Sunday Morning Book Thread - 06-09-2024 ["Perfessor" Squirrel]

(ht: Moron who forgot his nic...)

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...(Now in espresso!)

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

This was sent in by a Moron who has forgotten his current nic:

Good morning to you Perfessor!

Here's a link to an interesting article at Power Line Blog on organizing a library where you get to "start from scratch" as it were.

A WORKING WRITER IN A WORKING LIBRARY

I hope you find it interesting.

As libraries go, it's pretty nice. I'll take it over my current arrangement...though I don't have 3500 books yet...

"ONE BOOK TO RULE THEM ALL" -- ARROGANCE FROM IGNORANCE

...always bet the under...

Earlier this week, I received an email from someone hawking their new book. Now, this didn't come to my AoSHQ email account, or even to my personal work account. No, this came to a departmental email account I monitor. I have no idea how we got on this person's mailing list.

You can read the full email message HERE.

It's a very long message, so I won't rip it to shreds from top to bottom. At its core, the author claims to have found himself "unraveling a mystery that defies conventional boundaries" and that he has found a "scientific proof of love." And that's before you even start reading the message.

He begins by stating that meditation, love, and God are all connected to one another and that this connection is "the ultimate tale, the story of all stories." He also says he's the living embodiment of Frodo, Harry [Potter-PS], or any other crafted hero, which shows that he knows nothing about Tolkien even though he use Tolkienien metaphors. Frodo was NOT the hero in Lord of the Rings (he was a failed hero at best).

Here's a quote from his book demonstrating his complete lack of knowledge of all things Tolkien:

None of us really know Tolkien beyond his literary legacy. Who was he when he wasn't crafting epic tales? What were his daily routines, the nature of his conversations, or the simple pleasures and sorrows of his life? Did he have thoughts he didn't express in any of his books? Did he have feelings he kept to himself? Undoubtedly, he did; Tolkien was much more than just the author of his books. However, we only know the stories and when it comes to The Lord of the Rings, there's no role for Tolkien himself in this tale. So, by sending Frodo to the Undying Lands, he subtly reflects on his own mortality. Tolkien may have left our world, but he explores a kind of immortality through Frodo. Stories never truly fade away, and Frodo's journey will continue to live on somewhere forever..."

(NOTE: I have a library copy of Humphrey Carpenter's Tolkien: A Biography sitting on my office desk right now...It has pictures of a young J.R.R. Tolkien and his wife Edith. She was a beautiful woman. I can see why she was the love of his life.)

He goes on a very lengthy pitch about how he's discovered some form of cosmic meditation that allows him to embrace nothingness on an epic scale and thus become a creator, as all creation stems from nothingness. Or something like that.

My absolute favorite part of this long, long email, is at the very end. I'll leave it for you here without comment.

"Atheists say we are gods unto ourselves."

"Religious people say God helps us."

"Couldn't both statements be equally true?"

Joseph Chad Sycamore - One Book to Rule Them All: A Journey to Reveal Life's Unsolved Mysteries through Meditation

REMINDER ABOUT THE COMMENTS

Although I put some stuff up here about book-related topics that I think may be of interest to you, you are, of course, free to take the conversations in any direction you like. Last week featured extensive discussion about the merits of various Star Trek episodes, alongside conversations about military history. All of that is perfectly OK. I do like conversations to be mostly about books & stories (100 comment rule in effect...) so try to keep most of the political stuff out of the thread, unless it's about a political book, of course. Anyway, the conversations in the comments are far more entertaining than any blather I post at the top of the page....I just post that in case anyone needs a conversation starter...

If anyone wants to send me a guest post, feel free to do so. There are a lot of book genres of which I know next to nothing, so if you have some insights you'd like to share, then I'm happy to post them! Feel free to send me a few paragraphs (300-500 words at most). You can send it to me at perfessor -dot- squirrel -at- gmail -dot- com (you'll need to translate this into proper email address format).

Carry on and have fun!

BOOKS BY MORON ADJACENT AUTHOR

Frequent commenter and Moron Author Wolfus Aurelius sent me a note about a friend of his who has published some books. Sounds like she is also interested in us as well, as Wolfus pointed her to Ace's website...

One of these days I'll have links to my own work for you to consider for the Book Thread. In the meantime, here are links to the current offerings from a fellow local writer, Rosemary Althoff. They straddle the line between fantasy and SF, and have a distinct Christian bent as well. If you think they are worthy of including on a future Book Thread, Rosemary would be thrilled. I've sent her the general URL for Ace's site and suggested she read and join in. Thanks!

Rosemary's newsletter, FYI

Her first novel in her "A Soul's Warfare" series: The Hot Marble

The second: The Cave Chamber

The third: The Horde Edge

MORON RECOMMENDATIONS

Re-reading Daniel Flynn's superb A Conservative History of the American Left. Reminded that an American Communism predated Marx in the delusional "phalanx" community projects of the early 19th century. Fascinating how many leading cultural and political figures became swept up in the Utopian lunacy. At the same time the country's immune system seemed stronger than it is today. Will we ever learn?

Posted by: Ordinary American at June 02, 2024 09:38 AM (8YWAH)

Comment: Will we ever learn? Yes, probably, but many people will die before then, unfortunately. The Left is absolutely committed to destroying our past so that we can't remember, but as long as even a sliver of the knowledge of freedom exists, someone, somewhere will be able to claim it again and restore freedom to its rightful place.

I just started reading 100 Animals That Can F*cking End You by Mamadou Ndiaye.

Folks, if you have never seen this man's YouTube channel "Casual Geographic" you are missing out. And his humor comes through on the book as well.

Posted by: NR Pax at June 02, 2024 09:27 AM (2oSqa)

Comment: Wild animals are just that--WILD. Although that panda bear may be cute and fluffy and look tame, it possesses rather long claws (useful for climbing trees) and is stronger than you are. Orangutans look cute if they are just sitting around eating their lunch, but they can weigh as much as a man and are several times stronger. They can END YOU if you look at them funny. If you see animals out in the wild--particularly large ones like bears or moose--it's best to keep your distance. There are far too many horror stories of people who got close to nature and regretted it--or died. Even the small stuff can be very dangerous, like wasps, spiders, and centipedes (house centipedes are harmless, but they still look creepy). Tree frogs might be colorful, but they possess powerful toxins that native use to coat their darts and spears. Nature is brutal. Have a great day!

This week I picked up Japan's Asian Allies, 1941-45 by Philip Jowett. Jowett is a prolific Osprey Books author, and I own many of his books on Chinese military history.

The book is quick read on the various "collaborator" groups that fought on the side of Imperial Japan, almost always out of mixed motives. As much as the current generation is incapable of nuance, the fact is that if you're a colonialized people, a different bunch of people who show up and offer you guns will get a fair hearing.

Of course, the Japanese didn't offer independence, just a different oppressor and most of the groups faded down the stretch. Jowett apparently has a much longer series of books on the topic, and I intend to grab the one on China.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 02, 2024 09:22 AM (llXky)

Comment: From my own understanding, it sounds like both the Chinese and Japanese were bastards during WWII, at least from the perspective of those they conquered. Both of them will point fingers at the other and say their opponents were worse. The Japanese of today seem different, but I suspect they still harbor long grudges against the Chinese and the Chinese no doubt do the same. Going back centuries, if not millennia. Now, of course, both the Chinese and Japanese are in demographic death spirals, so neither one may be a viable ethnic group in a few more centuries...and in no position to attempt to conquer the world.

I was visiting family over the holiday weekend, thus away from my usual books. When I needed a break from socializing, I grabbed my tablet and dug into my digital comic collection. I settled on reading Dragonlance Classics. Now, I haven't read the original Dragonlance novels since high school, but I can confidently report that the comic book adaptation leaves out a lot of material. They just give the story of individual characters: First Riva Silvercrown, then Kalthanan, then Tanis Half-Elven....It actually works pretty well, until our main character meets another 'major' character who's in the middle of their own quest, which the comic-reader knows nothing about. (cough-Raistlin-cough)

Still, the story has been mostly good. The art equally so. The penciler is experienced: great work on figures and facial expressions. But he clearly comes from a superhero background rather than fantasy, so the dragons and other creatures look a little clunkly. And the coloring is peak cell-shading. Everything is a single block of color, letting the linework deal with shadows and such, but they know how to make the characters distinct from the foreground or background. Good Read.

Posted by: Castle Guy at June 02, 2024 09:57 AM (Lhaco)

Comment: I thought this was interesting commentary on the quality of artwork in comics, as well as an acknowledgement that comics can tell stories equally as well as books. Though as Castle Guy points out, all stories can be flawed... In the original Dragonlance novels, there are no characters names Riva Silvercrown or Kalthanan, so they must be original creations for this comic book series. Tanis and Raistlin, of course, are part of the original party commissioned to return the gods to Krynn. When it comes to Raistlin, I think Larry Elmore perfectly captured his image. It just screams, "Yeah, this high priestess of Paladine [the god of Good] is in love with the most powerful evil sorcerer who ever lived. Whatcha gonna do about it, punk?"

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

Omaha Beach + Normandy landing history books - Links below to PDF's of Official US Army histories of the Omaha Beach attack and the overall Normandy invasion up to the capture of Cherbourg on July 1st. Excellent color maps at the end of each document. More than most here may want to know, but here they are for your perusal.

Omaha Beachhead

Cross Channel Attack

Also, here's the link to the US Army Center for Military History book collections - a LOT of books!

U.S. Army Center of Military History

Posted by: Gref at June 06, 2024 09:06 AM (5fDan)

Comment: Thanks to Gref for posting this on the Morning Report thread this past Thursday!

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.

Brother Odd by Dean Koontz

After the events of the first two books, Odd Thomas decides he needs to retreat from the world for a bit and is able to find sanctuary in a monastery in the California mountains. At first, he finds the peace he desires, but then he begins to see ominous portents of a catastrophe heading towards the monastery. After one of the monks is killed in a brutal way and another disappears, Odd has to unravel the mysteries surrounding this unusual monastery and stop an evil that threatens to undo creation itself.

Odd Hours by Dean Koontz

Odd leaves the monastery to become a wanderer. He's drawn to a small town on the California coast where he meets a young pregnant woman. Upon touching her hand, he sees visions of an immanent apocalypse. Now he only has hours before Armageddon will be unleashed on America. Chased by corrupt cops, Odd struggles to find a way to save not only this small town that has come to mean a lot to him, but also the young woman who needs his help most of all.

JOB: A Comedy of Justice by Robert A. Heinlein

Since my church's men's group decided to study Job this week in our small group meeting, I decided to read Robert A. Heinlein's JOB: A Comedy of Justice. It turns out this doesn't have a whole lot to do with the original story, but it's pretty entertaining anyway. A preacher is swept up into events beyond his understanding as he and his new love interest are transported through parallel worlds, often at the most inconvenient time when Alex/Alec is experiencing a happy moment. Constantly frustrated by these transitions, he struggles to make his way from French Polynesia where all of this began to rural Kansas, where he has roots and may find some answers at last.

It kind of reminds of the 1990s television show Sliders because of how sudden the transitions happen and how the characters of Alex and Margrethe have to readjust after every transition. I also thought it hilarious that the main character was once an undergraduate student at my alma mater, though it's an alternate world variant (he washed out--not good at thermodynamics). I had no idea Heinlein knew my college existed, but there it was in black and white. Pretty cool.

Dragonlance - Defenders of Magic 3 - The Seventh Sentinel by Mary Kirchoff

Lyim survived the collapse of Bastion, the mystical stronghold guarding the passage to the Lost Citadel. He also recovered the use of his arm after it was mangled due to a curse. Now he seeks to destroy the magic of Krynn that he believes has betrayed him. To do that, he will attempt to siphon off the magic from the three gods of magic. Not a very smart plan, as one of the three gods is the god of evil magic. He's not known to be the forgiving sort. Nor is his mother, the Queen of Darkness, the epitome of all Evil. Only one man in the history of Krynn challenged all of the gods and won. Lyim is not that man....

PREVIOUS SUNDAY MORNING BOOK THREAD - 06-02-24 (NOTE: Do NOT comment on old threads!)

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