# Khadaji's Whatcha Readin' - March 2013 Edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 28, 2013, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-march-2013-edition/651578 "2013-02-28T01:15:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**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:** [March 4, 2013, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-march-2013-edition/651578/41 "2013-03-04T23:06:42Z")
Some fellow has a vanity ebook, “Matt Helm the War Years”, a prequel to Donald Hamilton’s Matt Helm novels. After reading that, I began Hamilton’s “Death of a Citizen” again. ---
**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:** [March 5, 2013, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-march-2013-edition/651578/42 "2013-03-05T02:49:30Z")
> [@bup](#): > > You know, I didn’t find it hilarious, but I just found it _interesting_. Moore isn’t laugh-out-loud funny for me, and that’s not what I expect out of his books… I’d read several reviews describing it as a zany faux-Biblical laff riot, and it was not that. ---
**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:** [March 5, 2013, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-march-2013-edition/651578/43 "2013-03-05T13:27:20Z")
I finished Flashman and the Tiger. Although (or maybe because) it was split into three shorter tales, I thought it was one of the best of the series. I’m fifty pages in to [The House of Tomorrow](http://www.amazon.com/The-House-Tomorrow-Peter-Bognanni/dp/B005GNLNP2) by Peter Bognanni. It’s fairly painless, but so obviously trying hard to be quirky. I’m feeling no connection with any of the “zany” characters. I am sticking it out, though, because I don’t have a lot in the TBR pile right now and am going out of town in a couple of weeks! _sigh_ It probably gets better and shit. ---
**Author:** ![yellowval](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/919ad9/32.png) [@yellowval](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yellowval)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2013, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-march-2013-edition/651578/44 "2013-03-05T14:14:21Z")
I finished Truth in Advertising by John Kenney. It was just a mess overall. The author was trying way to hard to be witty and kept throwing in one-liners that just didn’t work. I gave it two stars out of pity because there were a couple of nice moments and because I won it on Goodreads and didn’t want to trash it completely. Now I can concentrate on finishing Still Alice by Lisa Genova and Iron Lake by William Kent Krueger. Both of them are excellent. ---
**Author:** ![LawMonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2013, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-march-2013-edition/651578/45 "2013-03-05T14:39:27Z")
Finished up Viktor Pelevin’s _ **Omon Ra** _, which is now on my short list of most WTF books ever. Our protagonist dreams of going to the moon as a boy, so he enlists in a Soviet aviation school where the first thing they do after you pass your exams is cut your legs off. Luckily, he’s going to be a cosmonaut, so he doesn’t have that problem. Instead, he is going to be sent on a one-way mission to the moon, manning an automated lunar probe. There are several other cosmonauts who train with him, who get to do things like manually release the intermediate stages and have the engines blast into their face on the way out. (Oh, by the way–the ICBMs? Those have pilots also.) All of these automated systems need to have sacrificial humans in them because… um. Because Soviet Russia? And then he goes on the mission to the moon, the pistol issued him to shoot himself in the head misfires, and… …he discovers that the entire Soviet space program is a series of elaborate mock-ups in the Moscow metro tunnels. :dubious: Like I said: WTF. I guess I’m just not Russian enough for this one to make sense or something–it’s generally well-received. I may give one of his werewolf novels a try later, just to see if he’s always like this or not. I’ve now just started into Scalzi’s _ **Red Shirts** _, based on a friend’s recommend plus the general buzz around it from a few years ago. Not as uproariously funny as I maybe was expecting so far, but on the other hand, I’ve got a pretty good idea of what’s going on from hearing it discussed on podcasts and the like. Seems it should be a pleasant enough read, if nothing else. ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2013, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-march-2013-edition/651578/46 "2013-03-05T15:01:27Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > [Supervolcano: Eruption](http://www.amazon.com/Supervolcano-Eruption-Harry-Turtledove/dp/B007PM02VI/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1362404472&sr=1-1&keywords=supervolcano+eruption), Harry Turtledove. _Another_ series - I need to pay better attention when I buy books. Yellowstone National Park erupts with a fury unseen for 600k years and fucks our shit up. As disaster porn, it’s OK - could have been more disastery. I think the really bad shit is going to happen in the next book (mass starvation, years without a summer, etc.) I hadn’t bothered reading any of his books for years, but I’ve enjoyed this one and the sequel more than I thought I would. It’s more a soap opera than a post-disaster thriller though! I like that so far big government has been noticible by it’s absence except for some disaster relief; nobody above a mayor or a senator has been a character, I think. And **Dung Beetle** , I really enjoyed _The House of Tomorrow_, especially the concert! But punk and Buckminster Fuller both appeal to me! Currently I’m slowly reading _Love and Sleep_ by **John Crowley** ; it’s the 2nd in his Aegypt quartet. I finally read _Aegypt_ 5 years ago, having bought it when it came out, and now I’ve tackling the next one. It’s only been on the shelves for 19 years! It’s a bit of a slog; the first 150 pages were of the protagonist’s childhood in the early 1950s in Appalachian poverty, then it jumped to after the events in Aegypt, and now I’m in a big section set in the late 16th C in the court of Queen Elizabeth, with John Dee and other philosophers, etc. debating Aristotle and Copernicus… I can well imagine that it’ll be some time before I tackle the other two volumes! ---
**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:** [March 5, 2013, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-march-2013-edition/651578/47 "2013-03-05T16:49:45Z")
> [@Meurglys](#): > > And **Dung Beetle** , I really enjoyed _The House of Tomorrow_, especially the concert! But punk and Buckminster Fuller both appeal to me! Well, in that case, I’ll finish it then. Just needed some reassurance… 🙂 ---
**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:** [March 5, 2013, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-march-2013-edition/651578/48 "2013-03-05T17:02:13Z")
I gave up on [Byzantium](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1702460.Byzantium) by Michael Angold, I found myself thinking of dinner more than the book. Apparently the book is not so much a straight forward history of the Byzantine Empire but rather a discussion of the religious issues, particularly iconoclasm, in the early church. Whoever wrote the blurb obviously had not read the book. It’s likely a far better read for someone familiar with the history of Byzantium and the issues of iconoclasm not to mention the doctrinal split between Eastern Orthodox Christianity and Roman Catholicism. Fed Ex FINALLY released my books and so I will start “When America First Met China: An Exotic History of Tea, Drugs, and Money in the Age of Sail” as soon as I finish “An Unholy Alliance” by Susanna Gregory. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2013, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-march-2013-edition/651578/49 "2013-03-05T17:09:02Z")
I am reading _The Detroit Electric Scheme_ by D.E. Johnson, a murder mystery set in 1910 Detroit, at an up-and-coming manufacturer of electric automobiles. I read the third book in the series, _Detroit Breakdown_, and liked it well enough that I went back to the library for the first two. The second book is called _Motor City Shakedown_. ---
**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:** [March 5, 2013, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-march-2013-edition/651578/50 "2013-03-05T17:09:46Z")
> [@Meurglys](#): > > I finally read _Aegypt_ 5 years ago, having bought it when it came out, and now I’ve tackling the next one. It’s only been on the shelves for 19 years! Oh goodness, I’m SO glad to hear I’m not the only one who does this! I have some laying around from my teens and 20s (will be 48 next month) still waiting to be read! ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2013, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-march-2013-edition/651578/51 "2013-03-05T18:15:19Z")
Well, _Aegypt_ was on the shelf at home for over 20 years before I finished it so I’m a little bit faster off the mark with this one! I generally keep up but some, especially trilogies, end up waiting a while before I tackle them. ---
**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:** [March 5, 2013, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-march-2013-edition/651578/52 "2013-03-05T21:05:28Z")
> [@DZedNConfused](#): > > … I will start “When America First Met China: An Exotic History of Tea, Drugs, and Money in the Age of Sail” as soon as I finish “An Unholy Alliance” by Susanna Gregory. I’ll be interested to hear what you think of _When America_… My niece is into all things Chinese, and perhaps I can make a recommendation. ---
**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:** [March 5, 2013, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-march-2013-edition/651578/53 "2013-03-05T21:45:44Z")
I just finished _ **Round House** _, by Louise Erdrich. It’s a bildungsroman about a 13 year old Ojibwe kid on the rez in South Dakota, trying to come to terms with his mom’s rape. The book had a coincidence or two that was just a tad unlikely, but otherwise I thought it was a brilliant book. So compelling that I blasted through it in two days, which is unusual for me. ---
**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:** [March 5, 2013, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-march-2013-edition/651578/54 "2013-03-05T23:21:36Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > I’ll be interested to hear what you think of _When America_… My niece is into all things Chinese, and perhaps I can make a recommendation. I will check back when I am finished. The reviews on Goodreads all look positive, so I’m optimistic. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2013, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-march-2013-edition/651578/55 "2013-03-06T04:46:26Z")
Leftover business from last month’s thread - [I’m reading this recommendation from last month’s thread, “Dust.”](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7731996-dust) > [@Khadaji's Whatcha Readin' - February 2013 Edition](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-february-2013-edition/648895/190): > > Is that the book by Edmund Conway? For some strange reason, the Toronto Public Library doesn’t have anything by him. I may have to actually buy it. Yup, that’s the one. > [@Athena](#): > > Reading [Pure](http://www.amazon.com/Pure-The-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B004RCNGSK/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1362396915&sr=8-2&keywords=pure) now. Pretty good post-apocalypse story. The world is divided into “Pures”, people who were protected from the Big Bad Nuclear Bomb and now live in a protected dome, and the “Wretches” who somehow survived the detonation. The wretches tended to meld with whatever was close when the bomb went off - a bicycle, other people, a dog - and that makes for some pretty creepy people. The second book in the trilogy is also out, and I’ll probably read that one, too. Another one for my list. > [@JohnT](#): > > Rather late in my updates, some of these should really be in the February thread, but as they say on Earth: _C’est la vie_… > > [Destroyer of Worlds](http://www.amazon.com/Destroyer-Worlds-Larry-Niven/dp/0765361779), Larry Niven & Edward Lerner. Oops, another series. Double-oops - this is the third in this series. Hate it when that happens. Space opera, for those of you who are Niven fans, this series is billed as a prequel to Ringworld. Pretty good. > > [Supervolcano: Eruption](http://www.amazon.com/Supervolcano-Eruption-Harry-Turtledove/dp/B007PM02VI/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1362404472&sr=1-1&keywords=supervolcano+eruption), Harry Turtledove. _Another_ series - I need to pay better attention when I buy books. Yellowstone National Park erupts with a fury unseen for 600k years and fucks our shit up. As disaster porn, it’s OK - could have been more disastery. I think the really bad shit is going to happen in the next book (mass starvation, years without a summer, etc.) > > [Billion Dollar Lessons: What You Can Learn from the Most Inexcusable Business Failures of the Last 25 Years](http://www.amazon.com/Billion-Dollar-Lessons-Inexcusable-Business/dp/1591842891/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1362404638&sr=1-1&keywords=billion+dollar+lessons), Paul B. Carrol & Chunka Mai. I like business profiles and this one was pretty good. The last 40-50 pages were a bit of a slog once the authors got away from the profiles and descended into biz-school speak. Still, a worthwhile read and definitely the best book I’ve read by a guy with the awesome name of “Chunka Mai.” > > [Firestar](http://www.amazon.com/Firestar-Saga-Michael-Flynn/dp/0812530063/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1362404768&sr=1-2&keywords=firestar), Michael Flynn. A re-read, this book was at times just _so_ early-mid 1990s that I commented on it to my wife. It probably was a bit more believable 20 years ago, but now it comes across as a Libertopia fantasy about how to create a private space industry, complete with meddlin’, over-regulating governments, corporate espionage, etc. I used to recommend this book highly… now I’ll recommend it with reservations. > > [American Icon: Alan Mullaly and the fight to save Ford Motor Company](http://www.amazon.com/American-Icon-Mulally-Fight-Company/dp/0307886069/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1362404995&sr=1-1&keywords=american+icon), Bryce Hoffman. A decent business profile of Ford Motor Company from 2005-2010. Could have been more detailed, imho, and suffered because the author had the approval of Alan Mullaly and Bill Ford (so he pulled his punches at times (at best, at worst you could describe many passages as flat-out hero-worshipping)), but all-in-all it was a relatively honest look at FMC during the Great Recession. > > Currently starting the rest of the books in the “Destroyer of Worlds” series - there are three of them, but they are Larry Niven so they should be pretty fast reads. FWIW, I’m keeping a spreadsheet of all the books I’m reading in 2013 - so far I’ve read 21 books, a total of 10,066 pages. 13 fiction books (6,858 pages) and 9 non-fiction books (3,208 pages.) And more for my list! ---
**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:** [March 6, 2013, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-march-2013-edition/651578/56 "2013-03-06T16:36:28Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Next up is another Michael Connelly: _The Scarecrow_, a sequel of sorts to _The Poet_ and _The Narrows_. Crime reporter Jack McEvoy is about to be laid off from the _Los Angeles Times_ in these hard times for newspapers. He uses his final days on the job to write the definitive murder story of his career and in the process comes to realize the person who confessed to the crime is innocent. Finished _The Scarecrow_, by Michael Connelly. Another solid work. However, I was a bit miffed at the passing reference made by an FBI agent to some “Bangkok torture films” that was allegedly found in the possession of a suspect. I have never heard of that sort of thing here. However, I have heard of such films coming out of the Philippines, but just like snuff films, they’re fake and the stuff of Urban Legends from what I can tell, although admittedly I’ve never actually seen any. (Really!) Anyway, this leaves two Michael Connelly books that I have not yet read, not counting the one that is scheduled to be published this year, and I am saving them for Japan next month. I’ve also been doing some more work on my friend’s book, the one on Thai political motivations. It’s being published in New York this month. His 90 Word pages come in at a little over 200 book pages now that he has the actual book pages laid out. Speaking of Japan, we’re about a month away from traveling to there, so now I’m going to spend some time going back through the pertinent sections of the Lonely Planet Japan guidebook. (The wife picked up her visa today from the Japan Visa Application Center. As an American, I don’t have to obtain a visa ahead of time, I can just show up in the country.) ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2013, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-march-2013-edition/651578/57 "2013-03-06T18:02:57Z")
Reading _The Searchers_ by Alan LeMay. The movie is a favorite, and I’ve been told that the book is a bit different from the movie, especially the ending. The book features an intro by Harry Carey, Jr., who played Brad Jorgenson in the movie. What a mess – lots of anecdotes about working in westerns, with nothing new about John Wayne or anyone else involved in the movie. The intro needed an editor, badly. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2013, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-march-2013-edition/651578/58 "2013-03-06T20:06:28Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > Reading _The Searchers_ by Alan LeMay. The movie is a favorite, and I’ve been told that the book is a bit different from the movie, especially the ending. > > The book features an intro by Harry Carey, Jr., who played Brad Jorgenson in the movie. What a mess – lots of anecdotes about working in westerns, with nothing new about John Wayne or anyone else involved in the movie. The intro needed an editor, badly. Does the book follow more closely the real life case of Cynthia Ann Parker? If so, the ending would HAVE to be very different, as the real Cynthia Ann Parker had no desire to go back to her white family, and hated every second she was forced to spend away from the Commanche she had come to identify with. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2013, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-march-2013-edition/651578/59 "2013-03-06T20:47:02Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > Does the book follow more closely the real life case of Cynthia Ann Parker? > > If so, the ending would HAVE to be very different, as the real Cynthia Ann Parker had no desire to go back to her white family, and hated every second she was forced to spend away from the Commanche she had come to identify with. I don’t know yet – just started. 🙂 That story would make a better movie. I do love _The Searchers_, but the movie has its problems. ---
**Author:** ![yellowval](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/919ad9/32.png) [@yellowval](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yellowval)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2013, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-march-2013-edition/651578/60 "2013-03-07T14:02:31Z")
I finished Iron Lake by William Kent Krueger. I really wish I’d discovered him sooner. I enjoy his writing style a lot. I had a few issues toward the end, but other than that it was close to perfect. I’m looking forward to reading more of his books. I started 11/22/63 by Stephen King last night and also Murder in Gales: a Rose Hanged Twice, by a local author. The latter is a non-fiction piece. I’m also still reading Still Alice. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-march-2013-edition/651578.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-march-2013-edition/651578.md?page=4)