Sunday Morning Book Thread 07-09-2017

William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan

Good morning to all you 'rons, 'ettes, lurkers, and lurkettes. Welcome once again to the stately, prestigious, internationally acclaimed and high-class Sunday Morning Book Thread, where men are men, all the 'ettes are gorgeous, safe spaces are underneath your house and are used as protection against actual dangers, like natural disasters, or Literally Hitler, and special snowflakes do not last. And unlike other AoSHQ comment threads, the Sunday Morning Book Thread is so hoity-toity, pants are required. Even if it's these pants, which are probably great if you're a professional smuggler.

Pic Note

After I posted a pic of a Ohio State University library, sacred honor compelled 'ette All Hail Eris to submit some Michigan pics, which I am similarly compelled to post. I don't want to risk taking sides in a rivalry that, as far as I can tell, dates back from before the dawn of human history.

Ever Wanted To Run A Bookstore In Scotland?

Well, now you can:

In the small Scottish village of Wigtown, there sits a bookshop called The Open Book, which rents out its upstairs studio on Airbnb. For £28 (about $39) a night, guests can not only visit this charming part of Scotland, they can also experience life as a bookstore owner by running The Open Book establishment!

“The first ever bookshop holiday/residency experience, Scotland's National Book Town welcomes you to play-bookshop for a week or two. We'll give you your very own bookshop, and apartment above, supported by a team of friendly volunteers and bookshop sellers to make your trip as lovely as possible,” The Open Book explains. “Set up by The Wigtown Festival Company, the bookshop residency's aim is to celebrate bookshops, encourage education in running independent bookshops and welcome people around the world to Scotland's National Book Town.”

Apparently, Wigtown being Scotland's "National Book Town" is a thing.

(h/t to a lurking moron LaughingOutLoud)

It Pays To Increase Your Word Power®

A FOPDOODLE is an empty-headed simpleton.

Usage: MSNBC's nightly lineup could rightly be called a Festival of Fopdoodles.

CNN: "Hold my beer..."

Raise Your Blood Pressure Today!

A Canadian writes about the evil gun culture.

Arms: The Culture and Credo of the Gun by Andrew Somerset, who

After a fifteen-year hiatus from the world of guns...no longer fit in with other firearm enthusiasts. Theirs was a culture much different than the one he remembered: a culture more radical, less tolerant, and more immovable in its beliefs, “as if [each] gun had come with a free, bonus ideological Family Pack [of political tenets], a ready-made identity.”

I suspect what really happened is that the author lurched hard left in those fifteen years, rather than the evil gun culture shifting right. The author is probably like the little old lady driving in her car who gets a phone call on her cell from her husband who tells her he heard on the radio that there's some crazy person driving the wrong way down the freeway, so be careful. To which she replies, I'm on the freeway now, and it's not just one car going the wrong way, it's every car except me.

I'm sure this book will prove to be absolutely infuriating, particularly since you'll be paying $17.99 to have some Canadian clown insult your intelligence.

Baen Contest

Baen is holding it's third annual Year's Best Military and Adventure SF Readers’ Choice Award:

The winner will be announced at Dragoncon in Atlanta, held over Labor Day Weekend 2017, and at Baen.com in the news section.

Note: DragonCon. Not WorldCon.

The stories are taken from The Year's Best Military and Adventure SF Volume 3, so presumably you have to buy and read it first. Also, register with Baen Books. It's safe to do this. I've been signed up with Baen for some years now and they don't sell your info and they don't spam you with crap advertising every day.

Books By Morons

Thomas Lamkin, a long-time lurker e-mailed me this week to mention that his wife has published her first novel, which he describes as an homage to the classic science fiction story, Flowers for Algernon:

It's a post-apocalyptic story about a young girl with debilitating anxiety and depression, who is unable to function in society until she's given the opportunity to undergo a drastic, experimental surgery. The operation is a success and she is able to start growing as a person, learning the joy and pain of finding her place in the world, and finding friends, and finding love. But then, like what usually happens with first-gen technology, glitches start to appear.

The movie trailer would go something like "In a world where horrible things have happened because those in power felt that there was too much division in the world, and so religion, nationality, race, any semblance of what might make someone different is legislated away, some things are so broken that they just can't be fixed."

Charlotte and Daisy is available in paperback.

Also check out Mr. Lamkin's publishing house, Line By Lion Publications, publishers of General Fiction, Children and YA Books, and Graphic Novels.

Here's one of their YA novels that caught my eye: Blowhard (The Clockwork Republic Series Book 1):

After staking their claim on the unforgiving Prairie, the three Hamm brothers' straw bale house is destroyed by a freak tornado. Can the brothers stop the dastardly blowhard behind it all? Or will their dreams get blown away?

My guess is that this is probably going to turn out to be the best steampunk reboot of the Three Little Pigs you'll read all year.

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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 08:59 AM

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