# 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:** 6
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2009, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-09-edition/498254/101 "2009-06-16T22:01:02Z")
> [@SpazCat](#): > > I’m currently reading Procopius’ _The Secret History_ about the rule of Emperor Justinian and Empress Theodora in Byzantium in the 500s. Ah, ancient gossip. Now _that_ was a poision pen piece. 😃 [Ancient joke]Q: What did the Empress Theodora complain about? [/Ancient joke] A: That her body didn’t have enough holes to have sex with. ---
**Author:** ![tr0psn4j](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@tr0psn4j](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tr0psn4j)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2009, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-09-edition/498254/102 "2009-06-16T22:20:05Z")
Just finished For Whom The Bell Tolls and I’m continuing my Hemingway Fest by reading Old Man and the Sea. Should be a quick read. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![tr0psn4j](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@tr0psn4j](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tr0psn4j)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2009, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-09-edition/498254/103 "2009-06-17T05:13:05Z")
Meh, started reading it after work and I’m already done with it. On to The Garden of Eden although I feel a little weird reading an uncompleted novel. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2009, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-09-edition/498254/104 "2009-06-17T11:49:32Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > _The Hour I First Believed_ by Wally Lamb, whose _I Know This Much Is True_… Very, very dark, but absorbing. > [@twickster](#): > > Okay, I’m about halfway through it, and oy vey, the tsuris! … Those who have read it – should I keep going? > [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > 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? Well, I kept going. (I gave it one more chance before ditching it, and managed to get past that slogginess.) Overall: Not a great book. Fine, book about Columbine – do we _really_ need to add Katrina _and_ the war in Iraq to the mix? Plus the protagonist, who starts off as a selfish asshole, remains one pretty well all the way through it. (You’d think being a recovering alcoholic would make me more sympathetic to characters who are enmeshed in the disease – it doesn’t.) I like a big novel, but this goes well beyond sprawling and ends up utterly misshapen. I was disappointed by it. Moved on to _The Unlikely Disciple_ by Kevin Roose, about the Brown student who went to Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University for a semester. (My sister teaches at the “Quaker boarding school in the suburbs of Philadelphia” where he went to HS, and they had him come for a reading this past semester, so she loaned me her copy.) Liked it quite a bit. He was mentored by A.J. Jacobs, who wrote _The Year of Living Biblically_, which I read a year or so ago and liked quite a bit, and, like Jacobs, is genuinely open to the experience and isn’t operating from a set of snarky preconceptions. Finished this last night – not sure what’s next. > [@lieu](#): > > Loren Eisley is absolutely one of my favorite authors of all time. I recently started [**Darwin’s Century: Evolution and the Men Who Discovered It**](http://www.amazon.com/Darwins-Century-Evolution-Men-Discovered/dp/0385081413) and am loving it. It’s a work examining the progression of men and ideas at play during the time when our modern understanding of evolution began to coalesce. A thoughtful and fascinating read. This looks great – I’ve added it to my Amazon wishlist. ---
**Author:** ![yellowval](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/919ad9/32.png) [@yellowval](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yellowval)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2009, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-09-edition/498254/105 "2009-06-17T16:58:31Z")
I finally finished “Nicholas Nickleby” over the weekend. I’m about two-thirds of the way through “Love is Eternal” by Irving Stone, and just started “Winter’s Tale” by Mark Helprin. ---
**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 17, 2009, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-09-edition/498254/106 "2009-06-17T17:42:16Z")
A high school friend has been urging me to read _Winter’s Tale_ for decades but I have to admit I’ve never gotten around to it. Although I know the book’s apolitical, part of the reason I haven’t felt compelled to read it is that Helprin was a speechwriter and advisor to Bob Dole. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2009, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-09-edition/498254/107 "2009-06-17T17:59:57Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > A high school friend has been urging me to read _Winter’s Tale_ for decades but I have to admit I’ve never gotten around to it. Although I know the book’s apolitical, part of the reason I haven’t felt compelled to read it is that Helprin was a speechwriter and advisor to Bob Dole. I didn’t know that. I haven’t read _Winter’s Tale_ (it’s in the stack though) but I loved _Soldier of the Great War_ and _Memoir from Antproof Case_ (thanks **koeeoaddi** ). I wouldn’t have guessed Helprin was Republican, or conservative. He seems more like an aging hippie. Besides, Bob Dole is fairly moderate, isn’t he? I try to avoid learning too much about the private and political lives of authors I like. ---
**Author:** ![yellowval](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/919ad9/32.png) [@yellowval](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yellowval)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2009, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-09-edition/498254/108 "2009-06-17T18:24:05Z")
I did not know anything about Helprin until just now. I can’t say that the Bob Dole thing bothers me, even though I’m pretty liberal. I’ve always kind of liked Dole, truth be told I think “Winter’s Tale” ended up on my reading list after reading a thread here. It’s been on the list for almost two years and I’m trying to clean up my to-read list before adding any more. ---
**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 22, 2009, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-09-edition/498254/109 "2009-06-22T17:54:49Z")
Got a decent amount of reading done this weekend! Read Small Favor, part of Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files series. Very very good. I’m sad that I’ve nearly caught up with the series… Next I started on Heroes of the Valley, by Jonathan Stroud, who wrote the excellent Bartimaeus trilogy. Maybe it was too soon after the Dresden Files book, but by page 50 I realized that although it was a decent enough book, I just didn’t care enough to go on, so I didn’t. Finally, I read The Last Unicorn, by Peter S. Beagle. It was nice, but didn’t move me as much as I’d expected from the reviews I’ve heard. I guess I waited too long to get around to it. It was well written, though. Sample enjoyable sentence: Soft, baggy birds squatted on the rocks, snickering, “Saidso, saidso.” ---
**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 22, 2009, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-09-edition/498254/110 "2009-06-22T18:15:50Z")
Just finished \*\*The Bridge at San Luis Rey \*\*and **We Interrupt This Broadcast.** I think I’ll start **Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway** next. ---
**Author:** ![Enterprise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/76d3ee/32.png) [@Enterprise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enterprise)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2009, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-09-edition/498254/111 "2009-06-22T19:17:49Z")
> [@Hypno-Toad](#): > > Just finished \*\*The Bridge at San Luis Rey \*\*and **We Interrupt This Broadcast.** I think I’ll start **Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway** next. The last one is an outstanding piece of historical detective work, elegant prose, and erudite learning. I cannot too highly recommend it, IF you have a basic understanding of Midway. If not, start with something else, like Gordon Prange’s book. You’ll still need to read Parshall & Tully’s book, but it’ll get you the background you need. I’ve had to alter my reading list somewhat. I’m done with _The American Adam_ and have started instead on Henry Nash Smith’s _Virgin Land_, but my re-reading of _The Known World_ was preempted by a first read of Naomi Novik’s _His Majesty’s Dragon_ which though a strange setup was excellent, I cannot recommend it too highly. I’ve also come into possession of copies of _The Treason of Isengard_ and _The War of the Ring_, which have proved much more interesting (or at least readable) then _The Book of Lost Tales (I)_. ---
**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 22, 2009, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-09-edition/498254/112 "2009-06-22T19:22:48Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > Now _that_ was a poision pen piece. 😃 > > [Ancient joke]Q: What did the Empress Theodora complain about? [/Ancient joke] > > A: That her body didn’t have enough holes to have sex with. I did enjoy the chapter about Theodora’s premarital whorin’ around. I’m slogging through _The Alexiad of Anna Comnena_ right now. It’s not nearly as much fun as Procopius. I’m also re-reading Hawthorne’s _The House of the Seven Gables_. I read it back in high school, but I don’t remember anything about it except one of the characters was named Hepzibah, which I think is a cool name. ---
**Author:** ![yellowval](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/919ad9/32.png) [@yellowval](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yellowval)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2009, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-09-edition/498254/113 "2009-06-22T19:33:00Z")
I just finished “Love is Eternal,” the historical fiction about Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln. It was an interesting read. I didn’t know who Irving Stone was before I read it, but plan to check out his other historical fictions at some point. Up next is “Night” by Elie Weisel. I’m also about 250 pages into “Winter’s Tale.” I didn’t realize before starting that it was fantasy, which I usually don’t read. However, I really like it so far. ---
**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 22, 2009, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-09-edition/498254/114 "2009-06-22T20:52:04Z")
> [@SpazCat](#): > > I did enjoy the chapter about Theodora’s premarital whorin’ around… A Roman noblewoman in Mel Brooks’s _History of the World, Part I_, speaking to an aide as she eyes a well-built job applicant: “Do I have any openings that this man might fill?” ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2009, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-09-edition/498254/115 "2009-06-22T21:01:58Z")
> [@SpazCat](#): > > I did enjoy the chapter about Theodora’s premarital whorin’ around. > > I’m slogging through _The Alexiad of Anna Comnena_ right now. It’s not nearly as much fun as Procopius. I’m also re-reading Hawthorne’s _The House of the Seven Gables_. I read it back in high school, but I don’t remember anything about it except one of the characters was named Hepzibah, which I think is a cool name. Speaking of famous whores (or whores who went on to be famous …) I’m reading a bio of John Churchill, the Duke of Marlborough (the original “Marlborough Man” :D) who has to set some kind of record in that line … he started his career (and personal fortune) as, essentially, a well-paid boy-toy;\* his sister was whored out to James II; his wife was (perhaps) a lesbian mistress for Queen Anne before she fell from favour … \*He invested the gifts he received for carnal services rendered in an annuity when he was down-and-out - proved a very good investment. ---
**Author:** ![Invisible\_Chimp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f05b48/32.png) [@Invisible\_Chimp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Invisible_Chimp)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2009, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-09-edition/498254/116 "2009-06-22T22:30:24Z")
I finally got around to finishing “The Left Hand of Darkness.” Winter was an interesting place, but much too cold for my taste. I just finished the first chapter of “The Gun Seller” by Gregory House, MD. Apparently he submitted the manuscript anonymously because he didn’t want to be just another celebrity author and came clean when it was accepted for publication, to drum up sales. ---
**Author:** ![tr0psn4j](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@tr0psn4j](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tr0psn4j)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2009, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-09-edition/498254/117 "2009-06-22T22:35:00Z")
Finished Garden of Eden yesterday and will continue reading Hemingway. I’m going to re-read The Sun Also Rises right when I need to go to the bathroom for poopy. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2009, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-09-edition/498254/118 "2009-06-23T00:05:54Z")
Finished _Night Life_ by Caitlin Kittredge. This was a totally cliched and uninspired urban fantasy. I originally bought it because there are others in the series already and I thought it would be nice to have a fun read to fall back on. This won’t be it. Lady copy, also a were without a pack. Superior who hates her. Alpha of nearby pack who wants/infuriates her. Bad stupid dialog. It is odd that I can suspend disbelief and accept weres and witches, but throw in stupid-made up curse words and it takes me right out of the story. The author substitutes the word Hex for Damn. So we have peoples saying stupid things like “hex you” and “Here, take the hexed thing” and - well you get the idea. Horrible. I’m not even sure it will last to be traded. ---
**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 23, 2009, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-09-edition/498254/119 "2009-06-23T02:57:31Z")
Just finished _The Garden at Buckingham Palace_ by Jane Brown, a big illustrated volume on… well, you know. Some great pictures and very interesting, well-researched text. The Queen has a veritable small forest in the heart of London, and it looks great. Some of the trees are hundreds of years old. Any Anglophile or person interested in the British monarchy should check this book out. ---
**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 23, 2009, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-09-edition/498254/120 "2009-06-23T04:27:46Z")
I just started _The Wood Wife_, by Terri Windling. It’s a fantasy/mystery that takes place near where I live, in the Desert Southwest. So far, I absolutely love it because both mythology she creates around the desert and the details of what it’s actually like here are dead on perfect. I hope the story lives up to the poetry. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-09-edition/498254.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-09-edition/498254.md?page=7)