# Khadaji’s Whatcha Reading Thread - February 2022 edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [February 1, 2022, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-february-2022-edition/958722 "2022-02-01T03:43:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**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:** [February 1, 2022, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-february-2022-edition/958722/1 "2022-02-01T03:43:09Z")
Whoop! Almost missed this again! So here we are 2022 and it feels and looks remarkably similar to 2020… Except for the kitten trying to steal my pot pie in my lap. So what are we all reading? On audiobook, I’m reading _The Future of Another Timeline_ by Annalee Newitz. So far its a solid Meh. I think getting it on audio was a mistake, I’m not liking the narrator at all. She sounds angry and it’s like she’s shouting me into submission. And she can only do a couple voices so everyone sounds the same. On Kindle: _Strange Medicine_ by S.C. Wynne. It’s a doctor forced to be an amateur sleuth while falling in love with the local sheriff story. I’ve not read this author before but I am liking their characterizations so far. Print: _The Rest of Us Just Live Here_ by Patrick Ness. A YA story about the background characters in a Buffy-esque Universe. No opinion on it yet. _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._ ---
**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:** [February 1, 2022, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-february-2022-edition/958722/2 "2022-02-01T03:45:44Z")
Last month:[Bye January!](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-january-2022-edition/956869/97) ---
**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:** [February 1, 2022, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-february-2022-edition/958722/3 "2022-02-01T13:26:51Z")
Still reading Heinlein’s **Pursuit of the Pankera** , the alternate text for **The Number of the Beast** , which is probably my least favorite Heinlein. I haven’t quite reached the point at which the two texts diverge in a major way. At my bedside, I’ve started reading Art Spiegelman’s **Maus**. My wife asked me why I was re-reading it, and was surprised when I told her that actually never had read it. But this seemed a good time to do so. On audio, I’m still reading Stephen King’s **Later**. I’ve got a stack of audiobooks I picked up cut-rate, because a bookstore near us has (sadly) gone out of business. It’s hoped they will be able to find a new location nearby, because it was their landlord’s choice to shut down, not theirs. ---
**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:** [February 1, 2022, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-february-2022-edition/958722/4 "2022-02-01T15:12:55Z")
My current nonfiction pick is [Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6452796-drive) by Daniel H. Pink. It’s a fascinating book – always amazes me when someone can tell me stuff I didn’t realize about my own preferences and behavior that rings true. My only complaint is that the book focuses exclusively on business, and I wish he’d written with a wider scope that included motivation in other areas of your life besides your workplace. Current fiction book is [The Perfect Wife](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42927050-the-perfect-wife) by J.P. Delaney, and man is it good! Every single thriller I’ve read by this guy has me hungrily turning the pages, enthralled and desperate to figure out what happens next, but out of the three books of his that I’ve read, I think this one is the best yet. (I don’t want to talk too much about the actual book because I went into it blind, and I’m very glad I did because there’s a huge plot twist right at the beginning of the 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:** [February 1, 2022, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-february-2022-edition/958722/5 "2022-02-01T19:02:53Z")
Listening to an audiobook (read by _Downton Abbey_’s Dan Stevens) of Agatha Christie’s 1934 classic mystery _Murder on the Orient Express_. I’ve seen three different movies based on it, but never read the book itself; it holds up well. Still also enjoying the sf novel _Zoe’s Tale_ by John Scalzi and the short bio _Churchill: An Illustrated Life_ by Brenda Ralph Lewis. Also taking a brief break from an audiobook of the Irish contemporary novel _Beautiful World, Where Are You_ by Sally Rooney, which I like more than when I started. ---
**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:** [February 1, 2022, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-february-2022-edition/958722/6 "2022-02-01T20:20:10Z")
I just finished _Dream Girl_ by Laura Lippman. It was okay. Rather a bit far-fetched plot, and far too many flashbacks to suit my taste. In response to @The_wind_of_my_soul who asked for my opinion of the book, I would respond that I don’t think that it was worthy of being on the NPR list of best mysteries of 2021. Still, it was a decent and relatively fast read, especially the last third of the book as it built to an unforeseen and rather-unsatisfying climax. ---
**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:** [February 2, 2022, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-february-2022-edition/958722/7 "2022-02-02T00:01:53Z")
The current state of my book pile: - _Eugene Onegin_ by Alexander Pushkin translated by Douglas Hofstadter - it’s a novel in verse in a modern translation. There’s a long introduction at the beginning where Hofstadter explains how he, who is not fluent in Russian, ended up translating the novel and why he did it the way he did. It’s more interesting than it has any right to be. I’m about two chapters in and so far it’s still exposition but action should be happening soon. - _Venus in Copper_ by Lindsay Davis - third in the Marcus Didius Falco series. I’m almost through with it. Falco hasn’t caught the murderer yet but Helena finally moved in with him. 🙂 - _On the Banks of Plum Creek_ by Laura Ingalls Wilder - aka the Nellie Oleson book. I haven’t gotten to that part yet. They’re still living in the dugout by the creek. - _Poems_ by Samuel Taylor Coleridge - I haven’t started this one yet so I have no opinions. The only thing I know about it is that it has “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” which I love. - _Caste: The Origin of Our Discontents_ by Isabel Wilkerson - haven’t started this one yet either but it sounds interesting. - _The American Gun Mystery_ by Ellery Queen - murder at the rodeo in the middle of Madison Square Garden. There’s a locked room mystery for ya! - _Mélusine_ by Sarah Monette - I picked this up at the used bookstore because it looked interesting. It seems to be a gay fantasy from the description on the back cover. My interest levels rose sharply when I found out that Sarah Monette is the real name of Katherine Addison who wrote _The Goblin Emperor_. I think _Goblin Emperor_ is the best fantasy novel of the last decade at least so now I’m really looking forward to this. Notice what isn’t on that list? I finally finished _Anathem_! It only took a month! I have thoughts but I’m still processing them. Eventually I’ll write them down and post them on my [book blog](https://eclecticreviewer.wordpress.com/). ---
**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:** [February 2, 2022, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-february-2022-edition/958722/8 "2022-02-02T13:47:54Z")
I finished Donna Tartt’s [The Secret History](https://www.amazon.com/Secret-History-Donna-Tartt/dp/1400031702/ref=sr_1_1?crid=TFLA4125Y7CW&keywords=the+secret+history+by+donna+tartt&qid=1643808516&sprefix=the+secret+history%2Caps%2C76&sr=8-1) just this morning. It’s one of those books that was so talked about when it was published that it really put me off. However, a co-worker recently recommended it so I felt obligated. And I really enjoyed it! It was very immersive, which is what I need right now in my life. The story itself wasn’t much, and the ending just dribbled away down the drain…but it didn’t matter. For some reason, I was absorbed. I’ll try one of her other books sometime. ---
**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:** [February 2, 2022, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-february-2022-edition/958722/9 "2022-02-02T23:59:18Z")
Finished _The Class: A Life-Changing Teacher, His World-Changing Kids, and the Most Inventive Classroom in America_ , by Heather Won Tesoriero. It was interesting, although I preferred another book on the subject, _Science Fair Season: Twelve Kids, A Robot Named Scorch…and What It Takes to Win_, by Judy Dutton. _The Class_ was written in 2016, and I feel sorry for the students, knowing that Covid was going to affect their college careers. Now I’m reading _Going for the Gold_ by Emma Lathen. It’s a cozy mystery featuring her banker detective John Putnam Thatcher, which is set at the 1980 Lake Placid Winter Olympics. ---
**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:** [February 3, 2022, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-february-2022-edition/958722/10 "2022-02-03T16:41:42Z")
> [@Catamount](#): > > _The American Gun Mystery_ by Ellery Queen - murder at the rodeo in the middle of Madison Square Garden. There’s a locked room mystery for ya! I grew up on Ellery Queen novels. In fact, I have that one on my TBR shelves! ---
**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:** [February 3, 2022, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-february-2022-edition/958722/11 "2022-02-03T18:37:09Z")
Finished **Something in the Water** by Catherine Steadman. Very weird feeling having completed it. The first chapter setting everything in motion was brilliant. It puts us in the shoe of the protagonist _at the end of the story_ at a point of loss, deception and total numbness and from there she narrates to us how things went totally wrong starting from the beginning. That was very cleverly done. However while the story is very fast-moving and full of shock twists unfortunately too many things come together by happenstance to take seriously. ---
**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:** [February 3, 2022, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-february-2022-edition/958722/12 "2022-02-03T18:37:11Z")
On audio I finished Stephen King’s **Later** , and am now reading Simon Winchester’s **The Men Who United the States** , a book devoted to explorers, inventors, and the like, and their role in creating a United States. I’ve read several of Winchester’s books, but I missed this one somehow. I picked it up because it was on sale, and I needed the audiobooks. It starts with him talking about his proudly becoming a US citizen, and praising the American spirit. The book was written in 2014, and I can’t help wondering what he thinks now, after the last administration and the COVID fiasco. I’m still going through **Maus** as bedside reading It’s very good. I saw this online this morning, and have to share: > **[Cartoon: The Tennessee School Board-Approved MAUS](https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/2/3/2078191/-Cartoon-The-Tennessee-School-Board-Approved-MAUS)** > > TWO brand new Tom the Dancing Bug books! � Tom the Dancing Bug Awakens ; and Tom the Dancing Bug, Without the Bad Ones ! Order today, RIGHT HERE AND NOW. > > "Ruben Bolling has been sending me his ... I’m still slogging through Heinlein’s **Pursuit of the Pankera**. Am now into the part where it diverges from **The Number of the Beast.** ---
**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:** [February 3, 2022, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-february-2022-edition/958722/13 "2022-02-03T19:12:50Z")
Started this morning on [Summer of Night](https://www.amazon.com/Summer-Night-Novel-Dan-Simmons/dp/0312550677/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2ZC935F147VMW&keywords=summer+of+night+dan+simmons&qid=1643915412&s=books&sprefix=summer+of+night%2Cstripbooks%2C80&sr=1-1), by Dan Simmons. It’s a classic horror novel I’ve been meaning to get around to for a long time. ---
**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:** [February 3, 2022, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-february-2022-edition/958722/14 "2022-02-03T23:48:26Z")
My mom was the big Ellery Queen fan. These are her old books. It’s interesting reading them in chronological order and seeing how Ellery’s characterization changed over the decades. ---
**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:** [February 4, 2022, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-february-2022-edition/958722/15 "2022-02-04T15:07:31Z")
Finished _Going for the Gold_ by Emma Lathen, which was excellent–the best cozy mystery I’ve read in many years. Now I’m reading _Real Men Knit_, by Kwana Jackson. ---
**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:** [February 5, 2022, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-february-2022-edition/958722/16 "2022-02-05T20:47:06Z")
Mine too. The ones I read were hers. And probably the few I have here were too. I ought to look into reading them that way too. Good Lord another reading project! ---
**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:** [February 5, 2022, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-february-2022-edition/958722/17 "2022-02-05T20:49:38Z")
DNF’ed _The Future of Another Timeline_ by Annalee Newitz. Every time something interesting would come up in the story, the author would cut away to another plotline. Big structural changes in the characters lives were solved by a twitch of Samantha’s nose and OH! the dead character is alive and everything is back the way it was before with no ramifications Also I hated the narrator, she spent most of her time trying to shout me into submission. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2022, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-february-2022-edition/958722/18 "2022-02-06T06:50:12Z")
Finished _Pronto_, by Elmore Leonard. Mayhem in Miami and Italy involving sports bookmakers and the Mafia. **Kayaker** was right last month, it is a great Raylan Givens tale. This seems to be the book that introduces Givens, him being a US Marshal from coal country in Kentucky. I’d never heard of the Givens character before, but it seems there was a TV series on FX about 10 years ago. I was living in Thailand at the time, so missed that. But he is a good character and the subject of at least one other book that I know of. Next up is _A Time for Mercy_, by John Grisham. ---
**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:** [February 6, 2022, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-february-2022-edition/958722/19 "2022-02-06T19:22:33Z")
Finished _Real Men Knit_ , by Kwana Jackson, which was okay. Now I’m reading _Iron Sunrise_, by Charles Stross. ---
**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:** [February 6, 2022, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-february-2022-edition/958722/20 "2022-02-06T19:42:49Z")
Just started _The Other Black Girl_ by Zakiya Dalila Harris. It’s her debut novel, released in 2021. Looks promising after reading the Prologue. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-february-2022-edition/958722.md?page=2)