Sunday Morning Book Thread - 02-18-2024 ["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 (watch out for the grue!). 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?

PIC NOTE

I recently discovered that due to an institutional membership with Adobe Creative Cloud I also have access to their vast resources of images in their stock library. So I can delve into a ton of library- and book-related images from Adobe if I really get bored. Today's image is a juxtaposition of a traditional library placed against the modern technology in which we can find that library. I know I've mentioned this before, but it really is a triumph of human engineering when we can cram the sum total of an entire brick building into a device that fits in our pocket. It's just a shame that we as a society are prone to abusing that privilege through censorship and gatekeeping.

WHY IS THE INTERNET OBSESSED WITH THIS BOOK? - House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

This book has been on my TBR pile for years now, mainly because it's going to be a very difficult read. This is not a book that you can read cover to cover and expect to "get it" the first time through. In fact, it might be easier to start at the end and read backwards. That's because the author takes a very creative approach to narrative storytelling. I guess it's supposed to be a horror story of some kind, as there is a house that is also an eldritch abomination at the heart of this story. That's what attracted me to it in the first place. But then I opened it up and realized it's going to take time and effort to figure this story out. It's as much visual art as it is a story because of the way Danielewski plays around with the layout and design on almost every page. How do all these pieces connect together? That's what the internet likes to talk about.

(HT: Shamelessly swiped from Moron author Francis W. Porretto's Liberty's Torch website.)

THE LOST ART OF USING A TYPEWRITER

For around a century, the typewriter was the symbol of the professional writer. Whether you were generating stories for the local newspaper or writing the great American novel, you could rely on your trusty mechanical typewriter to deliver legible copy. I learned how to type in high school by taking a "keyboarding" class where we used the good old IBM Selectric typewriters. They made a very distinctive electric "hum" when they were switched on, letting you know they were ready to go! We've replaced the typewriter with the computer, of course, but we still use a lot of the features that have been integrated into the word processing software, like tab stops and automatic line spacing. How many authors today still use typewriters? I know there were several authors who refused to switch to computers when those became available, simply because they were more comfortable using a typewriter. Author Jerry B. Jenkins even set up his computer with a "typewriter" keyboard to give him the tactile sensation of using a typewriter.

BOOKS BY MORONS

Patrick Chiles, author of Frozen Orbit and Escape Orbit, has a new book in a different series coming out on March 5:

Being a paramedic is a tough job; it's tougher when you stumble onto a crashed alien spacecraft.

Melanie Mooney thought she was just doing her job when she came upon an unusual accident in the deep woods late one night. Acting alone, what she found was nothing like she'd expected. What followed was even more unexpected.

Recruited by emissaries of a galaxy-spanning civilization, Melanie is thrust into a world she thought only existed in supermarket tabloids. As the first human in the Galactic Union Medical Corps, she cares for extraterrestrials in desperate need of a medic who can ignore the fact that they're nothing like any patient she's ever seen, even on their best days. And in emergency medicine, it's a given that every patient is having the worst day of their life.

Each run takes her deeper into the galaxy and farther from home, navigating alien cultures that only get weirder with each call. It will take all of Melanie's experience, instinct, and grit to prove herself--and the rest of humanity--to be worthy of the Union. That's a lot to put on a woman who'd just like to end the day with a cheeseburger and a cold beer.

Amazon.com: Interstellar Medic: The Long Run (1): 9781982193287: Chiles, Patrick: Books

This one was a blast to write. It's the first in a two-book series but there could be more to follow; I can easily see ways to leave it open for more if enough readers enjoy this series. While it's not comedy, I did take the opportunity to poke fun at a few well-worn sci fi / alien abduction tropes. It's available for pre-order now, and I'm really excited that the audiobook version will also be available on release day. In the past I've had to wait several months for that.

MORON RECOMMENDATIONS

Again, there were not too many Moron Recommendations in the comments last week...It's like you guys all gave up reading for Lent or something...

Una Woodruff is one of my favorite fantasy illustrators, and I found out she drew the illustrations for Catwitch by Lisa Tuttle. It's a charming tale about a cat who becomes a witch's familiar, and Una's drawings are like Roger Dean for the kid lit set. There's lots of detail, which I loved as a tot. Why do some adults think children want simple drawings? Because that's all they can manage at that age? If I could have laid down the ink and crayon like Arthur Rackham, I would have!

Posted by: All Hail Eris at February 11, 2024 09:21 AM (+RQPJ)

Comment:As a child, I was always fascinated by the more detailed illustrations to be found in books. You can keep your simple line art. I wanted *detail* and lots of it! I don't think we are doing children any real favors by keeping illustrations "simple" for them. Our eyes are one of the main ways we receive input from the outside world. Why not build that into your stories?

Two unique building projects were underway in 1892. One project involved the construction of hundreds of structures for the 1893 Chicago Exposition. The other was an abattoir for a serial killer to dispose of his victims. This is the theme of The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson. The tale of the frenzied construction of the White City in time for the world exposition is intertwined with the story of H H Holmes, one of the first serial killers, who used the bustle of the fair as a stalking ground. The Exposition would introduce a new invention, the Ferris wheel, showcase Buffalo Bill's wild west show, and all of it was lit by a brand new spectacle, thousands of light bulbs powered by electricity. Today, only two buildings remain from the fair, the art museum and the Field museum, and modern detective work is much more sophisticated, but Larson captures the intense labor required to build and run the fair, which welcomed 750,000 people a day, as well as the devious nature of Holmes to entrap, kill, and dismember his victims. As with his other works, Larson manages to tell two stories that mesh with each other in time and space. This is another engrossing book by Larson.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at February 11, 2024 09:18 AM (rKMQG)

Comment:I have heard about H. H. Holmes, but I did not know that he used the Chicago Exposition as his stalking ground, though it makes sense. Lots of tourists to the city, so they would not be missed right away if they fell into Holmes' clutches. I also know that Holmes had constructed an elaborate maze that he used as his killing ground. Weird, dangerous man.

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

WHAT I'VE BEEN READING THIS PAST WEEK:

After reviewing some of OregonMuse's old Book Threads, I thought I'd try something a bit different. Instead of just listing WHAT I'm reading, I'll include commentary as well. Unless otherwise specified, you can interpret this as an implied recommendation, though as always your mileage may vary.

Malazan Book of the Fallen 8 - Toll the Hounds by Steven Erickson

If Book 5 (Midnight Tides) was a 900-page prologue to Book 7 (Reaper's Gale, then Book 8 (Toll the Hounds) is a 1200-page epilogue to Book 3 (Memories of Ice) and Book 1 (Gardens of the Moon). We return to the continent of Genabackis and the cities of Darujhistan and Coral, now renamed Black Coral as it's blanketed by perpetual night. Compared to some of the other books in the series, there's not much happening. For me, it's been roughly equivalent to "the slog" in The Wheel of Time. We get introduced to new characters and revisit old characters but there does not seem to be much plot advancement in this book. We do get a few cool scenes here and there and we get to see the inner workings of Anomander Rake's magical sword, which captures the souls of those it kills and chains them to a massive wagon, propelling it ever onward away from a storm of chaos that's always on the horizon. We also learn some of the secrets behind the warrens, which is where magic originates. And we know that the god of death, Hood, has mobilized those under his care for some epic, unknown purpose. Since Dust of Dreams and The Crippled God are the last two books in the series, Erickson has to prepare the reader for the epic conclusion of his magnum opus. Toll the Hounds is a decent read, but not quite as good as some of the other books in the series.

PREVIOUS SUNDAY MORNING BOOK THREAD - 02-11-24 (NOTE: Do NOT comment on old threads!)

Disclaimer: No Morons were harmed in the making of this Sunday Morning Book Thread. The dimensions of the margins are not what you think...

posted by Open Blogger at 09:00 AM

| Access Comments