SugarFree
I enjoyed Paperbacks from Hell: The Twisted History of ‘70s and ‘80s Horror Fiction, Grady Hendrix’s romp through the post-Stephen King boom in horror publishing. I’m consumed quite a bit of horror from this era and I still found quite a few books–bizarre, deranged, amazing books– that I want to read.
For example, here is Hendrix describing Toy Cemetary, by William C. Johnstone:
Toy Cemetery (1987) achieves maximum Johnstone. Vietnam vet Jay Clute returns to Victory, Missouri, where he grew up, with nine-year-old daughter Kelly in tow. Within hours of his arrival, Jay discovers that the two major local landmarks are (1) an enormous doll factory in the center of town run by an obese pedophile named Bruno Dixon, who films satanic kiddie porn in it, and (2) a high-security hospital/mental institution/underground research facility that houses the “products of incest,” enormous man-monsters with apple-sized heads and superhuman strength. Tiny toys run amok, as does incest. Jay and his daughter almost hook up their first night, only to snap out of it when the crosses they’re wearing clink together.
Reading this book is like driving through a dust storm while in a post-concussion haze: the harder you try to focus, the more everything slips away into an insanity vortex. A supermarket check-out girl’s head explodes, but no one seems to mind. Possessed teenage boys follow Kelly through town, waggling their inappropriate boners until she fights them with karate and kills one with an ax. Everyone has a secret doll collection. A tiny French general leads a toy army.
Johnstone piles incident on incident, trope on trope, and if something isn’t working he keeps on piling. When time itself needs to be brought to a screeching halt, Jay Clute just pulls out his gun and shoots a clock. Because clocks make time, right? In William W. Johnstone’s world, why not?
Who could possibly resist?
OMWC
Partway through painful progress on Quantum Mechanics and Path Integrals by Richard Feynman and Albert Hibbs. At one time, this would have been light reading for me… in any case, this is a much deeper dive into the basic concepts outlined in Volume 3 of the Feynman Lectures at a math level that’s challenging but not impenetrable. Feynman basically disassembled the foundations of quantum theory and recast it in a novel approach to least-action and uses this method to attack the classical problems in quantum theory (e.g., harmonic oscillators, many-body, perturbation theory) in literally a more dynamic fashion than the basic Heisenberg/Schroedinger/Dirac approaches I was taught.
Yes, I’m a geek.
SP
I’ve been reading more escapist books. This month it’s been the Ruth Galloway series by Elly Griffiths. Ruth is a forensic archaeologist in Norfolk, England, who is sometimes brought in by the local police to lend her expertise when bones crop up in various places and situations. One of her best friends is a practicing Druid. Good, light reading.
Brett L
I haven’t read a damn thing worth a damn this month. Limitless Lands is probably the best of a bad bunch on Kindle Unlimited. I’m coming out of the closet, I’m kind of a Lit-RPG fan. Anyhow, I like the character and the writing of this one. A little military worshipful for me, and the character somehow joins a faction that is basically the Roman Empire if it had outlawed slavery and other brutal practices.
Jesse.in.mb
The Vine Witch by Luanne G. Smith. A light read, pretty perfect for a flight and killing time while I can’t sleep on CET. Some of the plots go unresolved, but nothing too egregious.
JW
I feel like I’ve graduated. This morning, I read the back of an oatmeal box. Did you know that Quakers had buckles on their shoes?
Comments
132 responses to “What Are We Reading – December 2019”
Currently slogging my way through Three Soldiers by John Dos Passos.
It isn’t bad, but it is taking me a lot of time to read.
I only did light reading really… Reread Monty Python and Philosophy and read The Tawny Man book 1 though not sure will do book 2.
That was the first Robin Hobb book I ever started to read. Got a little ways in, and realized it must be a sequel series, so I started from the beginning, and I’ve read all of them. Hobb can get mired in melancholic melodrama occasionally, but she’s still one of my favorite authors.
Currently reading “The Joy of Game Theory”. It is a collection of blog posts.
Also, I am about 1/3 of the way thru a short story by UCS. I think.
you think you are 1/3 through, you think you are reading a short story, you think it is by UCS or you think in general, a very ungliblike thing to do
Therefore I am.
I have also been reading too many “Frozen” stories. The best is a pop up book we got my daughter for Christmas. Amazingly well done, she is entranced with it. But, ugh, I am sick of all things frozen (only 8 more days until a Frozen-themed birthday party).
I remember Talwalker’s blog. Is it still going?
No idea. I just ran across the book on Prime Reading for free and thought it was interesting. I haven’t checked to see if the blog was still active, but I would guess so.
The answer appears to be “Yes”.
https://mindyourdecisions.com/blog/
Looks like its just math trivia now. Too bad. I haven’t enjoyed a good math hack since the time my engineering professor showed me how to find the area under a curve using an inkjet and xacto knife.
The new way of solving quadratic equations was actually pretty neat.
Winding down on “The Last Days of George Armstrong Custer”. Custer is now dead and the Plains Indians are in a pile of deep doo-doo. Got several more historical bios waiting plus a Mark Twain. Nothing new for Xmas but still lots to go. I enjoy finding and picking out my own stuff anyway.
Beyond the edge of the map, by UCS
How does it rate, on 1 to 5 driving gloves?
I’d go with 4/5 gloves, I hope he gets beyond the edge in this book, Dug keeps getting in predicaments,
How far along are you?
25 percent, he’s got a long trip ahead, and I haven’t had a chance to finish,
Mrs. Animal gave me a copy of former Winchester company historian George Madis’ book The Winchester Model Twelve for Christmas. I’ve been studying up. One of the things I learned was that my recently purchased Black Diamond trap gun was from the last year of production for that model.
It’s an interesting read if you’re into the gold standard of pump shotguns.
And who isn’t?
/Looks around
amirite?
I started book 6 of the New World series by G. Michael Hopf last night.
https://www.goodreads.com/series/130561-the-new-world-series
I’m really enjoying the series. I had a little trouble in the first book accepting the premise, but I got past that.
So, wasn’t that the basic premise of a TV series a few years back? I made it part way thru Season 1.
Looked it up: Revolution
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolution_(TV_series)
Finally finished that fucking Shogun. It was good, but man, by the end I just didn’t care anymore!
Read Kurt Schlichter’s lastest Collapse. It was a decent escapist read. He’s a little RedState for my taste, but there are plenty of guns ‘n shit.
I read Get Strong by the Kavaldo brothers. I’m gonna do some more bodyweight work while I drop the next batch of adipose tissue. Seems like a solid plan.
I just started a new series: Natural Causes by James Oswald. It’s another Edinburgh-based detective series. I think I’m still lamenting the end of the Rebus books, but this guy is pretty good, particularly for the first in a series.
I have Animal’s The Crider Chronicles on deck. Looking forward to it!
Oh, and I just got Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat. Whichever one of you recommended it, thanks!
I think I missed the last Rankin book (and think I commented that too).
I’m beginning to hate Kindle for trying to keep track of what I’ve read and what’s new in my library. And the clog of sample books.
I picked up the Rebus collection for dad for Christmas. I imagine I’ll borrow them back over the next year. Right now I’m into Peter May and the odd Bosch book I pick up.
Oh, and I just got Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat.
Bookmarked for future purchase. Thanks!
Us, too. From Bro and Sis-in-Law Dean. We watched some of the Netflix episodes over Thanksgiving – absolutely do that if you are a foodie, they are fascinating. Our Japan-based Glibs would enjoy the bits in Japan, as well (salt production and soy sauce fermentation, maybe others).
I finished reading “The Prairie Martian” by Johntahtan Eaton. It’s a postapocalyptic western.upper-middle tier indie stuff, but I’d have advised him to revise some stuff.
I’m reading “The Witcher” books now, because I am lame and just follow pop culture trends.
How are they?
Actually pretty good.
I got into them after the second game. I really like them. I was expecting something more trite, but they go deeper than I had expected in terms of plot.
Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know by E.D. Hirsch Jr – My kids charter school uses this as their inspirational document, so I figured I should read it. Its pretty good, even if it does overstate a few things. The idea is that we build knowledge based on concrete examples, not some gausey sense of “critical thinking” and that communication is helped or hindered based on how much of a overlap the parties have in their shared knowledge. I’d love to hear HM pick apart the second idea, but as a motivation for a school, its far better than anything our public schools are going with these days, which is basically a ships wheel with no helmsman.
Methuselah’s Children by Robert GOAT Heinlein. I think I’ve read some or all of this before, but I forget enough of it to make it feel like a new read. Yay. It is gud.
Imperator by Jason Anspack and Nick Cole. Read it after the Galaxy’s Edge books. In that context, I would say its quite fun. Without that context, I would say it probably sucks.
by Dan Carlin. Dan Carlin talks about Dan Carlin stuff for a long time. Mostly great. Some of the Fear of Global Thermo Nuclear Warfare is pretty OK Boomer. Lots of the economics is pretty ignorant in the way that a lot of historians are bad at economic forces. But its Dan Carlin talking about Dan Carlin stuff. So its gud.
Been another slow month, part of my reading time is being taken up by Spawn 1 wanting to watch anime with me. We watched Escaflowne. It was gud.
Is that from when Heinlein was the Greatest, or after he started sucking?
Pre-stroke.
Did I not say it is gud?
Some people like Stranger in a Strange Land.
I couldn’t finish it with multiple attempts.
It might be one of the three or four best novels I’ve ever read.
Agree. Although I was kind of creeped out driving by the Ft. Harrison Hotel in Clearwater this week. A little too on the nose.
I enjoyed it. But not as much as OMWC, apparently.
I remember just thinking it was OK, but I was only about 18 at the time. Maybe too young to appreciate it?
I might be willing to say that about The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, but not Stranger. I enjoyed it until the weird religious stuff, and just could never make it past that point.
MC is excellent. It also serves as a kind of precursor to Time Enough for Love which is post-health crisis but still decent.
I figured I should at least make some attempt at doing something religious during the Christmas season so I finally read Augustine’s Confessions. Having already read The City of God it was a complete and total waste of time. Although if you were only going to read one or the other, it would have been better to start with Confessions. It mostly overlaps with the parts of City of God that aren’t the 7,000 page dissertation on the history of Roman mythology.
I read the history of the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires this morning on Wikipedia.
Don’t know how that rat hole got started.
I have a thick sci fi novel to read I got from my MIL as a Christmas present.
I just finished “War at the Edge of the World: Twilight of Empire: Book One” which is set in 300 AD Roman Britain. Interesting and kind if forgotten time.
I do that, too. I’ll do a quick look up of a historical figure or fact that I saw somewhere, and next thing I know I’ve gone far afield and have been reading for hours.
Only the gay friends (that’s not a joke).
Pre-Christmas, I bought myself a copy of Thunder Below! by Congressional Medal of Honor recipient Eugene Fluckey, signed by the good admiral himself. It’s about his exploits as a submarine commander in the Pacific Theater during World War 2.
For Christmas, my father-in-law gave me a first edition, first printing of We Were Soldiers Once… and Young, also signed by both Gen. Moore and Joe Galloway. Also got an Ernest Hemingway cocktail companion, To Have and Have Another.
I think my slate is full for January.
of We Were Soldiers Once… and Young
I read that, but found myself getting extremely frustrated with the Upper Echelon Military Leadership.
That was a (the?) significant point to the book.
Kinda. I was frustrated with Gen (then LTC) Moore himself, and his immediate superiors. Not just the Brass in Washington.
Hubris revealed? It’s been a long time since I read it.
This Kind of War turned my stomach at the incompetence and waste. I think that was the final stripper that removed the Hollywood gloss of war.
Also got an Ernest Hemingway cocktail companion, To Have and Have Another.
Ordered. Gracias.
I’m consumed quite a bit of horror from this era and I still found quite a few books–bizarre, deranged, amazing books– that I want to read.
*shocked face*
I haven’t picked up a book in months but now I’m thinking of picking up some oatmeal.
I’ve been reading all the Bosch books. I’m on number 10 now. There have been a few spoilers from having watched the show, but not as many as you’d think. They do a great job of mining the books for ideas and characters for the show, while also changing the plots quite a bit and coming up with original material.
I finally listened to “I am Legend”. I made it through, barely. For once the movie was far superior which isn’t saying much.
Which one? Omega Man or the Will Smith I am Legend
Richard Matheson?
Drake, I was asking which film based on the book you thought better than the novel. Apparently I should have added Last Man on Earth, which was the 1964 movie based on the book, which I’d forgotten about.
Oh, Will Smith. Haven’t seen Omega Man.
Heston in his dark era, Soylent Green is on the list as well,
I still need to watch that all the way through. If only to see Edward G Robinson not playing a mobster.
Robinson is also not a mobster in the excellent Scarlet Street.
And Dick van Patton,
Orange…,
Scarlet Street – looks like a good noir.
Vincent Price and garlic,
Wait a minute, are you implying that the guy who wrote the screenplay for Jaws 3-D isn’t a very good writer?
Wait a minute…. there was a screenplay for Jaws 3-D??
Smedley D. Butler War is a Racket **** TGA I believe called this requieed reading for libertrians so I read it and am now officially one true libertarian, short and redundant, makes a case almost everyone here probably already agrees with but he does and some numbers and stats to chew on, although they are dated as well.
Chad Zunker An Equal Justice ** A not very original crime/thriller Young materialistic lawyer finds out the prestigious law firm he’s hired into is evil, also Homeless people are saints, he got one thing right and made a politician the bad guy. In case your wondering, yes at the end our hero and his one friend from the law firm start a small firm dedicated to helping people first. *eye roll emoji thing*
Alistair MacClean Ice Station Zebra ***½ It’s an Alisatir MacClean book.
Forest Carter Two Westerns (Josey Wales) ****½, **** mentioned last month late for the WAWR post, but the “Endeavor to persevere” speech isn’t in Gone to Texas but most of the rest of the movie is, The sequel isn’t as good as the first but still damn good western. And I guess they did make a movie but it looks horrible and obviously does have Clint as Josey.
*obviously does NOT have Clint as Josey.*
In case your wondering, yes at the end our hero and his one friend from the law firm start a small firm dedicated to helping people first.
He apparently doesn’t understand that all lawyers are helping people. You may not like the people they help, or the help they provide, but nonetheless.
Or, he plans to achieve sainthood by joining the homeless.
Mostly, the people they’re helping happen to be lawyers.
I re-read Ice Station Zebra a couple of years back having read it in high school. I think it stands up pretty well – at least to someone who was an adult during the latter part of the Cold War. I’m not sure how teenagers today would respond to it.
The movie, of course, is stupid.
I thought that was one of McClean’s weaker Booker.
Butler gets some of it right, but his prescription that the rich and powerful being conscripted would stop war is laughable.
I seem to recall a time when the rich and powerful fought in every war – and wars were fairly common. Oh yeah, most of history.
But that was mostly limited war, for the purpose of glory and riches.
Land.
CLEANSING.
Bro Dean gave me Conscious Robots: If We Really Had Free Will, What Would We Do All Day?
Haven’t started, but it looks interesting.
Please report back. I don’t buy into the cartesian dualism, but I also don’t buy into the materialistic ‘gene replicator’ story about the mind either. If this has a better suggestion, I want to know about it.
If work doesn’t do what I think it will do after the start of the new year, I will likely to an actual post/book review.
On a very quick glance, I suspect there may be some “assuming the conclusion”, but I haven’t actually started it yet.
You probably don’t think the soul resides in the pineal gland either.
Santa brought me Thomas Sowell’s “Eealth, Poverty, and Politics.”
I cracked the book open to a random page and was enthralled by the observations therein. Can’t wait to dive in from the beginning and really dig in.
OT:
I have a new and mysterious medical problem. I had a minor scab on my back that overnight must have popped off. So this morning I woke up early because I felt cold on my back.
It was blood, flowing freely from a tiny scratch. While I tended it, my nose started bleeding profusely.
I tried to tend both at once, but was forced to wake my husband and ask for his help. It took over an hour to staunch.
Now my lip has a minor crack due to dry central heat I guess, and it is gushing.
I’ve never been a bleeder before. I’m can’t find anything online.
Any of you have advice or experience on this matter??
It should not take an hour for a clot to form unless you’re on medications like blood thinners.
Can you check your blood pressure at home?
This sounds like what an overdose of blood thinners (warfarin, Plavix, etc.). or a bad cross-reaction between a blood thinner and something else, will do. Stroke risk is heightened when your blood gets too thin/your clotting agents stop working.
I would say you need a pretty comprehensive blood workup. Not sure if an urgent care can order it, but if so, go to an urgent care.
Note: not a physician.
I think I’ll live through the weekend, but I’ll schedule an appt with my doc for next week.
I’m not on any blood thinners. This is just…odd.
As much as ive joked about working at the former Biological Test area at Dugway Proving Ground (Area 52), I am starting to wonder
Zombie Apocalypse.
You might check and see if your physician group/insurance company has a tele-health option: basically a video call with a physician. We’ve got it, and it would be my first option if its available to you. I suspect the outcome would be: go get a blood draw and a lab workup, but they might be able to do the referral to a lab company (LabCorp or whoever). Faster, probably even cheaper, than a visit to a physician’s office, probably on par cost-wise with an urgent care visit.
Thanks. I’ll look into it after my lip stops bleeding
Go see a Dr.
A vitamin K deficiency can cause those symptoms as well.
I looked that up.
Seems plausible. Just took some probiotics and Vitamins.
Seriously, if you can check your blood pressure, do so. If its elevated, your stroke risk is also elevated.
Many pharmacies have a DIY cuff for customer’s use. Maybe that’s an option.
That’s what happens to me when I take aspirin.
Whatever you do, don’t Google it.
WebMD says it’s Hemorragic Fever.
Well, shit, I should just head down to Mexico and show up at Laredo or El Paso (too lazy to look it up) and then get free treatment.
Ebola.
How is the bleeding now? Here is what the Merck Manual says. But I would just go to the Urgent Care if it keeps up (esp. Scripps or Sharp unless you have Kaiser).
Kaiser Permanente,, but they’ve benn good to me so far so I’ll start there:
Your typing is wonky. You okay or are you on your phone?
Not lupus?
It’s never lupus.
That’s interesting. Dr. Google always tells me it’s cancer and I’m dying.
Well… I mean, you are dying.
Good point.
That’s why I love stats that say such-and-such increases/decreases the death rate by X%.
Last I checked; death rate was 100%, with Jesus and Elijah as outliers.
Technically, Jesus DID die. He just didn’t stay dead.
Also Enoch.
The Diabetes Code – apparently, my mother wants me to live longer than her.
My reading consists of Glibs’ articles.
File cabinet obtained but not without quite a bit of unnecessary effort on my part that was, in fact, none of my fault (this time).
Hmm, that seemed to be a harsh red card.
OK, just saw it from a different angle: good call.
OT Rant. If you’re sick stay home from family events. At my in-laws and it never fails that someone who is sick or just getting over illness shows up, because they just gotta get their Christmas presents! Now, everyone is dropping like flies with the stomach flu.
Family: The gift that keeps on giving.
https://www.ballisticmag.com/2019/07/10/standard-mfg-s333-thunderstruck-available/
Huh…a double barrel revolver. First I’ve heard of it.
That is the weirdest safety system I have ever seen.
Part of me really wants one, the other part is very unsure of that trigger/safety
That is a nasty little pocket piece. Intriguing. The open trigger with the safety on the trigger is . . . concerning. I’ve seen that kind of safety before, but the combo with the open trigger guard makes it look iffy to me.
Fun Fact: I didn’t know that untill the 1929 reapportionment act Congress would draw the distircts for the states rather than the states themselves.
Or at least that’s how i interpret this wiki article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reapportionment_Act_of_1929
Also. For an intersting article and a time when some politicians still cared about the constitution:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apportionment_Act_of_1792
Washington issued the first Veto in American history blocking a previous attempt by the house, because Jefferson argued that the bill was unconstitutional.
Hamilton, despite admitting not having read the bill, argued that it was constitutional.
I think they just had rules on the district boundaries that went away. The courts still require equal size, but compactness was no longer a requirement.
I like what the KY Supremes did and require districts for the state houses to split the minimum number of counties possible. It doesnt stop all gerrymandering, but it limits it in a number of ways. I would add to the requirement to secondly minimize number of county divisions and thirdly to minimize number of cities divided (and # of city divisions).
As a result, the average size of a congressional district has tripled in size—from 210,328 inhabitants based on the 1910 Census, to 710,767 according to the 2010 Census. Additionally, due to the unchanging size of the House, combined with the requirement that districts not cross state lines, and the population distribution among states in the 2010 Census there is a wide size disparity among congressional districts: Montana has the largest average district size, with 994,416 people; and Rhode Island has the smallest, with 527,624 people.[13]
That part stuck out to me as strange, i chalk it up to Wikipedia being written by non-americans and also for non-americans, because it doesn’t make sense why you would think a states delegation should be able to cross state lines….
Reading’s been all over the place. Pat Rothfuss’ The Slow Regard of Silent Things, Seneca’s Letters from a Stoic, David Hewson’sWriting a Novel With Scrivener, various W. E. B. Griffins. Just a recommendation to (possibly) interested parties; Visual Thesaurus has some fine articles on writing as well as a nice thesaurus ‘tree’. Have a look.
I think Rothfuss learned to write at the George R. R. Martin School of Side Projects and Excessive Facial Hair.
Just finished “Churchill’s Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare” by Giles Milton. Absolutely outstanding book – my highest recommendation. I’m still processing it internally because it’s caused me to reconsider my general sense of narrative of WW2.
Re-reading the Upanishads because it is timeless, eternal, and can’t be read enough.
I have VDH’s “The Soul of Battle.” I’ve started it before, but got sidetracked, so I’m going to give it a fresh essay on the plane ride back home Sunday.
I’m on book three of the Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons: “Endymion”. It’s interesting to see how his style changes over time, even from earlier books in the series. I won’t delve into it other than to say I’m not really a sci-fi guy and I’m still really enjoying these. That said, after the next (and last) book in the series I’m going to take a break from the genre for awhile, maybe even from fiction. Conveniently, this will tie in with the scheduled induction of my second kid, so reading things at all might be difficult for a while.
Currently reading an assortment of “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” books. Again. Because that’s what you do when you have a second grader. This is my third run through the books…. They have their moments, but I really wouldn’t rate them a “please re-read this three times”.
Hoping Heroic Mulatto will weigh in on this (though if anyone else has any good ideas, please feel free to chime in):
Are there any good introductory texts to the study of linguistics? The usual searches lead to a plethora of choices, all equally baffling to moi — I’m hoping someone out there’s already test-driven some and can point me in the right direction. Don’t mind spending the money if it’s a good read for a (hopefully intelligent/motivated) newbie.