# Khadaji’s Whatcha Reading Thread - December 2020 edition **URL:** \ **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:** 2
**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:** [December 13, 2020, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2020-edition/926817/21 "2020-12-13T21:10:38Z")
Finished _Pink Ladies and Crimson Gents: Portraits and Legends of 50 Roses_ , by Molly and Don Glentzer. Stunning photography of roses, with interesting descriptions of their namesakes. Now I’m reading _Robert B. Parker’s Angel Eyes_, by Ace Atkins. (It’s a Spenser mystery.) ---
**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:** [December 14, 2020, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2020-edition/926817/22 "2020-12-14T14:57:55Z")
Finished The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher and thought it was marvelous, disturbing, and funny. Her novel The Twisted Ones was based on the short story The White People, by Arthur Machen, and this novel was based on a short horror story by Algernon Blackwood called The Willows. I’m a little nervous, wondering if she’s read The Ash-tree… Next up, something …less classy, [Secret Santa](https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Santa-Andrew-Shaffer/dp/1683692055/ref=sr_1_2?crid=IF438X3YSS0P&dchild=1&keywords=secret+santa+book+andrew+shaffer&qid=1607957512&sprefix=secret+santa+book%2Caps%2C159&sr=8-2), by Andrew Shaffer. It’s a campy horror novel which I think has name-checked Stephen King on every other page so far. ---
**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:** [December 14, 2020, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2020-edition/926817/23 "2020-12-14T17:40:31Z")
It’s Ursula, I would bet she has 😉 ---
**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:** [December 14, 2020, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2020-edition/926817/24 "2020-12-14T19:46:33Z")
I know, and I wouldn’t be able to stop myself from reading the novel she might base on 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:** [December 15, 2020, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2020-edition/926817/25 "2020-12-15T15:28:03Z")
**Dung Beetle!** New Jonathon Stroud coming next year! [It will be out in April! Just in time for my birthday!](https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/20696559-hey-there-i-m-thrilled-to-officially-share-the-fabulous-uk?utm_medium=email&utm_source=author_blog_post_digest&ref_=pe_7171740_469246210) [LOckwood & Co news](https://jonathanstroud.tumblr.com/post/637489226961813504/great-news-the-lockwood-and-co-tv-series-has) ---
**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:** [December 15, 2020, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2020-edition/926817/26 "2020-12-15T15:29:59Z")
Mr. Stroud, shut up and take my money! 😄 ---
**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:** [December 15, 2020, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2020-edition/926817/27 "2020-12-15T19:37:36Z")
Yep! 🤣 🤣 🤣 ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2020, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2020-edition/926817/28 "2020-12-15T22:12:57Z")
Just finished: _The Falcon Always Wings Twice_, by Donna Andrews. Now starting: _Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America_, by John M Barry Next up: Perhaps _Night Watch_, by Terry Pratchett. ---
**Author:** ![WalterBishop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/aeb1de/32.png) [@WalterBishop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WalterBishop)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2020, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2020-edition/926817/29 "2020-12-15T22:17:15Z")
I’m currently reading _The Shadow Over Innsmouth_ by H.P. Lovecraft. I’m only a couple of chapters into it but I’m very much enjoying it so far. It’s decidedly ominous! ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2020, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2020-edition/926817/30 "2020-12-15T23:28:11Z")
I finished listening to Paul Stanley’s autobiography, _Face the Music_. I doubt anyone would really be interested in this unless they were a hardcore KISS fan at one point in their life. I, for one, was in that club from about '75 through _Love Gun_, whenever that was. I was really more of an Ace guy, but I thought I would enjoy Stanley’s take on the phenomenon that they were. He doesn’t hold too much back. He has many kind things to say about his band mates but mostly he runs them down pretty much every chance he gets. Gene is a poser who doesn’t know shit about marketing but pretends he does; Ace and Peter were two jerks who almost ruined the band. Stanley writes about his childhood with a lot of scorn as well. He doesn’t shy away from talking about his insecurities and his disabilities (he was born without a right ear and he was deaf on that side), but for the most part - I have to say - he comes across as pretty much a rich asshole for most of the book. And he’s a bit inconsistent. He goes on about his loneliness and how he was never able to form friendships and had no social life and three paragraphs later he tells the story about how he was hanging out at Studio 51 with his friends and blah blah blah. He only passingly gives any sort of mention to his obvious sex addiction. In the end he sort of redeems himself with some decent introspection and some reasonable life advice, but that sort of thing is easy to give sitting in the villa on the French Riviera that you’ve rented for the family for the summer. On the other hand, I’ve also fallen into a major Spotify/YouTube KISS jag. I listened to entire first seven records, including _Alive_, at work the other day. I don’t care what anyone says, those were some good rock and roll tunes. ---
**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:** [December 16, 2020, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2020-edition/926817/31 "2020-12-16T15:21:33Z")
I just finished _Smacked_ by Eilene Zimmerman, a nonfiction account about her Alpha Male ex-husband’s death due to cocaine and meth addiction, and how she, her kids and his law firm colleagues never suspected a thing. She has some interesting things to say about how law school and high-pressure legal careers can nudge some - too many - into addiction. Recommended. Yesterday I also finished _From Russia with Love_ by Ian Fleming. James Bond is assigned to help a beautiful Soviet cryptographer defect via Istanbul and the Orient Express, but it turns out to be a SMERSH trap (no surprise there). Not Fleming’s best work, but it has its moments. Still enjoying reading _Arthur Rex_ by Thomas Berger, an often tongue-in-cheek but mostly respectful retelling of Arthurian legend, aloud with my teenage son. Just started _A Civil Campaign_ by Lois McMaster Bujold, the first Vorkosigan novel I’ve read. Not sure yet if I’ll stick with it. > [@WalterBishop](#): > > I’m currently reading _The Shadow Over Innsmouth_ by H.P. Lovecraft. I’m only a couple of chapters into it but I’m very much enjoying it so far. It’s decidedly ominous! It certainly is - one of my favorite Lovecraft tales. A bonus: the protagonist goes to Oberlin College, my alma mater! ---
**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:** [December 16, 2020, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2020-edition/926817/32 "2020-12-16T16:09:50Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Still enjoying reading _Arthur Rex_ by Thomas Berger, an often tongue-in-cheek but mostly respectful retelling of Arthurian legend, aloud with my teenage son. Arthur Rex is interesting in its somewhat cynical, class-based retelling of the Arthur legends, but it does clearly derive from Mallory and the other texts. One part not from the usual sources is the chapter on Sir Gawsaine and the Green Knight, which comes from the medieval tale of that title. Berger’s version ramps up the sexuality in the story to 11 or higher (the original legends is relatively chaste. I’ve got a stack of translations of it, including one by Tolkien). That portion was excerpted in Playboy when the book came out (not surprisingly), with a sexy illustration by Frank Frazetta > **[Castle of Sin Print](https://www.frazettagirls.com/products/castle-of-sin-print)** > > Castle of Sin > > > Also known as “Playboy,” this artwork was published in  a fold-out insert for “The Playboy Gallery” in a 1986 issue of Playboy magazine. The original artwork was  accomplished with oil on canvas board and is... ---
**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:** [December 16, 2020, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2020-edition/926817/33 "2020-12-16T16:10:24Z")
I’ve always liked KISS, but I think the less I know about them the better. 🤘 ---
**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:** [December 16, 2020, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2020-edition/926817/34 "2020-12-16T20:31:37Z")
Yes, thanks, **CalMeacham**. Hadn’t seen the Franzetta painting before! The chapters on Sir Gawaine in the Castle of Sin, and his later wedding, are two of my favorites in the book. ---
**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:** [December 16, 2020, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2020-edition/926817/35 "2020-12-16T21:05:40Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > es, thanks, **CalMeacham**. Hadn’t seen the Franzetta painting before! The chapters on Sir Gawaine in the Castle of Sin, and his later wedding, are two of my favorites in the book. Yes. The site I found the picture on gives the wrong year. Berger’s book, the Frazetta painting, and the Playboy excerpt were all in 1978, not 1986. ---
**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:** [December 16, 2020, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2020-edition/926817/36 "2020-12-16T23:27:55Z")
Read and enjoyed Joe Posnanski’s _The Life and Afterlife of Harry Houdini_. It’s more impressionistic than linear, but it does a good job of describing Houdini’s life and work as well as exploring the reasons why Houdini still remains famous after lo these many years. Posnanski’s mostly a sportswriter, and a very good one–I recommend his books on the Big Red Machine and on Buck O’Neill–so this is a departure for him. ---
**Author:** ![lisiate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f05b48/32.png) [@lisiate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisiate)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2020, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2020-edition/926817/37 "2020-12-16T23:40:19Z")
Lisa Taddeo _Three Women_. Which I received as a spot prize at a quiz for my daughter’s primary school. I’m pretty confident her teachers had no idea what it’s about. At least I certainly hope so anyhow. ---
**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:** [December 17, 2020, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2020-edition/926817/38 "2020-12-17T01:22:02Z")
Finished _Robert B. Parker’s Angel Eyes_ , by Ace Atkins, which was okay. Now I’m reading _100 Selected Poems_ by e.e. cummings. (That’s how his name appears on the title page. I’m used to seeing his name without the periods.) ---
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2020, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2020-edition/926817/39 "2020-12-17T16:43:58Z")
Some Assembly Required: Decoding Four Billion Years of Life, from Ancient Fossils to DNA Neil Shubin A brief but highly informative look at how we have learned about the development of life on Earth through the study of fossils, genes, and DNA. ---
**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:** [December 18, 2020, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2020-edition/926817/40 "2020-12-18T18:51:09Z")
Finished _100 Selected Poems_ by e.e. cummings. I’d read his more famous poems before, but I really enjoyed some of the more obscure poems here. Now I’m reading _Footprints in the Sky_, edited by Danielle Ackley-McPhail. It’s a science fiction anthology. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2020-edition/926817.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2020-edition/926817.md?page=3)