# 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:** 5
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-10-edition/523210/81 "2010-01-15T17:06:46Z")
I just finished [Twilight of the Gods: My Adventures with The Who](http://www.amazon.com/Twilight-Gods-My-Adventures-Who/dp/1844547663/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1263574178&sr=1-1). It’s the story of Tony Klinger and how he got in **way** over his head trying to make _The Kids Are Alright_. There are some juicy (and nasty) stories about the band, but most of the book is about him dealing with endless hassles and roadblocks. His days are spent fighting the band’s management; he’s viewed by most everyone else as an annoying guy trying to tell them what to do. He envisioned the movie as a collaborative effort, which was a fool’s errand from the beginning. It’s a wonder that the film ever saw the light of day. ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-10-edition/523210/82 "2010-01-15T22:04:20Z")
I’ve been reading Richard Russo’s newest, _That Old Cape Magic_, and boy, is it dragging. I like him a lot, too. I don’t know why it’s not grabbing me, but it isn’t. Others moved off the pile … _War Dances_, the latest short story collection by Sherman Alexie. Again, I would say I’m a big fan of Alexie, and I wouldn’t say this was outstanding. It’s fine, I guess. A few high points, but overall not that great. \*Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War \*by Tony Horwitz, which I know I’ve seen people talking about on the SDMB so that’s probably why I picked it up. I really enjoyed this, he spent one year exploring all the ways that the Civil War is still popping up in culture and society. _Last Call_ by Tim Powers. Urban fantasy, I think, set in Las Vegas and retelling the Fisher King legend with a poker theme. I enjoyed it fairly well considering that I am not usually too interested in this genre. ---
**Author:** ![photopat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e95f7d/32.png) [@photopat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/photopat)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-10-edition/523210/83 "2010-01-15T22:54:30Z")
I’m about 3/4 of the way through [Them](http://www.amazon.co.uk/Them-Adventures-Extremists-Jon-Ronson/dp/0330375466/jonronsonsweb-21) by Jon Ronson. Pretty good book. No particular surprises; Neo-Nazis and Klansmen are fuck nutter insane. Knew that, but it’s a good read. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-10-edition/523210/84 "2010-01-15T23:12:38Z")
> [@photopat](#): > > I’m about 3/4 of the way through [Them](http://www.amazon.co.uk/Them-Adventures-Extremists-Jon-Ronson/dp/0330375466/jonronsonsweb-21) by Jon Ronson. Pretty good book. No particular surprises; Neo-Nazis and Klansmen are fuck nutter insane. Knew that, but it’s a good read. I heard him on _This American Life_ in Dec 2001. He read an excerpt from Them regarding time he spent with Omar Bakri. It was fascinating. ---
**Author:** ![photopat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e95f7d/32.png) [@photopat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/photopat)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2010, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-10-edition/523210/85 "2010-01-16T00:06:40Z")
> [@Khadaji](#): > > I heard him on _This American Life_ in Dec 2001. He read an excerpt from Them regarding time he spent with Omar Bakri. It was fascinating. It is. Some of these people had no problem with him being Jewish, even though they believe in the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion and worldwide Jewish conspiracies, because he’s not one of “those Jews.” But when he visited a Neo-Nazi stronghold in the Ozarks, that was frightening. They were sizing him up and asking about his genealogy, while blocking his car when he was preparing to leave. ---
**Author:** ![movingfinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@movingfinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/movingfinger)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2010, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-10-edition/523210/86 "2010-01-16T04:48:52Z")
I just finished **Sky Woman Falling** , a mystery set on the Oneida reservation and featuring FBI agent Anna Turnipseed and BIA agent Emmett Parker, both American Indian, but from different tribes. A woman boards a passenger plane for the short hop from Syracuse to New York La Guardia, but never arrives. She falls to her death in a cornfield in rural New York…eight hours later. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2010, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-10-edition/523210/87 "2010-01-16T09:29:27Z")
Just finished \*Midwinter \*by Matthew Sturges. Mauritaine was a Captain in the Seelie Army and on the Queen’s Guard. He is unjustly sent to a remote prison for a crime he didn’t commit. Later his is recruited to go a top-secret mission for the Queen - one that even he doesn’t know the details to. The book had potential, but rambled quite a bit with sidebar adventures that were often unrelated to the plot (and worse, rather uninteresting.) A few of the main plot lines seemed to be hurried to be resolved in the end - but I did like the big reveal of the top-secret plot at the very end. I might recommend it as filler, but can’t say it was really good. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2010, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-10-edition/523210/88 "2010-01-17T22:32:14Z")
> [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](#): > > I’ll warn you, the bear chapter is possibly the most bizarre bit in the whole series. 🙂 That was indeed bizarre. I’m cracking up at Jack and Stephen’s comments to Mrs. Williams at Lady Keith’s party. “Visigoth marble!” I love it when stupid, mean-spirited people get theirs, even when they don’t realize it’s happening. In addition to _Post Captain_, I’m reading _Rendezvous in Black_ by Cornell Woolrich. Wowza. This is a dark one. ---
**Author:** ![movingfinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@movingfinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/movingfinger)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2010, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-10-edition/523210/89 "2010-01-18T06:34:21Z")
I’m reading **Heart Shaped Box** , which was recommended here, and so far I am liking it. An old man’s suit…which contains the vengeful ghost of the old man…sold on line, ghost and all. ---
**Author:** ![Hrududu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Hrududu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hrududu)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2010, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-10-edition/523210/90 "2010-01-18T11:37:43Z")
I’m determined to get through more books this year than last. Currently I’m reading Lady Audley’s Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon. I am enjoying it although it’s not much of a secret. You guess almost immediatly what it is. I think sometimes when I pick up a Victorian novel I expect it to be highbrow. This is a real pot boiler. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2010, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-10-edition/523210/91 "2010-01-18T13:31:14Z")
_The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher_ by Kate Summerscale, about the murder of a 3-year-old boy in England in 1860 and the origins of the art of detection. On several lists of best non-fiction books of 2008. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2010, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-10-edition/523210/92 "2010-01-18T14:09:15Z")
> [@Hrududu](#): > > I’m determined to get through more books this year than last. > > Currently I’m reading Lady Audley’s Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon. I am enjoying it although it’s not much of a secret. You guess almost immediatly what it is. I think sometimes when I pick up a Victorian novel I expect it to be highbrow. This is a real pot boiler. One of my faves. Just recently recommended it to someone IRL, actually. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2010, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-10-edition/523210/93 "2010-01-18T15:55:55Z")
Finished _ **Catch-22** _ - the humor got less annoying as the story went on, and I ended up liking it. Now reading _ **Look Me in the Eye** _, which I’ve been hearing about for a year. ---
**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 18, 2010, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-10-edition/523210/94 "2010-01-18T17:16:34Z")
I’m well into **Before They are Hanged** , the second book in Joe Abercrombie’s **The First Law** trilogy. It’s very good, but the author is really hung up on teeth and it’s starting to distract me. One of the protagonists is missing several teeth, which greatly impacts his life, so it’s understandable for him to dwell on that fact. But the author’s favorite mannerism for \*other \*characters is to have them suck their teeth. The writing is otherwise excellent, though. There is some deliberately repetitive phrasing which works well, representing characters’ recurring thoughts. So maybe the author is keeping teeth in the reader’s mind for a reason. ---
**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 18, 2010, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-10-edition/523210/95 "2010-01-18T17:40:53Z")
A book like that could really bite. ---
**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 19, 2010, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-10-edition/523210/96 "2010-01-19T13:09:37Z")
I read about half of Saint Mary Blue, by Barry Longyear. It’s fiction about drug addicts and alcoholics in a rehab. It was okay, but the characters weren’t really grabbing me, so I set it aside. Skimmed a couple of books on Asperger’s Syndrome. My daughter has one or two symptoms, but for the most part the books weren’t really relevant. Then I read a couple of short stories by Raymond Carver, and decided not to force myself through any more. Just plowing right on through the TBR pile… ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2010, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-10-edition/523210/97 "2010-01-19T14:08:29Z")
_Rendezvous in Black_ was excellent! It’s about a young man who takes revenge on five men who were responsible for the death of his fiancee. He doesn’t kill them – that’d be too easy. I haven’t read a book with this much tension for many years. I was even able to read it in the living room with the TV on. I **never** do that. As soon as I finished the book I went looking for the movie/TV version. There had to be one! As near as I can tell, it was adapted for Playhouse 90 (no DVD) and it’s been optioned for a film – John Woo is doing it. If anyone’s in a slump ( **Dung Beetle** ), this’ll get you out of it. ---
**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 19, 2010, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-10-edition/523210/98 "2010-01-19T15:20:16Z")
For a more lighthearted revenge tale, I recommend Jeffrey Archer’s _Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less_, about a group of otherwise-unrelated people who realize they were all bilked by the same con man. They decide to take revenge, con him back and extract… well, now you know the reason for the title. It’s a very readable and fun book with some great twists and turns. ---
**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 19, 2010, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-10-edition/523210/99 "2010-01-19T16:32:10Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > If anyone’s in a slump ( **Dung Beetle** ), this’ll get you out of it. Well, I think Dog Eat Dog is next in my pile, that’s gotta be good… Besides, [I hold a grudge against Cornell Woolrich.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=326681) ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2010, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-10-edition/523210/100 "2010-01-19T16:44:59Z")
> [@delphica](#): > > _A Quiet Belief in Angel_ by R.J. Ellory. Excellent! Recommended by sigmagirl (I think) in a previous Whatcha Readin thread. The plot is driven by a series of child murders … but it’s not a thriller style book in any way, it’s very thoughtful and complex and touching. My only tiny quibble is that it’s a very atmospheric book … and sometimes I was all set with the atmospheric description and yet it kept going ON and ON. Glad you liked it, delphica. It was just nominated for a Dilys Winn award by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association, defined as the book the members “most enjoyed handselling over the past year,” which I guess means actually talking to customers and recommending books as opposed to just ringing up a sale. The winner will be announced in March. The other nominees are: _The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie_, Alan Bradley _The Dark Horse_, Craig Johnson _The Girl Who Played with Fire_, Steig Larsson _The Ghosts of Belfast_, Stuart Neville _The Brutal Telling_, Louise Penny _The Shanghai Moon_, S.J. Rozan The Mystery Writers of America also have announced their nominees for the Edgar Awards, to be presented April 29. BEST NOVEL _The Missing_ by Tim Gautreaux (Random House - Alfred A. Knopf) _The Odds_ by Kathleen George (Minotaur Books) _The Last Child_ by John Hart (Minotaur Books) _Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death_ by Charlie Huston (Random House - Ballantine Books) _Nemesis_ by Jo Nesbø, translated by Don Bartlett (HarperCollins) _A Beautiful Place to Die_ by Malla Nunn (Simon & Schuster – Atria Books) BEST FIRST NOVEL BY AN AMERICAN AUTHOR _The Girl She Used to Be_ by David Cristofano (Grand Central Publishing) _Starvation Lake_ by Bryan Gruley (Simon & Schuster - Touchstone) _The Weight of Silence_ by Heather Gudenkauf (MIRA Books) _A Bad Day for Sorry_ by Sophie Littlefield (Minotaur Books – Thomas Dunne Books) _Black Water Rising_ by Attica Locke (HarperCollins) _In the Shadow of Gotham_ by Stefanie Pintoff (Minotaur Books) BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL _Bury Me Deep_ by Megan Abbott (Simon & Schuster) _Havana Lunar_ by Robert Arellano (Akashic Books) _The Lord God Bird_ by Russell Hill (Pleasure Boat Studio – Caravel Books) _Body Blows_ by Marc Strange (Dundurn Press – Castle Street Mysteries) _The Herring-Seller’s Apprentice_ by L.C. Tyler (Felony & Mayhem Press) BEST FACT CRIME _Columbine_ by Dave Cullen (Hachette Book Group - Twelve) _Go Down Together: The True, Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde_ by Jeff Guinn (Simon & Schuster) _The Fence: A Police Cover-Up Along Boston’s Racial Divide_ by Dick Lehr (HarperCollins) _Provenance: How a Con Man and a Forger Rewrote the History of Modern Art_ by Laney Salisbury and Aly Sujo (The Penguin Press) _Vanished Smile: The Mysterious Theft of Mona Lisa_ by R.A. Scotti (Random House - Alfred A. Knopf) BEST CRITICAL/BIOGRAPHICAL _Talking About Detective Fiction_ by P.D. James (Random House - Alfred A. Knopf) _The Lineup: The World’s Greatest Crime Writers Tell the Inside Story of Their Greatest Detectives_ edited by Otto Penzler (Hachette Book Group – Little, Brown and Company) _Haunted Heart: The Life and Times of Stephen King_ by Lisa Rogak (Thomas Dunne Books) _The Talented Miss Highsmith: The Secret Life and Serious Art of Patricia Highsmith_ by Joan Schenkar (St. Martin’s Press) _The Stephen King Illustrated Companion_ by Bev Vincent (Fall River Press) BEST SHORT STORY “Last Fair Deal Gone Down” – _Crossroad Blues_ by Ace Atkins (Busted Flush Press) “Femme Sole” – _Boston Noir_ by Dana Cameron (Akashic Books) “Digby, Attorney at Law” – Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine by Jim Fusilli (Dell Magazines) “Animal Rescue” – _Boston Noir_ by Dennis Lehane (Akashic Books “Amapola” – _Phoenix Noir_ by Luis Alberto Urrea (Akashic Books) BEST JUVENILE _The Case of the Case of Mistaken Identity_ by Mac Barnett (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers) _The Red Blazer Girls: The Ring of Rocamadour_ by Michael D. Beil (Random House Children’s Books – Alfred A. Knopf) _Closed for the Season_ by Mary Downing Hahn (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children’s Books) _Creepy Crawly Crime_ by Aaron Reynolds (Henry Holt Books for Young Readers) _The Case of the Cryptic Crinoline_ by Nancy Springer (Penguin Young Readers Group – Philomel Books) BEST YOUNG ADULT - Reality Check\* by Peter Abrahams (HarperCollins Children’s Books – HarperTeen) _If the Witness Lied_ by Caroline B. Cooney (Random House Children’s Books – Delacorte Press) _The Morgue and Me_ by John C. Ford (Penguin Young Readers Group – Viking Children’s Books) _Petronella Saves Nearly Everyone_ by Dene Low (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children’s Books) _Shadowed Summer_ by Saundra Mitchell (Random House Children’s Books – Delacorte Press) BEST TELEVISION EPISODE TELEPLAY “Place of Execution,” Teleplay by Patrick Harbinson (PBS/WGBH Boston) “Strike Three” – The Closer, Teleplay by Steven Kane (Warner Bros TV for TNT) “Look What He Dug Up This Time” – Damages, Teleplay by Todd A. Kessler, Glenn Kessler & Daniel Zelman (FX Networks) “Grilled” – Breaking Bad, Teleplay by George Mastras (AMC/Sony) “Living the Dream” – Dexter, Teleplay by Clyde Phillips (Showtime) ROBERT L. FISH MEMORIAL AWARD “A Dreadful Day” – Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine by Dan Warthman (Dell Magazines) GRAND MASTER Dorothy Gilman RAVEN AWARDS Mystery Lovers Bookshop, Oakmont, Pennsylvania Zev Buffman, International Mystery Writers’ Festival ELLERY QUEEN AWARD Poisoned Pen Press (Barbara Peters & Robert Rosenwald) THE SIMON & SCHUSTER - MARY HIGGINS CLARK AWARD (Presented at MWA’s Agents & Editors Party on Wednesday, April 28, 2010) _Awakening_ by S.J. Bolton (Minotaur Books) _Cat Sitter on a Hot Tin Roof_ by Blaize Clement (Minotaur Books) _Never Tell a Lie_ by Hallie Ephron (HarperCollins – William Morrow) _Lethal Vintage_ by Nadia Gordon (Chronicle Books) _Dial H for Hitchcock_ by Susan Kandel (HarperCollins) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-10-edition/523210.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-10-edition/523210.md?page=6)