Reading anything?

[BoyScoutKevin]

Ye-es!
2 + 2 + 2

2 non-fiction books

Brad Steiger's
Real Vampires, Night Stalkers, and Creatures from the Darkside
4 more non-fiction written

It'd be a better book, if he was more of a doubter and less of a true believer, but there still is information to be garnered from his book.


Martha Klickstain's
Slimed :
an Oral History of Nickelodeon's Golden Age
5 more non-fiction written

We won't say much now, as we'll have a more detailed report next time.


2 mysteries

Cath Staincliffe's
Dead to Me

Who killed the "good time gal?" Was it her mother, her brother, her mother's female lover, her half breed boy friend, who is also her drug supplier, or was it someone else? It is up to our heroine to decide.


C. C. Benison's
Ten Lords a-Leaping
3rd in the Father Christmas series

Who killed the man staying as a house guest at the house in the country? As the man was probably the most hated man there,  it is a long list of suspects. Was it one of his relations, including the owner of the estate, one of the other guests, including our hero and his 10-year-old daughter, one of the servants, or someone from the near-by village?

Written by a Canadian, one of the most intriguing things about the book, is the amount of sex in it. It must be due to those cold Canadian winters. There's . . .
appropriate sex between adults,
inappropriate sex with children: both boys and girls,
bisexuality and homosexuality,
non-violent sex and violent sex, etc.

Another intrigue I found interesting is the relationship between the hero's daughter and the estate owner's son, who is 12 in the book. They would seem to have nothing in common . . .
He is of the nobility. She is of the middle class.
He is well to do. She is not.
He is Roman Catholic. She is Church of England.
He is politically Conservative. She is politically Liberal/Labor
but . . .

They have a couple of things in common already, that would make them right for each other as husband and wife in a decade or so.
They have mutual respect for each other.
They both are willing to compromise.

Thus, I hope their relationship continues in the next book in the series.


2 graphic novels

Hickman and Dragotta's
East Is West
v.1

Scott and David Tipton's
Doctor Who :
Prisoners of Time
in 3 v.

v.1. Is 4 stories featuring the 1st 4 doctors. Read
v.2. Is 4 stories featuring the 2nd 4 doctors. Unread
v.3. Is 4 stories featuring the 3rd 3 doctors + a story featuring all 11 doctors up to the time the stories were published. Read


Next time: 1 report on Klickstein's "Slimed."

[BoyScoutKevin]

Matthew's Klickstein's
Slimed :
an Oral History of Nickelodeon's Golden Age
writer of 5 more non-fiction

The interesting story of the 1st cable channel to specifically program for children.

Not my channel, as the only show I watched on it regular basis was "Are You Afraid of the Dark?," which I must admit I watched from the 1st episode to the last episode, but as I said, an interesting story, if for no other reason, if the best thing someone can do for you to show you how to do something, then the 2nd best thing someone can do for you is to show you how not do do something, which is the story of Nickelodeon. As to the why . . . ? Which the book fails to cover, and which is it's one weakness, I have some ideas.

(1) While the Disney Channel is/was known for its mainstream programming, then Nickelodeon was known for its edgy programming, which is harder to do consistently.

(2) The talent finally wasn't there. Where it started off with talented people, those people left, and the people who came in later, were not as talented.

(3) While the Disney Channel is/was known for its sitcoms, Nickelodeon was known for its game shows and sketch comedy shows, which again are harder to do consistently.

(4) Programming was kept around too round, It should have been replaced, but Nickelodeon had nothing to which replace it.

(5) Nickelodeon was part of Paramount, which is owned by the Redstone family, and the feuds within that family certainly didn't help management wise.

Or, at least that is my take on what went wrong. And I must say, if Nickelodeon is a product of good management going to bad, then Marvel Entertainment is the reverse, or a product of bad management becoming good. Now, there's a story worth telling.

Next time: back to 2 + 2 + 2

[indianasmith]

I just finished IN THE GARDEN OF BEASTS, by Erik Larson - a ground level view of Berlin in 1933-34 from the perspective of the new American Ambassador, William Dodds, and his family.  A fascinating look at a totalitarian society in its infancy, with horrifying hints of what was to come.

[lester1/2jr]

Gospel of Thomas

[BoyScoutKevin]

Ye-es!

2 mysteries

Ann Cleeves
Dead Water :
a Shetland mystery
5th in the Shetland series

Who wanted to kill the local boy made good as a reporter in the big city of London, who returns to his hometown to work on the story of his lifetime. And what, if anything, does a later murder, have to do with the 1st murder.

Same authoress
Silent Voices
1st in the Vera Stanhope series

Who wanted to kill the social worker while she was in the steam room of the local spa. And does it have anything to do with an adoption some years before.


2 non-fiction

Marcus Hearn's
BBC Doctor Who :
the vault
4 more non-fiction by the writer

Doctor Who from . . . to . . . and at times, not only science fiction, but also . . .
a western -- a war film -- scientific -- religious -- political -- philosophical -- horrorific -- historical -- fantastical -- economical (which adds to its appeal) -- comical -- adventureous --  and even a musical.

Eric Jager's
Blood Royal :
a True Tale of Crime and Detection from Medieval Paris
3 more non-fiction by the author

Several salient points.

(1st) While forensic sciences have advanced the detection of crime, some things have never changed in over 500 years.
Visit crime scene. Check
Gather evidence. Check
Interview witnesses. Check

(2) The book does give a look at the common people who inhabited the wealthiest city in the wealthiest country of that time.

(3) If you like the hero in the book, try to do what is right, then someone will screw you over. That hasn't changed much.

(4) I have always disliked Henry V, as I have always disliked men who are portrayed as being too perfect, but as much as I dislike the man, the writer really, really dislikes him.


2 graphic novels

Barnes and Ambaum's
What Would Dewey Do? :
an Unshelved Collection
1 more graphic novel by the writers

a collection of comic strips featuring as its hero, the teen librarian of a small public library, and his compatriots and patrons.

Colfer's and Donkin's
Artemis Fowl :
the Graphic Novel
v.3. The Eternity Code

The 3rd volume in the continuing series about the world's youngest master criminal and his friends and foes.

As they are still publishing these in graphic format, maybe, just maybe we will some day get a film version of his adventures. The idea for the film being kicked around Hollywood for years.


Next time: 2 by 2 by 2

[bob]

Band of Brothers

[indianasmith]

Just finished David Potter's EMPERORS OF ROME, a survey of all the men who ruled the Empire from the rise of Julius Caesar to the fall of the Western Empire in 476.  Sweeping in its scope, it was short of details, but still a fascinating read.  I learned a lot about the later Emperors (from 200 - 476 AD) which I did not know.

[BoyScoutKevin]

Ye-es!

2 mysteries

Lillian Stewart Carl's
The Avalon Chanter
7th in the Jean Fairbairn and Alasdar Cameron series

When an American archaeologist and her husband, a Scottish policeman, attend a combination archaeological dig and folk music festival on an isle off of the coast of Scotland, they find what they came to find. A body where they thought it'd be buried, and some good music, but they also find something they did not expect to find, an unexpected body buried with the expected body. Does the unexpected body belong to a man who disappeared from an earlier folk music festival some years before, and as the murderer was never caught in that disappearance, is he or she still living on the island, that is now cut off from the mainland by the weather.


J.A. Jance's
Moving Target
9th in the Ali Reynolds series


2 non-fiction books

Steven Levingston's
Little Demon in the City of Light :
a True Story of Murder and Mesmerism in Belle Epoque Paris
2 more non-fiction books by the writer

The 1st time the defense of the murderer being under the influence of hypnosis or mesmerism was used in a murder trial.


Lloyd, Mitchinson, and Harkin's
1227 Quite Interesting Facts to Blow Your Socks Off
7 more non-fiction books by the 3 writers

The title says it all.


2 graphic novels

Layman and Guillory's
Major League Chew
5th in the Chew series

I know this graphic series has its fans, but I have never been able to get into it. Actually, this is the 1st in the series, that I have been able to read to the end and finish.


Tarantino and Hudlin's
Django Unchained

The graphic novel version of the recent film. Based upon the 1st script and not the script used in the filming. So, you can see the changes made between the 2 scripts. Changes that made the film a better film, a worst film, and had no influence on the film.

While I do not expect historical perfection in a film. It's just not possible. I did expect something better than this. From minor problems with the weapons and explosives used in the film to major problems with the characters' actions, reactions, and attitudes expressed, there were many historical offs in the film. Still, the film held together as being sensible to one point in the film, where what a character did made no sense at all.

Thus, just from this, as I have yet to see the film and will most likely never see the film, after reading this, an overrated film by an overrated filmmaker.


Next time: a "doorstopper" of a biography about a man who has had more biographies written about him than any other American outside some of the U.S. Presidents. If I can finish it in time. If not, then back to 2 by 2 by 2.

[Rev. Powell]

I swear I'm not really this nerdy!

[ER]

Finished a re-read of The Graveyard Book, which I think is not just Neil Gaiman's best novel, but among the top novels of any genre in the decade of the 2000s. If anything I enjoyed it more this time than I did in 2010. Gaiman is a one-person-in-a-billion sort of living treasure.

[Javakoala]

I swear I'm not really this nerdy!

You're not nerdy. You're embracing your inner geek. Stand proud.

[Javakoala]

As I mentioned in another thread (about movies), I've been reading the Jumper novels. Just the first two, Jumper and Reflex.

Pretty entertaining sci-fi mixed with some political stuff. Kid learns he can teleport to places he knows and uses the ability to escape his abusive father. After a tragedy disrupts his life, he decides to use his ability to find the man who caused the horrible event.

For heaven's sake, do NOT watch the movie. It turns the main character from a sympathetic character into a shallow jerk and brings in a whole different storyline that is typical Hollywood crap.

[BoyScoutKevin]

Ye-es!

Outside of some of the American presidents, more bios have been written about this man than any other American. Some of whom are so complicated that they are not the same from month to month. Some of whom are so complex that they are not the same from week to week. But here is an American that was so complicated and complex, that those who knew him best since they never understood him, because he was never the same two days in a row. But, here's a good stab at it as anything ever written about the man. At least it is long enough, that it can be used as a doorstop.

Neal Gabler's
Walt Disney :
the Triumph of the American Imagination
3 more non-fiction books by the writer

If his friends and supporters never understood him, his enemies and critics not only misunderstood him, but also underestimated him, were more short sighted than he was, and where he was constantly changing, they were unchanging, as made manifest in this bio.

Something else he had, where stupidity often runs rampant. He was not always right, but he was more right than wrong, which made him the smartest guy in the room, and made everybody else look stupid. And the stupidest of the stupid.

I am beginning to understand why so many people have come to dislike politics. During the War, Walt agreed to make a film supporting the war effort for the government, and for cost, which means he would charge the government only what it cost to make it, and there'd be not profit for the studio. Then politics intervened. And the political people wanted the film made, but they did not want to pay for the film. In other words, the studio was to make it for free. They might as well told Lockheed to build bombers for the government, but then we aren't going to pay you for building them. And while Democrats are not immune from doing or saying something stupid, all the stupidity this time came from the Republican side of the aisle. It was enough for a good Republican like Walt to turn in his Goldwater button and become a Democrat. And one of the best/worst examples of stupidity was from Representative Carl Curtis Republican of Nebraska. And 20 years on, little had changed. Carl was now Senator Curtis Republican of Nebraska, but he was as still as stupid as ever. Indeed, muckraker Anderson said he was the stupidest man in the Senate and considering the competition, that's saying something.

And the 2nd stupidest group from this bio. The critics, as where Walt was a visionary looking to the future, the critics were mired in the past and in the present.

One of the best features of this bio are all the photo sections, as they put faces on the people you have heard of, but have never seen.

And besides the photos, whether advertent or inadvertent, while Walt can not be totally absolved of all his problems, the bio does point out that he can be absolved some of the responsibility. For he'd try something, and people would be dissatisfied. He'd try something else, and they'd be dissatisfied. He was working with people who never would be or could be satisfied. And to compound the problem of dissatisfaction, when they looked in the mirror, they blamed everyone but themselves for their dissatisfaction.

Not that the bio is perfect. There are a number of mistakes in it. Most of them minor. The evil queen/witch in "Snow White and the 7 Dwarves" did not jump to her death at the end of the film, but fell to her death after being struck by lightning.

The cricket, who remains nameless throughout, in the original novel of "Pinocchio" was not killed by being stomped on, but seemingly killed by Pinocchio, who threw a hammer at him. Thus, the hammer throw entered the Summer Olympics.

But, the biggest mistake the writer makes is that he underestimates the Mickey who was Walt. For example, who is the spokesmouse for the mightiest entertainment empire the world has ever seen or likely will ever see. It is not Minnie or Donald or Goofy or Pluto or the 200 and 1 other characters created, but Mickey. And in comparison with the cartoon characters from Warner Brothers, maybe they once shone more brightly than Mickey and the other characters named, but now they arte stumbling around in the dark, because Warner Bros. did not/does not know how to keep them in the spotlight.

And at the end of the bio, the writer lists all the accomplishments of Walt. Who, again excluding most of the American presidents, probably accomplished more in his life than any other American outside of Thomas Alva Edison. This is only a partial list as to what Walt accomplished.

1. Animation.
There are only two eras in animation. BWD and AWD or before Walt Disney and after Walt Disney.

2, Hollywood and TV
He changed the relationship between Hollywood and television.

3. The parks.
Enough said.

4. While he was alive, he surpassed, outlasted, or ignored most of his rivals, foes, and the envious.

5. And most importantly, he founded the foundation of the mightiest entertainment empire the world has ever seen or likely will ever see. One that has overshadowed, overtaken, or overwhelmed the ignorant, its enemies, and its competitors.

No, while not perfect, this bio is probably as close to a perfect bio of Walt as you'll likely ever get.

Next time: back to 2 by 2 by 2.

[Rev. Powell]

This was a free download from the SANTA CLAUS Rifftrax show. I paid about right for it.  Eh, it's not bad, but nothing special.

[Javakoala]

Here's the real Christmas comic this forum needs.