# Khadaji’s Whatcha Reading Thread - August 2021 edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [July 30, 2021, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2021-edition/947649 "2021-07-30T15:51:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**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:** [August 6, 2021, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2021-edition/947649/21 "2021-08-06T01:57:07Z")
I finished _The Vanishing Half_ by Britt Bennett last week. A very good book with a host of strong female characters. Finished _Artificial Condition_ by Martha Wells, Monday. I do really love Murderbot and I hope to see ART make an appearance once again. Finished _The Dispatcher_ by John Scalzi. This was my first Scalzi book and … I liked it but it took awhile to hook me. The end however, was well paced and the characters interesting. I will read the next book soon Finished _The Amazing Mrs Pollifax_ by Dorothy Gilman today. Sort of cozy thriller, I described the series today “Like potato chips, not a meal but satisfying and enjoyable nevertheless.” I read all of these in my early 20s and I’m glad they are just as enjoyable 35 years later. ❤ ---
**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:** [August 6, 2021, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2021-edition/947649/22 "2021-08-06T03:27:23Z")
When I was teaching primary school, I had kids annotate their reading logs with tags indicating the relative difficulty of each book. The only one I remember was P.C., which stood for, you guessed it, Potato Chip. A book that didn’t challenge the reader and was reasonably far below his or her reading level, but was nevertheless fun and worth reading. A good descriptor, I always thought! ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2021, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2021-edition/947649/23 "2021-08-06T03:40:26Z")
Just finished [The Absolute Book](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54735156-the-absolute-book). Very ambitious, and I’m not convinced it lived up to its ambitions. The mood was bleak throughout, and the novel was carefully, almost puzzle-box plotted. The protagonist never really moved me, and I’m still not clear what her purpose was in the story. A couple of scenes were really intense and well-crafted, and the mythology is great–but it never really came together for me. I started [Matt Henson and the Ice Temple of Harlem](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50548835-matthew-henson-and-the-ice-temple-of-harlem?ref=nav_sb_ss_5_13), an homage to 1920s pulp starring [the real-life Black American](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Henson) who may have been the first human to reach the North Pole. It looked like a ton of fun–but the writing is so terrible that I couldn’t make it more than half a dozen pages. If you can groove on super-pulpy writing, like Dan Brown quality, this sure looks like a goofy fun book. I couldn’t hack it. ---
**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:** [August 6, 2021, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2021-edition/947649/24 "2021-08-06T13:41:26Z")
That’s great! I love the Mrs. Pollifax series, they’re cozy thrillers and travelogues in one book. ---
**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:** [August 6, 2021, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2021-edition/947649/25 "2021-08-06T13:58:16Z")
> [@DZedNConfused](#): > > …Finished _The Dispatcher_ by John Scalzi. This was my first Scalzi book and … I liked it but it took awhile to hook me. The end however, was well paced and the characters interesting. I will read the next book soon… I’m a big Scalzi fan, and that’s not his typical book, but I liked it. Bizarre premise but he just runs with it. If you wanna read more Scalzi, I highly recommend _Old Man’s War_ (kickass military sf, with humanity fighting aliens for habitable worlds), _Redshirts_ (a very funny and, by the end, oddly touching meta take on _Star Trek_) and _The Collapsing Empire_ (first of a trilogy about a distant-future human interstellar empire coping with looming disaster). ---
**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:** [August 6, 2021, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2021-edition/947649/26 "2021-08-06T22:59:59Z")
This was my first foray into Scalzi, but I do have Old Man’s War in my TBR pile… ---
**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:** [August 6, 2021, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2021-edition/947649/27 "2021-08-06T23:34:26Z")
I finished reading Verne’s **The Floating Island**. This was a different translation than the one I read earlier. _Propeller Island_ was part of the ARCO/Fitzroy series edited by I.O. Evans. Verne enthusiasts and scholar HATE those editions. They abridge things and cut out entire chapters. Their chief virtue is that they reprinted a lot of Verne that had gone out of print. The Ace paperback editions were all based on these, so they suffer from the same drawback. The one I just finished reading was the old Sampson Low translation. When I hold the books up back to back the Low translation is more than twice as thick as the ARCO one. If you flip open and compare passages, you can see how ARCO criminally pare down descriptions and cut entire paragraphs. (Why? Did they have an aggressive wordcount they wanted to meet?) After reading the fuller Low translation, the ARCO one is like eating watery soup. BUT – the Low translation cuts out passages insulting to Britain and America. Which is pretty significant, since the book is a satire of American Upper Class behavior. Interestingly, the ARCO version restored these (although, for the most part, what they have appears to come from the Low translation. Which means they actually added new translations to the old thing at the same time they were pruning the descriptions). One solution is to read the translations side by side. A better solution is to read the 2015 translation _The Self-Propelled Island_ by Marie-Thérèse Noiset and published by Bison Books. (But even here we do not achieve perfection – Ms. Noiset, for no good reason, switches the tense throughout from present tense to past tense.). But it’s time to move onto something new. Now I’m reading **A Curious Man: The Strange and Brilliant Life of Robert “Believe it or Not” Ripley** by Neal Thompson. The book was a gift to my mother, who finished it and gave it back. ---
**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:** [August 7, 2021, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2021-edition/947649/28 "2021-08-07T00:26:47Z")
Today I read Shirley Jackson’s Life Among the Savages. Very, uh, Bombeckian. Could have been shorter. The children were interesting characters though. ---
**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:** [August 7, 2021, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2021-edition/947649/29 "2021-08-07T04:02:05Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > …I’m also about three-quarters of the way through Matt Haig’s _The Midnight Library_, a what-if fantasy about a suicidal young woman who gets the chance to experience alternative lives she might have lived. At one time or another she’s a rock superstar, a glaciologist, a dog-walker and a Cambridge philosophy professor, among other things. It’s pretty good, although sometimes she just seems willfully stupid in the various situations in which she finds herself, and I have to roll my eyes a bit. Finished it. The ending was a bit predictable and pat, but I’m glad I read it. Ken Grimwood’s _Replay_ covers a lot of the same ground and much better, I’d say. Next up: audiobooks of _Case Histories_ by Kate Atkinson, a contemporary mystery, and _The Wine-Dark Sea_ by Patrick O’Brian, a historic naval adventure. > [@DZedNConfused](#): > > This was my first foray into Scalzi, but I do have Old Man’s War in my TBR pile… :: steeples fingers :: Excellent. ---
**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:** [August 8, 2021, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2021-edition/947649/30 "2021-08-08T12:25:21Z")
I’m a Mrs. Pollifax fan, too. My favorite is _The Elusive Mrs. Pollifax_. ---
**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:** [August 8, 2021, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2021-edition/947649/31 "2021-08-08T12:26:16Z")
I enjoyed that book, too. “My sister was eaten by a bear, eaten.” ---
**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:** [August 8, 2021, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2021-edition/947649/32 "2021-08-08T12:27:13Z")
Finished _The Sakura Obsession: The Incredible Story of the Plant Hunter Who Saved Japan’s Cherry Blossoms_ , by Naoko Abe, which was interesting. Now I’m reading _The Novice’s Tale_, by Margaret Frazier. ---
**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:** [August 8, 2021, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2021-edition/947649/33 "2021-08-08T12:29:20Z")
I finished _DMZ Colony_ by Don Mee Choi. Quick one-sentence summary: What the hell did I just read? Longer summary to follow once I figure out what the hell I just read. ---
**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:** [August 8, 2021, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2021-edition/947649/34 "2021-08-08T15:07:18Z")
I plan to read Raising Demons too. 😈 Yesterday I read Joe R. Lansdale’s [Moon Lake](https://www.amazon.com/Moon-Lake-Joe-R-Lansdale/dp/0316540641). It started off okay, but eventually got so farfetched I didn’t care what happened anymore. Next up, the long-awaited sequel to Helene Wecker’s The Golem and The Jinni. I hope it’s of the same quality. ---
**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:** [August 8, 2021, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2021-edition/947649/35 "2021-08-08T16:23:41Z")
I read Connie Willis’s _Passage_. It’s a great book; it has the most ambitious plot twist I’ve ever encountered, and the author absolutely pulls it off. ---
**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:** [August 9, 2021, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2021-edition/947649/36 "2021-08-09T17:55:02Z")
Finished _The Novice’s Tale_ , by Margaret Frazier, which was okay. Now I’m reading _Newton’s Wake_, by Ken MacLeod. ---
**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:** [August 9, 2021, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2021-edition/947649/37 "2021-08-09T17:58:52Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > Next up, the long-awaited sequel to Helene Wecker’s The Golem and The Jinni. I hope it’s of the same quality. Meant to link: [The Hidden Palace](https://www.amazon.com/Hidden-Palace-Novel-Golem-Jinni/dp/0062468715/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=helene+wecker&qid=1628531873&sr=8-1). So far, it’s going down real smooth. ---
**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:** [August 9, 2021, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2021-edition/947649/38 "2021-08-09T18:41:05Z")
I’ve started _Case Histories,_ a detective novel by Kate Atkinson. I’d really liked her historical fantasy novel _Life After Life_. This one is slow getting off the ground, but I’ll stick with it for now. ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2021, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2021-edition/947649/39 "2021-08-10T14:19:37Z")
I just finished _Defending Jacob_ by William Landay. It’s a legal thriller and an excellent read. The narrator is the DA for city near Boston whose 14-year-old son is accused of murdering a classmate. Very surprising plot twist at the end. ---
**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:** [August 11, 2021, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2021-edition/947649/40 "2021-08-11T15:54:33Z")
I really enjoyed _Case Histories_ (it was the first novel of hers I read; my son gave it to me, thinking it would be up my alley) but I agree it took a while to get going. There are several sequels involving Jackson Brodie, who gets to be a more complex (and rather luckless) character in each succeeding book. I’m currently reading another of Atkinson’s, _A God in Ruins_, which is…not a detective novel but rather more of a biography-slash-saga. I’m liking it a lot. It helps that there are a couple of major “points of contact” between me and the main character (no, I was not a bomber pilot during World War II). I’ll have to look into _Life After Life_. I’m also reading Susan Orlean’s _The Library Book_, which is okay. I think the book is trying to be too many things at once: the story of the Los Angeles central library fire back in the eighties and how it was investigated, plus a history of the library, plus being about how libraries change and adapt to new needs and generations and how they serve the communities, and also being basically a day-in-the-life-of-a-library kind of thing… It’s sort of too much and feels very disconnected at times, but at its best it’s definitely interesting. The day-in-the-life is the part that grabs me the most, I think. The historical stuff is probably the least appealing, though some of the early directors were certainly characters. A book that could have benefited from tighter editing, all in all. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2021-edition/947649.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2021-edition/947649.md?page=3)