Brett L
I finished Mark Lawrence’s newest trilogy (Impossible Times). It is a closed loop time-travel story centering around a British D&D group. It starts in the early 80s, where the teen protagonist has cancer. He is visited by a future version of himself, who is focused on getting an advanced technology to record memories to his past version so they can record the memories of their sweetheart who will have a serious brain trauma in 30 years. Like all of Lawrence’s stuff, its very readable. I was disappointed about the deus ex machina in the third book that tied everything up in a neat “they all lived happily ever after” bow. Although I will say that the effort put into making the characters’ D&D campaign foreshadow the actual story is fun. Would read again, especially at the cheap price-point.
jesse.in.mb
Grindr.
Martin L. Shoemaker – The Last Dance (The Near-Earth Mysteries Book 1). I don’t know that it’s quite a mystery novel. The facts of the case are clear from the start and it’s a matter of context and judgement that make up the suspense of the novel. The sentiments are libertarianish about judgements needing to be made close to home. The cadence of the book was enjoyable, though maybe not to the point of being gripping. I’ll be interested in where Mr. Shoemaker takes the series.
JW
Krispy Kritters box. Man, this has really given me a new outlook on life.
mexican sharpshooter
I am afraid I have nothing for you this month.
OMWC
I have even less than mexican unless you want to hear about exciting things like Dow Guide to Flexible Foams. Having Mom here pretty much takes all my non-work time. The books are on the shelf crying in loneliness.
SP
Iām a little burnt out, so Iāve been reading escapist books. Mostly John RebusĀ books by Ian Rankin.
I also read The Red Baron of ArizonaĀ which could serve as a useful primer on how to become a con artist. This guy was seriously dedicated, going to great lengths to pull it off. The book was made into a movie starring Vincent Price, but itās part of The Criterion Collection, so I havenāt seen it yet.
Does anyone here subscribe to the The Criterion Channel (TedS?)? Is it worth it?
SugarFree
I’ve been reading books about murderous children: Carrie and Firestarter by Stephen King, The Bad Seed by William March, The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham, The Other by Thomas Tryon, “The Little Assassian” by Ray Bradbury, “Children of the Kingdom” by T. E. D. Klein. No real reason why, I just got interested. There are more for me to read. It’s a substantial subgenre.
I just finished a Waylon Jennings bio, authored by his son, Terry.
Started “The Last Days of George Armstrong Custer” , written by Thom Hatch. Too early to tell but I’ll read the whole thing and enjoy it, I’m sure.
Many years ago I read “Son of the Morning Star”, another Custer book. A really enjoyable book, hope this one is as good
SP visits his grave regularly. It’s quite the party spot.
Waylon would be proud, I’m guessing.
I’ll have to try that book; always thought the prick deserved what the People gave him. Found out recently that Gen. Custer and I have a common ancestor around 1690.
I’m reading a few indie books to give feedback and reviews to the authors. The biggest problem is the mixed quality you get. Some indie writers are superb, but can’t get past the gatekeepers. Others… it’s painful to try to politely phrase “you badly need a heartless friend with a red pen”.
I am still writing “On Unknown Shores.” I may end up with a trilogy, depending upon how the second half of the book turns out.
Ah, now I remember the titles.
The Indie book I just finished was “Wake of the Sadico”, and the one I’ve just started was “The Prairie Martian”.
I’m typing this from work where I don’t have my kindle to reference.
Finished since the last post:
“First Freedom: A Ride Through America’s Enduring History With The Gun” by David Harsanyi. I wasn’t as impressed with this book as I thought I would be. I expected better from Harsanyi. He needed a better fact checker and editor.
“Tom Swift and the Captive Planetoid”
“Tom Swift and His Dyna-4 Capsule”
“Retief Unbound” by Keith Laumer – I was reminded of James Bond movies, except Retief is funny and more believable than James Bond.
“Mauser Bolt Rifles, Third Edition” by Ludwig Olsen – Excellent Mauser reference about how the Mauser system developed and covers many of the variants.
“Retief at Large” by Keith Laumer
Starting today or this weekend:
“Historian’s Fallacies: Toward a Logic of Historical Thought” by David Hackett Fischer.
Finished since the last post:
Err…. “Finished since the last ‘What Are We Reading’ Post”
You dare rob us of our pedantry and snark?!
Yes.
All right then.
*sulks off*
āRetief at Largeā by Keith Laumer
Was Reteif the character who could release swarms of killing things from his chest?
That hasn’t come up in either of the books I’ve read. Most of the rest of the series is in my “to read” book pile.
Currently reading: _Loserthink_ by Scott Adams
Describes differences in thinking techniques and habits between physchologists, scientists, economists, etc. Not far enough in to give a proper review but so far, so good. Funny, thoughtful, irreverent.
On deck: _Man in the High Castle_ by Philip K. Dick
I haven’t seen a single episode but liked his other books and stories (and movies based upon them) so expect to like it.
I think as a rule, anything based on a story by Mr Dick wil have a few choice ideas and maybe the title taken and the rest basically ignored during the adaptation process. But I’ve neither read that particular story, nor seen the current adaptation.
The series is pretty good to the book for the first season. Then it branches out. Overall, I’m satisfied with it. In the middle of the fourth/final season and other than some huge unbelievable sops to current year, it’s still enjoyable.
And for those who like Dick, highly recommend the four volume collected short stories of his. Probably out of print by now though.
5 volumes. And reissued within the last couple of years
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Collected_Stories_of_Philip_K._Dick
I have the Citadel Press version of these.
I have those, he gets a bit tedious
I think it’s been reprinted (it’s what I referred to below). You can see the options if you just search by his name on Amazon.
I’ve been reading a collection of PKD’s short stories. For the most part I’ve enjoyed them: the plotting is good, he draws the characters well in a short space, and he tends to keep them to the right length.
However, two things struck me: (i) the dude does not have a lot of happy endings (go ahead, snark away). By the time I got to the third or fourth story I was thinking in the first page or so, “hmm, I wonder how this is going to go badly wrong”; (ii) I was reminded how much the idea of global nuclear destruction was woven into the sci-fi of the times. So many of the stories are dealing with post-apocalyptic societies.
You see, that’s what I don’t understand. If I’m living under the sword of damocles, and sudden death by nuclear hellfire is a distinct possibility, I don’t want to read stories with downer endings or postapocalyptic scenarios. I want to escape that reality.
Some people have to poke at the sore spot; some people have to avoid thinking about the sore spot.
I mean, it’s not like PKD was a best-selling author in his lifetime…
I don’t know about PKD, but Asimoz wrote a lot of his apocalypse-related stories as a way to say “look how bad it could be, let’s not.”
Twisted Prey by John Sanford.
I ordered Jack O’Connor’s book of “The Rifle” plus another on deer hunting for my new deer hunting partner. She needs to learn more during the off season.
Finished Beyond the Edge of the Map and was hungry for more. Looking forward to the sequel.
Darkest Hour by John Walker was a decent read. Cliches abound, and the suspension of disbelief was hard at times, but I like the macro plot, so I may get the sequel.
How the Catholic Church built Western Civilization by Tom Woods was a good read, if a bit convenient at times. It works as a reaction to a perceived bias against crediting the catholic church with the good aspects of western Civ. If you read it as a dispassionate historical primer, it comes off a bit whitewashed. Overall, I learned a ton.
I’m currently reading The Forever War by Joe Haldeman and listening to Migrations and Cultures by Tom Sowell.
I find Tom Woods old stuff a bit like that but that was also when he wasn’t quite libertarian yet.
SP
Iām a little burnt out, so Iāve been reading escapist books. Mostly John Rebus books by Ian Rankin.
Red meat to the commentariat.
No idea how the Critierion Channel is, but the Baron of Arizona is a good movie too, if you don’t mind Price’s treacle acting. But then I like The Bat.
BofA was the motivation for getting that channel. The real story is fascinating.
SP, see if your local library offers Kanopy. Apparently they have the entire Criterion Collection available for streaming.
Iāve been reading like a fiend on deadline, but nothing much worth sharing.
Standouts include Henri Pirenneās Medieval Cities: Their Origins and the Revival of Trade.
Interesting parallels with Eric H. Clineās 1177 B.C. : The Year Civilization Collapsed.
About to re-read Al Robertsonās Crashing Heaven and Waking Hell duology.
Lev Grossmanās The Magicians trilogy is, by 2/3 through book 2, oddly unsatisfying. The main character is a whinny pill. YMMV
Shirley Knott,
Based upon your list, I recommend Barbara Tuchman’s “A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century”.
She is perhaps better know for her work “The Guns of August, The Outbreak of World War I” .
*known*
Thanks, Iāll look for it. Sadly, my local library only has the audiobook (I hate being read to). Iāll have to check the inter library loan. Theyāre usually pretty good.
Ah! Excellent, thank you. They DO have Kanopy. I downloaded the app months ago and promptly forgot about it.
Went on a vacation and took two Terry Pratchett books I’ve had for years, and haven’t read because a double-punch of Making Money and Unseen Academicals made me sad about obvious decline in his abilities (one of the kindest, smartest, most creative people in the world getting fucking Alzheimer’s is an argument against a completely random, uncaring universe).
Luckily, they were much better. The Nation is not a Discworld book, but an alternate-Earth YA novel in which a huge tsunami wipes out a population of a Pacific Island, except for a boy returning from his ritual end-of-boyhood month exile, now stuck between no longer being a boy, and not confirmed as a man, since anyone who could died. Because they all waited on the shore for him to arrive for the grand feast in his honor. A British ship carrying a young noblewoman wrecks on the island, trickle of survivors starts showing up and The Nation starts taking shape again. Among tales of adventure are hidden musings on religion, rituals, customs and forms of government. Highly recommended and there may have been a manly tear at the ending.
Snuff is a Discworld story, but it’s about Sam Vimes, and not even Alzheimer’s can stop Terry Pratchett from doing a solid Vimes story. It’s more of a sequel to Thud than a standalone like other Night Watch books, and there are occasional issues I put down to his mental faculties failing, hammering a point too hard or introducing yet another plot strand that doesn’t get enough time, but overall a great novel that makes me want to re-read the entire cycle.
Mythical’s new book is the first in a series of paranormal romances, but with fae creatures instead of vampires. Quite fun and, given that it’s set in Oregon, I’m looking forward to a STEVE SMITH cameo.
Last Light of the Sun by Gay Gavriel Kay. Grim-ish fantasy tale based on Britain in Alfred the Great’s day, featuring Welsh, Norse and Saxon equivalents struggling with the changing world, both of men moving towards less violent but also less heroic age, and the creatures of fae fading away from the world. Kay is basically what GRR Martin would be if he understood history, plotting, human behavior, religion, writing well and finishing a story.
I also finished Sarantine Mosaic duology by the same author, and damn, while he writes based on actual history, he’s not shy about changing it in a major way. I’d recommend it even more, but I might be biased because of my love of Eastern Roman Empire.
There are always many manly tears when I reread “Lions of Al-Hassan”.
“Does anyone here subscribe to the The Criterion Channel?”
Yes,
“Is it worth it?”
Most likely. I mean there’s a two-week trial period so give it a whirl.
Does anyone here subscribe to the The Criterion Channel (TedS?)? Is it worth it?
I don’t have the bandwidth to do streaming video, so no. š
They have a huge collection of Japanese cinema.
Probably larger than any other channel. Older stuff however, I donāt think much from this century.
Thanks!
According to Amazon I’m reading all kinds of Amish romance novels, but that’s because my aunt’s kindle is under my account.
Something something, her barn doors are wide open, and it’s harvest time.
Harvest? That’s not the correct euphemism.
One day you’re gonna reap what you sow.
I’m re-reading Biskind’s “Easy Rider, Raging Bulls” ’cause I want to rediscover that era.
OT: Kid Rock blasts Oprah during foul-mouthed drunken tirade at his own bar – before insisting he’s not racist and being carried off stage by a cop
Bawitaba indeed.
He only said “Fuck Kathie Gifford” because she’s black, too.
Some people can’t handle their booze.
Everyone needs a drunken rant sometimes.
The mother of his only child is a black woman.
Iāve been reading books about murderous children
You could knock me down with a feather.
According to Amazon Iām reading all kinds of Amish romance novels
They don’t call it a “buckboard” for nothing.
OT: 2 Men Stockpiled Guns and Far-Right Propaganda in N.J. Are They Alone?
Oh my goodness, how are is law enforcement going to keep us safe?
Later on, Basement Marty himself chimes in:
Anyway, motorcycle gangs, gun shows, etc.
Good luck out there, (((friends)))
Don’t look at the NJ State Police uniforms!
We can solve this by no longer having laws that make weapons illegal. Then assholes with guns won’t be news unless they actually do something bad.
If only they were this worked up about antifa, too.
Gregory Mueller, an assistant prosecutor in Newton, N.J., said it is highly likely there are others with a similar ideology in Sussex county, but he is not sure how to find them. His investigators lack the expertise to ferret them out.
Put on blackface and say, “Whe’ de white wimmin at?”.
OT: Raquel Welch provides some Christmas* decoration inspiration!
*Thanks for putting the Christ back in Christmas, President Trump!
That is awesome.
You’re a meanie.
Good Lord.
It’s not the fur bikini from One Million Years BC. š
Rachuel Welch camel toe. That’s a keeper.
Greetings, Ted,
Here a bit of movie trailer for you .
A different sort of movie trailer
Cool link, bro!
“A different sort of movie trailer”
Near brilliancy, Ted S., if you or another were to ask my opinion.
The clip that you provided a link to tied in with various topics being discussed herein.
Multi-layered, as it were.
I haven’t been able to sit down and enjoy a book in a month or so myself. Which is weird for me. Mostly I have been reading requirements documents and emails related to the big project at work.
Tres Sr. handed me John Adams yesterday. I’ll be starting it this afternoon.
Just started “The Language Instinct” by Steven Pinker. Hoping to gain insight into the evolutionary development of human language
I hate to break it to you, but, you won’t.
Pinker, and by extension, Chomksy, are wronger than disco.
After finishing Pinker, read Tomasello for a better answer.
Why do you hate disco?
Because my roller rink won’t play it anymore.
^^^This is the correct answer.
Sorry to go OT, but I ran across this story just recently. From the article:
If you’ve grown up in a world where social media is at your fingertips and those kinds of social judgments are being made fairly constantly, suddenly you’re even more aware of what others might be thinking.
This gets to the very heart of my problem with Millennials. It’s their addiction to social media that has turned them into, simultaneously, wimps and scolds. The fear and approval-seeking of the online hive mind of people, many of whom they only know in passing, if that, has made them into bullies eager to identify the next target of their social opprobrium to cover for their abject terror at the possibility that the next target might be them.
Living your life in the desperate pursuit of “likes”, is no way to go through this world, kids.
“Living your life in the desperate pursuit of ālikesā, is no way to go through this world, kids.”
Hello, I enjoyed your Animal House reference.
Turning the whole world into junior high was not ideal.
It was better in small towns where everyone could say āwe missed you at church last Sundayā then talk shit about you as soon as you walked away.
Spoiler: humans have always been thin skinned social chimps.
I haven’t read anything. My Kindle purchases tell me I really like funny/wisecracking paranormal romances/urban fiction (see funny/wisecracking part again), but in June I cracked like a nut under the weight of reality and instead of just reading, I wrote a book to escape. This was both good and bad. So I haven’t read anything but Glibs and Reddit, and I am not interested in reading anything but Glibs and Reddit.
Yet.
How about a halfway step?
*waves book at Mojeaux.*
It is at the top of my TBR, and I am dead serious about that.
I’m making my way through Ewart Grogan’s From the Cape to Cairo; the First Traverse of Africa From South to North.
The results of this read will probably result in another Profile in Toxic Masculinity.
Also: I have one gun article, a couple of Profiles and a couple more Allamakee County stories in the works.
Iāve been reading contracts between major homebuilders and a major roofing/solar installation company. Fascinating.
Is this uh, major solar company known for catching fire?
I donāt know. What Company ate you referring to? Asking seriously.
Tesla. Their solar installations keep catching fire. (as do their batteries, their cars…)
Oh i see. Not Tesla.
Good, else I’d be worried their contracts caught fire too.
Christmas music, but not quite Mojeaux’s.
I hate that song.
So I listened to the entire 2 hours of 1975 Kmart Christmas in-store music, as I intended to “someday.” I do not need to revisit it.
This is from my childhood. Almost all the tracks are there and I’m working on getting the other 4 up.
I finished the Hyperion trilogy. Weird, but I really enjoyed them.
Then I read Song of Kali also by Dan Simmons, you can feel the heat of Calcutta, the story was dark and the city added to it. Great read.
Just started the latest Uhtred, son of Uhtred book Sword of Kings more of the same, but that’s not always a bad thing.
Comic relief: Ole Piss.
https://hotair.com/archives/allahpundit/2019/11/29/ole-miss-pisses-game-away-literally/
“The Roman Empire from Severus to Constantine”, by Patricia Southern
An excellent survey of an under-covered period – especially the Crisis. And she does right by Gallienus.
I’m almost done with The Long Road, by G Michael Hopf.
I’m enjoying the series and the third book is on the way.
In “Justice on Trial” by M. Hemmingway and C. Severino do a good job covering the brouhaha leading up to and during the Kavanaugh confirmation battle. They do a good job on the background and the fight and they lay out a decent prognosis of the next confirmation episodes. My only issue is that they go soft on laying out how exactly Ford was a lying partisan. They do point out how well the AZ based lawyer peels apart Ford’s story, but do not flay Ford like she has earned. Overall a good read, I recommend it.
“Spying on the South” by Tony Horwitz. This was his last book before his death. Horowitz re-travels the routes Frederick Olmstead’s pre Civil War journalistic sojourn through the southern states. He demonstrates in this book the same skills he did in “Blue Latitudes” and “Confederates in the Attic” by blending the past with an understanding eye on the perspectives of the residents of the current. I recommend all of them. (BL is retracing Captain Cook’s explorations in the Pacific.)
That is about it. I’ve had lots of reading at work and some evenings I just want to chill with the NFL Channel.
Thanks. I’ll pick up the Horwitz books.
I’ve been in a funk lately and have found it hard to motivate myself to read, so I decided to pick up something easy last night and get back into the groove.
I went with Gangsters and Goodfellas by Henry Hill, who some of you will remember as the main character in the movie Goodfellas. This book kind of picks up where Goodfellas left off, with Henry flipping on the mob and entering the Witness Protection Program. As I understand it, he continued getting into a bunch of crooked shit even while in the program and eventually got kicked out because of it. Should be an interesting story.
It’s only Glibs and YT stuff right now, still lots of history out there, and great lectures,
Traveling day for us.,
I’ve been reading Mojeaux’s books and Brandon Sanderson’s Skyward series, the second book of which just came out. Up next will probably be a bunch of tutorials for Autodesk Inventor, because I’ve forgotten what little I once knew in the five years since I last used it.
It’s Black Friday, so,
https://www.gofundme.com/f/v8pdm-getting-to-arizona?utm_source=customer&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_campaign=p_cf+share-flow-1
No shopping for us, not yet….
Been reading a number of Robert Conroy alternative history novels. Finding enough errors to question his editing and research scholarship. But did find out that all slender, lithe, and not quite beautiful girls dropped all sense of moral values when their love interest was about to march off to combat. And that Libby Custer was a one-man nympho gal.
Just about finished with a history book called “Churchill’s Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare.” HIGHLY RECOMMEND. In some ways it’s changed my views on warfare. Fascinating look at the origins of sabotage warfare in the UK in response to Hitler stomping across Europe.
I’m still slogging through “The Hero With a Thousand Faces.” Very good, but heavy reading.
I’m almost finished with “The Upanishads.” Love it. Would highly recommend to anyone even remotely interested in human spirituality.
Do piano instructional books count, too? I just picked up the series of Robert Pace books for learning piano and they’re quite good, IMO.
For the foreseeable future I will be writing, so it may put a kink in my reading habits – for now.
At the recommendation of Mr Dean in the last episode. “Face of Battle” by John Keegan. Facinating view from the individual soldier’s perspective of Agincourt, Waterloo and the Soome. The descriptions of the battles were great. Keegan’s writting about writting about war on either either end were too navel gazing for me.
“Face of Battle” is a great book. Wonderful writing.
Yeah, the first section is especially academic/disposable.
Iām almost done with āA stillness at Appomattoxā, published in the 50s I think.
Not yet woke enough to eliminate truth, but easily accessible to the modern reader. The prose is lovely.
I have a hankering for Shakespeare too. Think I might need to read/watch Henry V again….
Would watch again, good movie
I have read several recommendations about a film on Netflix called “The King”. I will give it a watch to see if Henry V and the battle is a realistic as purported to be.
It was a good movie.
I don’t know how historically accurate it is, but the war scenes were nasty and dirty with the warriors fighting by any means available ande also being exhausted, so that seemed pretty realistic.
If it concerns Henry V, it’s probably not quite as nasty as the reality. Henry V was a cold, heartless bastard.
That is not an insult.
Started listening to “Terms of Enlistment” that was free on Audible. The co-ed future Boot Camp was mot believable.
Read 2 books that my wife read and talked to our friends about. So I read them to be clued in
āRoad back to youā about the enneagram. Sheās been obsessed for years. Itās a good primer.
āShamelessā A super progressive ELCA pastor tackles the wrongs of the Churchās approach to sex. My wife thought it was really good. I think there are good points, but the author can lose her way making chapters abrupt or disjointed
I started the Temaire series. Her majestyās dragon was good, but throne of jade was awful. Iāll give the third book a go though.
I should finish the āLast Argument of Kingsā on the way back to NC this weekend. Iāve found the series to be good, and look forward to how the loose ends are tied up
I recently finished reading Snowden’s memoir, Permanent Record, and highly recommend it. The ghost writer did a great job weaving together vignettes of Snowden’s life from his childhood, to his early career, to his eventual decision to become a whistleblower into a compelling story that, while it certainly discusses the abuses that he uncovered, is as much or more concerned with elucidating his motivation for doing so. It occasionally becomes a bit of an exercise in self-flattery, but is nonetheless an interesting read about a relatively uninteresting man thrust into an intensely interesting story of national and international importance.
I’m about 2/3 through with The Great Reversal: How America Gave Up on Free Markets by Thomas Phillipon and would also recommend it to anyone interested in the whys and wherefores of the increasingly consolidated state of our current economic environment in the United States. Interestingly, we were just talking about this subject in one of the recent morning links threads prior to my starting the book, and I had taken a position that our consumer choices are in actuality quite limited due to increasing consolidation even though we have the illusion of consumer choice in the form of ostensibly differentiated brands. The book doesn’t delve much in the latter, but delves extensively into the former. Thus far I think it neglects to highlight the important role of monetary policy in driving this trend, but it nevertheless takes a data-driven approach to first establishing that market power for a small number of firms is increasing, competition is decreasing, and discussing the potential pitfalls as well as advantages that might pose. Someone had asked in the aforementioned discussion why anyone should care about increasing consolidation as long as there are differentiated products from which we as consumers can choose. I provided an answer, but I think the book provides a much more sophisticated one.
OT knife attack in London
https://news.sky.com/story/police-dealing-with-incident-on-london-bridge-amid-reports-of-shots-fired-11873505
I know of this because one of my best friends was here, she was in a bus where the attack occurred saw everything.
Hague stabbing: Several people injured in knife attack in Dutch city
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/hague-stabbing-today-knife-attack-shopping-street-netherlands-police-a9226941.html
jeez good thing we don’t ave guns in Europe could have been much worse
Saw that in the news. Apparently after the guy began stabbing people, several people attacked and disarmed the knife wielder. He was shot dead by police after they discovered he was wearing a suicide vest, which turned out to be fake.
Looks like they shot him in the middle of a group of civilians. Nice discipline officer shooty.
Goddam Amish.
I havenāt read anything for a couple of months. Itās been a long couple of months since early summer.
Iām heading to the local brewery for a ska fest being promoted at a friend of mine.
5 bucks for 3 bands, pay for beer, games, and food trucks. Going to be a ripper.
Iām looking forward to seeing Montrealās Planet Smashers.
I don’t know if it counts as reading, but this woman found a restaurant review enlightening .
Just this minute finished Mark Lawrenceās Holy Sister. Science fantasy, good stuff. I do enjoy his writing. A little deus ex at the end, but the whole trilogy is about getting the deus to ex ,so it worked.