# Khadaji's Whatcha Readin' Thread - December 2015 Edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 29, 2015, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-december-2015-edition/738900 "2015-11-29T01:43:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**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:** [December 3, 2015, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-december-2015-edition/738900/21 "2015-12-03T23:33:00Z")
I’m about halfway through _The Cold Dish_, the first Longmire mystery by Craig Johnson. After finishing that I intend to go back to reading my way through the Richard Bolitho series by Alexander Kent (who was really Douglas Reeman). ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2015, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-december-2015-edition/738900/22 "2015-12-05T11:22:24Z")
Just finished _Thunderbird_ by\*\* Jack McDevitt\*\*. It’s a sequel to his 1996 book, _Ancient Shores_, in which a yacht and boathouse were found buried beneath the North Dakota prairie where the shore of an ancient lake used to be. In the new book the interior of the boathouse, which is on a Sioux reservation, is investigated further and great discoveries made! Very enjoyable and very likely to have sequels. I checked my notes on the first book, which I re-read a few years ago, and found I had made a comparison to Clifford Simak, which is also the first author that came to mind reading Thunderhead. ---
**Author:** ![movingfinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@movingfinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/movingfinger)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2015, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-december-2015-edition/738900/23 "2015-12-06T07:48:18Z")
I just finished re-reading **Relic** by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. It is the book in which FBI agent Pendergast makes his first appearance. ---
**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:** [December 7, 2015, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-december-2015-edition/738900/24 "2015-12-07T05:17:56Z")
Just started Andy Weir’s _The Martian_, having enjoyed the movie very much. I’m listening to the audiobook and it moves at a brisk pace (despite the occasional but usually quickly-averted risk of bogging down in math and science). ---
**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:** [December 7, 2015, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-december-2015-edition/738900/25 "2015-12-07T05:44:30Z")
Just finished reading Seanan McGuire’s Incryptid series. Light, urban fantasy. Next up, Anne Bishop re-read. The Others series. ---
**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:** [December 7, 2015, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-december-2015-edition/738900/26 "2015-12-07T15:24:15Z")
Finished _A Delicate Truth_, by John le Carre. A British antiterrorist operation in Gibraltar goes horribly wrong, and the private secretary to the junior minister responsible for the debacle is determined to foil the cover-up. Published two years ago, I liked this one better than much of his recent stuff. I like his early Cold War works better, as his recent protagonists seem to suffer too much angst. Not this one though. Next up: _Agent 6_, by Tom Rob Smith. The third in his trilogy featuring Agent Leo Demidov of the Soviet secret police. ---
**Author:** ![lisiate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f05b48/32.png) [@lisiate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisiate)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2015, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-december-2015-edition/738900/27 "2015-12-07T21:58:31Z")
_A Delicate Truth_ sounds good then, I stopped reading le Carre after _The Constant Gardener_. I’m up to _His Excellence Eugene Rougon_ in my Zola marathon. I found the previous novel _Abbe Mouret’s Transgression_ a bit tedious, but things are back on track with this one. I also was given Randall Munroe’s _[Thing Explainer](http://xkcd.com/thing-explainer/)_ for my birthday and it is excellent. My daughter was fascinated by it so I started reading it to her last night as well. ---
**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:** [December 8, 2015, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-december-2015-edition/738900/28 "2015-12-08T19:03:01Z")
Finished up _Alias Hook_. It started out a perfectly decent fantasy novel and wound up a romance, ugh. Also, the rules of the magic were quite wishy-washy and vague. Next up, [The Child Garden](http://www.amazon.com/Child-Garden-Novel-Catriona-McPherson/dp/0738745499/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1449601378&sr=1-1&keywords=the+child+garden) by Catriona McPherson. I hope it’s good. ---
**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:** [December 9, 2015, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-december-2015-edition/738900/29 "2015-12-09T01:28:19Z")
About halfway through _The Martian_ audiobook. Good stuff. Some relatively minor differences from the movie (which I now wanna see again!). ---
**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:** [December 9, 2015, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-december-2015-edition/738900/30 "2015-12-09T19:23:21Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > I always took Flashman’s vile character as an authorial device. Flashman’s a very bad person, allegedly writing his memoirs, and he doesn’t disguise that fact in the slightest - rapist, coward, murderer, and all the rest (though he mellows somewhat as he ages). The implicit trade-off is that the cynical reporting on the world events he’s engaged in Zelig-like can be trusted - because if he won’t lie about his own rotten self, he certainly won’t lie about the rottenness he encounters. 😉 Also, the implication is that the great heroes of the Empire were more “Flashman-like” than they would care to have admitted! 😃 Oh, I agree completely, both with the “cad as authorial voice” perspective and the probably Flashman-like qualities of many gents of the period / leaders of the British (or any contemporary) Empire. Just not my cup of tea really - loss though it may be. 😉 On another note, I’m perhaps 1/4 of the way through **[Undermajordomo Minor](http://www.amazon.com/Undermajordomo-Minor-Novel-Patrick-deWitt/dp/0062281208)** by Patrick DeWitt. Part myth, part mystery, all kookiness. I can’t make up my mind whether I’m actually enjoying it but I haven’t put it down, either. And only 40 pages to go on Harry W. Greene’s **[Tracks and Shadows: Field Biology as Art](http://www.amazon.com/Tracks-Shadows-Field-Biology-Art/dp/0520232755/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1449688853&sr=1-1&keywords=tracks+and+shadows+field+biology+as+art)**. I expected a little more field biology and a little less personal reminiscence of Greene’s academic career, though that may have been my issue. I get the feeling that I’m missing some points since I’m not conversant with the hot issues in herpetology, but Greene is fairly eloquent when he describes organisms in the field. I should have read his **[Snakes: The Evolution of Mystery in Nature](http://www.amazon.com/Snakes-Evolution-Directors-Associates-University/dp/0520200144/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8)** first, though. Loved his stuff in THIS book about the probably history of snake evolution based on mouth size / configuration and venom development. ---
**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:** [December 9, 2015, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-december-2015-edition/738900/31 "2015-12-09T19:26:32Z")
I’ve started John Scalzi’s _Fuzzy Nation_, a reinterpretation of H. Beam Piper’s 1962 sf book _Little Fuzzy_ (which I haven’t read), about the discovery of a race of cute little aliens who might be sentient. It’s pretty good. ---
**Author:** ![yanceylebeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yanceylebeef/32/12290_2.png) [@yanceylebeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yanceylebeef)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2015, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-december-2015-edition/738900/32 "2015-12-09T21:12:07Z")
I have spent the summer and fall re-reading all the Pratchett books, but I can’t bring myself to read Shepard’s Crown yet. I just…cant. Not yet. I’ve also finished [Slade House by David Mitchell](http://www.amazon.com/Slade-House-Novel-David-Mitchell/dp/0812998685/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1449695199&sr=8-1&keywords=slade+house). It’s in the Boneclocks universe, but a really spooky little ghost tale in it’s own right. I also finished [The Man From Primrose Lane by James Renner.](http://www.amazon.com/Man-Primrose-Lane-Novel-ebook/dp/B006ZLA6MU/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1449695287&sr=1-1&keywords=the+man+from+primrose+lane). Not really sure how to classify this, but it starts out as a Serial Killer procedural and I don’t want to say any more for fear of spoiling it. It was so good that I immediately started on [The Great Forgetting](http://www.amazon.com/Great-Forgetting-Novel-James-Renner-ebook/dp/B00WDXUFP2/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1449695390&sr=1-1&keywords=the+great+forgetting+james+renner), Renner’s latest. It’s another genre busting tale about conspiracy theories, genetic fidgeting, Nazis, DB Cooper and a man purse. So far, so good. ---
**Author:** ![Truman\_Burbank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@Truman\_Burbank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Truman_Burbank)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2015, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-december-2015-edition/738900/33 "2015-12-10T19:41:24Z")
Just finally found a copy of Richard Matheson’s **I Am Legend** , and have started it. ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2015, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-december-2015-edition/738900/34 "2015-12-12T03:08:25Z")
I always think I am going to get a lot of reading done around this time of the year (more indoor time, I guess) but the holidays have a way of sucking up all my free time. I recently read: _North American Lake Monsters_, by Nathan Ballingrud, which is supernatural/horror short stories … but most of them feature seedy or sad or down-and-out characters, and more of the time it’s the (realistic) situations they’re in that are creepier and more uncomfortable than the actual supernatural parts. It’s very good writing, but I found it to be a very chilling book (which I think was the intent). _The Things They Carried_, by Tim O’Brien, which is fiction based on his experiences during the Viet Nam war, so it was fascinating and also very sad. _The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons: The History of the Human Brain as Revealed by True Stories of Trauma, Madness, and Recovery_ by Sam Kean. This one was a lot of fun, non-fiction pop science, I would say in the same wheelhouse as Oliver Sacks type books about quirky brain-related case studies. I liked the way the book was organized, a loose chronology that was tied to major leaps in understanding how the brain works. _The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls_, by Anton DiSclafani. Eh, this was okay. A novel set during the Great Depression, about a teenage girl who is sent away from home in disgrace (you figure out really quickly what she did – I can’t tell whether or not the book intends for it to be obvious, or somehow believes that readers will be wondering all the way to the actual reveal toward the end). She ends up at a camp for wealthy Southern girls. I really did like the setting, and I think the author did a great job creating a very believable physical location in a particular era with its own customs and moods, but the plot seemed flat to me. The writing was a little sloppy, in small ways that annoyed me. Such as, the main character marvels that she has never met an adult man who wasn’t related to her before, and then about 10 pages later, she talks about having met a man who was an associate of her father’s. ---
**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:** [December 12, 2015, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-december-2015-edition/738900/35 "2015-12-12T03:15:58Z")
> [@delphica](#): > > …_The Things They Carried_, by Tim O’Brien, which is fiction based on his experiences during the Viet Nam war, so it was fascinating and also very sad… Great book. If you like that, try his _In the Lake of the Woods_, a well-crafted, atmospheric, unsettling mystery with a Vietnam backdrop. ---
**Author:** ![Misnomer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misnomer/32/14897_2.png) [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2015, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-december-2015-edition/738900/36 "2015-12-12T14:05:15Z")
> [@delphica](#): > > _The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons: The History of the Human Brain as Revealed by True Stories of Trauma, Madness, and Recovery_ by Sam Kean. This one was a lot of fun, non-fiction pop science, I would say in the same wheelhouse as Oliver Sacks type books about quirky brain-related case studies. I liked the way the book was organized, a loose chronology that was tied to major leaps in understanding how the brain works. That sounds interesting; thanks! …it also makes me realize that I often forget to summarize the plot of whatever I’m reading. Writeups like yours are what will lead me to check out something I otherwise wouldn’t have known about, and I should do the same for others! ---
**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:** [December 12, 2015, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-december-2015-edition/738900/37 "2015-12-12T21:45:42Z")
I’m reading [Beatlebone](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25614241-beatlebone), by Kevin Barry. It’s speculative fiction in the voice of John Lennon on a cross country trek in 1978 and it’s …fucking weird! ---
**Author:** ![Memnon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f1d935/32.png) [@Memnon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Memnon)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2015, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-december-2015-edition/738900/38 "2015-12-12T23:08:33Z")
I’m reading Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake, the first instalment in the Gormenghast trilogy. I’ve not finished it yet, but so far I’m completely blown away by it. Peake’s writing style is tremendously visual, and the characters are fascinating and thoroughly grotesque. There isn’t that much by way of actual story, but with writing and characterisation of this quality there doesn’t need to be. Unless something goes terribly wrong in the next hundred pages I’m giving it an unconditional 5 stars! Essential reading for all fantasy fans. ---
**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:** [December 14, 2015, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-december-2015-edition/738900/39 "2015-12-14T14:38:20Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > Next up, [The Child Garden](http://www.amazon.com/Child-Garden-Novel-Catriona-McPherson/dp/0738745499/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1449601378&sr=1-1&keywords=the+child+garden) by Catriona McPherson. I hope it’s good. Meh. I liked the writing and characters well enough, but the premise (that a reclusive woman would plunge headlong into solving a mystery when a childhood friend shows up on her doorstep) was so preposterous I think I read the whole thing with this expression on my face: :dubious: Next up: [Perchance To Dream: Selected Stories](http://www.amazon.com/Perchance-Dream-Selected-Charles-Beaumont/dp/0143107658/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1450103845&sr=8-1&keywords=charles+beaumont+perchance+to+dream) by Charles Beaumont, writer of many Twilight Zone episodes. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2015, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-december-2015-edition/738900/40 "2015-12-14T15:48:13Z")
Read _Escape from Camp 14: One Man’s Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West_ > **[Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in...](https://www.amazon.ca/Escape-Camp-14-Remarkable-Odyssey/dp/0670023329)** > > Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West: Harden, Blaine: 3520700000362: Books - Amazon.ca A description of a truly dystopian society. It is an account of the only person born into one of North Korea’s “total seclusion” political concentration camps to have escaped (at least, so far). He’s an unreliable narrative subject though - because, as we find out, he was keen to disguise his own broken-ness. The true horror of the narrative lies in the longevity of the concentration camp experience, and the total isolation it imposes. These camps have lasted longer than the Soviet gulags, and they have whole generations of ‘unpersons’ growing up in them - like Shin Dong-Hyuk, the subject of this book - who know no other life and know nothing of the outside world (in fact, know nothing even of ‘ordinary’ life in North Korea). As the narrative makes clear, as a child Shin Dong-Hyuk completely internalized the warped morals of the Camp - when he overhears his own mother and elder brother planning to escape, he informs on them (this doesn’t help him, he’s subjected to horrible torture anyway - under camp rules, “sins” are inheritable). He watches his mother and brother’s executions, and his only emotion is anger - at them, for their “crimes”, and for getting him in trouble. It is only much later, after his improbable escape, that he begins to learn about such things as human empathy (and is then crippled by guilt and remorse). He then lies to outsiders about his complicity. A deeply disturbing read. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-december-2015-edition/738900.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-december-2015-edition/738900.md?page=3)