# 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:** 7
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Who](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Doctor\_Who](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Who)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2010, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-2010-edition/541366/121 "2010-06-15T05:09:53Z")
> [@plankter](#): > > Finished **To Kill A Mockingbird**. Upon reflection I’m glad I read it on my own and not in school where the curriculum would doubtless analyse and explicate all the satisfaction out of it. A dvd of the movie to be borrowed sits in front of me as I type this on one of the library’s public computers. Ha! Mockingbird went from that book I somehow avoided reading during school to (many years later) one of my top five favorites just last year. Damn that’s a good 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 15, 2010, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-2010-edition/541366/122 "2010-06-15T13:53:16Z")
Partially read, then abandoned: Project 17, by Laurie Stolarz, a YA novel about 5 teens spending the night in an old mental hospital in order to film a class project. Amateurish. Then I read The Bad Seed, by William March. Decent. I vaguely remember the movie, and think it was probably even better. Beginning Dark Sister, by Graham Joyce. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2010, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-2010-edition/541366/123 "2010-06-15T16:09:03Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > Then I read The Bad Seed, by William March. Decent. I vaguely remember the movie, and think it was probably even better. The movie was okay, until the end anyway. I thought I had a copy of _Katherine_ but I don’t (sob!) so I’m reading a Christmas gift, _Russian Spring_ by Norman Spinrad. The weapons/tech talk is way over my head but the rest is fine. ---
**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 15, 2010, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-2010-edition/541366/124 "2010-06-15T16:29:36Z")
Made a lot of progress through Dan Chaon’s _Await Your Reply_ last night; now more than halfway done. Good stuff. The pieces are falling into place and I think I figured out who one of the characters really is. Also off-and-on reading _Vanished Armies_ by A.E. Haswell Miller, a wonderful contemporary handrawn picture book of European military uniforms from before World War I, and _Monarch_ by Robert Lacey, about Queen Elizabeth II’s life and times. ---
**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 15, 2010, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-2010-edition/541366/125 "2010-06-15T18:00:20Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > The movie was okay, until the end anyway. Actually, I do remember a very _striking_ scene from that movie…😛 I’d like to see it again because I think it would be a lot more interesting to see the little girl act the part of Rhoda than to read about it. ---
**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 15, 2010, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-2010-edition/541366/126 "2010-06-15T18:47:29Z")
I finished the Marcus Didius Falco book. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, because Falco has always had mixed feelings about this particular ambition, but: Falco has spent the last eight books trying to achieve elevation to the middle class so he can marry the senator’s daughter. In chapter two of this book Vespasian adds him to the equestrian list, and the event couldn’t have been more anti-climactic. Falco is almost depressed about it. I want to see a wedding! I’m reading _Quite Ugly One Morning_, by Christopher Brookmyre, which is a mystery/crime novel set in the 90’s in Edinburgh. It started out kind of gross, but now that it has eased away from vivid descriptions of bodily waste I’m enjoying it. It’s funny but quite cynical. Reminds me a little of a Coen brothers movie. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2010, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-2010-edition/541366/127 "2010-06-15T18:55:28Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > . > Then I read The Bad Seed, by William March. Decent. I vaguely remember the movie, and think it was probably even better. For some reason this made me think of Blue Denim. If you became an adult “post pill” you’ll probably think the story is an exaggeration. It’s not. I grew up during that era (late 50s, early 60s.) All that aside, it’s a pretty good book, and the movie’s okay too. I’m going to read it again. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2010, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-2010-edition/541366/128 "2010-06-15T19:22:31Z")
> [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](#): > > I’m reading _Quite Ugly One Morning_, by Christopher Brookmyre, which is a mystery/crime novel set in the 90’s in Edinburgh. It started out kind of gross, but now that it has eased away from vivid descriptions of bodily waste I’m enjoying it. It’s funny but quite cynical. Reminds me a little of a Coen brothers movie. From your mouth to Coen ears! I read this one a couple weeks ago and liked it, but the only thing about it that has stuck with me is the turd on the mantel. 🙂 **mangeorge** , I begged the Blue Denim movie poster from the theater owner and he gave it to me. And while we’re on the subject of teen sex in ancient times, TCM showed _Splendor in the Grass_ last night. I went to school with a girl who had a crack-up similar to Deenie’s, for much the same reasons. Parts of the “good old days” really sucked. ---
**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 15, 2010, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-2010-edition/541366/129 "2010-06-15T19:40:50Z")
> [@mangeorge](#): > > For some reason this made me think of Blue Denim. If you became an adult “post pill” you’ll probably think the story is an exaggeration. It’s not. I grew up during that era (late 50s, early 60s.) > All that aside, it’s a pretty good book, and the movie’s okay too. I’m going to read it again. Interlibrary loan request placed, thanks for the recommendation! ---
**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 16, 2010, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-2010-edition/541366/130 "2010-06-16T03:17:56Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > I just finished _The 42nd Parallel_, the first book in John Dos Passos’ [USA](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.A._trilogy) trilogy. It was truly excellent, and I recommend it to anyone with even the slightest interest in the first couple of decades of 20th-century America. He uses a bit of an odd storytelling style though, experimental, in that he separates the story lines of the main characters with “Newsreels,” a couple of pages of headlines and other snippets taken from contemporary newspapers, plus bits of song lyrics; and “The Camera Eye,” sort of a stream-of-concience autobiography of the author’s own life, also a page or two each. The “Newsreels” are okay, but I’m not sure how much I enjoy “The Camera Eye” segments; at least they’re not long. And short biographies of famous and obscure people of the time, anyone from Thomas Edison and Robert La Follette to Jack Reed and Charles Steinmetz. The theme is capitalism versus socialism and how the tension between the two influenced the development of America in the first three decades of the 20th century, and the characters are fascinatingly drawn. When he follows his capitalist characters, you think the author must be a capitalist himself, he’s so sympathetic. Then he follows a socialist character, and you think Ah Ha! He reveals himself now to be a true socialist, he’s so sympathetic to this character. Then back again. I enjoyed it thoroughly. > > The trilogy was published in one complete volume in 1938 and designed to be read as a whole, but supposedly they can be obtained separately and stand on their own. I have the trilogy in one volume (although not an original). The entire work is 1240 pages, _The 42nd Parallel_ about a third of that. I should have finished this first book ages ago, but the rioting in Bangkok has been a distraction. > > I am now about 50 pages into the second book, _1919_, and the same characters are continued. In fact, the focus has now shifted to seemingly minor characters in the first book. I know from reading about [Dos Passos](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dos_Passos) himself, one of the [Lost Generation](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Generation) along with Hemingway, that his political views ran a wide gamut throughout his life, from far left to far right. A social revolutionary who went to Spain during the Civil War, he came to admire Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s. > > I’m at the point in the trilogy now where the US enters World War I, and I’ve read that one character who volunteers and then lives in Paris after the war closely follows Dos Passos’ own career in the war and afterward. Finished John Dos Passos’ _1919_. Just as good as _The 42nd Parallel_. Am about to start the third book in his USA trilogy, _The Big Money_. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-2010-edition/541366/131 "2010-06-16T14:27:20Z")
_Russian Spring_ is interesting but there’s too much sex for me. I heard a good review about [So Cold the River](http://www.amazon.com/So-Cold-River-Michael-Koryta/dp/0316053635/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1276698107&sr=1-1) on NPR yesterday and went ahead and ordered it. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-2010-edition/541366/132 "2010-06-16T15:12:37Z")
Auntie Pam, I’ll have to see if I can find the podcast of that review! I’m going to an author signing for that tomorrow night! ---
**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, 2010, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-2010-edition/541366/133 "2010-06-16T15:35:36Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > Beginning Dark Sister, by Graham Joyce. Ditched on page 76 for plot holes and implausibility. :mad: I’m now on to House, by Frank Peretti and Ted Dekker. I’ve already found that it has cardboard characters and two word errors (both “discrete” instead of “discreet”), but it hasn’t quite bucked me off yet. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-2010-edition/541366/134 "2010-06-16T18:47:05Z")
> [@Sigmagirl](#): > > Auntie Pam, I’ll have to see if I can find the podcast of that review! I’m going to an author signing for that tomorrow night! [Here you go!](http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127561248) ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-2010-edition/541366/135 "2010-06-16T19:01:48Z")
Thanks many! Can’t listen at work, but will tonight at home (have to go to funeral first :(). ---
**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 16, 2010, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-2010-edition/541366/136 "2010-06-16T20:48:58Z")
Took a while to read all the posts from May & June and I’ve added 7 new books to my wishlist! Damn you all! _shakes fist_ Completed: **The Wolf’s Hour** by Robert McCammon ~ Reread. Liked it better this time around. **Quest for the White Witch** by Tanith Lee ~ This was the third in a series so I had no real idea of what was going on. Wasn’t interesting enough to backtrack. **Assassin’s Apprentice (The Farseer Trilogy, Book 1)** by Robin Hobb **Blonde Roots** by Bernardine Evaristo ~ Meh. Slavery reversed where black people enslaved white. Just not very interesting. **Banewreaker: Volume I of The Sundering** by Jacqueline Carey ~ Fantasy told from the POV of the ‘bad guys’. Think Lord of the Rings from Sauron’s POV. Boggy in the beginning but it soon snapped me up. **Pig’s Don’t Fly/Master of Many Treasures/Dragonne’s Egg** by Mary Brown ~ The first story is good, a girl goes on a quest with random animals and a blinded knight. The ending falls apart and the next two books are basically the same. **The Unteleported Man** by Philip K Dick ~ The first half is intriguing where a man is determined to take the slow boat to another colony to prove that the faster one-way teleporting system is sending people into a trap. The second half degrades into a prolonged LSD trip that was hella-lame. **Lies Across America: What Our Historic Sites Get Wrong** by James Loewen ~ Rant much? Holy crap. I felt that the author was in the same room as me, screaming and waving his arms around. Yes, people did shitty things in the past, it doesn’t mean that we all have to feel guilt for it. We all know that history is a constantly shifting beast but those that care will take the effort to look past what we’re told. You can’t bully people into giving a shit. **The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid** by Bill Bryson ~ As a fan of Bryson, I was hoping for more but it was just an ‘ok’ book although I was entranced by his descriptions of the town and stores of his youth. **Evil for Evil (Engineer Trilogy)** by KJ Parker ~ All the engineering you wanted to not know and just like the first in the series, it took a while to get going. I still have issues with the motivations of one of the characters and hope that the third book will solve the mystery. \*\*Royal Assassin (The Farseer Trilogy, Book 2) \*\*by Robin Hobb ~ Enjoyed. Plan on getting the last in the series in my next book order. **Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time** by Dava Sobel ~ Excellent. **Life List: Remembering the Birds of My Years** by John N Cole ~ So-so memoir that uses birds to tell stories of his life. **The Master Butchers Singing Club** by Louise Erdrich ~ Excellent. FAIL: **Ulysses** by James Joyce ~ I gave it about 130 pages but wasn’t getting into it. Reading: **Morte D’Arthur** **The Quincunx** **The Bloody White Baron: The Extraordinary Story of the Russian Nobleman Who Became the Last Khan of Mongolia** > [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > I was thinking about re-reading “The Stand” and starting a thread to discuss it - maybe give people a head’s-up so a bunch of us can re-read it and discuss it. If you do, please post the link here so I can subscribe to the thread. My version (the extended mix!) is still in storage somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-2010-edition/541366/137 "2010-06-16T20:57:02Z")
> [@Gulo\_gulo](#): > > Took a while to read all the posts from May & June > Reading: > > **Morte D’Arthur** > **The Quincunx** > **The Bloody White Baron: The Extraordinary Story of the Russian Nobleman Who Became the Last Khan of Mongolia** All excellent reads. ---
**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 16, 2010, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-2010-edition/541366/138 "2010-06-16T21:41:59Z")
> [@Gulo\_gulo](#): > > \*\*Royal Assassin (The Farseer Trilogy, Book 2) \*\*by Robin Hobb ~ Enjoyed. Plan on getting the last in the series in my next book order. I also liked the next two trilogies by Robin Hobb, set in the same universe as the Farseer books. She’s working on a fourth set now, and I’m waiting for her to complete it before buying them. I’d be in for a group read of _The Stand_, too. Haven’t read that in many years. ---
**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, 2010, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-2010-edition/541366/139 "2010-06-17T01:55:23Z")
> [@Gulo\_gulo](#): > > … > **Morte D’Arthur** … I highly recommend Thomas Berger’s _Arthur Rex_ for a wry but respectful recent retelling of the Arthurian legends. It seems I re-read it every decade or so and always enjoy it. ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2010, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-2010-edition/541366/140 "2010-06-17T14:52:04Z")
I’m a bit fixated on composers’ general biographies these days - searching out the ones that focus most on the composers’ lives, circles and influences and less on analysis of the composers’ works. I’ve read three of them in the last little while. I just finished [Britten](http://books.google.ca/books?id=RDAbe5kzC1gC&printsec=frontcover&dq=britten+christopher+headington&source=bl&ots=euVzXuvSY3&sig=2bEbmaku4BnyNpnHGBghUCh0uh4&hl=en&ei=lC8aTJG3IMPflgeL2cCXCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CB0Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false) by Cristopher Headington, which is part of the Illustrated Lives of the Great Composers series. It was well written, striking a good balance between writing about Britten’s open homosexuality (at a time when homosexuality was still a crime in the UK) without sensationalizing it. I did find the last section, which reprinted his various obituaries, to be rather odd - the book had documented reviews of his musical works throughout, and in that context, it struck me as being like the author was giving the critics’ reactions to Britten’s life. It was also interesting to read the biography of a composer whose death had affected my life - I remember the piano teacher at my small town conservatory had studied at the Britten-Pears school in Alderburgh, and posted Britten’s obituary on the door to his studio. It stayed there for months and I must have read it weekly while waiting to be picked up after guitar lessons. I finished the [Gabriel Fauré](http://www.amazon.com/Gabriel-20th-Century-Composers-Jessica-Duchen/dp/0714839329) by Jessica Duchen that I mentioned last month. It was well written - Fauré’s life is a difficult subject for a biographer because he is a much less controversial figure, and his influence on the music of the time is much more subtle than that of his contemporaries. It felt, at times, like I was reading yet another Carol Shields novel about the extraordinary lives of ordinary people. Finishing the Fauré prompted me to re-read the [Satie Remembered](http://books.google.ca/books?id=RVmvpIkBiJEC&dq=satie+remembered+robert+orledge&source=bl&ots=Wy6xTu7UcL&sig=ge9WtLxqg15kGKctOPGxKRrqooU&hl=en&ei=lywaTN6gBIGClAfdw6WDCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBQQ6AEwAA) by Robert Orledge, part of a series of (Composer) Remembered books which I want to pursue. The idea is simple - the composer’s contemporaries give their reflections and recollections, and those are edited into a loose chronological order, with all the contradictions and inaccuracies left intact. Of these three, the Satie is the one I would most recommend for someone who isn’t a musician - it is an exploration of an incredibly influential person in that great creative period that is Paris in the early 20th century. He was a character in the film “Moulin Rouge”, and he is one of history’s greatest eccentrics who deserves to be remembered for so much more than that one piano piece, “Gymnopédie No. 1”. I’m still reading through the Dorothy Sayers’ “The Complete Stories”. On the ‘to be read’ pile, I got the first Charles Todd Inspector Rutledge novel which I’ll start when I’m done the Sayers. I also got “Cigar Box Banjo”, Paul Quarrington’s posthumous ‘Notes on Music and Life’. The Can Lit section of the University Library is under renovation right now, so the contents of the shelves have been completely scrambled, the shelves themselves form an odd sort of Lab Rat maze and there’s nowhere to sit and sort through an armload of books. Rather than stopping me or even slowing me down, (I’m collecting poets and poems to suggest to composers as texts for contemporary art songs - yet another of my mad schemes!) I plunge on with fierce determination. Recent discoveries include Jill Battson, Ken Babstock, Jan Zwicky, Dave Margoshes and Tim Bowling. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-2010-edition/541366.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-june-2010-edition/541366.md?page=8)