Sunday Morning Book Thread - 09-29-2024 ["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...

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 VIDEO NOTE

We have a video entry this morning. GO WATCH IT NOW!

It's one of the most amazing homes and libraries I've ever seen. And yes, there is a library kitty.

According to Pete, it has around 3,500 volumes, many of which were inherited from his father and his uncle, who were both into military history (a Horde favorite!).

ATTENTION ALL MORON AUTHORS!

Moron Author OrangeEnt is embarking on a new writing project and needs your help!

Anyone interested in working on a group story? I've started an epistolary, attached below. It can be a short story, a novella, or a full length novel. I know this has been done before with mixed results, but perhaps we can do what others haven't. If you're interested in participating, just post "I'm in." Writers will go in order of replies. I'll wait a week or so to see how many are willing, just because some people only get a digest or weekly report on posts and I don't want anyone left out. There are only a couple of guidelines. At this point, it appears to be a murder mystery. A character, Shadow Stalker, claims to be killing ten people, and the first one's dead already. It can go from comic to hard-boiled to police procedural. The apparent villain can be evil, or turn out to be a vigilante punishing criminals, whichever way the story wants to go. The setting is around a resort town in fall in either the late 40s or early 50s. Close enough to a big city to allow more access to information or victims. Therefore, no cell phones, no computers, or anything to make it easy. You can use newspaper stories, police reports, interviews, transcripts of radio broadcasts, etc. The opening has a newspaper story and case notes of a private detective, Richard Allen. Introduce whatever characters you want, but if using letters from Stalker, always follow the format of his first letter, ending with: "One down and nine to go, (Mr., Mrs., Miss., Deceased's name)" Current characters: Richard Allen, PI; Annie, nicknamed "Sweetface," his answering service; Chief Daly, police chief; officer Burns. This could be fun.

Here is the Word doc he's using to kick this off. You can reach out to OrangeEnt at Maildrop62-at-protonmail-dot-me. He can add you to the AoSHQ Writers' Group site so that you can collaborate more productively than via email...

BOOKS BY MORONS

Moron Author Gene Alexander has a new book out about a family struggling with fertility issues:

I have a new novel out on Amazon, Just Put Chuck Vindaloo. The Amazon blurb:

The fertility complex. The adoption bureaucracy. Clashing cultures. Crazy parents. A funny story about building family and finding faith.

Sarah and James are put through the fertility system wringer, with some comedic and some tragic results. They begin navigating the open adoption system, with similar initial results. Eimann is from a strict immigrant family, who rebels and inadvertently becomes pregnant. Through her faith, she decides on open adoption, but must hide her pregnancy from her family. Sarah and James match with Eimann, who moves into their home to maintain her secret. James's crazy family drops in to help, and things start to go off the rails when the baby does not come when due.

This is my second self-published novel, written as a screenplay and then converted to novel format using ChatGPT. Thanks for all you do.

Gene Alexander

MORON RECOMMENDATIONS

I've been tempted out of my lurking lair to recommend Lilian Jackson Braun's "Cat Who" series for cozy reading. There is a cat who is instrumental in solving the mystery yet he never does anything that is beyond the possible for any normal cat. I have read and re-read all of them except the last one, which was not completed by Jackson Braun and readers vehemently rejected.

Posted by: PennaLady at September 22, 2024 11:50 AM (QWHhD)

Comment: I've never read any of those books, though my mother did--I remember her bringing quite a few of those home from the library when I was younger. I didn't know an actual cat was solving mysteries. I thought it was maybe a nickname or something. It's a shame that the last book didn't sit well with readers. That's often the challenge when an uncompleted work is finished by another author--how do they do the original author justice?

I also read Jack Carr's latest, Red Sky Mourning. James Reece has help from Alice, a quantum computer, to defeat the Chinese and a traitorous American businessman. Many thrilling scenes as always, and as always when I finish one of Carr's books I'm asking myself how much of this technology and how many of these government programs really exist?

Posted by: Zoltan at September 22, 2024 09:36 AM (bcrtw)

Comment: Hmmm...A quantum computer named "Alice." Shades of Wonderland, perhaps? I also enjoy novels that are somewhat plausible, though maybe we're not quite there yet. Then again, if it's a top secret project/technology, how would we know? Unless some idiot spills the beans to the equally idiotic media?

Last week at the college library, I found a series titled A History of the American Colonies, which is exactly what it sounds like. Thirteen volumes, one for each colony.

So far, I like it. Written in the 70s and early 80s, so maybe a bit heavy on the economic determinism, but it focuses on how people actually lived and what they did, rather than all the race class gender nonsense.

Posted by: Dr. T at September 22, 2024 09:20 AM (lHPJf)

Comment: I was unable to find this series of books in my own university library. Still, it sounds like a decent read if you are looking for a description of what life was like back then.

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.

Aquasilva Book 1 - Heresy Anselm Audley

Stephen Baxter's Moonseed was an incredibly grim book, as the Earth is effectively destroyed by an alien nanovirus. I needed something lighter and cheerier. So I settled on this book, which has been in my library for decades but I've never read.

It's about a young man who is caught up in a religious war between the Domain, the dominant faction that worships an elemental fire god, and the other lesser, factions who support the other elements (water, earth, air, light, and shadow). The Domain is ruthless and efficient in suppressing alternate religions. Cathan is forced to become an agent of change that will eventually break the hold the Domain has on the rest of the world.

Sandman Slim Book 9 - The Kill Society Richard Kadrey

Sandman Slim (a.k.a. James Stark) is *mostly* dead. At least, he's dead enough to end up in the Tenebrae, a sort of half-life between Heaven and Hell where those who are too afraid to pass on eke out a meagre existence. In some ways, it reminds me of Jim Butcher's Ghost Story, though Harry Dresden is very different from James Stark.

PREVIOUS SUNDAY MORNING BOOK THREAD - 09-22-2024 (NOTE: Do NOT comment on old threads!)

Tips, suggestions, recommendations, etc., can all be directed to perfessor -dot- squirrel -at- gmail -dot- com.

posted by Open Blogger at 09:00 AM

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