# Whatcha reading August (08) edition
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-august-08-edition/458414
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [July 31, 2008, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-august-08-edition/458414 "2008-07-31T21:31:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2008, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-august-08-edition/458414/1 "2008-07-31T21:31:00Z")
Holy cow gang, tomorrow is August already! Here’s the new thread and [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=473856) is a link to the July thread.
I was reading like a mad man for a while, but have taken the last few days off. So I’m not in the middle of anything. I will probably start something tomorrow or the next day.
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### Author:  [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2008, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-august-08-edition/458414/2 "2008-07-31T21:34:18Z")
Habana Nocture, which is quite fascinating. Once cancer takes its toll, I hope to retire there.
Oh, and Grantsville Gazette III, trash science fiction. I like it.
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### Author:  [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2008, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-august-08-edition/458414/3 "2008-07-31T22:43:20Z")
Current Bookpile:
_Different Seasons_ by Stephen King: Finally got my own copy. I got the Apt Pupil cover, one roommate has the Stand By Me cover and another roommate has the Shawshank Redemption cover. We have a set!
_Middlemarch_ by George Eliot: I’m pleasantly surprised by this. My previous George Eliot experience was with the overly-preachy _Silas Marner_, but this is not very preachy a-tall. Lots of drama and a huge cast. I keep forgetting how the minor characters are all related.
_The Shadow of the Wind_ by Carlos Ruiz Zafon: I need to just sit down and read this straight through for an afternoon. It’s a great story but I keep getting interrupted.
_Frankenstein_ by Mary Shelley: I needed some high drama and angst.
_The Silver Gryphon_ by Mercedes Lackey & Larry Dixon: The last book in the Mage Wars trilogy. This one’s about the children of Skandranon and Amberdrake (the heroes of the two previous novels). They just crashed through a tree in the jungle so things are starting to heat up.
My current bedtime book is the Chronicles of Prydain. I’m working on _The Black Cauldron_ right now, my second favorite (_Taran Wanderer_ is my first favorite).
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### Author:  [@Just\_Some\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Some_Guy)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2008, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-august-08-edition/458414/4 "2008-07-31T23:04:48Z")
I wrapped up Vonda McIntyre’s _The Moon and the Sun_ the other day. I don’t get how someone who is decent at writing prose and had a fine storyline set up can consistently ruin her books by making unlikable ubermenches the main characters. _The Moon and the Sun_ is set in the court of Louis XIV where a natural philosopher has caught a mermaid which the king plans to eat in the hope that it will make him immortal. Good starting point. The problem is that the main character is a lady in waiting who:
- Is a better scientist than everyone else in the book.
- Is a better artist than anyone at court.
- Composed music well enough to impress Domenico Scarlatti.
- Can do calculus in her head and corresponds with Isaac Newton.
- Is working on developing chaos theory.
- Can argue theology with the pope.
And she’s the typical woman with late-twentieth century attitudes transported wholesale to another setting with no consideration for cultural differences. That’s a popular stock character with fantasy authors.
The only “flaw” she has is that she’s innocent. The situation is similar with any of the characters the reader is supposed to like. So the book turns into kind of a love letter to these characters as McIntyre goes on and on about how much better they are than everyone else.
I’m currently waiting on Octavia Butler’s _The Parable of the Sower_ to arrive. I may start _The Yiddish Policemen’s Union_ first if it doesn’t get here soon.
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### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2008, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-august-08-edition/458414/5 "2008-07-31T23:21:18Z")
_My Name Is Will_ - Jess Winfield. A novel of sex, drugs and William Shakespeare.
_By Schism Rent Asunder_ - David Weber
_The Last Centurion_ - John Ringo
In addition, I have to plow through about 350 pieces for competition before my Forensics team returns to school on the 18th.
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### Author:  [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2008, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-august-08-edition/458414/6 "2008-07-31T23:33:05Z")
[QUOTE=Just Some Guy]
And she’s the typical woman with late-twentieth century attitudes transported wholesale to another setting with no consideration for cultural differences. That’s a popular stock character with fantasy authors.
[/QUOTE]
J.V. Jones did that in _The Barbed Coil_. The twist was that the late twentieth-century woman had to learn to adapt to the medieval world she was transported to.
Good book.
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### Author:  [@Just\_Some\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Some_Guy)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2008, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-august-08-edition/458414/7 "2008-08-01T00:01:52Z")
[QUOTE=SpazCat]
J.V. Jones did that in _The Barbed Coil_. The twist was that the late twentieth-century woman had to learn to adapt to the medieval world she was transported to.
Good book.
[/QUOTE]
In this case she’s not literally a time traveler. It’s just that some authors are incapable of recognizing the cultural differences between a setting before the twentieth century and today. When it’s done with a psuedo-medieval setting I refer to them as “renfest” settings since they seem to be based more on Renaissance Festivals than something that would actually be functional.
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### Author:  [@yanceylebeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yanceylebeef)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2008, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-august-08-edition/458414/8 "2008-08-01T00:03:45Z")
I just started Saturns Children by Chrlie Stross, I also have Matter by Ian M. Banks on the shelf, and Cory Doctorow’s Futristic Tales on order from the Tattered Cover.
As a bonus, Mr. Stross will be at the TC next week with Joe Haldeman signing books!
Squirt!
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### Author:  [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleanor_of_Aquitaine)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2008, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-august-08-edition/458414/9 "2008-08-01T00:08:11Z")
[QUOTE=yanceylebeef]
As a bonus, Mr. Stross will be at the TC next week with Joe Haldeman signing books!
[/QUOTE]
I’m looking forward to Haldeman’s new book, _Marsbound_, which comes out next week.
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### Author:  [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2008, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-august-08-edition/458414/10 "2008-08-01T00:16:27Z")
I’m still reading _Gone With the Wind_. I’m having a hard time with the Reconstruction stuff – believing what she’s saying about freed slaves living the high life while genteel old Confederate families suffered – but since all I know about Reconstruction is that _Birth of a Nation_ is racist propaganda, maybe I should educate myself before criticizing her.
Can someone suggest some good nonfiction about Reconstruction?
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### Author:  [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2008, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-august-08-edition/458414/11 "2008-08-01T00:29:10Z")
[QUOTE=AuntiePam]
I’m still reading _Gone With the Wind_. I’m having a hard time with the Reconstruction stuff – believing what she’s saying about freed slaves living the high life while genteel old Confederate families suffered – but since all I know about Reconstruction is that _Birth of a Nation_ is racist propaganda, maybe I should educate myself before criticizing her.
Can someone suggest some good nonfiction about Reconstruction?
[/QUOTE]
Having worked with a couple of collections of family papers dealing with Reconstruction, I can say that a lot of people felt that way, even if it wasn’t the truth. There’s still lingering bitterness in the older generation about what was lost to this day. More about the Reconstruction bit, though.
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### Author:  [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2008, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-august-08-edition/458414/12 "2008-08-01T00:51:24Z")
I’m up to my usual “you’re reading _that_ for _fun_!?!?!?!” hijinks: [_The Humboldt Current_](http://www.amazon.com/Humboldt-Current-Nineteenth-Century-Exploration-Environmentalism/dp/0143111922/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1217551486&sr=1-1), on the explorer/naturalist Alexander Humboldt – the most important scientist of the first half of the 19th century, according to the author (Darwin, of course, being The Man in the second half of the century). I just finished the section on Humboldt himself; the other 2/3 of the book is on several specific figures influenced by Humboldt, whom the author sees as the wellspring of American environmentalism.
Not a quick read, but super interesting.
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### Author:  [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2008, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-august-08-edition/458414/13 "2008-08-01T04:15:15Z")
Chiming in to be subscribed to the August thread. I just started _The Last Executioner: Memoirs of Thailand’s Last Prison Executioner_, by Chavoret Jaruboon with Nicola Pierce the other day. It’s very good so far, but as I mentioned in last month’s thread, the title is a bit disingenuous, because Chavoret is actually only the last one to use a machine gun to do the job. It’s lethal injection these days.
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### Author:  [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2008, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-august-08-edition/458414/14 "2008-08-01T04:19:54Z")
I finished a couple of Iain M Banks novels and found him rather dull. For some reason I started re-reading Julian May’s Pliocene Exile series, which I’ve completely forgotten, but I’m liking.
I need a non-fiction book, but I don’t know what. Either ancient history or science.
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### Author:  [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2008, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-august-08-edition/458414/15 "2008-08-01T12:20:23Z")
I’m on Pete Hamill’s\*\* North River\*\*. It’s pretty straightforward narrative but the story’s OK so far.
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### Author:  [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2008, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-august-08-edition/458414/16 "2008-08-01T12:31:44Z")
I’m fiddling with two books at the moment: The End of Food, by Paul Roberts, and Extraordinary uses for ordinary things : 2,317 ways to save money and time, by Don Earnest.
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### Author:  [@Future\_Londonite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Future_Londonite)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2008, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-august-08-edition/458414/17 "2008-08-01T13:13:18Z")
Close to wrapping up _The Dreaming Void_ by Peter Hamilton. Moving on then to a bunch Discworld novels - they had almost all of them at 3-for-2 sale at Waterstone’s
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### Author:  [@yanceylebeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yanceylebeef)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2008, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-august-08-edition/458414/18 "2008-08-01T13:21:12Z")
[QUOTE=Eleanor of Aquitaine]
I’m looking forward to Haldeman’s new book, _Marsbound_, which comes out next week.
[/QUOTE]
I’ll be picking that up at the signing. I really looking forward to it.
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### Author:  [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2008, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-august-08-edition/458414/19 "2008-08-01T13:42:31Z")
Day of Empire by Amy Chua - How and why “Hyperpowers” rise and fall.
A pretty interesting read, if for nothing other than a very readable refresher on the Mughal dynasty, the Mongal Empire, Tang dynasty, etc.
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### Author:  [@TheMerchandise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheMerchandise)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2008, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-august-08-edition/458414/20 "2008-08-01T14:07:00Z")
I’m reading Jim Butcher’s _Death Masks_, part of the Dresden Files series. These books are like literary crack! It takes me about three hours to read one and then I’m off to the library to get another. The plots are ridiculous, but the characters and concepts are fun.
I’m also reading Jonathan Raban’s _Bad Land: An American Romance,_ based on a recommendation from this board. It’s about homesteaders settling eastern Montana. I’m from Montana, so I’m at least vaguely familiar with a lot of the towns and locations mentioned in the book. The author is British and as un-Wild West as it’s possible to get. It’s interesting to read an alien perspective about things I find so familiar.
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