Sunday Morning Book Thread - 09-11-2022 ["Perfessor" Squirrel]

Welcome to the prestigious, internationally acclaimed, stately, and illustrious Sunday Morning Book Thread! The place where all readers are welcome, regardless of whatever guilty pleasure we feel like reading. Here is where we can discuss, argue, bicker, quibble, consider, debate, confabulate, converse, and jaw about our latest fancy in reading material, even if it's nothing more than back issues of MAD magazine. As always, pants are required, especially if you are wearing these pants...

So relax, find yourself a warm kitty (or warm puppy--I won't judge) to curl up in your lap, sip a nice cup of your favorite morning tea, and crack open a new book. What are YOU reading this fine morning?

PIC NOTE

Today's pic comes to us courtesy of Moron Stephen Price Blair. He recently attended a high school reunion, which included a tour of the school. He also sent a picture of a
"reading tree," because kids don't have enough nightmares about attending school these days...

BINGE READING

Captain Josepha Sabin posted the following on a recent Movie Thread:

Mike Hammer: Yes, the writing itself is very important. One of my best years was the year I discovered both Lindsey Davis and Margaret Maron. In fact, after I closed my bookstore, I spent the next year rereading my favorite series in order, one right after the other, simply to enjoy the entire story arc in one swell foop, rather than trying to remember last year's story line.

I think my saddest critique of a book, or a movie, or even a meal is: Good concept, lousy execution.

Posted by: Captain Josepha Sabin -- I wasn't particularly fond of the '70s the first time around at September 03, 2022 08:35 PM (9SjWf)

This prompted me to wonder, how many of us are "binge readers?" That is, what are some of our favorite series where we can just read one book after another and enjoy the entire series?

At the moment, I am bouncing around a bit in my reading because I'm still trying to get through all of the books I purchased at library book sales earlier this year. So far, I've made tremendous progress. I did purchase several series of books and for the most part they've been quite "bingeable." For instance, Stephen Harper's Clockwork Empire series was quite enjoyable Victorian steampunk. Peter F. Hamilton's Void Trilogy was a great mix of ultra-tech science fiction blended with psionic fantasy. Larry Correia's Monster Hunter series is just a fun urban fantasy romp where the heroes pack A LOT of firepower (trust me, they need it) to take down the enemies of all reality. I still have to get through a couple of Star Wars series, a Dragonlance series, and Glen Cook's Instrumentalities of the Night.

What are some of YOUR bingeable reads?

(I'm still quite salty about what Amazon did to Tolkien's Legendarium.)

IT PAYS TO INCREASE YOUR WORD POWER

Sometimes contributions come from the Moron Horde, such as this entry:

Thanks to All Hail Eris and her link to Diogenes, we have today's entry for "It Pays to Increase Your Word Power":

chreia:
A chreia was a brief, useful anecdote about a particular character. That is, a chreia was shorter than a narration - often as short as a single sentence - but unlike a maxim, it was attributed to a character. Usually it conformed to one of a few patterns, the most common being "On seeing...", "On being asked...", and "He said...".

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars at September 04, 2022 10:59 AM (pNxlR)

As well as this one:

OrangeEnt, the word you are looking for is "Ekphrasis." It's a common technique in poetry.

Posted by: March Hare at September 04, 2022 05:10 PM (lwrAe)

To give some context, OrangeEnt had started writing a short story about Edward Hpper's painting, "Night Hawks" and wanted to know if anyone had done something like that before. Well, it turns out this literary technique, ekphrasis (Greek for "description"), is actually quite ancient. It shows up in Homer's Iliad, for instance, when Homer describes the elaborate scenes depicted on the shield of Achilles. The word ekprasis doesn't show up in English until the early 18th century.

Naturally, this prompted a number of comments about turning "Naked Man on an Ottoman" into a short story...

ONLINE BOOK SALE!

Hans G. Shantz, proprietor of the Ætherczar website, asked me to announce a book sale to the Horde:

The Based Fall Book Sale went live today and runs through Tuesday, September 13. The sale offers about 150 books for free or $0.99, including about sixty works new to the sale. In addition, Terror House Press has offered their entire catalog of ebooks for only $0.99 each.

The sale includes John C. Wright's 2016 Dragon-Award-winning novel Somewither: The Unwithering Realm - Omnibus Version, Richard Nichols' thriller, Lost Causes, works by Robert Kroese, David J. West, Tom Kratman, Jon del Arroz, John Ringo, Jonathan Moeller, Eric Flint, Declan Finn, L. Jagi Lamplighter, and many, many other excellent authors.

"The Shadow that bred them can only mock, it cannot make: not real new things of its own," Tolkien noted. At a time when evil continues trying to corrupt and ruin what the good have created, support genuine creators, and get some great books from authors who don't hate you!

MORON RECOMMENDATIONS

I read A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. This is a beautifully written story about an Afghani woman, Mariam, born out of wedlock to a rich businessman and one of his servants. Her and her mother are shunned by the family and banished to a hovel outside of Herat. When she is fifteen, her mother commits suicide and she is forced to marry a much older man who is a shoemaker in Kabul.

The book paints a picture of Afghani life. It is also the story of Mariam and Laila, a fifteen year old second wife, brought into the family when Mariam cannot conceive. The growing, complicated relationship between the two is the heart of the book. One also learns a bit of Afghan history from 1960 to 2003.

This is Hosseini's second book. I'm currently reading his first, The Kite Runner.

Posted by: Zoltan at September 04, 2022 09:12 AM (0ipkK)

Comment: Stories about Afghanistan always seem to be depressing to me. It's just a thoroughly miserable place. I'm sure it has its beauty and charm from time to time, though.

Florida Woman by Deb Rogers was something I randomly picked up in the "new" shelf at the library. Slow burn story of a Florida gal who becomes an internet joke (tequila, flames, theft, and a pelican are involved) and her get-out-of-jail community service job (with ankle monitor) is to work at a macaque refuge in the middle of nowhere. The monkey halfway house is run by a trio of hippie chicks with a cultlike reverence for the critters. She knows weird shit is going on at the refuge but her common sense is drowned by all the love-bombing and sense of belonging, for the first time in her life. The sanctuary is a beautiful place but there is a constant hum of dread in the background, and something sinister is disturbing the macaques at night.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at September 04, 2022 09:15 AM (Dc2NZ)

Comment: The "Florida Man" is an interesting meme in that it portrays the men of Florida as weirdos and lunatics always doing something bizarre. I guess it's nice to see that there is also such a thing as "Florida Woman."

I'm reading A Thread of Grace by Mary Doria Russell. It may have been discussed here before because I know the horde's fascination and knowledge of WWII. It's extremely well written, and I just read a review explaining that this is a sequel to The Sparrow.

Posted by: Unkaren at September 04, 2022 10:47 AM (QSPZM)

Comment: A Thread of Grace is actually NOT a sequel to The Sparrow. It's historical fiction whereas The Sparrow is science fiction. I read the latter novel in my science fiction literature class a long time ago. It's about a first-contact experience that goes horribly wrong. The Sparrow does have a proper sequel: Children of God.

I've been enjoying Daniel Humphreys' Paxton Locke series. In the latest the hero does something that seems wildly out-of-character in the big fight towards the end of the book (and someone else goes along with it!), which I think *should* come back to bite him, but we'll see. Afterwards Locke gets to meet an unnamed famous someone (but you'd have to be pretty slow not to recognize him) who is described as far more resolute than I think the real-life person is.

Posted by: Helena Handbasket at September 04, 2022 11:52 AM (llON8)

Comment: I always like to read reviews about Moron-authored books. I've enjoyed just about all of the Moron-authored books I've read on some level. I may have to give this series a try...

More Moron-recommended reading material can be found HERE! (405 Moron-recommended books so far!)

WHAT I'VE BEEN READING THIS PAST WEEK:

• Knife of Dreams by Robert Jordan -- Book 11 in The Wheel of Time and the last book Jordan wrote before his death.
• A Princess of Landover by Terry Brooks -- Part of the Kingdom of Landover series, which is about a lawyer transported to a magical world, where he becomes a champion for good.

That's about all I have for this week. Thank you for all of your kind words regarding my Sunday Morning Book Thread. This is a very special place. You are very special people (in all the best ways!). The kindness, generosity, and wisdom of the Moron Horde knows no bounds. Let's keep reading!

If you have any suggestions for improvement, reading recommendations, or writing projects that you'd like to see on the Sunday Morning Book Thread, you can send them to perfessor dot squirrel at-sign gmail dot com. Your feedback is always appreciated! You can also take a virtual tour of OUR library at libib.com/u/perfessorsquirrel. Since I added sections for AoSHQ, I now consider it OUR library, rather than my own personal fiefdom...

PREVIOUS SUNDAY MORNING BOOK THREAD - 09-04-22 (hat tip: vmom stabby stabby stabamillion) (NOTE: Do NOT comment on old threads!)

(Held over from last week...It's a long book! Also a bit of a slog...)

posted by Open Blogger at 09:00 AM

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