Sunday Morning Book Thread - 03-17-2024 ["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. 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...(Irish kittens sold separately)

So relax, find yourself a warm kitty (or warm puppy--I won't judge) to curl up in your lap, enjoy a corned beef sammich, and dive into a new book. What are YOU reading this fine morning?

PIC NOTE

Since today is St. Patrick's day I tried to search for "St. Patrick's Library" and came up with the National Library of Ireland. Those of you (and me, I guess) of Irish descent may be interested to know that one of the services they provide is a Family History Service. You can apply for free access to their geneaology subscription sites in the reading rooms that will help you trace your lineage.

WHAT HAPPENED TO BARNES & NOBLE?

The new Head Guy at B&N has tried to save the company from ruin by giving store managers much more discretion is what they stock and what they push. The idea is that the manager of the store in Tulsa probably knows what people in Tulsa are reading better than some blue-haired fool at the main office.

For some reason "Tulsa" is a very hard word to type.

Posted by: Trimegistus at March 10, 2024 10:46 AM (78a2H)

The nearest Barnes & Noble Booksellers is approximately 90 miles away from my small little town. It's unlikely we will ever get big enough to have one. Whenever I have to go to the "big city" I'd often make a point of visiting them. I always liked the ambience of the store and the smell of the coffee never hurt, even though I don't drink coffee. While digital publishing has become a juggernaut on its own, I think there is still a place for the hometown bookstore (new or used) as people do like to go there and sit and read and just enjoy the atmosphere. B&N giving more discretion to store managers as to what to carry in their inventory means they can cater to their local audience much better. However, since most B&N's are going to be in larger cities, it's not surprising that they would still have a Leftist bias in their selections.

AUTHOR'S PREFERRED READING ORDER

For those of you who have not been initiated into Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere universe, I think he does give a pretty good roadmap for anyone who might be "Cosmere-curious." The Cosmere is a fascinating example of complex world-building. You have lots of stories that may not seem all that related to each other on the surface, but Sanderson weaves them all together into a coherent universe with its own set of laws and rules. Other authors have done similar projects, of course. It seems to be a bit more common in the science fiction genre than in the fantasy genre, but there are examples in fantasy, such as Steven Erickson's Kharkanas trilogy, that takes place in a world that is directly tied into his main world, that of the Malazan Empire. Cordwainer Smith's stories set in the Instrumentality of Mankind would also qualify, as does Larry Niven's Known Space stories. Many of these established universes have lengthy timelines (sometimes millions of years) and you can easily pick up any of the stories at any point without having to concern yourself with what came before.

BOOKS BY FRIENDS OF MORONS

Established Moron Author Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (or MP4 for short) sent me the following about a book written by a friend of his:

Perfessor,
May I ask for a mention on the Book Thread for a friend of mine? Her name is Dorrie-Lenore Parsons and the book is Becoming Hazel, which is slated as book 1 in the Inherited Treasures series.

The plot is based on her great-grandmother's pictures and letters and is the story of Hazel Cunningham, a young woman from Michigan who is determined to make her own way and live her own life in the early 20th century. It's a clean book, suited for all ages, and Dorrie is (though I say it) a gifted storyteller. I think this is a perfect book for one of the Moronettes to read on a lovely spring day. The kindle version is not out as I write this, but should be by the end of the week.
https://tinyurl.com/ms388dpk

MP4

NOTE: The paperback version is also available in addition to the Kindle edition.

ODDS & ENDS

Aspiring Moron Author OrangeEnt has a couple of things to share with you today:

I've received a couple e-mails from members who say they can't log in to ALH. I've asked one or two to try it, but they haven't responded. Can you put something in the BT? I'm going to make a post about it, and all they have to do it respond to the post if they can. I'm not sure how widespread it is, and the help center ain't of much "help." They don't need to e-mail me, just reply "in" on the thread.

Thanks,

OrangeEnt

And a recommendation:

Read Johann Dohla's diary, a German soldier sent to America to fight for England.

It's titled: A Hessian Diary of the American Revolution.

A few years ago, watching a Townsend's video, Jon Townsend referred to parts of a diary from a Hessian soldier during the Revolution. I found a copy in my local library and began to read it as wife and kid participated in story time. After a couple of weeks, the book disappeared from the shelves, and was no longer listed in the catalog.

With help here on the Book Thread, I was finally able to find it on archive.org. It's available on Bezos' site, but archive.org is free.

Johann Conrad Dohla entered the service of the evil GRIII, and was shipped to America. He started his diary from when his services were sold to King George from his prince in Anspach-Beyreuth. He included his travel across Europe, his voyage to America, and his time here, to his return home and release from service. He made traditional diary type entries concerning his whereabouts, the food, the pay, and the battles he either heard about or participated in. Considering all the deprivations the American troops faced, you'd think the enemy would have a better time of it, but they faced some of the same troubles - bad food, missing pay, criminal compatriots, punishments, and the like. Unlike some others, he doesn't seem dismissive of the Americans. He doesn't have any bad words to say about either loyalists, or Patriots. Some of the battle reports seem like he undercounts casualties, but maybe the numbers were smaller than we think because of the numbers of troops involved in modern war. He does get repetitive in describing places. They all are beautiful, well-laid out, etc. He was at Yorktown and was made captive for nearly two years. Strange to note was that the prisoners were allowed to go off and look for work in the surrounding areas without guard, then return for confinement. Probably because people were more honorable then.

All-in-all, an interesting look into the Revolutionary Period from the eyes of the other side. Definite recommendation if anyone's interested in the times.

Back in those days, a soldier's life was probably more-or-less the same, regardless of which side of the war one was fighting. Being a professional soldier was just something one did as a way to get out of the house and maybe earn a living until one day your ticket gets punched while fighting in a war that may or may not concern you. Sounds like Johann was just a man doing the job he was paid to do and didn't have any real animosity towards his "enemies" because he saw them as no different from himself. An odd sort of empathy, but I suspect it was fairly common for his type of soldiering.

Finally, we have this brief announcement from Hans G. Schantz:

The Based Book Sale has moved to Substack.

Authors can sign up now for the next sale which will be March 27 through April 3.

Readers can sign up to be notified when the sale goes live.

As The Federalist observed, conservative guerrilla marketing like the 'Big Based Book Sale' is how we fight leftist gatekeepers.

MORON RECOMMENDATIONS

In other news, I finished St. Augustine's Confessions and I've got mixed reviews. The best part for me, was his autobiography, which was wonderful to read. For the first time in a while, I stayed up because I couldn't put it down.

Alas, the remainder of the books is a deep meditation on theology, in part a rebuttal to Manicheanism. This is interesting, but in a different way, and it wasn't something I could breeze through. Reading more than 10 pages at a time was difficult because of way he was drawing everything out.

It is good stuff, foundational to the faith, and I got quite a bit out of how his points that the Bible is written in such a way that there are situations where there can be different interpretations and they might all be false - or true.

It's also clear that Tolkien knew the work well, because one of St. Augustine's questions was about sound vs song and could the first sound have been song? I immediately thought of the Music of the Ainur. The Prof also uses water a lot, and St. Augustine likewise considers it a key part of creation.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 10, 2024 09:18 AM (llXky)

Comment: A long, long time ago, on the same campus where I now work, I took an "Early Western Civilization" class. Unlike a more modern version of the course, our instructor was very keen on introducing us to the original sources. So we read stuff like Plato and Aristotle (though not in the original Greek). We also studied St. Augustine's The City of God. I don't remember much about it, but my lingering impression is that it was quite powerful. St. Augustine is certainly one of the most influential figures within the establishment of Christianity.

Recently I read my first bit of Lady Mechanika. A comic book, and a somewhat modern one. There are a half-dozen books available on Amazon (some of them quite cheap) and each book appears to be its own separate adventure. The story is set in a steampunk world, or at least a high-tech world with a Victorian culture. The title-character is a lady with mechanical limbs, and no memory of how she acquired them. She's got an inventor-dude sidekick, who is affable but somewhat buffoonish. And she fights crime/tech-monsters in a London-stand-in that in anachronistically diverse.

In short, the book hits all the cliches for insufferable modern storytelling. And yet, it isn't. The book I read (volume 3) was just a standard, well-told (if slightly too short) adventure story. I liked it. And I picked up a few other volumes.

Also, the art is extremely 90s. Elegant, if very lanky figures, and everything is sharp and pointy. And the art is detailed enough to really drive home the steampunk/clockwork aesthetic.

Posted by: Castle Guy at March 10, 2024 09:42 AM (Lhaco)

Comment: Comic books and graphic novels can be quite entertaining ways of passing the time because we essentially get to read through the storyboard of a movie...

Currently re-reading A Practical Guide to Evil. I don't know how many words it is, but I've been working on it for several weeks at least and not quite to the end, and I typically read several books a week. But don't let that put you off - the Guide is outstanding.

Next up, I'll get back to my unread ebook backlog. It's interesting going through these; I've picked up a really eclectic selection of free ebooks over the years. Biography, history, science, SF, cozy mystery, thriller, etc., etc.

Posted by: Mrs. Peel at March 10, 2024 10:00 AM (Y+AMd)

Comment: A Practical Guide to Evil is a rather new format of storytelling--a web serial novel, though it's just a throwback to the original serial novels published in the 1800s. Still, writers who want to reach a wide audience can try writing their stories in this format and shop it around various web forums...Interested readers can then spread the word among the online social communities, which can in turn motivate the author to continue writing a web-based version of the story. Or maybe other writers can collaborate within the same universe.

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.

The Books of Earthsea - The Complete Illustrated Edition by Ursula K. LeGuin

This is part of my "bucket list" of reading materials that I want to complete before I hit a significant milestone birthday this year--I can't stay 29 forever! Malazan was the first on the list and Earthsea is next, though the entirety of the main six books of Earthsea can fit in ONE book of Malazan. LeGuin has a much more compact and reduced writing style in comparison to Erickson. She reminds me a lot of Robert E. Howard, or C.L. Moore, or Lord Dunsany. She doesn't have a lot of characters in her stories. She has excellent descriptive prose for her locations, but she does not go on for pages and pages. She gives you just enough that you can picture the basics in your head and let your brain fill in the details. Her dialogue tends to be straightforward and her plots are fairly uncomplicated. This series was originally written with younger readers in mind.

One of the more interesting things about this series is how it impacted Terry Pratchett's Discworld series much later. It's very clear that he drew upon LeGuin's depictions of wizards and witches when creating his own versions for Discworld (though he was also inspired by Jack Vance, among others).

WHAT I'VE ACQUIRED THIS PAST WEEK:

• Dawnshard: From the Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson -- This is an interquel novel within the much larger Stormlight Archive.

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Disclaimer: No Morons were harmed in the making of this Sunday Morning Book Thread. Rumors of mass executions by shillelagh remain unconfirmed at this time.

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