# 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:** 13\ **Page:** 7
**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:** [February 28, 2012, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-february-2012-edition/611296/121 "2012-02-28T03:22:21Z")
> [@Shakester](#): > > Now reading: [Satan is Real](http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/books/review/satan-is-real-the-story-of-the-louvin-brothers.html) - [the Story of the Louvin Brothers](http://www.avclub.com/articles/charlie-louvin-and-benjamin-whitmer-satan-is-real,67779/) by Charlie Louvin. > > I love music biogs, I’m fascinated by the 1930s and the Great Depression, and I’m a big fan of the Louvin Brothers. So, for me, amazing stuff. Brilliant. Finished that, loved it. Highly recommended if that’s your sort of thing. Now I’ve gone back to the ancient world, and am reading: [Augustus: The Life of Rome’s First Emperor](http://www.amazon.com/Augustus-Life-Romes-First-Emperor/dp/0812970586/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1330399179&sr=8-1) by Anthony Everitt. I’m enjoying it so far. ---
**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 28, 2012, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-february-2012-edition/611296/122 "2012-02-28T03:53:44Z")
Finished _The Brethren_, by John Grisham. Very good. Three judges – or ex-judges now – incarcerated in a federal minimum-security “camp” in Florida instigate an Internet scam with the help of their lawyer. The scam proves to be highly lucrative for a while. But then they hook a powerful figure. Now it’s back to trip research for a bit, as we’re just a few weeks away from leaving. ---
**Author:** ![carnut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnut/32/3531_2.png) [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2012, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-february-2012-edition/611296/123 "2012-02-28T04:23:05Z")
Cory Doctorow’s _Somebody Comes to Town, Somebody Leaves Town_. It’s pretty weird. It is the strangest Doctorow book I’ve read so far. I can’t help but like the protagonist who is quite human-like despite the fact this his mother is a washing machine. It does preach the author’s love of scrounging up piece-parts to create a whole. I give it 3-1/2 stars (may go up to 4 by the time I get to the end). ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2012, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-february-2012-edition/611296/124 "2012-02-28T13:47:51Z")
> [@Shakester](#): > > Finished that, loved it. Highly recommended if that’s your sort of thing. Indeed it is! I’ll be reading that for sure. _The Red Room_ was meh. Good main character; shaky ending. I will read more by this author, and see if she holds up. Now starting _Secrets to the Grave_ by Tami Hoag, another serial killer thing. I think I got this out of BookSense; I write stuff down when I see good recommendations. ---
**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:** [February 28, 2012, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-february-2012-edition/611296/125 "2012-02-28T13:52:33Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > That’s been my rule for years. Life’s too short to read a non-mandatory book you hate. I have recently fallen victim to the book that is pretty decent for 300 pages and then takes a turn for the worse over the next 300 pages. That book is called **The Way of Shadows** by Brent Weeks. The writing was poor throughout but the story was captivating for a while. I’m now into the 2nd book of the trilogy, **Shadow’s Edge** , and it features the same poor writing with a less interesting story, but I have an unfortunate determination to finish things I start, whether it’s a bad book or movie or whatever. That will teach me to buy a complete series before reading the first book. ---
**Author:** ![Politzania](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3ab097/32.png) [@Politzania](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Politzania)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2012, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-february-2012-edition/611296/126 "2012-02-28T15:20:44Z")
> [@carnut](#): > > Cory Doctorow’s _Somebody Comes to Town, Somebody Leaves Town_. > > It’s pretty weird. It is the strangest Doctorow book I’ve read so far. I can’t help but like the protagonist who is quite human-like despite the fact this his mother is a washing machine. It does preach the author’s love of scrounging up piece-parts to create a whole. I give it 3-1/2 stars (may go up to 4 by the time I get to the end). Yeah - dunno if Doctorow was dabbling with magical realism or what, but it’s quite odd. Compelling, tho. It’s not my favorite Doctorow – as a Disney fan, I have a soft spot for [Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29587.Down_and_Out_in_the_Magic_Kingdom) – but not my least favorite, either… I was rather disappointed by _Makers_. Just finished the Kindle version of [Soulless](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6381205-soulless) by Gail Carriger. It’s the first in the Parasol Protectorate series (that title was 80% of why I picked the book up to start with). It’s fluffy-ish fun that doesn’t take itself too seriously - urban fantasy set in late-Victorian England. I like the idea that – in addition to supernatural beings (vampires & werewolves) – there are also preternatural beings; the Soulless of the title who have special powers against the supernatural. Plus the Oscar Wilde-esque vampire character is a hoot! Not much steampunk, at least in the first installment; and a bit much on the bodice-ripping romance for my tastes (nudging into soft-porn near the end) , but it’s been worth the library read & I may give the next in the series a try as well. ---
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2012, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-february-2012-edition/611296/127 "2012-02-29T04:17:42Z")
> [@carnut](#): > > Ooh, that looks good. It’s on my wish list now. Thanks! I just finished the sequel (I’ve read both books over four days) and really enjoyed it. It had me laughing in a few pages and thoroughly entertained throughout. I highly recommend it to all. ---
**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 29, 2012, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-february-2012-edition/611296/128 "2012-02-29T06:32:59Z")
[QUOTE=Politzania] Yeah - dunno if Doctorow was dabbling with magical realism or what, but it’s quite odd. Compelling, tho. It’s not my favorite Doctorow – as a Disney fan, I have a soft spot for [Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29587.Down_and_Out_in_the_Magic_Kingdom) – but not my least favorite, either… I was rather disappointed by _Makers_. [/QUOTE] **Down and Out** made me an instant fan of Cory Doctorow. He’s nice to his fans, too. ---
**Author:** ![Archergal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Archergal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Archergal)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2012, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-february-2012-edition/611296/129 "2012-02-29T13:49:55Z")
Since Robin Hobb has a new book in the Rain Wild Chronicles out now, I decided to re-read the first couple of books in the series to get back up to speed. I really enjoy Hobb’s books, so it’s no hardship to start again at **Dragon Keeper.** Seems like I saw somewhere that she had another book coming out in the summer too? Mmmm, more Robin Hobb. Before I picked up Hobb, I started reading **The Red Church** by Scott Nicholson. It was the first book in a free omnibus edition from Amazon. I got maybe 1/3 of the way through and decided that I just wasn’t in the mood for a horror/thriller kind of book. I can’t really fault the book per se. The writing was decently workmanlike. But my tolerance for horror has gone WAY down in the last decade or so. So I put the book down and walked away. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2012, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-february-2012-edition/611296/130 "2012-02-29T17:55:38Z")
> [@Archergal](#): > > But my tolerance for horror has gone WAY down in the last decade or so. Same here. The last horror that I really liked was Doper **Stelios** short story, on this very page. 🙂 This month I finished Don Robertson’s Morris Bird III trilogy: **The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread, The Sum and Total of Now** , and \*\*The Greatest Thing That Almost Happened. \*\* I’m so glad that some of his books are back in print, although the Bird books aren’t my favorites. They follow Morris from the age of 9 to age 17 in Cleveland, Ohio in the 1950’s. In each book Morris takes a journey and discovers something about himself and his place in the world. If your dad or grandpa is a reader and if he grew up in the Midwest in the 50’s, he’d probably love these books. Also read Chris Bohjalian’s second book after **Midwives** , **The Law of Similars**. I wouldn’t recommend it. Bohjalian explores homeopathy but he doesn’t do it very well and the plot is simply unbelievable. Currently reading **Drama City** by George Pelecanos. Pelecanos worked on _The Wire_ and it shows. One of the characters is a paroled ex-con working for the Humane Society in D.C., and it’s easy to picture him as Cutty, right down to the ex-wife who won’t talk to him. There are also characters who resemble Marlo, Bodie, Stringer and Avon. ---
**Author:** ![Enterprise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/76d3ee/32.png) [@Enterprise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enterprise)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2012, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-february-2012-edition/611296/131 "2012-02-29T18:08:01Z")
> [@Stauderhorse](#): > > House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski. Fifty pages in and I haven’t the slightest what’s going on, nor am I particularly invested. It’s gotten great reviews and all, but I’m not sure I want to slog through another 500 pages. I’m a great fan of the book, but it’s not like I knew what was going on even at the end of it. It’s an eerie, creepy book by the middle, but it requires some investment into a very unorthodox mode of narrative and, I think, a readiness to just ignore much that you don’t understand in hopes that a second go-through might reveal stuff. It does get more story-driven, and I personally felt very invested in the characters, but with this book, YMMV widely! > [@](#): > > Still reading The Lost City of Z by David Grann, which is… OK. It’s nonfiction about exploring the Amazon in the 1920s. Could be a lot better. It could, couldn’t it? Strange book. I’ve had it on my Kindle for a couple of months and occasionally go on with it a little, but it’s really, surprisingly, capable of making me utterly dispassionate about anything going on. Would be totally my kind of book otherwise, but somehow manages to blow it. For my own part, I was reading _The Black Book_ by Ian Rankin until yesterday, and am now on the surprisingly good _Hitler’s Panzers_ by Dennis Showalter. I’m not at all an expert on the European war, but Showalter’s narrative really shows how fragile the Wehrmacht was in 1939-40 (haven’t gotten further than that yet). ---
**Author:** ![Scholar\_Beardpig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de053/32.png) [@Scholar\_Beardpig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scholar_Beardpig)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2012, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-february-2012-edition/611296/132 "2012-02-29T19:48:41Z")
Way back in October, I downloaded all the Inspector O novels, by James Church. I was going through a North Korea study phase at the time, reading it along with ‘Under the Fatherly Guidance of the Dear Leader’ and the impossible-to-overpraise ‘The Cleanest Race.’ I was reading nkleadershipwatch every day, and generally trying to be a modern-day boy reporter Kremlinologist. The books are terrible, but I paid money for them and I’m gonna read them. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2012, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-february-2012-edition/611296/133 "2012-02-29T20:48:29Z")
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