# Whatcha Readin' November 2011 Edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 31, 2011, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-november-2011-edition/601422 "2011-10-31T20:11:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Politzania](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3ab097/32.png) [@Politzania](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Politzania)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2011, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-november-2011-edition/601422/41 "2011-11-07T20:30:02Z")
> [@delphica](#): > > I started _Reamde_ by Neal Stephenson. Good so far, although I didn’t realize it was 800+ pages when I started it (that’s the thing about ereaders, they can be very deceptive). With this author, I don’t know why I’m surprised, but I was. > > I have _Ready Player One_ coming up next, but at this rate, I’ll still be posting about Reamde in the December thread. I managed to get thru **Reamde** via a couple of marathon reading sessions over the weekend. Stephenson still can’t quite stick the ending of his novels, but overall, it was a hell of a ride! Lots of characters (again, typical Neal) & I was on the verge of sketching out a diagram to clarify who knew about whom. Just started **Ready Player One** this morning & am already fascinated by its dystopian world - I didn’t intend to read two gamer/MMPORG novels in a row, but here I am. ---
**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:** [November 7, 2011, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-november-2011-edition/601422/42 "2011-11-07T20:30:17Z")
> [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](#): > > I just started _Flashman and the Dragon_, which is going to be about the Taiping Rebellion and the Peking Expedition. It’s hilariously offensive so far, as usual. I know nothing about Chinese history, so I’m sure to appreciate the glossary, four pages of maps, three appendices and 15 pages of footnotes. :smack: I need to get back to those! _Dragon_ would be next for me as well. ---
**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:** [November 7, 2011, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-november-2011-edition/601422/43 "2011-11-07T20:43:15Z")
Oh! Amazon has shipped King’s new one, _11/22/63_. Ordinarily, I would take a personal day off work and burn right through it, but that won’t do right now. Perhaps I could forgo sleep? ---
**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 8, 2011, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-november-2011-edition/601422/44 "2011-11-08T01:16:06Z")
I gave up on “Life Before Man” by Margaret Atwood. The four main characters were all horrible people and one of them was dead. Is this typical of her, or can anyone recommend some Atwood where I won’t hate the characters? I went back to Discworld instead. I am almost finished with “Wyrd Sisters.” The way I’m flying through them, I might get caught up with all 39 by this time next year. I’ve got “Thief of Time” checked out from the library too. I’ve got “Gentlemen of the Road” by Michael Chabon waiting for me as well. ---
**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:** [November 8, 2011, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-november-2011-edition/601422/45 "2011-11-08T01:23:20Z")
Just finished _The Various Haunts of Men_, which was good creepy fun that really deserved a better resolution. Susan Hill is a fine writer, but she hasn’t written a decent ending since _The Woman in Black_. ---
**Author:** ![gallows\_fodder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8c91f0/32.png) [@gallows\_fodder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gallows_fodder)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2011, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-november-2011-edition/601422/46 "2011-11-08T04:26:45Z")
> [@Invisible\_Chimp](#): > > I gave up on “Life Before Man” by Margaret Atwood. The four main characters were all horrible people and one of them was dead. Is this typical of her, or can anyone recommend some Atwood where I won’t hate the characters? My favorite Atwood novel (and one of my favorite books, period) is **The Robber Bride**. It’s based loosely on the fairy tale “The Robber Bridegroom” but with the genders reversed, and is a character study of three women and their run-ins with a villainness over three decades. I loved those three women, especially Toni, who reminded me of myself. :o ---
**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:** [November 8, 2011, 9:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-november-2011-edition/601422/47 "2011-11-08T09:39:07Z")
Finished the _Helliconia_ trilogy and have now started _An evening of long goodbyes_ by **Paul Murray**. After that I have _The Sister brothers_ by **Patrick deWitt** lined up ---
**Author:** ![Snickers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Snickers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snickers)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2011, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-november-2011-edition/601422/48 "2011-11-08T20:13:26Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > I was saddened recently to hear of the death of author William Sleator. I went right home that day to look at a couple of his books that I own, and wound up reading about 70% of _Singularity_ at one shot(he wrote YA novels, very simple and fast-paced). Oh, that \*is \*too bad - I read [Singularity](http://www.amazon.com/Singularity-William-Sleator/dp/B005IUK9Z8/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1320782844&sr=8-5)and [Interstellar Pig](http://www.amazon.com/Interstellar-Pig-William-Sleator/dp/0140375953/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_b) over and over and over as a young Snicks. \*Singularity \*in particular stuck with me - I find myself thinking about it now and then still. And I’m 35! I finished [Monsters of Men](http://www.amazon.com/Monsters-Men-Chaos-Walking-Three/dp/0763656658/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1320783064&sr=1-1), the last of the Chaos Walking trilogy. And then quickly finished the short prequel [The New World](http://www.amazon.com/World-FREE-short-story-ebook/dp/B0044KM2L2/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_1) too. Really, really excellent YA fiction, and now I’m sad to not be in Todd and Viola’s world anymore. It’s got much the same feel as The Hunger Games, and I found the characters to be as compelling and more likable. Highly recommended. ---
**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:** [November 9, 2011, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-november-2011-edition/601422/49 "2011-11-09T16:51:09Z")
I hadn’t heard of _The New World_. I’ll have to keep an eye out! I finished _Blackbriar_…honestly, it wasn’t very good. And now I’m on to _The Phantom Limb_, which I just started and I can already tell, it’s not going to be very good. Oh well, I loved you anyway, Mr. Sleator. Last night I “read” a book called _Crap at My Parent’s House_, by Joel Dovev. It’s a collection of pictures of tacky crap people decorate their homes with, and funny captions. Most of the book was only of mild interest, but maybe three or four of the pictures made me laugh my butt off. Yesterday UPS delivered the new Stephen King book, as usual, a big thick one. I don’t dare crack it open until I can devote a little time to it…I can’t see how that’s going to happen until at least Monday. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Blackberry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecd19e/32.png) [@Blackberry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blackberry)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-november-2011-edition/601422/50 "2011-11-09T17:41:27Z")
Huh, I didn’t realize until now that I just finished three memoirs in a row. **Fiction Ruined my Family** is about a dysfunctional family where the dad is a failed writer and the daughter grows up to be a writer too. It’s very funny in some parts, kind of boring in others. **The Water is Wide** is about this guy who goes to teach at this school on a very small, poor island off the coast of South Carolina in about 1969. It was good. I’m going to try one of the author’s novels soon because I liked his writing style. **Sum of my Parts** is about a woman who developed dissociative identity disorder due to a severely abusive childhood. Sad, but interesting. But I have to say I was kind of disappointed that her form of DID didn’t have entirely different personalities with different names and stuff. Then, this is not a memoir, but a horrible, ridiculous novel by T.I.: **Power & Beauty**. I knew it was going to be annoying and I read it anyway, so I guess it serves me right. Right now I’m 59% through **Spooner** , a novel which is kind of hard to explain the plot, but it’s good, once I got into it (the beginning was boring to me). Oh yeah, someone mentioned they were about to read **The Postmortal**. I read that recently and enjoyed it. The cure for aging is found, so obviously the world gets overpopulated, etc. It’s supposed to be the main character’s blog, which is an interesting format. ---
**Author:** ![Zjestika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/8edcca/32.png) [@Zjestika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zjestika)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-november-2011-edition/601422/51 "2011-11-09T18:01:05Z")
> [@olivesmarch4th](#): > > I just read **The Great Mortality** , a book about the history of the Black Death, which wiped out between 30-50% of the population of nearly every place it hit. I expected it to be horrifying, but it wasn’t. It was just fascinating. Ooh, that sounds fantastic, and right up my alley. I’m fascinated by the Black Death. Good fiction books about the plague are **Year of Wonders** by Geraldine Brooks and **Doomsday Book** by Connie Willis. Both really good, though depressing. But good! ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-november-2011-edition/601422/52 "2011-11-09T18:48:35Z")
I enjoyed **The Great Mortality** as well. There was a surprising amount of humor, or sly wit, or sarcasm. Whatever, it made me smile and then feel guilty about smiling. I’m reading [The Stone Carvers](http://www.amazon.com/Stone-Carvers-Jane-Urquhart/dp/0142003581) by Jane Urquhart. Picked it up at the library sale because the author is Canadian, and I’ve had great luck with Canadian writers. So far, it’s a totally charming history of a small town, told over a period of about 100 years, beginning the mid 1850’s. The main character Klara Becker reminds me a lot of Gertie Nevels from _The Dollmaker_. They’re both very **involved** with life, energetic and enthusiastic. I’m hoping Klara doesn’t have Gertie’s troubles though. ---
**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:** [November 9, 2011, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-november-2011-edition/601422/53 "2011-11-09T19:29:24Z")
> [@Blackberry](#): > > **The Water is Wide** is about this guy who goes to teach at this school on a very small, poor island off the coast of South Carolina in about 1969. It was good. I’m going to try one of the author’s novels soon because I liked his writing style. Conroy! My favorite of his is _Lords of Discipline_. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-november-2011-edition/601422/54 "2011-11-09T20:31:45Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > I’ve read all of Clavell, and _King Rat_ is very good. My favorite may be _Noble House_, set in 1963 Hong Kong. Clavell seems to have put himself in it, as it contains a very Clavell-type character who is an author who wrote a book amazingly similar to _King Rat_ that was also based on personal experience. _Shogun_ is good too, set in 1600 feudal Japan, and in most of his later novels – but I don’t think _King Rat_ – descendants of the characters in that story appear. I read Shogun many years ago, and was astonished to discover that the unlikely-sounding plot was, in fact, based on a true story. An interesting historical account of the real-like William Adams, on whom the character of “John Blackthorne” was based, can be found in _Samurai William_: > **[Amazon.com: Samurai William: The Englishman Who Opened Japan: 9780374253851:...](https://www.amazon.com/Samurai-William-Englishman-Opened-Japan/dp/0374253854)** > > Amazon.com: Samurai William: The Englishman Who Opened Japan: 9780374253851: Milton, Giles: 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 9, 2011, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-november-2011-edition/601422/55 "2011-11-09T23:14:38Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > Conroy! My favorite of his is _Lords of Discipline_. Oh, yeah - it’s terrific. A Southern military academy desegregates in the Sixties, and a good-hearted cadet and his buddies have to weather the storm. Intrigue, humor, romance, tragedy, friendship, betrayal - the whole ball o’ wax. Conroy’s _My Losing Season_ (nonfiction about his years playing basketball for The Citadel, and I’m not even a basketball fan) and _The Great Santini_ (quasi-autobiographical fiction about a hardass Marine aviator and his quirky family) are both also great. ---
**Author:** ![Shakester](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shakester/32/437_2.png) [@Shakester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shakester)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2011, 10:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-november-2011-edition/601422/56 "2011-11-10T10:17:22Z")
Next on my list: [Cranioklepty: Grave Robbing and the Search for Genius](http://unbridledbooks.com/our_books/book/cranioklepty/) Sold. The Kindle version is only $7.99 at the moment, too. ---
**Author:** ![DataZak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ea666f/32.png) [@DataZak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DataZak)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2011, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-november-2011-edition/601422/57 "2011-11-10T13:28:45Z")
Finished Ken Jenning’s _Maphead_. Map nerds and geography wonks should love it (I’m neither but I love reading microhistory books like this one). For some strange reason I have been visited by a sudden urge to read Stephen King’s entire ouvre. Prior to this I’ve only read _Salem’s Lot_, _Pet Sematary_, _Christine_, _Night Shift_ and _Skeleton Crew_. I just picked one up at random today: _CELL_. ---
**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 10, 2011, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-november-2011-edition/601422/58 "2011-11-10T15:43:14Z")
Other than _'Salem’s Lot_ (vampires overcome a small Maine town), my favorite SK books are _The Stand_ (elemental struggle between good and evil after a plague kills most of the world), _Misery_ (a novelist is held captive by his “number one fan”) and _The Dead Zone_ (a man who can intermittently predict the future finds it far more a curse than a blessing). ---
**Author:** ![Snickers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Snickers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snickers)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2011, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-november-2011-edition/601422/59 "2011-11-10T16:11:08Z")
Ooh, **DataZak** , bummer. _Cell_’s pretty bad. And I say that as someone who loves SK. My favorite SK book is [The Eyes of the Dragon](http://www.amazon.com/Eyes-Dragon-Stephen-King/dp/0451166582/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1320941283&sr=8-1) - it’s a fairytale he wrote for his (then younger) daughter. Love that book. I picked up Mary Roach’s [Bonk](http://www.amazon.com/Bonk-Curious-Coupling-Science-Sex/dp/0393334791/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1320941346&sr=8-1) and have been reading it at gym sessions. It’s fantastic: a really witty look at human sexuality, how we study it, and how much (or little) we know about it. She’s the same author that brought us the humorous and often poignant look at death in [Stiff](http://www.amazon.com/Stiff-Curious-Lives-Human-Cadavers/dp/0393324826/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1320941346&sr=8-2). The part where she describes the kegel video are comedy gold! ---
**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2011, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-november-2011-edition/601422/60 "2011-11-10T16:26:56Z")
I am rreading **Mary Boleyn** by Alison Weir. The book is a biography of Anne Boleyn’s sister. She aims to be a factual companion to Phillipa Gregory’s fanciful novel about Queen Elizabeth’s aunt and one of Henry VIII’s known lovers. Very interesting so far. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-november-2011-edition/601422.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-november-2011-edition/601422.md?page=4)