# Khadaji's Whatcha Readin' thread -- August 2018 Edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 30, 2018, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-august-2018-edition/818787 "2018-07-30T00:33:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**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:** [July 30, 2018, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-august-2018-edition/818787/1 "2018-07-30T00:33:34Z")
Here we are, August, the western US is roasting, the eastern US is paddling down Main Street. I hope the rest of the world is hangin in…100 days until Halloween! I’ve been reading just haven’t been sharing here. Naughty, I know. I finished the three books so far in SJ Himes’ series\* The Beacon Hill Sorceror\*. Magic, vampires and power suits in the old part of Boston. Keeping with the magic and necromancy, I’m currently reading_The Hungry Dragon Cookie Company_ a collection of short stories by L G Estrella featuring their characters from The Unconventional Heroes series. It’s light potato chip reading with lots of snark. So 'sup all? * * * Khadaji was one of the earlier members of the SDMB, and he was well-known as a kindly person who always had something encouraging to say, particularly in the self-improvement threads. He was also a voracious, omnivorous reader, and he started these monthly book threads. Sadly, he passed away in January 2013, and we decided to rename these monthly threads in his honor. ---
**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:** [July 30, 2018, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-august-2018-edition/818787/2 "2018-07-30T00:38:30Z")
Last month: [Halfway through the year!](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=857748) ---
**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:** [July 30, 2018, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-august-2018-edition/818787/3 "2018-07-30T14:59:07Z")
I’m on a good streak right now. I read [The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11324722-the-righteous-mind) By Jonathan Haidt. I found it fascinating; it talked about how Liberals base morality on one central principle (care/harm), as do Libertarians (liberty/oppression), but Conservatives base their morality on six different dichotomies. I know some people on these boards love to hate on Conservatives, so if you don’t like reading a book that treats the Conservative way of thinking with dignity and respect then you won’t like this. But I liked it. In fiction, I read [Flowers in the Attic](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43448.Flowers_in_the_Attic) by V.C. Andrews, and I am so glad I did. I abandoned the book I had been reading before, because I just didn’t care about what happened next in the book. So I was looking for a book that had a bit more suspense in it, and this book delivered! I loved it, and will probably read the sequel at some point. ---
**Author:** ![Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barkis_is_Willin)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2018, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-august-2018-edition/818787/4 "2018-07-30T15:10:18Z")
I’m about a quarter of the way through [Sleeping Giants](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25733990-sleeping-giants?ac=1&from_search=true) by Sylvain Neuvel. The story is told through interviews and journal updates, kind of like Dracula. So far I’m entertained. It’s about finding a giant robot (maybe?) buried in pieces around the world. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2018, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-august-2018-edition/818787/5 "2018-07-30T16:44:17Z")
Rereading **[John Dies at the End](http://a.co/dQwZ1IB)**. I dunno, I’m in a reading slump lately, where I can’t seem to make myself pick up and start something new. I keep rereading things I’ve read before. ---
**Author:** ![CelticKnot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/celticknot/32/3392_2.png) [@CelticKnot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CelticKnot)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2018, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-august-2018-edition/818787/6 "2018-07-30T16:50:16Z")
Just finished _In Farleigh Field_ this morning. I haven’t decided what to pick up yet: WWII suspense–Jews and Christians trying to escape or Andrew Clements books I might want to recommend to my students. I guess technically I have 2 days to decide 😉 ---
**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:** [July 30, 2018, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-august-2018-edition/818787/7 "2018-07-30T17:12:42Z")
> [@Max\_Torque](#): > > Rereading **[John Dies at the End](http://a.co/dQwZ1IB)**. I dunno, I’m in a reading slump lately, where I can’t seem to make myself pick up and start something new. I keep rereading things I’ve read before. Me too, maybe it’s something in the water? ---
**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:** [July 30, 2018, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-august-2018-edition/818787/8 "2018-07-30T17:21:04Z")
A quickie: just finished [Interworld](https://www.amazon.com/InterWorld-Trilogy-Neil-Gaiman/dp/0061238988), a Neil Gaiman/Michael Reaves collaboration about a teenager who discovers he can walk between worlds. It’s yer standard YA fare–nothing amazing, but not terrible. ---
**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:** [July 30, 2018, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-august-2018-edition/818787/9 "2018-07-30T17:41:00Z")
Recent reads _A Company of Swans_, by Eva Ibbotson. Romance, YA-ish? Confusing mishmash of genres that didn’t feel like the author knew quite what to do with the characters. _The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary_, by Simon Winchester. Really enjoyable non-fiction about, well, what the title says. I found it profoundly melancholy. _Bass Ackwards and Belly Up_, by Elizabeth Craft. DNF. YA with characters I couldn’t tell apart at all. _Fool’s Gold_, by Gillian Tett. Non-fiction about the 2008 banking meltdown from the POV of several J.P. Morgan bankers. Very readable and informative. I’m enjoying my reading in this little nf niche. _A Bespoke Murder_, by Edward Marston. DNF. Historical mystery set during WWI. The author tells and tells and tells and never shows. _Clouds in My Coffee_, by Julie Mulhern. Still love this historical mystery series set in the 70s. The voice is great. _Mayhem at the Orient Express_, by Kylie Logan. Cozy mystery. Surprisingly good. _Pat of Silver Bush_ & _Mistress Pat_, by L.M. Montgomery. The first book is good but a little frustrating. The second ramps up the frustrating part, with a character I’d like to shake and an ending that’s all wrong. _You Say Potato: A Book About Accents_, by Ben and David Crystal. Non-fiction about English-language accents. It’s okay. I didn’t feel like I learned anything. _Lethal Bayou Beauty_, by Jana Deleon. Really funny cozy mystery. _Fourth Comings_ and _Perfect Fifths_, by Megan McCafferty. YA, I guess. Not good. Earlier books in the series were very enjoyable. Stop after 2. _The Thing About Love_, by Julie James. A rather limp romance. _The Dark Days Club_, by Alison Goodman. Historical urban fantasy, if that’s a thing. Not a lot of new ground, but things are handled well. _The Cater Street Hangman_, by Anne Perry. Atmospheric, but with a weirdly abrupt ending. ---
**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:** [July 30, 2018, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-august-2018-edition/818787/10 "2018-07-30T18:21:07Z")
> [@wonky](#): > > Historical urban fantasy, if that’s a thing. It is. I’ve read some really good books about magic during the Victorian Era. KJ Charles Magpie Series is one, it 's m/m romance tho… Gail Carriger’s Parasol books would fit in that category due to the vampires, werewolves and ghosts. ---
**Author:** ![BetsQ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/fbc32d/32.png) [@BetsQ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BetsQ)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2018, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-august-2018-edition/818787/11 "2018-08-01T20:45:45Z")
I recently finished Naomi Novak’s Spinning Silver, which is essentially a fairy tale. It is wonderful. While I’m here, I’ll answer Left Hand of Dorkness’s question from the July thread about The Power. I would recommend it. It is well written, has an interesting premise, and the characters are the right amount of flawed. I typically like things that examine the intersections between biology, culture, and gender, which this book does. ---
**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 1, 2018, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-august-2018-edition/818787/12 "2018-08-01T21:40:11Z")
I have checked out 8 books in the last 3 weeks and finished none. This is a new low for me. I’m re reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire for about the 10th time. ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2018, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-august-2018-edition/818787/13 "2018-08-02T04:13:16Z")
I will try to do better job of staying current in this thread. First, I need to share a book that was so bad that I still feel insulted. _The Meg_ by Steve Alten. The voice is 70s male. The science is wrong in every regard about every creature, not just the shark. The tone is stilted. Continuity is a myth. Implausibility hasn’t just been raised to a new art form, it has left the atmosphere, passed the Oort cloud and headed for interstellar space. I’m still planning to the movie, confident in the knowledge that it is better than the book. I’ve just re-read _Radiance_ by Grace Draven. It’s a fantasy book about a dynastic marriage between two different races. I highly recommend it. I also recommend Tsumiko and the Enslaved Fox. Also fantasy, with a Japanese flavor, set in modern times. The book is very different than other things I have read lately. It’s calm, almost measured. It felt relaxing to read it. Coming up I have either _Dreadful Company_, which is the sequel to _Strange Practice_, an urban fantasy about a doctor who tends those other than human, or _Arabella and the Battle of Venus_, which is the sequel to _Arabella of Mars_, a steampunk adventure that features sailing ships in space. ---
**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 2, 2018, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-august-2018-edition/818787/14 "2018-08-02T13:04:06Z")
> [@Sunny\_Daze](#): > > Coming up I have either _Dreadful Company_, which is the sequel to _Strange Practice_, an urban fantasy about a doctor who tends those other than human, or _Arabella and the Battle of Venus_, which is the sequel to _Arabella of Mars_, a steampunk adventure that features sailing ships in space. Strange Practice is on my list! How was it? I’m guessing good if you’re interested in the sequel. ---
**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 2, 2018, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-august-2018-edition/818787/15 "2018-08-02T13:23:09Z")
So, twice before I was reading a book, had unrelated nausea while reading said book, and then having the unshakeable connection between the book and the nausea that actually prevents me from finishing the book. It had happened twice before, with _Memoirs of an Invisible Man_ and _Book of the New Sun_. I forced myself to go back and finish Memoirs, and it never got better. I’ve never tried to finish the Wolfe. Now it has happened again, with _The Curious World of Calpurnia Tate_. I loved the first book, so this makes me sad, but the way my brain makes these connections leads me to assume I’ll never finish it. Bah and humbug. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2018, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-august-2018-edition/818787/16 "2018-08-02T13:46:25Z")
_All Our Wrong Todays_ by Elan Mastai. A SF novel that got some good reviews. But at this point I’m not sure I’m sold on it. _One Minute to Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War_ by Michael Dobbs. It’s pretty good. Dobbs devotes a lot of pages to the Russians and the Cubans, who often get sidelined in histories of the Cuban Missile Crisis. ---
**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 2, 2018, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-august-2018-edition/818787/17 "2018-08-02T13:52:12Z")
Update: \*\*Got I Let You Go \*\*by Clare Mackintosh yesterday and finished it last night. Was it good? Yeah, but I wouldn’t say you HAVE to read it. It’s a psychological thriller and I’ve decided I am so over those. **Flapper: A Madcap Story of Sex, Style, Celebrity and the Women Who Made America Modern** is in the mailbox as of last night. The library didn’t have it so I had to buy a used copy. ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2018, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-august-2018-edition/818787/18 "2018-08-02T17:57:53Z")
> [@The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](#): > > Strange Practice is on my list! How was it? I’m guessing good if you’re interested in the sequel. I liked it. It’s British, halfway between Ben Aaronovitch and Gail Carriger in tone. The medical aspects are interesting. I’d like to see that expanded. ---
**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 2, 2018, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-august-2018-edition/818787/19 "2018-08-02T18:00:48Z")
> [@Sunny\_Daze](#): > > I liked it. It’s British, halfway between Ben Aaronovitch and Gail Carriger in tone. The medical aspects are interesting. I’d like to see that expanded. Two of my favorites… dang I’m never going to get my TBR pile gone… ---
**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 3, 2018, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-august-2018-edition/818787/20 "2018-08-03T12:32:34Z")
Just finished _Sparrow Hill Road_, by Seanan McGuire. It’s a collection of short stories about a hitchhiking ghost that’s the subject of a number of urban legends. It’s a stand alone, but I hope the author writes more books about this character, since this one is excellent. Just started _Empire Express: Building the First Transcontinental Railroad_, by David Haward Bain. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-august-2018-edition/818787.md?page=2)