What book(s) are you reading?

[Joe Molotov]

Got some fresh, new liberal spank material for my nook. Can't wait to reaffirm my biases.

[MrAngryFace]

[Joe Molotov]

On Fox News, the tedious personages of workaday politics are reborn as heroes and villains with triumphs and reversals —  never-ending story lines. And the beauty of it is that Ailes's viewers —  the voters —  are the protagonists, victims of socialist overlords, or rebels coming to take the government back. The viewers, on their couches, are flattered as the most important participants, the foot soldiers in Ailes's army.

[chronovore]

I'm reading Glamorama, which is about fucks and shits and girls with no tits.  I like it!

I had this on my Amazon wishlist for years but I'm worried I've aged past enjoying Ellis.

Considering it seems that even Ellis has aged past enjoying Ellis, that seems likely.

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

This is a very interesting book.  At this point, most people here on The Bore realize that for a couple decades, there was a huge middle class that was formed by things like high tax rates, infrastructure spending, expansion of unions, and the GI Bill.  The book delves into that further, explaining the hard work over the course of several decades it took to create this middle class and why it was so easy to overturn it starting in the 1970s.

[chronovore]

Re-reading RUM PUNCH. God DAMN, but Elmore Leonard can paint a picture with words.

[Eric P]

if anyone wants to read a very fascinating book about how much war suuuuuuuuuuuuuuucked in the Renaissance here you go.  $2 for Kindle today

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009K4Z37W/ref=s9_simh_gw_p351_d0_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-5&pf_rd_r=1X12K2A9X9S0FP3FJ9C0&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1688200422&pf_rd_i=507846

[Eric P]

attention Joe

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IC7C3G2

spoiled for size

spoiler (click to show/hide)

[close]

“From the wells of night to the gulfs of space, ever praise and abundance to the Black Goat of the Woods. Iä! Shub-Niggurath! The Goat with a Thousand Young!”

With this prayer in the ‘The Whisperer In Darkness’, Lovecraft introduced the world to the mighty and terrible Shub-Niggurath, the fertility deity of his then-fledgling Cthulhu Mythos. A being of primal lusts, overwhelming fecundity, and soul-blasting horror, the Black Goat is regularly invoked, entreated, and mentioned in furtive whispers within the pages of most Mythos fiction. And yet, for all that she is a cornerstone of the Mythos, readers encounter her rarely.

Now, with ‘Conqueror Womb: Lusty Tales of Shub-Niggurath’, Martian Migraine Press and editors Justine Geoffrey and Scott R Jones bring you 18 pulpy tales of fertility and fear, hot sex and chilling sacrifice! Stories that squelch, tales that both titillate and terrify, from some of the best writers working in Lovecraftian horror and mind-bending erotica today: Wilum H. Pugmire, Molly Tanzer, Don Webb, Christine Morgan, Kenton Hall, Brian M. Sammons, Jacqueline Sweet, Copper Sloane Levy, Annabeth Leong, and Christopher Slatsky, along with fresh new voices.

From nighted glades where frenzied orgiasts work unholy magic to slick urban dungeons of unbridled pleasure; from fertility clinics to fevered dance clubs; from the misty depths of the past to the unthinkable future, join us as we offer praise and abundance! Iä! Shub-Niggurath!

Table of Contents...
This Human Form – Lyndsey Holder
That Hideous Thing – Ran Cartwright
Unsatisfied – Brian M. Sammons
Mater Annelida – Victoria Dalpe
The Potboiler Sigil – Luke R. J. Maynard
All This For the Greater Glory of the 7th and 329th Children of the Black Goat of the Woods – Molly Tanzer
Babymama – Kenton Hall
Our Child – Annabeth Leong
Boy – Don Webb
Pieces (2) for String Octet – Copper Sloane Levy
The Whisperer in the Vagina – Shon Richards
Obsidian Capra Aegagrus – Christopher Slatsky
Dirtymag – Jonas Moth
With Honey Dripping – Christine Morgan
In the Down Deep Down – Jacqueline Sweet
The Scarlet Scripture – Ambrosius Grimes
Within Your Unholy Pit of Shoggoths – Wilum H. Pugmire
Blossom – Rose Banks
The Conqueror Womb: Parsing Shub-Niggurath (essay) – Scott R Jones

[Joe Molotov]

[fistfulofmetal]

Started reading this book, The Martian. It's about an astronaut that gets stranded on Mars after a series of accidents. The book looks to be a diary of sorts, documenting his last days on the planet.

[Eric P]

I've heard very good things about that book. 

[fistfulofmetal]

I've heard very good things about that book.

the tone is a bit weird. the guy you're following is a cynical everyman and the dichotomy between his technical assessments and the blunt nature of his 'narration" is a bit jarring.

also, I kinda am sick of the "this is a diary of events" trope. it means that we never get to 'see' events as they happen. it's always describing things that have happened. i prefer the former.

but as it stands, i am enjoying it.

[Eric P]

/Film is reporting that Drew Goddard (writer of Cloverfield and director of The Cabin in the Woods) is in talks to do a film adaptation of Andy Weir’s new book The Martian. Goddard will write the screenplay about a man who is stranded on Mars, left for dead by the other people on his crew, who subsequently tries to find a way to get back home.

so it at least sounds like it's in good hands

[Joe Molotov]

Read this collection, and now I'm on to...



I read this guy's other book, Those Across the River, which felt like too much build up and not enough payoff, but I've heard this one is better.

[fistfulofmetal]

Between Two Fires is pretty fantastic.

Also, The Martian gets a lot better as it starts to expand on the story. It moved beyond just the "diary" nature and adds more characters and methods of storytelling.

[chronovore]

Earlier (wayyyy earlier) in this thread, I posted my disappointment in the Jim Butcher Storm Front novel, and someone posited that urban fiction is a stronghold of racist chauvinists. I thought that was a bit strongly worded, but now I'm reading Larry Correia's Monster Hunter Vengeance, which was a $1 download from Audible. He's using a mixed racial background as his protagonist, so I've been cutting him some slack, but between the strong gun-nut/anti-government/libertarian tones and now a pack of "urban" garden gnomes who ape black culture as comic relief, I'm finally seeing the pattern.

Is this really that common a theme?

How is it that it carries through the genre?

[Joe Molotov]

It's funny, because in the Ramsey Campbell anthology I just finished reading, in the introduction he poo-poo'ed his early mythos stories as being the product of a young author that hadn't found his own voice yet, that it was easier to just ape someone else's style that to find your own, but he'd matured beyond all that now. Then we have this anthology, 13 years later (Dark Companions was released in 1982, Made in Goatswood was released in 1995) that has other authors using elements of Campbell's stories and style to ape Lovecraft. And Campbell blessed it by adding a new story of his own.

I guess everybody needs to eat, yo.

[chronovore]

Earlier (wayyyy earlier) in this thread, I posted my disappointment in the Jim Butcher Storm Front novel, and someone posited that urban fiction is a stronghold of racist chauvinists. I thought that was a bit strongly worded, but now I'm reading Larry Correia's Monster Hunter Vengeance, which was a $1 download from Audible. He's using a mixed racial background as his protagonist, so I've been cutting him some slack, but between the strong gun-nut/anti-government/libertarian tones and now a pack of "urban" garden gnomes who ape black culture as comic relief, I'm finally seeing the pattern.

Is this really that common a theme?

How is it that it carries through the genre?

I gave up on Monster Hunter Vendetta. Just really annoying and, after posting my thoughts elsewhere, also got a hit from Charlie Stross, author of one of my favorite modern fantasy novels, The Family Trade series. He mentioned that I should check the source, read up on the author. After 5 minutes of reading Correia's blog, I realized that he wrote himself specifically into a power fantasy with the MHI books, is a line-by-line response troll worth of UseNet's heyday, and has a Libertarian bent so strong that I can't step over it.

In other news, I read Steakley's Armor, and was really surprised that I'd never read it before, nor heard much about it. It's the other side of the coin to Heinlein's Starship Troopers. Both books are about armored troopers fighting bugs in an interstellar war, but focuses more on the psychological effects of combat on an individual, and how it is impossible to defend one's self from what one actually is. Amazing book.

Just started Red Country by Joe Abercrombie. I'm surprised to find it is a sort-of sequel to In Cold Blood, but also happy to see some of my favorite characters from that book return.

[Phoenix Dark]

Armor is really fucking good.

[chronovore]

Armor is really fucking good.

Yeah, I'm kind of surprised how great it was. It also had one of those "Oh, holy shit" moments that made me exclaim it out loud.

There's also something strange about the prose, like it's a '60s or '50s science fiction story, though it was written in '83 or '84.

[Eric P]

reading Operation Paperclip, a massive history about Nazi scientists being smuggled to the Americas

did you know that Nazis were jerks?!

[chronovore]

Got the e-book (Armor), starting on it now. Loved The Forever War, aside from the homophobic stuff. Never actually read Starship Troopers, but I liked the movie.

The movie Starship Troopers is closer to Armor than it is to Heinlein's novel. It's a criticism of the military, where ST is more of a rationalization of a fascist military society.

[Joe Molotov]

Okay, I'm allllmost burnt out, but not quite. I think I've got one or two more anthologies in me before I have to move on.

[Eric P]

reading Operation Paperclip is fascinating.  I knew the broad outlines, but it's amazing just how OK we were with what went down during the war.  Sure, individual people were outraged, but on the whole, the American gov't didn't really seem to have a problem with taking literally mass murderers under its wing.

also, the post war entitlement of Nazi commanders is straight up amazing.  the chapters on their interrogations are just crazy pants.  they essentially figured that they were immune to any sort of prosecution so they'd spend their time blabbing.

nazis. total jerks

[Joe Molotov]

attention Joe

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IC7C3G2

spoiled for size

spoiler (click to show/hide)

[close]

“From the wells of night to the gulfs of space, ever praise and abundance to the Black Goat of the Woods. Iä! Shub-Niggurath! The Goat with a Thousand Young!”

With this prayer in the ‘The Whisperer In Darkness’, Lovecraft introduced the world to the mighty and terrible Shub-Niggurath, the fertility deity of his then-fledgling Cthulhu Mythos. A being of primal lusts, overwhelming fecundity, and soul-blasting horror, the Black Goat is regularly invoked, entreated, and mentioned in furtive whispers within the pages of most Mythos fiction. And yet, for all that she is a cornerstone of the Mythos, readers encounter her rarely.

Now, with ‘Conqueror Womb: Lusty Tales of Shub-Niggurath’, Martian Migraine Press and editors Justine Geoffrey and Scott R Jones bring you 18 pulpy tales of fertility and fear, hot sex and chilling sacrifice! Stories that squelch, tales that both titillate and terrify, from some of the best writers working in Lovecraftian horror and mind-bending erotica today: Wilum H. Pugmire, Molly Tanzer, Don Webb, Christine Morgan, Kenton Hall, Brian M. Sammons, Jacqueline Sweet, Copper Sloane Levy, Annabeth Leong, and Christopher Slatsky, along with fresh new voices.

From nighted glades where frenzied orgiasts work unholy magic to slick urban dungeons of unbridled pleasure; from fertility clinics to fevered dance clubs; from the misty depths of the past to the unthinkable future, join us as we offer praise and abundance! Iä! Shub-Niggurath!

Table of Contents...
This Human Form – Lyndsey Holder
That Hideous Thing – Ran Cartwright
Unsatisfied – Brian M. Sammons
Mater Annelida – Victoria Dalpe
The Potboiler Sigil – Luke R. J. Maynard
All This For the Greater Glory of the 7th and 329th Children of the Black Goat of the Woods – Molly Tanzer
Babymama – Kenton Hall
Our Child – Annabeth Leong
Boy – Don Webb
Pieces (2) for String Octet – Copper Sloane Levy
The Whisperer in the Vagina – Shon Richards
Obsidian Capra Aegagrus – Christopher Slatsky
Dirtymag – Jonas Moth
With Honey Dripping – Christine Morgan
In the Down Deep Down – Jacqueline Sweet
The Scarlet Scripture – Ambrosius Grimes
Within Your Unholy Pit of Shoggoths – Wilum H. Pugmire
Blossom – Rose Banks
The Conqueror Womb: Parsing Shub-Niggurath (essay) – Scott R Jones

Read dis. It was pretty good. Lots of orfices being violated by giant goat cocks, as one would expect, but the editor did a good job of mixinging it up. I especially enjoyed the cute change-of-pace story about the sentient dildo.

[benjipwns]

Was okay, it's basically a book about how Reagan was doing stuff and Thatcher was continually pissed off. The main interesting parts are really less about them and more about the various staffs. Though since all the sources are Thatcher's staff it's mostly about how terrible and naive the Reagan Administration was. And how great the Falklands War is and how horrible Grenada was and how dangerous it was for Reagan to try and negotiate with the Soviets on reducing nuclear arms. And then the book skips ahead and the Cold War is over and Thatcher doesn't like Bush and then it ends.



Kinda meh, not a huge fan of the NPR style human interest story framing. "We're here in Podunk, Iowa where Thomas Allen local furniture maker looks down the road at the new Taco Bell opening. 'You can tell things are changing' he says before turning back to sandpaper his newly built chair."



This is the best of the three, though I'm not finished with it yet and the author sucks off Holmes a little too much. You don't need to start every chapter with a reminder that Holmes was the most brilliant man ever and got shot three times in the Civil War and walked to work every day and no argument could get past him.

[chronovore]

Just finished Joe Abercrombie's Red Country. I enjoyed it much, much more than Best Served Cold, which was my first novel by this author. Several characters from the latter appear in it, and they're welcome additions, but they're thankfully largely ancillary. It's like... okay, pardon me for nerding out here, but it's like being in an RPG and having the DM bring back the group's previous characters as adversaries. Or at least opposing forces.

This book had a similarly dark feeling to the Best Served Cold, but the characters were more likable and there were more chances to laugh. It was enjoyable to watch the way various stories intertwined, and how the various coincidences worked out (or didn't) for all the parties involved.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

I was sad but satisfied with Nicomo Cosca's death. After BSC, I was wondering if the guy was actually secretly immortal, either a god or under the laughing protection of a higher being, kept around for entertainment value.

[close]

[Raban]

this

Franzen is one of my favorite authors so I decided to grab this from my local library and it's a nice enough read. A few of the longer stories in it are basically the "deleted scenes" from articles he's written in various magazines and papers, while others are his earnest musings about things like beginner writers, his friendship with David Foster Wallace, his technophobia, and his perspective on 9/11. It often gets personal to the point that I feel like anyone short of a huge fan of his would be turned off, but I'm enjoying it as a rather one-sided conversation with the guy. It's surprisingly given me a little motivation to write more than just forum posts.

[Barraco Barner]

Didn't see what all the fuss was over this.  Most over-hyped book I've read since White Teeth.



This one makes me want to go out and solve some murders.

[TVC15]

I've recently harnessed the power of The Goetia.

[Joe Molotov]

I've recently harnessed the power of The Goetia.

Aleister Crowley lived into his 70's, so maybe you can hang in there too, breh.

[Phoenix Dark]

Homicide is stunning.

[TVC15]

I've recently harnessed the power of The Goetia.

Aleister Crowley lived into his 70's, so maybe you can hang in there too, breh.

I keep trying to summon

spoiler (click to show/hide)

[close]

but I keep getting

spoiler (click to show/hide)

[close]

[chronovore]

I've been listening to a heap of audiobooks while gardening and farming. Armor was an audiobook. Anne Hathaway's reading of The Wizard of Oz is pretty great. The collection of Vonnegut graduation speeches, If This Isn't Nice, What Is, not so much.

[Joe Molotov]

Mostly newish stuff, but it had this one really wild story from the 70's called Black as the Pit, From Pole to Pole about Frankenstein's Monster and the Hollow Earth Theory, taking place after the events of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, where the monster falls through a hole in the arctic, fights dinosaurs, get married, becomes a god, sails around on a raft, and ultimately pops back up through the other side of the world in Antarctica, where he inadvertantly releases the imprisoned shoggoths that destroy the last of the Elder Things' civilization (the aftermath of which was documented in At the Mountains of Madness).

[Phoenix Dark]

Wut

[Barraco Barner]

Not scary at all and a lame ending. There were a couple of rad poltergeist rape scenes though.



About halfway through this. It's what happens when your sources for 20 year old quotes are salesmen who want to remind you that they were 90's hotshot motherfuckers and totally said that shit.

Remember that one time you had a conversation? It doesn't matter what the nature of the conversation was or even who it was with, but long after the discussion has concluded, some golden zinger just comes to mind. And you think to yourself, "God, I wish I said that!"

This is the book for you.

"Fine, fine," Fischer replied playfully. "Let's have an honest discussion. Rid yourself of the weight of that golden crown and I'll set aside this pesky jester's hat. What is it, specifically, that you'd like to know?"

The merchant gave a gummy smile. "Perhaps one day we'll return to a place where the streets are paved with gold and all you need to succeed is a good idea, a strong work ethic, and some kind of boostraps. Or perhaps we'll continue to move in the opposite direction." The merchant pondered this for a second and then stood. "Personally, I like the place with the golden streets. And believe it or not, I like you, Mr. Kalinske. But my answer is no."

[Kara]

From the footnotes of the book I'm reading.

13. Maupassant's archetype: The reference is to Maupassant's story, "An Idyll," in which a nursing mother shares a railway compartment with a hungry peasant boy. The breasts of the woman, who is traveling without her baby, swell up agonizingly, until the boy gratefully relieves her of her milk.

 

spoiler (click to show/hide)

[close]

[Barry Egan]

More like Mupepe-ant's archetype amirite?

[Joe Molotov]

You are right.

[TVC15]

http://www.amazon.com/Alone-With-Devil-Courtroom-Psychiatrist/dp/0553285203



Something of an oop classic of the genre. Despite how the cover makes it sound, it's not serial killer porn.

[Kara]

This might be my favorite stage direction in the text of a play I've read.

(ELZEVIR throws herself around PIERRE's neck and he kisses her staidly, conscious of his working-class dignity.)

 

[Kara]

Sarah Orne Jewett's prose is absolutely exquisite.

[benjipwns]

Read this:


Reading this:


Same book really. Less violence and polemics in the second one so far.

[Joe Molotov]

Conservatives are poutraged over this book for casting St. Ronnie in a very dim light, so I figure it's probably pretty good.

So far what I've read is that the Nixon administration was really good at using POW's as political props to distract people from how shitty the Vietnam War was going, and then waited until after the election to declare "peace with honor", even though we were still bombing civvies down in Cambodia, but nobody wants to hear the truth, they want to hear what makes them feel good, and what makes Americans feel good is AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM, GREATEST NATION IN THE WORLD, so instead of talking about dead Vietnamese children, here's a "victory" parade for the returning POW heroes and doesn't it feel good!

I can kinda see why conservatives might not be a fan.

[Eric P]

536 pages of fiction and non-fiction by KJ Parker. 
I hadn't read much of this so it's amazing, as expected.

since that book is huge, my commute time is spent with this


Elevator Pitch: Grant Morrison's Anti-Harry Potter or maybe Garth Ennis's Anti-Harry Potter.

[Eric P]

I like the first Lynch book.  It's a fantasy Heist book.  The second book kind of goes off the rails a bit.  I haven't read the 3rd one

[Reb]

Did you guys already talk about amazon unlimited? Is the catalog worth the money?

[Kara]

Since I read it as a tween I'd forgotten / didn't know at the time how bad the prose is in The Plague. At least the griefporn holds up.

On an amusing note, in some tangential narration a nameless background character makes reference to the homicide that takes place in The Stranger. The Camusverse is real brehs, it's canon!!!

Think I'm going to double down on the griefporn and finally read Life and Fate next.

[Phoenix Dark]

(Image removed from quote.)

Conservatives are poutraged over this book for casting St. Ronnie in a very dim light, so I figure it's probably pretty good.

So far what I've read is that the Nixon administration was really good at using POW's as political props to distract people from how shitty the Vietnam War was going, and then waited until after the election to declare "peace with honor", even though we were still bombing civvies down in Cambodia, but nobody wants to hear the truth, they want to hear what makes them feel good, and what makes Americans feel good is AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM, GREATEST NATION IN THE WORLD, so instead of talking about dead Vietnamese children, here's a "victory" parade for the returning POW heroes and doesn't it feel good!

I can kinda see why conservatives might not be a fan.

BTW if you haven't read Nixonland do so breh. Amazing book.

[Dickie Dee]

(Image removed from quote.)

Conservatives are poutraged over this book for casting St. Ronnie in a very dim light, so I figure it's probably pretty good.

So far what I've read is that the Nixon administration was really good at using POW's as political props to distract people from how shitty the Vietnam War was going, and then waited until after the election to declare "peace with honor", even though we were still bombing civvies down in Cambodia, but nobody wants to hear the truth, they want to hear what makes them feel good, and what makes Americans feel good is AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM, GREATEST NATION IN THE WORLD, so instead of talking about dead Vietnamese children, here's a "victory" parade for the returning POW heroes and doesn't it feel good!

I can kinda see why conservatives might not be a fan.

"poutraged"

I actually loved and agreed with Nixonland so much I was questioning my critical thinking skills. Nobody should agree with the worldview of a book THAT much

[Joe Molotov]

Yeah, I'll probably have to check out Nixonland after this.

[jakefromstatefarm]

/"Out-dated," "pop history," yeah whatever, it's still a really well-written synthesis of the lead-up and outbreak of the war. It kind of sells itself as a wide, overarching view of the first month, but ~230 pages deep and it's obviously slanted towards the Belgian and French front and the pov's of the western Great Powers (so far, Belgium has more screen time than Austria-Hungary and Russia combined ). Started off slow but once it hits the rapid-fire mobilization passages it takes off. Side-note: Tuchman's sweeping generalizations of nationalities is lowkey the best thing so far. I dunno how many times she's referred to British indecisiveness and German inferiority complexes so far.

Also reading this:

Goldsworthy has some clout among the general malaise of pop historians for being a little more academic than his colleagues, and indeed he's quick to point out to the reader every other paragraph that the sources he's pulling from in order to weave his narrative are a) secondary sources like Plutarch and Seutonius and/or b) written for very specific political audiences (Cicero, Caesar's Commentaries). It's very much a general overview, he spends ample amounts of space explaining the basic functions/structure of Roman political life, but at the same time compelling. If anything it's an interesting exercise in attempting to piece together objective information on a specific character who seems so ubiquitous yet we can never know anything concrete about.

[jakefromstatefarm]

snip.

Camus' library is some A-tier #sadboy shit, compulsory reading for anyone who hates themselves and their lot in life.

[Kara]

Camus' library is some A-tier #sadboy shit, compulsory reading for anyone who hates themselves and their lot in life.

I hate to re-read books I read as a child, but after reading something beautiful and feeling nothing I looked at my bookshelf, saw The Plague and thought, "Sheeeit, I hate myself and my lot in life, this is the perfect read right now."

In the GAF thread I was only joking when I said I would LARP Joseph Grand, but #damnitstrue.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

At least I sent my letter before a brush with death and total, overpowering environmental despair.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

And got the coldest letter I've ever received from someone other than a debt collector in return.

[close]

[close]

[Joe Molotov]

This Reagan book is so

It's basically...



:The Book

[Kara]

Good work hosting that pic on imgur instead of direct linking Wikipedia so only people who already know about Sorry, only registered users can see this content. Please Login or Register. can get the joke.

[Rufus]

Show off. (image search )

[Yulwei]

I'm pretty ignorant about Spanish history so I picked this up the other day and started it this morning. Up-front look at the Spanish Civil War of 1936-1937. Extremely interesting and eye opening. Orwell had some balls.

[Joe Molotov]

"If Eldridge Cleaver is allowed to teach our children, they may come home one night and slit our throats."
~Ronald Reagan

"Ronald Reagan is a punk, a sissy, and a coward and I challenge him to a duel to the death or until he says Uncle Eldridge. I give him the choice of weapons - a gun, a knife, a baseball bat, or marshmallows."
~Eldridge Cleaver



The 60's must have been pretty awesome, except for the no videogames, no internet, and getting drafted into Vietnam.

It's sad reading about the shit going down in Ferguson now, and reading about "tough on crime" Reagan as California governor, escalating every campus protest into a military conflict between the forces of good and justice and the evil marxist, nazi students, and people just loving the shit out of him for doing it.