# Khadaji’s Whatcha Reading Thread - October 2022 edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [September 29, 2022, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-october-2022-edition/972461 "2022-09-29T18:06:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**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:** [October 14, 2022, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-october-2022-edition/972461/41 "2022-10-14T19:15:56Z")
Thanks. That book is definitely on my wish list. ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2022, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-october-2022-edition/972461/42 "2022-10-14T20:46:37Z")
I enjoyed the Melissa Albert book too. Also liked her first novel The Hazel Wood a lot. ---
**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:** [October 14, 2022, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-october-2022-edition/972461/43 "2022-10-14T20:54:23Z")
Thanks, I’ll have a look for it! ---
**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:** [October 15, 2022, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-october-2022-edition/972461/44 "2022-10-15T20:10:18Z")
Finished _The Facemaker: A Visionary Surgeon’s Battle to Men the Disfigured Soldiers of World War I_, by Lindsey Fitzharris, which was quite interesting. Now I’m reading _Provenance_, a science fiction novel by Ann Leckie. ---
**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:** [October 16, 2022, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-october-2022-edition/972461/45 "2022-10-16T21:28:09Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > My gf recently read _The Devil in the White City_ by **Erik Larson**. She really liked it and has been after me to read it. So, I started it. It was really dragging and I was tempted to quit, but because she liked it so much I soldiered on. > > I’m 25% into it now. Not my cuppa, but I will finish it. I really liked it. Admittedly, the sections covering the serial killer are more lurid, but I enjoyed the minutiae of the World’s Fair too. ---
**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:** [October 16, 2022, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-october-2022-edition/972461/46 "2022-10-16T21:37:25Z")
Finished _Lost Stories_, a 2005 collection of 21 Dashiell Hammett short stories never before seen in book collections and not seen at all since their publication in magazines 60-100 years ago. Some had been heavily changed and retitled the last time they were seen, which _Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine_ was notorious for doing. Includes his very first story, 1922’s “The Barber and His Wife.” The vast majority are not detective stories, but all are written in his familiar noir style. Interspersed with details of Hammett’s life at the time he wrote each one. Very good, and the first of several volumes concerning Hammett. I would not mind reading the subsequent volumes. Have started _Agent Running in the Field_, by John Le Carre, his penultimate novel and the last one published before his death. ---
**Author:** ![Yogeekgirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yogeekgirl/32/4129_2.png) [@Yogeekgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yogeekgirl)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2022, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-october-2022-edition/972461/47 "2022-10-16T21:55:18Z")
Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenager. (Also of Time Traveler’s Wife fame). I was really excited to read this when it came out (2009)and felt a bit disappointed. I found my current copy of the book in a Little Free Library, so I thought I’d try again. So far, much more of a charming read. I’ve got a copy of Money Magic (by Jessie Susannah Karnatz, aka the Money Witch) going as well. She’s right, financial matters are not terribly exciting to read about but constructing some practical rituals around them can make it more fun or memorable/meaningful. ---
**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:** [October 17, 2022, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-october-2022-edition/972461/48 "2022-10-17T11:53:39Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > I’m 25% into it now. Not my cuppa, but I will finish it. I asked to another poster in last month’s thread, and I’ll ask it again: Why? Wouldn’t you rather quit and read something enjoyable? ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2022, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-october-2022-edition/972461/49 "2022-10-17T12:21:38Z")
> [@The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](#): > > Wouldn’t you rather quit and read something enjoyable? My gf really liked the book. I’m 60% through it and it’s a little more interesting than it was. I want to be able to discuss it with her, so I’ll finish it. I have three really good books patiently awaiting my attention. ---
**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:** [October 18, 2022, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-october-2022-edition/972461/50 "2022-10-18T19:33:12Z")
Finished listening to _Sparring Partners_ by John Grisham. It’s three novellas with three totally different subject lines and plots, although all are related to the law and lawyers, as are almost all of Grisham’s novels. Very enjoyable and entertaining, as are almost all of Grisham’s novels. I’m looking for more entertaining audiobooks. Right now I’m looking at Clive Cussler, Nelson DeMille, and Patricia Cornwell, three authors whose books I don’t believe I’ve read. Can anybody give me their thoughts on any or all of these folks? ---
**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:** [October 18, 2022, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-october-2022-edition/972461/51 "2022-10-18T19:42:41Z")
Finished Our Crooked Hearts. I liked that the story treated the use of witchcraft seriously. It wasn’t silly, like a girl trying to get a boy to like her, or catastrophic, like _the end of the world for all humanity_! Just consequential, you know, like it is in reality. 😉 Moody and dark and nicely written. I put a library hold on The Hazel Wood, by the same author. ---
**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:** [October 18, 2022, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-october-2022-edition/972461/52 "2022-10-18T20:40:56Z")
Finished _Provenance_, a science fiction novel by Ann Leckie, which I enjoyed. Now I"m reading _The Arts_ by Hendrik Willem Van Loon. ---
**Author:** ![RickG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rickg/32/5174_2.png) [@RickG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickG)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2022, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-october-2022-edition/972461/53 "2022-10-19T02:03:11Z")
Just released today, _Deadbeat Druid_ by David R. Slayton, Book 3 of _The Adam Binder Novels_. Contemporary fantasy. I’m listening on Audible (mostly blind, so I’m an audiobook-only “reader”) while I’m working in my home office. Good narrator and the writing is solid, but I’m so far finding this slightly less captivating than the first two books (which were included in the Audible membership, so I’m not too unhappy about burning a credit on book 3). Next up is the third book in _The Rook Files_, _Blitz_ by Daniel O’Malley, also released today. I’m also working through _Wolf Hall_ by the recently departed Hilary Mantel. It’s good, but dense, so I’m taking it a little at a time. ---
**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:** [October 19, 2022, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-october-2022-edition/972461/54 "2022-10-19T18:38:49Z")
I just finished an audiobook of David Sedaris’s short-story collection _Me Talk Pretty One Day_, having not read it in many years, and once again enjoyed it very much. Sedaris’s delivery is, as always, at least half the fun. Some standouts: the title story, about his struggles to learn French; “A Shiner Like a Diamond,” about his sister Amy’s impish sense of humor; “Make That a Double,” about coping with the French language’s insistence that every noun has an (often counterintuitive) gender, which can be sidestepped by using plurals; and “I’ll Eat What He’s Wearing,” about his dad’s bizarre insistence on hiding food and then eating it long after it’s spoiled. I’ve begun an audiobook of Agatha Christie’s _Death on the Nile_ (1937); I saw one of the movie adaptations, many years ago, but have never read the book. Half an hour in, and I think I can already tell who the murder victim on the Nile steamship cruise is going to be. > [@Railer13](#): > > …I’m looking for more entertaining audiobooks. Right now I’m looking at Clive Cussler, Nelson DeMille, and Patricia Cornwell, three authors whose books I don’t believe I’ve read. Can anybody give me their thoughts on any or all of these folks? I enjoyed Cussler’s _Raise the Titanic!_ and _Vixen 03_, and DeMille’s _The General’s Daughter_, very much. Haven’t read any Cornwell. ---
**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:** [October 19, 2022, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-october-2022-edition/972461/55 "2022-10-19T18:43:47Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > I enjoyed Cussler’s _Raise the Titanic!_ and _Vixen 03_, and DeMille’s _The General’s Daughter_ very much. Haven’t read any Cornwell. Thanks! ---
**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:** [October 19, 2022, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-october-2022-edition/972461/56 "2022-10-19T18:50:06Z")
Glad to! Of the three, the _Titanic_ book is the best, I’d say. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2022, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-october-2022-edition/972461/57 "2022-10-19T21:58:14Z")
I finished reading _The Devil in the White City_ by **Erik Larson**. I’m glad I read it, although it really dragged for the first third. I’m returning now to rereading Robert Crais’ novels in the order they were written. Really enjoying _The Wanted_. Crais has a new book being released next month that I preordered and I’m looking forward to it. ---
**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:** [October 20, 2022, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-october-2022-edition/972461/58 "2022-10-20T12:37:57Z")
Started today on a YA horror, [Dead Flip](https://www.amazon.com/Dead-Flip-Sara-Farizan/dp/1643750801/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1CSE6SQ0QCZ2D&keywords=dead+flip+sara+farizan&qid=1666268819&qu=eyJxc2MiOiIwLjk5IiwicXNhIjoiMC42NyIsInFzcCI6IjAuNzMifQ%3D%3D&sprefix=dead+flip%2Caps%2C202&sr=8-1), by Sara Farizan. It’s about three kids in the eighties, one of whom is taken over by a supernatural pinball machine. The timeline goes back and forth between the late eighties and early nineties, which makes it a little confusing…there wasn’t a huge difference between those time periods. The author seems to be trying to pull a Ready Player One, with a dump of cultural references on every page, and the characters are a flock of teenagers, hardly distinct from one another. However, I’ll continue a little further. ---
**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:** [October 20, 2022, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-october-2022-edition/972461/59 "2022-10-20T18:26:23Z")
Are new books mostly released during certain months? I’m wondering because it seems like a couple of times a year, ALLLL of my library holds come in at once. It’s happening now. ---
**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:** [October 20, 2022, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-october-2022-edition/972461/60 "2022-10-20T20:13:49Z")
I know a ton of my Amazon pre-orders (and others) are coming in… Just waiting for the new Chequy book. _vibrates in anticipation_ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-october-2022-edition/972461.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-october-2022-edition/972461.md?page=4)