# Whatcha reading Jan. (09) edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 31, 2008, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-jan-09-edition/479409 "2008-12-31T21:57:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Momofgirls](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/momofgirls/32/21798_2.png) [@Momofgirls](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Momofgirls)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2009, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-jan-09-edition/479409/101 "2009-01-13T05:26:38Z")
I finished _Why We Suck_ by Denis Leary and loved it. I also finished _Party Monster (originally titled Disco Bloodbath)_ by James St. James, about Michael Alig and the “Club Kids” of the late 80s/early 90s. I’ve seen the movie with Macauley Culkin and Seth Green, which is a lot better than you’d think. I enjoyed the book as well. Just started _Revolutionary Road_ by Richard Yates this morning. I want to read it before I see the movie (if I see the movie). ---
**Author:** ![No.1\_Magnolia\_Fan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e480ec/32.png) [@No.1\_Magnolia\_Fan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/No.1_Magnolia_Fan)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2009, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-jan-09-edition/479409/102 "2009-01-13T06:23:07Z")
I recently finished Twilight by Stephenie Meyer and it is definitely geared towards the teenage female. I can summarize the first 80% of the book for those who can’t be bothered to read it or watch the movie: Bella: Edward is so good looking, so handsome, so perfect. _swoon_ Why does he hate me? Edward: I am too dangerous for you Bella, but I cannot resist you, but resist you I must. Repeat until you can’t take it anymore… and then repeat for another 200 pages. ---
**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:** [January 13, 2009, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-jan-09-edition/479409/103 "2009-01-13T14:44:40Z")
I liked _A Fire Upon the Deep_, but I wasn’t amazed by it. The aliens with pack minds were fascinating and the “zones of thought” concept grew on me, but the story didn’t have much of an emotional impact. Not sure if I’ll read more Vinge. I’m in the middle of _Dark Fire_, the second in C. J. Sansom’s Tudor mystery series. Huh, I just noticed that’s two “Fire” books in a row. ---
**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:** [January 13, 2009, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-jan-09-edition/479409/104 "2009-01-13T15:13:59Z")
I recently finished Katherine Neville’s novel _The Eight_, after a recommendation from a Doper in another thread. It flips between the 1970s and the 1790s in a global chase for Charlemagne’s mystical chess set. Definitely entertaining, though there were a few moments where the plot’s twist and turns seemed a bit too contrived, even for the genre. I’m now wrapping up _The Barrytown Trilogy_, by Roddy Doyle. Already finished _The Commitments_ and _The Snapper_ and am close to finishing _The Van_. Doyle has a real ear for dialogue and makes even the most mundane scenes entertaining. Highly recommended. O’ course, tha’ book make me want to eat chips, drink pints o’ Guinness and speak with a Dublin brogue, so tha’s an added benefit, yeah. : ) Next up: _Once In a Lifetime: The Incredible Story of the New York Cosmos_ by Gavin Newsham. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2009, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-jan-09-edition/479409/105 "2009-01-13T15:52:11Z")
Finished _Echoes from the Dead_ by Johan Theorin and heartily recommend it if you like dark twisty mysteries with realistic characters. It was a pleasant surprise. Back to a re-read of _A Game of Thrones_. ---
**Author:** ![SaharaTea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@SaharaTea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SaharaTea)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2009, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-jan-09-edition/479409/106 "2009-01-13T17:26:32Z")
> [@TheMerchandise](#): > > I’m reading _The Historian_ by Elizabeth Kostova. I’m a sucker for a good vampire story, but I’m 200 pages in and so far there hasn’t actually been a vampire. Good luck with this one. I made it about 100 pages before giving up. Someone spoiled the ending for me, which didn’t help. I’m reading Erik Larson’s _Devil in the White City_ and really enjoying it. ---
**Author:** ![Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hazle_Weatherfield)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2009, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-jan-09-edition/479409/107 "2009-01-13T18:11:10Z")
Just finished reading “Dewey” the library cat and am working (and I mean Working) on “Wesley.” These books are proof that no matter how cute or moving a story is, it still needs to be written by someone who can effing write! I loved the stories these books had to tell, but the writing is so bad that it’s hard to get through. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2009, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-jan-09-edition/479409/108 "2009-01-18T12:24:38Z")
Let me try again. (My thanks to AuntiePam View Post who caught me posting this in the Watcha Watchin thread.) After months of trying to finish it, I finally put down Un Lun Dun. Maybe it was aimed at too young of a crowd. Maybe it is a British/American humor thing - maybe if you liked Monty Python you would like this. I dunno, but it was never mildly humorous and seemed to me the author was just making up odd things because he was trying to make it silly for the kids. The final straw was when he introduced a character who had a bird-cage for a head - and the bird whistles instead of him talking. There seemed to be no reason for him having a bird cage for a head, other than the protagonist needed to catch a bird. I just don’t care what happens. ---
**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:** [January 18, 2009, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-jan-09-edition/479409/109 "2009-01-18T16:49:12Z")
> [@Khadaji](#): > > Let me try again. (My thanks to AuntiePam View Post who caught me posting this in the Watcha Watchin thread.) > > After months of trying to finish it, I finally put down Un Lun Dun. Maybe it was aimed at too young of a crowd. Maybe it is a British/American humor thing - maybe if you liked Monty Python you would like this. I like Monty Python and found _Un Lun Dun_ unreadable and grotesque. ---
**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:** [January 18, 2009, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-jan-09-edition/479409/110 "2009-01-18T16:57:58Z")
I finished Charles de Lint’s _The Onion Girl_ yesterday. It’s one of his better ones, but my GOD he put Jilly through hell. I would not want to be a heroine in one of his novels. You’ve got to earn the happy ending in his books. I’m not too thrilled with the ending, though. I thought that the sister didn’t get what she deserved. Yeah, yeah, forgiveness and letting go of the past and all, but she really should have been punished a bit more for all the crap she did. The current book pile looks like this: _The Pesthouse_, Jim Crace _One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich_, Alexander Solzhenitsyn _Emma_, Jane Austen (this is Austen’s last chance with me) _Children of Dune_, Frank Herbert _The Baker’s Boy_, J.V. Jones ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2009, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-jan-09-edition/479409/111 "2009-01-18T17:04:05Z")
> [@SpazCat](#): > > The current book pile looks like this: > _The Pesthouse_, Jim Crace I really liked _The Pesthouse_. It went in an unexpected direction, and was very satisfying. I’m finally reading _Silverlock_ by John Myers Myers (probably recommended by a Doper). I like it a lot, even though I’m not getting all the literary references. It’s sort of a road trip/adventure tale, and it’s lots of fun. ---
**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2009, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-jan-09-edition/479409/112 "2009-01-18T19:41:44Z")
I just finished _American Wife_ by Curtis Sittenfeld. The book was highly recommended by many reviewers. It is supposedly based on Laura Bush’s life. My take? Very well written fiction but she should have either written a biography of Laura Bush or just plain fiction. As a hybrid of the two the book is interesting but disjointed and a bit frustrating. The last hundred pages could have been done away with entirely. ---
**Author:** ![anu-la1979](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/47e85d/32.png) [@anu-la1979](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anu-la1979)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2009, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-jan-09-edition/479409/113 "2009-01-18T20:35:09Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > I like Monty Python and found _Un Lun Dun_ unreadable and grotesque. I also abandoned **Un Lun Dun** but mostly because I found it to be boring and a weak copy of Gaiman’s **Neverwhere**. ---
**Author:** ![I\_Have\_Hippos\_In\_My\_Garden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/4491bb/32.png) [@I\_Have\_Hippos\_In\_My\_Garden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Have_Hippos_In_My_Garden)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2009, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-jan-09-edition/479409/114 "2009-01-18T20:39:28Z")
I’m halfway through **Breaking Dawn** by Stephanie Meyer, the last book in the Twilight saga. I have to say i’m very much enjoying it! ---
**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:** [January 20, 2009, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-jan-09-edition/479409/115 "2009-01-20T13:47:51Z")
I just got done with Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell. He seems a dependable non-fiction writer; I’ve liked all his books so far. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2009, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-jan-09-edition/479409/116 "2009-01-20T15:25:13Z")
I’m on my second attempt at _The Marriage of Sticks_ by Jonathan Carroll. This one is from a woman’s point of view, and I think he’s doing a good job with it. ---
**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:** [January 20, 2009, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-jan-09-edition/479409/117 "2009-01-20T15:48:14Z")
I made the mistake of going to Messrs. Barnes et Nobél yesterday. They finally had a copy of _The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Volume 2_. Said copy has left the store and is now residing in my closet to-read pile. ---
**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:** [January 20, 2009, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-jan-09-edition/479409/118 "2009-01-20T16:39:33Z")
I’m halfway through _Lonesome Dove_. I think I like it, but I’m not sure. Sometimes at the halfway point I’m in love with a book and only a truly rotten ending could spoil it, but this is one of those novels that could easily go either way for me. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Some\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ad7895/32.png) [@Just\_Some\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Some_Guy)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2009, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-jan-09-edition/479409/119 "2009-01-21T00:00:50Z")
Typically I only check in at the beginning of the month with these threads and usually mainly due to my bad luck I’m reading or about to read something absolutely terrible. However I have just read an absolutely brilliant book, one so good that I felt the need to rush out and share it with people. After years of it being on my “I should read that sometime” list I finally got to the often recommended _Bridge of Birds_ and it was everything that it was promised to be. It was witty, charming, more clever than it had any right to be, sorrowful, and touching. It’s magnificent and I could not put it down. So there you go, I do read great books occasionally. 🙂 And continuing that theme I’m about to read the last two volumes in the Lone Wolf and Cub graphic novel series but that may deserve a thread of its own when I finally finish it. For prose novels my next one is _Mythago Woods_. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2009, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-jan-09-edition/479409/120 "2009-01-21T01:06:29Z")
I’ve had _Bridge Of Birds_ in my Amazon queue more than once, but for some reason never buy it. Maybe it is time I did. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-jan-09-edition/479409.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-jan-09-edition/479409.md?page=7)