# Whatcha reading, December Edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 11, 2004, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-december-edition/279359 "2004-12-11T22:28:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2004, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-december-edition/279359/21 "2004-12-12T04:52:26Z")
[What’s the Matter with Kansas?: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0805073396/qid=1102826915/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/103-8813941-7179024?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) A fascinating look at how (trying not to editorialize here) the cultural conservatives in the heartland continue to vote against their own economic self interest, and in favor of those who don’t really care about them. I agree with most everything in the book, but wish it were just a bit more serious. Every time the author brings up an issue that really deserves an in-depth analysis, he makes a joke of it and moves on. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Big\_Cheese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8baadc/32.png) [@The\_Big\_Cheese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Big_Cheese)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2004, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-december-edition/279359/22 "2004-12-12T15:13:47Z")
last night i finished **"Exit Budapest’** by **Csaba Teglas**. It’s about his life gowing up mostly in Hungary before, during and after WWII, and his escape to Austria, Canada and finally US. Real easy read, I liked it a lot and read it in less than a week. Started **Slackjaw** by **Jim Knipfel** , a shared local writer with NY struggling with retinitis pigmentosa & blindness, failed suicidal attempts, depression and a drinking problem. It’s rather funny, believe it or not. It’s mostly stories about himself, and he wirtes with a lot of humor. Looks to be good. ---
**Author:** ![Agrippina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8797f3/32.png) [@Agrippina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agrippina)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2004, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-december-edition/279359/23 "2004-12-12T15:18:42Z")
[It Can’t Happen Here](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0451525825/qid=1102864728/sr=2-1/ref=pd_ka_b_2_1/103-6309967-6816636) by Sinclair Lewis. Written in 1935, it’s a warning on how Fascism can happen anywhere, even in the United States. ---
**Author:** ![sinjin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@sinjin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sinjin)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2004, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-december-edition/279359/24 "2004-12-12T15:48:19Z")
[The Time Traveler’s Wife](http://www.reviewsofbooks.com/time_travelers_wife/) This is one of the best books I’ve read in a long time. I kept putting off buying it because I thought the premise was silly. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Tan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/charlie_tan/32/12582_2.png) [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2004, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-december-edition/279359/25 "2004-12-12T16:21:04Z")
> [@El Cid Viscoso](#): > > Sure, it’s dated _now_. Back in 2000, it was fricking Science Fiction. > > [uncomfortable-smile smilie] > 🙂 I know it’s a joke, but it was dated back in '00 too. Fertility dropping through aids and radiation, during the last two decades of the 20th century. Yeah, sure. And considering that the blurb gives away the basic plot element, I’m surprised that Atwood is sidling up to it with caution as if to reveal a big secret. Obviously Offred is not trying to hide anything that is common knowledge in Gilead and The Real Reader knows about it from the start. Annoying. ---
**Author:** ![pokey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ebca7d/32.png) [@pokey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pokey)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2004, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-december-edition/279359/26 "2004-12-12T17:28:54Z")
> [@The Big Cheese](#): > > Started **Slackjaw** by **Jim Knipfel** , a shared local writer with NY struggling with retinitis pigmentosa & blindness, failed suicidal attempts, depression and a drinking problem. It’s rather funny, believe it or not. It’s mostly stories about himself, and he wirtes with a lot of humor. Looks to be good. I love that guy. I’m reading Nina Simone’s autobiography [I Put a Spell on You](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0306813270/qid=1102872475/sr=8-1/ref=pd_csp_1/102-8652169-8628105?v=glance&s=books&n=507846). I don’t have much to say about it, I’m only on page 20. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2004, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-december-edition/279359/27 "2004-12-12T18:43:44Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Foucault’s Pendulum by Umberto Eco. A friend just loaned this to me last night. I’m just about to start it. Also I’m reviewing Calculus using Serge Lang’s _A first course in Calculus_ ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2004, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-december-edition/279359/28 "2004-12-12T19:19:46Z")
Surely I’m not the only person who likes to take a mental vacation and enjoy a nice thriller from time to time? Just finished \*[Body Double\*](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0345458931/qid=1102878478/sr=8-1/ref=pd_csp_1/002-4807282-4279266?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) by Tess Gerritsen – don’t read the editorial reviews, too close to spoilerdom. Nice twisty plot with a slew of developments I didn’t see coming but that didn’t feel arbitrary or unlikely. Nice quick read – but it’s a book about a pathologist and a psycho killer, so there’s some yuckiness involved. (Not too much – I don’t handle gross particularly well.) And having read that, I’m back to the high-falutin’ standards of my fellow Dopers with Mario Vargas-Llosa’s _[Way to Paradise](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0374228035/qid=1102878968/sr=1-14/ref=sr_1_14/002-4807282-4279266?v=glance&s=books)_, a novel about Gauguin and his feminist-socialist grandmother, Flora Tristan. I just started this – hm, I think I’ll turn off the damn computer and read for a couple of hours. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2004, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-december-edition/279359/29 "2004-12-12T20:59:54Z")
> [@Larry Borgia](#): > > A friend just loaned this to me last night. I’m just about to start it. I like it so far. I read 200 pages between my post yesterday and the time I went to bed, so… ---
**Author:** ![melondeca](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5a626/32.png) [@melondeca](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/melondeca)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2004, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-december-edition/279359/30 "2004-12-12T21:10:46Z")
I recently read Visions of Sugar Plums and Ten Big Ones, both by Janet Evanovich. I can get through one of her books in about an hour but they always make me laugh and keep me entertained. If you are looking for some light but entertaining reading, pick up any of her numbered titles. About 30 minutes ago, I finished Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk. The book wasn’t bad but IMHO I think the movie is better. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Cid\_Viscoso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/41988e/32.png) [@El\_Cid\_Viscoso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Cid_Viscoso)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-december-edition/279359/31 "2004-12-13T19:15:52Z")
> [@The Gaspode](#): > > I know it’s a joke, but it was dated back in '00 too. Yes, I was joking, but remember it _was_ written in 1986. 🙂 Due to the perception of an emergence of a sort of post-modern American Puritanism, and a very public resurgence of Christian fundamentalism, people commonly take _The Handmaid’s Tale_ as a “prescient” work. But a smaller, more extreme group has identified one passage as particularly interesting: > [@](#): > > \*It was after the catastrophe, when they shot the president and machine-gunned the Congress and the army declared a state of emergency. They blamed it on the Islamic fanatics, at the time. > > Keep calm, they said on television. Everything is under control.\* > > […] > > _That was when they suspended the Constitution. They said it would be temporary. There wasn’t even any rioting in the streets. People stayed at home at night, watching television, looking for direction…_ The bombing in Madrid claimed 300 lives. In response, millions of Spaniards took to the streets in protest. Ten times that number died on September 11, but mostly, Americans responded by simply staying glued to the telly. My joke was a wink at that notion. > [@The Gaspode](#): > > Fertility dropping through aids and radiation, during the last two decades of the 20th century. Yeah, sure. No. As it says in the epilogue, _birthrates_, importantly Caucasian, dropped due to birth control, abortion, AIDS and syphilis. The number was further reduced by stillbirths and miscarriages caused by radiation and toxins in the environment. > [@The Gaspode](#): > > And considering that the blurb gives away the basic plot element, I’m surprised that Atwood is sidling up to it with caution as if to reveal a big secret. Obviously Offred is not trying to hide anything that is common knowledge in Gilead and The Real Reader knows about it from the start. Annoying. Again, no. As it says in the epilogue, this book was assembled from recordings discovered on audio tapes from the period. The people who assembled the tale were unable to sequence them perfectly, so this was their “best guess.” Therefore, as a plot device, Atwood’s “sidling” is appropriate. Regardless of all this, the book is an allegory, neither portentous nor particularly earth-moving. In my opinion, at its core is the author’s concern that religious extremism will ultimately subvert a woman’s dominion over her own fate, and most importantly, her body. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-december-edition/279359/32 "2004-12-13T20:18:12Z")
[Ironhand’s Daughter : A Novel of the Hawk Queen](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0345458389/qid=1102969211/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/102-4948706-3329767?v=glance&s=books) by David Gemmell, who I consider to be Britain’s best living fantasy writer. ---
**Author:** ![Misnomer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misnomer/32/14897_2.png) [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-december-edition/279359/33 "2004-12-13T20:24:49Z")
I’m a little more than halfway through Frederick Forsyth’s [_Avenger_](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0312997221/qid=1102968837/sr=8-1/ref=pd_csp_1/102-1697489-1283356?v=glance&s=books&n=507846), which so far is an ok read. It’s less than 400 pages long, but it’s been hard for me to concentrate on it because of my literature class (there was always homework I needed to do, sleep I needed to get, etc.): now that the semester is over, though, I look forward to getting back into the story – and maybe even finishing it someday. 😉 Next up is either Stephen King’s _The Drawing of the Three_ (yes, I’m way behind in the Dark Tower series), or some Grisham novel whose name I can’t recall right now (but it’s one of the thrillers, not _Bleachers_ or _A Painted House_). ---
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-december-edition/279359/34 "2004-12-13T20:33:24Z")
I just started reading [The Persian Puzzle : The Conflict Between Iran and America](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1400063159/qid=1102969850/sr=2-1/ref=pd_ka_b_2_1/103-4669644-1328628), by Kenneth Pollack, the former CIA policy analyst whose previous best-seller, _The Threatening Storm_ offered a pretext for the invasion of Iraq… ---
**Author:** ![Jurph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/50afbb/32.png) [@Jurph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jurph)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-december-edition/279359/35 "2004-12-13T20:48:43Z")
Having just put [Stephenson’s](http://www.nealstephenson.com/) **Baroque Cycle** behind me, I decided I could use a few more winding, character-based odysseys. The Baroque Cycle was good-not-great, but entertaining from cover to cover. The sections on political and economic intrigue (Eliza’s revenge on the Hacklhebers especially!) were particularly fun. I’ve been re-reading the collected trade paperbacks of **Y: The Last Man**. It’s about a man named Yorick who discovers that he is literally the last man on earth, and that the bloody plague that instantly killed all of the males (everything with a Y chromosome) has made him variously popular, unpopular, totemic, important, and pesky to the world’s remaining female population. I love the fact that the English letter “Y” shows up in shapes on the covers over and over again, and that the question “Why?” is one of the central mysteries of the book. In keeping with the theme of “books based on a single letter” I’m also charging at Thomas Pynchon’s **V.** , a novel about… well, I’m only a hundred pages in so far. It takes place in America in the 1950s, but also in Europe in the early and middle 20th century. It’s very character-driven, and I expect that in another hundred pages I’ll finally understand what’s going on. I’m also reading aloud before bed to my fiancée: two chapters a night of **The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time** (in long-term preparation for reading to our future kids!). It’s a detective story, something after the fashion of Sherlock Holmes, told from the point of view of a severely autistic 16-year-old mathematic savant living in Swindon, UK. The social nuances (the fact that he can’t read faces, for example) and his phobia of certain colors and loud noises are only part of the book; the underlying story about families, trust, and love is a key theme. The book also includes an elegant geometry proof and two different solutions to the Monty Hall problem; the chapter numbers are all primes. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Judith\_Prietht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b19c9b/32.png) [@Judith\_Prietht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Judith_Prietht)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-december-edition/279359/36 "2004-12-13T21:05:17Z")
I just finished **Chocolat** by Joanne Harris, which was an unexpected surprise. I haven’t seen the movie adaptation, and based on what I’d seen and heard about it I thought the novel was going to be a romantic comedy with shades of **Like Water For Chocolate**. But the novel set up a fascinating–at least to me–opposition between Vianne, the sensual chocolate-making single mother with more than a little supernaturally endowed talents, and Reynaud, the conservative and dogmatic priest of the local church who sees Vianne’s presence in the village as an unwelcome and even dangerous intrusion. Right now, I’m working through **The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2004** , edited by Dave Eggers. So far–and I’m a little less than halfway through–a few of the pieces really stand out more than others, but in compilations like these there’s something there for everyone. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-december-edition/279359/37 "2004-12-13T21:28:24Z")
I just finished Michael Jecks’s “The Merchant’s Partner”, a murder mystery set in medieval England. I didn’t really like it, to be honest. The characters were interesting, but he would shift perspectives every few paragraphs, which was distracting, confusing, and also gave away the murderer. (You saw through the eyes of almost every main character, except the murderer’s) All in all, I’ve read better books. ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-december-edition/279359/38 "2004-12-13T23:52:37Z")
I just finished **Lost in a good book** , the sequel to **The Eyre affair**. I enjoyed it a lot; it was even weirder than the first one, and while the first half is a little thin on the English-major in-jokes, the second half more than makes up for it. I’m looking forward to reading the next two. ---
**Author:** ![Crimmsy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c89c15/32.png) [@Crimmsy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crimmsy)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2004, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-december-edition/279359/39 "2004-12-14T01:00:23Z")
This is my first time reading a Watcha Reading thread, so apologies in advance if I’m not following protocol here… I’ve just started into an autographed first edition of Pierre Berton’s [Flames Across the Border 1813-1814](http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/0771012446/qid=1102985559/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl/701-6428905-5141168). I’m only forty pages into it but it is certainly everything that people expect of Berton’s work: an engaging and very readable Canadian history tale. I’ve also been reading Margaret Macmillan’s [Paris 1919](http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/0375760520/qid=1102985795/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_3_1/701-6428905-5141168) but I’ve found it to be a bit dryer and harder to read than Flames Across the Border. I received it for Christmas last year but didn’t really get into it until I heard that she would be speaking at RMC, my alma mater, this fall. I attended the speech and have been reading bits and pieces of it but have never really been able to sit down and read for hours at a time, like I have with some books. I recently finished Anne Applebaum’s stellar history, [Gulag](http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/1400034094/qid=1102986015/sr=2-3/ref=sr_2_3_3/701-6428905-5141168). This is a fascinating and comprehensive history of the labour camp system in the Soviet Union from the 1920’s right into the '80’s. This was definitely one I could read for hours. ---
**Author:** ![liirogue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dbc845/32.png) [@liirogue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/liirogue)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2004, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-december-edition/279359/40 "2004-12-14T01:03:31Z")
> [@Crimmsy](#): > > I recently finished Anne Applebaum’s stellar history, [Gulag](http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/1400034094/qid=1102986015/sr=2-3/ref=sr_2_3_3/701-6428905-5141168). This is a fascinating and comprehensive history of the labour camp system in the Soviet Union from the 1920’s right into the '80’s. This was definitely one I could read for hours. Ooooh that one is also on my list, but it keeps getting bumped down because I’m afraid it will be a little derpressing or dry. You seem pretty enthusiastic, so maybe I’ll read it sooner. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-december-edition/279359.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-december-edition/279359.md?page=3)