# Whatcha readin' April (08) edition
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-april-08-edition/443455
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [March 31, 2008, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-april-08-edition/443455 "2008-03-31T21:50:14Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2008, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-april-08-edition/443455/1 "2008-03-31T21:50:14Z")
OK gang, here is the April thread. As mentioned in the last thread I am reading _The Somnambulist_ by Jonathan Barnes. It looks like it is going to be kind of a mix between Sherlock Holmes and “light” fantasy. By “light” fantasy I mean fantasy based in our world, no swords and sorcery, no Elves, but some magic involved. (Anyone have a better term for that?)
The author’s style caught me as amusing, then got old quickly, then got better. So far I’m liking it, but we’ll see.
([Link to old thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=457923) )
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### Author:  [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2008, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-april-08-edition/443455/2 "2008-03-31T21:54:31Z")
Master and Commander (The first novel)
Also - Equal Rites, and Lords and Ladies (Discworld)
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### Author:  [@pinkfreud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinkfreud)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2008, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-april-08-edition/443455/3 "2008-03-31T21:57:29Z")
I just started Jonathan Kellerman’s _Obsession_. I’m beginning to think that I’m burned out on Jonathan Kellerman. ☹
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### Author:  [@Pollux\_Oil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pollux_Oil)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2008, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-april-08-edition/443455/4 "2008-03-31T22:06:35Z")
I just read _Bloodsucking Fiends_ by Christopher Moore. I thought it was a hilariously written book and that was the first I’ve read of him, so I’m going to pick up a few of his other books soon and dive into them. 🙂
In the interim, my friend recommended a Piers Anthony book to me and I’ve never read any of his stuff, so I’ll probably hit that next. _A Spell for Chameleon_ is the name of it.
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### Author:  [@yanceylebeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yanceylebeef)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2008, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-april-08-edition/443455/5 "2008-03-31T22:08:52Z")
I’m galloping through Steve Toltz’s [“A Fraction of the Whole”](http://www.amazon.com/Fraction-Whole-Steve-Toltz/dp/0385521723/ref=pd_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1207000825&sr=8-1). It’s a rollicking tale of a disfunctional Austrailian family. I love it so far.
On the bedstand…[“The Yiddish Policemen’s Union”](http://www.amazon.com/Yiddish-Policemens-Union-Novel/dp/0007149824/ref=pd_bbs_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1207000982&sr=1-2), I’m about a year behind on this one, but it slipped to the bottom of my pile a few months ago when I got all of Stephen J. Gould’s books at a used book store “going out of business” sale.
also Half Life by Hal Clement and I’m still trying to get thorough the Baroque Cycle. It will happen this year!
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### Author:  [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2008, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-april-08-edition/443455/6 "2008-03-31T22:12:53Z")
\*Loss and Gain \* by Cardinal Newman.
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### Author:  [@zev\_steinhardt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zev_steinhardt)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2008, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-april-08-edition/443455/7 "2008-03-31T22:14:22Z")
_Rome and Jerusalem_ by Martin Goodman
Zev Steinhardt
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### Author:  [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2008, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-april-08-edition/443455/8 "2008-03-31T22:18:12Z")
I just finished reading SM Stirling’s new book Court of the Crimson Kings, as well as Hans Halberstadt’s book Trigger Men about snipers in Iraq. Right now I am re-reading SM Stirling’ Island in the Sea of Time trilogy—I’m on the last book.
Just marking time till Jim Butcher’s latest Harry Dresden novel comes out.
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### Author:  [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2008, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-april-08-edition/443455/9 "2008-03-31T22:30:39Z")
[QUOTE=Khadaji]
By “light” fantasy I mean fantasy based in our world, no swords and sorcery, no Elves, but some magic involved. (Anyone have a better term for that?)
[/QUOTE]
Urban fantasy?
I’m still working on _The Dragonbone Chair_ and _Kushiel’s Justice_. I’ve added Tennyson’s _Idylls of the King_ and Vidal’s _1876_. I haven’t read _Idylls_ in a while, so this is a “do I keep it?” re-read. I’m about three chapters in 1876, which, like the other Vidal book I’ve read, is kind of disconcerting at first because he drops you right in the time period. After about fifty pages it’s really engrossing, though.
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### Author:  [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2008, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-april-08-edition/443455/10 "2008-03-31T23:13:02Z")
[QUOTE=SpazCat]
Urban fantasy?
\
[/QUOTE]
Does the time-frame matter? I mean, is it still urban fantasy if it is set in the late 1800s?
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### Author:  [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2008, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-april-08-edition/443455/11 "2008-03-31T23:16:52Z")
_Murder in LaMut_, by Raymond Feist and Joel Forstenberg.
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### Author:  [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2008, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-april-08-edition/443455/12 "2008-03-31T23:27:12Z")
“The Gulag Archipelago” by Solzhenitsyn in the upstairs bathroom, “Economics For Dummies” at work, and “The Majipoor Chronicles” by Robert Silverberg for fun.
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### Author:  [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2008, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-april-08-edition/443455/13 "2008-03-31T23:45:22Z")
[QUOTE=Pollux Oil]
In the interim, my friend recommended a Piers Anthony book to me and I’ve never read any of his stuff, so I’ll probably hit that next. _A Spell for Chameleon_ is the name of it.
[/QUOTE]
Okay, that’s when Xanth was still relatively good (that book in particular won a Hugo). I’d suggest reading maybe the first six of the Xanth series (_A Spell For Chameleon; The Source of Magic; Castle Roogna; Centaur Aisle; Ogre, Ogre_ and _Night Mare_). After _Night Mare_ things start getting really juvenile and silly and at the same time increasingly perverted. I’m kind of unhappy stopping you there if only because _Dragon on a Pedestal_ (the next book) was my first Xanth book, and I have a soft spot for it…it’s a borderline book, though. The pun invasion and the dirty fairy tale quality began in force in the book after that, _Crewel Lye_…everything after that is pretty much crap.
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### Author:  [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)
#### Post date: [April 1, 2008, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-april-08-edition/443455/14 "2008-04-01T00:12:57Z")
_The Year of Living Biblically_, by A.J. Jacobs (the guy who read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica). I’m liking it a lot.
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### Author:  [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)
#### Post date: [April 1, 2008, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-april-08-edition/443455/15 "2008-04-01T03:29:03Z")
Chiming in so this will pop up in my Subscribed Threads. Still on _Rabbit Is Rich_, by John Updike, the third in his Rabbit series. About halfway through. Iy is very good. Man, it is REALLY making me nostalgic for 1979.
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### Author:  [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)
#### Post date: [April 1, 2008, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-april-08-edition/443455/16 "2008-04-01T03:30:14Z")
I just finished _Peony in Love_ by Lisa See, which is deeply moving and lyrically beautiful, and _The Execution of Sherlock Holmes_ by Donald Thomas, which is… kinda talky. Okay, really talky and long-winded at parts, but I got a kick out of it.
I’ve got _The In-Between World of Vikram Lall_ up on my bookshelf along with _Wicked_, and I also just reread _Vol 714 pour Sydney_ by Herge (shut up, Tintin is too a classic).
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### Author:  [@movingfinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/movingfinger)
#### Post date: [April 1, 2008, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-april-08-edition/443455/17 "2008-04-01T05:15:06Z")
I just picked up Tim Powers’ \*\*The Anubis Gates \*\* and plan to re-read it for the third or fourth time. Published in 1983, it is a wonderful time travel story, and the best (IMHO) of Powers’ books. Which is saying a lot.
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### Author:  [@Pollux\_Oil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pollux_Oil)
#### Post date: [April 1, 2008, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-april-08-edition/443455/18 "2008-04-01T06:30:12Z")
[QUOTE=jayjay]
Okay, that’s when Xanth was still relatively good (that book in particular won a Hugo). I’d suggest reading maybe the first six of the Xanth series (_A Spell For Chameleon; The Source of Magic; Castle Roogna; Centaur Aisle; Ogre, Ogre_ and _Night Mare_). After _Night Mare_ things start getting really juvenile and silly and at the same time increasingly perverted. I’m kind of unhappy stopping you there if only because _Dragon on a Pedestal_ (the next book) was my first Xanth book, and I have a soft spot for it…it’s a borderline book, though. The pun invasion and the dirty fairy tale quality began in force in the book after that, _Crewel Lye_…everything after that is pretty much crap.
[/QUOTE]
When my friend recommended it, he said he’d only read a couple of the Xanth novels (although he’d read other things by Piers Anthony). I don’t think he’s gotten that far yet, he’s one of the types that bounces around series and never sticks to one at a time. I’ll keep that in mind and give him a heads up about it as well.
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### Author:  [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)
#### Post date: [April 1, 2008, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-april-08-edition/443455/19 "2008-04-01T12:12:53Z")
The Thing About Life is That One Day You’ll Be Dead, by David Shields. As deeply insightful as the title.
> [@](#):
>
> The author melds personal history with frank biological data about every stage of life, creating an “autobiography about my body” that seeks meaning in death, but moreover, life. Shields filters his frank–and usually foreboding–data through his own experience as a 51-year-old father with burgeoning back pain, contrasting his own gloomy tendencies with the defiant perspective of his own 97-year-old father, a man who has waged a lifelong, urgent battle against the infirmities of time.–From [amazon.com](http://amazon.com).
I include the quote here because otherwise I’d have to figure out what to say about it, and mine would be more like: Reading this book is like paddling a canoe around a retention pond. You don’t see any fish and you know you aren’t going to get anywhere. (Still working on my metaphor).
I’m also reading The BFG to my son. It’s possibly the only Roald Dahl book left that I haven’t read, and it’s pretty good so far. My reading-aloud BFG voice is horrible, though…like Steve Irwin gone mad.
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### Author:  [@Atrael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atrael)
#### Post date: [April 1, 2008, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-april-08-edition/443455/20 "2008-04-01T13:57:29Z")
I’m almost finished with [The Fall of Angels](http://www.amazon.com/Fall-Angels-Saga-Recluce-Modesitt/dp/0812538951/ref=pd_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1207057823&sr=1-1) one of the Recluce books. I may read the next one…I haven’t decided yet. I just recieved [Brother John](http://www.amazon.com/Brother-John-Rutledge-Etheridge/dp/0441008399/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1207057911&sr=1-5) in the mail from [paperbackswap.com](http://paperbackswap.com) . I’m not certain I’m too enthusiastic about this one. I have the other two in the series, so I went ahead and requested this one. But the last one was just terrible. By far the best one is _The First Duelist_ which is only semi-related to the other two, and can really work as a stand alone book.
I really wish I liked Stirling’s stuff, but the only book of his I can stand is [Conquistador](http://www.amazon.com/Conquistador-Alternate-History-S-M-Stirling/dp/0451459334/ref=sr_1_25?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1207058124&sr=1-25). I may have to head out to the book store and see if anything strikes my fancy. Although I’ll be traveling for a couple of weeks here soon, so maybe I can get into something more seriouse like _Don Quixote_ or something.
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