Sunday Morning Book Thread 12-29-2013: In the Winter [OregonMuse]

Good morning morons and moronettes and welcome to the award-winning AoSHQ's prestigious Sunday Morning Book Thread.

Christmas Gifts

So, what books did all you 'rons and 'ettes find under the Christmas Tree this year? Me, I didn't get any, but the lovely Mrs. Muse did give me a $25 Amazon gift card for Kindle purchases. But elsewhere in the Muse household, my daughter-in-law gave my son, who considers himself a connoisseur of booze, a hardback copy of The Drunken Botanist: The Plants That Create the World's Great Drinks by Amy Stewart. From the Amazon blurb:

Peppered with fascinating facts and well-chosen anecdotes, Amy Stewart’s brisk tour of the origin of spirits acquaints the curious cocktail fan with every conceivable ingredient. Starting with the classics (from agave to wheat), she touches on obscure sources--including a tree that dates to the dinosaur age--before delving into the herbs, spices, flowers, trees, fruits, and nuts that give the world’s greatest drinks distinctive flavors. Along the way, you’ll enjoy sidebars on bugs in booze and inspired drink recipes with backstories that make lively cocktail party conversation.

My daughter received The Rabbi's Cat, by French cartoonist Joann Sfar, which is a graphic novel about, well, a rabbi's cat. It's hard to talk about a book like this without giving away too much, but I think this Amazon summation is the right amount of informative without straying into Spoilerville:

A slinky gray cat lives with a rabbi and his beautiful young daughter. One day, the feline eats their parrot, only to find that he has gained the bird's ability to talk. Witty and highly intelligent, the cat immediately decides that he wants to learn more about Judaism, from the Kabbalah to the Torah.

I read this one yesterday. It was OK. There's a sequel out, too.

War on Christmas Christians

The RINO stylings of Hotair's Ed Morrissey gets him routinely booed, rasberried, and mooned here at the AoSHQ. His nickname, "Poppin' Fresh", was not bestowed out of affection. But, occasionally, he does come out with some good stuff. Like this piece here, which refers to this Fox News piece by Juan Williams (who also routinely gets booed, rasberried, and mooned here at the AoSHQ) on worldwide persecution of Christians. Ed added a reference to a book on this subject, The Global War on Christians by John Allen, that looks worthwhile.

Ed writes:

Allen’s book provides a well-reasoned, well-sourced wake-up call for Christians, especially in the West, where persecution is so rare that we tend to argue more about Christmas creches than the crushing of Christian populations...

Allen says there are a number of myths about Christian persecution that need to be debunked:

The Myth That Christians Are at Risk Only Where They’re a Minority
The Myth That No One Saw It Coming
The Myth That It’s All About Islam
The Myth That It’s Only Persecution if the Motives Are Religious
The Myth That Anti-Christian Persecution Is a Political Issue

Ed summarizes:

Allen’s book shines a much-needed light on those martyrs and the suffering of Christians around the world. If readers are interested in a real war on Christian beliefs and way of life, be sure to pick up The Global War on Christians, and make it a stocking stuffer for your friends and family.

AoSHQ Book Club?

Question: Would you participate in a book club where we would find a book to read and discuss? In other words, we would:

1. Decide on a book
2. Read it
3. Discuss it

That's all the details I have right now. I haven't decided anything, yet. I'm just trying to gauge the general interest.

New eBook Service

This article in the online LA Times announces the launching of a new eBook site, Entitle.

People who sign up with Entitle pay a monthly fee and get a few books a month -- two books for $14.99, three for $21.99, and four books for $27.99.

Amazon has a lending library for Kindle readers, but this subscription service is different: the monthly subscriber fee is for purchases, not rentals. So it's more like those old book-of-the-month clubs (are they even still around?). I know there use to be a conservative book-of-the-month club that I was a member of back in the day, where you had to buy 'x' books a year. And you'd have to return a 'no thank you card' every month, otherwise they'd send you the featured book-of-the-month club selection and automatically bill you for it.

With many eBooks these days going for $15 and higher, this might not be a good deal for some of you morons in the Horde who are voracious readers. Me, I'm tempted, but I don't read so fast, so I'm afraid the books I buy will just accumulate into a big virtual pile - and my book stack is big enough already.

Year End Thanks

First of all, I would like to thank ace, our landlord, without whose constant efforts this blog would not be the fun, informative, place that it is, and also for letting me contribute to it. It's always fun to get e-mail from someone I've never heard of before telling me they enjoyed a book they read because of a recommendation they picked up from one of the moron horde.

And thanks to all you 'rons and 'ettes who come to this thread week after week with all your comments and book recommendations. I think the recommendations are what the book thread is all about. Which is why I have included links to all the 2013 book threads. By only bookmarking one link, everyone can have easy access to all the threads, and a royal boatload of book recommendations. So you can never complain about having nothing to read.

Book Thread 01-06-2013
Book Thread 01-13-2013
Book Thread 01-20-2013
Book Thread 01-27-2013
Book Thread 02-03-2013
Book Thread 02-10-2013
Book Thread 02-17-2013
Book Thread 02-24-2013
Book Thread 03-03-2013
Book Thread 03-10-2013
Book Thread 03-17-2013
Book Thread 03-24-2013
Book Thread 03-31-2013
Book Thread 04-07-2013
Book Thread 04-14-2013
Book Thread 04-21-2013
Book Thread 04-28-2013
Book Thread 05-05-2013
Book Thread 05-12-2013
Book Thread 05-19-2013
Book Thread 05-26-2013
Book Thread 06-02-2013
Book Thread 06-09-2013
Book Thread 06-16-2013
Book Thread 06-23-2013
Book Thread 06-30-2013
Book Thread 07-07-2013
Book Thread 07-14-2013
Book Thread 07-21-2013
Book Thread 07-28-2013
Book Thread 08-04-2013
Book Thread 08-11-2013
Book Thread 08-18-2013
Book Thread 08-25-2013
Book Thread 09-01-2013
Book Thread 09-08-2013
Book Thread 09-15-2013
Book Thread 09-22-2013
Book Thread 09-29-2013
Book Thread 10-06-2013
Book Thread 10-13-2013
Book Thread 10-20-2013
Book Thread 10-27-2013
Book Thread 11-03-2013
Book Thread 11-10-2013
Book Thread 11-17-2013
Book Thread 11-24-2013
Book Thread 12-01-2013
Book Thread 12-08-2013
Book Thread 12-15-2013
Book Thread 12-22-2013
Book Thread 12-29-2013

___________

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.

posted by Open Blogger at 10:38 AM

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