# 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:** 3
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2007, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/41 "2007-10-01T21:25:27Z")
House to House by David Bellavia, about his platoon’s experience in the battle for Fallujah in November, 2004. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2007, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/42 "2007-10-01T21:28:02Z")
**Shadow Family** –A Japanese murder mystery by the same author of **All She Was Worth** I just finished **The Godfather**. I’m also trying to get through **Unholy Birth** , a cheesy Rosemary’s Baby type rip off. (Except this time they’re lesbians.) ---
**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, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/43 "2007-10-01T21:43:43Z")
[QUOTE=Suburban Plankton] **The Devil in the White City** by Erik Larson [/QUOTE] That’s on my “started but put back on the shelf” pile, along with “Cellophane” and “Gilead”. Nothing wrong with them, I just got my head turned by something else. Speaking of which, has anyone read anything by Valerie Martin? I saw a good review for her latest, **Trespass** , and saw that she won the Orange Prize for **Property**. Of course Ann Patchett has a new one too… Gah! Must wait for soft cover… ---
**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:** [October 1, 2007, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/44 "2007-10-01T21:54:17Z")
If we’re talking “must wait,” Robert Charles Wilson has a new one. ---
**Author:** ![DataZak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ea666f/32.png) [@DataZak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DataZak)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2007, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/45 "2007-10-01T22:24:31Z")
Fiction: Pratchett’s **Making Money** Non-Fiction: Laura Thompson’s biography on Agatha Christie, **An English Mystery** ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2007, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/46 "2007-10-01T22:57:52Z")
[QUOTE=gigi] Speaking of which, has anyone read anything by Valerie Martin? I saw a good review for her latest, **Trespass** , and saw that she won the Orange Prize for **Property**. Of course Ann Patchett has a new one too… Gah! Must wait for soft cover… [/QUOTE] I liked **Property** but I wish I’d read it with a buddy. I was going “She did **not** just do that!” and “What do you think about such-and-such?” and “How realistic is this?” but I was talking to myself. ---
**Author:** ![Jodi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7feea3/32.png) [@Jodi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jodi)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2007, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/47 "2007-10-01T23:30:57Z")
Today I read [Kira Kira](http://books.google.com/books?id=Xw9CAAAACAAJ&dq=kira+kira) by Cynthia Kadohata. It’s a Newbery Medal winning Young Adult novel. I thought it was great; very affecting and gracefully written. Before that, I finished [Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell](http://www.amazon.com/Jonathan-Strange-Mr-Norrell-Novel/dp/0765356155/ref=pd_bbs_2/103-1056301-1663825?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1191280973&sr=1-2) by Susanna Clarke. I loved it, but I can see why it would not be to everyone’s taste. Next up is [The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse](http://books.google.com/books?id=1i9MYf1F7M4C&dq=Louise+Erdrich&prev=http://www.google.com/search%3Fq%3Dlouise%2Berdrich%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:en-us%26ie%3DUTF-8%26oe%3DUTF-8%26startIndex%3D%26startPage%3D1&sa=X&oi=print&ct=result&cd=3) by Louise Erdrich, but I probably won’t start it until tomorrow. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2007, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/48 "2007-10-01T23:31:57Z")
**Jackpot!!!** When I got home today, I discovered that the Postal Person had left not one, not two, but…wait for it… **seven** packages from Amazon, [Amazon.uk](http://Amazon.uk), and other purveyors of Fine Reading Material. So now I have to decide between: **Making Money** - Terry Pratchett (UK Edition) **The Wit and Wisdom of the Discworld** - TP **Mission: Cook!** - Robert Irvine **Serenity: Found** - Jane Espenson **1634: The Bavarian Crisis** - Eric Flint 2 trade collections of **PS238** comics or the latest **Nodwick** collection. Decisions, decisions. I think I’ll save **1634** for reading at the tournament this weekend. The Irvine book will make a nice dinner companion while the wife is away. The comic collection go into the bathroom, and the Pratchett go into the pile by the chair. ---
**Author:** ![nipplesup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/85f322/32.png) [@nipplesup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nipplesup)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2007, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/49 "2007-10-01T23:49:29Z")
[QUOTE=koeeoaddi] **Water for Elephants** , by Sara Gruen. [/QUOTE] I am in a woman’s book group a few months back this was the group’s selected book it was the first time in awhile that everyone loved reading the selected book the animal cruelty took some air-gulping on my part … in order to proceed with the story ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Some\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ad7895/32.png) [@Just\_Some\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Some_Guy)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2007, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/50 "2007-10-02T01:43:58Z")
For my reading of all of the Hugo winning novels I just finished Blue Mars which I thought had interesting terraforming science but utterly horrible characters, economics, and societal examination. Any radical economic system used in a science fiction book that requires the vast majority of a society to give up ambition, doesn’t cause massive changes in day to day lives beyond the characters commenting occasionally on how evil the old ways were, and doesn’t feature any rigid system propping it up makes me want to throw the book across the room. Longevity played a major part in the book but Robinson apparently kept forgetting just how much time he was dealing with; there were 65-year-old “renegade youths”, a total of three generations across nearly two hundred years, and almost anyone who wasn’t part of that first generation had nothing significant to add to events. I’m starting on Forever Peace which I have not read before, but given that Haldeman could keep track of massive societal changes in Forever War it has to be better than that. ---
**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:** [October 2, 2007, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/51 "2007-10-02T02:00:18Z")
I see the board ate my post during the recent unpleasantness. It admired **silenus** and said that he was hot, though more eloquently than this gloss would suggest. ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Purl\_McKnittington](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9a140/32.png) [@Miss\_Purl\_McKnittington](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Purl_McKnittington)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2007, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/52 "2007-10-02T02:07:23Z")
[QUOTE=Qadgop the Mercotan] I just finished **Confederacy of Dunces** and have started the new Garrison Keillor book, **Pontoon**. [/QUOTE] Ooh, let us know how you like _Pontoon_, please. I love Garrison Keillor, and had no idea he had a new book out. I recently re-read _Wobegon Boy_ and appreciated it a lot more than I did when I was 12. I’m currently reading _The Time-Traveler’s Wife_ by mumble and _Coyote Love_ by Christopher Moore. Early predictions are saying that the writing in the former will make me go a little crazy with the syrupy pretension, and that the latter will make me go, “Guys think like that?” at least once, but I will enjoy both of them, anyway. I have _Making Money_ on reserve at the library, and two books on Victorian sewing/patterning requested through ILL. I’m beginning to think the librarians have a pool going on what I’ll check out next – “OK, last week it was pirates, a medieval romance novel, Wisconsin ghost stories and some David Sedaris. Five dollars on the French language and something about cheese.” ---
**Author:** ![nashiitashii](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7c8e57/32.png) [@nashiitashii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nashiitashii)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2007, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/53 "2007-10-02T02:11:02Z")
I’m currently reading _Shadows and Strongholds_ by Elizabeth Chadwick. It’s historical fiction set during the 1100s with the occasional dabbling in romance scenes; I like it so far. ---
**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 2, 2007, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/54 "2007-10-02T02:42:42Z")
[QUOTE=Suburban Plankton] 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… [/QUOTE] Since I’ve bitched about two books, I need to balance that out with some praise: **Devil in the White City** is terrific. Even the bits about planning and organizing the World’s Fair were interesting. The serial killer bit was just icing on the cake. Speaking of, I need to start on my own serial killer book. It’s been a rough night. ---
**Author:** ![Jet\_Jaguar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jet_jaguar/32/3562_2.png) [@Jet\_Jaguar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jet_Jaguar)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2007, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/55 "2007-10-02T03:35:02Z")
I’m currently working on two books. First is \*\*The Worst Journey in the World \*\* by Apsley Cherry-Garrard. The author travelled to the Antarctic as part of Robert Scott’s last expedition to the South Pole in 1910 and, needless to say, things didn’t go so well. It’s an interesting contrast to Shackleton’s **South!** , which I just finished a few weeks ago. Second, I’ve got some compendium of H.P. Lovecraft stories that I’ve been picking up here and there. It came highly recommended to me, but I’ve read a half dozen stories and so far I have to say “meh”. The stories are so predictable, he telegraphs everything from a mile away. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2007, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/56 "2007-10-02T03:39:50Z")
I decided I’ve been reading too many _Dungeons & Dragons_ novels (there are so many of them!), so the other day I picked up a copy of _City of Golden Shadow_, the first book in Tad Williams’ _Otherworld_ series. A friend gave me _War of the Flowers_ a couple years ago and I really enjoyed it, so I figured I’d try some more TW. I just started _City of Golden Shadow_ today. ---
**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:** [October 2, 2007, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/57 "2007-10-02T03:42:01Z")
I’m flipping through the parts of the new Lonely Planet Thailand guide that are pertinent to the wife and me. It was published this past August, and a new edition comes out about every two years. But I just finished \*\*No Country for Old Men \*\* by Cormac McCarthy, and I have a question. He makes two very explicit references to the gas chamber in Huntsville being used for execution. But Texas has never used the gas chamber. They use lethal injection now, but at the time the book is set, circa 1980, it was the electric chair. I cannot believe McCarthy would make such mistake, so he must have done this on purpose. But why? ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2007, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/58 "2007-10-02T03:47:38Z")
[McSweeny’s Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales](http://www.amazon.com/McSweeneys-Mammoth-Treasury-Thrilling-Tales/dp/0141014040/ref=sr_1_1/104-8148649-0555922?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1191296283&sr=8-1) (note:underlined as a link, but **also** because it’s a book title) ----the probably out-of-date-and-undoubtably-unqualified grammar nazi ---
**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:** [October 2, 2007, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/59 "2007-10-02T03:52:41Z")
[QUOTE=Khadaji] OK, I’m a day early, sue me. 🙂 [/QUOTE] It was already October here when you posted, so I’m not put out. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![kelly5078](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/6f9a4e/32.png) [@kelly5078](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kelly5078)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2007, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084/60 "2007-10-02T04:23:47Z")
**The Fifth Elephant** by Pratchett. But most of my time is being taken up by Ken Burns at the moment. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-october-edition/421084.md?page=4)