# Khadaji's Whatcha Readin' - January 2014 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 31, 2013, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-january-2014/677593 "2013-12-31T21:48:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Ace331](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Ace331](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ace331)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2014, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-january-2014/677593/41 "2014-01-06T20:27:32Z")
Over the past few weeks I’ve read a number of series and thoroughly enjoyed all of them. The Maze Runner The Scorch Trials The Death Cure Divergent Allegiant Insurgent The Goddess Test The Goddess Hunt The Goddess Interrupted The Goddess Legacy The Goddess Inheritance The Giver Gathering Blue Messenger Son Matched Crossed Reached I just started reading the 4-book The Relic Master Series and plan on reading the Delirium Trilogy after that. ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2014, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-january-2014/677593/42 "2014-01-06T20:43:20Z")
I read _Communion Town_, by Sam Thompson, which I thought was excellent. It’s 10 very marginally interconnected stories, reflecting different writing genres, that all take place in a mythical city that is both modern and vaguely magical. I saw a review that called it “Invisible Cities meets Gattaca” and that was weirdly accurate. I picked up _Morlock Night_ by K.W. Jeter after it was mentioned in one of these threads, and it was a fun, goofball read that extends _The Time Machine_ story. _In the Shadow of Blackbirds_ is a YA novel by Cat Winters, that was pretty good in terms of writing, but I had a hard time backing the story (which is about fraudulent spiritualists in 1918 … but then gets into real spirits). I have now just started _Hild_, by Nicola Griffith, which is great so far - extremely dense historical fiction about the (imagined) life of St. Hilda of Whitby, so 7th century Britain. ---
**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:** [January 8, 2014, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-january-2014/677593/43 "2014-01-08T16:17:22Z")
Finished _A Storm of Swords, Part 2: Blood and Gold_, by George RR Martin, the second volume of the third book in his seris A Song of Ice and Fire. Very good. Now that I’ve read the first three books in the series, I can better appreciate the remark by Martin, who was an avid _Breaking Bad_ fan, that Walter White was much more of a monster than any of his own characters. Not sure I completely agree with that though. I’m taking a short break from the series now. Next up is _Tobacco Road_, by Erskine Caldwell. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2014, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-january-2014/677593/44 "2014-01-08T17:33:29Z")
I’m reading **The Barkeep** by William Lashner (a freebie from Kindle First). It’s my third Lashner and I really like it. I guess it’s a thriller, since there’s a hit man and a mystery. A young man comes home to find his mother murdered. He makes a comment to a detective which leads to the conviction of the young man’s father, who was having an affair. Five years later, he’s approached by a man who says he was the killer, and that for $10K he’ll tell who hired him and why. Sounds a bit convoluted (and it is) but the characters are individual and interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2014, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-january-2014/677593/45 "2014-01-08T18:41:30Z")
I just finished Joe Haldeman’s [Camouflage](http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/h/joe-w-haldeman/camouflage.htm), which was very enjoyable. I have a couple more of his novels that I’ve picked up recently. I’ve started in on Herodotus’ [The Histories](http://www.us.penguingroup.com/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780140449082,00.html), but I’ve no idea what I’ll take up for a bit of light fiction - maybe more of the Hornblowers, maybe a Stephen Booth mystery. I’ll let you know when I decide. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2014, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-january-2014/677593/46 "2014-01-08T19:54:55Z")
I got [this](http://www.amazon.com/S-J-Abrams/dp/147895275X/ref=tmm_abk_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=8-1&qid=1389210450) for Christamas. It’s a novel by JJ Abrams and some other guy. I use the word novel in a very loose sense. So far, all I’ve done is open it and flicked through a little. It’s stuffed full of notes, letters and postcards. There’s a decoding wheel. There appears to be a central novel, but most of whatis going on appears in footnotes, doodles etc in several sets of handwriting. I think will need some new Post-it notes before I satrt. I don’t think it would translate to a Kindle very easily 😉 ---
**Author:** ![LawMonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2014, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-january-2014/677593/47 "2014-01-08T20:23:51Z")
Just polished off _ **Prisoner’s Base** _. It’s Nero Wolfe, fictional comfort food for me, so I don’t have much to say about it as such. As I hoped, though, it was interesting to compare against the TV dramatization: If my memory serves me correctly, they dropped one entire character/suspect, as well as few chapters where Archie more or less “joins the police” and hangs out with them at HQ interviewing suspects. As a consequence of the first deletion, Archie wound up punching the murderer in the face at the end of the TV show; in the book, he specifically comments that he _wanted_ to punch the murderer, but might’ve done more than just laid him low. I’ve decided to have a dip into WWII again, starting this time with Max Hastings _**[All Hell Let Loose](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11918457-all-hell-let-loose)**_. I expect I’ll have to have some diversions during this long book, so there’s probably some more Wolfe in the future, as well as _ **Fables** _. ---
**Author:** ![LawMonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2014, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-january-2014/677593/48 "2014-01-08T22:25:11Z")
Oh, had meant to mention: I’m considering adding the “WhisperSync Voice” for _ **All Hell Let Loose** _. It’s $5 or so, and given the size of it, I wouldn’t mind being able to sneak in a few pages here and there in the car or on a run. I generally prefer to avoid non-fiction when it comes to audiobooks, but this seems like it might work. We’ll see. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2014, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-january-2014/677593/49 "2014-01-09T00:29:09Z")
Raising Steam by terry Pratchett . ---
**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:** [January 9, 2014, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-january-2014/677593/50 "2014-01-09T05:57:37Z")
> [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](#): > > I just finished Joe Haldeman’s [Camouflage](http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/h/joe-w-haldeman/camouflage.htm), which was very enjoyable. I have a couple more of his novels that I’ve picked up recently… Oh, good! Still waiting for that “best of” Haldeman short story collection from the library. ---
**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:** [January 9, 2014, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-january-2014/677593/51 "2014-01-09T14:32:59Z")
Sorry, I meant to get that table of contents for you! It is: Hero Anniversary Project Tricentennial Blood Sisters Lindsay and the Red City Blues Manifest Destiny More Than the Sum of His Parts Seasons The Monster The Hemingway Hoax Graves None So Blind For White Hill Civil Disobedience Four Short Novels Angel of Light The Mars Girl Sleeping Dogs Complete Sentence Hero is an excerpt from _The Forever War_. I’m only up to Seasons (and quite enjoying it). The cold weather stole my reading time, since I had to drive the boy to school the last few days. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2014, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-january-2014/677593/52 "2014-01-09T14:34:52Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > Finished the first book of 2014 – [When the Sacred Gin Mill Closes](http://www.amazon.com/Sacred-Ginmill-Matthew-Scudder-Mysteries/dp/0380728257) by Lawrence Block. I put it in my top 10 for 2013. > > It starts with a bang when a couple of masked men hold up an after-hours bar in NYC. The action then slows until the end, as we follow ex-cop/alcoholic Matthew Scudder around Hell’s Kitchen where all he does is drink, think and watch people. Sounds boring but it’s not. The ending – how Scudder helps his friends out of trouble – is rather shocking. > > Not sure what’s next. I think it’s time to go through the stack – more than a few unread books, and some that are worth a re-read. For Lawrence Block, I recommend the Keller series (starts with _Hit Man_). It takes a special talent to make a ruthless killer for hire personable, and interesting. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Enterprise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/76d3ee/32.png) [@Enterprise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enterprise)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2014, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-january-2014/677593/53 "2014-01-10T17:58:03Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > You might prefer Barbara Tuchman’s classic _The Guns of August_, which JFK recommended to his national security team to teach them about the risks of accidental global war. I’ve read and enjoyed Tuchman’s book, though it’s way different from Clark’s. In point of fact, I think I prefer Tuchman’s as reading, but Clark’s as history. _Guns of August_ read very much like an expanded version of _March of Folly_, with the folly centered on the July crisis. Clark’s book makes clear how–pardon my French–frigged up the entire European situation was from at least the turn of the century, and yet how incredibly unlikely war was even in the spring of 1914. In other news, I ditched Pratchett. Few book-ditchings have pained me more. Terry! But it was no use. There was little fun and no suspense at all. I’ve never been a fan of the Moist van Lipwig stories in the first place, though they were quite passable; but this one…well. I replaced it as bedtime reading with _Ground Zero_, the antepenultimate installment of Repairman Jack. Much more fun. ---
**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:** [January 10, 2014, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-january-2014/677593/54 "2014-01-10T18:47:31Z")
Just finished Laini Taylor’s **Daughter of Smoke and Bone**. Daughter Arwen recommended it and is now slightly miffed that I finished it before she did, but I could scarcely put it down. What a fully-fleshed world Taylor creates, where no devil is quite a devil and no angel quite an angel. Now I want to visit Prague too. Also 45 pages into **March of the Wooden Soldiers** , the fourth Fables compilation. Very addictive. **LawMonkey** , I think I have you to thank / blame for these. 😃 So thanks! For non-fiction, I’ve just started **Thank You for Your Service** by David Finkel. I’m not a one to cry at books most of the time, but I was in tears before the end of Chapter One. Heartbreaking. ---
**Author:** ![LawMonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2014, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-january-2014/677593/55 "2014-01-10T19:31:31Z")
> [@Grrlbrarian](#): > > Also 45 pages into **March of the Wooden Soldiers** , the fourth Fables compilation. Very addictive. **LawMonkey** , I think I have you to thank / blame for these. 😃 So thanks! I’ve mentioned _ **Fables** _ on here before, but I don’t think I’ve ever really spoken rapturously about it or anything. Still, I’ll take the credit. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Politzania](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3ab097/32.png) [@Politzania](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Politzania)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2014, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-january-2014/677593/56 "2014-01-11T00:52:43Z")
I know I’m late to the party, but I finally got around to checking out John Ajvide Lindqvist’s _**[Let Me In](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7911377-let-me-in)**_ from the local library. I haven’t seen either movie adaptation, but had a general idea of what to expect. I’d read his _Handling the Undead_ some time ago & really enjoyed the whole atmosphere of the novel and was pleased to see Lindqvist used the same type of tone here. Oskar is a bullied pre-teen, living in Stockholm in the early 80’s with his mother. A series of gruesome murders catches his attention, as does a reclusive new neighbor couple - a father and his daughter. We also meet Jocke and his alcoholic, middle-aged friends, who spend their time making plans that they know they’ll probably never achieve; as well as Tommy, Oskar’s only friend, whose rebellious actions trouble his mother, Yvonne, and her boyfriend (also a policeman), Steffan and see how their paths intertwine over the course of the novel. I really enjoyed how the story wasn’t just about the vampire and its relationship\* with Oskar); you get to see how the other characters : Oskar and his parents; Tommy, his mother Yvonne and Staffan, her boyfriend; and Jocke, Lacke & Virginia interacting within their own circles as well. Hacke was a quite disturbing character (with an even more disturbing end); while Eli is written as more or less a sympathetic character. While there are some very gory scenes, and references to pedophilia and other unsavory behaviours, I found it to be a very compelling story that gives the reader a lot to think about above and beyond the basic plot. While existentialism is a Swedish/Scandanavian thing (see Ingmar Bergman); IMHO Lindqvist’s works are a lovely and accessible example. - Don’t read too much into that - they become friends, but not really anything more. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2014, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-january-2014/677593/57 "2014-01-11T01:04:18Z")
Just finished two mysteries: _Figure Away_, by Phoebe Atwood Taylor (starring Asey Mayo, my favourite fictional sleuth), and _Old Bones_, by Aaron Elkins (Gideon Oliver). _Figure Away_ had me laughing all the way through it - I think it’s the funniest Asey Mayo story I’ve read yet. This evening I’ll finish rereading another Asey Mayo, _Spring Harrowing_. Next up is _1636: Seas of Fortune_, by Iver Cooper (part of Eric Flint’s “1632” series). And I have a couple more Gideon Oliver mysteries on hold at the public library… ---
**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:** [January 12, 2014, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-january-2014/677593/58 "2014-01-12T05:25:26Z")
I’m in the potato chips of reading: Chasing Fire by Nora Roberts. It keeps my attention and I like many of the characters, ironically I searched it out because the main character is a smoke jumper who is female. But I don’t like her much, she’s got some Daddy issues that make me want to go shower. I also don’t like Robert’s dialog, so much of it feel fake like someone told her XYZ persons from ABC talk like this, it just doesn’t flow naturally. The mystery is interesting, but I’m certain I already know who dunnit. ---
**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:** [January 12, 2014, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-january-2014/677593/59 "2014-01-12T10:00:55Z")
Finished _Tobacco Road_, by Erskine Caldwell. Very good. The somewhat-humorous travails of poor white farmers in Depression-era Georgia. And they are not too far removed from present-day poor northeastern-Thai farmers. The resemblance is uncanny. Have started _Our Kind of Traitor_, by John Le Carre. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2014, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-january-2014/677593/60 "2014-01-12T18:09:00Z")
Finished **The Barkeep** by William Lashner – a Kindle First freebie. Started out fine – a young man looking into the murder of his mother and uncovering family secrets – descended into navel-gazing and sophomoric philosophizing. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-january-2014/677593.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-january-2014/677593.md?page=4)