Sunday Morning Book Thread 10-28-2018

Bathroom Reading

Good morning to all you 'rons, 'ettes, lurkers, and lurkettes, wine moms, frat bros, and everybody who's holding your beer. Welcome once again to the stately, prestigious, internationally acclaimed and high-class Sunday Morning Book Thread, a weekly compendium of reviews, observations, and a continuing conversation on books, reading, and publishing by people who follow words with their fingers and whose lips move as they read. Unlike other AoSHQ comment threads, the Sunday Morning Book Thread is so hoity-toity, pants are required. Even if it's these pants, which no doubt are considered manly by Shep Smith.

It Pays To Increase Your Word Power®

QUOCKERWODGER (n.) a politician whose strings are pulled by someone unseen.

Usage: Probably the only politician who isn't a quockerwodger is, get this, President Donald Trump.

The Politics of Personal Destruction

Not a new thing, apparently. I thought it got into fully swing in the 1980s when Reagan was elected, but this 30-page pamphlet authored by John T. Flynn was published in 1947

H/T @diana_west_: Please download & read John T. Flynn’s 1947 “THE SMEAR TERROR” https://t.co/ItT8p7REK7 to understand the vile tactics being employed against Judge Kavanaugh by the Stalinist left & their fellow travelers/useful idiots in the Democratic Party! pic.twitter.com/rpj1cMoeJa

— Andrew Bostom (@andrewbostom) September 24, 2018

Direct Internet Archive link here. Flynn was one of the original "Old Right" conservatives. He was one of the founders of the America First Committee which opposed U.S. entry into WWII. He was also the first to assert the hypothesis that FDR had advance knowlege of Japanese intentions to attack Pearl Harbor.

Some of his other books are available for free download here, including While You Slept from 1951, which is described in the blurb as

The amazing step-by-step, person-by-person story of how the American left wing took over our most influential media — radio, movies, magazines and books — and persuaded our leaders to support the Communist Plan to turn China and Korea over to the Soviets.

I'm thinking Flynn and the AFC eventually morphed into the John Birch Society and was subsequently driven out of the conservative "movement" by William F. Buckley.

If nothing else, Flynn's books are of historical interest. Here is another excerpt from The Smear Terror:

Books By Morons

Moron author Hanz Schanz e-mailed me to announce the release of The Brave and the Bold, the third installment of his libertarian-themed, science fiction techno-thriller Hidden Truth series. High school student Peter Burdell stumbles onto some subtle anomalies in an all-but-forgotten Appalachian library that indicate someone or something has altered history. But why? And why are they trying so hard to keep their existence a secret? Burdell's attempt to answer these questions leads him into a conspiracy far beyond what he ever would have thought.

When the Civic Circle tries to embroil the U.S. in a senseless war, Pete must leverage his summer intern position to infiltrate their Social Justice Leadership Forum on Jekyll Island, and disrupt their plans.

The danger - and the opportunity - are far greater than he imagines. The sinister power behind the Cabal - a power that aims to reshape society, destroy our civilization, and cast humanity into bondage - tolerates no rivals. Deep within the conspiracy's stronghold Pete discovers not only the secrets by which they retain their power, but also a crucial vulnerability that could cripple the Cabal with one decisive blow.

For a limited time, the first two in the series, The Hidden Truth and A Rambling Wreck, are on sale for $0.99 each. I read the first book, and it was geeky cool, reminiscent of early Heinlein. Shantz is a theoretical physicist who makes the technical details involved sound delightfully plausible.

Moron Recommendation

More on Grant and Lee:

But if you're looking for a book about Lee, I recommend William C. Davis's Crucible of Command: Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee: The War They Fought, The Peace They Forged. It's kind of a dual biography with emphasis on the war years. As someone who's admittedly totally smitten with Grant, I have to say this is the first (and so far, only) book that has ever warmed me up to Robert E. Lee. I can never quite forgive him for the choice he made, BUT at least I understand it a little better. In truth, he's a very tragic figure, a flawed hero. I really recommend this book. It's reader-friendly, and you'll understand both Grant and Lee -- and our country -- much better.

Posted by: Kathy from Kansas at October 21, 2018 09:36 AM (Eh+8D)

In other words, Kathy can understand, if not admire, someone who had to make a hard choice which turned to be the wrong one. This is called "nuance", the ability to see things in other than black and white terms, which I'm afraid will get lost in our current wave of statue-trashing and erasing of history that offends progressive sensibilities. By the way, this is something we used to get accused of frequently, but that was before the days of #BelieveAllWomen and #OrangeManBad.

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The highlight of my literary week was Fenton Wood's Pirates of the Electromagnetic Waves - an amazing young adult techno-adventure reminiscent of Bertrand R. Brinley's classic Mad Scientists Club. Set in an alternate universe nostalgically reminiscent of mid-century America, Wood tells the story of a boy and his young friends as they struggle to build and operate a radio station. I highly recommend this book, and I look forward to more Yankee Republic tales.

Posted by: Hans G. Schantz at October 21, 2018 10:02 AM (0h1Dx)

From the Amazon blurb:

It all starts in the mountain town of Porterville. Twelve-year-old Philo starts a pirate radio station with his friends, and learns that the world is a stranger place than he ever imagined. The Ancient Marauder, the Bright and Terrible Birds, the Mishipeshu, and other creatures of myth and legend populate this enchanting mixture of science and fantasy.

YANKEE REPUBLIC is an old-school adventure series with traditional values and down-to-earth heroes. Escape from the pessimism and propaganda of modern fiction, and take a journey through a mythic America that might have been.

This 100-page book is for the YA crowd, but that's not stopping any of youse morons from picking it up for a light read. The title says it is Book 1 of the Yankee Republic series, so hopefully sequels will be published soon.

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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, insults, threats, ugly pants pics and moron library submissions 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 09:00 AM

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