# Khadaji's Whatcha Readin' thread -- August 2017 Edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 30, 2017, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-august-2017-edition/792449 "2017-07-30T17:06:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**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:** [August 19, 2017, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-august-2017-edition/792449/61 "2017-08-19T20:13:52Z")
Finished _Black Powder War_, by Naomi Novik, which I enjoyed, although there were a few plot twists I saw coming. Currently reading _Home_, a thriller by Harlan Coben, the first one of his books I’ve read. Reminds me of the Spenser novels somewhat. ---
**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:** [August 19, 2017, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-august-2017-edition/792449/62 "2017-08-19T20:50:55Z")
Finished _Denton Little’s Still Not Dead_, by Lance Rubin. Very entertaining YA, ostensibly SF though the SF-ness is not well-developed at all. Really funny, with great characters, especially the sidekick. _Deadweather and Sunrise_, by Geoff Rodkey. Also very entertaining, this time a middle-grade adventure in a fantasy-ish setting. No magic, but it’s a near-Earth analogue. Very funny, with a great sidekick. ---
**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:** [August 20, 2017, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-august-2017-edition/792449/63 "2017-08-20T16:31:24Z")
Finished Tony Kushner’s _Lincoln: The Screenplay_. Very similar to the Spielberg movie but with some minor differences. A fascinating, well-written look at the last months of Lincoln’s life, fighting to abolish slavery through the 13th Amendment. Also finished _HMS Ulysses_ by Alistair MacLean, his first novel. Relentlessly grim about the exhaustion and cold of a WWII Murmansk convoy run; didn’t make me eager to read another book by him. I listened to an audiobook of Alan Dean Foster’s first sf novel, _The Tar-Aiym Krang_ (1972), about a small group of explorers looking for an alien superweapon. Meh. Much more fun were Herge’s _Destination Moon_ and _Explorers on the Moon_, in which Tintin, Capt. Haddock, Prof. Calculus and Snowy go to the Moon in a big red-and-white rocket in the early Fifties. Biggest WTF moment: no fewer than THREE stowaways aboard! ---
**Author:** ![Ignatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@Ignatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignatz)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2017, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-august-2017-edition/792449/64 "2017-08-21T02:14:49Z")
**The Miracle of Dunkirk-The True Story of Operation Dynamo** by Walter Lord (1982) reissued. Just finished rereading **The Day the World Came to Town** by Jim Defede (about the people aboard the 65+ airplanes that landed and parked for 5 days at Gander, Newfoundand, on 9/11/2001. ---
**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:** [August 21, 2017, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-august-2017-edition/792449/65 "2017-08-21T04:09:53Z")
Finished _Dark Currents_, by Lindsay Buroker. Such an enjoyable series. I love spending time with these characters, especially Amaranthe. _Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley and Me_, Elizabeth, by EL Konigsburg. It’s pretty slight, but enjoyable. Konigsburg captures something about childhood really well, though there was a little too much left to my imagination to fill in. DNFed _The Pluto Files_, by Neil deGrasse Tyson. I found this book tedious. I got about halfway and just didn’t care, despite wanting to love it. Reading _The Spirit Lens_, by Carol Berg. ---
**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:** [August 21, 2017, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-august-2017-edition/792449/66 "2017-08-21T04:14:45Z")
Bah. I forgot to add things. DNFed _The Sayers Swindle_, by Victoria Abbott. I thought the first in this cozy series was good. This one just irritated the hell out of me. Finished _Suddenly One Summer_, by Julie James. Contemporary romance without a lot of zing. I’m down to 20 books in my currently reading pile! ---
**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:** [August 21, 2017, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-august-2017-edition/792449/67 "2017-08-21T12:11:07Z")
Finished _Home_, by Harlan Coben, which I enjoyed more than I thought I would. Just started _Caesar’s Last Breath: Decoding the Secrets of the Air Around Us_, Sam Kean’s latest science book. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2017, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-august-2017-edition/792449/68 "2017-08-21T12:32:43Z")
Finished re-reading **Metropolis** by Thea von Harbou. Most of it follows the movie rather closely (or, actualy, vice-versa. The book was apparently written first), although there are a few differences, mostly to make things more visually striking. So Freder spends time at a Pater Noster machine (which runs one of those primitive elevators), not a clock-like device. we don’t get Rotwang’;s Mad Scientist lab when Rotwang makes his robot look like Maria – he simply fabricates the parts. And so on. There’s drug use during the Yoshiwara scenes, which aren’t even hinted at in the movie (it’s not even stated in the movie that the revelers are drunk, although that seems reasonable). Some of the scenes that only became known after the discovery of a complete version in Argentina are in the book, too. So they arguably shouldn’t have been a surprise to me when I saw the restoration. But it had been too long since I read the book. Most interesting was the fact that there are two scenes in the book between Joh Frederson (the Master of Metropolis) and his mother, which have no counterpart in the film. In fact, one of them is the concluding scene – there is no “Mediator between the Brain and the Hands must be the Heart” thing. I’m reading [B he League of Regrettable Super Heroes\*\* as bedside reading now. I’;m not surprised I’m unfamiliar with a lot of the Golden Age weirdos, but I’m surprised at how few of the Silver Age ones I know. There were a lot of strange comics that never showed up on our newsstands > **[The League of Regrettable Superheroes: Half-Baked Heroes from Comic Book...](https://www.amazon.com/League-Regrettable-Superheroes-Half-Baked-History/dp/1594747636)** > > The League of Regrettable Superheroes: Half-Baked Heroes from Comic Book History \[Morris, Jon\] on Amazon.com. \*FREE\* shipping on qualifying offers. The League of Regrettable Superheroes: Half-Baked Heroes from Comic Book History I’m starting **The Purple Cloud** by M. P. Shiel now. I’ve wanted to read it for some time, and blundered across a copy. On audio I finished up two of Clive Cussler’s latest – **The Nighthawk** and [B\The Cutthroat\*\*. Cussler, as I’ve said before, is my Guilty PLeasure. I note that THe Cutthroat in that book never actually cuts any throats. I also re-read on audio Frederick Forsyth’s **The Kill List**. I’m now reading Terry Pratchett’s **Making Steam** and re-reading C.S. Forester’s **Lieutenant Hornblower**. ---
**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:** [August 21, 2017, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-august-2017-edition/792449/69 "2017-08-21T14:06:17Z")
nm ---
**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:** [August 21, 2017, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-august-2017-edition/792449/70 "2017-08-21T14:27:13Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > _Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley and Me_, Elizabeth, by EL Konigsburg. It’s pretty slight, but enjoyable. Konigsburg captures something about childhood really well, though there was a little too much left to my imagination to fill in. I read that one several times as a kid because I would read anything that had to do with witches, ghosts, etc. It was a bit vague and parts went over my head. I was relieved that the toad got away! ---
**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:** [August 21, 2017, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-august-2017-edition/792449/71 "2017-08-21T14:29:34Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > I read that one several times as a kid because I would read anything that had to do with witches, ghosts, etc. It was a bit vague and parts went over my head. I was relieved that the toad got away! Me too! ---
**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:** [August 21, 2017, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-august-2017-edition/792449/72 "2017-08-21T14:31:53Z")
Currently reading _Dreamseller: An Addiction Memoir_, by Brandon Novak. (Sorry, can’t do links right now). This was my son’s favorite book as a teen, he read it over and over. It’s about heroin addiction, shocking, but I’ve read such things before. ---
**Author:** ![peedin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peedin/32/14095_2.png) [@peedin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peedin)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2017, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-august-2017-edition/792449/73 "2017-08-21T15:33:42Z")
I was so excited to start _The Little Friend_ by Donna Tartt. _The Goldfinch_ is in my top 5 favorite books and I love _The Secret History_. Bad news is that I could not finish _The Little Friend._ I was hooked from page 1 but after about 100 pages it all went pear-shaped. If you want my copy, I’m happy to mail it to you. ---
**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:** [August 21, 2017, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-august-2017-edition/792449/74 "2017-08-21T16:42:19Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > Finished > > _Dark Currents_, by Lindsay Buroker. Such an enjoyable series. I love spending time with these characters, especially Amaranthe. Let me rec Ms Buroker’s Flash Gold Series, it’s 5 novellas so pretty quick to read and there’s a decent amount of character development and plot. I started **Forged in Blood I** this morning so I am just a few books ahead of you. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2017, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-august-2017-edition/792449/75 "2017-08-21T22:51:22Z")
I’m reading “Hillbilly Elegy” by JD Vance. It’s quite good. I highly recommend it. ---
**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:** [August 21, 2017, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-august-2017-edition/792449/76 "2017-08-21T23:00:52Z")
I finished **Hot Lead, COld Iron** by Ari Marmell today. It was good, not stupendous, but okay. I really don’t have a yen to read the next book though, there was waaaaaaaaay to much 1930s slang used, it felt like he had watched too many James Cagney movie before writing, and the editing was horrid, the book was littered with fragmented sentences. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2017, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-august-2017-edition/792449/77 "2017-08-22T00:36:09Z")
I just finished two books on vacation: **Every Man a Menace** , a grim potboiler about a giant ecstasy shipment and all the shitty people involved, was well-written but outside my usual reading habits. I’m not gonna go looking for more by this author. If you like grim books about shitty criminals, though, you could do worse than this grim book about shitty criminals. The other one was a delight. **Catherynne Valente** ’s latest, [The Refrigerator Monologues](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32714267-the-refrigerator-monologues), is a series of vignettes about women and the superheroes who get them killed. If you’ve ever used the phrases “Social Justice Warrior” or “Ethics in game journalism” unironically, you’re gonna hate this book so much. But Valente is razor-sharp funny and deeply creative, and even as she skewers all the superheroes and villains she invents, I found myself wanting to read those comics. Short and wonderful. ---
**Author:** ![The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_wind_of_my_soul)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2017, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-august-2017-edition/792449/78 "2017-08-28T15:37:04Z")
I finished [The Book of Life](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16054217-the-book-of-life), which was a huge undertaking because it’s 561 pages and I read it on audio book. Since the only time I typically listen to audio books is in the car commuting to/from work, and I don’t ALWAYS listen to audio books during that time, it took me four months to finish this book. It’s the last in a trilogy about a witch getting into a forbidden relationship with a vampire while tracking down a book that explains the origins of supernatural species. It’s my favorite book in the series, because I hate reading the relationship between the witch and vampire, and those characters were separated for a good length of the book, so I didn’t have to suffer through their impossibly cheesy lines and behavior. I read [Still Alice](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2153405.Still_Alice), which chronicles a college professor’s descent into early onset Alzheimer’s disease. I wasn’t expecting it to hit close to home, since I don’t have Alzheimer’s in my family. But at the beginning of this year, an English professor I had been close to at my college died from Alzheimer’s, and I kept thinking to myself that this must have been how his life was. It’s a sad story, the kind that keeps you flipping pages in horror. Like you know it’s going to get worse, but you just can’t look away, either. I mean, it’s elegantly done, it’s not some crass horror show, but the fact remains that Alzheimer’s is a pretty ugly disease. I read [But What If We’re Wrong? Thinking About the Past as if it Were the Present](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27068734-but-what-if-we-re-wrong-thinking-about-the-present-as-if-it-were-the-pa), which I discovered on an SD thread earlier this year (link [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=815241)). I very much enjoyed this book because it was a nice change of pace from the sanctimonious scientific tone that can be present in a lot of modern day books. I feel like there’s a tendency nowadays to proclaim anything backed by science or credible data as unshakeable fact, and anything where we still have a lot to learn about the subject as nonsense. I don’t think it’s en vogue to admit that there’s a lot we still don’t know, even though it’s true, and it was refreshing to see someone so openly admit that there’s lots we don’t know, and to flex his creative muscles and muse about the possibilities. I read [The Legacy](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10516163-the-legacy) by Katherine Webb, which is a dual timeline mystery. I liked it, but honestly, I think it’s because I’m such a sucker for anything dual timeline. It wasn’t the most well-written of that genre. Finally, I read [Sleep Paralysis](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9407559-sleep-paralysis), and I’m still trying to make up my mind exactly how I felt about it. Some things about the book annoyed me. For instance, the author seemed overly prone to relating the book to his own personal experiences with sleep paralysis, which annoyed me when I didn’t share those experiences. A third of the book is devoted to seeing, like, spirits or evil beings when you’re in sleep paralysis, even though only 20% of people who experience SP see that, so I thought that was weird. I also think he spent excessive time talking about the myths and legends surrounding the phenomenon. On the other hand, it was the most in-depth piece of writing I have found on sleep paralysis, which I appreciate. So I guess I would sum it up by saying that while I didn’t particularly like the book, I don’t regret reading it, either. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2017, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-august-2017-edition/792449/79 "2017-08-28T15:41:33Z")
Just finished **Seven Surrenders** , the sequel to last year’s Hugo nominee **Too Like the Lightning**. Like that book, it’s bizarrely written – the conceit is that a 25th-century criminal is obsessed with 18th-century enlightenment authors and is attempting to describe his society using enlightenment tropes–and it’s very dense, and often confusing, and incredibly creative, and very very talky. Unlike the first book, though, a lot of mysteries are explained and unraveled, and especially in the second half of the book, a lot happens. I prefer it significantly to the first in the series, but think the first was necessary. It’s not for everyone; hopefully you can tell by the description whether it’s for you. ---
**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:** [August 28, 2017, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-august-2017-edition/792449/80 "2017-08-28T15:51:15Z")
I started this morning on _The Special Ones_, by Em Bailey. Sorry, can’t link at the moment. Anyway, this is a YA book about kids who are kidnapped and forced to play roles as leaders in a cult. It wasn’t working for me, and according to reviews the second half of the book is worse than the first, so I’m ditching it. I only mention it because I read 87 pages and I like to account for my reading time, however wasted. 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-august-2017-edition/792449.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-august-2017-edition/792449.md?page=5)