# Whatcha Readin' May 2012 Edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 30, 2012, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-may-2012-edition/620448 "2012-04-30T21:05:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![yanceylebeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yanceylebeef/32/12290_2.png) [@yanceylebeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yanceylebeef)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-may-2012-edition/620448/21 "2012-05-02T19:38:34Z")
Just finished [Starfish](http://www.amazon.com/Starfish-Peter-Watts/dp/0765315963/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b) by Peter Watts, and am starting [Maelstrom](http://www.amazon.com/Maelstrom-Rifters-Trilogy-Peter-Watts/dp/0765320533/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1335987709&sr=1-1), the second in the series. I’m not usually big on novels in series, but this is good hard science fiction with a great suspenseful plot. Just waiting for[Redshirts](http://www.amazon.com/Redshirts-A-Novel-Three-Codas/dp/0765316994/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1335987399&sr=8-1) by John Scalzi and David Brin’s [Existence](http://www.amazon.com/Existence-David-Brin/dp/0765303612/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b) to drop next month, as well as Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter’s collaberation in [The Long Earth](http://www.amazon.com/The-Long-Earth-Terry-Pratchett/dp/0062067753/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1335987567&sr=8-1-spell). ---
**Author:** ![Future\_Londonite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/9dc877/32.png) [@Future\_Londonite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Future_Londonite)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-may-2012-edition/620448/22 "2012-05-02T19:51:16Z")
About 600 pages into the first 4000 pages of Songs of Ice and Fire - I will copy/paste this for the next ‘what are you reading’ threads in the foreseeable future ---
**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 2, 2012, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-may-2012-edition/620448/23 "2012-05-02T20:26:17Z")
> [@yanceylebeef](#): > > …Just waiting for[Redshirts](http://www.amazon.com/Redshirts-A-Novel-Three-Codas/dp/0765316994/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1335987399&sr=8-1) by John Scalzi… to drop next month… This should be fun. I’ve liked everything I’ve ever read of Scalzi’s. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-may-2012-edition/620448/24 "2012-05-02T21:47:34Z")
I eyed up Redshirts, but decided to wait for feedback on it. Let me know how you guys like it. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-may-2012-edition/620448/25 "2012-05-02T22:47:02Z")
> [@Sigmagirl](#): > > I too found it interesting, though she added some elements that were not necessarily based on research (in one chapter, an investigator wipes his feet before he enters a building – cite?) and, at least in my copy, there was a photo of the Chrysler Building. I like the Chrysler Building, but I could find no meaningful reference to it in the text. I think the editor or publisher just had a nice picture of the Chrysler Building and decided to put it in there. Okay then! > As I said in Post #18, I loved this book too and now am reading her first book. Post #18?? 😕 ETA: Ah, post #13. How on Earth did I miss that? It _is_ a good book though, isn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![Antigen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/848f3c/32.png) [@Antigen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antigen)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-may-2012-edition/620448/26 "2012-05-02T23:01:34Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > This should be fun. I’ve liked everything I’ve ever read of Scalzi’s. I just finished up the audiobook for Scalzi’s **Fuzzy Nation** , which was read by Wil Wheaton. Can’t recommend it highly enough - I loved it. ---
**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:** [May 3, 2012, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-may-2012-edition/620448/27 "2012-05-03T13:25:26Z")
Finished Stephen King’s _The Wind Through The Keyhole_. It really adds nothing to the Dark Tower story, of course, but it was so nice to revisit Mid-World and hear Roland tell a tale (two, actually). Lovely book; King continues his upward trend! ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2012, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-may-2012-edition/620448/28 "2012-05-03T13:54:09Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > Post #18?? > > 😕 > > ETA: Ah, post #13. How on Earth did I miss that? It _is_ a good book though, isn’t it? Sorry; need to wear my damn reading glasses. Yes, it’s fascinating. The Jazz Age was truly the Poison Age. ---
**Author:** ![yanceylebeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yanceylebeef/32/12290_2.png) [@yanceylebeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yanceylebeef)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2012, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-may-2012-edition/620448/29 "2012-05-03T15:31:34Z")
> [@Antigen](#): > > I just finished up the audiobook for Scalzi’s **Fuzzy Nation** , which was read by Wil Wheaton. Can’t recommend it highly enough - I loved it. So, was Fuzzy Nation good? It’s the only thing I haven’t read yet by him. Not sure why, but I’m dubious. Maybe it’s the re-booting, but something about it just didn’t gel with me. Maybe I’ll pick it up next month. ---
**Author:** ![Antigen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/848f3c/32.png) [@Antigen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antigen)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2012, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-may-2012-edition/620448/30 "2012-05-03T21:33:10Z")
> [@yanceylebeef](#): > > So, was Fuzzy Nation good? It’s the only thing I haven’t read yet by him. Not sure why, but I’m dubious. Maybe it’s the re-booting, but something about it just didn’t gel with me. > > Maybe I’ll pick it up next month. I liked it a lot - I tried the paper book first, and couldn’t quite get into it, but I was pretty stressed out and distracted at the time and my attention span was short, so it’s probably not the book’s fault. I listened to the audiobook on my commute over the course of a week, and on at least two occasions I stayed in my car for a few minutes after pulling into my driveway because I had to keep listening. ---
**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:** [May 3, 2012, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-may-2012-edition/620448/31 "2012-05-03T21:59:57Z")
I’m halfway through **A Feast for Crows**. Pepper Mill bought it along with Christopher Moore’s **Sacre Bleu** (noted above) which is on the to-read list. I’ve also picked up oger Lancelyn Green’s [BpThe Uncollected Sherlock Holmes\*\*\*, which I’ve never even _heard_ of before. I’ve been reading Sherlock Holmes for years, have three editions of the Canon (including both _Annotated_ editions), and have the play credited to Doyle and Gillette and the “Apocrypha”, not to mention tons of pastiches. I have Sherlock Holmes encyclopedias and indices, and I never knew these works existed – they’re Sherlock Holmes pieces actually written by Arthur Conan Doyle himself, that are not any of the 56 stories, 4 novels, or the Apocrypha. I did actually know about two of the other plays in this volume, although not the third, and the extremely short stories and other pieces are a complete surprise. I’ve also got **The Best Stories of Hoffman** , which I’ve been looking for for some time (Hoffman wrote the story _The Nutcracker_ is based on, among others. He also wrote hhis own musical pieces, although that’s generally forgotten today), and I’ve started the last of the Hunhger Games trilogy, **Mockingjay**. In addition, I’ve pur chased my first e-book (at least the first one not written by me), Jules Vernes **North and South** , which i haven’t been able to find. \*Surely the title is a self-denying prophecy, since Greene has collected them. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2012, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-may-2012-edition/620448/32 "2012-05-04T13:31:23Z")
Just for the sheer fun of it, I’m reading “When Everybody Ate At Schrafft’s” by Joan Kanel Slomanson. Because I love reading about food and history, and this is a combo. (I can just remember the last Schrafft’s in our city when I was verrrry young). And now I wish I could put on my flowered fascinator (mini-hat), mink stole, white gloves,and pointy glasses and take the bus downtown. For a chicken salad sandwich garnished with a queen olive, an extra-dry martini (I didn’t know Schrafft’s was a bar, too!) and a butterscotch and toasted almond sundae. What fun! Fast food joints, Applebees, the mall food court - yeah, you can fill your stomach, but where’s the panache?? ---
**Author:** ![Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barkis_is_Willin)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2012, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-may-2012-edition/620448/33 "2012-05-04T19:57:55Z")
Just finished \*\*The Gods Themselves \*\*by Isaac Asimov. It was decent, but the 2nd part of this 3 part story was almost entirely useless. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2012, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-may-2012-edition/620448/34 "2012-05-05T20:36:38Z")
Finished [Heir of Novron (Riyria Revelations)](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0316187712/ref=oh_details_o04_s00_i00) and enjoyed the whole series - even though it didn’t hold too many surprises. OK, it did occasionally break some of the tropes, but in general, I knew what was going to happen. None-the-less, it was better written most of the fantasy I read (my fault that), it had good action and overall I enjoyed it. I will keep reading his work. ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2012, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-may-2012-edition/620448/35 "2012-05-07T18:35:00Z")
I read **The Lies of Locke Lamora** by Scott Lynch – this was terrific! It had been recommended to me a number of times, but I had been hesitant to pick it up because the genre seemed like a vaguely fantasy-like thing that I’m not really crazy about. However, it ended up really impressing me. It’s marketed as YA, but not so much so that most adults wouldn’t enjoy it. I also FINALLY finished **11/22/63** by Stephen King. In my defense, I got it for Christmas in hardcover, and we had a new baby so my days of staying up all night to read a new release cover to cover are over, at least for now. I liked this a lot, I did go back and read the Cafe Society thread about it, although I feel like I’m too late to the party to post anything new to it. Now reading **The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet** by David Mitchell, which I first heard about in this thread. It’s interesting so far. ---
**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:** [May 7, 2012, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-may-2012-edition/620448/36 "2012-05-07T19:15:32Z")
> [@delphica](#): > > I read **The Lies of Locke Lamora** by Scott Lynch – this was terrific! It had been recommended to me a number of times, but I had been hesitant to pick it up because the genre seemed like a vaguely fantasy-like thing that I’m not really crazy about. However, it ended up really impressing me. It’s marketed as YA, but not so much so that most adults wouldn’t enjoy it. I really liked it, too. The sequel, **Red Seas Under Red Skies** , is almost as good. Lynch is working on a third book but health issues are slowing him down. I just finished the latest Matthew Shardlake Tudor mystery, **Heartstone**. This is a pretty good series - they’re set during the last years of Henry VIII’s reign, and they focus on a hunchbacked lawyer working in London. This last book climaxes with the Battle of the Solent in 1545 and the sinking of the _Mary Rose_ - and yes, it takes some dedicated contriving to get a London lawyer down to Portsmouth for this. ---
**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 7, 2012, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-may-2012-edition/620448/37 "2012-05-07T19:23:41Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > I’m about a fifth of the way through Frank Herbert’s _The White Plague_, a 1982 novel about a terrorist attack… I’m now more than halfway through this and it just isn’t clicking. I guess Herbert wanted it to be semi-mystical post-apocalyptic saga like _The Stand_, or something like that, but he just didn’t have the writing chops for it. Too much happens offstage - Herbert didn’t grasp the importance of “show, don’t tell.” Meh. ---
**Author:** ![Ian\_D.Bergkamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Ian\_D.Bergkamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ian_D.Bergkamp)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2012, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-may-2012-edition/620448/38 "2012-05-07T19:43:03Z")
Finished Nick Harkaway’s [Angelmaker](http://www.amazon.com/Angelmaker-Nick-Harkaway/dp/0307595951/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1336419450&sr=1-1) last week and thought it was excellent. Just as good, if not better, than his first book, [The Gone-Away World](http://www.amazon.com/The-Gone-Away-World-Nick-Harkaway/dp/B002U0KO9A/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_2). The two are very similar in tone and style, but very different in plot and setting; a nice blend of comedy, intrigue and straight-up “WTF.” I also just finished the 6-volume Scott Pilgrim series. I’ve been a fan of the movie since its release, but had never read the books. It was a pleasant surprise to see how much of my favorite bits from the movie came straight from the comic. ---
**Author:** ![Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barkis_is_Willin)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2012, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-may-2012-edition/620448/39 "2012-05-07T20:13:58Z")
> [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](#): > > I really liked it, too. The sequel, **Red Seas Under Red Skies** , is almost as good. Lynch is working on a third book but health issues are slowing him down. Is it health issues? I thought it was a rocky relationship and plain old writer’s block. ---
**Author:** ![LawMonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2012, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-may-2012-edition/620448/40 "2012-05-07T20:28:52Z")
Polished off \*Flashman and the Angel of the Lord \*while I was on jury duty. I took a shot at getting the kindle edition of \*Flashman and the Mountain of Light \*from [amazon.co.uk](http://amazon.co.uk), but no dice; it’s a touch odd that the electronic edition is available to UKians but not Americans, particularly when most of the other installments are available electronically here. Needing another read for jury duty, I picked up Naomi Novik’s \*Victory of Eagles \*with a bit of hesitation. The earlier Temeraire novels I’d “read” by audiobook, and I’ve become very attached to the narrator’s delivery and characterization. It’s still how I hear Temeraire in my mind. But I’ve been enjoying this so far, more or less–it’s a bit bleak, with Temeraire stuck in the breeding grounds and Laurence just marking days until they can execute him for treason. I hope things start to look up soon. An aside regarding technical difficulties: I recently picked up Erin Morgenstern’s \*The Night Circus \*on iBooks, planning to use it as a test of that platform vs. Kindle now that I have an iPad that I use as my primary e-reader. The only trouble is that iBooks won’t properly load–I get the bookshelf and a pinwheel that never resolves into any actual books. Anyone else who’s had this problem have any ideas on how to resolve, or is there some way I can get my money back from Apple? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-may-2012-edition/620448.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-may-2012-edition/620448.md?page=3)