Ace of Spades HQ

September 01, 2013

Sunday Morning Book Thread 09-01-2013: Summer's Almost Gone [OregonMuse]
— Open Blogger

The Beginning of Fall Is Always Tinged With Sadness

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

More YA

Last week, moron commenter "Laurie David's Cervix" put me some Scholastic Book Club nostalgia:

Recall the teacher passing out the monthly order sheet, then that great day when the boxes arrived in class and you could pick-up your stack of new books.

I'm sure a lot of us have fond memories of this. You could sometimes pick up some pretty good books. LDC also provided a link to Scholastic Book Club Covers of the 60's and 70's.

Lots of good memories there.

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I would like to recommend British YA author John Christopher, some of whose books are still in print, particular his "Tripod" sci-fi trilogy, which really ought to be made into movies. I'd bet they'd make a crap ton of money. They started a Tripods TV mini-series in the early 80s, but it was never completed.

The underlying values of these books are exactly what we would want: honesty, courage, friendship, integrity, doing the right thing under difficult circumstanced (I guess that's courage, isn't it?), perseverance, loyalty, etc. I read an interview with Christopher a few years ago, he's an old man now, sounded very conservative.

His other sci-fi books are good, too, but out of print. Your local public library is probably the best place to find them.

Out On the Patio In the Fall At Casa de Muse*

* No, not really.

(I removed the tiny letters. I wonder why people are having trouble with it? I did not miss any close tags and it looks fine on both IE and FF on my computer. That is, the 'No, not really' was small, but everything else was normal sized.)

It Was A Dark And Stormy Night

Here are some of my favorites from the 2013 winners of the The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest (Where Â“WWWÂ” means Â“Wretched Writers WelcomeÂ”).

What? You say you don't know about the The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest? Well then, go to this link right this very minute and acquaint yourself with this annual, tongue-in-cheek exercise in excrementally bad writing. Go ahead, we can wait.

OK, let's get going. First, the grand-prize winner:

She strutted into my office wearing a dress that clung to her like Saran Wrap to a sloppily butchered pork knuckle, bone and sinew jutting and lurching asymmetrically beneath its folds, the tightness exaggerating the granularity of the suet and causing what little palatable meat there was to sweat, its transparency the thief of imagination.
Â— Chris Wieloch, Brookfield, WI

Some of the other winners:

The dame was stacked, both conventionally and in that she was the third of five bodies piled against the wall, the wallÂ’s earth tones reminding me of GrandmotherÂ’s house, which figured since it was her house, she having stacked the bodies there after poisoning them, so I studied the bodies as I munched on GrandmotherÂ’s ginger snaps and felt a twinge in my stomach.
Â— Kenneth Bennight, San Antonio, TX

It was such a beautiful night; the bright moonlight illuminated the sky, the thick clouds floated leisurely by just above the silhouette of tall, majestic trees, and I was viewing it all from the front row seat of the bullet hole in my car trunk.
Â— Tonya Lavel, Barbados, West Indies

This was going to be a science fiction novel until I realized that you actually have to know some real science for it to work well, so I changed it to a fantasy novel instead, because that way I can just make up the rules as I go, unhampered by the laws of physics or chemistry, as if you knew what they were anyway.
Â— Thor F. Carden, Madison, TN

Count GlandulaÂ’s castle flickered with eerie lights, where the immortal villain slaked his evil thirst in the dungeons with innocent victims Â– two moldy old peasants because the virtuous maidens had all been taken by the hot teenaged vampires down the road whose breath wasnÂ’t so icky.
Â— Janine Beacham, Busselton, WA, Australia

I need to stop here, otherwise I'd just cut and paste the whole thing. There are tons more at the link, so go there and read them all. And if you try to copy and paste individual winners from that page, you will be prevented from doing so in an unusual way, one that I had never seen before.

Moron Recommendations

Here's one that rickl recommended in last week's SMBT. Being lazy, I'll just let him tell you about it:

It's entitled Ignition! An Informal History of Liquid Rocket Propellants by John D. Clark, and was published in 1971. The author was a chemist who was heavily involved in the field throughout the 50s and 60s.

The book is out of print, and used copies are scarce and very expensive. But here it is in PDF form:

http://library.sciencemadness.org/library/books/ignition.pdf
Now you might think that a book about the history of rocket fuel would be dry and technical, and you would be half right. It is heavily laden with chemistry and discussions of chemical compounds and reactions.

But here's the thing: Clark was also an avid science fiction buff, and he could write. The book is written in a lighthearted, almost humorous style, chock full of anecdotes. Which is no mean feat, considering that the subject matter concerns scientists and engineers trying very hard not to blow themselves to kingdom come.

So I downloaded the pdf file, and you know what, rickl nailed it: Ignition is an absolute hoot, maybe a bit dry in some parts, but definitely not boring. Clark definitely knew how to write.

Note: on my Windows 7 computer, the freebie Adobe reader couldn't really handle the pdf file, I don't know why. Lots of long delays and freeze-ups during page loading. So after an hour of trying to make it work, I said the hell with it and switched over to the Foxit PDF reader, and that worked fine.

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Veteran AoSHQ commenter eman has a zombie book recommendation, 100 Days in Deadland by Rachel Aukes. He says it's based on Dante's Inferno. I bought it, only now I can't read it. This is because the author says she tried to match the structure of the original Inferno (34 cantos, 9 rings of hell), and it's been too many years since I've read it, so now I'm going to have to reacquaint myself with Dante before I read the zombiefied reboot. So, which translation should I read this time? I think maybe this one would be the best.

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Moron lurker and aspiring author Joe Courtemanche e-mailed this week to recommend the YA novel Failstate and Failstate: Legends by John W. Otte. These novels have a teen-aged superhero as the main character who, in his "normal" identity, must struggle with the things most teenaged boys have to contend with: family, school, faith, and the possibility of maybe a bit of romance.

Joe also recommends Swimming Through Clouds by Rajdeep Paulus. This is the Amazon description:

When high school cell phone disruption forces a classroom ban, the words on a Post-it note spark a sticky romance between two unlikely friends. Transfer student Talia Vanderbilt has one goal at her new school: to blend in with the walls. Lagan Desai, basketball captain and mathlete, would do just about anything to befriend the new girl. One Post-it note at a time, Lagan persuades Talia to peel back her heart, slowly revealing her treasure chest of pain Â— an absent mother, a bedridden brother, and an abusive father. In a world where hurt is inevitable, the two teens search for a safe place to weather the storms of life. Together.

Over forty reviews on Amazon, and not one under 4 stars. Yeah, I know Amazon reviews tend to skew high, but the complete lack of negatives is noteworthy.

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At The Other McCain blog, Wombat-socho provides an introduction to military sci-fi novels. But my question is, isn't pretty much everything in this genre just footnotes to Starship Troopers?

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Finally, nothing to do with books, but here is an appropriate autumn song:

Eva Cassidy died from melanoma in 1996. She was 33 years old.

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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 YOURPANTSaoshqbookthread, followed by the 'at' sign, and then 'G' mail, and then dot cee oh emm. But don't forget to remove YOURPANTS, otherwise I won't get your e-mail.

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 07:20 AM | Comments (181)
Post contains 1473 words, total size 10 kb.

1 Oregonmuse please report to the tiny barrel for the tiny font.

Posted by: buzzion at September 01, 2013 07:20 AM (LI48c)

2 I love Fall.I don't find it sad at all.

Posted by: steevy at September 01, 2013 07:21 AM (9XBK2)

3 I love Fall.I don't find it sad at all. I watch the colors with glee. Fall does not offend me.

Posted by: Oldsailors Poet Palin/Bolton 2016 at September 01, 2013 07:24 AM (XIxXP)

Does anyone know if Ace was involved with the writing group Phat Phree? Lot's of stylistic similarities.

The book "Look At My Striped Shirt" kind of reads like an AoSHQ thread.

Posted by: jwest at September 01, 2013 07:25 AM (u2a4R)

5 Time to fix brunch for the family. I have no books to comment on so I'm breaking down and buying a cheap kindle. I will be a book reviewing MFr in no time. Love you guys.

Posted by: Oldsailors Poet Palin/Bolton 2016 at September 01, 2013 07:26 AM (XIxXP)

6 Loved the Scholastic book covers! I used to get ten books at a time, and a lot of looks from the rest of the class who got three at the most. I avoid Scholastic books now--they range from shallow to scary.

Posted by: Elizabeth at September 01, 2013 07:27 AM (yEuSM)

7 I was going to put this in the morning thread, it's a response to one of Vic's morning links, but that one's almost dead and it fits here. 14 Kindle Daily Deals Hey, its Dr Strangelove today. I have that in paperback, printed in 1958, Ace books, $.35 cover price. The pages are yellow and the cover's tattered and you'd have to be very careful reading it today lest you wind up with a handful of lose pages. I read it as a young teen (14-15ish) long before I saw the movie. It's not a comedy at all, it's a serious book along the lines of the better known Fail Safe, precursor to the Tom Clancy genre, and the world doesn't blow up at the end. Alabama Angel crashes because of all the damage that's been done to it, but the crew had heroically tried to complete their mission into the teeth of everything the Sovs threw at them, aided by the U.S. military advising them. They actually made it over target, but their damaged plane wasn't able to release their bomb, and they crashed. "The wreckage of Alabama Angel was completely disintegrated by the explosion, and an area of one mile radius from the centre was turned into a white hot, seething inferno. Thirty seconds after the explosion, the familiar mushroom cloud had burst up to 50,000 feet. At it's base the crew of Alabama Angel slept their last sleep. They had failed, yet in their failure they had achieved victory. They could sleep content" It's actually very poignant and heroic and I found myself wanting them to succeed- even though that would mean the end of the world.

Posted by: Weirddave at September 01, 2013 07:28 AM (aH+zP)

8 Fall is not necessarily sad, but it can be very melancholy. Some days of "Indian Summer" can be so beautiful and pleasant, but Winter is coming.

Posted by: Reader Chelsea J. Burch writes more nonsense ...... at September 01, 2013 07:28 AM (v6hyJ)

9 Working on the L. E. Modesitt Recluce series on the Kindle. Good classic series. If you have not read it give it a try. This is another one that does a backwards time regression. I like to read it in chronological order rather than publishing order. However, the author does not recommend that. The Wiki entry for the series gives both the publication order and the chronological order.

And OM, Summer is gone and on to my second favorite season.

Posted by: Vic at September 01, 2013 07:29 AM (zZbNF)

10 Well, in the sense that Heinlein's Starship Troopers were the most popular of sci-fi books during the '60s. I suppose you could draw that conclusion. But read Haldeman's Forever War series. It's a real look into military sci-fi that also incorporates political sociological and a host of other theories and musings.

Ender's Game is another fine story with broader implications. Another great story.

I believe that Starship Troopers is really a pinnacle for authors to reach.

Try some of John Ringo's work, especially Centurion. He's a hoot, and some of his works remind me of Hiasson set in other worldly situations.

Posted by: Mike43 at September 01, 2013 07:31 AM (rftnG)

11 I was drooling over that patio until I saw your asterisk.

Posted by: Vic at September 01, 2013 07:31 AM (zZbNF)

12 We just finished re-watching the Harry Potter movies so I decided to re-read the books as well. I still get that sense of childlike wonder in the first books, as I discover all of the cool stuff at Hogwarts right along with Harry. I love when a book can do that.

I love fall. Back home (Pennsylvania) it meant crunchy leaves and crisp air. Here in Texas it means an end to blazing hot temperatures.

Posted by: DangerGirl, full of sweet rage at September 01, 2013 07:31 AM (GrtrJ)

13 To be clear on my last post, the U.S. military was advising the Sovs on how to shoot down the B-52 (to prevent the doomsday response).

Posted by: Weirddave at September 01, 2013 07:31 AM (aH+zP)

Been reading all of the old Helen MacInnes books (which were apparently out of print for a while) - damn, that lady could WRITE!!!!!

Funny to see how the more things change, the more they stay the same - the stuff she was writing about back in the 40's and 50's (through 1976) could have been written last year.

Her estate is letting out her works a bit at a time - 6 books were available several months ago, then 6 more just became available in early August. There are still a few of her books that aren't out yet - hopefully they will be getting published soon, 'cuz I'm almost done with the last one.....

Posted by: Tereas in Fort Worth, TX at September 01, 2013 07:32 AM (PZ6/M)

15 Fall is a time of harvest, preparation, and a last burst of beauty before the cold comes. It is a test that says pay attention and be ready, and if you do and are lucky, see you in the Spring. I miss it.

Posted by: eman at September 01, 2013 07:32 AM (AO9UG)

16 The Beginning of Fall Is Always Tinged With Sadness Pretty picture, but no skewed-perspective cats, so I have it on good authority that its not art.

Posted by: IllTemperedCur at September 01, 2013 07:33 AM (c2oll)

17 I finished "Life of Pi" as part of my book group. I thought it was well written and created the interesting puzzle at the end of choosing between two alternative fictional stories of which is "true". We're now moving to "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" about an autistic boy solving a crime. I wouldn't have chosen this but that's part of the reason for the group. And if I find the choices too substandard I'll just leave. Again. On my own I started reading Mikhail Lermontov's "A Hero of Our Time", a Rooskie classic by somebody who was a major influence on Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky. Based on the first pages, troubles between the Russians and Chechens and Ossetians didn't begin in this century.

Posted by: Captain Hate on an iPhone at September 01, 2013 07:34 AM (s7n0y)

18 I finally broke down and bought Dan Simmons, "Flashback". I couldn't find it on the used shops or the local library, so I just bought it.

This reads like something one of the Horde would write, in terms of politics. After two decades of fiscal ruin thanks to our illustrious President, the country has lost territory and lost control over its own internal security; but political-correctness hasn't collapsed. There's no cash to clear out the bandits in the southern Rocky Mountains, but there's still resources to be found to ban conservative talk radio. Actually they're not quite able to ban that either.

There are two currencies: old dollars, which don't get printed anymore, and new dollars which most definitely do get printed. The ruinous levels of inflation are kept from being hyper inflation by renting out our army to other countries for their wars, mainly Japanese. By "the Japanese", they have reverted to feudalism, so by "country" in this case I mean one or the other of the seven or eight Japanese noble families.

The story runs on two rails: Nick Bottom (yeah, this is Simmons, the literary refs are always in your face) and his son-plus-grandfather, Val-and-Leonard. Nick is a flashback addict. Whenever he gets a chance he huffs a drug which takes him back to the good old days of, um, 2009. Almost everyone left in America does this.

Biggest criticism (besides the Ayn Rand preachiness): Nick's an asshole. Nick laughs like a spider monkey at the least provocation. Simmons had the same sarcastic laughing dickhead in the Hyperion books and I didn't enjoy his company there either. (Simmons also recycles another habit of one of the Hyperion characters, the leader who says "shut up" all the time - but here he plants the habit on another asshole and then kills him off.)

Posted by: boulder toilet hobo at September 01, 2013 07:36 AM (d7tB2)

19 >The Beginning of Fall Is Always Tinged With Sadness

I like to think September is when summer dies

I am re-reading Atlas Shrugged. If any writer ever needed an editor, it was Rand. That book could have been shortened by several hundred pages and not lost any of its impact.

Posted by: Jones in CO at September 01, 2013 07:37 AM (8sCoq)

20 16 Pretty picture, but no skewed-perspective cats, so I have it on good authority that its not art.

A friend of mine claims it's not art unless nekkid wimmens are involved, although he's willing to cut some slack for things in which you could reasonably imagine some nekkid wimmens.

Posted by: Anachronda at September 01, 2013 07:37 AM (U82Km)

21 Remember the George Clooney version of FailSafe done live on TV?It was actually pretty good iirc.

Posted by: steevy at September 01, 2013 07:37 AM (9XBK2)

22 Everyone better enjoy this Fall because the Winter is going to be brutal on the East Coast.

Posted by: Vic at September 01, 2013 07:37 AM (zZbNF)

23 I like this book: Adiamante by L.E. Modesitt, Jr. It's a bit clumsy here and there, but it really grabs you and then when fully read it stays in your mind.

Posted by: eman at September 01, 2013 07:38 AM (AO9UG)

24 Curious Incident... is fantastic.

Posted by: Lincolntf at September 01, 2013 07:39 AM (ZshNr)

25 17 On my own I started reading Mikhail Lermontov's "A Hero of Our Time", a Rooskie classic by somebody who was a major influence on Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky.

I'll just leave this here so I can find it later:
http://lib.ru/LITRA/LERMONTOW/geroi.txt

Posted by: Anachronda at September 01, 2013 07:41 AM (U82Km)

26 The first real book I ever read was The Secret Sea by Robb White. I got it through Scholastic Book Club at school and I loved it. I'm sure that book would not be allowed in school today because, in part, it was about the WWII Battle of Leyte Gulf and it referred to as Japanese friends as Nips and Japs plus it was generally violent including at least one torture scene. That book started me on a life time of reading.

Posted by: WalrusRex at September 01, 2013 07:42 AM (VlXYw)

27 Yes I love Fall too despite the melancholy underpinnings.

Posted by: Captain Hate on an iPhone at September 01, 2013 07:42 AM (s7n0y)

28 I ran through Max Barry's new SF/thriller release Lexicon this week. Awesome overall, with the caveat that there is a mention of "Chomskyian linguistics" on the back cover and one glancing Bush bash inside. It covers some of the same ground as Snow Crash but in a very fast-paced thriller format. Highly recommended.

Posted by: Motionview at September 01, 2013 07:42 AM (2yPl+)

29 Shit My Dad says is a buck ninety nine on amazon if anyone needs a laugh.

Posted by: NCKate at September 01, 2013 07:42 AM (KKfVH)

30 Nearly completed by rereading of "Snow Crash" by Neal Stephenson. Picked up at the annual Lewes Library Book Sale yesterday and started reading "Vietnam, A History" by Karnow. Got some others, too, but will wait until I start reading them to report out.

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars[/i][/b][/s] at September 01, 2013 07:43 AM (4FvdX)

31 Why are the letters so tiny?

Posted by: Pete in TX at September 01, 2013 07:46 AM (1cGs2)

32 I like to read it in chronological order rather than publishing order. However, the author does not recommend that. The Wiki entry for the series gives both the publication order and the chronological order.

Narnia was famously like that. "A Horse and His Boy" is a spinoff and "Magician's Nephew" is the retroactive Creation account. I suppose "A Horse" can be read at any point after you're done with "Wardrobe", but "Nephew" really has to be read as the background to "The Last Battle" (and not at the beginning).

Posted by: boulder toilet hobo at September 01, 2013 07:46 AM (d7tB2)

Just finishing up, General James Longstreet, Jeffery Wert. Good read. Although as a history guy a lot of the info I already knew. He got a lot of the blame for the Confederate loss at Gettysburg. But, as this book points out he understood that the tactical defense usually won battles (and with the South's lack of manpower it was the best, perhaps only, way to win). This, at a time when the muzzleloading rifle and cannon was the predominate weapons. A lesson not even recognized until after the horrors of the trenches in WW1, when the weapons were machine guns and modern artillery. Also my dog eared copy of Tiger, John Viliant reappeared after its 5th loaning. A excellent read. A study of the Tiaga's people, animals and fauna as well as, obviously from the title, Tiger's. One of the best studies on the predator-prey relationships and the necessary intelligence of predators. Highly, recommended.

Posted by: Vn Redleg at September 01, 2013 07:48 AM (5PQZU)

34 I'm still slogging through the audio of David Stockman's 'The Great Deformation.' It's one of those volumes where you have to stop every once in a while to exclaim "They did what?" or "Assholes!" All my life I've read SF stories that offered a glimpse into a future where some ill chosen behavior was carried to its logical extreme. Now I find I live in such a world, where the essential rules of sound money have been ignored for so long, scarcely anyone alive can recall the era when sanity was normal.

In text, I've been reading 'The Looming Tower,' which traces the origins of the Muslim Brotherhood, Al-qaeda, and much else leading to the current headlines. Much of the info I already knew from Peter Bergen's 'The Osama Bin Ladin I Know' but this is still very worthwhile reading.

Posted by: epobirs at September 01, 2013 07:49 AM (kcfmt)

35 Finished off Warbound, the concluding volume of Larry Correia's Grimnoir Chronicles trilogy. Full of action on a grand scale, very fun to read, all major plot and character points resolved, liked it a lot. I wish it was not over. I really enjoyed, especially, the characters Faye and Heavy Jake Sullivan, and could see reading a lot more about them.

If you haven't read Correia, start with the Monster Hunters series (notably, if you have an e-reader, the cheap three-books-in-one you can get from Baen). If you've read all the Monster Hunters books and are ready for your next Correia fix, I'd certainly recommend picking up the Grimnoir Chronicles books.

Anyone read his Dead Six? It has a co-author so I'm not sure what to expect.

Posted by: Splunge at September 01, 2013 07:51 AM (bKA83)

Count Glandula. Ha.

I might make that my new handle.

Posted by: garrett at September 01, 2013 07:54 AM (Jgpr1)

37 What is "YA"? 'British YA author...'

Posted by: t-bird at September 01, 2013 07:57 AM (FcR7P)

38 37 What is "YA"? 'British YA author...' Posted by: t-bird at September 01, 2013 11:57 AM (FcR7P) Young Adult

Posted by: Ragamuffin at September 01, 2013 07:58 AM (fzFF6)

39 Young adult.,

Posted by: NCKate at September 01, 2013 07:58 AM (KKfVH)

>>> What is "YA"?

Yoni Appreciation.

Posted by: garrett at September 01, 2013 07:58 AM (Jgpr1)

41 What is "YA"? 'British YA author...' Posted by: t-bird at September 01, 2013 11:57 AM (FcR7P) Young Adult Posted by: Ragamuffin at September 01, 2013 11:58 AM (fzFF6) (Meaning that Young Adults are the audience not that the author is necessarily a Young Adult, though it is possible. Lots of older types write YA lit though. Oddly, older types read it too.)

Posted by: Ragamuffin at September 01, 2013 08:00 AM (fzFF6)

42 A small tip for other authors who have published books and gotten a fan-base from them: assume that some of your readers have read those earlier books. You can generally assume that your pre-existent fanbase has read the books which won awards; and for any recent book in genre X your readers will definitely have read your earlier award-winning X books (in the case of SF, "Hyperion" before "Flashback").

So if you're going to recycle character traits or a whole @#$% character - those traits had better be traits we want to read again.

Posted by: boulder toilet hobo at September 01, 2013 08:01 AM (d7tB2)

43 My 13 year old daughter loved the Tripod series. It hooked her on science fiction. All readers here should be using paperbackswap.com - it is an excellent resource for getting reading material and getting books out of the house as well.

Posted by: ETF at September 01, 2013 08:01 AM (t74ak)

44 #34 I'm a big fan of "The Looming Tower".

Posted by: Captain Hate on an iPhone at September 01, 2013 08:02 AM (s7n0y)

45 Second the recommendation of Ringo's Last Centurion. You can't have too many retellings of Anabasis, especially if there is funny snark added to the tactics. Also agree with H. Beam Piper recommendation. Lord Kalvan is great fun, plus a bonus recipe for black powder and where to get the ingredients and prepare them. And reading SF won't get you in as much trouble as having a copy of the Anarchists Cookbook. I think. Piper was great for that sort of thing--I was able to suss out the principle behind titanium sublimation pumps (used in ultra-high vacuum equipment) because I remembered the chemical principles of Ti from Little Fuzzy. (I nominate Titanium as the Official Moron Element, because "under the right conditions it will combine with anything".)

Posted by: Sabrina Chase at September 01, 2013 08:03 AM (wfSF5)

46 In the 1980s, Boy's Life had a cliffhanger comic series on the Tripod trilogy. I started reading when the magazine got to "The City of Gold and Lead". It did look fun.

Posted by: boulder toilet hobo at September 01, 2013 08:04 AM (d7tB2)

47 I read Longstreet's autobiography some years ago, then lent it to my brother in law, who is a something of a Civil War buff, and never saw it again. He had a theory of defense regarding the emerging use of modern weapons, counter to Napoleonic concepts of massed infantry formations, cavalry charges, etc. that prevailed in most of the American Civil War. He also thought that it was a mistake for Lee's Army of Northern Virginia to march into Pennsylvania, and instead make a move to relieve the Siege of Vicksburg (which fell the same day as Pickett's charge, July 3, 1863).

Posted by: Reader Chelsea J. Burch writes more nonsense ...... at September 01, 2013 08:05 AM (v6hyJ)

48 (I nominate Titanium as the Official Moron Element, because "under the right conditions it will combine with anything".) Posted by: Sabrina Chase at September 01, 2013 12:03 PM (wfSF5) Seconded.

Posted by: eman at September 01, 2013 08:06 AM (AO9UG)

49 Niven and Pournelle wrote a Dante's Inferno-inspired novel called, err... "Inferno" in the 70's. It is a bit dated by some of its 70's references, but is actually very good. It actually inspired me to read the real thing.

Posted by: Noel Gallagher at September 01, 2013 08:08 AM (8Mr2R)

50 One of my as-yet-unfulfilled goals in life is to dick-punch Paul Verhoeven for his movie version of Starship Troopers.

Posted by: Motionview at September 01, 2013 08:10 AM (2yPl+)

Hey, I think I know one of the finalists - Ken Bennight in San Antonio - he's a Tea Party guy, present or maybe past chairman. On the board, anyway. I never would have thought he was a literary-parody type person, but I guess you never know.

I'm still slogging through Bill Bryson's One Summer-America 1937, since I got derailed by real life this week. But for all the 'rons and 'ronettes who like my own books, as of today I am taking advance orders through my Celia Hayes website for my next book. The Quivera Trail is a mash-up of Mrs. Gaskell and Zane Grey, and follows the adventures of two very proper Englishwomen in 1870s Texas. Link here - http://tinyurl.com/mblpvb7

And I have also begun on the book after that ... which kind of began as a joke. Upon observing the crash 'n' burn of the latest Lone Ranger movie, I proposed that the only hope for a reboot would be to go back and reinvent it as a historically-correct adventure series in pre-Civil War Texas, with a young Ranger and his Indian scout and friend. Loose the mask, the silver bullets and all, file all the registration numbers off the concept very thoroughly, but keep the sense of duty, honor and justice. My daughter suggested making it an adventure aimed towards tween and teen boys ... and so I have started on that.

And now to get back to work and quit wasting time on the internet...

Posted by: Sgt. Mom at September 01, 2013 08:10 AM (Asjr7)

52 in Florida, it'll be Summer for another month or more. Call back in October

Posted by: Keyser Soze at September 01, 2013 08:11 AM (omBWL)

53 @26 Walrus. I was a fan of Robb White's SBS imprints too. You might want to use a well-known search engine to find his bio. He was an Interesting Man.

Posted by: Stringer Davis at September 01, 2013 08:13 AM (JNUY4)

54 52 in Florida, it'll be Summer for another month or more. Call back in October

Posted by: Keyser Soze at September 01, 2013 12:11 PM (omBWL)

The trees turned and the leaves started dropping here a couple of weeks ago in mid August.

Posted by: Vic at September 01, 2013 08:14 AM (zZbNF)

I've been rereading ERB's Barsoom series and it's like a magic pulpy teleportation machine back to my early adolescence. I even have my old Ballantine editions with covers by Gino d'Achille, and the heady aroma of musty paperback is for me akin to biting into a madeleine and looking back to my youth.

This got me to thinking about some of the Scholastic books I enjoyed as a lass. Remember the Jupiter Jones series? In this era of helicopter parents and cell phones, could kids just retreat to a secret hideout with a gaggle of friends and solve mysteries or do experiments? I know it was just a literary device, but even I, an overprotected bratling, was allowed many unstructured hours with friends running amuck in the woods without adult supervision.

Oh, and on a side note, if you like Ringo, check out Michael Z. Williamson's Freeholder novel "Better to Beg Forgiveness", if you like your action served up with gut-wagon humor.

Posted by: All Hail Eris at September 01, 2013 08:15 AM (G93ZW)

56 He also thought that it was a mistake for Lee's Army of Northern Virginia to march into Pennsylvania,

He was right. That adventure, even if it had worked, would have done - what? terrorise some Amish villages? It would do the opposite of weakening Northern resolve. (Compare the civilian bombing campaigns in WW2, at least before nukes. They didn't do jack squat to enemy morale.)

What provably weakened Northern resolve was the Union Army's slo-o-ow progress in Southern soil. A few more defeats in the Vickburg area and Lincoln doesn't even seek re-election in '64.

Posted by: boulder toilet hobo at September 01, 2013 08:16 AM (d7tB2)

57 "Lord Kalvan is great fun,"

Was that "Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen"? Funny, that was a book that had been sitting around my house for years before I finally read it. Really enjoyed it. My older brother used to buy paperbacks all the time that I would read. Mostly SF.

And of course one day, after seeing some books called "The Lord of the Rings", sitting around for years that he had never read, I picked up the first one and started reading. As I recall, I finished the last one a couple of days later at 4 in the morning. Luckily it was during summer vacation.

Posted by: HH at September 01, 2013 08:16 AM (XXwdv)

58 I am currently reading Mark Bowden's Getting Bin Laden. Good read except for his elevating Teh JEF to some sort of new fangled enlightened statesman.

Posted by: Truck Monkey, Gruntled New Business Owner at September 01, 2013 08:17 AM (jucos)

59 Just finishing up, General James Longstreet, Jeffery Wert. Good read. Although as a history guy a lot of the info I already knew. He got a lot of the blamefor the Confederate loss at Gettysburg. But, as this book points out he understood that the tactical defense usually won battles (and with the South's lack of manpower it was the best, perhaps only,way to win) To this day I'm convinced that if Lee had listened to Longstreet and moved to flank Meade to the south after the second day off Gettysburg, we'd be two nations today. The ground was marshy and overgrown and perfect for dug in defense, Meade would have had no choice but to try a "Pickett's Charge" of his own. With the AoNOVA entrenched between the AoP and DC, Stuart could have raided Washington to his heart's content (most fortifications faced south), causing the US government to flee the city. If that happens at that point in time, I don't see how the CSA doesn't start getting international recognition and alliances. In that vein, I'm reading Harry Turtledove's Timeline-191 series for the umpteenth time. Great books, as long as I leave 18-24 months between readings I can enjoy them all over again.

Posted by: Weirddave at September 01, 2013 08:23 AM (aH+zP)

60 I sort of liked Turtledove once, but then he insisted on expressing his political views.

Posted by: A Balrog of Morgoth at September 01, 2013 08:27 AM (Q9qpj)

61
Ebay has a guide to collecting Scholastic Books. Of special note are the comprehensive lists of titles published. So if there's a book you sort of remember from your kiddy days that you're trying to track down, the lists might gin up the name for you.

https://tinyurl.com/lunorcv

Posted by: Laurie David's Cervix at September 01, 2013 08:28 AM (kdS6q)

62 "A Land So Strange: The Epic Journey of Cabeza de Vaca" by Andre Resendez. If you're unfamiliar with the story of CdV you have one of history's great adventure tales waiting for you. Kids could enjoy this one too.

Posted by: Libra at September 01, 2013 08:29 AM (GblmV)

63 The Turtledove book I read was his translation of Theophanes. It's okay as a general overview but it is riddled with inaccuracies and errors. Cyril Mango ended up doing his own translation a decade or so later.

Posted by: boulder toilet hobo at September 01, 2013 08:29 AM (d7tB2)

64 Whatever the problem was (and maybe the problem was with my computer) the print is normal-sized and legible now.

Posted by: Pete in TX at September 01, 2013 08:30 AM (1cGs2)

I'm very slowly and deliberately (and with great relish) working m way through Andrew Breitbart's Righteous Indignation.

Also, what is this "fall" you northerners keep referring to? Down here it's either called "Hurricane Season" or "Not Quite As Hot As Hell."

Posted by: BackwardsBoy, who did not vote for this shit at September 01, 2013 08:30 AM (0HooB)

66 Young Adult? Back at that age I was reading books like DuneÂ…

Posted by: The Sci-Fi Hat at September 01, 2013 08:32 AM (Vk2pI)

67 "What have you all been reading this week?"

<i>The Heist</i> by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg.

Utterly mindless entertainment but hysterically funny.

Posted by: creeper at September 01, 2013 08:34 AM (nUZDG)

68 Down here it's either called "Hurricane Season" or "Not Quite As Hot As Hell."

2 reasons to stock up on beer, eh?

Posted by: HH at September 01, 2013 08:34 AM (XXwdv)

69 "we'd be two nations today."

Ah well. Let's make it proper Holiday Weekend. I don't think "we" would. With several more Southern successes, the North might have "sued for a compromise." With Southern success, Northern commercial interests would have pushed -- hard -- for a rapprochement. With its rights and causes intact, the South's only issue would be whether foreign interest would allow it to reunite.

And, even with Southern expansion into the Caribbean and Central America, the commercial viability of slavery was on a downward slope. It had already failed in almost every application by the 1820's; the cotton gin and hot new international cotton demand gave it an unnatural new lease. By 1900, freeing slaves would have become an intelligent economic move -- which is pretty much how slavery ended in the rest of the world, which is still so huffy about "our" backwardness on the issue.

But on the smart-military issue only, at Gettysburg, I think you are right.

Posted by: Stringer Davis at September 01, 2013 08:34 AM (JNUY4)

70 Screw you, Pixy.

Posted by: html at September 01, 2013 08:35 AM (nUZDG)

71 As a 52 year old woman, I hail to end of being hot as hell all the time.

Posted by: Smeagol/Gollum at September 01, 2013 08:38 AM (Tnlh/)

72 >>> Pretty picture, but no skewed-perspective cats, so I have it on good authority that its not art. You missed that it is an impressionist vagina.

Posted by: fluffy at September 01, 2013 08:38 AM (z9HTb)

73 Ring addict sock off.

Posted by: baldilocks at September 01, 2013 08:38 AM (Tnlh/)

74 O/T Over at Powerline, ther is a yet another story about Official Thug America--the government suing the CEO of the company that made Buckyballs, to make him personally liable, in contradiction to the entire legal and economic history of the incorporation laws. What is going on should be quite clear--beyond retaliating against anyone who publically challenges them, what the government is trying to do is set up universal product pre-approval, and is doing this the way all thugs do so--by beating up on a badically honest man to instill fear in everyone else. The Federal government and its Progressives friends do that a lot--ostracise and destroy people with no power, so as to prevent any challenges to their dictates. I see no middle ground at this time as far as resolving these differences on the proper powers of government, and no hope of resolution within the system. But hopefully I am mistaken. Surely I must be. On thread--I recommend "Passage at Arms" by Glen Cook. A little uneven at the beginning, and a mistake was I think made in putting the real first chapter behind another (so that the reader gets that "first chapter hook", a modern-day trend), but very solid overall. A classic in my opinion.

Posted by: T. at September 01, 2013 08:39 AM (aY2wJ)

75 Now there's an interesting notion: what if Gollum's mother had led Frodo and Sam into Mordor.

Since Gollum was basically Grendel in The Hobbit.

Posted by: boulder toilet hobo at September 01, 2013 08:40 AM (d7tB2)

76 I watched The Tripods on TV and had to buy the books to find out how the story turned out.

Posted by: Bertram Cabot Jr. at September 01, 2013 08:42 AM (v1BsO)

2 reasons to stock up on beer, eh?

2 more reasons. Gotta stay hydrated, donchaknow. Did manage to fire up the grill yesterday before the thunderstorm and all the lightning prior to the Bama game, tho'.

Looks like I'll have to download that Ignition PDF. I recently gave my copy of Stages to Saturn to GD #2 who's graduating from MIT next year with her Aeronautics Degree. Now that she's 21, I'll have to get her some more rum and bounce my idea for a LEO Space Sport off her.

Posted by: BackwardsBoy, who did not vote for this shit at September 01, 2013 08:43 AM (0HooB)

78
Overstock.com released a statement saying it would permanently match Amazon prices on their print books. It will also give its Â“Club OÂ” program members a 15% rebate in Overstock credit on book purchases.

WSJ

With the new price reductions, taking a look at Overstock before you buy from Amazon is worth the effort. Advantages for Overstock include:

1. Looks like they're actually cheaper on certain books.

2. If you're under Amazon's $25 free shipping total, Overstock has cheaper shipping on small orders. Over $25, Overstock's shipping is still pretty reasonable and may still give you the better overall deal.

3. That 15% kickback, although you have to pay a membership fee for the club.

4. Overstock routinely has 10% off with free shipping coupons that are easy to google up. Stack that on everything else, and you can get some pretty hot deals.

Posted by: Laurie David's Cervix at September 01, 2013 08:44 AM (kdS6q)

79 Regarding Divine Comedy translations, my favorite is the John Ciardi one. In addition to being good poetry, the copious notes provided a crash course on Italian politics, Christian cosmology, the history of the papacy, and classical Roman authors, among many other subjects.

Posted by: Darles Chickens at September 01, 2013 08:45 AM (ZpoIZ)

80 Baldilocks: I am a fellow addict. We need a support group.

Posted by: Gingy at September 01, 2013 08:46 AM (aH+zP)

81 Ring addict sock off.

Posted by: baldilocks at September 01, 2013 12:38 PM (Tnlh/)

Heh.

BTW, just wanted to say I really, really liked your essay here last week. So did you get an Instylanch, or whatever they call it,<since he also linked it?

Posted by: HH at September 01, 2013 08:47 AM (XXwdv)

82 Posted by: T. at September 01, 2013 12:39 PM (aY2wJ)

The Wall Street Journal covered the BuckBall fiasco yesterday. I bought some when I heard about the impending ass-rape. They are awesome.

http://tinyurl.com/mcudb79

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at September 01, 2013 08:47 AM (gqgiP)

83 I need to make space on the bookshelves for the more books I already have in excess of bookshelf space, so it's Culling Season. The book of which I'm currently doing selective reading in order to determine if I want to keep it is called "Bugaku Masks". Triple-checking my typing to make sure no embarrassing typos in THAT.

Posted by: Sister Sestina at September 01, 2013 08:48 AM (1wI7y)

84 I just finished "In Freedom's Cause" by G A Henty. Very good book on William Wallace and Robert the Bruce. When I got to the end I found out this was a children's book! Not many children nowadays read 13th century Scottish history. (Written in 1880's)

Posted by: Dumpsterjuice at September 01, 2013 08:51 AM (CfWeQ)

Hey Horde,

Just Started reading "The End of Eternity" by Asimov.

Trying to make my way through the sci-fi classic authors while I have some time.

Posted by: tsrblke at September 01, 2013 08:52 AM (GaqMa)

86 >>In text, I've been reading 'The Looming Tower,' which traces the origins of the Muslim Brotherhood, Al-qaeda, and much else leading to the current headlines. Much of the info I already knew from Peter Bergen's 'The Osama Bin Ladin I Know' but this is still very worthwhile reading. The Looming Tower is an excellent book that really helps layout the beginnings of modern day Islamic terror. If you haven't read it already, you might also try Hatred's Kingdom by Dore Gold.

Posted by: JackStraw at September 01, 2013 08:53 AM (g1DWB)

87 OT For any Hitchcock fans, TCM is running Hitchcock movies all afternoon.

Posted by: nerdygirl at September 01, 2013 08:53 AM (Oin9f)

88 Finshed REAMDE by Stephernson a few days ago. Fun, furious, and more shock & awe than the messiah has in his bombypanties. Autumn and spring are the magical seasons in my calendar. October and April are delightful.

Posted by: angel with a sword at September 01, 2013 08:53 AM (hpgw1)

89 The cut/paste works fine with FF -- just hit the back button after it blows you out after text selecting. When you return, the selected text is still selected and you can copy.

Alternatively, the text based browser Lynx defeats the scheme entirely.

Posted by: Manifesto de Purp[/i][/b][/u][/s] at September 01, 2013 08:55 AM (9MLX+)

90 Those of you who are looking for really cool pics for wallpaper like the one OM posted above try this site.

http://interfacelift.com/wallpaper/downloads/date/any/

Posted by: Vic at September 01, 2013 08:55 AM (zZbNF)

91 Stringer Davis at September 01, 2013 12:34 PM (JNUY4) Who's to say? That's a much harder question than one battle, it depends on too many variables. If the CSA elects a president who lost his pop at Shiloh...excuse me, Pittsburg Landing, maybe he prevents rapprochement. Maybe another president doesn't. History shows that when large states break into smaller ones they rarely get back together as each smaller state develops it's own identity (ironically in this case that ID would be "American", for both sides), but I'll concede "we'd be two countries today" was a bit of poetic license. There's no way to know.

Posted by: Weirddave at September 01, 2013 08:59 AM (aH+zP)

92
Recently finished reading The Last Policeman by Ben Winters:

What's the point in solving murders if we're all going to die? Detective Hank Palace has asked this question ever since asteroid 2011GV1 hovered into view. Several kilometers wide, it's on a collision course with planet Earth, with just six precious months until impact.

The Last Policeman presents a fascinating portrait of a pre-apocalyptic United States. Industry is grinding to a halt. Most people have abandoned their jobs. But not Hank Palace. As our story opens, he's investigating the latest suicide in a city that's full of suicidesÂ—only this one feels wrong. This one feels like homicide. And Palace is the only one who cares. What's the point in solving murders if we're all going to die?

http://thelastpoliceman.com

Very well done, especially the realism of how society reacts to certain-ish doom. The second book, Countdown City is now out.

Posted by: Laurie David's Cervix at September 01, 2013 09:01 AM (kdS6q)

93 I'm reading "Muscular Enough To Not Be Mocked: Why I Bombed Nagasaki" by Harry Ass Truman.

Posted by: WalrusRex at September 01, 2013 09:02 AM (VlXYw)

94 I like fall a lot more now that I am retired and have a second home in Arizona for the winters.

Posted by: Anchovy at September 01, 2013 09:06 AM (2tljF)

95 Posted by: Vic at September 01, 2013 12:55 PM (zZbNF)

Geez Vic, that's a LOT of wallpaper!

Oh well, there goes the rest of my day...

Posted by: HH at September 01, 2013 09:10 AM (XXwdv)

I started (and finished!) Nine Years Under, by Sheri Booker. It's about the time a black teenage girl spent working in an inner-city Baltimore funeral home. Our Sunday paper book review made it sound hilarious, but far from it. It was compelling enough to get through quickly, which, for me, being a slow reader, is saying something!

OM - Thanks for the Bulwer-Lytton winners. They're a scream.

Posted by: RushBabe at September 01, 2013 09:10 AM (qkZxk)

97 O/T

Why is ESPN showing a totally Black football game? Two Black schools. MS Valley Vs FL A&M . Maybe they just wanted to see the Rattler's band?

Not a white person, referee or player on the field.

It not racist though, they are Black.

That BLACK mouse on the field is though.

Sponsored by Disney. GO figure.

Posted by: Billy Bob, pseudo intellectual at September 01, 2013 09:16 AM (Cydud)

98 Published new novel "Dragonclaw" by C.S. Rock. A horror/fantasy-type thing that takes place in land far removed from what we all know.

Posted by: Devil-Slayer at September 01, 2013 09:17 AM (z99n4)

99 Autumn? It's 95 fucking degrees.

My parents would never give me money to buy books, since our town had a library. I seem to have over-corrected...

I have two liquor boxes of books in my car for my current local library's sale. You would think it would be easy to pitch the ones I've owned for a decade and not read yet, but those seem to be harder than the ones I read once and don't feel like reading again. Weird.

Posted by: HeatherRadish™ at September 01, 2013 09:20 AM (hO8IJ)

100 So OregonMuse is one of those anti-autumn agitators?

What kind of sick pervert do you have to be to badmouth the fall?

Disgusting.

Posted by: ace at September 01, 2013 09:20 AM (/IWYB)

101 Forgot to add Dragonclaw is available on Amazon or Smashwords for 99 cents.

Posted by: Devil-Slayer at September 01, 2013 09:22 AM (z99n4)

102 97 the band is back after a two year suspension for a hazing death. So I guess that's newsworthy for espn.

Posted by: NCKate at September 01, 2013 09:22 AM (KKfVH)

103 how many Autumnal Denialists are active on this site?

Posted by: ace at September 01, 2013 09:22 AM (/IWYB)

104 Wait, the field goal kicker is White!

Posted by: Billy Bob, pseudo intellectual at September 01, 2013 09:23 AM (Cydud)

105 History shows that when large states break into smaller ones they rarely get back together as each smaller state develops it's own identity (ironically in this case that ID would be "American", for both sides),

You're forgetting the third American nation here: Canada. Canadians quit calling themselves "American". They did that because they renounced territorial claims upon the whole continent. This is something the USA never has done.

Southerners often see themselves as a separate people from Yankees; and they were blocked from further western expansion by Texans (who aren't really Southerners). That means the CSA didn't have territorial aims toward the Pacific. It's very possible that the CSA might have abandoned the "A" and gone with something more regional. Probably "Suanee", the Native term for "South".

Posted by: boulder toilet hobo at September 01, 2013 09:24 AM (d7tB2)

106
So OregonMuse is one of those anti-autumn agitators? What kind of sick pervert do you have to be to badmouth the fall?
Posted by: ace

He's not a bad guy, he's just deciduous.....

Posted by: Laurie David's Cervix at September 01, 2013 09:24 AM (kdS6q)

107 My son is being recruited by an historically black college in Savannah GA. He started looking at the website and said to me, "hey, there is only one white person on these webpages." I had to explain to him what an historically black college was. I think he could get loads of assistance if he decided to go there because he is not black. I don't know, I could be wrong.

Posted by: Truck Monkey, Gruntled New Business Owner at September 01, 2013 09:25 AM (jucos)

108 I don't know why we're talking about autumn. We should be talking about more relevant seasons.

Posted by: Waterhouse at September 01, 2013 09:25 AM (XW66B)

109 Hey OregonMuse, God made the trees colorful enough to be confused with a late-night Laser Zeppelin show at the planetarium and you're crying about it?

What a terrible person you are.

Fall is awesome.

Fall is not tinged with sadness.

OregonMuse is tinged with sadness, and hate.

Posted by: ace at September 01, 2013 09:26 AM (/IWYB)

110

>>> how many Autumnal Denialists are active on this site?

It's not Autumn until I eat a good apple.

Posted by: garrett at September 01, 2013 09:26 AM (Jgpr1)

111 Ace you know he can't respond right?

Posted by: Vic at September 01, 2013 09:27 AM (zZbNF)

112 >>>He's not a bad guy, he's just deciduous.....

you spelled "malcontent Fall Denialist" wrong.

Posted by: ace at September 01, 2013 09:27 AM (/IWYB)

113 >>>111 Ace you know he can't respond right?

no, why is that? Is he banned?

Posted by: ace at September 01, 2013 09:27 AM (/IWYB)

114 OT: Check the video John Kerry trying to not answer Chris Wallace's questions linked on Hot Air. Kerry is squirming like a rattlesnake in a frying pan.

Posted by: WalrusRex at September 01, 2013 09:28 AM (VlXYw)

115 Autumn is my second favorite season. I like Spring the best tough because everything is blooming and it is good to get out of the crappy Winter.

And this Winter is going to be bad.

Posted by: Vic at September 01, 2013 09:28 AM (zZbNF)

116 What? Oregonmuse just flounced?

Posted by: Truck Monkey, Gruntled New Business Owner at September 01, 2013 09:28 AM (jucos)

117 Hot damn. Half time. Hope they show the Rattler band and not ESPN announcers.

Posted by: Billy Bob, pseudo intellectual at September 01, 2013 09:28 AM (Cydud)

118 no, why is that? Is he banned?

Posted by: ace at September 01, 2013 01:27 PM (/IWYB)

LOL, no. His crappy service provider has some kind of a crappy service that doesn't allow him to post in the comments.

Posted by: Vic at September 01, 2013 09:29 AM (zZbNF)

119 It is autumn in my house right now, a pleasant 72 degrees. I've read all of my fun summer reads. Now, I've decided I should read something, but what and when I will defer to committee. I'm looking for something just intellectual enough not the be mocked.

Posted by: no good deed at September 01, 2013 09:30 AM (WmLrU)

120 oh

darn. well, I don't need his response. He's an Autumn Denialist and his thoughts are toxic.

Posted by: ace at September 01, 2013 09:31 AM (/IWYB)

121 "So OregonMuse is one of those anti-autumn agitators?"

Only due to his accident. He had a bad fall...

Posted by: HH at September 01, 2013 09:31 AM (XXwdv)

122 I've read all of my fun summer reads. See, no one says they're going to have fun autumn reads.

Posted by: Waterhouse at September 01, 2013 09:32 AM (XW66B)

123 Fall is awesome.

Fall is not tinged with sadness.

OregonMuse is tinged with sadness, and hate.
Posted by: ace at September 01, 2013 01:26 PM (/IWYB)

Fall is the beginning of sweater weather and thus *awesome*.

I've just started reading The Last Policeman - http://bit.ly/15qKzXJ

I quite like it so far and it's a very interesting idea. It's pre-apocalyptic, by which I mean that everyone knows the comet is going to hit and there's nothing to be done but it hasn't happened yet. It's nominally a murder mystery but it's more about observing what happens during the inbetween time.

Posted by: alexthechick - Team SMOD at September 01, 2013 09:32 AM (Gk3SS)

124 >>> how many Autumnal Denialists are active on this site? No denial, I just don't see it as the optimal season. I prefer to be called a Solticist.

Posted by: fluffy at September 01, 2013 09:32 AM (z9HTb)

125 Autumn is when you crack open the textbooks and read up on injector orifices.

Posted by: Waterhouse at September 01, 2013 09:32 AM (XW66B)

126 This is gay talk.

Posted by: sigmund soothsayer at September 01, 2013 09:32 AM (/vkdW)

127 I read about a giant vagina yesterday.

Posted by: NCKate at September 01, 2013 09:33 AM (KKfVH)

128

Fall is when you can start killing shit and filling the freezer.

No better time of year.

Posted by: garrett at September 01, 2013 09:34 AM (Jgpr1)

129

read about a giant vagina yesterday.

Yeah. Obama made another speech.

Posted by: Assad's 11 yr Old Son at September 01, 2013 09:35 AM (Jgpr1)

130 "engorged turquoise pedipalps"

Wow, I have been seeking the perfect name for my band, and I think I finally found one fittingly wretched.

Posted by: Mongerel at September 01, 2013 09:38 AM (YqWfw)

131 hahahajaja @ the tools on the morning shows this morning crying about the US's credibility and why we need to bomb Syria hard and right away yeah, there's nothing more credible than dropping bombs on whoevertherfuckwewant for whateverthefuckthereason.

Posted by: sigmund soothsayer at September 01, 2013 09:38 AM (/vkdW)

132 The Rattler Band!!1

Posted by: Billy Bob, pseudo intellectual at September 01, 2013 09:39 AM (Cydud)

133 Where did that vitamin D deficient leaf hater go? I'm disappointed that he didn't shriek obscenities at me.

Posted by: fluffy at September 01, 2013 09:40 AM (z9HTb)

134 And Obama Regime escalated the rhetoric from "chemical weapons" to "WMDs" what Bullshit

Posted by: sigmund soothsayer at September 01, 2013 09:41 AM (/vkdW)

135 I just finished "god is Not Great" by (you already know) Christopher Hitchens today. I wasn't impressed. His diction relies too heavily on cute little asides and fifty cent words, to the point where what is clever becomes glib. His thesis is silly and the supporting information is riddled with mangled "facts." I think I actually yelled when he wrote the Tamil Tigers rebelled primarily on account of religion rather than language. There is a lot more I could say on those accounts. Overall, though, I recommend the book to any people of faith who are interested in strengthening themselves against humanist challenges. I will say it is frequently thought-provoking in its aggressiveness. But to atheists who haven't read it yet, I don't know that it's a particularly strong effort.

Posted by: Yoshi, Aggrieved Victim of the White Man at September 01, 2013 09:41 AM (YNK3y)

136 Oh and the other thing I've been rereading this week are the Encyclopedia Brown book which is ace's fault in every possible way.

They are still as much fun as they were the first time I read them. The best part is trying to remember the answers to the mysteries.

Posted by: alexthechick - Team SMOD at September 01, 2013 09:41 AM (Gk3SS)

137 Obama and the progs have tried everything to enhance their credibility except to tell the truth.

Posted by: WalrusRex at September 01, 2013 09:42 AM (VlXYw)

138 Really. I just laughed when I heard 'credibility.' This is insane.

Posted by: sigmund soothsayer at September 01, 2013 09:43 AM (/vkdW)

139 My wife died last year on the last day of summer. Fall will never be the same for me.

Posted by: OpenChannelD at September 01, 2013 09:43 AM (cpXuq)

140 Today, like the last three days, I've been in San Antonio for the 71st annual World Science Fiction Convention.

If there are any other morons here, y'all should step up to the fellow wearing the shirt that says "TRY IT NOW" and say "hi"

Posted by: JonathanG at September 01, 2013 09:44 AM (HhaSN)

141 128
Fall is when you can start killing shit and filling the freezer.
No better time of year.

Posted by: garrett at September 01, 2013 01:34 PM (Jgpr1)

Don't forget FOOTBALL and ELBOWS!

Posted by: Billy Bob, pseudo intellectual at September 01, 2013 09:47 AM (Cydud)

142 My condolences, OpenChannel.

Posted by: garrett at September 01, 2013 09:47 AM (Jgpr1)

143 Purp up

Posted by: Vic at September 01, 2013 09:50 AM (zZbNF)

144 Up and then down

Posted by: Vic at September 01, 2013 09:51 AM (zZbNF)

145 Ace up now

Posted by: Vic at September 01, 2013 09:52 AM (zZbNF)

146 Man o man, ace showing up on the book thread is the second oddest thing I've ever seen here. First was Pixy himself responding to a post I made on this same thread about a year or so ago concerning Connie Willis.

Posted by: HH at September 01, 2013 09:52 AM (XXwdv)

147 Somebody from last week was asking for recommendations for a boy who doesn't really like fantasy stuff. My kids and their friends were big on the James Patterson series (written with co-authors) "Maximum Ride." My youngest started with Terry Pratchett about junior high and still rereads. Also, Catherine Jinks and "Evil Genius" series is fun. Trying to clear out shelves so I'm not making dark jokes about my stacks of books being insulation for a hard winter.

Posted by: Mustbequantum at September 01, 2013 09:53 AM (MIKMs)

148
I've been in San Antonio for the 71st annual World Science Fiction Convention.
Posted by: JonathanG

You are now permitted to add "Hadji" to your internet name.

Have done three Worldcons. Got kinda expensive, and as fandom has transitioned from mostly reading to mostly media, less interesting -- at least for myself.

Posted by: Laurie David's Cervix at September 01, 2013 09:53 AM (kdS6q)

149 Was looking for something different to read, and went to the "Bodice Ripper" section. Couldn't see myself at the counter with Fabio on the cover, but I found one with a babe on the cover. With a dude also, yes. But a nice looking Ginger none the less. "Midnight Games" by Elle Kennedy. I'm about 1/4 into it and no sex! A few passing thoughts about sex, but no down and dirty yet. It's set in modern times as a bunch of mercenaries as the protagonists. But no sex yet, did I mention that? Most of it is what the characters are..."Feeling". Just a few passing thought of hard-on's, but no sex. The only mistake on the normal techno-thriller type book that I read is a flesh wound from a 38 millimeter round. Any one familiar with that caliber? New to me, but I would think that passing thru soft tissue of a heavily muscled bicep would take the whole arm off.

It's different.

Posted by: Paladin at September 01, 2013 09:56 AM (Sx7Kg)

150 I really don't want to be a lawyer, Betsy said to herself pensively chewing the eraser on the end of her number2 pencil, while her lustrous auburn hair cascaded over her magnificent breasts and onto her Italian wrought iron kitchen table with the glass top which really needed to be wiped down, but she hadn't gotten to it yet. I can't let my expansive spirit be burdened and gnarled by legal technicalities. I need to let forth the divine creative spark within me glow into a flame, and by my proximity to nature paint the mysterious and enigmatic soul of my Siamese cat Ming Wei, which really needs to be fed but since we don't have cat food right now I'd have to got down to Stop and Shop before I could do her artistic justice. (I didn't get to participate in the Betsy Krasnik post below (Great job, Ace, Very Funny!) and I wanted to practice a contribution to the Bulyer-Litton fiction contest violating some of the rules Elmore Leonard says you should use in writing.)

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at September 01, 2013 09:57 AM (j+lCW)

151 " the Curious Incident..." is a fine book. One of the few audio books I've listened to. The reader did a great job and I think brought the characters to life. I think I read that there's a British stage play of the book that won numerous awards.

Posted by: Tuna at September 01, 2013 09:58 AM (M/TDA)

152 Posted by: OpenChannelD at September 01, 2013 01:43 PM (cpXuq) Sorry to hear of your loss, Open Channel.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at September 01, 2013 10:00 AM (j+lCW)

153 136 Oh and the other thing I've been rereading this week are the Encyclopedia Brown book which is ace's fault in every possible way.

They are still as much fun as they were the first time I read them. The best part is trying to remember the answers to the mysteries.

Thanks for this. I loved these books as a kid but had assumed that they wouldn't work for an adult reader. May have to go re-check them out.

Posted by: Splunge at September 01, 2013 10:02 AM (bKA83)

154 139 I'm so sorry.

Posted by: Tuna at September 01, 2013 10:02 AM (M/TDA)

155 It's pre-apocalyptic, by which I mean that everyone knows the comet is going to hit and there's nothing to be done but it hasn't happened yet.
Like "The Midnight Sun" episode of Twilight Zone.

Posted by: Bertram Cabot Jr. at September 01, 2013 10:03 AM (v1BsO)

156 I used to love fall, but now I hate it, so I guess I suffer from/proudly embrace the community of/ insist u h8trs bow down to any glorify my/ ADD. I'm re-reading LOTR. And I second OM' s motion for a Tripod movie. But Hollywood would prob fuck it up.

Posted by: Gem at September 01, 2013 10:03 AM (zw+pb)

157 OregonMuse is tinged with sadness, and hate. I don't see hate; I see a person angry at Obama and his policies. And yes, for people who deal with SAD it may be a lovely season, but as it goes on it tends to be a hard season and can be a sad one.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at September 01, 2013 10:05 AM (j+lCW)

158 "and glorify"

Posted by: Gem at September 01, 2013 10:05 AM (zw+pb)

159 My sympathies, Open Channel. My dad also died last year. The same evening Obama got re-elected. That was a shit day.

Posted by: Yngvar at September 01, 2013 10:12 AM (Hhcxv)

160 The last of the golden era before the great collapse started from the combination of continuous wars and the rise of socialism in the US.

http://www.shorpy.com/node/15961

Posted by: Vic at September 01, 2013 10:13 AM (zZbNF)

161 The "Vile Pun" winner at the Bulwer-Lytton link is hilarious.

Posted by: m at September 01, 2013 10:16 AM (YRZhn)

162 John Christopher is one of my favorite authors. Besides the tripods books, he wrote No Blade of Grass, Wrinkle in the Skin, Possessors, Sweeney's Island. Unfortunately, he died a year or so ago.

Posted by: song from Jurassic Park at September 01, 2013 10:54 AM (VRc/p)

163 Thanks for the tip on the IGNITION! book. I've heard about - didn't know it was online.

Posted by: Comrade Arthur at September 01, 2013 10:56 AM (83xuc)

164 58, Truck Monkey, I am listening to "The Finish" in the car and Bowden's Obama-love is disturbing. I'm trying to ignore it, but it ain't easy.

Posted by: Tonestaple at September 01, 2013 10:58 AM (3yidV)

165 Another YA to consider is Scott Sigler's series starting with The Rookie. It gets pretty gritty and the first book or two are based on the original non-YA version before he decided to go that direction. Really enjoyable. It follows a young guy (18-20) as he breaks into professional multi-species football from his own backwater planet and has to deal with issues of teamwork, racism (specie-ism?), and organized crime. The best part, as with all Sigler's work, is you can download and listen to all his past and near-current work in serialized audio mp3's.

Posted by: JoeEgo at September 01, 2013 11:07 AM (MNw8H)

166 The hunt for the Courier was the interesting part, most of the preceding like the character sketches of McDonough, et a, one could do with out, he also prefers the account by the mysterious Esquire shooter, to Mark Owens's account of the raid, the newest bit was that of Ould Slahi's interrogation, one of those who had been with the Hamburg cell, who had knowledge of the Courier,

Posted by: Jeffrey Pelt at September 01, 2013 11:16 AM (Jsiw/)

167

110, Honeycrisps are out. Jazz, best apple in the whole entire world, won't be out for another month or so.

I just finished "A Killing in the Hills" and have panned it in two places for horrifically pretentious writing and cheating at the ending.

I think I have to read "Unintended Consequences" by Edward Conard and "Worshipping the State" by Benjamin Wiker this week as they will have to go back to the library next Saturday. I can't possibly read both and I'm inclined towards "Worshiping the State" but if anyone has opinions, please share.

Started "Knights of Bushido" on my Kindle but not very far into it as I have been reading mostly dead-tree lately.

Posted by: Tonestaple at September 01, 2013 11:20 AM (3yidV)

168 I think he could get loads of assistance if he decided to go there because he is not black. I don't know, I could be wrong. Posted by: Truck Monkey, Gruntled New Business Owner at September 01, 2013 01:25 PM (jucos) I do not think your son needs the kind of assistance he is almost certain to get if he spends three to four years there. These are very unsettled times.

Posted by: Hrothgar at September 01, 2013 11:31 AM (XdnQT)

169 Started "Knights of Bushido" on my Kindle but not very far into it as I have been reading mostly dead-tree lately. Posted by: Tonestaple at September 01, 2013 03:20 PM (3yidV) I'm reading that one too. Picked it up on the strength of the Book Thread's recommendation. It's dry and often repetitive, but very informative. I'm learning a lot.

Posted by: Yoshi, Aggrieved Victim of the White Man at September 01, 2013 11:35 AM (YNK3y)

170 Shitty memories of tjose damn things. I remember the teacher pressuring me to buy books that my family couldn't afford to make some kind of 100% award.

Posted by: Max Entropy at September 01, 2013 12:48 PM (Hc0n6)

171 I'm deep into Ignition! this afternoon. It really is quite enjoyable, thanks for posting it.

Posted by: t-bird at September 01, 2013 12:56 PM (FcR7P)

172 "Branded" & "Stranded" by K L Hawker- two parts of a YA trilogy about unusually talented people, living under the radar, fighting organized evil. Lightly Christian themes. Enjoyable, but the third one is not yet out.

Posted by: Former SSG at September 01, 2013 01:42 PM (J/5jG)

173 I think the most interesting thing about Stephenson' REAMDE was the clear fight within the author between the hipsters and the survivalists, the earth-tone coalition and the gauche. Stephenson hangs with the Bezos crowd, but in the long run the quiet heroes that save the day in his books are the rednecks (the two hot-rod cousins in Snow Crash, the cowboy in the Australian duster in Diamond Age, Shaftoe in Cryptonomicon, the Idaho individualists in REAMDE). A modern day Dickens in my view, and not fully lionized by the smart set precisely for this reason.

Posted by: Motionview at September 01, 2013 02:39 PM (2yPl+)

174 For anyone looking for good YA novels, I would strongly recommend those of Peter Dickinson. Some titles that spring to mind are: "The Dancing Bear", "The Blue Hawk", "Tulku", "AK", "Shadow of a Hero" and the Changes Triology.

Posted by: John F. MacMichael at September 01, 2013 03:40 PM (jfnSK)

175 35-

Loved Dead Six... went to see if there were more books in the series (and oh no, there are not, but will be in future). So, I started on Monsters Hunters and now have devoured all of those...

Posted by: CA at September 01, 2013 03:54 PM (a34wx)

176 I have read Monsters Hunters International and loved it. Then I read Hard Magic and I loved that even more. I've got Dead Six in my reading queue. Right now I am reading Ringo's new zombie novel, "Under a Graveyard Sky" which is oh so much fun. WAY better than World War Z. I've previously read his Troy Rising trilogy and thought those were just great. I think Ringo and Correia are now in my top five of favorite authors.

Posted by: BornLib at September 01, 2013 06:15 PM (zpNwC)

177 Testing anonymous proxy service hello one two three four

Posted by: OregonMuse at September 02, 2013 09:33 AM (SmQqB)

178 this one seems to be working pretty well, I think

Posted by: OregonMuse at September 02, 2013 09:34 AM (SmQqB)

179 hello test one two three four

Posted by: OregonMuse at September 02, 2013 09:56 AM (SmQqB)

180 I read Ignition previously. It's hilarious. Also I learned what hypergolic means. A quote for those who are not yet convinced that it is an awesome read. Regarding chlorine trifluoride: "It is, of course, extremely toxic, but that's the least of the problem. It is hypergolic with every known fuel, and so rapidly hypergolic that no ignition delay has ever been measured. It is also hypergolic with such things as cloth, wood, and test engineers, not to mention asbestos, sand, and water-with which it reacts explosively." Yea, rocket engineers play with fun things. Read about what happened when a ton of the stuff was spilled.

Posted by: Keapon Laffin at September 02, 2013 03:10 PM (LRz3v)

181 Ran across the Ignition pdf about a year ago. Interesting, deep and droll. The dry ironic style reminded me of Charlie Stross, who is a good read at any time.
I second the up-vote on John Ringo's The Last Centurion. I had previously only seen a passing reference to the 'lost ten thousand'. Went and found out more.

Re Ignition. The one kill yourself before reading secret that is never revealed is the following: 'rocket science' is about playing with incredibly powerful explosives, in incredibly large quantities, requiring incredible engineering, so as to not-quite-but almost have the stuff explode, so as to tame the power, and *they actually pay you to do this*.

Posted by: Dyspeptic Curmudgeon at September 02, 2013 07:32 PM (3VI6F)

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