# Whatcha Readin' (Apr 09) Edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 31, 2009, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-apr-09-edition/491443 "2009-03-31T15:30:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![wonderlust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonderlust/32/7237_2.png) [@wonderlust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonderlust)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2009, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-apr-09-edition/491443/101 "2009-04-14T19:32:45Z")
> [@Enterprise](#): > > Ross’s book I got to finally get behind what the horrible sounds Schoenberg, Berg, etc. created are supposed to mean. He’s not yet convinced me that there’s actually a need to listen to their music, rather than merely to acknowledge what they tried to do, but maybe that’ll come later. This brings back some memories that probably aren’t interesting to anyone but me, but when I was a kid living in West L.A. we used to attend a children’s arts program where we’d see plays in Schoenberg Hall at UCLA. Later, in high school, a Mr. Schoenberg was my math teacher. I learned later that he was the son of Schoenberg the composer. While I’m not acquainted with Schoenberg’s music it always interested me to see the influence of mathmatics in both professions, and in their family. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2009, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-apr-09-edition/491443/102 "2009-04-14T19:58:06Z")
Another Carrie Fisher **Wishful Drinking** - it’s gotten a lot of negative press but I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it. Referring to her father as a resident of Chinatown because his last (rich and beautiful) wife was Chinese and “he’s had so many plastic surgery he looks Asian himself”, or how in her mother’s concern for Fisher’s drug problem “she did what any concerned parent would do. She called Cary Grant” (this after having called Ava Gardner of course), or her reference to her biopolar moods as Rollicking Roy (the mania obviously) and Pam (the depression- an acronym of “piss and moan”), or being asked for her phone number by the doctor pumping her stomach- it’s gallows humor but it’s funny. It’s actually less a memoir than the book version of her one woman show and it reads like it. There’s a flow chart section on “Hollywood inbreeding” that’s funny in the book and said to be hysterical in her show; it was started when her daughter was dating Liz Taylor’s grandson and was trying to figure out whether they were inappropriately related (due to Fisher’s father having been married to Taylor and Fisher’s brother having been named for the grandfather of Taylor’s grandson). The illustrations are also hysterical- a picture of Fisher as Princess Leia in a textbook on Abnormal Psychology (“my picture’s in an abnormal psychology textbook _and_ I’m a Pez dispenser— who says you can’t have it all!”). I’d heavily recommend it, but if money’s tight wait for paperback because it’s a very slim read. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2009, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-apr-09-edition/491443/103 "2009-04-14T20:28:22Z")
\*The Tsarina’s Daughter \*by Carolly Erickson, just another of those I-am-the-secret-daughter-of-Nicholas-and-Alexandra novels, I just picked up at the library for something to read, but pretty good so far. Only on page 25. ---
**Author:** ![TheMerchandise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b487fb/32.png) [@TheMerchandise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheMerchandise)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2009, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-apr-09-edition/491443/104 "2009-04-17T15:30:20Z")
Started _Winkie_, by Clifford Chase. About a teddy bear who wishes himself alive… only to be accused of terrorist activities by the government. The concept was intriguing, but the actual novel is not grabbing me at all. Kafkaesque, in a way that reminds you what annoying twats Kafka and all his imitators can be. ---
**Author:** ![plankter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ba0ec/32.png) [@plankter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plankter)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2009, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-apr-09-edition/491443/105 "2009-04-17T19:43:28Z")
Yesterday I finished the Abhorsen/Old Kingdom trilogy. It really did live up to the recommendations I’ve seen for it, and I only wish I’d read it sooner. From an earlier post - **The Glasswright’s Apprentice** was overall a disappointment for personal reasons. I thought it was going one way with respect to the whole caste versus equality thing but it went the other way, into what I considered lazy thinking. Plus I’m sick of the “snakes are evil” trope, but I’m a lonely crusader in that cause. Still going through **Shakespeare’s Insults** , this time from the beginning with notecards to copy out bits I want to memorize. There’s a great line from \*Henry the \*[n]_th_ that applies to George Dubya, for instance. ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2009, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-apr-09-edition/491443/106 "2009-04-17T21:18:46Z")
> [@plankter](#): > > Still going through **Shakespeare’s Insults** , this time from the beginning with notecards to copy out bits I want to memorize. There’s a great line from \*Henry the \*[n]_th_ that applies to George Dubya, for instance. Share? Stopped by the library today and picked up **To Hate Like This Is to Be Happy Forever: A Thoroughly Obsessive, Intermittently Uplifting, and Occasionally Unbiased Account of the Duke-North Carolina Basketball Rivalry**. Sadly, it was written by a proud sheeple, but the jacket notes indicate that he tried to make nice with the followers of Our Dark Blue Lord and Master. Guess which side of the rivalry I fall on. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2009, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-apr-09-edition/491443/107 "2009-04-17T22:00:48Z")
Finished _Magic Strikes_. This is the third in this urban fantasy series and (as I’ve said before) even though I am probably not the target audience, I am enjoying it. It isn’t great lit, but it a fun fast read. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2009, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-apr-09-edition/491443/108 "2009-04-18T02:39:30Z")
> [@plankter](#): > > Yesterday I finished the Abhorsen/Old Kingdom trilogy. It really did live up to the recommendations I’ve seen for it, and I only wish I’d read it sooner. Everyone who likes high fantasy should read that series and a handful of others that I won’t mention because I always mention them but one rhymes with balion and one author rhymes with Peg Fleas! ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2009, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-apr-09-edition/491443/109 "2009-04-18T03:37:00Z")
I’m about halfway through John Scalzi’s _The Last Colony_ and am pretty much totally diggin’ it (despite some minor plot holes). Very, very good stuff about the establishment of a human colony in the distant future, and interstellar intrigue of which the colonists are only barely aware. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2009, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-apr-09-edition/491443/110 "2009-04-18T11:16:51Z")
Finished _A Kiss before the Apocalypse_. A noir-ish urban fantasy, Remy Chandler was once the angel Remiel, and is now a PI. Remy takes on a missing-person’s case - and it turns out that the Angel of Death has gone missing. Remy must find him to avert the apocalypse. The concept itself has promise, but in the end I did not truly enjoy this first book. The sub-plot of Remy’s wife living her final days (Remy can’t age, but his wife did and is now laying near death in a nursing home) was quite depressing. The interaction between Remy and his dog was cute at first, but got annoying quickly. If I find myself with nothing else to read, I might pick up one of the others, but the truth is there are so many books in my queue that I doubt this will become a regular read. ---
**Author:** ![plankter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ba0ec/32.png) [@plankter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plankter)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2009, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-apr-09-edition/491443/111 "2009-04-19T00:10:47Z")
> [@SpazCat](#): > > Share? The quote is from **Henry V** , with my reaction in a spoiler to avoid politicizing this thread. _His jest will savour but of shallow wit, When thousands weep more than did laugh at it._ I saw a clip of George W. Bush pretending to search for weapons of mass destruction under his table. The attendees at the dinner laughed. Those of us who remembered that the war in Iraq was started in the name of supposed WoMD didn’t see the humor. > [@jsgoddess](#): > > […] one rhymes with balion and one author rhymes with Peg Fleas! No doubt I’ll go :smack: when I see it, but I’m drawing a blank. Help? ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2009, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-apr-09-edition/491443/112 "2009-04-19T01:47:03Z")
> [@plankter](#): > > No doubt I’ll go :smack: when I see it, but I’m drawing a blank. Help? Chalion (by Bujold) and Greg Keyes. I blame massive doses of medication for the pointlessness of my previous post! ---
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2009, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-apr-09-edition/491443/113 "2009-04-19T07:03:48Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > I blame massive doses of medication for the pointlessness of my previous post! We can _do_ that?:smack: ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2009, 8:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-apr-09-edition/491443/114 "2009-04-19T08:56:36Z")
Finished Blood Blade. An urban fantasy involving werewolves and vampires. It was so mediocre that is just about all I remember. It was bad enough that I plan to leave it in the hotel room, in case the next guy badly needs something, anything, to read. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2009, 10:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-apr-09-edition/491443/115 "2009-04-19T10:06:57Z")
I just finished _Turn Coat_, after re-reading the rest of the Harry Dresden books. I’m presently re-reading Steve Perry’s Matador books, and am on _The Albino Knife_. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2009, 10:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-apr-09-edition/491443/116 "2009-04-19T10:45:23Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > I just finished _Turn Coat_, after re-reading the rest of the Harry Dresden books. I’m presently re-reading Steve Perry’s Matador books, and am on _The Albino Knife_. As no doubt you can guess I am a fan of that series. However, I will note that after a while they became a little redundant. ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2009, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-apr-09-edition/491443/117 "2009-04-19T18:43:54Z")
> [@SpazCat](#): > > Share? > > Stopped by the library today and picked up **To Hate Like This Is to Be Happy Forever: A Thoroughly Obsessive, Intermittently Uplifting, and Occasionally Unbiased Account of the Duke-North Carolina Basketball Rivalry**. Sadly, it was written by a proud sheeple, but the jacket notes indicate that he tried to make nice with the followers of Our Dark Blue Lord and Master. > > Guess which side of the rivalry I fall on. Gave up on it not because the writer is an obsessive UNC fan but because he’s batshit crazy. About the time when he had his stepson hit him in the back of the head with a soccer ball to keep UNC from losing I decided that Will Blythe would be better off in a padded cell for a while rather than writing a book about his obsession. ---
**Author:** ![Hrududu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Hrududu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hrududu)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2009, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-apr-09-edition/491443/118 "2009-04-19T22:31:47Z")
I just finished The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck and don’t know how anything else can possibly match up. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2009, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-apr-09-edition/491443/119 "2009-04-20T06:37:58Z")
Finished _What Angels Fear_ a Sebastian St. Cyr mystery. Set in england in the early 1800s, Sebastian is blamed for a murder he didn’t commit. He then sets about to find the real killer using skills he learned in Army Intelligence whilst at the same time fleeing from the police. It wasn’t bad and I may be tempted to pick up one of the sequels in the future. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2009, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-apr-09-edition/491443/120 "2009-04-20T21:10:06Z")
I finished **Pride and Prejudice and Zombies** and can easily envision a summer romp zombie fest kinda movie. [spoiler] What happens to Charlotte Lucas and Mr. Collins is what should have happened. [/spoiler] It is a fun, slightly more readable version. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-apr-09-edition/491443.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-apr-09-edition/491443.md?page=7)