Sunday Morning Book Thread 12-22-2019

Merry Christmas!

Good morning to all you 'rons, 'ettes, lurkers, and lurkettes, wine moms, frat bros, crétins sans pantalon (who are technically breaking the rules), gremlins, gnomes, elves, bottles of rum, and other Santa helpers. Welcome once again to the stately, prestigious, internationally acclaimed and high-class Sunday Morning Book Thread, a weekly compendium of reviews, observations, snark, witty repartee, hilarious bon mots, and a continuing conversation on books, reading, spending way too much money on books, writing books, and publishing books by escaped oafs and oafettes 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, worn by some smart aleck who's figured out how to comply with the letter of the law while ignoring the spirit.

It Pays To Increase Your Word Power®

CONFELICITY is joy found in seeing other people’s happiness. pic.twitter.com/Jvn93Z2J1S

— Haggard Hawks 📚🦅 (@HaggardHawks) December 13, 2019

“The difference between reality and fiction is that fiction has to make sense”
- Tom Clancy

(click to enlarge)

Jane Austen

Born Dec. 16th, 1775

The 244th birthday of British author Jane Austen, who wrote classics such as Pride and Prejudice, Emma, and Sense and Sensibility was earlier this week (Dec. 16th). Yes, she really is that old. Born in the year 1775, she died young, at age 41.

She has inspired many other writers, and her works have been used in ways that might she probably could not have anticipated. There's a whole panoply of sequels to her novels and out-and-out fan fiction. For example, there's yjr Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict, by Laurie Viera Rigler who imagines what it must've been like to live in Regency England:

After nursing a broken engagement with Jane Austen novels and Absolut, Courtney Stone wakes up and finds herself not in her Los Angeles bedroom or even in her own body, but inside the bedchamber of a woman in Regency England. Who but an Austen addict like herself could concoct such a fantasy? Not only is Courtney stuck in another woman’s life, she is forced to pretend she actually is that woman; and despite knowing nothing about her, she manages to fool even the most astute observer. But not even her level of Austen mania has prepared Courtney for the chamber pots and filthy coaching inns of nineteenth-century England, let alone the realities of being a single woman who must fend off suffocating chaperones, condom-less seducers, and marriages of convenience. This looking-glass Austen world is not without its charms, however. There are journeys to Bath and London, balls in the Assembly Rooms, and the enigmatic Mr. Edgeworth, who may not be a familiar species of philanderer after all. But when Courtney’s borrowed brain serves up memories that are not her own, the ultimate identity crisis ensues. Will she ever get her real life back, and does she even want to?

Another interesting story set in the Austen Universe is P.D. James' murder mystery Death Comes to Pemberley:

It is 1803, six years since Elizabeth and Darcy embarked on their life together at Pemberley, Darcy’s magnificent estate. Their peaceful, orderly world seems almost unassailable. Elizabeth has found her footing as the chatelaine of the great house. They have two fine sons, Fitzwilliam and Charles. Elizabeth’s sister Jane and her husband, Bingley, live nearby; her father visits often; there is optimistic talk about the prospects of marriage for Darcy’s sister Georgiana. And preparations are under way for their much-anticipated annual autumn ball.

Then, on the eve of the ball, the patrician idyll is shattered. A coach careens up the drive carrying Lydia, Elizabeth’s disgraced sister, who with her husband, the very dubious Wickham, has been banned from Pemberley. She stumbles out of the carriage, hysterical, shrieking that Wickham has been murdered. With shocking suddenness, Pemberley is plunged into a frightening mystery.

Inspired by a lifelong passion for Austen, P. D. James masterfully re-creates the world of Pride and Prejudice, electrifying it with the excitement and suspense of a brilliantly crafted crime story, as only she can write it.

Of course, all of Austen's novels are in the public domain, so anyone can modify them as they see fit. For example, with a touch here and there, Pride and Prejudice can be turned into a novel of zombie apocalypse, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. And of course there's Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Graphic Novel. That's pretty silly. Perhaps even sillier is Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters:

Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters expands the original text of the beloved Jane Austen novel with all-new scenes of giant lobsters, rampaging octopi, two-headed sea serpents, and other biological monstrosities. As our story opens, the Dashwood sisters are evicted from their childhood home and sent to live on a mysterious island full of savage creatures and dark secrets. While sensible Elinor falls in love with Edward Ferrars, her romantic sister Marianne is courted by both the handsome Willoughby and the hideous man-monster Colonel Brandon. Can the Dashwood sisters triumph over meddlesome matriarchs and unscrupulous rogues to find true love? Or will they fall prey to the tentacles that are forever snapping at their heels? This masterful portrait of Regency England blends Jane Austen’s biting social commentary with ultraviolent depictions of sea monsters biting. It’s survival of the fittest—and only the swiftest swimmers will find true love!

"Stunning and brave. It really had me in its slitherly, slippery grip." --Kurt Eichenwald.

You can finish up with Gin Austen: 50 Cocktails to Celebrate the Novels of Jane Austen because "it is a truth universally acknowledged that a person in possession of this good book must be in want of a drink." Whether it's cobblers, crustas, flips, punches, shrubs, slings, sours, of toddies, you can find out how to make it here.

Lastly, Miss Austen is not an author I would recommend to assign to young men to get them interested in reading good books. For example, with Pride and Prejudice, they will most likely be bored with the romantic interactions and Austen's biting social commentary will fly over their heads. They'd be better off with books like Two Years Before the Mast or perhaps Treasure Island.

I remember reading Pride and Prejudice in a college lit class many years ago, and the main question I had was, "hey, don't any of these people have actual jobs?" Most of their time seemed to be taken up with going to parties and visiting other people. It had to be explained to me that these were people who could live off the proceeds of their invested income. Here's an interesting article about money in Regency England.

"If a book is well written, I always find it too short."
--Jane Austen

She's Got Quite A Reading List:

As a Newly registered Republican - this is my Reading List from last two months. Churchill to Art of The Deal..... @diana_west_ @GreggJarrett @DouglasKMurray @SRCHicks@SidneyPowell1@GenFlynn@horowitz39@realDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/SdQ6tQusNg

— Martha L Neaves (@margretmagd) December 21, 2019

Moron Recommendations

On Wednesday's rant thread, I commented that the major food groups necessary for a healthy diet are grease, salt, starch, carbs, and sugar. This prompted this response:

Funny, there's a cooking book titled "Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat" that goes through each of those four categories and explains how they contribute to a good tasting meal, as well as including charts that show you which food ingredients in each of those categories can give a dish a particular ethnic flair. For instance, whether you are cooking with butter, olive oil, or sesame oil is going to change the flavor of the dish to give it a different spin. Limes vs lemons vs vinegar vs wine (and more) as well.

Interesting read.

Posted by: joe, living dangerously at December 18, 2019 12:22 PM (KUaJL)

Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking by Samin Nosrat looks interesting enough that I bought it as a Christmas gift for my daughter and SIL:

A visionary new master class in cooking that distills decades of professional experience into just four simple elements, from the woman declared “America’s next great cooking teacher” by Alice Waters.

In the tradition of The Joy of Cooking and How to Cook Everything comes Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, an ambitious new approach to cooking by a major new culinary voice. Chef and writer Samin Nosrat has taught everyone from professional chefs to middle school kids to author Michael Pollan to cook using her revolutionary, yet simple, philosophy. Master the use of just four elements—Salt, which enhances flavor; Fat, which delivers flavor and generates texture; Acid, which balances flavor; and Heat, which ultimately determines the texture of food—and anything you cook will be delicious. By explaining the hows and whys of good cooking, Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat will teach and inspire a new generation of cooks how to confidently make better decisions in the kitchen and cook delicious meals with any ingredients, anywhere, at any time.

Echoing Samin’s own journey from culinary novice to award-winning chef, Salt, Fat Acid, Heat immediately bridges the gap between home and professional kitchens. With charming narrative, illustrated walkthroughs, and a lighthearted approach to kitchen science, Samin demystifies the four elements of good cooking for everyone. Refer to the canon of 100 essential recipes—and dozens of variations—to put the lessons into practice and make bright, balanced vinaigrettes, perfectly caramelized roast vegetables, tender braised meats, and light, flaky pastry doughs.

Featuring 150 illustrations and infographics that reveal an atlas to the world of flavor by renowned illustrator Wendy MacNaughton, Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat will be your compass in the kitchen. Destined to be a classic, it just might be the last cookbook you’ll ever need.

The hardback version, which is the one I bought, is $20.99.

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Perhaps this joyous season is not the time to talk about grief, but I know some of you have lost loved ones this year, and I also know it's especially difficult if the time of death is at or near a holiday. A friend of ours lost her husband in an airplane crash in December several years ago, and her Christmases are now somber affairs.

"Journeying Through Grief" is a series of 4 booklets, meant to be read at different times through the first year after a loved one dies. The series is written by a pastor who is also a psychologist. He also has lived the journey in that he lost his own wife to cancer.

One of the things that we noticed after my mother died was that people are super nice to you for a week or two and then they move on, and you can't yet, you're still in the middle of your grief. I compared the experience to getting a load-bearing wall of my life knocked down and having to deal with the aftermath.

These booklets have helped me in my journey, and I hope they will help some of you too. Just keep a box of Kleenex handy.

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes - the Housekeeper at December 15, 2019 09:18 AM (IttZ7)

So, for example, the first pamphlet-length book, A Time To Grieve, is to be read 3 weeks after the loss. The rest of the details can be read on the Journeying Through Grief web site. You can also order the booklets for $9.95.

___________

Today we spend so much time talking about diversity and what makes us different that we're forgetting to tell our children stories about what unites us as Americans. We have so many beautiful and important things in common—our history, our love of freedom, and our pursuit of the American Dream.

A lurkette recommends the children's book Paloma Wants to Be Lady Freedom, which she says is "worth a look for Ace readers looking for a gift for kids that doesn't perpetuate the liberal agenda."

Written by by Fox News commentator Rachel Campos-Duffy, the story

...takes the reader on a little girl's adventure inside the U.S. Capitol. While lost inside the magnificent building, Paloma becomes enchanted with the statue of Lady Freedom, learns about her immigrant father's dreams, and discovers her own courage and love for America.

The grade level range for this book is preschool to 3rd.

Rachel is the mother of 9 children, the husband of Sean Duffy, a former congressman from Wisconsin who
stepped down from Congress to help his wife as their 9th child was born this fall with Down syndrome and needs heart surgery sometime soon.

___________

Who Dis:

Books By Morons

Congratulations to longtime moron author Patrick Chiles, who managed to land a contract with Baen Books. He writes:

It's a hard sci-fi homage Cold War technothrillers: how could the Russians have sent cosmonauts all the way to Pluto with 40-year-old technology? If you’ve heard of the USAF’s Orion Project studies (using nuclear bombs to propel a spacecraft), then you’ll understand that the old Soviet Union would’ve been the only country crazy enough to try it.

Here's the plot of Frozen Orbit:

Set to embark on NASA’s first expedition to the outer planets, the crew of the spacecraft Magellan learns someone else has beaten them by a few decades: a top-secret Soviet project codenamed Arkangel. Now during their long race to the Kuiper Belt, astronauts Jack Templeton and Traci Keene must unwind a decades-old mystery buried in the pages of a dead cosmonaut’s journal. The solution will challenge their beliefs about the nature of humanity, and will force the astronauts to confront the question of existence itself. And the final answer lies at the edge of the Solar System, waiting to change everything.

It's available for pre-order now at Amazon, will be released on January 7th. Also on Kindle.

Pat is the author of two books previously mentioned on the book thread, Perigee and Farside.

Also, a short story that explores some of the background of Frozen Orbit, called "Next Giant Leap", is available for free on Baen's website.

___________

Former stand-up comic Ammo Grrrll over at Powerline Blog has just published her 5th collection of her columns.

Ammo Grrrll Is A Straight Shooter: A Humorist's Friday Columns For Powerline:

“The best political weapon is ridicule, and no one exposes the left’s buffoonery and pretensions as PowerLine columnist Susan Vass has been doing once a week in the scathing, pointed and hilarious columns she writes under her pseudonym “Ammo Grrrll.” (Read Volume One to find out where the name comes from.)

This is Book 5 in the series, covering events from April 6, 2018 to March 29, 2019. On the political front, we find angry harridans who identify as “comedians” vying for who can call various female members of the Trump family the most vile names; the Loony Left reaches new heights (or depths) of Crazy with rules that no employee may stare at another for over 5 seconds, with a man at a conference being raked over the coals for making a little joke in an elevator, and for yet more attempts to smear Justice Kavanaugh.

There are also columns about music, the perils of dining out in the era of crazed Trump opponents trying to stick their fingers in one’s salad, and tales from several of Ms. Vass’s legendary Road Trips.

The Kindle edition is $9.99.

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A lurking moron e-mailed me earlier this week to tell me he's just released his first novel:

The citizens of Skyrah enjoy a unique gift: the ability to exert influence over the essence of existence, redirecting the flows of nature as they live their lives in service to the tenets of Justice and Mercy. Yet despite this gift, Skyrah's promises have failed to materialize for many of its people:

A prideful thief, desperate to escape the city.

An optimistic novice, innocently colliding with reality.

An aging guard, grappling with shame and regret.

An old woman, whose mysterious blind eyes somehow see the darkness at the heart of Skyrah... a growing doom that threatens to consume them all.

Fate's Balance is available for 3.99 on Kindle, or for free via Kindle Unlimited. Also available in paperback.

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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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