# Whatcha reading Feb. (09) edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 31, 2009, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-feb-09-edition/483898 "2009-01-31T19:49:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**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:** [February 20, 2009, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-feb-09-edition/483898/121 "2009-02-20T15:02:24Z")
> [@SpazCat](#): > > Every other book Sedaris writes suffers from not having the story about the bell from Rome that delivers chocolate in it. Yes, the story about his French class trying to have conversations using the 50 words of French they all know is my favorite Sedaris bit so far. ---
**Author:** ![Gulo\_gulo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bcef8e/32.png) [@Gulo\_gulo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gulo_gulo)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-feb-09-edition/483898/122 "2009-02-20T16:39:49Z")
Recently finished: _The Yiddish Policemen’s Union_ by Michael Chabon ~ Didn’t really like it. _In the Company of Ogres_ by A. Lee Martinez ~ ok fun read _Etta_ by Gerald Kolpan ~ Historical fiction about Etta Place & her adventures with William “Sundance Kid” Longabaugh. It’s a bit _too_ fanciful & she was a classic “Mary Sue” but I still enjoyed the read. Presently reading: \*Bones of the Dragon \* by Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman _The Secret Voyage of Sir Francis Drake: 1577-1580_ by Samuel Bawlf I really need to read some Sedaris. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-feb-09-edition/483898/123 "2009-02-20T16:42:56Z")
Finished _The Pale Blue Eye_ by Louis Bayard. I liked it – not as much as I liked _The Black Tower_, and I’m not sure what I think about the twist. Next up is _Drood_, unless _The Brothers K_ arrives today, or _Gunpowder_, the new Joe Hill novel. I haven’t paid $45 for a book for years, but it’s Joe Hill. ---
**Author:** ![TheMerchandise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b487fb/32.png) [@TheMerchandise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheMerchandise)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-feb-09-edition/483898/124 "2009-02-20T16:52:12Z")
Just finished _The Big Over Easy_. Really enjoyable characters and situations, with some laugh-out-loud moments. Don’t pay too close attention to the plot… it doesn’t make much sense on serious examination and isn’t that important to the enjoyment of the book anyway. ---
**Author:** ![yanceylebeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yanceylebeef/32/12290_2.png) [@yanceylebeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yanceylebeef)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-feb-09-edition/483898/125 "2009-02-20T17:00:26Z")
I’m a little late to this thread, but betterl ate than never! I just finished [Yellow Blue Tibia](http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss__0_9?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=yellow+blue+tibia&sprefix=yellow+bl) by Adam Roberts. It’s the story of Science Fiction authors in soviet Russia who, at the behest of Stalin, write about an alien invasion of the earth. It’s a convoluted plot to keep the republic united against a common enemy. Then, a few decades later, the events the authors wrote about right after WWII start to happen around the world. Pretty interesting, and I’m still thinking about it, which normaly bodes well for a book. just picked up Christoper Moore’s [Fool](http://www.amazon.com/Fool-Novel-Christopher-Moore/dp/0060590319/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1235149028&sr=1-1) which I start tonight. Also on Deck…Black Swan Green by David Mitchell, (I missed it when it was first released and picked up a bargin copy at the Tattered Cover.) and Matter by Ian Banks. Can’t wait to get my teeth into that one. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-feb-09-edition/483898/126 "2009-02-20T19:13:50Z")
> [@TheMerchandise](#): > > Just finished _The Big Over Easy_. Really enjoyable characters and situations, with some laugh-out-loud moments. Don’t pay too close attention to the plot… it doesn’t make much sense on serious examination and isn’t that important to the enjoyment of the book anyway. That series has actually gotten better than the Thursday Next series. I especially like the way it kind of spun off from Thursday Next during **The Well of Lost Plots**. Subtly done! ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-feb-09-edition/483898/127 "2009-02-20T19:21:28Z")
> [@Hunter\_Hawk](#): > > I just started _Tales in a Jugular Vein_; it’s a collection of Robert Bloch short stories from the '50s. That’s one of his best collections. I read it about 40 years ago, but still remember it - and have it. Did it get reissued? I’ve been reading Tom Swift Jr. books I got from my wife’s house, and just finished **Tom Swift and the Space Solartron** which is maybe the worse book the Strattemeyer Syndicate ever published. The level of science in this series is never very high, but this one was Pel Torro bad - or worse. The two worst howlers: first, Tom builds a matter synthesizer which works by spinning a single atom really fast - because, you see, it spinning fast increases its mass due to relativity, so this mass obviously comes from new atoms popping up. :eek: At least they admit this takes of energy. Tom takes his invention to the nuclear reactor he owns, but that isn’t enough - so he takes a solar power cell into orbit, because obviously there is more solar power up there. :eek::eek: This book came out in 1957, and amply demonstrates why the Russians beat us to orbit. Sadly, the original Tom Swift books were far better written and more accurate. Now I’m reading **Obedience** a mystery, which is quite odd and not at all what I expected - probably far more interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Ian\_D.Bergkamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Ian\_D.Bergkamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ian_D.Bergkamp)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-feb-09-edition/483898/128 "2009-02-20T19:50:43Z")
Just finished Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson. A very entertaining story that was difficult to put down. I slept less this week than I would have if I hadn’t been reading it, that’s for sure. Not sure what’s up next. I have too many choices at the moment. ---
**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:** [February 21, 2009, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-feb-09-edition/483898/129 "2009-02-21T02:20:19Z")
I just gave up on Paula Gunn Allen’s _Pocahontas: Medicine Woman, Spy, Entrepreneur, Diplomat_. I tried to like it. I did like her take on Pocahontas–she ripped out all the Disney romance and explained the Algonquin take on the universe which gave an interesting (and probably more accurate) explanation of Pocahontas’ actions. However there is way too much theory mixed in with the biography. When PGA started yapping about reality and how different belief systems change it I had finally had enough. Either write another book of American Indian theory or write a biography. Don’t do both at the same time. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2009, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-feb-09-edition/483898/130 "2009-02-21T12:37:16Z")
Finally finished _The Gone-Away World_. Although I didn’t hate it, I am not as enamored with it as many on this board. The idea was very interesting. I said in another thread that I wanted to sit the narrator down and say: you don’t have to tell us \*everything \*that pops into your head. No doubt what I found to be self-indulgent “comedic” wanderings are the same things that make others say it is brilliantly funny. But much of it was not needed to further the plot. As I mentioned in another thread, as an experiment one night I only read the even pages of the chapters to see if it made a difference in my reading experience. It didn’t seem to and after I finished I went back and read the chapter properly. Sure, I missed tons of details of the kind that I referred to as wanderings above, but none of it seemed to really make a difference, for me, in the reading experience. The author did bring some those wanderings home and later tie them in at the end. I liked it well enough not to be too upset that I read it, not well enough that I would recommend it to someone I liked. Over all I found the concept for the Gone-Away world the most fascinating thing about the book. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2009, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-feb-09-edition/483898/131 "2009-02-21T15:40:38Z")
I’m still on my historical mystery kick, so I just finished: _Revelation_, by CJ Sansom, set in the reign of Henry VIII. Very enjoyable. _The Last Kashmiri Rose_, by Barbara Cleverly, set in the waning days of the Raj. Not very enjoyable. Just started: _The Doublet Affair_, by Fiona Buckley, second in a series set in the early days of Elizabeth I’s reign. I loved the first in the series and this one is just as enjoyable. _The Silver Pigs_, by Lindsey Davis, set during the reign of the Emperor Vespasian. So far, a little odd but enjoyable. ---
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2009, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-feb-09-edition/483898/132 "2009-02-23T20:14:16Z")
For those of us strapped for cash, but with a jones for reading, I found this website: [www.paperbackswap.com](http://www.paperbackswap.com). Sounds like a good deal, so I joined up. Quasi ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2009, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-feb-09-edition/483898/133 "2009-02-23T20:26:28Z")
> [@Quasimodem](#): > > For those of us strapped for cash, but with a jones for reading, I found this website: [www.paperbackswap.com](http://www.paperbackswap.com). Sounds like a good deal, so I joined up. > > Quasi It isn’t so much that I’m strapped for cash - but I have to find a way to get rid of my books. I have way too many. I’ll look into it. I had been giving them to the son of a friend who was selling them on eBay. At first he was really into it, but I guess the novelty wore off. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2009, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-feb-09-edition/483898/134 "2009-02-24T01:01:42Z")
Did anyone else like _A Thousand Splendid Suns_? I suppose I need to read \*Kite Runner \*next. ---
**Author:** ![Hunter\_Hawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/50afbb/32.png) [@Hunter\_Hawk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hunter_Hawk)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2009, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-feb-09-edition/483898/135 "2009-02-24T04:47:18Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > That’s one of his best collections. I read it about 40 years ago, but still remember it - and have it. Did it get reissued? No, I ran across a copy in a used book store. I actually wasn’t that thrilled with it; for that style of writing, I guess I prefer Fredric Brown. On a related note, does anyone know if the Lefty Feep stories were ever collected into a single volume? On another topic, I got about halfway through my copy of _Return of the Crimson Guard_ before running into a binding problem (page 302 is followed by page 351, and a couple chunks of pages are repeated). ---
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2009, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-feb-09-edition/483898/136 "2009-02-24T05:36:23Z")
> [@Khadaji](#): > > It isn’t so much that I’m strapped for cash - but I have to find a way to get rid of my books. I have way too many. I’ll look into it. > > I had been giving them to the son of a friend who was selling them on eBay. At first he was really into it, but I guess the novelty wore off. This is one of the most awesome ways to recycle, and I too, have just been giving my books randomly. At least **this** way, we’ll know our books are finding themselves new and interested readers. Hey! I think I just heard an Ent beginning to snore softy… Quasi ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2009, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-feb-09-edition/483898/137 "2009-02-24T12:01:36Z")
> [@Quasimodem](#): > > This is one of the most awesome ways to recycle, and I too, have just been giving my books randomly. > > At least **this** way, we’ll know our books are finding themselves new and interested readers. > > Hey! > > I think I just heard an Ent beginning to snore softy… > > Quasi Whenever I go see my surgeon for a check up I take some books and leave them in the lobby of the hospital. My thinking is that there will one day be someone who is there in the middle of the night, waiting to hear about a loved-one and they’ll need a distraction. Maybe I’m deluding myself, maybe the cleaning staff throws out my books, but I’m hoping they help someone out. ---
**Author:** ![Ian\_D.Bergkamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Ian\_D.Bergkamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ian_D.Bergkamp)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2009, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-feb-09-edition/483898/138 "2009-02-24T13:53:00Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > Did anyone else like _A Thousand Splendid Suns_? I liked it well enough, though it’s not one I anticipate re-reading. I thought the story was interesting, but none of the characters resonated with me all that much, so I didn’t get that sense of personal connection in the book to really draw me in. I just finished reading [The Damned Utd](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Damned_Utd) by David Peace. It’s a fictionalized account of a real event - Brian Clough’s 44 days in charge of Leeds United during the 1974-75 season. As portrayed in the book, Clough is a near-complete bastard, but oddly likeable nonetheless as he self-destructs in brilliant fashion. Highly recommended. And there’s a movie based on the book, which is coming out next month in the UK and stars Michael Sheen (of Frost/Nixon) as Clough. ---
**Author:** ![Enterprise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/76d3ee/32.png) [@Enterprise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enterprise)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2009, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-feb-09-edition/483898/139 "2009-02-24T14:09:45Z")
I got somewhat sidetracked, I’m afraid, in my scheduled February reading. Dreiser’s _Sister Carrie_ is still barely arrived in Chicago, and Denis Johnson’s _Tree of Smoke_ is back on the shelf. Unfortunately, Amazon delivered a bunch of graphic novels / comic books to me that I had to crack open. I can unreservedly recommend: _Louis Riel: A Comic-Strip Biography_, by Chester Brown. It’s stupendous. Fast-paced, interesting, and an amazing use of the comic medium. _The Invisibles: Say You Want a Revolution_, by Grant Morrison. Dark, gruesome, and confusing so far, but a great read. Sadly, I’ll have to wait until I have more time to get to the other volumes, as so much more important reading is waiting for me. _The Walking Dead Vol. 9_, Robert Kirkman. I’m not sure I like where it’s going, but at least it’s getting moving again! _American Born Chinese_, by Gene Yang. Lovely book, and not just for YA readers. Other reads that went by fast, but did not really further my work: _Day by Day Armageddon_, by J.L. Bourne. I’m rather ambivalent. On the plus side, it’s got _zombies_, so it’s not all bad. On the minus side, it’s really badly written. The conceit is that it’s a diary (which I like, as it leaves open the possibility that the lead dies!), but it’s an oh-so-bad diary. I’ve never written one myself, but I would suppose that entries don’t go like this: “Cousin Harry, who was married to my second wife’s aunt Brunhilda, who owned a gun store in Tampa that was devastated by Hurricane Andrew, called me, to ask me if I, the Navy fighter-jock that I am, knew anything about installing intruder alarms, which I do!” [Well, I made that one up for effect, but you get the drift…way too much information] And lastly, _The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay_, by Michael Chabon. I’m also ambivalent about this book. It’s great writing, and the movement between comic world and real world is done amazingly well. Still, I can’t bring myself to read more than a chapter every time I pick it up. Why that is so, I don’t know – it’s not that I dislike the book at all… ---
**Author:** ![TheMerchandise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b487fb/32.png) [@TheMerchandise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheMerchandise)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2009, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-feb-09-edition/483898/140 "2009-02-24T14:21:22Z")
> [@Quasimodem](#): > > For those of us strapped for cash, but with a jones for reading, I found this website: [www.paperbackswap.com](http://www.paperbackswap.com). Sounds like a good deal, so I joined up. > > Quasi I’ve been using this site, with great success, for over a year now. I’ve gotten rid of about a hundred of my books… and somehow ended up with 122 new ones. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-feb-09-edition/483898.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-feb-09-edition/483898.md?page=8)