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Sunday Morning Book Thread: 11/26/2017

Libraries are often da bomb,
With cupolas and gargoyles aplomb!
But little ones are great,
‘Cause they don’t have big gates,
And we borrow from them without qualms!

Pace Muldoon, who will undoubtedly do better, but grand libraries are counterbalanced by the ones we usually use. And those wonderful gems we sometimes find in the oddest places are a big part of what reading is. Commenter "Traveling Man" mentioned a few weeks ago that when snowed in somewhere in Colorado, he picked up a copy of Steinbeck's "Travels With Charley," a beautiful and sweet book. "It was one of many books on the shelf in the little cabin we stayed in for three weeks." No huge city library with many thousands of books. Just a few shelves in a cabin...and he found something marvelous.

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OregonMuse forwarded me this message from a Moronette who owns a publishing company! I worked for one for a few years, and there was nothing quite like being, literally, surrounded by books all day. Fun stuff.

Any Morons with rug-rats crawling or running around should take a look. Anything that isn't PC is a rare find in the children's book niche.

Hey, OregonMuse,

My little company, Dingbat Publishing, has just released a new picture book. Up front, let me say that I did not write it. I just published it. But it's gotta be the least PC picture book ever. It's about a Chihuahua (complete with stereotypical Mexican accent) who has to ride a horse to prove he's royalty, and the country cats and horses who treat him like, well, he's not.

It's cute and it's fun, it's cats and dogs living together, and at about a second grade reading level.

Amazon link, if you care to share

Thanks either way.

Cheers,
GunnarGrey

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Daniel Silva is a journalist turned novelist who has created a thoroughly appealing super-spy/art restorer/assassin in his character, Gabriel Allon. The Kill Artist is the first in the series, and at $2.99 for the Kindle addition it is an excellent deal. I have read all of the Allon books, and while not every one is perfect, the series will keep your attention if you like spy thrillers. As a lovely bonus, It is decidedly un-PC. Militant Islam is bad, of that there is no doubt.
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As long as we are in the genre, I have enjoyed the two Alan Furst novels I have read. They are set in WWII, one in Paris and one on the Russian front. Well-written and seemingly historically accurate, they were a pleasure to read. More dense than Daniel Silva's books, they are nonetheless well worth a read. He has more than a dozen, which makes him a good binge read.
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I read James Herriot's books when I was a kid. He has written several about his time as a country veterinarian, and while they are good reads, his first is absolutely the best. All Creatures Great And Small is a glimpse into the hills and people of Yorkshire, with its pre-war innocence and beauty and yes...poverty. Their relationships with their animals is a fascinating thing. The combination of matter-of-factness (most were working animals or livestock) and pure love is a wonder to read.
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Please continue to send book tips to OregonMuse at: aoshqbookthread at gee mail dot com.

I'm just watching the place while he lounges in his robe, ringing his bell for another cup of tea and some of those great scones his wife makes....