Thanks to LCDR_Fish, db, Lackadaisical, and Zwak for sharing their reading lists. If you would like to be included in June’s edition, please post in the forum thread or message me through the forum by June 18th.
Tulip: The Charlie Fox series by Zoe Sharp. This is series is similar to the Jack Reacher series, but with a British, female protagonist. Charlie Fox works as a bodyguard. It’s a fun series.
LCDR_Fish: Currently working through legacy Tom Clancy (easy to read at work) in published order. Read Hunt for Red October for the first time, just finished Patriot Games (first time?) and started The Cardinal of the Kremlin (definitely first time). Will be picking up some of the old ones on blu-ray too while I’m at it. Re-assessing now, the FedGov loving is a little more grating, but the technical stuff is good and the characters are pretty well developed.
db: Currently reading The Santaroga Barrier by Frank Herbert. Just finished a re-read of The Dosadi Experiment, also by Herbert (I have a hardcover compilation of 4 or 5 of his novels in which both are enclosed).
I’m continuing to buy books that I’ll fail to read and will add to the TBR stack. I’m giving the side-eye to Dangerous Ideas by Eric Berkowitz, sitting on a shelf in my office, which I may crack open next.
Also, picked up a copy of The Daily Stoic and How to Be a Stoic but have only started reading the first one.
Lackadaisical: I just finished Frederick Douglass’s Autobiography (Narrative of the Life of FREDERICK DOUGLASS), someone here had recommended it. It was alright, gives you a bit of perspective on how slavery really (?) went down. In a lot of ways it was less harsh than I imagined and in others just as evil and dehumanizing as you would think. Some good quotes in there. I accessed it for free on Project Gutenberg ( https://www.gutenberg.org/files/23/23-h/23-h.htm). One of the surprising things was how slaves were free to roam about on their day off (Sunday) and that they had days off. They even had Christmas to new years off- Douglass claims this was to keep the slaves sedate, and I suppose I have no reason to doubt it.
I finished the first 3 books of the Gospel and still working on that, again reading on my phone (from: https://bible.usccb.org/bible) when I have downtime or I am waiting around. Certainly hurts the continuity, but I actually read, so that is a big plus- I just keep the webpages up on my phone and open them whenever I have time (e.g. waiting at the DMV). This has probably cut down on my Glibs time a lot but, no offense, may be somewhat more productive.
Also just finished 10 Rules for Life by Jordan Peterson. It was good, but I’ve already imbibed a lot of the ideas through his other channels.
Also, also recently finished Gulag Archipelago– like Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass things are both worse and better than you would have imagined, though I would say this was more decidedly on the ‘worse’ side. It is really, really, long and could probably have used some serious editing, but the circumstances of the writing more than excuse it’s faults. I highly recommend this book.
Just started digging into two other books- Profit First By Michalowicz and The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky, not much to add there yet.
This makes it seem like I read a lot, but I just happened to finish a lot of things this month. I am actually a very slow reader- and apparently like to start many books at the same time.
Zwak: As per usual, I have multiple books going at once.
Maigret and the Loner– Georges Simenon. Another in the French detective series, which, for the most part, are a pretty solid alternative to the Agatha Christies. Simenon wrote in roughly the same period as Christie, but gives a nice Gallic twist to the subject. Perfect for end-of-the-day winding down reading.
The Dain Curse– Dashiell Hammett. Good old American Hardboiled mystery. A young woman is convinced that the women of her family, of her last name, are all cursed. And it is up to the Continental Op to get to the bottom of the mystery, as there is insurance fraud afoot!
Stories of Three Decades– Thomas Mann. What can I say, simply beautiful in that old world, pre WWI and later interwar ear, level of pure craftsmanship. Tales of regret, comeuppance, love. Threw these stories you can watch the writer grow into one of the towering greats of the modern novel.
And on that note, I need to read more SF, and more non-fiction. I fear I am getting into a bit of a rut.
Back in the day when I was reading thru the Dune series for the first time, I considered getting some of the other Herbert books, specifically Dosadi. But it seemed to weird, even for me. But I have seen multiple mentions recently, and feel I need to correct my 30+ year old error.
I think part of the reason is that I stopped reading Dune after God Emperor, as Herbert was just getting a little too far off my taste.
This was confirmed when I read Herbert’s story in the Medea universe. I loved Flare Time by Niven, but Herbert’s balloon rape story was just too far gone.
i liked the first one ok
Also look into Herbert’s The Dragon in the Sea, a psychological thriller set on a submarine in a future in which petroleum is transported by submarine freighters to avoid piracy and military action.
I remember that one, read it a long time ago. Good book.
That’s a good one.
You should read Whipping Star before The Dosadi Experiment, as it is the first in that universe (or at least with Jorj X. McKie; as there are indications that the BuSab and Dune universes may be congruent in space, if not in time.
How do you get consent from a balloon?
It was sentient, and it has been a long time, but I think the balloon was the rapist.
Also, meant to add — I gave up on the Dune stuff at God Emperor as well. I found the 2nd half of that book to just be a total slog that I struggled to finish.
I read them all. It was back in high school, maybe as late as my undergrad years. I don’t remember much of the later books.
I should add, of the Frank Herbert original six books.
I tried reading the prequels. I gave up at “House Corrino”.
Since no one has mentioned it, Herbert’s The White Plague is good, at least as far as I’m concerned.
That’s a good one.
I’ll have to look it up; I’ve not read it.
I didn’t realize that Herbert was into CRT.
Zoe Sharp’s stuff is pretty good. I think I read most of the Charlie Fox books back in my heavy motorcycling days. I will say that her books are pretty well suffused with the stereotypical British view of violence and self-defense – not a criticism, in fact I find it rather interesting. But you will notice it.
Lack,
Which translation did you choose for the Gospels?
Brad Taylor’s End of Days. I usually like these types of thrillers but this one is just boring. Do not recommend.
LCDR_Fish: Currently working through legacy Tom Clancy (easy to read at work) in published order. Read Hunt for Red October for the first time, just finished Patriot Games (first time?) and started The Cardinal of the Kremlin (definitely first time). Will be picking up some of the old ones on blu-ray too while I’m at it. Re-assessing now, the FedGov loving is a little more grating, but the technical stuff is good and the characters are pretty well developed.
I like some of the earlier Tom Clancy works. From before I realized how formulaic his works are. I remember really liking “The Cardinal of the Kremlin”, but it has been so long since I read it I can’t remember many details of it.
db: Currently reading The Santaroga Barrier by Frank Herbert. Just finished a re-read of The Dosadi Experiment, also by Herbert (I have a hardcover compilation of 4 or 5 of his novels in which both are enclosed).
Both good books. During the tail end of my undergrad and for a few years after my undergrad, I spent a lot of time at used book stores trying to find all of Herbert’s works. Back then, the only Herbert that was in print were the Dune books. I managed to find them all.
Red Storm Rising with Larry Bond. I would like to see a film adaptation.
Thanks, Tulip! I’ll check those out!
Fish – the first few Clancy novels were excellent. Then he decided to ignore his editors.
Lack – I love Hammett. The Dain Curse is fantastic.
I haven’t been reading a ton lately, although I am working my way through Zero Hour in Phnom Penh, a decent detective story I stumbled across. Interesting setting in post-genocide Cambodia.
Other than that and a couple brain-candy novels, I’m re-reading parts of The Barbell Prescription and Starting Strength. Kinda dry.
Isn’t Barbell Prescription just a stripped down version of Starting Strength for us older guys?
Stripped down in that they don’t go into minute detail on the lifts like SS. But lots more programming/startegies/considerations for older peeps.
There is some good content, for instance, on how to train as you move into your 70s and 80s, including programming when a certain lift (usually bench) is no longer feasible.
I think both books are worth having.
Mocking Tom Clancy is a fun and fulfilling hobby, but I would put The Cardinal of the Kremlin up against anything John LeCarre or Len Deighton ever wrote. And let’s be fair, LeCarre’s late career nosedive was at least as steep as Clancy’s…
I agree. Going back to some LeCarre novels is literally painful. Graham Greene was better anyway.
Definitely. I just read Our Man In Havana for the first time and became an instant Graham Greene fanboy.
I also dig a lot of Alan Furst, if you like your intrigue mostly around WWII…
I’ve not read any of his. Thanks for the rec!
He was great as Edgar K.B. Montrose in The Red Green Show, too.
Cardinal of the Kremlin is one of the very few novels I’ve read that elicited an audible “oh shit” from me in response to one of the plot twists.
I seem to remember having the same experience, but I can’t remember the book very well.
Red October was researched and accurate enough that for a while it was used at the Naval Academy as part of their Military Science readings.
This seems to be the trend with many successful writers (and directors). They write tight interesting initial novels because of good editing. After they become successful either nobody wants to tell them anything they write needs improvement or should be cut down or they refuse to listen or both.
Take a look at the Harry Potter series. Each novel gets progressively longer and longer.
Re Harry Potter: I didn’t make it through the first 50 pages of the last one because it had been so long and I wasn’t interested anymore. However, I like big books and I cannot lie. I don’t have a problem with the length of the Harry Potter books.
Take a look at Star Wars. In movie release order 1 and 2 were awesome even if 2 was incomplete. 3 was OK and after that the massive decline.
Read Worm
I didn’t even get very far in the first one: twee. Maybe if you’re eleven.
There is a very anti-government vibe that develops in Harry Potter as one progresses through the novels. Both of the “politicians are useless” and the “bureaucrats are evil” varieties. The most despicable character is not Voldemort.
My ten year agrees with me that the worst person in the whole series is Umbridge.
Umbridge can got to hell and die
Welcome back!
Good to know. Sad that I am wondering if there’s a Cliffs or Monarch Notes for HP.
Probably. It isn’t great literature (I remember Harold Bloom criticizing the books as cliche writing), but they are a popular series.
For an alternative, how about some D&D/Harry Potter crossover fan fiction?
https://m.fanfiction.net/s/8096183/1/Harry-Potter-and-the-Natural-20
Stephen King.
The Stand was a long, convoluted story that was engaging enough to get to the end.
Then Stephen became powerful, and he re-released the novel with all the stuff the editors stripped out the first time. It was not an improvement.
SK occurred to me but the last I read was Pet Sematary. On Writing is so good that it’s a shame he apparently doesn’t heed his own advice.
https://litreactor.com/columns/scandalous-is-stephen-kings-original-version-of-the-stand-better-than-the-uncut-edition
In 1978, Doubleday released the original edition of The Stand, a book that was 823 pages. The publishing house believed that King’s original 1168 page manuscript was too long and intimidating for readers, so they cut out nearly a third. In 1990, after King’s popularity skyrocketed thanks to the success of books like It, Misery, and the first two Dark Tower novels, Doubleday re-released The Stand with the missing pages included, a massive tome that became one of the best-selling books of King’s career.
And the truth about King – remember, I love him! – is that nearly everything he’s written could use a little fat-trimming. The Stand: Complete & Uncut is an exercise in indulgence, a publishing company catering to its star author without taking into account what’s best for that author’s work.
I read everything King put out until his stories became so unfocused and rambling that I couldn’t take it any more. I was a huge fan.
I read everything he wrote when I was in high school.
I don’t remember what it was that made me stop specifically, but they weren’t interesting anymore.
I reread a shit load of his books that he modded to integrate into the Dark Tower saga.
Some of it was pretty clever but there was a lot of fucking dollar grabbing going on.
I read an interview with King where he talked about his editors cutting things out of “The Stand”.
He claimed he was being censored since many of the parts involved sex. The interview highlighted some of the cut scenes.
A year or two after reading the interview, I read the uncut version of “The Stand.” King wasn’t censored. Those scenes did nothing for the story.
What’s the point of being an author if you can’t foist your kinks on readers?
Reading the IFLA posts, Not Adahn’s kink is clearly watching dogs go at it doggy style.
Meh, the fifth book was the second longest and also the best. The second book was just a rehash of the first.
Also, their books don’t need to be cut down because they’re a proven name and people are going to buy them regardless. I think “The Sum of All Fears” had a long diversion on how to make a nuclear bomb.
One of these months I’ll remember to send in my list.
Frederick Douglass Ultimate Collection Has all of the different auto biographies and speeches. Learned how he actually escaped slavery. He also was a supporter of John Brown, but disagreed with the Harper’s Ferry raid. Also learned he thought the Civil War was worth the cost, his sons enlisted, and he loved Lincoln even when Lincoln’s promises about equal treatment, pay and promotions for blacks were broken, he could excuse it away. In some of his later works he seems to be a little self impressed, but I suppose that’s natural given his life. Still a very impressive person, this gives a little more depth to the man.
Dune I had never read the book, and saw the movie last month. I wish I would have kept my rule of “book first, then move”. The movie was excellent, but the book is amazing. Currently up to Paul and his mom escaping through the tunnels and flying through the storm.
Servants of War by Larry Corriea and Steve Diamond. What if the Eastern front of WWII had magical robots and people with other abilities? Excellent story telling, looking forward to the next part.
Darkness and Stone (The Lost Part 3) Continuing a story about Recon Marines that get transported into a magical realm and the enemies and allies they meet. Really enjoyable and it seems “real” in the sense the the Marines are like marines and the tactics they use are realistic. They do have a majic device that gives the weapons and ammo, so the story can happen, but I like all the books in the series.
Hmmm, I’ve been reading the Forgotten Ruin series. It’s about Rangers that get transported into a magical realm 10,000 years in our future. They have a replicator type device that creates weapons, supplies, and ammo. I’ve really enjoyed it. Sounds like while I’m waiting for the next one in the series I might look at this.
Thanks for The Lost series recommendation. Just bought all 3. Been looking for some good Corps related stories.
I liked them, hope you do too.
Servants of War by Larry Corriea and Steve Diamond.
Fun popcorn read. Will follow the series.
Are you still reading the Sun Eater series?
I have book 5, but it will wait until I finish Dune.
Still on my list. Can’t remember which one I last read – the third or fourth. When the last one is published, I’ll pick it up again.
Maigret and the Loner– Georges Simenon.
I am going to try to find this. I read aloud to my wife, and a lot of it is either Christie or P.G. Wodehouse.
Aw, Wodehouse! Wish someone would read me PGW.
Ask, and ye shall receive.
Stephen Fry; I knew it.
I have two reads usually going on, one for myself and one I read to the wife as you do. For the latter we just got the last installment of Sassoon’s quasi-memoirs – Sherston’s Progress from the library, and I’ll be starting that tonight.
May I recommend the “Blue Letter Bible” app for Bible reading? It has several really good features, like multiple translations to compare, the ability to cross-reference passages, an “Interlinear” option to see what the original Hebrew and Greek looked like—plus Hebrew and Greek dictionaries for looking up words. There are also commentaries available from various preachers, if you are into that sort of thing.
I’ve been listening to Angron: Slave of Neuceria, and it’s given me a lot to think about with regards to storytelling – mostly the failures of storytelling which led to a circumstance where all of the characters were forced to be morons because the writer was trapped by canon.
What do I mean?
Well, the backstory of Angron was clearly put together starting from the endpoint of “Loyalist turned berzerker Daemon prince” and the gaps were filled in piecemeal by a bunch of different people who weren’t looking to make a cohesive whole. So when you get to actually putting it to a narrative, you end up with a circumstance where common sense would derail the predetermined outcome, even though there were enough red flags to hold a mayday celebration through red square.
So you end up with a story where slavers who already have a nigh-unbeatable gladiator decide to hammer tech into his brain to turn him into an uncontrollable rage machine who promptly breaks loose and starts burning cities with his fellow gladiators until the army traps him in a valley and is about to wipe him out. Then the Emperor comes along and decides for whatever reason he’s not going to help the gladiators and just teleports Angron away from the battle, leaving the rage machine’s friends to be butchered. While the rage machine is still upset, instead of finding some means of disabling or counteracting the implants robbing said rage machine of the ability to do much in the way of thinking, he instead goes “Here’s a whole legion of biomodded supersoldiers I want you to use to help me conquer the galaxy” and jets off, never to intervene again. Angron kills a few of the legion officers until one of them convinces him to stop murdering his own troops.
Then the rage machine proves again and again that he’s unfit for command by A: killing more of his own troops, B: having his legion use the tactic of “walk slowly towards the enemy until they run away”, and C: Kill even more of his one troops any time they can’t conquer a planet in 31 hours. This leads said troops to decide they want tech hammered into their brains to turn them into little rage machines so that papa Angron might love them, even though he’s given no indication that this would make him do anything but kill them more.
Just glancing over….does no one read non-fiction?
Most recent purchase: Field guide to the birds of Louisiana and Mississippi
The bayou on my property is probably the best bird watching location on the planet for those nerds into that sort of thing. It is so good in fact that even I marvel at it.
Does it talk about how to tell birds by their songs?
Merlin app does that. I love it.
I finished the history of england from the fall of rome until the Tudors and a book on the tudors last month. This month is fiction.
I have the Oxford histories of England and Ireland. Someday I will finish England.
I have the full set of Churchill’s History of the English Speaking Peoples. Tried to do it as a summer read and never got thru book 1.
I see stoics, Jordan Peterson, the Bible, weightlifting guides and Frederick Douglass autobiographies listed.
Sure. I’m reading The Storm Gourmet and Apocolypse Chow right now. And an amatuer radio study guide I can’t remember the name of.
Currently reading The Obstacle is the Way, Ryan Holiday. Just finished A Guide to the Good Life by William Irvine (this guy might be my spirit animal, much to his embarrassment) and rereading the Belisarius series, Eric Flint and David Drake.
Do D&D rule books count as non-fiction?
That’s actually a really good categorization problem. Ima go ask my D&D group about this one…
The core rule books are reference books, so I say yes.
As a library veteran, yes. They go in the same section as books on chess strategy or how to play card games books.
You don’t need to know how much self-help I need.
I have a growing collection of non-fiction that I will finally read one day. I swear.
#metoo. many NF books on my bookshelves and in my Kindle waiting for retirement day.
Hmm, I just started “Crime and the Courts in England, 1660-1800,” so I would say, yes, yes I do.
Japanese language instruction…
For example this is one I highly recommend:
JAPANESE THE MANGA WAY
Since comics convey conversations of all kinds and levels, they are an excellent way to learn conversational skills you normally don’t get in novels or textbooks.
I read that as “Japanese the MAGA way”
From prior comments – Make Asia Great Again
[glares] I’m still working on Annals of the Former World. I’m well into book 4 now, the geology of California. If you think California is peopled by a conglomeration of crazy people – it makes sense because the geology is just as nuts.
Fruits and nuts!
That’s pretty much all I read these days. I was never the biggest fan of fiction, and as I get older I find most of it tiresome.
I spend too much time reading reports, code and the like. I go video for leisure time.
Same as with Ron, but a partial excuse is that little of what I’ve been reading is memorable. Or it’s a comfortable re-read of no great note.
But, in response to Suthen’s query about non-fiction — I finally, after far too many years, read Joan Didion’s White Album. Slouching Towards Bethlehem was the giddy, not necessarily euphoric, mid to late 60s. The White Album is the hangover of the end of the 60s and the dementia of the 70s. Not as filled with gems as Slouching, but her analysis of feminism as Marxism is cogent and powerful. The essay The White Album is arguably the best in the book. Recommended, but only after reading Slouching.
I’m reading “Two Old Evil Fuckers, But One Slightly Less Insane Than The Other, Go Head to Head”
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2022/05/thomas-luongo/davos-2022-the-octogenarian-oligarch-cage-match/
I once read Kissinger’s “Diplomacy”. I don’t remember anything important from the book, though.
He’s a realist. An evil realist, but still a realist.
He’s also got a mean streak a mile wide with a passion for belittling subordinates.
What are you implying, Joe?
The idea that an 18-year-old can walk into a store and buy assault weapons is just wrong.
What in God’s name do you need an assault weapon for except to kill someone?
1) But the government can give an 18 year old one to kill or be killed on behalf of the government.
2) Define “assault weapon”.
3) The intent of weapons, or arms if you prefer, is potential for lethality. That’s the point.
More than anything else, practically speaking, guns make us equals.
It is plain wrong. The gun store / FFL has to run an FBI check on the buyer. Last time I bought a shotgun, it was a 4-day wait.
What state was that in? In PA you walk in, choose a gun, fill out the paperwork, wait for them to make a call to NICS, pay your money, and walk out with the gun.
That was NJ – but it the wait was NICS being all backed up (or intentionally slow).
Best part is the trip to the police station for each pistol. Plus the limited time until the permit expires.
Not going to miss that!
Put it that way, which is accurate, and many to most people would disagree.
And, of course, you know that’s what Our Masters really believe.
Wait ’til you get to Without Remorse. That’s a good one. I also loved Red Storm Rising, back in the day. The parts in Iceland were my favorite.
The parts in Iceland were my favorite.
Same.
Without Remorse was awesome.
It’s a shame what Amazon did to it.
The final chapter of Debt of Honor made me happy.
Insurrectionist!
Currently, re-reading Larry Corriea’s Hard Magic. Fun alternate history / “hardboiled” fantasy.
Previously, started Barbara Hambly’s Silent Tower. Got halfway through and put it on the to-be-donated pile. Also, Roger Zelazny’s Lord Demon (completed posthumously by Jane Lindskold). I liked it up until literally the last page or two, which seemed like an abrupt change of tone.
I read the Hard Magic series awhile ago, very entertaining to read.
I recently finished Kingdom of Speech by Tom Wolfe, which then led me to read Don’t Sleep There Are Snakes, which was written by a linguist who spent time with a tribe in the Amazon as a missionary. The first half of the book which talked about his experiences was good. I skipped most of the second half which got into the details of the language. One part that made me laugh was how he mentioned that the tribesmen spend much of their time sitting around the fire drinking, joking around, farting and occasionally grabbing someone’s dick for a laugh. I thought, “Huh, it’s like an Amazonian Letterkenny”.
Just started reading The Least of Us, which is about the spread of meth and fentanyl. It’s the same author who wrote Dreamland about the spread of opiates. He was on Econtalk a few months ago.
I agree on both counts. Over all, a good book.
Wut?
Democrat Stacey Abrams said this about Georgia’s huge turnout: “Increased turnout has nothing to do with suppression,” during her news briefing in Atlanta, Georgia on 5/24/2022
I suppose one could make the argument that people are so angry about the suppression that they were motivated to come out to vote to save democracy or something. It’s a silly argument, but the Dems are just the people to make it.
“Heads we win, tails you lose.”
The right people didn’t turn out.
No, I get it – voter suppression is convincing people to vote against Democrats.
That brings to mind a curiosity in the latest Georgia GOP race. Trump-enemy Kemp handily defeated Trump-endorsed Perdue, even though Kemp’s refusal to investigate alleged voter fraud. It’s possible, I guess, that Kemp won by way of fraud, but I wonder if it isn’t really that Kemp was one of the few governors who refused to impose lockdown measures. As I recall, Trump criticized Kemp for not pushing masks, and maybe this election was Georgians telling Trump to bug off.
Convince me that Trump’s carping about Georgia in ’20 was different from Abram’s in ’18 (and no doubt this coming November).
I don’t question that we have had some terribly sloppy election operations – PA is still suffering from that. And that needs to be fixed, from one end of the country to the other.
Trump certainly had more basis for his carping.
Kemp shut businesses down.
He reopened things early. I remember his reopening plan was similar to Polis’. Only one of those two received heat from the media.
Ah, that’s what it was. I just remember comparing Kemp favorable to Greg “Benedict” Abbott, in Texas, who I will not vote for, because I hold grudges.
Still reading the Expanse novels.
Book six is where the TV and the books start to diverge. Nothing so far that I have heart-burn with as to the changes, but the death of one character was significantly different.
Most of the changes probably helped the TV medium flow better; and political intrigue stuff doesn’t translate well.
I didn’t like how the show made Naomi into an idiot.
And her and Holden, every now and then they would remember they were in love.
I was discussing the worst part about the otherwise great show last weekend with a bunch of fellow nerds. We all agreed that Naomi and her extended family (son) were the worst characters; extremely annoying, un-lovable and un-likeable.
There was not time in the TV show I imagine to show the origin of the level of loyalty the rest of the crew and Holden had towards her. She did a great deal of really selfish and dangerous to humanity level stuff and it was eventually forgiven.
Drummer’s neo-family were worse.
If I had never read the books, I would have liked the show more.
In fairness, I did like the show, but there was so much wasted potential.
And honestly, Naomi was a hard core badass in Hard Vacuum and the episodes after that. I liked the way she couldn’t rely on the “she’s a genius engineer tropes” of just hacking/overriding/reversing the polarity her way out of the insurmountable problems placed in front of her.
One of the scenes that I remember, in the books she tricks Marco’s crew and manages to send a message, after figuring out what they did to the Roci.
In the show, they tell her what they did, so she hits a guy in the head with a wrench and grabs his communicator to send a message.
I just finished the whole series and enjoyed it. I was a little surprised at the main story arc in Books 7-9. Although, TBH, the books ended pretty much how I thought they would.
“Increased turnout has nothing to do with suppression,”
There would have been even more votes, but the Republikkkins chased black people away from the polls with nooses?
Wrong-thinkers were allowed to vote.
Understanding Health Insurance: A Guide to Billing and Reimbursement 2022, 17th Edition
Does this count?
(Aw, Moj, I’d build you a birthday cake if I were local.)
Aw, thanks! I really wanted one of my mother’s cherry pies, but she is old and in a lot of pain so I didn’t ask that of her.
Why in the hell does a guide on “billing and reimbursement” have:
Professionalism
Attitude, Self-Esteem, and Etiquette
Communication
Conflict Management
Customer Service
Diversity Awareness
Leadership
Managing Change
Productivity
Professional Ethics
Team-Building
Professional Appearance
https://faculty.cengage.com/titles/9780357621356
I can see conflict management.
A hospital chain sent me a bill 3 years after an office visit. I had insurance, used it, and paid my copay in cash at the time of visit. They sent me another bill 3 years later for hundreds of dollars, and they hadn’t even run it through my insurance. You can damn well bet there was conflict after their billing person demanded I show a 3 year old receipt for the visit when I explained their error.
Worse than dealing with any scammer. The hospital did finally drop the claim after I escalated through the billing dept to whoever ran it and pointed out the absurdity of their position.
I’ve dealt with similar.
I’ve worked in insurance and financial services my entire career. I know what to say and who to say it to and it still can take me hours and days to deal with.
It’s no wonder less educated and lower income people wind up with crushing health care debt. Good chunks of it have the real potential to not be valid.
When I was in SC, my insurance was thru Horizon Blue, which is BCBS of NJ.
All my billing kept getting rejected because it kept going to BCBS of SC.
When I was in KY, I had BCBS-AL. In Colorado, I have BCBS-TN. Never a similar problem with either. WTF was happening in South Carolina?
I didn’t read any of that so I was like WTF?! and then I realized I had been assigned to skip that chapter completely.
I’d enjoy eating glass more than reading that. My condolences.
Pot-limit Omaha Poker:: The Big Play Strategy
Is that hi-only, or hi-lo?
My book stack for summer reading
I’m gearing up to teach a church class on the spiritual realm in the fall, so I’ll read as many of these books as I can in preparation.
The book with no name looks interesting
Liber Nullum? Codex Nemo?
Publicando Cheapicus
It’s an old book printed in the cheapest way possible.
Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices by Thomas Brooks first published ca. 1650
Biblion Nihil?
More seriously, I’ve noticed a theme in your selection. I don’t think I could stick to that, my attention goes from topic to topic a lot.
Damnation!
So…your class is about tithing, then?
Just finished reading Ray Liotta’s obituary:
https://people.com/movies/ray-liotta-dead-at-age-67/
RIP man.
Nooo! Not funny.
He was real good in the TV show Shades of Blue.
It was a group of dirty cops and he was their Lt.
Jennifer Lopez was in it and she was actually great in it.
He was great in Something Wild. He was good at playing the psycho bad guy.
You should see the Carroll Baker/Ralph Meeker Something Wild.
Say it ain’t so!
Never let a (manufactured) crisis go to waste.
Former New Zealand PM Helen Clark said covid is not over adding: “We are in danger of losing this moment for transformative change…”
They’re a nation of sheep fuckers and cucks. At least there’s pretty scenery in their soon to be again prison.
The idea that an 18-year-old can walk into a store and buy assault weapons is just wrong.
Why? There is nothing whatsoever wrong with this, you ass backwards moron.
The idea that somebody would randomly kill strangers of any age is the issue. Where did all of these broken people come from? Who broke them? Hint- try looking in the mirror.
Focus on that, dummy.
Of course they can be issued one at that age or even younger…no cigs though.
Of course they are not really assault weapons. Some reports are actually more accurate and call them assault-style weapons, but that’s implicitly admitting that the overlap with true assault weapons is cosmetic.
I would kill for time to read books.
Or an attention span…
I can’t read and pet the puppeh at the same time.
Get an assault rifle?
Have you seen the prices lately? Not all of us are filthy rich.
But I thought it was easier to buy a gun than a book. Was I misinformed?
Fact: it was easier (and faster delivery) for me to order a gun from the internet, than ordering contact lenses.
*waves tiny American flag*
?
Which is why I still am curious how this kid bought two of them at the same time. I can’t even afford one.
No expenses. Grandma was probably paying the bills.
No doubt, but he still would have had to come up with the scratch for it. Would have taken quite a while working part time at Wendy’s. Guessing that it’s more likely that he stole grandma’s credit card.
Given his family, I’m gonna assume he committed some crime to come up with the money.
There’s a building in my town where they’ll give you a card and let you borrow books.
I thought this
witch huntinvestigation was canceled.A court has once again ruled in our favor and ordered Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr., and Ivanka Trump to appear before my office to testify under oath.
Our investigation will continue undeterred because no one is above the law.
Get them Dukes.
“no one is above the law.”
That’s a real side splitter there, champ.
You have to understand there are different laws for different groups.
I’ve been reading local building ordinances on subdivisions and permits. Ugg!
Mixed success with the historical reading from my beloved local library this month. Was reading Alison Weir’s Wars of the Roses, finding it a challenge keeping all the players straight in the generations leading up to them. And darn the luck, I couldn’t renew my borrowing because someone else was waiting for the only e-copy. Just started Weir’s Mistress of the Monarchy, her bio of Katherine Swynford, Duchess of Lancaster – mistress, then wife of John of Gaunt and thus ancestor of kings. Hoping for better luck getting through it.
Also taking a first foray into audiobooks when on the recumbent exercise bike or treadmill at the Y. Listening to Name of the Rose and enjoying the story, but there’s a lot of Latin being bandied about, so I might follow it better with my eyes than my ears.
‘Final Destination’ is supposed to be fiction.
Joe Garcia, the husband of Irma Garcia, one of two teachers shot and killed in Uvalde, TX on Tuesday, has reportedly suffered a fatal heart attack. Joe and Irma were high school sweethearts and married 24 years. They leave behind four children.
Mrs. TOK just read that. Those poor kids.
Ventured in to my favorite used book shop, Baldwin’s, and didn’t find what I was sorta looking for, but I did buy Franklin, The Apostle of Modern Times (by Bernard Fay, published in 1922), The Mind’s I (Hofstadter and Dennett), and Closing of the American Mind (Bloom). Because my reading queue was in serious risk of running low. /sarc
I always knew you’d break my heart.
Assault rifles should at minimum require a special permit, where the recipient is extremely well vetted imo
Well, that’s it. I won’t vote for him to be President.
Yeah, he ruined it just like Schwarzenegger.
I just stumbled into a FB thread started by one of my friends in Oz and joined by both Australians and Americans. One of the Australians assured everyone that people could walk into supermarkets with a “semi-automatic” slung over their shoulder.
TBF: I was an anti-gun nut when I first came to the US.
I go shopping all the time with a semi-auto in a holster, does that count?
The implication of the post (and, remember, it’s FB) was a “semi-automatic rifle” slung over the shoulder and worn openly.
It only works like that in Israel.
That is legally open carry in most states. The store might have a problem with it in which case you would have to leave. It’s a stupid thing to do that will get the cops called on you.
Very rarely have I had a problem.
What the fuck is wrong with you?
SHOPPING?
Usually shopping for parts or tools.
Kill your heros.
The Chief Culprit….written by a former Soviet intelligence officer, it’s a revisionist history that argues that Stalin, from the earliest days of the Third Reich, intentionally worked with Germany in order to facilitate war, a war he believed would lead to the ultimate triumph of Communism. He believes that the Germans’ early successes in their war on Russia were not due to Soviet weakness, as is commonly held, but because the Soviet military was on the cusp of its own invasion, and thus oriented completely towards offense rather than defense.
Not sure how convinced I am, but it is interesting.
Not an expert, but the little I’ve read about this, most historians would say it’s BS. A lot of it is USSR/Russian military/intelligence people looking to blame Stalin for everything (same as the German General Staff did with Hitler).
That would make sense
I have a couple of non-fiction books I started but haven’t finished:
“What Jane Austin Ate and Charles Dickens Knew” by Daniel Pool, and “The Time-travelers Guide to Elizabethan England” by Ian Mortimer.
I read Mortimer’s time-travel guide to medieval England and enjoyed it immensely.
Is it fair game to ask for book recommendations here? I’ve got a running list on Amazon and could use some recommendations in these areas:
1.) Civil War. I read Three Months in the Southern States a few months ago, and perhaps tangentially related I’ve got Tom Delorenzo’s book on Lincoln on my list.
2.) East Germany or more specifically the stasi.
3.) GK Chesterton – if I have one Chesterton book on my list, what should it be?
Currently making my way through Brothers Karamazov. I’m doing the audiobook while simultaneously following along in my own paperback. I’ve also got a book of Sowell’s articles (Barbarians at the Gates) that’s good for bits of time here and there. Unfortunately I haven’t been all that successful in figuring out how to read while simultaneously holding a two-month old.
What are you looking for regarding the Civil War? A general history or something on a specific subject? McPherson’s Battle Cry of Freedom is still the best one-volume for me.
Although she is a loathsome, warmongering, lying cunte, Applebaum’s book Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe is good.
Speaking of her, she’s determined to see Putin gone – no matter how many other peoples children have to die to accomplish that. She has a tall mountain to climb before she reaches merely being loathsome.
Is it fair game to ask for book recommendations here?
Bwahahahaha – careful what you ask for!
Listening to the “Appendix N Book Club” podcast that I keep mentioning; Intry to find audiobook versions that I can listen to. The ones I have managed to find are “At the Earth’s Core” by Burroughs, “The Face in the Frost” by Bellair, and Moorcock’s Elric stories.
I had already read “The Hobbit” by Tolkien, some of “The Dying Earth”, by Vance, and “Three Hearts and Three Lions” by Anderson.
What is interesting is that the vaunted “Appendix N” list is much shorter than the Moldvay Basic “Suggested Reading” list. The latter contains several non-fiction books (mainly mythologies) and divides the list into children and adult works.
The Face in the Frost gets a bit weird in places, but do love it. “Overhead the moon is screaming, white as turnips on the Rhine” was an inside joke amongst my small coterie of weird friends.
It’s well worth the effort to find Bellair’s St. Fidgeta and Other Parodies. Delightful stuff.
Oh good. Team Stupid may just manage to keep Team Evil in charge.
Exclusive: McConnell says he has directed Cornyn to engage with Democrats on a ‘bipartisan solution’ on gun violence
OTH this could just be a way to “do something” without doing anything substantive.
Engage with . . . fart in the general direction of . . .
One can only hope.
Bogart’s line here seems appropriate.
Well, my sense of time is messed up. I thought this was going up tomorrow.