# Whatcha Readin' Dec 2012 Edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 30, 2012, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-dec-2012-edition/642625 "2012-11-30T23:38:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**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:** [December 7, 2012, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-dec-2012-edition/642625/41 "2012-12-07T00:57:10Z")
> [@wonderlust](#): > > …Someone posted a page showing [the covers of all the books](http://pinterest.com/tinyampersand/the-books-of-among-others/) mentioned in\* Among Others\*. Wow! That’s not a book, it’s an extended sf bibliography. ---
**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:** [December 7, 2012, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-dec-2012-edition/642625/42 "2012-12-07T01:21:09Z")
They’re my era, so it’s fun reading what she thought of them as a teen. This book is to some extent about her own teen years. ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2012, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-dec-2012-edition/642625/43 "2012-12-07T03:29:07Z")
Recently finished: _Fire_, by Kristin Cashore. This is the 2nd book in a YA fantasy series, I enjoy the series overall a lot even though I have some quibbles with it being a little too needlessly sexy. _Casual Vacancy_, by J.K. Rowling. I enjoyed reading this (a big multi-family saga is right up my alley), but I don’t think this would be getting this much press if it was written by anyone else. I’m almost done with _The Brides of Rollrock Island_, by Margo Lanagan. It’s another YA novel, this is about selkies. I like it, but it’s pretty dark and melancholy. Between this and _Casual Vacancies_, I’m going to need to read a book about happy ponies next. ---
**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:** [December 7, 2012, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-dec-2012-edition/642625/44 "2012-12-07T04:02:37Z")
> [@delphica](#): > > I’m almost done with _The Brides of Rollrock Island_, by Margo Lanagan. It’s another YA novel, this is about selkies. I like it, but it’s pretty dark and melancholy. Between this and _Casual Vacancies_, I’m going to need to read a book about happy ponies next. If you’d like more selkies, treat youself to the movie _The Secret of Roan Inish_. I’m trying to remember the name of another book about selkies that I liked… ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2012, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-dec-2012-edition/642625/45 "2012-12-07T13:46:12Z")
Thanks for all the birthday wishes. I spent last Saturday napping… I guess when you celebrate your birthday with a day-long nap you really \*have \*reached old age. Finished Cold Days list night and really enjoyed it. Will start Trapped tonight (although I may start the Sherlock Holmes book Mom got me for my birthday - she likes when I tell her I’ve read her gifts and if I put it in the queue I will forget to tell her. I won’t forget to read it, but I’ll forget to tell her.) ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2012, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-dec-2012-edition/642625/46 "2012-12-07T16:13:43Z")
> [@Khadaji](#): > > I’ve liked Rick Cook’s _Wizardry_ series, but haven’t tried this one. Let us know what you think. I liked it a lot, and think it would make a neat little movie. There were several subplots that needed to be wrapped up – at the mall, at the same time. I wondered how Cook would manage – he did fine. This would be something you could give a pre-teen. Only one use of the F word, the violence wasn’t gratuitous, and all the characters got what they deserved. ---
**Author:** ![BetsQ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/fbc32d/32.png) [@BetsQ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BetsQ)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2012, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-dec-2012-edition/642625/47 "2012-12-07T16:51:50Z")
I’ve been reading Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander books after seeing them mentioned here several times. Not perfect, but I’m enjoying them. I’ve also learned some new Scottish English words that will come in handy in Words with Friends. 🙂 ---
**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:** [December 7, 2012, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-dec-2012-edition/642625/48 "2012-12-07T16:59:38Z")
> [@wonderlust](#): > > If you’d like more selkies, treat youself to the movie _The Secret of Roan Inish_. I’m trying to remember the name of another book about selkies that I liked… Another movie in which selkies are an issue: [Ondine (film) - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ondine_(film)) ---
**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:** [December 7, 2012, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-dec-2012-edition/642625/49 "2012-12-07T18:01:38Z")
Thank you! It’s on Netflix streaming too. =D ---
**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:** [December 7, 2012, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-dec-2012-edition/642625/50 "2012-12-07T19:30:17Z")
Just Finished **The Great Salem Fire of 1914** and am plowinging through **arthur, King of Britain** , a book I’ve been looking for for decades. It’s a collection of primary texts about Arthur, with criticism. Since I started looking for this book, though, I’ve already read most of those primary texts elsewhere. I’ve also finished reading three different translations of **Beowulf** (as well as watching a stack of movies based on it). I think i have to re-order my preference of translations. I’ve been trying to read Robert Forward’s **return to Rochworld** and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s **house of Seven Gables** , but I just can’t get into them. ---
**Author:** ![Invisible\_Chimp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f05b48/32.png) [@Invisible\_Chimp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Invisible_Chimp)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2012, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-dec-2012-edition/642625/51 "2012-12-09T06:02:48Z")
I just finished _The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion_ by Jonathan Haidt. I really enjoyed it, found it very eye-opening. The author has a website associated with his research called [yourmorals.org](http://yourmorals.org). I also finished the second Concrete collection by Paul Chadwick. I’m going to start the third next. My library apparently only has the first three and the sixth. _Ada or Ardor_ by Nabokov is also in the queue. ---
**Author:** ![Shakester](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shakester/32/437_2.png) [@Shakester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shakester)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2012, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-dec-2012-edition/642625/52 "2012-12-10T13:09:22Z")
I am about to start this: [Into the Silence](http://www.amazon.com/Into-Silence-Mallory-Conquest-Everest/dp/0375708154/): The Great War, Mallory, and the Conquest of Everest I am fascinated by the Great War, and by the story of Mallory and Irvine and the unsolved mystery of whether they made it to the summit of Everest. So, yes, let’s combine the two into a massive book. I am looking forward to this one very much. I loves me some English explorers coming to tragic but heroic ends. As an Australian of Scots/Irish ancestry, my feelings toward the English are a bit mixed, but - credit where it’s due - they know how to die like gentlemen. Stiff upper lip. Oh yes. ---
**Author:** ![yellowval](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/919ad9/32.png) [@yellowval](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yellowval)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2012, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-dec-2012-edition/642625/53 "2012-12-10T15:01:45Z")
I finished “The Night Circus” by Erin Morgenstern, which I really liked. Over the weekend I did my annual reading of “A Christmas Carol,” which was magnificent as always. Now I’m back to reading “Florence and Giles” by John Harding. I started this one a while back but was dragging so I switched to “The Night Circus.” I’m hoping it picks up a little. ---
**Author:** ![DZedNConfused](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dzednconfused/32/15991_2.png) [@DZedNConfused](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DZedNConfused)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2012, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-dec-2012-edition/642625/54 "2012-12-10T16:35:59Z")
I finshed “making Money” By Terry Pratchett on Friday. I’m very sad thinking I only have four more Discworld books to read! ☹ I started “Withering Heights” by Dorothy Cannell. As usual, I anticipate a quick, enjoyable read this time with a gothic setting. ---
**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:** [December 11, 2012, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-dec-2012-edition/642625/55 "2012-12-11T05:27:01Z")
I finished _On the Night Plain_ by J. Robert Lennon, about brothers on a struggling sheep farm in the American West just after World War II. It was OK but not great. The prose was plain and spare, even to a fault. I’m almost done with _Hitler Victorious_, a pretty uneven collection of alt hist short stories edited by Gregory Benford, and have now also begun _Report to JFK_ by Richard Neustadt, an interesting collection of papers about the 1962 Skybolt Crisis in U.S.-British relations. > **[Nassau Agreement](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skybolt_Crisis#Skybolt_Crisis)** > > The Nassau Agreement, concluded on 21 December 1962, was an agreement negotiated between President of the United States, John F. Kennedy, and Harold Macmillan, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, to end the Skybolt Crisis. A series of meetings between the two leaders over three days in the Bahamas followed Kennedy's announcement of his intention to cancel the Skybolt air-launched ballistic missile project. The US agreed to supply the UK with Polaris submarine-launched ballistic missiles f... ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2012, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-dec-2012-edition/642625/56 "2012-12-11T13:56:39Z")
Now I’m reading _Unnatural Selection: Choosing Boys Over Girls and the Consequences of a World Full of Men_, by Mara Hvistendahl. Fascinating stuff. Through the use of sex-selection abortion (and a few other methods) over 160 million girls haven’t been born. Now, as the “classrooms full of boys” the author describes have grown up, they’re searching for wives, with more and more difficulty. There are some profound other changes and problems, too. ---
**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:** [December 11, 2012, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-dec-2012-edition/642625/57 "2012-12-11T14:12:35Z")
> [@Dendarii\_Dame](#): > > Now I’m reading _Unnatural Selection: Choosing Boys Over Girls and the Consequences of a World Full of Men_, by Mara Hvistendahl. Fascinating stuff. Through the use of sex-selection abortion (and a few other methods) over 160 million girls haven’t been born. Now, as the “classrooms full of boys” the author describes have grown up, they’re searching for wives, with more and more difficulty. There are some profound other changes and problems, too. Does it focus on China, or is that a problem in other countries, too? ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2012, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-dec-2012-edition/642625/58 "2012-12-11T15:01:25Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Does it focus on China, or is that a problem in other countries, too? The author says it’s also a problem in India, Albania, Vietnam, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Armenia, and in the Balkans. It also was a problem in South Korea, although according to the book, it’s less so now. The book was published in 2011. ---
**Author:** ![LawMonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2012, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-dec-2012-edition/642625/59 "2012-12-11T15:09:52Z")
> [@yellowval](#): > > I finished “The Night Circus” by Erin Morgenstern, which I really liked. Over the weekend I did my annual reading of “A Christmas Carol,” which was magnificent as always. Now I’m back to reading “Florence and Giles” by John Harding. I started this one a while back but was dragging so I switched to “The Night Circus.” I’m hoping it picks up a little. I’d really quite like to read _ **The Night Circus** _, but I bought it as an Apple ebook and for some reason the books app won’t load it. Grr. ---
**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:** [December 11, 2012, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-dec-2012-edition/642625/60 "2012-12-11T15:41:26Z")
I finished my audiobook, the prequel to the Maze Runner series by James Dashner. This series was not very good. The first book set up a pretty interesting situation, and although it soon became clear that Mr. Dashner had written himself into a corner, I kept going through the series in hopes of some redeeming crumb, and finally just out of stubbornness. Alas, this prequel was one of the most atrocious things I’ve ever read, a monotonous series of fight scenes all strung together, and nothing added to the overall story. After listening to it for a while, I’d find the Itchy and Scratchy theme song stuck in my head. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-dec-2012-edition/642625.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-dec-2012-edition/642625.md?page=4)