# Khadaji's Whatcha Readin' thread -- February 2017 Edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 2, 2017, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-february-2017-edition/778810 "2017-02-02T06:17:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**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:** [February 7, 2017, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-february-2017-edition/778810/21 "2017-02-07T13:59:48Z")
> [@The\_Pork-Chop\_Express](#): > > The Keep, F. Paul Wilson (1981) > > …Would recommend, and it’s part of a series! I’ve read that twice, the second time just a year or two ago, and enjoyed it both times. It’s a good mix of WWII and the supernatural. I’ve heard the rest of the series sucks, though, and haven’t gone beyond the first book. ---
**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:** [February 7, 2017, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-february-2017-edition/778810/22 "2017-02-07T14:15:15Z")
Still on my post-election comfort read kicks, so I’m reading a lot of cozy mysteries and romance novels. I really need a cozy series to latch onto. I’m finishing my reread of Carolyn G Hart’s Henrie O books, and I still have the Laurien Berenson Melanie Travis books that I find weirdly addictive. But I need another series and can’t seem to find one in that sweet spot. Suggestions welcome, though I struggle to identify exactly what it is I’m looking for. I saw on Goodreads that a romance I finished yesterday is part of a series. Since most of the time such series in romancelandia are launched from secondary characters in the original, I got really excited. Why? The only secondary female character in the book I just read (who wasn’t the heroine’s married mom) is trans. I looked it up and yes, the next book stars that secondary character. I haven’t read it yet, but I’m just delighted. ---
**Author:** ![stpauler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@stpauler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stpauler)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2017, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-february-2017-edition/778810/23 "2017-02-07T14:38:49Z")
Finished: Kate MacLeod’s [_Mitwa_](https://smile.amazon.com/Mitwa-Kate-MacLeod-ebook/dp/B01N7SXRVX/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1486476112&sr=8-1-fkmr0) I love books that really paint a picture of the world they inhabit and this one really did it for me. This goes a lot deeper than most dystopian Sci-Fi books and really gives a good sense of character and plot. \*[That’s Not How You Wash a Squirrel](https://www.amazon.com/Thats-Not-How-Wash-Squirrel-ebook/dp/B018JDFEG4?tag=viglink20265-20) \*by David Thorne was definitely hit and miss for me. When he is responding (allegedly) with other humans, he is really in his zone. Otherwise it’s labored filler. Currently reading: [999: New Stories Of Horror And Suspense](https://www.amazon.com/999-New-Stories-Horror-Suspense-ebook/dp/B0046ZREE0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1486476930&sr=8-1) I forget I have this anthology on my Kindle and in between books I’ll go back to it and read another short story. The scariest part is the editing though. It really takes me out of the story when I see glaring typos. _[The Familiar Vol. 4: Hades](https://www.amazon.com/Familiar-Hades-Mark-Z-Danielewski-ebook/dp/B01M8PJBFE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1486477184&sr=8-1)_ by Mark Z Danielewski. It arrives tonight from Amazon and is one of the few books I still read in paper form. This is part of a major work that makes A Song of Ice and Fire’s tangled web seem elementary. There are supposed to be 27 volumes with 5 “seasons” and the season finale, volume 5, is coming out on Halloween 2017. I am ridiculously geeked out about this series. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Burden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/958977/32.png) [@Jack\_Burden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Burden)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2017, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-february-2017-edition/778810/24 "2017-02-07T18:56:44Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Still enjoying my audiobook of Robert Penn Warren’s novel _All the King’s Men_, and am about a third of the way through. Lots about bare-knuckled Southern politics in the Thirties, although right now there’s a long but interesting tangent about a torrid antebellum love affair between an ancestor of the main character and a married woman. Love that book ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Burden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/958977/32.png) [@Jack\_Burden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Burden)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2017, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-february-2017-edition/778810/25 "2017-02-07T19:02:07Z")
Gaiman’s Norse Mythology, just delivered and going far too quickly. Seems the central message is everyone loves Loki even when they hate what he does, and hates Loki even when they love what he does. ---
**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:** [February 7, 2017, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-february-2017-edition/778810/26 "2017-02-07T19:27:37Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > Still on my post-election comfort read kicks, so I’m reading a lot of cozy mysteries and romance novels. > > I really need a cozy series to latch onto. I’m finishing my reread of Carolyn G Hart’s Henrie O books, and I still have the Laurien Berenson Melanie Travis books that I find weirdly addictive. But I need another series and can’t seem to find one in that sweet spot. Suggestions welcome, though I struggle to identify exactly what it is I’m looking for. My favorite cozies are Charlotte MacLeod and Alisa Craig books.The down side is that they are older somight be harder to find. The Steampunk series"The Parasol Protectorate" Are kind of cozy too,likewise for Colleen Gleason’s Stoker and Holmes books. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2017, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-february-2017-edition/778810/27 "2017-02-08T11:36:27Z")
I finished reading **Little Women** by Louisa May Alcott. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed Part I, which I thought was delightfully warm and funny without being too saccharine. I was less excited by Part II which seemed like a pretty typical 19th century “should I or shouldn’t I?” romance, with some additional preachiness and comments about how women should focus on being good wives and mothers. Is **Little Men** any good? I read a plot synopsis and it didn’t really grab me. And I have to admit that I really hate reading baby talk, like “I dess Dod does it when I’s asleep” or “Me loves evvybody”. ---
**Author:** ![BetsQ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/fbc32d/32.png) [@BetsQ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BetsQ)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2017, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-february-2017-edition/778810/28 "2017-02-08T16:40:06Z")
I recently finished Ann Patchett’s [Commonwealth](https://www.amazon.com/Commonwealth-Ann-Patchett/dp/0062491792/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1486571835&sr=8-1&keywords=commonwealth). I haven’t quite decided what to make of it yet. Anyone else have an opinion? Next up, I’m about halfway through [Love in Lowercase](https://www.amazon.com/Love-Lowercase-Novel-Francesc-Miralles/dp/0143128213/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1486571904&sr=8-1&keywords=love+in+lowercase), about a bachelor whose life is upended by the appearance of a cat. Like **jsgoddess** , I’ve been looking for comfortable reads recently, and this seems to fit the bill. ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2017, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-february-2017-edition/778810/29 "2017-02-08T18:33:12Z")
> [@BetsQ](#): > > Next up, I’m about halfway through [Love in Lowercase](https://www.amazon.com/Love-Lowercase-Novel-Francesc-Miralles/dp/0143128213/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1486571904&sr=8-1&keywords=love+in+lowercase), about a bachelor whose life is upended by the appearance of a cat. Hmmm, I’ve clearly been adopting the wrong cats. This guy’s cat changes his life; the only thing that my furry bastards have forced me to change is the litter box. ---
**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:** [February 9, 2017, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-february-2017-edition/778810/30 "2017-02-09T21:11:37Z")
Last night, I finished Cynthia Voigt’s _Izzy, Willy Nilly_. Terrible title, nice book about a teenage girl dealing with the aftermath of a terrible car accident. Voigt gets inside people’s heads really really well. ---
**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:** [February 9, 2017, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-february-2017-edition/778810/31 "2017-02-09T21:16:48Z")
I just finished **A Taste of Honey** , by Kai Ashante Wilson. He writes fantasy set in a vaguely Northern-African setting (in this book there’s another culture that seems vaguely Roman, in addition to the locals). The book is a same-sex romance at its heart, and is beautifully written. If any of these genres appeal to you, consider it recommended! ---
**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:** [February 10, 2017, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-february-2017-edition/778810/32 "2017-02-10T01:48:12Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > I just finished **A Taste of Honey** , by Kai Ashante Wilson. He writes fantasy set in a vaguely Northern-African setting (in this book there’s another culture that seems vaguely Roman, in addition to the locals). The book is a same-sex romance at its heart, and is beautifully written. If any of these genres appeal to you, consider it recommended! I added it to my Goodreads queue.🙂 I, too, finished an LBGTQ book, **The Lawrence Browne Affair** by Cat Sebastian. A short Regency romance with inventors and scallywags galore. ---
**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:** [February 10, 2017, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-february-2017-edition/778810/33 "2017-02-10T04:37:03Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Finished _Palace of Treason_, by Jason Matthews. Pretty good, a sequel to his _Red Sparrow_, but again with the inclusion of a recipe for a dish mentioned at the end of the last chapter. That’s pretty annoying. In one chapter, he even mentioned the dirty water coming out of a fountain resembled some sort of ethnic soup just so he could give the recipe for that soup. That has to go. But Matthews is retired CIA and seems to know his stuff. A “sparrow” is a Russian agent and CIA mole trained in “sexpionage,” and once again teaming up are Russian sparrow Dominika Egorova and the love of her life, her CIA handler. Dunno, but Matthews may be on a death list now for his portrayal of Putin as sexually impotent unless he’s giving the order to have someone killed. And his term “palace of treason” is a reference to the Kremlin. > > Next up is _Far Eastern Tales_, a collection of short stories by W. Somerset Maugham. One thing I forgot to mention about _Palace of Treason_ is it has an interesting 2-1/2 page sentence describing a desperate fight from start to finish. Meanwhile, I finished W. Somerset Maugham’s book of short stories entitled _Far Eastern Tales_. I really love Maugham, he’s one of my favorite early-20th-century writers – hell, one of my favorite writers period. In Bangkok, the venerable old Oriental Hotel, which routinely ranks in the top five hotels in the world on just about everyone’s list, has a whole Somerset Maugham wing in his honor. He stayed there in his travels, and there’s a story that he showed up once suffering from malaria, and the German manager didn’t want to let him in, because Mauagham was so sick that the manager was afraid he would die there and would not allow such a thing. In the first short story in this volume, “Footprints in the Jungle,” Maugham makes an observation that I have personally seen to be every bit as true today as it was 100 years ago when he wrote it: \*\*" ‘You know how many fellows when they come out East seem to stop growing.’ “I did indeed. One of the most disconcerting things to the traveller is to see stout, middle-aged gentlemen, with bald heads, speaking and acting like schoolboys. You might almost think that no idea has entered their heads since they first passed through the Suez Canal. Though married and the fathers of children, and perhaps in control of a large business, they continue to look upon life from the standpoint of the sixth form.”\*\* A recommended read along with all of his works. I’ve already detailed in the past how his _The Razor’s Edge_ quite literally changed my life by giving me the gumption to leave my shitkicking Texas hometown and get out into the world. Next up will be _The Greatest Generation_, by Tom Brokaw. ---
**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:** [February 10, 2017, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-february-2017-edition/778810/34 "2017-02-10T04:53:53Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > …Is **Little Men** any good? I read a plot synopsis and it didn’t really grab me. And I have to admit that I really hate reading baby talk, like “I dess Dod does it when I’s asleep” or “Me loves evvybody”. Never read it myself, but when Elmer Fudd appeared in a Warner Bros. cartoon reading it, I assumed it was a spoof of _Little Women_. It wasn’t until many years later that I learned it was a real book! ---
**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:** [February 11, 2017, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-february-2017-edition/778810/35 "2017-02-11T03:12:59Z")
I spent the day reading “The Soldier’s Scoundrel” By Cat Sebastian, it’s another Regency M/M romance. A decent mystery formed the main plot of the book, overall a fun read. ---
**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:** [February 16, 2017, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-february-2017-edition/778810/36 "2017-02-16T13:53:37Z")
On audio I’m reading Stacy Schiff’s **The Witches – Salem 1692**. I’ve read many books on the Salem witchcraft trials, but I swear that they all seem to make it seem like a completely different event than the others. I hadn’t read a new one in a long time, and this was available on audio for my commute, so it seemed a good choice. This one seems overall better-researched and takes a much longer view, giving detailed biographies of the characters and setting events in their historical contexts. This is something that earlier books by and large lacked. They might mention, for instance, the changeover in Massachusetts’ charter shortly before, and the upheaval that went with it, or mentioned the threat of Indians, but they didn’t mention that several of the girls had directly been victims of Indian raids. They didn’t mention that George Burroughs, accused and finally hanged, had to be subpoenaed from all the way up in Maine – he wasn’t even living in Salem anymore (he had been, but earlier). There’s also a lot of jarringly modern comparisons – she quotes Dumbledore at one point. My favorite line is her description of George Burroughs as “a very bad man, but a very good wizard.” ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2017, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-february-2017-edition/778810/37 "2017-02-16T16:09:51Z")
Harland’s Half Acre, by David Malouf. Basically turns out to be some short stories, with enough of a tenuous link to call it a novel, I guess. A bit of a Faulkner-esque writer, in my estimation. Odinarily, I shun short-story collections, if I’m going to make the investment to get into a story, I don’t want to keep doing that over and over. ---
**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:** [February 16, 2017, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-february-2017-edition/778810/38 "2017-02-16T16:52:33Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > On audio I’m reading Stacy Schiff’s **The Witches – Salem 1692**. I’ve read many books on the Salem witchcraft trials, but I swear that they all seem to make it seem like a completely different event than the others. I hadn’t read a new one in a long time, and this was available on audio for my commute, so it seemed a good choice. > > This one seems overall better-researched and takes a much longer view, giving detailed biographies of the characters and setting events in their historical contexts. This is something that earlier books by and large lacked. They might mention, for instance, the changeover in Massachusetts’ charter shortly before, and the upheaval that went with it, or mentioned the threat of Indians, but they didn’t mention that several of the girls had directly been victims of Indian raids. They didn’t mention that George Burroughs, accused and finally hanged, had to be subpoenaed from all the way up in Maine – he wasn’t even living in Salem anymore (he had been, but earlier). Mary Beth Norton’s book **In the Devil’s Snare** deals extensively with the Indian Wars and the fact that several of the Salem girls had been in the middle of that mess. It’s a slow, very dry book to read but well researched and interesting. (And Professor Norton emailed me back when I wrote to tell her how much I enjoyed 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:** [February 16, 2017, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-february-2017-edition/778810/39 "2017-02-16T16:59:51Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Still enjoying my audiobook of Robert Penn Warren’s novel _All the King’s Men_, and am about a third of the way through. Lots about bare-knuckled Southern politics in the Thirties, although right now there’s a long but interesting tangent about a torrid antebellum love affair between an ancestor of the main character and a married woman… > [@Jack\_Burden](#): > > Love that book Ha! Great username/post combination. > [@CalMeacham](#): > > On audio I’m reading Stacy Schiff’s **The Witches – Salem 1692** … > [@DZedNConfused](#): > > Mary Beth Norton’s book **In the Devil’s Snare** deals extensively with the Indian Wars and the fact that several of the Salem girls had been in the middle of that mess… Does either book refer to the theory (cutting-edge when I was in high school) that ergot poisoning of local food might have led to the girls’ hallucinations? ---
**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:** [February 16, 2017, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-february-2017-edition/778810/40 "2017-02-16T17:09:25Z")
Professor Norton does adress it, but she dismisses it. I don’t remember her reasoning, it’s been several years since I read it, but it was a plausible dismissal. Her major theory is PTSD and that the women never meant the crazy to go so far but they were powerless to stop it once the men started running with it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-february-2017-edition/778810.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-february-2017-edition/778810.md?page=3)