# Whatcha Readin' August 2010 Edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 2, 2010, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-august-2010-edition/548894 "2010-08-02T14:59:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2010, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-august-2010-edition/548894/101 "2010-08-23T11:57:59Z")
> [@koeeoaddi](#): > > After what seemed like months, I _finally_ finished _Drood_. Parts of it, heck, great hulking gruntloads of it were freakin’ brilliant, but \*\*Khadaji \*\*, if it makes you feel better, I also think it needed an editor. A ruthless, heartless, barracuda of an editor! > > Just started _Let the Great World Spin_, by Colum McCann. So far, it’s excellent. 😃 An good editor certainly would have helped. But to be on the safe side, I’ll avoid the author in the future. One of my biggest complaints is:The presentation of hypnosis is ridiculous. Mind you, it was presented in a way that likely accurately reflected the beliefs at the time, but it isn’t the way hypnosis works (if you accept that it works at all) ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2010, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-august-2010-edition/548894/102 "2010-08-23T13:16:39Z")
About halfway through So Cold the River, by Michael Koryta. If it goes on as well as it’s begun, I will be very happy with it. ---
**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:** [August 23, 2010, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-august-2010-edition/548894/103 "2010-08-23T13:52:38Z")
> [@Enterprise](#): > > …Otherwise, I have Austin Grossman’s _Soon I will be Invincible_ to replace the Pynchon… I’ve wanted to read _Invincible_ for awhile now. Sounds like a fun premise, but the reviews have been mixed. I’ll be interested to hear your reaction. ---
**Author:** ![TheMerchandise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b487fb/32.png) [@TheMerchandise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheMerchandise)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2010, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-august-2010-edition/548894/104 "2010-08-23T14:08:56Z")
I finished Justin Cronin’s _The Passage_ this weekend. It’s one of the big books of the summer and I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. Many, many people have described the book as “\*The Stand \*meets vampires.” In my opinion, it’s over-rated. The characters are flat and many of them are interchangeable. And I think I can finally admit that I’m bored with reading about vampires… all vampires! “Romantic” vampires, scary vampires, brooding vampires… it’s all been done to death. ---
**Author:** ![Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a88e4f/32.png) [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleanor_of_Aquitaine)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2010, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-august-2010-edition/548894/105 "2010-08-23T14:09:46Z")
> [@Snickers](#): > > Finished _The Sparrow_ by Maria Doria Russell, a sci-fi about our first contact with sentient beings on another planet. I liked it. I liked that we arguably were the ones with the higher technology, as we went to their planet instead of vice versa. I liked the depiction of simple, well meaning thoughts and ideas being exchanged that had far wider ramifications than anyone could’ve expected. A lot of the characters were too perfect - as in, they were all brilliant, some in several fields, many were beautiful or handsome, that sort of thing - but were engaging enough. I might check out the sequel. I thought _The Sparrow_ was not good science fiction, but it was a gripping novel - even though I was annoyed at the ridiculous conclusions that had been drawn about what happened to Sandoz. The sequel is worth reading, but I didn’t like it as well. ---
**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:** [August 23, 2010, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-august-2010-edition/548894/106 "2010-08-23T14:26:39Z")
> [@TheMerchandise](#): > > …“Romantic” vampires, scary vampires, brooding vampires… it’s all been done to death. So to speak. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2010, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-august-2010-edition/548894/107 "2010-08-23T14:48:09Z")
> [@TheMerchandise](#): > > In my opinion, it’s over-rated. The characters are flat and many of them are interchangeable. And I think I can finally admit that I’m bored with reading about vampires… all vampires! “Romantic” vampires, scary vampires, brooding vampires… it’s all been done to death. Good, because I’m all vampired-out as well and now I can say, “I heard it was no good.” 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2010, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-august-2010-edition/548894/108 "2010-08-23T15:06:09Z")
_Back on Murder_ by J. Mark Bertrand, about a Houston detective trying to find the missing daughter of the late founder of a megachurch (sounds convoluted, but it’s pretty good and gritty). Cover says “A Roland March Mystery”; the author’s web site says it’s the first in a series. ---
**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2010, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-august-2010-edition/548894/109 "2010-08-23T18:36:22Z")
My little seven year old sweetie pie daughter is reading **Charlie and the Chocolate Factory**. She’s decided it’s officially the Best Book Ever! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2010, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-august-2010-edition/548894/110 "2010-08-23T18:43:29Z")
Well, it is a contender. 🙂 Has she seen either of the movie versions? ---
**Author:** ![Enterprise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/76d3ee/32.png) [@Enterprise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enterprise)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2010, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-august-2010-edition/548894/111 "2010-08-23T18:46:58Z")
> [@Enterprise](#): > > And as far as reading is concerned, I was distracted off my chosen path by _A Storm from the Shadows_, David Weber’s most recent Honorverse volume. I’m glad he has given more Honor stories a pass for now, but this one isn’t too great yet, about half-way in. Like the last Honor books, it has a bit too much convoluted politics for too little space opera for my taste (the most exciting battle in the book happens off-screen, so to speak!). I’ll keep at it, though. Oh, that thrice-blasted donkey-cock sucking blackguard of an overrated hack writer!! He not only didn’t resolve any…single…issue which he opened up in the bloody book, but managed to end it on a not-really cliff-hanger again (goddamn you, man, you \*\*know \*\*we think that all of Manticore’s production will go kablooie now, you’re just not good enough a writer to make several thousand pages and fourhundred make-belief years of preparation vanish without Mesa getting its first licks in!). And what’s more, all the while I’m secretly grumbling about how everyone is either on bloody great joking terms with each other regardless of where in the chain of command they are, _or_ they are a bunch of inept blowhards you couldn’t find their ass if it was waved in a stick in front of them. A thousand frickin’ pages to get exactly _one_ space engagement and now I’ll have to spend something like fifteen bucks on the next volume and lug it with me on holiday so I can get to the juicy stuff… ---
**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2010, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-august-2010-edition/548894/112 "2010-08-23T18:47:26Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > Well, it is a contender. 🙂 Has she seen either of the movie versions? Not yet. I want her to enjoy the imagery of the book in her own brain first. She’s into Nancy Drew graphic novels, Rainbow Magic books and the Little House on the Prairie series this summer. My little bookworm. So cute! ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2010, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-august-2010-edition/548894/113 "2010-08-23T18:56:29Z")
> [@LavenderBlue](#): > > Not yet. I want her to enjoy the imagery of the book in her own brain first. Man, that’s the best thing I’ve read all day. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2010, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-august-2010-edition/548894/114 "2010-08-23T20:04:58Z")
> [@LavenderBlue](#): > > My little seven year old sweetie pie daughter is reading **Charlie and the Chocolate Factory**. She’s decided it’s officially the Best Book Ever! > > 😃 I had never read it, but _James and the Giant Peach_ was one of my favorites from my youth. I did listen to it on tape a few years back. ---
**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:** [August 24, 2010, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-august-2010-edition/548894/115 "2010-08-24T04:41:57Z")
> [@Khadaji](#): > > …I had never read it, but _James and the Giant Peach_ was one of my favorites from my youth. I did listen to it on tape a few years back. The 1996 Tim Burton-produced movie is very good, too. Our boys loved it. Favorite kids’ chapter books in our household: _The Trumpet of the Swan_ by E.B. White _Charlotte’s Web_ by E.B. White _The Hobbit_ by J.R.R. Tolkien _Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH_ by Richard C. O’Brien _The Witch of Blackbird Pond_ by Elizabeth George Speare _My Side of the Mountain_ by Jean Craighead George _The Cricket in Times Square_ by George Selden _Captain Kidd’s Cat_ by Robert Lawson _Hatchet_ by Gary Paulsen _Harry Potter and the Sorceror’s Stone_ by J.K. Rowling … to name only a few! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2010, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-august-2010-edition/548894/116 "2010-08-24T11:55:17Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > > [@Khadaji](#): > > > > …I had never read it, but _James and the Giant Peach_ was one of my favorites from my youth. I did listen to it on tape a few years back. > > The 1996 Tim Burton-produced movie is very good, too. Our boys loved it. > > Favorite kids’ chapter books in our household: > > _The Trumpet of the Swan_ by E.B. White > _Charlotte’s Web_ by E.B. White > _The Hobbit_ by J.R.R. Tolkien > _Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH_ by Richard C. O’Brien > _The Witch of Blackbird Pond_ by Elizabeth George Speare > _My Side of the Mountain_ by Jean Craighead George > _The Cricket in Times Square_ by George Selden > _Captain Kidd’s Cat_ by Robert Lawson > _Hatchet_ by Gary Paulsen > _Harry Potter and the Sorceror’s Stone_ by J.K. Rowling > > … to name only a few! 😃 Check out _Black Hearts in Battersea_ and _The Wolves of Willoughby Chase_ by Joan Aiken, my most favoritest from when I was a kid. ---
**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:** [August 24, 2010, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-august-2010-edition/548894/117 "2010-08-24T12:54:58Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > …Check out _Black Hearts in Battersea_ and _The Wolves of Willoughby Chase_ by Joan Aiken, my most favoritest from when I was a kid. Thanks! Can you tell me a little more about them? What most appealed to you about them? ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2010, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-august-2010-edition/548894/118 "2010-08-24T14:00:17Z")
Finished listening to the audio version of The Haunting of Hill House, by Shirley Jackson. This is one of my favorite books of all time, however, this version was also the worst match of book and narrator I have ever heard. This is an American book, written by a woman, with a female main character, and the reader in this case was David Warner, an English actor who has been in some horror films. He has a lovely voice and I’m sure he would be a great choice for some other spooky novel, but he completely screwed the pooch on this one. The book itself benefits far more from a silent reading than from any possible audio version anyway, IMO. ---
**Author:** ![Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a88e4f/32.png) [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleanor_of_Aquitaine)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2010, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-august-2010-edition/548894/119 "2010-08-24T14:29:47Z")
I like Shirley Jackson’s funny books about her kids. Horror isn’t my thing, but I really need to read that one. ---
**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:** [August 24, 2010, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-august-2010-edition/548894/120 "2010-08-24T14:42:51Z")
Jackson’s chilling short story “The Lottery” is a great place to start. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-august-2010-edition/548894.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-august-2010-edition/548894.md?page=7)