Books and literature recommendations

Movies, books, music, and all the arts go here.
Give us your recommendations and reviews.
Jarlaxle
Posts: 5370
Joined: Sun Apr 25, 2010 4:21 am
Location: New England

Re: Books and literature recommendations

Post by Jarlaxle »

Econoline wrote:
Fri Jun 11, 2021 5:21 am
Scooter - ?????

I haven't read this trilogy but now that I know of its existence, it's on my "to do" list. I've read and enjoyed many other works by Harry Harrison. From what I've been able to gather, it's not so much pro-Confederacy as anti-British, with the CSA re-uniting with the USA to battle a common enemy. It's no more "pro-Confederacy" than The Man in the High Castle is "pro-Nazi".

:shrug Or maybe you just don't get the whole concept of "Alternative History"?
Don't worry...I doubt Scooter has read it, either. It is DEFINITELY not "pro-Confederacy".

It's not complimentary to the British...though that might be due in part to Harrison's father being Irish, and his living a large part of his life in Ireland.

Jarlaxle
Posts: 5370
Joined: Sun Apr 25, 2010 4:21 am
Location: New England

Re: Books and literature recommendations

Post by Jarlaxle »

Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child's latest Pendergast book is our, Bloodless. WOW!

Jarlaxle
Posts: 5370
Joined: Sun Apr 25, 2010 4:21 am
Location: New England

Re: Books and literature recommendations

Post by Jarlaxle »

Finished Bloodless. Catching up on Eric Flint's Ring of Fire series...just finished 1636: The Ottoman Onslaught.

Burning Petard
Posts: 4050
Joined: Fri Feb 12, 2016 5:35 pm
Location: Near Bear, Delaware

Re: Books and literature recommendations

Post by Burning Petard »

As I wrote in an other thread, I have been binge reading the crime novels of Robeert B Parker. An ecclesiastical friend recommended I try Loise Penny and her Armand Garmache series. I pulled one off the shelf of my local public library. It was #11 in a series currently at 17. Way too much back story and I just could not get into it. Amazon had the first "Still Life" for no cost to me and I tried it. IMNSHO it is worth the time. Convincing look at a culture very different from my own--Quebec, Montreal, and a tiny village near the USofA border. I am now in the middle of #2 Fatal Grace. One character is a very old woman with a very complex personality. She is a nationally known poet and near the beginning of the story she has a book signing at a department store in Montreal. Her latest book poems: "I am FINE"

Chief Inspector Garmache asks the poet about the title: what does FINE mean? The inspector's wife told him that a word in all caps is usually an acronym.

The poet Ruth tells him with great glee, that his wife was the first to catch that. "FINE stands for Fucked up, Insecure, Neurotic and Egotistical. I'm FINE"
"You certainly are," agreed Gamache

My default answer when asked 'How are you?'' is I'm fine. Now I can truthfully say, "I'm FINE"

snailgate

User avatar
BoSoxGal
Posts: 18297
Joined: Tue Apr 06, 2010 10:36 pm
Location: The Heart of Red Sox Nation

Re: Books and literature recommendations

Post by BoSoxGal »

There’s a film version of Still Life that’s not bad.
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
~ Carl Sagan

Burning Petard
Posts: 4050
Joined: Fri Feb 12, 2016 5:35 pm
Location: Near Bear, Delaware

Re: Books and literature recommendations

Post by Burning Petard »

TOO LATE ! BSG. I already have wonderful casting of all the characters of the book, all acting powerfully (sometimes eating the scenery) in my theater of the mind. A cine version would only be a disappointment.

snailgate

User avatar
Gob
Posts: 33642
Joined: Tue Apr 06, 2010 8:40 am

Re: Books and literature recommendations

Post by Gob »

Reading Damien Lewis's WWII SAS books, interesting to read the exploits of some very brave men.
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”

Jarlaxle
Posts: 5370
Joined: Sun Apr 25, 2010 4:21 am
Location: New England

Re: Books and literature recommendations

Post by Jarlaxle »

Obscure one: Sandra Saidak's From The Ashes is excellent.

Jarlaxle
Posts: 5370
Joined: Sun Apr 25, 2010 4:21 am
Location: New England

Re: Books and literature recommendations

Post by Jarlaxle »

BoSoxGal wrote:
Sat Oct 07, 2017 12:55 am
I didn’t know Marcia Clark was writing fiction, I’ll definitely check those out, as well as the Cunningham novels set in RI - thanks for the recommendations!

Keeper of the Keys was very good, I agree!
FYI, new Samantha Brinkman book is out

Jarlaxle
Posts: 5370
Joined: Sun Apr 25, 2010 4:21 am
Location: New England

Re: Books and literature recommendations

Post by Jarlaxle »

About halfwah through 1637: No Peace Beyond The Line, from the Ring of Fire series. Very good.

User avatar
Econoline
Posts: 9555
Joined: Sun Apr 18, 2010 6:25 pm
Location: DeKalb, Illinois...out amidst the corn, soybeans, and Republicans

Re: Books and literature recommendations

Post by Econoline »

read before you die.jpg
People who are wrong are just as sure they're right as people who are right. The only difference is, they're wrong.
God @The Tweet of God

User avatar
MajGenl.Meade
Posts: 20702
Joined: Sun Apr 25, 2010 8:51 am
Location: Groot Brakrivier
Contact:

Re: Books and literature recommendations

Post by MajGenl.Meade »

Image

This crime/mystery/comedy is far from Pointless
For Christianity, by identifying truth with faith, must teach-and, properly understood, does teach-that any interference with the truth is immoral. A Christian with faith has nothing to fear from the facts

User avatar
Gob
Posts: 33642
Joined: Tue Apr 06, 2010 8:40 am

Re: Books and literature recommendations

Post by Gob »

Didn't enjoy that one, de gustibus etc...
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”

User avatar
MajGenl.Meade
Posts: 20702
Joined: Sun Apr 25, 2010 8:51 am
Location: Groot Brakrivier
Contact:

Re: Books and literature recommendations

Post by MajGenl.Meade »

There you go. It helps to be English and over 70 years old. (Instead of Cornwelsh and lively)

How about this then? Image

Not forgetting Mythos and Heroes - just purchased all three. Mythos 85% done, Troy finished and just starting on Theseus in Heroes. Bright stuff
For Christianity, by identifying truth with faith, must teach-and, properly understood, does teach-that any interference with the truth is immoral. A Christian with faith has nothing to fear from the facts

User avatar
Gob
Posts: 33642
Joined: Tue Apr 06, 2010 8:40 am

Re: Books and literature recommendations

Post by Gob »

Enjoyed Mythos, but found it a bit hard going.
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”

User avatar
Bicycle Bill
Posts: 9014
Joined: Thu Dec 03, 2015 1:10 pm
Location: Surrounded by Trumptards in Rockland, WI – a small rural village in La Crosse County

Re: Books and literature recommendations

Post by Bicycle Bill »

Image

I was seeing my dermatologist yesterday.  After my treatment and as he was leaving the exam room, he wished me a 'Merry Christmas', so I started to explain that Christmas wasn't coming any more, based on this meme.  The doctor immediately 'got' the reference (although we did have to explain it to the 20-something-year-old nurse), and then told me about a book entitled "Redshirts" by John Scalzi —

Image
In the prologue, several senior officers of the Intrepid, flagship of the Universal Union, lament the unusually high number of casualties of low-ranking crew members during recent away missions and conclude that they will need more crewmen to replace them.

Docking at a spaceport, the Intrepid takes on five new ensigns including Andrew Dahl, an expert in alien religions and xenobiology.  Dahl quickly discerns that the crew is extremely phobic of being near the senior officers and of going on away missions due to their unusually high fatality rate.  Over the course of several away missions, various crew members suggest that the deaths are due to incompetence, superstition, or cosmic forces, requiring "sacrifices" of some crew members so that others will survive.

After several close calls, Dahl meets Jenkins, a crew member who offers a different theory:  their reality and timeline are under periodic influence of a badly written television show from the past.  As the writers create the plot, characters' free will temporarily ceases in order to progress "the Narrative" of the show.  This is why otherwise good officers occasionally seem incompetent, Ensigns make poor decisions, and the ship has mysterious technology on board to produce last-minute inventions and medicines which would otherwise be impossible to produce.  Jenkins explains that with Dahl and the other Ensigns' otherwise routine duties, their colorful histories will inevitably make them targets of "the narrative" when the writers need "glorified extras" to kill for emotional impact.

The Ensigns kidnap a senior officer and proceed to travel to the past with the mission of convincing them to stop the show.
There's more, but I don't want to spoil the story for anyone else whose curiosity might be piqued.   It's also available as an audiobook, read by Wil Wheaton (Wesley Crusher from 'Star Trek: TNG').

Apparently it's quite good.   It won the Hugo award for Best Novel of 2013, and — unlike a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame — they don't hand those out to just anybody (seriously, the Rugrats characters have a star?!??).   Although it does sound like it has parallels to the fairy-tale manipulations sub-plot in Terry Pratchett's novel, "Witches Abroad", I've already got it on my 'reserve' list through inter-library loan...  it'll give me something to hunker down with during the colder part of winter in late January / early February.
Image
-"BB"-
Yes, I suppose I could agree with you ... but then we'd both be wrong, wouldn't we?

Jarlaxle
Posts: 5370
Joined: Sun Apr 25, 2010 4:21 am
Location: New England

Re: Books and literature recommendations

Post by Jarlaxle »

Taylor Anderson has a new one out: Purgatory's Shore.

Burning Petard
Posts: 4050
Joined: Fri Feb 12, 2016 5:35 pm
Location: Near Bear, Delaware

Re: Books and literature recommendations

Post by Burning Petard »

'How Civil Wars Start' by Barbara F. Walter. (2022) After hearing this author talk on two separate NPR radio programs. I had to get this book [Very possible it was one interview, edited for use in different formats] It has the big view, supported by lots of real world data points, boiled down to understandable action alternatives. The current condition of politics in the USofA, from unpaid local school boards to national cabinet functions, to the POTUS and everything in between, gives me nightmares. I see the nation yearning for the 'Man on a White Horse' to fix it all. To paraphrase Ben Franklin, I conceive of an America that no longer wants to keep the Republic.

The author is personally experienced in back-room politics at the national level, front line chaos and noise and stink, Ivory Tower 'objectivity'. She presents a framework for analysis that indicates the coming civil war in America can be avoided--but it seems unlikely.

I strongly recommend getting it from a library and at least looking at it. Perhaps you will decide to buy, that it is worth your bookshelf space and time to carefully read it. It is on Kindle but not cheap.

snailgate

User avatar
MajGenl.Meade
Posts: 20702
Joined: Sun Apr 25, 2010 8:51 am
Location: Groot Brakrivier
Contact:

Re: Books and literature recommendations

Post by MajGenl.Meade »

Image

Highly readable and relevant to our own times on more than one level (see "We all love puns"). Imperial Chinese policies on opium demonstrate the dictum that history does not repeat itself but it does echo. Likewise the matters of east/west politics and of corrupt officials and business interests.

Drug combat proposals were a mixture of:
1. punish all users with birchings, etc.
2. legalize opium; provide education, treatment plans and hospitals
3. punish and replace all government-employee users; let all others die from their addictions (always more peasants born)
4. execute all users
5. shame all users
6. destroy all paraphernalia
7. destroy all domestic suppliers
8. encourage poppy plantations and make opium a home-grown business

It was the 7th one that was actually beginning to work until things went wrong.

One of the peculiar problems of the "trade" was that the smugglers (Chinese) paid the middle-men (Anglos etc) illegally in Chinese silver. Canton's legal trade was conducted in Mexican/South American Spanish silver coins. Because it was illegal to export Chinese silver, and therefore illegal to receive it, Chinese merchants could not accept Chinese silver in payment for their tea and silk etc. Thus Chinese silver poured out and never came back in business dealings.

Ordinary people earned only copper coins, but had to pay their taxes in silver. As silver went away (and the Latin supply fell due to revolutions), inflation was universally ruinous. The "opium problem" for the Chinese government was less moral and more practical - the loss of silver was destroying the economy and emptying the imperial coffers.

When the demand is high and growing exponentially, punishing the users is not the right answer. It's the supply chain and dealers who must be rooted out.
For Christianity, by identifying truth with faith, must teach-and, properly understood, does teach-that any interference with the truth is immoral. A Christian with faith has nothing to fear from the facts

Jarlaxle
Posts: 5370
Joined: Sun Apr 25, 2010 4:21 am
Location: New England

Re: Books and literature recommendations

Post by Jarlaxle »

Jarlaxle wrote:
Thu Jan 13, 2022 7:29 am
Taylor Anderson has a new one out: Purgatory's Shore.
And the sequel, Hell's March.

Post Reply