# Whatcha readin' November edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 31, 2007, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-november-edition/424696 "2007-10-31T12:38:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2007, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-november-edition/424696/121 "2007-11-24T03:29:11Z")
I put the Dunnett book on hold for a minute so I could read **Gentlemen of the Road** by Michael Chabon. I feel a teensy bit ripped off – I was expecting a big, fat historical. Or even a mid-size historical. This was more like a few chapters – I think it’s novella length. It was a good read though. I re-read many passages that were really good, poetic and heartfelt. But I also re-read some passages because of Chabon’s unusual sentence structure. And it should have been longer. Back to Dunnett. ---
**Author:** ![movingfinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@movingfinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/movingfinger)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2007, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-november-edition/424696/122 "2007-11-24T04:18:02Z")
I’m reading \*\*Never Surrender \*\* by Michael Dobbs, a novel based on Winston Churchill’s first three weeks as Prime Minister. So far it is very good, if a bit harrowing, reading about the carnage on the beach at Dunkirk. But did Churchill really speak in such a florid, grandiloquent way? Did all British politicians in 1940 sound as though Dickens or Thackeray were writing their everyday speech for them? In all, an excellent book, so far. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2007, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-november-edition/424696/123 "2007-11-24T05:25:25Z")
Finished \*Another Day in the Frontal Lobe: A Brain Surgeon Exposes Life on the Inside \* (which I found interesting and reasonably well written) and _Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?_ (which I bumped up after the recent _Bladerunner_ threads, and which was poignant). I was going to start _Shutting Out the Sun: How Japan Created Its Own Lost Generation,_ but wedged as I was into one of United’s extra-tiny window seats, there was no way to free it from my suitcase, and I was reduced to perusing the _SkyMall_ catalogue for two hours. Now that I’m home, I’m back to _Pigeons: The Fascinating Saga of the World’s Most Revered and Reviled Bird._ ---
**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 26, 2007, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-november-edition/424696/124 "2007-11-26T15:29:03Z")
Just finished: Dark Harvest by Norman Partridge, a recommendation from **Auntie Pam**. Enjoyed it very much; the author has a nice easy style and the tale kept me riveted throughout. My only complaint is that I wanted to know more about the how and why, but since this was a story of the supernatural, fleshing that part out could easily have resulted in disappointment. Best to let your imagination run wild! Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood. I picked this book up reluctantly, thinking I’d read a few pages and then let myself off the hook, as I really don’t care for science fiction. But it grabbed me, and I wound up liking it much more than Handmaid’s Tale. My only complaints here were A)I didn’t understand Crake’s motivations regarding the BlyssPluss pill, although like Snowman, I have theories. And B) I wish the story had gone on longer. Is that a complaint or a compliment? 🙂 Next book of any consequence will probably be Peter and the Secret of Rundoon, by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson. It’s the final book in their Peter Pan prequel series. I don’t expect it to be great, but solid. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2007, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-november-edition/424696/125 "2007-11-26T16:36:41Z")
I’m glad you liked it! Partridge wanted to do a story with a Twilight Zone feel and I think he succeeded. I didn’t question the premise until it was over. Best not to think of it too much. No one **ever** got out of that town? :dubious: After listening to a fun program about books [on the radio](http://www.onthemedia.org/) yesterday, I decided to finally read _War and Peace_. It’s the ultimate big fat historical, isn’t it? I’m about 50 pages in and enjoying it. (The Dunnett will have to wait.) ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2007, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-november-edition/424696/126 "2007-11-26T16:45:05Z")
Finished _Pigeons: The Fascinating Saga of the World’s Most Revered and Reviled Bird._ Can’t recommend it. (This is in contrast to many Amazon reviewers who just love it, but I think the tone is contemptuous.) Maybe I’ll read Jon Swain’s _River of Time_–he’s one of the people dramatized in _The Killing Fields,_ and people seem to hate this book because he whored around and got high in Southeast Asia and now is sad that things have changed. This seems much more promising than the previous book’s revolted fascination with the fact that pigeons shit. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2007, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-november-edition/424696/127 "2007-11-26T16:53:00Z")
[QUOTE=movingfinger] I’m reading \*\*Never Surrender \*\* by Michael Dobbs, a novel based on Winston Churchill’s first three weeks as Prime Minister. So far it is very good, if a bit harrowing, reading about the carnage on the beach at Dunkirk. But did Churchill really speak in such a florid, grandiloquent way? Did all British politicians in 1940 sound as though Dickens or Thackeray were writing their everyday speech for them? In all, an excellent book, so far. [/QUOTE] I’m reading Churchill’s own work _Their Finest Hour_, the second in his WW2 series. It includes many original letters and memoranda drafted at the time, and exerpts from Churchill’s speeches. Of course, it was dictated after the war, but from the letters and memoranda you do get the feeling that Churchill, and those around him, did indeed speak (and write and as far as I know, think) in that manner - but also with considerable clarity and humour. He is relentlessly quotable. A favorite passage - Churchill on being made Prime Minister and the seductions of power: > [@](#): > > At the top there are great simplifications. An accepted leader has only to be sure of what it is best to do, or at least to have made up his mind about it. The loyalties which centre upon number one are enormous. If he trips, he must be sustained. If he makes mistakes, they must be covered. If he sleeps, he must not be wantonly disturbed. If he is no good, he must be pole-axed. But this last extreme process cannot be carried out every day … ---
**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 26, 2007, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-november-edition/424696/128 "2007-11-26T17:14:46Z")
[QUOTE=AuntiePam] I decided to finally read _War and Peace_. It’s the ultimate big fat historical, isn’t it? I’m about 50 pages in and enjoying it. [/QUOTE] I just put the audiobook on hold. Do you think I’ll have to back a truck up to the library? ---
**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:** [November 26, 2007, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-november-edition/424696/129 "2007-11-26T17:53:30Z")
[QUOTE=SpazCat] Currently working on: [Wuthering Heights](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/175286.Wuthering_Heights) by Emily Bronte (which I actually like, contrary to popular opinion it seems) [Dead Lovers Are Faithful Lovers](http://www.amazon.com/Dead-Lovers-Are-Faithful/dp/0820315885/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1195872443&sr=1-1) by Frances Newman (a virgin read–the back cover gives no information about the book itself and I fell asleep reading the introduction) [Geisha: A Life](http://www.amazon.com/Geisha-Life-Mineko-Iwasaki/dp/0743444299/ref=pd_bbs_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1195872560&sr=1-2) by Mineko Iwasaki and Rande Brown (the autobiography of a geiko in 1960s Kyoto–fascinating so far) [/QUOTE] I finished two of these last night, so I’ll update with my impressions of them. **Dead Lovers Are Faithful Lovers** : About two women in love with Charlton Cunningham, the youngest vice-president of Southeastern Railroad Company. One woman is his wife Evelyn, a high-society dame who spends all her time preserving her veneer of perfection. The other is his mistress Isabel, a librarian at the Carnegie Library whose career doesn’t stop her from obsessing over Charlton. It’s written in a stream-of-consciousness style with a lot of repetition, especially of colors. A good book, but it didn’t strike me as a keeper. **Geisha, A Life** : About Mineko Iwasaki, the most famous geiko in the 1960s-1970s. She describes her life in meticulous detail, explaining all of the nuances that Western audiences wouldn’t understand like the importance of kimono and the Japanese definition of art. There are two picture inserts that are both beautiful and useful as they show the kimono and hairstyles that she mentions. I did have trouble keeping track of the relationships among everyone in Gion Kobu and I had to keep looking back to remember what some of the words meant, but that’s my only complaint. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2007, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-november-edition/424696/130 "2007-11-26T18:34:11Z")
[QUOTE=koeeoaddi] I just put the audiobook on hold. Do you think I’ll have to back a truck up to the library? [/QUOTE] Hah! Maybe. Who’s doing the audio? I have the Inner Sanctum edition (the Maudes translation) from 1942. It’s neat – there’s a map, and a booklet with character info. I’m smiling a lot at some of Tolstoy’s asides. Smiling at the footnotes too – when Pierre is introduced, there’s a footnote telling me “Pierre is one of the two major characters.” I think my copy is unread. Some of the pages needed clipping. ---
**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 26, 2007, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-november-edition/424696/131 "2007-11-26T19:46:55Z")
[QUOTE=AuntiePam] Hah! Maybe. Who’s doing the audio? I have the Inner Sanctum edition (the Maudes translation) from 1942. It’s neat – there’s a map, and a booklet with character info. I’m smiling a lot at some of Tolstoy’s asides. Smiling at the footnotes too – when Pierre is introduced, there’s a footnote telling me “Pierre is one of the two major characters.” I think my copy is unread. Some of the pages needed clipping. [/QUOTE] It’s a Books on Tape audio. Holy cow! 45 sound cassettes in 4 v. (67 hrs., 30 min). Read by Walter Zimmerman. ---
**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:** [November 26, 2007, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-november-edition/424696/132 "2007-11-26T19:55:39Z")
[QUOTE=koeeoaddi] It’s a Books on Tape audio. Holy cow! 45 sound cassettes in 4 v. (67 hrs., 30 min). Read by Walter Zimmerman. [/QUOTE] Time to start looking at truck rentals… ---
**Author:** ![Gulo\_gulo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bcef8e/32.png) [@Gulo\_gulo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gulo_gulo)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2007, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-november-edition/424696/133 "2007-11-27T17:48:05Z")
Finished " The Crimson Petal and the White", thoroughly enjoyed it but a bit disappointed with the ending. Started "[Casino Royale](http://www.amazon.com/Casino-Royale-James-Bond-Novels/dp/014200202X) this morning. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2007, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-november-edition/424696/134 "2007-11-27T18:38:36Z")
[QUOTE=Gulo gulo] Finished " The Crimson Petal and the White", thoroughly enjoyed it but a bit disappointed with the ending. Started "[Casino Royale](http://www.amazon.com/Casino-Royale-James-Bond-Novels/dp/014200202X) this morning. [/QUOTE] It has been years since I read any of the original books. You’ll have to let me know what you think. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2007, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-november-edition/424696/135 "2007-11-27T20:38:41Z")
[QUOTE=Gulo gulo] Finished " The Crimson Petal and the White", thoroughly enjoyed it but a bit disappointed with the ending. [/QUOTE] It was kind of open-ended, wasn’t it? I think Sophie will be fine, but that might be wishful thinking. The odds were against her. I read some good historicals that year, and Crimson was my favorite. ---
**Author:** ![manx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/65b543/32.png) [@manx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manx)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2007, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-november-edition/424696/136 "2007-11-27T21:08:03Z")
[QUOTE=Siam Sam] Finished Cormac McCarthy’s \*The Crossing \* and today will start _Mr. American_, by George MacDonald Fraser. [/QUOTE] Ooh, I just bought _The Crossing_. I failed to get more than a couple of pages into _Blood Meridian_, so gave up on him for a few years, but read _The Road_ (loved it to post-apocolyptic pieces) and _All the Pretty Horses_, which was different to what I expected (I’d read _Close Range_ a couple of weeks prior, and while they have their similarities they’re not especially comparable) but I really enjoyed it. I went payday mad down Charing Cross Road, and I now have, to read _The Book of Lost Things_ by John Connelly, _Count Zero_ by William Gibson, _Welcome to the Human Heart_, a collection of Janet Frame’s short stories, _The Bridge_ and _Walking on Glass_ by Iain Banks as well as some Walt Whitman, Gerald Manley Hopkins and E.E. Cummings. Hopefully this will tide me through to Christmas. ---
**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 27, 2007, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-november-edition/424696/137 "2007-11-27T21:25:00Z")
I finished more Dorothy Sayers - _Gaudy Night_ and _Busman’s Honeymoon_ were great. I’m starting _Thrones, Dominations_ now, and I have _A Presumption of Death_ to read next, although \*\*MarcusF \*\*in another thread warned me off it. Then I’ll go back to read _The Nine Tailors_. I also read the third of David Weber’s Honor Harrington series. I’m enjoying those. I started the famous _A Wrinkle in Time_. Maybe you had to read this as a kid to fall in love with it, because at the halfway point I don’t really like it very much. I put it down for other things, but I’ll finish it over the weekend. ---
**Author:** ![Stauderhorse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@Stauderhorse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stauderhorse)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2007, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-november-edition/424696/138 "2007-11-27T22:10:43Z")
_Gone with the Wind_ by Margaret Mitchell. _Cold Sassy Tree_ by Olive Ann Burns. I’m really liking _Cold Sassy Tree_, haven’t gotten too far in GwtW yet. ---
**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 28, 2007, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-november-edition/424696/139 "2007-11-28T03:19:41Z")
[QUOTE=manx] Ooh, I just bought _The Crossing_. I failed to get more than a couple of pages into _Blood Meridian_, so gave up on him for a few years, but read _The Road_ (loved it to post-apocolyptic pieces) and _All the Pretty Horses_, which was different to what I expected (I’d read _Close Range_ a couple of weeks prior, and while they have their similarities they’re not especially comparable) but I really enjoyed it. [/QUOTE] After I finish George MacDonald Fraser’s _Mr. American_, I have _Cities of the Plain_ sitting on my shelf waiting. It’s the third of McCarthy’s Border Trilogy, after _All the Pretty Horses_ and _The Crossing._ ---
**Author:** ![DataZak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ea666f/32.png) [@DataZak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DataZak)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2007, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-november-edition/424696/140 "2007-11-28T04:02:20Z")
George MacDonald Fraser’s _The Reavers_. Worst book I read this year. GMF, in the Foreword, stated that he set out to write an utterly nonsensical book for the young uns’ who seem to have forgotten how to have fun. But it’s just a nonsensical book with absolutely no fun. He chose to write this instead of the next _Flashman_ book? The mind boggles. I need to read something non-fiction-y to wipe my brain clean of that trash. _Schultz and Peanuts: A Biography_ looks good. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-november-edition/424696.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-november-edition/424696.md?page=8)