Sunday Morning Book Thread - 8-3-2025 ["Perfessor" Squirrel]

HT: sharon (willow's apprentice)

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?

I have some bad news for you this morning. Due to my current life circumstances, I will no longer be able to be the custodian of the Sunday Morning Book Thread for the foreseeable future. I simply do not have the time or energy to maintain it. I do know there are many excellent 'rons and 'ettes out there who can pick up the slack. If interested, you can reach out to CBD or MisHum. Their contact information is in the left hand sidebar of the main page.

I know I am in your prayers, just as you are in mine. I also know God has a purpose for me and is now revealing it to me, though I know not where this path shall take me.

Stay blessed, my dear friends.

BASED BOOK SALE

We're offering a new feature at the Based Book Sale Substack, A Based Books for Male Readers Sale curated by L. Jagi Lamplighter Wright.

Whether you're a father, a fighter, a builder, or just a man looking for stories that resonate with who you are and what you face, the Based Book Sale delivers. This is where you’ll find battle-tested wisdom, thrilling adventures, dangerous ideas, and the kind of timeless values that modern publishing tries to suppress. In a literary world flooded with sensitivity readers, diversity checklist characters, and sanitized stories, this sale is a direct challenge to the decline. We offer books that speak to masculine virtues, moral struggles, and heroic ideals.

The sale ends Tuesday August 5, and as always, all titles are $0.99 or free.

Thanks for supporting indie authors and their Based Books!

Hans

MORON RECOMMENDATIONS

Recently passed author Martin Cruz Smith is known for his Inspector Renko series of mysteries. Arkady Renko is a Russian detective who first appeared in the best seller Gorky Park. The series follows Renko as his fortunes change along with his country. After he solves the inconvenient murder in that book, he is sentenced to a fishery vessel in Polar Star, previously reviewed here, in which he solves the murder of an American. While they are all stand alone novels, they are best read in order as they follow his career.

The third book and subject of this review is Red Square. Renko, now restored as an inspector, returns to a Moscow post collapse, where rubles are worthless and the mob runs the country. A money launderer Renko is trailing is the victim of a car bomb, and Renko must try to get to the bottom of it amidst the corruption in the new Russia, as well as a newly reunited Germany.

In all of the Renko novels, his intuition plays an important role, and he rarely shares his insights with the reader until they become obvious. As you read, you are racing to catch up to the clues. The books also capture the mood of a Russia emerging from the soviet era.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at July 27, 2025 09:14 AM (Vfq+S)

I'm reading Ira Levin's dystopian novel One Perfect Day, about a vast central computer (UniComp) ruling an orderly, uniform, monochromatic society (thanks to whoever mentioned it last week). Very good 70's SF, and puzzlingly one of the few Levine novels not to be made into a movie. The man was a spin-rack paperback god back in the day: Rosemary's Baby, The Stepford Wives, The Boys From Brazil, etc. One Perfect Day would have fit right in with that decade's bleak aesthetic.

"Old cities were demolished; new cities were built. The new cities had taller buildings, broader plazas, larger parks, monorails whose cars flew faster though less frequently.

The free hour was extended by five minutes. Voice-input telecomps began to replace key-input ones, and totalcakes came in a pleasant second flavor. Life expectancy increased to 62.4. Members worked and ate, watched TV and slept. They sang and went to museums and walked in amusement gardens."

Sounds like a fair and equitable paradise!

Thank Uni!

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at July 27, 2025 09:18 AM (kpS4V)

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

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 House of Thunder by Dean Koontz

Anno Dracula 1899 and Other Stories by Kim Newman

The Vision by Dean Koontz

PREVIOUS SUNDAY MORNING BOOK THREAD - 7-27-2025 (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.

&bodytext= HT: sharon (willow's apprentice) 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,...&topic=world_news"> posted by Open Blogger at 09:00 AM

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