# Khadaji’s Whatcha Reading Thread - November 2021 edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [November 1, 2021, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-november-2021-edition/953632 "2021-11-01T16:40:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**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:** [November 20, 2021, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-november-2021-edition/953632/61 "2021-11-20T01:25:40Z")
Bless you, @Mahaloth, I thought I was the only person who didn’t like Neil Gaiman. I liked _Neverwhere, Coraline_, and _Good Omens_ and that’s it. I gave up on him forever after the bitter & crushing disappointment that was _Norse Mythology_. ---
**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:** [November 20, 2021, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-november-2021-edition/953632/62 "2021-11-20T16:36:25Z")
Finished _Show Me a Sign_ by Ann Clare LeZotte, which was okay. Now I’m reading BOBOs in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There, by David Brooks. (BOBOs stands for Bourgeois Bohemians.) ---
**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:** [November 20, 2021, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-november-2021-edition/953632/63 "2021-11-20T16:50:44Z")
> [@Catamount](#): > > Bless you, @Mahaloth, I thought I was the only person who didn’t like Neil Gaiman. I liked _Neverwhere, Coraline_ , and _Good Omens_ and that’s it. I gave up on him forever after the bitter & crushing disappointment that was _Norse Mythology_ . Heh. I find him pretty uneven, especially his endings. But I recently reread _The Graveyard Book_ to my daughter, and it’s an **amazing** read-aloud. ---
**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:** [November 20, 2021, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-november-2021-edition/953632/64 "2021-11-20T17:21:33Z")
Finished _Peril_, by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa. A background look at the transition period following last November’s election, the January 6 insurrection and the first six months or so of the Biden presidency, with side trips to Chump’s deranged railings. The title is taken from a line in Biden’s inaugural address: “We have much to do in this winter of peril.” Very good. Should be required reading for every American. Next up is _The Dark Hours_, the latest LA noir from Michael Connelly, just out. A Renee Ballard and Harry Bosch novel. Again, I am very busy these days, barely have time to log in to the Board even once a week, but I always squeeze in a few pages of reading a day. ---
**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:** [November 20, 2021, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-november-2021-edition/953632/65 "2021-11-20T23:56:57Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Finished _Peril_ , by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa. A background look at the transition period following last November’s election, the January 6 insurrection and the first six months or so of the Biden presidency, with side trips to Chump’s deranged railings. The title is taken from a line in Biden’s inaugural address: “We have much to do in this winter of peril.” Very good. Should be required reading for every American. I just finished reading the audiobook of this. I agree that this is an important book. ---
**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:** [November 21, 2021, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-november-2021-edition/953632/66 "2021-11-21T03:31:58Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > Heh. I find him pretty uneven, especially his endings. YES. The man cannot end a book satisfactorily to save his life. The only reason _Good Omen_s ended well is because of Pterry. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2021, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-november-2021-edition/953632/67 "2021-11-21T17:34:22Z")
> [@Catamount](#): > > YES. The man cannot end a book satisfactorily to save his life. The only reason _Good Omen_ s ended well is because of Pterry. I know that Gaiman always says that we’d be surprised at what he wrote and what Terry wrote, but it feels like the concept is Neil’s, but the best writing is from Terry. I just don’t think Neil is all that funny and the book is a hoot. I know it has been analyzed by a computer to determine who wrote what and I think Neil has said it is somewhat accurate, but I still feel like the overall tone and narratives style screams Terry and the “angel-demon-baby-swap” story is kind of a Neil thing. ---
**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:** [November 22, 2021, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-november-2021-edition/953632/68 "2021-11-22T14:07:17Z")
Started today on the last book of the Books of Babel series by Josiah Bancroft, [The Fall of Babel](https://www.amazon.com/Fall-Babel-Books-Book-ebook/dp/B08Y8LC51M/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3PLZ09ZDAI2Y1&keywords=the+fall+of+babel&qid=1637589771&qsid=143-6901494-9820143&s=books&sprefix=the+fall+of+babel%2Caps%2C163&sr=1-1&sres=0316518190%2CB088N3WBDD%2C1619967111%2C132625748X%2CB07VLJD63S%2C0316517917%2C1108833462%2C1108079016%2CB07MR6RC2X%2C0316187240%2C0802128793%2C031651795X%2CB01KT7YTXW%2CB09BJWHPRR%2C1376291894%2C1680539671). This series is what I want for Christmas. I sure wish we didn’t have houseguests and holidays going on right now, because I just need to sit down somewhere and read! ---
**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:** [November 22, 2021, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-november-2021-edition/953632/69 "2021-11-22T16:03:55Z")
I finished _The Lying Game_ by Ruth Ware. I enjoyed it, but I did figure out who the killer was long before the identity was revealed. But I will certainly read more of Ware’s novels. ---
**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:** [November 23, 2021, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-november-2021-edition/953632/70 "2021-11-23T00:05:57Z")
Finished _BOBOs in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There_, by David Brooks. (BOBOs stands for Bourgeois Bohemians.) Meh. Now I’m reading _Stop the Presses! A Nero Wolfe Mystery_, by Robert Goldsborough. (I’ve read all the ones Rex Stout wrote.) ---
**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:** [November 23, 2021, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-november-2021-edition/953632/71 "2021-11-23T01:54:00Z")
Just started _One By One_ by Ruth Ware. ---
**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:** [November 23, 2021, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-november-2021-edition/953632/72 "2021-11-23T12:29:11Z")
> [@Dendarii\_Dame](#): > > Now I’m reading _Stop the Presses! A Nero Wolfe Mystery_ , by Robert Goldsborough. (I’ve read all the ones Rex Stout wrote.) Robert Goldsborough wrote two different series of Nero Wolfe novels. His first set continued the stories in Rex Stout’s intriguing habit of setting all the stories in the present day, with Archie in his 30s and Wolfe in his 50s, regardless of hen he actually wrote and published the story. He kept it up from the 1930s through the 1970s, which is pretty impressive. Goldsborough carried it on into the 1980s and 1990s with seven books, then stopped with one story that seemed self-referential, _The Missing Chapter_ in 1993 He picked up the Nero Wolfe stories many years later in 2012, this time telling the stories set in earlier time periods. His first new one told how Archie and Wolfe had first teamed up, back in the 1930s. I haven’t read any of the others from then. There are nine so far If you’ve read all the Nero Wolfe stories, have you tried the _Nero Wolfe Cookbook_? It’s by Rex Stout, too, and is worth a look. I wonder if it bothers Goldsborough that he has the same name as sappy songwriter Bobby Goldsborough. ---
**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:** [November 23, 2021, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-november-2021-edition/953632/73 "2021-11-23T19:29:18Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > Middling at best, kind of boring to be honest. I was disappointed. Except for Sandman and Good Omens, I’ve found Neil Gaiman to be really disappointing. I read The Graveyard Book and while it was ok in parts, I found it less than great as well. > > Anyone else find Gaiman to be only a so-so author most of the time? I enjoy Gaiman’s writing very much, and _The Ocean at the End of the Lan_e is my very favorite of the ten or so books I’ve read by him. Having said that, I seem to have very different tastes in books than the other Dopers in this thread. I disliked _The Space Between Worlds_ so much that I abandoned it partway through, ditto for Shari Lapena’s _The Couple Next Door_, and while I finished Ruth Ware’s _The Woman in Cabin 10_, I was underwhelmed by the book. ---
**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:** [November 24, 2021, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-november-2021-edition/953632/74 "2021-11-24T00:00:02Z")
Finished a book called **The Dare** by Lesley Kara. Very enjoyable psychological thriller. It’s quite well written in the sense that when I was finished I realized the twists and big reveal was more sinister that I imagined and yet looking back there were clues and indications that through the book that didn’t seem at all significant yet really they were big pieces to the puzzle. Also earlier this week finished a book called **The Deep: The Hidden Wonders of Our Oceans and How We Can Protect Them** by Alex Rogers, marine biologist and professor at Oxford University. This is a book I have been reading slowly over the last three months. There is a lot of technical detail that is well written to understand for a layman but something that I felt required taking in as small chunks and sometimes re-reading chapters to let the information sink in. It’s an excellent piece of work that is also quite personal in telling his own history in working in this field as well as an entertaining and eye-opening account of how little our oceans are known and explored yet how much damage our conduct and lack of action to remedy this is causing to them and the marine life that we barely know anything of yet. ---
**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:** [November 24, 2021, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-november-2021-edition/953632/75 "2021-11-24T01:18:36Z")
> [@Boycott](#): > > **The Dare** by Lesley Kara Ooh, that sounds good. ---
**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:** [November 24, 2021, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-november-2021-edition/953632/76 "2021-11-24T15:00:45Z")
I’m about halfway done with both Hans Hellmut Kirst’s _Officer Factory_ , a WWII satire set in a German military academy, and Jeff Shesol’s _Mercury Rising_, nonfiction about JFK, John Glenn and the early NASA manned space program. Both are OK but not great. I can’t say I’m eager to get back to them when I haven’t read them on any given day, which to me is a sure sign of a non-compelling read. I’m sure I’ll finish them, but there are several other books on my stack that I’m looking forward to reading instead. ---
**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:** [November 24, 2021, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-november-2021-edition/953632/77 "2021-11-24T16:33:30Z")
Finished _Stop the Presses! A Nero Wolfe Mystery_ , by Robert Goldsborough. Meh. This is one of the later books, **CalMeacham** , and I didn’t care for it. It was much too long, although it might have worked as a novella. Another thing that bothered me: In one scene, Archie refers to a character as a “loose cannon” and Wolfe doesn’t understand the term, which I think he would have. He’d probably know its etymology, too. Now I’m reading _Mysterion 2: Stories from the Online Magazine, 2018-2019_, edited by Donald S. Crankshaw and Kristin Janz. It’s an anthology of SF and fantasy. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2021, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-november-2021-edition/953632/78 "2021-11-24T19:01:08Z")
I’m reading Michael Connelly’s “The Dark Hours”, which is the newest in the Bosch/Ballard series. It takes place during the pandemic and is another typically engaging novel. ---
**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:** [November 25, 2021, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-november-2021-edition/953632/79 "2021-11-25T17:54:02Z")
As mentioned above, I’m on that now too. Just a little over halfway through. Besides the fact that my reading time is even more limited than usual these days, I always read a Connelly novel slowly so as to savor it, to draw it out, make it last longer, because it will be awhile before the next one comes out. Glad you’re enjoying this one too. Detective Renee Ballard has proved to be a fantastic addition to the cast of characters. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2021, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-november-2021-edition/953632/80 "2021-11-25T19:06:12Z")
Luckily, my memory isn’t what it used to be, so I can probably just start the whole Bosch series over again and enjoy it anew. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-november-2021-edition/953632.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-november-2021-edition/953632.md?page=5)