# Whatcha readin' October edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 30, 2007, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084 "2007-09-30T23:26:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2007, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/21 "2007-10-01T02:27:23Z")
I just finished **Confederacy of Dunces** and have started the new Garrison Keillor book, **Pontoon**. I recently finished Pratchett’s **Making Money**. ---
**Author:** ![pprgrl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f6c823/32.png) [@pprgrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pprgrl)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2007, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/22 "2007-10-01T02:27:52Z")
Just finished **Saturday** by Ian McEwan, which I really enjoyed. I’m starting Dante’s **Inferno** tonight and re-reading **Lady Chatterley’s Lover** , both for school. I just dug out my box of Pratchett books from storage so I’m probably going to pick up either **Night Watch** or **The Wee Free Men** for my for fun, not required reading. I’m also working on Diane Middlebrook’s biography of Anne Sexton, which is not strictly required, but I’ll be using it in a big project for one of my independent study classes, along with **Searching For Mercy Street** , which hasn’t arrived yet. I’m a big Anne Sexton fan, so both of these seem more like for fun than required reading…maybe I’ll hold off on the Pratchett for a few days until I’ve got the Middlebrook finished. I hated Lady Chatterley the first time I read it when I was 18, and so far I’m not liking it much now. Sometimes I end up liking books like this after we talk about them in class a bit, so I’m hoping that’ll happen with this book since Lawrence is so highly regarded and all. ---
**Author:** ![Panurge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/fbc32d/32.png) [@Panurge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Panurge)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2007, 9:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/23 "2007-10-01T09:00:00Z")
[QUOTE=Larry Borgia] I just started re-reading _Gravity’s Rainbow_. [/QUOTE] Me too. For the first time, but man, is that an awesome book. And I just finished Kafka’s Diaries. Next up: Max Stirner’s _The Ego and its own_ (_Der Einzige und sein Eigenthum_ ). ---
**Author:** ![Enterprise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/76d3ee/32.png) [@Enterprise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enterprise)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2007, 10:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/24 "2007-10-01T10:26:54Z")
I just finished Ian Toll’s excellent _Six Frigates_ about the first purpose-built U.S. warships – reads like a novel, really, an great read. I’ll start _The Line Upon a Wind_ by Noel Mostert on the Napoleonic naval wars next for my non-fiction fix, with _Undaunted Courage_ by Stephen Ambrose as a back up (some controversy about this one, it seems). For fiction, I have Mark Helprin’s _A Soldier of the Great War_ started, but it doesn’t really grip me. I’m a bit disappointed that he’s not come back to the walking part and keeps adding chapters on Alessandro’s war experiences…it seems a bit disjointing. Among the books I’ve put on backburner are Paul Auster’s _New York Trilogy_, Gore Vidal’s _Creation_ and Norman Mailer’s _Naked and the Dead_. Didn’t really get caught by any of them, so they’ll have to linger. A plug for something I finished the other day: _Mayflower_, by Nathaniel Philbrick. Great book. I must get his other ones… ---
**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 1, 2007, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/25 "2007-10-01T13:38:06Z")
I’m reading the Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries, by Dorothy Sayers. I’m up to the fourth one, _The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club_, written in 1928. I’m really enjoying them. I have ordered a copy of _The English Passengers_, since it’s so popular in our [goodreads.com](http://goodreads.com) Straight Dope group, so I’ll be reading that soon. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2007, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/26 "2007-10-01T13:41:55Z")
I re-read Alice Walker’s “The Color Purple” for the first time in about 20 years. That is one powerful book of sisterhood, let me tell you. Then I started on the Lemony Snickert books, having gotten all 13 hardcovers at the thrift store for $10. If “A Bad Beginning” is any indication, that is one great series of books for children and adults, let me tell you. ---
**Author:** ![AHoosierMama](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/258eb7/32.png) [@AHoosierMama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHoosierMama)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2007, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/27 "2007-10-01T13:45:54Z")
Just finished Joan Didion’s **Year of Magical Thinking**. Meh. Just started Sue Monk Kidd’s **The Secret Life of Bees**. Can’t put it down. ---
**Author:** ![Stuffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f17d59/32.png) [@Stuffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stuffy)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2007, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/28 "2007-10-01T13:47:57Z")
[QUOTE=DudleyGarrett] **The Alien Years** by Robert Silverberg. My wife swears it’s an excellent read. [/QUOTE] I read it back in May, I have to say that I disagree. I hate to play spoiler though so let me know if you’re interested in my $.02. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2007, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/29 "2007-10-01T13:55:29Z")
Just about finishing McCathy’s **The Road.** Nice cheery little romp. have to imagine Oprah’s demo loved it. After a couple of decades of reading Cormac, this reader thinks he peaked with **ATPH.** (Actually, I quite like this book.) Last 2 were worth reading as well. **Dog Days** by Jon Katz will please any animal lover or dreamer of a - uh - simpler life. And **CC Pyle’s Amazing Footrace** by Geoff Williams was an amazing and amusing true tale of a 1928 footrace from LA to NY. Gotta hit the lobrary tonight and restock. Of the books listed above, I strongly recommend anything by Winchester. ---
**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:** [October 1, 2007, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/30 "2007-10-01T14:43:39Z")
[QUOTE=Shoshana] I’m reading **The Map that Changed the World** and maybe a couple of Jonathan Stroud’s YA books this week. [/QUOTE] _glances askance at your first book_ You know, I think I would have liked that one better if the childhood reminiscense chapter came at the beginning or end of the book, not right in the middle of the 18th century action. But like I said, I’m giving Winchester another chance with the OED so we’ll see what my verdict is when I start reading **The Professor** tomorrow or the next day. ---
**Author:** ![Geobabe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/geobabe/32/3908_2.png) [@Geobabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geobabe)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2007, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/31 "2007-10-01T14:58:11Z")
[QUOTE=stucco] I’m reading _Strange Piece of Paradise_ by Terri Jentz. It’s Jentz’s account of being almost killed by an axe-murderer while she’s camping with a friend and then going back 15 years later to find the man who did it. It’s pretty good so far. [/QUOTE] I found that one unsatisfying toward the end, but still a worthwhile read. [QUOTE=AHoosierMama] Just started Sue Monk Kidd’s **The Secret Life of Bees**. Can’t put it down. [/QUOTE] Loved that one. It’s a female-bonding-coming-of-age story without being too “chick-lit” IMO. My current one is _To Hate Like This Is to Be Happy Forever: A Thoroughly Obsessive, Intermittently Uplifting, and Occasionally Unbiased Account of the Duke-North Carolina Basketball Rivalry_ by Will Blythe, which I got for my husband for Father’s Day and get to read now that he’s done with it. An interesting look behind enemy lines, since the writer is a Carolina fan. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![SkeptiJess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@SkeptiJess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkeptiJess)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2007, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/32 "2007-10-01T18:18:36Z")
[QUOTE=koeeoaddi] … **Water for Elephants** , by Sara Gruen. So far, I like both of them. [/QUOTE] Great book. I read it and loved it; passed it on to my dad, who read it and loved it; then my son, who read it and loved it. My mom is reading it now and… natch, loving it. I just finished An Ice Cold Grave by Charlaine Harris. The most disturbing one yet, in this series. _Very_ creepy. Right now, I’m reading, In Secret Service by Mitch Silver. A spy thriller with the Duke & Duchess of Windsor spying for the Nazis. Not the best thing I’ve read recently, but not the worst, either. Next up – UltraViolet by Nancy Bush. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2007, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/33 "2007-10-01T18:29:30Z")
Right now, I am committed to seeing “Lisey’s Story” by Stephen King through to the end. Not sure it’s worth it. Then I have to get back to \*\*Middle Age \*\* by Joyce Carol Oates. And on to the big pile waiting on the shelf. The I got my head turned by faculty recommendations from their summer reading, in the alumni weekly: “Edward P. Jones’s masterful novel, The Known World”, “T. C. Boyle’s utterly disturbing novel, The Tortilla Curtain.” So I may have to hit Borders for these. Anyone read them? ---
**Author:** ![Tupug\_Anachi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@Tupug\_Anachi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tupug_Anachi)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2007, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/34 "2007-10-01T18:36:07Z")
Abundance by Sena Jeter Naslund, a novel about Marie Antoinette. Interesting but does nothing to develop any sympathy for the subject. Rick Steve’s Italy 2008 because I want to go to Italy next September. Frommer’s Italy 2008 is also in the que. ---
**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:** [October 1, 2007, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/35 "2007-10-01T18:53:46Z")
[QUOTE=gigi] The I got my head turned by faculty recommendations from their summer reading, in the alumni weekly: “Edward P. Jones’s masterful novel, The Known World”, “T. C. Boyle’s utterly disturbing novel, The Tortilla Curtain.” So I may have to hit Borders for these. Anyone read them? [/QUOTE] I’ve read **The Known World**. I spent the first few chapters confused about who all of these characters are and the rest of the book wondering why I should care about them. I do have books I like. I really do. It’s just that all the books I’ve read that are turning up on this list I didn’t like. ---
**Author:** ![lalenin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@lalenin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lalenin)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2007, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/36 "2007-10-01T19:05:26Z")
**The Protector’s War** by S.M. Stirling, it’s part two of a triology, and I’m enjoying most of it, except that I wish the author would have kept all the prayers and bs about the “sky goddess” out of it, it really disrupts the flow. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2007, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/37 "2007-10-01T19:31:10Z")
[QUOTE=lalenin] **The Protector’s War** by S.M. Stirling, it’s part two of a triology, and I’m enjoying most of it, except that I wish the author would have kept all the prayers and bs about the “sky goddess” out of it, it really disrupts the flow. [/QUOTE] Maybe it was because it was a part-two of three and I didn’t know it, but I did not care for this at all. I hate to lay down a book, but I think I ended up laying this one down. ---
**Author:** ![Suburban\_Plankton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suburban_plankton/32/219_2.png) [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2007, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/38 "2007-10-01T19:50:57Z")
I finished **A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius** by David Eggers last night. Next up: **Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight** by Alexandra Fuller, then **The Devil in the White City** by Erik Larson, and I can’t remember what the next two books in the stack are… ---
**Author:** ![Flutterby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Flutterby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flutterby)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2007, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/39 "2007-10-01T19:51:02Z")
The last few months I’ve been having trouble getting through any one book, so right now I’ve got a couple on the go, some old friends and a couple new ones. The main ones are _The Name of the Wind_ by Patrick Rothfuss and _A Game of Thrones_ by George R.R. Martin. I’m coming in behind the curve on A Song of Ice and Fire. It’s been recommended to me more than once but until now I never bothered picked it up. I’ve mostly been going the audiobook route and knitting as I listen, so there I’m thinking of listening to either The Three Musketeers or A Brief History of Time (yay for the library!). ---
**Author:** ![Enterprise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/76d3ee/32.png) [@Enterprise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enterprise)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2007, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/40 "2007-10-01T21:18:29Z")
[QUOTE=gigi] The I got my head turned by faculty recommendations from their summer reading, in the alumni weekly: “Edward P. Jones’s masterful novel, The Known World”, “T. C. Boyle’s utterly disturbing novel, The Tortilla Curtain.” So I may have to hit Borders for these. Anyone read them? [/QUOTE] _Tortilla Curtain_ may well be described as “utterly disturbing”, but more for Boyle’s sneaky racism than for anything else. I thought it was a good read, but like _Drop City_, it raised the occasional alarm in my head. I’ll not go into it since you’ll still want to read it; by all means, do read it, since it’s very good, and then come back and tell me what you think. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084.md?page=3)