# Whatcha Readin' Oct 09 Edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 30, 2009, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-oct-09-edition/512095 "2009-09-30T12:43:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**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:** [October 22, 2009, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-oct-09-edition/512095/121 "2009-10-22T01:57:47Z")
I’ve pretty much given up on Tabitha King’s _One on One_, about an ill-fated high school basketball romance. I read 50 pages and it hasn’t hooked me, and that’s when I usually put a book aside and move on to something else. Also on my bedside table is _The Age of Federalism_ by Stanley Elkins and Eric McKitrick, which Joseph Ellis praised in his pretty good _American Creation_ for its concise portrait of Alexander Hamilton. I’m enjoying that and more in the book. Next up is _Star Trek: Myriad Universes: Echoes and Refractions_, alternate-universe tales by Geoff Trowbridge and others. It’s OK; nothing spectacular. I’m also occasionally dipping into _American Civil War Marines, 1861-65_ by Ron Field, which is part of Osprey’s short military history series. It’s an interesting look at what was, at the time, a tiny and oft-overlooked branch of the U.S. military. ---
**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:** [October 22, 2009, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-oct-09-edition/512095/122 "2009-10-22T12:31:41Z")
I’m currently reading Ravens, by George Dawes Green. I usually get only books I know something about, but this one I picked up just because it sounded interesting. The plot is similar to The Desperate Hours: a family held hostage in their own home, but free to move about in their community, unable to ask for help for fear of endangering the others. So far, it’s been a decent read, although I’m not finding all the characters very believable… ---
**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:** [October 22, 2009, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-oct-09-edition/512095/123 "2009-10-22T13:33:36Z")
I really liked Stephenson’s _Snow Crash_, even though I’m not a fan of cyberpunk. I think his writing is fantastic. I just finished a nice little standalone vampire novel called _Agyar_, by Steven Brust. It’s a nice take on the genre, something a little different. For one thing, the author assumes that you already know what a vampire’s habits are and leaves the details largely to your imagination. I’m now reading _The Greatest Knight_, by Elizabeth Chadwick, which is historical fiction about William Marshal. He was a knight errant, famous for his tournament victories, who served Eleanor of Aquitaine and later her sons Henry, Richard, Geoffrey and John, as well as Henry III. He led a fascinating life, and while Chadwick’s writing isn’t quite as good as Sharon Kay Penman’s, I’m enjoying the book. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2009, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-oct-09-edition/512095/124 "2009-10-22T13:42:41Z")
I keep thinking I should check out Stephenson – what would be the best book to start with? ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2009, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-oct-09-edition/512095/125 "2009-10-22T14:28:37Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > I keep thinking I should check out Stephenson – what would be the best book to start with? That depends. If you are more interested in science fiction-cyberpunk style, read _Snow Crash_. If history is more your thing, I’d start with _Cryptonomicon_. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2009, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-oct-09-edition/512095/126 "2009-10-22T14:38:42Z")
> [@TheMerchandise](#): > > I listened to [**The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao**] as an audiobook last month. As a non-Spanish speakers, I was glad I went that route… There’s quite a few Spanish words and phrases and the narrator conveyed the meaning even though I couldn’t understand the actual words. I took Spanish in high school, which helps, but I’m learning a lot of words they never taught us in school. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![yellowval](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/919ad9/32.png) [@yellowval](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yellowval)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2009, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-oct-09-edition/512095/127 "2009-10-23T18:12:17Z")
I finished A Farewell to Arms yesterday. Once again, Hemingway did not disappoint. I have just started The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. No real impression so far. Since it’s almost Halloween, I also started The House of Spirits and Whispers: The True Story of a Haunted House, by Annie Wilder. It’s about a house in Minnesota, which makes it extra fun for me. Also still reading It Can’t Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis and listening to The Godfather on audiobook. ---
**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:** [October 23, 2009, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-oct-09-edition/512095/128 "2009-10-23T18:21:01Z")
I’m about halfway through The Guinea Pig Diaries by A.J. Jacobs. He is a magazine writer, and this is a collection of articles about crazy experiments he’s done, such as outsourcing his life to India, or practicing Radical Honesty. It’s cute, but if I were his wife I’d have to kill him. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2009, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-oct-09-edition/512095/129 "2009-10-23T18:28:36Z")
I’m on “The Hour I First Believed” by Wally Lamb. I love him and it’s so easy to stay up and just read a little more…it’s been hard to get up every morning this week! ---
**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:** [October 23, 2009, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-oct-09-edition/512095/130 "2009-10-23T19:11:12Z")
You might be interested in Columbine (by Dave Cullen), **gigi**. I read it recently and realized Lamb had based the wife’s experience in Hour I First Believed on an actual person. Wonder how she’s doing these days? ---
**Author:** ![LunarPlexus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@LunarPlexus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LunarPlexus)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2009, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-oct-09-edition/512095/131 "2009-10-24T19:30:21Z")
I’ve read 9 **Philip Roth** novels in the past year or so, and am having mixed reactions. I just finished _The Plot Against America_, and I liked it a lot. More “semitism” and less sexism (or whatever you want to call it) works for me. I enjoyed _Portnoy’s Complaint_ for what it was, but seeing as everyone isn’t a middle-aged Jewish guy like me, I can see how it might not have much of a shred of resonance these days. It felt dated in much the same way **John Updike** ’s first two Rabbit books felt to me. But OK. I found _American Pastoral_ meh. I don’t know if that’s because of my tending sympathy with early 1970’s leftist terrorism or in spite of it. ---
**Author:** ![tr0psn4j](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@tr0psn4j](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tr0psn4j)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2009, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-oct-09-edition/512095/132 "2009-10-24T21:40:57Z")
> [@yellowval](#): > > I finished A Farewell to Arms yesterday. Once again, Hemingway did not disappoint. That’s the book I’m going to read next. Somehow, despite actually buying the book in high school, I never got around to reading it. Now I can’t find the damn thing. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2009, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-oct-09-edition/512095/133 "2009-10-25T04:53:52Z")
How To Be A Movie Star: Elizabeth Taylor in Hollywood by William J. Mann. A biography of Liz. Nothing new here, but it’s deliciously gossipy and lively and might be a revelation to younger fans who enjoy celebrity biographies. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2009, 10:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-oct-09-edition/512095/134 "2009-10-25T10:06:01Z")
Finished _Flinx Transcendent: A Pip & Flinx Adventure_, supposedly the last in the series. I read my first Flinx novel more than half a lifetime ago in my 20s. I haven’t read them all, but I’m glad I read this, the last of the series. It has some good and some bad. The first quarter of the book was a big WTF? It added such a small part to the plot that he could have dealt with it much more quickly. Much of the “science” part of the science fiction was questionable. I don’t care too much, I read more for the plots, but I offer it up as a warning. Clarity, his girlfriend, seemed like a fairly useless character, only thrown in to show us that Flinx is finding his way to being more and more human. But for all that it was nice to visit with an old friend. Even with having missed a few in the series, I could still mostly keep up. It was a satisfying, but not great ending to the series. ---
**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:** [October 25, 2009, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-oct-09-edition/512095/135 "2009-10-25T22:31:12Z")
Wow. October. I blinked and almost missed it. Read: _Pride and Prejudice and Zombies_ by Seth Grahame-Smith ~ It was an ok read in small doses but I doubt I’ll read it again. (The Reader’s Discussion Guide at the end was hilarious.) _Travels With Dr Death_ by Ron Rosenbaum ~ starts slow but has some interesting chapters. The one on the Marcus twins (of Dead Ringers fame) was very interesting. _Dragon Weather (Obsidian Chronicles)_ by Lawrence Watt-Evans ~ Boy survives dragon attack that decimates his village. He’s sold into slavery and vows revenge. He’s a total Mary Jane but I may continue with the series for the hell of it. _The War Magician_ by David Fisher ~ I’m pretty sure this was a SDMB recommendation & I truly enjoyed it. A magician creates illusions to deceive Rommel’s troops in Africa during WWII. I wish there had been more photographs in the book. _Sunshine_ by Robin McKinley ~ reread. _Mind Over Murder_ by Jack Batten ~ History of Canadian forensics, details some Canadian crime stories. _People of the Deer_ by Farley Mowat ~ Mowat spent a couple of years with the Ihalmiut Eskimo and documented their stories & lives while watching their population shrink to virtual extinction from sickness & starvation. _The Keep_ by F. Paul Wilson ~ An old reread I’ve had around for years. _Kim_ by Rudyard Kipling ~ Resourceful street urchin hangs out with a lama & also becomes a spy. _The Borrowers_ by Mary Norton ~ I was sorting through some books that I had in storage and came across this. Instead of working, I ended up sitting and reading it through. What a great kid’s book this is! Reading: _Demons_ by Fyodor Dostoevsky ~ I saw above that **AuntiePam** didn’t get into it. It’s ok so far but I’m sure I’m absolutely missing the point of the book. _Stiff_ by Mary Roach ~ Reread so I know it’s fun. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2009, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-oct-09-edition/512095/136 "2009-10-25T23:31:13Z")
> [@Gulo\_gulo](#): > > _Demons_ by Fyodor Dostoevsky ~ I saw above that **AuntiePam** didn’t get into it. It’s ok so far but I’m sure I’m absolutely missing the point of the book. I read the Wiki article on the book, looking for motivation to keep reading. It didn’t help. I think my problem was that I couldn’t find a protagonist. And I kept wondering about the narrator. Who was he? I stopped reading when that Varvara (sp?) woman was arranging the marriage of her paramour, or whoever that guy was that she’d been supporting all those years. What a whiny, spineless guy he was! I finished _Bad Things Happen_ by Harry Dolan and feel safe in recommending it. There was a lot to like – good dialogue, interesting characters, and for once, a crime novel where the female cop doesn’t fall into bed with the attractive suspect. These people acted like adults! Professionals, even! Now I’m reading _Genghis_ by Conn Iggulden, a freebie from Goodreads. It’s better than expected. Can’t help but wonder how accurate it is. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2009, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-oct-09-edition/512095/137 "2009-10-25T23:55:04Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > Now I’m reading _Genghis_ by Conn Does anyone else find that amusing? 😃 ---
**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:** [October 26, 2009, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-oct-09-edition/512095/138 "2009-10-26T00:25:03Z")
> [@Gulo\_gulo](#): > > …_The Keep_ by F. Paul Wilson ~ An old reread I’ve had around for years… I first read this in high school and really, really liked it. I’ve reread it twice since then, I think, and enjoyed it all over again. The movie isn’t very good, alas. My favorite scene is when the aged Jewish scholar is talking with the “vampire” and explains who Hitler is. The vampire muses, “I think I shall go meet this Lord Hitler.” The scholar is thrilled that there might be someone (or something) that can actually stop Hitler… but then realizes that the vampire could be far worse for the world, once freed from the keep. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2009, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-oct-09-edition/512095/139 "2009-10-26T00:32:24Z")
This month I’ve read _Firelord_, _The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents_, and _A Hat Full Of Sky_. I’ve started reading _The Catcher In The Rye_. Hm… Seems to me I’m forgetting one. ---
**Author:** ![TheMerchandise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b487fb/32.png) [@TheMerchandise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheMerchandise)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2009, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-oct-09-edition/512095/140 "2009-10-26T14:23:54Z")
I recently finished: _The Great Influenza_, by John Barry. A interesting look at not just the Spanish Flu, but at the evolution of modern medicine in the United States, the effect the pandemic had on world events (and the effect world events had on the pandemic), and the key players in trying to hold back the disease. This book must have been a huge undertaking for Barry and I’m amazed he made it as cohesive as he did. _The Talisman_, by Stephen King and Peter Straub. This had so much in common with the Dark Tower series; Jack reminded me of a young, hopeful Roland. I enjoyed this book, but nearly as much as some of King’s other works. _Evolution’s Shore,_ by Ian McDonald. I couldn’t tell if this book wanted to be science-fiction, a mystery, or a love story… it failed at all three. I just checked out \*The Lost Symbol \*from the library. I hope to speed through that in a day or two. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-oct-09-edition/512095.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-oct-09-edition/512095.md?page=8)