# Whatcha readin' June (08) edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 28, 2008, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-08-edition/450936 "2008-05-28T21:12:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2008, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-08-edition/450936/41 "2008-06-02T13:07:48Z")
[QUOTE=AuntiePam] **AlwaysFresh** , I loved _Frankenstein_. I thought it was romantic and melodramatic, which I don’t usually care for – maybe I was just in the right mood for it. I read the edition with Berni Wrightson’s illustrations, and that helped too. Today I looked through the last three issues of _Bookmarks_ and went shopping at Amazon, but I didn’t buy a damn thing. I should know better than to read the reviews. I always look at the negatives first. So it’s back to _The Confusion_ by Neal Stephenson. I can barely hold the book up. [/QUOTE] I second the Wrightson-illustrated verson. One of my favourite comic artists. 🙂 Frankenstein is of course a deserved classic - like many, I found reading it a revelation, being already familiar with the lurching movie monster version. ---
**Author:** ![Tamryne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3e96dc/32.png) [@Tamryne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamryne)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2008, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-08-edition/450936/42 "2008-06-02T13:20:06Z")
**Iftheresaway** , that is going to be the first Octavia Butler id’ve read, its great to know someone really likes her! I’d heard good things on Goodreads about her novels. Its too bad she isn’t around to write more, it sucks especially badly when a beloved author dies. ---
**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:** [June 2, 2008, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-08-edition/450936/43 "2008-06-02T13:35:43Z")
I, too, recommend George R.R. Martin’s _A Song of Ice and Fire_ series. It’s grittier and bloodier than Tolkien’s sagas, but matches them in terms of inventiveness and narrative sweep. It’s about an ancient kingdom wracked by civil war, with plenty of action, intrigue and double-crossing. And dragons! As it happens, I just finished Tolkien’s _The Children of Hurin_, an elegant, spare retelling of the Oedipus myth set in the early days of Middle-earth. Good stuff. Another recent read of mine was Jeffrey Toobin’s _The Nine_, about the contemporary Supreme Court. The book has a great mix of law, history, politics and gossip. Highly recommended (and on the NYT’s ten-best list of 2007). I’ve been reading Mary Roach’s _Bonk_, about the science of sex, a little at a time over the last month or so. Can’t say I’ve found it engrossing. I’m almost done with _The Last Ditch_ by David Lampe and Gary Sheffield, about the Nazi invasion plans for Britain, and British preparations for an extensive resistance effort with widespread hideouts and weapons caches. Fascinating stuff. The Nazis had a long list of those they intended to arrest upon conquering the country, including Winston Churchill, Noel Coward and Sigmund Freud (who had indeed settled in Britain but died before the war - the list was a little outdated). Years later, having been on the list gave one a certain cachet, I guess. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![AlwaysFresh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@AlwaysFresh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlwaysFresh)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2008, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-08-edition/450936/44 "2008-06-02T16:23:50Z")
[QUOTE=CalMeacham] If you can find a copy of Wolf’s **The Annotated Frankenstein** , or his later version \*\*The Essemntial Frankenstein \*\* (whivch was republished in paperback a few years ago) , read it. The annotations help enormously in understanding the plot and the characters. [/QUOTE] Thanks CM, I’ll search for that version. Sounds like it will be helpful. I’m finding myself skipping over wordy paragraphs because the text is somewhat difficult. [QUOTE=Malthus] I second the Wrightson-illustrated verson. One of my favourite comic artists. Frankenstein is of course a deserved classic - like many, I found reading it a revelation, being already familiar with the lurching movie monster version. [/QUOTE] I’m already finding it a surprise read! I’m looking forward to finishing the book so I can compare it with the film. I love the film as a classic in and of itself but it seems the director took many artistic liberties. ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2008, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-08-edition/450936/45 "2008-06-02T16:45:11Z")
I just started _March_, by Geraldine Brooks. It is a story about Mr. March, the father in _Little Women_, during the Civil War, with flashbacks to his youth, including the courtship and early days of marriage to Marmee. So far, it seems like fan wankery, but I am a fan so I’m okay with that. ---
**Author:** ![TheMerchandise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b487fb/32.png) [@TheMerchandise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheMerchandise)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2008, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-08-edition/450936/46 "2008-06-02T17:05:15Z")
I just started _The Years of Rice and Salt_ for my book club. The book looks at what would happen if 99% of Europe’s population was wiped out during the Black Death. Christianity is just a footnote in history, as Islam and Buddhism become the dominate schools of thought. Last month’s book was _The Great Mortality_, so I’m definitely on a bubonic plague kick. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2008, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-08-edition/450936/47 "2008-06-02T18:03:17Z")
[QUOTE=delphica] I just started _March_, by Geraldine Brooks. It is a story about Mr. March, the father in _Little Women_, during the Civil War, with flashbacks to his youth, including the courtship and early days of marriage to Marmee. So far, it seems like fan wankery, but I am a fan so I’m okay with that. [/QUOTE] She won a Pulitzer for _March_. I really liked _Year of Wonders_ but after reading some reviews that agree with you, I skipped _March_. Let us know if it gets better! Literary awards are baffling, sometimes. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2008, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-08-edition/450936/48 "2008-06-02T18:09:19Z")
[QUOTE=AuntiePam] She won a Pulitzer for _March_. I really liked _Year of Wonders_ but after reading some reviews that agree with you, I skipped _March_. Let us know if it gets better! Literary awards are baffling, sometimes. [/QUOTE] I liked both; especially, I thought that _Year of Wonders_ is far better than _World Without End_, Ken Follett’s sequel to _Pillars of the Earth_, which has a similar theme. And I loved _Pillars of the Earth_. ---
**Author:** ![chrissysissystar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5e9695/32.png) [@chrissysissystar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrissysissystar)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2008, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-08-edition/450936/49 "2008-06-02T18:34:39Z")
This month I’ve got going a couple going. - [Sin in the Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys, and the Battle for America’s Soul](http://www.amazon.com/Sin-Second-City-Ministers-Playboys/dp/1400065305/ref=ed_oe_h) - a really fascinating look at the red light district of Chicago in the years following the World’s Fair. It’s made an interesting companion to [The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America](http://www.amazon.com/Devil-White-City-Madness-Changed/dp/0375725601/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1212431051&sr=1-1). - The next in a series a friend call “Vampire Porn”, [The Last of the Red Hot Vampires](http://www.amazon.com/Last-Red-Hot-Vampires-Katie-MacAlister/dp/0451220854/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1212431520&sr=1-1) . I enjoy Katie MacAlister’s style - really breezy, strong female characters but her insistence on true love at first sight has started to get wearing. I’ve got plenty to choose from once I finish these but I’m flighty about committing so my next book(s) are up in the air right now. ---
**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:** [June 2, 2008, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-08-edition/450936/50 "2008-06-02T18:34:57Z")
**The Essential Frankenstein** : > **[The Essential Frankenstein: Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft, Wolf, Leonard, Bing,...](https://www.amazon.com/Essential-Frankenstein-Mary-Shelley/dp/0743498062)** > > The Essential Frankenstein \[Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft, Wolf, Leonard, Bing, Christopher\] on Amazon.com. \*FREE\* shipping on qualifying offers. The Essential Frankenstein > **[The Essential Frankenstein: The Definitive, Annotated Edition of Mary Shelley's...](https://www.amazon.com/Essential-Frankenstein-Definitive-ClassicNovel-Essentials/dp/0452269687)** > > The Essential Frankenstein: The Definitive, Annotated Edition of Mary Shelley's ClassicNovel (Essentials) \[Shelley, Mary, Wolf, Leonard\] on Amazon.com. \*FREE\* shipping on qualifying offers. The Essential Frankenstein: The Definitive, Annotated... **The Annotated Frankenstein** : > **[The Annotated Frankenstein: Mary Shelley, Marcia Huyette, Leonard Wolf:...](https://www.amazon.com/Annotated-Frankenstein-Mary-Shelley/dp/0517530716)** > > The Annotated Frankenstein \[Mary Shelley, Marcia Huyette, Leonard Wolf\] on Amazon.com. \*FREE\* shipping on qualifying offers. The Annotated Frankenstein His **The Annotated Dracula** and **The Essential Dracula** are pretty good (although David J. Skal, in **Hollywood Gothic** and his other books disagrees with many points). His **The Essential Phantom of the Opera** and **The Essential Dr. Jeckyll and Mister Hyde** are worth reading. ---
**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:** [June 2, 2008, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-08-edition/450936/51 "2008-06-02T19:51:58Z")
The Charlie Huston book was great. I’ve already ordered the rest of the trilogy. If you like Quentin Tarantino movies, you might like Huston. As soon as they arrive in the mail, I’ll be reading: _Benighted_, by Kit Whitfield, recommended by \*\*jsgoddess \*\*over on goodreads. Supposed to be an unusual book about werewolves. _Valor’s Trial_, Tanya Huff I ordered _Magic Bites_ too, since last month people were saying they liked it. [QUOTE=Sigmagirl] I liked both; especially, I thought that _Year of Wonders_ is far better than _World Without End_, Ken Follett’s sequel to _Pillars of the Earth_, which has a similar theme. And I loved _Pillars of the Earth_. [/QUOTE] Is _World Without End_ about the Black Death? Dammit, I may have to read it after all. Everybody on the planet except me loves _Pillars of the Earth_, but while the story was very interesting, I didn’t care for the author’s writing style at all, and I had decided not to sit through another massive volume of it. But I do love a plague book. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2008, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-08-edition/450936/52 "2008-06-02T20:03:20Z")
Yes, it is. All plague, all the time. (Not really, but I thought I would give you hope.) But it is about the plague. ---
**Author:** ![psycat90](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@psycat90](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psycat90)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2008, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-08-edition/450936/53 "2008-06-02T20:13:52Z")
I’ve got about a chapter left of [Hot Six](http://www.amazon.com/Hot-Six-Stephanie-Plum-No/dp/0312976275) by Janet Evanovich that I’ll probably finish tonight. And I’ve got [Seven Up](http://www.amazon.com/Seven-Up-Stephanie-Plum-No/dp/B00007CWHF/ref=pd_sim_b_img_2) waiting in the wings. I like these books for summer and camping, sitting on the beach, etc. They are just so fluffy and fun and a whiz to read. And I like the little nuggets of New Jersey. A friend just sent me [The Billionaire’s Vinegar: The Mystery of the World’s Most Expensive Bottle of Wine](http://www.amazon.com/Billionaires-Vinegar-Mystery-Worlds-Expensive/dp/0307338770) with a note saying he enjoyed it and thought I would as well, so I will dig into that tonight. Then I’ve got [Grape vs. Grain: A Historical, Technological, and Social Comparison of Wine and Beer](http://www.amazon.com/Grape-vs-Grain-Historical-Technological/dp/0521849373) to soak up after that. ---
**Author:** ![Lok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e8c25b/32.png) [@Lok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lok)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2008, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-08-edition/450936/54 "2008-06-02T21:55:50Z")
Finished [Empire of Ivory](http://www.amazon.com/Empire-Ivory-Temeraire-Book-4/dp/0345496876/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1212443524&sr=8-2) by Naomi Novik and [Dzur](http://www.amazon.com/Dzur-Vlad-Steven-Brust/dp/0765341549/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1212443590&sr=1-2) by Steven Brust today. ---
**Author:** ![XaMcQ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/f9ae1b/32.png) [@XaMcQ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XaMcQ)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2008, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-08-edition/450936/55 "2008-06-03T02:50:42Z")
[QUOTE=Eleanor of Aquitaine] The Charlie Huston book was great. I’ve already ordered the rest of the trilogy. If you like Quentin Tarantino movies, you might like Huston. As soon as they arrive in the mail, I’ll be reading: _Benighted_, by Kit Whitfield, recommended by \*\*jsgoddess \*\*over on goodreads. Supposed to be an unusual book about werewolves. _Valor’s Trial_, Tanya Huff [/QUOTE] I liked _Benighted_ but it is pretty dark. I found it to be a lot more about a society’s mistreatment and exploitation of minorities than it was about werewolves. ---
**Author:** ![Atrael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Atrael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atrael)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2008, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-08-edition/450936/56 "2008-06-03T15:23:13Z")
[QUOTE=Eleanor of Aquitaine] The Charlie Huston book was great. I’ve already ordered the rest of the trilogy. If you like Quentin Tarantino movies, you might like Huston. As soon as they arrive in the mail, I’ll be reading: _Benighted_, by Kit Whitfield, recommended by \*\*jsgoddess \*\*over on goodreads. Supposed to be an unusual book about werewolves. _Valor’s Trial_, Tanya Huff I ordered _Magic Bites_ too, since last month people were saying they liked it. Is _World Without End_ about the Black Death? Dammit, I may have to read it after all. Everybody on the planet except me loves _Pillars of the Earth_, but while the story was very interesting, I didn’t care for the author’s writing style at all, and I had decided not to sit through another massive volume of it. But I do love a plague book. [/QUOTE] Let me know what you think about _Valor’s Trial_. ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2008, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-08-edition/450936/57 "2008-06-03T22:13:55Z")
I finished _A Tree Grows in Brooklyn_. I liked it up until the huge deus ex machina at the end. I probably would have tolerated that better if I had been twelve when I first read it. ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2008, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-08-edition/450936/58 "2008-06-04T15:46:15Z")
[QUOTE=AuntiePam] She won a Pulitzer for _March_. I really liked _Year of Wonders_ but after reading some reviews that agree with you, I skipped _March_. Let us know if it gets better! Literary awards are baffling, sometimes. [/QUOTE] I would be happy to mail you the paperback if you would like to read it. It’s short, so even if you hated it, it’s a small investment of time. Finished _March_. Similar to _Year of Wonders_, the parts of the book that “set the scene” are excellent – incredibly evocative writing about places, times, weather, moods. If you are even vaguely a fan of that kind of Civil War fiction (_Ladies of the Club_, _Oldest Living Confederate Widow …_, etc) you would probably enjoy those parts. The courtship with Marmee was okay. The parts where he would imagine Meg or Jo sitting at home doing something Meg or Jo-ish were a bit obvious, I mean _I_ could have managed to write about Meg going off to her day’s work as the nanny to the affluent King family. There’s a bit with Beth that is just stupid. Overall, the overlap with _Little Women_ is wisely kept to a minimum. Kind of a spoiler, depending on how particular you are, regarding the character of Mr. March (not any plot points): In some ways, I think I liked it because it seemed to confirm what I personally always thought about Mr. March – that he’s a well-intentioned loser, basically. If you hold Mr. March in higher esteem, this might be disappointing. Or, it’s possible that this is a case of confirmation bias and I am cheerfully projecting my own image of Mr. March as a hapless, out-of-touch bumbler on to the text. ---
**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:** [June 8, 2008, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-08-edition/450936/59 "2008-06-08T04:49:42Z")
[QUOTE=Atrael] Let me know what you think about _Valor’s Trial_. [/QUOTE] I enjoyed it right up until the ending, which I found pretty unsatisfying. [spoiler]I never did like the gray alien plot. I dislike omnipotent, unfathomable aliens, the kind that are so far advanced that they’re practically gods. (Joe Haldeman, one of my favorite sci-fi writers, ended one of his series abruptly with this kind of alien as a deus ex machina, and I guess that soured me on the concept.) And I didn’t like the fact that all of the marines left behind in the prison died. I figured we’d lose a few of the escape party, but for all the rest to die off-stage like that was kind of depressing. But if Huff wanted Torin to leave the Corps and sail off into the sunset with Ryder, killing off her entire company was about the only way to make that happen. This felt like the last Valor book. So far she has always ended her series somewhere between 3 and 5 books.[/spoiler] ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2008, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-08-edition/450936/60 "2008-06-08T14:02:48Z")
I finished _Coraline_ and I liked it. So now I can come to a final decision on Gaiman: I like his horror and fantasy, but I hate his “alternate reality” stories. I’m really liking _A History of the Wife_ by Marilyn Yalom, too. I’m in the pioneer chapter now and it’s very hard to put down. I keep wanting to play Oregon Trail, though. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-08-edition/450936.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-08-edition/450936.md?page=4)