# Khadaji’s Whatcha Reading Thread - December 2020 edition
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2020-edition/926817
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Tags:** books-writing-myths
**Created:** [November 30, 2020, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2020-edition/926817 "2020-11-30T15:15:17Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@DZedNConfused](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DZedNConfused)
#### Post date: [November 30, 2020, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2020-edition/926817/1 "2020-11-30T15:15:17Z")
Well, we made it. This kidney stone of a year is nearly passed. However, Christmas approaches… and the dreaded Christmas Carols on endless loop _shudder_
Soooo Whatcha all readin?
_Khadaji was one of the earlier members of SDMB, and he was well-known as a kindly person who always had something encouraging to say, particularly in the self-improvement threads. He was also a voracious, omnivorous reader, who started these threads 'way back in the Stone Age of 2005. Consequently, when he suddenly and quite unexpectedly passed away in January 2013, we decided to rename this thread in his honor and to keep his memory, if not his ghost, alive._
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### Author:  [@DZedNConfused](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DZedNConfused)
#### Post date: [November 30, 2020, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2020-edition/926817/2 "2020-11-30T15:18:32Z")
Last month: [Well that was November…](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-november-2020-edition/924227/75)
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### Author:  [@pullin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pullin)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2020, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2020-edition/926817/3 "2020-12-01T14:11:55Z")
The Vanishing American Adult – Ben Sasse.
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2020, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2020-edition/926817/4 "2020-12-01T15:01:23Z")
I’ve gone back to my library audiobook of Patrick O’Brian’s _The Thirteen Gun Salute_, the next in his fine series of Napoleonic naval adventures. Capt. Aubrey and his particular friend and ship’s surgeon Dr. Maturin are aboard the frigate HMS _Diane_, in Java on a diplomatic mission to counter French efforts to ingratiate themselves with the local poobahs. Wonderful period detail.
I’ll return to Robert A. Heinlein’s _Glory Road_, an old favorite of mine, shortly.
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2020, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2020-edition/926817/5 "2020-12-01T23:40:27Z")
Finished _The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People_, by Stephen R. Covey. Meh.
Now I’m reading _Where Are You Now?_ by Mary Higgins Clark.
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [December 5, 2020, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2020-edition/926817/6 "2020-12-05T00:06:57Z")
Finished _Where Are You Now?_ by Mary Higgins Clark. Not recommended. Great premise, though.
Now I’m reading _All Creation Waits: The Advent Mystery of New Beginnings_, by Gayle Boss.
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### Author:  [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)
#### Post date: [December 5, 2020, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2020-edition/926817/7 "2020-12-05T00:40:31Z")
Reading “The Ship Who Sang” by Anne McCaffrey and “A Fire Upon the Deep” by Vernor Vinge; both for book clubs (in the case of the Vinge, a re-read - I’ve read the book several times)
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [December 5, 2020, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2020-edition/926817/8 "2020-12-05T20:44:51Z")
Finished _All Creation Waits: The Advent Mystery of New Beginnings_ , by Gayle Boss, which I thought was wonderful. The author describes how many creatures (insects, birds, reptiles, mammals) survive through the winter, and links them into the Church season of Advent.
Now I’m reading _Artemis_, by Andy Weir.
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [December 5, 2020, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2020-edition/926817/9 "2020-12-05T21:32:50Z")
Almost done with O’Brian’s _The Thirteen Gun Salute_, and it’s as good as all his others. Highly recommended.
I’ve also begun reading _Arthur Rex_ by Thomas Berger, an often tongue-in-cheek but mostly respectful retelling of Arthurian legend, aloud with my teenage son. I first discovered it in high school and thought he would now appreciate it.
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### Author:  [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)
#### Post date: [December 5, 2020, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2020-edition/926817/10 "2020-12-05T22:46:47Z")
I finished Mary Shelley’s _Frankenstein_ (audio book) - I love it! I more than loved it; I think I’m putting this right up there with one of my favorite books ever. It’s not just the flowery, poetic language that hooked me - though that was a big hook … I could listen to that narrator describe a mutilated puppy rotting in the sun if he used the Queen’s English like that - but the story was so much more than what I expected knowing only what I knew from Frankenstein of pop-lore. I admit, _Young Frankenstein_ was my chief resource when it comes to what I knew about the story. It just works on so many levels. Is it allegorical? Is it straight up horror? Does the creature represent man’s inhumanity to man? Or perhaps he is personal sin, the mask which the baser human hides behind? I don’t know … I was coming up with all sorts of shit. At one point I was convinced the Creature represented Pornography and his victims basement dwelling nerds and not Victor’s relatives. I digress … this is a great book which I highly recommend. I will most likely listen to it again.
I don’t have another credit due for another couple of days but I think next I’m going to go full 180 and read Paul Stanley’s autobiography. Probably not a three syllable word in the whole book.
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### Author:  [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2020, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2020-edition/926817/11 "2020-12-06T05:35:06Z")
About halfway through _The Watchman_, by Robert Crais.
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### Author:  [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2020, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2020-edition/926817/12 "2020-12-07T14:15:15Z")
Started this morning on [The Hollow Places](https://www.amazon.com/Hollow-Places-Novel-T-Kingfisher/dp/1534451129/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1607350393&sr=1-1) by T. Kingfisher.
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2020, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2020-edition/926817/13 "2020-12-07T16:49:52Z")
If you like the audiobook, I strongly recommend one of the copiously Annotated editions. There are at least three – Leonard Wolf’s version from the 1970s (later re-released as _The Essential Frankenstein_), Leslie Klinger’s recent re-Annotated version timed to coincide with the bicentennial of the story, and an edition “annotated for Scientists and Engineers” put out about the same time by MIT Press. The annotations really add to your experience.
Let me also recommend my own take on the story, **A Light so Brilliant and Wondrous** published online by Silver Blade last fall
> **[A Light So Brilliant and Wondrous | Silver Blade Magazine](https://www.silverblade.net/2019/12/a-light-so-brilliant-and-wondrous/)**
>
> I had worked hard for nearly two years for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body.
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2020, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2020-edition/926817/14 "2020-12-07T16:53:34Z")
I’m still re-reading _The Best of Philip K. Dick_, but my nightstand reading is the absolutely wonderful **The Phantom Atlas: the Greatest Myths, Lies, and Blunders on Maps** by Edward Brooke-Hitching. It’s a series of places that never existed, but which persisted on old maps for many years before finally being erased, listed alphabetically. Part of what makes this book such a delight is that the maps are reproduced in all their fustian glory in full color.
> **[Amazon.com: The Phantom Atlas: The Greatest Myths, Lies and Blunders on Maps...](https://www.amazon.com/Phantom-Atlas-Greatest-Myths-Blunders/dp/1452168407)**
>
> Buy The Phantom Atlas: The Greatest Myths, Lies and Blunders on Maps (Historical Map and Mythology Book, Geography Book of Ancient and Antique Maps) on Amazon.com ✓ FREE SHIPPING on qualified orders
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### Author:  [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2020, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2020-edition/926817/15 "2020-12-08T02:47:53Z")
Just finished: _1637: No Peace Beyond the Line_, by Eric Flint and Charles E Gannon
Now reading: _The Falcon Always Wings Twice_, by Donna Andrews
Next: No idea – the library’s closed for another week. ☹ ☹
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2020, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2020-edition/926817/16 "2020-12-08T20:05:44Z")
Finished _Artemis_, by Andy Weir. It was a lot of fun. Normally, I dislike “caper” fiction. I only read this book because it was chosen by my SF book club. But this was excellent.
Now I’m reading _Balancing Acts: Behind the Scenes at London’s National Theatre_, by Nicholas Hytner.
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [December 9, 2020, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2020-edition/926817/17 "2020-12-09T05:13:59Z")
I’ll be reading _Artemis_ and have the audiobook on my phone, but haven’t listened to it yet.
Just started _Smacked_ by Eilene Zimmerman, a nonfiction memoir about a well-off American family brought low by the hard-charging lawyer dad’s drug problem. I like it so far.
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2020, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2020-edition/926817/18 "2020-12-11T19:11:59Z")
Finished _Balancing Acts: Behind the Scenes at London’s National Theatre_ , by Nicholas Hytner. It had some interesting anecdotes about plays, playwrights, and actors.
Now I’m reading _Adequate Yearly Progress_, by Roxanna Elden. It’s a novel about a high school, told from the staff’s perspective.
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [December 13, 2020, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2020-edition/926817/19 "2020-12-13T00:00:43Z")
Finished _Adequate Yearly Progress_, by Roxanna Elden. Meh, although it has some fun moments.
Now I’m reading _Pink Ladies and Crimson Gents: Portraits and Legends of 50 Roses_, by Molly and Don Glentzer.
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### Author:  [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)
#### Post date: [December 13, 2020, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2020-edition/926817/20 "2020-12-13T06:50:27Z")
Finished _The Watchman_, by Robert Crais, 11th in his Elvis Cole/Joe Pike detective series. A spoiled young lady from a wealthy family – loosely modeled on Paris Hilton was my impression – gets into a late-night car wreck in LA and suddenly finds herself a witness in a federal case. The subject of the investigation is now trying to kill her, and Joe Pike has been hired to protect her. Very good, with an emphasis on Pike this go-around, with Cole assisting, the opposite of how it usually is.
Have already started _Benjamin Franklin: An American Life_, by Walter Isaacson. I previously enjoyed his biography of Leonardo Da Vinci.
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