Free Republic 2nd Qtr 2024 Fundraising Target: $81,000 Receipts & Pledges to-date: $25,627
31%  
Woo hoo!! And we're now over 31%!! Thank you all very much!! God bless.

Books/Literature (General/Chat)

Brevity: Headers | « Text »
  • Harlan Ellison still angry, still writing at 81

    05/30/2015 10:36:56 AM PDT · by EveningStar · 73 replies
    The Jewish Advocate ^ | May 22, 2015 | Nat Segaloff
    Harlan Ellison is still an angry young man, except he'll be 81 on May 27. He has used this anger, fueled by childhood anti-Semitism, throughout his extraordinary career as a writer of speculative fiction. This year saw the publication of his 116th and 117th (so far) books: The Top of the Volcano, a collection of his awardwinning short stories, and a graphic novelization of his original script for "The City on the Edge of Forever," widely considered the best Star Trek episode ever written. Although Ellison's hundreds of published stories contain a wealth of Jewish characters, his most complex creation...
  • How James Patterson's novel 'Zoo' became a series on CBS

    05/29/2015 11:52:53 AM PDT · by EveningStar · 15 replies
    Los Angeles Times ^ | May 29, 2015 | T.L. Stanley
    No need to head to the multiplex for big action, special effects and hair-raising thrills, says bestselling author James Patterson, when the CBS adaptation of his novel, "Zoo," promises all that — and rampaging wildlife, to boot. "It should give the summer movies a run for their money," said Patterson, a populist literary star perhaps best known for his Alex Cross franchise, less so for being understated. "There's horror, sci-fi, suspense. It's kind of James Patterson meets Stephen King meets Michael Crichton. It's a scary fable."
  • Appeals court scolds Apple monitor, but does not remove him

    05/28/2015 10:37:34 PM PDT · by Swordmaker · 9 replies
    Fortune ^ | MAY 28, 2015, 11:55 AM EDT | by Jeff John Roberts
    Apple is outraged about the conduct of Michael Bromwich, who was assigned to investigate its antitrust practices. On Thursday, the iPhone maker got some vindication. A New York appeals court had harsh words for the lawyer assigned to monitor Apple’s compliance with an antitrust program, which was imposed on the company in the wake of a price-fixing conspiracy between Apple AAPL -0.14% and five book publishers. In a ruling published on Thursday, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the conduct of the monitor, Michael Bromwich, gave “pause” and was “the opposite of best practice” but nonetheless refused to...
  • Did Robert Louis Stevenson Have the World's Weirdest Honeymoon?

    05/28/2015 1:29:52 PM PDT · by nickcarraway · 21 replies
    KALW ^ | Sarah Stodder
    Most people who visit Calistoga -- a town in the Napa Valley -- come for the wine and the spa treatments; few come for the literary history. But they could: one of the most romantic honeymoon getaways ever written about happened one hundred and thirty five years ago. Instead of mud baths and geysers, picture an abandoned mining shack infested with snakes, poison oak, and rusty nails. Now picture a sickly writer and his new wife spending their first two months of married life living there. Sounds crazy, right? But that’s exactly what Robert Louis Stevenson — author of the...
  • After 50 years, Pussy Galore returns in latest Bond novel..

    05/28/2015 3:02:55 AM PDT · by Perdogg · 70 replies
    Daily mail UK ^ | 05.28.2015
    After 50 years, Pussy Galore returns in latest Bond novel: New Anthony Horowitz book begins two weeks after end of Goldfinger mission Anthony Horowitz writing novel about James Bond temptress Pussy Galore. The story, called Trigger Mortis, is latest instalment in series based on 007 New book will begin in 1957 – just two weeks after the end of Goldfinger
  • J.K. Rowling Reveals Awesome Reason For Challenging Westboro Church's Hate Speech

    05/27/2015 4:26:40 PM PDT · by a fool in paradise · 20 replies
    Huffington Post ^ | 05/27/2015 | Nick Visser
    Ireland became the first country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage through a popular vote last week, prompting emotional celebrations, outpourings of support and, yes, a little bit of hate. The Westboro Baptist Church already stumbled over an attempted diss of the Irish referendum, mistakenly chastising the Ivory Coast instead. But when they tried to take on J.K. Rowling, the Harry Potter author had nothing but ire for the hate-mongers ..."I don't care about WBC. I think it's important that scared gay kids who aren't out yet see hate speech challenged."...
  • My Library Has Changed the Title of Coulter's Book to "Offensive" (Update @# 51)

    05/27/2015 10:06:45 AM PDT · by lordpumblechook · 67 replies
    If you search the Loudoun County Public Library website for Ann's book, "!Adios, America!" you come up with NOTHING. No combination of those words will bring you to her book. Search by author brings you to her book, UNDER THE TITLE "OFFENSIVE" Curious, yes?
  • Merriam-Webster legitimizes WTF, photobomb, emoji and more than 1700 other words

    05/26/2015 2:28:56 PM PDT · by SMGFan · 13 replies
    Zap2it ^ | May 26, 2015
    When your less internet savvy family members ask you what a meme is, you can now be the one to tell them to go look it up in the dictionary. That's right, Merriam-Webster is adding "meme," "photobomb," "emoji" and "WTF," along with over 1,700 other words, to the unabridged dictionary. "Colossal squid" and "colony collapse disorder" also made the list, but they seem like the two that don't belong in a group that also includes "clickbait" and "NSFW." Merriam-Webster posted a sampling of the new words being added to the next edition of the unabridged dictionary along with their official...
  • Adios, America! The Left's Plan to Turn US Into a Third World Hell Hole (Coulter's new book)

    05/25/2015 7:10:21 PM PDT · by Beave Meister · 189 replies
    Ann Coulter is back, more fearless than ever. In Adios, America she touches the third rail in American politics, attacking the immigration issue head-on and flying in the face of La Raza, the Democrats, a media determined to cover up immigrants' crimes, churches that get paid by the government for their "charity," and greedy Republican businessmen and campaign consultants—all of whom are profiting handsomely from mass immigration that's tearing the country apart. Applying her trademark biting humor to the disaster that is U.S. immigration policy, Coulter proves that immigration is the most important issue facing America today.
  • Superman's Dark Past

    05/24/2015 12:15:04 PM PDT · by EveningStar · 32 replies
    The Atlantic ^ | May 24, 2015 | Charles Moss
    Since the official teaser trailer for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice debuted online in April, fans and critics alike have been discussing the kind of Superman Zack Snyder is going to depict in his Man of Steel sequel. The controversy stems from Snyder's decision to cast Superman as a brooding, Dark Knight-like character, who cares more about beating up bad guys than saving people. The casting split has proved divisive among Superman fans: Some love the new incarnation, citing him as an edgier, more realistic version of the character. But Snyder's is a different Superman than the one fans...
  • Movie for a Sunday afternoon: "Tom Sawyer"(1930)

    05/24/2015 11:46:42 AM PDT · by ReformationFan · 25 replies
    You Tube ^ | 1930 | John Cromwell
  • Trident: The Forging and Reforging of a Navy SEAL Leader Kindle book bargain, 5/24/2015

    05/24/2015 9:08:07 AM PDT · by RicocheT · 2 replies
    Amazon Books ^ | 5/24/2015 | Jason Redman
    Decorated US Navy SEAL lieutenant Jason Redman served his country courageously and with distinction in Colombia, Peru, Afghanistan, and Iraq, where he commanded mobility and assault forces. He conducted over forty capture/kill missions with his men in Iraq. Recommended by Marcus Luttrell & others.
  • OK all, what book(s) are you reading now or have you read in the last 6 months?

    05/19/2015 6:48:49 AM PDT · by US Navy Vet · 153 replies
    19 May 2015 | US Navy Vet
    OK I'll Start; I am now reading this, http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1451684304/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 and this is next "On-Deck", http://www.amazon.com/Never-Turn-Your-Back-Angus/dp/1592408974/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1432043421&sr=8-1&keywords=dr+pol+book
  • Did Hillary support UN policy that would have criminalized Pamela Geller’s ‘Draw Muhammad’ contest?

    05/19/2015 5:39:05 AM PDT · by bob_denard · 6 replies
    The Blaze ^ | May. 18, 2015 12:07pm | Benjamin Weingarten
    Presumed Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush was recently asked about the “Draw Muhammad” contest in Garland, TX that was attacked by two jihadists, and what Mr. Bush thought of event organizer and ardent counterjihadist Pamela Geller. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton was not, but a new book gives insight into how she might think about the issue given her support as Secretary of State of a policy put forth by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) at the UN that comes into direct conflict with the First Amendment. As Maj. Stephen Coughlin (Ret.) writes in his “Catastrophic Failure: Blindfolding America...
  • Diary of a Nazi

    05/18/2015 10:49:33 PM PDT · by nickcarraway · 15 replies
    Wall Street Journal ^ | May 15, 2015 | ROGER MOORHOUSE
    Goebbels was a frustrated intellectual and brittle womanizer: “I need women . . . like a balm on a wound.”In the autumn of 1923, a melancholy young man in the German Rhineland began keeping a diary. A frustrated writer and occasional journalist, he had a Ph.D. in literature and a moody disposition. He had been given the diary by a girlfriend as a way of assuaging the crisis into which he believed his life had spiraled. He recorded his gratitude on the opening page: “My dear, kind love!” he wrote in the first entry. “You raise me up and g
  • Ok this may sound dumb, and I do on occasion...

    05/17/2015 12:55:38 PM PDT · by waterhill · 32 replies
    today | me
    Michael Berry. I only get to listen to up here in DFW on Saturdays: He was playing the best theme songs for westerns (movies and tv shows). He played a long version of Ecstasy of Gold from Good,Bad, and Ugly. It took a long while to build up to the diva, I cannot find it on anything on the net. Just wondering if there is a CD available. It was longer than what I have found on the net. It is stuck in my head like an arrow, I dislike mysteries. Help me.
  • Anthony Horowitz, Conan Doyle, Ian Fleming and me

    05/16/2015 2:22:04 PM PDT · by Perdogg · 3 replies
    ABC - Australia ^ | Friday 15 May 2015 10:26AM
    Anthony Horowitz writes adult novels, teenage spy thrillers, children’s books, TV series, films, plays, journalism as well as fiction-in-the-style of other great writers. He has written in the ‘voice’ of Conan Doyle and Ian Fleming. He is also responsible for the widespread belief that there is a murderer behind every bush in a place called Midsomer in England, not to mention creating Foyle's War.
  • The Silencing: How the Left is Killing Free Speech

    05/16/2015 1:48:18 PM PDT · by Hojczyk · 17 replies
    Amazon ^ | May 14,2015 | Kirsten Powers
    Lifelong liberal Kirsten Powers blasts the Left's forced march towards conformity in an exposé of the illiberal war on free speech. No longer champions of tolerance and free speech, the "illiberal Left" now viciously attacks and silences anyone with alternative points of view. Powers asks, "What ever happened to free speech in America?"
  • Mark Twain & Helen Keller’s Special Friendship: He Treated Me Not as a Freak, But...

    05/15/2015 1:08:06 AM PDT · by 9thLife · 24 replies
    "Open Culture" ^ | 5/13/15 | "Josh Jones"
    Mark Twain & Helen Keller’s Special Friendship: He Treated Me Not as a Freak, But as a Person Dealing with Great Difficulties Sometimes it can seem as though the more we think we know a historical figure, the less we actually do. Helen Keller? We’ve all seen (or think we’ve seen) some version of The Miracle Worker, right?—even if we haven’t actually read Keller’s autobiography. And Mark Twain? He can seem like an old family friend. But I find people are often surprised to learn that Keller was a radical socialist firebrand, in sympathy with workers’ movements worldwide. In a...
  • Terrifying 1906 Illustrations of H. G. Wells’ ‘The War of the Worlds’

    05/14/2015 12:00:11 PM PDT · by EveningStar · 23 replies
    Flavorwire ^ | April 26, 2015 | Alison Nastasi
    Brazilian artist Henrique Alvim Corrêa’s career was cut short when he died at only 34 years old. But the illustrator left behind a small science-fiction legacy thanks to his 1906 artworks detailing the Martian invasion of London in H. G. Wells’ novel The War of the Worlds. Wells’ tale preyed upon turn-of-the-century fears about the apocalypse and other Victorian superstitions (and social prejudices) about the unknown. Corrêa’s fantastical, murky style is fitting of Wells’ dark themes. The Martian fighting machines resemble frightening legions of massive spiders. There were only 500 copies of the Belgian edition of Wells’ story with Corrêa’s...