Sunday Morning Book Thread - 05-14-2023 ["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. 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, Happy Mother's Day to all you moms, grandmoms, and great-grandmoms out there, and dive into a new book. What are YOU reading this fine morning?

PIC NOTE

My cat Hexie distinguished herself recently by being the only one of my five kitties to jump to the top of my gaming library bookshelves. It's a quite significant jump, even if she had a bit of assist from another bookshelf off to the right of the shelves featured above. Also, I don't dust my bookshelves.

MOMS IN LITERATURE

Since today is Mother's Day, why not discuss moms in literature? Perhaps one of the most famous moms who isn't actually in the story is Harry Potter's mother, Lily Potter. She died shortly after Harry was born, but her sacrifice defending Harry gave her son the protection he needed against Voldemort's magic later in life. Molly Weasley then becomes Harry's surrogate mother when Harry goes to Hogwarts, as Molly has raised seven children of her own and sees Harry as just another son. In many ways, Molly Weasley is the paragon of motherhood. She'll feed you till you pop, make sure you are snug in bed, sing you bedtime stories, and then kick the ass of anyone who threatens you.

The "dead mom" trope is pretty common in a lot of the stories I read. Many characters are orphans or raised by a single father, so they don't have a proper relationship with their birth mother. Though they often find a suitable replacement, who gives them the love and care they need. For example in Tad Williams' Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn the main character is raised by a group of women, as he was orphaned early in life and then raised by the chambermaids, with one standing out more than the others. Known as "Rachel the Dragon" because she is a stern taskmistress, she does love Simon as though he were her own son, even though she's frequently frustrated by his seeming laziness (his nickname is "Simon Mooncalf").

Some mothers spend their lives preparing their children for the hardships they will face. A great example of this is Lady Jessica from Dune. She was commanded to bear a daughter by her Bene Gesserit superiors, but defied them to bear a son because she loved her Duke more than she loved the Sisterhood. She bestowed upon Paul Atreides all of the skills and wisdom of the Bene Gesserit, again in defiance of the Sisterhood because she knew that he would face trials and tribulations beyond comprehension. This training allows Paul to conquer Arrakis and later become Emperor of the Known Universe.

We can also talk about "stepmoms" in literature. Fairy tales like "Cinderella," "Snow White," and "Hansel & Gretel" all have a wicked stepmom who sees their stepchildren as a burden or a threat that needs to be removed. They go to great lengths to destroy their stepchildren, though they usually get their just reward in the end, depending on which version of the story you are reading. I'm trying to think of a good stepmom in literature, but I'm drawing a bit of a blank...

Finally, some women can serve as a surrogate mother to entire nations. Queen Galadriel from Lord of the Rings exhibits many motherly traits towards those under her protection. The Elves revere her not only as their Queen but as a mother of sorts to their entire race, even though I don't think she had many true children of her own. In the Wheel of Time, the leader of the all-female Aes Sedai is addressed as "Mother" and is seen as the spiritual/political mother of the organization. The aforementioned Lady Jessica from Dune becomes the "Reverend Mother" of the Fremen tribe that captures her and Paul after the old Reverend Mother dies. It's notable that the leader of the Bene Gesserit is also addressed as "Reverend Mother" foreshadowing a close tie between the Bene Gesserit guild and the Fremen religion on Arrakis.

Who are some of YOUR favorite mothers in literature and why?

(from ace's mom's private library...)

BOOKS BY MORONS

How is your knowledge of history? Any idea what was happening around the world in 1853? While this is not a history lesson by any stretch, current events of the time are interspersed with fictional characters and happenings throughout the book, and will hopefully enlighten as well as entertain. And there's a professor! Not as smart as our perfessor, but he tries. And a cat!

The year is 1853 in a steampunk Boston, Mass, and Professor Augustus Goodsteam has a problem. To win a contract to supply the government with airship engines, Professor Goodsteam must prove the engine works by circumnavigating the globe. His competitor managed to do it in 61 days. Can the professor complete the voyage in less time? Stormy weather is just the beginning of his troubles! Pirates, earthquakes, and even wars interfere with the trip. But with help from his loyal crew of three people and a cat, the professor just might make it. Might.

Get it on Amazon, ebook or softcover!

Hans G. Schantz has a kickstarter project for y'all:

Just wanted to let you and the Moron Horde know that the Kickstarter for The Wise of Heart is live. Thrown in jail for defying transgenderism, a biology teacher faces a show trial amid a media circus in this illustrated novel.

My illustrated novel is a retelling of the Scopes Monkey Trial set amid today's transgender mania. A substantial preview is already available on Substack. Readers can back today to help fund the art and be first in line to read the entire story in ebook or print editions.

Thanks!

Hans

MORON RECOMMENDATIONS

Privilege Of Being A Woman by Alice Von Hildebrand is the antidote to woke nonsense about women, and also to the evils of free love and sex without consequence. I recommend it to everyone, but particularly to girls who seem to be leaning toward the bullshit that popular culture tells them. It will prevent any girl from devaluing herself and falling from grace.

Posted by: tcn in AK, Hail to the Thief at May 07, 2023 02:31 PM (LOVUx)

Comment:

Convict Conditioning is a fantastic book.

Six body weight exercises to exercise all major muscle groups. Each exercise is broken down into 10 different exercises. You slowly progress through each until you are doing one armed push-ups, one armed pull-ups, handstands, etc.

These were the same exercises done for 1000s of years creating the strongest warriors and strongmen before the ad people sold us on weights and machines.

I'm on step 2 for the first 4 exercises and am feeling more ripped than I ever did with weights. The movements are all how the body moves naturally, no weights means no damage to the joints. Great book. I got rid of all of my free weights.

I'm pissed we weren't taught all of these exercises in school but no government wants an entire population of people that can lift their own body weight one armed. Every person could be a potential weapon.

Posted by: Stateless at May 05, 2023 04:53 PM (jvJvP)

Comment: Somehow, we in the modern Western society have decided that we need high tech machinery and gadgets to help us get into shape, when really we just need our own body. When I studied kung fu many, many years ago, the first thing our teacher told us to do was to get into a proper "horse stance." Then hold it for 5 minutes. That may have been the most agony I've ever suffered in my life. It was incredibly difficult to force my body to hold that one position. There were no weights, no machines, just my own body working against gravity. It's the foundation from which all kung for springs, more or less. To progress to the next level of training we had to hold the stance for 5 minutes straight. To progress to the level beyond that required holding the horse stance for *30* minutes.

Check out Susan Wise Bauer's history books. They cover not only Western Civ, but (as the series title suggests) world history.

https://is.gd/agFH6e

She also has a homeschool curriculum.

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at May 07, 2023 09:17 AM (PiwSw)

Comment: It looks like these books would be good for a homeschool curriculum. I do like how the books incorporate primary sources. The books come with study guides as well. These are *not* small books--even the study guides are around 800 pages each--so be prepared for you and your kids to spend a lot of time learning and reading!

I recently finished Adrian Goldsworthy's Antony and Cleopatra, which while it is not my favorite work of his, seems germane given the uproar over the Netflix "documentary" Queen Cleopatra. Whereas the "documentary" seems to be built solely around scanning Wikipedia and the insistence of one showrunner's grandmother that Cleopatra was from sub-Saharan Africa, Goldsworthy engages in actual research. He explains in great detail how Cleopatra was the final Greek/Macedonian monarch in the Ptolemy line, which ruled Egypt from roughly 305 B.C. until 30 B.C. The Ptolemies, including Cleopatra, were indeed caucasian "colonizers" from mainland Europe who ruled Egypt more or less as a personal possession with very little thought given to the overall welfare of native Egyptians beyond what would keep them in power. Nothing unusual for the day. Cleopatra was, in fact, the only one of the Ptolemies who ever even bothered to learn the Egyptian language.

Much of what most people think they know of Cleopatra comes from modern dramatizations of her life. She was extremely cunning, clever, and determined, however she was also totally beholden to the most powerful Roman men of the day. Egypt existed as an "independent" kingdom in name only and was well-established as a de facto Roman vassal state by the time she claimed the throne (through Roman aid). Cleopatra recognized and accepted the world in which she had to operate and did so masterfully, even if it was not in the girl-boss manner modern activists would like to pretend. There is a reason Cleopatra remains one of, if not the only, women from the ancient world most people recognize. She is a compelling enough figure without social justice embellishment from Hollywood half-wits. Goldsworthy does an admirable job of weaving Marc Antony's biography along with Cleopatra's, deftly dispelling cliches and modern inventions while painting a compelling portrait of arguably history's most famous doomed romance.

Thank you!

brasidas

Comment: This is an excellent recommendation, pointing out the flaws in our modern age where we simply accept a common idea, regardless of what relation is has to the facts. Good historians (like John C. McManus or Victor Davis Hanson) will scour the earth to find primary sources that paint an accurate picture of history. I recently had an experience where I was trying to find the original source of a digital artifact in my field and it turned out that the image that most people were using was, in fact, NOT created by the original theorist, but had been cobbled together by someone else and then presented as the original theorist's idea. The source document was very different than the accepted "theory" that people have been using for decades to support their argument.

More Moron-recommended reading material can be found HERE! (771 Moron-recommended books so far!)

WHAT I'VE ACQUIRED THIS PAST WEEK

• Gromnoir Chronicles Book 3 - Warbound by Larry Correia -- Wasn't expecting it to arrive until next week, but I am not sorry that it arrived earlier...

WHAT I'VE BEEN READING THIS PAST WEEK:

• Daybreak Book 3 - The Last President by John Barnes -- Daybreak is finally revealed and it's about 100% of what I expected it to be. The question still remains: Will some form of the United States of America emerge from the ashes of the New World Order as enforced by Daybreak?
• Phule's Paradise by Robert Asprin -- Captain Willard "Jester" Phule and his motley crew of misfits in the Space Legion are assigned to guard a casino against organized crime. It's a weird mixture of M*A*S*H, The A-Team, and Leverage.
• A Phule and His Money by Robert Asprin and Peter J. Heck
• Grimnoir Chronicles Book 1 - Hard Magic by Larry Correia -- Hardboiled detective Jake Sullivan gets caught up in a magical conflict where the feds are the bad guys...

That's about all I have for this week. Thank you for all of your kind words regarding the 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 discussion topics 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...

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(ht: Hans G. Schantz)

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