# Whatcha Readin' February 2012 Edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 31, 2012, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-february-2012-edition/611296 "2012-01-31T11:21:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![standingwave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@standingwave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/standingwave)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2012, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-february-2012-edition/611296/21 "2012-02-02T20:45:01Z")
[Distrust That Particular Flavor](http://books.google.com/books?id=XqSBnRdelLwC&lpg=PP1&dq=distrust%20that%20particular%20flavor%20-%20william%20gibson&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q=distrust%20that%20particular%20flavor%20-%20william%20gibson&f=false) by William Gibson [Incomplete Nature: How Mind Emerged from Matter](http://books.google.com/books?id=jxuiu5xabn8C&lpg=PP1&dq=incomplete%20nature%20-%20how%20mind%20emerged%20from%20matter&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q=incomplete%20nature%20-%20how%20mind%20emerged%20from%20matter&f=false) by Terrence W. Deacon [Constructing Reality: Quantum Theory and Particle Physics](http://books.google.com/books?id=9zxduhslSl4C&lpg=PP1&dq=constructing%20reality%20-%20quantum%20theory%20%26%20particle%20physics&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q=constructing%20reality%20-%20quantum%20theory%20&%20particle%20physics&f=false) by John Marburger [Inside Apple: How America’s Most Admired–and Secretive–Company Really Works](http://books.google.com/books?id=8KTsB2bjRowC&lpg=PP1&dq=inside%20apple&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q=inside%20apple&f=false) by Adam Lashinsky [How to Archer](http://books.google.com/books?id=Q41Gwf6ZaD4C&lpg=PP1&dq=how%20to%20archer%20-%20%22sterling%20archer%22&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q=how%20to%20archer%20-%20%22sterling%20archer%22&f=false) by “Sterling Archer” ---
**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 2, 2012, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-february-2012-edition/611296/22 "2012-02-02T21:05:02Z")
> [@standingwave](#): > > …[How to Archer](http://books.google.com/books?id=Q41Gwf6ZaD4C&lpg=PP1&dq=how%20to%20archer%20-%20%22sterling%20archer%22&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q=how%20to%20archer%20-%20%22sterling%20archer%22&f=false) by “Sterling Archer” Wow, I had no idea he’d written a book! Are you wearing your tactalneck as you read? ---
**Author:** ![standingwave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@standingwave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/standingwave)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2012, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-february-2012-edition/611296/23 "2012-02-02T23:14:57Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Wow, I had no idea he’d written a book! Are you wearing your tactalneck as you read? I have a mock tactalneck, a mocktalneck, if you will. ---
**Author:** ![yellowval](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/919ad9/32.png) [@yellowval](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yellowval)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2012, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-february-2012-edition/611296/24 "2012-02-03T13:38:49Z")
I finished “The Hunger Games.” I liked it enough to read the second (which I’ve been told is better than the first), and I’m looking forward to seeing the movie next month. I’m now putting my all into re-reading “Sense and Sensibility.” ---
**Author:** ![Politzania](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3ab097/32.png) [@Politzania](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Politzania)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2012, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-february-2012-edition/611296/25 "2012-02-03T14:38:24Z")
Picked up **[Keeping it Real](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/395551.Keeping_It_Real)** by Justina Robson from the library (forgot to note who recco’d it), and quite enjoyed the world & character building, the quick-moving plot and the touches of humour and romance. I’m more of a sci-fi than fantasy reader; but I’m intrigued enough by the world of Otopia and the other dimensions to continue with the series. ---
**Author:** ![gwendee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/35a633/32.png) [@gwendee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gwendee)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2012, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-february-2012-edition/611296/26 "2012-02-03T15:00:21Z")
In one evening I read a book by Dyan Cannon about her relationship with Cary Grant called Dear Cary. I liked the first half of it, but the second half of it makes him out to be sullen and emotionally abusive. Which is as may be, but I was pretty happy not knowing that. It wasn’t in a “what a monster he was” way as much as an indictment of his parents who apparently really messed him up. If Cannon is to be believed Grant was even more into LSD than Esther Williams’ biography led me to believe, and she didn’t think it was so groovy. I’ve also been dipping into an annotated edition of Pride & Prejudice. Last week I read a volume of glorified Darcy fanfiction and decided to revisit the book to floss the silliness out of my brain. (There’s also a tiny part of me that hopes I’ll be struck with a flash of inspiration to write 400 pages of tribute fiction that will be published, embraced by Janeites and therefore elevate me above my current humble circumstances). ---
**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 3, 2012, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-february-2012-edition/611296/27 "2012-02-03T16:49:31Z")
> [@gwendee](#): > > …I’ve also been dipping into an annotated edition of Pride & Prejudice. Last week I read a volume of glorified Darcy fanfiction and decided to revisit the book to floss the silliness out of my brain… The new mystery _Death Comes to Pemberley_ by P.D. James has been getting very good reviews, from all I’ve seen. ---
**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 3, 2012, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-february-2012-edition/611296/28 "2012-02-03T16:54:53Z")
I finished _The Germanicus Mosaic_ by Rosemary Rowe. Not bad; very good plot twists, unexceptional characters. I stand by my earlier assessment that it’s decent genre fiction that’s not quite as good as Lindsay Davis, Ellis Peters or Steven Saylor. It was her first novel, so I’ll see if she improved over time or not. Now on to the _Confessions_ of St. Augustine, in the Garry Wills translation. ---
**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:** [February 3, 2012, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-february-2012-edition/611296/29 "2012-02-03T16:56:41Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > The new mystery _Death Comes to Pemberley_ by P.D. James has been getting very good reviews, from all I’ve seen. I haven’t heard of this, but T.H. White (best known for \* The Sword in the Stones\*, _The Once and Future King_ and _The Book of Merlin_) wrote a mystery entitled _Darkness at Pemberley_. It was an interesting aberration, but I hated it. The characters all seemed to have the attitude that “the villain can pick us off any time he wants, so we might as well do nothing”. At which point I simply want to abandon them to that fate. Is it possible there’s a relatiionship, or do they simply share being mysteries and having the town of Pemberley in the title? ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2012, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-february-2012-edition/611296/30 "2012-02-03T17:26:15Z")
_Angelmaker_, the new one by Nick Harkaway, who wrote _The Gone-Away World_. It’s about a tinkerer who unknowingly starts up a doomsday machine. No ninja mimes yet. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2012, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-february-2012-edition/611296/31 "2012-02-03T17:31:30Z")
Reading _I Am Half-Sick of Shadows_, the new Flavia de Luce mystery by Alan Bradley. They’re popcorn books. ---
**Author:** ![statij](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c2a13f/32.png) [@statij](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/statij)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2012, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-february-2012-edition/611296/32 "2012-02-03T19:04:21Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > _Angelmaker_, the new one by Nick Harkaway, who wrote _The Gone-Away World_. It’s about a tinkerer who unknowingly starts up a doomsday machine. No ninja mimes yet. HOW?!!! I need this! ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Accident](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Mr.Accident](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Accident)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2012, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-february-2012-edition/611296/33 "2012-02-03T19:22:24Z")
I’m currently reading [Dune: The Butlerian Jihad.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dune:_The_Butlerian_Jihad) Once I finish it later on today, I’ll move on to [Dune: The Machine Crusade.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dune:_The_Machine_Crusade) I plan to read all 20 books in the Dune universe, despite how bad some people claim they are. ---
**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 4, 2012, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-february-2012-edition/611296/34 "2012-02-04T01:39:32Z")
> [@gwendee](#): > > If Cannon is to be believed Grant was even more into LSD than Esther Williams’ biography led me to believe, and she didn’t think it was so groovy. I remember when Cary Grant died. He was in the middle of of a tour around the US. “An Evening with Cary Grant” or something similar, where he would basically sit around and chat and share anecdotes with his audience. He died just before hitting St. Louis, so the _St. Louis Post-Dispatch_ ran a big piece on him. I saw a copy at the time and remember it said he’d taken something like 100 LSD trips under controlled therapy in California while the drug was still legal. Apparently he swore by the stuff. Guess he kept using it. ---
**Author:** ![TheMerchandise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b487fb/32.png) [@TheMerchandise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheMerchandise)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2012, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-february-2012-edition/611296/35 "2012-02-04T23:18:34Z")
I just finished Sara Gran’s\*\* Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead\*\*, which I believe was recommended by someone on these boards. The only thing that disappointed me about this book was the fact there’s not a sequel to jump into immediately. I started Stephen King’s **11/22/63** yesterday morning and may actually finish it by the end of the weekend, I find it so engrossing. Once done, I can’t wait to read through the thread about the book. ---
**Author:** ![Alpine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alpine/32/17813_2.png) [@Alpine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alpine)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2012, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-february-2012-edition/611296/36 "2012-02-05T03:37:05Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > The new mystery _Death Comes to Pemberley_ by P.D. James has been getting very good reviews, from all I’ve seen. I enjoyed it. Finished **Spook** and **Bonk** by Mary Roach. I really like her writing style, curiosity and sense of humor. I will look forward to more. I got about halfway through Sagan’s **Demon Haunted World** before it lost my attention, but I’ll be back to finish it later. It’s depressing to think that the influence of pseudoscience has continued to rise - everything he said back in 1996 is even more true today. Didn’t quite finish Michael Pollan’s **Botany of Desire**. He hasn’t sold me on any of his 4 theses in this book. There’s a sense of stretching to fit his findings to his ideas. Nearly finished with a marathon reading of **Cryptonomicon** , one of my all time favorites (Neal Stephenson). Great characters, engaging plot, geekiness and some truly funny lines. I admit I skip over some of the math and wonder about the historical accuracy of the WW2 stuff, but for the most part I just enjoy the heck out of this book. ---
**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:** [February 5, 2012, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-february-2012-edition/611296/37 "2012-02-05T04:05:38Z")
Just finished _The Siege of Mecca: The Forgotten Uprising in Islam’s Holiest Shrine and the Birth of al-Qaeda_ by Yaroslav Trofimov. Excellent book and I highly recommend it. ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2012, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-february-2012-edition/611296/38 "2012-02-05T05:43:34Z")
I read Dune in November/December, just finished Dune Messiah a few days ago, and am a few pages into Children of Dune. This is the first book series I’ve ever read. I immensely enjoyed the 1st, and felt like the 2nd was a good conclusion that really should be read right after the first. I think that, no matter how much I love Children, I’m going to stop. Unless someone here REALLY pushes me to reading 4, 5 and 6. No way am I ever going to read the ones done by his son and the other guy though. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2012, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-february-2012-edition/611296/39 "2012-02-05T14:53:52Z")
I would have said stop at the first one. I loved the first one, but the rest kept getting worse and worse. ---
**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:** [February 5, 2012, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-february-2012-edition/611296/40 "2012-02-05T19:20:00Z")
> [@Politzania](#): > > Picked up **[Keeping it Real](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/395551.Keeping_It_Real)** by Justina Robson from the library (forgot to note who recco’d it), and quite enjoyed the world & character building, the quick-moving plot and the touches of humour and romance. I’m more of a sci-fi than fantasy reader; but I’m intrigued enough by the world of Otopia and the other dimensions to continue with the series. I’m glad to hear this. I also was very taken with this book. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-february-2012-edition/611296.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-february-2012-edition/611296.md?page=3)