# Whatcha Readin' Nov 09 Edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 31, 2009, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-nov-09-edition/515882 "2009-10-31T21:00:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2009, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-nov-09-edition/515882/121 "2009-11-23T15:42:14Z")
Just started _ **Motherless Brooklyn** _ and I really like the narrator’s voice. Being inside the mind of a Tourette’s sufferer is interesting, and not as different as I would have thought. ---
**Author:** ![TheMerchandise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b487fb/32.png) [@TheMerchandise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheMerchandise)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2009, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-nov-09-edition/515882/122 "2009-11-23T16:27:57Z")
> [@bup](#): > > Just started _ **Motherless Brooklyn** _ and I really like the narrator’s voice. Being inside the mind of a Tourette’s sufferer is interesting, and not as different as I would have thought. This is one of my favorite books ever. I tend to reread it at least once every two years. ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2009, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-nov-09-edition/515882/123 "2009-11-24T17:14:28Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > _A Population of One_ by Constance Beresford Howe. Wilhelmina (Willy) is 30 years old. She’s spent the last five years caring for an ailing mother. She has a Ph.D. in 19th Century Literature and when mom dies, Willy sells the house and gets a teaching job in Montreal. That was the first part of her “project” – the second part is to find a man, or at least to lose her virginity. This sounds neat, I will look for it. I read _Columbine_, by Dave Cullen, which I think **Dung Beetle** read last month. I thought it was very high quality reporting, but somehow I didn’t expect it to be so _sad_ after all this time. I’m sure you are thinking “HOW did you not expect that?” but it was the kind of thing where I was thinking it would be somewhat sad, but I was not prepared for it to feel so immediate and depressing. _Lake Overturn_, a novel, was quirky … interconnected stories about people in a small town in Idaho. It was maybe a little too Lifetime Movie of the Week in terms of subject matter, but it was a quick read. Oh, and I had mentioned I started the second book in a YA science fiction series, _The Ask and the Answer_, by Patrick Ness. I would highly recommend these books (read in order) to people who like YA fiction, even those who are not nuts about SF in general. They are good, and harrowing. They are somewhat mature in theme, so I would use discretion with younger readers, but teens should be fine. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2009, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-nov-09-edition/515882/124 "2009-11-24T17:19:48Z")
> [@delphica](#): > > _Lake Overturn_, a novel, was quirky … interconnected stories about people in a small town in Idaho. It was maybe a little too Lifetime Movie of the Week in terms of subject matter, but it was a quick read. I read this a few months ago and liked it quite a bit – enjoyed the 19th-century-novel vibe to it. (I love a good 19th-century novel, so that is meant as praise.) ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2009, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-nov-09-edition/515882/125 "2009-11-24T17:23:40Z")
> [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](#): > > \ > > I liked _Agyar_, too. Which of Brust’s other work would you recommend? Although I liked much of his stuff, I’m not sure I would recommend it. I enjoyed his early \*Vlad Taltos \*series, but it kind of took a turn and I stopped reading it. I did like _The Gypsy_ but to be honest cannot remember much about it. He is an author that I remember liking, but don’t remember much about. I tried to read his _Phoenix Guard_ series and found it a tough read. The speech patterns were annoying. ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2009, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-nov-09-edition/515882/126 "2009-11-24T17:27:19Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > I read this a few months ago and liked it quite a bit – enjoyed the 19th-century-novel vibe to it. (I love a good 19th-century novel, so that is meant as praise.) I was interested in its being set in the 1980s… I don’t know if it’s just me noticing it, or if there are actually a number of books set in the 80s being published now, or maybe I’m freaked out by a time that I remember living through now being considered nearly an historical setting. ---
**Author:** ![TheMerchandise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b487fb/32.png) [@TheMerchandise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheMerchandise)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2009, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-nov-09-edition/515882/127 "2009-11-24T17:53:01Z")
Recently, I finished: _Oryx and Crake_ by Margaret Atwood. I’m a big Atwood fan and I enjoyed this very much. The world she created was quite creepy and the narrator/main character even more so. It might just be me, but I never really trusted what he was telling the reader. _Under the Dome_, by Stephen King. I was happy with most of the book… I felt for the characters and their situation and every chapter made me more anxious for them. The ending though Degenerated from horror to nearly the level of torture porn, something I was not expecting from King. Many, many characters died in extremely drawn-out and horrific ways. _The Plague Tales_, by Ann Benson. This book is comprised of two distinct narratives; one set in the 1300s, about a Jewish doctor charged with keeping the English royal family safe from the Bubonic Plague and the other set in the future (2005!), as an forensic archeologist unwittingly releases the ancient bacteria. The historical story is engaging, but the “futuristic” one falls terribly flat. A “meh” all around. I’m reading a lot of distopian/post-apocalyptic fiction right now. I feel like I need to switch up my reading habits a bit, especially with the holidays looming. I can just see myself bring down the festive Thanksgiving mood with talk of pestilence and death. ---
**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:** [November 25, 2009, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-nov-09-edition/515882/128 "2009-11-25T03:16:28Z")
Then I’ll recommend William Brinkley’s _The Last Ship_, about a U.S. Navy destroyer that survives WW3 and goes looking for a safe place to reestablish human society. Told from the captain’s POV, it’s a quiet, thoughtful book with a horrific backdrop. ---
**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:** [November 25, 2009, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-nov-09-edition/515882/129 "2009-11-25T15:11:35Z")
> [@TheMerchandise](#): > > _The Plague Tales_, by Ann Benson. This book is comprised of two distinct narratives; one set in the 1300s, about a Jewish doctor charged with keeping the English royal family safe from the Bubonic Plague and the other set in the future (2005!), as an forensic archeologist unwittingly releases the ancient bacteria. > > The historical story is engaging, but the “futuristic” one falls terribly flat. A “meh” all around. I liked the Benson book okay. There are sequels, but the second one was not even as good as the first, and I stopped after that. Have you read Connie Willis’s _Doomsday Book_? ---
**Author:** ![TheMerchandise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b487fb/32.png) [@TheMerchandise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheMerchandise)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2009, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-nov-09-edition/515882/130 "2009-11-25T17:16:37Z")
> [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](#): > > I liked the Benson book okay. There are sequels, but the second one was not even as good as the first, and I stopped after that. > > Have you read Connie Willis’s _Doomsday Book_? So many reviews of \*The Plague Tales \*mentioned Willis’s book that I put it on my To-be-read list. It sounds good! ---
**Author:** ![Albrecht\_Durer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ccd318/32.png) [@Albrecht\_Durer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Albrecht_Durer)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2009, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-nov-09-edition/515882/131 "2009-11-25T17:21:49Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Finished _Slaughterhouse-Five_. Excellent! It’s rated #18 on the Random House Modern Library’s top 100 books of the 20th century. > > Next up is #66 on the list: _Of Human Bondage_, by W. Somerset Maugham. OH NO! You posted a week ago, so it may be too late! Do not read _Of Human Bondage_; it is pure “arse gravy” (to borrow Stephen Fry’s description of _The Da Vinci Code_). Actually slogging through all of _Of Human Bondage_ became a point of pride for me, just like how I sat through all of [Bicentennial Man](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicentennial_Man_(film)). It’s just unsympathetic characters behaving unsympathetically. Go with _The Razor’s Edge_ instead; it’s the same general idea, just better executed and much shorter. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2009, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-nov-09-edition/515882/132 "2009-11-25T17:27:55Z")
I was so happy with _A Population of One_ that I went back to the closet where I found it to see if there were any more treasures. _Year of the Cloud_ by Kate Wilhelm looked good (Earth passes through a cloud that makes all water gelid and undrinkable) but the dialogue was so stilted, I gave up early. Searched some more and found [The Moon Lamp](http://www.amazon.com/Moon-Lamp-Mark-Smith/dp/0380009927) by Mark Smith. Smith wrote _Death of the Detective_ which was nominated for the National Book Award back in the 70’s. (I’ll be getting that one.) Anyway, _The Moon Lamp_ is definitely **not** a disappointment. I’m not very far in, but so far, it’s about a couple who renovate a Colonial house in New Hampshire and entertain their neighbors with stories of the ghosts they’re finding. Something’s gonna happen to them but I don’t know what. Something bad, I suppose. It’s very well-written, especially in comparison to the Cloud one. ---
**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:** [November 25, 2009, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-nov-09-edition/515882/133 "2009-11-25T17:32:20Z")
> [@Albrecht\_Durer](#): > > OH NO! You posted a week ago, so it may be too late! > Do not read _Of Human Bondage_; it is pure “arse gravy” (to borrow Stephen Fry’s description of _The Da Vinci Code_). Actually slogging through all of _Of Human Bondage_ became a point of pride for me, just like how I sat through all of [Bicentennial Man](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicentennial_Man_(film)). It’s just unsympathetic characters behaving unsympathetically. Go with _The Razor’s Edge_ instead; it’s the same general idea, just better executed and much shorter. Thanks, but I am enjoying _Of Human Bondage_ immensely. Have already read _The Razor’s Edge_. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2009, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-nov-09-edition/515882/134 "2009-11-28T13:16:07Z")
Just put down _The Outlaw Demon Wails_. I put it down for a couple of reasons: I bought it from the bargain bin and although I wasn’t hating it, I really think it would be a better read if I had read the others in the series first. The main reason though is: I left it at Mom’s house over Thanksgiving. So I get to pick up Jim Butcher’s _First Lord’s Fury_ - hooray! ---
**Author:** ![booklover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/85f322/32.png) [@booklover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/booklover)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2009, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-nov-09-edition/515882/135 "2009-11-29T00:54:19Z")
> [@TheMerchandise](#): > > So many reviews of \*The Plague Tales \*mentioned Willis’s book that I put it on my To-be-read list. It sounds good! Heh. I love _Doomsday Book_ and then read _Plague Tales_ because of it…_Doomsday_ is about a million times better. Currently attempting to plow my way through [Going Bovine](http://www.amazon.com/Going-Bovine-Libba-Bray/dp/0385733976/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259455897&sr=1-1) by Libba Bray. Completely different in subject, etc. from her Gemma Doyle trilogy and I am sorely disappointed in the writing quality. ---
**Author:** ![shijinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@shijinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shijinn)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2009, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-nov-09-edition/515882/136 "2009-11-29T04:07:32Z")
sorry to interrupt, but there’s a current thread - [SDMB Reader’s Group: First Selections Poll](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=541612), in case you’re interested. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2009, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-nov-09-edition/515882/137 "2009-11-29T13:19:30Z")
> [@shijinn](#): > > sorry to interrupt, but there’s a current thread - [SDMB Reader’s Group: First Selections Poll](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=541612), in case you’re interested. All-things reading related are welcome in our reader threads. ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2009, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-nov-09-edition/515882/138 "2009-11-29T14:03:36Z")
> [@booklover](#): > > Currently attempting to plow my way through [Going Bovine](http://www.amazon.com/Going-Bovine-Libba-Bray/dp/0385733976/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259455897&sr=1-1) by Libba Bray. oh man, I read this recently, and it was tough going. I thought there were some neat ideas in there, but wow, I felt like Bray was trying to prove how cool and ironic she is on every page. If she could have managed to dial down the hip pop culture sneers, I think there might have been a good story in that book. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2009, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-nov-09-edition/515882/139 "2009-11-29T15:11:17Z")
A couple of good ones: _Um_, by Michael Erard, on verbal hesitations and blunders (which inspired an [IMHO poll](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=541629)). _Replay_, by Ken Grimwood. Novel often recommended here that I finally got around to. It starts with the protagonist suffering a fatal heart attack – after which he wakes up as his 25-years-younger self and relives his life, retaining full memory of everything that will happen. Yes, you can make a lot of money with that knowledge. There’s more to the story than that, of course, but I don’t want to spoil it for anyone who hasn’t read it – and it’s worth reading. The prose is amateurish in spots, and the characterization is not always subtle, but the story-telling is first-class. A real page-turner. Just started _Talking Hands_, a book about sign language and what we can learn about linguistics and human cognition from it. (Sorry, it’s upstairs, don’t recall the author offhand.) ---
**Author:** ![shijinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@shijinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shijinn)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2009, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-nov-09-edition/515882/140 "2009-11-29T15:24:48Z")
> [@Khadaji](#): > > All-things reading related are welcome in our reader threads. having more people will be fun. looks like _Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)_ is the top choice so far. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-nov-09-edition/515882.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-nov-09-edition/515882.md?page=8)