Tag: book of the week

‘Bring the Jubilee.’

Not much to say about Bring the Jubilee, except of course that it’s one of the seminal if-the-South-had-won-the-Civil-War novels that made up the backbone of alternate history for so long.  It’s also one of those books that the unwary will think of as ‘hackneyed,’ because the plot twists and details will be so familiar… because everybody writing this sort of alternate history ripped off Bring the Jubilee shamelessly.  Well worth it, in other words.  Good to know the roots of a genre.

And so, farewell to Decision Points.

Book of the Week: ‘Salem’s Lot.

‘salem’s Lot was one of those books that I read in about two hours… then freaked out my college roommate (who didn’t believe that I was capable of reading anything that quickly) by reciting the plot back to him*.

Mind you, this came at the price of disquieting dreams.

And the lambs stop screaming wrt The Silence of the Lambs. OK, that sounded better in my head.

*With the caveat that I hadn’t memorized the people’s names. Just their archtypes.

Book of the Week: The Silence of the Lambs.

Yes, the series got wonky, fast – but The Silence of the Lambs was itself a darn good book. Better than the one that it was a sequel to, frankly.  And it spawned a rarity: a movie that was pretty much as good as the book, without having to throw out everything except the title and the character names.  That’s not that common, really.

And so… hopefully I’ll see you soon, The New Annotated Dracula.

Moe Lane

Book of the Week: The New Annotated Dracula.

I picked The New Annotated Dracula because it’s October, so horror seemed appropriate; and you might as well start with the classics.  In this particular case, I haven’t read it yet.  But both the promise of a fully-annotated text and a conceit that warms the cockles of my yearning-for-autumn heart conspired to make this one Book of the Week:  I look forward to its arrival on the doorstep.

And so farewell to 1635: The Eastern Front.  Grimmer than I expected.

Moe Lane

Book of the Week: Red State Uprising.

I picked Red State Uprising: How to Take Back America this week because it was written by a buddy of mine (one Erick Erickson, who also happens to be the guy who runs RedState) – and no, I’m not getting paid to shill this sucker.  I wouldn’t mind being paid to shill it, so if you want to keep thinking that I am… then who am I to stop you*?

So, adieu to Blameless (The Parasol Protectorate): we’ll go back to non-political books next week.

Moe Lane Continue reading Book of the Week: Red State Uprising.

#rsrh BotW: Known and Unknown.

This is, alas, not yet available on Amazon.com – but it’s the memoirs of Donald Rumsfeld, and I for one have been looking forward to reading it for a while.

It promises to be quite fascinating, in fact: the press release from Sentinel (division of Penguin) indicated that the book would feature “plainspoken, first-hand views and often humorous and surprising anecdotes about some of the world’s best known figures, from Margaret Thatcher to Saddam Hussein, from Henry Kissinger to Colin Powell, from Elvis Presley to Dick Cheney, and each American president from Dwight D. Eisenhower to George W. Bush.”

(pause)

Elvis, huh?

That one sounds particularly interesting. At any rate, no Amazon listing means no widget, so I suppose that Blameless can stay up for another week.

Moe Lane

Continue reading #rsrh BotW: Known and Unknown.

Book of the Week: Dead or Alive.

Yes, yes, Dead or Alive is a 850 page Tom Clancy novel, and it’d probably stand to be cut down about three hundred pages because nobody wants to tell Tom Clancy that he shouldn’t write 850 page novels. Including, apparently, me, because I’m going to read the blessed thing. I’m obviously weak that way.

And so ends the reign of The High King of Montival.