# Khadaji's Whatcha Readin' - April, 2014 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 31, 2014, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-april-2014/685027 "2014-03-31T22:16:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 8
**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:** [April 30, 2014, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-april-2014/685027/141 "2014-04-30T12:19:24Z")
> [@Grrlbrarian](#): > > **Dung Beetle** , so glad you picked up Pratchett! 😃 I love his stuff, especially the books with Death, the Night Watch, the Witches, and Tiffany Aching. Enjoy! Thanks! I finished _Wyrd Sisters_ this morning and it was great. I’ll definitely be lining up some more of these. ---
**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:** [April 30, 2014, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-april-2014/685027/142 "2014-04-30T15:32:50Z")
> [@Meurglys](#): > > The [follow up tv series](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_Chance_to_See_%28TV_series%29) came out in the UK five years ago! From the Wikipedia link: > [@](#): > > In one episode, a male kakapo, called Sirocco, mounts and attempts to mate with Carwardine’s head. I must see this series immediately. To the internet! ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2014, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-april-2014/685027/143 "2014-04-30T16:45:43Z")
[The Backwash of War](http://www.amazon.com/Backwash-Wreckage-Battlefield-Witnessed-American-ebook/dp/B004TIM6WY) – free on Kindle and at Gutenberg – nonfiction, written by an American nurse who served in field hospitals in France during WWI. Bitter, ironic, sarcastic, angry, sad. Highly recommended. Currently reading some essays collected by Christopher Morley. Having a hard time finding a novel to get into after the excellent **The Sojourner**. Everything I pick up feels light and fluffy. ---
**Author:** ![Grrlbrarian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrlbrarian/32/4048_2.png) [@Grrlbrarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrlbrarian)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2014, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-april-2014/685027/144 "2014-04-30T17:37:20Z")
> [@SpazCat](#): > > From the Wikipedia link: > I must see this series immediately. To the internet! Agreed! And if you wouldn’t mind PM-ing me when you find it, I’d be very grateful! 5 years, good heavens. :eek: I just saw a promo for it on the Beeb or SkyTV a couple of weeks ago in London! Maybe they’re re-showing… and it’ll be on an iPlayer somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2014, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-april-2014/685027/145 "2014-05-01T16:58:39Z")
I finished _Shavetail_ this morning. Alas, I cannot remember who mentioned it first, but thanks! ---
**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 1, 2014, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-april-2014/685027/146 "2014-05-01T17:24:47Z")
[Link to May’s thread.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=722346) ---
**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 1, 2014, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-april-2014/685027/147 "2014-05-01T18:53:19Z")
> [@danhanegan](#): > > There really is a noticeable difference between the earlier Honor Harrington books and the later ones, with the latter characterized, as Finagle said, by more dry political maneuvering and less action. I have wondered why that happened, and it seems to me Weber is a bit of a victim of his own success. Earlier on, when his sales figures weren’t as impressive, I suspect he paid more attention to editorial advice, which largely kept his long-winded tendencies in check. I see much the same thing in Tom Clancy’s work, with the earlier novels much shorter and tighter than his later ones. Stephen King has often fallen into the same trap. ---
**Author:** ![Dorjan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dorjan/32/12440_2.png) [@Dorjan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dorjan)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2014, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-april-2014/685027/148 "2014-05-01T18:58:01Z")
> [@Finagle](#): > > “Otherwise pretty well written”. Words that have possibly never before been applied to a David Weber book. Look, I admit the guy can write space opera. Once the missiles start flying, he’s great. The problem is, he doesn’t realize that this is all he’s good at. So he filled the later books of the series with dreary, dry as dust political scheming and, god help us, romance, and relegated the big space battles to ten or twenty pages near the end of the book. The result was massive tomes that made George R. R. Martin’s most recent Game of Thrones entries look toned and sleek by comparison. I never made it to the later books in the series, for reasons mentioned earlier 😉 . ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2014, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-april-2014/685027/149 "2014-05-01T19:25:05Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > I finished _Shavetail_ this morning. > Alas, I cannot remember who mentioned it first, but thanks! Me, and you’re welcome! 🙂 I’m rereading A Tale of Two Cities. I’d forgotten how absorbing it is. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2014, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-april-2014/685027/150 "2014-05-01T19:27:04Z")
> [@koeeoaddi](#): > > Me, and you’re welcome! 🙂 Thanks yet again! ---
**Author:** ![Becky2844](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Becky2844](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Becky2844)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2014, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-april-2014/685027/151 "2014-05-03T13:19:12Z")
**SpazCat** , since you liked _The Perfect Storm_ have you read _The Fisherman’s Son_ by Michael Koepf? I read them around the same time and almost liked it more. Also, if you want to read another Kerouac book, his _The Dharma Bums_ is about a kinder, gentler time in his life. Kind of. A collection of short stories I was really taken with, and I think I’ve posted this before, is _The Southern Cross_ by Skip Horack. They’re set along the Gulf after Hurricane Katrina and are plain-talking and captivating. Although I liked them all, Caught Fox and The Redfish stick in my mind. I’m headed to the library with list in hand gleaned from this thread. 🙂 ---
**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:** [May 3, 2014, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-april-2014/685027/152 "2014-05-03T14:36:12Z")
> [@Becky2844](#): > > **SpazCat** , since you liked _The Perfect Storm_ have you read _The Fisherman’s Son_ by Michael Koepf? I read them around the same time and almost liked it more. > > Also, if you want to read another Kerouac book, his _The Dharma Bums_ is about a kinder, gentler time in his life. Kind of. I’ll have to add _The Fisherman’s Son_ to Mt. ToBeRead. Maybe my oldest BIL has it. He has a lot of fishin’ books (including _Moby Dick_ which he has read. In another life, he’d be out on a boat for months at a time.) As for Kerouac, my current thoughts about him can be summed up in two words: one is a short, guttural syllable. The other is “him.” ---
**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:** [May 7, 2014, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-april-2014/685027/153 "2014-05-07T15:04:40Z")
Finished _Phnom Penh Noir_, a collection of crime short stories and even rap songs set in or near the Cambodian capital and edited by the Canadian writer Christopher G. Moore. Good, but it somehow falls just a tad short of _Bangkok Noir_, also edited by Moore and which I’d read immediately prior to this volume. This week I’ll start _The Litigators_, by John Grisham. ---
**Author:** ![Misnomer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misnomer/32/14897_2.png) [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2014, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-april-2014/685027/154 "2014-05-07T15:13:54Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > This week I’ll start _The Litigators_, by John Grisham. I read that a few months ago: I liked it, but then I tend to like Grisham. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-april-2014/685027.md?page=7)