# Khadaji’s Whatcha Reading Thread - April 2022 edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [March 31, 2022, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2022-edition/962053 "2022-03-31T16:16:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**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:** [April 11, 2022, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2022-edition/962053/21 "2022-04-11T13:08:55Z")
Finished de Camp’s autobiography _Time and Chance_. Now I’m reading **Lost Science: Astonishing Tales of Forgotten Genius** by Kitty Ferguson. I would never have even heard of it, let alone picked it up, had not my local bookstore gone out of business and had a sale. It pretty much lives up to its title – these are mostly forgotten incidents and scientists, and the book is well-researched. I will take issue with her saying that Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford is a relatively forgotten man. They still sell Rumford baking powder in Europe, and I see him cited now and then. He’s certainly known locally - his birthplace is a historic site in nearby Woburn, MA, and there’s a statue of him in front of the Woburn public library. (I have mixed feelings for the man – he was a brilliant, largely self-taught scientist who exerted himself for the public good. He was also a British spy during the early stages of the American Revolution.) On audio I finished Stephen King’s **If it Bleeds** , an anthology. The title story turns out to be a sequel to his “Mr. Mercedes” trilogy, and implies that there had been another sequel before it. Based on information in If it Bleeds, I figured that had to be **The Outsider** , so I’m listening to that now. ---
**Author:** ![Boycott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boycott/32/6741_2.png) [@Boycott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boycott)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2022, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2022-edition/962053/22 "2022-04-11T17:53:53Z")
Finished a book called **Strangers** by C.L. Taylor. You can describe this as one of those cozy mystery books. All the characters came across so naive and that includes the bad guys. That said I enjoyed the mystery itself to start another of her books called **Her Last Holiday** which is billed more of a psychological thriller. ---
**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:** [April 11, 2022, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2022-edition/962053/23 "2022-04-11T19:08:07Z")
Started today on [Born For Trouble: the further adventures of Hap & Leonard](https://www.amazon.com/Born-Trouble-Further-Adventures-Leonard/dp/1616963700/ref=sr_1_1?crid=CRSNCKV94BSW&keywords=born+for+trouble+joe+r.+lansdale&qid=1649703907&sprefix=born+for+%2Caps%2C90&sr=8-1) by Joe R. Lansdale. Tried and true…but I’m pretty sure I’ve read most of these already. Bugger. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2022, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2022-edition/962053/24 "2022-04-11T22:49:29Z")
Finished _The Last Cuentista_ by Donna Barbra Higuera, which was well done. It reads like a cross between _When Worlds Collide_, _The Giver_, and _A Gift from Earth_. Now I’m reading _Murder Most Fowl_ by Donna Andrews. ---
**Author:** ![DZedNConfused](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dzednconfused/32/15991_2.png) [@DZedNConfused](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DZedNConfused)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2022, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2022-edition/962053/25 "2022-04-11T23:48:26Z")
I finished my second reading of _Hither, Page_ by Cat Sebastian. I was very disappointed with it the first time I read it, perhaps because I expected it to be a romance like the other books of hers I had read. There is a little romance in the story, but it is a straight up (pardon me it’s a M/M ) whodunnit and a quite enjoyable one at that. My copy of the new Peter Grant book _Amongst Our Weapons_ by Ben Aaronovitch arrived today! Onwards into the breach… and the utter insanity too! ---
**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:** [April 12, 2022, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2022-edition/962053/26 "2022-04-12T13:04:47Z")
I decided to set Hap & Leonard aside for now and start something else. It’s a book of short stories called [Shit Cassandra Saw](https://www.amazon.com/Shit-Cassandra-Saw-Gwen-Kirby/dp/0143136623/ref=sr_1_1?crid=349Y315W95IAX&keywords=shot+cassandra+saw+book&qid=1649768321&s=books&sprefix=shit+cas%2Cstripbooks%2C78&sr=1-1) by Gwen Kirby. The stories are all humorous, quirky, and very brief, so I’m zooming through this like it was a bag of potato chips. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2022, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2022-edition/962053/27 "2022-04-12T16:24:58Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > My library pulled back my audiobook of O’Brian’s _The Hundred Days_ because someone else wanted it, dammit, so I’m taking an involuntary break from that book (with less than an hour to go). > > In the meantime, I’ve begun an audiobook of Amor Towles’s _The Lincoln Highway_. So far it’s meh, but I’ll keep going for now. I got back _The Hundred Days_ and speedily finished it - good stuff, although a beloved second-tier character (Barrett Bonden, the captain’s bluff, hearty, long-serving coxswain) is killed off in a shockingly casual way during a running sea battle with an Algerine corsair, and no one seems to take much notice of it. If his passing isn’t discussed (and mourned) at much greater length in the next book, I shall be fell and wroth. You have been warned. Gave up on _The Lincoln Highway_ audiobook a little past the equivalent of my standard first-fifty-pages. Just never grabbed me. Now I’m listening to an audiobook of Robert Harris’s _Pompeii_, a novel about people in the doomed Roman town in the days before the volcano blew. It’s just OK so far. ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2022, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2022-edition/962053/28 "2022-04-13T13:31:55Z")
I finished _Plutoshine_ by **Lucy Kissick** , which I enjoyed a lot. And now I’m 1/4 of the way through _Braking Day_ by **Adam Oyebanji** , about a generation spaceship 130+ years into it’s voyage and preparing to decelerate as it approaches it’s destination. But a lot can change in five generations… ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2022, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2022-edition/962053/29 "2022-04-14T13:11:18Z")
For fans of Emily St. John Mandel: > **[In new pandemic novel, 'Station Eleven' author explores how the apocalypse is...](https://www.cnn.com/style/article/sea-of-tranquility-emily-st-john-mandel-books-culture-queue/index.html)** > > In an interview about her new novel "The Sea of Tranquility," science fiction author Emily St. John Mandel said she believes "the world is always ending." ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2022, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2022-edition/962053/30 "2022-04-14T13:55:49Z")
Finished _Murder Most Fowl_ by Donna Andrews, which was okay. Now I’m reading _Goodbye, Curate_; by Fred Secombe. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2022, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2022-edition/962053/31 "2022-04-17T18:03:47Z")
Finished _Goodbye Curate_ ; by Fred Secombe, which was okay. Now I’m reading _Now I Know: The Soviets Invaded Wisconsin?! And 99 More Interesting Facts, Plus the Amazing Stories Behind Them_, by Dan Lewis. (No, the Soviets didn’t invade Wisconsin. According to the author, on May 1, 1950, a small town in Wisconsin acted out their idea of what would happen if the Soviets did take over.) ---
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2022, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2022-edition/962053/32 "2022-04-18T21:38:14Z")
Empire Made: My Search for an Outlaw Uncle Who Vanished in British India Kief Hillsbery The author, an American novelist and travel writer, goes in search of the strange history of his great great great uncle, a British employee of the East India Company in the 1800s who went to India as a young man, and (unusually) lived out his life in the East. Fascinating history and quite well written. Highly recommended ---
**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:** [April 19, 2022, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2022-edition/962053/33 "2022-04-19T12:31:00Z")
Started yesterday on [The Resting Place](https://www.amazon.com/Resting-Place-Camilla-Sten/dp/1250249279/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2K3NRPQVK4B8X&keywords=the+resting+place+camilla+sten&qid=1650371014&sprefix=the+resting+place%2Caps%2C358&sr=8-1) by Camilla Sten. It’s a novel about a woman with face-blindness who witnessed her grandmother’s murder. Further mysteries await at a mansion in Sweden, which her grandmother has left to her. Okay so far; I’m having a little trouble plugging into it. There are four characters with similar names, and the protagonist keeps referring to her grandmother’s family, which obviously is her own family as well. Could be just that I haven’t had enough uninterrupted time to read lately. ---
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2022, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2022-edition/962053/34 "2022-04-19T19:37:40Z")
The Greatest Invention: A History of the World in Nine Mysterious Scripts Silvia Ferrara Not really a history of writing as I expected, but a series of essays about writing and deciphering ancient scripts. Some interesting sections, but not recommended overall. ---
**Author:** ![Boycott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boycott/32/6741_2.png) [@Boycott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boycott)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2022, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2022-edition/962053/35 "2022-04-19T22:51:02Z")
Finished **Her Last Holiday** by C.L Taylor. I think it was better than Strangers since it has a locked room theme. Seems like this author is fond of characters going through a mid-life crisis being wrapped together in a foul mystery. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2022, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2022-edition/962053/36 "2022-04-20T10:51:34Z")
Finished _Now I Know: The Soviets Invaded Wisconsin?! And 99 More Interesting Facts, Plus the Amazing Stories Behind Them_ , by Dan Lewis, which was a lot of fun. It reminded me of _The Straight Dope_ columns, but without the questions. There are two other (at least) books in this series that I’m planning to read. Now I’m reading _Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in American_, by Firoozeh Dumas. ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2022, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2022-edition/962053/37 "2022-04-20T13:27:39Z")
Finished Braking Day by Adam Oyebanji, which was pretty good. I’m now reading _The Cartographers_ by **Peng Shepherd** , a novel about the mystery surrounding a particular Highway Gas Station Map from the '30s, which people seem willing to kill for to keep secret! ---
**Author:** ![The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_wind_of_my_soul)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2022, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2022-edition/962053/38 "2022-04-20T13:57:06Z")
Oh man, I have quite a few updates since I last posted in one of these threads. Recent nonfiction books: [Head Cases: Stories of Brain Injury and Its Aftermath](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1906839.Head_Cases) by Michael Paul Mason. A fascinating book and really delves into how inadequate our health care and even basic knowledge and research of how to treat head injuries is. [Sync: The Emerging Science of Spontaneous Order](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/354421.Sync) by Steven H. Strogatz. This book is by a mathematician, and there were sections of this book (on lasers and quantum physics) that delved so deeply into mathematics that I had to skip over them because I was in over my head. But there were other sections that were quite enjoyable and interesting, particularly the section on circadian rhythms near the beginning of the book. I’m currently reading [Exercised: Why Something We Never Evolved to Do is Healthy and Rewarding](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49358915-exercised?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=p8Mv3B8jg7&rank=5) by Daniel E. Lieberman. There’s definitely some interesting info in here, but the book is rather repetitive and dry. I intend to finish the book, because it’s educational enough that I think it will benefit me to have read it, but I wouldn’t call the actual reading experience particularly enjoyable. Recent fiction books: [The Butterfly Room](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53595457-the-butterfly-room) by Lucinda Riley. There were some improbabilities to the plotline (keeping secrets that didn’t need to be kept), and the women in the story put up with some major bullshit from the men they were dating/married to. But it was an engrossing and enjoyable read if you could look past those two things. [Pretty Things]([https://Pretty](https://Pretty) Things) by Janelle Brown was an enjoyable book about a woman trying to pull an elaborate con on an acquaintance from her past. The book is from two points of view: Nina’s (the con artist) and Vanessa’s (the wealthy heiress). Vanessa’s parts were pretty boring and unnecessary, but Nina’s parts were good, and I was impressed with the author’s ability to spring unexpected plot twists on me throughout the novel. [American Wife](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2807199-american-wife) by Curtis Sittenfeld is a four-part novel. Part 1 was great! Part 2 was okay, and I gave up midway through Part 3. [Beast in the Basement](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16007307-beast-in-the-basement) by Jason Arnopp was a horror novella that was mildly entertaining but nothing impressive. I am currently reading [Kitty and the Silver Bullet](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1624920.Kitty_and_the_Silver_Bullet), the fourth book in Carrie Vaughn’s Kitty Norville series. Not sure how I feel about this one yet. I prefer stand-alone novels to series, but this one is pretty enjoyable. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2022, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2022-edition/962053/39 "2022-04-21T20:31:03Z")
Finished _Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in American_ , by Firoozeh Dumas, which was very enjoyable. Now I’m reading _Far Sector_, which is a Green Lantern graphic novel written by N.K. Jemisin. ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2022, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2022-edition/962053/40 "2022-04-21T22:25:15Z")
_Running out of Road_, by Daniel Freedman. The third in a series–I read the other two but it was a while back. Buck Schatz is a long-retired detective in the Memphis police department, now around 90 years old and losing his hearing and his mind and his bearings. He is being hounded by an NPR reporter regarding the oldest prisoner on Death Row in the US, who has a long history with Schatz. I found it very well written and quite evocative, both in terms of the historical stuff (the initial contact between the prisoner and the detective was in the 1950s) and in the present-day. The novel raises a lot of questions regarding the death penalty, use of force by police officers, and racial and ethnic prejudice (Schatz is Jewish), not all of which are answered directly. At its best, funny and moving. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2022-edition/962053.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2022-edition/962053.md?page=3)