# Khadaji’s Whatcha Reading Thread - Oct. 2020 edition
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-oct-2020-edition/921914
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Tags:** books-writing-myths
**Created:** [September 30, 2020, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-oct-2020-edition/921914 "2020-09-30T19:51:27Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2020, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-oct-2020-edition/921914/1 "2020-09-30T19:51:27Z")
Last month’s thread: [Khadaji’s Whatcha Reading Thread - Sept. 2020 edition](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-sept-2020-edition/919607)
**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.
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### Author:  [@DZedNConfused](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DZedNConfused)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2020, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-oct-2020-edition/921914/2 "2020-09-30T21:19:17Z")
We have two threads, so I dunno wait to see what moderators do?
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### Author:  [@DZedNConfused](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DZedNConfused)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2020, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-oct-2020-edition/921914/3 "2020-09-30T21:14:18Z")
Well… 202 has been a bust hasn’t it? I think I’ll celebrate Hallowwen by trick or treating my kid’s room, it’s pretty horrifying in there… 🤣
I spent the last week reading the Irons And Works series by E.M. Lindsey. It’s a m/m romance series where most of the main characters are disabled, a few PTSD and all dealing with traumatic situations. It was very well done.
Now I am reading _Doomsayer_ by Clara Coulson, the 4th City of Crows book. I need a break from lovey dovey stuff and am ready for sh\*t blowing up, werewolves running amok, vampires being… well vampires (but not sparkling).
Whatcha all reading?
_ **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._
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### Author:  [@DZedNConfused](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DZedNConfused)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2020, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-oct-2020-edition/921914/4 "2020-09-30T21:25:44Z")
Well… 202 has been a bust hasn’t it? I think I’ll celebrate Hallowwen by trick or treating my kid’s room, it’s pretty horrifying in there… 🤣
I spent the last week reading the Irons And Works series by E.M. Lindsey. It’s a m/m romance series where most of the main characters are disabled, a few PTSD and all dealing with traumatic situations. It was very well done.
Now I am reading _Doomsayer_ by Clara Coulson, the 4th City of Crows book. I need a break from lovey dovey stuff and am ready for sh\*t blowing up, werewolves running amok, vampires being… well vampires (but not sparkling).
Whatcha all reading?
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### Author:  [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2020, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-oct-2020-edition/921914/5 "2020-09-30T21:28:16Z")
Threads are merged.
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2020, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-oct-2020-edition/921914/6 "2020-10-01T03:50:51Z")
> [@DZedNConfused](#):
>
> Well… 202 has been a bust hasn’t it?..
Oh, I don’t know. I think Severus and Antoninus have done pretty well by Rome, all in all.
> **[202](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/202)**
>
> Year 202 (CCII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Severus and Antoninus (or, less frequently, year 955 Ab urbe condita). The denomination 202 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.
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### Author:  [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2020, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-oct-2020-edition/921914/7 "2020-10-01T12:20:50Z")
Still reading [The Red Right Hand](https://www.amazon.com/Right-Hand-Joel-Townsley-Rogers/dp/1613161654/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3PN0Q3FTSPB3D&dchild=1&keywords=the+red+right+hand+by+joel+townsley+rogers&qid=1601554355&sprefix=the+red+right+hand%2Caps%2C153&sr=8-1) by Joel Townsley Rogers, a classic mystery novel originally published in 1945. I never do figure out whodunnits before the reveal, and this is no exception. I’d be leaning toward a supernatural explanation, but I don’t think this is that kind of book.
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2020, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-oct-2020-edition/921914/8 "2020-10-01T12:26:30Z")
Finished the mislabeled **The Notebooks of Mark Twain** and started reading (or re-reading – I’ve lost track of exactly which books in the series I’ve read) **Triple Zeck** by Rex Stout, which collects the three Nero Wolfe books with A. Zeck in them. He’s sort of Wolfe’s Professor Moriarty, who has Wolfe’s orchid greenhouse machine-gunned.
I also picked up a copy of Longfellow’s **Tales of a Wayside Inn** because a.) when Fall comes, I like to feel academic and read some Classic Literature; and b.) like most people, the only part of this I’ve read before is “The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere”, an I’d like to read the whole thing, and see the Paul Revere part in context.
On audio I finished **Benjamin Franklin: An American Life** by Walter Isaacson. A very good read, although the audiobook is apparently abridged. I also re-read (re-listened to?) Seamus Heaney’s translation of **Beowulf**. Now I’m starting Margaret Truman’s **Murder in the Library of Congress**
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2020, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-oct-2020-edition/921914/9 "2020-10-01T12:58:00Z")
I’m about two-thirds of the way through _Dying of the Light_ by George R.R. Martin, a well-written but very downbeat sf novel set on a rogue planet moving away from a red supergiant star, growing colder and more desolate as it goes. The book focuses on the handful of people there who haven’t left yet, some of whom, offworld visitors from a barbaric culture, are hunting others for sport.
I’m also a couple of chapters into _Prisoner of Trebekistan: A Decade in Jeopardy!_ by Bob Harris, an offbeat, often funny memoir by a _Jeopardy!_ champ. I like it. He writes quite a bit about his study habits (yes, he insists, you _can_ study for the show) and both the Zen-like moments of success he had on the show, as well as the times he bellyflopped.
My teenage son and I are also still reading aloud _Tales of the Vulgar Unicorn_, ed. by Robert Lynn Asprin, a quasi-medieval fantasy anthology by different authors set in a decaying, crime-ridden seaport. A lot of meh stories, some good and very few excellent ones, but we’re making progress.
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### Author:  [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2020, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-oct-2020-edition/921914/10 "2020-10-01T14:00:16Z")
I really liked Bob Harris! I read Prisoner of Trebekistan and also [Who Hates Whom](https://www.amazon.com/Bob-Harris/e/B001H6W4K0?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1601560655&sr=8-1) which I recall as being really well done although woefully out of date now. Hmmm, I wonder if my library has any of his other stuff?
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2020, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-oct-2020-edition/921914/11 "2020-10-01T22:57:17Z")
Finished John Patrick Shanley’s play _Doubt_. It was interesting, but I think it’s the kind of play that is much more powerful when performed.
Now I’m reading _Haben: The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law_, by Haben Girma.
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2020, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-oct-2020-edition/921914/12 "2020-10-02T01:35:15Z")
Having read the book itself last month, I just finished the graphic novel of _Windhaven_ by George R.R. Martin and Lisa Tuttle, a sf novel about a stormy waterworld over which human flyers with ultralight wings are a corps of elite couriers between the island colonies. The artist is Elsa Charretier, and all in all I like what she did with it. It’s a worthy adaptation of the original.
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### Author:  [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2020, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-oct-2020-edition/921914/13 "2020-10-02T13:47:23Z")
> [@Khadaji’s Whatcha Reading Thread - Sept. 2020 edition](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-sept-2020-edition/919607/70):
>
> I finished [Piranesi](https://www.amazon.com/Piranesi-Susanna-Clarke/dp/163557563X/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=1QWYX6AOHGBHE&dchild=1&keywords=piranesi+susanna+clarke&qid=1601295816&sprefix=piranesi%2Caps%2C154&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEzU05VN0k5SERHU0QwJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwOTk5MTQwM1VUTlI3WjdPVVZYQiZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwODc3OTc3M0cxT1pRN0FGN1MxMCZ3aWRnZXROYW1lPXNwX2F0ZiZhY3Rpb249Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU=) over the weekend, and absolutely loved it. I expect it’ll be my best of the year. I don’t want to spoil anything so I’ll say only that although it isn’t about Narnia, I felt joyfully inspired to go on looking for forests in wardrobes.
I had _Piranesi_ on pre-order and finished it fairly quickly over a few days, trying to pace myself and not rush through it. It was much more straightforward than JS&MN (and a third of the length), with no big story twists or surprises but rather a slow gradual reveal throughout the book.
Where it excelled was its descriptive power, building a world that was at the same time intimate and infinite, and for this alone it is worth a read. To be honest, it reminded me less of Clarke’s earlier work and much more of the works of Italo Calvino, synthesizing the best of his character- and scenery-building writing style but stripping out the structural OCD that often undermines his stories, with the result of a setting that retains a wild and organic quality absolutely required for the story Clarke is telling.
After that, I’ve re-read six of the seven Thursday Next books by Jasper Fforde (haven’t got a copy of _The Woman Who Died A Lot_ to hand at the moment) as well as continuing my slow and steady reading of [Katie Whitaker’s biography of Margaret Cavendish](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mad-Madge-Margaret-Cavendish-Newcastle/dp/0099569965/ref=pd_lpo_14_t_0/257-6811327-0420844?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0099569965&pd_rd_r=5382c3d8-aa94-491e-a53f-30aa876348a4&pd_rd_w=pwWyF&pd_rd_wg=B4jBf&pf_rd_p=7b8e3b03-1439-4489-abd4-4a138cf4eca6&pf_rd_r=C32EWE4XQQCD95EKAXP6&psc=1&refRID=C32EWE4XQQCD95EKAXP6).
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### Author:  [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2020, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-oct-2020-edition/921914/14 "2020-10-02T21:41:30Z")
Return to the Reich: A Holocaust Refugee’s Secret Mission to Defeat the Nazis
Eric Lichtblau
Frederick Meyer was born to a middle class Jewish family in western Germany in the 1920s. Fortunately, his parents had the foresight and ability to emigrate to America after the Nazis came to power.
When World War 2 started, Mayer enlisted in the Army and ended up in the OSS, the military intelligence unit that later became the CIA. In early 1945, he and two other men parachuted into Nazi Austria and began collecting intelligence. Sometimes impersonating a German army officer or French factory worker, he sent back vital information via a hidden radio, and then helped negotiate the surrender of the German army in the Tyrol.
It’s an incredible story, and very well recounted here. It’s a cliche to call a book a pageturner, but I was often turning the page before I got to the bottom.
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [October 3, 2020, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-oct-2020-edition/921914/15 "2020-10-03T15:05:41Z")
Finished _Haben: The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law_ , by Haben Girma. It was interesting. I wish she’d included more about her time at Harvard.
Now I’m reading _The Dark Side of Nowhere_, by Neal Shusterman.
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### Author:  [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)
#### Post date: [October 3, 2020, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-oct-2020-edition/921914/16 "2020-10-03T22:39:47Z")
Two thirds of the way through _Les Miserables_, by Victor Hugo. Loving it.
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### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [October 3, 2020, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-oct-2020-edition/921914/17 "2020-10-03T22:46:05Z")
**Disloyal** - Michael Cohen. If even half of it is true, Trump is an even worse person than we feared.
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2020, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-oct-2020-edition/921914/18 "2020-10-04T20:56:10Z")
Finished _The Dark Side of Nowhere_ , by Neal Shusterman. A reasonably well-done YA SF thriller.
Now I’m reading _Monumental Verses_, by J. Patrick Lewis.
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### Author:  [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)
#### Post date: [October 5, 2020, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-oct-2020-edition/921914/19 "2020-10-05T12:59:05Z")
I’m glad you liked Piranesi, @Gyrate!
I technically finished The Red Right Hand, but it bucked me off at about the 3/4 mark.
Starting today on some junk food, [Clown in a Cornfield](https://www.amazon.com/Clown-Cornfield-Adam-Cesare/dp/0062854593/ref=sr_1_1?crid=RS88EZD6POIE&dchild=1&keywords=clown+in+a+cornfield&qid=1601902659&s=books&sprefix=clown+in+a+%2Caps%2C155&sr=1-1) by Adam Cesare.
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [October 5, 2020, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-oct-2020-edition/921914/20 "2020-10-05T16:05:05Z")
Finished _Monumental Verses_ , by J. Patrick Lewis, of which the best was about the Great Pyramid of Cheops.
Now I’m reading _Lupus Rex_, by John Carter Cash.
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