# Whatcha reading Sept. (08) edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 2, 2008, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-sept-08-edition/461684 "2008-09-02T15:05:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2008, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-sept-08-edition/461684/81 "2008-09-07T16:20:24Z")
> [@Khadaji](#): > > I see this is book 16 of the Hugh Corbett Mysteries. Will it matter if I start here, or do I need to go back to the beginning first? You CAN enjoy it on its own merits and could probably read it and then go on to read the earlier books . But given the opportunity I’d read them in order as I recollect that the earlier ones give you the background of the secret department he works for.(plus pads out the characters of his assistants a little more) Personally I’ve found them all bloody good reads. His other stuff is generally of a very high standard as well but as I said some of the genres he writes in just aren’t my cup of tea. ---
**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:** [September 7, 2008, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-sept-08-edition/461684/82 "2008-09-07T16:40:39Z")
[QUOTE=Me] Now I’m reading Waiter Rant: Thanks for the Tip–Confessions of a Cynical Waiter by Steve Dublanica. I’m only about a chapter in, but I’m enjoying it so far. [/QUOTE] > [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > That one’s in my pile too! I finished it yesterday, and really liked it! I thought it was going to be mostly a collection of bad customer stories, and while there was some of that, it was an interesting look at the life of career waiter. This morning I started [My Incredibly Wonderful, Miserable Life: An Anti-Memoir](http://www.amazon.com/Incredibly-Wonderful-Miserable-Life-Anti-Memoir/dp/1416572570/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1220805289&sr=1-1) by Adam Nimoy, Leonard Nimoy’s son. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2008, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-sept-08-edition/461684/83 "2008-09-08T02:11:57Z")
> [@I\_Have\_Hippos\_In\_My\_Garden](#): > > I’ve just finished ‘‘Chocolat’’ and didn’t enjoy it that much. I thought it would be a lot better than it was. If it’s your first Joanne Harris book, don’t give up. Try _Five Quarters of the Orange_, _Holy Fools_, or her awesome _Gentlemen and Players_. ---
**Author:** ![5-HT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/5/f19dbf/32.png) [@5-HT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/5-HT)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2008, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-sept-08-edition/461684/84 "2008-09-08T02:17:01Z")
Right now I’m reading the Qur’an, but I’m thinking of maybe adding something a little lighter as a side book. ---
**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:** [September 8, 2008, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-sept-08-edition/461684/85 "2008-09-08T08:55:39Z")
> [@](#): > > > [@](#): > > > > If it’s your first Joanne Harris book, don’t give up. Try Five Quarters of the Orange, Holy Fools, or her awesome Gentlemen and Players. Ah thank you thats interesting to know!I’ve got Five Quarters of the Orange and was going to leave reading it for a bit because Chocolat put me off, but I’ll take it on holiday with me now! Is it a lot better? ---
**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:** [September 8, 2008, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-sept-08-edition/461684/86 "2008-09-08T12:48:04Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > I’ve been working on Traffic: why we drive the way we do (and what it says about us) by Tom Vanderbilt. It’s been fairly slow going, but it’s a good book. I think I’m in more of a fiction mood right now, but everything close to the top of my TBR pile is non-fiction, so I’m plodding. Well, I _thought_ it was good, but I just bogged down and decided not to finish it. Now I’m reading Looks: Why They Matter More Than You Ever Imagined, by Gordon L. Patzer. It’s okay, but really…a lot of studies support what we all already knew. Waiter Rant is next! ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2008, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-sept-08-edition/461684/87 "2008-09-08T12:55:18Z")
> [@I\_Have\_Hippos\_In\_My\_Garden](#): > > Ah thank you thats interesting to know!I’ve got Five Quarters of the Orange and was going to leave reading it for a bit because Chocolat put me off, but I’ll take it on holiday with me now! Is it a lot better? Well, it’s considerably better, and the others are better still. It’s a period piece, as is _Chocolat_; maybe I identified more because one of the main characters suffers from debilitating migraines. I think it is worth reading, and I certainly don’t think you should be turned off Harris by\* Chocolat\*, which I think is among her weakest. I agree; if I had read that one first, I probably would not have read the others, thinking her a lightweight. I’m now working my way through \*Coastliners \*because I bought it secondhand for a couple of bucks. You probably shouldn’t bother with _Blackberry Wine_, but \*Holy Fools \*and _Gentlemen and Players_ are really excellent. ---
**Author:** ![unwashed\_brain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/a9adbd/32.png) [@unwashed\_brain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/unwashed_brain)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2008, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-sept-08-edition/461684/88 "2008-09-08T12:58:53Z")
About 220 pages deep into Stephen Erikson’s **Memories of Ice**. I’m still enjoying the series but wish I could fast forward through the next 3000 pages or so to see what happens. I’m very interested, but damn I’ve got a lot of pages ahead of me without a lot of free time to commit to them. ---
**Author:** ![Uzi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/91b2a8/32.png) [@Uzi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uzi)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2008, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-sept-08-edition/461684/89 "2008-09-08T13:05:02Z")
I’ve actually started another book now - **When Cultures Collide: Leading Across Cultures** by Richard D. Lewis. Even though I work in computing, working in a different culture (Yemen) kind of requires me, at least in my opinion (I wish more expats here would think it as important), to get as much info as I can so that I can recognize cultural issues vs. management issues before they can cause problems. It seems like a pretty good read from the little I’ve read of it. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2008, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-sept-08-edition/461684/90 "2008-09-08T13:08:40Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > Just finished _The Girls_ by Lori Lansens, a novel told in the voices of conjoined twins. It sounds gimmicky as hell but I found it absorbing and extremely well done – I strongly recommend it. Another vote for this one. ---
**Author:** ![chela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chela/32/21582_2.png) [@chela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chela)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2008, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-sept-08-edition/461684/91 "2008-09-08T13:25:46Z")
I am reading \*\* Aching for Beauty; Footbinding in China\*\* by Wang Ping. This is the book that is answering all my questions about foot binding. My curiosity started with Lisa See’s fictional account of a melancholy bride to be in **Peony in Love** , which lead me to read **Splendid Slippers; A Thousand years of an erotic tradition**. WHile Beverly Jackson’s book has loads of photos and interviews it never really delved into why footbinding and what for. Ping’s book is answering those questions for me. THough how anyone could find “hooked and deformed” feet alluring is beyond me, no toes to nibble, no lovely slim ankles to admire. Just tiny shoes covering stinky fleshy mashed up feet. mysterious! ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2008, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-sept-08-edition/461684/92 "2008-09-08T13:52:43Z")
> [@](#): > > I am reading Aching for Beauty; Footbinding in China by Wang Ping. This is the book that is answering all my questions about foot binding. My curiosity started with Lisa See’s fictional account of a melancholy bride to be in Peony in Love, which lead me to read Splendid Slippers; A Thousand years of an erotic tradition. WHile Beverly Jackson’s book has loads of photos and interviews it never really delved into why footbinding and what for. Ping’s book is answering those questions for me. THough how anyone could find “hooked and deformed” feet alluring is beyond me, no toes to nibble, no lovely slim ankles to admire. Just tiny shoes covering stinky fleshy mashed up feet. I may have to get that. I’d read Dorothy Ko’s **Every Step a Lotus: Shoes for Bound Feet** several years ago, and was troubled that Ms. Ko labored hard to make it sem as if bound feet was some sort of empowering choice that these women deliberately made. Nobody who has undergone such a life-altering and permanent change would want to thinkl that it’s pointless and useless and victimizing (and Ms. Ko seems to identify striongly with those foot-bound women), but it’s very difficult for me to think of it as a positive thing, and her rationalizations don’t ring true. I’d be very interested in another take on the topic. > **[Amazon.com: Every Step a Lotus: Shoes for Bound Feet: 9780520232846: Ko,...](https://www.amazon.com/Every-Step-Lotus-Shoes-Bound/dp/0520232844)** > > Amazon.com: Every Step a Lotus: Shoes for Bound Feet: 9780520232846: Ko, Dorothy: Books ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2008, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-sept-08-edition/461684/93 "2008-09-08T14:03:36Z")
Just finished **The House of Seven Gables** by Hawthorne. I bought it last November when I visited Salem and toured the house. It was dreadfully dreary and that’s why it took me so long. Currently reading: **In Defense of Food** by Michael Pollan and **An Elegant Madness: High Society in Regency England** by Venetia Murray ---
**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:** [September 8, 2008, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-sept-08-edition/461684/94 "2008-09-08T21:56:14Z")
Recently finished **Resistance: A Frenchwoman’s Journal of the War** by Agnes Humbert which was a really great read. Also just finished **Circus Queen and Tinker Bell** by Tiny Kline. This had some fascinating behind-the-scenes look at circus life in the 1920’s. The book that’s sucking me in now is **Lonely Werewolf Girl** by Martin Millar. This was an impulse buy that’s paying off very well. Lots of drama, intrigue and backstabbing while one werewolf tries to make do on the streets of London, another tries to design clothes for a fire elemental and the Thaneship of werewolves is the prize of a family battle. It’s all I can do to close the door of my office and dive back into this book. ---
**Author:** ![TheMerchandise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b487fb/32.png) [@TheMerchandise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheMerchandise)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2008, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-sept-08-edition/461684/95 "2008-09-09T13:43:13Z")
> [@Antigen](#): > > I just read _The Girls Who Went Away: The Hidden History of Women Who Surrendered Children for Adoption in the DecadesBefore Roe v. Wade_, by Ann Fessler. contrary to what you’d think from the title, it’s not about abortion debate or anything like that. It’s a series of interviews with women who were more or less coerced into giving up their babies, back in the 50s and 60s, when teen pregnancy was a huge shame to bring onto your family. A very good book, but depressing - the way the system treated these girls, and the way their\* families\* treated some of them… it’s heartbreaking. Since this sounded interesting, I picked it up from the library and read it. Heartbreaking is a good word for it. It also made me feel grateful. I had so much knowledge available to me – my mother, my school, my library. I know a \*\*ton \*\*about sex. It makes you appreciate how things change in just a few decades. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2008, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-sept-08-edition/461684/96 "2008-09-09T14:27:10Z")
> [@Gulo\_gulo](#): > > Also just finished **Circus Queen and Tinker Bell** by Tiny Kline. This had some fascinating behind-the-scenes look at circus life in the 1920’s. Have you read _Water for Elephants_? Is it as good? better? ---
**Author:** ![Sarahfeena](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sarahfeena/32/519_2.png) [@Sarahfeena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarahfeena)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2008, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-sept-08-edition/461684/97 "2008-09-09T18:11:33Z")
I just finished a great book called **For the Thrill of It** , which is about the Leopold & Loeb case. It covers the whole thing, from the background of the murderers, what drove them to it, how they did it, how the lawyers became involved & their backgrounds, the trial, and the aftermath. Probably the most interesting part to me was learning about Clarence Darrow, the politcal climate at the time, and how he used the case to fight the death penalty. Fascinating. ---
**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:** [September 9, 2008, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-sept-08-edition/461684/98 "2008-09-09T18:29:57Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > Have you read _Water for Elephants_? Is it as good? better? No I haven’t read it and admit I’ve been avoiding it. The reviews allude to animal abuse and I don’t think I could handle that. ---
**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:** [September 9, 2008, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-sept-08-edition/461684/99 "2008-09-09T18:37:04Z")
> [@Gulo\_gulo](#): > > No I haven’t read it and admit I’ve been avoiding it. The reviews allude to animal abuse and I don’t think I could handle that. Oh, it will definitely bring a tear to your eye, but it’s a wonderful book! ---
**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:** [September 9, 2008, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-sept-08-edition/461684/100 "2008-09-09T18:46:55Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > Well, I _thought_ it was good, but I just bogged down and decided not to finish it. > > Waiter Rant is next! I couldn’t finish Traffic, either. Hope you enjoy Waiter Rant as much as I did! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-sept-08-edition/461684.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-reading-sept-08-edition/461684.md?page=6)