A New Year, a new you–as they say! One that reads something other than the nutrition label on the vintage box of Barbie WildBerry Printed Fun Pop-Tarts. Maybe this month you read a CVS receipt from beginning to end, you crazy overachiever, you. Perhaps next time something shorter like Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell?
SugarFree
I’ve been reading The Witcher books by Andrzej Sapkowski, main because I was interested in the Netflix adaptation. Before the series, I read the two books of stories (The Sword of Destiny and The Last Wish) which comprise the (complicated, multiple) timelines for the first season of the series.
Like the show, the stories–the first published in 1986–jump all over the place, covering an indeterminate amount of time in main character’s poorly-delineated long lifespan. After watching the series, which I was fairly happy with, I pushed on to the main sequence of novels (Blood of Elves, Time of Contempt, Baptism of Fire, The Tower of the Swallow and The Lady of the Lake) that settles the time jumps down into the story of Geralt of Rivia and his surrogate child, Ciri. (The last book, Season of Storms, is a prequel set after the first story, “The Witcher,” but before “The Last Wish”–the 11th story written, but the second story of the internal chronology… confused yet?)
I enjoyed the books and the basic story was engaging. But Sapkowski employs a narrative style many people probably would find odd and frustrating, a sort of literary edging where the set-up is rarely followed by a direct pay-off.
For example (and I’ll be vague to not spoil) he spends the majority of a novel getting a main character and the people pursuing them into place for a climactic battle… and then smash cuts to four weeks later, the hero healing, and then teasing out the story of the fight over a 100 pages of the hero telling a completely new character what happened through a haze of pain, avoidance, and PTSD.
And Sapkowski does this over and over again. The deliberate distancing of the narrative from the story is exasperating at times. As another example, the entirety of the last novel is told from a flash-forward to a time when the story of Geralt is considered a fairy tale and a witch is using backwards oneiromancy to uncover the real history and the dreams are told as flashbacks that often contain flashbacks and flashforwards internally. While it is easy to follow along and not just bad writing, all this ends up padding out a trilogy to a pentalogy for no real reason except money. (And maybe with good cause.)
Jesse.in.mb
Patricia Cornwell – Quantum (A Captain Chase Novel). I don’t really know how I feel about this novel. I was mostly reading it at 3am when I couldn’t sleep in a different time zone, but the writing still felt unpleasantly and intentionally disjointed to mimic the mindset of the main character. If I had to do an elevator pitch I’d say “Bones, but at NASA.” The book is clearly setting up an arc which could be fun, but I doubt I’ll pick up the next book to find out.
Lee Goldberg – Lost Hills. So this novel had a better cadence than Quantum. A gutsy young police officer who goes viral gets bumped up the ranks to gin up good PR for the LA Sheriff’s Department to deflect from mounting scandal much to the resentment of her peers. I’m sure you can guess that she eventually proves herself. I appreciated that the twist wasn’t the one I assumed the author would lazily go with. In the Kindle edition there’s a typo where an LA local plumbing company gets name-checked for real instead of the fictitious version of it which was otherwise used.
Charlie N. Holmberg – Smoke and Summons (Numina Book 1). Out of all of the reading I did this month, I think this is the one I’d most likely continue. Homberg seems to be making a career out of quirky magical systems (she also wrote The Paper Magician) that feel fresh in a post-Tolkein world. S&S leaned a little heavily on teenage relationship angst to space out the action, but only enough that I’m pausing before moving on to the next book rather than diving right in.
Ruvanee Pietersz Vilhaur – The Mask Collectors. A dowdy professor and a repressed scientist get caught up in a scandal related to pharmaceutical research, magical rituals and the placebo effect…it’s less weird than it sounds and more fun.
JW
Πέρασα τον τελευταίο μήνα μαθαίνοντας Αρχαία Ελληνικά γιατί άκουσα ότι υπήρχε κάποια Υψηλή λεσβιακή ερωτική ποίηση. Δυστυχώς, όλα ήταν αρκετά ωραίο από τα πρότυπα redtube και έχω παραιτηθεί από αυτή την επιδίωξη υπέρ της ενίσχυσης των γρήγορων μυϊκών σπασμών του δεξιού καρπού μου. Also Playboy, but not for the articles.
mexican sharpshooter
I did indeed read something. I read How to Talk to Your Cat About Gun Control. It is a satirical take on conservative arguments on various issues. Of course it focuses on how one would do that if one’s entire social circle is comprised entirely of cats. I acquired it over Christmas along with the gift of a rocks glass with a .30 caliber round artfully placed.
The jury is still out on whether or not I should have busted this out at an archery range in the middle of hunting season, while waiting for an open lane.
It’s ‘read a Mutha Fuckin book’ not Goddamn. Goddamn is used for the brush your teeth chorus.
You, sir, are a gentleman and a scholar. That was my error and I appreciate the gentle correction.
The Federalist Papers – Pseudonyms, but dead white men so who cares. Fiction of some sort I assume. I was told in college that none of this stuff matters.
– Donald Robertson. This made Stoicism make a hell of a lot more sense than my previous aborted attempts to read the Meditations. Very good. Much read.
The Meditations – Marcus Aurelius. OOooooohhh now a lot of it makes sense. Very good. Much read.
Cryptonomicon – Neil Stephenson. I don’t know why I put this book off for so long. But I’m glad I read it. It was like a time-capsule back to my pseudo-utopian teenage years of the 90’s. It was like putting on a flannel shirt, black trench coat, tossing my Mage: The Ascension books in the back of my Chrysler LeBaron, and blasting KMFD and Nevermore on my way to my weekly game. Also, if I had to pick one famous person as a Secret Glibertarian, it would be Stephenson. I’ll never understand my mainline-progressive friends being able to gush about his books without realizing they are a direct attack on everything they hold dear. Very good. Much read.
The Federalist Papers – Pseudonyms, but dead white men so who cares. Fiction of some sort I assume. I was told in college that none of this stuff matters.
“If only the founders somehow were able to tell us what they meant when they said ______…..”
I really like this translation of the Meditations: https://www.amazon.com/Emperors-Handbook-New-Translation-Meditations/dp/0743233832
I read this one because the price was right
Nice. The copy I have is an inscribed gift I gave to my Grandfather. After he died and we were cleaning out his house, I found it on his nightstand 🙂
I re-read Cryptonomicon awhile back. It was as solid as I remembered.
Now you need to read The Baroque Cycle, which is a prequel of sorts to Cryptonomicon.
And you can find out where the swords in the trunk of the Shaftoes’ car came from.
And why there is a Mt Eliza on Kinakunta.
I am sure neither of those were questions in your head while reading it, but they are still answered.
I actually read all of those years ago.
Okay, that was backwards, I think it ruins some of the fun.
But it does make you wonder how much he had planned out when he wrote Cryponomicon, of if he looked thru for obscure details to put into the later story.
Yeah, I generally recommend reading things in publishing order, and I should have done so here as well. But I still had a number of nice “lock tumblers falling into position” moments reading Cryto nonetheless.
I tried reading meditations, but just couldn’t hack it. I’m reading letters from a stoic and find it much easier to read.
If you haven’t already read it, try Epictetus’ Enchiridion. It’s usually packaged with pieces from The Discourses and makes a good companion piece to Seneca’s letters.
I bought something from epicurious, but can’t remember the title. I’ll add this too. Thanks
Well I’m not reading. But I did finish listening to “Murder Flies the Coop”. It’s in the “Cozy mystery” genre set in 1920s Kent where the ameteur sleuths look for the killer of the bookkeeper at a troubled coal mine. In a fit of snark, when the labor troubles at the mine came up I went “The commies did it”. Spoiler – the commies did it.
I’m currently listening to the next book in the same series “Muder cuts the mustard.”
I’m writing… I swear I’m writing…
I’ve got several books going. The first set is a project: reading the Bible in one year. Along with it I’m reading Jack Miles’ literary criticisms of the Bible: God: A Biography; and Christ: A Crisis in the Life of God. And for Genesis, I’m also reading Stephen Mitchell’s translation of it.
Also, Profiles in Corruption by Schweizer. And Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Didion, thanks to a tip by a Glib.
I can’t recommend the dry style of Schweizer, but the corruption he reveals is more than I imagined. Didion is great.
Glad you’re liking the Didion!
I persist in my belief that the article Slouching Towards Bethlehem is the perfect companion to Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas if you want the feel of the late sixties.
But all the pieces in Slouches… are interesting; most are terrific.
Thanks again for recommending Didion. She’s nailing it!
Your more than welcome. Gems like that are to be shared.
Do let me know your thoughts on “I Just Can’t Get That Monster Out of My Mind.” It’s short, but, I think, still highly relevant.
Will do.
This was my experience. Didn’t finish Blood of Elves.
Yeah, thanks for the warning. I find the whole jumbled-up timeline thing a real pain in the ass. Pretty much wrecked Season 2 of Westworld for me.
Just tell the fucking story, already.
Arthur C Clarke – A Fall of Moondust
Liked it a lot. It’s easy to understand why Clarke is an icon. The datedness of some aspects was actually even more interesting because it interjects a bit of a rough pioneering aspect that seems to be sterilized in more modern Sci fi.
I’m currently reading an early anthology of Clarke short stories. Not as gripping or consistently good. Still a fun read.
Listening to a lecture series on
Lecture series on the history of Christian theology. So far so good.
I barely did any reading. I think my brain is trying to tell me something about “Know Thy Enemies”.
Here’s what I read since the last “What Are We Reading” post:
“Historians’ Fallacies: Toward a Logic of Historical Thought” by David Hackett Fischer.
“The Gift of Injury” by Stuart McGill. I should have read this earlier.
In the interest of “Knowing Thy Enemies”:
” The Communist Manifesto” by Karl Marx
Currently reading: “Das Kapital” by Karl Marx.
Good. Its nice to read stuff we agree with. Its vital to read stuff we don’t agree with.
This is a good idea. I read Marx when I was a teen, and thought it was compete horseshit. Sometimes clever horseshit, always dangerous horseshit, because Marx fully grasped the jealous and vindictive nature of man… but still horseshit.
Poisoner in Chief: Sidney Gottlieb and the CIA search for Mind Control by Stephen Kinzer
I listened to this one. Every time I restarted it, I felt ill. The depths of depravity, immorality, masochism that people can sink is despairing. The evils Gottlieb and the CIA committed are nauseating.
Highly recommended
Related reading: Legacy of Ashes by Tim Weiner. This is a history of the CIA exposing both its ineptness and brutality, so a double nut punch.
Black Powder War by Naomi Novik
The third Temeraire entry saves the series from being removed from my to read list due to the terrible second entry Throne of Jade. BPW is more interesting action-wise. Sets in motion the division and moral quandary for Captain Lawrence as he must wrestle with England’s treatment of dragons and Temeraire’s demand for greater freedom and respect for dragonkind. Besides Napoleon, we get a more direct villain for the series.
Recommended
A Renegade History of the United States by Thaddeus Russell
One of the good guys on the left that won’t throw us in camps. Russell investigates the effects of the margins of American society on the rest of us. It was a new and fun look at US history. I feel like some stuff in the 20th century was cut short like the film industry, but still a solid read.
Recommended (Available on Hoopla if your library carries that service)
Age of Myth by Michael J Sullivan
A recommendation from my FIL, who doesn’t have the best track record with me for entertainment recommendations. Within a few pages, we learn humans think the elves are gods, but a human character kills one. An elf charged with killing that human ends up having the Dances with Wolves/ Last Samurai treatment and protecting the God-Killer and the village he is staying in when she discovers a human with the same magical power. In the epilogue, there is an unexpected reveal.
I am reading the second book, slowly as my night shifts have been too busy for reading lately. I have not progressed enough in the second book to know if I want to continue with the series
Judgement Pending
TOS has interacted with Russell quite a bit over the years. I read Renegade History after Jesse Walker had talked it up and I’d read United States of Paranoia. I vaguely remember feeling like he’d stretched his sources a little thin to tell a good story, but it’s always nice having novel perspectives represented in history.
That is fair, but I am struggling to remember which topic that was very apparent
It’s been several years and I could certainly be misremembering. It didn’t survive the Great Kondoing of books in 2017 (but neither did 80% of my dead-tree library), so I can’t go back and revisit it.
I’m starting to read more again, which is nice.
First off is Animal’s The Crider Chronicles. It begins on Earth and (SPOILER) the Libertarians won! The story revolves around Michael Crider and his travels from an overcrowded Idaho to a distant planet called Forest. The challenges of interstellar travel have been solved and there are efforts underway to colonize other planets, 12 in all. Things are going swimmingly until the bad-guys show up; an alien race committed to dominance and destruction. By this time, Michael has a family and the tale shifts to each of their roles in uniting the planets under a new Constitution, developing a Navy to protect the planets and shipping lanes and fighting the alien hordes.
I’m not a sci-fi guy at all, but this series read more like a Western saga to me (think Firefly combined with Lonesome Dove). It’s absolutely chock-full of libertarian goodness and I highly recommend it. Thanks, Animal!
I also read several more of James Oswald’s Inspector McClean series: The Book of Souls, The Hangman’s Song and Dead Men’s Bones. They are quite good crime fiction (set in Edinburgh) with a creepy, supernatural vibe. If you dig Rankin, you will probably dig these.
Finally, I got a start on Mo’s 1520 Main.. I’m not too far into it, but I’m really enjoying it. Again, outside my usual genres, but really good writing. I look forward to reviewing it next time.
Seriously, You People, there is a metric shit-ton of talent in this group. Buy some of their books.
As in suggested by Animal, or written by Animal.
I discovered that kindle apps now have OpenDyslexic font installed, and I’m getting ready to tear into a whole bunch of not-available-as-audio books, and that’s on my list but wayyyyy low. But if it was written by a Glib, it gets bumped.
Written by Animal. He has 3 titles.
Yay! *biting fingernails*
Ditto.
I buy ’em. That’s a start, right?
Warrior of Rome V: The Wolves of the North by Harry Sidebottom. More adventures with the Gothic tribes between the Caspian and Black Seas during the late Roman Empire.
As I dumped a cup of coffee on my laptop this morning, I may soon be reading ratings for cheap computers and instructions on how to recover moments from a hard drive.
Wipe it with a cloth?
Does bit bleach work on coffee stains? Asking for a friend.
The drive enclosure was probably fine. Anker sells a cheap USB 3.0 to SATA converter, which should be more than adequate to pull your data unless you have an m.2 SSD instead.
I am not reading anything but my clients’ books for editing or clarity or ghostwriting the love scenes (really) and let me tell you, I dread the hell out of it.
One I am supposed to read and give him an outline of a teleplay idea or even if it should be put into a teleplay. And then, if he likes it, I will write the teleplay. It’s a good fucking thing I know how to do that.
Do yourself a favor and go buy some automagic storage backup service. I use idrive: https://www.idrive.com/
That was supposed to be in reply to Drake.
J Todd Scott The Far Empty ***½ Texas noir, a fresh border town sheriff’s deputy uncovers the corruption in his department and ends up against his sheriff and a Mexican drug cartel.
Rob Leininger Gumshoe *** Lots of naked women end up in the hero’s bed If it’s tongue and check it’s undersold. The crime and investigation take a back seat to how cool and witty and tough our IRS agent turned PI protagonist is.
Steve Mosby The Third Person ***½ Starts off a missing girlfriend avenging noir slowly adds in some sci-fi-ish themes with a guy who’s writing is so real it transports the reader, kinda odd but interesting.
Ken Bruen Galway Girl **** 15th Jack Taylor novel. If Bruen didn’t write so well, I’d have given up on this series books ago, the plots are so formulaic, hell the villain in this book is literally a weak imitation of the previous few book’s femme fatale. C’mon Ken write something new man.
J Todd Scott High White Sun not quite finished but unless J really botches the ending it’ll be a 3 or 4 star. The follow up to The Big Empty Our hero is now the new sheriff and this time it’s Bikers and corrupt Feds he and his deputies are up against.
Lee Goldberg ripped me a new one in email and pretty much told me I can’t write and how dare I self-publish and no wonder I had to self-publish because I can’t write.
Never heard of them. And from that sort of attitude, I don’t really place any value on their opinion.
Such an attitude only matters if you value the opinion of the legacy gatekeepers. I don’t. I value the opinion of readers.
On the other hand, you were never involved in SeaQuest DSV, so…
Why rip on Seaquest, but not Diagnosis Murder? This is why Jonathan Brandis offed himself.
You know all I learned from Diagnosis Muder?
Dick van Dyke and his son have the exact same voice.
Congratulations!
I take this as a sign that you have made it!
This. If a ‘pro’ takes the time to run you down, you’ve got something going on.
Good job!
Seconded.
Did he read your series on here?
1. Who?
B. What the heck brought THAT on??
Send STEVE SMITH his address.
This was in 2008-2009 when self-publishing fiction was in its tween stage. It was small enough to be almost unheard of but large enougj to get attention and contempt if you did it.
He considered ebook publishing companies semi “real.”
But he was a screamer. Very vocally against self-publishing and if you did it, you were at hack at best. Which was pretty rich, considering his body of work.
Anyway, I got into it with him online a few times so when he couldn’t fault my logic anymore he started with the “there’s a REASON you van’t get published.”
I decided I was going to SHOW HIM. He would read Teh Bewbies and he would be bowled over with my genius and recant everything.
Why yes, I was 40 at the time. Why do you ask?
Anyway, I sent it to him and pretty soon I got a long ranty email insulting me, my mother, and my back yard.
Soon after that, the producer of a daytime soap came to me to format his book for Smashwords. I told him all I wanted for payment was if he would read my book and tell me if it was worth my time to write a series vivle and 2-hour pilot for a TV series (my dream is an HBO series).
He agreed. He loved it. Encouraged me and when I got it done, he would help me and send me to a script doctor.
I told him what Goldberg said and he said “Aw, he’s crazy. Look at the shit he puts out.”
I’m still working on that pilot tho.
series bible*
You get people talking to you out of the blue, and I can’t even get people to respond after they promiced to my face to give an answer.
Okay, so what happened was I braved the wilds of online Romancelandia and I took to Twitter very early. I talked about lots of stuff, not just my books. I blogged. A LOT. Soon I was fretting over my blog stats so much I was getting panic attacks if they weren’t rising and I couldn’t live that way. But people liked what I said. I also had an “influencer” (only way to describe him) who had been reading my comments on various blogs and reading my blog and so when I got on Twitter he pretty much “made” me. I was gaining traction as a formatting maven too.
So basically what I did and why people talked to me “out of the blue” and got readers early on was because I talked a lot and I was very “fuck you” to the gatekeepers.
I gave away free downloads of my book on my blog for 24 hours to see how far my reach was. 4,000 downloads in 24 hours.
At the same time, there was quite a bit of unrest amongst the romance readership because the gatekeepers were giving the same old pablum with every release and people were tired of it.
Then, because of all that, I was a panelist at the Writer’s Digest conference in 2011.
So it was never “out of the blue.” I worked for the attention I got and I took a lot of heat from a lot of people who then went on to self publish and glory in their cleverness.
They out-guru’d me.
That’s awesome.
Mo, I’ll echo UnCiv’s statement. It’s the readers that count. If you do something well, you’ll get criticism. Just take it for what it’s worth.
I think I’m dissatisfied because there’s nothing particularly fantastical about the land Dug is in. It is exceedingly mundane. On the upside, he hasn’t had much time just exploring, so I can add in elements, but I don’t know what to put in.
May he should dig?
Been there, done that.
Hence the name?
Not so much, but he and the crew did engage in a little archeological dig at the site of an Old Dwarf city.
but I don’t know what to put in.
Land sharks.
A faerie named Edita
Riding land sharks?
Funny you should ask. She can make the story say whatever she wants it to say.
Something like this, maybe?
UCS would *never* write about someone riding a flying mount without stirrups.
Well, you’d need something to keep the rider from falling off during maneuvers. Otherwaise the mount has to fly carefully.
velcro
In that outfit? Not enough surface area.
Kegels
UCS would *never* write about someone riding a flying mount without
stirrupsthe proper gloves.And a saddle horn.
You know, the story could use a Frank Frazetta poster moment.
Husky drawn dogsled?
Pshaw, I have a bearsled.
http://frankfrazetta.org/ff_silver_warrior.jpg Work this time, dammit.
You’ve had one magic-laden battle with the elements and one regular battle with the elements. Any way to split the baby and do a battle with the elements that may or may not be coordinated by a villain?
Correction, 2 regular battles with the elements
“Are fire tornados natural?”
“Sure, rare, but it can happen.”
“Are they green?”
“Not typically.”
Is Australia still a continent or was it a total insurance claim? Haven’t heard anything since the Corrinavirus took a hold.
An empire of Neanderthals?
I’m not sure where I’d put it.
Tropical Theracon isn’t typical Neanderthal habitat, and it’s already crowded with fishmen, cannibal elves, ghost kingdoms, and human habitations. North of there is all within the non-Neanderthal empire, and these are the lands he’s wandering in.
How good is the cartography and scrying in this world? The story of the Romans was reptile with “And then a nation of Germans, who no one ever knew about, showed up and started wrecking shit.”
It varies from place to place. The empire Dug is being friendly to has very good tax maps – but almost nothing that isn’t under taxation. They measured it all with rod and chain, just to make sure they squeezed every last fol owed by the populace. As for Theracon *shrug* “Here be dragons” would be appropriate and not wholly inaccurate.
Here’s an easier question.
Should I break Jotunrender?
I know it’s not some epic artifact level weapon that gives Dug an unfair advantage, on the other hand, I have this image in my head of the smiths of Spectrehall reforging the blade.
I am reading the Divergent series… because my middle school son is supposed to be reading it and I can’t tell if he has really read chapters 1-6 if I don’t read it too. I did see the movie and thought it was borderline terrible. But his teacher assures me that the book is much better.
Twain’s “Roughing It”. Sat on the shelf all winter, finally time to read it.
As an aside, I mailed a copy of a G.A. Custer book to a friend in VA on Jan 6. It got as far as NC (don’t ask me why) and has been in limbo since. It came back to Des Moines (?) and was on its way to St Paul (?) about 10 days ago and is still in transit. Had a printed label, big lettering. Second time recently that something has gotten shuffled around in transit but at least this one isn’t glass.
I just finished Family Handyman’s Complete Do-It-Yourself Manual in preparation for several projects around the house, the biggest of which will be finishing my basement.
Currently re-reading LOTR for the first time since high school. I’ve gotten as far as Frodo, Sam, and Gollum entering the Morgul Vale. I’m planning to re-“read” the Silmarillion next (I’ve never read the whole thing myself, my Dad read it to us as a bedtime story).
Most. Incomprehensible. Bedtime. Story. Evar……..
Actually, that’s one that might be better read aloud. With all of the elvish names, if you don’t pronounce them aloud, they all run together…. L-something marries E-something… wait… isn’t L-something already married?… flip back a few pages…. OH… that was L-something-ea, not L-Something-ae.
It reads better in the original Elvish.
I tried to read the Silmarillion once, but it started to repeat itself. Took me a bit to realize my copy had a pinting error where the same block of pages appeared twice and an equal sized block after it was missing.
My dad actually made us packets with all the maps and family trees so we could look names up as we went.
I strongly recommend listening to the Tolkein Professor’s original podcast series (the one where he taped his lectures, not the neverending Silmfilm ones). He does a good job of pointing out what is important and what is less important.
The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure, by Greg Lukianoff (president of The FIRE) and Jonathan Haidt.
It’s surprisingly readable and is far kinder to the students than they could have been – there’s a through-line of genuine concern for the kids. It’s also very heavy on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (Lukianoff, in particular, is a big fan).
Some light TDS in one spot, so far (re: Charlottesville, eliding the “you had some very bad people in that group” _right_ before quoting “very fine people, on both sides.”) but not that most people will notice.
So is Leap.
I also found the book to be very humane and, as someone who is partly responsible for the moral education of a number of young, had a lot of valuable lessons.
found the book to be very humane
That’s an excellent way to put it.
I finally finished procuring and reading every comic in the Batman Knightfall-Knightquest-Knight’s End series. (there are a couple of one shots featuring Jean Paul Valley as Batman that I’m still missing, but they don’t really advance the story as a whole)
What did you think of them, now that we have a few decades of hindsight?
Walking the Kiso Road.
Finished rereading the Wheel of Time Series .
Now halfway through The Deed of Paksenarrion.
Next up is Book 1 and 2 of Correria’s Saga of the Forgotten Warrior . Have previously read the first book, but the second will be new.
And of course all of my textbooks for another semester of school.
I think I’ve heard good things about the Dresden Files here? I may give that series a shot. UCS, what’s the name of the first book in your series?
Well there are two independant series
The one with more published installments starts with Shadowboy
The one most recently started starts with Beyond the Edge of the Map
Thanks, I’ll start with Shadowboy. That’s an interesting story universe.
Dang, man! are you one of those guys who finds trout fishing too exciting and fast paced? 😉
Hah, I do a lot of reading. I’d quickly run out of books or go broke constantly buying new ones if I didn’t reread.
WoT definitely has its slow parts that I skip through.
Dresden Files varies between good and great. I expect that you will like it.
I concur.
He does tend to slide deeper and deeper into ‘adrenaline junkie’ setups. That’s left me more likely to want to re-read the earlier volumes rather than the later. A new one is due out soon-ish, I understand.
They do call for being read in order.
Feels like the new one has been due “soon” as long as affordable solar has been due soon.
Commercial Fusion is first in queue.
Well, it’s finished, per the author. That’s gotta get it closer to release 😉
If I’ve got the overall plan correct, there’s ones more book planned before the grand culmination of everything.
“Finished” could be “I’m through with it and will never touch that series again.”
Butcher went through a bad patch:
– divorce
– custom house taking _way_ longer than planned (lost his regular writing space)
– new wife
He’s gotten back in the swing of things, a bit – Peace Talks is due in July – but he’s also been upfront with fans about how he’s not able to write as fast as he used to
Yeah, I know. He and my favorite sports writer (Aaron Schatz) went through a tough divorce / custody battle at the same time. Felt bad for both of them and didn’t begrudge them their delays.
It’s got a release date for Hardcover on Amazon.
I like the Dresden Files very much. Not deep literature, but never boring.
It might be 5-10 years before the series is finished, if that bothers you.
The Dresden Files has interesting worldbuilding, entertaining plots, and eye-rollingly bad character writing. I’m planning on buying the next book when it comes out.
ALOL
Cant wait to share that with my Butcher fan-boy friend. He’s likely to foam at the mouth, but you’re not wrong.
Thanks all on the Dresden Files recommendation. I’ll add it to my queue.
If you liked the first one, the second is more of the same.(In a good way)
I am looking forward to the third one.
I read Joe Haldeman’s Forever Peace. It’s crap. I mean really, really awful crap. Do not waste your time.
Then I read Vladimir Burovsky’s To Build a Castle, describing his fight against the Soviet system. The guy spent much of his life in prison, involuntarily committed to psychiatric hospitals or in the camps. In the end, the Russians gladly traded him to the west to get one of their guys back from Argentina.
It’s a must read on how to resist totalitarian and authoritarian regimes’ attempts to mentally break one down. His skill was in figuring out the weak points in his captors’ systems. In his case, he realized that if he denounced members of the prison authority, it created the excuse needed by the rivals of his captors to go after his captors ‘legally’. Eventually he turned the prison into a denunciation factory
His other strength was his mother, who single mindedly devoted herself to getting news out to the west about what was being done to her son. The Soviets couldn’t allow him to starve to death from his hunger-strikes – it imperilled their propaganda; they couldn’t ignore him – their system depended on denunciations much like the American war effort in Vietnam depended on body-counts; they couldn’t free him internally – he was an early pioneer and very important player in the Samizdat system; so they freed him on the condition that he live abroad.
It’s a great and sad book.
I have his other major workJudgement in Moscow, which only just recently got published in the U.S. It’s been available in England for nearly fifteen years now. He couldn’t find a publisher in America willing to touch it. It’s about how the west propped the soviet union up and lengthened its reign of terror. It names names. Many of whom are still very active and powerful here in the U.S. I haven’t started it yet, probably because I know it will depress the shit out of me.
I also just finished Spearhead by Adam Makos. It’s non-fiction, pieced together from interviews of surviving men on both sides as well as German and American records. It follows a tank crew through World War II in Europe. It’s a great book telling a horrible story. The crew started out in a Sherman. They had lots of Shermans shot out from under them. Eventually they were issued one of the first Pershings to be deployed to Europe. The reason was simple, the gunner was the Larry Bird of tank gunners. It covers the furor back home when members of the company are interviewed by Stars and Stripes and they reveal that the Sherman had become a deathtrap where victory depended on the Germans running out of shells before the Americans ran out of Shermans. It has very good maps of the engagements. You can read them easily on the Kindle, which is no mean feat. The number of people who you get to know and then die is just staggering. The climax of the story is a duel between a Panther and the Pershing, and the trauma both gunners felt when they shot up a car carrying a group of women trying to flee the fighting.
Currently, I’m reading Tangled by Lisa Damour. She’s a shrink (and descendant of Freud) who specializes in adolescent girls. It’s helping me with the hellcat that snatched the body of my sweet-little girl.
Forever Peace stopped me reading any more Haldeman for a few years. But then I found some others and find I enjoy most of this stuff. Forever Free – sequel to Forever War – is nowhere near as good as the first book but not as bad as FP.
You either stop writing young or live long enough to start fucking your own literary corpse.
+1 Alistair Reynolds
And Heinlein and Robert Morgan and Herbert and and…
I stopped at forever free. The conclusion to that plot was not very good. If he had stopped short of going all “meaning of life” at the end, maybe I’d have pressed on with FP.
I’m currently reading Judgement in Moscow. It’s depressing, but a great read.
I will look for To Build a Castle next.
Judgement describes how difficult it was to get documents and the attitude of “It never happened and if it did it was a long time ago” that he encountered when he released them.
He has decided that Communism won the Cold War. Like I said, depressing, but a great read.
I received Judgement in Moscow a couple of weeks ago but haven’t started it yet.
Just finished reading Lawrence James’s Raj: The Making and Unmaking of British India. It’s long, (600+pp) but really well done.
On the fiction side, Chris Moriarty’s Spin State (2003, but I’d not heard of it before). Quite enjoyable so I picked up the sequel.
I also discovered that I have a (what I assume is an irrational) personal aversion to anything written in the second person. I’ve put down both a short story and a novel written that way within 5pp because it’s like fingers on a chalkboard to me.
Second person or present tense and I physically can’t read it.
a .30 caliber round
.308?
.30-30?
.30-06?
7.62×39?
7.62x54R?
.300BLK?
C’mon man! It’s like you didn’t even read Animals’ caliber tutorials!
Crap, forgot to link this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtLC_OJ6SoM
The premise of this video makes no sense. Anything with a diameter of 0.3000000R to 0.39999999R is a .30 caliber round. Its a range, not a point measurement.
I disagree. The range is not that wide. A .38 is not a .30 caliber round. The zero is there for a reason. It is not a range that encompasses all rounds whose measurements start with .3
1) I’m making a positive statement, not a normative one.
2) Your first clue that your objection is in error is that it is founded on the assertion that “The British ballistic measurement scheme is rational and internally consistent.”
Speaking of, when I was in the gun store to get a spring, I saw what looked like a misplaced Ruger 10/22. Instead, it was a tiny, light polymer-stocked Ranch Rifle chambered in .350 legend.
I’m gonna assume it’s a lead ball .3 inches in diameter.
https://www.amazon.com/photos/shared/1V8PJcj4ReO8t2fKF0-62Q.LqWih0tLSy_3k1hmCR9Xc_
I have a set too. Kinda cool.
Over time, the bullet will fall out. Cyanoacrylate is your friend (but not UCS’s).
*tries to disentangle mini from fingertips to type*
Still working my way through the Bosch series. Took a break for Ilium by Dan Simmons. Well written as usual for Simmons, but not really pulling me in 100% for some reason. Worth reading, though.
Speaking of The Witcher, here’s a nice interactive map and timeline that Netflix created for the show: https://www.witchernetflix.com/en-gb
Not quite as good as the Hyperion series, but I enjoyed Illium. Olympus is worth grabbing if you haven’t.
Admiral, Sean Danker, and the sequel Free Space. Enjoyable, nicely plotted and Well written sf. Re-readable.
Crashing Heaven, Al Robertson. Also Waking Hell, same author. Interesting take on AIs, power, and responsibility. Re-readable.
The Wicked and The Divine, Kieran Gilles, Jamie McKelvie, and Matthew Wilson, graphic novel in 45 issues.
It explores the story of stories and the power of storytelling, and power, and honesty. Recommended.
Not exactly reminiscent of Weave a Circle Round, by Kari Maaren, but exploring a similar pattern. Also recommended.
Salvation Lost, Peter F. Hamilton. Book two in the Salvation trilogy. I liked it considerably more than book 1. Hamilton is interesting, he can write compellingly but in longer form tends to build a whole lot of runway before achieving flight. Compare his Great North Road to any of his multi-volume efforts.
Lectures on Polish value theory / by Czesław Porębski. This one might inspire me to write a paper or two. In my area of expertise, he’s not so much wrong as overlooking much better original sources. But his overview in that area exposed a way for me to move forward with my own work on value theory.
The Dark Prism series by Brent Weeks. I’ll not read any more of his work. He writes well, has engaging characters, elaborates marvelous interlocking challenges, storylines, and then threw it all away with an ending that leaves everything you’ve become invested in just floating in the air, unaddressed, unresolved, and with no hint as to how they might be resolved. I felt betrayed. Also like id wasted a couple of weeks and a lot of emotional energy.
I read the first trade of the Wicked and the Divine, but it was the only one available under Comixology Unlimited. I wanted to keep reading. Maybe I’ll pick up the next ones. It certainly had a lot of potential in the first trade.
If your local library has Hoopla, its all available through that.
It’s definitely worth reading if you enjoyed the first few.
My library has Overdrive, which appears to have it.
Excellent. I’m pretty confident you’ll enjoy it.
They did kind of screw up the titling of the collections, and it’s easy to get ‘subset collections’ instead of a full arc, but attention to issue numbers will skip past that.
Hamilton’s Mindstar Rising Trilogy is a fun read; psychic ex-soldier beating up commie apparatchiks.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mindstar_Rising
You elites with yuh readin’ and yuh geography and yuh math. Readin’ ain’t never done no one any dang good. ‘Cept tha bible, o’ course.
Dang right. I’m seriously doubting some libertarian credentials around here. All this readin is how the trouble started. It’s almost like there’s nothing but a bunch of woke city slicker elitists around here. All of them probably got Andrew Yang yard signs.
Once the robots take our jerbs, we’re gonna need a negative income tax.
Our Robot Overlords already have a solution to the automation unemployment problem – reinstitution of slavery. You will perform pointless menial labor whether you like it or not.
Jokes on you. I already do all the time.
My next door neighbor put out yard signs for every single Democrat candidate, whether or not still in the race. They finished it off with an “anybody but Trump” sign.
Not that they’ve ever been anything but radical progs, but this is a level of idiocy that show how fucking desperate they are.
“I HATE YOUR IMPROVING PROSPERITY!!”
MUST…
SIGNAL…
HARDER…
I live in a solid red suburban county of Texas and in the past 4 years I’ve seen 10X as many Democrat signs as Trump signs. Seeing a Trump sign is so rare. I think the theory of the shy Trump voter is alive in the Texas burbs.
I have never seen anyone here wear a MAGA hat. Not once.
It’s because the progs, for all their talk of tolerance, have no qualms about getting in the face of someone they disagree with and passing moral judgement on them.
I tell you I really thought Beto was going to win that Senate election. The level of public signs, stickers, support, etc. was 20-1 easily.
Probably 1/3 of my neighbors had Beto signs.
Just turns out the other ones voted for Ted Cruz.
Well, like you said, not everyone is into signaling quite as much as leftists are.
My approach is that anyone putting up a candidate’s sign is either a psycho or corrupt. Therefore the candidate with the most signs will never get my vote.
My approach is that anyone putting up a candidate’s sign is either a psycho or corrupt.
There are exceptions.
A friend of mine during the 2016 elections saw videos and reports of Clinton supporters stealing Trump signs. He was going to sit out the election but after after seeing those videos and reports, he decided that not only would he vote for Donald Trump, he’d put a Donald Trump sign in his yard.
My friend made up a sign that said “TRUMP: BECAUSE CLINTON SUPPORTERS STEAL SIGNS”.
Some folks stole it, so he put up another which was covered in grease and attached to his house via doubled up fishing line. No one stole that sign.
This area is as purple as purple gets. Went for trump in 2016, went for the democrats in 2018. You see signs for local elections and the occasional bumper sticker laden prog mobile, but by and large the most common political statement out here is the gadsden flag license plates.
“but by and large the most common political statement out here is the gadsden flag license plates.”
I saw several of those the last time we were in Manassas. Gov Wokeness will probably be signing a law making those symbols of racism and hate illegal before long.
It’s a stark contrast. It’s all leftist signaling from the Potomac to dulles, and then when you get west of dulles it very quickly goes to no step on snake and I dare you to take my scary black rifles.
That said, it’s usually much more subtle on the conservative side of the spectrum. A license plate or a window cling as compared to 15 bumper stickers, a dozen rainbow flags, and a string of Christmas lights in the shape of the peace sign.
It’s Panem on the Potomac ruling over the deplorables. I’m sure the Hunger Games legislation is coming once they get all the guns.
I think living in an area where you’re the political minority tends to incentivize you to be more overt. I live near a red stain in a red state, and I’ve seen a number of Trump signs, bumper stickers, and even rallies in support.
I have to disagree. Around here, the result is becoming more covert, and not letting the political majority find out lest it come back to bite you.
Disagree – living in deepest blue Mass, I’m hesitant to tip my political leanings. I an aware of far too many people who would happily see me lose my job for such wrongthink.
This is why I don’t talk politics at work, with very rare exception. Even so, I’ve had somebody try to #metoo me for no particular reason.
Here in metro NYC – I’d have to agree with UCS and slumbrew.
Up in mildly rural NY it’s a good mix of Trump flags in pickups and Bernie stickers on Toyotas. Talking about it is less common though.
Me personally, I keep my political opinions to myself except for close friends. But I think there’s an in your face element that comes out in deep blue or deep red areas.
Sounds familiar… (Local news edition).
As usual, I’m impressed by how erudite this message board is.
I haven’t read anything recently, but I did watch about 20 hours of Netflix last week when I was down with the flu.
It was a’ight.
We watched The Irishman (long and depressing) and Once Upon a time in Hollywood (Not sure any book can top beating up hippies, letting the dog chew them up real good, and then torching them with a flamethrower).
Anyway, all the wokesters round here and their fancy books, they’re just trying to impress that Don Lemon. Do you know who Don Lemon is? He’s a negro so smart that they done gave him a white boy name.
I downloaded Once Upon a Time, but haven’t started it yet.
That’s a good film, recommended.
Ditto. My wife isn’t a Tarantino fan and loved it.
Watched the first season of Yellowstone over the weekend. It was pretty good but it gets pretty insane.
Seen it?
No but it’s on my list.
In the First Circle is a must read. I’m about a third of the way in.
Just finished Illium and really enjoyed it.
Just started “The Storm before the Storm” about the beginning of the end of Roman Republic. It gives a decent overview of the events, but is missing something.
Have you listened to Dan Carlin’s Death Throes of the Republic?
Long as hell, but one of my all time favorites.
I just finished up book 7 of Hopf’s New World Series.
Overall I liked it. I had hoped for a better ending and less loose ends, but I still enjoyed it.
I’m going to pass on the spin offs.
Trouble in paradise.
Two suspects are in police custody after breaching two security checkpoints at President Donald Trump’s private Mar-a-Lago club on Friday, law enforcement officials said.
In a statement via the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office, Florida Highway Patrol troopers were trailing a black SUV when it rammed through the checkpoints at around 11:40 a.m. EST, prompting officers to open fire as the suspects sped toward the front of the property.
The suspects were arrested after state highway troops and a PBSO helicopter located them on-site.
Both the Federal Bureau of Investigations and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement are investigating the incident.
Details about possible injuries are currently unknown.
The Dems have been pumping the outrage/second coming of Hitler angle so hard and for so long, that I will not be surprised if someone takes Trump out.
And if you think it’s bad now, wait until Trump get re-elected after them spending 100% of their time and energy trying to overturn the 2016 election for the past 4 years.
officers to open fire as the suspects sped toward the front of the property.
The suspects were arrested after state highway troops and a PBSO helicopter located them on-site.
Speeding towards a property is in itself a justification for the use of deadly force in this country? More worrisome but expected is that they were “located” on-site, meaning the cops were piss poor shots AND didn’t prevent the suspects from entering the property.
I am currently reading this one also. I think it’s after The Last Wish, because Yennifer is talked about.
I agree with some of the story telling being a little much, especially the dream reading sorceress, she really added nothing to the story.
I wrote this before I had gotten too far into it. That was what people were saying on Goodreads.
You eventually figure out what’s going on. I won’t spoil it.
I meant to go in and fix it, but I got lazy.
You effetists and your “books”.
You’re living in the past. In the past, I tell you.
Yeah, like Witcher thread above. They made a computer game by that name. And the newest one has Hennifer nekked, in glorious 4K!
I need to explore Kord FitzHelen’s Maternal family tree. All I know is that his mother was rather tomboyish in inclination, and the frustrations this caused probably helped her parents accept her marrying a bastard who happened to have wealth and connections to a powerful family.
“Kord FitzHelen’s Maternal family tree.”
I don’t even know what you just said.
Have you been reading “Banker of Stirnberg“?
I don’t even know what you just said.
I see. Well, good luck.
Read the last two posts of UnCiv’s fiction.
I ain’t clicking that. It’s Nazi tricknology. Look at those names! You click that, next thing you know, you’re making Nazi signs on the local campus.
More butthurt at Slate.
On Friday afternoon, Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski announced that she would vote against witnesses in Donald Trump’s Senate trial, all but ensuring that the president will be promptly acquitted Friday night. Democrats do not have enough votes to subpoena witnesses, which might have prolonged the trial and forced Republicans to confront even more egregious facts. But the truth is that the Senate was never going to convict Trump. Removal was already near-impossible, and the GOP has manipulated constitutional ambiguities to permanently protect the president from expulsion. The impeachment saga has revealed many unseemly facts about American politics , but perhaps the most important is this: Future presidents may be impeached, but none will ever be removed from office.
“But the truth is that the Senate was never going to convict Trump.”
Wow, what a prophet of prognosticating that wokester is.
even more egregious facts
There were not any to begin with.
the GOP has manipulated constitutional ambiguities
Progjection.
permanently protect the president from expulsion…but none will ever be removed from office
Bring an actual criminal charge next time.
Impeachment shall be 0 for 3.
If a President is going to be removed, they will resign before Impeachment.
I miss tricky Dick.
https://youtu.be/-F50QIqh8so
All projection, all of the time.
The impeachment saga has revealed many unseemly facts about American politics
Indeed it has.
Some of them reflect poorly on Trump, but the vast majority reflect poorly on . . . others.
I took one look at this picture and went Ha! Rasta sheep
Rasta puppy.
Driving back to work after a dentist appointment, I saw a house with an American flag and a Trump 2020 flag on their pole their front yard. God, country, and Donald Trump are alive and well in small town Iowa.
I heard that Iowans only care about 2 things. Farm subsidies and transgender bathrooms. Dems have them covered.
“I came here to farmsubsidies and chew bubblegum, and I’m aaallllll out of bubblegum.”
That’s my neighbor across the street with a Dodge Challenger. Does carpentry for a living.
You can’t make this shit up, I tell: Billionaire asshat running for donkey president tells crowd he identifies as not rich.
I am going to start identifying as a pimp and demanding women be my bitchez….
He’s almost as off-putting as Bloomberg, which is impressive.
Well, he hasn’t shaken a dog by its muzzle yet, so he’s got that going for him.
Steyer is running really hard in Iowa. Half the fucking political ads I see on Youtube are from him.
I hate the fucker at this point.
??
Honk honk.
I wonder if his speech was approved by a transgendered child.
I haven’t been around much lately but I did see that on the news. I knew y’all were gonna have fun with that one.
If anyone has any questions about what post-modernism is for this should answer the question. It is a deliberate effort to scramble people’s brains to the point where they will buy any shit shoveled at them. Amazingly it seems to work.
That’s my truth.
Rereading ‘Wide as the Waters’ – Benson Bobrick. It is an accounting of the origin of the English language. Very easy read, very interesting.
Wife has some new ap thingy on the tv and has been watching a zillion English movies and series. I try but they eventually piss me off. The limeys are so different from us in so many ways and it is hard to see at first but after a while it is obvious. Wifey complained about my bitching a little bit and I said “Well, we shot as many of them as we could and sent the rest packing. Watching those shows for five minutes I tis easy to see why.”
She grumblingly admitted I was right.
“Well, we shot as many of them as we could and sent the rest packing.”
There’s the problem. We didn’t shoot all of them.
Truly the best timeline ever:
Jennifer Rubin
@JRubinBlogger
1. Move for a mistrial. 2. Call Bolton to testify next week in the House.
1:33 PM · Jan 31, 2020·
Why bother with a “mistrial”? Just reimpeach him forever.
Well, of course they’re going to do that anyway. I’m just enjoying laughing at her for claiming that a mistrial is a thing in the impeachment process.
What a deranged shrew.
Bahahaha….I love Harsanyi
David Harsanyi
@davidharsanyi
They should strenuously object!
Quote Tweet
Jennifer Rubin
@JRubinBlogger
· 1h
1. Move for a mistrial. 2. Call Bolton to testify next week in the House.
1:44 PM · Jan 31, 2020·
Is that how it’s done?
Hm?
“Objection, your Honor!”
“Overruled”
“No, no. I STRENUOUSLY object.”
“Oh! You strenuously object. Then I’ll take some time and reconsider.”
Emotional content means…..
My Grandfather: “Shit in one hand and put. your feelings in the other. Tell me which one weighs more.”
If I had a dollar for every time I heard that…..
With all this impeachment going on, there’s no time for any legislation to get passed. I’m counting that as another win for Trump.
America’s democracy is failing. Here’s why.
Can anyone explain what in the fuck that even means?
I’m really get tired of that headline format. Statement followed by “This is what we know” or “Here’s why” as above. It’s juvenile and unprofessional.
“This is what you need to know”.
Vox – We’re The Economist for the Twitter generation.
Paywall
I used to like The Economist until about a decade or so ago. Somebody pointed out that all their articles seemed really well thought out and thorough EXCEPT when it was subject that you actually knew well. They always made some fundamental mistake. The more articles I read related to finance and insurance the more I realized how right he was.
More like the Scholastic Weekly Reader for adult twits.
As Michael Crichton once said:
Yup. That was long before I’d read Crichton’s quote.
It tells the people what they are to believe and gives them talking points to ‘support’ it. It isn’t exactly news, nor even exactly propaganda. It’s a straight up briefing, just as one would give a candidate before a debate.
Statement followed by “This is what we know” or “Here’s why” as above.
I loathe that. I take it as a sign that the content will be sucktacular, and rarely click through or read.
“Four features of our anti-democratic democracy”
And could someone explain to this tard that it’s a fucking republic?
Obumbles spent eight years insisting that we are a democracy.
They can’t tell the difference between a man and a woman, why would they understand democracy/republic?
It’s fucking Vox – of course it’s meaningless drivel.
That’s easy. It means they didn’t get the election result they wanted.
I am dumber for even skimming that.
It means somebody they don’t like got elected.
I’m reading Student Guide – NROI Range Officer Seminar.
I’m hoping whoever wrote the USPSA rules is a fuckton better than the guy who wrote the testing instructions
Wokette, grab em by the stache!
LOLOLOLOL… paging SF to the courtesy phone…
Oh shit, I thought Wonkette was part of the Gawker Media empire and had long since been shuttered and given a viking funeral. Apparently I am not the canny consumer of internet culture that I thought I was…what was the porn blog? Fleshbot?
Fleshbot. Which I think spun off?
Wonkette was begun under the Gawker aegis and spun off in 2012.
Yes, Fleshbot spun off in 2012 as well.
Thank you, your Gawker-fu continues to impress and unsettle.
[Incredible Hulk closing music as SugarFree walks away]
Wasn’t a type-o, I swear I read that as Woke-ette.
I figured that, or maybe a wok that identified as female.
I’m not really sure what the difference is between Wonk and Woke. Maybe we can ask some Woke Wonks.
I have become the Rodney Dangerfield of the internet.
I would watch a remake of Ladybugs staring Sugar Free and a hologram of Jonathan Brandis.
BRO! I actually was a youth league soccer coach! This is a perfect vehicle! I will be a STAR!
True. You get no respect.
Oh man, this reads like something out of a SF short story. From the testimony at the Weinstein trial:
“ The first time I saw him fully naked, I felt, I thought he was deformed and intersex,” Jessica Mann, 34, a Washington state native, told Manhattan Supreme Court jurors during Weinstein’s rape and sex assault trial.
“He has extreme scarring that I didn’t know if maybe he was a burn victim. He does not have testicles and it appears like he has a vagina,” Mann said as Weinstein bowed his head while sitting at the defense table.”
That’s hilarious.
Setting up Weinstein’s transition in prison so he can be released early.
Precedent: https://news.yahoo.com/male-iowa-sex-felon-released-134340092.html
Hmm, that wouldn’t be a bad move for him right now. Come out as transgender so he wouldn’t end up as a rape toy in the big house. Sounds like he may be already more than halfway there anyways. I wonder if Paddy Power has a betting line on this possibility?
If only we had a national penis registry we could check her story.
Oh Christ, stop giving Elizabeth Warren new ideas!
Some more gross details:
“ She said Weinstein had lotion and she was pressured into giving him a massage.
“He had a lot of, a lot of blackheads and the texture of them was uncomfortable,” Mann said.”
And of course you knew penile injections were included:
“He stabbed himself with a needle and there has to be blood and he was inside of me,” Mann thought. “I was kind of in shock over that.”
And of course you knew penile injections were included:
Ah, the dick dart. Of. Course.
Is this trial being televised? Asking for a friend.
“Oh Christ, stop giving Elizabeth Warren new ideas!”
But no worries for Lieawatha, she won’t have to register hers, being dear leader and all.
Gasoline and cocaine. Back in the 70s they called that a “Pinto.”
national penis registry
PUA blog name?
WE ARE NPR!
NO, THE PENIS ONE!
Chairman of the Board: STEVE SMITH.
That or a sophomore album from a hardcore band.
Jeez, I actually feel almost bad for the guy.
The chick actually claims she let him sleep with her the first time because she pitied him after that sight.
Jesus. That makes me feel bad for the guy.
Damn. Just . . . damn.
Meh. Probably tried to fuck an electrical socket he had drawn lipstick all around.
Sounds like the next viral challenge. How do we make it so?
Hold on, I’m trying to sign up for Tik Tok right now.
Yeah. I could have gone all day without knowing any of that.
Me too. I’m glad I already ate dinner.
Only his mohel knows for sure
“Oopsie. Wow, that almost never happens.”
“We Meant Well: or how I helped to lose the battle for the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people” by Peter Van Buren This is one man’s story of civil military operations in 2009 in Iraq. I was working the same in 2008 and it was a good refresher.
“Shattered Sword” about the battle of Midway. Interesting book because the authors work the examine the battle from Japanese doctrine and capacities and not just mirror the US onto Japan.
“The Nearly Totally Perfect People” is an examination of the reality of Scandinavian countries and society. The author is definitely from the left side of the spectrum but does a decent job of examining reality vice popular perceptions.