Saturday, December 14, 2013
The Human Division -- John Scalzi
Since this book is set in what's called "The Old Man's War Universe," it helps to have read the previous novels in the series, but it's not necessary. What you need to know is that there's a Colonial Union (humanity) that's been keeping a lot of secrets from Earth. There's the Conclave (every other race in the universe) that's not happy with the CU and is trying to get Earth to join it. The Human Division is primarily about a diplomatic team that's working with alien races to make them allies of the CU or at least make them lean in that direction.
I quite enjoyed this book. It's what I think of as being a lot like the Good Old Stuff, and I also like to think that John W. Campbell would have published each of the stories in Astounding in the '50s. It has a lot of the things Campbell liked: smart, competent humans who usually come off well in their encounters with aliens; attractive, courageous, quick-witted characters (aliens and humans alike); a readable style; humor and sentiment. Some of the stories play out familiar tropes (single combat, for example, in the first coda), but they're well done and fun. Here's my only caveat. This seems never to have been designed as a standalone novel. The overarching mystery behind the attacks on the CU ships is never resolved. Scalzi says he's writing another book to follow this one, and I think that was his secret plan all along. If you don't like books that leave you hanging, then you might want to skip The Human Division, but you'll be missing out on some good reading if you do.
Once Again Texas Leads the Way
Mail Online: Two 107-old-year WWII veterans meet for the first time to have lunch and discuss fighting in the Pacific.
Richard Overton and Elmer Hill, both 107 and from Texas, met for lunch on Friday.
Hill is just three months younger than the older man Overton and Hill fought in the Pacific during World War II, but hadn't met.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Richard Overton and Elmer Hill, both 107 and from Texas, met for lunch on Friday.
Hill is just three months younger than the older man Overton and Hill fought in the Pacific during World War II, but hadn't met.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
But Soylent Green is . . .
. . . oh, wait, you mean this isn't green? Could Soylent solve world hunger?
Mac McGarry, R. I. P.
TV quiz show host Mac McGarry dies at 87: The 'It's Academic' host appeared on the Saturday morning show from 1961 to 2011, asking more than 200,000 questions of students throughout his career.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Friday, December 13, 2013
First It Was the Thin Mints Melee. . .
Stuff.co.nz: A chainsaw-wielding man wearing fishnet stockings chased a Mr Whippy van down the street after a stag party got out of hand.
Free for Kindle for One Day Only
Amazon.com: Salechii: A Shark Park that is a fun, safe environment to learn about sharks, what could go wrong? (Book 1 in the Apex Predator Thriller Series) eBook: Carolyn McCray: Kindle Store: **Warning, if you ever hope to swim in the ocean again, this book is NOT for you! From the #1 bestselling author in Action/Adventure, Men's Adventure, Techno-thrillers, War, And Thrillers, Carolyn McCray comes the next greatest thing since Jaws!
A shark-fest for all of you Jaws, Jurassic Park, Shark Week and Sharknado lovers!
A Whole Bunch of Lists I'm Not On
Who is Bigger?: We have developed computational methods to measure historical significance through analysis of Wikipedia and other data sources. We rank historical figures just as Google ranks webpages, by integrating a diverse set of measurements about their reputation (including PageRank, article length, and readership) into estimates of their fame, explained by a combination of achievement (gravitas) and celebrity. We correct for the passage of time in a principled way, so we can fairly compare the significance of historical figures of different eras.
FFB: The Unauthorized Lord of the Rings
The Unauthorized Lord of the Rings The essay at the link above does a nice job of telling the story of how Ace came to publish the first U. S. paperbacks of the LOTR trilogy and of how Ballantine came to take over the market with its own editions.
Back in 1965, I knew nothing about this controversy. One day when I was standing in a supermarket checkout line in Denton, Texas, I spotted the second volume of the Ace edition in a little rack of paperbacks intended to entice impulse shoppers. When it comes to books, I'm one of those. I know you're surprised to hear that.
Anyway, the Jack Gaughan cover of The Two Towers called out to me. I wasn't a kid anymore, but that cover bypassed any adult parts of my brain and went straight to the old "sense of wonder" portion of it that remained. I grabbed the book and bought it even though it wasn't the first volume in the series. I figured I'd find the first one soon enough. I did, and I found the third one, too. That's how I came to read the unauthorized edition of the trilogy.
No matter what you think of the Ace editions otherwise, I think we can all admit that the covers are far superior to those on the Ballantine paperbacks. I still have those Ace editions today, and I still love the covers.
Thursday, December 12, 2013
Mr. Teeth Update
Jail time for man with pot-guarding croc: Castro Valley man who kept a 5-foot-long reptile named "Mr. Teeth" to guard his stash of marijuana has been sentenced to four months in jail, authorities said Thursday.
Hat tip to Art Scott.
Hat tip to Art Scott.
Vintage Greenleaf Classics Books
Vintage Greenleaf Classics: This on-line checklist is based on an almost complete collection of Greenleaf Classics vintage paperback books. The physical collection is maintained by Bob Speray, with Bruce Brenner, as photographer and cataloger. Find out more about the 30 year history of building the collection and creating the data set - it's a great story over on the History of the Greenleaf Classics Book Collection page.
This is a great new website that has pretty much everything about vintage Greenleaf Classics imprints that you ever wanted to know. It's searchable, too. And the covers, well, they're great. They're also Not Safe for Work. Take a look at the site and you might find yourself spending a lot of time there, searching for books your favorite authors wrote under pseudonyms. I'm not guaranteeing the accuracy of all of them, but it's great fun to try to decide about them.
I Miss the Old Days
Read All About It: 1942 Paul di Filippo posted this (click on the photo to enlarge) to a list I'm on, and oh to be standing there with a hundred bucks in my hand!
Wednesday, December 11, 2013
First It Was the Thin Mints Melee. . .
. . . and, as usual, Texas leads the way.
Texas man: My roommate beat me up and left me naked in a ditch: A Texas man told authorities he was left naked in a ditch for hours after being ambushed by his roommate and co-worker following an argument over their neighbor’s dog.
Texas man: My roommate beat me up and left me naked in a ditch: A Texas man told authorities he was left naked in a ditch for hours after being ambushed by his roommate and co-worker following an argument over their neighbor’s dog.
Free for Kindle for a Limited Time
Gumshoe is the short, sharp story of Peter Ord, a divorced teacher who decides to become a private detective in fading 'one-whore-town' somewhere in the north-east of England. Dark farce and tragicomedy ensue.
New Story by Lew Shiner
Read it for free (and I like the name of the illustrator, too).
Friedrich the Snow Man by Lewis Shiner
Friedrich the Snow Man by Lewis Shiner
First It Was the Thin Mints Melee. . .
. . . and now it's the Figure Skating Feud!
Bunny butchered in cut-throat figure skating feud
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Bunny butchered in cut-throat figure skating feud
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Pimpage: An Occasional Feature in Which I call Attention to Books of Interest
Amazon.com: Home For the Haunting: A Haunted Home Renovation Mystery eBook: Juliet Blackwell: Kindle Store No good deed goes unpunished.San Francisco contractor Mel Turner is leading a volunteer home renovation project, and while she expects lots of questions from her inexperienced crew, she can’t help asking a few of her own—especially about the haunted house next door…the place local kids call the Murder House.
But when volunteers discover a body while cleaning out a shed, questions pile up faster than discarded lumber. Mel notices signs of ghostly activity next door and she wonders: Are the Murder House ghosts reaching out to her for help, or has the house claimed another victim?
Now, surprised to find herself as the SFPD’s unofficial “ghost consultant,” Mel must investigate murders both past and present before a spooky killer finishes another job.
Cry in the Night -- Carolyn Hart
Sheila Ramsay is an Egyptologist, but when the museum she works for gives her an opportunity to return a valuable Aztec to a family in Mexico City, she jumps at the chance. Not because she wants to study the Mexican pyramids but because she met an angry but fascinating young man at a conference and hopes to see him again.
You won't be surprised to learn that when she arrives in Mexico City, she discovers that things are not what they had seemed. The family she stays with has secrets (there's that cry in the night), but there's worse. Someone's threatened to kill her, and she has no idea why. All she's done is deliver the manuscript, even the family doesn't seem much interested in it, nor does anyone else.
Throw in lots of local color, a generous helping of romance, and a twisty plot that involves a hugely valuable treasure. Hart mixes them all into a fast-moving story that shows her mastery. If you're thinking it's a cozy, you're thinking wrong. Check it out.
Now This Is a Fragrance
50 Essential Historical Fiction Books
AbeBooks: 50 Essential Historical Fiction Books: With Eleanor Catton's 2013 Booker Prize for The Luminaries falling so closely on the heels of Hilary Mantel's wins in 2009 and 2012, for Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies respectively, interest historical fiction has never been higher. No longer dismissed as bodice-rippers rife with anachronisms or dreary textbooks dressed up in barely discernible plots, historical fiction is gaining the respect of critics and readers alike, regularly appearing on shortlists for major literary awards and on bestseller lists around the world.
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
Both Free for Kindle for a Limited Time
Amazon.com: Loss (Gus Dury 3) eBook: Tony Black: Kindle Store: Gus Dury is a changed man. He is off the Edinburgh streets and back with estranged wife, Debs. He has promised her that he won't get involved in any more dodgy cases which the police can't or won't solve. And above all, he's off the drink. In his pocket at all times is a half bottle of Scotch, but although the label is worn to shreds, he has never so much as loosened the cap. Then his brother Michael is found dead with a bullet in his heart and Gus's life begins to unravel all over again. How can he keep the promises he has made and still avenge his brother's murder? Tony Black's third novel about washed-up hack turned private investigator, Gus Dury, is absolutely gripping - a labyrinth of violence, secrets and emotion.
http://www.amazon.com/Long-Time-Dead-Gus-Dury-ebook/dp/B00H7YFT58/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&tag=ama-prod-id-20&ie=UTF8&qid=1386697888&sr=1-1&keywords=tony+black+gus+dury+long+time+dead: Gus Dury is back on the drink. While in hospital after a hit-and-run accident, his best friend, Hod, asks him to investigate the ritual, on-campus hanging of an Edinburgh University student. The murder victim's mother is a high-profile actress, who has promised a big-money reward. Gus, desperate for money, goes undercover at the university, taking a janitor's job, and soon uncovers a similar ritualistic hanging which took place in the '70s. Few of the students are prepared to talk about it - until another one of their group turns up dead by the same method. But Gus now moves into very dangerous waters as he begins to discover what and who is really behind it all - and he becomes the next target for the executioner.LONG TIME DEAD is the fourth novel in the Gus Dury series, crime writing that hits you like a shot of whisky and aims straight for the gut...
Eleanor Parker, R. I. P.
RealClear: Oscar-nominated actress Eleanor Parker, best known today for her role as the Baroness, the lady friend of Captain Von Trapp who loses out to Julie Andrews' Maria in 1966 film "The Sound of Music," died Monday morning due to complications from pneumonia at a medical facility near Palm Springs, Calif. She was 91.
Overlooked Movies: Carry On Nurse
The setting of the movie is a hospital, as you might have surmised, and it's mostly set in one ward of the hospital. We learn the stories and problems of the various patients, one of whom is a newspaper reporter who agrees to write an article about his experiences and who falls (as who wouldn't) for Shirley Eaton. There's a Matron (sort of Nurse Ratched lite) who causes problems for everyone.
I remember two main things about the movie, the big scene where the men on the ward get drunk and decide to remove a bunion from one of the patients when his doctor fails to do so, and the final scene of the movie, which was unforgettable mainly because I'd never seen anything like it in an American movie. I can still see it, plain as day. I don't know how the movie would hold up today, but I suspect I'd still get a kick out of it. It's slapsticky, but, after all, I still laugh at The Good Humor Man.
Monday, December 09, 2013
Pimpage: An Occasional Feature in Which I call Attention to Books of Interest
The Wrong Quarry -- Max Allan Collins
Which brings us to The Wrong Quarry, the latest novel to feature the Viet Nam vet and professional hit man. If you've been keeping up with the books, you know that Quarry is no longer employed by the Broker and is now on his own with a new venture. Instead of hitting people on whom there's a contract, Quarry now cuts a deal with the target and will, for a fee, hit the hitters. This time he's in a small town in Missouri, where someone has put out a contract on a dance instructor. Quarry makes his usual deal, but something doesn't seem right about it. And something isn't, but it's not my job to tell you what. That's for you to find out.
Quarry's his usual self, irresistible to women (there's a good bit of sex in this one), and he even hooks up with an aspiring writer who's very affectionate. Quarry's the consummate professional for the most part (I got a good laugh out of the last line of Chapter 13) and as cold-blooded as ever. You could say I'm a fan of the series, since I've read all the preceding books, so naturally I enjoyed this one. But I think that you could pick up this book even without having read any of the others and find yourself right up to speed within a few pages. After that, strap in and enjoy the ride. It's a good one.
Edouard Molinaro, R. I. P.
NYTimes.com: Edouard Molinaro, who received an Oscar nomination for directing the 1978 French film “La Cage aux Folles,” which was remade in the United States as “The Birdcage” and as a Broadway musical, died on Saturday in Paris. He was 85.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
New Poem at The 5-2
The 5-2 | Crime Poetry Weekly, Annual Ebooks - Gerald So, Editor: Kathleen Shaw
STRANGER
Sunday, December 08, 2013
The Blacklin County Files
The Blacklin County Files is being featured at The Fussy Librarian, a new website that offers personalized ebook recommendations. You choose from 40 genres and indicate preferences about content and then the computers work their magic. It's pretty cool -- check it out! www.TheFussyLibrarian.com
It's On!
Paris Hilton threatens Lindsay Lohan on Instagram after brother Barron Hilton is attacked
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
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