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https://variety.com/2022/film/news/quentin-tarantino-book-tour-cinema-speculation-buy-tickets-1235396144/
My favourite horror novel bare none. I always come back to it.
and also
"NORWAY SEEN FROM THE AIR"
I have a few gaps around the middle of the series, which I am hoping to plug before I get to them.
PROGRAMMING THE HUMAN BIO-COMPUTER (1967/68)
I think they're already among us from some of the faces I see.
https://www.amazon.ca/Mere-Churchianity-Formerly-Flatlining-Church/dp/1530493536/ref=sr_1_2?crid=1FROCDFZ6Q2V1&keywords=mere+churchianity&qid=1667546580&qu=eyJxc2MiOiIwLjAwIiwicXNhIjoiMC4wMCIsInFzcCI6IjAuMDAifQ==&sprefix=mere+churchianity,aps,127&sr=8-2
I'm not a Christian but my girlfriend and her family are, and her dad wrote this book. It's an argument that church is not only not biblical, but can actually be an obstacle in the way of a relationship with God. It's really interesting so far; I'm planning to go to Germany where they live this Christmas to meet them, and my rule is, if you're going to meet someone who wrote a book, read the book.
That's an impressive achievement. My old minister always said that the people were the church, not the actual church building or meeting place. I think a lot of Christians forget that. Perhaps the nomenclature doesn't help.
I have no faith whatsoever, but I agree that "the church" as a symbol of organized religion is by far the weakest element in any relationship one might be willing to establish with the god or spiritual entity of one's choice. I honestly believe that disconnecting oneself from a group mentality is the purest path to spirituality. A church is a hindrance, a hierarchical structure with rules and laws that restrict one's freedom of thought. It isn't the Abrahamic god that imposes the cruel and inhumane way of living called celibacy on its Catholic priests, it's the Catholic church, the Vatican--a devious power structure that enslaves its disciples in an intellectual, emotional and physical way--that has made up this torturous regime.
Even more so, I feel that most churches can be held responsible for some of the cruelest crimes against humanity committed in the past and today-- and they still haven't faced the proper judgement. The Vatican, for example, has a terrifying history of stealing from the poor, is still sitting on riches beyond our wildest imaginations, yet doesn't feel the slightest need to financially support those in need, apart from a few charitable activities here and there. The Vatican built its wealth on the blood and tears of the poor, and even today would rather let homeless people die in the streets of Italy than help them. The Vatican burnt infidels, allowed AIDS to be rampant in Africa, and still won't approach half the world's population with equal rights as the other half. I, for one, cannot understand why anyone in their right mind would want to be a part of such a hypocritical institution in the first place. So if people seek spiritual guidance in their life, they can do a lot better than through the Catholic Church. One must practically be a Satanist to enjoy membership of that awful sect.
I am a full-blood atheist, a staunch anti-theist even, but I don't mind people having faith; I just wish it were possible without human intervention.
Congrats to your father-in-law, @NickTwentyTwo, for getting a book published. I've always wanted to do that, but I lack the courage. 😉
Can apply equally to theist and atheist is my thought.
Here are the 10 best books I read in 2022:
Epigrams, Vol. I-III by Martial. Social satire by the bad boy poet from the court of Emperor Domitian. I learned the best way to insult an ancient Roman is to call him a fellator. Loeb edition.
SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome by Mary Beard. An immensely readable social history, spanning the formative years of the republic to the reign of Caracalla. Beard is a great communicator and a very readable historian.
Thebaid: A Song of Thebes by Statius. A bleak, gory Roman epic, based on the same legend as the play Seven Against Thebes, detailing the fratricidal strife between the sons of Oedipus. Translation by Jane Wilson Joyce.
Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo (Oxford World Classics edition). AKA "The Hunchback of Notre Dame." Jean Paul Sartre said Victor Hugo was a madman who thought he was Victor Hugo, and this novel is definitely crazy. There are long sections on medieval architecture and customs, but the dramatic parts still pack a florid punch. I've watched several film adaptations but none measure up to the book.
Buster Keaton: A Filmmaker's Life by James Curtis. I've read all of Keaton's biographies, and this is the definitive one. It sets the record straight and is comprehensive to a fault. Curtis occasionally rambles, but a biography of the greatest comedian of the 20th century has the right to be lengthy.
The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh. Short but scabrous satire of Los Angeles and the American way of dying. Forest Lawn Cemetery would have been gold for any satirist, and Waugh, with his exquisite style and distaste for all things American, was the perfect man to demolish it in prose.
The Perfect Prince: The Mystery of Perkin Warbeck and His Quest for the Throne of England by Ann Wroe. A rich, lengthy, and obsessive look into the life of one of history's great imposters, who claimed to be one of the Princes in the Tower imprisoned (and murdered) by Richard III. We still don't know exactly who Perkin Warbeck really was, but Wroe offers a startling possible answer. I read this alongside John Ford's 1634 history play Perkin Warbeck: A Strange Truth.
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes / But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes by Anita Loos. The uproarious tale of a pretentiously dumb gold digger and her catty best friend feasting on wealthy male dopes wherever they travel. A report from the battle line of the wars of the sexes and belly laugh at how stupid men get around blondes.
The Complete Dick Tracy, Vols. 23-25 (1966-1971) by Chester Gould. The end of the psychotic moon period for the great American detective strip. Pressured by his syndicate to drop the sci-fi stuff, Gould went after the courts that dared to insist on the human rights of criminals. Even as a crank Gould was entertaining, and these stories contain some of his best artwork, with its incredible command of chiaroscuro and silhouettes.
Princes and Artists: Patronage and Ideology at Four Habsburg Courts, 1517-1633 by Hugh Trevor-Roper. The great historian and stylist shows how artistic masterpieces and court ideology intersected at the courts of Europe's most powerful monarchs.
And here are five honorable mentions:
The Brothers York: An English Tragedy by Thomas Penn. A solid history of the sons of the Duke of York during the Wars of the Roses. One became the charming but grossly dissolute Edward IV, another the treacherous Duke of Clarence, and the last Richard III, of mostly deserved notoriety.
Renaissance Warrior and Patron: The Reign of Francis I by Robert J. Knecht. The most comprehensive biography of the great French king, who was a contemporary (and frenemy) of Henry VIII. I read this before visiting the Palace of Fontainebleau outside Paris, where the gallery of Francis I remains in its original splendor.
The Tin Lizzie Troop by Glendon Swarthout. A rollicking novel set in 1916, detailing an ill-fated U.S. Cavalry charge into Mexico made not with horses but Model T Fords. There's plenty of comedy between the upper-crust cavalry and their working class trainer, but the book has some sting too.
Mayer and Thalberg: The Make-Believe Saints by Samuel Marx. Fascinating behind-the-scenes tales from an MGM story editor about the power struggles and starpower at the biggest and most powerful film studio in the world.
Characters by Jean de La Bruyère (Penguin edition). A work of aphoristic proto-psychology by a moralist who lived in the decadent final decades of Louis VIV's reign.
1. The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris.
2. Superman ‘78 by Robert Venditti.
3. Indiana Jones and the Army of the Dead by Steve Perry.
4. Star Wars: Heir to the Empire by Timothy Zahn.
5. 11/22/63 by Stephen King.
The ones that stood out best for me.
Timothy Zahn and James Lucino are my two favourite Star Wars EU authors.
Did Timothy Zahn write the novels that featured Admiral Thrawn? I remember one of my friends at secondary school reading one of those books in English class once.
Yes, indeed, Zahn is the literary father of Thrawn. He introduced the Grand Admiral in Heir To The Empire, featured him in 5 books between '91 and '98, and recently wrote another half a dozen Thrawn books between '17 and '21. Trawn made an appearance or was mentioned in a few more of Zahn's books in between.
In my opinion, Zahn created the best SW character outside the movies. Well, along with Doctor Aphra from the comics, that is. 😄
Yes, I thought the name was familiar even though that was in the late 1990s. I take it that these novels are a kind of literary Star Wars Expanded Universe? I'm afraid I'm not familiar with Star Wars at all, apart from a few very basic facts.
Mussolini is a character that has long fascinated me, and Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio sparked my interest into really learning more about him. No history class I ever took over the years went beyond mere mentions of him, and it certainly seems he exists in Hitler’s shadow concerning WWII education. I am only a few chapters into the book, but so far it’s truly riveting and balanced between what this guy was like as a person and political figure. He had many psychopathic tendencies from the very beginning, and the atrocities he committed just in his personal life are plenty disturbing before seizing more power.
Just finished reading Inherent Vice (2009) by Thomas Pynchon. Having watched the film several times (it's a favourite of mine), it was about time I finally read the source novel.
It certainly didn't disappoint. The novel shares everything that's great about the film (or rather the other way around); a countercultural hippie-era Los Angeles set detective story, following doped-up private investigator Larry "Doc" Sportello through a mystery involving his former girlfriend, Shasta Fay Hepworth. Shasta is now now the girlfriend of billionaire real-estate mogul Mickey Wolfmann, and want him to prevent plans by Mickey's wife and her lover to have Mickey committed to a mental institution. When Mickey and Shasta both disappear, Doc must find out what has happened, in an increasingly confusing plot, subplots and counterplots – making you as confused as a stoned Doc is, throughout the book.
It's a great mix of humour, noir-y crime mystery, 60/70's paranoia and a lot of pop culture references. Reading this book really highlights how good an adaptation Paul Thomas Anderson's 2014 film is. I'd go as far as giving this book a 10/10, because I had a really great time reading this one.