# Khadaji’s Whatcha Reading Thread - March 2024 edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [February 29, 2024, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2024-edition/998294 "2024-02-29T21:14:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 5
**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:** [March 30, 2024, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2024-edition/998294/81 "2024-03-30T00:04:19Z")
About a third of the way through Barbara Kingsolver’s _Demon Copperhead_. Depressing as hell, but wow, does it draw the reader in. The narrative voice is just about perfect. So far, so outstanding. ---
**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:** [March 30, 2024, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2024-edition/998294/82 "2024-03-30T13:37:38Z")
Finished _The Shaping of Us: How Everyday Spaces Structure Our Lives, Behavior, and Well-Being_, by Lily Bernheimer, which isn’t bad, but I’ve read almost everything it covers in various other sources. Also, the author says that “massive animals” like “T-Rexes and mastodons” were killed by an asteroid. Dinosaurs, yes, mastodons, not so much. Now I’m reading a story collection called _Untouched by Human Hands_, by Robert Scheckley. ---
**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:** [March 30, 2024, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2024-edition/998294/83 "2024-03-30T21:41:18Z")
Wiki has a decent article on the [Business Plot - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plot) _Demon Copperhead_ co-won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction last year. Only time that’s ever happened! ---
**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:** [March 31, 2024, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2024-edition/998294/84 "2024-03-31T18:15:53Z")
> [@Dendarii\_Dame](#): > > Now I’m reading a story collection called _Untouched by Human Hands_, by Robert Scheckley. Love that one. And all of Sheckley’s early short stories. He got weirder as he got older, though. ---
**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:** [April 1, 2024, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2024-edition/998294/85 "2024-04-01T12:08:08Z")
Finished _Untouched by Human Hands_, by Robert Scheckley, of which my favorite was the title story. It was originally published as “One Man’s Poison”, which fits the plot better. Now I’m reading _A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear: The Utopian Plot to Liberate an American Town (And Some Bears)_, by Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling. ---
**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:** [April 1, 2024, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2024-edition/998294/86 "2024-04-01T17:34:09Z")
On audio, I finished **Rumpole Misbehaves** read by Bill Wallis and have moved on to **Rumpole and the Primrose Path** , also read by Bill Wallis (although sold by a different audiobook company). I’ve had to revise my estimation of Wallis upwards. He really is a good interpreter of the books, and provides quite a bit of variation in the voices of the different characters. If we can’t have Leo McKern any more, Wallis is a goof substitute. Speaking of doing different voices, I was impressed when I first heard James Doohan reading a Star Trek audiobook. He does an impressive job of interpreting the voices of the other characters. His Kirk and Spock and McCoy and Sulu really do give you a sense of Shatner, Nimoy, Kelly, and Takei performing. I’m already close to the end of Rumpole. I’ll have to go to another library and see if I can find one of the Cussler or Preston/Childs novels I haven’t heard yet. (I’ve had a lot of Stephen King lately). ---
**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:** [April 1, 2024, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2024-edition/998294/87 "2024-04-01T17:59:28Z")
> [@Dendarii\_Dame](#): > > …Now I’m reading _A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear: The Utopian Plot to Liberate an American Town (And Some Bears)_, by Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling. Hope you like it more than I did. As I posted in the May 2021 Whatcha Reading thread, the author “wants to be cleverer than he is. It’s about a libertarian takeover of a small New Hampshire town which pretty much makes everything there crappier. Interesting topic but a disappointing book.” > [@CalMeacham](#): > > On audio, I finished **Rumpole Misbehaves** … If we can’t have Leo McKern any more, Wallis is a **goof** substitute… A typo, I presume? ---
**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:** [April 2, 2024, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2024-edition/998294/88 "2024-04-02T18:11:46Z")
New thread: [It’s here finally!](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2024-edition/999749) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2024-edition/998294.md?page=4)