hickok.

Old Habits by moron Christopher Taylor. I first started reading this when he was posting it on his website, I'm glad to see he finished it. Great read.

The Martian by Andy Wier, recommended on an earlier AoS thread as a book that could have been written by a moron, the first line is "I'm pretty much fucked." One of the funniest parts is when he is told everything he writes is being broadcast around the world his next line is "Look! A pair of boobs! -> (.Y.)" Great book.

And now I have just downloaded Sabrina Chase's latest. So far I've enjoyed everything she has written.

105 The latest Ringo book is a "coauthored" book meaning that he gets his name on the dust jacket and the other guy writes it.


And I understand it sucks which will pretty much kill the Kildar line.

106 103 I suspect that the theme of the book is that God helps those who help themselves (but both parties are necessary for success). I thought I had read the entire story as a kid, but it must have been a "condensed" version since there was quite a lot of unfamiliar material in the public domain copy I listened to through TTS. I also hadn't known that it had two authors as one had died after finishing the first part but it was so popular that (her?) family arranged to have someone else do a wrap-up.

107 And #103- go see the Swiss Family Robinson exhibit at Disney World. Not really a ride, but one hell of a mockup of the movie set with all the moving and repurposed bits. My parents could never figure out why it was one of my favorite things to stand in line for.

108 Found Ace in 2007 during or right before the Beauchamp bullshit - linked from LGF (when he hadn't yet gone truly over the bend yet - he banned me for absolutely no reason at all, I rarely commented) through the old Pajamas Media associate blog links.

109

I spent a big chunk of my week writing a new novel (due to my editor May 1), adding almost 20K words to the manuscript. But I did sneak in the opportunity to read two very different books over the past week.  First was Harlan Coben's SIX YEARS, which was a twisted mystery/thriller and deeply moving romance all rolled up into one.  And the second was a delightful bit of froth called IT'S IN HIS KISS by Julia Quinn.  Regency-era romance with a light, quirky touch.  Some of the dialogue/situations reminded me of Oscar Wilde's THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST.

I used to think I'd hate reading anything but paper books, but now I do a huge amount of my reading on my smartphone, using my Kindle and Nook apps because of the portability and ease of reading bits and pieces at a time.  Anybody else finding that to be the case?

110 Haven't finished a book this week, but thanks Oregonmuse for keeping the book thread alive! Always look forward to it.

111

So many good tips for reads and re-reads.  Can't think of a better week to read "Twelve Ordinary Men."  Also, I have to re-read Nero Wolfe.  I have a bunch of the paper backs in a Rubbermaid container somewhere in the basement.  And also the Miles Vorkosigan books - there are a few lesser entrants in the series, but still beloved.

Polliwogette, I agree with everything you said re "The Last Trail," which I also read recently. 

Page 181: "You failed to kill the man who kidnapped and nearly raped me!" accused the girl with great dark blue stormy moist and betrayed eyes.

Page 182: "How could you want to execute the man who kidnapped and nearly raped me?" beseeched the girl with the large pansy eyes, shadowed like a misty canyon at dawn on a day trembling with lush vernal promise.

The best part about that book was finding out that Lew "Deathwind" Wetzel was a real person.  His story is fascinating.

I'm on my third Grey.  I'm gonna keep reading them (as long as they're free) until I get to that really good one.

 

112 Couldn't finish "Moby Dick" either - "Two Years Before the Mast" on the other hand was one GREAT book.  I've given copies to the young men in my family.

Currently reading "Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant" - he really is a very clear writer, precise even, as orders in a battle must be.  Interesting observations (so far) of antebellum politics too - I'm just at Shiloh so far but his experiences in the Mexican War are fascinating.

Memoirs of men who have lived active and interesting lives can a great source of inspiration for the young.  Other good ones are General Sherman's and Casanova's.  The latter had much more going for him than just women - he was a great adventurer too.  For a couple of BAD memoirs/autobiographies see G.W. Bush and Keith Richards.  As much as like Bush, he blew a little smoke our way about his political moves and his alcoholism.  As to Keith Richards, this is one messed up dude that I'd cross the street to avoid.  The old folks were right - he has always been a bad influence!

BTW, what's the difference between memoirs and an autobiography?

The first book I read AFTER seeing the movie was "101 Dalmatians" - pretty good but I never trusted movies again.

113 118 Lol, yes exactly like that. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that Zane Grey was the pen name of a female author. I mean, Louis L'Amour had love interests and even female characters but the (texture?) of the writing was completely different. It is cool to find out that the one guy was an a tual historical character though. I'll have to find out more about him.

114 Zane Grey was most definitely a guy. I suspect his college baseball teammates would have said something.

115 #110, Tiger By The Tail wasn't THAT bad. John was out of ideas, but the fans were screaming for more Keldara. Guy's only human. He was trying to get a fourth novel done in the Tyler Vernon series, he punched out two complete novels in the new Graveyard series in a matter of months just because they were what was on his mind, and him and Travis Taylor finally got their heads together on a fifth Looking Glass novel too.

What's really killing him is the corner he wrote himself into on the last Aldenata novel. Last time I talked to him he didn't have a plan out of it yet.

I don't knock Baen's co-writing deal. It got us Tom Kratman and Michael Z. Williamson. And I honestly like Kratman's stuff better than Ringo's, and I don't say that just because Tom bought me lunch once and almost killed me off as a minor character.

116 #110, Tiger By The Tail wasn't THAT bad.



It has a LOT of negative reviews at Amazon. As I said, Ringo didn't write it. This is the only book by him that I do not have and it is because of those reviews and because it is co-authored.

117 I have been reading Great Expectations by Dickens. I have never been able to tolerate Dickens, giving up after less than a dozen pages, but this book has been mildly entertaining. He had a sense of humor and the situations are pretty interesting.

118 Dicovered Ace via Michelle Malkin back in 2004 before the election. I lurk mostly, but do comment every now and then.

119 119 I'd always assumed he was a guy, and maybe The Last Trail is just a bad sample (although jem seems to be striggling to find a good one also), but the writing style was very similar to many of the female authors of regency romance. I guess that's the real issue. I was expecting a western and it turned out to be a romance with a brave but unforgivably stupid heroine.

120 It is my belief that Patrick O'Brian owned a time machine. ===============

121

Have been visiting Ace for over a year or so but this is my first post - just finished the last complete novel of the Aubrey/Maturin series. Very satisfying - almost dont want to read "21". Have also read a lot of Bernard Cornwell - being educated and entertained at the same time.  

122 Hello test one two

123 Life and Fate baby. One of the best books I've ever read and the fact that the book itself was "arrested"-down to the typing ribbons-tells you all you need to know about this classic