# 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:** 4
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2008, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-08-edition/450936/61 "2008-06-08T15:48:33Z")
Still reading _The Confusion_. I worked the election Tuesday – 15 hours in a room with two other old ladies, both talkers – so I went to the grocery store to find something that I didn’t have to think about. Not much of a selection – James Patterson, Jeffrey Deaver, Barbara Delinsky, Debbie Macomber, etc. I picked up _Scavenger_ by David Morrell. It’s about a psycho who forces a bunch of people on a scavenger hunt. It was okay – it’d be a good airplane or beach book… Started _Ash: A Secret History_ by Mary Gentle after reading an intriguing comment about it here. The book’s been in the TBR for years. I like it a lot. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2008, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-08-edition/450936/62 "2008-06-08T16:30:12Z")
[QUOTE=AuntiePam] Still reading _The Confusion_. I worked the election Tuesday – 15 hours in a room with two other old ladies, both talkers – so I went to the grocery store to find something that I didn’t have to think about. Not much of a selection – James Patterson, Jeffrey Deaver, Barbara Delinsky, Debbie Macomber, etc. I picked up _Scavenger_ by David Morrell. It’s about a psycho who forces a bunch of people on a scavenger hunt. It was okay – it’d be a good airplane or beach book.. Started _Ash: A Secret History_ by Mary Gentle after reading an intriguing comment about it here. The book’s been in the TBR for years. I like it a lot. [/QUOTE] I haven’t read David Morrell in years. I used to like some of his stuff. I may pick it up. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2008, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-08-edition/450936/63 "2008-06-08T17:26:59Z")
[QUOTE=Khadaji] I haven’t read David Morrell in years. I used to like some of his stuff. I may pick it up. [/QUOTE] I already gave it away or I’d send it to you. It was $10 at the grocery store. $10 for a paperback! I checked Amazon later and they have the hardcover at $6.99. This one is a sequel of sorts to _Creepers_ – it has the same two major characters. It works as a standalone but since I hadn’t read the first book, this one seemed short on characterization. ---
**Author:** ![PastAllReason](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f07891/32.png) [@PastAllReason](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastAllReason)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2008, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-08-edition/450936/64 "2008-06-08T18:12:11Z")
Having joined Goodreads, I am now actually tracking what I’ve read, and what I’m reading, which is a good thing. It’s a daily reminder, though, of how I can be indiscriminately reading several books at once, which can be a bit embarrassing. Right now I have 12 books in my “currently reading” category, some of which I’m more actively reading than others. Some of them have also been there for a while, as new books come along that have an “ooh, shiny” effect on me, and get read while the unlucky continue to languish. The ones that I’m actively reading right now: [Your Inner Fish](http://www.amazon.ca/Your-Inner-Fish-Journey-3-5-Billion-Year/dp/0375424474/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1212946981&sr=1-1) by Neil Shubin. Shubin relates human anatomy to that of our predecessors, in what has been thus far, a very readable book. [Simplexity](http://www.amazon.ca/Simplexity-Jeffrey-Kluger/dp/1401303013/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1212947135&sr=1-1) by Jeffrey Kluger. The subtitle “what makes simple things complex and how complex things can be made simple” pretty much says it all. [The Mitfords: Letters Between Six Sisters](http://www.amazon.ca/Mitfords-Letters-Between-Six-Sisters/dp/0061373648/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1212947299&sr=1-1) by Charlotte Mosley. So far a fascinating collection of letters between the Mitford sisters, who I actually knew nothing about before buying this book. They run the gamut from the sister who spent the mid-30s in Germany writing letters to siblings in a starstruck manner about her lunches with Hitler, the sister who first married the heir to the Guinness fortune, and secondarily the leader of the Fascist movement in England and who spent much of the war in custody, the sister who became a best-selling novelist, the sister who ran away with a cousin to fight in the Spanish civil war, and who became a member of the Communist Party in the US, and the sister who became the Duchess of Devonshire. [Fateful Choices](http://www.amazon.ca/Fateful-Choices-Ian-Kershaw/dp/0143113720/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1212947562&sr=1-5) by Ian Kershaw. Is about ten pivotal decisions in WWII in 1940 and 1940 that formed turning points for the war. In descriibing the decision and the impact they had on the outcome of the war. Each decision is put in context of the forces that influenced them. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2008, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-08-edition/450936/65 "2008-06-09T00:51:21Z")
Finished The Kingmaker’s Sword. I enjoyed it enough to probably read tne next, but don’t recall enough of it to be able to give it a good review. Finished Green Rider. It too was enjoyable enough to read the next, but hardly remarkable. I was going to review it, but found that the review on Amazon was so much better than what I was going to write, that I will just refer you there and say that I agree. ---
**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 9, 2008, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-08-edition/450936/66 "2008-06-09T01:41:22Z")
I just finished: **Me of Little Faith** by Lewis Black, which Pepper Mill just gave me **The Giant Raft** by Jules Verne – a little-known work of his, in which the characters have to solve a cryptogram – but it’s not a simple substitution cypher as in “The Gold Bug” or “The Adventure of the Dancing Men”. Pretty sophisticated. Apparently while it was being serialized, someone managed to solve it. Jules verne didn’t believe it to be possible. He congratulated the solver, but privately believed that there had been a security breach at the publishers. Nevertheless, in the 1976 **Jules Verne Companion** it is demonstrated how to solve such a cryptogram requiring a key (although it’s demonstrated on an English translation of the codeed message) I’m now starting **Frankenstein: A Cultural History** by Susan Tyler Hitchcock **A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Ersatz Elevator** – MilliCal is insisting we both read the entire series. (MilliCal is even now finishing **Harry potter and the Half-Blood Prince**. She’s zipping through the series, while reading other books at the same time, like Meg Cabot’s **Princess Diaries** series.) **Five Weeks in a Balloon** by Jules Verne – Verne’s first big success, and his first Votage Extraordinaire, although by no means his first publication. I’ve never read it. I’ve got several other books on backlog, and lots more I want to read. ---
**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:** [June 9, 2008, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-08-edition/450936/67 "2008-06-09T12:54:50Z")
[QUOTE=CalMeacham] I just finished: **Me of Little Faith** by Lewis Black, which Pepper Mill just gave me [/QUOTE] I’m thinking about taking this out of my queue after seeing him on Comedy Central too many times. I would hear his yelling in my head if I tried to read it. Finished Into the devil’s den: how an FBI agent got inside the Aryan Nations and a special agent got him out alive by Dave Hall. I kept thinking it would get better but it was just tedious. Currently beginning on The Starry Rift : tales of new tomorrows: an original science fiction anthology edited by Jonathan Strahan. It’s YA. I had to get it after seeing the name of the first story was Ass-Hat Magic Spider. It was a sweet little story but very mild…I hope I find some better quality stuff as I go. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2008, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-08-edition/450936/68 "2008-06-09T12:56:41Z")
Just finishing \*A Thread of Grace \* by Mary Doria Russell. Going on a three-day business trip Wednesday, so will have to choose my next book to be travel-appropriate (size, length, etc.) ---
**Author:** ![Atrael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Atrael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atrael)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2008, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-08-edition/450936/69 "2008-06-09T14:26:57Z")
I liked _Creepers_ by Morrel. So if you liked _Scavenger Hunt_ you’ll probably like it. Pretty much a fluff book, but an interesting one. I had pretty much the same reaction to the ending of _Valor’s Trial_. I dislike author’s that don’t lead up to and ending gradually. I understand all series must eventually end, but make it a tad more reasonable. To me that seemed like much too abrupt for the character. Still re-reading some Recluce books. I’m on _Natural Ordermaster_ now. I’m trying to save my new books for vacation next week. ---
**Author:** ![Leiko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Leiko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leiko)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2008, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-08-edition/450936/70 "2008-06-09T22:03:14Z")
_Singularity Sky_ by Charles Stross is my current first-time-through book, and _Comfort Me with Apples_ by Ruth Reichl is my main re-reading book at present. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2008, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-08-edition/450936/71 "2008-06-13T14:10:53Z")
Finished _No Humans Involved_ by Kelly Armstrong. This one dragged for me and I’m not convinced I’ll read more of the series. I also fear that Kelly is going to start sneaking more and more sex in and further ruin the series ala Laurel Hamilton. ---
**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:** [June 13, 2008, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-08-edition/450936/72 "2008-06-13T16:48:33Z")
Finished [19th Wife](http://www.amazon.com/19th-Wife-Novel-David-Ebershoff/dp/1400063973). I preferred the historial fiction part to the modern bits but all-in-all, a good read. [Middlesex](http://www.amazon.com/Middlesex-Novel-Oprahs-Book-Club/dp/0312427735) was a novel I kept putting off but finally decided to give it a shot. Great book. [Bottomfeeder: How to Eat Ethically in a World of Vanishing Seafood](http://www.amazon.com/Bottomfeeder-Ethically-World-Vanishing-Seafood/dp/1596912251) is a great read for anyone who wants to enjoy their seafood yet still be aware of what’s happening with our oceans. Just wrapping up [Les Liaisons dangereuses](http://www.amazon.com/Liaisons-dangereuses-Oxford-Worlds-Classics/dp/0192838679). Should be finished today. ---
**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 13, 2008, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-08-edition/450936/73 "2008-06-13T21:27:49Z")
I read a chapter of _The Shipping News_. It made me feel dirty and greasy, so I bounced it back in the library return bin. After I dropped it in a puddle (accidentally, but I took my sweet time picking it up.) ---
**Author:** ![SuperNelson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7feea3/32.png) [@SuperNelson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuperNelson)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2008, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-08-edition/450936/74 "2008-06-14T13:27:29Z")
Just finished [Heft on Wheels: A Field Guide to Doing a 180](http://www.amazon.com/Heft-Wheels-Field-Guide-Doing/dp/1400052416/) by Mike Magnuson. I haven’t picked my next read, but this thread’s making me think about _Frankenstein_, or maybe _The Memory of Running_. I think I’ve run out of unread Dortmunders. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2008, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-08-edition/450936/75 "2008-06-14T16:29:41Z")
I liked _The Memory of Running_. Stephen King praised it as “the best book you’ll never read”. (I think that was before it was published.) I love road books. I just bought another book praised by Mr. King – [The Story of Edgar Sawtelle](http://www.amazon.com/Story-Edgar-Sawtelle-Novel/dp/0061374229/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1213460705&sr=8-1) – which also sounds kinda like a road book. In the meantime, I’m still reading _The Baroque Cycle_ and I’m almost finished with _A Thread of Grace_ by Mary Doria Russell. Many thanks to the Dopers who mentioned it. It’s awfully good. ---
**Author:** ![descamisado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@descamisado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/descamisado)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2008, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-08-edition/450936/76 "2008-06-14T16:35:00Z")
wrong thread. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2008, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-08-edition/450936/77 "2008-06-15T00:07:36Z")
Just finished Blood of Angels. Not at all what I was expecting. The back cover says: > [@](#): > > One of the worst serial murderers in history has escaped from prison. His brother, Ward Hopkins, could have killed him when he had the chance - but it wouldn’t have mattered. Part of a secret and psychotic brotherhood that has expanded over the centuries and across the globe. Paul is just one of many who has been born and bred to commit the most violent acts known to man. I often read the serial-killer-thriller genre. I don’t enjoy it as I did in my youth, but I have a friend who does and so I give him a book for Christmas this year. I was expecting that. Instead I got: An Illuminati-type organization that has been in North America for thousands of years, the root of Atlantis legends and many others. Interwoven with an incomprehensible mystery plot that in the end I just skimmed. It was the third in a series, so it may have been better had I read the other two, but I doubt it. ---
**Author:** ![Cyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a88e4f/32.png) [@Cyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cyn)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2008, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-08-edition/450936/78 "2008-06-15T00:16:42Z")
Small Favor by Jim Butcher—the latest in the Harry Dresden series ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2008, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-08-edition/450936/79 "2008-06-15T14:42:22Z")
I finished _Rabbit at Rest_, by John Updike, today. The fourth and final installment in his Rabbit series, although I understand there’s a follow-up novella called _Remembering Rabbit_ I’d like to find. I thoroughly enjoyed the series. Each one is set largely 10 years apart: 1959, 1969, 1979 and 1989. Plus _Rabbit Remembered_ I hear is 1999. The books really makes you nostalgic for each time period. Less so for me regarding 1989, though, as I was here in Thailand then and no longer much up on American pop culture. But I certainly remember the Lockerbie bombing the previous December and that other plane exploding over Africa, both of which get prominent continuous mentions in the book, especially Lockerbie. Tomorrow, I’ll begin _My Thai Girl and I: How I Found a New Life in Thailand_, by an acquaintance of mine, Andrew Hicks. Andrew is a retired British lawyer and a super-nice guy. He wrote mainly law books in the past – one of his more riveting titles is _The Nigerian Law of Hire Purchase_ – but then in 2004 he published a very good fictional novel called _Thai Girl._ That one deals with a relationship between a young British backpacker and a (legitimate) beach masseuse on a Thai island. Believe it or not, there’s no sex in the novel! But it addresses myriad cross-cultural issues that many of us farangs (Westerners) face. This latest work of his, _My Thai Girl and I: How I Found a New Life in Thailand_, is autobiographical non-ficton. He writes about how he met and became involved with his own Thai girl. On the back cover is written: “This is about how I met Cat, a ‘Thai girl’ half my age and how we set up home together in her village out in the rice fields of North Eastern Thailand. I’ll tell you of toads in the toilet, of ants’ eggs for breakfast, how we took up frog farming and how I got married without really meaning to. It’s also a book about the countryside, of the old Thailand where the rhythm of the seasons and belief in the spirits and Buddhism remain strong.” Andrew and Cat live in Surin province, which borders Cambodia and is famous for its annual elephant roundup in, I think, November. If anyone is interested in learning more about either of these books or Andrew himself, see [here](http://thaigirl2004.com/) and [here](http://www.thaigirl2004.blogspot.com/). ---
**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:** [June 16, 2008, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-08-edition/450936/80 "2008-06-16T13:32:00Z")
[QUOTE=Dung Beetle] Currently beginning on The Starry Rift : tales of new tomorrows: an original science fiction anthology edited by Jonathan Strahan. It’s YA. I had to get it after seeing the name of the first story was Ass-Hat Magic Spider. It was a sweet little story but very mild…I hope I find some better quality stuff as I go. [/QUOTE] Abandoned. I don’t think it was a bad book, but sci-fi’s really not my cup of tea. I keep trying it, though. This weekend I read The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly. I liked it okay and it held my interest, but I can’t say I’d recommend it. It was about a boy who gets into another world and goes on a quest, so I was loving that, but overall it was quite dark. There was a hopelessness throughout, and I didn’t find the payoff sufficient. I’m currently reading The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak. _ **Fact** _ I haven’t decided yet if the gimmicky writing is going to prove too annoying. However, I care what happens next, so on I go… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-08-edition/450936.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-08-edition/450936.md?page=5)