# Khadaji's Whatcha Readin' thread - July 2014 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 2, 2014, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-july-2014/692215 "2014-07-02T19:57:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**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:** [July 11, 2014, 9:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-july-2014/692215/61 "2014-07-11T09:58:48Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > A fourth of the way through _The Rainmaker_, by John Grisham. Very good. A debt-laden fresh law-school graduate stumbles across a golden bad-faith case involving an insurance company that won’t cover a poor dying man’s leukemia treatments that could save his life. Apparently a rainmaker is someone who joins a law firm and brings with him a big slam-dunk case. Written in the first-person present tense, and so has a different feel from other Grishams I’ve read so far. > > I’ve been reading a lot of Grisham lately, and one thing I’ve learned is I’m glad I’m not a lawyer. Finished _The Rainmaker_, by John Grisham. Another excellent installment in his canon. Published in 1995, set in Memphis, Tennessee from 1992-93. One odd thing about this particular book – and I mean the physical book, not the novel – is this one was published in London, and there were quite a few Britishisms. “Tart” instead of “hooker,” “speciality” instead of “specialty.” I don’t think real Memphis people talk that way. There was also a confusing mention of there being “a million people in this country,” which I finally figured out was supposed to be “county.” I couldn’t decide if that was the Brits being confused over “county” versus “country” or just a typo, as there were quite a few typos too. Next up is another Grisham: _The Street Lawyer_. ---
**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2014, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-july-2014/692215/62 "2014-07-11T13:23:01Z")
I was in NYC yesterday. I went to BookOff, my favorite bookstore. Literally yards of one dollar books in the back of the place. I now have a fresh shipment of nine books to read including \*\*The Canadians \*\*by Andrew Malcolm, **A Thousand Sisters** by Lisa J. Shannon and \*\*A Conspiracy of Crowns: The True Story of the Duke of Windsor and the Murder of Sir Harry Oakes \*\*by Alfred deMarigny. Yeah! ---
**Author:** ![Busy\_Scissors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d78d45/32.png) [@Busy\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Busy_Scissors)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2014, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-july-2014/692215/63 "2014-07-11T14:07:37Z")
Just finishing up Pynchon’s _Bleeding Edge_ - had it on the shelf for a while, saving it for when I had a clear run at it. Very good IMHO - it’s an easy reader along the lines of \*Vineland \*(although a better book). Did not like his last one (_Inherent Vice_) one bit, so good to see TP back on form. The writing is really sharp - not in terms of his muscular prose style that we all love / hate / tremble at, but more like old man Pynchon showing the young-uns how to rock the zeitgeist. Some weaknesses of plot (the book does have one) - a prosaic complaint for a Pynchon book but there’s definitely some lazy devices in evidence. Up next I reckon I might read some fantasy - been meaning to get to Glen Cook’s Black Company books for ages - and something by Denis Johnson. Only recently gotten into him - phenomenal writer - and there’s a lot of his stuff I’ve yet to read. ---
**Author:** ![araminty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b5e925/32.png) [@araminty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/araminty)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2014, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-july-2014/692215/64 "2014-07-11T16:32:22Z")
I’m deep into The Hundred Year House by Rebecca Makkai, which came out yesterday and appeared on my Kindle, somewhat to my surprise - I’d forgotten I’d preordered it. But a welcome surprise! It’s great, so far, lots of interesting stuff happening, well-written, very clear, realistic characters. This is the author’s second novel - I also really enjoyed her debut, The Borrower, about a children’s librarian who accidentally steals one of her young patrons. I also just finished the last ever (sniff!) Diana Wynne Jones story, The Islands of Chaldea. The afterword by her sister is moving - apparently all of DWJ’s friends and family came together to decide what would happen to the unfinished manuscript, and they asked Ursula to write the ending. I enjoyed the story, it felt authentically HERS, and I didn’t notice a change in voice. I’ll be reading it again soon, I’m sure. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2014, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-july-2014/692215/65 "2014-07-11T17:26:24Z")
Just finished Kent Haruf’s new “Benediction”. I though it was somewhat disappointing. Typical Haruf, but a bit too rambling through subplots for me. Pretty “edgy” with modern characters being explicitly revealed, which his previous novels adroitly avoided. I think in Plainsong and Eventide, he said “Hell” once. ---
**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:** [July 11, 2014, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-july-2014/692215/66 "2014-07-11T18:09:33Z")
> [@DZedNConfused](#): > > Gahhhhh! I haven’t been getting notifications! > > Grrlbrarian: Wasn’t The Rook FANTASTIC!?! My only disappointment was that he didn’t explore Gestalt further, I think the hive mind would be a great concept to continue with. > > \ > Roarke is the very definition of a Mary Sue, in fact he IS such a Mary Sue that Robb felt the need to throw in a gratuituous, out of nowhere argument with Eve that had no provocation, did nothing for the plot and was so inappropriate it had to be the author saying “See! See, he isn’t THAT perfect.” **YES IT WAS** 😃 I don’t know that we’ve seen the end of Gestalt, not really. I feel like the door was left open in a small way, despite the elimination of some critical-seeming elements. Can’t WAIT for the next one. ---
**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:** [July 11, 2014, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-july-2014/692215/67 "2014-07-11T18:33:53Z")
I keep checking [Daniel O’Malley’s blog](http://www.rookfiles.com/blog/), hoping for an update on Checquy Book Two, but he hasn’t posted since September… ---
**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:** [July 11, 2014, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-july-2014/692215/68 "2014-07-11T18:38:13Z")
I finished reading a book called [The Great English Short-Story Writers, Volume 1](http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10135). Most of the stories were pretty good, but there was one astoundingly unfunny story about how negroes think they’re smart but they’re really just a bunch of ignorant yokels. Ugh. I was unimpressed by Henry James’s story “Julia Bride”, but maybe that’s just because I don’t like sentences that are so long that I can’t remember the beginning. E.g.: > [@](#): > > Fifty things came up as she stood there before him, some of them floating in from the past, others hovering with freshness: how she used to dodge the rotary movement made by his pince-nez while he always awkwardly, and kindly, and often funnily, talked—it had once hit her rather badly in the eye; how she used to pull down and straighten his waistcoat, making it set a little better, a thing of a sort her mother never did; how friendly and familiar she must have been with him for that, or else a forward little minx; how she felt almost capable of doing it again now, just to sound the right note, and how sure she was of the way he would take it if she did; how much nicer he had clearly been, all the while, poor dear man, than his wife and the court had made it possible for him publicly to appear; how much younger, too, he now looked, in spite of his rather melancholy, his mildly jaundiced, humorously determined sallowness and his careless assumption, everywhere, from his forehead to his exposed and relaxed blue socks, almost sky-blue, as in past days, of creases and folds and furrows that would have been perhaps tragic if they hadn’t seemed rather to show, like his whimsical black eyebrows, the vague, interrogative arch. ---
**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:** [July 11, 2014, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-july-2014/692215/69 "2014-07-11T18:45:40Z")
> [@](#): > > Fifty things came up as she stood there before him… Ugh, he almost fit all of them in! ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2014, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-july-2014/692215/70 "2014-07-11T21:30:06Z")
A million home, work and life crises kept me from finishing Kerouac’s\*\*\* On the Road _ **until a few days ago. I’m now halfway into the mystery** _ Come to Grief\*\*\* by Dick Francis. It features his one recurring character: the one-armed, ex-jockey detective Sid Halley. _ **On the Road** _ was sometimes sort of fun in the same way Jim Bouton’s \*\*\*Ball Four \*\*\*was… but ultimately, the characters were too unlikable to suit me. If Neal Cassady was really like Dean Moriarty, I can’t see why Kerouac found him so fascinating. I’ve known plenty of irresponsible, womanizing drunks like Moriarty. They’re sometimes fun to hang with for short periods of time, but they just aren’t that rare or interesting to me. ---
**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 11, 2014, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-july-2014/692215/71 "2014-07-11T21:59:26Z")
> [@Grrlbrarian](#): > > **YES IT WAS** 😃 I don’t know that we’ve seen the end of Gestalt, not really. I feel like the door was left open in a small way, despite the elimination of some critical-seeming elements. Can’t WAIT for the next one. I agree! I think we’re going to find out that Gestalt hasn’t told Myfanwy everything… or if he has, something new is going to come through Henry… I can’t wait to see the place with Myfanwy AND Ingrid in charge 😃 ---
**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 11, 2014, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-july-2014/692215/72 "2014-07-11T22:01:47Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > A million home, work and life crises kept me from finishing Kerouac’s\*\*\* On the Road _ **until a few days ago. I’m now halfway into the mystery** _ Come to Grief\*\*\* by Dick Francis. It features his one recurring character: the one-armed, ex-jockey detective Sid Halley. I’ve read that one… though I might need to read it again as I’m staring at the book spine and wondering what the heck it was about … ---
**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:** [July 12, 2014, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-july-2014/692215/73 "2014-07-12T05:05:02Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > …I was unimpressed by Henry James’s story “Julia Bride”, but maybe that’s just because I don’t like sentences that are so long that I can’t remember the beginning… > [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > Ugh, he almost fit all of them in! Henry James takes his lumps in this amusing thread: ["Reading Thomas Hardy is like eating a pillow." - Cafe Society - Straight Dope Message Board](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=530227) ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2014, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-july-2014/692215/74 "2014-07-12T05:27:04Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > _ **On the Road** _ was sometimes sort of fun in the same way Jim Bouton’s \*\*\*Ball Four \*\*\*was… but ultimately, the characters were too unlikable to suit me. If Neal Cassady was really like Dean Moriarty, I can’t see why Kerouac found him so fascinating. I’ve known plenty of irresponsible, womanizing drunks like Moriarty. They’re sometimes fun to hang with for short periods of time, but they just aren’t that rare or interesting to me. This was my feeling about it as well. Plus, I found most of the behavior toward women repugnant. ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2014, 10:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-july-2014/692215/75 "2014-07-12T10:37:17Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > _ **On the Road** _ was sometimes sort of fun in the same way Jim Bouton’s \*\*\*Ball Four \*\*\*was… but ultimately, the characters were too unlikable to suit me. If Neal Cassady was really like Dean Moriarty, I can’t see why Kerouac found him so fascinating. I’ve known plenty of irresponsible, womanizing drunks like Moriarty. They’re sometimes fun to hang with for short periods of time, but they just aren’t that rare or interesting to me. I get the impression that the reason Sal Paradise idolized Moriarty so much is because he wanted to be a womanizing drunk, but he had too much of a conscience to do it as thoroughly as Dean did. I had more respect for the people who kicked Moriarty out of their houses than I did for the two main characters. The only thing I really liked about OTR was the soundtrack. There was some good jazz mentioned in that 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:** [July 13, 2014, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-july-2014/692215/76 "2014-07-13T15:42:44Z")
I love it when I stumble across British books in US Used Book Stores. Yesterday I found a treasure. It’s a slim, heavily-illustrated volume called **Loos Through the Ages** by Richard Wood. It’s fascinating not only for the pictures and the information, but because it shows and says things you couldn’t get away with in American kid’s books, such as using the word “pisspot”, or having a p[icture of Louis XIV on his “throne” with no obscuration, his “official wiper” standing behind him with two cylindrical wipes at the ready. Speaking of wipes, the book has lots of answers for that perennial SDMB question “what did people use before toilet paper?” I’ve already m,entioned the Roman “sponge on a stick”, and have read Rabelais, but this book has things I’d never heard of, alonmg ones I had: –leaves, moss, and stones –ostrich feather (used by upper-class Romans) – sponge on a stick, washed off in running water, salt water, or vinegar (roman soldiers and citizens) –cut-up worn-out clothes (Middle Ages) – “linen to wipe the nether end” (used by the English king’s “Groom of the Stool” –packets of “curl paper”, Bromo paper", and “Medicated paper” in the 19th century. Upon crossing the river Cam, Queen Victoria saw floating pieces of the new toilet paper, but didn’t recognize them. She asked her host what they were, and he replied that they were “notices warning people not to bathe.” We also learn from this book (twice!) that a person who emptied cesspits was called a “Gongfermor” ---
**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 13, 2014, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-july-2014/692215/77 "2014-07-13T16:01:41Z")
> [@calmeacham](#): > > i love it when i stumble across british books in us used book stores. Yesterday i found a treasure. It’s a slim, heavily-illustrated volume called **loos through the ages** by richard wood. I I WANT this 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:** [July 13, 2014, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-july-2014/692215/78 "2014-07-13T16:43:55Z")
> [@DZedNConfused](#): > > I WANT this book! 😃 Here you go: > **[Loos Through the Ages (Rooms Through the Ages): Richard Wood: 9780750221344:...](https://www.amazon.com/Loos-Through-Ages-Rooms/dp/0750221348)** > > Loos Through the Ages (Rooms Through the Ages) \[Richard Wood\] on Amazon.com. \*FREE\* shipping on qualifying offers. Loos Through the Ages (Rooms Through the Ages) ---
**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 13, 2014, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-july-2014/692215/79 "2014-07-13T17:10:03Z")
Thank you! Onto my wishlist with that sucker! ---
**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 13, 2014, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-july-2014/692215/80 "2014-07-13T17:17:20Z")
> [@DZedNConfused](#): > > Thank you! Onto my wishlist with that sucker! Okay I lied, I bought it. I’ve bought from BetterWorldBooksUk before so I’m sure it will be in decent condition. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-july-2014/692215.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-july-2014/692215.md?page=5)