good books for lockdown reading

I just finished Night Witches by Bruce Myles, which was pretty good.
Mo doesn't usually like my kind of books, but I think she'll like that
one. Sort of an aerial combat chic flick. It would make a good movie.

Then by accident I spotted The Great Influenza on a bookshelf, by John
Barry. Thought we'd lost it. I'll read that again. It's about the
great 1918 flu, but has a much wider scope, a lot of background about
the history of science and medicine starting centuries B.C.

Barry wrote the wonderful Rising Tide, required reading for anyone who
lives near the Mississippi River.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGs2iLoDUYE





--

John Larkin Highland Technology, Inc

The cork popped merrily, and Lord Peter rose to his feet.
"Bunter", he said, "I give you a toast. The triumph of Instinct over Reason"

 

jlarkin@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote in
news:isjh7f5s83sorplmmhcie4f03l2nl6mp97@4ax.com:

> The Great Influenza

Why don't you read up on one about Trump's mobbed up criminal life?

 

[Phil Hobbs]

On 2020-03-23 12:33, jlarkin@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote:

I just finished Night Witches by Bruce Myles, which was pretty good.
Mo doesn't usually like my kind of books, but I think she'll like that
one. Sort of an aerial combat chic flick. It would make a good movie.

Then by accident I spotted The Great Influenza on a bookshelf, by John
Barry. Thought we'd lost it. I'll read that again. It's about the
great 1918 flu, but has a much wider scope, a lot of background about
the history of science and medicine starting centuries B.C.

Barry wrote the wonderful Rising Tide, required reading for anyone who
lives near the Mississippi River.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGs2iLoDUYE

I've just read a couple of books on the Spanish 'Flu: Crosby's
'America's Forgotten Pandemic' and Spinney's 'Pale Rider'. The first
2/3 of Spinney is a very good read about the actual pandemic, but then
she gets off into half-baked psychology.

Crosby was writing in 1976, well within living memory of 1918-19. He
makes the very interesting point that although it killed more people
than WW1, most of them young adults, it left almost zero traces in
literature and culture.

I'm currently re-reading Diane Vaughan's "The Challenger Launch
Decision", which is a very good book indeed, despite being sociology.

One poignant reminder of what America was like in 1996 is Steven Gould's
jacket blurb, beginning "For the tenth anniversary of America's greatest
tragedy within her finest triumph,...."

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

--
Dr Philip C D Hobbs
Principal Consultant
ElectroOptical Innovations LLC / Hobbs ElectroOptics
Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics
Briarcliff Manor NY 10510

http://electrooptical.net
http://hobbs-eo.com

 

On Mon, 23 Mar 2020 16:37:41 -0400, Phil Hobbs
<pcdhSpamMeSenseless@electrooptical.net> wrote:

On 2020-03-23 12:33, jlarkin@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote:
I just finished Night Witches by Bruce Myles, which was pretty good.
Mo doesn't usually like my kind of books, but I think she'll like that
one. Sort of an aerial combat chic flick. It would make a good movie.

Then by accident I spotted The Great Influenza on a bookshelf, by John
Barry. Thought we'd lost it. I'll read that again. It's about the
great 1918 flu, but has a much wider scope, a lot of background about
the history of science and medicine starting centuries B.C.

Barry wrote the wonderful Rising Tide, required reading for anyone who
lives near the Mississippi River.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGs2iLoDUYE





I've just read a couple of books on the Spanish 'Flu: Crosby's
'America's Forgotten Pandemic' and Spinney's 'Pale Rider'. The first
2/3 of Spinney is a very good read about the actual pandemic, but then
she gets off into half-baked psychology.

Crosby was writing in 1976, well within living memory of 1918-19. He
makes the very interesting point that although it killed more people
than WW1, most of them young adults, it left almost zero traces in
literature and culture.

I'm currently re-reading Diane Vaughan's "The Challenger Launch
Decision", which is a very good book indeed, despite being sociology.

I have that. Another good book about really bad group-think is The
Hubble Wars by Chaisson.

When it was announced what was wrong with the focus of the telescope,
one scientist stepped out into the hall and vomited.




--

John Larkin Highland Technology, Inc

The cork popped merrily, and Lord Peter rose to his feet.
"Bunter", he said, "I give you a toast. The triumph of Instinct over Reason"

 

[George Herold]

On Monday, March 23, 2020 at 12:33:55 PM UTC-4, jla...@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote:

I just finished Night Witches by Bruce Myles, which was pretty good.
Mo doesn't usually like my kind of books, but I think she'll like that
one. Sort of an aerial combat chic flick. It would make a good movie.

Then by accident I spotted The Great Influenza on a bookshelf, by John
Barry. Thought we'd lost it. I'll read that again. It's about the
great 1918 flu, but has a much wider scope, a lot of background about
the history of science and medicine starting centuries B.C.

Barry wrote the wonderful Rising Tide, required reading for anyone who
lives near the Mississippi River.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGs2iLoDUYE
"Thinking fast and slow" is good I'm about at pg 300.

I'm reading trashy novels at bedtime mostly.
I'd be interested in 'good' trashy novel authors.

George H.

--

John Larkin Highland Technology, Inc

The cork popped merrily, and Lord Peter rose to his feet.
"Bunter", he said, "I give you a toast. The triumph of Instinct over Reason"

 

[Phil Hobbs]

On 2020-03-23 21:05, Phil Hobbs wrote:

On 2020-03-23 20:51, Tom Del Rosso wrote:
George Herold wrote:

I'm reading trashy novels at bedtime mostly.
I'd be interested in 'good' trashy novel authors.

Heinlein.

When I was a teenager, I'd have agreed with you there.  Subsequently I
twigged to his, um, centrifugal religious and political views.

Restricting the franchise to veterans (Starship Trooper) might be
defensible in a society like ancient Sparta, but encouraging vigilante
justice (The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress) doesn't work anywhere.

And 'Stranger In A Strange Land' was apparently his attempt to retrieve
his bet with L. Ron Hubbard, who claimed quite correctly that he could
make more money starting a religion rather than writing science fiction.
Fortunately Heinlein failed, despite being a much better writer than
Hubbard.

I should add Time Enough For Love, in which his hero Woodrow Wilson
Smith (aka Lazarus Long), by means of a time machine wound up screwing
his own mother as well as his daughters Lapis Lazuli and Lorelei Lee.

How about some nice Charles Dickens or Dostoevsky or Harry Potter or The
Hardy Boys or something more wholesome like that?

Cheers

Phil Hobbs





--
Dr Philip C D Hobbs
Principal Consultant
ElectroOptical Innovations LLC / Hobbs ElectroOptics
Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics
Briarcliff Manor NY 10510

http://electrooptical.net
http://hobbs-eo.com

 

[Phil Hobbs]

On 2020-03-23 20:51, Tom Del Rosso wrote:

George Herold wrote:

I'm reading trashy novels at bedtime mostly.
I'd be interested in 'good' trashy novel authors.

Heinlein.

When I was a teenager, I'd have agreed with you there. Subsequently I
twigged to his, um, centrifugal religious and political views.

Restricting the franchise to veterans (Starship Trooper) might be
defensible in a society like ancient Sparta, but encouraging vigilante
justice (The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress) doesn't work anywhere.

And 'Stranger In A Strange Land' was apparently his attempt to retrieve
his bet with L. Ron Hubbard, who claimed quite correctly that he could
make more money starting a religion rather than writing science fiction.
Fortunately Heinlein failed, despite being a much better writer than
Hubbard.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs


--
Dr Philip C D Hobbs
Principal Consultant
ElectroOptical Innovations LLC / Hobbs ElectroOptics
Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics
Briarcliff Manor NY 10510

http://electrooptical.net
http://hobbs-eo.com

 

On Mon, 23 Mar 2020 15:53:56 -0700 (PDT), George Herold
<ggherold@gmail.com> wrote:

On Monday, March 23, 2020 at 12:33:55 PM UTC-4, jla...@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote:
I just finished Night Witches by Bruce Myles, which was pretty good.
Mo doesn't usually like my kind of books, but I think she'll like that
one. Sort of an aerial combat chic flick. It would make a good movie.

Then by accident I spotted The Great Influenza on a bookshelf, by John
Barry. Thought we'd lost it. I'll read that again. It's about the
great 1918 flu, but has a much wider scope, a lot of background about
the history of science and medicine starting centuries B.C.

Barry wrote the wonderful Rising Tide, required reading for anyone who
lives near the Mississippi River.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGs2iLoDUYE
"Thinking fast and slow" is good I'm about at pg 300.

I'm reading trashy novels at bedtime mostly.
I'd be interested in 'good' trashy novel authors.

George H.

Jane Austen. P G Wodehouse.



--

John Larkin Highland Technology, Inc

The cork popped merrily, and Lord Peter rose to his feet.
"Bunter", he said, "I give you a toast. The triumph of Instinct over Reason"

 

[Tom Del Rosso]

George Herold wrote:

I'm reading trashy novels at bedtime mostly.
I'd be interested in 'good' trashy novel authors.

Heinlein.

 

[Clifford Heath]

On 24/3/20 12:05 pm, Phil Hobbs wrote:

And 'Stranger In A Strange Land' was apparently his attempt to retrieve
his bet with L. Ron Hubbard, who claimed quite correctly that he could
make more money starting a religion rather than writing science fiction.
Fortunately Heinlein failed, despite being a much better writer than
Hubbard.

Do you mean "fortunately he failed to start a religion", or "fortunately
he failed to make more money than L Ron Hubbard"?

Clifford Heath

 

On Mon, 23 Mar 2020 21:05:18 -0400, Phil Hobbs
<pcdhSpamMeSenseless@electrooptical.net> wrote:

On 2020-03-23 20:51, Tom Del Rosso wrote:
George Herold wrote:

I'm reading trashy novels at bedtime mostly.
I'd be interested in 'good' trashy novel authors.

Heinlein.

When I was a teenager, I'd have agreed with you there. Subsequently I
twigged to his, um, centrifugal religious and political views.

Restricting the franchise to veterans (Starship Trooper) might be
defensible in a society like ancient Sparta, but encouraging vigilante
justice (The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress) doesn't work anywhere.

And 'Stranger In A Strange Land' was apparently his attempt to retrieve
his bet with L. Ron Hubbard, who claimed quite correctly that he could
make more money starting a religion rather than writing science fiction.
Fortunately Heinlein failed, despite being a much better writer than
Hubbard.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

SF is a teenage thing. Most of it was/is very bad writing.



--

John Larkin Highland Technology, Inc

The cork popped merrily, and Lord Peter rose to his feet.
"Bunter", he said, "I give you a toast. The triumph of Instinct over Reason"

 

[Tom Del Rosso]

jlarkin@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote:

SF is a teenage thing. Most of it was/is very bad writing.

Clarke isn't bad writing.

 

[Tom Del Rosso]

Phil Hobbs wrote:

I should add Time Enough For Love, in which his hero Woodrow Wilson
Smith (aka Lazarus Long), by means of a time machine wound up screwing
his own mother as well as his daughters Lapis Lazuli and Lorelei Lee.

How about some nice Charles Dickens or Dostoevsky or Harry Potter or
The Hardy Boys or something more wholesome like that?

He asked for trashy.

 

[whit3rd]

On Monday, March 23, 2020 at 3:54:03 PM UTC-7, George Herold wrote:

I'm reading trashy novels at bedtime mostly.
I'd be interested in 'good' trashy novel authors.

John Zakour has an amusing series about a PI...
start with _The_Plutonium_Blonde_

or, for the thrifty, all those ER Burroughs John Carter of Mars
books are available for your favorite reader tablet.

 

[Tom Gardner]

On 24/03/20 02:39, jlarkin@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote:

On Mon, 23 Mar 2020 21:05:18 -0400, Phil Hobbs
pcdhSpamMeSenseless@electrooptical.net> wrote:

On 2020-03-23 20:51, Tom Del Rosso wrote:
George Herold wrote:

I'm reading trashy novels at bedtime mostly.
I'd be interested in 'good' trashy novel authors.

Heinlein.

When I was a teenager, I'd have agreed with you there. Subsequently I
twigged to his, um, centrifugal religious and political views.

Restricting the franchise to veterans (Starship Trooper) might be
defensible in a society like ancient Sparta, but encouraging vigilante
justice (The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress) doesn't work anywhere.

And 'Stranger In A Strange Land' was apparently his attempt to retrieve
his bet with L. Ron Hubbard, who claimed quite correctly that he could
make more money starting a religion rather than writing science fiction.
Fortunately Heinlein failed, despite being a much better writer than
Hubbard.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

SF is a teenage thing. Most of it was/is very bad writing.

90% of everything is crap.

Arthur C Clarke can have good style.

Cordwainer Smith's style is unique and mesmerising,
being based on oriental storytelling techniques.

I'd start with either "The Lady Who Sailed The Soul"
or "The Ballad of Lost C'Mell".

I read the latter as an early teenager, didn't
like it but the style was memorable. A decade
later I did understand it.

The former starts...
The story ran—how did the story run? Everyone knew the reference to Helen
America and Mr. Grey-no-more, but no one knew exactly how it happened. Their
names were welded to the glittering timeless jewelry of romance. Sometimes they
were compared to Heloise and Abelard, whose story had been found among books in
a long-buried library. Other ages were to compare their life with the weird,
ugly-lovely story of the Go-Captain Taliano and the Lady Dolores Oh.

.... and ends ...

Outsiders never knew the real end of the story.
....
His voice broke, but his features stayed calm. He had never before seen anyone
die so confident and so happy.

https://epdf.pub/queue/smith-cordwainer-the-lady-who-sailed-the-soul.html

 

[Phil Hobbs]

On 2020-03-24 04:13, Tom Gardner wrote:

On 24/03/20 02:39, jlarkin@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote:
On Mon, 23 Mar 2020 21:05:18 -0400, Phil Hobbs
pcdhSpamMeSenseless@electrooptical.net> wrote:

On 2020-03-23 20:51, Tom Del Rosso wrote:
George Herold wrote:

I'm reading trashy novels at bedtime mostly.
I'd be interested in 'good' trashy novel authors.

Heinlein.

When I was a teenager, I'd have agreed with you there.  Subsequently I
twigged to his, um, centrifugal religious and political views.

Restricting the franchise to veterans (Starship Trooper) might be
defensible in a society like ancient Sparta, but encouraging vigilante
justice (The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress) doesn't work anywhere.

And 'Stranger In A Strange Land' was apparently his attempt to retrieve
his bet with L. Ron Hubbard, who claimed quite correctly that he could
make more money starting a religion rather than writing science fiction.
Fortunately Heinlein failed, despite being a much better writer than
Hubbard.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

SF is a teenage thing. Most of it was/is very bad writing.

90% of everything is crap.

Arthur C Clarke can have good style.

Cordwainer Smith's style is unique and mesmerising,
being based on oriental storytelling techniques.

I'd start with either "The Lady Who Sailed The Soul"
or "The Ballad of Lost C'Mell".

I read the latter as an early teenager, didn't
like it but the style was memorable. A decade
later I did understand it.

The former starts...
The story ran—how did the story run? Everyone knew the reference to
Helen America and Mr. Grey-no-more, but no one knew exactly how it
happened. Their names were welded to the glittering timeless jewelry of
romance. Sometimes they were compared to Heloise and Abelard, whose
story had been found among books in a long-buried library. Other ages
were to compare their life with the weird, ugly-lovely story of the
Go-Captain Taliano and the Lady Dolores Oh.

.... and ends ...

Outsiders never knew the real end of the story.
....
His voice broke, but his features stayed calm. He had never before seen
anyone die so confident and so happy.

https://epdf.pub/queue/smith-cordwainer-the-lady-who-sailed-the-soul.html

Smith reminds me quite a lot of Lord Dunsany. Try out Tales of Three
Hemispheres, Wonder Tales, and The Charwoman's Shadow.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

--
Dr Philip C D Hobbs
Principal Consultant
ElectroOptical Innovations LLC / Hobbs ElectroOptics
Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics
Briarcliff Manor NY 10510

http://electrooptical.net
http://hobbs-eo.com

 

[George Herold]

On Monday, March 23, 2020 at 9:17:08 PM UTC-4, Phil Hobbs wrote:

On 2020-03-23 21:05, Phil Hobbs wrote:
On 2020-03-23 20:51, Tom Del Rosso wrote:
George Herold wrote:

I'm reading trashy novels at bedtime mostly.
I'd be interested in 'good' trashy novel authors.

Heinlein.

When I was a teenager, I'd have agreed with you there.  Subsequently I
twigged to his, um, centrifugal religious and political views.

Restricting the franchise to veterans (Starship Trooper) might be
defensible in a society like ancient Sparta, but encouraging vigilante
justice (The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress) doesn't work anywhere.

And 'Stranger In A Strange Land' was apparently his attempt to retrieve
his bet with L. Ron Hubbard, who claimed quite correctly that he could
make more money starting a religion rather than writing science fiction..
Fortunately Heinlein failed, despite being a much better writer than
Hubbard.


I should add Time Enough For Love, in which his hero Woodrow Wilson
Smith (aka Lazarus Long), by means of a time machine wound up screwing
his own mother as well as his daughters Lapis Lazuli and Lorelei Lee.

How about some nice Charles Dickens or Dostoevsky or Harry Potter or The
Hardy Boys or something more wholesome like that?
Yeah I've got a set of Alexander Dumas novels from my mum. They are OK.

George

Cheers

Phil Hobbs





--
Dr Philip C D Hobbs
Principal Consultant
ElectroOptical Innovations LLC / Hobbs ElectroOptics
Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics
Briarcliff Manor NY 10510

http://electrooptical.net
http://hobbs-eo.com

 

[George Herold]

On Monday, March 23, 2020 at 8:51:43 PM UTC-4, Tom Del Rosso wrote:

George Herold wrote:

I'm reading trashy novels at bedtime mostly.
I'd be interested in 'good' trashy novel authors.

Heinlein.

Yeah I read the ink off all my Heinlein books. I put them all in
boxes up in the attic. I figure maybe I'll get dementia in old age
and can read them again.

George H.

 

On Tue, 24 Mar 2020 00:17:48 -0700 (PDT), whit3rd <whit3rd@gmail.com>
wrote:

On Monday, March 23, 2020 at 3:54:03 PM UTC-7, George Herold wrote:

I'm reading trashy novels at bedtime mostly.
I'd be interested in 'good' trashy novel authors.

John Zakour has an amusing series about a PI...
start with _The_Plutonium_Blonde_

or, for the thrifty, all those ER Burroughs John Carter of Mars
books are available for your favorite reader tablet.

Certainly the Nero Wolfe mysteries would keep someone off the streets
for a while. Read them in chronological order.



--

John Larkin Highland Technology, Inc

The cork popped merrily, and Lord Peter rose to his feet.
"Bunter", he said, "I give you a toast. The triumph of Instinct over Reason"

 

[George Herold]

On Tuesday, March 24, 2020 at 3:17:52 AM UTC-4, whit3rd wrote:

On Monday, March 23, 2020 at 3:54:03 PM UTC-7, George Herold wrote:

I'm reading trashy novels at bedtime mostly.
I'd be interested in 'good' trashy novel authors.

John Zakour has an amusing series about a PI...
start with _The_Plutonium_Blonde_

or, for the thrifty, all those ER Burroughs John Carter of Mars
books are available for your favorite reader tablet.

OK Thanks. There is an online group reading the 'Conan' series
by Howard. (As they appeared in the pulps of the time.)

(The power connector on my tablet is fried... I need to buy a hot
air station to fix it... or buy a new tablet.)
George H.