# Whatcha Readin' Feb 2010 Edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 31, 2010, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-feb-2010-edition/527171 "2010-01-31T23:12:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![yellowval](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/919ad9/32.png) [@yellowval](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yellowval)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2010, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-feb-2010-edition/527171/81 "2010-02-15T22:25:54Z")
I finished The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. I enjoyed most of it. I thought it started slow and dragged on at the end after the big mystery was solved. I started reading Raven: The Untold Story of the Rev. Jim Jones and His People over the weekend. It just might take me forever to read this one, or I may have to start skimming a bit. I think I’ll also start Richard Matheson’s Somewhere in Time. The movie, though cheesy, is one of my favorites and I’ve been meaning to read this for quite some time. ---
**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:** [February 15, 2010, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-feb-2010-edition/527171/82 "2010-02-15T23:29:26Z")
> [@TheMerchandise](#): > > Scalzi wrote the introduction to my edition of _The Forever War_ and “fun and smartassed” summed up even that little piece of writing very well. I’ll check him out. And I’ll have to look up that edition - thanks! ---
**Author:** ![middleman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9a140/32.png) [@middleman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/middleman)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2010, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-feb-2010-edition/527171/83 "2010-02-16T00:46:48Z")
I’m halfway through with Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson. Very uplifting stuff. I am also reading my son the Sea of Monsters (Percy Jackson, Book 2). We will probably plow through this series and then tackle Harry Potter and then the Vampire’s Assistant. Next up for me personally are Water Follies, Kitchen Confidential, and Pacific Rift. I might throw in The Book of Joe by Jonathan Topper just to break up that string of nonfiction. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2010, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-feb-2010-edition/527171/84 "2010-02-16T00:54:30Z")
U is for Undertow by Sue Grafton. A teeny bit long and repetitious, but it’s getting pretty good now. Next on my list is The First Rule (featuring Joe Pike) by Robert Crais. ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2010, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-feb-2010-edition/527171/85 "2010-02-16T01:05:11Z")
> [@bup](#): > > Next up - **Nine Stories** by J.D. Salinger, which became the next ‘classic’ my classic bookreading group’s going to read, on account of Salinger’s dead. That’s what I’m reading now. I wish I were a member of that bookreading group, because I often have no idea what’s going on. They are very narrative and conversational stories, which suddenly take weird twists and turns. ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2010, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-feb-2010-edition/527171/86 "2010-02-16T01:32:00Z")
> [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](#): > > After finishing _Blackout_, I’m considering reading _To Say Nothing of the Dog_ again, as it’s been several years. A while back I bought a copy of Jerome K. Jerome’s _Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog)_, so maybe I should read that first. > > I read _Those Who Hunt the Night_, by Barbara Hambly, which is a historical murder mystery with vampires - evil, murderous vampires, not sparkly romance vampires. It’s set in London and Paris in 1907, and it was very well written. I’ll have to look for more by Hambly. Was _Blackout_ more like her funny books, like _To Say Nothing of the Dog_ (which I absolutely have to reread), or more serious like … that other one about the plague? Either way, I’ll read it eventually, but I’m in the mood for funny. Barbara Hambly has another historical mystery series I really like, the Benjamin January series that starts with _A Free Man Of Color_ and is about (duh) a free black man in antebellum New Orleans who solves crimes in the demimonde. Not supernatural, though. ---
**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:** [February 16, 2010, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-feb-2010-edition/527171/87 "2010-02-16T02:22:45Z")
> [@delphica](#): > > Was _Blackout_ more like her funny books, like _To Say Nothing of the Dog_ (which I absolutely have to reread), or more serious like … that other one about the plague? Either way, I’ll read it eventually, but I’m in the mood for funny. > > Barbara Hambly has another historical mystery series I really like, the Benjamin January series that starts with _A Free Man Of Color_ and is about (duh) a free black man in antebellum New Orleans who solves crimes in the demimonde. Not supernatural, though. It wasn’t as sad as _Doomsday Book_, but it wasn’t a comedy, either. Other than a few funny scenes it’s pretty serious. I’ve just looked up Hambly. The Benjamin January books sound good. Looks like she writes in several genres. And ooh, there’s a sequel to _Those Who Hunt The Night_. ---
**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:** [February 17, 2010, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-feb-2010-edition/527171/88 "2010-02-17T04:14:06Z")
This evening I read _Something’s Not Quite Right_ by the _New Yorker_ artist Guy Billout with my boys. It’s a collection of surreal, almost photorealistic paintings with odd titles. We all liked it. I’ve started Keith R.A. DeCandido’s novel _Star Trek: The Next Generation: Q&A_, set not long after the events of the movie _ST Nemesis_. Q shows up to bedevil Capt. Picard yet again, as well as his mostly-new crew (but with Worf as his new First Officer and LaForge still as his Chief Engineer). I’m about halfway through and it’s so-so; the dialogue is a little clunky. ---
**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:** [February 17, 2010, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-feb-2010-edition/527171/89 "2010-02-17T14:42:08Z")
> [@gallows\_fodder](#): > > I agree with your assessment of _These Old Shades_ overall – and I thought Leonie was extremely irritating – but I will tell you that the climactic moment that this builds to contains one of the most romantic lines I’ve ever read. I do believe I swooned. 🙂 > > That, and the next book in the trilogy – _The Devil’s Cub_ – is really good. Justin and Leonie show up quite a bit in that one, too, but Leonie is much less annoying, and the heroine comes from Heyer’s stable of plain and sensible girls. Nice romantic scene at the end, I agree, but it couldn’t make me overlook the paternal (and slightly creepy) nature of their relationship up to that point. And boy, Heyer’s classism (almost racism?) was really overt in this book. I enjoy Heyer’s more sensible heroines, and the couples who are more equally matched, so I look forward to _Devil’s Cub_. I read _The Man Who Folded Himself_ last night, a short time-travel novel written in 1973 by David Gerrold (of _The Trouble With Tribbles_ fame). It was interesting, but not really my cup of tea. It read like a treatise on the possibilities of a certain flavor of time travel, rather than a novel. I’m about to start _Three Men in a Boat_. ---
**Author:** ![movingfinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@movingfinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/movingfinger)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2010, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-feb-2010-edition/527171/90 "2010-02-18T07:06:08Z")
I gave up on \*The Secret Atlas \*by Michael Stackpole. By page 35 I had my fill of unpronounceable names, unidentifiable characters and wooden writing, so back to the used book store it goes. I started _Honor’s Kingdom_, by Owen Parry, set in 1860s London and involving Confederate diplomatic shenanigans. Muuuch better. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2010, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-feb-2010-edition/527171/91 "2010-02-18T12:38:48Z")
> [@movingfinger](#): > > I gave up on \*The Secret Atlas \*by Michael Stackpole. By page 35 I had my fill of unpronounceable names, unidentifiable characters and wooden writing, so back to the used book store it goes. > > I started _Honor’s Kingdom_, by Owen Parry, set in 1860s London and involving Confederate diplomatic shenanigans. Muuuch better. I too gave it up. I have enjoyed a few of his books, most specifically \*Talion: Revenant \*but lately he’s been a disappointment. I wish he would return to _Talion: Revenant_ it had potential. ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2010, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-feb-2010-edition/527171/92 "2010-02-18T20:05:46Z")
I finally decided that ‘The Service’ is just not a very good book; anyone wanting to check out the oeuvre of the late Paul Quarrington would do well to pass it over and start with King Leary, Whale Music or Home Game. Sorry, Paul. Meanwhile, I’ve been burning through the poetry during rehearsals. Some of these are first encounters, some are re-readings. From most recommended to least (though all of these are worth reading) - Crabwise to the Hounds - Jeramy Dodds Kinetic Mustache - Arthur Clark The Hayflick Limit - Matthew Tierney Strike/Slip - Don McKay The Cinnamon Peeler - Michael Ondaatje A Well-Mannered Storm - Kate Braid To This Cedar Fountain - Kate Braid The Essential Don Coles - Don Coles Letters to a Musical Friend - William Aide The Reflecting Pool - Maleea Acker In the Ward - Lawren Harris I’m not sure what I’ll read next for prose - perhaps the biography of Gabriel Fauré by Jessica Duchen or perhaps I’ll get started on Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol. I also just picked up a copy of Sun of Suns by Karl Schroeder - he’s the Science Fiction Writer in Residence at the Toronto Public Library this year. I’ve immensely enjoyed Ventus and Lady of Mazes. And I have a ton of poetry to get through while I have the time… ---
**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:** [February 18, 2010, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-feb-2010-edition/527171/93 "2010-02-18T20:52:00Z")
Just finished Cast Member Confidential: a Disneyfied memoir, by Chris Mitchell. The experiences of a young man working as a photographer at Disney World. It’s an interesting look behind the scenes, but I could have done without some of the details of people’s sex lives. My daughter thought the same. Beginning on Priceless: the myth of fair value (and how to take advantage of it), by William Poundstone. ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2010, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-feb-2010-edition/527171/94 "2010-02-18T21:09:35Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > Helprin’s stuff is weird – it’s not exactly the world we live in, but it’s not exactly not the world we live in. You know, I completely agree with this. Maybe it’s why I love his writing so much, it’s so evocative and yet his vision of the world is so different and so much more inventive than mine that I’m never bored. I completely understand those who can’t get into his novels, or think that he’s too wordy or metaphorical. But when I read sentences like this (from _Winter’s Tale)_: > [@](#): > > “Quite possibly there’s nothing as fine as a big freight train starting across country in early summer, Hardesty thought. That’s when you learn that the tragedy of plants is that they have roots. The reeds and grasses on the hot mounds and in the ditches turned green with envy and begged to go along (which is why they waved when the train went by).” and this: > [@](#): > > “Skating at full speed, she turned to stop just before the dock, the silver blades of her skates sending up an abrupt shower of fresh-milled crystals that hung in the air and sparkled.” almost right along side bits like this: > [@](#): > > “His head felt as if it had been bolted to his spine by a Visigoth mechanic.” I’ve gotta love the guy. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2010, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-feb-2010-edition/527171/95 "2010-02-18T21:29:42Z")
Yeah – I’m [resolutely? pathologically? obnoxiously?] against prose that draws any kind of attention to itself, but Helprin absolutely gets a pass from me on it. Perhaps because of the “is/isn’t our world” thing? Because how else can you communicate it? I’m thinking here of the rather brief section about Peter Lake living above the ceiling in Grand Central Station, for instance. Of course, his stuff doesn’t always work – speaking of Hardesty, the interlude with the incompetent dwarf really pulled me out of the story. (I’m not much past that right now – he just met Virginia.) Definitely enjoying it – he’s a hell of a writer. \*Con brio! \* ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2010, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-feb-2010-edition/527171/96 "2010-02-18T21:51:28Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > Of course, his stuff doesn’t always work – speaking of Hardesty, the interlude with the incompetent dwarf really pulled me out of the story. (I’m not much past that right now – he just met Virginia.) Heh. It did kind of step out of the narrative, but I enjoyed it. It reminded me a little of a Looney Toons intermission. Heck, I even got [GQ thread out of it](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=514458) (minor spoilers in the thread). ---
**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:** [February 19, 2010, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-feb-2010-edition/527171/97 "2010-02-19T14:32:09Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > Beginning on Priceless: the myth of fair value (and how to take advantage of it), by William Poundstone. Discarded in favor of Flow: the Cultural Story of Menstruation, by Elissa Stein and Susan Kim. ---
**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:** [February 21, 2010, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-feb-2010-edition/527171/98 "2010-02-21T03:49:06Z")
Finished _Enigma_, by Robert Harris. Good, but not quite as good as his Roman stories I’ve read. That could be because I got bogged down a bit in the code-breaking esoterica; some of that was a little hard to follow. But still good, and a nice little twist at the end. Reminded me a little of John le Carre. And good news! I was going to break down and finally order Harris’ _Fatherland_ from Kinokuniya Bookstore, but first I again checked the two branches that are convenient to me. And it was on the shelf of the second one I checked, in The Emporium. Bought it and one other of his that I had not read, a newer book called _The Ghost_. I’m saving those to take with me to Vietnam in early April. Meanwhile, I’ve checked one more of his out of the library: _Archangel_. ---
**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:** [February 21, 2010, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-feb-2010-edition/527171/99 "2010-02-21T05:05:14Z")
Hope you like _Fatherland_ as much as I did. There was a movie based on _Enigma_ a few years back: [Enigma (2001 film) - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enigma_%282001_film%29) > [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > …I’ve started Keith R.A. DeCandido’s novel _Star Trek: The Next Generation: Q&A_, set not long after the events of the movie _ST Nemesis_. Q shows up to bedevil Capt. Picard yet again, as well as his mostly-new crew (but with Worf as his new First Officer and LaForge still as his Chief Engineer). I’m about halfway through and it’s so-so; the dialogue is a little clunky. Finished it tonight. Meh. Not the best Trek novel I’ve read, not by a long shot, although it had a nice series of scenes set in alternate universes. I’m a sucker for alternate universes. Also finished Kin Platt’s _The Blue Man_, a 1961 juvenile sf/adventure novel that I barely remembered from my elementary school days. I’d liked it then, but it didn’t live up to my admittedly-vague recollection. Pretty good setup but a disappointing conclusion. On to Twain next. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2010, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-feb-2010-edition/527171/100 "2010-02-21T13:33:17Z")
Finished _The Magician_ the second book of the \*Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel \*series. Although this is a YA book, I am quite enjoying it. It is fast-paced, has an intricate plot and is well-written. Twin 15-year-old siblings Sophie and Josh Newman take summer jobs in San Francisco across the street from one another: she at a coffee shop, he at a bookstore owned by Nick and Perry Fleming. Nick turns out to be the legendary (and immortal) Nicholas Flammel and he and his wife take the twins on adventure to prevent the return of the _Elders_. In scope it is easily on par with Harry Potter and IMO better written. (This is not to imply that this series is derivative. Both series are YA and both are fantasy and magic - but that is where the comparison ends.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-feb-2010-edition/527171.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-feb-2010-edition/527171.md?page=6)