# Whatcha Readin' Sept 2010 Edition
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-sept-2010-edition/552117
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [August 31, 2010, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-sept-2010-edition/552117 "2010-08-31T12:33:59Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2010, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-sept-2010-edition/552117/1 "2010-08-31T12:33:59Z")
Fall is just around the corner! Cool evenings, colored leaves, football!
OK, so I’ve been lax in getting the threads started these last few months. Today I actually put an appointment into Outlook to remind me! 🙂
I am reading \*The Sorceress (The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel) \*the third book in the series. So far I am enjoying it, but looking at the rest of the series, I worry that he may not intend to end it any time soon. I usually prefer series with a closed ending.
After that, I have a bunch in my queue - I was just out to Borders this past Saturday.
Link to last month’s [thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=573147).
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### Author:  [@nikonikosuru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nikonikosuru)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2010, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-sept-2010-edition/552117/2 "2010-08-31T12:35:41Z")
Just finished _The Birth of Venus_, about 80 pages into _Medicus_. I’ve always liked ancient Roman/Renaissance/Medieval fiction, got these two books for less than four dollars which makes it even better.
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### Author:  [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2010, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-sept-2010-edition/552117/3 "2010-08-31T12:42:20Z")
Got a good start last night on Suzanne Collins’ Mockingjay, which I’ve been looking forward to.
My new audiobook as of this morning is Flashman, beautifully narrated by David Case. However, I’m already feeling some trepidation about the condition of the library’s cassette tapes.
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### Author:  [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2010, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-sept-2010-edition/552117/4 "2010-08-31T12:43:24Z")
> [@Khadaji](#):
>
> OK, so I’ve been lax in getting the threads started these last few months. Today I actually put an appointment into Outlook to remind me! 🙂
Thanks, **K** , you know these are important to me! 🙂
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### Author:  [@Enterprise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enterprise)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2010, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-sept-2010-edition/552117/5 "2010-08-31T13:42:13Z")
I’ll be off on a ten-day holiday later this month (next week today, to be exact! Woohoo!), so there’s a bunch of things that I bought specifically for light-fluff reading and re-reading:
Jim Butcher’s _Cursor’s Fury_, part three of the Codex Alera. I rather like the series. It’s not quite as hilarious as the Dresden Files, and Tavi isn’t going to be my favorite character ever, but it’s engaging enough.
Chuck Palahniuk’s _Haunted_. Just 'cause. Part of an ongoing endeavor to get up to speed on contemporary U.S. fiction.
David Weber’s _Mission of Honor_. Because that annoying bastard didn’t put any meat at all in _Storm from the Shadows_ and I need to know how it goes on!
Robert Mayer/Grant Morrison’s _Superfolks_. Alternative superhero comics. Yay!
Saul Bellow _The Adventures of Augie March_. Such a great book, vacation re-read.
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### Author:  [@corkboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/corkboard)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2010, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-sept-2010-edition/552117/6 "2010-08-31T14:02:22Z")
I’m about 1/4 of the way through _Where Men Win Glory_ by Jon Krakauer. I don’t have anything on deck but I’d like to read _Packing For Mars_, _Bonk_ and/or _Stiff_ by Mary Roach.
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### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2010, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-sept-2010-edition/552117/7 "2010-08-31T14:08:56Z")
Just finished **The Conquest of New Spain** , by Bernal Diaz del Castillo. Even with editing, it was a slow slog. Also finished **The Mind’s Sky** , by Timothy Ferris. He’s an excellent science writer, but parts of it were tough going. I’m still plowing through **A Peace to End All Peace** , by David Fromkin, a bit at a time: it’s interesting, but I have to be in the mood for that sort of thing. For lighter fare, I’m zipping through **A Walk in the Woods** , by Bill Bryson. It’s a curiously negative and cranky account of his hike on the Appalachian Trail, but with some very amusing bits. Lastly, I just picked up **Death in the Sahara**.
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### Author:  [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2010, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-sept-2010-edition/552117/8 "2010-08-31T15:32:19Z")
_The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks_ by Rebecca Skloot.
Anyone read this? Does she get the science right?
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### Author:  [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2010, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-sept-2010-edition/552117/9 "2010-08-31T15:35:53Z")
Almost halfway through _The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo_, by Stieg Larsson. This is a truly excellent read. We’ve purposely not seen the movie yet, so as not to spoil the story. A “locked-room mystery” so to speak, only on a Swedish island, with a disappearance, presumably a murder, to be solved 36 years after the fact.
This is the first of Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy of crime novels. He died of a heart attack in 2004 at age 50 after finishing the trilogy, and the books were published posthumously. He never knew how succesful they would become, or that he would be listed as the second best-selling author in the world in 2008, behind behind Afghan-American author Khaled Hosseini. Sad.
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### Author:  [@Eutychus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eutychus)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2010, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-sept-2010-edition/552117/10 "2010-08-31T15:36:26Z")
_The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing To Our Brains_ by Nicholas Carr.
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### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2010, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-sept-2010-edition/552117/11 "2010-08-31T15:47:11Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#):
>
> _The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks_ by Rebecca Skloot.
>
> Anyone read this? Does she get the science right?
I read it, but couldn’t say if the science is correct.
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### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2010, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-sept-2010-edition/552117/12 "2010-08-31T15:51:48Z")
_Don Quixote_. I read about three-quarters of it over my vacation and I hope I can wrap it up soon, although back home I’m sure I won’t keep to that pace. It’s the 1771 Tobias Smollet translation - so not a modern style at all - which I picked because Salman Rushdie said good things about it. I’m not laughing out loud a lot but some parts are very funny, and I’m enjoying the experience of finding out what the story is actually like as opposed to its reputation.
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### Author:  [@corkboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/corkboard)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2010, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-sept-2010-edition/552117/13 "2010-08-31T16:28:20Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#):
>
> Almost halfway through _The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo_, by Stieg Larsson. This is a truly excellent read. We’ve purposely not seen the movie yet, so as not to spoil the story. A “locked-room mystery” so to speak, only on a Swedish island, with a disappearance, presumably a murder, to be solved 36 years after the fact.
>
> This is the first of Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy of crime novels. He died of a heart attack in 2004 at age 50 after finishing the trilogy, and the books were published posthumously. He never knew how succesful they would become, or that he would be listed as the second best-selling author in the world in 2008, behind behind Afghan-American author Khaled Hosseini. Sad.
My wife and I just finished _…Played With Fire_, and since the paperback version of _…Kicked The Hornet’s Nest_ doesn’t come out here for another year or two, it looks like I’ll be picking up the hardcover of that one shortly.
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### Author:  [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2010, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-sept-2010-edition/552117/14 "2010-08-31T16:31:28Z")
> [@corkboard](#):
>
> > [@Siam\_Sam](#):
> >
> > Almost halfway through _The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo_, by Stieg Larsson. This is a truly excellent read. We’ve purposely not seen the movie yet, so as not to spoil the story. A “locked-room mystery” so to speak, only on a Swedish island, with a disappearance, presumably a murder, to be solved 36 years after the fact.
> >
> > This is the first of Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy of crime novels. He died of a heart attack in 2004 at age 50 after finishing the trilogy, and the books were published posthumously. He never knew how succesful they would become, or that he would be listed as the second best-selling author in the world in 2008, behind behind Afghan-American author Khaled Hosseini. Sad.
>
> My wife and I just finished _…Played With Fire_, and since the paperback version of _…Kicked The Hornet’s Nest_ doesn’t come out here for another year or two, it looks like I’ll be picking up the hardcover of that one shortly.
The paperback version of _The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest_ is available in Thailand. We just bought it this past Saturday, so now we have the whole trilogy to work through.
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### Author:  [@Rala](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rala)
#### Post date: [September 1, 2010, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-sept-2010-edition/552117/15 "2010-09-01T13:18:55Z")
_I Will Fear No Evil_ by Robert Heinlein. I bought a stack of his books at a second hand book sale two weeks ago because I wanted to see what the fuss was about, and so far I’m enjoying it a lot.
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### Author:  [@TheMerchandise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheMerchandise)
#### Post date: [September 1, 2010, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-sept-2010-edition/552117/16 "2010-09-01T14:32:19Z")
After hearing about it in another Cafe Society thread, I picked up and read F. Paul Wilson’s _The Tomb_.
Repairman Jack fixes things. Not plumbing or appliances… but other, specialized things. In his first adventure, he’s fixing some ancient Indian demons let loose on New York City.
The writing is good, the character is fun, but what I really liked about this book is that we get to see a normal guy’s first exposure to otherworldly goings-ons. We get to experience Jack’s realization that demons exist… and that he has to find a way to fight them. Also, Jack is just a normal dude. Sure, he’s a specialized kind of a dude. A dude that comes with incendiary bombs and black-jacks. But just a regular dude. This is pretty refreshing in a genre where EVERY hero is a vampire, half-vampire, werewolf, magician, necromancer, etc.
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### Author:  [@yanceylebeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yanceylebeef)
#### Post date: [September 1, 2010, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-sept-2010-edition/552117/17 "2010-09-01T17:23:28Z")
I’m in the middle of Matter by Banks right now, in an effeort to read all the Culture novels before the new one in October!
Squirt!
Up next is David Mitchells latest, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet, and Packing for Mars by Mary Roach. Also, The Dervish House by Ian McDonald based on a suggestion from Richard K. Morgan.
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### Author:  [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)
#### Post date: [September 1, 2010, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-sept-2010-edition/552117/18 "2010-09-01T18:05:17Z")
Still in _ **Humboldt’s Gift** _ (since August 7), but now, almost, finally, done.
Next up - _**[Liar, Liar](http://www.amazon.com/Liar-Cat-DeLuca-Mystery/dp/1590587251)**_, because a friend is one of the three writers behind the pen name K.J. Larsen.
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### Author:  [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)
#### Post date: [September 1, 2010, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-sept-2010-edition/552117/19 "2010-09-01T21:03:10Z")
> [@TheMerchandise](#):
>
> After hearing about it in another Cafe Society thread, I picked up and read F. Paul Wilson’s _The Tomb_.
>
> \
I tried to get it a year or two back, when it was recommended in one of these threads. Amazon didn’t ship it for 3 months and I finally canceled the order. Maybe I’ll have to try again…
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### Author:  [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)
#### Post date: [September 1, 2010, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-sept-2010-edition/552117/20 "2010-09-01T21:48:02Z")
I got _The Art of Racing in the Rain_ as a birthday present. Sad, but good.
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