# Whatcha Readin' August 2011 Edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 31, 2011, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-august-2011-edition/590916 "2011-07-31T11:32:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**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 25, 2011, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-august-2011-edition/590916/121 "2011-08-25T16:59:29Z")
> [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](#): > > In continuing my classic sci-fi journey, I’m half way through \*The Forever War \*by Joe Haldeman. I’m liking it a lot. I think I read an abridged version a long time ago because it’s very familiar but seems like this version has more battle scenes. It’s supposed to basically be Viet Nam set in outer space, but for someone like me who was not alive during Viet Nam, it’s just a cool space war story. One of my all-time favorites! Ridley Scott has optioned it for a movie. When you’re done, read Haldeman’s short story “A Separate War” to see what Marygay was up to while Mandella was on his final mission. Also, you may like Robert Heinlein’s _Starship Troopers_ (which predates _The Forever War_) and John Scalzi’s _Old Man’s War_ (which postdates it but has similar themes), both of which are excellent military sf. ---
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2011, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-august-2011-edition/590916/122 "2011-08-25T17:28:27Z")
> [@Ann\_Hedonia](#): > > I just finished the Trilogy with Vortex, which was fantastic. IMHO the books keep getting better throughout. I liked SPIN but I actually thought it was the weakest of the three books. See, I’m the exact opposite, I thought Spin was the best, with Vortex then Axis, in that order. But, I read all the books within two days of downloading them, so even though I thought Axis was the weakest, it was still very good. ---
**Author:** ![Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barkis_is_Willin)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2011, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-august-2011-edition/590916/123 "2011-08-25T17:44:29Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > One of my all-time favorites! Ridley Scott has optioned it for a movie. > > When you’re done, read Haldeman’s short story “A Separate War” to see what Marygay was up to while Mandella was on his final mission. Also, you may like Robert Heinlein’s _Starship Troopers_ (which predates _The Forever War_) and John Scalzi’s _Old Man’s War_ (which postdates it but has similar themes), both of which are excellent military sf. Yeah, I’ve read _Starship Troopers_. It was Ok. I like \*Forever War \*better. I’ve been meaning to get to Scalzi, heard lots of good things. If I see it next time I’m at Half Price Books I’ll pick it up. The \*Forever War \*movie could be decent, or it could turn out like the _Starship Troopers_ movie. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2011, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-august-2011-edition/590916/124 "2011-08-25T17:51:58Z")
> [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](#): > > In continuing my classic sci-fi journey, I’m half way through \*The Forever War \*by Joe Haldeman. I’m liking it a lot. I think I read an abridged version a long time ago because it’s very familiar but seems like this version has more battle scenes. It’s supposed to basically be Viet Nam set in outer space, but for someone like me who was not alive during Viet Nam, it’s just a cool space war story. You may have read one or more of the stories that Haldeman originally wrote about the characters. He later incorporated these into the novel. A tip if you finish _The Forever War_ and are looking for more. _Forever Peace_ is not a sequel to _The Forever War_. The sequel to _The Forever War_ is _Forever Free_. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2011, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-august-2011-edition/590916/125 "2011-08-25T19:56:56Z")
Finished _Shadow Unit 1_. Basically the authors’ concept was to create a TV show in short story form. They originally appeared on the web. Kind of X-Files for the internet. The FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit hunts people infected with what they call the _anomaly_. Whatever it is, gives them super powers and brings out the worst in them. It was OK, and I might read the others. I had trouble following who was who, the characters didn’t seem to have their own voice, but I gradually caught on. It is only available on the Kindle. ---
**Author:** ![stpauler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@stpauler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stpauler)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2011, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-august-2011-edition/590916/126 "2011-08-25T20:01:17Z")
I finally finished _What Would You Do With A Chocolate Jesus?_ which was good when it was on topic and annoying when it veered off topic. And never answered that question either. Next up, to keep in the theme _Heaven is for Real_ by Todd Burpo which starts off with “as a pastor, I’m not a believer in superstition”. This is gonna be a long ride for a short book. ---
**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 25, 2011, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-august-2011-edition/590916/127 "2011-08-25T20:06:10Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > …_Forever Peace_ is not a sequel to _The Forever War_. The sequel to _The Forever War_ is _Forever Free_. Both of which are not nearly as good, IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![all1966](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@all1966](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/all1966)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2011, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-august-2011-edition/590916/128 "2011-08-25T22:47:37Z")
What? No one is reading any critter lit? 🙂 I’m listening to and HIGHLY recommend “A Dog’s Purpose” from [audible.com](http://audible.com) - the narrator is fantabulous. There are definitely sniffly/sobby parts as our protagonist “transitions” from one life to another, but well-written and handled very appropriately and gently. Thus, the sobby, which you move pretty quickly through into the next part of the pooch’s tale, is tolerable. Also reading “Just a Geek” by Wil Wheaton. 1/2 way through, and quite enjoyable. ---
**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 26, 2011, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-august-2011-edition/590916/129 "2011-08-26T02:50:48Z")
Just finished Steven Pressfield’s _The Afghan Campaign_, about Alexander the Great’s 330s BC effort to conquer what is now Afghanistan, as told by a young Macedonian soldier who gets more world-weary, cynical and numb to the endless violence as time passes. It’s pretty good, all in all, although the author tries to use slang (the Macedonians are “Macks,” food is “mooch,” a discharge is a “skip”) to give it a sense of immediacy - sometimes you forget that this was more than 2000 years ago, which I suppose might have been Pressfield’s intent. His attempts to draw parallels to the current US/NATO effort in Afghanistan are a bit labored. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2011, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-august-2011-edition/590916/130 "2011-08-26T03:40:09Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Just finished Steven Pressfield’s _The Afghan Campaign_, about Alexander the Great’s 330s BC effort to conquer what is now Afghanistan, as told by a young Macedonian soldier who gets more world-weary, cynical and numb to the endless violence as time passes. It’s pretty good, all in all, although the author tries to use slang (the Macedonians are “Macks,” food is “mooch,” a discharge is a “skip”) to give it a sense of immediacy - sometimes you forget that this was more than 2000 years ago, which I suppose might have been Pressfield’s intent. His attempts to draw parallels to the current US/NATO effort in Afghanistan are a bit labored. Sounds pretty cool! I just started “that book by Nabokov”…you know, the one before _Pale Fire_. (How pathetic that such great, serious literature has had its title so debased that I’m better off not typing it in this forum.) The annotated version, which Alfred Appel, Jr. really makes for a richer, more layered experience. Unbelievable that this was written by a non-native English speaker. (And now I know where poet Billy Collins got the title for his book _Picnic, Lightning_…it’s the entirety of HH’s account of the death of his mother.) Also reading Denis Wood’s _Rethinking the Power of Maps_, Okakura Kakuzo’s _Book of Tea_, and dipping into my wife’s copy of Bradley and Dubois (eds.) _Anthology of Rap_. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2011, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-august-2011-edition/590916/131 "2011-08-26T03:56:02Z")
Finished reading **Game of Thrones** and passed it to Pepper Mill. Then I re-read a couple of Robert H. van Gulik’s _Judge Dee_ novels – **the Red Pavilion** and **Necklace and Calabash** and Aine Greaney’s **Writer with a Day Job** (I bought it from her at a reading a couple of months ago). > **[Writer with a Day Job: Inspiration & Exercises to Help You Craft a Writing...](https://www.amazon.com/Writer-Day-Job-Inspiration-Exercises/dp/1582979960)** > > Writer with a Day Job: Inspiration & Exercises to Help You Craft a Writing Life Alongside Your Career \[Greaney, Aine\] on Amazon.com. \*FREE\* shipping on qualifying offers. Writer with a Day Job: Inspiration & Exercises to Help You Craft a Writing Life... I “read” a couple of unabridged audiobooks by Douglas Preston – **Tyrannosaur Canyon** and **Impact** – which I picked up at low cost. Preston (and Child) are my guilty pleasure – their books are wonderfully ludicrous, but fun. I also just finished the unabridged audio version of Richard Dawkins’ \*\* The Greatest Show on Earth\*\*. It’s read by Dawkins himself, and he is one of those rare writers who does a good job of reading his own work. I hadn’t read Dawkins before, in any form, and now I want to read other works of his. Right now, I’m reading another book I picked up cheaply, Geza Vermes’ **Who’s Who in the Age of Jesus**. I’d read his _Jesus the Jew_ before, and his editing of the Dead Sea Scrolls. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2011, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-august-2011-edition/590916/132 "2011-08-26T04:43:36Z")
I just finished Sinclair Lewis’ _ **Main Street** _ and Erskine Caldwell’s _ **Tobacco Road.** _ Have just started James T. Farrell’s _ **Studs Lonigan** _ trilogy. ---
**Author:** ![TheMerchandise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b487fb/32.png) [@TheMerchandise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheMerchandise)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2011, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-august-2011-edition/590916/133 "2011-08-26T13:37:04Z")
I just finished **Dances with Dragons** and I’m still trying to digest it. I re-read the first four books in the series in less than a month, so the whole experience was a little exhausting. I’m torn between really, really wanting to know what comes next in the series and being relieved that I don’t have to immerse myself in the world of Westeros for the foreseeable future. ---
**Author:** ![coolbyrne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bc79bd/32.png) [@coolbyrne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coolbyrne)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-august-2011-edition/590916/134 "2011-08-27T04:31:18Z")
Based on the trailer for upcoming movie starring Tilda Swinton and Ezra Miller, I bought **We Need to Talk About Kevin** and finished it today. Not sure what to say about it beyond “bleak”; that’s the first word that comes to mind. It’s a look into the aftermath- and I suppose pre-math (?)- of a 15-year old boy who goes on to kill a group of classlmates in the school gymnasium. The angle here is, it’s told in letters from the boy’s mother to her ex-husband (the boy’s father). A harrowing look into nature vs. nurture, and our need to find out “why”, when often we don’t want to admit that perhaps there is no answer. Not a light read by any means, but I would certainly recommend it. ---
**Author:** ![coolbyrne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bc79bd/32.png) [@coolbyrne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coolbyrne)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-august-2011-edition/590916/135 "2011-08-27T04:43:32Z")
Sorry, forgot to mention the writer’s name. Lionel Shriver ---
**Author:** ![Taomist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@Taomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taomist)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-august-2011-edition/590916/136 "2011-08-27T05:18:30Z")
Just finished the first two of the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo books, and will start the third this weekend. Just finished Butcher’s Ghost Story and A Stolen Life, Jaycee Duggard’s memoir of her life after she was kidnapped and held for 18 years in the backyard of a man that the penal system should never have let slip through. Throughout all that I am reading Dances with Dragons, and cursorily glancing through the last few Wheel of Time books, just so I can finally _finish_ the damn thing. And yes, yes I do love my jailbroken Nook. \<3 ---
**Author:** ![Enterprise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/76d3ee/32.png) [@Enterprise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enterprise)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-august-2011-edition/590916/137 "2011-08-27T08:15:39Z")
Finished G.R.R. Martin’s _A Dance with Dragons_ and feel right at home in the thread about it. Nice read, but unsatisfying on so many levels. Wonder if it was worthwhile reading being all dissatisfied at the end, I suppose… Also finished Linda Maloney’s _The Captain from Connecticut: The Life and Naval Times of Isaac Hull_, an excellent biography of an apparently very likeable fellow. Also finished Tom Rachman’s _The Imperfectionist_, a novel in short stories about a Rome-based English language newspaper and the characters running it. Nice enough, I suppose. Not something that makes me run out looking for his next book, though. Currently I’m reading David Mitchell’s _Cloud Atlas_, which I find utterly intriguing. I’m only two chapters in, though…see where it goes. Also randomly strolling through the essays in Jonathan Franzen’s _How to be Alone_. Couple of interesting things in there! ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-august-2011-edition/590916/138 "2011-08-27T13:05:21Z")
I have finished _I Am The Chosen King_ by Helen Hollick, a fictionalized account of the ascendancy and rapid dispatchment of Harold Godwineson, an earl that became King of England after King Edward and then has his throne challenged by William of Normandy in the Battle Of Hastings. It was pretty good…I liked it. Now I am reading \*David Bowie: Starman \*by Paul Trynka which is a good read about the elfin singer. I am also halfway through _The Kid_ by Sapphire, and I don’t know how I feel about this book. Its really disturbing and angry. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2011, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-august-2011-edition/590916/139 "2011-08-28T00:41:22Z")
> [@Stauderhorse](#): > > That…was a lot of "now"s. I wouldn’t have even known that was a sex scene if you hadn’t told me. This book has way too vague of a writing style for my taste; I actually like to know what the characters are _doing_ at any point in the book. I get the feeling this book isn’t for me. Cool; worth a shot. Finished Goon Squad - meh. More cute than anything. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2011, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-august-2011-edition/590916/140 "2011-08-29T18:35:34Z")
Finished _The Last Juror_, by John Grisham. A rabid killer in northern Mississippi in the 1970s. That was the first book by him that I’ve read. Even though I figured out the ending ahead of time, it was very enjoyable. His popularity is easy to understand. Next up: _Child of God_, by Cormac McCarthy. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-august-2011-edition/590916.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-august-2011-edition/590916.md?page=8)