# Khadaji's Whatcha Readin' thread -- April 2017 Edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 31, 2017, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-april-2017-edition/783418 "2017-03-31T15:45:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2017, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-april-2017-edition/783418/62 "2017-04-18T17:36:58Z")
Just started Anthony Burgess’s “MF”. Long time since I read anything by Burgess, I’m enjoying his style early on. One of his strong points is he makes me look up words in the dictionary. ---
**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:** [April 18, 2017, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-april-2017-edition/783418/63 "2017-04-18T20:48:59Z")
Finished Criss Cross by Lynne Rae Perkins, the last Newbery Winner I needed to read to complete them all. Meh. Not much happens, to not-very-interesting people. The narrator is very aware of her own cleverness, and I didn’t think much of it at all. Currently reading **Remembering Laughter** , a novel by Wallace Stegner, and **Entanglement: The Secret Lives of Hair** , by Emma Tarlo. ---
**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:** [April 18, 2017, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-april-2017-edition/783418/64 "2017-04-18T22:10:09Z")
I finished **The Recycled Citizen** by Charlotte MacLeod. The Kellings and their antics 😃 Still plugging along slowly in **Flags of Our Fathers** , discovered a young man from my home town was given a medal for his efforts on Iwo Jima. Now I’m wondering if I went to school with his grandkids… ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2017, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-april-2017-edition/783418/65 "2017-04-18T23:35:16Z")
I’ve just started **Lost City of the Incas** , written by Hiram Bingham, the explorer who brought Machu Picchu to the world’s attention. Bingham, who was a tall, strapping, good-looking guy, and who wore a fedora, was the prototype Indiana Jones. While searching for the Inca city of Vilcabamba in 1911, he was told by a local farmer of “some ruins” at the top of a nearby mountain, and Bingham stumbled upon one of the world’s premier Inca sites. ---
**Author:** ![BetsQ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/fbc32d/32.png) [@BetsQ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BetsQ)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2017, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-april-2017-edition/783418/66 "2017-04-19T15:13:01Z")
Last month, I requested recommendations for cheerful novels. I started with Lindsay Buroker’s Emporer’s Edge, which is the first in a series of bite-sized fantasy novels. The characters are generally likable, they go on completely unbelievable madcap adventures, the dialog is silly, and generally things turn out OK in the end. There’s no redeeming literary value and if you have any trouble suspending your disbelief, these are not the books for you. I’ve read a lot of them over the past few weeks and my mood is considerably better, so they were just what I needed. I also picked up [The Muse](https://www.amazon.com/Muse-Novel-Jessie-Burton-ebook/dp/B017H7AD8C/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1492614504&sr=8-3&keywords=jessie+burton), by Jessie Burton, largely because I was shopping in a train station bookstore without many options and I liked the cover. I’m glad I did. This story is told from two perspectives, one set in the late 1960s in London and one set in the 1930s in Andalusia. The plot revolves around the mystery of a painting discovered in the 60s and who exactly painted it three decades earlier. I’m not sure what’s next. ---
**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:** [April 19, 2017, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-april-2017-edition/783418/67 "2017-04-19T15:29:37Z")
> [@BetsQ](#): > > Last month, I requested recommendations for cheerful novels. I started with Lindsay Buroker’s Emporer’s Edge, which is the first in a series of bite-sized fantasy novels. The characters are generally likable, they go on completely unbelievable madcap adventures, the dialog is silly, and generally things turn out OK in the end. There’s no redeeming literary value and if you have any trouble suspending your disbelief, these are not the books for you. I’ve read a lot of them over the past few weeks and my mood is considerably better, so they were just what I needed. I’m reading the first one and yep, I would agree with your statement. It’s a fun read but I keep asking myself, “Do people REALLY do XYZ in real life?” If you enjoyed these, you might want to check out Patrick Weekes’ Rogues of the Republic series. Similar vein in the assemble a team of eccentrics and go on wild adventures, as I read I keep thinking “What would Loch - the heroine of Rogues - do?” ---
**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 19, 2017, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-april-2017-edition/783418/68 "2017-04-19T15:37:03Z")
Finished [Uprooted](https://www.amazon.com/Uprooted-Naomi-Novik/dp/0804179050/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1492615052&sr=8-1&keywords=uprooted+naomi+novik) by Naomi Novik, as recommended by **jsgoddess**. It was very engrossing and I was anxious to get back to it every time I laid it down, which was unfortunately a lot over the last week or so! A good solid fantasy read, although I never did warm up to The Dragon. I did want Agnieszka to pick out a cool witch name too! This morning, I read through [The Lowbrow Guide to World History](https://www.amazon.com/LowBrow-History-Michael-Powell-2004-01-01/dp/B01A64T9DS/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1492615474&sr=8-2&keywords=lowbrow+guide+to+history) by Michael Powell, so kindly lent to me by **DZedNConfused**. I finished it in one sitting and honestly can’t tell you what I learned. But it was light and fun, just the sort of thing I needed to pass the time, with real-life drama ramping up at home and work. If it makes me feel like I might know a future Jeopardy or Millionaire answer one day while sitting on the couch, well, that’s all I ask! Next up, in the same vein, [Unmentionable: the Victorian Lady’s Guide to Sex, Marriage, and Manners](https://www.amazon.com/Unmentionable-Victorian-Ladys-Marriage-Manners/dp/031635791X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1492616089&sr=1-1&keywords=unmentionable+the+victorian+lady%27s+guide+to+sex+marriage+and+manners). ---
**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:** [April 19, 2017, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-april-2017-edition/783418/69 "2017-04-19T15:42:28Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > This morning, I read through [The Lowbrow Guide to World History](https://www.amazon.com/LowBrow-History-Michael-Powell-2004-01-01/dp/B01A64T9DS/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1492615474&sr=8-2&keywords=lowbrow+guide+to+history) by Michael Powell, so kindly lent to me by **DZedNConfused**. I finished it in one sitting and honestly can’t tell you what I learned. But it was light and fun, just the sort of thing I needed to pass the time, with real-life drama ramping up at home and work. If it makes me feel like I might know a future Jeopardy or Millionaire answer one day while sitting on the couch, well, that’s all I ask! Basically 😃 Pass it on to someone in need of a laugh if you don’t wish to keep it. ---
**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:** [April 19, 2017, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-april-2017-edition/783418/70 "2017-04-19T16:12:25Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > I’ve just started **Lost City of the Incas** , written by Hiram Bingham, the explorer who brought Machu Picchu to the world’s attention. Bingham, who was a tall, strapping, good-looking guy, and who wore a fedora, was the prototype Indiana Jones. While searching for the Inca city of Vilcabamba in 1911, he was told by a local farmer of “some ruins” at the top of a nearby mountain, and Bingham stumbled upon one of the world’s premier Inca sites. Huh - didn’t know he was later elected to the U.S. Senate, and got censured!: [Hiram Bingham III - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiram_Bingham_III#Politics) ---
**Author:** ![BetsQ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/fbc32d/32.png) [@BetsQ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BetsQ)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2017, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-april-2017-edition/783418/71 "2017-04-19T16:14:18Z")
> [@DZedNConfused](#): > > If you enjoyed these, you might want to check out Patrick Weekes’ Rogues of the Republic series. Similar vein in the assemble a team of eccentrics and go on wild adventures, as I read I keep thinking “What would Loch - the heroine of Rogues - do?” Added to my list. Thanks! ---
**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:** [April 19, 2017, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-april-2017-edition/783418/72 "2017-04-19T16:22:51Z")
> [@BetsQ](#): > > Added to my list. Thanks! Let me know what you think! 😃 I love it when other people like the same books. ---
**Author:** ![BrassyPhrase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ea666f/32.png) [@BrassyPhrase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrassyPhrase)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2017, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-april-2017-edition/783418/73 "2017-04-19T20:13:52Z")
> [@Sangahyando](#): > > I greatly liked Bujold’s Vorkosigan novels, but couldn’t get, much, into the Chalion material. I found \*The Curse of Chalion \* good-ish; but got bogged down in, and came to find annoying, _Paladin of Souls_ – packed it in maybe halfway through. Have tried no more “Chalion”. Feel sometimes that I’m hard to please, not in a good way ! That’s funny. She had loaned me some of Vorkosigan too and I tried reading one ( **Shards of Honor** , I think). I got about halfway thru it and felt like, “Urrgh, this is like a bad romance novel” and returned it to her. When I told her I didn’t care for it, she said, “Oh, they are but it ends up being interesting in the series…” That’s when I realized the other five or so books she lent me were that series. I’ll probably try another one though, just to make sure. **The Collapsing Empire** by Scalzi was awesome! He needs to get busy writing on that series. I didn’t start the Old Man’s War series until it was over, so I didn’t have to wait. I’m already chomping at the bit. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2017, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-april-2017-edition/783418/74 "2017-04-20T01:11:42Z")
> [@BrassyPhrase](#): > > That’s funny. She had loaned me some of Vorkosigan too and I tried reading one ( **Shards of Honor** , I think). I got about halfway thru it and felt like, “Urrgh, this is like a bad romance novel” and returned it to her. When I told her I didn’t care for it, she said, “Oh, they are but it ends up being interesting in the series…” That’s when I realized the other five or so books she lent me were that series. I’ll probably try another one though, just to make sure Shards of Honor is the most “romancy” of the Vorkosigan books I read (though still not nearly as romancy as the Sharing Knife books). The Miles books are different. You might think it’s in a good way, though I was very fond of Cordelia as a main character. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2017, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-april-2017-edition/783418/75 "2017-04-20T14:20:27Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > I’ve just started **Lost City of the Incas** , written by Hiram Bingham, the explorer who brought Machu Picchu to the world’s attention. Bingham, who was a tall, strapping, good-looking guy, and who wore a fedora, was the prototype Indiana Jones. While searching for the Inca city of Vilcabamba in 1911, he was told by a local farmer of “some ruins” at the top of a nearby mountain, and Bingham stumbled upon one of the world’s premier Inca sites. I may pick that one up. I recently read something similar: _Jungle of Stone: The Extraordinary Journey of John L. Stephens and Frederick Catherwood, and the Discovery of the Lost Civilization of the Maya_ > **[Jungle of Stone: The Extraordinary Journey of John L. Stephens and Frederick...](https://www.amazon.ca/Jungle-Stone-Extraordinary-Catherwood-Civilization/dp/0062407392)** > > Jungle of Stone: The Extraordinary Journey of John L. Stephens and Frederick Catherwood, and the Discovery of the Lost Civilization of the Maya: Carlsen, William: 9780062407399: Books - Amazon.ca This was published last year - and it’s an awesome read. A buddy story of two very dissimilar men who “discovered” the Maya (they didn’t really - what they did, was provide the outside world with the first accurate look at the ancient Maya ruins) - all while travelling through a vicious war … Stephens was a US ambassador! (He gave up his mission when he couldn’t find any central American government actually in existence to be the ambassador _to_). ---
**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:** [April 20, 2017, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-april-2017-edition/783418/76 "2017-04-20T16:46:42Z")
Just finished **Entangled: The Hidden Lives of Hair.** Very interesting, with a lot of historical/sociological info I’d never heard of. Warning: Some of this info is not what you necessarily want to read while (or just after) eating. Also finished **Remembering Laughter**. Not bad. Well written, but I thought the author was too hard on one of the characters. Just started **Clownfish Blues** , by Tim Dorsey. It’s the latest Serge Storms novel. ---
**Author:** ![movingfinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@movingfinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/movingfinger)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2017, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-april-2017-edition/783418/77 "2017-04-21T05:33:15Z")
I just started **A German Requiem** by Phillip Kerr. Another Bernie Gunther hard-boiled detective story, this one set not in prewar Germany but in 1947, where Gunther must cope with the American, British, French and Russian occupying forces in Gerrmany, and with the corruption and misery of post-war Berlin. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2017, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-april-2017-edition/783418/78 "2017-04-21T13:48:02Z")
> [@movingfinger](#): > > I just started **A German Requiem** by Phillip Kerr. Another Bernie Gunther hard-boiled detective story, this one set not in prewar Germany but in 1947, where Gunther must cope with the American, British, French and Russian occupying forces in Gerrmany, and with the corruption and misery of post-war Berlin. It’s an awesome series - a favorite of mine. The latest of which was just published last month. > **[Prussian Blue (A Bernie Gunther Novel): Kerr, Philip: 9780399177057: Amazon.com:...](https://www.amazon.com/Prussian-Blue-Bernie-Gunther-Novel/dp/0399177051)** > > Prussian Blue (A Bernie Gunther Novel) \[Kerr, Philip\] on Amazon.com. \*FREE\* shipping on qualifying offers. Prussian Blue (A Bernie Gunther Novel) One of the few series I know of that hasn’t suffered from sequel fatigue. ---
**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:** [April 22, 2017, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-april-2017-edition/783418/79 "2017-04-22T19:46:18Z")
I finished **The Silver Ghost** by Charlotte MacLeod. I am, sadly, approaching the end of the Max and Sarah books. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2017, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-april-2017-edition/783418/80 "2017-04-24T12:37:19Z")
Just finished _Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War_, by Tony Horwitz. I loved it. ---
**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:** [April 24, 2017, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-april-2017-edition/783418/81 "2017-04-24T18:52:01Z")
I got in a lot of reading this weekend, and finished Dan Chaon’s dark, creepy, contemporary Cleveland thriller _Ill Will_. I also finished _Our Lives, Our Fortunes and Our Sacred Honor: The Forging of American Independence, 1774-1776_ by Richard R. Beeman, which could have been better-edited but was a pretty interesting look at the work of the Continental Congress through July 4, 1776, and _A Thread Across the Ocean: The Heroic Story of the Transatlantic Cable_ by John Steele Gordon, a slim but well-written volume which left me amazed at how determined and persistent Cyrus Field and his engineers were. As I wrote before about these books: all different; all good. > [@jsgoddess](#): > > Just finished _Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War_, by Tony Horwitz. I loved it. I did, too! I recently met the hard-core Confederate reenactor who is prominently featured in it (he’s quite a bit mellower now). My favorite line of the book: an elderly black woman in New Orleans tells Horwitz, “I don’t mind [white Southerners] remembering the Civil War - as long as they remember they _lost_ it.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-april-2017-edition/783418.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-april-2017-edition/783418.md?page=5)