Free Republic

For those who are into this sort of thing...what sfnal or fantasy literature are currently reading or have just finished? I'm working my way through the series, "The Dresden Files" by Jim Butcher, having read the first 10 novels of the 15 published so far. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dresden_Files The Dresden Files is a series of contemporary fantasy/mystery novels written by Jim Butcher. He provides a first person narrative of each story from the point of view of the main character, private investigator and wizard Harry Dresden, as he recounts investigations into supernatural disturbances in modern-day Chicago. Butcher's original proposed title for the...

Harper Lee, the aging author of “To Kill a Mockingbird,” has reached a settlement in principle on a lawsuit alleging she was scammed into signing over the copyright to her classic novel by an unscrupulous literary agent who took advantage of her failing hearing and eyesight, a lawyer in the case says. Lee had filed suit in May against Samuel Pinkus and others — including disgraced journalist Gerald Posner — to reclaim the copyright. However, dismissal papers were filed in Manhattan federal court today by Lee’s lawyer removing both Posner and Lee Ann Winick, Pinkus’ wife and another defendant, of...

"Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics": In his latest book, Ross Douthat, a public intellectual and a Catholic, argues that “bad religion” poses a greater danger to our nation than does secularism. His book is divided into two parts: in the first he chronicles the decline of traditional Christianity since 1965; in the second he examines four heresies that have flourished since then.

Why are Thrillers named such? That’s largely up to the talent of the writer. They have to grab us and not let go for hundreds of pages. The best of them draw many details from the real world. Even in all the action and far-from-our-own-life-as-possible events happening to the characters, it’s those truths that hook you even further. They draw you in, get you thinking or upset you. Tom Clancy is known for coming up with details in his techno-thrillers that seem almost too real. Sometimes prophetically so. They have even caught the attention of the military, wondering how he...

During Revolutionary times, to be “enlightened” often meant having enough compassion that you were willing to free your slaves — but only upon your death. So when founding fathers such as George Washington began to pass away around 1800, their slaves were set free into a country that had no desire for them. The result, as James Ciment writes in this thorough account of an experimental nation, was to send free blacks whence they came, to Africa. Liberia was the country created by freed American slaves who, perversely, became slave owners themselves.

It's been called a "cure for rejection-letter fatigue." Amazon on Thursday released new details about the success of its program for authors who want to self-publish on its Kindle e-reader devices. The company, which unveiled a suite of new e-readers and tablets at a press conference in Southern California on Thursday, says 27 of the top 100 Kindle books were created using a system called Kindle Direct Publishing. That system allows authors to bypass traditional publishers and instead deal directly with Amazon, which claims to be able to publish their books digitally "in hours." The authors receive 70% of the...

Rejection -- even repeated rejection -- doesn't have to mean defeat. That, it turns out, is the lasting lesson of the Chuck Ross story. You may recognize the name; two Sundays ago, I wrote about J.K. Rowling, the spectacularly successful author of the Harry Potter books, and about how she has published a detective novel under the name Robert Galbraith. In the column, I recalled what a young and frustrated writer -- Chuck Ross -- did in the 1970s. To briefly recap: Ross had written a mystery novel that had been turned down everywhere he sent it. So, as an...

The surrender of General Cornwallis at Yorktown, 1781 Photo: courtesy Library of Congress Britain’s loss of America in the War of Independence (1775-1783) is typically attributed to the failings of its key political and military decision makers who were, in Andrew O’Shaughnessy’s words, “associated with opposition to progress and with attempting to introduce an authoritarian style of government”. They have, he writes, become cartoon figures of incompetence and mediocrity in a story with an inevitable ending, “as history progresses towards modernity”. Not any more. In this fascinating, well written and extensively researched study of 10 of those British decision makers...

I am starting "The Guns of August: The Pulitzer Prize-Winning Classic About the Outbreak of World War I"

The chief executive of US bookstore chain Barnes & Noble, William Lynch, has resigned amid a continued drop in sales of its Nook e-books and devices. His resignation comes just days after the firm reported that sales in the Nook business fell 34% in the fourth quarter, from a year earlier.

We can start with the spoiler. At the end of his newly released and massive revised edition of Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case, Allen Weinstein makes the following observation: "As for the conspiracy theories themselves, we may expect that newer and perhaps more ingenious defenses of [Alger] Hiss may emerge, if only because none of the theories raised during the past six decades has proved persuasive. There has yet to appear, however, from any source, a coherent body of evidence that seriously undermines the credibility of the evidence against Alger Hiss." There will never be produced such a body of evidence,...

E-books are becoming more popular amongst young people in China. The variety and flexibility on offer, alongside the hot sales of many e-reading terminals, make them a big competitor for the independent bookstores. -or maybe not?

1) Kentucky Long Rifle The Kentucky long rifle was effectively used as a sniping weapon during the Revolutionary War - allowing colonial soldiers to pick off officers at range due to its rifling and superior accuracy. 2) Spencer Repeating Rifle The Spencer repeating rifle put an unheard-of amount of firepower into the hands of the few Union soldiers who wielded them. 3) Cold Single-Action Army: 'The Peacemaker' The Colt Single Action Army was used by lawmen and outlaws alike in the Wild West. It garnered the nickname 'Peacemaker'. 4) Winchester Model 1873 The Winchester 1873 lever action rifle had the...

The Century 1914 On the book The Century 1914 by Dominique Venner (Pygmalion, 2006). The author answers the questions of the journalist Pauline Lecomte. In publishing The Age of 1914 , Dominique Venner offered an impressive historical synthesis which is a culmination of all his works, and proposed a new interpretation of the European history in the twentieth century. To summarize this book is impossible. Everyone will make their own interpretations. It provides a detailed analysis of the great revolutionary movements and major conflicts of the twentieth century. It contains a broad meditations on history, politics and great actors. It...

Hillary Rodham Clinton is the most polarizing figure in American politics.... Despite more than a dozen years in the national spotlight and more than a dozen unauthorized books about her, she has managed to keep many secrets from the public especially about her turbulent marriage and its impact on her career. There have been plenty of rumors about what Hillary and Bill Clinton did behind closed doors, but never a definitive book that exposes the truth.

The doors of New York’s Javits Center swung open wide this morning to welcome thousands of booksellers, publishers, librarians, authors and their agents at the annual jamboree known as BookExpo. Almost certainly, the event will resurrect the seemingly endless debate over e-books and the future of reading. While Barnes and Noble (NYSE: BKS) and its Nook e-book division may not be among this year’s exhibitors, the book industry headlines that likely will hit the papers in the coming days should prompt investors to consider the many risks that hover over the book retailing giant’s head, especially given that the stock...

John Steinbeck's 1942 novel The Moon is Down is about people of a small  village occupied by Nazi forces somewhere in Northern Europe. They become sullen and their obedience is bought at an increasingly high price. Free people cannot remain conquered.Re-reading The Moon is Down left me with nagging questions about the extent to which the People of the United States remain free. Those questions did not arise when I first read it, many years ago. It now seems obvious that we are less free than we once were; yet perhaps (one can at least hope that) there are still enough to make...

This time of year, as college students return home for the summer, many parents may notice how many politically correct ideas they have acquired on campus. Some of those parents may wonder how they can undo some of the brainwashing that has become so common in what are supposed to be institutions of higher learning. The strategy used by General Douglas MacArthur so successfully in the Pacific during World War II can be useful in this very different kind of battle. General MacArthur won his victories while minimizing his casualties — something that is also desirable in clashes of ideas...

Harper Lee, the author of To Kill A Mockingbird, has sued her literary agent for allegedly duping her into assigning him the copyright on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. In the lawsuit filed in federal court in Manhattan, Lee says Samuel Pinkus, the son-in-law of Lee's long-time agent, Eugene Winick, took advantage of her failing hearing and eyesight to transfer the rights on the book, which has sold more than 30 million copies worldwide and became an Oscar-winning film. The 87-year-old says she has no memory of agreeing to relinquish her rights or signing the agreement that cements the purported transfer.

A Philadelphia mother wants her son’s high school teacher fired after he bought the teen the novel Fifty Shades of Grey for in-class reading. Maya Ladson says she was shocked to find a copy of the racy read in her 14-year-old’s book bag back on March 9. That shock turned to outrage when she found out how he got the book. “The minute I found out about it, it raised concern,” the mother told NBC10.com Thursday. “This is not OK to me. This is major.” Ladson's son, who is a 9th grade student at Eastern University Academy Charter School in...