# 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:** 12\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2008, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-08-edition/450936/121 "2008-06-25T12:35:59Z")
I’ll want to hear what you think of _March_, **AuntiePam**. I enjoyed it a lot. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2008, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-08-edition/450936/122 "2008-06-25T14:28:50Z")
[QUOTE=chrissysissystar] 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). [/QUOTE] I’m a third of the way through **Devil in the White City** right now. That other one sounds good too. ---
**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 25, 2008, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-08-edition/450936/123 "2008-06-25T16:07:54Z")
Finished: [Dancing Bears](http://www.amazon.com/Dancing-Bears-Fred-Saberhagen/dp/0312857985) ~ A book about werebears in Russia. Not very good at all. The characters are absolutely boring & action just _too_ convenient. [Chang & Eng](http://www.amazon.com/Chang-Eng-Darin-Strauss/dp/0452281091) ~ A fictionalized book about their birth in Siam and their marriage. It was ok but the author seemed to take too much literary freedom and came across as trying too hard to make an interesting story. [The Divide](http://www.amazon.com/Divide-Nicholas-Evans/dp/B000F5ZH9E) ~ A hand-me-down that started promising with a body found in the mountains, then turned into a book about a divorce between two uninteresting characters and the effect it had on their uninteresting children. [Summerland](http://www.amazon.com/Summerland-Michael-Chabon/dp/0786816155) ~ What a fun book this was! I know this was for young readers but I ate it up. It starts out on a small island in Puget Sound and then enters another world with werebeasts, sasquatches and giants. Just started [Mountains of the Mind](http://www.amazon.com/Mountains-Mind-Adventures-Reaching-Summit/dp/0375714065) this morning. So far I’m liking it. ---
**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 25, 2008, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-08-edition/450936/124 "2008-06-25T17:27:59Z")
[QUOTE=Siam Sam] Is that Robert Graves by chance? If so, his _Claudius the God_ is next up in my queue after I finish my current read. (Read \*I, Claudius \* a few years ago.) [/QUOTE] Dat be he. I read _I, Claudius the God_ a few years ago during a hurricane. Like I said, I love two-thousand-year-old gossip. _Was_ there any man in Rome who had not slept with Augustus’ daughter? 😃 ---
**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 26, 2008, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-08-edition/450936/125 "2008-06-26T03:07:07Z")
[QUOTE=SpazCat] Dat be he. I read _I, Claudius the God_ a few years ago during a hurricane. Like I said, I love two-thousand-year-old gossip. _Was_ there any man in Rome who had not slept with Augustus’ daughter? 😃 [/QUOTE] And I shall begin that today, _Claudius the God_, by Robert Graves. I thoroughly enjoyed reading his _I, Claudius_ some years ago but never got around to reading the sequel. Then last month, I came across a copy in a used-book store in the town of Pai up in the North and bought it. I finished _My Thai Girl and I: How I Found a New Life in Thailand_, by Andrew Hicks. An excellent read, and I shall enjoy telling him so. The book has received some local publicity lately, but I first learned Andrew had a new book out when he e-mailed me about it. Not me alone, but rather a mass e-mailing to everyone he knew. But he got right back to me when I responded. This book is autobiographical, but the title is a nod to his fictional novel, _Thai Girl_. A super-nice guy, Andrew is an ex-London lawyer who has taught law in Nigeria, Hong Kong and Singapore and is now retired in Thailand. He lives with his Thai wife upcountry in the province of Surin, near Cambodia, in the large house they’ve built. He keeps an interesting blog about their life together [here](http://thaigirl2004.blogspot.com/). ---
**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 27, 2008, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-08-edition/450936/126 "2008-06-27T19:04:56Z")
I’ve been reading the first three of the Rabbi Small mysteries: _Friday the Rabbi Slept Late_, _Saturday the Rabbi Went Hungry_, and _Sunday the Rabbi Stayed Home_. They’re short, quiet little murder mysteries written in the 1960’s, centered around a young Rabbi in a small town in New England. There’s a lot of information in them about the Jewish religion - in particular the rabbi has several conversations with people about the differences between Christianity and Judaism, and the role of a rabbi versus that of a priest or minister. They’re a light read. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2008, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-08-edition/450936/127 "2008-06-28T07:08:36Z")
Right now ( I tend to read several books at once, skipping between them ), I’m rereading Roger Zelazny’s Amber series, and Simon R. Green’s Nightside series. I just finished re-reading David Weber & Steve White’s Starfire collaborations, and picked up Iain M. Bank’s new Culture book _Matter_ from the library. ---
**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 29, 2008, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-08-edition/450936/128 "2008-06-29T01:30:24Z")
I’m now reading Jules Verne’s **Hector Servadac** , better known as **Off on a Comet**. I’ve had this copy for years, and hadn’t read it until now. I’d read an abridged version several years ago, but I want the Real Thing. I have dug out or purchased several Verne books recently – his obscure **Meridiana** , the recently translated version of his original manuscript of [b} The Golden Volcano\*\* (without his son’s additions), the jusy-translated-for-the-first-time **The Mighty Orinoco**. And that’s not counting the stack left from Father’s Day and the books MilliCal is pushing me to read (Series of Unfortunate Events, Goosebumps) ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2008, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-08-edition/450936/129 "2008-06-30T18:34:57Z")
Finished _The Story of Edgar Sawtelle_ by David Wrobleski last night. Much of the story was mesmerizing. There were sections where I forgot I was reading. I was right there in Edgar’s skin, holding my breath. The writing was beautiful, not pretentious, and the relationships were believable. But I was very disappointed with the ending. I thought it was a bit too contrived. I realize that Wrobleski was doing _Hamlet_ and that the ending had to be tragic, but it was almost silly, how he got there. So the tragedy was diminished, and I felt cheated out of a good cry. Is anyone else reading this? It’s #2 on Amazon’s best seller list. It’s definitely worth reading, IMHO. I’ll finish _March_ now. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2008, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-08-edition/450936/130 "2008-06-30T22:22:31Z")
[QUOTE=Eleanor of Aquitaine] I’ve been reading the first three of the Rabbi Small mysteries: _Friday the Rabbi Slept Late_, _Saturday the Rabbi Went Hungry_, and _Sunday the Rabbi Stayed Home_. They’re short, quiet little murder mysteries written in the 1960’s, centered around a young Rabbi in a small town in New England. There’s a lot of information in them about the Jewish religion - in particular the rabbi has several conversations with people about the differences between Christianity and Judaism, and the role of a rabbi versus that of a priest or minister. They’re a light read. [/QUOTE] Stop it. Stop making odd books I’ve never heard of so freakingly inviting. You are a cruel woman. 🙂 On a lighter note, I bought [The Third Place](http://www.amazon.com/Celebrating-Third-Place-Inspiring-Communities/dp/1569246122/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1214864416&sr=8-1) > [@](#): > > Sociologist Oldenburg (The Great, Good Place) offers a compilation of essays on those places in America “where everybody knows your name.” What Oldenburg calls “the third place” is different from home and work (the first and second places respectively) it’s somewhere people can relax in good company on a regular basis. In this collection of 19 essays, proprietors and patrons of those third places describe how their establishments came into being and what exactly gives them their appeal. These third places aren’t just diners and coffeehouses: there are establishments as disparate as Annie’s Gift and Garden Shop, in Amherst, Mass., whose witty and provocative billboards provide a jumping-off point for conversation within the community, and Old St. George, an espresso bar located within a church’s sacristy in Cleveland, Ohio. There’s also the “great good gym” and, perhaps most surprising, an essay claiming prison to be the third place for many disadvantaged in American society. These charming and often thought-provoking essays, each written in a voice distinct as the place discussed, provide food for thought into the isolation our modern conveniences bring and people’s need to come together as a community. This book will strike a comforting chord for those questioning the status quo and desiring to live a more authentic and connected way of life. I am completely and totally digging it. And the book store I bought it from is featured in this book. Horizon Books in Traverse City. A MUST stop when you go to Traverse City. It is an awesome, SDMB kinda bookstore. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-08-edition/450936/131 "2008-07-01T03:00:01Z")
Only an hour left in June so this may be the last relevant entry in this thread. I finished off **Devil In the White City** and **Longitude** (they were very good) and have now moved on to **Enigma: The Battle for the Code** by Hugh Sebag-Montefiore 2000. I hope it’s as good as it looks on the cover. ---
**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 1, 2008, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-08-edition/450936/132 "2008-07-01T12:14:18Z")
[July thread.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=9957593#post9957593) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-08-edition/450936.md?page=6)