Sunday Morning Book Thread - 10-29-2023 ["Perfessor" Squirrel]

(HT: JR)

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 (ht: fd). 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, unless 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, and dive into a new book. What are YOU reading this fine morning?

TXMOME FOLLOWUP

Another TXMOME is behind us and I can truthfully say that it was just as awesome as ever! A profound thank you to Ben Had for organizing the event. Thank you to RancherBob and CowHorseQueen for hosting the event. Thank you to Weasel for creating an incredible shooting experience for everyone on both the pistol range and the rifle range. Thank you to Pete Bog for his efforts in cooking all of the amazing food. Thanks to every other Moron (and 'ette, of course!) who contributed to this event in some small way, even if it's just making sure the coolers are stocked with ice. This event would not be possible without the collective efforts of so many people!

PIC NOTE

Today's pic straddles the uncanny valley, as I cannot tell if it is a photo or a painting. According to the Moron lurker JR who sent this to me, it's from a Facebook site about Creepy Abandoned Places. I don't do Facebook, so I can't view too much of the website. I'll bet the exterior of this building is just as creepy and disturbing. I'm sure an enterprising Moron could write a short story about this library...

ALBERTA OIL PEON'S STORY

A strange book appeared at the TXMOME last weekend, accompanied by the following letter of provenance:

Legend (only slightly embellished from the true facts) As a young Peon, my life was full of adventure. 1974 found me on the good ship Mumtaz B. Ali, diving in a hard hat suit on the infamous Drowned Library of Miskatonic University, in an undisclosed location. I was searching for the long-lost recipe for Sweet and Sour Squid, and maybe the odd Necronomicon or two.

So, there I was, 120 feet beneath the sea, in the flooded stacks, searching the shelves with a burning magnesium flare for light, and stuffing the odd book in my goodie bag., when I felt my air supply constricted! I looked behind me, and beheld an Eldritch Horror with one of its countless tentacles tightly entwined around my air hose. There was but one thing I could do. Dropping the torch, I reached into my belt pouch, and withdrew a bottle of seafood sauce, and thrust it at the loathsome apparition. It recoiled in terror, and relaxed its grip on my airline. A quick tug by me on the hoist rope, and my crew quickly winched me to safety. All I had to show for my ordeal was this ancient book of marine mysteries, which I now offer to the Horde as proof of my adventures. Or not, as the case may be.

My regards tot eh Horde, and to the Hosts of the Texas MoMee. Which I were here.

Alberta Oil Peon

NOTE: Upon further investigation of this rather bedraggled tome, it appears to be a lost copy of this book.

BOOK SWAPPING ACTIVITY

One of the great things about meeting Morons in meatspace at a MoMe is the conversations you will have with them that you do not ever get to do in cyberspace. As a result of one of those conversations, Cybersmythe sent me the following, describing a "book swapping" activity he and his friends engage in down in Houston. Sounds like fun. I'm very tempted to organize something along these lines for the next TXMOME. Stay tuned for updates...

In an age of $15 paperbacks it can be tough to find new authors to read. Of course, you can always harvest suggestions from the Book Thread, but what if you like a genre or authors that other Morons haven't stumbled across, or at least won't admit to in public?

Well, down here in Houston, we have these meetings called "Science Fiction Book Swaps." It's a book group where everybody reads whatever books they have and then every month or so we sit around a circle and do an impromptu review of what we've read. Then, we loan the books we've read to anyone who wants to read it themselves. Of course, forgetful attendees are a problem and someone has to be the first to buy a copy of something, but it can be an effective way to get the word out about an author you've discovered that you really like or find new authors while you're waiting for the latest from your favorite writer.

As I've said, we mostly do science fiction and fantasy with the occasional mystery or horror novel thrown in, but there's no reason you couldn't do this with any kind of book. In our established community, we aren't sticklers for topicality and anyone can pretty much talk about anything they think the rest of the community might be interested in.

To get started, find a couple of like-minded individuals and a place to meet, in Houston we mostly meet at restaurants, and just start doing it. And, if you're in Houston and you want to find out more about where and when these book swaps happen, you can write to me at "cybersmythe at proton dot me" or on the Moron groups.io group and I'll be happy to help you.

Cybersmythe

BOOKS BY MORONS

We've got some excellent offerings for you today...

I have just released Doors: An Onteora County Romance, as an eBook on Amazon. Here's the blurb:

Paul Larsen's B&B in Ogunquit, Maine is running him off his feet. Desperate for someone to share the load, he hires pretty, appealing Carol Holm as his assistant manager. Carol is desperate to be gone from Onteora County, New York, where she's made some highly placed enemies. As time passes she becomes Paul's lover, and later his wife.

But things are changing in Ogunquit, and not for the better. Some of Maine's denizens are becoming more dangerous than the bears, the moose, and the enemies from whom Carol fled. The most threatening of them wear badges. Though it alarms Carol, Paul elects to face them down. The consequences are life-altering for them both.

Doors is $2.99 as a Kindle eBook. A paperback, priced at $9.99, will be available shortly.

Francis W. Porretto

Comment: Francis W. Porretto has written a number of books, in several different genres. He posts excerpts from time to time on his blog, Liberty's Torch. They are always thought-provoking, as he uses them to emphasize important points in his commentary. Good stuff.

Hi, Perfessor! I thought I'd bug you again for another Book by a Moron I'd ask you to mention.

This is a mystery called Dwindle, Peak and Pine:

Rick Drail and his widowed father, Craig, own a small cabin camp in the town of Hunker Lake. Things are normally very quiet for them after Halloween ... but then, people aren't normally murdered in Hunker Lake, and never in one of their cabins. Sue Milkins is the most beautiful woman Rick has ever seen in person, the kind of woman that can set a small town like Hunker Lake on fire. Where has she come from? What has brought her to this small town, past the end of the season? And why would anyone want to kill her? When Sue is found murdered one morning, Rick's life spirals into chaos. The police suspect everyone of the crime, even Rick's father. Rick suddenly sees everyone around him, including their other paying guests, even his closest friends, as potential murderers. As police tighten their focus on Craig, Rick tries to find information to save him--but maybe his father does have some secrets of his own.

Thanks! I don't usually comment on your weekly review, but I always look forward to reading it.

Comment: Sounds intriguing! Relates somewhat to last week's post where I discussed betrayal in literature. Who murdered the poor woman? Was it someone she trusted? Sounds like Rick's trust circle rapidly shrinks as even his closest friend--or even his own father--may have done the dirty deed...

Hi, Perfesser!

It's "moviegique"! My first book ("Silk Unspun") is coming out on
November 7th. I'm offering a free Advance Reader copy with the only
stipulation that readers leave a review. (A certain number of reviews
right off the bat makes me eligible for certain promotional deals from
Amazon.)

I'm a bit behind so I'll also send a free hardcopy out to anyone who
does this (and wants a free copy), even autographed (if desired!).

Interested parties should contact me at i@dsblake.com, or they can drop
their emails in the book thread (I'm often asleep when it's running)
with their preferred electronic format (PDF, EPUB, MOBI).

Thanks!

MORON RECOMMENDATIONS

Here is a very strong recommendation. Get The Reader's Encyclopedia by William Rose Benet.

It's a compendium of literature and the Arts and major figures in science and major historical events and really just about everything you should have learned in a classical liberal arts education in one handy volume. Be sure to buy a copy that was published before 1982 because later versions have of course been scrubbed by the lefties.

Posted by: Beverly at October 22, 2023 09:10 AM (MjTM2)

Comment: Beverly is correct in her assessment. When I searched for this item on Amazon, I found hits for updated versions of the book, but it's clear that the editors do have a "woke" agenda in mind.

Every once in a while, I like to include an "anti-recommendation."

In less pleasant reading, I was obligated to read Richard Schwartz's No Bad Parts. I've been forced to read at least a half-dozen of these pop-psych/self-help books and I cordially loathe them, but I give Schwartz credit: none of the other ones combined his level of arrogance and ignorance.

In the first 14 pages the man declares that he has more wisdom than the Church Fathers and Buddha himself. Such modesty! He has an entire chapter on how he's solved all the problems of the world (nice of him to share) and if you cut out his constant need to pat himself on the back, there's 15 actual pages of useful information.

What really sets this guy apart, though, is how *wrong* he is about all this little tangents. He lectures on the doctrinal failures of Christianity while getting them completely wrong.

About the only good thing I say of this book is that it isn't mine, otherwise it would already have been expended as a target and burned.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 22, 2023 09:21 AM (llXky)

Comment: From what I can tell from the negative reviews on Amazon, the author includes his politics from the very beginning of the book and doesn't let go. There may or may not be validity to the author's claims, but his biases interfere with the reader's attempt to glean anything useful, unless you are a fellow political traveler.

I read Stephen Baxter's Proxima, a hard SF story about a forced colonization of one of the planets of Proxima Centauri in order to claim it as territory before a rival entity gets there.

There are plot threads aboundin', including scheming AIs, inscrutable Chinee, an energy source that has revolutionized space travel, and alien space/time portals that whisk one between systems.

I've noticed that "hard" SF has great ideas but wafer-thin characterization. I still enjoyed it, and now I'm reading the second half of this duo logo, Ultima, in which we find that that hatches aren't just space/time portals but also doors to alternate timelines. In one, the Roman Empire never collapsed and now we have Rooooomans In Spaaaaaaace!

Posted by: All Hail Eris at October 22, 2023 09:45 AM (vnfYO)

Comment: I'm a huge fan of Stephen Baxter's works. Not because he has great characterization in his novels (he doesn't). No, I love his books because he pushes the boundaries of known science to the very limits of the imagination and beyond. He likes to create unusual settings and then determine how humans might survive in such a setting. He's also fascinated by the Fermi Paradox, which is an attempt to explain why we appear to be alone in such a vast universe. I'm seldom disappointed by any of his stories.

I have been reading Defenders of the West by Raymond Ibrahim - it is a brief history about eight men that defended the west from the Muslim onslaught. The deprivations these men endured would make a navy seal seem weak. (no offense to any seals)

Posted by: Lurking in Garland at October 22, 2023 12:13 PM (vmpFt)

Comment: I have Ibrahim's The Sword and the Scimitar, which is the precursor to this book, but I have not read it yet. The West has been at war with Islam since its inception. It's truly a miracle that the conquest of Europe by Muslim hordes has not happened until now, though Germany is apparently attempting to reverse its pro-Muslim immigration policies. We'll have to wait and see if they can manage to expel the invaders this time.

More Moron-recommended reading material can be found HERE! (1000+ Moron-recommended books!)

WHAT I'VE BEEN READING THIS PAST WEEK:

• Nora Kelly Book 4 - Dead Mountain by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child - Archaeologist Nora Kelly and her colleague from the FBI, junior agent Corrie Swann, become involved in the mystery of how nine hikers disappeard 15 years ago under suspicious circumstances. Lots of betrayals!
• Phase Space by Stephen Baxter - A collection of short stories that take place within Baxter's Manifold series of books. Lots of weirdness with space, time, and other realities...
• The Cinder Spires Book 1 - The Aeronaut's Windlass by Jim Butcher - The author of The Dresden Files and Codex Alera takes us to a new world where mighty warships sail through the skies between ancient spires inhabited by humans, while even more ancient evils stir on the ground beneath them. Book 2 is coming out in a couple of weeks.

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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