# Khadaji’s Whatcha Reading Thread - July 2020 edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 30, 2020, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-july-2020-edition/913825 "2020-06-30T18:09:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2020, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-july-2020-edition/913825/61 "2020-07-23T13:03:42Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Soon I will be Invincible by Austin Grossman – a super hero comic in prose told from the POV of the supervillain and one superhero. An impressive effort, considering that Grossman (a major videogame designer, apparently) had to create his own collection of superheroes and supervillains (although he pretty clearly draws on existing superheros and their tropes, especially Superman and Batman). I read that one when it was new and enjoyed it quite a bit. Someday I need to read Grossman’s brother’s books. ---
**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:** [July 23, 2020, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-july-2020-edition/913825/62 "2020-07-23T13:55:08Z")
I read _Soon_ too, a couple of years ago, and liked it. The supervillain whose elaborate schemes always failed had an air of dignified pathos to him that I thought was quite well-done. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2020, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-july-2020-edition/913825/63 "2020-07-23T19:50:29Z")
_Hope Never Dies_ was a fun novelty, but I haven’t looked for the sequel. I’ll finish _The Sign of Four_ and _Along the Way_ tonight, and probably start _The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes._ ---
**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:** [July 24, 2020, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-july-2020-edition/913825/64 "2020-07-24T18:56:59Z")
Finished _A Study in Sherlock_, edited by Laurie R. King and Leslie S. Klinger. Most of the stories were “meh”, except “The Case That Holmes Lost”, by Charles Todd, which was quite well done. Now I’m reading _Notes from a Colored Girl: The Civil War Pocket Diaries of Emilie Frances Davis_, edited and with extensive commentary and historical background by Karsonya Wise Whitehead. ---
**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:** [July 24, 2020, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-july-2020-edition/913825/65 "2020-07-24T19:47:41Z")
I’m on page 290 of The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, and I give up. I just dread picking it up again and it’s due back at the library anyway. ---
**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:** [July 25, 2020, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-july-2020-edition/913825/66 "2020-07-25T00:51:34Z")
Oh no! Sorry you don’t like it. I’m a huge Chambers fan, but I know it doesn’t work for everyone. ---
**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:** [July 25, 2020, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-july-2020-edition/913825/67 "2020-07-25T00:59:20Z")
As for me, I’ve gotten in some good reading time lately, with three books: [The Belles](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23197837-the-belles) and its sequel [The Everlasting Rose](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39080472-the-everlasting-rose), a YA duology set in a fantasy city roughly modeled after New Orleans. The premise is that people in this city are cursed and are hideously ugly: gray, wrinkled skin, straw-like hair, red eyes. Belles are girls with the natural talent to change people’s bodies to make them beautiful–but the process is horribly painful. The author obviously has a lot to say about beauty standards, and the first book is pretty great. The second one felt rushed and disjointed to me, and I didn’t care for it as much. I enjoyed [Spoonbenders](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32827398-spoonbenders?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=p9wXboCZsp&rank=1) a lot, although an early teenage sex scene almost made me put it down: I worried it was going to be one of these smirking sex romps that are pretty off-putting. However, once I got into the story–all I can say is that it’s about a family of psychics, and the first chapter involves their encounter with a James-Randi character–I was absorbed. It’s very cleverly plotted. Not high literature, but a lot of fun. I’m also reading Fellowship of the Ring to my oldest daughter, and damn, that book is fun to read out loud. ---
**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:** [July 25, 2020, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-july-2020-edition/913825/68 "2020-07-25T02:18:34Z")
Just finished _Minor Mage_ by T. Kingfisher. You definitely should get it and enjoy it with small darknesses. It’s a fun story. ---
**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:** [July 25, 2020, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-july-2020-edition/913825/69 "2020-07-25T20:45:39Z")
Finished _Blood on the Moon: The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln_, by Edward Steers Jr. I read it largely on its recommendation in these threads. It’s very good, although it could have used a slightly better editor, a common problem among nonfiction books. The title is a reference to a biblical prophecy, something about the sun turning to darkness and the moon to blood. I had read previously about John Wilkes Booth’s escape journey after the assassination, and it was good to review. I especially liked the section where the author tears down the conspiracy theories supposing Lincoln’s assassination was part of a government plot, That Dr. Mudd had no idea who Booth was knocking on his door in the wee hours and that the man killed in Garrett’s barn was _not_ Booth, who, the crackpots say, made his way West and lived a long life. It seems NBC has much to answer for perpetuating that last myth in particular in modern times. As for Dr. Mudd, he was a well-established Confederate operative whose name became known to Booth’s hunters even before it was learned that Booth had been spotted in the vicinity. (It was proved that Mudd and Booth had met on three separate occasions a few months before the assassination as part of a failed plot to kidnap the president.) Mudd’s grandchildren eventually launched a concerted campaign to clear their grandfather’s name, but they were full of shit. Next it’s back to noir and Robert Crais with his _LA Requiem_, another Elvis Cole-Joe Pike mystery. Published in 1999, my last time in LA myself. ---
**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:** [July 25, 2020, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-july-2020-edition/913825/70 "2020-07-25T21:20:05Z")
Read The Willoughbys by Lois Lowry today.[https://www.amazon.com/Willoughbys-Lois-Lowry/dp/0385737769](https://www.amazon.com/Willoughbys-Lois-Lowry/dp/0385737769) Short and sweet; like Lemony Snicket meets Frances Hodgson Burnette. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2020, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-july-2020-edition/913825/71 "2020-07-26T01:52:17Z")
In parallel on my Kindle, “Network Effect,” - a Murderbot book I downloaded from the library, and “The Decameron,” from Gutenberg. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2020, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-july-2020-edition/913825/72 "2020-07-26T02:26:31Z")
Are you me? ---
**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:** [July 26, 2020, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-july-2020-edition/913825/73 "2020-07-26T03:02:05Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > …I’m also reading Fellowship of the Ring to my oldest daughter, and damn, that book is fun to read out loud. I did that myself with my teenage son not long ago! Hope you enjoy it as much as we did. > [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > …Mudd’s grandchildren eventually launched a concerted campaign to clear their grandfather’s name, but they were full of shit… I took a guided bus tour of Booth’s escape route a few years back and learned that one well-known guide refuses to go into the Mudd house with his tourist groups, because he doesn’t want to be seen as endorsing the family’s revisionist history. ---
**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:** [July 26, 2020, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-july-2020-edition/913825/74 "2020-07-26T06:05:13Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > I took a guided bus tour of Booth’s escape route a few years back and learned that one well-known guide refuses to go into the Mudd house with his tourist groups, because he doesn’t want to be seen as endorsing the family’s revisionist history. I’m not sure I understand why going into the house would endorse the family’s fantasy version. The guide could still tell the story as it was. Or is the house still in the Mudd family, and they insist on telling the revision? ---
**Author:** ![pullin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c57346/32.png) [@pullin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pullin)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2020, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-july-2020-edition/913825/75 "2020-07-26T16:15:56Z")
Just finished [Supernormal Stimuli](https://www.amazon.com/Supernormal-Stimuli-Overran-Evolutionary-Purpose/dp/039306848X/ref=sr_1_2?crid=18MEQ27UQCT8&dchild=1&keywords=supernormal+stimuli&qid=1595779911&sprefix=supernormal+%2Caps%2C179&sr=8-2), by Deirdre Barrett. She’s an evolutionary psychologist at Harvard Medical School, and the book is about how video screens, shows, and food products are triggering our old evolutionary stimuli in excessive ways. Also, some discussion about how we’re trying to navigate our rapidly changing technological world with Paleolithic software. I find it really interesting. Currently working through Amplitude, book 3 of the [Dimension Space](https://www.audible.com/series/Dimension-Space-Audiobooks/B07Q82VT9R?ref=a_library_t_c5_libItem_series_1&pf_rd_p=592f90bd-7f7b-4bfc-afa2-b002e52e7228&pf_rd_r=F57NS0C78C0YR4DSQFCW) series. Next up is [Hell Divers VII](https://www.audible.com/pd/Hell-Divers-VII-Warriors-Audiobook/1538553627?ref=a_library_t_c5_libItem_&pf_rd_p=592f90bd-7f7b-4bfc-afa2-b002e52e7228&pf_rd_r=DRPZ663HGTMFTHVFNXZE), part of the Hell Divers series by Nicolas Sansbury Smith. ---
**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:** [July 26, 2020, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-july-2020-edition/913825/76 "2020-07-26T16:55:13Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > > [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > > > I took a guided bus tour of Booth’s escape route a few years back and learned that one well-known guide refuses to go into the Mudd house with his tourist groups, because he doesn’t want to be seen as endorsing the family’s revisionist history. > > I’m not sure I understand why going into the house would endorse the family’s fantasy version. The guide could still tell the story as it was. Or is the house still in the Mudd family, and they insist on telling the revision? Yes, the latter. ---
**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:** [July 26, 2020, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-july-2020-edition/913825/77 "2020-07-26T16:56:12Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > I took a guided bus tour of Booth’s escape route a few years back and learned that one well-known guide refuses to go into the Mudd house with his tourist groups, because he doesn’t want to be seen as endorsing the family’s revisionist history. FWIW, their revisionism isn’t working: a century and a half later, and their name is still mudd. ---
**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:** [July 26, 2020, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-july-2020-edition/913825/78 "2020-07-26T19:28:53Z")
Finished _Notes from a Colored Girl: The Civil War Pocket Diaries of Emilie Frances Davis_ , edited and with extensive commentary and historical background by Karsonya Wise Whitehead. The most interesting parts were Davis’ comments on the Civil War. I realized something that either the editor didn’t know or didn’t think was noteworthy; Davis worked for Dr. Owen Wister and his family during part of this time as a maid and also babysat four-year-old Owen, Jr. He grew up to be an author–among other things, he wrote _The Virginian_, with the famous line, “Smile when you say that.” (Or maybe, “When you say that, smile.” I’ve never read the book.) Now I’m reading _Man Plus_, by Frederik Pohl. ---
**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:** [July 28, 2020, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-july-2020-edition/913825/79 "2020-07-28T13:26:55Z")
Yesterday I read Joe R. Lansdale’s newest, [More Better Deals](https://www.amazon.com/More-Better-Deals-Joe-Lansdale/dp/0316479918/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1A82QNH284K02&dchild=1&keywords=more+better+deals&qid=1595942251&s=books&sprefix=more+better+deals%2Caps%2C152&sr=1-1). Has Joe lost his edge? I didn’t laugh once. This is a book about a crime that just doesn’t pay, no matter how much work the perpetrators put in. Also has a lot of racial stuff that I don’t think did the book any favors. Today I read 35 pages of Jane Austen’s [Northanger Abbey](https://www.amazon.com/Northanger-Abbey-Jane-Austen/dp/1499249616/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=2RYY46Z86M6Q8&dchild=1&keywords=northanger+abbey+book&qid=1595942611&s=books&sprefix=northan%2Cstripbooks%2C150&sr=1-1-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEzNzBROEIyQVVTMTBOJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwMjUzNjQ1MzhFRVVKM09aMFkwVyZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwODc0NjAxR082Q0k4TkpNOEFOJndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfYXRmJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ==). I can quite enjoy this kind of prose when the mood takes me. But for some reason, I’ve never made it through an Austen book. And guess what? I ain’t gonna this time either. ---
**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:** [July 28, 2020, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-july-2020-edition/913825/80 "2020-07-28T15:45:09Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > …Today I read 35 pages of Jane Austen’s [Northanger Abbey](https://www.amazon.com/Northanger-Abbey-Jane-Austen/dp/1499249616/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=2RYY46Z86M6Q8&dchild=1&keywords=northanger+abbey+book&qid=1595942611&s=books&sprefix=northan%2Cstripbooks%2C150&sr=1-1-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEzNzBROEIyQVVTMTBOJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwMjUzNjQ1MzhFRVVKM09aMFkwVyZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwODc0NjAxR082Q0k4TkpNOEFOJndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfYXRmJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ==). I can quite enjoy this kind of prose when the mood takes me. But for some reason, I’ve never made it through an Austen book. And guess what? I ain’t gonna this time either. The only thing I remember about that book is that it included the one and only Austenian reference to baseball. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-july-2020-edition/913825.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-july-2020-edition/913825.md?page=5)