# Khadaji’s Whatcha Reading Thread - May 2023 edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [April 30, 2023, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-may-2023-edition/983379 "2023-04-30T19:16:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2023, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-may-2023-edition/983379/61 "2023-05-11T21:00:57Z")
> [@Railer13](#): > > > [@Quimby](#): > > > > Reading Fantasticland by Mike Bockoven. > > I just read a synopsis about this book. Sounds intriguing. I will be interested in your review! I just finished it and I liked it. It takes a bit of suspension of disbelief to accept how fast things go south in the story but beyond that it was entertaining and I liked the conceit of structuring it as interviews. ---
**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:** [May 11, 2023, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-may-2023-edition/983379/62 "2023-05-11T21:36:24Z")
_Sourdough_ was the best novel I read the year I read it. _Wizard’s Guide_…is on my TBR pile. Finished _Kiln People_ by David Brin, which was okay. Now I’m reading _Liftport: Opening Space to Everyone, edited by Bill Fawcett, Michael Laine, and Tom Nugent, Jr_. (Note that this is an anthology of articles and stories about space elevators.) ---
**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:** [May 12, 2023, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-may-2023-edition/983379/63 "2023-05-12T02:20:43Z")
Just finished _A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking_ by T. Kingfisher. As usual, Ursula Vernon’s over active imagination and off beat sense of humor absolutely made the book. I love that she got into Mona’s head and showed us the frustrations of a child having to solve what the adults had ignored until it was too late. ---
**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:** [May 12, 2023, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-may-2023-edition/983379/64 "2023-05-12T12:06:13Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > Started this morning on Mona Awad’s novel [Bunny](https://www.amazon.com/Bunny-Novel-Mona-Awad/dp/0525559736/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1CEQ4GB8H7ARE&keywords=bunny+mona+awad+hardcover&qid=1683550327&sprefix=bunny+mon%2Caps%2C97&sr=8-1). Finished. Okay, that was awful. It just got worse and worse…by the end I was skimming just to be able to say I got to the end. I was fully expecting the last sentence to be, “Then I woke up.” There was some animal cruelty in it too, but that started midway, and by then I was already so disconnected from the book that it had no more effect on me than someone tearing up a construction paper rabbit. I see this book is categorized as horror. Well, I’m horrified that I wasted my time on it, for sure. ---
**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:** [May 12, 2023, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-may-2023-edition/983379/65 "2023-05-12T13:10:06Z")
> [@Dendarii\_Dame](#): > > _Sourdough_ was the best novel I read the year I read it. It was good, and I am bummed to see no sign that Sloan is working on a third novel, even though it’s been six years since this one came out. ---
**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:** [May 12, 2023, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-may-2023-edition/983379/66 "2023-05-12T17:31:15Z")
Because T. Kingfisher’s books keep reminding me of Barbara Hambly fantasy novels I loved in my 20s, I started _The Ladies of Mandrigyn_ this morning. Let’s see what nearly 40 years of experience does to my perspective… I also brought up _Nettle and Bone_ by T. Kingfisher on my Kindle. (Kindle is easier to take with me when driving) ---
**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:** [May 13, 2023, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-may-2023-edition/983379/67 "2023-05-13T18:15:50Z")
_Liftport: The Space Elevator–Opening Space to Everyone, edited by Bill Fawcett, Michael Laine, and Tom Nugent, Jr_. (Note that this is an anthology of articles and stories about space elevators.) It was okay. My favorite story in it was “Into the Black”, by Janny Wurts. Now I’m reading _Brain Wave_ by Poul Anderson. ---
**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:** [May 13, 2023, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-may-2023-edition/983379/68 "2023-05-13T18:40:45Z")
Finished _Cocaine Blues_, by Kerry Greenwood, and _Callander Square_, by Anne Perry. Read _Flying Too High_, _Murder on the Ballarat Train_, and _Death at Victoria Dock_, all by Greenwood. Started _The Green Mill Murder_, by Greenwood. Next up: _Blood and Circuses_, also by Greenwood. The library has at least a dozen of the Phryne Fisher books, so I’ll be reading Greenwood for a while. 😃 ---
**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:** [May 13, 2023, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-may-2023-edition/983379/69 "2023-05-13T23:01:03Z")
I finished John Irving’s _The Cider House Rules_, which I really, really liked. Homer Wells, an orphan at an orphanage in Maine in the first half of the twentieth century, later partly in charge of an apple orchard, and the various people he comes into contact with. Most of the characters are well-drawn and the kind of people you want to root for, even when they are making mistakes; I spent a lot of time worrying that bad things were going to happen to various characters, and of course sometimes bad things _did_ happen, but when readers are invested in the characters it’s always a good sign. Much of the narrative involves the question of abortion and this is very well handled, with the discussion being integral to the storyline and never being didactic. I liked _Garp_ and _Hotel New Hampshire_ well enough back in the day and remember them surprisingly well (have no desire to reread either), but would definitely consider reading something else of Irving’s I’ve never tried. Not sure why I didn’t try this one when it first came out–probably expected it would involve bears, Vienna, wrestling coaches, and prep schools in yet another combination, and wasn’t up for doing that again. For the record, _Cider House Rules_ involves none of these things. Excellent book. ---
**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:** [May 14, 2023, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-may-2023-edition/983379/70 "2023-05-14T02:15:15Z")
> [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](#): > > I liked _Garp_ and _Hotel New Hampshire_ well enough back in the day As did I, and I also enjoyed _A Prayer for Owen Meany_. You might want to delve into that one also. As for me, I now have _Cider House Rules_ on my to-read list. Thanks for the review! ---
**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:** [May 14, 2023, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-may-2023-edition/983379/71 "2023-05-14T21:06:56Z")
Finished _Brain Wave_ by Poul Anderson, which was good. Now I’m reading a science fiction mystery called _Curfew_, by Jayne Cowie. ---
**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:** [May 14, 2023, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-may-2023-edition/983379/72 "2023-05-14T21:17:12Z")
Irving’s _A Prayer for Owen Meany_ left me cold, but I liked his _A Widow for One Year_ very much indeed. ---
**Author:** ![BetsQ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/fbc32d/32.png) [@BetsQ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BetsQ)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2023, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-may-2023-edition/983379/73 "2023-05-14T23:51:43Z")
I second the recommendation for _A Widow for One Year._ It’s been a long time since I read it, and I still regularly think about it when turning left. I just finished _Some Desperate Glory_ by Emily Tesh. It is set a couple of decades after the end of a human/alien war that humanity lost. The protagonist is a 17-year-old girl from a closed-off, small human colony bent on exacting some kind of revenge for the loss of Earth. The book follows her as she ventures into the outside universe, meets other humans and aliens, and gets her priorities in order. I can’t quite tell if it reads the way it does because it’s the author’s first book or because the main character is a teenager who grew up in a totalitarian society. I enjoyed it, but there’s no nuance. ---
**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:** [May 15, 2023, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-may-2023-edition/983379/74 "2023-05-15T00:03:29Z")
My experience with Emily Tesh is the woman wouldn’t know nuance if it sat on her keyboard. ---
**Author:** ![bmasters1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b5e925/32.png) [@bmasters1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bmasters1)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2023, 8:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-may-2023-edition/983379/75 "2023-05-15T08:03:40Z")
Have been reading the novels in the _Murder, She Wrote_ mystery series in paperback; started reading them when I got my first one in Alabama, _A Deadly Judgment_, in a thrift store down there, and after I thoroughly enjoyed that first one, I made it a point to start getting more. I then got 5 more at 2nd and Charles in Greenville with my nephew, and read all of them, and before long, I was well and truly hooked (getting 6 of them a month from Amazon); I now have 33 of them in paperback, and have read 30 of them. The latest one I’m reading is _A Slaying in Savannah_; I have this one and two more to go, and I will have finished my current batch. The top is shaved somewhat from my copy, but that shouldn’t affect my enjoyment. ---
**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:** [May 15, 2023, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-may-2023-edition/983379/76 "2023-05-15T18:31:29Z")
Just finished _Children of Time_ by Adrian Tchaikovsky, a well-written sf novel focusing on the _Gilgamesh_, a generation/sleeper starship on its last legs, and a global civilization descended from genetically-engineered Earth spiders on a terraformed world. It has a very satisfying finale that didn’t go in the direction I was thinking it would. Also finished _Alfred Hitchcock’s Ghostly Gallery_, a 1962 collection of YA stories apparently edited by Hitchcock himself (or by a, if you’ll pardon the phrase, ghost editor). The hands-down best story in it is Robert Arthur’s “Obstinate Uncle Otis,” which I distinctly remember from my childhood. I’m now about halfway through _Robert E. Lee and Me_ by Ty Seidule. A Virginian, Army officer and West Point professor who’s still chagrined by how much he was raised in and accepting of Lost Cause mythology, he makes an excellent case for not honoring Confederate generals in the contemporary U.S. military. Next up is _Apollo Remastered_ by Andy Saunders, a coffeetable book of digitally-enhanced photos from the Apollo missions, some of which I’d never seen before. Quite striking and beautiful. ---
**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:** [May 15, 2023, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-may-2023-edition/983379/77 "2023-05-15T18:57:46Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > The hands-down best story in it is Robert Arthur’s “Obstinate Uncle Otis,” which I distinctly remember from my childhood. Me too! Good stuff. 😍 ---
**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:** [May 15, 2023, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-may-2023-edition/983379/78 "2023-05-15T23:36:24Z")
Robert Arthur is a very underrated author, in my opinion. I haven’t read “Obstinate Uncle Otis”, but I’ll try to find it. Have you read his short story, “The Man Who Evaporated”? It’s one of my favorite locked-room mysteries. Finished _Curfew_, by Jayne Cowie. Meh. Now I’m reading _Beyond Measure: The Hidden History of Measurement from Cubits to Quantum Constants_, by James Vincent. ---
**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:** [May 17, 2023, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-may-2023-edition/983379/79 "2023-05-17T10:32:27Z")
I’ve been on a roll with some good books lately. [I Hear You: The Surprising Skill Behind Extraordinary Relationships](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35522033-i-hear-you) is quick read that teaches you how to effectively validate people in conversation. After a brief overview of why it’s so effective, the book teaches you a simple formula to remember, and then provides some sample conversations to show the skill being used effectively (and, for contrast, some example of conversations that go wrong, where the respondent means well but is clearly off target with their responses). [Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Tell You Everything You Need To Know About Global Politics](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25135194-prisoners-of-geography) was extremely interesting as well as educational. Between seeing headlines on the news and having some general awareness of the countries my non-U.S. friends came from and why, I had a high-level idea of which countries in the world were powerful, which were poor, which ones were our enemies/allies, etc. But this book really fleshed out the details behind why certain countries are struggling, how certain alliances and struggles came to be, and which countries are influential or powerful in what ways. For the most part, I think the book goes into an appropriate level of depth, which keeps the prose from being too dry and detailed, instead really keeping me fascinated at all the things I didn’t know, or “knew” but never really thought about in proper depth. I’m maybe 250 pages into the 700-page novel [The Shadow Sister](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30969271-the-shadow-sister), and very pleased with it so far. An adopted girl is given some clues to her biological heritage, and goes to London attempting to find out more. Part of the story takes place in the past (early 1900’s), and so far it is a charming and enjoyable story. I’m still in the early pages of [The Power of Regret: How Looking Backward Moves Us Forward](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58446721-the-power-of-regret) by Daniel Pink, but so far it’s good and I suspect the rest of it will be as well. I have read two previous books by Pink, and he tends to do a fantastic job of keeping books lively and interesting with a good mixture of data, anecdotes, and conversational tone. ---
**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:** [May 17, 2023, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-may-2023-edition/983379/80 "2023-05-17T14:27:35Z")
Currently reading [A Flaw in the Design](https://www.amazon.com/Flaw-Design-Novel-Nathan-Oates/dp/0593446704/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1684332873&sr=8-1) by Nathan Oates, a novel about a man who takes his possibly sociopathic nephew into his family’s home when the kid is suddenly orphaned. Really gripping so far. Unfortunately there is a dog in this book, which doesn’t bode well, so I’m already chanting, “It’s just a story, it’s just a story”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-may-2023-edition/983379.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-may-2023-edition/983379.md?page=5)