# Whatcha Readin' Nov 2010 Edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 31, 2010, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-nov-2010-edition/558963 "2010-10-31T11:40:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**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 8, 2010, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-nov-2010-edition/558963/41 "2010-11-08T16:59:32Z")
> [@Gulo\_gulo](#): > > …_Never Let Me Go_ by Kazuo Ishiguro ~ Quick read but enjoyable. Really reminded me “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood… You probably already knew there’s a new movie based on the book: [Never Let Me Go (2010 film) - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Never_Let_Me_Go_(2010_film)). Mixed reviews so far. ---
**Author:** ![Scubaqueen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c0e974/32.png) [@Scubaqueen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scubaqueen)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-nov-2010-edition/558963/42 "2010-11-08T19:01:06Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > I just finished Jim Butcher’s _Changes_, the 12th Dresden book. Wow, there were some big changes in this book! I’m not sure what I think about most of them. And I can’t believe we have to wait until late march for _Ghost Stories_, the 13th book. \>snip!\< holy rusted sheetmetal, batman. he’s up to 13 now? i have a ways to go yet. just finishing up book six and i’ve been working my way through the dresden files since october 1st!!! for the second time. 😛 ---
**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 12, 2010, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-nov-2010-edition/558963/43 "2010-11-12T05:55:33Z")
Just finished _Blood Oath_ by Christopher Farnsworth, which I mentioned earlier. A great action-adventure novel about a vampire working for the U.S. Government, our last line of national defense against supernatural threats. There are in-jokes about _Frankenstein_, H.P. Lovecraft, _Night of the Living Dead, Halloween_, and veiled “secret history” references to the Nuremberg Trials, Watergate, the 1981 Reagan assassination attempt, etc. It’s fun and clever and very readable. Could make a great movie. Check it out. I think I’ll start a thread about it for vamp-lit readers who aren’t regularly reading this thread. ---
**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 12, 2010, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-nov-2010-edition/558963/44 "2010-11-12T14:42:08Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Just finished _Blood Oath_ by Christopher Farnsworth, which I mentioned earlier. A great action-adventure novel about a vampire working for the U.S. Government, our last line of national defense against supernatural threats. There are in-jokes about _Frankenstein_, H.P. Lovecraft, _Night of the Living Dead, Halloween_, and veiled “secret history” references to the Nuremberg Trials, Watergate, the 1981 Reagan assassination attempt, etc. It’s fun and clever and very readable. Could make a great movie. Check it out. I’m always on the lookout for a good vampire novel that is neither pure horror nor frivolous romance. I’ve read about that one before, and it didn’t sound interesting, but if you say it’s good I’ll put it on my list. I’ve just finished _Red Seas Under Red Skies_, which is the sequel to _The Lies of Locke Lamora_. It’s almost as good as the first book, although perhaps it suffers a little bit from being too similar, especially in the beginning. Therefore I’m not upset at having to wait for the unpublished sequels, because this seems like one of those series where it’s better to wait a long time between books. ---
**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 12, 2010, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-nov-2010-edition/558963/45 "2010-11-12T14:49:54Z")
> [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](#): > > I’m always on the lookout for a good vampire novel that is neither pure horror nor frivolous romance. I’ve read about that one before, and it didn’t sound interesting, but if you say it’s good I’ll put it on my list… I’ll be interested to know what you think. Hope you like it, too. ---
**Author:** ![Invisible\_Chimp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f05b48/32.png) [@Invisible\_Chimp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Invisible_Chimp)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2010, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-nov-2010-edition/558963/46 "2010-11-14T02:52:50Z")
I read “The Princess Bride” for the first time. It was good, but I like the movie better. I am now starting “Superfreakonomics.” I really liked the original “Freakonomics.” Speaking of vampire fiction, I have not started it, but I have checked out from the library “Vamped” by David Sosnowski. It’s about a vampire dominated world where a vamp adopts a human girl and raises her as his daughter. It’s written in a satirical voice. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2010, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-nov-2010-edition/558963/47 "2010-11-14T04:32:34Z")
> [@Invisible\_Chimp](#): > > I read “The Princess Bride” for the first time. It was good, but I like the movie better. > > \ Totally agree. The book was OK, but the movie was better. I wonder if I would feel the same if I had read the book first. ---
**Author:** ![JuliaSqueezer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/82dd89/32.png) [@JuliaSqueezer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JuliaSqueezer)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2010, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-nov-2010-edition/558963/48 "2010-11-14T15:35:00Z")
Dennis Lehane’s latest, _Moonlight Mile_. It catches up with Kenzie and Gennaro a few years after they’ve closed up their private investigations business. I’m enjoying a lot, and remembering what a terrific writer Lehane is. ---
**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2010, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-nov-2010-edition/558963/49 "2010-11-14T18:19:07Z")
I just finished \*The Disappearing Spoon and Other True Tales of Madness, Love and History of the World From the Periodic Table of the Elements \* by Sam Kean. An excellent read even if you have no interest in chemistry. He manages a nice balance between the science and everything else. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2010, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-nov-2010-edition/558963/50 "2010-11-14T23:04:26Z")
Finished Monster Hunter International. Owen Zastava Pitt is attacked by werewolf and upon recovery is invited to join MHI. There he learns to fight and kill monsters along and finds himself in a battle to save the world itself. It was recommended to me because I like Butcher’s work and Glen Cook’s work. If you like long detailed descriptions of gun battles and guns, this can work for you. I found it maybe a little too long on the battles, and I’m unsure if I’ll read the others in the series. However, I am thinking of trying _Hard Magic: Book I of the Grimnoir Chronicles_by the same author. ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2010, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-nov-2010-edition/558963/51 "2010-11-15T00:33:45Z")
> [@Tethered\_Kite](#): > > I’m nearly finished with Patricia Cornwell’s _Casebook: Jack the Ripper,_ another in a list of “proofs” of who he was. It’s the first of her books I’ve read and she writes well. Think I’ll add a couple of her fiction novels to my list. Any recommendations? The best of her fiction IMHO is her first novel, Postmortem. Well written, interesting characters, atmospheric, and a really good puzzle. Some of her other earlier books are pretty good too. After the first batch, though, they become increasingly bizarre–characters becoming totally erratic, plot points that make no sense, political polemics, you name it. But Postmortem is well worth a read, coming as it does from Cornwell’s Sane Period. ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2010, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-nov-2010-edition/558963/52 "2010-11-15T18:33:39Z")
I ended up skimming through most of the book about the New York World’s Fair, it just wasn’t that interesting. _Monsters of Men_, the third and final in Patrick Ness’s Chaos Walking trilogy, was pretty good (and read with a box of Kleenex by my side at all times). Overall, a terrific series, but I think the first book is still the best. I’m about halfway through _Blackout_ by Connie Willis, and trying to avoid the Cafe Society thread about it until I’m finished. The apartment building where we live as has a table where people put out used books for others to pick up … mostly it’s a lot of self-help that I’m not too interested in, but I did grab a 1970s paperback of _The Winds of War_ that I’ve been reading during my commute. It’s goofy, but in a satisfying way. I agree wholeheartedly with **Ulf** about Patricia Cornwell, her fiction starts out as solid thrillers, and gets increasing weird and whiny. You’re probably safe for the first three or four books at least before she goes off the rails. ---
**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 15, 2010, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-nov-2010-edition/558963/53 "2010-11-15T19:00:07Z")
> [@delphica](#): > > I’m about halfway through _Blackout_ by Connie Willis, and trying to avoid the Cafe Society thread about it until I’m finished. You know that \*Blackout \*ends without any resolution, right? You’ll probably want to start on the second book, _All Clear_, pretty soon afterward. After finishing \*Blackout \*you can safely read that thread up through post #38, to see how some of us felt about being left in the lurch for months. Great books, though. **Elendil’s Hei** r, I’m 100 pages in to _Aztec_, and - I don’t know. I’m not thrilled by it, but I’m not ready to abandon it, yet, either. I can’t say exactly why it’s not clicking with me. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2010, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-nov-2010-edition/558963/54 "2010-11-15T22:09:08Z")
Fans of Rothfuss, [The Signed Page](http://www.signedpage.com/authors/rothfuss-wise.html) is going to have a book signing of his next book. ---
**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 16, 2010, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-nov-2010-edition/558963/55 "2010-11-16T06:12:35Z")
> [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](#): > > … **Elendil’s Hei** r, I’m 100 pages in to _Aztec_, and - I don’t know. I’m not thrilled by it, but I’m not ready to abandon it, yet, either. I can’t say exactly why it’s not clicking with me. Apologies, my lady of Aquitaine. Maybe it’s A Guy Thing…? Hope you’ll stick with it, but I’ll understand if you don’t (I can hardly complain - I give up on any book that hasn’t hooked me after 50 pages). ---
**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 16, 2010, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-nov-2010-edition/558963/56 "2010-11-16T06:30:15Z")
> [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](#): > > **Elendil’s Hei** r, I’m 100 pages in to _Aztec_, and - I don’t know. I’m not thrilled by it, but I’m not ready to abandon it, yet, either. I can’t say exactly why it’s not clicking with me. > [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Apologies, my lady of Aquitaine. Maybe it’s A Guy Thing…? Hope you’ll stick with it, but I’ll understand if you don’t (I can hardly complain - I give up on any book that hasn’t hooked me after 50 pages). I’m halfway through it and enjoying it immensely. But then, I’ve enjoyed it right from the start. ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2010, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-nov-2010-edition/558963/57 "2010-11-16T12:35:36Z")
> [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](#): > > You know that \*Blackout \*ends without any resolution, right? You’ll probably want to start on the second book, _All Clear_, pretty soon afterward. After finishing \*Blackout \*you can safely read that thread up through post #38, to see how some of us felt about being left in the lurch for months. Great books, though. Good to know, I’ll put that on hold at the library ASAP. ---
**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:** [November 16, 2010, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-nov-2010-edition/558963/58 "2010-11-16T13:45:41Z")
I am reading…_The Great Gatsby_. I’ve never read it before. Its interesting. In fact, I’ve never read Fitzgerald before. I don’t know how I managed to skirt around any of his books as someone whom majored in English in college, but there you go. ---
**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 16, 2010, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-nov-2010-edition/558963/59 "2010-11-16T14:25:20Z")
I read _Gatsby_ in college as an assignment and it didn’t thrill me. Maybe I was too young? So much to read now, I doubt I’ll ever take another stab at it. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2010, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-nov-2010-edition/558963/60 "2010-11-16T14:50:18Z")
Lately I’ve read _The Tourist_ by Olen Steinhauer, which I’ve discovered is not the basis for the new Johnny Depp movie of the same name, damnit; _I Drink For A Reason_ by David Cross … funny, but short; and now I’m reading \*The Gun Seller \*by Hugh Laurie. Yes, that Hugh Laurie. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-nov-2010-edition/558963.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-nov-2010-edition/558963.md?page=4)