Sunday Morning Book (and FWP) Thread - 4-27-2025 ["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 (DON'T PANIC!). 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?

Today's FWP is that my home internet has been down since Wednesday. I contact my ISP and it's a problem with the cable at the node that services my street/neighborhood. The could not give me an estimate on when they expect to have it fixed. If it's not fixed within a week, then it's time to shop around for a new ISP, I think. A new one in my area is offering 3x the speed at the same price, which is very tempting, even though I really don't need 1Gb internet.

Thus, today's Sunday Morning Book Thread will be an abbreviated version. Less calories, but hopefully still filling in some way.

PIC NOTE

California Girl (NOT CaliGirl) sent me the pic above. It's of a library in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, supposedly the oldest library in the state. Although the chairs don't look very comfortable, I still find the space to be cozy and warm. I could camp out there for a few hours if I could find a comfortable seat.

MORON RECOMMENDATIONS

Since I was forced to slow down this past week, I decided to dig into the TBR pile. I started on "Room 39: A Study in Naval Intelligence" by Donald McLachlan. Published in 1968, it's the story of the naval war, mostly in the North Atlantic thus far, from the perspective of the British naval intelligence services. I'm sure there are more modern books on the subject, but I'm really enjoying this. Not only is it well-written, but the book itself is printed on paper that is impossibly thick by modern standards. It also has that "old book" scent that smells like some long-undisturbed section of an archive just waiting to be rediscovered.

Posted by: PabloD at April 20, 2025 09:12 AM (57fkQ)

Comment: I love that "old book" smell. One of the books I bought this past week (see below) has that smell, as it was published around 80 years ago.

I am slowly whittling away the stack of to-be-read books on the bedside table. I finished Chamberlain's Clementine in the Kitchen (which was a recommend from this book thread), but started on a new book, bought because of a comment on another book discussion: Jack Couffer's memoir "Bat Bomb" - which reads more like a comic romp than a memoir. But it is a bit of real WWII history - a wholly insane-sounding plan to drop bombs on Japan's cities - bombs containing live bats fitted with tiny incendiary bomblets. The plan was that the bats would fly off, nest in various roofs and crannies, the incendiary bombs would go off and Japan's wood and paper buildings would burn ... It was a top-secret plan, and the author was one of the youngest persons involved. The writing is very good, lively and funny. A heck of a movie could be made of their efforts, that is, if anyone in Hollywierd had any sense at all.

Posted by: Sgt. Mom at April 20, 2025 09:38 AM (Ew3fm)

Comment: I vaguely recall a madcap plan to do this to Japan's highly flammable cities. Didn't think they actually tried to follow through with it. Also, won't somebody think of the poor bats? They didn't sign up to be suicide squad.

MORE MORON RECOMMENDATIONS CAN BE FOUND HERE: AoSHQ - Book Thread Recommendations

WHAT I'VE ACQUIRED THIS PAST WEEK:

• Commonwealth Saga Book 1 - Pandora's Star by Peter F. Hamilton -- Another 1,100+ page doorstopper.

The university library in which I work, but do not work for, held it's annual spring book sale this past week. Naturally, I picked up a few books for a low, low price:

• The Original Hitchhiker Radio Script by Douglas Adams
• Bookburners by Max Gladstone, Margaret Dunlap, Mur Lafferty, and Brian Francis Slattery
• Blood of the Martyrs by Naomi Mitchison -- mmmm...that old book smell!
• Infernal Devices by K.W. Jeter
• Science Fiction: What It's All About by Sam Lunwall (translated from Swedish into English by the author)
• Galilee by Clive Barker
• King of Ashes by Raymond E. Feist
• Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
-- I figured I might as well pick this up and read it one day...
• Dark Sun - Chronicles of Athas Book 3 - The Broken Blade by Simon Hawke
• The Faded Sun: Kesrith by C.J. Cherryh
• Chung Kuo: The Middle Kingdom by David Wingrove
• Isle of Destiny by Kenneth C. Flint

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.

Guardians of the Flame Book 3 - The Silver Crown by Joel Rosenberg

Guardians of the Flame Book 4 - The Heir Apparent by Joel Rosenberg

Commonwealth Saga Book 1 - Pandora's Star by Peter F. Hamilton

PREVIOUS SUNDAY MORNING BOOK THREAD - 4-20-2025 (NOTE: Do NOT comment on old threads!)

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

Disclaimer: No Morons were physically harmed in the making of this Sunday Morning Book Thread. It's all fun and games until your internet goes away...

posted by Open Blogger at 09:00 AM

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