# Whatcha Readin' Sept 09 Edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 29, 2009, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-sept-09-edition/508154 "2009-08-29T14:42:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**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:** [September 19, 2009, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-sept-09-edition/508154/101 "2009-09-19T01:57:46Z")
> [@gallows\_fodder](#): > > …I’ve got Howard Pyle’s **King Arthur and His Knights** by the bedside, reading a little bit every night. My mother read these stories to me and my brother when we were children, and they’re wonderful. Great artwork, too… I was just looking at that last week! N.C. Wyeth illustrated _The Boy’s King Arthur_, which is in color and even better, IMHO. Here’s one picture from it: [La Belle Dame Sans Merci: Image](http://labelledamesensmerci.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/boys_king_arthur_-_n __c__ wyeth_-_p16.jpg) For a more grownup-oriented retelling of those stories, I’ve long loved Thomas Berger’s _Arthur Rex_ (but no illustrations other than the stirring cover, alas): [http://flann4.files.wordpress.com/2008/01/arthur.jpg](http://flann4.files.wordpress.com/2008/01/arthur.jpg) ---
**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:** [September 21, 2009, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-sept-09-edition/508154/102 "2009-09-21T16:46:19Z")
Just finished Joseph Ellis’s _American Creation_, about the first 30-some years of the infant U.S. Not as good as the author’s _Founding Brothers_, but better than _His Excellency_. Ellis focuses on the Framers and what they got right (democracy, liberty) as well as what they got wrong (slavery, Indian policy), and explores why. He was pretty critical of Jefferson, but then, so am I, so I appreciated that. Now I’m reading _One on One_ by Tabitha King for my book club. It’s about a high school basketball star in small-town Maine and his rivalry/romance with his counterpart on the girl’s team. So far, meh. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2009, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-sept-09-edition/508154/103 "2009-09-21T18:13:52Z")
Finished The Enchantment Emporium by Tanya Huff. I have enjoyed and hated Huff’s work. I enjoyed this one. Allie Gale, a young woman from a long line of (Toronto) Witches inherits a junk shop in Calgary from her grandmother. Allie travels from Toronto to Calgary to solve the mystery of what happened to her grandmother. Once there she finds a sorcerer, dragon lords and an impending end of the world scenario… Filled with interesting supporting characters this is a fast-paced urban fantasy. My only quibble is Huff seems a little too preoccupied with sex, and in this case familial sex at that. None-the-less a good read, fast-paced with a strong plot. A-. ---
**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:** [September 21, 2009, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-sept-09-edition/508154/104 "2009-09-21T18:22:17Z")
> [@Khadaji](#): > > Finished The Enchantment Emporium by Tanya Huff. I have enjoyed and hated Huff’s work. I enjoyed this one. I really liked that one, too. Which Huff books have you hated? ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2009, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-sept-09-edition/508154/105 "2009-09-21T19:22:03Z")
> [@gallows\_fodder](#): > > **AuntiePam** , you’ll have to share your secret as to how you’re able to read Rosamond’s scenes without skipping them or stabbing the pages in rage. I wanted to see her tortured _so bad_…grrrr. It’s because I watch _Real Housewives of Atlanta_. Rosamond is Melanie Wilkes compared to those self-involved delusional bitches. 🙂 Seriously, she’s a product of her upbringing. Spoiled, selfish, pampered, trained to be nothing but an adornment to a successful man, valued only for her beauty and her manners. ---
**Author:** ![yellowval](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/919ad9/32.png) [@yellowval](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yellowval)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2009, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-sept-09-edition/508154/106 "2009-09-21T19:46:05Z")
I finished reading “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” (Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith) and listening to the audio book “Change of Heart” (Jodi Picoult). Both were a disappointment, and I’m glad to be moving on.I really did try to read “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” with the fun spirit in which it was intended. However, it fell so flat that I found this difficult to do. I felt that the fun of the original had been sucked out and replaced with poorly written details (“Coy” ponds? Really?) and dumb arguments about whether the Chinese or Japanese training was better for fighting zombies. There was a lot of talk about zombies, but not nearly enough of them actually showed up, and I found the fight scenes lame. I would have liked to see more of the major characters transformed into zombies. “Change of Heart” was also disappointing. What annoyed me about this was that it was an obvious rip-off of “The Green Mile.” After reading it, I will think twice before picking up another one of her books. The similarities to “The Green Mile” really left a bad taste in my mouth. I’m still working away at “Lonesome Dove” by Larry McMurtry (hoping to finish this week). I have also started, and almost finished, “The Reader” by Bernhard Schlink. I wanted to read it before seeing the movie, but after I started reading so much is familiar to me that I think I have read it before. On audio book, I have begun listening to “War and Peace.” That should last me a while. ---
**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:** [September 21, 2009, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-sept-09-edition/508154/107 "2009-09-21T20:29:21Z")
Our book club read _The Reader_ a few years ago and most of us (myself included) really liked it. It was very interesting to see the different reactions of our male and female readers as to the relationship between the book’s two main characters: Most of the guys were envious of the then-teenage narrator for having a beautiful older woman to awaken his sexuality; most of the gals were just a little skeeved out by the affair. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2009, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-sept-09-edition/508154/108 "2009-09-21T23:49:28Z")
> [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](#): > > I really liked that one, too. Which Huff books have you hated? _Sing the Four Quarters_ is the one that stands out in my mind. I would have to look at my book case to figure out the others (my memory is for crap.) ---
**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:** [September 22, 2009, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-sept-09-edition/508154/109 "2009-09-22T01:43:31Z")
> [@Khadaji](#): > > _Sing the Four Quarters_ is the one that stands out in my mind. I would have to look at my book case to figure out the others (my memory is for crap.) I haven’t read that series. I like her Blood books and her Valor books. ---
**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:** [September 22, 2009, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-sept-09-edition/508154/110 "2009-09-22T12:25:45Z")
I’m enjoying the hell out of Shelf Discovery: Teen classics we never stopped reading, by Lizzie Skurnick. Short essays about lots of books I loved as a kid, (Judy Blume, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Lois Duncan, Beverly Cleary, etc.) and some I haven’t read but I’d like to. And holy shit, I have like ten books overdue at the library and my card is blocked! ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-sept-09-edition/508154/111 "2009-09-22T12:26:35Z")
Have moved on to _Reaper Man_. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-sept-09-edition/508154/112 "2009-09-22T12:54:09Z")
Finally reading _The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie_. Only on page 105, but I like it so far. The people on the mystery e-group didn’t like the protagonist, but I see her as a forerunner of Janey from _Harriet the Spy_. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-sept-09-edition/508154/113 "2009-09-22T13:39:59Z")
**The Sun Also Rises** = done. Liked it pretty well. I think it’s still steeping with me. Now reading **The Accidental Tourist**. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-sept-09-edition/508154/114 "2009-09-22T13:44:48Z")
Finished _The Juggler_ by John Morressy, a sold-my-soul-to-the-devil story set in the Middle Ages. It’s YA, simple but not too simple, with a lot of nice background detail about life in the Middle Ages. Started a nonfiction account of the Our Lady of the Angels school fire in Chicago in 1958 but probably won’t finish it. It’s well-written but just too heartbreaking. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-sept-09-edition/508154/115 "2009-09-22T13:59:48Z")
Yes, that was a rough book. Devastating. ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-sept-09-edition/508154/116 "2009-09-22T14:07:53Z")
I’m reading _True_ by Michael Gordy. This prof. inadvertently unlocks the biochemical key to falling in love, develops a drug capable of creating emotions quite indistinguishable from the real thing. There’s good guys and bad guys involved in the marketing of the drug, that’s all I’m saying, don’t wanna spoil it. ---
**Author:** ![Enterprise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/76d3ee/32.png) [@Enterprise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enterprise)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-sept-09-edition/508154/117 "2009-09-22T17:45:30Z")
I’ve momentarily given up on _The Pilot_… there’s a distinct lack of a plot in that book, plus I have to read and write so much work right now that I’d rather not read for work in my time off. So, I’ve started something else. I finished _Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep_ just now, which was as excellent as I was told (and very different, though not necessarily better, than _Blade Runner_). Now I’ve begun on _Infinite Jest_ by the late David Foster Wallace again, for the third time. Third time’s the charm, they say… ---
**Author:** ![TheMerchandise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b487fb/32.png) [@TheMerchandise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheMerchandise)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2009, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-sept-09-edition/508154/118 "2009-09-23T14:48:18Z")
I finished \*Agent Zigzag \*by Ben Macintyre on a train ride this week. An absolutely excellent and enthralling account of a double agent during WWII. A lot of interesting information on the British and German spy systems. The narrative style is lively and exciting, but Macintyre doesn’t seem to be exaggerating for dramatic effect. He’s done his research and has the notes to back things up. ---
**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:** [September 23, 2009, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-sept-09-edition/508154/119 "2009-09-23T21:28:27Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Our book club read _The Reader_ a few years ago and most of us (myself included) really liked it. It was very interesting to see the different reactions of our male and female readers as to the relationship between the book’s two main characters: > > Most of the guys were envious of the then-teenage narrator for having a beautiful older woman to awaken his sexuality; most of the gals were just a little skeeved out by the affair. Just finished that myself and also thought it was excellent. Disclaimer: female and not especially skeeved I’m about half way through and about to pitch the biography of Bonnie and Clyde, _Go Down Together_. It’s not a bad book, really, but Bonnie and Clyde turn out to be duller subjects than I thought. ---
**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:** [September 25, 2009, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-sept-09-edition/508154/120 "2009-09-25T04:15:06Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > This may sound boring, but a new _Lonely Planet Thailand_ guidebook has come out, just like it does every two years, and I always like to read through the sections that are relevant to me. Also helps keep me up on the tourist stuff. So I’ll be doing that for a couple of weeks. (Lonely Planet actually gave me a free guidebook to the country of my choice – I picked Nepal – one time when I pointed out all the errors in a previous guide years ago; and I even merited a special “Thank You” in the next edition two years later. :D) Finished reading through the new _Lonely Planet Thailand_. Not the entire book, it’s huge, but the sections that interest me personally. I used to hear that LP’s Thailand guide was their biggest seller, but I don’t know if that still holds true. Now I’ll be reading through the new _Lonely Planet Vietnam_ guide, which just came out in July, the 10th edition. Because the wife and I will be travelling around Vietnam in a few months’ time. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-sept-09-edition/508154.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-sept-09-edition/508154.md?page=7)