Intermarkets' Privacy Policy
Support


Donate to Ace of Spades HQ!



Recent Entries
Absent Friends
Bandersnatch 2024
GnuBreed 2024
Captain Hate 2023
moon_over_vermont 2023
westminsterdogshow 2023
Ann Wilson(Empire1) 2022
Dave In Texas 2022
Jesse in D.C. 2022
OregonMuse 2022
redc1c4 2021
Tami 2021
Chavez the Hugo 2020
Ibguy 2020
Rickl 2019
Joffen 2014
AoSHQ Writers Group
A site for members of the Horde to post their stories seeking beta readers, editing help, brainstorming, and story ideas. Also to share links to potential publishing outlets, writing help sites, and videos posting tips to get published. Contact OrangeEnt for info:
maildrop62 at proton dot me
Cutting The Cord And Email Security
Moron Meet-Ups






















« Sun. Morning Open Before The Book Thread Thread [OregonMuse] | Main | Sunday Football Thread »
December 22, 2013

Sunday Morning Book Thread 12-22-2013: Christmas Time Is Here [OregonMuse]


Drunkensanta276.jpg


Merry Christmas to all of you 'rons and 'ettes! And welcome to the award-winning AoSHQ's prestigious Sunday Morning Book Thread. I know that many of you have relatives and in-laws who are progressives, LIVs, FSA volunteers, pajama boys, or other types of O-bots who you will be visiting with over the holidays. Given the current political climate, what with Obamacare crashing and burning like the Hindenburg, I'm sure the mealtime conversations are going to be EPIC.


Good and Evil

Here is another 'best of 2013' list, this time by the Wall Street Journal. I've never heard of any of the books, listed, but the blurb for Quiet Dell by Jayne Anne Phillips, about some serial killings in 1931 caught my eye:

In a welcome reversal, the novelist sympathetically imagines the lives of the victims rather than of the murderer.

Imagine that, being more concerned about the victims rather than the criminal. I think that's a big difference between the progressive mindset and the conservative one. Conservatives are horrified by the slaughter, and want to see the perpetrator punished. One the other hand, progressives, despite all of their alleged sympathy for "the little guy", will naturally tend to want to hear more about the murderer, why he does the things he does and how he got that way, and the victims are mostly secondary. Perhaps that's not altogether a healthy perspective.

Along these lines, I remember one of my English professors telling me of his thesis that he wrote about the novel Grendel, by John Gardner, which is the story of Beowolf retold from the monster's point of view. His point was only in the modern world is such a novel possible due to the different methods of how to deal with evil: the old, traditional way is to either eradicate it completely, or avoid it altogether, but the new, modern way is to try to understand it.

Perhaps the modern way is not necessarily the better way.


Hairy Tales

Son #1 bought this book for Daughter #1 as a Christmas present: My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me: Forty New Fairy Tales by Kate Bernheimer. This is a collection of retold, rebooted fairy tales by a number of luminaries, among them Neil Gaiman, John Updike, and Joyce Carol Oates, and supposedly many of them are quite scary. I have no idea if it's any good, I just glanced at it as it came in the mail, and it looked interesting.

And speaking of Joyce Carol Oates, my high school English teacher made us read her novel Do With Me What You Will. Ugh. It was the most depressing book I had ever read. I've never wanted to read any of her 70+ other books ever since.



bad-santa-2003-01.jpg
Billy Bob Thornton Wishes You A Merry F#@*ing Christmas

What, No Dancing Penguins?

Disney has the annoying habit of adapting books by ruining them. I can't bear to watch any of the Winnie the Pooh cartoons because they're completely devoid of all the charm that makes the books so endearing, in my opinion. And P. L. Travers, the British author of the Mary Poppins series, was supposedly so appalled at the the big screen Disney adaptation that she stormed out of the London theater in disgust. And this despite the fact that Disney gave her unprecedented (for the Disney company, anyway) script approval.

So this article in the (UK) Guardian article discusses the differences between the book and the movie. For example, in the book

There were long, waffly passages in which characters who didn't appear in the Disney film went on and on about the stars, and the wind and the moon and the Grand Chain that connects all creatures. Even the adventures that Mary Poppins undertakes with her charges had an indeterminate quality, without a proper resolution. At the end of each outing Jane and Michael go to bed not sure what has just happened or what it all means.

That's because Mary Poppins really isn't a children's book:

Travers saw herself as a mythographer. A follower of Gurdjieff, the Russian mystic who introduced the west to a ragbag of eastern mysticism in the first part of the 20th century, Travers was more interested in excavating the archetypes that underpinned esoteric Christianity than dreaming up nursery pap. She always made the point that it was the grownups, not the children, who needed Mary Poppins most.

This evisceration of spiritual themes from the original source is pretty much par for the course for Disney movies, which are hyper-allergic to any kind of religion or transcendent reality (except for the occasional Lion King 'circle of life' hoohah). I remember, some years ago, seeing a Disney "Christmas parade" broadcast on TV, and it featured Snow White and Cinderella and Santa Claus and all of the usual Disney cartoon characters laughing and smiling and waving at the crowds. Watching the parade, I was struck by the utter lack of absolutely anything that even remotely suggested the birth of Christ. The absolute vacuum was so hilariously pathetic that I felt I just had to share it, so I immediately called up one of my friends, also a Christian, and goofed on him by wishing him "a Walt Disney Christmas." He laughed, sort of, after I explained to him what I was talking about.


Another Best of

Moron Mike Banzet's book A Flowershop in Baghdad has made it to the Kirkus Review's 'Best Indie Books of 2013' list. Good job, Mike! Now shut up and get a real job.

While I was there, I saw this other book on the 'best indie' list: A Prayer for the Devil by Dale Allan, which looks like it could be interesting:

An explosion at a political rally kills a popular presidential candidate, a Muslim reformist, and a lawyer who had Senate aspirations. However, authorities are baffled as to which person was the intended target of the terror attack. The lawyer’s twin brother, Luke Miller, a Catholic priest raised in a Jewish household...decides to look into the bombing on his own, even though his investigation may ultimately put other people’s lives in jeopardy.

$3.82 for the Kindle edition is a good price.


Books By Morons

Moron author Ray Fiore wants you all to know that the third book in his Riley's Rogues saga has just been released. Riley's Rogues: Cyborg is available on Kindle for $4.99.

Riley's Rogues and Riley's Rogues: Darkstorm are the first two installments.

Note: a portion of the proceeds from sales of Mr. Fiore's Riley's Rogues books will be donated to the Wounded Warrior Project.


Books For Morons

Occasional commenter 'Running Hobo' very much recommends the novels of C. J. Box, which feature Game Warden Joe Pickett as the main character. RH says, "Pickett isn't a super-hero, just a regular guy...but he has interesting friends and the character develops well over the series."

The first three books in the series are:

Open Season
Savage Run
Winterkill

Here is the Amazon blurb for Open Season:

Joe Pickett is the new game warden in Twelve Sleep, Wyoming, a town where nearly everyone hunts and the game warden--especially one like Joe who won't take bribes or look the other way--is far from popular. When he finds a local hunting outfitter dead, splayed out on the woodpile behind his state-owned home, he takes it personally. There had to be a reason that the outfitter, with whom he's had run-ins before, chose his backyard, his woodpile to die in. Even after the "outfitter murders," as they have been dubbed by the local press after the discovery of the two more bodies, are solved, Joe continues to investigate, uneasy with the easy explanation offered by the local police.

The Joe Pickett character reminds me of this other rural Wyoming lawman.

RH also recommends the author Iain Banks.

___________


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

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

digg this
posted by Open Blogger at 11:30 AM

| Access Comments




Recent Comments
Mr Aspirin Factory, garbage human: "I would expect a few random outages as the utility ..."

Bebe Ives: "Woman B: I think looking at porn has certainly des ..."

Anonymous Rogue in Kalifornistan (ARiK): "Any minute now...... ..."

Alberta Oil Peon: " Shit. Power just went down. Posted by: Mike Hamm ..."

Joe Kidd: "364 And scoping out your fire lanes. It might ma ..."

[/i][/b]andycanuck (hovnC)[/s][/u]: "Cleanup needed before you retire for the night, We ..."

Eromero: "362 But how many self-defense engagements take pla ..."

Mike Hammer, etc., etc.: "Shit. Power just went down. ..."

Verna Sapp: "In 2004, Justin Timberlake was onstage and perform ..."

[/i][/b]andycanuck (hovnC)[/s][/u]: "But how many self-defense engagements take place a ..."

Mirta Bassett: "Variety pointed out that, "Anderson, exhibiting so ..."

Joe Kidd: "Had a three hour phone call with my kid sister. S ..."

Recent Entries
Search


Polls! Polls! Polls!
Frequently Asked Questions
The (Almost) Complete Paul Anka Integrity Kick
Top Top Tens
Greatest Hitjobs

The Ace of Spades HQ Sex-for-Money Skankathon
A D&D Guide to the Democratic Candidates
Margaret Cho: Just Not Funny
More Margaret Cho Abuse
Margaret Cho: Still Not Funny
Iraqi Prisoner Claims He Was Raped... By Woman
Wonkette Announces "Morning Zoo" Format
John Kerry's "Plan" Causes Surrender of Moqtada al-Sadr's Militia
World Muslim Leaders Apologize for Nick Berg's Beheading
Michael Moore Goes on Lunchtime Manhattan Death-Spree
Milestone: Oliver Willis Posts 400th "Fake News Article" Referencing Britney Spears
Liberal Economists Rue a "New Decade of Greed"
Artificial Insouciance: Maureen Dowd's Word Processor Revolts Against Her Numbing Imbecility
Intelligence Officials Eye Blogs for Tips
They Done Found Us Out, Cletus: Intrepid Internet Detective Figures Out Our Master Plan
Shock: Josh Marshall Almost Mentions Sarin Discovery in Iraq
Leather-Clad Biker Freaks Terrorize Australian Town
When Clinton Was President, Torture Was Cool
What Wonkette Means When She Explains What Tina Brown Means
Wonkette's Stand-Up Act
Wankette HQ Gay-Rumors Du Jour
Here's What's Bugging Me: Goose and Slider
My Own Micah Wright Style Confession of Dishonesty
Outraged "Conservatives" React to the FMA
An On-Line Impression of Dennis Miller Having Sex with a Kodiak Bear
The Story the Rightwing Media Refuses to Report!
Our Lunch with David "Glengarry Glen Ross" Mamet
The House of Love: Paul Krugman
A Michael Moore Mystery (TM)
The Dowd-O-Matic!
Liberal Consistency and Other Myths
Kepler's Laws of Liberal Media Bias
John Kerry-- The Splunge! Candidate
"Divisive" Politics & "Attacks on Patriotism" (very long)
The Donkey ("The Raven" parody)
Powered by
Movable Type 2.64