# Whatcha Readin' (June 09) Edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 31, 2009, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-09-edition/498254 "2009-05-31T11:25:08Z")\ **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 9, 2009, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-09-edition/498254/61 "2009-06-09T21:16:47Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > Today I begin the audiobook version of The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters. This is getting great reviews. There’s one on NPR’s front page but it’s slightly spoilerish, or I’d link to it. It’s being compared to _The Haunting of Hill House_. I don’t think Waters’ language is as magical as Jackson’s, but it’s a hell of a story, and quite creepy. I’m reading _Stone’s Fall_, a new one by Iain Pears. It’s about the mysterious death of a financier. I really like it. There are three narrators. So far, I’ve just met one, but I like him. He’s witty and self-deprecating and he notices stuff, and asks the questions that I would ask. ---
**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 9, 2009, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-09-edition/498254/62 "2009-06-09T22:55:38Z")
I found _A People’s History of the United States_ to be oppressively preachy, guilt-ridden and pedantic. Yes, too many Americans don’t know enough about the less pleasant parts of our country’s past, but jeez, Zinn just wallows in it. Every Indian is a nature-loving nobleman, every businessman is a rapacious tycoon, and every soldier is a bloodthirsty maniac. Blech. I really, really wanted to like the _Star Trek_ comedy _How Much for Just the Planet_, but the author forgot the funny. I barely smiled. Didn’t do anything for me at all. Peter David’s early ST books (_Imzadi_ and _Q-in-Law_, in particular) have far more laughs, and yet overall they’re serious books. ---
**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 10, 2009, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-09-edition/498254/63 "2009-06-10T01:40:21Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > I found _A People’s History of the United States_ to be oppressively preachy, guilt-ridden and pedantic. Yes, too many Americans don’t know enough about the less pleasant parts of our country’s past, but jeez, Zinn just wallows in it. Every Indian is a nature-loving nobleman, every businessman is a rapacious tycoon, and every soldier is a bloodthirsty maniac. Blech. Ditto. ---
**Author:** ![TheMerchandise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b487fb/32.png) [@TheMerchandise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheMerchandise)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2009, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-09-edition/498254/64 "2009-06-10T13:23:41Z")
I fear that I’m treading on a classic when I say this, but I hated _Over Sea, Under Stone_. The personalities of the three children were interchangeable. The villains seemed toothless. And the mystery and treasure hunt was boring and everything came too easily. Personally, I was hoping for more fantastical elements as well. Now I’m reading _The Ghost Map_ by Steven Johnson, about a cholera epidemic in Victorian-era London and how it lead to the development of a more modern sewer system. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2009, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-09-edition/498254/65 "2009-06-10T14:07:43Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > _The Hour I First Believed_ by Wally Lamb, … > > Very, very dark, but absorbing. Okay, I’m about halfway through it, and oy vey, the tsuris! His wife is in prison, Velvet (troubled teenager from Colorado) has shown up in Connecticut – yeah, no problem, I’m sure she saw the _New Yorker_ article, working as a janitor wherever the hell she was – and two Katrina refuges have just appeared. Really? Katrina? We needed that too? Is there any light at the end of this tunnel? I am willing to ditch a book, even 300 pages into it, if I pick it up with dread when reading time rolls around. Those who have read it – should I keep going? ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2009, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-09-edition/498254/66 "2009-06-10T14:18:58Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Ditto. Trio. I’m reading **The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis** by, Max Shulman. What a delight! And what an adorably feckless horndog was our Dobie. ---
**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 10, 2009, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-09-edition/498254/67 "2009-06-10T14:39:03Z")
Finished The Crimson Petal and The White. Oh, it was wonderful! Not real highbrow, but a riveting story and clever writing. I even chuckled at the author’s acknowledgements at the end. Also read The Compound, by S.A. Bodeen. Interesting, but about halfway through, the incredulity quotient just got too high for me. Okay, you have all the money in the world, and Dad’s a nut, but he wants you to _what_ now? Mmmm…no. ---
**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 10, 2009, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-09-edition/498254/68 "2009-06-10T14:44:59Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > Those who have read it – should I keep going? If you really are picking it up with dread, no. But if you’re interested enough to go on, I don’t think you’ll feel crushed when it’s all over. True, you won’t be dancing either. 🙂 How’s that? ---
**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 10, 2009, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-09-edition/498254/69 "2009-06-10T17:38:25Z")
I’ve started Tanya Huff’s new book, _The Enchantment Emporium_, and so far I really like it. I think it’s the start of a new series. She’s good about not letting her series drag on too long - they’re all either three or five books. ---
**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 10, 2009, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-09-edition/498254/70 "2009-06-10T17:48:04Z")
I put down Mark Steyn’s _America Alone_ without finishing it after rolling my eyes all too many times at his hard-right sarcasm, and have turned with pleasure to John Scalzi’s _Zoe’s Tale_. This sf novel is essentially the same story as Scalzi’s excellent _The Last Colony_, but told from the perspective of the hero’s adopted teenage daughter. I’m about 60 pages in and am really enjoying it. It’s especially good to learn more about the Obin, the alien species which worships Zoe (long story short: her late dad was very, very helpful to them). The Obin are pretty much what Vulcans would be if they were very tall spiders. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2009, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-09-edition/498254/71 "2009-06-10T20:54:03Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > Finished The Crimson Petal and The White. Oh, it was wonderful! Not real highbrow, but a riveting story and clever writing. I even chuckled at the author’s acknowledgements at the end. > > Also read The Compound, by S.A. Bodeen. Interesting, but about halfway through, the incredulity quotient just got too high for me. Okay, you have all the money in the world, and Dad’s a nut, but he wants you to _what_ now? Mmmm…no. That’s what I loved about _The Compound_, it’s like high camp, it’s so crazy with the completely unrealistic drama. And I just finished _The Apple_, recommended in last month’s thread – it’s a follow up of short stories about some of the characters from _The Crimson Petal and the White_. I liked most of them, but to be honest, I realized I greatly preferred the ones that took place in the character’s lives before the events of _Crimson etc_. Some took place after, and I felt a little … hemmed in, in some cases, by finding out what happened to them. I liked the unknown potential more. It’s not ALL that detailed about what happens next, but still. ---
**Author:** ![Enterprise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/76d3ee/32.png) [@Enterprise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enterprise)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2009, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-09-edition/498254/72 "2009-06-11T08:00:42Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > I found _A People’s History of the United States_ to be oppressively preachy, guilt-ridden and pedantic. Yes, too many Americans don’t know enough about the less pleasant parts of our country’s past, but jeez, Zinn just wallows in it. Every Indian is a nature-loving nobleman, every businessman is a rapacious tycoon, and every soldier is a bloodthirsty maniac. Blech. Doesn’t he. Well, I suppose we’ll call it a corrective lens or something like that. Anyway, it’s okay in small doses…Hugh Brogan’s _Penguin History of the United States_ is far, far better though. I have finished Nick Harkaway’s _The Gone-Away World_. What an astounding read, and (to me, though probably not to some) unexpected twist towards the end. Though he laid it in, with the transformation of the stupid Captain, that the Stuff could make two people out of one, to have that second person narrate (in the present tense, to boot!) stuff that happened earlier (or as the case may be, actually didn’t happen), was a brilliant idea. Something that really appealed to my constructivist side. Next up: Still on _The Fellowship of the Ring_. I’ll probably start reading _Israel Potter_ by Herman Melville next, or or possibly _Gormenghast_ by Mervyn Peake. I don’t know yet… ---
**Author:** ![SkeptiJess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@SkeptiJess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkeptiJess)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2009, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-09-edition/498254/73 "2009-06-11T14:04:50Z")
> [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](#): > > I’ve started Tanya Huff’s new book, _The Enchantment Emporium_, and so far I really like it. I think it’s the start of a new series. This sounds like fun. I think I’ll pick it up when I’ve finished with my current crop. I just finished Murder on Waverly Place by Victoria Thompson, and I liked it quite a lot. I enjoy this series anyway (mysteries set in New York in the late 1900s, with a midwife protagonist) but this was one of my favorites, very skeptically revolving around a seance scam. Now I’m reading the second-to-the-latest Maisie Dobbs mystery (An Incomplete Revernge), with the latest (Among the Mad) to follow up. ---
**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 11, 2009, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-09-edition/498254/74 "2009-06-11T19:39:07Z")
**Auntie Pam** , I meant to respond to your comment about The Little Stranger. I liked Affinity a lot, so I was really looking forward to TLS. So far, it’s getting off to a slow start, without even a hint of there being anything going on with the house, but that’s okay. It surprises me very much that anyone would compare it with Hill House, but that only makes me want to go faster! ---
**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 13, 2009, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-09-edition/498254/75 "2009-06-13T03:03:46Z")
Finished _The Mission Song_, by John Le Carre. It was okay. Better than a lot of his recent stuff, I’d say. But I doubt he’ll ever equal his Cold War tales. Next up: _An American Tragedy_, by Theodore Dreiser. ---
**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 13, 2009, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-09-edition/498254/76 "2009-06-13T03:09:05Z")
I’m now almost halfway through Scalzi’s _Zoe’s Tale_, and am really enjoying it. A lot of laughs and some nifty behind-the-scenes stuff either omitted or only alluded to in the previous book in the series, _The Last Colony_. The narrator, a smart and somewhat snarky teenage girl, has a very amusing narrative voice. I’ve also started re-reading Tolkien’s _The Silmarillion_, and am just beginning the third chapter. So far so good - it’s all coming back to me. ---
**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 14, 2009, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-09-edition/498254/77 "2009-06-14T01:39:48Z")
I tried reading Barbara Goldsmith’s **Johnson V. Johnson** , about the nefarious _Dallas_-like doings of families who owned Johnson and Johnson, but after getting 1/4 of the way into its bulk, I decided that I have a low threshold of tolerance for gossip and scandal. > **[Johnson V. Johnson: Goldsmith, Barbara: 9780440200413: Amazon.com: Books](https://www.amazon.com/Johnson-V-Barbara-Goldsmith/dp/0440200415)** > > Johnson V. Johnson \[Goldsmith, Barbara\] on Amazon.com. \*FREE\* shipping on qualifying offers. Johnson V. Johnson So I started reading James Chapman’s **Inside the Tardis** , a cultural history of Doctor Who > **[Inside the Tardis: The Worlds of Doctor Who: Chapman, James: 9781845111632:...](https://www.amazon.com/Inside-Tardis-Worlds-Doctor-Who/dp/184511163X)** > > Inside the Tardis: The Worlds of Doctor Who \[Chapman, James\] on Amazon.com. \*FREE\* shipping on qualifying offers. Inside the Tardis: The Worlds of Doctor Who ---
**Author:** ![wonderlust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonderlust/32/7237_2.png) [@wonderlust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonderlust)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2009, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-09-edition/498254/78 "2009-06-14T03:16:02Z")
Yay, finally finished **Duma Key**. Reading it was a wonderful experience. I know the characters will stay with me for a long time. Thanks for the nudge to read this. I’m now in that deliciously odd limbo between books, and before I know what I will read next. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2009, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-09-edition/498254/79 "2009-06-14T11:43:44Z")
> [@wonderlust](#): > > Yay, finally finished **Duma Key**. Reading it was a wonderful experience. I know the characters will stay with me for a long time. Thanks for the nudge to read this. I’m now in that deliciously odd limbo between books, and before I know what I will read next. It has been a _long_ time since I have enjoyed a King book, but based on the many reviews here, I have purchased **Duma Key**. ---
**Author:** ![TheMerchandise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b487fb/32.png) [@TheMerchandise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheMerchandise)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2009, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-09-edition/498254/80 "2009-06-14T15:49:07Z")
Finished \*The Ghost Map \*this morning. Usually non-fiction books take me twice as long to read as a novel, but this was so interesting that I couldn’t put it down. Starting _The Strain._… I love Guillermo del Toro and I love Ron Perlman (who reads the audio on the audiobook) so I’m very excited. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-09-edition/498254.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-09-edition/498254.md?page=5)