Sunday Morning Book Thread 07-02-2017

William Oxley Thompson Memorial Library, *THE* Ohio State University

Pic Note

Does anyone know why it's sometimes called "*THE* Ohio State University" with a big emphasis on the THE? NFL players who are graduates of Ohio State (sorry, THE Ohio State University) call it that in their game night introductions on TV and I've never heard why that one word is so important.

Free Lunch

I tend to be skeptical about stuff offered for free. Like, for example, I get spam snail-mail offering a free weekend at some resort, but first you will after listening to one of our sales guys wearing a cheap toupe tell you about this wonderful opportunity to invest in a time-share condo. These sorts of things are one step above financial offers from Nigerian royalty.

But Hillsdale College is offering this: An Introduction to C.S. Lewis: Writings and Significance - A Hillsdale College Online Course

And this is the description:

Learn timeless principles from one of the world’s greatest authors

C.S. Lewis was the greatest Christian apologist of the twentieth century. He was also the author of works of fiction, including the Chronicles of Narnia, and of philosophy, including The Abolition of Man. This course will consider Lewis’s apologetics and his fiction, as well as his philosophical and literary writings, and their continuing significance today.

Not sure what the catch is. Perhaps they just want your e-mail address to send you spam. Or maybe something else that will be revealed during the application process.

(h/t CBD)

It Pays To Increase Your Word Power®

A TRENCHER-FRIEND is a sycophantic parasite.

Usage: The MSM is full of Chelsea Clinton's trencher-friends.

Reclaiming History

"Down with fascism!" screams the masked, black-clad Antifa goon squads as they riot, destroy property, assault peaceful protesters and innocent bystanders, and disrupt lectures and speaking events whenever they don't like what's being said.

Perhaps Jonah Goldberg covered most of this in his book Liberal Fascism, but it certainly bears repeating:

What is “the big lie” of the Democratic Party? That conservatives—and President Donald Trump in particular—are fascists. Nazis, even. In a typical comment, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow says the Trump era is reminiscent of “what it was like when Hitler first became chancellor.”

But in fact, this audacious lie is a complete inversion of the truth. Yes, there is a fascist threat in America—but that threat is from the Left and the Democratic Party. The Democratic left has an ideology virtually identical with fascism and routinely borrows tactics of intimidation and political terror from the Nazi Brownshirts.

To cover up their insidious fascist agenda, Democrats loudly accuse President Trump and other Republicans of being Nazis—an obvious lie, considering the GOP has been fighting the Democrats over slavery, genocide, racism and fascism from the beginning.

The Big Lie: Exposing the Nazi Roots of the American Left is the title of Dinesh D'Souza's new book which is available for pre-order on Amazon (scheduled release date: July 31st). I suppose it could be viewed as a continuation of his previous book, Hillary's America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party wherein he argues that the Democratic Party is now, and always has been, the party of racism, Jim Crow, slavery, and misogyny. The record seriously needs to be corrected here. Also, the progressives' feeble response ("well, maybe this used to be true, but all the Democrat racists have now switched to the Republican party") is both factually inaccurate and lame.

So, too, does current progressive ideology and tactics mimic the Nazi brownshirts, however loudly they proclaim that Trump is Literally Hitler. It's a big, sticky hot mess of projection and denial, and D'Souza is forcing them to own it. And, to be honest, Republicans should've been howling about this every chance they could for the past three decades, and shame on them for not doing so. We roll our eyes at Trump's ridiculous tweets, but you know what, silence, silence in the face of continuous, unrelenting attack, is a whole lot worse.

And Another One

Mark Levin has a new book out:

Mark Levin's new book, "Rediscovering Americanism," an assault on the media and progressives and a call for Americans to take back their country, debuts today at No. 1 on Amazon.

In the book, Levin attacks the embrace by the media, politicians and academia of progressive promises of a "utopia" defined by the end of personal freedom and individuality.

He has a grim name for it: "The Final Outcome." Levin wrote, "They reject history's lessons and instead are absorbed with their own conceit and aggrandizement in the relentless pursuit of a diabolical project, the final outcome of which is an oppression of mind and soul."

Levin added, "the equality they envision but dare not honestly proclaim, is life on the hamster wheel, where one individual is indistinguishable from the next."

Rediscovering Americanism: And the Tyranny of Progressivism debuted as a No. 1 best-seller on Amazon

Jean d'Arc

I knew that Joan of Arc was tried for a variety of crimes and eventually burned at the stake. But I did not know that transcripts of her trial are still extant. This week I discovered Joan of Arc: Her Trial Transcripts, translated by Emilia P. Sanguinetti, available on Kindle for $2.99. The bad news is that I think what the author really wanted to write about whether Joan was a lesbian or transgendered. Because sometimes she wore men's clothes. Really. So, a woman who considered herself a stand-in for the Blessed Virgin Mary on earth, who, by the way, is held up as the highest feminine ideal in the Catholic Church, actually thought she was a man. And we can make this determination nearly 600 years after the fact. This is what the author asks us to believe.

The good news is that all that nonsense is relegated to a series of appendices at the back of the book, so you can just ignore it and just read the trial transcripts themselves. Which, by the way, are presented unfiltered, without any "helpful" commentary.

Books by Morons

Last week I mentioned I was reading The Hidden Truth: A Science Fiction Techno-Thriller, novel by moron author Hans Schantz that hearkens back to the days of the Heinlein YA novels. Hans e-mailed me this week to tell he has released the sequel, A Rambling Wreck: Book 2 of The Hidden Truth, where high school is over and it's off to college:

He's a Ramblin' Wreck from Georgia Tech!
Off to college for the education he'll need to defeat the guardians of the hidden truth, Peter must infiltrate a deadly conspiracy, thwart an attempted social justice takeover of the school, save his professors from assassination, and somehow find time to study for finals.

The stakes are now higher than ever. To succeed, Peter must discover who burned down the Tolliver Library, find new allies in his fight, and secure the assistance of the legendary George P. Burdell himself.

There's a limited time low price of $0.99 for the aforementioned first book in the series, The Hidden Truth

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Moron author Long Running Fool's latest novel, the start of a YA fantasy series, is available for preorder on Kindle. Got To Be A Hero (The Accidental Hero Series Book 1), according to votermom's review, comes with "great world-building, a lot of action, mystery and a clean, sweet romance."

While he works restoring a '68 Camaro to racing condition, Mitch Meriwether spots two thugs abducting runner and martial artist McKenzie Graham in broad daylight. Acting on instinct, he sprints to save the girl and lands himself in an arcane world where conspiracies rage, magic rules, and a Wizard who asks him to be a hero again, this time on purpose.

In addition, LRF's YA action-adventure novel, Trail of Second Chances, is on sale in e-book formats for $0.99.

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Moronette Elisabeth Wolfe says that as part of the The Smashwords Summer/Winter Sale, which lasts the entire month of July, her novel Loyal Valley: Assassination, book 1 of her Loyal Valley series, will be FREE with coupon code SSW100, and my other three books will be 50% off with coupon code SSW50. (This offer applies only to Smashwords ebook sales.)

Loyal Valley: Bystanders (Book 2)
Loyal Valley: Captives (Book 3)

Look Behind You

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Don't forget the AoSHQ reading group on Goodreads. It's meant to support horde writers and to talk about the great books that come up on the book thread. It's called AoSHQ Moron Horde and the link to it is here: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/175335-aoshq-moron-horde.

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So that's all for this week. As always, book thread tips, suggestions, bribes, rumors, threats, and insults may be sent to OregonMuse, Proprietor, AoSHQ Book Thread, at the book thread e-mail address: 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 you all know, life is too short to be reading lousy books.

posted by OregonMuse at 08:56 AM

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