# Whatcha Readin' (May 09) Edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 2, 2009, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-may-09-edition/495077 "2009-05-02T10:59:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2009, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-may-09-edition/495077/121 "2009-05-15T14:49:57Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > How does Clement Atlee, Churchill’s successor, come off? I’ve always wanted to learn more about him. I’m barely up to 1947, but so far he’s coming across as well-intentioned, but often overwhelmed. **Judith Prietht** , it’s grim but not so grim that it’s hard to read, I think you will find it worthwhile. I keep meaning to add to the chorus of people who loved _The Crimson Petal and the White,_ but I’d be a failure at contributing to a discussion about it now … it was so driven by the details and I’ve forgotten a lot since I’ve read it. **DoctorWho,** I’ve loved all of Pinkwater’s books that I’ve read, and my all-time favorite is _Lizard Music_. I’m always a little surprised he isn’t more popular, both in general and with Dopers. And going back to Austerity Britain, it’s so large (it came in hard cover from the library) I can’t drag it around on my commute. So I started _The Knife of Never Letting Go_, YA futuristic/ dystopian fiction. I usually keep notes about where I heard about a book, but this one I lost track of. It might have even been recommended by someone in one of these threads. Whoever you are, thanks – this book is fantastic so far. ---
**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:** [May 15, 2009, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-may-09-edition/495077/122 "2009-05-15T15:02:34Z")
I’m about half way through and struggling not to thoroughly dislike _Will You Take Me As I Am: Joni Mitchell’s Blue Period_, by Michelle Mercer. There are some wonderful moments, but so far they are almost entirely Joni, verbatim. The author puts herself into the narrative far too much (we find out, for instance, that she has a Joni litmus test for prospective boyfriends, where she sits the candidate down, makes him listen to _Blue_ and then quizzes him :rolleyes:). I’m probably being a tad too harsh, she’s not a bad writer, really, but I’m increasingly impatient with her and as she explicates, theorizes and explains my attention wanders off until the next Joni quote snaps it back. Joni, I’m begging you, write your own book. ---
**Author:** ![tnetennba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@tnetennba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tnetennba)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2009, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-may-09-edition/495077/123 "2009-05-16T23:59:05Z")
Delphica, you might already know there’s a sequel to Neddiad out now, The Yggyssey. My favorite Pinkwater novel, and one of my favorite novels, period, is Alan Mendelsohn, the Boy from Mars. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2009, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-may-09-edition/495077/124 "2009-05-17T00:09:39Z")
I just started _Sweat_ by the late Jay B. Laws. Heard about it on another board, in a thread about one-hit (book) wonders. I _think_ it’s about a haunted bath house in the early years of the AIDS epidemic, but there’s a spooky figure who might be a vampire. It’s pretty good, so far. ---
**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:** [May 17, 2009, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-may-09-edition/495077/125 "2009-05-17T02:07:27Z")
I finished _Death Masks_, by Jim Butcher, which is my favorite of the Dresden Files books so far. Due to the comments in this thread, I’m reading _Duma Key_. I quit reading King a long time ago, but this sounds good to me now. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2009, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-may-09-edition/495077/126 "2009-05-17T02:22:21Z")
> [@wonderlust](#): > > Due to the comments in this thread, I’m reading _Duma Key_. I quit reading King a long time ago, but this sounds good to me now. Just when you thought you were out, we pull you back in. 🙂 His next opus is _Under the Dome_, projected at 1500 pages. The synopsis on King’s website sounds a lot like Robert McCammon’s _Stinger_. “On an entirely normal, beautiful fall day in Chester’s Mill, Maine, the town is inexplicably and suddenly sealed off from the rest of the world by an invisible force field. Planes crash into it and fall from the sky in flaming wreckage, a gardener’s hand is severed as “the dome” comes down on it, people running errands in the neighboring town are divided from their families, and cars explode on impact. No one can fathom what this barrier is, where it came from, and when—or if—it will go away.” ---
**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:** [May 17, 2009, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-may-09-edition/495077/127 "2009-05-17T03:18:33Z")
Hit the [Fine Balance](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=517874) with the Robert Goddard _Name to a Face_ at the Y today and just finished it on the couch. It’s really nice to see him deliberately breaking his own formula in the last few novels - he still loves to have an outsider/loser who comes into his own when faced with a conspiracy beyond his understanding, but his twists and turns (not to mention his writing style) more than make up for the similarities between his works. Next up - I think I’ll take up _100 Years of Solitude._ ---
**Author:** ![SkeptiJess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@SkeptiJess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkeptiJess)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2009, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-may-09-edition/495077/128 "2009-05-17T07:10:11Z")
> [@schnuckiputzi](#): > > Am re-reading my Sookie Stackhouse books to be all up-to-date to read the ninth one that I got in the mail yesterday. Wonderful fluffy stuff, those books are. Just the thing to relax with after trying to herd teenagers who are antsy for school to be out. I just did the same thing and just now finished reading the ninth Sookie book (Dead and Gone). It was good. More cohesive than the eighth book (Dead To The World) which, although I quite enjoyed it, read more like a series of interconnected short stories than a novel. Also, Dead and Gone was _dark_ – much, MUCH darker than the rest of the series. This is the thing about Harris – she is deceptively ‘fluffy,’ but then she’ll write something that will chill you to the bone. She is not gory, really – she is most emphatically not Laurell K. Hamilton – but she can be _really_ dark without being at all explicit. I’ve seen examples of this in her other writings, particularly the Aurora Teagarden series. That series is frequently marketed as a ‘cozy mystery’ series, yet one of the earlier books had a sentence (really – just a sentence; and not a gory one either) that was among the most heartwrenching and terrifying I’ve ever read. I’m going out of town next weekend and I’m taking My War: Killing Time in Iraq (a recommndation from my son) with me, along with Cemetary Dance by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2009, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-may-09-edition/495077/129 "2009-05-17T11:36:31Z")
> [@wonderlust](#): > > I finished _Death Masks_, by Jim Butcher, which is my favorite of the Dresden Files books so far. Due to the comments in this thread, I’m reading _Duma Key_. I quit reading King a long time ago, but this sounds good to me now. I’ll be interested in your opinion. I only like a handful of King novels, but when he is good he is very good. ---
**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:** [May 17, 2009, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-may-09-edition/495077/130 "2009-05-17T13:00:45Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > …“On an entirely normal, beautiful fall day in Chester’s Mill, Maine, the town is inexplicably and suddenly sealed off from the rest of the world by an invisible force field. Planes crash into it and fall from the sky in flaming wreckage, a gardener’s hand is severed as “the dome” comes down on it, people running errands in the neighboring town are divided from their families, and cars explode on impact. No one can fathom what this barrier is, where it came from, and when—or if—it will go away.” I blame the EPA. And if Tom Hanks does an ad for it, I won’t be a bit surprised. ---
**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:** [May 17, 2009, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-may-09-edition/495077/131 "2009-05-17T16:19:39Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > “On an entirely normal, beautiful fall day in Chester’s Mill, Maine, the town is inexplicably and suddenly sealed off from the rest of the world by an invisible force field. Planes crash into it and fall from the sky in flaming wreckage, a gardener’s hand is severed as “the dome” comes down on it, people running errands in the neighboring town are divided from their families, and cars explode on impact. No one can fathom what this barrier is, where it came from, and when—or if—it will go away.” A book with a similar scenario, but on an entirely science fictional scale, is Hugo Award Winner **Spin** , by Robert Charles Wilson. Earth is sealed off from the rest of the universe, and even time progresses at a slowed rate. I highly recommend it for others who might be interested. ---
**Author:** ![schnuckiputzi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecb155/32.png) [@schnuckiputzi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/schnuckiputzi)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2009, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-may-09-edition/495077/132 "2009-05-18T15:11:13Z")
I finished Willis’ _To Say Nothing of the Dog_, which I thought was very good. Sort of a time travel written by Wodehouse, although the end did drag on a bit. I’m in the middle of \*To Kingdom Come \*by Will Thomas, the second of his Sherlock Holmes-type detective stories. The first dealt with anti-Semitism, the second, set in 1884, deals with ‘the Irish question’. Good characterization, and you’re never sure where Barker is headed next. ---
**Author:** ![TheMerchandise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b487fb/32.png) [@TheMerchandise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheMerchandise)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2009, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-may-09-edition/495077/133 "2009-05-18T16:08:32Z")
Recently, I’ve finished: _Lamentation_, Ken Scholes. This is one of the best fantasy books I’ve read in quite a while, on a par with _Game of Thrones_ or _Name of the Wind_. The world, concept, and characters are very fresh. Recommend highly. I’m already itching for the rest of the series. _The Mole People_, by Jennifer Toth. Deals with homeless living in the tunnels of NYC. I read this for my book club and then came to find Cecil wrote two columns on the phenomenon of mole people. Apparently, a lot of Toth’s work is probably make-believe and hearsay. I was pretty disappointed in the whole thing. _Duma Key_. I found this book really engaging; read it in just two days. Definitely one of the better books King has done in the last few years. I enjoyed his change of scenery and I enjoyed the first person narration. **AuntiePam** , the new book description sounds interesting. I just started _The Protector’s War_, by S. M. Stirling, part of The Change series. I liked the first well enough, but I notice this book has a lot of lukewarm reviews online. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2009, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-may-09-edition/495077/134 "2009-05-18T16:22:57Z")
_Poorly Made in China,_ being a tour of how Chinese factories make stuff so cheap. Remarkable the books that are not on the Kindle yet; for example _Austerity Britain 1945-1951._ ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2009, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-may-09-edition/495077/135 "2009-05-18T18:09:56Z")
_Three Day Road_ by Joseph Boyden. It’s told from two points of view. One is an old Cree woman and the other is her nephew, just back (minus a leg) from WWI. It’s quite bleak, but the bleakness is balanced somewhat by the author’s descriptions of landscape and wildlife. As a coddled 21st century American, I continue to be amazed (and a bit envious) of people who lived so close to nature. Sleeping outdoors by choice? And you’re not camping? ---
**Author:** ![infinitii](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e8c25b/32.png) [@infinitii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/infinitii)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2009, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-may-09-edition/495077/136 "2009-05-18T18:50:35Z")
> [@gallows\_fodder](#): > > I’m reading Bryan Boyd’s **Nabokov’s _Ada_** , and (much more slowly) Nabokov’s _Ada, or Ardor_. I got about 25 pages into _Ada_ itself and realized I needed some sort of guide into this strange world, and I have to say, Boyd’s guide is awesome. (And Nabokov! My GOD. Seriously, what that man does with language makes him like unto a god.) Ada is one of my favourite books of all time. I haven’t heard of Boyd’s book, but I was always curious if there existed something like Stuart Gilbert’s Ulysses for Nabokov-- thank you for introducing me. ---
**Author:** ![tnetennba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@tnetennba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tnetennba)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2009, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-may-09-edition/495077/137 "2009-05-18T20:39:03Z")
I read Brian Boyd’s book on Pale Fire and found it very illuminating. MUCH better than Appel’s annotated Lolita. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2009, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-may-09-edition/495077/138 "2009-05-18T20:45:08Z")
I started \*\*\*Infinite Jest \*\*\*a few days ago. I’ll check back in July… ---
**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:** [May 18, 2009, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-may-09-edition/495077/139 "2009-05-18T22:11:59Z")
Reassure me: something eventually does happen in _The Left Hand of Darkness_? It’s not all ENDLESS POLITICAL MACHINATIONS? ---
**Author:** ![Laudenum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7993a0/32.png) [@Laudenum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laudenum)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2009, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-may-09-edition/495077/140 "2009-05-18T22:16:03Z")
I’ve read so far Going Postal, Feet of Clay, Equal rites by Terry Pratchett (reread) Jeckyl and Hyde, The Beach of Falesa (SP?) and The Ebb Tide by Rober Louis Stephenson. Haven’t finished The Ebb Tide, and have started The Butcher Boy. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-may-09-edition/495077.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-may-09-edition/495077.md?page=8)