# Whatcha Readin' Jan 2011 Edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 31, 2010, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-2011-edition/565932 "2010-12-31T10:46:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2011, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-2011-edition/565932/101 "2011-01-19T13:34:31Z")
Finished _Moonlight Mile_; now beginning Lehane’s _Sacred_ and _Nine Lives: Death and Life in New Orleans_ by Dan Baum, both at the same 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:** [January 19, 2011, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-2011-edition/565932/102 "2011-01-19T15:44:11Z")
> [@Misnomer](#): > > I’m still reading Walter Rankin’s _[**Grimm Pictures: Fairy Tale Archetypes in Eight Horror and Suspense Films**](http://www.amazon.com/Grimm-Pictures-Archetypes-Horror-Suspense/dp/0786431741/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1294153585&sr=8-1)_ . I’m working on this one currently. I can’t say I buy the premise that these movies and these fairy tales have any actual connection, but I don’t care. It’s fun to read anyway. ---
**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 19, 2011, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-2011-edition/565932/103 "2011-01-19T16:47:02Z")
About halfway through “Concrete Blonde”, a Harry Bosch cop novel by Michael Connelly. ---
**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, 2011, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-2011-edition/565932/104 "2011-01-19T17:19:50Z")
Still enjoying Susanna Clarke’s _Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell_. It fell to me to pick my book club’s book for our Feb. 25 meeting, so I picked this - it’ll give me an even better incentive to finish it soon! (It’s a big but very readable book). ---
**Author:** ![Misnomer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misnomer/32/14897_2.png) [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2011, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-2011-edition/565932/105 "2011-01-19T17:24:51Z")
I finished _Side Jobs_ (great, as expected) and snuck in a trashy romance called _Skintight_ (that I _think_ I learned about in another Dope thread): it was ok, I guess, but reminded me why I don’t read trashy romances. :smack: I’m currently reading _UR_, the Kindle-and-audio-only novella about a Kindle by Stephen King. It had a bit of a slow start, but I’m approaching the middle and it seems to be picking up steam. I’m hanging in there because it’s Stephen King, and I figure that by the end I’ll like it more than I think. When I finished _Side Jobs_ I also downloaded King’s _Full Dark No Stars_, Joe Hill’s _Horns_ (thanks to the December thread), and Atul Gawande’s _Complications: A Surgeon’s Notes on an Imperfect Science_ (also thanks to the December thread). I’m also still reading _Grimm Pictures_, and I also still have _As Meat Loves Salt_ waiting for me. > [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > I’m working on this one currently. I can’t say I buy the premise that these movies and these fairy tales have any actual connection, but I don’t care. It’s fun to read anyway. Yeah, some of the connections _are_ a bit tenuous, but I find them all interesting to think about (even if I eventually conclude “that was a bit of a stretch”). 🙂 ---
**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 19, 2011, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-2011-edition/565932/106 "2011-01-19T19:45:28Z")
I finished the Bryson book last night. I’m still a bit put off by his querulous tone, but then he was charming and funny at times. He rallied somewhat towards the end, perhaps trying to make up for his negativity by waxing poetically over the things he loves about Britain. I’ll try another of his books. I’ve reading Bernard Cornwell’s novel _Agincourt_, which is the first of his books I’ve read outside the Sharpe series. It had a pretty clunky start, but I’m warming up to it. His characterization isn’t exactly deep, but I do like the dialogue. ---
**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2011, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-2011-edition/565932/107 "2011-01-19T20:22:22Z")
> [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](#): > > I finished the Bryson book last night. I’m still a bit put off by his querulous tone, but then he was charming and funny at times. He rallied somewhat towards the end, perhaps trying to make up for his negativity by waxing poetically over the things he loves about Britain. I’ll try another of his books. > I’ve reading Bernard Cornwell’s novel _Agincourt_, which is the first of his books I’ve read outside the Sharpe series. It had a pretty clunky start, but I’m warming up to it. His characterization isn’t exactly deep, but I do like the dialogue. Do you mean Bryson book about the history of the home? I liked that one very much. My other favorite of his is the one he wrote about Australia. His basic theme is that the entire country is filled with animals that will kill you. 😃 I just finished: _It’s All Greek to Me: From Homer to the Hippocratic Oath, How Ancient Greece has Shaped Our World_ by Charlotte Higgins; _Fannie’s Last Supper: Recreating One Amazing Meal from Fannie Farmer’s 1896 Cookbook_ by Charles Kimball; _Deadly Choices: How the Anti-Vaccine Movement Threatens Us All_ by Paul Offit and _Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea_ by Barbara Demick. If you’ve never taken any classes in classics you’ll find the book on ancient Greece very insightful. I only took one in college so I greatly enjoyed her perspective. The basic theme of the book on Fannie Farmer is what the hell can we do to make this disgusting stuff edible. None of it makes you want to go out and actually use the recipes in the original book. Amusing but read only if you have a strong stomach. Offit’s book is a must read. He’s a little too kind to the pharmaceutical companies but he does an excellent job skewering the anti-vax nuts. Demick’s book is both heartbreaking and fascinating. The truly awful nature of the current North Korean government can hardly be believed. She chooses a narrative form that stresses the lives of individual North Koreans as they confront the lunacy of their government. ---
**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 19, 2011, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-2011-edition/565932/108 "2011-01-19T21:10:04Z")
> [@LavenderBlue](#): > > Do you mean Bryson book about the history of the home? I liked that one very much. My other favorite of his is the one he wrote about Australia. His basic theme is that the entire country is filled with animals that will kill you. No, _Notes from a Small Island_, which is an account of his wandering from one small town to another, more or less at random, all over the island of Great Britain. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2011, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-2011-edition/565932/109 "2011-01-19T23:32:02Z")
Although I can’t start it yet, I just got the latest Nikki Heat in (by Richard Castle). The first one was light and fun and I will read it after I finish my current. ---
**Author:** ![movingfinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@movingfinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/movingfinger)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2011, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-2011-edition/565932/110 "2011-01-20T08:00:28Z")
I’m reading \*\*The Blue Hour \*\*by T. Jefferson Parker. Parker is an author who seems incapable of writing a bad, or even an indifferent, book. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2011, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-2011-edition/565932/111 "2011-01-22T16:07:28Z")
Finished [Wolfsbane (Aralorn)](http://www.amazon.com/Wolfsbane-Aralorn-Patricia-Briggs/dp/0441019544/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1295712292&sr=1-2) by Patricia Briggs. I usually read Briggs for her urban fantasy which I enjoy, however this is a more traditional fantasy. It was fast-paced and overall I enjoyed it. I would have enjoyed it more had I known that it was not the first in a series (I think it was the second) and had I read the first book(s). Next up: the new Nikki Heat novel by Richard Castle. ---
**Author:** ![kapri](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4491bb/32.png) [@kapri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kapri)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2011, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-2011-edition/565932/112 "2011-01-22T16:29:04Z")
After reading a few books by Murakami, whom I love, I am now reading _The Hangman’s Daughter_ by Oliver Pötzsch. It’s okay. I got a Kindle a few weeks ago, and this is the second Kindle book I bought. I’m kind of disappointed that so many books I like aren’t on Kindle, or are but cost more than I’d ever spend on a book. Most of the books I’ve read in the last few years have come either from the library, which of course is free, the library used book store, or garage sales. I’m not used to paying full price for a book (as an author I hate to admit that), so my Kindle library is pretty thin. Last year I read some great books, including several by Sarah Waters and _The Outlander_ by Gil Adamson. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2011, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-2011-edition/565932/113 "2011-01-28T21:56:38Z")
Finished _Naked Heat_ the lastest Nikki Heat novel from Richard Castle. As mentioned in the past the Heat novels are light quick reads that read pretty much like one of the shows. I enjoyed it, even if I did guess most of it early on. Next up: _I Am Number Four_ ---
**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 28, 2011, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-2011-edition/565932/114 "2011-01-28T23:38:59Z")
Finished _Concrete Blonde_ and _Black Echo_ and am wrapping up _Black Ice_, all by Michael Connelly. I think I’m done with him for a very long while. Looking forward to starting _Stalingrad_, by Antony Beevor. ---
**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 30, 2011, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-2011-edition/565932/115 "2011-01-30T04:25:54Z")
A year old, but well worth a read: _The Onion_ marks the death of J.D. Salinger. Genius, sheer genius, I tell you!: [Bunch Of Phonies Mourn J.D. Salinger](http://www.theonion.com/articles/bunch-of-phonies-mourn-jd-salinger,2901/) ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2011, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-2011-edition/565932/116 "2011-01-30T13:44:33Z")
In order read, which also reflects order of increasing enthusiasm on my part: _[Ibid](http://www.amazon.com/Ibid-Novel-Mark-Dunn/dp/0156031000/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1296395505&sr=1-1)_ by Mark Dunn. Guy who wrote _Ella Minnow Pea_, a wordplay comedy/satire that I liked quite a bit. This one is about a guy with three legs who invents men’s deodorant (:dubious:), and it’s told entirely through the footnotes of a lost manuscript. Comedy is hard, man (dying is easy) and this one didn’t work all that well. I smiled a few times, laughed out loud once, but mostly was just kind of disappointed that it didn’t work better. _[How to Become a Scandal: Adventures in Bad Behavior](http://www.amazon.com/How-Become-Scandal-Adventures-Behavior/dp/0805089799/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1296394345&sr=8-1)_ by Laura Kipnis. Examination of four recent scandals: the diapered astronaut, Linda Tripp, and James Frey, plus one other one that happened in NY that I have zero recollection of. Kipnis had some interesting things to say about the dynamics of scandal. [_The Girls of Murder City_](http://www.amazon.com/Girls-Murder-City-Beautiful-Inspired/dp/0670021970/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1296394773&sr=1-1) by Douglas Perry. The true story of the women murderesses in Chicago in the '20s, and the women who reported on them (plus a female attorney who defended at least one of them). Yup, this was all the basis of the movie _Chicago_, and the last section of the book looks at the path from the true events to that show and movie. [I did not know that story, so I enjoyed the “no shit, that’s what happened?” element of this, which I won’t spoiler if anyone else is equally ignorant of it.] Well done and interesting. ---
**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 30, 2011, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-2011-edition/565932/117 "2011-01-30T18:10:41Z")
I’ve just read two more books in the Amelia Peabody series - _The Falcon at the Portal_ and _He Shall Thunder in the Sky_. They were really great. This series has gradually evolved from light, rather silly mysteries into books that are more substantial and emotionally intense - but still amusing. A few books ago the author began to include a third-person narrative from Peabody’s son, interspersed with Peabody’s usual first-person narrative, and that has given the books a welcome new perspective. _He Shall Thunder in the Sky_ takes place during WWI, when Britain has formally annexed Egypt, Cairo is under martial law, and the Suez Canal is in danger of being captured by the Turks. I’m now reading the third book in Ruth Downie’s Gaius Petreius Ruso series, _Persona Non Grata_. These are murder mysteries set in Roman Britain, and they’re similar in tone to Lindsey Davis’s Falco books. The first one, called _Medicus_, is available free right now on Amazon for the Kindle. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2011, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-2011-edition/565932/118 "2011-01-31T12:30:19Z")
[Link](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=595273)to February’s thread. ---
**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:** [January 31, 2011, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-2011-edition/565932/119 "2011-01-31T12:46:00Z")
Just finished: **Corupted Science** by John Grant. Excellent and compelling (although often brief) treatments of bad science. Now I want to get the other books in his series. **They Called me Mad** by John Monahan. Bios of real-life “Mad Scientists”. I bought the book a couple of weeks ago from the author. **Is He Dead?** a play by Mark Twain. I’m a big Twain fan, and I didn’t even know this existed, much less that it got produced, for the first time, only a couple of years ago. Fascinating, but disappointing. **Rumpole’s Christmas** – one of the last of John Mortimer’s books I’ve got a stack of books still waiting to be read, including the first volume of Twain’s newly-released autobiography. ---
**Author:** ![Parenchyma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Parenchyma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Parenchyma)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2011, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-2011-edition/565932/120 "2011-02-01T17:30:36Z")
A lot of what I’ve read lately was from recs in these threads. _Soon I Will Be Invincible_ by Austin Grossman. Liked it. _Thirteen_ by Richard K. Morgan. Loved it, kept surprising me in good ways. The first two Falco books by Lindsey Davis. The character has more depth than I thought at first, and this is the most use I’ve ever had for those two years of high school Latin I had to take. I really tried with Jamie O’Neill’s _At Swim, Two Boys_ but I just couldn’t get into it. I know how mood-dependent that can be, so I’ll try it again later. Usually I can’t take twenty-somethings-in-NYC cuteness, but _Animal Husbandry_ by Laura Zigman, her story of getting dumped, was okay and often funny. The last Dick Francis book, _Crossfire_, was decent. More of my books have been via audiobooks recently. Now, there’s definitely a slightly lower standard there. I don’t want to listen to great literature as much as read it; otherwise you miss too much. The best audiobooks are a little junky so if you get a bit distracted and miss something, it doesn’t really matter and you don’t need to rewind. The reader for _The Help_ by Kathryn Stockett did the accents really well, and the story was perfect. Sara Gruen’s _Ape House_ was fine as an audiobook, kind of predictable, and not as good as _Water for Elephants_. I listened to my first Elmore Leonard audiobook, _Djibouti_, and though the reader was good, I couldn’t tell if I would have found it equal to his best written works if I’d read it instead. I think Leonard goes into the read-only pile. Davis Sedaris’\* Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk\* had a couple of mild laughs at unexpected phrases, but seemed like he only wrote it to pay some bills. I swear I’m quitting Patricia Cornwell. I only finished _Port Mortuary_ it because I was doing something mindless and boring and needed a distraction. The reader has kind of a distraught relentless monotone (even during mundane exposition), and the characters are so grim and joyless, I’m done. I listened to several hours of Karl Marlantes’ _Matterhorn_ while I was literally digging a ditch. Thought it would help me get into the Vietnam hooch mentality, and I liked it mostly, but I think the pacing was just too slow to listen to without my mind wandering. I will try it in print where I can read it fast and keep things moving. I’ve read most of Marcia Muller’s Sharon McCone books and am almost through my first audiobook. The reader has a nice pace and voices, but she mispronounces the heroine’s name. Is it just me, or is the shortened form of Sharon, “Shar”, pronounced as if you just left off the “or” and not to rhyme with “car”? I kept getting confused, thinking there was a character called Charlotte being referred to as “Char”. I know it’s a nitpick but it keeps taking me out of the performance. Mary Roach’s _Packing for Mars_ was almost as good as _Stiff_. The reader is good at transmitting her dry humor. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-2011-edition/565932.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-jan-2011-edition/565932.md?page=7)