# Whatcha Readin' June 2010 Edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 31, 2010, 9:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-2010-edition/541366 "2010-05-31T09:34:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Surly\_Chick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@Surly\_Chick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surly_Chick)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2010, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-2010-edition/541366/61 "2010-06-06T21:41:05Z")
> [@I'm Not Dennis Bergkamp](#): > > I’m going to pick that up, too. I like Connolly from what little I’ve read - **The Book of Lost Things** and his short story collection, **Nocturnes** - but hadn’t heard anything about a detective series. I do have another one of his - **The Lovers** - on my reading pile, but haven’t looked at it yet. The Lovers is part of the Charlie Parker series. You’ll want to read the other ones first or you’ll not enjoy as much. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2010, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-2010-edition/541366/62 "2010-06-06T22:29:21Z")
I’m bracing myself to start **Ulysses** on Bloomsday – June 16. I forget it every year. A friend recommended a companion book to use with it that stresses its value to ordinary people. I bought this particular copy at Shakespeare and Co. in Paris – the original publishers. I don’t know why I’ve left such a gap in my education all of these years. No discouraging words, please. Even English teachers can be intimidated. My concentration is terrible. ---
**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 7, 2010, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-2010-edition/541366/63 "2010-06-07T01:28:06Z")
> [@Zoe](#): > > I’m bracing myself to start **Ulysses** on Bloomsday – June 16. I forget it every year. A friend recommended a companion book to use with it that stresses its value to ordinary people. I enjoyed _Ulysses_ but was thankful I’d just happened to have read _A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man_ first, because some of the characters are first introduced there. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-2010-edition/541366/64 "2010-06-07T01:35:21Z")
> [@Blue World](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-world/542232/1): > > I loved this bunch of really good horror short stories by Robert NcCammon. > Can anybody recommend something equally good? I really need short stories. Downloadable would be best. Not vampire, please! At least not the popular vampire/romance stuff. > Thanks, > mangeorge I _thought_ I put this as a seperate thread! I don’t think it belongs here, in **Khadaji’s** thread. Sorry ---
**Author:** ![Jman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jman/32/4416_2.png) [@Jman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jman)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-2010-edition/541366/65 "2010-06-07T01:42:17Z")
I have just started **Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter**. So far, it’s surprisingly good. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-2010-edition/541366/66 "2010-06-07T02:39:02Z")
> [@mangeorge](#): > > I _thought_ I put this as a seperate thread! I don’t think it belongs here, in **Khadaji’s** thread. > Sorry I moved it for ya. ---
**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 7, 2010, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-2010-edition/541366/67 "2010-06-07T12:22:03Z")
I just finished In An Evil Time, by Bill Pronzini. Can’t recommend it. I usually suck at solving mysteries or seeing the twist coming, but in this book I knew what was happening the whole time, and it annoyed me that the characters couldn’t see it. Starting now on The Wicker Man, by Robin Hardy and Anthony Shaffer. ---
**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 7, 2010, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-2010-edition/541366/68 "2010-06-07T12:55:17Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > Couple of good ones: > > _Crazy Like Us: The Globalization of the American Psyche_ by Ethan Watters. Looks at the role the U.S. – both the psychiatric establishment and the mass media – has had in shaping the way mental illness is framed around the world. Chapters on anorexia in Hong Kong; PTSD in Sri Lanka; schizophrenia in Tanzania; and the marketing of depression in Japan. Fascinating, thought-provoking. > > . This sounds fascinating! ---
**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 7, 2010, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-2010-edition/541366/69 "2010-06-07T12:57:49Z")
I am reading [Dawn of the Dreadfuls](http://www.amazon.com/Pride-Prejudice-Zombies-Dreadfuls-Classics/dp/1594744548/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1275915370&sr=8-1) a wonderful prequel, and better written IMHO, than Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Mr. Bennett is a famous Zombie Slayer from back in the day. Totally enjoying it. All classics should have zombie issues. ---
**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 7, 2010, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-2010-edition/541366/70 "2010-06-07T13:56:53Z")
> [@Shirley\_Ujest](#): > > …All classics should have zombie issues. The way things are going, within the next decade, they will. ---
**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 7, 2010, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-2010-edition/541366/71 "2010-06-07T14:38:48Z")
I’m about halfway through my first Kage Baker book, _In the Garden of Iden_, and so far I really like it. It’s time travel science fiction, and it’s pretty funny. I had never heard of Baker until she died early this year and I saw the thread about her. I finished _The Sun King: Louis XIV at Versailles_, which was first published in 1966. It was a fun book, a rather chaotic collection of anecdotes and gossip about Louis and his women, centered around their lives at Versailles. The author’s narrative is sarcastic and amusing with very little attempt at objectivity. It’s the size of a textbook with enough illustrations to make it a nice coffee table book. ---
**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 7, 2010, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-2010-edition/541366/72 "2010-06-07T20:17:23Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > I’m starting a new audiobook today, The Birthing House, by Christopher Ransom. I’ll give this fifteen more minutes (the length of my drive home) and then I quit. Gratuitous sex and the plot seems to have stalled. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-2010-edition/541366/73 "2010-06-07T21:54:25Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > I’ll give this fifteen more minutes (the length of my drive home) and then I quit. Gratuitous sex and the plot seems to have stalled. Once the sex stalls, there’s nothing left. ---
**Author:** ![Enterprise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/76d3ee/32.png) [@Enterprise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enterprise)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2010, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-2010-edition/541366/74 "2010-06-08T07:33:05Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > That was me – and, no, if you’re not into it yet, that’s not going to change once they get to America. It becomes more about the interactions between the two men, but if you don’t like either of them, there’s not going to be a payoff for you. (FTR, I didn’t particularly “like” either of them, either, but I thought they were interesting characters who provided complementary lenses through which to view the 19th century.) Oh well – I liked it, sorry it didn’t work out for you. Never mind, can’t have it all. I buy enough books without recommendation that I don’t like that I’ll gladly take the chance, and I do believe you’ve recommended stuff that I rather liked. Incidentally, on the way home Friday I stumbled across the paperback of Terry Pratchett’s _Unseen Academicals_, which I read instead of the stuff I suggested I might read. Very good book–I enjoyed the larger role for the Patrician in this, and the wizards, of course. Pratchett’s given himself a lot of very very interesting avenues to pursue, although I fear he won’t be able to. Incidentally, has the geography of the disk changed? Apparently, Fourecks is now easy enough to reach that you can have something of a regular faculty exchange with it; I thought it was basically unreachable? I also forgot that I had Jay Kantor’s _Krazy Kat_ lying around, which I’ll give a shot next. Might not make it far, but anyway… ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2010, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-2010-edition/541366/75 "2010-06-08T13:13:28Z")
> [@Sigmagirl](#): > > Now starting in at the beginning of Michael Koryta’s novels with _Tonight I Said Goodbye_. He’s coming to Cleveland for a book signing soon and his stuff gets good reviews, so I’m checking him out. Plus: Set in Cleveland, though he’s not from here. About two-thirds of the way through this and it is as good as any detective novel I’ve ever read, plus he was **21** when he wrote it. Unbelievable. People don’t write this good at 21. And I have three more from the library and he’ll be here on the 17th! I wasn’t clear enough about _House Rules_. I said “meh,” but it is worse than “meh.” I waited through that whole book to find out who killed Jess – Was it Jacob after all? Theo? Mark? Another suspect we hadn’t thought of? It was a fucking accident! ---
**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 8, 2010, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-2010-edition/541366/76 "2010-06-08T13:19:46Z")
Finished Dawn of the Dreadfuls and I give it two big bloody thumbs up. What a lovely romp! ---
**Author:** ![TheMerchandise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b487fb/32.png) [@TheMerchandise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheMerchandise)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2010, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-2010-edition/541366/77 "2010-06-08T14:05:37Z")
Recently, I finished: _Fatherland_, by Robert Harris. This seems to be a favorite around here. I enjoyed it quite a bit. The big reveal is obviously not surprising to anyone who has sat in on a world history class or turned on one of the History Channel’s bazillion documentaries about the Nazis. That doesn’t lessen the message of the book, but it does take the mystery out of the mystery. _The Lightning Thief_, by Rick Riordan. This is the first in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. It’s a fun, exciting YA book but it’s lacking the rich, well-developed cast of characters that Harry Potter or Artemis Fowl have. It’s the Percy Show, All Percy All The Time! _Rage_, by Richard Bachman. Meh. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2010, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-2010-edition/541366/78 "2010-06-08T14:28:01Z")
I’ve enjoyed a lot of Stephen King’s stories, so I pre-ordered _Under the Dome_. I got a few chapters in and just never opened it again for a long time. I recently picked it up again, and once more didn’t get back to it. Is it me, or is this another of his not-so-great novels. In other words, should I muscle on through to the good stuff, or just send it off to my daughter? She’s a rabid SK nut. 😉 I’m at about chapter three, iirc. ---
**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 8, 2010, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-2010-edition/541366/79 "2010-06-08T16:03:39Z")
From what I’ve seen, most Doper SK fans’ reaction to the book matches yours. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2010, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-2010-edition/541366/80 "2010-06-08T17:12:57Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > From what I’ve seen, most Doper SK fans’ reaction to the book matches yours. Oh well, off to Bakersfield for the ultimate test. 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-2010-edition/541366.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-2010-edition/541366.md?page=5)