# Khadaji’s Whatcha Reading Thread - October 2024 edition
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-october-2024-edition/1008311
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Tags:** comic-books-manga, books-writing-myths
**Created:** [October 1, 2024, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-october-2024-edition/1008311 "2024-10-01T02:29:04Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2024, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-october-2024-edition/1008311/41 "2024-10-18T12:26:36Z")
It’s been awhile since I’ve posted, but I’ve only read a few books over the past month.
[Moonbound](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/195790867-moonbound), by Robin Sloan. Quick: name your three favorite entertainments from 5,000 years ago. Song, artwork, novel, field’s wide open. If you struggled, you’ll understand part of what annoyed me so much about this book. It’s set 13,000 years in the future. Humanity has more or less been destroyed through the apocalypse described in the prologue. Yet there are multiple references to cultural artifacts of the late 20th and early 21st century.
Humanity’s descendants, 13,000 years in the future, sing a variant of “Seven Nation Army”? Television shows remain a significant art form four centuries from now? Pixellated handheld gaming devices are popular?
It is a tremendous failure of imagination, to assume that the culture one has grown up in is going to be significant for our descendants in two centuries, much less 130 centuries.
Perhaps it was intended as sly, inside-joke humor. If so, I’m afraid it fell flat for me.
[Silver Nitrate](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/63249718-silver-nitrate), by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. I keep reading her books, because they’re good enough, but they’re never good enough to really grab me, and this one was no exception. The film industry of mid-nineties Mexico is a cool setting, and power-mad sorcerers and Nazis are cool villains, but this book never rose above that. She’s a genre author without ever breaking genre conventions. Lots of folks love her stuff, and I wish I did, too.
[Fuzz](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56769577-fuzz), by Mary Roach. It’s the first Roach book I’ve read, and I really enjoyed it: a nonfiction account of conflicts between humans and other animals (and the occasional tree). It’s informative, grim, and hilarious; her observational humor is right up my alley. I’ll definitely seek out more of her stuff.
But far and away the best thing I read in the past month, and a contender for best-of-the-year for me, is [The Daughter’s War](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/195790571-the-daughters-war), by Christopher Buehlman. Now THIS is how you do genre fiction! Often, grim fantasy is edgelord fantasy. “Look at how gross I can be!” the author says, proud as a six-year-old. “Look at me breaking taboos! Grody, right? Hey, watch this!”
Daughters War is nothing like that. It starts from a reasonable, awful premise, and explores that premise fully and unflinchingly. There are moments of visceral horror, but they’re earned.
Part of what makes it work is the careful characterization. The narrator’s voice is balanced with who she is and is fundamentally different from the voice of (its sequel, written first) _Blacktongue Thief’s_ narrator–where he’s wry, self-deprecating, and cynical, she’s straightforward, proud, and insecure. The few sections where other narrators take over show a significant change in voice.
Part of what makes it work is the humor. Different characters joke in the midst of horror, and their jokes are different, and horribly funny.
Part of what makes it work is the excellent writing.
Part of what makes it work is GIANT WAR CORVIDS.
All in all, this is one of the best fantasies of the year.
---
### Author:  [@DZedNConfused](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DZedNConfused)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2024, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-october-2024-edition/1008311/42 "2024-10-18T13:20:58Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#):
>
> [Silver Nitrate](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/63249718-silver-nitrate), by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. I keep reading her books, because they’re good enough, but they’re never good enough to really grab me, and this one was no exception. The film industry of mid-nineties Mexico is a cool setting, and power-mad sorcerers and Nazis are cool villains, but this book never rose above that. She’s a genre author without ever breaking genre conventions. Lots of folks love her stuff, and I wish I did, too.
I’m so glad to find someone who feels the same! I thought my book club was going to lynch me when I called _Mexican Gothic_ “predictable and kinda boring really”.
I heard her speak at the local university this month, she’s a better speaker.
---
### Author:  [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2024, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-october-2024-edition/1008311/43 "2024-10-18T13:24:20Z")
> [@DZedNConfused](#):
>
> I’m so glad to find someone who feels the same! I thought my book club was going to lynch me when I called _Mexican Gothic_ “predictable and kinda boring really”.
Yeah. She’s not _bad_, but I keep hoping she improves her writing enough such that her prose and plots match her settings.
---
### Author:  [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2024, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-october-2024-edition/1008311/44 "2024-10-18T13:43:40Z")
Thirded. I read _Mexican Gothic_, and it passed the time, but I won’t be picking up any more of her stuff. But Moreno-Garcia will crop up in my recommendations forever now.
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### Author:  [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2024, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-october-2024-edition/1008311/45 "2024-10-18T17:50:53Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#):
>
> [Fuzz](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56769577-fuzz), by Mary Roach. It’s the first Roach book I’ve read, and I really enjoyed it: a nonfiction account of conflicts between humans and other animals (and the occasional tree). It’s informative, grim, and hilarious; her observational humor is right up my alley. I’ll definitely seek out more of her stuff.
If you liked Fuzz, you’ll enjou Roach’s other books. They have the same mix of humor and information.
---
### Author:  [@DZedNConfused](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DZedNConfused)
#### Post date: [October 19, 2024, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-october-2024-edition/1008311/46 "2024-10-19T00:55:21Z")
Fellow T. Kingfisher fans! New book August 2025!
[Hemlock & Silver](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0DDJBJ7JP?ref_=&ref_=pe_44145840_1074551780)
---
### Author:  [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)
#### Post date: [October 19, 2024, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-october-2024-edition/1008311/47 "2024-10-19T01:04:03Z")
Thanks for the heads up!
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### Author:  [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)
#### Post date: [October 19, 2024, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-october-2024-edition/1008311/48 "2024-10-19T21:42:49Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#):
>
> Started today on [The Lost Story](https://www.amazon.com/Lost-Story-Novel-Meg-Shaffer/dp/0593598873) by Meg Shaffer, a novel “inspired by the Chronicles of Narnia”.
Ugh, can’t finish. I get the feeling I’m meant to be thrilled by this point (about halfway through), but I’m rolling my eyes.
---
### Author:  [@deneen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deneen)
#### Post date: [October 20, 2024, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-october-2024-edition/1008311/49 "2024-10-20T11:20:38Z")
I’m reading two books- I usually read one for pure pleasure and another almost as a kind of ‘good for you’ hate-read, no idea why I torture myself this way but I do.
The hate-read is The Flame Throwers by Rachel Kushner. My twin sister and I and our kids have started a thing where we choose and read a book from the NY Times best 100 books of the 21st century and this was my nephew’s pick. It’s about (so far) “land art” and very hip/artsy people in the city. I’m not loving it AT ALL. The previous book, chosen by my niece, was “Trust” by Herman Diaz and it was all about _finance_, a subject that irrationally makes my brain shut down after less than one sentence. My sister and I can’t wait until it’s our turn to choose so that we can read something normal, but of course we’re letting the kids pick first, grrr.
For pleasure I am reading ‘Trading Places’ by David Lodge. Set in 1969, two professors, one from a California university and one from England, trade places for a semester. It’s my favorite type of novel- British, dated, amusing, probably out of print.
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [October 20, 2024, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-october-2024-edition/1008311/50 "2024-10-20T17:51:00Z")
I especially enjoyed Roach’s book about the military, _Grunt_.
Back on topic:
Finished _Beyond Bizarre: Frightening Facts and Blood-Curdling True Tales_, by Varla Ventura, which was okay, and _Queen’s Bureau of Investigation_, by Ellery Queen, of which the best short story was “Snowball in July”.
Next up: _Dogland: Passion, Glory, and Lots of Slobber at the Westminster Dog Show_, by Tommy Tomlinson.
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### Author:  [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2024, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-october-2024-edition/1008311/51 "2024-10-21T14:21:18Z")
Started today on [I’m Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom](https://www.amazon.com/Starting-Worry-About-This-Black/dp/125028595X), by Jason Pargin. Feeling good, I don’t think this guy knows how to write a bad book.
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2024, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-october-2024-edition/1008311/52 "2024-10-22T20:38:23Z")
Finished _Dogland: Passion, Glory, and Lots of Slobber at the Westminster Dog Show_, by Tommy Tomlinson, which was okay.
Now I’m reading _Practical Demonkeeping_, by Christopher Moore.
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### Author:  [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)
#### Post date: [October 23, 2024, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-october-2024-edition/1008311/53 "2024-10-23T18:32:59Z")
Finished listening to _Every Vow You Break_ by Peter Swanson, which was an okay mystery. A fine plot, but a weak ending, IMO.
Next up:
_The Fear Index_ by Robert Harris.
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2024, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-october-2024-edition/1008311/54 "2024-10-24T20:07:41Z")
Finished _Practical Demonkeeping_, by Christopher Moore, which was okay.
Next up: _Prayers from the Ark & The Creatures’ Choir_ by Carmen Bernos de Gasztold, translated by Rumer Godden, which is a double volume of poetry; and _Learwife_, by JR Thorp, which asks what would happen if Lear had a wife who had been confined to an abbey during the events of “King Lear”, and is now widowed and childless.
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### Author:  [@DZedNConfused](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DZedNConfused)
#### Post date: [October 25, 2024, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-october-2024-edition/1008311/55 "2024-10-25T02:57:05Z")
Picked up the audiobook of “See What I Have Done” by Sarah Schmidt. This is her retelling of the Borden Family murders… got 28 minutes into it and said “Oh hell no.” No certain what drugs led the author to infantilize 32 year old Lizzie Borden to a hyper caffeinated 10 year old but leave me out of it.
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### Author:  [@rocking\_chair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocking_chair)
#### Post date: [October 25, 2024, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-october-2024-edition/1008311/56 "2024-10-25T23:57:27Z")
Due to the movie, I started “conclave” by Richard Harris. I’m finding it very interesting.
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### Author:  [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)
#### Post date: [October 26, 2024, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-october-2024-edition/1008311/57 "2024-10-26T00:59:48Z")
> [@rocking\_chair](#):
>
> I started “conclave” by Richard Harris.
That’s also why I started another of his books, called The Fear Index. I’m also finding it quite interesting, about 25% of the way through. I’m not at all familiar with any of his books, but I think I’ll be reading more.
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### Author:  [@rocking\_chair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocking_chair)
#### Post date: [October 26, 2024, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-october-2024-edition/1008311/58 "2024-10-26T13:28:37Z")
Oh dear, I got the name wrong.
Robert Harris. Not Richard.
Conclave by Robert Harris.
I have read Pompeii by Robert Harris, that was an amazing book. Really immersive.
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### Author:  [@DZedNConfused](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DZedNConfused)
#### Post date: [October 26, 2024, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-october-2024-edition/1008311/59 "2024-10-26T22:01:38Z")
I wondered… Richard Harris was a singer.
Ah well, it’s not like I haven’t had to edit because I’m awful with remember titles longer than 3 words 🤪
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2024, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-october-2024-edition/1008311/60 "2024-10-27T03:59:02Z")
_Conclave_ is pretty good, and I’m looking forward to the movie, and _Pompeii_ is okay, but I think Harris’s _Fatherland_ is a much better book than either (and actually his best, although I haven’t read all of his work). It’s a chilling, engrossing alt-history murder mystery/police procedural set in 1964 Nazi Berlin.
I liked Kerouac’s _On the Road_ when I read it a decade or so ago, but I’ve never gone back to it.
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