# Whatcha Readin' Jan 10 Edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 31, 2009, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-10-edition/523210 "2009-12-31T18:38:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**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:** [January 4, 2010, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-10-edition/523210/21 "2010-01-04T19:00:48Z")
> [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](#): > > I mostly read to my kids, so I keep putting books that I read to them in these threads. I hope nobody minds. Not at all! šŸ™‚ ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2010, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-10-edition/523210/22 "2010-01-04T19:10:40Z")
A few days ago, I finished [The Strangest Man](http://www.amazon.com/Strangest-Man-Hidden-Dirac-Mystic/dp/0465018270/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1262631381&sr=1-1) by Graham Farmelo. More informatively, itā€™s subtitled ā€˜The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Mystic of the Atomā€™. [Dirac](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Dirac), who won the Nobel Prize for physics in the 1930ā€™s, probably had [Asperger Syndrome](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asperger_syndrome) which makes his story even more fascinating. In any case, as a something of a connoisseur of ā€˜science biographiesā€™, Iā€™ll say unhesitatingly that it was outstanding. Iā€™m now into yet another ā€˜science biographyā€™ - [A Fiery Peace in a Cold War: Bernard Schriever and the Ultimate Weapon](http://www.amazon.com/Fiery-Peace-Cold-War-Schriever/dp/0679422846/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1262631496&sr=1-1) by Neil Sheehan (of [A Bright Shining Lie](http://www.amazon.com/Bright-Shining-Lie-America-Vietnam/dp/0679643613/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpi_2) fame). In ā€˜A Fiery Peaceā€™, Sheehan places the life and accomplishments of [Air Force General Schriever](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Schriever) in parallel to the history of the Cold War, and nuclear weapons/ICBMā€™s in particular. A great read so far, and I _know_ itā€™s gonna stay that way right to the last page. Sheehan is such a terrific writer. ---
**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:** [January 4, 2010, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-10-edition/523210/23 "2010-01-04T20:43:35Z")
never mind ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2010, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-10-edition/523210/24 "2010-01-04T22:38:51Z")
A bunch of Congressional Budget Office reports and academic articles on immigration reform. My life sucks. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2010, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-10-edition/523210/25 "2010-01-04T23:39:41Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > Iā€™m a little over halfway through Top Dog, which was recommended by **Auntie Pam** last month, and Iā€™m really liking it! Iā€™m itching to pick it up right now. Damned work, kids, pets, etc. Oh cool! I think a decent movie could be made from it, although movie people probably arenā€™t anxious to work with dogs. Re _The Little Stranger_, about the ending ā€“ I think there was a poltergeist of sorts (the ā€œlittle strangerā€) which was responsible for the supernatural stuff, and Faraday murdered Caroline. Whatā€™s hard to suss out is whether Faraday consciously killed her, or whether he was in a fugue state, possessed, whatever. I never liked the guy, so I have no problem believing he knew what he was doing. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2010, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-10-edition/523210/26 "2010-01-05T01:59:14Z")
Just finished reading the WWII trilogy by Jeff Shaara and am now reading _Gods and Generals_ by the same author. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2010, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-10-edition/523210/27 "2010-01-05T02:43:14Z")
[The Complete Works of Sherlock Holmes, Volume 1.](http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Complete-Sherlock-Holmes-Volume-I/Arthur-Conan-Doyle/e/9781411431973/?itm=13&USRI=sherlock+holmes) ( So then, it isnā€™t quite complete now is it?) I blame the movie quite happily for sucking me into fangirl spasms and am enjoying the reading ALOT more than when I read some or all or something of ACDs books when I was about 11 or 12. I must have raced through the main ones and promptly forgot them. Humorous note, Watson and Holmes sure to ejaculate alot at each other. šŸ˜ƒ ---
**Author:** ![movingfinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@movingfinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/movingfinger)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2010, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-10-edition/523210/28 "2010-01-05T06:25:12Z")
I just finished \*\*Cross Dressing \*\*by Bill Fitzhugh and enjoyed it. Fake priests, nuns with iffy pasts, great ad campaigns, vengeful Africans; this book has them all. ---
**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:** [January 5, 2010, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-10-edition/523210/29 "2010-01-05T15:14:43Z")
> [@Shirley\_Ujest](#): > > [The Complete Works of Sherlock Holmes, Volume 1.](http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Complete-Sherlock-Holmes-Volume-I/Arthur-Conan-Doyle/e/9781411431973/?itm=13&USRI=sherlock+holmes) ( So then, it isnā€™t quite complete now is it?) > > I blame the movie quite happily for sucking me into fangirl spasmsā€¦ Good for you! Iā€™m also a big Holmes fan, and would be glad to recommend some stories. Nicholas Meyer (_The Seven Percent Solution_) and June Thomson (_The Secret Files of Sherlock Holmes_) also write excellent pastiches. Some of Thomsonā€™s short stories are even better than ACDā€™s originals, IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2010, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-10-edition/523210/30 "2010-01-05T20:05:56Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Good for you! Iā€™m also a big Holmes fan, and would be glad to recommend some stories. Nicholas Meyer (_The Seven Percent Solution_) and June Thomson (_The Secret Files of Sherlock Holmes_) also write excellent pastiches. Some of Thomsonā€™s short stories are even better than ACDā€™s originals, IMHO. By chance, have you read _The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession_ by David Grann? I moderately like Sherlock Holmes, but I find I am strangely more intrigued by the cult of Holmes. I just read Grannā€™s book about the Amazon, which I liked well enough, and thought this book might be interesting. ---
**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:** [January 6, 2010, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-10-edition/523210/31 "2010-01-06T15:27:54Z")
Finished Top Dog yesterday. I thought it ended abruptly, and sat around wishing for more, when it occurred to me **Auntie Pam** had mentioned a sequelā€¦ Interlibrary loan request placed for Dog Eat Dog. šŸ™‚ Now Iā€™m on to Superfreakonomics : global cooling, patriotic prostitutes, and why suicide bombers should buy life insurance, by Steven D. Levitt. I liked the first book, no doubt Iā€™ll like this too. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-10-edition/523210/32 "2010-01-06T15:33:59Z")
Now Iā€™m reading The Lovely Bones. Please donā€™t let that get around. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-10-edition/523210/33 "2010-01-06T15:43:14Z")
I just finished Cormac McCarthyā€™s ā€œThe Road,ā€ and just started "Super Freakonomics.ā€ ---
**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:** [January 6, 2010, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-10-edition/523210/34 "2010-01-06T15:47:51Z")
Oh, almost forgot. I also read Cautionary Tales for Children by Hilaire Belloc, which took about five minutes. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-10-edition/523210/35 "2010-01-06T16:40:22Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > Finished Top Dog yesterday. I thought it ended abruptly, and sat around wishing for more, when it occurred to me **Auntie Pam** had mentioned a sequelā€¦ Interlibrary loan request placed for Dog Eat Dog. šŸ™‚ And after that you might like _Inhuman Beings_, Carrollā€™s take on the body snatchers theme. Then youā€™ll have read everything heā€™s written. Heā€™s doing a newspaper column but sadly, no more novels. I had started and dumped and bitched on another board about _The Left Hand of God_ (first in a fantasy series) by Paul Hoffman. I was nitpicking his grammar and was edumacated (in a friendly way) ā€“ I was the one with the grammar problems. So I picked it up again and itā€™s going okay. ---
**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:** [January 6, 2010, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-10-edition/523210/36 "2010-01-06T16:58:04Z")
> [@delphica](#): > > By chance, have you read _The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession_ by David Grann? I moderately like Sherlock Holmes, but I find I am strangely more intrigued by the cult of Holmes. I just read Grannā€™s book about the Amazon, which I liked well enough, and thought this book might be interesting. No, I havenā€™t read it. Let me know what you think. ---
**Author:** ![fusoya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecccb3/32.png) [@fusoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fusoya)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-10-edition/523210/37 "2010-01-06T17:09:09Z")
I got a couple books going right now. In actual book form is _What the Dog Saw_ by Malcolm Gladwell. The guy writes some interesting stuff (observational essays), although Iā€™m not far enough into it to really comment on the overall quality. This book, rather than having one focus point (his book _Blink_ā€“about making split-second decisions, is one of the most interesting books Iā€™ve ever read, and would recommend to everybody) is a collection of essays heā€™s written over the years on various subjects. On my Palm Preā€™s ebook reader, I have _Darkly Dreaming Dexter_ by Jeff Lindsay, the first book in the series that the television show is based on. While itā€™s apparent that the first season directly quoted the book (including the narrations), itā€™s also insightful to see the pieces that didnā€™t make it into the show. My brother got me _The Intellectual Devotional_ for Christmas, which is a 365 page learn-something-every-day book. Iā€™m keeping it in my kitchen and read it while my breakfast is heating up. Todayā€™s page was on Lascaux Cave Paintings. Iā€™ve seen images of them a million times, but never knew the history about them before (or knew they were in France!). Sometime this year I will tackle _Atlas Shrugged_, but seeing how _The Fountainhead_ took me about 5 months to get through, and that was most straightforward and half the length, Iā€™m not in a hurry. ---
**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:** [January 6, 2010, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-10-edition/523210/38 "2010-01-06T19:31:31Z")
> [@Whatcha Readin' Dec 09 Edition](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-dec-09-edition/519487/142): > > (From last monthā€™s thread) > > > [@Eleanor of Aquitaine](#): > > > > The Blade Itself, Joe Abercrombie - I keep hearing good things about this gritty fantasy series. > > I liked it a lot, but it starts off slow. The first book is almost all character introduction/development, people bumping up against each other, with no real action until the end. This was fine with me though. He wrote another book, _Best Served Cold_, set in the same world. It was almost **all** action, but not quite as satisfying. I just finished _The Blade Itself_, and I really loved it. Great writing, terrific characterization and amazing fight scenes. Iā€™m off to order the rest of the trilogy. > [@TheMerchandise](#): > > _[Soulless](http://www.amazon.com/Soulless-Parasol-Protectorate-Gail-Carriger/dp/0316056634/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1262619919&sr=8-1)_, by Gail Carriger. This is a lovely blend of a Jane Austen comedy of errors and steam punk paranormal fantasy. A very light read, but something I recommend for anyone who likes Kelley Armstrong, Charlaine Harris, or Miss Austen herself. I liked this, too, as pure comedy. The book was set during the Victorian period (the Queen has a cameo) but it read like a Regency novel to me, with a lot of Regency slang. But I havenā€™t read a lot of Victorian novels, so maybe the slang was correct for the period. Although since itā€™s fantasy/alternate history I guess the author can use whatever slang she wants. ---
**Author:** ![anu-la1979](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/47e85d/32.png) [@anu-la1979](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anu-la1979)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-10-edition/523210/39 "2010-01-06T19:45:13Z")
Mark Twain: _The Innocents Abroad_ Iā€™m a big Mark Twain fan (probably my favourite author along with Dickens), so no surprise, Iā€™m enjoying it and chuckling away. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-10-edition/523210/40 "2010-01-06T20:01:25Z")
> [@](#): > > Good for you! Iā€™m also a big Holmes fan, and would be glad to recommend some stories. Nicholas Meyer (The Seven Percent Solution) and June Thomson (The Secret Files of Sherlock Holmes) also write excellent pastiches. Some of Thomsonā€™s short stories are even better than ACDā€™s originals, IMHO. > [@](#): > > By chance, have you read The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession by David Grann? I moderately like Sherlock Holmes, but I find I am strangely more intrigued by the cult of Holmes. I just read Grannā€™s book about the Amazon, which I liked well enough, and thought this book might be interesting. Ooooooooooh! More books on my wish list to read! Thanks! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-10-edition/523210.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-10-edition/523210.md?page=3)