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What Book Are You Reading?


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On 6/27/2020 at 1:49 PM, ssh said:

My mom was one of the Okies shipped to California because my grandfather couldn't feed her. My senior English students read Out of the Dust and I gave her a copy to read. One of the comments she made to me was, "I always wondered why Grandma turned the plates face down."

SSH

 

Rereading Vince Flynn's  Mitch novels   

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The Ghost Army - Gerry Souter

 

Both British  and American WW2 forces used a huge amount of Audio equipment to

'fool' the German's. A few pics, specs and descriptions.

Who built 15 in woofers and HF horns back in '43-'44?

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9 minutes ago, NADman said:

The Ghost Army - Gerry Souter

 

Both British  and American WW2 forces used a huge amount of Audio equipment to

'fool' the German's. A few pics, specs and descriptions.

Who built 15 in woofers and HF horns back in '43-'44?

Saw that in video form somewhere like PBS or History channel.

An array of big woofers broadcasting sounds of tanks, troop movements.

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19 minutes ago, NADman said:

The Ghost Army - Gerry Souter

 

Both British  and American WW2 forces used a huge amount of Audio equipment to

'fool' the German's. A few pics, specs and descriptions.

Who built 15 in woofers and HF horns back in '43-'44?

Jim Hunter can comment way more on that,.but the Museum has a 27" 450lb woofer from the 30s that was at the World's Fair 

 

"Cinaudagraph loudspeakers in 30" frames with huge 450 lb. field coil magnets covered low frequency duties for a 2-way PA system at Flushing Meadows. The loudspeakers were mounted into horns with 14' wide mouths and were each driven by a 500 watt amplifier derived from a high-power radio broadcast tube. In June 1940, Electronics magazine published an article that Bozak had written about the design of the 27" loudspeaker."

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19 minutes ago, dwilawyer said:

What's a "pot boiler." Like a page turner,.or barn burner?

Barn burner is more used for an event, such as an exciting sports game.  A pot boiler is more like a page turner, albeit a lesser example, and usually follows a formula.  I would rank the Ludlum novels as page turners, while most other writers in or near the genre as pot boilers.  Clancy would be more of a pot boiler.  LeCarre would be more of a page turner.  Barn burner is not something normally assigned to a literary work.

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32 minutes ago, oldtimer said:

Barn burner is more used for an event, such as an exciting sports game.  A pot boiler is more like a page turner, albeit a lesser example, and usually follows a formula.  I would rank the Ludlum novels as page turners, while most other writers in or near the genre as pot boilers.  Clancy would be more of a pot boiler.  LeCarre would be more of a page turner.  Barn burner is not something normally assigned to a literary work.

 

A novel of less than the top literary quality that, indeed, follows a formula, because it is easy to write without looking deeply inward, mainly written to keep the author's hand in, and to provide income, thus keep the pot boiling at the author's hearth.  In my experience, such books tend to be on the thick side, and a bit "pulpy."  The Da Vinci Code may be one, and Dan Brown's need to make the end of every chapter a cliff hanger, as is advised in some bad books on how to write a novel, bespeaks keeping the pot boiling with minimum fuel, other than making the Nag Hammadi manuscripts seem to imply things they don't.  This not to say that capable writers don't write pot boilers.  The pseudo-historical novels of Howard Fast might qualify.  IMO, a historical romance, like Gone with the Wind, might be considered a pot boiler, whereas War and Peace might be more of an epic.  War and Peace allows a little of Tolstoy's Christian Anarchism to slip in, and, in a way, (IMO) is a novel of ideas.  Gone with the Wind is not strong on ideas, but may have been born, like the Civil War itself, according to Mark Twain, of too much Sir Walter Scott.

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18 hours ago, oldtimer said:

Barn burner is more used for an event, such as an exciting sports game.  A pot boiler is more like a page turner, albeit a lesser example, and usually follows a formula.  I would rank the Ludlum novels as page turners, while most other writers in or near the genre as pot boilers.  Clancy would be more of a pot boiler.  LeCarre would be more of a page turner.  Barn burner is not something normally assigned to a literary work.

I thought Hunt for Red October was a real pager turner, subsequent ones more pot boilers.

 

The Firm, page turner, and some others as well.

 

Pot boiler, never heard  term before,  I like it.

 

I need a really good spy novel to pick up, and a good detective novel.

 

Something good and classic like Chandler, Fleming or McDonald. 

 

How is John le Carre?

 

 

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1 hour ago, dwilawyer said:

How is John le Carre?

He is subtle, and writes from experience.  Very English, realistic and a good weaver of plot and personality.  I'm surprised you haven't read him.  Some famous titles are The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy, The Little Drummer Girl, and The Constant Gardener.  The Russia House, and The Night Manager are good too.  Pick one up sometime.

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20 hours ago, oldtimer said:

I always felt that Dostoevsky mopped the floor with Tolstoy, although it could simply be personal preference.  

 

I don't see them as competing.  I like both, but need a little more coffee to read Tolstoy.  I made the mistake of reading Pasternak while in the hospital with pneumonia, as a 20 year old, and had difficulty keeping the names straight.

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21 minutes ago, garyrc said:

 

I don't see them as competing.  I like both, but need a little more coffee to read Tolstoy.  I made the mistake of reading Pasternak while in the hospital with pneumonia, as a 20 year old, and had difficulty keeping the names straight.

It's not meant to be a comment about competition.  Just a preference.  They were contemporaries who admired the other's work.

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10 hours ago, oldtimer said:

He is subtle, and writes from experience.  Very English, realistic and a good weaver of plot and personality.  I'm surprised you haven't read him.  Some famous titles are The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy, The Little Drummer Girl, and The Constant Gardener.  The Russia House, and The Night Manager are good too.  Pick one up sometime.

I'm surprised also, saw all of the movie versions, The Spy . . . is on almost everyone's top 50 spy book list.

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On 7/19/2020 at 1:36 PM, jimjimbo said:

Closely followed the process as detailed here for a rib cook.  Very, very good.

 

 

Franklin Barbecue.jpg

 

Aaron offers great information about his style of BBQ/Smoking Meat on youtube. Very informative, and relatively brief  videos. His BBQ sauce receipt is superb, we all love it, even my supremely picky youngest daughter who usually passes on the BBQ sauce, unless it's "Franklin's". 

 

The only thing Aaron never explains in his videos' is temperature, which IMHO is the most critical variable. I would anticipate or expect the cooking temp's to be thoroughly discussed in his book.

 

Over the years I've found that the Amazing Ribs' website offers more information than you'll ever want to know... unless you're a BBQ nut job like me..... and although I've not read Aaron's book.... Amazing Ribs covers just about everything BBQ/Smoking.

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On the Reading Assignments, I recently acquired a wonderful book about the forthcoming revisions to the ACI 318-14; "Building Code Requirements for Structural Concrete". It's a wonderful read about the mighty changes to the ACI 318 code, it's riddled with suspense and drama. Pick up a copy for someone you love today.

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