# Whatcha Readin' July 2010 Edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 30, 2010, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-july-2010-edition/545121 "2010-06-30T21:57:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Gulo\_gulo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bcef8e/32.png) [@Gulo\_gulo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gulo_gulo)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2010, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-july-2010-edition/545121/61 "2010-07-08T17:27:15Z")
Oops, one more completed: \*\*Mammoth Book of True Murder \*\*by Richard Glyn Jones ~ the editing was HORRIBLE, not that the rest of the book was much better… ---
**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:** [July 8, 2010, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-july-2010-edition/545121/62 "2010-07-08T18:43:32Z")
Started on The Postman, by David Brin. ---
**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:** [July 9, 2010, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-july-2010-edition/545121/63 "2010-07-09T00:00:46Z")
> [@Gulo\_gulo](#): > > … > > \*\*Morte D’Arthur \*\*~ Plod plod plod… > … > \*\*Buffalo Bill \*\*biography which is rocking my world right now. Had I recommended Thomas Berger’s _Arthur Rex_ to you? A great retelling of Arthurian legend, slightly tongue in cheek but very readable and fun. One of my favorite books. Also, if you like Buffalo Bill, check out _Eiffel’s Tower_ by Jill Jonnes, which has a lot about him and Annie Oakley visiting the great Paris Exhibition of 1889. ---
**Author:** ![melodyharmonius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/melodyharmonius/32/21310_2.png) [@melodyharmonius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/melodyharmonius)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2010, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-july-2010-edition/545121/64 "2010-07-09T13:36:33Z")
Just finished \*Eleanor and Abel: A Romance \*by Annette Sanford. It was a very quick read - about 218 pages. It’s about the romance of a 70 year old spinster by a 69 year old drifter. I’m trying to get my finger on what made it so interesting - it wasn’t prone to great descriptive passages or highly dramatic turns - it was such a tightly drawn little vignette that you felt the impact of every bump and had a subconscious understanding of what Eleanor was feeling without her telling you in great descriptive detail. I’d love to find someone else who read it and discuss it with them. ---
**Author:** ![Gulo\_gulo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bcef8e/32.png) [@Gulo\_gulo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gulo_gulo)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2010, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-july-2010-edition/545121/65 "2010-07-09T14:22:33Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Had I recommended Thomas Berger’s _Arthur Rex_ to you? A great retelling of Arthurian legend, slightly tongue in cheek but very readable and fun. One of my favorite books. Yes you did and I put it on my Amazon wishlist/storage list last month. I just found a copy on AbeBooks for a buck and ordered it. I’m going to be Arthured out for a bit though. > [@](#): > > Also, if you like Buffalo Bill, check out _Eiffel’s Tower_ by Jill Jonnes, which has a lot about him and Annie Oakley visiting the great Paris Exhibition of 1889. Oooh, thanks! I just passed that part in the book too. Added to the list! (I may have to move to Wyoming now, this book is wonderful!) ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2010, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-july-2010-edition/545121/66 "2010-07-09T14:36:10Z")
I will be home in two weeks and so made my semi-annual Amazon order. (I read a lot of Kindle books nowadays, so I have to order fewer pulp editions.) _Bird_ by Andrew Zuckerman _Creature_ by Andrew Zuckerman Have you seen this guy’s photographs? [Stunning!](http://www.birdbook.org/) ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2010, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-july-2010-edition/545121/67 "2010-07-09T14:57:59Z")
> [@Gulo\_gulo](#): > > Completed: > > \*\*Quincunx \*\* by Charles Palliser ~ Loved this! Imagine Dickens with a mean streak. While I couldn’t wrap my head around the whole issue with the will, it was still a thrilling read. Heh, my favorite by Palliser was an obscure little book called _Betrayals_, which is perhaps the most fiendishly clever satire on literary theory ever written. Wonderfully twisted and evil. 😃 ---
**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:** [July 10, 2010, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-july-2010-edition/545121/68 "2010-07-10T02:32:15Z")
Didn’t read the whole thing, but enjoyed several parts of Daphne Du Maurier’s _The_ Rebecca _Notebook and Other Memories_. It includes her essay on how she wrote the novel, her working notes on the first draft, and the omitted epilogue. There’s also an interesting essay on Menabilly, the broken-down Cornwall estate which inspired Manderley, and several short stories from various points in her career. ---
**Author:** ![TheMerchandise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b487fb/32.png) [@TheMerchandise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheMerchandise)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2010, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-july-2010-edition/545121/69 "2010-07-12T14:22:41Z")
I finished _The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest_, by Steig Larsson. The first half of the book seemed a little slow, but it really picked up at the end. There was a point when I was contemplating calling in sick to work so I could finish reading the book. I’m in the middle of _The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death_, by pulp-crime writer Charlie Huston. It’s about a down-on-his-luck guy who is hired by a crime scene clean-up company… and I assume, based on Huston’s past books, he will end up in the wrong place at the wrong time and find himself way over his head. Huston is predictable, but in a fun way. ---
**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:** [July 12, 2010, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-july-2010-edition/545121/70 "2010-07-12T18:53:50Z")
> [@Gulo\_gulo](#): > > Yes you did and I put it on my Amazon wishlist/storage list last month. I just found a copy on AbeBooks for a buck and ordered it. I’m going to be Arthured out for a bit though… This might still be of interest: [News, Politics, Sports, Mail & Latest Headlines - AOL.com](http://www.aolnews.com/article/historians-say-theyve-located-king-arthurs-round-table/19550471) ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2010, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-july-2010-edition/545121/71 "2010-07-12T18:55:45Z")
_Devil’s Garden_ by Ace Atkins, novelization of the Roscoe Arbuckle trial of 1921 and the defense investigation by Sam Hammett, later known as Dashiell. I previously read his _Wicked City_, which was excellent but so perverse I almost couldn’t get through it. ---
**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:** [July 12, 2010, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-july-2010-edition/545121/72 "2010-07-12T19:14:10Z")
Started a new audiobook today: Thirteen Reasons Why, by Jay Asher. It’s a YA novel about a boy who receives a box of cassette tapes, sent to him by a classmate who committed suicide. ---
**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:** [July 12, 2010, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-july-2010-edition/545121/73 "2010-07-12T20:29:28Z")
Picked up some interesting books over the weekend – **What do you do with a Drunken Sailor: Unexpurgated Sea Chanties** by Douglas Morgan. Find out the _real_ words to “Blow the Man Down” – **The Begum’s Millions** by Jules Verne, translated by Stanford Luve (2005) – I’d read the “Fitzroy” translation of this years ago. One of a recent line of re-translated Verne. Lots of purists _hate_ the ARCO/Fitzroy edition translations. This is supposed to be superior. **Zothique** by Clark Ashton Smith. I finally read _Hyperborea_ a while back, and didn’t realize he had other series. This is the first time I’ve seen this one. Volume 9 of **Girl Genius** --The latest hard-copy of Phil Foglio’s epic. I’ve finished two of these already, and am worki ng on the others. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2010, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-july-2010-edition/545121/74 "2010-07-15T16:16:01Z")
Finished _The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet_ by David Mitchell. Freakin’ awesome. Something happened toward the end that shocked me, in a “why would he do that?!” way. Thought about it for a minute and realized that it was totally in character, and then realized that all through the book, Mitchell’s characters behaved according to their character. That doesn’t mean they were predictable – it just means they didn’t go out of character to move the plot. Great book. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2010, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-july-2010-edition/545121/75 "2010-07-15T16:28:01Z")
I’ve finally (five years later) gotten around to reading _Collapse_ by Jared Diamond. Also last week I re-read the entire _Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy_ series, just for fun. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2010, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-july-2010-edition/545121/76 "2010-07-15T16:34:27Z")
I enjoyed _The Bohemian Girl_ by Kenneth Cameron, so now I’m reading the first book in that series, _The Frightened Man_, about a Ripperesque killer in 1900 London. ---
**Author:** ![yanceylebeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yanceylebeef/32/12290_2.png) [@yanceylebeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yanceylebeef)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2010, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-july-2010-edition/545121/77 "2010-07-15T16:38:09Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > Finished _The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet_ by David Mitchell. Freakin’ awesome. I just picked this up, and cant wait to get started, but I have to finish Kraken first. It may be a no sleep weekend in the Lebeef house this weekend. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2010, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-july-2010-edition/545121/78 "2010-07-15T19:39:35Z")
> [@yanceylebeef](#): > > I just picked this up, and cant wait to get started, but I have to finish Kraken first. > > It may be a no sleep weekend in the Lebeef house this weekend. Heh, I’m reading the same books in the same order! 😃 ---
**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:** [July 16, 2010, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-july-2010-edition/545121/79 "2010-07-16T13:09:10Z")
Finished David Brin’s The Postman. Very good post-apocalypse tale. ---
**Author:** ![MTCicero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a4c791/32.png) [@MTCicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MTCicero)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-july-2010-edition/545121/80 "2010-07-16T13:19:34Z")
I’m smack dab in the middle of Justin Cronin’s [**The Passage**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Passage_%282010_novel%29) and loving it. Earlier this month, I started reading Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle’s [**Lucifer’s Hammer**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucifer%27s_Hammer) (per it being touted here on the SDMB), and I found the writing as wooden as the trees right outside my front window and as amateurish as that of a high school sophomore’s, so I didn’t finish it (in fact, I practically threw it down in disgust). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-july-2010-edition/545121.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-july-2010-edition/545121.md?page=5)